2% Fire, 98% Purpose—The Servant Heart Business Model

 Freedom isn’t a vibe — it’s built with responsibility, preparedness, and real relationships.

In this episode, we sit down with a firefighter-paramedic and small business owner who reminds us what “service” actually looks like when it’s not a slogan. We talk about why firefighters aren’t just “firefighters” (fires are a tiny fraction of the calls), and what it takes to stay calm when everyone else is panicking.

But the conversation goes deeper than emergency scenes.

We unpack why so many first responders can’t sit still — why they build side businesses, work with their hands, and feel restless in a world that’s gone fully digital. We get honest about the mental cost of living at a high level of readiness… and why the answer isn’t more noise, more hustle, or more tech. It’s accountability. Community. The kind of handshake integrity that’s disappearing fast.

We also talk about building a security company the right way — paying people a living wage, training them well, doing the “boring” due diligence (insurance, liability, real standards), and refusing to treat clients like numbers. Because “Jerry” isn’t an invoice… he’s a family, a payroll, a livelihood — and protection means understanding the whole chain.

And if you’re a parent? You’ll walk away with practical preparedness habits you can implement this month — not fear, just track-laying before life hits.

📌 Key Topics:

• What firefighters really do (and why fires are the minority) ✅
• Why some people think best under pressure — and what it costs later ✅
• Building a business with personal connection in an AI world ✅
• Security done right: training, wages, liability, and integrity ✅
• Simple family preparedness rhythms that actually save lives ✅
• Why freedom is local — and why it always comes with responsibility ✅
  
  
  

Take what we talked about and ask yourself: What would change this week if we treated freedom like something we build — not something we post about?

Chapters:

00:00 Meet Nick and His Story

00:22 From College to Fire Service

01:43 EMT Training and Getting Hired

02:40 What Firefighters Really Do

05:29 Thriving Under Pressure

08:55 Why Firefighters Build Businesses

11:30 Firehouse Culture and Accountability

15:24 Starting Elite Tactical Security

18:51 Growing People Not Just Profit

21:26 Staying Small and Personal

27:44 Systems to Stay Connected

31:30 Unoffendable and Clear Communication

35:03 Situational Awareness and Preparedness

39:33 Men Women and Team Balance

43:36 Selling With Empathy

44:15 Fire Alarm Partner Roles

46:29 Choosing The Right Partner

48:45 Working With Your Spouse

51:38 Why Start A Security Firm

52:40 Nebraska Security Oversight Gap

55:06 Cheap Security Real Risks

01:00:45 Accountability Over Greed

01:03:01 Home Fire Safety Routine

01:05:17 Smoke Detectors And Batteries

01:07:52 Car Seat Help And Liability

01:10:50 Freedom And Community

01:13:14 How To Connect And Wrap Up

Transcript

Nick. Welcome. Appreciate you coming. We just kind of wanted to dive in your story. I know you're a firefighter paramedic, um, fire captain. You have a business. Just kinda tell us a little bit about your story and how. How that, that the arc of it kind of comes to elite, tactical, uh, business and how everything comes into play, if you don't mind.

Yeah, sure. Um, well, originally, uh, my father was a teacher and, uh, I went to college to be a teacher. I played football and went to college at Nebraska Kearney and pick school. What's that? Yeah, pick school. Um, but, you know, it was good, uh, you know, getting away from home a little ways, you know, but, uh, played football, ended up getting injured, playing football.

Um, got through about two and a half years of college there, realized that maybe teaching wasn't what I wanted to do in that classroom setting at that point in time, and it really was, you know, disorienting at that time. Didn't know what I wanted to do. Um, came back to Omaha, started working, construction, trying to figure out, you know, where am I gonna, what am I gonna do?

Looked back, um, to when I was a kid. It's like, well, what did you want to do when you were a little kid? What was the big dream? And I mean, I remember fire trucks and putting on a rain slicker and rubber boots and grabbing the garden hose and putting out, you know, mom's lilacs, you know. And uh, and I was like, you know what, uh, Omaha Fire Department is testing.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna go for becoming a firefighter. So I went to Metropolitan Community College, got my EMT, and then tested for the Omaha Fire Department and ended up getting hired in, uh, 2008. Did having your EMT help you get into that? Why, why? Why not just get trained by Omaha Fire and, and EMT and everything else.

So it was one of that thing, one of those things. Um, the fire department application and hiring process takes a little while. Um, I tested in 2006 is when the test was, and then 2008 was when I actually got hired. So there was a little bit of a gap of time there. And it was one of those things where I wanted to get some experience, um, kind of dip my foot in the pool, see what that emergency response, that emergency medical, um, life was like.

So being able to go get that training, um, was really helpful. Seeing if this was something that was for me and I always wanted to help people be there for people. And I was, once I got that EMTI was like, oh yeah, this is definitely, this is definitely my career path. This is definitely the, the road that I'm supposed to be on.

Before we started, we were talking about kind of what a firefighter is and. I almost think it's a misnomer what a firefighter is. 'cause realistically you do so much more than fire. I, I'm just speculating here, but I'm assuming fighting fires is probably like 20% of your job, if that. So what, what all does a firefighter do to help the community?

So a lot of times you'll hear the, uh, the term, all hazards, all hazards response. So basically it's, if there's an emergency, the fire department's probably gonna come. Um, you know, obviously medical emergencies, fires, car accidents, hazardous materials. Um, a lot of times it's, you know, um, you know, um, an unknown call.

Um, it can't be categorized. Um, one of the big, big things is that firefighters are known for being able to think on their feet, figure out the solution to that problem right now. So it's really good to be able to have firefighter there so they can figure out. How can we mitigate this, this situation that might not necessarily be written in a book for you to know how to do already.

So I mean like the Omaha Fire Department, we do, let's see, last year we had over 72,000 calls for emergency service. Um, 59,000 of those were medical calls. So medical is a lot of that. And then just under 2000 of those were fires. Were actual fires. So there's several fires a day, right? Which is too many.

But you can see that the majority of what we do is medical. And then you're looking at hazmat response, you know, something leaks at the pool, something's here. We don't know what this is. Someone spilled a lot of fuel, that kind of stuff. Um, you have your automatic fire detection system, something goes off, someone burnt toast.

That kind of thing. Um, so there's a, there's a ton of different things that the fire department goes to. Let's see, I think a year ago we had someone who got stuck in a, in the sewers. We had to rescue out of the sewers, you know, um, just a few days ago we had people and their car fell into the road. You know, there's of, yeah, two of them.

Two of them. Um, so there's always, it's always something different. And firefighters, you know, get that basic training, you get those protocols, but there's always something and it's gonna maybe surprise you. And so you have to be able to think on your feet and, and be calm, you know, and, and move forward.

What, what's the issue? What are the, uh, resources we have? How do we move forward? So by your numbers, if I did the quick math, less than 2% are actual fires, but yeah. Y'all call firefighters interesting enough. Yeah. Uh, but I mean, I guess you could say you're fighting fires in other ways. Just unpack. What makes, you said firefighters are known for thinking on their feet.

Is that a nurture or nature thing? I think there's a lot of that that comes from nature. I think a lot of people are attracted to, um, public service, uh, emergency service, and they have that, um, that innate need to help their, help their fellow human being. And I think with that comes that ability to really think on your feet.

You look at police officers, um, people in the medical field, people fire firefighters, um, you know, people who are, uh, specialized in the military. You know, a lot of, a lot of them are able to think on their feet and they're attracted to these certain disciplines because. It really gives you a chance to utilize that.

Um, it's difficult sometimes, um, when you have those skills or those, those abilities or that need to do something to do a job where you're not utilizing that. Right? You feel a ache and emptiness, right? It's like, I need to, I need to use this feeling inside of me to do something, you know? And so the other thing that, uh, they actually, uh, and I, I wish I, I wish I printed out this study.

They did a study on actual brain brainwaves of first responders, and they found that first responders brainwaves are different than the average person's brainwaves. They have a different, different pattern. Um, a normal, uh, uh, I don't wanna say normal, but a a a person who's not a first responder or attracted to first responder, uh, career field will have a brainwave that has a, uh, a, uh, faster, uh, a.

Faster, uh, wavelength, right? But first responders have a slower wave wavelength. In an emergency situation, the first responder's brain brainwave moves to that optimal, uh, brainwave that you see in a civilian, uh, a, um, a civilian, um, baseline. Wavelength, right? In that emergency situation, that first responder's brain wave looks like a civilian at baseline.

Mm-hmm. While a lot of civilians, their brainwaves all of a sudden go really, really, really fast, which leads to poor decisions, inability to, for higher level thinking. First responders are actually at their peak in their ability to think. When there's actually an emergency situation. Hmm. Right. So, and that's actually one of the things, um, when they're not in emergency situation, you're looking at things like anxiety, restlessness, um, depression.

So it's kind of a two, a double-edged sword there with that. But in those emergency situations actually showed that the brainwaves are at their actual best functioning wavelength. Yeah, I, I saw a similar study from service members coming back from, um, from Afghanistan, Iraq, where it's the come down of they, they operate with such high adrenaline all the time that it's like a, a withdrawal from, from the adrenaline.

And it's, it's incredible. So I think it's very fair to say that, I mean, you, you corrected yourself with normal people. There's something not normal about thriving with that high level of adrenaline. So, you know, is that what leads. Omaha has a moving company, firefighters on the move, and, uh, there's numerous ones I could think of.

Uh, another firefighter I know that has a, some kind of security or medical type thing. Um, a lot of firefighters have other businesses, I don't wanna say jobs like they have other businesses. They might not be the primary person in the business, but they're all have the second, third thing that they do. I just met with a guy yesterday that, uh, works somewhere two days a week.

Outside of being a firefighter, what is the, is that part of the draw need of the adrenaline or is it just downtime or what, what, what do you think it is? I think it's a, a need to be moving. It's, it's a need to be moving. It's a need to be doing something, giving back, working. Um, you'll notice probably a lot of those, uh.

A lot of those jobs, um, businesses, they have a lot to do with working with your hands. Um, not a lot of 'em are probably gonna be, I do spreadsheets, you know, there's not, you know, um, there there's gonna be a lot of, um, accountants, you know, and, and, and there and there might be, you know, we, we've got a lot of good numbers guys, you know, but, um, it's gonna be a lot of working with your hands, expending that energy, working, moving, um, connected to the earth type of type of job.

And uh, and I think that really is something that you'll see with first responders is, is that need to always be giving back, doing something. I am providing some sort of worth. To the world, to my family, to my community, right? Whether it's my business, whether I'm helping you retile your bathroom, whether I am helping to build your deck, whether I'm keeping your lawn looking wonderful, you know, um, it's, it's all part of this, this need to really continue to keep moving and, and give back.

Right. And obviously, you know, we wanna make sure that, you know, we take care of our families. And if you have a business and you can get paid, that's always good, you know? Um, but, uh, I think it's always something, um, especially, you know, you think about like at the fire ground, there's always so many different things going on.

Everyone's working the hardest that they've worked in their life at every single fire, you know? Um, so it's, it's definitely, I think, I think it's a, I need to keep moving, I need to keep pushing forward. I need to keep being better type of thing. Well, and Ryan. Asked, uh, briefly about it, but the, the downtime and I'm, I have a couple buddies that say they do, it was like 48 on 24 off or stuff like that.

And it seems like in those downtime, they're not sitting there playing video games. They're doing something Yeah. You know, to, to better their skills. What is it about the culture of being a firefighter that kind of instills that in people? It is. So there's, there's that responsibility and accountability.

Um, Omaha works a 24 hour shift, and so we're on for 24 off for 24. Once we get 5 24 hour shifts done, we have five days in a row off. So it's kind of a 15 day rotating schedule. But it, it, it's a, it's a culture, so you end up living a third of your life with the other people. In your crew. Mm-hmm. Whether it's, you know, just an engine house or whether there's an engine and truck engine.

Truck squad. Um, so there's 4, 8, 10, 12 people there at your station with you and you live Yeah. A third of your life. You go through crazy stuff together, you joke around, have good time together, um, you eat lunch together. Um, on Sundays you'll watch football together. You know, there is, you know, if there's time to do that.

Yeah. We wanna watch, you know, it's a Super Bowl Sunday. Oh, I hope we don't get a call during the Super Bowl, you know, 'cause we wanna watch the Super Bowl, make sure we're TiVo it. Don't look at your phone, you know? Um, don't say the keyword. Don't Yeah, don't, yeah, yeah, exactly. Don't, don't say the keyword. Um, but it's, it's accountability.

Um, every single call, whether it's a medical call, whether it's a fire, there's a degree of uncertainty. And when you go out into the world on those calls, there's this. It's unspoken, but you are putting your life in everyone's hands on that crew and they're putting their life in your hands on that crew.

So there's an accountability right there. There's a need to make sure that you're being the best that you can be. Every single firehouse in the city has a weight room, right? Every single firehouse has a time, whether it's in the morning or in the afternoon, that is blocked out to get your workout in, right?

Hit the treadmill, hit weights. You know, you don't have to bench 405 pounds, you know, but you need to get in there and make sure that you're able to pull your weight. 'cause it's one of those things where, and firefighters agree with this, you know, people talk about, you know, you can't be a firefighter, you can be a fire.

The big thing is, is man, woman, black, white, gay, straight, it the big thing that matters to every single firefighter. 'cause when you put all that gear, you're all the same. You're, you're a firefighter. I can't tell the difference between any of you. The, the big thing that matters is if I go down inside of this building, can you pull me out?

That's all that matters. And if you can, I'll ride that truck with you every single day. That's, that's the thing that matters, that accountability to each other. The other big thing is, you know, you go through academy and then at the end of the academy there's a big ceremony and the mayor comes and shakes your hand and the chief shakes your hand and they give you this badge, and that badge by itself is just this little piece of metal, but there's a symbolism with that.

And there's a symbolism with that badge. That means a lot because it means that every single person in the city of Omaha trusts you to do the right thing to be there for them when they need it. And if you're gonna wear that badge, that's something that. You have to be accountable for. So every time you put that uniform on, every time you wear that badge, understand that every single one of these citizens of Omaha count on you to be there when they need you the most.

So you gotta be, you gotta be ready to rock. Hmm. No, that's great. So you're, you haven't said the word, but throughout all this kind of, the, the word that comes to mind for me is servant heart giving, community involvement. You started a business basically on the backs of that same principle. A lot of stuff that you've already said.

You started company off round, kind of, what is your company? How does that way of thinking mentality come into play in what you're doing? So was it in 2018, my wife and I, Tori, uh, started elite tactical security and protection. Um, it was one of those things, uh, like you said earlier, I had a, uh, a job that I did on my off time work security for some different companies and everything.

And it was one of those things where I wanted to be able to provide security that was, was better, that that took care of our clients, um, that provided service, but that also took care of my employees, of the people working for me. That kept them safe, that gave them the, uh, ability to grow as a professional, um, and to even move on from our company.

Um, and the big thing was keeping people safe. Um, looking at, uh, houses of worship, you know, providing free, um, you know, free, uh, walkthroughs of houses of worship. What can you do to help keep your house of worship safe? Hey, what does your security team need to keep your house of worship safe? Do you need one of our guards?

Sure. We can give you one of our guards. We'll do a discounted price curb. No, no, no problem at all. But. If you guys can keep your community safe, what can we do to assist you? I don't want payment for that. That doesn't, that doesn't matter to me. What matters is keeping people safe. Um, so that's, that's one of the big things is, and I've always thought that, that you can't be free if you don't feel safe.

Um, being safe, you know, to worship as, as, as you feel, you know, is, is really, I think, a tenant of what it means to be an American. And I think that's, that's really important for, for me to stand up for, for my company to stand up for. And so that's, that's one of the reasons why we make sure, you know, we, we can, we can do these analysis for these houses of worship free of charge, you know, to make sure that they can stay as safe as they they can be.

Um, the other thing is, you know, making sure, uh, my employees have a living wage. You, you know. I, I, I work for the fire department. I have a good job. It has a great retirement system, it has healthcare, those kind of things. I wanna be able to pay my employees, give them the training, um, that they need, um, get 'em the certifications that they need so they can continue on in their career.

Um, nothing makes me happier than when one of my employees says, Hey. Well, I mean, it's always, you know, the really good employees, they're always like, Hey, I'm gonna have to leave. I got hired on the sheriff's department. It's like, that's awesome. That's amazing. It's like, you are one of our best guys. Okay.

Yeah, you bet. But, but it's great to see that growth, that growth as they move on and accomplish their dreams as well. You know, I understand that, um, working for a security company isn't necessarily going to be, you know, their 20, 20, 25 year plan, you know, but it makes me, it makes me happy to see 'em when they, when they continue on their, on in their growth, on their path.

There's a lot of the people that you get as employees. You talked about you were done with school, came back to Omaha, went to Metro, got GMT. A lot of people that you employ in that similar boat, if you will, that are kind of in that transition period. Hey, the security jobs, good thing on my resume. Want getting, trying to get a job.

Sheriff department? Yeah. We, we have a lot of people that are attracted to and looking for a job in law enforcement. Um, a job in EMS or the fire department, testing for the fire department, testing for police or sheriff's department. Um, we had one person who, uh, went and tested for the state patrol another that went and, and moved on to the FBI, you know, uh, it's, uh, it's definitely, it's great to be that stepping stone and to give them the support that they need as they accomplish their dreams.

That's, that's the big thing. Um. And, uh, and, and so that's what I see a lot when people come in, you know, um, wanting to work security. They, they want to get into law enforcement, into that emergency services realm. And I think that's why I enjoy, I enjoy my employees, you know, 'cause I see a little bit of myself there as well.

You know, they're continuing to push to be better, um, to go for that big dream of being a police officer or being a firefighter or, you know, becoming an FBI agent or, you know, becoming a VA police officer, you know, moving on and, and doing those things. So it's, it's, it's great when, when I see my employees move on like that, even though it's like, oh no, they're, they're moving on.

Right? It's like watching your, watching your kid walk out the door on their way to college kind of thing. Right? You knew it was gonna happen because they're growing up. But you just remember, remember the old times kind of thing? Well, my wife and I, we experienced this in business where we have a maintenance guy that kind of has, has hit the peak of what we're able to pay him.

He had an opportunity to go get more money and when he comes back, you know, with better skills in two or three years, we said, you know, we gladly hire him back. He left respectfully, he was a good worker, everything was great. We're happy to see him succeed. Not all business owners share that perspective.

They, a lot of them want to keep you small enough so that they can keep control. And I think that those are the people that are gonna burn out. 'cause as soon as you've, you know, have done, are done controlling people, you burnt all the bridges. But, um, one of the things that I admired about what you were saying is that you wanna stay small enough to keep that personal aspect.

And that's how we got in touch is you sent me a message on, on LinkedIn asking if you know anyone needed your services. So while you know, obviously working full-time and running this business, and still doing your cold outreach and all that stuff. What, why is it that it's so important for you to stay small and personable?

I'll, and I'll tell you what, cold outreach is just the worst, worst thing. And I am absolutely terrible at sales, I think. But, um, it's important because I think, um, as everything moves faster and everything is chat, GPT and ai, and, uh, I mean, I get like nine, uh, nine things in my inbox and LinkedIn every day.

Mm-hmm. And it's like, who is this? You know, it's, this is obviously, you know, written by a bot. Mm-hmm. Um, I think it's important to have that personal connection, especially in a local business where being able to go and shake someone's hand, look 'em in the eye, talk to 'em about, here's what's going on. This is what we provide, this is what we can help you with.

Tell me about what you need. Um. Being there and making sure you stand by what you say you're gonna do. You know, um, that's, that's the big thing. Being able to, you know, speak plain and true and, and keep that word and not letting some assistant handle it or avoid this phone call or someone else will deal with it, or this client, this is client number 3, 4, 8, 7 1.

It's like, oh no, this is Jerry Jerry's calling. I was like, oh, Jerry's calling. Hey, hi Jerry. What's going on? What do you need? Right. Um, being able to, to say, Hey Jerry, what's going on? What's going on? You know, oh, we need to do this. No problem. Lemme get that, lemme get that handled right now. Not a problem at all.

Um, I think that that is something that people are missing right now. Everything's done through DocuSign. Right? I made a deal with you and I never even saw your face. We never even shook hands. Um. It used to be, let's sit down, let's talk, we're gonna talk face to face. We're gonna shake hands at the end.

We're gonna come up with something together instead of all this technology, which technology is great. Look what, look what we're doing right now. Mm-hmm. But I think when we lose that analog connection, when we look lose that real human connection, I think that's where things really start to fall apart.

Right? We start to lose responsibility. We're disconnected from it. That person's not real anymore. They're just a number. They're just, we get a, we get, we get a, a check from this invoice, right? No, this is, this is Jerry. And Jerry runs a shop, and Jerry's shop pays for his family to eat and live and for his kids to go to school.

Right? So we need to be there to protect his shop, because that is a whole chain of events and a whole group of people that rely on Jerry. Shop to be safe. So we need to make sure we're there for Jerry to take care of his shop because there's a whole chain of people that need that. Right. So, and, and it's, it as interconnected as this world is, I think people are forgetting about the real human connections that really exist.

That's what's really, really important, especially the last six, seven years. I mean, COVID, I think it, it took away such a big piece of everyone's, you know, social interaction that now I think AI is just continuing that evolution. Yeah. But to your point, I think people are gonna start, as we've become more disconnected, there's that longing for personal connection that's gonna be the next wave.

Like, holy crap, we've already pivoted so far away from human intention that it's gonna become, I, I just worry that the, uh. You, you talked about, you know, mental health and all that stuff. I think that'll be, we're already seeing it somewhat. It'll keep growing and then people are be like, we have to do something.

And then that'll be the, the next pivot. That's, that's the big, that's the big thing that, that I'm seeing is that I think there's a ache, um, a need, and I don't wanna just say, I don't wanna say it's just in men. I can, I can speak for me as a man because I feel it. Um, there's a need for that connection, that real freedom, that being, I don't wanna call it, um, a cowboy mystique, but you feel that, you know, that 1883, you know, go out into the land.

I'm gonna go and hunt for my food. I'm gonna go and chop my firewood, I'm gonna take care of my family, you know? I'm gonna move towards that time when a handshake me meant something. Being able to move back to that, you know, I don't want to call it the, uh, the backlash to the backlash, right? But I think that there's some great positive things about looking at a time where a handshake meant something.

Um, understanding that helping your community meant something that this community in this world isn't a zero sum game. I think once we move into this post, whatever they're gonna call this age is, I think people are gonna see that's, that's, that's where we're really headed, where we really need to head for our own health, for the health of our communities, for the health of our country.

I think that's, that's gonna be really, really important. I, I, when I say connection for men, I don't know if it's necessarily, I, I think getting out into nature can be that connection as well for, for some men, you know, chopping firewood, like you said, going hunting for two days, backpacking, you know, I think just a connection of something, connection to your tv.

Watching the Super Bowl every day isn't, isn't quite it. But I want to kind of pivot back to like some of the stuff that you talked about as far as your, um, business and connecting with Jerry. How is a business owner, you have a W2 job. How do you stay connected to Jerry? What are some of the systems process, kind of the tactical level of, no pun intended, would be tactical, but, uh, what's some of the tactical levels of connection that you've instilled in your business to stay connected to Jerry?

The, the big one is, is. And maybe, maybe it's a terrible idea, but every single one of our clients has my personal cell phone number, right? And it, it's one of those things where we, you know, when we meet and discuss things, it's like, Hey, this is our company phone number. This is my personal phone number.

This is the 8:00 AM on Christmas morning phone number, right? This is the number that gets answered. 8:00 AM on Christmas morning. Um, making sure that that line of communication is open. Um, checking back in, Hey, how are things going? A lot of times you'll get a phone call or you'll get communication when something goes wrong.

You don't necessarily get communication if things are going well. So being able to check in, um, say how are things going? Hey, how's so and so doing at this job? Anything we can do better? Anything that, you know, is this working out? You know, because, uh, a lot of times people too will not rock the boat.

Something will not quite be what they expected or not up to the standard they were expecting. And they won't say anything and they'll let it kind of sit there and sit there. Right? And it, it might be just because of a simple miscommunication. I've noticed that 99% of all the problems in the world are a miscommunication from somewhere down the line.

It might just be a miscommunication, but being able to reach out, um, and say, Hey, how are things going? Things going good. You know, is there something we can do better? Something that's not working right? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, oh, okay, this is something, oh, I wish you would've told me about this. Okay, we can do this.

Let's, let's adjust this this way and change this so we can make this better. Right? Providing that service, I mean, the buck stops with me, right? So I can provide that service, get that to my officer who's on scene, like, Hey, let's make sure that we're doing this. Let's make sure we're checking on this.

Let's make sure we're, we're, we're, we're performing where we wanna be. You know, that's, that's the big thing, is making sure that there's that. That phone number, that ability to call, um, that, that's the big thing. Emails are great, emails are great, but it's just like text messages. Sometimes in a lost translation, you, you'll read a text message, you'll be like, what do you mean by that?

Right? There's no exclamation point or there is ex explanation, ex explanation, ex exclamation point. It's like, wait, uh, right. The text message or, or, or those, those, those, uh, those written word, a lot of times they mirror a lot. How's, how's your mood today? Right. But being able to get on the phone talk or go and talk with someone face to face, there's so much communication that happens that's nonverbal and you lose so much in that, in that text or in that email.

And everyone likes to text now. Instead, no one answers their phone. Everyone likes to text. Right. 'cause it's super convenient. It's like, oh, on the way, on the way, on the way. What do you mean by on the way? You said that kind of snooty. What do you mean on the way? You know? So being able to use that nonverbal communication.

Before we lose that as a, as a, as human beings, that understanding of nonverbal communication, um, I think is really, really important. Get out there, meet people, talk with people, um, and keep that communication open. And it, and it's sending and receiving communication is not just, how are you talking? How are you receiving information?

And I saw something the other day that was the, the first step to becoming more like Jesus is to be un offendable. And if you can be un offendable, then it doesn't matter how that text message come through, it could have a middle finger on it, but I'm still gonna respond as, you know, as if it was a, a friendly gesture.

That, that's, that's the big thing. Let's, let's take a look at like, really what, what are things that are offensive in the world? Do you know what's offensive? A starving baby that's offensive, right? Someone called you stupid. Is that offensive? That's not of, come on. Mm-hmm. Right. You're a grownup. Right? I gotta get into my that with my 11-year-old.

She's like, that's mean. I'm like, what is mean? Like, everything to her is mean. And so I'm like trying to get her to be less offended. 'cause she is super offended about everything. And that's her, her, her de, I don't wanna call it defense, but her, her natural go-to is, that's mean. That's mean. I'm like, just 'cause you don't like something doesn't mean it's mean.

Well, there's a comedian I saw many years ago and, and he had this line, I mean, granted he was a dark humor type Yeah. Comedian, which I don't really listen to anymore. But he had this, um, oh, military, you know, everything's dark humor. But the, he had this thing about as soon as you draw a line in the sand that says everything is funny up till here, you're a hypocrite.

Because then anyone who goes further past your line is offensive. And, and I, I gotta agree with that statement, but. Granted, I think that there's some human decency that comes with, you know, that's, that's the big thing. I think it's important to not be cruel. Right. Um, there's also that whole thing about like punching up, you know, um, right.

We, we, we protect the people that need to be protected. Mm-hmm. Right? And, and we can have some fun with things that are ridiculous in our world, right? Um, some of the institutions and hierarchies that exist in government and, you know, the ridiculousness that go around or, or the things that are playing wrong, right?

Um, bringing some comedy into that opens that information up, um, to a large audience. Um, you think about, um, you know, I don't, I don't watch it a ton. The, the Daily Show, right? Daily show's super popular. 'cause John Stewart is funny, right? Whether you agree with his politics or not, a lot of his stuff is funny, right?

And he, and he makes fun of everyone. Right, because they're make fun. You know, they're, they're people you can make fun of because politicians are a lot, they're ridiculous characters, you know? Um, but that's where people end up getting a lot of news from, right? Oh yeah. If you make something enjoyable, if you make something people wanna see, right?

And you can give them some information, that's great. Now, it's really important to be able to take things for more than what's at face value, right? To be able to, if you're interested in something or you hear something that's like, well, what does this mean? Um, what does that mean for me? How does, does it affect me?

If it doesn't affect me? You know, do I need to get worked up about it? Right? Because you could get worked up about everything and be angry forever about everything in the world, but that doesn't do anything, right? Take a look at the world around you, your family, your community. Um, what can you do here for your family, for your friends, for your community to an effect effective change right here.

That's where instead of getting angry, we'll do that. Whatever, whatever it is you need to do to make your community better do that. You, you talked about being a protector and, you know, I think I, I have a lot of law enforcement family, they just have this switch where they're always on, always scanning, always aware.

I feel like some of that is lost in the fire department where you're kind of more evaluating a scene of how you need to, but, you know, respond. But when you're running a security company, is there anything that now being in a leadership position in the fire department, I mean, it's rare, but it does happen where people attack firefighters.

Is there anything that you teach your juniors to, to just be a little bit more aware now that you own this company? I think it's important. Um. I think it's important. Anytime you go out into the world, um, on an emergency call, you know, dynamic situation, you have some of the information, right? It's the, what's the, uh, old thing?

It's Rumsfield said it, there's the known knowns, the known unknowns, and then the unknown unknowns, right? And the things that'll get you are the unknown unknowns. Mm-hmm. Being able to watch for those unknown unknowns and, and wherever you're at, um, they talk about, you know, um, there's, there's a different color codes for, you know, your level of awareness and there's the white, the white code, and you're walking around, you're just oblivious to everything.

And then there's black where you're just so flustered, you're, you can't, you can't do anything, right. The two opposite ends, right. And then there's green, yellow, red, you know, um, being able to be aware of your situation on the fire department in your everyday life, in your business, um. Is, is gonna, is gonna really help you in every single way.

Doesn't mean be anxious or have anxiety, um, especially if I call 'em mental reps. Um, think about different situations that could happen. You don't have to go and necessarily train every single day. Practice every single, single thing every single day, but think through, think through things. Um, when I go and I talk with, uh, different organizations about their emergency prep preparedness, you know, for the fire department, you know, we talk about fires.

You know, we talk about, uh, making a plan if there's a fire. But let's talk about tornadoes. What if someone gets hurt? Right? Let's have a day every month where we check our smoke detector and let's sit the family down and let's talk about, Hey, what do we do if there's a fire? What do we do if there's a tornado?

What if the power goes out? Right? We don't necessarily have a big exercise about it, right? We're not shutting down the whole house, right? But we go over it. We're starting to lay tracks. Because once we lay those tracks, it's easier to roll on 'em when that emergency comes than trying to build those tracks right now when we're in the emergency, we gotta make those decisions.

And we never even thought about it. So, moving to the fire department, several years ago would be, it was several years ago, we had a firefighter that was shot on an emergency call. And uh, I was working in South Omaha. I was on the med same medic unit on a different shift when that happened. But it's one of those things, you're still, to some people, you're still just the government, right?

You're still just the government. You wear a blue uniform. It is what it is, right? And, uh, people get desperate, you know, then they'll, they'll try to hurt you. I've had people punch me, you know, I've had people, you know, bite me. On the fire, you know, on calls, you know, people who are high on different drugs, PCP, um, bath salts, those kind of things.

Um, you know, where they fight four different cops and we're trying to get into the hospital to save them because they're gonna die from all these drugs that they're taking. We're trying to save this person. They're fighting all these cops and fighting us, and we're trying to, you know, um, so it's so important to stay aware in every aspect of your life, whether it's on the fire department, whether it's walking down the street, you know, just, just because accidents happen, you know, emergencies happen and it's, it's, it's best to be prepared, prepared better to have, not need it than need it, and not have it better to be prepared.

Nothing happens than to get caught off guard and now you're scrambling. You know, I don't know why I have this strange question that I asked, but, uh, I love weird questions. Do you see a difference? I'm just thinking of my wife. So do you see a difference between the way men react, like firefighters specifically or EMTs, paramedics that men react in situations than women?

You talked about the brain waves and stuff like that, but do men and women act differently? I know on the fire service, um, what's really helpful in the fire service is you have a lot of people who are attracted to that right off the bat. And then you have 13 weeks of academy and you have a station culture and you have, and that that, and, and if you're in the military, you understand though, we're gonna break you down individually and build you up as an Omaha firefighter and part of this team.

Right? So you're now, now you're no longer Nick Lemick. You are Omaha firefighter who happens to be Nick Lemick. Mm-hmm. You know, um, and so that's, that's one of the things is. They talk about, you know, falling back to that training so, and so difficult to see like those internal processes, you know. Um, but uh, that's, that's the good thing is the training that we go through in the Omaha Fire Department is so good and we make sure we have training every single day, every morning.

You know, we have company school where we're continuing to train and get better to keep us at the best that we can be, you know, in those emergency situations. I think that, like, just out in the world, there's so much there. There's a, there's a lot of different case by case basis, right? The big thing is, I think it's important because I think it's important for men to understand that they do have some responsibility to be aware and understand that, you know, wife, children, those are people that love them, rely on them.

Your wife's your partner, but you have a responsibility as a husband, as a man to make sure that you're doing, doing your job and being a protector as well. Right. Um, I think men have a fix it mentality that fix it protector, and I think women have a lot of that nurturing. Um, let me listen to you feel that emotion.

Um, quality, and I think they're both really, really important, right? Because if you have just one and not the other, there, there's, there's a, there's an imbalance, right? You start getting the quote unquote toxic masculinity, right? But being able to balance that, I think you really, uh. Uh, now you're, you're nurturing, you're, you're growing a, a young person.

You're nurturing each other, you know, you're nurturing your partner. Um, and so I think, I think, uh, I think men and women can look at a problem, especially emergency situation and use a protocol to come up with a great solution. Especially it's an emergency situation. And I think, and when we look at like a family dynamic or out in the world, I think that it's really, really good to have two viewpoints that see things from a, um, protector, fixer standpoint, and then from a nurturing, um, a nurturing listener standpoint.

I think having that balance like that is gonna give you that full ability to go after what that problem is. That's why it's so great having my wife as, as the, the CEO of our company. Um, you know, she, uh, she's able to. I don't wanna say make me less crazy, but, but, um, a lot of times I'm gonna come after things with a hammer.

Right. Um, I did boxing, I played football. Um, you know, it's broken. Well, let's hit it with a hammer. We'll fix it. You know? Um, and she's really good at, at, at bringing, it's like, well, no, let's, let's see what tweezers. Yeah. Let, let's, let's, let's, let's see what's going on. Yeah. It's like, Hey, we're talking with this client.

What's the problem with this client? Well, this client feels this and this and this. And it's like, well, well, these are the problems that this, that's happened. These are the security problems that are at this location. She's like, I know that these are the security problems they're having at this location.

Let's talk to the client about what they're feeling. I'm like, but these are the security problems. What is the client feeling right now? And what do they feel like they need? I feel like they need to fix their security problem. Let's talk. Okay, let's talk to 'em. Okay. Tori's gonna talk to 'em. Oh, now they're talking to her, and she's like, what are you feeling about this?

It makes you feel insecure, Nick. It's like, okay, we can help you feel more secure. Do, do. Oh, okay. You know, being able to come out from those, those two angles. Yeah. So I, I have a quick story kind of off from that. This is what I was thinking of whenever you sent it. So whatever it was a month ago, uh, bears are playing the first playoff game, and my wife and I are watching the game and the bedroom.

The kids are on the nature tearing stuff up as they do, and all of a sudden the fire alarms in the house start going off. My wife springs up. I, you know, she ready for bed type clothes. She's like, get outta the house. Get outta the house. Get outta the house. I spring up, I grab my pants, I put on my pants. I start sweeping the house, looking for the fire, for the fire to, to try to put it out.

Same situation, two totally different ways of attacking it. Like, and in my head, like, wife's got the kids, let me try to save the house. Granted it was just my kid being a fool and playing with fire in, in the house. But, uh, luckily it didn't burn the house down. We'd had had to have you. Yeah. We'd, we'd have met before today, but yeah.

I mean, same situation's, two totally different ways of, of attacking it, but we both attacked it, you know, now and see, and, and, and here's the thing. It's like, thank goodness there's no fire, but wow. How, how great is it that we had those two people as partners there making those decisions? Right. You didn't have to tell her what to do.

Yeah. Right. She knew. It was like, I need to get everyone outta the house and make sure these children are safe. Yeah. She's quicker than me. Right. Boom. She's focusing on making sure these young ones are nurtured and protected with that. Okay. Right. You're saying, I'm gonna fix this. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna go and fight this.

Right. I'm gonna go into battle. Right. And that's, that's what that was. It's like battle. Here. I'm gonna go into battle. Here I go. I'm gonna go find this, I'm gonna fight it. Right? If, if things got, if things, if there, there was a big fire, boom. Okay, you can get the fire extinguisher, you start hitting it.

Okay. You win, put it out or not. Okay. You know, okay, I tried, I gotta, I gotta back out. She already made sure everyone is out and safe. Now you don't have to worry about that because now you can focus on, this is the mission, this is what I need to accomplish right here. Which, which in your example about, you know, you grabbing a hammer and your wife taking the, the nurture route.

I, I think tying his story back into that is both roles were necessary. Mm-hmm. It doesn't mean that the hammer wasn't necessary. Yeah. And she might know how to use the hammer. Just the timing of who's using what tool. At what point, how, how pivotal is it to the success of your business, the success of your family to choose the right partner.

It is in it's incredibly important. It's incredibly important. And that's why, um, communication is so important. Communication beforehand, um, communication. When you're getting to know someone. Um, making sure that things really align, if that makes sense. Um, your life goals, your dreams. Um, I know that sounds kind of hokey and everything, but when you have a a real partner, it makes the load that much lighter, right?

They always say, what? What's the deal? It's a Swedish proverb. You know, a, a shared smile is twice a smile. A shared, a shared sorrow is half a sorrow. You know, if you find that person for you, that other half, um, you're gonna really find that partner in every aspect of your life and that person who compliments every aspect of your life.

A lot of people say 50 50. 50 50. Believe me, there's been times, and I'm nowhere near 50%. I'm nowhere near a hundred percent. I'm nowhere. I am at like 3%. Right. And my wife is at 125% because she is taking over everything and she's making sure everything is okay, and the kids are dressed and they're, they're, and, and the grocery shopping's done and dinner's made, and all these things are done and she's taking care of all these things.

And there's times where she's exhausted. It's like, you know what, here I go, I, you know, I got the kiddos. We're gonna go wrestle. We're gonna go do these things. You know, it's, it's so important to have that partnership and understand that there's specialties, right? It's just like, uh, from a, like, from like a military standpoint, right?

Like the Army and the NA or like Yeah, the Army and the Navy, right? Um, well the Navy's got the boats and the Army's got the troops, right? Well, the Navy's good at stuff on the water. Army's good at stuff on the land, right? But together, right, they can go and do a whole bunch of different operations and do 'em great and all this other stuff.

You know, being able to know that they're different. They have specialties. But together you can do some amazing things that can blow blow people's minds. Absolutely. Talk a little bit about working with your wife and you said, you know, she's CEO of your company, obviously making the day to day pivots and stuff like that.

How has that worked out? Not worked out. Lessons learned. It's been great because the nice thing is, is we've both been able to, and I think that was important when, when we first met and when we got married, understanding that partnership and being partners, um, and understanding that I have certain roles and she has certain roles and, but no one is more important.

Right. Um, we're all important members of this family, but no one's more important than the family, if that makes sense. Um, and I think it's, it's been great because we're able to talk candidly. She's able to tell me when I am maybe going off half cocked about something, or if I am letting my own hubris get ahold of me.

Right. And you think about a company, and a lot of time AC company is that other child, right? It's another child, you know, and it's just, it's a company. Mm-hmm. It's important. It does a lot of things and can improve your life and it helps people. You know, it, it's not a child, it's not a living person, you know, you have to understand that too.

Um, it's been great because you're able to have a real frank conversation about the business, where things are going, what needs to be done, but understanding at the end of the day, there's a partnership that's more than just a partnership about a business. There's a partnership about a life, a partnership, about a family, and that makes it so you can be completely honest.

You don't have to have any.

Things to hold back about what's going on with the business. You can say, here's what we need to do, here's where we need to cut, here's what we need to add, here's what we, you know, and, and, and being able to have that second per perspective, like I said, the hammer, the hammer guy, being able to have that second perspective, Hey, let's talk to this client this way.

Let's look at these things. Like I said, I'm not the best at sales because I'll come in and say, these are the security issues that you're having. And to will say, let's ask them what they're feeling and what they need. Oh yeah, we asking about their needs, right? It's the whole, the whole pen thing of like, what do you need?

You know? Um, so I think that's, I think that's been really, really great. And a lot of times, you know, um, if you have a partner in business, having that relationship that is deeper than just that partnership is, is, is difficult to have. Right. Even a friendship. Right. You can have a business and then end up ruining a friendship, right?

But having that. Marriage. Having that relationship there and then building that together, I think it really made us stronger. Awesome. Um, we talked about it before, and it's on your LinkedIn, you kind of allude to it. What made you decide that this was the business for you? Like you saw a gap, what, what led you there?

What was kind of your, your, uh, gap analysis, if you will, put a catchy term to it? So the big thing was, so back in 2018, which every time I think 2018, I was like, just a few years ago in 20, oh no, three years ago. What's the decade? Yeah. Just, just three or four years ago In 20, no, that was not three or four years ago.

In 20, um, you know, I looked at, you know, 'cause I, I had done security before and a lot of times it was. Things where everyone got 10 99 and uh, here you go, you're doing security here. I was like, what are we doing? I was like, just make sure no one jumps on stage. Oh, okay, you're 10 99. Oh, okay, I'll cover my own taxes and insurance and Medicare and Medicaid and all that kind of stuff.

What a tax dodge, right? Uh, um, but uh, I realized that unfortunately in Nebraska, Nebraska has no, um, like oversight in the security industry. If you look at like, Iowa, Texas, a lot of these other states, there's a security oversight. You need to have a guard card, you need to have some training, some baseline training, those kind of things.

Nebraska doesn't have that. Um, you can go on Amazon and order a shirt and now you drew security, you know? Um, and I wanted to and get beyond that. And which makes it difficult sometimes because when you go and you talk to a client and you say, Hey, this is how much this costs, because we wanna be able to pay our employee a living wage.

We wanna be able to, uh, make sure that we can get this employee the training they need, you know, the professional security officer program through a, you know, um, the Inter International Security Foundation, um, getting those credentials for them, getting that training for them. And they say, well, why does it cost this much in this place, you know, can do it for this much.

Well, the other reason is, is they don't have work comp insurance and liability insurance and their 10, 90, 90, all of their employees. So that's something that happens a lot all over is, is, is people are 10 99 in their employees in the security industry. They're not holding work comp, reliability insurance.

And I tell, I tell potential clients. If something goes wrong, and I hope it never does, but if something goes wrong, they're going to look at the security guard and security company and they're gonna say, where's your insurance? Someone's gonna get sued and they're gonna say, oh, there's nothing here. And then they're gonna look over at the person who hired them, and they're going to say, you didn't do your due diligence, you didn't look at this.

Now we're gonna move on to you. Right. So paying $20 an hour for, to contract out your security versus paying $30 an hour, um, all of a sudden cost you a $50,000 lawsuit. Mm-hmm. Right. Oh, wow. That's a whole year's worth of secure, you know, so it's, it's something, it's something to things think about and it's something that's important for potential clients when they're looking for security to really do a little, a little bit of digging about the security company that they're gonna use.

And this is long before you reached out to me, probably four or five years ago. Um, we had a house in North Omaha that we were selling and uh, we just cleaned it out, trashed it out, rehabbed it, and someone came in, broke in, stole all the copper, so we rehabbed it. We had to replace the panel, the hvac that you name it.

Luckily insurance covered a lot of it. Well, we get it all put back together and someone broke in, sold a copper again. Luckily we had the water shut off this time, so put the copper back. In that time I had to go out and find private security. I didn't know it was a problem. It's one of those unknown unknowns.

Mm-hmm. I, and I started looking around and, you know, some of 'em, two star reviews or they, they say they just hired Joe from around the corner to come and sit there. Well, we found a couple companies that seemed, you know, pretty legitimate. One of 'em, they wouldn't do temp jobs. They wanted permanent, you know, rover security, which understandable.

Found one that was willing to do it. So they had guys rotating, spending the night at this house, sitting inside and. We then the people tried to break in again while they were sitting in there and they were armed guards. And so they had to draw and the, the people breaking in slammed the door open into one of these guys and knocked him down and he had to draw his weapon and stuff.

And luckily nothing came from it, but it just shows how easy it would be. 'cause that just split second difference. And a life has to be, you know, taken. And now where's that liability lie? Well, probably on the security company, also on the homeowner, you know, which was us. And so I, I think that people don't realize the, the people who are doing it illegitimate, you know, 10 99 cash under the table, all that stuff.

One, it's giving a mall cop culture to the security industry. But two, it's opening up a huge, huge problem for lawsuits. And so, I, I mean, again, like you said, it's a problem that you don't have until you have it. But bringing the legitimacy to it, the, the training, martial arts, you know, basic awareness, all that stuff, I think is.

That should be the bare minimum. Yeah. So why is it that you think Nebraska or what, what made me think, but you know, that Nebraska doesn't have any standards for it. It's just, uh, legislatively not a priority. You know? Um, that's, that's the big thing there, there hasn't been a call for it. Um, when I've, you know, attempted to reach out in the past to different, you know, um, members of Nebraska legislature, they're, they're busy.

There's a lot of, a lot of stuff that needs to, to, to happen in our legislature. And they have a, they have a shorter, you know, legislative session and they only get a certain number of bills to go through. It's just not a big priority. And I think another thing is, is I think there's a underlying thing of, uh, that, that.

Race the bomb that inexpensiveness, there's a, uh, there's a benefit for a lot of businesses to be able to have that inexpensive security. Um, they just need a warm body and they'll just deal with it. Something bad if something bad's, they're, they're just rolling the dice on it, right? And some people take that risk, or they, or they believe is like, they, they believe that you can cover all the overhead and pay a living wage and everything for $20 an hour.

You know, I don't know what, like business owner thinks that, but if they do, I mean, welcome to 1991. Um, you know, but, uh, it, it, there, there, there's so many things going on and I just think it's just, it's just really not a legislative priority. And you think about it, what that would really take. So you'd have to build a whole standards, right?

You need to build a licensee program. The other thing too is I think what it would really take is the industry. Saying we want to have this, so it's gonna take more than just elite tactical saying we need to have oversight in the state of Nebraska. It's gonna take, um, which, if the security companies are, are saying that's an issue, it's kinda like, you know, asking the teacher that they re they forgot to sign homework, right?

Yeah. It's, it's, it's gonna, it's gonna take the other security companies that operate in Nebraska to work together to say, Hey, something needs to be done to move out these, I don't wanna call 'em fly by nights, but. To move out these less legitimate type of security companies. So I see it as a larger problem though, and I'm a bash roofing contractors with this, but roofing contractors are the same way.

You go out, you hire big roofing contractor X mm-hmm. And they're subbing it out to someone who's less than legitimate. Maybe they're licensed, maybe they're not, but they're 10 99 ing out all the, you know, Hispanics or whatever that may or may not be here legally. And so you think you're paying what? You are paying a premium price for company X $30,000 roof, $30,000 roof.

Who's subbing it out to. Contractor y for $20,000. And they're paying except they're, except they're not paying 20,000, they're, they're paying 5,000 to the contractors. Well, and that's what I'm saying. And, and then they're subbing it out to the Hispanic crew that's getting paid 10. So everybody's getting their piece of the pie, and the only person that's getting screwed is the homeowner.

'cause they're like, well, my insurance is paying for it. Yeah. But you're paying $20,000 a year for insurance. Mm-hmm. You know, I mean, you gone through that for something else right now. But it's, I think it's just a cultural thing. And people, like I said, I think it's bigger than the security industry is biggest.

I mean, I mean, you're, you're, you're right. It is. And I think, uh, I think it, it moves, it moves back to accountabilities and handshakes and the slick Persian bizarre sell, sell, sell world that everything wants to be. Um, I would rather make a sale. That isn't as lucrative, um, that I'm gonna handle and I'm gonna make sure we do our job and my client's gonna be happy.

Um, then, then make a million dollars selling garbage. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, I have a house, I have a car, my family is fed. Um, I don't need a Lamborghini, I don't need a $10 million house. Right? I need to make sure my family's taken care of. Um, I need to make sure my employees are, are paid with the, you know, what they deserve.

And, uh. But every, everyone wants more, more, more, more, more, more. What do I need? I need more, more, more. Look at me on Instagram. You gotta get this new whatever. Look at me on this other, on TikTok. Get this newest crap. Um, you need more, more, more. Consume this, consume this, consume this. Don't make your own thing.

Don't reuse something. Right. Don't be self-sufficient. Just get some more stuff and, and buy some more stuff and keep selling. 'cause you gotta keep selling if you're gonna keep buying. And, and it makes it, so obviously we want the economy. We need money to turn to keep the economy going. Sure. But there's a way to do that without trying to slick talk and get one over on every person that you meet.

Yeah. That just, I don't wanna use the word icky, right, because that's, that's something I say to like, my 4-year-old. It's like, that's icky. But it feels icky and it feels not becoming of a man. It's crazy. We, we've used this or talked about this many times and it wasn't until, um, I was, I was reading through my bible the other day that I realized we've been saying that this verse wrong.

'cause I always said the love of money. You've been saying it wrong. I've been saying it wrong. He's never corrected me. But the love of money is at the root of all evil. And I read it this time for the first time, that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And I think that's true. Is that the greed is, is that's where these people are going wrong?

Is, is greediness. But, uh, now being in the public facing view of the fire department, are there any misconceptions or things that, you know, you share with the public that maybe we didn't, didn't realize or haven't taken consideration? Like, I think growing up, I, it was always you check your fire or your smoke alarm when you change the clocks.

Twice a year. And then you just said monthly. Yes. So that, those are some things that I hadn't heard of before. Check. Yeah. So check your smoke detector every month. Every month, right. Um, you, I mean, it'll make that little do every few minutes that annoys you. It's like, ah, I gotta change it. Right? But what if you're not there?

So, right. You want to check that every month. And it's really, really good just to have, okay. First Saturday, or second Saturday of the month is, we have emergency day, emergency preparedness day, right? Oh, it's not four hours, it's 30 minutes. Hey kids. You know you got kids. Get 'em involved. Get 'em involved.

Hey, all. Let's check all the smoke detectors. Oh, oh, you know, um, check all the smoke detectors. Okay? We checked all the smoke detectors. Okay, let's sit down. Let's go through, alright, what do we do if there's a fire in our house? Okay, we're thinking about two ways out, right? We wanna have two ways out. 'cause what?

One way blocked. Alright, we got two ways out. Now we're gonna have a meeting place outside. Where's our meeting place? Okay. You know, the, the mailbox out front, that's our meeting place that we're all gonna meet if there's a fire and we have to go outside. Okay, let's go over tornado. What do we do? Oh, do we have flashlights ready?

Let's check our flashlights. Oh, our battery's working. Oh, there we go. All right. And then we all go to the basement. We all go here. Oh, we have snacks down here in water. All right, everything's said here. What if someone falls and hurts themself? Do we know what number to call? That's right. 9 1 1. But where do we live?

What's our home address? Right. Oh, right. So now, now, so now you can, you'd be surprised how many, like 10, 11 year olds, it's like, what's your address? Mine, uh, right. What's your address? What's your, what's your mom and what's your mom and dad's name? Uh, mom and dad. Mm mm Okay. Right. And obviously, you know, I don't want, you know, my, my kids being like, Hey Nick, hey Nick.

Right. Hey, dude. Um, bro, but, uh, but, but that's, that's, those are good things and there's things that you don't think about. Right. Because it's like, I don't want my kid calling me Nick. Right. That's, I'm dad, you know, mom, not Tory. Mm-hmm. You know? Um, but on the, on the smoke detectors, yeah. We used to always use the battery powered ones.

Then I saw, I started moving towards the wired. And now at all of our properties, the, the fire inspector says that we, we need to have the 10 year sealed. Um, what do you call 'em? They have to be repeatable. Um, carbon monoxide and smoke. Yeah. That's so acquired by, so it's a new Nebraska. The new the new, yeah, it's new.

What is that? Uh, Nebraska 1 0 4. That what? Yeah. I didn't write that one down. Um, but, um. So the, the hard hardwired are, are great. Um, but with the, with the, uh, with the batteries, um, was it, uh, the Dallas Fire Department did a 10 year program where they studied, um, the smoke detectors that they installed and where the batteries went over the course of a year, two years, five years, 10 years.

Right. If the smoke detector was still there, if batteries were still in the smoke detector and they found like within one year half of the smoke detectors that they installed no longer had batteries in them. Hmm. Right. And it's one of those things where a nine volt, I'm trying to think like the other things in my house that use a nine volt can't name any, maybe like a toy.

Yeah, right. Um, but it's one of the few things that use a nine volt. There's several of 'em that use like double As, that kind of thing, but it's one of the few things that uses a nine volt. So you, it's like, oh, it's beeping. I pop it out, I'll get it later. I forget. Or I need a nine volt for something else.

Or maybe it's double As like, oh, my remote control went out. I know there's some double As 1, 2, 3. Like yeah, yeah, yeah. Or yeah, those little right. I got that on my red dot. It's like, it's like, oh great. It's like, oh, great. And that one's like $9. Um, but uh, it's, uh, but they found like within a year, half of those batteries weren't even in those smoke detectors anymore.

And, and I think by, by year five, the smoke detectors weren't even there anymore. You know? And, and you wanna replace your smoke detector every 10 years, you know, so if your smoke detectors 10 years are older, need a new smoke detector because they just eventually wear out. Um, but, uh, but, but that's, that's the big, so now they have the sealed ones, so that's, that battery's contained in there.

And that's a protection thing. You're not gonna be able to, to get a battery out there. It's gonna be a complete pain to try to get a battery out of there. And that way you have that smoke detector system in there if you have working smoke detectors in your home. You are 11 times more likely to survive a fire in your house 11 times.

That's asked that, that, that is, that's huge. That's huge. So are there other non-emergency services that the, uh, fire and EMS provide? Like I've heard, uh, new and expecting parents. The fire department will help teach them how to properly install a, um, car seat. So we actually don't do that. Okay. We actually don't.

The Nebraska Safety Council is a great resource for, uh, for helping with, uh, with the child safety seats, with the, with the child safety seats. And the reason we don't do that is because we don't train on how to install those properly. There's so many different types. You know, you have the ones with the latch, there's the ones that the seatbelt runs through.

Mm-hmm. Um, and there's so many different types. Right. And. There's one of those things you always worry about a liability. Well, they put this, the fireman put it in and they put it in wrong. And now the city owes me a million dollars and this kid's hurt. Mm-hmm. Right. Um, but, uh, and, and the other thing too is, is while a lot of firefighters have families, a lot of 'em don't necessarily have families yet or maybe don't have kids at all or whatever.

And so they're gonna, they're just gonna be like, oh, I don't know. I'll take, and, and here's the other thing too, is firefighters will go, I'll take a look. Mm-hmm. Firefighters al you know, they want to be helpful. They're always inventing stuff, new ways to, or new tools. Mm-hmm. And, uh, and so and so firefighters are, will always be like, I'll take a look.

Lemme take a look. I'll see if I can fix this. Right. Fix her. Um, and so we actually have a thing where we're not gonna do that. So it would prevent firefighters from, from doing that. But we get send 'em to Nebraska Safety Council. They do a great job making sure. That they can get that safety seat in there.

Every single kid, was it under 60 pounds? Should be in some sort of, some sort of safety seat. So booster or rear facing seat. Yeah. Well, and, and Nebraska doesn't have a ton of laws on, on, um, safety seats, uh, CT either. I was in Minnesota, New Hampshire prior, very, very strict, like up till age 12 and this height and this weight and all this stuff.

And Nebraska I think is a little bit more relaxed. Say, yeah. And here's the thing, laws are great. Laws are great. Um, it's really important I think as parents take some accountability and responsibility as guardians of your family and your children. That's where I'm at. You know, that's, that's really, really important.

Laws are great. You bet. And they're there to, to give you the, when you, when you do a no-no, you know, but you know, if you take accountability, take responsibility, protect the people that are under your care. You're gonna look at what's the safest thing? What can I do to keep my people safe? Right. Um, like I said, my name's gonna, someone's gonna stop saying my name at some point.

Mm-hmm. I'm gonna say my, my son's name. I say my daughter's name. Right. Well keep 'em around, huh? Yeah. Nick, I really appreciate everything you've given us. Safety tips, business, all that stuff. I gotta ask one question before we wrap this up, though. As a firefighter, as a paramedic, as an EMT, as a business owner, father, dad, um, father, dad, probably the same thing, but Hu husband, father is what I meant.

Uh, what does freedom mean to you? Freedom. Freedom is really, it's one of those things I, I think freedom is a real local thing. It's something that holds a lot of responsibility and accountability with it. Freedom means that you're going to go and you're gonna push for the things that you want. You're going to, but with that, pushing towards the things that you want for your life, for your family's life, for your community, with that freedom to push for those things, to work for those things, there's a lot of responsibility with that too.

If you say you want the freedom to, um, say you want the freedom to, to ride your motorcycle without a helmet, well good. Make sure you're, make sure you're a good motorcycle. You, you ride that motorcycle well, right? Because that's, that's on you, right? You want the freedom for, um, your children to be able to play after the streetlights.

Go on. Okay, well, there's some responsibility in there. Make sure your streets are safe. What are you gonna do to make sure your streets are safe? You know, um, that's the big thing. Freedom takes work. America is advanced citizenship. It really is. And it takes work and it takes more than just Instagram posts and mad tweets.

It takes going and meeting your neighbors, right? Think how free you feel in your community, in your neighborhood when you know all your neighbors, right? It's like, oh, I need, I need a cup of sugar. Go right next door. And you built that community. It's like, Hey, can I borrow a cup of sugar? You bet. Like, oh wow.

You've built that community. A community that takes care of each other, feels free and is free to move, to make each other's lives better. And that's the big thing. I think that's important for your community. I think it's important for America. When we take care of each other, we take care of each other's freedom.

Well, I think I was said pretty eloquently. I appreciate, uh, you coming on, like I said, and, uh, just giving us some of this good to meet you and, uh, me learning of what a firefighter actually does. So, so if people wanna get involved with your business or, or wanna reach out, what's the best way to get ahold of you?

Um, you can contact me on LinkedIn. Um, you can, uh, you can visit our website, elite tactical transport.com. Um, and originally we were gonna be a secure transport company. We kind of morphed into doing a lot of private security. Um, so elite tactical transport.com, um, you can email us contact@elitetacticaltransport.com.

Um, if you're interested in the fire department, you know, check out Omaha fire.org. Check out our career section. We're gonna be opening up for testing here in the next month. So if, if, uh, emergency services, the fire service is something you're interested, Omaha's gonna be hiring really soon. So, you know, um.

If you're, if someone's interested in talking about freedom, security, fire service, contact me on LinkedIn. I always love good engagement. I always love talking about the, I'm an, I'm an open book, so. Awesome. I appreciate it, Nick. I appreciate it. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you.