Chris Jones – Response Ready Medical

https://responsereadymedical.com/

Seth Horst and Dave Faller sit down with Chris Jones, Paramedic and co-owner of Response Ready Medical, a first-responder owned company that specializes in professional grade emergency medical equipment, training, and site safety tracking. Be ready, so you don’t get caught on your heels when things go bad.

Sponsor:

This podcast is brought to you by Your North Idaho Agent. YourNorthIdahoAgent.com Our team is comprised of Former First Responders and Veterans and we have years of experience in all aspects of Real estate purchase and sales.

We don’t just sell homes- we sell- the north Idaho experience.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/your.northidahoagent/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/northidahoagent
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHz9XczupyJ93VRtqfQEW-g

0:04
In today’s episode, we sit down with Chris Jones from response ready medical. Chris is also a firefighter working locally, so of course, there’s gonna be a lot of firefighter, cop jokes. Let’s go north Idaho is a throwback to a better time in American history, a time when values and characters still mattered, from home I don’t think there’s anything we do that we don’t wing it, to be honest, not that we’re gonna be bat winging later. No, we’re not gonna go back into the previous conversation. Y’all missed some good topics a few minutes ago. Maybe Dave will reenact it later with the microphone. That’s a little girthy for you, I don’t that’s the nighttime, late night pocket, that’s when the Bourbons involved. Yeah, I’m actually not. I’m I’m, well, Dave hasn’t been drinking for a while. He’s on some fancy diet where all he eats is his mangoes with coated with sugar. It’s guys laughing? Anyway, it’s working in that shape. Yeah. In shape. Oh, you’re so inappropriate. We just got canceled. But it’s going, it’s, uh, it’s just so I’m not drinking at the same time. And I know Boardman’s party’s we’ll see those water slides to do. Oh, it’s hard playing when you’re not drinking, right? Especially go to like, event or something like, it almost freaks people out. They’re like, why aren’t you drinking? You’re gonna drink. You can have a drink. Is that? Is like, do they Is it like a guilt thing? Like they feel guilty for drinking, they bring you down. You know what? That’s honestly something that I think you know a lot of first responders and stuff, um, they they get in trouble with alcohol, right? Like that is one of my biggest pet peeves. When I see don’t want to drink, yeah? Because then nobody will say anything. I can’t do that because I don’t put soda in this temple. So, like, what do I do instead? Right? Do you want to introduce him? Yeah? Chris Jones, everybody? Chris Jones, response, ready? Medical, cool side gig. He’s a firefighter. Dave and Chris did, like, this weird firefighter handshake thing earlier. You guys guess that it was minutes. It was cute. So that’s cool. That’s why Dave’s here today. So you guys can bounce whatever you know. Okay, yeah, anyway, it’s good to have another fireman in the room freaking gang up on the cops. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I need that. Sometimes I need you guys keep me in check. So we got, we got a lot to talk about today. It’s going to be some good topics. Probably share some stories from from medic, yeah, firefighter paramedic in northern Spokane County. Okay, yeah. Cool. First of all, just love being over in Idaho. We’re doing a lot more over in Coeur d’Alene. It’s kind of cool. My I got invited to do the ruck march. Got involved with new beginnings. Were you there on ruck march? Yeah, we’re helping sponsors for that. So see, I didn’t know you then, I wish I did. Yeah, we were there too. So every time I come out here, though, it’s just awesome. I think it’s what about Liberty Lake. You drive, you see those huge American flags as you’re coming in, and it’s almost like gateway to good having you up on here too, because I think, you know, I talk about this, and I harp on it all the time, is we love, we love cooperating with small businesses. Because, you know, everybody I hear dollar that is spent in your own community gets touched another six times before it leaves the community. And so it’s nice to promote people like you and people that are local, because if we can really appreciate that. And that’s everything over here I love just not the community aspect, just the vibe before the ruck march, and just that feel, you almost get goosebumps, you know, saying the know, taking over everything. Amazon, yep, I’m glad you brought up the online thing. We’re seeing a lot of schools over the podcast. You did that today with the Henderson PD guys. Yeah, we talked about active, active assailants. And, yeah, like, there’s a lot of people, and I think a lot of these people come here from our backgrounds, and they’re like, Hey, I still want to serve, but those guys are awesome. They’re doing a little bit more on the kind of PD background protection side. We focus a little more on the medical side. But the point is, worked with schools where we Holy shit. You know, there’s stuff spelled wrong on packaging. Yeah, it’s just crazy. And it sucks, because schools, churches, where our heart is at, we give them heavy discounts, and I get it. They have a small budget, something’s in tourniquet, that’s horrible. Would be good to have you bring to light too, and I’m sure you’ll go over it is like, how much do you actually need? Because we’re in a we’re in a period that unless I have three tourniquets within arm’s reach 24 hours a day. Dave, well, I said that, and then I have, I have 50 nail clippers at home because I ordered a bucket because my daughter, I was over it anyways, we never know when there might be, like a mass casualty of long toenails got to be good. Point could be, yeah, I mean, I think it’s good for people to know too, to buy quality and have something that’s going to last and you can rely on and then know how much you know of whatever it is Yeah, whatever. I remember I had a few guys in my department do that, because when tourniquet started becoming big and all the cops are carrying them, yeah, I got them on Amazon for like, eight Bro, yeah, it’s scary and disintegrates to me. I mean, there’s a lot of fake stuff, Chinese stuff everywhere. It’s hard to get around that. Now, even the big national brands not going to name some of them, but to actually work when you need to use it, you might only use that stuff once in 30 years, but the time you go to use it, you better know how to use it, and better be good, equipment that’s not going see how fancy it was? I just turned your voice up on there. Mine, oh, his, Oh, thanks. Yeah. I got you. Man, Chris, pretty much sound engine. You guys might be engineers or whatever. So let’s go. All right, I’m just sitting fireman go to work for a living, and cops work for a living. You know, that’s accurate. That’s accurate. And he had the best of both worlds. I know Dave went backwards. He was a firefighter and a captain, and then went to be a living backwards. Then you went to be a cop. Everybody went to CHP. Everybody wants to go the other way. I wish I had known. I wish someone was like, Yo, bro, you could have this job where you, like, work a shitload and people hate you, or you could go group, I would have been all over in recliner. So all over it. Every time we do joint training with PD, I always ask if they want to ride in our rig to lunch. So people smile at them and waves like, yeah. Feel what that would be so excited to ride in a fire truck engine, whatever you call I bet you would. I would be so excited about it. Well, we do ride alongs at district nine. So if you want to come and, you know, sit in the fire fire truck, and I don’t want to go ride in a fire a few times, I would love to see you right now. I want to do that. I want to go to. Ride Along with Boardman too, and getting the old patrol car again, oh boy. And soon as I get deputized, come on going down that road. So what part of San Bernardino area? You said, well, San Bernardino? Yeah, I was San Bernardino County. I’ve worked all over from from LA County border all the way to needles in Arizona, which I just saw in Yahoo this morning was just crowned No, thanks. Yeah, yeah, it’s freaking today. So yeah, all over the place. But you know, I tell them, I was like, it’s more like being a cop when you’re working in San Bernardino. I wasn’t assigned down there. I know a whole lot, but working in yeah, so different. I can’t stand the heat. That’s the thing that got me. I was in Northern California, but it would get pretty damn hot. You’d have, you know, 100 and 112 and you’re out doing traffic control with no they’re like, it’s always got, they’ve always got a cooler with ice and Gatorade, and it’s like throwing candy to the kids at a parade. They’re just like, hey, here you go, brother. I’m like, Oh yeah, thank you sir. Yeah. I got this. I don’t envy the cops. We always invite them. So we have a really good relationship up north with our deputies. They all hang out at our station at night. Invite a lot of them during the day to come work out, but it’s hard. 1000 degrees out, and y’all are out there just slaving all day, and I’m just chilling by my car doing traffic control. I’m like, that’s when the tides turn. I would just pray for the Feds or Cal Fire to show up or some sort of hand crew. I’m like, please. That’s the best thing in the world. And you’re digging line, and you see DNR sets the bridge. Like, oh yes, young kids get out there and start cutting line. Yeah, you need to work out. Bill, yeah. So funny. Like, I was pretty naive to what San Bernardino is in the area, and I always thought it was, you know, a specific city, and I You’re able to go down to that class together. But it’s kind of eye opening in that area. I mean, he booked the first hotel, and then a local buddy that lateraled Up here is like, Hey, you guys don’t close to you in a copy, no form, you know, I’m back against the wall, like, get a whistle. You sit over there. We’ll talk across the table. In case people start shooting, we’ll use you as a shield. we’re pretty naive, too. Oh yeah, yeah, that’s interesting. You say that even in Spokane, because I compared to Idaho, Spokane ghetto. Yeah, it’s getting that way. I mean, growing up, I tell people, you know, the homeless problem wasn’t as big of a deal, more, bigger Vagrant, pretty harmless, not very violent. Now it’s progressed to City Fire I us down there too. I mean, we have people that come out and they freaking poke holes in the four inch line while we’re on a fire. I mean, well, I don’t understand how that’s even a thing. Yeah. I would just love to Team somebody up for that, right? Yeah, yeah. It’s just, it’s crazy because, I mean, obviously, you know, cops are there due to save people public safety as well. But I get it. You know, some people are frustrated getting a speeding ticket, right? You give a nun a speeding color, not everybody. I’m not being racist, chill out. That is gonna tune you up right away, and you’re gonna get the Oh, you only pulled me over because I’m x and guys get tired of that shit. It’s Yeah, yeah, no, it makes sense 100% I didn’t do that just saying, plus, they’re always late with people too, for kids and trying to get the thing right and scrambling all over the place, but I was a terrible ticket writer. This is a known fact. We play kind of a fun game at work. I always kind of sound really game, but just asking people where they’re from, where they’re from 90% of the time. Now, luckily, I work up north, hour, yeah. And there’s, I think, three rigs out of that house, but it’s just shit. You’re up all night. They’re getting their butts kicked. And it’s not, you know, maybe 10% of those are legit even find the person or the problem, because they just kind of drive by. Okay, they’re just sleeping. Well, there’s 50 other people that look exactly the same as the zombie that you just called in. So it’s kind of hard to tell. Yeah, thankfully, sorry. We kind of had some policy changes because we’ve rolled up on, you know, somebody slumped over in a car, uh, pistol next to them, heroin needle still out of their arm. Uh, no. PD, on scene. You know, world’s change, society change, it’s a lot more risk to us. For sure. I got told multiple times over the radio that I didn’t have to stage when I was up here, really. You don’t need to stage like, thank you. Hilarious job. Yeah, thank you. Have you heard of these departments that have like, they do both jobs? There’s a California, right? One big one in California, and that’s probably the one you’re referring to. It’s just outside of San Jose. I can’t remember the name of it, but I’ve seen that before. And you know what? That’s asinine. those and say, Well, we’re gonna put turnout here in your trunk, and you’re gonna go fight fire too. It’s just for the right be all over that show. Oh my gosh, I’ll do it all. See, y’all just sit there. I got every cop wants to be a fire the cops. So I joke a lot about cops. You know, a lot of good friends in law enforcement. One thing I do appreciate they definitely the cop mentality. They’ll step up, they’ll do fireman’s job. a lot of risk dumber. In general, I think is what it is. So Canaries, right? It could be a function of that. We got some window lickers, dude, I had one guy where every morning I’m like, hey, I need you to go clean the inside of that window. Like, all right. Never asked why we use them on the gas leak. So we have the cop going first they go down, pass out. No, it’s not safe. Yeah, now we’ll drag you out. Yeah, that seems fair. No, but I would, I would like, I know it’s probably not a good idea, but I would totally do that job. That sounds cool. I just think, man, it’s hard to do one of those jobs. To do both of them, man, I think it’s bad idea. And we talked a lot in our county, there’s mention of, you know, arming firemen. And we’ll talk a little more about kind of our rescue task force model, and then the Thames with Swat, we getting a lot of calls where suspects barricaded, hopefully don’t have a hostage. If they do, it becomes a lot more high risk. So you’re dealing with fire, so you have impingement on victims, but would be amazed what I can do with a fire extinguisher. Bro, yeah, no, like missing legit, what’s, what’s the acronym? What’s the acronym? Oh my gosh, look highly untrained. Fire sticker. I would have deputized. I have, I have a fire sticker at all. Whatever you want, aim something and then spray, squeeze, squeeze. Well, that’s dumb, and like a broom, sweep. There you go. I knew that accidentally sounds like pop the pin. I think it’s I think it’s good. There’s a separation, and it’s it. It’s unfortunate to say this, but there’s been a lot of public, uh, trust lost with law enforcement, regardless of the reasons why, or any of You start doing that, even though it might be for their safety. People are going to change their tune on EMS and fire really quick. Oh yeah, in a lot of communities that don’t trust their cops, or guys ever don’t? Did you ever come? Can firefighters conceal carry? Is that a thing our department policy? Yeah, we can’t have even have them on the station grounds. I wish at least we could have stations off duty. I’m pretty insulated. I work in a good community, but we had had some stuff your nightstand or something, because, you know, our stations are pretty secure, but we’ve had downtown, especially in the city, they’ve had people grab fire, acts off the wall, break through had, we had this guy go in and use a chief’s toothbrush and sleep in his bed. Our battalion chief got back to the station and there was a dude sleeping in his bed, used his toothbrush, his stuff, that was. His name, dirty Mike. No, but that, I mean, that’s San Bernardino, right? Like, that type of stuff just happens. And to think of the security and have somebody come into your, your home, essentially, not, okay, yeah, so let’s touch on you were just, I think you’re, you’re about to talk about this, ballistic vests for firefighters. I think Cal Fire’s been doing that for years as part of it, it came out as, like, Yeah, fire definitely was kind of leading the model that San Bernardino area, I don’t know, left of the IRC event stuff like that. I mean, yeah, we all had, we all had full attack vests, and they’re not, yeah. I mean, we have, means rifle rated plates, right? Oh, yeah. So at least you got that coverage. Because, I mean, you hear the stories, they happen all over the US, like something nice. You gotta you got one of those dude, yeah? Shooter nerd with that guy special, yeah? Oh god, that’s you sent, right? That’s beautiful, isn’t that nice? That’s going on the calendar. That’s like, Yeah, Mr. July, I didn’t know they were taking that photo. Yeah, literally, you can tell send that to me. I think about it. I’m gonna try to figure out more intentions with that photo first, and then I’ll have my wife run it through AI. But yeah, that California has definitely led the way with that program, the Thames medic program. I started doing my EMS training Arizona, and the LEAD program instructor was an ex Thames, or, you a tactical emergency medical, yep, support something, yeah. So technically, will be like a medic that actually carries a lot of times they’ll use, like an Air Force doc or somebody a physician, usually get a special commission for that. It’s a program we’re carrying a firearm. So our model is a little bit more conservative, which I’m fine with. Again, I don’t really want to cross over into us carrying because now that goes into a whole level of degree corners. That can be a long way in a school or something. Yeah, that’s a full 180 degree Yeah, it kind of comes from the bomb world too, right? So we deal with IDs, stuff like that. And a lot of the active shooters, people don’t realize how many unsuccessful ID or explosives were used that didn’t sniper team, and it’s like, okay, 95% of these shootings are a single shooter, usually somebody that’s not super confident. Hate to say it maybe more Outcast society. They’re not, you know, alpha shoot, wow, yeah, wild. So I the county I worked in, pretty sure. I think nobody there listens to this anyway. So I can, I can tell you this, they had a doctor that was sworn deputized, and he would go in the not with us in our county right now, I know, historically, they did have a doc off Fairchild that was part of the team. But right now, yeah, we just, our model is just that simple of buttoned up in know, the any scene that’s owned by law enforcement, they have, they’re required to provide medical aid now, and Sam Turner was Sheriff specifically. I mean, he’s in a great job to get all their law about to say that I think, you know, Dr Olis Nicky was our guy that trained, you know, he was in New York in a er, and then he did some stuff with the Palm Springs, Swat and everything else he would be can do. Because other than that, I mean, for a doctor to do anything else, they got to be equipment heavy, and you guys just can’t bring all that stuff in. And you got to get them to a safe place too, right? If they’re still an act threat, you’re not going to do that right there. So I guess that makes a lot of sense, yeah. And I think that’s that mindset shift, right? Even as medics, I think at first we thought we’re going to do all this high level, cool, fancy medic stuff, right? So the only difference in the medic and AMT That’s one of the man that’s one of the biggest things, too. When I was a medic like people, didn’t realize that transportation is a form of treatment. And I’m not even going to name agencies, but I in 10 minutes could have saved their lives. Like, regardless all the stuff you’re doing, there’s times where, even up here, when I was in law enforcement, it was something where somebody was shot, trained in that a lot, actually, is, especially on the riot team, because it was, you know, you’re on the active riot line or something. Get them out if my kid got shot in the back of the car, and my kid needed treatment from a medic at home. I’m not going to call you. I would have him in the back of a car, and I’d have him at the hospital before you guys are out. At the station, out of the for sure. Yeah, call me up, dude. I’m just, I’m always looking for a reason to roll code. So let’s talk a little bit about this business here. Yeah, no, for sure. So I want to hear more about it. Yeah. So originally, it started, John lipsker already had was the founder. Started the business. He worked in a heavy trauma system, very busy system in So Tulsa’s always on. There we were on live rescue, okay, yeah, same fire was, I wasn’t. Yeah, our department was so he worked in Tulsa and then Vegas shortly after. So worked in two very busy, trauma heavy environments. Had some mentors down there that actually started owed in medical if you’ve heard of burner. But at the time, politically. Me, I was dealing with a lot of pushback from my chief at the time, who’s gone now, thankfully, and then also from the school admins. So politically, it was of wanted to stop the bleed, active shooter training. And now one of our most requested classes, our backcountry medical class, became super popular. So a lot of people, for years, me included, hunted one we just promoted that you’re doing with North Idaho archery? Yes, yes. Okay, that’s a cool class. Bring in the coffee and the food, yep. Jump on our Facebook and you can find information know about it huge. And just having even a little bit of training, I will share a story we had. So I was carrying tourniquets, like right from right when they became cool as a cop, because I love yes, I never, I never worked on an ambulance, but I did get to get certified. We got a call of a train versus pet. Never a good call. And my partner and I got there probably 30 minutes after this middle of the tracks. If I got hit by a trainer, yeah, a lot of questions, right? His pants were on. I don’t know what. I don’t know. Maybe he pulled them ready to have somebody with their clothes off. me, and I just, like me and my partner kind of lit him up a little bit, because it’s like, because it’s like, there’s no excuse for that. It’s not 1950 Yeah, you know, we all know how to use them. We when it’s been a lot more fun for like me, honestly, I like training general public that has no knowledge at all with medicine and take them to this level, versus we know, cops and firemen, when I wreck, citizen first on scene, tourniquet in their car, put it on a guy’s leg, save their life. I mean, I think that’s cool. I love that. Tim Kennedy talks about it, right? No one’s coming. So that the citizen training is huge. They’re the ones they didn’t choose to be in that bad situation, but they’re going to be there in that first 10 seconds, 30 seconds of an incident. You’re right. Like teaching people that actively want to learn is so much more rewarding as for the instructor, too. I coach Jiu Jitsu, and you know, those guys all want to be there. It’s enjoyable. But you try super gratifying, for sure. So and then it’s kind of crazy. I think the number one injury we’re hearing over and over is people cleaning an animal with self injury. Oh, yeah. So we’ve been doing a Finally. What’s the pushback? Is it because they’re afraid the kids are gonna get scared? Is that the big one? Yeah, so the big pushback we heard, and this is directly out of a administrator. I came in and did a train, the trainer for all their staff, and that he said out of his mouth, the teachers union is going to give a kid PTSD, and one of them dies there, because there’s something that is a that could have been. And handled on site 100% Yeah. And it’s funny, because I went in and first school I did was in our first two is actually my old track coach. And then I guess, backing up to get around that I’m like, let’s call it first date, politically, and I’ve learned I used to be in a bull in a china shop and never got anywhere. So I really learned to be political right if I’m going to gain political capital. My goal is to get in complaint, single issue. The kids love it. I mean, in this social media age, which I’m not used to, like they’re tick tocking it, twatter tweet or whatever, sending out videos. There’s stuff and stuff you know, at keister tourniquet, I got 40 of them. I got them in my car, you know, wife, diaper bag, you name it. We got trauma supplies. I like being prepared, but I don’t want to push a fear mindset, still live your life, right? Don’t just sit at home and play video games and be scared of everything out there. I’m glad you touched on that, because I think that’s common, right? Think that’s common, right? Like, that’s an easy road to go down. Of, like, I’m just gonna take less risk. I’m not gonna do I’m not gonna live sure, yeah, versus kind of that care mentality of, like, you know, you tell it, you’re somebody. You’re gonna, hey, I’m gonna go on a solo backpacking trip. Oh, you’re going by yourself. You should is, I’m gonna die doing something stupid. It’s not gonna be cool, right? So like, fireman, cop, we think we’re gonna die in a gun battle saving a kid from a fire, but I’m gonna die because I, you food, I knew it. I know it comes back to our firefighters gayer than cops. I think we have just established I never had a dick shaped dinner night at the police, as long as you don’t make I never We got our North Side deputies trained really well now, so they they know when dinner time comes in, so roll and start doing reports. I’m like, oh, it’s, you know, 545 weird coincidence, funny. So I Well, we have a whiteboard too, kind of a grocery list, so it’s fun. The cops always write something funny on there too, or and they love, you know, the donut thing is real, not just donuts, though. If have to do a loop around our station, and they’re all be sitting there doing reports, and they just look out and they’re just, they’re so happy that we get interrupted from our sleep. It’s like the It’s awesome. It’s like that. CHP, science says firemen sleep. Yeah, I love that. That’s the best, super cool. We all like to give each other shit, but it’s all love in the end. Yeah, it’s fun when I first teach classes for the public, you know, especially if one of our, all of our instructors, are full time, firefighters, paramedics, law enforcement. I love co teaching with law Do you guys sell gear too? Right? Yep, to bring some stuff to. So first, just kind of go over micro kit. Okay, we had a few different first generations. John’s kind of the master of designing kits, doing all the back end stuff with how they look, getting them attached to a pack belt loop. Can go through it. A lot of different mounting options, standard cat Turner kit. Yes, it’s in the package. When we sell it, when you carry it on, you take it out, it’s gonna, yeah, we’re gonna ship it to you. Okay, yeah, so it’s not a sterile component. So that can be out ready to go. You can actually practice with it as two I wouldn’t do it too much, because the wind lists and that internal band do start weaken over But like anything, it’s a perishable skill. So once a month, once every six months, change the states. Yeah, I’m glad you brought that up, because we have, especially at North Idaho, a lot of classes. People are like, Man, I had an ifac in my shopping cart online for North American rescue or somebody, but I for all the stop the bleed kits, again, Turner kit, some type of compression bandage wound packing gauze, one thing, kind of the gold standard we went to, if you can see in the middle, has that blue have that line in it. And then emergency blanket, I’m a huge push hypothermia. Like we missed that a lot when I was first in my career. You know, you get a bad car wreck, pull them out, go to intubate degrees Fahrenheit, you start to have decreased ability to clot. Below 92 degrees your your natural ability stops clotting completely. So hyperthermia is the most probably overlooked and most you still? Are you teaching people to write it on their forehead or write it on there. At the reason we were always taught to put it on their forehead is because there’s no mistake when you see the I’m glad you brought that up too. So pick on Cops a little bit. So we everything we have in like fire EMS is that bright orange? That’s pretty rare. Somebody’s wearing a full bright orange gloves. If it’s sticky, wet, not yours. You don’t want it on you either. So think about it too, not just for blood sweeps. If you’re going to touch your computer or something else and you got a bunch might not know all my treatment I’ve done because of the chaos of 40 patients, right? So that T on the forehead super important, right? So I always freak people out in class, like, tell them they get I’ve used a Sharpie on a guy’s face before, but it wasn’t a T I wrote, yeah, I know that. Like, if this kit was in my house, somehow my kids would find this marker in my backpack, in this kit, and it And if we sell these cops too, so we usually put a crayon in there for them, so they’re more used to that in the former Marines. Have you guys sidebar? You guys ever packed a moon? I’ve never done that. Yeah. Like, people don’t like it, I’m guessing. So when I it’s funny, I always tell. Story in a class go back to tourniquets. So every tourniquet I put on was, you know, bad hit an artery, but as a long vein all the way down his arm, super bad bleed. Throw a tourniquet on him, or pretty remote out in the foothills area, kind of up towards Newman Lake, long transport. good, but it’s gonna save your life. So it’s really important, if you’re gonna be packing wounds, putting tourniquets on and someone’s conscious, walk them through that, right? Imagine this wood hit me with some morphine too. It’s like, down a needle. Thoracostom, you had to get over somebody. I’m like, I’m gonna put this needle in your chest. Yeah, maybe don’t show the needle before. Show them, like, a 24 gage ahead of time. So, yeah, like, if you ever take T Triple C, or you probably do anything with them, and you actually do packing, you’d be amazed how much gauze you can get into a small hole by wrapping it, sticking that So that’s like, we got asked to make something really small weight for kind of that backpacking hunting community. But you’re absolutely right. So, and we to keep the pricing down on our base put it in the base kit, because that sticker shock is kind of oh man, is 40 extra dollars. Yeah, this is actually pretty good. I used to have access to all this expired stuff when I was a fireman, and, like, we’re throwing it out. I’m like, Well, now I have a new trail. So this is actually good, yeah. And so far, you know, we do a lot of just grassroots word of mouth. Haven’t done a lot of marketing, just local referrals. And again, it’s so cool. Like, every time we teach a class, do an Superior so gonna try to drive, it’s only three hours away, drive and link up with him. So it’s crazy, even nationally, the connections we’ve made and just right and different things and different of crazy. They’re all retired law enforcement or active law enforcement, you know, the East Coast. They’re just not making as much, yeah, so they’re really trying to supplement their income with you guys got plans to keep expanding? We do, and that’s the hard thing. It’s, you know, time, I think we talked about this, yeah, on the phone and time, and then, you know, I worked really hard. Took about six years of testing to get in to trying to drive, trying to drive. Yeah, hey, uh, engineer, hey, I’ll be Lieutenant. Oh, Lieutenant. I want to chew some gum while you’re doing that too. I’m looking at this thing. I’m gonna maybe eat some food. Well, Mike, I should say I’m number one on the list, but you know, they can always pass you over real security. So you an engineer right now? No, okay, so you so is in your department is engineer, the next rank up, you’re skipping that going to Lieutenant, or what kind of so you can get hired as a baseline, you know, EMT in our system, we usually have two to three EMTs and then a paramedic on every rig with trades and stuff. You might have double medic that has a lot, yeah, some of the ladder on top, okay, just making sure, yeah, regular fire, you know, different engine. It’s a long already. It’s gonna take a while for us go ahead. Yeah. So yeah, in our system, you know, if you want to become a medic, that’s more of a pay increase, not really a promotional you don’t have more authority in charge of medical calls, right? No, I already feel the tension between engine guys, yeah, hose drivers and trucks. I get it. Okay, top side, yeah, for us, that next actual kind of promotional is like lieutenant and then station captain is in charge, charge of the whole station. Good for you. If I could go back, I would have never promoted to a captain. I would have stayed as an engineer, salty engineer, forever. Yeah, is that like the sergeant comparison to law enforcement captain? No. Like a captain would be a private engineer. No captain would be, like a sergeant for PD, okay, and then a lieutenant would be, well, not sorry, Lieutenant. Totally different with you guys. If you Ed, okay, yeah, this is so different because we’re based out of station, right? So you have two lieutenants on a shift, and the captain on a separate shift, but he kind of owns the station, right? y’all would, everybody would roll to a call like the captain would roll out. Oh, 100% Yeah, they’re not. They’re still a guy on the truck. Once you’re off the truck, that next progression is that battalion chief, and they’re using, you know, like, some type of Chase rig, and they’re in that that when they get the lobotomy, like, in law enforcement, like, yeah, there’s a certain you’re done, yeah? So we didn’t have lieutenants, we just had co captains. Oh, yeah, I was at a station. We had two captains. Yeah? Makes it fun, yeah. I bet it does, yeah. And Valley does that? They call everybody captains, and there’s different steps. It’s confusing, though, because I’m like, Okay, your captain, are you like, a newer captain, or you’re like, Captain three? Yeah, it’s more confusing. So lieutenants easier, because it’s okay, he’s lieutenant, right? He’s in charge of that crew that day, but not the whole station. Got it. So it’s, it’s an easier breakdown for that, yeah. So is it? Do you prefer, like, the entrepreneurial side, is that a toss up view? Is that a challenge? That’s the hard part. Like, some of their day asked me, they’re like, Hey, do you have another seven hours in your day that I don’t know about? And, like, I’m just so busy, right? something I’m half the way out at some point. My wife’s awesome and just puts up with my idea fairy stuff all the time, right? Hey, what if? What if we do this? Hey, what if we do that? And she’s and ordering I’m sitting here on a computer. Never been in that world. So I just, I felt myself just getting, you know, stressed and out of shape. And just really felt that. So the last three months, wants to go do all those side stuff when they’re gonna go do bench or squat. But it’s cool because he’s actually got his doctorate in physical therapy, and then his wife does psychology. So you have getting back into shape and taking care of myself. So yeah, when you when you start to prioritize that, it will change everything in your life. You know, I think everybody in that these fields has gone through that phase at one time or another where they just hurts. Yeah, and then I had my son’s two and a half, and my other son was born in May, so I had a little bit of time off for him, and it was just, it’s crazy when you have a little bit of time off kind of a rough schedule. Yeah, it’s, it is a little bit rough. And if you’re working a busier station, we have a we have a station. We joke that they’re station 19 in the city, but they’re really ours. We have an auto, auto aid station, and To any of that. And then you get that one true day off in the middle. But you can’t really stay up late or do anything, so you got to get up early and, you know, go back to work. And I like to get to not as easy as you think. He’s, like, creamy. Okay, okay, so this is your micro kit. How much of these run that base is 135 okay, yep. And then, obviously, then go to response ready and everything else to take a look at this. Yep. Does the Zen come with it? Is that part of the pouch for that? It’s so funny. I don’t know if you guys have seen all the memes and social media Zen. Like all the guys I work with, they’re always sending Zen memes to each other. So all the guys on the rescue people would when people would take my coat for whatever reason somebody, you know, we didn’t have two pairs of turnouts for a while, you know, somebody brought my coat, or I had to do something with food like I eventually I’d go through it, and I’m like, this is, this is, yeah, this is two years old. I found out chocolate wasn’t a good idea. I went to pay days I found myself getting hungry more I’ve never knew. But truly, I don’t have addicted personality, thankfully, and I’ve never been addicted to anything, but I’ll tell you, those are the closest thing to it. Yeah. So I have this taken two hours now they might take six, right? You got to give them a bunch of call outs, ton of lead time that there’s no knock warrants anymore. It’s just you got to really let them know you’re every guy in the back, right? You’re stuck in the back of a Bearcat. Every hand comes out, and he’s like, damn it, Jones. Now everybody wants one, and that’s the best guy up top in the turret. You You gotta find those little things of comfort, right? And the job that’s often extremely miserable, right? You know, man, so many times I’d be on the side of the road, you get stuck on the crowd fatal lot of guys that work and progress to the six milligram. So they give me a lot of crap. Next step, no, throw up being on the three milligrams. So my, my officer, he’s awesome. He’s one of our biggest threes. That’s for pussies. It was awesome. So I get a lot of crap for that. Do. Here’s a question. And Do you get any pushback from your co workers, like having side hustles? Is there? Do you ever deal with that where people Yeah, I think I get it both sides, right? My dad and uncle both in the fire service. My uncle is a battalion chief the City of Spokane, and my dad’s a lieutenant with the City of Spokane. So I grew I’ve had this internal conversation of if I’m ever failing at my job or this is taken away from my job, then it’s time to leave. I’m still super involved. I’m on our E board for the Union. I help You’re kind of helping them, saving them. We have a guy that does H back that’s awesome. He has to do everybody’s ACS and furnaces. He used to do that for like, 12 years. But I think if you get into Used car salesman, yeah, there we go. You’ll find them usually running on one brain cell, because I You’re, do you ever have a side? Hustle when you were not, I mean, as a copy did, but when a firefighter, did you have a side hustle? Um, yeah, I was just doing more for the department, yeah? Mostly, yeah, just any, any pat on the back that I could get, that’s pretty much what I did. Yeah, I used to, I had a few things that I would try to do, and I got so much, so much crap, like, not even just good hearted crap, just like, kind of hateful. You know what tele staff is? You ever heard of telestaff? No, is that was my side hustle? It was terrible. That’s horrible. Is it a scheduling thing? Yes, it’s terrible. Yeah, every person that wanted to transfer anything else, I’m like, Lord, you have a brain for that stuff. You probably did great at it. You did too good. That’s the problem. Somebody pulled you in. And I see both sides of it, though. Like, I mean, there’s definitely this culture, and I’ve, I meant, we’ll talk about a little bit, but I mentor a lot of, you know, people’s sons, or co worker right? Want to promote that. So super passionate about that, but I think we’ve done a bad job of promoting, you know, pay and schedule and, oh, you can still do all these things. So we have hired You’re always gonna have jealousy and hate towards stuff because they’re, they’re, you know, too lazy or didn’t think of it themselves, just kind of that jealousy aspect. My wife doesn’t work I’m only jealous of one guy in that field, and it’s whoever created the cool cop. I’m jealous of that guy. Fucking genius. What cool cop Did you ever have one of those? No, this is a little air Well done, sir. Yeah. So I think there’s a good kind of middle ground. I get their arguments right, of like, you need to be a fireman first and be good and passionate your job. And I think, I think a lot of people off the base, just helping make a good, educated decision. I’m a firm believer of if you’re a teacher, fireman, doesn’t matter what it is. I mean, the power of just buying one rental guru in real estate to own a rental property. Yeah, yeah. I genius. I wish someone had kind of guided me when I was early on. Yeah. So I, most of my clients, honestly, are co workers. So I do, I have a lot of positivity. I shouldn’t say, you know, there’s all this negativity. It’s just those few guys, right? Oh, yeah, so, mean, one person, they had money over here, they’re spending money over here, and they’re able to pay off their debt in like two months. They just didn’t know what to do with the budget or is to help people get into the fire service. And then, I mean, I have friends working in Arizona, Colorado Springs, all over different Spokane departments that I helped, and it’s fun, you know, run gotta hook you up with will Cowan man, you guys would nerd out together on investing and stuff. Yeah, like, once again, I wish, I wish I’d had that early on in my career United a couple of older other than rely on a pension, which I won’t get now. So it’s like, Cool, all right. Well, it’s really cool. Our union E Board, we’ve always done kind of a union meeting, explaining to them in the recruit Academy. But this time, this time me and another guy that nerd out on finances, like, time you get, you know, that pay increase till you hit top step or you get promoted, like, continue to do that lifestyle and take that extra and put it into your retirement account, your deferred buy a boat, yes, and live once. Yep. Obviously we make bad decisions. Yes. So yeah, it’s just, it’s so cool to see that. And like you guys said, I don’t remember who it was. I’m a huge nerd. I read a lot of books, and when I say, I say, Read, my wife corrects me, you of a subject, like, I can go to school for four years in college, be $120,000 in debt and not learn a whole much about what I’m actually going to do in my job, versus I do an internship or actually as long as you’re being a good steward, and pass it to my younger coworkers, pass it to my kids. You can be that first one in your family or your friend group to kind of break that cycle and pass that think I have at least got that going, at least with my son. My daughter’s, she embraces YOLO entirely, but my son is all about saving money. So I’m like, All right, maybe there’s a win there. yeah, and kids, right? Every kid’s different, like my my sons are young, but they’re already like, polar opposite. It’s funny. She’s never had $5 say, there you go. She lives well, unfortunately for my wife, so far, my older son’s just like me just crack head. Add, all over the place, like he’s totally gonna be it’s a superpower, dude. I fully believe that, like everything, it’s a full it’s that’s your superpower. What add? Yeah, it’s impressive. I mean, it’s annoying sometimes, but it’s amazing. Also, like just, just unleash him. What I do is, I under contract. I’ve It’s so cool. Though, there’s kind of a parenting book I was listening to. It’s, it’s such a blessing though, to have that kid, right? That’s that add kid that’s that’s always trying to do somebody like that’s horrible, so I am fortunate for that. But as you know fellow EDD people, it is a blessing and a curse, right? Usually more successful, driven, but then you’re like, me, I’m a I The the notes and reminders on my phone have saved my life. Otherwise that shit would just constantly run through my head. So now I just, like, I’ve trained myself. I’ll just put down as a to sleep. And that was a huge saver for my marriage. Is a shared Google Calendar. So my wife and I know, hey, if it’s not in the calendar, like it’s not gonna happen. Yeah, so, I mean, it sounds kind not a bad thing that actually should happen. People should be intentional about their families. And that’s, you know, if somebody looks down on. It’s like, actually, it’s, it’s me dedicating it’s with his son every day, and I know it’s inconvenient for you sometimes because you’re in the middle of crap, but yeah, you do it religiously, and that makes a difference. Yeah, that’s awesome. Yeah, the hard part of entrepreneurship, right? Like, you look at Elon Musk always quotes like, you don’t want to be in my head. You don’t want to be in my brain. What it’s like? Like, he’s a genius. I’m guys know the time and effort. Just nobody sees the behind the scenes stuff with athletes, right? They watch the Olympic performance, but they don’t know the four years of time put into that. We if I’m going to be over here doing business stuff or trying to stack chips or pay stuff off, and I’m not spending that intentional time, like none of that other stuff matters, right? So it’s just don’t think people realize that. Like, it’s I could, I can work 16 hours straight. Doing my own business doesn’t faze me at all. But damn, you asked me to work 16 hour detail at work as a cop. I’m When I start doing real estate. Is the first time I just, I didn’t really have anybody tell me no, right? So I love we get unique access at work, to work with the public, go into people’s house, a and 40 chain of commands up and back down and get told no for no reason. It’s Hey, just go do it. And if you fail, you lost money, and you better learn from it next time. So I just, I love that gotta talk about real estate, man, apparently, yeah, that’s, that’s my big thing. I love. Kind of want to finish with that. Just talk a little bit about kind of house hacking, some mindset stuff with that as well. Yeah, so I’ll just go through me just, you know, live paycheck to paycheck, you know, and then in retirement, their house is paid off, but taxes and insurance have gone up so much. It’s just they’re so stretched. So again, trying from Adelaide, so super fun. We got basically a at home tour guide. We’re in Australia, and we had a long drive from Kangaroo Island, and he threw on a Dave Ramsey podcast. And I just immediately, just pockets. Podcast, not as big a fan of them since Brandon Turner left. I don’t know. I think it used to be a lot better. I don’t know what you guys feel about that, but I haven’t listened to it very and get a quality place, yep. So I got lucky. Found out about it, went online. It’s a lottery system, so as long as you’re a cop, fireman, teacher, I think are the only ones that qualify, and Like, out of 50 people, you won the lottery, they use your social security number, so you still have to buy the house, but it’s worth about 240 pretty rough. Hadn’t been lived in for like, two years. listening to that podcast, or, sorry, Dave Ramsey started to pay off debt, started to work a ton over time at work, and just cash flowed that whole remodel. I put about 100k into that remodel doing this myself? So I went and got my real estate license, and then from there, just really rabbit hole. Was able to use that money. And my poor wife, like that first house, we took the roof off the moved again. I thought you were on five mile so we haven’t really stayed anywhere more than two or three years. So that kind of brings me up with the house hacking thing. Today. You hear a lot of getting into four Plex, eight Plex, you have people on top of each other. They might not get a yard. When I’m showing tenants houses, they really like our duplexes that have a full yard, I try to able to save up buy another one. And as you guys know, you buy that on a personal loan. So it’s about a 1% better interest rate if you actually live in the house. And then correct me, Is it 5% now might have changed it. Most of them, for secondary residents, are gonna be 10% but if you’re living in it, there might be some other living in it, there might be some other exclusions for that. Used to still be, like 10 or 15. I know they just made some changes. I got an email from my lender. I think you can do 5% and then you can do an FHA loan three thing’s cash. So huge difference between your community and ours. Duplexes over here, not a thing. If I were to go on, I’d look at multifamily over here. There’s a dozen, maybe, and probably not at the price that is going to buy a duplex. I’m like, look somewhere else. Yeah, you’re not gonna it. When they do come up and they’re a good deal there, it’s a, yep, it’s gone. Somebody with cash ready to go when we’ve looked over here too. So I started investing with my brother in law. He’s a pilot, so he’s more money guy. I kind of run the property management company and kind of do all the down in the dirt And even those, right now, I have some of those, and they’re just, like, handed, yeah, yeah. So they don’t even care if they take a loss, right? But if you’re somebody young trying to buy that first house and you need that cash flow, I mean, yeah, the Idaho side is probably not working as like, East Central, West Central rough neighborhood in Spokane. And I’m like, for one, it’s single family, so you’re barely, you’re probably going to lose money on this. For two, it’s in a bad tenants, renters, they really want to feel like they’re in a neighborhood. They don’t want to be shoved in apartment complex shoved in 400 other duplexes. They really like that neighborhood feel. usually Norse a lot better rents. And you can still find properties in the 450, 500 range. And those do still pencil, even with higher interest rates, those still do work out when you run the numbers. that’s going to do, right so if this market grows even more, houses are going to get crazy. So if they do cut rates, right now, it’s kind of a really good window to get into that multifamily, and right how many, how many properties you got right now? So we have four duplexes. I got one on my own. I sold one to buy our last house. It’s only one I’ve sold, and I’ll never sell again. Like I hate I’m a long term old guy, but it’s kind of a lifestyle, be on the same page. And there’s always, you know, tiffs here and there, right? But he’s been a better partner that I can ask for. So it’s been awesome. It’s awesome. Yeah, I love, I love seeing guys that you know come from our world and then find success, like, That’s freaking awesome, dude. Good stuff. Oh well, gents, right now, 20, I know Dave’s got to go. I can all day. That’s healthy. Tom would tell your trainer about that. Go for it. Oh, man. Well, dude, super informative. Thank you. I’m stoked about what you guys are doing. What’s it date? Do you yeah, sorry. I need to plug a couple things. August 24 is our next back country medicine class 08. 112 at North Idaho Archer. Is that full? Or getting close to full? I haven’t checked in a little bit, so usually it fills up pretty quick. We’re also partnering with Joaquin. I don’t know if you’ve met him, so we’re gonna any of the veterans for some of their groups charity tournament. I don’t remember the date. I’m going to share the link with you. We still need teams to sign up for that, and then any business that wants to sponsor, like a T box or a green fee, for good, good causes. Nice, love it. Well, thank you, sir. Yeah, thank you guys. I appreciate the opportunity Absolutely, and we’ll, we’ll drop all the links to your website and stuff so you can find response ready, medical, pick up some gear, find podcast is brought to you by your North Idaho agent. We are a full service Real Estate Team serving all of North Idaho. Our team is comprised of former first responders and veterans, and we have years Idaho. So if you’re looking to move right now or 12 months from now, give us a call, text or email. We don’t just sell homes, we sell the North Idaho experience. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, the greatest compliment you can pay us is to like, subscribe and share you.