September 1, 2026 • 34 mins
You probably have a pretty specific picture in your head when you hear the words “home break-in.” Maybe it involves someone kicking down the front door in the middle of the night. But according to our guest, that’s not usually how it works. And that might change the way you think about home security.
In this episode of Grown-Up Stuff, Matt and Lea talk with Aaron Miller, Vice President at ADT and Head of ADT Blu, about the things that actually make your home vulnerable, from leaving obvious signs that no one’s home to relying on a camera notification without anyone there to respond. They also get into smart-home technology, DIY security systems, and the difference between simply knowing something is happening and actually having help when it does.
And because life has a funny way of creating new reasons to think about security, like moving, having a baby, and going on vacation, Aaron shares some practical things you can do to protect your home without turning it into a fortress.
Because being a grown-up means realizing that home security is probably one of those things you should think about before you need it. And, apparently, listening for someone breaking in at 2 a.m. isn't much of a strategy. This episode is sponsored by ADT.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
We tend to think like, oh, I'm going to wake
up and someone's going to be kicking in my door
or breaking a window. It's actually not when historically the
most amount of break-ins happen. In general, burglars don't want
to break in whenever you're at home. They don't want
to have to interact with you. Like their whole intention
is trying to find a time whenever you're not home.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, there goes my entire home security strategy of just
listening for suspicious noises in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I mean, I think a lot of us picture a
dramatic movie version of a burglary when the reality is
a lot less dramatic and a lot more opportunistic.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So if you've ever wondered whether you're focusing on the
right things when it comes to home security, you're in
the right place. And because this episode is sponsored by ADT,
we invited Aaron Miller, vice president at ADT and head
of ADT Blue, to help us separate real risks from
TV drama and share the practical steps every homeowner and
renter should know.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Welcome back to Grown Up Stuff, the podcast where we
figure out all the things you feel like you should
know by now, but maybe you don't. I'm Matt Stillo.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And I'm Leah Palmieri. Today, we'll be covering DIY home
security systems and the simple habits that can make you
and your home.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
A whole lot safer. Aaron's helping us understand where to
focus our time, and more importantly, our money. Grown Up Stuff.
So Aaron, for someone who's never thought seriously about home
security before, and I'm not saying that that's me, but
what are the biggest risks that homeowners and renters tend
(01:39):
to overlook?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, great question. You know, really one of the first
risks is it's usually a reactionary purchase, meaning people don't
tend to think about it until something goes wrong. There's
a break-in, someone's scared about something, you may have an
addition to the family. Matt and I both have little kids.
They tend to think about it in those moments, big
life moments and changes. So I think just one, it's
(02:01):
generally reactionary purchase. Two, this concept of self-monitoring versus professional monitoring, meaning, hey,
I get notifications. I got a camera and it gives
me notifications. Someone watching it, you get value out of that.
But when you think about true security, it doesn't cross
that line to be able to help you out. See
a video, something happens. Someone's knocking on my door. You're
(02:21):
sitting at work. All of a sudden, there's not really
much you can do about that. Awareness doesn't equal security.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
This really just makes me think about one of the
things that happened a couple years ago is it was
Christmas Eve. I was at my parents' house. It was
the first time my now wife was ever at my parents' house.
This was like a day before. And one of the
things that we love to do is this neighborhood has
got like great Christmas lights going on. So it was
like a magical evening. We're like, we're out walking. And
we're just like, oh man, what a great way to
like start the season. And then my mom, she just
(02:50):
started screaming. And it's because she got a notification on
her watch that their bedroom glass door had been shattered.
The police were issued a response. The police came. And essentially,
we just really quickly hop in the car, go home.
There's like six police cars outside of our house. They'd
gone through the entire house. And we, you know, we
don't have any updates. We just got the ping that
(03:11):
the glass door was shattered. But essentially what happened was,
because I guess this is like a big thing now,
is that basically people are breaking the glass, hoping that
the doors shatter or the windows shatter. It doesn't set
off the alarm. They can get into the bedroom or
wherever they're trying to get in. take the stuff and
go before anyone is any the wiser. But my parents,
to their credit, had just installed glass shatter alarms, which
(03:34):
I had no idea was even a thing. And so
they were ahead of the curve. But as soon as
the glass shattered, the alarm went off. And you can
see in the video, because they have video cameras too,
that the guys just ran away. And this is maybe
like the third or fourth house they had hit on
this block. And they were actually able to use the
footage to help catch the guys. And so this has
never happened to me before in my life, having someone
come into your house and, you know, violate the sanctity
(03:55):
of your home. But like, I can see how it
could be reactionary, but I really think it's important people
get proactive about this because that is just one of
the worst things that can happen. It can really take
a toll on you as a person.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
It can. And you know, Matt, the toll's not just,
call it economic toll. When people talk about a home
getting broken into, it's not even inherently about what was taken.
That is generally the least concerning thing when people start
to talk. It's like, oh yeah, something got stolen. But
The value of security, the value of being comfortable in
your home, of feeling confident in your home, of feeling
(04:28):
confident that like there's not other people there. It creates
almost a larger psychological impact than even what the economical
impact is. Kind of the story that you just shared
right there. One of the things too is folks in
this space, they're always looking for new ways to get
in and take things. They're always looking for new ways
to get in a home and disrupt stuff without alarms.
And I'll give you a great example. There was a
(04:50):
study a bunch of years back. They were actually talking
to people who had been arrested for burglary, and they
had data that said if an ADT sign was in
a yard, people would skip past those houses because they
knew that they had something there. That has kind of
since evolved into cameras. Cameras are kind of one of
the new signs of deterrent to showcase that something's there.
But unfortunately, we live in a world at times where
(05:12):
people are just trying to take advantage of any opportunity
they can, much like that moment. So I'm glad your
parents had glass breaks there.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
DIY home security systems have really exploded in popularity in
the last, what feels like five years. I'm just curious,
like from your end, like what do you think is
driving that trend and who are these systems most suited for?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, great questions. One, I would say just the popularity
of cameras is driving that trend. And honestly, the reduction
in cost of those cameras, like the hardware is not
inherently the problem or it's not the hurdle today. Cameras
can be made pretty cheaply. It's all about the software capabilities.
video recording, smart detection, some of those kind of different things.
And so with the evolution of that technology, it has
(05:52):
just proliferated into younger ages to be able to say, hey,
I can just have a camera, and that's a way
to get started.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And just to explain that a little more in case
people are wondering what smart detection is, smart cameras can
use artificial intelligence to tell the difference between people, animals, vehicles,
and package deliveries, which then, of course... can reduce false alarms.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Unless you have a Bigfoot situation, then it gets blurry.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Then it gets real. This is why we've never found him.
This is why.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I think Bigfoot is AI proof. What are some of
the biggest misconceptions that people have about DIY security systems?
Because even I'm like, oh, I don't know anything about this.
So what are some of the things that, you know,
seem to sort of hold people back from actually like
going forward and making sure that they are using this?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, big point number one is we as kind of
humans and in general tend to think about, hey, the
most important things, we want to have someone else come
and do that. We don't want to take the risk
of not doing that right, you know? And so I
would say in general, the concern around, hey, installing a
security device that my family is totally dependent on, that
everyone around me is totally dependent on, want to make
(07:07):
sure that gets done right. So if you open up
an ADT Blue system, hey, the great thing about that
is like we walk you through every single step. We
make sure every piece was tested and it takes 30
minutes to do so. It's not an incredibly tough thing
to do. And so getting over that misconception of, hey,
just because it is so important doesn't mean it's incredibly
hard to do. And that's where the difficulty of, hey,
(07:28):
you don't have to get power tools. The way wireless
sensors are today, the way wireless motion detectors, you know,
glass breaks, Matt, like what you were just talking about,
even cameras installed, a lot of them are just plug
and play, or you can easily go in and replace
your battery powered doorbell. You know, I'm not a super
technical person. I feel pretty confident going in and putting
any doorbell in as well as outdoor cameras.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You're speaking my language, Aaron.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So if someone is moving into their first apartment and
their first home, what are the first three security upgrades
that you would recommend?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, locks on your home and your windows, whether it's you,
whether it's your family, especially, you know, Matt, you have
little kids. Locks on all the exterior doors, incredibly important.
Just a general lock will also be a part of
a deterrent. So I would say in general, step one.
Step two, cameras. Cameras are the new version of, to
some degree, deterrents. And make sure those cameras are visible.
(08:23):
Put the cameras on your doorbell. Put it overlooking your driveway.
Put multiple cameras on the front face of your home.
So if someone is on the street, they see plenty
of cameras and plenty of cameras that are kind of
viewing all your different things. And then really number three,
life safety devices. We pride ourselves, for one, in our
security monitoring, but life safety monitoring is an incredibly important
(08:47):
part of what we do in terms of smoke detectors,
carbon monoxide detectors. I'm down here in Florida, carbon monoxide,
not as big of a deal, but when you talk
about the Northeast and other areas, especially around winter, there
is a bunch of tough stories out there, but there's
also a bunch of very uplifting stories out there. We
do these things called lifesaver moments that we used to
do You would go and listen to stories of, hey,
(09:09):
someone's carbon monoxide went off and they were able to
get out of the house, family of four, five, six
in the winter and be able to get out of
the house before something happened. Just super powerful, touching moments
can happen, whether it's both professional install can happen, both
whether it's DIY and a very important part of a
solution that you want to be able to have in
your house.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Thinking about the lifesaver moments, is there one that you
can maybe share, like a particular story around a family
that was protected that we were able to respond and
help that family out?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Someone had called in, had a young family, had several
different kids, and had, I think, a job displacement or
something and was talking about canceling their service. Our agent
kind of walked them through, helped them meet a goal
financially that they could still maintain. I want to say
it was no more than 24 to 72 hours after
they had a carbon monoxide leak.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Whoa.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Family of four or five or so, somewhere up, maybe Michigan,
somewhere up in the north. And I mean, if it
would have been shut off, that leak wouldn't have been detected. And,
you know, the story could have gone significantly worse there.
Super touching story, because I think it went and highlights
like the value of the offering, but then it just
highlights again, We want people to be protected, and we
want to work with people to make sure that they're protected.
(10:24):
Understand that things come up. Life throws curveballs at you.
But what's most important is keeping people protected as much
as we can. A couple years ago, I bought my
first motorcycle, and I live in New York City. Motorcycle
theft is a huge thing here. I was looking through, like,
how do I keep my bike safe? And everyone's just like, look,
if someone's going to steal your bike, they're going to
steal your bike. But what you can do is deter them, right?
(10:45):
So you get the cover, you get the lock, you
get the chain, you get the security device, you get
the little tag. Just do all the things because if
these thieves hop on the street and they see a
bike that's like got everything under the sun versus a
bike that's just sitting, they're going to take the bike
that's easier to get through. So to your point, deterrent
is a big thing, but also being preventative. It is.
(11:06):
I don't mean to digress, but Matt, you just said
a motorcycle, I see a couple of guitars hanging up
on the back. Like, you are a super cool dude. Like,
just those two things that I've learned. That is pretty cool. Aaron,
as we talk, I have a new dad.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So it's only downhill from here. I've hit the peak
and I'm just on the downswing.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, Aaron, I think a time that people really are
thinking about home security is when they're probably going to
be away from the home. So whether they're traveling or
going to be gone for a while or should homeowners
be sort of thinking about the security of where they
live when they're going to be gone for a bit?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, great question. And this is where one of the
places I would say security just in general has really
taken big steps forward. And it's just some combination of
the one cameras, but really just the evolution of the
smart home. Because what you can now do is, hey,
I want to be able to have lights automated. I
want to be able to have locks automated. The automation
of smart home devices is And how you can set
(12:03):
up those scenes, how you can set up those triggers.
You can brighten your house every night whenever you're leaving.
You can have different lights turn on on different times
to be able to create the concept that you are
still at home or that someone's at home. And then
you add on cameras, what cameras have been able to
do and the notification capabilities that they've been able to do.
It's not just, I'm going to call it a simple
(12:23):
version of video, but contextual awareness. What's going on? You know,
you can add facial recognition, all these kinds of different
pieces that to give you notifications as quickly as possible.
So then you can either react or you can have
us react for you, depending on what's going on.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
So thinking about like how we can be the most
effective possible, are there specific entry points around the house
that burglars like most commonly target?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
There's not a ton of data out here around this.
I mean, in general, I would say one of the
more interesting data points that a lot of people don't
think a whole lot about is timing of people entering.
Because I think we as humans, and maybe this is
just what scary movies and stuff like that have done
to us, but we tend to think all burglars are
going to break in like in the middle of the night.
We tend to think like, oh, I'm going to wake
up and someone's going to be kicking in my door
(13:10):
or breaking a window. It's actually not when historically the
most amount of break-ins. In general, burglars don't want to
break in whenever you're at home. They don't want to
have to interact with you. Like their whole intention is
trying to find a time whenever you're not home. And
so things like during the day when people are usually
at work and stuff like that, That tends to be
around the timing of that happening. And then kind of
(13:33):
to your question, Matt, it's going to be if they
can find secluded places where they can get in and out.
Less about walking in and out your front door, checking
windows on the side, looking for a back door, trying
to find a different way in where it's just not
as visible for your neighbors or for people from the
street are going to be places where they're generally looking for.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And like kind of what my parents think is that,
so their house right next to theirs has been like
empty for years. It's like some people own it and
they just don't live there and whatever. And so the
lights are always dark. So it always looks like no
one's home. So what they think is because basically the
guys that crawled over the wall is that they went
into that house, saw that no one lives there. There's nothing,
you know, they could steal. They just hopped over the wall,
(14:16):
saw our Christmas tree and the presents. We're like, all right,
let's do it. So I kind of feel like, yeah, again,
thinking about deterrence, like even think about like what's around
your house, you know, that could draw people to the
area too.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And remember, burglars don't really have nine to five jobs,
so they just are looking for something to do in
the day. But Aaron, how effective are the video doorbells
and security cameras at actually.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Preventing crime versus simply just recording it?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, this is probably one of the areas of security
that I am most passionate about. The world is really
about prevention as much as possible because you really don't
want to have to deal with something when it happens.
I would say the evolution of security is absolutely moving
in that same direction. And it kind of starts a
little bit with cameras. So I would say in general,
cameras today, if you only have, call it a triggering
(15:06):
AI mechanism and some video storage, outside of the deterrence
for someone seeing it and not wanting to move, a
lot of cameras aren't inherently connected to systems today. And
so it really falls to you to notify or do
something else like that. We have what's called a video verification.
And so If you have a camera and you have
a system, what will happen is we can be able
(15:26):
to look and say, hey, you have a sensor on
your house. Your alarm goes off. That sensor's there. You
have a camera in that section. That camera, that clip,
can then be uploaded for an agent to be able
to look at, an agent to be able to see,
assess what's going on, and potentially deploy authorities or emergency services,
whoever it may need to be. And so it's a
way to really connect cameras into the actual monitoring experience
(15:49):
that not everyone has out there. But the concept of cameras,
just a camera isn't enough. If you're just interested in
some notifications, you want to see if a package got
dropped off, hey, that's a good start. It's a good
start into the ecosystem. But if you're really concerned about security,
if you really want to make sure and be able
to act, whether it's us, whether it's you, whoever it
may be, you need a more expanded security capabilities, whether
(16:12):
those are sensors or other sensory type devices, to be
able to pull together for an actual more adequate trigger
notification system. to then notify authorities.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
So we've talked about hardware, which I think we're all
more familiar with, right? You see cameras, you see alarms,
you see the outdoor sign, this house is protected. But
I'm a little bit more interested to hear about the
updates in software technologies. You'd mentioned AI. What new features
should people be looking for or choosing or definitely making
sure that they include in a new DIY system?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
One Just the professional monitoring capability. I think kind of
going back to your question about just cameras, camera companies
have done a great job at downplaying monitoring response. Just
the core feature of monitoring in our view, incredibly important
because without monitoring, you know, Matt, your story, things could
go very differently, right? Between glass break and actually someone
(17:08):
responding to that. One of the other areas that we're
really starting to move into is the combination of just
the smart home. As I talked about bringing different automation
triggers together, bringing different components together to help create an ecosystem, Matt,
of what you just said of being able to interact
with your home in different ways, critically important. And then last,
one of the things I'll say looking forward without giving
(17:30):
away too much here, as we look into the ecosystem
of ADC Blue in 2027, the proactiveness. How do you
become and move into a proactive response, connecting cameras to
actually proactive monitoring? to change what I would kind of
deem moving from the perimeter of the home to the
perimeter of your property. How can I start to get proactive,
engage and understand what's going on in my full property
(17:53):
is really where security is going.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
And there's ways to like customize this too.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Like one thing that's going to be more important for
me rather than like my neighbor or something like that.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Like I can make this for Leah.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
You can. Okay. It's a great question. One of the
things that we tried to do was to say, hey,
instead of just one solution, You can build and compartmentalize
what you want. If you want to start off with
a camera, we think starting off with a camera with
us is better than starting off with a camera with
someone else. If you want concepts of self-monitoring, if you
want to work your way into security, we now have
(18:28):
those offerings to grow with you over time. If you
want certain things around life safety monitoring versus security monitoring,
you have those capabilities and those optionalities to fit your
time kind of with your budget, with what your main
goals are. But always knowing that professional monitoring can be
right there whenever you need us to be able to
(18:49):
continue to help you grow to go from, hey, your
college off-campus housing to your first apartment to a condo
to your first three-two to eventually growing.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And one thing I'm curious to hear about is, like,
can you tell us any stories about, like, someone who
maybe they just got, like, a base station and then they, like,
they got a camera and they.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Got the glass. Like, how has this evolved for some people?
Exactly what you were kind of talking about your wife mentioned.
They have kids and all of a sudden life safety,
smoke alarms become a very big deal. I would say
even as a guy in my 20s, I didn't think
too much about smoke alarms. I think about them a
whole lot more now based off my role. But I
think that's a normal evolution of, hey, we believe we're bulletproof.
(19:26):
And then all of a sudden we get a security system.
And then it's like, oh, man, you hear a story
of an apartment fire or something like that. And you
add one of those pieces on and you just continue
to evolve that over time.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
When I think about a home security situation, I also
think about like, you know, body security. When I think
about getting like a watch or a ring or one
of those things to monitor my body, then I always forget, oh,
I also have to buy the subscription that comes with this.
So do I need to purchase a monthly professional monitoring
plan as well for my home security?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
We're a service business. Now, the way to look at
that differently is it doesn't always have to be professional monitoring.
You know, Leah, if you're at stages in your life
where You may just want camera functionality or you may
want self-monitoring functionality to be able to get a notification.
We often have a lot of people who are moving,
who are transitioning from one home to another, and they
(20:15):
may want still the comfortability of a system, the ability
to understand the pings of people walking in and out
of the doors, but they may only be in places
for a short period of time. So a self-monitoring solution
may make sense on their way to a more permanent
residence where professional monitoring makes sense. You can do any
one of all the above. One of the core things, though,
that we just believe is we're intending to be life partners.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
We want to be with you for.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
A long time. And so establishing that relationship and the
services is important to us and highlighting and showcasing the
value of those services. We're not a hardware company. You know, Matt,
you talked about this earlier. We're not a company that's
just interested in selling you some cameras and then kind
of moving on. We're interested in being with you for
the long term and offering you services that and then
(21:01):
offering you great products, great hardware on top of that.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, so now that we're life partners, tell me a
little bit about what the features require the professional monitoring.
So what do I get with that? And what's the
difference with the self-monitoring as well? Is this just like
another app on my phone that I'm going to be
doom scrolling on? Can you tell me a little bit
about the two differences and who each might work best for?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
If you're doom scrolling on the ADT Plus app, We
may need to talk. That's probably the last place that
you really want to be doom scrolling if you're just
watching a bunch of videos of what's going on. But
to your question, inherently, where it's designed today is to say,
if you want us responding to something going on at
your house, whether that is a life safety event, whether
(21:48):
that is someone broke a window or someone knocked down
a door, you want someone responding. You want someone paying attention, again, 24-7, 24-7. Because,
you know, you may be sitting here on a podcast
with someone else and a couple of months from now,
not checking your phone. If you don't see that notification,
like you can't really respond and do anything. You want
the backstop of ADT being there to be able to
(22:08):
always be paying attention.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
From a life partner, I do need responding. Yes, you
are correct, Aaron.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yes. Now, the self-monitoring portion is, hey, we will give
you all the product, all the features, all the services
to help you stay as aware as you want to be.
We just won't be responding anymore. If something was to
go off, it's called a local alarm or a localized
alarm to your house. Again, there is a ton of
(22:33):
value in video solutions and there's a ton of value
in self-monitoring solutions based off the use case.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
We'll be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
And we're back with more grown up stuff. How do adults.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
What should renters specifically know about securing a property when
they can't be making permanent modifications or then if they're
moving to another place?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I mean, this is very common in New York, obviously, too.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So what should renters be keeping in mind to still
be keeping their homes safe?
Speaker 1 (23:13):
That's the great thing about Blue. You don't have to
make a sacrifice. You don't have to make a trade-off
because you can install all of these things yourself. It's
not like you're knocking down holes and have to replace
drywall or anything like that. you can easily cover all
of your points of things that you want to do,
whether it's entry points, whether it's cameras, whatever that may be,
(23:34):
all of that can still happen and you won't lose
your deposit. I'll say as long as you don't knock
a hole somewhere, you won't lose your deposit from your
company that you're in from before you move on. And
so that's really one of the, again, I would say
the misconceptions of just DIY security, how simple it can
be done, 30 minutes and the, I want to say
lack of, technical knowledge or really lack of home improvement
(23:57):
capabilities that you have to have to be able to
get this thing done. And we'll walk through you every
step of the way if you need us to.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
One thing I want to talk about, I think, is
more and more increasingly on people's minds, you know, we've
got our phones, smart homes are becoming more connected every year.
And I'm sure people feel like, oh, this is convenient
and it's great to have these cameras. But like, at
what point am I tipping over from too much security
and maybe giving up some of my privacy? What would
you say to people who are concerned about privacy and
(24:25):
having all these cameras in their space?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
It is a very real concern in the industry right now.
What I can assure is one of the most important
things is privacy. So as I kind of mentioned, the
only use case where actually today an agent would be
able to see a video clip is based off that
video verification capability that's been stored in a lockbox. No
one else can kind of get in to see that.
(24:48):
And so Today, there's not an opportunity for just me
as an employee to go hop into Matt's camera to
be able to see it. All of that is completely
disconnected in terms of the video feeds and those capabilities
because we have earned trust. And that is something critically
important to us. Again, no matter it's a blue thing
or a professionally installed thing, just as a core monitoring solution,
(25:10):
trust from our customers is how we've established this brand.
It's how we've grown the product and it'll continue to
be at the forefront from a data security, data privacy perspective.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
It's just refreshing to hear that this concept of a lockbox,
that like your data, your privacy, your security is in
a lockbox, because who's talking about that these days? You
know what I mean? Like, I have no idea. But
to hear from you that like your data is in
a lockbox, it can only be accessed in these certain instances,
to me as a consumer is really refreshing because I
just feel like all of our data is for sale
(25:40):
these days. And so it's nice to hear that from
a company.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, it is. And again, core and central to everything
we do in terms of data management, privacy. You know,
I think Matt, everyone's got that story of like, hey, you're,
you know, sitting in bed at night or something like that.
And all of a sudden you get a notification, you
get whatever it may be. He's like, man, I feel
like I was just talking about this. My wife and
I have those moments all the time. And then also
to your point around like just data, data leaks, you know, again,
(26:05):
it's a being out there all over the place. So again,
we take a ton of focus in that and know
how critically important it is and focus on it.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
And then just as someone who's in the industry, you know,
because I'm always like interested in like what's emerging, what's new.
Are there any emerging technologies or features in home security
that like you as someone in the industry is particularly
excited about?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
This is your time to get nerdy, Aaron.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
You can go for it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, let's get nerdy.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, we'll get super nerdy. A couple of things. We
fundamentally believe the evolution is to go into proactive monitoring,
to be able to offer you the confidence that it's
not just about the perimeter of your home, it's about
the perimeter of your property and how we expand and
give you contextual, very real data and awareness of what's
(26:55):
going on. So I think the evolution of cameras and
their ability to do those things will just continue to grow.
I mean, that's not just an ADT thing, that's an
industry thing. We think we'll do that really well. One
of the other pieces is We bought a company called
Origin AI and it's presence detection. So it inherently uses
Wi-Fi signals to be able to determine what's going on
(27:17):
around your house. The capability on this and the use
cases are pretty amazing in the sense of can use
those signals to check and make sure a baby's breathing. Hey,
we have aging in place. Our country has a significant
amount of elderly that want to stay in their home
when they want to age, but hey, maybe they don't
want a camera around. in the house. You want to
be able to determine fall detection. So this capability of
(27:40):
presence detection and how you can solve use cases in
that is a super interesting and compelling thing for us
that we are looking into say like, hey, how do
we address that in the market today to be able
to just add the richness of the home ecosystem? So
it really becomes, again, it's not just about security. It's
not just about life safety, but how do we solve
for these new use cases that people are evolving to,
(28:03):
whether it is pets, whether it is health, whether it
is aging in place, whether it is baby monitoring in
those different places to say, we can help you do
all of these things. And then also we can help
you when you're on the go. One of the really
cool features that doesn't get highlighted enough, we have it
today in the ADT app, it's called My Safety. And
(28:24):
so you start to think about, you know, sending kids
off to college and stuff like that. What My Safety
allows you to do is it's got several different features,
has SOS buttons, It's got the ability to set safety timers,
the ability to schedule a call, whether you're in the city,
in an apartment, whether you're on a college campus. The
utilization of these different tools could help you really feel, one,
(28:44):
much more comfortable in what you're doing and then allow
you to be able to stay safe in the world
today where things are going on. But one of the
also super exciting things that we've just kind of come
out with is something we call LiveLight. The problem statement
or use case that solves for is, quite often the
things that we hear from emergency services, especially at night, is, hey,
an alarm's going off. You can't see the numbers on
(29:06):
the house. You can't see where you're going. It's like,
I'm going up on a street. I know it's somewhere
here to the left, but those moments and those seconds
matter a ton. And so with LiveLight though, it's a
super exciting solution because what happens is when your alarm's
going off, the light blinks. And so it's the ADT sign,
but it's kind of a fluorescent ADT sign. It's got
(29:27):
batteries in it. And so Whenever your alarm's going off
at night, your light is blinking and gives emergency services,
whether it's police, whether it's fire, rescue, almost like a
honing beacon to know, hey, this is the house that
we need to stop at. And again, I think it
just highlights we focus on seconds because in the end,
(29:47):
seconds really matter in these type of events. And so
if we can shave off a couple of seconds for
someone being able to find your house a little bit quicker.
We think that is a well worth investment to be
able to do just to continue to reinforce that message
of what's important to us and what we know is
important to our customers.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We love a bat signal.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And if you had to give everybody out there one
home security habit that all of us grownups should adopt
that costs nothing but could just really make a big
difference and really improve their safety, what is one feature
that you or just one habit that you think we
would all benefit from?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Paying attention.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
For one, just paying attention to what's going on around you,
paying attention to your surroundings, knowing what's going on in
your community, wherever you're at, pay attention. Everyone has their
own versions of Spidey sense in some way, shape, or form.
I would say point two, thinking through like, hey, if
something was to happen, just knowing what your immediate three
things you would do. No matter where you are, if
(30:47):
something was to happen, you need to make a call
to someone, you need to go find shelter somewhere, like
those type of different things, having a little bit of
a game plan could really establish a set of confidence
in you that it, again, just takes a little bit
of time to think about. It doesn't take any money.
It doesn't take any effort.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I wanted to go back to, you were talking about
certain scenarios where there can be interventions. So thinking about
the situation I'm in right now, nothing will make you
more terrified about something breathing consistently like having a newborn baby.
So let's just say I'm moving to a new apartment.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I have a newborn baby.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
How could issues like that get resolved?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
In terms of being able to take your security with you? Yeah.
One of the great things about Blue is it's mobile.
You can take it with you. It's a base. There
are sensors. You can take those sensors off. You can
go put them kind of anywhere. You just let us
know like where the new location you're going to so
we can make sure and set it up that you're
set up to get deploy emergency services in those locations.
But that's one of the exciting things about Blue is
(31:43):
it's modular. It's mobile. It can always stay with you.
Your services can stay with you kind of no matter
where you go. no matter what's going on in your life,
you can always rest assured and feel protected that we
have a solution there for you to be able to
help in those moments. One of the things I guess
probably important to talk about too is distribution in the
sense of historically, when you come and buy ADT, you
(32:07):
buy it either over the phone with us or we
send a field rep to your house to be able
to outfit your home, make sure that you're getting the
system that you want designed. We wanna show up in
all the places where people shop, whether that is digital,
whether that's on the shelf. You know, we're going to
be coming out this year on the shelf with probably
a couple of different partners trying to pilot.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Show up on TikTok shop and you got me tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
It is certainly a channel that we are aggressively looking at. Great.
And again, that's our target market audience. The way people shop,
we want to make sure and be there. Yeah, we're there. Well, awesome.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Erin, thank you so much for coming on the show
and for teaching us about something that's super important for
everyone to just protect their home, protect their families.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, absolutely. Matt, Leah, thank you. Hopefully I was able
to give a little more clarity around grown-up stuff. Yeah. Awesome. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Okay, so Leah, I'm feeling safer already.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Me too, Matt.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
You know, we spend so much time making our homes comfortable,
it's easy to forget that making them safe deserves just
as much attention.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
And the good news is home safety doesn't have to
be complicated or expensive, which is great news for me.
A few thoughtful upgrades and a little planning can go
a long way.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Thanks again to Aaron Miller from ADT Blue for sharing
his expertise. And thank you for joining us for another
episode of Grown Up Stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
We'll be back with another episode after a short midseason break.
But be sure to stay tuned for a very special
episode that's dropping in this feed coming in October.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
We've teamed up with the folks at Well Adjusting for
a fun crossover episode.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Yeah, we even got to do homework for this one, too.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
And then for all my parents out there, when I
come back from paternity leave, we'll be talking about newborns
with Dr.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yoshi Rothman.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
You will have plenty to ask him after your paternity leave.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I'm positive.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
This is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm
Matt Stillo.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I'm Leah Palmieri. This episode was produced by Pamela Lawrence.
Our post-producer is Sierra Spreen, with additional engineering by Mac Guido.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
And a special thanks to our team at Ruby Studio,
including Emma Dillon, Ethan Fixell, James Foster, Deborah Garrett, Syrah Kaiser,
Lydia Kim, Kelly Kyle, Matt Romano, Rachel Swan-Krasnoff, Sam Timmerman,
Sally Everplew, Harper Wayne, Sarah Yu, and Mr.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Andy Kelly.
We tend to think like, oh, I'm going to wake
up and someone's going to be kicking in my door
or breaking a window. It's actually not when historically the
most amount of break-ins happen. In general, burglars don't want
to break in whenever you're at home. They don't want
to have to interact with you. Like their whole intention
is trying to find a time whenever you're not home.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Well, there goes my entire home security strategy of just
listening for suspicious noises in the middle of the night.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I mean, I think a lot of us picture a
dramatic movie version of a burglary when the reality is
a lot less dramatic and a lot more opportunistic.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
So if you've ever wondered whether you're focusing on the
right things when it comes to home security, you're in
the right place. And because this episode is sponsored by ADT,
we invited Aaron Miller, vice president at ADT and head
of ADT Blue, to help us separate real risks from
TV drama and share the practical steps every homeowner and
renter should know.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Welcome back to Grown Up Stuff, the podcast where we
figure out all the things you feel like you should
know by now, but maybe you don't. I'm Matt Stillo.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And I'm Leah Palmieri. Today, we'll be covering DIY home
security systems and the simple habits that can make you
and your home.
Speaker 3 (01:16):
A whole lot safer. Aaron's helping us understand where to
focus our time, and more importantly, our money. Grown Up Stuff.
So Aaron, for someone who's never thought seriously about home
security before, and I'm not saying that that's me, but
what are the biggest risks that homeowners and renters tend
(01:39):
to overlook?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah, great question. You know, really one of the first
risks is it's usually a reactionary purchase, meaning people don't
tend to think about it until something goes wrong. There's
a break-in, someone's scared about something, you may have an
addition to the family. Matt and I both have little kids.
They tend to think about it in those moments, big
life moments and changes. So I think just one, it's
(02:01):
generally reactionary purchase. Two, this concept of self-monitoring versus professional monitoring, meaning, hey,
I get notifications. I got a camera and it gives
me notifications. Someone watching it, you get value out of that.
But when you think about true security, it doesn't cross
that line to be able to help you out. See
a video, something happens. Someone's knocking on my door. You're
(02:21):
sitting at work. All of a sudden, there's not really
much you can do about that. Awareness doesn't equal security.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
This really just makes me think about one of the
things that happened a couple years ago is it was
Christmas Eve. I was at my parents' house. It was
the first time my now wife was ever at my parents' house.
This was like a day before. And one of the
things that we love to do is this neighborhood has
got like great Christmas lights going on. So it was
like a magical evening. We're like, we're out walking. And
we're just like, oh man, what a great way to
like start the season. And then my mom, she just
(02:50):
started screaming. And it's because she got a notification on
her watch that their bedroom glass door had been shattered.
The police were issued a response. The police came. And essentially,
we just really quickly hop in the car, go home.
There's like six police cars outside of our house. They'd
gone through the entire house. And we, you know, we
don't have any updates. We just got the ping that
(03:11):
the glass door was shattered. But essentially what happened was,
because I guess this is like a big thing now,
is that basically people are breaking the glass, hoping that
the doors shatter or the windows shatter. It doesn't set
off the alarm. They can get into the bedroom or
wherever they're trying to get in. take the stuff and
go before anyone is any the wiser. But my parents,
to their credit, had just installed glass shatter alarms, which
(03:34):
I had no idea was even a thing. And so
they were ahead of the curve. But as soon as
the glass shattered, the alarm went off. And you can
see in the video, because they have video cameras too,
that the guys just ran away. And this is maybe
like the third or fourth house they had hit on
this block. And they were actually able to use the
footage to help catch the guys. And so this has
never happened to me before in my life, having someone
come into your house and, you know, violate the sanctity
(03:55):
of your home. But like, I can see how it
could be reactionary, but I really think it's important people
get proactive about this because that is just one of
the worst things that can happen. It can really take
a toll on you as a person.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
It can. And you know, Matt, the toll's not just,
call it economic toll. When people talk about a home
getting broken into, it's not even inherently about what was taken.
That is generally the least concerning thing when people start
to talk. It's like, oh yeah, something got stolen. But
The value of security, the value of being comfortable in
your home, of feeling confident in your home, of feeling
(04:28):
confident that like there's not other people there. It creates
almost a larger psychological impact than even what the economical
impact is. Kind of the story that you just shared
right there. One of the things too is folks in
this space, they're always looking for new ways to get
in and take things. They're always looking for new ways
to get in a home and disrupt stuff without alarms.
And I'll give you a great example. There was a
(04:50):
study a bunch of years back. They were actually talking
to people who had been arrested for burglary, and they
had data that said if an ADT sign was in
a yard, people would skip past those houses because they
knew that they had something there. That has kind of
since evolved into cameras. Cameras are kind of one of
the new signs of deterrent to showcase that something's there.
But unfortunately, we live in a world at times where
(05:12):
people are just trying to take advantage of any opportunity
they can, much like that moment. So I'm glad your
parents had glass breaks there.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
DIY home security systems have really exploded in popularity in
the last, what feels like five years. I'm just curious,
like from your end, like what do you think is
driving that trend and who are these systems most suited for?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, great questions. One, I would say just the popularity
of cameras is driving that trend. And honestly, the reduction
in cost of those cameras, like the hardware is not
inherently the problem or it's not the hurdle today. Cameras
can be made pretty cheaply. It's all about the software capabilities.
video recording, smart detection, some of those kind of different things.
And so with the evolution of that technology, it has
(05:52):
just proliferated into younger ages to be able to say, hey,
I can just have a camera, and that's a way
to get started.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
And just to explain that a little more in case
people are wondering what smart detection is, smart cameras can
use artificial intelligence to tell the difference between people, animals, vehicles,
and package deliveries, which then, of course... can reduce false alarms.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
Unless you have a Bigfoot situation, then it gets blurry.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Then it gets real. This is why we've never found him.
This is why.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
I think Bigfoot is AI proof. What are some of
the biggest misconceptions that people have about DIY security systems?
Because even I'm like, oh, I don't know anything about this.
So what are some of the things that, you know,
seem to sort of hold people back from actually like
going forward and making sure that they are using this?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Yeah, big point number one is we as kind of
humans and in general tend to think about, hey, the
most important things, we want to have someone else come
and do that. We don't want to take the risk
of not doing that right, you know? And so I
would say in general, the concern around, hey, installing a
security device that my family is totally dependent on, that
everyone around me is totally dependent on, want to make
(07:07):
sure that gets done right. So if you open up
an ADT Blue system, hey, the great thing about that
is like we walk you through every single step. We
make sure every piece was tested and it takes 30
minutes to do so. It's not an incredibly tough thing
to do. And so getting over that misconception of, hey,
just because it is so important doesn't mean it's incredibly
hard to do. And that's where the difficulty of, hey,
(07:28):
you don't have to get power tools. The way wireless
sensors are today, the way wireless motion detectors, you know,
glass breaks, Matt, like what you were just talking about,
even cameras installed, a lot of them are just plug
and play, or you can easily go in and replace
your battery powered doorbell. You know, I'm not a super
technical person. I feel pretty confident going in and putting
any doorbell in as well as outdoor cameras.
Speaker 4 (07:50):
You're speaking my language, Aaron.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
So if someone is moving into their first apartment and
their first home, what are the first three security upgrades
that you would recommend?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Yeah, locks on your home and your windows, whether it's you,
whether it's your family, especially, you know, Matt, you have
little kids. Locks on all the exterior doors, incredibly important.
Just a general lock will also be a part of
a deterrent. So I would say in general, step one.
Step two, cameras. Cameras are the new version of, to
some degree, deterrents. And make sure those cameras are visible.
(08:23):
Put the cameras on your doorbell. Put it overlooking your driveway.
Put multiple cameras on the front face of your home.
So if someone is on the street, they see plenty
of cameras and plenty of cameras that are kind of
viewing all your different things. And then really number three,
life safety devices. We pride ourselves, for one, in our
security monitoring, but life safety monitoring is an incredibly important
(08:47):
part of what we do in terms of smoke detectors,
carbon monoxide detectors. I'm down here in Florida, carbon monoxide,
not as big of a deal, but when you talk
about the Northeast and other areas, especially around winter, there
is a bunch of tough stories out there, but there's
also a bunch of very uplifting stories out there. We
do these things called lifesaver moments that we used to
do You would go and listen to stories of, hey,
(09:09):
someone's carbon monoxide went off and they were able to
get out of the house, family of four, five, six
in the winter and be able to get out of
the house before something happened. Just super powerful, touching moments
can happen, whether it's both professional install can happen, both
whether it's DIY and a very important part of a
solution that you want to be able to have in
your house.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Thinking about the lifesaver moments, is there one that you
can maybe share, like a particular story around a family
that was protected that we were able to respond and
help that family out?
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Someone had called in, had a young family, had several
different kids, and had, I think, a job displacement or
something and was talking about canceling their service. Our agent
kind of walked them through, helped them meet a goal
financially that they could still maintain. I want to say
it was no more than 24 to 72 hours after
they had a carbon monoxide leak.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Whoa.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
Family of four or five or so, somewhere up, maybe Michigan,
somewhere up in the north. And I mean, if it
would have been shut off, that leak wouldn't have been detected. And,
you know, the story could have gone significantly worse there.
Super touching story, because I think it went and highlights
like the value of the offering, but then it just
highlights again, We want people to be protected, and we
want to work with people to make sure that they're protected.
(10:24):
Understand that things come up. Life throws curveballs at you.
But what's most important is keeping people protected as much
as we can. A couple years ago, I bought my
first motorcycle, and I live in New York City. Motorcycle
theft is a huge thing here. I was looking through, like,
how do I keep my bike safe? And everyone's just like, look,
if someone's going to steal your bike, they're going to
steal your bike. But what you can do is deter them, right?
(10:45):
So you get the cover, you get the lock, you
get the chain, you get the security device, you get
the little tag. Just do all the things because if
these thieves hop on the street and they see a
bike that's like got everything under the sun versus a
bike that's just sitting, they're going to take the bike
that's easier to get through. So to your point, deterrent
is a big thing, but also being preventative. It is.
(11:06):
I don't mean to digress, but Matt, you just said
a motorcycle, I see a couple of guitars hanging up
on the back. Like, you are a super cool dude. Like,
just those two things that I've learned. That is pretty cool. Aaron,
as we talk, I have a new dad.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
So it's only downhill from here. I've hit the peak
and I'm just on the downswing.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, Aaron, I think a time that people really are
thinking about home security is when they're probably going to
be away from the home. So whether they're traveling or
going to be gone for a while or should homeowners
be sort of thinking about the security of where they
live when they're going to be gone for a bit?
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, great question. And this is where one of the
places I would say security just in general has really
taken big steps forward. And it's just some combination of
the one cameras, but really just the evolution of the
smart home. Because what you can now do is, hey,
I want to be able to have lights automated. I
want to be able to have locks automated. The automation
of smart home devices is And how you can set
(12:03):
up those scenes, how you can set up those triggers.
You can brighten your house every night whenever you're leaving.
You can have different lights turn on on different times
to be able to create the concept that you are
still at home or that someone's at home. And then
you add on cameras, what cameras have been able to
do and the notification capabilities that they've been able to do.
It's not just, I'm going to call it a simple
(12:23):
version of video, but contextual awareness. What's going on? You know,
you can add facial recognition, all these kinds of different
pieces that to give you notifications as quickly as possible.
So then you can either react or you can have
us react for you, depending on what's going on.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
So thinking about like how we can be the most
effective possible, are there specific entry points around the house
that burglars like most commonly target?
Speaker 1 (12:49):
There's not a ton of data out here around this.
I mean, in general, I would say one of the
more interesting data points that a lot of people don't
think a whole lot about is timing of people entering.
Because I think we as humans, and maybe this is
just what scary movies and stuff like that have done
to us, but we tend to think all burglars are
going to break in like in the middle of the night.
We tend to think like, oh, I'm going to wake
up and someone's going to be kicking in my door
(13:10):
or breaking a window. It's actually not when historically the
most amount of break-ins. In general, burglars don't want to
break in whenever you're at home. They don't want to
have to interact with you. Like their whole intention is
trying to find a time whenever you're not home. And
so things like during the day when people are usually
at work and stuff like that, That tends to be
around the timing of that happening. And then kind of
(13:33):
to your question, Matt, it's going to be if they
can find secluded places where they can get in and out.
Less about walking in and out your front door, checking
windows on the side, looking for a back door, trying
to find a different way in where it's just not
as visible for your neighbors or for people from the
street are going to be places where they're generally looking for.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Makes sense.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
And like kind of what my parents think is that,
so their house right next to theirs has been like
empty for years. It's like some people own it and
they just don't live there and whatever. And so the
lights are always dark. So it always looks like no
one's home. So what they think is because basically the
guys that crawled over the wall is that they went
into that house, saw that no one lives there. There's nothing,
you know, they could steal. They just hopped over the wall,
(14:16):
saw our Christmas tree and the presents. We're like, all right,
let's do it. So I kind of feel like, yeah, again,
thinking about deterrence, like even think about like what's around
your house, you know, that could draw people to the
area too.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
And remember, burglars don't really have nine to five jobs,
so they just are looking for something to do in
the day. But Aaron, how effective are the video doorbells
and security cameras at actually.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
Preventing crime versus simply just recording it?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Yeah, this is probably one of the areas of security
that I am most passionate about. The world is really
about prevention as much as possible because you really don't
want to have to deal with something when it happens.
I would say the evolution of security is absolutely moving
in that same direction. And it kind of starts a
little bit with cameras. So I would say in general,
cameras today, if you only have, call it a triggering
(15:06):
AI mechanism and some video storage, outside of the deterrence
for someone seeing it and not wanting to move, a
lot of cameras aren't inherently connected to systems today. And
so it really falls to you to notify or do
something else like that. We have what's called a video verification.
And so If you have a camera and you have
a system, what will happen is we can be able
(15:26):
to look and say, hey, you have a sensor on
your house. Your alarm goes off. That sensor's there. You
have a camera in that section. That camera, that clip,
can then be uploaded for an agent to be able
to look at, an agent to be able to see,
assess what's going on, and potentially deploy authorities or emergency services,
whoever it may need to be. And so it's a
way to really connect cameras into the actual monitoring experience
(15:49):
that not everyone has out there. But the concept of cameras,
just a camera isn't enough. If you're just interested in
some notifications, you want to see if a package got
dropped off, hey, that's a good start. It's a good
start into the ecosystem. But if you're really concerned about security,
if you really want to make sure and be able
to act, whether it's us, whether it's you, whoever it
may be, you need a more expanded security capabilities, whether
(16:12):
those are sensors or other sensory type devices, to be
able to pull together for an actual more adequate trigger
notification system. to then notify authorities.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
So we've talked about hardware, which I think we're all
more familiar with, right? You see cameras, you see alarms,
you see the outdoor sign, this house is protected. But
I'm a little bit more interested to hear about the
updates in software technologies. You'd mentioned AI. What new features
should people be looking for or choosing or definitely making
sure that they include in a new DIY system?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
One Just the professional monitoring capability. I think kind of
going back to your question about just cameras, camera companies
have done a great job at downplaying monitoring response. Just
the core feature of monitoring in our view, incredibly important
because without monitoring, you know, Matt, your story, things could
go very differently, right? Between glass break and actually someone
(17:08):
responding to that. One of the other areas that we're
really starting to move into is the combination of just
the smart home. As I talked about bringing different automation
triggers together, bringing different components together to help create an ecosystem, Matt,
of what you just said of being able to interact
with your home in different ways, critically important. And then last,
one of the things I'll say looking forward without giving
(17:30):
away too much here, as we look into the ecosystem
of ADC Blue in 2027, the proactiveness. How do you
become and move into a proactive response, connecting cameras to
actually proactive monitoring? to change what I would kind of
deem moving from the perimeter of the home to the
perimeter of your property. How can I start to get proactive,
engage and understand what's going on in my full property
(17:53):
is really where security is going.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
And there's ways to like customize this too.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Like one thing that's going to be more important for
me rather than like my neighbor or something like that.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Like I can make this for Leah.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
You can. Okay. It's a great question. One of the
things that we tried to do was to say, hey,
instead of just one solution, You can build and compartmentalize
what you want. If you want to start off with
a camera, we think starting off with a camera with
us is better than starting off with a camera with
someone else. If you want concepts of self-monitoring, if you
want to work your way into security, we now have
(18:28):
those offerings to grow with you over time. If you
want certain things around life safety monitoring versus security monitoring,
you have those capabilities and those optionalities to fit your
time kind of with your budget, with what your main
goals are. But always knowing that professional monitoring can be
right there whenever you need us to be able to
(18:49):
continue to help you grow to go from, hey, your
college off-campus housing to your first apartment to a condo
to your first three-two to eventually growing.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
And one thing I'm curious to hear about is, like,
can you tell us any stories about, like, someone who
maybe they just got, like, a base station and then they, like,
they got a camera and they.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Got the glass. Like, how has this evolved for some people?
Exactly what you were kind of talking about your wife mentioned.
They have kids and all of a sudden life safety,
smoke alarms become a very big deal. I would say
even as a guy in my 20s, I didn't think
too much about smoke alarms. I think about them a
whole lot more now based off my role. But I
think that's a normal evolution of, hey, we believe we're bulletproof.
(19:26):
And then all of a sudden we get a security system.
And then it's like, oh, man, you hear a story
of an apartment fire or something like that. And you
add one of those pieces on and you just continue
to evolve that over time.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
When I think about a home security situation, I also
think about like, you know, body security. When I think
about getting like a watch or a ring or one
of those things to monitor my body, then I always forget, oh,
I also have to buy the subscription that comes with this.
So do I need to purchase a monthly professional monitoring
plan as well for my home security?
Speaker 1 (19:54):
We're a service business. Now, the way to look at
that differently is it doesn't always have to be professional monitoring.
You know, Leah, if you're at stages in your life
where You may just want camera functionality or you may
want self-monitoring functionality to be able to get a notification.
We often have a lot of people who are moving,
who are transitioning from one home to another, and they
(20:15):
may want still the comfortability of a system, the ability
to understand the pings of people walking in and out
of the doors, but they may only be in places
for a short period of time. So a self-monitoring solution
may make sense on their way to a more permanent
residence where professional monitoring makes sense. You can do any
one of all the above. One of the core things, though,
that we just believe is we're intending to be life partners.
Speaker 4 (20:38):
We want to be with you for.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
A long time. And so establishing that relationship and the
services is important to us and highlighting and showcasing the
value of those services. We're not a hardware company. You know, Matt,
you talked about this earlier. We're not a company that's
just interested in selling you some cameras and then kind
of moving on. We're interested in being with you for
the long term and offering you services that and then
(21:01):
offering you great products, great hardware on top of that.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Okay, so now that we're life partners, tell me a
little bit about what the features require the professional monitoring.
So what do I get with that? And what's the
difference with the self-monitoring as well? Is this just like
another app on my phone that I'm going to be
doom scrolling on? Can you tell me a little bit
about the two differences and who each might work best for?
Speaker 1 (21:25):
If you're doom scrolling on the ADT Plus app, We
may need to talk. That's probably the last place that
you really want to be doom scrolling if you're just
watching a bunch of videos of what's going on. But
to your question, inherently, where it's designed today is to say,
if you want us responding to something going on at
your house, whether that is a life safety event, whether
(21:48):
that is someone broke a window or someone knocked down
a door, you want someone responding. You want someone paying attention, again, 24-7, 24-7. Because,
you know, you may be sitting here on a podcast
with someone else and a couple of months from now,
not checking your phone. If you don't see that notification,
like you can't really respond and do anything. You want
the backstop of ADT being there to be able to
(22:08):
always be paying attention.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
From a life partner, I do need responding. Yes, you
are correct, Aaron.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yes. Now, the self-monitoring portion is, hey, we will give
you all the product, all the features, all the services
to help you stay as aware as you want to be.
We just won't be responding anymore. If something was to
go off, it's called a local alarm or a localized
alarm to your house. Again, there is a ton of
(22:33):
value in video solutions and there's a ton of value
in self-monitoring solutions based off the use case.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
We'll be right back after a quick break.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
And we're back with more grown up stuff. How do adults.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
What should renters specifically know about securing a property when
they can't be making permanent modifications or then if they're
moving to another place?
Speaker 4 (23:05):
I mean, this is very common in New York, obviously, too.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
So what should renters be keeping in mind to still
be keeping their homes safe?
Speaker 1 (23:13):
That's the great thing about Blue. You don't have to
make a sacrifice. You don't have to make a trade-off
because you can install all of these things yourself. It's
not like you're knocking down holes and have to replace
drywall or anything like that. you can easily cover all
of your points of things that you want to do,
whether it's entry points, whether it's cameras, whatever that may be,
(23:34):
all of that can still happen and you won't lose
your deposit. I'll say as long as you don't knock
a hole somewhere, you won't lose your deposit from your
company that you're in from before you move on. And
so that's really one of the, again, I would say
the misconceptions of just DIY security, how simple it can
be done, 30 minutes and the, I want to say
lack of, technical knowledge or really lack of home improvement
(23:57):
capabilities that you have to have to be able to
get this thing done. And we'll walk through you every
step of the way if you need us to.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
One thing I want to talk about, I think, is
more and more increasingly on people's minds, you know, we've
got our phones, smart homes are becoming more connected every year.
And I'm sure people feel like, oh, this is convenient
and it's great to have these cameras. But like, at
what point am I tipping over from too much security
and maybe giving up some of my privacy? What would
you say to people who are concerned about privacy and
(24:25):
having all these cameras in their space?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
It is a very real concern in the industry right now.
What I can assure is one of the most important
things is privacy. So as I kind of mentioned, the
only use case where actually today an agent would be
able to see a video clip is based off that
video verification capability that's been stored in a lockbox. No
one else can kind of get in to see that.
(24:48):
And so Today, there's not an opportunity for just me
as an employee to go hop into Matt's camera to
be able to see it. All of that is completely
disconnected in terms of the video feeds and those capabilities
because we have earned trust. And that is something critically
important to us. Again, no matter it's a blue thing
or a professionally installed thing, just as a core monitoring solution,
(25:10):
trust from our customers is how we've established this brand.
It's how we've grown the product and it'll continue to
be at the forefront from a data security, data privacy perspective.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
It's just refreshing to hear that this concept of a lockbox,
that like your data, your privacy, your security is in
a lockbox, because who's talking about that these days? You
know what I mean? Like, I have no idea. But
to hear from you that like your data is in
a lockbox, it can only be accessed in these certain instances,
to me as a consumer is really refreshing because I
just feel like all of our data is for sale
(25:40):
these days. And so it's nice to hear that from
a company.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Yeah, it is. And again, core and central to everything
we do in terms of data management, privacy. You know,
I think Matt, everyone's got that story of like, hey, you're,
you know, sitting in bed at night or something like that.
And all of a sudden you get a notification, you
get whatever it may be. He's like, man, I feel
like I was just talking about this. My wife and
I have those moments all the time. And then also
to your point around like just data, data leaks, you know, again,
(26:05):
it's a being out there all over the place. So again,
we take a ton of focus in that and know
how critically important it is and focus on it.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
And then just as someone who's in the industry, you know,
because I'm always like interested in like what's emerging, what's new.
Are there any emerging technologies or features in home security
that like you as someone in the industry is particularly
excited about?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
This is your time to get nerdy, Aaron.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
You can go for it.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
Yeah, let's get nerdy.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
Yeah, we'll get super nerdy. A couple of things. We
fundamentally believe the evolution is to go into proactive monitoring,
to be able to offer you the confidence that it's
not just about the perimeter of your home, it's about
the perimeter of your property and how we expand and
give you contextual, very real data and awareness of what's
(26:55):
going on. So I think the evolution of cameras and
their ability to do those things will just continue to grow.
I mean, that's not just an ADT thing, that's an
industry thing. We think we'll do that really well. One
of the other pieces is We bought a company called
Origin AI and it's presence detection. So it inherently uses
Wi-Fi signals to be able to determine what's going on
(27:17):
around your house. The capability on this and the use
cases are pretty amazing in the sense of can use
those signals to check and make sure a baby's breathing. Hey,
we have aging in place. Our country has a significant
amount of elderly that want to stay in their home
when they want to age, but hey, maybe they don't
want a camera around. in the house. You want to
be able to determine fall detection. So this capability of
(27:40):
presence detection and how you can solve use cases in
that is a super interesting and compelling thing for us
that we are looking into say like, hey, how do
we address that in the market today to be able
to just add the richness of the home ecosystem? So
it really becomes, again, it's not just about security. It's
not just about life safety, but how do we solve
for these new use cases that people are evolving to,
(28:03):
whether it is pets, whether it is health, whether it
is aging in place, whether it is baby monitoring in
those different places to say, we can help you do
all of these things. And then also we can help
you when you're on the go. One of the really
cool features that doesn't get highlighted enough, we have it
today in the ADT app, it's called My Safety. And
(28:24):
so you start to think about, you know, sending kids
off to college and stuff like that. What My Safety
allows you to do is it's got several different features,
has SOS buttons, It's got the ability to set safety timers,
the ability to schedule a call, whether you're in the city,
in an apartment, whether you're on a college campus. The
utilization of these different tools could help you really feel, one,
(28:44):
much more comfortable in what you're doing and then allow
you to be able to stay safe in the world
today where things are going on. But one of the
also super exciting things that we've just kind of come
out with is something we call LiveLight. The problem statement
or use case that solves for is, quite often the
things that we hear from emergency services, especially at night, is, hey,
an alarm's going off. You can't see the numbers on
(29:06):
the house. You can't see where you're going. It's like,
I'm going up on a street. I know it's somewhere
here to the left, but those moments and those seconds
matter a ton. And so with LiveLight though, it's a
super exciting solution because what happens is when your alarm's
going off, the light blinks. And so it's the ADT sign,
but it's kind of a fluorescent ADT sign. It's got
(29:27):
batteries in it. And so Whenever your alarm's going off
at night, your light is blinking and gives emergency services,
whether it's police, whether it's fire, rescue, almost like a
honing beacon to know, hey, this is the house that
we need to stop at. And again, I think it
just highlights we focus on seconds because in the end,
(29:47):
seconds really matter in these type of events. And so
if we can shave off a couple of seconds for
someone being able to find your house a little bit quicker.
We think that is a well worth investment to be
able to do just to continue to reinforce that message
of what's important to us and what we know is
important to our customers.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
We love a bat signal.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
That's perfect.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And if you had to give everybody out there one
home security habit that all of us grownups should adopt
that costs nothing but could just really make a big
difference and really improve their safety, what is one feature
that you or just one habit that you think we
would all benefit from?
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Paying attention.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
For one, just paying attention to what's going on around you,
paying attention to your surroundings, knowing what's going on in
your community, wherever you're at, pay attention. Everyone has their
own versions of Spidey sense in some way, shape, or form.
I would say point two, thinking through like, hey, if
something was to happen, just knowing what your immediate three
things you would do. No matter where you are, if
(30:47):
something was to happen, you need to make a call
to someone, you need to go find shelter somewhere, like
those type of different things, having a little bit of
a game plan could really establish a set of confidence
in you that it, again, just takes a little bit
of time to think about. It doesn't take any money.
It doesn't take any effort.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I wanted to go back to, you were talking about
certain scenarios where there can be interventions. So thinking about
the situation I'm in right now, nothing will make you
more terrified about something breathing consistently like having a newborn baby.
So let's just say I'm moving to a new apartment.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
I have a newborn baby.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
How could issues like that get resolved?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
In terms of being able to take your security with you? Yeah.
One of the great things about Blue is it's mobile.
You can take it with you. It's a base. There
are sensors. You can take those sensors off. You can
go put them kind of anywhere. You just let us
know like where the new location you're going to so
we can make sure and set it up that you're
set up to get deploy emergency services in those locations.
But that's one of the exciting things about Blue is
(31:43):
it's modular. It's mobile. It can always stay with you.
Your services can stay with you kind of no matter
where you go. no matter what's going on in your life,
you can always rest assured and feel protected that we
have a solution there for you to be able to
help in those moments. One of the things I guess
probably important to talk about too is distribution in the
sense of historically, when you come and buy ADT, you
(32:07):
buy it either over the phone with us or we
send a field rep to your house to be able
to outfit your home, make sure that you're getting the
system that you want designed. We wanna show up in
all the places where people shop, whether that is digital,
whether that's on the shelf. You know, we're going to
be coming out this year on the shelf with probably
a couple of different partners trying to pilot.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Show up on TikTok shop and you got me tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
It is certainly a channel that we are aggressively looking at. Great.
And again, that's our target market audience. The way people shop,
we want to make sure and be there. Yeah, we're there. Well, awesome.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Erin, thank you so much for coming on the show
and for teaching us about something that's super important for
everyone to just protect their home, protect their families.
Speaker 1 (32:48):
Yeah, absolutely. Matt, Leah, thank you. Hopefully I was able
to give a little more clarity around grown-up stuff. Yeah. Awesome. Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Okay, so Leah, I'm feeling safer already.
Speaker 4 (33:04):
Me too, Matt.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
You know, we spend so much time making our homes comfortable,
it's easy to forget that making them safe deserves just
as much attention.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
And the good news is home safety doesn't have to
be complicated or expensive, which is great news for me.
A few thoughtful upgrades and a little planning can go
a long way.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Thanks again to Aaron Miller from ADT Blue for sharing
his expertise. And thank you for joining us for another
episode of Grown Up Stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
We'll be back with another episode after a short midseason break.
But be sure to stay tuned for a very special
episode that's dropping in this feed coming in October.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
We've teamed up with the folks at Well Adjusting for
a fun crossover episode.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Yeah, we even got to do homework for this one, too.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
And then for all my parents out there, when I
come back from paternity leave, we'll be talking about newborns
with Dr.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yoshi Rothman.
Speaker 4 (33:52):
You will have plenty to ask him after your paternity leave.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
I'm positive.
Speaker 3 (33:57):
This is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia. I'm
Matt Stillo.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I'm Leah Palmieri. This episode was produced by Pamela Lawrence.
Our post-producer is Sierra Spreen, with additional engineering by Mac Guido.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
And a special thanks to our team at Ruby Studio,
including Emma Dillon, Ethan Fixell, James Foster, Deborah Garrett, Syrah Kaiser,
Lydia Kim, Kelly Kyle, Matt Romano, Rachel Swan-Krasnoff, Sam Timmerman,
Sally Everplew, Harper Wayne, Sarah Yu, and Mr.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
Andy Kelly.
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