March 13, 2025 • 31 mins
In this powerful episode, Brink Fidler and Tom Herring sit down with Tracey Mendenhall, VP of Defend Systems, to discuss the critical importance of active violence response training across various sectors.
Timed Highlights:
[0:01:45] - The importance of preparation and prevention in safety training
[0:07:11] - Tracey's passion for empowering civilians through training
[0:17:01] - Why teachers are the most motivated and impactful training participants
[0:22:05] - Training spans diverse sectors: from orthodontic offices to country music tours
[0:25:22] - The unwavering commitment of teachers to protect their students
[0:27:51] - Practical, simple pre-hospital care techniques that can save lives
Key Insights:
- Learn how training transforms scared individuals into confident responders
- Understand the critical need for preparedness in today's unpredictable world
- Hear firsthand experiences as a former police officer and SWAT team member
- Discover why emotional connection is key to effective safety training
A must-listen for educators, corporate leaders, and anyone committed to personal and community safety.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:11):
And now from Nashville, Tennessee, it's time for another
episode of tips, tactics andtools for a safer tomorrow,
where all things related to yoursafety and security are
discussed, detailed anddelivered to you. You may leave
with a tip that saves you moneyor a tactic that saves your
life. Here your host, owner andfounder of defense systems,
(00:32):
brink fiddler and owner andoperator of airing technology,
Tom herring. Hey guys, welcometo this edition of tips, tactics
and tools. First, save fortomorrow. Brink and Tom, my co
host here, as always today, I ampleased to introduce you all to
our guest, also known as thevice president of operations of
my company, also known as mynumber two, sometimes I call her
(00:55):
the Veep uh. Tracy Mendenhallcame on board with me full time
in October of 22 about five orsix months before our world
exploded in a post covenantschool world. So I thought it
would be timely and appropriateto talk about the importance of
training and kind of talk aboutthe different organizations that
(01:18):
we've trained and why they alldecide to train because they are
so vastly different. And I sayall that in our intro when we
start training, but we'll juststart with welcome Tracy. Hi.
Good to see you. Good to see youtoo. Thank you. I'm glad you
showed up. Chipper today. Justcame from the dentist. Tracy is
one of those people thatactually loves the dentist
(01:38):
Absolutely. So my favoritevisit, and we're not being
sarcastic. She really does lovethe dentist. I thought she was
joking the first time
she said that. So somebody thatloves to go to the dentist and
is training in school shootings,you're nervous. I love Yeah, we
got the mindset right there.
Yeah? Preparation, prevention,yeah, right. You can't talk
(02:01):
to people if you have grossteeth. That's right,
well said. So you know we, Ithink most people know that our
if you don't, if you're new tothis whole thing, defense
systems, our primary industry weserve, or I guess, role we serve
in society, is preparing peoplefor their worst day, right? So
active, violence mitigation,training schools, Corporation
(02:23):
health care, law firms,community centers, you name it,
really different organizationtypes. And you know, Tom, you're
not connected years ago, becauseyou're the technology piece of
what I do, and I'm the trainingpiece of what you guys do. So we
are very complimentary of eachother, but it took a while
because of COVID to bounce withyou and the fact that your
company's so spread out, becauseyou guys are all because you
guys are all over the country,but it took a while to get even
(02:45):
get your company in the samespot, to go through the training
program. And a lot of your guysdon't work in this office. They
don't work in a building likethat, but you still brought them
in and trained them on how torespond to bad things happening,
regardless of whether or not itwas in this building, right? Why
was that so important
(03:05):
to you? We're in places to wherethings happen. So everyone is
you're on the street, you're atthe mall, you're at church,
you're at work, you're at youknow, kids are at school. It's
not just a knowledge that youhave for that particular place.
And it was important to us forall of our employees to be able
(03:28):
to aid not only themselves, butothers around them, because
they're in and out of so manyplaces on the road driving, and
we know that the response timeright now are not, I'm not even
saying where they should be,because this is even practical
(03:51):
for them to be capable of themto be just with traffic, with
anything else. I want them to beable to take care of themselves
and anybody else around themwhen it you know if something
were to happen, whether it be ashooter or a wreck or accident
or whatever, it's just a skilland a knowledge that we don't
(04:11):
value in America on a day to daybasis, that we should until
something happens, untilsomething happens, from the
great philosopher Mike Tyson,Everybody's prepared until they
get punched in the mouth andtruth, yeah, and that's when it
everything changes. When you getpunched in the face, correct, it
exposes everything and to whatyou thought you had to what
(04:35):
really happened, and
we don't practice it.
Fortunately, there you guys andother comes that are out
training people to do it. Andit's not just a one time
training. It's something thathas to continue. It has to
become part of discipline,which, in America, you know,
(04:57):
we're very disciplined. Lovediscipline. Yeah. So, but it is
a discipline that has to be, bethere. You
know, it's interesting you saythat, because we have, we have
clients that see the need bringus in, do training, and that's
it. I mean, 23456, years. Well,what's your turnover been? All
(05:20):
those things. But then we haveother clients that are super,
super on board with the theresponsibility of ongoing
training because of turnover andall those things. So I'm
interested to hear from Tracy,yes. So give a little background
on her. Tracy was with MetroNashville police for 10 years.
Half of that time, she was atour training academy as an
(05:41):
instructor. So I say to thisday, she was born to teach,
because she's great atinstructing, not scared to talk
in front of people, all thosethings command the room, because
she's also an EMT and a medic,and this first female to serve
on the SWAT team in Nashville.So she's first female to make it
to the SWAT process. So she'slegit,
not because she was female, no,and she let me, let me,
(06:04):
let's not talk about loweringstandards.
I don't get fired up. But theoffer was made to her that she
could, she could qualify at adifferent physical fitness
standard and still make throughthe process. And she refused.
She said, Absolutely not, I'mgonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
perform to the same physical fitof standards that you guys have
to meet to make it through thisprocess. I mean, that's
(06:26):
obviously huge. Now, whatchanged all that I was able to
steal her, she became a mom totwo identical twin little girls,
and changed her outlook on herjob.
Now you need this training.That's right
now. I wrestle alligators everynight for bed. Yes,
thank God you went through thismakes you a ninja to deal with
(06:50):
your own kids. Talk to me. Thedifference, the biggest
difference between, I mean, youwere used to teaching,
obviously, but you taught copsfor ever, and then now you
don't, we teach. Well, that'snot true. We do some law
enforcement training, but notthe majority of what we do. So
what do you is the biggestdifference in teaching everyday
people versus teaching cops?Cops
(07:11):
are hard. Cops come to trainingbecause they require to be at
training, and it's they get acheck every year because they're
in service. They're just hard,especially when you look like me
and you got these old hats thathave been on the department. The
department for 30 years, andwhat's this little blonde girl
going to teach me that I don'talready know? I get that type of
attitude quite a bit. Teachingcivilians is, is fun. It's that
(07:35):
part for me is it's the bestpart. I get to teach moms and
dads and teachers, and your 20year old preschool teacher that,
hey, you're not a victim, andthere are things that you can
do, and that's why I was put onthis earth, is to empower those
people 100%
and it's, it is. It's really funto do, and it's so interesting
(07:58):
to watch the transformationhappen in front of you. You You
know, when you're looking atthese people that are well, in
every in every training we do,there's three kinds of people.
In the beginning, there's thepeople that say, Thank God we're
finally doing this. They're thepeople that go, me, okay,
whatever. And then there are fewpeople in the room say, why are
we doing this? And the trainingprogram is designed, and it does
to get the people that aresaying, why are we doing this,
at least to the middle, butusually all the way to the other
(08:20):
side. None of that you seepeople who are sitting there
that are scared, timid, notknowing what to expect. And you
watch them transform into, I'vegot this, if I have to face my
worst day, I've got this. Andyou watch it happen right in
front of you. And it's so it's,it's, it's very rewarding to as
sad as that is. I mean, we trainpeople to face their worst day,
(08:41):
but we also get to because ofwhat we do and because of how
small we are and what we're asmall and mighty team. I get
this personal connection witheverybody that we teach. I talk
to every single person thatcalls into our company. I email
with every single person thatcalls into our company and
emails our company, and I emailthem. There's some people I
email with 100 times before weever meet them in person, like
(09:03):
Monday, when I got to meetJanice, like I have emailed with
her a million times, and Ifinally get to meet her, and I
finally get to hug her. Youknow, same thing happened in
Alabama right after or the fallafter covenant happened, and
Julie Trump from that Providenceclassical in Alabama, and she
prayed over me, yep, on my wayto covenant two days later, and
(09:26):
I got to meet her and hug her.And these are people like these
people are our family afterthat.
Yeah, that didn't happen withthe cops when you were training
them. There's not a
lot of hugging when it comes tocops. Thanks for in service this
year. Tracy, fist bump, yeah,no,
there's you shouldn't be doing.Yeah, it's
a it's it's the program, and Tomknows you've been through it,
(09:47):
but it's designed to get youemotionally invested, so that
you do lock in on what we'retelling you and being able to
recall it under stress. But, andI didn't never get a chance to
talk to you, I. This, I don'tthink Tom, but you know,
feedback from your from yourpeople. I mean, I got some that
day, some to me, but I'll
(10:09):
be honest that the training thatwe did with you guys, which is
totally different than what wedo. I mean, we're in training
all the time with our guys. Wego and, do you know, team events
and things like that. At times,they literally said that was one
of the best things that we couldhave ever done for them. They
(10:31):
appreciate it. I mean, just fromthe education, and it wasn't
just for work, it's somethingeach one of them takes with I
loved your word and you said itempowers them. And that's what
everyone I'm they just theconfidence of, hey, I know how
to take care of this situationright now. It is just what it
(10:53):
did for them, mentally and theirmorale there. And it was a team
activity. It was fun too. Youknow, it's not scare you to
death, but none of them, I thinkthey all, had a little
apprehension going into it, of,what are we doing? Well, but it
was enjoyable. And that's thething about it. And and Tracy,
(11:16):
you said something about thesister praying for you
afterwards. We've had thathappen with our business, when
you protect somebody, or you doit, and it is the most
fulfilling thing that we haveever received is that, you know
(11:36):
somebody said and they prayedfor you over it. It's so
humbling, and it's someaningful, and what we're
talking about with all of thisis meaningful, yeah, whether
you're in it, or you've beenaffected by it, by knowing
somebody, or whatever, ismeaningful. And I'll throw it
back to y'all, yeah,
(11:57):
so you said enjoyable, andpeople don't know that sounds
weird, right? Like it soundsit's, we hear that a lot,
though, people like, they loveit. And it's like, why would you
love active shooters training?Well, it's not that, it's not
that they love that they have todo it. It's, you know, the
programming. It took a lot offeedback in the beginning, when
(12:18):
this thing got going, ofadjusting things to the new
audience, right? Like I'm notdealing with cops and soldiers
anymore, so, but we did that,and we do it in such a way where
we lighten it, where we can,because it's a heavy topic. But
you know, our company missionstatement and motto is, is the
following. We empower you tosave lives, including your own,
(12:41):
and that's reality of every badthing that has ever happened
anywhere. Self preservation andself sustainment is key. It
doesn't matter if you got 800cops. How many cops were at the
route 91 harvest festivalshooting in Las Vegas, tons, I
don't know, hundreds. Bad stuffhappens everywhere. Back to the
(13:02):
the thing that you saw that wasso crucial was, and I let you
through your softball and pullit out of you, but you wanted to
give this skill set to youremployees for their everyday
lives, like put their familiesat the mall, at the grocery
store, at the restaurant, allthose things, because it's just
the world we live in now, whichis terrible. We say all the
time, how sad is it that thiscompany even exists, that we
(13:25):
have to do active violencemitigation training for we
literally did an orthodontistoffice the other day. Like, this
stuff is everywhere. But they,they, they see that. Okay, the
bad stuff happens everywhere. Ithappens ridiculously fast. And
because of that, we have to giveour employees some tools to
(13:46):
mitigate damage, and that's whatwe do. I mean, we're never going
to stop all these, nope. But ifwe can, if we can mitigate 90%
of the damage by training peoplein that window that we have from
something bad happening tosomething bad ending, then we
should do that. I do
(14:09):
clarify some of the enjoyment.It was different for each
person. Well, because
tourniquets are reallyenjoyable.
Holy.
(14:31):
Can't work under theseconditions. Probably Oh, to
get one of those little dudehickeys that you have, Jim,
but I don't use these for this.He's got a battery that's got a
cord hanging out of it, so,like, plug in power for these
(14:56):
three quarters of
this. So you remember where youwere going. Right.
Tourniquets with the enjoyment,
we'll just start. I would startover, well, I don't know where
we started getting weird.
I'll say, I want to clarify.Interrupt you. I want to
clarify. Okay, I bring them.Interrupt you on a clarify, on
(15:21):
enjoyment. When we did it as ateam here, some had enjoyment of
getting the knowledge to do it,the ability to do it. Our office
manager here, who works directlywith me constantly, she took the
most enjoyment out of it becauseshe got to choke me.
(15:41):
Oh yeah, reneged choke. I cansee that I've
never heard the end of it since,and anytime I say anything that
might be slash, she was like,I'll choke you out. Pretty
up. I remember, I do rememberwatching this unfold right in
front of me. And that was prettyunfold,
is the
Yeah. But that's just a goodexample. I mean, like any, any,
(16:06):
we're not trying to turn peopleinto Tracy overnight and then
four and a half hours and turnyou into a SWAT ninja like, but
no, we're gonna give youpractical stuff. That's easy. We
joke about it all the time. Imean, people, people think we're
wizards. It's like, no, we'vetaken data, facts, research and
Battlefield tactics, and thenpackaged it for everyday people,
(16:26):
where they can grasp it,understand it,
hopefully, do it under stress.Sadly, it's been tested,
but you know, that's I hit onthat earlier. That's when our
world exploded. But in a postcovenant world, you know, like
every school in town and acrossnot every school across country
would just found out abouttraining in us and everything
(16:48):
overnight, which is reallyterrible. But hands down, my
favorite group, and I'll throwthis back to Tracy too, I think
she'll group. My favorite groupto teach is teachers. Oh yeah,
teachers are.
It's, it's pretty cool, becauseyour administration typically
thinks their teachers can'thandle it, that they struggle,
(17:10):
that it's too much, that it'stoo heavy, and then they show up
and the teachers just kill it.The teachers want the knowledge.
They want to learn. They theywant to put tourniquets on. They
want to save their kids. And youget them so emotionally invested
with the warrior mindset withput your kids behind you in your
(17:31):
classroom. You know,
those are their kids. They havethe heart of a teacher for a
reason,
absolutely. I mean, as a formerteacher, that's in their
wheelhouse. They care so muchfor those students want to do
for them. You know, sometimesteachers, you know, people say,
well, they get three months offin the summer and Christmas
(17:51):
breaks and everything when youdrop your kids off the majority
of the time, they want to bethey want to they care for your
kids as much as you do at thatpoint in time. Well,
they get to spend more time withyour kids than you do, yeah, if
you think about it like theschool day is more time you get
them for a couple hours at nightand an hour in the morning to
get them ready for school beforethey go to bed. Then you get
(18:12):
them on the weekends, yourteachers have them how many
hours a week? Yeah?
Well, little story on that.Little side note, I used to have
a parent or, you know, parentswould call me and go, Well, my
son said, you said such and suchduring class, and it's like
talking about getting to knowyour students. And I said, I may
(18:33):
have probably did I apologizefor that. I have
no filter. My name is Tomherring, exactly.
Hey, I tell you what. You don'tbother me with what my kid says.
I that that I said in class, andI won't come to you of
everything your kid said aboutyou in class. And a lot of
(18:56):
times, parents don't realizewhat their kids feel at the
classroom, they do become partof it is a family within those
classrooms, those teachers.
I'm glad you told that parentstory and not another one that I
was thinking of that you've toldme before. So keep this a family
show. That's great. So but ITracy's 100% right, and that's
(19:16):
that's one thing that thatschool admins often make the
very often make the mistake of,is they think I can't put this
in front of my teachers. Wealready asked them to do too
much, or this is too much onthem, and we find that total
opposite is the true. Theteachers want this knowledge.
They want to protect those kids.You know, when we talk about the
(19:39):
warrior mindset, and she'stalking about, put your kid like
people doubt they have a warriormindset, or have the ability to
pull that out of themselves,until we say, put those kids
behind you and tell me you don'thave this. Of course you do like
absolutely you do. And it shocksadmins a lot of times that
they're teachers, but again, alot of times they don't know
what to expect. Either there's athere's a private school in
town, I won't name them, but.They tried to book us for
(20:01):
training. Couple of years ago,we were booked solid because it
was because it was, it was lastyear 2023 we were book solid for
in service because it was rightafter COVID. So they brought in
a different company. This year,rekindled the conversation with
a security guy on campus, andbasically when he went to the
(20:22):
head of school to talk aboutbringing us in, he said, after
the experience we have with thattraining that they brought in
last year, not, not what came totalk about this right now, the
buzz, the experience wasapparently, poor, very
traumatic. I don't know. I'venever seen it doesn't matter. It
doesn't matter who it is. And soI think that that is a lot of
the preconceived notion is thata lot of people think, are they
(20:43):
going to come in? Rah, rah, killthe bad guy. I know for a fact,
another one of our clients hiredsomeone else before us. Won't
name them either. Group, thegroup, group came in out of town
to train them, and they wereliterally telling these teachers
that if there's a that if thechild freezes like a third
grader freezes. You have to justknock them to the floor and keep
(21:04):
going. And it's like you do? Youdo? You know who you're talking
like. You're not talking to abunch of cops, dude, you're
talking to a teacher who's notgoing to knock a third grader to
the floor like you can't. So Ithink we as a company take a lot
of pride in not being that wayand being able to deliver and
(21:25):
connect with our students, andlike Tracy said, we have a
personal connection with them,just who we are. We you've seen
the training. We leave it allout on the floor right in front
of you. Don't you know,whatever? We're humans. We're
people. It's important. It'snever been more important than a
post covenant world. It's alwaysbeen important, though, but
it's, it's, it's exhausting attimes, but, and we don't just
(21:50):
train schools. I want to makesure people know that. I mean,
we train everybody. I mean,like, it's crazy, like, I mean,
when I usually open up withtraining, I'm talking about
orthodontics office, countrymusic tours, National Symphony,
corporate America. I mean,because
you don't know, it happenseverywhere. Yeah, it's not,
(22:10):
yep, bad stuff happens all thetime. Is it ever going to happen
to you? Probably not. I mean, wetalk about this all the time,
but okay, I mean, I don't, Idon't want to live in a probably
not world, and then probably beable to help myself or somebody
else that I never forget, thecountry music tour we train, and
the first year we train them, Ihad to go to the tour management
(22:34):
and say, is anybody on yourtour? Were they at the Vegas
shooting where they at route 91because we're going to cover
that, and we're going to showfootage from there. And I need
to know. Was, and there were twoguys on this particular tour.
They were at Vegas. One wasfront of house, front and sound,
and he's had a lot of othertrauma in his life. Doesn't
matter what, but he's had a lothe opted out of the training I
(22:56):
go to. The other guy who doesn'tmatter what his role is. But I
was talking to him, and he said,I know this is going to be
really tough. He's like, but Iwas taken to an area where they
were bringing a bunch of injuredpeople, and I literally watched
people bleed to death right infront of me, and I had no idea
what to do. And he said, I can'twait to go to this training,
even though it's going to behard. So that's just a good
(23:17):
example of, like, you don't knowwhere, and now he's experienced
in such a way where he feltcompletely helpless. And that's
I think everybody in their lifehas been in a situation where
you felt helpless, but likegolly, and there's a life on the
line, whether it's yours orsomebody else's. Well, it's
the same, like, that's similarto when you were speaking at
that one conference last summer,and I wanted to know what was
(23:39):
happening in my kids schooldistrict, and so I had, I had
the, one of the head guys thatkind of helped organize
everything. I was like, I wantto talk to some of the SROs that
are here from that schooldistrict. I want to know what
are the teachers learn, what alike, what are, what are their
plans, you know, and that guywalks up to me in his defense.
He didn't know who I was, hedidn't know what I knew. He
(24:00):
didn't know what my backgroundwas. And he kind of was, he was
talking to me just like I wasthis cute little blonde mom, you
know, wanting to know what, whatthe school district does for
their for their teachers, andwhat kind of training they do
around this space. And he startstalking to me and kind of
blowing smoke, because theydon't do much. You know, the
SROs go to every school everyyear, and they talk to him
(24:20):
about, this is what you'resupposed to do, and then I asked
him about he said, but we haveresponse teams at every school
that get more training. And Isaid, Okay, so if the response
team is on this end of thebuilding, but you have a bunch
of kids that are down on thisend of the building, and there's
still a threat who's going tohelp all these kids? And he
looked at me, and he said, Youreally think that tourniquet
(24:41):
that teachers are going to puttourniquets on their kids, and I
turned purple. I was I wasfurious, like I'm pretty sure
there was smoke coming out of myears. I kept looking over
towards Brink because he was inanother conversation, and
because I it took everything inme not to punch him directly in
the. Wrote because, yes, justlike what we talked about a few
(25:03):
minutes ago, those teachers lovethose kids. Those kids are those
teachers. They are1,000,000,000% going to save
their kid. They're gonna put atourniquet on them, but they
have to know how to do it. Youhave to give them the skills
like, don't automatically assumethat, oh, they're just a
kindergarten teacher. They'renot going to do this because
they're going to, as
we said, that teacher mentality,yes, they're going to put their
(25:26):
life in front of that kids1,000,000% every I mean, I would
almost say every time, would yourather be trained or untrained?
Because they're, they're doingit
exactly either way. Well, yougot to think about Townville as
a perfect example. They weretrying to help him. They were
(25:47):
trying to save him. Let's set
this up. The audience won't haveany idea what you talk about.
There was a there was a schoolshooting in Townville, South
Carolina, in September. 2016former student of the school
gone on to the middle school,got expelled, decided to shoot
up a school. Actually choseelementary school at the time
because they had no SRO. So hemurders his own father, steals
(26:08):
dad's truck, drives over,crashes into the playground,
steps out, screams, I hate mylife, and starts shooting at
kids and teachers on theplayground. Fired four shots,
hit three kids and a teacher,and then threw the gun down. And
I don't know why I'm doing this.Well, one of those kids, a kid
named Jacob Hall, and Jacob wasshot in his leg. It's the 911
call we play at the front end ofthe medical and you know, there
(26:29):
you hear him on the virus. It's,it's, it's so just, it's, just
shatters your heart becausethey're trying, they're trying,
they're trying, they're trying,they're trying to save this
child. And he's obviously got afemoral severed as for as fast
as he, you know, expired. Butthe fact that they literally did
not know where to put a fist orknee, the stuff that she the
(26:53):
medical stuff that she brings tothe team that we train on like
that literally could have beenhere very likely saved his life,
correct?
He should be 14, like he couldbe here, yeah, from a simple and
I want to say that as taking thetraining, we recommend it all
the time. But then when we tookit, it is simple, it is not
(27:14):
complex. It does not take Ramboand Schwarzenegger to come in
and do these things. This isstuff that is doable, and it's
not even, I don't want to sayit's not a lot of brain power
not to put it down any but it'snot. It's very simple steps that
are just repeatable and can bedone, whether you have the kid
(27:40):
or you don't, as Brink said, asfar as where to put a knee,
where to put a fist, where towhere to put a credit card over
an open hole. I mean, simplestuff.
Yeah, pre, we say all time, prehospital care is not really not
difficult. It's about knowingwhat part of the body gets what
treatment. So I can get you to ahigher level of care, but it has
(28:00):
to be. We also don't come in andshow a bunch of bunch of gore,
no crazy
this. How many people you thinkwe'd have passed out if we've
showed crazy reward?
I mean, we use cartoondepictions. And I'd say we're
one in 21 in 25 trainings, wehave somebody go out. Oh, yeah.
Trainings, yeah. Like, like,faints, passes out from the
(28:22):
medical even
with a warning. We even get upthere and we say, Hey, is
anybody in this room gonna fallon the floor if I start talking
about that red stuff that comesout of our bodies? And
you and I had one at one of thetraining and it was the biggest,
toughest that was.
But you, you saved, I didn'tsave any.
(28:43):
We were doing a large, reallylarge school district in
Tennessee. We had 1600 teachersin the room, all right, so we're
turning 1600 people at a time.It was I had done my part and
went backstage. So they had alarge church. I was just going
to kind of just relax for a fewminutes. She was doing her part,
(29:05):
and then I decided I'm gonna goback in there. And about the
time I hit this stairs stageleft, I all of a sudden hear,
Well, I don't hear her talking,just instantly. And then as I'm
coming stairs, I see herbounding over audience chairs,
diving into the audience. Like,what just happened? Are we crowd
surfing? Or, like, what is, whatis happening here? And it
(29:25):
somebody had gone down, and themedic, in her course, is jumping
over everybody going to tree. Soit is, every once in a while, we
do have somebody, and somepeople, I think, just don't
know. They think they're fine,yeah, and then just talking
about it, but, but either way,that is rare. And I want to hear
people say, I want people tohear me say, we, we don't, we
(29:46):
don't gross you out. We don't doall those things. It's very
simple stuff. Madison
can handle it, life skill stuff.
Nobody has any idea what you'retalking about. Is listening to
this episode, but our mark.Communications coordinator,
Madison Hicks, who's been agreat addition to our team, has
been through the training.That's how we met her. Actually,
(30:07):
she worked somewhere else andthen, and we experienced our
training, and she does fine withit. She was a few days on board
and and came full disclosure,just saying, hey, you know, just
full disclosure, I don't do wellwith like, like, blood and vomit
and like things like that, youknow. But like, Okay, that's
great, you know. So she's nevergoing to be a role player for
(30:30):
our two day combat medicalcourse. We've, we've definitely
established that, which I gotprobably out of here just real
quick. That's another thing wedo. So people are listening that
want to up your medical skills,or you've been through our
training and been through theone hour version. We do offer a
two day, not, not often openenrollment, but every once in a
while, two day combat medicalcourse that comes with a four
year certification from na AMT.That's a pretty, pretty awesome
(30:51):
course that we make it as realas we can make it. So on that
note, I want to just kind ofwrap things up. I appreciate
your words about the trainingand your and your trust in us to
bring in front of your people. Imean, obviously you know me in
this program, because we've,we've been working together so
long, but it does mean a lotwhen people do trust us with
(31:13):
that, because it's a heavytopic, and it's, you know,
potentially life altering ifthey ever have to use it and all
those things. So that's big thatyou trust us. I would just say
to any organization that'sthinking about it and just wants
to have a conversation aroundwhether or not it's for you or
not, feel free to give us a callor shoot us an email. You can
also go to defense systems.comLook at testimonials if you want
(31:33):
to hear it from other clientsabout you know that we aren't
running in traumatizingeverybody, because we want to
make sure that that's well knownout there. But that's going to
be it for this edition of thetips tactic tools, with tools
for our saver tomorrow. If youguys have questions, comments,
concerns, or you have an ideafor our guest host, please reach
out to us at info, at TIPS,tactic tools.com, I'm out you.
And now from Nashville, Tennessee, it's time for another
episode of tips, tactics andtools for a safer tomorrow,
where all things related to yoursafety and security are
discussed, detailed anddelivered to you. You may leave
with a tip that saves you moneyor a tactic that saves your
life. Here your host, owner andfounder of defense systems,
(00:32):
brink fiddler and owner andoperator of airing technology,
Tom herring. Hey guys, welcometo this edition of tips, tactics
and tools. First, save fortomorrow. Brink and Tom, my co
host here, as always today, I ampleased to introduce you all to
our guest, also known as thevice president of operations of
my company, also known as mynumber two, sometimes I call her
(00:55):
the Veep uh. Tracy Mendenhallcame on board with me full time
in October of 22 about five orsix months before our world
exploded in a post covenantschool world. So I thought it
would be timely and appropriateto talk about the importance of
training and kind of talk aboutthe different organizations that
(01:18):
we've trained and why they alldecide to train because they are
so vastly different. And I sayall that in our intro when we
start training, but we'll juststart with welcome Tracy. Hi.
Good to see you. Good to see youtoo. Thank you. I'm glad you
showed up. Chipper today. Justcame from the dentist. Tracy is
one of those people thatactually loves the dentist
(01:38):
Absolutely. So my favoritevisit, and we're not being
sarcastic. She really does lovethe dentist. I thought she was
joking the first time
she said that. So somebody thatloves to go to the dentist and
is training in school shootings,you're nervous. I love Yeah, we
got the mindset right there.
Yeah? Preparation, prevention,yeah, right. You can't talk
(02:01):
to people if you have grossteeth. That's right,
well said. So you know we, Ithink most people know that our
if you don't, if you're new tothis whole thing, defense
systems, our primary industry weserve, or I guess, role we serve
in society, is preparing peoplefor their worst day, right? So
active, violence mitigation,training schools, Corporation
(02:23):
health care, law firms,community centers, you name it,
really different organizationtypes. And you know, Tom, you're
not connected years ago, becauseyou're the technology piece of
what I do, and I'm the trainingpiece of what you guys do. So we
are very complimentary of eachother, but it took a while
because of COVID to bounce withyou and the fact that your
company's so spread out, becauseyou guys are all because you
guys are all over the country,but it took a while to get even
(02:45):
get your company in the samespot, to go through the training
program. And a lot of your guysdon't work in this office. They
don't work in a building likethat, but you still brought them
in and trained them on how torespond to bad things happening,
regardless of whether or not itwas in this building, right? Why
was that so important
(03:05):
to you? We're in places to wherethings happen. So everyone is
you're on the street, you're atthe mall, you're at church,
you're at work, you're at youknow, kids are at school. It's
not just a knowledge that youhave for that particular place.
And it was important to us forall of our employees to be able
(03:28):
to aid not only themselves, butothers around them, because
they're in and out of so manyplaces on the road driving, and
we know that the response timeright now are not, I'm not even
saying where they should be,because this is even practical
(03:51):
for them to be capable of themto be just with traffic, with
anything else. I want them to beable to take care of themselves
and anybody else around themwhen it you know if something
were to happen, whether it be ashooter or a wreck or accident
or whatever, it's just a skilland a knowledge that we don't
(04:11):
value in America on a day to daybasis, that we should until
something happens, untilsomething happens, from the
great philosopher Mike Tyson,Everybody's prepared until they
get punched in the mouth andtruth, yeah, and that's when it
everything changes. When you getpunched in the face, correct, it
exposes everything and to whatyou thought you had to what
(04:35):
really happened, and
we don't practice it.
Fortunately, there you guys andother comes that are out
training people to do it. Andit's not just a one time
training. It's something thathas to continue. It has to
become part of discipline,which, in America, you know,
(04:57):
we're very disciplined. Lovediscipline. Yeah. So, but it is
a discipline that has to be, bethere. You
know, it's interesting you saythat, because we have, we have
clients that see the need bringus in, do training, and that's
it. I mean, 23456, years. Well,what's your turnover been? All
(05:20):
those things. But then we haveother clients that are super,
super on board with the theresponsibility of ongoing
training because of turnover andall those things. So I'm
interested to hear from Tracy,yes. So give a little background
on her. Tracy was with MetroNashville police for 10 years.
Half of that time, she was atour training academy as an
(05:41):
instructor. So I say to thisday, she was born to teach,
because she's great atinstructing, not scared to talk
in front of people, all thosethings command the room, because
she's also an EMT and a medic,and this first female to serve
on the SWAT team in Nashville.So she's first female to make it
to the SWAT process. So she'slegit,
not because she was female, no,and she let me, let me,
(06:04):
let's not talk about loweringstandards.
I don't get fired up. But theoffer was made to her that she
could, she could qualify at adifferent physical fitness
standard and still make throughthe process. And she refused.
She said, Absolutely not, I'mgonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna
perform to the same physical fitof standards that you guys have
to meet to make it through thisprocess. I mean, that's
(06:26):
obviously huge. Now, whatchanged all that I was able to
steal her, she became a mom totwo identical twin little girls,
and changed her outlook on herjob.
Now you need this training.That's right
now. I wrestle alligators everynight for bed. Yes,
thank God you went through thismakes you a ninja to deal with
(06:50):
your own kids. Talk to me. Thedifference, the biggest
difference between, I mean, youwere used to teaching,
obviously, but you taught copsfor ever, and then now you
don't, we teach. Well, that'snot true. We do some law
enforcement training, but notthe majority of what we do. So
what do you is the biggestdifference in teaching everyday
people versus teaching cops?Cops
(07:11):
are hard. Cops come to trainingbecause they require to be at
training, and it's they get acheck every year because they're
in service. They're just hard,especially when you look like me
and you got these old hats thathave been on the department. The
department for 30 years, andwhat's this little blonde girl
going to teach me that I don'talready know? I get that type of
attitude quite a bit. Teachingcivilians is, is fun. It's that
(07:35):
part for me is it's the bestpart. I get to teach moms and
dads and teachers, and your 20year old preschool teacher that,
hey, you're not a victim, andthere are things that you can
do, and that's why I was put onthis earth, is to empower those
people 100%
and it's, it is. It's really funto do, and it's so interesting
(07:58):
to watch the transformationhappen in front of you. You You
know, when you're looking atthese people that are well, in
every in every training we do,there's three kinds of people.
In the beginning, there's thepeople that say, Thank God we're
finally doing this. They're thepeople that go, me, okay,
whatever. And then there are fewpeople in the room say, why are
we doing this? And the trainingprogram is designed, and it does
to get the people that aresaying, why are we doing this,
at least to the middle, butusually all the way to the other
(08:20):
side. None of that you seepeople who are sitting there
that are scared, timid, notknowing what to expect. And you
watch them transform into, I'vegot this, if I have to face my
worst day, I've got this. Andyou watch it happen right in
front of you. And it's so it's,it's, it's very rewarding to as
sad as that is. I mean, we trainpeople to face their worst day,
(08:41):
but we also get to because ofwhat we do and because of how
small we are and what we're asmall and mighty team. I get
this personal connection witheverybody that we teach. I talk
to every single person thatcalls into our company. I email
with every single person thatcalls into our company and
emails our company, and I emailthem. There's some people I
email with 100 times before weever meet them in person, like
(09:03):
Monday, when I got to meetJanice, like I have emailed with
her a million times, and Ifinally get to meet her, and I
finally get to hug her. Youknow, same thing happened in
Alabama right after or the fallafter covenant happened, and
Julie Trump from that Providenceclassical in Alabama, and she
prayed over me, yep, on my wayto covenant two days later, and
(09:26):
I got to meet her and hug her.And these are people like these
people are our family afterthat.
Yeah, that didn't happen withthe cops when you were training
them. There's not a
lot of hugging when it comes tocops. Thanks for in service this
year. Tracy, fist bump, yeah,no,
there's you shouldn't be doing.Yeah, it's
a it's it's the program, and Tomknows you've been through it,
(09:47):
but it's designed to get youemotionally invested, so that
you do lock in on what we'retelling you and being able to
recall it under stress. But, andI didn't never get a chance to
talk to you, I. This, I don'tthink Tom, but you know,
feedback from your from yourpeople. I mean, I got some that
day, some to me, but I'll
(10:09):
be honest that the training thatwe did with you guys, which is
totally different than what wedo. I mean, we're in training
all the time with our guys. Wego and, do you know, team events
and things like that. At times,they literally said that was one
of the best things that we couldhave ever done for them. They
(10:31):
appreciate it. I mean, just fromthe education, and it wasn't
just for work, it's somethingeach one of them takes with I
loved your word and you said itempowers them. And that's what
everyone I'm they just theconfidence of, hey, I know how
to take care of this situationright now. It is just what it
(10:53):
did for them, mentally and theirmorale there. And it was a team
activity. It was fun too. Youknow, it's not scare you to
death, but none of them, I thinkthey all, had a little
apprehension going into it, of,what are we doing? Well, but it
was enjoyable. And that's thething about it. And and Tracy,
(11:16):
you said something about thesister praying for you
afterwards. We've had thathappen with our business, when
you protect somebody, or you doit, and it is the most
fulfilling thing that we haveever received is that, you know
(11:36):
somebody said and they prayedfor you over it. It's so
humbling, and it's someaningful, and what we're
talking about with all of thisis meaningful, yeah, whether
you're in it, or you've beenaffected by it, by knowing
somebody, or whatever, ismeaningful. And I'll throw it
back to y'all, yeah,
(11:57):
so you said enjoyable, andpeople don't know that sounds
weird, right? Like it soundsit's, we hear that a lot,
though, people like, they loveit. And it's like, why would you
love active shooters training?Well, it's not that, it's not
that they love that they have todo it. It's, you know, the
programming. It took a lot offeedback in the beginning, when
(12:18):
this thing got going, ofadjusting things to the new
audience, right? Like I'm notdealing with cops and soldiers
anymore, so, but we did that,and we do it in such a way where
we lighten it, where we can,because it's a heavy topic. But
you know, our company missionstatement and motto is, is the
following. We empower you tosave lives, including your own,
(12:41):
and that's reality of every badthing that has ever happened
anywhere. Self preservation andself sustainment is key. It
doesn't matter if you got 800cops. How many cops were at the
route 91 harvest festivalshooting in Las Vegas, tons, I
don't know, hundreds. Bad stuffhappens everywhere. Back to the
(13:02):
the thing that you saw that wasso crucial was, and I let you
through your softball and pullit out of you, but you wanted to
give this skill set to youremployees for their everyday
lives, like put their familiesat the mall, at the grocery
store, at the restaurant, allthose things, because it's just
the world we live in now, whichis terrible. We say all the
time, how sad is it that thiscompany even exists, that we
(13:25):
have to do active violencemitigation training for we
literally did an orthodontistoffice the other day. Like, this
stuff is everywhere. But they,they, they see that. Okay, the
bad stuff happens everywhere. Ithappens ridiculously fast. And
because of that, we have to giveour employees some tools to
(13:46):
mitigate damage, and that's whatwe do. I mean, we're never going
to stop all these, nope. But ifwe can, if we can mitigate 90%
of the damage by training peoplein that window that we have from
something bad happening tosomething bad ending, then we
should do that. I do
(14:09):
clarify some of the enjoyment.It was different for each
person. Well, because
tourniquets are reallyenjoyable.
Holy.
(14:31):
Can't work under theseconditions. Probably Oh, to
get one of those little dudehickeys that you have, Jim,
but I don't use these for this.He's got a battery that's got a
cord hanging out of it, so,like, plug in power for these
(14:56):
three quarters of
this. So you remember where youwere going. Right.
Tourniquets with the enjoyment,
we'll just start. I would startover, well, I don't know where
we started getting weird.
I'll say, I want to clarify.Interrupt you. I want to
clarify. Okay, I bring them.Interrupt you on a clarify, on
(15:21):
enjoyment. When we did it as ateam here, some had enjoyment of
getting the knowledge to do it,the ability to do it. Our office
manager here, who works directlywith me constantly, she took the
most enjoyment out of it becauseshe got to choke me.
(15:41):
Oh yeah, reneged choke. I cansee that I've
never heard the end of it since,and anytime I say anything that
might be slash, she was like,I'll choke you out. Pretty
up. I remember, I do rememberwatching this unfold right in
front of me. And that was prettyunfold,
is the
Yeah. But that's just a goodexample. I mean, like any, any,
(16:06):
we're not trying to turn peopleinto Tracy overnight and then
four and a half hours and turnyou into a SWAT ninja like, but
no, we're gonna give youpractical stuff. That's easy. We
joke about it all the time. Imean, people, people think we're
wizards. It's like, no, we'vetaken data, facts, research and
Battlefield tactics, and thenpackaged it for everyday people,
(16:26):
where they can grasp it,understand it,
hopefully, do it under stress.Sadly, it's been tested,
but you know, that's I hit onthat earlier. That's when our
world exploded. But in a postcovenant world, you know, like
every school in town and acrossnot every school across country
would just found out abouttraining in us and everything
(16:48):
overnight, which is reallyterrible. But hands down, my
favorite group, and I'll throwthis back to Tracy too, I think
she'll group. My favorite groupto teach is teachers. Oh yeah,
teachers are.
It's, it's pretty cool, becauseyour administration typically
thinks their teachers can'thandle it, that they struggle,
(17:10):
that it's too much, that it'stoo heavy, and then they show up
and the teachers just kill it.The teachers want the knowledge.
They want to learn. They theywant to put tourniquets on. They
want to save their kids. And youget them so emotionally invested
with the warrior mindset withput your kids behind you in your
(17:31):
classroom. You know,
those are their kids. They havethe heart of a teacher for a
reason,
absolutely. I mean, as a formerteacher, that's in their
wheelhouse. They care so muchfor those students want to do
for them. You know, sometimesteachers, you know, people say,
well, they get three months offin the summer and Christmas
(17:51):
breaks and everything when youdrop your kids off the majority
of the time, they want to bethey want to they care for your
kids as much as you do at thatpoint in time. Well,
they get to spend more time withyour kids than you do, yeah, if
you think about it like theschool day is more time you get
them for a couple hours at nightand an hour in the morning to
get them ready for school beforethey go to bed. Then you get
(18:12):
them on the weekends, yourteachers have them how many
hours a week? Yeah?
Well, little story on that.Little side note, I used to have
a parent or, you know, parentswould call me and go, Well, my
son said, you said such and suchduring class, and it's like
talking about getting to knowyour students. And I said, I may
(18:33):
have probably did I apologizefor that. I have
no filter. My name is Tomherring, exactly.
Hey, I tell you what. You don'tbother me with what my kid says.
I that that I said in class, andI won't come to you of
everything your kid said aboutyou in class. And a lot of
(18:56):
times, parents don't realizewhat their kids feel at the
classroom, they do become partof it is a family within those
classrooms, those teachers.
I'm glad you told that parentstory and not another one that I
was thinking of that you've toldme before. So keep this a family
show. That's great. So but ITracy's 100% right, and that's
(19:16):
that's one thing that thatschool admins often make the
very often make the mistake of,is they think I can't put this
in front of my teachers. Wealready asked them to do too
much, or this is too much onthem, and we find that total
opposite is the true. Theteachers want this knowledge.
They want to protect those kids.You know, when we talk about the
(19:39):
warrior mindset, and she'stalking about, put your kid like
people doubt they have a warriormindset, or have the ability to
pull that out of themselves,until we say, put those kids
behind you and tell me you don'thave this. Of course you do like
absolutely you do. And it shocksadmins a lot of times that
they're teachers, but again, alot of times they don't know
what to expect. Either there's athere's a private school in
town, I won't name them, but.They tried to book us for
(20:01):
training. Couple of years ago,we were booked solid because it
was because it was, it was lastyear 2023 we were book solid for
in service because it was rightafter COVID. So they brought in
a different company. This year,rekindled the conversation with
a security guy on campus, andbasically when he went to the
(20:22):
head of school to talk aboutbringing us in, he said, after
the experience we have with thattraining that they brought in
last year, not, not what came totalk about this right now, the
buzz, the experience wasapparently, poor, very
traumatic. I don't know. I'venever seen it doesn't matter. It
doesn't matter who it is. And soI think that that is a lot of
the preconceived notion is thata lot of people think, are they
(20:43):
going to come in? Rah, rah, killthe bad guy. I know for a fact,
another one of our clients hiredsomeone else before us. Won't
name them either. Group, thegroup, group came in out of town
to train them, and they wereliterally telling these teachers
that if there's a that if thechild freezes like a third
grader freezes. You have to justknock them to the floor and keep
(21:04):
going. And it's like you do? Youdo? You know who you're talking
like. You're not talking to abunch of cops, dude, you're
talking to a teacher who's notgoing to knock a third grader to
the floor like you can't. So Ithink we as a company take a lot
of pride in not being that wayand being able to deliver and
(21:25):
connect with our students, andlike Tracy said, we have a
personal connection with them,just who we are. We you've seen
the training. We leave it allout on the floor right in front
of you. Don't you know,whatever? We're humans. We're
people. It's important. It'snever been more important than a
post covenant world. It's alwaysbeen important, though, but
it's, it's, it's exhausting attimes, but, and we don't just
(21:50):
train schools. I want to makesure people know that. I mean,
we train everybody. I mean,like, it's crazy, like, I mean,
when I usually open up withtraining, I'm talking about
orthodontics office, countrymusic tours, National Symphony,
corporate America. I mean,because
you don't know, it happenseverywhere. Yeah, it's not,
(22:10):
yep, bad stuff happens all thetime. Is it ever going to happen
to you? Probably not. I mean, wetalk about this all the time,
but okay, I mean, I don't, Idon't want to live in a probably
not world, and then probably beable to help myself or somebody
else that I never forget, thecountry music tour we train, and
the first year we train them, Ihad to go to the tour management
(22:34):
and say, is anybody on yourtour? Were they at the Vegas
shooting where they at route 91because we're going to cover
that, and we're going to showfootage from there. And I need
to know. Was, and there were twoguys on this particular tour.
They were at Vegas. One wasfront of house, front and sound,
and he's had a lot of othertrauma in his life. Doesn't
matter what, but he's had a lothe opted out of the training I
(22:56):
go to. The other guy who doesn'tmatter what his role is. But I
was talking to him, and he said,I know this is going to be
really tough. He's like, but Iwas taken to an area where they
were bringing a bunch of injuredpeople, and I literally watched
people bleed to death right infront of me, and I had no idea
what to do. And he said, I can'twait to go to this training,
even though it's going to behard. So that's just a good
(23:17):
example of, like, you don't knowwhere, and now he's experienced
in such a way where he feltcompletely helpless. And that's
I think everybody in their lifehas been in a situation where
you felt helpless, but likegolly, and there's a life on the
line, whether it's yours orsomebody else's. Well, it's
the same, like, that's similarto when you were speaking at
that one conference last summer,and I wanted to know what was
(23:39):
happening in my kids schooldistrict, and so I had, I had
the, one of the head guys thatkind of helped organize
everything. I was like, I wantto talk to some of the SROs that
are here from that schooldistrict. I want to know what
are the teachers learn, what alike, what are, what are their
plans, you know, and that guywalks up to me in his defense.
He didn't know who I was, hedidn't know what I knew. He
(24:00):
didn't know what my backgroundwas. And he kind of was, he was
talking to me just like I wasthis cute little blonde mom, you
know, wanting to know what, whatthe school district does for
their for their teachers, andwhat kind of training they do
around this space. And he startstalking to me and kind of
blowing smoke, because theydon't do much. You know, the
SROs go to every school everyyear, and they talk to him
(24:20):
about, this is what you'resupposed to do, and then I asked
him about he said, but we haveresponse teams at every school
that get more training. And Isaid, Okay, so if the response
team is on this end of thebuilding, but you have a bunch
of kids that are down on thisend of the building, and there's
still a threat who's going tohelp all these kids? And he
looked at me, and he said, Youreally think that tourniquet
(24:41):
that teachers are going to puttourniquets on their kids, and I
turned purple. I was I wasfurious, like I'm pretty sure
there was smoke coming out of myears. I kept looking over
towards Brink because he was inanother conversation, and
because I it took everything inme not to punch him directly in
the. Wrote because, yes, justlike what we talked about a few
(25:03):
minutes ago, those teachers lovethose kids. Those kids are those
teachers. They are1,000,000,000% going to save
their kid. They're gonna put atourniquet on them, but they
have to know how to do it. Youhave to give them the skills
like, don't automatically assumethat, oh, they're just a
kindergarten teacher. They'renot going to do this because
they're going to, as
we said, that teacher mentality,yes, they're going to put their
(25:26):
life in front of that kids1,000,000% every I mean, I would
almost say every time, would yourather be trained or untrained?
Because they're, they're doingit
exactly either way. Well, yougot to think about Townville as
a perfect example. They weretrying to help him. They were
(25:47):
trying to save him. Let's set
this up. The audience won't haveany idea what you talk about.
There was a there was a schoolshooting in Townville, South
Carolina, in September. 2016former student of the school
gone on to the middle school,got expelled, decided to shoot
up a school. Actually choseelementary school at the time
because they had no SRO. So hemurders his own father, steals
(26:08):
dad's truck, drives over,crashes into the playground,
steps out, screams, I hate mylife, and starts shooting at
kids and teachers on theplayground. Fired four shots,
hit three kids and a teacher,and then threw the gun down. And
I don't know why I'm doing this.Well, one of those kids, a kid
named Jacob Hall, and Jacob wasshot in his leg. It's the 911
call we play at the front end ofthe medical and you know, there
(26:29):
you hear him on the virus. It's,it's, it's so just, it's, just
shatters your heart becausethey're trying, they're trying,
they're trying, they're trying,they're trying to save this
child. And he's obviously got afemoral severed as for as fast
as he, you know, expired. Butthe fact that they literally did
not know where to put a fist orknee, the stuff that she the
(26:53):
medical stuff that she brings tothe team that we train on like
that literally could have beenhere very likely saved his life,
correct?
He should be 14, like he couldbe here, yeah, from a simple and
I want to say that as taking thetraining, we recommend it all
the time. But then when we tookit, it is simple, it is not
(27:14):
complex. It does not take Ramboand Schwarzenegger to come in
and do these things. This isstuff that is doable, and it's
not even, I don't want to sayit's not a lot of brain power
not to put it down any but it'snot. It's very simple steps that
are just repeatable and can bedone, whether you have the kid
(27:40):
or you don't, as Brink said, asfar as where to put a knee,
where to put a fist, where towhere to put a credit card over
an open hole. I mean, simplestuff.
Yeah, pre, we say all time, prehospital care is not really not
difficult. It's about knowingwhat part of the body gets what
treatment. So I can get you to ahigher level of care, but it has
(28:00):
to be. We also don't come in andshow a bunch of bunch of gore,
no crazy
this. How many people you thinkwe'd have passed out if we've
showed crazy reward?
I mean, we use cartoondepictions. And I'd say we're
one in 21 in 25 trainings, wehave somebody go out. Oh, yeah.
Trainings, yeah. Like, like,faints, passes out from the
(28:22):
medical even
with a warning. We even get upthere and we say, Hey, is
anybody in this room gonna fallon the floor if I start talking
about that red stuff that comesout of our bodies? And
you and I had one at one of thetraining and it was the biggest,
toughest that was.
But you, you saved, I didn'tsave any.
(28:43):
We were doing a large, reallylarge school district in
Tennessee. We had 1600 teachersin the room, all right, so we're
turning 1600 people at a time.It was I had done my part and
went backstage. So they had alarge church. I was just going
to kind of just relax for a fewminutes. She was doing her part,
(29:05):
and then I decided I'm gonna goback in there. And about the
time I hit this stairs stageleft, I all of a sudden hear,
Well, I don't hear her talking,just instantly. And then as I'm
coming stairs, I see herbounding over audience chairs,
diving into the audience. Like,what just happened? Are we crowd
surfing? Or, like, what is, whatis happening here? And it
(29:25):
somebody had gone down, and themedic, in her course, is jumping
over everybody going to tree. Soit is, every once in a while, we
do have somebody, and somepeople, I think, just don't
know. They think they're fine,yeah, and then just talking
about it, but, but either way,that is rare. And I want to hear
people say, I want people tohear me say, we, we don't, we
(29:46):
don't gross you out. We don't doall those things. It's very
simple stuff. Madison
can handle it, life skill stuff.
Nobody has any idea what you'retalking about. Is listening to
this episode, but our mark.Communications coordinator,
Madison Hicks, who's been agreat addition to our team, has
been through the training.That's how we met her. Actually,
(30:07):
she worked somewhere else andthen, and we experienced our
training, and she does fine withit. She was a few days on board
and and came full disclosure,just saying, hey, you know, just
full disclosure, I don't do wellwith like, like, blood and vomit
and like things like that, youknow. But like, Okay, that's
great, you know. So she's nevergoing to be a role player for
(30:30):
our two day combat medicalcourse. We've, we've definitely
established that, which I gotprobably out of here just real
quick. That's another thing wedo. So people are listening that
want to up your medical skills,or you've been through our
training and been through theone hour version. We do offer a
two day, not, not often openenrollment, but every once in a
while, two day combat medicalcourse that comes with a four
year certification from na AMT.That's a pretty, pretty awesome
(30:51):
course that we make it as realas we can make it. So on that
note, I want to just kind ofwrap things up. I appreciate
your words about the trainingand your and your trust in us to
bring in front of your people. Imean, obviously you know me in
this program, because we've,we've been working together so
long, but it does mean a lotwhen people do trust us with
(31:13):
that, because it's a heavytopic, and it's, you know,
potentially life altering ifthey ever have to use it and all
those things. So that's big thatyou trust us. I would just say
to any organization that'sthinking about it and just wants
to have a conversation aroundwhether or not it's for you or
not, feel free to give us a callor shoot us an email. You can
also go to defense systems.comLook at testimonials if you want
(31:33):
to hear it from other clientsabout you know that we aren't
running in traumatizingeverybody, because we want to
make sure that that's well knownout there. But that's going to
be it for this edition of thetips tactic tools, with tools
for our saver tomorrow. If youguys have questions, comments,
concerns, or you have an ideafor our guest host, please reach
out to us at info, at TIPS,tactic tools.com, I'm out you.
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