Trevor Williams: From Surviving The Haiti Earthquake in 2010 to Success With “The Williams Key”

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Trevor Williams.
Welcome to the podcast.
Thanks for having me.
Good to have you here, man.
I'm glad that you're coming on.
What's really cool is that youactually drove from where you
did to get here.
I'm not going to say where youlive, but thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, and it's always nice to do these in person.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, I've tried the what do you call it?
Remote satellite.
It just doesn't seem as organicas having somebody in the room
and being able to kind of readthe room, read them talk, laugh
in front of each other and stuff.
You know.
Just it flows a lot better.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
I've done.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I think I did one of them and I just didn't release
it.
I'm like this is too choppy.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Yeah, on those Zoom things, I always end up looking
at myself instead of like I'mlike I'm looking.
Okay, right now it's like it'sa distraction.
Yeah, dude.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well, hey, man, seriously thanks for coming on
the podcast.
And is that shirt alligatorprint?
Yeah, I think it is.
Do that, that is clean.
Thanks, sir.
By the way, we do have Ollieover here.
Put that camera on yourself,dude.
Ollie is filling in my man.
Thank you so much, I appreciateit.
But anyways, trevor, againthank you for coming on.
Man, a lot of cool things andinteresting things to talk about
with you.

(01:15):
But first, dude, you grew upvery interesting than
interestingly is that the bestway?
Different than most people, Iwould say.
Right, I think your parentswere missionaries.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
They were.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Where were they missionaries at?
Where'd you grow up?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
So yeah, a lot of growing up very quickly.
In my childhood, Born inVirginia, when I was four we
moved to Africa.
Wow, yeah, so Africa.
At that time in 94, this is acouple years ago we were there
during the Rwandan genocides.

(01:49):
So what?
It was war zone, so was it?

Speaker 1 (01:53):
I mean I interrupt you, but you guys went over and
then it started happening, ordid you go and it was already
going down the genocide?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
That's a great question.
Nobody's asked me that.
And I was four, oh God.
I'm going to assume that itkind of ramped up once we got
there.
But we lived in Zaire, whichbordered Rwanda, so we were
affected by it, but not in themiddle like the heat, and it was
like a lot of tribal stuff too,so we weren't necessarily part

(02:24):
of a tribe when we lived there.
It was more industrial.
We lived in a city.
My dad worked for World Vision,which is a large nonprofit
organization, and yeah, we werethere a couple years.

Speaker 1 (02:38):
So the missionary worker you dad was doing, was it
going into tribes and talkingwith the people, or was it more
city?
Do you remember?

Speaker 2 (02:48):
They covered a broad spectrum.
I do remember pygmies at onepoint like jungle very short and
on the same size as this.
So, yeah, I was four, so theywere like hi with me.
But they do education, they doclean water projects, building

(03:13):
projects.
Most people who are notmissionaries know of World
Vision through sponsoring achild.
So that's why first thought sothat's their big thing, that is
most common.
But yeah, they're in everycountry and there's just like a
million things they do.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Is that what your family did, like your parents
did for living?
Were they just missionaries?

Speaker 2 (03:40):
My dad was actually a lawyer, an attorney, and he one
day we're Christian and he feltcalled by God to go help in
Africa of all places.
And so a lot of times whenpeople think of a missionary,

(04:00):
they think about like going andspreading the gospel, being
sponsored by your church, thatsort of thing.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
That's what I'm, that's my thought.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
And that's not always the case, because there are a
lot of companies that are likeyou can work for a company and
you don't need to be sponsored,and you work in all sorts of
different countries, and someare faith based, some are not.
I guess you would call yourselfa humanitarian If there wasn't

(04:32):
like a tie to a faith.
So this was both, though WorldVision is the largest Christian
organization, that's like anonprofit and, but it's also a
humanitarian organization.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
So was that pretty much until you were 18, or was
that a short stint?

Speaker 2 (04:49):
No, so that was four years, just about four years,
that I lived in Africa.
We talked about that year, butit got really bad while we were
living there due to all the warsand stuff going on.
So we did kind of like atemporary evacuation to South
Africa, and South Africa is morelike a first world country

(05:13):
paved roads, like you can go eatat restaurants, seems safe, but
it's not.
It's like it's actually verydangerous.
So we wore these necklaces thathad like a panic button on it.
I don't know what would do if Ipressed it.
Like I feel like a lot of timego by before any like aid was
rendered.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
It was going to come get me.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah, it was like it made you feel safer.
I guess Sense of security.
So you guys didn't have anybodyguards or anything.
No well, in Africa we did Welljust at the house.
It was like a gatekeeper.
So our house was surrounded bya wall, barbed wire.
We had a dog who in retrospectprobably wouldn't have done much

(05:57):
.
It seemed big when I was four,but it's probably like a 20
pound little thing.
And then we didn't have armedsecurity but we had a guy who
would like open the gate and hita slingshot.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
No way.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
So it was more for like hunting and stuff, but he
did one time he did hit a guywith his slingshot, so he was
spot on with it.
Yeah, wow, he was accurate.
He was on the way home over thewall one night and he hit him.
So I think it was OK, but hejust deterred him.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
More power to him.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
What the heck did I just get hit by.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Do you think those years being in Africa and your
dad doing that mission work, doyou think they had a pretty
profound impact on your life, inshaping you as a young man and
kind of who you are today?

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh, absolutely, and I'll get more into why.
Because Africa was just likethe first stop.
I also lived in Haiti, theisland of Haiti, well, island of
Hispaniola.
It's attached to the DominicanRepublic.
There's Haiti, dominicanpoorest country in the Western

(07:09):
hemisphere, and I lived thereduring my teenage years.
So, that's more specifically.
You're impressionable duringthat time.
I still am, I mean, although,yeah, especially when you're a
teenager, though.
So, yeah, that really kind ofshaped me, I think, into part of

(07:29):
who I am today and, yeah, youkind of grow up fast in those
countries.
I can't imagine.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
I know the things that you saw and we experienced.
I mean, if you compare thatwhat you went through then and
what you witness to what we havenow, I mean that's, I mean
you're talking about twocompletely different worlds.
Yeah, you know, we can turn ona faucet and have water.
We're there.
I'm sure that was not theprobably not the case.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Yeah, it's just different.
No, no, hot water, at least forus.
Yeah, and we were like veryprivileged, all things
considered, in Haiti.
You know we lived in a house.
You know we had a car, thatsort of thing when most people
are living off a dollar a dayand every day is a battle.
Are you going to eat today?
Are you going to catch a bullet?

(08:16):
It's a violent country too.
A lot of gangs, a lot of youhear gunfire every day.
You see dead bodies in thestreets.
So how long are you guys there?
Three years there, so I was 12to 15.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Wow.
And then after that did youguys come back to the States?

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, and it was another scenario like Africa
where it was getting really badto where we had to evacuate.
So in Haiti the government wasbeing overthrown.
The president at the time hisname was Aristide, and nobody
liked him.
He was taking advantage of thecountry.
He was supplying gangs withweapons and stuff just to wreak

(08:58):
havoc.
The country didn't like him, sohe didn't like the country.
He eventually got ousted.
Meanwhile there's riotseverywhere, burning tires in the
streets, gunfire, roadblocks,all that stuff.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
Like the stuff you see in movies, pretty much so.
Are you an only child, or doyou have brothers and sisters
that were there with you as well, with your parents?

Speaker 2 (09:19):
I was an only child until I was seven, so most of my
Africa years.
By the time I got to Haiti, Ihad two sisters and we were
spread out all seven years apart, so I was 14.
Next one was seven, next onewas being born.
So the youngest sister, shebarely remembers Haiti, at least

(09:42):
at that time.
There's more Haiti in ourfuture.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
Even being like sorry , I didn't mean to.
Even being like that young at apoint in time where oh, thank
you, Even when being like at theage you were, you were still
pretty young but being in thatscenario where you have such an
intense situation going onaround you, Do you feel like you

(10:08):
had to almost be a protector ofyour family and your sisters,
especially since they were somuch younger than you?

Speaker 2 (10:14):
Yeah, no, that's a good point.
My family was a very anti-gunand we didn't have the armed
guards and stuff like that andfor me I was seeing a lot of
violence.
I was seeing my friends atschool were getting kidnapped or
broken into.
They throw poison meat overyour fence, poison your dog,

(10:36):
come in and do whatever theywanted.
So I felt vulnerable as a 14,15-year-old.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
I'm sure man.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
And I also didn't feel like we were prepared for
something to happen.
Our dog was a little bit biggernow, but still we didn't have
the security, the armed guardsthat a lot of people had that
were in our same scenario.
So, yeah, I definitely feltlike I had evacuation plans and

(11:08):
I had stuff set up in my headwhen, if something were to go
wrong, I was going to try and Ifelt like I was the one that had
to do that for my family.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
And you're a teenager , yeah, yeah.
So I guess you were sayingabout growing up quick.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, just the perspective on the world that
you would have alone, like fromexperiencing such poverty in
multiple nations.
And then, on top of that, nowyou have your own security and
safety that you have to worryabout.
I mean, how could that not moldyou into what you do now?

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yeah, and the other thing is it's hard to live in an
environment where you're notsure if you're going to make it
through the day.
That's intensive for a kid,that's intense and for anybody,
but especially a kid and seeingevidence of other people who

(12:05):
didn't make it through that day.
So it's pretty easy to live infear when you're in those
scenarios and in those countriesand fear can just cripple you.
You don't want to do anything,you're scared of everything,
your head gets the best of youand stuff.
So at one point I had to make adecision to not be afraid

(12:29):
anymore, and once I chose thatwhich I don't think a kid should
have to choose, but once I madethat decision for myself, haiti
became a lot more fun and I wasable to live more of a normal
life and just one day at a time.
But I've already accepted myfate if that were to happen, or

(12:53):
whatever.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
So I'm not going to worry about it.
If it happens, you can probablyalso see, with your faith and
being a Christian, we'reprobably doing that time.
The Lord protected you guys.
I look back on my life and I'ma prodigal son dude big time.
I've already told you.
Before we came up here, I waslike, oh cool, you're a
missionary, missionary is a kid,that's awesome man.
And I look back now and seesituations that I was in or put

(13:14):
myself in, whether it's at workor off duty, doing whatever I
was doing and I'm like, thankyou.
You're like, wow, that couldhave gone really bad, yeah,
really really bad.
So I'm sure you can see that inyour life, your family's life.
You know that's somethingthat's pretty powerful too,
especially what your family'sdoing.
Yeah, so are they.
Does your dad still domissionary work?

(13:35):
Is he kind of like retired God,please don't say he's dead.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
No no.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Yeah, like why'd I say that?

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Why would you bring that up?
No, he's fine, good, good.
No, my family and we can diginto this too.
They're all good, they're allfine, but the Haiti earthquake
in 2010 brought them back to theStates for good.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
Oh, so they were still there.
Wow, were you there in 2010?
I was.
You were at the fire department.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Or no, were you not?
No, I wasn't hired yet, ok, ok,but I was visiting, you were
visiting.
I had moved to California.
Oh my god, my family, we allmoved to California for like two
years, ok, and by that point,this was after Haiti.
By that point, I was 18.
I knew I wanted to be afirefighter.
I'd gotten established with theExplore program, oh cool.

Speaker 1 (14:36):
Hey, I was with that, right there with you, LA County
.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
LA County.
Oh man, let's go Post-16.
And you had a dude on like twoepisodes ago, post-16.
Yeah, Grosses or Anthony orsomething like that.
Anyway, I was like I didn'tknow him.
I think he's a little bit olderthan me, but I was like dude,
post-16.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
That's all I'm supposed to do Post-3.
Oh boy.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
But either way, I knew I wanted to be a
firefighter.
That's cool.
The missionary work kind ofpushed me into that too helping
people, yeah.
Yeah, Exciting, unpredictable,all that stuff.
But my family moved fromCalifornia after two years back
to Haiti and I was like I got tostay here.

(15:18):
I know what I'm being called todo now.
I want to be a firefighter.
I'm on that path EMT, theExplores, the Fire Classes, all
that stuff.
I had a good focus and so Ididn't move back with them.
The option was there, but I waslike, nope, I got to do my own

(15:40):
thing here now.
So I was out of the house by 18.
And well, my family left me.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
So I was like what a little bit opposite.
I was like what a house inHaiti.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I was out here on my own trying to hustle and survive
in LA, but family moved back toHaiti, and this was 2009.
So not even a year before theJanuary 12, 2010, haiti
earthquake that was a 7.0, 39seconds long, killed 300,000

(16:14):
people and left a million morehomeless and you were there, so
I went back after five years tovisit.
And I got there a couple ofdays before the earthquake and
it was just insane.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Like absolutely insane.
So where were you when theearthquake happened?
Were you outside in a roomhotel Like where?

Speaker 2 (16:37):
were you.
So the capital of Haiti isPort-au-Prince and I was in that
city and it's a mountainouscity, so there's like mountains
all the way down to the beach.
And I was down in the city atan orphanage, on the second
floor, and when the earthquakestarted I didn't know.

(16:58):
It was an earthquake right away.
Even living in California, I'dnever experienced anything
substantial and to me it feltlike a Big Mac truck was
starting to rumble down the roadand this was just like a few
seconds and then it got more andmore and more intense, to where

(17:22):
our building was shaking.
And there is a lady that ownedthat orphanage, was a paramedic,
I think.
She lived in California,actually for a little bit of
time, but she's like moreretirement age and missionary
now in Haiti, and she yelledearthquake.
She knew she had more experienceand I'm like, oh shoot,
earthquake.
Ok, so second floor of thisorphanage.

(17:44):
I'm up against this railing, sohold on to the railing.
And I'm starting to plan myescape route.
I was like, OK, what if thisbuilding goes down?
What am I going to do?
Am I going to ride it down?
Probably a bad idea.
I saw a truck down below.
I'm like all right, I'm goingto jump on that truck.
The shocks will kind of absorbmy fall.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Like every guy in the action movie.

Speaker 2 (18:06):
I'm jumping for the truck.
I got this, so fortunately Ididn't have to do that.
The building we were in stood,but there was buildings all
around us going down and it wasnoisy, dusty.
After like five secondsprobably that's when it started

(18:26):
to become scary and intense and,yeah, that's when, like,
structures started to failaround us and everything in our
building that could fall downfell down, like every table or
chairs were flipped over, allthe cabinets were on the ground,
all the pictures were off thewall, all the kids have fallen

(18:47):
down 110 kids at this orphanage.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
I'm sure that must have been chaos.
We've been dealing with themright.
They're kids, they don't knowwhat's going on.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
So, yeah, all the kids are screaming Quite, a few
of the adults too, and yeah, soonce it stopped, we got all the
kids off the second floor, whichwere the second floor's special
needs area.
So we like carried all thosekids out first and then got the

(19:18):
rest of the kids out.
And this orphanage issurrounded by walls.
So my firefighter not hired yet, but some of the training in me
was like all right, collapse.
We got to stay away from thebuilding, stay away from the
walls.
So we got in like little groupswhere it seemed safer and sat
on the ground Becauseaftershocks started hitting and

(19:39):
the aftershocks were like 5.0.
And bringing down remainingstruggling buildings that were
just barely hanging on, bringingdown more buildings, and over
the next couple weeks there werehundreds of aftershocks.
But yeah, so this was almost 5PM in the evening, so dusk, and

(20:03):
I wanted to go out and help.
But I felt like I was neededwith the kids, like a lot of
kids to handle, and I thought mydad knew where I was and there
was like a couple places I couldhave been and I was like, all
right, I probably shouldn't gowandering, like I'll probably

(20:24):
stay where he thinks I might be,and no cell phones worked.
Like all the towers either wentdown or there's like millions
of people trying to text andmake phone calls.
But at the same time we didn'tknow how devastating this
earthquake was.
At this point I was like hopeeverybody's OK.

(20:45):
We didn't see anybody die rightin front of us when it was
happening and we couldn't seeanything around us because of
walls and buildings and stuff.
So, yeah, I had absolutely noidea how devastating it was
initially and so I just waitedand really wanted to run out

(21:09):
there and make sure everybodyelse was OK.
But I knew I was needed where Iwas at.
So I waited probably a couplehours and my dad showed up.
Oh good, and he had a bad,serious look on his face, like a
look I'd probably never seen onhim before, and he was like

(21:32):
Trevor, I need to talk to youand he pulls me aside and he was
like I went back to theapartments where your mom and
your two sisters were andnobody's alive there, and it was
a five-story apartment on theedge of a mountain.
They lived on the bottom floorand it had completely collapsed,

(21:55):
pancaked down.
So he didn't tell me they weredead, he just said.
He went back there couldn'tfind anybody alive.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Dude, I'm almost a loss for words right now.
For your dad to even come andfind you, all this chaos has
happened.
He might think his rest of hisfamily's past.
He doesn't know where you are,that poor man.
And then he finally sees you.
But to deliver that information, I mean, how did you even
receive?

Speaker 2 (22:24):
that I didn't believe him.
He had a denial probably huh.
Yeah, I was.
So back to the God thing andbeing in all these different
countries, we've always trustedGod to take care of us and my

(22:44):
thought has always been he'sgoing to take care of us.
So why would he put us in asituation where we trusted him
and then we get killed?
Yeah, so that?
Yeah, that was my initialthought.
We oh.
And a little backstory on mydad.
He's, at this point, thedirector of World Vision in

(23:07):
Haiti.
Wow, and he was the first pointof contact that the US had with
Haiti.
So Wolf Blitzer, cnn calledWorld Vision Wow, a couple
seconds after the earthquake.
And I would have told him thepound sand.
Yeah, he's like what do youknow?
And my dad's like we have noidea what's going on right now.

(23:27):
Like no numbers, no, nothing.
You're a poor dad, dude.
And then he's like I got tofind my family.
So, yeah, so I went with my dad.
He had a car and a cool car.
It was bulletproof.
His dad had, like sirens andstuff.
The thick windows and doors.
Yeah, the windows don't rolldown and stuff.
So he did have a cool car, butit took forever to navigate the

(23:53):
roads because now there's bodiesin the roads, now there's
collapsed walls, there's lots ofblood.
As people are getting uncovered, dead bodies are getting
dragged out into the street.
Oh my gosh, people who arealive are being kind of
sheltered in place and takencare of there, and it's dark too
.
So Haiti is hard enough todrive in normally, but now

(24:17):
there's all these extraobstacles.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Now add rubble bodies .
It's dark, you guys are goingthrough it.

Speaker 2 (24:22):
So we decided to go to my dad's pastor's house, who
lives up in the mountains, whereit's safer, they are less
affected by the earthquake andthey have a satellite phone.
So we eventually made it upthere, first time getting on a
phone other than CNN.

(24:43):
But his satellite phone workedand we called the states.
We called my mom's parents,told them we're OK, we're still
looking, we're still trying toget everybody together.
And then my dad called a mentorof his and just asked him to

(25:08):
just tell him what was going onand pray for us.
We did a miracle.
Yeah, straight up.
So I couldn't sleep that night.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
I can't.
Imagine.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
On top of all the thoughts going through my head,
aftershocks were again and againand again hitting us.
So the other thing was was thatearthquake preliminary to a
bigger earthquake?
We're also thinking about that?
There was also tsunami warningsand stuff like that.
We had heard the prisons brokeopen.

(25:40):
So there's all these bad peopleout, so a lot's going on, and
I'm thinking, ok, maybe one ofthem survived.
I'm trying to, or maybe at thatpoint I was still in total
denial.
I'm like, yeah, we're going tofind them.
And then the next morning Iwoke up I was like, all right,

(26:03):
we've got to go right away.
Like let's get to work, let'sgo get shovels, let's go to the
office, grab all the stuff weneed.
And my dad's like, nope, stop,you need to eat.
We're going to need ourstrength today.
He's very logical andreasonable.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Did you ever during that time see him get emotional?

Speaker 2 (26:23):
He doesn't get very emotional.
He got emotional for him.
I got you, which isn't much,but I'm kind of the same way,
but at that point I waspassionate about going to find
him.
So I was amped up and he waslike no, we need to eat.

(26:45):
He was right, so I sat down.
We tried to eat some food it'sgoing to be a long day and
during the breakfast he startstalking about funeral plans and
that's when it really hit me.
He truly believes that they'vedied and I had to get up and

(27:08):
kind of excuse myself.
I walked over to the balcony.
Now we're up in the mountains,overlooking Haiti.
Hadn't seen it in the daylight,so it was early in the morning
and earthquake happened prettymuch at night and we're down in
it, so I hadn't seen Haiti sincethe sun came up yet, since the
earthquake occurred.
And I walked over to thebalcony and this is such a vivid

(27:31):
memory for me that I stillthink about it a lot.
But the sun was rising.
It was like piercing throughsmoke.
There's smoke headerseverywhere Because the
earthquake created a bunch offires, and there's dust in the
air still.
There's still just this hazefrom all the rubble, and then

(27:54):
there's singing and wailing,like you can just hear the whole
country just morning and upset,confused, scared, all sorts of
mixed emotions coming out ofthis country, and it's just so
alive, like it was a that'sgoing to be forever etched in

(28:18):
your yeah, and that's when Istarted to cry.
It was so overwhelming, I guess, and also the thought that now
my family might not be alive andstuff.

Speaker 3 (28:29):
Well, that adrenaline dump and then the realization
of the gravity of the situationprobably just smacked you right
in the face, looking at it andbeing able to see like holy
smokes.
Look at all this devastation,I'm around.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Yeah, and we still this kind of confirmed like it's
worse than I thought and it'sthe whole country and yeah.
So that hit me really hard andI'm holding it together.
Sometimes I tear up during thisfart and I'm like you got me
tearing up.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
I'm trying to hold back, but it's a lot, man.

Speaker 2 (29:01):
I don't like to cry and sometimes it hits me out of
nowhere.
You're good, bro, let it out.
Baby, I'm holding strong.
So far how you doing.
I've had many nats of crying.
So, anyway, before long, we'reheading down the mountain, my
dad's, pastor's driving, andthen my dad's sitting in the
front passenger seat.

(29:22):
I'm sitting behind him, we'reholding hands, we're starting to
pray Pray about the day and I'mlooking out the window at all
these people, and some arehiking up the mountain with
suitcases, some are hiking downthe mountain with, like handfuls
of clothes.
A lot of people are bloody orlike dusty and people don't know

(29:50):
what they're doing or wherethey're going or like what to do
.
And I started like making eyecontact with people and I'm a
different American person.
I stand out in Haiti, speak adifferent language.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
Just a little bit.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
All that like very different culture, all that
stuff right, but we were allbrothers and sisters at that
time Because we had allexperienced this tragedy
together and yeah.
So at that point we're justlet's get through this together
and there's like a deepconnection there, even though I
didn't know these people.
So we get down the mountain, weget to my dad's office and we

(30:34):
pull in the front gate, we jumpout, we start looking for
supplies, tarps, water, shovels,body bags for other people Not
our family, other people that wemay come across and we start
hearing yelling at the WorldVision Headquarters office and
my mom and my sister coming inthe back gate and my so the

(31:02):
let's see how old was she, the14-year-old sister.
So the sister that is not theyoungest was helping my mom walk
.
She had my sister at her, shewas on, my mom did not.
My mom was all beat up and theywere both kind of bloody and
covered in debris and stuffUnreal.

(31:24):
And I didn't see my youngestsister though.
So I was like, oh man, maybeshe didn't make it, but somebody
else came in carrying myyoungest sister.
So they all made it.
The youngest one couldn't see.
She had like debris in her eyesand stuff.
But yeah, they all made it, sowe held each other, cried.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
It was like the most beautiful thing.
What a I'm lost for wordsalmost here right now because
I'm thinking about my family andyou know we've been through.
My brother passed away in thecar accident in 2004, and I know
what they went through.
It's very difficult, but toimagine it's just you and your
dad and your sisters and yourmom having killed.

(32:10):
I can't even imagine theemotions that you and your
father must have been goingthrough and then to see them
coming up, man again.
What a moment.
What a moment of relief, ofthankfulness, gratitude.
Probably I mean you guys had tohave squeezed each other to
show tight in that moment.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Yeah, absolutely yeah .
Going from thinking you losteverything to getting it back is
incredible.
Yeah, yeah it's like a secondchance, you know.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah, well, how did they make it out of that
building?
Were they even in the building?

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Yeah, they're in it, so they have a mirror.
There should be a movie aboutthem, that's what I was going to
say.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
I mean, you guys better write this down.

Speaker 3 (32:51):
I was going to say next podcast interview.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, get your mom and sisters over here, man.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
Yeah, so they had just gotten home from school and
normally they get home, theyall split up, go to their rooms,
whatever.
They just so happened to all betogether talking about the day
and when the earthquake started,it started panicking down and I

(33:19):
guess it got.
They're on the bottom floor, soI guess it got to their floor
last.
And in the middle of itpanicking, the structure the
wall right next to them brokeopen and they jumped out because
they knew like, oh, this is it.
And all three of them jumpedout and this is up on the side
of a mountain, so they'retumbling down the mountain, the

(33:39):
building's tumbling behind themlike rubble and debris and stuff
.
Two of them are barefoot.
They spent the night in a tree,immediately like looting and
stuff started happening and itHaiti's like not a safe place
for women in general, butespecially after an earthquake,

(34:00):
it's like very dangerous.
So yeah, they hid up in a treeand that's why my dad couldn't
find them and they hitched aride the next morning to the
office and we were reunited.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Oh my gosh.
You know I've been through someinteresting things in my life
and a lot of them have been frombad decisions.
Some are out of my control, butit goes to show you the
magnificence and power that wehave in our faith and what God

(34:35):
can do.
And some people are like, ohwell, other people died.
It's like look things happen.
But I mean just to hear thestory and the wall just breaks
open and they jump out.
I mean, dude, it's amazing man.
It's truly amazing.
You can see the protection thathe had over them during that
time.
And it strikes me because Ihave been really digging kind of

(34:57):
into my own faith and Bible andstuff.
I don't attend church everySunday.
I do go, but there's beenpoints in my life where I've
been in this place of waiting,waiting in pain, waiting in
frustration, waiting in let down.
And you're sitting here likedude, where are you?
Like?

(35:18):
My prayers, I tell people, arevery gritty, very tough.
There's been times I'll be likewhere the F are you right now?
I don't like this.
This is painful, this isterrible.
You said you love me.
You said you'd be here for me.
Why is this happening?
What's going on?
That also reminds me of Friday,when Jesus was crucified right,
and then they had that day.
Three days later he rose fromthe dead.

(35:38):
I can't imagine what theyprobably thought during those
three days, that waiting period,we're all seen lost and then
they go to the tomb and theangel says why are you looking
for the living among the dead?
He's alive.
I just look at those things.
It's so powerful where you'rejust like in these moments of
terror, frustration, pain, letdown, you're like what is going

(36:00):
on in my life and it's like theLord's like there sometimes.
Just give it a moment.
I got you.
Give it a second.
How powerful that story is, man.
I mean it gets.
I'm trying really hard rightnow to not choke up, but it's
beautiful and amazing in so manydifferent ways.
What can come from what youthink is tragedy and triumph can

(36:22):
come from it.
It's powerful, man.
It's huge.
I can't imagine how much tighteror closer there's major family.
I'm sure all of you have had todeal with the trauma of that.
I'm sure that's not easy to getthrough, man.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
That's a lot.
They especially for them.
They went through more than Idid and then they got whisked
whisked back to the US.
We got them to the US embassyas fast as we could.
The Air Force was picking upAmericans, especially injured
ones, and prioritizing them backto the US to get care.

(36:59):
Was your mom beat up or reallyseverely injured.
So she was.
We thought she broke her armand her leg and I think she had
some cracks and stuff.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
But Just a minor cracks.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
Mom's an app, I just jumped out of mountain from my
house and hid in a tree.
Yeah, I mean, she's older thanI am and everything hurts me now
you know, like I can't imagine.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
I feel you broke her yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
I can't imagine what she went through and yeah, she
got beat up pretty good, but notcritically.
You know she's good now butyeah, the psychological trauma
from that they spent years withPTSD and going to therapy and
whatnot trying to overcome thatand loud noises would affect

(37:49):
them and shaking, and yeah, ittook them a long time to get
over that.
For me, I actually ended upstaying in Haiti for a couple
weeks, so my dad took my mom andsisters and I was like dad, I
gotta stay.
Like I got my EMT, I've donesome fire shading.

Speaker 1 (38:12):
Dude, look at my guy, I like it man.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
I knew enough of the language to get in trouble and
get around a little bit and Iexpected my dad to like talk me
out of it.
And he was like you're right,dude, you gotta stay.
He hit me with the car keys.
I'm like okay, that's prettycool.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
You had that with your dad, though he probably was
like my son's a man.
He's got this.
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
So, yeah, I spent a couple weeks.
I did.
I worked with the search andrescue team.
We pulled body parts up butnobody alive.
The you've heard of LA County'sbig USOT team.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Oh yeah, they're number one all the time, dude,
they're first up.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
So I saw them and I happened to be wearing a station
32 LA County shirt and an LACounty hat and I lost everything
else I had in the apartmentbecause I was staying in the
apartment with my family.
So all my belongings were goneexcept the clothes on my back,
and happened to be county stuff.
And so Task Force two shows upand I'm like, hey, you know,

(39:14):
just at the US Embassy.
I'm like trying to get theirattention and there's a fence
between us.
But one of the guys comes overand I was like hey, I'm a
explorer and a county, and he'slike what?

Speaker 1 (39:25):
the heck is this.
What are you doing in?

Speaker 3 (39:26):
Haiti Kid doing here.
How the heck did you get?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
here.
So I gave him the Cliff Noteversion and I was like, can I
help you guys?
You know like I'd love to jointhe team.
And he's like nah, sorry, kid,you know can't do that, cause
you know USAID and FEMA andoften all that stuff, like all
their governing entities,organizations like they just are
not going to have it right.
So that kind of crushed me alittle bit.

(39:51):
But I was like, all right, oneday I'm going to get hired and
one day I'm going to get on thatteam.
And eventually I did.
But in the meantime, yeah, Ifound a smaller search and
rescue team and they were kindof like a team.
They had a pilot, army ranger,cadaver dog, paramedic, a leader

(40:11):
, all the crucial security.
Yeah, security dude, so smalllittle team, and I was like the,
I knew the country and like Iknew kind of how to help us
navigate around.
So I went with them and yeahagain, like no, like live saves,
unfortunately.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
But still important work, yeah, still important work
.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
You know, we got, we got to try and I got to meet a
lot of people during that time.
So that kind of like paved theway for the next thing that I
did where I met, I met up withthese group of helicopter pilots
.
They had three helicopters,independently wealthy, flew them
down on their own dime and theywere just trying to figure out

(40:55):
the best way to help.
Wow, so we'd take food from theairport.
Food was getting dropped offfrom all these different
countries but it wasn't gettingout because of riots, like
people couldn't handle like thestuff, like they were so hungry
they couldn't just like get youknow line up and it was just by
port, pretty much right at steel.
It was getting really dangerous.
So I was involved in like tworiots on the ground trying to

(41:17):
distribute and it just did notwork.
So with the helicopters we'dfly, we'd hover, we'd drop like
cans of beans and food and stuffand it was amazing, we got tons
of food out all day long.
Three helicopters moving likearound the clock.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
Are these small helicopters Like, like private,
small private ones Liketwo-seaters, three-seaters or
something?

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Yeah, there's two R44s.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
OK.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
And then there's one that was a little bit bigger,
it's I don't know.
There was one that was like apretty expensive, like probably
$2 million helicopter that fit,I think, like six people, and
we'd load that thing up likepretty good Hover over rivers
sometimes, like it helped kindof disperse, and we'd sleep in

(42:02):
the Dominican at night at abaseball field.
They'd land the helicopters atthis baseball field.
We had security, it was saferover there.
They weren't really affected bythe earthquake very much and
then we'd get up, fly back toHaiti the next day.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
How tired were you guys by the end of doing those
cycles over and over?
I mean even not just you, butfor the pilots having to focus
the attention it takes to pilota helicopter.
I mean, it's a flying toolbox,right, they're not made to fly,
but they do, you know, to hoverand watch out for trees and the
weight of the load of the food.
And having another passengersin there like yourself, the

(42:37):
rescuers, I mean, man, that's alot dude.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
So what I found was and this is why I had to keep
moving around and finding workto do there were tons of work to
do, but you just had to go findit.
People get tired really quick.
So the search and rescue teamsmost of them were done after the
first week, and that's also dueto viability of your rescues.
But the helicopter team, theywere done after a week.

(43:01):
And then so I'm like, all rightnow, what am I gonna do?
And I found a like a mashhospital.
So all these makeshift likecircus tents were set up at the
airport and University of Miamiwas like overseeing it and they
had just hundreds of people aday coming through there like
they were doing amputations.
They were doing like all thepeople.

(43:23):
Up to like 21 days after theearthquake, bodies were still
like being pulled out.
And on top of the violenceremember we talked about the
prisons breaking open so there'slike really bad dudes out there
and there's gang violence andgunshot wounds we're getting and
the normal stuff like caraccidents.
So they were treating all thosetypes of people.

(43:44):
I went back to the apartmentthat collapsed to see if I could
get any of my stuff, like Ididn't have my passport, my
wallet, phone, anything, and Iwent back.
I went in as far as I could,which wasn't very far, and
somebody had already like lootedthe house, found my wallet,
took the money, but like mynational registry card was in

(44:07):
there, for example.

Speaker 1 (44:09):
For EMT.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
Yeah, and I had just gotten it.
So I was like super proud of itand this hospital asked me for
it and I pulled it out.
It was like it looked like arock had crushed it.
So it was all like beat up andI handed it to them and they
looked it up and I'm like Ican't believe they're doing this
Like we're in like emergency,like third world country, like

(44:31):
national disaster.
They looked it up and thenthey're like all right, do
whatever you can, like you're adoctor now.
Cut this guy's leg off, noseriously like I was helping
with amputations.
I was pushing drugs startingIVs learning.
You know like I was getting anurse or a doctor to like help
me, but they're letting me getin there and do way more than

(44:52):
I'd be able to do here in theStates.
So that was pretty cool.
So I did that as long as Icould.
And that was a real burner,Like you would work until you
dropped and then you'd find acot, an MRE refuel, take a nap
and then back at it.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
How many hours a day would you say you were working?

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Probably 20.
Like it was just like oh gosh,just pretty much nonstop.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Yeah, You'd sleep for a few hours four hours or
whatever it is and then go rightback to it.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Yeah, and then before long I had like seniority at
the hospital, Like the doctorswould come for a few days and
leave and stuff, and I'd beenthere over a week.
So I was like I knew my wayaround.

Speaker 3 (45:31):
You know I'm the goat's-eekest Street, cred and
everything.
How many EMT, sir?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (45:36):
Yeah, I had a little piece of tape that said EMT
audit.
You know so my ears.
But yeah, it was burning me outtoo.
So the last thing I did beforeI left Haiti, I found a group
that was doing rubble removaland they were cleaning pathways
to wells.
So a lot of wells got coveredup with rubble.

(45:57):
People couldn't get clean water.
So we were like hard labored,just clearing out rocks and
stuff out of these wells so thatthey could get water again.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Wow, how many?
So how long were you theredoing that?
Three weeks.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
After the earthquake, about three weeks, yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
And then to get back home did you have to go back to
the embassy or the Air Force?

Speaker 2 (46:17):
Home or you just take a normal flight home.
I should have gone to theembassy.
Now that you bring that up, no,I went to the airport and
everybody was like no, there'sno way you're getting out.
First of all, flights aren'tcoming into the airport,
airports damaged, only reliefplans are coming in and you
don't have money or a passportor anything.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
I got my Nasser register.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
I got this.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
I don't look like anybody here.
Yeah, I know right.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Exactly that's true.
So, yeah, people had beencamping there's tents on the
tarmac, People have been campingfor weeks trying to wait for a
flight to get out of Haiti andto get home and stuff.
And I just felt this sense likea God thing, that I should go.
It was time I should go to theairport and my goal was just get

(47:11):
as far as I could, so walked inthe front, walked past security
, Nobody stopped me, keptwalking, kept walking, kept
walking.
I eventually made it out to thetarmac.
There's hundreds of people outthere, no planes, and I'm like,
all right, not wet.
But for a long not more than 10minutes went by.

(47:32):
Somebody came up to me.
They're like hey, we have alittle puddle hopper that's
going.
I think it was Bahamas and thenthe States and we got one seat
free.
We felt like we should talk toyou.

Speaker 1 (47:49):
Oh way.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Oh hey, I was like, well, I don't have any money,
I'm just seeing how far I canget here.
And they're like no, no, no,it's OK.
I don't have a passport.
No, no, it's OK.
Ok, I guess I'm getting on thisplane.
So within 30 minutes I was onthis little tiny airplane and,
yeah, we stopped in Bahamas,fueled up and then landed in

(48:11):
Florida and I get to Florida.
No idea what city I'm in.
It's nighttime.
No cell phone, again.
No money, like no, nothing.
I borrowed a cell phone calledmy dad.
They hadn't really heard it forme in a while.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Can I just say I think it's actually amazing that
you knew your dad's number byheart.
Ok, good to hear.
Right now I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know any of myfamily's phone numbers by heart.
I go write my phone, just hitthat.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Sister, whatever, it's good.
So here's why Our phone numberswere one number different.
Oh, ok.
That makes me great when wesigned up for the cell phones.
They're like all right, this isyours, this is yours.
It's just sequential, so that'swhy, luckily, but yeah, he
handled it, he got me a tickethome and he's like you got to

(48:58):
get to this airport, figure thatone out.
And you got to be there bytomorrow morning.
So there's a shuttle leavingthe airport, hopped on Luckily
it was going the right directionmade friends on that shuttle.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
You're such a wild man.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Yeah, you just got to do what you got to do.
I made friends, slept on thefloor of my new friends' hotel
room, had a continentalbreakfast for free and then a
free shuttle to the airport thenext morning.
And I remember there being alittle bit of trouble getting
onto my flight because I didn'thave anything like an ID and

(49:38):
stuff.
But I think I explained myselfpretty well and then they're
just like they probably saw youtoo.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
The same shirt all during the day.
Man, I've been through hell andback.
This is for a kid.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Yeah, wow, so yeah, I guess that worked.
So I don't think I actually sawmy family.
I think I went straight back toCalifornia.
So there's a little bit of weshould meet up soon type of deal
going on.
But yeah, that was the Haitistory.
I got home, I wanted tocontinue helping.

(50:08):
I started a nonprofit buildinghouses for earthquake survivors,
so that one's called FirmFoundation, f-i-r-m-e, which is
the Haitian Creole spelling forstrong.
So a strong foundation Built 39houses so far.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
That's excellent, dude 39, eight building more
right now too.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
We're trying, yeah, right now, it's always too
dangerous.
So it continues to get reallybad and dangerous.
And I just had a kid six monthsago and I was trying to go
right before that occurred andthey're like don't come.
Nobody's leaving their houses,people are getting killed for
leaving, everybody's lost theirjob.

(50:52):
It's really bad here right now.
You just can't.
You won't be able to doanything if you come right now.
So I'm like, ok, fine, we stillhave money in the account.
We're ready to build that sortof thing, raise awareness.
But yeah, I got a second chance.
My family got a second chance.

(51:13):
I didn't even tell you mysecond chance.
Oh, bring it.
So one of the reasons I was inHaiti wanted to visit my family,
but two kind of do like alittle resume builder and I was
going to teach firefighting withthe United Nations.
They had like a new fireprogram and I was like, all
right, cool, I got a little bitof experience that can come and

(51:37):
help out at the very basic level.
So I'd set that up with theUnited Nations, but they're
still like some formalities andstuff.
So come in, do the interview.
They still wanted me to gothrough a couple hoops and so my
interview was scheduled for theday of the earthquake.

(51:58):
During the time of theearthquake, the day before the
interview, I was like I don'twant to waste my time here in
Haiti, like I'm only here for afew weeks.
I'm going to call them and seeif I could do it a day early.
So they say, yeah, I could comein.
I went in a day early, did thestuff they liked me, got my ID

(52:20):
and all that stuff.
Had I not rescheduled, thebuilding I was in completely
collapsed.
Oh boy, everybody died.
300 people died in thatbuilding and I definitely would
have been involved with that ifI had kept my interview day.
So I knew I was like, oh dude,I definitely dodged the bullet

(52:42):
there.
So, yeah, I'm like, for sure Igot a second chance.

Speaker 1 (52:47):
Yeah, that's my friend.
If you can't see the hand ofGod in your life, bro, you blind
.
You know what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (52:55):
Yeah, so when I tell the story I'm like maybe it's
happenstance, but there's toomany coincidences here to say
that God didn't have his hand ineverything that went on.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Oh dude, how.
What a story, man, I mean, oftragedy and triumph and then
also service and sacrifice foryou to stay in the country and
say I need to stay here and doit, and you just made it work 20
hours a day, going from beingin helicopters to you're in a
medical tent, you're helpingpeople, you're doing surgeries

(53:26):
or whatever was happening inthere, and then how it all
worked out is just it'sincredible.
I hear the story for the firsttime, but I purposely did not
listen to the other podcastyou're on, because I'm like man
I want this to be.
I want to hear it from my twoyears first, like fresh and man.
It's powerful, it's reallypowerful.

(53:46):
And how did that?
When you came back, how longafter that did you continue to
pursue fire fighting?
Did you get hard pretty quickafter that?
No, no, ok.

Speaker 2 (53:57):
No, I didn't get hired quickly.
After that, I did continue topursue it.
Let's see.
I think I missed an interviewwith county due to being in
Haiti, dang it why?
So that pushed me back a year,but I was able to appeal that

(54:19):
part and they did give meanother test.
It was either the interviewerthat, I think, is the written
actually.
So, yeah, I did my written andthen it was just bad time to get
hired hiring freezes.
So I got hired.
It took me almost seven yearsfrom the time I started applying

(54:41):
at 18 to the tower date andI've been on.
I think it'll be nine years inFebruary.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Hey baby, let's go man About that 10-year mark goes
quick.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
It's gone really quick.
Yeah, I can't believe it.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
Yeah, but it's cool because you saw, you were an
explorer with county, you sawthem over in Haiti when you were
doing that work and now you'rewearing that uniform and still
serving people.
I mean, it's like a Commisplecircle.
It's really cool yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
I finished probation and that was goal number one,
right like focus on that,nothing else, just get through
probation.
And then it was it's almostlike two extra years of classes
to get on the USAR team.
So I and that's on your owntime, you know you're going and
trying to sign up and like maybeyou miss it, maybe you don't,
whatever, but there's a bunch ofextra classes you need for

(55:31):
those USAR classes.
So I worked through those andthen got on the team.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
So now, when anything goes down around the world and
they need search and rescue,they go.
I, from what I understand, theygo to LA County first, right.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
I think so.
That's what I've always been.
It's like counties.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
First.
They're on C-130, he's gone, orwhatever airplane they're on.
You know, sounds good yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
I think they're like one of two international search
and rescue teams.
Others can go, but it's likethey're.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
They're number one, you guys are, you're the first
of me.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
I think they're the only ones that have deployed to
like two different countries atonce.
Okay, but yeah, that's wild,that's what it is.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
So are you still in your paramedic now?
No, no, okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
I'm a.
I'm a truckie.
Mom and sleep's all night, Okayit's all making sense, dude
Chucky firefighter.

Speaker 1 (56:24):
Yeah, sleep too, you get hungry, right Yep.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
So rough life.
West Hollywood firehouse eight.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Do you think those moments I mean going from your
raised admission at your home toexperiencing what you did in
Haiti do you think that reallyhelps you form kind of how you
are a firefighter now, how youlook at people, how you serve,
cause you helped people and veryI want to say, less than poor
communities probably had.
You know nothing.
And then you come back here.
I mean it's so different, right.

(56:52):
You've got to see so much ofthe world and from a different
perspective.
That's had to play into youradult life working as a
firefighter.
You probably be in a father,right?

Speaker 2 (57:00):
Yeah, and a husband, yeah.
I think the biggest way it'shelped.
I think it's helping me is justlike my stress levels are very
like.
My tolerance is very high.
Gotcha, my worst day is my likethreshold level right.

(57:21):
So if my worst day is up hereand then most other people's are
like kind of around here wherethey have, you know, family
member die, which is horribleand that's their worst day, I'm
just able to kind of like baseeverything off of like the
really bad days that I've hadand there have been some bad

(57:43):
ones.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
And I think most of like 99.9% of my life, even in
the stressfulness and in the job, is kind of like down here
compared to like my past, so I'mable to like keep a low head
and focus and think straight.
Yeah, I mean you got goodpractice yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:08):
You got great practice getting ready for it.
And I don't, you know I've hadthis talk yesterday with my
sister.
We went out to like a blackbrunch just to hang out and I
was just telling her like, yeah,you know, she was asking about
my job and I said you know, thehardest part for me is that
people will never understand inour line of work as firefighters
that it's not just you know, acool uniform and riding around

(58:32):
in a shiny firing dinner truck.
You know we're calledeveryone's worst moment.
Every day You're living outsomeone else's trauma with them.
You know, then we got to shutthat down and I told her I'm
like it's just, it's a great job, it's great service, but it
wears on you.
You know, it's just constantall the time.
And you know that's one thing.
I told her, my gosh, ourparents, my parents, don't
understand, they don't get it.
It's like, oh hey, work out.

(58:53):
You know, government job,retirement you have no idea what
we go to on a day to day basisand what we see.
And I was just telling her likehow I've had to learn to try my
best to leave work at work andcome home and be present and
actually have emotion Cause I'vebeen married once and divorced
once and you know own it.
I've messed up a lot and a bigpart of me towards the end was
being so shut down and reachingfor anything that would just

(59:15):
give me pleasure and happinessand not knowing I wasn't
emotionally available.
It would come home just like Iwas at work, just quiet.
You know what's wrong?
Nothing fine.
And then we'll say you're notbeing fine you know you break up
.
God stop ask him.
You know.
But learning now through, wehave counseling team
international at our firedepartment and it's free for us,

(59:36):
free for us, our families, andit's been such a good thing for
me.
You know, I've been going a lot, haven't gone in a little bit,
I would say probably like threeweeks or more, over a month now,
but I was going to him likeonce a month.
I just give you once a week,you know, and realizing, hey,
like you're what you've seen,what you deal with on a day to
day basis, including the othertrauma in your life of other

(59:59):
things you've been through, likeit'll stack up and you have to
learn to process that and get itout and not just bury it and
keep burying it and keep buryingit.
You know, and that's somethingI had to learn over my career,
dude is, you know, coming homeand being present and being
emotionally open, being, youknow, being available and not
just being shut down.
You know something really,really had to work on.
I mean, I only have what?

(01:00:20):
17 years going on now withinthe fire service, but it's
enough time where it's like man,you've seen a lot of bad stuff,
you know.
I've seen with Ollie.
We've worked at busy stations.
You're up all night, all thetime and you know you go from
delivering a baby to seeingsomeone you know beat up and you
know maimed in a car, tosomeone hung themselves.
And now you had a structurefire and it's like seven AM

(01:00:41):
comes.
All right, go home and be afather, husband, son.
You know it'd be normal.
It's like man, that was wild.
Like this is crazy.
Like I've read something theother day that in the normal
civilian life most people onlysee one or two traumatic deaths,
like maybe two.
We see it shifly.

(01:01:03):
It's not normal.
How do you process that?
How do you get through that?
How do you deal?
You know, how do you cope, andthat's something for me.
I've tried so hard now, with theyears I have on the fire
service, to really start tomanage properly.
Like it's not weak or weird tosay I go to therapy.
It's good, you need to workthese things out, you need to
talk to somebody.
But what has also helped mewith that is coming back to my

(01:01:24):
faith.
You know, putting Christ firstin my life.
And has it been easy?
By no means.
No, bro.
I have some terrible habitsI've had to kick and it's hard.
But I can see, you know formyself a greater purpose in what
we do as firefighters, but alsoin my private life.
We're serving people, we'rehelping others, but also the
people who serve need help.
At times they need to be servedas well.
You know A lot to say.

(01:01:45):
It's like it's been.
It's interesting like seeingyou're hearing your story in
what you've been through andyou're sitting here now, this
dude who can talk about it andbe open and you're still
involved in the fire service anddoing what you do and how
amazing that story is and youcan see God's hand in your life.
Me personally listening to you,I'm like, wow, talk about a man

(01:02:08):
of faith who just went for it,stepped out in faith and just
did what he felt he was calledto do in an emergency and he
made it work and it worked.
You had nothing.
You had nothing.
You got through this city.
You helped all these people.
You did all these things thatyou didn't do for fame or to
look at me.
You did it because it needed tobe done.

(01:02:29):
That speaks volumes of yourcharacter and who you are.
This is not me just praisingyou, but we need more people
like that.
We live in a time whereeveryone just steps back and
wants to film and look at likewhy don't you freaking help the
person dude?
Come on, man.
It's encouraging to hear yourstory and to hear what you've
been through and to see the manthat you are now and that you're

(01:02:50):
still stuck to your guns andgetting hired with the fire
service.
You even said it I'm going towork for that department one day
.
You're doing it.
It doesn't come without hardwork.
There comes a lot of sacrificefor this job, getting in and
then, once you're in, it'samazing to see that.
Man, I might sound weird, butI'm proud of you.

(01:03:10):
I'm saying man to man dude, I'msuper proud of you.
That's huge.
I hope that you're still.
I'm sure some of those thingshave probably left a lasting
scar image in your brain, butthere's nothing lower it can't
handle.
That's what I've learned.
It takes time.
It's not like Lord hears thingsovernight or things happen
instantly.
But think about everything inyour life and how everything

(01:03:36):
lined up, perfect for you to bethere on that day at that time,
and that orphanage when all thatwent down.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Isn't that wild?
No, accident?

Speaker 1 (01:03:44):
No, it's not.
I think of things like thatsometimes, or things that I've
been through or things that havehappened.
I'm like how did this allhappen, that I had happened to
be here at this time, at thismoment, to be here and help this
person.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
Isn't that?

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
wild it's like.
Sometimes it leaves youspeechless.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
It's incredible.
Definitely something I'vethought about before.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
I'm sure your whole family probably Are they doing
good now, though.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
Yeah, my parents are semi-retired now.
The older sister is married,the other sister's in college.
Everybody's happy doing great.
We're close.
We talk every day.
Still, that's good dude.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Family's important man Of course mom's good.

Speaker 3 (01:04:28):
She's a gangster.
She survived a crisis with twolittle girls.
That is unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
That's wild, dude.
Now I know your significantother, your wife knows this
story.
Dude, my goodness.
What does she think about allthat?
She's a believer, too, out ofman.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Yeah, I don't know, I'm not sure if I get to share
my story a lot, yeah, yeah,that's part of the therapy for
me too, getting on a podcast orspeaking for a fundraiser or
whatnot.
She's heard it a lot, but Idon't know if it's ever been

(01:05:11):
just me and her like hey, andthen this happened, and then
that happened, right, rightright.

Speaker 3 (01:05:17):
So I don't know Whatever, just fix the baseball
yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
She's probably sick of it right now.
I'm like, hey, you check outthat last podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:05:27):
I said it to you twice.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Yeah, you're a play to you.
I should ask her, though herthoughts.
I know she's proud of me, sheloves me, all that stuff yeah,
and she's actually really goodas far as taking care of my
mental health and stuff.
That's huge, every shift shewants to know, she asks me, she
takes time, she's intentionalwith her questions how is the

(01:05:50):
shift?
She wants to hear everythingand she's like you hear.
I don't know there's a lot ofdifferent firewives out there
and stuff, not to categorizeanybody, but she's top tier,
solid, she gets it, sheunderstands the job.
She understands what afirefighter, who is a man, needs

(01:06:16):
from a wife that isn't afirefighter and stuff like that,
so I can't say enough goodthings about her.

Speaker 1 (01:06:24):
Well it's to have that support at home and have a
solid home is huge For me.
If my private life is indisarray, I am not good at work,
it's hard to be present, it'shard to do my job I need to have
my home life solid, I need tohave that support.
So when you have that, it'spriceless dude.

(01:06:46):
I mean my goodness to have agood woman in your life that's
going to help you and take careof you, and both of you are
meeting each other's needs.
You can't put a price tag onthat dude.
You cannot put a price tag onthat dude.
Okay, I need to bring somethingup for you.
You also have, on top of allthe wild and amazing things

(01:07:06):
you've done and have it onnonprofit, you have another
company called the Williams Key.
So this is pretty cool becausewe're all first responders here.
Let's go, I'm going to bringthis out right now.
Okay, you need to.
I'm going to put this on camera.
Can we see this, sir?

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
Yeah, you got it in the camera.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Beautiful Williams Key.
And look at what my guy did onthe back dude Personalized it.
Let's go.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
Hey, yeah, that thing is sick.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
This is cool.
Okay, so this is kind of like aI wouldn't say forceful entry
tool.
It's more of like a lockout kit.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Yeah, it's like there's a couple of different
terms thrown around out thereRespectful entry, soft entry,
non-invasive type stuff, or evencovert entry for the SWAT and
stuff.
They want to be quiet with it.
But yeah, it doesn't do damage.
It doesn't work on every door,so you're dead bolts and stuff.

(01:08:04):
If you have a dead bolt, don'tworry, you're safe.
Lock it up at night.
This tool is not getting inyour house in the wrong hands or
whatever.
So it's sold to firefighters,police, actually a lot of
agencies now.
But yeah, it's been great.
How did you come up with this?

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
Because when I remember I've seen this quite a
few times, at least on socialmedia, like to commercials and
stuff.
I mean it's pretty ingenious.
What sparked you to kind ofcome up with this?

Speaker 2 (01:08:36):
So my background is in a door installation.
So one of the things that I didbefore getting hired was as a
carpenter construction worker.
Carpenter Following.
Jesus supposed to?
Yeah, specifically doors.
So I got to install severalthousand doors before getting on

(01:08:58):
the job and finished carpentrywork.
You have a lot of specialtytools so I mean this concept has
been around probably 100 yearsplus Not that specific tool, but
the concept of like slipping alock, you know so a shove knife
or whatnot.
So we were always making ourown types of tools, things for

(01:09:23):
getting into doors.
When you're installing locksall the time you like, really
get to know them really well.
So I'm good at picking locksand I had a handful of tools I'd
made for myself and I had alittle wizard bag I'd carry
around with me when I first goton the job Satchel.

(01:09:44):
No, not quite, but I had apretty crude version of what's
now known as the Williams keyand I'd pull it out all the time
like every day.
I was getting into doors everyday.
Guys were seeing it.
My district in West Hollywoodthere's like so many different
types of buildings and doors andlocks.
There's thousands ofcombinations out there.

(01:10:06):
So again, it doesn't work oneverything, but there's every
day.
I was getting into doors withit and before long people were
like, hey, that stupid thing youmade.
Can I get one of those?
You know, like nobody's evergoing to give you a compliment
in the virus.
So I made a couple.
I actually had them fabricatedbecause it takes a long time to
hand make them, but I had like asmall batch like 10 or 20 made,

(01:10:29):
gave them out just to help guysbe better at their craft, be
quicker in the door, hopefullysave a life or whatever.
And fires were breaking doorslike pretty much all the time
and there's definitely like Ilove the HAL again and the rotor
saw all that stuff.
There's places for those.
But there are some scenarioswhere we don't have to break the

(01:10:51):
door and you know you're doinga welfare check or something, if
you can get in without doingdamage.
You know new doors like twogrand so not everybody has the
money or wants to replace a door, you know when I know, bro,
just order two, they're veryexpensive.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
There you go and they're.
Yeah, I had them custom madelike different.
Yeah, it's expensive, yeah it'svery expensive.

Speaker 3 (01:11:14):
Well, part of our job is property conservation, so
it's like, as a business owner,that's exactly what you kind of
want to see.
Is a product out there that'sgoing to save me from having to
replace an entire door justbecause my alarm was going?

Speaker 2 (01:11:26):
off, you know, or you get the wrong house or whatever
, or a scenario.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Yeah, I might have been a couple of those.

Speaker 2 (01:11:39):
So, yeah, before long , once I gave some out like word
spread, and then like peoplewere hitting me up.
I didn't even know.
And then I was like, all right,I got to like like I want to
help guys.
Right, I want to put tools inpeople's hands if they want them
and they think it's somethingthat's going to help them be
better at their job and stuff.
But I was like I can't do itfor free.

(01:12:00):
So I'm like, okay, we'll dolike, I'll make like 100, you
know and see if guys want them.
And yeah, those sold quick andbefore long it just turned into
a thing.
Wow Made an Instagram websiteand now it's just like all 50
states, 30 countries,international.
I've got about 20 distributors.

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
Dude, I love it.
That's what I love seeing man.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
Yeah, it's excellent.
He's super busy now.
He's like he's taking over.
It's a problem to have.
It's a monster yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:31):
Yeah, my gosh, so is it?
I mean, do people when theyorder online, is it?
It doesn't?
I mean, you'll probably see it,but is it sent somewhere else
and made and shipped off?
Is that kind of how it works?

Speaker 2 (01:12:42):
No, no, I ship everything, oh, you ship it all
oh man, you are working.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
Oh, Trevor Damn.

Speaker 2 (01:12:49):
Yeah, Well.
Well, here's the thing.
I have a fabrication warehouse.
They make all the tools, so Idon't do that part.
The 20 distributors that yourcoffee cup included yeah, Fire
Brigade is one of them.
Oh, John dude, I love that guy.
So, yeah, John's a distributorand Chief Miller the firestore

(01:13:09):
bunch of bunch of good ones outthere carrying the key.
They are kind of my, my handsin the fuel, right, so they're
filling orders too.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
How did you reach out to Chief Miller and then John
from the brigade?

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
John was a friend of a friend, so somebody connected
me to him and he's killing it.
He's doing great.
I've had many conversationswith him.

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
Yeah, I've been.
We've been trying to get him onhere, but the schedules just
don't keep lining up.
So I've interested.
Told him I look, February, I'mflying you out.
Yeah, it is what it is.
I'm flying from San Diego tofreaking LA.

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
He's a good personality so he'd be great on
the show.
Some reach out to me, some Ireach out to, just depends.
Okay, I've got a couple.
I think I used to have one inCanada but the shipping was like
getting too expensive.
I have one in Tasmania which Ithink is part of Australia.

(01:14:02):
What, yeah, australia isactually a probably the third
biggest consumer of Williams Keyproducts Excellent, other than
Canada.
Wow.
And then I just got one inPuerto Rico, but that's US, I
guess.
Yeah, so it's crazy, like I'dsay like every other week,
companies hitting me up hey, doyou mind if we carry your key?

(01:14:23):
You know what does that looklike?
And that's cool.
Yeah, so they're basically myemployees.
Like I'm, I don't haveemployees, but my distributors
are like fulfilling that need oflike right, fulfilling orders,
advertising, just getting it outthere.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
Now, do you have fire departments that kind of like
hey, we're going to order, youknow, a hundred of these and put
one and all over rigged, orsomething like that.
Do you have fire departmentsdoing?

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
that as well.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Oh man, that's what.

Speaker 1 (01:14:48):
I'm talking about Baby.
Let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Yeah, there's been some big orders, I think.
Since October I've sold about4,000 of them.
Wow, over 20,000 total.
So they're just an interestingman.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
And it's been.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
It's like not slowing down, it's like ramping up.
Right now, like I'm havingtrouble like keeping up, it's a
good problem, great problem,great problem to have dude.
So yeah, we're trying to figurethat out because two, two, two
babies and diapers, right now,oh my gosh, and they're both in
diapers, yeah Like twins, orjust real close, real close, and

(01:15:26):
so I'm like dude, so not enoughtime in the world for me right
now.
So, yeah, trying to navigatethat, but it's all good.

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
That's super cool, man.
I mean the future of this, Imean pretty much endless for you
, dude.
This could keep going for along time, because the fire
department's always going to bearound.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
Same with the lease swat all that.
Guys are always getting hired.
Guys will lose these, which iswhy I recommend engraving it.

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Yeah $10 more.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
Put that plug in baby .
But yeah, I mean yeah, and thenlike a new version comes out or
whatever.
And then guys want that too,this kind of like built the
foundation for WilliamskiIncorporated or whatever.
But I've had like 10 otherproducts come out that probably
wouldn't sell on their own butbecause the brand is like

(01:16:15):
recognized since your standestablished, guys are like, yeah
, I'll buy a wedge or buy youknow this or that.
So I got a new product,hopefully dropping this month,
that I think would do well.
You have to wait and see, okay,okay.
Got to wait and see, but it'spretty close to debuting.
You can tell us off air.
Yeah, it's exciting.

(01:16:37):
I love it.
It's a piece of me.
You know I like being involved,I like answering questions.
I encourage anybody to hit meup.
Well, I'll talk you through adoor, or you know you have any
questions.
Internet is brutal.
There's a lot of haters outthere, but at the same time it
helps the product too.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
There's always going to be haters.
Look what I've noticed, becauseI'm I've always been someone's
kind of like.
I had the fire service as mycareer and I'm very thankful for
it.
We're Tarber.
It's cool.
I've always had other ventures,other things.
Anytime you're doing somethingelse and it's doing well and
other people aren't a part of itor they didn't have the idea,

(01:17:18):
you're going to have hate.
I get hate for this podcast.
Oh, dude, all the time that isother things.
I own a couple of businesseslike, well, what firefighting is
not good enough for you?
It's like, dude, I just, I knowI can do more.
That's just me.
That's how I am.
I like doing stuff, I likebeing involved, I like creating.
I love seeing things cometogether and then, you know,
blossom into whatever it's goingto be.
But, dude, you seem very, youknow, strong and you can take it

(01:17:42):
.
But I always tell people justbe prepared, when you start
something, they're going to havehaters.
It just is what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
No, you got to love the haters because they generate
a conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:17:50):
Oh, of course, Of course.

Speaker 2 (01:17:52):
It ramps it up, gets stuff trending sometimes, you
know, so I welcome it.
Hate all you want.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
He only survived a 7.2 earthquake in a third world
country.
Your internet hate old reachhim, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (01:18:06):
Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:18:06):
Nate Hate on my key.
I can have a question.
I can have a little hate.
I kind of did some researchahead of time and I you know, so
it's for the people that arelistening to the podcast or
viewing or interested in theWilliams Key products Do you
actually have?
Because I mean, from the personthat literally installed,
fabricated you know you were adoor carpenter, commercial

(01:18:27):
carpenter, all that stuff likethat.
So who's better to haveknowledge for forceful entry and
stuff like that than you?
Do you have outlets or ways foryou know individuals that want
to buy or have the product toget better with it or better in
general, a forceful entry likewhere they can watch videos or
hear you walk through some ofthis stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Yeah, I'd like to be putting out more videos.
There's a lot of videos.
Like you, we have a fullYouTube channel, full Instagram.
There's probably like 100videos on there.
Tiktok too.
Not many of them are me likeinstructing.
A couple are, but I'd like todo more of that because there's

(01:19:11):
like so many different types ofdoors out there, for one is
content, but two, I feel likeI'm answering a lot of the same
questions some of the times.
So if I can just be like watchthis video, yeah, tap on this
link, that would be helpful.
I think most people that aresavvy with the internet in

(01:19:33):
today's age can find the answersthey're looking for if they dig
a little bit.
But spoon feed people yeah, I'dlike to do that too.
I just want guys and girls tobe better at their craft.

Speaker 3 (01:19:47):
So you have a YouTube channel.

Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
Yeah, there's a YouTube channel, Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
What work can they look at?
I mean, what is their name forit?
Like Williams Key.

Speaker 2 (01:19:55):
Yeah, I think it's the Williams Key.
That's pretty much all thehandles, like the TikTok, the
Instagram.
My Facebook page just gotdeleted, so I had to make a new
one.
I don't know why that happensto a lot of people.
Yeah, it's a nightmare, dude,but yeah, and the website too,
wwwwilliamskeycom.

(01:20:16):
There's a bunch of videos onthere, so I'm sure it'll end up
on target solutions.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
one day, everything ends up on target solutions.
Yeah, maybe so the answer toall fire department problems
when something goes wrong ismore target solutions.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Yeah, well, I'm hoping not to be involved in
something going wrong.
And the Williams Key Like don'tdo this, dude.

Speaker 1 (01:20:37):
I'll say the experience I have with getting a
door open is it was many yearsago and there was a fire in this
building and you had glassdoors.
Captain said, hey, get the Ktool, let's open this up.
And I remember you can heareveryone comment to it and I was
sitting there and I was likeput this on and you can see the

(01:20:58):
black smokes just Pumping.
Dude, it's coming down thishallway and I was like this
building's on fire, like whocares about a lock right now.
I took the k-tool and threw itto the glass window and it got
my axe and bang.
I was like there's your opening.
Oh boom, we're out.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:21:14):
I think you did the right thing.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
Because I threw it and, like it, crashed all the
glass and then we're only athree person engine.
We all just looked at eachother.
But okay, that works too.

Speaker 2 (01:21:24):
Let's go yeah, sometimes you have to be
creative.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
That was my.
That's my two cents on doorsand lock.

Speaker 2 (01:21:31):
So people are creative with this tool.
They send me videos I've neverlike even thought about before,
like getting into windows.
I'm like, oh, I didn't know youcould do that.
So I mean that video, you know,like I'll post that.
You know that's good for peopleto see.
So, yeah, bending it now, likethat's a new thing.
They're designed to bend so youcan like J hook, panic hardware
and stuff like that.

(01:21:51):
But that's like kind ofunconventional.
Like guys don't want to mess uptheir tool.
I'm like mess it up on purpose,don't mess it up by accident
because you're forcing it toomuch.
It's like a lockpick.
It's not a halogen, but if youwant to bend it on purpose, so
you get in the door, yeah, andthen you can fix it or throw it
in a vice, you can reset it in avise.
It's no big deal, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
Yeah, that's so rad.
What, what is?
What?
Do you see the future for theWilliams key?
What like?
What is your vision for this?
You have like a five or tenyear plan or what you eventually
want to see this do or work forit to go and get bigger.
I.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
I'd like for it to be like a firehouse name.
We talk about household nameslike Nike and Apple and stuff
like let's go podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:22:34):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
Yeah, that too, exactly.
So I don't want this to be ahousehold name, but like a
firehouse name.
We got you great, whereeverybody kind of knows about it
.
Yeah, we're saving a lot ofproperty and lives with it.
I'm getting the stories like hestopped a suicide jumper you
know, I saved somebody incardiac arrest.
Like I get those stories nowbut added like hundred X scale

(01:22:59):
would be nice.
You know where I'm just likethat's what makes it worth it
for me.
Just knowing people are gettingbetter, knowing lives are
getting saved, propertiesgetting saved.
I feel like there's a differencebeing made when I can get that
sort of feedback, becausethere's no way to quantify
20,000 tools out in the field,right?
You know, I recently posted avideo of I've tested on a

(01:23:21):
hundred thousand plus doors andthat's based off of twenty
thousand keys at least fivedoors, like I think it's safe to
say like each key is touched atleast five doors.
Yeah, and like the ones at ourstation, they've probably
touched a couple hundred doors,right?
So I Don't know how to measureat all, there's no way to really
measure at all, but all I canGet out of it really is the

(01:23:45):
feedback I get, and it's allpositive I think with your life
and your story and you know whatyou've done, the man of faith
that you are, I believe that youcould probably take this as far
as you want to go.

Speaker 1 (01:23:57):
I think it'll probably get there.
That's just my two cents, thankyou.

Speaker 2 (01:23:59):
I hope you'll be fine , dude.
Oh, so I'm excited for thefuture of whatever that might be
.

Speaker 1 (01:24:03):
Yeah, yeah, all right .
Do you ever see yourselfgetting back in ministry like
you're you did when you werewith your family over in Haiti
and Africa and stuff?

Speaker 2 (01:24:12):
So if I were to retire, early or not, my, my
dream would be to live in Haiti,oversee the projects of helping
people, whether it be buildinghouses or churches or schools or
whatnot.
That's always change, like thatcan change right, but, however,

(01:24:36):
the most good can be done.
Being able to live in Haiti,kind of secluded, but able to
like go in and and See the workthat's being done and still like
kind of running that sort ofthing.
Yeah, so, yeah, right now,that's like my, my goal is to be
able to Be successful enough tobe able to do something like

(01:25:01):
that without relying on outsidefunding right, right, right.

Speaker 1 (01:25:06):
I think you can get there.
Anything's possible.
Yeah, I think anything.
That's how I always feel tryanything and just go for it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:12):
You never know what's gonna happen, but throw your
darts to what sticks.

Speaker 1 (01:25:14):
Yeah, I mean, dude, from what you've been through,
what you've done, where yourlife has taken you, I mean I,
why wouldn't it happen?
Personally, that's just mythought, dude.
I mean, dude, it's.
I think it's absolutelyattainable, it can definitely
happen.
And to give back to yourcommunity, then you're giving
back to another country.
You know you live in a life ofservice.
Not many people can say that.
You know doing it for the rightpurpose.

(01:25:35):
You're there for the rightreasons.
You know you always see these.
I don't know if you follow someof these Instagram accounts.
I can't remember.
I think it was like Youth groupmemes or church memes or
something like that.
I this is probably gonna soundterrible, but I really love when
people make fun of the church.
I just I find it hilariousbecause I grew up in it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:54):
Yeah, it's really no for me.

Speaker 1 (01:25:55):
Yeah, it's super relatable.
I've I've gone to mega churches, I've gone to the super small
ones, I've done ones that arejust in homes.
So you know, when you seepeople make a fun, this time I
just think it starts like, yeah,that's kind of true actually,
but it was what it say is saidthe the official church missions
trip, and it's like it's justpeople taking selfies.
Oh, I like an orphanage realquick and then walking away you

(01:26:18):
know, we get our beach day, it'slike, no, you're there to work.
Dude, sir, don't worry about thepictures, you know, yeah, but
now, that's that's Now.
Can people get involved withyour nonprofit?
That's what I want to rememberto hit on.
Is there a way for people todonate and Support you building
those homes over there?

Speaker 2 (01:26:39):
Yeah, so from foundation org is the website we
have taken teams to go andbuild.
The biggest support is usuallymonetary, okay, but if you have
a special skill like you'rereally good at swinging a hammer
Maybe videographer,photographer, or maybe a big

(01:26:59):
donor, who knows?

Speaker 1 (01:27:00):
you know, hey, you never know man.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
There's like we consider everybody.
A lot of people want to go.
You know these, see the, thevideos and the photos and
they're like, oh my gosh, thatlooks amazing.
It is very rewarding.
So yeah, that being said, wehave taken people before.
We are Working through ourability to receive donations

(01:27:23):
right now okay.
So you will be able to donatesoon.
So okay, save up.

Speaker 1 (01:27:31):
So when, if somebody say they donate or they want to
be involved, you have a prettygood vetting process, I would
imagine to allow somebody beyondthat team, since you have so
many people yeah, sure want todo it, mm-hmm.
So how you vet them, they'repart of the team.
When you go over to, it's Haiti, right.
When you go to Haiti and youbuild these homes, how long is
your team there for?

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
We typically do at least a week okay, sometimes two
.
We can put these houses upreally quick.
It's not your typical Americanhouse.
Yeah, these are like concretefloor, tin roof.
Okay, haiti is a very outsideculture, so they need a place at
night to rest their head andlock the door and like that's it
.
So no plumbing, no electricity.

(01:28:15):
Sometimes they'll run stuff toit afterwards, okay, but it's
not set up for that and that'snot typical for the culture.
Okay, so we can do most of thehouse in a day, and then
Sometimes most of the time istoo, because of the concrete,
like laying the foundation andstuff.
We actually pour the foundationinside afterwards.

(01:28:35):
Okay, they're lightweightenough and it's stronger that
way, and Haiti gets hurricane,so these are equipped with like
anchor straps and hurricanestraps to help it, kind of.

Speaker 1 (01:28:47):
That's excellent, not blow away.
I actually really thought itout used to go I'm just gonna
build something real quick, yeahgood, no, I need to withstand
it, or something.

Speaker 2 (01:28:55):
So no, that too, because if it were to fall on
you you'd probably survive likethese.
Okay, the, the houses thatkilled people were unreinforced
masonry concrete, so like justno building code, poor
infrastructure.
The earthquake was shallow andthen all these buildings are
just built on top of each otheron a mountain, so like domino

(01:29:16):
effect just wiped all out Ourhouses.
The only concrete part is ofthe floor.
Everything else is lightweightconstruction 10 roof and 2x4s.

Speaker 1 (01:29:25):
You guys have to be known out there.
Now, right, you, I mean peoplehave to see you know, like, hey,
that's the guy that builds thehouses, or I?

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
Don't know, I don't know there's a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:29:35):
He's not like you freaking, look like everybody
else anyways.

Speaker 2 (01:29:38):
But hey, he's on the map now, so there's probably
like a couple hundredOrganizations.
Oh, whether you see him or not,there's like, there's like a
lot.
That's good, that's a goodthing.
I think the most well-knownwould probably be that does
something similar to me would beSean Penn.
Oh, he both houses out theretoo.
He's built a lot more than me.

Speaker 1 (01:30:02):
I Little bit of money .
Yeah, that's probably a littlelot of a lot of influence too.
But, dang, dude, trevor, Ican't thank you enough for being
here and just chat with us.
Man, what, what an incredibleperson that you are.
Your family, what you've done,what you've gone through, speaks
volumes, man, and the fact thatyou're sitting here now and
you're just talking about it andencouraging other people you

(01:30:23):
have a nonprofit, you created acompany, williams key.
I mean you're doing a lot, man.
It says it says speaks volumesfor you, for yourself and who
you are as a person.
And If I could say anything,man, keep going, dude.
I mean they people always saythe skies a little, whatever.
But Truly we're the only onesthat hold ourselves back.
I mean it's, it's amazing whatyou can do if you just put forth
a little effort.
Then, on top of that, put faithbehind it.

(01:30:44):
Yeah, you never know, man, amen.
I mean it's been veryencouraging for me.
Like I said, I've been aproductless.
So, man, and when I have peopleon here and they open up about
their faith, it's, and it'sencouraging for me.
And not to go off subject here,but, like today, I had a pretty
powerful phone call and there'sanother firefighter and he's
going through some really hardtimes and he's like I've been.

(01:31:05):
He's like I wanted to tell you,like I've been listening to
your podcasts and have beenlistening to you talk about your
faith and it's been reallyencouraging.
I was like, oh, what I'm like?
Well, I just try to be honest,you know.
And he's like I've been.
You know he's been goingthrough some difficult times for
himself and he's needed to seekhelp and different things.
And he's like when, when youtold, when you started talking

(01:31:26):
about your life and you've hadother people talk about their
faith on there, what they'vestruggled with, he realized he
wasn't alone.
He's like, okay, so I'm notcrazy.
It's like, no, bro, that's harddude.
Yeah, my life is freakingdifficult, dude.
It's not easy.
But you know, lord, I saw himlook.
Lord said he's gonna make a way.
So that's what I'm believing in.
I just take it a day at a timeand I just go, I just wait on
him and Everything works out, asI've been in some very deep

(01:31:48):
pits and he's pulled me out ofit how, I don't know.
Yeah, but he just does, andit's really cool to hear someone
say that.
It's like, oh wow.
So you know, this is actuallyhaving an impact on people,
having people coming on here andtalk about their lives and
being open and being honest andjust being raw.
You realize and I'm not alonein what I'm going through, in my
pain and what, what, what'saffecting me.

(01:32:10):
You know to have that ourconversation with him was
actually more encouraging for me.
I'm like dang dude.
I was like I'm a nobody.
I just talk on a microphone andget people to talk, you know.
But you know You'll never knowthe lies that you've impacted,
from that time in Haiti to whatyou're doing now.
Yeah, I always say it on hereit's like throwing that rock in
a lake Boom, it hits and it'sthat ripple effect.

Speaker 2 (01:32:30):
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:32:31):
I'll just.
You will never know until theday you die and the Lord says
you know, hey, welcome home mygood and faithful servant.
You know it's, it's huge.
You know the things we do forpeople on here, on here on earth
.
To me, you know it's priceless.
You can't put a price tag on it.
You're serving people, you'rehelping people.
I mean, I always tell people myfaith is like realizing what
Jesus did on earth.
It was grace, hope, love,forgiveness.

(01:32:54):
That dude accept people as theyare.
Just help him, dude.
Help him out, becauseeveryone's going through a hard
time.
Whether you want to believe itor not.
You could be the richest personout there, or the most
destitute.
Everyone's deal with something.
It's hard, but I told him, nomatter what, no matter how hard
it gets, dude, he'll make a way.
You just gotta wait on him,dude.
Just so wait, say a littleprayer, do your thing.

(01:33:15):
So I've had times in my lifewhere I've been Laying in bed in
the field position crying, canbarely say whisper, but he hears
you and he'll make a way, dude,it'll happen.
So it's just cool, man.
You really all of us will neverknow the amount of Hope that
we've given people through thethings that we've been through,
but been able to talk about andbe open and honest with and to,

(01:33:37):
to be able to do that to me isso priceless.
You can't put a price tag on.
I'm like all right, I'm doingthe right thing.
You know I'm doing what I'msupposed to do.
So if I can encourage youanything, man, please keep going
.
You are, you are a specialhuman and I think there's big
plans for you.
You just got to keep going, man.
So thank you so much for comingon this broadcast, trevor.
I feel honored to have you here.
Man, you are welcome on hereanytime.

(01:34:00):
Anytime you had advertisement,hit me up, throw it out here on
the, on an episode or on thesocial meter, whatever you need.
But it's been humbling havingyou here, man.
It's so amazing to make to knowthat there's someone like you
in the fire service.
We need more people that arethere for the people.
You're here for the rightreasons, you know.
So thanks, man, thank youseriously.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
I love it.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
Absolutely Usually actually only got any, say you
good oh.

Speaker 3 (01:34:26):
I'll just make it quick.
You know you pretty much nailedit on the head there, but you
know the one thing that I thinkis important, especially in
today's climate.
You know Service to others is ahuge thing, whether it's
faith-based or just that's whatyou feel like you should do.
I think everybody should kindof dedicate themselves to
serving other people in somecapacity, and the fact that ever

(01:34:49):
since you were a child, you hadthat in grade to you, into you,
and that you continue to do itand you're probably gonna pass
that on to you know now yourfuture generations which
congratulations, by the way,yeah, I think you're a shining
example of of exactly what thatmeans is you know you're in
service of others.
You're trying to helpfirefighters get better access

(01:35:11):
to the patients that they needto serve.
You're helping people aroundthe world and in our own nation.
I think that that's a hugething is is that sense of
community and and service toothers.
So thank you very much for whatyou've done and you know, like
Tim said, hope.
All the best for you, man,thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:33):
Step, my game shoot.

Speaker 3 (01:35:37):
I feel like I'm at a table of legends right now.
I don't know what I'm doing,can we?

Speaker 2 (01:35:41):
ring that bell one more time.

Speaker 1 (01:35:44):
We also, I might We'll talk later I have a few
people I know we might need toget your story out to see if we
can Get someone to take that onto make a film.
A friend oh, it's pretty good.
It's pretty, pretty powerfuldude.

Speaker 2 (01:35:57):
You keep me.
Give me something more to bebusy with.

Speaker 1 (01:36:02):
Well, hey, maybe you don't have to work as a farmer
anymore.
You can really do the thingsyou want to do.

Speaker 2 (01:36:05):
But we'll see.
I love being a fireman, thoughI do it for free, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:36:10):
Yeah, I got, I won't get.
Anyways, we, uh, trevor, we doa.
Let's go on three at the end.
You ready, buddy?
Yeah, all right, one, two,three, let's go.
Oh, bye everybody.
Thank you so much for listeningin.
If you liked what you justlistened to, please leave us a
five star review on Applepodcast and on Spotify.

(01:36:31):
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a big shout out to Stephen Clark, our sound editor.
He's a huge part of this teamthat is unseen.
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