March 4, 2025 • 25 mins
Some people plan to start a business; others stumble into it through a series of unexpected events. That’s exactly how Jimmy and Jenny found themselves becoming unexpected entrepreneurs. It all started when Jenny took a safety training class while working at a Silicon Valley startup, and unknowingly crossed paths with the company that would later change both Jenny and Jimmy's lives.
In this episode, they open up about the twists and turns that led them from employees to entrepreneurs. From rediscovering an old Life Safety training manual that resurfaced at just the right time, to making big life decisions outside a Denny's restaurant with their kids in tow. It’s a story of risk, resilience, and a whole lot of learning along the way. If you've ever wondered what it really takes to step into business ownership, or if fate has ever nudged you toward an unexpected opportunity, you won’t want to miss this one.
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jimmy (00:00):
What's happening?
It's your boy, jimmy, withanother life and safety podcast,
and again we got the boss ladywith us.
Jenny, whoop, whoop.
And what are you doing?
Again, I don't know?
Whoop, whoop, whoop, police arecoming.
Whoop, whoop, put your diceaway.
(00:21):
What the heck was that?
Jenny (00:24):
All I was supposed to say .
I'm not very good at this yet.
Jimmy (00:28):
You should say what's happening.
It's your girl, jenny.
Jenny (00:31):
Absolutely not.
That's your thing.
I don't have a thing.
I don't have enough practiceyet.
Jimmy (00:38):
This is probably my last podcast doing that, so that's
fine.
Jenny (00:42):
Why are we changing it?
Because I'm tired of peoplegiving me the business about it.
Fair, fair.
I will look forward to seewhat's next.
Or maybe you should trydifferent things out on
different ones we'll see whathappens.
Jimmy (00:56):
Stay tuned, team, stay tuned, all right.
So today's life and safetypodcast, we're going to talk
about life safety.
This is our origin story, sothis is crazy.
Jenny (01:13):
I think it's a good story .
Jimmy (01:15):
It's, it's pretty wild, it's pretty wild.
I don't think we tell the storyvery often either, do we?
Jenny (01:23):
No, I don't think so.
Jimmy (01:26):
No so this is the only place to hear it, folks, yeah
yeah, yeah, unless you catch usin a good mood at home or
something.
Jenny (01:35):
And ask us the right questions on the right day.
Jimmy (01:37):
Yeah.
Jenny (01:40):
Maybe we'll write a book one day.
Jimmy (01:42):
We'll see what happens.
Maybe we'll write a book oneday.
We'll see what happens.
I actually have somebody in myinbox right now asking to write
a spam email, like somebodytrying to sell something, and
they've re-asked to write mybook.
Scammy-ass scammers, I know,but it's been like five times.
They just keep kind of replyingto the same email with a
(02:03):
different name saying hey, haveyou seen my colleagues thing?
We want to write your book.
We we've heard like really goodthings about you, like somebody
suggested you would be a goodperson and it's all very generic
and very plain language andthey actually know nothing about
you.
Yeah, like nobody suggested.
You've read a book about me.
If somebody knows me, they'regonna going to be like heck, no
Right, it's about somebody else,somebody interesting.
(02:27):
That book's going to get bannedreal fast, yikes, yikes.
So the origin story.
I guess we'll start with youbecause, technically, jenny
found or knew of life safetybefore she knew about me.
Jenny (02:51):
Yes, I met life safety before I met you.
That's wild.
Yes, no, that's not technicallytrue.
Jimmy (03:00):
No.
Jenny (03:01):
No, because technically we met at a bar.
Yeah, and that was before.
I think that was before I hadthat tongue.
Maybe, Maybe it's questionable.
I'd have to do some deep photoresearch to find out and
(03:24):
calculate the exact year that wewould have crossed paths yes.
So why don't you tell the folkshow you were introduced to life
safety or what you did with lifesafety like so I was working at
a startup in sunnyvale and weneeded to be trained, um and so
(03:48):
of course I volunteered becauseI wanted to be the one to go
outside and meet thefirefighters when they had to
come in.
So I was like, yes, sign me up.
And of course it's always goodto get CPR and first aid
certified, and we also didhazmat stuff.
So that was was actually reallyfun.
I just liked being part ofwhatever I could be part of and
learn new stuff.
So life safety came out.
(04:09):
I have no clue who the trainerwas.
Um, the fabulous team at mystartup lots of them are still
my friends, our friends to thisday uh were in the class as well
, and it was great.
I got the life safety book.
Do they still have that?
(04:30):
I don't think they were theexact same books, but they could
.
Jimmy (04:34):
We have the same book.
Jenny (04:37):
And somehow I stashed that away somewhere after the
training, after the training,and it sat in my pile of papers
and storage stuff for yearsuntil I had to go look it up
because Jimmy and I got marriedand he was looking for a job and
(04:59):
I was like, hey, train at thisplace that trained me, why don't
you go teach this stuff?
Jimmy (05:07):
it's not quite how that worked out, but pretty close,
pretty close.
So we'd moved into a condotogether it was our first place
after we were married and wewere cleaning boxes out and I
pulled out the training binderand I was flipping through it
(05:28):
Like what is this?
I know this stuff, I know thisnomenclature, I know these words
and these acronyms from when Ifought fire and I was like huh,
that's pretty interesting and Ididn't know cause I didn't know
Jenny had known that stuff.
So it was kind of cool that weknew some of the same stuff, if
you will.
And uh, I was like yeah, but Iput it away.
(05:53):
And then this was when I wasworking at that security job
that I really disliked being atand I think we were throwing
that binder away.
And that's when Jenny was likehey, what have you taught?
Like you're good at coaching,you're good at teaching, you've
done some of this stuff.
(06:13):
And I was like I don't know, Idon't even know if we have that
binder anymore.
And that's when Jenny found thebinder, dug it out and then I
think save just a few moredetails.
A little more details A littlemore details.
Jenny (06:26):
Jimmy's story versus Jenny's story.
You tell way better storiesthan I do.
Which is why you do the podcast, not me.
Jimmy (06:34):
That's not always true.
Jenny tells a good story.
Jenny (06:38):
I take good pictures, you tell good stories.
Jimmy (06:40):
Okay, okay.
And she does take pictures.
Lots and lots of pictures.
Jenny (06:50):
There's so much blackmail on friends and former
co-workers.
It's wonderful.
Jimmy (06:57):
Don't worry, I won't share them.
Amazing.
So I am pretty fed up with whatI'm doing and I just don't like
being a security guard.
I just don't like not gettingany respect.
I just didn't like it.
It was horrible.
I needed to make some moremoney and we had our child on
(07:21):
the way.
So we kind of talked about itand I just cold called them.
Actually, I sent them an emailand was like, hey, I'm looking
for a job, this is who I am,this is my resume.
And it took a couple days andthey wrote back.
(07:45):
Let's have a phone call.
And I was like, holy crikey,this might actually happen.
So I called them and then theywere like, hey, why don't you
come in for an interview?
And I was like, okay, I justhad knee surgery and remember I
(08:08):
had just gotten off my crutchesand I, no, I was actually still
on my crutches when he did theinterview.
So I walked in, did myinterview.
The original owners asked mesome interesting questions and
then I thought I answered thempretty well.
(08:29):
And then the original one ofthe original owners looked at me
and he said get the F out of myoffice.
I don't have a life, but I'mgoing to go pretend like I have
one, and then left and I waslike, cool, I never had an
interview like this.
(08:50):
I don't know what to do.
So we left.
And then I got a phone call Idon't remember how.
They reached back out and theywere like, yeah, I think it was
an email and they're like, yeah,I'll reach back out.
They reach back out and theywere like, yeah, we'd like to
offer you a position.
What are you available?
(09:12):
And I said, well, I have togive two weeks.
I was the office manager,basically Not even office
manager.
I shouldn't even say that.
(09:32):
I answered the phone and didsome data entry.
I was fresh off my crutches.
I came in and they didn't tellme I was going to do that.
I came in, sat in the officewe're sitting in right now and
I'm about two feet from where Iwas sitting and one of the
(09:58):
original owners goes, hey, holdon a sec.
And he walks out to thereceptionist and he goes hey,
hey, I don't like you, I thinkyou're a B, you're fired, and
fired the temp employee.
Jenny (10:18):
And I was like what the what the hell did I just walk
into?
What am I?
Jimmy (10:22):
getting myself into.
So they argue for about fiveminutes.
She gets up, calls them namesand leaves and he's like that's
your desk, answer the phonecalls.
I get about 10 sales phonecalls a day.
I don't want those calls, okay.
(10:43):
So I sit down and about twohours later the other owner
walks in who really kept theplace afloat.
And he walks in and he goeswhat are you doing there?
And they said I don't know,this is what so-and-so told me
to be.
And he was like it's too damnearly in the morning for this
(11:07):
shit, shit.
So they go in and they justhave a rock'em, sock'em argument
about me sitting 20 feet awayfrom them.
And this is all stories I don'teven think I've told Jenny or
she may not even remember.
I don't think I've actuallytold you this.
It was nutso.
(11:33):
So day goes on.
I think I answered like threephone calls.
I leave.
The owner says you're gonna beback tomorrow and I said yeah, I
gotta be back tomorrow.
So I come back tomorrow.
The next day, and old schoolprinter.
I go to shake the printerbecause I have to shake the
color things to make them work.
The drums work because they'remaking sure they get all of the
(11:55):
money out of them and I end upwith ink on my pants and I'm
like, hey, are you guysreimbursing me for my uniform?
My pants, they're like F off.
So the pants were stained andit was just.
I stained my pants the next dayand I'm still limping because
I'm just off of my knee surgery.
I stayed in my pants the nextday and I'm still limping
because I'm just off of my kneesurgery and somebody breaks in
(12:15):
to the back of Life Safety.
Do you remember the story andthe original owners?
Instead of buying or paying forpeople's cell phone bills, they
had cell phones that you couldlock out.
They can like check out.
I don't think I knew out.
(12:35):
They can like check out.
I don't think I knew that.
Yeah, so they had like three orfour cell phones in the back
with all these CD ROMs, the disc, just hanging out.
Jenny (12:49):
But you had to like sign in and out the cell phone for
your day.
Jimmy (12:53):
So this guy walks into our back warehouse and starts
stealing things.
The original, one of theoriginal owners was a sheriff.
He comes back and he goes hey,there's somebody robbing us in
the back, come with me.
So I'm like okay, like I don'tknow what to do, so I go
hobbling out after him.
The owner goes running outsidethe back chasing the guy.
(13:17):
He runs into this property.
He goes come on, hurry up.
And we run back out.
We jump in his truck and westart driving around the
neighborhood looking for thisguy.
I mean it's a full on Ponchunchand John situation and I'm
Paunch but with one leg.
Jenny (13:39):
Right, what kind are you going to be?
Nothing.
Jimmy (13:41):
Nothing.
So you come back it's my faultBecause I didn't lock the back
door.
I hadn't even been to the backdoor because I can't get off my
desk, because I can't walk,because I'm literally two days
off crutches.
So that's my first two days atlife safety.
(14:03):
I'm not even teaching yet.
So the third day maybe it wasthe fifth day, maybe it was the
end of the week the third daymaybe it was the fifth day,
maybe it was the end of the weekI'm there with the instructor
that I ended up overtaking overfor because he gets hired
in-house someplace.
He's the guy that actually didyour training.
I remember that His name wasDave.
(14:28):
We're doing a fire extinguishertraining on the side of our
building and I'm like this iskind of like a thorough area.
People are driving by here andwe're using full fire
extinguishers with diesel fuelin the thing.
Short story, really long.
(14:49):
I end up tackling the guy tothe ground because he just walks
into the flame, basically, andDave goes, goes, tackle him.
I tackled the guy and it endedup being like three pastors from
a church and I tackled, likethe head pastor, to the ground
because he walked, almost walked, into the diesel flame no, it
(15:09):
wasn't the instructor walkinginto the flame it it was one
Jenny (15:11):
of the students just walking into the flame.
Jimmy (15:14):
Because he couldn't get the pen out, because he was
squeezing the fire extinguisherso hard he couldn't fight the
fire.
Jenny (15:19):
So he just kept walking into it, yeah.
Jimmy (15:26):
So that's my first week at life safety.
I'm still here, I'm not scared.
Jenny (15:32):
Things have only improved from that first yes.
Jimmy (15:35):
So it's kind of the call to change everything.
You know.
It really opened up and startedopening up a lot of doors for
me.
It opened up I was making moremoney than I really ever made
consistently, even fighting fire, and so fast forward.
(15:59):
This is our 18th year, or my18th year, right and we've owned
the company eight years now, so10 years.
I'm in so weird.
I'm in so weird.
The owners come to me andanother employee and they say
hey, we're over it, we'reretiring, do you want to buy the
(16:23):
company?
And I go, yeah, that's cool,but little do they know.
I actually had another joboffer to be the emergency
response coordinator and headtrainer at a company and Jenny
and I were talking about it.
(16:46):
I guess we both knew at thatpoint right about the jobs.
Jenny (16:51):
Yeah, we knew about all the jobs and you had already
been interested and talked to meabout wanting to own life
safety and by life safety whenthe owners decided they were
done.
So I don't want to say we hadserious conversations about it,
(17:13):
but it happened.
It was in the ether.
Jimmy (17:22):
Yeah, we definitely spoke about it.
And then I remember kind of aseries of events.
I mean I remember I interviewedwith their job.
They offered me a counter,offered and they said yeah.
And I want to say it was withinthe same week One of the
(17:48):
original owners had a heartattack, crashed his car, almost
died on the side of the road.
Jenny (17:55):
I think we were already in negotiations too.
So then us we?
Neither one of us had beenbusiness owners before.
We have no idea what we weredoing.
Jimmy (18:03):
Right.
Jenny (18:03):
Let's just be honest here .
Sure Right.
So we were speaking with abroker and figuring out what it
was going to take to make itpossible to make it happen.
So we were in conversations onboth sides with, ultimately, you
having to make that bigdecision for us, because I
(18:27):
wasn't the one with another joboffer.
I wasn't the one with anotherjob offer and you were the one
who had to make that choicebecause I'm not a trainer.
I will not be teaching your lifesafety classes, just in case
anybody wonders.
You're welcome to visit me atthe office anytime you like.
Jimmy (18:46):
And Jenny likes to visit sites occasionally.
Jenny (18:53):
Yes, I love meeting all of our clients, but I don't get
an opportunity to go out toooften, so if you invite me, I
will come.
Jimmy (18:58):
Now it's kind of interesting to hear Jenny say
that about me making thedecision, because I guess it was
ultimately my decision thatchanged our lives, right?
So a little funny backstoryabout that.
So Jenny and I have talked to abusiness broker about this.
We've looked at the financials.
We're really kicking thingsaround.
(19:19):
I have this job offer.
We go to.
We go camping right.
We're at King's right NationalPark or King's Canyon.
We go to King's Canyon, that'sright.
We were at Kings Canyon, have agreat weekend.
And that's actually when thecar accident happened, because,
remember, we drove out of theforest and my cell phone
(19:41):
exploded because I had noservice and it was text messages
and phone calls and all ofthese things, and we went to eat
at Denny's yes.
On the way home and you were onthe phone, 90 all of these
things and we went to eat atDenny's.
Yes, on the way home.
Jenny (19:53):
And you were on the phone 90% of the time.
Jimmy (19:57):
Yes.
Jenny (19:58):
And just oh my gosh, what is happening right now?
Yes, that was crazy.
Jimmy (20:03):
Yes, so all these phone calls started happening and I
started returning phone callsand all these things started
happening and the kids werestarving and I think we were all
starving and I'm like we needto have this.
Let's just pull over and eatand we'll have a conversation.
And we had a life-changingconversation at Denny's.
(20:25):
The Denny's parking lot, theDenny's parking lot in Denny's
in Fresno, I think it was, orsomething crazy like that.
Who knows?
And then Denny's in Fresno, Ithink it was, or something crazy
like that.
Who knows, out in the valleysomeplace with our littles
running around dirty from beingin a campsite for four days or
whatever it was.
Jenny (20:47):
Yep, and it really came down to being, for me it really
was.
Could I live with myself if Ididn't take this chance?
Jimmy (21:00):
yeah, I think I remember you saying that too.
Yeah, and jenny being the crazyride or die that she is just
having my back through.
Whatever was like I got you.
If you want to do it, we'll doit yeah you're writing down.
Jenny (21:19):
The deal is like okay, we're gonna do it.
Jimmy (21:20):
It's like we're jumping off a cliff 100 both feet, let's
go yeah, and we dove in notfeet first, we dove in head
first.
Jenny (21:30):
So here we are in the middle of nowhere, deciding to
buy a business.
So then we go through the restof the process, which is scary
and uncomfortable because we'venever done it before and we
don't know what we're doing andwe don't know what comes next.
But we wing it all the waythrough.
(21:50):
We'll leave out the boringbusiness parts of it.
We wing it all the way through.
We'll leave out the boringbusiness parts of it, and in
January of 2017, we becamebusiness owners.
Jimmy (22:16):
Yeah, it was pretty wild talking to the business broker
and the lawyers and the bankpeople and all the stuff and all
the phone calls and it was wild.
It was really wild.
I remember I had to stop aclass basically, take an early
lunch kind of a thing in a classso I can go talk to the lawyers
(22:38):
or not to the lawyers, but tothe broker, somebody important.
Jenny (22:42):
Yeah, we had so many people that helped us, not just
the lawyers and brokers andfriends, former coworkers,
friends, former coworkers justpeople that supported us and
encouraged us and helped us makethis huge decision and continue
to help us as we have to makemore decisions, because being
(23:07):
entrepreneurs and owning our ownbusiness is not easy, but it is
worthwhile.
Jimmy (23:14):
It's been a good time.
It's been a fun eight yearsDefinitely worth it.
Lots of surprises, Things Ididn't know I needed to know,
Some hardships that I didn'tknow I needed to know and learn
about and deal with.
I didn't know it was going tobe so hard to have employees and
(23:37):
not treat them as friends allthe time.
You know you definitely had todraw a line you know, sometimes
with me, because I'm such ajolly guy all the time, so to
speak.
Jenny (23:52):
Maybe, if y'all are lucky , we'll do a uh another episode
about being business owners andsome of the challenges that
we've faced, Cause that could bea juicy one.
Jimmy (24:02):
We'll see.
We'll see All right team.
That's our origin story.
Thanks for joining us.
This was a long one.
Um, we're well over our 20minute time limit.
Thanks for joining us.
This was a long one.
We're well over our 20 minutetime limit.
Jenny (24:23):
So thanks for joining us.
Do you want to add anythingelse?
No, we just appreciate y'alllistening and all of our clients
and our team, and we're just solucky to be where we are today
after all of these harddecisions and adventures and
challenges, and thank you allfor supporting us.
Jimmy (24:42):
Thank you, folks, be safe Peace.
What's happening?
It's your boy, jimmy, withanother life and safety podcast,
and again we got the boss ladywith us.
Jenny, whoop, whoop.
And what are you doing?
Again, I don't know?
Whoop, whoop, whoop, police arecoming.
Whoop, whoop, put your diceaway.
(00:21):
What the heck was that?
Jenny (00:24):
All I was supposed to say .
I'm not very good at this yet.
Jimmy (00:28):
You should say what's happening.
It's your girl, jenny.
Jenny (00:31):
Absolutely not.
That's your thing.
I don't have a thing.
I don't have enough practiceyet.
Jimmy (00:38):
This is probably my last podcast doing that, so that's
fine.
Jenny (00:42):
Why are we changing it?
Because I'm tired of peoplegiving me the business about it.
Fair, fair.
I will look forward to seewhat's next.
Or maybe you should trydifferent things out on
different ones we'll see whathappens.
Jimmy (00:56):
Stay tuned, team, stay tuned, all right.
So today's life and safetypodcast, we're going to talk
about life safety.
This is our origin story, sothis is crazy.
Jenny (01:13):
I think it's a good story .
Jimmy (01:15):
It's, it's pretty wild, it's pretty wild.
I don't think we tell the storyvery often either, do we?
Jenny (01:23):
No, I don't think so.
Jimmy (01:26):
No so this is the only place to hear it, folks, yeah
yeah, yeah, unless you catch usin a good mood at home or
something.
Jenny (01:35):
And ask us the right questions on the right day.
Jimmy (01:37):
Yeah.
Jenny (01:40):
Maybe we'll write a book one day.
Jimmy (01:42):
We'll see what happens.
Maybe we'll write a book oneday.
We'll see what happens.
I actually have somebody in myinbox right now asking to write
a spam email, like somebodytrying to sell something, and
they've re-asked to write mybook.
Scammy-ass scammers, I know,but it's been like five times.
They just keep kind of replyingto the same email with a
(02:03):
different name saying hey, haveyou seen my colleagues thing?
We want to write your book.
We we've heard like really goodthings about you, like somebody
suggested you would be a goodperson and it's all very generic
and very plain language andthey actually know nothing about
you.
Yeah, like nobody suggested.
You've read a book about me.
If somebody knows me, they'regonna going to be like heck, no
Right, it's about somebody else,somebody interesting.
(02:27):
That book's going to get bannedreal fast, yikes, yikes.
So the origin story.
I guess we'll start with youbecause, technically, jenny
found or knew of life safetybefore she knew about me.
Jenny (02:51):
Yes, I met life safety before I met you.
That's wild.
Yes, no, that's not technicallytrue.
Jimmy (03:00):
No.
Jenny (03:01):
No, because technically we met at a bar.
Yeah, and that was before.
I think that was before I hadthat tongue.
Maybe, Maybe it's questionable.
I'd have to do some deep photoresearch to find out and
(03:24):
calculate the exact year that wewould have crossed paths yes.
So why don't you tell the folkshow you were introduced to life
safety or what you did with lifesafety like so I was working at
a startup in sunnyvale and weneeded to be trained, um and so
(03:48):
of course I volunteered becauseI wanted to be the one to go
outside and meet thefirefighters when they had to
come in.
So I was like, yes, sign me up.
And of course it's always goodto get CPR and first aid
certified, and we also didhazmat stuff.
So that was was actually reallyfun.
I just liked being part ofwhatever I could be part of and
learn new stuff.
So life safety came out.
(04:09):
I have no clue who the trainerwas.
Um, the fabulous team at mystartup lots of them are still
my friends, our friends to thisday uh were in the class as well
, and it was great.
I got the life safety book.
Do they still have that?
(04:30):
I don't think they were theexact same books, but they could
.
Jimmy (04:34):
We have the same book.
Jenny (04:37):
And somehow I stashed that away somewhere after the
training, after the training,and it sat in my pile of papers
and storage stuff for yearsuntil I had to go look it up
because Jimmy and I got marriedand he was looking for a job and
(04:59):
I was like, hey, train at thisplace that trained me, why don't
you go teach this stuff?
Jimmy (05:07):
it's not quite how that worked out, but pretty close,
pretty close.
So we'd moved into a condotogether it was our first place
after we were married and wewere cleaning boxes out and I
pulled out the training binderand I was flipping through it
(05:28):
Like what is this?
I know this stuff, I know thisnomenclature, I know these words
and these acronyms from when Ifought fire and I was like huh,
that's pretty interesting and Ididn't know cause I didn't know
Jenny had known that stuff.
So it was kind of cool that weknew some of the same stuff, if
you will.
And uh, I was like yeah, but Iput it away.
(05:53):
And then this was when I wasworking at that security job
that I really disliked being atand I think we were throwing
that binder away.
And that's when Jenny was likehey, what have you taught?
Like you're good at coaching,you're good at teaching, you've
done some of this stuff.
(06:13):
And I was like I don't know, Idon't even know if we have that
binder anymore.
And that's when Jenny found thebinder, dug it out and then I
think save just a few moredetails.
A little more details A littlemore details.
Jenny (06:26):
Jimmy's story versus Jenny's story.
You tell way better storiesthan I do.
Which is why you do the podcast, not me.
Jimmy (06:34):
That's not always true.
Jenny tells a good story.
Jenny (06:38):
I take good pictures, you tell good stories.
Jimmy (06:40):
Okay, okay.
And she does take pictures.
Lots and lots of pictures.
Jenny (06:50):
There's so much blackmail on friends and former
co-workers.
It's wonderful.
Jimmy (06:57):
Don't worry, I won't share them.
Amazing.
So I am pretty fed up with whatI'm doing and I just don't like
being a security guard.
I just don't like not gettingany respect.
I just didn't like it.
It was horrible.
I needed to make some moremoney and we had our child on
(07:21):
the way.
So we kind of talked about itand I just cold called them.
Actually, I sent them an emailand was like, hey, I'm looking
for a job, this is who I am,this is my resume.
And it took a couple days andthey wrote back.
(07:45):
Let's have a phone call.
And I was like, holy crikey,this might actually happen.
So I called them and then theywere like, hey, why don't you
come in for an interview?
And I was like, okay, I justhad knee surgery and remember I
(08:08):
had just gotten off my crutchesand I, no, I was actually still
on my crutches when he did theinterview.
So I walked in, did myinterview.
The original owners asked mesome interesting questions and
then I thought I answered thempretty well.
(08:29):
And then the original one ofthe original owners looked at me
and he said get the F out of myoffice.
I don't have a life, but I'mgoing to go pretend like I have
one, and then left and I waslike, cool, I never had an
interview like this.
(08:50):
I don't know what to do.
So we left.
And then I got a phone call Idon't remember how.
They reached back out and theywere like, yeah, I think it was
an email and they're like, yeah,I'll reach back out.
They reach back out and theywere like, yeah, we'd like to
offer you a position.
What are you available?
(09:12):
And I said, well, I have togive two weeks.
I was the office manager,basically Not even office
manager.
I shouldn't even say that.
(09:32):
I answered the phone and didsome data entry.
I was fresh off my crutches.
I came in and they didn't tellme I was going to do that.
I came in, sat in the officewe're sitting in right now and
I'm about two feet from where Iwas sitting and one of the
(09:58):
original owners goes, hey, holdon a sec.
And he walks out to thereceptionist and he goes hey,
hey, I don't like you, I thinkyou're a B, you're fired, and
fired the temp employee.
Jenny (10:18):
And I was like what the what the hell did I just walk
into?
What am I?
Jimmy (10:22):
getting myself into.
So they argue for about fiveminutes.
She gets up, calls them namesand leaves and he's like that's
your desk, answer the phonecalls.
I get about 10 sales phonecalls a day.
I don't want those calls, okay.
(10:43):
So I sit down and about twohours later the other owner
walks in who really kept theplace afloat.
And he walks in and he goeswhat are you doing there?
And they said I don't know,this is what so-and-so told me
to be.
And he was like it's too damnearly in the morning for this
(11:07):
shit, shit.
So they go in and they justhave a rock'em, sock'em argument
about me sitting 20 feet awayfrom them.
And this is all stories I don'teven think I've told Jenny or
she may not even remember.
I don't think I've actuallytold you this.
It was nutso.
(11:33):
So day goes on.
I think I answered like threephone calls.
I leave.
The owner says you're gonna beback tomorrow and I said yeah, I
gotta be back tomorrow.
So I come back tomorrow.
The next day, and old schoolprinter.
I go to shake the printerbecause I have to shake the
color things to make them work.
The drums work because they'remaking sure they get all of the
(11:55):
money out of them and I end upwith ink on my pants and I'm
like, hey, are you guysreimbursing me for my uniform?
My pants, they're like F off.
So the pants were stained andit was just.
I stained my pants the next dayand I'm still limping because
I'm just off of my knee surgery.
I stayed in my pants the nextday and I'm still limping
because I'm just off of my kneesurgery and somebody breaks in
(12:15):
to the back of Life Safety.
Do you remember the story andthe original owners?
Instead of buying or paying forpeople's cell phone bills, they
had cell phones that you couldlock out.
They can like check out.
I don't think I knew out.
(12:35):
They can like check out.
I don't think I knew that.
Yeah, so they had like three orfour cell phones in the back
with all these CD ROMs, the disc, just hanging out.
Jenny (12:49):
But you had to like sign in and out the cell phone for
your day.
Jimmy (12:53):
So this guy walks into our back warehouse and starts
stealing things.
The original, one of theoriginal owners was a sheriff.
He comes back and he goes hey,there's somebody robbing us in
the back, come with me.
So I'm like okay, like I don'tknow what to do, so I go
hobbling out after him.
The owner goes running outsidethe back chasing the guy.
(13:17):
He runs into this property.
He goes come on, hurry up.
And we run back out.
We jump in his truck and westart driving around the
neighborhood looking for thisguy.
I mean it's a full on Ponchunchand John situation and I'm
Paunch but with one leg.
Jenny (13:39):
Right, what kind are you going to be?
Nothing.
Jimmy (13:41):
Nothing.
So you come back it's my faultBecause I didn't lock the back
door.
I hadn't even been to the backdoor because I can't get off my
desk, because I can't walk,because I'm literally two days
off crutches.
So that's my first two days atlife safety.
(14:03):
I'm not even teaching yet.
So the third day maybe it wasthe fifth day, maybe it was the
end of the week the third daymaybe it was the fifth day,
maybe it was the end of the weekI'm there with the instructor
that I ended up overtaking overfor because he gets hired
in-house someplace.
He's the guy that actually didyour training.
I remember that His name wasDave.
(14:28):
We're doing a fire extinguishertraining on the side of our
building and I'm like this iskind of like a thorough area.
People are driving by here andwe're using full fire
extinguishers with diesel fuelin the thing.
Short story, really long.
(14:49):
I end up tackling the guy tothe ground because he just walks
into the flame, basically, andDave goes, goes, tackle him.
I tackled the guy and it endedup being like three pastors from
a church and I tackled, likethe head pastor, to the ground
because he walked, almost walked, into the diesel flame no, it
(15:09):
wasn't the instructor walkinginto the flame it it was one
Jenny (15:11):
of the students just walking into the flame.
Jimmy (15:14):
Because he couldn't get the pen out, because he was
squeezing the fire extinguisherso hard he couldn't fight the
fire.
Jenny (15:19):
So he just kept walking into it, yeah.
Jimmy (15:26):
So that's my first week at life safety.
I'm still here, I'm not scared.
Jenny (15:32):
Things have only improved from that first yes.
Jimmy (15:35):
So it's kind of the call to change everything.
You know.
It really opened up and startedopening up a lot of doors for
me.
It opened up I was making moremoney than I really ever made
consistently, even fighting fire, and so fast forward.
(15:59):
This is our 18th year, or my18th year, right and we've owned
the company eight years now, so10 years.
I'm in so weird.
I'm in so weird.
The owners come to me andanother employee and they say
hey, we're over it, we'reretiring, do you want to buy the
(16:23):
company?
And I go, yeah, that's cool,but little do they know.
I actually had another joboffer to be the emergency
response coordinator and headtrainer at a company and Jenny
and I were talking about it.
(16:46):
I guess we both knew at thatpoint right about the jobs.
Jenny (16:51):
Yeah, we knew about all the jobs and you had already
been interested and talked to meabout wanting to own life
safety and by life safety whenthe owners decided they were
done.
So I don't want to say we hadserious conversations about it,
(17:13):
but it happened.
It was in the ether.
Jimmy (17:22):
Yeah, we definitely spoke about it.
And then I remember kind of aseries of events.
I mean I remember I interviewedwith their job.
They offered me a counter,offered and they said yeah.
And I want to say it was withinthe same week One of the
(17:48):
original owners had a heartattack, crashed his car, almost
died on the side of the road.
Jenny (17:55):
I think we were already in negotiations too.
So then us we?
Neither one of us had beenbusiness owners before.
We have no idea what we weredoing.
Jimmy (18:03):
Right.
Jenny (18:03):
Let's just be honest here .
Sure Right.
So we were speaking with abroker and figuring out what it
was going to take to make itpossible to make it happen.
So we were in conversations onboth sides with, ultimately, you
having to make that bigdecision for us, because I
(18:27):
wasn't the one with another joboffer.
I wasn't the one with anotherjob offer and you were the one
who had to make that choicebecause I'm not a trainer.
I will not be teaching your lifesafety classes, just in case
anybody wonders.
You're welcome to visit me atthe office anytime you like.
Jimmy (18:46):
And Jenny likes to visit sites occasionally.
Jenny (18:53):
Yes, I love meeting all of our clients, but I don't get
an opportunity to go out toooften, so if you invite me, I
will come.
Jimmy (18:58):
Now it's kind of interesting to hear Jenny say
that about me making thedecision, because I guess it was
ultimately my decision thatchanged our lives, right?
So a little funny backstoryabout that.
So Jenny and I have talked to abusiness broker about this.
We've looked at the financials.
We're really kicking thingsaround.
(19:19):
I have this job offer.
We go to.
We go camping right.
We're at King's right NationalPark or King's Canyon.
We go to King's Canyon, that'sright.
We were at Kings Canyon, have agreat weekend.
And that's actually when thecar accident happened, because,
remember, we drove out of theforest and my cell phone
(19:41):
exploded because I had noservice and it was text messages
and phone calls and all ofthese things, and we went to eat
at Denny's yes.
On the way home and you were onthe phone, 90 all of these
things and we went to eat atDenny's.
Yes, on the way home.
Jenny (19:53):
And you were on the phone 90% of the time.
Jimmy (19:57):
Yes.
Jenny (19:58):
And just oh my gosh, what is happening right now?
Yes, that was crazy.
Jimmy (20:03):
Yes, so all these phone calls started happening and I
started returning phone callsand all these things started
happening and the kids werestarving and I think we were all
starving and I'm like we needto have this.
Let's just pull over and eatand we'll have a conversation.
And we had a life-changingconversation at Denny's.
(20:25):
The Denny's parking lot, theDenny's parking lot in Denny's
in Fresno, I think it was, orsomething crazy like that.
Who knows?
And then Denny's in Fresno, Ithink it was, or something crazy
like that.
Who knows, out in the valleysomeplace with our littles
running around dirty from beingin a campsite for four days or
whatever it was.
Jenny (20:47):
Yep, and it really came down to being, for me it really
was.
Could I live with myself if Ididn't take this chance?
Jimmy (21:00):
yeah, I think I remember you saying that too.
Yeah, and jenny being the crazyride or die that she is just
having my back through.
Whatever was like I got you.
If you want to do it, we'll doit yeah you're writing down.
Jenny (21:19):
The deal is like okay, we're gonna do it.
Jimmy (21:20):
It's like we're jumping off a cliff 100 both feet, let's
go yeah, and we dove in notfeet first, we dove in head
first.
Jenny (21:30):
So here we are in the middle of nowhere, deciding to
buy a business.
So then we go through the restof the process, which is scary
and uncomfortable because we'venever done it before and we
don't know what we're doing andwe don't know what comes next.
But we wing it all the waythrough.
(21:50):
We'll leave out the boringbusiness parts of it.
We wing it all the way through.
We'll leave out the boringbusiness parts of it, and in
January of 2017, we becamebusiness owners.
Jimmy (22:16):
Yeah, it was pretty wild talking to the business broker
and the lawyers and the bankpeople and all the stuff and all
the phone calls and it was wild.
It was really wild.
I remember I had to stop aclass basically, take an early
lunch kind of a thing in a classso I can go talk to the lawyers
(22:38):
or not to the lawyers, but tothe broker, somebody important.
Jenny (22:42):
Yeah, we had so many people that helped us, not just
the lawyers and brokers andfriends, former coworkers,
friends, former coworkers justpeople that supported us and
encouraged us and helped us makethis huge decision and continue
to help us as we have to makemore decisions, because being
(23:07):
entrepreneurs and owning our ownbusiness is not easy, but it is
worthwhile.
Jimmy (23:14):
It's been a good time.
It's been a fun eight yearsDefinitely worth it.
Lots of surprises, Things Ididn't know I needed to know,
Some hardships that I didn'tknow I needed to know and learn
about and deal with.
I didn't know it was going tobe so hard to have employees and
(23:37):
not treat them as friends allthe time.
You know you definitely had todraw a line you know, sometimes
with me, because I'm such ajolly guy all the time, so to
speak.
Jenny (23:52):
Maybe, if y'all are lucky , we'll do a uh another episode
about being business owners andsome of the challenges that
we've faced, Cause that could bea juicy one.
Jimmy (24:02):
We'll see.
We'll see All right team.
That's our origin story.
Thanks for joining us.
This was a long one.
Um, we're well over our 20minute time limit.
Thanks for joining us.
This was a long one.
We're well over our 20 minutetime limit.
Jenny (24:23):
So thanks for joining us.
Do you want to add anythingelse?
No, we just appreciate y'alllistening and all of our clients
and our team, and we're just solucky to be where we are today
after all of these harddecisions and adventures and
challenges, and thank you allfor supporting us.
Jimmy (24:42):
Thank you, folks, be safe Peace.
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