|int| Steve Jimenez: A Tale of Triumph, Bees, and the Power of Mentorship | Ep 87 - On Your Lead

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode.
I'm here today with SteveJimenez from Hives for Heroes.
How are you doing, steve Doing?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
wonderful Thanks for having us that really appreciate
the opportunity.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Yeah, I'm so excited.
I first heard about you guysfrom I was I was facilitating a
training and somebody told meabout all the great work that
you were doing with Hives forHeroes and Immediately just
became super interested witheverything you're doing.
I'm excited to hear about it,what got you into it and just
everything along the way minutes.
It's just amazing stuff thatyou have going on, so I'm
excited to share it out.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you.
There's so many people aroundthe country doing this.
It's it's pretty humbling toknow how many people are putting
efforts in.
It is to serve, you know, ourcommunity of veterans.
First responders.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
That's absolutely amazing and it's great work that
you're doing and I'm justpumped to to share it out there
and just really quick too.
I know you're a fellow MarineIf you could, just just so
everybody can hear about kind ofwhat what got you started?
When did you join the MarineCorps?
What'd you do in the Marines?
What got you to join?
That's a little bit of thebackstory little bit of
background.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
So I joined the years of six, graduated there of six
and went in oh yeah, fat.
So was on 15th view fromBasically all of 2010.
Got out into Lebanon and theywent reserves with four through
time which we had thoseconversations about all the fun
stuff there.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
I got in.
Really, 9-11 was a huge turningpoint for me and and that was a
part of my life or a lot of myfriends Ended up going to the
record from my high school andmy parents did not allow me to
go in and list there like youare not going to list.
So I'm one of those that wentto a name, graduated from a name
Through the Corcadets, which isa wonderful experience, and

(01:41):
then with the OCC route, so tenweeks there and then, of course,
tbs and everything else thatgoes along with it, and then
that was a combo, so comm school, tom school is another six
months.
Okay, so it took a lot to getto the fleet, but when I did I
really enjoyed it and I'mgrateful that the me was where I
was able to go, because we werein a lot of countries doing a
lot of things very kinetic butalso extremely helpful

(02:04):
throughout the, throughout theglobe, right as as yeah and Got
to experience all the magtaf aswe talk about.
Marines know that, but a lot ofpeople don't bring their ground
task force and how it reallyintegrates throughout the,
throughout the world and andyeah, got out and Went back in.
I missed it too much and I hadto go back in six months later

(02:25):
into the results, oh so you gotout and then got back in yeah, I
missed it too much.
I love more Marines man I.
Every time we go and dosomething, we're together and
that was an amazing experiencefor me to be with like-minded,
you know type a very motivated,purpose and mission driven
people and we could do thattogether and make a difference

(02:46):
in the world.
And and we're doing it againhere.
It's just a different platform.
You know, now we're workingwith honey bees throughout the
United States and we have a lotof mission driven, purpose
driven people that are Taking alot of time to serve others and
it's very, very much a Similarexperience, except for nobody's
getting shot at.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Well, and that's always always makes it much
better, a much better way toshow up to work every day.
And, man, I love how you madethat connection to that the.
I talked to somebody recentlynamed Evan and just another,
actually former Marine that runshis own company and and it was
really cool to watch him unpackand discover that what he missed
about the Marine Corps was theservice side of it and just be

(03:30):
able to serve others and it wasjust adjusting his thinking to
how he's serving people in thiscommunity, serving people by
hiring veterans, and it was.
It was really cool to see thatshift, that the service doesn't
have to stop just because yougot out.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, 100% agree with that.
We go, we talk about our corevalues all the time as an
organization, you know, becauseour mission is connecting
veterans and first responders tobe keeping throughout the
United States and we provideaccess, resources and funding
for those individuals that areinterested, and we do that in a
multitude of ways, throughscholarships and kind of grants
and education Through the majorinstitutions and universities

(04:05):
throughout the United States.
But connecting that to our corevalues is connection right,
connecting back to ourselves,because sometimes we forget that
.
Connecting to nature andconnecting back to each other,
building healthy relationships,healthy, accountable
relationships and findingpurpose bigger than yourself and
then serving others well.
So connection, purpose,relationships and service.

(04:26):
We call it our CPRs.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
That's beautiful.
I love that.
That's it.
That's incredible.
And you pass that along toanybody that that takes a hive.
I know we're kind of steppinginto what you're currently doing
, but is that, is that stuffthat you pass along?
Anybody that takes on a hive isLiving by those principles as
well.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
That's correct, yep, we do everything through those,
those core values again,providing access, resources and
funding for those individualsand some of their families that
are willing and wanting to go dothings like this, and then we
do all that legally, morally andethically correct.
So those, those are our tenants, those are our foundations
throughout the.
The Organization whichtranslates throughout the United

(05:03):
States is where about 3700right now through all 50 states.
Wow.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
And and before we even unpack, because I'm so
excited to hear about all thedifferent, just amazing things
that this does for veterans inGeneral, and I'm curious to know
what got you into it, becauseyou know it's rare to talk to
somebody that that does Anythingwith bees.
I had this guy, this uncle Joe,and I think he was like a third
or fourth uncle removed, youknow, from down south
Mississippi, and so we had todrive up a ways and and he

(05:32):
actually took your bees and Imean I might have seen him three
times when I was a kid, but Ialways remember showing up and
just, yeah, it was a reallyunique, interesting thing.
But for my entire life that'sthe only person I've ever known
that's done anything with bees.
So I'm very curious to knowlike, what sparked this?
Was it your transition out?
How was your transition out ofthe military?
Like what, what sparked thiswith bees?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, the transition was pretty rough as I got out in
1314 Pretty, pretty devastating.
I was able to do very well inin corporate America for a good
amount of time.
Then it just didn't really workfor me.
So I ended up starting my owncompany and doing doing a well
in consulting.
I think we talked a little bitabout lean and six sigma is my
background.
So yeah, it's whole thingefficiency and effectiveness,

(06:15):
etc.
I'm working with people well.
So that was my background.
After getting out of the brains,working for Fortune 50
companies and and reallyenjoying that part.
But I was kind of dying insideand I didn't realize that I was
putting all my energy in towardsmy, my corporate career and
really kind of ignoring my, myfamily and myself.
And so that transition throughheavy drinking right, a lot of

(06:40):
people have stories withaddiction and things of that
nature.
I'm one of them.
Heavy, heavy alcohol use, notvery kind to myself, not very
kind to a lot of people aroundme, and I ended up starting my
own company knowing that wecould perform well and I thought
that was gonna be the nextavenue.
And then we were prettysuccessful and I got depressed

(07:01):
again.
So there was this, thisoverarching not having enough Of
me right, not not see myself,but always, always serving
others, but in an unhealthy way,serving it in a, in a way that
was driving a force to be betterInstead of being just good.
And so now, as that has shifted, I spent about three years

(07:23):
extremely depressed, did nothave a great experience with our
, our system.
That we probably all understand.
On the VA side, I personallydid not have a great experience
and I had to go out to theoutside sectors with nonprofits
and things of that nature inorder to support me coming back
and and that really was aninspiration to me in, in a sense

(07:44):
, of serving others.
So I volunteered a lot withother organizations, really so I
could get outside of myself.
And then I had a friend inviteme to a beekeeping experience,
which, if you ever you know,seen it, you know marine, with
PTS coming back and like gettinginto a hive, not knowing what's
going on.
It doesn't really make a lot ofsense, to be honest.
Yeah, you know we joke around.

(08:06):
There's like literallythousands of ladies trying to
kill you every second, right, ifyou're not doing things correct
.
So why would you ever do that?
But something happened when weopened up that hive.
You know, I had the camaraderiewith my friends there that we
were trusting we use the adagetrust yourself, your gear and
your buddies, just like we did,you know, in the military and,
and so I enjoyed the experience.

(08:27):
These these bees came out andit made it into a cathartic
experience.
So, instead of that anxietythat I had previously, it
actually calmed me downtremendously and I was able to
focus, for one of the few timesthat I can remember, on
something.
I was focusing on taking careof them, being a good steward to

(08:48):
the bees and working with myfriends that were there.
It just shifted my perspectiveof life and I truly believe
these bees saved my life and nowwe get to continue to steward.
Those and others have similarexperiences that they've shared
through our conversations, andit's it's a privilege to be able
to speak about that on acontinuous level for
organization.

(09:08):
But, trust me, there areliterally thousands of people,
you know, just like me, whetherthey were first responders or
veterans, that have very, verysimilar stories that shifted
their life.
So maybe some listeners mightfeel the same way and take that
leap into the fear.
Overcome that fear with withour buddies doing it again, all
over again, serving a biggercost.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah, I'm.
I love this story and it reallysummarized it really really
well.
And oftentimes I want to circleback to One of the first things
that you said about that thattransition out, just because I
find that I Think that a lot ofveterans get out and they they
might be struggling, but theydon't realize how bad they're
struggling yet and it's kind oflike it's tough to know what to
do when you don't realizeexactly what's what's going on,

(09:51):
or that there is something thathappened and so it sound like
you got out and you were.
You said you were working for afortune 50 company.
Yes, I mean just to eventuallyyou're doing.
Well so, yeah, extremely well, Imean life.
Yeah, from the outside, lookingin, anybody that would look at
this would say, well, he'slocked and loaded, he's ready to
go.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
perfect life, you know three kids, married, career
, you know house, blah, blah,blah everything.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Americans, what else could, what else could you want
right?

Speaker 2 (10:17):
and then there was struggle inside of it, inside
and Never were able to deal Withthose things because I was
always focusing on quote-unquotesuccess, right so success in
business, having that outsideperspective, having other people
go oh you know what.
That's pretty cool, and Whetherthis struggle was external or

(10:38):
not, I think we all deal withstruggles that are, um right,
there's trauma associated allthroughout our lives and we deal
with those in different ways.
My personal way was to throwmyself into work I'm sure
there's people on here that haveexperienced that right through
myself into work.
That was gonna make me happyand then, when I wasn't happy,
in order to disconnect from that, I was drinking.

(10:59):
So now I have this kind ofexcellent work life with a
drinking balance and almost likehiding those things from each
other and really, at the end ofthe day, I wasn't being honest
with myself and Going throughthe experiences that we have.
I attributed to not just thebees, but the bees doing the
work that we don't see.
There's a lot of.

(11:20):
There's a lot of science outthere now that shares how it is
actually a Very advantageous foryou to work with bees.
It in order to cope with PTSD.
So that's that's a huge thingthat universities are coming out
with studies.
You're coming out.
You see two things on Instagramand other social media networks
that are bringing these factsout and it goes.

(11:40):
Now it's like, oh wow, I didn'tknow that factually or
scientifically.
I just felt that for me andagain, I know other people have
as well, and I love sharingstories of others that have
given us permission, becausethere are so many amazing
Veterans and first responders inthis organization that have
gone from you know whether it'saddiction or jail or all sorts

(12:01):
of stuff and now they've startedtheir own companies.
They're serving their communityin amazing ways and we're just
their backstop.
We're not telling them what todo.
We're saying here we are as aresource for support.
We're here to serve you and inthat you're serving yourself,
you're serving your family andyou're serving your community in
such amazing ways.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
That's so incredible, what an amazing, amazing story.
And hearing like what you saidthere, it sounded like because
what a great place to hide.
I think that a lot of peoplehide in that I'm working really
hard, looking how successful Iam, and we can let, because
nobody Nobody's got to run inand say, wow, you're working so
hard, shame on you.
Yeah, and it's a wonderfulhiding space because you, you're

(12:42):
validated from everybody aroundyou, even though the world
might be falling apart inside,everybody backs you up and
validates what you're doing, andso it sounds like you were
defining success in a verydifferent way.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
That's right, you know oh, very much, yeah, very
much.
So my, our success is nowdriven through the success of
others and how well they theycan, they can come through.
I mean, if you hear the storiesthat are I mean you can look on
our Instagram there's a lot oftestimonials on there and things
of that nature but when youreally sit and eat a knee with
somebody around a beehive andyou're learning something

(13:13):
completely different, theconversations are incredible.
I mean, people open up that you.
It's like having that can't fire, right, it's just a little bit
more dangerous, right, that thefireside chat that we like go
into our retreats and things ofthat nature and just the real
healing is done around thecampfire, right?
Yeah this is a real healing isdone around the knife.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
All right.
So anybody that might be inthat position, I would say that
was a great Transition over,because if you're defining
success for self like what, whatkind of nice things do I have?
Do I get the validation formothers, it might be good to
look at transitioning to successfor others.
And what are we doing to helpsupport other people?
And getting into the beehivewhen you were talking about it

(13:52):
earlier and how I'm justmeditative, almost that it could
Absolutely it made me think oflike an EOD bomb squad going in.
That was the visual that yougave me when you were talking
about earlier, like going intoit and then it's.
I don't know if that's accurateat all.
I've never done this, I'm not agood guy, but guess what?

Speaker 2 (14:13):
One of our the guy that does everything for our
merchandise and all ourengraving EOD Marine.
So we get to hear some stories.
He's an amazing guy.
Kevin's incredible serves in agreat capacity for us because we
don't have to worry aboutthings.
But I can see that on the EODside right Like nothing else
matters right now.

Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:35):
And I'm taking care of everything around here, but I
have to focus on this in orderto take care of that.
I can see that.
That's a really cool analogy.

Speaker 1 (14:42):
Well, and just, I mean, it was the visual that you
gave me, that's just where mymind went, and it's almost like
a bomb squad going in becauseyou can't.
You can't focus on anythingelse.
So we're bad.
Things are going to happen toyourself and other people.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, something that's truly like fascinated me
was if I'm agitated, they feelit Right.
It's not like.
I'm going to get in likekicking or moving a whole bunch
of stuff, but these adages thatwe utilize, right, slow, smooth,
smooth as fast, that's what wedo in OIC, and if you're not, if
you're not, like, focused onthem, it's almost like they know

(15:16):
it.
But if you're agitated for somereason, they will become
agitated.
It's like they feel the energythat you're working through and
it's really cool because itforces you to be calm.
It's not a therapy session butwow, at the end of it you kind
of feel like it.
And so there's a lot of peoplewe have we have your stories all

(15:36):
the time that people justliterally like going out sip and
coffee.
They have a hive in theirbackyard, like one hive, two
hives, whatever.
They don't have to becommercial beekeepers by any
means, but those one or twohives they'll just sit in their
backyards drinking coffee and itcalms them.
That's their therapy.
It's pretty amazing.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
So what is it?
And I'm going to ask youbecause I don't know.
It sounds like there's anaspect of it where we're going
in and we're taking care of thishive, which I would love to
hear unpack what that processlooks like.
But then also it seems likethere's another aspect of it
just sitting on your back porchdrinking a cup of coffee, which
that sounds pretty incredible.
Just doing that, what does itlook like, jumping in and going

(16:15):
in and taking care of a hive?
You mentioned trusting yourself, trusting your gear, trusting
everybody around you.
What does it look like to go inand take care of a hive?
What's?

Speaker 2 (16:24):
it.
Yeah, we still love that adageso much.
Trust yourself, you're givingyour buddies.
Walking into an unknownsituation, follow a process, a
known process, find success andbuild confidence.
So that's kind of this circularpiece.
Trust yourself, you're givingyour buddies.
Go into an unknown, follow aprocess, find success, build
confidence.

(16:44):
And you just repeat this andrepeat this and repeat this over
and over again.
And it has become one of thosethings where now, because these
processes are, they're notstandardized by any means, if
I'm going to inspect the hive,you're going to inspect the hive
probably differently at onelevel or another, but we have an
understanding of each otherright.
There's the safety factor.
There's looking out for eachother.

(17:04):
There is, you know, jumping outof a bird, for example.
Everybody's looking at theirgear right, gear checks, body
checks, all that stuff happensprior to going into the hive.
And you're watching eachother's backs the entire time.
So that I got your sixth stuffis right there, present, right,
and then you're building thatconfidence afterwards.
And you did it together.
So there's your shared hardship.
I mean we can put thesemetaphors of everything that

(17:27):
we've done in the militaryalmost right next to each other
and have that same, have abetter transition story.
And when we started this, itwas actually only a handful of
people here at Houston Texas andwe started by doing rescues and
removals.
And we did that because we hadno idea what we were doing,
because if you're a beekeeperand you're listening, you

(17:48):
already know that's like theworst thing that you can do.
But, of course, leave it to abunch of Marines and Army guys
to go out and do the worst thingyou could possibly do, just to
disconnect and go do somethingfor somebody else, right, like
yes, let's not have any clue.
This is our first year ofbeekeeping, right, and we're
like cutting out walls and liketaking these bees and trying to,

(18:10):
you know, put them into a safeenvironment, not being
successful a lot of the times.
And the reason why ourpeer-to-peer mentorship platform
is so important is because youcan have all the education you
want.
I mean, think about sitting ina course on you mentioned EOD or
shooting right, like you sit inthe course for your PowerPoint

(18:33):
presentation.
Does that mean you can shoot?
No, it means you know, like thepieces of a weapon right With,
like actually getting out theretotally different ballgame.
So our peer-to-peer is based onwe love the education side.
There are universities, thereare programs and organizations
that are out there, that arethere to serve.
On the education side, we'remore on the people side and we

(18:55):
do that by, again, needy personto person.
But man, isn't it a differentexperience when you have a PMI
instructing you in the front?
It's very different than it ishaving a PMI right next to you
showing you how to shoot right.
Remember those PMIs whereyou're like how do you know what
I'm doing wrong?
Just by where it's hitting onthe paper right, like that's

(19:17):
crazy.
Well, it's because they've beenthere and they've done that.
But now they can instruct you ina way that is so easy for you
to understand.
It's like oh, trigger, squeeze,you know, breath, whatever that
is You're like.
Okay, so now we got it.
Well, we do the same thing here.
It's, you know, left to rightmentorship.
We're connecting people withsomebody in their local area as

(19:39):
best as we possibly can.
Of course, it's a largegeographic area and we try to
put people within 30 miles ofeach other and so far that has
been a very, very large success.
One of the other statisticsthat is important to understand
is 80% of first year beekeepersquit.
70% of the 20% that go intotheir second year quit Not a

(20:02):
very high success rate for bees?

Speaker 1 (20:04):
No, why did they quit ?

Speaker 2 (20:05):
Because it's hard.
They're trying to do it alone.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
I don't know what I do.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
And I go into a bunch of bees and I spend all this
money and then they either dieor they fly off or they abscond.
I'm out and I don't know what Idid wrong.
So we actually we encourage ourbeekeepers not to get bees
their first year.
Get with a mentor.
Hook up with us on Fagirlscom.
Get with a mentor, go intotheir yard, learn a lot in a

(20:31):
very, very short period of time,and then in the second year
they end up.
Those mentors end up giftingyou a hive so that you are now
rewarded for your efforts intheir yard.
So there's a reward componentthere as well.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
That's beautiful.
Well, what a great thing to dotoo.
I mean, it's almost like whatit makes me think of I was just
talking to somebody yesterdaythat people don't really value.
We don't assign a lot of valueto free things.
But we assign a ton of value tothings that we have to work for
.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
That's right, that's a product we're spot on.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
Yeah, well, it's just .
I mean, you guys alreadyfigured it out and you have that
rolling, so that's absolutelyincredible.
So you find somebody within 30miles that is doing it.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
That is our goal.
You get them paired up.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
So then you go and learn the aspects of it and then
after that you get gifted yourown hive.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
That's right, and you have all the courses and things
that you need that arenecessary in order to be
successful as well.
We run everything again on areward program.
So what we ask is you put yourmoney up for your education.
It could be anywhere between$100 or $800, whatever that is
for these high levelinstitutions like University of
Florida, university of Texas,a&m.
There's 13 master beekeepingprograms throughout the United

(21:39):
States and we ask you to putyour money up front so we don't
give out free money.
You go and put it up, you pass.
We reimburse you every time.
So at the end of the course youhave gone at no cost.
See, it's not free.
It's at no cost to you becauseit costs a lot of something, so
it's at no cost to you.
Amazing donors, individualdonors that we rely on,

(22:01):
corporate donors that we rely on, and then the efforts that our
staff puts in through corporateand enterprise type programs
that we work with, largecompanies, and those dollars all
go back to these scholarshipsso to then better serve those
that need that throughout theUnited States.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
And I love that setup and that concept because what a
great way to get people toactually show up too.
If you put something down now,you're more than likely to go
finish it, especially if you'regoing to get your money back
once you finish it.
Absolutely and that's an evenbigger thing.
You get the knowledge and youget your money back.
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
And you know, our entire vision is transition
right, healthy transition fromservice, and one of those things
that you can do is have a plan.
And if you have a plan and youhave a purpose and you're moving
forward, well, if you have aneducational path for, say, five
years or you have a plan forthis year, it's really tough.
It's really tough to take yourlife tomorrow when you have a
plan and that's hugely important.
You can't buy that right.

(22:56):
So having that plan and havingthat motivation moving forward
is hugely instrumental.
One of the other things that wetalk about is knowledge
transfer.
So our beekeeping population isgetting older.
Who's going to learn from that?
Right, some of their grandkidsmight learn from them, as we're
learning these things throughall these associations, for
example.
There's beekeeping associationsthroughout the United States.

(23:19):
But who's not learning theirkids?
So that means this what weactually did was fill a gap of
need inside of the 20 to 40 yearold range that can actually
come in and start doing thingswithin the beekeeping community
and that also has a huge impacton the conservation and
sustainability of our planet.
So now we're doing moreMultiple things all in the same

(23:40):
ways, all from basic leadershiptenants from the RINCO.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah, that's absolutely incredible, the
layers of assistance and helpthat you're giving out to
veterans, to communities, to theplanet.
I mean, it's just absolutelyincredible.
And you said something earlierand I absolutely, I really
appreciate and respect what yousaid.
There's really tough to takeyour life when you have that
plan and that mission goingforward.
And circling back to what youwere talking about earlier, I

(24:05):
think it made me think of,because I really appreciated,
what you shared with.
When you're focused on serviceof self, validating self, when
you first got out, like, whatare all the things I can get?
Where people look at me and say, look at how good you are, is
very, very different.
And when you're serving others,also very difficult to want to
take your life because I got toshow up for other people every
day.
That's right and, as Imentioned, the personal rewards,

(24:27):
things you get back from thatare huge.
They're huge.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
They're actually.
I didn't realize how, althoughwe have served, we did not serve
in this capacity and it isdifferent.
The weapon is different.
Right, we were serving indefense of our nation, right,
and now we're kind of doing thesame thing.
But it's different and it'sokay.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, oh, and it's as you pointed out.
It's a much, much safer, muchsafer weapon.
I guess in some ways it mightbe like a little SimRound,
though, because if you end upgetting stung, I would imagine
that that's funny that is good,You're like dang, I messed up
there.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yep Got it Totally messed up on that and we've been
stung a lot and you kind of getthe learnings.
It's a quick learning lesson.
Oh, why did I just do that?
Why did they come out in thisway?
Well, maybe I was loud, maybe Iwas popping up with the things
that I shouldn't have so quicklyand it's hard to describe with

(25:23):
if you haven't been into a high.
But those that have again addedto slow, smooth, smooth, as
fast really works.
I had a one of our sponsors,because we do this stuff with
large corporates and we also doemployee engagement with these,
with these corporates, so theiremployees come out and put them
in B suits and we have wonderfulexperiences with them.

(25:45):
They'll go through the hiveswith us, we teach them, we talk
with them not only about hivesfor eras, but the beekeeping
side as well, because a lot ofpeople are interested.
It's a really cool niche rightnow, and so we get them in bee
suits, we have the conversations, we talk through that and
everything, but it's awesome tosee their expressions right and

(26:05):
their learning lessons.
So, for example, I had a personthat that we had already done
all our buddy checks, we'regoing outside, but they wanted
to stretch right, they wanted tostretch something.
So they undid their veil anddidn't do the veil all the way
back.
So they had about like 10 to 12bees inside of their inside of
their veil, which is inside oftheir heads, their face, because

(26:26):
they're looking at the heatsignature and all that kind of
stuff that they're going towardsyour face.
And so he was like what do I do?
I was like calm down, breatheand walk away.
That's it Calm down, breathe,don't do anything else, just
calm down, breathe and walk away.
And so he came back and he'slike I didn't get stung once.
I was like can you imagine if,if you would have like swat in

(26:48):
one of those bees?
I'm telling you right now, allof them probably would have got
you.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
So it's like that.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Don't?
You don't have to like over,overdo things.
Sometimes it's okay in our lifeto just calm down, breathe and
walk away.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Well, and man, what a .
I love the, the, how it tiesinto bees.
But, as you pointed out too, inlife in general, I mean what a
great exercise just to learn howto calm down, breathe and walk
away.
Yep, I mean, I think that Iwould, I think I could use that
sometimes with my kids.
We were talking, we chattedthis morning about just to cook
and breakfast for my kids, likesome days it's great, some days
it's like okay, it's that, takea breath, yeah, walk away, just

(27:29):
just walk away.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
There's so many life, life outages and metaphors and,
like you said, kids I have.
I have three daughters.
They're amazing, they'reincredible, they're beautiful.
I love them so much andsometimes it's a lot.

Speaker 1 (27:40):
Oh yeah, and that's okay.
Yep, it is.
And learning these lessons frombees, it's.
It's what an amazing, amazingthing to be able to do that.
What sort of and I have I haveso many questions for you.
You've got just so many goodthings happening.
I love, love, love your thisprogram.
What sort of lessons or thingshave people learned from this?

(28:05):
You said you got a bunch ofexamples.
I mean I'd love to hear justone story about somebody that
took on a hive and and had a anawesome experience with it.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
Yeah, one of my favorites is well, now I got too
many favorites because we haveone that literally works with us
now on a corporate in acorporate setting, who started
with this year one.
That exactly what he shouldhave done.
We got a mentor with him.
He lives about an hour from ushere in the Houston area and so

(28:36):
he works with.
He works with his mentor for ayear, then in the second year
he's growing.
Like we say, learn, grow, lead.
Those are your three years.
Learn the first year, grow yoursecond year and lead your third
year.
So the second year he startsgrowing himself, growing his
hives, and then other peoplewant to start being attached in
that, in that area.

(28:56):
So he also works with anorganization called Veterans and
Patriots United that servesthose that have addiction or
what do you call it Like likejail, being incarcerated, and so
it's, they're, they're comingout and they need something.
Well, guess what?
Bees is a great way to to helpwith that transition.
So he's working with them.
Or you know what?

(29:16):
He's our corporate beekeeper oncampuses like Hewlett-Packard
Enterprises, techpeap, fmc, likelarge corporates, and now he's
serving those employees there.
And that's a three year periodof time that completely shifted
his life in a really amazing way, because now there's so much
potential and opportunity.

(29:37):
Throughout the rest, we are.
Although we are a largeorganization that some might
think, we still have huge andtremendous growth opportunities
that we're working through rightnow.
And so, as he's as he'slearning more and growing more,
he's able to affect more andguess what?
It continues to grow.
And the way we speak throughthat is how we speak with our

(29:58):
corporates is learning how togrow an organization, as hives
are grown by bees, so when youthink about what they are doing,
you have basically a democracythat's going on and it's all for
the better good right at theend of the day.
So everything's for the bettergood.
If they need to kill the queenbecause she ain't laying, they
kill her.
Now, most people don't knowthat, but this is like really,

(30:21):
this is a an amazing organism,right?
This?
Each hive is its own organismand they live their own life,
but they're doing it to produceand reproduce.
That is their entire objectivein life.
So she's laying eggs and that'sall she does.
She has bees that clean her andfeed her all sorts of stuff,
right, and each one of them hasjob descriptions, just like we

(30:43):
probably do in our own lives.
And you, you create thishierarchy right Over time.
So they one, you do something,they three, you do something,
they 15, you're doing something,and these bees are growing into
these jobs and eventually theyhave about a 40 to 45 day life
cycle.
So they're dying and so theyhave to constantly be making

(31:03):
eggs, or she has to beconstantly laying eggs, and
you're creating all these jobsfor this, this organism, to
continue to be fulfilled, all ina basically a 45 day window.
It's, it's incredible, and thisis just cycling, cycling,
cycling, cycling all the time.
Well, when you do that, you'realso growing those hives right,
cause they're producing andreproducing, which is why we get
those byproducts you know, beeswax, honey, et cetera, and so,

(31:27):
as they're producing, they'realso running out of space inside
of the boxes or inside of atree cavity or inside of a wall,
and they'll split.
Well, the only way they're goingto be successful in that split
is to follow the same guidelines, the same processes, the same
system that had made themsuccessful before.
So now you can put this wholething into a corporate setting

(31:50):
of we all matter, we are allimportant and our goals and
missions are XYZ.
Let's get there.
And then, when we get to acertain spot, well now we might
move to another city or anothertown or another whatever, but we
have to follow the same processof procedures throughout.
That's what made us successful.
So now you take this natureorganism that shifts into a

(32:11):
literal organization of whateverstructure that you're in.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
So what a beautiful like taking that and then
applying it over with the bees.
I absolutely love that.
That's incredible.
So what y'all are doing iswonderful.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
That's one that I just I can't be happy enough
because I get to spend time withthis guy every, almost every
day, so you can probably see thesmile on my face.
It is a true joy quality ofpeople that we have in the
organization.
And then one of my favorites.
It's always going to be one ofmy favorites because it was one
of the first ones, I guess youcould say that was really
impactful to me.

(32:47):
He came in, he's from Indiana,so Troy's the first one.
Troy's, like I said, we'retogether pretty much every day
and if we're not togetherphysically, we are talking, like
we're on the phone, we'retexting, you know whatever's
going on.
It's pretty incredible.
And then Ron is the second guythat I would talk about.
And again, there's literallyhundreds of personal stories

(33:09):
that I can talk about, but theseare standouts because of how
much they've achieved in such ashort period of time.
And Ron, another addiction typeperson who wasn't doing that
well, found House for Heroesstarted with a mentor who was I
wouldn't say like every mentoris different, right, just like

(33:31):
every person is different, everymentor is different.
And he really pushed him.
He's like man if you want tolearn beekeeping, come on right
and he would go do rescues andremovals.
And why that's important isbecause every mentor is
different.
There's not a singular path inlife.
There's not a singular mentor.
You've got to learn things foryourself and take personal
responsibility of that.
And then Ron from there.

(33:52):
And so he started his firstyear not knowing a thing,
started with Bill and within, Ithink, the first week, he had
his first life.
Right, that is not Hives forHeroes way to do things, but
again, or guidelines were not,you know, a dictatorship.
And so he gets his first andthen he goes for another removal
and another removal.

(34:12):
In his first year he had 64Hives in one year.
There's a lot of commitment,dollars, energy, learning, all
involved in that.
One to 64 in his first year.
And then he started seeinghimself become better, as a
better person.
His family wants to start beingwith him more so now the kids

(34:33):
are involved, the wife isinvolved amazing.
And now they have a companycalled Archive Aperies out of
Indiana that they are at farmersmarkets.
They are building their ownbrand out there and he's also
our Indiana State lead and thisis like literally less than
three years of working with bees, working with the caliber of

(34:55):
people that we have inside ofthe organization, because
everybody can connect witheverybody in New York.
There's not really a hierarchyas one might think and he's just
thriving, he's doing amazingand those are the kinds of
things you're like okay,somebody that might have had
issues and had nowhere to go orother places to go, but maybe
not liked it.
I mean, we don't want to takecredit for anything that others

(35:17):
have achieved, but now we've gotthem.

Speaker 1 (35:20):
I mean that's pretty impressive oh yeah, I mean
you're providing the foothold.
I heard Jaco mention it andit's something that I've shared
and it was just something thathe said.
He's like I didn't change youBecause somebody was giving him
credit.
He's like I didn't change you.
I might have been a footholdfor you Right To show you where
you can climb, but you had to dothe work.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
That's accurate.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
And I just love the way that he put that very humbly
, stating that you still got todo the work.

Speaker 2 (35:46):
We're a platform and an opportunity for you to be
successful, and we'll dowhatever we can and I love those
shifts of words.
Right, there's a way that youhelp veterans.
I don't like that word.
Helping veterans, in mypersonal opinion, means you are
taking the responsibility andyou are walking them down a path
that you don't even know ifthey want or not, because you're
helping.
Yes, this is why we say we aresupporting our nation's heroes.

(36:09):
Support means it's you, it'syour goals and where they're, to
walk alongside you and be yourbackstop and be there for
support.
But it's on you, it's yourresponsibility.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
I'm stealing that, by the way.
That's a.
I love how you used the wordtaking the responsibility of it,
because now I don't have to doanything, but the moment you
walk away, they don't know whatto do next.
That's right, and that's wherethat problem is, is you have to
constantly hold hands the wholetime, and it's not that I'm
against holding hands, it's.
The goal is to empower them todo this daily for themselves.

(36:41):
Another good word of power, andI love your use of that.
And circling back to what yousaid earlier too, because you're
talking about the change one to64 hives in a year, and you
mentioned something in therethat his family wanted to start
hanging around with him again.
And I had a conversation withanother veteran, a phenomenal
guy author he's got some amazingbooks and Joshua Hood, the Army

(37:05):
Vet great books, if you likethriller books he's got some
awesome books but also a hugeadvocate for veterans, and he
said that once he got control ofhis drinking he had kind of got
everything into a good plane.
He went out and he said I hadthe best week ever with my
family and I sat back and I wastalking to my wife like this was
the best weekend ever and hethought that they had changed

(37:25):
and she essentially broke downand said no, we've been the same
, you're the one that's changed.
And it really hit him like a tonof bricks.
That it was like, man, I neededto chat, didn't he?
Because when he was strugglinghe thought everybody else needed
to change.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Oh yeah, it's everybody else's fault.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Yeah, it's everybody else, but it's.
You know, the moment he changedand I just love his.
He used the word responsibleoften and his accountability,
self-responsibility, is justabsolutely amazing.
But that's what I heard withthat, too is that the moment
this individual started servinghis hive, serving other people,
that that's when everybody elsein his life started to want to
be around him as well.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Yeah, what a great books, and I mean, and like him,
he's probably a phenomenalindividual, right?
I mean like, oh yeah, greatperson.
Most people that are in themilitary are not there for
selfish reasons.
Right, they are servants.
They are doing something biggerthan themselves and oftentimes
we tell people we're not in theposition to tell you when to
leave, but we're giving you anopportunity to do so.

(38:18):
You've always been a leader.
Here's just the opportunity todo so.
And as we're shifting andchanging in our own lives, I
think it's really a powerfulopportunity to appreciate what
our minds and physiologicalnature can do when we shift
right, because his shift justshifted his whole family.
Ron's shift shifted his wholefamily.

(38:40):
And what better way to serveLike, we can serve a million
people throughout, whoever, butif your family is intact and not
doing well, kind of, what's thepoint If you're not doing well
in your own thing, the peoplethat know you best.
I guess there's one of thosethings about putting on a mask.
You can go put on a maskeverywhere else, but your family
still knows and that's thefruits of who you are and where

(39:04):
your heart is.
And as you shift that heart atleast in my opinion, it shifted
from a level of anger toeverything, like I was just
angry, I didn't like this, Ididn't like that and I didn't
know how to emotionally regulate, so I would just get angry and
anything that was in my way, itwas just pure anger, right.
And now it's just a shift ofgratitude or choosing to be

(39:31):
happy.
This is this adage of happinessis circumstantial and joy is a
choice.
So you'd choose joy.
That's pretty amazing too,because it shares with you the
power that you can actuallychoose joy in every circumstance
, although you might not behappy in every circumstance, but
you can still choose joy, andit's a shift of mentality.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Oh yeah, it is 100% a choice, and I was listening to
a mentor of mine the other day.
He was talking about thisconcept that the moment we say
it's a good day because of theweather's nice, or it's a good
day, but in that we're a victimto the world around us.
That it's only a good day ifeverything around us is bad.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Or circumstantially absolutely.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah, but the moment we say I'm just going to it's a
good day because I'm making it agood day is a totally different
viewpoint on life and on yourday and that's an empowering
moment.
And you said something that Ijust want to tie back to because
I love connecting threads, andyou said you didn't know how to
emotionally regulate, andearlier on in this conversation
you mentioned how you have toemotionally regulate yourself

(40:31):
while beekeeping, being able tocontrol your emotions, because
if you freak out, you're goingto get stung, it's going to be a
bad day, and so I love seeingthat you didn't know how to
emotionally regulate andbeekeeping.
Definitely, I would just, basedon your words, close that and
then help with that.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
I really did, and it's one of those things where
you can't.
This is a control issue.
A lot of us have I as wellpower and control.
This is a thing, right, becausewe are, in essence, not in
power and not in control, right?
So these, to me, taught me thatI'm not in control, and that's
okay, right, but I can stillwork through things not being in

(41:10):
control.
I want to control this.
I want to control this part ofthe environment.
I want to control somebody'sreaction to something that you
do.
Well, you can't.
So when you're working with thehives, you can't control this
stuff, but there is a process tofollow, right?
Like we were talking about slow,smooth, smooth, fast breathing,
being like, almost like beingkind, like gentle hearted.
It's like they feel it.

(41:30):
There are people that have,like this innate sense, like
there's.
We have a lot of mentorsthroughout the organization,
throughout the organization,throughout the United States.
We have guys and girls that are, you know, youtube
extraordinaries.
We have educational, justamazing people throughout these
universities.

(41:50):
We have people that nobody'sever heard of, that are just the
most incredible beekeepers, andwe get the opportunity to meet
and work with these people andthe amount of learning that
comes from that in a very shortperiod of time, is really being
aware, being aware of what'sgoing on, and all these things
are lessons learned from a hive.
I mean, I would, obviously I'mgoing to try to get anybody into

(42:12):
a hive at least once.
Right, there's a piece of thetransitioning as well that we
want adrenaline.
Right, we're either doingsomething.
Create me, I was ridingmotorcycles at 120 to 140 miles
an hour for no reason, did nothave any clue why I was doing
that, but it was right andthat's not safe.
But that same adrenaline action, that same feeling of unknown,

(42:37):
that same, I guess I can onlysay, adrenaline is what happens
right before you go into thehive, because you have no idea
what's going on.
Every hive is different, right?
It's pretty incredible.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
I've got some questions about that too, and I
love that you tied in theadrenaline, because I was just
having a conversation with mywife about it.
She let me know that, in herbelief that I'm an adrenaline
junkie, and it's like, well, Idefinitely enjoy jumping into
wild situations and I didn'thave a big defense for it.

(43:13):
And it's true, I do enjoyjumping into different
situations.
I mean, it's something that Ienjoy.
And what I want to ask about,too, is jumping into this
Because it's piqued my interest.
Since we first got in contact,since we had our first
conversation, I've talked to mywife about it and I would

(43:34):
imagine that anybody listeningright now that speaks their
interest.
I want to share out yourcontact info and share all that
stuff and some of the questionsthat I've had with my wife that
are unknowns that I wouldimagine somebody else listening
might not know that these mightbe the excuses to not call you,
to not send you guys an email,and so just a couple of baseline

(43:54):
things that if somebody'sinterested, somebody wants to.
For instance, I live inColorado and my wife was like,
wow, I bet we can't have beeshere, and I was like, well, I
don't know, I don't know whatthat is.
So what does the climate looklike?
Is it climate dependent?
Does it matter where you livein the US or, I guess, anywhere
yonder worldwide?
But does that matter?
It does not, I mean it onlydepends on you.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
The biggest issues that we ever have are literally
like HOAs.
It's not the bees, the bees areeverywhere.
They are pollinating.
So anywhere there where there'sgoing to be like flower and
nectar sources, they're going tobe there because that's how the
circular part of nature workswe have again, we don't operate

(44:36):
in groups like most people ororganizations do Think of, like
almost the most flatorganization you can think of,
because we're a one to onenetwork with a very minimal
staff, so that all our dollarsare able to go back to the
programming, admission and tothe scholarships.
So we rely on the mentors inlocal areas.

(44:57):
So we are working with the StateBeekeeping Association, we are
working with the universitiesand we were finding other APRs
in your area to connect you withRight.
So it's a network.
It's not a program, as mostpeople would think, and there's
a lot of reasons behind that.
We don't want to share all oursecrets, but programs don't
necessarily work because theyput everybody into a funnel.

(45:19):
Everything is like one fix, onesolution for one thing.
Well, we are not one person.
Me and you are very, verydifferent.
Nothing wrong with that.
That's amazing.
But we might learn differently,we might have different time
schedules.
You travel a lot, so how isthat to where?
If I only have like, if Hypesfor Heroes only has Denver

(45:40):
Colorado at four o'clock onTuesdays, well then that can
never show up because he's notthere on Tuesdays.
Well, that doesn't seem veryfair, because he's still trying
to look for that, not only thebees, but again that personal
relationship, where peopleorganization that happens to
play with bees.
It's kind of cool, right.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
So really cool.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
That you're connecting with those people,
and now you take that Y'all haveeach other's contact
information here's the generalguidelines and y'all work on
your relationship, because whowants to have somebody
micromanage your relationshipanyway?
Right?

Speaker 1 (46:15):
No well, and it would have robbed and I believe you
said his name was Ron with oneto 64 hypes.
If there was a flat program inplace, that would have not
happened.
So exactly what you wanted tohave happen wouldn't have
happened because we were puttingrules over the top of people.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
That's right, so that's what I got yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
So I think it's great and you're reaping the benefits
of it.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
We found really a place either.
That you mentioned, like wherecan you not have bees?
I think, is that kind of whatyou're saying.
We haven't really found a placeoutside of if it's not
environmentally right for thebees, if that makes sense.
So, on HPV, we have.
It is on a second story terraceright next to an office space

(47:01):
and they are doing they'reflourishing, wonderfully.
We have some really cool stuffgoing on with HPV.
That's probably a whole otherconversation, but literally
facial recognition andpredictive analytics Wow.
So we're way outside of what youwould think of a nonprofit that
is working with some heavyhitters in the industries.
But what we like utilizing isthe resources in which they have

(47:23):
available to make the world abetter place.
And since that is one of theirmissions, along with first
responders and veterans, we wereable to come together and work
with a large, I guess,collaboration team.
It's about seven differentorganizations all coming
together to do this specificproject, which it didn't exist

(47:45):
the year ago.
It's pretty cool, but wehaven't.
So for that instance, they'rethere at our headquarters.
It's in the middle of Houston,pretty trafficked area.
We have six hives in thebackyard.
It's right there.
There's three story townhomesright next to us.
They're doing fine.
Actually, they produceextremely well.
We also have farms in rangethat we have hundreds of hives

(48:07):
on, so we haven't foundnecessarily a place.
That is just a no-go a no-gofor the beach.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
Is it a?
Because this was something thatmy wife brought up too, and
again just wanting to go throughthis in case anybody's, I think
I'm 100% on board.
I hope anybody listening justcalls you up and get started
with it because it sounds allthe little lessons inside of it
sound incredible.
So I want to make sure we clearany of the reasons not to right

(48:34):
now.
But my wife was asking aboutalso the anybody that might be
allergic to bees, like neighbors.
She was like, should we beworried about neighbors?
Should we be concerned aboutother people?
Because if you think about ahive, somebody that doesn't know
, is it 50,000 bees flyingaround my house at all times?
Is it a swarm of bees at alltimes or is it something that
that's not a big factor?

(48:54):
How does that look?

Speaker 2 (48:57):
That's a great question and it could be some.
A lot of people would ask thatquestion, right?
There is roughly 50,000 in eachone of the deep boxes, so you
got 50,000 there and then you'rebuilding a honey super.
I might be using some languagethat not everybody knows, but
it's okay, you get on it.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Really.
I was totally guessing at50,000 too.
I thought I was going to goovershoot it, but that's a lot
of bees.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
People say we go 30 to 50,000 and we go with the
50,000 because we we try to keepspace as efficiently as
possible for them to do theirjobs and not add additional
space.
Because, as we see it, we aslike me and a couple of the guys
that are here that run thecorporate hives we don't want as

(49:37):
many bees as you can put itright.
You've seen things like stackedlike crazy right, and pictures.
Probably we don't do thatbecause of the amount of bees
and we put them on corporatecampuses.
So it's not very responsible Ifit's in your, if it's in your,
you know your farm or your ranchor anything like that.
That's totally reasonable.
We just don't do that.
We end up splitting these beesfrom the corporates and then
giving them to veterans andfirst responders in the area.

(49:58):
So it's it's it's continuedcommunity service.
Not only are the bees literallypollinating around that local
area anywhere between three tofive miles, so that corporate is
now doing community servicewithout them even knowing it all
the time.
And then when those, those beesgrow and split, we, we give
those splits to the veterans andfirst responders that don't

(50:20):
have bees yet, right.
So now they're doing anadditional community services
that corporate and on the, onthe, the side of how many bees?
Yeah, roughly call it 30 to50,000 in a in a singular deep,
and then you're going to, youknow, go through the year.
It fluctuates, right.
So in the in the fall time now,we're going to start going and

(50:41):
not diminishing, but they'regoing to start downsizing, right
, because they're going toprotect their stores for what
they've had this year, whatthey've done so well and
creating.
They're going to protect that,they're going to protect the
queen so they can survivethrough the winter, utilize the
resources they have, and then inthe spring they're going to
start growing again.
So there's actual plans inplace for different size boxes.
How you utilize the boxes,people do it different ways.

(51:04):
There's not a right way to doit, but that's why you have a
mentor.
But when it comes to peoplethat are being that could be
stung great statistic foreverybody here and six million
chance that you will be stung bybeing one in six million being
stung by honeybee so, basically,anything in life is more

(51:24):
dangerous, right?
Yeah, like literally.

Speaker 1 (51:28):
But and just seems like it and I guess I love that
statistic and just it seems likeputting it in such a close
proximity to everybody, but itseems like they're flying around
for miles, like they're notalways that's not a big swarm
circling your house.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Yeah, and we'll go on back to what I said previously,
which was bees want to produceand reproduce.
They actually want nothing todo with you.
Like you'll probably, ifthere's a bee that's bumping you
, she doesn't want to sting you.
They know that that's not goingto be a good thing, so they're
bumping you, they're kind ofletting you know hey, we're over

(52:03):
here, right, that type of thing.
But like, for example, ourneighbors, we haven't had a
single complaint three years,right, and of course we give
them honey because that's thenicest thing to do and be like,
hey, this is actually frombasically your backyard and
we'll give them honey.
And you always want to be niceto your neighbors because that
just gets stewardship and beinga good neighbor, and if anything
were to happen, of course werespond very quickly.

(52:28):
But we haven't had anycomplaints.
I know a lot of people that havethem in their backyards.
Some people, funny enough, hidethem from their HOA and it's
like who will know that I haveone hive in my backyard unless
you're leaning over my fence,right?
Yeah, because, like you said,they're everywhere, so they're
already there.
They're already pollinatingyour plants, it's just that you

(52:50):
have more of a concentration inyour yard.
I actually tend to think thatthat's better, because then you
don't have wild swarms andthings like that around.
Another thing to not fear isthe swarms that you see in trees
.
They don't have anything todefend, so when you're watching
those things you can kind ofjust see their beauty.
They're not there to protect.

(53:11):
So there's a lot of lessonslearned in this kind of stuff.
But I would say the biggestobstacle that we have is the
fear that we've had fromchildhood, because somebody at
some point either told us theywere dangerous or we got stung
ourselves.
Oftentimes it could probably bea wasp and you won't even know

(53:31):
the difference, right, if you'rea child and you get stung.
Wasps sting multiple times.
The yellow jackets theyactually sting multiple times.
The bees don't.
They sting once right, and thebarbs get stuck in your skin
right, and then they fly off andthey actually pull all their
intestines out.
That's the stuff that you seeon there, and so they sacrificed

(53:51):
their life for the hive in theway that they see it.
But one of the best treatmentsfor those stings is actually
honey itself, which is kind ofcool.
So you literally like put honeyon your sting.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
No, that's, I love that.
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
So I would say mostly ades right.
You have to be a responsiblemanager of hive right Hive
manager in order for the bees tonot be aggressive.
For example, if there is a lowresources, well, they're gonna
go out and try to find resources.
So some people feed bees with,like a sugar water mixture, some

(54:28):
people do like a formula, somepeople put bananas on there I
mean there's this amazing amountof different types of things
that people do but they do needresources.
So if your law and resources noproblem, you won't be more
aggressive, just like you and Iwould be.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
And that makes a lot of sense.
What about?
And so when we think about cost, there's two costs the
financial cost and then the timecost.
You had mentioned 1 to 800bucks, but then you guys
reimburse it.
So let's say that I've gonethrough the course.
What is the annual cost ofhaving one hive, like if I'm
gonna put a hive in my backyard?

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Yeah, that's a great question and I'm gonna do the
answer of it depends, and itdepends on what you want, and
that's why it's so important notto me not to go down one
specific route but to reallyengage in the community, see
what other people are doing.
The reason why I say that isbecause there are a lot of
people that build their ownhives.

(55:26):
There are Langstraw hives thatyou probably see in normal TV.
There are top bar hives, thereare top Langstraw hives long
lengths.
There's a ton of differenttypes and some you can build and
if it's a monetary cost, youcan find scrap wooden building.
So there's all sorts ofdifferent ways to do it.
If you're, I would budget 1500bucks to start period.

(55:50):
That's gonna be whether weprefer people go with two hives
to start, and the reason forthat is because you can utilize
resources on both of them, one'sweak and one's strong.
You can help combine andutilize them in one way or
another.
You can see, kind of like,where the resources are coming
from, because you can actuallysee a beeline.
Right, they will come out,they'll do their figure eight in

(56:11):
the morning.
You will see where they'regoing in the direction that
they're going.
It's really cool.
But you could also have twohives sitting right next to each
other and the honey that'sproduced is completely different
from each other, even thoughthey're sitting right next to
each other, because theirsources are different.
And then, of course, we alwaysalways, always safety gear.
So you have your B suit,whatever you're comfortable in

(56:33):
we have.
We are actually coming out witha new branded stuff which will
be on our website atHatchFabulouscom.
That is a full suit which hasthe veil and everything and then
a set of gloves.
That's your basic PPE.
I would wear boots.
Up north, a lot of people dothings different.
They'll use maybe cotton orjust a jacket.

(56:53):
Down here it's hot.
We use triple ventilated suits.
They are a little bit morepricey but, man, they are so
good that wind blows rightthrough me, but when it's hot,
so it feels really good.
But you in Colorado might notwant a full suit, maybe just a
jacket and jeans.
So it's experiencing what it isfor you that right, there is
probably going to be 150 to 200bucks, and I put that 1500 with

(57:17):
that included.
So, like budget 1500.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
So 1500 is going to basically get you.
You could budget that andyou're going to be in a good
spot to get set up.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, you'll be two hives startup gear, protective
gear, feed.
You'll be pretty good thatfirst year, and then the initial
cost decreases, right, and itdepends on what you want to do.
Do you want to build more bees?
Do you want to sell nukes?
Do you want to build queens?
Do you want to produce honey?
There's all these avenues insideof that as well, and typically

(57:45):
you'll find somebody that'saround your area that goes, hey,
I really like this, I want tomake mead.
For example, we had a mead madefor us from Beeweaver which was
awesome.
You know, all the proceeds cameback to the organization.
So there's so many differentopportunities.
That's incredible.
Yes, it was delicious, oh mygosh.
So it was a mead that is theirbasic mead that they did a

(58:07):
barrel aged inside of abalcony's whiskey.
That's unbelievable, and sothey sold out very quickly.
So we'll put it that way, yeah,and so we do a lot of
collaborations like that andit's quite fun, whether it's.
Of course, they're not all analcohol, right, but mead is

(58:28):
supposedly the oldest alcoholbecause it's fermented honey,
right.
So kind of unique, kind of cool, and of course we do that all
over the place.
There was a beer that we did in.
It was called Hero's Honey Aleand that was in Georgia and I am

(58:48):
forgetting the name of thebrewery right now, and our
Georgia State, lead Eldon, isthe one that connected that and
utilized the honey to make beer.
So all sorts of differentopportunities to collaborate
with Hives for Heroes.
For any of the listeners it'sliterally be as creative as you
would like, as long as it'slegal, moral and ethical.
Be as creative as you like andwe'll probably get on with it.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Man, that's what an incredible, incredible thing.
And then, finally, the timeinvestment, and I know you hit
on for me, I'm travel-related.
It's really quite cool to alsosee that, and so my time at home
is limited and then when I amhome, I'm usually I dedicate all
my time to my kids and my wife.
I want to get my wife some timeaway.
I also want to spend as muchtime as I can with my kids,

(59:29):
Absolutely.
What is the weekly timecommitment that needs to be that
?
We need to be focused on takingcare of your hive.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Yeah, so that first year you'll learn a lot.
So it's really good to havethat mentor specifically for
that, because the responsibilityis no longer under shoulders,
one of the important pieces ofwhy we do what we do.
And again, there areorganizations that are out there
that do things 180 degrees.
It doesn't matter, as long asthey're serving the veteran and
first responder and serving ourenvironment in a great way.

(59:58):
We encourage everybody to getinvolved with whoever is in
their local area.
We do it differently because ofour lessons learned.
One of those is theresponsibility of bees.
Your first year and a lot ofmilitary and first responders
can probably understand this.
Losing a life is not easy andthe first time that I had a

(01:00:18):
swarm that I went and got and Ibrought into my backyard and I
killed it because I had no ideawhat I was doing.
I was a grown man crying in mybackyard because I couldn't do
even this.
I killed something.
I had to call my mentor.
And this is where this mentorstuff came in.
I called my mentor.

(01:00:39):
He said Steve, you are doingliterally the hardest thing you
could possibly do, expectingsome perfect result.
What in your brain was goingoff to think that you could even
do that?
And I'm like well, of course,our adages.
We're very skilled at a lot ofthings.
How can I not do this?
Et cetera, et cetera.
That's a lot of the reason.
But I would hate for people nothate, but it sucks that.

(01:01:04):
That is a piece of this.
Bees do die and that'ssomething that you have to work
through.
So in that first year, we don'twant you to burden that
responsibility without theknowledge that you literally
don't have the knowledge at sotime, commitment-wise, depends
on the hives and it depends onwhat kind of beekeeper you are.
This is kind of digging a littledeep, but if you are a

(01:01:26):
beekeeper that wants to knowevery single bee's name in the
hive, it's going to take youlong.
But if you're more on acommercial base kind of thing,
it might take you five minutes.
So Troy and I, as close as weare, we are very different
beekeepers but we respect.
That about each other andthat's how our organization
works is we don't talk downbased on what other people do,
whether they use treatment ordon't use treatment, or they use

(01:01:49):
long langs and not langs.
There's so many, there'smillions of different things
that can happen and it's very,very easy for people to not like
somebody because of how theywork their bees.
Again, we're a peopleorganization first, so we care
about the people and then, aslong as you're doing things that
are not like you're not burninga hive, like that's the thing.

(01:02:13):
So on the time commitment, forme it would take less time than
Troy.
It would take less time thanmaybe somebody that wants to
know every single bee's name.
There's nothing wrong with anyof them, so it's kind of how you
are.
And then the amount of hives.
So multiply that by the amountof hives.
If you're spending 10 minuteson a hive it might take you 20
minutes.
So full on it's going to takeyou 35 minutes, with prep,

(01:02:36):
getting ready, puttingeverything together, inspecting
the hives and then closing upthe hives and kind of
deregulating.
So that might take you 35minutes.
If you have 10 hives, it couldtake you three hours.
So it really depends on how.
And this is why theencouragement of being again
that mentorship process isbecause you could go, man, I
want 10 hives, but you have nounderstanding what 10 hives is

(01:02:59):
going to cost monetarily, right,cause all those are going to
need boxes.
You don't know how much timeit's going to take.
So just kind of step in, putthat toe in and work with us and
the people that are in yourlocal area and then you'll
figure out your own identity andbeekeeping and probably thrive.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Yeah, so and that's 30 ish.
If you have two hives, 30 ishminutes a week.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Yeah, probably about 30 minutes a week and some
people do every two weeksbecause there's the science
behind it is brood cycles, right.
So you have the stages of thebee right Work the bee from the
egg being laid all the way tobeing born.
So if you're looking fordifferent things, like mites,
for example, you might have abrood break.

(01:03:42):
If you need to do that, causeyou don't want to do treatments
or you can do, there's likesmall hive beetles or like pests
.
It's almost like playing a game, right, like a real game, but
it actually has like littlevillains, right, like the
veromite is a villain in this.
In this way it acts as almostlike a nerve tick.
It attacks, it attaches to theminside of the cell and then

(01:04:04):
they come out kind of deformedand then you have small hive
beetles which take over cells,one at a time and they basically
germinate faster and so theytake over the hive from like
basically the inside out.
So there's like villainsinvolved in this too, including
humans, right?
Herbicides, pesticides,fungicides.
So now you're becoming a personthat is out in your community

(01:04:26):
and can you please not do X,because this is what goes on.
This is why you don't want todo.
You know, herbicides,pesticides, fungicides and those
types of things.
And there's mostly naturalthings for all those, but it
involves you in a lot ofconversations.
You really learn a lot in ashort period of time, based on
your desire to learn.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Got it, and this is what an incredible journey.
And those are just the onesthat stood out to me, and I
obviously think that anybodythat is, I think anybody should
jump in and do it, especially ifyou're struggling, though.
If you're in a spot whereyou're a veteran first responder
struggling, definitely reachout.
I mean, what, yeah, what costswould you put on on your mental

(01:05:10):
health?
Cause I don't think there'sanything that, any barrier,
that's not worth steppingthrough, whether it's the
financial, the time commitment.
So step in and reach out, andwith that, what are they?
How?
What's the best way forsomebody to get in touch with
you?
If they're listening to thisand they're saying, okay, I want
to, I want to jump in, I wantto learn more, I want to see
about finding a mentor, what'sthe best way for them to reach

(01:05:33):
out to you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:33):
Yeah, you go straight to our website,
hypesforheroescom, click on joinus and click on newbie and
you'll fill out an applicationthere and we're collecting basic
information, mostlygeographical, and some of your
background.
We don't go into a lot ofbackground.
We are extremely openorganization.
If you're a veteran or firstresponder and you have an
interest in these, you're itLike that's it.

(01:05:54):
There are minimalqualifications.
On the opposite side of that,if there's any listeners or
listeners know anybody thatwould like to mentor a veteran
or first responder, we act asthough it's like the selective
service Sign up so that whenyou're needed you're available.
So sign up at, again,hypesforheroescom.

(01:06:15):
You're going to click on thementor tab and fill out a form
as well.
That goes into our database andour national connections
director, which is CharlesMcMaster you'll see him on the
website.
He's a retired army justfantastic individual that is
going to match you with somebodyin those in your local areas.

(01:06:36):
And then that second layer thatyou have is our state leaders.
So if you're in a state that wehave a state leader with,
there'll be another additionalcontact point.
So, boom, you already have two.
And then you're going to go onto our monthly national meetups,
which you'll see everybody inthe United States.
If they want to get on thatcall, we're there for them.
So we do that once I think it'sthe second Tuesday of every

(01:06:59):
month at seven o'clock central.
That's on the website and thenwe have events all over the
place.
So if you look at our websiteagain hivesforheroescom there is
a ton of information.
You'll see the about us.
You'll see our leadership.
You'll see an events tab whereit actually has events that are
in your local areas.
Those leaders do that and youcan show up.

(01:07:20):
Click on it, show up.
And then we have a resource tabthat has all the state
organizations that are there foryou and to support you.
You have our heroes.
We call it the heroes, which ispeople like 220, rva, crisis
Line, woodward Project all theseknown organizations that

(01:07:42):
support Because, again, we'renot experts in that we're gonna
get you to somebody that youneed to be or what you would
like to be associated with.
And then we have all ournational stuffs of the National
Honey Board, avf, national HoneyProducers and all sorts of
other organizations like thatthat support the beekeeping
community at all.

Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
That's incredible.
I love what you've done andwhat y'all are continually doing
, and I really appreciate howyou've redefined what success is
in your life, and that's whereyou found happiness.
Oh it's just yeah, it's amazingSwitching from success for self
to success and helping otherssucceed, and that's essentially
what you're offering up, I mean,in your goal.
You're offering that for otherpeople.

Speaker 2 (01:08:26):
That's correct.
Yeah, we learn, grow, lead andthose leaders that are out there
that are doing the same thingthat we do every day, and
they're doing it in their owncommunities, and we just took it
from a very high level and thencontinue to go.
We've kind of top down, bottomup approach right, there's a lot
of similarities in that andlean, as you know, but also like
a VBSS, for example.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
That's so good, so good.
But if there's any other ways,that we can support you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
I mean, as I'm talking to the listeners, of
course, we also need support too, right?
So, just like a hive, theresources have to be able to
come in.
So if you're an individual oryou're a company or anything
like that, please go to our page.
It's really easy to donatethere at our donate tab.
And then if you're acorporation or there's stuff
that likes us coming out andspeaking or doing things with

(01:09:16):
your employees, or even havingthese on the campuses, we'd love
to talk to you about that.
This is all funded by everybody, right?
This is exactly like a hive.
It's not one person doinganything.
So any kind of generosity thatyou're willing to do.
If you want to talk to us, callus, let us know.
We're happy to answer anyquestions.
Of course, we are a 501C3, soit is a tax donation and we've

(01:09:40):
done so much with very little.
We talk about how we startedwith zero Bs and zero dollars
and now we're getting to servein a really, really amazing way.
So if we had more resources,what else could you look like?

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Yeah Well, and that's back to the donation and the
helping out.
It's not even one isolatedhelping veterans, because now
we're getting more Bs, in whichnow you're helping planet Earth.
I mean you're doing there's somany layers of that every
donation that somebody wouldmake.
So I definitely highlyrecommend anybody that's
listening.
If you're not reaching out toget a hive, what can you do to

(01:10:12):
reach out to help, to support,donate, recommend people to this
.
And, Steve, thank you so much.
I really appreciate you takingthe time today and I'm looking
forward to staying in touch andseeing where you guys are at in
the future.

Speaker 2 (01:10:25):
And thanks for that.
I would appreciate it.
And also if you can't follow uson Instagram or Facebook and
LinkedIn at hives4heroes, thatis a free way to just let people
know that we exist, because younever know who's in your
network.
That needs some support.

Speaker 1 (01:10:37):
Yeah, beautiful, thanks, brother, all right.

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|int| Steve Jimenez: A Tale of Triumph, Bees, and the Power of Mentorship | Ep 87

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}|int| Steve Jimenez: A Tale of Triumph, Bees, and the Power of Mentorship | Ep 87