Firefighter Jermol Edwards Saving Lives After Service

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Warriors fall in.
It's time for formation.
So, folks, today I have a very,very inspirational guest, at
least from my opinion, anyways.
This gentleman is a firefighter.
He's also a co-founder of 24Media, which is a branding and
marketing agency, and I think,at the end of the day, being a
podcaster, military veteran,full-time government worker.

(00:24):
For myself, it's a juggling act.
Oh, and I didn't mention also,too, being a father, a family
man.
It can be quite tedious tojuggle everything, but the
gentleman that I have with metoday is going to share his
journey and some of his insights, and just everything from
firefighting to owning abusiness and entrepreneurship.
So I have Jamal Edwards with metoday.

(00:46):
Thank you, sir, for joining me,thank you for having me.
I'm really interested inlearning more about you.
I mean, I followed you onInstagram, I see your posts and
your stories and everything likethat, but I really haven't
gotten two to three tiers deepinto who you are, where your
journey started, just found outthat you're also an Air Force

(01:06):
veteran too, so go Army withthat right.
But anyway, I just want to giveyou an opportunity to share
your journey into what it waslike in the Air Force and how
you eventually became afirefighter.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, so I mean, at the end of the day I'm just a
kid from Jersey, Grew up rightoutside of Philadelphia, bounced
back and forth between my dadand my grandfather who lived in
upstate New York.
So most of my elementary yearsa lot of back and forth.
And then, once I hit aboutmiddle school, I stayed in
Jersey permanently, just me andmy dad living above a pawn shop

(01:41):
in the urban streets of NewJersey just trying to make it
happen.
You know, grits for breakfast,lunch and dinner, that type of
deal.
And as I got older, graduatedhigh school, I tried college, I
tried all that.
I got in a bunch of trouble,you know, and very cliche,
nothing special.
My grandfather had pushed me tojoin the Air Force.

(02:02):
I mean, he knew ahead of time Ineeded a reset button.
My grandfather was Army but hepushed me to join the Air Force
and because I didn't want tolisten to nobody, I wanted to
join the Marines.
So in Haddon Heights in NewJersey, old historical town, the
recruiting office was in thisold multi-use building.

(02:23):
The Air Force recruiter and theMarine recruiters were in the
same building, across thehallway from each other, and I
would go in there and I wouldtalk to staff Sergeant Holcomb
and he'd rile me up and do allthis stuff.
And, uh, I would see SergeantCaswell, uh, shout out to Cas he
, uh, he also lives in NorthCarolina, now retired, but, um,

(02:44):
I would talk to him in passingand he would always like I come
over to the Air Force, I don'twant to go over there.
You know well, I remember theday I was supposed to go sign my
name to get ready for thedelayed entry program and get
ready for MEPs and you know, dothe actual sign my life away.
I showed up and Sergeant Hulk,staff Sergeant Holcomb, was not
there.
Door was locked, lights wereoff.
Sergeant Caswell said, hey, youlooking for Holcomb.

(03:06):
I said, yeah, I'm supposed tosign.
You know, get this thing goingnow.
You know I've been talking tohim for weeks and I've been on
the fence and and he's not here.
I have the date, I have itwritten down.
This is the day, it's the timehe's not here.
Oh, yeah, he hasn't been heresince yesterday and today.
You know, I think he had like afamily emergency and he said,
ah, what do you want to join theMarines for?
You know those idiots.

(03:26):
And I said I don't know.
Just, marines are bad ass man.
You know, you see it on TV.
And uh, I ended up talking tohim for about an hour and, right
on the spot, just signed it.
Like you know, I just signed Idon't know what nothing.
It was nothing.
There was like not rays ofshining light, there wasn't like
the parting of the sea, nothingspectacular happened.
I just said you know what?
Yeah, I'm already drove all theway down here.

(03:47):
I'm signing something.
So I signed to the Air Force andgo through that whole process
and you know my grandfather hadpassed and things like that, and
so I was super motivated tokind of honor him and do this
thing the right way.
And so I was super motivated tokind of honor him and do this

(04:09):
thing the right way.
And so, it's funny, I get tothe MEPS program and MEPS so
much has changed.
It's like 12 hours of you inyour underwear getting poked and
prodded and a bunch ofquestions asked and it's a
terrible process.
But you know, I take the ASVAB,I score really good.
And the guy said hey, we needspace operation engineers.
I said what is that?
He goes.
You just sit in a warehouse andbuild missiles and satellites
and shout out to this guy.

(04:30):
I wish I remembered his name.
He did not want to be atwherever desk.
They stuck him in flippingbinders and telling because when
you take your ASVAB test it'sjust a proficiency test, so
based on your score you're onlyeligible for certain jobs.
I'm guessing this is the way itworks in all branches, but I'm
just saying this is how it wasin the Air Force.
So they start with what theyneed, but they can't make you

(04:52):
take a job.
They let you pick, but you canonly pick for what you're
qualified for.
So he said we need spaceoperations engineers.
And then he asked me he said doyou plan on being like a 20 year
guy and you know military forlife?
And I was like, no, not really.
I just kind of need a reset.
But I really didn't have a plan.
I just said I didn't thinkabout 20 years, but you know I'm

(05:13):
not opposed to it either.
He said well, you don't want todo that because then you're
going to be stuck if you get outwith only a government job and
then you'll be tied to thegovernment.
And he kept it so real with meand uh, I said man, I don't
really.
I didn't really think aboutwhat I actually wanted to do.
I went to college for asemester and a half for
psychology.
Uh, I wasn't really interestedin that.

(05:34):
There was just a cute girl inthe admissions office that day
and so I said I said, man, Idon't, I didn't really think
about that.
He said my brother-in-law is afirefighter.
He said the tech school, the,the um academy, it sucks, it's
really hard, but after that youplay Xbox.
And he said, though, he saidthe magic word for me.
I said, oh, you get to playXbox at work.
Yes, sign me up.
And uh, so I went Lewis FGarland fire Academy good,

(05:58):
fellow air force base.
After, uh, I did my eight and ahalf weeks at Laughlin Air Force
Base, where all the Air Forcedoes their basic training, and
then I got shipped off to SanAngelo, texas, to Louis F
Garland Fire Academy at God,what's that?
Goodfellow Air Force Base?
And in the middle of nowheresomewhere in Texas, like I'm

(06:19):
talking red rocks and windmills.
There was nothing going on outthere but that, that fire
Academy.
And uh, yeah, I did a couple ofyears in the air force.
Um, I ended up hurting my back,uh, during the Texas wildland
fires.
So that had to be what 2010, 11, ish, you know I go in in 2007,
2008, ish, and uh.
So when Obama ended the war,iraq war in 2012,.

(06:43):
Uh, you know, the military hasthis like weird rule whenever
they, you know, they have aninflux of people.
And then they got to get rid ofa bunch of people.
I ended up hurting my back and Iwas on profile.
For those who don't know,profiles just basically, um,
light duty or something of thatnature.
You know, uh, and I was workingin dispatch and my first
sergeant called me in the officeand said hey, we got to get rid

(07:05):
of people.
You only got a few months lefton this enlistment.
I can let you go now.
Full benefits, honorabledischarge.
You leave a few months earlybecause they're probably either
going to medically discharge youor they're going to reclass you
because you've been on profiletoo long.
And I said, well, because I wastrying to actively get off
profile.
I went through all the tests,but because now they had to get

(07:28):
rid of people, he was likeyou're just an easy person to
just discharge just for theirnumbers.
I don't want to see you getcaught up in that.
Yes, there's a chance you cankind of make it through.
But if you don't plan on, ifyou know, I wouldn't want you to
risk it.
And I talked to my wife aboutit and I said you know what it's
cool If I get everything I'msupposed to get after a full
enlistment.

(07:50):
It's not like I was close to20-year retirement, so it didn't
really matter.
So I said you know what Fine, Igot enough out of the military
that I wanted and I left and soI'm out.
I thought about going toPhiladelphia as a firefighter.
All my certs were good, I had agood amount of certifications,
had a good amount of experienceat that time and my wife was not

(08:13):
feeling me being a firefighterA bunch of dangerous calls and a
bunch of bad situations andthings like that.
And my guy got me a job atRockstar Energy and I said go do
sales, drink some energy drinks.
And I did that for a couple ofyears in Philly and I ended up
moving down to Wilmington, northCarolina, and one of my

(08:33):
neighbors ended up as he was acaptain here at the fire
department and I got to talkingto him about my military stuff
and he said well, listen, we'relooking for volunteers.
Talking to him about my militarystuff and he said well, listen,
we're looking for volunteers.
You want to come volunteer?
Give me your certs, we'll seeif the North Carolina has a
reciprocity and we'll let youfirefight without going to an
academy.
Sure enough, they did.

(08:53):
So I volunteered for about ayear.
Rockstar ended up gettingbought out by Pepsi and the fire
department was looking for afull-timer and I just that's.
That's how I got into this firedepartment.
I've been here now uh, januarywill be five years.
So it's been.
It's been a wild ride.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
That's amazing how that just happened.
I mean the.
Is it typical for the thatmilitary MOS to have the
reciprocity with civilianfirefighting?
Is that, is that normal?

Speaker 2 (09:24):
No, not at all.
I looked it up.
North Carolina is one of thevery few states that actually
accepts it, and so I wasextremely blessed.
I'm not exactly maybe it's mywife rubbing off on me.
I'm not exactly the mostreligious my wife and her family
is but somebody, something, waslooking out for me because I,
honestly, I've been blessed andlucky enough to have a bunch of

(09:47):
breaks go my way in terms ofcareer path and something like
you know, because at that pointI had been out of the military
for about seven years at thatpoint, so for it to just circle
back and just be of use to me,other than just sitting in a box
and taking up space in mystorage unit, I had no use.
I have all my military stuff,my whole life is in two boxes in

(10:07):
my storage unit and, you know,on a regular, random Tuesday
afternoon I dug them up and, uh,I was able to restart my career
from it.
Man it's, you know, it can onlybe God for me, Like that's,
that's, it's insane to thinkabout and uh, I feel, I feel
extremely lucky and blessed forsure.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
Yeah, to have that level of gratitude, spirituality
, I think, is extremely helpful,because it seems like at a
young age you were very aware,very self-aware of where you
were, because you talked aboutreset.
You talked about knowing thatyou needed that reset, knowing
you needed that discipline,no-transcript, like someone not

(11:07):
showing up to work, and then youjust sign up for whatever.
Like I went into the army andthe only reason I did was
because my dad was in the army.
I didn't know what I wassigning up for, I didn't know
what I was going to be doing, Ididn't even know what basic
training consisted of.
And that's funny because my dadspent five years down at Fort
Knox as a drill instructor, andso when I went to Fort Leonard

(11:29):
Wood, I mean it was like a smackin the face to meet a drill
sergeant.
I wasn't expecting that at all.
But, um, you know, I think ithas a lot to do with you and
just who you are.
Man Like you, you understandingthat you needed to reset,
having the discipline to uh, tothe military, um, and then I
love the story about meps too,man, like walking in your

(11:52):
underwear and all that stuff,yeah, and talking, hey, what
about?
What about the day before you.
You ship out and they take youto that really shitty uh, motel
six.
So here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Okay, they set this up nice, I don't know if it's
just the air force has a betterbudget than the army.
They took us to this like fourstar.
We had the whole floor lockeddown.
They gave us the conferenceroom.
They had x boxes on these giantprojectors.
We had brisket and the primerib buffet dinner like they we

(12:23):
thought we were going into likeclub fed, like some just cushy.
Uh, you know, we knew it was themilitary, but we thought it was
, we thought it was sweet man.
And you know we fly in and um,you know we're up early and then
I mean you ride the bus andeverybody, you know everybody's
so nice, the military, themilitary people at the airport
that are escorting you, so nice,lining you up, making sure

(12:45):
you're good, and then you stepoff that bus, man, and it's like
it's I mean it's.
They do it on purpose, they,they lulled you into this, you
know false sense of security,and then they just start eating
you up.
Man, I mean there was peoplelike from the bus did not want
to complete it.
We had a dude.
I remember our first night andfor some reason, maybe my, maybe

(13:11):
my TI picked up on my maturitybut he made me the dorm chief,
who's in charge of the entirebarracks.
You know, you get your dormchief and your four element
leaders and you know he justpicked me up at random.
Hey, you're going to be incharge.
Man, we had this kid I couldn'teven remember his name and you
know we're panicking.
Hey, be up.
You know revelry plays, youline up, go to PT and this kid.

(13:34):
I'm looking down making sureeverybody's beds are made, and
this had to be like day two orthree.
And I look down and there'sthis giant hump on the end, very
end of the second row of ourbarracks and I was like, oh, who
is this guy?
And the, the instructors, theywear these little metal clickers

(13:54):
on the back of their heels soyou can hear them and it's like
snapping.
So, and you know we're upstairsso you can hear them come on up
the steps and it's like this,it's it freaks you out.
Because then it's like and it'slike this, they, it's.
It freaks you out.
Because then it's like, andit's like, oh my god.
And like, uh, sergeant rileyman, uh, he was a, he was a

(14:15):
little pitbull man, he did notwant to make him mad.
And uh, why are you notdownstairs in formation?
No, no, no.
And you know, uh, whatever thetrainee edwards reports his
whatever his name is is notgetting out of bed.
Who the hell is that Get out ofbed man?
This kid, visually, washilarious.
He flips the blanket over hishead and only his head is
showing and he just looks atSergeant Riley and goes no,

(14:38):
covers his face back up with theblanket and I mean you couldn't
help but laugh, but you're notallowed to laugh in basic.
So you know, and like it was sooff-putting that sergeant rob,
he cracked a smile and looked atme and we both caught ourselves
smiling because it was funny.
But it was just like, and Ilike I snapped it.
You know, all right, just go topt.
And I mean that was the last weseen of this kid.
I guess he just didn't want todo it and he quit.

(15:00):
We by the time we got out of ptand, um, his, all his stuff was
packed up and he was gone.
His bed was empty, they tookoff the blankets and everything.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
So you know as much as much crap as the air force
gets for being like chair forceand everything else?
I've heard a lot about basictraining being fairly difficult,
fairly challenging anyways, anduh, did you think that it was a
challenge for you?

Speaker 2 (15:25):
so the thing about basic and again, I don't have
anything to compare this toother than stories from people
from other branches that Italked to I don't think it's any
more physically difficult thanany of the other ones.
Yeah, the PT standards maydefer a little bit, but you're
still doing pushups and burpeesand sit-ups and you're walking
and you're running all the timefor eight weeks, like that,
doesn't that's hard for anybody?

(15:45):
Uh, the thing about basictraining that people don't
understand physically I don'tthink it was all that difficult,
but I've always been in prettygood shape, uh, just playing
sports as a kid.
But mentally, man, like thatmental, how they break you down
affects how you performphysically.
So things that may not haveseemed hard to you, like, yeah
man, I could do a hundredpushups, no problem.

(16:06):
But you know, after about fouror five weeks and you know
they're just ragging on youevery step you get.
And you know, because no matterhow perfect you are in basic,
you're not perfect They'llfigure out something to pick at
you on.
And and that's the mistakepeople have when they go into
the military they're so afraidof getting yelled at or getting
called out on something.
They're trying to be perfect.

(16:26):
That makes you more of a targetand they don't want that right.
Their job is to break you down.
So by breaking you downmentally, it does break you down
physically, so it makes thesetasks seem harder.

(16:51):
I loved basic training when Igot out of it.
I would never do it again.
But coming out of it I'velearned so much.
I've completely transformed mymindset and who I am.
I didn't go into the militaryto see what I was made of or to
see who I was.
I went into military to see whoI wanted to be.
It showed me who I wanted to beas a person and I've taken that
from.
Like my life is legit splitpre-military, post-military.
I'm a completely differentperson in terms of my outlook
and how I view things, frombasic to the last day I served

(17:15):
man.
I really, you know I wanted to.
I picked.
I talked to a lot of peoplewhen I wanted to.
I wanted to be somebody youknow coming from where I come
from.
You know it's.
It's literally that town where,like the guy's 48, 50 years old
wearing his Letterman jacketoutside the liquor store oh yeah
, talking about you know what heused to do driving his Pontiac.
You know, sunbird, whatever,you know what I mean, like still

(17:37):
talking about things he used todo and no-transcript go out and

(18:14):
play.
So I couldn't play sports causeI had to go work so me and my
dad could have rent money.
You know, I used to sweep uplike leaves and stuff outside
the flower shop.
I used to take out the trashand I would sweep the barbershop
across the street and I wouldjust do odd jobs around the
neighborhood.
I mean, we were collecting cans.
I was picking cans out ofpeople's garbage so we can take

(18:35):
it to the recycle spot.
Like we had to make it happen tolive and you know I moved out
of my dad.
Me and my dad never really gotalong.
So I moved out when I was 17.
That was when my granddad waslike go to the military.
You know you're couch hopping.
You got these roommates.
You know I worked.
I got fortunate enough to get ajob at a very upscale diner Like
these Greek people owned it.
They were millionaires and thiswasn't like the diner you go

(18:57):
and get a tuna sandwich.
This was like the diner themillionaires went to.
It was very upscale and I wasmaking $150, $200 a night,
working 10, 12 hours.
I was living with my roommates.
I was like, what am I going tocollege for?
And that goes, oh, I'll make upthis class.
But then your car breaks down.
So now you got to work extrahours.
You find out you're workingextra hours, you're making more

(19:18):
money, now I can fix my car.
But now I got all this money,know, I'm basically living in a
frat house, so we're partyingand drinking every day.
I can make my, I can make myrent in two or three days, and
then the rest of my money I'mnot saving as I should, I'm
blowing it, being an idiot.
And uh, my grandfather ended updying.
And uh, that's when I said youknow what, man, I got a, I got,

(19:48):
I got a reset.
I need to.
This is like I'm, I'm not in agood way, and so that's kind of
what spurned that.
You know, living life, nothaving a life to begin with, and
then living it really fast,basically in my college years,
to okay, it's enough.
Now I want more from this lifeand and that's where the air
force came in I'm very, veryappreciative of it.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
You have a lot of gratitude, man, because, at the
end of the day, I've always saidthat when people go to bat for
you, when people sacrifice foryou, you owe it to them.
And it sounds like between yourfather and your grandfather and
just your family in general.
You know, that's what motivatedyou to make something of
yourself.
And, um, you know, I understandyour, your situation, your

(20:23):
circumstances, but at the end ofthe day, you had choices, man.
You could have went the otherway, you could have started
doing drugs, you could have keptdown that track, but something
inside of you told you that youneeded that reset.
And the one thing that I wantto highlight, too, is I really
think that we need strongfathers, strong men, in this

(20:45):
country to help with our, withour upcoming generations.
Man, um for sure, for you, itwas between your sounds like
between your father and yourgrandfather that that really
helped instill that mindset,that that, uh, that winning
mindset that has allowed you tobe where you're at today.
Overall, yeah, and I justwanted to ask you, so you've

(21:07):
been a firefighter for you saidabout five years now.

Speaker 2 (21:10):
Yeah, I've been here.
So between the military andthen where I'm at now, I know
there's a pretty big gap, but Ihave about nine, 10 years of
experience firefighting.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
So what do you think has been some of your most
challenging and rewardingexperiences that you've
encountered as a fire, as acivilian firefighter?

Speaker 2 (21:28):
You know what's funny .
Dealing the firefighting partis the fun part Seeing seeing
that smoke in the flames.
And again, the thing aboutbeing a first responder.
Whether you're police, fire,ems, law, you know anything.
People aren't calling youbecause their days are are are a
blast.
You know what I mean.

(21:48):
People are calling.
When I get called it'sgenerally somebody's worst day,
so the challenging and rewardingis the same thing.
When I get to impact somebody'slife, you know, um, the tough
ones are usually always kids.
Anything dealing with kids isalways tough.
Um, we've had terrible,terrible accidents Um, parents

(22:14):
drunk driving, killing theirkids, kids being irresponsible,
um hurting each other.
Um, you know.
And then and then also dealingwith elderly.
You know people aren't takingcare of our elderly.
You know these people areliving by themselves.
The state can't help them.
They're not getting the rightcare.
You know I show up to some ofthe most terrible, terrible um

(22:36):
living conditions for olderpeople and you know a lot of the
times they're falling on theground and nobody's there to
pick them up.
So we go and pick them up andyou know.
But you can tell like we got alot of frequent flyers and it'll
be two, three weeks and they'restill wearing the same clothes.
I saw them in.
There's the same dishes in thesink, same, the house just
smells and it's just like.
You know, dealing, you know, asa cause at my fire department,

(23:00):
you have to be also a medic, youhave to be EMT certified, so we
run a lot of EMT calls.
So dealing with kids anddealing with people who don't
have support is very challengingbut it's rewarding because
they're very grateful.
The fact that I can help themevery day and at least be some
sort of positivity for them, atleast for a few minutes, um,

(23:23):
really, uh, puts things inperspective for me right, makes
me more appreciative of my lifeand makes me, you know the kids,
the annoying things that kidsdo, that they break or they mess
up in the house.
I, you know it's like it'sreally not that important
because you know, mr and MrsJones's kid unfortunately fell
or did this or have this diseaseand you know he's no longer

(23:44):
with us.
You know, um, you know, lastChristmas, around Christmas time
, it was like beginning ofDecember like these parents,
these kids have these airsoftrifles, you know, and people are
having fun.
They go on YouTube and watchthe airsoft battles.
This 13 year old shot his 15year old brother in the chest,
pierced his heart with anairsoft rifle by accident.
They were cleaning up and Iguess it just went off and they

(24:06):
were standing too close to eachother.
You know it's that's terrible towalk into a house to screaming
parents and a brother who'straumatized.
You know it's that's that'schallenging, it's hard to kind
of recoup.
But I leave that call and thenI have to go to another call.
I have to go to an elderlywoman who just needs help off
the toilet or needs help out ofbed to get to her wheelchair,
and I can't bring that last callwith me, no matter how hard it

(24:29):
is, and so doing that.
Or maybe we have a terriblecall like a bad accident, but we
have to go to the elementaryschool to do fire prevention.
So now I got to be laughing andhappy but I just left this
terrible call.
And those and those aren'tfrequent at all.
These are not, these are everyonce in a while type deal Like

(24:52):
we're not.
You know this is a New Yorkcity where something bad's
happening every five seconds.
But those days are especiallyhard and challenging and you
have to, you have to kind ofcompartmentalize, uh, especially
when you're a first responder,and that goes for law
enforcement or medical and firedepartment.
It's just learning how tocompartmentalize, trying to
separate your emotions and relyon your training, because it's

(25:13):
easy to say, hey, we got a caraccident, this is what I'm
trained to do, I'm going to godo this, this and this, but then
you show up and a nine-year-oldis hanging out of a tree
because she got ejected andthings are messed up.
It's like it's hard to do thatwhen I have a kid who's eight.
You know my daughter's 13.
I have a.
I have a 19 year old stepson.
I've been married to his momsince he was four, so I've

(25:34):
literally watched him grow upand he's out there driving and
he's out there doing thesethings, and then I show up to
these wrecks and his girls justher and her friends are driving
in the back of a pickup trucklike they're not supposed to,
but she hits a curb and her leggets severed because the truck
rolled over on her 20 years old19, 20 years old and she, you

(25:55):
know she doesn't have a leg now.
So it's like I think about thatman, I come home and it just
it's very hard to, and then youalso don't want to be
overprotective now, like I seeall this bad stuff.
So it's like you got to makesure.
You know I can't just not letmy kids do anything.
I have to, especially my 19year old.
He has to go live his life, hehas to figure out who he is now,
you know, and and it's hard tolet him venture out and I'm not

(26:19):
in a rush for him to get out thehouse or anything, but you know
I also understand like he hasto leave at some point and I
can't protect him fromeverything.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
So he's, he's got to do life.
I mean, whatever that is, he'sgot to do life.
That's.
That's really tough man, and asa father, I feel you on that
because even when I deployed toIraq and some of the things that
I've done in my full-time job,it's it's hard not to see the

(26:48):
face of your own in the like, inthe bodies of other folks that
you're working with or workingfor or supporting, so like I've.
You know, seeing my own kids inthe face of you know, kids that
are that are, you know, lessfortunate or in those terrible
situations and circumstances.
Would you say that overall Imean this is kind of a personal
thing, but would you say thatthat overall understanding of
like taking those calls with youto your, the baseline of

(27:10):
someone who's been to war, butthen the baseline of someone
who's a first responder, whosees what you, what you've seen,

(27:31):
is what probably 99% of thepublic never sees Would you say
that that is probably one of theunderlining things in today's
world is just general folks whoaren't first responders or
combat military veterans,understanding like 100, because
you know you, being iraqi vetfirst responder, seeing death or

(27:56):
seeing wounds or like justtrauma, right, right, you get
decent.

Speaker 2 (28:00):
Not desensitized is such a it's the word to use, but
it's not really the right word,you know what I I mean.
It's like yeah, like we're, justwe grow.
We have, like a um, a tolerancefor it.
Right, our tolerance for it isjust heightened, right, just
like anything else, right, firstshot of whiskey is terrible.
A hundred shots of whiskeylater not too bad, goes down
pretty smooth, it's.
It's just a tolerance that wehave because of the nature of

(28:23):
our jobs or the nature of whatwe're doing.
So you know, uh, you know, mymother-in-law is telling me
about, like this, this thing,and I'm just like yeah, oh, yeah
, okay, you know, and she'sshocked at you know how, how
easily I can digest that and I'mlike you have to understand, I
see way worse stuff all the timeand it's and and so I guess it

(28:45):
is desensitized.
But I don't, I don't want toseem insensitive to people's
trauma and stuff and and, yeah,it's, it's hard to, especially,
you know, a job like mine.
I don't.
You know, especially in mymarriage.
I don't have a job anymorewhere I can tell her about my
day.
You know what I mean.
What I do is not exactly greatdinner table talk Like how was

(29:06):
your day, honey?
Oh well, you know, this guy gotinto a really gnarly car
accident and I had to grab hisarm from behind his body that
got severed and by the bone, andthen we had to put in a bag of
ice and like, that's notsomething you know, but I can
freely talk about that.
And when I talk about it to myfriends in the group chat, I say
, yeah, this is what happened.
And they're just shocked at hownonchalant I can be about it
and I just said, yeah, man, it'sjust experience and time, I'm

(29:29):
just used to it and I forgetsometimes that that, like you
just said, it's not somethingthey deal with or see.
So to them they're like, oh myGod, like that's, that's insane.
And I'm like, no, not really.
That's like the fourth mostinteresting thing that's
happened to me this week.
So, uh, it is hard to deal with, you know, and I think that's
why a lot of first responders ormilitary personnel always get

(29:50):
involved with each other.
Um, and I do think it'simportant.
Uh, I'm part of the NorthCarolina peer support team, you
know, especially for the newerpeople, we had a kid just start
with us.
Well, he's been here for abouta little over a year, but when
he first started, his very firstcall on his very first day was
an eight year old who tried tohang himself because the

(30:11):
neighborhood kids were bullyinghim because he was deaf.
And this kid is a 19 year oldkid, fresh out of the academy,
and that was his first call andhe freaked out like a normal
person would.
We have to remember, theacademy is just teaching you how
to be a firefighter.
This kid has no life experienceto begin with because he's 19,
but he has no fire experience.

(30:32):
He's not used to it.
Yeah, he went to EMT school andit's one thing to deal with the
mannequins and deal with the.
You know, deal with the, the,the, the little electronic
devices and training props.
But to see it in real life, toshow up on a call, and this kid
is just hanging there, you know,um, the, that's just the thing.

(30:55):
Now the kid's a pro, he goesall, he goes all types of crazy
calls.
You know he's only been here ayear and some change.
So, um, building that tolerance, you know people, people have
the.
You'll be shocked when you haveto do it, how quickly you can
acclimate and get used to it.
Um, but it's still.
It's still tough, like kids.

(31:18):
Again, kids are tough, becauseI have kids.
It's something I relate to.
But when I see adults allmessed up.
I don't feel it, it's okay.
What do I have?
What are the symptoms?
What can I do?
As a first responder, I onlyoperate at a basic level.
It's very limited in what I cando, but what life-saving
measures can I take?
And it's boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Just know, just relying ontraining and trying to focus on
the training, and that'll keepyour mind off of what's really

(31:41):
happening there.
And yeah, I think, I thinkpeople who don't have that they
watch a CPR class for their job.
You know it's a littledifferent, you know, but when
CPR happens at the job, peopleare scared to do it because it's
, it's not the same.
They don't have it's, it's justnot something they have to deal
with.
So, um, I don't, I don't blamepeople, it's, it's just, it's
just a tough thing.

(32:01):
And I think that's why it'simportant for um veterans, first
responders to to get into thesepeer support groups, right,
because we are the only onesthat understand no-transcript,

(32:47):
that we can put you in contactwith Um and and more times than
not, nobody reaches out.
But there have been, there havebeen a handful of times where
people have reached out and Ithink that's growth.
I think that's terrific.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
There's just so many angles to it too.
I mean, we haven't even talkedabout personal life, like people
going through hardship inrelationships, loss of family
members, and then you're havingto go to work and put on this
face and this professional faceand be professional in these
first responder roles.
So, again, when I first caughtup with you on Instagram and I

(33:21):
was reading some of your postson there, man, it really kind of
hit home for me and, like Isaid, I didn't even know you
were an Air Force veteran.
So, man, that just adds more toeverything your character and
what you're about Overall.
I mean, mean, do you have anymemorable stories or anything

(33:42):
like you'd like to share withfolks?
Uh, like, maybe your worst day,your best day or anything like
that since you've been infirefighting in general?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
yeah, so one of my first days I might have been, I
might have been on base.
You know, um, maybe a week itof my first days I might have
been on base.
Maybe a week it was my firstreal call like fire call.
Barksdale Air Force Base is inShreveport, louisiana.
It's a decommissioned nuclearbase.
We still run a flight linethere.
We had A-10 Warthogs.

(34:13):
I believe we had a B-52.
We had A-10 Warthogs.
I believe we had a B-52.
But most of the land there onceit I think I can't remember what
year it might have beensomewhere in the late 70s or 80s
it was decommissioned and itturned into an airman family
readiness base.
So all the wild land that wasout there that they had to use
for clearance, they turned intoparks and they built base

(34:33):
housing and they did all thisfun stuff.
Well, um, all the natural gaslines ran back there and one of
our first calls in the middle ofthe night I'll never forget Uh,
one of the old retired, uh, uh,gs guys was out there working.
Uh, something happened and thegas main exploded and you know

(34:54):
we're, we're ripping and runningaround the flight line.
I mean, you can see it.
You can see it's a straightline of fire.
It's straight in the air,clearing the trees out.
We get about a quarter of amile away.
We had to stop the truckbecause the heat was so intense.
Our deputy chief said we can'tget closer, we're already
feeling the heat.
We're a quarter of a mile awayfrom the main.
There's no way, and at thatpoint we knew that whatever guy

(35:17):
that was out there workingprobably didn't make it.
But again, I'm 20 somethingyoung, 20 something year old kid
First.
This is like you know and I'mtalking about.
I grew up in Jersey where Ithought I was.
I had it handled because myfriend's brother was killed in
front of us.
I've grown up, I've lostfriends to gun violence Like

(35:38):
I've oh man, this ain't nothing.
Fire man Feeling that heat forthe first time in a real
situation.
I, I mean, I felt like a baby,I really did.
And we had to wait for the gasto run out.
Once they shut the gas off, wehad to wait for the gas to run
out in the, in the pipes.
The flame finally went down.
We get over there and it lookedlike a movie.
I'm talking scorched.
The trees are all gone.

(35:58):
We see a chassis of a pickuptruck and all it was, it was
just the chassis and it wasstill red from the heat.
And, uh, one of the uh, one ofthe majors from medical came.
That was his brother-in-law.
That was the guy that wasresponsible for fixing it.
So he's freaking out.
Um, and yeah, we had to walkaround and I stepped on this

(36:19):
dude's skull because they toldus to look for bones if we could
find him.
And, uh, I stepped on somethingand the crunch was loud and I
freaked out because, you know,and of course everybody, um, you
know, I stopped and I said Ithink I just stepped on a bone
and we looked down and I was, itwas a skull.
And that was the first time forme, something like that.

(36:41):
You know, it's one thing, Iguess, as a kid, you know, you
grow up and your friend getsshot in front of you and you're
just, it's still a body there,but like seeing a skull for the
first time, you know, especiallyin those circumstances, that
was tough for me, like that wasa wake up call.
Going through basic and goingthrough tech school and all the
hard physical and mental, um,training that I went through

(37:01):
didn't prepare me enough.
Like nothing can prepare youfor that, uh, other than just
going through it and livingthrough it and uh, yeah, just
having to walk around andcollect this guy's bones and we
didn't collect much, but, uh,and then having to just hand it
to somebody, while a familymember is sitting there trying
to figure out how he's gonnaexplain to his wife because

(37:22):
that's his wife's brother howhe's gonna explain to his wife
that her brother died tonight.
You know, just watching it allunfold, man, it felt like I was
in.
I felt like I was watching amovie of about myself.
Like it just didn't.
None of it seemed.
And, and what really shook mewas, coming back, how nonchalant
everybody's joking in the truck, laughing, uh, not not at the

(37:44):
guy, but like just aboutanything, just making jokes on
each other.
And I was like y'all did, hey,you know, did y'all see what
just happened?
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, it sucks,man, like I feel so bad for the
guy.
Like they just I forget thatI'm new here, right, like I'm
the new guy they they've,they've seen this stuff before.
So, um, that was like a realwake up call.

(38:04):
I remember, and that's why Iremember it's so vivid.
It happened so many years ago.
I remember the like I rememberthe trip, like I remember how
long it took us to get there.
I can, I can tell you how manyroad signs were on the way, like
it was that vivid of a memory,um, cause I'll never forget
something like that.
Uh, so that was for me like oneof the main things.
Uh, more recently in this sideof my career, um, my kid was

(38:28):
having an allergic reaction thatthe?
Uh grandfather thought was, um,like a chest issue.
This kid he was like five orsix years old stopped breathing
and we performed CPR and wesaved him.
Like this kid it was, and againin the moment it's like, oh, no
, a kid, but it like it kicksyou into overdrive and you do

(38:50):
everything you can and you know,we had our young firefighter
jump in the back.
We drive the ambulance to thehospital so the medics can
actually work on the kid.
And they saved him and wethought his heart stopped
because his anaphylacticreaction caused oxygen to shut
off and so apparently, he wasallergic to the new cats and

(39:11):
dogs that the parents brought inand, yeah, he had a really bad
allergic reaction.
Uh, that caused his heart tostop and and we saved him and I
was so happy I was working.
It took me days to figure outwhat happened.
You know, we reached out to thefire chief hey, we want to
update, we want to update.
And then, maybe like two weekslater, uh, the parents and the
kids show up to the firehouseand the dad was crying, thanking

(39:35):
us, hugging us.
The kid was shy, we let himjump in the fire truck.
I drove him around the firestation with the lights on.
He was so happy man, it wassuch a great feeling.
It was a great like.
It's things like that, thingsthat I can do to help people,
that makes it worth it.
All the bad stuff.
I see, you know it comes andgoes, like it's just going to
happen, but moments like that isexactly why I do what I do and

(39:57):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Yeah, wow, that is so damn interesting man.
You know anyone out therethat's thinking about cause.
I talked to a lot of youngyoung adults and they're always
asking me about the military andfirst responder stuff and you
know those types of careers.
But I don't know a lot aboutcareers.
But I don't know a lot aboutfirefighters.
I don't know a lot aboutfirefighting, but would you have

(40:19):
any advice for folks that arethinking about getting into that
career?

Speaker 2 (40:23):
yeah, the biggest advice is it's, it's.
It's a job.
It's tough.
It's tough on you physicallyand it's tough on you mentally.
It's just like anything else,though, um, I didn't think I was
going to be a firefighter.
I had no inkling on being afirefighter until I started
doing it and I fell in love withit.
You have to love the job.

(40:45):
It's not a job that you canhalf-ass.
Then you'll try it and, and youknow, maybe go volunteer
somewhere, see if it's somethingthat interests you.
From there, then you can pursueit as a career.
But if you go volunteer, mostplaces only require you to do
what?
24, 12 to 24 hours a month.

(41:05):
So you can pick and choosewhere you go, um, and, and trust
me, volunteer firehouses arealways looking for volunteers.
They'll train you, uh, but seeif it's something that you
really like, because it is a jobyou have to fully be in,
because you're responsible forlife.
Our job is life preservation,right, life and property
preservation, you know, um?

(41:27):
So it's not a job, it's not.
It's not something you watch ontv.
This is a chicago fire whereyou, you know, you run calls and
you bang the medics Like.
That's not what the job is.
People are relying on you tosave to.
They're calling you on yourworst day.
Uh, the people on your truck.
Your life and their lives arein your hands and your life is

(41:48):
in there.
So my advice is, if you, ifyou're generally interested in
it, go for it.
It's great.
Um, if it's something thatyou're kind of thinking about,
go volunteer and figure out ifyou love it or not, because if
you don't love it, then don't doit, because you're going to get
somebody killed, you're goingto get somebody hurt.
Fire, being a firefighter, to me, is the best job in the world,
man, for that reason I just toldyou for the story I just told

(42:10):
you that five-year-old kid isgoing to have a life now because
we relied on our training.
We didn't half-ass, we did whatwe were trained to do.
And, yeah, sometimes we do whatwe're trained to do and people
die.
But at least we know we dideverything we possibly could and
there was nothing else we coulddo.
But in those instances wherethat kid would have 100% died if
we didn't know what we weredoing or if we didn't intervene,

(42:32):
and that right, there is why wedo the job.
That exact moment we had a fire, a little fire.
A lady was doing some yard workand I think she was trying to
burn some trash and I guess thewind changed direction on her in
her burn barrel and it caughther detached shed on fire.
That thing was burnt up and weput it out and we're spraying

(42:54):
water and one of the guys saidwait, wait, hold up, and we
start digging through stuff, 'respraying water.
And one of the guys said wait,wait, hold up.
And we start digging throughstuff.
Everything in this shed wasburnt up.
But he somehow had thewherewithal to stop start
picking apart some of thecharred stuff to find stuff that
wasn't burnt yet.
And in that pile was a photobook that had her dad's military
photos, her wedding photos, allher kids baby pictures, all her

(43:17):
her whole family album.
And she just broke down andstarted crying.
I mean this, this shed was doneLike it was, but this thing was
perfectly uh, it was singed alittle bit on the, on the
binding, but for the most partit was everything.
All the pictures were inperfect shape and she was so
grateful.
Everything in that shed was wasgone.
You know, definitely worthmoney, things, things are, I'm

(43:41):
sure, a value to her, but theonly thing she cared about was
that photo album and, um, youknow so it doesn't always have
to be as drastic as thefive-year-old surviving like
those memories that she can'treplicate, you know, because you
had to take photos back then.
We don't have the cloud, asthis is an older lady.
Has that now because we aretrained.

(44:01):
Let's just put water oneverything.
No hold on.
Our job is to preserve propertyas well.
If there's something we cansave from this shed fire, let's
try to save things, and we endedup finding a bunch of stuff
that were valuable to her maybenot valuable to other people,
but you know, it's just anawesome feeling that we can give

(44:21):
people, like I said when theycall us on their worst day.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
You know, in the first responder line of work,
I'm sure that you have witnesseda lot of miracles and blessings
and it's hard not to bespiritual, in a sense, because
of the things that you've seen,the lives that have been saved
and the things that havehappened.
You know, it's so interestingto hear just your perspective as
a firefighter, but there's somany angles to you, and one of

(44:48):
the things that I want to talkabout, too, is 24 Media.
And how do you?
How in the world do you balanceBecause I know being a
podcaster, working full time, afather and and volunteering for
nonprofits and things like thatFor me it's a juggling act.
But how do you meet the demandsof being a firefighter and then
also being an entrepreneur aswell?

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Yeah, biggest lesson my grand, my grandfather, taught
me that I'll always remember isdon't count time, make time
count, right.
So literally I just divide mytime.
I said, hey, these are workhours for me.
If that means I get a littleless sleep because I have to be
a dad and I got to stay up from11 to 2 AM working on my
business, then that's just whatit's going to be.

(45:30):
Luckily for me, my kids are allof school age, so the days that
I'm off I have all day to do mywork.
I know I have these eight ornine hours.
So, no, I can't sit there andwatch sports center all day Like
I really want to.
If I have podcast stuff to do,if I have graphic design stuff
to do.
You know, on top of 24 media,which is me and my cousin's
company, what we've run andwe've helped dozens and dozens

(45:51):
of businesses get up off theground.
You know Our podcast networkthat we run with our buddy Mike,
who has a contract with iHeart,with Fox Sports in Philadelphia
.
Everything has stemmed from 24Media.
To balance that, I justhonestly just budgeting my time.
I try to treat it like a nineto five.
When my kids are at school.

(46:13):
That's my time to work.
On my days off?
Uh, I'm lucky enough to be afirefighter where I only work at
the firehouse 11 days out ofthe month, so I have those other
10 or 11 days to do what I gotto do.
Plus, at the firehouse, when wehave downtime, I have my
computer and I'm working theretoo.
But when my kids are home, um,I'm, I'm, I'm dad, and when my
wife is home, I'm a husband.

(46:50):
Things are just going to haveto wait.
And for somebody who's runningbusinesses or trying to get
stuff off the ground, I get thatyou have to work extra, but for
me, the podcasting could goaway.
Graphic design stuff can goaway.
My, who want to be entrepreneursor call themselves
entrepreneurs, uh, the mistakethey make is they grind 24,
seven.
They watch all these stupidpeople on Instagram.
Man, you got to work old, 20.
You got to work 25, eight.
Man, this is eat, sleep,breathe.
This thing, no, no, you don'thave to.
Actually, you don't like.

(47:11):
I literally set a timer, like I,on my days.
I get off shift at seven.
My, uh, my daughter gets on thebus before I get home, but my
youngest son gets on the bus atseven.
45, from eight to eight tothree o'clock I work, cause
that's when my kid gets off thebus, or no, I'm sorry.
Uh, about four, four, 30.
So basically, from eight tofour I'm working on whatever I

(47:31):
got to.
I take a lunch break andeverything.
I split my time up.
I work in blocks and I have todo that because it keeps me
honest.
I know I only have this finiteamount of time.
It makes me more productivebecause when four o'clock hits,
I got to help EJ do his homeworkand then I got to cook dinner
and then I got to clean and makesure the house is clean for my
wife, cause I don't want to hearher mouth because I've been

(47:51):
sitting at home all day.
So it's the best thing I can,the best advice I give to
entrepreneurs, and the thingthat's helped me.
And it trust me.
This isn't something I just gotout the gate I.
It took me years of gettingyelled at by my wife and arguing
and fighting, because I hadthat mindset.
I want this to work.
So I have to work all the timeand I learned you really don't
know like, hey, four o'clock I'mdone.

(48:21):
Don't hit me up for nothingunless you're going to pay.
If you're going to pay extra,cool, then yeah, I'll stop doing
what I'm doing and I'll do that.
But if not, it can wait tilltomorrow, because my kids need
me, they want to watch a movie,or I need to help them with
homework, or we want to go getsome frozen yogurt.
Those things are important tome.
One I don't want to burn myselfout, and I think that's why I'm
able to continue to do it atthe clip.
I am because people, uh, are sofocused on trying to make it

(48:41):
work right now, not reallytrusting the process.
You know, you get a system justlike everything else.
You gotta, you gotta find asystem that works for you.
Um, for me it just worksperfectly that I can kind of do
banker's hours.
But, uh, when I was working atRockstar, I had to adjust my
time because I was workingMonday through Friday.
So the weekends was toughbecause the kids are out of

(49:02):
school.
So basically I forced myself tojust stay.
Hey, everybody went to bed at 10or 11 o'clock, dad was up until
two, three o'clock and I wasworking.
And now I don't have to do that.
But my wife appreciated it,even though she wanted me to
sleep more, but she appreciatedthat I wasn't doing it while
everybody was home.
You know like I used to do so,just finding that, finding that,

(49:23):
those gaps, you have to findthe time to do it.
There's 24 hours in the day,there's plenty.
There's plenty of time toaccomplish what you want to
accomplish.
You don't have to go at it allthe time and neglect what's
really important, which is youknow your family and your own
sanity.
To be honest, yeah, underlinethat.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
Uh, your own family and your sanity Cause that.
That is huge, because sometimesyou can burn yourself out.
Uh, when you're doing this sortof thing and I've I've been
guilty of that before where I'vereally burned myself out and I
was just like the taste buds inmy mouth were like dull and I'm
like I don't even know if I wantto.
I want to do this, I gotta stayin this, but I gotta figure out

(50:01):
how do I preserve myself to dothis.
But I jumped right over it.
I didn't even talk about it,but 24 media.
Can you tell us about whatthat's about?
I know you started it with yourcousin.
Uh, taishan, right, yep,taishan so 24 media is a.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
It started off as just a graphic design.
You know, back in jersey wewere making mixtape covers and
everybody wanted to be a rapperwhen we were kids.
So we're like, yeah, man, we'llmake your mixtape cover, you
know, we'll do this.
We'll make, you know, partyflyers, you know.
And um, we got really good atit and we were like, yeah, we
can, we can make logos.
And so we started making logosfor people who wanted to start

(50:37):
businesses.
And it stopped there and me andhim talked one day.
I said what you know, peoplewant to start a business.
So what do they do?
They get a logo.
All right, then what's next?
What do they usually?
Uh, they need business cards,while they need promotional
stuff.
They need a website.
Hey, let's learn how to build awebsite.
Let's be a one-stop shop.
They need a website.

(50:58):
Hey, let's learn how to build awebsite.
Let's be a one-stop shop.
Why give them a logo so theycould take it to somebody else
who's going to butcher it andmisuse it?
We can build something whereyou don't have to go nowhere
else.
24 Media can do everything foryou.
And so over the years it kindof morphed into that.
We've kind of learned differentskills.
So we kind of divided the workto multiply the success type

(51:21):
deal.
So he's really good with thevideo editing and he's really
good with the camera,photography, things of that
nature.
I'm really good at graphicdesign, I'm really good at brand
identity, things like that.
So we kind of combined ourskills.
I'm good with audio editing,identity things like that.
So we kind of combined ourskills.
I'm good with audio editing andso you know, we kind of
combined our skills and we'vehelped so many people.

(51:41):
It's and again, that was like ahobby that we both really
enjoyed and that's kind of howwe stayed close.
As you know, I left for themilitary and he's moved from
this place and now I'm in NorthCarolina, so that's for us.
That's kind of how we stayedconnected.
Uh, but in that, in thatjourney, I mean it's we've
parlayed that into the podcastnetwork.
Now to the partnership with Iheart, to helping.

(52:04):
You know, um, like Tyrese Maxeyfrom the Philadelphia 76ers is
about to do a podcast with Iheart and we are going to help
produce that because of 24 mediaand all the stuff we've done
for iHeart.
And we didn't go to college forthat, we are self-taught.
And to the point where, likethe president of iHeart in
Philly, is like, why is Mike andhis buddies so good at this

(52:27):
when I have college people andpeople who grew up in radio?
You know, even their podcastsounds better than some of the
stuff I have on the radio Likeit's and I'm.
I'm just like hey, you know,when we're invested, you know
we're invested.
If I, if I'm going to be doingthe sports podcast, I want to be
the best version of that that Ican be.
You know I want to.
I want to be the best at it.

(52:47):
You know, if I want to do agraphic design or if I want to
help people build their business, I want them to say, hey, this
is the guy to help me do it.
That's always been themotivation.
It's so funny.
Uh, uh, we were just talking atthe firehouse.
I don't believe in motivation.
I don't.
I believe you either want it oryou don't want it, and if you
want it, bad enough, you'regoing to figure out how to get
it.
Uh, you don't need to bemotivated by anything.

(53:09):
People who need motivation, uh,are the people.
Don't have discipline to me.
Like, don't have discipline tome.
Like, what do you need to bemotivated, for If you want to
start a podcast, go get amicrophone, go do the research,
make it happen.
You don't need to feelmotivated to do that.
If you're about it, you know.
So, uh, and and, and all mycousin, uh, all the people that
we work with, we're alllike-minded that way.

(53:31):
Hey, is this something you wantto do?
Just let you know if this iswhat you want to do, this is
what you want to do, this iswhat it means.
If you're not about that, thenyou can't roll with us.
Period.
It's not personal, it's justlike we're trying to get here
and I can't be dragging youalong trying to talk you into
doing it.
You either want to do it or youdon't want to do it, and so we

(53:52):
all decided we want to do it,and so, all right, cool, let's
do it.
Hey, weekly podcast.
If you can't do it every week,try to make content.
Just whip out your phone.
It doesn't have to beprofessional, nobody cares, you
know.
But you have to be consistent.
So, whether that's graphicdesign, whether that's doing a
podcast, whether you're sellingvacuum cleaners, which is, you
know, I'm dating myself, butdoor-to-door vacuum cleaner

(54:12):
salesman, you know, you have tobe consistent at it and
eventually it'll come.
All the all the all the fruitsof that labor will come if
you're consistent enough.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, that's well said.
Consistency is extremelyimportant and it's something
that I've struggled with overthe last I think two years been
doing this, three years now.
I was consistent for a reallong time and then work.
It's just.
I feel like there's ebb andflows with this, but the one
thing that's been important forme is to always keep a pulse and

(54:45):
to always keep it going, tonever step away.
Don't take the break in thesemester at college, because
you'll never go back again.
Um, you know, and that's been my, that's been my fear is like if
I stop recording, I'm going tostop altogether.
And then all this I mean youknow as well as I do, bro
there's a lot of time, energysacrifice, late night just

(55:08):
teaching yourself how to do theaudio side of this, the video
side of this that people don'tsee, and I was telling a friend
of mine today that I saidthere's a lot of times when
you're out drinking, having agood time, going out, doing
stuff, and I'm sitting in mylittle studio, my little shed
here, and I'm unhooking thingslike running wires and it's 11

(55:29):
pm at night, going on 12 and andfreaking.
Nobody sees that stuff, man.
So, uh, hats off to you forthat man and understanding the
discipline and consistency,especially having your cousin.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
That's, that's huge man, that's it helps, trust me,
it helps me a lot.
I I'm very grateful, and alsomy buddy, mike and and burt, who
I do stuff about sports with,and then, yeah, everybody who's
joined the the network.
It was hard to run a networkwhen it was just us and we got
people to join.
So now the burden to makecontent for me is less because I
push everything through thenetwork, and that was very
important to me.

(56:00):
Yeah, we all have our ownseparate entities, but I need
everything to go through thenetwork.
That way I don't have to makecontent every day.
Or if I know, like Bert travelsa lot for his job, so if I know
we're not going to do a show fora week or two, I make sure I
take one of the days that I knowI'm going to be home and the
kids are at school and that's mycontent day.
I'll sit there and I'll recordfive to seven things and then I

(56:23):
can just post it.
Now I'll schedule posts thatway.
I'm not, I don't have to.
I don't feel that pressure ofdoing something every day.
I'll just make sure I take a dayto do research and then I'll
take a day to record and I'llput out reels or I'll make up
stories or I'll, you know, makeup posts, and then that that
kind of helps me for what youwere talking about days that
you're kind of burnt out and, um, you may not feel like doing

(56:44):
something right then, and there,uh, I kind of preload that
stuff for me and then that way,uh, a day that I'm a little busy
or I know I can't get in frontof the microphone, I at least
have something I can post uh forfor any particular day.
So that's learning.
Things like that is justsomething you come with
experience and time like like,damn, you know, I don't have to
make a show every day or I don'thave to do it every week.

(57:05):
I can, I can figure out ways tomake content for people to look
at and, um and and and do itthat way.
So, yeah, it's justeverything's like learning
curves, right, like just tryingto figure it out.

Speaker 1 (57:16):
So talk to me about some of the big milestones that
24 media has, uh has come across, I guess, since you started it
around 2006, right yeah?

Speaker 2 (57:26):
So I mean literally just from building our first
computer.
Uh, uh, ty's dad is a computerengineer and I remember in high
school we had asked him for acomputer.
You know, back in 2004, five,you know, in.
In that time computers weren't,as I mean they were getting
accessible, but they were stillpretty expensive.
Um, he came home with and he, Ilearned a lot from him.

(57:50):
He was the type you know youlearn by doing, not coddling,
right, you don't?
You, nobody's giving youanything.
He showed up from work one daywith a box of computer parts and
said put it together.
Here's your computer.
It's every part you need.
Uh, you can use my computer tolook up what things are if you
don't know, and look up how toput it together.
And it looked like a piece ofcrap, like we had the.

(58:13):
I mean it did like all theparts looked old and.
But by the time we looked upevery single part and figured
out what part goes to what.
I mean.
It took us about two weeks and,uh, come to find out he's got
us the parts you couldn't evenget in stores.
We had the best computer likethat.
You, a computer that we builtfrom the stuff he gave us, you
know, would have cost thousandsof dollars and but it taught us

(58:37):
to work for it and I think a lotof that discipline for me
started then and I've alwaysbeen like that, like no, we'll
take it apart, we'll figure outhow to put it back together, and
that's how you learn as far asmilestones.
You know from that moment.
That's what helped us with ourbusiness.
We have to work now.
We have to do a bunch of freestuff and uh and give and give

(58:59):
people like a taste and thenwork from there.
And then now we have the townthat we grew up in.
We're doing their um, theirwater and port authority website
and all their social media.
The deal with iHeart, the dealwith Fox Sports in Philadelphia
working with Todd Frazier, newYork legend for baseball,

(59:22):
helping the children'scentralized hospital.
It's always something thatwe're adding to our resume
because we're helping thesepeople and it's just getting
bigger and bigger.
Frankie darcelle is a legendaryvoice in philadelphia radio and
we help with them.
We've helped with the um, the,the national suicide hotline,
doing they did a series, apodcast series, and we help them

(59:44):
produce that through iheart.
So like, just bigger, biggeropportunities for us are leading
to more opportunities and again, it's just us doing it and
being good at it and beingconfident and just kind of.
You know, every, everyopportunity we get, learning for

(01:00:06):
something so we can take it tothe next thing, and I'm excited
to see what next year brings.
Man Like now we're working with, you know, tyrese Maxey, star
player for the Philadelphia76ers.
Right now he's starting apodcast throughout heart and
we're going to help with thatand that's going to.
That opens up another door tous.
Now you know what I meanAthletes like that's something
that we haven't really tappedinto.
A lot of it has just been smallbusiness.

(01:00:27):
Particularly for me and Ty,it's important that we help
small black business, so helpingthem get off the ground,
because a lot of them don'treally know.
They just, oh, I just need alogo and a business card and
I'll figure it out.
No, there's, there's a lot moreto it.
Like you know, there you needcreative direction.
It's not just having a logo andslapping it on some water
bottles and now you have abusiness, you need a, you need a
plan, and so helping peopledevelop.

(01:00:49):
That has been a very beneficialwhen we use it in our corporate
side, like with iHeart andeverything that kind of stems
from that.
So yeah, it's been a crazyjourney.
To be honest with you, it'sbeen crazy for us.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
For anyone out there listening, though, that might be
interested and they're lookingfor some brand identity.
Can you talk about how youassist the small businesses in
developing that brand identityand their digital presence as
well?

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Yeah, so typically it starts off with a meeting right
, just helping create the brandand figure out what you need
from us, right, like some peopleliterally have no idea where to
start.
Right, like they just theydon't know where to start.
So we can honestly help from us, right, like some people
literally have no idea where tostart, right, like they just
they don't, they don't knowwhere to start, so we can
honestly help from there.
Okay Well, tell us about yourbusiness, tell us what you want
to do, tell us what you want toachieve, what's your goal?
Right, and um, and, and thenfrom there we kind of come up

(01:01:45):
with, we kind of come up with aplan for you, right?
So, like some people, they knowexactly what they want to do
and so we uh, they just don'thave the ability to make it look
good and we just do that, right.
Uh, like urban youth right,urban youth is a, is a, is a
racing school in Delaware andthey wanted to teach, uh, um,

(01:02:05):
kids in the city about NASCAR,about racing, how to build the
cars, how to do this.
Jim Brown from CBS ispartnering with them and a bunch
of the teachers found my cousinTy and we helped them create a
documentary that Jim Brown'sgoing to narrate, and the whole
school's purpose is just toteach kids about NASCAR and

(01:02:26):
building cars.
So, whether you want to race oryou want to be part of the pit
crew, they're teaching you howNASCAR and how NASCAR vehicles
are made and how they run, andit's it's an awesome thing, and
so we're in the process of doingthat for them, creating that
documentary for them.
But they, they had, they had anidea.
They just didn't know how toexecute it.
And we have people coming to ushey, I just want to sell shirts

(01:02:48):
, all right, well, what kind ofshirts are motivational?
Okay, well, kind of motivationLike what do you?
You know?
Um, and we, we, we help themcome up with stuff like that.
Uh, in Memphis, we had these twopeople that wanted to create
their own mail carrying serviceand they would just basically
deliver packages like the Uberof delivering packages, and, uh,
so we helped them do that.

(01:03:09):
Like it's just from the groundup, everything from a website,
and some people just want a logo, and that's fine.
Uh, I try to ask them all right, well, what are you going to do
with the logo?
You know, and that's where thesalesman part of it.
Right, you got to upsell it.
All, right, you got a logo.
Now, now, what, like?
What are you going to them?
Um, and then, if you can't, ifyou can't do, if you can't do

(01:03:32):
that, then, uh, we'll, we'llfigure something else out.
But, yeah, I mean everythingfrom graphic design, website
development, video production,even social media strategy.
Um, you know, just consultinganything like we honestly it's
uh, I hate to say it, like this,anything we, we literally
anything to do with media, wecan do it.

(01:03:54):
And so, um, again, the podcastproduction.
We've done live streams foriheart.
That's really how we got ourfoot in the door.
We, you know, we, we were likedoing live streams and then they
realized we had a podcast andwe were going to like mets games
, because a lot of half of usare mets fans and half of us are
yankees fans.
So we would do these events, uh, in Philly, whenever the Mets

(01:04:14):
would play the I mean thePhillies would play the Mets or
the Yankees we would just gothere, set up a table and go
live and, um, people startedcatching on.
Man, it's just, it was, it'sbeen, it's been a wild, it's
been a wild journey, consideringthat we just started from
making like mixtape covers on acomputer we built in high school
.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
That's awesome man.
I laughed when he first startedtalking about brand identity
because I was that person.
I had an idea, but I didn't.
When they started asking mequestions about you know, why
are you doing this, and I feltso dumb.
I was like I don't know, butyou know, and I laughed when you
said that just because that wasme.
I was like I don't know, butyou know, and I laughed when you

(01:04:52):
said that just because that wasme.
I was like I don't know.
And people have to understand,like, if you're doing podcasts
or anything that's in media,anybody can go to Best Buy and
go purchase a camera, purchase amicrophone, anybody.
The challenge is is having aplan for that and having a brand
identity and having somedirection.
That and having a brandidentity and having some
direction, so that's extremelyimportant and that and that's
where 24 media would come intoplay uh, to actually give you

(01:05:16):
that foundation, that structure,because these microphones I can
, you can get them anywhere, paythe money, get the microphone,
uh.
But the real challenge is ishaving a direction, uh, on what
you want to do with that.
So, um, that's that's why Ilaughed when you said that.
You're probably like why is helaughing Because that was me and
anyone out there listening.
You should not feel bad, don'tfeel stupid.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
That was me too.
Trust me.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Yeah, yeah, don't feel stupid if you have an idea
but you don't have it quiteworked all out just yet.
That's what 24 Media would begreat for is to ask those
questions, those importantquestions, because helping folks
that are behind you, like onthis journey, is probably one of
the most fulfilling things thatthat I enjoy doing.
You know, and I can tell youknow a man like yourself that

(01:06:02):
has worked his entire life inpublic service um, whether in
the military or as a firefighter, whether in the military or as
a firefighter, thatwholeheartedly is at the soul of
your business.
24.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Media.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Now going forward into the future.
How do you envision thedirection of 24 Media and your
role with the company?
You guys mainly talk aboutsports, right?

Speaker 2 (01:06:33):
Yeah, so the Give Us a Shot Network is the podcast
network, but 24 Media is thebranding from that.
Right now, a majority of thenetwork are sports, but we've
had podcasts that don't talkabout sports at all.
We've had two young ladies, oneof them that worked at iHeart
and one that wrote for theWashington Post, that talked
about being single in their30irties, living in the city,
and they had, they had a wholepodcast series about that.

(01:06:54):
Um, again, we've had um, thesuicide awareness podcast series
.
You know, uh, we have um, aprofessional wrestler, uh, like
an independent professionalwrestler, who is now kind of
moving past professionalwrestling but getting into
training like physical fitness,and so we're helping him with

(01:07:15):
that, like transitioning to thatand starting that podcast.
And so the podcast network, theGive Us a Shot Network, is
literally giving podcasters ashot.
Hey, if you don't know how tomonetize your podcast, or you
don't know how to start apodcast, you don't know how to
monetize your podcast, or youdon't know how to start a
podcast, you don't know whatmicrophone to buy, you don't
know what, what, what to doother than talk, we can help you

(01:07:37):
, you know.
And so, luckily for us, a lotof our guys just needed a brand
behind them, you know, to helpthem kind of promote what
they're doing.
So, and if that's all you needfrom us, sure, like you know and
we can help you do that.
But you know the future of itfor 24 media, the future is to

(01:07:57):
build a school.
I want to teach people how todo this.
Eventually, I want to teach um.
I want to teach young peoplehow to start doing graphic
design and then also startgetting into um like a branding
agency.
All right, this is how you,this is how you help people
build a brand.
This is what a brand is.
This is why it's not just alogo and a business card.

(01:08:18):
There's more to it.
Know your why?
Why are you doing it?
Uh, I used to tell musicians allthe time don't make music that
you think people want to hear.
Make music, you want to hearbecause you're not the only one
that wants to hear it.
So if you make something foryou, so like for stuff about
sports, you know me and Bertwere trying to figure out what,
how we wanted to do our show andI said I don't want to hear BS,

(01:08:41):
I just want some dudes talkingabout sports.
Man, I don't care if it'spolitically correct.
I'm not the only one that feelsthe way I do about certain
things that are happening in thesports world.
So I'm going to speak the way Iwould I would.
I would talk normally and it'sworked out for us.
You know, some people want tobe buttoned up and polished and
want to be ESPN.
That's fine too, like if that'show you want to portray
yourself.
But you know why are you doingit?

(01:09:05):
Because I just want real,authentic, not scared sports
commentary.
That's what I want out of mypodcast.
So, um, I'm actually going to bestarting a podcast called the
whole damn truth and eachepisode is going to be the whole
damn truth about being a womanin corporate America, and I'm

(01:09:26):
going to interview some lady whoworks at like my friend Jenny,
who, um, has a high up job ather place and she's had to deal
with a lot of crap as a woman ina male dominated workplace, and
I want to know about thatbecause she's not the only one
going through that and I thinkit'll help people.
I want to talk.
There's an ex-con who had abeer business here in North
Carolina and a bunch of peoplewrote some nasty stuff in a

(01:09:49):
newspaper and it ruined hisbusiness.
I want to talk to him aboutthat.
I don't think that's fair.
I want to help him figure outwhat he can do to fight back.
So the whole damn truth issomething I've been working.
It's a passion project of mine,because I'm not exactly sure how
I want to frame it or how Iwant to do it.

(01:10:09):
Mind, because I don't I'm notexactly sure how I want to frame
it or how I want to do it.
I kind of want a better uhsetup for my house that I that I
currently have Um, as I've hadto move a couple of times in the
last couple of years, so Icouldn't settle.
You know, I would love to havea setup like yours.
Like, like that's the goal forme to have something uh like
yours.
But, uh, I definitely want it.
I want it to be done right,because I want this to be

(01:10:31):
something that truly touchespeople.
Me talking about sports.
Is me talking about sportsright?
Like it's, we all do it right.
But this thing that I want todo is kind of similar to what
you're doing Awareness and stuffthat's important, like what you
do is extremely important.
I sat there and watched a bunchof your videos the last couple
of days, from when we were firstsupposed to do it, completely

(01:10:52):
forgot you were on Pacific Time,so I logged on at 3 pm thinking
I'm like, oh man, it's beensitting here for 30 minutes.
I have that problem all thetime.
Sorry, and I should have knownbetter.
But and then and then I justgot busy at work.

(01:11:12):
But yeah, what you do isextremely important and it's I'm
very glad to know you and veryglad to meet you and, honestly,
be part of this podcast.
It's a huge honor and I want tohelp you any way I can.
And and I think like we needmore people like you to do stuff
like this, because it's real,it's not just BS, it's not
recapping the bachelor or thelast episode of some stupid TV

(01:11:32):
show with dragons in it.
Like this is important stuffand and I think, um, there
should be more awareness for ityou know, and underlining and
highlighting people like you uhis an absolute honor for me.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
And I know you're a humble guy and you'll think, oh,
that's not me and uh get allrosy in the cheeks and stuff.
But in reality, man, likeyou've came from almost nothing
to where you are now.
So it's an honor for me tointerview folks like you because
you're doing so many tremendousthings and I really think that
our society as a whole ismissing out on the real heroes

(01:12:05):
in our society.
You know, and what you werejust talking about is real A lot
of people are trying to getaway from mainstream media and
trying to get those real, uh,authentic voices out there and
they want to hear like the no BS, like unpolished, uh reality.
So I I think that's a hugemarket, uh coming over the

(01:12:25):
horizon for you, man.
But listen, we've coveredeverything from your military
time to your firefighter career,to you being an entrepreneur as
well.
Is there anything else beforewe wrap up this podcast that
you'd like to mention or talkabout that I didn't cover?

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
No, I mean just for anybody.
Be yourself, man, the samereason people love me or the
same reason people hate me.
There's no need to be twoversions of yourself.
You know, just be as authenticas possible, treat people the
right way, do things the rightway and you'll have a fulfilling
life.
Give it.
Give everything you want to do.
If you want to do a podcast, doit to the best of your ability.
You know, be in.

(01:13:06):
If you want to be a firefighter, be in.
If you want to be in lawenforcement, be in it and and
just be yourself.
Like.
There's no need to fake it.
You know, just just.
I want people to be themselvesand and be the real version of
them and not some version theythink other people want you to
see, and you'll go far.
Trust me, I've.
I'm not the most politicallycorrect, I'm not the most
professional, I know.

(01:13:26):
You know there's a time to beprofessional, there's a time for
business and things like that,but at the end of the day, I'm
still me.
There's no need to fake it.
But no, I had a really goodtime doing this man.
This was very fun.
Time flew for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
But, jamal, I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
I want to make sure that Iproperly put the 24 media
information on here, as well asyour Instagram and any other
social media platforms thatyou're on as well.

(01:14:00):
So, if you're listening to thison a podcast, scroll down to
the bottom, where the captionsare there, and you can find the
different links.
If you're watching this onYouTube, same deal, just go to
the bottom.
There You'll find where you canget a hold of 24 Media and
Jamal as well.
So, man, it's been quite anhonor to connect with you and I
hope we get an opportunity totalk again.

(01:14:20):
Man, 100%.

Speaker 2 (01:14:22):
Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (01:14:23):
All right, folks.
As always, I want you to staytuned, stay focused and stay
motivated.
Warriors fall out.

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