Introduction - A New Series to Introduce the Heroic Men and Women Who Wear The Tin

Stephen J: (00:11)
Welcome to behind the tin, a podcast that introduces you to the heroic men and women who wear the tin while protecting our community and hearing about the extraordinary things they're doing when their badges in their locker. We'd like to thank our sponsors, those guys, print.com. Those guys for all your custom apparel need visit those guys. print.com. I'm Stephen J the good Lieutenant. I'm here with just 10, the civilian producer. Now, we're you today, sir. And we are here to talk to you, the listeners about what behind the tin is all about capsule. So behind the 10, it came from an idea of a, of a podcast talking about literally how the introduction went, men and women who day to day are wearing their badges, protecting the community and what they're doing when that badge goes in their locker. Yeah, I think

Justin: (00:56)
There's a lot of great untold stories that don't get documented and don't get the attention they deserve.

Stephen J: (01:02)
I think every time we hear about what a police officer, a firefighter, an EMT or anybody in that public service is doing, it's usually about them working. Right? And like you just said, I think there's so many stories, whether it's charities, whether it's business, whether it's just helping the community coaching. So many things that are going on that these men and women are doing that we need to shed light on.

Justin: (01:24)
Absolutely. Yeah. There's definitely just not a, a good venue where you hear these stories on a regular basis. There

Stephen J: (01:30)
There's a big trend of humanizing the badge and I see these TikTok videos and these Instagram posts of cops and firemen dancing. Mm-hmm while they're in uniform. And, and to me that doesn't humanize the badge. It's just being silly and making people laugh to a degree, but what they're doing when they take off that costume, that uniform, that heroes, uniform, uh, is extraordinary.

Justin: (01:54)
Yeah. We've seen a lot of extraordinary things right here in our own community. So

Stephen J: (01:57)
One of the people that inspired me most to do this, Justin and we talked about it is the founder of Make-A-Wish. Absolutely not many people know that the founder of Make-A-Wish was an Arizona, Arizona state trooper, by the name of Frank Shankwitz. Now he came out with this idea of being able to help kids with terminal illness and just put a smile on their face. It started very, very small, yeah.

Justin: (02:19)
An incredible organization, an

Stephen J: (02:20)
Organization that we've been involved in here in the Hudson valley. Yep. In many different ways to never say no to a kid's wish. And I'm proud to be, to have been a part of that. Um, I'm proud to be a part of a lot of charity organizations that I've been introduced, uh, to, and many of the guests they're gonna hear from are involved in charities.

Justin: (02:38)
Yeah. We've already had some great guests that have come on to talk about some of the incredible things they've been doing in the community

Stephen J: (02:43)
And whether it's CRE foundations, whether it's just becoming a huge part of a foundation, it already exists, uh, enhancing a foundation. These are things that these men and women are doing off duty. Right. And most of the time, I, I venture to say all the time, they're not doing it for the accolades. Right?

Justin: (03:01)
Most people don't

Stephen J: (03:02)
Know. Most people don't know. Um, we happen to know 'em cuz we're involved in that, that group, uh, that small circle of charity here in the Hudson valley, New York. But these guys, these girls are out there just trying to make their community a little bit better. So the people that are involved in the charities, my hats are off to them. They're they're true heroes. And that's who we're talking about. Then we, we take it to a whole nother level and we talk about the men and women outside of the job that are getting ready, maybe to retire or trying to supplement their income. Because as we know, there's not a lot of

Justin: (03:35)
Money. You mean all cops and firefighters, aren't rich,

Stephen J: (03:38)
Not the ones that I know. Oh, okay. Maybe that's, uh, somewhere else, but not the ones that I know they're every cop and every fireman almost have a second job. Right. Right. Especially firemen, you know, they, they work that 24 shift and the next day they're doing a contracting work or they're cleaning bars or mm-hmm, whatever they may do. Uh, but they most always have a second skillset. And some of these can train, send to other people, maybe people that are listening to this. Right. And maybe we can introduce them to opportunity, um, trials and tribulations of getting a business started or funding a business. Right. Or, or what have you, uh, I think that's gonna be a really great, uh, tool that we're gonna be able to give people and share with them. Other stories sure. About, Hey, how'd I get this started. How

Justin: (04:21)
Am I doing this side side hustles always sound like a, like an easy thing to, uh, to do. But once you really dig into it, you realize there's a lot of challenges up front to get that going. Yeah.

Stephen J: (04:29)
It's not as easy as I turn the business on. And I started making money day one. And then there's like two different side hustles. As you say, there's the ones that people grab those skillset from work. Maybe it's a skill that they develop while they were working as a firefighter or a police officer and EMT. Sure. And turn that into a business. And then there's the ones that are just completely, uh, off the charts, not related

Justin: (04:52)
At all. Yeah. They just found something that they connected to and that's someone they wanted to help and they just go forward with it and they do a great job.

Stephen J: (04:59)
Yeah. So we're gonna to talk to many people. We've talked to some already and their stories are incredible. Some make me laugh, great, great stuff. Some are real serious. Uh, some come outta tragedy and some come out of, you know, just a desire to do something. Uh, when they're a kid, I talk about sports all the time. I'm a big sports analogy guy. And when you got a team together and you're playing sports for that hour and a half to 33 hours, you're playing that game. You're all a team. But as soon as you get to the locker room and you go your separate ways, they're all individuals and they're, they have different interests music for one. Yep. You have some great musicians on the sports teams, right? You have guys that are intellectuals. Um, guys that just have skills outside of the reason, they're a team.

Justin: (05:44)
When I was in high school, people were always begging me to find out the football players, especially begging me how to find out how to get into marching band.

Stephen J: (05:51)
I'm I'm sure that is not the case. however, uh, you know what the problem is when you, you play football, uh, the marching band is always playing when you're in the locker room. Right, right. You never actually get to experience it. And then all of a sudden you get to the colleges now scholarships for marching band are just as prevalent as scholarships for sports, right.

Justin: (06:09)
Oh sure. Music scholarships are huge. I mean, billions and billions of scholarships go out for, for music related

Stephen J: (06:14)
Stuff. So then people get to college and most kids that go to college don't make the big varsity team mm-hmm and major universities who have these bands. And then you get to experience that band and some are incredible. Absolutely. Yeah. So I, I actually admire you band geeks But uh, but going back to even band, even band members, once they leave that, that stage, if you will, they, they have other things that they're involved in.

Justin: (06:38)
Yeah. And I'm, I'm sure, uh, the same goes with sports. I, I can say from a perspective of high school, you, you tend to take those opportunities for granted, right. If you're playing football or you're playing in band, whatever it is now you're done with college, you know, you may not have a lot of opportunities now to go playing a football team every week. Right. But

Stephen J: (06:58)
You were involved in other things, right. And that usually leads to your career or your choice of curriculum, which you're following. And to me, that's always been the interesting thing, you know, I love watching biographies and most biographies we see are actors or actresses or athletes. And it's always what they're doing outside of their profession. That interested me, what made the biography really interesting, cuz sometimes it's just how we all connect. Right. You

Justin: (07:23)
Know, you know, you know what movie they're in, you know, what role they played and it is, it's, it's more exciting to hear the insights and the behind the scenes that you don't get from watching, uh, you know, uh, five minutes of a show, uh, in the morning. Yeah.

Stephen J: (07:33)
So we're, we're taking that approach to police officers, firefighters, EMTs, mill, Terry, people who, you know, wear that badge per se, uh, wear that tin and, and we're taking a look at them and how they're doing amazing things. And I'm so excited to do this because it's endless possibilities for us.

Justin: (07:50)
Yeah. I think it's gonna be really special.

Stephen J: (07:51)
So we're, we're looking for more guests and when the coolest things is the network and one of the things I have when I'm out there is your network is your net worth mm-hmm right. You've probably heard that other places. Oh yeah. Yep. And I love that. Yep. So our network of firefighters and police officers and, and the people in this public service, um, always knows somebody else who should be a part of this. Right. And, and most of our humbled, we, we sat here and we've talked to, I don't know how many people already, and every time we ask, like, who else, who else should be on our show? They give us like four of their names. Like, I can't believe you didn't ask them first. Right. You know? Cause they're humbled. They're like, wow, I'm, I'm a guest. Like yeah. You know, we admire what you're doing and we wanna talk to you about it. Yeah.

Justin: (08:28)
It's great to hear these stories. People want to share 'em but they're

Stephen J: (08:31)
Always like, Hey, there's there's other people you need to talk to, like, why didn't you talk to X, Y, Z. Right. So we're doing that, you know, we're, we're getting out on that social media platform of our Facebook. We have our Instagram, um, behind the ten.com. Absolutely. You can visit there and, and if you have anybody or yourself, you think, Hey, I wanna share something. Cuz I have a skillset. I have a tool I've been through an experience. Mm-hmm that if other people here, I might give them a

Justin: (08:56)
Benefit. Yeah. Maybe it'll help 'em out. So

Stephen J: (08:58)
That's what this is all about. This is all about just exposing those people that put that badge in their locker and do extraordinary things. Whether it's business, charity, uh, coaching, some people just coaching skill sets. You know, I coach football for a little bit. You you'd be amazed at how much time and effort goes into a high school football team. Right. Right.

Justin: (09:17)
Yeah. And the similarities probably from your day job, too. Sure. So

Stephen J: (09:21)
You being a leader training, you need to go to these courses now in order to be a coach and certified coach, it's a different world we live in, right. Coaching is an experience. You have different people from all over coming together for the sport mm-hmm and when you meld those people together for a common goal, you have to have those skills just like teaching, right. Just in the civilian producer. Many don't know for who doesn't know is a music teacher by trade.

Justin: (09:49)
Yeah. I spent, spent quite a few years teaching music,

Stephen J: (09:52)
You know, trombones, drums, Yu, ukuleles, every, everything. This guy could play every instrument, but his talent is being just in the civilian producer for us. Love it. And you know, since I've known you we've been involved in a lot of charities together, a lot of organizations, but

Justin: (10:07)
A lot of charities. Yeah. You've gone me involved in a lot of different things that have really, uh, you know, and again, that's why I'm so passionate about this. It's not something that I was really aware of. It's not something thing I, wasn't not interested in. I just didn't know. Uh, and I, I think we've discussed that too, that there's a lot of people who, who wanna get involved and they just don't even know how they don't even know what the first step is. Who do you call? Who do you reach out to? Who needs help? How do you help?

Stephen J: (10:28)
Uh, so there's three ways to help. This is beautiful. There's three ways to help. And I was taught this many years ago, there's three tees in charity work. It's time, it's talent and it's treasure. Right? So those of us are listening. I say us, I'm not one of them, but those who are listening that have a lot of treasure, the donations first and foremost money runs charities. Right? Absolutely. That's how we help the kids, how we help the elderly, how we help the sick, uh, whoever needs help it's money. Okay. Have the treasure part of it. And if any, anybody wants to donate or you're looking for a certain organization to donate every charity that we talk about on this podcast is gonna be on

Justin: (11:06)
Our website. Yeah. We'll always be in the show notes. We'll always be on, you know, behind the ten.com.

Stephen J: (11:11)
So if you have a, you hear a charity, uh, that you're interested in or that you say, Hey, that my follows that one, we're gonna have that. And always, it will be the availability to

Justin: (11:21)
Donate. So, but what about a lot of people don't have a, a ton of disposable income laying around where they can just start throwing it to charities on, on a whim

Stephen J: (11:29)
To how can those people help. They go to time, right? And a lot of charities have a lot of events, have a lot of fundraising. Sometimes it's as easy as lick and stick. Yep. Licking and sticking those envelopes, you know, lick the envelope and stick on the stamp that that's some time that they can give sometimes

Justin: (11:44)
Yeah. Charities are always looking for volunteers to help do work

Stephen J: (11:47)
And, and it it's time. So you don't really need to have the treasure, but have the time. Uh, and that's probably the second, most important thing when it comes to doing charity work. The third is the talent. Maybe you're an event planner or you've just planned a wedding and have all these, uh, networks that you've created. And maybe a charity's looking to put an event together. You have that talent and I've run. I don't know how many events, uh, since I started getting involved in charities, when, when I was a kid, um, that's a talent. Mm-hmm, , that's a coordinated chaos.

Justin: (12:17)
It sure is. And I obviously nonprofits, especially today are incredibly challenging to balance the raising of the funds balance, finding out who you can help and how much you can help them. Uh, it's not, not easy stuff.

Stephen J: (12:30)
No. And one of the things with most organizations is fun. I percent of the people do 90% of the work. Right. Okay. And that's where the talented people come in. Um, the people that are really organized, the people that have time to, to, to really give to the charity, to make the events happen, to plan and organize that's worth a lot. So those three Ts time, talent, and treasure, when you come to doing charities is

Justin: (12:54)
Everything right. And everybody can usually offer one of those three things to

Stephen J: (12:59)
Help out a hundred percent without question. So that's the charities we're gonna talk about. We're gonna talk about that. And every time we talk to somebody about the charity, again, we're gonna put that in our show notes. We're gonna put it on our website, probably a link on our Facebook. Yep. Everywhere we can to have a right. So please, this, this is all about community first and foremost. And it's about exposing those people in a good way. in a very good way. You don't want me exposing myself. No, we don't want Justin. The civilian producer exposed himself. We'll have to find another producer, not that easy. So we we're gonna put those out there, please like follow those pages as well when they're out there subscribe, right? Like follow subscribe as

Justin: (13:40)
We say. Yeah. Those, those social media is really a lifeline for a lot of nonprofits today to be able to get their message out and their needs out and what, you know, how you can help. That's usually a great place to get started. They they'll always post the information that they have on social media. So if you hear about a charity interests, you, you definitely want to follow them and see how you can get

Stephen J: (13:58)
Involved. So one of the first charities I was ever involved in is Ryan's foundation mm-hmm and Ryan's foundation started as a children's cancer foundation. And it really turned into any child with terminal illness and making sure that the family had what they needed to help that child battle that disease mm-hmm uh, and, and I know one of our guests that you're, you're gonna hear from is chip McElroy. Uh, and he's the founder of Ryan's foundation, along with his wife, Judy and his daughter, Trey. And they're gonna talk about the battle they had with Ryan and how they started the charity. And I don't want to get too far into it, into it, but there's an organiz that just captures people. Right. And what they've done to turn an absolute tragedy into helping so many families with their battle. It's unbelievable. You know, we're gonna talk about, uh, angels of light mm-hmm that's, that's another charity that Justin and I have been involved in together. Um, Lori Deckers, the founder of angels of light mm-hmm who I met through Ryan's foundation. And there's one that makes sure that no child celebrates the holidays without getting the gifts, uh, and the happiness that they deserve, who are also battling, uh, life threatening illness, it's them or their parent. Right. They come in and they take care of the family. Yeah. And let me tell you, I've delivered Christmas presents to those families. There is no greater joy than to see a kid smile who is just he's facing death. Yeah. And I

Justin: (15:25)
Can tell you, it means the absolute world to the parents.

Stephen J: (15:28)
It, it's just, it's a very humbling experience really, uh, sets you back in, in your emotions to say, Hey, here's a kid that's just battling and we're giving him some toys and that's making his day. Yeah. Yeah. It

Justin: (15:42)
Really does make a difference.

Stephen J: (15:44)
We're gonna talk about Sparrow's nest, another organization that's near and dear here in Dutchess county, in the Hudson valley and how the they help women who are battling cancer, just feed their families themselves. Right.

Justin: (15:56)
Cancer affects everybody. Every age group, male, female, children, adults,

Stephen J: (16:01)
You know, we talk about the three teas time, talent, treasure, okay. We're gonna donate to spouse nest. It's gonna help 'em buy food. Mm-hmm , uh, we're gonna donate our time. We're gonna help deliver the food. We're gonna donate our talent. We're gonna make, I mean, it's just, there's a perfect example of those three teas.

Justin: (16:15)
I don't know that I'd be considered a chef,

Stephen J: (16:17)
But no, but, but you could definitely chip in those mashed potatoes, something a dozen. I got something up my sleeve. Okay. We have, uh, Hudson valley guns and hoses near and dear. Yep. You know, a couple years ago I was approached at helping with a charity softball game and uh,

Justin: (16:34)
Bring, bring me back to the high school sports. Right? You got hockey, you got

Stephen J: (16:38)
Baseball now. Yeah. There's all sorts of, uh, events that Hudson valley guns and hoses is hosting, but you got ed fel and Jeff Mosman meeting up with the Hudson valley renegades. And they're saying, Hey, we wanna do a, uh, I think it was a rock jock mm-hmm type of event. And we sat down with, uh, bill Gill of BG entertainment. We said, how are we gonna get some athletes in here? And, and some first responders and have a charity softball game, then all of a sudden it turned to, well, maybe we could do a baseball game and it'd be cops versus firemen and have some athletic guests who wins. That's the cops every time , although the firemen are always well rested, they still don't. They don't bring a game . So that turned into a, uh, a very great competition. Um, which, like you said, has now not only baseball, there's been softball, there's been hockey.

Stephen J: (17:25)
Uh, I think corn hole tournaments. Yeah. All sorts of things going on, uh, that turned in from one game to a full fledged charity, which is handing out countless, uh, number of scholarships, uh, to young men and women who are looking to further their education in the public service. Sure. You know, unfortunately some of the scholarships are named after heroes that have departed, uh, one that, you know, uh, knew, well, one that I knew very well growing up, uh, Julia McCord, right. You know, anybody that knew Jules, the Spitfire that she was, uh, there's a scholarship in her name. That's a way that her name and her memory will never die. Yeah.

Justin: (18:03)
And it, it should never, she was such an incredible woman.

Stephen J: (18:06)
Talk about charitable, you know, the, her work with the, the Roy C Catchum and John J cheerleaders and the things she did and announcing, you know, talk about if there was a guest that was gonna be on this podcast, Jules, would've been one of the first ones we would've signed up. Yep. Always

Justin: (18:21)
Upbeat. It was infectious

Stephen J: (18:23)
Besides Jules. There's a number of other scholarships that have been named after the heroes of Hudson valley. Yeah. I don't think that's gonna stop. Um, unfortunately, but also again, that's a way that their names and their memory never dies. Those scholarships are set up to last forever. That's how they set them up. Yeah.

Justin: (18:40)
And that need is there. Maybe we can talk about that a little bit with the scholarships about what that means to have a scholarship that is there forever, you know, the goal of these scholarships, right. If you're not familiar with it from a financial viewpoint is to have a, a, a money set aside in an amount where the interests on an annual basis can ensure that that scholarship can be issued and be awarded year after year after year after year in perpetuity forever.

Stephen J: (19:04)
Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a substantial amount of money to do that. It's not just a thousand dollars and that's a thousand dollars scholarship. Yeah. Last I checked was about $25,000 to set up a thousand dollars scholarship to last forever.

Justin: (19:16)
E exactly. And that's one of those things that kind of took me back when, when I started getting involved with these things is I didn't think about that. You think, oh, I donate a thousand dollars. A thousand dollars goes to somebody and now you start again next year. But no, the really good scholarships are ones that are designed to be set up in perpetuity will be able to award that money forever

Stephen J: (19:33)
And a shout out to the community foundations of the Hudson valley, because they are an organization that will guide anybody that wants to start a charity will even host it to a certain degree for them, which allows them to benefit from being a 5 0 1 [inaudible] [inaudible] right. Or what have you, but really they guide. And it's beautiful. I mean, you, if you

Justin: (19:52)
Go to that it website, just, just like a business, starting a charity is no easy task either. There's a lot of challenges and a lot of paperwork and a lot of things to consider with that too. And it costs money to start a charity just like starting a business. Yeah. It costs money. Just start. That takes time.

Stephen J: (20:05)
So they're, they're a great leader in the community for that. And I, I recognize that, you know, not everyone needs them, those who do, it's an easy one. Yeah. Just fantastic Google community foundations of Hudson valley, uh, their information is there all the scholarships that they run, um, is available to you and anybody that's in that college age, looking for an extra buck to help themselves pay, go to community foundations, Hudson valley, Google, 'em go to the website, look up their scholarships is a lot. Yeah. And it's a great, it's great. It

Justin: (20:34)
Really is great. And I think the, the goal of course is to move beyond the Hudson valley. Oh, a hundred percent. Right? I mean, there's incredible things happening in every community, in every corner of the world. And it starts here with us. But I, I hope that we can expand that out and get a lot of new guests and get different ideas and different opinions and see what's working and what's not working. There's so much opportunity with the networking, like you said, well,

Stephen J: (20:56)
We've talked about right. We, we, Hudson valley is what we know. It's where I've lived. My whole life. You've lived your whole life, whole life. Uh, however, our network, as we say is throughout I teach, I go to conferences, uh, I'm involved in a lot of different things that we'll talk about throughout the course of the podcast. Same with you. Yep. So we're gonna introduce those people. A lot of the people that we've done, interviews are going to do interviews. Aren't gonna be sitting here. We're gonna be teleconferencing 'em in or whatever you call that technology where you bring 'em in.

Justin: (21:24)
Yeah. We can zoom them in zoom them. There's there's so many is to communicate with people now. And that's, what's so incredible about this medium of podcasting is the ability to so easily connect with such a wide network of

Stephen J: (21:36)
People say hi to us. You know, when you go to our Facebook page, drop us a message. Say, Hey, this is Johnny from Baltimore or Sally from new Brunswick. We'd love to hear where you're from. Who's. And again, if you have someone in your community that should be recognized, you should be highlighted by us here. Yeah.

Justin: (21:54)
What's going on in your neck of the woods. Let's hear about

Stephen J: (21:56)
'em. Let's bring 'em on. Uh, because again, if, if we have this small community of cops and firefighters and, and first responders, there's no reason we can't continue that make that community a little bit bigger, but a little more intimate by, by sharing. Absolutely. And that's what it's all about. I think.

Justin: (22:12)
So when does this start? How do people learn more? When are these episodes gonna start trickling out? Because I'm totally pumped about this.

Stephen J: (22:19)
So we, what we're doing as we've talked about is we're dropping four episodes right off the gate. We're dropping four. I call it the binge drop.

Justin: (22:27)
Wait, you're telling me not, we're not just getting one. Oh, no. We're not just getting two. No, not even three, but if to me, they subscribe and follow today. It's gonna be

Stephen J: (22:36)
Four and you

Justin: (22:37)
Want more episodes at once. Wow. That's an incredible deal.

Stephen J: (22:40)
Four. And you want more. So if you're listening to this, you know, in 2021, when this is dropping right away, you're gonna have four episodes day one. What get, cuz we want you to understand what we're all about. That's a value. I think so it's free. It's free. It's for me, all you gotta do is I'll

Justin: (22:56)
Take three. No I'll

Stephen J: (22:57)
Subscribe or follow subscribe, like follow that's what we're asking you to do. That's it. And then we're gonna drop episodes on the regular. We're not here just to talk and BS. We're here to bring value, whether it's a great story, a great charity, a great business idea. Sometimes, uh, you know, we even, we even have talked about financial advice. Mm-hmm , we've had some cops and firemen we've done quite well with just using their deferred comp or their 401k in, in a very smart way. Mm-hmm so we're gonna share those tips. We're gonna have them share their tips and I'm gonna be listening. Yeah. So as we talk about these financial planners, if you will, as we talk about these guys and girls that made, uh, amazing efforts and charities, as we talk about people who have started businesses and everything in between, you know, it's gonna be the experiences they've had. I mean, I was a volunteer fireman at 16 years old. Mm-hmm I became a police officer at 21 years old, uh, 21 years later, 22 years later, here we are. And all of those years of experience are valuable. Absolutely. In everything kind of thing we're doing. Yeah. Absolut. So we're gonna capture these people. We're gonna download their information about what makes them extraordinary. They're already heroes, but now we're gonna take that to another level, I think. Yeah. Where else

Justin: (24:17)
Can you go and get that type of leadership experience and hear from such great people that have done such incredible

Stephen J: (24:23)
Things. So we're gonna look to do this podcast and we're gonna look to bring everybody together as a small community of those badge wears, we're gonna have merchandise available. Eventually. We're gonna introduce everyone to everyone and we're gonna see where this takes us one big happy family. I mean, Hey, our, our goal is to give you the guests that on here that make your life better. That are interesting. Yep. Cuz if that's not the case, then why are you listening? Exactly.

Justin: (24:53)
It's gotta be interesting. Content is

Stephen J: (24:55)
Everything. So we're excited to introduce behind the 10 to you please like share and follow us on our social media, on our Facebook, our Instagram, and certainly go to our website, check us out behind the ten.com behind the, see a little bit more information about Justin, the civilian producer, myself, Steven J the good Lieutenant. And until next time be safe and take care of one another.