Life isn't just the job with FDNY FF (ret) Mike Cintron

Stephen J: (00:11)
Welcome behind the tin. A podcast introduces you to the heroic men and women who wear the tin while protecting our community and hear about the extraordinary things they're doing when their badges in their lock today's podcast is sponsored by those guys. print.com. Those guys for all your custom apparel need visit those guys. print.com. Steven Jay, the good Lieutenant here with Justin, the civilian producer. How's it going today? It is going exceptional. Fantastic. You know why it's exceptional, Justin, cuz we're gonna talk to a guy who first of all, is a hero. Know that everybody that comes from this, especially, especially with this background that I'm seeing, but this guy, this guy makes sure your beer is tasty is cold and pores just right. That's what I call a hero two ways. Yes. I'm so excited to talk to Mike and find out about how he got started.

Stephen J: (01:04)
And I know there's some family history there, but how he's grown the business. Uh, he's a very modest guy. Um, and it's just one of those jobs. You're like my guidance counselor never told me that existed. Yeah. and to me, those job, I always want to go back to my high school and see my guidance counselor go. You messed up cuz I didn't know about this one. Yeah, it's it. It's a really, really great gig that he's got going on right now in retirement in retirement. The guy did, uh, Mike started it with his dad or took over from his dad. We're gonna get into that. So without further ado, let's talk to Mike Citron. All right. Steven, Jay, the good Lieutenant here with Justin and civilian producer. How you doing our special guest today? Mike Citron. Now, Mike Mike's worked well. We're gonna talk to him where he is worked, but where Mike works now and what he does now is probably the envy of more than half our listeners. I bet. So Mike, welcome.

Mike: (02:05)
Hello, Steven Jay.

Stephen J: (02:07)
Hi Michael. Hello. How are you? Just fine. So Mike FD and Y yes. When did you start there man?

Mike: (02:14)
1982.

Stephen J: (02:15)
And where'd you end up working?

Mike: (02:17)
Uh, 88 engine and 38 truck. How'd you like that?

Stephen J: (02:20)
Loved it. What got you into being a fireman?

Mike: (02:23)
Actually, my dad was on a job. Oh really? And uh, yes. And, and, uh, it's a tradition and I took the exam and I got on and uh, and that was it.

Stephen J: (02:33)
So early eighties? Yes. Early. Who was the mayor at the time?

Mike: (02:37)
The mayor at the time was, uh, mayor Ko.

Stephen J: (02:40)
So the, the place is disgusting in the early eighties. Yes. And what area? I'm not familiar with engine companies and ladder companies where they're actually stationed

Mike: (02:46)
The Belmont section of the Bronx by Fordham university,

Stephen J: (02:50)
Bronx zoo. So I, I mean, I know the Bronx and, and Manhattan from the mid to late nineties, you know, growing up down in Westchester county, visiting down there completely different than it is now. And in the eighties, from what I understand was a nasty era for New York craziness. What, what, what was some of the crazy stuff that you got to see, you know, work in F D N Y?

Mike: (03:11)
Well, basically when I got on the job, I mean a lot of the buildings, uh, they went, they were burned down already. They were vacant. Um, so you did see a lot of drug activity, um, needles and squatters in the buildings and, and it was still burning car fires for insurance purposes. And, and then regular buildings. They'll still burning them down, but we were very busy.

Stephen J: (03:36)
So what's crazy is, you know, we're 2021, you know, while we're recording this and people don't understand that didn't grow up in the eighties or the nineties or before then that there weren't cell phones. There weren't GPSs in cars that people actually stole cars. Right. They broke the windows out and stole cars and we couldn't find them. And they ended up in the city. I'll never forget. You drove down you to the Bronx and you'd see what the car up on a couple cinder blocks, no tires on it and burned out. Right, exactly. I mean, how many of those do you see a day going to work? Oh, quite a few. Quite a few

Justin: (04:08)
In the eighties that that's my, my only, uh, uh, you know, thought of the eighties is, is watching movies and seeing eighties movies that take place in New York city with the cars and the blocks and people steering, stealing wheels and stuff. I, and I think to myself, like who would steal a wheel off a car today? Like just seems like such a stupid

Stephen J: (04:24)
Thing to, well, the other thing that was a big, like was

Justin: (04:26)
A wheel shortage back then everyone needed

Stephen J: (04:28)
Wheels. Like, I, I don't know. And the other thing was like stealing the car radios. They weren't even

Justin: (04:31)
Alloy. They were like steal

Stephen J: (04:32)
Rims. I remember, uh, going to a Yankee game. I think it was with my father. And, uh, he had a CB radio. Right. And his truck, the big, and we came outta the Yankee game and his CB and his radio were stolen. Exactly. You know, it's just a different era, different, you know, type of crime going on, but you're working, you're working in the Bronx. Yes. And craziness,

Mike: (04:53)
Absolutely craziness every day of fire every day. Quite a few fires.

Stephen J: (04:57)
It's not like that anymore. No. Right. So you're, you're in this mix. What was your favorite gig as a fireman? I mean, there's, there's like the driver guy, right? Officer?

Mike: (05:07)
Well, when, first, when I first got on, I was in, I was in the engine. Okay. And then, uh, when I have about, I had about eight years on the job I went, uh, I became with, you know, a truckie. I went to the truck, 38 truck. And, uh, that was a lot of fun

Stephen J: (05:21)
Also. So the truck guys now, you know, I played fireman, I call playing fireman cause I was a volunteer, a youngster, uh, an engine is the guy that puts the water on the fire. Right. Exactly. The truckies do two things. As I recall telling me if I'm wrong, they ventilate the fire, but they also do the search and rescue part of it. Yes. Is that right? Exactly. Yes. Any crazy rescues?

Mike: (05:39)
Um, we had a, I had a few, um, where, you know, we end up getting up a baby and we burn 'em down to the floor below and uh, the baby came back. Awesome. So yes, that's very, you know, when that happens, you're very proud. Yeah. You know,

Stephen J: (05:55)
Hell yeah. Now, were you a long boots guy or did you have bunker pants at the time? In the

Mike: (05:59)
Eighties? No long boots, long boots, long boots. And when I first came on the job, believe it or not, there was only one mask. And that was the nozzle guy.

Stephen J: (06:07)
No kidding. Yeah. Leather forever. Leather forever. See, see, I got this lingo down. I still got it. You know? All right. So we're, we're, we're in the 80 were playing fireman and at some point you say, Hey, I wanna create a business. Now people don't know what the business is yet. We haven't, haven't told them. We just said more than half, our listeners are gonna be pretty jealous. Why don't you tell 'em about the business that he started?

Mike: (06:32)
Well, actually was my dad was on the job and he, he had started the business. And so, um, it was an easy go for me. And I started working and basically once you get on a job, you have a few opportunities. You can either continue studying within a job. You can continue to go to school, um, to college. Um, or you can try to start a business and, uh, and move on afterwards. You know, after you, until you retire, you have something. Um, a lot of the guys, basically some of them, not a lot, but some of 'em make the mistake. They don't, they don't do anything else once they get on the job.

Stephen J: (07:17)
Yeah. I think it's for, for all law enforcement police, fire, you know, they don't plan for that. They don't plan. This is their life. That's all they do. And there's no plan for the other side. Right, right.

Mike: (07:26)
There's no plan.

Justin: (07:27)
And I think that's the problem that affects everybody. Even, even the people, not on the job. And just in general, I think a lot of people, you know, go through life and they, they don't really have a good plan for retirement.

Mike: (07:37)
Right. Especially you, when you get on young, I was, I was very young. I was, you know, 24 years old. So, um, you're not planning for the future, you know, basically you get on and you're just happy to

Stephen J: (07:50)
Get on, but you're lucky enough that, that dad

Mike: (07:53)
Did. I was lucky enough. My dad's

Stephen J: (07:55)
Right. Put your arm around you at, at what point did, were you working on this side hustle your whole life? Yes, I was. Oh, so beautiful. I was. Okay. So you work in this side hustle. Um, did you get other guys involved in that or he have other guys on the job involved in it?

Mike: (08:09)
Um, a little bit here and there. Trustworthy guys.

Stephen J: (08:12)
Yes, yes. Yeah. What, what's the side hustle. Mike, tell everybody big reveal. Here it is. What's the name of your business?

Mike: (08:21)
Superior beer technology. Did you hear that

Stephen J: (08:24)
Superior beer technology? So what, what

Justin: (08:27)
Exactly do you do with this

Mike: (08:29)
Business? Um, we service draft beer lines back then. It was a very small company that wasn't, um, I, a lot of the, we went into a bar. They only had maybe four lines, six lines, beer lines. And it wasn't until they came out with glyco units, um, where all of a sudden they started expanding to 10, 12, 14. The bottle law came into effect also. Um, when the bottle law came into effect, what's, what's the bottle law. It was 5 cents for every, oh, the

Justin: (09:04)
Deposit, the bottle deposit.

Mike: (09:05)
Oh. And, and, and that, uh, with that expanded the draft beer business. And then after that, the craft beer, this came in and that just boomed, it just went

Justin: (09:17)
Crazy. Was this like early two thousands? When was the

Mike: (09:20)
About,

Stephen J: (09:21)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I go to places now, two, you look at, and they have two beers on top and you're like, really? That's my choices now. It's, I mean, I've seen hundreds. I think it's some places I've been to and I travel.

Justin: (09:32)
What's the, there's a franchise like yard house. Right. You know, how

Mike: (09:35)
Could have a hundred? Yeah. A hundred plus beers on top 70, 50. It's it's quite a few years ago. You never, you never saw that. Basically. It was, uh, the way you kept the beer was, um, right on top of the bar, it, it was like a little cooler coil system and used to pour ice inside.

Justin: (09:54)
And that's so it's real. It's it's, uh, tap technology. That's allowed these restaurants it's superior beer technology. Right. That's allowed these, these businesses to be able to offer so many different beers. Exactly. Wow. I did not know that. It's very cool. Learn

Stephen J: (10:09)
Something every day, learn something new every day. Now let me just hypothesize here that when you're doing tap cleaning and tap installations that at some point you need to test those taps

Mike: (10:22)
yes. Yes.

Stephen J: (10:23)
Now, are you the tester as well?

Mike: (10:25)
I'm also the tester.

Stephen J: (10:26)
Yes. Now see, when I retire, I want to be a tester. I don't, you, you can do all the work and set up, but I don't think you should test that much. It's not safe. So you should bring someone with you that rides shotgun, just to test each line, especially when you're dealing with hundreds of lines.

Justin: (10:41)
Yeah. Good testing consultants. Very important.

Stephen J: (10:43)
Very, very important. Exactly. And you gotta be safe when you're doing it. So you can't drive and operate a vehicle when you're doing that. So I'm gonna offer my services now to you, Mike, that in the future, if you ever need the taste tester, the, the line tester, I'd be willing to help out and for a very, very small field.

Justin: (10:57)
Yeah. Just send a car to his house. He'll go down to the city. He'll go anywheres. Yeah, sure, sure.

Stephen J: (11:01)
I'm, I'm a good time trust. There you go. So you, you, your dad started his business. When, what year do you remember?

Mike: (11:07)
Um, he started probably, I would say in the seventies, early seventies, 72 seventies,

Justin: (11:13)
Somewhere around. Do, do you know how he got involved in it? Was it something that was, uh, there was a, the

Mike: (11:17)
Fireman that, um, he was selling the business and then my dad bought it with three other firemen. Oh wow. And, uh, and then, and then my dad throughout the years bought them out and then he became the sole owner owner and, and moved. We moved on from there. Um, but it was very, it a part-time just to make a few extra bucks back then, you know, it was just,

Stephen J: (11:42)
Uh, and what year did you take over?

Mike: (11:46)
Um, I took over the business, I would say about 10 years ago, 10, 10, 12 years ago. I took over the business

Stephen J: (11:55)
And it's just exploded. And you're, you're operating New York city. The Catskills, if I recall,

Mike: (12:00)
Correct. Right. Um, the business basically back then was just, uh, the five boroughs within New York city. And then, um, I've expanded it all the way up to the Catskills and, uh, you know, we do brewery installations and, um, and just, you know, restaurants and bars and anywhere, you know, I, I, I put, I put systems in houses, people's houses. So,

Justin: (12:28)
And for people not familiar with New York, the, the geography of New York, there's, you know, you, you've got New York city, which is the five boroughs, which you mentioned, which really encompasses a very, very, very small portion of the state of New York where, you know, 95% of the state is farmland. And, and to go from New York city up to the Catskills. Now you're pushing into that, that farmland territory. And there's probably, I, I imagine more bars in New York and Westchester, just, uh, north of New York city then probably anywhere in the country or close to it. Right. Sure.

Mike: (13:01)
I mean, it's just, it's amazing. What's happened in the last few years.

Stephen J: (13:05)
Yeah. The brewery, boom. There's gotta be,

Mike: (13:08)
Boom is amazing. It really is. It's just, uh, it's a total different, the aspect of

Stephen J: (13:15)
The business. Now, are you doing consulting work before they even like open up?

Mike: (13:19)
Yeah, they, yeah. Still call me. And, um, I'll take a look. Um, I've learned a lot about the brewery business in the last few years. I mean, obviously that's all fairly new. Um, but, uh, yeah, they'll, they'll do sure.

Stephen J: (13:32)
They'll do that. What's uh, what's one of your favorite setups that you've ever done? Maybe something that's, uh, a little different.

Mike: (13:38)
Um, I put in a draft beer system and a tree house.

Justin: (13:43)


Stephen J: (13:44)
I like that. All right. That's is that guy fireman by chance or

Mike: (13:47)
A police officer? No, actually it's um, it's angry orchard. It's uh, really? Yes.

Stephen J: (13:53)
See, now, now there's where we gotta Justin, we go visit angry orchard, and I wanna see the tap system in the Treehouse that our buddy Mike installed.

Justin: (14:01)
And again, for people who not familiar angry, everyone knows angry, orchard anywhere you're in the country right here in Hudson valley right here in the Hudson valley is angry. Orchard. That's

Stephen J: (14:10)
Incredible. Now you've also, I know. And I'm not sure. And, and

Justin: (14:12)
It's set on a, on a beautiful farm, you know? Yes. It is all, farmland's a beautiful, it's

Stephen J: (14:16)
Beautiful area. Yeah. Beautiful place. Now, you, you mentioned that you've done some in-home installations and I don't know if you wanna mention it, you know, we're family here, so it might be okay to, to bring it up. You've worked on some pretty famous clients and putting a beer system in their home, correct?

Mike: (14:32)
Uh, yes. Um, I've also serviced service, quite a few and some local

Stephen J: (14:39)
Can, can you mention some names we're not asking for their home address? No, but can you mention some

Mike: (14:43)
Names? Uh, Paul rod and I have of friends.

Stephen J: (14:46)
Um, I heard his bars like, uh, like an Irish pub, right? Yes,

Mike: (14:50)
It is. It's pretty awesome. It's a fantastic pub. He's a good dude. He's a great dude.

Stephen J: (14:56)
He's uh, he's just down to earth and yeah, it's, we're, we're on a podcast and you can't see right now, but Mike's got a big old grin on his face. talking about Paul Rud in his Irish pub that he's got in his house. Yeah. How many beers on top does Paul have? Uh,

Mike: (15:11)
Two. He has two on time. I,

Stephen J: (15:12)
I, I didn't try to demean Paul. It's a private bar, two beers. That's okay. You know, I was talking about earlier two beers. You're like, what? But Hey, if you got two beers in your own home, that that's another level. Yeah. He's what kind of beer does he, like?

Mike: (15:24)
He loves Gida and, uh, it normally now it's, uh, it's an IPA sometimes. And, um, but he loves is goodness. What's

Stephen J: (15:32)
Your favorite brewery? I'll probably get you in trouble. Won't it? Yeah.

Justin: (15:37)
All of them. They're all equally great. Right.

Stephen J: (15:39)
Who's your favorite kid?

Justin: (15:40)
Can't mention that. Right? Who do you like better? The Mets are the Yankees, right? Exactly.

Mike: (15:43)
He's a Yankee

Justin: (15:44)
Family over that. Where's Hillary.

Stephen J: (15:48)
Very nice. Very nice. Uh, what, what is your project do? Is it cleaning? Is it installation? Is it design work?

Mike: (15:55)
Probably the design work. Um, the cleaning has become such. It's so easy for me. Um, it it's the other stuff. The brewery business, putting a brewery in that's that's, that's very challenging now for me. So you,

Stephen J: (16:11)
You you're setting meet up, you're coming and you're cleaning con is this contractual work? Yes. So how long are your contracts yearly? Uh,

Mike: (16:19)
You'll normally yearly a year. Yeah. Uh, the culinary Institute is also one of my bigger accounts

Stephen J: (16:25)
And big fan of going to the egg.

Justin: (16:27)
Yeah. Yeah. Good culinary is another institution of the Hudson valley. It's right here again, anywhere country, you know, the culinary. Uh, and it's, it's literally, we can almost see it from where we're recording right now.

Stephen J: (16:38)
Yeah. That's a great time and a great place. And you have that contract with you. Yes. Amazing.

Justin: (16:44)
What, let me a, as, as someone who is, uh, a professional in this field, do you ever go to places if you're traveling or, or even locally where, you know, you are not the person cleaning the taps regularly and you go into a restaurant, you think something indicates to you that

Mike: (17:01)
This is, I can tell right away,

Justin: (17:03)
You know, immediately, immediately that they're not doing what they need to do to keep that. Yes, I beer as fresh as possible. Uh, do you have any horror stories about that? Like what are, what are these things of? What are, what should someone look for? They say, Hey, I, I need my, the first

Mike: (17:15)
Thing basically should does. Once you get the beer, just put it up to your nose and smell it before you taste it. And they'll give you an indication if that doesn't smell right then I wouldn't drink it.

Justin: (17:28)
Yeah. I know. You just recently had a, yeah. I, I went

Stephen J: (17:30)
To a restaurant recently and the beer just was ran said, and I don't know if it was the glass, if it was the beer. Cuz my, my concern is once you get a draft beer and tell me if I'm right here, the, if the beer is bad, I'm worried about all the other draft beers. Right. You know, is that the line's not clean should have, have

Mike: (17:49)
A head on it too. I mean, if it's flat, it's not gonna, I wouldn't drink it. Um, but normally it's, as soon as you put it up to, to your, to your mouth, you just smell it. If you smell first and that's gonna give you an indication, if it doesn't smell right, don't drink it

Stephen J: (18:06)
Now would, would all the taps be, uh, to connected

Mike: (18:08)
By that? Chances are yes.

Stephen J: (18:11)
See I'm right. Yeah. it. That's why I went to a bottle of beer. You never go wrong with a bottle beer unless it got hot and cold and hot and cold. Right. And then we call it skunk beer skunked. Yeah. Yeah. Skunk, no one likes that. They

Mike: (18:23)
Said, they say Heineken that they make their that's

Justin: (18:26)
That's their skunked by design. Yeah, exactly. Skunked

Mike: (18:29)
By design night.

Stephen J: (18:30)
, there's nothing like a nice cold beer after a long, hard day. That's all I know. And you know, uh, we we've had some beers together before. And uh, one of the things that you mentioned to me, we were talking about the gas and the CO2 versus the beer gas versus ni nitrous. Now these are nitrous

Mike: (18:48)
Ni, right? The beer says a mixture of nitro and CO2, um, CO2, you can over carbonate your beer and you don't want that. And then you get too much foam. And um, and if, and if it's nitro, you have too much nitro, it it'll be flat. So what they do is they mix it. Um, then that's what they call beer gas. And it could be the 50, 60, 40, and Guinness is 75, 25.

Justin: (19:14)
Oh wow. I see. Interesting. Yeah, we, yeah, we, we, we were talking before the show about how, you know, I know Steven's got a, a tap at home and my brother has one and it can be very for people who don't know it can be it, it's not so simple. It's just plug the ke in and it's pulled

Mike: (19:28)
The lever. It's no it's, as a science believe

Justin: (19:30)
Really is a science in. If it's not the hard. Yeah.

Mike: (19:33)
There's a science to a lot of people think it's because it's coming out foamy it's because it's coming out too fast. Right. But, but if it's not, if you don't have the right pressure, that's gonna be foam also. So if you over pressurize its foam, if you under pressurize its foam.

Stephen J: (19:48)
Yeah. It's the right temperature, right. Has to be the right time. There there's. There is a lot of variables. I wasn't prepared for it. Yes. I was all excited. I thought, Hey, we're gonna plug it in. It's gonna plug, plug, plug, and play

Justin: (19:58)
Right. Plug and play,

Stephen J: (19:59)
And we're gonna be drinking. Next thing you know, I'm pouring my first couple glasses for my friends. And, uh, it's, it's a foam cup and it's not, it doesn't make you happy. No, you know that nice, good, poor with a little weight to it. And that solo cup, right. That, that puts a smile on my face. Like you got right now, you're smiling. You hear about a good poor I'm sure there's somebody out there that's listening that has a kegerator, or is looking to open a bar. What advice can you give the guy who potentially wants to open up a bar where you you've helped a lot of bars open? Yes. What, what's something that you see just being the layman running, you know, superior beer technology that you would say, Hey guys, if you're gonna do this, here's some advice free advice from Mike Tron. Try to

Mike: (20:42)
Keep, uh, you're gonna have draft beer, try to keep the cooler as close as possible to the, to the, to the tower, to the bar. The longer those lines are, the more problems you you could have down the road. Um,

Justin: (20:57)
I think we we've experienced that too at a restaurant recently where the, uh, where the, the beer is kept, uh, a mile away from the tap.

Mike: (21:05)
Yeah. I've seen a 200 feet, you know, 300 feet and it just, it just creates more problems. It's harder to get it right at the top where it's right underneath. Or if you only have to go 40 feet, 50 feet and that's okay. So layout's important. Layout's very important. And a lot of, lot of architects don't even, and we even think out that, you know, and the size, size of the box. Um, lot, lot of times the box is so small. It's, uh, it's just ridiculous

Stephen J: (21:35)
With the craft beer scene. Are you seeing more of the, uh, the taller dinner kegs

Mike: (21:40)
With six holes? A lot of six holes when the craft business and is that

Stephen J: (21:44)
Lots, is that something that is good for the business? You think with being able to utilize more cooler space, get a six, or is it a problem because they're running outta beer quicker? I, I don't know the balance there.

Mike: (21:54)
Well, normally the way it works is it's a six hole. You'll give, 'em an opportunity to get different types of beers in there. And then if one moves quicker than the other, then you'll, you'll get the half ke on that. You know, I mean, just you tell the brewery, gimme the bigger keg, but when you have the six old, you know, you can move it

Stephen J: (22:14)
Around, but are there, are there refrigerators set up to be either? I mean, like if I got a six old and I get 10 six's in there and it's filling my, my cooler, it's really hard to add a half keg after that. Right. Or I gotta cut some other six, you have to cut

Mike: (22:26)
Some other, and then you don't make the profit sickle that you would and a half keg obviously.

Stephen J: (22:31)
And we are, we are exploding in the Hudson valley with, with craft beer.

Justin: (22:34)
Yeah. I was just thinking, I know there was some, uh, I remember we have another friend who's involved in the growing operation of the, uh, of the hops. Yes, we do for beer. And, uh, I know there were a lot of, uh, state incentives that led farmers yes. To growing hops and barley and stuff in, in New York and, uh, tax credits and stuff for local breweries, which I, I know, attributed to sure. To the, the growth of that industry. Yeah.

Mike: (22:59)
I mean, we have, like I said, we have some local ones right here and, and, and Hudson valley has some of the best breweries around. I mean, I've been to different states and, uh, we're very lucky here at the Hudson valley. We have very, very good

Stephen J: (23:13)
Brewers here. We say that all time. We're lucky about a lot of things. The restaurant scene yes. In Hudson valley, you know, the proximity to so much within 90 miles. Right. You know, you could do anything in the world, almost in 90 miles here of New York. It's

Justin: (23:26)
Pretty, I mean, we mentioned the culinary. Yeah. People graduate, the culinary, you know, the goal is to go get at a job in New York city and a lot of them do. And, and you know, we're talking about side hustles and things to do in retirement. A lot of these people live a career in New York city. It's some of the finest, Michelin rated restaurants. Right. And then they move back to the Hudson valley because it's quiet. It's beautiful. And they open a restaurant. Yes. Uh, and, and we were lucky and fortunate enough to live here and get to enjoy those restaurants.

Stephen J: (23:50)
Yes. I don't wanna say we've been recession proof, but we we've lived through a lot of, uh, tumultuous times when it came to the economy.

Justin: (23:58)
Yeah. We, we've had a lot of economic issues in the Hudson valley that, that have been similar to economic issues else, the country, that devastated communities. Uh, and we've been lucky that there's always very lucky. Yes. Just a little something that that's held us on and, and gotten us through the tough times.

Stephen J: (24:14)
How many firemen ask you for a job

Mike: (24:17)
in the old days? Um, a lot nowadays, it's just a totally different job.

Stephen J: (24:24)
So, well, you've been retired a

Mike: (24:25)
Little while now. Right. I've been retired 20 something years, 22 years. But, uh, nowadays a lot of guys, they just not interested in having another job, you know, so seems like

Justin: (24:36)
Cops, firemen don't drink, right?

Stephen J: (24:38)
No, not at all. It's actually, uh, strictly forbidden , but a lot, lot of firemen, especially cuz they work that 24 or shift have a side hustle already

Mike: (24:48)
In the old days, when you got on the job, you were either electrician, plumber, carpenter,

Stephen J: (24:53)
And they're taking those skills either from the fire department to bring 'em to the fire department.

Mike: (24:56)
Oh they just, they were amazing. You wanna build a house and they were there. You had, you know, you had a carpenter, you had a plumber, you electrician. So it was just the is incredible.

Stephen J: (25:08)
Now you've been retired a little while. There's a lot of guys now, unfortunately with emergency services, it doesn't seem like there's that many that want to get on the job, you know, with what's going on in society. But if you could talk to 21 year old Mike or, you know, the 21 year old of today who wants to get to where you are, whether it was being FDM one or, or on a business, what, what would you tell him? What's some good advice that you could throw at him?

Mike: (25:31)
Well, basically what my father told me get on a job. Um, it's, uh, it's, you're not gonna make a lot of money, but it's, you're very, it's a very fulfilling job. Uh, you'll be helping people and uh, you'll be proud of what you do. Um, and in the meantime, try to build on, on, on a life after the fire department or after, you know, if you were gonna be a police officer, um, just continue your education outside if or you, or if you, you can continue studying within the job. I have a lot of friends that became chiefs and they studied with than a job. Um, you know, there's a lot of opportunities out there.

Stephen J: (26:12)
So that's a common theme. We've heard that from a couple of our guests, you know, continue that education continue educat. Once you get on the

Mike: (26:18)
Job, don't stop. Don't stop. It's the worst thing you, you stop. It's the worst thing that, that, that, that you know, that you can do. And, and

Justin: (26:25)
More importantly, I think as we discussed earlier is the planning as aspect of it. You know, if, if you're gonna take a job like that, think about, you know, what can I do now to set myself up exactly. 15 years, 20 years from now when I retire, is there something else I can be doing? Is there something I know in a recent episode, is there a skillset that I've learned on the job that I can take and use outside? Yes. Right. And, and, and build a business around this skillset that I might have that is seemingly unrelated to working as a fireman or a police officer. But somehow when you actually break it down, it's like, oh, that makes perfect sense. It's, it's a hundred percent related. Sure. We

Mike: (27:00)
Had, we had lawyers, uh, we had doctors, um, we had actors, um, and, and some, some guys, when they left the job became teachers, um, you know, they just continued your education one way or another. We either within a job or, or, or outside a job, continued your education.

Stephen J: (27:25)
One of the guys that we see a lot, actually, you just mentioned actors. A lot of our movies that we like is a former F D N Y guy, Steve Bahe. Right, right. He was down in F, D Y. And exactly. Was he down there with you? Yes.

Mike: (27:37)
Yeah. See that actually he worked at Manhattan, but, uh, yeah, he was on the job when I was on the job. Crazy. Yeah.

Stephen J: (27:45)
So Mike, one of the questions we ask every guest, uh, define a hero. What is a hero to you?

Mike: (27:52)
Well, a hero basically, um, someone you wanna look up to, um, they have morals and trying to help people. It's not, it's not about the money, just about being, feeling, feeling the right way to, to help people out. Uh, to me, that's what hero's about. Show, show, show the kids nowadays, uh, how to help, you know, uh, other people. And it's not about, uh, not about

Stephen J: (28:20)
The money. Well, my, like every guest that we've had on here, I think that you're a hero. No, thank with what you've done throughout your career and continue to do by helping other firemen you're hero to me, Powell. And I mean that, oh, thank

Justin: (28:32)
You, Steve. Especially in the era that you described and, and the location you described, I, I couldn't have been an easy, uh, and, and an easy career.

Mike: (28:40)
Nope. It was fun. And, um, and you were always proud, uh, after work, after, you know, after your shift was over, um, you were always proud of what you did and, and we had a lot of fun, um, doing it too,

Justin: (28:56)
So yeah. I appreciate your service. Thank you. Oh,

Mike: (28:58)
Thank you. Yeah.

Stephen J: (28:59)
Well certainly Mike didn't disappoint us, did he?

Justin: (29:01)
Absolutely not. And what a, what a wild story about his history, uh, being, I, I mean, imagine working in the Bronx in the eighties now, what

Stephen J: (29:10)
I'm wondering here, Justin, we're in your studio, the civilian producer studio here. I'm almost wondering if we can convince Mike to put in, uh, you know, a small

Justin: (29:20)
Little shop. That's not a bad idea. I think we could definitely make some, uh, uh, accommodations for space. You know, we

Stephen J: (29:26)
Got some things coming in the future. Our podcast is still at its infancy. We've talked about different ideas. I really think we can accentuate one of the ideas with Mike's

Justin: (29:35)
Help. Yeah. I'm sure my wife would be totally on board with me, ripping out a wall and putting in some gas lines and it's in here.

Stephen J: (29:42)
Well, I think we could talk to her about this and if she really loves you and appreciates what we're doing here, she'll go for it.

Justin: (29:48)
I, I want to be a hero to someone. Well,

Stephen J: (29:50)
You know what, you'd my hero, Justin, if you can convince your wife to let us put a kegerator, uh, with some beer taps in the studio, but what, what an exceptional story again, told you he was modest. Like I already know that half the stuff and half the size he told us about the business. Uh, I don't want to talk about certain guys that, you know, they're under the radar. The dude's doing well. Okay. He's doing well. And you know,

Justin: (30:14)
Covers covers a huge, huge territory too. And, and obviously, uh, with, with COVID and the pandemic, certainly not without challenges, but I think that we are going to see things really explode once this economy gets back open

Stephen J: (30:28)
And rolling. Yeah. He already mentioned a couple things to us that are coming and I don't, I, you know, he just doesn't wanna mention it to probably the, the greater audience. Uh, I don't know if there's some, you know, do not tell clauses that he does, uh, work with, but Mike's another guy we're gonna hear more from in the future because his business is booming. I know it is

Justin: (30:49)
So well. Plus we'll see him here once a month to clean the taps. Well, you

Stephen J: (30:51)
Know, we need that. So, Hey, remember like share, subscribe to behind the ten.com.

Justin: (30:59)
Yeah. Yeah. Check out the website behind the ten.com or on Instagram. Facebook, Facebook. Yeah. Everywhere. Come, come talk

Stephen J: (31:06)
To us. We're dropping episodes every month, at least four episodes a month. That's our goal. Uh, hope you liked it. Make sure you leave reviews. We'd love seeing the reviews. We read every single one of

Justin: (31:14)
The world to us to leave a review.

Stephen J: (31:16)
So until next time be safe, take care of each other. See you later.