 Hi Jenny. Hi, how are you? I'm good. How about you? Oh I love your background Picture, that's the first fire engine I ever rode when I was three years old No kidding and that was in New Jersey. Yes, uh-huh Cedarville, New Jersey How'd you get a picture of it? I Used to take pictures of fire engines and a matter of fact if you come to my house I have over 12,000 of them photos and slides and So on one of my trips back home, you know I got a hold of one of the guys that I knew and He moved over things around for me. So that's how I got it Then at the time it was being replaced. This was just going out of service and it was being replaced by a brand-new rig and They talked to me about buying it, you know, cuz yeah $1,500 it could have been mine and it's like Wow, yeah, you know, if if I had been living in the area, I would have probably bought it but you look at the fact that had to get that out to Colorado and That meant either driving it or putting on a flatbed and then once I got it here It's like what am I going to put it? Your wife would love it in the front yard, right? It wouldn't fit in the driveway Yeah, it's sort of like it used to be a guy and his dog, you know The wife was competing against but now okay a fire engine. Nope. I've never heard that before I'll tell you guys that own antique fire engines wind up putting a lot of time and a lot of money into it There's a there's a gentleman up in Estes Park named Doug clink and he has the reliance fire museum And he's also a volunteer firefighter with Estes Valley. I had a video business card done back in August and Doug allowed me and the guy who did the video and my nephew to come up there and we spent five hours up there what the Thaddeus is the guy who shot it of a Crow Hill digital and And Thaddeus did a great job, but we were there for five hours, you know Yeah, and he he put it together in a video and it's up on my website. Oh, is it really? Oh Whoa, what's the website? Impactus I am PAC TUS leadership impactus leadership Okay So that is also your company name Impatous leadership My company name is impactus cultivating today's leaders. Oh Okay, I realize it was the full thing So you shortened it so that it would be easier for people to get onto your website. Yeah Yeah, that's great. Cool. Wow my brother I've got a brother in Firefighting volunteer Okay south of Buffalo Town called Allegheny, New York Allegheny. Yes, and he has done it all his life. He used to have the the What is it like a CB that you have so that it's rotating and when calls come in and he knew all the Slang and all that stuff, but he did it starting at a young age also And He's gotten one of his sons into doing Fighting Volunteer as well, but he just absolutely loved it. I think that when your heart's into it Yeah, just can't let it go. So you you know, it's playing all night long. I'm sure his wife didn't appreciate that because Call now And three in the morning, but he knows the information when it comes in I used to have that a scanner Yeah, that's what it is. Yeah, it helped us because there was this one time my dad Who was a pilot was flying out of Elmira and he didn't quite feel good He had gotten cleared for takeoff and all and he was gonna take off but since he didn't feel good he turned around and went back and Elmira and Allegheny weren't all that far. So he had gone in the bathroom and collapsed and Somehow my brother picked up on it and was able to communicate get my mother over to there and Coordinate everything because he knew all the codes and everything and knew what to say how to say it Yeah, well Elmira Elmira was the home of two Fire engine manufacturers for years the first one was American La France They've been around since the 1800s and then the other one was Ward La France and yeah, American La France was a staple in the American fire apparatus industry for years years and years Fascinating and who handles it now. Is it a bought out or I? Think the American La France name is still out there, you know, a number of these companies have changed hands over the years Yeah, you know, there there's some big ones here, you know in the country Pierce is an Appleton, Wisconsin Seagrave, I think they're still up in in Wisconsin there's KME out of Pennsylvania There's some in South to come one in South Dakota. Let's see one up in Minnesota There was one right here in Loveland Okay, that's VI trucks, but a couple years ago They were not able to work things out with the city and expansion And so they moved up to Fort Collins and they have a large facility up there And they initially started out building solely rescue trucks and now, you know, it's expanded in the building actual pumpers Yeah, as well and you know, it's not uncommon to find their rigs all over the country Matter of fact, my brother my younger brother lives in Alkins, West Virginia And there's a truck sitting in the firehouse in Alkins from Svi when they were here in Loveland. Oh Really? Now, why did they change color from red to this? Greenish color. I mean, I love red. I mean, yeah You're that's the color that you think of for a fire truck Well, there were studies that came out in the early 70s, you know, and I can't remember where they originated from But I had to do with highway visibility and they were also looking at the color of you know Department of Transportation trucks from the various states, you know, and then public works from the cities and you know And frankly it was some genius to says, oh, hey, you know You need to have lime green And and so there, you know number of departments switched over I was a firefighter in the Air Force at the time And so the Air Force made the decision to do it and then to save money You know, they put all of us around the trucks with sanders and sandpaper and sanding off the paint So it could go to you know down to the motor and get It's like that's a real smart move So the the paint was halfway off as you're rushing to these fire fires to put them out so the The truck doesn't look completely red. It looks down to the gray Yeah, it was like oh another another genius another genius move, but you know growing up in new jersey Even before that lime green, you know thing took effect, you know popularity There was a lot of departments back there that had rigs that are green blue blue and white Yeah, uh dark yellow. Yeah, I mean A lot of really beautiful beautiful colors even going on up into you know, the new york area where your Brother and nephew, you know Or is that You know, then the white there was white rigs as well, you know denver has had white rigs, you know I think even at the inception of when motorized apparatus Came well that doesn't help with the snow when there's snow. There's no contrast there Oh, well, I guess you're trying out the palette, right? Yeah, somebody's making money, you know a lot of times all these things end up boiling down to where is somebody making the money Yeah Yeah, and uh the price of these rigs has just climbed so high Over the years that it is incredible. It's unbelievable the trucks that have gotten Uh much bigger But a lot of the price increase. Yeah, a lot of the price increases are you have been related to Emissions controls and Yeah, and then that gets tacked on in the manufacturers, you know add on the price And then there's a lot of safety features, you know as well Like when I first came in 76 is when a Officially became a firefighter started hanging out at the firehouse at 14 after my dad died And but when I first came on the job for a good number of years, we rode on the back step Yeah And uh, you know, then there was for the departments that I was with, you know in the military There was a gradual transition and now the aircraft rescue firefighting trucks are trucks Yeah, you were always seated inside and the ones that we had but it was the structural pumpers You know where we were riding in the back step. And so I think stretch here. I think it was about 1980 Yeah, approximately 1980 I was stationed at a base down in north carolina when we got our first truck That you know modern truck. I should say that, you know, you rode inside the cab We had an older one that was manufactured by that board of france that I was telling you about earlier They had manufactured this special fire as a special but Yeah, well really for the time in america. It definitely was special and ahead of its time. It was really a box shaped truck kind of ugly looking thing and the crew rode inside and then even the the pump panel Had a insulated covered door to drop down over and there was a heater in there and the Truck was initially designed, you know to be assigned to bases in areas that were subject to freezing and Yeah, and so we rarely ever You know use that rig if we were over staffed, you know, we would put firefighters on it but america for a long time was behind Overseas like europe they had their firefighters riding on seats back in the You know 19 late 19s In the early 20s. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, wow Well, this is all fascinating rick But how did this get you into the direction that you're going? So this is all your background Was it, you know, this series that I've created is all about who do you know because it's all about connections So did you come across somebody who was a a mentor who made you think You know of the bigger box of taking your company to impact us or starting yet? Well, you know as I transitioned in my career, you know Start now as a volunteer there in new jersey enlisted in the air force, you know, ultimately became a firefighter there then You know, there's a civilian as well with the air force and I jumped over to the Marine Corps And was firefighting with them until I got moved to another career field because of too many people wound up out here in loveland Because my wife was working for the city of loveland at the time Okay, we weren't we weren't married then I was introduced to her we had a long distance relationship And so, you know, I've been out here maybe a year and I got back in the fire service So, you know, 37 years total 30 of those loved one And you know when I I retired in May 2020 as a battalion chief, which most of that time as a battalion chief was as a shift commander I did have about a Approximately 15 months stint as the training chief so All these things tie into where I'm at now back in life was I'm going to say is about 1981 82 at the latest is when I had the opportunity to teach my first class And you know that and I'm stationed at laury air force base in denver at the time Oh, okay and And so it was a firefighting subject and you know, and I enjoyed it and I was also You know taking the crew that was assigned to me we'd go over to our training area And you know, we were doing hands-on training and even then, you know, a couple of the guys said, you know, hey, you know Davis You seem to have a talent, you know for this you should consider pursuing being an instructor. Well, you know fast forward You know down through the years and so as you talk about the mentor, you know, there's been a number Of mentors, you know throughout the years People that have been influential in my life in particular to the fire service There was a gentleman right there in cedarville named art french or frenchy He kind of took me underneath his wing When I was hanging out at the firehouse And you know, eventually allowed me to do a number of different things where I learned and I spent a lot of time listening I was a really shy kid very introverted and so I Lot of time listening and then there was two guys over in philadelphia bill proudman and rich gardener They were both on the fire department and I had met them And uh rich in particular would spend, you know, sometimes up to two hours on the telephone with me talking about the job and mentoring me If we you know, and then I had the mentors in the military as well But let's jump up to uh, loveland one of the men that you know had a big impact on my career And you know, help me along his name was dick minor and uh dick was a fire chief here in loveland And he's retired. He's spent I think like 40 some years in the fire service and I had some pretty incredible opportunities under dick including One of the first big ones was I ran the hazardous materials team here. Oh, okay I was on fire And so that opened up even more Doors for teaching And then from the leadership realm, you know, this leadership training, you know, and growth development was interspersed throughout all of this plus Uh, I had the opportunity to co-teach with another gentleman at our church here in loveland And many of the times well the pastor was my father-in-law. And so he gave us Yeah, he might say hey, I want you guys to teach out of like the book of proverbs But beyond that, you know, we had a lot of latitude And so that's when I started incorporating leadership lessons, you know, coupling it with the Examples from the bible and then not just continue, you know, to grow over the years You know chief minor kept encouraging me. He encouraged me to complete my degree, you know, which I did Okay, he completed my bachelors and business administration and then ultimately went on to complete a Masters and a fire service leadership And I had the opportunity to attend the four-year program with the national fire academy The executive fire officer program and there was a lot of leadership that was involved in those four years So it's very difficult for me to Other than dick to really come back and say specifically. Oh, it is this one person because so many people You know have had that My wife my daughters and there were others that were encouraging me along the way two things Hey rick, you ought to write a book and hey, you ought to start Well, I did, you know, I did write my my own book. I got a got a copy of it, you know here. Oh good. Oh good I hate that. It's good. Yeah, there you go. There we go. Yes the furnace of leadership development Yeah, and so I did that and uh, there was a lady that we were working with two ladies actually Uh, uh, Polly Latovsky of my work publishing down in Denver and then Susie Schaefer Who was working with her? As well and uh, we got tied in with Susie And so how this book came about is my wife and I were sitting around one Wednesday night, and I'll tell you why I know it was a wednesday night here in a moment And we were talking about those details We were talking about it and my wife said hey, I heard this, uh lady on kcol being interviewed about self publishing and Well, what was her name and so if you brainstormed and she came up with uh, You know partial name. I searched it and bang Polly's company and so I had the events tab and I looked at it. Hey the next day She was hosting a self publishing 101 down in Denver and that was a third Yeah, and I could go and see that's the reason I knew it was wednesday and then it was thursday because We had monthly chiefs meetings scheduled on thursdays And that thursday the meeting got canceled and so that opened up the opportunity in my wife Yes, we went on down to the lunch and learn met Polly and Susie It was an egg in line And I walked out of there after talking to both going through the class and then talking to both Polly and Susie We walked out of there and stood there in the in the park and a lot of there along leachdale avenue And I looked at my wife and I says, well, I guess I'm writing a book And so that got that process started and then oh, maybe about six months into it or maybe a little longer in that Uh, Susie said, you know, Rick, uh, now's the time you need to start your business now She said don't just write a book and let it go at that. She's nobody knows nobody knows who you are You know outside outside Oh She says so you need to start a business and she says take advantage of using the book as a as a business card on steroids And so the business came about in june of 2019 Oh, okay I'm telling you, you know when and we were working a 48 hour shift And so when you're working a 48 hour shift and for us as the battalion chiefs now every 48 on 96 off. Well, that sounds great. You know, but Yeah, when you're as a battalion chief That 96 hour off thing rarely happened every third rotation of shifts. We had the full on-call duty So now there's 96 hours really it's consumed You know to the fire department. Yeah, that's a full-time business And I was still doing teaching, you know, I I've had a Company here in lyremer county that I've been tied in with since 2001 And so I was still doing teaching, you know with them and a few other opportunities would pop up here and there But trying to build a business market the business. Yes Hey, hey, it's just not happening. Yeah, but what happened is I knew that I was going to have to rotate back into the training chief's position And I wasn't real thrilled about that because that's even more of a time sucker Yeah, it soaks it all soaks it all up. So my wife and I we started planning And then I was told may fourth you're going to go in and I and I told my wife when I said no No, that's when I sat down. I wrote my retirement letter And uh, so made a third is when I officially, you know, retired from the fire department Now associated with the business building because now here I am I can start building working on my business full-time and That wednesday Immediately following when I left the fire department. I sat in on a webinar hosted by the john maxwell team You know the leadership author, you know coach trainer. Yes And it was a very powerful person Yes, and it was a video was on coaching and when they got done They said, uh, you know at the end they said, you know, if you're interested in learning more about the maxwell team send us an email Well by saturday evening. I was a member of the john maxwell team Yeah, and so I've become certified as coach trainer and speaker and you know, I have a lot of my own content That I have built over the year. I have my own leadership program You know that I've put together But one of the great things is with the maxwell team I can teach 100 content, you know from there or I can You know cherry pick material that john has and incorporate it into my own But from the business building perspective the mentors that I have available to me Uh are just they're just absolutely Incredible and you know, I've learned things about building a business that I don't think I would have learned, you know, otherwise I would have just, you know, have struggled Then jenny one of those things is networking. Yeah, it's huge. That's how we got connected. Yeah, exactly Yeah, and so You know You talked about the mentors earlier and I'll come back and so I've got mentors within the john maxwell team and you know they offer there's throughout a week Monday through saturday, there's like 18 different mentorship calls that I can jump on to you know And usually there's a there's a little teaching and then they open up to queue, you know And you can get in there and it's very personal and it amazes me that what the mentors remember Yeah, oh really? Yeah, I jump on, you know, and uh, you know one fellow named chris robinson He does a sales the sales mentorship call and I'll just get Feedback from him, you know tips on what I can do to You know market myself market the business and then It might be three weeks later that'll jump back on, you know for an update, you know, and he remembers You know, you know what I was doing. Oh my goodness That quality of that help. Yeah, that's huge Yeah, that's huge And how long of a program is that john maxwell program? Uh, well, they do you mean the individual content or the one that you went to that taught you about coaching Oh, okay. Okay. Well the webinar the webinar itself You know was it ran about 90 minutes that webinar, you know So it was just one to teach you to take it to the next level No, that that that was the webinar that was talking about coaching, you know And I was like I wound up taking four pages of notes And so, you know, that's what led me into the Maxwell team the actual Training itself, you know to become certified as the coach that was that's a program within the Maxwell team and that ran That ran approximately 40 40 hours, you know and that that neighborhood there and then I also had the opportunity There's a mentorship call related to the coaching There's always ongoing training Related to coaching and leadership and the speaking And this is continually ongoing and then one of the great things I like about it is to Is they have a coaching partnership like this morning at 6 a.m. You know, I was on the phone with my coaching partner And she's in Chicago and so it's 90 days So it's it's the opportunity to you know, go back and forth and coach each other to You know stay fresh and you know put in the practice the content that comes the new content that comes in the play You know with it well with anything but in this particular case here coaching Right. Well, that's very important for your business You know, I'm going to go back to when my husband and I were in the printing business And we were always getting the material to keep us up to date We were always going to conventions to learn about new equipment And I think that's just a part of business Being a business owner that you have to keep up with times because they're constantly changing Especially in today's world Yeah, there's changing in other aspects as well Because you know first time we talked I had told you I've learned how to run printing presses in high school Yes, the commonality. Yeah And so for you know any organization, you know, whether it's you know, something as large as as the military You know all the way down to you know, the mom and pop store Yeah down on the corner. There's always technological aspects that are associated with any profession And you know, and so you always see you know, these conferences like you just mentioned, you know And trainings that people can go to But and and this is a big but the majority of the time it's always focusing on some type of like technical skill It's not focusing on the leadership skills Oh, definitely. Oh, correct. Yes. This is where problems start to uh erupt Yeah, we have people that they're fantastic. I mean hey from a logistical standpoint They know what needs to be ordered when the order who to order from so forth something like that There's people who are fantastic, you know from an accounting standpoint Uh, you know, there's people that they hey, they know how to I know how to start a business And you know, they I hear it on so many times to start a four or five businesses You know, they're they're really good at that but where to break down comes in the play is the people Yo, so yeah, but you do need those people Yeah, you need that balance Yeah, and so Yo, you've got Joe or Betty that are highly skilled and technically competent in their job And so the boss will see that and say wow those two, you know, they're they're going fantastic We're we're growing we're expanding we're taking on a new project. Let's promote Joe and Betty Let's put them in charge of two different teams. Yeah, and you each got 10 people on your team. Well, you know Here's where now it starts to go south Joe and Betty work very very well technically But they've never received any type of training, you know from a leadership perspective or how to communicate Which some some people can communicate very well others don't Stresses come in the play now. Joe and Betty aren't used to the responsibility of being And and the team gets frustrated Yeah, and the team can get to the point of you have some that are open rebellion some that well, I don't care I'm just coming to work getting the paycheck You know, Joe and Betty are getting frustrated Yo, the boss is getting frustrated saying what in the world happened, you know Calling and then what's wrong with your attitude, you know, yeah exactly in this Tremendous breakdown and gap and failure to understand that hey Why don't you invest in Joe and Betty's development as a leader? Yes, your company your organization is going to grow more And those people on the team that are frustrated or checked out Uh, you know very well, you're going to turn around because now Joe and Betty are treating them like human beings Yeah, they're listening to them, you know and now Hey, when people are happy in the workplace, people are more productive. So that's a you know, I have observed this Throughout my entire career. I I seen it in the military, you know And I seen in the fire service, but another but but the difference with the military is the military teaches people leadership You know from Yeah, right out the right out the gate and boot camp they teach leadership Interesting this is back and forth back back and forth You know, there's some fire departments, uh, you know, they do a very good job, you know, at preparing their people There's others they don't there's some they wait until someone expresses an interest and you know being promoted to a position of an officer And then it's like, oh geez, I guess we're able to do these people some training Give them a cram course Yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, you know what? Yeah, yeah If you take Joe and Betty now and you put them over in the fire department and they're not and they're going all the Hands-on training and so forth like that, but they're not getting any leadership training along the way Now Joe and Betty are starting to act as an officer and then they get promoted to an officer's position They haven't been training these skills along the way and how many bad habits have they picked up You know that carry that they carry in bad habits that that you know because people watch these videos, you know on their phone YouTube so forth like that or they'll watch They'll see some they're their favorite actor who's portraying A leadership position, you know belittling and people putting them down and now they think oh, I guess that's how you do it You know what I noticed though is that so many times after we get out of college paying for college We seem to pull ourselves back and say, oh, I Why would I want to pay for another course? You know so we devalue ourselves and we don't realize how important it is to keep up on these and keep learning these things that You know jenny and that is a big challenge that I have confronted since working in the business full time And that's that's people's reluctance to you know want to pay for coaching The pay to go to a mastermind, you know or you know pay for a webinar or a course And you know People will invest money in what they are interested in and I have seen people I'll come back to the fire service, you know on this one And okay, and I'll qualify my statement by saying I'm not opposed to what you know Somebody's the one is there hot be long as it's legal, you know who's going goose hunting deer elk hunting fish in boating You know anything like that But I had a conversation one year with a guy that ended previous conversations You know and he had talked to me, you know about pursuing, you know a bachelor's degree He had his associates and he talked about, you know, his family providing for the family, you know, what happens You know to my family if I get injured on the job and I can't do this anymore I don't think my associate's degree is going to carry me very far. What should I do rick, you know to pursue the bachelor's degree Yeah, and this was an ongoing conversation for a couple years And and it was always ended with him saying why you know, I just I'm not sure if I got the money to do this What the last time I had the conversation with the guy we were standing in the kitchen of one of the fire stations And same thing and he ended with why just don't know if I have the money to do this And I happened to look out the window and I says that's your uh, that's your new truck out there, isn't it? Well, yeah, and I says that trailer and that boat out there that's yours He said yeah, and I said aren't you headed up the Wyoming for a week with a bunch of the guys to go fishing You know, yeah, and I says you're you're spending money on that, right? Yeah I said, I'm not I'm not opposed to that. I said but you got a lot of money invested out there and rolling stock And I said but yet you're not willing to invest in your personal growth And I said there's a disconnect there That's the last time I ever said anything to me about about personal growth from that standpoint Yeah, from that from that standpoint sign up Not no But that's that's what keeps happening. I I've seen it in myself I know I'm not the only person I've had people I would say oh, I would like some Development in this area whether it's speaking or whether it's how to handle this situation And I allowed other people saying oh, you don't you're good enough You don't need that sort of stuff and I go okay, and then finally two years into it. I finally said No, this keeps coming up for me. I'm not happy with myself Back with that. I'm investing in myself and it really took a complete change of attitude And approval of myself to accept the fact and let go of my ego and say No, they don't hear this little george on my shoulder saying Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, whatever it is, you know how insecure you feel or not confident Well get over it, you know something is holding you back And usually you have to sit down and figure out what your goals are and what it takes To get to the point that you want to You know and I see this it's not just me a lot of people put up with this This attitude that No, I can't I don't have the money. Yeah. Yeah those priorities And I think what I've seen is that if people write down what they really want and get clear on their goals That is when they start to realize that yes, it's okay to invest in myself and improve because Here is the goal that I want and this is what it's going to take to get me there Along with the confidence along with the self growth along with all these other things that it takes to get there Just as you're saying rick. Oh, this is so valuable all the input that you're giving for people to think of If they want to be a business owner I agree that a lot of people think they may be But there is so much that goes into Being a business owner that a lot of people don't think of Yeah, and you're pointing so many of these out for our listeners. I really appreciate you So much of this information Well, thank you You've got your book and how long you've been doing this since uh june of 2019 you said is when you got started in your business And the networking so how are you finding your clientele? Who's your clientele? And have you built your business with Employees or is this just you and your wife that are handling all of this? I'll start with your last question and and then work I'm so excited. I just throw out all these questions. That's fine. Um, I guess you could say my employee would probably be my dog java Yeah, because she she sticks to me like blue You know, it's this old proprietorship, uh, you know, although, you know, my wife definitely is You know a partner from the standpoint of providing, you know, encouragement and you know ideas and being a sounding board We've been uh last month, you know, we celebrated 34 years, you know, congratulations Thank you. And so, you know, I've been blessed, you know, uh to have her as a wife And and then also my daughters, uh, my two daughters are both married as well And they get entrepreneurial spirit in them too But they provide they provide encouragement You know, my youngest she works for a realtor and here in loveland, which uh, Her boss Nancy and I, you know, we've been you know Brainstorming on what we can do, you know to work to work together And so my older daughter rebecca She's constantly selling my book or pushing my book And my business, you know, so, you know, I've I've got that, you know with them, you know, uh, rebecca's big on social media And so she'll just she'll take things and you know, she'll repost it and so forth like that And yeah, so, you know, coming coming back to that, you know, from the networking networking perspective, you know, the niche confronted that right off the bat with the book and Deb and I that Deb's my wife. Uh, we met with Susie early on I think it was probably about september october 2017 You know, and already after the class and we met her Halfway between here in denver. We're sitting in a chick filet and My wife and I had been talking about hey, who am I targeting and I kept saying well the leadership was for everybody And so we uh, Susie shows up and she says okay rick, who are you writing to and I said hey everybody in here, you know And I saw my wife. She kind of had a grin on her face and Susie said no that that doesn't work I know we we all start out that way. Whoa. Well, I can help anybody, you know Yeah Down that's that's what got you started on narrowing it down and who is your target market now And it was the next day jenny at work. I was visiting I was making station visits out at one of the stations and uh, there was one of the lieutenants and He said I was at the table with him because my habit was, you know, I did station visits to get the crew together You know, we sit around the table, you know pass-long information Uh, usually the conversation would go down a path many times of leadership So I forgot to I'm talking to guys want to look tenon said hey chief. You got a minute You know, which I'm a misnomer a minute usually means 45 at the middle right And so we went in the other room and well, he had uh, some Challenges that he was facing, you know with a younger firefighter a newer firefighter and this individual that I speak to the lieutenant Yeah, he was I think he's probably Approximately 33 Age okay in that area right there. So while we're talking back and forth. It's like the light went on Rick that's your target audience right there As people like this Yeah, you know that you know they not you know, maybe that age range, you know, but You know when you start to look at people, you know, even now, you know late teens going into those early 30s, you know people are, you know Either testing to be promoted, which that's how it happens in the fire department. You have to test or they're being thrust into it Okay, so those people that are You know wanting to learn about leadership because they're in supervisory positions all the way up to that mid management You know level, you know, that's the group that I like to work with specifically Hey, I love working with fire departments. You know, I mean I spent 37 years of my life Yeah, you know doing that But then you know expanding out but keeping it, you know Within that same track as I also enjoy working with industrial emergency response teams And you know because they're you know the similarities and so forth But my primary target audience, you know would be fire or emergency services. However I've also, you know delivered my programs to churches and and to You know private corporations as well and and other government entities that had no no connection whatsoever with fire What about rotary club? Uh, I'm not a member of the rotary, but yes, I would you know deliver, you know to the rotary I have an opportunity in november to address a sertoma club up in fort colons And is that a rotary club? I don't recognize that name. Oh sertoma. Yeah That's another service oriented club like the rotary sertoma lions Back where I grew up out there in jersey. There was another called the ruritan You know my uncle cliff. He was uh, it was a part of that And yeah very So you've got all sorts of connections and and what you find with connections and building Relationships and all this networking is it goes from one and then it's a lot of hearsay Yeah, and you know the great thing too about what i'm doing is I don't have brick and mortar, you know And so, you know, I I've I've delivered across the country virtually it's been in person You know, but I have delivered virtually, you know as well You know, and of course, there's a cost savings for an organization that you know, there's downsides stuff because you You know trying to you know address a group, uh and get feedback, you know when they're in one room Uh, you know becomes a challenge but then from the organizational side, it's like well, they don't have to pay, you know Travel you know and all that stuff So maybe your audience gets bigger and then the challenge is how do you deliver it? Do you zoom or what program do you go with? I love when fire rescue we had adopted zoom Several years before that because you can't bring everybody together in the fire department and train Because now now everybody's in one location You know So there's so the other parts of the jurisdiction are not Protected and so, you know, we went to zoom and so when I needed to do a shift meeting We did it on zoom You know when I wanted to deliver a training to the shift and I wanted everybody president one time Present not president present at one time. We didn't be a zoom You know, there's other times that I would take it out and I would deliver it to you know, two stations at a time But you know, so it's a platform that I was already familiar with How nice and and they've expanded like crazy You can have oh, I think 500 people in a room if you want Yeah Yeah, it is crazy. Um, well with networking I belong to master networks and you know through that I've got the opportunity to visit other chapters around the country So well for instance tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. There's a chapter out of white plains new york just north of the city And I'm on that thing and there's usually 64 to 70 people, you know Yeah, and so there's others from my chapter here in colorado that join in start from down in texas michigan So forth like that. Yeah, and we all come together and so now You know this Platform here has allowed me the opportunity to network Beyond lyremer county in northern colorado. Oh, that's terrific. There are other networking Companies around I just connected with tabletop networking recently And that's like speed dating. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but I am absolutely love that Yeah, I I attended the one in long month this week Yeah, I've been I've been going the tabletop networking up here in northern colorado since uh Last october and greg and diane, you know, they do a fantastic job and they're cadre tears who help out and Yeah, they're they're great and you know, I've been going now, you know, like I said since last october So developing the relationships with the regulars the people, you know that come You know every month and what I have seen since june I can specifically take it back to june of this year Is the people that are seeing me on a regular basis. They're asking more and more in-depth questions Why I do and See the way because now they're starting to yeah You know, I think I might be able to connect you with this person or or that person Does that mean that you're refining your message because I know with tabletop networking You only get one minute to say who you are and Jenny for the other networking Events that I attend A minute's like an hour Because like that one at white planes, you know, there's so many people on You know 20 seconds Oh, that's all that you get. Yeah, 20 seconds. You know now in our chapter our chapter. It's 30 seconds So for a minute that and hey growing up in the part of country. I did you could be a fast talker And I am slow, but remember I grew up in farm country So yeah, so that with the tabletop networking and one minute You know that allows me to you know go that extra time and throw in statistics You know and like that example I gave you earlier about people who are technically competent and then getting you know promoted the higher positions Is I've been able to take that and refine that down and make that a much more short and succinct And just watching people's reactions at the table You know when I'm saying that it's like oh, yeah, I I've seen that I've seen that yeah You know that you know that right there You know that you know that certainly helps and you know, I like watching the wheels turn, you know in people's heads Oh, I know and you can see it their their eyes start to go you can read their facial expressions and all that Yeah, just to tell other people our listeners the tabletop networking There are a series in a room of what about 15 tables and only four people to one table You bring tons of business cards And I love the speed dating I call it Because they I think that they should have it around the country It's so fascinating and so many people you can meet in what is it an hour and a half that they have it Two hours Oh, is it two hours? Yeah, two hours with a short break in between Yeah, yeah, so Those all this rick is terrific information. Thank you so much for sharing all the terrific About books and about business networking personal growth all these things have been so valuable to people Well, thank you He's mentoring people people can order signed copies of my book through my website But it's uh, you know, it's the furnace of leadership development, but but it's also available through Amazon and in an e-book Format as well. And so my business is impactus cultivating today's leaders And my website is impactus leadership dot com and we met on linked in And I didn't even realize how close we were and how many connections. So we actually have that are similar Yeah, yeah, that's hey, that's one of the benefits too about about networking You know Real quick story. I met a gentleman At tabletop networking up here in northern colorado A few weeks back we set up a time for coffee Ziggy's here in loveland and we're talking and he was saying he mentioned Well, my doctor's name and I said wait a minute. What was his name? And he and I says oh a guy about yay. Hi, and he's he doesn't have any hair He said yeah, and I said, oh, well, he goes to my church and he says well, he goes to my church So we've so we met at a networking event, but we're going to the same church and neither one of us realized Well, thank you so much for coming on today and we'll be connected in future networking All right. Well, thank you, jenny. I appreciate the opportunity very much