Latest / The JEMS Report / Building a Legacy Beyond the Badge: Jim Scano on Firehouse Shirt Club, Leadership & Service

Transcript

Building a Legacy Beyond the Badge: Jim Scano on Firehouse Shirt Club, Leadership & Service · The JEMS Report

• speaker-0: What's up everybody? Welcome to Just A Little Salt, the podcast hosted by me, the Salty Paramedic. If you or anybody you know wants to be on the show, make sure to send a request to Justalittle Salt Podcast at gmail.com. If you want to support the podcast and the work I'm doing for first responders, it's easy. Go on the saltyparamedic.com. Everything there, books, merch, resources, is built around this community. If you're looking for bonus episodes or content you're not going to hear anywhere else, make sure to join the Patreon. Go on patreon.com and search the Salty Paramedic. That support directly helps me keep bringing this content to life. Without further ado, thanks for listening. Here's the show. What's up, everybody? Welcome to a new episode of Just a Little Salt. It's been a minute. I know we're approaching the winter months. I've got a lot more time. So I've got a long list of guests I plan on interviewing. Right here, we got Jim Scano. ⁓ he's the head honcho of Firehouse Shirt Club. ⁓ got a bunch of other things going on, but we'll get into that. Jim, if you want to introduce yourself to the people. speaker-1: Man, hey, thanks so much. ⁓ first of all, for having me on. I appreciate it. ⁓ enjoy doing these whenever I can and sharing our story. So, yeah, my name is Jim. ⁓ started Firehouse Shirt Club, and I was a firefighter in Dallas in 2011. It's amazing. It's been 15 years already. It feels like maybe five. ⁓ but yeah, we started Firehouse Shirt Club when I was a firefighter paramedic in Dallas, and ⁓ I was working at station 10 at the time. I was avid ⁓ collector of fire gear like a lot of guys are and ⁓ really just want to find a better way for people to collectors to ⁓ to get shirts. speaker-0: Gotcha. Well ⁓ I you know, you said you did work in Dallas. ⁓ so you're not currently a firefighter, right? You're all in on the shirt club? All speaker-1: All in, yeah. not totally wasn't totally my choice. ⁓ so while when I was in Dallas, I went through unfortunately I went through a pretty bad divorce and ⁓ my kids were not in a great situation. So I was somewhat forced to leave the fire service just because of the schedule. But I was also really blessed in that, you know, our other companies, and I've got a couple of different companies besides this, and our other companies were taking off sort of around that same time. So the transition, I didn't have to just leave the fire service and just, you know, go find something completely to do or completely different to do. So I was able to sort of transition ⁓ and get these other companies rolling about the same time. So that's that was really the reason why I got out of the fire service entirely. speaker-0: Well before we dive into the shirt company, shirt club, let let's let's talk about Jim Scano the firefighter. Let's reminisce a little bit. ⁓ who who was Jim Scano the firefighter? speaker-1: ⁓ man. You know, I certainly love the fire service. I think I the thing that I most I love the most about it though was the was the crew, ⁓ the guys and girls that I worked with. yeah, I was never one of those guys that had to work for poor leadership. ⁓ I was very, very fortunate that my entire time in the fire service from the day that I my the the very first day of training throughout ⁓ the career that I had. I had outstanding leaders. so I think that the culture that I was around most of the time in the fire service was a good one, pretty laid back. So me as a fireman, I would like to think that I didn't take things too seriously. You know, obviously a lot of the time that we're actually doing our job ⁓ is very serious. So I think in the downtime ⁓ didn't take things too seriously. I hope that I hope that people saw that. speaker-0: ⁓ if if you had to look at the fire service, your background in that and then your now business, was there anything the fire service taught you that you use in your business to this day? speaker-1: Yeah, determination for sure. ⁓ that's kind of an easy one. ⁓ how to work with people, you know, in the fire service, you're really you don't get to pick who you work with. Now, of course, the the crew members, you know, you might have some say in that if you're able to change stations or ships or whatnot, but the people that you actually work with on a daily basis, the people that you run on, you don't have that choice. ⁓ so learning how to work with whoever that next call was. is definitely something that teaches you a lot. It learns teaches you how to interact with people and ⁓ see things from their perspective for sure. speaker-0: Yeah, I I agree with that. Yeah, it just ⁓ when we're talking about patient interaction, you know, talking to complete strangers. S some are nice, some are super hard to deal with, and then you got individuals that you're living with every third day at the firehouse. Some you enjoy, some you don't. Like you just it's it's rough. It it takes a speaker-1: Cold, you know, and I think a lot of firefighters go through that because there's just so many ups and downs. You know, you have a shift where you know that you know, man, you did you saw some stuff and you did some great things. And then you have, you know, the other shifts where it's like, Man, you know, it's it's hard, it's a hard job. You're tired, physically tired, you're emotionally tired. Then you go home and and then you have, you know, a family to take care of and bills to pay and yeah, it's it's it's a challenge for sure. speaker-0: What what firehouse tradition would you say you miss the most? speaker-1: The meals. A hundred percent. cooking with everybody, sharing those meals, those were definitely for me the best times at the fire station. Because that's when everybody got to relax, you know, and ⁓ get to know each other outside of, you know, in the middle of a call. certainly the meals, cooking, ⁓ going to the store, that's a I think it's an oftentimes overlooked special part of the fire service. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. I I always love going to the store and you would always have at least one member of the public come up to you and say, What time's dinner? I'll be over there speaker-1: ⁓ man, every every single time. So when you were when when ⁓ in in the fire service, did you guys have ⁓ like a particular cook, one cook? Or did did you guys rotate? speaker-0: Never gets old. I'm still in the fire service. I I still work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a I I'm a cook right now. You're the guy. When I'm on the fire truck. When I'm on the ambulance I refuse to cook because I'm just ⁓ that salty paramedic that doesn't want to cook and I'm on the ambulance. I'm gonna be busy, you know? Of course. ⁓ but I loved I I love to cook. ⁓ I I actually worked in restaurants before I got onto the fire service. ⁓ so it's just something I've always enjoyed and then It it gives me an option to try out new things as well, 'cause, you know, that's one thing. I was talking to someone last week and they couldn't believe we bought our own mills. They're like, You have to pay for your own mill. Yes, we all put together money every shift, but you know, you know, we'll we'll get like sixty bucks together each mill and I'll I'll have sixty dollars to play with, you know, feed six guys and ⁓ sometimes I gotta try out new mills that are really good and then sometimes it's it's a dud and like, sorry guys, you know. Sorry. speaker-1: Of luck next time. It's nice 'cause you got a captive audience, right? speaker-0: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But ⁓ yeah, I love it. w what what's the best firehouse prank you've ever witnessed? speaker-1: Witnessed. ⁓ so there's one that's fantastic where ⁓ I would love to hear people ⁓ let me know if they've tried this or or whatever, but there's one that's great. So you take like a can of dental floss and you tie little knots in it, maybe every six or twelve inches, all the way down. You know, get I mean, just you're gonna be tying for a long time. Tie knots, tie knots, tie knots. Then you pull the bed sheet off of your buddy, right? And then you take that dental floss and you lay it sort of like in you know a back and forth across the bed sheet. I can't I can't I can't tell the story without laughing. And then you put the bed sheet back on, and then you take that dental floss and you take it all the way out of the room and you know, down around the corner of the cracks, right? So anyway, you take that dental floss and you pull it really slow, and then to the person laying in bed. Right. It feels like there's bugs on them or under the sheets. So you're kinda and it's under the sheets, so when they pull off their sheets they can't see because it's under that bottom sheet. That is that is awesome. speaker-0: I I I've never heard of that one. I love it. I love I love learn learning new ones. That's great. I am I right in saying did I read something about you ⁓ having a background in engineering before being a firefighter? Yeah. speaker-1: completely different so ⁓ When I was in high school, I was naturally for some reason I had an affinity for like computers and such. And I had an older brother, and I won't get into all the details, but I had an older brother who ⁓ was about ten years older and he, you know, went to college, went was an engineer and stuff. So I got involved in like AutoCAD type stuff. And I became really pretty darn good at it. This was like early nineties. So this is when like autodesk and autocad became was becoming people were moving off of like the traditional drafting boards into like computers. ⁓ this is a long time ago. But I became pretty good at it. And ⁓ when I got out of high school, I went and I worked for an engineering company. when I was my first year in college and ⁓ did that for a long time. I didn't do so well in college. In fact, ⁓ they asked me to ⁓ you know, maybe go home for a little while and try again next time. So I still had that skill set. So I went and I worked for an auto desk reseller, I was an applications engineer. ⁓ I taught AutoCAD classes and then ultimately with another guy we started an engineering company ⁓ around two thousand around two thousand, ninety nine, two thousand. And we did mechanical electrical and plumbing design for multifamily projects absolutely all over the country. I mean nearly every state. speaker-0: Yeah, I actually worked with a couple of guys that ⁓ they were engineers. They left the fire department, ⁓ to go back to engineering and then they came back to the fire department. speaker-1: I just got, you know, I got burned out. So I did it because I kind of got pigeon told 'cause that was like the only skill that I had, right? I mean it was a good skill. But so I kind of, you know, got into it because I there's really that or, you know, go wash dishes or something somewhere. And then ⁓ by the time I reached, you know, roughly thirty years old, I was like, Man, I'm just I'm tired of this. Like there's just no there's not a lot of satisfaction in it. You know, the only people I'm making rich are the are the developers and You know, all great people. I mean it was a great industry. But it just I just didn't get a lot of satisfaction in it. So I was like, you know, I'd always sort of eyeball the fire service. ⁓ I don't have anybody in the family that was in the fire service. My grandfather, I shouldn't say that. My grandfather who I never met, he passed away before I was born. ⁓ he was a chief in a very small town in New York. ⁓ so he was in the fire service, I guess. But nobody that I knew was in the fire service. And but I o always eyeballed it because I'm a I'm a pretty hands-on guy. ⁓ mechanically inclined, I guess you could say, and I like to work with my hands a lot. ⁓ so I was like, you know, that that must be a really fulfilling job. So I was I don't know, roughly thirty, twenty nine thirty, I was like, I'm done with this engineering stuff. ⁓ I'm just gonna do something completely different, something that I enjoy. So that's how I got into it. speaker-0: That's awesome. So let's fast forward to twenty eleven. That's when Firehouse Shirt Club became a thing, right? Yeah. What w how how did that transpire? You know speaker-1: Interesting. ⁓ before I started Firehouse Short Club, I've always been super entrepreneurial. And ⁓ I actually did in around two thousand and nine, I was going through paramedic school. and MP three file MP three, people listening to ⁓ excuse me, let me start over. People listening to what are those things called? Not ⁓ little MP three players. iPods, gosh, that's the word I couldn't think of. speaker-0: PiPod. speaker-1: P you know that was big in like two thousand and seven. iPhones were just about to come out, I think back then. And I really struggled in paramedic school. I'm not the brightest guy in the world. So what I did to study is I took really good notes and then I would record audio versions of paramedic school, my cliff notes, so to speak, and I would sell those as downloadable MP3 files to people on the internet. ⁓ so that was really my first you know, online success story, I guess you could say. I sold tons of those downloadable Cliff Notes version to paramedic school ⁓ as MP three files. So I had had some experience and some success in online sales. and then I like to collect shirts. So I reached out to a buddy of mine who had been very successful in in building some e commerce brands. And I was like, hey, I want to collect shirts. I want to figure out a way to make excuse me, to help people like swap shirts, because that's what I would do, you know, when I was traveling, I take some Dallas shirts and stop at the local fire station like a lot of guys do and swap shirts. I was like, you know, so can you help me sort of build a platform where guys can swap shirts? And he was like, Man, absolutely. Love to help you out. Good friend of mine. His name's Brett. And ⁓ he said, but you know what? I got I got an idea. He says, I saw this company, every month they feature ⁓ a different bar. It's called Dive Bar Shirt Club. They feature a different bar and ⁓ you know you subscribe and you get a t-shirt from a different dive bar. Man, I'll tell you what, I have never had a more clear vision in my entire life. And this is the god honest truth. As soon as he said that, I was like, that's it. I was like, that's it. I was like, that's exactly the I mean, it's like the perfect business ⁓ for collectors of fire fighter gear to be able to get a different station every month. So that's how it started in 2011. And you know, we just we we he helped me put it together in the beginning. It was very very slow those first few years. but we just kind of kept plugging at it and ⁓ you know, it took off. speaker-0: Yeah, that's that's great. Do you do you remember the first station that you featured? speaker-1: I I do for sure. it was actually station eleven in Dallas. And the reason why is because I was working in Dallas and b station eleven is on is on Oaklawn in Dallas. It's a it's an old historical station. They get quite a bit of foot traffic. So they always have t-shirts ⁓ in a locker at the station. A lot of stations don't. So I knew that whenever I had somebody sign up, I could always just go down to station eleven. and buy ⁓ out of their shirts and fulfill orders. So that was the first station that I did. And ⁓ yeah, I bought they they love me because I would buy tons of their shirts. Yeah. But eventually of course, you know, we had to feature other stations and, you know, kinda do that. But yeah, station eleven in Dallas. speaker-0: Awesome. I this is something that has been f funny for me to witness and watch ⁓ my journey. Like when I first started this social media thing, a bunch of my coworkers like, you know, what the hell are you doing? You know, ⁓ they don't believe in ya and it seems like the more you go on, the more that happens. They're like, Okay, I get it now. When you were at Dallas, did you have a gu a lot of guys were like, ⁓ all right, you know, this is a good idea and or were they kind of skeptical of it? speaker-1: My crew at Station ten ⁓ was great. We got along very, very well. Now you know that there's guys that were probably like, Man, what's Stan I'm doing? That guy, you know, whatever. Cause you know, I always had something going on. ⁓ but honestly the guys at Station ten were were awesome. In fact, there were many times where I would bring in boxes of shirts and ⁓ where I had to fold them all and put ⁓ in little envelopes and ship ⁓ all. And the guys at the station would ⁓ they'd be right there helping me out the whole time. So, ⁓ No, they I would say that they were very, very supportive. speaker-0: That's great. ⁓ featuring a new station every month, I imagine that's a lot you have to plan ahead for. So like how far in advance are you like s do you have everything planned out as far as station designs and all that? speaker-1: So these days, Eric Daniels is our creative director. ⁓ he's actually a captain over in McKinney, which is a suburb ⁓ just north of Dallas, ⁓ a big suburb north of Dallas. ⁓ he's our creative deck director. So he handles all of the inquiries or not inquiries, all of the submissions of fire stations that want to be featured. ⁓ in the beginning, you know, I was calling fire stations all over the country. It's like, hey, my name is Jim. Let me reproduce your cert and I promise you I'll send you a check. You know, I was just like, just you know, just trust me. I I think this is gonna work. ⁓ but now we have so many submissions. I bet we've probably got two a list of probably at least two hundred different submissions right now. And you know, most of ⁓ most of ⁓ we can't we can't feature because, you know, they don't have any artwork at all or they don't have a good story. So to answer your question, how far out? We try to stay at least six months out. you know, optimally we would have stay further out than that, but Eric tries to keep us four to six months out, which is really plenty of time. It helps us, you know, get the artwork collected, tuned up if it needs to be tuned up, patches, you know, all made and all of that. speaker-0: Absolutely. ⁓ has ⁓ have you got to visit a lot of the stations that you've featured in the past? speaker-1: I have visited a lot of the stations that we've featured. Not all of them, not even close. ⁓ I wish we could visit more. You know, and it seems like it's like, you know, it you know, it's only twelve a year, right? That's twelve trips a year. But it's amazing when, you know, like I said, we've got a couple of my wife and I we've got a couple of different businesses and ⁓ it's just hard. It's hard to break away and make the time, you know, to get up there. I mean, you're talking two or three days every single time, not to mention the cost, you know. It's it gets expensive. but no, I have been very, very fortunate in that I've been able to visit some pretty spectacular stations. speaker-0: Yeah. That's ⁓ that's something I try to do anytime I go around speaking is I go to around local stations and just see because it it's so different. You know, I'm I'm so used to my station at home and then you go and you meet a new group of people, ⁓ you know, they might have a different schedule and it just do things totally different. You learn so much by doing that. Yeah. But we're all the same type of people, I found out, you know, the same humor and everything like that. speaker-1: Absolutely. You know what, I I agree. I agree. There's I was thinking about that. There's the fire service, they are basically the same at its core. You know, everybody's kinda got the same mission, the same objectives, you know, they want to have a good job, a safe job, they wanna go home to their families. You know, the difference is really just the location of the station, you know, what if it's a new house or an old house, ⁓ maybe some of the traditions around the station, but Generally speaking, it's it's the same all across the country. speaker-0: ⁓ yeah. I I'm sure when you started this business just the same as me doing this thing, you've learned ⁓ along the way. What would you say is the biggest mistake you made in the first couple of years on the business? speaker-1: In the first couple years probably not passing off the things that I know that I am not good at. I think, you know, it's very, very important for anybody that starts a business to know what you're good at. But I think it's it's equally as important to know what you kinda suck at. so for me, the the repetitive tasks ⁓ That come with like customer service. I know it sounds ridiculous. We actually have amazing customer service. This comp our company is is is phenomenal. And that's not because of me. That's because of the person that runs our customer service. ⁓ I wish I would have handed that off sooner. Had I handed that off sooner, we probably would have been successful a more successful a lot sooner. But I was just not I was one of those guys, I gotta go check these emails. I was always I was also going through a pretty dark time. ⁓ you know, going through divorce at that time early on. So ⁓ but I I I wish I would have handed that off sooner. Realized, hey, you know what, Jim, you're really not that good at this. So why don't you give it to somebody else, you can do a better job. speaker-0: No, I get that. ⁓ I know we already talked a little bit about how the club works as far as selection, especially. ⁓ so is it just something you go on your website and apply? You said you make sure you have your own logo, have a good story, any any other tips about how how to be selected? speaker-1: ⁓ you know, I'm gonna get inundated with the emails, but ⁓ yeah, definitely go through and submit on our website. Maybe shoot me an email. The biggest, you know, people have to realize that that we do have a commitment to our customers, to our subscribers, that we're gonna provide them with a shirt that they're gonna want to wear, you know, on the weekends and enjoy or hold on to or collect. So the artwork does have to be good. ⁓ we can't We can't hand out artwork that that people aren't going to enjoy. That being said, if your your station has a really good story, but might not have great artwork, we have artists that we've been working with for years that can help with that. So a good example of that would be a station, I can't remember what station it was, but it was in it was in Nashville. Do you remember the Christmas bombing ⁓ several years ago? And ⁓ okay, that was in Nashville. So we featured that station. The guys that works were first on the scene there. And they didn't have great artwork. But man, we I mean it was like, what a great story. You know, we want to hear their story. So we worked with them on on cleaning up their artwork a little bit, featured them, and and it was it was fantastic. So yeah, so you don't have to have great artwork, but you do have to have at least great artwork or great. speaker-0: store. Yeah, I mean you y'all sent me this one that you know this month, South Jamaica Queens. I I popped that one open. I was like, that's that's pretty sick, you know. I I always always like the Tiger. is there any is there any design that's like stuck out to you that's been your favorite over the years? speaker-1: Favorite one, favorite design. Let's see. ⁓ yeah, I know. Actually, and it's interesting because this is one of the very first shirts that we did, and we had like no members, so nobody got to see it, or very few people got to see it. But we did a Boston t-shirt that featured their scuba diving team. So they had like a scuba rescue team in Boston. And ⁓ the artwork was just awesome. ⁓ it just it was just, I don't know, just really spoke to me. It had this frog with, you know, big flippers on it. ⁓ it was just really, really cool artwork. That was my personal favorite. ⁓ unfortunately, like I said, not many people got to see it because we were very, very young and didn't have very many people, you know, no subscribers. But certainly my favorite. I would love if I could figure out this was years ago, so I don't even have the contact to who that was that, you know, we how we even got that shirt. I don't remember. It was a long time ago. But if I could ever figure out who that was and I can make that contact, that might be a shirt I would bring back and feature it. speaker-0: Yeah. That's awesome. ⁓ I know on your website you boast that you've raised over six hundred thousand dollars and you've given back to firefighters. How does all that work out? Yeah, so speaker-1: So we do it a couple of different ways. some of it so we we at the end of the month basically we take you know what we have left after we pay, you know, all of our people and our vendors and all of that, and then we make a donation back to the station that we featured. ⁓ we also try to keep a little bit available to make other donations, to do bigger projects. ⁓ for example, the the ⁓ firehouse overhaul that we did at station forty five in Houston. ⁓ you know, those types of projects. we do that as well. So yeah, over the years, collectively in all of the different projects that we've done, ⁓ the stations that we've given back to, it's it's roughly around six hundred thousand dollars. I don't keep super tight track of it, but it's over six hundred thousand dollars. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah, and and has that always been a part of the mission or did that happen after you established? Is that always like you always wanted to give back once you established the company? speaker-1: ⁓ absolutely. Yeah, since the very first day. ⁓ it was really important to make sure that, you know, it's very important for us to be able to help these stations that are feet that were, you know, able to feature their artwork. So, you know, we're able to sell the way I look at it is this through our platform and through our subscribers, we're able to sell more shirts for them in a month than they'll sell, you know, in a couple of years. So it's a nice fundraiser for them. speaker-0: No, absolutely. That's awesome. ⁓ now let's talk a little bit about the four one four fund. What's that? So the speaker-1: 414 fund, you know, over the years we've one of the challenges that we've always had is whenever we make a donation back to a station, a lot of times they'll have a bank account set up, or ⁓ a lot of times we'll donate to their association, which of course is a nonprofit. Well, when you and I am no tax attorney, this is all then you know handed down to me, but when a company gives money to a nonprofit, there's no problem. The problem becomes is when a company makes a donation to an individual or to a bank account that isn't like a nonprofit, because now I have to give you whatever that tax formula was a W9 or something like that, which means you have to claim that as income on your taxes. So let's say you let's say we featured your station and you're like, Yeah, we don't really have an association that you can donate to, or we don't have a bank account, just send it to me. Well, then I've got to send you a check, but I also have to send you a W9. So what we did was we were like, let's just set up a nonprofit. Firehouse Shirt Club will donate to our nonprofit. And then that way the nonprofit can distribute the funds however we see fit. So not all of our donations go through the 414 fund. Some of it just goes directly to an association, but some of it will run through the 414 fund so that we can do we can donate to an individual and that person doesn't have to get taxed because it's within our it's within the ⁓ the scope or the goal or the mission. That's the word I'm looking for. It's within the mission of the 414 fund is to help firefighters speaker-0: Wha where did the name come from? speaker-1: It came from we we went through names for a long time and we decided to go with the four one four fund. That's four hundred and fourteen is the number of first responders that were killed on nine eleven, ⁓ according to the city of New York. Now there's other sources that land on like the you know four hundred and twelve or four hundred and fifteen, but we went with the number that the city of New York put out, which is four hundred and fourteen. speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ if if money were no object with this non profit, what what would you hope to accomplish most within the fire service? speaker-1: Educating I would want to educate more young people about making a career in the fire service. ⁓ I think I think numbers are down right now of people wanting to join the fire service. And I would love to be able to help or educate young adults on considering a career in the fire service. And then one thing that I really want to do that we haven't, we just haven't. really allocated the time to it is I really want to set up some scholarships through the four one four fund. You know, maybe we can only do one or two a year, ⁓ but I would love to get some some young individuals that, you know, want to go through fire school or paramedic school that can't afford it. Really, really want to see us do that. speaker-0: Yeah, that's that's great. That my nonprofit, that's what we do is we send people to EMT, paramedic classes, stuff like that. And our latest round we had over a thousand applicants. And reading through applications, like it's it's astounding, like because people tell you their story and why they can't afford school, but it's their lifelong dream and man it's it's heart wrenching. You know, you got this many people want to do this job, but they literally can't because they're taking care of their speaker-1: ⁓ my god. speaker-0: their grandmother, you know, it just just financially drained. And so reading through those applications, it's like, you know, i this is important and this needs to be done. So ⁓ yeah, i any way people can help, that's that's always a good thing. speaker-1: Absolutely. Hey, maybe something maybe we can do something together there. That would be awesome. speaker-0: Yeah, no, I yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I was I was I was very 'cause I didn't know anything about non profits starting out and luckily my board members are great and they have a very good history in ⁓ and know a lot about what goes on behind the scenes. ⁓ so they helped me along the way. But that just reinforced me. It was like, all right, this this is the right thing to do after reading all those applications. speaker-1: Yeah, it's I've been I've been involved with a couple of different nonprofits. ⁓ served on the board for a local ⁓ education foundation. And I was on that committee that went through those applications and reading those and it's like golly, man, you just you want to give something to everybody and you know that you can. It's really, really frustrating. ⁓ but yeah, totally can sympathize with what you were going through. It's it's challenging. speaker-0: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Now you now you talked a little bit about Houston Station forty five and renovating their day room. What where did that come about? What what happened there? speaker-1: You know, like every great idea, probably when I was driving, you know, ⁓ driving on the road and thought, Hey, you know, I wonder I wonder if we could do this. You know, maybe I must I must have watched an episode of, you know, what's that extreme home makeover or whatever. ⁓ I was like, Hey, I wonder if we could do this, you know, in fire station. So, you know, it took a it it took ⁓ well over a year of planning ⁓ by the time we selected the station and then worked out all the logistics, but I was like, I wonder if we could do like an extreme home makeover on a fire station. You know, that could be the way that that that we get back. And we we landed on station forty five in Dallas. The reason why we picked forty f station forty five is Houston is about, you know, roughly four, four and a half hours from here locally. So logistically it wasn't like we were driving all over the country back and forth because you know, I had to go down there and just kind of eyeball it before we started, then of course prepping everything and And you know, working off the timelines of the schedule. ⁓ it was within a reasonable distance, but it wasn't like right in my backyard because that would feel a little like you know, just helping people in our community. So we ended up going with station forty five and it was very challenging. It was it was one of the harder things that we have done as a business. I had no idea, or I should say I really underestimated speaker-0: Biased. Yeah, yeah. speaker-1: the logistical challenges of doing that. ⁓ but but we got it done. We got it done in our timeline. I we were there I think three days. and it was an outstanding project. It's at firehouseoverhaul.com. You probably already saw it. You can go watch the video, but a whole lot of fun. And ⁓ yeah, it was great. speaker-0: That that would be an amazing TV show, kinda like the old T V show Pimp My Ride on MTV. Right. Like just going around and changing, you know, ⁓ because but cities would get in trouble because the camera crew would get in there and be like, ⁓ there's black mold, you know? We can't show that speaker-1: ⁓ But cities don't love it because it it's you know, you're sort of highlighting the the the deficiencies in in in city government. So yeah, they don't particularly care for it. Houston was great. ⁓ they they were great to work with. We had no problems there, but I can understand why a lot of cities would be like, ⁓ you know, don't don't show the speaker-0: now let's talk a little bit about atomic T shirts. What's that? speaker-1: So in roughly two thousand and fifteen at Spirehouse Shirt Club was was starting to to to develop and and become a real thing. What what I would do is, you know, as you know, we feature a different station ⁓ one one every month. So what I was doing was I was having to work with a different printer every single month. So, you know, I would work with a ⁓ Miami station and and they would say, ⁓ yeah, yeah, you can use us. Here's call Joe down the street. He does all of our printing. So that's what I would do. But as we started to grow. I realized, especially after in New Orleans, we featured a New Orleans station. I don't remember exactly which station it was, but we worked with their printer and we had a problem. ⁓ the prints started ⁓ were washing out and we had a a massive problem. Now the now the screen printer did a great job. They ⁓ they replaced all the shirts, it was just a big logistical pain in the rear. ⁓ but it was then that I realized I was like, look, we can't continue to do this because ⁓ we never know what type of a product we're gonna get when we're working with different printers like that. So I was like, you know, we're we're blessed to be in a a very fast growing area of the country. ⁓ the area that we're in is actually one of the fastest growing in the country. It's just we're about 45 more minutes north of Dallas in a in a town called Salina. and I knew that around 2015 there wasn't really a local printer here. So I was like, what if we just open up a printing company. We can print for the growth that's coming here in Salina, but then we can also control the print for a fire and shirt club. So that's what we did. I literally I mean it was just a you know just a hope of and a prayer. I literally rented a space. It was a small eighteen hundred square foot space. I went and bought some equipment and then I hired somebody to print. I don't know anything about printing. ⁓ you know, I've learned of course over the years of having this company. but I don't know a whole lot about printing, so I had to hire somebody that did. And you know, we we just sort of rode the wave of the development that's going on here in Salina. And that's you know, it's it's now more than printing. We do printing and promotional products. We do a ton of it for businesses all over the community and all over the place. But ⁓ it also fulfills the need that we had, which was quality control and timeliness for firehouse trains. speaker-0: That's awesome. I had no clue. speaker-1: Yeah, it it worked out it you know, I'm I'm very blessed. It worked out really well and we've got an exceptionally good team here. speaker-0: It it it sounds like you're like me. Your your wheels are constantly turning trying to think of new business ideas. ⁓ I I get to the point where I'm like, All right, I'm doing too much. I gotta slow down. speaker-1: Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. And that that is to the detriment of a lot of entrepreneurs and people that are creative, sounds like you are as well. Is that you know, ideas are a dime a dozen, right? I mean we've all got a everybody's got an idea of what you could do or should do, but being able to take that idea and execute it on it is that is the entire game. And if you have too many ideas you'll never get anything done. And I and I fall I fall victim for that. So I'm I'm pointing at myself when I say this. I'm not telling anybody else they're wrong, I'm saying I'm the one that's wrong as well. ⁓ it's very, very challenging. speaker-0: Let's talk a little bit about firehouse culture. What's what's out of all the stations you visited, what's the coolest station you remember visiting? speaker-1: Coolest. I would have to say the one that sticks out as just being just a cool station. ⁓ Annapolis was super cool in Annapolis, Maryland. That was I just but I also just love that area of the country. But the coolest station was probably it was in San Bernardino County. ⁓ I don't remember which station it was, but we featured a station out there. It's probably three or four years ago. But ⁓ San Bernardino County, the station. So San Bernardino Bernardino, I'm probably s pronouncing that wrong, so I apologize to anybody from that area. I didn't realize this, but San Bernardino County is absolutely enormous. And I don't remember how many stations they have, it's like a million. I don't know. But they've got a million stations out there. And this particular station was up ⁓ in the mountains. And I don't know the the the geography there, so I'm probably gonna get this wrong. But ⁓ this was up In the mountains, and I think it was near, is it called Bear Lake? Something like Bear Lake up in mountains. But you could when we drove up to the station, ⁓ you know, you're driving up into the mountains, you're getting to like that that on that day, we were like getting to like where the clouds are, and then there's this station, and they get they get tons of snow up there. It wasn't there was no snow on the ground when I was there. But you know, you could ski in that area, not there, but in that area. ⁓ that was probably the coolest. It was if I remember correctly, it was like a two or three story station. ⁓ just set up in these big, beautiful trees up on this mountain. It was it was gorgeous. I was like, Man, I could live here. This is amazing. speaker-0: Yeah, ⁓ you know, ⁓ my travels I've I've I've I've seen a lot of like brand new stations that are huge and I just can't believe the the scale of ⁓ But then I've also seen a lot of older stations that are cool in their own right, man. Like, you know, they're from the eighteen hundreds and it's just the vibe of it just so cool. I I went to one station in Charleston, South Carolina and ⁓ it was it was it was so cool. I they they they had the pole, they had the the whole nine yards. speaker-1: Yeah. I mean great stations aren't always new, you know, ⁓ and not and great stations aren't always old. You know, I was I was in one in Las Vegas earlier this year and ⁓ brand new station and you know, you go out the back door and you open up the the roll up door where the where the gym is there at the station and you've got these big beautiful hills and mountains behind you. It was brand new and it was beautiful. I mean super, super nice. But then you know, you see the stations like you're talking about or Annapolis and they're just cool in their own speaker-0: Yeah, I've I've I've seen a station that's on a pond. They're Yeah, we go out fishing all the time. I'm like, ⁓ man. Yeah. That's crazy. I get j I get jealous sometimes for sure. Absolutely. Let's let's talk about leadership and life after the firehouse. So it said you're now involved with the school board, chamber of commerce, and community leadership. Where where does that drive to serve come from, you think? You know, speaker-1: Yeah, for sure. I think I think you know, once you work in the fire service, and I don't know, this is just my story, I guess. Once you work in the fire service and you have an opportunity to work with strangers, essentially on their worst days, right? That's what we do. It's hard not to want to continue for me again. ⁓ it's hard for me not to want to stay involved and help in some way. ⁓ I'm I consider myself an altruistic capitalist. I believe that everyone has a right to go out there and earn a living and do work hard if they w choose to work hard and and make the kind of living that they want for their for them and their families. But I am also a strong believer in giving back in your into your community. I think when when our community is giving us and giving our us business. and keeping us alive and putting food on the table of of us and the and our people that work here, then we should reciprocate and we should give much back to the communities that that we serve. And sometimes it's money, but a lot of times ⁓ it's just time. So that's where I like to focus a lot of my energy, ⁓ if I have any left, is just giving back to the community. speaker-0: Wha what would you say ha ha has your definition of success changed since your Dallas fire department days as opposed to now? Yeah. speaker-1: ⁓ I think so. I think when I was younger, to me, probably like a lot of people, success was, you know, hey, how much money do you make? Or, you know, maybe owning a company and and being able to say that you have employees. Today, you know, I'm fifty three now and for me success has more to do with the impact that I can have and ⁓ you know, again, back to you know, in the communities that I serve in and to the people for the people ⁓ they work in our businesses. to me that's that's a better measurement of success. And it's certainly way more fulfilling ⁓ than than the earlier. speaker-0: No, absolutely. I'm gonna shift to personal slash funny questions real quick. Is it true first off, is it true you're a pilot? speaker-1: It is true, yes. speaker-0: Is it also true you're afraid of heights? speaker-1: I knew that was coming. I absolutely am afraid. Yeah. ⁓ which doesn't necessarily go well in the fire service, but yes. speaker-0: No, I I get it. Sometimes I get up on the tip of that dang ladder and it gets to shaking and I'm like, ⁓ I mean I'm I'm cool but it's like i I'd rather be down there. speaker-1: Telling you man. Yeah, yeah. I so you know, like I'll I'm not like you know terrified. Like, you know, I'll ⁓ I I don't mind getting on an elevator and going up into you know a hotel or a building or anything like that doesn't that doesn't bother me, but man, if you push me like close to the edge of something, like you know, a building or whatever, I'm like, Yeah, I don't have to stand here, I'll come back. speaker-0: That's ⁓ how long you been flying planes? speaker-1: So it's been a ho it's been a dream of mine for my entire life. ⁓ I was always the kid, you know, at the airport, you know, looking through the fence, going, man, someday I'd love to love to be able to learn how to fly. ⁓ I I started that in two thousand and nineteen. I went and got my private pilot's license and then ⁓ me and a couple of other guys bought a crappy old nineteen sixty five Cherokee ⁓ and flew that around. you know, and Yeah, just been flying ever since. I don't fly nearly as much, you know, like most hobbies, right? A lot of guys, you know, buy big expensive bass boats and but they don't get to, you know, fish nearly as much as they want. I'm kind of in the same situation. I don't I don't think to fly nearly as much as I would like to. It's it's hard to justify when you have people that work for you and and it's like it's I can't really justify going out and doing that when I've got things to do with the show. speaker-0: No, yeah, yeah. No, I I get it. I get it. What's some of your favorite T V shows other than The Bachelor? I I saw something about you really enjoying watching The Bachelor, is that true? speaker-1: ⁓ I don't know. I think you got me mixed up with somebody else. speaker-0: ⁓ Google might might must have lied to me then. I don't know. speaker-1: I've I mean I've seen an episode or two. I've seen an episode or two, I'm not gonna lie to you. speaker-0: Somebody somebody's trying to lie on online about you. Yeah. speaker-1: yeah, I've I've I've definitely seen an episode or two, but I'm I'm not you know, we ⁓ my wife and I these days there's not really a show anymore, you know, with with Netflix and streaming and all of that, you know, we're fortunate and the kids don't realize how fortunate we are, but we don't have to ⁓ you know, we don't have to just stick to one show. We can watch the next documentary that comes out. My wife and I spent a lot of time, it seems like lately just watching, you know, different documentaries about, you know, this serial killer or this crazy person or whatever and that's That's entertaining. I like I like real stuff. I like things that actually happen. ⁓ I like learning about speaker-0: I get that. What what's something that ⁓ the listeners would never guess about you? What's what's something interesting? speaker-1: What is something interesting that wouldn't know about me? I mean, you already talked about the scared of heights, but I mean maybe just look at maybe I look like I'm a guy that's scared of heights. Gosh, that's a tough one, man. What whether they'll know about me? you know, I'll tell you, a lot of people read a lot of books, which is great. I don't read a lot of books. In fact, I read very few books. That being said, I read a ton. ⁓ I'm constantly reading, but I don't read a lot of like books. I read ⁓ mostly periodicals and things that are like industry publications, I read a ton, but just not all books. speaker-0: That is interesting. I'm the opposite. I I read a lot of books, but I've never read a periodical. At least I speaker-1: I wish I wish I was. Yeah, I wish I could speaker-0: Yeah. Huh. I I've just got a a couple of closing questions before we end the episode. If if if Firehouse Shirt Club disappeared tomorrow, what would be the proudest thing that you accomplished? speaker-1: I hope that we represented the stations that we feature well. You know what I mean? Like I hope that we did them a good service. ⁓ because I know what these t-shirts and their artwork and the and the ⁓ the symbols around them mean to them, and I hope that we've done a good job of representing them proudly and well. speaker-0: No, absolutely. And ⁓ lastly, where does Firehouse Shirt Club like what do you want it to look like ten years from now? speaker-1: I don't care so much how big we get. I care more about how long we could stay relevant and continue to do what we do. I have no interest in having more employees or getting any bigger. I think I would like to see us in ten years continue to to still be running in the marathon and still be important in the fire service community. speaker-0: Luckily you're not like a blockbuster, you know. Everybody's always gonna need t shirts unless everybody decides to go nude the rest in the future. I don't know. So so at least people will always need t shirts and fire department t shirts of that, you know. Everybody will always need the fire department. So Yeah, exactly. ⁓ is there anything else you want to tell the people before we end the episode? speaker-1: You gotta keep that tradition alive. No, I just wanna say thank you once again for allowing me to ⁓ to be on and and share our story. ⁓ I appreciate and I respect tremendously what you've done in in the short amount of time. ⁓ you've done a great job and if there's anything that we as Firehouse Shirt Club can do to help you, let me know. And to any of those ⁓ fire departments out there and stations out there, if there's anything that we can do to help you guys let us know. We we try to give back whenever we can and And we like a lot of little smaller side projects. So if there's anything that we can do, ⁓ just hit us up. You know, the worst can happen is we say no, but but we try to help what we can. speaker-0: Thanks so much for coming on, Jim. Everybody listening, please go out, go check out Firehouse Shirt Club. They have an excellent ⁓ shirt ⁓ monthly shirt subscription. They also have a patch subscription if you're into patches. ⁓ here's here's the one this month right here. it's been a pleasure. Thank you. Y'all make sure to tune in every few weeks. I got a new guest. If y'all want to be on the show, make sure to send me an email and I'll see y'all on the next one.