Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:51
FIRE!!! 🔥 things to know about it - Lieutenant & Podcaster John Kelley
And I want you to drop us right into when you decided to become a firefighter and what that decision meant for you and those who love you. And then we're going to expand from there to all the other things that you love to do around marketing and helping business owners. And then we're going to bring on as many people as possible here on Square to invigorate the conversation and really take advantage of you being here
John Kelley
@johnthemarketer · 4:58
So I got the opportunity to help her with some of those bills. And then when hurricane Rita hit, I was working for the city of Waller part time as just a 17 year old helper, basically rolling around town, picking up heavy trash and whatever tasks that they needed assistance with at the city that I was able to do
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:05
I mean, I think you went with your nose and what was making you happy, but it sounds like you really know the whole ecosystem so that as a leader, you've been in so many positions, you could have a lot of understanding about where people are. And you probably are great at giving advice to people who want to understand what's in front of them if they want to go down this road
John Kelley
@johnthemarketer · 3:56
And they said, Why do I need to change the battery out? It's a hard wired system. So these newer homes all have hardwired systems but those hardwired systems are only as good for as long as the power is on in the home. So it needs a backup battery for when power goes out. And it's mainly used for communication purposes so that if there's a fire in my bedroom and that smoke detector starts going off all the other smoke detectors in the home will start to alarm
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 2:01
I live alone, so I need to really do this because I guess for another reason, maybe a neighbor will hear me burning up or something. I shouldn't joke about this. So let's talk about the other kind of fire, the fire that happens over in the hills, the fire that happens in big open spaces. And I guess I want to get a little bit into the mechanics of the fire fighting industry just so we understand that aspect of it from your perspective
John Kelley
@johnthemarketer · 3:32
So states basically have their own individual funding systems, and then FEMA and the federal government have their funding systems to help prepare for and respond to them. It does include travel for firefighters to other neighboring states in order to help with the calls that are happening because of those fires
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:10
And then I also want to talk about your other focus on beef marketing. But maybe we'll do that in a separate swell that you begin, because it's interesting and the shift in that, like, some days you're fighting fires, some days you're fighting branding challenges. So I'm really interested in that dual life