Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
Welcome to Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios! Get ready to dive into a world where safety meets storytelling! Drawing from his rich background as a former firefighter, EMT and safety expert, Jimmy brings you straight into the heart of safety and emergency preparedness. Episodes feature easy-to-understand tips, real-life stories, and interviews with experts, all designed to help you protect yourself, your business, and those you care about.
Whether it's advice on navigating everyday safety challenges or insights into the latest in health and safety trends, let this podcast educate and entertain you. Join Jimmy and level-up your safety knowledge with engaging discussions that could one day save a life.
Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios
How We Accidentally Became Business Owners
Some people plan to start a business; others stumble into it through a series of unexpected events. That’s exactly how Jimmy and Jenny found themselves becoming unexpected entrepreneurs. It all started when Jenny took a safety training class while working at a Silicon Valley startup, and unknowingly crossed paths with the company that would later change both Jenny and Jimmy's lives.
In this episode, they open up about the twists and turns that led them from employees to entrepreneurs. From rediscovering an old Life Safety training manual that resurfaced at just the right time, to making big life decisions outside a Denny's restaurant with their kids in tow. It’s a story of risk, resilience, and a whole lot of learning along the way. If you've ever wondered what it really takes to step into business ownership, or if fate has ever nudged you toward an unexpected opportunity, you won’t want to miss this one.
Life Safety Associates specializes in emergency response training for corporate ERT Teams. We help businesses create competent and confident first responders who are ready to handle unexpected emergencies. For more information you find us @lifesafetyassoc or email@lifesafety.com.
What's happening? It's your boy, jimmy, with another life and safety podcast, and again we got the boss lady with us. Jenny, whoop, whoop. And what are you doing? Again, I don't know? Whoop, whoop, whoop, police are coming. Whoop, whoop, put your dice away. What the heck was that?
Jenny:All I was supposed to say. I'm not very good at this yet.
Jimmy:You should say what's happening. It's your girl, jenny.
Jenny:Absolutely not. That's your thing. I don't have a thing. I don't have enough practice yet.
Jimmy:This is probably my last podcast doing that, so that's fine.
Jenny:Why are we changing it? Because I'm tired of people giving me the business about it. Fair, fair. I will look forward to see what's next. Or maybe you should try different things out on different ones we'll see what happens.
Jimmy:Stay tuned, team, stay tuned, all right. So today's life and safety podcast, we're going to talk about life safety. This is our origin story, so this is crazy.
Jenny:I think it's a good story.
Jimmy:It's, it's pretty wild, it's pretty wild. I don't think we tell the story very often either, do we?
Jenny:No, I don't think so.
Jimmy:No so this is the only place to hear it, folks, yeah yeah, yeah, unless you catch us in a good mood at home or something.
Jenny:And ask us the right questions on the right day.
Jimmy:Yeah.
Jenny:Maybe we'll write a book one day.
Jimmy:We'll see what happens. Maybe we'll write a book one day. We'll see what happens. I actually have somebody in my inbox right now asking to write a spam email, like somebody trying to sell something, and they've re-asked to write my book. Scammy-ass scammers, I know, but it's been like five times. They just keep kind of replying to the same email with a different name saying hey, have you seen my colleagues thing? We want to write your book. We we've heard like really good things about you, like somebody suggested you would be a good person and it's all very generic and very plain language and they actually know nothing about you.
Jimmy:Yeah, like nobody suggested. You've read a book about me. If somebody knows me, they're gonna going to be like heck, no Right, it's about somebody else, somebody interesting. That book's going to get banned real fast, yikes, yikes. So the origin story. I guess we'll start with you because, technically, jenny found or knew of life safety before she knew about me.
Jenny:Yes, I met life safety before I met you. That's wild. Yes, no, that's not technically true.
Jimmy:No.
Jenny:No, because technically we met at a bar. Yeah, and that was before. I think that was before I had that tongue. Maybe, Maybe it's questionable. I'd have to do some deep photo research to find out and calculate the exact year that we would have crossed paths yes.
Jenny:So why don't you tell the folks how you were introduced to life safety or what you did with life safety like so I was working at a startup in sunnyvale and we needed to be trained, um and so of course I volunteered because I wanted to be the one to go outside and meet the firefighters when they had to come in. So I was like, yes, sign me up. And of course it's always good to get CPR and first aid certified, and we also did hazmat stuff. So that was was actually really fun.
Jenny:I just liked being part of whatever I could be part of and learn new stuff. So life safety came out. I have no clue who the trainer was. Um, the fabulous team at my startup lots of them are still my friends, our friends to this day uh were in the class as well, and it was great. I got the life safety book. Do they still have that? I don't think they were the exact same books, but they could.
Jimmy:We have the same book.
Jenny:And somehow I stashed that away somewhere after the training, after the training, and it sat in my pile of papers and storage stuff for years until I had to go look it up because Jimmy and I got married and he was looking for a job and I was like, hey, train at this place that trained me, why don't you go teach this stuff?
Jimmy:it's not quite how that worked out, but pretty close, pretty close. So we'd moved into a condo together it was our first place after we were married and we were cleaning boxes out and I pulled out the training binder and I was flipping through it Like what is this? I know this stuff, I know this nomenclature, I know these words and these acronyms from when I fought fire and I was like huh, that's pretty interesting and I didn't know cause I didn't know Jenny had known that stuff. So it was kind of cool that we knew some of the same stuff, if you will. And uh, I was like yeah, but I put it away.
Jimmy:And then this was when I was working at that security job that I really disliked being at and I think we were throwing that binder away. And that's when Jenny was like hey, what have you taught? Like you're good at coaching, you're good at teaching, you've done some of this stuff. And I was like I don't know, I don't even know if we have that binder anymore. And that's when Jenny found the binder, dug it out and then I think save just a few more details.
Jimmy:A little more details A little more details.
Jenny:Jimmy's story versus Jenny's story. You tell way better stories than I do. Which is why you do the podcast, not me.
Jimmy:That's not always true. Jenny tells a good story.
Jenny:I take good pictures, you tell good stories.
Jimmy:Okay, okay. And she does take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures.
Jenny:There's so much blackmail on friends and former co-workers. It's wonderful.
Jimmy:Don't worry, I won't share them. Amazing. So I am pretty fed up with what I'm doing and I just don't like being a security guard. I just don't like not getting any respect. I just didn't like it. It was horrible. I needed to make some more money and we had our child on the way.
Jimmy:So we kind of talked about it and I just cold called them. Actually, I sent them an email and was like, hey, I'm looking for a job, this is who I am, this is my resume. And it took a couple days and they wrote back. Let's have a phone call. And I was like, holy crikey, this might actually happen. So I called them and then they were like, hey, why don't you come in for an interview? And I was like, okay, I just had knee surgery and remember I had just gotten off my crutches and I, no, I was actually still on my crutches when he did the interview. So I walked in, did my interview.
Jimmy:The original owners asked me some interesting questions and then I thought I answered them pretty well. And then the original one of the original owners looked at me and he said get the F out of my office. I don't have a life, but I'm going to go pretend like I have one, and then left and I was like, cool, I never had an interview like this. I don't know what to do. So we left.
Jimmy:And then I got a phone call I don't remember how. They reached back out and they were like, yeah, I think it was an email and they're like, yeah, I'll reach back out. They reach back out and they were like, yeah, we'd like to offer you a position. What are you available? And I said, well, I have to give two weeks. I was the office manager, basically Not even office manager. I shouldn't even say that. I answered the phone and did some data entry. I was fresh off my crutches. I came in and they didn't tell me I was going to do that. I came in, sat in the office we're sitting in right now and I'm about two feet from where I was sitting and one of the original owners goes, hey, hold on a sec. And he walks out to the receptionist and he goes hey, hey, I don't like you, I think you're a B, you're fired, and fired the temp employee.
Jenny:And I was like what the what the hell did I just walk into? What am I?
Jimmy:getting myself into. So they argue for about five minutes. She gets up, calls them names and leaves and he's like that's your desk, answer the phone calls. I get about 10 sales phone calls a day. I don't want those calls, okay. So I sit down and about two hours later the other owner walks in who really kept the place afloat. And he walks in and he goes what are you doing there? And they said I don't know, this is what so-and-so told me to be. And he was like it's too damn early in the morning for this shit, shit. So they go in and they just have a rock'em, sock'em argument about me sitting 20 feet away from them. And this is all stories I don't even think I've told Jenny or she may not even remember. I don't think I've actually told you this. It was nutso. So day goes on. I think I answered like three phone calls. I leave. The owner says you're gonna be back tomorrow and I said yeah, I gotta be back tomorrow. So I come back tomorrow.
Jimmy:The next day, and old school printer. I go to shake the printer because I have to shake the color things to make them work. The drums work because they're making sure they get all of the money out of them and I end up with ink on my pants and I'm like, hey, are you guys reimbursing me for my uniform? My pants, they're like F off. So the pants were stained and it was just. I stained my pants the next day and I'm still limping because I'm just off of my knee surgery. I stayed in my pants the next day and I'm still limping because I'm just off of my knee surgery and somebody breaks in to the back of Life Safety. Do you remember the story and the original owners? Instead of buying or paying for people's cell phone bills, they had cell phones that you could lock out. They can like check out. I don't think I knew out. They can like check out. I don't think I knew that. Yeah, so they had like three or four cell phones in the back with all these CD ROMs, the disc, just hanging out.
Jenny:But you had to like sign in and out the cell phone for your day.
Jimmy:So this guy walks into our back warehouse and starts stealing things. The original, one of the original owners was a sheriff. He comes back and he goes hey, there's somebody robbing us in the back, come with me. So I'm like okay, like I don't know what to do, so I go hobbling out after him. The owner goes running outside the back chasing the guy. He runs into this property. He goes come on, hurry up. And we run back out. We jump in his truck and we start driving around the neighborhood looking for this guy. I mean it's a full on Ponchunch and John situation and I'm Paunch but with one leg.
Jenny:Right, what kind are you going to be? Nothing.
Jimmy:Nothing. So you come back it's my fault Because I didn't lock the back door. I hadn't even been to the back door because I can't get off my desk, because I can't walk, because I'm literally two days off crutches. So that's my first two days at life safety. I'm not even teaching yet. So the third day maybe it was the fifth day, maybe it was the end of the week the third day maybe it was the fifth day, maybe it was the end of the week I'm there with the instructor that I ended up overtaking over for because he gets hired in-house someplace. He's the guy that actually did your training. I remember that His name was Dave. We're doing a fire extinguisher training on the side of our building and I'm like this is kind of like a thorough area. People are driving by here and we're using full fire extinguishers with diesel fuel in the thing. Short story, really long. I end up tackling the guy to the ground because he just walks into the flame, basically, and Dave goes, goes, tackle him. I tackled the guy and it ended up being like three pastors from a church and I tackled, like the head pastor, to the ground because he walked, almost walked, into the diesel flame no, it wasn't the instructor walking into the flame it it was one
Jenny:of the students just walking into the flame.
Jimmy:Because he couldn't get the pen out, because he was squeezing the fire extinguisher so hard he couldn't fight the fire.
Jenny:So he just kept walking into it, yeah.
Jimmy:So that's my first week at life safety. I'm still here, I'm not scared.
Jenny:Things have only improved from that first yes.
Jimmy:So it's kind of the call to change everything. You know. It really opened up and started opening up a lot of doors for me. It opened up I was making more money than I really ever made consistently, even fighting fire, and so fast forward. This is our 18th year, or my 18th year, right and we've owned the company eight years now, so 10 years. I'm in so weird. I'm in so weird. The owners come to me and another employee and they say hey, we're over it, we're retiring, do you want to buy the company? And I go, yeah, that's cool, but little do they know. I actually had another job offer to be the emergency response coordinator and head trainer at a company and Jenny and I were talking about it. I guess we both knew at that point right about the jobs.
Jenny:Yeah, we knew about all the jobs and you had already been interested and talked to me about wanting to own life safety and by life safety when the owners decided they were done. So I don't want to say we had serious conversations about it, but it happened. It was in the ether.
Jimmy:Yeah, we definitely spoke about it. And then I remember kind of a series of events. I mean I remember I interviewed with their job. They offered me a counter, offered and they said yeah. And I want to say it was within the same week One of the original owners had a heart attack, crashed his car, almost died on the side of the road.
Jenny:I think we were already in negotiations too. So then us we? Neither one of us had been business owners before. We have no idea what we were doing.
Jimmy:Right.
Jenny:Let's just be honest here. Sure Right. So we were speaking with a broker and figuring out what it was going to take to make it possible to make it happen. So we were in conversations on both sides with, ultimately, you having to make that big decision for us, because I wasn't the one with another job offer. I wasn't the one with another job offer and you were the one who had to make that choice because I'm not a trainer.
Jenny:I will not be teaching your life safety classes, just in case anybody wonders. You're welcome to visit me at the office anytime you like.
Jimmy:And Jenny likes to visit sites occasionally.
Jenny:Yes, I love meeting all of our clients, but I don't get an opportunity to go out too often, so if you invite me, I will come.
Jimmy:Now it's kind of interesting to hear Jenny say that about me making the decision, because I guess it was ultimately my decision that changed our lives, right? So a little funny backstory about that. So Jenny and I have talked to a business broker about this. We've looked at the financials. We're really kicking things around. I have this job offer. We go to. We go camping right. We're at King's right National Park or King's Canyon. We go to King's Canyon, that's right. We were at Kings Canyon, have a great weekend. And that's actually when the car accident happened, because, remember, we drove out of the forest and my cell phone exploded because I had no service and it was text messages and phone calls and all of these things, and we went to eat at Denny's yes.
Jimmy:On the way home and you were on the phone, 90 all of these things and we went to eat at Denny's. Yes, on the way home.
Jenny:And you were on the phone 90% of the time.
Jimmy:Yes.
Jenny:And just oh my gosh, what is happening right now? Yes, that was crazy.
Jimmy:Yes, so all these phone calls started happening and I started returning phone calls and all these things started happening and the kids were starving and I think we were all starving and I'm like we need to have this. Let's just pull over and eat and we'll have a conversation. And we had a life-changing conversation at Denny's. The Denny's parking lot, the Denny's parking lot in Denny's in Fresno, I think it was, or something crazy like that. Who knows? And then Denny's in Fresno, I think it was, or something crazy like that. Who knows, out in the valley someplace with our littles running around dirty from being in a campsite for four days or whatever it was.
Jenny:Yep, and it really came down to being, for me it really was. Could I live with myself if I didn't take this chance?
Jimmy:yeah, I think I remember you saying that too. Yeah, and jenny being the crazy ride or die that she is just having my back through. Whatever was like I got you. If you want to do it, we'll do it yeah you're writing down.
Jenny:The deal is like okay, we're gonna do it.
Jimmy:It's like we're jumping off a cliff 100 both feet, let's go yeah, and we dove in not feet first, we dove in head first.
Jenny:So here we are in the middle of nowhere, deciding to buy a business. So then we go through the rest of the process, which is scary and uncomfortable because we've never done it before and we don't know what we're doing and we don't know what comes next. But we wing it all the way through. We'll leave out the boring business parts of it. We wing it all the way through. We'll leave out the boring business parts of it, and in January of 2017, we became business owners.
Jimmy:Yeah, it was pretty wild talking to the business broker and the lawyers and the bank people and all the stuff and all the phone calls and it was wild. It was really wild. I remember I had to stop a class basically, take an early lunch kind of a thing in a class so I can go talk to the lawyers or not to the lawyers, but to the broker, somebody important.
Jenny:Yeah, we had so many people that helped us, not just the lawyers and brokers and friends, former coworkers, friends, former coworkers just people that supported us and encouraged us and helped us make this huge decision and continue to help us as we have to make more decisions, because being entrepreneurs and owning our own business is not easy, but it is worthwhile.
Jimmy:It's been a good time. It's been a fun eight years Definitely worth it. Lots of surprises, Things I didn't know I needed to know, Some hardships that I didn't know I needed to know and learn about and deal with. I didn't know it was going to be so hard to have employees and not treat them as friends all the time. You know you definitely had to draw a line you know, sometimes with me, because I'm such a jolly guy all the time, so to speak.
Jenny:Maybe, if y'all are lucky, we'll do a uh another episode about being business owners and some of the challenges that we've faced, Cause that could be a juicy one.
Jimmy:We'll see. We'll see All right team. That's our origin story. Thanks for joining us. This was a long one. Um, we're well over our 20 minute time limit. Thanks for joining us. This was a long one. We're well over our 20 minute time limit.
Jenny:So thanks for joining us. Do you want to add anything else? No, we just appreciate y'all listening and all of our clients and our team, and we're just so lucky to be where we are today after all of these hard decisions and adventures and challenges, and thank you all for supporting us.
Jimmy:Thank you, folks, be safe Peace.
