Life & Safety with Jimmy Rios

From Day One to Year One! The Podcast That Should’ve Been a Group Text

• Life Safety Associates, Inc. • Episode 57

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When we hit “record” for the first time, we didn’t have a clue what we were doing. We were totally winging it. Honestly? This whole podcast started more like a group text—inside jokes, random stories, and way too much laughing at ourselves.

One year later—57 episodes (63 counting bonus episodes!), countless bloopers, a lot of late-night editing sessions, and more lessons than we ever expected—we’re still here. Still showing up. Still laughing. Still sharing our stories. Still forgetting to hit record sometimes (but hey, we’re human too).

In this special anniversary episode, Jimmy, Jenny, Megan, get together to celebrate everything this wild ride has taught us: the good, the hard, and the downright ridiculous. We’re pulling back the curtain to share:

  • The coolest things we’ve learned along the way
  • What turned out to be way harder than expected 
  • The behind-the-scenes chaos that somehow makes everything better
  • Plus a bonus round of “Would You Rather” with the extended Life Safety team

The truth is, most podcasts don’t make it past 10 episodes, and over half disappear before they hit their first birthday. Keeping this thing going for a full year has taken heart, grit, stubbornness, a lot of caffeine, and most importantly... you.

From the bottom of our hearts: thank you.

Thank you for being part of this adventure. Thank you for laughing with us, learning with us, and giving this little project a reason to keep going. We’re so glad to have you along for the ride!

Here’s to another year of growing, laughing, messing up, getting back up, and maybe—maybe—hitting record on the first try. 🧡

So buckle up, tune in, and join us for this very special anniversary episode!

Send us a text

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.

Jimmy:

Hey, what's happening.

Jimmy:

It's another life and safety podcast with your girl Megs, jimmy and today's special guest, jenny, the boss lady, and, of course, it's our one year anniversary. So, first and foremost, thank you, team, for listening to our podcast for a year. Without you, this doesn't work, and without us it doesn't work, I guess, really.

Jimmy:

But no thank you, team, from the bottom of our heart. All the downloads, all the passes and shares. And I want to shout out a couple of folks really I'm not going to call you out by name, just for reasons, but there's a spot out in Mountain View where I got a buddy who listens to every podcast. I found out yesterday or on Wednesday. That's amazing, and he told all his coworkers and he kept plugging it in our class. So, thank you very much, dude. I really, really appreciate that. Thank you, we love that. Thank you so much.

Jenny:

Yeah, thank you.

Jimmy:

We love that Thank you so much, yeah, so today we're going to have a little round robin with me and some of the gals from Life Safety, and then we're going to bring the rest of the crew in and we're going to play a game I think we're doing. Would you Rather right?

Jenny:

Yep. All right, so we'll see what happens when this goes, but we're saving that for the end.

Jimmy:

Yes.

Jenny:

That's, like you know, the bonus at the end.

Megan:

Right, so stick around. You managed to hang on for the whole episode, right.

Jenny:

If we don't bore you before then.

Jimmy:

We got a couple of questions here that we're just going to ask ourselves and you know so, a couple of prompts. We wrote a little script for this one a little bit, and the first one is kind of like what's? I'm going to ask Megan, and then I'm going to ask Jenny, and then they can ask me this question what's one surprising or cool thing that you've learned over the past year of podcasting and full disclosure? It's my voice for the most part on this thing, but Jenny and Megan drive this. If they're not here, this doesn't happen. So this is, I think, is really a question for them, and then I'll answer the question.

Jenny:

It's for all of us. As we were sitting here today doing this and recording, I was really noticing that, like it's the three of us we any one of us drops out and it just makes this so much harder. So it's not just, it's not just a Jimmy thing, or a Jimmy and Jenny thing, or or whatever it is Like we couldn't do this without you, megan, so I'm so glad you're here to do this with us. Thank you.

Jimmy:

We're glad you're part of the life safety family in general. Thank you, but you definitely help with the podcasting and stuff like that, but you're definitely appreciated.

Jenny:

I feel like I almost want to ask Megan that question first, because her involvement in this has grown so much from the beginning it wasn't really something that was totally on our radar. And um so, since you've been sucked in and now you're like fully invested with us in this, what's something surprising or cool or fun that that's happened over the past year, that you've learned or that you appreciate?

Megan:

um, I mean, I always, always enjoy like hearing this, like from the topic-wise, I always enjoy listening to Jimmy's stories and like little tidbits of information.

Megan:

I've definitely gathered a lot of just facts throughout this process. Okay, no, no, but in a good way. In a good way Like, I'm learning a lot, which I appreciate, but from like the you know more production side of things, I've learned a lot of like different tidbits and things about recording, especially when I go back and edit, I can listen and hear, learning all the different settings of it and being like finding ways that it works better, um, like which rooms are the best, like give us the best quality of sound, um, and other things that like have effects on how we record. And just, I feel like our quality of podcast has changed a lot from that first episode to where we are now and like seeing all the different things and learning like the different, um, oh, what's it called? But like the programs on the computer for like editing and the software that we use to upload and all of the different aspects of that has been fascinating I love that.

Jenny:

That makes me so happy. I love, and I agree, learning. All that stuff has been super interesting yeah.

Megan:

Even though I am of the technical generation, I am not a technical person Like technology scares me a little bit. So this has definitely been a push for me to learn and it's been good.

Jenny:

But you've been doing great. You've been super open to it. So, I very much appreciate that, because I don't have to do it all myself and you've taught me stuff too.

Jimmy:

Okay, so who's next?

Jimmy:

You.

Jenny:

Me next. Yes, okay, surprising and really cool for me is that, regardless of how many downloads it shows and you can't really see how many people are listening like overall, depending on how people play it like we can't see that and downloads are different from listens. So hearing from mostly jimmy or anybody else on our team, the instructors or chris or whoever that people have listened or download or that they listen regularly or whatever it is, it's just, it's really cool and it feels so good because we're there's actually people out there listening to us and um learning something from our conversations, and we're not just sitting here talking into a microphone for no reason at all.

Jenny:

So that is the coolest thing for me every time I hear that. So, whether it's me or one of our instructors, or Jimmy or Chris or Monica anybody, if you listen to our podcast, we love hearing that you listen, so don't hesitate to speak up.

Jimmy:

Good vibes, only no even if you have some, you know a critique. You know we can't learn and grow if we're not learning or hearing those things. So obviously that helps.

Jenny:

Um, just do it nicely right, please don't hurt our feelings, but we want to hear from you yeah, for sure, for sure okay, so your your turn so my, my turn as the host.

Jimmy:

What so? What's a fun fact or a favorite Something for me?

Jenny:

huh, Something that's been awesome, something that makes you feel good about the podcast.

Jimmy:

So definitely the positive feedback when people tell us that they listen to it and seeing the downloads, it's pretty cool, it's pretty crazy. I talk a lot so it's hard for me to kind of think about those stuff, because I just talk and I just talk and just so much stuff happens. So I just assume people just listen to me all the time or don't listen to me all the time. So when I see people do that, it's pretty wild. Um I it's amazing to me how much I enjoy doing this sometimes like sometimes this is like super fun. I kind of look forward to it because I know I'm going to laugh.

Jimmy:

Megan's going to say something, jenny's going to say something, or I'm going to say something and I'm going to catch Megan off guard and she's going to giggle until she turns red and can't breathe.

Megan:

That is true, that does happen.

Jimmy:

Basically almost has an asthma attack on me the tears.

Megan:

Don't forget the tears. I cry when I laugh.

Jimmy:

We get a lot of good tears too, and I guess I don't know how much Megan cuts out, but for the longest time we could never figure out when to start the podcast. That's true. So I think for the first gosh.

Jimmy:

At least six or seven months.

Jimmy:

Six or seven months at least.

Megan:

It was an unfortunately long amount of time before we figured it out.

Jimmy:

And then we started to like I don't know, I guess for me I started anticipating when she would start the button and I would look and I I go, did you do it? Yes, then we just giggle for five or ten minutes and have to cut it out, or sometimes we would.

Megan:

Yeah, that so that's a fun one that's solidly like the first 30 episodes that we had all started with you like giggling through the intro because we just couldn't get it right, at least at least so that's kind of a fun behind the scenes fun thing for me.

Jimmy:

Um I also found out that I don't like talking to myself. So the ones this podcast of just me, maybe they have good content, I don't know, um, but they're really hard, really hard, um, and those are the ones I probably script out the most, cause I know it's just going to be me. There's some talking points, but those ones are really hard, really hard. Um. Oh, and that was the second question on our script here, what ended up being way harder than you expected over this first year of making the podcast. So that for me so I'm just going to keep going, because that's what I do is I talk a lot.

Jenny:

Perfect, though you will just write into the next question.

Jimmy:

We're good to go. So being by myself doing a podcast was really really hard. So being by myself doing a podcast was really really hard. And sometimes doing a podcast in general it's hard because we have to come up with new ideas all the time and I have to be excited to talk about it.

Jimmy:

And I've noticed that there's some things I just don't like talking about anymore. Or I talk about them a lot in class or I just talk about them at home or whatever it is, and I just go. I don't want to talk about that, and megan and I will stare at each other for 30 minutes or so and like, are we gonna start or not start, and are we talking about this or that? And I know we've had to start and stop a couple times. I was like wait, I thought we were talking about this or that. And I know we've had to start and stop a couple times. I was like wait, I thought we were talking about this. Megan's like no, we were talking about that. I was like oh shoot, we got to all right. So that's been kind of hard. That's been kind of hard for me. I don't know. I'm going to open it up to you, to you gals, what do you think?

Jenny:

First. You want to go first, Megan?

Megan:

Go ahead, we'll go in first order.

Jenny:

Well, we were talking about this today, actually off the podcast. The hardest thing for me sometimes is getting it posted and all of the little details that go into actually getting the podcast up, so getting it ready to publish. Megan does a lot of that. But getting it in, getting the descriptions done, getting it posted, getting the social media notices up, all that kind of stuff, you think, oh, it's so easy and I'm just going to do it. And I still think that way sometimes and then I sit down to do it and it takes me a little longer than I planned. Or I end up doing it late at night because I'm behind, so that portion of it has been a little bit more difficult than I thought. Or I end up doing it late at night because I'm behind, so that portion of it has been a little bit more difficult than I thought it would be, but mostly just in the, the planning. So maybe I just need to get better at planning and getting it done.

Megan:

There's a lot of work that goes into the behind the scenes of a podcast that, like you, don't think about until you're doing it, you're like oh my god, there's another.

Jenny:

Right, and they're not necessarily hard steps once you know them. There's a lot of them.

Megan:

Yeah, there's just a lot of small steps and they just add together to be a lot.

Jenny:

Yeah, so cheers to us for doing this for a year, a whole year. I'm super impressed with us. Actually, cheers.

Jimmy:

We're actually cheersing our water cups. Well, my water, I have water. Oh, jenny has water. I have tea.

Jenny:

Flavored water yeah.

Megan:

Flavored hot water Right Right.

Jimmy:

Oh, I mean good All right.

Jenny:

So, Megan, how about you? What's been the?

Megan:

hard thing, probably the behind the scenes also, just like getting it done of. You know I don't like listening to myself talk.

Jimmy:

As much as I do talk, I don't like listening to it.

Megan:

So the editing process of like getting myself to sit down and be like all right, just get through it. Don't focus on your voice, Don't nitpick everything.

Jenny:

Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely Don't nitpick. Just, you know, make sure you're not doing anything completely egregious. Yeah, yeah, and put it out there and thank you all for listening again.

Jimmy:

Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. All right, let's get into the. Would you rather? What do you think?

Jenny:

Yeah, let's do the fun stuff.

Jimmy:

All right.

Megan:

I'm ready. All righty, let's start with you, jenny.

Jenny:

Me first.

Megan:

Would you rather have a siren go off every time you enter a room or have to narrate everything you do in a dramatic movie voice?

Jenny:

I think, if I like, I have to do the narration myself. Yes, I think that's way too many words. My little brain would just stop functioning. Yeah, I think that would be difficult. So I think I would go with the alarm and and I would probably just roll with it and like strike a pose every time, like I am here people, and then it would be quiet again, cause I appreciate my quiet. Yes, fair, fair, um, I appreciate my quiet. Yes.

Megan:

Fair, fair. Would you rather have an AED that randomly plays stand-up comedy clips or a trauma kit that sings pirate songs when opened?

Jenny:

Oh, stand-up comedy clips, that would be fantastic. Maybe not the appropriate time to laugh, but I think that would be way better.

Megan:

I like it. And then last one would you rather be the only person with first aid skills during a zombie apocalypse or during a citywide blackout?

Jenny:

Oh, I don't think I want anything to do with a zombie apocalypse and I have no problem being in the dark, so I yeah. It would be difficult and a huge pain in the ass, but there's only one of me, so I would do my best.

Megan:

I like it. Yeah, alrighty, let's bring in the rest of our team All right, well, wait a minute.

Jimmy:

I got a question.

Megan:

Okay.

Jimmy:

But you're. You don't like to run, but you're faster than zombies.

Jenny:

True.

Jimmy:

So you'd be okay. Right, but I'm the only one with like first aid skills yeah, but I still don't want anything to do with zombies, and it's not necessarily about like what's around All right Fair.

Jenny:

I don't want one of those little creepers sneaking up on me Like I like my sleep. I want to be able to sleep at night. I don't have to be on guard. I don't want anything to do with zombies. All right, fair enough. Fair enough, so it doesn't have anything to do with the skills, it's just the zombies.

Jimmy:

Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough, and Jenny knows this, but a lot of other people don't know this. I read a lot of zombie apocalypse books, so I'm like wait, what are we talking about right now? Because I'm all in for a zombie apocalypse.

Jenny:

It's a good thing you're on my team then because, right, right, I'll just hold down the fort and you can go out into the zombie land All right, jimmy is for sure my first call if I ever run into a zombie.

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Megan:

Oh my God, not even 911. It's Jimmy.

Jenny:

It's Jimmy, your phone's going to be ringing off the hook.

Jimmy:

Right. Hopefully there's cell service and there may not be if their power's out.

Jenny:

So you never know. You never know, no, I like it.

Jimmy:

Oh yeah, awesome, awesome all righty.

Megan:

Now we have the rest of our, our little motley motley crew. What's our?

Jimmy:

motley crew of life safety employees teammates all of the things. Yes, there's the red face and the cry tears with the giggles. That's our, you know podcast lore there.

Megan:

It wouldn't be an anniversary episode if I didn't have tears Right.

Jimmy:

Aw, so all right, we're going to start with Monica.

Monica:

Yeah, you.

Jimmy:

So would you rather?

Megan:

Would you rather have a siren go off every time you enter a room or narrate everything you do in a dramatic movie voice?

Monica:

Ooh, I'd rather have a siren go off.

Jenny:

I said the same thing.

Jimmy:

I want to be all dramatic yeah, but it'd be so like every room, though, like it's just, or like maybe I've heard too many sirens in my life and I just like I'm over it I guess it'd be fun to do.

Monica:

I mean, would it just be a different voice you know you would have to do your own movie voice.

Jimmy:

It's like now. Now that I've entered the room, what am I looking for? Do I need to pick up the light?

Monica:

I think my movie voice is appropriate. The siren would help us to know when Monica comes in the room so we can leave there. You go, see, but then I don't want to creep in and not let everybody know I'm here.

Jenny:

Now I think it's Chris's turn to answer the same question.

Jimmy:

Well, mr Garcia, I'd probably do the narration, just so it can match the voices in my head anyways.

Monica:

That's why you talk so much. That explains it.

Jimmy:

Oh my gosh, okay, next question.

Megan:

We'll start with Chris this time. Chris, would you rather have an AED that randomly plays stand-up comedy clips, or a trauma kit that sings pirate songs when opened and there goes the voices.

Jenny:

And there's silence, silence. Are the voices in your head talking to you?

Monica:

I'm trying to determine if they're comedy or pirates. Well, I wouldn't use the AED too much, but I use the trauma a lot more, so probably the pirate stuff.

Megan:

Okay, what about?

Monica:

you, Monica Yar Hmm.

Jenny:

Every time you open up an AED to check it at a client site.

Monica:

Well, it depends, because some clients it's just one it can deal with and some clients it would be like 30.

Jimmy:

No thanks, instead of comedy. You know, you just get like a good joke every time you open it. Actually, that, but then it would take me longer it takes her long enough to do the sites anyways how long is the joke going to be?

Monica:

what if it's a dad joke? What?

Jimmy:

if we put.

Jenny:

Jimmy's voice. I don't even enough to do the sites anyways. How long is the joke?

Monica:

going to be. It's a dad joke. That would be fun. I don't need to hear.

Jimmy:

Jimmy's voice every day. I'm okay with that.

Jenny:

No thanks, jimmy doesn't need to hear Jimmy's voice every day. Oh my gosh, that was awesome.

Megan:

Is there one more yes, starting back with you. Monica, would you rather be the only person with first aid skills during a zombie apocalypse or during a citywide blackout?

Monica:

The only person.

Jimmy:

With first aid skills.

Monica:

That's a good one. I don't know Zombies. They come fast even though they're supposed to be zombies. So I don't know. You never know. Every movie is different. Sometimes they're fast, sometimes they're slow.

Jenny:

I don't know zombies. They come fast, even though they're supposed to be zombies.

Monica:

So I don't know. You never know every movie is different. Sometimes they're fast sometimes they're slow, I don't know. They played the zombie games. They come fast, probably Blackout. Yes, yeah, blackout for sure, what about you? Chris, definitely the zombies probably less work because most people are dead they're already zombies right blackout. You can choose to pick and find who you want to find and it just means there's no light.

Jenny:

It doesn't mean that there's necessarily anything wrong with anybody maybe once everyone's happy in their house. There you go, waiting for the lights to come back on yeah, playing cards by candlelight are there zombies in the house?

Jimmy:

Because the lights are off and we don't know what's going on in other people's houses. We're staying inside.

Jenny:

Again blackout.

Monica:

There's no zombies. My first aid skills in the zombie thing would be pretty much double tap.

Jimmy:

Fact Rule number two Jimmy knows. So we already put this out there that I read way too many zombie apocalypse survival books and I've watched way too many zombie movies, so, oh my gosh, okay, thank you, chris. Thank you, monica, for playing along on our anniversary episode. Yeah, thank you both. All right, so now we're going to do Miguel's. Would you Rather?

Megan:

Well, this is for all three of us instructors, All right. So we got Miguel, Jimmy and you, All right. Would you rather do a full emergency drill in 100-degree heat or in freezing cold weather?

Jimmy:

Go ahead, miguel, you can answer first.

Jimmy:

I think, freezing cold weather. I prefer the cold over the heat any day.

Megan:

Yeah, I agree, I'm a cold weather girlie.

Jimmy:

Just to be contrarian, I'm going to say the heat we're also firefighters, so you're used to dealing with heat.

Megan:

no, the heat doesn't bother me. Yeah, not even a little bit.

Jimmy:

And I think so. You're used to dealing with heat. No, the heat doesn't bother me. Yeah, not even a little bit, and I think so. Actually I might change my answer because I'm going to say cold, because then I can tell the people we're doing the emergency drill with to put more warm clothes on.

Megan:

I can't tell them to take clothes off or to cool off, and I think there would be less complaining from over doing the drills with if there's, if it's, cold out yeah that's true so I'm going cold but if it's just me, I'd do the heat and I also feel like in the middle of a drill you're doing movements and like active, so that's going to help warm you up yeah so I'd I'd rather start off cold.

Jimmy:

All right, fair enough.

Megan:

Okay, starting off with Jimmy. Jimmy, would you rather only teach CPR using sock puppets or only teach using an interpretive dance?

Jimmy:

I can't even say it without laughing Interpretive dance or sock puppets doing CPR. Yeah, do I get to make the sock puppets?

Megan:

Yes, get to is not the term I thought you would use.

Jimmy:

I thought, you would be like, do I have to? No, I get to design them Anatomically correct, or yeah, is somebody teaching me the interpretive dance? Or do I get to interpret every time I do CPR?

Megan:

you are, it's all you it's all me every time.

Jimmy:

I'm just thinking about all the cool dances I can do at 100 beats a minute. I'll be jiggling all day. I'm in it's dance.

Jenny:

I'm dancing. That is not what I expected your answer to be. No, I did.

Monica:

Have you seen him? Dj? Just saying, I'm dancing.

Megan:

What about you, Miguel?

Jimmy:

Well, on further record sock puppets are creepy.

Jimmy:

Yeah, no, I'd go sock puppets. I don't know about the whole dancing and the whole jiggling part. Nah, not happening.

Jimmy:

It's because you're a creepy dude, keep going.

Megan:

And I think I have to go interpretive dance, considering I'm a dance major, right.

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Megan:

And then last one. I'll start it off. Would you rather teach a CPR class where every student interrupts with weird facts, or one where nobody says a single word? And having had taught both of those types of classes, I prefer the more talkative ones. Even if they're weird facts that have like no bearing on the class, at least they're talking. It really sucks, just like like talking to an empty room of just glazed over eyes staring at you. I don't like it. I'd rather have weird facts.

Jimmy:

And then I get weird facts, alright. Cool, cool. Alright, miguel, what do you think?

Jimmy:

I agree with that, I'd rather go with the weird facts. Sometimes those weird facts make sense, sometimes they don't. It just makes the class more interesting, gets people more involved and everyone's just all quiet.

Jimmy:

Yeah.

Monica:

Everyone's just staring at you.

Megan:

Okay, what about you?

Jimmy:

Well, I'm a Gemini, so I like both of those answers.

Jimmy:

So it depends on which mood I'm in that day.

Jimmy:

Which way the wind's blowing. That explains it. It is right. So if it's the people just staring, at me.

Jimmy:

I can usually make a joke, I can probably do something and break them out of that, and I kind of like that challenge, whereas that's a little bit easier versus people just talking over me. You know, like what's an interrupting cow say, moo, right, like that bugs me, and then I get grumpy and then it's hard for me to stay positive and keep the class positive right. So I, I like the challenge, I think, of people being quiet. Um, there are certain classes, though, like groups of classes of people that are my friends, so to speak, and if they want to do the interrupting cow thing, cool, I'm gonna let them talk. They pay me anyways. Um, but that's not what we do, right? So that's hard for me. Um, I don't, so I don't have a road to. Rather, on that one, I like both of those. I like one for the challenge, I like one for the, the camaraderie ship, if you will, and, to your point, I like to learn things too, you know, um, yeah, and it's easier for me to say let's get going versus shut up.

Jimmy:

You're talking too much right Cause it's let's get going versus shut up. You're talking too much Right Because there's no tackle way to do that. Yeah, right, so yeah that's my Gemini Both sides of the coin in that one, both sides of the sword. Yeah for sure, yeah. That was a good one I liked it, I liked it and just for the record, I would rather do use the AED. That tells me a stand-up comedy thing that's going to break the monotony of somebody doing CPR.

Monica:

Fair, fair.

Megan:

I like it, I agree with them.

Monica:

And I think but it might not have the cadence, though that's okay.

Jimmy:

That's okay and I think, probably being the only person in this room that's actually done CPR on a person, it's kind of nice to break that up, because there's lots of tension, I'm sure lots of tensions to have somebody come up and be like I don't know, insert joke. You know, here it'd probably be kind of nice, you know, kind of break the tension. You know it's like that tension yell thing. Somebody had to do it. It felt weird, right, all right, well, from the Life Safety family to you all. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast, thank you so much for just being a part of our journey and be safe, be well and we'll see you around peace thank you, everybody.

People on this episode

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Jimmy Rios

Host
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Jenny Rios

Co-host
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Megan Dake-Merklinghaus

Co-host