WEBVTT - EYL #46 Mama I Made It 0:00:00.400 --> 0:00:04.280 You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:09.520 How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy? Just use Indeed. 0:00:09.960 --> 0:00:12.680 Stop struggling to get your job posts seen on other 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.439 job sites. With Indeed sponsored jobs, your post jumps to 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.000 the top of the page for your relevant candidates, so 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.119 you can reach the people you want faster. According to 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:26.120 Indeed data, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed have forty 0:00:26.120 --> 0:00:30.040 five percent more applications than non sponsored jobs. Don't wait 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.519 any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed, 0:00:33.960 --> 0:00:36.200 and listeners of this show will get a seventy five 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.440 dollars sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:45.320 at indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen. Just go 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:50.160 to Indeed dot com slash pod Katz thirteen right now 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:53.040 and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:57.400 on this podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is 0:00:57.440 --> 0:00:58.040 all you need. 0:00:59.520 --> 0:01:03.600 All right, guys, Welcome back, e y L. Hometown Heroes Edition, 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:06.840 Shot Town, Shot Town. What's going on? 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:07.679 So? 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.280 Yeah, so you know, the first Hometown Heros that we 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.360 did was in Houston. 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:13.800 Houston. 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:16.479 Shout out to Agetown, Shout out Totown, Shouts to Mike 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:18.160 Brown and shout out to Chris Senegaud, those of our 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:21.039 first hometown hero. So if you if you know Alesia, 0:01:21.160 --> 0:01:23.400 we're traveling around all our major markets and we were 0:01:23.400 --> 0:01:25.760 touching it to people and when we when we touched 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.160 the town, we try to do a couple of interviews 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.880 with people that are doing big things in the community. 0:01:31.920 --> 0:01:34.959 Man, he had a big campaign and uh shout everybody 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:36.760 that supported his Win Win foundation. 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.040 Man, that was dope. Yeah, for sure, that's a fact. 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.759 So so all right, we're in Chicago and we had 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:44.800 to tap in with the good brothers of Downing Brothers 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:49.120 South south Side right south to the world blow up 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:53.320 for sure. So Anthony and Anton say that correctly, right, 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.520 that's right. Okay, so just left out of h and 0:01:55.560 --> 0:02:03.360 a y here we go, first and foremost, thank you guys. Man, 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:04.720 We appreciate the man. 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:05.040 Yeah. 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:05.560 Absolutely. 0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:09.880 We listen to the podcast I Dream one day that 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:11.520 Dreams come from. 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:16.359 Yeah. 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:20.000 Yeah. So we're in Chicago. We were on the South Side, 0:02:20.000 --> 0:02:22.760 were in seventy nine, seventy ninth Street right right the 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.760 elevendary seventy nice shout the chance to raff up, he said, 0:02:25.880 --> 0:02:28.840 setay nice setting nine. So yeah, we're out here. We 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:32.560 out here, So all right, these guys are legends in 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:37.160 the community. So they're firefighters by trade, and they are 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.720 celebrities because now they are on HG TV. They have 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:44.040 their own showing HG TV, and their real estate investors. 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:46.440 They're very interesting than guys, and so we're gonna talk 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:48.360 about a lot of different things with them. But before 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.360 we start, well, the first segment I want to talk 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:51.840 about is that a lot of times we talk about 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.000 entrepreneurship and business business. A lot of times what stops 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.519 people from being an entrepreneur being business owner is that 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.799 they you know, it's kind of risky to just jump 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:03.639 out there and you know, you have a nine to 0:03:03.720 --> 0:03:06.600 five job or a regular job. The thing that one 0:03:06.639 --> 0:03:08.079 of the things I like about you guys, is that 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.080 you do both right. So you're firefighters and you're still firefighters, right, 0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:14.280 and then you're on TV and your real estate investors. 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.040 So we haven't covered this is a very interesting job 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:18.720 because I'm a financial advisor and I work with some 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:21.560 firefighters in New York. And firefighters have it good. They 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:29.880 make they make they make good money. They have strong unions, 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:30.760 especially in New York. 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:32.880 We have a very strong. 0:03:33.840 --> 0:03:36.400 They get a pension and they only work like two 0:03:36.480 --> 0:03:37.840 days a week. I know, it is like you. They 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:40.080 work like twenty four hour shifts, like two twenty four 0:03:40.120 --> 0:03:42.360 hour shifts. So what happens is now you have like 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:45.120 five days where you're not working, which leaves a lot 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:47.480 of time where you can do other things. Right, So 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:49.840 is that how it is in Chicago? Yeah, that is 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:50.800 a great synopsis. 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.360 It definitely is a work to our advantage to have 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.480 that time all because I mean, yeah, essentially you worked 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.960 eight eight to nine twenty four hour shifts a month, 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:02.640 so we had like twenty two days off and the 0:04:02.720 --> 0:04:04.360 question is what are you gonna do with that in 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:06.480 those twenty two days that you are free to do 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:07.040 what you want? 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.120 And then eventually real estate enters the picture for us. 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:12.480 So all right, so come about the fire department because 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.240 it's something that we especially in our community, it is 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:20.280 not enough black firefighters, right, So what a what got 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:23.000 you guys into the fire department? And like, what are 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:24.920 the steps that people can take? Because I think even 0:04:24.960 --> 0:04:26.120 stuff like that is there. 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:33.480 He goes, We're not going anybody to leave? 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:37.680 Yeah, what what? Like what got you to the fire fighting? 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:39.200 With some of the steps that somebody can take to 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.400 become a firefighter, because, like I said, it is a 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:43.000 good professional, an honorable profession as well. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.040 Yeah, I mean so the origin story for the fire department, 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:49.080 part of our story is back in two thousand and six. 0:04:50.120 --> 0:04:53.320 I was fresh fresh out of college. I was actually 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.560 I was an educator. I started off in education and 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.120 I was coming driving home and. 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.400 I still live at home. My mom, no shame in that, 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:02.000 you know what I'm saying. 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:03.520 I was out of college and had my first job, 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.560 and I was saving up money, and she said, hey, 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:08.440 can you get a gallon of milk on the way home? 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.200 So I stopped and I was at a red light 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:12.760 and I saw this big CTA bus with a sign 0:05:12.800 --> 0:05:15.080 on the side of it said answer the call It's 0:05:15.120 --> 0:05:16.960 like and it had like the website and had a 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:20.440 firefighter on it. And you know, in education, at least 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:22.320 especially during that period of time and even right now, 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:25.120 you know, they do these like big layoffs, and you know, 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:27.480 I'm like, man, if I get if I lose my job, 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:29.080 because you know, the youngest people on the job are 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:30.480 the ones to go first, you know. 0:05:31.000 --> 0:05:32.800 And I was like, well, I need a plan B 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:33.440 or something. 0:05:33.720 --> 0:05:34.480 And when I saw that. 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.680 I was like, oh, that's interesting. Never thought about becoming 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.520 a firefighter, but maybe I'll check it out. I'll look 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:42.480 at the website. I go into the parking lot of 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.000 the Jewels grocery store. I walk in and right on 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.320 the on the door, the automatic door was the same sign. 0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:49.720 It was an eight by eleven on the door. 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:53.640 I took the answered the call. 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:55.560 So it was it was kind of like it was 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.720 kind of biblical almost so so I was like, let 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:01.520 me get this out of the milk, curR, be get home. 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.600 I got home, I looked it up. I looked it 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.400 up and I saw, you know, I saw the union contract. 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.800 I saw the pay I saw to my you know, 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.640 I'm you know, it looked like an adventure because I'm 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:16.760 you know, I'm physically gifted. So I was just like, 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.840 you know, it'll be, you know, something fun. But also, 0:06:19.960 --> 0:06:22.120 you know, I can pay the bills. And and on 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:23.560 top of that, we talked about this. They got a 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.240 strong union. You know, you never see you know, firefighters 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.400 getting laid off or or whatever. So and I asked 0:06:29.440 --> 0:06:32.680 my mom, I said, Mom, let me just sign up 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.760 all all my brothers, like, give me the. 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:35.679 Social Security numbers. 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:38.279 You know, I ain't even ask none of us. 0:06:38.279 --> 0:06:40.920 I don't know about y'all. With most moms, he usually 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.520 has everybody everybody. So mom, my mom came up with 0:06:45.600 --> 0:06:47.800 this little ten thing that had all our information in it, 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.599 and I signed up all my brothers to take horry brothers. 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:53.360 You got so's it's five down the brothers. I mean, 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:54.839 all right, you guys are twins. 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:56.680 Yeah, we have an older brother and we have two 0:06:56.720 --> 0:06:58.719 younger brothers, Yeah, Tony and and. 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:03.600 No. So I was the only one that was too 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.000 young to take the exam. So I signed everybody up 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:09.520 to take the exam. Unfortunately, my twin brother and his 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:13.240 wisdom look not show up to take this. Look look look, 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:17.080 our dad was CPD. It was Chicago Police officers. So 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:20.520 I was thinking, like, man, that's what we know. I'm 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:23.559 gonna take police exams or I'm not gonna take no exam. 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:25.920 I was. I was up here waiving my degree, like 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.800 I'm gonna use this degree. What was the degree in history? 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:34.280 So you know it did not work that way. 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.080 I ended up working for the Illinois Lottery doing experienceial 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.760 marketing for thirty two thousand dollars with no. 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:42.560 Health insurance degree. Man. 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.240 Needless to say, he should have took my advice and 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:47.640 sat down next to me. Exam. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.640 I took the exam, and I walked into McCormick place. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:54.720 It was twenty something thousand people there that takes his exam. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:07:58.880 How many people they're hiring they ended up hiring I 0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:01.920 would say about a thousd and people off of that 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:03.320 particular list, you know. 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.640 And this is back in two thousand and six, and 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:07.280 I had to sit on the list for two years. 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.200 But I was number five fifty four out of like 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:11.600 seventeen thousand plus that actually passed the exam. 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:13.720 So I mean it was it was just a blessing, 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.400 like I didn't I just didn't realize and I didn't 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:17.920 know that I was that I hit. 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:19.720 A lot of who sat next to you at the exam? 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.240 Well, I actually to my right there was an empty 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:24.800 seat with his name on it. 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.560 Alphabetical orner. So next to my left he was actually there. 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:32.000 Oh y'all, y'all allys sitting next year. 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:35.920 We didn't show up all my brother's names on the table. 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:36.000 You know. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:44.599 Look, thanks, So out of the four of us to 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.360 signed up actually took the example, and I actually, you know, 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.679 got got the score. So two years later, I got 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:52.800 the letter saying if I was interested, right on the 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:54.560 day of the bub Billican Parade, which is a big 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:56.760 deal in Chicago. The bub Bublican Parade is the second 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:00.400 largest parade in the country, and it's actually the largest 0:09:00.400 --> 0:09:03.520 African American parade in the country. So I was actually 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.040 doing a little sidehustle driving and there, and when I 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:07.719 went out to the mailbox, I saw the letters saying 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:09.000 that I got that I. 0:09:09.000 --> 0:09:09.520 Got the job. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:10.360 Well, I was sick. 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:13.280 I was sick when he got that letter. I was like, 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.319 I can't believe I didn't take that test. Man, And 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.280 my social Security number is like almost exactly the same 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.520 as his, so I would have been in the same 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:23.320 class with him. 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:25.959 So then I was like, Okay, it's time for me 0:09:26.000 --> 0:09:26.920 to start taking exams. 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.559 But that you're talking about the written exam, right, But 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:33.880 people kind of overlook the physical exam because I know 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:35.959 we have a lot of we have some friends in 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:39.559 our town of Greenberg that have been volunteer firefighters for 0:09:39.760 --> 0:09:42.199 years and they just can't pass the physical How the 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:42.800 man is that. 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:46.760 The example, It actually has changed in the last ten 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.559 years because now they've gone to a national called the 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:51.200 Seapad where everybody take me, but. 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:51.840 It was a different thing. 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:59.760 Candidate Canadate Physical Ability Test, right, and it actually is rigorous, 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.040 like because I mean, you have you have to walk 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.360 with a weighted vest, like a seventy fifty pounds seventy 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:10.400 pounds weighed vest on a what am I thinking of 0:10:10.600 --> 0:10:10.800 right now? 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:11.200 Track? 0:10:11.480 --> 0:10:13.679 No, not on a track on them on a traadmill. 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:16.439 And that's actually the hardest part because after you get 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:18.040 done with that, with that no, no, no, it's the 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.360 stair master, I mean the stair master, right, yeah, After 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:22.959 you get done with that stair master with the weight 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:25.680 in vest, you're so tired that even though the rest 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:28.320 of the course is relatively simple as far as you've 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.680 been able to raise a ladder and use a pipe 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:32.840 pole and then crawl through a tunnel, all through a tunnel, 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:35.400 all of that stuff is super hard after you've had 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:36.119 that weighted. 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:37.800 Vest on and you've been on that on that for 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:39.880 three straight minutes three minutes, right, yeah. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.360 So, but so you I mean, every like everything else 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:44.480 in life, though you go on YouTube is there so 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:47.400 you can train for what you need to do. When 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.280 it came to the written exam, they actually give you 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:52.000 the source material so you can actually study for that. 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:53.760 So what's on what's on the written what's on like 0:10:53.800 --> 0:10:55.800 the written exam? Is it like science and stuff? 0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.040 Well, that exam is not hard man. 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:00.319 Well look we're talking about your igo. 0:11:00.800 --> 0:11:06.880 But each Chicago's exam is literally uh you know, uh, 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.120 you read it and you answer the multiple choice questions 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.280 you can if you can read, have a chance. 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.320 You have a chance that. 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:23.520 People that can barely graduate high school can definitely pass 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:25.400 that exam if you can read a COMPREHENDI. 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.400 But that's not But that's not if you go into 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:28.960 the suburbs. 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:33.480 If you go into the suburbs or you go to 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:38.120 you know, other municipalities, they do have math questions on there, 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:40.079 they have friction loss and things. And I feel that 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.040 like the exams are a lot harder because that's what 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:44.280 they ended up doing is taking the Dalton fire exam, 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:48.360 and Dalton physically brought the Chicago to the South. So 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:53.880 you know, that exam was way like crump centrifugal pump. 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.880 What they happened. It was nothing like this one on 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.679 the Chicago exam into Anthony. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.040 But but the blessing about it is when the list 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.439 came out unlike Anthony being five thirty, I wasn't five 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:09.120 thirty seven. 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:10.800 Then you won't keep. 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:11.200 Hitting my head. 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:15.320 I wasn't five thirty seven like this guy right here. 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:18.640 And I wasn't one thirty eight. I wasn't fifty either. 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:22.719 I was numbers four, four out of ten thousand, and 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:25.720 they were no, No, it was only like three hundred 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:26.320 and fifty people. 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:27.880 There's like a suburban exam. 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.839 But then they were only hiring six and I was 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:33.600 number four, And I was like, okay, God, you wanted 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:34.480 me to answer the call? 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:38.679 Do you need six months later? Do you need a 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:39.840 college degree to be a firefighter? 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.000 No, you need a high school di plumber or a ged. 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:45.280 So how much money can you make? Because in New 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.120 York I think you make like one hundred over one 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:49.920 hundred thousand dollars, like one hundred I. 0:12:49.960 --> 0:12:52.719 Think, But a lot of money comes from overtime. Correct, Yeah? 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:53.240 How's that? Yeah? 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:54.760 How much money can you expect to making it? 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:55.360 Well? 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:56.080 For Chicago? 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.400 Your starting salary today twenty nineteen as a candidate first 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:05.120 day in the academy is fifty six thousand. Okay, so 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:07.240 you start at fifty six thousand, you get a pay 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:08.559 bump at twelve months. 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:09.840 Of ten thousand dollars. 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.000 Wow, so now you had sixty six after you made 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:15.440 your probation, which is one year, you know what I'm saying, 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:17.880 and then you get steps every year from that point. 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:20.400 Well yeah, yeah, every year from that point. So basically 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:24.319 I've gotten raised every year for ten years. So yeah, 0:13:24.600 --> 0:13:27.559 you hit the lottery. The thing is, though, as much 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.559 as we were talking about money right now, and it's 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:33.920 all about the downside, you actually do risk your life, 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:38.880 so there's no guarantee of coming home. It's no guarantee 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.760 of coming home. My firehouse is literally just right down 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:44.520 the block. It's ten blocks down right here on Sunday 0:13:44.559 --> 0:13:48.559 ninth Street. And two men that I have worked with 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:52.080 died in the line of duty and I carried their cast. 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:52.800 God bless God. 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.400 So I do want to say that, you know, it's 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:01.680 a great job, great money, enjoying ourselves, we laugh, have fun, 0:14:02.920 --> 0:14:04.599 great food at the firehouse, all this, and that I 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.080 had a similar experience because one of my actual classmates 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.360 passed June tenth or twenty seventeen line of duty. So 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:17.040 it is jarring sometimes in sobering as dope as the 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:19.120 salary is or the people that patch you on the 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:20.800 back when you at the grocery store and all that 0:14:20.920 --> 0:14:23.760 type of stuff. But at the same time, we have 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:26.120 to deal with that reality every time we go to 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:27.920 work we might not come home. 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:30.440 Yeah, you said, in Chicago, y'all are like first responders 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:32.680 right to any type of any type of that happens. 0:14:32.720 --> 0:14:35.040 We're the first ones there. Somebody gets shot, a fire 0:14:35.040 --> 0:14:37.160 truck or fine is pulling up, you know, just a 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:37.720 car accident. 0:14:37.800 --> 0:14:38.480 We're pulling up. 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.680 Anything that happens in the city. Because we're medically trained. 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.720 We're the first ones for everything. It's a hazmat incident, 0:14:47.840 --> 0:14:50.720 somebody spills oil all over the expressway, we're there. So, 0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:53.360 I mean, they call us the fire department, but we're 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.880 really an all hazards department. All hazard Yeah, so we 0:14:56.960 --> 0:14:57.400 do everything. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.120 So all right, So okay, so you guys are real 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:03.040 estate investors, right, So what as I said, what thing 0:15:03.120 --> 0:15:05.600 with the firefighter is that you you work only two days. 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:07.320 You know, you only work two days a week, so 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:09.720 it leaves a couple like five days where you're not working, 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.080 which leads a lot of time to be creative and 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:14.200 do different things. Right, So what made you was that 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.520 one of the things that encouraged you to become real 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:19.760 estate investors being that you had free time on your hands, 0:15:19.800 --> 0:15:20.680 or like what got you into that? 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:21.040 Man? 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:22.520 Nah, it was a challenge for my mom. 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:26.560 I remember I got my first paycheck and I came home, 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:29.080 came home happy, and I think about this, this is 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:32.000 that first paycheck. It was eight hundred and fifty four dollars. 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:36.720 I thought I was a bawler because, like, you know, 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.320 a month ago, I was college. I was at the 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:41.680 Universal Illinois getting one hundred and fifty dollars every two 0:15:41.680 --> 0:15:43.600 weeks from my little student student job. So I got 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:45.640 this first paycheck and I think my mother felt that 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:49.200 energy and was like, nah, nah, no, no, you need 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:51.760 to pull that back. And she said that, she said, 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.080 sit at the table, don't move from that spot. I'm like, 0:15:56.360 --> 0:16:00.640 he got his first paycheck. Momentous case. She was like, 0:16:01.040 --> 0:16:02.880 She's like, well, do you have a four on one 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.240 K I was like, well, we can't start at four 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.720 on one k until because actually I was at I 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:08.640 was working at a job Corps. 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:10.560 I was a career council at job Corps. That was 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:12.520 the first job, the job court. 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:15.120 I was there for ten months before I started with 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:17.600 the public schools, but you know, you have to be 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.120 there for twelve months to get to start a four 0:16:19.120 --> 0:16:20.480 on one k And she was like, well, I want 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:23.920 you to start, you know, an investment. 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:25.880 So she was like, you know, I want you to 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.680 start with met Life. 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:29.760 I want you to take one hundred dollars a paycheck 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:31.720 and put it into this retirement account. 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:33.640 And I'm like, one hundred dollars the only mane eight 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:34.480 hundred and fifty four. 0:16:35.160 --> 0:16:38.600 And she was like, no, one hundred dollars has created this, 0:16:39.040 --> 0:16:41.360 and she pulled she pulled out all of it. She 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:43.440 was really transparent, first time in my life. You know, 0:16:43.480 --> 0:16:46.400 I'm twenty two. She put all of her papers for 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:49.080 each one of her retirement accounts out. One of them 0:16:49.200 --> 0:16:52.320 had one hundred and hundred and sixty thousand, and another 0:16:52.360 --> 0:16:54.120 one had like fifty grand, and another one had like 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:54.840 twenty five grand. 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:57.960 So she had she had four different accounts, and she 0:16:58.040 --> 0:16:58.440 showed me. 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.360 The statements and the balances, and she said, one hundred 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:03.760 dollars a month from every job I've had since I 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.240 moved to the United States has gone into it. And 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.200 no matter what job, when I transferred the job, I 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.280 continue paying one hundred dollars into that one, and now 0:17:10.320 --> 0:17:12.000 I had one hundred dollars into this one and this 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:13.720 one and this one. So like, you know, four hundred 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.880 dollars a check over the course of your entire life 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.000 since you've been here, has gotten me to this point. 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:21.320 So what I'm asking you to do is only what 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:24.560 I've already done. I was like, okay, Mom, I'll do it. 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:25.440 She gave it a number. 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.919 I called it set up my first, you know, retirement account. 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:33.239 But then in that same conversation, she said, hear them 0:17:33.280 --> 0:17:36.560 here come you not a real man, ooh, until you 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:37.840 own the floors you walk on. 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:39.200 I said. 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:44.680 To say that, I'm like, I'm not a real man. 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.480 Bill got one either, Bro, I'm telling you. 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:51.440 I felt some type of way, bro. And then from 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:53.359 that point on, I said so much, I'm gonna show you. 0:17:53.720 --> 0:17:55.040