Open The Gate
Breaking down Sacramento Real Estate: Our Favorite People, Places and Mindsets
Open The Gate
Ep. 27- Keith Wade- Firefighting, Social Media, the balance of Life and so much more!!!
Kaelee is on the cusp of motherhood, navigating the roller coaster of pregnancy emotions while embracing newfound confidence at work. Meanwhile, Dan's reflections on his 44th birthday reveal heartwarming tales of family reunions and the exhilarating experience of raising $50,000 for the Salvation Army. Our conversation with them highlights the importance of cherishing life's simple joys, like introducing loved ones from Brazil to the wonder of snow.
Keith Wade, affectionately known as "Chief Keith," joins us to explore the evolving landscape of careers, from the glamour of Hollywood to the real-world grit of service jobs. We peel back the layers of public perception in the fire service, uncovering how strategic storytelling and creative public relations keep firefighters' images burning bright. The discussion reveals the power of humor and simplicity in connecting with communities, whether it's through a "what's for lunch" post or a fun video tied to National Cocoa Day.
Balancing personal and professional life takes center stage as we humorously navigate the chaos of family, work, and social media. We share laughter-filled anecdotes about marriage and the challenges of being constantly on call, alongside insights into the world of public communicators. Our journey winds through the culinary delights of Sacramento, the mesmerizing pull of social media trends, and Keith's infectious, larger-than-life social media presence. Tune in for an episode rich with laughter, life lessons, and the importance of community connection.
Hi Kaylee, Hi Dan, it's been a while. You know, whenever it's more than a week, it feels like too long.
Speaker 2:The bump's looking fantastic.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:What's the update? What's new and exciting in the life of a childbearing woman?
Speaker 1:Well, he kicks my ass all the time. He's very active, which is just like a foreshadow of life to come, but I think I'm just kind of getting exposed to that like indelible lifelong worry that I'm going to have as a parent, you know, uh, which is so fun stressing about every little thing.
Speaker 2:He's not even here yet, so yeah, and then you stress about when you're not stressing right Like should I be worried right now?
Speaker 1:Like everything is too calm, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:Like my 12 year old went from 12 to 18, like in the last couple of months, I'm like, all of a sudden he's just got all the leash in the world, so, um, but yeah, but uh, well, uh, very, very exciting. Uh, we saw that. I saw that you went public with the name.
Speaker 1:Yeah, rourke, rourke, jason James.
Speaker 2:Rourke, jason RJJ.
Speaker 1:RJJ. Yeah, r double J, r double J, rj. I don't know whatever he's going to run with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, oh, I told you about my sister tried to call bullshit on my, my nickname DC and I we. We actually called my mom and she confirmed no, that's a, that was a true story. So you guys, I'm not bullshitting you in this space. Like I'm not, oh my.
Speaker 1:God, so wow.
Speaker 2:And, um, I mean, obviously I'm super excited for you to be going through the holiday season, um, bearing because, uh, you're just in for this outpouring of like love from from people that you wouldn't expect it from. And uh, I mean, obviously, your, your emotions are probably all over the place, but it's like in in, in this season, they're going to be heightened. Like I didn't have as much, nearly as much appreciation for the holidays until I started having kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's always been so meaningful to me, so it's extra Emotionally. I'm going to have to thank my father for, like, making sure I'm not that emotional, because I'm really good at compartmentalizing, but I'm a little bit more ragey, I would say.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh okay. Well, in that case, I'm glad I'm glad that Keith is sitting next to you and not me today. I will gladly.
Speaker 1:It's fun for my negotiations, for my clients, that's for sure, but um anyway these listing agents are like who is this bitch?
Speaker 2:You can't ask for that shit.
Speaker 1:No, no, patience. I'm like, let's go for it. Um, but you, you just celebrated a birthday I did.
Speaker 2:I did 44 years young. Uh, don't let the gray fool you, I'm not that's a good number.
Speaker 1:I'm not nearly as old as I look yeah, you know what you're young at heart, yeah, very young at heart, yeah, yeah I love that.
Speaker 2:I'm actually the youngest in my family at heart. Okay, what do you do? Require the most supervision? God, you know, it was obviously for me in the real estate space and kind of where I spend the majority of my professional time. It's chaos the first couple weeks of December. There's just so many places to be.
Speaker 2:I was fortunate enough this year December 3rd my birthday actually fell on Cantree Dedication Day, where we actually hand over the check for all the money that we raised for Salvation Army over the course of the year to the Salvation Army. So getting to be a part of that I think it was like my 10th year being a part of that. It was super cool. We were just shy of $50,000 this year, which was great.
Speaker 2:And in a hard I mean, we've had $, we've had 80, 90, a hundred thousand dollar years which so, but there's just a lot more competition for charitable dollars and it's been a tough year for people in general. So we're honestly I mean we're on the heels of two pretty challenging real estate years, so, um, so obviously we're looking forward to next year and getting going getting going for it again. And then we went to uh, we went to Kobe Teppanyaki and Lincoln for dinner. My daughter had volleyball so she wasn't with us, but we had my brother-in-law and his fiancee in town from Brazil. They were here for about three weeks, so super cool. She'd never been to the US.
Speaker 2:She came at the perfect time because it was fall where the trees were just exploding with color, and then it rained for a few days, which would actually normally be like, oh, that sucks. But so they got the whole up. But they got to kind of catch their breath, because they did in Vegas and LA, so they were like doing super touristy stuff and then and then they finally hooked up with us. They got to kind of catch their breath. And then they rented a car one day and drove up to Kyber's and like she saw snow falling out of the sky for the first time and my brother-in-law was like, do you?
Speaker 1:do it Like ever in her whole life. She cried Because they live in Brazil. There's snow in Brazil, oh, that's magical.
Speaker 2:So she got through that and full disclosure. If you ever have a Brazilian come to visit you, all you need to take them to is TJ, Maxx Ross and Costco.
Speaker 1:They fucking love it.
Speaker 2:So the department life Okay, oh my God, I mean seriously, they were, they were blown away. Um, they were blown away by that.
Speaker 1:At our consumerism.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure, but um, you know, and I'm, and I'm always super, super intrigued by that, because, like we go there and we get a five or six to one, I mean I'm like fucking spending money Like it's my job. Like it's crazy.
Speaker 1:I'm like you have to try to spend. It goes so far, yeah.
Speaker 2:And um and so so, like we, we always feel on the flip side. We're like, oh, this is really a reach for them. Like I mean they're, they're in their mid-30s and they're successful he's an engineer and she's a speech therapist so I mean they do well, yeah, but I mean they've been saving for this trip for a year and a half. Wow, you know, just stuffing money away. My brother-in-law was like, yeah, I haven't done any shopping for clothes in Brazil because I was going to do it all here, which is wild. And I'm like, and it's cause the name brand stuff right, like everything, the name brand stuff in Brazil is very, very, very expensive because it's taxed even higher than you know. The import tax that they pay on is even crazier here. Um, the Costco, like the Brazilian culture, I mean they go to the, they go to the, the neighborhood market, every day, yeah, so they buy fresh bread, and so the buying in bulk concept to them is just such a fricking.
Speaker 1:It's so American it is, it is.
Speaker 2:And and and and, full disclosure. You know my brother-in-law loves all the fucking handouts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's just walking around, just eat his way 50% of the reason we go to Costco is for the free meal between all the samples. I mean right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the, the, you know, the, the, the, the glitz, the glitz. For a buck 50 is pretty tough to pass on.
Speaker 1:So well, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I love that, all right. Well, that's, that's.
Speaker 1:that's a that's the longest kind of ketchup. I think we've a little different direction um this. This guy actually does not have um a real, real estate.
Speaker 2:Oh, here we go, see first part one of dan's transgressions with technology so keith wade. He was the former pio of sack fire department public information officer. For those of you who don't know, currently battalionalion chief and has his own media company, the Second Alarm Communications Group, where they consult social media. So if you follow the fire industry and all that on social media, which you should, because heroes. I mean it's cool. All of his stuff is shit. That's burning or cars. Yeah, who doesn't love that? It's real life, it's really really cool stuff.
Speaker 1:His stuff is like shit that's burning or car accidents. Yeah, who doesn't love that? It's real life.
Speaker 2:It's really really cool stuff. He is a Southern California transplant so we have not disclosed to him like how bad, we just crap on LA on this podcast.
Speaker 1:I did live there. I haven't told you that, but you know, I don't even know. Gives me more room to talk shit.
Speaker 2:So anyway. So let me get back to finding his song here and we're going to play him in.
Speaker 1:All right, let's go Off and running life is the most precious thing you can lose. While you were here, the fun was never ending.
Speaker 2:Life, a minute was only all right, all right, all right this is a incredibly unique um guest for us. We're finally getting out of the uh hardcore real estate and really getting into these Sacramento personalities. So we're super excited about this one Um also what is Southern California song?
Speaker 3:Oh, my Lord, it's such a good song, right? If anyone doesn't know that up here that's Pennywise bro him. It's such a, it's such a fire department song to old school Like, if you, it's just like a pump up. Theme anthem, bro him, it's about brotherhood.
Speaker 2:Theme anthem, bro him, it's about brotherhood, um so good and it stuck with me forever, so but I'm a socal guy and that's yeah, full disclosure. We do. We typically do the walk-up song as an icebreaker to kind of get our guests relaxed and comfortable speaking in the space. It's not always natural for people to have a microphone in their face and headphones on. Keith has no problem with this.
Speaker 3:I mean, keith spent five years he spent five years in front of the camera, being interviewed by news reporters, and then he also had um.
Speaker 2:he was also the star of uh, what's the name?
Speaker 1:of the um, oh, an A&E show, right If I stopped? You correctly, a&e Live Rescue. We did that for a year.
Speaker 3:Um and man, what an experience that was. In fact, I got flown into New York for one episode. I had the chance to be one of the analysts with Banfield I can't remember her first name right now, but she was the host at the time and they flew us in. I remember the guy that went with me too. He was so upset because my name was on the placard of the limo driver. We got out of the airport there in New.
Speaker 1:York and not his. Not his Said wait.
Speaker 2:I took a photo with the guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we spent two days there and they brought us in, we did makeup, they did the whole thing, and I was like this is I could do this. We got paid for it.
Speaker 1:The other side of the coin.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It was just super myself to be, cause they were kind of doing a search for who could be the guy that's coming in. Yeah, like a fire department representative for that show. The show I had a feeling was not going to last. It's such a hard concept to have a live. Um, cause they were going live every Monday night and that's what I did for a year. I drive a film crew live around. They'd have three different film crews stationed throughout Sacramento, but one would be with me in my truck and I would just respond to incidents as they're going and I'm curious what are the implications for, like privacy?
Speaker 1:You know you would show up to a call and somebody is like I don't want that camera in my face.
Speaker 3:Good question If you're out in public, there's no expectation of privacy, right, that's been tried and tested in the courts, and so they would just camera just showing up and start filming now. Private residence yes, so the producer would take an opportunity to meet with like a side family member or something and ask for permission, sign a release, and what blew me away was how people wanted to do it.
Speaker 1:Yes, they're 15 minutes of fame.
Speaker 3:Yeah, grandpa's having a fucking heart attack.
Speaker 2:And the other family member's like, oh yeah, bring the cameras in. I'm like holy shit, definitely get this one. Anybody want to buy some fake Jordans? Grandpa's dying over here.
Speaker 3:We got some fake J's for sale, it was people want to seize on their 10 seconds of fame 100% yeah. It was really odd but we were glad Sacramento on that show. I think there were nine different cities. We were one of the top ones. We I think there were nine different cities. We were one of the top ones. People were a busy department.
Speaker 2:Yeah A busy region.
Speaker 3:So people got to see all kinds of stuff, but what sucked was they were very controlling on the New York side. They didn't want to show the real stuff. They wanted the animal rescues and the more heartfelt.
Speaker 1:Ew.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Give me the nitty gritty. I want to see what I mean. No, maybe this is just me, but I'm like. I want to see, like the compound fractures.
Speaker 3:I want to see the burning buildings. The GI bleed on the toilet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, give me it all. You know, I want to see the action.
Speaker 2:Look what's being played on the main channel the Chicago series. My wife and I watch those shows. I know they're glorified, but I mean, sometimes you're like, oh shit, I can't believe they showed that on TV, but that's what people are watching.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. There's a reality to it that I think the general population doesn't realize what the fire department is doing on a daily basis to serve the community and back cleanup, if you will.
Speaker 2:One of these buttons has a sound effect.
Speaker 1:We need to explore that. We should probably label that for Dan over there. Okay, so we mentioned you were originally from Southern California and, for those who don't know, you kind of have a history with the entertainment business.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 1:So tell us about that and then how you decided to leave that and to get into saving lives being a hero all the fun business. Yep. So tell us about that and then how you decided to leave that and to get into saving lives being a hero all the fun stuff, yeah so my dad's whole side of the family, papa Wade.
Speaker 3:They worked in the motion picture industry and when I was a little kid we did those things. I got to go visit sets when I was 10, I spent two weeks in Boston on a movie called the Witches of Eastwick. So those experiences and I spent two weeks in Boston on a movie called the Witches- of.
Speaker 3:Eastwick. So those experiences Love that movie. Yeah, I got to meet all of them. It was awesome and I'm like this is what I'm going to do. My dad was a property master. We'd have scripts getting sent to the house weekly with producers wanting him to read, budget it, and then he'd go and interview. He had a well-known name, mark Wade, and he worked on the original Top Gun Days of Thunder. I mean big movies, flashdance. So when you think you're going to do that, you know I was kind of like I had no idea about the fire service. My brother, who's four years older though he doesn't know why he knew he was going to be a fireman. That was his deal?
Speaker 2:Well, because he watched Backdraft.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we used to watch um emergency. Yeah, the TV the TV show.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was a great show that was the thing.
Speaker 3:So, um, fast forward, I'm like I think I was 19. My dad was working on a movie called primary colors. They were filming um LA at the tennis courts, and so he said, hey, I'm going to hire you. For a couple of days I've, I was working at Walmart, which we can get into that later. You want to talk about career decisions? Yeah, so I go and I it was. There was something about being in that environment Once you got a little bit older and a little more perspective. The people that he was working with, that I was meeting and I'm not anyone who's listened to this, who's in the film industry and stuff, I'm not, it's not everyone, right, but some of these people they just there was a falseness that about them. I was getting that night like go, like, oh, your dad's such a great guy. And it was that statement Like it just felt like I don't know, like it was a canned speaking point point like they said that to everybody and, and then I was dealing he had me talking about the weather.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, yeah um, and he had me dealing with the extras that night and they had. They had like 2 000 extras there for this rally and those people are like oh they're just awful humans I've been one, so I get it now it's so true.
Speaker 1:I think people really, you know the the whole production side of things sucks all of the glitz and glamour out of the final product that the general population sees. Yep, and that was that was really my experience of of los angeles generally is just that there is so much inauthenticity there yes and everybody is chasing something and they're all like oh yeah, if you ever need anything, you you know, call me. They're not, they won't even fucking answer their phones.
Speaker 1:Like they're not going to they don't care about you, what you need, they're out there for themselves. So yeah, totally makes sense.
Speaker 3:And it's not different from most walks of life, I think, either. Like, I mean, a lot of people are trying to grind for themselves, but there was something about it and I just it clicked. I'm going. I did not want to do that work. So I 1996, I was now my dad and I had started a food business. It was called Wild Weenies. It was a chili dog stand in Lake Elsinore, california, eat a big one. That was the bumper sticker and it was a lot of fun he had missed.
Speaker 3:So, it was just him and I doing it and I was putting in like 14, 16 hour days serving food which I knew right away. This is not what I'm going to do. I hate anyone come out the window. The great thing about owning your own business is you could tell them to fuck off, like if they were giving you attitude where you know you work for someone you better.
Speaker 1:I like this process of elimination. You're really dipping your feet in all the different realms careers over here. You're really dipping your feet in all the different realms Careers over here. You're like don't want to do that, don't want to do that. We don't even need to talk about Walmart, we know, Don't want to do that.
Speaker 3:Well, you want to get some perspective on life? Sit in the break room at Walmart.
Speaker 1:Oh God, that might be the most depressing thing I think I could ever do. I was 18. I like, holy shit, I gotta get out of here. I remember assistant manager talking to me.
Speaker 3:He's like hey man, he's all. I'm 30 years old. I'm making 35 grand a year. Assistant manager. Think about it.
Speaker 1:Think about it.
Speaker 3:Like Doyle, I'm glad it didn't do it, buddy, uh, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:I moved on, but um and I think that you know, and obviously nothing against that I mean but obviously our careers all kind of drove us in different directions and there's, there's a place where, where that's, that's a good job.
Speaker 1:So yeah, um, so you're serving big ones.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and I flew up to visit my brother. He's working chili dogs, slinging chili dogs and having a lot of fun. My dad and I got to spend a lot of time together, a lot of conversations, um, and so I got to know him on a deeper level than I probably would have ever done, cause who?
Speaker 2:gets. This is like. This is like post high school. Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I worked at uh, this is, this is 1996.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Um a couple years, at Walmart, I was going to junior colleges.
Speaker 1:I've attended seven, by the way oh, wow, that might be the record for guests we've had on this show.
Speaker 2:You've definitely attended more junior colleges than anybody that I know of that's been on this podcast.
Speaker 3:I just get a little bored, I move on.
Speaker 2:We might actually dial up Guinness on that. That's impressive.
Speaker 3:Well, paramedic school different trades.
Speaker 2:You've got to go different places, school different, you know different trades you got to go different places and um, but I I reviewed it recently going man, I've taken up a lot of space on my fucking resume.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're asking for transcripts.
Speaker 2:It's a real pain in the ass. I hope your printer's got ink in it.
Speaker 3:Also in 96, I flew up um, visited my brother and uh, I think I was I must've been uh, probably 20 and uh and did a ride along station 10 for the Sacramento fire department in the fruit Ridge area and I was hooked. It was storming that day, I remember, and I was just jumping on any piece of equipment that was getting a call going out the door. And the teamwork aspect of it and how they're the camaraderie in the firehouse and they're kind of all busting each other's balls and they're working out there, they're having fun but yet they're going in this professional mode out to serve the community. And I'm like this is and I saw my brother in a light that I'd never seen him Like he was a paramedic, right, he was working on the ambulance that day and he's dealing with the hospital staff and and patient care and being kind of rough with certain people at certain points because they have to get.
Speaker 3:You know, they need to get from A to Z whatever the situation is, and I go man, this guy is smart and good and this is what I want to do. I mean, it was that simple. I enrolled in an EMT class, I think two weeks later.
Speaker 2:Very cool.
Speaker 3:And that started that journey.
Speaker 2:I'm just seeing the backlit images, the awe sounding, you know behind this image, as you image as our hot dog slangers deciding on what his career is going to be and fortunately, keith and I have a history so it's just a really cool image.
Speaker 2:We'll post on one of these pictures, the picture that I have of Keith and my caller ID for him. We were at a softball tournament the girls were playing at in Reno together and Keith is maybe on or maybe not on duty, but he's pretty far away from anywhere where he could physically fulfill his PIO responsibilities, should it need to be, and he's on a phone call shirt, off board shorts and he is literally like completely arched back with a Coors Light just pouring straight down his gullet.
Speaker 2:Because him and I were sitting in center field just watching softball Were we in Reno yeah.
Speaker 3:I was covering that phone was the PIO phone.
Speaker 2:I was covering. I had a call.
Speaker 3:Someone wanted information and I was covering that. That phone was the PIO phone. I had a call, someone wanted information and I was funneling it. Um, yeah, probably that was. I used to get a lot of that kind of stuff, you know you, you cover that phone. It was 24 hours a day. Um, unless you had someone that you were going to pass it off to. So normally there'd be someone for response if I was out of town, but a lot of times I still had the phone with me, because there was.
Speaker 3:There's always something you had to handle. It's just that type of a position.
Speaker 1:So, as the PIO, are you fielding calls from the general public or who is dialing in on the other end, the media?
Speaker 3:Okay, so as soon and it's so annoying, as soon as an incident would hit um, and I'm talking about like a fire incident, a big hazmat, an MCI, a drowning. So PulsePoint is a system that goes out and the media, all their desk reporters, follow that PulsePoint. So as soon as that gets toned out, that phone would ring. But what was annoying about it is the crew hasn't even left the station.
Speaker 1:So they're wanting details about a call you don't know anything about. Yet no one's there. I know nothing about it.
Speaker 3:So you have to fight the urge to answer. I had a counselor tell me this once you, you, you, I have a thing where you want to help um and it translated from the fire department into um that that role of like you want to help these people get where they need to be, it's just built into me. But on that you got to like no hard, I'm not answering the phone yet, and I would you. I handled Twitter for the department, so you would sit there and you post a tweet Once a tweet was out cause now equity right across the board. They all have access to that information and then I would start answering the phone to feel the additional questions.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's how that process worked.
Speaker 3:Five years of my life doing that.
Speaker 1:When did that start?
Speaker 3:2018. Okay.
Speaker 1:So it seems like you're really kind of in the forefront at this point of being a presence for social media generally across, for an industry that has historically had no presence in this realm of instant information public view. Tell me, how did you have to manage and finagle and do the dance of bureaucracy, people controlling what you say, what you don't, but also making it interesting enough that people wanted to engage?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's fine. I always say I didn't invent social media for the fire department, but I was there. That's humble, well, the the thing. So I had predecessors, obviously right, and they were handling Facebook had come along and they had started a footprint there for the fire department. I came in and my fire chief a couple of things that really helped. The fire chief at the time, gary Loesch, who has since retired. He was from Philadelphia and they had a huge PIO. They called it a bureau there for Philly Fire. Philly's a big fire department. So he knew about PIO and understood the value of telling your story. For, for an agency and I think this translates to any business or community group or anyone like everyone has a story and it's how do you tell that story? And so when I came in, the one thing that he realized about me that he liked was not not that I like to talk so much, cause I do, but I was wouldn't have guessed is to be creative.
Speaker 3:People you have in these positions you have to have be creative and and take some risks. Now he slapped me down a few times, going like don't do that, don't do that. But I the my coming out video was that I went on my own and just, I had no experience doing any of this stuff either. I did a uh, it was national cocoa day and I don't know why I'm just a little bit nuts. But uh it uh. I was like I'm going to have to see. It was holidays, right, it's during December. I'm like I'm going to go out and I'm going to do a safety, like safety messages associated with national cocoa day.
Speaker 1:Like how many people burn themselves with cocoa?
Speaker 3:Well, it was just it was more like you know, um home cooking, fires, christmas tree electrical, um space heaters. I had all these different things and I was traveling around town just getting visuals and then talking. And it was, there was, it was fun and funny and they were actually serving cocoa down at admin and one part of the I thought it was to me. It's hilarious Like I'm walking by and I'm I'm all, whether at home or in the office, take the same steps every time to stay safe and I turn, I'm all, oh, coco.
Speaker 2:So anyways.
Speaker 3:I I remember the chief looking at that in a that video I produce and I posted it on Facebook and all of our different channels and I had some phone calls from some people who had concern because the fire department is supposed to be this sterile. We fight fire.
Speaker 2:We are America's bravest.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and here I am kind of taking some levity and making fun of not making fun of us, but like, hey, we can have some, we have fun, we have personalities.
Speaker 2:Well, shedding light on kind of like how much of the calls you get are sometimes just a complete waste of time.
Speaker 1:Oh well, I think historically the fire department has always been run as like a paramilitary Academy. So it's very like the military, very buttoned up. They have a image and a persona that they want the public to see. But if anybody knows the firefighter, I mean most of the time your, your humor, the brevity of the situation. It's necessary to deal with everything that you guys have to face every day, but you guys are fun.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're fun and we're kind of fucked up too and we need out On a necessary level.
Speaker 1:Yeah, on a necessary level.
Speaker 2:I mean you guys are running into the danger as cliche as it is, and we hear it all the time but I mean, like, if you really stop and think like, would I run into that? I don't think a lot of people would, and that's why there's not a lot of people that go into that profession and yeah, and it's that career choice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's a you know, fall back on training type of thing. Um, you know, and uh, and get comfortable being uncomfortable. That's like a saying that I sticks with me all the time, um.
Speaker 3:so you know, to us it's a. It can be like a lemmings to water, like you're just. You're just doing your thing because you've been trained to do it. Um, but I mean, there's some scary situations. But back to what you were saying with the um. You know, when you go into that role as a social media manager, I just went for it and I, um, I learned, I took a lot of training classes, whatever I could get my hands on, and most of them are pretty sterile, so I would, I just had an ability to look at it and go okay, now what's interesting to me?
Speaker 1:like this.
Speaker 3:Like, and you just don't want to show all fire and you don't want to show all puppies and different stuff. It's like everything needs to be balanced and the thing I really leaned on was building strong relationships with not just my boss and some of the people who make decisions, but I had to build relationships with City Hall, the elected officials, city council, because that was part of my role was to inform them of stuff that's going on. So when there was a fire in District 8, I had to know who the counselor was and I would call them personally and go hey, this is Keith Wade, pio and this instance going on and unfortunately someone lost their life. So I'm keeping them updated so they're not caught off guard.
Speaker 3:And I do the same with the mayor and the city manager. So what a. There is no other role in the fire service as a captain, because I was a captain at the time that that position is usually filled by a where you have exposure like that to the leadership side of the department. And, man, what an opportunity to have the curtain pulled back and see how the sausage is made.
Speaker 2:I was always pretty jealous of it because, I mean, you and I were spending a lot of time together when you were in that role and I'm like damn man here I am trying to like make frickin bugs interesting.
Speaker 2:You do it so well, dan, you get to show car accidents and fires and you know all kinds of stuff. Like it was interesting. I was scrolling through some of your older stuff today just remembering like seeing it when it first came out and I was like god dang, I remember all this stuff. But just I mean, yeah, like making that transition to really getting that content out there in front of the public. And you know, like I said, it's just so fascinating for the general public to be able to see some of that stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, and we always said we're cheating in the fire department because we have a built-in like audience of respect from the public, right and it is, it's sexy, it is sexy.
Speaker 2:Constantly interesting stuff going on. And it's the well, we're not going to talk about your calendar spread All right.
Speaker 3:Stop trying to steer this thing. When do I plug my only fan?
Speaker 1:Follow him on social. It really is it. There's something so glorified about being in the fire department because it is a public service, it is a first responder, and there are other departments, like the police, that are in the same position. They serve the community, but they have such a negative persona in the public light and this is a phrase my little brother always use. He loves to remind people of this. He's like well, no one ever made a song called fuck the fire department.
Speaker 3:You know it's like people just love you guys.
Speaker 1:You're genuinely welcome across the public you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can use that as long as the whiskey's locked up.
Speaker 3:Well, not everyone was a fan. I mean we'd get some pretty negative messages. Depend on cause. There's a true stat of one in six people will have exposure to a firefighter at some point in their life. So it's not very many, and so that one person, we are going to contact you everyone. I used to say this everyone's a PIO for the department. You know, no matter what role you're in.
Speaker 2:And more and more so every day right Like cell phones evolve and social media and all that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're doing PR for your agency, especially when you're in uniform, and you better carry yourself a certain way and be professional and know that you want those people going away telling their friends at the next backyard barbecue that I like our fire department. I had this experience and it was positive. But the negative one, that negative person, is going to spread that way more than the positive experience.
Speaker 1:Negativity sells more than positivity.
Speaker 2:I dealt with that when I was in a restaurant too. I mean, it's like you give somebody a bad experience in a restaurant, they're going to tell 10 people minimum. If you give somebody the experience of their life, well that's what they were there for and they probably won't tell anybody.
Speaker 1:It's wild that negativity sells. A lot of people who are on social media try to come up with ideas or concepts or repeat what they say that is really relevant only to other industry professionals. They see what's trending and they think, oh, I should do that. They don't have the insight to really think of, like, well, what do I find interesting? And then make content out of that, and usually that's the stuff that people find the most interest and engagement in.
Speaker 1:It's not what everybody else is doing. It's hey, I'm in this. I know this better than anyone else. What?
Speaker 3:do I find interesting. And then making that content. You're making a great point, what's I've? It was so simple. So no one in the fire service and I will say we were pioneers on this Um, no one was making simple content. It was all incident driven, incident mindset stuff. And there was this one woman, wendy Aguilar, who was a reporter that department had hired to do our. She was a media communication specialist. So, to help cause, I needed to level up and I needed someone who really knew how to edit film and had more of a storyteller eyeball for stuff. And we started talking more about like, what else could we be highlighting of our, of our people? Cause what I mentioned earlier, right, everyone has a story or whatever. But we kept it pretty simple and the first thing that we jumped off and started doing was what's for lunch? We were the if you go to any fire department social media pages now they're all showing them cooking, but no one was doing that back then. I'm not saying we were the first again, but we were there.
Speaker 1:But they were the first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were the first big one. Yeah, in fact, all the local media has come in. Um, in fact, I think we've even had some national coverage on the fact of when we started doing those what's for lunch, cause they were wildly popular.
Speaker 2:I mean, our, our growership just took off because people was humanizing, right Like you're just trying to humanize your profession and make the more relatable people can be to you, the more the easier it is for them to like you and you know, if they recognize you when you're on scene, it's like holy shit, like I actually recognize this person. I I know what they had for lunch yesterday.
Speaker 3:What was it?
Speaker 2:You know it establishes that kind of common.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, what was really cool. I heard the question, but people have misunderstandings of what's really going on and they think, like I pay for your lunch, like why are you guys at the grocery store?
Speaker 2:Yeah, why are you parked up here in the front? We're not just paying for you guys to work out and make the five-alarm chili Is that what you're telling me.
Speaker 3:So those are opportunities to explain culture and the why behind. Why do we park in the red zone up front? Well, let's say that your family member lives down the street and they have a fire. Do you want us running sprinting across the whole lot because it's a big fire engine? Or do you think it's okay that we park in the red zone so we quickly get to our rig and go? And then they think well, on your time off, you should bring your food with you. It's like, well, in your time off, you should bring your food to you know with you. And it's like well, on your time off, are you doing a ton of stuff for your work?
Speaker 3:Or are you when you're not getting paid or do you come to work? We were there for 48 hours and we go to the store. It's opportunity to to mix with the public, to to answer questions, and then, yeah, we take you like.
Speaker 2:I feel like I'd be the guy who made sure my first three meals were to guarantee that I never had to fucking cook again.
Speaker 1:It'd be like Dan is off, that just means you're on diss duty now. Whatever, I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2:There are some.
Speaker 3:Everyone thinks all firefighters are cooked. They cannot.
Speaker 2:There are plenty who?
Speaker 3:Oh my Lord, where's the love? Pass the flavor.
Speaker 2:Maybe a little less salt next time. Buddy it's.
Speaker 3:I just quickly got to ask are you trying to kill us?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 3:No, so that I mean those simple stories. Um took off. Yeah, what's for lunch series. Um, wendy did thing. I am sack fire that. That's SAC FIRE that running. I wouldn't call it a show, but she posts a story of that and she takes certain members that she's discovered and a lot of times I would help her go. Hey, that we should talk to this person because they come from this area or they have some kind of cool story of their past, because we have people from all walks of life that come in the fire service and she's been able to tell these great stories and what it does is it inspires that cause. You know who's on most social media the youth, the next generation.
Speaker 2:So we have them.
Speaker 3:Um, you know, watching and going. Oh, this person looks like me, or it comes from my, my neighborhood, and so I can do the job. I can be a firefighter. So that's that's where I see the real value in that.
Speaker 2:So so, so piggyback cause, it's really insightful and actually leads kind of right into the next thing we wanted to touch on, like so if you could go back and kind of start over, like and let's just start with, let's just go with fire, is there anything that you would have done differently, or you know that would?
Speaker 3:that you can take for firefighting, and I mean think all the different specialized specialized special ops going to hazmat investigation stuff.
Speaker 3:I think at a younger age I would have taken more training opportunities, because what I've realized as I gotten older is the more you put yourself out there to network and meet people and what's the term, take action the more opportunities might come your way off of some of these relationships or experiences you have. So I I sat stagnant for quite a while when I first hit the department. I was a firefighter paramedic for 10 years and, don't get me wrong, I had a great time. I had tons of great experiences and a lot of great people that I worked with. But, if you allow yourself, you just get into this rotation of you, go to work and then you're doing your stuff when you're time off with your family and nothing to take away from that. But I think I could have grabbed and seized more opportunity. I think I could have grabbed and seized more opportunity and I probably would have maybe had better opportunities to advance, sure, or who knows where I would have ended up.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, retirement age is retirement age, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah 55 still alive.
Speaker 3:That's a that was a song I wrote I we haven't gotten to that. I we had a firehouse fan, no.
Speaker 1:I have it's in my back pocket. I did see some pictures of you in front of a microphone clearly on stage singing. We're going to touch on that.
Speaker 2:And as obnoxiously SoCal as you could possibly Like short haircut, backwards hat bill rolled up, khaki shorts with the high white socks and some Vans right, that was at the Starlight in Midtown, sacramento.
Speaker 3:What a crazy. What a crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have to talk about that later we're going to definitely touch on that, no, but I think that that's really important. I mean, there's a lot of people who are okay with falling into that routine, but there's also a lot of us who want to know what else we can do to add to what we're doing, because life is so short and there's so many ways that we can make it fulfilling but also ingrain ourselves in the community. As a fire department, I mean, you are involved in the community more than most. Yeah so. And now you're a battalion chief yeah so. Your role with community outreach and contact has changed.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:How tell us what that looks like now? What do you miss?
Speaker 3:I miss the um, the camaraderie of being a member of a team. So not that I'm, I'm still. I'm more of the coach now, Right, but when you're a fire captain on an I always worked on engines Um, you are the, you're in the trenches, uh, with those, and so you're having those conversations in the rig that can be a little off color, Um and the locker room talk.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you're going into the craziness and you're and you're doing that job, and I do miss that aspect of it Cause now you're got, now you're the guy that walks in and go shit, the boss is they Clean it up, clean it up. And I hate that you bring up a good point. They do.
Speaker 2:They're a little more guarded around you. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And because you are the guy that can kind of drop the hammer, I guess. But I think I'm starting to quickly build. Well, everyone knew my personality and I will always say this to anyone who's moving up into leadership roles, because some guys are like, well, you have to change. I've heard that and the truth is that that's not the truth Be yourself, because if you're not, you wouldn't have gotten to where you are. No, no, if I come in, everyone knows it's blood in the water If you change and you're like now. They knew Keith Wade as this wild firefighter medic who's kind of funny and a little bit crazy. And now all of a sudden I make captain. I still kept that going. Make captain, I still kept that going.
Speaker 3:But if I make battalion chief and now I'm holding people accountable and I'm dropping the hammer and they'd be like who the hell is this dude he thinks he is coming in here acting like that? That has no way to get guys to buy into the system. I always say there's five Cs of leadership. Let's go through them real quick. Oh, I love this, okay, count. Yeah. So you need to be consistent, you need to be candid that's a tough one for people you need to be competent, obviously, and then you need to have compassion, and then my favorite one is caring.
Speaker 1:I love that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you're caring, genuinely care about your people, meaning like I just check in with them, hey, what?
Speaker 2:do you?
Speaker 3:how can I support you today? What do you need? If you do that and you're and you're being honest with it, right, and I'm not self-serving at all they're, they're going to respect you and then, and then it's easier when you do have like a harder day and when you go hey man, I need you guys to do this. You've cared for them and done stuff for them and it's just an easy to me, it's just simple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're going to want to do it for you, yeah.
Speaker 3:Where I see these other guys who seem to struggle with leadership concepts. Um, they're overthinking a lot of it, and and then they're they're operating. I hate this. They're operating out of fear for themselves Um.
Speaker 2:I was like.
Speaker 3:Hey, don't worry about yourself. If you're doing the right thing, it's all going to work its way out. So, um, I I love being a battalion chief for that reason, like from a um, like from a physical response perspective.
Speaker 2:now, like you get to, you get to, you get to a scene and you're like you want to jump in and get your hands on something and you have to kind of you do rein yourself in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Cause I drive the. You know they call it the fire SUV. I'm in the buggy Right, and you pull in and we fly just as like they do.
Speaker 2:I'm everyone's pumped to get to the fire, and, but now Iine's going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I make no mistake, I'm not stupid, I'm not putting the fire out, they're doing the labor. They're the blue collar workers out there kicking ass and then I'm just there to ensure for the incident within the incident. If something goes wrong, I can help orchestrate their safety and making sure that it comes out with a good outcome. But the hard part is when you see them like I'm sitting there watching through the windshield. Sometimes you can't see anything from where you parked, but a lot of times you can see and you're going, what the fuck is that guy doing and they laugh because I'm pretty clear text on the radio a lot of times and I had this fire recently where I go engine 15, let's go ahead and let's put a little bit of water on that fire.
Speaker 3:And afterwards the cat was kind of pissed at me because I'm you know, I've kind of given him a shot with my tone but the other guys, they all, everyone on the fire scene. They know that's how I am, that's just my style and we can have good conversations after. And I have some bosses that probably don't like my style too much, you know, but that's but they accept me for, for, for that, and it's fun.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that that resonates across every industry, you know. But again it comes back to that authenticity. You wouldn't be where you are if you weren't who you are, because you don't get to, just you don't get to, you don't get to fake it for too long. Um, everyone's true colors come out eventually and and I think that's that's really important and obviously it's it's helped propel you to where you are and you've gotten to go through the experiences that you had, which those experiences that you've had, or what, qualified you to be where you are.
Speaker 3:So you know, yeah, absolutely Absolutely it's. It's been a great ride. I look back um anyone, I think even any, whatever industry you're in, um real estate or um governments. Whatever I look back, I go. It just goes by in a flash. I'm like I got 23 years in on this job already and I'm looking. I'm the old guy. A lot of times I'll be sitting at the table at dinner and I'll look around and I am by far the old guy at the table.
Speaker 1:That's insane.
Speaker 3:It sucks Because mentally I don't feel old, but they do Like you said they shut down because you're the chief.
Speaker 2:But then it's also like I only feel old like the first 10, 15 minutes in the morning when it's cold like it is right now outside. I'm like Frankenstein going down the stairs with white knuckle grip on both both handrails. Once I loosen up though I'm, I feel like the 12 year old that I act like you know my kids make me feel old.
Speaker 2:They are the ones who always, are constantly giving me, yeah, so so obviously, so you have, you have a senior, or you have a college student, a senior in high school, and then Brooklyn, the freshmen, you know, and when you say like you know, it flies by um, so how, how much? Now? Obviously, cause we got, we had talked pretty candidly like you actually loved that PIO role because it allowed you to to really spend a lot of time with your, with your kids and with your family, versus that 24 or 48 hour shift where you got to. I remember you, you know you got to, you got work long hours and you're going to miss a lot of family events.
Speaker 3:You're going to spend a lot of time away. I've spent, in fact we were just talking about this the other day. I think out of the 23 years I probably have worked 18 Thanksgivings. It just happened to be I always either fell on it or I would just grab overtime because it was available and we needed extra money and I'm like, okay, so I was gone. So I look back and I go, man, I missed a lot of family gatherings and that's kind of the sacrifice you make.
Speaker 3:You've given up your main family sometimes for that secondary family, the PIO. What it does for you is, though, you're on call and you're dealing and being interrupted on a daily basis. I wasn't missing sporting events anymore and being interrupted on a daily basis. I wasn't missing sporting events anymore. I was my boss loved me and was letting me go loose, to go run to these things when I needed to. But I was still. A lot of times I would have to step out, like you saw me. A lot of times I'd have to walk away and answer the phone and I'd be at church. Sometimes I'd have to get up and go out and deal with that and sometimes I'd have to leave. But you know they paid you handsomely for that. I had the take-home vehicle and those opportunities. What I quickly got used to was the opportunity to sleep at home every night After so many years of being in the firehouse and the farting and the snoring and all the crap that you deal with Such a frat house in so many ways.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's disgusting. But you love it because it's my wife says it's a boys club.
Speaker 1:It really is.
Speaker 3:And when you get and start sleeping at home and you're older, it is nice, I'm like. Your own bed. Oh my Lord, it's like I got a sleep number, which is amazing Sleep number. If you're listening, you'll send me some free sheets.
Speaker 2:You'll send me some free sheets yeah, buy your sleep number today we've got a sleep number too, but I, I actually I wish I could crank mine up to 110. I just can't get it quite firm enough.
Speaker 3:But oh, really yeah yeah, I'm, I like I put my head up just a slight. Yeah, we, I told my wife. I said this is not good for intimacy, like it's got the little like the head oh, cause you?
Speaker 1:Oh, because you have a split. Oh, you got the split zone.
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, and I'm like did you do this on purpose? Yeah, she loves it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she loves it. She brings her a great wall of china. That's actually Marina's biggest regret that we didn't get that one.
Speaker 2:She's like oh, it's the same level yeah, I don't roll over because I'm going right in that crack. You guys are actually aging yourselves in the yes Moms. So Keith's wife, becky and Marina and a couple of the other moms were during that softball run. They were glossed as the yes Moms by the coach Because anytime we were out of town, anytime something was going on, not one of the moms would ever say no. They were like yeah, we're in, it's a go, whether that was thunder from down under or dinner or breakfast or whatever.
Speaker 3:It's never shut off. My wife is running around. I'm sure Marina is the same, like so many different friends groups, and there's an event almost every night. She's all well. I say no to a lot of stuff. You just don't know. And I'm like, well, if you said yes to everything, we wouldn't be married because I wouldn't see you At some point.
Speaker 2:I need some attention, yeah the yes moms.
Speaker 3:Becky, she breaks it on her phone. It's in these groups.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yes, moms, there's golden girls.
Speaker 1:Golden girls. Wow, that's like the retired nurses. My wife's a NICU nurse.
Speaker 3:She's got all these different friend groups.
Speaker 2:I got like two buddies.
Speaker 1:I don't even know if they like me. All right, I do have a question before we get into kind of the more lifestyle thing. We haven't even touched on the second alarm. Let's actually talk about that for a second before we get off uh, totally off of the social media game. So you had a great experience kind of being in the forefront for this particular department in terms of their social media development and maintaining that. Now you also run a company called Second Alarm Communications Group.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And your focus is to help fire departments and other first responders have a public appearance persona. All that Tell us about the kind of impetus of starting that and what you want to do with that moving forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So Wendy and I loved working together those I guess we were together almost four years and what we noticed when we'd go on our travels, making the social media content, and then also the conferences we were attending, especially the conferences. That was where we kind of really we presented at one in Tahoe it was CAPIO, california Public Information Officer and what I noticed was these are all paid professional communicators and though they're doing their thing and navigating their particular waters like if you work for Mosquito Vector or the Yuba City Water District they all have PIOs who do communications for their agencies. But what we noticed was a lot of different people were in creative ruts or weren't sure how, where do I go, or what's the story I'm trying to tell. Like I met a lady from the FBI or not the FBI, the district attorney's office was in there and she goes well, how do I tell a story about DAs? And I, my brain just goes right. I'm like, well, it's the people, right, you have different lawyers who are working cases for different laws and I don't even know anything about it, but I go, you highlight these attorneys and the type of law that they're doing and you tell their particular story and I could see like a light bulb going on.
Speaker 3:And it was interesting to Winnie and I going like, oh, these people everyone, people need help discovering like how to? What's the strategy I'm going to employ? Do I need help with crisis communications? Are we trying to engage our followership? But a big thing for me was my boss the fire chief was constantly trying to get resources and monies and different stuff from the leadership of the city. And how do you do that? Well, if you're the popular kid on the block and everyone's following you, they all want a piece of that too, because they're all trying to. They're trying to do their own thing too. That. So I'm like well, they're going to ride your toe, your coattails? Um, we need to. We need to show and tell our story constantly of the good work we're doing and why they should be supporting us. So Wendy and I decided, because we saw there was such a need, we're like let's start our own consultant group and get out there, start presenting. And then we developed this two-day workshop and we've been teaching up in El Dorado Hills a couple times. We have some different opportunities.
Speaker 3:It is harder than I thought. It is harder than I thought Anything. I and you guys know that anything with your own business or you're trying to get something to grow is. I'm learning something new every day with it and it's it's. It's tough. There are a lot of times right now. You know I woke up, wake up and I go. I don't want to do anything with this. It takes time. If you think it's just going to magically happen, it's not.
Speaker 2:Well, cause I've always thought on the backside of it. Yeah, I mean, you're essentially asking these, these publicly funded operations, to carve out and establish a budget for what? For social media they're going to be like? Oh you know, like that's a. That's a tough sell.
Speaker 3:Especially for smaller agencies, and they all kind of want to be in there, but they don't know what to do. So what winning I've Winnie and I have been doing as we've met some people, is these workshops are great because I had all kinds of walks of life from different fire departments register and come and that's what we do. We just we explain to them the value of having social media platforms, the why behind it.
Speaker 3:Right, you know, how is this going to help their leadership, the strategies they should employ what platforms they should be on, what sort of content they should be creating, how to create that content. We have a whole afternoon on how to make. We always focus on Instagram reels. Video is king. It always has been. Nothing against this podcast, this podcast is great, we won't take it personally.
Speaker 3:And then we do media. How do you conduct yourself doing media interviews? How do you stand, where do you look, all those different things. And how do you conduct yourself doing media interviews? How do you stand, where do you look, all those different things? And and how do you prepare for it? You know how do you do your cap statement and different things. So it's it's great content, good value. I love doing it, I love teaching it and I'm hopeful that it grows bigger. But I also have my iron, some fires, some different, different things too. I'm trying to pitch some TV show ideas. That's a whole other animal. I'm trying to do.
Speaker 1:Do any of them involve you being in a band? No, no.
Speaker 3:I've actually tried to really distance myself from that, because I'll never be president With that content floating around. Oh man, I know what you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Well, the band-aids off.
Speaker 1:So so it was a, a firehouse band. Yes, Did you sing about safety or like?
Speaker 2:I need to know I'm so curious Fire Marshall bill wrapping yeah absolutely Now the uh.
Speaker 3:When I was a captain I was at station four in Midtown off Alhambra, and that is to this day. It will always be my favorite firehouse. It's the oldest firehouse in the city. It was built in 1933. It's old brick, I mean it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:It's beautiful, you know, when you look at it you're like that's, and it's so fun to work there. The crew that I was with at the time the driver had been in like 10 bands the bass. The guy who was one of the firefighters back See, he was a bass player. He had been in a band called lag wagon.
Speaker 3:Yeah, back from Santa Barbara way back before they had made it and he'd quit, and. But so the driver was a guitar player, the other dude was a bass player and then the other guy was a drummer. Well, so they're all musicians and they would go downstairs and that's the only station with the basement and they would mess around and and do music. One day they come up and say, hey, you like to, cause I do like to sing and rap and mess around. They're all just write some lyrics and mess around and uh, there, and I was listening to them do this, this music, and I wrote some lyrics to the first song we did. It was called basement hoe. Well, cause anyone who worked in the fire bar knew that station had reputation.
Speaker 3:Uh, back in the day of like women would visit and and they would, there's a pool table down there or whatever. So I wrote this song. But I always said don't blacklight the basement. Um, so, yeah, uh, so we started. It was just, it was a good outlet for us. Um, we, we, actually the one guy ran cause there was no um, trip light down there from when you get a call. So he ran a light. So as soon as we knew we got a call, we'd stop playing because it was loud. I mean we'd have homeless outside the fire station going like yeah, rocking out Because it was hardcore thrash type, very grungy type music and all the while you thought it was going to be a deterrent, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you thought it was going to drive those homeless yeah, about to go like they'll get out of here, but the music was actually pretty good.
Speaker 3:I thought my singing sucked, but next I thought my singing sucked, but we next thing I know these guys set up we're playing live at the Starlight in Midtown Like we're going to go do a show. And I'm like wait, what I thought. We're just messing around. And we oh yeah, we did. It was packed, it was a Christmas show and all the fire department like a ton of people showed up. It was so fun, so we performed a few times played memories at the boardwalk.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we opened for our old punk band called DRI. Um, I'm just like I look back and go again. I just took action. I'm like, all right, it was something. I look back at you. I would have never thought I would ever be on stage singing.
Speaker 2:I'm just picturing Keith going full Marty McFly kicking, kicking shit over.
Speaker 3:I didn't. I, I didn't like practicing, cause I do, I can't. There is no in between. It's like you just got to go and I would sweat and just lay it all out there and my throat would be sore, and but it was such a fun. It was all our songs about the dark side of the fire service. So it was. It was awesome, we had, we had a blast, but everyone moves on with their life and we had some one of the guys. He just he wanted to make a more professional business and for us it was just fun. So, yeah, it went away, but I don't miss it. I do, but I like being on stage, so that's what I miss.
Speaker 1:And then you became a public information officer. You kept your stage presence going Exactly.
Speaker 3:Actually, right when we were ending, I transitioned to that, so it was yeah, kept it going.
Speaker 1:You kept your microphone.
Speaker 3:I did, I did. I know, in fact, our PIO symbol for the fire department. I created a hand dropping a mic.
Speaker 2:And there's 411 on the mic.
Speaker 3:So dropping information. So, you worked in Midtown a very long time. Yeah, I was there on the ambulance for five years and I was captain there for six, so 11 years of my career I spent at that station.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, that means that you were intimately plugged in with the lifestyle of Sacramento. What is one of your favorite parts about living, working in greater Sacramento?
Speaker 3:That's a hard question for me.
Speaker 2:You can expand on this.
Speaker 3:When I used to get off shift, I used to love getting off shifting and getting on that deck of a business 80 as I'm leaving. I saw so long suck town. I'm like I want to. I want to get out.
Speaker 1:Your favorite part about it was leaving.
Speaker 2:Okay, but this was also at a time when, when Zach wasn't what it is now. No, it really wasn't, I mean no, you're right.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, what did we used to have? It was in the monkey bar and and Harlow's yeah.
Speaker 1:I used to go to the slime light.
Speaker 3:Limelight. That was my, that was the hangout. Um, like, I asked a bartender out there one night and I remember she going, if you're listening, you missed out lady. Um, man, there's so many good spots. Uh, especially it's getting better for eating right.
Speaker 2:Like oh, it's gotten way better.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank God.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cause it will down where we live out in the Lincoln Rockland area, you know, at the chef's table for me, I mean, everyone loves chefs.
Speaker 1:Everybody's local watering hole out here.
Speaker 2:We actually finally made a reservation for Fork in Lincoln, which is supposed to be fantastic, I went there during COVID.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know if I'm supposed to say that they don't get shut down, but Fork was awesome.
Speaker 1:I haven't been there in a long time. I think the statute of limitations has expired on that. I can't say whatever you want.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I heard Fauci's getting pardoned. I don't want to get too political, but Fauci's off the hook from my understanding.
Speaker 3:Yeah, down in Sacramento proper there's actually tons of great places to eat and hang out. Now we just don't ever drive down there anymore. So when I was PIO, that's what I loved is I could go explore, meet and eat off of Freeport.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh so good.
Speaker 3:So good, like a lot of people would never even know about that because of where it's located, but, um, I used to go there all the time and I've taken my wife there.
Speaker 1:Um, it's actually a really good pizza place out there now, masula, it's one of the most. If you are a fan, italian pizzas Phenomenal.
Speaker 3:They've got some hidden gems out there. You're going to have to remind me. On Folsom Boulevard it's a ramen place and I can't think of the name. All of a sudden it's escaping me. Um, it's over there by the Hilltop, Um well, I know Hilltop.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure I know this ramen. I thought you looked familiar, we transported you I, because my parents were in the fire service, I made every effort to ever avoid being involved as a patient. Like I could not stand the humility of like oh God, cornell's daughter Like that you know, and I have to say I did very good.
Speaker 1:However, my sister got herself. This is embarrassing because I actually market to the fire departments as a realtor now and I told you previously my father ran the river rescue department for Sac Metro for several years and my older sister did some very embarrassing things to the fire department when she was drunk on the river one day and I can't imagine what that would be, and everybody knows about it and there I cannot tell you how many times. When I go to the fire department they're like are you the one from the river?
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I'm like no, definitely not. You have not seen that Not me Like, so not guilty, but you know.
Speaker 2:I feel like you could totally leverage that into a really good icebreaker. No, but let's call her right now. Let's pull her up on FaceTime.
Speaker 1:No, but I can get her on the phone if you want. Yeah, if you have some questions. Revisit that memory, I guess, build that bridge. It's a diversion tactic to get you to the sale. You know what that's actually, because my approach has been distance myself as quickly as possible, but I like that Lean in, lean in, lean in, lean in on that.
Speaker 3:Yep, no, it wasn't me, but I can actually get you connected with her right now.
Speaker 1:I'm going to try that next time. See how that works.
Speaker 2:We're going to find out real quick if your sister listens to the podcast.
Speaker 3:She answers your next phone call. Yeah, you know, becky and I, we like Napa, so we take off there, Becky likes her bubbles oh she loves her bubbles. We're members at Frank Family.
Speaker 1:Oh, great winery, I love it. And then Mum, that's my mother-in-law's favorite, frank.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's just such a fun. It's a great spot right, and so we just love because it gets us out of the town. Yep, If you can afford it to stay the night in some of those places so dang expensive now, but it's gotten wild, but I mean the food out there is so fucking phenomenal. It's like you.
Speaker 2:it's the best I would say, that was how we, that was why we got initially sold on bottle rock. It was like, oh, you can go to a music festival with a bunch of Napa food. I was like we're in we're in.
Speaker 3:I I've never been. I need to go, yeah.
Speaker 2:Bottle rocks.
Speaker 3:I think tickets are on sale right now.
Speaker 2:Probably. Yeah, it always falls. It's always Memorial day weekend, which is actually Marina's birthday, always falls right around there. So so, yeah, you can just just tell Becky it's, it's, it's an easy sell on us if you guys want to. Yeah, I will.
Speaker 3:I will.
Speaker 1:It's the food and culture scene, just like general culinary scene. Coming from Southern California, a lot of people don't understand how incredibly diverse it is down there. I mean, you have, every hole in the wall is fantastic and it's authentic, and then you have your higher end.
Speaker 1:Well, no, no, I'm talking about, like you know, in Koreatown. Like you have all your little districts where they make authentic, incredible meals. You can find the like, the taco carts down there. You know, the little grungy places that you would never expect are phenomenal. And then you have your higher end culinary scenes and it's so hard to leave somewhere like that and then come up here where it's few and far between it. It is getting a lot better, but that was honestly one of my biggest grievances about leaving. Like I, food and sex are my greatest passion, so I can't.
Speaker 2:That's the one that I'm going to give to LA. Okay, this is not the arena for that.
Speaker 1:This is not what we do, but what I'm segueing into is that Sacramento is starting to kind of hold its own in that arena, and it's gotten it's gotten so good downtown.
Speaker 3:There's so many different things to do at night now that and you know the golden one obviously being we just went recently went to the Zach Bryan concert and we stayed. There's a new AC Marriott, which we had a lovely view of the prison, but that location of it is awesome, though, because we literally got out of the concert, You're in the lobby in five minutes, and so to have those, because before they didn't have those types of hotels where you could stay local, and a lot of times you're just like I just want to get back out of Sacramento.
Speaker 3:But there's so many good places to eat now.
Speaker 1:We went to the porch in the morning for brunch and I love the porch and a lot of people don't even know about it, but uh, it's like southern kind of southern style.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some beignets and good coffee. You'd be hard pressed to find a place I haven't eaten before. You ever been to tiffrit, the coffee joint across from um. I go there all the time.
Speaker 1:It's a little, uh, family-owned well, now you, just the first one you come out of your mouth, I'm like no, I don't know where that is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, it's right by McKinley Park off of Alhambra.
Speaker 2:Oh, I've been there multiple times. Yeah, it's right across the street from the CB.
Speaker 1:Oh, in that little corner. Okay, yes, I know of it, but I've never been there before.
Speaker 3:Wendy and I have our business meetings there. I love that. A little cup of coffee. It's a good little spot. It's a tiny little spot. I don't see people crowded in and out of it and then they come over to the coffee shop. Yeah, and they sell out of their pastries Brilliant location in my opinion.
Speaker 1:Okay, I don't know how are we doing on time, dan.
Speaker 2:I mean we've been doing it. Okay, we're doing it. Do you want? Are you ready?
Speaker 1:We can keep going. I mean, I mean, okay, you just let me know when you're ready to ask your favorite question.
Speaker 3:I just got to pick up Brooklyn by two. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I've got to pick up.
Speaker 2:I've got to pick up this afternoon as well, so uh yeah, we all got shit to do, all right. Let's keep going. We're having, we're having Nicely. No, I like it. So pop culture Okay.
Speaker 1:This is actually something we recently added but I feel like we talk about social media so much and pop culture and social media are really just sisters these days. So is there a pop culture or we could say just social media trend that has your attention right now?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I watch a lot of them.
Speaker 1:I'm sure.
Speaker 3:I try to. Social media is such a fucking rabbit hole.
Speaker 2:It's a tractor beam. I think it's more of a tractor beam than a rabbit hole. It just pulls and pulls and pulls.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and there's so many different. So when I was thinking about this, I follow a lot of fire department like non-fire department, but it's like people who are in the fire service. They've started their own underground pages, right.
Speaker 3:I follow a lot of them and they do a lot of memes um where they're making fun of leadership or uh, administrations and stuff and it a lot of. It is absolutely hilarious, um, and so I started on my personal Instagram, probably a couple of years ago, um taking some like I really like humor and I was doing some more funny stuff and I I did a video um, cause I I do like anything where they're like, uh, not lip singing when you, but they're, they're they're using sound and audio from a movie clip or something and and translating the TikTok stuff yeah Talks, got a ton of that stuff now right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I did a video, um, that I thought was just hilarious. I always wanted to do it and one day I just and I made it in 10 minutes on the phone at uh, it was at a fire station and it's uh, from the movie training day, when Denzel Washington first meets him and they're walking to the car and they get in and he goes this car is not from the motor pool and he's like no, no, but sexy though, isn't it? And he goes uh, he's also where we headed to the office and he goes no, you in the office, baby, so that scene.
Speaker 3:I did a, I did a thing because about the bc vehicle and this kid's gonna ride with me in the battalion chief car and he turns to me and I and I it was spot on the way I did it too and I go you're in the office, baby, and I, and I hit these switches and I I made him like jump and bounce.
Speaker 3:And it was so I got called in on that. The chief didn't like the some of the the negative side of that, cause that movie does show the police agency you know, dirty cops, dirty cops. And so, and I'm, I'm, I always say, I'm nine, one, six, famous, like so you're like.
Speaker 3:Even if I'm not in uniform or whatever. I uh, he's like you know, I rep. People know my face somewhat, especially anyone in the fire service stuff. So he was like just you know, be careful a little bit about how you're doing it. But I had slowed down on making content then. But I my the ideas are there. I mean I'm ready to take off at some point. But um, you do need come on retirement.
Speaker 2:He's got a countdown clock in his office. Everyone's like what's that? He's like nothing, but I do.
Speaker 1:he's got a little black book of videos to be made you better hope that you are not in there.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you guys do this, but I had to start scribing because stuff will just pop into my head and if I don't, if I don't write it down, like I won't remember it at all. So, um, my wife could. She thinks I have dementia already, Cause she'll say something to me and I'm like, no, it's just you, I'm just shutting you off.
Speaker 3:So no, yeah, that's, that's fun, but I am, I'm trying to the social media stuff. I'm actually trying to. I'm trying to limit my time on there, but it's hard, it becomes a habit Social media is such a a wolf in sheep's clothing clothing in the sense of.
Speaker 1:you know, we think that we're there as a platform to connect and engage with our community and followers and all that stuff but it really is the. The insidious part of it is how distracting it is from daily life and how much time it can actually steal from you. Just you know it really wastes so much time. You have to be hyper strategic about what you're doing on there, how long you're on there. I mean, I know iPhone is coming out with timers and stuff and I saw in Australia they're actually banning the use of social media for kids under the age of 16, which I fully support.
Speaker 2:I know that for me, like it's it's my number one point of contention. Like it's the it's my trigger right now, especially with my kids. Like I go to wake them up in the morning and they're already on their phone, with their phone in their face. Or we get in the car and they're immediately on their phone. Or we sat down at dinner last night and that you know one or both of them have have or have their phone in front of them, or the other one hasn't come down the stairs yet because she's still on her phone.
Speaker 2:And I'm like it just makes my blood boil. And I'm, like you guys, like can we just not for five or 10 minutes and just be away from it? Um, I try and be super, super, like just um direct about it. I'm like, nope, I'm going to turn my phone over so that it's not a distraction, or I'll make sure, like I'll plug it in so that I have to go walk around and not be attached to it. Um, but it's something that, like, I'm very aware of and I think you know I do so much training and sitting in on certain things and hear so much, so many different topics that different offices have brought in and the the social media. One's crazy, but it's like someone told me one time too. They're like hey, you know why are you trying to compete for this time. You know like you've got to be more interesting. I don't have to be more interesting than social media.
Speaker 1:I have to be a parent.
Speaker 2:Dan, no one has made dry rot as interesting as you have. Let's just call it like it is.
Speaker 1:Termites are sexy when Dan is on the social media platform. Dry rot was a girl I used to date. That sounds painful, honestly.
Speaker 2:I hope you got that treated. I hope you're not eluding the penicillin. I hope that's not chronic for you. Honestly, I hope you got that treated. I know I hope you're not eluding the penicillin.
Speaker 3:I hope that's not chronic for you really. No, no, I've leveled up. He's fine now.
Speaker 2:Well, before this thing goes too far down that road, we're going to reel this back in, yeah, and we are going to wrap this thing up. So the last question that we always ask of all of our guests if you could be anybody for a day. And I have a new disclaimer can't be better alive can't be yourself, nor can it be Kaylee or I, because I know that that would be pretty pretty inviting as well. So who would you be and what would you do for that day in the life of so I?
Speaker 3:I. That's a hard question. It is, um, and you know cause there's so many great people in history, right, but but I think the catch, the question, is the 24 hours, right, like it's a one day thing, so you don't have a long time. So the one thing I really thought of and my wife will appreciate this is I actually would like to be Becky for a day, and but she's not going to like this. I would literally go lock down with her husband and and we would have a 24 hour like it would. It would go crazy, yeah, everything I want to do is would be going down that day.
Speaker 2:So sorry back, it would be a, it would be a, it would be a yes day.
Speaker 1:It would be a it would be a can't say no day, can't say no day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought about that. But the other thing I was thinking I'm like it would be fun to be governor for a day. If I could be Gav you know, king for a day. Go to French laundry. No, I fire the legislature. You know, really clean up the. I think you need more than a day, though you need a lot more than a day.
Speaker 1:But you know what? In Becky's defense, I have to disclaimer here that if you were her during that day, you'd be experiencing it from her side. So you better measure up All right.
Speaker 3:I guess I didn't think that deep.
Speaker 2:Insightful it is.
Speaker 1:And that's why I'm here. Folks, Thank you.
Speaker 3:But I think the big thing is like I you know, I would hope most people for this way like I am truly happy being me, yeah, and the things that you get to experience on a daily basis and the people I've met and places I've been, like it doesn't for me, it doesn't get better and um, so I would hope most people feel that way about themselves. You know, I, you know, though, they say ego is not your amigo.
Speaker 3:I, I do have a healthy one and I enjoy where I'm at in my life and and where we're headed as a family and as a couple with my wife, and I look forward to retirement I got six years to go if I'm going to max right, like if I'm going to go go anytime after 50, though you can, you can call it and with my, my side gig and different stuff, I'm, I'm hoping you know, maybe I can get out early and and go explore the world more Cause there's so much out there Um, take some risks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah, well, we can't wait to see what you do. We're going to be following you. Anybody who can should I promote and you want to tell people your Instagram if you want them to follow you. Oh, if I could remember it.
Speaker 3:It's a yeah, it's. Just look up Keith Wade. It's like Keith underscore Wade or something. It's some, it's someone. I shouldn't have done like that, but um, but it is funny when it's I'm the people's chief of caring for Jen pop on the daily.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did see a reference to chief Keith somewhere, which is what I'm going to forever call you.
Speaker 2:I think that was the background on, I think, your social on your Facebook account.
Speaker 3:A guy made that for me. It's like says parental advisory that loud? Because I yeah, everyone knows I have a loud personality at work.
Speaker 2:Well off work, yeah, yeah and it's fun.
Speaker 1:It serves you well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I've appreciated this. This has been a blast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Thanks for joining us today. Awesome man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we time and yeah, let's get out of here.
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