00:00:00:00 - 00:00:01:03
Unknown
It is heartbreaking
00:00:01:03 - 00:00:02:19
Unknown
when people fall back,
00:00:02:21 - 00:00:05:06
Unknown
it can be really, really hard.
00:00:05:08 - 00:00:10:02
Unknown
But it's worth it. It's worth it.
00:00:10:04 - 00:00:31:20
Unknown
Hey, we're joined today with Ally. She is the general manager at JJ Safety. How are you doing? Doing good. How are you? Yeah. Doing good. Good to have you on. We're talking, the other day, just about. Of how JJ safety does second chance employment and what that looks like. And you talked a lot about the, people having something to prove.
00:00:31:22 - 00:01:09:21
Unknown
I kind of wanted to see if you could open up on that and just kind of share a little bit about that and what that experience has been. Maybe some success stories of, people you've seen come through the company. And he had said on that would be awesome. Sure. Yeah. So I would say that the term second chance is really kind of interesting to me, because I know that primarily it has to do with people who have been through, like the justice system, who are justice impacted, and are coming out and wanting to kind of get back into the work environment.
00:01:09:23 - 00:01:39:17
Unknown
But at JJ safety, it's not just that either. There are a lot of people out there who maybe just need a little bit of understanding to be able to be successful, to get over the hump, to get to that next step in their lives. And I think that that's one of the things about JJ safety that just makes us so successful is that we look for those things and people we look for, not where they come from or what they've done, but what they want to do next.
00:01:39:18 - 00:02:04:16
Unknown
We are going to succeed. We're going to be great. JJ safety is going to keep keep going and go to new levels of excellence. And so it's kind of like looking for those people who want to come with us, who want to buy houses, who want to reunite with their children, who want to get cars, who, you know, they they they want more from their life than, than where they are at right now.
00:02:04:18 - 00:02:25:15
Unknown
And they may just need a little bit of a pull or push push sometimes. Sometimes a few. Yeah. Sometimes a few shots or a few pushes. Yeah. To get to that next step. That's really cool I love that and I think that's a big thing. You. And before becoming general manager, you were a manager for customer service.
00:02:25:17 - 00:02:42:12
Unknown
And you had a lot of employees who had come from kind of those areas of life. And it's almost like they have this, chip on their shoulder to, like, I want to prove myself. I want to be better. I got people looking at me, doubting me, thinking I'm not going to make it, thinking I'm going to go back into my old ways.
00:02:42:16 - 00:03:01:16
Unknown
And do you see a lot of that with like, customer service, like, working with clients? A lot of these clients, I would assume when they come on board and we start working for them, tend to assume the best in the circumstances of, like, so do you think, the customer service managers, like, thrive in that?
00:03:01:18 - 00:03:23:04
Unknown
Or is there any kind of maybe stories where you've seen like, maybe a new customer service manager come on board and then they've been able to kind of flourish in that environment? Definitely. There are a lot of success stories like that. And I think one of the neat things about the way our company is set up is that there is a certain level of like anonymity.
00:03:23:04 - 00:04:15:03
Unknown
When a customer is new and gets transitioned to the customer service team, it's being like an actual customer of ours because our reputation is so great. Like we have the best Google reviews, unpaid, you know, incentivized Google reviews from real customers about our real representatives. And I think that just knowing the background of some people and how they've been, prejudged and pigeonholed into these, like, stereotypes, I don't think people necessarily realize that, like, they're it's not obvious, and there's no way for our customers to know that because there is no distinction between somebody who is just this impacted, who wants to move forward, and somebody who has been, you know, in a good
00:04:15:03 - 00:04:47:14
Unknown
place most of their life and made good choices, you know, so I think that that's kind of neat. And it gives them the ability to like, not worry about that prejudgment and to go forward and show kind of a blank slate. Yeah. Like what they what they can do. And it doesn't hurt that our people are super passionate about making sure that our customers are taking care of and that honestly, a lot of our people like our culture, is to treat our customers business as if it's our own, like we care whether or not they get the jobs.
00:04:47:14 - 00:05:17:09
Unknown
We care whether or not their score is going to drop. We care whether or not they meet deadlines like it's we take ownership of that stuff. And I just, I love the fact that our team is free to be that way. And I know that it's a lot of because of what, we put into our employees, we genuinely believe that putting in maximum effort with our employees, leads to our employees putting in maximum effort with our costs.
00:05:17:09 - 00:05:38:07
Unknown
Yeah. It's contagious. It's contagious, for sure. So, for those that don't know, JJ safety manage these third party accounts, whether it's ISNetworld or Avetta. There are some. I mean, there's what how many are there out there these days? There's almost a hundred that we've counted. It's insane. So, what does that typically look like?
00:05:38:07 - 00:05:59:15
Unknown
So, do you have any examples of maybe like, I know you mentioned like, the insurance variances before, do you have any stories that kind of like break down, like what that looks like in a day to day? Or maybe I think the, the easiest way for me to kind of communicate what it is that our team brings to the table, is something that actually happened to me, okay.
00:05:59:19 - 00:06:24:00
Unknown
With one of my customers in the distant past, but it's just like the most obvious, easy to understand example. So did you used to do customer service? Like you were kind of lower on that totem pole and that's where you were initially started doing that. Okay. I actually, at the previous company that a lot of us worked for, I was like the top selling, okay, like female performer.
00:06:24:00 - 00:06:50:21
Unknown
So I was in the sales, I was in the Million Dollar Club doing $1 million worth of business year over year. And then when I started with JJ safety, when John and Jonathan told me like, hey, let's go, we're doing something here, do you want to be a part of it? I was actually one of the people who was, making sure that the customers got into compliance and keeping them in compliance.
00:06:50:23 - 00:07:17:00
Unknown
And then I did that for a long time, and I became the onboarding manager. Yeah. Which onboarding really is that first initial step from. You're a new customer, too. It's the intro into the customer service. It's the department where we take a customer who's account is a new customer whose account is not in compliance, and we triage that account and get it in compliance as quickly as possible.
00:07:17:00 - 00:07:45:08
Unknown
So we assess it. Is it set up correctly? Is it set up to maximize our customer's, like ability to gain new business? Yeah. To keep the business that they have. So we're going into those accounts, whether it's uploading documents to make sure that they have the right, safety lingo. So this was again a long time ago, but it it's a story that is this over and over and over again.
00:07:45:08 - 00:08:15:14
Unknown
So we had a small one man show, paper supplier who was working, a hiring client site in southeast Texas. And it was Texas. It was actually multiple sites. And I'm not going to say who the hiring client was, but that's like the Chevron Shell's BP's. That's who we're talking about, like those big companies. So that hiring client required that the contractor get an ISNetworld account, which already is an expense to the hiring to the contractor.
00:08:15:14 - 00:08:39:23
Unknown
Right? So they probably spent, I don't know, a couple thousand dollars to be a part of that website. But then in getting he tried to do it himself. But again, he's a one man show. It's just him, you know, he's got to do the work and like organize this business, but then also maintain this account. So he struggled a little bit, especially when it came down to the safety policies section, which he had a lot of that stuff already.
00:08:39:23 - 00:09:09:08
Unknown
Yeah. But there was one, requirement that popped up that was a helicopter safety policy, and he did not know what to do with that. They didn't have helicopters on there. No. In their paper supply company. No, no, no they didn't. There are a lot of money in that. They did it. And, I mean, for all intents and purposes, like OSHA is not ever going to recommend that you have safety policies in your safety handbook that don't relate to the exposures of your job right?
00:09:09:10 - 00:09:35:07
Unknown
They don't relate to the work that you do. And so once he the hiring client was requiring, yeah, the paper company to have a policy on helicopter awareness. Helicopter helicopter safety. Safety. Yeah. Okay. It was aware. Yeah definitely. And we know that because it popped up as a requirement in the ISNetworld platform. And it said it was related to that specific hiring client.
00:09:35:07 - 00:09:53:15
Unknown
And so once he hired us, we actually, bridged with that hiring client. We reached out to the hiring clients directly, like whatever contacts we have and will, you know, try to advocate for the contractor on their behalf and like, kind of try to understand, like, hey, why? Why is this requirement here? Can we get a pass on this?
00:09:53:15 - 00:10:19:15
Unknown
Because it doesn't relate to the work that they do. Yeah. And usually we're pretty successful and this specific case we were not the hiring client said no, he has to have it. He enters sites that have healer pads. Oh. Okay. So some more context. Yeah. So how do we get around this, this guy, like, does he really need a helicopter safety policy?
00:10:19:15 - 00:10:37:07
Unknown
And please keep in mind that there are requirements of content that has to be in the safety policy. And that's more than just, hey, if I'm going on to a site, I need to stay away from the healer pads. It's it's way more it's more than that. Yeah. And he can't go on to the site unless he has this document.
00:10:37:13 - 00:10:57:05
Unknown
Right. So he has to come up with or we have to write that. Okay. Yeah. And I don't know that it relates to that specific document, but that specific document is part of an overarching score. And so he has to have a certain score to be permitted on to the site. And so in order for us to get that score, we got to make, we got to make it work.
00:10:57:05 - 00:11:25:18
Unknown
Right. And so in this scenario, what we did is we kind of just try to think of how, how could we make everybody happy. And so what we ended up doing was adding a disclaimer to the safety policy that we wrote that meets the requirements of ISNetworld, that the policy that makes the hiring client happy. But we added a disclaimer, basically just saying that it was an awareness level policy specifically for those sites, the hiring client sites.
00:11:25:20 - 00:11:47:19
Unknown
And that was accepted by ISNetworld. And because it was accepted by ISNetworld, they got the points. And so he got the green light. He got the green light. Yeah. And so it was just a matter of thinking outside the box and trying to find the best solution that made everybody happy in the same customer situation.
00:11:47:20 - 00:12:21:04
Unknown
It turns out he was also already working with his insurance to getting a quote on increasing his commercial general liability insurance. So you have to have a certain amount of insurance with certain you know, endorsements, etc., in order to be deemed safe enough to go on the sites right. But in the portal, it was asking for a $10 million commercial general liability policy, which that's expensive for one man, for a one man supply supplier.
00:12:21:04 - 00:12:42:19
Unknown
I mean, he's not that's not seeing things up. He's not doing any demolition work, you know, and nothing invasive, nothing with chemicals. You get a paper cut might be an expense. That's that's a paper cut. Yeah. I mean, and granted, things can happen, but $10 million is a lot. And so that was a red flag for us. If he had bought that, it probably would have come out to an extra $8,000 roughly.
00:12:42:19 - 00:13:10:17
Unknown
That's an estimate in premium for him annually for that insurance. That's a deal breaker. Yeah. Because he only he had a $2 million commercial general liability policy, which is totally reasonable. So what we did is we actually asked him for the contract, the mssa that he had with that hiring client company, and we reviewed it and we said, well, it says 2 million, not 10 million.
00:13:10:19 - 00:13:38:04
Unknown
And so, again, we went back to the hiring client and we said, hey, the portal is asking for 10 million. The executed Mssa says 2 million. Can we get a pass on this? And they granted that pass thankfully. So he saved money on, his insurance premium. Did not have to increase his insurance. So in that situation alone, I mean, he definitely came out on top.
00:13:38:06 - 00:14:00:11
Unknown
The the amount of money that he paid to us was a drop in the bucket compared to what he saved, especially with all the insurance. Yeah. And that's huge. Yeah. No. So and that kind of gives, like we always are asked like, hey, do you have a flier that outlines specifically what you do? And we do have some general marketing material, but there's it's stories like that.
00:14:00:11 - 00:14:24:11
Unknown
It's situations like that that really illustrate what it is that JJ safety brings to the table. Well, and it's like you're trying to, you know, in this world of, of compliance sometimes it's a it's a broad brush stroke by these, companies that people are trying to work for to get verified. They're, they're requiring a specific things that are just kind of, hey, everyone coming on needs to have a helicopter awareness policy.
00:14:24:11 - 00:14:43:06
Unknown
And you got, you know, Joe and his paper mill being like, what is going on? And that's a big deterrent. I'm assuming. So you guys see, is that a lot like the helicopter awareness type helipad awareness policy, stuff like that. Are those like pretty common? Like there's a lot of those random ones that like companies just get hung up on.
00:14:43:06 - 00:14:58:08
Unknown
And we're usually helping them out with with being like, hey, you guys don't have to deal with this, but let's let's walk through this together in a way that makes sense for you. And of course, you're hiring client. Is there any other ones that you guys tend to run into like that? Yeah. And it's not one specific policy.
00:14:58:08 - 00:15:25:19
Unknown
I mean, it literally could be a driving safety policy, which seems very general, but there are a lot of situations where the employees are not using vehicles to, like, do the job at all. They they may even not leave the site. They're coming to work, they're going into a building, they're doing the work and they're leaving. So a driving safety policy or a fleet management program just does not make sense for that customer.
00:15:25:21 - 00:15:54:16
Unknown
And I mean, I think the idea is great, the idea of making sure that, the hiring client is hiring people that will be safe, that will, you know, limit their exposure to liability. I think that it is. And it's a great idea, and it's something that we want to continue to work towards. It's just a little bit difficult to put in place, in absolutes.
00:15:54:16 - 00:16:19:01
Unknown
Like, it needs to be a little bit more. It would be helpful if it was a little bit more specific to the contractor or supply or company, instead of those broad brush strokes. Yeah, you said, but it's so much easier. I mean, if you, if you're, a hiring client and you have, say, 50 different companies coming on site, sometimes it's probably easier for them to just be like, everyone needs this.
00:16:19:03 - 00:16:39:23
Unknown
Whatever. Figure it out. And it's and it's often happens because, like, new requirements will pop up often because of issues that do happen on the site with those hiring clients, like, like somebody, for that, for the one that we were just talking about, who knows what happened. But maybe, contractor supplier stumbled into the helipad.
00:16:39:23 - 00:16:59:16
Unknown
And, you know, I don't know, there was an accident, there was an injury. There was something like a near miss or something. Some. Hey, they're about to land. Why are you over here? Get out. And they want to build awareness on those things, but it doesn't necessarily translate to everybody. Should have a paper supplier needs to. Who goes nowhere near the helipad.
00:16:59:16 - 00:17:20:10
Unknown
Yeah. Unless there are we air dropping paper that could. Yeah, that could be it. And I mean even even in companies that but let's say we had a handful of supplier organization supplier companies working for the hiring client. Even those guys are going to have different exposures company to company. Some people are going to bring it to the gate.
00:17:20:10 - 00:17:48:12
Unknown
Some people are going to bring it in. Every site's different. Everybody's different. Every business is different. It's really hard to have cookie cutter, requirements for these companies because almost no company is a company is built exactly the same. So like the insurance, so is it a variance? Is that what they, they call that is basically saying, hey, this contract we sign says this, therefore you're requesting this.
00:17:48:12 - 00:18:03:13
Unknown
What's up? Is that pretty common where you guys are able to turn to the contracts that companies are signing to be and they're like, well, hey, this is the contract. So therefore we don't need this. We don't need that, we don't need that. And it really like simplifies the that's like what they need in their accounts to get approved.
00:18:03:17 - 00:18:26:06
Unknown
I think that most of our variances are are variances are the most successful when they're backed by an executed contract. Right. Because somebody signed it. Risk management would have looked at that and approved that it should that that's an adequate amount of insurance for example. So I think in those situations it's a lot easier to get a pass.
00:18:26:06 - 00:18:52:12
Unknown
But that's not the only way we get a pass. Sometimes we just have to use, like a logical argument, a logical defense. And appeal to reason or appeal to, hey, you know, can we do this now and then this later? It really every hiring client is different. And then even within the hiring clients, there are different contacts that you speak with.
00:18:52:12 - 00:19:16:18
Unknown
And they're just human beings. So some people are going to be more willing to work with you than others. Some people are going to have a better understanding than others. So we just have to really put our best foot forward for our customer and advocate on their behalf with logical arguments and reason, and not just something like, hi, can we have a pass?
00:19:16:20 - 00:19:39:09
Unknown
Nope. Or delete? You know, the worst variance request is, when I see you get declined a lot and we don't we don't put it in there is a high. I can't afford to pay for this. They don't care. Yeah, that's not it. Not my problem. That's your problem. That's not a good reason. You need. Yeah. You need like a concrete reason why it's not.
00:19:39:15 - 00:19:59:22
Unknown
Doesn't make sense for you to have that or need that. Yeah. And I mean you there's obviously plenty of reasons for why, which we've been doing this for how long has JJ's safety been like doing this type of work? JJ safety has been in business since November of 2015. Oh, almost ten years. Look at that. Not too bad.
00:20:00:03 - 00:20:18:23
Unknown
So I mean, obviously through the years, you guys have been able to build connections in the industry to people, whether it's those auditing sites, you know, isn't Avetta., any of those like, you guys have been able to build those relationships there. So when you do have your variances or whatever, you know who to reach out to to get that taken care of.
00:20:19:01 - 00:20:34:16
Unknown
That's probably really cool feeling to like, feel like we're, you know, like, start to get your own like, respect in the industry because early on, I'm sure it was like everyone's like, who are these people? What are they doing? I'm sure it's hard to get your. But once your foot in the door, it's like you start earning respect.
00:20:34:18 - 00:20:59:03
Unknown
You start building that. How's that? How's that? Because you've been with the company for. Have you been with the company that that whole time? I started in February of 16. Okay. So four months after. Yeah. So what's that like? Like seeing the growth and, like, realizing that when people see JJ safety now they see like there's, there's like work there's some work that we've done that we can now people can look at like what's that like for where it was.
00:20:59:03 - 00:21:28:15
Unknown
Where it is. Yeah. No. When we first started we were I mean, not when the guys first started because they started at a bedroom. But when I first started with the company, we were in this tiny little building in Apache Junction, Arizona, and it was like two very small rooms with like ten of us in there. And then the bathroom was like in the middle, and it was uncomfortable because you could hear everything like there was no privacy.
00:21:28:17 - 00:21:50:04
Unknown
You know, that place of music or something? Yeah. It was it was a little awkward, but. Oh man. Yeah. No, I mean, and it would get so hot in there. I mean, we're in Arizona, so in one of the rooms they had these big windows and we used, it was actually Joey, Uncle Joey who, used like it was the same material as what you would put in your car windshield.
00:21:50:04 - 00:22:10:09
Unknown
Yeah, yeah, like executive like the visor. Yeah. Yeah, he he put those in the two big windows. And so that's how we kept the heat out so you could get your work done. That's absolutely insane. We did. We went through the struggles. We went through the struggles together. And, it's just our.
00:22:10:11 - 00:22:37:03
Unknown
Love for what we do and our care for one another that has allowed us to grow into a company that has a whole room dedicated to just podcasts. Yeah. You know, we have a whole room dedicated to, just exercise circuits that when the trainers come and then we have the gym in the back, you know, these are huge things that we're we've really, really worked for and we're super proud of.
00:22:37:04 - 00:22:59:13
Unknown
So basically starting in broom closets with no AC and a central toilet that's basically like an outhouse. Yeah, it was rough. It was it was fun times, though. I mean, you know, you're just like, on top of each other. You worked on there was one girl, and, she's super sweet, but she's she was very different than the most.
00:22:59:13 - 00:23:19:14
Unknown
The most of us. She was a lot younger, and she was like a kind of a theater kid. She would do her dance moves. She would practice her routines. Like in the corner, by the door, by the back door. And we would just kind of be like, okay, I guess. But we've always, like, been that close with one another.
00:23:19:14 - 00:23:38:13
Unknown
We were just like, all right, like, let's do it. You got to start somewhere. Do you feel like there was a moment, in the past, like, what, nine years, I guess for you or ten years almost that you feel like was like a really big moment for the company that kind of turned that page, like, okay, I think we got this, like we're doing this.
00:23:38:13 - 00:24:00:19
Unknown
Was it early on you guys had a breakthrough with that or there have been some really and they they pop up periodically where you just kind of get hit by a reality. Like this is really happening right now. You know, one of those moments happened recently. It's not the first, of course, but, we actually had a hiring client hit us up recently on our website.
00:24:00:19 - 00:24:26:20
Unknown
I don't know if you know this, but, they asked us, they said, hey, we know that you help with vetting the contractors and suppliers. Can you point us in the direction of some contractors who do this type of work in this area? They were looking for referrals from us. Oh, I was like, okay, yes, we'll absolutely point our customers in your direction.
00:24:26:21 - 00:24:53:11
Unknown
Yeah. How cool. Because now you have like, there's people that are looking up to you to help them to leverage our business to help their business grow, because obviously there's there's clients we work for that I'm assuming are the one man band who is just getting started. And they finally landed their first gig, and now they got to get all this compliance stuff versus I'm assuming there's some pretty big clients that we work for, right?
00:24:53:13 - 00:25:31:06
Unknown
Yeah. So you see the whole gamut of stuff, and we have been in business so long that some of our, some of our early customers we have seen grow like we have seen them start, as you know, three people in their building and now they have a huge warehouse and 100 employees. Yeah. Like it's really and and it's so funny because we get to bond with them over those conversations like, hey, remember when, hey, I have your OSHA logs in here from, you know, 2017 when you had 12 employees, you know, and now I'm doing your OSHA logs and you have 120 employees.
00:25:31:06 - 00:25:56:19
Unknown
Like how cool. You know, so it's really nice. And yeah, no, it's just really, really a good feeling to know that we are a part of it. And I mean, obviously the the workers, all the contractors, supplier for the excellent work that they're performing, like that's 100% there's but there's a little part of all of us who like because it's your customer.
00:25:56:19 - 00:26:25:12
Unknown
We don't we do our best not to circulate customers to different account managers. We keep them with the same account manager as long as possible. I mean, things happen, like people move on. There's turnover. Yeah. I mean, it's it's not a lot, but it does happen. But so we really try to keep people and so, the account manager will feel a lot of pride and a little bit of ownership of like cut job, you know.
00:26:25:15 - 00:26:46:14
Unknown
Yeah. We helped you know, I mean, as time goes, you just find these moments where you're like, oh, wow. Like where look where we were, look where we are. And like, who knows where the heck we're going, but it's going in the right direction, right? Like that's got to be a really good feeling. Totally. I don't even remember when we moved into this building.
00:26:46:14 - 00:27:14:17
Unknown
Was it like two years ago? Three years ago? Two. Yeah, probably 2 or 3. Well, when we were buying the building, we walked in and we were like, this is so much space. Like, should we build everything out now? Should we weigh like, I think we'll only need, like part of this room over here. And now we're looking at the building, like, do we do we need another building?
00:27:14:19 - 00:27:35:23
Unknown
Do we need to make do we need to make more space? Do we need to take up part of the parking lot? What do we need to do? We need more people. You know, our room, our main room is full completely. There's no space. I know I I'm well aware I used to have a whole row to myself, but now it's like, oh, man, I can't.
00:27:35:23 - 00:27:57:01
Unknown
I can't stretch out, of course. But yeah, that's that's got to be a good feeling just seeing that it's a great problem to have. Yeah. You know, and then when you look at like the tenure of our employees, I mean in the, in the front end sales, it is more challenging to keep people in that because that that is a hard job.
00:27:57:03 - 00:28:18:23
Unknown
There's a lot of I mean, any telemarketing job is going to be tough. Difficult. Yeah. Trial by fire. Trial by fire. Yeah. But I mean, when you look at the other departments in the tenure, I mean, I looked down at I was looking at something the other day, and one of the employees that in my mind is a newer employee had already been here for years.
00:28:18:23 - 00:28:39:23
Unknown
I was like, oh, sheesh. I guess time is just passing. Yeah, I was just flying by. Yeah, but I don't. And I expect that person to be with us for the next. Yeah. However, as long as possible till the end. So you got to get another big building and then another big building and another one, and you're just constantly trying to figure out how to make it work.
00:28:40:00 - 00:29:24:04
Unknown
That's cool. That's that's really cool. Yeah. And in the customer service department right now, two of our, well, one of our assistant managers and then the customer service manager that took over my role, I mean, when they started and they would be better at telling their own star stories, but they are both justice impacted and came from like, like just getting out of prison, you know, overcoming, addictions and just like, being in the not, not the greatest spots, you know, but these guys are buying houses, buying Maseratis.
00:29:24:06 - 00:29:46:16
Unknown
Yeah. What the heck? Yeah. Oh, it's a cool guy. It's kind of like, sick flex, you know, but building, building families and and so successful and, I just look at them all the time and I whether or not they are justice impacted, I still just look at them and I'm like, so proud of it's like a proud parent.
00:29:46:16 - 00:30:11:20
Unknown
Yeah. I'm so proud of them. That's so cool. And I mean that's got to be like the risk right. With like hiring, bringing on people who have had a past or a history. Justice impacted like the risk is high, right. Like there's potentially more turnover. And, you know, people have their demons that they're, you know, fighting with, whether it's addiction or, or whatever it may be, you know, things they have to work through.
00:30:11:22 - 00:30:36:10
Unknown
But the ones that do, you know, take that proving ground and run, it's insane to see the the growth that can happen from that. It's so, so I mean, it is so hard to see people mess up. Yeah, it is so hard to see people make bad decisions because we are so invested in them and we want we genuinely love them and want the best for them.
00:30:36:10 - 00:31:03:05
Unknown
Right. And we'll push them and pull them and try to help up to a point. Right. Because we have to protect the rest of the the group too. Yeah. We can't, you know, there's there's a fine line you gotta look out for your own between helping and, enabling, you know, or potentially hurting other people. But so that's something that we're very familiar with dealing with.
00:31:03:07 - 00:31:29:16
Unknown
But the success stories make it all worth it. It is heartbreaking when when people fall back, it's it can be really, really hard. But it's worth it. It's worth it. And you know what? People mess up, but then they they always have the opportunity to change. And, you know, depending on how they left things to come back.
00:31:29:16 - 00:31:52:00
Unknown
We want people. We want to be that that place for people to put their skills to the test and achieve things that they never thought, you know, and I don't know if it's that they never thought they could achieve it or as much it is as it is that other people in their lives look at them and would never expect them to achieve it.
00:31:52:02 - 00:32:13:01
Unknown
Right. So we love putting that faith in people and pushing them forward and, and, seeing them, seeing them grow. Yeah. I mean, well, you got a lot of people coming from what we talk, like proving grounds where, like, you have people coming from backgrounds where, you know, you had mentioned before, like when people get out, right?
00:32:13:03 - 00:32:49:11
Unknown
And whether it's their family or people that know them or friends or even people that just see the label of like, oh, hey, they did time automatically. There's this viewpoint of like, they're probably going to mess up. They're not good to have around. Like, there's that stigma. They've messed up before. Why is this time different? Yeah. But when those people kind of when they have other people that are the opposite around them, that surround them with people that believe and encourage and hope for the best.
00:32:49:11 - 00:32:57:02
Unknown
Right? Because be realistic. Right? That's fine. We can be realistic. But like hope for the best.
00:32:57:04 - 00:33:21:09
Unknown
Some people just thrive in that. Like, oh, you mean they don't think I'm going to mess up? They just they're just give me a blank slate. And they think I can do it. Well shoot. Here we go. You know like I think that's really powerful. So it is super. It is. So it's so fulfilling to see I actually went I don't know if this is relevant to what we're talking about really right now.
00:33:21:09 - 00:33:51:05
Unknown
But sometimes we'll go to different events. There's one group that we work with a lot called Arrowhead. So they're a group that helps primarily women. While they're in prison to, develop, like, fundamental skills, like interviewing and, like, just really teaching them how to acclimate back into society and, you know, just giving them interview skills, things that they will need to succeed.
00:33:51:07 - 00:34:13:01
Unknown
And so we often partner with those guys and we invest in them because of what they're doing is pretty, pretty cool. Well, it's pretty in line with like what we're doing as well. You know, and me not being from a justice impacted background like I've never I've never done I've never been to court before. Never, never got no never got shot.
00:34:13:03 - 00:34:52:11
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah. So for me, I honestly didn't really know what the big deal was before. Yeah. JJ safety before. You know, I didn't really get it. Like how hard it can be and how much bias there is and how unwilling people are to to to even give people a chance. So all that to say, I went to one of the events with Arrowhead and I actually went into the prison, and it was the guys prison, and they did these presentations and they did it, these presentations to this group of us.
00:34:52:11 - 00:35:23:17
Unknown
And they were kind of explaining to us, like, what they've learned and what they bring to the table as employees. And and it was kind of cool. Each presentation was a little bit different. But one of the presentations impacted me so much. It was so impactful because one of the guys, it was a group of like 7 or 8 guys, and one of the guys was walking around with a poster and the poster was, like an outline of a person, but like, it wasn't colored in or anything was just this orange outline.
00:35:23:17 - 00:35:55:18
Unknown
Which orange? If you don't know, that's the prison color. Yeah. And they're in Arizona. I don't know if it's everywhere, but that's the color. Yeah. And it said things like loser, addict, bad dad, like things like that, like all over this, this person on this poster board, and he, in this skit that they did, the gentleman was yelling at the other six prisoners and telling them, like, all of these really negative things that you could tell that they have actually heard.
00:35:55:19 - 00:36:19:21
Unknown
Oh, yeah, life's like you're a loser. You're an addict. You're never going to change like it was. It was really hard for me to like, hear that? You know, because I genuinely believe that words are so powerful. And then you would see the prisoners stepping up and saying, no, I'm not. I'm this person. This is what I'm going to do with my life in this, just very passionately.
00:36:19:21 - 00:36:51:15
Unknown
And then they would put like, healed or, you know, you know, good dad, you know, to replace those pieces on the board. But it was just so powerful to see what they that look into how like those ugly voices that that talk to them and say negative things about them and them overcoming those negative thoughts and negative words and, purposing to be different and to do better.
00:36:51:15 - 00:37:23:11
Unknown
You know, it was it was really cool. So all that to say, I was genuinely my eyes were just genuinely open to how hard it is for people coming out of the justice system. But but again, it's not just people who are just as impacted. There are people who haven't been in prison and haven't gone to jail, who have lived in families, who have spoken to them like that, must have and believed in them.
00:37:23:13 - 00:37:47:15
Unknown
And it's just nobody's perfect. Yeah. Nobody's. Yeah. We all got our quirks. Yeah, we all got our things we're fighting. Yeah. Sometimes I call us the Island of Misfit Toys. Because we all have our little idiosyncrasies, you know? But we look beyond those things. We appreciate those things in one another, and we work through them to get the job done.
00:37:47:15 - 00:38:16:18
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, that's what makes you human. Like nobody's nobody's got it all figured out. Everyone is literally in the same boat of like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I think I'm doing something right, you know? And we just keep moving and we keep trying to put our head down and make it happen. So I think it's cool that you've built this culture where people can lean into those, I guess lean away from the negative, focus on the positive, and then thrive in it.
00:38:16:20 - 00:38:39:04
Unknown
And then you can see how quickly people can start to build this rapport over the past couple years. Four years, five years, six years, ten years. JJ safety I mean like you can see how that now it's like it's one thing to say you've changed and then it's another thing to have this whole line of work that you've been like, this is me, proving ground.
00:38:39:04 - 00:39:04:05
Unknown
Right? That's awesome. That's great. You look, you blink, and suddenly your life is. You've come a long way, you blink and all of a sudden you're doing podcasts, the general manager, and, yeah, doing a thing, I love that. Oh, sweet. Thanks, Ali, for for joining us today. And, kind of shared some insight on the, on the world of JJ safety and and what you what a typical day looks like.
00:39:04:05 - 00:39:09:18
Unknown
So thanks for joining us and I'm sure we'll have you on again. So cool. So thanks. Thanks.