Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#31: Body after body
75 Plays6 years ago
Podcast series host Jill James speaks with former professional boxer, firefighter, and elephant stampede survivor, Tony Taylor. Tony’s start in safety began while serving as a Marine, where he pushed leadership to support injury rate reduction efforts—and won (26% down!). No small feat in the armed services (or any organization, for that matter). As a civilian, he later found work fighting fires for the Department of Defense, where he focused on fire prevention. Eventually, he was orchestrating fire drills and Life Safety training for a major healthcare provider. Today, he’s carrying safety in the construction trades, where there’s a lot of work left to be done. You’ll find a ton of great advice in the episode and a new idea: job shadowing for safety.
Recommended
Transcript
The Spark: A Podcast on Safety
00:00:11
Speaker
This is the Accidental Safety Pro brought to you by Vivid Learning Systems and the Health and Safety Institute. This is episode number 31. My name is Jill James, Vivid's Chief Safety Officer, and today I'm joined by Tony. Tony is the Vice President of Safety Services at Unlimited Safety Solutions in the state of Washington. Welcome to the show, Tony. Hi, thanks for having me.
00:00:34
Speaker
Well, well, I appreciate you being willing to do this with us. But I when we talked previously, you said that your daughter was saying like the week before you and I got in touch with each other, hey, dad, you should do a podcast. And I'm so glad she pushed you. So what was it that she what was it that she was thinking? Well,
The Journey Begins: Marine Corps and Learning on the Go
00:00:55
Speaker
we were talking about we were talking about safety and what she'd go to college for. And of course,
00:01:02
Speaker
I did not go to college for safety and I've been meeting a lot of different individuals in the field that have went to college for safety. And I was just kind of just telling her it's a good field to get into. And she's like, well, I don't really hear that much about it.
00:01:16
Speaker
And I just said, you know, what do you think is a good way for us to elevate the platform of safety and make it, you know, make it more sexy, which is a really weird word to use. But I use it all the time for that. Yeah. Right. I mean, because it's not a it's not a it's not a sexy thing, right? It's not. Nobody thinks safety is like, oh, that's a cool occupation sounding.
00:01:41
Speaker
Right. You're always thinking of, you know, the guy or gal hiding, you know, behind a truck somewhere with a clipboard on a construction site. And so she said, you know, what about, you know, if you, you know, post pictures of your Instagram of construction sites and we can edit it, make it look cool. And then she's like, oh, my God, you should get on a you should get on a on a podcast. And I'm like,
00:02:06
Speaker
Nobody wants to talk to me on a podcast about safety. They don't exist. And then you sent me an email. Yeah, right? And then that's when you contacted me probably about four or five days later. So here we go. It was the universe, I guess. There we go. The safety gods. Yeah, right. Exactly. Your daughter and I somehow had a universal connection and decided we got to make this happen for you. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And I'm excited. Anytime I can talk about safety,
00:02:35
Speaker
You know, it's, let's go. That's awesome. So Tony, like everybody on our, on the, on the accidental safety pro, um, we ask like, how'd you get into safety? Cause you just said, you know, I didn't go to college to get a degree in safety, but somehow it found you. So would you mind sharing your path? Like how did this, how'd this happen for you? Oh
From Reactive to Proactive: Transforming Safety Measures
00:02:55
Speaker
yeah. Um, no problem. I.
00:02:57
Speaker
Um, so I, I joined the Marine Corps at the age of 18 and I joined the Marine Corps and, you know, all I thought about was, you know, I, I want to go to the Marine Corps. I want to shoot guns and, you know, I want to do this. I want to do that. I want to deploy. Um, so I did that.
00:03:14
Speaker
And I deployed a few times and I came back off of a deployment and I was told that I was getting ready to get a promotion. So I was excited, so excited about this promotion. And I got promoted and probably about, maybe about 20 minutes after I was promoted, they said, okay, congratulations, sir, you are now,
00:03:40
Speaker
going to be working with our battalion safety officer and Yes They didn't ask me. I like to use the phrase ball and toad. I was volunteered to do it, but It wasn't necessarily working as safety. It was basically sitting in an office and recording all the injuries that we had and
00:04:03
Speaker
Um, so that's how I got my start. And my boss, I mean, that's kind of what she did too. We just, we just kind of waited for the phone to ring and we put it into, I think it was called the more track system. And, um, and that's how we did it. And we failed miserably at it. And it was a, it was reactive safety too. You were just waiting for something bad to happen. Very reactive. And it's a, yeah. And there's a lot of safety programs that are like that today.
00:04:31
Speaker
Mm hmm. True. Yeah, right. So what happened next? How do you how long were you in in that role where you're, you know, waiting for the phone during or somebody to lock in the office? So so, yeah, so I sat in that role. I sat in that role for probably about six months. OK. And and, you know, I start realizing that I needed to get out of the office and I needed to take a little bit more initiative instead of just going with
00:05:01
Speaker
My job description said my job description was you know, it was take out the trash wait for the phone to ring wait for an email and so what I started doing was I started setting up classes and Started kind of investigating the injuries and incidents that we were having Which I mean it which I mean, this is almost, you know almost 20 years ago it's kind of crazy to say that that was almost unheard of and
00:05:28
Speaker
In the unit that I was in they're like, you know, what are you doing? We need to talk about? Weapons we need to talk about PT we need you know, yeah just exercise We need to talk about all this different stuff, but we're not gonna talk about safety We want you to basically just get your box of crayons and going to go in a corner and color So I put something to happen. Yeah, right and wait for something to happen. So I pushed and pushed and pushed and
00:05:54
Speaker
You know, I kind of got into, uh, the ears of, uh, one of our, you know, our senior leadership members. And he said, you know what, Tony or Taylor, Sergeant Taylor, you got the green light, go at it. And, and that's what happened. I went at it and I started showing up. I started giving classes. I started.
00:06:12
Speaker
Um, you know, I started looking at some of the, um, leading indicators, uh, of, you know, why these injuries was happening and just started to basically be the face of, um, safety in our organization. And we were able to, uh, decline our injuries by 20% 26% that next year. Um, so you did that by just teaching yourself.
00:06:38
Speaker
Yes, I taught myself and I taught myself I this was before Google was prevalent. I would go on AOL and just look at, you know, what am I supposed to be doing as a safety officer? And so, yeah, I know AOL. Yes. Oh, yeah. Some of our listeners will not.
00:06:58
Speaker
But that's all good, right? Wow. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. Well, that's interesting. So self taught and you had, you had, so you were actually able to show value in that by decreasing. What did, what did the, what did the Marine Corps say to that? Were they like, keep going or let's give them some more stuff or what happened?
00:07:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Well, as you know, the military is is always it's always changing and jobs are always changing around. I went after I had that assignment probably about a year and a half.
00:07:32
Speaker
Uh, I then went to, uh, Japan and, uh, kinda went along with kind of my original duties, you know, working in infantry, working as, you know, being a truck driver, which I loathe.
Firefighting and Fire Prevention: A New Path
00:07:47
Speaker
Uh, and, you know, and then I got out, um, I got out of the Marine Corps and, um, I basically came back home, uh, to Indiana and.
00:07:58
Speaker
I just felt this need for me to be able to kind of get back into society and kind of
00:08:07
Speaker
uh, be able to help. And the best way that, you know, I thought, found out that that was possible was, uh, to go and be a firefighter. So I took a job as, um, as a firefighter for the department of defense. And, uh, that's kind of how I, uh, ended out, ended up here in Washington state, uh, worked as a firefighter, uh, worked my way up from, uh, firefighter to, uh, lead firefighter to captain and then, uh, fire prevention.
00:08:35
Speaker
And, um, the reason why I ended up in fire prevention was because, um, you know, we would go and we would go and do the whole, uh, somebody gets injured at a job site, um, go, you know, go and pick that person up, whether they're alive or not. And, you know, basically get the body bags and then, you know, we would go, you know, go back to the fire station and play X box and nobody would think of it. Well, me, I would, you know, be thinking, you know,
00:09:04
Speaker
I wonder why that happened. You know, what could they have done differently? Yeah. It's kind of like exactly what you had done with the Marine Corps. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Yes. And you know, I, I loved my job as being a firefighter, but it was just, it was so reactive and it just, you know, uh, body after body. And, uh, that's kind of why I ended up going into fire prevention and safety, um, to kinda to help combat that. And that was.
00:09:32
Speaker
Uh, I felt like I was very instrumental in, uh, helping the department of defense, uh, with their safety program as well. Well, safety and fire prevention. Interesting. Interesting. So how, how long were you in the fire prevention role? I was in fire prevention for about eight and a half years. Yep. For about eight and a half years. And, um, I was, uh, poached, uh, by a, uh,
00:10:02
Speaker
by someone by a company out in the civilian sector, you know, after eight and a half years and, you know, and I was working in the hospital setting for quite a bit there in Tacoma. And, you know, I fell in love with that job as well, because, you know, you're basically protecting
00:10:21
Speaker
you know, the patients who are vulnerable, most of them are non ambulatory, you know, meaning that, you know, they can't move. So I mean, it was a very interesting job and definitely something that's near and dear to my heart.
00:10:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's fascinating. I've just been thinking recently that I wanted to be able to have a safety professional on the podcast who worked in healthcare and actually put out a request on LinkedIn to see if anybody was in that field or wanted to make a referral because we haven't, you know, my goal is to continually represent lots of different industries. And I thought, gosh, we don't have healthcare.
00:11:00
Speaker
Yet it's really a growing industry. It'd be fun to talk to a safety professional in healthcare. And I've, I've done some work as a safety professional in healthcare in my career. And now, um, this is so great that you have too. So when you were in the hospital.
00:11:15
Speaker
I know it is. It really is. And so when you were in the hospital setting, were you using, you know, did they hire you for the fire prevention piece? Were you doing lots of employee safety stuff or sort of what elements? Because, I mean, hospitals have a lot of different safety elements. Right. What were you working on?
00:11:34
Speaker
Right. I was, I was hired. Um, I was hired because, because of my fire background and, um, and also, uh, the fact that I knew somebody that worked at the hospital and he, uh, he was the one that, that picked me up. He was my advocate, you know, for getting me in that space.
00:11:53
Speaker
because it was something that I had always wanted to do was to you know, what's the work in the hospital and Yeah, I I was mainly hired to give classes because that's kind of what's near and dear to my heart is being able to teach because You know, it's I I've set through probably in my career. I've set to
00:12:14
Speaker
You know, maybe a thousand plus different power points. I sat through a bunch of different lectures. I mean, even as, as, you know, probably last week, you know, sitting through it and just doodling and just bored out of my mind because the material, I mean, it's good material. Very, you know, very competent and structures, but.
00:12:37
Speaker
Um, I was basically bought in to make it more lively so that I'm not sitting in front of a group, uh, clicking a, uh, a PowerPoint. So, so you're making it engaging. So what sort of training were you doing at the hospital?
00:12:52
Speaker
Uh, doing everything from, uh, working, you know, life safety one on one, uh, doing, uh, fire drills, fire drills was, uh, was a big, was a big deal, uh, working for a hospital because, uh, you know, you, you have, you know, maybe. You know, 2000 people in one building, a couple hundred people in one building. It's really hard to get those people out.
00:13:15
Speaker
Uh, you know, within the two minutes that you need to be able to get them out in. Sure. And we're talking about employees and, um, patients and guests. Yes. Yeah. So, so that was, that was, that was a lot of, uh, a lot of my training was, was mainly, you know, egress. How do we get these patients, um, out of a building in a timely manner?
00:13:35
Speaker
hmm so gosh that's a that's a big background in fire prevention work and life and you know life safety like you're talking about i'm wondering for people listening who maybe don't
Personal Stories: The Heart of Safety
00:13:47
Speaker
know a lot about life safety or even fire prevention are there
00:13:50
Speaker
Are there some things that you'd like to share just about just about that or? Misconceptions or myths or gosh if I had a magic wand, I wish everybody would do or would know you know Whatever it is in that field, right? Yeah, I would say as being a firefighter
00:14:12
Speaker
One thing that a lot of people don't talk about is how hard it is. It's really hard being a firefighter. Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be a firefighter. I thought those dudes
00:14:26
Speaker
And gals, they were so cool. They would have all the barbecues and they would have the big, you know, red truck. And, you know, I like to eat. Right. And I like trucks. So, you know, I thought they were cool. You were thinking of the community impact part. Yes. And that's it. And that's it. You know, that that was all I was thinking about was that part.
00:14:46
Speaker
And one thing that I didn't realize was, you know, being a firefighter or, you know, being in the fire service. I mean, there's a lot of liability and a lot of that liability lies on, you know, your family. You're away from your family. For me, I worked
00:15:04
Speaker
uh two days on uh two days on two days off two days on two days off so you know half of the time i was uh at work and you know i missed a lot of different activities you know like my daughter's first steps um i i missed a lot i missed a lot and um a lot of things that you know we don't think about when we're thinking about going in that career path is
00:15:27
Speaker
You're meeting your patients on the worst days of their lives and that takes a toll out on you. That's stuff that I never forget. You never forget some of the back calls that you went on.
00:15:44
Speaker
And that's, you know, thinking of that stuff and having that stuff in my brain and having that imagery is what drives me as a safety professional because, you know, yesterday I'm, you know, I'm telling somebody, Hey, you need to put your, your eye protection on. And they're like, Oh man, nothing's going to happen. You know, we're just doing punch lists. It's all good. And I'm like, well,
00:16:07
Speaker
You know, I can tell you a story, you know, you want it story time. Let's, let's talk about this now. You know, so, so firefighters, you know, and I think that's kind of what helped me is being able, you know, to have those stories to say, uh, no, I think you're wrong because of this or because of that. Yeah. Right. I mean, that's so true. That's so true. I've, I feel exactly the same way. And then sometimes we get, you know, because we have so many stories and they're not.
00:16:33
Speaker
happy ending stories, that people are like, gosh, is everything that you have to talk about have to do with maiming or somebody dying? And my brother spent over 20 years as a paramedic in major metropolitan areas.
00:16:51
Speaker
and he and I happened to be together yesterday with another friend and the two of us just started talking about some of our stories of fatalities that he responded to or serious injuries he responded to and fatalities or serious injuries that I responded to. He as a paramedic, me as a
00:17:12
Speaker
when I was with OSHA and our friend was like, man, you guys have so many stories. And we both said, you know, yeah, I mean, that was a big part of the job and you're so right, Tony, they'd never leave your mind and you view and walk through the world differently because you see something that is somehow linked to that story, that situation, and you're right back there. Right.
00:17:36
Speaker
And that's where this whole prevention piece comes in, because you've seen the worst of it, so you want to talk about it so it doesn't happen to somebody. And so I think we get a bad rap sometimes, those of us with this large collection of stories where people go, do you have to only just talk about all this terrible stuff? Right. You can't talk about unicorns and rainbows all the time. Right? Yeah, the answer is no. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's definitely hard.
00:18:06
Speaker
trying to find that balance. And I think a lot of safety professionals would agree with me. It's hard to find that balance because you don't want to be
00:18:15
Speaker
you know, that safety professional that's running around like Chicken Little, the sky's falling, the sky's falling. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, exactly. You know, you kind of want to be positive, you know, at least some of the time. Exactly. So you kind of developed this cadence, at least I have in over 20 years of doing this. It's like, okay, when am I going to drop that story? Is this, you know, is this a place, is this a hill to die on right here?
00:18:39
Speaker
and is this the situation that you know needs this story to be deployed or are we just kind of going to let this one you know we're going to correct in a different way or not bring it up at all yeah oh yeah yeah oh man that's funny so um what else about um life safety or you had mentioned fire drills but what other life safety things do you think
00:19:01
Speaker
um you wish people knew since you've did that job for so long maybe somebody who's just starting out um in the field is trying to figure out like what should I do what should I focus on I would I would say um I would say I guess like if I can give my own self advice for you know when I first start you know looking into the code
Advice for New Professionals: Building Trust
00:19:25
Speaker
um as we call it I would say you know don't get intimidated
00:19:30
Speaker
Uh, by all the numbers, you know, and do your research, you know, you thoroughly want to do your research. I wouldn't necessarily take that book and, you know, make a whole, highlight a bunch of different things and then go out to, you know, whoever you're working with and to start quoting that stuff. You definitely, um, you know, you definitely don't want to be that professional. You want to know.
00:19:53
Speaker
the code, you want to know the information, but what I think is more importantly is knowing the people. You want to know the people, you want to capture your audience, you want to be able to have that street cred that we talk about in safety, you want to be able to have that
00:20:12
Speaker
you know, instead of just being that person that's out, you know, reciting the code NFPA 101 tells us that, you know, you don't want to be that person, you want to know your stuff. But more importantly, you want to know your people. And you want to build up, you want to build up that trust. And one thing that, that I've, you know, just started doing was going to different seminars that they've had, I've used to be kind of like, no, I'm not going to go to that stuff. And
00:20:41
Speaker
you know get all nerded out on safety but you know that's one thing that I definitely would tell my younger self hey you need to go to those seminars because you know you sit down and you start networking with different people you're gonna you're gonna learn something you know there's always something you can learn from from everybody so you know definitely getting in the code
00:21:01
Speaker
Definitely getting subscriptions to all the different magazines and trying to find new and innovative ideas to be able to project everything that you're learning and talking to the professionals that are
00:21:17
Speaker
you know that have been doing it that are you know that have been doing it that have been in the field that know it but more importantly what I think what helped me was for being a you know a younger a younger guy in the you know fire prevention field was you know I was working with
00:21:37
Speaker
uh individuals that you know had already retired from the fire service and you can tell them nothing i mean they knew it all and one thing that you know that i that i kind of tried uh to to make sure that i did was not to necessarily look at things with uh that the old lands or you know it's never going to get fixed this is just the way that it is yeah um you know i'm i'm a millennial so it's just like one of those deals like no i get it you guys been doing it
00:22:07
Speaker
this way for this many years there's got to be a way to simplify there's got to be a way that we can make this easy because i'm not understanding it so that means that you know there's probably somebody else somebody else isn't understanding it how can we fix it sounds like that's how you've approached your career all along you know you're not accepting the status quo and you're looking ahead and like okay what more can i do here how can we do this and it sounds like
00:22:30
Speaker
That's what you did with your job. So you were in the hospital. Yeah, I try. I mean, I mean, you know how everybody tells you think outside the box, think outside the box or.
00:22:41
Speaker
you know, let's think outside the box. I always tell people, I don't think outside the box because I was never in it. Excellent. Yes. Excellent. That's great. Good analogy. So you were in the hospital for a while, the hospital setting. Um, what, what happened with your career after that? Well, I, I was, I worked in a hospital and, um, and that's kinda like,
00:23:08
Speaker
After working in a hospital for a while, I migrated to Indiana and I was working with a couple of different contractors as far as construction. I just got fascinated and I fell in love with construction because
00:23:28
Speaker
Um, you know, those are all very hard working individuals. They work really hard, but they are under a tremendous amount of pressure to get the job done. And, you know, for lack of better words or better terms, I mean, safety is, is one of those things to where, you know, I, I don't think that it's always
00:23:53
Speaker
place as high as it should be. I want to make sure that I carefully choose my words because I got a lot of friends that are construction workers. I don't want them coming for me, but I don't think we hold it as high in regard as we should. And one thing that I thought about, I was thinking about this the other day. I was kind of walking through one of our construction sites and I saw someone had the word organ donor on a hard hat.
00:24:23
Speaker
Oh yeah. And I just, you know, I, and I asked him about it and he, you know, he was like, you know, you know, what's, what's the matter? You know, he was thinking that I was getting upset with him, but I was not upset with him. I was more upset with our industry. You know, like there's not too many jobs out there where, uh, you go to work, you know, my wife is in real estate. She's not going to go to work and write.
00:24:50
Speaker
you know, organ donor and a name tag, right? You know, I get it, but at the same time, you know, I, I think we need to do a better job and that's kind of, you know, why I've migrated more to construction now is, you know, because I feel like there's a great need. Yeah. Right. I mean, that is, you know, having those words and thinking about the industry in that regard is such a throwback to like the industrial revolution.
00:25:20
Speaker
Right. Right. You know, I mean, when the expectation was that a certain amount of people just would simply die on a job project, it's like, it's like that iconic picture of the New York, you know what I'm talking about? The New York City ironworkers sitting on that I beam, right? I mean, and knowing that everybody, you know, people needed work so badly then that they were literally
00:25:42
Speaker
waiting to replace someone who fell so they could have a job. I mean, so organ donor, I mean, they probably didn't even have anything. They didn't have organ, but yeah, the industry can't
00:25:57
Speaker
You can't wear that moniker. Right. Right. And every time I see that picture, I just, oh my God. I think of the phrase, you know, the phrase, we've always done it this way. Every time I see that picture. Wow. That's a good phrase. That's a good caption for that photo.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah. I actually put it on my LinkedIn a couple of weeks ago. Interesting. Interesting. Wow. Yeah. So, um, construction industry. Hmm. So you, you've been doing that for a while. I know from seeing your LinkedIn profile that you are also a boxer.
Resilience in Safety: Lessons from Boxing
00:26:35
Speaker
And so I'm just, I'm just sort of curious to know when did boxing come into your life and how has lessons learned from boxing, um, impacted if it has your safety career?
00:26:45
Speaker
Well, I, I've, I've been a boxer since probably the age of, I would say probably the age of 12. Um, yeah, since the age of 12, I was, I was a big stocky kid and actually I was too big to pet, to play, um, pop Warner football. They told me I was too heavy. So, um, so I went to the boxing gym, you know, to lose, to lose a little bit of weight.
00:27:10
Speaker
So that I can play and then I just I fell in love with boxing and you know, I kind of been doing it ever since but boxing I've been boxing for a while and
00:27:23
Speaker
I turned professional, I turned pro in the year 2008 and I boxed for a few years. I was a much better amateur than professional. I already had my career and I had kids and I had a wife. So you've got a job and a family and your professional boxer.
00:27:46
Speaker
and I was firefighting at the time, yes. Yes. Yeah, that sounds intense, Tony. It's a weird combination. You might be an adrenaline junkie. I think so, and that's so bad. It's so bad because I'm a safety guy, right?
00:28:03
Speaker
It just keeps you moving forward in safety and making things better. You're not sitting on your laurels. You're moving things forward. Yeah, but one thing that I can say that it taught me is being able to get punched in the face for 11 and you know that the punches are coming. You're taking those calculated risks, but it's just
00:28:27
Speaker
How many punches are you willing to take? And then once you get punched, what are you going to do after you get punched? Are you going to keep taking the punches? You know, and it also helps you with dealing with the wins and dealing with the loss because, you know, I've I've been knocked down before.
00:28:43
Speaker
You know, I'm proud of the fact that I've been knocked down before. I've gotten up a bunch of times. And I think that's that's kind of like not just in the safety in the safety field, but in life period. You know, you're going to get hit, but you have to keep getting back up. That's the measure of, you know, the of a person's character is how many times they get up. But so I did that for quite a while and
00:29:11
Speaker
Luckily my wife was able to step in and say, listen, um, she saw me on, she actually saw me on the news one day and I was basically what she calls it, uh, plan on, uh, I five there. There was a big, uh, car collision and she could see me on the news, right? Um, you know, doing my thing and, uh,
00:29:34
Speaker
I'm thinking, hey, man, she's going to be so proud of me when I get home. I'm going to steak dinner. She's going to be like, oh, look at my husband out there whipping it on. And this is as a firefighter? Yes. Yeah, OK. Yeah, as a firefighter. So I'll connect it in a second. So I get home, and she's just like, honey.
00:29:57
Speaker
i don't know what to say she's like you know you you go to work you go to work and you're putting out fires and you know you're on the freeway with cars whipping and whizzing around you and then you know you go to a boxing gym and she's you know you have a very dangerous career and a very dangerous
00:30:15
Speaker
extracurricular activity, something has got to change. And yeah, I, I said, you know what, you're right. And I kind of gave up boxing. It sounds like she became, um, wasn't it Adrian with Rocky, like, come on, come on, Rock. It's gotta be a hard stop. I'm sick of seeing this. Yes. Yes. Right. Yes. And when we watched that movie, I'm like, no, Adrian, let him keep going. Stop. Don't take it away from him. Let him keep going.
00:30:45
Speaker
But yeah, it was definitely a smart decision because going back to the whole safety thing, I have a lot of my friends that I grew up with.
00:31:01
Speaker
And this is during that time where it was, it was, it was up there as far as the numbers to where, you know, I would be talking to somebody, uh, this is, you know, back into my space days, I would be talking to somebody on my space, uh, a boxer, and then I'll see him on TV and you know, he'll be knocked out or he'll be in the hospital. One of my buddies, good buddies.
00:31:22
Speaker
Uh, he passed away from, uh, complications of, you know, injuries that he suffered in the ring. So it was just, it's just not enough protection, you know, not enough protection. And it just wasn't worth it at the end.
00:31:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So do you still box recreationally? No. Uh, can I, I'll, I'll maybe shadow box when nobody's looking in my office, when, you know, when we're printing out the, the ocean logs or something like that, I'll do a couple punches in celebration, but.
00:31:53
Speaker
but no not not really yeah oh that's awesome what a great story oh that's so fun um there was one other thing that i'm curious to ask you about before we keep moving on with your career that i also signed your linkedin profile is
A Wild Tale: Surviving an Elephant Stampede
00:32:13
Speaker
You had some interaction with an elephant. So does this have something to do with boxing? Did you box it? Yeah, right I actually forgot about this story. I forgot about this story until Probably, you know not too long ago. I was sitting in a conference room and it was kind of kind of a heated discussion and I
00:32:41
Speaker
I don't like heated discussions. I like everybody to kind of get along and, you know, like everybody to be happy. I feel like that's kind of like my job as the safety guys to be the wellness.
00:32:51
Speaker
the wellness person as well. So I started healthy, healthy conversations. Oh yeah. So I said, Hey guys, uh, do you guys know that, uh, I am in fact an elephant stampede survivor and, uh, and everybody just kind of looked at me. Yeah. They're like, what? They couldn't believe that. I was like, yeah, I I'm not lying. I even, uh, I even called my mom.
00:33:18
Speaker
without no coaching or anything like that. And I was like, Hey, what was that one traumatic thing that happened when I was six years old? And she was just like, Oh, she was like, and this is, I mean, we're, we're sitting in like a board meeting and she goes,
00:33:34
Speaker
Oh, that's when an elephant stomp your beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. It just kind of went off talking about it. And I'm like, mom, I'm at work. And she's like, oh, oh my God. So anyways, and I kind of did that to kind of get that street grant too, right?
00:33:54
Speaker
What happened was I was I was six years old either six or seven and we're at I don't know why somebody thought this would be a good idea but they figured that they would bring the circus to the neighborhood and so they have elephants they have you know all these different carnival rides and you know and of course I'm like hey I want to I want to ride an elephant so I'm
00:34:18
Speaker
You know, I, I go and I ride and I tell my mom, I say, Hey, it's really hot outside. Don't you think the elephants, you know, probably need some water? I don't see any water around. And she said, Oh, don't worry about it. It'd be all right. And, um, yeah, I think I mentioned it to one of my aunts as well. And, you know, and, you know, everything's okay. And then next thing you know, I hear, you know,
00:34:42
Speaker
the noise that elephants make, you know, like big old loud noise, like a trumpet. And there's, you know, hundreds of people running around and I am underneath a gate and an elephant foot is standing on top of me and it just keeps walking. Yup. Yup. Yup. Yup. It happened. And I went to the hospital, got patched up and
00:35:27
Speaker
You know, I was, uh, cinder blocks was actually, that was holding the gate up as the elephant stumped my body, but it didn't, it wasn't like 100%. I would say par, I don't know, maybe like 1% of the elephant's foot was on my body. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was, do you remember being scared? Uh, yeah, it happened so quick that,
00:35:32
Speaker
and I was good to go.
00:35:47
Speaker
that it was just like oh my god what's happening oh my god that's an elephant like so in safety when we think of crushed by and caught between hazards i've had really never pictured nor used the description elephant right
00:36:05
Speaker
for, but it happened to you. Yes, which is really weird. It is. So did that, um, did that disrupt the, um, negative conversation in that meeting that day? Yeah, it was, it was funny because I mean, everybody kind of, I mean, it kind of decreased their productivity as well, but
00:36:24
Speaker
Um, that's all everybody was talking about, you know, for the rest of the day was how I got stopped by an elephant, which, I mean, sometimes, I don't know, I, I'm willing to do that, you know, be that person, uh, to kind of take the heat, especially, you know, when it's getting really hot. So that's funny. So back to, back to your career, you've been, you were in the construction trades, um, and doing that for a while. So what's next on your, you know, what, what happened next in your career?
00:36:54
Speaker
Uh, I think, I think I'm stay with, with construction. Uh, yeah, they almost say with construction because there's a lot of work to do. Uh, there's a lot of work to do. And, um, you know, there's a lot of work to do. Of course, there's a lot of policies, uh, written, uh, but you know, we're not applying it. We're not applying it at all in the construction industry. And I'll be both to say that I can look outside my window.
00:37:23
Speaker
Right now, you know where they're building houses and you know you got crafts personnel on top of roofs without fall protection and you know you go and you talk to a lot of these different companies.
00:37:38
Speaker
that have subcontracted out, they're like, okay, it's old hat. So there's a lot of work to be done. Agreed, agreed. I mean, just that example that alone that you're using right now with fall protection on roofs and roofers, I mean, anyone who's got any sort of a train safety eye, I mean, lack of fall protection is not uncommon to see. It's really bad.
00:38:08
Speaker
And that's why I feel like it's meant for me to be in construction. Because once you talk to a lot of the people out there on the field, and you explain to them how easy it is,
00:38:26
Speaker
to how easy it is to protect themselves. They don't forget it and you explain to them why it's important. They don't forget it, but a lot of a lot of people, they just they just have never, you know, nobody has never taken the time to actually explain it to them.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's I think that's it Tony I mean if you don't know there's a way to protect yourself and you think well I just kind of have to do you know this this and this or contort my body in this position or I'm only gonna be in this situation for a little bit but you didn't know that there's actually a tool a thing a method how what would you do you know like how do you know any better I
00:39:04
Speaker
Right. Right. Yeah. Especially how easy it is these days. It's so easy to set up all protection. Yeah. Right. And so lights kind of go off on people's heads when you're, when you're explaining like this, it doesn't have to be like this. Right. Right. It doesn't, it does not have to be like that. And, you know, and I think it's all in the, the delivery, you know, how you educate people. I mean, because, you know, I've seen, you know, people go out and they're screaming,
00:39:31
Speaker
Yeah, they're going to do what you tell them to do. But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, they're going to go back to those old habits because that's what they know. If you take the time to teach them how to do it correctly and also explain to them what will happen if they don't do it, you know, as far as, you know, sometimes you got to get morbid with them and let them know that you care about them. I'm really big on that. You know, let my people know, I mean, I care about you. This is why I'm correcting you because
00:39:57
Speaker
I care about you. And I feel like in order to get into their heads, you need to go through their hearts first. Yeah. So say more about that, because I know you feel passionate about not being the bad safety guy. Right. Yeah. Right. So when I was in the military, it's all about
00:40:18
Speaker
not necessarily all about, but it's perceived that you have to have, you know, this bravado, you have to get things done. And, you know, you have to, sometimes you got to get your point across, you know, with yelling, you know, and I believe there's a time and place for everything. But, you know, when you're dealing, you know, with safety and you're dealing with people in general, I think is important, um, to be kind. And, you know, I know it sounds really simple and, you know, this is a conversation that, you know, my, my daughters and I have,
00:40:48
Speaker
all the time is, you know, be kind. I think that that's important. You need to be kind to people, you know, in order, you know, not just to get your point across because, but because it's the right thing to do. Um, I'm, you know, when I go on a construction site, um,
00:41:07
Speaker
And I think this is because, you know, and I'm bringing this up because, you know, I feel like I am kind, uh, to a lot of our people out in the field. When I go, uh, to a construction site, I don't have to worry about our people, not all the time, but I don't have to worry about our people heightened things from me.
00:41:30
Speaker
Most of the time they're like, hey, Tony, let me show you this. Or did you get my text? And I'm like, yeah, that's why I'm here. But they're willing to show me that stuff because I've built that trust with them and I'm being kind to them and I'm saying things like, I care about your safety.
00:41:47
Speaker
You know, I care about, you know, you going home, you know, to your kids and using, you know, saying things like, okay, you know, I know your wife's name is Janet and using that stuff just to be able to like, get it to sink in. And I think that's what's important. I think that is what's important is making it personal.
00:42:07
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with that, Tony, and I think that it's also it's sort of that you were talking about street cred and the things that we do as safety professionals to get a buy in from employees, you know, to say, hey, I'm willing to do what you do or, you know, so that we can
Making Safety Engaging: YouTube and Beyond
00:42:24
Speaker
Have some commonality there, but I think just as important is what you're talking about right now is that being kind and knowing them and knowing that you've got their back and Yeah, and it goes both ways then. Oh, yeah becomes reciprocal. That's yeah, that's that's cool I think that's where the magic happens that we're able to do with our work
00:42:46
Speaker
Yeah, maybe your daughter pushed you into this one, but I recently saw a pretty funny but poignant YouTube video that you did. I think it was featured in the American Society of Safe Professionals magazine as well.
00:43:04
Speaker
uh-huh do you know what I'm talking about yes yeah yeah yeah let's hear the story behind that because this is a piece of being kind is what you were portraying in that in that youtube video and also I want to know were your girls instrumental and you doing that yes yes they were um so I um I
00:43:25
Speaker
I saw that OSHA had the, uh, the safe and sound campaign. And I was kind of going through the list of, uh, you know, different, different avenues that you can take to, you know, to take to your, uh, your personnel to promote this event. And I was just kind of like, okay, I don't want to come up with a new policy. We've got enough of those.
00:43:50
Speaker
that collects dust on it. Yeah. Yes, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do a PowerPoint. I love teaching. But you know, what can I do, you know, to to make them laugh, but still get the point across? You know, what can I do to kind of take them away from the construction site? So I went around the office and I'm like, hey,
00:44:13
Speaker
I'm thinking about doing, I'm thinking about doing a safety video. You guys want to do it? And then they're like, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. I'm good. I don't want to do it. I'm shy or I got better things to do. And, and I'm just like, Oh man. Okay. So I came home and I start telling my kids about it and like, Oh yeah.
00:44:30
Speaker
We'll do it. And we came up with this concept and basically it was like, let's make fun of that concept because he's a safety nerd. Yeah, because I am right. I mean, my kids, you know, my girls, they are, uh, you'll see my girls, they have their wrists.
00:44:48
Speaker
They have wrist pads, they have elbow pads, they have their knee pads, they wear their helmet. You know, you're usually here, my wife or myself yelling at them, hey, put your hard hat on. And, you know, even the neighbor's kids, we don't discriminate, right? So, you know, and sometimes, you know, like in the video, sometimes, you know, I'll stop and I'll, you know, I'll see, I'll see workers out and I'll not see them having
00:45:17
Speaker
or not see them wearing their eye protection. And, you know, I keep a trunk full of it or, you know, whether safety vest, here, here you go, buddy. Here's the safety vest. And in that video, um, that video, um, they were doing everything perfect. So I thought that, you know, that that would be, um, a good opportunity to kind of highlight the positive side of it. And yeah, my girls, uh, both of my girls were, were in the video and my son, um,
00:45:47
Speaker
My son, he actually produced it and filmed it. He's a film producer, Dallen Taylor Promotions. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. So now that we're talking about it, people are going to be like, how do we find this video? What's the title of it? I can't remember, Tony. It is called Be Safe, OK.
00:46:07
Speaker
Be safe. Okay, and it was and then ASSP I think featured it in 2018, right? That's correct. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, cool and and so just to give our listeners a little visual that the video starts out with You know Tony's in bed sleeping alarm goes off in the morning and he's like Oh ready to get up and at him hits the alarm and right next to your bed is a caution cone
00:46:33
Speaker
And I'm like, it got me laughing right away. I'm like, oh, this is going to be funny. And it was poignant. And he really did stop at a job site and talk to people who are doing their work right. And so it takes you in a couple of minutes kind of through Tony's day. And it was really well done. It was funny, but instructive as well.
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you for saying that. And yeah. And the point, and the point behind it was, um, you know, one thing that I was trying to get through was, you know, yeah, you know, yeah, you want to be safe at work and yes, you know, you want to be safe at home, but there's no difference. It's all together. If you're safe.
00:47:16
Speaker
If you're safe at home and you're practicing the same, wearing your PPE, looking at the different risks that you're taking, you're gonna do the same thing at work and vice versa. Your kids are gonna want to do the right thing. If you start them early and putting on their PPE and the little girl in there, my daughter that played the, I think everybody's calling her the skateboard girl.
00:47:44
Speaker
She, you know, we get on her all the time about, you know, wearing her PPE and, you know, there's been a couple different conversations that we've had, you know, with her on, you know, why it's important. And she's also able to now go and talk to the neighbors about, you know, them wearing their hard hats and educating them. And I think that is important.
00:48:05
Speaker
that, you know, that translates over to the workforce. And, you know, there's, there's too many kids getting injured. There's too many adults, you know, getting injured at work as well.
00:48:15
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Excellent. That's a that's a fun story. I'm glad that you did that video. Thank you for that. I get teased about it all the time. Oh, my God. Yeah. I bet you do. I bet you do. So you've been you've been in the safety profession now for how long, Tony? Did you say 20? I would I would say I would say probably about a total of a total of 17.
00:48:41
Speaker
Okay, okay. So yeah, so people who are listening who are maybe just getting started, you know, kind of reflecting on what you've learned so far, are there particular best practices or things that you would pieces of advice that you'd like to give people?
The Bigger Picture: Beyond Compliance in Safety
00:48:58
Speaker
I kind of like kind of like earlier I would say no matter what industry no matter what industry you're in you know there's there's always a compliance element to that industry I would always you know tell you know somebody this that's in that generation of you know new safety professionals yes sick and no
00:49:25
Speaker
know and understand compliance. But you always want to shoot above and beyond compliance. You always want to have in your head, you know, what can I take to what can I do or what measures can I take to make the workers safe? Not what can I do to please an inspector?
00:49:47
Speaker
And that was also kind of one of the mistakes that I made earlier on in my career when I was walking around with my stupid little clipboard, writing everybody up, was there weren't any compliance, and I would write it up. So that's one thing that I would do. Again, the continuing education.
00:50:10
Speaker
That's that's huge, you know all of the different laws laws and codes they change pretty often and You know school that's one thing that I think is important is you know to take advantage of the fact that health and safety is offered and you know University curriculum now and I think that's that's actually you know, that's a big piece because
00:50:40
Speaker
You know, you get, you get people like me that, you know, kind of got, uh, feel, feel promoted to being, you know, to being the safety, uh, professional, you know, um, you know, there's a lot of times, um, that, you know, I'll have certain, like I have certain mentor or mentees right now that, you know, I won't know something stuff that I should know. Right. And I'll shoot them a message. Hey.
00:51:05
Speaker
What's the answer to this or what, what does your textbook say about this? You know what I mean? So it's almost like, you know, uh, you know, my generation leaning on their generation. So I would say, uh, you know, that's a good way to, um, to keep yourself marketable is, you know, no one, no one, what you're talking about.
00:51:24
Speaker
right right yeah no you don't know it all right you know i think i think something that you said just uh... a little bit ago was you know you were that safety cop for a while and you learn that wasn't the right thing to do and it goes it goes it goes you know and i think that's something for people who are in our profession well and frankly anywhere i mean this is like life and growing right you make mistakes you learn from them or you try something and you're like you know that wasn't the right way to do it it was like you said with boxing you know
00:51:54
Speaker
you get knocked down but you got back up again and you kept going and you kept going and kept improving and improving and i think that's um that's what it is with with our career and safety for certain but also just life in general in any career where it's not where we're going to have victories and do everything exactly right we're not going to get it right all the time but it's what you do in those moments right
00:52:16
Speaker
right you can't get stuck in your ways yeah yeah right so as we as we start to round our time out together today um tony i want to go back to that conversation you started with where you're giving your daughter advice about college and like what fields she could go into any two are talking about safety and don't forget it's an option i'm wondering um you know when you're thinking about that
00:52:41
Speaker
What do you think we as professionals can do to lift up and encourage, particularly minorities, including women, to choose safety? What can we all be working on?
00:52:58
Speaker
Honestly, that's a good question. I think that you're doing it. I think that you're doing it by having a podcast. I mean, I haven't heard of too many safety podcasts.
00:53:14
Speaker
Um, but you know, getting to getting to, you know, the, the minorities and, you know, actually letting them know, Hey, we're out here. We exist and we're making, you know, we're making sec safety sexy, right? We talked about that early making sex because it safety is boring. Safety is boring. I mean, you know, back.
00:53:37
Speaker
when i started you know i was i had to be volatile nobody wanted that job there's nothing cool about being in safety you know and nine times out of ten if you're in safety you were you know you're doing atman you're sweeping floors you're doing this and you're doing that but i think it's important to let everybody know just like i told my daughter
00:53:57
Speaker
You know, I said, Hey, you need to understand that once you're a safety professional, or if you choose to go that route, you are one of the most important people out there on the job site. And it's not because you're high and mighty, but you're in charge of the most important asset of a company. And that's the people. And I think if.
00:54:28
Speaker
You know, kind of get away from the born safety stuff, the born safety sand downs, and we target those groups. You know, one thing that I'm seeing right now that I am in love with is, you know, I see on LinkedIn, I see on YouTube, I see all over the place that there's young professionals, young safety professionals. There's, you know, black, Spanish,
00:54:50
Speaker
You know, we can push that and, you know, we can
00:54:56
Speaker
all these different nationalities, the females in safety, that is so cool. I love it. I was on the construction site the other day and I came across an individual she had on a pink card hat. I thought that was so cool. I thought that was so cool. I think that we need to keep that momentum going and I think we're going in a good direction. I think we're going in a positive direction.
00:55:25
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I definitely would say, you know, keep marketing it, market it, market, um, those issues, just like we market everything else because it is important and it is a great job. It's the best job that I've, you know, that I've ever had. I wouldn't change it for anything.
00:55:42
Speaker
That's so great to hear. That's so great to hear. And I think that our profession is just evolving right now. I mean, it's an opportune time for a lot of change to be happening with our baby boomers retiring out of the profession and more industries getting more engaged with safety. There's more opportunities for it. And it's a STEM practice. And it's something for us to be talking with our kids about,
00:56:11
Speaker
Yeah, as we're mentoring people, like you said, I think that's really important, right? Yeah, I there was I worked for a job I was on the job one day and There was a foreman one of the one of the supervisors he his daughter goes to Bloomington IU and and he was saying, you know that she was getting ready to
00:56:36
Speaker
crossover into safety and you know what I mind you know maybe you know sitting down and talking to her about it and you know we actually did kind of like a ride along and you know it was so cool yeah it was so cool seeing like her face like light up you know from you know out there walking on the construction site and you know giving the guys half guys and girls high fives out there and you know just kind of you know doing a deep dive into
00:57:05
Speaker
you know, all of the different safe work practices and, you know, just kind of talking about safety in general. It was so cool to kind of see another generation appreciate it, you know, as much as I appreciate it.
00:57:20
Speaker
Well, what a good tip, Tony. I mean, I think that's a good tip that job shadowing and safety, we don't really think about that. I think that's great. I mean, and that's maybe something more of us could do is make those opportunities available for a job shadow, even if it's for a day or a half a day, just to open up someone's eyes to the possibility that it's a career.
00:57:42
Speaker
right i agree yeah i agree that's excellent and an actual real job say a real job shadow not the deal where it's like okay go file all these papers and yeah yeah yeah yeah not like how you started out with uh waiting for the injury to come in the door and i'm going to put it on the 300 log right yeah or whatever it was yeah right exactly well tony as as we uh as we close today i want to uh
00:58:07
Speaker
say thanks to your daughter for encouraging you to do a podcast and and somehow it all connected the dots connected and so shout out to Tony's daughter thanks for encouraging your dad to try something new in addition to the youtube and it sounds like they got you on instagram too with safety so that's that's awesome that's awesome well Tony thank you so much for being a guest today really appreciate it
00:58:36
Speaker
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it I greatly appreciate it. Just like I said anytime I can talk about safety. I'll do it in a heartbeat
00:58:46
Speaker
Hmm, thank you. And thank you all so much for joining in and listening today, and thank you for the work that you all do to make sure your workers, including your temporary workers, make it home safe every day. If you'd like to have a conversation about this episode or previous episodes, join the Accidental Safety Pro community page on Facebook. The community page is just for us safety pros to share our insights, reflections, and generally help one another out. It's a page just for us.
00:59:14
Speaker
Special thanks to Will Moss, our podcast producer. You can listen to all of the episodes at vividlearningsystems.com or subscribe in the podcast player of your choosing. You can also listen from our other Facebook page, the Accidental Safety Pro podcast, and can find us on YouTube. If you have a suggestion for a guest, including if it's you, please contact me at social at vividlearningsystems.com. Until next time, thanks for listening.