Challenges in Implementing School Safety Products

People ask me all the time, are you anti metal detector? No. I'm not anti metal detector. I'm anti just thinking that you're gonna install them and sit it and forget it, and you're not going to be able or not gonna have to be, you know, situationally aware. And on top of that, the process has to be correct. You know, the other issue is that, you know, people that are trying to push these particular types of products on an interior of a school, they're not looking at the fact that statistically, over sixty percent of the incidents happen outside. Yep. You know, at a at a sporting event. Certainly recently. Yeah. I mean, you know, David Reebman has a tremendous database. The K twelve school security, database. And there's a lot of people that get upset about David. You know, there's people who they, you know, they get a little bit of their feelings about David because he likes to give a little bit of his opinion. He does. And and I and I understand what some of the argument is is that, you know, he should just provide the statistics. He shouldn't give an opinion. Well, I don't agree with that. He's the one doing the research. He's intelligent opinion. He understands the trends. Right. He should be able to give some sidebar conversation advice based upon the trends that he's seeing in the research. Right. I think I've seen I know exactly what you're talking about but I think he's very creative about how he goes about, he posits it as a query like do you think? Yeah. As opposed to him coming right out and saying and there's innuendo that I think you can read into it. Yeah. Right? But I appreciate it because it gets you thinking right? And and that's what I like about LinkedIn. Right? We can agree to disagree on many things. For sure. But engage in conversation, engage in spirited debate. That's what it's all about. Oh yeah. I'll tell you I just, I have my own philosophies and approach, and it's because, you know, I love my time working with the government, but I I miss being on campuses. I do. I miss the engagement with the staff. I miss the engagement with the kids. I will tell you when I started, the first year was brutal because it was just, I mean, it was just brutal because I was not adapting to the environment. And that was that I think is one of the biggest hurdles, man. And, you know, it's like you go to these, you know, everyday conference USA and you and I sit back and I observe and I just listen a lot of times. I'll I'm I don't know. I'm kind of weird like that. I'll I'll I'll eavesdrop. You know? I'll sit and I'll listen and I'll watch something and you know and the bullshit that comes out of some of these people's mouths that have no no experience doing anything. You know? You're in the beginners like in the eight and the nine. I sit and I go, God, where do they get this shit? Like, do you believe the shit that you're talking about? Well, and you know what's really disgusting, man? Is, you have these companies that have never been in k twelve, that they've, they've, they've had a good thoughts and they've, they've developed their thought into a product, but it's never been effectively deployed. It's like on my LinkedIn post just a couple days ago. I think, you know, item number three when I said important message to school administrators and whoever, superintendents or whatever, school boards, Item number three, if someone is trying to sell you a product, ask them where has it been effectively utilized? How many lives were saved due to it? You know? And then ask yourself, you know, once all that bond money dries up, those subscription fees that you're paying for a lot of these, They're going to continue. Well, a lot of these weapons detection systems, can you sustain those? Because I know when I got to Texas City, my budget was, I didn't even have a department. I created the department. You know, I think initially the budget was like eighty three thousand dollars or something like that. There was no way we could sustain that. And then as I got there, we started pulling in cameras, we pulled in access control, we pulled in camera analytics, you know, like the facial rec that we used. We started pulling in different things. Well, those things started adding up. Well, by the time I was done, and I thought I did a really good job of trying to keep that down. I trimmed the fat as much as I could. My budget, overall operational budget for products alone, not including my personnel because we had twenty one deputies, was three hundred and thirteen thousand dollars and that was pretty light on what we had. So you know, it was rather eye opening to me. But yeah, it's, I'll tell you man, I am super passionate about what we do. I love what I do. It is frustrating. Yep. You know I always tell people, listen, before you make a purchase call me. And I tell them this and people like Michael will be like dude, what are you doing? You are giving away stuff for free. But you've got to be careful because people will take advantage of it also, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I mean we're for profit, I want to feed my family, send my girls to college. But I also don't want to see taxpayer dollars wasted on products or services that are not needed and they are just kind of being forced upon people. It's a balancing act. Yeah, it is. I tell people all the time, I said it just the other day, just before you make a decision, if you're conflicted, call me. Or even if you're not conflicted, it doesn't hurt to call. Yeah. It doesn't hurt to call. Yeah. Call me. Listen. I'm not gonna charge you to go, hey Mike, what do you think about this product? I'll follow that question up with, before we get to the product, let's talk about what do you have, right? And let's identify the things that what I would require as necessary versus, you know, needs versus wants. Right? Right. Because there's a difference. Absolutely. Like, I want a lot of things. And that conversation can help Yeah. Identify and differentiate because Right. When you get caught up, if you're the administrator and you don't have your background and knowledge and experience, right, it's very easy to be swayed and or persuaded. And having that voice of reason out there can be really influential, impactful in a positive beneficial way. What are your thoughts on some of these companies that are selling these all inclusive packages that are, you know, panic button, that gives you a geolocation, that goes to the dispatch center that gives you, you know, bird's eye view because it's gonna link in and integrate with your camera systems and your access control systems. What are your thoughts on the reality of those things? I I'll speak from my personal experience and we we've touched on this already. Right? And there's there's a little crossover with some of the other things we've already discussed. I I I almost feel like package deals are are sort of like witch doctor ish to a certain extent. And I say that because no different than the assess board. Right? If if I was going out standing on my soapbox going, an assess board needs to be in every single classroom in America. And I'm sitting there with my calculator going how many classrooms are there Yeah. And how many assess boards are right? Which would not be unreasonable if you created something that you think is original. Right? But I designed that board thinking of classrooms in New York City. Right? One door, one entrance, no other exits, second story, no threats from the exterior. Right? Now I get to the Midwest, I get to Texas and I'm like wait a second. Doesn't work here. It doesn't work here. It doesn't work here. Everywhere. That's right. Okay. Let me get back to the cut okay. Half the classrooms in the a third of the classrooms. Okay? That is what I think a package can potentially be. Right? It's a great idea sitting in a vacuum in a in in this room. We could be like, hey, if we sell them all this stuff packaged as a bundle, we're gonna save them money and that's how you're thinking. You're not thinking in terms of get out there, walk through the campus, talk to the people there. What do they need? Is a panic button? Does that even make sense in this situation? Well, you know, and some of the people I I I mentioned this last week that one of the one of the, you know, family members from, unfortunate victim in Parkland was promoting a panic button, in another state here a while back, and I commented on that individual's post. And just really I mean, it's like, okay. What I wanted to ask was would that panic button have saved your child? The answer is no. It would not have. You know? Training, coordination, that would've potentially Made a difference. Maybe. Yeah. You know, and it's easy to Monday morning quarterback. I mean, listen. I get it. But, you know, it's just, you go to these districts and they they are so consumed with those products that are being pushed. You know? You go to TASA, TASB, all these conferences and it's like, you know, there's this panic button. There's that panic button. There's that panic button. There's this panic button. There's that panic button. My question to these individuals that's selling this is let's take Uvalde, for example. Rural town. You live in San Antonio area. Yes. Most of the areas in the United States, eighty percent are rural in nature. You have one or two dispatchers. To think that you're going to push a panic button, It's gonna tell the dispatcher the location. He or she is gonna be able to now engage your camera systems, then be able to, you know, give play by play to the responding officers and then open or unlock doors that are that are connected to your access control, and dispatch to fifteen agencies that are responding Right. And answer nine one one calls, it's just not practical. You know? It's just not practical, man. But it's not it's not only the sellers. I mean, I'm new to Texas but in the city, in New York, you have grant managers, right. There are companies that are managing millions, tens of millions of dollars of entities grant money. So entities are getting one hundred and fifty from homeland, two hundred from a different grant. They're getting multiple grants, right? So a grant manager can manage a half a million dollars annually for one location. Sure. Right? Now if that location has ties to another location and they go, hey we hired so and so to manage our grant. Alright, in certain communities that's all it takes is the approval or the suggestion of a colleague and now you're you're on the hook. Right. So now you have five entities with potentially two and a half to five million dollars of grant money being managed by a third party. Right? I was called in, I didn't force my way in, I was called in about laminates on windows. Sure. Okay. And about the board And it became apparent to me that the laminates was a better value for them considering what they had and the glass entryway that they had in their early childhood development center. Well wouldn't you know if this grant manager says, well, you need to do x y and z. I don't wanna get into the particulars of it, but I so now I am told by the person handling it from the school side, hey. Listen. I've been asked this question. Doesn't identify who's asking the question. I've been told that we should do x y and z and x y and z makes no sense considering the layout of of the the lobby and the class and whatnot. And I'm like, who's making the suggestion? And they're like, the grant manager. And I'm like, has the grant manager been to the location? They're like, no. I'm like, so how does the grant manager know What the need is. What the need is. Yeah. Right? I I've been out there because the grant manager has has a relationship with the person that's selling the product. They have their own That's why. Exactly. You know? It's it's like okay. For example, you know, m six global defense, you know, we we custom, you know, design, assess, you know, all the things that we do, and then we team up with ASAP Security Services, who's our our custom integrator, one of the state of Texas' largest privately held integrator. Do we have our preferences on which products we like? Of course we do. Of course. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna get I tell people this. It's my job to give you a buffet. Correct. It's your job to choose what you wanna eat. Right. Right? But I'm not gonna give you a buffet. You're not gonna be eating fried chicken and ice cream in the same meal. You know, you're everything that we're providing you is going to integrate to be able to give you your next single pane of glass customized to you. Right. You choose. You have a stake in this. We're just giving you options. We're giving you opportunities to choose which which products you want. It's like people say, what camera system do you like, Mike? Well, I I have I think that some have their strengths, some have their weaknesses. I personally don't like paying subscription fees. I don't think that, you know, people should be paying subscription fees when you have other VMS systems that are as good, if not as if not better than the ones that that that require subscription fee. But here's the deal. If someone wants to pay a subscription fee, I'm gonna tell them, hey. You should look at this one because you don't have a subscription fee, and it's equally as effective. If they still wanna go with the one that that, you know, they have to pay a subscription fee, that's on them. Right. You know? It's gonna be documented what we recommended, but I'm not trying to pigeonhole someone into a particular product because I get money, you know, or I, you know, I make a commission off of whatever sold. Our job is to just create, be an unbiased, you know, add, you know, ally for these clients to to give them a whole solution. But, you know, being forced things is just I I just don't like that, you know, with school districts. You know what's so funny? What's that? It's how this this podcast and conversation started and where we are now Yeah. Becomes full circle. Yeah. Honesty, integrity, communication, interaction, that's your solution. For sure. That's what's missing. Yeah. In my opinion. That's what's missing today. That's the root cause of what's going on and why there's no empathy. Right? And why people in this in our space are making mistakes. Sure. You know, I I a lot of it is innocent mistakes because it's ill informed or uninformed. That's right. Uninformed. I've seen it the whole time. And then there's there are there are bad seeds for sure, but I think if you're noble, I think if you're honest, I think if you put customers first, end users first, the mission first Mhmm. You'll you're gonna make whatever money you're God wants you to make. Right. And if you you can make peace with that, the rest is easy. Yeah. You know what I mean? The struggles are gonna be there regardless and, you know, the grinding I love the grind. I'm sure you love the grind. You were catching it. I love I love the grind, man. I tell you, it's exhausting. It is exhausting. People have no idea. It is exhausting. It's it's exhausting, man. You know? But I'm sure you sleep well at night knowing, hey, I made a difference. Yeah. I do. I I sleep really good at night knowing that I, you know, we do everything that we can Absolutely. To provide the best service, the best product, build relationships. And I think that's where the big the big, miscommunication is amongst a lot of these people is that it's about the sale. It's solely about the sale, man. And it's like, no. I wanna know you. I tell people this all the time. This is absolutely true. I haven't met a customer yet that I haven't become friends with. That's something to be said about who we are. I couldn't agree more. Right? I couldn't agree more. Friends with all these people now. That's right. I call them, hey. What's going on? You know, how's your son's, you know, soccer or whatever going on. Right? Everything okay? I know that your mom passed away last year. You doing alright? You know? Those are the things that I think that are important. Those those long lasting relationships with people are more valuable than than a lot. Right? You know? I mean, like I said, I mean, it's that, I think, is the hidden art. And I think that's a that's a it's a lost gift that that people, you know, have forgotten that that's that should be the the principle moving forward to establish that relationship and and the goal. But, you know, too many people I see, it's just it's about the sale, man. You know? And, You know? And, you know, how do you, you know, how do you, expose those people without running into, you know, being being portrayed as adversarial or or whatnot, you know. I think, you know, to quote Shakespeare, to thine own self be true man. You know if you're authentic, you may not have to call out everybody. Yeah. You know what I mean? You lead by example. Sure. And and that's that's powerful. Yeah. It's perhaps the most powerful thing that we have going for us, I think. Aside from the camaraderie and the community and building up one another, here's the thing. If I'm if I'm helping build you up, we're both successful. Sure. If I'm tearing you down, I'm actually taking away from myself. Sure. It's a waste of time and energy. I agree with that man. Well, you're hundred percent right. So before we close out, Fox two Sierra Yes, sir. Tell me about the name. Oh, great. Okay. Fox two Sierra. So my first partner in this endeavor, was Chris Feddis. Chris Feddis is a former team six guy from Seals and by some miracle we connected and I gave him the vision and he was all about it and he's like let's do this thing. His last name is Fettis, my last name is Fried. I'm like, alright we got two F's and we'll call it, alright, f two security, Fried Fettis security, Fettis freed security or systems or some baloney asinine whatever. But I'm like, it just doesn't sound Right. Cool. So I'm like, let's do let's do f two s. Right? And I'm like, I couldn't buy it online. The domain name wasn't available. Mhmm. So I go, Chris, I can't buy f two s. It's not available. He's like, let's do military. We'll do foxtrot two Sierra. I couldn't buy that. But foxtrot two Sierra was available. Yeah. It flows better. So I just it was seven hundred fifty bucks. I bought it on the spot, and that's how it came Fox two Sierra. And I was expecting something way cooler. I apologize. No. Such a letdown, man. No. I'm just kidding. No. It's a cool it's a cool name. It's easy to remember. You know, to anybody listening that needs some expert, let me backtrack, some professional guidance Thank you. You know, in the space, Give Izzy a call, man. How do they find you? You can go to the website, w w w dot fox, the number two, sierra dot com, or on Instagram. Fox two Sierra is our handle on Instagram, LinkedIn. Occasionally, I'll post on LinkedIn and engage Mike in spirited debate. Dude, you were pretty hot there for a while with, like, your Motivation Mondays. Yes. Daily. Post. Whatever Tuesdays. Yep. You know, whatever Wednesdays. What's going on, man? You've been on a little bit of a hiatus. I've been on a hiatus. So as you know, here's what I'm not gonna do. I'm not gonna just post things for the sake of posting. Sure. If I'm inspired or motivated or I see something, those posts take a long time for me. That's at least an hour or two of thought and preparation because I put a lot of videos out so to edit those videos takes a lot of time. Finding the right music for it. I mean, it's it's a process. Mhmm. But of late, I've been distracted with what's going on overseas. Sure. And that's really taken up a significant portion of my time. I feel like I need to be in a certain frame of mind, not cloudy vision, not distracted for me to put out the content that makes me happy and proud. Right. I'm not gonna post just for the sake of posting. So So when you when you travel to Israel Yes. Is that with any particular group or is that just you individually? So Fox two Sierra has been over there several times. Initially we partnered with an NGO k. A non profit. Sure. And we were doing humanitarian aid training and the like. We developed our own reputation over there by virtue of the fact of what we were doing, word had gotten out and also cultivating my relationships with guys still in the military. So we've been acting in a supporting role. They've actually come here to Texas and we started to talk because of what's going on globally with campuses and antisemitism at an all time high, we started to talk about developing a training program utilizing IDF and our cadre to do a joint training globally for Jews everywhere where wherever we find them. Yeah so now what I'm going over, I'm going over exclusively as f two s. Okay. To interact with those counterparts and we're actually involved in a pretty cool project right now. It's just, you know, an unfortunate project, but one that I'm incredibly proud of. October seventh taught us a lot of things including complacency, epic, intelligence failures and and and why And we didn't even get into that. I would love to do that on another one. We'll have to do a different podcast on that. But, where we come in is we're we're in the ballistic space. We do a ballistic safe rooms. We're doing the laminates and, similar to what what you had been discussing with the build out of the school, the bomb shelters. So in Israel, it's mandated you have to have a bomb shelter in your home. If you're certainly if you're living in an urban area, those bomb shelters are similar to the ones in the military. It's basically a concrete u. Yeah. But it's it's, vulnerable on either side. It's great for incoming rocket fire Sure. Projectiles but nobody contemplated using that in an active shooter situation which October seventh turned out to be. So people ran to their bomb shelters. The doors didn't lock. The windows were not ballistic. Rounds were coming in. Actually shattered glass was coming into the rooms causing damage. I don't ask me how they found out we were doing ballistics and I'm getting calls now. Can you come out help redesign these these rooms and make them ballistic safe rooms in addition to bomb shelter rooms? Awesome, man. Wild. That is awesome, dude. Good for you, man. Well, I hope that's successful, man. And be safe. You know? Amen. Be safe while you're over there. If you need anything, let us know. Absolutely. We still have a lot of connections and a lot of friends that can help out. So Appreciate it. Yeah. No. I appreciate you being here, man. Thank you. Enjoyed, dude. We're gonna have to do this again. I I would We should do this, like, a a monthly, maybe. I'm in. You know? Absolutely. Not too far for you. Great drive. Yeah. You get some good barbecue. Hell yeah. Get some Houston barbecue instead of San Antonio barbecue. I'll take you to fabrication. Show you the fabric. I would love to see that. Yeah. Yeah. We definitely it's in Magnolia. Yeah. Magnolia, Texas, folks. Yes. Magnolia, Texas. There's two boards there right now. Yeah. We need to go do that, man. So whenever you're ready, I'm down. Cool. Alright, guys. Fox two, Sierra, Izzy Fried. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.