All right, welcome to the Ocean Water Podcast.
I'm here today with my buddy, Brad.
What's up, baby?
How you doing?
Okay, a little professional introduction.
Brad was the recently retired Chief of Police
from the city of Ontario.
So if you've ever been to Ontario,
do you have a hockey team?
We do.
We work, that's where the other stuff.
And an airport.
Awesome.
So that's on a professional level.
Brad was the Chief of Police recently finished that up.
We'll talk a little bit about that.
Then on a personal note,
there's a group of like four of us that surf,
basically when the waves are good
and we're not all on house arrest
because of the pandemic.
And so Brad and I have become friends in last year
and surfed together quite a bit.
So super fun.
All right, Brad, so for people that are new,
what we're trying to do today is give a little OG advice
to some of these up and comers from the school of hard knocks.
So these channels are like, they skew younger.
So we wanna drop a little OG advice to this people.
But before we get to that,
where do you live these days?
And then what's your favorite place to eat?
Like you go out with Julie or Ryan,
and your daughter or whatever,
and you guys get some food.
So what do you like to eat these days?
So yeah, I decided to really turn the page.
And when I retired, pick up the family,
moved down to Carlsbad, California.
This place where we've been trying to get to for 30 years.
Camped down here, vacation down here, hung out down here.
So we finally called it home.
I've got no regrets.
I've loved it.
Been here about three years now.
Just can't say enough about it.
Really enjoy it down here.
So with respect to what is good in the foodie world
that we've been out experimenting everywhere.
But I gotta say, I got a couple go-tos.
So my safe and sane go-to is Bored and Brewed sandwiches.
Can't go wrong.
They never let me down.
And gotta go for the turcato every time.
Can't go wrong there.
My number two, my number two has gotta be Lola's.
And it's a little mom and pop Mexican restaurant.
Nothing bad on the menu.
Fantastic.
Let's customize everything.
So, yeah.
Two solid go-tos right there.
I mean, who doesn't like customized Mexican food?
I mean, I love it so much that I actually married Maria.
You went one up, man.
I love it.
One up to you, bro.
So good.
So like, what are you up to these days?
You're driving and grinding and growing your career.
And like, what's Brad do like now?
Yeah, it's a trip, man.
I felt like, you know, I was drinking from a fire hydrant
for the last 10 years.
And then I just completely downshifted, unplugged from that
and kinda had to rediscover myself a little bit,
figure out, you know, what was it I used to like to do
outside of police work and what did I wanna do
moving forward.
So this is about the last two years have been just fantastic
for kinda decompressing, connected with friends,
making new friends, hanging out with you.
And I'm like, boy, my oldest best friend in the world,
Bobby Ramsey, we started going together
and now we're out there hanging out and surfing
as 50 year old men, it's crazy.
So that's been super cool.
I got two fantastic kids who were in different parts
of the country going to school.
So I kinda chased them around a little bit,
got to spend some time with them
and see where they're living
and kinda what their daily routines are about.
And then at the same time, kinda looking at new careers,
new career paths, new opportunities.
So got a couple of directions I'm going in,
but I'm just kinda, I'm taking my time.
I'm not rushing into anything.
Nice, man, that's awesome.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
So you're like, you're settling into this phase of life
right now, you come out on the other side of your career.
So like, what are a couple things that like,
old Brad would have told young Brad?
You got any yoga-isms for us?
There's no rules here.
Oh man, man, there's a flood of thoughts
that old Brad would be telling new Brad,
but you know, it's crazy.
There's so many things that would have been different
and there's so many things I wouldn't change, you know,
by any means, because I've had a really good journey.
If I was taking it to just kind of like
my professional career and going through law enforcement,
it was kind of unique for me.
I started really young.
I was on the street when I was 20 years old.
Crazy.
And I just kind of came out of the gate hard and fast
and I was just loving being a cop and doing, you know,
kind of all the crazy stuff that comes with that.
All the hot calls and chasing bad guys
and then I wanted to get into the next special assignment.
I just wanted to do everything.
I wanted to go to Narcotics, a gang unit, SWAT,
and helicopters, I just wanted to chase everything.
So I was just coming out of the gate sprinting
and I did that for a long period of time
and it was fantastic.
I got an opportunity to do a lot of stuff,
but now looking back, you know,
if I had to do it all over again,
I would have told Brad, hey buddy,
pump the brakes a little bit, man.
Just, you know, live in the moment a little bit more,
enjoy what you're doing, who you're with,
try and get the most out of that
instead of, you know, just kind of looking for the next one.
Like, you know, I was competitive, I was ambitious,
so I was doing it,
but I was also looking forward to the next thing.
So I was always prepping for that.
So I would have just said, hey buddy,
this is a marathon, it's not a sprint, man.
You gotta slow down a little bit,
which I kind of wish I had done.
That career went so fast, I can't believe I did 30 years.
It's, in some ways it was a blur.
Yeah.
And I think when you're doing something
that you really enjoy and it's very fulfilling,
the time goes by even faster.
So I didn't anticipate that.
And I think that's probably why I'd say,
hey man, pump the brakes a little bit.
You don't need to hit every specials time
and just, you know, enjoy a couple of them
and just stay in them longer.
But yeah, that's kind of like one of the first things
that comes to mind.
I always trip out whenever I hang out with you and Bobby
because you guys have seen the depths of human nature.
And these talks have been fun
because Bobby and I chatted I think last week
and you and I are talking today,
but like there's so much of your guys' work
that you just can't talk about.
There's legal issues, there's all sorts of stuff.
And you deal with all of the really tough stuff,
the tough parts of humanity.
How have you guys both ended up so like fun to be around?
I totally say, no, I'm serious.
It's like always such a head scratcher for me.
Like, I feel like if I would have been exposed
to like a lot of the stuff you guys have had
to deal with, I might have a different perspective.
But I don't know, man.
I don't know what you guys are drinking in the water, bro.
Maybe we're just really crazy now
and it took its toll on us.
No, it's pretty interesting because like you said,
you just get exposed to so many things.
And we do joke between us that you can't shock us,
you can't surprise us.
Nope.
And I think we also learned there's issues
and there's crisis.
And the vast majority of the time,
what you're dealing with is not a crisis.
So kind of not that big a deal.
You usually have time to kind of think through it
and make your decision and choice
and whatever you wanna do.
And then the other thing is I think you just start
to appreciate the finer things in life.
And that's relationships, people, your health,
what you're doing in the moment.
So those are all good.
So you weren't surprised at all when I asked you
to rent seven Shetland ponies
for Bobby's birthday party next week?
I was so looking forward to it.
I think we could really build on that too because.
You could really build on that.
That was a good time.
And he's always game.
He is always game.
I'm gonna get a photo of him riding one.
So what are you curious about now?
Like you're interested in law enforcement
for three decades.
Yeah.
You've transitioned out of that.
You're totally enjoying your life.
But like what interests you now?
Yeah.
What are you reading?
What's like a new field?
You mentioned some new careers.
Like what are you curious about or interested in right now?
Yeah, you know what's kind of weird is
because I've been pretty fortunate
and I had the opportunity to retire
and go do something different.
It almost gets a little heavy.
Like now what is it I wanna do?
So you go through this soul searching time
and like I kind of mentioned before,
it's like what did I used to like to do?
You kind of, not that I got programmed in law enforcement
but you're kind of in a certain lane
and you stay in that lane for a long period of time.
And now I can venture out and do a bunch of different things.
I've enjoyed helping some other buddies
with their businesses, gotten into a little bit of training,
some consulting, I'm looking at career in real estate.
I'm partnering with my wife on that
because it's something she really enjoys.
And we both enjoy doing that.
Going out and surfing with my boys and hanging out,
even though I'm the fringe guy
because I'm the worst surfer in the group,
but I have a mask on.
Now, you probably get the best
because this is the guy with the biggest smile.
You're happier than all of us.
I do come away with that.
And it doesn't take much to make me happy out there.
So that's awesome.
And then I also, I got the opportunity
to spend some really quality time with my kids
at this stage in their life.
They're in their mid and early twenties.
And typically, kids are out there thriving,
your parents don't get to really stay connected with them.
But now I can kind of travel, bug them, chase them around
and do some stuff to keep us connected.
And that's been fantastic.
That's fun, man.
It's just such an interesting thing to talk about
because like Bob and I mentioned last week,
you can turn a job off or you can turn a career off,
but you don't turn your drive off.
Your drive just goes somewhere else.
So it's just fun to find out what people are curious about.
You mentioned a little bit of consulting,
some real estate stuff that's really fun
for you and your wife.
That's cool, man.
That's very cool.
So what is, dude, what's something you've failed at?
Right.
It's just what pops in your head.
Bobby said there was like 10 things that popped into his head
and he had to pick something.
30 years in police work?
No, I really didn't make too many mistakes or fail at it.
No, not even one.
I think maybe I've made a career
of recovering from failures.
It's probably more true than I'd like to admit in some ways,
but I have, I made so many mistakes.
I think almost to the point where in some ways it helped me
because I wasn't afraid of making a mistake.
I would, as a cop, you have to make these quick decisions
and you do the best job you can based upon the information
and your understanding of whatever you're dealing with
in the moment.
And a lot of times you just get it wrong.
So you get it wrong, you reevaluate afterwards,
decide what you would have done differently,
what you could have done better.
And then I just try not to make the same mistake
over and over again.
So I got really comfortable with learning from my mistakes
and I learned tremendously.
And even to the point I think when I moved up in rank
at the police department, I would in some ways identify
what type of character some of my officers or folks had
after they made a mistake and how they dealt with it
and could they own it, could they admit to it.
Because those were huge insights into what type of a person
and kind of employee they're gonna be moving forward.
That's, it's funny, people think that the people
that rise to the highest levels of leadership
are the people that know everything.
Actually the opposite is true.
People that rise to the highest levels of leadership
are simply the people that are the quickest
to take personal responsibility for shortcomings.
Absolutely.
People think the total opposite.
Yeah.
I'm gonna get, I'm gonna know everything
and I'm gonna be really perfect.
It's like actually that's not true.
It is 100% not true.
Yeah, because the people that rise
to the highest levels of leadership
are the ones that take personal responsibility the fastest
and that ends up being the quality
that people respect in us.
I think you're right on the mark.
It's the strangest thing.
You get more comfortable with taking more risks.
Yeah.
You're okay, okay, if you get it wrong,
you admit it and you move on.
And then that can be a real positive attribute for you
moving forward in whatever organization you're in.
Yeah, there's winning and learning.
Lord knows we've done a lot of learning.
Oh yeah.
Absolutely.
So you and I have, we've been to El Salvador together.
We moved here in March, me and you and some friends.
And so what is your, kind of your,
just current understanding of like the water situation
in the world?
Talk a little bit about that.
Like what's your current understanding of that?
Yeah, well, you know, I'd still admit
that I have a pretty crude understanding
to be totally honest with you.
I mean, not completely naive.
I know that water is a huge issue
for people all around the world
and how hard it is for them just on a daily basis
to live and seek out and have it readily available
for not only themselves, but their children
and the family around them.
I can't imagine what it would have been like
trying to raise my kids
and having little to no access to water.
I would have, it's one thing when it's yourself,
but to watch your kids go through that,
it'd be pretty torturous.
So I probably had my first interest in it or exposure to it.
I had a high school friend who graduated from college.
He started a water company, was very successful.
It went, it was bought out by a major corporation
and it just kind of caught my interest,
what he was doing.
And then it all started with him and his college roommate,
recognizing the need, getting involved,
trying to do something about it.
And they did a fantastic job.
So then, kind of fast forward to meeting you guys
and hanging out and hearing what you were involved in.
And then I got an opportunity to go to one of your fundraisers
for one of your trips way back
when you were going back down and investing.
Yeah, you're bringing the equipment down to El Salvador
and the desalination equipment and purification equipment.
Thought it was really interesting, Dean.
And then you guys finally invited me.
If I hung out with you long enough,
you finally broke down and invited me
and I got to go down and see it firsthand.
And it was so enlightening.
It's one thing to conceptualize it
and that's another thing to be down there
and around the people.
And you know when it really kind of struck a chord with me
is when we moved out of the beach.
And I think it was at some Papa's restaurant
or his family's restaurant.
And we've been out in the water.
We came in, we all needed to clean up.
And came in, boom, no water.
No water available for the restroom and washing up.
And I think you had just kind of turned to me and said,
yeah, water shut off for a period of time.
It'll come back on maybe tonight or tomorrow.
And I thought to myself, wow, that's, you know.
And that's just for cleaning up.
I can't imagine, you know,
you really needed it for drinking and living.
But it was just, it's kind of surreal
when you're down there and see it firsthand.
And then how much the folks in the community
really appreciated what you were doing.
So really impactful.
Yeah, it's been an ongoing journey.
I mean, we just try to,
one of the reasons why I'm doing this
and talking with people like you
and having a conversation every day
is because we have decided we wanna step into that space
and have a voice for what we call indigenous water rights.
And what indigenous water rights are
are water rights for locals who have been marginalized
or who don't have the infrastructure for water.
So for example, in Palmercito,
Palmercito we've had over a hundred people go with us
on 13 different trips in the last five years.
And through that, through that experience
and through those relationships, we've learned so much.
We've learned, and now,
and it's all been through relationships,
much in the same way that you and I became friends
through surfing, you know, by hanging out with Bobby.
And so, but one of the reasons
we wanna have these conversations is because,
you know, change happens as you, you know,
as you sort of raise minds.
You have to kind of, and how do you raise a mind?
Well, you have to elevate thinking.
How do you elevate thinking?
We have to see, just do it conversationally.
And so, you know, one conversation at a time,
one friendship at a time, one relationship at a time,
we're starting to step into this space now
and really getting the word out.
Yeah, there actually are groups of people all over the world
that like Palmercito, there's a lot,
there's thousands of Palmercitos out there,
these little areas of the world that have 20 families,
30 families, 40 families.
And so, what's exciting now about all of the experience
that we've had is now we're gonna take those lessons
that we've learned in the last five years.
A lot of school hard knocks there as well.
And now we want to start to scale
to some other areas of the world
where we can take what we've learned
on a public health level where we can actually
install this system that you've seen the things that trip
when you open it up.
You came to the fundraiser, you're like,
this looks like a bomb.
This looks like a bomb, it's like in two pieces of luggage
that you check in on a commercial flight
and yet you can take that and install it
and it really turns ocean water into drinking water.
It's so cool.
It really took me a lot to process that.
It was fantastic when you see that there's equipment
out there that can do that.
It's a trip.
And one of the things that I know I'm looking forward to
is not just the fact that we've been able
to go to El Salvador to get it,
but now we're planning on going to Indonesia.
Bobby's actually gonna lead that trip
and now we have the chance to sort of scale
some of the lessons that we've been able to learn.
But yeah, thank you for just being willing
to have this conversation.
These conversations are super fun
because there's a lot of people that get so much
out of online content.
And you have an entire career of experience
to offer the people that are gonna listen.
So when people see this, they're gonna be like,
wow, that guy was a chief.
That's awesome.
So thanks for allowing us to use that.
But then also to kind of make a little bit
of a right-hand pivot so that people can start to learn,
wow, there's 8 billion people in the world
and like a billion of them are like where we went.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Ryan.
First of all, it's an absolute pleasure.
I'm honored that you would even wanna hear anything
that I have to say about it.
Yeah, you're awesome.
But yeah, what you're doing is fantastic.
And I think it's really neat for folks like me
who may not have a better understanding
of what you're out there trying to accomplish
and where the need is.
And it's really interesting in how you can fulfill
and provide something to so many people,
even on a smaller scale, how impactful it was
seeing that one machine on a community
of 30 or 40 people, it was really neat.
It's awesome, man.
Well, dude, thank you so much for your time today, brother.
And I think this thing is getting lifted
and we should be in the water and in the ocean side,
hopefully like very soon.
I need it, buddy.
I need it back.
All right, thanks, man.
Hey, brother, great seeing you, man.
Great seeing you, have a great day, dude.
Okay, man, you too.
All right, you.