Talkin' Tennessee with Yvonnca
Talkin' Tennessee with Yvonnca
From Rock Bottom to Resilience Ft John Matthews
What happens when a man who once hit rock bottom finds himself in charge of one of Tennessee's worst natural disasters? John Matthews' journey from addiction to leadership reveals the extraordinary power of second chances.
Purchase his book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-At-Cost-Survival-Leadership-ebook/dp/B0F4XBTKF7
If you are looking for a Realtor, don't forget to call The Landes Team to help you buy and sell!
Yvonnca Landes
Realty Executives Associates
865.660.1186 or 588.3232
www.YvonncaSellsRealEstate.com
Adrienne Landes
Realty Executives Associates
865.659-6860 or 588.3232
Click here: https://linktr.ee/talkintnwithyvonnca
Turning Knox Rental (Event Rental Services): www.turningknoxrental.com
Landes Home Collection Online Store: www.landeshomecollection.com
For promotion inquires please contact Yvonnca Landes. 865-660-1186
All Copy Rights are owned Yvonnca Landes and the Landes Brand ©. To gain legal access contact David Landes 865.660.6860 or theappraisalfirm@charter.net
Produced and engineered by: Adrienne Landes
Thank you for listening! Follow us on social media! https://linktr.ee/talkintnwithyvonnca
Check us out to hear the latest on life in the volunteer state. Yvonca and her guests discuss everything from life, love and business with a Tennessee flair. It's a Tennessee thing, always relatable, always relevant and always a good time. This is Talkin' Tennessee, and now your host, yvonca.
Speaker 2:This episode is brought to you by the Landis team, your go-to real estate family in East Tennessee. If you are looking to buy or sell, we are the ones you should call. Give us a call at 865-660-1186 or check out our website at YvoncaSellsRealEstatecom. That's YonneCa Y-V-O-N-N-C-A SalesRealEstatecom.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to Talking Tennessee with Yvonne. I'm your host and I am back for part two of John Matthews' segment with Talking Tennessee. Welcome back.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks for having me come back. This is great.
Speaker 3:I love it and I wanted to do this in two parts because his story is so compelling and it is a must listen and receive type interview because you went through a lot in your life and you still keep a smile and you still want to give back.
Speaker 4:Yeah, maybe that's what keeps me smiling.
Speaker 3:Look, give back. Yeah, maybe that's what keeps me smiling Look, giving back. He wrote a book and it's called Wisdom at a Cost, and when I tell you that it's a book that we all can relate to, there's portions of the book that we can all gravitate to and say I know I've been there to, and say I know I've been there, and this part is going to be all about how he came out of the dust, how he dusted himself off, and he said you know what? I want something out of my life. And in 2016, you were in a role that will go down in history of wildfires that truly affected East Tennessee. Let's talk about Gatlinburg wildfires, yeah 2016.
Speaker 4:What a day. You know it's cliche to say that that day started out just like every other day, but it did.
Speaker 3:Take us back.
Speaker 4:How did it all unravel that day? Well, uh, I don't know. Uh, do you remember where you were at on that that monday morning?
Speaker 3:I was on the interstate, okay, and the radio was on, and I don't remember which radio smoke in the area, though, yeah a lot of smoke in the area and it it was like what is going on, Because I didn't think that big when I saw the smoke. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4:I think, yeah, for me personally same. But also, if you remember that whole entire month smoke was in the area, you know there were fires that were burning down in Chattanooga. The whole state of Tennessee had wildfires that were popping up.
Speaker 3:You're bringing back my memory.
Speaker 4:Yes, we were in a drought and so when waking up that morning in November it was, it was a little bit more smoky. We had ash that actually was physically visible on some cars, that kind of looked like snow and it had a little bit of a different tone to it, if you will. But you know, at the end of the day everybody got up. People that were on vacation either were heading home, because it was the weekend after Thanksgiving, or parents were taking their kids to school, you know, maybe they were doing Cyber Monday shopping. I mean, it was the weekend after Thanksgiving, or parents were taking their kids to school, you know, maybe they were doing Cyber Monday shopping.
Speaker 3:I mean, it was just another typical Monday after Thanksgiving. Let's go back a little bit.
Speaker 4:What was your role At the time? I was the emergency management director and, for people that understand what that is, think of FEMA, the Federal. Emergency Management Agency. This is more of a local branch, if you will, of that. So in the state of Tennessee there's 95 counties, and each county is required to have an emergency management director, and if they don't appoint one, the mayor, oddly enough, assumes that role. That's how the statute is written.
Speaker 4:And so we have a distinct organization called TEMA, which is the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, and of course each county has one. Knoxville has the Knox County Emergency Management Agency. Colin Ickes is the director, great friend of mine, and I was at the time the director of the Sevier County Emergency Management Agency. I was 35 years old.
Speaker 3:At 35 years old yeah.
Speaker 4:And I think you know we left last week talking about you know where I was at and climbing the ladder, so to speak. But you know, at 21, I was an IV drug user at rock bottom, rotten teeth in and out of jail and at 35, I was the EMA director of Sevier County.
Speaker 3:So tell the people what made you go down the road to being in that position before we talk about that. Yeah, sure it was more of a windy road.
Speaker 4:You know, when I first got clean and went back to school, fell in love with biology, essentially, and I phone book. You know, back for Google or chat GPT, we actually had to physically look up phone numbers and pulled out the phone book. You know, a lot of people also may not know this, but frankly, 70% of all fire departments in the nation are volunteer.
Speaker 3:There's only about 30% that are paid and so I know it was a lot of volunteers.
Speaker 4:I didn't know it was that big and so essentially, you know, Sevier County is no different and there was three departments that was an actual career driven type of opportunity and that was the Gallenberg Fire Department, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. So I called all three of them, got the phone book out. Somebody answered the phone, gave them a elevator pitch, saying, hey, you know, want to get in the business, Don't know anything, you know what do you recommend? How do I get in? And basically they all said the same thing Become an EMT, try to volunteer at a fire department to get to get some experience and get to know the people. Because it's it is a tight knit community emergency.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:And so I did that. I actually, oddly enough, went to. I was bartending in Gallenberg, and so on my way to work one night I stopped at the fire department, put an application in to become a volunteer at the Gallenberg fire department. You know they never called me. They never called me to be a volunteer but fire department.
Speaker 4:You know, they never called me they never called me to be a volunteer, but I eventually got a job there later on. But, uh, and then the other thing is I would roll on their face, yeah, um. But then I didn't enroll in college and I um went to become an EMT and there was some prereqs and some things that that looks like. But eventually um had to, uh, you know, send in letters to the state of Tennessee because I was incarcerated and I was on drugs and all these things that um, I had to plead my case of why I should get a license in the state of Tennessee to practice medicine and frankly be given some of these drugs that um, um, you know the patients inside the ambulance are going to take the ones that I was addicted to.
Speaker 4:Um, and there was people, family included, told me my whole life that you know this portion of my life. I should say that you're no one's ever going to hire you. You know you won't. You won't get this job because you were and you went to jail seven different times.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 4:And so you know what I didn't do. I didn't listen to one effort.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 3:And a lot of times there's so many naysayers. A lot of times that you know, I think people are small minded, okay, and I think a lot of times people are um, want to keep you in a box, because they're in a box, you know, just because you made a mistake does not mean that is your life and you're supposed to stay there. Of what I hear is coming out of your mouth, is I found something that I like.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And I wanted to do something in service.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I wanted to serve. You started servicing people in bartending but then you said, ok, I want to service saving lives, you know, and doing for my community. That's the biggest thing that I look at as a fireman Firemen's, truly. I'm friends with a lot of firemen. Okay, they walk away from their families. They save a lot of families. They go into houses, buildings, all that to basically put back whatever it is, you know, and a lot of firemen don't come out and I think a lot of people don't realize that and you have to really have a heart for people to be a fireman. Do you agree with that?
Speaker 4:No, I totally agree. You know when somebody calls 911, they're at a fireman. Do you agree with that? No, I totally agree. You know when somebody calls 9-1-1, they're at a tough moment. You know they do not have any more answers.
Speaker 4:It's a true emergency they have tried everything they know to do and they are without an answer. And so, thankfully, we have you know this this, this organization that is willing to come to you and help you. And so all you got to do is call 9-1-1. And whether it's an ambulance that's going to come, a fire department or the police department to come help you through whatever situation you may be in, it doesn't have to be a, you know, a domestic assault or your house is burning down.
Speaker 3:It could be a gamut of different things, but you know their job is to show up on your worst day, you know that's pretty crazy and help you pick up the pieces, but you know what that's like, because you had to dust yourself off and you had to make sure that, ok, I went down this road, I need to go down a different road and I want to make something of my life, and I think that when 2016 came, you could relate to a lot of things that you are seeing, because you had trauma, you had experiences of loss.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:And so let me back up just a second there. You know when I went and got hired on at the Gothenburg Fire Department. You know, fire department, I had to fix my criminal record. I told you before I had to petition the state of why I should be a licensed emergency medical technician in the state of Tennessee.
Speaker 3:And I bet you that wasn't easy.
Speaker 4:Wasn't easy.
Speaker 3:Did you have a lot of no's?
Speaker 4:I had a lot of or was it more process. It was more of a process and a lot of no's. I had a lot of or was it more process? It was more of a process, and a lot of people that weren't really involved in the process tell me I wasn't going to make it, you know. So basically, people that didn't know whether it wasn't up to them.
Speaker 3:But you seem like you're strong-willed though.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I learned real quick not to listen to the naysayers.
Speaker 3:Yes, because a lot of times people want to say they're positive. There's a lot of negative people and they pour out that.
Speaker 4:They're close to you. Usually it's friends and family.
Speaker 3:It is, it really is, and I hate to say that, but it's just true. And a lot of times, your family, you know the people that you really want to believe in you a lot of them don't. I hate to say this, but this is true is a lot of strangers have more belief in you than your own friends and family. Do you agree?
Speaker 4:with that, absolutely. Yeah, they're in your corner. It's crazy. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3:And you have to keep going and just truly believe that there is purpose for you. In 2016, when the wildfires hit, um, what was your first thought?
Speaker 4:That. That's a deep question. That's a good question. You know, essentially that day our office was deployed early on. You know, and we essentially what emergency management does? They work with the local departments, whether it's the fire department, whether it's an ambulance service, whether it's Homeland Security or the police department, and we're basically there to assist them into making better decisions and navigating through this emergency, whatever that may be. You know you're not going to call 911 and the emergency management agency show up at your house to help you personally.
Speaker 4:And now, if the emergency service personnel get there and it's something that they're not familiar with or they can't solve, they call us. We're like a 911 for 911. Right, Okay, and so we come in and that particular day they being the national park called the Gallenberg fire department, it was like, hey, you know we've got this fire. It's been burning since the day before Thanksgiving. You know we've attempted several times to extinguish it and put in. You know fire breaks and all these things. But, however, it's now close to some historic buildings near Gallenberg, near the city limits of Gallenberg. Would you be willing to go over there and at least bring an engine and some fire personnel to protect these old cabins?
Speaker 3:You know, back when they were trying to assess the situation.
Speaker 4:Not even at this point, we're not even assessing. It was literally just to go to this particular spot that had some old cabins. If you've been, like this is not in Cades Cove, I don't want to confuse the viewers, but if you've ever been to Cades Cove and you've seen these old cabins, right, I mean, that's essentially what they're going to. You know, protect and. But at the time, which was, you know, probably early afternoon, late morning, this is what we found out. So they go up there, they call us in, us being the emergency management agency, to come assist, and some of our staff personnel went up there and worked with the fire department to do just the early things in an incident, if you will.
Speaker 4:Well, one of the things is, you know, looking at, what's the first residential community near this fire? Now, this fire is miles and miles away from the first community, which is Minot Park.
Speaker 1:And so the Gallenberg.
Speaker 4:Police Department Minot Park.
Speaker 3:It's in.
Speaker 4:Gallenberg and it's going. Have you ever been to the Park Vista in Gallenberg? Yes, so it's sort of there. On your right-hand side as you go up towards Park Vista, there's a small park and community right there, and so the police department, gallenburg Police Department and the fire department set up an evacuation to those residents. They didn't have to leave, it wasn't a requirement.
Speaker 4:Again, you know this is broad daylight. Yeah, it's. These are usually residents. They've seen wildfires their whole life, you know. But they opened up a shelter just in case at the Gatlinburg Community Center and then, as the fire progressed and more people found out about it you know, the smoke is really heavy in the area so they opened up the command post at the Gatlinburg Fire Department. News stations are there, new stations are there.
Speaker 4:They brought in this fire model that essentially you could put in the wind speed, the barometric pressure, the Doppler radar, all these things, and then the topographical map of the terrain where the fire is at in this model will actually show you the the development and the growth of this particular wildfire and how fast it's going to spread. And from that model it was showing that it wasn't going to reach the city limits of Gallenberg for, you know, half a day, 16, 17, 18 hours, and rain was coming through the forecast to be here in just a few hours, like around nine, 10 o'clock that night, which is not what happened. You know, the rain didn't actually come until mid morning, two o'clock in the morning and um, from around the six, 30, uh to to 10 o'clock hour. Um, you know this, these uh winds picked up to be hurricane force winds. I think the last reading, uh, the there was a weather station that was monitoring wind speeds and before it was damaged, the last reading had 87 mile an hour winds, which you know is essentially hurricane force winds.
Speaker 3:So that day you went up to do you know what you could to save those cabins. You know what you could to save those cabins. What was it like just trying to contribute to others and talking to others in the community and explaining to them. You know what is transpiring, what. What can you tell me?
Speaker 4:so, um, you know, right now, you guys, the it's still a Gatlinburg Fire Department problem issue. You know they're they're the jurisdiction in charge. This is still early on, and so they have their own protocols, their own standard operating procedures that they do things for certain incidents, and so they have their own metrics of how this looks in a wildfire, in a flood, and you know all these things. And so they're going through their protocol and notifying, and for them that particular day was going door to door, just because it's a small community, right and then at the same time, doing press conferences and explaining what's going on, you know, at the command post, but essentially the fire chief, greg Miller, at the time and you know was the last press conference that he did was talking about this fire model that we just got done, talking about and what it was looking like and you know where the who we've already evacuated versus where the shelters at, and just given the public information of what's going on with the information we had at the time, which is just basically standard operating.
Speaker 3:I bet you doing a press conference was probably really stressful because people wanted answers. You know that type thing. But I can't imagine, you know, emotionally, as a man, you know in that position, what was your emotions, what did you feel as just what was going on? You knew you had to speak, you had to give some answers, but emotionally, seeing people, you know, panicking, people scared, what was that like?
Speaker 4:I'm glad you asked. So, essentially, this is Monday and the first 12 hours of any incident is what we call the response phase. So we have 12 hours and this is where the responders come out and they are doing what they can to mitigate whatever emergency there is. And then the second 12 hours is the first operational period, if you will. And so what you do on every 12 hours is a new operational period and you set objectives and goals to accomplish in this 12 hours. You know, and every there's usually staff change and there's a there's a transfer of of command to, to people that are going to be changing out roles. You know, we've we had over 4,000 apparatus to come to the Gatlinburg area to help fight this fire. I mean, you think about how big a fire truck is. Imagine we're going to put 4,000 of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and a lot of people. I will say it did bring a lot of people together that really wanted to help people because people lost so much. You know that type thing. But I just can't imagine being in that position that you can't just change it. It's not something that just changes like that. I don't want to give away the book, but I do want to say in part of the book I read that you were saying that you went in the bathroom and you know, trying to gather yourself together and put water on your face to prepare, you know, to go out and speak and speak about things that may not be pleasing to people, but it was just reality. The human aspect, yes, what was that like?
Speaker 4:So that particular part was later on the week. You know we closed the city of Gallenberg down for about six days and you know we had so many missing people who turned eventually hundreds of people on this missing list and trying to find them and locate family members because that was the biggest thing is people, with the city being shut down they could, they didn't even know if their own house was burnt.
Speaker 3:Exactly, business was burned. And so I do remember that it was.
Speaker 4:It was our job to one find these missing people and somehow, you know, provide this information to the public, which what we did is we actually went to each individual house on foot. I mean, there was still no cell phone towers, that meant no GPS. We had to print old maps and bring people that have never been to Gatlinburg that has no road signs, no trees, no houses, no buildings, only driveways, and you would have to go to a house that was still standing, look at the house number and say, okay, I'm at 2021, songbird Road. This next house must be 2022,. Even though it's not there, I can see a driveway and you start counting the driveways.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's how they had to map 2,500 different buildings and I want you all to understand that there are a lot of people that own cabins that are not living in East Tennessee. So they're getting calls from people that are saying tell me if my house is still there. So that, right there, the stress of all of that, you know, was on his head.
Speaker 4:It was trying not been to bed.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I've never even went home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, imagine that you know and it's out of your control. You're trying to control a situation that was out of control and then you're trying to take all these calls and put yourself in that position. You know to take all these calls and put yourself in that position. You know what would it be like? I mean because when you've given so much to your community and you're dedicating service, and worked so hard to be in that room. Yeah, to be in that room and change your life to be in that room.
Speaker 4:Or you probably worked harder than anybody in that room to be in that room.
Speaker 3:Exactly, but you still could not make it go away. And this was with their reality, because I know there was many people that you had to tell your house is gone yeah what was that?
Speaker 4:like well, I uh in, um and I want to get back to the bathroom thing because that's such a good uh, good yes visual for anybody who wants to he can give that part away.
Speaker 3:I just didn't want to.
Speaker 4:I didn't want to speak for you on that part, but that when I was reading that I was just like it kind of got me like oh, go ahead but, uh, this map that we went live with after we mapped out all these houses, which would allow somebody to go to a website and see they could type in their address and they could see if their house was lost or still there. But and so we we put it on this, this, this company called Esri and put it on their servers, which is a worldwide company. It's a huge company. This is our crazy, but I think it went live December 6th. Okay, so there's only about 31 days in December, so maybe it was live 19 days in the year 2016. It was the most used map in the entire world for their company and in the 19 days it was live.
Speaker 3:Oh, wow.
Speaker 4:It's crashed all their servers. So many people clicked on it that it crashed their servers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so just think about that. People are having to go on this site to see if their house is still if their house is still standing. There was many families that didn't know if their family member that lived. You know, a couple of miles away or whatever. I can't get a hold of them their phone's not ringing, are they missing?
Speaker 4:And they would go on a list, this missing persons list.
Speaker 3:And that's true Anxiety, and that's true anxiety, and you're wanting to know that your family member is safe.
Speaker 4:And it's still at the same time we're developing new goals and objectives to do the next operational period, commanding the scene for the operational period we're in and having press conferences twice a day to notify the public. I mean, this is all going on with no sleep. We know what he ever left.
Speaker 2:We didn.
Speaker 4:This is all going on with no, sleep With nobody ever left we didn't brush our teeth for the first three days.
Speaker 3:I can't even imagine being in that position. Yeah, it's crazy, so take us to the bathroom.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so this particular incident is, like I said, latter part of the week. You know, they in the beginning, naturally, just with any other disaster, people in the beginning were just shocked, you know just like. I can't believe this happened. We love Gatlinburg. We vacationed there our entire lives.
Speaker 3:I used to own a cabin up there. I sold mine, but yeah.
Speaker 4:I mean, memories are there.
Speaker 3:Great memories.
Speaker 4:It sort of took a switch of like well, what went wrong, how did we get here? And when I say this switch, it really wasn't who's to blame per se, but there was this paradigm shift, slowly going, but some people wanted to blame somebody.
Speaker 3:To blame somebody, yeah, and it's like well, how did we get here?
Speaker 4:What went wrong? What could we have done better? And you know, the fact of the matter is that anything you look back on, when you have more information you know, hindsight's 2020, you know. So everybody's now got more information and then they just want to start armchair quarterbacking this event, versus being in the moment and understanding what the information we had at the time and how we decided to do things, things. But now I'm I'm, you know, uh going back on the podium and answering questions uh for text alerts, emergency alerts, and everybody's got a question everybody's got a question.
Speaker 4:Want to know why they didn't go out, why they didn't send it. Um and uh who started?
Speaker 3:who started it?
Speaker 4:how the boys, you know these two boys who started, I mean just just so many things. And you know, like I said, I'm not going to sleep. How fast, I don't know exactly, but what? What happened was the national park put out a, you know, a request for information, essentially to the public and saying, hey, were you hiking this, the chimneys top trailhead, on this particular day, which was the day before Thanksgiving?
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 4:And did you see anything?
Speaker 3:essentially Right.
Speaker 4:Because we know the fire started up there and it's a popular hiking trail, so somebody had to see something. Well, somebody came up and said you know what? I actually hiked it that day and I was wearing a GoPro and it was recording all entire time and I I know exactly who did it. So, um, that's how those boys were caught and arrested and all those things. But you know, before I went out on that day, you know I went into this bathroom stall and Viewers.
Speaker 3:Listen to this one. You're going to want this book. Read this book, because this yeah Game changer. Go ahead.
Speaker 4:And thought to myself what some of the viewers probably had thought at some point in time in their life and I thought how in the F did?
Speaker 3:I get here. How did you get here?
Speaker 4:How did I get here? I'm about to go speak to the news media from all over the US and answer some tough questions. Answer some tough questions and and honestly, you know knowing how hard I work to get to this very point in my life and and this is what you find this is what I'm facing. It's like I worked I clawed my way out of rock bottom.
Speaker 4:Clawed my way out of rock bottom, yes, and this is what people are going to remember me as you know, and they and they don't even, they don't even know me and the worst part about it and being judged by so many people that don't know don't know the situation, assume this, and even when we went out and told them the exact truth, they don't believe you. We're in this, this world, where somebody can get on media and actually say the truth, and they don't want to believe you. No, they just want to believe because a lot of people.
Speaker 3:I hate to say this. A lot of people want to uh believe. They don't want to believe good. Yeah, they want to believe bad, because bad keeps the story going. Yeah, you see what I'm saying believing something that is good and somebody is really trying their best to work through some things for the greater good. A lot of this world do not want to hear that, and so you have to sit and think about am I that person that I wanted to hear negative? So go ahead about the bathroom.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I remember. You know, like it was yesterday, just leaving the stall, I splashed some water on my face and, as I'm walking up to this podium and dreading every single moment of it, I was I was thinking that they are going to find out that I've been in jail, I was incarcerated, I was on drugs and they were going to go after my character, something I worked so hard to make an impact and change for the better, and I've helped thousands of people.
Speaker 3:But people are going to the podium and all the hands went up to ask the question and you picked the first person that you saw raise their hand or whatever, and all I could think about when I was reading that is, I know me. I would think, okay, I'm picking this, what are they going to ask?
Speaker 4:me.
Speaker 3:Is it going to be favorable or is it? Are they going to drill me for every single thing? And so did that happen.
Speaker 4:You know it's. It did happen in a certain sense, but not like hey, uh heard you were an IV drug user, homeless and all methadone. What. What gives you the right to be on this? You know, in this, in this command post, and how did anybody allow you to do this?
Speaker 3:But it was more Did your insecurities, once those things came out, did your insecurities of, oh my gosh, that?
Speaker 4:you or did Imposter syndrome a thousand percent and my insecurities were there. Yeah, I thought it was like I'm an imposter, like I can't believe Do y'all hear that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, this is a grown man that's saying I overcame all these different things, but now I'm on the biggest stage of my life and now all fingers are pointing at me and they're talking about everything that I I've been through and I've overcame, but they're they're using it to weaponize me to, to, to bring me down because of their stress, of what they think it should be or what I should have done.
Speaker 4:And there was another reporter that that same time period. She tried to compare the the Gallenberg wildfires to a to a fire that happened in Asheville, north Carolina.
Speaker 4:And basically said that the, the, the people in charge of that event in Asheville, North Carolina not Nashville but Asheville, North Carolina, my country accent kind of confuses people but was evacuated to town ahead of time. There were some damage lost but no lives were lost. And essentially, why didn't you do that here? And the fact of the matter is there are two totally different fires. One was a slow moving fire, slow burning fire that happened over a week period of time. This one, you know, was burning a half an acre a second.
Speaker 3:Half an acre, a second. I did not know that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was. They had a study come in and a third party you know, assessed the entire incident and came out with a report which is published. Anybody can read it, but this after action report. In there they state that out of the 17,000 acres they burned and the 2,500 structures burned at a half an acre a second. That's how fast I mean it was melting cars.
Speaker 3:But you even think about, like the big wildfires in LA.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 3:They were trying to compare Asheville to.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, I mean.
Speaker 3:Gatlinburg, I mean thoseatlinburg, I mean those are. That's like us trying to compare ours to LA. Those are two different type situations. Yes, there's something similar, that everybody lost something. You know what I'm saying. But you can't compare that and you can't point fingers at the person in position because you're so angry. I do understand anger and I do understand being scared, but at the same time, it doesn't mean somebody's at fault for it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Exactly you know what I'm saying and at that time we didn't know the boys and all that type thing. But it was like more coming at you, like you did it when you know you really didn't. Yeah, you were just brought in to try to stop the loss and help people rebuild and help people find their family members and that type thing. So what your insecurities in that is?
Speaker 4:but here's this thing too on that ashville, the fire departments in in Asheville, the association, the fire chief association, wrote us a letter and said that hey, we're sorry for the events that occurred on the news. We don't support the what that news reporter said and in fact these fires are totally different and we're we really try to compare it to it. Yeah, that's how. Nobody knows that.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's an exclusive. Somebody wrote that.
Speaker 4:I mean they wrote to you to tell you an apology for, on the behalf of Nashville, you know, or the North Carolina Fire Chiefs Association. I got an emergency service to help people. And you know, I want to say, and I think I can say with confidence, the super majority of all people in emergency services want to help. I mean, that's what they're there.
Speaker 3:They love the service they want to serve.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and now there is a community.
Speaker 3:There is a small portion of them.
Speaker 4:Bad apples will put a negative light or connotation on. You know the company or the service that they're providing, but the super majority of them want to help.
Speaker 3:Want to help and want to make a difference. You know, make it a difference in your community. I truly believe evangelism that what God was talking about in the Bible a true evangelism is in the streets, it's in your community. It's helping it to make it a better place and it starts with you. It starts with, okay, you sin, there's a need and you try your best to fulfill that need. So tell me this what does the title of wisdom at a cost mean? What does it mean? Title of wisdom at a cost me?
Speaker 4:what does it mean, yeah, uh, and what made you so much and what made you want to write this book, the? The short answer on why I wanted to write it was to to to one share the story of um, in my opinion an incredible comeback story, to give you know somebody that's either in those same shoes, the confidence, the motivation, the strength to stay the course, and also for somebody that is I love that.
Speaker 3:Stay the course yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and or also some that's a loved one that's witnessing somebody that's going through some of those things, and allow them to understand what's Stay the course sense. All you need to do is quit Right and and that's but you're. You're here saying, stay the course.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, absolutely Stay the course. And and so the wisdom that comes from all those demons that I battled in drug addiction and being homeless and IV drug user and and and trying to deal with all the shame that came with it to be a confident man later on in life that went from 21 years old IV drug user to being 35. After the wildfires I was promoted to assistant mayor over all emergency services Do y'all hear that I went from 21.
Speaker 3:Who would have thought a drug addict would be?
Speaker 4:On the method of clinic In Knoxville.
Speaker 3:Yes, Down there at the DRD with everybody else every single morning getting my 90 room and he's telling you he hit rock bottom and then now you're being put in positions to make decisions for mankind. Yeah, I mean, who would have thought that you know so? And you wrote this book to tell. It's kind of like it's kind of like the blueprint.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's kind of like writing a blueprint and saying, hey, this was it, and don't give up, stay the course and trust the process. Yeah, and so what do you want this book to be known as? Yeah, tell me that.
Speaker 4:Well, I'm going to actually steal that. I like the blueprint. I think it's a great way, you know, really, I think for those that had a loved one that was addicted or went through PTSD or any of these these childhood traumas, you know, it's for you to better understand what's going on in somebody's mind, because I try to bring the reader into those moments I was in, when I was in those moments and I, um, I had help with a woman named Meg Davis who is a ghost writer and is does very talented and she's the one that helps me build this character development and and share this story, this with these, these details that you'll read, and then also for those addicts that are going through it. You know that, um, uh, that they can see this blueprint, but the so, yes, I want everybody to read it. Uh, of course, right, those cliches that sounds. But, um, you know for, and if you do give it a chance and you do read it and you do enjoy it and you think it could benefit somebody else, please share it.
Speaker 3:That's the biggest thing is just pay it forward and see how many lives we can impact and change. And if you see somebody that is going through that and you don't have the words, this book is a great book that you could buy for that person and say, you know, I don't have all the answers, but this person went through this. Once you read this book, you know and see if you can relate to it, if it will help you, if it will give you strength to get through. I think that's the biggest thing and because a lot of times, if you're not in that, whatever situation it is, you don't have the right words. This book to me, is the blueprint of saying you know what, even when people counted me out, even when people thought that I was going to be the worst of worse, god brought me through and he made me get through and I'm still going. What is your mission of stay in the course Institute?
Speaker 4:Yeah, tell me that, uh, what I've been working on now and quit my job, uh, and and diving all my time, and energy and money into um, is this thing called Stay the Course Institute. And essentially it's going to be a course that people can develop these life skills. So you take somebody that's 28 years old is the example I always give that's been incarcerated or on drugs, and you take a 28-year-old that's lived this, lived this quote, unquote normal life. Their life skills are not the same.
Speaker 4:You know the this normal 20 year old they're going to, they've opened up a bank account. They've maybe got a car loan or a home loan, or they went to college and know how to fill out a FAFSA report or get a college loan. You know the one that's been in jail, incarcerated and on drugs they're, they have skills. There's, there's, not the same it's not the same and there's so much shame of like.
Speaker 4:You know, I'm 28 years old, I should know how to do this, but I don't even want to say, like, how do you open a bank account, you know, and it's. They already feel, uh, shameful for all the bad decisions. You know. I just want to give them a place that they can learn these things at the comfort of their own home. It'll all be online.
Speaker 3:And a lot of people don't understand. Like, let's go back to your childhood. You know your dad was alcoholic. There was a lot of you know young, when you were young, things that you needed to learn. But when you have an alcoholic for a father, there's a lot of things that he was not teaching you or showing you, and bank account is one of them. There are so many people that do not know how to open a bank account and do not see a value of having a bank account.
Speaker 3:Or a savings account or anything like that, any of that, even with credit how to pay your bills, that type thing. I think a lot of us take that for granted, that everybody should know what that is. But if you're not taught how to pay the utility bill, if you're not taught, it's why I truly believe I don't care what a family's decision is, if a woman works or not works. I think that you should know your family's finances. Yeah, okay, and how to pay, because if someone passes away or gets sick, that type thing you know if you've never paid a mortgage, if you've never paid a utility bill or a phone bill, that type thing, because that was always taking care of you, not just someone that's incarcerated.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of people that's never been to jail, that has no clue how to pay a bill because I'm in real estate guys, y'all know this and there's been women and men that have been left by their spouses and that spouse took care of all of those things and now they don't know how to do it and a lot of them are embarrassed to say I didn't ask any questions. So I feel like your institute will help a lot of people. You know, to know what, how to take care of themselves yeah, you know that type thing. So what's next the institute? What's next for thing? So what's?
Speaker 4:next the Institute, what's next for? So, the currently on the Institute, the, the, the. The next goal or finish line is going to be open up a foundation and and essentially help people that were in the same shoes as I was. The course is going to do just that, but you know where? Maybe they need to get some teeth, their teeth fixed because they're rotten, or maybe they need a nice dress, or they need to get you fixed because they're rotten, or maybe they need a nice dress, or they need to get somehow ready for a job interview. Now that they've stayed the course, they've turned their life around and they need some extra help. I want to start a foundation that will help those people as well.
Speaker 4:So those are the two big things on my list right now.
Speaker 3:Because even with the interview what you were just saying there's a lot of people that don't know how to interview. Well, they don't know how to dress for an interview. You dressing to go to grocery store and you dressing to go to interview is totally different and you have to understand that. There is people like John that is saying, okay, I'll teach you that. You know, I know what it's like not to know things and you got to tap into that and you have to surround yourself with like-minded people that are really trying to be the better them. You know what I'm saying and I think a lot of times that people are embarrassed.
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, truly. And you know there's a. There's a whole new type of interviewing that we're not used to anymore and that's virtual. So you know there's a whole new type of interviewing that we're not used to anymore and that's virtual. So you know there's a lot of. There's a curveball you and.
Speaker 4:I, you know we had, we're used to and probably still are used to, you know, in-person interviews and I remember when I was about 25 years old, I'm interviewing for the Gallenberg Fire Department.
Speaker 4:I told you that I did the physical agility test for both Knoxville and Gatlinburg and the written exam. Well then, it was an in-person interview and they sit you in a chair, you know, all by yourself, in the center of the room and there's a table of decorated fire chiefs and captains that got all these, you know, their their dress uniforms on is what we call it in the fire service and they got all their brass on, you know, gold stars and bugles. And you know you've got the HR director for the city and all these people and they're asking the same 10 questions to the candidates, you know, and they're trying to grade you on your answers. I remember one of the questions from came from one of the gentlemen. He's like you know, we're going to background check and run your record and if we do, we're going to find anything. Now, it was the one question I was hoping they weren't going to ask because I knew the answer.
Speaker 4:But now, up to that point I've already tried to. I went to each courthouse and expunged all my records. So theoretically, they they're gone, you know.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 4:But I didn't know that and I paused for a second. But then I I just owned up when I said well, matter of fact, you may, and I remember the silence in the room just getting dead, dead quiet. You could hear a pin drop and another gentleman didn't even ask a question looked up and said, well, what are you even doing here? And then another one said well, what are we going to find, son? You know what? What? What are we going to find? I said, well, um, uh, there's a lot. And I went down this list of my rap sheet, you know, and uh, those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head. It was kind of nervous and, um, I said, you know I'm, I'm going to give you every reason why not to hire me, and I understand that.
Speaker 4:But you wanted to be honest but I, but the guy that was doing all those crimes is a, is a man that no longer exists, and but I also know that it was me and if you choose not to give me this job because of that, I'm okay with it. Now, to remind you, I just went through EMT school year and a half of college of working full time, new baby, new husband and a full-time college student. It's for this moment, right here, and it could have been, and everybody always. And they say they won't hire you, there's no way you're going to get this job. And here they asked the same damn question. I thought it would never be asked and here I am. I'm like man, these people are right. You know, the back of my mind the whole time spinning. And I said, uh, but I promise won't let you down. And, um, they went on with the interview. When they got finished, one of the guys came up to me uh, fire chief.
Speaker 4:You know, just as you can imagine, he had a, this gray mustache you know like he's been in the business for umpteen years and he came over and he said, son, frankly I don't know if you're gonna get this job or not, but what I do know is it's not gonna matter. That's the best interview I ever had in my life.
Speaker 3:Really yeah, and it changed your life.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 25. And they gave me a chance and I didn't stop there.
Speaker 3:So I'll tell y'all I would get this book. Let it be a blueprint of overcoming whatever you're trying to overcome. And I would say believe in yourself, believe in yourself, dust yourself off, get yourself together, surround yourself with like-minded people and if your circle is not the circle that is going to tell you, stay the course, find a different circle.
Speaker 3:It's that easy. I'm a firm believer of and it took me some years to get here but if a room is not for me, I just go to another room. It's that easy Just go to another room. You know, it took being rejected and not being what people thought I should be, but it took God to come in me and tell me to go to another room. It's that simple.
Speaker 3:I thank you for coming here and being so honest and raw and telling your story, because I think a lot of people need to understand that you can stay the course and you can make it and you can make a difference. Do not stop Once you make it. You got to make a difference with other people and show them that. I thank you for giving me this interview and everybody he'll be back in a few months. Tune in every Friday to Talkin' Tennessee. Bye, guys.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Talkin' Tennessee with Yvonca. Watch out for our weekly episodes from the First Family of Real Estate and check us out on the web wwwyvoncasalesrealestatecom. See our videos on Yvonca's YouTube channel or find us on Facebook under Yvoncasalsrealestatecom. See our videos on Yvonca's YouTube channel or find us on Facebook under Yvonca Landis and Twitter at Yvonca Landis. And don't forget to tell a friend about us. Until next time. Yvonca signing off.