You Can Have It All- Author & Coach Dawn Reeby

Intro  
Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of Enduring the Badge Podcast. I'm your host, Jerry Dean Lund. And I don't want you to miss an upcoming episode. So please hit that subscribe button. And while your phones out, please do me a favor and give us a review on iTunes or Apple Podcasts. It says, "Hey, this podcast has a great message and we should send it out to more people". So please take that 30 seconds to a minute to do that review. And just maybe by doing that, it will push this up into someone's podcast feed that really needs this message. Hi, everyone. Before we jump in this next episode with my amazing guests, I found a great YouTube clip that's going to explain just what Dawn Reeby and I are going to talk about on this episode. So let's jump right into this clip.

Youtube clip  
CEO of excellence in analytics. So what is excellence in analytics? Well, we help law enforcement professionals really build the infrastructures that they need to create quality data driven strategies. And we do it with leadership of self as a top priority. So you know, what does the analytic side of this old look like? What it looks like is building the infrastructure. It looks like building the policies, the procedures, the buying strategies, the operation strategies, the data quality, all of that stuff. We work with agencies to help them really build that process of using data to drive strategies for working smarter, not harder. So what does the wellness side of it all look like? Well, we understand that well, alarm forcement community, whether you're a chief, a deputy chief, or an analyst, or an analyst supervisor, that, you know, often it could feel like your wheels are spinning that you are overwhelmed and stressed out. And so what we do is we build in this wellness component to really ensure long term sustainable, joyous careers in law enforcement, and in law enforcement analytics. So we have multiple levels that that, you know, really depending on what your growth strategy is, you could slide on into, we have wellness coaching, we have analytical coaching, and then we have supervisory and leadership coaching. So all of these tools, all of these platforms, can really help build that analytical infrastructure that your agents could be looking for, that almost every agency is looking for, while having a leadership of self as a top priority. So I encourage you to visit some of the other tabs to get really an understanding of the specifics of what we do and how we can best serve you. What you need to know is you're not in this alone. We can help. We've been doing this for 20 plus years, and we can absolutely help you too.

Jerry D. Lund  
Good morning, Dawn or good afternoon where you're at. How are you doing today?

Dawn Reeby  
Yes, yes. Good afternoon. I'm doing great. Jerry, how are ya?

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, I'm doing well, doing well. You know, this. We all have this COVID thing going around. And I think we just sometimes catch a little bit of it and just push through it.

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, yeah. I hear ya. I was I was telling you the story about my daughter's school, half of the staff being closed. And, you know, you just kind of sit back and say, What can I do to really enjoy right now? Right, right. shift the thinking a little bit,

Jerry D. Lund  
Which you have to do for your kids. Because, I mean, I think they're, in a way, they don't want to go to school. But another way, they're like, boy, I gotta do stuff online. And that's no fun.

Dawn Reeby  
Exactly.

Jerry D. Lund  
That's it. That's been our case here at home. It's been a hard struggle, you know, to bounce around a little bit. Yeah, let's, let's show the audience a little bit about yourself.

Dawn Reeby  
Sure. So I'm Dawn Reeby CEO of Excellence in Analytics. And probably, I don't know, gosh, 1998 is when I started in the law enforcement environments, and as a civilian, and so a civilian analysts, so really helping to deploy strategy, deploy officers, right, smarter, and with a better direct, right, really using information to drive those decisions. And so, for the last 10 years or so, I've been working with a bunch of different government entities NITSA, AI analyst ICP, ICA and others to help agencies do that. So they'll fly me out and I'll go into an agency and help them build their capacities. And or do it remotely teaching classes, designing curriculum and that kind of thing. And probably over the last three or four years, I just discovered in all of that travel and all that communication, the lack of self care in the fire, law enforcement, you know, EMS industries, because, like we give so much of ourselves, right and we you know, we often are the last people on the list. So, I've made it my mission to really serve the law enforcement, fire EMS communities and public sector to help them find and create that work life, love and the work life enjoyment that they deserve to have. So that's the career side on the personal side. I'm a mom of two beautiful girls. And I love getting outside and doing yoga and just really connecting within with myself and with my family and friends in a way that's so nourishing and meaningful.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, getting outside. There's just something about getting outside that, that nourishes you.

Dawn Reeby  
Yes, yes. I mean, it's 26 degrees here in New Hampshire right now. And a couple of weeks ago, I went on a retreat where most of it was outdoors. And we lit a fire and did some, you know, kind of stargazing kind of things, and just centering leadership myself kind of stuff where I was actually receiving and not delivering it. So it felt wonderful. It was some of the law enforcement folks too, so it's great.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, want to touch on that. So you're receiving this some training and doing some stuff like that, even in personal coaching and all the things you do, you're still going out and getting your own training, or refill, or whatever it is that you need.

Dawn Reeby  
1,000% So you, for me, I could never be the leader that I am today, unless I have my own person or group of people who are nourishing me. And I'm only receiving. And that's a really important thing, I think, because my idea before around leadership was you either are or you aren't right, and you got to do self development, and you got to be that leader, and give what you do, right. But I didn't really fully understand the concepts around restoration and receiving that created a better me and therefore created a better leader for others to follow. So I 100 101,000, I don't know a gazillion percent, promote all leaders, having someone in their corner to really understand them and elevate them and help them see through maybe a set of lenses that they don't see through at this moment. Because of where they are in their own growth and development.

Jerry D. Lund  
Do you find that with leaders that you're trying to you're traveling around visiting, do you find that they maybe don't take the time to see themselves through a different lens?

Dawn Reeby  
Leaders aka worst? Leaders are the worst, they are the best of the worst. They're the best because they hold everybody else above them. Right. And so they are constantly looking for ways to serve and to elevate somebody else and to grow the team, which is all good stuff, right. But what they don't realize is when they're not restoring themselves, they're depleting themselves. And when they're not investing in their own growth and development, time, money, all of it, then they really are not showing up as their best selves. And and that really limits their perspective. Right? It limits their perspective, they could be brilliant. I mean, I think I mean, I'm a pretty smart person. And I, I have a coach, and I always hope for the rest of my life. Right? And so I think that leaders often are challenged with ego, or maybe they're like, I don't really, do I need something for me. And answer's yes, there's always somebody who can, you know, bring you to the next level. And in that you show up as a next level expert and leader for your people. There. It's lonely. It's only for leaders. And that's one of the things I hear so often from my leaders. We start off with all the people they're serving, and oh, I struggle, they struggle, and it's hard for them. I'm like, what about you? What about you, it's easy and hard for you. So leaders in general do a really good job of supporting other people and do a really stinky job supporting themselves is I mean, they're like, Oh, I work out. That's great. But that can actually be contributing depending on what the workout is, it can be contributing to, you know, Jack, your cortisol levels getting jacked, right. And so I think I love specifically working with folks who do supervise others, because I know that they have that service in them that service based mentality. And, and, and they themselves deserve just as much growth and compassion as the next person.

Jerry D. Lund  
So when you talk about analytics, and how you go around training people to use the analytics to better put officers on the street or fight different types of crimes. Is that what you're going out doing?

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, so that's one big chunk of it is the analytics. And so I'll go oh, you know, it could be fire, it could be police. It could be different entities that have information stored stored somewhere. And basically, I show them how to access that information, how to streamline some efficiencies, how to create it so that reporting and analytics are so much easier, right? And no more hand counting anything like everything's a press of a button, but really how to look at their data differently, how to look at their information, not just the computer data, but look at the anecdotal data as well differently to see how they can better serve their communities, better establish their strategies, their operations, their mindset, their systems, and so forth. So using information, getting access to it, and then figuring out how to actually analyze it. And then what to do with the data, once it's analyze, is a nice, beautiful thing that I love delivering. We've seen always success where someone looks up, and now I get how long it took me to do that before. And they feel less stress, they feel more organized. And they're then able to be more proactive versus reactive, right, like, not always going to the fire, but maybe preventing some of the fire that that could be occurring.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, so you are helping their mental health in that way by saying, "Hey, you could use this data to do these different things, and you don't have to stress out about it. And maybe we'll actually lower your some stress, you know, as you're seeing where you can make changes". Yeah, that's pretty cool.

Dawn Reeby  
It's so funny, you say that, Jerry, because like, That's literally how we probably about 60% of our clients walk through the door, is they say, I'm so stressed out at work. And you know, and how can I, my systems be better my teams, my culture, like all that be better. And we have programs that work on that, but but all of our programs really focused around leadership of self as a priority. And once they start understanding that concept and practicing the practices relative to that concept, they're like, this is what's been missing. This is the answer to all of the other stuff. So we start off with what they need, certainly, and then build in that leadership of self as as key to long term success.

Jerry D. Lund  
Do you see maybe some of the stress coming from not actually knowing how to collect the right data, to help me to help make these changes that they be perceived to, to need?

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, I've been to police agencies where things are handwritten. I've been to police agencies, where the Records Management System or the CAD system, computer aided dispatch system is stored somewhere else. So they didn't even they don't even know how to access it. I've been to agencies where, you know, we actually look at their, their information, and they realize that they're not capturing things like heroin overdoses, or whatever it might be, in a way that's systematic, and they're spending a lot of time, you know, organizing that information manually. And so once we sit down, and we create a vision of what we want the unit or the agency to be doing, then we engineer that backwards and say, okay, here are the things we need to collect. And here's how we need to do it. And here's the most cost effective way and stress less to do it. Yeah.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, that's important, because you are going to be creating probably some other jobs for some of the people in the office to start clicking Other information and make some changes and without having your programs or teaching them how to gather it. That'd be totally exact mind blowing, and stressful on how like, how am I going to get this done? How am I going to capture the things that we need to capture? 

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Dawn Reeby  
Exactly like going back to the heroin overdose, right? You have fire who respond sometimes you have EMS who responds you have police who respond. When I worked at an agency or have been physically in multiple agencies where it would be you know, like a, like a unresponsive, right? So a citizen unresponsive. Or it would be listed as medical or mental health or something. And somehow, you know, your your chief is asking you how many overdoses did we have on fentanyl or on heroin or on something else? And you're just like, "Well, how am I supposed to get that?" A little bit of police a little bit of fire a little bit of this, and some agencies have, you know, systems combined. So, you know, so we helped streamline all of that. So we know what's important to you. And we help you build out the system, not just on reporting that kind of stuff. But then, you know, looking to see who the repeat folks one of the repeat locations, what are some strategies that you can develop around? What partners can you bring in to help support those particular folks who are maybe involved in multiple fires or multiple domestics or whatever it might be.

Jerry D. Lund  
So, part of what I'm gathering you to is like bad data in is always gonna mess with things, right? It's the same old story. You can't you can't throw in there the bad Daddy got to be a little more analytical about the data that you're collecting and where it goes, if you're going to use it.

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, and that's the thing. People try to create systems and they don't know what they're using it for. So they don't recognize that they have to do certain things. And so we sit down and we say, Chief, what's important to you? Or mayor, right, or whoever, you know, what's important to you? What's the kind of impact that you want to make on this community? How do you want to use your Fire, EMS, and police in a proactive way? Okay, good. I got it. Now, let's build it. Right? Let's make it happen.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah. Is this where you're going around? And like teaching and gathering all this data? Is this where you're going around seeing these other opportunities for the different things you do?

Dawn Reeby  
That's exactly how it was birthed, right, traveling to all these places, and talking to all these folks. And they just so overwhelmed, so stressed out. And, you know, and I was just like, well, you know, if we create these systems, that's one thing. But if you still practice, the habits, that you're hat, practicing, limited boundaries, limited mindset, you know, poor poor health, exercise routines, poor nutrition, all of that. If you're having these, these habits, that it doesn't matter how organized your system is, you're still going to be burnt out and stressed out. And the questions over and over again, we're just kind of like, how can you be so happy Dawn? How can you be so full of joy all the time? And like, how can you not? Life is so good. But it occurred to me that it's I mean, I've been through stuff, like, let's just put it that way. You know, I'm not saying that all my life has been good. But my mindset around it has shifted greatly. And I just saw this great disconnect these people who are dedicating 20-30 years of their lives, miserable, and thinking that retirement was going to really bring them some joy. How, like, if you're not joyous now, you're not gonna be joyous then.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, that is true. That is so true. It's, it's been said a lot of different ways by a lot of different people. But it's all true. How do people under stress, like the first responders form these bad habits that kind of progressively get worse and worse over time?

Dawn Reeby  
I think a lot of it has to do with our beautiful mindsets, right? Our mindsets are of service, we wouldn't be in fire, police, EMS, and similar if we weren't of service mentality, right? I mean, you're not a millionaire working in policing? Yeah. You know, you dedicate a lot of time and energy. And so we've come from a place of service of loyalty of strength, right? That we will be strong, we will be proud we will be, you know, persevere, right? I mean, fire, firemen and women are taught to go in to the fire, right, like, against the norms of society. So when, you know, so when someone in society says, Oh, you need to relax, and you need to meditate, how many people are just in our fields are just like, You have no idea what you're talking about. Right? So you wanna you want to, but there's so much disconnect between the two. And so what I've seen happen with with these groups of people is that they, you know, they really do have great big hearts, and sometimes saying yes, repeatedly, or because they don't make a ton of money in the beginning, maybe they're taking on a lot of overtime, and wanting to, you know, build the house maybe or a family or whatever it is that they want. So now they get caught into this mindset of work harder, work harder, work harder. And giving up a lot of the restoration that they don't quite realize, is, is a key component to the success model. And so it's small in the beginning, right, you get a job, you're happy. And then you have to you climb the ranks, and you have to work harder, you work longer, right? Maybe. Maybe you do take the overtime, maybe not. Maybe you do get promoted, maybe not. But you might be considered weak, right? There's this mindset around if you're not strong. And so I see some folks really getting into that mindset of I'm stronger than this. I should be better than this. And inside they're breaking down, because they don't have the resources the people to talk to, in their minds. There's tons of resources out there. But really, it's almost it feels weak. And I experienced that very same thing. I was a woman civilian and policing, highest paid one in my whole agency and I was like afraid to screw up. Now I'm afraid to have anything wrong with me. Afraid for anyone to find me out. And so I can deeply relate to leaders in particular, and supervisors who feel like they have to have everything on point and be crumbling over here. It's, it's, it's it's sad, actually, that, that I was that way. And it's sad that I see people that way. And I know life can be better for them.

Jerry D. Lund  
Right? No, I thank you, man. That was That was great, that was so perfect. I feel, feel and have felt a lot of those same things that you're saying. We're, why do we have to feel so perfect? Or why does everybody expect us to be so perfect? Or do they really?

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, I think a lot of it is in our minds. I think a lot of it is in our heads. Because, you know, think about a boss you have known in your past who worked so hard that they were so miserable. And you're just like, oh, well, they're successful. And you know, that kind of thing. You're never going to be perfect. And neither am I like our kids will. Even if we are perfect, our kids will find something wrong of what we did. Right? Our employees will find something wrong. I mean, it's just how it goes. But if you live life, from a core value system of leadership of cells, right? Sustainability, longevity, and promoting the best you to therefore be the best leader to others, then you really give yourself and the people around you a much better chance of success for them and for you. But it's really, I think, a great shift that has been happening in our in our world, right, globally, where before, it was a lot worse, like it was just like you break your arm you keep on going right? Yeah. Right. And now with the suicide rates, that particular among service based industry, folks, you know, there's been a lot of resources dedicated to in crisis intervention. And what I love, what I'd love to see is more resources toward maintenance toward, you know, wellness toward overall joy in life and creating these sustainable careers where we actually have joyous individuals who love the lives they live, who love service, and who love their home lives. And so that's why we started just rocking out ours, we're like, we are in it, we are gonna do this, we're gonna change the way the industry thinks about wellness. And so yeah, I'm definitely happy to to share all the successes of the folks that have been through our program. But I know that there's so many others there who deserve to live better lives.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah. So there's been a lot of lack of maintenance for many years over pretty much every service field. Yeah. How are we going to turn that around? And how is that something we can turn around very fast?

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah. So the number one way to turn it around. And I would say this to anyone listening, right? Now, here's the one thing that you can do today, you can decide. You can simply decide that you want and deserve to live a better life, right. And when you make a decision in your life, that's when the opportunities start coming about, you can't really create success unless you've imagined it in your head unless you've thought through what you want it to look like. And so once you decide what you want your life to look like, then you can work with coaches to get you there. But it really truly is up to the individual to simply decide. I remember when I started my business years and years ago, and I was like, I don't know how to run a flipping business, like I know how to deliver the service. Right? Right, right. I was like, I don't know how to do books, and I don't know how to market and I don't know how to do strategic development. But so I said, Okay, Dawn, you can either decide that you're going to be a business that flopped. Or you can decide that you're going to be a business that's successful. And I decided we're going to be a successful business, but I'm not there by myself. So I wouldn't hire business coaches to get me there. And so when you decide something when you don't have to know exactly what it's gonna look like, but the decision alone, the decision to design your life the way that you want, it is the key to starting the process.

Jerry D. Lund  
So I have to design my life. I can't just wing it. Is that what you're saying?

Dawn Reeby  
You you have to decide that you want better. That's what you have to decide and what that better looks like to you could be different than what it looks like to somebody else. And so, maybe, you know, maybe for someone like you Jerry it would be I don't know, I guess I don't want to get too personal. 

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, it's okay. It's fine.

Dawn Reeby  
 Like, what what do you want your days to look like? What do you want, like what would feel joyous for you? Not just to occur on the weekends, but every single day.

Jerry D. Lund  
I think just the things that I really know that benefit me. So going outside and exercising, getting some my own personal development in eating right. And if I'm at work, you know, being a good leader and being kind and caring and, and thoughtful and have that empathy, just being be my true self. But day in and day out if I ever kind of write that out and design it, because I have to kind of write that out and design it to see what it looks like otherwise, like I said, I'm just winging it. That's kind of when I have the best days when those things are happening.

Dawn Reeby  
I love that. I love that. So why let me ask you then follow I'm gonna follow I'm gonna do a little bit here. So why does outside in nature work for you? Why does eating well work for you? Why those things? Because those are the how, right? Yeah, yeah, why does that kind of stuff appeal to you? What's the impact?

Jerry D. Lund  
Just, yeah, being out in nature, being able to see it, feel it, like the sun on your face, even though when it's cold, like, go out and run and just, you know, just having that sun on my face. And sometimes it's cold. And sometimes I just like to fight through that a little bit, that just kind of that it's windy, it's cold, it's like, these are the things that maybe don't make me want to do and actually go out and do it and achieve it. That makes me feel good. Eating good. Makes makes my body feel good. And and quite honestly, when I eat good, I like look down when I ate like, I don't feel very guilty about eating what I just ate. Sometimes if I eat crappy food, I feel guilty about it.

Dawn Reeby  
Yep, yep, yep. And you particularly I mean, if your body is optimized, and you're eating decent food most of the time, and your mind is optimized, because you're spending some time in nature and you're connecting with a calmer, restorative side of yourself. Right? Then the the impact of that is really giving you the energy and the mindset to live a better life to be a better leader. And on the leadership side, you know, what is it that brings you into the desire to be a good leader? Like, why why do you Jerry want to be a good leader to other people, maybe I'll, I'll zip it.

Jerry D. Lund  
Honestly, and I want them to be very successful at work, and at home, and enjoy their career with, you know, not huge ups and downs. And I think sometimes we can be in these careers for so long that we lose ourselves, we lose empathy. And we're just not as good as we weren't, once was. And now like, I just see my, like younger guys that I work with, and stuff like that. And I really do care about them on and off the job and just to be successful. Because one thing, it's kind of happened to me, I've had lots of ups and downs in life, and my job's finished, like you, right, it's a matter how you look at it, and how you take take care of that, that business. And when I hit my 20 years, I could potentially have retired. But I didn't. And it's part of his like, same thing, if I don't have a plan. And when I hit 20, it's just I hit 20. And then I go to work the next day, like so. And then you just keep going until you have a plan and actually truly sit down and design your life. You know, what you want to be.

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, I have this some download. And I can give you all the link. It's called Life by Design. And it's a free download, you can just listen to some of the language and it gives you a couple of reflection sheets to get you started on your journey to designing a life that you love living. And that could mean still working, right? That could be working, you know, at a different capacity, that could mean a lot of different things. And my how you get to joy doesn't really matter that that will be teased out, right? But the fact that you desiring to have stimulation, you know, in terms of your career, the fact of you desiring to have a deeper connection with yourself, and respect and compassion for the people you lead. Like those are the core values that we work to establish and to outline very well, to see how it could really fit into, you know, the next three or five years of Life by Design.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, so yeah, if you don't have that design, you kind of are some prompts, right? These are those sounds like a great tool. If you don't have those things, you're I think you spend a lot of time trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing and saying and writing and how I'm supposed to be acting without them. So those separate tools like that helps streamline your time and get you narrowed down. So yeah, definitely we'll we'll get the link in we'll put that in the video in our email that goes out about this

Dawn Reeby    
Yeah, and I find when folks actually do the Life by Design, they become a little bit more afraid, a little bit like, I didn't even think about what I want this to look like. And, you know, I just hadn't I was just gonna wing it. Yeah. Um, and if there is a certain level of whinging, there's a certain level of impact permanence, right, impermanence that we want. We want to know that life is evolving and changing, and transforming. And we need to evolve and change and transform with it. But we also don't want to be reactive in our lives. So we want to know what our core values are, what's key, what's important. And we want to design our lives in a way that really align with that, as well as with joy. I see way too many Fire Officers, police officers, prison guards, like way too many folks, just crunching away, crunching away, crunching away. And, and that's fine. Like that could be temporary that that you're crunching right. But they're forgetting about the quality of the rest of their life. So their finances might be upside down, or their relationships might be upside down, or they don't have any self care happening. And so we take a look at all of those areas, and really begin to say, what does this area look like for you versus this area and, and identify specific things to work on. And then once those are achieved, right, we work on the others. I remember, I was working with this one LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST. And she says, You know, I don't really want much like I just kind of want, like, status quo, like I don't want much. And she was taking the easy way out, right? Because, right? And I said, alright, well, well, let's really dive into it. Let's figure out what you really want. Well, life is fine, don't really want anything. But once she started digging a little bit, she was kind of afraid to say what she wanted. You know, she said, Well, this probably never gonna come true. Because I don't make it enough money. I'm like, Just say it just what do you want, right? What do you really want? And she said, Well, I've always wanted to own my own home with a fenced in backyard where my dogs can run wild. But that's silly. I don't make any money. That's not that, you know, like, I have to work 100 hours overtime. And she kept on getting into the how the fears and the obstacles right, but not it not really the thing. And so I said, Well, why do you want this house? Why is that important to you? I want to feel stable. I want somewhere my animals can, you know, play, I want to have friends over. And right now I live in a cramped little place and it doesn't feel good. So we put together a financial plan for her to start to begin to achieve that she had some outstanding bills and you know, different things that you want to clean up. Money is one thing to clean up. The mindset is a bigger thing to clean up. Right? And so so we did work on both, right? Well, I have to tell you, Jerry, within three months, a property from within her family came her way. At that point, she was then able to financially afford it, which she never thought possible. Like this is she's she's like I didn't even it wasn't even on her radar because it was like, guilty, like, should I want that, you know? So she bought the house. It has a fence, it has a backyard. And she took a picture of her on her porch with her little plants that she loves. And the animals running on the back. And I did it, I did it right. My bills are paid my house is here. And all I had to do was decide, she had no idea that someone in her family would be releasing a home, you know, in wanting it stay in the family. So to get her a really discounted rate. Like who who would imagine that that would be true. So your How is not important the universe is going to bring you what you ask for when it comes from a place of value and design.

Jerry D. Lund    
Yeah, no, that's awesome. In the service industry, why do we not want to have things for ourselves? Why sometimes it was just so much easier to just work yourselves to the bone and give give give and not really getting thing back? What? Why? Why do we why so many people do that?

Dawn Reeby    
Yeah. I mean, I think it really goes back. I can just say from my experience, because that's exactly who I was. I think it went for me and went back to guilt. Right? Like, why should I have this not somebody else? It went back to deserving. I didn't feel like I deserved it. Right? It went back to humility. When you're humble, you don't have stuff you don't have things everybody you give them away. Right. So, so all these core values that I was taught as a little private school girl it was, you know, oh, gluttony if you want this or you know, you were devilish if you wanted things in your life, and your job is to serve, serve, serve, and I think there's value to serving which is why so many of us do so right. But the mentality, you know, living, living on the floor of guilts. Right living on a floor of anger, frustration, guilt, all of that really keeps us in a space of thinking that doesn't bring us true joy. It's kind of like this. I was listening to Sahara rose, she's wonderful. And she was talking about this elevator, right? Or this building rather. And the base for what most people feel is guilt. You're at the bottom and you feel my guilt, you feel religious guilt, you feel, you know, husband, guilt wife get like, all the guilt sits there. Right, right. Right. You're like, I don't deserve this. You're a victim, in a sense, right? I don't deserve anything. And, you know, my grandmother taught me to be humble. And that's how I should be. And if I get things, or I see happiness, then I'm not humble. And that's, that's a lie, right? So you can either live at that space, or you can decide, like, I don't really want to be in this guilty space anymore. It doesn't serve me and it doesn't make me feel good. So then you move up a level and you say, you know, I'm feeling, you know, anger, right? Like, why did I think that way, I'm so mad at myself for thinking that way. And next thing, you know, you attract all this anger around you. And then one day, you look around, and you're like, I don't really want to be here. So you become neutral. And you know, in this neutral phase, you're just like, I don't care. Nothing really matters to me. I don't care. Jerry, have you felt that everyone?

Jerry D. Lund    
Yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna lie I've been very talking about for sure.

Dawn Reeby    
Yep. So you're at the space where it doesn't matter. I don't care. And then you look around, and you're like, is there something more in life? Like, should I be caring more? Should things matter to me, and you start exploring a little bit, and maybe you start, you know, incorporating in some happiness, right? So you have some nature and some working out and some stuff, and you're kind of like, alright, but that's enough, cuz I'm still like, you know, not far from the guilt floor. And, you know, but once you pass that limited happiness, right that, which is a thing that goes away, right, so you're happy at a party, you're happy at an event, you're happy in an instant, but it can go away, and you could be sad, right? Or, you know, upset or depressed, whatever it might be, then you decide, like, I don't want to be temporarily happy. I want to live a life of joy and a life of bliss. So how do I get my mindset there? How do I, you know, go up that, that, that elevator in that building, and just live in a mindset of joy and bliss? And a lot of people think that if you live there, you're not in touch with reality, right? Like things go wrong? How can you be, you know, not be like, how can how can that not impact you? And the reality is, Jerry, you're gonna have death in your family. You're gonna have destruction happening around you. I mean, you're, you're a fireman, right? Like you see stuff, right? But it's horrible. Yeah, you're going to have those things around you. And if you live in anger, sadness, mad guilt, any of that space, that's what's going to continue to attract to you. But when you live in the mindset of joy, those things are the service impact that you can have. And then you start to see in this other realm, that you're attracting other joy, you're attracting other people, somehow, they're just flocking to you and they feel more joyous. You're attracting other joyous experiences, you're rising, your people, your your staff members are becoming happier, and they're going through their own faces, and, and then they see joy. And you have this outlook on life that is just like, "Wow, I'm so thankful. I feel not guilt thankful, like, you know, joy thankful. Joy, like true joy, thankful, and you live in a space where you you bring in so much more happiness, and that's a hard thing. I mean, when when I was working full time in policing, I'm looking at murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, right? How the heck can someone have joy? Yeah, yeah, when they're reading rape reports, and trying to think of, it wasn't that guy's head when he was raping that five year old. And so you know, stuff is always going to happen. And we can deliver our skills and our service with excellence, when we operate in a space of complete joy and complete love of ourselves. And so that really is, you know, the difference between, you know, service at the basic level in service at the highest level.

Jerry D. Lund    
But Dawn it comes right back to one thing you said, right, in the very beginning. You have to decide. How how do people get to the decision point of I'm undecided to do something better? What have you seen that way?

Dawn Reeby    
So what I've seen is people will come to me, they'll give me a ring or they'll email me or Facebook me or LinkedIn message me and they're like, "Listen, I don't know what I'm supposed to do and what I'm supposed to learn. I just know what needs to be different. Can you walk this? Can you walk me through this?" And that's exactly what we do. Some people know exactly what they want and it's just about engineering it and other folks are like I don't, I don't really know and probably about  85% of people like I really don't know.

Jerry D. Lund    
I can understand that. Yeah, 

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, yeah. And so you know, that's where the work begins. Us sitting down and really teasing out, you know, what is going to be bringing you joy. And sometimes it can be really uncomfortable, the questions, the digging, and all of that. But I promise at the end, and you can see all of our success stories, you know, where folks are just like, "I didn't even know I wanted a different job, I didn't even know I wanted a different wife or husband. I didn't even know I wanted a different life with my children". You know, I had a woman, for instance, once she's like, "I don't really know my husband anymore. We've kind of drifted a little bit, but we're still married, the kids are there to do that, right?" And I said, "Well, do you want to know your husband?" And she's like, "Well, I mean, I think it's too late for us at this point. Like we're kind of fighting. And it's just easier not to be around them". And I said, "That's not my question is my question is, do you want to, you know, be connected with him in a way that is meaningful". And all of a sudden, they were tears, "I want my husband back, I want my kids to like me, my kids hate me, they don't hang out with me", you know, all these things. And we really defined clearly, what love with her husband would look like, we define clearly what love and respect for her kids would look like. And then we created an action plan to help, to engineer that backward, it's really helped her achieve that. And after she was in our six month program, and after just a couple of months, she's like, it's like night and day, she's like, I love my life. I'm traveling with my kids now. And they're not, you know, rude, like, they're enjoying me, and I'm enjoying them. We went on a family trip together, my husband and I have dinner once a week, and it's like our time, you know, and she didn't really realize what she wanted until someone probed her a little bit. And it's different for everybody. Jerry, you know, it really is. And so folks can do a lot of work on their own. And I encourage people to do that internal work, downloading the Life by Design, or you'll googling some, some leadership of self activities, or self discovery, reading books, leaders need to read books. And, you know, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is a great book for leaders. Thinking Grow Rich is another one. But, but really, I think, I bring myself back to my own example, when I wanted to create this business, I had no idea what I wanted it to look like, I was like, I just want to be successful. And they did a great job of saying what it's all about meeting for you, you know, and, and, and so we deliver that, that that's what we deliver to our folks and really give them the tools to get to where they want to go.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, and it's like you said in the beginning Dawn like you, you didn't have all the answers to do all the business stuff in the beginning, but you wouldn't found people that gave you answers. And I think as first responders or first responders, part of their families or whatever, we don't have to wait until it's we fill rock bottom, to look for help or tools to do to do things to get more joy out of our life. Unfortunately, way too many of us wait until we hit rock bottom, because the only thing we can really see is going further down or looking up and finding some help. I've had personal coaches and you know, mentors and stuff like that. Yeah, that cost money to do those things. But it's in its accountability. And the advice is sometimes almost priceless, you know, to change your life and get more joy. It's sometimes gonna maybe cost you some money to do that.

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, and you know, and it's funny, because I think about the government mindset, right? So you know, a lot of government employees are like, they won't pay for me to go to training or they won't give me the time off of work. And the reality is, it doesn't matter what they do, we have to get out of that government mindset, this is your life. And you get to decide what it looks like. And if that means that you're putting in overtime on you know, on your values and developing your life. If you're waking up earlier to learn more about you, if you're putting in some of your resources, quite honestly, I've done it both ways, too, you know, where folks, their agencies will pay for them, and then they will pay for themselves. Or maybe there's like a scholarship that they want or something like that. And the people who invest in themselves, minus a couple, the people who invest in themselves are really the ones who want it the most. So don't be afraid to invest in yourself. I hired a coach four years ago $7,000. It was almost it was like 6-7 I was like, What am I doing? I'm a single mother. I have no flippin clue why I trust this person why I'm giving her almost $7,000 Am I nuts? Right? And you know, and the answer is now I see the other side of it. And I'm like, "Oh, what is that? I should have done it years earlier. Yeah, I want to save so much wasted time".

Jerry D. Lund  
I too, have made similar investments to, you know, to what I would consider get to the next level of my life or learn about more of myself. And sometimes paying that money, you do get those shortcuts that I like, I could have spent hundreds of hours looking to do this one thing, but my mentor knows how to do that, and send me down that road.

Dawn Reeby  
Exactly. You accelerate your progress, you know, when you when you are seeking out the support, and you know that you want to get in a certain direction, you accelerate. And I liked how, you know, you really summed up well that we wait for crisis, we wait for crisis, especially in fire law enforcement, first responder kind of folks, because you were the ones, we are the ones responding, we the strong ones, and we shouldn't need help. And we're the strong ones in our families, and we shouldn't need the help, right? It's languaging that sits with people. And the reality is like, we are all human. And we all need to figure out how to optimize. And so for me, if I'm optimizing, it means I'm hiring someone else to cut out the fat, I don't want the fat, I just want you to get to point B faster. And I want to optimize and really create my best self so that I can lead others as my best self.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, that's great. Dawn, you have a tool, a book that can help people with this acceleration. Let's talk about that a little bit.

Dawn Reeby  
Sure. So I just finished writing a book last October for law enforcement analysts or folks who are looking to build analytical capacity. And it mirrors our coaching program for analysts. And so um, so the book is, oh, my gosh, it was so it was like this big and, like, let's get it down. So there was so much stuff that wasn't in there that I was like, oh, but this is a good part. But what it really does is it outlines kind of these key core areas of life, that in career that need to happen simultaneously. And the first chapter is really about this design this Life by Design, and how to want and desire and create clarity around what you really, truly want in life. And then the book goes through some systems and analytics, right, for those who are interested specifically in analytics, as well as building relationships, thinking like a leader, and some of the basic concepts of how to begin to truly professionalize yourself as a law enforcement analyst. So we, I'm so thankful, oh, my gosh, it was such a successful launch. And we had so many I have chiefs calling saying, can we can I buy a couple dozens of of your books and give them to my people. And it's just wonderful. It's a wonderful tool to recognize the field, first of all, and second of all, to uplevel those individuals to really become the CEOs of crime analysis and the CEOs of their lives.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, they play a huge important role in in safety and things like that, and budgetary right, doing things even that way to that they're often forgotten.

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah, they really are. And often, they don't have very loud voices, right. So they're just not sure what they should do. So we work on building confidence, we've let work on building their professionalism, their speaking, their work, product, their impact. And so the book is for them, and for some leaders who want to better understand analytics, right. And so they, they, it was fun. It was fun writing. And I already was like, Oh, my gosh, I'm doing one for leaders. Now. I'm reading a book for leaders now. And yeah, I mean, because, you know, we all need support. It's and and I love, love, love gathering information from books, best practices, and building them into my life. And so if we can build that out in analytics, for the analysts, and in leadership for the leaders, I think we're really making moves in the right direction.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, definitely. Where else, because you're doing a lot of different things, works and people find you?

Dawn Reeby  
Yes, so we, gosh, you're right. On right. Oh, you can find me on we have a private Facebook group for first responders, or folks who are looking to get into that environment, to really understand the mindset to understand some of the thinking and so forth. And so that group is called tribe of excellence. There's probably about 12 or 1300 people in that group. And we pour energy into that group every single week. We're live with work life excellence strategies. This Wednesday, rather, we're doing restore for leaders, which is wonderful. So every week we have something going on in that group. And we also have a blog and in our on our website excellence in analytics. You'll also find us on YouTube, Excellence in Analytics, so you can just subscribe there. And we have a lot of tools and videos on productivity, leadership work life harmony, and those kinds of things. You'll find me traveling mostly. So you know, a lot of police agencies or different collaborative groups, like a bunch of fire folks who are having a conference or things of that nature, will will fly me out. And I'll speak at their conference around wellness and leadership. So that's another way to reach out and connect, if you're looking for a sponsor, no, if you're looking to have someone come out and speak to your collaborative or to your group, we do that in person, we do that virtually LinkedIn if I didn't already mention that. And another way is just reaching out if you want it to connect, and just get a sense of, hey, what resources are available for me? So anyone can just send me an email, and I'm happy to share that email with you too.

Jerry D. Lund  
Yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, sure. The email. And we'll try to also put it in the notes too.

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah. And we have been sharing a couple of free tools like the one that I shared with you Life by Design, we also have a new one that just came out called Mastering Holistic Wellness. And it's a little printouts that kind of is, is it's giving you the basics of health, right, the key components of your health as a service provider, and how you can begin to build your own holistic wellness practice.

Jerry D. Lund 
Now, that sounds like a great tool as well. And these are offered off your website?

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah. So at dawnreeby.podia.com. There's a bunch of resources there. There's details about our coaching programs, we have one for leaders, we have one for analysts, and then we have a health coaching program. So I'm a certified health coach, as well. So so we have a health coaching program for folks specifically looking to optimize their bodies and minds.

Jerry D. Lund  
That's awesome. Everyone, if you're listening out there, and you're just trying to optimize an area of your life and take it to the next level, definitely needed check tech out, check out Dawn's website and reach out to her and get that advice. And, you know, as Dawn and I talked about, maybe you will find some of those shortcuts, and be able to upload your uplevel your life a little bit more.

Dawn Reeby  
Yeah. And Jerry, I just want to personally thank you for pulling together these podcasts. And you do a lot for this community, on how to live a better life. And so I'm proud of the work that you're doing. I'm thankful to be part of the work that you're doing. And, you know, supporting this community and beyond. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'll definitely continue to hurrah you from where I am and support you any way I can.

Jerry D. Lund  
Likewise, I really appreciate thank you so much for being on today. 

Dawn Reeby  
You're welcome. Thank you.

Jerry D. Lund  
 Hi, I hope you enjoyed that episode. Please check out my very own apparel line Fire and Fuel Apparel, where we have a wide array of apparel honoring first responders that ship worldwide.

Outro  
Thanks again for listening. Don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you access your podcasts. If you know someone that would be great on the show, please get a hold of our host, Jerry Dean Lund through the Instagram handles @jerryfireandfuel or @enduringthebadgepodcast. Also by visiting the show's website, enduringthebadgepodcast.com for additional methods of contact and up to date information regarding show. Remember the views and opinions expressed during the show, solely represent those of our host and the current episode's guest.

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