Two Dates and a Dash Podcast

In this episode, I speak once again to my long time friend and former co-worker when we both worked for the United States Federal Air Marshal Service, Gary Byrne. Gary was on the show once before (Episode 23) but I felt that it was the right time to have him back on to discuss the current state of our country and the attack on Law Enforcement we are seeing throughout our nation. Gary is also the author of the New York Times best selling books Crisis of Character and Secrets of the Secret Service. To order copies of his books please visit www.officialgaryjbyrne.com.

Genesis Z & The Black Mambas, a born shared vision of creativity and a burning ambition. The organic synthesis of vocalist Genesis Z's soul alternative influence. The percussive ambient vertigo chordal persuasion of Geoffrey Giordano guitar playing, bassist Sunborn enigmatic raw energy with a composer background drummer Sam Wiz Cook's ferocious dub funk style groove into a unique sophisticated furious sound. Live heels catch fire where undoubtedly exciting band this foursome has the ability to hold an audience spellbound. With their impassioned and unabashed juxtaposition with their melodic intricacy soulful intensity crafted perfectly to its carefully awaited mixture of funk punk dub soul sensibility and acid jazz rock angularity. The challenge is the listener at every turn.

In this episode, I had soon to be MLB Hall of Famer, Curt Schilling, back on the show for a second time. This episode was a trip down memory lane with Curt. We chatted about his early days playing for the Philadelphia Phillies on the 1993 "Macho Row" Phils team that made it to the World Series that season. Then, he shared his 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks World Series victory over the NY Yankees and how dominant of a pitching duo he and Randy Johnson truly were. And finally, he told the complete story behind the infamous "Bloody Sock" game when he won game 6 of the 2004 World Series as a member of the Boston Red Sox. This was truly a magical episode!

Being a "Girl Dad" is rewarding and challenging. It's even more so when your daughter is an elite collegiate athlete. In this episode, I shared "Girl Dad" experiences with a good friend, Jim Bruni, whose daughter is also an elite D1 athlete. My daughter, Rebecca, finished her senior season this year as a 6 time NCAA D2 All-American swimmer. We shared how they both rose through the youth sports ranks, through high school and finally at the collegiate level to achieve unthinkable success. Lot's of great nuggets of wisdom found during our chat.

Craig Berube is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. He is the head coach for the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League (NHL). Berube played 17 seasons in the NHL for the Philadelphia Flyers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, Washington Capitals and New York Islanders. Also, Berube was a national team scout hired by Doug Armstrong for team Canada's 2016 World Cup of hockey team. As an interim coach in 2019, Berube led the Blues to become the Stanley Cup champions.

Author Carla Romo is a speaker and a certified dating and relationship coach. At age 24, she hit her rock bottom with yet another toxic codependent relationship. But, this time, she got up and learned how to break free from codependency for damn good. Inspired by her own self-growth journey, she took lemons and made lemonade. Today she is helping other women who feel stuck and stagnant build purpose in their dating life, break-ups, and relationships.

Aside from her coaching business, her passion lies in being an activist for women’s rights. Carla served as a public official on the West Hollywood Women’s Advisory Board working on California statewide and nationwide legislation. Before pivoting careers into the self-help coaching world, she cast and produced major TV network shows and produced a documentary called, “Luke & Jedi.”

Today, Carla leads nationwide workshops and is a highly sought-after motivational speaker on self-love and relationships. She has been featured on or collaborated with BRAVO, Cosmopolitan, Bumble, Lifetime, Bustle, The Knot, as well as high rated iTunes Podcasts. Carla Romo is here to spread the message—the most important relationship you will ever have is with your damn self. For more information, please visit www.iamcarlaromo.com.

Alex Sanfilippo is the host of Creating a Brand, a top 20 entrepreneurship podcast where he interviews successful leaders and experts on topics that matter to entrepreneurs who want to grow faster both personally and professionally while saving time and money in the process. Visit CreatingaBrand.com to join the Creating a Brand Community and to accelerate your success! For more information on Alex, please visit www.creatingabrand.com.

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Joseph Teti is a veteran of both US military and US government special operations units. He is a former Force Recon Marine, Army Special Forces “Green Beret”, and a former operator in a highly classified government counter-terrorist unit.

He is a combat veteran of both OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) in Iraq, and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom) in Afghanistan. He planned and conducted a broad range of special operations missions covering the entire operational continuum. These missions gave the President of the United States an option when overt military and / or diplomatic actions were not viable or politically feasible. Operations of this nature required rapid response with surgical application of a wide variety of unique skills, while maintaining the lowest possible profile of U.S. involvement. He participated in numerous classified direct action missions with several Tier 1 SMU’s (Special Mission Units).

Joseph has performed high-risk PSD (Personal Security Detail) operations in Afghanistan and Iraq for U.S. government and civilian clients. He was also a member of a U.S. State Department close protection team assigned to several high profile government officials and visiting diplomats in Israel. Working out of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, and the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, he operated in high risk areas throughout the country to include Ramallah, Abu Dis, Jericho, The Gaza Strip and the West Bank. He has extensive experience and training in fully armored vehicle operations, advance team operations, motorcade operations, CAT (Counter Assault Team) operations and surveillance/counter surveillance operations.

A graduate of over 30 formal schools in regards to special operations, his skill sets and experiences are highly diverse. He has attended several survival schools over his career and is one of a few individuals in the world that hold an instructor certification in tactical tracking operations from legendary tracker and former Rhodesian SAS (Special Air Service) and Selous Scout, David Scott-Donelan.

He has held a TOP SECRET-SCI with polygraph security clearance, the highest security clearance awarded by the U.S. government. For more information on performance coaching opportunities, please visit www.tier1performancecoaching.com or to pre-order a copy of Joe's book, Lone Operator, please visit www.loneoperator.com.

In June of 2017 my husband found a painted rock outside a local business. He brought it home and we looked up the FB page that was written on the back. It was from a local rock painting group that paints rocks and leaves them outside businesses for people to find. All with the purpose to spread kindness or make someone smile. Almost immediately we started painting and dropping rocks all over town.

A couple months later I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to paint some Back the Blue rocks and leave them outside our local departments, and possibly even hand them to LEOs we see out and about? I asked the girls and they loved the idea. We painted two rocks to start. In August we took the first rock up to our Sheriff. We told him we wanted to show our thanks and appreciation for all they do, and all about our plan to start painting more rocks.

The second rock we prayed that God would help us find the right deputy or officer for our rock. We wanted to give it to someone who needed it, or would appreciate it, you know, the right person! It took 2 months (it’s now October) actively looking while running errands until we found a deputy. Actually he found us as he had been in our neighborhood taking care of some business. We stopped him before he could leave and gave it to him. We couldn’t have asked for a better officer to receive our rock. Not only did we become fast friends with him and his family, but he’s the kind of friend you think of as family. He even helped us be able to visit our local precinct to hand out rocks during roll call one morning, which was truly an awesome experience! We loved surprising all of the deputies.

We started painting more rocks to hand out whenever we would see a LEO out and about on the road (We always make sure to keep some in the car with us)! We’ve visited with several other departments nearby as well. The girls LOVE meeting LEOs! They ask me at least twice a week, “Are we going to any departments today?” Good thing there are a lot of departments out there!

In February 2018, I thought “I should Google small town departments” and see what I can come up with. I was hoping to surprise them with our rocks. I thought it would be nice for them to know they are thought of and appreciated, even from far away. We found a 4 person department in Michigan. They loved the rocks so much they sent us a patch, their cards, and a bottle of maple syrup that is made right there in their town! So we kept looking for more departments.

We have found small departments, big departments, and everything in between. We started painting and shipping rocks all over the states! We started posting on social media asking for people to nominate their favorite departments to receive our rocks. Our list grew to over 60 departments across the states within a couple hours of putting out the message! Since then we’ve continued to grow, our waiting-to-be-rocked list is multiple pages long, and we have sent rocks to 3,516 LEOs (as of February 27, 2020). 3,516!!!

Over 3,500 LEOs know that they are supported, thought of, prayed for, appreciated, and THANKED by our family. Most days it leaves me speechless when I think about what we have been able to do for LEOs. We’ve reached so many, yet we have so many more to reach! Did I mention dispatchers? We try to include dispatchers as much as we can, with their own rocks featuring the thin gold line. We want to make sure they know they are appreciated as well!

So that’s our story. It’s currently still being written, as we have no plans of stopping anytime soon! We are so thankful for our LEOs & dispatchers, and so thankful we are able to do this for them. Our rocks have blessed us with many friendships in real life and through social media. I can’t even express to you what that means to us.

Thank you Blue! Be safe & ROCK ON!

Your friends in Maryland,

-RocksForLEOs

Paul is a Long Island Native and the founder of "The Long Island Buddy Club, "Paul Vibes" Motivational Speaking, and "The People's Podcast." Featured in numerous publications for his work, Paul has held talks at a variety of venues including colleges, high schools, libraries, and substance abuse facilities. During his talks, Paul shares his story of overcoming a learning disability, and creating the Buddy Club, while offering audiences the tools and mindsets to help them overcome what life my throw at them. Paul is not only educating those he comes into contact with, but giving people the guidance they need to become more than their challenges.

For more information please visit his website at www.paulvibes.com.