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Feeling overwhelmed by your family's daily grind and looking for a way out? Welcome to "Dig the Well," the podcast that empowers you to build the life you deserve. Your hosts Vikki and John are top earners at Neora. Vikki is a # 1 best-selling author and John is a retired Los Angeles Police Officer. Together they’ve navigated family challenges, raised successful kids, and achieved financial freedom.
In each episode of "Dig the Well," they dive deep into the strategies and mindsets that can help you break free from the constraints of the traditional 9-5 lifestyle. They understand the unique challenges faced by stay-at-home moms and families who are juggling multiple responsibilities and struggling to find balance. Their mission is to provide you with the tools and inspiration you need to create additional income, gain more family time, and ultimately, transform your life.
Throughout their journey, they’ve had the privilege of working with renowned figures like Jack Canfield and Jeff Olson, whose wisdom and insights have greatly influenced their path to success. They’ve also celebrated significant milestones, such as raising two valedictorian children and supporting their son, an Olympic weightlifter on Team USA. These experiences have equipped them with valuable knowledge and practical tips that they’re eager to share with you.
"Dig the Well" is more than just a podcast; it's a community of like-minded individuals who are committed to personal growth and financial independence. Whether you're worried about your family's financial security, longing for more quality time with your spouse, or simply seeking a way to reignite your passions, this podcast offers actionable insights and real-life stories that can help you achieve your goals.
Our mission is to inspire you with the belief that if we can do it, so can you. We want you to feel empowered, educated, and ready to take control of your future. By tuning in to "Dig the Well," you'll gain the confidence and knowledge needed to break free from the daily grind and create a life full of possibilities.
So, if you're ready to transform your family's future and discover the greatness within you, join us on this journey. Subscribe to "Dig the Well" and start building the life you deserve today!
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John:Ever wondered how you could turn your side hustle into a full time gig and spend more time together?
Vikki:Hi. I'm Vikki, a number one best selling author.
John:And I'm John, a retired Los Angeles police officer. Welcome to dig the well, where we help couples navigate the world of business.
Vikki:We've been married for thirty five years, and because we built a successful side business, John retired nine years earlier than he originally planned from the Los Angeles Police Department after twenty five years on the job. Now we spend more time together, and we want to help couples like you do the same.
John:Join us as we help you overcome common obstacles, and we show you how to make extra income without sacrificing family time.
Vikki:Ready to dig deep and build your well? Let's get started. Hello. Hello. Welcome.
Vikki:Welcome back to dig the well. I am waving our an American flag in honor of Memorial Day.
John:Yep.
Vikki:Yeah. Whether you're listening to this in the future coming up to Memorial Day next year or, we just had Memorial Day yesterday for us in The United States, and I've got my thin blue line American flag. Just honoring all those that, have paid the ultimate sacrifice. That's what Memorial Day is all about. I think some people we we haven't talked about this, but some people get confused between Veterans Day and Memorial Day.
John:Yeah. Yeah. This is one of the few holidays that wasn't that wasn't made up for the the florist industry or the greeting card industry. Right?
Vikki:Oh, right.
John:Or the shop. Right? Right. It's an actual real holiday. It's to really you know, it has a real purpose.
Vikki:Right. Yet it's turned into shopping. Yeah. It's really turned very commercial, barbecues and sales.
John:But Yeah. And believe us you know, we believe me, we don't we don't mind having a barbecue. I enjoy barbecues and all that.
Vikki:And sales.
John:And sales. Right? For me. That isn't the point of this. But it's really cool that families and folks get together and have a barbecue, you know, and and still honor.
Vikki:Right. Yeah. Exactly. And, you know, us being a police family John and Vicky Downey here, by the way, for those of you listening for the first time and maybe didn't know, we are a police family. John was a Los Angeles Police Officer for twenty five years.
Vikki:And, and and so, obviously, we've been entrepreneurs our whole life, but, obviously, police sacrifices and military sacrifices are huge in our hearts. And so that's why we wanted to chat about Memorial Day and entrepreneurship truly. That's what the focus is of this this episode. So we would love it for if you would share with somebody who's not an entrepreneur necessarily. Because a lot of times we're preaching to the choir in what we're teaching, what we're talking about to all y'all.
Vikki:But sometimes your friends need to hear, a little bit about entrepreneurship as well from somebody else other than you telling them, hey. Know, come go to my come to my business. Right? Shop for my business. So so, yeah, we picked Memorial Day today because it's always, such a special honor.
Vikki:And me being a police wife and some of you follow me on Instagram, and you know that I wrote the book police wife survival guide, and it went number one in The US and internationally. So I have a lot of police wife, followers, community. I follow all of them. We definitely have a community on there. And, you know, John, what was really sad to me yesterday was, I definitely saw people saying just happy memorial day and not much else.
Vikki:But I also saw a ton of reels about fallen police officers whose husband is now, not with us. He died in the line of duty, and the wife is carrying on with the children. And it really hit home for me yesterday. Really, really hit home. And and so, yeah, I think we wanted to just call attention to to the fact that it's not about barbecues.
Vikki:It's not about, running a sale. Although, you know what? Honestly, we did it with our business. I chose not to promote it yesterday, but I talked about our sale that was going on before Memorial Day. And I've, it goes for a few more days, so I've been talking about it today.
Vikki:But, you know, I kind of that was a personal decision on my part. I'm not, you know, putting anybody down that, promoted their business yesterday. But, yeah, we wanted to just talk about that a little bit. Yeah. And, you know, something else you might not have thought of, when it comes to entrepreneurship and patriotism is why not shop from a Blue Line family, you know, of of and military.
Vikki:Right? Green Line? Is that what the Green. Yeah. The green.
Vikki:So, you know, let's talk about that. Why not go out of your way, especially in in days like these, near Memorial Day, near Veterans Day, during police week week, because there is a police week. Why not seek out, companies that are owned by veterans, companies that are owned by police families, and and patronize them. What do you think, John?
John:Yeah. If you think about it, like, you those those are the two those are the two groups. Right? Whether it's military or police that risk their lives to protect you.
Vikki:Yeah. Either overseas or here.
John:On daily basis. Yeah. On a daily basis, they risk their lives to protect you and keep you safe so you can sleep safely at home in bed and go to travel to work and come come home to your kids. Yeah. Who else does that except for the military and the police?
John:And like Vic said, the military, you know, in foreign lands, and also at times here, but for the most part here in in domestically, it's it's the police.
Vikki:Your local police. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What would you do without them?
Vikki:You know? I I had yeah. Go ahead. No. No.
John:I was gonna say it's awful nice that if if you know of someone who is a military veteran or a police officer or retired police officer, like I am now, that you you patronize patronize their businesses. If they have a business, go, you know, spend your money there.
Vikki:Right.
John:And them out. Right. Thank and, you know, and when you see them, thank them for their service.
Vikki:Yeah. Yeah. I know. You've always told me you used to come home. You didn't know you were, like, beaming, but I could see the spark in your eyes when you would tell me a story about it was typically women that would, you know and but a lot of men.
Vikki:Either. Yeah. But the ones I remember, women just thanking you for your service and how you you don't need to be thanked. You know, I remember you saying that. I don't need to be thanked, but, boy, that did feel pretty good.
Vikki:That it's it's nice. It's very nice. Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Vikki:Yeah. So that's even great. Even if you're not you don't need to purchase anything, you just thank them. Yeah. It goes a very long way.
Vikki:We're great at thanking the military and not now. You know, it it took twenty years plus, to open our eyes to that ever since the Vietnam War and then more stuff happened. And I remember there was a real movement to thank the military. But, personally, as a police wife, I always felt like, well, what about the police that are protecting us day in, day out in our homeland? That was always by itself.
John:If you look back on it, though, what what drove, the mass opinion against, like, especially against those that came back from Vietnam? It was the media. Right? It was the media portraying these young men, mostly men, because we were we weren't deploying women in combat, but it was whatever. It was our military, our young military going out and killing people and fighting in a war that was had nothing to do with us.
John:And then they demonized them. They were just doing their jobs. Let's face it. They didn't say, hey, I'm gonna buy a ticket to Vietnam, fly over there, get a gun, and just start shooting people. That's not what happened.
John:They did that representing their country. They did what they were ordered to do, and yet when they got came home, they're demonized. Right.
Vikki:It was horrible. We were little little kids, but I remember that.
John:For sure. You you thank thank you, media. Thank you for that. And then since then, they're they're starting to portray the military as as heroes like they should be, but what are they doing to the police department? What do they what do they have they been doing for decades to police officers?
John:Demonizing the police. And it's it's getting old because they don't they lie, they I we've talked about this in a in a previous Yeah. Episode, but being in Los Angeles, we're a lot of what happens in Los Angeles is covered by local media, whether it's channel seven, channel four, channel two, channel eleven, channel you name it, there's there's a news crew that's out there covering it. And I can't tell you how many times I was on something that was newsworthy, and of course, they would have their remote reporter on the ground, I'm here at scene doing this and that. They would ask us what happened, and we would tell them as much as we could, which oftentimes was the whole thing.
John:Right? We're not holding back anything. The only time we wouldn't give up certain information is if it jeopardized the investigation of a crime, but if there's no follow-up investigation on whatever happened, we just tell them what happened. Generally, that wasn't enough for the media. The in many cases, it wasn't sexy enough for them to air on the evening news.
John:So I would tell Vic after this happened, go, hey, watch the news. I might be on it. Whatever it was, I was there. This this is what happened, Vic. I tell her the whole thing.
John:Right. She would watch the news because, you know, I wouldn't get home until four four in the morning, three in the morning, whatever. She would watch the news, and they told a com they showed the scene. Yeah. You could see us walking around in the background doing our job, but they told a completely different story.
John:They lied about what happened.
Vikki:It was cuckoo for both of us.
John:A straight up lie.
Vikki:Yeah. It was cuckoo.
John:I would get home, and Vic would sometimes even record it. So I would come home and and the next day, she goes, oh, I recorded it. I would watch it, and I'm like, Vic, that didn't happen. Yeah. What they said happened, none of that happened.
John:They made that up.
Vikki:It is crazy. It's it's like we were living in the twilight zone. I mean, honestly. Because I knew what really happened, and we'd see on the news what they pretended happened. Yeah.
Vikki:And it was horrible. Yeah.
John:So yeah. Embellished it. So that's when when you hear people talk about fake media, fake news, and whatnot, I'm telling you, even on a scale that small, even going, you know, just seeing what I saw at scene, and and then seeing it in the news later, and seeing what what lies they were they were pushing just to make it sound better so they get more viewers, it really tells me that most of what I'm probably watching on TV isn't the truth. If you're if you're watching TV media, mainstream media news, you're not probably getting the truth. Right.
Vikki:We did do a whole podcast episode on that. I think it's, like, episode 30 if you're kinda looking for it, but it was about is the media telling the truth. Yeah. So anyway,
John:but Generally, when they cover the police, they cover it in a negative way. Right? When do you hear about, oh, how great this police officer, what whatever the story was, it was really good. There's a couple of times I'll do it because I think it's gonna play well in the in the public, but for the most part, it's always negative stuff.
Vikki:Yeah. They don't look for the good. What happened.
John:And so that's why I think the military back in the day was so looked looked down upon, and those veterans, you know, came home to such a such a hostile country toward them. Right. And now that's what you you've been seeing that a lot with the police. I think it's turning though. I think I think they're, obviously, it has for the military, but I think it is freeing for the police.
Vikki:Right. Definitely. Definitely, it is. Yeah. So we we really wanna talk about a lot of those things today.
Vikki:You know? We're not trying to be controversial. We're we're trying to be truthful and and get the truth out. And so but, you know, so with all that being said, we've talked also as a family about entrepreneurship and, and patriotism and why we started this country in the first place. Right?
Vikki:We were leaving England or the the new settlers. Right? We're leaving Europe coming here for true freedoms, and we had to fight for that and many, many people died. Right? Hundreds of thousands.
Vikki:Hundreds of thousands? I would think, right, over the years in the different wars? It's gotta be.
John:Oh, yeah. But, yeah, at the beginning, it was it wasn't probably that much till
Vikki:then World War one.
John:None of them should have. Right? They left, found new land, and just wanted to be away from the oppression of Yeah.
Vikki:Of government. Too much taxation. Yeah.
John:Good grief.
Vikki:All the things. And so, you know, I want you to really think about that. I we used to joke about it, and it's kind of a nursery rhyme, but, you know, it was entrepreneurship. It wasn't corporate America that was founded in The United States back in the day, you know, 1776. It was the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker.
Vikki:Right? So it was all of that. And, and that's what John and I have always been is is one of those smaller businesses.
John:You know, I I always found interesting is when you go to any any town, right, and you look at and you go to these small family owned businesses, they're almost always owned by a foreign family, someone who immigrated here. Well, we all did. Right? But, I mean, these aren't people that were born here, the people that are starting these businesses. And their English isn't isn't you can tell English is a second language for them.
John:So you know they weren't they weren't weren't born here, their parents weren't born here, their grandparents weren't born here, and yet, predominantly, they own all the businesses. Right? And like, think about go to a dry cleaner, go to a seven Eleven, go Yeah. Almost anywhere, liquor store, anywhere. Yeah.
John:Right?
Vikki:And and It's an immigrant.
John:Why is that? It and and when you talk to them, because we I have before. I've just asked a little bit about them, because I'm just interested to know. Right?
Vikki:We were raised, I think, to be interested in other people, so we do. We just honestly are curious.
John:Pretty much every case, they are like, oh, yeah. I I moved my family here. I came here because this was the land of opportunity, because I could have this business. I couldn't have it in my home country. They wouldn't the government wouldn't allow me to have a business.
Vikki:Right.
John:I'm thinking, wow. But and we take that for granted, and yet, that's maybe why you don't see a lot of for, you know, Americans or or people that were born here in The US, having their own business. I I just
Vikki:They yeah. They got appreciate it. Yeah. They don't appreciate it. They don't know what it's like to scrap and and grind it out.
Vikki:Yeah. I shouldn't say all everybody.
John:But I think most most people that that are born in The United States, I think they're big what what do they always say? Like, get a good education, get a good job kind of a thing. Right? Yeah. And so they think that that's that's path of success.
John:That's the American dream is to go work for a large corporation.
Vikki:It's not. I can
John:tell you that's not it.
Vikki:It's not.
John:That's not it.
Vikki:It is not. It's forging your own path, forging your own way. Something you can be proud of, so you create it.
John:Yeah. And I'm not saying that if you work for a large corporation that there's anything wrong with it, it's just you're not living the American dream.
Vikki:Yeah. It's like a means to an end. Right? It just pays the bills. It doesn't it's not exciting.
John:Yeah. So the way we did it, and and I I think it makes sense, is that I worked for, you know, obviously, worked for a large city, a large a large organization. They provided, good benefits, that we were able to to to use for as a family, medical, dental, the whole thing like that. Right? And it was a secure paycheck, but it didn't stop me from still being an entrepreneur.
John:I still ran I still had side businesses, and then I retired early just so we could focus on entrepreneurship.
Vikki:And creating a legacy to lead.
John:Helping others do the same thing. And that's really I think that's that's the American dream.
Vikki:Right. Exactly. And so if you have a job right now, maybe a friend shared this podcast because they know you were thinking about becoming an entrepreneur and you didn't know the first thing about, you know, how to do it. Listen to our previous podcast. That will help you.
Vikki:But, just do it. Go for it. Start that additional income stream. There's nothing to lose.
John:Yeah. The key there is the additional income stream. Don't go and quit your job. Right. And then just say, okay, I'm gonna go.
John:I'm gonna jump in the deep end and do this thing. Keep your job. Yeah. That's that's a great safety net. Right?
John:That way if your if your home based business or whatever your your your second second business is, if it takes off, you can always if you want to leave leave your your separate job, you can leave. If if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out with the way you expected, at least you have still income and benefits.
Vikki:Yeah. Exactly. I know. I think we kind of fell in it. We were entrepreneurs to begin with, then, you know, police officer teacher, then I retired myself, then John retired.
Vikki:And but we've always had that side business. So I agree. It's it's, it just gives you extra options
John:Mhmm.
Vikki:On your life instead of just feeling stuck. Right? So yeah. How about people that we were just talking this about this over the weekend. We have a friend that, has been doing a job just, like, four years and is ready to jump ship.
Vikki:And we're both over here going, don't do it. Don't do it. Some you do have to stick it out sometimes with jobs to get to the other side, but you could, you know, stick with that and start a side gig would be our best, advice. Right?
John:You know, I I think a lot of people who who don't start a side gig, they look at it, and this is from my own personal, perspective because I've seen I've actually seen this happen because I've shared it with a lot of other police officers. And it's so lucrative to work overtime that they just don't see the big picture. They they look at it like, well, why would I why would I invest my time trying to build my own business that's not gonna pay me for the because I tell them, you know, when you start a business, it's not gonna be very lucrative for the first couple of months, for the first several months sometimes.
Vikki:If not years. Mhmm.
John:Yeah. It could take a year or two before you really start to see some some significant income coming in. But then usually, if you do it right, that income's gonna continue to grow, and it's gonna continue to come to you, especially if you do the right business that has some sort of residual, some sort of passive income involved in it. Right? So if it has residual income, the work you did a year ago, you're still getting paid on.
John:You're getting paid a portion of it. Right? Right. That doesn't happen with overtime. It's like if you if if a guy worked if one of the guys that I've talked to worked like a a ten hour overtime shift, let's say, so they're gonna get a good big chunk of money, or at least they're gonna get paid that on the next paycheck, the ten hours of overtime.
John:But then the the paycheck that follows will have nothing on it. They have to rework that full ten hours to get that pay again. Right. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, the the tax on overtime is crazy.
John:I mean, we
Vikki:Crazy high.
John:Some of the guys would laugh about it. They would say, like, I we're I don't wanna work any more overtime on this pay period because I'm gonna get slammed in taxes. Wow. I'm thinking, but still, you're gonna take home at least more money, but I think they get so burned out on all the hours they're working. But they don't wanna start business.
Vikki:Yeah. That makes no sense. That but I think we've talked about it. They're not business owners. They don't have that mentality, maybe they didn't have the example of any, you know, family that owned a business.
Vikki:So we're here to say, we can help you.
John:It's so funny too because We
Vikki:can help you change that mindset.
John:There were so many guys that I worked with that find out through the grapevine that I retired, because I retired from a different division than when I usually worked. And then they'll they'll, like, oh my gosh, I heard you retired last year.
Vikki:Did they never think you were going to? Because you're such a hard charger.
John:I don't know. I I I because most people don't retire with with the time on that I had. Yeah. Right. And so they would they would like, oh my gosh.
John:That's so cool. You're you got so lucky.
Vikki:The lucky word that we also did another podcast on that.
John:How did I get lucky? I said, no. It's because I you know, my wife and I built a a business outside of being on the job. We built a business. We invested our time and our effort in building a business that we knew would pay off someday, and it did.
Vikki:Yeah. And it still does.
John:And and I'm so I asked him, I said, yeah, maybe I got lucky just doing what I did. How how lucky are you with the overtime? You still work in overtime? And they're and they don't get it. They're like, yeah.
John:Yep. I sign up for every every one shift with, you know, work in transit, work in the subways or whatever. Are it's easy. It's easy money.
Vikki:And they're not open to
John:They can you're not even at home. You're spending that time. And
Vikki:I will tell you, being the wife of a police officer, if you're a police officer listening, you don't wanna be the one that's away all the time. You don't want your wife feeling alone, feeling like she's single parent. You don't want that. So so maybe be open to new avenues of of making money, which is additional income streams. And definitely reach out to us.
Vikki:We would love to help anyone anyone, police, military, not. We would love that. Yeah. So because I know you've reached out to some, but maybe you're too close. It's funny how that whole, your friends and family were just too close.
Vikki:And it's funny because we get people we have acquaintances that ask our opinion and follow through and are successful all the time, but that's just life in general. Right? Family and friends are the hardest nut to crack, and and you you're sitting over here doing great, and they're struggling, and they don't wanna listen. Yeah.
John:So Yeah. And then, what originally you were saying about, someone wanting to to jump ship and go to another job or whatever. Yeah. And and, you know, you're right about sticking with a plan. Because oftentimes, you have a job, you have to pay your dues.
John:Right? And pretty much every every job, any occupation, whatever it is, the new guy, new gal, they have to pay their dues. Right? And it's not a lot of fun. And then once you've paid your dues, it gets better.
John:Yeah. Right? If it doesn't get any better, then I think you picked the wrong occupation, But it'll get better. I remember early on on my job. Right.
John:I had I loved what I did. I had fun, but I got the crap assignments. And generally, the I remember that. Those at the bottom of the totem pole for seniority had to work the holidays, had to work weekends. It was just the way that's the way it is, and I'm it's like that with with a lot of occupations.
John:But it it'll get better. Right? It you'll get past having to pay dues, and someone else will be paying those dues. But if you leave a job after a couple of years while you're just paying your dues or you're getting toward the end of paying your dues, you're just gonna go to another job that you can start that whole clock over paying dues again. And if you do that over and over again, you've spent your whole working life, your whole career just paying dues.
Vikki:Yes. Starting and restarting almost. Yeah.
John:You hit you never got the payoff for the for the dues that you did. So I don't know. It just it's it's tough, and every situation is different. And sometimes, yeah, you gotta move on because your future isn't where where where you're currently at. Right?
John:So I get that. But I also think you need to consider, is it just that that I need to pay my dues, and I just need to suck it up and and just get through this, and it'll get better. Or it's never gonna get better, and I need to go now and start something new. Maybe that's it.
Vikki:Or start something on the side so that when they're fully fed up. Right?
John:Always have something on the side. Even if you like what you're doing, even if you think, gosh, I have the best job in the world. Right. I'm underworked and overpaid. Said nobody.
John:Right? But even if you believe that, it may not be like that forever. Right? Right. That's the whole point of dig the well.
Vikki:Right? The gravy train can end. Yeah. That was the
John:point of the the the Yeah. Title to this podcast is dig the well. You wanna dig that well before you need the water because you don't know when that's gonna happen. Yeah. And it could it could could slap you in the face Yeah.
John:Tomorrow, or it may take a year from now or ten years from now. But you wanna have that well dug or at least on its way to being dug.
Vikki:Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. %. Yeah.
Vikki:I'm like, woo woo. Yeah.
John:It never hurts to have multiple sources of income.
Vikki:Yeah. Right? I just it just Yeah. It really doesn't. So, yeah, that's our challenge.
Vikki:We also wanted to challenge you on this podcast to think differently. Are you using your time, your talents, to the best of your ability? Are you just feeling stuck? You know, really, that's a question you need to ask yourself and have that heartfelt conversation with yourself or maybe your spouse. Are you feeling stuck,
John:or do you want that extra income? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like it's, like, almost like a no brainer why you wouldn't want extra income.
John:Like, you you see the see people that endorse different products and whatnot. I just saw I got an email from Hertz Rent A Car. Hertz. Right? Tom Brady is their spokesperson.
Vikki:Oh gosh.
John:And he's standing there, win a win a win Tom Brady's car. Well, you're not actually winning his, like, Lambo or or his, like, Gulfstream Jet or whatever. You're winning a Hertz rental car that they're selling after someone they has been beaten to death as a rental. But I think he signs the dashboard, so it's Tom Brady's car. Right?
John:So you know he's getting paid by Hertz. Do you think Tom Brady is hurting for cash and needs to have that extra job at Hertz? He doesn't need it. He's but he still does it. It's another source of income, another stream of income for he and his family.
Vikki:Yeah. But what about regular people about, like, you and us? That's where the the extra stream of we you can have that too. Yeah.
John:Yeah. And that's what I'm saying.
Vikki:Yeah. That's what I'm
John:giving Yeah. It's it's the for the folks who need it, which we do. Right? Every most of us, most of you guys that are listening or watching this, an extra 500 to a thousand dollars a month. Yeah.
John:A stream of income that's 500 to a thousand dollars a month month would move the needle, would make a difference. It does for us. Right. That's why we do what we do. It does not for Tom Brady.
Vikki:I know.
John:I guarantee you.
Vikki:But yet he still does it. Right. So he's smart.
John:He's he's
Vikki:probably banking them money.
John:He's rich.
Vikki:Yeah. That's one of
John:the reasons. Because you think about other talented professional athletes who are broke. Yeah. Because they didn't manage their money well. They didn't do what Very true.
John:These like Tom Brady's are doing. And there's a reason. Right? Right. Yeah.
Vikki:Yeah. So, yeah. I think that we really wanted to hit home with you today that freedom isn't free. You know, that's a a catchphrase. But when you really think about it, it's absolutely true how many men, especially back in the day and women now that are fighting in the military, died for our freedoms to keep us safe.
John:Yeah. Think think how many have died on foreign land, you know, and for freedom that they they never got to come back to.
Vikki:Yeah. It's heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. And so those of us left here, we should be carrying the torch Yeah. For them Yeah.
Vikki:And leading the way. And I hope I hope you are. I hope you're really thinking about your your side gig, your if you are an entrepreneur, I hope you really reevaluate, you know, some of, maybe the charities that you give to as well. I definitely wanted to talk about that. You know, the Gary Sinise Foundation is an incredible organization.
Vikki:He helps his organization because I went to an event for LAPD wives. It was our first conference, last year about this time, and the Gary Sinise Foundation supported that. And, and I learned all about the foundation. It's and you'd always told me he's such a great guy, and he does so much. Ever since lieutenant Dan.
Vikki:Right? Ever since the Forrest Gump. Right? I think he
John:I think the the millions and millions that he made from that movie alone. Right? Because he's done other things. Yeah. Yeah.
John:Really was the big one. Yeah. He's chosen to give give that money back and and start this foundation.
Vikki:Yeah. It's wonderful. So, you know, who are you what foundations are you giving to? And, I mean, honestly, and that's another topic about having a side gig because if you don't have the money, maybe you want to give to a foundation, nonprofit, donate more to church, tithe, but you can't. You just don't see it in the budget.
Vikki:That's another reason to dig the well. You know? I think people don't think about that. You know? I'm fine.
Vikki:I don't need to do anything else. But are you really? Are you really fine? Are you really living the life you wanna live and giving back the way you wanna give back? I challenge you to think about
John:it. Yeah. It's true. Because I know you earlier said that we were kind of preaching to the choir about because a lot of people that are listening or watching are already entrepreneurs. But I think a lot of the people, and I don't don't get mad at me, but a lot of people are entrepreneurs, but they just dabble Yeah.
John:At the at it.
Vikki:Come on. Be truthful. Look in the mirror. Is it you? I I mean,
John:guys, if you if you just run with it and just sacrifice and just say, hey, look, for the next year, I'm gonna put my head down. I'm gonna get I'm gonna work hard. I'm gonna work as hard as I can for as long as I can. And I guarantee you twelve months from now, you're going to be so thankful that you did because you're going to have that stream of income is is going to be, you know, is going to be huge. It's going to be much bigger than you thought.
John:Like I said, 500 to a thousand would make a difference. It's gonna be bigger than it would be bigger than that. So I think maybe for for just remember that don't don't take for granted what we have, right, in this country. Yeah. Don't.
John:And and run with it.
Vikki:Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. So, gosh, this has been awesome. I yeah.
Vikki:I don't not sure exactly how to close it out.
John:How to land the plane?
Vikki:How to land the plane. How to land on the aircraft carrier. Land the plane on the air. That ties it into the military. Oh, and you know, fun fact, we didn't talk about this, but John's dad was in the navy and was on a nuclear aircraft carrier.
John:Aircraft carrier. Yeah.
Vikki:How cool is that? So who knows? Maybe that's why our affinity for the military is so big too. Because we were talking about, like, where did we get our innate patriotism from?
John:Because your dad was In the army. Army.
Vikki:Yeah. And that's you guys how he went to Princeton. He came from very humble means, Danish immigrant or his parents were immigrants from Denmark, had a delicatessen. So very, very humble in Brooklyn, and he couldn't afford. He went to a public university, New York Polytechnic, and then wanted to go to Princeton.
Vikki:And the only way was that GI bill, so he joined the army. And that's how he got to Princeton. I've never talked about that.
John:Mhmm.
Vikki:And then your dad, know, helping people land the plane on his aircraft carrier.
John:Well, he didn't that wasn't his job.
Vikki:No. I I'm just having fun with my little
John:Two two points I wanna bring up. We'll get to the the landing the airplane plane on the on the flight deck. But the other thing was, I don't know if you all caught what Vic said that her her dad came from kind of modest beginnings, but her his parents, her her grandparents, probably. So his parents came, immigrated here from Denmark and owned a delicatessen. Right?
John:They didn't own the delicatessen in Denmark where probably we would have been more successful.
Vikki:I know. Right?
John:They instead decided, no, I wanna have this business. And maybe they couldn't. I don't know what what Danish law is. Yeah. But they came here to The US to open their delicatessen and to do that here.
Vikki:Yeah. Right? I know. It's the coolest story.
John:So then getting back to the landing the air my so my dad, when he was in the Navy, he was in nuclear weapons, which sounded really cool, and I thought that was pretty cool until he died at a really young age. He had terminal cancer in his forties, and it was all through all over his body. So I'm pretty sure it was the the exposure to the nukes back when, he was in the Navy.
Vikki:Yeah. Because before we, you know, fin I want you to tell that part of the story too, how how they could tell if they had too much radiation is actually insane. And this was in the fifties. Right? Because they got married in the sixties.
Vikki:So it must have been the late fifties.
John:Yeah. So it was a so it was a secret that his that this ship had, nuclear weapons on board. So it was they they originally, I remember his insignia on his sleeve had the had the had the
Vikki:Nuclear.
John:Yeah. It had the neutron with all the electrons going around it or being around it, which obviously then that's that's nuclear. Yeah. So they made him take that off, and he had like a gunner's made or something. They just gave everybody his different insignia to Did
Vikki:keep the patch? Was he able to
John:keep Somebody broke it and stole everything Oh. Out of the garage.
Vikki:Oh my god.
John:So anyhoo It's horrible. They would wear a badge, a little badge on their on their shirt when they were near the nuclear weapons, and the it started green and it would change color as it was it was exposed to radiation, and it would get to the point where it would get red. And so if it got to the red stage, they had to immediately get a scrub down. And so my dad told me, he goes, if that happened to you one time, you realize you're just gonna steal another badge that shows green and just toss the red away.
Vikki:The scrub down. The scrub down bothered him
John:that Because the scrub down is basically you strip you naked, and they take these really, really coarse, stiff brist bristled brushes, and scrub every inch of your body. He said, you would just actually be bleeding in places. They were scrubbing your skin so hard with this this whatever they used and these brushes. They said, having gone through that one time, he said, wasn't just me, everybody did the same thing. They just ditched those badges Wow.
John:For green because they didn't wanna go through the hell of being scrubbed out.
Vikki:Wow. That's crazy.
John:So he would have better off standing on the the flight deck with paddles.
Vikki:Yeah. Bringing the kids. And, you know, it would be interesting to find out all of his mates on
John:Yeah. I know.
Vikki:You know, if they all wound up with cancer. Yeah. And, of course, the family never sued. We're not into that kind of thing at all. But yeah.
Vikki:What was he? 45 when he was diagnosed? I mean, guys, that's so young.
John:And it was terminal when he was diagnosed.
Vikki:Maybe it was in Seven more years.
John:All throughout his body. So anyways, on a brighter note, this is an entrepreneur show, and another reason to build another side business to to do this is because it allows you to do things that you normally wouldn't do or couldn't afford to do, let's say. And so that we one of the things I had on my bucket list that, you know, you know what it is?
Vikki:Yeah. I think.
John:That I got to check off? Yeah. Was anyway so the ship that my dad was on was the Lexington, the USS Lexington, and they it's still they still have it. It's museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. So it's open.
John:You can go see it, and and I've always wanted to go out there and see it. Right? So I don't I forget. It was a while ago. It was years ago.
Vikki:It was 02/2015, I remember.
John:Was it 02/2015?
Vikki:And our side gig paid.
John:Yeah. That's why we did, because we were doing we were doing really well with with one of our side gigs. In fact, the one we're still doing today, but all of a sudden
Vikki:So ten years
John:So okay. Get this, the timeline. You started that about 2012, I think. Right? Yeah.
John:In '20
Vikki:December up on our anniversary.
John:So remember when I said it, you don't see the payoff right away, that it may take some time to build, but then all of a sudden when it builds, it's more than that 500 to a thousand, it's significantly more. Well, that's what happened. So we started this thing in in or we we joined in 2012, built it, and then by 2015, we had It was thriving.
Vikki:Yeah. Was really It was off the So
John:then we said, hey, I wanna go and visit the ship that my dad was on. I wanna go see the Lexington. And then so we invited my mom to come with us. So we brought my mom, bought all the you know, we paid for everything. Yeah.
John:Fairfare, hotels, the whole thing. Right? Because we wanted her to treat her to go go back to see that see that ship.
Vikki:Yeah. That was really I'm glad you
John:brought that up. Of course. Yeah. So we got pictures and Mhmm. Really cool.
Vikki:Yeah. And there's a lot of, like, number, consistencies. I don't know if it's the right word, but 16 was on the flight deck in a circle, and our son was born on July 16. And I just had an moment. We started our business June 16.
Vikki:With you saying that, I was like, wow. I forgot about that 16. So if you believe in numbers, that's that's kinda crazy. So yeah.
John:So anyways, another reason to do that is just, check things off of your bucket list. And if you don't have a bucket list, you need to have one. You need to have one.
Vikki:Gotcha. And it's making me think of more of our things we've checked off our bucket list.
John:Checked off our
Vikki:bucket many. We'll have to do an episode about that. But you know what? Thank you for being with us today, and take a moment of your own personal silence and really think about all the people that didn't come home to to protect and save our freedoms, you know, truly today at some point in your day. Yeah.
Vikki:So alright. And please share this with someone you know and love. Let them hear this podcast, and, we would love it if you would like and subscribe and comment if you would. Alright. Okay.
Vikki:Have a great day. Happy Memorial Day. Thanks for joining us on dig the well.
John:We hope you feel empowered and ready to take on new challenges.
Vikki:Remember, if we can do it, so can you. Keep learning, keep believing, and going after your dreams. And if
John:you enjoyed this episode, share it with someone who needs a little inspiration or maybe a nudge in the right direction.
Vikki:Help us grow this community of go getters. Together, we can achieve greatness and get back to family.
John:Thanks for listening, and let's keep digging the way.