Chapter Blue

David Smith: From SWAT to Wellness Advocate in Law Enforcement

• Tyra Valeriano • Episode 9

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What happens when a dedicated SWAT member decides to shift gears and focus on personal wellness and family? Join me for a interesting conversation with David Smith, a seasoned police officer from Virginia, who takes us through his personal transformation from high-stakes law enforcement to prioritizing self-development and holistic wellness. With 13 years of service under his belt, including seven years on the SWAT team, David shares how programs like the Modern Day Knight Project and Apogee inspired a profound change in his career path and life philosophy. 

David's story resonates with many in law enforcement facing burnout and the search for purpose behind and beyond the badge. His journey emphasizes the need for self-love and mentorship, as he discusses stepping away from the SWAT team in 2021 to devote more time to his family. Drawing inspiration from high achievers, David was on a quest for fulfillment and defeating limiting beliefs by embracing personal growth through rigorous development programs. Now serving as a lieutenant, he channels these lessons into his leadership style, striving to inspire and nurture growth among his officers and peers.

In this episode, we discuss the stigmas surrounding wellness in law enforcement and explore proactive strategies for first responders' health. David opens up about his efforts to integrate wellness initiatives within his department. He addresses the challenges of overcoming barriers and building trust, advocating for a culture of supportive engagement and communication. Discover the power of leading by example and cultivating a work environment that prioritizes genuine development and fulfillment for all officers.

Programs Mentioned:

  1. Apogee Wellness
  2. Modern Day Knight Project

Contact:
Instagram: @Strong_Institute_
David Smith (LinkedIn)

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Tyra Valeriano:

Welcome to Chapter Blue, the podcast where we discuss the world of law enforcement through an honest conversation on tough or controversial topics, real stories, perspectives and experience from officers all around the world. Whether you're here for insights on mental health, self-care, work-life balance, getting into law enforcement, getting out of law enforcement, or just trying to learn about personal and professional challenges officers face every day, you've come to the right place. I'm your host, tyra Valeriano, and whether I'm going solo or speaking with a guest, each episode will discuss different aspects of life behind the badge. Let's turn the page and step into Chapter Blue. Welcome back to another episode of Chapter Blue.

Tyra Valeriano:

I'm pretty intrigued with today's guest. His name is David Smith and is currently an active police officer out of Virginia. He has some interesting concepts that helped him flip the switch to live his life the best way possible while working as an officer in today's climate. His agency. He will be sharing his story and perspective in hopes to help other officers in the field. So thank you for joining me today, david, all the way from Virginia. Tell us a little more about your background in law enforcement.

David Smith:

Thanks for having me. I really, really appreciate your time and having me on the podcast. It's definitely a privilege. I've been, like you said, 13 years. I did seven years on the SWAT team and right now I'm part of the peer support team on my department. So I'm looking to bring some changes there and my mission really is. Wellness is the one word answer but really I've been working on a lot of things on myself the past three years to the best way I can put it aren't my words, but living in congruency with my highest self, so that I can give my best self to those around me, to those in my department, to my family. Give my best self to myself also, which is something we can't forget.

Tyra Valeriano:

Yeah, I really like that. How long have you been a?

David Smith:

lieutenant at your agency Not long, so I got promoted this summer, actually, congratulations. It's been good, thank you.

Tyra Valeriano:

That's great. So you stepped into that position and did you already have these ideas that you just spoke about when you took that position in as a lieutenant?

David Smith:

Yeah, yeah, I have been, uh, I've been on the peer support team. Uh, I joined that as a sergeant, so, um, I've already been kind of involved in the, in the leadership aspect of the peer support team, um, and as a lieutenant, um, possibly I might be the one in charge of the team at some point. So I have been working to bring some new initiatives to my department.

Tyra Valeriano:

I'm not really one on war stories just yet, we're not there in the podcast just yet. But you said that you were in SWAT. Is there anything that you experienced during your time in SWAT that kind of led you to want to do the peer support group, or is there maybe something outside of SWAT or in your career that triggered that interest for you?

David Smith:

work on myself the past few years. It boils down to self-development and through a program that I'm involved in called Apogee and completing a different program before that called the Modern Day Night Project, I really started to realize, you know, how much work I needed to do to do them myself, because I wasn't giving my best self to my department, to my family, to my kids. So once I started working on that and I really reached a point in my own fulfillment that I realized now it's time to give back and to help others also reach this same point of fulfillment, which I couldn't find on the job. I think joining the job as a young person you do have a lot of fulfillment. It's a righteous thing to do. So that can carry you along for a while.

David Smith:

But, uh, with burnout, the amount of critical incidents that we see on the job, it's going to happen, and a lot of people don't think it's going to happen to them, which they're the ones that are probably already in burnout, so uh. So I got to a point where I want to give back and help those people who essentially it was me, you know, a while back want to help that person, you know, turn their mindset around and live their life in a way so that it brings way more fulfillment and purpose, which at the end just helps their career is way more fulfillment and purpose, which at the end just helps their career.

Tyra Valeriano:

Yeah, you mentioned a key point mindset. That's huge and with doing coaching, I even myself have learned that mindset is and I know it sounds cliche, I tell this to my clients a lot. When you talk about mindset, it's just like, oh okay, but really it does matter, and the only person that can decide what's going to happen in their life is you, because whatever goes on in your head you have control of. Nobody else can control that. So if you change your mindset, of course it can definitely make things a lot better for you. All right, Well, tell us a little bit about what you went through in your career. What's your story? What? What got you to this point, to where you wanted to focus on, you know, working on your highest self?

David Smith:

So I came off of SWAT in 2021. I did seven years. You know, I came off as a team leader and the reason I came off was because I was having my second child and I didn't want to devote that time anymore, essentially so getting called out in the middle of the night or any time of day I wanted to devote that time to my family. I told my wife you know when, because we've been together, you know as long as I've been an officer. So I told her when we start having kids, we'll talk about SWAT. And I did not come off with our first kid. So after two years with the first kid and then the second one coming, I was like it's time, it's time to come off. So when that happened in 2021, right before that was COVID During. All that actually actually has to say, cause it was really a few years. So COVID was was pretty wild and the George Floyd stuff, which really didn't have a large impact on the city, on my department. But I feel it was a nationwide, like overall what's the right word? Nationwide? Like overall, um, what's the right word? Um, just an overall downer, I guess you could say for for policing. It's kind of like like because I worked through ferguson also, which was fine as a younger cop, didn't faze me much. Um got a lot of the uh, hands up, don't shoot type thing, but then george floyd happened. It's like, oh, not again, here we go. So it really wasn't, um, like I said, a huge impact on my city.

David Smith:

But then, coinciding with covid uh for me personally and then coming off a swat, I definitely felt like I didn't have a large um fulfillment. There's definitely a hole that needed to to be filled and I was on the steady down climb or, uh, the steady down downward spiral, I guess you could say living living the quiet life of desperation. So, um, I looked up to a lot of Navy SEALs and people in that arena online seeking inspiration and was being inspired, and I ended up doing the Modern Day Knight project in February of 2022. So that's a 75-hour men's development program. They make it look very flashy, very sexy, with the promo vids, with looking like Bud's Hell Week. It's a major beatdown to be built back up. There's actually a lot of classroom porcing during that time, even though you have very little sleep.

David Smith:

That transformed my life. It was definitely the catalyst for me to learn how to do something for myself and nobody else, to learn that when I walk into a room I'm not trying to prove myself to anybody, uh, because I've, I've proved myself to myself. So, in a weird way, you know, learning how to love myself was, was a key part uh that I took away from the project and defeating limiting beliefs. So after that, you know, just living the high from that for a while, I recognize that you know, the highs aren't going to last forever. So I was seeking, seeking different, uh, the same group of people to surround myself with, to to be around those high achievers which, looking back, was the same reason I got on the SWAT team was like hey, these guys are the best on the department, I want to be around the best. Uh, I want to be around the best, I want to be like them. So, uh, reasons for joining swat, like, and now, the people that I was seeking is kind of the same thing.

David Smith:

After I did that, I, I discovered, um, a program called apogee, and apogee helped give me a direction.

David Smith:

Like I, I wanted to find out what I don't know. Helped give me a direction. Like I, I wanted to find out what I don't know. Um, I needed mentors. Uh, I'm a big believer that if, if you have somebody that is in the direction that you want to go, like it's it's worth your time, worth your money to get that person as a coach or mentor uh, because you're just going to sit there and figure it out by yourself then you're probably not going to get anywhere. I'm a believer that no one is self-made, so I joined the program Apogee, which is a 12-month online men's development program, which now they have online programs for men, women, young men, young women and schools throughout the country. So that provided me direction and purpose in learning and developing myself and doing this deep, deep work and surrounding myself with other men who are doing the same thing, who are also broken and trying to figure themselves out and put their best self forward for their family.

Tyra Valeriano:

That's great.

David Smith:

Does that answer your question?

Tyra Valeriano:

Yeah, no, that actually brings a lot more questions. So that 75-hour initial course that you took, was that through your agency or was that something you did on your personal behalf?

David Smith:

That was something I did personally, okay.

Tyra Valeriano:

And now that you are a lieutenant, how has these programs and what you've learned kind of turned over into what you're doing for the agency and officers that work there?

David Smith:

Yeah. So a lot of with Apogee is is discovering your mission and purpose. So it kind of it kind of turns, turns the dial to hey, you've done so much on yourself yourself, you're now doing a lot of the living your life, with a lot of these daily habits and a lot of structure. Then, well now, what do you? What are you going to do with all that is to give. So we we just had a whole month on giving, talking about starting nonprofits and stuff like team and the peer support team has been a good function. The large goal of that has been to respond to critical incidents and do some debriefs. If some trauma or tragedy happens in the department, somebody on the peer support team will reach out to the officer and stuff which has been good. Or tragedy happens on the department, somebody on the peer support team will reach out to the officer and stuff which has been good.

David Smith:

I desire to bring a more proactive approach. You know a lot of the stuff that I've learned to learn in Apogee is being proactive on yourself. So if we have this mindset shift like we talked about, this mindset shift where an officer can think about themselves really and what can I do to be accountable to myself, then you're just fighting against that downward slope. To me that's suicide prevention, nope, to me that's suicide prevention. So we can hold each other accountable all we want, but it's still up to that person to flip the switch and to do what's right and to do the work that's necessary to fight against that, knowing that we respond to.

David Smith:

You know hundreds of critical incidents throughout the year that you know an average person may see only a few of. We're experiencing all these major traumas and micro traumas. I mean, every day you're going to domestics, you're dealing in high stress situation. High stress situations like that affects our body, that affects our hormones, like years and years of doing that. So there's so many aspects of working on yourself and one of the questions that I've been pondering since doing all this work through Apogee and the Modern Day Night Project is how do you, in a profession of serving others, for first responders, how does one think about serving themselves? Because we don't. Self-development is almost a completely foreign concept. So that's kind of like the mindset shift that I'm looking for within law enforcement, within first responders, and I see a lot of like the wellness initiatives with there's a lot going on in that field right now.

David Smith:

I feel like there's a big push for that In Virginia. Governor Youngkin has specifically devoted a lot of money to that arena. But you see a lot of like the mental health side of it. A lot of talk about suicide, a lot of talk about mental health. Kind of the spin, kind of the angle that I like to push is, you know, not actually not talking about mental health. Let's talk about our standards first. Let's talk about our emotional health, our spiritual health, physical health, nutritional health, financial health. You know, once we get all that squared away, good mental health is just going to be a byproduct. So that's kind of the mission I'm on within the department, how I've applied what I've learned to the department.

Tyra Valeriano:

Yeah, those are all really great aspects of wellness, because when we do talk about mental health, we are talking about specifically suicide awareness, but there is a wellness aspect and it includes all of that because it does contribute and this is actually something I talked to with someone else is the mental health aspect, or wellness is multifaceted. It's not just one contribution and it's not just from trauma that happens at work, it's finances, it's home life, it's everything health, just overall wellness. And there are only, I want to say, a few agencies that I know that actually incorporate everything that you said and they have resources for officers, but this is not something that's very widespread. You know there's not a lot of agencies that have that. So, with that being said, how do you plan to incorporate this into your peer support group? Or, I mean, is there a plan that you have for creating some type of wellness program or resources for the officers at your agency?

David Smith:

Yeah, it boils down to just offering it. So I'm working on bringing some outside training into our department. There's a lot of good things out there. There's a lot of good financial pieces, whether that be financial advisors, coaches have you, I'm working on bringing a class right now from uh. There's a firm locally that a lot of former officers um run, so they're they know the game but you know, within the first responder realm, so they, they can help bring that, that financial education, you know, so that you officers don't have to have debt leaning over their head, you know, or can get out of that scarcity mindset to more abundance mindset mindset which is something that I've been working on personally. So I mean so that and other. There's a lot of other wellness courses I want to bring. You know, there there's mindset programs. There's um, there's meditation and breath work and uh, a lot, of, a lot of stuff like that, that that can help de-stress, help us sleep better. So I want to bring a lot of that training to the department.

David Smith:

But the key part is also defeating that stigma behind the peer support team that nobody wants to talk to peer support, which I understand. I have that mindset too. But what if we were the ones presenting this wellness training. What if we were up there in front of all these officers saying, hey, this is what we're bringing to the table as the peer support team? You know what if we had events that were just fun, like let's just have some fun?

David Smith:

So I literally ordered us t-shirts, so peer support, like people can know that we're the peer support team in a positive interaction, because there has been no positive interactions so now, and it's not, it's not going to be immediate, it could take years. But if you have those positive interactions stacked up, when you have that trauma or tragedy, you have somebody like, oh man, this is really affecting me and somebody suggests peer support to them. It's like, oh yeah, I know this, this one person, because they had a peer support shirt on and and they know the name of my kids, like I trust that person. So that's gonna. That's a while. Um, I don't think a lot of um departments nationwide like to spend money, so that's that's always an uphill battle. There's we have our own um chiefs foundation, which is very helpful, and there's other nonprofits out there too. So that's kind of what it boils down to on my mission with changing that and bringing that to the department.

Tyra Valeriano:

Being that you are in chain of command and you have a admin position. I'm sure you might know where I'm going with this. Do you feel that there is a wall there? Because you're on peer support and you are promoting this, that still officers do have that stigma. You know, I don't want to go to my supervisor or I don't want to go to somebody within my agency that holds rank because they're afraid of jeopardizing their job If it's something.

Tyra Valeriano:

For example, you mentioned finances. For most agencies you can't have a bankruptcy or you can't be in extreme debt. I mean, they check your background and I don't know if it's like that in Virginia, but I know that a lot of agencies do that and if, let's say, they have gotten in debt or they're on the verge of filing bankruptcy, they're afraid of losing their job. You know, coming forward with this information, but they want help. So how do you think that it's going to be trying to tear that wall down so that they can feel comfortable, you know, coming to the peer support group that's within the agency and not fearing their job?

David Smith:

It's definitely an uphill battle and I think it starts with bringing it to the table in conversation. You know it's hard as a lieutenant to understand what's going on in my precinct within that realm because, as being in the chain of command, I can't give direct peer support you know, officially to somebody that is under my supervision, to somebody that is under my supervision. So now another key part you know, speaking about supervision, is that a lot of the members of our peer support team have recently got promoted. So now we have a lot of members that are not peers to the officers. So that's something that you know is an easy fix. You know we'll bring in more members. You know we'll put on some training and stuff like that.

David Smith:

But there's this stigma of talking and worrying about these things, worrying about your job, whether that's if you're having depression or you're in a really bad spot financially. That's part of the mindset shift that needs to happen is that it's OK to talk about these things. There are people out there that want to help. You know there's a code in the virginia state code that protects a peer support conversation uh, from from telling anybody in command from testifying in court, unless it's like a criminal matter or you want to kill yourself. So, uh, a lot of that stuff can be brought to the table within peer support. But there's that education piece that a lot of people don't know, that don't realize that we just hired a psychologist for the city that's gonna be working a lot with public safety for our city. So I'm hoping you know that's gonna bring to the table more training, more education. So people know this and it's gotta be constant.

David Smith:

So one of the key parts that I'm also trying to reach is the families. So the families of officers. So so they know, like, cause they're going through the same stuff that that their spouses. So we're, we're reinstituting a family night. The Academy is I think that's kind of gone away since COVID a family night during the Academy session. So all the new officers coming in, we have an opportunity's going to take time and it's going to take effort. And the effort is the key part because you can do a little bit here and there, but it's got to be constant and it's got to be. It's going to take time. It may take years to have an officer feel comfortable. You know it could take years of an officer having constant wellness, education to finally slip the switch and realize, like you know what, I think it is okay to talk to this one person on peer support because now I trust them.

David Smith:

So it's not a battle, but it's worth it.

Tyra Valeriano:

I do think that starting we're in an area of law enforcement where and maybe you can disagree, but I think that there's a lot of the new generation coming in and I've talked about this before because they're very different than from the time we started law enforcement, 100% different. We don't. They don't deal with things the same way we do Going through FTO. I know in my agency and the state that I worked in it has changed from the time I was on FTO until now, because the generation is different. They don't really want to deal with certain things and when they are faced with things that they don't like, they're out. Hey, I don't have to deal with this, you know, I'm done.

Tyra Valeriano:

But starting in the academy or even when they get hired, it's really good to start implementing these ideas into their heads, because now, it's not about changing the stigma if this is what they learned going in, whereas we started, where this was not ever brought to our attention, this was not something that was a conversation on the forefront, and there it is going to take years, it's going to take a long time, but it's.

Tyra Valeriano:

At what point are we going to start, which I think we're having some really good momentum now on this topic. But you're in a really good position because people want to see their leaders making strides and doing it themselves to say, hey, okay, he's doing it, he's done it. It's not like he just did it from one day to the next to say, oh, hey, I'm doing it, y'all need to do it. You're actually making the attempt to show them hey, I've been doing this, you should try it, and I think that's huge. So, with you being in a leadership position, have you felt that maybe other leaders in agencies, maybe even your own, could take this step for them, so that everybody else underneath them can say, hey, our leaders are doing this and maybe this is a good thing?

David Smith:

Yeah, it's funny you ask that because, within the leadership realm, I'm kind of getting roped into. It's a class that we teach at our in-service called effective leadership. So I'm kind of getting roped into helping assist with restructuring it and teaching all the supervisors in the department. So leadership has been something on my mind for the last month or so. So it starts with everything I've been talking about. It starts with ourselves.

David Smith:

I saw a quote the other day that says 75% of leadership is leading yourself the other day that says 75% of leadership is leading yourself, and I think I tend to think that it's 100% of leadership is leading yourself. If you can't put your best self forward and show everyone around you that you are holding a standard not just the department standard, but an even better standard then if they don't see that, then they're not going to follow you. If they don't see inspiration, they're not going to follow you. Now, well, your job is to be their boss. Yes, I get that, but being a leader is something totally different. Being a leader is something totally different. You know, if you want them to follow, if you have half your people leaving your precinct, um cause we? We do a rotation every year so officers can go to another precinct if they want to. So if you have one year you know half the people leaving, then there's yeah, you're doing your job as a quote unquote leader or manager or whatever you want to call it, but um is there? Was there a true leadership there? If you know half your people are leaving, um, were you inspiring your officers, you know, and motivating them? Um, and that's a whole other conversation. Motivate, motivating and and intrinsic motivation also, you know, also is a key part of self-development that is just bred naturally when you start working on yourself.

David Smith:

I'm hoping that I can help push this mindset shift on our department and nationwide. I have an opportunity coming up to speak with a bunch of command-level leaders next month giving this talk, sort of wellness presentation, and so I'm hoping that that the message starts spreading. And it's really just you know the whole extreme ownership conversation, um, like jock and all them, which is which is great, and this is exactly what it is. You have to. You have to look at yourself first. You can't just do the right things and expect people to follow you. Right, you have to, you have to live it.

Tyra Valeriano:

That brings me to a question If you wouldn't mind sharing a instance that you had to have that tough conversation with yourself, maybe specifically in law enforcement or in your home life that may have, maybe that an officer can relate to, where you knew you had to address yourself and say I have to change this and maybe take responsibility or accountability for what it was that contributed to whatever situation you may have went through. Can you think of a time that you felt that when you were going through this journey, um, so something that, like I realized an area I was deficient in.

David Smith:

I guess you could say um, I I'd say probably the first thing that pops in my head is is my presence. Uh, and it's, it's more. It applies personally and professionally being present and not just thinking about what's to come or what has happened. One of the guys I follow he has a lot of great stuff Seth Eckerson with my Steady Mind, he calls it time traveling. So he, if you're, if you're constantly thinking about you, know what's, what's going to happen, what's going to happen, you're, you're time traveling, like let's, let's be here now.

David Smith:

And so when you think about that in terms of family, like the being here now with with my kids and being present, uh, tried to put down my phone when I got home from work and ignore it and literally leave it in another room and be present with my family, especially at dinnertime.

David Smith:

Now I have an opportunity for the first time, not working shift work ever, so we have family dinner every night.

David Smith:

So I set my phone phone down, which is harder than you think and I fail at it still, but setting my phone down and being present with my kids and looking them in the eye, communicating with them, because if that phone is sitting on the table, then the most important thing in the room is the phone.

David Smith:

So stuff, stuff like that being present, being present with my wife and being intentional with date nights every week, and even if it's hard to plan you know, we got young kids like it doesn't happen exactly the way you want it, but we can still be intentional, even if we don't go out to eat or what have you and then on the department is being present with our officers. So even as a Lieutenant, I'm still attending roll calls, not even to bring anything, just to be there and chat, you know, with my phone in my pocket and listen to what they're saying. So, uh, presence is something that I think, as, as aant, I could have done a lot better and now, going forward in my career, it's something that I'm being very intentional about and bringing to the table in my career and personally.

Tyra Valeriano:

That's great. How do you think, if you decide to do this class or course for leadership that you mentioned earlier, there's obviously two groups of leaders. You have your leaders who are willing to learn and change, and then you have your leaders who are stuck in ways because they've always done it this way. What do you think is the biggest challenge when it comes to those leaders who are we've always done this, you know, done it this way and I'm attending this training how do you get through to them? How do you plant the seed to maybe hopefully change their mind that things can be different?

David Smith:

It's tough. I think that you know every person is different. The catalyst to flip the switch is different for each person. We've had guys pay off a ton of debt and then all of a sudden they lost a bunch of weight because that was their catalyst. For me it was going through that program. For others it could be reading a specific book and something clicks in their head like man, I really should be doing what this says. So part of it is offering that perspective and offering this I guess you could say mindset, but more of a perspective shift when thinking about certain things. So, for example, when we're talking about purpose, like what's our purpose? What's your purpose for joining the department? It's probably if you're being honest with yourself, it's probably not quote-unquote making a difference. But if, yeah, sure that's a piece of it, but, like for me, it it paid more than what I was making working fast, right.

David Smith:

So, honestly with ourselves and bringing that perspective of, of purpose, like, um, what's your not only is what, what's your purpose in the department, what's your purpose, uh, in your life. Like the job is not our purpose, like you can make a difference anywhere, like you can help people and you can serve anywhere, so why, why this job? What is your purpose within this job? And then, what's your, your overarching purpose? What is your purpose today?

David Smith:

One of the questions that we asked in our apogee, and I mean it's I'm still like uncomfortable asking this question because in our line of work, like it's it's very, very serious and we've seen the result of it. But if I ask somebody, why haven't you killed yourself today? If I ask somebody, why haven't you killed yourself today? Let's answer that question Because your purpose today matters. There's a reason, everyone has a reason, because you're obviously not doing it. So if we have this perspective shift, then over time, like it's just going to spread and people are going to see leaders, you know, leading at a higher level, and I think it's going to have an impact.

Tyra Valeriano:

Yeah, I agree that's a lot of really good information. I 100, 1000% am so on board with the mindset aspect and that comes from my own experience. You know, I feel that being in law enforcement and hearing someone tell me that you hit the nail on the head it's just, it's difficult to get through this wall and it's going to take a long time. But it's better to start now than to not start at all. And as long as everybody that's part of this change or movement continues the momentum, eventually it's going to get somewhere. Even if it's the smallest dent, it's going to get somewhere. We're running out of time, but is there anything that you want to share with the listeners that you've learned out of your experience that you'd like to share with them to maybe take a piece of advice for them as they go on in their daily lives and career?

David Smith:

Man, there's so many things that I've been working on, you know, the past few years. It's hard to boil it down to one single thing, but I would say that you know where it started for me was to recognize that I am good enough, I do have value and I am worthy. You know a room in my past I would feel like I got to prove myself to these people. Well, now I don't have to prove myself to anybody because I've proved myself to myself. I am worthy. I'm worthy of of love. I'm worthy of getting paid well, Like now.

David Smith:

I I don't consider myself uh, what's the right way to put it? Um, my value that I have to offer is way more than what the department's paying me. That's what I value myself at, and I'm working towards those goals to make that into a reality too, and I can still accomplish my mission on the department as well. I don't have to trade my time for dollars, working part-time. There's a whole entrepreneurial piece that we haven't even spoken about that you, you kind of need that mindset shift first to realize like you could, you could do anything, and it goes beyond just telling you know what we tell our kids. You can be anything you want, yes, that's true, but to to have that mindset and to actually believe it is. It takes work, it takes, it takes time and it takes effort, more importantly. So, doing the hard work and choosing hard over easy is what it boils down to to change that mindset, shift to being worthy.

Tyra Valeriano:

I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that, Even you saying that. It reminds me of and I know that I'm not the only one who felt this way but being in law enforcement, I felt that I deserve somebody to say, hey, I appreciate that you did this. And when they give that acknowledgement to someone else and they don't acknowledge you, you feel like you're not doing enough, or maybe you're not good enough, because why did they get acknowledged and not you? It can even go down as far as a life-saving award. You know, you've saved a lot of lives. You didn't get that award, but someone else did, and they did exactly what you did right.

David Smith:

Yeah, that's happened to me.

Tyra Valeriano:

Yeah. So you're feeling some type of way about it and now you're thinking that you're not enough. Now you're upset, you're. You know, I don't know if I want this job or you're just thinking all kinds of crazy things. But that is really good advice, because you are enough and you're not having to prove to anybody what you're doing. You're doing your job, that's what you're supposed to do, and if you're not getting acknowledged for it, I think that's the hardest thing for a lot of officers, because I went through that, I know a lot of my friends went through that and just to say, hey, I'm enough, and I know that I'm doing enough and I know I can do even more, and they're not going to pay me my worth. Nobody could pay me my worth, and you just have to change your mind and believe it.

David Smith:

Yeah, that's good.

Tyra Valeriano:

Okay. So I asked my guests this at the end of every episode what would you tell your rookie self based on everything that you know now up until this point? To give your rookie self advice.

David Smith:

Man, I feel like I've I've said a lot of it already. Um, I would tell my rookie self that you are worth it. You know everything you're doing. Don't do it for anyone else, like do it, do it for you. Um, it's, it's a worthy goal to to serve others and yeah, that, that that's righteous and and it's great, can't keep you going forever and in fact, you could do it better if you, if you serve yourself first. It's I mean, we've already said it, I'm starting to circle back being a mindset shift, but if you lead yourself, then that'll be enough.

Tyra Valeriano:

Yeah, that's good. Okay, David, do you have any points of contact that listeners can reach out to if they want to ask you any questions or make contact with you?

David Smith:

Yeah, absolutely. Probably the best source is Instagram. It's strong underscore institute underscore. That's my professional Instagram for my own coaching public speaking company. And then LinkedIn. You can find me under my name as well. Real name common spelling Okay, David.

Tyra Valeriano:

Well, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you joining me today and I think that there is a lot of value in your perspectives. There's a lot of things that are very interesting and not so I want to say not so average things that people probably haven't heard about before, and I think it's worth them looking into, especially if it's going to help them change their mindset because, as we've said, that's a huge thing that nobody talks about. So I appreciate your time. To my listeners, Thank you for tuning in. You guys, be safe and we'll see you on the next one.

David Smith:

Thank you.

Tyra Valeriano:

Thank you for joining me on Chapter Blue. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow and tag me on social media and share with your friends and fellow officers. If you're interested in joining an episode, I'd love for you to be a part of the conversation. Until next time, stay safe, take care of yourself and remember you're never alone in this journey.