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Welcome to OwnGuard Solutions

Overview

Season 1, Episode 6

While not the first podcast published so far, it is the first official podcast recorded as OwnGuard Solutions.

Denis and Jim sit down for a casual conversation to welcome the followers and talk about the genesis of OwnGuard Solutions and what drives them in this new venture together.

From humble beginnings with The Self-Initiative Project to a fully-fledged venture dedicated to enhancing safety and preparedness, this episode delves into the evolution of their mission.

Listen in as they reminisce about past milestones, discuss the importance of community service, and share their vision for the future. With a fresh approach and expanded platforms, OwnGuard Solutions is set to offer valuable advice, tips, and expert insights to help you and your loved ones stay safe.

Whether you’re a long-time follower or a new listener, this episode promises to inspire and motivate you to take action and make safety a personal priority. Don’t miss out on this exciting new chapter!

Thanks. See ya soon…

View transcript for podcast

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Music.

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Hey, hey, so welcome to the inaugural podcast of OwnGuard Solutions.

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Man, that almost sounds weird to say.

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I’m now your co-host, Jim O’Brien, and I have with us today our other new co-host, Denis Haynes

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to our podcast. And it’s weird.

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It’s weird not to start it out and say the self-initiative project anymore,

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but here we are, OwnGuard Solutions.

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Kind of the same, a little different. You’re on board now. What’s going on?

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It’s come a long way from the first time we did the first podcast for The Self-Initiative Project. Yeah.

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I was a part of that one, and here I am, it’s about years later, part of this one.

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Yeah, and I was just trying to think before we came on here.

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I think we launched that part one of gun safety.

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It was either April or May of 2018. That’s how long it’s been.

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Oh, six years, yeah. Yeah. And then we did at least one, I think we did one

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on taking care of our aging parents.

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Aging parents, yeah, which I also did a post on.

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Yeah, just recently launched that. So go check that out on our blog if you haven’t yet.

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And then it seems like there was another, but nonetheless, been a minute since we’ve done this.

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And the other unique thing for you listeners, you don’t get to see us right

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now at least, is that unlike previously where I was recording these in my office

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on a microphone and a mixing board,

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we’re literally sitting on a couple of couches in front of my digital recorder.

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So doing this a little bit differently too. So hopefully this one will come out.

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I’m gonna try and see gonna wing it doing old

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natural this time around so yeah

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we started own guard solutions for similar reasons

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where you know the reason i think why we’ve why we’ve started it what we say

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is that we have the belief that being safe and prepared is always better and

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that hopefully with our our information and tips and advice that we put out there for everyone that

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we can help you and your families be safer and better prepared as well.

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I think it’s good to let everyone know, you know, how we came about this, right?

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Because I think it was around Christmas that we were sitting around talking

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and said, you know, it’d be good for us to go into business together.

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I don’t think we said that.

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And we thought about a couple of things and then we thought it was like an epiphany.

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Like, what are we thinking? Why don’t we do what we do?

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Right? Let’s start giving advice. I mean, Jim reminds me of all the times I’m

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at the range out there helping people, giving free advice, family calling us

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about stuff that we do every day.

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And we thought, you know, let’s expand this. Let’s take it beyond the family.

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Let’s build on what we have, at least what Jim had, and let’s take it from there.

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So I think that now that we’ve decided to provide a greater service, right,

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and it just happens to be a business, I think more of this is just our desire

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to serve the community, right, and try to keep everyone safe.

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I like to think of it as that more than a business.

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I just think that, you know, we do this anyway, right?

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So why not put it on a larger scale? I think you make a great point.

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Well, I know you make a great point. I’ve said that before.

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And that I think, too, that it’s important to give back to the community.

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And as you said, we’re doing this every day. We may not be shooting or something

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every single day, but we’re thinking like this.

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We’re giving random folks, friends, families. I got friends that ask me stuff

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all the time because they just don’t know.

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So why not make it a bigger scale and give back to a larger community and do

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some good in the process, hopefully, as well?

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Not everybody thinks of safety the way we do, and I realize that,

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but I think there’s an opportunity to expand horizons in some cases and then

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enhance in others, right, for those that are thinking about it more frequently than not. I think so.

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And, you know, we have enough friends that are in this space with safety and

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law enforcement and whatnot that we’re able to share some of their expertise

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through this form of ours.

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Right. So it’s not just us coming up with stuff.

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We are, you know, have some background, people with history,

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people that do this for a real living.

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Right. That we can provide a forum for them to share knowledge with you guys

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through us. So I think that that’s a good thing, too. Yeah.

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And we’ve been fortunate enough to have some really good guests on in the past.

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And to Dennis’s point, I think this is an opportunity to have some more guests

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on that are experts in the space, as he said,

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and really hopefully reinforce all the information and tips and advice and tricks we’re giving out, too.

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Too, because I think that’s a benefit, too, to hear it from folks that might

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be perceived as experts.

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Because, you know, I’ve said it a lot over the years is that I’m not former

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law enforcement or former military.

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I know you’re former Marine, but I’m not. I’m just average Joe or average Jim.

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You’re more than average Jim. I’m just average Jim in this place.

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But I have taken my safety and

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my preparedness and I still have more to

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do and go but I take that very seriously and I’m I think that way and so I think

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it’s important that everyone does yeah I do I think one of the things I really

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enjoy about what we’re doing now is you know the self initiative project was more podcast and,

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I think with on guard solutions it allows us.

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To communicate in different venues, right, with the webpage and the blog posts, the social media.

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You know, we just really have expanded. And I like that, right,

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because not everyone listens to podcasts, right?

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But I think now we have a variety of different ways that people can get the

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information that we’ve been trying to get out there.

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Yeah, we got a little something-something for everyone now. Yeah,

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absolutely. We’ve got the blog. We’ve got the podcast. podcasts. We have, what is it now?

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Technically five social media outlets that, you know, you have your choice,

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your smorgasbord to go to and choose from however you like to consume that content.

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We hope to fill the voids that may have been present before and have a little

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something, something, as I said, for everyone that comes to check us out.

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And as I said, in our YouTube video and some other things that we’ve got some

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really cool, exciting stuff coming up that we haven’t quite gotten ready to

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talk to about because we’re still in the planning and preparation stages,

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but that’s coming up right around the corner, as I’ve said before.

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Yeah. Yeah. You know, and then it’s a continuing learning, right?

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So anyone that joins us, hopefully they find enough interest in the things that

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they do see that they continue to come back, All right.

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As you mentioned, we have a lot of things up. We can’t put everything up at one time.

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You know, we have stuff seasonal that we talk about. All right.

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Situational. situational. One thing that we’ve learned is that we’ve agreed

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and recently learned that safety is more of a personal level.

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It’s got to be customized.

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What’s safe to one may not be safe to another and vice versa.

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That’s something that we started to take a look at and try to fit the needs of every lifestyle.

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Everyone is not out there willing to board up their house and sit it by the

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door with a shotgun. All right.

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So, you know, you got to think about that. And I think that’s one of the things

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that we’re able to bring to the table is, you know, kind of look at really what

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other, what everyone wants to look at and not just people that own guns, right?

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Guns not always a solution. All right. So I think that’s, that’s another thing

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that we’ve been able to look at and kind of sit back and say,

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you know, let’s look at this, you know, especially with on guard our solutions.

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Let’s look at it a different way.

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No, that’s another good point. And I absolutely hate to continue saying that to you.

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I come up with a lot of good points, too. You do once in a while.

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Every once in a while, a squirrel gets a nut.

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You know, yeah, I think tailoring the content to think about a wider demographic,

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a wider audience as well is key.

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And the key parts of that is realizing that everyone has different lifestyle

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and a different background and experiences that they’ve had in their lives and the context,

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you know, everything, what, what presents itself one way to me may look or appear

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completely different for you.

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So being able to recognize that and then hopefully address some things.

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And look, we’re under no delusions that all of our content is going to appeal

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to everyone or that we’ve covered every subject that might appeal.

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But hopefully in time, across all the different outlets that we have and the

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information and tips and advice that we’re trying to get out there,

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you’re going to find hopefully more than a couple of things that may resonate with you.

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And hopefully, you may not act on it necessarily,

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but if it can get you to think about something you hadn’t necessarily before,

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and then if you do decide to incorporate the tips and advice and information

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we’ve disseminated out to you, that’s a win in my book.

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And if we can help anybody along the way, that’s fantastic.

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I think you nailed it. And that’s part of our philosophies we’ve already stated, right?

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The key thing is what we’re looking for people to do is to recognize and take

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action. Take action is key, all right?

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Just to sit there with the knowledge and not take action on it,

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it’s not going to do you any good.

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And I think, you know, that’s the thing that we’re trying to really get out

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there as we stated before. We’re trying to promote, you know,

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safeguarding yourself.

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And then secondly, we’re trying to get you to take action, all right?

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Simple things, lock your door at night, right? Which I’m always amazed at how

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many people, I could tell some stories I won’t, but I’m always amazed is that

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how many people don’t lock their doors. Don’t lock their doors,

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don’t lock their car doors. Even when they go to bed at night. Yeah.

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And then they wonder why someone was able to get into their car and windows

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are not broken or anything because they left the car unlocked.

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Yeah. And they left valuables out in plain view. So there you go.

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Just little things like that to take action and to think about, right?

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I mean, we all watch the news. We all see what’s going on. But because it’s

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so far away, it’s not personal, right?

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And until it happens to them, does it become personal? And that’s what we’re

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trying to get people to take action and be proactive.

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It’s a good point. Well, I didn’t want to make this a long podcast,

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but I thought since we’re in the process, and I’m completely transparent with

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this, we had a five-year solid run pretty much with The Self-Initiative Project Podcast.

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There was a lot of great content there and we had on a lot of good guests,

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I guess Denis included, and we didn’t want to lose that. We wanted to transfer it off.

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So what you’ll see as you listen is most of those podcasts are still going to

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be introduced as the self-initiative project podcast.

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It just doesn’t make time or money sense

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to go back and try to re-record all of

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those so don’t be as shocked when you see that but we

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wanted to also start getting in some new content

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into the mix too while we transition those

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podcasts over to OwnGuard Solutions but no

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matter again we have enough outlets and enough types of

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content for you that i think you’ll find something that

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you’re going to enjoy and hopefully uh improve your personal safety and preparedness

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weirdness along the way so thanks for joining us today and uh keep checking

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back we’ll keep adding podcasts and posts and everything else as we go along

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and thanks so much. See you soon.

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Music.

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