Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
Come on a ride along with a Veteran Homicide Detective as the twists and turns of the job suddenly end his career and nearly his life; discover how something wonderful is born out of the Darkness. Embark on the journey from helping people on their worst days, to bringing life, excitement and smiles on their best days.
Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)
Two Years Out; When one door closes, a world of possibilities opens.
Aaron marks the two-year anniversary of leaving his 21-year law enforcement career and reflects on how his identity, purpose, and happiness have transformed in unexpected ways since hanging up his badge.
• Facing the identity crisis of no longer being a police officer after dedicating his entire life to law enforcement
• Transitioning to corporate life of commercial plumbing with Braley Gray after being a homicide detective
• Discovering unexpected opportunities including travel, relationships with industry leaders, and financial stability
• Starting Streamline Events and Entertainment, a DJ and live music company that allows Aaron to pursue his passion
• Working events with his son and experiencing life's joyful moments instead of only meeting people on their worst days
• Building the Murders to Music podcast that now reaches listeners in 30 countries
• Finding that losing his police identity opened up a more complete version of himself as a husband, father, and entrepreneur
• Reconnecting with family in meaningful ways after shedding the hypervigilance and stress of police work
If you're going through an identity crisis or major life transition, remember that what seems like an ending might actually be the beginning of something more fulfilling than you could imagine.
Gift For You!!! Murders to Music will be releasing "SNAPSHOTS" periodcally to keep you entertained throughout the week! Snapshots will be short, concise bonus episodes containing funny stories, tid bits of brilliance and magical moments!!! Give them a listen and keep up on the tea!
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What is up, friends and family. This is Aaron, I'm your host and you guys are back for the Murders to Music podcast. Thank you so much for checking back in. So on today's episode, I want to take a couple minutes and reflect backwards two years. Do you realize that on April 5th it will be two years to the day that I left the police department? So much has happened over those last two years. Some of it is happy, some of it makes me cry. It just really depends on what we're talking about. But I think it's going to be super cool to look back and reflect it.
Speaker 1:So often, and even in this podcast, I reflect on the day-to-day grind, and that day-to-day grind can always get you down. It can suck you into this trap where you feel like the vortex around you is just sucking all the crap in and everything is another bump in the road, another mountain to climb. But it's not. Until recently I started looking back at the last two years. Where was I prior to that? What was my life like? And then, what has my life like been over the last two years? And that's what I want to talk a little bit, a little bit about today. So before I really go into this let's talk about.
Speaker 1:For those new listeners that haven't heard this before, my name is Aaron. I was a police officer for 21 years. The last 11 years I spent as a homicide and child abuse detective. You can hear all about my story, where I'm very open, transparent and vulnerable in everything from my previous sexual abuse to why I left the police department. It's all out here. It's all in the Murders to Music podcast. Feel free to check it out. It'll tell you my entire story. But prior to a couple of years ago, april 5th, I was a police officer. That was my heart, that was my passion, that was my drive. Everything I had ever done since I was eight years old had to do with being a cop From the ride-alongs to the college degree, to ride-alongs at eight years old, explorer programs surrounding myself with cops, acting, looking, thinking, feeling like a cop, carrying a gun, all that stuff. That was my entire life. And then one day it's gone, it's over and I can't go back to being a police officer. Put yourself in that position for a second. Whatever you do right now with passion, with gusto, with the passion the thing that actually blows your hair back if you have hair and are not bald, the thing that blows your hair back. If you could no longer do that tomorrow and I hope for a second that you have a job that you can describe that way. You know I did that. You have a job that you can describe that way. You know I did and. But whatever, that is that thing that blows your hair back. If you could no longer do that tomorrow, who would you be and what would you do?
Speaker 1:How much of us lose ourselves in the idea that we are a cop, we are a musician, we are a motorcycle rider, we are a husband, we are a family. What if your family didn't come home tomorrow? What if your family is out and you get the phone call there's been a tragic accident and nobody is returning home. And you've sunk your entire world into being a dad, a husband and a father. Now your world is gone. That is a devastating blow to anybody, absolutely devastating.
Speaker 1:What happens when your career is over? You have been an airline pilot your entire life. That is what you've done since you were nine years old, taking the ground school program at the Camas airfield out here and now you've flown airplanes for 25 years, but something comes up and tomorrow you can no longer get in that cockpit. Then what? Who are you? And that is what I had to realize and come to grips with just about two years ago. You know, three years ago, I got sent home, told I had PTSD. I said no, I don't you do. Got into a little argument with the doctor, as luck would have it. She was right, I was wrong. But as a result of that I have got to experience a whole new world. Right, and that is what I want to talk about. I want to focus on the positive stuff that's occurred and there's negative with it, but I want to focus on the positive.
Speaker 1:So two years ago, three years ago, I get sent home. Two years ago, it's time for me to go in and clean out my desk. I clean out my desk, I talk about it, and that is an episode number 38, where I talk about my last day at the police department, my final day and my conversations and how that was. Feel free to go back and listen to that. So in the last two years, some things have definitely occurred and April 5th marks that anniversary date, so having to deal with that loss of identity. You know, two years ago I didn't know who I wasn't and, honestly, guys and girls, I probably still don't know who I am, but I'm figuring it out day by day. You know, two years ago I had no idea who I was or what my next step was going to be.
Speaker 1:On April 5th, I had been interning for a new company called Braley Gray. Braley Gray is a factory rep agency for commercial plumbing stuff. For example, every time you go into a public restroom and you flush that handle on the urinal or on the toilet, that is probably going to be a Sloan valve. Sloan valve is one of the companies that Braley Gray represents, meaning that Braley Gray is the experts between the factory and everybody else. So anybody that has a question or anybody that wants to buy, anybody that needs service of that Sloan valve that's what Braley Gray does. We don't sell things direct, but we help everybody with their problems. So I'm working for a company selling toilet parts, not to minimize it, but at the end of the day it's commercial plumbing stuff. That shit flows through right. That's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Man, I don't know what this is about. I'm no longer moving the needle. I used to. Just a couple months ago I was saving lives and today I'm selling you a sink, you know, or I'm talking to you about a sink, and that was a lot for me to wrap my mind around. It was a lot for me to adjust to. I go from going a hundred miles an hour to feel like I'm just treading water in a world that I don't know. I'm outside my comfort zone, I'm, I'm, I'm speaking a different language, or I'm at least I'm expected to understand a different language that I've never heard before. And that is a really hard place. You know, if the roles were reversed and I took them into my police world, they wouldn't know the first thing about a crime scene and a murder investigation, right, but it's not that way. Unfortunately, it's me that's a fish out of water and I felt like I was drowning. I stuck in there and the next two years opened up a world of possibilities. So, braley Gray, I you know. I want to say this about Brayley Gray and the company that I work for they found me when I was extremely painful and extremely fragile and they saw something in me that they wanted to sink their time and energy into. They can teach people a widget, but they can't teach people human skills and communication skills and trust and integrity and all of that stuff, and that's what they saw and they brought me on.
Speaker 1:In the last two years I've learned so much more about commercial plumbing, and if you're ever interested in geeking out about it, I'm happy to tell you. Now my phone have got hundreds of pictures of toilets in my phone. It sounds weird. We can have a conversation another time about it, but uh, that's what it's. When I break out my phone in the bathroom for people, that's when things get weird. But so in the role of this factory rep position, you've got a couple of things right. We have to talk to and communicate with all kinds of different people, from building owners to CEOs, to service plumbersbers, to engineers, to architect and design. So we really have to change our conversation, no matter where we go. And in doing so, here's some of the opportunities I've had over the last couple of years.
Speaker 1:I have got to travel to some amazing places Alaska you all know that's where I'm from, but that's also part of my territory. I've been to Alaska 12 or 15 times over the last couple of years, so that has been pretty cool. I've been to California three or four times Southern California I've been to Ohio. I've been to Alabama. I've been to Hawaii. I've been to Chicago. I've taken customers to baseball games. I've taken them on fishing trips. I've taken them on 4x4 desert adventures. I've taken them shooting. I've been to some of the finest steakhouses in the country. I've had some of the best steaks, some of the best drinks, some of the best speakeasies. That is absolutely out there in this beautiful world called the United States.
Speaker 1:I have had the opportunity to travel and just experience things that I have never got to experience in my previous 21 year career. We couldn't even get a cup of coffee from somebody. If we went to Home Depot as a police officer and they're giving away hot dogs on the 4th of July, it was against our codes and conduct to take one of those hot dogs and eat it. It was a free event because it was seen as gratuity. Now the world that I live in, the roles are reversed. It's us doing the entertaining and I'm getting during that entertaining.
Speaker 1:I'm getting to build relationships with people. I'm getting to talk to people and meet people. I'm getting to meet CEOs of companies Sloan Valve, the one I just spoke about. I got a. I got a text message or an email from the CEO of Sloan valve. He said Aaron, I've heard about you. You're doing a great thing for the company and you know. I just wanted to reach out and say thank you. I want to invite you and your wife down to Arizona, to the Cubs stadium in Arizona, and watch a baseball game. I want you to have a beer with me.
Speaker 1:I've been on the job for one year when I got this text message. The CEO of Sloan, an international company, is reaching out to me, a lowly little peasant that's been working for the company for less than a year and he wants to fly me and my wife out to Arizona. That would have never happened in my previous world. I go out to Arizona, I meet him, we exchange phone numbers cell phone numbers. Now we text on holidays. We'll text each other Thanksgiving Christmas. I went out there here a month or two ago to another baseball game and this was a year and a half later. A year later and I got to see him again. We sat there and spoke for half an hour 45 minutes. Just an absolute amazing family and amazing man, and I think that's one of the things about this business that I really enjoy.
Speaker 1:You know, I thought I knew everything when I was doing the cop thing, I thought I was around these good people. I thought I was around these people that would have my back, no matter what. At the end of the day they didn't have anything to do with me. I left that police department. I was out on medical leave for a year. I got one phone call from my administration and that was because they wanted me to bring my car back and have it serviced. Do they realize that PTSD is why cops are killing themselves? Do they realize that what I'm out on and the injuries that I have are mentally affecting me and I already feel like I'm an island? Yesterday I felt like I was somebody. Today I feel like I'm a nobody. And now I understand that's not true, but that's how you feel it. That's how I felt at the time. So these people that I thought had my back and these people that I thought were the thin blue line and the brothers and sisters that would be there for me day in and day out, no matter what, and would die for me, literally didn't do shit when I went out of work. They didn't care. It was a business, it was a machine, it was a number, and if they cared, they didn't care enough to pick up the phone and call. Perception is reality. That is what I experienced on that side of the fence. But let's talk about this side of the fence. I now I'm communicating with the CEO of this major company. There's others, I won't go into the details who they are, but I'm communicating with these people in high places. They actually know Aaron Turnage as me. That's pretty cool. You know this.
Speaker 1:Last weekend I was out at a factory tour and I had some customers out in Southern California and we spent a Wednesday, thursday, and we were all supposed to fly home on Friday and uh, friday or Thursday night I got really sick, the sickest I've ever been. From about midnight 30 to one o'clock the next afternoon I vomited no less than 20 times and I could keep nothing in. I'll let you paint the picture in your head as to what that looks like. It was absolutely horrible experience. It was gut wrenching. I'll let you paint the picture in your head as to what that looks like. It was absolutely a horrible experience. It was gut-wrenching. I was supposed to be on a plane that morning at 11 o'clock. I had to call and cancel my flight. I had to cancel my flight and come home whenever I was sick. There's no way I could travel.
Speaker 1:While the time I was sitting there in the hotel room, I stayed in bed until 5 pm Friday afternoon, and while I was in bed I kept getting text messages. I never called these people and told them I was sick. I called my boss, told him that I was sick, but these people heard and I had phone calls from the presidents of the company, from vice presidents of the company, from, I mean, up and down the chain. They're checking on me day in and day out. They're checking on me. Last night at 11 o'clock at night, I'm getting text messages to make sure that I'm okay. That's the type of people that I'm meeting in this new world. They're real people. It's it's awesome. And they're not trying to sell me anything. They just are human beings and that's what's so cool about it. That's one of the opportunities, right, and I'm telling you all this because that day may come when you can no longer do what you did yesterday.
Speaker 1:I thought that without being a cop, I was nobody. Without being a cop, there was no life for me outside of law enforcement, which is a lot of reasons why cops end their lives, because that's all we know. All we know is a cop Nobody's hiring a homicide detective today. That's all we know. All we know is a cop Nobody's hiring a homicide detective today. I'm here to tell you there's skills, there's things outside that I didn't even recognize, but Brayley Gray and one of my bosses, chris. He saw something in me that I didn't see in myself and that is really, really cool.
Speaker 1:And speaking of traveling, I've got to travel with my wife. My wife and I have been on more trips since I started with Brayley Gray two years ago than we went on the previous 15 years of our life. She never got to travel with me in law enforcement because in law enforcement I was always going out to find a bad guy or traveling for an investigation. Here she gets to travel. She's been to Arizona with me. She's been to Alaska with me. She's been to Hawaii with me multiple times. We've got to get out and see the world together and that has helped grow our relationship. During this time of uncertainty and unsurety that I have within myself, my wife has never been unsure of me or uncertain of me. She is solid in everything that I am. Braylee Gray is solid in everything that I am. I was the one uncertain and unsure, and at times I still am, but they're not. But what it's allowed us to do is grow closer. During those times it's allowed me and my family to travel together. My kids to go to baseball games with me, at professional baseball games. It's been just an amazing experience for that.
Speaker 1:What about salary? I mean, are you getting paid as much as you did as being a cop? My salary now, at the end of the day, there's less than a 10% delta between what I'm making now, what I was making as a cop, and I've been with this company two years. I'm working on my third year and that 10% delta comes from all the overtime. So take my most profitable year as a police officer with all the overtime. What I'm making now at year two is less than a 10% delta from that biggest number. And this is a 40 hour a week job, a little bit of extra time here and there, but for the most part it's a 40 hour a week job.
Speaker 1:What does the future hold in that salary? Looking long-term, not short-term, what does the future hold and what potential is there down the road? And you're only making the money as a cop because you're working your ass off. In overtime. You may be getting paid 70-something dollars an hour to do it, and every minute you sit on that toilet is $1.10 going onto your check. When you're on overtime hours, I get it We've had those discussions but you're only getting that money because you're away from your family. You are sacrificing yourself, you're sacrificing your family, you're sacrificing your friends, you're sacrificing yourself, you're sacrificing your family, you're sacrificing your friends and you're working your ass off. And you're only getting it because you're putting the hours in. There is salary out there, salary out there that is comparative, comparable and exceeds that of what we made as cops.
Speaker 1:You see a future in the world that I'm in now, and whether you know if you would have asked me three and a half years ago hey, are you going to ever do anything besides be a cop? My answer would have been no. And then look what happens the light switch is flipped and all of a sudden I'm in a completely different world. So I would be foolish to say that this is the world I'm always going to stay in. I don't know what my future holds. I can't predict the future. I thought I could. I thought I was going to be a cop for the next 30 years and be done. That didn't happen. So here I am. I'm in a new world right now. What does tomorrow hold? I really don't know, but here's what I do know the idea of being able to get out and make that decision, to step out, step from cop to corporate, step through that door, open up to a world of possibilities.
Speaker 1:Now I am not limited my future. I've got somewhere that I can go. Not only have I built a new skillset and a new set of opportunities and assets and I bring more to the table and all that other stuff, but now I realize that all the stuff I used as a cop I can use into the real world. And now I realize that all the stuff I used as a cop I can use into the real world. And now, when I go forward, if I ever choose to go forward and do something different, now I've got all of that out there in front of me on the table that I can work with, and not just. You know I can solve a homicide, you know there's so much more which is really, really cool. The other thing that's super cool is it's allowed me to open up and devote time to my other passion.
Speaker 1:Remember that thing that blows my hair back and I don't have any hair on bald if you've never seen me, but my eyebrows they do it. That thing is music. That thing is people and helping people and going from helping people on their worst days, their days that their family is killed and their babies are injured, helping them on those days, to helping them on their best days. And that's when I opened up Streamline Events and Entertainment. What is Streamline Events and Entertainment? That is a full service live music, dj, lighting and sound production company. We can do any event you want to throw at us, whether that is DJing a high-end wedding or that is performing live music in front of 20,000 people. Whatever you need, we're going to be able to bring that together and provide for you. We provide the lighting, provide the sound. We provide it all. But more than that, we provide a service to our customers. We provide help in every step of the process for their best day.
Speaker 1:You know, I think the ability to take the attention to detail from my law enforcement world and apply it to this world is pretty awesome. My job is to use my skills as a people person and entertainer for years, and at Streamline we know that planning a wedding comes with, say, a million questions, and what's nice is we have all the answers, from the first consultation to the last dance. We're here to make that process seamless and we're here to work with our clients and our customers to just absolutely execute with perfection and flawlessness. We think that celebrations are happen when everybody feels comfortable, and that's what we want to do. So I'm able to take all the stuff that I learned how do you talk to suspects? How do you talk to victims in their lowest moments? How do you give comfort to that child that just lost their parent? It's those skills that I'm able to relate to the wedding world and help execute these people's best day and help them make the absolute best memories, without having a separation from law enforcement. I would have never had the opportunity to spend the time, dedicate the money, dedicate the attention to detail in this world, and it would have been a part of me that I absolutely would have lost and I wouldn't have known what I was missing, but in hindsight, I wouldn't want to miss it for the world, so Streamline. So here's how Streamline got started.
Speaker 1:I started DJing when I was 16 years old. I DJed 16, 17, 18 years old in Alaska. I DJed one year in Arizona. I did a lot of weddings. Uh, that was my world. I played music my whole life. I played drums and sang and all that stuff my whole life. But I've been, I DJed for those years.
Speaker 1:Then I took my entire career off of DJing until the towards the end, and towards the end I hooked up through a series of connections with a guy named Justin Babbitt. Justin Babbitt is an amazing man. He owns Paradox Productions. Paradox Productions is a 20-year DJ company based out of the Portland Oregon area. If I'm unavailable, go to Justin. Justin is awesome. Justin is a veteran. He has a therapy dog. He understands PTSD. He understands my world. I understand his world to a certain extent. We were in different fights. We were in different wars, but we both have the scars from it. We understand each other.
Speaker 1:I hooked up with Justin for about a year and a half. Justin and I did I don't know 30 weddings together or so. He's a very busy company, has lots of people working for him, and it was so awesome. I got to work with him and he worked me through the ropes, and the first time I talked to Justin, I told him what I wanted to do open my own company and he's like come on board, let me show you the ropes, get you back into it and when you're ready to go, I fully support you. And that is exactly what occurred. So in 2023, I opened up Streamline Events and Entertainment. We've been in business 2023, 24, and now into 25.
Speaker 1:During our existence, we've got 29 events that we've done, mostly weddings. 90% of them are weddings. We've got tons of positive reviews. We've made lots of money. It's been a lot of fun and what's cool about this is I get to do this. I'm the only DJ. The band I bring in is my band, but I get to do the weddings with my son, keegan, and Keegan and I will go to weddings and we will knock these things out, which is super cool. You know, there's weddings where we're there for six hours and there's weddings there where we're on scene on the wedding site I guess it's not a scene anymore for 20 hours, just depending on what kind of production people need, and that is what we get to do, and we get to just absolutely make these people's days unforgettable. This is the most epic party. This is the only time in life when this group of friends and family and esteemed guests will be together at the same time, at the same place for the same event, the only time, and we get to help produce that and make that happen, which is super freaking cool. Without having a break from law enforcement, I would have never had the opportunity to experience what Streamline Events and Entertainment is really all about. Events and entertainment is really all about.
Speaker 1:I have grown closer to my family with Keegan, with my daughter Addie, with my wife, with my son Justice. We have all got to grow closer. Over this last two and a half years three years I have forgot a lot of what it was like to be a cop. The shield of armor is down, the walls are down. I'm now more of a human being. My kids have a father they've never met. My wife has a husband. She forgot all about because she thought that 21 years of being a cop had absolutely changed me forever. Little did she know I'm still the funny guy that I was before. She doesn't even you know she, and let me tell you my wife is a very lucky woman. She's a very, very lucky lady.
Speaker 1:But my family gets a part of me. They've never got to see before. I get to see them in a different light. I'm no longer so high strung that I can't experience life. I can let my guard down a little bit. I no longer have to sit with my back to a door those of you who are listening, who are current cops. You're like I would never sit with my back to a door. Get over it, francis. It's going to be okay. There's going to be a day when you can relax a little bit. I promise this world is not here to kill you.
Speaker 1:All the time I've got to get myself into therapy. My family has got into therapy to help deal with the shit that I threw at them for 20 something years and all the problems that we had. And because of me and uh, just my scene, my, my walk of life, my family went through hell just as much as I did. But now we're all becoming better humans because of it, which is cool. I've got to be there for my daughter when she was doing some self-harm stuff and her story is out there. If you want to hear my daughter's story, it's out there, early on, I think, episode four sorry, episode 13,. I talked to my daughter, addie. You get to hear her story, and how, if it wasn't for the moment of clarity and the division and the separation from law enforcement and the critical therapy sessions that I had to deal with certain cases, then I might've missed my daughter in her worst time of life and, quite frankly, guys, I might not have a daughter today. She might've fallen to the the statistics and it was because I had that separation from what I thought I was always supposed to do. You know what? There's a bigger plan, there was a better plan. I just was unaware of it and I got to be there and present for my daughter, which was super, super cool Murders to music. Without this separation, there's no way murders to music, what you're listening to right now, would exist. I started murders to music in June 1st of last year.
Speaker 1:Here's what we've done. We've done 53 releases. That has been a podcast episode every single week and then some extras. I've interviewed 18 different guests in my podcast. Those guests have been all kinds of people. I've interviewed victims of my cases. I've interviewed fathers who have lost their children multiple children unexpectedly. I've interviewed real superheroes. If you remember, the Alaska state trooper. Trooper interviewed him, got involved in four separate shootings, including a shooting at Manly Hot Springs in Alaska. You can check out his episode. Jeff Hall spoke to veterans, spoke to police officers, spoke to pastors the episode where it's called Faith on the Front Lines Faith on the Front Lines is the most epic episode we've had with the most downloads.
Speaker 1:Episode number 26, cops and Christianity, where we tell the dirty truth. That has been the most listened to podcast we've done, talking to war veterans, talking to other musicians, talk to a Hollywood makeup artist who's in my band. This guy literally wrote the book on Hollywood makeup artistry and he talks about his growing up and literally walking in as a child and developing his own career. And when you hear some of the movies that he's been on and the actors that he's worked with Arsenio Hall, the Grinch that Stole Christmas, jim Carrey, all these shows that he's been a major part of Star Trek, all of this stuff you get to hear their stories right here and you get to hear the good and the bad and everything we do. We talk about it from a perspective where you don't have to be a Hollywood makeup artist but you can understand the journey and you can hopefully get something out of it.
Speaker 1:This podcast Murders to Music. We've been very clear that we're going to be open, honest podcast Murders to Music. We've been very clear that we're going to be open, honest, transparent on all of our topics of conversation with mental health, sexual health, healing, the stories that we tell, the passions that we talk about, our victims, everything that we talk about on this show. We do it with transparency and clarity and I think that is the real way we're going to connect. You and I are going to connect sitting across the table, being real, stripping down all that bullshit that we put on like, oh, I'm so much better than you or I'm so much better than you or you know, I can't tell you my problems because you might think poorly of me. Get rid of all that stuff. Listen to Scott Walden, episode number 17, how he went from a career lieutenant and a major police department in Oregon to a complete buffoon, with just a couple words in his career, dissolved in front of him.
Speaker 1:It's that kind of transparency that makes things real, because as human beings, we can truly understand and sink our teeth into the failures of others, because we all fail so much on our own. Sometimes we don't want to believe it. Sometimes we want to think we're Billy Badass and we don't do anything wrong and we never fail, but it's not the case Every single night when we lay down and our eyes close, if you are thinking, man, I have never made a mistake, I've never failed and I'm just a rock solid stud. I'm sorry. Uh, I got a counselor. I can forward you her information, information if you'd like. But you know, you start seeing somebody. That's not the real world we live in everybody and that is what I wanted to get it through, through murders to music.
Speaker 1:I wanted to create a podcast that provide education, value and entertainment every single episode. I wanted a podcast that when you picked it up you knew you were going to get something out of it and it might be a funny story. You know I do this typical Tuesday. You know it's a little short episode. Typical Tuesday is going to be talking about some outlandish thing that occurred that you think there's no way this would ever happen in my city or my community. Yet it's happening every single day. So I tell some stories there about these cases that you know look like they should be written for a Hollywood movie and then all of a sudden, sometimes at the end, they fizzle out, you know, and it becomes just a barking dog, a funny, a story, something to think about, something to ponder, some thought about, and just throw those out there, kind of randomly, you know. And then we have our episodes where we're diving deep into mental health or we're diving deep into successes or passions or whatever it may be. I wanted it to be educational, entertaining and provide value every single time somebody listens, so I hope that's what the listeners are getting out of this single time somebody listens, so I hope that's what the listeners are getting out of this, as, to date, we have about 7,000 downloads total. I am in 30 different countries and 225, 250 different cities. Something like that is how far this reach has had. So I really appreciate all the help you guys have done in sharing this good word and sharing the message of the Murders to Music podcast.
Speaker 1:I also think the podcast has helped me. It's been therapeutic for me at times when I'm having just a really, really shitty day and I need to come forward and say, guys, this is what I'm going through, this is what I'm struggling with. And then you know it's weird, because I'll get these emails or I'll get these phone calls or text messages from people that be like Aaron, I heard your podcast. Hang in there, buddy, Don't sell your motorcycle. Hang in there, it's going to be okay. There's light tomorrow, because not every journey is positive. Not every journey is like man. This is just rainbows and butterflies.
Speaker 1:Sometimes we have those hard days where we feel like we're making progress and then backsliding and you've all been there, I think, and I talk about those things, and then I get the support from the community that I've built, the people that I don't even know, that are reaching out to me and be like Aaron, you got this and thank you. You're helping me in ways you don't understand. When you have a conversation with me at a coffee shop, aaron, you help me in a way that you don't understand. Aaron, when you spoke about your experience as a 13-year-old explorer seeing that dead body, I had the same experience in Ohio and I never told anybody about it because I didn't think they would hear. And now, all of a sudden, you have that same experience. This has messed me up for my career and thank you for bringing this to light for me. I thought I was alone. It's those types of things that fuel this fire and keep this thing going. So thank you, guys. So much for your constant support in this podcast.
Speaker 1:Without the separation of law enforcement, I wouldn't have had the bandwidth or capacity to do what I'm doing now. And as I talk about law enforcement, I think about those people that are still in the job, and there's only a couple people, maybe even one, that I really talk to, and when I talk to her I hear the same thing that I heard when I was in law enforcement. It's the same grind, the same politics, stuck in the same place. You've got your you know union wage raise. Supervisors still don't know what they're doing, still overworked and understaffed, going to court for this, getting torn apart by a defense attorney for that, blah, blah, blah. It's the same stuff that I dealt with for 21 years. They haven't made the progression, they haven't changed their life, the way that my life has been changed over the last two and a half years. So, from when I went for somewhere where I thought I lost my identity, I was nothing and I was useless.
Speaker 1:I think just this podcast alone has allowed me to reflect and ponder and give insight to how much that I've really gained versus how much that I lost. Yes, there was a day I was saving lives and saving murders and solving cases and molested babies, helping them. Maybe that's not what I'm doing today, but that doesn't mean what I'm doing today isn't going to help somebody or do something or move some needle that maybe I am completely snowblind to. Maybe I completely don't even understand what I'm doing right now, but God has got a way of dealing with this whole thing and maybe there is something that's going to come out of this. I just don't know.
Speaker 1:So, wherever I'm at, I've got some clarity, I've got some bandwidth, I've got some openness that I can take things on, I can do things I can process. I can be a husband, a father, a family man, a musician, a streamline events guy, a murders to music guy. I can remember the past that I had, I can remember being a cop, but I can take all the good stuff and help that contribute to make me the man that I am today, moving forward, and I can leave all that bad stuff behind. You know, I just wanted to take a moment. Just want to take a moment to reflect on all the positive that's occurred over the last two years. Moment to reflect on all the positive that's occurred over the last two years and the fact that I get to share every step of the way on a weekly basis with you is amazing. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the Murders to Music podcast.
