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)
Snapshot: When a Stranger Sees Your Potential Before You Do
Life's turning points often appear in the most unexpected places. For me, it happened on a church staircase in February 2022 when a simple "How's work going?" opened the floodgates to my darkest thoughts. After 21 years as a homicide detective, I was drowning—diagnosed with PTSD I refused to acknowledge, working 150-hour weeks, sleeping only 3-4 hours between nightmares, and seeing no way out of the darkness.
What makes this story remarkable isn't just my vulnerability in that moment, but how Chris recognized valuable skills buried beneath my despair. While I saw a broken detective who could only work with "the darkness and depravity of humanity," he saw a relationship builder, a systems manager, and someone who could translate complex information for others. When he suggested commercial plumbing sales, I laughed. But his persistence and willingness to help me rebuild, even offering to wait months until I could leave law enforcement, changed everything.
The transition from investigating murders to selling water closet carriers and roof drains might sound strange, but it became my path to healing. This experience taught me that our skills often have applications beyond what we can imagine, and sometimes it takes someone else to see our potential. If you're feeling trapped in your current career or circumstances, remember this: you have transferable skills and talents waiting to be recognized. All it might take is one person willing to see past your current situation to the possibilities that lie beyond. What hidden potential might someone see in you that you've overlooked?
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This is a Murders to Music Snapshot 10 minutes of a story, some kind of connection, something to keep you entertained throughout the week. Hopefully you enjoy what I'm about to say. You know I spoke about this story on another one of my podcasts, but I spoke about it briefly. I just want to jump into it, share a little bit of details, and that is how I came to my current position.
Speaker 1:There are people out there that we run into every single day and we never know the impact that they can have in our lives. We never know. We see them, we pass. We don't know a whole lot about them. We know their name, we know a little bit of their history, but we don't have a lot of details and we never know when one of those people could absolutely change the trajectory of our lives. One of those people could absolutely change the trajectory of our lives.
Speaker 1:So it's 2022 February. I've come out of law enforcement. I've got told I have PTSD. I've told them they they're stupid and I don't. Uh, they were right. I was wrong.
Speaker 1:I am very upset with life. I'm very depressed. Um, my son is in the hospital with a medical condition. I am hating life. I'm very depressed. My son is in the hospital with a medical condition. I am hating life. I need to get back to work and solve murders and homicides. But I probably never go back to work and I recognize that now I'm in a really, really rough place. I am not in the place to be well what would consider friendly.
Speaker 1:So I'm coming down the chair stairs at church one day and, uh, behind me I hear a voice and there's a guy that I go to church with that I don't know a whole lot about. He is a guy that um will ask me about my motorcycle occasionally, and other than that, it's a smile and a wave. So he's coming. I'm coming down the stairs and I hear a voice behind me hey Aaron. It's a smile and a wave, so he's coming. I'm coming down the stairs and I hear a voice behind me hey Aaron, how's work going? And I am not in the mood to talk about work. My work is likely over as I know it and I turn around and it's a guy named Chris and Chris says hey man, how's work? I'm like you really want to know Chris. He's like yeah, I'm like it's going shitty. He's like well, how come? I said well, let's see, I've been there 21 years at this point, uh, I.
Speaker 1:Every day I work with the darkness and the depravity of humanity. Every day is another dead body or a raped baby. I have more cases than I can handle. I'm juggling eight or 10 homicides. Right now I'm working. You know, the last four months I've had four days off. I've worked an average of 150 hours a week.
Speaker 1:I let's see what else. I'm depressed. I've been suicidal. I am getting chased through my dreams at night by things that I can't see. Every single night I get about three or four hours of sleep because I wake up in nightmares and terrors and tremors.
Speaker 1:All I know how to do is be a homicide cop. I've been praying for years to get out of this position, find something that will give me similar pay and similar vacation where I can be with my family, but I don't have to deal with the death and depravity of humanity. Every single day that I go to work is somebody else's worst day. Chris, that is my day. I said you know, it absolutely sucks. He's like well, what is it that you do? And I said I'm a homicide detective. He's like yeah, but what does that mean? I said well, I lead homicide investigations. I manage people. I said there's been times that I've managed up to 250 different cops at a time. I got multiple crime scenes, multiple search warrants. I run systems, chris. I make sure that this system is interacting with this system so, at the end of the day, we can have a successful prosecution.
Speaker 1:I said I may be thinking and asking questions today that are going to close loopholes 10 years down the road, chris. I said I do people, I do interviews, I interview suspects, I interview witnesses. I said I, I, I do interviews, I interview suspects, I interview witnesses. I said I bring all these pieces together and if other people can't do it or if I don't have faith in them do it, then I have to do it myself, because we don't get a chance to fail. We don't get to fail when we're dealing with a dead body or a broken baby. We don't get a chance to half-ass it. So therefore, if my people can't cut it, I have.
Speaker 1:And he's like do you interview people? Tell me about that. I said I go in and interview everybody. I said I interview suspects, interview witnesses, I interview children, I interview you know whoever? And I said, ultimately, I want to get their information, elicit their information, I want to hear what they have to say and help solve their problem, whether they're on the victim side of the thing or the suspect side of the fence. That's what I do and I'm talking like this. I'm excited, I'm passionate, I'm angry, I'm frustrated. And he's like you ever thought about sales? And I'm like no, chris. I said sales, no, salesmen are greasy, not interested in being a greasy car salesman. He's like hold on a second. He's like what if sales didn't look like being a greasy car salesman? He said what if sales looked like entertaining, educating adults, training them on our stuff? And at the end of the day they'll come to you because you have the stuff that they need to buy. But in the meantime you've built that relationship. So when they have that choice to go to person a or person B, they're going to choose person a because of the relationship that you've spent time cultivating. It means dinners, it means drinks, it means maybe baseball games or golf outings or whatever it may be. And I said well, I can do relationships, chris. I said I bring you know murder suspects and child molesters into an interview room. I interview them. They confess to everything. They feel good about it. At the end of the day they thank me for doing my job and they shake my hand before they go off to prison for the rest of their life. I said I can build relationships with people, I can talk to people.
Speaker 1:He's like well, why don't you come to my office and I want to just show you what we do? He's like come on Wednesday. So on Wednesday I went to the office and when I got there he's like Aaron, here's the deal. I want to show you what we do and I want to show you some of the stuff that we work in and the field that we work in. He says second, I want to help you write a resume and a cover letter to help you translate your law enforcement stuff into a corporate world. And third, if this doesn't seem like a place where you might be able to call home, I want to put you in contact with somebody in the corporate world where you can find somewhere outside of law enforcement if you're interested. And I'm like all right, let's see what we got. He's like well, we do. Commercial plumbing rep agency. We're a commercial plumbing rep agency. He says so we don't sell stuff. He says we educate and train and the product knowledge experts on all of the stuff that are factories. And he said, in fact, come, look at us, let's go walk.
Speaker 1:So we went for a walk in the warehouse and he showed me a water closet carrier. For those of you who don't know, when you go into any public restroom and the toilet is off of the floor, there's got to be something holding that in place. That's the water closet carrier. That's inside of the walls and four bolts come out of the wall. You hook your toilet up to it and that's what gets it off the floor.
Speaker 1:So he showed me a water closet carrier. Sounds captivating, doesn't it? That's what I thought. Then he shows me a roof drain. That is a drain. That guess what gets all the water off the roof. Yep, it's just that simple. And then he showed me another valve system and he's like what do you think? I'm like super cool, chris, super cool. I said you know interesting? I said I solve murders, right, you know interesting. I said I solve murders, right. So he's like why don't we go to lunch? So we went to lunch and we grabbed another guy out of the office named Tom and, uh, we go to the, we go to lunch and we sit down and they're asking a bunch of questions and I am so high strung I don't realize that this is an interview. And uh, they're asking me these questions. I'm answering them, I'm telling them what we do. I'm going a hundred miles an hour. My blood pressure's up because that's just the way that I am. And, um, you know, and uh, so we go through this whole thing. They thank me for my time. I move on with life.
Speaker 1:So then a few months later, I get a phone call from Chris and he's like hey, he said, uh, I've got a, you know, a guy's coming to town to do a presentation. I just want you to come sit in and watch. I'm like all right, so I go down. I got nothing else going on, remember, I'm on a medical leave. So I go down, I watch this presentation and it's on Sloan valves. You know, same toilet, that thing that you flush every time, that you know thing looks like a mushroom with a handle on the side. That's a flushometer. So that's what the guy was talking about. So we talk about the Sloan valves. I hear it. I'm like, okay, that's actually kind of cool. There's some science behind that. There's some flow dynamics and physics and stuff like that. That's, that's actually kind of cool.
Speaker 1:So I'm starting to get in a little bit more than, uh, he sends me home. You know we had continued to have these conversations and about six months, in seven months in, he's like I, you know, he said we have a job we'd like to offer you. Well, I'm still out on medical leave and I can't accept another position. But he offers a job job offer, comes in and I'm like, well, I can't accept it right now. He's like, well, let's push it out a few months. So we push it out a few months. A few months come and goes. I'm still not in a position. Push it out a few more months. A few months comes and goes, still not in a position.
Speaker 1:So by this time, you know, we're getting close to that one year mark, something like that. And he says hey, aaron. He says you know as much as I would love to have you come and work for us. He said we need to fill this position, you know, and it's unfortunate that you're not in a position. You can accept it. Um, but we need to fill the position. And uh, we're going to have to move on without you. He says but you know, if something comes up in the future. We're going to keep you in mind. I'm like all right, that's cool. I I totally get it. Thank you for you know your time and attention so far.
Speaker 1:Uh, the last year, I can see myself doing something different. I understand how the building relationships would work. Um, you know, I don't know anything about commercial plumbing, right, it's like speaking Greek. I don't know this, but I can probably learn it and that's kind of where my mind is. So we have this conversation. They're going to move on without me.
Speaker 1:Well, the next day I get a another I job offer. The title of the position has changed slightly and, uh, I had talked to Chris and I'm like man, I'm really shocked to see this. He says, well, we want you. He says, you know, so we're willing to wait for you. And, uh, that spoke volumes right there in that moment.
Speaker 1:They saw something in me in that time that I didn't and I said, well, how about we do this, chris? How about I come to work for you, uh, as an intern in January, and I intern until I'm ready to leave the police department or can leave the police department of the city, and then, when that happens, I'll come on payroll and uh, if it, if everything's working out, he's like all right. So I started interning in January and then April 5th which, by the way, was yesterday I'm recording this on April 6th. On April 5th I went in and signed my paperwork, left the police department and started that day with Brayley Gray. So I interned there for several months and I got my feet wet. I kind of understood a little bit about what it was and then, you know, started on the payroll. So that is the path to how I got from where I was to my transition into that corporate world, and the path was great.
Speaker 1:But the whole thing boils down to somebody that saw something in you, somebody that saw something in me that I couldn't see. They saw the skills, they saw the potential that I had and they developed me and that was really really cool. You know, so often we think that we are stuck wherever we are. We are stuck in this path that we're on or in this valley that we're in, because we know nothing else. You got skills. You just need somebody out there, like Chris, that is willing to see them, help you develop them and put you on a path of healing. I'm so thankful for Brayley Gray. I'm thankful for the situation that I'm in and I'm thankful for the potential that Chris saw in me that day on the staircase when I vomited all of my frustrations to him. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a murders to music snapshot.
