Matt is a former player, assistant coach, and serviceman with the United States Army. He now works to help communities improve emergency and social services.
Matt is no stranger to emergency and disaster services. Throughout his career in Military Service, working in hospitals, or now with technologies that improve social services - Matt is an excellent example of a heart full of service during Christmas. He is also familiar with having family members in emergency services, after all his father is Joe Hernandez, USAR subject matter expert and practitioner. Matt talks to us from both sides of the coin, as a son and as a practitioner, providing great advice for us to help others or those that may need an extra helping hand during the holidays.
We talk a lot about football during this episode. Matt is a former player and assistant coach for the US Army football team. He shares insights and examples of how we can deal with crisis mode vs routine mode in disaster.
This Podcast has moved to the Readiness Lab.
Host: John Scardena (0s):
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Host: John Scardena (1 min 41s):
Welcome back to the show, everybody. It's your host, John Scardena. I am very excited for this episode. As you know, Joe Hernandez has been on the show a few times, I think maybe three or four times at this point, he's one of our great friends of our show. I get to go to his USR training that he does with disaster medical solutions. It's phenomenal, I've talked about it on the show, I've had other people on the show, I've had his friends on the show. Now I have a huge honor to have his son on our show, Matt Hernandez, because just like Joe, he's following in his father's footsteps by doing amazing things. I'm really excited to talk to him, Matt, welcome to the show.
Guest: Matt Hernandez (2m 16s):
Hey John, thanks for having me on really excited to be here with you and your audience.
Host: John Scardena (1 min 41s):
Yeah, thanks. I want to talk about Unite Us here in a little bit. This project you're working on or this commitment you're doing with social services, it's really cool. But because it's the Christmas episode, because we're talking about this stuff and our focus is really to help other people, I really want us to focus on that aspect, making sure that all of our listeners, whether they're military first responders, emergency managers or humanitarians, that they know some people out there get it. But before even that, so now we got a third piece. I'm looking at this picture behind you and so for those who are listening to the episode, this is from, I believe what Matt told me is the 2010 Army vs. Navy game. Matt has a kind of a cool experience working on that side because you actually worked as an assistant coach for the Army. Is that right?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (3m 18s):
Yeah, I was a 2008 West Point grad. I played football there four years when I was at West Point. Then, after I graduated, they have this program where they keep some folks back like athletic intern or grad assistants. So I got to coach an additional year after I was there. So it was a pretty neat experience to see things from the other side of the table, put together game plans and mentor some of the guys I used to play with. Really neat experience.
Host: John Scardena (3m 45s):
Okay. So first of all, I didn't know you played too. What position did you play?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (3m 50s):
I used to play defensive end.
Host: John Scardena (3m 52s):
That's awesome.
Guest: Matt Hernandez (3m 54s):
About forty five pounds ago.
Host: John Scardena (3m 56s):
I was going to say you look like you’ve thinned down a bit. You know, last week we had Dan Scott on here with EM student and he talked about emergency management as being the coach of a disaster. He went into kind of his ideas about that. I explained what I thought of emergency management to be as the analyst up there watching the game from below and trying to figure out how to get the ball down the field. As a guy with an actual coaching experience, with actual logistical experience of helping literally the ball moved down the field, whether it's getting the team there or whatever, can you provide at least some of your experiences as a way for our listeners to start spinning the wheels of how emergency services, how they can apply the game of football to possibly emergency services or even social work, that kind of kind of idea?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (4m 54s):
Sure. I mean, I think a lot of it boils down to preparation, right? So I mean, people see the product on a Saturday or Sunday, if someone's playing a football game, obviously if an emergency is taking place and you’re physically trying to help and assist, you're seeing the product as it is, but the preparation that takes and the repetition and the understanding of you have to be an expert in your craft in order to be an expert in those dire situations, right? When your blood pressure's up, when people are relying on you to do your job, if you don't take the proper steps to prepare and to walk through the motions and understand what your role is and what your team's role is, you're not going to be successful. So I think people see you know, that game time scenario and I'd apply the same thing to the military. If you're not training the way you're going to fight or practicing the way you're gonna play or preparing the way you're gonna end up saving, then you're going to be missing. You're not going to be performing the way that you should be when the time is right.
Host: John Scardena (5m 51s):
Yeah. I think this applies also like I said, training, because I've been a part of so many exercises as part of getting ready for a big disaster. Whether it's a hurricane, wildfire, or literally preparing for a nuke where every single exercise from that same training group always was a lightning bolt exercise. Which basically means there was no preparation whatsoever. Like all of a sudden we're in a category five hurricane, like nobody saw this coming for the last five days? Right. And what I've been finding is that going to you know your dad's USR training, their model is phenomenal. I played sports as well, you know, you're not always in the game, right? Like there's skills that could get taught in a slower environment. Then once you're able to apply the skill, then you get put in the scenario, right? In terms of game time versus preparation time, what do you think the ratio of that is?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (6m 55s):
I think it's… I work with a lady and her dad's actually a coach in the NFL and she says, you know, you practice for six days and you play the game on, you know, on a Sunday, right? With the NFL in mind, you're practicing six times more than you're playing. I think that's at a minimum, it's an iterative process. Like you said, like you got to build up on the little things, you got to do little things, right, in order to put everything together. Everything's about preparation. I think it's also just having a plan too, right. So having, having a strategy about how you want to act in a certain scenario. Or how you want things to unfold, there's always variables you can't control. But if you plan for certain scenarios, then you're going to set yourself up for success. One of the things that we did in the military and actually applied this for some emergency management prep when I used to work in the hospital environment was you prepare for the worst thing that can happen and you prepare for the most likely thing to happen.
If you can figure out those two scenarios, you can pretty much figure out anything in between. I liked that. So we use that, we use that application. We used to prepare for emergencies when I worked down in Miami and in the hospital environment. That's what we would do. If we just took that concept, what's the worst thing that happens to make sure we have a plan for that. Then what's most common and we'll be good and figure everything out on the fly. If, as long as we prepare and have the right plan,
Host: John Scardena (8m 8s):
There's a book. I forget the name of the book, but this actually might be the name of the book Crisis Mode Versus Routine Mode. The last chapter in that book talks about those who basically, the way that we'd always looked on the national team was everything. Any situation we went into was crisis mode because the people that were there, the resources were overwhelmed, the game plan wasn't working. So we were specifically called in to fix. We had to take crisis mode to routine mode. The problem with that though, is like, sometimes people get the adrenaline rush in the crisis mode so they think they should stay in crisis mode.
My big pitch is that again, with a lot more training, you should be able to get to routine mode as fast as possible. The flip side is, if this is okay, this is not the year for football for either of us because I'm an Ohio state fan. Yeah. That was painful. Well, you know what? I have a theory on that. It's a conspiracy theory, but I have a theory. Anyways, the problem is when people are in routine mode, but they actually should be in crisis mode. If you're preparing for the worst case scenario and also the most likely scenario, then again, you're going to be able to tell the difference between routine and crisis. So great thoughts there. So what was the final score? I don't want to bring this up, Navy versus Army this year? You got, it was a tough year, right?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (9m 48s):
I try to forget that. Right. I think it was 17-14. So we it's funny, we were underdogs against Air Force. We'd be there for us. Then we were favored to play when we played Navy and we lost the Navy. I mean, those games are just always so competitive. Right? You have a long-standing rivalry, which you understand now. I mean, Ohio State owned Michigan for a long time. And now, you know, Michigan had the last laugh. So.
Host: John Scardena (10m 10s):
Well, just say last laugh, don't say laugh. Okay. First of all…Here's the conspiracy theory, Jim Harbaugh, the guy's a moron. The guys like Tara, look at his record at Michigan. He's done so bad against Ohio State, obviously and against everybody else. But the problem is if they fire Jim Harbaugh, Jimmy, whatever his name is, and they replace him with me, with somebody actually better then it would be harder for us. So I think Ohio State was looking at the cards and saying, okay, are we going to win the championship this year? Probably not. So if we lose to Jimmy and they extend his contract, which Michigan basically just did. Right. We're going to beat them for the next five years and everybody wins. So they got one of six with Jimmy.
We beat them 17 to three.17 years we’ve' beaten them. So I don't know, don't say last lap yet. Fair enough. That is the most that's that's talking about. So when I said routine mode versus crisis mode, I was watching that game. I don't know if this is like the football episode, but I was watching that game and I was like, why aren't they changing the game plan? They were acting as if they were going to win. I see this sometimes with teams and also in emergency services and emergency management. I don't know if you've seen this in the military side where they maybe with the politicians, but they act as if they know they're going to win and they won't update their strategy. Is there advice you can give to people in the field where you're like, okay, how do you know when you're in routine versus crisis and how do you create backup plans?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (11m 48s):
Well, I think it almost tells line of cockiness, overconfidence. Like if you're overly cocky, like that’s where people get hurt, right, or mistakes are made. So, in a football game, you may lose a game or you may make a mistake. If you're talking about emergency management board, military, and you make mistakes, like people can die, right. Or people can get significantly hurt. So I think there's a fine line between being confident and understanding, like we put the preparation in, we've done the right things, we know our job, or we're in the right mindset. Versus like, hey, this is easy, we got this. Like, we've done it a hundred times, that we don't need to focus on what we're doing. Then you lose that attention to detail or that focus that's when you can make mistakes and people can get hurt. So I think you need that constant reminder. I mean, we could go back to the football thing, like Bill Belichick's, right. He always expects you to do your very best. The second that you make any kind of small error, they're gonna critique that and they're gonna find a way to make it better because they don't want people to lose that edge. Right. So you can lose that edge, you're not prepared, that's when mistakes can happen. So I think having leadership understand that, and know that, and instilling that every single time that they need to is important.
Host: John Scardena (12m 48s):
So I find that different people have different personality traits, right? If you're talking about critiquing people, how would you go about critiquing somebody in emergency management? Dude, I can't even get, you're a football player. There's a lot of cocky football players out there. How do you critique somebody who has a lot of experience who thinks they know what they're doing, who is kind of bullheaded at the same time… You know? Because your goal obviously is to help them and help the mission, right. How do you find those lines for yourself?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (13m 25s):
I think like you said personalities are different and so you have to know the folks that are on your team. You know, when I was a second Lieutenant, I get thrown into a platoon, I had a 36 year old platoon Sergeant who had been, he'd been a Marine recon before. So he's been special ops in the Marine side. He had multiple deployments with the army before this guy was way more seasoned. I was book-smart, but I had no field experience and so, you know, I think walking in with some humility and understanding that you know what you know, you also know what you don't know and validating their experience and their understanding is important to level set that mutual respect. But also that you can do a couple of ways. One is, if you just, if there's a standard and you need to follow a standard, then you can talk about what that is. I think another way you can apply it too, is you can always ask them, put the onus on them. Like, what would you have done differently in this scenario? Did it go the way that we thought it was going to go? And if we did not, what would you have done differently? You know, with the experience that you have and sometimes asking them what their opinion is not to say, you'll always do what they recommended moving forward, but validating who they are and understand their experience and giving them a chance to speak about what they could do differently or what we could've done differently sometimes gives them skin in the game and it gives them a reason to want to help the team better. Right? Or just a different approach. Sometimes you can take with those more seasoned folks that have, you know, lots more experience.
Host: John Scardena (14m 40s):
Yeah. That's a mic drop moment. I mean, that's exactly what I would think is the right call. Man, I have so many thoughts on this and I keep wanting to go back to football and we are shaking and go back to football because this is actually pretty fun. What I find is that like, even with myself, I've had to catch myself doing this and you get to people with no experience who are just super passionate, really excited, just want to jump in. They're like, you know, bushy tailed, right? Like this Christmas morning, ah, there you go. Then we have a Christmas proper, it's like Christmas morning, right? You're like, oh, this is what I've been wanting to do. Then they get in there and they get a little bit of experience. The cockiness just shoots way up. What I find with true subject matter experts is that they have all that confidence that they just gained and they have all that experience and they have all that excitement, but they're able to turn it on. I really hate to give this reference. I apologize in advance for all the people who hate this guy. But Tom Brady, I can’t even believe I'm saying this, Tom Brady is a true subject matter expert in his craft. I would say maybe 10 years ago, I was like, I hated the guy. Like he just seemed cocky or whatever, but he's so far into it now that it's like, he lets the game speak for itself. He has all that passion still and he has all that drive. That's a good football pun, you know that's the example of getting to, in terms of how you should act once you're actually there. The problem is there's a huge gulf actually between, I got a little bit experienced and a true subject matter expert. I think it's trying to learn how to manage people in that space. Right? Yeah.
Guest: Matt Hernandez (16m 31s):
It's a good point. Yeah. I'm going to be seeing this new series man in the arena, but it's really awesome. It's about like the journey right from when he was the sixth round draft pick out of Michigan and then all the preparation he put in until he got his moment. I also agree with you. I wasn't a fan of his, I'm a south Florida guy, so I'm a Dolphin fan. Wasn't a fan of the Patriots, but I admire excellence and he's a person that has, he's the best that there is because there's preparation and his attention to detail. Like you said, he's an SME.
Host: John Scardena (16m 58s):
Yeah. I liked that. You got a Meyer excellence. There's a lot of people like that. Your dad's like that for me in the USR perspective for sure. We're going to do one more football analogy cause I really liked this. I gave a presentation to NATO. I was there on their keynote back in September for urban warfare planning. Really fun experience talking to military leaders without emergency services experience and or understanding of how emergency management crisis management in Europe, what it can do for them. It was a fun conversation. The way I broke it out was describing a disaster like chess pieces. I would say, this is my side, this is the other side of the disaster. It kind of walks through that as a guy who played football, do you ever go through? And you're like, okay, that position, that would be this and this position would be that. Do you ever do that?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (17m 55s):
I wouldn't say I use that exact reference. I actually did a training one time when I was a captain in the army and we had to do professional development. What I used was attention to detail. The scenario I did was I broke down a couple of different plays that looked the same, same formation, similar down in distance. A couple of them were run plays, a couple of more play action. It was off the same movement. What I was showing was like, hey, there's a difference in where these guys align both in the backfield and on the line of scrimmage and the initial action, like in the first like two seconds of the play what's happening like one second and two seconds in. So you can see what's happening. It just showed the attention to detail, like understanding what your opponent is going to do in this case. We're talking like the enemy, like your opponent's going to do reading your keys, understanding what you should be doing. And attention to detail matters in combat, it matters in sports and it matters in emergency management too. Understanding getting down to that kind of level, like the expert level, that PhD level of understanding exactly what's happening and breaking them down and then having a plan and then practicing. Right? So I'm seeing it happen in front of me on a screen and now I'm going to go out and emulate what I'm seeing on the field. So I know if this guy was aligned differently, now I'm looking like hey, something is keying me to think that they may be doing what I think they're doing based on what I saw. So I see it, then I practice it and then I execute it. There's a sequence where it's iterative. So I wouldn't say the exactly of like moving pieces in this player was this player. But I have used analogies for football all the time in my work.
Host: John Scardena (19m 27s):
Do you know any pilots? Any chance?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (19m 31s):
Yeah.
Anytime I talked to a pilot, every analogy is about flying every single one. That's how I feel about football players too. At any time I talked to a football player, it's like, oh yeah, it's kind of cool though, that you look at operations as plays and, you know, instead of focusing so much on the players themselves or the positions as the plays of like, what is the objective you're trying to do in that specific play, try to get wins. I actually liked that a lot, in theory.
Guest: Matt Hernandez (19m 60s):
The other thing I say too, just like team sport wise, like, you know, there's other sports out there that people and not to speak. Like I played a lot of sports growing up football, I think is the one sport where you have to rely on every single other person on your team, more than anyone else. Right? Like you have a great basketball player, he could take over the game. Great pitcher, he, or she could take over the game. But in football, yeah. You can have an athlete, but like the lines not blocking or they miss an assignment on the back end. You have to do your job. So it applies in emergency management, or it applies in the military. If you don't have somebody doing their role, then you have a potential catastrophe that can happen. It's really important to be accountable to your peers on doing your role and then also making sure that they're doing their role.
Host: John Scardena (20m 39s):
Unless you're Ezekiel Elliot in the Michigan game in 2018, when you basically put the game on. No, that's a good point. So let's switch gears here for a little bit. I brought up Unite Us earlier, it's a company you work for. Just to for everybody's sake, they didn't pay us for this, but you work there and I was looking it up and I think it's pretty cool, especially because it's like hitting the innovative side of emergency management and especially humanitarian aid. Can you walk through just very briefly about the mission of Unite Us and maybe your own personal story of why you're focusing on emergency management and or helping people?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (21m 28s):
Sure. Our mission is pretty simple as to connect health and social care. We understand that everyone understands clinical care is really important, right? So it's elevating social services and the basic needs, the basic social determinants of health are important in people's lives and how that impacts their overall health. When I got out of the service, I wanted to kind of find something that had mission focus. So when I got out of the army in 2013, I started working in healthcare. It, so I got involved in a hospital system, worked in a couple of hospitals and, you know, like doing, like helping clinicians, take care of patients. I spent another couple of years working on the provider side doing the same thing right now. I'm directly helping clinicians, not for a hospital company, but for a provider focused company.
But I always felt like something was missing. They do great work, but I always thought we could be more proactive about helping people. This is all about driving health into the communities and really bringing health to the people in. Getting people connected to social services like housing and food and transportation, that basic things that keep people healthy, all of that impacts health. The research says 80% of your health happens outside of the clinical setting. So that's what that company's really after. When I realized what the mission they were doing, that I could be more proactive about helping folks that I live next to and, in folks I grew up with, it kind of spoke to my heart and just wanted to jump on and, and be a part of that innovative concept because it's a newer concept part. It's not mainstream yet and so it's been fun.
Host: John Scardena (22m 54s):
Yeah. The fact that you're tracking that progress or all those different activities is huge because like so many people have these touch points with individuals that come in who need services. But to be able to actually track that and track the history of that, especially when they don't have a lot to go on, like there's not a lot to go on for data, especially when you meet them, they don't have that history readily available anyways. The idea that's at least to an organization like Unit Us and the fact that you're going out there and trying to help, that progress. I mean, because that's really what we're talking about is progression for the most vulnerable. That's a mission that I can get behind. That's a mission I think is pretty cool. But let's back up for a second. Obviously, your dad's a pretty famous guy in the USR world with all of his experiences, with urban search and rescue and 9/11 and everything else he's done. Haiti, Oklahoma city bombing, all of that side. Is that why you got in what experiences impacted you and essentially, why are you carrying the banner, carrying the torch there if you will?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (24m 8s):
Yeah. I mean, I think I was blessed to have, you know, a hero dad, right? I mean, you said it, he's done a lot of amazing things in his life and you know, I always saw him helping other people, right. So it's hard for first responders, families like Christmas. He's like sometimes he missed Christmases and birthdays and things like that, but he was helping other people. So as a kid, it's hard to understand that. But as a grownup now, as a father myself, like I understand the sacrifices that some of those guys make, you know, to help other people. There's a story like my daughter, for some reason, loves always hearing stories more so than books where I remember being on a vacation, coming home from vacation with my dad driving. We were coming back, I think from Disney or Bush gardens and there was a bad accident on the highway and so a van in front of us flips multiple times, goes off the highway, skids off into the grass, ends up upside down and it's in like, I wanna say swamp. Right? So it's, it's, it ends up sinking quite a bit into the ground. So my dad, the guy that he is right, goes into crisis mode for a minute and then relies on his training. But he was like, I think I was about 13 at the time he slammed on the brakes, pulls the car over and says, Matt let's go. I'm in the car with my mom, my brother and my sister, but on the, you know, the biggest one of the group. I remember like we had just spent time buying new clothes for school.
I had new shoes on and, you know, silly young immature of me was like, what? My shoes are gonna get ruined. He's like, I'll buy you new ones. So we've run off into the end of the couple hundred yards into the embankment and there's cars. This van is upside down and there's two older, an older couple hanging from their seatbelts. So he walks me through and we get them down safely and then rescue comes and, thank God those people were fine. They had cuts and bruises and we're crying and we're afraid. But when I saw him go into mode like that, and, you know, I spent a couple of times riding with him and his crew as a young man. I was in high school when 9/11 happened. I was in 10th grade and I just, you know, he always said like, just look at the people that are going to help. That’s always resonated with me. So I took a different route by going, you know, in the military, but service was always something I saw growing up, something I respected and wanted to be a part of. I mean, I think he absolutely is an inspiration for what I decided to do.
Host: John Scardena (26m 31s):
Yeah, that's a pretty incredible for both him and you and I hope he did replace your shoes.
Guest: Matt Hernandez (26m 37s):
Yeah, I think he did, but, you know, and I tell my daughter that story all the time, she's like, tell me the story about Papa and you helping people because I think she's got that bug too, which I hope she does. That'd be cool if she does, she's four and a half, but I always saw him helping and, and it resonated with me. It's, you know, it's always stuck with me.
Host: John Scardena (26m 55s):
It's pretty incredible for you specifically too. You called it out right with family members who are in emergency services and for those of us who have good deployed to disasters, right. Then like, you're just gone. There were several years in my marriage that I'd get a phone call and two hours later I'd be gone. I wouldn't know I was coming home and I wouldn't come home for months. So like he, there's a taxation that puts on your family because of that. So the fact that you specifically were able to say, okay, there's greater good out here is a big deal, especially because he had to have been gone all the time between local and national stuff. Your military service, 9/11 obviously was an indicator for military service, right?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (27m 47s):
Yeah, absolutely.
Host: John Scardena (27m 48s):
Yeah. It was a major drive for me as well because of some health stuff I can't serve in the military. So I was like, okay, like what can I, what can I do? I kind of found humanitarian aid slash emergency management and talk about impacting an entire generation of a leader essentially through something that was so horrible and horrible at the moment and still horrible now. It's driven people like yourself to do good in the world and now you're working on helping the most vulnerable populations. I think that's kind of a Christmas message in itself, there's hard days and there's hard moments, but good can come and Goodwill come. Right. I think that's kind of the message I subscribed for, I choose to believe in. Do you have a similar mantra for yourself or how do you look at it?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (28m 47s):
Yeah, I've always said they can always get worse. I mean, I don't know if that's the most positive thing in the world. I think there's a silver lining.
Host: John Scardena (28m 55s):
You should be the emergency manager just for that one phrase.
Guest: Matt Hernandez (28m 58s):
Everyone goes through hard times. I don't think anyone, regardless of where you were born or what's in your bank account or what you do, everyone is going to experience hard times. But I think there, there are silver linings in, in situations. I think finding your tribe, I think social isolation kills people, right? So social isolation is a really bad thing. Finding your tribe that can help you process things is important. Right? I think there's a good camaraderie around the first responders, cause they're always together, right? They work together sometimes, you know, if you're on a fire or EMS side, you're together for a long time. Sometimes it's also getting those families to interact with each other so they can understand what that shared burden looks like.
Because you know, if you're not married to a first responder or you're not the child, the first one, or you don't really know what that feels like, why is my dad not there? Why's my mom not there? Why is my spouse not there? I think giving people a chance to fellowship with each other and have that shared, you know, struggle is important because then they can relate to what you're going through. I think he said there's still a silver lining and you can find one in every situation if you look in the right place. I think there's something to be said about gratitude and understanding. Like, I'm glad my dad is one of those people that wanted to go help people and be out there when other people didn't. I think having a tribe around you is important to, you know, help you get through those times when you do have the downs and there's the ups and the downs that comes with it. But you know, I think having folks around you is important.
Host: John Scardena (30m 29s):
Yeah and you bring up a social isolation, how like dangerous that is. One problem when people are in either a personal crisis or a catastrophic disaster is it's hard for them to see beyond the fence. I've shared a story about a hurricane before. So I won't share that one because I've been called out for sharing the same stories. I'm a dad, so that's the problem. But you know, what was it a year ago? We had a major wind event when I lived in California and it took out the power out of our neighborhood for five days, except for 10% of the neighborhood. As a guy who likes to do analytics and GIS. We live in that 10% of the neighborhood that was fine. But we'd go visit some friends and you would think that they were in a war zone. I say that respectively of the guy, who's actually probably been to a war zone, but they think it's so hard. They could walk three blocks over and just come into our house and be fine. I think that the message with social isolation distance is real. If you go far enough, you will get out of the storm. That might take professional help if you're in a personal thing that might take finding a group, that might take checking out a vacation spot, that might take moving, literally moving, but you can get out of a storm. It is possible. Right. I think that's the message that we're both sharing today. What would be your final thoughts to either a family member or a responder who is kind of feeling like they're in that isolation mode themselves or that, that crisis mode themselves?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (32m 18s):
I think I used to tell folks, I still say this to this day, because I still have, I still communicate a lot with the guys I served with. I feel like people that are those helpers, which we're talking about, they have a sense of purpose with what they're doing on their day job. When they're not actively doing that sometimes and if you are alone, those two things when you're not feeling that purpose and you're kind of on your own is when you can get in trouble. Right? I think there's a couple of ways that you can help bridge that gap. You can volunteer, go to church, you can help in a toy drive, help out a food bank. There's a lot of opportunities to get out and give back. You could do something nice for your neighbor. Like something that you can do to spark that feeling of gratification and purpose I think it helped get you out of that dark spot. Being alone in your home by yourself as is, is not a safe place to be if you're in that scenario. Then I think too, it's like if you know folks that are alone or that may be alone, this holiday season, reach out and offer them to come over for lunch or for dinner or, you know, to partake in whatever your family is doing. Extend that hand out there. Don't take no for an answer. If you think there's an opportunity there to help somebody because holidays are tough, right. I mean, COVID might be back again, right? Everyone's got this hysteria going on and it's been a rough couple of two years. I think just, you know, extending that reach to help other people is important. Also trying to find that purpose of helping others, I think also allows you to feel important and I get that satisfying gratification by helping other people.
Host: John Scardena (33m 55s):
I think that's a message that I think we can all get behind on one last Christmas reference for ya, you know, Christmas cookies and Santa being a football guy. Do you know how to make Michigan cookies by any chance?
Guest: Matt Hernandez (34m 12s):
I don't even know what those are.
Host: John Scardena (34m 13s):
Oh yeah. Well the outcome is they're pretty gross, but you just put them in a bowl and beat them for three hours, which I'm very excited about. But yeah. Thank you. Also, if a Michigan fan knocks on your door or you should pay him for the pizza and see him on his way. I got lots of this. Seriously though, now obviously I do with motion really well, great message. Great call-out it is the, the Christmas message or the holiday message to, if you're doing fine to help out somebody else. If you're not doing fine, go find that help. There is help out there, it's real. Hopefully people got a little bit of an uplifting message they should have from this episode alone. Matt, thanks so much for coming on and talking to me today and talking about football. That's awesome.
Guest: Matt Hernandez (35m 5s):
Yeah No problem. Pleasure to be on.
Host: John Scardena (35m 6s):
Everybody if you liked this episode, which you should have, here's the shameless plug that we do every time you have to give us a five-star rating and subscribe. If you are trying to find ways to either give back, we have relationships with lots of different companies and organizations, nonprofits like the salvation army, Patrick Muggins, but on that, but on our show a few times we can help you out, point you in directions. If you have questions, if you are feeling alone, please reach out, tell us on social media. We can try to point you to a group, or if you don't want to tell us on social media, you can send us an email at info@dobermanemg.com and we will connect you with somebody. We don't want anybody to feel alone right now, especially during the time of giving and giving back as Matt has been calling out. So make sure you do that with us and we'll see you next week.