Connections! in SW Florida - Featuring David Russell with Smoke Detector Medic

Good morning, Southwest Florida, and those near and far joining us on Connections in Southwest Florida. Good morning, David.

Good morning, Renee.

David, I wore my, my signature pineapples for you today.

So that's awesome. I see that next to your name also. It looks fantastic.

My oldest daughter bought these for me, so that just means that we're going to have a spectacular interview today because I wore my special earrings for you. Well, just real quick before we jump into a more exhaustive introduction into David, I wanted to share these Connections in Southwest Florida interviews are completely voluntary. I don't collect any money for them, and my whole purpose in starting them was about connecting local people with local businesses. Because we are so blessed in Southwest Florida to have a diverse array of entrepreneurs and businesses here. We're not a town— one of the things that occurred to me when I moved to Naples proper is, yes, we have some chain outfits, but we, more than any place I've ever lived, and I've lived a lot of them, we have a lot of locally owned businesses. And when COVID hit and I watched people have to close their physical doors to their businesses for a period of time, I thought, what better way to be able to keep the businesses connected with potential and current customers than to come into their homes, because we all know people are on their devices and their TVs during this COVID situation. So that was the whole premise for starting these connections in Southwest Florida. And I specifically have just been honored to get to meet so many people like you, David, who have just inspired me. So with that, David, what I'd like to do is before we get into the business side, I'd love the audience to learn a little bit more about you and even your partner, David.

Yeah. Oh, thank you, Renee. We appreciate it. We appreciate the opportunity to present ourselves in this limelight with these tough situations in today's society. Myself, my name's David Russell. I'm one of the owners of Smoke Detector Medic. We started this business along with David Ludbaum. He's unfortunately on his way here. Hopefully he'll show up. And we started this 4 years ago in reference to smoke detectors or smoke alarms in residential homes. And, you know, I'm a 32-year veteran in the fire service and seen a lot and experienced a lot. And, you know, we kind of came about this in, you know, myself as having an emergency management background. And my business partner also having that background and being a firefighter, we kind of, you know, felt that this was kind of the right opportunity to lead into this kind of business. For myself, you know, I'm getting close to retirement, I'm trying to retire. And I needed another avenue to explore as I start leading out of my career. And, you know, with my kids being older, I needed something else to kind of lead into and kind of hopefully build this business. And hopefully this will be my second, in a sense, second way of doing things.

I was going to say, because you said retirement, David, and then you started a business. So I like how you retire.

Well, yeah.

Well, and yeah. Before we get into more of the business side, I did want to take a moment to thank you and the other David for your service. I know especially, and I don't want to get off into a tangent, but in light of all of the charged passion out on public display right now around some of the public servancy, I just want to say thank you so much for all that you guys do. I know It's a demanding job, so your day job, you've got a couple of them, and I wanted to publicly acknowledge, thank you so much, because without individuals like yourself and David, you know, I'm not sure what all of us would do to be able to live in peace and comfort in our homes. So thank you so much for that.

Well, thank you, Renee. We appreciate it. You know, it's almost a, you know, in a sense, a thankless job, but, you know, in today's society and with what's going on currently with the pandemics and now with the other situation with you know, people peacefully protesting. It's— we just got to be very aware of our situations and our surroundings now going into hurricane season. And it's one of those things that just adds up and adds up. And again, it's, it's, it's a, it's a job. It's a very rewarding career in a sense for me. I've seen a lot, experienced a lot. And it's just one of those things that I don't know what else I can do. Short of being a public servant.

Well, I appreciate the world is much better with you guys in it. And you're right, not only did we have COVID and then we've got some of the, as you talked about, peaceful protesting. Now we're on the brink of hurricane season. So you guys aren't going to get to catch your breath.

No, no. And unfortunately, you know, and I kind of, I bring it upon myself though. I'm also a logistics manager for our Florida Task Force USAR team, which is an urban search and rescue team locally here. For the state of Florida. So, uh, you know, I, I kind of stay busy.

So David, the most pressing question before we get into the business is, when do you sleep?

Um, I actually got a good night's sleep last night, so it was welcomed.

Good, good. The one thing I did want to ask you personally before we move on, you, David, and David, where are you guys from? How long have you been in Naples or Estero or Fort Myers? I'm not sure where you, um,, you know, where you spend your time?

You know, I spend— I'm originally from Toronto, Canada, so, and I've been down here since 1980, so I don't know if you consider me like a Floridian since I've been down here so long. But, um, and my partner Dave, he's from Minnesota, so, uh, and he's been down here, uh, I think at least 10 years, I believe. So, and again, he's from He's also a former Everblades player, by the way.

Ah, well, that would be fitting given that hockey is so big in Minnesota. But that's a big change from Minnesota weather to come down to Southwest Florida. So yeah, by about 10 years, he's probably just getting used to it, I'm sure.

Yeah, yeah, he's, he, he puts his, his warmer attire on in the station. I'm like, are you kidding me? You're from Minnesota.

I love it. Well, David, you talked a little bit about your backgrounds and how that was a nice segue, but talk to us, you know, around the, you know, the inspiration for when you guys started your business and coming together as two professionals to create this really kind of a new space. And then we'll, you know, get into giving an overview of the services that you provide.

Well, you know, we came across this, Renee. It just was one of those fluke things. Every time we went to a resident in our local fire district, the first question they would ask is, well, who do we call? Every time somebody would call and have, you know, call the fire department in reference to having a problem with their smoke alarms, they would call us and then we would go there and, you know, mitigate the situation. And then they would ask us, well, 'Who do we call to get this fixed or replaced?' And we didn't have an avenue short of a handyman or electrician. And so we didn't really have a direct outlet. Not that we can promote one business more than another, but driving back from one of those 'who do you call' situations, you know, I came across and said, you know, I bet we can turn this into a small company. And here we are 4 years later, doing it. And it's funny because the guys at the firehouse were kind of, in a sense, laughing at us and saying it'll never work. And I've had some apologies in the past and said, I can't believe you guys are where you're at today. So that's how we kind of came about. And, you know, knowing the need for that type of service, it was— it's like a niche. It's, uh, we're filling that little bit of a niche in We have clients that have got ceilings that are 20 and 30 feet in, you know, in height, uh, and not the average homeowner can get to them. So we've kind of filled that, that whole, um, need for that type of service, uh, and that's all we do is just smoke alarms, residential smoke alarms, and we'll do, um, multiplexes, uh, and, um, and large homes. So Even all the way down to the small homes.

Well, and I don't know if a lot of people know this, and I'm, you know, I'll go out on a limb and make myself look like an idiot, but I don't know that people realize that smoke detectors have expiration dates.

They do.

I don't know if they all do, but I know that some of them do because I know I've lived in homes that went far beyond that.

Yes, ma'am, they do. You know, the manufacturer always recommends, along with the National Fire Protection Agency, who sets the standards for fire protection, always recommend change your smoke alarms every 10 10 years. And the reason being is that sensor inside, it's a— has a, an invisible beam. It's a negative and a positive ion, and it creates an invisible beam, and that, that does wear out over time. So that's why they always recommend every 10 years. So for an example, you may have power going to it, and you may have a light that goes to it, and you may push the button, and it still may sound off, but that doesn't mean that that sensor is actually working correctly. So that's why they always recommend— yeah, that's why they always recommend to change them every 10 years. So that's kind of one of our biggest pushes, and they're stamped on the back of them. So if anybody ever asks us, well, how old are your smoke alarms? We can always show you on the back. They're stamped on the back of how old, when they were manufactured, month, day, and the year that they were manufactured.

So, you know, I love, David, that you and Dave have taken your expertise in responding to potential threats or actual fires, and now gotten into really the prevention side of that. So David, in terms of services, do you do— I'm, you know, and you tell me, do you do any kind of audits? Meaning if somebody was newer to a home and they just wanted to make sure that they had appropriate fire and smoke prevention, do you do that or do you just do service calls where there's a problem. Talk to me a little bit about the services you guys do.

Well, we do, we do both. So we will come to an organized— we'll come to a, um, a community, uh, on request and do free seminar type deals where we'll come and speak to you. We have a 15-minute presentation, a PowerPoint presentation, and we, we answer all the questions. Why, why did they go off in the middle of the night? Why do they do this? Why do they do that? So we answer all those questions for those that, that maybe not so versed on them. Uh, listen, when we buy homes, nobody sits there and tells you, uh, this is how they work and this is why they do what they do. They just— it's out of sight, out of mind until you have a problem with them. Um, and that's what we kind of deal with. So we're, we're dealing with more of the issues. But again, we'll come in and do a presentation free of charge, to any organization. And it's just more of an educational thing. We based our company off education. We said that from day one, and we'll continue to do it today. I'd much rather educate the public and our business will fall behind it.

That's very true. And you're right, it is one of those things that's out of sight, out of mind. We just take it for granted. My husband and I recently renovated a home, and we were just you know, and how often do you look up at your ceilings, right? We're looking around and I'm like, you know what? There's not smoke detectors anywhere in this main area. We've got one in the bedrooms, which is good. So that helps if anything happens at night, but who knows how long it had been like that. Nobody really thought about it. So, you know, it's one of those things you don't need them until you need them, right?

Yeah, we call them necessary evils in a sense. You don't like when they give you problems, but yet, You hope they work when they— when you need it. You know, 3 out of 5 fire-related deaths, even in today's society, is still due to non-working, non-functional smoke alarms. And that's due to lack of batteries, pulling off the ceilings because somebody doesn't know how to deal with them. So we still have a huge issue even in today's society. You know, and then some people I hear— I hear customers say, well, there's way too many in the house. Well, we don't design those. We don't do it. We don't do new installation. We only simply service and replace what's currently existing. And, um, you know, the laws have changed over the years, and people today say, well, I don't have gas appliances in my house. But, uh, in the 2008, 2007, 2008, the laws changed to have a carbon monoxide within 10 feet of every sleeping quarters and near the garage because you still have a running vehicle. People do bring their vehicles into their garage, they're still running, shut the door, and 30 minutes later they feel, uh, sick, nauseous. They're calling 911, uh, and because they forgot their car's still running in the garage. So that's why those, those laws have been placed into service, uh, and that's why it's required to have carbon monoxide/smoke alarms, uh, within your 10 feet of your sleeping, um, you know, quarters, because that is your silent killer, is your carbon monoxide.

Well, and that was— that leads me to another question because I was, you know, initially we were talking about smoke detectors and I understand there's some that are combined and sometimes they're separate. So you guys work with both smoke detectors and carbon monoxide?

Yeah.

Yeah. And people don't know whether they, you know, so I'll, again, I'll use myself. I'm in a house that I moved into in October. I have detectors. I have a gas stove. I don't know if my detectors have carbon monoxide detection on them or if they're just strictly smoke detectors, and my home was built a number of years ago before some of these things. Do you— is that something that you could also do as a service if somebody said, hey, look, I just want to know if I have the right equipment?

Yep. And that's something we do provide. And, you know, because again, we— I've gone to some residents where they've got gas appliances but have no protection for carbon monoxide. So again, we're educators. I'd much rather educate and give you the proper information versus try to sell you something that you don't necessarily need. So, you know, and when it goes back to the 10-year mark on these smoke alarms, if we can get a couple more years out of them before they have to be replaced, I'd rather do that than try to, again, going back and trying to sell something you don't necessarily need today. So I'd much rather keep you as a long-term customer and do a preventative maintenance every year because we do provide that. Preventive maintenance every year. We'll come and change your batteries and blow them out, make sure there's no dust or bugs inside them, and then make sure that they're functioning correctly. So we do offer that service also.

Well, and, and you mentioned earlier about people, you know, detaching them. I, when I go into show houses, I can't tell you how many times people have taken the whole unit off or they've unplugged the batteries. And, and it kind of goes like if your heart starts giving you chest pain, are you just going to try to unplug it because you don't want to know? If it's doing something annoying, that probably means it's not working properly, and that's when it's time to call David and Dave.

Yes, absolutely.

Rather than unplug it and put yourself at risk for, you know, something that could be avoidable.

You know, and a lot of folks don't want to necessarily deal with them in a sense, and that's what they do is they'll take them down. Um, but keep in mind, as a homeowner, you have the right to do that. There's nobody that's going to govern you that. But when you do sell a house, you have to have them installed, or they have to be there. Um, and it's unfortunate that people just rather just not deal with them and take them down. But now you're taking your chances of possibly losing your life or your loved one's lives. So that's unfortunate. But again, we go back to the educational part of it.

Well, and I've heard of situations, I don't know if it's myth or truth, I've heard of situations where people have removed them and then when there was a problem, their insurance company wouldn't cover it because they had taken out the preventative means to stop the fire from causing as much damage as it did. I don't know if you've heard that or can dispel whether that's myth or truth, but I've actually heard that.

There's some, there is some truth to that. Yes, there is. Because if the insurance company comes in and doesn't do the investigation, there is a bit of truth behind that. If they don't have life safety, uh, you know, standards in place, um, they could possibly deny that, that claim. Um, and again, I go back to the statistics from the National Fire Protection Agency who sets those standards. And, you know, still today that the 3 out of the 5 fire-related deaths are still due to non-functioning smoke alarms. So again, as a firefighter, I— again, going back to the education part, we have to really kind of educate the public to understand why they do what they do. And I'm not trying to boost my company, but I'm boosting education. So again, that's our PowerPoint presentation, is answering all the questions. Why did they do this? Why did they do that? And we answer those questions.

Well, David, I'll go on a limb and say, I would think that intellectually most people would agree that we'd rather meet you on the front end of that prevention than on the back end when you're in your capacity with your firefighting uniform on and you're there because there's a problem.

So, well, you know, the other thing too, Renee, is what we've learned too is, you know, even it doesn't even have to necessarily be a fire. You know, ladder-related injuries or deaths are up there too. I've got some, a few clients that have had some injuries due to climbing ladders and they just don't feel comfortable on them. Some people just don't feel comfortable on ladders at all. And, you know, so we kind of fill that void too. And I see both sides of the coin just for the fact that I've gone to homes where they've fallen off a ladder and then I see the other side of it where I've gone and serviced their smoke alarms because of a ladder incident. So we get, we get it. We understand the need for that type of service. And as, as we age, obviously our height restrictions get less and less.

Yeah. Equilibrium starts to get a little bit off. That's an excellent point because you're right. We've been, I've been focusing more on, you know, trying to avoid something later with a fire, but there's other reasons that people would want to have smoke detector medic out, which is just, to not have to put themselves at risk to do what maybe they know needs to be done. They don't have to be convinced, but they're not comfortable being the one to do it.

Right. And again, I've had clients that stated that I just don't get on ladders, you know? So we kind of try to, again, and reassure our public in, we service all Lee and Collier County. And we try to reassure that there is the avenue out there for these types of issues. And we're just trying to get the name out there more than anything else. And again, we'll come and do a presentation for free of charge. So if anybody's interested in that for their community, we'll be, you know, they can give it, give us a call and we'll be more than happy to do that for them.

Great. Well, David, if people are kind of sitting back thinking, wow, this might be a service that I could see myself using, when, how do you do quotes for the price of your service? Is it by number of detectors? Is it by number of rooms? Do you have a flat rate? Tell us a little bit about so that people can, you know, start to wrap their head around what something like that might price out to be.

We have, uh, we have a standard service charge to come out, and then if we do, uh, replacements, they're per unit. And then if we do, um, cleanings and inspections and, uh, changing the batteries, blowing them out, make sure that they're functioning correctly, that's a different price versus changing them out. Um, so we have also— we also offer an annual service agreement where we'll come out and do service agreements and, um, make sure that they're functioning every year, uh, for those that don't want to deal with them. So we, we have, uh, a tier of charges that we apply. Now, once we get into the larger ceilings, the 20 and 30-foot ceilings, we do have the equipment to do that, larger ladders, um, they do get— they charge more for those for the— because we end up having two personnel at that house. That's a safety issue. So we do that and there is a special charge for those ladders. So not that there hasn't been one that we haven't got to yet, but I'm sure it's coming.

I love it. Well, again, I think this is, you know, this is a great example, David, of why I love doing these sessions, because having met you, you realize there are indeed feed services that we may not even know exist and we may not even realize we need, but we do. Um, and this is a perfect example of that. I can think of so many applications, um, you know, for, for people that are seasonal— which, by the way, is another thing. I go into homes sometimes that have been sitting vacant and have started to chirp, and then I go reshow it 2 weeks later and an agent has disconnected it because Again, what else do you do? And so I could even see with people not being here and their personal assets, their homes being exposed and them not even knowing about it. So, you know, you talk about the service contract, what a great thing to have for, you know, faraway homeowners that are leaving these homes vacant and don't even know there's a problem with their smoke detectors.

And that's correct, Renee. And, you know, the thing is, is I harp on the seasonal folks more than anything else. Is because when they're gone and they miss that opportunity for when their smoke alarms or their batteries are chirping, they're only gonna chirp so long, so, and then it's eventually gonna die. So when they come back, they just assume that their smoke alarm's still working correctly, and it may not be. So that's why I harp on them more so to change their batteries every year. So it's, again, it's a campaign of just trying to make sure that, you know, change your clocks, change your batteries, Um, so, and again, we do all the guesswork out of it. We'll call— we typically will call our clients every year and just remind them, hey, your batteries are due. And, uh, and we— and that's how we kind of, kind of keep going with that whole campaign of change your batteries. Because I found batteries that are in some of these units that have been corroded, uh, leaking, um, and it just— it creates more of a bigger issue than it's— than it's worth.

Sure, no, great point. So I have the million-dollar question, David. When your bad— when your smoke detectors decide to chirp, without fail, it always seems to be at 2 and 3 in the morning. Is that by design, or is that a greater power to— that somebody is amused at seeing how quickly we can jump out of bed? And, and by the way, try to find the one that's chirping because it's not always obvious.

Yeah, I, I will tell you, Renee, there's been some times I've gone to clients' homes and I've had to do some wild goose chases myself, and I'll them in some odd spots that they swear that they don't have any other ones but on the ceilings, but I'll find them in closets or under cabinets from previous homeowners or whatever the case may be. So it's, it's one of those things that you're right, 2 o'clock in the morning is typically the time. I have a running joke on that, but if you want to hear the answer, you have to give me a call.

Ah, leave us hanging. I love it. I love it. Well, I always envisioned walking around my kitchen with the bat just to try to find the culprit because we're not not in our right state of mind at 2 and 3 in the morning, right? That's correct. I imagine Smoke Detector Medic doesn't do 2 AM service calls.

We try not to. We allow, you know, listen, I tell folks is if it's that bad or if it's that, you know, you have a local fire department for a reason. So, you know, if you don't know, our first thing is always call, you know, 911 if need be. You know, if you have that type of uncertainty. But we do, we do prioritize our customers first thing in the morning. So, you know, the chirping ones are our priority in the mornings, and then we rearrange our schedule if need be.

So I love it, you've got a chirp list. Well, let me do this, we've got a few minutes left, so I wanted to talk about a couple other upcoming segments that I've gotten, businesses that I'm featuring. I've got Seniors First Home Care coming up, I've got I Want Yummy If that doesn't make somebody hungry on an empty stomach, I don't know what else does. I've got Golf Share Chiropractic and I've got a couple others out in the wings that were just waiting to, to slip into open spaces. I've long said when I started these, I didn't know just how long I would do them. I think I'm in week 6 maybe of doing these. This was the first week I didn't put together a full schedule just because of some of the demands on my time at the start of the week, but I will keep doing them as long as there's businesses that would like to be showcased. Again, just 30 minutes of your time. And David, the 30 minutes goes pretty fast, wouldn't you say?

Yeah, it does actually. So, we appreciate the opportunity for you to host us like this and get our name out there.

Thank you. My pleasure. And it's a great, even I want to encourage people, even if you feel like, I have a couple of people that have said, oh, I would love to do it, but I've got stage fright. It's a conversation, right? You tune the rest of the world out and David and I are having a conversation about something you know very well, which is your business. If you're interested in having your business showcased, or I saw I got a request while we were online here, or if you know someone that is interested, don't hesitate to reach out. The best way to get me is via email at Renee, Renee@YourNaplesExpert.com. If you send me Facebook messages, I'm going to be honest, my Facebook gets just pounded and it will get buried. So send me an email. An email is the best way to know that when I'm in front of my calendar again, my email is right there. So with that, David, I want to turn it back over to you and just give you a chance to share with the audience, the live audience, as well as those that might be viewing this later through replay. How would you like to close our session today, and what would you like to impart with, with our, with our guests and visitors?

Well, I just want everybody to reassure that, you know, we're here for your needs. We're educators. We're public servants. I still have bosses I have to go back to. So we're that type of service that we still have people to answer to. With these tough times, especially with the pandemic, I have a lot of customers call me and ask me, well, what, what does your crew do? I do have two part-time employees, Sean and Mitchell. They do a fantastic job. But those guys, we equip those guys with because they're both full-time firemen too. So you're getting the best of the best coming to your home. And if they don't have an answer, we'll get you an answer. Just keep in mind that I've got clients that ask me, even in today's, what do you do for the pandemic? What are you guys doing for the pandemic? Are you protecting yourselves? Are you protecting, you know, the clients that you're servicing? Absolutely. We are, we wear booties, We wear face shields, face masks, whatever kind of face protection they choose to wear. So we have the ability to make sure not only ourselves are protected, but also our clients are protected. So just please keep that in mind when we do come to your house. So if you have concerns, we understand. We completely understand that. So give us a call. You have our number on the bottom, 877-866-8336. 866-766-665 or visit our website at detectamedic.com. And Renee, we appreciate the opportunity to come in and host this for us. This is fantastic. We're just, again, we're, we're pleased to be in the community and again, huge educators, and we just love to be there for those that are in need.

Well, thank you. I, I appreciate not only your service of serving in, uh, with the fire department, but also you're using that to identify a need and providing a service for people that, absent that, may not have other options. So, um, you know, great intuition there to, uh, you know, to be able to take your learnings from your profession and reapply it to helping others. So thank you very much for that. I wish you continued success in 2020 and beyond. I think, you know, as tough as this pandemic has been on all businesses. I personally, personally am assured that we are resilient community. We have great services to offer people. We're still a highly desirable place. I get inquiries all the time from across the states about people that are intrigued and interested and coming to join our beautiful community. So You know, I know it's been tough on people, and I know not every business is going to be in a position to kind of hold on as we go through these bumps at the end of COVID but I wish everybody continued success. And David, I wish you and Dave, like I said, a wonderful 2020 and beyond. So thank you again for joining us.

Well, thank you, Renee, for having us. We appreciate it. Again, everybody, just— we just— all we ask is just be kind to each other. That's all.

That's— if you do that, it's hard to be wrong.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, great. Everybody have a wonderful rest of the week. If you're in Southwest Florida, let's get out our raincoats and our umbrellas and stay dry.

Again, thanks again, Renee.

Thank you, David.

You're welcome.