Time Beats Excuses with Eli Serrano

In this conversation, Eli Serrano shares his experience in law enforcement, discussing the importance of maintaining balance in a demanding career. He emphasizes the significance of physical fitness, competition, and personal growth, while also addressing the challenges faced by new and mid-career officers. Eli highlights the role of faith and community support in coping with the stresses of law enforcement. He concludes with advice for those struggling, encouraging them to take things one day at a time and to communicate their feelings.

Takeaways:

• Maintaining physical fitness is crucial for mental health.
• Having goals outside of work helps in coping with stress.
• It's important to take yourself seriously in your career.
• Communication and support systems are vital for mental well-being.
• Complacency can hinder personal and professional growth.
• Time management is essential for self-care and personal growth.

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Transcript

Vernon Phillips (00:02.742)

All right, welcome back to critical aspects of law enforcement. I'm your host Vernon Phillips. And today we've got a special guest on the show. We've got Eli Serrano. I'm going to turn it over to him. I'm just going to let him dive into his background, kind of his history, what he's done. And Eli, I'm just going to give it over to you.

Eli Serrano (00:22.094)

Yeah, my name is Eli Serrano. I am 38 years old. I've been in law enforcement since the age of 21. Started as a police officer in Lake City, Florida. That's Columbia County, just north of Alachua County. I was there for almost five years. Then I transferred to the Sheriff's Office and I've been a deputy with the Sheriff's Office 12 years now. Currently with our SWAT team, about several years, gone on eight years. I'm currently assigned to West District within the County.

And that's what I'm doing right now as far as within law enforcement.

Vernon Phillips (00:57.749)

Awesome. Well, I appreciate that. I mean, obviously you've got quite a number of years in. So there's a lot of things we could talk about and lot of experiences and stuff we can draw from you to kind of pass on to other people. But obviously we know that law enforcement is a demanding job. know that it can take a toll on the individual. So what is it that you do to just keep yourself kind of balanced and even killed? So physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, what is it that you do regularly just to keep yourself kind of in check.

Eli Serrano (01:29.486)

Yeah, patrol and just being in law enforcement overall can be overwhelming, especially when you're young officer. I started at the age of 21, so I kind of hit the ground running. Definitely a lot of things happening within patrol. You're the first responder, you're first there. So there's a lot of things to process, especially if you're not exposed to know, critical incidents and situations where you're having to save people's lives or high risk situations. So in order to process those things, I do have family and friends I lean on, coworkers I've talked to about certain situations and incidents I've been involved in.

And I also utilize resources within my agency as well. Marion County Sheriff's Office as well as my previous agency with Lake City Police Department. Those situations and domestic situations, violent situations, things that we're processing as law enforcement officers, definitely leaning on those resources. But overall, personally, during my time, personally what I deal how to deal with things is I do stay physically active. I try to make sure I'm not all in with my job because it can be overwhelming. You want to have a life besides diving into law enforcement the whole entire time. So I challenge myself. I'm physically active. I compete. I do different things throughout my whole life. I'm always looking for ways to grow. And having doing those things and having said that, it does help me operate better in the field as an officer and as a SWAT team member.

Vernon Phillips (03:02.281)

Yeah, and I mean, so obviously anybody who knows you kind of in our circle knows that you are, you're always pushing yourself. You're always challenging yourself to do something else. Like you said, you compete a lot. And so what are some of the things that you're competing in right now?

Eli Serrano (03:19.502)

So right now, I was younger, I was 21, I started with CrossFit, started doing little bit of CrossFit competitions here and there. Then I got into little bit endurance racing later on in my life at the age of 26, 27. So, yeah, I've always been an avid runner and after work, I would be doing shift work, so I do 12-hour shifts. But after shift work, no matter what, if I was tired, if I was having a hard time, cardiovascular or even some type of movement to naturally get endorphins into my body would help me cope with the day. Even if I was tired or exhausted, I would take that time to give myself some clarity, whether it was running, whether it was lifting weights, whether it was just going for a walk or just sitting down on my rug and just stretching and just decompressing. And having said that, I would have my loved ones with me, my children, my wife, and I would talk to them while I was doing these things.

That for me throughout my career has helped me out. And having said that, having goals outside of work as well, you want to have these goals while you're in law enforcement to step up in your career, whether it be sergeant, lieutenant, or different investigations and things like that. And then outside of work, I had goals too, physical goals. I started running, you 5Ks, it got easier because my body was responding to those things and it got easier. So then I upped it up to a marathon or half a marathon and then I said, you know what, that was pretty easy. And then I upped it up to 30 miles and that turned into ultra marathons. So I started dabbling in that. And when you start getting good at something, even in law enforcement, when you find your niche, whether it's narcotics or investigations, property crimes or SWAT, you start enjoying it a lot more because you're getting good at it. And that's what was happening with me. So outside of work, I was dabbling in these races and it's something I was looking forward to outside of work. So...

I had something to turn to and challenge myself while I was dealing with law enforcement issues, call for service or these critical incidents. I could say, you know what, I'm outside of work. I'm still challenging myself and enjoying my life outside. It becomes dangerous when you don't have something. And a lot of my friends and colleagues, when you're just making law enforcement your life, which is not bad thing. You've got to have something to fall off on. You got to decompress and put your mind somewhere else because these incidents do affect people differently. And for me, my coping mechanism was always physical things. So it got to the point where I was running 100 mile ultras and that's daunting, but it was challenging and it helped me grow as an individual. And when you're in law enforcement, we take these oaths, we're in the academy, we take these oaths, we're deputies, we're police officers, highway patrol, and we take this oath. And this oath forces us or demands us to be the best versions of ourselves.

So having said that, if you're not taking yourself seriously, and you're not taking your fitness seriously, you're not taking your overall mental health seriously, it's almost a disservice to the people that do believe in you. And that's your chief, your sheriff, your administration, your buddies to the left or right of you. being part of a SWAT team, American SWAT team, I have people that are relying on me to my left and my right, literally when we're in a stack. having been part of that team is a demanding process is something you will earn within that agency. having said that, you need to be the best version of yourself because it's not about you. It's about that officer, that deputy to the left and right of you. And in this case, those operators to the left and right of me. I take that aspect of my life seriously. and competing and doing those things, still I can do it in a fun way. I don't need to just come out of work and then just come over, do a hundred burpees or do something to where I'm just killing myself challenged myself and growing myself with just competition. So I do compete in the tactical games on that sponsored by Under Armour. I started dabbling in that a year ago and it's shooting and CrossFit kind of together. So I dabble in that. And then I started a whole different social media page called 24.cc and that just stands for 24 hours. So I look at it like this, there's 24 hours in a day. We do a lot of social media, a lot of scrolling, a lot of wasted time on that phone.

Vernon Phillips (07:35.856)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (07:37.455)

I always say, hey, you you can consolidate all those minutes and hours of you scrolling and you can put it 20 or 30 minutes in your day to taking care of yourself. So that's our, that's my motto. I'm wearing a shirt right now, 24 hours, 24 hours in a day. and I always use the motto as well as time beats excuses. And there's always time to do the things that are important to you. And that just doesn't come with physical training or, or a cardiovascular or anything like that. That's, that's your, your children, your, your wife, going to church having outside relationships outside of work. that's it. If it's important to you, you're going to make time for it. And that's the overall motto of what I push towards when I'm trying to inspire other people to take care of themselves.

Vernon Phillips (08:21.745)

Yeah. And that's, I mean, that's important because I mean, how often do we see, you know, in law enforcement, first responder community where people just, for whatever reason, they get busy. Um, they get complacent, um, life, right? Where they, just kind of start to, to not take care of themselves. And, and that whole idea of, know, just investing in themselves, um, just kind of hits the back burner because everybody's busy. Everybody's got, you know, a family, a life and just, you know, fill in the blank.

But you you you hit on earlier we talked about just the importance of exercise I mean because it does when you get out and you go and you exercise you know it Increases endorphins right and it increases your feeling of well-being and it you know, it's like an antidepressant But natural right you can't sit on the couch and go out and you know exercise or walk or run or do whatever at the same time it's just

Eli Serrano (09:15.478)

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. That's how I look at it. And people have heard this saying a body in motion stays in motion, a body at rest stays at rest. I'm by no means perfect. I've had my off days. I've been complacent in my life. I'm 38 years old. There's been ups and downs. But most of the part I recognize that when it's happening to me.

I'm saying, my gosh, I'm not feeling too good. I forgot to eat. We go to 12 hour shifts sometimes, we forget to eat, forget to hydrate. And throughout my life, I've tried to research and educate myself like, hey, what am I putting in my body? Am I eating whole foods? Or am I just drinking Red Bulls and Monsters and eating McDonald's and eating all these fast foods? Your body is a vessel. And what you put in your body, whether it's good things or bad things, processed food, at this point, we're all adults, especially the people around me.

If you got to eat, you got to eat, but try to make an effort to put things in your body that are natural whole. And that transcends to how you're to feel at the end of the day. You know, are you dehydrated? That's a big thing. Not drinking enough water, not eating the right things. taking care of yourself in that, in that aspect, and trying to make time for that is definitely going to help you perform, just not even law enforcement overall, just your wellbeing, your, your money through Friday, eight to five. and then just moving around, you know, there's times in my patrol car.

Even when I was a detective, I was sitting too long, you had to get up and move. And I felt immediately better just taking a 10 minute walk and moving around because we are people, we are mammals, scientific definition, we're meant to move. We're one of the only mammals that actually sweat. We're meant for endurance, we're meant to move. That's genetically how we are. naturally, when we do start doing that, we feel better. If you're consistent with moving and working out and getting your body moving, your body's going to naturally react to it you're gonna have a stimulus. You're gonna feel better. You're gonna be like, you know what, I don't wanna stop. And with that consistency, and you recognizing that and trying not to fall in those complacent traps, it's gonna benefit you like tens, tens times, so.

Vernon Phillips (11:16.078)

Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously, you know, like I said earlier, you've got a lot that you could share. You know, when you look at, when you look at law enforcement and those just coming into the, you know, the career, what are, you know, what are some of the most important things that you've learned that, you know, like three of most important things you've learned that you'd like to pass on to, you know, those just starting out, those, you know, just, just hitting the road or just starting the academy.

What is it you'd share with them?

Eli Serrano (11:47.927)

Yeah, so a lot of the time when I do meet these recruits and sometimes I have the opportunities to train them in different capacities, I always tell them, you know, they're intimidated, they're a little scared. We do have a high liability job. So I tell them, you know, you're having the authority to change people's lives for the rest of their lives and you're going to make mistakes. And we're not robots. We are human beings. We are officers. So I tell them just take one step at a time, rely on your resources, whether it's other deputies or supervisors, if you don't know something and always ask. If you have good intentions and you're trying to do the right thing and you're trying to help somebody and you fall short or something happens, just keep your head up and that's it and keep moving forward. It's just like life. You know this, nothing's ever linear. Nothing's ever gonna be like this. There's gonna be ups and downs. One week's gonna be great, the next week's not gonna be great. One month you're gonna be doing something awesome and then you hit a bump in the road and you just have to process that because no matter what, it's gonna change, it's gonna get better through time each day. And I tell these guys,

Eli Serrano (12:47.76)

Take yourself seriously. Take pride in the career you have because it's a great career. Take yourself seriously. All these criminals and people how you care yourself are not going to take you seriously. So if you don't take yourself seriously these guys, it can be dangerous because they're going to look at you and if they want to resist, don't want to be taken into custody for some type of crime that's happening. They're going look at you and they're going to resist and things are going to happen. So take yourself seriously or others will not take you seriously. And that transcends with confidence. That transcends with not being complacent. But this is a rewarding career. I've been doing it for close to 16 years. It's amazing. I want to do it for the rest of my life. I love it. And it's something that has changed me and I love influencing other officers to challenge themselves. We have an amazing career where we're changing people's lives and helping people. And it can be exciting, it can be scary, but it is rewarding. And the Sheriff's Office that I work for this agency is an amazing agency.

Vernon Phillips (13:47.522)

Yeah, and then with that, mean, so what about those that kind of are halfway through the midpoint of their career? they're kind of right where you're at and they're that 15 years, right? Or they're hitting that 20 year marker or maybe they're kind of getting towards the end of their career. What advice do have for them?

Eli Serrano (14:06.542)

You know, it's dangerous to say stagnant. I'm always an opportunist for growing. So if you're in a position or you're staying in a situation where you're getting bored, you're getting complacent, we're human beings, we have to change, we have to evolve. We have to have pressure on us, we gotta grow. So if you are at that point in your career and you're feeling a little bit complacent like this is getting old, this and that, switch it up. There's plenty of different things you can do within an agency. There's property crimes, drug unit, there's aviation, there's all kinds of different units you can be a part of. Some people get complacent and they get a little bit more comfortable in the position they're at and they don't want change, but you know, if you want to grow, you've got to change, you have to move around. It's for your career, it's good for your mental well-being, and it's good for the agency overall to switch it up and move around. You don't want to be in a situation or a place because it's too long, because it does start affecting you negatively.

If you do get to that point, if you want to grow, definitely put in for promotion, put in for something that's going to help you grow and you're going to love it. So I tell those guys too that I work around like, change it up, try this, try that. If you're passionate about it, don't be nervous or don't be scared. That's going to be an opportunity to grow. And some people want to stay in these positions or they kind of want to just cruise through their career. But that's just not living to me. think changing things within your life and then growing and having different opportunities is the best way that I've seen as far as how I surround myself with people.

Vernon Phillips (15:45.166)

Yeah, and growth is never, generally is never comfortable, right? There's always some pain involved in that, because there's that stressing, it's like the process of being refined. it's not that it's meant to hurt you, it's meant to grow you, expand you, and increase your adaptability as an individual. Because I think that's something important in the first responder field is being adaptable, right? Having that ability to be pliable and...

Eli Serrano (16:05.131)

Absolutely.

Vernon Phillips (16:14.385)

I've got a friend who refers to it as elasticity, right? Your ability to be stretched. But you still maintain who you are because you invest in who you are. stretching is generally never comfortable, right? Because you're pushing yourself beyond the last measure that you thought you did know.

Eli Serrano (16:29.602)

Mm-hmm.

Eli Serrano (16:36.878)

It's funny that you say that, that stretching, literally we speak about stretching mobility, physically what you're doing. I tell these guys, I'm around a little bit older guys, they're like, man, you know, I have this, I have this issue, I have that issue, I'm hitting a wall. It's funny, it's kind of ironic, but I'm like, your mobility, you have to stretch, you have to open yourself up, you have to move around. It's funny because the way you're speaking about this, literally you can apply to that. have to...

Vernon Phillips (17:02.154)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (17:02.358)

You have to move. If you want to grow and you want to move, if it has to do with lifting weights or CrossFit or squatting, you have to have mobility, you have to stretch, you have to open yourself up, and that applies to what you're doing, what we're talking about. You have to make yourself uncomfortable to grow. If you want to stay in that one spot, you're just gonna hurt yourself. So you have to be flexible.

You have to, and it's gonna not just benefit you, it benefits others. You can pass that knowledge along to your peers, along to your others, and help people succeed and grow. I try to surround myself with mentors and people that help me grow as a person and an individual, spiritually and competitively. you are who you hang out with. So you're gonna hang around with people that aren't doing a lot. It's gonna influence you. If you are hanging around people that are challenging themselves, that want to grow, that's gonna rub off on you. it's just like anything. It's just like even on the streets, know, these criminals, these kids are being influenced by certain individuals they're hanging out with, and there's a consistent pattern of that. And then they're making the wrong decisions, and then they're part of the system. So it's the same thing with what we're human beings. So make the right decision decisions, try to grow, try to try to be elastic, just like you said, and have other opportunities and take advantage of those things when they're in front of you as well. So but very, very good.

Vernon Phillips (18:23.68)

Yeah, yeah, don't be afraid of the stretch, right? So many people are. And obviously, when we look at kind of being uncomfortable being stretched and being put in those situations that push us to just to evolve past who we are, obviously you've got 15 plus years of experience you can draw from. But when you look back over your career, what's one of the...

Eli Serrano (18:27.914)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Vernon Phillips (18:50.505)

You know, like the most impactful cause that you worked and then how did you get on the other side of that?

Eli Serrano (18:56.034)

Like one that rings a bell, you know, every officer, every deputy, whether you're on the street or not, you always imagine someone getting out on a traffic stop with a weapon and shooting at you or something happened like that. I've done probably thousands of traffic stops as a deputy and a police officer. And this is one time, it was maybe three or four years ago man walked out and just exited his vehicle during a traffic stop and pulled a weapon on me. He never presented the weapon to me, but he had it in his hand. He did want me to take his life and we stood there negotiating. And I relied on my training. I relied on how I felt, the stimulus. I felt that before I felt my heart rate go up. I know what adrenaline feels like. So our agency exposes us that with the training and the adrenaline. So I was relying on my training and then physiologically I was having a response because I was processing this man wanted me to take his life. And obviously this man was hurting because he did something bad and he did not want to live anymore. So with me just negotiating and being human with him and telling him like, Hey, you don't want to do this. And then unfortunately we deal with people that actually do want to take their lives and they just do it. There's really no negotiating. Unfortunately, it does happen. The statistic is high, but this specific individual wanted me to do it for him and I wasn't going to do that. He never presented the weapon. I was able to calm him down to where he did drop the weapon. It turns out that he was about to go back to prison for some pretty bad crimes against some family members and ended up tasing him and took him into custody for that situation. So he actually ran for me as well, it was a vehicle chase, but.

After that situation, I was able to process what I was feeling, what was going through, and definitely reached out to a few people. There's really good resources within my agency that helped me out and helped me cope with that situation. Because I've been in tough situations that happen really fast with shooting or someone firing something or something crazy like that's happening. But it's happening pretty quick. I haven't been in limbo in a situation.

Eli Serrano (21:01.186)

Where the guy actually has a gun and he's telling me to do it. I've always thought like, if this was ever gonna happen, that someone was gonna present the firearm and then just start shooting. never crossed my mind that he would just stand there with it. So that was a little bit off putting, but we have a great.

Vernon Phillips (21:08.062)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (21:17.664)

A great system at our, it's a Fat System, it's a shooting simulator with our agency. And a week before that incident happened, I was doing a shooting simulator training in almost exact same scenario. So when it was happening, it was very surreal. was almost processing like, is this really happening or is this a training situation? Because I was so used to the training and I'm like, no, this is real life. So you're just processing these things. But at any rate,

Vernon Phillips (21:38.302)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (21:45.069)

The guy gave up and that was a really tough situation to deal with during and after. But understanding what was happening, understanding what I was feeling and understanding what he was going through and just remember that we're both human beings was able to help me process it. So it was pretty tough on that one.

Vernon Phillips (22:04.35)

Yeah, and I remember that one. I remember watching your body cam footage on that. you were pretty calm, cool, and collected the whole entire time. You were interacting with that guy.

Eli Serrano (22:17.782)

Yeah, it was tough. There was a point where I was presenting my weapon to him and I had my finger on the trigger and there was so much adrenaline happening within my body. My blood was, I could feel the blood just rushing to the center of my body as a response, as a survival response. And my sight picture was getting definitely compromised while I was looking at the gentleman. This guy, this bad guy, and I ended up recognizing that and I almost had to gain composure and back to my car and just take a deep breath and remember to get oxygen to my brain to kind of lock back in, so to speak. By that time, he was throwing the weapon down, but there's definitely, and having said that, that physiological response to what was going on, if I didn't train the way I train with running and shooting and...

Vernon Phillips (22:50.259)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (23:03.02)

Getting my heart rate up with some of the training and the competitions I do, my physiological response would have been way different. There's been times I've wrestled with guys outside of cars that have had guns and I've been in fights and it was my training and the things I do that have helped me restrain these really big guys. most of these criminals aren't training like some of us officers or SWAT guys are doing. They're not hitting that red line of their threshold of their heart rate or anything like that. So I could feel it happening and I feel that person give up before I do. So the training and endurance and stamina definitely helps out with those situations where I'm having to wrestle a guy and they get wore out before I do and I'm able to last them, I'm able to win because at the end of the day, that's what matters. We're winning and we're going home to our families.

Vernon Phillips (23:51.207)

Yep, absolutely. that's the goal, right? At the end of your shift is to go home and preferably to go home the same way that you started. So with that, is one of the most awkward or funniest calls for services you've dealt with?

Eli Serrano (23:57.719)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (24:02.466)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (24:12.213)

Man, funniest calls for service. You know, funniest, know, let me think here.

You know, recently there was a man, he was having a hard time dealing with some things. He was standing off, this happened like maybe a month ago. And this is the first thing, I'm sure I've had 100 stories, but this guy was trying to, was thinking about jumping off a bridge. He didn't jump off the bridge, we were able to calm him down. I brought him back to my car and I told him, said, hey, you're not in trouble. We have to just get you some help, get you evaluated under Baker Act.

He's like, I didn't want to hurt myself. I'm like, sir, you you were trying to jump off a bridge. You even told medics that you wanted to take your own life. You definitely wanted to hurt yourself. He's like, I did not want to hurt myself. He's like, you know what? Here, I'll hurt myself. And he headbutted my car and he didn't leave a mark on his head, but I have a brand new patrol car and he put about a five inch dent on the side of my brand new car and I was like, really? And it wasn't affected at all.

And I said, really, you're gonna dent my car? And I'm like, okay, well now we have to go to jail first for criminal mischief because you just damaged my car. So we're gonna get you evaluated, but we're gonna book you for this first. And then we're gonna deal with you getting evaluated after. But search incident to arrest, he ended up having a felony amount of drugs on him. And it's unfortunate, but those, I was a bizarre situation. I'm like, really, you're gonna just headbutt my car like that? And it wasn't just a headbutt. I mean, he hit his head.

Vernon Phillips (25:17.192)

Yeah.

Vernon Phillips (25:41.629)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (25:45.451)

Where my fender merges with my hood and there's a crease, there's a hardest part of the car and he was unaffected. So that was a little bit bizarre. So that kind of threw me off. But I mean, I could go down the line with hundreds of stories of every night was crazy. I worked night shift most of my career, but not on days, stories, all kinds of stories.

Vernon Phillips (26:05.256)

Yeah, well that's the thing. mean, everybody's got those stories and you know, but it's, it's fun to share those and, I've had a couple of really interesting ones. Um, you know, some, awkward ones, you know, walking in on people and all kinds of crazy stuff. But, but, and, and, but it's good to share those, you know, it's good for other people to hear like, Hey, okay. You know, maybe I'm not the only one that gets all these random weird calls where, people always happen to be naked or they're, know, they're always just, you know, talking crazy. So.

Eli Serrano (26:35.246)

Mm-hmm.

Vernon Phillips (26:35.423)

But, but, know, also sharing those, those more difficult calls too, because, you know, it gets, it gets you talking to get you talking about, Hey, yeah, I've, I've been in, you know, a stressful event or critical incident and I'm on the other side of it. Right. So that instills hope and other people like, Hey, yes, like you went through this. could have been the worst thing you've experienced in your life, but you can get on the other side. You can get back, you know, doing what you like and what you love to do and you can recover from that. And I think that's important that we highlight that, we make sure that we're pushing that out, that you don't have to fight that on your own, Prepare yourself beforehand, have good coping mechanisms in place, have a good social support network, because that's important, is having that social support network. That's one of the most important things, is having that good, healthy social support network around you.

Eli Serrano (27:05.262)

the

Vernon Phillips (27:32.231)

You know those friends and family that are going to step in that you know are going to encourage you but also then you know hold you accountable when you need to be held accountable and know say hey You know put your feet at the fire and say hey look You need to address this you need to take care of this. Let's you know, let's move on. Let's let's let's get this this rolling so

Eli Serrano (27:32.248)

This is

Eli Serrano (27:41.686)

Absolutely.

Eli Serrano (27:51.319)

Absolutely, yeah. There's been plenty of times where I family and friends that have helped me out in situations where I'm having a hard time coping with something or they see me withdrawing or there's something I'm doing that's maybe out of line with human beings. So I do have that support system and that does happen. And that's a good thing. And having enough having enough sense and being humble and understand when you're doing something that might be affecting the ones you love definitely puts things in perspective. having those support systems and being able to talk about it, talk about anything you're going through, it benefits you very much so. there's definitely probably lots of careers have been saved because just the communication. If you're going through something, you have to communicate. If you're feeling something or something's off, reach out to somebody, talk to it. We're all in this together. We're all going through it, whether people speak about it or not. I have plenty of friends within law enforcement and plenty of family that have helped me out through situations that have been tough. Most of the time with law enforcement, I have an understanding that sometimes dealing with adults and dealing with mental illness and these people are making these decisions these things happen. have an okay time processing dealing with adults. When it comes to children that are innocent and children that are victimized, that's the hard part for me in my career. Those are the times I have a hard time processing things. And I'm able to talk to coworkers, I'm able to talk to family to process these things, but the innocent children that haven't made choices yet or haven't been...

Vernon Phillips (29:17.083)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (29:32.431)

Grown enough to understand what's going on and kind of confused when they're victims or they're part of situations or mom and dad are fighting or they're exposed to things they shouldn't be exposed to. That's when I get a little more emotional, a little more upset and I'm able to talk to people. So those are the things that are more triggering than anything. Those are tough to deal with. And a lot of my colleagues and coworkers are definitely exposed to that as well. But we talk about it, we process it, and we keep moving forward because it is a mission to help people. a mission to hold these people accountable if they're hurting people or if they're doing bad things.

Vernon Phillips (30:11.718)

Yeah, and I think it's important to really highlight that. It's like, hey, look, when you've experienced something like that, make sure that you make use of resources, right? Reach out to somebody, talk to somebody. Things are in place for a reason and that you don't have to deal with it on your own. So definitely making use of stuff, I think, is a great point to make. we kind of talked about earlier, I mean, obviously for you, a big coping mechanism is just being physically active, investing in yourself and pushing yourself, challenging yourself because like you said, it obviously puts you in good health, good operating, your peak performance for doing your job but also pushes your body to where you can face those things and deal with them. So you talked about 24 a little bit already. just kind of dive in.

Explain to how that came about, like in your whole mission behind the idea of 24.

Eli Serrano (31:14.234)

It was really talking to, just throughout my career and throughout my life and just being around people and people making the excuse, I don't have time, I can't do this, you know, that's hard, this and that. A lot of people don't like to do hard things, it's very hard, especially if you're not doing it a lot and you're not consistent. So it was kind of a thing that developed within the last couple years. I wanted to inspire people and I wanted to remind people we all have the same amount of time in the day. We wake up.

Vernon Phillips (31:31.46)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (31:43.136)

Most of us are busy just like everybody's going to work. Everybody has children. Everybody's going to school or work and we're doing these things. And like I said, even with social media and these phones and in all the distractions, you have time to invest in yourself. So that's where 24 came from, having time in your day to make these things happen because they're going to benefit you. They're going to benefit your family. They're going to benefit, especially with law enforcement, helping you perform better and just taking that extra step. And you're going to be happy with yourself. It's going to help your overall wellbeing, your mental health, your physical health, and then being ready to face that wolf if it's coming down the hallway at you. that's what I do. I take that seriously and it's made my life better and it's made several people's life better that I train with. So that's my goal with that social media platform that I have is to inspire people and to do things that people have never done before, whether it's a race, whether it's a DECA or CrossFit or the tactical games or some type of some type of event just to test yourself because that's how you grow and you're going to be happy with yourself because how do know a lot about yourself if you've ever never tested yourself? You know, if you're in a situation like, hey, I've been in this before, I know what this feels like. You know, I'm not telling you to run 100 miles. That's crazy. I've done that twice. So everybody has their own hard things that was a gut wrenching and definitely tested my soul, but I found out a lot about myself and that's something, that I put myself through and something that, that I really can't, explain to people. something you have to do yourself. It's something that it's something I can't transfer or transfer another person and say, Hey, that's what it's like. It's very humbling. It's one of the best experiences of my life. Me running a couple of hundred mile ultras. cause I found out, I found a lot about myself, what I can and what I can do and what I'm capable of when I try and when I train because it definitely was a lot of training. just didn't do it. I made a decision to do it and I did it. And succeeding in something and having a goal, whether it's a competition or running a 5k or even running half a mile, like that's your goal. Have goals outside of work, whether it's like, hey, I'm going to, you know what, may not be eating right.

Eli Serrano (33:50.383)

You know, but I'm going to try to walk or run for 20 minutes a day. Just 20 minutes a day of cardiovascular will change your body physiologically like that. And like I said, we are meant to move. If you do that for 20 minutes of cardiovascular for seven days a week, you will see such a change in just that little time. And then we see that change, stay consistent and don't stop. Your body is an amazing thing. It's going to adapt to what you're doing.

And you might feel sore, might feel injured. might be some preexisting things happening, but recognize the things that are happening within your body and make sure you're stretching, make sure you're eating right, make sure you're hydrating. And then your body's going to adapt to what you're doing. Some of the best racers that I've ever raced against in these ultras and these are our 55, 60 year old men that are just phenomenal athletes that just never stopped training and never stopped pushing themselves because they, they got to the age where they started just dialing in. like, you know what my body reacts to.

Vernon Phillips (34:36.696)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (34:42.798)

Processed foods, my body reacts to too much sodium, my body reacts to, you know, I'm having inflammation. And a lot of the inflammation and things that that happen is what we're eating. If you're just eating meats, vegetables and fruits in moderation and you're hydrated, have a coffee. Every once in a while on the weekend, you have a pizza, have a donut. But most of the time, if you're eating whole foods throughout the week, and I know sometimes you gotta come home, you gotta cook, you gotta do these things. I'm gonna meal prep sometimes. I don't really meal prep. I just have meat in my fridge and I just put it on there at the end of the night and I cook it with some quinoa or rice or vegetables and that's what I try to, and overall I feel much better.

And when I do eat processed food sometimes, I eat processed food sometimes, it happens. I'll either eat a burger, Burger King or Wendy's every once in a while. But I do feel the difference. I do feel the inflammation. I do feel lethargic because it's not real food. It's a lot of processed things. But I try to make those goals, those eating healthy goals and the physical goals. But just start off small, with small steps and stay consistent. With consistency, doors will open like crazy.

That's why I started 24 to push people, inspire people to become the best version of themselves. And like I said, it's just not fitness. It's everything in your life. It's your family. Make time for your family. Make time to go to church. Make time to have relationships and slow down and make time for the important things because we all only live once. And just like that.

Vernon Phillips (35:49.57)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (36:10.612)

So take each day seriously at a time, take yourself seriously, and you'll live a good life. So that's what I'm trying to do as far as inspiring people.

Vernon Phillips (36:20.642)

Yeah, so if somebody wants to follow, you know, your social media platform, the 24, how can they, how can they do that?

Eli Serrano (36:27.66)

Yeah, so it's on Instagram. I post most of my workouts on Instagram. I'll post two or three a week on there. And you can follow me on my website 24.cc. And you can see my page there. I have a little bit of apparel there and it will link you directly to my social media platform as well. But that's what it is. It's there to inspire people and there to motivate people. I don't really make it to the gym a lot. I'm out here in my front yard or my garage. just have a barbell. I have a couple concept two machines which I bought used on marketplace and I do you know I'm here at my house doing training sessions and they're 15-20 minute training sessions but they're high heart rate high metabolic training sessions that do make a difference. I'm just not standing in a mirror doing hammer curls. The aesthetic aspect that comes with the training that will come in time.

Vernon Phillips (37:06.657)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (37:24.11)

If you're a bodybuilder and you're doing it for competition, it's completely different. But if you're training for life or you're training for to stay healthy and active and protect yourself, that's what type of training you need to do. You need to do high heart rate.

Vernon Phillips (37:35.702)

Yeah, there's so many people that are probably feel so targeted right now.

Eli Serrano (37:42.383)

No, dude, I'm not. I'm inspired, man. So a lot of the guys I surround myself with and most of the team members on my team and the people I associate with with different agencies, guys from Orange County, Lake County, Citrus County, they all have the same mindset and we all train with each other. We all compete with each other. And it's tough to make those time. There are sacrifice. It does pull away sometimes. But if you just take that 25 to 30 minutes, there's time in the day. Make it happen.

Vernon Phillips (38:03.649)

Yeah.

Eli Serrano (38:10.562)

You're not going to feel like it sometimes. I know people feel that way. You're not going to feel like it, but when you do it, you feel immediately better. Your body's saying, thank you for giving me oxygen. Thank you for releasing these natural endorphins. Thank you for moving me around because I've been stuck in an office or I've been stuck in a chair all day. And me just opening up my body and opening up my diaphragm, my lungs and opening up my muscles. That's what we're meant to do. We're meant to move our body.

Vernon Phillips (38:12.799)

No.

Eli Serrano (38:39.615)

It's designed that way.

Vernon Phillips (38:42.21)

Yep. And I'll add that your, uh, your information in the show notes. So, you know, people would just click on it and go. Um, so as we kind of, I want to be respectful of your time, but as we kind of start to wrap up, you when you look back, obviously you over your career and just kind of where you're at now, um, you know, and you've kind of referenced it a couple of times, but you know, how important has your faith bed and where you're at today and. You know, kind of bringing you to, to where you're at today with, know, your, where you're at in the agency with 24 and just you know, who you are in general.

Eli Serrano (39:14.166)

Yeah, I was, you know, as far as it goes my life, I was raised Catholic most of my life. I raised upstate New York. I was born in the city and coming down south, I started attending Meadowbrook Church for the last 12 years and I don't go to church every single week. I do probably once or twice a month, but my relationship with God has definitely changed with over time, I definitely gotten closer as I gotten older. And just having that little bit of a faith and understanding like these things happening, understanding that having a relationship with God and understanding those values within your family and outside definitely makes a difference with how I understand the world and how I process things. So I always make time to have a relationship there and try to make time to attend my church when I can, because life does happen. Sundays, I do work every other weekend, but those things are important, and having those values in your life and doing the best you can. We're going to fall short. We're not going to be there all the time. We're human beings, but understanding that living for God and having that relationship and have relationship with Him is very important.

And if you don't have one and you start and you make that decision to try to manifest that relationship, it's definitely going to make some differences in your life for the good.

Vernon Phillips (40:35.455)

Yeah. And I think that's important, especially in the law enforcement and first responder community. think that that's kind of one of those areas that we, kind of sometimes leave out. You know, we're always talking about the physical, obviously, the mental, we're starting to dive into the emotional, but I think the spiritual, I think the spiritual is kind of, you know, that's kind of shifted to the back. So I think that, you know, that's a, that's a main building block of anybody's life, regardless of, regardless of where they fall, you know, spiritually, but I appreciate your time.

Eli Serrano (40:49.614)

Experience.

Eli Serrano (40:57.632)

Mm-hmm, absolutely.

Vernon Phillips (41:05.313)

And I appreciate you just sharing your expertise, your knowledge just about being fit, being active, investing in yourself and making sure that you're doing what you need to do to keep yourself in that peak performance. I think that's important. just kind of lastly, before we cut off here is, if there's somebody right now who's just kind of in a bad place maybe in their life and they're just struggling, what is some advice you'd give them?

Eli Serrano (41:34.581)

Take a deep breath, one day at a time. Communicate about it, talk about it, that.

Everything's always going to get better. You feel like maybe at this moment in time, like it's the end of the world or you don't understand what's happening, but take it one day at a time. Talk about it somebody, make a phone call and just understand that everything's always going to be better with time. Once you process it, you understand what's happening or if you're confused, there is some clarity and resolution at the end of it. Whether it's sitting in there, praying, talking to God, talking to your family member, it will open. It will eventually subside and things will always get better. So, and like I said, nothing's ever linear. It's gonna be just like this all the time.

Vernon Phillips (42:16.702)

Yep, absolutely. All right, well, Eli, I appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time.

Eli Serrano (42:24.515)

Thank you.

Vernon Phillips (42:25.92)

All right.