Welcome to Episode 001 of the Police Instructor's Podcast. In this episode I talk about the reason for the show, what to expect from me during the show, the show format, and I finish it up with a tip I think you'll appreciate.

Show Notes and Transcript:Hey, what’s up… this is Michael Simpkins from ThinBlueLearn where I provide amazing online learning for police officers… welcome to Episode 1 of the Police Instructor’s Podcast…

Welcome to the very first episode of the Police Instructor’s Podcast… It’s hard to believe the show is finally here… I’ve been working for so long trying to make this podcast a reality… and it’s finally here… 2019 is the year and I’m so excited!

The story behind this podcast is actually kind of interesting and unique… I’d been working on my online course… Instructor Development for Law Enforcement for almost 2 years and I realized I wanted to do a podcast as well… the reason the course took so long to create wasn’t because it was complicated… Yeah it took a lot of work but the delay was mostly because of my fear and self-doubt and wondering if I could pull it off…

That’s when I decided I wasn’t going to let that happen again with this podcast… I decided to go for it… and here we are…

So, I wanted to say thank you for listening from wherever you are… I really appreciate you taking the time to listen… This episode is going to be a little different from the norm, I’m going to be going over a quick introduction of who I am… an introduction of what to expect and why I’m hosting this podcast.

Not only how it benefits me… but more importantly how it benefits you and why you should keep listening to future episodes…

So, if you haven’t heard of me before… my name is Michael Simpkins, I own ThinBlueLearn.com where I specialize in bringing police training online without compromising the quality of the training… I love sharing what I do… if you know me from police training circles, you know I’m passionate about what I do because I want police instructors to know they can be successful online… in a professional… helpful way… by bringing top notch police training to officers using the power and flexibility of the internet…

I’ve been a police officer in Tennessee for 23 years, where I’ve spent the majority of that time as an instructor… throughout my career I’ve been fortunate enough to work in several different aspects of law enforcement… from patrol to narcotics, to investigations, SWAT, Crisis Negotiations… I’ve been fortunate enough to do it all…

Now, I’m the training coordinator for my department… responsible for general department instruction and new recruit training…

So, yeah than you for listening, I really hope to be able to provide you with some awesome content on this show… I don’t want to be a waste of your time… I want to get away from the fluff I hear in other police podcasts and just give you great content you can put to use right away and help you bring your training online…

I’ve been very passionate about providing quality online police training that facilitates learning retention… that’s why I created ThinBlueLearn and this podcast… I want to share valuable knowledge-based content from industry experts with you in a way that helps you plan, develop and implement your training…

Most police officers, when we think of online training… we think of sitting in front of a computer screen watching boring videos… you know… training with no value and zero training transfer… I’m sure you’ve clicked that play button on online training… walked away and was hoping the video was done by the time you got back… I know I have…

As trainers, we all know there is little training value in that… which is why I’ve created the ThinBlueLearn online training system… it challenges and engages officers in a way that helps them take what they’ve learned to their job… Yeah… the officers are expected to work… it’s not easy… it challenges them… but they learn…

So that’s why I’m here doing this podcast… to share what I know… and to bring in industry experts to share what they know… because let’s face it… I have a lot to learn too… this podcast isn’t about me… it’s about you… so we can learn together… new and innovative ways to train our officers…

It’s all about putting yourself out there… taking leaps of faith… taking bold action… and making things happen… we can plan and plan and read all we want… but we have to take action…

That’s what it’s all about… that’s what I’m here to try to get you to do… to take action… think outside the box about your training courses… and develop ways to improve police training…

That’s why I’m here… that’s why… I want to show you how you can do it… I remember the first time I mentioned creating an online course for police training to a friend… a fellow officer… I want to bring the training online… and he convinced me it was a waste of time… and I listened to him and didn’t create the course… I didn’t work toward what I envisioned…

Now… about nine years later… I finally stepped out of the norm and created an instructor development course that’s online… I did it and so can you… it IS possible…

Now let’s talk about the format of the show… moving on to the next segment of this episode… like I said earlier… this episode is a special one because it’s my first one… but a normal episode will be like this…

It’ll be about 30 minutes long… which is long enough to get in depth on the topic of the episode… but short enough so I don’t drag you along and waste your time… it’ll force me as the host to make sure we touch the really important points right away…

I’ll bring on guests and we’ll touch on one or two topics regarding police training where we’ll dig deeper into what’s working and into innovative “outside of the box” strategies on how to develop effective police training…

After that… in each episode I like to include something that called “Breaking Down the Recipe to Success” segment… where I’ll be asking each guest I have on to break down their recipes or strategies for success in relation to course creation and police training in general…

This is the part of the show where I want you to be able to take away something of value and to implement it right away…

So, I’ll try to get all of my guests to share their recipes or strategies to success so we can implement those things as well, for our own courses…

Again, this podcast is all about you… I’m trying to help you and show you what works and also what doesn’t work…

Now… that’s a lot to cover in 30 minutes but I think we can get some great valuable information we can use… plus it won’t take much effort to listen to the episode again if you need it for further instruction or guidance…

Lastly, I’d like to talk about why I’m hosting this podcast… the first reason may be a little selfish… by my public speaking skills are horrible and they need a lot of work and improvement…

This forces me to get better at what I know I need to improve on… I’m really good at writing and doing technical things… but when I’m on the microphone I get nervous and this will force me to do better….

Hopefully when you’re listening to this podcast in the future… you’ll be able to see a huge improvement in my voice, my style, the flow of the show and it’ll seem flawless… that’s what I’m striving for…

Because I’ve learned the best way for me to improve is by doing… that’s why I’m doing this podcast… to try and become a better speaker… and try and be better behind the microphone…

By stepping out of my comfort zone and putting myself out there… that’s exactly how I got into creating online courses and that’s exactly how I’m going to master this podcasting thing and hopefully you’ll join me in this journey…

The second reason and the most important reason… is to help you…

Everything I publish… everything I’m saying on this podcast is here for you… If you email me or leave a comment, I’ll make it a point to respond… because ultimately you’re why I’m here doing this podcast and creating online courses… I’m trying to help as many of you out there as I can…

If you want to learn more… if you’re new to this podcast… and want to know more about me you can check out my site at www.thinbluelearn.com... Or if you’d like to reach out to me and just say hey… the best way is to send me an email at info@thinbluelearn.com... I will respond… I promise…

Now before I go I’m going to leave you with one tip… I hope you can take away from this first episode… and that’s not to be afraid to fail… I’m doing this podcast and creating online courses at ThinBlueLearn… and I’m good with whatever happens because I know I’m going to learn from my experiences… if you’re not afraid to fail… you won’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and reach crazy high levels of success as a online police instructor…

For me it was when I pushed fear aside, stepped out of my comfort zone and took those chances that I finally did what I set out to do… I failed a lot along the way… but I embrace each and every one of those failures because they got me to where I am today…

So, don’t be afraid to fail… or to make mistakes… try to do your best… but when you do fail or make a mistake… learn from it and move on…

So, thank you again… for listening to the very first episode of the Police Instructor’s Podcast… I hope you enjoyed it and I’ll see you in episode 2… take care… be safe… bye now.