The Fire Protection Podcast: Episode #71 – Raquel Gomez on Starting a Fire Protection Business as a Veteran

funny with them and funky.

Drew Slocum:
I mean, Bobby's opinion on sweats and Crocs are hilarious, because he’s in the airport all the time.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah. What does he talk about? He just likes to get people…ruffle some feathers. He likes to start a conversation.

Drew Slocum:
I'm going to have to race my Tesla against his Mustang.

Raquel Gomez:
His Mustang? Oh yeah, for sure. I would love to see that. 

Drew Slocum:
Oh, yeah. He wouldn’t have a shot.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah. Yeah. Love those guys. Good guys.

Drew Slocum:
Anyway, Raquel, I guess tell the audience about you if they haven't heard of you on some of the other shows yet.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, so my name is Raquel Gomez. I'm an owner operator of Mar Vet Fire Protection, which is short for Marine Veteran. Let's see, I've been in the industry for about 12 years now. I have started my own company. I started about last June-July, launched and just been taking off.

We're doing inspections, a lot more installations. So we do fire alarms, fire sprinklers, emergency exit, lighting, kitchen, fire suppression, special hazards, wanting to get into fire pumps. Hopefully soon. We're trying to expand and grow and learn more in this ever-evolving industry of ours.

Drew Slocum:
Oh yeah.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah. Things have been good. Things have been really good.

Drew Slocum:
Well, I mean, you've already evolved. I feel like you're in all the aspects of fire protection, I mean from alarm to sprinkler to extinguisher and suppression. I mean, there's not many companies that do the full ecosystem.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, yeah. So right now, I would say probably the only things that we're not doing or touching would be fire pumps, and pretty much fire extinguishers. Just because, I mean, think you and everybody else knows—the talent out there is very—it is rare, it's hard to find good people, good technicians, people that really care. Just our standards and our level of professionalism and integrity is, we just set the bar.

So to have somebody come into our realm and not really hold those standards, we just hold off. If that means turning down jobs or sending those clients elsewhere to a company that can take care of them, we have no problem doing that in the meantime while we get that talent. So that's where we're at right now, but hopefully in the near future we'll be able to at least bring on the fire extinguisher portion and branch out a little bit. But we'll get there. We'll get there.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah. That's great. So you started this last year, and we really want to spotlight yourself and Mar Vet with Veterans’ Day coming up. And I guess, take us back to your history. Where did you start your career, obviously in the Marines, and then how did you get into fire and the whole story?

Raquel Gomez:
Sure. So I joined the Marine Corps in 2006. I did nothing that was related to this. I was a motor transport operator, so I was driving seven tons Humvees, transporting Marines and everybody outside of base. I was in Iraq for a year, and so it was nothing related to this. But when I got out, I signed on with a company who was a general contractor over here in Palm Desert. Because I’m in the Coachella Valley, in Palm Springs area. 

We were doing hotel renovations and they liked me. So when we finished that project, they took me out to San Diego. We're doing the towers, downtown San Diego, the Manchester Grand Hyatt. I was busting my butt for 10 bucks an hour, and then I saw the fire alarm contractors and they're like—I guess they saw how I worked, and they said, “Hey, we'll bring you on for X, X amount of dollars. You get benefits, you get this.” And I'm like, what? Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah, sign me up.

And so I started doing fire alarm installations, and this was like everything was, I mean—if you and everybody else, I'm sure knows how intricate fire alarm systems could be, so coming in as green, not knowing anything about this industry, it was very overwhelming for me. But I had a good teacher who's actually my brother-in-law. So I started doing that, got real hands on. I was with Diversified Protection Systems, PyroComm. Then I heard that they had some work up in San Francisco, and I said, you guys need help, let's do it.

So moved up there and kind of just never looked back, went after my NICETs. I'm now NICET level three. And then I got into doing fire extinguishers and fire sprinklers. I love learning. I love getting hands-on. I love getting dirty and, being the only female out there 99% of the time, was a plus. I just do my dirt. I carry my own weight and earn the respect. And here I am. I got my own company, and this was never part of the plan.

Drew Slocum:
That's funny.

Raquel Gomez:
I never thought, oh, I'm going to have my own fire company one day. No. My thing was I've always wanted to flip houses. That's always been like, oh, I get in there and fix it all up and flip it. That's what I always wanted to do. And then that was the plan right before COVID. COVID hit, market went crazy. And I was like, okay, let me stick to what I know. So yeah, here I am 2024—about a year, almost a year and a half, a little bit more or less—with my own company. And it's nice. There's a very big veteran community out here in Palm Springs. So once people hear about that and they catch wind of it, it just catches fire.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah. No pun intended, right?

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah. Yeah, right.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah. It's funny, the industry's made up of a lot of veterans and a lot of people that have been in, learned in the Armed Forces. And I've ran into a bunch over the years from one of my mentors, John Mackey, who's a Navy guy. Even to some of the people at API group, one of the biggest companies, they recruit a lot from West Point and other places as well. So they kind of gravitate toward that. And even way back in the day, I met a guy that was in the Air Force, which was a buyer for the fire sprinkler industry. He was great. Anyway, there's a lot of roots that started with the armed forces.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, hopefully, we'll see. And that's not to say that all military are like that, but most military veterans and stuff like that, they have that structure already. And so that's what I'm kind of looking for, whether they're green and don't know anything about the industry, I think in the near future when we start really expanding and looking to hire more, that's what I would like to target. So we'll see how it goes. But everything's been good. No complaints.

Drew Slocum:
That's great.

Raquel Gomez:
Just the everyday hustle, everyday hectic hecticness, but…

Drew Slocum:
What made you want to go out on your own?

Raquel Gomez:
Just…there's this connection that I like to have with people and clients and customers and everything like that. And, as a technician working for another company, I feel like you're kind of limited.

It's like, okay, just go do this job. If they have any other questions, send them here. But just to be able to have that connection with clients and just cater to them in a sense, and just to be able to take care of them. And that's what I was just really eager for. And so now having my company, it's great because—and sometimes it can be a bit much, but for the most part it is great having that because a lot of my customers don't want to be on the phone. They want to text. So now we're on a text basis and it's helpful for them and it's helpful for me. And they might be my clients, but now we've built this friendship and so that's good. And I network with a lot of companies out here—Red Line Fire Protection, TCB, Cord Fire, Desert Fire. We all kind of have this mutual understanding where we just put the client first, we put the customer first, and that's good for me. I love that. If I can't take care of a customer, then I'll pass them along somewhere else just to make sure their needs are met. Or sometimes there's projects that are specific to something else that I can't take care of. So just being able to keep the customer first I think is big for me, and they appreciate it and that's how it should be, I feel. So that’s been good.

Drew Slocum:
If you can get that, obviously be—and we do similar things at Inspect Point, just like we want the voice of the customer. Whether it's good, bad, indifferent, it'll improve us down the line. And just by responding is key. There's a lot of businesses that don't do that. 

Raquel Gomez:
A hundred percent. Yeah, I hear that all the time. It's like if I tell them, okay, I'll get you a proposal by tomorrow. They're like, oh my gosh, really? And they're taken back by that. And I'm like, well, what do you mean? It's like, oh, well, it's been two weeks and I haven't heard back from this company. Or they don't follow up or they don't communicate. It's like I'm so big on communication. I'm so big on follow-up. Whether you can do it or you can't do it, just let them know. If you're too busy, that's fine, but let them know. Sometimes it's as easy as a text message.

It's been really nice. It's been good, just having that constant communication with people and knowing what we're good at, what our pros are, where can we improve…just constructive criticism, getting that from people and stuff like that. So just being open-minded, I'm still learning. I'm a new business owner. Just because I've been in the industry for 12 years doesn't mean that there's nothing left for me to learn.

Everything's always changing, whether it be from knowledge, the different departments of fire protection, or just business in general. There's just always so much more to learn. So I'm just trying to stay open-minded and level-headed and take little bits and pieces from everybody.

Drew Slocum:
What's your favorite kind of realm of fire or division of fire?

Raquel Gomez:
I knew you were going to ask that. I was listening to one of your podcasts this morning and you're like, you were asking, oh, well, so what's your favorite part of fire protection? I always ask this. So I was waiting for that.

And just like the gentleman said that he's not really sure, I'm not sure, honestly. I love fire alarm because of the complexity. I like that my mind is working—I love troubleshooting. If you tell me there's a ground fault, I'm like, yes, let's get to it. I love to break it down. And so I love doing that, but I also like getting dirty. I like doing underground and digging and it's very humbling. It's very humbling. So I can't say that I like any one thing any more than the other.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, no, I hear you. I know. And you started in fire alarm. Is there anything in fire alarm, any new product…? Are you guys a potter distributor?

Raquel Gomez:
Potter? No.

Drew Slocum:
No. Okay. Is there anything like that…and fire alarm doesn't change too much. It's pretty simple, but is there anything technology wise that you see kind of coming around that excites you?

Raquel Gomez:
I…not really. I would like to, because I started in San Diego where you go to these different cities and the jurisdictions, the codes are a little bit different. So, in San Diego I did the high rises, and then I went out to San Francisco and we did CI cable, circuit integrity cable, and there's just different codes.

But one thing that I would've liked to get into is smoke control. I never did smoke control, so I don't really know too much about it. So I guess if anything, maybe that. I mean, not really exciting, but I would like to learn it. I would like to, but I mean you don't really see that out here—or too much I would think.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, it's for larger buildings and definitely high rise because the smoke’s rising and it gets into fire dampers and getting…I don't know. It is interesting because it's a whole different realm.

Raquel Gomez:
Very interesting.

Drew Slocum:
With the fire dampers, and that gets into some of the fire doors and stuff too, where I feel like fire doors are overlooked so much in fire protection and there's nobody regulating them. There's some certain states that are, but I think Florida's pretty big on it. California's pretty big on it.

But fire doors, I mean, that causes the spread of a fire pretty significantly. You know, the industry's pretty good on fire alarm and sprinkler—and extinguishers, but I feel like fire door gets overlooked.

Raquel Gomez:
Oh, a hundred percent.

Drew Slocum:
Just personal opinion. 

Raquel Gomez:
No, I agree. I agree. We recently went to a hotel and they wanted a fire door inspection. And, like you said, it gets overlooked. So the only fire doors they're really thinking about are what corridors? Right? And then you open a door to a room, and that's also a fire door. You think about a hotel that has 300 something rooms, that's 300 plus fire doors. Who's regulating that? Who's inspecting that?

Drew Slocum:
Oh yeah, who's inspecting it?

Raquel Gomez:
So it's like, oh shoot, how long has this been overlooked? And where do you go from here? Again, there's just so much in fire protection, there's so much out there. There's so much to learn, there's so much to know. So it's like when they say jack of all trades, master of none, that's really what I am. I do know a lot. There's so much more out there, and I don't claim to know everything. I know I don't.

But you can get somebody who's been doing fire sprinklers for say, 20 years and they go do an inspection, but they might not do it as thorough as me because I'm actually reading the books and I'm going by codes and I'm…so I apply that stuff. And what I always tell everybody is, don't get complacent. And that was a big thing in the military too. Don't get complacent, you'll get blown up.

So it's like when we're doing these inspections and we're going in there and we're like, oh, it's just another inspection. And you kind of start to miss things. Or you're just going by your little checklist, okay, this is good, but then you're not really seeing the full view. So I think that's a big thing too. And I try not to get complacent. I always try to stay vigilant and keep a full eye view, but over time, things get missed.

Drew Slocum:
I know some companies—there's pros and cons to this—but some companies, they'll have a team of 10, five to 10 technicians. They'll switch it up, where every quarter or every annual, they'll send a different technician. So they find different things. It's almost a little competition between them too, that somebody missed something, right?

Raquel Gomez:
And they'll go, Hey, oh, you passed this last time. What happened here? And then that creates conflict. The owner's looking at you, what do you mean? You guys are the same company that’s been servicing me for five years. How is this person finding that? How is this person finding that? So I think, yeah, a hundred percent.

And I think a solution to that would be to maybe have monthly trainings, to make sure that everybody's on the same page. That's always been my suggestion anyways, is to get, you have these different technicians that, maybe they're better in fire alarm or their niche is this, or their niche is that. Well, why don't you bring everybody together to say, Hey, if you're doing this type of inspection, you're helping us out. Make sure you're looking for this or make sure you're looking for that. Just so everybody's kind of on the same page with the same book of knowledge. I mean, you guys are all on the same team. 

Drew Slocum:
You can do it easily with toolbox docs, right? Yeah, I think those are important. And it could be all over the place.

Where did you get most of your training through NICET and all that?

Raquel Gomez:
So…let's see. I was supposed to go through the apprenticeship for the fire alarm. I never did that. I just kept taking classes through the union. So I did all that. And then I just kept doing, just online training. They had silent night classes and just any free training that I could get online, I would just do it on my own. And so when I moved up to San Francisco, I was under the impression that I was going up there to assist in these jobs. And come to find out, they're like, oh no, you're running the work. I'm like…

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, you’re ead.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah. I'm like, I've only been doing this for a year and a half. But I was like, alright, well here we go. So again, trial and error, which is a great way to learn a lot of times. But it was just like, alright, I can't fail. I will not fail. So I would go home. I had no family up there. So I'd go up there, I'd go do my jobs. If somebody would ask me a question, I'd be completely transparent and be like, look, I don't know the answer to that question, but I'm going to go home and read the books and I'm going to look it up and I'll get back to you tomorrow. And they're like, okay.

And so I just earned this respect because I'm not BSing them, I'm not lying. I am completely transparent. I've only been doing this for a year and a half, but I'm going to figure it out for us. And so I go home and I read the books and I do this, this, and then I would troubleshoot it and I just ended up figuring it out.

And then from there it was just like, alright. I started looking into NICETs and I'm like, well, this is cool. This is going to help me too. And wherever I plan to go in life, this should give me some good looks on my resume and it would be good for me and my self-improvement. So I just started doing it on my own and then I ended up getting NICET III. So that was pretty cool.

Drew Slocum:
That's crazy. You went right to three…

Raquel Gomez:
No, you have to go—you have to go one, two, three, but for level one, you can do it as an entry level with little to no experience. I think. I don't know if it's changed, but it's within six months or so. You can go for your entry level one. And then the next one I think is two years. And after that it's five years or something like that. 10 years.

Drew Slocum:
I think back in the day, you could jump. You didn't have to take one. I'm almost positive. I'm a NICET fire sprinkler. I’ve probably let it lapse at this point. But on the install side, I never got the ITM side. However, I probably should just take it. Yeah, you should. And get my certificate. I sit on NFPA 25, so it can't be…

Raquel Gomez:
Right.

Drew Slocum:
And obviously the platform does NFPA 25 and 72 pretty well.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, those are good. I think they're good. I think we were talking about that with Dope and Tape a couple of weeks ago. When they were saying, some people do it just for the money. If the company's offering a bonus or Hey, you do this…incentives, you shouldn't only do it for incentives because it’s self-improvement. You should want to just go get that so you can be better. So you can expand your knowledge and sharpen your skills. But a lot of technicians out there won't do it unless they're getting some type of…

Drew Slocum:
The more knowledge that you have just makes you a better professional, right? Keeps you intrigued and yeah, I always, during my career in fire, absorb as much as possible. Go outside the box. It's good stuff.

So, I love the logo you guys got.

Raquel Gomez:
Oh, thank you.

Drew Slocum:
I don't think I've ever seen one like that.

Raquel Gomez:
Nice. I love that. So yeah, again, I was motor T when I was in, but before I got out I wanted to be a drill instructor. That was like, I was like, oh wow, they are so scary. That's what I want to be. But I ended up getting out and I never became a hat. So creating my logo, I had this vision of what I wanted and I sent it to somebody. I said, Hey, this is kind of what I want. I want her to look like, not mean, but just firm. My original actually had the digital cammies, the digital camouflage pattern and all that stuff. It had me on it, my rank and all that. And I started doing some research. I'm like, oh God, I got to take that off. I could probably get sued. And so I went with the all green, took the insignia off, and just kept the drill instructor campaign cover and the hat. So then he came out with that. I'm like, oh my God, I love it. I love it. So yeah, it's pretty cool. It looks pretty good.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, it's great.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, that's me before the tattoos. the braces, yeah…

Drew Slocum:
You even got it on..I saw it on the, didn't you have gauges made up with that on there?

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, yeah, we got gauges done from Arco. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Everybody likes that.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, it's always good to…any branding out there that you can do, right?

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, we haven't done very much. I mean, we have the van wrap and then we have the gauges, but as far as any other branding, marketing, I haven't even done any of that. And I'm kind of scared to, just because of how quickly the company took off.

And we're really busy right now, so I'm just like, oh my gosh. If I put any type of marketing out there and say we're a veteran-owned company, and I'm like, I'm scared that the phones are just not going to stop. So we kind of put a halt right now and we're just like, okay, let's find some experienced technicians. Let's kind of sharpen them up and be ready for that. I just feel like once that happens, it's going to be just even more nuts.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, it's cool to hear the success story of a startup. I call it startup because that’s what it is. And you take the experience and work ethic to that. And funny enough, Pat, he’s a partner, he's the CEO of Inspect Point, he's doing this whole video series on all these owner-operator companies like yourself, but also just a wide variety.

So it'll be cool to hear people's stories and how it's been transforming. And again, I think your tech or your fitter, whatever, you have the wherewithal after X amount—five, 10 years of experience, probably even less. If you put your mind to it, you can easily do it yourself. I don't want to say easily, right? But…

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah. Right. Yeah. So everybody always asks, and I remember, I always think about this because when Dope and Tape had me on their podcast when I first started, I was fresh, maybe a month or two months—and they're like, how's the transition been? And I'm like, it's been actually pretty easy. And mind you, this is only two months. So I've been doing some work but not, and then after that it went crazy and I look back on that and I'm like, can I retract that statement?

Because it has been everything but easy. It's been hectic, it's been overwhelming, it has been just a huge learning curve. I have books and books of notes and there's just so much to it. And I actually reached out to the owner of the company that I was working for previously, and I told him, I just want to thank you for everything that you've ever done for me as an employee. Because, being a business owner, you see a whole other side. When you're an employee, you're just like, well, why can't they get me a new truck? Well, why can't they do this? I don't know why they can't just buy me tools. And you don't see everything behind the scenes. Why can't they just pay me more money? Right? They could just get me a $5 raise. They're making money, but there is so much to it.

It's like the taxes, the insurance. Oh my gosh. And I only have three employees right now. I couldn't imagine. So I just reached out to him and I was like, I just want to thank you for always taking care of me and for just always being there and just always being supportive. And I was just like, it's just crazy out here. And he's just like, I'm sure sometimes you'll think that it's easier being an employee, which I'm sure it is, but you're going to do great. I was just like, thank you.

Drew Slocum:
Oh, that's great. That's great to hear. And it's great you actually reached back out. I try to do that with mentors and companies I've worked for too, because at the end of the day, it's just business. You want to have that personal connection and be thankful for it.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, it's nice to have that support. But I tell everybody, look, it's not for the weak hearted. It's not for the weak. I tell you what, you got to be tough skin in every sense of the word, and you just got to go after it. I was telling the boys a couple weeks ago on Dope and Tape, I said, you really have to have the dog in you. You have to be willing to sacrifice time, friends, money, everything in your life. You have to be willing to sacrifice. How bad do you want it?

Right? I mean, my days went from maybe eight hour days, 10 hour days to 16 hour days. I go out in the field, and I do what I got to do. Inspections, installations, phone calls, do all that. And I come home and then I got to put proposals together and invoices and sales and use tax and call insurances. And so it's like my day doesn't end until probably 11:00 PM and so there's just so much to it.

But I tell my family and I tell everybody, look, my mom's like, you need to take time for yourself. And I'm like, mom, I'm fine. This is only temporary. It's not going to last forever. My plan is to retire by the time I'm 40. So my birthday is this coming Saturday, right? I'll be 37. So no pressure. But I got about three years to give it my all.

I just got to reassure everybody. Look mentally, I'm good. I am good. I'm overwhelmed a little bit, but I'm okay. I take a deep breath and I'm like, you got it girl, you got it. You're doing great. Just keep rolling with the punches and it's only temporary.

Drew Slocum:
And you'll keep growing. You'll hire people and then you'll get to have a better role. And I think, obviously a good track and you find some good talent. And I think you can have a super successful business with less than 10 employees, right? 

Raquel Gomez:
Oh, yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. So my plan is to hire some good technicians who will uphold those standards like professionalism, integrity, commitment, and do what they got to do and love what they do. I want work to be fun, and I want to be that company that pays their employees like top dollar. Top dollar, puts them through all of the training, their continued dedication is supportive, that company, that really is a family.

Because these companies, people just say that, oh, we are like family, but everybody has their different idea of that. But I really want it to be a family where we do get togethers and we get together for our kids' birthdays and stuff like that. Just like you really build this camaraderie and hopefully that's ideal for my company. That's what I want, and I want to be able to give back. I don't want to be the only one making money. That's not fun.

Drew Slocum:
No, no. 

Raquel Gomez:
I want people to brag about their job and their career and say, like, man, this is the best company I've ever worked for. And I'm here with you. I'm in the dirt with you, so let's get it. Let's get it. I like people. 

Drew Slocum:
Yeah. And fire, obviously fire protection is a good feeling to be in because you're saving lives and protecting lives and buildings and…

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, hundred percent, a hundred percent.

Drew Slocum:
Everybody respects it.

Raquel Gomez:
It's a great industry.

Drew Slocum:
Well, again, I wanted to do this. I've known about you for a while and I'm really proud of what you've built and kind of took the leap. Obviously, Veterans’ Day is a big deal in our industry and just in this country in general. So thank you for your service. 

Raquel Gomez:
Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate that so much.

Drew Slocum:
All the people I've met out there and my current friends at home from the Navy.

Drew Slocum:
So where can we find, where can we find anything about Mar Vet?

Raquel Gomez:
So I have social media, I am on LinkedIn. I'm not really on there too much. Again, super busy right now. You can find us on Instagram, @marvet_firepro, we're on there. We got TikTok. Haven't posted videos in quite some time, but hopefully we'll start getting the ball rolling and stuff. Put out some good content and everything like that.

And thank you for your software, your platform, Inspect Point. I don't know if I told you, but I started listening to you about probably about two years ago when I was doing these long drives and I needed something else other than country, rap, and hip hop. So I switched to your podcast and I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. I'm actually learning as I drive. So that's how I learned about you, and that's how I learned about Inspect Point. And now I use Inspect Point, which is awesome. I'll never switch to anything else. And I'm glad I started with it because it's just been everything for me. It's like my go-to, so thank you for that.

Drew Slocum:
Well, yeah, hopefully it's saving you some time in the wee hours of the night if you're….

Raquel Gomez:
Oh yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. It's been great. Yeah, probably my sharpest tool right now.

Drew Slocum:
Oh, that's awesome. All the actual tools out there, we won out against them. Yeah, Milwaukee and whatever.

Raquel Gomez:
Right to Milwaukee. You're a strong second though.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, that's great. That's great. We, we'll get this out there and again, appreciate you coming on. Keep doing what you're doing and, in three years, I'm going to check back in because I want to…

Raquel Gomez:
Three years? Well, I hope you check back in before that. I hope it's not…

Drew Slocum:
Well, no, I'll check back in before that, but that's that milestone I'm going to be tracking.

Raquel Gomez:
Okay. Alright. Alright. Hopefully I got more to say then. Might be on an island somewhere.

Drew Slocum:
Yeah, right. Well, thanks again, Raquel.

Raquel Gomez:
Yeah, thanks, Drew.

Drew Slocum:
This has been episode 71 of The Fire Protection Podcast, powered by Inspect Point. Want to, again, thank Raquel for coming on and kind of getting this Fire Protection Podcast episode out on Veterans’ Day and really spotlighting the heroes and people involved in the armed forces within our industry. So again, appreciate her coming on and please like and subscribe. See you again soon.