EP 29 – Completely Shut Off and Shut Down – Dispatcher Lilly Noel
This young lady Lilly Noel was such a pleasure to interview! We dug into two of here favorite topics, her guns and her dog! We talked about her personal space and believe it or outer space… as in the galaxy space.
Lilly spilled the beans about something she once ate, that I promise, most people would say, “Oh hell new!”
Lilly says she a bit shy, but I’m not buying it LOL! She opened right up and even shared how she was bullied, plus much, much more! You have to listen to this young woman, she’s a real delight!
Oh yeah! Make sure you check out her Instagram profile, she has some of the coolest pics around… They were shot by her friend Nick.
FOLLOW LILLY & NICK:
Lilly’s Instagram
Nick’s Instagram
The following is the transcript form my interview with Lilly:
EP 29 – Tony: [00:00:42] Hey, what’s going on everybody. Welcome to episode number 29 of the off-duty podcast. Once again, it’s me, your boy, Anthony McNeill, as always. I greatly appreciate you tuning in to listen to the podcast. If you’ve been a regular listener, then, you know, from time to time, I have folks on this show that are not sworn police officers.
And today I have a young lady that’s. In law enforcement. As a matter of fact, I think what she does is a pretty important part of what we do as law enforcement officers. She’s been a dispatcher now for two years in a state of Illinois. Please welcome Ms. Lily, no Lily, how you doing?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:01:20] I’m doing well. How are you?
EP 29 – Tony: [00:01:22] I’m doing awesome. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming on the podcast. I greatly appreciate it now, as everyone knows. My first question is usually why law enforcement. But obviously, as I said, Lily, she’s a dispatcher. So I gotta ask Lily, why dispatcher?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:01:36] Well, I’ve always been really interested in law enforcement since I was a kid.
And. Just watching, like the show cops when I was a kid and I just loved how every day was different and how exciting it was. And I first got into the field when I was in college, I was just an unpaid intern and one of the positions that they had open after my internship was a dispatcher for the town.
And so I just kind of fell in love with. Being like behind the scenes and getting that first call. And I dabbled into being a community service officer, but I really liked the dispatching aspect better. And. You’re still part of law enforcement. I feel like sometimes, like even I forget about it sometimes that like, Oh, I, you know, still with the crew and, but it’s fun just being on the other side, kind of being the eye in the sky for your officers, if there is a pursuit or a foot chase, and also just getting to know your callers as well.
I just patch for a small town. So I know my community and my people, um, and every call is different, which is exciting. Cause you never know what to expect when you first answer that. Well first
EP 29 – Tony: [00:02:43] call. Yeah. Yeah. Now you said you’re in a small community. I know when I first got involved in law enforcement, I lived in a city that I worked in the City of Southfield.
And oftentimes I would have, like, my neighbors would come over and have police issues and I’m like, I’m off duty if it’s not for the emergency call the station, you know, given what you do, how is it when you’re out and about in the town, do you run into citizens that you’ve dealt with or nine one, one calls.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:03:14] Aye, especially if I run into like the gas stations where, you know, we’ll get calls usually later at night of, you know, people causing a disturbance. So it’s mainly the clerks of the place. And you kind of recognize them by their voice. I don’t know if they recognize me by my voice, but I don’t live in the town that I work in.
I’m close to it, but I don’t live in it, but I’m sure there’s been times where, you know, I’ve spoken to someone over the phone for a, uh, serious. Emergency call and I’ll maybe be right next to them at the store. And I have no idea and they have no idea either. Yeah. I mean, that’s kind of the interesting part is knowing that you could have possibly helped the person standing right next to you and you don’t know.
Yeah. Yeah.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:03:55] It’s funny because I was in law enforcement for 20 years. And I remember when I first got started, we lived in the city that that I worked in for about five years. And we went out to eat at a restaurant and our waitress. Just so happens. I was at her house on a domestic and I looked out, I don’t know if she recognized me or not, but I told my wife, I think we may want to find a different restaurant.
Yeah.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:04:19] I have a few friends. They, you know, once you’re in the world, a lot of your friends are all law enforcement and there’s been a couple of times we go out to dinner and they’re like, can we change our table? Or, Hey, let’s go somewhere else. I’m like, why what’s going on? Like, Oh, you know, I just arrested this person last week or like, all right, let’s pick a
EP 29 – Tony: [00:04:36] new plan.
Yeah, without getting into details, what’s been the craziest call that you’ve, that you can recall that you’ve taken
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:04:42] out, getting into detail without
EP 29 – Tony: [00:04:45] giving any, you know, important information names or any yeah.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:04:48] Um, I mean, I would say it was like one of my first times, well, one of my first couple of weeks on the town had an armed robbery, but it came in.
Really weird. We’re at peace at two. So when someone calls nine one, one, it goes to like the County dispatch and then they transfer it over to us. So whoever called originally hung up before they could give out any information that was pertinent to the call. And so I just received the location and like a.
Possible vehicle just being abandoned, not thinking, okay, it’s just an abandoned vehicle. So I thought my officers over there, I’m trying to call any businesses in the area because the phone number wasn’t working to call back and turns out it wasn’t an abandoned vehicle. It was actually an armed vehicular hijacking along with.
Like a possible robbery that happened there as well. So you, you know, I went from an abandoned vehicle to an articular hijacking. And so, I mean, it was pretty interesting because it was the first time that I got to ping a cell phone for a felonious vehicle and track it and eventually want to. The other towns.
Got it. I think a couple of days later, but I mean, it just goes to show that no call is ever just going to be ordinary, it’s that you can go from zero to 100 very quickly. Yeah. Isn’t that the truth?
EP 29 – Tony: [00:06:10] Yeah, that does definitely the truth.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:06:12] Yeah. Especially the first couple of weeks, I was like, Oh wow.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:06:18] Do you guys, because I don’t think the average person.
No, what you guys actually do. And it’s quite a bit, I mean, you’re juggling three or four different things at a time, especially on something that’s crazy. I remember when I first got hired, going through orientation, part of our orientation was to sit in with the disc and sit in dispatch. And this particular day we had an armed robbery that just took place and then a separate shooting that took place.
I’m sorry, a pursuit that took place. So the way our dispatchers worked at that time, you know, you had one police. One flier in one answering the calls. And Dan, I think there were a couple other people in the room doing other things, but. I’ll never forget that day, that the dispatcher that was handling the police calls, she was about to lose her mind.
I mean, because you had one officer given out directions during this pursuit. And like I say, we had this arm robbery that just came in and they were trying to give off information. Suspects and all that stuff. And it was just totally crazy. It just gets to the point where she just said, okay, everybody on the radio, just be quiet.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:07:25] I feel her were a one man crew. Most of the time, a couple of days out of the week, we may have a partner for a couple hours. So it’ll be some days we really don’t get many calls or, you know, emergency calls. There’ll be like citizens assist, but. Well, last couple days, it’s been super nice here in Illinois.
Super nice as I’m, you know, above 30 degrees. And so people are out and about and doing more. And you know, the other day, I think I had 12 calls for service within like less than 10 minutes. And I’m just sending guys, and I’m like, if anyone else who can just go do this really quick and you know, and. They don’t know what’s going on behind the desk either sometimes.
Um, and so there’ll be calling something out and I’m like, just stand by for one minute. Cause now I have something else on the phone right now, but the crew I work with, they’re awesome. And you know, we get on each other’s nerves, but at the end of the day, we’re always trying to get together, grab dinner.
We work out together. So we really are a team and. I’ll let them know and be like, Hey, it’s getting backed up over here. Hold off on your parking ticket for two seconds.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:08:32] Yeah. It’s a, it’s important to have a good dispatcher that’s for sure. You know, you guys are definitely underappreciated that’s for sure.
Now I want to go ahead and get into the new format that I have here on the podcast. If you have not listened to any of the previous podcasts, then you probably have not heard my new format. I switched over because I think it makes it a little bit more interesting conversation. If this is a listener’s first time listening, just know that the off-duty podcast is not your typical law enforcement podcast.
We’re not so much interested or talk about politics, tactics, and things like that. We’re more about the men and women of law enforcement and allowing the human side of these people to be seen by you. The listener. And I think with my new format, it really helps drive home what I’m trying to accomplish.
And the first part that I want to get into is what I call dig deeper. And basically what that is, is where I go through my guests, social media profiles, and I find several posts and I ask them questions about those posts to see what they were all about. And Lily, one of the first things with you is your IgG bio caption.
And on your, you have a huge fan of space, both personal and outer space. Now my first question is. When you just want to get away from everyone, where do you go and what do you do?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:10:02] Well, if I don’t have the opportunity to really go somewhere, honestly, my me-time is at the gym. I try to start every day with going there for at least 90 minutes and just throwing my headphones on, you know, not really talking to people like saying hi and whatnot, but that is really the only time I have where I.
Have to just be myself. Cause I really don’t get that, you know, being at work, you’re talking on the phone or talking to people in person and then I’m at home. I have a hyperactive three-year-old boxer take care. So that is really like my personal time. I don’t like it interrupted, you know, I, I plan for it.
That is like on my schedule and I make sure I can make it even today coming back from vacation. I still want sunburn and all.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:10:49] Yeah. When you get a chance, go over and check out her Instagram. We’ll give you the handle here in a little bit, but she just got back from Florida, I believe. And like she had quite the time
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:11:02] and relaxing.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:11:04] Yeah. Now my next question regarding your, your bio, do you believe in UFO’s?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:11:12] I believe that there’s something out there I’m just kind of seeing the videos when we love the show ancient aliens, because it’s just so bizarre. And you know, some of the stuff they provide, it’s like, how do you, like who has the time to create this corn field and whatnot?
Um, but I always think there’s more, I try not to just close it off. There might be something out there, you know, I’m not 100% sure. I don’t like go looking for it. You know, I think just provided with the videos that I’ve seen. That third passively could be something out there, you know, why not, you know, believe in something like that and see what could be out there.
I don’t know if I’d want to meet a little,
EP 29 – Tony: [00:11:53] I know that’s I know that’s a weird question, but you know, like you said that you were a huge fan of outer space and that’s what prompted me to ask that question. Now me personally, I, when you just go strictly by the definition of a UFO. It’s an unidentified flying object, which doesn’t mean it has to be something from outer space.
It’s just an unidentified flying object. So when someone asks me, do I believe in UFO’s and I have to answer yes. If I just go strictly by the, by that, by the words themselves, you know, now, as far as things from outer space that we are not familiar with. I, yeah. I believe that there is something else out there in the universe, and I’m sure they may have wondered this way to check out earth what they look like, what they’re all about.
I have no idea, but I’m sure there has to be other. Other forms of life out there someplace, you know, we can’t be the only
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:12:47] one. Definitely. And even just like the other, I mean, plan it’s like, obviously I’ve never seen them in person. Do I ever want to go to space? No, it kind of terrified me just like the deep sea really terrifies me, but I just think it’s interesting.
Like if they say, I forget what planet, I’m no expert in this, but there’s a planet you can grow life on. And I think that’s pretty cool. You know, maybe. Who knows what could happen in a couple of eons and years out of people living on another planet. But I just think that’s interesting to know that there’s more out there that we don’t think about every day, but it’s there
EP 29 – Tony: [00:13:22] now.
You just answered my third question, which was what you want to travel to outer space.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:13:30] I already have a hard time flying on a plane, so that would not be fun. I. Hate it. I absolutely hate
EP 29 – Tony: [00:13:37] it. Yeah. I don’t like Heights. I’m not afraid of Heights. I just don’t like them, but planes I have no issue with, so I don’t know if I will be willing to go to outer space. I would have to let a few other people go before me.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:13:52] Let me know when you come back.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:13:53] Yeah, exactly. Let me know what it’s like. And then maybe I’ll venture, right? That way. Moving on to another one of your posts, actually your profile as a whole, when I looked at your profile, the two things that stood out the most to me. Were your interest interesting guns.
And of course your dogs, where did the love for the guns come
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:14:13] from? I mean, I’ve been introduced to them since I was a young age. Just going, shooting up North, doing just target practice. I’m not a Hunter or anything like that. I just liked guns, but it all started with handguns and then it turned into rifles.
But. Besides it being a good protection and being able to carry and know that you’re protected all the time. It was just interesting how they work to like every gun that I buy. I like to take it apart, look at all the mechanisms, you know, what it looks like when you’re pulling the trigger and whatnot.
When you have the slide off and. All of it’s really interesting. My next project, when I’m getting switched over to midnights in a couple of weeks, I want to start building my own rifle. So I think that’ll be really fun and something new. And that’s how I really get to understand. My gun and how it works.
If it jams, I know how to unjam it. How often do you get to shoot? Um, not so often now I am, I went a couple of weeks ago and it was almost $40 for a round for 50 rounds.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:15:15] So yeah, the new 300 blackout and the only animal I could find when I bought it was Steelcase ammo. And it was only 25 rounds. And I think I paid 50 bucks for it, but, but it will Steelcase which I really didn’t want to shoot, but it was the only thing that I could find.
And it’s starting to become a little bit more accessible, but it’s still, you know, still kind of tight trying to try to get your hands on some good ammo. I think I’m going to end up changing my 300. I’m going to change the upper. And put a two 23 upper on it. Yeah. Cause it’s easier to get the two 23 rounds right now than it is to 300 blackout.
How many guns do you have
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:15:58] right now? I just have three. I have my SIG T3 20, which I love not a carry gun for me, at least it’s giant. But, um, I usually carry my I’m NP 2.0 shield or my SIG P three 65, which I just got about a month ago. Now I waited about six months to get that one. So it was like my Christmas and birthday gift combined to myself.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:16:22] We keep talking about it. Go ahead and give out your, uh, your IgE handle guys. Please go over and follow Lily and check her profile out. Can you just go ahead and share that please?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:16:30] Yeah, it’s a Lily Noel, @L I L L Y N O E L no underscores or anything like that.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:16:37] Okay. And I’m going to put a link to that down in the show notes also.
So you guys can click over and check her out, but her profile, I don’t know who your photographer is, but they take some hell of a pictures. She has all these big guns that she’s out here and in everything.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:16:51] Who’s the photographer. Uh, it’s my friend, Nick, actually, he’s got a couple. Handles and what his photography wants to do civically.
I believe his shots by an M, but we met a couple of years ago. I used to work with this one DJ and I would help set up for like weddings and just kind of make sure everything went okay. And he was one of the photographers there. And. We just became good friends right off the bat. And a couple of years ago he started asking me, you know, why don’t you start doing photography?
Let me do a photoshoot. And I was super against it. I actually I’m very camera. So I’ll see if I can’t see myself because I don’t know what I look like. Like, and I’m like, Oh no, I don’t like this angle. Do it from over here. So finally within like the last year he’s been helping me get out of my shell and setting up these cool shoots and.
It’s really cool to see the ending product, because I feel like a dork when I’m doing them. I’m like, how should I move it this way? How should I, you
EP 29 – Tony: [00:17:45] were very comfortable doing
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:17:47] it. That turned out the first time was a nightmare. At least in my opinion, I was just so shy. And I still feel a little dorky now, but just being comfortable with your photographer and he’s a good friend of mine as well.
So that helps out a lot. And I don’t feel as timid anymore, but there’s still times I’m like, So I have a double chin. What do I look like over here?
EP 29 – Tony: [00:18:10] I used to go over and check out her. Gee, the photography is fantastic out of the guns that you have. Which one is your face?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:18:16] My favorite one. I love it actually. Yeah. Shockingly, like compared to my 2.0 shield, in my opinion, it’s less of a kickback almost. It’s a really smooth trigger pole. I love the SIGs.
And so that’s why I got the P three 65 so I can have it on me, but I just love how smooth the trigger pole is. It fits my hand very nicely. I’ve tried Glock and I know they’re very popular and. I’m just not a fan of how they feel in my hand, but I did like the HKS as well. So, but those are a little pricey right now, especially with everything getting inflated.
So, but those are very nice too. I’m all about the trigger pull and the comfort in my hands. Okay.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:18:59] Now you mentioned your boxer. You only have one dog,
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:19:03] so yeah, so he is my dog, the white one. And then. We have Ronnie as well, which I got him from my mom for Christmas. She fell in love with my box. And when I brought her home three years ago and ever since then, she just wants a boxer so bad.
And I finally found him a lady accidentally had a litter with her dog and her neighbor’s dog. So I saw him and I’m like, Oh, he’s perfect. He’s at the like cute little cone head. Like I love him. And, uh, now they’re, inseparable like I hate pulling them apart or so when I go on vacation, they get to chill together and be a little buddies.
But my Ziggy is a nutcase, but we work out well because we’re both hyper. Now,
EP 29 – Tony: [00:19:45] if you could only choose one, your guns or your dog, which one would you choose?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:19:49] Oh my dog any day. She’s also kind of like my weapon as well. She’s very, very protective over her mama. She is, but she’s a sweetheart, but she knows if I start to feel uncomfortable in a situation, she’ll start creating distance and kind of pushing me away, which is pretty neat to see.
But she is, she’s definitely a mama’s girl.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:20:10] Okay. Now, speaking of Nick, one of the pictures that he took of you. Was the picture of you holding a gun and it was pretty much all black background. And the caption that you wrote was Nick always catching my best angles. What’s the next one. You remember that post?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:20:28] Oh yeah. I’m going to look it up right now, actually. So I know exactly what photo you’re talking about
EP 29 – Tony: [00:20:32] and someone replied, wow. So bad as are you an action hero? Which led me to my question. My first question. If you were a hero, what would your superpower be?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:20:44] Um, wow, that’s a good one. Okay. There’s like a lot of things I love, like, I don’t know, like be able to eat and knocking, like yeah, eat all
EP 29 – Tony: [00:20:59] the food.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:21:03] Um, but that’s kind of lame, um, I guess. Like a really cool superpower would probably to read it. Yeah. Or people’s minds. I don’t know. Just thinking about my kind of job and law enforcement would be kind of cool to read like a criminal’s mind, like what he might be thinking of next and you can plan your next move on that.
So I think that would be cooler than. Being able to eat everything.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:21:28] I don’t know. I kinda liked being able to eat everything.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:21:32] I know the guys on my shift here now they’re going to be like, of course you brought food in there, somehow,
EP 29 – Tony: [00:21:39] nothing wrong with that. Now people along the same lines of catching your best angle, what would you say your best quality as a person is.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:21:48] My best quality as a person. I don’t know. I feel like I’m easy to get along with. I like to get along with other people, like, especially, you know, getting into a department that’s pretty small, they’re already pretty tight with each other. So you kind of have to make yourself known and almost kind of prove yourself, you know, that you can hang with the crowd.
That’s where I find it easy just to be social with other people. And. Just kind of be friendly with others. As soon as I got hired, they were very welcoming to my shift, especially the afternoon shift right now, but we hit it off immediately. And sometimes I think to myself, like, all right, You know, should I lay off a little bit, but within like the first week, they’re like, Hey, do you want to come work out with us?
I was like, yeah, let’s do it. And I was almost a little shy at first. I was like, well, I don’t really know that, but we hit it off immediately. And now we’re all such a tight crew or great friends inside and outside of work. And honestly, I couldn’t ask for anything more. Yeah.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:22:46] Now, along the same lines, what would you say would be your least favorite quality about yourself or something that you think you need to work
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:22:53] on?
Probably not overthinking everything. And that goes for like everything in life, you know, getting a job. Like I tend to overthink a lot of. How someone might be, you know, talking to me like, Oh, did I make them angry or taking a certain situation and thinking, well, could I have done this instead? And could the call have gone more smoother if I asked this question this way instead of this way.
But you know, at the end of the day, you don’t have time to think when. You’re in a conversation with someone, or if you’re taking a call, it’s not like you can say, hold on, pause. Let me, let me think how I want to respond to this. But I would definitely say, like, I just tend to overthink, but I got to just kind of relax a little more and everyone’s human.
I’m human too. So just not to be so hard.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:23:37] Gotcha. Now, uh, again, on this same post stand along the best angle lines, what would you say is your least favorite body part?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:23:46] My least favorite body part. It’s probably my stomach.
Oh, I don’t know that part of you have to like work more. When I go to the gym and workout, like I said, I love to eat food. I love. To try new things. So if I gain a little bit of weight, it goes right there. And you could tell if I had a whole pizza pizza, I can relate to that. Yeah. But otherwise, I mean, it almost pushes me to just, you know, eat clean.
Um, especially when I’m sitting down for eight hours a day, I’m doing my job, but yeah, it definitely makes me want to have a better lifestyle and not give in so easy to eat junk
EP 29 – Tony: [00:24:27] food. Yeah. It’s funny because. I had mentioned this on previous podcasts, but I retired in 2013 and I was, I think at my lowest weight, I was down to one 90 and I’m five, seven.
And after I retired, I gained 40 pounds and a couple of weeks ago I get on a scale. And that was the heaviest that ever been was, was, which was, uh, two 28. And I told my wife that day. Okay. It’s time to make some changes. And, you know, I started working out again and everything. Now I’m down five pounds.
It’s a slow process. But once I, it takes me if I can stick with it for two weeks. I’m good. Yeah. That’s good. Yeah. It’s just getting through those first couple of weeks. That’s always the hard part for me, but once I do that and you know, I can usually stick it out and do what I need to do. My goal is to get back down below 200.
I would like to ultimately get back down to one 90, but, you know, hell if I can just get. 20 of these pounds off me. I’ll be happy.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:25:25] You can do it. It’s just, it’s all mindset. It’s hard to get back in. Like the first couple days are always going to be the roughest, but then you get into this groove and it becomes a part of your schedule.
And you’re like, no, hold on. I got to do this first. And then, you know, I’ll come. Yes. It’s
EP 29 – Tony: [00:25:41] easier also because we’re like you, we like to eat out nuts are both, our kids are grown now, so they’ve moved out and it’s just the wife and I, so we often find ourselves eating out a lot and things like that. And you know, she’s exercising with me now in the morning.
So it helps when we’re both doing it. Um, yeah. Yeah. It just makes it, it makes it easier that way. You know, if one of us wants to eat something, we shouldn’t be eating Danny, you know, we have the other one here to kind of say, nah, let’s go this way. And that kind of happened to us the other day we were out and about, and we both had gotten a little hungry and when we were going to stop at this hamburger place that we wanted to try, and it was like, you know what?
Let’s just go home and make a sense.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:26:21] There you go. It really matters like who you hang out with and who you’re with all the time. Cause they’re a huge influencer on. You know what you’re going to make your choices on. You know, I’ve been in relationships where they don’t really care about working out and I’ve noticed I’ve gained weight and you know, they’re not so supportive of me, you know, dieting down and going to the gym.
So that’s when I realized like these kinds of people I can’t have in my life because my goals are much different. And if they’re not going to help me reach my goals, You know that in, uh, the most selfish thing, I guess for myself is I gotta reach my goals first, but I’m always willing to help others. If they need motivation, come to the gym with me, we’ll get a workout in.
I’ll help you eat cleaner. And, you know, I’ll give you some tips, motivation, help get to your goals. So having those friends and the people in your circle that are very similar with a very similar mindset, it helps a lot.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:27:14] Yup. Yup. That’s for sure. I want to get to the last pulse here that I looked at. And this one, this one goes back a little bit, but it was you in a Santa outfit and you were saying, trying to look nice and sweet just in time for the holidays.
You remember that post. Okay. And my question is what’s the meanest thing you’ve ever done to someone. The
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:27:35] reviews thing, my brother could tell you all about it.
Yeah. Yeah. I have a brother who’s two years younger than me and I mean, growing up, I was awful. I’ll completely admit it when he was always the brother, like if I was getting in trouble, he would. Tell my mom and go, no, don’t yell at my sister. I love her. And my mom’s like, she just pushed you. I would you say that?
Like, I was a terrible kid, but we’re best friends now. Like I go and visit him all the time. He’s a great chef, but Oh, he’s probably remembered everything, but you know, it’s tough love. I think I helped to toughen him up a little bit. You know, are you the
EP 29 – Tony: [00:28:18] only kids? Yes. Okay. We, like I said, we have two daughters and looking back on it, when they were younger, the youngest, we thought she was the innocent one, but I’ll never forget.
My wife called her one day. She would often fall down in the hallway and just start crying and say that her, her sister hit her or pushed her down or something. My wife just happened to be looking down the hallway and she watches her just fall out and she starts crying. And she’s saying that her sister knocked her down.
Yeah. Kids are funny. Speaking of kids, one of the questions I always like to ask people when they come on, if you could go back and talk to 15 year old, you, what would,
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:29:00] I would say two. You know, not let people’s words and opinions of you get to you as a kid growing up, I was bullied a lot and, you know, I let their words get to me and, you know, I would give up on certain things and, or, you know, just completely shut off and shut down and not do what I wanted to do or do what they thought I should do instead of doing what I think I should do.
And it wasn’t until late high school college that. You know, I kind of said, screw that I’m doing what I want to do, and I’m not going to let other people’s opinions of how I look or what I do get to me. And I’m just going to build my own brand. So that, I mean, that helped a lot. And I would definitely want to give that advice to my younger self, you know, You’re a kid, like things are going to happen.
Kids can be mean sometimes just don’t let it get to you and keep doing what you want to do. And I give that advice to other kids as well. I used to teach dance when I was in college. And so I taught a very young crew and you know how sometimes kids can be buttheads and they’re just mean to each other for no reason.
And they will come up to me crying and I tell them like, you know, they’re saying it today and watch tomorrow, they’re going to want to be your best friend. Like you’re a kid just. Don’t worry about what they have to say to you. Just keep moving on. And it doesn’t seem like a lot, but it helped them out a lot and they wouldn’t be like, Oh miss Lily, are you sure?
I’m like, I’m positive. And if it doesn’t, then you come back and you talk to me and they’re like, okay.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:30:25] Yeah. Now I asked you what was the meanest thing you’ve ever done to someone what’s the meanest thing you’ve ever had done
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:30:32] to say I’ve ever had done to me? I don’t know. I mean, I’m sure it’s happened.
It’s just like, I don’t care to
block those things out of her mind. Right. And it’s just like, I’m sure something. And if I think hard enough about it, I’ll think I’ll come up with it. But
EP 29 – Tony: [00:30:54] flip side of that, what’s the nicest thing you’ve ever done for someone.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:30:57] Um, the nicest thing I would say, you know, for. The community, I guess I used to be part of the love, your melon crew at my college.
And if you don’t know about it, they’re those big beanies I have like that patch on it. And it says like, love your melon and all the proceeds go to kick a pediatric cancer. So I was, we kind of started at our college and it’s still going today and it’s grown by the numbers. So it’s really cool to see that.
But we would set up fundraisers at neighboring high schools and colleges and just try and get money to give to the organization. And I mean, it was just. Awesome. Just so go visit these kids and know that you are there and helping them get their proceeds to help with their treatments. And we got to dress as superheroes, which is really cool because the one kid specifically, my mom knew him and she kind of gave me the reference.
And even to this day, he’s like, you’re wonder woman. And I’m like, Hey, don’t tell other people that, well, like I’m only wonder woman at night. And he was like, no, you’re wonder woman, but I’m not telling anyone your secrets. So I was just really cool to just lighten these kids’ days up and be like real superheroes in front of them.
And it was kind of cool to be a superhero and play games with them and whatnot. So, I mean, I would say that’s probably the nicest thing I’ve ever done and it was just fun overall, too. We had a great time. I miss being in the group that’s for sure.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:32:20] Yeah. Yeah. Now you mentioned superheroes, which leads me into my next segment here, which is the random seven.
And the first question that popped up what these are to just seven electronically generated questions. Okay. So I don’t know what they are until they, till they pop up. Okay. And the first question that popped up, it says you’re in an elevator with your hero. You have 90 seconds to tell them about yourself.
What do you say?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:32:49] No,
the one interview question, I just blanked out every time. Um, honestly, I’d probably just start going on about, you know, I have a dog that she’s three years old. She’s a boxer I like to eat and try new foods. There might. One of my biggest interests is just traveling around and trying out new breweries and new restaurants, man, my superhero, I would probably just freeze up, honestly, who who’s your hero?
My
EP 29 – Tony: [00:33:21] hero. Who would you consider to be your hero?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:33:24] I would honestly say, like, my mom she’s an immigrant. So she immigrated here many years ago before I was born, but she literally came with nothing. And just to know how much she has grown on her own and created herself being in a brand new country, not speaking a lick of English, um, raising a family she’s from Serbia.
Okay. Yeah. So. She met my dad and they came over here and I mean, just the, both of them together, they really started with nothing. We had nothing as kids and, you know, not to get like pitiful on myself or anything, but, um, we really had to grow up and earn what we wanted. And now we’re obviously living comfortably and nice, but, you know, we had to.
Really worked for what we wanted. Um, seeing my parents struggle. It wasn’t fun. And now when I think about it, it’s like, wow, I didn’t see this as much as a kid, but just seeing how far they’ve come. Especially with my mom, committed to the country and even just getting her citizenship took forever, but it was just really cool that she never gave up.
She kept going. And even today, she. Loves she’s really into fitness. And so she eventually wants to open up her own gym and train clients out of there. So I keep telling her, you know, you can do it. You just got to get your mind on it. So, yeah. So she’s definitely, she’s someone I look up to.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:34:46] Awesome. Awesome.
The next question. If you could look into a crystal ball and see one thing about your future, what would you want to know?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:34:58] I would want to know. You know, like how, like, if I had made progress, whether it’s in like my career or just like influencing others, um, I would want to know, like, if I did anything to help someone big or small, cause that kind of stuff, it really sits in me. And I think about a lot, like how just talking to someone over the phone, you’ve never met about a situation.
You could be helping them. So I definitely want to know. And if in a couple of years, You know, I had helped someone majorly. Maybe I do something today or tomorrow and five years down the road, they are clean and they’re sober and you know, they have their life on track and stuff like that. Yeah.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:35:38] That would be interesting to be able to see your future like that.
Now, speaking of future is what do you see yourself at career wise and say 10 years
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:35:47] thinking about testing to be policed. So that’s definitely something. I’m thinking about, I don’t know about if it in the state of Illinois, but definitely that’s something that’s been on the back of my mind that I’ve been wanting to do and maybe tasks and see how I would be as a police officer.
But in 10 years I would like to do that. There’s a little more opportunity. I feel that, um, and dispatching and I like to grow a lot and try new things. So it’s definitely something I’ve been thinking about. And, but I want to. Tests to be somewhere for a long time and not, you know, jump around too often.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:36:22] Yeah. All right. For the next question, if you could get a ticket to any show or event past, present, or future, what would that ticket be?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:36:34] I would say. Anything like dance or gymnastics related? I believe it’s called Shen Yun and Chicago. I watched it many years ago when I was a child. And it was just really cool to see how these people can do this stuff with their bodies, that it just looks.
Impossible and being a former dancer too. It’s just, it’s a beautiful art and I just love watching it and it’s just mesmerizing to sit there for hours and just watch the shows go on. But I would love to see another performance like that and just all the hard work that goes in there as well. It’s phenomenal.
I mean, There’s really no words to describe it. Yeah, I
EP 29 – Tony: [00:37:12] agree. We saw a show, something like that. We were in Florida, it was a circus Olay. I can’t remember which one it was, but they had these contortionists and there, and some of the things that they were doing and like, uh, and knew him, my youngest daughter now, now she’s into doing all that crazy stretching and.
Bending and all that stuff. And I told us Kate, okay, now don’t we end up in the house.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:37:39] We’ll get paid if we’re going to do this.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:37:40] Exactly. Yeah, exactly. That’s one of her goals to be able to damn near bend all the way over backwards. I’m like, okay, little girl. Don’t hurt yourself. Now going onto the next question. Would you rather suck on a worm flavored lollipop or lik snail flavored ice cream?
That tells you these are just random off the wall questions,
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:38:04] worm flavored lollipops.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:38:06] Yup. Or snail flavored ice cream.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:38:10] I mean, I’ve eaten a worm before. So I’d have to go for the warm flavor lollipop.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:38:16] Yeah, I think I would go with the lollipop also only because I would imagine that it tastes just like dirt.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:38:22] It was a bet with my cousin and I swallowed it and I’m still here today. So obviously it wasn’t too
EP 29 – Tony: [00:38:27] bad. The next question I told you, these questions are just off the wall. Just random questions. Would you rather have a snowball fight or a water balloon fight.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:38:38] A water balloon fight. Yeah.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:38:40] Yeah, you can keep the snow I’m done with the snow.
Have you guys gotten a lot
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:38:46] there? Oh yeah. I was plowing the driveway every day continuously. It never stopped. I just gave up at one point and I just did a little spot for the mailman to come up to the door.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:38:59] I agree. Yeah. I’m so over to snow. It’s the last couple of days here in Michigan, it’s been. Close to the, in the fifties, lower fifties.
So a lot of it has melted, but I’m sure we’re going to probably get one more big snowfall before spring comes. Oh,
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:39:13] I’m sure we’re in a nice heat wave today. It’s 33. So I’m living for
EP 29 – Tony: [00:39:18] us. Yeah. Yeah. Last question here. Would you rather be proposed to in public or private?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:39:25] Uh, I would say in private. Okay. I don’t like surprises.
I don’t know how I would react.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:39:32] I remember when I proposed to my wife. I was actually, I had just started the Academy and I think it was the first week in the Academy and I proposed, we were at my apartment and right after I proposed I had to leave and I was gone pretty much the rest of the night because I had to go study with some guys.
Awesome. Yeah. One more question. I thought that was the last one. The last question is when was the last time you cried?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:40:03] Last time I cried. I think it was like last week or something. It was kind of lame. And I was just like petting Ziggy. And I was like, Oh my God, you’re not going to be here forever. And it just brought me.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:40:17] Yeah. I can see that we have a little, have a niece and he’s 16 years old now. And yeah, but he’s hanging in there. I mean, I don’t know if you saw my recent story. I posted a picture of him, but
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:40:29] yes I did. Yeah. It was a lazy Sunday. Right?
EP 29 – Tony: [00:40:34] All he does is sleep until it’s time to eat. And then you thought you would think he was a newborn puppy, the way he runs around and barks and everything.
But once he eats he’s right back in that position,
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:40:44] that’s good. They, I, that’s not, I’m hoping sake, you know, the boxer Brie doesn’t live very long, but. I just try to soak it up and take her as many places I can because it means a lot to them. And you know, they’re not here forever.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:40:58] Yeah. He’s hanging in there.
I have to give him credit. He’s had, I didn’t think he would last as long, but he is. Yeah, that’s
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:41:04] really good.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:41:05] All right. Let’s get to the last segment here. And this is what I called this or that. And you don’t really have to explain these in depth if you don’t want to, but I’m just going to give you two topics and you choose one.
Okay. All right. The first one private jet or yet
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:41:23] a yacht.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:41:24] Okay. And that could be to own or just travel. Would you ever, uh, the next one jump rope or jumping jacks? Jumping
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:41:34] jacks.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:41:35] Okay. Early on time or late?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:41:38] Early.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:41:39] Yeah. That’s one of my pet peeves. I think I know the answer to this next one tank top or t-shirt.
Uh, tank top
looking at your profile. That’s what I figured. You went to a kiss on the first date or make them wait,
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:42:01] let’s say
EP 29 – Tony: [00:42:01] make a weight. Okay. Apple or Android?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:42:06] Apple. I don’t know how to work Android.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:42:11] And the last one root beer or ginger REL.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:42:15] Oh, root beer, especially if it has aged vanilla in it. Oh yeah.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:42:19] Yeah. I liked rupee. I had some, as a matter of fact, someone that I know from Chicago brought me some root beer. I don’t know where he got it from there, but it was like a homemade, authentic tight.
I’d never tasted anything like it before, but it was delicious and he got it someplace in Chicago. I just don’t know where, but it was really good. I’m going to have to find out. Yeah, send that to me. The name of the place that he got it from, but it was really good. But listen, Lily, I don’t want to take up more of your time.
I greatly appreciate you coming on and talking to me and letting everyone learn a little bit more about yourself. Um, just one more time, if you don’t mind just going out, go ahead and share your, your IgE handle so everybody can go over and follow you.
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:43:05] Yeah. Uh, it’s Lily Noel, @LILLYNOEL.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:43:10] Awesome.
Awesome. And guys, once again, please go over and check her out on Instagram. Is that your only social media?
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:43:16] Uh,
EP 29 – Tony: [00:43:18] yeah,
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:43:22] I just, I don’t know how to get on anything and I already. Socket check and some of the messages on Instagram. So, I mean, if it works, I like the connections I’ve made through it too.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:43:31] Yeah. Yeah. Any last words
EP 29 – Lilly: [00:43:33] before we go here? No, just thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. And you know, getting to know what happens behind the scenes of, you know, law enforcement and whatnot.
So I really appreciate it. Yeah.
EP 29 – Tony: [00:43:44] It was fun. I enjoyed it. Everybody stay tuned for the next episode. You know, I release them every Monday morning at seven o’clock Eastern time. The past few episodes, I’ve had some great guests on and hopefully I’ll be able to continue whatever platform you’re listening to the podcast on, please subscribe and make sure you leave us a review.
The more reviews we get, the more the podcast is shown to the people on that platform. So please subscribe, and please leave a review. And on that note, you guys stay safe. Take care of yourselves, and we are out of here. Talk to you later. Bye bye.