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What if the reason you care so deeply about safety didn’t start on a job site, but at home? Joe opens up about growing up in the shadow of addiction, becoming the family protector before he had the words for it, and how that early vigilance turned into a calling. The journey moves from sales floors to factory floors to the safety director’s seat, revealing how skills like persuasion, trust-building, and systems thinking quietly prepared him to lead with empathy and clarity.

We dive into the difference between compliance theater and human-centered safety, and why culture beats policy when pressure hits. Joe shares how a layoff at forty cracked open the path to safety leadership, how walking 20 facilities taught him to see risk the way workers do, and why training became the craft that changed everything. Instead of telling people what to do, he learned to connect safety to the work they already take pride in—making it real, relevant, and repeatable. Along the way, we talk about burnout, boundaries, and the invisible weight protectors carry, and how faith stitched meaning through seasons that felt scattered.

This story challenges tired assumptions: safety isn’t checklists; it’s care. It’s about recognizing vulnerability, designing for how people actually work, and building programs that stick because they’re rooted in lived experience. If you’ve ever felt called to protect others, or if your past feels like a liability, you’ll hear a different truth: nothing was wasted. Pain, when understood, becomes purpose. Subscribe, share this with a fellow protector, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway—what shaped your why?

Hosted by: Joe Garcia, Safety Leader & Culture Advocate
New Episodes Every Other Tuesday
Safety on Purpose

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