Meet Jeff Santelli | Trainer and Educator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jeff Santelli and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jeff, do you have any habits that you feel contribute to your effectiveness?
There are quite a few habits that have helped me succeed. One would be timeliness; whether it’s business-related or not, I believe it’s important to be timely for business meetings, training, phone calls, and other obligations. Tying in with timeliness is reliability. When I make commitments to others, I ensure I follow through no matter what challenges I may face. Another habit, following-up, I have found to be crucial with my business. Lacking follow-up can result in precluding scheduling training classes from occurring, or it may prevent future business opportunities. Another habit that surely has helped me succeed is respecting others. Those with whom I work within the course of my business, I work hard at earning their esteem and I treat them with dignity and respect. Last but not least, perseverance is an important ingredient to success. Amidst the myriad of challenges I have faced, I continue to push forward with a positive attitude and optimistic spirit. Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I love what I do! My bailiwick is training; I am the owner of a training business. While I set out to provide different types of training such as tactics, mental health, security awareness, and personal defense, I have been almost exclusively providing crisis intervention/de-escalation and mental health training. As of late, this has been due to the high demand for this type of training of law enforcement, corrections personnel, and first responders. Also, the training we provide is appropriate for anyone in customer service-oriented positions. What sets me apart from others is that I am currently the only independent provider of crisis intervention/de-escalation training (Crisis Intervention Team training) from coordinating and directing classes to providing expert presenters, professional actors, and highly trained coaches for experiential role-play. In other words, I’ve been called a “one-stop shop” for these training classes. There are law enforcement agencies that provide CIT training within their agencies, but I travel throughout Colorado providing these classes. I have also traveled quite a bit outside of Colorado providing CIT training, in addition to training actors, coaches, and other types of classes. Building my own business to where I am today wasn’t easy. I’m very fortunate, though, because I’m surrounded by others who are super compassionate about CIT, mental health awareness training, jiu-jitsu training, and the other classes we offer or have direct connections to provide. I would want the world to know that my company provides training by consummate professionals that is informative, thought-provoking and, best of all, incorporates role-play; the bread and butter of the training, as I say!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Of course, I’d take my visitor to the mountains. After all, that’s among the list of things that draws others to Colorado! While en route to the mountains, one of the stops would definitely be at Beau Jo’s for pizza. As far as pizza goes, I believe Beau Jo’s is among the best as it’s quite unique. We would stop in Leadville, a mining town, which is steeped in history. Another spot to stop at would be Meeker. While it’s an area that draws a lot of hunters, my interest in the town grew the last time visiting there. Recently, a friend and I visited a historic battleground where the battle at Milk Creek took place in the late 1800s, Off to Winter Park for the Alpine slide, and if during the summer months, usually July, where the Jazz Festival is held annually. The festival is, hands down, one of the most cost-effective and fun-oriented entertainment events I’ve been to. People of different nationalities, ethnicities, socio-economic backgrounds, and age groups come together and enjoy the musical entertainment from top acts in the jazz and pop worlds. It truly is a time when everyone puts aside any and all differences for the common enjoyment of fellowship in fantastic music. If it’s later in the summer months, we would stop in Grand Junction for the annual Country Jam concert. There, they bring in top-level artists and groups that are welcomed by people who enjoy country music and, sometimes, like when I was there years ago, they bring in acts like comedian Carrot Top. Colorado is also rich with snow activities like skiing, snowboarding, and snowmobiling which is my favorite winter outside activity.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My shoutout goes to a former boss of mine who has since retired from the Colorado State Patrol. Though I’ve had a couple of bosses in my life who have provided guidance and support, no one has come close to the mentoring, support, and encouragement I received from Robert G. Hoff. He was my sergeant while I was a young Trooper. I’ve never seen anyone who had talent like “Sarge.” Outside of the work environment, he was great at “wrenching” on vehicles, he was a self-taught musician, led a prayer group of Troopers, and engaged in fun activities like snowmobiling and taking rides in his 1958 Chevy Impala. At work, he had an uncanny ability to train others. He was a compassionate, gentle person who was smart, patient, empathic, and respectful toward others, to name a few.

Website: http://www.santellitraining.net

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-santelli-8976a93b/

Twitter: @CIT_Santelli

Facebook: @santellitraining

Image Credits
Brandon Rood for the youth photos only