05 - Ken Ringo | Mighty Process Server

Full Transcript
0:00Ken Ringo:That's exactly right. And the ones that they always say he's going to be violent. You need to be careful and prepared are the ones that hug you at the end, say, I have been waiting for these divorce papers forever. Thank you. That happened on Valentine's Day, just recently.

0:14Mighty Mike:What do you want Server Nation to get from your story?

0:17Ken Ringo:Be prepared. It's better to be over prepared than under prepared. You never know what people are going to act like. And I've found that going up to these doors, knocking on these houses is far worse than any traffic stop. I've had more people pull guns on me serving papers than I ever did as a police officer.

0:37Intro:You're listening to Process Server Daily, the

0:41Ken Ringo:show where hustle meets strategy in the

0:44Intro:high stakes world of process serving. From elite pros to the new servers taking massive action, these are the voices of a rising industry. Hosted by the founder of 1, 2, 3 legal support, Almighty Mike Reed. This is your backstage pass to building a profitable process serving empire. Let's get into it. Our guest today is a private investigator rocking the great state of Texas. He went from being a police officer to receiving training from the FBI. He's hyper involved in the legal community and has even put out a few fires. Ken Ringo, welcome to the show.

1:26Ken Ringo:Thank you. Happy to be here.

1:28Mighty Mike:Ken, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started in the industry.

1:32Ken Ringo:Well, I started out as a police officer in 2009 and part of my duties was serving paperwork for different parts of the court system, all the way down to even serving our city council with their papers for before it was time to meet up, which they would put a lot of stress on us that way. And I worked as a firefighter too, and spare time as a volunteer firefighter. I was also trained as a medic and my last position as a police officer. I was also one of the medics that would respond to calls.

2:01Mighty Mike:I was a firefighter as well in Moriarty, New Mexico. Our closest hospital was an hour away and we're the only ambulance in that area when I was just a firefighter and we got funding to get a new ambulance and that was like the funnest day. We got this big old huge red ambulance that had airbags in the back and it's fancy lights and everything and it was cool. So definitely a cool, not a hobby but a way to give back to your community. So that's cool.

2:28Ken Ringo:Oh, certainly.

2:29Mighty Mike:Tell me about this FBI training.

2:31Ken Ringo:Well, I took training an active shooter response whenever I took it back in 2013 due to everything that was going on with, we were having more active shooters, more incidents. So the FBI ended up training a lot of police officers in certain ways to respond with that. That was the main reason behind that.

2:50Mighty Mike:Any training is good training. So Ken, I just want to ask you, you got a family?

2:55Ken Ringo:Yes, I do. I have a wife, I've been married 13 years. She's also an investigator with US and Process Server. Have two kids, 10 and 11. They're boy and girl. They're, they're typical kids.

3:09Mighty Mike:So Ken, how is it working with your wife every day?

3:12Ken Ringo:You know, we're, we're probably the only two people that can put up with each other. And I think that's the reason why we work really well together.

3:21Mighty Mike:That's awesome. That's a great answer. Good job. So Ken, there's a reason why you're on my show. You have a lot going on right now. Some good experiences, some bad ones. But first, tell me about your worst experience working in the field.

3:36Ken Ringo:Let's see. One of the worst ones as far as being a process server. I went to go serve this one individual that was being sued and I just had to serve a subpoena on him, which subpoenas is not that big of a deal you would think it was. In the middle of nowhere, I show up on drive down his driveway to get to his house. He wasn't there yet. He had a friend in the, in the yard doing yard work. I ask him, I say hey, do you know where Pat's at? And he tells me, yeah, he's pulling up right now. And sure enough, here comes this Dodge dually rolling down the driveway. He gets out, big old guy, he's at least 6 foot 4. Now I'm 5, 740 pounds. So typically I try to be, be as calm and nice as possible with these folks and I tell them, it's like hey, I just got a spina for you real quick. And he gets pretty upset narate and starts telling me, he's like, well I'm not accepting nothing here. And you come on my property threatening me and said sir, I'm not threatening you. I say well that's not what my wife's going to say in the truck. That's not what he's going to say. Well guess what this body cam is going to say. So he then shoves me and says, well you're not leaving. I'm call, I've called the sheriff and the sheriff has come and said, here's your subpoena. I dropp on the hood of his truck and said, no, I'm going. He says, were you ever a police officer? Yes, sir. And right now, this is unlawful detention. Is like, well, I'm a cop. I can hold you here. It's like, no, sir, you can't. It's unlawful detention. Deuces, I'm gone. I get in my car and do. And cut a nice little donut in his front yard because he blocked the roadway. So you just went through the grass, made a nice little ruts. I was happy about that. Get down the roadway. And I end up calling the sheriff's department, let them know what happened. And they come to me and they said. So you said. He said he was a cop? Yeah, yeah. He's never been a cop. Did you get that on video? Yeah. Can we get that? Yeah. Here you go.

5:19Mighty Mike:Wow. Impersonating a police officer.

5:21Ken Ringo:That guy was the one that really got me worked up because I didn't have body armor on that day, and he had a very large revolver on his hip. And that's. It was just one of those days, you know, I thought it was going to be simple because he was a business owner.

5:37Mighty Mike:Yeah. That's the thing is you. You never know, or. What I find is so funny is you talk to these attorneys who will say, oh, it's going to be an easy one. It's going to be easy one. And done. I'm like, oh, I don't tell them this because they're going to understand. But as a process server, I'm like, you just jinxed it. I'm going to go out there. And she would have been the nice old lady that answered the door and received service. But now, since you said that, I'm going to go out there and she's going to. She's not going to answer the door. Oh, man. Now, do you, Ken, do you call the police? Is it brandishing. Is that. Is that. In California? They get arrested for that? How about where you're at in Texas,

6:11Ken Ringo:it's considered disorderly conduct to an extent. Most of the time, they'll let it slide, which is unfortunate. But typically it's. They would consider it disorder conduct if it's pointed directly at you. It's deadly conduct, and that's. Deadly conduct is a class A misdemeanor here in Texas.

6:29Mighty Mike:So even then, you might not get arrested. Even then, yeah. That sucks. Now, tell me about your greatest experience working in the field.

6:37Ken Ringo:I think my favorite one was we get a call from a Georgia deputy. He was trying to locate family member. His. It was his Grandson, granddaughter. The, his son had gotten all the court papers taken care of. He had full custody. The deputies down here were trying to serve a writ of attachment to try to get the baby back in his custody. They had spent months searching. They've gotten other deputies, other counties involved. We got involved at that point because the local deputies, they exhausted all their resources. So we kind of got involved in it. And she had families scattered throughout Texas. So I was able to enlist a couple other people I had met throughout the Facebook groups. I think even one of them is on process, Server Nation. And we started trying to hunt her down and after about two weeks we managed to finally locate her and was able to help the deputies affect service. On that writ. That one I didn't charge nearly what I could have. I cut it down way, way low because that's one of those stories that, that's one of those cases that it just, it meant something. It wasn't, oh, I think my spouse is cheating on me and I want you to go find him. Or you know, it wasn't anything like that. It was somebody that was trying, that hadn't seen his 18 month old child in 6, 7 months. That one meant something.

7:58Mighty Mike:Yeah. A lot of times the experiences that we have out in the field will result in, you know, happy, warm feelings. But, you know, I think it's important that we would, that we have those because so often we have the negative experiences where you have to serve a single mom who's unemployed eviction papers. You know, so it goes, it goes both ways. But that's a great story. What do you want Server Nation to get your story, your greatest experience in the field.

8:22Ken Ringo:No matter how bad a situation seems, no matter how difficult the situation that you may be brought into may be, there's always an outcome that best fits the situation. There's always an outcome for that person that you're working for that needs your help. They have to come to you and they need what your experience. They need your help to affect what they're trying to do. Whether it's finding a missing child, whether it's serving divorce papers, whether it's serving custody papers to where they. Or you know, serving a tro, a temporary restraining order. That needs to be done. That need, they need your help with it. And no matter how bad it may look in the end you did something

9:01Mighty Mike:that's going to help Server Nation. This is your only opportunity. You're only as good as your last serve. So many opportunities I've had where I thought, you know, I haven't Heard from them in a while and I always think, you know, what was the last serve? Oh yeah, it was personal service and I got them the proof right away. But there are times where I've slipped or my office has slipped and we didn't get a proof back right away and you don't hear from them for a while and I call them and I go, hey, I'll give you the next day three services free. Your opportunity, your greatest experience. What I've taken from that is, is every opportunity you have to be able to serve the public and be able to help others is an opportunity for your business to shine. I mean, I don't know what that resulted in, but you know, for me, I always say, you know what, the greatest review you can give is a referral. You know, tell your friends and family. It's weird in this business, but it's not that weird. Honestly. People go through divorces, small claims. You know, in my church all the time people come up to me like, hey, this guy owes. You know, I got a couple car dealership clients from that. They're like, I just want you to do all my small claims paperwork. So we handle all the small claims paperwork. We sue them and small, we help them sue people in small claims. That's great, Ken. So tell me about what you're working on right now that has you most fired up.

10:11Ken Ringo:Well, I'm trying to get a, my website more mobile friendly because it looks great on a desktop. I've worked really hard on that. But how many people really have a desktop anymore? Everybody's looking at everything on their phones. You can't walk down the street without seeing every person looking straight down in their phone, walking into telephone poles or even if you're driving. Unfortunately, everybody still got their heads buried in their phones.

10:36Mighty Mike:I was, wasn't a big fan of wix, but it's one of the newer, one of the newer ones that's advertising a lot and actually it's pretty nice. I like a lot of the features. I don't really like how it, it's not like super user friendly. I use Weeb. I started out using Weebly WordPress and now the go to one for email marketing is Click Funnels. Click Funnels is a really good site for building a reoccurring revenue business to be able to. I don't use it now but if I was going to build a website from scratch, I'd probably use either WIX or Click Funnels.

11:09Ken Ringo:I built mine directly from scratch. I went out and took all the photos During a big storm that we had had because it looks neat to have nice kind. Of course, my website's kind of a little darker than some because I just, I like it that way. I mean, because some of the stuff that we do, whether it's missing persons, I mean, you can. One of the photos in the missing person section is actually a photo of a little girl hiding inside of an old fireplace in the middle of an old abandoned house. And that's actually my own daughter. And then for since in Texas private investigators conserve capias warrants, we traveled out to a little town called Milano, Texas, which still has a jail standing from the 1800s, which there's a picture of. It's actually my wife's hand sitting through the bars, handcuffed, Little things like that. It's a personal touch to it.

12:01Mighty Mike:Ken, what I take from your story about the website building and Google and things like that is your website is like your real estate. And that's why I love your Internet real estate. And if you don't have Internet real estate, no one's gonna pull over and check out your business. So that's the way to look at it. So if you're one of these guys, and I say this in the most loving terms, if you're one of these old school guys that are like, oh, I just go by word of mouth. Well, guess what, you're only gonna have the clients that you've ever had. Because nowadays attorneys, they want to have somebody who knows how to do an E filing, they want to have somebody that can do a proof of service, have their proof of service automated and get it back to them like within, you know, within one day.

12:43Ken Ringo:Hey, quick break from the episode to

12:45Mighty Mike:tell you about something that's changing the

12:47Ken Ringo:game for process servers across the country.

12:50Mighty Mike:It's called Mighty Process Servers and yeah, you can join absolutely free inside. You'll get full access to every course,

12:59Ken Ringo:every download, and the educational tools that we use to help process servers build profitable companies.

13:06Mighty Mike:We meet every Tuesday at 1pm Eastern for our live Mighty Mastermind call. Come join the conversation.

13:14Ken Ringo:You can connect with other professionals, post

13:16Mighty Mike:on the discussion board, direct message members, and become part of one of the

13:21Ken Ringo:most engaged communities for process servers. Don't wait.

13:24Mighty Mike:Go to mightyprocess server.com and join today. Those who get verified, get listed and start bidding on jobs same day. Now let's get back to the show. Welcome back to the show, Ken. Are you ready for the rapid fire round?

13:44Ken Ringo:Let's do it.

13:44Mighty Mike:Ken, if you could recommend just one app, what Would it be? And why?

13:48Ken Ringo:I would suggest, you know, having an app for locating folks, whether it be a. Being a database to locate, you know, running addresses, licenses, license plates, that sort of thing is the most, to me, is one of the most important things to have. And then, of course, you know, Google Maps, because without a map, we don't know where we're going.

14:06Mighty Mike:That's right. And I would just plug my favorite map tool, which is Waze App. What is your favorite skip trace tactic? And then what is your favorite database?

14:15Ken Ringo:My favorite skip trace tactic is simply talking. Is you knock on a door and they say, oh, no, he's not here. It's like, do you know where he's at? Yeah, he's at work right now. Where is he working at? Oh, he's working at AT&T. Oh, which AT&T. There's like six of them. Oh, the one on Main Street. Oh, cool. You think he's there right now? Yeah, yeah, he said he's gonna be home in about two hours. Like, cool. That's my favorite.

14:39Mighty Mike:When you could talk them through because you sound really inquisitive. Like, are you sure? Really? Wow, that's cool. So, but what do you do when inevitably they say, who are you?

14:48Ken Ringo:Oh, typically I'll tell them, like, oh, I'm just a process server. I've got court papers for them. It's not anything bad. It's, you know, just, this is what happened. They just need to take care of it real quick. You know, nothing bad, you know, happens to me too. It's happened to me. It's no big deal. Keep them talking.

15:05Mighty Mike:What's your favorite tool for defense?

15:07Ken Ringo:For defense, there's several different tools that I utilize. Typically, a gift of gab is usually one of the best tools you can have for defense. I also wear a body cam for every serve, which not only protects me, it protects them. And nobody's going to question the serve. Whenever you can say, oh, well, just watch the video. I use a Transcend. It's a transcend body 10. They have a couple of different versions out right now. But this little sucker, it's waterproof. It's got night vision on it. You can press. It has one button just to take a photo while it's still recording.

15:42Mighty Mike:Oh, that's cool.

15:43Ken Ringo:Yeah, you can have it right on your chest. You can hold the papers out right in front of the guy, press the button real quick, and snaps a photo. I've been using this since I was a police officer, and I always. I got in the habit of Pressing that button whenever I was looking at licenses. So I'd automatically have it.

15:55Mighty Mike:So, Ken, I want to. I want to drive down a little deeper here. We're almost to the end here. You said about defense. All right, I want to know more about how you defend yourself.

16:03Ken Ringo:Well, given my nature coming from law enforcement into this, I typically wear body armor to just about every serve. And I'm also armed with a firearm, as per Texas state law. The reason behind this really has to do to. Because I lost someone I knew, Constable Brian Bachman. He was serving civil papers, walked up to a door just to. Just to serve a notice, and he was shot and killed before he even realized what was going on. And he's the reason why I make sure that I'm wearing body armor because, you know, sadly, his family, you know, it's been several years now, and his family's had to live without him. And I won't do that to my family. I wore body armor whenever I was a police officer, and to me, there's no difference in making a traffic stop to, you know, we had to go up to houses all the time as police officers. And I wouldn't do it without body armor and a weapon. And I don't see a reason why to. Why there's any difference now.

16:57Mighty Mike:No. That's really good. And I know a lot of people say, you know, we're not officers. We know, you know, we're not cops, we're not swat. We don't need body armor, things like that. But, you know, it doesn't hurt to be prepared, that's for sure.

17:08Ken Ringo:Clarify on the body armor eyewear. It's not one of those tactical looking SWAT vests. It's a. It's a nice looking over shirt that has our logo on it. This same logo, Ringo's Detective Service. It's something that looks professional. It doesn't look like SWAT or anything tactical.

17:24Mighty Mike:That's awesome. Yeah, thank you for clarifying. That's true. You don't want to. You don't want to go to the door looking like you're gonna kick it in.

17:30Ken Ringo:Right.

17:31Mighty Mike:What kind of gun are you packing?

17:33Ken Ringo:Usually I carry a Ruger SR40, which I started out as a police officer carrying Glocks like all the others. During one time, whenever we had to use our weapons, I dropped a magazine and it shattered on me.

17:46Mighty Mike:Oh.

17:47Ken Ringo:And that's. I wasn't happy with that. So I carried it for a little longer. And then I got promoted to a supervisory position and all the supervisors wore 1911's carrying a 1911 for 12 hours, that's not going to. That's not fun. That's a heavy gun. So I started looking around for another weapon to replace that with, and I looked at the Rugers. You see, Glock's patent ran out, and Ruger basically made a copy. It's. It's a, you know, center fire like the Glock is. Has the same kind of trigger safety on it, but it also has a thumb safety on it, which my muscle memory from carrying the 1911 transferred over to this. But it's a lot lighter weapon, and it's a very accurate weapon. And thankfully, it fits in the Glock holsters, which. The holster I carry is a safariland duty holster. That's properly retention level four holster.

18:37Mighty Mike:That's awesome. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. I know a lot of the guys that are gun enthusiasts will appreciate you sharing that knowledge. Ken, what book would you recommend and why?

18:45Ken Ringo:Well, it depends on where you're at as far as books goes. I think one thing that we should all do is study up on our. Our local laws and to see what laws affect you in your areas, because it goes all the way down to city ordinances, because you always want to make sure that you're following the laws and making sure that nobody can question the way that you serve them.

19:06Mighty Mike:That's good. You know, not to make too much light of that, but here in Chico, it's illegal to spit on the sidewalk.

19:14Ken Ringo:We have a law similar to that in Texas. It's actually too illegal to walk in the grass when a sidewalk is provided.

19:21Mighty Mike:Oh, wow. Wow. I kind of like that one. You know, people walking on your lawn all the time, that kind of. That sucks. Yeah, that's really important. I think, knowing the laws in your local area, you know, different places you can park, things like that. Different cities have different laws that affect us as process servers, so that's good, Ken. Thank you. What is the greatest advice you've ever received?

19:41Ken Ringo:It's kind of a weird one, but it's my dad. He always told us that, you know, you got to work for everything that you want, everything that you do, you need to put in all your effort. And the way he always would tell us was whenever I was a kid, whenever I would go out hunting for jobs, he would tell us, like, you need to just go up there, tell him what you want to do, and offer to work. Give him to. If he'll give you a shot, work that day and give him a reason to want you. And I kind of took that to Heart. And ever since then, I mean, that's something that I always have done with clients, attorneys, what have you is I've given them a chance to try out what I can do, give them a reason to want me. And I think that's probably my best advice is what my dad always told him. Give them a reason to want you.

20:20Mighty Mike:That's great advice, Ken.

20:22Ken Ringo:The same aspect. I would not be the person I am today if it wasn't for my wife. She's the one that pushed me to be a police officer. She's the one that pushed me to start this business. And Ringo's detective service would not be Ringo's detective service without her. So as silly as it sounds, you know, she's both. Those two are my mentors.

20:39Mighty Mike:That's good, Ken. Yeah, Keep it close to the vest. That's. That's for sure. Having your wife backing you up in your businesses big time. My wife backs me up as well, and definitely better for it. So, Ken, what would you do if you woke up today, had all the same skills and knowledge, had no clients, a smartphone, a car, and only $100? What would you do in the next week?

21:01Ken Ringo:I would go park myself in downtown near the courthouse where all the attorneys are, and I would walk up and down every street, go inside and introduce myself, and tell them what I can do to help their business. That's how I got started in the first place. Didn't have. I spent every penny I had getting this business started were down to our la. Pretty much down to our last hundred bucks. I was able to make us some business cards. We had some business cards made up. Me and my wife, we went into every attorney's office that we could find in town, asked to talk to the receptionist and then to the attorney and say, hey, this is us. This is what we can do. And I think I would follow that again because that worked so well.

21:42Mighty Mike:That's a great story. I love that. Getting out there and just pounding the pavement, going and talking to attorneys, going in the courthouse, that's all good stuff. Ken, what do you want Server Nation to take from your story? And what would you be your parting piece of advice?

21:56Ken Ringo:Don't give up. Don't let other people tell you that, oh, well, you should be doing it my way, because my way is working for me. Get out there, do it a way that you're comfortable with. Work the way you're comfortable with, but in the same aspect, stay safe, because there's always gonna be somebody out there that cares for you. That's gonna want to talk to you tomorrow. And if you're not being safe out there and this, this goes all the way down to not just worrying about what's on the other side of that, worry about what's creeping around the corner on four legs that may come after you. It's being aware of your surroundings. But in the same aspect, don't give up. If you're having a slow month, if you're having a slow week or even a slow year, things will pick up. And in those times that you have nothing else to do, go out, talk to attorneys, see if there's somebody out there that may need your help.

22:42Mighty Mike:So I love your story. I want to personally thank you for coming on the show. I've been impressed with your story and I'm excited to share it with the world. What is the best way that we can connect with you and then we can say goodbye?

22:54Ken Ringo:You can find me on Facebook. It's Facebook Detectiveringo. You can find us online@detectiveringo.com we're on Google, which is also Detective Ringo. Just hashtag Detective Ringo. You'll find us. We're on Instagram. That'd be the best way to contact us. It's Kentectiveringo.com that's a wrap on another

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23:45Outro:Until next time, stay safe out there and live Mighty.

05 - Ken Ringo | Mighty Process Server

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