S3 E44: Inside the Firehouse: Family and Leadership with Jacob Johnson

Now , chief Johnson started in the fire service at the ripe old age of 15 in an Explorer post . Now , throughout the years he moved up in the ranks until he changed departments in 2007 . So he now works for Perlin Fire and he was one of the first original full-time members that was hired there .

Now currently he sits as a member of the administration , serving as the assistant chief . Now he has taught at numerous schools in Texas and he's traveled all over the country in the past few years to teach his mentoring and leadership class . I cannot say enough good things about Chief Johnson . He's one of the best . I consider him a friend .

He's always there for me and he's always there for you too . I hope you enjoy the podcast . Guaranteed you will , with that . Chief Jacob Johnson .

He was a Mufasa for Lion King , oh yeah , and it was actually a Disney produced play that they sell to elementary and you have to have , like , certain props , you have to have certain lines , you have to . You can't , like parents can't record or take pictures like it's a big deal , right .

And so he was Mufasa in it and he did an outstanding job and the whole cast did right . But , like Luke to me really took it serious . He was studying every night like he did a great job . And then , on top of that , he's one hell of a football player , loves playing football and .

But he also likes coming to work with me and he likes cutting holes and he likes doing truck work you know God's work and so we got to he gets to do that with me every now and then .

Come and sit with me on the office at Fridays and the guys will take him out to the training field and let him chop up and pull lines or cut a hole with an axe or do other things . So you know it's kind of hard to figure out where his career is going to go . But you know I support him in anything he wants to do .

So if he wants to be an actor and wants to go on Broadway , hey , I'll be the first one on the front row , you know . And if you want to play in the NFL , then let's get after it and let's work hard and let's see if we can make it happen right .

And if you want to be a firefighter , well then I'm right here every step of the way and teach you everything I know and you know , set you on your path and you know we have that . Talk a lot of year 11 and understand that you don't want to think about these things , but in seven years you're going to be going to college .

So we kind of have to have an idea of what you want to be when you grow up , just so we know how to prepare you as parents .

Right , and and I tell them all the time , there's there's no wrong answer , man Like if , if , if you want to flip burgers , and that's what you're passionate about , then you're going to be really good at it and I'm going to make sure that you're good at it and we're going to put in the work to be good at it right .

But if you want to be a doctor or a nurse or a lawyer or an accountant like like my dad , you know , paul , paul or you want to be a nurse , like mom , or firefighter , like me , well , hey , here's what it takes to get to that level , right .

And if , if you really do want to chase the acting thing , then let's find some camps and let's put you in some camps , you know , whatever you want to do , so the door is wide open for

that kid man . He's very special , he's very intelligent I mean hard of gold . I can't speak well enough about him . You know I brag on Luke a lot , but I kind of can't help it . You know he's my only one , so I'm going to brag as long as he allows me to .

So if you want to do all of that and so we can go have a conversation with him too , right , and he can set you on your path . So he does have a pretty good friend there at his full disposal .

I sometimes I believe that chief loves Luke more than me , and maybe it's just because I'm always bringing up conversation , but he's the first to ask me , like how was practice last night , or how was the game , or how's Luke doing , or you know , and that's . I was gonna take a sit , but now I'm gonna start preaching here . But I was here and when .

When those kids come up to admin man like that , that fire chief Will stop his day to sit down have a conversation with the kid , and it doesn't matter whose kid it is .

I mean , just two weeks ago one of our employees , james , brought his twin girls up there and they were touring around and he said , hey , I want them to meet chief , but the city manager's in there . I said it won't matter , bring them in there . And sure enough , he brought him in there .

He stopped this conversation with city manager hug , the girls had a conversation with them , introduced him to city manager and then they went on their way .

You know , you don't find that very often and and to be able to have a chief like that that takes your family and your kids , that serious man , that's , that's a once-in-a-lifetime chief to me and I'm just very honored and very blessed that I get to work under him and I get to learn from them and that I get to have those moments at the coffee table in the

morning and in the office in the evenings and that I'm able to , I'm able to see in in in real time what it takes to be a good fire chief and and he does that man and we have a great team and he's a great leader and and this guy's the limit for us , you know .

You guys work so well together . It's it's honestly . I was joking , but I mean it really is kind of almost unfair that you have such great leaders at one department . Um , the , you brought up the table so I told the story when I was talking to your chief . My podcast , I like to tell it again . Just love the story .

So I go down to peril and I'm teaching with NFPA 1403 . I look around the corner . I see you sit , you have your white shirt on and I see you like in a meeting what I thought was a meeting and I'm like , oh shit , I don't want to bug you . So I went back doing my stuff and Later you come in there like , hey man , why'd you come talk to me ?

I said , oh , I thought you're in a meeting . And he goes , no , you said , no , I , every day it's mandated that we sit in the in the little break room have coffee . Anybody can come in and talk , and they can talk about anything or nothing . And so this kind of it's gotten me excited and I said , hey man , can you care if I show up tonight and you ?

So please come on in . So Went there , I got to have coffee , you got to see , I got to see the process Unfold right in front of me . So For those , I got a picture of it and I'll put it up with a podcast . But it's a small room With a couple vending machines , little table , a few chairs , and that's where they sit . They hold court there .

Now , what I really like is in that one corner there's a ton of other chairs stacked up , because you could have that room filled with people or hardly anybody . But Every single day during the week you guys are accessible .

You guys are there that you could be approached , you can be talked to about anything or everything or nothing , and I got to witness that and it just blew me away . It blew me away . I told my buddy , chris Hubbard , who I was teaching with , so the next morning we both showed up to have coffee and it was . It was just amazing .

He said the exact same thing . We fly home from Paraland , oh , by the way , and you know , I didn't get my luggage back until I got home . But he sent me a picture because he went back on shift almost immediately because he was An admin now now he's a district or battalion .

He sent me a picture of him having coffee with his guys the very next day and it's just a powerful thing . If you're listening and you're a fire chief and You're trying to figure out why this is such a big thing to me and other people , just try it . Just try it . Try to be consistent with it . It is one of the neatest . It is the neatest .

It is the neatest , most powerful leadership tool I have ever seen , full stop , and I can't wait Hopefully I get to come back to Paraland because I'm definitely gonna get there early so I could sit with you all and have coffee .

I mean we do it every day and you know , and he's never looked at me and said this is mandatory , but yeah , it is right and right , so it's . If you're not the , if you're not at the table , they're gonna send you a text message like are you all right ? Where are you at ?

You know , and you know you don't have to sit there for for an hour , hour and a half .

If you want to sit there for 20 minutes and you want to leave , could you have stuff to do , man , go ahead , but just come sit down , have a cup coffee and be in the firehouse for a second right and I mean just the other day it was , it was me , chief Bert , chief Taylor , chief Sears , chief bridges , and then our data analyst and the three Brookies that

are in probie school right now . And then we had the senior Python that was teaching him that day , sal , he was teaching them their EMS skills . So he was sitting at the table . Then we had Whoever was , I can't remember . I think it was Catherine that was teaching or that was leading their PT .

That morning she came and drank coffee we literally had All ranks of the fire department minus a company and also sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee with us and we had great conversation conversation about the future , conversation about the strategic plan we just finished up conversation and showing pictures about our kids all of that and it took about 2025

minutes and then they all dispersed to probie school and Catherine went home and and then it was just back to us chief sitting around the table and chopping it up for a little bit . So it's great , man . We , we , we have people that come in and out every day . Code enforcement will come and sit with us .

The other morning we had their supervisor , one of their officers , sit down on this for 20 minutes . Fire marshal come in and out . I mean , we , we really do have a great Time in the morning and having people come in and just say good morning .

Sometimes it's just to fill up their water cup and they say good morning , talk for two or three minutes and leave right , and that's what it's about , man is having that firehouse feel inside of admin and really Proving that there are no silos within this building right . We , we are an open book . We are your brother , we are your sister .

We just happen to be in a position of leadership or in a position of Overranked . That that puts us , you know , at close to the top of the tier here . But at the end of the day , we know our foundation was the firehouse and we always come back to that .

You send me some pictures of people that you're just chopping it up with and I don't think it was chief Taylor's office , the last couple pictures and I'm like this life you've got , man . I mean how cool is that ? I mean you got to sit there every now and then just go . This is amazing .

I get the people I have access to that are friends that that have all this knowledge . I mean , how do you not pick their brain constantly ?

It is just absolutely awesome that I get to show up and work in this fire department and work with these people and Get to have an impact on the job that I never thought I'd be able to have .

And now , and I only have that impact because of those who have taught me , those who still teach me , those who are around me currently right , and and I don't mean impact as far as me presenting , I'm talking about impact and the lives right there within Parallel fire department that that is what's more important to me than anything that exists outside those walls .

And and to have that and to be able to have that amount of experience around me and to be able to ask ideas and to tell , hey , I don't know how to handle this , what , what's normal , and and to get you know Three or four different ways , solid ways of how to handle a situation . It is unbelievable to me that I get to have this type of career .

You know , and it is , it is an absolute blessing

. And and you know , I've had a conversation with code the other day and they said , hey , chief , you know , we know that you always say , hey , it's gonna be a great day . We know you always say , like I love you . You know , but what's the reason ? And I told them , I said you know , one's about setting the tone right .

So , like we talked earlier , you got to set the tone if it's a great day . But why do I say I love you so much ? And I'll tell you why . I said is because you walk out that door and five minutes later you're gone , like that's just my mindset .

I want you to know every time I see , hey , I love you , like I truly do , I said , but outside of that , I want you to understand what that means for me . I said you know me , young man , and I've been on the job for a while and and I'm not ready for it to end .

But if God stood before me today , I would tell him take me over you , because I want you to have the career I've had over 23 years , because it has been awesome and I don't want anybody to ever be shorted of what I've had . And yes , it comes with bumps and yes , it comes with bruises and yes , it comes with with curvy roads .

But , man , it has been so awesome to end up in this moment working with the people that I do now and the people I have over the last 16 years , that I want everybody on the job to experience that .

And so when I tell you I love you , it's , it's coming deeper than just I got to tell you , because it's the brotherhood , it's because I want you to understand that I , I truly do believe that I will give up my life for you , because I want you to have what I've had , I want you to be blessed the way that I've been blessed on this job and in this

career , and I want you to be able to experience everything that I have . You know , and when I said that , it really resonated with him and he came back a couple days later and he was like I don't think I've ever had anything explained to me like that and I said , man , it's , it's .

It's not to make me sound cool , it's not , it's not for me to try to dial a sword for you , right , like I have a young son and a wife , like I don't want to die today . I don't . I want to have a very good long career , retire and become a grandfather and all this .

But what I'm telling you is when you , when you use those words and it's on this job it better have a meaning like that in order to have the impact that you wanted to have . And he was like well , you impact me . I said good . I said now go out there and earn the career that you want .

Right , my , my , why is to give people a career that they , that they deserve and desire . And I said so . If you want and you desire a Good career , said tell me what you want and we'll make it happen , because I love you and I'm here to make sure that you get everything that you desire on this job . Because the average American lives 77 to 78 years .

We only have 30 of that to make an impact on this job . So , when you look at it , you have about 20% of your life that you have the opportunity to make an impact and I want to make sure that you get all 20% filled up as full as it can be before you walk away .

It always gets better , and then I have responsibility to share that message too . I mean , you're a fantastic human being , which would explain why , why you get asked to go to so many places to speak . And I mean you got , and your articles too . You just published one in Firehouse earlier in the summer , in May .

Yeah , and it was the the off the company officer one . Right , Tell us a little bit about that one , Because I loved it . I'm going to post it . When they're listening to this , they're going to be able to scroll down the description and get the link and read it , it's amazing yeah so .

And and it really was inspired by me transitioning from operations to admin . It was , it was the most difficult transition that I've ever made in my career and I still don't think I'm done right Like I'm . I just got a reminder on my wife's birthday , on the 11th . That was the day that they announced me being appointed to assistant chief .

So here in about nine days will be my one year anniversary and I don't think I've fully transitioned yet right Like . I still find myself in some aspects thinking that kind of like a BC level and by no , no disrespect to that , it's not , you know , dumbing myself down , it's .

I want to handle the problem like a BC should handle it versus the way an AC should , right , and so it's that mindset , that transition , that I'm still that . I'm still making right , like it's going to take just a little bit to to just get into the role right and so .

And so I write it because I want people to understand man , like when , when you get that company officer , you were the golden ticket to the job . I'm sorry , like the fire department lives and dies on your shoulders . If you have a very weak fire department , I promise you , it's because you have very weak company officers .

If you have a very good fire department , it's because you have very good company officers . You have strong company officers that believe in accountability and treat people right and and understand that if you want to raise morale , you have to treat people right .

It's not about all the cool , flashy things right , it's about the way you treat people and we have to understand that . When you get that call and they promote you , everything in an instant is different , and that's what I depict in that article . Right Is when you wake up and brush your teeth .

It's different when you look at yourself in the mirror and you see I'm no longer driver , operator , engineer , I'm you know , lieutenant Johnson . It's different when you kiss your family goodbye in the morning . It's different when you swipe you know that card going through the gate to park , everything goes silent . Because that's the first moment like it's here .

You know , and you know , I'm sure if you're like me , you know you were up staring at the ceiling , you know , two hours before your lawn went off , because one of excitement , two of anxiety and two of a little bit of fear and butterflies . Right , and how do we get through that ?

And that's what this article was was how to push through it , but also how to give yourself those moments that you need on your first day . It's no different than a probie . You need that moment to say , man , I'm a Lieutenant , I'm a company officer , I'm a captain , I'm this right . You need to have those moments .

And you need to walk in the firehouse when that rookie looks at you and says morning Captain , morning Lieutenant or morning Lou , you just look right back at them and say good morning , how are you , it's going to be a great day , and move on right . And you know , have that passed down .

And it's important for that chief to grab that company officer , in my opinion , and walk them to the pumper , like I know a lot of people disagree with that , but man , like I did that and I think it was impactful is walk them to the pump and say this is your seat . And with the seat comes great responsibility .

And here is the responsibility that it comes with right . And today is your day . This is your first day as a company officer . Enjoy it , ride that seat with pride , ride it with confidence , ride it with consistency , ride it with competence and go out the door and be the firefighter that I know you are and that I've seen . Okay , I got it All right .

So here's your moment , son . Here's your moment , ma'am . You are a company officer . Congratulations . Now get to work and walk away , right . It's those little moments , man , just finding those little moments to make those impacts .

And that's kind of what the article was is just here's how you're going to feel in your first day , here's what should be happening on your first day . And then you know , follow me . Basically , at the end is you know , here's your front seat , have a good time . Here's all the stuff .

And then follow me , right , and I'm hoping that you know we can do a part two to it , kind of working on a couple different things right now , but that one was probably my , I wouldn't say hardest to write , but it was definitely the most in depth that I wanted to write because I really wanted to hit home on what the internal feeling is right Of getting

that promotion . Because everybody on the outside sees a happy , eager or maybe a happy nervous person or they may think , oh you know , he or she's just big-headed . But they don't fully understand what's going on internally and I want it the world to understand . Like you know , what I described internally may only happen to 10% of the people in the job .

May only happen to Jacob Johnson , I don't know , but I know it happened to me with each promotion .

So when I made Lieutenant , when I made Chief , when I made Assistant Chief , every day that I woke up that first day I had a different feeling and I was upstaring at the ceiling and I had all these internal feelings and I feel it's important to put that out there .

So that way the firefighters and the driver operators , they know how they can support their officer to be successful as much as the officer supports them to be successful . So if you can try to understand what's going on internally , then you can support your officer and really go in the right direction and have a successful crew .

You're not alone . You might be feeling this , this and this . That's fine . I do love the idea of walking somebody . That seems like such a neat ceremony to . That's a ceremony , such a neat tradition to do , to walk them and then explain how important that seat is . Man , that's awesome . I wish that would happen at my place .

Maybe that's something that my chief will start implementing . I don't know .

It's not any like you're saying , it's not a ceremony , it's not any real big thing , it's just grabbing , grabbing , say , hey , let's walk to the front seat , here's this , here's what it's about , here's your responsibility . And just giving them that second to take in a breath . Yes , I am a company officer , but now I got to buckle down and get to work .

It's no different than taking that rookie to the bumper and flying the doors and taking their picture on the bumper and and explaining the bumper to them . In the history , and all the jackets and coats and bunker pants that it's hold held , all the shoulders that have been leaned on , you know the historical references to the front bumper .

What does it mean to accrue to sit on the front bumper and explain to them how they earn the right to sit on the bumper right , and kind of the stuff that I , that I present on about that , so it's no different than that .

And and you should walk a driver to the wheel and say this is , this is the wheel that you're going to turn and here's the responsibility with it .

You know , I really believe in those small moments , man , take five seconds of your life to just make a small impact on someone but , most importantly , flip their mindset and engage , their mindset of okay , this is real .

Like I'm a company officer , my responsibility is this these lives are on my shoulders , this fire department is on my shoulders , success of this crew is on me . Here's , here's what we need to do Mindset , engage and go kick butt .

I mean , it's to me it really sets that up , other than just being some grumpy chief that says , oh , I'm glad to have you on the shift , have a good day . Man , just take , take five seconds of your life to make an impact . It's pretty simple .

I'm not going to rehash something that was in the other podcast , but one of the things that you did that is is next level is how you wrote handwritten notes to the family of of the people on your crew and it and I just wanted you to know and I've told you this before about I'm going to say again , after the leadership class , when we talked about that , I

have a captain that did the exact same thing . He wrote handwritten letters to the families of his crew , and so that made a gigantic impact on him . So now you think about it . Imagine those his crew now , when they go up in rank and they have some time in the fire service . They'll probably do that . Hopefully they'll do that . Hopefully .

I mean it's genuine concern . And I tell you what I'm learning late in the game . I am learning this late in the game the importance of including family and what we do . We always say that the fire service is a family and we are . And then we always say we understand that you have a family at home .

But for me right now , because of Christina and because of some people that I work with have brought things up , I'm like you know what ? We need to include the family in more events and more things and somehow and I'm trying to find ways for my department to get family involved in the firehouse to really prove that it is a family .

So I hate that I'm learning that late in my life .

You're a very involved officer on the job . Well , how much has your family sacrificed in order for you to do all that ? And their sacrifice has to be respected and it has to be validated and it has to be honored . And what better way to do that than just a small note ? Right , my family has sacrificed a ton , right ?

How many times do you get a phone call from your wife ? You know the smoke detector's going off , or she burned dinner . Or you know Luke has to get to football practice and then to school , and then he has a test and we have to do homework .

And you're sitting at the firehouse drinking coffee at a kitchen table , laughing and having a good time , and , yeah , you're going to be up all night . But you know what , At the end of the day , you're not doing what your spouse is doing at home and we , you know they have to be respected and they have to be honored and validated .

And so you know , I think that's where it goes a long ways . And I have a great example of that in Paralympic . Cap and Ryan , one of my long time friends , we came in together in Paralympic . We started together , we were lieutenants together on the same shift .

Then I was his BC on the same shift and he was my captain , my right hand man , he was my right up BC when I was off . I mean , and even today I deal with him a lot directly when it comes to the Swift water team and other projects that he's in charge of .

And Russ is just one of those special people , man , that very few firefighters ever get to experience , and one of the top company officers we have in the fire department . And you know what he does is every time we work , 4896, .

So every time that they work a Saturday , Sunday he has instituted man , probably eight , nine years now On that Sunday is family day and everybody's family comes to the firehouse .

They cook dinner , they have games for the kids , they take pictures , they hang around the coffee table themselves , all the wives and husbands , and everybody brings like a potluck and then the station , the firehouse , will cook like the protein and then they sit down as a family .

Sometimes they have 20 people in the firehouse with kids running everywhere and they sit down . They have a family day on Sundays .

You know , in the fire department , the peer support team they host a Pearland family day every November and they bring out tatered food , fun jumps for the kids , a coffee food truck , they have pictures , games , they have all kinds of stuff going on , and last year , this last November I want to say it was right at 80 , something , people that showed up total

throughout the day , and so we do things like that . You know , our families and kids are invited to our awards banquet .

That's something that most fire departments don't do , but all the kids and all the wives and husbands are allowed to come to the awards banquet and see their dad or their mom recognized and eat dinner and have a formal night out with professional pictures and do things .

So we do do a lot of that and that wasn't the way it was when I was approving , I think . You know , I don't think you're late to it and I don't think that you're learning it late in the game . I think it's just this is the time that the job is transitioning right . Mike Galliano talks about all the time .

It's a pendulum right on the job and I think we're just on this upward swing right now where we're starting to realize and respect and honor and validate the sacrifices of our families and how important it is to get them involved in the job so that way they understand everything we go through . You know .

So another thing , speaking of things that are being more and more recognized in the fire service , is the mental health that we , a lot of us , struggle with because of our job .

So he brought up a fantastic idea about having some type of night for the wives or the spouses to come and , you know , have dinner form and everything , but have like a speaker there to let them know about the type of job that their other , their spouse , has . And if you see these signs , don't think it's this , maybe it's this . Give them resources .

And I thought that was a really brilliant idea . So hopefully that'll happen in the future . And again , maybe you're right , maybe this is just a big transition in the fire service right now where we truly are doing something . There's an animal in here I didn't know was in here . Oh wow , that is only going to make the fire service better

. Now , I love the fire service . You know that . I love everything about it . But to what we said earlier , there is no finish line , there is no 100% , there's only trying , there's only effort , and the day that you stop , regardless if it's a program for the families or your own officer development , then you might be doing it wrong .

You know , the job owes us nothing . We owe the job everything , everything , so we have to give it all .

Most of our family lives a couple hours away , so we're gonna meet in the middle and have a great big family early dinner , because my niece , uh uh , caden , is going to a university Louisville , which is luckily right next to us , so we get to see her more , and my daughter , london , is going to university Cincinnati , which is only about an hour and a half

away . Yeah , so we're . We're all going to go down there to Frankfurt and celebrate . So that's the only reason , or we'd still be talking . Brother , you know that .

I'll text you his name , please , and then that way , if she ever needs anything , then she can go to a firefighter , son , for help .

I said I promise you you will be taken care of better than you could imagine . So I'm going to definitely pass that on , because that just that fits perfectly .

He just drove back to Cincinnati and I've known Jerry , his dad , for 25 years or so . My parents are his kids , god parents , I mean . So it's a real tight family friend and his dad was a fire chief for a lot of years . He's like second or third generation fireman , so yeah , so right there , an hour and a half from you .

I love seeing the people you're talking to and that that is your life . That is so awesome . And I know September you're going to be up in Firehouse Expo and you're going to be teaching . Don't tell me , don't tell me just yet . Oh , I forget the exact name , but regret , I know what it's about .

Found it on failure and fueled by regret , september 27th at Firehouse Expo . I'm going to put a link to that , link to some of your articles Google , jacob Johnson podcast , youtube , whatever . There's so much more to him . I promise you , if you're down , you'll get up , if you're up , you'll get higher . You're the best brother . I love

you to death .

In the phone calls , and even when you're in Arizona and I was texting you , I guess it was four in the morning , your time , even though I'm used to you being an hour ahead of me .

So yeah , but , man , I do appreciate all you do and I do really appreciate you putting Chief Taylor on the podcast because he's he's somebody special that needs to be heard more often as well . So I appreciate all you've done for us , man .