Real conversations and topics that inspire the pursuit of daily growth through humility, connection, and hard work.
Todd Edwards joins me today and I’m honored to be able to share our conversation in which we discuss the importance that consistency plays in good leadership. Thank you for listening! Click here to leave a message to let me know what you think & how this episode impacted you. No matter where or what you came from, great things can come from you!
Be someone worth following! I think that’s about as simple as I can make it. Next step, you better be ready to do the work. Today I both explain what I feel like my answer to the question of how to create buy-in and also challenge you to reflect on what your answer is. Thank you for listening! Click here to leave a message to let me know what you think & how this episode impacted you. No matter where or what you came from, great things can come from you!...
I’m joined today by 2 big voices in the fire service social media and training world John Hayowyk and Sean Eagen. John and Sean are the hosts of The Thin Red Line Radio podcast. We dig into a discuss that I’ve been looking forward to having for quite a while and that’s Empowerment versus Micromanagement - The Builder’s and Destroyer’s of Trust in the Fire Service. I really loved where this free flowing conversation took us, we hit on everything from trust, respect, humility, pride, and ownership...
Do we understand what impact we have when we step up and lead, when we take the time to mentor someone, when we share our knowledge/experience, and so on? I don’t think any of us truly comprehend the impact that we can have. It’s easy to see when we help those we are directly impacting because we can see it progress or the learning in person but what about the people that they share it with, and the people that those people share it with. The time that we invest into some now can be multiplied e...
Today I’m joined by the guys behind Midwest Fire Tactics and Training, Nate Furton and Mike Bernard. We get into a good discussion of the benefits of attending conferences and surrounding ourselves with like minded firefighters in order to stay inspired and keep the passion for the fire service burning. Check out all the good things Nate and Mike are doing by searching for Midwest Fire Tactics and Training on Instagram and Facebook. And don’t forget to enter their quarterly training challenge. T...
The worst part of being a leader is having the Hard Conversations. The conversations to correct mistakes, bad habits, and/or areas that need to be addressed. As someone that hates conflict these are my least favorite times to be in charge but they can not be ignored. Slumps and plateaus as a crew are going to happen, there’s no avoiding that but those are just times that we need to reboot, re-energize, and recommit to the mission as a crew. And to do that requires open and honest conversation. D...
Joining me today is Marc Aloan creator of The Fire Inside website and social pages. Marc is another firefighter who is passionate about culture and about making the fire service better. I’ve been looking forward to talking with Marc for a while because many of his posts and articles has really spoken and resonated with me. We talk about one of his classes, some social media posts, and some of his articles that I’ve really enjoyed. Marc also was a big part of the Unlock Your Culture Online Confer...
Trust is obviously a big deal in the fire service. One of the biggest killers of trust is micromanagement. We have to get better at building trust through empowerment. This is just a brief start at digging into this topic and definitely one that I’ll be getting into with guests in the future. Thank you for listening! Click here to leave a message to let me know what you think & how this episode impacted you. No matter where or what you came from, great things can come from you!...
This episode I’m joined by 2 great guests, Sean Duffy and Pablo Gener. They are the founders of Build Your Culture social media and training. This is a conversation that I really looked forward to having because I’ve really been getting into all things search and these 2 guys are a tremendous resource in that area. We discuss the importance of search, the fire service’s failure to train for search and inspiration to get better at making search a priority. Sean and Pablo put out a lot of great co...
I think it’s safe to say that every firefighter wants to rescue someone from a burning building, to make a “grab”. In the public’s eyes that’s just what we do. But is it? Are we truly living up to the standards that our citizens set for us, are we truly living up to the big talk that our egos like to constantly spew out? We have got to put search as a bigger priority, we have to train more on searching, we have to be better at it, and we have to search every searchable space. They are closing th...
Celebrating 50 episodes I wanted to have someone on that has been an inspiration to me in this journey so joining me today is Jeremy Donch. Jeremy is “the Jeremy” of National Fire Radio and him and the crew at NFR have done a lot to help me realize this is something that I wanted to do. We talk about fire service culture, tradition, leadership, and of course social media. These guys have paved the road for myself and so many others and are still continually raising the bar. Special thanks to our...
I know exactly what I want the culture of my crew to be, I’ve had a vision for how my fire house runs for years, and I’ve known I wanted to be a great husband and dad as long as I can remember but.... But all of that is wasted, empty, and useless if I am not doing the work and putting in the time to accomplish it. It’s time that I step up if those are things that I really want to accomplish, I can not sit back and expect others to be driving force for my vision and drive. It’s got to be me! Than...
Today I’m joined by Benjamin Marion. Benjamin has been someone that I love listening to because it seems like so much of what he says speaks to me. We talk about his Embrace the Resistance platform, Intoxicated Leadership class, followership, and learning to deal with human nature. I’m so happy to have gotten the chance to sit down and talk with Benjamin and excited to share that conversation with you all. Thank you for listening! Click here to leave a message to let me know what you think &...
Inspiration today comes from the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast. Craig always closes his episodes with this quote, “People would rather follow a leader who is always real, than a leader who is always right.” I have always loved that quote and completely agree with it. There are so many good things that can come from just being real. We can’t have the mindset that once we are leaders we can’t mess up our we can’t let people see our mistakes. We rob others of an opportunity to learn from mista...
This week’s guests are Blake Stinnett and Drew McConnell of the Open Bale social pages. It was a fun conversation getting to know these guys. They’re sharing lots of good information and instruction on their social media pages and are gearing up for that next step which in creating their own class which is in the works. As always, I love meeting and talking to people that are fired up for the fire service and doing great things and that’s exactly what these 2 are doing. Drew runs the Fire Review...
I like to say that my goal as an officer is to put my crew in the best possible position to succeed. I love looking at it like that but what does that truly mean, what is my definition for success? The inspiration this week comes from my conversation with Chief Scott Thompson when he challenged me to define what success looks like to me. Honestly I don’t think I can clearly define it and so that tells me I need to spend some time figuring that out. We want to be successful and help others around...
This is a conversation that I’ve hoped for and looked forward to having for a long time. This episode I welcome Chief Scott Thompson of The Colony Fire Department in Texas. Chief Thompson is a student of fire service culture and has researched the subject extensively while writing his book The Functional Fire Company. As I am very intrigued by culture and positive cultural change, I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation. You’ll want to have a note pad ready because Chief Thompson is just full of ...
Inspiration for today’s Monday Mindset Check comes from a quote from Shannon Stone. When your boss’ expectations exceed your own, you have either a problem or an opportunity. A great thought provoking statement I think. If we have expectations placed on us that we feel are too high then maybe there’s more to it below the surface. Maybe a lot more is expected of you thank you expect of yourself because they believe in you more than you do. A lot to think about there and maybe some communication t...
Today’s episode I welcome fellow podcast host Matt Broom from The 24/48 Podcast. I love Matt’s angle with his podcast because he fills a niche that I just haven’t seen anywhere else involving fire service podcasts, and that’s discussing finances in the fire service. Matt is a wealth of knowledge in this area and I learned a lot from him during the conversation. We discuss the importance of budgeting, saving, having a plan, and following through. Matt is doing great things for firefighters and I ...
Inspired by the Bearer’s of the Oath creed from my last guests comes today’s topic. Never walk past a problem that you can fix. This is a lesson that my wife and I have tried to instill in our kids and one that we all probably need to hear. It’s about taking pride in something and about doing the right thing. Are there areas that we can be doing better at this? Instead of griping at the last shift for leaving something a mess maybe the right thing to do is just fix the problem. Take pride in the...
Today’s episode I get to talk with Shane Bentley and Lee Humphrys of Bearer’s of the Oath. These 2 guys are passionate about the fire service and even more so about making it better than it was yesterday. We discuss mentoring, networking, training, leadership, and their upcoming conference in October. I’m really glad that I have had to chance to get to know Shane and Lee, just 2 more examples of why the fire service is going to be heading in the right direction. If you have the opportunity to he...
The fire service today is full of great people as it has always been. But at leaders there are 2 categories of people that we need to start trying to reach in order to make a huge difference in the direction that the fire service goes. The uninspired and the directionless are people with great potential just waiting to be tapped. It’s our job to find ways to draw that potential out, to inspire the uninspired and to give direction to those that are directionless. Thank you for listening! Click he...
Today in joined by Nick Higgins the founder of The Firehouse Tribune website and social media pages. Nick shares his story and talks about the importance of sharing your personal message. We also discuss how social media can be used in a positive way. I appreciate Nick’s insight and look forward to sharing his story and knowledge with you. Please check out Nick and his contributors at The Firehouse Tribune website and social media pages. Nick is also associated with the National Fallen Firefight...
One thing that doesn’t come so natural to some of us is showing appreciation. This is something that we really need to work on. It’s ok to say thank you, to say you appreciate someone, or respect them for something that they did. This can mean so much to those that deserve it and very easily could be the fuel that they need to keep doing good things. Those around us that take care of us and care for us deserve to be told how much we appreciate them, that goes for our family and work family. Spec...
Today’s guest is Mike Bernard. Mike shares his passion for training and making himself and others better every day. Mike also talks about accountability in the volunteer fire service and his story including challenges and lessons learned. Mike is a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the conversation. Mike is a Rescue Captain in Northern Wisconsin. He is an instructor with Midwest Fire Tactics and Training and also contributes to their social media pages. Mike is also on the Oathkeepers cadre and le...
Monday Mindset Check - We get fired up and passionate about the fire service, about leading, and about getting better everyday. But do we bring that same mission home with us? Are we as passionate about leading at home, training our kids, and becoming a better spouse and parent everyday? Being passionate and loving the fire service isn’ta bad thing but we have to bring some of that home to give to people that are even more important, our family. Thank you for listening! Click here to leave a mes...
Once again I am lucky to have a great guest on that is doing great things for the fire service, John Ford. John runs The Slow House Rules Facebook and Instagram pages. I have followed John for a while and love his message of “you don’t have to be from a huge department to be doing great things”. In this episode John goes into why he created The Slow House Rules and we dig deep into no matter what size department you are with, the citizens that you serve are expecting you to perform your job like...
Digging deeper into a post that I put out last week that I feel is something good to self reflect on. Nothing has a bigger impact on positive cultural change than the influence of a respected leader who leads by example. There are 3 important keys to that statement - the influence you’ve built up, the respect that you’ve earned, and if you are leading by example. Influence and Respect are the currency of leadership. That being the case, how can we build up that currency and also how do we make s...
Once again I’m joined by a great guest for this episode, Sean Duffy. Sean shares my passion for firehouse culture and is all over social media. We dive into several different areas concerning culture including his 4 keys to culture change, being a humble leader, and having patience during the process of change. I learned a lot from Sean during this conversation. He states that not only is attitude contagious but passion is as well, and I believe that’s so true. Sean runs Build Your Culture Insta...
Monday Mindset Check - If you could put words to what the perfect culture at your firehouse would be what would that look like? Next step, put it in writing. Thank you for listening! Click here to leave a message to let me know what you think & how this episode impacted you. No matter where or what you came from, great things can come from you!
