Crew 1st Culture Podcast

Today’s thoughts come from a quote from Vince Lombardi, “Individual commitment to a group effort, that’s what makes a team work.” Such a simple yet awesome quote. Teams are nothing without individuals and the key to the whole statement is “commitment”. To reach the true potential of the team all the individuals have to be committed to a single goal. Thank you for listening! Click here to leave a m...

On November 22 I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Unlock Your Culture Webcast. This is hosted by 4 guys that i really respect Sean Duffy, Marc Aloan, John Hayowyk, and Pablo Gener. I really enjoyed my time on there and it was a really good conversation about Growth Through Humility. With the blessing from the 4 hosts I am releasing it on my podcast platform. So many thanks to those guys an...

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 matte...

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 fl...

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 t...

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 an...

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-ener...

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...

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 episod...

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...

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 sear...

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 th...

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...

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...

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 m...

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...

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 t...

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 enj...

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 b...

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 budgeti...

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 shif...

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 w...

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...

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 Fireho...