Crew 1st Culture Podcast

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 f...

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 Tra...

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...

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...

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 curr...

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...

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!

I’m very honored to be joined by Brian Brush today to discuss a “Road Map to a Successful Fire Service Career”. This was a topic requested by a listener and I immediately thought about bringing Brian on to join me for this discussion. I’uveitis been really looking forward to releasing this episode because it is full of great takeaways and I know you’ll enjoy listening.  Brian is the Chief Training...

Monday Mindset Check - We have all heard the statement that “a bad attitude is more contagious than a good one.” Honestly I don’t know that I agree completely with that statement. Although I would agree in part, I think there are other factors that contribute to the spread of attitude (good or bad). To me the personality of the person has maybe more to do with how wide they spread their attitude....

Joining me today are 2 guys that are passionate about the culture of fitness; Aaron Quinn of Live. Serve. Thrive and Ian Palmer of Thin Line Fitness. We dig into the road blocks that keep departments from fully investing in fitness and all the benefits that come to those departments that do invest in it. Even if you are just one person at your department that wants to start changing the culture yo...

Today’s Monday Mindset Check focuses on taking a break from the world and taking time for your family and for yourself. We have so step away and spend time with our families and on ourselves sometimes especially in a time that the circumstances may make it difficult to get away from the daily grind. This can be a great time to find yourself and build better relationships within your family. Have a...

I am joined by a very special guest today, Justin Mann. Justin discusses with me the idea of competency based safety. This competency is gained through regular and purposeful training. We have a very inherently dangerous job so of course we want to make it as safe as possible but the best way to make a firefighter safe is not through policy but through competency. Great conversation that I know yo...

On this Monday Mindset Check I want us to think about the one person that we have to focus most on leading, that is ourselves. It starts with leading one. This thought was spurred on by a quote from Frank Viscuso and that is “If you can lead one, you can lead many. But if you can’t lead one, you’ll never lead any.” That quote speaks volumes to me and tells me that when I seem to be failing as a le...

Motivation and inspiration, what do those terms mean to you? Are they the same and basically interchangeable or are there drastic differences in the 2? This discussion is one that I have begun to gain a deep interest in and feel like they are very different things. Join me in a discussion to dive deeper and to gain a better understanding of the difference between motivation and inspiration. Motiva...

Last week I saw a post by Mark Vonappen from @fullyinvolvedofficial and it really spoke to me so I wanted to share it and a few thoughts. Changing culture isn’t something that’s just happens, it’s a long process and requires a lot of patience and hard work. Sometimes we need to take a step back and maybe even adjusts our perspective to be able to see the positive changes that our work is creating....

Every one of you out there have something to give, something that someone else needs to hear to be inspired or to just not feel alone. With all of the negativity that we are bombarded with constantly the world needs all of you to take that first step towards helping others. That step is different for all of us and chances are that some of you aren’t even sure what that step is yet but it’s there y...

It’s so easy for us to become burned out, negative, and complacent at our job. Literally as I am releasing this episode I am coming off of a night on duty consisting of 2 full arrests including one involving a pediatric, and those are exactly the days that wear on you and build up. But it’s still the best job ever. We need to keep in mind the thousands of people hoping, praying, and working their...

John Sahatjian from Jersey Shore Emergency Training joins me today to dig in to a statement he brought to my attention a little while back. “Lions don’t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.” This statement has really stuck in my mind and helps me to keep driving forward. I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and know you will too.  Definitely don’t miss John’s takeaway of “Do the right thing, f...

Your mindset is a choice, your perspective is a choice, your attitude is a choice, and whether or not you grow is a choice. So what are you choosing today? We can easily fall into the trap of blaming people, outside influences, our life’s circumstances for our bad attitude and negativity but you are the only one responsible for making the choice to be that way. I am beginning on a quest towards po...

Corley Moore join’s me today to dig into the topic of hope so we inspire and rekindle the passion for the job in those that may have lost it. This was a very eye opening conversation for me and I hope you all get as much out of it as I did.  In an attempt to have a conversation on how to “fix others” I was very clearly hit with the realization that that just isn’t possible. The real answer comes f...

No matter how busy your department and firehouse is chances are you have some downtime each day and sometimes quite a bit. What are we doing with that time? Is the time we spend growing, learning, and getting better at the job comparable to the amount we spend griping about the department, society, politics, and so on? If we are truly doing this to help others then we better start focusing on bein...

Today I have a guest Aaron Quinn with me. Aaron is an 18 veteran firefighter with the Oakland Fire Department. We discuss the roles and responsibilities of the senior firefighter and the informal leader. We also touch on how we can rekindle the passion for the job that may have been lost for some. I really enjoyed this conversation and know there are a lot of people out there that will get a lot f...

A little late but I wanted to give appreciation to all the Dad’s out there including mine who I love very much. I’ve never had a more exhausting, stressful, nerve racking, and irritating at times job but I love every minute of it. It’s also the most fun, rewarding, and humbling job ever. I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world. Enjoy being a Dad and work hard to get better at it just like everyth...

There can be no personal growth without humility. I experienced a little bit of a lightbulb moment in my way home from work and felt like I needed to sit down and record some of my thoughts. No one wants to fail, I hate failing so much. But it’s failure that gives us the humility to learn and grow. I’m not afraid to be the voice of those out there that feel like they fail more than they win, that’...

There are so many people out there just fighting to survive, I’ve been there and some days I still feel that way. Our stories are all so different yet there are always others that are fighting similar battles. We need to learn to open up to others because by doing so we not only help ourselves but potentially help others by letting them know they aren’t alone as well.  We can’t just turn off the p...