Forged by FIRE with Ryan Rodriquez

You’ve heard me talk about how we should be focused on becoming assets and purge anything that makes us a liability. This is an active and ongoing process. Active building of yourself only happens with conscious effort and planning. It doesn’t happen by accident. In today’s episode, I will talk about how we can actively focus on becoming assets, what that actively looks like, and a huge pitfall we...

We all have an idea of what we think “perfection” looks like in our minds, but our path to that so-called perfection can be exhausting. This is only compounded when we compare ourselves, our work, and our progress to other people.  Accepting that someone will always be better than you at something helps you maintain humility, but also accept that achieving perfection isn’t a final destination, it’...

We all know how it feels to be not listened to. Whether people are half-listening, continually interrupting, or aren’t paying attention to you at all, we know how that feels. And it doesn’t feel good.  But is it our job to force people to listen to us or is it our job to show people what it looks like to be a good listener? The answer to that question lies in the understanding that we cannot contr...

Oftentimes we spend so much time overcomplicating things that we wind up never taking steps toward accomplishing the things we want to accomplish. Some people call this “paralysis by analysis”. Allowing the complexity of a situation to overwhelm us can stop us in our tracks when we’re trying to set goals and take steps to achieve them.  In today’s episode, I will talk about how complexity is the e...

Regardless of what you do in life, whatever you’ve touched is a signature of your standard. What I mean by that is your involvement is a reflection of your principles, attitude, and the quality of work you’re putting into this world. Whether you’re impacting things on a global scale or focused on making an impact in your community, how you’re showing up is an outward reflection of your inner princ...

When we hear the words “health & wellness” we might think of the umbrella that that phrase covers, or committees that are bogged down in bureaucracy. Being able to identify the elements of health and wellness and how they apply to you are crucial when it comes to staying in the infinite game that is the fire service and life in general. Being able to not only identify the elements that you may...

Grant-writing might not sound all that sexy, but one thing that might get you excited about it is just how much money is out there if you’re looking for it! So many agencies rely on grant money to make sure they can meet their annual operational standards. Why not approach it with a tactical perspective? Dr. Violet Rymshaw is the CEO of INNOVATIVE WRITING. She is a former emergency dispatcher for...

Chief Freddie Fernandez entered the fire service in 1983 and rose to Deputy Fire chief for Miami Fire-Rescue before retiring in 2014. Chief Freddie served as a recruit instructor in 1990 and participated in dozens of officer development classes during his 32 years at MFR. Since 1999, he has helped thousands of firefighters across the nation get promoted. He is the founder of FireAssessmentCenterPr...

If you work as a first-responder and hear the word “energy”, you might immediately think of a cup of coffee or an energy drink. These substances seem to be the quick lifelines that we reach for in order to help us forget that we’re tired and help us push through. But I’d like you to know that there are more productive, longer-lasting, healthier ways to find sources of energy to keep you going. Tod...

Strong and meaningful relationships are essential to our well-being as humans. Our ability to start and maintain meaningful relationships can bring meaning to our lives as well as reduce our stress, but quality relationships take work. As firefighters and first-responders, we tend to bond over extreme situations and then keep people at bay who don’t share in those extreme situations. It’s one of t...

You all have heard me use this adage before, “Civilize the mind, but make savage the body”. That’s a Samurai proverb that I embraced about 10 years ago. I love the dichotomy of making the mind as formidable as the body and vice versa. Oftentimes we feel we have to sacrifice one or the other. And there are a lot of stereotypes out there of the muscular person not being very smart or the intellectua...

I recently read a quote that went something like, “A healthy person has a thousand wishes, an unhealthy person only has ONE.” In a time where we are being told that our health relies on other people wearing masks or that our genetics make it impossible to live healthy lives, it can be difficult to push through all that nonsense and make moves toward improving our physical health and level of fitne...

As firefighters and EMS providers, we train for situations that other people might not ever see in their lives. This means that we set up scenarios that test our ability to physically perform, keep our emotions in check, and mentally adapt to whatever the situation may throw at us. We are literally forging adversity. By doing this, we better prepare ourselves to overcome any situation that life mi...

You’ve heard the term “complacency kills’. Well, why is that? Officially it’s because we get to a point where we are satisfied in our situation in spite of the deficiencies we harbor and as a result, we expose ourselves to danger. This could look like a firefighter not checking their gear every morning. It could look like a father gaining 50 lbs due to lack of discipline in diet and exercise. Or i...

There is SO much information out there in the world today! Along with all the information out there comes the different ways that we can learn it. I’m a huge supporter of learning by doing. In the FIRE and EMS world, there are many things that we teach to our new people through this method. In today’s episode, I share with you what exactly it means to learn by doing and how it can be an incredibly...

I love movies. I love the story-writing that goes into them. When we watch a movie or read a book, we are watching character development play out right before our eyes. Ultimately, regardless of what movie we are watching, the story comes down to one theme, “who am I?” I recently read an article that stated there are 3 versions of you. The author asked the question, “which one is the real you?” In...

I’m a firm believer in leaving things in better shape than you found them, if it’s simply picking up a gum wrapper off the floor or cleaning out the fridge at work. It doesn’t matter what mess you inherit. What matters is how you turn things over. This is the definition of integrity in action. I learned of a new term while the World Cup was going on that I’m going to incorporate into my daily thou...

As we go through the motions, shift by shift, and week by week, we often forget to take moments to ourselves, but not only that, we forget to be actively grateful for what we have. I have been given so much in my life and with Thanksgiving in our rearview mirror, I want to make sure that I'm not just spending one day a year being grateful, but that I am actively spending some time every day focusi...

Back in 2017 I learned of a horrendous statistic; firefighter and first-responder suicides outnumbered line of duty deaths (LODDs). This hit me hard and I wanted to learn more about why this was happening. The more I learned, the more I realized I needed to share what I’d learned with my brothers and sisters across the world. I decided that the best way for me to do that is by starting a podcast t...

I was recently asked what I think separates arrogance and confidence and my answer was this: humility and ability. If you don’t have the ability to execute, then you are being arrogant and false in your capability. If you are capable but not humble about it, then a sense of arrogance still remains. However, if you introduce humility along with your ability, then you’re a confident performer and th...

In order to get to be the person we want to be and get to where we want to be in life and in our careers, we’ve got to start by looking within to identify who and where we are. We’ve got to be introspective. We can do this in a few different ways; we can perform 360 evaluations where we ask for insight from those we work for, those we work with, and those we provide services to. We can rely on our...

I was recently a part of a group of people who were working toward establishing a new vision, mission, and values for their organization. I was SUPER excited to be a part of it because I really want to see this organization thrive with the new leadership that recently took the helm. Anytime you want to know where you want to go, as an organization or as an individual, you have to start by asking q...

When we hear the words “health & wellness” we might think of the umbrella that that phrase covers, or committees that are bogged down in bureaucracy. Being able to identify the elements of health and wellness and how they apply to you are crucial when it comes to staying in the infinite game that is the fire service. Being able to not only identify the elements that you may need to shore up, b...

Firefighter wellness isn’t just about working out and training for the “big one”, it’s about being mentally healthy, spiritually sound, and having our nutrition dialed in. When we hear the term “diet”, we can’t help but think of restrictions; tightening our belt figuratively so we can tighten the belt literally. Megan Lautz is a registered dietician with a Master’s degree in sports nutrition who f...

Sometimes it can be hard to find the humility sweet spot between the spectral ends of ego. If we believe we are more capable than we are then we are victims of dunning-kruger syndrome where our ego outweighs our ability. On the other end of that, if we are of the mindset that we aren’t good enough and that other people deserve things more that we do, we are victims of what’s known as “reverse prid...