This episode of the Better Every Ship podcast is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support, and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit Lexipol.com. That's L-E-X-I-P-O-L.com. Now let's get into the show. hey everybody welcome to the better every ship podcast my name is aaron zamzo i am your host and i got the keys to the car today i'm excited to do a little bit as a matter of fact uh my palms are sweaty my knees are weak and my arms are heavy and uh if you know what that refers to you're going to know that that's from Eminem's Lose Yourself. And I think it's an actual great segue into the topic today. We're going to talk a little bit about training for that moment. Now, of course, you know, Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics, Super Bowl. There are always events where, you know, for me personally, I love to watch, you know, that that shot of glory. or, you know, you see the parents that have sacrificed so much for a particular athlete when they get to their prime or their peak, or they get to that level where they win it all, whether it be the Super Bowl or, you know, World Series or, you know, Olympics. As I'm recording this, the Olympics are going on. So that's kind of what really motivated me to think about, you know, your one shot. And I quoted Eminem's song, and I think it's because it really describes us in the fire service. If you're doing it right, meaning if you approach your job right, whether you're volunteer, career, or on-call paid, if you're approaching it right, you may train and you're thinking about training, training, training for that one moment or that one call. And that maybe doesn't happen for a majority of people in the fire service, you know, thinking of that grab, right, whatever it might be. And it just got me to think that watching these athletes at the epic level that they're at and really come to the top of the mountain, I think we all need to really reflect and understand that behind that is all this sacrifice and there's all this practice and training. right um you know you think about you know colby bryant for example would take you know i don't know 10 000 shots a night and all for the chance in jordan too right would always be practicing shooting shooting shooting shooting all for that one shot and looking at us in the fire service you know personally i've i've been on a call a fire call where we've made a grab a couple of rescues one successful one not and you know you train and you train and you train for it and when that happens, it motivates you to train more. But I see that there's a trend sometimes where we might get lax. And, you know, it's happened to me. I'm not perfect by any means. And I think, you know, if you could start to get out of yourself a little bit and get into your uncomfort zone and really analyze what you're doing on a daily basis, you know, or even, you know, weekly, if you're volunteering, you're going to that firehouse, you're going to that training, you know are you setting yourself up for success when you really need it i think that's really the the point and you know i i love like you know that re uh going back to that that m&m song where he talks about his knees are weak his arms are heavy and then vomit on his sweater you know he is getting a little nervous about what's going on and and that happens to us right on the way to that call um and i i always think about a good friend of mine who's a coach in the nfl and coaches the defense for the Buffalo Bills right now. I asked him, I said, you know, do you coach, you get nervous before a game? And he always said to me, he's like, Sam, I don't get nervous before the game. I get nervous throughout the week. Wondering if I prepped the right way, wondering if I did everything that I could do. He said, when it becomes game time, he's like, I'm excited. I'm excited to show what I I've done and the work that I've put in. And I think that is an, it's just an epic mindset and you could tie it into Olympics because I think Olympians have that that kind of athletic train for the moment. I think, you know, any sports event, you could kind of correlate that to. And I think what we have to do as firefighters and first responders is also correlate it to that one event. And the grind is real. I know it, you know, call after call after call can get a little mundane. But that one call is the one where you're like, shoot, I wish I would have studied this, right? Or you don't want to be put in that situation where I wish I would have studied this, or I wish I would have trained a little harder on this. I think we have to focus in the fire service more about the process. And what's happening with social media and what happens, I think, just in society is that we always look at what the outcome is. And we don't look at what has set that outcome up. And as officers, you know, I think that's our job to instill training to get our crews ready for that one shot, right, for that one call. You know, when you look on YouTube, and I like to look at calls and after actions, and you look at ones that went really, really well, and you look at some that didn't go really well, and there seems to be a common theme. The ones that really went well are those teams and contain those individuals where they talk about that scenario, they act out that scenario, they set their training up to be successful. You know, that's our glory. That's what we actually, you know, need to always remember is that, hey, this can happen. Are we prepared for it You know I mentioned I had a grab with my crew and they responded unbelievably well You know for me it was a it was kind of a call back to myself a reality check because for a moment I was surprised That we found that person and I shouldn't think that way. I should always think that there is someone in there. And to me, it was a reality check that, hey, I always got to expect fire. I got to expect that there's someone in there because that is our job. And to me, that was a good check and balance, you know, because the job and the tasks of the job can get a little mundane. You know, you can go through call after call, fall after fall, in some cases, EMS after EMS, and kind of lose a little bit of that luster. So the whole point of this today is maybe to ignite a little fire, no pun intended, into you and your crew and to challenge you to get out of that mundane comfort zone and start training for things that you know you need to do, but maybe don't. That's what motivates me a little bit is just, you know, thinking about that moment and how I can improve my mindset and then transferring that onto my crew. And, you know, we talked about that in the after action. I told my crew, I said, you know, I'm kind of disappointing myself, you know, because I should be thinking that. And and I didn't ask them if they thought that or not, but I wanted to instill that in them that we should be. And, you know, if it's a check for me, I can make it a check for them. We can do it. And I think in a manner in which, you know, we all can can grow from it. So, you know, we need to be able to rise to the occasion. We need to be able to train for the occasion. And when you train, if you have that outcome in mind, you're not just checking boxes. And I could tell sometimes when the crew is tired and we feel like all of a sudden the training kind of got to a point where we're, all right, Zam, you're losing me. I just feel like we're checking a box now. And sometimes a question or that's where like a line of duty or you refer to someone who's been in that situation. You know, so if we're talking about, you know, carrying somebody down a ladder, well, nobody on that crew has ever seen it done, you know, you may have to find a way to relate the back to them. Whether you're you find a video where that's done or a line of duty death or, you know, look for an actual call where that had to be done. Or, you know, if you have a seasoned crew, maybe somebody will talk about how it went well, how it didn't go well for them. But I think things like that, we have to make it relatable and set ourselves up to rise to that occasion. And so with that, I'm going to challenge you to train like with that Olympic mindset, to train with that athletic mindset. I just think you need to be more motivated to train for that reason and think about that why you are training and then make sure you reiterate that back to your crew. And then I also use this as an opportunity to tell my crew, like, are we doing something? Do you feel like we're just checking a box or do you understand why we are doing this? And do you see where we can do this or where this is going to come useful at some point, right? I think sometimes too, when you are going through kind of the motions as a leader, that's when you need to open yourself up to be a little more vulnerable and to ask your crew for support or those members, because I found that everyone's always willing to help each other, right? That's the fire service. I mean, we're quick to put each other down, but when we admit that we need help or we admit for an opinion, we usually get one. And I think as a leader, it's important to, to ask for that feedback, especially if you're going through that slump where you feel like you're not training for that occasion, you're just checking the boxes and going through the chores. So I think that's the biggest thing. And I mentioned my crew and, you know, and again, I am, I am not perfect. I'm a work in progress. Every single day, I just try to be as humble as I can be, and to rely on all the great resources around me because I, you know, particularly not, I would say I'm not that smart, but I understand what my strengths and my weaknesses are. And, and what I found maybe by mistake sometimes is when I tell my crew, look, you guys need to, you know, say something. If you see something, you need to check me sometimes as well, because, um, if we're not training for purpose, or if you feel like we're just going through the motions, like I said earlier, you got to call me out. And what that's done is open the door to build more camaraderie and to build trust and to build people to, you know, allow people to feel like they can make mistakes and that you're not going to get chastised for it, you know, or not any more than normal. I should say, look, we still are the fire service. We still do those things. And, you know, to me, that's really helped me do my job. And it's made made being an officer a lot easier. And I see some some officers struggling with that. And you might be struggling with that as you're listening, because maybe you're thinking your crew's not responding. But I think that's where that open communication comes in and says, hey, what do I need to do to make us better? What do I need to work on as a leader to help you guys be better? And ask for their feedback. If they don't give you feedback, you're going to have to dig it out of them some way. You know, going back to looking at, you know, the Olympics going on right now, every single person doesn't matter if it's an individual event, or a team event, everybody has somebody else there that they needed to rely on to get there. And I think we also as leaders, and it doesn't matter, you don't have to be just a lieutenant, you can be a firefighter, you can be right at the back step, doesn't matter, you can be on one year or 20 years. You have to be open to feedback as a leader. And you also need to be obviously open to feedback as a new recruit and as someone who doesn't have as much experience. But I believe when that goes both ways, I think that really where the magic starts to happen And everybody starts to then step up to rise to that occasion When we do get that one call when we do get that one save You know and I mentioned Kobe Bryant You can look at some of your some of the most famous athletes in the world. What we don't see is all those practices. Right. We don't see all those sacrifices. And we just have to keep that in mind in that, you know, their parents took them to the gym. There's parents that would take their kids to the ski hill or take their kids to, you know, hockey practice. You always see that there's always this team there. And, you know, I think we have to always remember that that success is just not one of us doing the job, especially in the fire service. Success is all of us coming together. And by opening yourself up, being more vulnerable, it just creates this radical trust amongst the crew. And so I also want to encourage you to do that. And if you're one that's reluctant to do that because you're afraid you're opening the door, the only thing I can tell you is you try it. I believe you would be pleasantly surprised. I've also been someone who's talked about kind of a taboo topic in the fire service a lot. I've been known as more of the fitness guy for years, right? So that's a taboo taboo because everybody knows we need it, but nobody really likes it. You know, insert fitness joke here. Right. But in private, a lot of people would talk to me about their level of fitness and, hey, Sam, I know I need to get in shape. What can I do? And, you know, to me, them trusting me with that conversation, it said that I was on the right path. And a lot of that came from my own vulnerability of saying, hey, even though I talk about fitness, I still don't like to do burpees. I don't like running, but I know I need to do that. And, and I struggle with ice cream, just like everybody else. So looking at team success above your own, I think is really, really important. And even if, especially if you're not getting that support from the leadership above you, you have to be better. And, and that kind of goes into my next point about one of the things I've really tried to do. I'm, I'm a work in progress is to push forward and not back. And when you look at, hey, we want to be prepared for that golden moment, right? We want to be set for that one drag, that one rescue, that one scene, that one scenario. And in order to do that, we have to train with purpose. We have to make sure we're not just checking boxes. We have to build a team. We got to build that camaraderie, right? We have to do all of these things in order for that one thing to happen. What I was finding though, is that I wasn't feeling like I was getting support above me to help my crew. And I found myself pushing back and pushing back and pushing back. Sometimes I didn't know the whole situation, but what I didn't see was how that was affecting my crew. And I remember one day feeling like, man, am I the person that's bringing us down? And again, and I told you about some of the things that that allowed me, you know, the reality of that and the thought of that really struck me. So that's when I opened up to my crew and I said, look, I am going to give you permission to tell me when and if this is going on, because that takes away from us training for our golden moment. You know, that in a way I was, I was eating more spaghetti, even though I wasn't able to keep it down as Eminem would say. And so with that, I want you to think about maybe using that as a tactic or a technique to get your crew's trust a little bit more is to tell them they can check you every once in a while, especially if you're going down and being that negative person and pushing back instead of pushing forward or pushing or pulling forward and bringing everyone with you. And then, you know, and that's, it just can't happen overnight too. This is a process. So everything that I've suggested this far, you know, for me personally, some days I'm better at it, some days I'm worse, but I understand it is a process. And identifying where we could get better, you know, as a crew, and especially starts with me, where can I get better? And then how can I transfer that onto my crew to ultimately get us to the top of the podium, to ultimately get us ready for that one call. Now, right, that one call can be a magnitude of things. But if the foundation is in place, when that call happens, your team and you respond accordingly and and as you should you know and i've had some some calls like that uh the last couple years and and the success of that was having a good team and having good people and you know i think part of that too is just being honest with myself saying that i'm you know i am not the the sole reason for success as a matter of fact sometimes it's home i probably you know like i said i was going through a point where i felt like i was holding us back you know And I think too, Eminem's song is lose yourself. Sometimes you do it within the service, within the constraints of the job. And if you feel like you're doing that, use these techniques. Talk to your crew. Ask them to be the one that can check you if you're getting negative. Ask them how you can make training more pertinent and more fluid and more on point to helping them get prepared for that call. and like I said, using real-time scenarios or after actions or experience from some of your more senior firefighters does that. If it always just comes from your experience after a while, you turn off your audience. So if it's always used, hey, this is what I've come up and I've come across, great, but then ask for everyone else's, right? And that's part of the challenge is to open that up and open that door. And if there's something that needs to be corrected along the way that your job also And I give you a prime example When I first became a lieutenant one of the things I always said to my crews was look I a stickler for seatbelts I a stickler for wearing your proper PPE and always wearing your gear especially your SCBA and overhaul These are simple things that make a big, I think, lasting measure in our safety. You know, there's no excuse to not have your seatbelt on. And so I gave my driver's permission to pull over if the seatbelts are going, you know, if all the signals are going. And I remember one of my first days, I had some guy stand in the back, get their gear on. And I just told the driver, I said, pull over, let's wait. You know, okay, you guys ready back there? And that set the standard. And I remember thinking in my head, do I do it? Do I do it? Do I do it? And I followed my gut. And after that, after a while, everybody knew it. And everybody would pay attention to it. And there's still some times where they're going to challenge you. But I believe that that's a small moment that can lead to many bigger ones. And when it comes to what we're really talking about is prepping for that call for that one instance, that small thing makes a huge difference. And that's what we have to remember. It is a long process. And we talk about the difference between motivation and discipline. And that's discipline right there. I also think, too, the other side of this is we have to read our crews from day to day. Some of the things that have been coming out in pro sports and also with the Olympics is the mental health side of that, right? Dealing with that big event, you know, after the event is kind of what I'm talking about is we also have to make sure that we bring the right resources and bring attention to the right points on that. to learn and grow from every big call or from every almost big call. And I think just like we would from that training, we also have to remember the mental health side of that and how that plays into the next call. And I think part of that too goes back to tone. When you're trying to make some corrections with your crews, when you're trying to make some corrections with yourself, you got to give yourself grace, but you also have to give your crew a little brace and understand how you're communicating with them. I know people would say, well, it's a little bit more delicate of a generation. Well, maybe so, but maybe our tone isn't conducive to helping them either. And I know growing up, well, I haven't grown up yet, but being in the fire service for 20 years, the tone of leadership has changed in some cases or it should have changed. And in order to get the messages heard, you got to think about what is the tone behind it. Just like training, you know, for a particular event, you got to understand why you're training and what you're doing. And you may have to look at, hey, is this effective? And I think you might be saying the right things and teaching the right things, but your tone is off. I mean, when you're talking about fitness and training, it's like, you might be doing the right things, but your intensity is off, or your timing is off a little bit. So we have to make fine tune adjustments as leaders. And even as as, as I said, firefighters are people in the back, backstep, your tone and your response to that training to needs to be something that doesn't bring anybody at the defensive, but you also need to talk to each other, just be freaking human, it really is really what it comes down to. And, and I know I'm kind of going off on a ramp, but I think all this stuff comes back to the basics of communication, the basics of setting expectations and, you know, the basics of teamwork, right? Keeping in mind that that one call, that one day, that one particular event is possible. And how do we prep each other? How do we prep ourselves for that one event, whatever that event might be? You know, I've been in a mass casualty shooting. I've been in a fire where we pull people out. You know, we've been in a three alarm fire where things are exploding. And, you know, every time I look at how do we get better? What did we do right? And, you know, and I know that there's a lot of more seasoned firefighters out there going, oh, that's nothing. And that is exactly right. But how do we respond from those calls? Do we grow? And are we set up for our next opportunity? And with that, I really appreciate you guys listening. Again, I'm really going to try to challenge you here. And I want you to take something from this. Take one or two things that I talked about. If you haven't asked your crew for feedback lately, ask them for some feedback on how can you make training more applicable, more interesting, more exciting, and more, I think, just deliberate. And if you as a leader are evaluating and thinking, man, am I the one that's bringing us down? because I'm constantly complaining about people above me or people around me. Maybe it's time to check yourself and allow your crew to check you also. And then lastly, just think about some of the small things that maybe you're not doing and you know you should to make you that better person, to make you that better firefighter, training officer, officer, chief, husband, wife, brother, whatever it might be. Write a couple of them down and you can post them here. I'd love to see how you're trying to work on making yourself better because that's, in essence, what it's all about here on the Better Every Shift podcast. So with that, I'm going to leave you and I'm going to bid you adieu. And I'm going to say thank you for listening. Make sure you learn something, do something, and share something to make you and those around you better every shift. Thanks for listening, everybody. you
