The Firefighter's Path to Health with Fire Proof Wellness

https://www.fireproofwellness.com

IG @fireproofwellness

In this conversation, Steve-O interviews Ian Meyers, a firefighter paramedic and director of operations at Fireproof Wellness. They discuss the unique challenges faced by firefighters, including mental health issues, hormone imbalances, and the need for tailored healthcare solutions. Ian shares his personal journey with mental health and hormone optimization, emphasizing the importance of accessible care for firefighters. The conversation also touches on the significance of community support, the role of telemedicine, and the need for comprehensive annual physicals that include hormone screenings. Ian highlights the cultural traditions within the fire service and the importance of mentorship for new firefighters. Overall, the discussion aims to raise awareness about firefighter wellness and the resources available to improve their health and longevity.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
All right, welcome back, everybody.
I had the privilege to sit down with Ian Myers.
He is with Fireproof Wellness. He's a firefighter paramedic for
16 years. He's also the director of
operations at Fireproof Wellness, a program created and
that's why he's on the show herespecifically for firemen by
someone who lives it. His wife, Jessica Myers, is APA
and functional medicine practitioner who designed

(00:21):
Fireproof based on their clinical training and personal
experience with the toll that the job takes on us.
Together, they build a system that combines education,
telemedicine, and health coaching to help restore
firefighters energy balance hormones, and recover from
burnout. Mission is to take, excuse me?
Ian's mission is to make better care accessible, effective, and

(00:41):
truly relatable for the AmericanFire service.
So without further ado, Ian, thank you so much for taking
time out of your busy day. You're running two jobs right
now. Did I miss anything in the bio?
My brother? Not at all man, I appreciate the
the speak there. All right, so with with all this
said, I have 19 years on the job, mid 40s.
So most of my adult life was in the fire service.

(01:04):
Prior to that was the military as a captain now still in the
field, currently assigned the training Academy.
Yeah, the job is tough. It beats us up.
I would probably say, I don't know, 75% of our fire department
is on TRT. So obviously hormones, Wellness,
mental, the entire aspect is a huge deal across the entire
nation. So brother, please just

(01:24):
breakdown what you guys are doing, what the necessity was,
why you founded the program, Just a deep dive from inception
to where you guys are AT. And then let's talk about maybe
the future. Sound good?
Absolutely, Yeah, I appreciate that.
So Fireproof Wellness was created at a necessity for
myself a number of years back. So the mission of Fireproof
Wellness is to provide accessible care to everyone

(01:47):
across across the nation. And our goal is to provide the
type of care that firefighters need.
Unfortunately, we cannot be lumped in with the general
population when it comes to whatwe see, what we experience, the
sleep deprivation and, and all the effects that the job has on
us. And so we really need tailored
care, specific care from providers who actually

(02:09):
understand what firefighters go through and don't give you the
vague, well, you should probablysleep more.
You should probably eat right. You should probably exercise
more. And those aren't the answers.
There really isn't. There's a lot of stuff that that
affects the the firefighters in ways that some of us may know
and a lot of us don't know. And so how was created a number
of years back was probably about10 years into my career in the

(02:30):
fire service and I just started experiencing symptoms of
depression, anxiety, PTSD, although I wouldn't admit that I
was suffering from PTSD or anything like that.
Job dissatisfaction was startingto come into play.
And I, I'd done everything I took me 6-7 years to get hired
with fire service and I had put in so much time and energy into
it. And I was getting to a point
where I was like, I'm beginning to not like this job anymore And

(02:53):
I didn't like that. And in periods of, of just my
workouts weren't, weren't feeling right.
I was tired all the time. Even even after three or four
days of being at home, I was still slugging around my, my
workouts just weren't, weren't getting the results that I used
to get. I was starting to retain fat.
And there was just a number of different things.

(03:13):
And my wife, who was going through her training at the time
was, was asking me to get my hormones checked.
And it was just something that Ijust, I didn't want to hear from
my wife. I'm like, I got this.
That's kind of the, the mentality with firemen as I, I
can handle this. I got this and things just got
worse. And so it came to a point where
I started having these thoughts of suicide.
And it was one of those things that I was the reasoning behind

(03:36):
it was my wife would be better off without me.
My kids would be better off without me.
I'm always depressed, I'm alwaysangry, I snap easily.
Really the turning point was it was my son's birthday and I got
a call from a friend of mine whowe had a mutual friend who took
his life. And that to me shook my world
because it wasn't, it was about a week or two before I talked to

(03:58):
him about my thoughts of suicideand how, how like, how can I get
through this and what are you, you know, what can I do?
And him giving me all the advicethat he can possibly give.
And I looked up to this guy. He's a mentor of mine and both
family, fitness business, all this stuff.
And so it, it really shaped my world.
And that's when I said, that's the path that I'm down.
Eventually that's where I'm going to be.

(04:19):
And I, I, I realized the effect that that is going to have on
people who love you. So I said I needed help.
I went and saw a therapist, which was absolutely a necessity
for me. But more importantly, and I
think this is missed far too often as I got my hormones
checked by somebody who actuallyunderstands what firefighters go
through. And my testosterone at that time

(04:41):
was 198. My vitamin D was down, my zinc
was down. Everything was just all the
markers were completely off, notoptimized whatsoever.
And so my wife was in was working in conjunction with him
to create this program and created something that is just
absolutely amazing. I went from a testosterone level
198 to 834 without TRT, vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, cortisol

(05:06):
levels. All of those started getting
within normal limits and became optimized.
And so that's that's what this program is all about.
And so really it's just kind of real world application what this
program can actually do. And the guys that are in the
program now have seen amazing results with it with what we're
teaching. And so it's just an educational
base, a functional medicine based program and then also a

(05:27):
coaching component as well. Now when you start talking
about, I understand the coachingcomponent and everything else,
when we start talking about the medicine, are we talking about
this is a prescription based medicine that's assigned from
your wife obviously to the patient or is this like a
recommendation of supplements ordo you want to kind of expand on
that? Yeah.
It's a combination of everything.
So if you're still going to remain the person that you are,

(05:51):
make no lifestyle changes, sit on the couch, whatever, whatever
it is that you're doing that's gotten you to that position.
If you continue to just live that lifestyle and not make any
lifestyle changes, you're not going to see very good benefits
at all. So it's somebody who's ready to
make change and do what's necessary to build resilience
and longevity. So number one is lifestyle.

(06:12):
If we need, there's certain things that need to be
corrected. Are you drinking heavily at
night? Are you a smoker?
Do you consume a lot of caffeine?
What's your nutrition like? Is the next portion of it?
So lifestyle, nutrition and thenof course the environmental
factors, it's just kind of what we're exposed to.
But there are things that we cando to mitigate our exposures or
or after exposure, the things that we do to mitigate that.

(06:33):
But once those are optimized, then we look at the
supplementation which is necessary.
You know, there are some people that don't believe that
supplements should be a thing and that you shouldn't be taking
any. But I think in our case and
fireman case, absolutely becausewe are sleep deprived, we are
going to continue to have lack of sleep.
We are continue to be exposed tostress.
So there are some components to that.

(06:54):
Another component of it, if you are found that you could you
utilize the testosterone optimization program is a drug
called in clomiphene. And what in clomiphene does is
the very basic bare bones is it tells the brain to tell the
balls to produce testosterone. Unfortunately, that message
center gets screwed up with our lack of sleep and high cortisol
levels. We don't, we don't have a
chance, but we don't give our body a chance to produce the

(07:16):
testosterone that it needs to produce.
And that has helped me and it's helped the guys in the program.
And of course, it's, it's dependent on your ability, your
body's ability to produce testosterone.
So it's just an Ave. to take before you jump on TRT.
Now, not saying that TRT is bad at all.
If you're having it monitored correctly and not just doing bro
science from another dude who's got, he knows a dude who gives a

(07:37):
testosterone and you go based onhow you feel like, no, no, you
want to make sure it's monitoredby somebody.
But yeah, so that's essentially it.
And, and, and it's like I said, it's, it's allowed me to be more
patient with my family. It's allowed me to to withstand
the the the long nights and recover quicker.
So you're a fireman. All the guys that listen to this
are pretty much in the same exact boat.

(07:58):
Career volunteer really doesn't matter outside of the sleep.
Because that's the easiest answer.
And I'm asking because I'm very curious myself because I've been
on TRT for, well, shoot, like 12years.
I mean, it's been a long time. And I had numbers, my natural
numbers were right, a little bithigher than yours, like 2O5210,
something like that. And that was, for me, a game

(08:19):
changer. So outside of that, I didn't
think there was any options for us.
So why do you believe that it affects our community, the fire
service community more than anybody else out there?
Because I know there's jobs thatpeople are sleep deprived, but I
kind of feel like we get hit harder.
Why is any clue on why? Why we're special, You know,
besides the fact that we wear helmets to work every day.

(08:39):
So with my limited knowledge on everything, again, my wife is
the one who's much more knowledgeable in this.
But I can give you, yeah, just like you said, the kind of the
the basics as to as to why that is the case.
So one obviously is sleep deprivation.
We talked about that if you're sleep deprived, you're not
giving your body the ability to produce testosterone.
So that's one thing. Another thing is the the the
chemicals that were exposed to the carcinogens, PFAS, those

(09:02):
actually do have an effect on testosterone production.
The science behind it is not really well known, but there are
studies that actually show the the the demand of the job as a
fireman has a significant impact.
One of those is a believe there is a group of 25 year old
firefighters, about 7677 of them.
So it's a very small group, but 77 or so firefighters of which

(09:26):
age is 20, age 25, otherwise healthy, not overweight within
the BMI limits. Within the first year the fire
service saw 37% reduction of testosterone.
So they went from roughly 736 to434 somewhere around there just
within the first year. And these again are 25 to 26
year old firefighters. You know, is it is it is the

(09:47):
stress, the main component? Is it stress and sleep, lack of
sleep, the two main components. I mean, that's, that's kind of
unknown right now. But we do know that it
significantly impacts firefighters.
And so testosterone kind of being the the big driver behind
a lot of how men feel and women too.
I'm not going to discount them because women suffer greatly

(10:08):
from, from low testosterone as well and, and their hormones.
But yeah, with testosterone, if that is not optimized or not
working well, you're going to suffer in so many different
areas. And so, I mean, I don't know
what else to say other than thanthe the lack of sleep, the high
cortisol levels and and the stress of the job.
I kind of believe that the straits, it's funny, as I've

(10:29):
gotten older and obviously mental health and everything
else has been a more acceptable topic, I guess.
So it's you're more encouraged to kind of do a deep dive.
We have department wide trainings.
I mean, that's that's something just across America right now.
But with all that information that we're starting to get, you
start thinking like you're pissed some guys off by saying
this. I'm sure.
I don't believe our job is as dangerous as it is stressful, if

(10:51):
that makes any sense. So yes, we have a very dangerous
job, but I believe we have a more stressful than dangerous
job because most departments run80% EMS, right?
There's EMS calls that are extremely stressful.
I work in an area that's not exactly the highest demographic
and we run shootings and stabbings all the freaking time.
They are stressful. Traumas are stressful.
It doesn't mean that we don't react and work appropriately,

(11:13):
but it's that constant exposure to stress.
And I've kind of feel like our job has more stress consistently
than pretty much anything out there.
Now, obviously outside of a war zone fighting for your life,
those guys are way more stressedthan us, but I kind of believe
they don't do 25 years in the war zone where we're basically
doing 25 years in the war zone every second or third day,

(11:35):
depending on your schedule. Yeah, absolutely.
And to, I mean, and you think about guys too, that before even
joining the fire service, that or forestry or that are EM TS
working on busy ambulances too, like this, this, this can happen
significantly earlier in your career prior to even joining the
fire service. And then, you know, of course,
dealing with, with all the stressors, like you said, and,

(11:56):
and it may not, like you said, we operate very well in the
moment. In the moment.
We're we're told that we need togo to work and get the job done.
We get it done and we do well atit.
It's the aftermath that we need to be prioritize how we're going
to recover, how we're going to, how that call affected us both
mentally and physically. I got you.
So and something and you might know, I mean, I know your wife

(12:18):
probably knows and you might notknow, but it's just something.
And we're talking about, especially with hormones and
sleep and everything else, something that was just kind of
kicking around with some of the instructors the other day.
And then during a Wellness conversation we're having, and I
could be wrong, but what I believe I understood was, is
they're actually classifying sleep deprivation as a Class 1

(12:38):
carcinogen. Do you know anything about that,
or have you heard that at all? I personally have not.
That'd be something I'd like to ask my wife about that as far as
that goes, but I haven't really heard anything about that.
I'd love to see where that's coming from and whatever the
studies are that are backing that and why they're classifying
that. But yeah, that's very

(12:59):
interesting. Yeah, I'm, I'm again, I'm very
curious too. It's, it's kind of something I
heard in the past scene and thenit obviously piqued my interest
and it's something that I haven't had a chance to sit down
and really do a deep dive on, which I planned to, but I
figured I had you, so I had to ask.
Yeah. So what do you feel like?
So we're we're talking about Wellness, fitness, everything
else that we've been, both of ushave been in the fire service

(13:20):
for a long time. So we've seen the trends that go
through. We had the CrossFit, we had shit
a Netflix vegan special drops and you know what, whatever it
was called game changers and they everybody goes vegan for a
couple weeks. So we are very influenced by
whatever's going on that ADHD brain that most of us have that
type a personality. So what do you how do you feel

(13:42):
like is the hormones are a hot topic right now?
So is that the next ad or are wefinally getting down to the
nitty gritty of what is actuallygoing on instead of saying, oh
man, I've been having all these problems because I eat meat and
I should only eat veggies. And obviously we understand that
every diet is different for every person and you can benefit
from both sides. Do you think we're finally in

(14:03):
the American Fire Services whole, finally starting to get
dialed? Because you're not the first guy
that I've heard talk about how important hormones are when it
comes down to this job. Great question.
I do not believe it's a fad. I, I really do believe that it
is a shift And and I've, I've, I've seen this shift going from
if you made a chicken salad 15 years ago for dinner, that'd be

(14:24):
tossed out in the trash, like noone would eat that and they'd be
ordering pizza. Now it's like acceptable that
someone makes a bitch and chicken salad for dinner.
You're like, all right, cool. Yeah, it sounds good.
So there's definitely a shift and I think it, it's a mindset
of the younger generation comingin that has really impacted in a
positive way, prioritizing health, prioritizing fitness,

(14:47):
prioritizing these other things.And I'm not knocking the old
guys. Trust me.
You know, they, they put, they paved a lot for us.
And but I do think it's a shift in the fire service.
I think it's a great movement when it comes to that.
When it, when we're talking about hormones, that's not
something that's going to go away.
That's something that's going tobe continually talked about and
more and more people are going to get supposed to hearing about

(15:09):
this that oh, maybe I should getthis checked right, this.
I mean, you know, there's a thing about marketing.
It's like you need multiple touches in order for somebody to
actually buy something. It's the same thing when you
hormones. If it's talked about it enough
in the fire service, that individual is going to go, well,
maybe I should get mine checked too.
And this new, you know, with therecent fires, just that came
through function Wellness I think is what it is.

(15:30):
They did a thing where it's like, hey, for any of the
firefighters that fought the recent fires in LA, you guys get
free lab work. And there were a ton of people
that jumped on that. And that is fantastic.
I loved hearing that. I love talking about it with
people like, hey, oh, say sign up for this, get your labs done.
And, you know, they come up to me.
They're like, what does this allmean?
I'm like, that's not for me to decipher.

(15:50):
That's for your provider to decipher.
And I keep pointing them to fireproof, right?
But you know, because we, we understand what, what these
numbers mean and, and how to apply what it is you need to
apply in order to optimize that.But yeah, I don't think it's a
fad. I think it's something that's
going to continually evolve and become more important for
firefighters to be optimized, which will help against the

(16:11):
risks that we take, the cancers,the pre pre diabetes or
diabetes, heart disease, all these other things that we face.
I know we're struggling across the United States right now for
just annual physicals. And when I say annual physicals,
I don't mean just a quick blood work screen with heavy metals
and stuff like that. I'm talking about functional
fitness, VO2 Max, complete bloodwork, and everything else.

(16:33):
In your opinion, do you believe that the cities and the counties
and everything else that we all work for, should that be part of
our physical? Should we have a hormone
screening, or is that something that's kind of merely
interesting for that PCP? So yes, we should have a hormone
screening and furthermore, we should have it read by somebody
who actually understands what firefighters go through and not

(16:55):
the same, the same doctors that see other job related
individuals and completely different fields of work.
It should be specific to firefighters because I was told
my testosterone level of 386 wasacceptable.
And there are studies that show testosterone levels less than
400 firefighters are at risk of cardiovascular disease.
And so there's, there's a numberof things that get missed as

(17:17):
just it's within range, right? If you're between 200 and 800,
you're good. It's like, well, if you look at
society, 75% of society sick, like, I don't want to be normal,
I want to be optimized. And so it should be read by
somebody who understands what firefighters go through and what
optimal hormones should be. And furthermore, I think you
know, right now the, the, the physical fitness or the, the

(17:41):
annual physicals, I really thinkthey should be a lot more
detailed. And like you said, including VO2
Max, including the stress tests and not just like can you do 15
push ups or hey, you held a plank for a minute.
Good job. It's like a job's a lot more
demanding than that. But, but more so, I think, I
think the labs need to be a hugepart of it.
And they need to be labs again, read by a functional medicine

(18:04):
provider who understands what firefighters go through well.
I mean, hopefully we'll all get there across the nation one day,
but I'm blessed enough now that I started on the East Coast and
we have, we had that physical. I just said quick blood work,
you know, hey, walk like a duck,Cool.
You crack a little bit. Does it hurt?
No, OK, you're going to get backon the truck and you're fine.
That's it. And that's considered acceptable

(18:25):
to where I work now on the West Coast where exactly what I said
VO2 Max, stress test, bike test,I mean pulmonary function,
everything across the scene. But we do not check hormones,
which is interesting because we check everything else.
And I'm I'm thinking, man, like,why are we, I can't imagine it's
that's that much more expensive.But maybe it's one of those
things where you're talking about that where we go to like

(18:47):
occupational health, not properly trained to read those
labs is pretty much what you're saying.
You have to see somebody like you guys for Fireproof that
knows what those numbers mean, especially for us.
Yeah. And and and this isn't a knock
on any other provider. I want to be clear on that.
I just fireman need to be in their own category.
We have to have our own categoryin how we are treated and how we

(19:10):
are maintained. And, and we, we just can't be
lumped in with the general population when it comes to
this. We we, we are individuals that
go through a significant amount of stress and sleep deprivation
and we need to be treated like so.
Right. Well, I'm, I'll ask you one more
question and then we'll kind of transition a little bit and I'm
curious if you're even entertaining to answer this.
So CBD, marijuana, everything else, a lot of states are

(19:33):
completely legal right now. CBD obviously is, you know,
there is no psychoactive drugs or anything like that.
So that's more widely acceptable.
So there's a lot of departments out there now that allow their
members to use recreationally ormedical, whatever the case might
be, in your opinion or experience, how does that, and I
know there are two different questions because we're talking
about marijuana and then we're also talking about CBD

(19:55):
separately. How do they affect us chemically
when it comes down to that performance?
Is that something that is? Not an issue when it comes down
to our hormones. Or is that something that's
going to start affecting our hormones, like alcohol and
things along those lines? I don't know the answer to that
I'm. Not fair enough.
I'm not going to pretend like I do, however I do believe things
like CBD have a positive impact on individuals.

(20:17):
I've seen, I've seen my cousin go through cancer and utilize
these products and it put him atease.
You know, you see people that gothrough seizures and it puts
them at ease. So I do believe that there is a
actual benefit to the use of marijuana, the use of CBD, but
that should be up that should bealso talked with with your with
your primary care. I really do think that that it

(20:38):
should be, you should involve your primary care with that when
it comes to that. And if, if they are on board
with you trying certain productsor whatever it is, then then
obviously go for it. It's their recommendation.
But to speak on it and the, the,the positive or negative
impacts, I couldn't, I couldn't really tell you that.
Yeah, fair enough. And like I said, it was I I was
thinking as you're talking. So I type it down and I'm like,

(20:58):
hey, I'm going to ask is it? Yeah, see what he says.
So no, I'm not. All right.
So back-to-back to you guys. All right, Steve, we're seeing.
Hey, man, I feel like garbage. I've been in a job 19 years.
I'm freaking mid 40s. I haven't seen my primary care.
I haven't done blood work, everything else.
How do I reach out to you? Are you on Instagram, Facebook,
e-mail, website, whatever the case might be?

(21:20):
And then after I figure out how to reach out to you, what
happens? Do do you send me for blood
work? Just kind of March out how you
guys actually operate when I reach out to you.
Yep, Yeah. So we are on a couple different
platforms. We're on Instagram where we are
the most active. I should say we do have a
Facebook page. However, it just kind of
whatever we put out on Instagramgoes over to our Facebook page

(21:41):
and, and we, we're not really active on, on that, but our
Instagram handle is at FireproofWellness and our website is
www.fireproofwellness.com. Those are the two places you'll
be able to find us and our Instagram will link to our
website. I do get DMS of people
interested in kind of how thingswork and, and what it is they

(22:01):
need to do next or, or how, you know, do we serve the state that
they're in? And I can, I can speak on that
in a moment. But when it comes to the program
itself, we, the best way to do it would be go to our website
under program. You'll see exactly what it is
that you get with, with what youwere purchased.
There's three different purchasing programs that you can
get. You can get the fireproof
Wellness modules, the modules. Now this is where I want to be

(22:24):
clear. I wanted to stay away from the
whole what's the I already forgot I've been on vacation for
almost a month. So I even forgot what's called
target solutions. I wanted, I wanted to stay away
from the whole target solutions feel of, of, of what we're
teaching here. But it, it what, what's really
cool about it is it's, it's verymuch personal meaning, you know,

(22:45):
it's spoken, spoken to by my wife, who, you know, talks about
the educational side and, and the science behind it and me,
the application of these topics.And it's, it's really, I would
think, intuitive and captivating.
Meaning. It's, it's something that, oh,
this is something I can actuallyapply to my life, not just
learning about whatever it is target solutions to teaching you
that day. But we have that program that

(23:06):
can be purchased. And the second thing is with
that program, you're going to have access to or I'm sorry.
So the second leg of that is going to be the module plus
telemedicine. The telemedicine part is
probably is obviously where you're going to see a lot of the
benefits to the program because you're going to have what is

(23:27):
talked about in the program and then you're actually going to
get individualized results as towhat your labs actually say and
what you can actually implement.And so with that, you get 5
telemedicine visits. That first visit pre or prior to
the visit, you're going to make sure you fill out all your
intake paperwork, which is whichis extensive, which is good
thing. We want to make sure that you

(23:48):
fill all that information out. So prior to your appointment,
your provider can actually see what it is that you wrote down
and actually be ready for your appointment.
And so that's where you talk about all your symptoms.
You're going to talk about your worries, you're going to talk
about what what you're hoping toget out of the program.
And then after that appointment,you're going to go get an order
for your labs. You go get that done through
Quest Diagnostics. And as soon as those labs come

(24:10):
back and they're ready to be read, we make that second
appointment. So it's, it's pretty quick,
which is what we want after thatappointment or excuse me, after
the we get the labs back, that'swhen we go, OK, cool.
Steve, this is what we got here.You have got this, this, this,
this and this. It's like, all right, cool.
So how do we tag this may seem overwhelming.
How do we tackle all that? Well, hey, we're going to tackle
these three things first, because once these are

(24:31):
optimized, these other two things are going to be a lot
easier to address. And so it's, it's it's guidance
like that. And they say, hey, let's, let's,
you know, pay attention to the testosterone module and the
sleep module both on and off shift.
You're like, all right, cool. Well, cool.
Now I know exactly where I need to actually focus my energy on
and do all that. And so, and again, it's
throughout the year, but it's 5 telemedicine visits.

(24:53):
And the benefits of that is you're seeing a provider five
times in a year because like yousaid, you go to your doc once
and then that's it for the year or you may not see them for five
years. Do you even have a primary care?
And, and side note, we aren't, we aren't to replace the primary
care. We are, we are to work in
conjunction with because we do believe that seeing a patient in

(25:14):
person is important. However, a lot of the stuff that
can be done that we do is all done virtually and you know,
from the comfort of your own home.
So then you got the five telemedicine visits with that.
And then the third is the VIP. It's a much more expensive
program, but it's, it's access to the provider.
It's access to being able to have more labs done like PFAS,

(25:35):
calorie testing, you know, othercancer screenings.
So there's a lot of extra thingsthat you can get with that to
detect things early and whatnot.And, and you know, a lot of
guys, unfortunately, we know a lot of guys that die young of
cancer. And so it's one of those things
that you have access to. And of course those are going to
be side things that you add on to what it is you do.
But yeah, so outside of that, it's it's it's pretty

(25:57):
straightforward. I'm seeing your provider and
then just making sure you're just on top of of seeing them.
I think the biggest thing is, is, Oh yeah, I need to make my
next appointment. And it's like, wow, it's already
coming up, which is good. And so throughout the year,
they're monitoring. It's like, all right, cool.
We are on the same track like ifwe put you on the testosterone
optimization program, hey, am I actually responding well to this
or is do we need to change something in order for us to

(26:20):
optimize what's going on? And so that's why having them
back-to-back the way we do is great because we can get you to
an optimal level and then maintain that.
We got to so we're guys, right, We're type A personalities.
How often do you get asked the question like, hey, I understand
you want to bring me to optimal.How do I get to superhuman
right? You're like, I'm sure you guys
feel about like the knowledge. Listen bro, I'm good right?

(26:43):
But man, I could benefit from 15lbs of muscle right now.
More often than not, we get asked that and you know, and,
and of course my response is, isobviously if you want that, why
don't you just go ahead and takeevery steroid there is and
you'll get there in no time. But you know, I would say, I
would say more times than not, that's that's, that's it's

(27:05):
jokingly asked, but but really, I think a lot of the guys are
just looking for optimal, you know, they don't want, they
don't want that the, the chiseled ABS or the Facebook or
the, excuse me, Instagram look. They just want to be functional,
have the energy and focus on family when they're at home.
So if that's what you're lookingfor, then this is obviously the
program. I love it.
Exactly what you guys are doing for the American Fire Service.

(27:26):
And again, I've had, I've had a couple guys on all firemen,
right, that have a business justlike we're talking right now.
And we're not here to promote the business.
We're here because we're promoting the guy.
He's one of the brothers and he's doing something good for
us, you know, and that's what wetry to highly like.
Good dudes doing good things forus because the more guys we have
that are concerned about our hormones, right, cancer levels,

(27:47):
things along those lines, the better, the better we're going
to be because God forbid if any of us come down with that stuff,
if we're working with a good company, like it's like catch it
early, get treated, whatever thecase might be, and then we're
still on the job. So Fireproof is a company out
there with a brother and more importantly, and that's why we
wanted them on the show so bad, is that it is tailor made for

(28:09):
for us. Everyone listening here, this is
made for you. So if you feel like garbage or
you're not, you don't feel like you used to contact these guys,
see what they can work out. If it doesn't work out, it
doesn't work out. But hey, I am sure that Ian
would be happy to get your DM oryour message or your e-mail and
have a conversation because he'sa good dude and he just wants to
help us. He wants to help us perform, be
efficient, effective. And then of course that helps

(28:31):
everybody. We have a long healthy career.
We help the public and then hopefully a long, super long
healthy retirement and then justmilk the pension system for as
long as we my brother. That's exactly it.
I didn't tell you what states. So, so the program can be
purchased anywhere within the United States, but, but
telemedicine, we are limited right now.
We're limited to California, Arizona, Missouri, Florida,

(28:54):
Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan
and Virginia want to be open to all 50 states.
And we're really working on that.
And and of course, like you know, departments, if, if
they're, if anybody who's got, you know, some say in their
department on being able to put,you know, put a program in
place, absolutely. And if we're not in your state,
we can make that happen obviously, especially if it's

(29:15):
going to be a positive impact for you guys.
So yeah, that's something that we're working on expanding into
to multiple states, but it's a slow process.
All right. So just to make sure that I
understood and the audience understand.
So if you listed their state, you do provide telemedicine, is
that correct? That is correct.
Yeah. So those those states that I
listed, we, we are available fortelemedicine in those states.

(29:35):
OK, copy. All right.
So before we transition off and talk about some good fireman
stuff right now, is there anything that you want to hit on
that we didn't touch on for Fireproof Free the company, what
you guys are doing, just kind ofleave the audience with that?
Yeah. You know, it's, it's one of
those things that we've had guysin our program who didn't even
know that they needed this type of care.

(29:57):
They thought that what they weregoing through was a status quo.
Hey, this is normal. This is just how I'm supposed to
feel. That's great.
That's fine. I'm good and dandy.
And, you know, they see somebodygo through something or they
experience a family member passing away early and it's
like, all right, maybe I should do something.
And then they get through the program and they're like, holy
crap, I was like that six monthsago.
And that's how I thought I was going to live my like, live my

(30:19):
life, my career like that. And it's just, it's, it's one of
those things you just don't knowwhat you're going through and
feeling like until you're on theother side and going, wow,
that's how I felt. So I think that's kind of the
point that I wanted to make hereis even though you might feel
like you're doing fine, you know, just get your labs done,
get through the program and, andyou will be happy that you've
you've done it. Because you know, there are,

(30:40):
there may be certain things thatnot work, like the testosterone
optimization program may not work, but there is a plethora of
other things that we do that we'll be able to optimize and
help with that. So, you know, just because
someone is, oh, hey, my testosterone is good.
It's like, OK, well, there's quite a bit of other hormones
that we can optimize too that can help you out.
Dude, that's awesome. So thank you again, thank you
for everything that you and yourwife are doing for for all the

(31:01):
guys and girls across the American Fire Service.
And again, I like to mention that like you're, you treat
females also, correct? Yeah.
So our females, our program is in the process of getting
completed, meaning the module portion of it.
So if there are any females, theprogram that they'll purchase,
it'll have it'll be tailored more towards men.
However, once that program, oncethe modules come out for the
female portion, they will instantly have access for that.

(31:24):
So yes, we do treat females perfect.
I love it. All right, all right, my
brother, let's so let's talk about fireman stuff right now.
So I know you're a fireman paramedic.
So we're going to go to the job,right?
Well, we're talking about the 95% house fire, either single
story, two-story, one line job. Not a big deal.
So the department you work for, how do you guys run it?
What's the assignment? How many engines, how many

(31:45):
ladders? And let's talk about your engine
culture and your ladder culture and your search culture, if you
don't mind kind of breaking thatdown for the audience, my
brother. Yeah, Sir.
So my department have trucks, engines and squads.
The squads are paramedic, they're staffed with two
firefighters, paramedics. And so when we get a house fire,
we'll get a truck, a squad and four engines.

(32:05):
And once the once the first arriving engines on scene,
typically they're going to be fire attack and they're going to
get their their captain's going to get their 360 other firearms
going to pull a line. Typically we'll tank it because
we're we're in an area where it's just everybody's on top of
each other. So that next in engines going to
be right there. So we'll tank it and Engineer
will go ahead and get that fireman water and they'll go in

(32:26):
for that. Our squads will typically do
search because they're not too far behind.
They'll be a part of search, I should say, but we will assign a
captain, a supervisor for searchprimary, a ladder company.
We obviously do our best to leave room for them.
Sometimes it's not going to workout and they're they're hiking
ladders in from a distance. But yeah, single story,
two-story, they're going to, they're going to obviously be

(32:48):
placed roof ventilation wheneverpossible.
And if that's the case, otherwise horizontal ventilation
and then setting up the rest of the ICS system.
So we've got utilities, exposures and wreck obviously.
So yeah, we just go ahead and get it done.
A lot of the times that fires out pretty quickly because like
I said, we've got a lot of guys on top of each other.
But but yeah, obviously when it,when we've got victims, we're

(33:10):
going to call in a second squad because those paramedics are
there for us initially, right? So we're always going to have
paramedics on scene. And if that's the case, if there
are victims, we'll go ahead and attach additional squads to the
call as well as ambulances. So as far as, yeah, as far as
the ladder culture goes, we got wooden ladders.
So we, we have those, which is pretty sweet.
They're pain in the butt to takecare of, but they're, they're

(33:32):
great. I like, I like having the
ability to, to have wooden ladders on our, on our trucks
and engines. And yeah, I mean, we get to
work. I think that's the greatest part
is, is everybody, you know, onceyour job's complete, it's like,
all right, what's the next one? And, you know, no one ever sets
a tool down. No one ever passes a tool to
somebody. Everyone's like, oh, what do you
need? OK, cool.
I got it. So I think it's it's, it's, it's
a good culture. I got to SO just so just so we

(33:54):
all understand, so a squad is not an ambo in your in your
system, correct? That's correct.
Yeah. So so.
What kind of is that like a pickup truck or is that a
utility like yeah, so. It's a, it's a, it's a Dodge,
you know, 45155 hundred. And then the, the, what would
have been the bed of a truck is taken off and a box is put on
it. So we've got all ALS gear.
It's a big Band-Aid box. But it does have other things

(34:17):
like if, if the squads are in remote areas, they can have
cutters on there and spreaders. You know, they could have
blowers on their Stokes basket and some other forcible entry
tools and shovels, you know, andjust some basic stuff on that
squad. So yeah, it's just a smaller
version. I don't know, when I, when I
tell it to my family, I'm like, yeah, just think of a pickup
truck like a plumber's truck. You know, like that's pretty

(34:38):
much it. It's just a bunch of
compartments on the sides. And that's so.
Yeah, that's three band crew. What's that?
That's a three band crew. No, it's a two man.
Two man. All right.
And then what are your engines and ladder staffing?
Yeah. So our engines, most of our
engines in our department are three man and we're working on
getting a fourth for that. There was a recent bill that
passed and so we're going to work on getting 4 firefighters

(35:00):
on every rig and our truck has four.
OK, so trucks have 4, engines have three, hopefully four in
the future. And then the squads are just
pretty much like, will they run primarily like medical calls?
Yeah. So yeah.
So how it goes, we get a call engine companies always going to
be responding on a medical call with the squad.
The quad squad never runs medical calls on their own.

(35:22):
So it's there's going to be a supervisor on scene for that.
But yeah, so they're in a in a battalion.
Let's just say you have 66 engine companies in a battalion.
You might have two or three squads running depending on how
busy the the battalion is. And, and of course there's bleed
over into other battalions depending on where you are
geographically and, and whatnot.So yeah, those squads are

(35:43):
definitely running more calls outside of their their district
than their engine company. Sometimes the engine companies
run more. They like to brag about it.
But I'm sorry, this is this sounds like it's coming from a
guy that's probably spent some time on the squad before.
I've got coming up on nine yearson the squad.
So it's it's, it's fun though. It's, it really is.
And then you just get with a bunch of guys that you really

(36:05):
enjoy working with and you're like, cool, I'm, I'm pretty
happy here. Good, good, good deal.
All right, my brother. Well, last question I have about
just your command system. So that first arriving officer
on scene on the engine or truck,whatever happens to arrive
first, are they do, are they officially assuming command
doing an on scene report and then the battalion takes it from
them? Or is it an unspoken rule that

(36:27):
when the battalion arrives on scene, they're just going to
assume? No, it depends.
It depends on the Battalion Chief.
Most battalion chiefs are prettycool with the engine company
just running it. But if it does seem like the
situation is like still dynamic and things are things are
moving, it's like, OK, cool, yeah, the IC will go ahead or
the Battalion Chief will take command of the incident.
But it just, it really depends if it's your typical garage

(36:50):
fire, it's like, OK, cool. You know, battalion, battalion
7's on scene, you know, engines 116 is going to remain in
command. You know, it's like it's, it's,
it's kind of one of those thingswhere it's pretty, pretty
self-explanatory. If something, if something needs
where that that skipper, that first on skipper is going to
need to be with this crew, then yeah, they'll they'll take
command. But it's not.
It's not a hard, fast rule. Copy Yeah, My system that I work

(37:13):
in is, it sounds very similar toyours, but it's funny, like as
being a suppression officer, I give it up immediately and it's
strictly selfish because I already have tools and I'm
trying to go to work with the boys because I believe I'm part
of the crew and a supervisor on top of that.
So I actually physically have todo work.
So it's funny. I got a lot of battalions, went
around fires with them. They're like, Steve, you know, I

(37:35):
was going to take it from you eventually.
I'm like, we didn't understand is I wanted you to take it right
now because I had stuff to do, right?
And they, they joke with me all the time because I'm probably
one of the only captains that consistently turns it over as
quick as possible. But it's because I'm not done
being a fireman yet. I'm just going to be honest with
you. I can supervise and work at the
same time. And I always mess with my crew.
I'm like, isn't it better when you got a boss that helps you

(37:56):
freaking RIP the lid down? And they're like, yeah, dude,
right. But.
Right. I so I love that too, man.
When when you got when you got someone who's got an orange
helmet on there and they're justlike getting dirty with you.
It's like, this is awesome. But yeah.
And, and to speak a little bit further on that, sometimes it it
and it's just dependent on the captain.
I think they, I, I've asked thisquestion of multiple people I

(38:17):
look up to and it's just like every answer is different.
It's like some of them was like,no, this is my incident in my
area. I'm in command.
And it's like others are like, I'm going to work, I'm going to
get stuff done. Like I'm passing that on at the
second Inn, you know, So it just, it, it, it depends on the
individual, which is kind of nice because it's like whatever
it ends up happening, it's like the, the call still, the, the

(38:37):
fire still goes smooth. It's like it's, it's easy to,
to, to pick up. It's not a big deal.
Yeah. And it's, it's funny, I always
joke around. I'm like, first of all, that's
why they pay you guys to take command, because you're
Battalion Chief. You should want, you should want
it from the get go. And then it's in, in, in a true
argument. I'm interior with my crew.
I don't fucking know what's going on in the outside of that
structure. So in my personal opinion,

(38:58):
again, just me, I don't believe you can effectively run command
interior. That's my personal opinion
because I have no idea what the exterior that building looks
like here at the end. Plus my blinders are on because
we have 0 visibility. Of course we do.
So yeah, again, that officer is in position to watch the entire
scene because whatever my initial decision was might not

(39:20):
might not have been a good decision or dynamically
something changed between the weather or whatever the case
might be and now we have a situation or maybe I missed
something on I didn't complete the 360 or whatever the case
might be. So it's funny, but I like,
that's always a banter back and forth, you know, over with us.
Because back east, I came from the system where the the
battalion would take it 100% of the time and even combination

(39:44):
systems where they had battalionchiefs that were volunteers, it
was still a steadfast rule in that county or in that city that
as soon as the career battalion got on scene, they assumed
command immediately. So it's one of the it's just
funny because we all fight the same fires, but we do it so
dramatically different by love hearing like the whys behind it
and then just sharing stories and be like, man, I like, you

(40:05):
know, it's, it's always I'm trying to pick out every little
thing that I really love. And then one day when I'm king
of the day, I'm just going to make this imaginary fire
department that has all the stuff, the trucks are flat
black, murdered out and it's just called Nacho fire
department. We're only going to run jobs.
That's it. When are you taking
applications? Exactly once I win the lottery,
it's it's game over here. I'll send you one right away,

(40:27):
brother. All right, so let's get into
we'll start wrapping up here. So we'll get into the questions
for the end of the season here. So question number one.
So the why we ask the why all the time.
We ask the brand new guys that want to get on the fire
departments that we work for. We even ask our own members when
they're trying to do different positions or promote within our
service. But this is a why.
So why did Ian decide to be a fireman?

(40:47):
When did the bug hit you? Was it like a little kid thing?
Did you follow Wanted by Accent?So just explain to the audience
how you got into American Fire Service, my brother.
Yeah, it was a I don't know whatthe heck I'm gonna do with my
life when I was 18, taking college courses, doing welding
or, or woodworking or just kind of wasting my time.
I didn't. I had no idea what I was gonna
do. And I happened to talk to a

(41:08):
friend of mine whose dad was a captain at the time and did a
station visit. And that's when my jaw dropped.
I'm like, holy crap. Like, like looking at all the
compartments with all the tools.I knew I wanted to do something
with my hands and just kind of be, be, be busy that way.
And, and I just absolutely fell in love with it.
And he's like, all right, kid, you want to do this.
All right, this is what you're going to do.
You're going to go take your EMTclass.
And of course there's a hundred different ways, right?

(41:29):
You're going to go get your EMT.You're going to go work on an
ambulance for a few years. You're going to take your fire
science class. You're going to go to a fire
basic fire Academy. You're going to start applying
for every fire department you can possibly apply for.
And he said, and don't stop. It's like, OK, funny enough,
five years later, seven years old.
So I said, no, let's see, 1827 years later, I'm at the
footsteps of his department, applying for department that

(41:50):
that, you know, he works at. And he's like, well, damn.
Like you did exactly what I saidto do and like, you're here and
I got hired that department. So it was pretty cool.
That's awesome. Small department that I got
initially hired with and then got to a big one.
But yeah, it was it was cool. So that's, you know, there
wasn't any, any, any dramatic story as a kid or anything.
But yeah, I just kind of fell into it.

(42:11):
It's funny because I, I kind of feel like all the guys we've had
on the episode, it's literally a5050.
It's we fell into the job by accident basically.
Or it's something that we wantedto do since we freaking popped
into this world. Yeah.
But yeah, it's there's no in between.
I don't feel like it's like someone hard charger or it's
like, oh man, I fell into it. Then I'm going to do everything.
I kind of get hired. Got to clarify something.

(42:32):
It wasn't, you know, my getting hired wasn't by accident.
And I think you know that I knowthat's wasn't, wasn't you're
going to apply and I worked my butt off to get hired,
interviewed with like 75 different departments and my
test taking skills sucked. My interview skills sucked.
All that was just terrible. But you know, it wasn't, wasn't
the, you know, the, the, the, I don't know, someone working at,
at Trader Joe's going, I'm goingto apply for a fire department.

(42:54):
Oh, you got hired. It's like, Oh well, good for
you. Yeah, yeah, no.
And absolutely yeah. And I think you guys listen.
Yeah, They understand that's nota sore subject at all with you,
we could tell at all. But yeah.
With that said, I don't mean accident as in like you just
fell into it. I know you didn't.
Yeah. It's one of those things where
it just comes on the radar laterin life and it's just full bore.
But it it's crazy because I kindof feel like there's no in

(43:16):
between on those. So you get in the fire service,
you fell in love with it during your first station ride.
So that transition said next question.
So traditions. So here for the Copper State
fools, that's why this podcast exists to support our traditions
because we are desperately trying to hold on to the really
good ones that we have because we feel like it's necessity.

(43:36):
It helps with our mental health.It helps with that family bond,
It helps all the way across. So for you, what is your
favorite American fire service tradition?
But more importantly, why? Why do you love it so much?
You know, thinking about this question, there's so many
different ones that I just enjoy, but I think I think the
biggest tradition, Gosh, now I've got something else that

(43:56):
just popped into my head. First.
It was going to be playing cardsafter dinner.
I think that that is there is somuch fun in playing cards In our
department. We have we we make up card
games. You know, it's like, you know,
it could be based on a story that someone went through like,
you know, their their wife trying to kill them or, you
know, like some other story of just some dude that, you know,

(44:18):
ran a muck on the fire ground orsomething.
And it's just, you know, they make up card games and it's just
there's so much fun one behind that.
But, but honestly, I think just the the, the hanging out in the
morning after a little bit afterlineup and just having a cup of
coffee and or even before lineup, just just chatting it up
with people. You know, when, when people
arrive in the morning, it's justlike, you know, everybody starts

(44:38):
kind of piling in. You haven't really started
checking out your equipment yet.And it's just a bunch of people
from both shifts that are just hanging out.
I think that that may not be a tradition, but, but to me, I, I
really value that time because it's more guys than you would
have during the day and guys that were working the day before
and stuff like that. So, but, but if I were to say
tradition, it'd be, it'd be cardgames, playing cards after

(45:00):
dinner. I.
Love it. And I would argue the fact that
I would say that is a tradition,the lineup and the pass on and
everything else because every department, every guy I've ever
talked to, they do some sort of a formal lineup informal, but
there's always a pass on. And I was literally talking to
the kids the other day because we as say guys like us with
about the same amount of time onthe job.
I believe, at least in my area, we have failed the young kids

(45:24):
because what have we told them from day one?
Keep your mouth shut, open your ears, right?
Learn as much as you can. Absorb everything.
Ask the wise, right? Get to know why we're doing it,
how it's effective. Everything under the sun.
Clean the bathrooms, check the rig, do my laundry.
Like boom, boom, boom while you're on probation.
But we forget that first thing in the morning.
Grab that kid, make him sit downand just say hey, just fucking

(45:48):
listen. Start the pot of coffee, come
sit down and just listen to the guys because you're going to
learn something from the crew before whatever they ran on,
even if it was bullshit and theyran 10 freaking fall injuries,
they're probably going to learn something because they're going
to tell a story about one that was either extra large hoarding
conditions, whatever the case might be.
We've seen it all, but we are sofocused on they should be

(46:08):
already out to the rake, but they're missing exactly what you
said. Like I feel like it's also one
of the most important things we do because we learn something
and it builds that camera. But more importantly, find out
what the hell did the guys go onbefore?
Because I want to know because Icould, I could maybe learn
something from their mistakes, their accomplishments, whatever
the case might be. But we're we're missing our
newer members with that while they're on probation.
I don't know. At least in my area we are.

(46:30):
Yeah, and and I, I, I'm with youa hundred 100% on that.
I, I really do think that we do more often than not, we do a
disservice to the guys that are brand new, you know, walk
walking in here and, and, and just trying to learn as much as
they can. I, I value, I valued when I was
on probation, guys that would come up to me and help me with
that, with whatever questions I might have, no matter how stupid

(46:51):
they might have been. I've, I valued that so much.
And when someone even just just like on a call, they're like,
all right, hey, let's check out this building.
Let's walk through it. And it's like, all right, cool.
This is, this is, this is awesome.
This is exactly why I'm here on probation is to learn right now.
And so I, I remember that and I value that and I make sure that
I do my best and, and give them the little bit of little

(47:14):
Nuggets, little tidbits that youcan, you can take it or leave it
like this is this has helped me then this situation.
It may help you, it may not, but, but this is something I
found valuable in the fire service and whatever it may be.
But yeah, I, I, I mean, that's atradition that should never go
away, right? That's, that's something you
should always be passing on on to your, your, the new guys.
Because if there's, if there's something that they're doing

(47:35):
wrong, you know, I take personalresponsibility on that, even
though I'm not their supervisor or just working with them that
day, I'll I'll take responsibility for that.
It's like, okay, no, hey, you know what, let's, let's talk
about this. You know, I mean, I can go on
and on about that, but. I mean, there's the old saying
or whatever it says, you know, if they suck, train them.
You know, if you don't train them, you suck.
I mean, it's really, it's as simple as you could break it

(47:57):
down. It's like, yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Help the freaking new guy, make
him better than us, right? That's a whole goal.
The the freaking rigs go down the road long after we're gone
for the rest of the time. You know, we have one of the
only jobs that cannot be replaced by AI and robots.
That's just what it is. So all right, well, let's go
into the I had already talked about, you know my answer,
right? Blacked out, murdered out truck

(48:18):
running jobs only. But in all seriousness, so the
last question is if you could snap your fingers, instant
gratification, 0 sweat equity, you could change something in
the American fire service. So that's removed.
Add whatever it is something foryou.
Why would you change this? But more importantly, what kind
of difference? And then really, why?
Why are you so passionate about whatever you would like to

(48:39):
change, add or implement? Yeah.
So I'm going to be easy on that one.
It's, it's unlimited access to the care that is necessary for
us to be resilient and have longevity and be the most
optimal firefighter that we could be, right.
If I can just snap my fingers, that's what it'd be across the
board. And, and, and that may sound
cliche because of where I'm whatI'm, you know, what I'm

(48:59):
representing and what I'm, what I'm pushing.
But but to me, I feel like if wecan, if we can do that, we're
going to give everybody the bestchance to be as healthy as
possible and, and to live as long as possible.
You know, I heard these statistics with my fire
department and I have yet to actually grab the paperwork, so
I'm reluctant to say it, but I'mgoing to say it anyway because
I'm already down that road. If you retire at 55 with my fire

(49:24):
department, the average person lives thirteen years.
If you retire at 60, it's 3. And it's.
Like to me that like what? Like those numbers are insane.
I don't want to be 68 years old and in the grave.
I want to be living well into my80s, you know, as healthy as
possible. And so, yeah, if I could set my
fingers, it'd be it'd be that it'd be unlimited care for

(49:47):
firefighters. Yes.
A. Freaking amazing answer and and
I've heard similar numbers and it is so I always heard the
average and maybe that kind of works numbers wise was for us in
the American fire service after retirement.
Seven years were dead, you know,and then that's heartbreaking.
And unfortunately in my region, within the last two years, we've
had three guys that just recently retired and they

(50:08):
unfortunately passed away from cancer, extremely aggressive,
you know, that was that was caught way too late and it it
freaking sucks. Freaking sick and tired of Baron
Brothers. You know, it's it breaks my
heart. So yeah, if we can just go
through that and be able to, like you said, we're giving 25
to 35 years of our life to the public, we deserve to be able to

(50:30):
live to our 80s, right? Like in my career path right
now, I'm going to retire at 60. That's terrifying to think that
at 63 I can be done. You know, I haven't had a chance
to even live yet. I've been working this whole
time. But you know what though, Like,
but but the, you know that old saying, when was the best time
to plant a tweet tree 20 years ago?
Now's the next best time. And it's like there's always

(50:52):
somebody who can actually start something and make a positive
impact. So it's like wherever you are in
your stage of your career or even in retirement, there's
always something that you can dothat can possibly impact you.
So it's just, it's just a lot oftimes it's like, you know, the
one thing that we that a lot of guys run into, it's like, oh,
I've got a great dock up in, youknow, this county.
It's like, oh, that's cool. I'm 4 1/2 hours the other

(51:12):
direction. Like there's no way I'm going to
go see them. So it's like, that's why we have
the telemedicine portion of it. That way it's accessible to
everybody, wherever you may be. But yeah, I I don't want to be
that sad either, man. Yeah, like I said, it's
terrifying, but dude, thank you again.
And like I said, if you made it this far in the podcast, you
realize Ian's one of the brothers.
He's here to help us out. It's dramatically improved his

(51:36):
personal life. So product of what exactly he's
doing right now. So please, if you're if you're
not feeling great or even if youjust want to get checked up,
please reach out to Ian. You can find him on Instagram.
We'll tag everything in the notes.
Fireproof, all this, they're here for us.
Literally. You guys listen right now.
Tailored made. There's nothing else out there
that I know of right now that istailor made strictly just for

(51:58):
firemen. So dude, thank you again for
coming on the show. Is there anything you want to
leave the audience with before we sign off my brother?
No, if you made it this far, appreciate you guys listening
and and just know that that there there is care that is
successful for you guys and, and, and we're here for you.
And if you got any questions, feel free to either e-mail us,
e-mail us at [e-mail], or

(52:19):
just hit us up in our DM. I'm happy to respond.
Awesome. All right, my brother will
listen. Thank you so much, everyone.
Thank you for listening and we'll catch you guys in another
two weeks. Have a good one.
Thanks for listening. We'll be back in another two
weeks. Remember to like, share, review
if you can. Helps drive traffic to our
podcast. Remember, let's leave our ego

(52:39):
out of the fire service. It's amazing what we can
accomplish when no one's lookingfor credit.
Much love. Let's stop eating our own.
Become better fireman. Catch you next time.