Weekly Scrap #252 - Bryan LaFleur a passion for mentoring

Corley: Here we go. Almost time for the scrap, but I'm coming to you live to talk to you about a conference that is less than a month away. Less than a month away, it is firemanship, one of the most anticipated conferences of 2024. Firemanship is back and i'm gonna be there and i'm gonna be teaching my new class my new workshop the culture forge the culture forge now i've built a lot of classes I have built a lot of classes. It's something I do. I enjoy doing it. In fact, probably my biggest passion is teaching and presenting. But I've never built a workshop. I've never built a workshop. So What do you do if you never built a workshop in your Corley Moore? Man, you start reading. You start reading. How do you build a workshop? And I started researching that. I said what's the best books for building a workshop? And I studied them. And then I thought I need the research. How to do the research Gotta do the research. Here it's coming at you. This is what it's based on. This is the bulk of what it's based on right here. These books and understand. I said I just did searches for what are the best books, one of the best books on culture. And I have it Studying them and melting them down. It's more than just my experiential experience, more than just the things I've done that have worked at my levels. It is so much research into it. Everybody that shows up, every everybody that shows up is going to be put into a team, and each team They're gonna have something like that. It looks like they're gonna get one of these. One of these right here. They have to pick one of these. Boom. Right? You're like, what is that? I don't understand. What is yeah, great. Glad you asked. There's also gonna be some Some of this going on, spaghetti. And you're like, what? There's gonna be so many group activities in this workshop that all have a point that all make a point. I'm so excited. I hope that I can get It fin I've been working on this thing. If you follow me and if you're in the individual anties, you know that I've been talking about it for the last three or four months.

Corley: I've worked on it, worked on it, worked on it it so much research has got into it now I'm getting down to the nitty-gritty of actually finalizing the presentation there's gonna be interaction with Sam is gonna be there talking to the class and keeping track of things. I there's never been a class like this, never been a workshop like this. And that's just mine. If you're going to firemanship, man, there's so many, there's the hands-on training, which I'm pretty sure is all still all sold out. You can't get into it unless you're just super lucky and get get a get the back door, someone canceling. And the other workshops, there's gonna be Dina Ali, Kurt Elixon, Shannon Stone. I'm leaving Sammy Hittle. I know I'm leaving people out, but so many other workshops, if you don't come to mind, and that doesn't include the three days of lectures that are TED Talk types So Sam will post the link to get registered for firemanship if you're not going. If you are going, please, please, please sign up and come to the Culture Forge. The Culture Forge, man, I'm super excited about this workshop. I've never built one before. That's what I wanted to talk about before the scrap because it's coming up less than a month away. Excited to see you there. There'll be a vigilante meetup. We're also going to do some workouts. I'll see you there, and I'll see you on the scrap. Corley Moore, Firehouse Vigilance. It is weekly scrap number 252. Tonight's guest is Brian LaFleur. He just hit his 34th year as a firefighter, the last 22 as a company officer, all in the same suburb of Farmers Branch, which is right outside of Dallas He spent his first 30 years as a lover of engine operations. Now he is assigned to a truck where he will spend what he says is the next half of his career helping to build a truck culture in his department. He also served in the United States Marine Corps, where he developed a passion for leadership and mentorship. He has spent his career, specifically the last two decades, trying to figure out what would make him a better firefighter and leader. And I love how he says this. He says, only those I work with can testify how successful my education has been.

Corley: It is my absolute pleasure to have Brian LaFleur on as the guest for weekly scrap number 252. Brian LaFleur, welcome, my brother. Thank you very much. Is there anything? Oh, go ahead. Brian LaFleur: Let's get it rolling. Anything I missed? Three months. I'm ready to get this going. Corley: Anything I missed? Anything you would like to add to the intro to the bio? Brian LaFleur: No, sir. Corley: Audience, get your questions primed and ready because we're gonna go we're gonna go deep diving today. Get them ready for Brian. Sam is here in the audience. He's he's watching YouTube, ready to grab your questions. So throw them up there, and we will absolutely throw them at Brian. let's talk about those sponsors Kehoe, the OG sponsor of the scrap, the original sponsor, check them out online at Kehos. com and follow them on Facebook Finally, the last one I want to talk about is on me. This is from me personally is firemanship. The conference coming up in Aurora, Illinois in a less than a month. It's coming up. Firemanship, I want everyone out there to know that this is one of the most anticipated conferences of 2024. And I bring it up because they need raffle items and sponsors. If you want to get your products in front of firefighters, you are not going to get a better chance. Scan the QR code that's flashing by below, or Sam is going to slap a link up in the chat, and you can find out how to sponsor firemanship with your products for their raffles, etc. So that being said, we're ready to scrap. Here we go. We already got questions coming in from the audience. I'm gonna read I'm gonna read some of the stuff from from the audience right now. Jason Mayfield said, cut my first roof with Captain LaFleur. Y'all are in for a good one. Here we go. About to get Cajun. That's also from Mayfield. Bobby Braswell said, let's go. Jason Boyles chiming in said 252 LFG brother. Joe Wiz in the house said, let's go, Mutts. Driver Joe himself. And James Purdom said, let's go. But of course, he spelled it in the Cajun way. So All that being said, let's get right into it. I've got questions coming at you, but let's talk about legacy of mentorship. You sent me an article that you wrote, and I absolutely loved it.

Corley: We talked about it on the phone briefly the other day But man, I absolutely loved it and I loved your take on mentorship. So talk to me about a legacy of mentorship. Brian LaFleur: Well, I think I think most people think of mentorship as something when a new guy comes in and you got to get him started the right way, but I I've been doing this for 34 years. I I still need a mentor and I need one at each stage of my career. But what became apparent to me over my career and basically based on the guy that that that article was about was that I realize that mentorship is a legacy that that continues on from generation to generation. It's not just for the new guys. Oh when when when this guy got a hold of me, I just thought he was dropped from the clouds and he was this great guy that took me under wing. But as I've gotten older I realized there was probably someone that did the same thing with him. he affected me, that has that has transferred over to all the people that I've I've worked with and and come in contact with. And and you can just see it progressingly. It's very rewarding to see for me to see some of the guys that I've worked with pass things on to. and I'm watching you guys come in and they're doing the same thing with those guys and you just see how that just continues on down the line. It should never stop.

Corley: Oh I love that. No, I love one of the things you said right there. 34 years have been doing this and you realize that you still need a mentor. You know, and you need it, you've needed a mentor at every stage. Brian LaFleur: I I don't think it well you should never you should never get to where you don't want to listen to somebody. What I wonder, and the higher you get, and and you know this better than me, the higher you get who do you draw from? the when you're lower in in the in the organization there's a lot of people to draw from but as you start moving up in the organization you have you have fewer people to draw from. The fire chief can't go to a brand new firefighter and and and get input from. In some ways, maybe he should find a a way to do that, but A lot of these guys that I would consider guys that I had mentored over the years have now progressed through the ranks and and I now I consider them occasional mentors. They're friends of mine. And but I lean on them and and and I guess in a way that is some degree of it. So it it goes back and forth. And so you how deliberate were you?

Corley: And I know when you're younger, you don't even realize you're getting a mentor. You know, you just it's just it's something that happens and you realize it almost in retrospect looking backwards. You know what I'm saying? But how deliberate were you as a young firefighter to find mentors? And then as you got older, how deliberate were you? Brian LaFleur: I I don't think I was deliberate in finding them. I was hungry for information and and I went looking for it. And one thing I learned very only, and this is something I think everybody should keep in mind, it's easy to it's easy to kind of gaff off those old crusty guys that sit. In the corner, everybody kind of they they're they're grumpy to the end of their career, and no one takes them seriously anymore. But I noticed when I was young, I asked questions of everybody, it didn't matter who it was, and I've asked the same question to various people And it would kind of it would kind of lift those guys up a little bit. No one had asked them anything in a while. They've been kind of wrote off. And they've got value. They've got something to offer. And it it did them a lot of good to have someone asking their opinion. Now they may not have a lot to offer. There's other guys that had more, but I got little bits and pieces from from everybody I talked to. They just need to feel valued. They need to feel like their opinion, their experience is valued to some degree. And and you can get a lot of information out of them. But as far as it was I deliberately looking for mentors, probably not. I don't think so. I think even the word mentor wasn't something that that became apparent to me till much later

Corley: Right on. So, and now I'll flip this question on you and ask you this. How deliberate are you in mentoring or looking for people to invest in? Brian LaFleur: I think it has become just a part of my culture now. I do have to remind myself. on on certain people. And I've this is probably not right. I guess it's human nature, but there's people that that come to me, and those are the easy ones. There's people that I see something in that I go to them The ones that I have to watch out for, the ones we all have to watch out for, are the ones that that don't do either one of them. They're kind of in between. They come in, they do their job, they're very quiet And those are the ones I I I'm I try to be very quiet and worry. If you would if you were to watch our meal tables, other than the newest rookie, I'm probably the quietest guy at the table. I spent a lot of time watching my guys, and that's where I get a lot of evaluation from But that's where I try to pay attention to who am I missing, who has not come to me, who is looking for something. Sometimes you have to really look at that to see it. No, I love it. I do. I do. Well, my biggest fear is that somebody was hoping to have a mentor and I missed it. I think that's probably one of my greatest fears. It's easy the ones that you spot. It's easy the ones that come to you. But have you ever wondered about have I ever missed any? Has anybody been looking for someone to lean on But they didn't want to say anything. They're too quiet. They're shy. They get shoved in the back with everybody else's class A personality. Those are the ones I worry about.

Corley: Right. No out of doubt. Now, do you I'm trying to think of the right way to ask the question. Do you think everyone is looking for a mentor? Whether they know it or not? Brian LaFleur: I I don't think everyone is. I wish they were. But you know, not everybody has been exposed to that I had a dad that I would consider a mentor, did a lot for me. I had uncles. The Marine Courts probably would really expose me to a lot of that. And then this one guy in particular, and it was completely by accident that I that I came across him. But if if someone has not played sports, because a lot of people are exposed to that with coaches, if they've never played sports, if they've never been in the military, and some people have broken families, and I think that's really becoming more and more common. I at least in the guys I see You have broken family. So there's people that have never been exposed to that. So I they don't even know they don't even know what to look for. They don't even know the value in it. And those are the ones we really need to be be searching for. Because they've never had it.

Corley: Ooh, I love it. I love it. All right. I'm going to get to the audience and ask you the first question. Are you ready for your first question coming at you from the scrappers? Greg White wants to know for someone trying to be a mentor or is looking for a mentor, what are some characteristics that you should look for in a mentor or a mentee? Let's go with mentor first. If you're looking for a mentor, what do you look for and why? Brian LaFleur: like I said earlier, man, talk to everybody. Don't discount anyone. Some of them are gonna be obvious. When you get to especially if you're new in an organization, you're gonna know from everybody else who the people that everybody respects are. That's the easy ones. But I got a lot out of asking the people that no one else talked to because they all have something. If you spent 20, 30 years in an organization, even if you're the guy that no one takes serious, you've got something of value. And you did you gain a lot by going talk to them and it brings me to something I think is is the most important in all of it. You have to have credibility to make it in in a fire service and actually be of value If you want to be a mentor, if you want to be mint mentored, the leadership side of it, if you're looking to influence your organization, you've got to have credibility. And it starts there When you go talk to what you go talk to every single person in your in your organization as a new firefighter, even the ones that no one else talks to, and you give them some value You start getting credibility and it starts there and it just keeps building up and that that continues on through the career. And the buy credibility is like adminition in a magazine. It buys you a lot And every now and then you end up shooting some of that ammo, but the more ammo you have in there, the more you have the the bank on.

Corley: I love it. I love the I love the analogy. Now if you you said earlier, you know, the ones you spot are easy What's something that catches your eye in a mentee? Like someone when you're looking out there at the young people you're hiring in, what's someone you say, I want to invest in that person? Brian LaFleur: I'm not sure if I could put a put it into words, but the the ones that are hungry to learn are the easiest ones, I guess and those are the ones that keep me going. When you got those young, hungry guys that want to learn. And in my career, I d I needed occasional boosts. And I a lot of people don't realize that the more passionate you are, the more you hit some occasional lows And what brings me out of those lows is finding finding those young guys that want to learn and and they keep coming in. I hear people complain about the young guys. I don't they just they just look in the wrong place, man. These young guys are coming in. There's a lot of those guys that are that are hungry to learn and and that boosts me. The other thing I look for, the you if you watch people, if if people just shut up for a second and watch people and watch how they react to things when they talk to other people Watch how they react to things. I'm a I guess a shade tree psychologist. I love seeing how people respond to things, especially stress. And and I look for people that have just just little things that that I'll pick on that that that's something worth building on. That there's a little building block there that's worth building on And you won't see that if you're talking all the time. You gotta be watching you guys. You gotta be paying attention and learning them. But every if if you work at my station, everybody gets a dose of me somehow or another. And it may not be from me, it may be through my other guys. At the stage I'm at in my career, I feel like I've I get more value out of making sure my the fi my other firefighters, more senior firefighters, have learned from me and I expect those guys to be teaching that firefighter.

Brian LaFleur: And I'm gonna let that go for a while before I ever try to grab a hold of that new guy. So we get a brand new guy, you may not hear much from me for a little while because I'm expecting my other guys. Because that that's where I get to see how successful I was in teaching them And it's where I get to see how good a job they're teaching. And I expect them to. That's something. That's an expect expectation I have of my guys is they need to be teaching those yoga guys. It gives them some ownership in the progress of that person And it there's a lot of there's a lot of benefit, a lot of value all the way around in that. Corley: And I want to say, when you when you when you do that that second level or observing your guys doing that, is that a Again, is that something that's systemically put into place where you talk to him about it or is it strictly from modeled behavior? Like is it something that's naturally occurred or is it something that you said, hey, here's my expectations, and they're written down and and you know, is it more formal or informal?

Brian LaFleur: Both. Because for some people it it I don't have to tell them. They just they it just comes natural to them. They're just natural coaches, natural teachers. Other people need to be kind of pushed in that direction. And some of it is it's because they're just not comfortable. They've they've not done that very much. And for other people, especially for people that I know plan on promoting, I'm pretty pushy about it. I'll watch it, I'll give them chances and every now and then I'll kind of I'll kind of give them a little nudge here and there. Corley: Okay, no, I love it. Next question is coming at you from Bobby Brasswell. He's switching tracks on us. we're moving away from mentor, although we'll probably come back around and go all over the place. That's what we do here on the scrap. But he wants to know how did you start and maintain a strong truck culture in your department? Brian LaFleur: Well, it's been a a a career-long process of We have a small department. When I first started there, it was two people. We sent seven or eight people to structure fire. So we didn't really have the people to do truck work, truck operations, I should say. search for example that would got put on the back burner we didn't do any ventilation well now especially we have we're we're part of a small suburb that's part of a four city response that we'll get oh 20 I don't even know we get 26, 28 firefighters at least now. We we got plenty of people to be doing truck operations. Plus we're operating with other cities that have trucks. We now have a truck that we didn't used to have. So it it kind of became apparent that we've never done truck operation. So we didn't have experience at it. Vertical ventilation in particular, that's the one that probably really got me going. We had never done vertical ventilation. I was against it. I was against it, not because I didn't think it would work. But we had no experience at it, no knowledge at it other than occasionally going cut and a prop into me. That that's not training the the the vent roofs So I was against it for the lack of experience. but when I realized they were we were going to be doing it w with or without me, I flipped sides and I thought I want to learn everything I can about vertical ventilation.

Brian LaFleur: I thought I was okay on the rest of it, but I needed to know about vertical ventilation. Started going to any class I could find. I actually ended up going to your conference a few years ago. Every truck class I could find. Well, in trying to learn about vertical ventilation, I started picking up on the fact that it's the total operational side of it that we really need to be focused on. It's not just ventilation, it's not just throwing a ladder, it's not just forcing doors, it's the total operational side of it and how that fits into the the fire ground. And and I it I became apparent to me now why cities that have the opportunity have engines and trucks and engines do engine work and trucks do truck work. And they can they can kind of co-mingle a little bit, but it's nice having a mindset. When I'm going to a fire now and I've got a four-man truck, most the the guys that I have are not dedicated to truck because we do have an EMS and they have to bounce back toward the ambulance and the truck but I have a core group of people that are on my truck and we do some training and and as far as practicing splitting crews basic truck functions and we may be get we may get assigned something else but but when when I go to a fire now me and my crew have a mindset of truck operation. And that's different for us. And once we started heading that way, it's just started picking up steam. And the guys in the fire department in our department Started to gravitate. A handful of them, the ones that were interested, they started to gravitate to it. And it just it it just became a a thing that's feeding on itself now.

Corley: That's awesome. Now I know everybody that that doesn't have that is like, well, how did you get it started? What what was the catalyst to get it going? Like what what made it happen? And there's a few questions in here asking about that. Brian LaFleur: So it was not easy. And you know the biggest hurdle is that and this is another thing I've had to learn in my career, and everybody has to learn when you when you want to make a change. Most people want to make a change because in their mind I've got this great idea. Surely everybody else is going to see it's a great idea. Well Chiefs have other stuff they're worried about. They're not thinking about truck operation. They're thinking about admin stuff that they have a lot of stuff on their plate. And that's why I think in one of my list of topics, when you when you try want to try to turn a ship, it's it's it's hard to turn a ship. You better have some patience. And I'm not very good at patience. And I and a a lot of my failures have have come into this. I'm not a very patient person. When I try to get something going that I feel is important, I push really hard. And sometimes in doing so, even if I won in a battle right now, it came at a price that was that wasn't worth it in the long run So and and trying to get this truck culture going, it it it required not only a buy-in from guys in operations, but there there were some decisions that had to be made at the at the department level from the battalion chiefs and the operational side of it that took some convincing because they were like I was a few years ago. We don't need this stuff. We don't need truck operation. We've been what we've been doing has been working. And you have to make a case on, well, yeah, it's been working. It's worked for us so far, but maybe it could work better if we if we look at some other stuff. You have to keep progressing. And that was the that was the hard part. And and it is a battle. And I and I say a battle not in a bad way. You have to look at from the from their perspective.

Brian LaFleur: You have you have to play some devil advocate that you're having to convince some people that have no reason to to to see things your way until you convince them. So you better have some pretty convincing ideas. And it beyond I went to a class the other day and I think this is what what we should do. And it takes time and it takes patience Corley: Right on, right on. Jason Boyles wants to know, what is your manpower on the truck in your suburban department? Brian LaFleur: We we are we as of a few months ago, we are a dedicated four four man truck. Corley: Dedicated four man truck. Brian LaFleur: It's nice because it allows us to split crews. So where we used to have three some days, four some days. We kind of had to have a plan for three and a plan for four. And that's up. I mean some people are got two on a truck. You you make do what you got. Whatever I got, we'll figure out a way to make it work. We can complain complain and whine and all that stuff, but in the end This is what we got. You gotta learn to make it work. But what having four does allows us to split crews. So what I look at it now is that we're not a four-man truck showing to the fire team. We're two two-man teams. It's a rare time that we're gonna operate together.

Corley: That's just a mindset. We're gonna split and and two are going one. Two in, two out. Or not I don't mean it that way. Outside, topside, inside, outside. What's your what's your go-to plays? Like walk me through. Brian LaFleur: Well the the the one interesting thing about the truck and and one of the the things I like about it is that as opposed to the engine I don't and I don't want to demean the engine I love the engine work for a really long time. I love deploying hose and I love putting water on fire But your decision making is is a little bit easier. You're gonna either be drop pulling attack line or a second attack line or or something along those lines. You might be a size third, but it's more likely to be water related with the truck you have a wide variety of stuff so there's just some decisions that need to be made so and and with that with that four man truck well since we split left and right on on my crew we split left and right I'm I'm pretty deliberate who I put on the left side because I gotta feel good about those guys. And again, we don't have we don't have the experience at this. We've been doing it for I guess the last three years, two or three years, and in a department that don't really get a lot of fire. So we have to do a lot of training, but I have to feel pretty good about that crew. If we're gonna split and I'm gonna let them go to the roof I gotta feel pretty good about that. but the way I look at it, when when I'm if I'm first in truck at a fire, my my main go-to is gonna be search. So if if if If it's two in the morning and a house and and there's really no other information, we're probably all going in for search. Unless the conditions make it look like search and hose deployments are gonna be hindered by the by the fire, the smoke and the heat conditions, then we might split and and And do vent and search at the same time. But our our default is going to be search.

Corley: All in for search. Brian LaFleur: All in for search. But even then we're going to split. We're not going to be searching the four-man team. Corley: Right on. Right on. Great question, Jason. Great question, Jake. Jake J coming at you. They said, did you add more staff for the truck as well, or did you reassign them to the truck? Or was it a combination? Brian LaFleur: Our department added a person per shift to be able to man a truck all the time. And not for minimum manning. Corley: Solid. Joe Wiz, Driver Joe coming at you. Love it. Love it. He said, in the truck, Brian, I know you need to get water where it has to go, but now have truck. Has how do you have trust in your truck guys that are out of your line of sight, which I think you touched on a little bit with the the guy you said left, right? Brian LaFleur: Yeah, it I mean it took me a while to get there and I still Man, I and I hate to compare my firefighters to kids, but but now the down you're there. I'm an old guy, I I look at them as my kids, and I say that in an affectionate way. I I worry about them But I have to trust them. it's it's up to me to take them out and train them to the point. I mean they're good guys. They wouldn't be on they wouldn't be on the truck if they weren't good, solid guys. They've got some experience, they've got good heads on their shoulders They they make good decisions. But it don't happen overnight. We had to do a lot of training together. And there's a lot of little details together. Like going to the roof. Okay, you're gonna go to the roof. who's bringing the ladder? Who's setting the ladder? If you're gonna use a roof ladder, are you gonna use a roof ladder? Who's if so, who's setting it? Who's bringing it? Who's bringing the saw? You bringing two saws? Who's bringing the saws on The roof, it was going on the roof first. All that stuff had to be worked out in advance And we had to what if stuff because it's not if we have a fire we're gonna do this. It's if we have this kind of roof with this kind of fire, we we have to start walking through all that stuff knowing that you can't cover all the bases.

Brian LaFleur: So there's gonna have to be some decisions made. And in doing that, and I don't know if this is the time to meet, I I'm a I'm a rabbit chaser and a squirrel chaser. Welcome to the scrap, brother. You may have to hurt me back in every now and then. I might I may even forget where I'm going. But I've got a a kind of unorthodox style of leadership when it comes to that. Some of my bosses are not gonna like they already know this about me, but they're probably not gonna like me mentioning it. But I do the best I can with with the best intentions. I look for guys that can make decisions. I need them to make decisions on their own. If I assign that left side to go to the roof, and that's what that's the discussion we had. We're going to insert you're going to the roof I got to trust them not to be so tunneled in to what I told them that that's we're gonna that what what they're gonna do no matter what. I've got to trust their decision making and they've got to know that I trust their decision making enough that when they get there and they see something else needs to be done or the roof can't be made, they need to make that decision without my permission. Well that don't happen overnight either. So way, and it's a it's a hard thing to do because with 34 years in, I've got twice the amount of time on of anybody else in my station. I'm a lot older than they are. So even though I try to encourage that that atmosphere that guys can can speak up to me It it doesn't happen except for a handful of guys. There's a couple of guys you don't have to worry about them. They're gonna they're gonna they're gonna be candid with you. And man, I value those guys. I value that candor. For the rest of them, I gotta drag it out of them And the way I do that is that again, I watch guys, and I look I look for things, I look for little places that I can insert Certain things in and what I what I at a certain point I'm gonna start poking and prodding at them and I don't know how many of them realize I do this, but I eventually kind of poke and prodd at them to the point where they kind of get mad at me a little bit because I expect them to be able to stand up to me I expect everybody at my station to be able to stand up to me and tell me when they disagree with something.

Brian LaFleur: And if I have to kind of push them into doing that because that it makes them think for themselves. And I gotta be careful in how I do that because I can overdo it and it's probably not something a new officer can do, but that's how I do it. And I I want them to be able to think for themselves Because I that's the thing that gives me the the comfort of letting them go off on their own when I know they can make decisions for themselves Because I've I've felt that out. I know that I've I've pushed them to the point where I know they're gonna stand up to me. That shows me that they have the ability to make decisions. It shows me what decisions they make. first of all, and the fact that they're willing to make 'em. And I like to get to the point that we get to a fire and and I'm old and I trip and I fall and I I land on the curb and and break my hip and I can't get up. I'd like for those other guys to step over me and go, see you later, old man, we got a job to do, and they don't need me anymore. If I've done my job up to that point, they shouldn't need me anymore. The leadership happened before the fire They don't need me once we get to the fire. That's that's my that's my hope and that's my goal.

Corley: So I want to dig in a little bit on the poke and prod. The poke and prod and get them to get them to stand up, you know. Finding out how much spine they have and what it takes to get them to have that spine. Do you do that at the firehouse or is that something you encourage even on the on the emergency scene? Because I I hope you understand what I'm saying. You do you want them questioning you on the emergency scene is what I'm asking. Brian LaFleur: Firehouse. Okay. Thank you. And on the emergency scene, I will let them make as many decisions as I can. And and some are easy. Like the EMS calls are that's a that's a great time to see the decision making of some of the guys is how well they operate it at EMS calls. And they're they're definitely not gonna ask my opinion there. I'm I'm too I'm too irrelevant on EMS calls now. But it allows me to see on the few that I go on, it allows me to see the decision making process. But on a lot of the on a lot of the miscellaneous calls, that's the time to let them Not I don't have to tell them. I don't want to have to tell them everything. I don't want to tell my driver where to park. I don't want to tell them where to go. I don't want Tell the guys in the back exactly what tool to grab. I want them to know what job I want them to do and I want them to make those decisions I'll I'll st I'll step over that if I need to and I hope they recognize and this is this is the fine line I have to walk though because you can push that to the point where they're that it's insubordinate. And I I've even used those words. I like people to to to stand up to me to the point of insubordination and it was up to me to create the respectful environment. It's up to me to have gained their their respective credibility. that they won't take it too far. That's a fine line. And it's not something everybody can do. And it is definitely unorthodox, but that has worked for me. And that that is what gives me the comfort in letting those guys go off without my supervision.

Corley: I love it. I absolutely do love it. Ambinextrius Firefighting says, other than traditional truck work, VES, ventilation, elevated streams, what skill set would you recommend to help be a better truckee? Brian LaFleur: I've always been a building construction nerd. I I realized when I started looking at in in particular vertical ventilation, I kind of had the Almost go back to the books on bro on the building construction, looking at it from a ventilation standpoint. Building construction is probably one of the biggest If you get really in the fire service, you need to know about building construction. But truckies in particular have to know building construction. It applies so much to and its correlation with fire behavior And those two things, you really have to know fire behavior, you really have to know bird building construction and how they correlate to each other. And that's a never-ending process. And you've got to get out in your city. And the the bad thing about reading books on this stuff is that very few write books for your city. You can get I love the Brandigan book. I'm sure you're gonna ask me about books later. I love the Brandigan book and and I I'll read everything I can find on on building construction But you have to get out in your own city and you have to look how at how things made. If you've got anybody on your shift in your department that knows anything about building construction, man, you gotta be grilling them. You gotta know how things are put together. When you know how things are put together, you know how they come apart.

Corley: I love that, man. And you know, fire behavior, building construction, they are the pillars of safe and effective fire ground operations, man. Absolutely Absolutely. Brian LaFleur: the other thing they I I would hope that people aren't too big a hurry to get to the truck, and this is an opinion I have. I don't think you should be riding the truck until you've understand engine operations pretty well. Because other than rescue, I look at our main job is support the engine. Well you gotta know what they're you gotta know what they need to be able to support them. So I I really think someone will should have to work on an engine for a while before they even even worry about the truck. Corley: I love it Someone asked earlier and they said are your yeah j said are you guys strictly on the truck or do they cross staff engine and ambulance? I think you said they work the ambulance also, right? Brian LaFleur: Everybody has to ride the ambulance below driver. All the firefighters have to ride the ambulance. I've got I've got two guys in particular. They're not on the ambulance, they're gonna be on the truck. There's three others that will kind of rotate on and off the truck and the engine and the and the ambulance with them when I got to the station the I asked first of all who here wants to ride the truck? and and who here would rather stay on the engine? Because I honestly I was hoping I had a couple of guys that I just want to do engine work. And I there when when we started switching over to this truck culture, truck operations, it kind of created a wave of people wanting to just, it became the cool thing to do to be on the truck. Well that's the problem with somebody's culture deals. Well we got it we can't forget them. We got an engine over there and that's that's pretty that's one of the most important things we got And for us, we've also got an amlet. And and I expect the guys on the amus to be to be good at that too. I'm I I don't think we should w if somebody don't want to work in a department that has an amus, they need to go work in a department that doesn't have an amus.

Brian LaFleur: We have an amulet, so I expect those guys to be good at the MS stuff too. But no so we have a we a few guys that will rotate to the truck, but the what when I look for the people who wanted to ride the truck, it came with a commitment If you're going to ride the truck on my shift, you have to commit yourself to all the training that's going to go into it. Some of it's going to be outside training. Some of it's going to be paid by the department. There's the stuff that's not going to be paid by the department. I don't expect it But I sure do encourage it. One of the best things that that I see happening right now is with all these, there's so many of these these conferences and and fools trainings and they're always looking for for help. Absolutely Getting some of our guys involved and even if they're helping, all they're doing is throwing plywood on a prop. Man, they're learning stuff there. They're getting they're getting exposed to a lot of stuff. It's encouraging them to to learn more So that I I look for that kind of commitment. If you're gonna be on the truck, you've got to commit it, be committed to learning all the stuff that involves. Man, we got it, that's a huge toolbox. There's a bunch of shit on that thing To learn and it never ends. the truck makes less calls than than the engine does. So that should be made up for with training and we do a lot of off-the-cuff training. Just we just see something and go do it

Corley: Beautiful, beautiful. Nick Christie wanted to know, and you kind of already touched on it, so you can you can brought brought gloss over it. Is there a process to get promoted from an engine to the truck and what does that look like? Brian LaFleur: I don't consider it a promotion. It's just different. And honestly, it's been a fight. I was actually expecting not many people to want to ride the truck. but it it it hadn't been the case at all. But I definitely don't consider it a promotion, at least for me. It's just different. And I I just think it we're looking for certain people, people that can think on their own, people that have the ability to work all the tools. Man, not everybody's good at ropes, not everybody's good at extrication. Everybody, every firefighter should know the basics of it But to be assigned an apparatus that has that stuff that you may be working on your own, I think there should be some degree of aptitude to be able to do it. But Man, it's just another apparatus and it's just different. It's not above the engine. It's not a promotion. That's the way I look at it.

Corley: Love it. Love it, man. Jake Jake, got another great question coming at you, and I love this question. Besides pre-planning, what is a good go-to building construction training? Brian LaFleur: well I don't think there's a a better thing you can do than go watch buildings that are being built. Now they're they're building a lot of buildings I think in most cities now, especially these these four-story apartments that are going up everywhere But I would imagine there's a lot of cities that aren't really having a lot of construction. I don't I don't know what you do there. there's a lot of there's a lot of big I mean You're limited by your imagination and your work ethic to to what degrees you're going to go to to learn stuff. I and I I I take in everything. I'll read everything I can find, books I read everything online I can find. If I find someone that makes the mistake of letting me know they like giving them information and let me have their number. Kevin Lewis, I'm talking to you. I'm going to beat you to death with questions. And I if you can if you can find if you have some people in your city that know about building construction, for some reason a lot of those guys don't offer that stuff up, but when you start asking, you have to ask them specific questions. You can't ask them Man, can you tell me about your building construction? You say you gotta ask them some fairly specific questions. but other than that, man, you just gotta you just go out and find what you what you can do. If you if you don't have any buildings being built, you can get online, buy books But if there's buildings being built and you're not going out there and watching them come up from the ground up, you then you're you're shorting yourself.

Corley: I love it. No, absolutely great, great, great. Love that, love that. Joshua Turner's coming at you. Now we're getting into some culture and philosophy stuff and right into the what'd you call it the what was the psychology term you used earlier That I use. Yeah, you said something like I'm a pop, you said I'm a tree psychologist. Say tree psychologist, but he says At what point in your career did you realize you can't force firefighters to love the job the same as you do, and that you catch more flies with honey rather than vinegar? Brian LaFleur: Yeah, I I think all of us who are passionate has had to come to that conclusion at some point or another. And one thing I can I can I will say is that shaming don't work. don't try that. It has the exact opposite effect I don't I don't remember at what point that came to my mind. But you know, it it when I started there there's a big difference from now. I there was no exposure to so much. I mean I think you've mentioned that on scrap quite a bit There was no conferences. There was no outside training. We we were all inbred. All we had was what we had in our department. You can ask questions. We had the occasional fire engineering firehouse sitting on the book with the on the m on the table, but they're very limited what you got out of that. So I didn't know what I didn't know, but I d I knew I wanted to learn more. And guys didn't do training back then. They were they were very comfortable to just sit around. They came from a generation that had more fires and they had more life experience that helped them on the job there all the guys when I first started came from the farms and the trades so they had a lot of knowledge already that helped them on the fire side of well that that's that's changing But for now, there's there's so much information. So for the guys that are passionate, they can get in the races. You want to go to and Mr. Josh Turner is one of those guys. He goes to every conference, he goes to every training event you can find. It'd be nice for everybody to do that, but reality is that they're not.

Brian LaFleur: And for a lot of people they can't. And I was at this point, I I wanted my wife to stay home with the kids, so I started a a a part-time business. Well, I I wish I could have been doing something fire related, but family comes first. I had to support a family. there are people in that boat today, and I don't want to I don't want to diss those guys. I don't want to take anything away from them. When they're supporting their family, as long as when they come to work, they do their job well and they and they do what they can when they're at work. I don't expect them to do what I do on their days off. but as far as I and it's a common question, I hear it on the scrap I hear how do you get those guys to to come out and do those things Right. There there is no right answer, but I can honestly tell you the one thing I can tell you that will not work is you cannot shame them. You cannot try to make them feel guilty for sitting there watching TV. What you can do is Just go out and do it. They may or may not kind of watch you and at some point maybe come see what you're doing. But if you have to allow that room, you have to allow room for them to do it on their own And you do it by setting an example, you do it by gaining credibility, and that may take some time. You may be if you're at a a slow station with a small group of guys that would rather watch football all the time, you may you may be on your own all the time You're not going to be there forever. So, you know, don't don't let that don't let that beat you down. It can be demoralizing. I was on a crew like that for a while. It can be demoralizing, but it shouldn't stop you from going out there. You're still going to eventually have a fire If the rest of your crew hadn't been training, but you have, you can at least fall back on that, man. You can go out in the bay, you can do stuff on your own. Your officer don't want to go do stuff.

Brian LaFleur: Hell with them. Go out and do stuff on your own. There's a lot of stuff a guy could go out in the bay and do on his own. And to me, it's not an excuse to say Monster never wants to go train. Corley: No, there you go Great answer. And touching on it. You mentioned Kevin Lewis. So I have to always say if someone gets mentioned, I try to look it up. Weekly scrap number 112, the twisted truckey training. Kevin Lewis was on. So if you want to hear more about Kevin Lewis and building construction construction and truck work always check out number 112 so back to it getting pulling up the notes here hold on one second while i track them down let's go to The troublemaking mavericks. Yeah. The untapped leadership pool. I love this. When you sent this topic, I was like, ooh, I'm interested. So elaborate. Brian LaFleur: The most passionate people are going to be the ones that step on toes. And those guys are around people that aren't like them. It's very easy for them to be overbearing. They they often get because they're often typically troublemakers. I may or may not have been one of those at one time. But it's easy to and I've always compared it to someone who trains horses. someone that don't know much about horses when they get one that's kind of wild and wants to run and and very spirited their natural reactions to jerk back on the reins. They're trying so hard to control them that they're not just guiding them. And those those mavericks they're the they're gonna make the best firefighters they're gonna make the guys they're gonna be the guys that are gonna be your go-to guys when shit really hits the fan when you need guys that make decisions with someone without someone looking over your shoulder it's probably gonna be those troublemaking mavericks So and you're not going to control them. You're not going to throw reins around their m their mouth and jerk them into submission. All you're going to do is you're either going to beat them down or you're going to make them leave. But you but you can guide them. But you can't do it if you if they don't if they don't respect you. You gotta have you gotta have a mutual respect going And you gotta be willing to kick them in the ass every now and then, but you can't jerk back too hard on them.

Brian LaFleur: You gotta have their reins. They're gonna mess up. You gotta allow them to make their mess ups. And discipline them without beating them down. And and and those guys can eventually become some they'll eventually get some maturity where where they can actually put it under control a little bit. I actually did this with a guy one time and he and he was a pretty big troublemaking maverick and I took him on the wing and made me cringe a lot of times and now he's my fire chief Corley: Nice, nice. Brian LaFleur: You don't don't don't give up on those guys and don't try to control them too hard. They've got something to offer. Corley: Beautiful. What's that? Well We close that. There we go. Close out that question. Thank you for the great questions, everybody from the audience. Specifically Jake, Josh, and everybody else already deleted a bunch of names. Killer questions, as always, from the audience of the scrap. And Jason Shelby said, may or may not have been a troublemaker with the giant all caps on half. So yeah. Cliche, cliche's acronyms, catchy phrases, and other things not to be taken seriously. I don't know how I feel about this one yet, so I want to hear I want to hear what you have to say.

Brian LaFleur: I I hate acronyms. And yeah, you know the one that did it for me was when when VS go there's a big there's a big argument going on with do we need VS or we just need to call it cert? But when they tried to throw the I in there, that's when acronyms completely lost me. Okay. Because for me, I mean even though I don't like acronyms, VES became a word in itself. I think for most people, even though there's some debate on exactly what it means, for most people they have an idea when someone says VS, that means a specific thing. It's it's basically a word in itself. Why do you gotta throw an I in there? But for all the other acronyms and RICEO, Slicers, all these acronyms, they get thrown around with no context. What do they mean? You can to me an acronym is something you learn for a test. If you got a brand new firefighter, you don't know anything about fire service, you teach him a ratio, but man, that's training wheels. You better get off those training wheels pretty quick. What is R means rescue. What exactly is rescue? That should require a whole class in itself. So and what I think would really bother me at one point someone actually wrote Reese Resio in the officer side of one of our engines years ago. It was a long time ago. And I remember thinking if if an officer sits in this seat and they gotta look at an acronym on the board as they're pulling up their fire, we've got a we've got a pretty big problem somewhere So the the cliches risk a lot to save a lot. And and I don't want to I don't want to bash the guys that come up with these clays they they had an intent when they made them. But the problem with catchy phrases is that they get thrown around with no context. There needs to be context to this stuff. You need to talk about what this stuff means and all the listening that goes with it. And it man, if you wanna if you want to see to me the best example of of giving context and stuff, and this is probably my favorite guy that I've never met, Justin McWilliams with the with the Circle Culture page.

Brian LaFleur: He he will throw one thing I respect about him is that I think a lot of people think he's kind of abrasive. That's cool, I like that, because he brings so much to the table. When he gets on his Page every single day and starts a dumpster fire and puts himself in the open and go. This is this is what I think. Who has anything to say? And I think a lot of people look at that as they're they're baiting that he's baiting him into an argument and and maybe he kind of is, but he's done his homework, he's got his knowledge, but what I respect about him and the thing that we all need to do, he's looking for a discussion. He's looking for an actual discussion And not many people can do that anymore. He's he can have a discussion with people he disagrees with if they do it respectfully and they don't just throw out little catchy phrases and stuff like that and stuff they regurgitate from a class. Corley: There needs to be context to all this stuff. No, absolutely. And I love Justin. And yes, he does, he does he has a style for getting the discussion going, without a doubt. And it's done deliberately And just because you brought him up, he is going to be on October 14th. He's coming on to talk about his new pro his latest project that he's working on and and how that is going. And I think that'll be exciting to hear the updates on that And so if you follow him on social media, you know what he's working on. I don't want to say textbook, but that's basically what he's working on as a book. So that'll be fun to talk about. all right, man. I'm loving, I'm loving the discussion. The value of credibility, which I love the word credibility, and it's it's not one that I mean a lot of people talk about integrity and consistency, but the word credibility, man, talk to me.

Brian LaFleur: Well, like I said earlier, if everybody talks about respect, you gotta earn respect, and that's true. You earn respect through credibility, at least in my mind. and it it It's got a lot of places. As as a brand new rookie, you need credibility with your officer that he can trust you to not do something stupid. As you move through your career, you keep building on that credibility and you eventually become a say a driver or senior firefighter. And you have the credibility that an officer will trust you to train your rookies, that he'll trust you to take care of the engine, he'll trust you to ride up from driver to officer. All that credibility also starts getting into the pool when dealing with your bosses that when you at some point you hopefully if you're a passionate person, you're probably going to want to make changes. If you're going to want to make changes, you're going to be wanting to convince people that you're going to have to convince to make your change. They don't automatically see things your way. they're not going to listen to you without credibility. You have to have built that credibility to the point that they'll actually listen to you. The the thing about credibility, it it especially as you move through the ranks, it also gets you influence And influence comes with some responsibility. Because when you when you gain influence through credibility, you can do some damage if you're not careful So you need to be you need to be you need to know where to use that. You need to use it appropriately and you need to be pull back the reins every now and then and every now and then you're gonna screw it up. I do it all the time. Every now and then you're gonna screw it up And the more credibility you had built up in your magazine, the more leeway you're gonna get. If you don't have any cre credibility built up in your magazine, you ain't getting no leeway at all. And if you blow your one chance, if you went and made your one big argument and you didn't have any credibility and you blew it, you're never going to get that chance again. No one's ever going to listen to a word you say until you've built that credibility pool.

Brian LaFleur: I feel like I've built quite a bit over 34 years, but I do I know that in 34 years of taking myself to build up to the point that I'm at today, next shift I could walk in and do something that wiped all that clean, I'd never get it back. No, I think I don't even remember that. Corley: Strong man, yeah. Josh Return said timestamp, and he's absolutely correct. Oh, eight five zero credibility. Have to write it down or I will not remember later. yeah, good stuff. We talked about turning a ship. Nuisances and problems. Talking about the difference between nuisances and problems. Brian LaFleur: Well, I think everybody used the analogy of focus on things you actually can do something about. and I guess it's it's kind of it's a different take on that. I I saw a video one time, I don't even know where it was, but it there was this it was this guy, I I think it was the Fourth of July thing. He's he's in his red, white, and blue shorts and it there's a storm. It looks like he's in a tornado, but he's got a flag, a flag, and he's out in the middle of the street and he's holding that flag. And and that's the analogy I like. He wanted to plant that damn flag. It didn't matter to him that there was a storm out there. the storm was was a nuisance. For some people, they're gonna look out the window and go, I ain't walking out there. That's bad out there. And for some people, it'll take a slight breeze when they ain't walking outside. But this guy That flag in the street was on 4th of July was a big enough deal. I don't give a shit what tornado is blowing. I'm going to plant this flag. And he had a big ass smile on his face the whole time. When I was a kid and I grew up in South Louisiana, we had mosquitoes everywhere and I loved to hunt. It didn't matter how hot it was, didn't matter how cold it was, it didn't matter how many mosquitoes there was. I liked to go hunt And I walked outside go duck hunting right behind my house and I'd be covered in mosquitoes. Now there's a lot of people as soon as they got two mosquitoes on there, they're going back in the house.

Brian LaFleur: But I wanted to hunt bad enough, those mosquitoes were JS a mild nuisance because that's what I wanted to do. So for the rest of us, when people complain about my department don't want to do this and and I went to class that we should do, I don't like the the officer I work for, he won't go training. Man, those are nuisances There's no reason. There is a point that it becomes a problem. But you have to know the difference. What exactly is a problem? Most things are nuisances. The vast majority of stuff, you can do something on your own, and it's a nuisance. You're standing in a gale force wind, and you can still do what you want to do if you look at it from the right perspective Corley: Boom. I love that. I love that mindset. Nuisance or problem. Nuisance or problem. I like this question. Anthony Casillas has a great question for you. If you can, Anthony, give me a little more context to what you mean in advancing leadership and education. Are you talking to Brian, or are you saying for anybody? Just kind of give me a little more context and I'll throw it up here. Hold on, we got one coming. I like this from Joshua Turner again coming at you. How do you navigate the waters with administration or other stations or crews if you feel or know that their priorities don't match the mission as you see it?

Brian LaFleur: well you know what don't work is sitting in the station bitching about it. you gotta go you gotta talk. You gotta cause When you stay separate, it's easy to stay separate and just bitch about each other. But when you when you start talking to each other, I mean like face-to-face talking, not texting and and phone and emails and stuff like that You find that you're not that far apart and you're able to make your case better when you do it face to face. there were some issues in our department and with the other stations, and this this was a failure on my part. I was so So concentrated on on trying to get chiefs to adopt certain things and and everything that went along with that, it never occurred to me that that some of the other firefighters didn't really know what we were doing with our truck either So I spent some time after that going in, talking to some of these people and explaining to them what we're doing, why we're doing, and they cleared up a lot of the air. And but it had to be done face-to-face. It couldn't be done via text. And face-to-face you can do it in in a group setting. It allows them to answer, ask questions. and allows you to to justify what what you're what what you're after. So I I don't know that's what what that's what he was looking for, but that's that's the that's the things I've had to deal with. I mean anytime anytime you make changes, you're gonna have to deal with that.

Corley: Boom, boom. Getting buy-in face to face. That's what Heart of Texas Fools said. Getting buy-in face to face. Thank you for the question, Josh. Thank you. Thank you, audience, for all of the great questions. I am Seth Borkwin Borkwin. I hope I didn't butcher your name too bad. He says, I'm currently a volley trying to transition to a career firefighter. I have a full-time job, and it definitely gets in the way of being a firefighter. What tips would you give for that transition? Brian LaFleur: Who I'm not sure if I'm the I'm the right person for that. and I don't know I don't know which scenario they boy you gotta you gotta know how committed you are to to becoming a fireman. And how hard is it to become a fire? Where where's he at? Does he say where he's at? He didn't he didn't he didn't say. Man, that's a that's a that's a question that's over my head there. Corley: if if you Well you've also you've also been at your department since since the very beginning, correct? Brian LaFleur: For me? Yes. No. Corley: Oh, where'd you start? Brian LaFleur: No, I yeah, you're right. I thought you said something from my department's beginning. Yeah, this is the only department I've I've I've been a part of.

Corley: Okay, yeah, that's what I thought. Brian LaFleur: When when when I wanted to be a fireman, I it's hard for someone that's got a family because especially in in most of Texas, they require certifications. unless you go and work for a big city. I don't know how guys do that with families. Some do it and that's a commitment. That's a huge commitment. So if someone can't make that commitment, man, I I I don't know what to tell them. I'm not sure that I would I would have had that commitment. When I got hired, no one required certifications. Luckily, honestly, I didn't even know fireman was a paid job. I wasn't one of those guys that grew up under a dad who was a fireman and I had his legacy. I had no clue that it was a job. But once I I got out of Marines and had a I I did not like civilian world. I I did not like what I saw in the civilian world. I saw a bunch of selfish full brats stumbling around And no organization, anything. No one had any there was no sense of of brotherhood. There was no there was there was no camaraderie. I missed the camaraderie of the Marine Corps. And I was on the verge of going back in And I just saw an ad in the paper one day it said fire departments hiring. I remember thinking, damn, those guys get paid. Hell that sounds kind of cool. And once I started looking into it, I thought, man, I think what I miss about the Marine Corps, I think I can find in the fire service. So then it became a dedication. I it was something I really want to do. It took me a long time. There was a lot back then there was a lot of people. When I got hired in the city, I got hired and there was like four hundred people taking the test for one opening So you had to have the commitment to be willing to test in a bunch of places. And it it I mean, there just needs to be a commitment.

Corley: There you go. And that's his commitment and that dedication and that stick to it is without a doubt. So Anthony Cassia's clarified his question on leadership. He says, what would you say is the next step in studying leadership past the basics? Brian LaFleur: What are the basics? Corley: I know that's what I was that's what I would I didn't know if he was if if this is someone you've had a conversation with before or not. Brian LaFleur: He's a he's a young captain of my at my shift and that guy's got a he's got one of those those rare natural genetic ability for leadership. He he just he just has it. He's still he's still learning. He's got a editing we're all still learning. man, I don't know what the next step is. I mean I've been doing this. I'm I'm I'm getting close to retiring and I'm still finding new steps. It it never stops. It it never ever stops. The but you gotta keep paying attention. You gotta keep it helps to read books, but after a while you'll find all the books are are basically saying the same thing because leadership is leadership. You got a bunch of guys giving different perspectives on basically the same thing You gotta put it into practice. You gotta watch guys that that do it well. You gotta watch guys that don't do it well to see what don't work. You gotta learn from your own guys. And when I said I'm a shade tree psychologist, I think that's pretty important. I think you If you want to be an effective leader, you need some psychology skills. You have to learn to evaluate your people. And you learn to evaluate your people by watching them with your mouth, with your mouth closed. When you when you evaluate your people, you start seeing the things that that they need. And it's I it's again the the the analogy of being a parent What that guy needs to hear is that the same thing the other guy needs to hear. And you got to shift to 10 people. You may have 10 different things that you need to look at. You're only going to know that by by knowing those guys, and you got to spend some time getting to know them

Corley: I love it. I love it. I love that because the the the relationship between leadership and psychology, man, absolutely. They're real when you start getting into human motivation, what makes people tick, why they react the ways they do to the different levers being and buttons being pushed. It's it's it's exciting. Brian LaFleur: You know what else has come to play on that is that I I've learned to ask people about their backgrounds. When you learn it's not just what you see today, when you learn about their background, some of their family life and stuff, you you find out why some of them are like they are today. And that gives you that gives you something to work with. It knows if you can understand them better, you can relate to better, have a little bit Corley: All right. I don't know if he hit a button. Alright, well I'll keep talking. I trust Sam has it going. Sam's in my ear. Says he does have it going. We will see if we get him back. that was that that was very abrupt and so i don't know what we were talking about go ahead and throw questions up here all field questions in the meantime Yes, you have to evaluate your go ahead. Nope. I'm on my own. I got you. I'm gonna I'm gonna look for I'm gonna look for any I'm gonna look for any questions coming through YouTube. Oh I lost you there for a bit. You did. You're back. I'm back. Mike, yeah, it was a mic drop moment. That was what it was Where were we? I don't remember.

Brian LaFleur: I got a Mayday text. Corley: Oh, is everything good? Brian LaFleur: No, though they were Mayday because I apparently lost connection or so I don't know what I lost. Corley: No, we we dropped you for a second. I have no idea what happened. Brian LaFleur: You were just gone. Yeah. Corley: All right. last not last, but probably last one before we move to the other, to the books and whatnot. But I wanted to talk to you about are you an idea dismisser? Brian LaFleur: Well, I I like to think I'm not. And again, that's where you gotta you gotta do a lot of self-evaluation and you gotta recognize that your own evaluation of self is is often wrong. That's why it helps to have somebody, everybody needs someone to tell them when they're being an asshole. And not everybody has that. I I'm always I'm always looking for it. But I don't think I am. I like to think I'm one of those guys, and I've I've maybe even bragged about it, that when when someone asks me, hey, capital this work, and you guys And I've learned not to say no it won't. The best thing to do is say, well, I don't know, let's go try. Because if you say it don't it won't work, first of all, it may have worked and and he'll never know. Second of all, a lot of them Hopefully, this is the way I'd have been, in the back of his mind, he's gonna think, well, screw the old guy. I think it will. But if he if you go out and do it and it doesn't work, he sees why it didn't work. Not just because you said it didn't and every now and then you find out, well, hell, you was wrong. And he actually had a perspective you didn't think about, and what he wanted to do does work. But Every now and then I'm wrong. Oh I had a new guy, two new guys actually. They back before I had even heard of of of masking up with gloves on. They came to me and they'd watched some videos and they they said, hey Cap, we watched the video getting masked up with gloves on. What do you think about that? And right off the bat I dismissed it Because I'd gotten burnt one time because I didn't have my hood fully closed on my mask, which led to a series of events.

Brian LaFleur: so I immediately dismissed it. Instead of Saying, well, show me the video. Let's talk about it. Let's do it. I immediately dismissed them. Now and bless their hearts. This is what I like to see in people. They didn't give a shit that I dismissed them. They just kept doing it. And later on, I started hearing more and more about this masking up with gloves on to the point that I finally flushed my ego enough to look into it. And well, now I'm masking up with gloves on. same two guys came to me, Cap, we saw a video on this tripod thing searching and I saw a video and going, well that's stupid. You can't search through a room full of furniture in that tripod position and I walked away Absolute, absolute wrong thing to do. Instead of looking into it a little further, going, well, if somebody put a video on it, they've probably got a reason for it. Well, now it's every search class you go to, they're treats teaching you about tripod positions I had to look into it enough to see that it wasn't moving as you're searching through a root form, as you're moving through spaces. So luckily again, they didn't listen to me. They kept doing what they're doing. That's exactly what they should have done. I should have asked them to show me and worked on it, but I didn't. I failed them. Luckily for them and all you new guys out, here's the lesson learned. The old guy gaffs you off and dismisses you. Don't pay attention to him. If you think it's going to work, you go out and try it out anyway. Now I'm learning the tripod. And I had to get a I had to learn how to it took me a while. If I even thought about using making a video tripoding for old guys from the old and infirm because I've finally learned how to tripod. I have to have a halligan that's got a spike on it. And that's that's probably an inside joke because I I've cut a lot of spikes off of halligans. I've got to have a halligan with a spike and I can now tripod and I I find the value in doing so. And if I had listened to those young guys a few years ago, I'd be a lot further ahead than I am now.

Corley: Nice. I love that. I love the humility that ties with it. the vulnerability and showing mistakes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Luke Stevenson said constructive disobedience. What a great way to say it. I said that was last one. I like this question so much. I'm going to throw it at you because I want to hear your opinion on this. this because he asked you for your opinion. Clay Crawford wants to know, in your opinion, how is the reputation slash credibility best earned for a young firefighter? Brian LaFleur: well you gotta learn. You gotta you gotta be confident with your job. You gotta learn your job as best you can. And man, you just gotta be a gotta be a good guy. And I'm not talking about a nice guy. You just gotta be a guy that that that But when you start learning your job and and you take time to you know, I think one thing that goes further than anything is that when you get another new guy And and you start working with that person with some heal. Instead of trying to treat him like the guy that's got less time than you, actually treat them like a person and take them out and teach them some stuff. I don't think there's anything that that'll get you credibility quicker than that because it shows humility If I see a new guy without me telling him to, if I see him take another new guy and take him under his wing and take him out there, that guy just earned a huge barrel of credibility with me. So I other than that, you just got to keep learning your job, get keep getting better, go out and then practice stuff even if even if it's on your own. And I don't know when that stops, but in 34 years I ain't figured out where the stopping point is yet.

Corley: Hold on, I gotta write that down. 905. No stop. All right. Which takes me to one of my favorite questions I ask in all the scraps, which is book or books? that you think firefighters should be reading. It doesn't have to be a firefighting book, but it can be, but your opinion, what should firefighters be reading, according to Brian LaFleur? Brian LaFleur: And you know, this what a person needs is is going to bury through their career. Early on, I think one, again, back to my I I think everybody needs It needs to know more about building construction than is taught in in fire service today. the Brannigan book, even though there's some things in the Brannigan book that I don't necessarily agree with. Mainly about lightweight construction. I think there's some more current information about that, but there there's probably that's probably the most comprehensive book that I know about about building construction that applies to us and how we would use it. Even though there's a lot of stuff in the bit in the Brannigan book that maybe you don't have in your city. I like the art of reading buildings, I think, Mittendorf and Dotson. I think for especially for newer firefighters, I think that's a pretty important because it it takes it a step further. It's looking what parts of the building are we needing to look at in in doing our job. One thing I I'll I like I like about my department, they love my chief loves the the family aspect of the fire service and the fire service marriage.

Corley: Galeano, Mike and N? Brian LaFleur: I think I'm messing up the name for that. You know, firefighter marriage. Corley: challenges of firefighter marriage Brian LaFleur: Right. Yes. I think now most firefighters are not gonna read that book, but I think it's very important that their wives do. Because my my wife read an read an article that written written by the a girl Anne. An article by Anne and when my wife finished the article, she looked up at and she was I and this is probably just for years. We've probably married 25 years at the time. she said, I wish I had read this article when we were first married. And that left an impression on me. And now our city for every new firefighter they they hand them that book. And I'm pretty sure most of those firefighters look at that book, they walk over and they hand it to their wife And that's okay. If they if the firefighters read it, I think it's it's pretty important, but I think it's it's mainly important that that their wives do. And that's that's that's not the fun stuff of firefighting, but it's it's an important thing that's gonna help you in in your career, but is staying married. I think if you have high rises in your city, I think the Dave McGrill book read. Yes. He's got information in there that may apply to like we don't have apartment high-rise apartments in my city but we have we have quite a few high rises So you if I were to take out just the interior hallway apartments of high-rise buildings, everything else applies exactly the way he does in his book. So I and he goes into not just the firefighting, it's not just deploying hose line. You're gonna you want to know about high-rise buildings? You can know more than just how to deploy hose on a stair stairwell. You need to know about the systems, how the building affects. There's a lot of things that are unique to high-rises that that don't apply to any other building that you that you'll have. And he goes into great detail in his very well written book, very, very informative. I think that's one of the best books, most helpful books that I've read. Papa's coordinating vent, I think that's a that's an important book to read, especially for newer people or like us that were that were just getting into looking at ventilation as a as a truck operation.

Brian LaFleur: And not limiting things to books. One of my most valued things that I've read is actually a series of articles by David Rhodes. called Fire Science for Dummies Like Me. And I love that title. I love when a guy like that can show that kind of humidity. Fire Science for Dummies Like Me. And I've actually put those those five articles together and they've made almost kind of a book. if you can go to Facebook and find Del Jenkins and find every post he's made on firefighting. it's worth convincing those up also in somewhat of a book. Not a book, but you're gonna get as much good information out of those and you'll get in any any kind of book. and those are Those are some of the fire stuff. Get into some of the other stuff. And I honestly when I was kind of I'm I'm a reader I'm kind of like you. I do a lot of reading. I tried to I tried to come up with books that don't get said here over and over again. One of them like on combat. I'm reading on combat right now for the third time. It gets brought up quite a bit.

Corley: Now gross man, it might be, it's in the top five probably quoted, you know, mentioned. Brian LaFleur: When if someone's needing to know, I think everybody that's going to be a officer needs to know something about psychology. That goes into psychology in a way that really that really hit home with me Some of the other ones I really love, I like the not just the psychology, but the resilience aspect of things. I think that's that's pretty important for our job. reach for the sky. It it's about a I'm drawing a blank on his name, but it was about a World War II British pilot who had a when he was learning how to fly lost both of his legs in an accident And that kind of barred him from flying and he chose to not let their rules stop him and he became one of their most famous aces. And he's a neat guy. He was definitely he was definitely that troublemaking maverick that probably gave somebody a really hard time and became one of their biggest those are the guys that step up when things get shitty Reach for the sky. Okay. I I can't remember I know I've heard Hackworth's books. the one I I don't hear very much, I hear it about face quite a bit, but Still My Soldier's Heart.

Corley: Still My Soldiers Heart One of my top three books of all time. I love that book. Brian LaFleur: Absolutely from a leadership perspective, that's one of the best books out there. And I I can't leadership wise, I because I guess my military history, I I kind of gravitate toward military type books Rogue Warriors of the SAS, again, troublemaking Kent Mavericks that when sh things get shitty, these are the guys you need. about Pat mainly about Patty Main. Now he was probably an extreme. He's one of those guys that probably don't need to be anywhere other than a combat zone. But there's a lot of good, there's a lot of good lessons in that book. Twelve mighty orphans. You ever heard of that one? No Man, that's a book you need to read. It's about, and I'm not a big sports guy, but it's about a an orphanage in Fort Worth, Texas, in the I think it's in the 20s, maybe the 30s. and back then during the depression things were bad enough that kids would get dropped off in orphanages by parents. It's not that parents wanted to get rid of the kids, they couldn't feed them. Right. And sh ended up with a lot of those kids. And so there's a it was a pretty hard scrap. They didn't get a lot of food, but they had twelve boys to put together a football team. Only twelve. So they had to play every position and they ended up I don't remember if they won state or they almost won state, but it was from coaching. It was from coaching and just tough kids. And there's a lot of good lessons in there.

Corley: Sweet. Oh, I love that. I love that. Brian LaFleur: coddling of the American Mine. I don't know if I've heard that mentioned. Corley: I don't think I've heard I've heard the book mentioned many times, but I have not It may have been mentioned. I'm not sure. Go ahead. Brian LaFleur: Pretty much any book written by Admiral Stockdale, and one of my favorites is Courage Under Fire. And the cool thing about courage on the fire for a lot of farmers that don't like to read, it's less than 20 pages, I think. But man, that is a heavy 20 pages. You're gonna have to read a paragraph and stop and think about that for a bit. And what What his whole book is about is what got him through and I think he spent nine years at POW in Vietnam. He goes through the mindset that got him through those nine years nine years. And I do it justice by even explaining it. But it's it if if you like think reading about resilience and toughness and mindsets, that's that's a book anybody needs to read. Corley: And stock he was he was basically the leader at the Hanoway Hilton, right? Okay. Brian LaFleur: They ended up with this kind of an organized resistance and method of communication, and he was kind of the architect of most of that.

Corley: Nice. Brian LaFleur: Fortitude by Crenshaw. Again, kind of a I've got the book. Corley: I've got the book. In fact, he spoke it I think it was in Louisiana. Brian LaFleur: But I believe so. Corley: And I got the book when it was there. I have not read it yet. It's on the it's on the to read list Brian LaFleur: Great book. Man Search for Meaning. Oh, Frank. Corley: No. Brian LaFleur: About a man. You want to know about resilience, the guy that survived the the camps and and and jewish camps in in world war two that that that's just an amazing story and his again what got him through that is is lesson that we can all learn in in resilience tribe by junker yeah Life in a Jar. Irene Zen Irene Sindler. Have you ever heard of that? She was Polish and she was rescuing Some of the people in the the ghettos, the Warsaw ghetto, they were they were basically held there before they were exterminated. And she would she would go in there and pretend she was a nurse and and was bringing she she could only but the way she was doing it was I I think carrying them out. in I don't know how she she had something small but she could only carry baby but she carried baby after baby after baby and she did it the whole time under under the eye of the Germans and and under penalty of death at any given time. And that anybody that has that degree of selflessness. to me. That's an inspiring thing. And I love reading those kind of books. Any kind of book that has that kind of inspiration. Bud and me. You ever hear that one? Bud and I think Oklahoma boys. Bud and me? The Bud and Me, Abernathy Brothers. in oh probably the 1910s, their dad, they were about eight and ten, he put them on a horse and it was time to grow up and be men and they went all the way to New York City on their own with no cell phones, nobody watching over their shoulder I don't know how many parents and I think his they didn't have a mother, otherwise she would have probably stepped in. But I that was an awesome book in just in in learning how to growing up to be a man Old Man and a Boy is probably my favorite all-time book.

Corley: Old Man and a Boy. Brian LaFleur: The Old Man and the Boy Corley: Okay. Brian LaFleur: If if you if you're even into the outdoors just a little bit, it's mainly a a book about the the effect a father and a grandfather has on a kid, but They're leadership lessons. It's a leadership book and a mentoring book. So I guess that's why I gravitated. But it it's it's one of the most well-written books I've ever read, but it is probably my favorite all-time book And that's that's probably it. Corley: I said I don't know I don't know if my to-do reading list can handle too much more. Brian LaFleur: Good. I was hoping I'd give you something you didn't you hadn't heard of. I I actually I had a long list and I was trying to go through the ones that I didn't think it gets mentioned on here very much. Corley: You got six of them. You mentioned some of my all-time favorite books too, with Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning is is probably my if if you had to put a gun to my head, my all-time favorite book so anyway, yeah, absolutely. Killer, killer time. which takes us to The five questions for firefighters. One of my absolute favorite things to do every week is to hear, of course, you know the five questions for firefighters. There are no correct answers. They are only your opinions And then the points given out are arbitrary, assigned by me, with the help of the audience as we go through them. This current version is known as the Five Questions for Firefighters, version 3. 2 So the thing I need to know is, are you ready for the five questions for firefight? Number one, what is the skill that has carried you through your fire service career?

Brian LaFleur: I think the skill that has been most useful to me and hopefully most useful to others is my desire to develop myself professionally and to develop others. And I mean developing yourself is half of it. You've got to turn that around at some point and develop others. So that that that would probably be it. Corley: Ooh, I love it. I love it. And it ties in with all your answers that we've talked about the whole evening. And I love the fact that you say, I mean, developing yourself. by itself is it will get you max points because that is so so so important but the fact that you turn it around and say you have to also invest in others for me absolutely is an easy max points to open up the fur the first of the five questions for firefighters. Number two, it's job town. It is time. You are in route and responding. You got to think of the scene from backdraft where he slaps that tape into that cassette deck if you're old enough, which I know you are to remember tapes and cassette decks. But what song are you playing in route?

Brian LaFleur: Man, I had I had to do some thought on this one because I I pretty much listen to Cajun music exclusively and I don't like anything made after 1979 in any genre. So I had to do some thinking, but I came up with one, and this is not just a song. It's got to be paired with the video. And I'm guessing by now it's an old enough movie. There's probably a lot of people that haven't seen Hamburger Hill. But you can Google, if you get on YouTube and Google, got to get out of this place by the animals. And if you put in Vietnam or Hamburger Hill, you gotta listen to the song and watch the video because do you know what song I'm talking about? Corley: I I may I believe maybe. Brian LaFleur: The and and the reason I tie it to the video is that they're they're they're getting ready to make an air assault. They're loading up on helicopters, they're lifting up, they're flying through the valley in Vietnam and the song kicks off Right as a line of helicopters are flying through the video. So automatically it's getting it's getting my goosebumps going. And it it pans inside one of the helicopters, and they've got some seasoned veterans in there, and they've got some brand new guys that brand new rookies going their first fire and it it I it reminded me somewhat of the cab of an apparatus going the fire. You got the seasoned guys, they're kind of excited because they still like fighting fire But they have that that quality that they're they're calm, they're professional. And then you get over there to the rookie, he's going to his first fire, he's got sweat and falling off and he's kind of nervous as shit. And and they got it one guy in the helicopter is picking his teeth and one guy in the in the helicopter is kissing his rifle. And they pan over to the new guy and he's just covered in sweat running down and And I remember thinking that that to me looks a lot like a fire apparatus with you got a rookie on there and you got seasoned guys and they're he's doing that rookie's first fire.

Corley: I believe I know the song. I can almost hear it playing in my head. I believe I know it. But I'm gonna go like Ambedictory's firefighting said I have homework after this episode. I love it. but no, I'll have to check it out. But just the description And the fact that it you said it gives you goosebumps as you think about the scene and how it plays out. I love anytime anybody's connected to music like that. I absolutely love it. Max Points Number three, what is your favorite fire service tradition? I gotta go with bust and balls. Brian LaFleur: I'm a big I'm big on accountability. We all need accountability. Again, I said it a few times. You gotta everybody has to have someone to tell them when they're being a dumbass, someone they're willing to listen to. And the flip side you gotta actually be able to listen to them. But I don't I think there that's a that's a good leveling spot. And it doesn't matter where it's at. It might be at the at the dinner table. We have a bake table now that we like to hang out at It's gonna happen somewhere though where guys start beating on each other and that's how we that's how we find out about each other. We we we we learn a lot of little things. The only thing that that I I kind of pull back on is with the rookies. I don't mind them kind of teasing the rookies a little bit, but anybody that's gonna beat up on a rookie, it better be followed up with something positive But for the rest of us, I don't give a shit what rank you are. That's when people start knocking each other around and that's that there's a lot of bombing going on. Now if City Hall were to stop by in the middle of some of it, they probably wouldn't like it But for us, that's one of the best bonding times we have is when we're beating each other up. Just like brothers.

Corley: I do love it. I do love it. Max points for breaking shoes, busting balls, absolutely. And I really do, I really want to say this because I'm passionate about this. I have a younger brother who came into the fire service much much after I did. I have my son who's now on the job at OKC. And so I am very passionate about this. And I love the fact that you said, except when it comes to rookies And the fact that if you do do it, it better be followed up with learning something. And because I don't think there is a bigger how how what's the right way to say that I don't because I don't want to say weak person, but young firefighter, young rookie firefighter, all they want to do is fit in and please people. That's what they want to do. And there is anybody that picks on a rookie firefighter, man, that's the worst form of bullying I think you can have Like I really so I they're just they all they want to do is fit in and succeed and be good and and then people want to come in and treat them like crap and that that to me don't get me wrong they have to earn their stripes they have to earn you know what I'm saying but man, okay, sorry, you got me got me fired up.

Brian LaFleur: I love that point because that I what I don't want to see is a rookie though come in and throw his feet up on the table like everybody else. Exactly. He's got stripes. but he needs to be made to feel like he's part of the family. Absolutely. That's pretty important to me. Corley: No, I love I mean I I all I mean I'm I'm huge on accountability and and I I tell them all the time, look, if something's not done, it's coming down on you. You're the low guy here and it's expected to be done. And I want you to do everything in this place Because there will come a time, there will come a time when those other guys will come and say, hey, Rook, I got this. Go ahead. You know, and that is something you earn from them because they you've earned their respect. Brian LaFleur: Because Can you still remember that feeling? I remember that feeling as well as I remember my first fire. Corley: Oh brother, it's yeah, yeah. No doubt about it. No doubt about it. Troublemaking Maverick. That's what, yeah, they're still talking about it. Okay, this one is on the clock. It is question number four. We had to put a one-minute timer on there. Doesn't matter the reasons. You got one minute to answer. Who are the four people you would put on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service and go?

Brian LaFleur: Well, number one is my rookie school instructor because he was a guy that we respected so much, he showed me the value of setting an example. and what that carries. Number two in my own department was a guy named Donnie Davis. He was a troublemaking maverick. He showed me the value of audacity and and calmness. He had a he had a calmness at fires that that was just inspiring. and I one and I and I'm gonna use this guy because he's not a chief. There's a lot of people get thrown out there as cheap. Aaron Fields has done more to influence the fire service than anybody I know and he's done it from the position of firefighter. That's amazing to me. Can you imagine that he's a troublemaker matter in his apartment? How'd you like to be an company officer? I'd love to be, but I guarantee you'd be trying. Last but not least, I think you know who I picked there, Gene Duncan, the guy that I wrote that article about Guy that took me under wing in the Marines that that left a li a lasting impression on me that that no one else could have done. And I hope I can do him justice by by carrying it on.

Corley: And had a massive impact on the trajectory of your career and your life, man And it shows in the yeah. Oh yeah, the the spin out. Can you even imagine trying to trying to graph the impact he's had? Easy backs points. I love all four. Training as a rookie, the training officer, Davis, who you said was one of the calmest people you've ever seen. Aaron Fields, what a great, great pick. And then finally, the mentor that you mentioned in that article. And for those who don't know, this article will be published. I'm already on Brian about it. It has to be published. It's a phenomenal article. It really is. I called him up after I read it and said, dude, this cannot be kept secret. This can't be something you you only share on occasion. This needs to be out there. So we'll work on that. Final question It is the question. It's the question that's been around since the five questions started. There is heavy fire. There is searchable space. And I'm excited for this answer because you did 22 years, I believe, as an engine lover. And now your massive passion for truck ops. So I'm would you rather be assigned to the nozzle or first in on VES?

Brian LaFleur: Well, my goal here is to not get max points because I'm not going to answer your question from one of your choices. My answer is neither. Because at the level, at the stage I'm at in my career, what I would rather see is that I'm out doing a 360 trying to figure out how I'm going to overcomplicate this fire. And my crew, who was still in the front of the engine or still in the front of the building, gets hit with that same thing. And they didn't wait for me to come back. They didn't call me on the radio and ask me what I wanted to do. They just took care of it on their own. And I got back around the front of the building and found out that's what happened. That's what I want to see happening because that's how I can evaluate how well the job I've done as a company officer and my crew and the things that I'm trying to get out of. So I don't expect max points, but that's what that's what I'd rather see happen. And I've been waiting, I didn't think I'd ever be on this crap, but I've been waiting three years to be able to answer that one question.

Corley: And I think you got an original answer. I don't think anybody's I I was hoping so. After 250, I do not remember anybody answering in that fashion. I do not believe anybody has ever answered in that fashion. And here they come. Yeah, here they come. Brian LaFleur: Is there a better way to know how you've done And how how well your crew has done in in the job they do and how well you've done in training and how well you've come along and trusting them to do the right thing in that particular case. That that's why it's it would be important to me for that exact thing to happen And what I'd like to be spraying water on fire, yeah. What I like to be dragging some water on one, yeah, but I'd rather see the other. Corley: And I'll tell you this, if someone doesn't answer the question, they can't get max points. But that was one of the best answers to that question. So you did you answered it. You answered it. Plain and simple. It's a great answer, and it's an easy max points because you answered the question And it is a great, great, great answer. And that's what that's what I want to hear is your reasoning behind the answer to the question. And so you absolutely crushed all five. And and the audience absolutely agrees Mav, these points for anything? Say it again. Yeah, you can redeem them for all sorts of cool non-existent stuff. Okay, cool.

Brian LaFleur: I'm stepping with it then. Corley: Oh absolutely, man. You absolutely crush the five questions for firefighters. And I love that final answer. I really do. I love also not giving out max points when people don't answer, but that's when they dodge it or they try to get You know, they try to outsmart the question in some fashion. You know what I'm saying? You didn't do that. You answered the question in a fantastic way. So I absolutely Oh yeah, and you're also a rule-breaking maverick. I meant to mention that in the Max Points part. A rule-breaking maverick, which just kind of plays right back into the whole theme of the night. So there you go. That officially makes it 252 scraps in the books with a five for five max points, even with the risky, I will say risky maverick move of not answering question five Or attempting to do so. Brian LaFleur, thank you for sharing your evening with us. If someone wants to get a hold of you and get more info, how can they go about doing that? Brian LaFleur: my email is lostcajan886 at gmail. com. my phone number, if you want to call me or text me, it's 972-979-1245 Welcome welcome anybody hear from anybody.

Corley: Love it. I absolutely love it. Also, I I I didn't even ask you if I could, but if get a copy of the if you if you think about it, request a copy of that article about mentoring. And I'm pretty sure Brian will send you a copy of it. It is fantastic. I didn't ask you for permission to say that, but everybody else. Go to firehousevigilance. com. The vigilantes. Go join them. Five bucks a month. We are on Patreon. If you have not watched the announcements, go join it, man. It has all the details The next forum date, we just posted a poll today or yesterday to say when is the next forum? And a forum is when a guest comes in and we have a giant Zoom meeting with them. Think of the after party. Well, if you're in the app yeah. Think of a Zoom meeting where you get to have one-on-one or whatever it is, 20-on-one conversations with the with the subject matter expert. It's fantastic. It looks like it's gonna take place on July 23rd, the next forum. I think it's the 18th forum, I believe. So vigilantes, keep your eyes peeled for that when we when we lock in the date. But the poll absolutely July 23rd is winning it unless there's a massive swing. One of the cool parts about being a vigilante is you get invited to the after party. Brian has agreed to come to the after party, field your questions, get his balls busted, which is his favorite firehouse tradition. So We got to go in there and absolutely roast him. Sam will post the link in the app for the after party in for the vigilantes to show up. Coming on the scrap next week, Michael Horton. Following the week after that, Richie Stack. The week after that, Andrew Pristage. How is that for a badass lineup? You will not want to miss these episodes. we keep 2024 rolling through the summer in style. Thank you once again, Brian LaFleur, for being such a phenomenal guest.

Brian LaFleur: I'd like to take a minute, a few well not a minute, but a few seconds to thank everybody who took time out of their day to listen to me, a big nobody. And Mr. Galliana, who kind of got me into this, it may take me 10 years. I'm gonna get you back But I'd like to offer this toast to everybody that was out here listening to this because as nervous thoughts I had a good time with this. Corley: I love it Brian LaFleur: Y'all have a good evening. Corley: No, and you do owe Mike because Mike is the one who reached out to me and said, you've got to have this get dude off. And here's the crazy part is I met you at at the honor of the following conference. You came up, you made the leather buckets for that raffle that was up there I never put, even though it's a unique name, I didn't put two and two together until we talked on the phone and put it back together. But I'm a little slow, so. Brian LaFleur: I try to stay under the radar too. Corley: Fair enough. Fair enough. Absolutely. But yeah, you were yes. Okay. Audience. You make the scrap magical without you, then it would just be me and Brian talking, which don't get me wrong, that'd be a blast. But you are the ones that really do bring the great question You keep it in his wheelhouse. You allow him to flex and crush the questions in such a beautiful way. The scrap would not exist without you. So thank you for spending your evening with us each and every week. I love you all. Remember, mutts don't scrap

Brian LaFleur: I hope the tones stay silent unless it is burning. Everybody, stay safe out there