Weekly Scrap #235 - Preston Lyons, Fit Fire Fortitude

Corley: Corley Moore, talking to you for a few short minutes while we're waiting for the scrap to begin. The scrap will be starting here in just a few minutes, and I'm gonna talk to you while everybody's logging in, I'm gonna talk to you about becoming a vigilante. If you are not a vigilante, why not? It is a collection of the coolest cats from across the world, firefighters from around the world getting together in a group and supporting each other. It's an amazing group to be a part of. Every day people are posting their questions, their problems, their advice. It is powerful to belong to One of the best collections of people, and you can be a part of it. We got stuff like the swag. The swag is awesome. Don't get me wrong, the swag is awesome. That's not what it's about, but you got vigilante-only swag, like the custom bookmarks made by Taylor's Tins For the vigilantes. You got stuff like the the blacked out vigilante hats and the vigilante shirts all available in the exclusive vigilante only shop, which All that stuff is sold, not I don't want to say at no markup, but like at the lowest possible price you can basically sell it for. And so And it's not even about the swag, although that's just that's just the awesome part of it. We do forums is some of the best, most gifted subject matter experts coming in and they have conversations it's like a scrap think of the scrap but you're in it also in the call able to ask and have conversations and talk it's a it's an amazing time We do I've got the fourth episode of the Fire Away. Fire Away coming up this month. And in a fire away, I go live and just field questions. People post questions, field questions, and we answer and discuss those questions from firefighters across the world. It's a good time, the fireways, the forums. It's an amazing time. Not to mention. the every time there's a conference and vigilantes get together we we have a vigilante meetup we're we're forming we're in the process of forming traditions that are gonna that are gonna make and how those how those happen and what it means when you hate when you get like your vigilante coin, which is also another thing that's pretty Pretty freaking cool is the vigilante coin, the blackout coin.

Corley: And they're numbered, they're exclusive, and we're figuring out how that's gonna work out when we get together in person and we have and we we're supposed to recite the creed. We do this for others Push, train, learn. Master ourselves. Never easy. Never quit. Man, if you're not a member of the Vigilantees, I'm just asking you, why not? I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes while the scrap is about to start. You can go to firehousevigilance. com. Five bucks a month You are a member of the vigilantes. You can also sign up for a year if you prefer that over the subscription. FirehouseVigilance. com. Become a member today, man. You will not regret it. The scrap will be starting soon. Thanks for listening to me Because if we can if we just if we just go if we say That's fine, that's fine. We're live. Hey everybody, welcome to the party. We're working on the the current issues with the freezing. Let me kill that. Let me kill YouTube so I'm not hearing it in the background. How is it looking to everybody right now? That's what I need to hear. That's what I need to hear. I know Instagram is looking good. I think Instagram is looking good. Let me know on Instagram if it's looking good. Let me know on YouTube, let me know on Facebook. Please let me know. Come on, talk to me, talk to me. I know there's a delay. So I'm waiting to hear what you say. Because I may I we may we may restart and just go pick one or the other depending on What people say the the stream looks like because we can't hang if it's not going to if it's gonna be a slideshow we're gonna try and do one or the other and not try to do the multi. Choppy. Daniel Velazuela said choppy. Robbie Cox says Facebook looking good. Anthony James says Facebook looks good now. We're gonna check, we're gonna give it a second, let's see. To me it's to me it looks like a s it's looks like a slight slideshow All right, where do we have the most at? Where are the most people watching at the moment? Choppy on Facebook. How's YouTube looking? Okay, Carpe Fuego said freezing up on my end. YouTube sounds good, but it's choppy.

Corley: Choppy Adapt, overcome, preserve. No doubt about it. We've had this for three three weeks now. We were hoping it was just a a short-term deal, but it's obviously not. Okay Audio is great. Well, that's fine, but if we can fix it, I want to fix it. Hey Preston, how you doing? I'm doing good. Hanging in there. Sound is solid. Video is choppy. Okay Sitting here trying to figure out what the plan is gonna be. If I if we shut down and go and go to one I could throw it all I mean you have ninety-seven people watching live right now, but I hate the fact that they What do you what let me just ask the audience what would you rather do? Shut down and go to one or keep running with choppy video and just and good audio? Give me a quick poll and we'll go from there and I'll quit wasting time I'm letting the delay catch up because there is a delay. Very choppy. Sorry, boss. No, Josh, absolutely. It is. It is. We're having that definite issue. Joe Gavita said let's roll with it All right, all right. I'm waiting to see what people say. I'm waiting for the delay. Keep going. All right, let's do it. We'll keep going. Here we go. Corley Moore, Firehouse Vigilance. It is weekly scrap. Number 235, my guest tonight, joined on this episode by Preston Lions, Mr. Fit Fire Fortitude. He is a firefighter paramedic at North Metro Fire in Colorado for the last nine years. Also a 10-year Navy veteran where he received his start in firefighting as an aircraft crash and salvage firefighter on board the flight decks of aircraft carriers during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. His first exposure to structure firefighting was in the 850 as a volunteer firefighter in Escambia County, Florida in 2010. He is the creator of Fitfire Fortitude on Instagram focused on uniting like-minded firefighters in their journey to relentlessly contest mediocrity. He also has the college degree, he has the surge, most of all, he is a passionate firefighter. It is my absolute pleasure to have him on as the guest of weekly scrap number two thirty-five. Welcome, my brother, Preston Lyons.

Preston Lyons: Thanks, Corley. Happy to be here. Truly, truly honored. I'll try not to disappoint after following Clyde Gordon and Chief Rhodes. So No pressure. No pressure. Corley: I love it. Is there anything I missed in the intro? Anything you would like to add? Preston Lyons: absolutely. I'm a girl dad. My greatest achievement is that I'm Lily Reagan's social media manager. So some of you probably actually seen her out there. So That's my greatest achievement right there. Corley: I love it. Audience, please, please, please get your questions primed and ready for myself for Preston Sam is combing the chats as well as I'm watching Instagram so it's going to be a good time now let's get through those beautiful sponsors The OG sponsor of the scrap is Keyhose. All right, there we go. Sponsors done. Intros done. Fighting with the internet done My man. Preston Lyons: Yes, sir. Corley: Let's kick it off. Let's kick off with a nice easy toss. Well, we go with fill in the gap. Between fire conferences and reality. I love the article. I love the article, but I wanted to talk to you about it. Go with it. Just tell me tell me where it came from and talk to me about it.

Preston Lyons: So I learned this from experience and I also found out that I wasn't the only one that went through this, right? First off, the era of the conferences, especially the mini conferences around the country, it's it's taking the fire service by storm, right? It's It's helped firefighters like myself who want to recharge the batteries, reignite their passion, gain skills from some of the best instructors, and then you know, world-class speakers at all these conferences, right? When we are done with the conference and we head back home, that's where we actually run into a problem. We are so motivated. We want to share the passion that we just learned. We want to tell everybody, hey, Corley Moore's presentation on this is is he knocks it out of the park every time. And Next thing you we do is we say, hey, our department's doing it wrong. We need to do it this way because I just learned this at a four-day conference. Right, we're doing it wrong. And what does that do? It tells your organization that you're kind of giving them a big middle finger and disrespecting the organization. Well, one We need to check our ego coming back home. Okay. Not every great passionate firefighter goes to conferences. There's plenty of people in my organization that I work with. That's not that's not their bag, but they are stronger, smarter, faster, better firefighters than I am. And I need to understand that just because they're not rolling with me at a conference doesn't mean that they're not. into the job. Right. That's number one. And then number two, I learned this is you gotta know your own jurisdictions, SOPs and how and why your organization operates the way it does. Right? My organization, we have a quint, right? We don't necessarily do the trends. Does that mean that because I learned can confidence at a conference, that I get to say, hey, we're not operating with a hose line. We're going to go up and search floor two with a can and we're going to go do some cowboy shit. Well, instead of doing cowboys shit, I'm doing reckless stuff. Now I'm putting my crew in danger. And now the incident commander, whether it be the battalion chief or whoever on the outside is wondering, what I am doing and I'm kind of you know throwing a curveball in the whole situation.

Preston Lyons: So we need to understand why we operate the way we do in our jurisdiction. The people that wrote the SOPs have probably been in our organ probably know a thing or two. So we can't just come in and say, hey, fire conference, this, we're gonna start operating like that. Now we need to understand the job. And in addition to that, if you do bring some some knowledge and you do find some value in the training that you get. Repping at one time at a conference without your crew is one thing. You hold the knowledge, you hold the skills, but in order to operate with that on the fire ground, you need to rep that out over and over and over again with your crew. So that everyone's operating on the same page in in a true IDLH. Right. At a fire conference, if I'm blacked out and there's, you know, smoke machines going You know, subconsciously I know there's instructors there with a tick kind of watching, making sure everybody's safe. But there's something that happens differently in your mind when you are in a true IDLH and you have nothing over your mask and you can't see your hand in front of your face. Your heart rate starts going up. You might drop down to your lizard brain. And the thing you result to was what you've been training on the most So what I train on at a conference for a day isn't what I'm going to be able to implement when I go into tunnel vision mode when I'm blacked out inside the ideal age. So the biggest things for me when we come back from a conference, for one, check the ego, know the job in your jurisdiction, and then train it. You gotta train it with your crew and then don't be the only one with the secret. If you if you go out to a fire conference for your first time and you recharge the batteries Share share that passion. Share what you learned and why you think it's beneficial. And once you do that, try to bring somebody with you to a conference.

Corley: Nice. Preston Lyons: So don't hold that secret. So now instead of coming back to an organization and saying, Hey, we're doing it wrong and completely being brushed aside or rejected by my own chain of command What have I done? I've actually started teaching. I'm sharing my passion. I know my own organization inside and out. And I've checked my ego. I'm being a little bit humble when I do that. Who's gonna be more received when I come back when they come back from a fire conference? Right on. So that's a message I got for anybody that goes out there Corley: No, I love it. I love it because it is. It is easy to especially when you go and you see, like you just talked about Clyde Gordon, going to a conference, seeing Clyde Gordon speak. It's easy to get fired up and come back to your your organization and And ready to make an impact, you know what I'm saying? Especially with Houston and their aggressive tactics, etc. Right. But but absolutely understanding that influence and understanding how it fits into where you're at Preston Lyons: Yeah, right. And how is how how is my organization going to want to invest in me when I put in requests to say, hey, hey, my organization, blank fire department, can you pay for me to go to this conference? And I'd be like you kinda you kinda shit on us last time you went to a conference. So no, you can't have any of our dollars to go to a conference. You want to do that? You can pay out of pocket. Right.

Corley: Every time you come back, you keep telling us how bad we are. Right. Right. No, no. It definitely is. The message can definitely be more, I don't want to say political, that's not the word I'm looking for, but more effective for sure. For sure. I love it. I love that. Absolutely do. Please, please, please. If you oh, they already got them coming. Here we go. First one's coming at you from Carpe Fuego. Ask Preston, what thoughts do you use to chill yourself out when a firefighter is blatant blatantly against training or mocks fitness Preston Lyons: Blatantly against training or mocks fitness. I mean, you can look at it from two different points of view. I mean, probably she's referring to maybe some of the senior guys, a little bit salty, been doing the job for a while. You for one, you gotta understand where that person's coming from. What is their season of life? And I'm speaking from experience because I got a I got a four-month-old baby in my house, right? So on my four days, we run the 4896. On my four days, I'm up all night and I'm caring for a newborn baby. So when I'm coming in to the to run my 48, I might And I might be into the job, but I'm just hanging on by a thread. If if someone approaches me and says, hey, what's your problem? Why aren't you working out? Why aren't you training? You, you're a mutt, you're a recliner sniper, all this stuff, and you just start attacking. How how are you gonna win that person over? Right. Right. So for one, you need to build a relationship with people in your crew. Yeah, there are those there's those salty guys in there. So maybe come at them from a different point of view. If they're a senior guy or girl and you say, hey, And you start coming in a little bit humble and say, hey, look, I I'm not that good at ladders. I was hoping to work on ladders with the crew. Do you have some techniques or anything that you do with ladder throws or something like that? Can you just show me? And then you put them in instructor and evaluator mode. And now it kind of takes the pressure on the off of them. to necessarily perform and potentially fail.

Preston Lyons: Instead, now they're in instructor mode and they're out there repping with you. And if that's if that's all they can bring at that time, I'll take it. Right. And then over time, if they're a member of your crew and you can get them out there just in that in that setting, maybe they'll start to feel confident of like Let me let me get my hands dirty. Let me let me get in bunker gear. Let me get masked up and do this because I understand what the trainings look like. We don't have a fear of failure here. We're just trying to get our hands on some stuff. And I can still maintain a little bit of my ego and seniority without, you know, having that bruised right by the younger hotshots that are completely getting after it. And that's the same thing with fitness, in my opinion, right? I run Fitfire Fortitude. There's fitness in the title, but I'm not going to attack the 20-year guy and say, hey, You need to be wearing a pack every single day getting after it. I'm going to meet them where they're at. If they're out of shape, I can't attack them and be like, hey, you're you're a liability. They might be, but I need to develop a relationship with them like hey let's go do let's just go out walk walk with some kettlebells outside, get some sunlight, just get some movement going, and then build off of that Take the pressure of them looking like a jackass in front of everybody and just be inclusive.

Corley: Right. Preston Lyons: So that's how I would approach that. Corley: No, no, and like you said, you said it or you said it earlier when you were talking about everybody, everybody has their their motivations and their reasons for why they do what they do and connecting with them And a lot of the times it is, I mean, everybody knows when they're out of shape. There's no one that's out there out of shape that's like, man, I'm fit, I'm fine. They know whether they admit it or not, depending on that self-deception. But pointing it out doesn't, doesn't add to the pro a solution. And it is trying to get them. And if you just embarrass them, then you're just going to build those defenses and things like that. So it is more about being effective than it is about just having a confrontation. Not that there isn't a time to have that confrontation also. So, but it definitely isn't in front of everybody. I love it, man. All right, next one. Marshall Boyd, Fitfire, Fortitude. What's it all about? Where did it come from? Preston Lyons: All right, so over the first few years of my career. I, you know, to be completely honest, I did 10 years in the Navy and that's how I got introduced to to firefighting, because every sailor in the Navy is a firefighter. And so when I got out of the Navy, I thought it was just a natural transition to join the fire service. Slogans like into the job, we do this for them, and so on and so forth, were not in my vocabulary when I first joined. I do, I do have a sense of duty. I like to serve others that are in need. But I didn't I didn't have the influence that some people that joined the fire service had. I was more into sports. I was more into what society was showing me on Instagram. And then I realized that I woke up one morning, I said, I'm I am just a mediocre firefighter. And I started looking at, because we a lot of us get our information from social media, right? And social media, it the algorithm will give you what you follow.

Corley: Right. Preston Lyons: So I started, I went in there and I went in who I follow and I started deleting anything that wasn't fitness based, wasn't firefighter based, and wasn't built around mental health, mental toughness. And, you know, I said, I could, I could actually share this because what it did for me For one, once I deleted all the crap and I started seeing what people in the fire service are putting out there on social media, it started motivating me to do the same. Corley: Right on. Preston Lyons: And I I I I decided to change my title from just a personal page to fit fire fortitude and started holding myself accountable. through that as well by posting myself working out in gear and then firefighting training and then any type of tips on mental toughness and mental fortitude That I believe is beneficial for the fire service because you can you can bench 400 pounds, you can run a marathon all in gear, but if you don't have the mental fortitude to be able to go inside the IDLH and battle the flames or You know, whatever situation you're presented in, you're you're still not a value in the fire service. So you gotta you gotta treat what's upstairs as well.

Corley: Love it. Everybody, we do we are aware we've had a it's been a rough couple weeks as we're having a a video issue. The audio should be good no matter where you're watching, Facebook, YouTube LinkedIn anybody that watches their Twitter but definitely having issues with the feed Sam, I don't know if you can shut down Twitter and LinkedIn and maybe it might clear it up a little bit. I don't know if you can do that or not. I don't know. don't do it if it might shut down everything. Right. Alright, so we're just gonna keep messing. we are aware Instagram is running smooth, everyone. If you are on Instagram, you can check it out there as far as the video goes. Other than that, the audio is going great. Thank you. Bull Strength Honor said FYI Sam. Instagram is much clearer and running better than Facebook. That's coming from Stephen McCaffrey. He wanted you to know. But all right, thank you everybody for the updates. Yeah, the truckie said the gram is running nice and smooth. That's good, but not the point. I just wanted to keep everybody in the loop. let's see. Coming back. Okay, we'll see if that has an effect. Sam did shut down two of them. So if you were watching on LinkedIn and Twitter, you're not cut off. But we'll see if it has any effect on the quality of the stream for the others. All right, maybe it will, maybe it won't. Keep it all moving. Breck Brecken Dan says, what is your company standard day in and day out? I. e. how do you keep your crew members honest? I don't know if there's enough detail in that question, but I'll throw it at you anyway.

Preston Lyons: Okay. Well, I'll segue, I'll answer that while by talking about one of the topics we were going to talk about. Sweet. And that's the five non-negotiables of the firehouse. There through the first parts of my career, you know, you kind of you kind of get comfortable, you get complacent, and you show up to work And you honor what the master calendar gives you and you run the calls when they drop. And then a lot of us go home after that 48. We don't do anything extra. And I found myself actually, and I'll be honest, she's probably gonna listen to this. I found myself lying to my wife when I came home. She was like, hey, how was shift? How was work? And I'm like, oh, you don't I had three calls after midnight. we were training all the first half of the day and and all and we didn't do any of that, but I I didn't feel like it was justifiable to tell my wife, yeah, you know what? We ran a few calls. I slept both nights and it was pretty c pretty good. You know, I I f I started feeling sad and I felt like I had to lie. And I wasn't okay with that. And so I came up with the five non-negotiables, meaning what do I need to accomplish on shift? So when I go home, I feel like I did my duty. I did my job. And for one, like the first two right out of the gate are training and working out. I mean, we took an oath to serve the community. We have to continuously train. The fire service for is forever evolving. And whether it's the basic basics or whether it's something that you learned at a fire conference, we have to continuously train on that and rep it out because we need to be operating as a team. And we just have to be on the same page. Second, working out. Whether that's in gear or you're walking on the treadmill, we have to be in proper conditioning to be able to go in the IDLH and save the people that Cannot be saved by anybody else but us. We have the gear, we have the training, we have the apparatus, we need to be the ones that go. That no no one else is going to be able to get them.

Preston Lyons: And that's the mindset that we have to have going forward. Those are two things that we need to hit is training and working out. Third for me personally is you have to continuously be a student of the game. I always have to study or read something that's going to help me earn something, learn something in my career and make me a better firefighter, a better company officer in the future. And then the next one is personal time. You mentioned it in the nine L's. People are going to be running calls. People are going to be busy doing the master calendar. They're going to be doing the dog and pony shows, doing tours. But at a certain point in the set, sometimes you just need to tell people to F off. Like, hey, look, I I need I need I need a little personal time. I need a reset. I need a break. And no one should be able to take that from you. If you're a company officer and you're telling your crew like, hey, we're here for 48 hours. We owe it to the community. We owe it to the district. We're going to be. Ready all hours of the day, you're you're burning your team out. That's nice. And you're you're not making any friends with that either. So training, working out, studying, personal time. And the last one is personal to me, it's family time We we spend a third of our lives together and I appreciate if we it doesn't matter if you're of on a vegan diet or whatever, let's just all be at the kitchen table. Eating dinner together, doing chores together. And then after we've accomplished everything else, we can throw on a movie and relax in the recliners. That's the time to sit back and appreciate. our company is we need to have that family time. So yeah, just to answer the questions, I I once I knock out those five things with my crew, I know that we've all done a job well done.

Corley: Do you have a synopsis before five? How would you summarize it as quickly as possible? Preston Lyons: So the five non-negotiable the five non-negotiables are training, working out, studying, personal time, and family time. Corley: Nice. Training, working out, studying, personal, family. Trying to get it written down. Boom. Great question. Thank you, Derek. Great answer. So, oh, I might have to let me see. Thank you, Bracken. So anyway, I gave credit to the wrong person. Derek had the next question. Derek I said, do you have people question you about being a cowboy when you talk about your SOPs? Absolutely. Preston Lyons: I I was told by my battalion chief after I did some some reckless stuff. I don't we don't do cowboy shit here. And let me tell you a story. And This is this is why I re- I this is why I spread the message of know your SOPs and know your jurisdiction and why they operate the way they do Because I went and learned can confidence from Eric Wheaton. Okay. I've learned some truck training tactics from outside academies. And I was operating as the company officer on a truck one day. We were second due on a fire and we were assigned primary search of floor two. The fire was in the basement. I told my crew, hey, we're doing primary search, grab a water can, we're gonna go search off the line. floor two. We're gonna go save the lives. We're gonna go search the bedrooms. Firefighter rescue survey, they're gonna be you're gonna be right here. We're gonna go there and we're gonna find them. We're gonna knock it out. Right, but I had not trained this with my crew. This was just something that I'm starting to embrace myself. So what I thought was gonna be cowboy shit was I just took my crew in over a basement fire on floor one. to the stairs without sounding the floor. And then once we got up to the stairs, because we hadn't trained on operating off the hose line, I hear my crew start calling for each other. Hey, where are you at? I'm right here. Where? Right here. Okay, all right. I'm over here. And then, you know, we're we're doing nothing but talking. And next thing you know, I I have I have the tick on me and I'm watching them and how they're searching And they're and they're do they're they're in that lizard brain mode and they're just kind of patting the wall and walking down the wall because they're disoriented.

Preston Lyons: They don't know where they're at in the structure. I had not done a proper size up from the outside. I had not properly read the smoke. I had not verbalized to my guys where the fire was All I said was, hey, we're going up to floor two and we're going to search with a water can because we're going to go do some cowboy shit. Right. I didn't say the cowboy shit, but in my mind, that's what we're doing. But if I'm being completely honest, I am all for doing cowboy shit, but you have to be an expert in the skill set. And you have to train on it repeatedly so that you can operate on the fire ground efficiently. If you try to do cowboy shit and you don't train properly, you're actually doing reckless You're not doing cowboy stuff. Corley: Right on. Right on. Preston Lyons: Amen. Corley: Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you, Gary. No, that's awesome, man. No, it's great. Keep going. Keep going. Preston Lyons: Yeah, so I, you know, I I had a I mean if I if I'm going to elaborate even more on that call, I scared the shit out of myself. Okay. What we ended up doing is I called my crew back to me and I said, hey, let's back out. Let's go get a hose line and we're gonna work our way back up to floor two. And I anchored a guy at the top of the f at the top of the stairs and say, hey, he was my nozzleman. And said, hey, you stay here. If anybody gets disoriented, they can call out for you and they know that you're the you're the way out. And I actually had a game plan. And what that did was took a lot of the stress off my crew to be able to operate freely on floor two, knowing that someone was there to lead them back out. And they could follow the hose line. And that's just how we operate in our jurisdiction. Sure. You know, there's there's some renegade truck companies out there, but you know, we just don't operate like that and we have to be okay with it. Right on. Maybe someday we will. But you know, I had to, I, I learned a lot. I took a a big piece of humble pie in on that one.

Preston Lyons: And I know going forward that I gotta I gotta learn. I got more to learn Corley: We all do, brother. And that's the key, is being able to have the humility and the ability to check that ego so that we can learn, so that we can learn from those mistakes and so we can get better. Absolutely. We're working on it. We are aware. Yes, if you want to see the video good, you can check it out on Instagram at firehousevigilance. or FirehouseVigilance on Instagram. If you want to see the video, the audio should be good everywhere. We're going to get it fixed we were hoping it was a temporary deal but it looks like it's it's ongoing but anyway the truckey said absolutely to the untrained it looks like we are doing reckless cowboy shit Everyone takes a shot every time Telboard Misfit says everyone has to take a shot every time Preston says cowboy shit. There you go. We have our first Fitfire Fortitude drinking game on the scrap. the way of the novel said solving the world's problems. I'm reading some of the Instagram stuff right now. Alright, there we go. Catching up. Sorry I'm late to the scrap, bro. Press and lions is top tier. This is DC Drury, by the way. If you haven't hit on it already, tell us how having children has impacted your mindset as a fireman. So I actually made I wasn't meaning to a ask Drury's question, but it worked out really well.

Preston Lyons: It's perfect. I actually wanted to speak on this because I actually made some content on this and got some good engagement. Sweet. I once again, I I was I was beating myself up about this mentally and I didn't know how to address it. And then finally I said, you know what, I'm just gonna put it out there. And my message was, you know, I went back to the seasons of life. Early on in your career, you might be straight out of straight out of academy. Wearing wearing your pack for eight hours a day, and now you're doing workouts two times a day, you're eating right, your calendar fit, right? And you just bought your first truck because that's what everybody does when they're early in their career. And And you you you you're feeling good. And then later on in life, now you start looking at promotions. You're in the books and you start a family. You have a baby. Your baby is running you ragged. And same thing when I said you come in on your 48 and it starts to look a little different. Your workouts look different. Corley: Yes. Preston Lyons: but at the same time, that my current season of life has taught me to appreciate how to operate on the job even more because now I have more to lose with my baby at home and my wife taking care of my baby while I'm gone. It hasn't taught me to be afraid. It has taught me to be smarter. Right. Now I am I am more. Intertwined in the books, in the podcast. I'm networking with people that are doing the job. I'm asking them tips and tricks on how I can be better as a company officer, as a backseat firefighter. So that way I can get home back to my family safely. And that because that's that's the current season of life that I'm in.

Corley: No, I love it. And and you really don't When you're young and hired on, man, it doesn't make any sense. And people tell you this, and I know people will listen to it and say, yeah, whatever, Preston. You don't know what you know. But until you feel it, you don't feel it. It's just the truth of the It's just the truth of it. They say wisdom is wasted on the older or fit, whatever it is. Yeah. Preston Lyons: The youth is wasted on the young. Corley: That's it. That is it, man. and I in my mind, I'm telling everybody right now, in my mind, I'm like 25 years old. Josh Everett said his name is Preston and he's my friend. I cannot wait until the American Fire Service knows him like we do. Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Let me see if I'm pulling up a note or I'm pulling up a question. Anthony James wants to know, what are two or three of your go-to drills to engage those you work with? Preston Lyons: I'm a big fan of search tactics and dirty drags. a lot of the training that I was taught and that we do on a quarterly basis. involves operating with a RIC pack and proper packaging of firefighters and using 20-foot webbing to create a halo. And, you know, Robert Mears talks about this stuff too, but when you're in that lizard braid mode, you don't have time to figure that stuff out. You don't have time in the IDLH when you're blacked out to do proper assessments and set up all these riggings and and operate a rig pack and especially in a situation where you don't know if a down firefighter is breathing or not. If they're unconscious and unresponsive, the primary objective is to get them out of the IDLH. So one big drill that I like to hit is properly using the pack without having to do packaging, using the straps where the where they come out of the the back plate and being able to grab some things. Eric Allen with Fastboard teaches a lot of that stuff. Right on. Just being able to understand. Where you're at in an in a structure and whether you need to seek an area of refuge or whether you can get outside of the structure And talking about a little bit of Project Mayday, right?

Preston Lyons: you know, the person that calls Mayday is the primary person rescuing themselves. The second one is their crew. Next one is the adjacent crew, so on and so forth. But we continuously train on waiting for the Rick crew to come and save us. Well, I I try to teach people like we're I'm not waiting. I am not waiting for the recruit. If anything, they can meet me on my way out. Right on. So that's what I want. Is dirty drags and carries. The next one is firefighter CPR Because every a lot of drills that I run, we do the the packaging and get them out of the structure. And next thing you know, we're just dropping them on the concrete. We're like boom, drop. That's right, we did it. Yeah. But I think I think we don't rep it out enough on how to properly get them out of their gear and into the back of a medic unit to do firefighter CPR. And my message that I hit with this is that You know, we all we all take losses in the fire service. If we if if we find a victim inside a structure and they expire, you know, that's unfortunate. Right. But there's a difference between a down firefighter, someone on your crew Than than a victim. And I hate to say that, but it's true. It's true. If you don't put everything, if you don't go put an all-out effort into saving that down firefighter, you have to see their wife and kid. You I mean you have to you have to experience that experience that on a more personal level than you do with a victim that you've never met. If you did not do everything that you possibly can to save that firefighter. You're gonna live with that for the rest of your life. Whether you speak on it or not, you're gonna know deep down. And so that's something that we need to train on.

Corley: Oh, that's beautiful. Preston Lyons: Third for me, yeah, third for me is because I suck at it is ladder packaging and ladder throws. All right, I'm 5'8 and a half. I'm a little I'm a little on the shorter side when it comes to throwing ladders is a difficult thing for me. And it's one of those things though, if you have a known rescue and we're gonna go do VES. This is not the time to be trying to figure out how to throw the ladder on the fire ground. We need to rep that out as much as possible. So a drill that I actually picked up from one of my fellow lieutenants is learning how to throw or a 28 with a roof ladder at the same time and masking up and getting to the top of that 28 with with the clock on because we're doing a little bit of stress inoculation. Right. The clock is what matters, whether it's on the fire ground or on the training ground. At throwing a clock in there just adds a little bit of extra stress. Corley: Love it. I love it, man. IPFKB wants to know What are some programs and conferences that are on your bucket list and why?

Preston Lyons: So this year is busy for me. I mean, with Cody Trestrel bringing the fire firemanship. I jumped on that. I was signed up as soon as that dropped. Corley: Yes. Preston Lyons: I had to get into fire the firemanship. another another bucket list, and I'm not gonna be able to make it for me, is Dagum. I gotta get down to Texas. The Texas boys are doing awesome stuff down there. Doing good stuff, man. The first in fire conference in Little Rock is also on the bucket list Corley: yeah, right before making first in. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Preston Lyons: Yeah. Shout out to my buddy Logan Hinkle out there. He's been trying to get me out there for a while, but with the birth of my baby girl, I gotta kinda put her on the back. Corley: And a lot on your plate. Preston Lyons: A little bit But I'm in Colorado, so I'm always at the Mile High Fire Conference. Okay. And you'll always catch me at some time of the year in Pentacola with County Fire Tactics and Chief Ike. That was the first conference that I took when I finally decided that I wasn't going to be a mediocre firefighter anymore. I found a conference in Pensacola because that's where I got my start, was in the A5-0 as a volunteer. And I, you know, I'm in Colorado. There's beautiful mountains out here, but there's no beach. So I decided to go out to Pensacola and it completely changed my world. So if you haven't been out there yet, you definitely, definitely gotta be out there.

Corley: Dude, that's a great, great list. I can't, I mean 100%. 100%. IPFKB coming at you one more time said, what's the proudest fire ground or station moment of your service career so far? Preston Lyons: So the greatest opportunity that I've had was we had a firefighter go out for an injury, or I'm sorry, a fire officer go out for an injury. And I have acting officer capabilities. I have the certifications, but I'm not promoted yet working on it. But the battalion chiefs blessed me with an opportunity to be the company officer for that station for approximately four months. Now I told the crew when I came in, I said, hey, we're gonna start something unique here. I am not promoted. So Everything is out on the table as far as building a culture here. I since I'm not a company officer, I'm not gonna come in in knife hand and tell you guys how we're gonna operate. I will say my expectations are we do some type of training and we we are working out, of course. But I I let them come up with it. I empowered the crew to actually build something. And I said, what if we commed up with what if we came up with theme trainings? for every day of the week. So that way we know what to expect when we're coming into work. We know that we're training, but what are we training on? Right, right. So our crew, it's a millennial thing, right? Like hashtag. Hashtag Monday, hashtag Tuesday, it was hashtag mask up Monday. Right on. You know, tactics Tuesday, waterflow Wednesday, ladder throw Thursday, forcible entry Friday, search Saturday, sizeup Sunday. So But you know, boom. So now the crew already knew what we were gonna train on, and then I would take it a step further and I would message one of the guys and say, hey, you know we got ladders on Thursday. All we gotta do is put hands on a ladder, but I want you to come up with something. Nice. I don't need to come up with the training. And what that does is it gives pride and ownership. Oh, yeah, the ownership individuals to actually teach a training. And what does that do? That actually builds up their confidence Because you know that when you teach something, it actually locks it into your brain even more.

Preston Lyons: Instead of just me coming in and saying, hey, we're throwing ladders today. Let's go outside, put your gear on. And you know, they kind of mosey out. Now it's one guy saying, hey, I want to try this ladder package system out, or I want to do VES, let's let's go over here. And I'm and I completely 100% support it because I already know that they were gonna do that on day one. Corley: Oh, and your buy-in goes through the roof because then, oh man, oh dude, I love it. I absolutely love hearing that. We need to get those written down, what you just said. I love the hashtags too. So I I the the millennials don't claim me. I'm an old millennial or I'm a I'm a young gen. Or wait, no, I'm a I forget which way it goes. But anyway, I'm a I'm a tweener. I'm a tweener. So, but 1,000%, brother. I love that. I got to get that from you. Michael Ramirez coming at you. Preston, what's your take on promoting from rank to rank? I know there's tons of firefighters who would be great officers, but I'm curious on your opinion.

Preston Lyons: So I know that this is a a tough situation for a lot of backseat firefighters, right? Because a lot of them just want to go do blue-collar fireman work. And my hat's off to them. I absolutely salute those people. But specifically for, in my opinion, I have to say that for on EMS calls, there is a type of firefighter that just doesn't want to run on the medic unit anymore. So they look into promoting. Those are not the type of leaders we want stepping into company officer roles. So for that smoke-eaten, gritty, blue-collar firefighter. I want you to think about what your crew will look like with you as a leader or with the other type of leader. And that's that's how we got to look big picture. Obviously matters. That and we can do that for our entire career. And if you want to do that, absolutely. But if you truly care about the fire service and you're that firefighter that's going to continue to push the bar and raise the standards, and I know you don't like to say minimum standards, but there's a standard that can be raised by these types of firefighters. You have to look into stepping into those roles. And I know you don't want to get into the books and the SOPs and do all the political bureaucratic stuff. I just went through a process myself. It was not fun. But What type of leader do you want to work for? That's the question you got to ask yourself.

Corley: Right on, man. And hey, bottom line is this. You can argue all day long about how they should select leaders and what process could look like, what it should look like, right? And that's good that you should fight and be passionate about it. But at the end of the day, wherever you're at in your organization, there's a process in place and you have to go through it. Mm-hmm. And and and you owe it to the the men and women that you serve with, especially if you are A driven, passionate person who needs to be in a leadership position. I hope I'm saying that where it comes across correctly. You owe it to master that system, whatever it is in place, and not use it as an excuse to not promote I hope that makes sense. All right. I'm gonna say I'm gonna read a few things coming at you from Instagram here, and then I'll get back to the others. Can't wait to see you next weekend in Minnesota. That comes from FFG. white. I can't wait to see you also in Minnesota. I'm pumped about getting up there, especially since hopefully it's not going to be like 14 feet of snow or something in the winter time have you ever considered writing IFPKB? IPFKB wants to know, have you ever considered writing a book? If so, would the topic be fit, fire fortitude, or something else?

Preston Lyons: So I brought this up to my wife and she kind of laughed at me. So I gotta convince her that this would be something that could be I can That can be taken seriously that I can actually pursue. First off, I have no idea how to write a book, but I I know there are people like you, Gorley, that have actually done so. And I have actually put a lot of thought into it. I would not call it fit, fire, fortitude. what I have thought about was calling it the culture war in the fire service. Nice. Big thing for me is culture and leadership. because let's be honest, I I I'm a suburban firefighter. Okay. I don't work in Joptown. Right. So the battle for culture and leadership in our types of organizations are a bigger issue that needs to be addressed. in in instead of places like Detroit where you're just fighting fire nonstop and you're happy all the time. Corley: Right, right. No, no, and it's a great point because and I was people. I want to make a class come someday called I or maybe it's a book, I don't know, but it's called I Am the American Fire Service, right? Because the bulk of us work in suburbia and in rural rural areas and we're not at Jobtown, right? God bless you if you are. I'm not taking anything away. You know what I'm saying? Like, love it. I'm jealous, etc. Yeah. But the majority of us don't get to go to jobs as much as we would like And we don't get to, you know, we don't get to rely on the experience to to drive our OJT. And so it is a war, a culture war to say, how can we stay prepared and how can we have that mindset. You know, and it is. I love that man. I can't wait to read the book. So you have to write it now. It's official.

Preston Lyons: All right. Sounds good. Corley: The truckee said, tell the wife we need this book. We the people demand a book. So there you go The vigil IPFKB said Vigilani should write. I don't know who IPFKB is, honestly. I don't know the Instagram handle. So I love you. Your questions have been awesome. Thank you. He said Vigilani should write a compilation book, combined effort. And that's 100% true, man. They absolutely should. Preston Lyons: I tell you what, my wife is my number one fan, but she's also my biggest critic. So I love having her around because she she keeps me humble. When, you know, I start going down the the Instagram algorithm and I'm like, hey, look how many likes and comments I got. She's like, she she keeps being checked. So when I mention things like a book, I understand that I need to get her to buy in because once I do, she's gonna fully support it 100%. Corley: Dude, I love it. I love the fact you say biggest critic, biggest supporter. That's a that's a hellaciously powerful combo. Of course it's Amanda Miller. I should have known. Okay. So anyway, IPFK means okay, great. Absolutely. I think that's a phenomenal idea. We should make a compilation book of some sort. So make a post in the Vigilantes and we will see what that looks like. And we'll make it a brainstorm post. Because it has to have, well, anyway, not a topic for not right now. got Michael Ramirez's question. I'm going to Cody Brooks here. What have you learned about fortitude and resilience for yourself with all you've gone through in the past month? Oh and it may even be more than the past month if you want to include the birth of your daughter and everything else.

Preston Lyons: But yeah, so my man I think my man Cody's speaking about the promotional process I just went through. and that speaks a little bit about what I was talking about, filling the gap with the fire conferences, because arguably I was one of the most passionate people going through the promotional process. Corley: Okay. Preston Lyons: I I read the articles. You know, I'm here on the scrap. I'm engaged. I network my network of like-minded, passionate firefighters is pretty strong. But where I messed up was I didn't 100% know my own rules and regulations. And I was a little choppy on getting through the promotional process just in general. I'd never seen it before. And out of nine people going up for that company officer, we make a list every two years and ranks from one It's down. Out of nine, I ended up being ranked ninth. And that is not a proud moment for me. And I actually leaned on a lot of people to help me get through it. And and a little vulnerability here is as soon as I realized where I was ranked, I broke down into tears. And I was crying and I started apologizing to my wife over and over because to touch on my baby girl, she was actually, she was born on September 5th. She's two months premi. She was supposed to be born at the end of October And that has been quite a journey. I was spending 12 hours a day in the NICU for two months straight with her on my chest, changing diapers, feeding her, with my wife. And it was It was a transformation. And I was going through all that. And I don't use any of it as an excuse. But raising my baby girl and going through all that, I had a lot on my plate. And but I was still in there to try to Be competitive. And you know, I speaking to John Sperra, he really helped me see that there were lessons that I needed to learn going through this process. And God has a timeline for me and he basically told me that I'm not there yet. So I need to continue to work. And then I had a battalion chief pull me aside after the process and say, People are going to be looking at you. To see how you react once the ranking came out and once everybody knew where I was.

Preston Lyons: They want to see if I was going to cry and play victim. Or if I was going to continue to push it and be the leader that I proclaim that I am. Right. And so I didn't use excuses. I didn't complain about where I was at on the list. And I was beating myself up continuously, but I texted you the other day. I just got off shift a couple days ago. I had my first due fire as a company officer on the truck. Right before coming into the scrap. And none of the fires are ever perfect, but I did a good enough job to where people were saying, hey, your size up was good. Your tactics are great. You knocked it out of the park. And I needed that win under my belt to let to show to let myself know and to show people, hey, I can do this job, even though I ranked last. I'm still here. I'm still fortunate. All right. I'm not playing victim. So I had the mental fortitude to continue to persevere. Corley: No, 100%, man. Rob Riser said you were emotional about it because it was important to you. And that's a great, great point. those lessons.

Preston Lyons: Yeah, I put my heart and soul into that. Corley: No, 100%, brother. I love it, man. I really do. And we talked and and John Spear, good lord, man. Can that guy be more supportive? I don't know. Every time, man. Those lessons are hard, but it's oftentimes how we learn the best. I'm positive it won't happen the same way again. Absolutely, absolutely love it. I'm pulling up notes here. Trying to. Overcoming, you know, we got that. I like this one. Make the kitchen table phoneless and rankless. Man, talk to me. Talk to me. Preston Lyons: So I learned in my in my four months as the company officer. I realized that we were all just peers at the kitchen table. And the conversations that we were actually having at the kitchen table were were great because we weren't We weren't worried about some authoritative figure figure telling us what was appropriate, what was not appropriate, or trying to navigate the conversations and force us to talk about training or anything like that. We just naturally came together at the kitchen table and it was everything was out there on the open. The only rule that I made was if If you start verbally attacking and you start losing it emotionally, like conversation's over. You have to have the emotional intelligence if you want to be here at the kitchen table and have a conversation Okay. And then the phoneless thing. I hate when I come in on shift at the kitchen table and you know you're there at seven o'clock, you check the gear, you check the rig, and now everybody's at the kitchen table and then everybody's on the phone. Right. Right. For me, I don't understand that. Like I want to know, hey, how was your four-day? How's your family doing? You know, anything interesting? What do you need guys need to work on this set? What what you know what can we accomplish? Not, hey, let's just sit here and scroll through social media and not pay attention to each other because that doesn't invoke a family atmosphere. I'm supposed to trust you to go into an IDLH and pull me out when I'm in and when I need help, but we don't have conversations at the firehouse. Like I need to I need to know that you're gonna be my brother and my sister 100% every time you're locked in at work when we're here.

Preston Lyons: Beautiful. Corley: Absolutely. I love it. All right, coming out Wrong one. Pulling up notes. Getting the window back on top. I want to talk about training. BJJ. Mutai. Boxing. Krab Magah. Man. That's a lot. I just try to hit the BJJ. And so talk to me. fastest way to learn humility, developmental toughness. Every firefighter should do it. Preston Lyons: Absolutely. So I'm from I'm originally from Los Angeles. a lot of people in LA, we we talk a lot of trash. We get in your face, we puff our chests up, we do a lot of barking. when I joined the Navy at 18 years old, I did that same thing, but I did it to some cornfed Nebraska boy and I got knocked out. So I realized that I probably shouldn't do that without any type of training. because I can't shut up. I run my mouth all the time. And that's just something I have to accept. People tell me to be quiet all the time when I can't do it. So instead, I learned how to defend myself. But passively, what happened organically that I didn't plan for was the more you train to be violent, the more humble and calm you are in stressful situations. And you probably hear that all the time. When you go to a bar, the most quiet one in the room is probably the one you don't want to mess with Right, because they know they can do some damage, but they are humble. They've probably been in a situation in during training where they've been choked out in jiu-jitsu or they've been maybe knocked out in either you know in the cage fight or something. So they know they know they can handle themselves and they don't need to prove it to you because they prove it day in and day out. Specifically though with jujitsu and why I I promote it and I still train it is because jujitsu is one of those situations where You get put in uncomfortable situations and you have to think your way out.

Corley: Yes. Preston Lyons: It's a chess match It's not just physical exertion. It's actually better for you and jujitsu if you can remain calm and you and you know the techniques and the maneuvers and you can actually control the scenario, the situation. Because of your training, your techniques, your ability to control your breathing, and your mindset. That's the beautiful thing about jujitsu. And that's why I think every single person in the fire service. Needs to do jujitsu because you can learn those skills. And also, if you're like me and you you have an ego problem, jujitsu humbles you real quick. Corley: Humbles you very fast. Very fast. Preston Lyons: Absolutely. Corley: Oh no, man. I've never had more respect for human beings than after I started doing, after I started rolling. Once I started rolling, you look at human beings in a totally different way because you don't know what people are capable of until you understand what they are capable of And yeah, it's it's it is great, man. so no, I love it, man. I want to get into book or books that you think firefighters should be reading. It's one of my favorite topics Anybody who knows me knows I love books. I love reading. And so talk to me. Talk to me, Preston. What's the books?

Preston Lyons: So I actually structured this for you a little bit. Corley: Okay. Preston Lyons: Because I read a lot of books as well. Right. And for one, if you're not reading books and you just you just say that you're not one of those people that don't, you are missing out on an opportunity to actually Enter someone else's brain. Corley: Right on. Preston Lyons: You know what I mean? The people that write the books, they put a lot of time, research, and thought into the things they put on paper. And you actually get to absorb that knowledge without having to do all that yourself. So get in the books. And then also same thing, you you're you're not necessarily a big fan of the audible either. Which I no i love audible. Corley: I love audible. I want to be very clear because people tell me that I do get that. I get that a lot. I don't like audible. No, I man, I have an audible subscription. I've I've got I've got an Audible collection. I listen to Audible almost every day. I love Audible. It's not reading. Go ahead. Preston Lyons: Right. Yeah, because for me, when I when I'm actually reading down on paper, you can actually stop and pause. And think about what you just read. Right. And you can reflect it into your own thought and life experiences. You don't necessarily get that with an audible. Right. So that's why I love books.

Corley: No, no, audible will trick trick my brain or kick my brain and I'll I'll go down a path for like 10 minutes and I'll come back and realize I haven't listened for 10 minutes and I missed 10 minutes of the book. Right where where when you're reading you can't do that. And that's and then I'll I'll say this and then I'll leave it alone. The strength of Audible, the thing that makes Audible so great is that you can do other things while you hear the content of a book, right? But it's also not reading for that reason because when you read, you can't do anything else. It it requires all your cognitive function. Maybe you could walk on a treadmill or something, but but typically speaking, reading takes all of your cognitive function to do audible man, I love putting the audible on and reload. I do. I love the clink, clink, clink, clink, clink, clink while I listen to something because It allows you to do other things. Preston Lyons: Okay, I'll leave it alone. Go ahead. Corley: Go ahead. Preston Lyons: Sorry. Corley: All right. Preston Lyons: So the biggest thing for me that I think every firefighter should do before actually they start diving into firefighter specific books is to read books on how to make themselves excellent in their personal life. The first book for me was Extreme Ownership. And I know because I'm a Navy guy, it probably resonates with me a little bit more. But it was the first book that I read where I stopped pointing figures at anybody else and started thinking of ways to actually make things my fault that happened in my life and being okay with that. So when something goes bad, how can I actually figure out what I did or did not do? To make that situation the way it was, and how can I improve upon it going further? That's the essential idea of extreme ownership is basically Jocko's thing is it's your fault. Everything's your fault. So extreme ownership Absolutely.

Corley: great, great book, by the way. Preston Lyons: Yeah. so Andy Frisella just dropped a new book called The Book on Mental Toughness. Corley: Oh, okay. Preston Lyons: And he basically sums up set his 75 hard program and live hard. The 75 Hard program is the is the program that I actually did that made me feel okay with not Working extra hard to get everybody to like me. I stopped manipulating my own life to please other people because I started doing the 75 hard, which is built around mental toughness, not around. the physical aspect of it. So if anybody knows the program, you know that you got to work out twice a day, drink a gallon of water and all that. But the more you you stay committed and onto the program, you actually form a lot of discipline mentally. And you realize people try to talk you out of doing it, but once you get to a certain point in the program, you you just you just have a hardened mindset Corley: Wow. Preston Lyons: And I can't explain it any farther than that, but it it changed my life. And I I push anybody that want to try doing 75 Hard to get the book, read it, learn about it, and go through the program yourself. next for me, and I don't think this one has been said on the scrap either, but it's Dave Ramsey's the total money makeover. if you don't have your finances in order, you can't show up to work and get after it because Your life's probably a mess financially. You live in paycheck to paycheck. You have no time to focus on advancing your career because all you're worried about is paying your bills. So get your get your finances in order. And Dave Ramsey, when I got out of the Navy, I was over 40 grand in debt. I hate to admit that because but I was trying to please other people by buying everybody's shots. at the bar whenever I showed up so everybody would like me. Well, I stopped doing that and I started saving my money through Dave Ramsey. So read that book. And the last one for personal excellence is The Mask of Masculinity by Lewis Howes And he specifically talks about the type of masks specifically that men wear where they hide their vulnerability. So you have the the athletic jock, right?

Preston Lyons: That hides their vulnerability by being very competitive and always trying to win. And that hides their vulnerability because they're strong and athletic. And then you have the stoic type male who's really quiet and reserved. and doesn't really share a lot, but that's because they don't want to show their vulnerability. So it's actually something that made me open up in in be more myself and be more authentic. And once again, stop caring about how others were going to perceive me and just be myself. So those books for personal excellence, I think everyone should read and learn from. Boom, man. Pretty powerful, man. Get your house. Yeah. If if you don't have your personal life in order, how can I ask you to come into the job and do things for them, right? Right. We we take the oath and I want you to serve the community, but You don't have your own life in order. You know, you gotta have that in order first if you're gonna come and give an extra effort to the community. So addressing your personal life is key. Next books is if we start getting into the fire career. Number one, the functional fire company by Chief Scott Thompson. Absolutely. It let me know what that there are different types of cultures in your organization and that the just because your culture is a certain way doesn't mean it has to be that way. And here are some tips and tricks on how to improve the culture in your organization. That's a big book on that. Step Up and Lead by Frank Fescuso. It's more of a, hey, it, you need to be the one. That takes takes the leadership role. Right? Like you can't wait for someone else to come in and make the change. You gotta be the one to do it this random book called The Nine L's Eight Bulbs by Corley Moore. The Nine L's is a great book. I actually bought five for five of those on Christmas and gave them out to got her into the job and it's been it's been very beneficial for me.

Corley: Thank you. I'm gonna fix the bulbs at some point, I guess. I never realized it. Thank you. Yes. Yeah, I forgot who said that, but it was I'll I'm putting completely it's not Schultz, it's good lord. Oh man Josh somebody in the audience Josh Chase's buddy good lord I'm pulling a blank sorry go keep going Preston Lyons: and then the next two more tactical or more for for for the fire ground is Brannigan's building construction and then Dunn's collapse of burning buildings. Corley: Both phenomenal. Phenomenal. Absolutely. Preston Lyons: Yeah, you can you can learn tactics on the job through the academy, through fire conferences, but you gotta understand the buildings in your jurisdiction and how they're gonna be affected when there's fire. So Big, big ones. And then last two, I got two more. I got two more recommendations. Go, go, brother. Corley: I love it. Preston Lyons: Keep going. This is more, these are this is more for fun. Tim Kennedy, scars and stripes. It's kind of a biography on himself. That dude is a real life G. I. Joe. If you read his biography, he was just a scrappy kid that, you know, joined joined the joined the army, but then also fought in the UFC at the same time. And he also played a major role in rescuing Afghan refugees during the during our withdrawal in Afghanistan. And he operates Cheap Dog Response, which I've taken a couple classes on how to protect yourself, your family, your community. it's just, it's, it's, it's a great book. And then Jack Carr's Terminal List series. He is a former Navy SEAL and he writes books that are all fictional. Okay.

Corley: But No, I watched I watched the the original Chris Pratt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Preston Lyons: Absolutely. Yeah, the books are the books are good. Yeah, books are great. Corley: Okay, I love a good fiction book. So that's awesome. That's awesome. Jared Sergey. Jared Sergy was the eight light bulbs pointing it out so yeah he messed up my OCD like terribly well the thing is is it's called the nine L's and there's a tenth L you know if you haven't read it there is a secret L the hidden L so you know The eight was never a thing. But anyway. Dude, phenomenal. What an unbelievably good. Starting with the get your house in order and then getting into the fire stuff, man. I absolutely love it. Which takes us to my favorite part of the show. It is the five questions for firefighters. It started out. 2. Preston Lyons: Are we are we can we do 3. 3? Are we gonna start that? What are we doing? Corley: Is it 3. 3 time yet? Preston Lyons: Well, well, I I mean I'm just waiting because I'm not going to say kitchen table because I know we have a subliminal three point time. Corley: I have to I'm I'm going to rewrite that question, but I did not tell you that. So you you're aware because you're a vigilante. So that's right. So under the table, you know the kitchen table's off the table. We'll say table one more time. this is officially the 5Q3 firefighters versions 3. 3 There's no right answers. It's your opinion. I will give points out arbitrarily based on what you say with the help of the studio audience. So my first question for you is: are you ready for the next Five questions for firefighters. Version 3. 3, Preston Lyons.

Preston Lyons: Yes, sir. Bring it on. Corley: Number one: What is the skill that has carried you through your fire service career? Preston Lyons: Yeah, I thought a lot about this one, but I gotta I gotta go with perseverance. And perseverance because when I decided to step out of mediocrity and put myself in the spotlight. Those crabs in the bucket, man, they were grabbing. They were grabbing. And I was tempted to stop putting myself out there, stopped promoting stuff on my page, and to just fall back in line with how the status quo operates. But my heart was telling me that I gotta persevere. I gotta keep pushing it. So yeah being able to to withstand those people that are you know continuously trying to pull you back down. Corley: Boom, man, I love it. I was gonna ask you actually earlier on we were talking about Fitfire Fortitude when you first started stepping out, when you first started being vocal. And you you know more than most that when you start saying stuff out loud and putting it out there on social media, which is something that that didn't exist 15 years ago, it didn't exist. and real, I mean you really want to get down to it. Ten years ago is probably a good stretch, but not the point. The point is it it really does put a magnifying glass on you and puts a bar that you now have to live up to, especially in your own jurisdiction. It's it's a it's a it takes it takes a special kind of perseverance.

Preston Lyons: Yeah. Well I mean I will say this though, and I don't want to necessarily defend those critics. But a lot of people say you can't be a prophet in your own lands, right? It's a it's a common saying. I've heard it. But then I started digging into it. Why is that? And I and I I came up with the conclusion that a lot of people in my own organization They've known me for the entire nine years of by that I've been here. And I didn't start putting myself out there until the past few years, couple years So what they saw was little baby Preston coming out of the academy as the Proby. And I was kind of like the class clown. I was joking, being part of the pranks, and I was watching football on the recliner and you know gambling, all this stuff. And then all of a sudden, I night and day, I just wake up one day and I'm like, hey, we took a note to be here and we're gonna get out, you know, and they're gonna be like Who are you? Right. You are not that person. And rightfully so. Absolutely. But the people on social media don't know that. And I had to humble myself because people I love everybody that follows me on social media. Thank you so much. But I had to humble myself and say, hey, look, I haven't been this guy that long, and I gotta bring it every set, and I gotta show these critics that they aren't wrong, but I'm going to Eventually be right.

Corley: Right on, bro. Right on. Preach it. And that's what I love about it because Firehouse Vigilance was founded in 2018. That was six years ago. I hired on in 97. So I went 19 years before I woke up and said, wait a second, this is amazing. And I want to share it. And so you talk about there's a lot of people, and I and I've talked about it openly I was a laxadaisical, bought into complacency. I under like, and and you, I know you connect with this. But I understand where people are coming from when they are like when they're checked out saying, hey, I've been to the bear or send to the been to the fair, seen the fair, whatever. And and I don't need it. I don't, I don't want it. I understand where you're coming from. And so Yeah, I love that, man. Max points, easy max points on number one for perseverance. I love it. Number two, coming at you. It's Job Town. I love this question. I really do. It's my favorite one. It's the favorite one out of all the five questions. This question I have spent more time listening to more songs, but it's Job Town. It's time. You're in route and responding. The scene from Jack. Boom. What song are you playing in route?

Preston Lyons: So I can't believe this song hasn't been said already, but I'm going Cowboys from Hell by Pantera. Pantera. Because I want to do cowboy shit, John Velez. That's right. Corley: I love it, dude. I love it. I I I'm with you. And it's hard to beat a good Pantera Guitar riff. Preston Lyons: Yeah, I will point out you did have a drought a little bit. Corley: oh, no doubt, dude. Preston Lyons: No doubt. I was a little worried that that question was gonna get a message. Corley: I thought it was gonna keep going that way, man. I'm like, listen you need to give me a song now or you're getting zero points. Right. But we'll turn that around. Preston Lyons: Cowboys from Hell hits pretty quick right out of the gate because sometimes The fire's right down the street. So we don't have time for a build-up. Corley: We gotta hit it hard real quick. That's the problem with a lot of the songs I love. The build-up is so long to get to that payoff. Even the one I put in for the actual playlist, it's a long time for the payoff. Max points. I love Pantera. Cowboys from hell. What is your favorite fire service tradition? And Since it's 3. 3, we're taking the firehouse kitchen table off the table.

Preston Lyons: So go ahead. All right. You know. Right. And I've been reading that a lot lately. Right on. But you know the history of the Dalmatian right was they're very protective. They were protect the horse-drawn carriage or the horse-drawn pump while the firefighters were in there. For some reason they had a calming sense to the horses. So when they ran alongside the horses they didn't freak them out. And then they would also tend to bark in route while the fire surface was out. So they were technically the first sirens put in place in the in in while firefighters are responding to calls. Love it. So yeah, let's bring the firehouse dog back. We can use them as an emotional support for firefighters. I'll take that. Corley: Brother, one I didn't even know it was a thing. I went to Heartland Fire District out there in San Diego, California. They had two that I met. I don't know how many they actually had, but they had two that I met and they were emotional support dogs. They were firehouse dogs, man. They were amazing. They were amazing. They were just they lived at the firehouse. Yes. They knew all the crews. It was amazing. I'm like, I'm in. I'm all in. 1,000% Max points. Three for three. On the clock. Here we go. Someone said you needed 10 minutes. You get one. You get 60 seconds. Who are the four people you would put on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service? Go.

Preston Lyons: All right, I'll make it quick. So Coley Moore, Kyle Romagus, Chief Ike, and Chief Scott Thompson. And I'll tell you why. Chief Scott Thompson has shown me the example of what a suburban fire chief is supposed to look like. The thing he's doing out there in Colony Fire is what we should embrace all across the country. Chief Ike is the first person that I've ever met who's been absolutely unapologetic about being passionate. and into the job. He doesn't care if you like him. He doesn't care if you like his style. He is who he is and he's he's in he's effective All right, Kyle Romagus, I love him because he's got the swagger, he's got the the big bearer with the mustache, and he's always got his you know plaid flannel smooth board cartel merged, but he's also an absolute student of the game. He's always in the front row taking notes. And then lastly, of course, you, Chief Corley Moore, you were you're a great mentor of the fire service. You gave someone like me an opportunity to speak with you. the first time I met you at the in Pensacola for a fire conference and I'm I'm I'm appreciative. Thank you.

Corley: I love brother brother. That was amazing. Yeah, I don't know how to say it anywhere, but thank you. I I am blown away that people would include me with that group. And so thank you. I'm the luckiest dude in the fire service. So that's all I will say. And absolutely, max points, four for four. Here we go. The question that's never changed. It will never change. Heavy fire searchable space. Would you rather be assigned to the nozzle or first in on VES? Preston Lyons: Hey, I know I got Kyle on my wall on the on Mount Rushmore, but I I want the grab. All right. I know people say the knob is the job, but there's glory in the grab. Okay. I'm I'm kind of a poster child I want to be on the front of the magazine if I ever get an opportunity making that grab. So yes, give me the VES. Corley: Love it. There you go. Five for five. Easy. Easy. Max points. I don't even have to check. I don't even have to check There's so many, so many max points. yeah, time butts go max points, max points. My man killing you. I love calling you a friend. Fast max points, Dan Bender said. Fast Absolutely. Everybody's in agreement. All right.

Preston Lyons: take it. Corley: No, absolutely. Brother. And Marco said yes. Grab, grab, grab. And there's no wrong answer on that. There is no wrong answer. I want to be very clear. I love Kyle. He is one of my best friends in the fire service. And there is no wrong answer. Thank you everybody for being tuned in. I'm Instagram, you guys have been amazing tonight. Like this, it's picking up steam on Instagram. So that's kind of cool because it is a new thing. It's only been happening for a few weeks now. All that being said, we are going to fix. I promise you, we are going to fix. the issue that is the freeze frames going on on Facebook and YouTube. We'll figure it out. I promise you we're going to work on it. It may take us 40 or 50 episodes like it did last time, but we're going to do it. So just roll with us. Other than that, let me get back to we officially are going to put 235 scraps in the books. If you'd have told me I would do 235 shows of of this a few years ago, I would have called you a liar. But my man, Preston Lyons, thank you for spending your evening with us tonight. If someone wants to get a hold of you, reach out to you, what's the best way to do so?

Preston Lyons: absolutely. So the the best way to get a hold of me is message me on Fitfire Farti2 and on Instagram. if you don't have social media and you want to reach out to me directly. Just shoot me a text 303-330-2306. And I only do that because I have mentors that have just straight up given me their number and I talk with them on a weekly basis. And I'm forever grateful to those people. Corley: I love it, brother. It's a lot of faith and I love it. But I do I do enjoy texting you. I really do. and I'm not saying I'm one of those, but I'm saying I I do. It's it's awesome. I love sending him and saying, how you doing Everybody else go to firehousevigilance. com. Become a part. Be a vigilante, man. Go join. Five bucks a month. You can sign up for a year. I'll be posting the link for the scrap after party. I didn't even ask Preston if he was going to be there because he's here every week in the scrap after party. we may get a lily sighting. We'll see. Because depending on what she's got going, vigilantes like to show up. We're gonna buzz. I promise tonight might be the actual night where we bust some chops.

Preston Lyons: I'm hoping. Yeah, if people don't bring it, I'm gonna start throwing it out. Corley: Right on. Okay, there we go. If you want to make a change in your life, go get to the V50 Be a part. Be a vigilante. Be a part of the V50. next week, Daniel, OKC Fire. He's coming on. We're going to talk. FDIC instructor. It's going to be a good time. Situational awareness. Following the next week. Week, Paul Capo, followed by Robert James, Capital Fire Training. You will not want to miss these episodes. Keeping 2024 rolling. Thank you, Preston Alliance, for being such a phenomenal guest. Vigilantes. Scrap After Party, Sam will post the link, not me. Sam will post the link shortly. and then we'll then we will get to busting Preston's chops. We will pre-fire. all that being said, audience. Thank you for your questions. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube. Thank you for your questions. You guys are what makes the scrap magical without you