Weekly Scrap #331 - Ian Shulte, Down & Dirty

Speaker 1: Got the fire inside the fire inside the fire inside the fire We got the fire inside Inside Windows we go like minded soul. Ready to roll 100%. Corley: I get asked all the time, what is a vigilante? What does it mean to be a vigilante? And so to explain that, I'm just gonna kind of explain where the vigilantes came from. When I started the group, I honestly thought there was gonna be like 10 or 20 people who really liked the scrap. That would want to be part of the behind the scenes, helping pick out the guests and make the questions. And I'd never dreamed that the vigilantes would grow into what it has grown into. Over 700 like-minded souls If you're a vigilante, you are never alone. We have members from across the country. We have members from across the globe. And it's just amazing what it's become. If you're in there, then you get to be in the Discord, and the Discord is where we do all of our dis Discussions and people go live and they talk and they ask questions and we have a channel for bitching and moaning for presenting classes. It's just it's amazing the fellowship that is involved in being a vigilante. And it's not just that, there's so many other benefits. You get access to the Vigilante only swag shop. You get the 15% discount on all merch from Firehouse Vigilance. You get the after parties. You get the Vigilante get togethers when we're all at the same place and we get together and we raise a glass and do a toast and have the vigilante creed. You get the vigilante coin when you hit your one year anniversary with your number. The fireaways, the forums, the archives, all those quarterly projects that are coming that that you get to be a part of and get to be behind the scenes on It's going into something bigger than I ever imagined. And I want people to know, I want people to be a part of it. If you're not a vigilante, why not? I don't know. How how big it could be. I don't know. I mean the vigilantes are are where the work is at. They're the ones who are getting stuff done. And it's phenomenal of it. I'll get on here and explain where it started, how it how it came to be And you're not a vigilante, why not?

Corley: It go to patreon. com slash the vigilantes. That's where you sign up in the month. I mean it's you can't even get a cup of coffee for that. anymore. Five bucks a month and you get to be a part of this unbelievable group. Go to patreon. com, sign up, become a vigilante, and I will see you Discord. Corley Moore, Firehouse Vigilance. It is weekly scrap number 331. My guest tonight is Ian Schulte, 18-year member of the Fire and Emergency Services. Third generation EMT, second generation firefighter, a chief officer. He works in the suburbs of in the suburbs of Savannah, Georgia as a training chief who assists. at fire conferences across the southeast, and despite being a guy who prefers the shadows, has accidentally wound up in the spotlight from time to time for better or for worse. He has a passion for improving the fire service, and I'm excited for the conversation we are about to have. So welcome, my brother, Ian Shulte, to episode number 331. Ian Schulte: Thanks for having me, Corley. Greatly appreciate it. Corley: I'm excited, brother. Anything I missed in the intro? Anything you want to add to it? Ian Schulte: Oh man, I All that other stuff, it's it's just fluff. It doesn't really define who I am as as an individual. It just it is what it is

Corley: Right on, right on. I like the hat. I approve. We're going to be talking about it, of course, because that's part of the reason why we're going to be here. Does it have the bend? Do you have the Boston bend rocking? Ian Schulte: Oh, I mean squad bin. I'm on my hat. Corley: I didn't know what the actual term was. I know I I I wasn't quite sure. Perfect. Well, I'm gonna get to the sponsors and then we'll get to talking about all the things we're going to talk about. Audience, audience is is pretty pretty jazzed up right now. Someone said Ian with about four or five A's and about six or seven N's and then about 20 exclamation points and then a lot of rocker horns. So they are excited. A lot of LFGs, a lot of rock horns, a lot of fiery emojis. And there's already a stack of questions coming at you. So we're going to get to it. So let's do this. Sponsor time. When it comes to building your perfect attack package, you can't just slap any nozzle on any hose and hope for the best. That's a recipe for failure. At Snap Tight Hose, they are not just trying to sell you hose. They are there to make sure you get the right hose paired with the right nozzle for your crew and conditions. Their team of experienced reps knows the stuff inside and out and they're ready to help. No ego, no judgment, because knowledge is power. And at Snap Tight Hose, they bring both. Visit snapptighose. com to connect with a rep and start building your ideal hose and nozzle package today. Affordable drill towers. on a mission to bring you cost-effective and versatile training props like the affordable bailout prop, which allows you to practice window bailouts, ladder bailouts, and ladder high point rescues. They also make the affordable standpipe prop, which you can roll into the classroom for standpipe theory and then roll it into the parking lot and pump realistic flows and pressures. And of course, their mainstay, the affordable drill tower, comes in several configurations and standard with a standpipe system. Choose from one, two sets of stairs, integrated into your existing conic boxes for multi-story access or free standing on a slab. All models NFPA 1402 compliant and gain you ISO credit. The only thing that you can't do on an affordable drill tower is live fire training.

Corley: Call Steve. 844-55 Tower or drop an email to info at affordable drilltowers. com. And firefighter safety and accountability starts with being able to quickly find and identify individual firefighters operating on the fire ground. Identifier Safety combines the best in photoluminescent materials for durable firefighter identification solutions that can glow for up to 20 hours No switches, no batteries, which means being able to rapidly identify firefighters by name, unit, or assignment, even under hot fire conditions. All specifically designed and tested for the rigors of the job. identifiersafety. com be seen on scene and of course i love flame i say it every time get the nasty shit off you wash your balls and there you go we are ready to scrap My man, Ian, let's kick it off with a topic that I absolutely love. When you send it to me, I'm like, yes, we're going to lead off with this. And it is uniforms versus performance. Appearance versus actual capacity for X. I mean, I mean however you want to phrase it, there are a lot of people who are valuing performance-based culture over uniformity. While inversely, there are a lot of people who put the image of professionalism over technical competence. Talk to me about this statement and just go and we'll go from there.

Ian Schulte: All right, so personal opinions here. And again, all of this is subjective. The entire concept of uniformity in the fire service is subjective. It's based off of How you were raised in the fire service, it comes from environmental factors. It can even be influenced by did did you do time in the military? I've talked with guys who have extreme feelings one way or another who say, you know, to to do honor to the uniform is to wear it in the way that it's intended. Meanwhile working with guys who served in special operations, it was one of those that's just a control variable So the way that I look at it is that uniforms are great, man, but they're often the low-hanging fruit that is emblematic of greater issues that we have going on in the fire service. It's something for chiefs to control. Performance is something that's completely different. Performance is also extremely subjective. However, we are our own metric for managing performance. You know, it your organization where where you worked at You set the standard for how your organization operated. You're the ones who said that you did well. You were the ones who said that you did poorly. So, with that being said, our organizations. having the right to do things that the way they do. Sorry, take it a step back here real quick because my brain's doing brain things. Because we determine how our own performance is, it makes it extremely difficult. Holy shit, I just had that entire thought fly right out of my head.

Corley: Absolutely. That's perfect scrap material right there. No, it's awesome because your brain works like my brain does. And so One thing you said there was you get to define your own level of what excellence looks like. And you you referenced, you said where you worked. And I know you weren't talking my, you're talking to the audience in general. Where you work, you set the performance level. And whether that is an excellent bar of performance or whether that is a, hey, I'll just look the other way because we really don't have a bar of excellence. It really is so Dependent on, I don't want to say the individual, but it really comes down to the individual or the person who is impacting whatever level they control at their organization. Is that Somewhat sum at summari summarize where we were heading. Ian Schulte: Absolutely. I mean because there are organizations out there that they pride themselves on looking well. They have the best gear. They have the shiniest uniforms. They have the best rigs out there, but they burn buildings to the ground all the time. Right. But they control their image and they have the image of what looks good versus the image of or the actual performance base. So for me, I'm one of those guys who believes that, you know, it you organizations can have both. I'm not saying that you can't, but in today's day and age, it's more difficult to recruit firefighters than it's it's ever been in the past. Guys are not lining up to do this job in the way that they were 20 years ago, you know, almost 20 years ago when I came on the job. And with that being said, the the pool of people willing to do it, we have to make changes as an industry Am I saying that we sacrifice the standards of performance? Absolutely not. I'm not going to say that we should ever be sacrificing the standards of performance because today, more than ever, since we have less volunteer firefighters, less career firefighters than than we've had in the past. more organizations are riding around with empty seats on rigs, we need to be focusing on that performance level. And when we have people all over the country who are working so much overtime that they can barely keep, you know, control themselves mentally and physically, I look at it and say, you know what?

Ian Schulte: I'm okay if the guys are a little more comfortable. I'm okay if, you know, they or they don't have their button downs on in the station. Would I prefer it if they go out in the public with their button downs on? Yes, absolutely. That's how I was raised. And when you see me walk into the firehouse typically Monday through Thursday I'm gonna be in my bad shirt. I'm gonna have, you know, my shoes shined up. I'm gonna have all my buttons up super tight, trying to look all crisp, real nice and chief-like, but at the end of the day. I go downstairs, I'm not going to sit here and beat these guys into the dirt because they don't look the way that we would traditionally want our firefighters to to look. Right. Because I'm more focused on the service delivery that they're giving to the public And I've had guys tell me, you know, well, we should we should pay tribute to the uniform because that's how it's always been And I'll be honest with you, I I call bullshit on that notion because that's not how always uniforms have been. Let's take a look back in the war years. We start talking talking about the end of the 60s, the 70s, and the 80s. You were having guys showing up to work in jeans and a t-shirt, and that's what they were wearing going to work. Take it back to the 40s and 50s. Guys might have to do five uniform changes a day. you know, coming in in their class A uniform, changing into their station wear to do all their daily duties, their rig checks, their house cleaning, then change into their day uniform, then change into their PT uniform, then change back into their day uniform Then they get to change into their nighttime uniform, and then before they leave in the morning and do roll call on the floor, they're back in their class A uniform. So they're doing multiple changes a day. Again, uniformity is so subjective. You see career departments that are around here. You when I say around here, I mean around the country in general. I'm not talking about the region by which I work. But you might go to some places that are out in the, let's call it the middle of nowhere, the more rural communities that have career firefighters, and you might have guys who wear beards.

Ian Schulte: They might wear jeans as part of their uniform. To them, that is their level of professionalism. Is that the level of professionalism to me? Not necessarily, but I was raised in a different environment The biggest thing that I can say is that what we have to do is we have to sacrifice our notions of what uniformity really is and what our standard is and understand that we're comparing our standards against other people's standards and it doesn't mean that we're right or they're wrong. Corley: Right. No, no. And it the subjectivity is what really gets really gets the fires going in the online debates especially. one thing I saw this week on social media, I loved it. And it kind of applies to here because what you talked about earlier on in your in your I don't want to say rant in your diatribe. We'll put it that way. It's like a little but is young officers on fire. Selic and and fish are taught somewhere. I don't know, but they posted a picture of the whiteboard. Where they wrote down, I'm paraphrasing here if I mess it up, Rob and and Ryan, I'm sorry. But it said, when culture is weak, rules multiply Right. And then I forget the second half because I just love the first half so much and I have to go look it up. But when culture is weak, rules multiply. And that's where you talk about that low-hanging fruit. is when you have a shared core set of values of listen, the service comes first. Like being excellent at the service, that doesn't mean throw the baby out with the bathwater and get rid of looking good and being crisp and squared away in your appearance. That's not what I'm saying. But if you have shared values that say, hey, service comes first, and then you can you can focus on that and then you could the but when you don't have those shared values and everybody's doing their own thing and people are deciding their own levels of excellence in service. That's when you have weak leadership, culture being weak. And that's when the rules start multiplying of, hey, what socks are you wearing? What do your shoes look like? What where's the crease? Etc. Because those rules multiply because it is that low-hanging fruit.

Ian Schulte: Again, it's a variable of control and I don't look at it as necessarily being being right. I think that If that's what you need to focus on, you have other things you need to focus on. You need to focus on the excellence and performance, and usually some of these things will follow suit. Don't get me wrong. Guys want to be comfortable, but it when you have to start going after uniforms specifically, it is emblematic of a much larger issue within your organization. Corley: No, and I love the the leadership currency, so to speak. Like you only have so much currency as a leader, and what do you want to waste your current people don't ever think I shouldn't say waste, what are you spending your currency on? Because it is a finite thing And if you're spending it on socks, shoes, and pants, when that's not a shared value, man, you are wasting a finite resource. I absolutely love that, brother. And the low-hanging fruit and the what was the term you used as far as oh the measure of control? How much of it is that measure of control? That's something I can control. And I don't want to say how many weak leaders use that as the measurement of how good they're doing is how much do they control, but it it really comes down to that sometimes. No, I think you've I think you we beat it up pretty good already. And and the the Latin term I someone this came up in a totally separate, but the essay quam vedari which I had to look it up because I I don't I I always butcher Latin, but it's that appearing good rather than being good. You know, the valuing the appearance, you know, as long as you look good. I had a chief tell me one time, as long as people, as long as you look good, people will think you're good. And it's like, but what happens when you're not good? And that's what, you know, that's the part you gotta you gotta think about, the accountability.

Ian Schulte: Well, yeah, I agree with that completely. And we start talking about this from a larger perspective in the fire service. We're starting to see a American people that are starting to hold the fire service more accountable. We're starting to see more negligence suits coming up Whether it's people that are dying in house fires, whether it's fire departments that are letting buildings burn to the ground that are underneath their area of control. We're starting to see more and more legal ramification for this. Which is part of the reason why I'm a big believer in I care less about how we look, not saying that I don't care about how we look, but I care more about how we perform Because we burn somebody's house to the ground, we go stand in the front yard, slap each other in the dick, say good game. What what have we done? We have not done what we have set forth to do, and that is to protect lives and property. Corley: And that betrayal of ourselves almost that we have to live with now and make up excuses for why we did it and say, well, we did everything we could anyway and high-five in each other. And then that creates its whole, it's a whole new s whole new reality that we live in that's just based on excuses and lies

Ian Schulte: Absolutely. Corley: Yeah, no, powerful. Powerful. I love this. Fireman Piv coming at you. I'm I'm a s with the YouTube at handle switch thing, it throws me off, but I'm guessing it's Kyle Piverall. So Piv throwing this one at you. I like it because it's right on topic. He asks, how does the over policing of uniforms, hats, hoodies, etc. lead to a drain in morale from the house pride point of view? So subjective question, subjective answer. What do you what do you got for me, Ian Ian Schulte: So subjective question, subjective answer. I absolutely see it. I have a bunch of neighboring organizations near me that you know that they're not allowed to wear hoodies, they're not allowed to wear company hats, they're not allowed to wear company t-shirts. And we don't necessarily have company t-shirts on on my job, not that we're opposed to it. just trying to figure out the logistics of being able to pay for that and and whatnot. But at the end of the day, we have guys show up wearing union hoodies. We don't really say a whole lot about it, even though our local doesn't exist anymore. We have guys who we bought them hoodies because guess what? If they're gonna wear hoodies, why not give them something that says that it's from us and they can be comfortable. Hats, I don't care. As long as your hat says pooler fire on it, PFR, something that identifies you work for the city of Pooler, great. Just don't have anything offensive on there. Don't don't really care you know, because guess what? They can take that little bit, their own investment in their uniform, something that is unique to them, give them that own little bit of individuality. So that way they are their own individual member of the team, but they fit into the larger picture. Guess what? They're showing up on a truck that has our logo on it, they're showing up on a truck that has our number on it, they're showing up in a t-shirt that's ours and turnout gear that's ours. We know that there are employees. I don't need everyone to look the same. In in fact, from a chief officer and safety officer standpoint I don't want all my guys to look exactly the same. I want to be able to look out and see that this guy over here, I can see that that's Big Bird's helmet.

Ian Schulte: Or I look over here and I can see that that's Cookie's helmet because he has a different shield than Big Bird has on his. And You know, I'm just using two random guys who may happen to be on my job, but you know, I can tell by somebody's shield, I can tell by somebody's helmet because it might be a specific shade of red that's different than most shade of reds. I know who it is just by looking at it because We don't have this completely sterile uniformity that lets go of individuality. I know the concept of the uniform is to turn many into one, quite literally, but at the end of the day, is it that big of a deal? To me, no. It's absolutely not because if I can give these guys a little bit of individuality and a little bit of pride for them to buy into the mission of the organization, worth it. Corley: Oh, and absolutely worth it. I think firemen especially are wired to where autonomy is such a core value for them. Like when they when they feel their autonomy attacked, like they've not in control of themselves, then they almost just rebel out of principle almost. I mean, again, this is sub it's a it's an opinion, but I see it over and over and over when their autonomy comes under comes under attack. I don't want to say attack, but when it's when it feels constricted. And the thing that really multiplies it, I feel like, is when there is actual problems that need to be addressed and instead they're talking about hoodies or hats. or the font on a t-shirt, you know, and that's where it really starts exacerbating the issue. Because you're like, it's just super frustrating, especially if you're trying to be a high performer in your organization or you are a high performer in your organization, and then you watch them spin their wheels on this stuff. so one of my you got me on one of my hot button topics, man, right out the gate. So I love it. let's get to the backwards hat story because obviously this this blew up a little bit on social media and a lot of attention like without a doubt. So talk to me about the backward hat story and what went down. And for the for those that don't know, just give them the give them the give them the yeah, go.

Ian Schulte: All right, so earlier this year I was out doing survival rescue training with recruits on my job, myself and one of the senior captains who we together run the RIT Survival program. And there were some pictures that was taken by one of the guys who is watching this graph right now, Lieutenant Jackie Howell. He has always broken my balls because I've never given him credit for it. So here you go, Jackie. Get bent. There were some pictures that were taken of us doing this training and it got posted to our department social media. And one of my friends back home in Kentucky, because I grew up just outside Cincinnati, Ohio, in northern Kentucky. So one of my friends from Kentucky shared this and said it was great to see officers leading from the front. Well there was a chief from a department. Up in that general area, who posted on on that thread that said, you know, if one of my instructors showed up on the R with their hat on backwards, I would put them in the class. Better yet, I would send them home and While he might have been talking about his own organization, I'm not a stranger to picking, you know, fights with strangers on the internet. So I figured that, you know what, I might as well fire back and I I wanted to challenge that notion of why is this a problem? Why is it a problem that the instructors who are out here doing the per you know the physical training with the recruits, the guys who are wearing the turnout gear with the recruits going through all of this training? People who are trying to lead by example, trying to gain respect through mutual suffering with the people that they're going to be working with, why is it a problem that they put their hats on backwards, they dug in, and they did the work? It's better than us just standing there in crisp uniform, just knife hand, telling people what it is that they're going to do and watching them do it We're getting involved. And to me, that is so important that we are out there trying to work in and lead by example. So I took personal offense to it and Afterwards, I got super hot. I'm not even gonna lie. I'm one of those dudes that sometimes my emotions can get the best of me.

Ian Schulte: I made a little Facebook post. Yeah, I know, strangest damn thing. I made a Facebook post that realistically it was just me shouting into the ether and all of a sudden it was everywhere and my next couple days were pure chaos. Corley: No doubt about it, brother. Because I mean I I think everybody's if you follow Fire Media at all, if you were plugged in at all, you saw that And I don't I don't say picked a side because I don't think there was any side. I think it was a resounding I think hell yeah to what you posted, you know, basically is what it comes down to. I I don't think it sparked a debate. Do you do you feel like it was a debate at all? And maybe I'm in an echo I might be in an echo chamber too, so don't get me wrong, especially because the vigilantes and whatnot all agree with with what you just said. Ian Schulte: So if you start following the the trail, because of course I did, it was originally my post, so seeing where it goes, I would follow where it went and you there was a maybe not as much People trying to fight against it, but there was still a lot of people who were arguing against it. and at the end of the day, that's the right of those individuals. Again, uniformity is is Is subjective and at the end of the day, people have the right to their opinion. I have the right to mine, and we have the right to defend our opinions, especially as American citizens. And you know, at the end of the day it is what it is. I'm a I'm appreciative of the opportunities that have come from it. I'm appreciative of the constructive dialogue that I had with people over it. And at the end of the day I feel that the fire service is, you know, on on a good trajectory based off of a lot of the commentary that that came from that.

Corley: Right. No. I think I think that's a great way of saying it is if that was a pulse of the fire service, it's on a good trajectory. I love I love that fair paraphrasing of that that whole debacle. Let's just put it that way. Yeah. That was that was it was a great it was a great thermometer to stick in the water and say where are we at? And we need those. We absolutely need those. One thing to say on this, which is this is me, I want to be clear because I am, I sit there and think about this because I had a I had a firefighter, a very senior man. I respected him immensely. And he was always about who cares? No one cares what you look like when you're doing CPR in their grandma. You know what I'm saying? And I get that mindset 100%. And no one cares what you look like when you're when you're pushing down the hallway. inside your bunker gear. But he he did have a point one time, which I want to throw this in there and get your thoughts on it, which is one day he was at at home And his daughter twisted her ankle or broke her you know ankle or it was some it was a pretty traumatic you know injury and fire service of course showed up And where he was at, the people that showed up, he says, they got off the rig. And he goes, I was like, holy shit, what is this? Is this Uncle Fester and cousin Ed? And like because there was no uniformity to it whatsoever. And he's, he was like, that was the day that he actually said, okay There is a line and we there has to be a line level of professionalism. And so I want to throw that out there and get your thoughts on where's your personal line?

Ian Schulte: So personal line, I gotta be honest, the the place where I've seen this the worst Actually, isn't guys who are coming off the engine. It's usually the people who are coming off the medic unit. And again, not trash talking EMS. I've Ridden the ambulance before, like once or twice. I did try my hardest to get out of that as early in my career as I possibly could. but at at the end of the day, you know Tuck your shirt in. if you're required to wear a button down shirt, please wear it. Just show up. Talk tuck Tuck your shirt in don't have your boots to tucked in or your pants tucked into your boots zip them up don't look like an absolute asshole because guess what at the end of the day you're walking in on somebody's worst day of their life Yes, they may not be paying too much attention to what's going on with you, but at the end of the day, there should be just Just give a little bit. Give a little bit. And I'm asked that you give far more in in what service you're gonna deliver, but and Again, me, I'm gonna try and show up in in my uniform the way that that I'm supposed to. Just because I'm not gonna harp on other guys for it doesn't mean that my personal standard isn't gonna be isn't gonna be higher. Expect more from yourself than you expect from others, I guess.

Corley: No, I do love that. I do. That's a really good mantra. The I think of who is it AF podcast, the AF guy. I can't think of and Andy Prizella. I I I might be getting his name wrong. But he has a clip that goes around that says, you know, your physical fitness says something about you the minute you walk into a room. Without saying a word, your physical fitness says something about you. You and I'm not talking about physical fitness here at all, but I'm talking about your appearance. When you walk into a room, your appearance projects an image, and you can project confidence or you can you can sap confidence from the people who are looking at you on their worst day. So that there is that level of what kind of image do you want to portray walking in? And so I do think that does matter. So I love that. I love that discussion. Ian Schulte: Well, I agree with you on that and to take it one step further, you know, you can have people who are in two completely different shapes and two completely different uniforms and and the guy who is quote unquote in the lesser uniform look more professional than the person who's in the quote unquote more professional uniform. You have a dude who comes in who PTs pretty frequently, not saying that he's, you know, 0% body fat or anything like that, but somebody who projects the image of somebody who takes care of themselves and maybe he's in t-shirt, pants, and doesn't have a button-down on, and a guy shows up who is you know, a a little less active in his lifestyle. in his full uniform, but he he looks like a a slob because he's let himself.

Corley: Absolutely. Absolutely. Ian Schulte: Again, subjectivity when it comes to professionalism. You put those two guys side by side. I'm gonna pick the the guy who is in more shape to look more professional than the guy who just so happens to have all of his hardware on. You know, that's I love it. Corley: No, it's a it's a solid point. And So everybody get in shape and look good and be good. That's ultimately be really good too. That's actually the biggest one of them all. Beautiful. All right, I'm getting to some questions. I cherry-picked Kyle Piveralls out of the chat, but I'm going to pull up the co-pilot notes here and see what they got coming at you Preston Lions coming at you. Overhaul. I had to say. I had to say. Overhaul. What should Chiefs be focusing on instead of uniform policy? Ian Schulte: I think the Chiefs should be focusing on two major areas that is retention. And performance. So, what do we need to do in order to retain long-term employees? Whether we need to look at alternative shift schedules, whether we need to look at pay adjustments, and again Understand that we're working in a post-COVID world and dollars are not going as far today as they were essentially five years ago. And that's not even necessarily talking about us and the money that we're making as firefighters. We're talking about everybody in the general public. We're starting to see again layoffs ro ramp up across the country. So we're getting ready to go into what appears to be another economic downturn So what do we need to do as a fire service to prepare for this next round of misery to keep our guys and their jobs safe? to keep them employed. I think that's one thing that we need to focus on. And then the other thing is improving our fire ground performance. We need to be sending people, if we have it within our financial means, sending them to classes so that way we can learn industry best practice from some of the industry instruct some of the best industry instructors that we have out there. We need to keep circulating information. that we get from all the different resources, whether we're talking about the firefighter rescue survey, the firefighter Mayday survey, the new technical rescue tracker which is just coming out, the thing things of that nature, taking this data, distilling it.

Ian Schulte: and putting it down into practical applicable resources for us to educate our personnel. So retention and performance. Are the two biggest things that I think the Chiefs need to be focusing on, not necessarily what font somebody has on a hat. Corley: I love it. Way to bring it full circle. Hump coming at you. Jeremy Humphree. As training chief for your department, what core principles guide the way you develop and mentor new firefighters? Ian Schulte: Honesty, integrity, and action. Don't lie to anyone. And if for some reason you say something that winds up being untrue, Let them know immediately. Have the integrity to say when you make mistakes, when you fail. And we all fail. The last perfect person lived 2,000 years ago, tap danced across the lake before being nailed to a T. I ain't that dude Lastly, through action. Be the person who's willing to go out. Be the person who's willing to load hose. Be the person who's willing to do bay floors. Be the person who's willing to be a helping hand when Better and where you can. If you need to jump on the rig Try help jump on the rig when and where possible. Understand that's not necessarily always going to be feasible based on what your job requirements are, but you If you're the training chief in an organization, you should be the exemplar of expectation when it comes to doing things, first and foremost. Again, imperfect creature, but at the end of the day, do your best to lead by example, be honest, have integrity.

Corley: Hold on, I gotta write that timestamp down because that was beautiful. A lot of people are saying it in the chat. Timestamp, timestamp, timestamp. Going by. There you go. Matt Marone, 3571, coming at you as trading chief for your department, as well as someone who regularly attends conferences as student and instructor, how do you encourage the new firefighter to go outside your academy for more training? How do you get the older senior firefighters bought into the idea of outside conferences? Love that question, Matt. Ian Schulte: So not necessarily a super easy to answer question. No. Some guys we have to understand they're I hate to say it. If your relationship is not good with those personnel, that may be a lost cause. Ultimately, the biggest thing comes down to relationship. the relationships that you build with people. The relationships that you don't build today as a young firefighter can be the problems that you have later on in your career. Personally experience that, you know, through my own actions or inactions. So the best thing that you can do is try and have open, honest communication with with people. You know, I talked about earlier the guy who Took the pictures of me who was was watching this. He was actually one of my biggest attractors in the organization, and he works with me every day. And with that, he came to training, came to work with me for a little bit. And right now, this week, he's attending a three-day class by another scrap alumni, Jonah Smith, that's being put on down here. He wants to go to outside classes. He found the spark. And sometimes it's just having those conversations, getting to know somebody on a different level, building that relationship with someone that says, hey, I'm I'm passionate about what I do. You're passionate in your your own way. Let's find a way to improve what it is that you know. And we can take what you know and we can give it to the next generation of firefighters What I do with the next generation of firefighters that are coming into our organization, always try and tell them, get outside the four walls. Organization is only going to teach you enough to not get yourself murdered, hopefully. When you come out of recruit school, you know just enough to get yourself in trouble.

Ian Schulte: It doesn't matter. Can sit here and we can put them through 24 weeks, 26 weeks, 30 weeks of training, but at the end of the day, their brains can only absorb so much in that time They need to get out. They need to hear it from somebody else because if you listen to the instructors in your organization, doesn't matter what organization, over and over and over again, you hear that voice over and over again, you might trust that voice, but eventually your ears shut off So try and convince guys whether it's hey paying for a conference would like you to go or hey paid for a conference got two tickets first come first serve encouraging new guys to go to it Definitely something huge advocate for. You know, if it's within your means and you you want to sponsor a conference for somebody to go where the only thing they have to cover is, you know, make sure that you get a shift trade. cover your own hotel, the tickets paid for. These are all things that you that you can do to to try and positively impact someone and have had the chance to see that firsthand, how sending somebody to a conference can be 600 miles away from where you're at. But sending them to be around people who care about this profession can ignite their passion for the job. Sure, they liked it when they were in recruit school, but you know what? Now they love it because they see it's okay to love the job. Sometimes that's just what people need.

Corley: Ooh, great. Across from what I really love right out the gate when you said the word relationship, especially when you're talking about that old head that's stuck in their ways. And and if you don't have a relationship with them. You have to realize if you don't have a relationship, you're gonna be spinning your tires. You're gonna be wasting a lot of effort trying to make an impact with a person you don't have a relationship with. I love that. Then you spun it to the dude. Great. And kid absolutely crushing some killer questions from the audience. So I got I got a soft toss for you here from Matt Berkins. I'm assuming it's one of the Matty B's. Ian, do you think Rangers make the best firefighters? And why is that answer yes? Ian Schulte: Oh he says that because I work with a bunch of dudes who who came out of the Ranger Battalion. I have to say it, man, you can't hurt these dudes. despite how much I might have tried. and and we have come to have mutual respect for each other's backgrounds. They are consummate professionals. And one of the guys on my job, he has a little bit of his own social media following He told me in recruit school the difference between a ranger and a soldier is that a ranger does nothing different than a regular soldier, but he drills it ad nauseum. He knows it inside and out. He's constantly practicing his his battle drills, practicing his room clearing techniques, you know, hit all that military stuff that that they do. For us, that translates to doing your mask up drills, knowing how to force a door, stretch your line, doing it over and over again to the point where you can work through all the variables despite whatever extraneous stuff is being thrown on you, whether it's people screaming, whether it's babies being tossed out of windows, whether it's people actively fighting you in the front yard. I gotta say that those dudes oftentimes make the most solid recruits that come through our program. Literally undergraduate in the class last week, he was a dude who came out of the Ranger Battalion. I mean it

Corley: They have a reputation. The reputation is earned. Ian Schulte: Yeah, without a doubt. Corley: Absolutely. I love it. I love it. Seth Drew They got you can do it. I've got so many questions. They're gonna be left on the board. So I'm trying to get to a bunch of them. And you're good and you're crushing it. So that's the reason I'm kick sticking with it. As a training chief slash captain, how do you measure growth improvement as a department and as a training division So I like that part when you say how do you measure the growth as a department and how do you measure it in your division? Ian Schulte: And that that is a very hard question to to answer because I guess you break that down to is there statistic Is there statistical things that we can get from that? So is our fire loss going up? Now, inevitably with inflation and everything, we're gonna see fire loss rise from from a numerical standpoint, but is it commensurate with the same data last year Corley: Sure. Ian Schulte: Some of that's a little bit hard because you also have to look that a lot of communities across the country are still growing. our community in 2018 had 95 buildings that were 32 feet or higher and we just did our last ISO regrade three months back and we now have 216 buildings that are 32 feet or higher in less than six years.

Corley: You're going vertical, yeah Ian Schulte: I hate to dodge this question, but that is so not easy to to answer. outside of the fact of performance based and it's it's almost anecdotal. Corley: Yeah. Ian Schulte: You know, it's hard to quantify. Corley: It's all it's all qualitative, like your your opinion, but it's hard to quantify with actual data and statistics. Ian Schulte: Exactly. So to make that a legitimate comparison is going to be extremely difficult, but I'd say the proof is in the pudding. When we sit down and we look at it, in 2023, there was a fatal fire in our community. occurred on a Sunday morning at about shift change and I did not participate in this incident. I literally just showed up to move air bottles and and everything so it had nothing to do with it outside of it. But The three people unfortunately passed away, but the fire on our end look at it as a success because when The fire was called in by an off-duty police officer and seven minutes from the time the call dropped, the time that dispatch was notified. All three patients were in the yard doing CPR. Speaker 1: So yes. Ian Schulte: So that includes that information being processed through dispatch. That includes turnout time. That includes getting on seam time. That includes Them stretching, forcing doors, locating victims, and removing them all within seven minutes.

Corley: Whoa. Yeah, no, no. No matter the outcome, hang your hat with pride. Yeah. Ian Schulte: Because at at the end of the day, you know, there was variables beyond our control. Sure. didn't have working smoke detectors in the home. they had double lock door on the back door where the three victims were were located, and they were trying to manipulate the key. And they couldn't at the end of the day I look at that and say if your organization can turn out that fast, get on scene that fast, stretch that fast, force that fast. Get people out and be doing CPR in that time, I would venture to say that your culture may not be perfect, but you're you have a winning culture. So look at it from that perspective. Corley: No, and again, the outcome sucks. Don't not do not get me wrong, but you can hang your your your backwards hat with the with the with the squad bend on it. You can hang that hat on the process with pride that hey you did what you you you did what you swore you would do and that's that's that at the end of the day that's really all you can do So absolutely. I love hearing that story. outcome being the only thing that takes away, you know, obviously Yeah. But it the fire gets a vote you know at the end of the day. where was I at? I love this question that was just posted. I'm looking here. Yep, it's at the bottom. There we go. Preston coming at you once more. The overhaul collective, how can a department be successful in developing firefighters for an acting officer role and eventually to promote?

Ian Schulte: So, Preston, if you were to send me your email address like I asked you to earlier this week, I would have sent you all my AOIC stuff. with that being said, sorry, breaking balls What we have to do as an organization is we have to establish the expectation. First and foremost, the only way to start developing your acting officers is to give them Give them the roadmap and also give them the lines that you don't cross. So organization, what we do is a four-day to five-day program. It starts out with We're going to go over the history of the fire service. We're going to go over the history of the city. We're going to go over the history of the fire service as a whole from a national standpoint. We're going to break it into a regional standpoint. We're going to break it down into the city standpoint. giving them a true history lesson where we came to be on top of that we're going to talk about all the expectations that we're going to talk about. So that is exactly what we expect you to go through in this class and this is exactly what we expect you to do as an as an acting officer in charge. Once we get past that, we break into different lectures where we start talking about, you know, this is how dispatch works. This is how our MDTs work. This is how radio communication systems work. We take them through size up stuff. We actually take a field trip to dispatch where they get to see what happens on the other side of the radio. It's not just those dumb whores on the radio that are just screaming again. No, they actually get a chance to see this is what happens when a call comes into dispatch. This is the information they have to put in. This is how it gets sent over here. This is actually how it gets dispatched out And this is what they're doing on the other side. They're balancing three or four fire ground channels maybe at a time, trying to listen to you, trying to listen to the next town over and the next town over to that while we have multiple calls that are stacked This is why your dispatchers are having a difficult day. After that, we have lectures on human learning.

Ian Schulte: We have lectures on conflict resolution. We have lectures from every one of the chief officers where Not only the training chief lays out the training division, all the areas of responsibility that we have, the EMS captain lays out the EMS division, all of his roles, responsibilities, things that he's responsible for, the deputy chief. Lays out all of his roles, responsibilities, everything that he's responsible for. The fire chief lays out everything about his job and everything that he's responsible for. Because one of the biggest things that we found is that so many people don't understand what administration does. They don't understand the roles and responsibilities of actually what makes this fire department run and what different entities each and every one of us report to. So with that, we start giving them the information of this is how everything works. We're giving them the why. Guys want to understand the why does administration make the decisions that they do. We're not perfect and at the end of the day we may make wrong decisions, but at the end of the day, it's all based on the fact that we have to answer to someone for something. So we do that and then One of the things that I had to cut out was I actually wanted to do a teachback day where we talked about actually making them instruct and break down lesson plans and lessons of instruction. And at the end of it, you know, they sit down, they take a test, they do an evaluation. we do upwards evaluations, downward evaluations. Also in the class, we go over every piece of departmental paperwork that they are expected to fill out and how to fill it out properly. So whether it's a first report of injury, workers compensation paperwork, shift transfer form, if people want to fill out shift transfer forms, let's see. We go through the entire disciplinary action process, lay out every piece in the disciplinary action process, talk about the different things and different infractions, we go over the city handbook. Essentially what we do is we break down everything that we can expect these future acting officers, these future officers. to know and give them just a little bit of it so that way they at least understand the bounce they're walking into.

Corley: Dude. Well that I gotta ask, like Where did that come from? Is that something that you were a part of? Did you walk into that and and have it proved it? Is it something that existed before you or is it has it been your brainchild? Because what you just rattled off was Like every fire department across the country needs that. Ian Schulte: Period. so I want to say it was a collective brainchild from sitting down with a bunch of the officers in the organization and it was this is the things that we need to look at and don't get me wrong, the state of Georgia has its own acting officer in charge or AOIC program. But the fact of the matter is is that's that's cookie cutter and that's meant to apply to my city to the next town over to the next town over to the next town over. Sure that's a problem with with a lot of these classes and even with like fire officer one, two, three, and four is that everything's brought to such a vague level when they teach it that it doesn't allow you to get down into your own organization. What I wanted to do is I wanted to take all these things Work with the instructors, work with the other members in administration, and I want to build a class that's meant for us, that this is what we can expect to do in our organization. Anyone who wants this information, I'll send you the framework, I'll send you all my presentations along with it. Not trying to do a shameless plug here, but I've been sending it out all day. I sent it out to I think DJ Stone earlier and a bunch of other people earlier this week. Because I believe the information needs to be out there, the framework needs to be out there. And I believe in the program so much that we need to be doing more of this. We need to be doing specially built programs for our own organizations even if we're using other people's frameworks.

Corley: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I you said that earlier about Preston reaching out to get it. And I was gonna I was gonna preface and say, hey, listen, we need to get this in as many people's hands as we can, but you already covered it and said make it happen. So absolutely, dude, I love that. O A I C acting off oh I'm terrible with letters. Okay. AOIC. You rattle it off so smoothly. Jeremy Hump coming at you. As someone who is highly active in the vigilante community. On Discord, what advice would you offer to individuals who aren't as engaged but want to become more involved or informed? Ian Schulte: Ask the question. If you want to be more involved, the only thing that's stopping you is yourself. If you want to reach out to somebody, if you want to be, especially with the vigilantes, if somebody wants to Talk with me, wants to talk with with you, wants to talk with even Hump. All you gotta do is send a message. We're all there because we want to invest in others. All of us, the only thing that we want to do is make the job better. Leave the job better than how we found it. So it's up to you to become as engaged as you want to be. It's the only thing that I can really say.

Corley: Why don't you open books? The killer answer. Kyle Piv came at you and said, Chief, where can we get the info for our own departments? Ian Schulte: The AOI, the AOIC. All right. If you are interested, you can reach out to me on any one of the social media platforms that I'm on, whether it's Facebook, you can reach out to me on Discord. with the vigilantes. I can probably work it where we can get everything uploaded into the V drive through our Wizards and whatnot. Corley: All the technological savvy people who who are better with computers than they are with yeah, than we are. Ian Schulte: Yeah. And If you send me an email to ishulte I-S-C-H-U-L-T-E, the number's 4521 at gmail. com. I will find a way to get it to you. Corley: Nice. Oh, it's hump. I don't want to I I I got a lot of hump and piv, which that's awesome. They ask great questions. I keep coming to them. Smoke Eater 18 wants to know being involved with training. And you're involved with training, not just at your own department, but you also go to conferences and you are an integral part of leading a lot of different things. But Being involved with training, how do you deal with conflicting views, opinions with other instructors? You may be teaching alongside and they have more seniority, but are stuck in, I don't want to say not wrong, but you disagree with their methodology.

Ian Schulte: Biggest thing that we have to understand is I might disagree with their methodology and they could disagree with my methodology. At the end of the day, I don't necessarily think that it is wrong unless it is Something that is inherently dangerous to the overall health and well-being of the public or the firefighter themselves. Sure, some things might have varying levels of recklessness, and let's just say a Done some pretty sketchy shit in over the course of my time. But whether or not I agree with it is irrelevant. I have to look at it from the objective standpoint, is what they're saying factually inaccurate Is it something that I can statistically identify or objectively identify as being a falsity? If it is, sidebar. Do not try and undermine the other instructors. Again, easier said than done. And always reinforce to the students that there are multiple perspectives when it comes to this. There are a thousand ways to do anything in this job just because I happen to prefer my way. You happen to prefer things your way. Try and work together as a team. And a lot of times it comes down to simple misunderstandings. I've personally seen this on the drill yard in the last couple months. was at a training event where some higher ups at the state level were questioning what was being taught when it came to Vent and Research. They could not necessarily rationalize that these firefighters were going in, they were searching, getting to the hallway Checking conditions in the hallway, making sure that nobody was in the hallway, shutting the door, going in, pulling the search, then going back to the door because conditions were clear, they proceeded to go on. So they extended beyond the door Sure. These instructors couldn't rationalize that because a few years ago that was that was a no-no. Sure. And taking that information, what we had to do after these students were questioned, sidebar with these instructors and say Hey, I know you guys teach at the academy and the academy has their way. This is actually what is now industry best practice. So provided them with a couple of articles that were by industry experts that showed that Beyond the Door was becoming more of a acceptable tactic. And with that, they were actually able to take that information back and they're working on amending the curriculum now at the state level.

Ian Schulte: So it come it comes down to just Don't be a dick, be a dude. If you disagree with someone, have a sidebar, talk about it, provide perspective to it, because perspective is everything. We could go down rabbit holes with that all day long and you know things that we've got. Yeah Corley: I think you like I I love don't be a dick, be a dude. Like you got a lot of of shirts and hats coming out of this episode already. People are making shirts and hats, and so they're coming. Yeah, someone the firefighters chalkboard said we need to put that on a t-shirt. Ian Schulte: Wayne, I owe you a phone call. Corley: I was gonna look at one here because it it tied into one of the call one of the topics you put down, which is higher education And Kevin Kate, C9N, wants to know how does higher education, college, correlate to competency on the job? Ian Schulte: All right. So I think he set me up here. Okay. He is one of my boys. Okay. so I never know. Corley: I never know, especially with the YouTube name changes. I don't know who everybody is and if they're associated. So go ahead. I can't A, I can't tell when they're trap questions. And B, I can't tell when they're soft tosses that are in your wheelhouse, but go for it.

Ian Schulte: Maybe it's a little bit of both with this one. So Post-secondary education, I do believe it is extremely important in the fire service, but I do not believe that it is extremely important in the fire service for firefighters. Degrees do not fight fires, firefighters do. But education is not the enemy of the firefighter. What is the enemy of the firefighter is ignorance So education, I think, is something that we could all take stock in. I'm not saying that to be a good backseat firefighter that you have to have a degree I absolutely don't think that. I think that to be a good backseat firefighter, you need to understand your job. You need to be going to conferences. You need to be plugged into the job. And you know what? Even if you don't go to conferences, you could still be plugged into the job via your phone. You can be out there studying data. You can be out there practicing your own techniques. But I do believe that as you get higher into the fire service, we start talking about your company officer, your administrative levels, whether your battalion. you know, Monday through Friday administration or even your executive level with your fire chief. I believe that education is extremely important. With that being said, the best way to prepare yourself for moving up the ranks is to start working on your education early So when you start looking at the associate level as a firefighter, you're starting to conduct more research and learn how to actually change that thought process of I'm thinking up. I'm trying to think like my boss thinks. I'm trying to look at things from a broader perspective. So to be honest, man. Building a professional development plan that allows you to embrace both the world of being a firefighter and being an administrator, it doesn't make you a sellout to the floor. It actually makes you more valuable. Because now you're able to communicate a little bit more the intent of what the big bosses upstairs are looking at because you're going through some of these thought processes in your education ahead of time. And I'm talking predominantly about going through like a fire service administration or fire service executive leadership type degree system because I'll tell you when I did my associates bachelor's and you know even my my master's, it was putting me in positions that I wasn't in, but thinking at that level.

Ian Schulte: So when I was going through my associates, I might have already been a company officer. So that one was kind of I I was already thinking at that level, but when I went through my bachelor's, I was starting to think like a battalion chief. I was starting to think like a a deputy chief. So I was looking at all these budget areas. I was looking at legal issues within the fire service and and how to manage all of this So I really think that the best way you can set yourself up for success if you want to be the person you want to be that change. That you should start focusing on education. The fact of the matter is that a lot of people would probably agree that there are a lot of paper tigers out there. Corley: Sure. Ian Schulte: For lack of better words. Corley: Yes. Ian Schulte: There are a lot of people who will sit here and go through education so that way they can be the person in the corner office calling all the shots. We don't need people out here who are just doing that beelining straight to the top. We need firefighters who legitimately care about this profession. who are going through all of the professional development stuff, going and getting your fire officer one through 27, getting, you know, all of your alphabet soup that goes behind your name. Because we need more firefighters who care about being firefighters, playing on that level, being able to make those decisions to make a better fire service.

Corley: Okay, I gotta write down 0900 my time, not your time. because yeah, that is that is I love the fact when you say education is not the enemy of the fire service, the of the firefighter, ignorance is Dude, I mean that encapsulates it right there. But the paper tigers, the term that I think applies, we all know them. They absolutely give it a few. Ian Schulte: Some people would call me one. Corley: I don't know if anybody that knows you would call you one. Ian Schulte: There's there's there's people out there who to who don't know me, who have thoughts, feelings, and opinions. And that's their right and prerogative. And it's up to me to prove them, to prove them wrong. Corley: I love it. I do love the answer. And there's a there's a level of humility running throughout this conversation. We haven't even gotten to being an introvert in an extrovert's world. And the effects that that has whenever you're thrust into the limelight from making a a post about backwards hats. Which is a whole nother animal. all right, let me see what else I got. Hump is asking Scott's question, so I'll throw it at you. If you were in the audience tonight, what question would you ask yourself?

Ian Schulte: Why do you do it? Why do you continue to do your job? Corley: Well, now you've asked it, now you gotta answer it. Ian Schulte: It's hard, man. and it's one of those questions that I've been asking myself a lot. Anybody who knows me, who knows that everything that's been going on the past probably five, six months, I've absolutely ran myself into the ground. It's affected me negative physically, it's affected me negative mentally. At the end of the day, I do it because This job deserves more and this job deserves better. And I don't just mean the place of employment. I mean this this Industry deserves people in these positions who who care who want to make the world a better place and especially in my job. I'm sure there's guys in my organization who could do the job better than me. But at the end of the day I'm the person in the position. I owe it to each and every one of them to give them 100%. And even though I might have burned myself into the earth trying to go out and do tough guy fireman things that didn't work out in my favor Everything that I do is for the betterment of somebody else.

Corley: Right on. Man, that's pretty powerful. That makes it a good place to to to to kill the questions and move to we'll move on to book or books that you think firefighters should be reading. Ian Schulte: All right, so books that I think that firefighters should be reading. First and foremost, Wisdom of the Bullfrog by Admiral, Admiral William R. McCraven I think that wisdom of the bullfrog is one of the best and easiest reads for officers and upcoming company officers Corley: And it's great because it is so it is such a quick and easy read. There's not a not a wasted fluff or anything. It's very concise. Ian Schulte: Absolutely. On top of that, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. If you've never heard of the infinite game, I think it's a fantastic book that really capitalizes on the fire service. So many of us look at trying to get wins and trying to basically win the fire service. The fire service came before us. It is going to be here long after us. We have to put the fire service in terms that this is an infinite game. You cannot win it. There is no defined timeline. There are no true defined rules. And when we start looking at it in that perspective of we we can't win, we can only have positive change or negative change, we can only have positive or negative impact in what we do with our time in here, it can really help Change the way that you approach the profession. In another book that I think that people should read, 30 Years on the Line by Leo D.

Corley: Stapleton Ian Schulte: If you ever want to read a book that was written for firemen, by firemen, 30 years on the line, have been through at least five or six copies because they seem to keep getting stolen. It is such a good book. Corley: No, Stapleton. Awesome. Dude, great list. Holy smokes. And I want to say one thing about because I'm a huge fan of Simon Sinick. Huge influence on it. Leaders Eat Last is my favorite leadership book, if I had to pick one. And The way I never e I've it blows my mind because it's such a simple thing to apply the infinite game to the fire service. I've never put it together because I love the concept that You don't win at marriage, it's an infinite game. You don't win at working out, it's an infinite game. But I've never applied it to the fire service. That's that's one of my favorite concepts. And you just put it there and I'm like, holy crap, how have I, how's that been staring me in the face and I haven't haven't bit down on that? So that's awesome. So thank you for that. So Amazing book. We do a thing here called The Five Questions for Firefighters. I know you are familiar, but we are on, I don't know, version 5. 1B 17, subsection six. And there are no right or wrong answers. There are only your opinions. And the points are arbitrary, passed out by me with the help of the audience. So I want to know, Ian Schulte, are you ready for the five questions for firefighters?

Ian Schulte: Send it. Corley: Here we go. You can do anything in the world except be a firefighter. What would you choose to be? Ian Schulte: If you were to tell me tomorrow that I couldn't be a fireman, first thing that you would have to do is you'd have to take away my shoelaces because I'm probably going to try and suckstart my shotgun. However, if I didn't have a choice. If I didn't have a choice but to leave the fire service, I would honestly probably be an attorney. reason being is because I love research, I love arguing with strangers. I try and look at the value of seeing things through different perspectives and trying to dismantle all arguments. I want to understand the root of why or what someone did and ultimately at the end of the day I would just love to be a pain in the ass to some poor fire chief, just for fun. Corley: Max points. Although attorney, I never would have guessed an attorney. but I do like the the the reason behind it, because there are no right or wrong answers. It's the reason that matters. One of my favorite questions right here, Smoke Eater18 says, he likes to pick fights. I love it. Max points, and they're agreeing. Max points are coming at you. Timestamp that from Daniel Venezuela. Number two, it's Job Town. It's time. You are in route and responding. Think of the scene from Backdraft when he's jumping on the rig and he's slapping that cassette tape into that deck. What song are you playing while in route?

Ian Schulte: Earn it by the ghost inside. Corley: Earn it. By the ghost inside. Well, I can say without checking with Sam, that one has not been put on the list. Ian Schulte: That's a little heavier than probably what most people put out there. Corley: I was gonna ask, what's the genre? Because I do not recognize it So very metal, I'm taking it? Ian Schulte: Hardcore. Corley: Hardcore, okay. Okay. Ian Schulte: Yeah, hardcore and maybe metalcore a little bit. Yeah. Corley: A little bit into the metalcore scene. I will be on the Spotify list, so I will listen to it when I work out. And that is a very diverse list now through the years. I want to say years. It's probably been, it's getting up there. Number three, you think I know the questions by now. Cold weather weekend at the station. Rig checks are done. Training is done. PT is done. You've done all everything that needs to be accomplished. Food is cooking in the crock pot. It's. . . The the town is silent. It's just, it's that typical, lazy, everything you can do is done. What is the movie? As you're clicking through the channels, you come across that movie. What's the movie? You stop and watch no matter how many times you've seen it. What is that movie for you? The Boondocks Saints. Woohoo. Great choice, sir. Love it. I don't know if we'll ever actually make a list of all the movies. That's probably something that needs to happen now at this point. Because I love that question. I really do. Because we've all been there when you're clicking through and and and and It doesn't matter if it's on USA and you know you're gonna watch like an hour's worth of commercials to watch the last hour of the movie, you'll still sit there and finish it. Even though you've seen it a hundred times number four, and max points one, two, three, by the way. Let me let me be clear. Number four, this one's on the clock. And I told Ian this before we started, because I'm saying this to everybody now, on the Mount Rushmore question. If You go over the time clock answering the question, it's not max points, period. I'm setting the expectation out the gate. This has nothing to do with Ian. This has to do with from now, I expectations are everything. So if you answer in six seconds and then talk for three minutes about the people, you don't get max points.

Corley: You you answer this question under a minute and be done and or you run out of time and you don't get max points. So anyway, I want to be clear on that. I'm going to say it for the next five or six episodes till it's well ingrained. On the clock, here we go. Ian, who is your four people you would put on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service? Ian Schulte: I'm gonna give you two Mount Rushmores. I'm gonna give you deceased legends. Leo Stapleton, who was the commissioner and fire chief of the Boston Fire Department, Ray Downing because of everything that he did to reorganize the rescue companies and the FDMY, Andy Fredericks because it's Andy fucking Fredericks. And then Miles Greenwood, who was the first paid fire chief of the first fully career fire department in the country, and that was the city of Cincinnati, who also invented the first steam engine. And then for my living legends, I would have Todd Edwards for a man who never sacrificed his principles as a fire officer and a fire chief, Dennis Laguerre, for his intellectual work when it comes to ancient company operations, discovering hose creep. Basil Abraham for his leadership from the front, his truck work, everything that he's done for Firefighter Survival and Rescue and the Firefighter Mayday Project, and Brian Brush for everything that he's done with the Firefighter Rescue Survey with 15 seconds left There you go.

Corley: I don't even know what to say. Like I just throw my pin and say, I want to give you not max points for going for eight, but you did it and you met the rules, the expectation, 14 seconds. You put eight, you threw up two Mount Rushmore, so I don't know what to do with that But then here's the thing. Yeah, someone said Smoke Eater 18 said game over. Crush it. No, how do I not give max points to Stapleton, Stapleton Downey, Fredericks because it's Andy fucking Fredericks. You quoting. And Greenwood, and then I'm like, okay, that's that's legends of the fight. And then he comes living legends, Edwards, Legir, Ibram, and Brush. Absolutely. And Sam said it best, this is the first, this is the first in the history of the scrap. You get max points twice. So that is four for four max points five times. However, that works out. Five max points is on four questions. So technically, you got nothing to lose on this last one. Heavy fire and searchable space And you set a new bar on that thing. Eight in in in I'm trying to do math here. 46 seconds. Heavy fire, searchable space. Would you rather be assigned to the nozzle or first in on VES?

Ian Schulte: V E S man. I prefer the challenge of truck work. Corley: B E S. And that officially, and Smoke Eater did follow it up. It says not max points. He didn't say crush, which is a valid point. It is a valid point. But absolutely max points. Five for five with the with the double on number four. First time ever in the history of the scrap. Ian Schulte, you just absolutely crushed the five questions for firefighters. Man, I can't say enough. Thank you for an unbelievably enjoyable evening and discussion. What is the best way? You told people earlier how to get a hold of you, but at the end of it, I always like to say, what's the best way to get a hold of you? So I'll just revisit it here. Ian Schulte: Yeah, you can find me on Facebook, Ian Schulte again S-C-H-U-L-T-E. A lot of people tend to forget that little German C that's in the end of my last name or at the beginning of my last name. can also find me on Instagram. Not s I mean I always check it, but I'm not super active when it comes to posting on that. Those are gonna be the two biggest ways to find me. Had my email address up here earlier or talked about it earlier, ishulti4521 at gmail. com. Can reach out to me there, find a way to get a hold of me. Always always happy to connect and try and help people as as best I possibly can.

Corley: I had to go look. I had to go look at the thumbnails we made. And so I'm like, God. So we left the C out of your last name. Ian Schulte: That's one of my it happens all the time. Corley: I dude, it's one of my one of my absolute pet peeves. I check I mean you can ask the well anybody you watch me make them. I like I check so many times. Oh, sorry. So I want to say it right out the gate. I apologize for that. It's one of my biggest pet peeves is when I mess up a last name Ian Schulte: Hey man, if I was that upset about it, I would have said something before now. Corley: Fair enough. Fair enough. But I had to go look. I was like, oh shit, wait a minute, because I'm looking at my notes and I did not put a C on my notes also. So it's on me. Ian Schulte: Honestly it's helped the flying or the radar a little bit better, so kind of prefer it Corley: That's fair. No, I I I live with the name Corley and I've been mispronounced so you know my whole life and I just tell people, hey, it's okay. I answer to Cory, I answer to to Tori. It doesn't matter. I'll answer to it. But it's still one of my pet peeps, so I apologize deeply. I know you don't care, but thank you for being gracious that I screwed up your name. all right Brand new thing we are doing, scrap challenge to the scrappers who are listening, a challenge to get done before next Tuesday scrap. What is your challenge to them?

Ian Schulte: Alright, so my challenge, and this is going to be more of an intellectual challenge, my challenge for the audience is to find a topic that you believe in. I don't care if it is you believe in duo safety versus alkalite, truss versus box construction, smooth bore versus combination, find something you believe in Spend 30 minutes to an hour trying to disprove every notion that you believe to be true. Who steel man it? Corley: Yeah. Ian Schulte: This Simple lesson allows you to be your own devil's advocate, allows you to collect more information about the world that you live in and to challenge. It is a challenge that's emblematic of a larger principle of the pursuit of truth. You see, these things that we know to be true are merely a matter of perspective in this profession. And things that we view as black and white, they're really not black and white. they're really just varying shades of gray. So by sacrificing what you know to be true in pursuit of knowledge of opposition, the only thing you're doing is approving your own worldview. You're accounting for more information. And that makes again, you're steel manning your own argument, like you had said. If you're always willing to challenge your own truth, you're always willing to sacrifice your own belief in you know, light of new knowledge. You're setting yourself up for success because this job is evolving at such a rapid rate. So find something that you believe in and Research its opposition for 20-30 minutes. Try and disprove everything that you believe to make yourself a better you.

Corley: Great. Love the challenge. I love it when you said it was an intellectual challenge. I love the steel man of it. And this is something that made me think of because we had a question earlier I don't know if I actually asked the question, but I saw the question go by. It says, I think you did. We did. Just remember that the person that's old and stuck in their ways and doesn't know the new stuff, they're the people that didn't go out. and steel man their knowledge. That that they didn't go out and say, hey, am I staying current? And so Ian's challenge right now is the person is is what will keep you from becoming That person in the future, which I know so many go-getters never see themselves as becoming that person, but neither did that person. Neither did that person at one time. They were a go-getter, not all of them, but some of them were a go-getter ones who whose knowledge was cutting edge at one time. you got me fired up again. You got me fired up again, Ian. this has been great. where am I at? guests that you think should be on the scrap. I'm always looking to expand or back on the scrap. Man. I'm being patient. I'm waiting.

Ian Schulte: Go figure. I didn't do notes on this one. I notes for everything, but I didn't have notes for this. Corley: No just your Mount Rush boards are amazing. Well obviously four of them I would have trip well three out of the four but yeah but go ahead board we can set up one all right hey I promise that'll be an attended scrap Ian Schulte: Oh man. Corley: I'm trying to think there's so many phenomenal individuals out there who I know you train with a lot and overwhelm, but you can always you can always text me and you can always email me and we will well I'll absolutely reach out. So I won't keep you on the spot. guest suggestion, good. I love it. If you think of somebody, let me know. Everybody else, housekeeping, go to patreon. com/slash the vigilantes. We've talked about them a little bit tonight. It's an amazing thing The Discord, the the like-minded souls that are in there, the people that support each other, the V drive, the if you want resources and things like that, again, they put together the the work of search. Vigilante's made that thing happen. And again, if you want to be a part, go become a part. It's worth it. we're gonna do a V50 on January 1. If you want to be a part of the V50 challenge, the V50 commitment, commitment, not a challenge. If you want to be a part of the V50 commitment that starts on January 1, jump in there and we're going to do it together starting January 1st and do a 50-day commitment together. and support each other. So all that's happening, of course, the after party, which is every every Tuesday night after the scrap. We're going to go in and we're going to bust Ian's chops about his performance on the scrap And with that being said, next week, Kyle Schuford coming up from Louisiana. We're going to be talking about, oh, there's there's a there's a laundry list of things. And then two weeks from tonight, Anthony Casanis. So I hope you are half as fired up as I am over the next two guests. Enough jabbering from me. It's time for the after party. Thank you once again, Ian Schulty, with a C in the name, for sharing your evening with me, with us, and for being such a phenomenal guest.

Corley: I enjoyed it immensely. Audience, you make the scrap magical each and every week. It would not exist without you. Thank you for tuning in live and thank you for the killer questions. Write down the pipe. Write down the pipe to Ian. And Ian absolutely crushed them. So thank you. I love you all. Remember, mutts don't scrap. I hope the tone stays silent unless it is burning. This job is not safe. So stay smart out there.