Weekly Scrap #238 - Robert (RJ) James, Capitol Fire Training

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 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 of 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 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 fire away is 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 They're numbered, they're exclusive, and we're figuring out how that's going to work out when we get together in person.

Corley: 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. Ban, 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 Here we go, it is Corley Moore, Firehouse Vigilance, weekly scrap, number 236. Robert James, RJ, is a 22-year veteran of the fire service, and I am excited about tonight's scrap. He started as a volunteer firefighter with the Cromwell Volunteer Fire Department. in Cromwell, Connecticut. He is currently employed with the Frederick County Fire Department in Frederick, Maryland, where he is a lieutenant in the Squad Operations Command assigned to the 2nd Battalion. RJ has received numerous citations awards from the Rockville Volunteer Fire Department, Frederick County Fire Rescue, and the State of Maryland. RJ has served as a lead instructor for many fire department trainings and works as an instructor with Frederick Fire Department's Training Academy and an instructor, Capital Fire Training LLC. He has written articles for many different trade magazines, taught on the National Fire Service platforms. There is a lot of people excited about tonight's show, and I am one of them. My brother, RJ, welcome to the scrap for episode number 238.

Robert "RJ" James: What's up my man? Jeez, that I feel like I just entered a basketball arena, man. That was that got me hyped just hearing about myself. Corley: I love it. I love it, brother. Is there anything anything you want to add to the intro? Anything you want to Throw in there. Robert "RJ" James: No, man, not at all. But thank you. thank you for that. It was actually a very nice welcoming and I and I appreciate it, man. I I honestly I'm I'm just glad to be here with you, bro. that's that's I'm just let's go. Corley: Okay, okay, nope. I'm excited, my man. I'm excited. Okay let's get the beautiful beautiful let me see what everybody's saying first. We'll catch up with everybody. We've got been excited to hear from RJ. He is doing some awesome stuff at a Capitol Fire training. Let's go with three rocker horns. That comes from Lawless Brothers Fire Tools Douglas Ott says RJ's passion always gets me fired up. Ariel Jackson said my man RJ. Scrapping time from Bradley Valiant Court. Checking in from LFD from Derek 8. Alright, I love it. I love it. On the Instagram, we got people logging in. Logging in. I'm looking for the hype, but it's too hard to scroll and see the hype. So There we go. Let's do the beautiful sponsor so we can get right to the scrap. Of course, always the original, the OG sponsor of the scrap is Keyhose. You can check them out online at Keyhose. com or follow them on Facebook. Affordable Drill Towers On a mission to bring you cost-effective and versatile training props. With more than 60 drill towers installed, the affordable drill tower comes in several configuration and comes standard with the standpipe system. Choose from one or two sets of stairs, place it against your connack boxes for multi story access or free standing on a slab. All models are NFPA 1402 compliant and gain you ISO credit. The only thing you can't do on an affordable drill tower is live fire training. Pump and roll using the affordable standpipe prop. Roll your affordable standpipe prop into the classroom for standpipe theory and then roll it into the parking lot and pump realistic flows and pressures. Comes with up to seven standpipe valves that can be upgraded to PRVs. The Affordable Belout Prop allows you to practice window bailouts, ladder bailouts, ladder high point rescues, only five feet wide, seven feet long The affordable brow out prop can roll under any twelve foot overhead door so you can train on the apparatus floor or in the parking lot.

Corley: Call Steve eight four four five five tower or drop an email to info at affordable drilltowers dot com And finally, FirestationFurniture. com provides a complete line of quality furniture for your firehouse. Firefighter owned and operated They understand the strain that firefighters put on furniture and offer furniture that's built to last. Visit www. firestationfurniture. com for more information. And with that We head right into scrap number 238 with my man RJ. So here we go. Get your questions ready. Kyle Romagus is in the chat. He is he is monitoring the chats. He is grabbing your questions. So if you have questions to throw at RJ or myself or Kyle in general get them into us and with that we're ready to go so let's kick it off And let's just let's just go right into it and just let's just punch it right in the face and go right to re the reality of fire service training. Robert "RJ" James: Man, you know that's that's a hot topic, Corley, and I'm really glad that that's something we can talk about tonight on the scrap. You know, I think that the fire service has done a complete 180 as it as it pertains to fire service training. and for the good, right? you know, back when I was younger, coming into the fire service, there was two fire conferences that you were able to go to, right? And now that you know the fire service has found so many more passionate instructors, so many people that are knowledgeable in so many different areas. You can essentially go anywhere now and and get fire training. I I'll tell you what, man, one of the best things that I've learned over the time of fire service training is the ability to be able to hear from subject matter experts. So many, so many guys and girls that you know I I grew up listening to. Now we're in the era where We have a new wave of people teaching these things younger as well, you know. And so I think that when it comes to fire service training, there's so many different areas that we can go to to get fire service training. I think if you look across the nation now, right, there's probably almost a conference or expo or something. Yes. And almost every state, if not every state every other state next to you, right?

Robert "RJ" James: Hell Florida has 10 fire conferences alone in just the great state of Florida, you know? So I think I think when it comes to fire service training, man, we're we're hitting the mark, man. We're doing a hell of a job I can't think of any profession that people that work in that profession are so passionate about learning like the fire service. You know what I mean? Corley: When you think about it, it's it's across the board, it's across the nation. You know what I mean? No, it's baked into our cake. Like it's it's it's built into it when you first especially when you first get into this job. And we and we all know the the people that are burnt out and the ones that that don't have the joy that they started with, you know, and that kind of thing But this definitely built right into our cake that we should be passionate and ate up and and just into this job. I love it man. I and I'll tell you this. Robert "RJ" James: I got into teaching at a really young age. I got into teaching when I was nineteen years old. I got to go to my first houseburn with with a guy on the job in Montgomery County. He took me under his wing. All I did was haul equipment I traveled with him, I hauled tools, I set up tools, set up props, and I got to be a part of it. And my very next time that I got asked to go, they asked me to lead a station. And I I I had so much fire in me that I was just like, man, this is awesome. That somebody respects me enough to ask me to teach and lead a station. Right. And I saw the students that I led, the look in their eyes when I was talking. And and and it it just sparked this thing with me and I was like I cannot stop with this and I want to go more and I want to do more and more and more and so literally I left that training and I was like Man, I want to learn so much more about teaching. Right. Because teaching is it does take a skill to teach, right? I wanted to learn much more about teaching and I found myself being around good guys who were good mentors, good teachers.

Robert "RJ" James: And I just was like, no, I want to emulate these guys and be like these guys. And then, you know, one of the biggest things, and I know you probably hear me say this a lot, and a lot of people probably listening probably hear me say this a lot. Like, I didn't invent none of this shit, man. I just found a cool way to deliver it. And and so like I look at I look at these different things and I'm like wow man like this is so awesome to be in this arena to be able to share knowledge of stuff that I've learned on the job over the years it's just one of those things and and not only that, being around it to learn from other experienced instructors. That's the biggest thing, you know what I mean? Not just because I'm an instructor being on one side of the of the of the floor than the other, but still being able to still learn while I'm teaching. It's just, I think we're in a great place for training, bro. A hell of a place Corley: No, no, with so much, so much information out there. It's almost to the point where we have so much information it's it's hard to separate the good from the bad at times You know, you have to it's hard to vet because there's so much information.

Robert "RJ" James: Which I know hardest part, man. It really is, the the vetting part because Here's the deal, like I was telling somebody just two days ago, I'm a fire investigator. I took a class on fire investigations because I needed it for promotion. But I'm not out teaching fire investigations. You know what I mean? That's that's not my that's not my wheelhouse. I don't have any experience in it. I've never investigated a fire. But that is one of the hardest parts that you mention of the fire service and teaching is vetting. You know what I mean? And yes. So I was thinking about this earlier today, right? When I was thinking about what we were going to talk about today, and I knew vetting was going to come up in this conversation And so one of the things I was thinking about is how would I respond to you if you asked about vetting and how do we properly vet people? Right. And one of the things I thought about is, you know, it is hard in some places where you don't you may have somebody who may not have the experience level or they may have not been in a place where they have the call volume But they're still trying their best to to infect the positive. They're still trying to do their best to teach others because at the end of the day somebody's gotta teach them, right? Right, right. And and basics will never die in the fire circle Basics will never die. So it is hard to vet. And I think the the people who are really invested in this job, they can see through it themselves to figure out who's who. You know what I mean? Does that make sense?

Corley: No, absolutely, brother, absolutely. Absolutely. And it is, there is, there is situations, especially in different areas, pockets and stuff, where you all, you know, the best you can get is the best you can get. And it you may not have someone with thousands of jobs under their belt who has the ability to come and teach there. And you gotta do with what you gotta do. And that is that is a tough a tough one. And it is a problem. you ready for your first question from the audience? Oh shoot, I forgot this is one of the I forgot people firing us up. TD TDFD Fireman3101 I'm assuming that's from Instagram, but I could be wrong. But he's coming at you, he said so many of your Capital Fire training segments are shorts. Posted on social media. What was the stimulus that made you realize short social media training was a good avenue for reaching the masses? Robert "RJ" James: So one of the things I I thought about when we were talking about how we can help train people and and this mainly stemmed from the pandemic right when everybody was cooped up in their house and everybody did most of their learning everybody did most of their work from their phones Right. and so I was trying to think of a way that we can reach people and how we can get knowledge to people and I figured you know social media was the best way to do it. I know there's people that say, you know, social media is killing the fire service, but I strongly push back on that and say that it's not killing the fire service if you use it the right way. Right. Right? We can't make people be firefighters through social media but we can spark their their interest in learning more about a subject to get their wheel spinning to take that to the next conference or the next expo to practice those hands-on skills right so You know, one of the other things is I too have the same problem that I'm getting ready to speak on is attention spans, right? and I think my mom is actually listening to this just FYI. So she I hope well she doesn't have Instagram so she can't chime in But Oh, we're everywhere. She can be YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, X, whatever they call it now.

Robert "RJ" James: So I have a really short attention span myself. I think any fireman does Right. And and I think the biggest thing is yo get to the point. What are you trying to say? Spit it up. And so I think that's where we came from with the Capitol Fire Trending Quick Tips was getting to the point, spinning out the information enough to get your wheels spinning, enough that you can say, hey, the next conference that's near me or by me, I want to go try this skill or practice this tactic. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people message us, Capital Fire Training, or the guys from Capital Fire Training. And say, hey man, thanks so much for sharing that. I never would have thought about that. Or or you know, hey, there's another way you can do this. And and and you know, everybody's Engaged in learning. Everybody's engaged in talking. that's the whole reason why we did quick tips because Instagram only gives you a minute and 37 seconds to get your point across And I think that we've met the mark by getting our point across, teaching you just enough to get your wheel spinning. Maybe it might help you, maybe it may not. Maybe it's something you already know. but somebody out there is learning something in that minute and 37 seconds to include me I'm watching other people's shorts and other people's reels and I'm learning you know, stuff from the fire service just as much as watching them as somebody's watching me, you know what I mean?

Corley: And even if you can't spend the thirty minutes or twenty minutes, whatever it takes to to deep dive into the technique or whatnot, you're sparking that interest. Yeah. So that so that they can go out and find out more. Robert "RJ" James: Yeah. And that's what it's all about, man. Getting people engaged. You know, I've had a couple comments, pretty shitty comments, actually. People like, hey, this is not new. This is something we've been doing for many, many years. And my pushback to that is this. There is a lot of stuff that we do, Capital Quick Tips, that is not new. It's stuff we have been doing for a long time. But one of the biggest things I I push back with anybody is by saying Have you shared this information? Right? Like I said, nothing in this that I'm teaching I invented. I found a cool way to deliver it. But are we sharing this information, right? Corley: Right. Robert "RJ" James: If if if I learn something and it stays with me because I want to be better than the next guy, well then the next guy sucks because I didn't help that guy. You know what I mean? So We have to share the information. If we're not sharing the information, then it just it sticks with the person who who got it first. And that's when we're not about that at all. We we try to share as much as we can with everybody Whether you whether you already knew it or not, there's somebody who's learning for the first time. You know what I mean?

Corley: No, I love it. People chiming in. The internet, Andrew Johnson says, is greatly expanding the information sharing. Within minutes, someone can share over social media a document with a total stranger to spread quality tools and materials across the fire service. Clay McGee says the quick tips are awesome attention grabbers. As someone who writes articles, I often find myself selectively scanning articles as I read them because my attention span is so short, which ties right into what you're saying. Robert "RJ" James: Yeah, and and here's the thing, man, right? Clay Clay Clay, especially, he's one of my buddies, man. And he posted something the other day, and I learned something from him, and we share information back and forth But like it was cool, man. We engaged in a in a in a great conversation about a tactic that he shared, right? And and I thought about it after I was messaging Clay back. I was like Man, this is what it's all about, man. Guys just sharing information back and forth. Because here's the deal, Klay's got a huge following too, right? So now guys get on Clay's page and they see what Klay's talking about. They see me engaging with Klay. They see what I'm talking about Now me and Klay had two different opinions about one task, but both of us having a respectful conversation about it, guys see that man, and and it it's infectious, bro. It it just I can't get over the fact of how infectious we can be by just talking to each other about the job and the and and and the skills. You know what I mean?

Corley: Love it. Okay, there's tons of questions cut. The questions are starting to stack up. So we'll get there. I'm gonna go to Spencer Rusnell. I like this question because it's on topic right now what we're talking about. You spoke about the short attention span, which is very common now. How do you keep people's attention spans during longer training sessions? Passion. Robert "RJ" James: When you have passion, it'll the attention their attention spans will keep o on its own, right? students can see through that man and and honestly I think that when you talk with passion If you're engaged in it, you believe in it, you're speaking of it, and you have energy with you, they have energy with it So I don't do anything without energy. Man, what you saw how we started this podcast. Yeah, it was some energy. I don't do nothing without energy, man. And here's the deal. Why not? We have the best fucking job in the world, bro. Corley: Yes. Robert "RJ" James: Like, why can't we not have energy? And if we're going out and teaching about things that we're passionate about The energy will come naturally. The students will feel that energy. I'm telling you, man, there's no class that I don't end on time because We have s we we just bring energy and and it's it's it's it's contagious, you know?

Corley: I hope that answered this question, but Oh dude, it's a it's dude, yeah, it's time stamped because that was what that might be what I what I open the show with when I make the recording I love it. I want to read you this one because this is from this is from Kyle Ramagus. Smoothboard Cartel said, I don't remember ever watching one of the quick tips that starts with, hey guys, this is some shit I just invented, right Yeah. And he's highly sarcastic. Robert "RJ" James: And then he's right. Corley: Brian Richards says he RJ has to start the next one with that line. Alright. Next question. I'm reading it. I'm reading it's a long one. okay, this one's coming from Nate Shula. This is a shorter one. We'll go with it. and you can go whichever direction. I know you put a lot of time and energy into this, but he said, what was the biggest takeaway from the Key City Conference? Because this you can tell people what this was. This is something you were you were a big mover and shaker on making this happen up in your area, right? Robert "RJ" James: Yeah, so my department we just held a conference called the Key City Fire Conference Key City being the nickname for Frederick, which is nicknamed after Francis Scott Key, who was from Frederick. So Frederick's nickname is Key City But we just held our very first fire conference. there was a committee of seven of us that worked on putting it together. and one of the biggest things that we wanted to push for this conference was to bring brotherhood to our department. We have a really, really good, I would say training regiment in our department where it's almost to the point where it's too good that people don't leave. And one of the things I've noticed is over the many years of me teaching, I have hardly ever seen anybody from my department outside at these other conferences taking classes or doing anything because they get a lot of it right here in in our hometown. Okay. But what we wanted to do was we wanted to bring in a different look of people who can share different insights to the fire service. That was the biggest thing we were pushing for The next biggest thing was we have a lot of really, really good stand-up firemen and officers in our job.

Robert "RJ" James: Some of them have never been afforded an opportunity like you or I or many other people to have a national platform to teach on So what we wanted to do was we wanted to build our own national platform for our own guys to stand on, be proud and be comfortable. to have a platform in their yard that they can use to push themselves up to another platform. We had I would say 10 12 different guys from our job who taught a class or presentation for the very first time. Nice. And you know, a lot there was there was a couple guys who before they walked out of their their classroom, before they closed their laptop There was somebody saying, hey, can you teach this class at another venue or another department somewhere? And and that's what we wanted. We wanted to give our guys an opportunity to be on a national platform to spread their message and to share their knowledge. because maybe they just may have not had that opportunity to have a platform or pick get picked to teach at a conference. So we wanted to highlight our own people and to make it where they was you know they were comfortable and to make it so that it had the the drive and the passion we took some of the well-known instructors and brought them in as well and mixed them in with our guys and now you had a a complete conference full of good guys and girls that wanted to share knowledge. So that was the that was the driving force to the Key City Fire Conference, which I thought we had a very good turnout for it. We had over 200 people in attendance for the lectures and 145 people showed up for hands on training. So yeah, that was the job and force.

Corley: Love it, man. Absolutely love it. And and no not heard nothing but great things about the amount of energy and passion and and exp the display of brotherhood going on at Key City, man. Robert "RJ" James: You know, I'll tell you this bro, and and this I I don't I don't feel bad for saying this publicly or nationally, but we struggle with that. We struggled with that in our department because we our department six is 65. We have 600 guys on the job and 65% of our department is young So 65% of our department has less than five years on the job. So a lot of these guys and girls coming onto the job, they don't know what they don't know. And so a lot of them, we're seeing this turnover now where you got people getting into the fire service. They're they're brand new at this. They don't have any family members in this. They don't have any ties to this. So they have to learn all this from from scratch. And the best thing that we can do is put them in an arena, put them in an environment put them around other people like you and I and a lot of these people who are listening that that travel and go to these conferences and and do these things and take these classes. Take our people and put them in that arena so they can learn that brotherhood, learn that sisterhood from other people who do this on a regular. And now it bec it becomes its own culture. You know what I mean?

Corley: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely yeah, I don't know if it's doing it or not. I don't know how Instagram's doing, but that's fine. We'll just let it do its thing. Don Sapp said the conference was an awesome display of brotherhood what is your what is okay Tyler Tyler please Bever I like your question but I need to know more information on your on your senior guy. Is he reluctant to teach? Is that what you're asking So give me more information or is he just shy? I mean give me more. John Eric Johnson wants to know this coming at you. what would you recommend to an officer who has subject matter knowledge but may not have the real fire experience to teach his crew For example, you gotta perform at high-rise, but you've never really been and and fought high-rise fires. What what what's your suggestion there? Because you have the knowledge, but you don't have the actual experience, but you're responsible for training your crew Robert "RJ" James: You just say that, right? You just say that. Guys, listen. I don't have the experience behind this, but I'm going to do the best I can in sharing what I have learned over this. I've gone to some different high-rise conferences. I've gone to some different training and classes on this. And listen, guys, the best I can do right now is just share the knowledge that I got from learning from these other guys. We'll work through this together. Because just as much as you may not have that experience as an officer, if you have a younger group of people behind you, they may not have the experience to either So all of the the whole shift, the whole tour, the group, whatever you guys call it, everybody's learning together, right? And the one thing that's Your subordinates really want to see is an officer who can stand in front of everything and say, look, guys, I don't have the answers to everything, but I'm going to do the best that I can to give you what I do know. And check it out. The next high-rise conference that comes up, we're all going to go together. We're all going to learn together. We're all going to come back and we'll practice this together. And guess what? You know, when it does happen, we're ready to go together. You know, I I'll tell you right now, I have no shame in saying I don't know something.

Robert "RJ" James: I just literally told you I'm a fire investigator by paper. I don't know shit about fire investigations, right? But you just say that I don't I don't know it. And and I think you'll gain a lot more respect from your people by saying that because we can't be experts in everything just because we're an officer. I'm an officer. I'm not an expert in every everything. You know what I mean? And that that's just the way, that's just the way it is. Hopefully that that helps him, you know. Corley: Oh dude, that's a that was a beautiful answer. In fact, it might be the timestamp. There's there's quite a few timestamps now. How many timestamps you gonna make, bro? Keep on keep on sending them, brother Keep on saying until I run out of paper. I'll put it that way. We'll do this all night. I'm having a great time, man. Thanks for having me, bro. Bro, I'm glad you're here sharing sharing your passion, your energy, and the knowledge. And there's still this the questions are still stacking up. So Lawson Anderson wants to know, what are your best tips for trading when resources, props, space buildings, etc. are limited?

Robert "RJ" James: I come from that I can't that's the typical answer for my department. We don't have money. We can't do this. We can't do that. I can tell you for sure, man, the best way to go about that is to research different things that you want to do. So you want to have a door prop. Door props now. I I tell you door props now like 10, 15, 18,000. There's corporations, there's departments, there's companies. They can't put that money up for a door prop, right? And I'll tell you right now, I'll tell anybody, listen, if you need help with a door prop, since we do a lot of force-quartension Email me and I will send you schematics that you can print off and take to a local fab shop and say, Hey, can you make me this please? Alright. So the best thing you can do is every where this is a fire service. One of the greatest things about the fire services In your firehouse somewhere, there is a carpenter, there is a electrician, there is a plumber, there is somebody who's skilled and building or doing something with their hands that you want to do You can essentially get out here in this community and your community and find things and and and make it happen. We got guys on the job where I work at they used to go dumpster diving at job sites, construction sites to get lumber to build props back at the station, right? So it's all about how how much energy you want to put into it to make it work. I'll tell you, man, there are a lot of people who are still in our community who are still about the fire service and want to help the fire service. I guarantee that you can go somewhere and say, hey, listen, you can go to a fab shop and say, hey, listen, we want to practice XYZ technique. We don't have the funds to put up to buy these expensive props. However, would you be willing to help us by making us a prop And you know, we can scround some pennies together to make this happen. But most importantly, we would love to give you a public shout-out for helping us We want to thank you for doing this and hopefully generate some business to you for what you're doing for us.

Robert "RJ" James: We've done that many a times on the job. I've done that personally. I'm still doing that to this day. So I think that if you really, really put your nose to the grindstone, you can find somebody in your company that has the hands to make something work if you can dream it up on paper. That's how a lot of these props that were invented to begin with. You know what I mean? Corley: No, absolut brother, I love it. 100%, man. Killer. And I'm trying to figure out which questions I want to throw at you. They're sending them. Hope you're enjoying it. All right, Tatter Bever has a has a he has a senior guy. He's a new company officer. He has a senior guy on his crew that has only got eight months left The younger people on his crew don't really want to listen to the old guy. So what's your best tips for getting his young crew to buy into that old guy and getting his knowledge before he's out the door? Tell him to chill the fuck out. He's got eight months. He's gonna be out le he's gonna be leaving anyway, right?

Robert "RJ" James: No, but I'm just kidding. But look, man, here's the deal. I I don't know if this is right, wrong, or a different But he's a senior man. And and that's that's just what it is. Our senior guys on the job deserve a lot of respect. Now, let me be clear about this statement that I just made about the senior guys getting respect Right, the senior guys deserve respect if they have earned the respect. As a company boss, I I too have found myself in this situation many times, right but here's the deal, like we can navigate working around this guy. He's the senior guy. But if it's detrimental to the shift, if it's detrimental to the group, as the boss, I need to go to that guy and say, hey, listen. John, I know you only got eight months left, but here's the deal, man. These guys really look up to you. These guys want to learn from you. Help me help these guys because when you're gone in eight months, it's me with them And I am not gonna have you. So share your knowledge with them. Share your knowledge with me. I need your help. I think that our society now. wants people to ask them for something. They want to feel needed, right? So I I too like that, right? If somebody comes to me and says, hey RJ, can you help me with this? Hey RJ, what's the good force my entry prop to use hey RJ what's a good force my entry tool I I like that I feel honored that somebody would ask me for my opinion or my help right So I think that if you went to a senior guy and said, hey, John, help me with this, man. I would like for you to leave me with some input. I would like for you to train these guys. because you're gonna be gone. Help help me build a good ship before you leave. I think that as a senior man, that guy would be honored to to to help, to be honored, to teach these young guys and girls what he knows, right? And if he's not, then he's a fucking asshole. He's gonna be leaving in eight months anyway. So what difference does it make? You know what I mean? But I think that's the best way to navigate that situation is to help that guy know that he's needed to help share his knowledge with the other group.

Corley: Doing a love that that that whole bit value him and make him feel needed because that's just part of our human nature. We all share that, man. That's just that's just part of existing. And I love that. I'm tossing up a storm when my mom's listening. I gotta be careful, Corey. Okay. They said they said hi to your mom on Instagram. They said hi to your mom. I think they meant RJ's mom. They may be talking to my mom, but they said hi mom. So she's watching. Alright, pulling up the notes. Oh man, I closed I closed my my my my question list. Okay Jake Deal coming at you. I like this question, Jake. Thanks for sending it. What do you see as the most important role a company officer most important he said role, but you can also say skill as a company officer to spark that passion in your firefighters? Corley, say that one more time. What do you see is the most important role as a company officer to spark that passion in your firefighters? You gotta have it. Robert "RJ" James: You gotta have the passion. If you don't have the passion, you can't spark a passion, right? So I think like you know the same thing as as you know you guys were saying about me, right? Energy If you have energy, they have energy. It's attitude and energy are the two most contagious things that we have in the fire service If you bring energy, they have energy, right? If you bring with a shitty attitude, they have a shitty attitude. So I think that attitude and energy is the two biggest things that we can bring to the table I think that when you start having that, you start showing that, and you start bringing it, they automatically will absorb that and they they have it too. I think that, you know, there's days, man, I'm not even going to bullshit you. There's days I'm not feeling it, right? There's days that I'm just like, hey, man, I've just, today's not my day. I'm off. But there's days where you have to just try to suck it up and say, look, man, let's put our best foot forward. We got young guys and girls on the job now and they're watching me And they're seeing how I am acting. And so therefore, if I act this way, they're going to act this way.

Robert "RJ" James: So I need to bring. that energy level to to the to the group to the tour whatever now don't get me wrong right we can't put on this this show for 24 hours we can't put on this this facade that we have the energy all day for twenty four hours and if and if anybody's acting like they do they're they're lying right But what we can do is we can put turn on that energy for the time being, right? So I can say hey guys, look, I'm not feeling it today But we're gonna do this drill at two o'clock. And at two o'clock, we're gonna put our best foot forward for an hour and a half to two hours. We're gonna knock this drill out of the park. And then at the end of that, we're gonna go back to chilling and having a good rest of the tour running calls and doing everything else, the little nuanced things in between. No, I love it. When your ship sees that, right? And they say, yo, Lieutenant James or Captain So-and-so, just he He told us up front he didn't he wasn't feeling it today, but this guy came out and he gave us his all during the training and then now after the training the guys are chilling the guys are working on lunch or they're working on dinner or or they're doing little miscellaneous projects working on maps this that and the third that resonates with the guys and say you know what man he's a human being he can't always have the high level energy but when it's time for him to have it he has it and that's the most important part And that's what it is, bro.

Corley: I love it man. Authenticity, lead by example. And I also like cause people are saying you can't fake it. It's gotta be real. And and you know, cause firefighters will smell it when it's fake. They'll they'll they'll sniff it out if you're just if you're just talking it. But you said it. You said you just gotta be real with them and say, look, I'm not feeling it today, but we're all gonna feel it right here. We're gonna we're gonna bring it and then hey, we'll go back. I I love c setting the clear expectations. You know, because then they can Robert "RJ" James: Thank you. If you don't have clear expectations, right, then all it does is it sets us up as officers for failure. But to their defense, did they know what the expectation was? Corley: Right. Robert "RJ" James: You know what I mean? And and that's that's how you gotta look at it. Corley: So well now I gotta read this one to you because it comes from Theron James and he said TJ doing on here he says your brother's watching too. He just wanted you to know. Hey Theron, what's up, bro? Thanks for tuning in definitely can't fool the people or the fire. Yes, man. I like that. Make just a little bit of time count. That creates max respect, I think, too. That comes from Jake Deal. Okay, getting back to the questions. Hey, audience Great questions tonight. RJ, unbelievable answers tonight. So just keep on sending them. He'll keep you guys keep sending them down the middle. RJ will keep crushing him out of the park. Yo Corley, listen man.

Robert "RJ" James: I'm just being real, bro. They ask the questions and we just keep it real. That's what that's what this is all about, right? Keeping it real on on the 5000 podcast. Corley: 100%, bro. Hey, you're killing it. I can hype you up because you are absolutely killing it. Cody Brooks, I'm gonna save that for the five questions, Cody. I appreciate the question, but I'm gonna save it because it gets into the five questions. Spencer Russell wants to know, what is your favorite skill to teach? Does he know me? Robert "RJ" James: I don't know. Do you know Spencer? I'll tell you what, man. I think anybody who knows me knows my favorite skill to teach is force point. Down and dirty, baby. I love forcible entry. And let me explain the reason why. Forceable entry is the most basic skill that we have in the American fire service. People will always, always, always need basic skills taught to them. And I love teaching the basics. There is nothing in the American fire service that we do outside of bailing out of a window that is advanced. Everything that we do in the fire service is basic Stretching a line that's taught in fire one and fire two. Throwing a ladder, that's taught in fire one, fire two. Forcing the door, that's taught in fire one, fire two Everything outside of building out of the window, right, is a whole another class that we take that we that we take or teach. Everything else is basic. I love when we can take a basic skill and just beat it down to the point where people learn the basics that everything hinges off of the basic skill. On top of that, forcible entry is one of those skills that is so basic that once we learn the basics, now we can make enhancements to it, right? So if people have ever taken a capital fire training class or see how we teach. We add variables to a basic level skill, right? So no longer are we just forcing a door standing in front of it. Now we're forcing it standing on stairs. Now we're forcing it in tight hallways. Now we're forcing it with zero visibility. Now we're forcing it with heat. Now we're forcing it where you have so much trash behind the door that you can't even get the door open.

Robert "RJ" James: Now we've taken a basic skill and we made enhancements to that basic skill. I love teaching force for entry. But whoever asked that question, let me be clear. I'm a fireman. I love teaching anything that I know and that I feel I have a good grasp on right. I can should I'll show up tomorrow and teach you how to stretch a line. I am not the most ideal engine guy, but I have the basics down of being able to stretch a line Getting it off the rig fast, getting it to the door fast, and masking up fast, and being able to put water on the fire fast. Anything that's basic, I love teaching. I'm a fire. That's how it goes. Corley: There you go, man. I don't know how many side timestamps I can do, but we'll find out. We're definitely working on it. I'm a fireman. All right. Andrew Dio said, loved learning forcible entry from RJ in the academy. Frederick is very lucky to have a guy like this teaching in the academy. Zach G said have to have that foundation to build off of. Joe, driver Joe, Joe Wiz says, truck work. That's my man RJ. So there you go. Oh yeah. You ready for a longer question? Send it. Alright, this one's from Greg Crete, and he wants to know, I've just been appointed training officer for a department that's had subpar training. Since I started, and I ended up training alone most shifts, but the work has paid off and now I will be solely responsible for training every crew. What advice would you give a private that's been handed the keys to training? We don't run many fires, so everyone thinks we don't need to take this job as serious. I'm stoked but nervous at the same time. What advice do you have to make sure I'm successful in my new role? Who sent this question? This is from Greg Creet, and I might be I got the answer for Greg.

Robert "RJ" James: Okay. Here's the deal, Greg. Listen You can't do this by yourself. All right. So you need to get the buy-in from other people. You're gonna have to get buy-in. One guy can't travel to all these stations. One guy can't bring all these stations in and teach the fire service to an entire department. So what you need to do is you need to find who you think are the best guys in a lot of different subjects, right? And you find those guys and you bring those guys to you and you say, hey guys, listen I want to build a training regiment in this department. I want you to teach engine ops. I want you to teach truck ops. I want you to teach EMS. I want you to teach rescue. All right. You are what I feel is the best People, guys, and girls in our department in these subjects. And even if they're not, you tell them that they are right because now you have got the buy-in from these people to help you build out a training regimen That now other people will look forward to taking classes from these people. As well as now those guys, just like we said a few minutes ago, Corley. Now those guys say, wow, I really respect Greg for Greg bringing me in to help teach something XYZ that Greg feels I'm passionate in. Now those guys are gonna give you all of what they got because they are just ecstatic that you asked them. Now, Greg, the guy that you brought in for truck, the guy that you brought in for engine, the guy that you brought in for EMS, the guy that you broug When four rescue Are all now gonna give you their best. But be clear on this, Greg. You tell all of those guys up front, this is my expectation of training. This is how I view it. This is how I want it to go. I'm bringing you guys in because you guys are the SMEs in this particular subject. However, I don't want to shortchange our training and I don't want to shortchange our program. So this is what I'm expecting of you. Please help me deliver this and I guarantee your program will go just exactly the way you want it as long as you're up front about how you want it to go.

Corley: Clear expectations, make them feel needed, value them. Dude, I love how it's all tying together. I really do. I really do. Great answer. Great answer, man. No, great question, Greg. Thanks for sending it. And a great answer. Connor Salva wants to know, how should younger guys approach the officer for more hands-on training? Robert "RJ" James: I think that That's a fair question. And I think that that's one thing that we are struggling with in the fire service. Is talking to people, right? So I think that you go to your officer and say, Hey boss, can I talk to you for a minute Listen man, I am really, really dialed in and I really want to be able to provide the best for you and our group I want to do more training. I want to better myself. Is this something that we can do here as a shift? And I am one of those guys. I do not like people coming to me with a problem without a solution. So you need to also go to him and say, hey, boss, captain, lieutenant, sergeant, whatever. I'm even willing to help organize the training. I'm willing to put forth the effort. I'll figure out how to make this happen. I just need your support to get behind me when I put this out or bring it to the shift. I think that that's the best way you can go about that, right? You bring that to the officer, you bring that to the boss You tell him that this is what you want to do and this is how you're willing to facilitate it and do it. What boss can honestly say no, especially when it's no work for them to have to do if they you have a subordinate willing to put forth all the effort As a boss, I would love that. I would love to walk. Bro, I'll tell you, there's been many times I'm working in a company because you know I'm a I'm a float boss. I cover many different spots There's been many times I'm in the office. I'm doing a log book or doing something. I walk out of the office because I'm like, man, it's fucking quiet. I haven't heard from anybody in a while. What's going on? And I walk out of the office and guys are training. Right. And and it's like, oh shit, guys, why don't you tell me we're training?

Robert "RJ" James: Right. So as a as a boss, I would love for somebody to come to me and say, hey boss, I want to facilitate this training, I'll put it together, I'll take care of it. I've done the research Here's what I want to share. Here's what I want to bring to the group. Are you cool with this? And what boss would say no? You know, and at the end of the day, if there are, because I I I see a lot of these things, I watch these podcasts. or these these shows and I hear that these guys have these nightmare of bosses right at the end of the day you you have a boss like that so you know what you do you just you do it anyway you go you know you say hey guys check it out I've been thinking about practicing this. Let's go out here and practice this. And if nobody wants to get down with it, you go out and do it yourself. But guess who will look sharp when it when it when it comes down to it? Is the guy who's out practicing it, right? And then on the incident, when it comes when it comes to fruition You can say, hey guys, look, I was trying to show you guys this. I was trying to make it happen, but nobody really wanted to get down. Hopefully, maybe you can see that this we have a value for this now. Let's make it happen

Corley: Right on, brother. Right on. Mark Alone wants to know it seems like a lot of people lose their passion from the daily grind. What's the best time management tips to keep your people spending more of their time on the best parts of the job Robert "RJ" James: I'll tell you, I I've spent my entire career working in busy companies. I came out of the fire academy, I went to engine one, tower one on the west side of Frederick That's the s first or second busiest firehouse in the in the county, depending on what year it is, right? I left I left Engine One. I did a four-month detail stint at a rescue company. It's like, you know, kind of slow. I went back to Engine One and then I went to the south side I went to rescue three I was over there for eight years so I only really know busy companies right so when I got promoted I had to I had to bounce out I had to I had to pack up I had to leave and now I see myself working in slower companies I have found the key to being able to get through a 24-hour tour working in some of these slower companies is to dissect your day, right? So There's for us, right? We do a 24-hour tour. So right, that's two 12-hour blocks, right? So if I find something to do in the first 20 or first 12-hour block Right? Let's PT. Let's let's get out. Let's physically train. Let's let's get our our morning. Let's get you know our energy level up. Let's get physically fit for the job. That's something in the first 12 hours And then we do something in the second 12 hours. So we do a training drill. So I don't care what the drill is, but we do some kind of training in the second 12-hour block. Now, there's two events happening in two 12-hour blocks. Now, if you take all of the time for the first 12 hour blocks, we start at 6 out at 6 a. m. Right? So from 6 to 7, we're pretty much doing lineup. We're doing apparatus checks, blasé, blasé, grocery store on blasé, blasé PT and then we're preparing for lunch. Well that takes you pretty much to noon, right? So you've already covered the first half of the day.

Robert "RJ" James: Now the second half you have guys that are kind of just recuperating from lunch Now we hit them with a training. And then after that training, that we actually brought the shift together and we're actually working on a task or a skill or something like that. Now that's a couple hour process. Right after that process, we're starting to work on dinner, prepare for dinner. And now you look at it, your whole day is shot. Your whole Day Shah. So I would say the best piece of advice is to take whatever your tour is. So if you have a 24-hour tour, dissect that in half and then put something in the first half and put something in the second half. If you have a 12 hour tour, dissect that in half. So if you do 12 hours, do something in the first six hours and something in the in the second six hours Now you got your tour filled up. Plus, don't forget you still got to run calls and you still got to do all the other shift stuff, the housework, all that. Your tour goes by pretty quick, bro, to be honest with you

Corley: No, I love it. I love it. John Lawless coming at you and says, I'm a floating officer as well. How do you set expectations with a crew you don't normally work with and that you may only be with for a shift or two Robert "RJ" James: I live in that realm, right? So here's the deal. I like to go in and I like to feel out the group. Alright. So after once after doing a couple rotations around, you kind of get the understanding of how each shift moves. But in order to start the process, you gotta say, hey guys, listen, I'm I'm new with you guys. All right, give me the rundown of how we conduct business And I usually will go to the senior guy first with that. Hey, hey, tell me how we conduct business. How do we handle these particular calls? What goes on this? What goes on that? How do we navigate the day? Hey, most importantly, one of and department I work for, and anybody listening and from Frederick knows this is the most important thing you need to know if you work in my department. How do we handle getting dispatched to a house fire with people trapped? That is the most important question that I need to know the answer to because everybody moves differently when that call is dispatched. You get a house fire of people trapped. Sometimes the engine crew wants to stretch a line. Sometimes the engine crew doesn't take a line. Sometimes you have the ambulance crew stretch a line. There's so many different variables that I need to know what is exactly how this shift navigates for that particular incident. Once I figure that out, unless it's completely egregious I go with it, right? I'm just a visitor. And and and as a as a as a detailed boss, you have to understand you are a visitor in somebody else's house. and I'll be honest with you, when I was a senior man, don't be fooled, I left as a senior man in my company, right So when I was a senior man, when we had detailers in the company, right, I respected that guy who came to me and said, hey, what do you guys do for these particular situations? How do you guys navigate the shift And on top of that, if somebody didn't have or feel comfortable coming to me with that question, I would go to them with that answer.

Robert "RJ" James: Hey boss, just so you understand, just so you know how we move. This is What happens for this, this, this, and this. So I think by as of being a float lieutenant, letting the crew do their thing. If you go in there and you try to change up things and try to interject your opinions and how things should be, they're going to tell you get the fuck out of here, right? I would do the same thing too, to be honest with you. Right, but unless it's agreed, just roll with it. you're a visitor, but most importantly, you will gain the respect and the buy-in from those guys, right A lot of times I will if I'm floating in for the first time, I just sit back and watch everything. Because I'll be back. I'll be back again. You're gonna see me again. So when I come back again, I might even watch it again for the second time, right? Alright, guys, check it out I watched this for a couple tours now. This is what I think we should do. And not to belittle or discredit the boss that's regularly assigned here But just appease me for today. While I'm here, let's do this just while I'm here. This is how I like to do things. It makes me feel a little more comfortable. Can you just appease me by doing this particular task this particular way? And Ultimately, one of the biggest things I learned being a detail boss, I go to that normal boss and I say, hey, brother, just FYI, just so you know I told these guys to do XYZ and that's just while I'm here. Whatever you have with them in place, you can keep that thing going. But I just want you to know if if they show up or bring or do something different. That's the reason why. I have not found one boss that I work with on the job in Frederick that's been like, hey man, that's a no-go. And most of them say, hey, thanks for giving me the heads up. So that's how you navigate being a detail boss

Corley: Beautiful man. There you go. Steve Kaiser coming at you says, if you have a busy shift to tour, do you still push training? That's my Australian accent, by the way. Robert "RJ" James: If you have the busy tour, do you still push training? Corley: Yeah. Robert "RJ" James: Man, I know people are gonna bro, they're gonna kill me for this answer. But I'm gonna be real and and we keep it real. I have a two to three strike rule. If we try, right? I have a goal that's set for the day, right? I would like to accomplish this training, right? If we get a call That doesn't mean that the training is off when we come back from the call. Let's try again, right? I don't want to rule it out, right? If we try again And we get another run or something happens or something's thrown our way and we can't do it. Let's try one more time. Maybe now we take the one and a half to two hour drill And let's just talk about it real quick because we're this day is not working in our favor, right? And at the end of the day, we can at least talk about it. And if that doesn't work, then guess what? It's it is what it is. It's a wash, right? They we cannot act like we can spend all day every tour training. But if the intention is there, your crew knows the intention is there. We actually made the attempts multiple times to try It is what it is, bro. Let's just say, let's just say we can't, it didn't happen. But we can't have every tour where that's the excuse, right? Right. So now we say, all right. I'm noticing a trend here. I notice that every tour at one o'clock when we try to do this damn training, it's not working. I'll fix this problem Guess what guys? We're gonna start training at 10 a. m. now. So now we'll try that and see if that works. If that don't work, then we'll figure something else out. But we're not gonna get through it. And at the end of the day, if we can at least talk about it, we can sit at the table and we can we can hash it out. It's still a win, right? I tell people all the time, if you really want to get anything done in our department in Frederick, the best time to do it is between 4.

Robert "RJ" James: 30 a. m. and 6. 30 a. m. Those are the quietest times in our department. That's the best time where you can sit at the table, you can do table talk, you can do dry-race board stuff, you can get you know schematics and tactics out without having being interrupted after that it's pretty you're you're pretty much at the mercy of the community after that but at least we try Corley: Boom, boom. Keep on dropping. I love the two to three strike rule. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda like it. As like you said, as long as it doesn't become the excuse for not trading. Yeah. All the time. how do you Derek 8 wants to know how do you get guys to truly understand that they are being taught they will use one day without learning the hard way? Trying to get away from the bare minimum. Like to understand this is serious. Robert "RJ" James: So he's saying that how do we teach guys or how do we explain to guys that what we're teaching is important even though they may not see the value in it right now. Right. Is that the question? Corley: Yeah, is it because you know the in instead of them having to learn it the hard way, you know, the you know after the fact.

Robert "RJ" James: Corley, I'll be honest with you and to the guy asking the question, Honestly, there's very little in the fire service that's been reinvented So I'm sure just as much as something you're trying to teach, whether it's an engine ops drill, truck ops drill, most importantly writ or firefighter survival drills I'm sure it's happened somewhere already, right? So the best thing we can do is we can explain the value of why we're doing it because it's already happened somewhere. One of the most important things you have to lead with that is this. It's not a matter of if it will happen here. It's a matter of when it will happen here. I come from a job that has a line that had a line of duty death, right? So we know that You know, it it can happen here just as much as it can happen anywhere else, and and vice versa. It's the importance of being able to to reference it to somewhere else. I think that as a boss or a senior man or whatever, you have to do a little legwork behind it Guys, understand this, right? Although it's never happened here yet, there has a high potential for it to happen today or tomorrow or anytime. So I want to make sure that we are prepared for it. So here's why we're gonna review XYZ topic and get behind it and get get with me on it. Most importantly, at the end of the day I want the best well-trained people to do whatever the task is. And I know you guys can be those guys, but we have to understand the reason why we're doing it first.

Corley: Boom, boom. I love it, RJ. Spencer Rusnell wants to know what's your biggest piece of advice for recruits or people getting into the fire service? Biggest piece of advice Research the job. Robert "RJ" James: I I will not I I'll tell you right now we have a pretty self academy in Frederick We start every recruit class with a high number. Two weeks in we're we're down two, three, five guys, right? I think a lot of that comes from people not researching the job. My biggest piece of advice to anybody is research the job. When I was trying to get on the job, and I'm sure a lot of senior guys listening probably were in the same boat boat When you are when you were trying to get a job back then, you applied everywhere. And when you applied everywhere, you took the first one that you got When I applied everywhere, I took the time to go visit each one of those places. I applied to five different places. I visited five different places I went in, I checked out the culture, I checked out the people. How were the people acting towards me? What was the culture of the people when they got calls? Were people excited to get on a rig and go? Were people huffing and puffing to get on a rig and go? What was the overall atmosphere? When you research the job and learn about it, then you can kind of see what it's about. And then when you can make an educated decision about how that culture is for that department, you know what you're getting yourself into when you get into it. That's the best piece of advice I can tell anybody who is becoming a recruit. And once you get into the business, once you get into the the the academy. Start doing more research now learning about that particular department that you're in. How many stations do you have? What's the call volume? What's the call type? What are the people like? What's the promotion process? What are the different types of tactics you guys do for different types of calls? You literally become dialed in to that department and you're still learning about the department. Does that make sense? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Find out where you're going.

Corley: Great piece of advice. Especially nowadays. Robert "RJ" James: is what do you know about our what do you know about about our department, right? That's one of the most important things because, you know, you're applying to work here. What do you know about here? And that that does one of a couple things, at least for me it does. It shows me that that person is going out to do some research to learn about the place that they're applying to work, not just signing up to work here because it's a job. Corley: There you go, man. Robert "RJ" James: all right, this is one of my favorite questions. Corley: I don't know if you're a reader or not, but I love reading. I see a stack. I don't know I don't know what's behind you, but Book or books that you think firefighters should be reading. What books do you think firefighters? It doesn't have to be firefighting books. Alright, so. Robert "RJ" James: this is the the podcast of honesty and truth. I am not a big reader. I'm not even gonna lie to you, man. I just recently got into reading a couple years ago. My biggest book that I ever had to read was the Norman book for my promotional exam. I cruised through Fire Academy. When I was in Fire Academy, I had all of the classes that I needed to have for Academy. So I kind of just cruised through Academy too. I just recently got into reading books, and I'll be honest with you, Corlee. We're friends. I wouldn't bullshit you. I got into reading books after watching a bunch of your podcasts and people recommending books to me. and so I just no I love hearing that, but I started getting into books. and then more importantly, you know, I'm not I Full transparency, we've already talked about this. My attention span. I have a hard time sitting down and absolutely reading a book. I couldn't wait for you to have an audiobook for your book Hey, I love listening. You can say what what firefighters should be listening to. But I'll I'll tell you this man, I have read some books. And I can honestly say there are some there are some books that I think are good books. Okay. one of the ones that I think is a really good book is it's called It's Your Ship. Oh yeah, Abershoff right here.

Corley: That's one of my top five f favorite books, man. Robert "RJ" James: I love it. That book written by Mike Abershoff, pretty much you know, I'm sure everybody's heard about this book by now, but it's a book about how this guy took the worst ship in the Navy fleet. and turned it around into being the best ship in the Navy fleet. That's one of the books that I think is a really good book to recommend to other people. If my buddy Chris Demopoulos is listening, I borrowed that book from him. And I still haven't returned the book. So I do owe him his book. I'll tell you another book that's a really good book. Wait, how many books do you want to know about? Man, this is your show. I'm just here for the I'm just along for the ride. This is your show. I'm just the visitor. Alright, so I have a couple books. Couple couple books that I think are good books on Killing is another good book that I think is worth reading. Corley: Grossman, yeah. Robert "RJ" James: So I did the audiobook for On Killing, and I know there's two books, On Killing and On Combat, by Dave Grossman. I think that that is a really good book if you take the police aspect of it and bring it to our world of firefighting and how we see things, how we process things on the fire ground, I think is a really good book Another book that I think is a good book. This was recommended to me by a buddy of mine, Jason Bresler from Leadership on the Fire. He works in the city of New York. It's called Fire Psych This book is an amazing book, but I will tell you this: it is a really, really hard to find book, and it is a really really hard to read book. Okay, it is very dry The book is probably got, I would say, four pages in the middle of pictures. That's it. And they're it's the the whole book is in black and white. It's a very dry book. But one of the biggest things I've learned from that book is how we process things mentally on the fire ground. It's almost like taking on killing on combat that at that pretty much that arena. FireSec is the fire service version of it. It's you know they talk about the Yerkes Dodson curve, which is you know how we process things and how we see things.

Robert "RJ" James: what we start to lose sense-wise and and and as our heart rate goes up, those types of things, but based on fire service version of it. If you can find that book, get that book. It's a really good book. Another book that I like is called Pride and Ownership by Chief Lasky. Oh yeah. I sat through Chief Lasky's class as a 19-year-old guy. print not even guy kid I sat through his class as a 19 year old kid and I learned so much about having pride for the job from that guy. He amazing guy, amazing chief officer to learn from. As it pertains to just pride. And the fact that Chief Lasky is still traveling and still teaching that same concept of pride in ownership and the fact that he took that presentation many years ago and developed it into a book. I went and actually read the book. It's a good book. It's literally what every person should be reading about having pride in owning the job that you work for. And the last one that I actually want to tell about, I actually learned from my buddy Mickey Farrell, which is called Deep Survival. Deep Survival is a book about why people live and why people die and and and the thought processes behind it. I never ever would have thought to read a book like that until I saw him on your show and he talked about that book and I actually did that book as well. So I would say like those are what maybe four or five different books that I actually really, really mess with. I'll be honest with you, Corley. what you see behind me, there's a handful of the that whole second row was all required reading for work. Right on. That whole top row of magazines And the little books that I can read that I can actually get through and actually have an attention span for it.

Corley: I will tell you what Preston Lyons wrote, because this is how I feel about it. He says RJ says he's not a reader and then drops some solid book recommendations So that was solid, bro. Robert "RJ" James: No, but but look, Firesyke, that's a thin book. It's a good book, but a thin book. Itchership is not a really, really big, big book, right? Deep survival, I did the audio book. Pride and ownership, if you sit through Chief Lasky's class and then read the book, it's kind of like you've already just enhanced it. You already know. Corley: So that's that's how you get to it. I love it. No, hey, I don't care what you do. Reading is reading. Man, reading is reading. I love it. I don't care if it's a 30-page book, 200 page book. Robert "RJ" James: I gotta keep it real, right? Because I'm not, I just learned how to get into reading books. I wasn't that kind of guy Right on. Corley: Hey, I love it. I love it. We have a thing we do on the scrap. It is called the Five Questions for Firefighters. It's been around quite some time. There are no correct answers. They are just your opinions. And I pass out points with the help of the audience. So my question for you is are you ready for the five questions for firefighters version 3. 2 Oh no. Yo, let's do it, bro. What's up? All right. All right. Here we go. Number one. What is the skill that has carried you through your fire service career?

Robert "RJ" James: I gotta say being coachable. I think that being coachable starts way before I even I even got into the fire service. Right? I played Little League Baseball. I played you know Little League football. I played you know park and rec football I played high school football And then I got into the fire service. I think that being coachable is one of the most important skills that you can do even before you get into the fire service. There are going to be times where people want to show you something and you have to be willing to receive it, process it, and execute it, right? And I think that if you carry that same exact skill to the fire service There's going to be instructors, there's going to be teachers, there's going to be mentors that want to teach you something, and you have to be able to listen to it, process it, and execute it. I think that as you grow through the fire service, there's going to be times where that same exact skill, somebody else is going to show you something else to achieve that same desired end result of that same particular skill. You have to be coachable. You have to be able to listen to what they're saying. You have to be able to process it and be able to execute it. And then you can take all of these different things. Now there's You know, let's say forcing a door, right? Now you've learned one way, two ways, four ways, eight ways, ten ways, twenty ways to force a door. All of those ways were showed by somebody who wanted to show you something And if as long as you can take all of those ways, process it, execute it, and make it happen, you have to be coachable. And most importantly, you take that same information and share it with somebody else. You're now the coach You know what I mean? So I I think being coachable is the is the one skill, for me anyway, that has carried me through my fire service career and it started long before I even got into the fire service.

Corley: Love it. Boom. And easy easy. There's Scott Orr said max points. Amen to that from Ross Haynes. Nate Schuler said max plus one hundred. James Griffin said max points. So definitely got max points on number one. Number two. It's job town. It's time. You gotta imagine the scene from backdraft. I knew this was coming. I knew this was coming. And the cassette tape. Robert "RJ" James: What song what what song are you playing? Go ahead, go ahead. Corley. I'll Listen to your podcast for many years, right? Okay. Everybody has all of the rock songs on it. I I'm coming with a different energy Okay. We need that hip hop vibe. Okay. And if there is one hip-hop song that you could put on that gets everybody hyped. It is DMX, the Rough Riders Amp. That song brings energy. That song brings hypheness. That makes people just get pumped up. And I will tell anybody watching this, Corley, you go to YouTube and you type in the video, DMX. Rough Riders Anthem video on YouTube and watch the video. If that video just don't even get you helped watch it. Yeah, hell yeah. Corley: Is that the first is that our first DMX? I don't know if I'm sticking with it. I think it's the first DMX song suggested. I do think it is. No quil, we should you should make a CD with all these songs people would recommend. There's a there's Spotify playlist. There's Spotify playlist and your yours will be added to the playlist Let's go. It's out there. It's out there. Preston Lyon said first DMX for sure. Hell yeah, man. Max points from Greg. Jay Ob says, you'll punch your TV. Let's go. I love it. he's the DJ on burn days. That's what Matt Johnson said. There you go. Yeah, I do.

Robert "RJ" James: I yo, I bring the music on burn days with the recruits. I bring the I bring the boom box and I just get the instructor's hype before we go do work. But to be a good DJ, you gotta feel the crowd. You gotta know what the crowd's feeling in the moment. Corley: You gotta be able to you gotta be able to deliver. Alright. Work the crowd, deliver. Make them feel needed. Here we go. Number three. Max points so far, by the way, for one and two. Number three, what is your favorite? Fire service tradition besides the kitchen table. Okay, we take the kitchen table out of the equation because a lot of people say that. But your favorite fire service tradition Robert "RJ" James: I think I covered this already. I think talking, just talking Right? If you remove, like you said, remove the kitchen table from it, right? What are we doing? We're just talking to each other. Right? I think that we've lost that in the fire service. I think that We don't pick up the phone and call each other. We don't send text messages. We don't actually go visit each other, right? We send an email or we do something far-fetched, right? We don't just talk to each other. I love talking to people, bro. I love I don't do emails. I have to because I'm a boss. That's the right thing to do, right? But there, if I want to talk to Corley, I call I call them. Yo, what's up, bro? What's going on? How are you? What's going on? Right? And I think that that is the best tradition in the fire service. Right? We can say the kitchen table. That's the place to have it. But what are we doing at the kitchen table? We're talking. We're talking right now. Take the kitchen table out of it. I think there's just as value if I replace office rolly chairs in front of the engine or in front of the truck or the squad and everybody sitting out having a cigar and what are they doing? They're talking. Right? Or take take whatever environment you want to, right? At the end of a fire. Right? When at you know bro, you're you're chief, right? What do you see guys doing at the end of the fire? They're all huddled around each other, and before you even call them to all come to you to do a hot wash, what are they doing?

Robert "RJ" James: They're talking to each other Right. They're having a good time. They're catching up. And and in my job, you know, we we we are notorious for shift change fires. We will always have a fire at some point in time. at 6 or 5 30, 6 a. m. or maybe 6 15 at the at the change of tours, right? So now you got a whole bunch of guys from a whole bunch of different tours, right? A shift or B shift, B shift for C shift, C shift for B shift. Now you have a whole mix of guys and what's everybody doing? They're talking. I think the best tradition in the fire service is just guys and girls. Just straight talking to each other. You can insert any kind of environment you want. The kitchen table, the office chairs, out back, out front, after a fire, whatever, talking. Corley: That's my answer. Boom, man. Heartfelt communication, talking There you go. There you go. Max points. Easy. Three for three. Now this next one is a timed question. You get one minute to answer. No honorable mentions. You only get four. But who are the four people that you would put on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service?

Robert "RJ" James: Timer up on the screen and everything. Corley: It's a real deal right here, man. It's a professional. But no. Who would you put on your Mount Rushmore of the fire service? Which four people? And go. Robert "RJ" James: Alright, without a doubt, right out the gate, the very first person that goes on my route, my route, buh, start over, RJ. My Mount Rushmore is my father. My dad introduced me to the fire service. My dad sparked this interest in me as a young kid. Without my dad, and by the way, my dad's still on the job to this day. He's probably listening to this as we as we talk now My dad is the guy who brought the fire service to my life. I could not be in the fire service without my dad. That's the first guy, the very absolute number one guy that we see on the Mount Rushmore. The next person that we would see on my Mount Rushmore is my best friend Sander Cohen who passed away. That guy was a stand-up guy as it related to the fire service. He was a true gentleman, a true passionate guy. I would say the next best guy on my Mount Rushmore is Mr. Al Benjamin, who is a senior man at Rescue One. He was just a great, great guy on the job, and he's still teaching me a lot about the fire service. how many do I get? Four. Yeah, one more. I got one more. I was Chief Colligan from the Cromwell Fire Department. That's the guy who introduced me into the fire service He bent the rules in the Cromwell Fire Department to allow me to be a fire explorer. He changed the entire policies and procedures to allow me to be there. That guy went leaps and bounds to make it so that I can be something in the fire service. I owe that guy a lot. Those are my four people that I would put on my Mount Rush more.

Corley: I love it, man. I absolutely love it The press alliance said F the clock, max points. I'm sorry, Wooly. No, no, hey, hey. Oh, 100%, man. I love the fact you put your father number one, man. I really do. I love the fact he's still on the job. That's awesome, man. That is awesome. Max points across the board. Final question. The question, this is the same question that's been around since the beginning. This one has never changed. There's heavy fire. There's searchable space. Would you rather be assigned Robert "RJ" James: To the nozzle or first in on VES All right now I know they're gonna bite my head over this and I know a lot of people that you've had on the show Corley Guys that I respect a lot. And I have watched this show and I have heard these guys stance. And all of those guys that I respect have all said that they would like to be on the nobs. The knob is the job, right? However. I feel that I would push back on that 100% and be the different version of this. VES is a very, very special skill that we just cannot send any and everybody to go do. We need to have our best trained people. To be able to be comfortable operating independently above a fire to go look for somebody and find somebody. We just cannot send anybody to go do that task. That is the most dangerous place that we can operate on the fire ground. I feel that after years and years of training Years and years of preparation and years and years of being able to experience operating in that space, that is the place for me to be and be comfortable. I don't think that We should send any and everybody to do that task. And I think you it takes a special person with a with a set of fucking kahunas to make that happen to do it I am willing to do it. And I don't care what the cost is if I'm going to find somebody, I will go get them and I will go do it. So VES is for me.

Corley: I love it, man. Bark Cologne said the knob is the best, but his logic here is strong. Max points for PhD level answer. I love it, man. Max points. Easy. There is the fifth answer. Five for five. Max points from RJ. Robert James. Absolutely crushing. the scrap and that officially makes it 238 scraps in the books. RJ, thank you for spending your evening with us this evening. Corey, thanks. Robert "RJ" James: Thanks for having me. I had a blast, man. Can I can I give a shout-out real quick? Always. I really would like to thank first and foremost, you for having me on. It's an honor to be on your show. For the record, I am the first Firehouse Vigilance employee. Remember? I ran the Firehouse Vigilance table at the Dagum Fire Conference while you had the teacher class and I never even met you Right? I just made sure your coins and your tape and your books and everything got handled. I am the first firehouse vigilance employee. Second I actually want to thank my family for the support in doing this. My wife who's upstairs who allowed me to have this passion and to allow me to take time away from our family to be able to do these these podcasts, these types of things And then last but not least, my family, my mom, my dad, I'm sure they're probably listening. But the support that they have given me over the years and the passion they instilled in me Because of all of that, I'm able to have the drive, the passion that I am to be able to share with other people. And last but not least, the guys from Capital Fire Training, we have a Tremendous group of guys. We have 15 guys who all participate and sharing knowledge with Capital Fire Trading. Guys that are retired to guys who only have a couple years on a job and everything in between Everybody brings something to the table for us to be able to share with the fire service world. And it's because of the fire service world and how they receive the energy and the information that we share. We're passionate enough to continue to share that information. So I would be remiss if I didn't thank all of those people involved for being able to do this. So thank you.

Corley: Hey, there is there's there's more than a hundred comments tonight. I think we hit 120 something. So when you when you when you after it's over, you can go back to Facebook, you go to YouTube. You can look at those and see what everybody said about you. They asked you some questions we didn't even get to. You can mess with those At your leisure. But there there's some good stuff in there. Alright, so we do part two. What's up? What's if someone if someone wants to get a hold of you, what's the best way to do it? Robert "RJ" James: you can hit me up on Instagram or Facebook. Instagram, I try to keep my personal Instagram to friends and family And then I try to keep fire training stuff to Capital Fire Training. I do have Facebook, Robert James. I would prefer if somebody wants to hit me up on Facebook just to send me a message I have tried to keep my Facebook to friends and family, that kind of thing, not just acquaintances. But I still like to try to address everybody if they have something for me. as it relates to the fire service. I want to help and I want to share as much as I can. So hit me up, send me a message, and I'll do my best to get back to you.

Corley: Love it. Love it. Absolutely love it. Now there you go. housekeeping time go to firehousevigilance. com. You can become a vigilante. The vigilantes. 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 hadn't even told RJ about the after party But after party is where you're invited and the vigilantes come in there and they roast you, supposedly. They never do it. They don't roast me? Supposedly, they never do it. But that's the that's the thing. They always they break they bust. Hey, the new book the new book is out, everyone. The new book is out. You can order it firehousevigilance. com. It's me and Amanda, it's Corley and Amanda We wrote the new book, You, Me, and Our Broken Tools. It's amazing. So go get yourself a copy. It's, yeah. It's Robert "RJ" James: Y'all go let me plug let me let me plug your book. Okay. So my wife and I met Coralie and Amanda last year at the Dagum Fire Conference. when I was working as the Firehouse Vigilance at the merch booth, my wife and I sat through that class, Broken Tools. which was an amazing, amazing class. Thank you. that was the first time that I brought my wife to a fire conference. that was the first time my wife actually got to see what we do at these conferences And the first time my wife actually got to hear from somebody like her, from Amanda, who is somebody who can reach to another person on that same level That book, I sh I have not read that book, but that book is everything that I'm sure is what me and my wife sat through in that presentation and learned so much about ourselves as a couple and as fire service. family, I I can assure you that book is gonna be everything that you expect it to be. It's been something that that class did for both me and my wife. So that's awesome brother.

Corley: I love hearing that man. Because we haven't taught that class that many times So that's that's awesome. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for the hype. The book is out. Go get your copy. After that, what else can I say? Next week, it is Candace Ashby So March, or she's actually kicking off on April Fools. So March is done. RJ closed out March like a beast. And then we have Candace Ashby coming in. So You will not want to miss it. Be there, keeping 2024 rolling. RJ, you're a phenomenal guest. Thank you so much. Vigilantes. I think Sam will be posting the link to the z to the Zoom. and we'll come and we'll break shoes. We'll bust chops. And audience, thank you so much for tuning in. You make the scrap magical without you. Man, it's just me and RJ having a conversation, which would be fun. But you guys are what makes it so much so much awesome with your questions that you throw in there. I love you all. Remember, mutts don't scrap. I hope the tones stay silent unless it is burning. Stay safe out there