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Welcome to the Forged by FIRE Podcast! You are the FIRE that forges your future! My name is Ryan Rodriquez, and I'm a firefighter who’s found that true strength comes from living with purpose, structure, and commitment. Through the Forged by FIRE, I will share resilience strategies that will transform four essential areas of your life: Fitness, Intellect, Relationships, and Energy. Join me for insights and inspiring stories that will help you become resilient and Forged by FIRE. Opinions are ...
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The saying, “It could always be worse” seems like harmless advice or a way to stay positive, but in reality, it often dismisses the struggles we face, keeps us stuck, and even excuses behavior or situations that aren’t okay. In today’s episode, I will break it down and reframe this thinking so it aligns with growth, positivity, and resilience. SHOW…
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Welcome to Episode 221 of Forged by FIRE, the podcast that focuses on leadership, accountability, and self-mastery. I’m your host, Ryan Rodriquez. Today, we’re diving into a critical topic for anyone looking to improve their relationships, boost their productivity, and protect their well-being: setting boundaries. As many of you know, my FIRE Frame…
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Welcome to Forged by FIRE, the podcast where we ignite the flames of accountability, discipline, and progress. I’m Ryan Rodriquez, and today, we’re tearing down one of the biggest lies ever sold to you in the workplace; that“your workplace is your family.” It’s one of those phrases that sounds warm and fuzzy, doesn’t it? But the truth is, it’s toxi…
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Ever feel like your workplace is drowning in rules? 💼 In this episode, I break down why the strongest organizations rely less on policies and more on culture to drive success. Learn how a well-built culture is like a self-cleaning system—keeping everything aligned without the need for endless bureaucracy. 💥 I dive into the minimalist magic of Netfl…
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Time is the one thing we all want more of, but the truth is, it’s slipping away every second. Every hour spent scrolling on your phone or watching another episode on Netflix is an hour you’ll never get back. So, are you going to keep making excuses for why you ‘don’t have time,’ or are you ready to take control and make time for what really matters…
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Let me ask you something—when was the last time you truly paused? Not just took a day off, but really stepped away from the noise, disconnected, and gave yourself the space to breathe and reset? If you’re like most people, the answer is probably ‘I can’t remember.’ Well, today, we’re talking about the ultimate power move in a world obsessed with hu…
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What if I told you that the secret to unlocking your greatest potential lies in ancient wisdom from feudal Japan–and that you can use it to master the four key areas in your life? This four-tiered class system consists of the archetypes of Warrior, Farmer, Artisan, and Merchant and they perfectly tie into the FIRE framework of Fitness, Intellect, R…
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How many times have you played a video game and gotten super frustrated to the point that you felt like throwing the controller? Did you give up and throw it? Did you quit the game in your frustrated state, or did you take a breath and press on until you beat the level or the game entirely? Our emotions are great indicators for us being at a crossr…
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Success is something that we all have to define for ourselves. We need to take a step back from what we’re doing, look at the road we are on, and ask ourselves if it will lead us to what we ultimately believe success to be. However, we need to identify the things that would keep us on the right track or throw us off course. In today’s episode, I wi…
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Welcome back to another episode of Forged by FIRE, where we turn the heat up on self-improvement and accountability. I'm your host, Ryan Rodriquez, a seasoned firefighter and paramedic, here to share my experiences and insights to help you forge a better version of yourself. Today, we're diving into a concept from the EMS world—the pain scale—and h…
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Today we are diving into the heart of what separates the dreamers from the doers: taking risks. Are you ready to step out of your comfort zone and embrace the unknown? Do you have the courage to chase after what seems impossible and turn it into your reality? In today's episode, 'No Risk, No Reward!', we're going to explore how taking calculated ri…
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Welcome to the Forged by FIRE Podcast, where we ignite your potential and help you forge the life you desire. I'm your host, Ryan Rodriquez, and today, we're diving into an essential topic: setting and achieving your goals. In this episode, we'll explore a powerful framework to help you turn your dreams into reality, focusing on four key elements: …
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When it comes to relationships, the quality of people we keep in our circle has an effect on our progress or lack thereof. It’s been said that we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with. So why wouldn’t we want to spend time with amazing people? By curating our network of friends and acquaintances, we can improve the quality of …
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In the fire service, we are often heard telling each other to “suck it up” or “deal with it”. And while these phrases might seem harsh, there’s a lot of truth to them. Many people hear these phrases and think it means that they just need to ignore their problems and keep going despite any pain or trauma they have endured, but that couldn’t be furth…
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The whole process of refinement is all about continual improvement. If you’ve been listening to the podcast for any amount of time, you’ll know that the way I started is a bit different than where I am now. And in my opinion, much better. My goal is to focus on the FIRE framework that I’ve developed to help people from all over the world gain insig…
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As May marks Mental Health Awareness Month, it's crucial to emphasize the significance of prioritizing our mental well-being. Whether you're a first responder or not, neglecting mental health can have profound effects on our lives. If your head isn’t right, nothing else will be either. In today's episode, we'll delve into what mental health entails…
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As we go throughout our lives, we more often than not feel a sense of belonging at our places of work, within our families, and the people we choose to spend our time with. But sometimes we just don’t “fit in”. That can make things awkward, it can stifle us and it can impact our mental health in some seriously negative ways. But what’s the differen…
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We hear the term “resilience” a lot lately; mental resilience, emotional resilience, and physical resilience. Sometimes we don’t know what that means. I’ve heard people describe resilience as a person’s ability to “take a punch and get back up”. But what about being able to see the punch before it happens and dodge it? Today I’m going to talk about…
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Sometimes it can be difficult to stay on track when it comes to achieving your goals. Discipline is the name of the game; doing a repeated behavior day in and day out until you achieve your desired outcome. This process can be monotonous which can lead to you falling off your desired path. One of the ways that I stay on track is by gamifying my goa…
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How do you define “wisdom”? Is it the practical application of knowledge? Is it simply the curation of information? There are lots of different ways to define the term “wisdom”, but I think my favorite way to describe the difference between knowledge and wisdom is this; “knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is understanding that it…
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Have you ever approached an escalator that goes up only to see an out of order sign that says, “Out of service, take the stairs”? What did you do when you saw that sign? Was it ever an option for you to just accept the fact that the fast and easy track to the next level was out of your reach and just decided to NOT take the stairs? You can probably…
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I’m an inquisitive person by nature. I ask a lot of questions. The more knowledge I have, the more I can make an informed decision. My curious nature has led me down the path of becoming a coach. I’ve obtained certifications in personal training, nutrition, peer support, and last year I obtained my master health coach certification which incorporat…
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200 EPISODES!!! If you would’ve told me 10 years ago that I’d be writing, producing, and publishing my own podcast, I’d tell you that you were crazy. Telling me that I’d get to 200 episodes would be even further from what I thought I could do! Not only did I not have the confidence in what I had to say having any value, but I didn’t have the techni…
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If we don’t have things to anchor us to who we want to be, then we won’t be able to achieve the goals we have for ourselves and our futures. We can anchor ourselves to our principles, our procedures, our attitudes, anything and everything that makes us who we are. I know you may be thinking, “how is an anchor, something that holds you down, going t…
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The most valuable commodity that we have on this planet is our TIME. What we DO with that time determines our experience while we are alive on this earth. If you aren’t consciously managing or utilizing your time in purposeful ways, then you aren’t taking advantage of the God-given gift you’ve been given and will ultimately find out that you’ve was…
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If you aren’t growing, you’re dying. You’ve heard me say this before, but I thought that as we come to the end of 2023, I just reiterate my point because as you all know; with a new year comes a new quarter and a new cohort to my coaching group The Forge. The concept of having a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset is what separates the DO-ers fro…
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As we go throughout our lives, we will find ourselves in situations where we are in direct competition with others. Sometimes competition presents itself through a game of pickleball and sometimes it presents as testing for a promotion at work. Regardless of how the element of competition shows up in our lives, it’s important to remember that just …
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You’ve heard me talk a lot about several different Japanese cultural concepts throughout my podcast. The reason for that is that I feel like Japanese culture is very conscientious and purposeful. From “Kaizen”, the practice of continual improvement, to “Ikigai”, the concept that everyone has a purpose and a reason for living and it is our responsib…
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With staffing at an all-time low among fire departments and other organizations across the continent, strategies for recruitment and retention have gained the spotlight. It seems organizations are more interested in scooping the proverbial water out of the boat rather than stopping the leak; and even then, some people are choosing to ignore the pro…
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You’ve heard me say it again and again, if you want to accomplish something big, break up the task into smaller sections. By doing this, we can take small but effective steps toward the bigger goals we have established for ourselves (or the goals that our organizations and leaders have established for us). I show people how to do this inside my coa…
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When we apply for a job, we typically do some investigating as to what the job entails. A great way to learn about the details of the job is by reading the “job description”. A job description informs you of all the tasks and roles that you would be responsible for if hired for the job. From there, you can decide if that’s something that sounds goo…
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“Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning.” - Viktor Frankl One of my all-time favorite books is Viktor Frankl's book “Man’s Search for Meaning”, but something recently stuck out to me in that title; the word “search”. Then it got me thinking, “why spend so …
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Communication is HUGE. Not just the fire service, but the world. Almost everything we do is to improve our ability to communicate with others through language or technology. Even as I sit here and record this podcast from a small town in Arizona, I’m reaching people all over the world and I make an active and conscientious effort to be clear in wha…
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You’ve heard me talk about how we should be focused on becoming assets and purge anything that makes us a liability. This is an active and ongoing process. Active building of yourself only happens with conscious effort and planning. It doesn’t happen by accident. In today’s episode, I will talk about how we can actively focus on becoming assets, wh…
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We all have an idea of what we think “perfection” looks like in our minds, but our path to that so-called perfection can be exhausting. This is only compounded when we compare ourselves, our work, and our progress to other people. Accepting that someone will always be better than you at something helps you maintain humility, but also accept that ac…
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We all know how it feels to be not listened to. Whether people are half-listening, continually interrupting, or aren’t paying attention to you at all, we know how that feels. And it doesn’t feel good. But is it our job to force people to listen to us or is it our job to show people what it looks like to be a good listener? The answer to that questi…
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Oftentimes we spend so much time overcomplicating things that we wind up never taking steps toward accomplishing the things we want to accomplish. Some people call this “paralysis by analysis”. Allowing the complexity of a situation to overwhelm us can stop us in our tracks when we’re trying to set goals and take steps to achieve them. In today’s e…
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Regardless of what you do in life, whatever you’ve touched is a signature of your standard. What I mean by that is your involvement is a reflection of your principles, attitude, and the quality of work you’re putting into this world. Whether you’re impacting things on a global scale or focused on making an impact in your community, how you’re showi…
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When we hear the words “health & wellness” we might think of the umbrella that that phrase covers, or committees that are bogged down in bureaucracy. Being able to identify the elements of health and wellness and how they apply to you are crucial when it comes to staying in the infinite game that is the fire service and life in general. Being able …
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Grant-writing might not sound all that sexy, but one thing that might get you excited about it is just how much money is out there if you’re looking for it! So many agencies rely on grant money to make sure they can meet their annual operational standards. Why not approach it with a tactical perspective? Dr. Violet Rymshaw is the CEO of INNOVATIVE …
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Chief Freddie Fernandez entered the fire service in 1983 and rose to Deputy Fire chief for Miami Fire-Rescue before retiring in 2014. Chief Freddie served as a recruit instructor in 1990 and participated in dozens of officer development classes during his 32 years at MFR. Since 1999, he has helped thousands of firefighters across the nation get pro…
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If you work as a first-responder and hear the word “energy”, you might immediately think of a cup of coffee or an energy drink. These substances seem to be the quick lifelines that we reach for in order to help us forget that we’re tired and help us push through. But I’d like you to know that there are more productive, longer-lasting, healthier way…
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Strong and meaningful relationships are essential to our well-being as humans. Our ability to start and maintain meaningful relationships can bring meaning to our lives as well as reduce our stress, but quality relationships take work. As firefighters and first-responders, we tend to bond over extreme situations and then keep people at bay who don’…
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You all have heard me use this adage before, “Civilize the mind, but make savage the body”. That’s a Samurai proverb that I embraced about 10 years ago. I love the dichotomy of making the mind as formidable as the body and vice versa. Oftentimes we feel we have to sacrifice one or the other. And there are a lot of stereotypes out there of the muscu…
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I recently read a quote that went something like, “A healthy person has a thousand wishes, an unhealthy person only has ONE.” In a time where we are being told that our health relies on other people wearing masks or that our genetics make it impossible to live healthy lives, it can be difficult to push through all that nonsense and make moves towar…
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As firefighters and EMS providers, we train for situations that other people might not ever see in their lives. This means that we set up scenarios that test our ability to physically perform, keep our emotions in check, and mentally adapt to whatever the situation may throw at us. We are literally forging adversity. By doing this, we better prepar…
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You’ve heard the term “complacency kills’. Well, why is that? Officially it’s because we get to a point where we are satisfied in our situation in spite of the deficiencies we harbor and as a result, we expose ourselves to danger. This could look like a firefighter not checking their gear every morning. It could look like a father gaining 50 lbs du…
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There is SO much information out there in the world today! Along with all the information out there comes the different ways that we can learn it. I’m a huge supporter of learning by doing. In the FIRE and EMS world, there are many things that we teach to our new people through this method. In today’s episode, I share with you what exactly it means…
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I love movies. I love the story-writing that goes into them. When we watch a movie or read a book, we are watching character development play out right before our eyes. Ultimately, regardless of what movie we are watching, the story comes down to one theme, “who am I?” I recently read an article that stated there are 3 versions of you. The author a…
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I’m a firm believer in leaving things in better shape than you found them, if it’s simply picking up a gum wrapper off the floor or cleaning out the fridge at work. It doesn’t matter what mess you inherit. What matters is how you turn things over.This is the definition of integrity in action.I learned of a new term while the World Cup was going on …
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