Keep the Promise Podcast - Building Resilient and Well-rounded Firefighters
Keep the Promise host TJ shares strategies and tactics to survive - and thrive - on and off the job. Discover how to fuel your body, mind, and spirit so you can have the energy to perform on scene and to live your best life on your days off. For over a decade, TJ has worked in all facets of the fire service, and he candidly shares his wins, his losses, and all the lessons learned in the process. You'll learn how to injure-proof your body, nutrition, recovery, physical fitness, mental stamina, firefighter strategy and tactics, how to deal with the stresses of the job, how to be a better firefighter at home, and how to lead a long and fruitful career where you can make a difference in the lives of others. It's a mix of interviews, special guests, and solo shows you're not going to want to miss. Hit subscribe, and get ready to Keep the Promise you made your community.
Keep the Promise Podcast - Building Resilient and Well-rounded Firefighters
029. From Day One to Year One: Our Journey of Growth
This episode of the Keep the Promise podcast marks an incredible milestone - our one-year anniversary! Today we're taking a journey down memory lane to celebrate a year of transformation, community impact, and remarkable growth.
In this episode, we reflect on the personal transformations that have shaped our journey over the past year. I'll share the highs and lows, the lessons learned, and the ways this podcast has evolved since its inception.
We'll also shine a spotlight on the positive impact we've made on our community. From charitable donations to the lives we've touched, it's a testament to the power of our collective commitment as firefighters.
But it's not just about us; it's about you, our listeners. We'll feature inspiring stories of transformation from within our community, showcasing how Keep the Promise has played a role in your personal and professional growth.
We've witnessed the growth of a tight-knit firefighter community brought together by this podcast, and we'll explore the incredible connections that have formed among our listeners.
Of course, it hasn't been all smooth sailing. We'll also talk about the challenges and triumphs we've faced in the world of podcasting and how they've contributed to our growth.
As we look ahead to the future, we'll discuss our goals and ambitions for Keep the Promise in year two, including the exciting plans we have in store for our listeners.
This episode is a heartfelt thank-you to each and every one of you who has been a part of this incredible journey. Your dedication to the promise you've made to your communities is an inspiration, and we're honored to be on this journey with you.
Join us in celebrating one year strong, and let's continue to keep the promise we made to ourselves, our communities, and each other. Thank you for being a part of our firefighter family.
As a patron of Keep the Promise, you're not just supporting a podcast—you’re joining a community of like-minded, aggressive firefighters who want to be the best at their craft. You’ll gain access to daily workouts, weekly mindset meditations, and early access to the insights you need to stay on top of your game. Support Keep the Promise and take your place among firefighters who know that our st
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TJ: Welcome everyone to a special anniversary episode of the keep the promise podcast. I'm your host TJ. And today we're taking a look back at an incredible year of transformation, community impact and growth from smoke divers to females on the firehouse, new friends and old pals.
TJ: Technical difficulties and exhausting conferences. This year has been an absolutely wild ride. And as we look back on the first anniversary of keep the promise, we have a ton to be thankful for. And even more to look forward to. So without further ado, let's dive in. We'll start by reflecting on how the podcast itself has evolved from the very first episode to where we are today.
TJ: We're going to talk about some of the topics that we've covered, as well as some of the feedback we've received. And most importantly, the guests that we have on by far, the most popular episode was episode 11 with my buddy Barrett Pittman, and it is titled, you're capable of more than you can imagine.
TJ: I've known Barrett since 2016 when I met him at a class in Colorado, a hazmat class, and he has been that steadfast friend whom I knew I had to have on the show when I learned more about his story. He brought some insane perspectives about the need to be in peak physical shape about overcoming adversity as a smoke diver.
TJ: His mindset is just absolutely incredible, but he also brought some solid insight on how to get buy in from your crew and how to get them to just want to be there, to be fired up, to be motivated. And that's the reason this is the most popular episode. People still will listen to it. I'll still get the reports every week that there's been a couple hundred more downloads of that episode.
TJ: If you haven't listened to it yet, please go back and spend a couple hours. I think it's an hour, maybe hour and a half. Spend the time listening to it because. Yeah, it's, um, it's incredible. And you know, I'm not even biased because I've done a handful of other episodes, but it's, it's one of the good ones.
TJ: Also worth mentioning is the episode that I did with my pal stack who has his own podcast called the things we all carry stack was actually the first person that I have ever, ever recorded with. I did that back in, oh my god, 2022 when um, I sat down with him to talk about my line of duty death story and I didn't know that the podcast bug would bite me because of him.
TJ: So eventually got to the point that as all podcasters do, you start interviewing each other and I asked him to come on to keep the promise podcast and we tackled mental health in the fire service, all the stigmas that come with it, as well as some of those dirty little secrets that fire departments nationwide have.
TJ: And we even touch on alternative treatments for firefighter mental health, including everyone's favorite topic these days, medical cannabis and psychedelics, which is a perfect transition to someone who's sometimes known as the pot lady of the fire service, another guest who quickly became a friend of the podcast.
TJ: And that is the host of the five after midnight podcast, Stephanie White, who sat down with me multiple times to discuss. Everything from medical cannabis to firefighter suicide, to being a woman in the fire service and the insights that she brought to our episodes continue to resonate with firefighters everywhere to this day.
TJ: Now, those are some of the highlights. Those are some of the. The most popular episodes, if you will, but one of the goals of the podcast was to bring out and to share those amazing stories of my friends, of the people that I have known for a long, long time, and stories that I felt always just needed to be told.
TJ: I first spoke to Dave Angelo, God, over 10 years ago. And I was totally captivated by his story. He is super outspoken about living life to the fullest. And you'll understand why when you go back and listen to episodes 19 and 20 with him. And now that we're talking about Dave's got to talk about my boy, Dave Smith, who actually came over to my place and we chatted about the myths behind the IFF center for excellence, how to deal with what he calls the paper tiger of anxiety.
TJ: And we even sat down and had a little bit of a chat about horseback riding. So I can sit here and discuss every single guest in detail and truly gush over them because, I mean, I've been lucky, the people that have sat down for this podcast, I want to be respectful of your time, but suffice to say that every single day I am humbled by the folks who share their stories with us, who open up to the Keep the Promise community, because thanks to them, we all get the chance to grow together.
TJ: And that's a perfect segue to move into how the community has grown, but most importantly made impacts on the fire service as a whole. One of the highlights of this year has been that positive impact that, that keep the promise was able to make in light of. national and international tragedies within the firefighting community.
TJ: When the Maui wildfires hit, we raised over 4, 500 worth of donations, selling stickers and t shirts and hoodies. When Rodney Pitts and Dylan Ronaldo lost their lives in Baltimore city, not too long ago, we quietly contributed to their respective GoFundMes. And look, I'm not a fan of talking about the things that we do, the lives that we've touched and the difference that we've made because it kind of feels self serving. But it's important to highlight the fact that we continue to come together as a community and to help each other.
TJ: That's been one of the pillars of Keep the Promise is being able to help out those firefighters who are in need because I've been there, I've known friends who have been there, and I feel it is. It's incredibly important to do what we can to come together and to support each other,
TJ: hey friends, I want to take a quick moment to ask you to support the show by leaving a rating and a review on your favorite platform. Your support means the world to us, and it helps spread the message to even more people. We've gotten thousands and thousands of listeners, and those high ratings help our show become more discoverable, allowing us to reach even more listeners and make an even greater impact.
TJ: So, if you've enjoyed what you've heard so far, Please take a moment to leave a rating and a review. It only takes a few seconds and it makes a huge difference. Thank you so much. And now let's get back to the show.
TJ: Just like when I was talking about our guest earlier, I can sit here and spend all day discussing the different transformations that I've had from Absolutely. Um, this community has helped firefighters break bad habits, pick up good habits and continue on a path of growth and improvement from quitting drinking to maxing out PRs.
TJ: I have hundreds of messages and emails. And phone calls and all that stuff from firefighters who are thanking the community for just existing as a place to grow, as a place to evolve and to get better. And it kind of, it kind of chokes me up a little bit, taking a step back and realizing, wow, we, we do have that supportive community that the group of folks that I wish I had had when I was coming up in the fire service, who cheer for each other, who encourage each other, who pick each other up when one goes down.
TJ: It's, um, Yeah, it's, um, it's amazing. It's amazing. And that community cannot exist without the connections that, that we've been able to foster. And we're going to talk about that sense of camaraderie that has developed among our listeners and within our firefighter community. So how has the podcast helped foster these important connections?
TJ: Like I mentioned before, we have created a thriving community that brings people together. I had the chance to personally attend Andy Frederick's training days. Well, these days, it's called just training days and had the chance to socialize with a bunch of listeners and community members. I also took a trip out to exotic Beaver Creek, Ohio for the firefighter health and wellness conference, where I was able to promote, keep the promise to a whole, like on a whole new level without giving away too much, revealing too much.
TJ: Let's just say that some of the big names in the game, both in print and digitally now know about our community and are excited about it. And speaking of community members, we are close to breaking that 100 member mark on Patreon, which is mind blowing. In case you didn't know, we have that goal of reaching 150 patrons, which I'll talk about later, which is going to allow us to have a standing fund to help firefighters who fall on hard times.
TJ: So we're pretty close. We're getting there. And it's, um, again, It's because of everyone's efforts. And this is where I get to be a little bit selfish because I want to dive in, into my personal journey over this past year, which I couldn't have accomplished without. This community. I'll talk about some of the key moments of growth, the challenges I've faced, and some of those valuable lessons that I've learned in the process.
TJ: Let's start physically. There came a point where I realized I had fallen into a rut, into unhealthy habits,
TJ: bad food choices, to shitty sleep patterns, to inconsistency in the gym, and it took a lot of work to get out of that. And every single day I was showing up Wanting to eat healthier, wanting to work out more all because that's part of being within this community, right? I can't I can't come to this community and not put my best foot forth.
TJ: These days I'm about 30 pounds lighter than I've been most of my adult life, which is absolutely wild and I feel stronger than ever Some of the other lessons that I learned came from interpersonal relationships And I've had to let go of some people whose values no longer aligned with mine And that's okay.
TJ: That's growth. When people tell me you've changed, these days I reply with, yeah, I'm supposed to. With every passing day, my circle of close friends gets even tighter and stronger. And those folks are made up of Keep the Promise community members. For that, I will always, always be thankful. Now, let's look into the future.
TJ: Let's talk about the goals and ambitions for Keep the Promise for the coming year and years. What can you, my dear listener, expect in the coming year and how do we plan to continue making a positive impact? As I mentioned just now, we're on track to get the total amount of members that we need to set up the Firefighter Relief Fund to help those firefighters who are injured, who end up needing rehab, go to the Center for Excellence, basically to give that financial assistance to firefighters and their families.
TJ: When they can no longer work for an extended period of time. So that's one of the goals to, to get to 150 members next year and to be able to start giving out that money in the coming months, I'm also going to be releasing a handful of awesome items to the, keep the promise on my store, which has been a massive hit.
TJ: And we're going to be using those profits to support firefighting training initiatives. We are going to get to the point that we can actually send firefighters all expenses paid through the big training events throughout the country. And we'll have application process interviews, the whole nine yards, but think FDIC, Fire Department Training Network, all those big ones to keep furthering that, that training and experience and well rounded goal that we have within the community.
TJ: And talking about the community itself, I'm also working behind the scenes like crazy on a new and improved online platform to kind of foster a more open communication, a little competition, and that tight knit firefighting community that we all love. Again, still kind of in the blueprint stages, but you'll find out more in the coming months.
TJ: I'm already super excited. I've been talking to a handful of Patreon community members about it and they are pumped. So um, I think it's going to be a good change and I think you will be excited to take part in that. Look, we're two days away from Thanksgiving. I'm sitting here at home with a fire in the fireplace watching it rain.
TJ: So we're just going to make this nice and quick and easy. And let's start closing this episode. I want to personally thank you for joining us on a, this one year anniversary of the keep the promise podcast and be on the journey that we've had. Up until, up until this point. It's, it's wild watching the community, the podcast, everything that we do.
TJ: See how far it's come since, since we started. And I implore you that if you know people who have not heard about us, who have not heard the podcast, who don't know about the Instagram or the Patreon community, share it with them. Because we can all benefit from, from having that community, from, from being with like minded individuals.
TJ: And from the insights that um, I also want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our listeners, to our guests, and to our supporters. I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Thank you so much for being part of this incredible journey. We have seen how far we've come in just one year, and I am so pumped. I cannot wait to see how much further we can go together in the next few years.
TJ: You might be a seasoned firefighter, you might be an aspiring rookie, or you are just a loving family member who simply values the work that our first responders do. You are all part of this journey. You are all an important part of this journey. So, here's to another year of growth, to another year of resilience, and to another year of making a difference in the lives of others.
TJ: Keep the promise you made to your community, and remember that you are never alone in this path.
