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Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast.
As always, my name is James Gearing and this week it is my absolute honor to welcome on
the show, wild lamb firefighter and the man behind Wild Fit Life, Justin Mahaffey.
Now in this conversation, we discuss a host of topics from his challenging early life,
growing up in a Mexican community, the beautiful elements of Hispanic culture, his journey
into wild lamb firefighting, the importance of fitness, mentorship, community, family,
homelessness and so much more.
But before we get to this incredibly powerful and important conversation, as I say every
week, please just take a moment, go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe to the
show, leave feedback and leave a rating.
Every single five star rating truly does elevate this podcast, therefore making it easier for
others to find.
And this is a free library of almost 900 episodes now.
So all I ask in return is that you help share these incredible men and women stories so
I can get them to every single person on planet earth who needs to hear them.
One more side note, I had a technical nightmare at the very end of last year, got a brand
new webcam that ended up glitching.
It was faulty and kind of corrupted my sound on this particular interview.
Luckily Justin's is perfect.
Mine is just subpar.
It's not bad, but it's not the quality that you're hearing now, for example.
So just know it's not your stereo.
It's on my end.
It was a gremlin that has since been remedied.
I've got rid of that equipment now, but was completely unknown until I started editing.
So anyway, that being said, I introduce to you Justin Mahaffey.
Enjoy.
Well, Justin, I want to start by saying firstly, thank you so much for taking the time and
coming on the Behind the Shield podcast today.
Yeah, thank you for having me, man.
It's an honor.
Where on planet earth will be finding you your morning, my afternoon?
So I'm in Southern California on the central coast.
Actually, I'm in Santa Maria.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with it.
Kind of like right where the state got that little elbow.
I'm right there.
Beautiful.
So I would love to hear the kind of beginning of your journey because I know that you were
raised in quite a unique environment.
So let's start at the very beginning.
Tell me where you were born and tell me a little bit about your family dynamic, what
your parents did, how many siblings.
Well, that's kind of an interesting and dynamic topic as far as it goes back.
I was actually born in Jacksonville, Florida.
Yeah, all my family is from that area.
My mom and dad got divorced when I was about five years old and we moved here to Santa
Maria when I was six.
So we went across the country and all it was was me, my mom, sister and brother.
Other than that, I didn't really know any of my family after that.
I didn't talk to my dad.
I talked to him about three weeks before he died when I was 11 and he died playing Russian
roulette.
And then my mom was remarried and that didn't last either.
So she got divorced to that guy when I was like 12.
So I grew up a lot of my own at that time at 12 years old.
My mom started dating her new boyfriend, who's now her husband.
And my brother was in prison back in Florida and my sister, she was 18 and lived with her
boyfriend on the other side of the city.
My mom started staying over her now husband's place a lot.
So I ended up on my own on the streets a lot.
And I got really involved in that.
My sister came back to live with me a couple of times.
She was a real influential character in my life.
She would always be there for me and help me take care of me in different ways.
We were real close.
My brother always stayed real close.
We were always riding each other.
So that's all we had.
And me and my mom, you know, like I tell that about my mom, but we were always close as
well.
We went through a rough patch, but life was just happening, you know, and I was on my
own all.
But all we had was us.
I didn't really have cousins and other big like a big family like everybody else.
That's all it was.
And we're still close to this day.
My mom at the time, she went from working at Grocery Outlet, which is a little convenience
store, you know, in the struggle to getting an opportunity to have a better life with
her now husband in the Beverly Hills of the part of town where we're from, you know, is
what I call it.
But so that became her life.
And she now has a business taking care of animals.
It's always been a real big passion in our lives is animals.
My mom, when she was with my dad, they used to breed animals and show dogs and stuff like
that.
So it's always been a real big thing for my mom.
Now she has a business where she takes care of other people's animals and runs her life
like that.
As far as anything about my dad, I don't really know too much about him or his side of the
family.
He and his entire side of the family are all dead.
So it's just like I say, it's us.
I'm in touch now with my cousins from my mom's side, which is cool.
I didn't know them growing up, but that's a cool part of life now that I'm connected
with them.
And social media is awesome for that.
You know, it's a great way to stay connected like that.
But when I was a kid, so in my teens, it was all about survival, figuring things out, growing
up real quick, always wanting to build my own family.
And that comes from the dynamics of my own, obviously.
So I always wanted to build my own family.
I had kids when I was young, my oldest daughter when I was 17, my son just like a year and
a half later.
So in my teens, I got in a lot of trouble, a lot.
I like that part of my life.
You know, it is what it is.
And it's just everything I knew at the time.
But I took a lot from it.
You know, when I was in boys camp, when I was 16 years old, that's where I got introduced
to fire and fell in love with it.
We worked across our camp was located across the street from the hotshot crew.
And so we would always go work with them.
And that's where I really got introduced to it.
I loved it.
So I got out of the camp.
I kept getting in trouble, though, is still just what it was.
But my friend had been doing it for like 10 years fighting fire.
And later on down the road, he ended up helping me get into fire.
You know, so that's where I got into that.
I actually changed everything that was important to me when I was 23, took custody of my kids.
And what mattered to me was providing for them.
And every decision that I made was with consideration of them.
Right.
So I was in construction.
That's what I did in my teens, too.
When I had jobs, I was either doing construction or or kitchen work, you know, just surviving
the grind.
And then I got into fire at 25.
And I've been doing that since I'll be 42 in a couple of months.
We can dive more into different pieces of that if you want to if any questions struck
your mind.
But that's like the basis of it.
You know?
Yeah, no, I've got lots, lots of questions.
Let's go back to 12 years old.
So you know, as you see your mother kind of spending time with her, you know, to be husband
and you find yourself on your own.
What were the male roles?
Excuse me, the male role models or female role models in your community?
Was there a pull towards the street life?
Were there other people out there, too?
Because this is one of the things maddening, I think, with the judgmental element of society,
like all you got to do is make good decisions.
Well, depends on what you're surrounded by.
It depends on what your environment is.
So what did you find yourself surrounded by when you were 12 years old?
Yeah, so the area that I lived in and the role models around were.
Men who survived the struggle through hardship and came out on top and top being what was
successful in the world that I saw and was growing up in was just a man about his business
and and staying righteous through it all.
And a lot of that, you know.
In society, standards could be associated as negative.
But when you come from the struggle and survival, it's a lot different than just making good
decisions and things being, you know, you made a bad decision here, you know, when it's
about survival and.
And doing things that are necessary to elevate and whatever social dynamic you're in.
Sometimes that's a lot different than what other people may see it as who didn't grow
up necessarily in that environment.
So that's a really hard topic, you know, because a lot of people don't understand gangs.
They they I think have the misconception because of what the news does and stuff.
There's a lot of rules involved with with gangs and gang life that I think are good.
But a lot of things that get associated to that lifestyle are really the drug addicts
that end up robbing people and stealing from random people and doing these things that
make everybody look from that world bad when it's really not like that.
You know, so I guess the male role models that were around me were the ones that I saw.
That had pride in who and what they were and held their morals and values close, whatever
that was.
Yeah.
Why?
Because I think it's an important thing to underline.
I mean, it's the same with looking down your nose at obesity in America and going, all
you're going to do is just get up early.
Go for a run and eat salad.
It's like, no, it's your environment.
Like what is around you?
Are you being led towards health?
Are you being led towards ill health?
And it's the same with this.
If the young boy is feeling vulnerable and he's going to feel like he's part of something
in a tribe and that happens to be a gang, you've got to understand the psychology behind
that.
Now, are there potentially even more nurturing, healthy groups that you could be a part of?
Yeah.
I mean, obviously, all the members of a gang could ultimately be even better persons.
They could be better persons of themselves if they were given the tools to rise up even
more.
But by demonizing anyone who ends up finding themselves in addiction, in crime, in whatever
label you want to give it is such a two-dimensional, judgmental way of looking at a human being
because we don't know what that path looked like up until that point.
And if we judge, nothing gets fixed.
But if we look at it with compassion and with understanding, then I think we can help raise
everyone up.
Yeah.
For sure, man.
I used to just be so closed-minded.
And when I started in fire, I gained so much respect for different men that grew up in
different ways because I found things that we related to as far as the grit and wanting
more and doing whatever it takes.
So there's a lot to that.
Growing up in the area that I grew up in and how I grew up, it's just set up for failure,
man.
The system is nasty.
I started getting locked up when I was like 12, 13, and they just lock you up for anything.
They want you to be in that system.
It feels like you know them.
And then I stopped going to regular school, so now I'm just in juvenile halls and those
schools and stuff like that.
And that becomes what everything's about.
It's normal.
They would lock me up.
I said on the other podcast, well, they locked me up for playing basketball, playing handball.
And like I said, I knew I shouldn't have been there.
They told us we couldn't be.
But that's where I played.
I was a kid.
And so you just become normal to that.
My whole life, I thought that I was going to be in and out my whole life, and it was
just normal.
I didn't care if I was in there or out here.
And the system, I mean, it's crazy.
It's hard to describe on how bad it is with the revolving door of what the system is.
It's made to break you down and for failure.
Once you're in there, you're in there.
And that was one of the biggest things.
I still talk to some of my old probation officers and things like that.
To this day, I have one of them who's a client that I coach.
And I have a respect for them.
They have respect for me.
And they never thought I would make it out of that.
But when I took custody of my kids, that's when I just took a step back and figured out
how I could beat that system, how I could get out of it, what I needed, the moves I
needed to make.
And it was hard.
It was hard.
You know, there was a lot of because I knew that any little move I made, I have a kind
of funny story.
I had a he was my public defender at the time.
And I had like multiple felony charges.
I think I was like 19 or something.
And so he was my public defender.
All that happened.
Whatever years go by, I think I'm like 27 at this time.
So I'm in fire.
Excuse me.
I'm doing good in life.
You know, I'm trying to grind and trying to do what I need to do for my kids.
And the cops, a specific cop that used to mess with me when I was a kid was trying to
mess with me again.
And he came and started giving me tickets because I had a basketball court in the street
for my kids.
And so he ticketed me for that.
And then he ticketed me again.
And I told him, I'm not going to pay that man.
You're overdoing it.
You know, and anyway, I ended up having to go to court for it.
And when I went to court, my old public defender was now the judge.
And he looks at this stuff and he's like, so you went from getting felonies and causing
havoc to in here for a basketball court.
Case dismissed.
Get out of here, man.
Keep doing what you're doing.
You know, I thought that was pretty cool.
It felt good.
But that's the empathetic, you know, I that I'm talking about, you know, if the system
is broken, they say insanity is doing the same thing again, expecting different results.
Like we have to look at, you know, everything from drug prohibition to the fact that some
of our prisons are publicly, you know, run as a privately run and a profit base.
I mean, there's all these elements that are saying certain groups up for failure over
and over and over again.
Yeah.
So I could even dive deeper into that.
You know, I just there's some stuff going on.
In side, you know, with I can't remember the name of the drug.
You know, they give it to people who it's like, it's supposed to help them do something,
but it's similar to like heroin, you know.
So they're feeding this to these guys that are busted and just keeping them high pretty
much.
And then when they get out, of course, they can't get that anymore.
So then they get the heroin and then they get back on that and then they go back inside.
So they get back on that other one.
It's a nasty endless cycle, man.
And I don't think there's nothing you can really do about it.
You know, the system is what it is, but it's dirty.
Is it methadone you're talking about?
No, but it's something like methadone.
OK, yeah.
I think you watch 13th, which is a great documentary, and you know, and you see how much manufacturing
is done in prisons.
You know, you see how many just forget color and creed and everything, how many Americans
are incarcerated versus the rest of the world per capita.
I mean, it's it's so, you know, off.
We just were supposed to be so affluent and, you know, be free, quote unquote.
Yet there are areas of our society that have created so much crime.
And this is what I talk about, even with the police side.
When do you ever hear anyone defending the police and saying, why are our streets so
dangerous in the first place?
Why is it that I can go to Lisbon, Portugal or Reykjavik, Iceland and not worry about
getting shot in a school on the street?
But you go to Philadelphia or Orlando or Miami or everywhere else, you know, and it's like,
yeah, don't go there.
And you're not going to walk out again.
Why are we not having this conversation?
And that goes way deeper than, you know, being tough on crime, quote unquote.
Yeah, definitely.
I think being a cop is one of the hardest jobs in the world, man, especially here.
And everybody hates you.
You know, it's one of the kids, one of my kids friends, he's becoming a highway patrol
right now.
I just told him, I was like, man, you don't you don't get paid enough to have to deal
with that.
You know, you never know who you're going to pull over.
People are crazy.
You never know who you're going to pull over.
And I just don't think they get paid enough and they don't have enough support all the
way around to try to do the right things.
You know, it's I remember some cops that were in the neighborhood when I was a kid who I
remember wanted they wanted to be good, good guys.
You know, I remember one of them always giving pogs to the kids.
I was popular at the time, you know, going around, just trying to be good people.
But it's a nasty world, man.
They don't have the tools.
Yeah, they don't have the tools they need.
They don't get paid enough.
It's a really negative environment, too.
You know, think about everybody that you're going to pull over or in any situation that
you really deal with is a negative context.
So I think it's like a depressing life as well.
Yeah, yeah.
And it's it's a vicious circle that, you know, they're sleep deprived, they're overworked,
they're not supported by the departments and then they have what they interact with on
the street a lot of times.
That's then ultimately going to create worse decisions and more friction.
And it's a downward spiral.
Yeah, that's it.
It's definitely a crazy job.
Well, I want to hear one more thing and then kind of get through your journey to the fire
service, but I heard you talking on another podcast about your, I guess, for lack of a
better word, ethnic background.
You know, when people listening, you sound like you're Hispanic, you look and dress like
you're from a Hispanic culture and you are from a Hispanic culture.
But talk to me about your actual family roots and how you were embraced by the culture that
you found yourself in California.
Yeah, that's actually a big part of my life and who I am.
You know, I'm Irish.
I take pride in that, but my family history is I've been trying to learn more about it,
actually.
But, you know, I grew up in the Mexican culture and I loved what the family values were around
me.
You know, there's something about that culture that is different than any other one that
I've ever seen.
You know, just the way that they embrace each other, they're always getting together and
like I said, I had what I have two siblings and a mom.
That was all I knew for family.
You know, my wife has got like 78 cousins.
She's Mexican, you know, so I just I love what the family values are.
And being white in that neighborhood came with its challenges, obviously.
But I took it as something that empowered me in who I am.
Because a lot, you know, this is a lot of people get their reputations and make their
way off who their cousin is or their family that they come from.
I didn't have any of that.
I had me, you know, so I had to make my own way.
And then the love that I was shown from the families that I grew up around really gave
me a passion for what the culture is and a pride that I take in being a part of that.
You know, absolutely.
Well, what about the the exercise and fitness side?
Obviously, we're going to talk about what you're doing today.
When you were younger, you mentioned basketball, you mentioned handball.
What was your exposure to exercise and fitness back then?
So that's kind of a cool story.
Actually, I played football and and I was really good at it, man.
I got youth football, though.
So I got MVP every year I played in the last year.
I got Co League MVP.
I got offered a scholarship to a local school.
That's a really big deal.
We're not supposed to do that.
But they pull people all the time and say, you know, you can come to the school you want
to pay.
And I threw all that away, man.
Not really intentionally, but I knew it was happening.
I got locked up and I knew I was never going to get to play football again.
I didn't go to that school.
That was just became my life.
I threw away.
But I love football.
I love the exercise part of it.
I used to love to lead the calisthenics.
So when I got into juvenile hall and camps, I'd be leading workouts.
When I was in that camp, I got really into the calisthenics side and they had weights
there.
So I got really into that.
And one of my favorite parts of it was always the camaraderie.
You know, when you get together and you work out in a group atmosphere.
So that was my experience with sports.
One of the biggest regrets in my life, too.
And I felt it in that moment.
I think I was like 14.
I remember being on the field and knowing that I was never going to play football again.
You know, but I loved it.
I actually stopped watching football, the NFL and stuff for a few years.
I was so bitter.
Understandably so.
You're just kicking yourself.
And, you know, again, it was where that road had led you up to that point, though.
Yeah.
So what about career aspirations?
When you were in the kind of high school age, were you dreaming of becoming anything specific?
No, I wasn't, man.
That's what's crazy is I always just thought that I would build houses and I love cooking.
So I always kept like a little kitchen job.
Those are the things I loved.
I love building houses.
When I was a kid, like 15 years old, I would walk to the tracks where the track homes where
they were doing construction, building new homes.
And I'd be like, hey, man, can I be a laborer?
Walk around, clean it up.
And then so I'd get a little side job like that.
And it's got into I just thought that that would be my whole life building houses.
And that would be it.
You know, and like I said, I went to camp, got introduced to fire.
It's crazy.
I had no idea about wildland fire or what it was until I was in that camp.
And we actually got hit by a wildfire in the camp I was in.
And they were evacuating us in buses and stuff.
So I got really introduced to it.
And I always thought it was something that was honorable to do and something cool.
But when I got out, I just kept kept on life as normal.
And like I said, I had that friend who actually he's been a role model in my life since I
was like seven or eight years old.
Jason Mitchell, I've talked about him before.
He's actually the captain on my engine now.
And we've always been just good friends.
We were hanging out one day and I told him, hey, man, what do I need to do to get on on
your crew for a season?
Try it out.
You know, and he told me, he said, you know, go get your GED, go out to the stations, get
yourself known.
And if you get on the list, I'll vouch for you.
And I did everything that he told me to do.
I went and I bought the GED.
Like I said, I didn't go to high school.
So I did high school in two weeks.
I bought the GED book.
I read it, studied it, set up my appointment, went and took all the tests in one day and
got and got my GED.
I started going out to the stations, getting to know the guys, doing what I needed to do
and got in.
Now, had you had that kind of passion about other things or because the reason why I asked
that I was a straight C student in school.
And then obviously quite a few years later, I entered the fire service and then become
a straight A student because it makes sense to me, the medical side, the fire side.
It's real world stuff.
Yeah.
No, it's not.
I loved building houses.
I always thought it was cool and fun and I was good at it.
I learned new things, pick them up, become fast at it.
But as far as having the passion for it, no, as a matter of fact, when I got into fire,
I really started learning how I learn.
And it goes with exactly with what you just said, how you went from C's to A's because
I started associating the information I was being taught in the classroom to what I could
functionally use in my everyday life to be better at what I want to be good at.
And so I started really learning how I learn and that passion that I had for it.
So I started excelling in that.
Now for some people listening, obviously you're thinking about the criminal record that you
had.
I had a couple of guests on, Brooke Carrasco, who went through the inmate program, ended
up getting hired and she ends up not long after that saving a life on one of the burns
that she was on.
And then Dustin, excuse me, Brendan McDonald, who was the only survivor of the Prescott
19 fire, he was an addict, an opioid addict before he got hired and got clean.
And so it seems like the wildland environment is a little bit more forgiving than some of
the municipal ones.
And I've made this observation several times.
Imagine how many candidates we lose because they're expecting choir boys to enter this
profession.
And there has to be a line, of course.
You can't be a thief recently or God forbid anything to children.
However, some of the stuff that candidates have done in the past, if it truly is that
past, is in one way maybe going to even be an asset as you progress through into this
career.
So walk me through your desire to enter the fire service and if there were any barriers
because of your background.
Okay.
A couple of things.
Actually, Donut, the one you were just talking about.
Yeah.
He's in my program.
He's been in my program for over a year.
Oh, excellent.
I just saw him literally six weeks ago in Ohio.
We were at a conference together.
Amazing guy.
Yeah, he's a good guy.
So I have a two sided opinion to what that is.
So Wildland Fire is more rough neck.
It's more oil field construction site.
And I have a couple of felonies.
I never expunged my record or anything.
My felonies are for sales, basically transportation for sales, stuff like that with drugs.
And that was just the normal way to make money where I grew up.
It wasn't a big deal.
I get it to some people it is, but that's just the grind.
And with Wildland Fire, I just put it down, man.
I just put, yes, I have felonies.
Yes, this is what it is.
The captain at the time gave me an opportunity as a seasonal and then it just never came
up when I did my background check and all that.
I just didn't lie about it.
I put it down and they don't have a rule of not being able to hire you because of that.
So it just was never an issue.
Now the flip side that I'm talking about is with municipal.
That is and should be harder to get into.
You know, you got these kids who are making choices at 18 years old to go to academies,
to put in the volunteer hours, to work on their medic, to do all these things that it
takes to get into the municipal side.
So with all these candidates being able to be chosen from, if I'm the hiring official,
I'm not going to hire some 25 year old felon over some 18 year old kid who's putting in
the work, you know, and it has a clean record.
So I get it.
You know, it's harder to get into.
Now with that being said, there is, like you said, a lot of value that can be finding someone
who's gone through struggle and they might have a great work ethic and a desire to be
good at what they're doing, especially because they can understand what the hardship is.
So there is positives to it, but it's harder to get into the municipal because of that.
I had this 18 year old kid who was on my engine from Fresno.
He was staying over here with me.
I rented him a room and he was just doing everything.
He would be doing his classwork at night on the computer.
And that's where I kind of got that impression, like, man, this kid is doing the work.
So there's less people to choose from in wildland because nobody really wants to do it for a
career.
It's hard, dirty work, right?
So, and then with the municipal, you have all these applicants to choose from.
So it's going to be harder to get in because those kids that are 18, 19, 20, you know,
that have been doing the work are going to get it and rightfully so.
Yeah.
No, I agree completely if someone is a better candidate, they're a better candidate.
It's that simple.
But you know, the other side of the equation is an 18 year old kid, you know, may have
some trials and tribulations in their past that's going to set them up for success in
the fire service, or they could be purely academic and actually, you know, not do well
in this profession.
We don't know until we obviously give them an opportunity.
But to discount people because of their background, they may also be.
I mean, the Justin, you know, the 25 year old Justin was worthy of a position, you know.
So I think, again, that compassion that we talked about earlier, if someone grew up in
a system that was setting them up for failure, should that basically, should that follow
them the rest of their life?
Should that stop them from getting multiple roles?
Or as long as it wasn't something too heinous, you know, is there a more altruistic way of
looking at it where we can be open minded in the professions and say, okay, you know,
there has to be a period of time between last offense and this and have proven that you
have changed and overcome that.
But to just immediately discount that, which happened to my very first, my very first application
in the fire service.
I was honest about a drug I tried in Japan years prior, and they literally screwed it
up and threw it in my face.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
So you have to lie to be a firefighter.
Got it.
And then I worked for 14 years.
I mean, it's fucking ridiculous.
That's true.
So, you know, especially now is that drug is being used as a very, very effective mental
health drug, MDMA.
Now we're using it to help firefighters, you know, so it's, it's where is that line between
some mistakes that were overcome and obviously, you know, the crimes that you can't overlook
and put someone in uniform for.
Exactly.
I agree with you a hundred percent.
And you know, if like you're referring back to the 18 year old kid who maybe came from
struggle, you know, I would, to me might be a better looking applicant if he's hasn't
had that support growing up and the guidance to do what he wants to do.
And he's the one that's putting in the work and doing the extra.
That would be something more for me that I would look at, you know, absolutely.
Yeah, there's a lot of sides to it.
And I definitely think that we should not judge people.
I think there is some crimes that should definitely rule people out for really anything in life,
you know, but I definitely agree with you.
Absolutely.
Well, you talked about doing calisthenics and in football and those kind of areas as
you enter the wildland fire service, how was your fitness for the pack test and the basic
training that you have and how did that carry you through the rest of your career?
So this is funny.
When I got into fire, the pack test was fine, but the, the hiking.
So it's funny.
I told my, my friend, I don't know, I'll be good, man.
I lift all the time.
I can squat this much weight.
I can do this and that when I got, went on my first hike, man, I got my ass kicked.
I had no idea what I was getting into when I put that gear on and went up the hill.
They beat me up the hill by probably 15, 20 minutes when I got up there to the top, I
was just happy I made it to the top.
And they're like, nah, man, you got to go a lot faster than that.
And so, you know, my first season or two, I was working on getting better at that, changing
the dynamics of how I work out a lot of that.
I can associate back to what my workout techniques are now and the plans that I make for overall
just functional strength.
But I went from being, so when I went to the hell attack crew, these guys were fast, skinny
little guys, six, three, 150 pounds, you know, I'm five, nine, five, 10, about a two 30
at the time.
You know, I just love lifting heavy.
That was my get down.
So now I'm trying to keep up with these guys.
So I'm just on a tool, but I decided that season, I told my soup, I told him, I want
to be on a salt team.
You know, what do I need to do?
He said, well, first of all, you need to go from the back of the hikes to the front of
them.
You carry more weight and this and that.
Right.
So I spent all winter just fucking grinding.
I mean, I'm talking like I'd go to the dunes and I would bear crawl and hike up and just
run as fast as I could up the sand dunes.
I would hike and run on every day.
Fire season comes back again.
I'm in the front of the hike, you know, now I get on the salt team.
Now I spend my season doing that.
I love it.
I fall in love with it even more.
And then I developed my style of working out because I didn't want to cut out lifting weights
and be doing them a whole life.
And I love it.
A lot of guys in fire, especially wildland, they don't lift, you know, it's a lot of just
running and hiking.
You got to, you got to have that endurance and you got to just be able to carry the weight.
Right.
So I mixed it up and I came up with, you know, I started incorporating my burpees into weight
lifting, a lot of circuit training, a lot of running and hiking and boxing.
And so now I've created this style that benefits what I enjoy as far as weightlifting power
stuff and then also incorporated that cardio side of it that I keep on point with it.
So that's kind of like what WildFitLife is, is like this whole little mixture of all that.
Now, when I see a lot of your videos, obviously the first image that comes back is, you know,
sadly prisoners, Hispanic usually in prison, but still working out ferociously, even if
they're in a tiny, tiny little cell.
Do you know what the kind of history is?
I mean, when I think of burpee, I think of that.
And then I think of CrossFit, which is the one that really brought it to most of us.
Is there a kind of origin story for that group of people, whether in prison or outside using
that kind of exercise methodology?
The lack of space.
It's simple.
Lack of space and a lack of equipment.
You got to, you know, a little space to be in.
When you're in that environment, taking care of yourself becomes a whole different thing,
you know.
It's all you have.
So that's why you see people, you get people reading books, self-care becomes a huge thing.
You got this little space.
You're going to try to work out in any way you can just from pushups to air squats.
Okay, start throwing in burpees.
Burpees was actually invented by a man with the last name of Burpee back in the days in
the military.
Are you familiar with that?
I'm not totally familiar with the origin story now.
It's a long one, but simple.
It's a guy with the last name of Burpee.
He came up with the movement, you know, and then it just gets in the military and in institutions.
A lot of the mindset's the same.
It's structure, discipline, and self-care, right?
And pride for what's important to you and what you're about.
So in there, that's what they do.
You know, you got a little space.
So you do as much work as you can in one space and then staying strong and ready for anything
to come your way is utmost importance.
Yeah.
When COVID hit and all the gyms were closed down, which again, that's an entire other
conversation that you shut down everything that makes people healthy when you've got
a health scare.
But, you know, that's what I always popped in my mind was, well, if someone can be incarcerated
and still work out with no equipment and, you know, whatever it is, six by six cell,
then none of us have an excuse not to work out.
Yeah.
Thousand percent.
And, you know, so I have two people who are the families I've talked about before in previous
podcasts, but are very close to me like brothers.
One of them right now is in the Corcoran shoe and one of them's in Pelican Bay.
And I just did like, I'm not trying to come out with a podcast, but we just did this thing.
We called it the window and he was talking and he's in Pelican Bay.
So we did it where we did like a FaceTime and I recorded it and it's all positive.
It was just about mindset, mental fortitude, stuff like that.
Right.
And he was talking about in his dynamics, sometimes he gets where to break it down,
simply almost feels helpless.
Like he can't help those people around him.
You know, his loved ones that are out here or he gets stuck in a thought pattern that's
negative or whatever it is.
He'll just start doing burpees, get that blood flowing, get that oxygen to your brain.
And it helps put you in a different state of mind, which can sometimes help you come
and find those answers that you were looking for.
You know, it's powerful to get moving and take care of yourself.
So when all you have is you, then you start taking care of yourself.
Look at now, people out here, man, they, everybody's okay.
Like we're just enjoying a temporary fast comfort and saying, Oh, I'll deal with the
consequences later.
I'm not going to not have my donut and I'm not going to not have my monster every day
or whatever it is.
It's silly, you know, until the doctor tells you, Hey, you need to start focusing on some
self care or you're going to, you're going to die.
You know, so all of that.
Yeah.
Thank you.
It's a powerful perspective and it's true.
I mean, it really is.
As we progress through your, your career in wildland, what was some of the kind of career
fires that you had?
That's a hard one.
I've been on a lot, a lot of fires, over a hundred in my career and where I'm from, a
lot of them are big ones.
You know, we started getting, is that what we're talking about?
Just like big, you know, big campaign fires.
Yeah, I mean, yeah.
Anything that really kind of, you know, maybe shook you a little bit more than the other
ones.
Well, you know, the, there was, I would say most recently, and I was talking about on
the last podcast is what the fires are getting big, you know, in 2008, 2009 here on my forest,
we had fires over a hundred thousand acres.
And after that started becoming normal, you know, before that 30,000 acres, 50,000 acres
was considered a huge fire.
Now that's just, just normal, you know?
And I would say what shakes me about it now to this day is the fact that as an agency
we're imploding and we're losing all our qualified leaders that are decision makers to other
agencies.
So now we're putting situations where sometimes these people who get promoted into positions
that they shouldn't be in just off default are now in that.
So we have to really look at things in a whole different perspective and make decisions based
on that isolated down to just our crew.
You know, we don't have the personnel to get in front of fire and put fire on the ground
and cut it off and fight fire like we normally would.
So we don't have the personnel.
So now the fire is getting the upper hand on us because we have to let it do its thing
before we can do our thing.
It's all that, you know, I've been on fires where I've been, I've been cut off by fire
had to run from fire.
You know, got a lot of good learning experiences like that.
When to be aggressive, when not to be aggressive.
I've never had to deploy my coworker at my station.
He did in this fire that on the Monterey fire blew up on him.
The whole station got burned down.
They lost engines, dozers, and they all had to deploy, you know, and so I guess what you
really learn from that is when mother nature takes its course, you really can't beat that.
But anything and everything that we can do to avoid those situations is crucial.
You know, once I started becoming a leader and having to make those decisions, I noticed
I got a little more cautious than I was before.
I used to be like, let's just go, let's go, let's go.
And then when I started being the one that had to make the decisions that affected these
guys lives, I'm like, well, hold on, let me really analyze this situation before we just
put fire on the ground or do the next thing, you know.
So it's hard to say.
I guess I don't have any specific incident that melts into who I am.
It's all of it combined.
You know, they're all slides and they're all tools that I use to this day and how I fight
fire and continue to grow in what it is, especially as times change.
Well, one thing I've heard over and over again from Brendan, from Ben Strahan, from Jason
Ramos is that the fires are just getting worse.
Some of them talk about global warming and they're seeing everything getting drier and
harder in the season, not being a season anymore, but being almost year round.
Other ones talk about opposition to prescribed burns.
So through your eyes, what are some of the factors that are contributing to such large
fires these days?
Well, you know, they have this thing where you can't burn because the seagulls are close,
you know, whatever it is.
Right.
And that's a factor because we need to be putting more fire on the ground in the winter
and getting rid of these fuels.
But with all this stuff going on, you just can't all the rules and regulations.
We can't.
We try to do work, but we don't have the workforce to go out there and actually be doing the
fuels work all the time that needs to be done.
And then, like I said, you can't burn when you need to.
So we start getting these rains like right now is just putting more grass on.
Enough didn't burn last year.
So all you now have now is more, more, more wick to get to that brush, you know, with
all that grass.
So it's just and then people put their homes in places they shouldn't be.
They don't do the clearance that they should.
People are negligent dragging chains.
I mean, it's just so many factors.
You know, I'm not too informed on the whole climate change and all that.
I don't know.
But I do know that it's hot and dry all year long.
You know, we get two inches of rain and that's cool for a little bit, but it'll pick right
back up.
You know, we get crazy winds here in Southern California all the time.
So that just dries things out fast.
You know, so we're having we check our fuels twice, twice a month.
And you know, it changes pretty rapidly, actually.
Yeah.
I mean, it's just an important conversation.
You can label it however you want global warming or, you know, pink cupcake day, whatever you
want to call it.
But the reality is we are asking our wildland firefighters to do more with less over and
over again.
Every year.
And it's funny, we talked earlier about, you know, municipal having a lot of cannabis.
They don't anymore.
Really?
And I was literally reminiscing with people when I got hired in Anaheim.
I worked in Anaheim for a few years.
I tested against a thousand candidates that were all certified.
It wasn't non-certified.
It was a thousand certified firefighter paramedics and or EMTs with ambulance experience.
A lot of them came from the wildland community.
So we're talking about stacked resumes, thousands of them for 30 jobs.
And so now it's not the case.
Anaheim may still be doing well.
They're a very well-respected department, but a lot of departments are really hurting.
I think it's the same in wildland where people are now able in 2023 to research, you know,
what does the role of a wildland firefighter look like?
And you'll see, you know, the pack test and the camaraderie and only the brave, well,
the brave is a bad example because so many people died.
But you know, the, the, the glory side, the things that we're all proud of, the things
that we love about the profession.
But in that Google search will also come up firefighter suicide, addiction, homelessness,
all these things that, you know, I want to get into in a second with you.
But the other side and then the pay and then the mandatory overtime, you know, and so now
people are able to see the entire picture, you know, good and bad.
And I think that now with that, we've, we've really exposed how poorly a lot of these agencies
support their men and women.
And therefore there's not as much of a demand because people are going, that looks a bit
shit.
I'm not going to do that.
You know, so I think that we are really at a pivotal point in the municipal and the wildland
fire service where if people don't start, start actually bolstering these professions
and supporting them and giving them more staffing so we can give them more time off and rest
and recovery, we're not going to have firefighters anymore.
And you know, a lot of, a lot of cities will suffer what paradise endured, you know, a
few years ago because they just simply won't be, as you said, prescribed burns and the
proactive side or the ability to be reactive and protect communities.
Yeah.
I'm going to give you some, some percent and I got an example for you.
My step kid, he's 24, he'll be 24 in a couple of weeks.
He started expressing interest in what I do and he wants to do something honorable, you
know, and my opinion, his opinion as well, the two most honorable things you can do,
military or be a firefighter.
That's my opinion and he agrees with it.
So he started asking me, what can he do?
So he's 24, he works in solar panels right now and he makes 29 bucks an hour.
Right?
So I told him, well, if you get on the engine or the hand crew, you're going to maybe start
at like 1550 an hour.
And when he was like, well, I can't live off that, you know, it's a thing and how you make
your money in wild man's overtime.
So hopefully you get on a, in an area where there's a lot of coverage needed or, you know,
you're on a crew where it's nonstop or helicopter where there's less resources.
So you get more time, but they don't pay us, right?
We're not going to be able to get these new kids in when you can go work at in and out
or you can go work at, you know, McDonald's and you can make more than you can in the
backseat of an engine on a fire crew.
You know, come on, it's ridiculous.
And I'm actually the union rep on my forest.
I went to Washington DC fighting for it.
I actually got invited to the white house, went into the West wing.
That was awesome experience.
Who would have ever thought I'd been there?
That was crazy.
And then, you know, we went into Congress and talked to them and I just, I really don't
understand the holdup on the buy-in to pay people.
Right.
You know, it's crazy to me.
So unless they fix that and then like you say, all the different dynamics that come
with it, it's yeah, we're going to implode completely.
Well, talk to me about Tim Hart and how that took you to DC.
So the Tim Hart, I think is going to be hard to pass because there's a lot of things wrong
with the forest service.
Right.
And Tim Hart in that whole little bill kind of fixes probably too much.
You know, it would make too many things make sense.
So you're going to get a lot of pushback.
I hope it goes through.
We have some guys who are in Washington daily pushing for it, trying to get, you know, the
signatures they need, trying to talk to the right people.
But it's like a fix all.
And I think with the way our government works is we don't fix all.
So it's a hard one.
And then it's hard to get those bills passed and other things because you put them in all
these other different bills that have too much stuff in it.
You know, I think it'd be nice to have somebody to sit back and do the right thing and be
like, look at all this stuff needs to be fixed.
People are dying and more people are going to die if we don't fix it.
But it's a hard sell, you know, because for some reason the money is the issue, which
it shouldn't be.
When I talk to the congressman about the issues and about what's going on, they have no idea
what I'm talking about.
And I don't know if that's just what they're acting like or if they are really that far
separated from what the real issues are.
You know, it's one of the two.
And it was kind of disheartening for me to be like, you have no idea what I'm talking
about.
What do you mean?
You know, you are a representative.
So the separation is huge.
As far as Tim Hart goes, you know, I don't really know too much of his whole story to
speak on, but he was a firefighter that passed and they put the bill together in his name.
I believe his wife was pushing a lot of the issues with it and it took off and grew.
It sounds like he was a smoke jumper and died in a hard land.
And again, every time I think of a line of duty death, especially when it's someone doing
something that they would have been good at doing, you know, you're not going to be a
smoke jumper and not know how to land with a parachute, for example.
So that immediately then sends me into thinking, OK, what did the weeks prior look like?
Did he get rest and recovery or was he on back to back deployments?
Did that factor into a lack of judgment and his death?
Yeah, I imagine that is something that really does need to be looked at because those are
huge issues now.
The resources window down to even less is going to be less rest and recovery.
People just pushing and pushing the cruiser as there's less hot shot crews, those hot
shot crews are going to be more demand for them to be out even more.
So this is leading to the next thing.
The simple fixes, the pay, all the other stuff that's in the bill that needs to be fixed,
you know, health stuff, the support, all that's important.
But without the pay, we're not going to get the people in the roles that need to be filled
to make all that stuff matter.
So they just need to be like, look, all right, let's pay these people more.
This now we can have more people employed and they get the proper rest and recovery
between assignments that's necessary.
So it all falls back on the money.
It does.
Yeah.
And this is what is maddening in the municipal side, because I mean, their work week is insane.
In a lot of America, they work 56 and they're understaffed.
So now it's 80 hours in a week, you know, and this is, you know, on and off, maybe every
other week they're working that.
And we wonder why they're falling apart, why we're losing them physically and mentally.
And people say, oh, well, if we can't get people now, how are we supposed to fill the
seats?
And it's exactly what you said.
You fucking change things.
So people want to be a firefighter.
It's that simple.
You know, if you told someone, hey, you're going to be a coal miner and I'm going to,
you know, pay you $5 an hour, what would you say?
You know, you go to an accounting job and they say, right, every third day you have
to stay at the office all night and it's $10 an hour.
You'd be like, yeah, you can eat a bag of dicks.
And then they're so fucking surprised when that happens in the fire service and say,
oh, but you love the job, don't you?
Yes.
But that doesn't bring you home when it's your child's birthday party, you know, or
make sure that you're there that day so you can take your wife out on that date that you
promised her.
You know, we have lives outside our profession too and we love what we do, but you can't
ask people to do more with less because you end up in 2023 where you're about to lose
the entire ability to deliver a fire service anymore.
So you have to have a brave decision.
And the irony is the money that cities and counties and, you know, the forestry department
loses from their people breaking, you could put that money into people and you'd actually
save money because they wouldn't break and you'd retain that experience and you wouldn't
lose them to the surrounding cities.
That's been ridiculous for over a decade, man.
We'll send these people to academies.
I think it's like $6,000 a pop, you know, to go to wherever you're going for the academy
for 30 days for wildland, get them all this experience.
As soon as they're done with their apprenticeship, gone to Cal Fire or to a county or something
like and say, he's wasting all that money.
Why just take better care of us?
The people will stay.
Just exactly what you're saying.
It's insane because I'm sure you could have the same conversation with anybody.
It's like the simple fixes.
Why can't we just fix it?
Who's in charge?
You know, it's crazy.
And then at the local level, you know, you get now we're getting people who shouldn't
be in those positions in those positions.
So you know, they're just there for maybe their high three, you know, before they retire.
So they come in with these grandiose ideas and never pulled the trigger on anything and
really just make things worse.
It's a vicious cycle, man.
It really is.
It's upsetting because I'm passionate about my job.
I love wildland fire.
I just had a situation happen to me where I thought about leaving.
I got done pretty dirty for about a year and three months.
I was dealing with this situation where I had these two people make up stuff about me
and consider me a threat and all this.
After 15 months, they found out that these were lies and untrue.
But in that time, I lost out on one hundred and twenty thousand dollars because I was
restricted from going to assignments or anything.
And there's no fixing that.
Now I'm just in a hole.
And what I ended up getting in trouble for.
And this is what's funny is you've seen my Instagram, right?
It's not about being a firefighter.
It's about working out wherever you can anywhere.
And being a firefighter is a part of who I am.
So sometimes I'll show the workouts we do on break or we're going to look at we got
30 minutes.
Let's knock out 500 pushups.
I'll share that stuff.
Just motivational workout wherever you can, whenever you can.
I ended up getting in trouble because out of six posts out of over 2000, they were able
to see the Forest Service logo in the background.
So they said the Forest Service that could insinuate that the Forest Service promotes
my business.
So I got in trouble for that.
And what's crazy is I literally through my social media try to promote being a firefighter
to these kids who message me and they're like, hey, man, I really want to do what you're
doing.
I'm involved and I'll direct them.
I've got people on on hotshot crews, engines, type two crews all over California.
These kids, I help them tell them what to do.
And now I'm not supposed to do that.
And that's just trying to bring people in, you know, that come kind of from the world
that I do.
And that could fill the seats.
Yeah, there's some lunacy out there.
There really is.
You know, I mean, and there's a fragile egos as well.
Sometimes it's the person, the individual.
I mean, I've I've tried to try to push change in a lot of the places I've worked, you know,
and I've worked in places where that wasn't very hard at all because it was a great environment
like Anaheim.
And I've worked some places where they didn't want to hear it full stop.
Sit down, shut up.
You're making us look bad.
You know, so many fragile egos there.
So but this is what I hear from a lot of the really good firefighters around the country
is their biggest stress isn't that horrendous car wreck they went to.
It's the environment that they working and they're trying to be, you know, motivated,
fired up firefighters and find new training and spread fitness and all those things.
And their biggest resistance is their own people.
Thousand percent.
You know, that's one of the reasons why, you know, we're talking about the stress side
of it.
And you had brought up like suicide and and those things.
One of the one of the reasons and where I started heading with my social media when
I started it was that camaraderie that we build, right?
When we work out together during the fire season, we're pushing or grinding, create
these bonds.
Right.
And that's your life for those six, seven months.
But then these people get laid off the seasonals or even permanence, no use or lose, whatever
it is you're off your home.
So now all of a sudden you're in these environments that are different and sometimes depressing,
especially when you whatever situation you're in.
But with my social media, I said, look, you can still we can still work out together.
We can stay connected all year long and support the grind.
And I think that's one of the best parts of what Instagram or TikTok or Facebook, any
of that stuff is, is that you can stay connected with like minded people and kind of maybe
you never know who you're going to help, who's in a bad spot where maybe they see something
positive or you invite them to do a zoom workout and it changes their perspective or their
day or wherever, wherever they're at.
It's one of my favorite things about social media.
And it's a real thing that when these people who dedicate like on a crew for six, seven
months and then they go home and start dealing with these real issues and they feel separated
from maybe their spouse or their other loved ones, whatever it is, and start drinking and
get just become in this depressing state.
But that's why I think it's powerful to create these these outlets like social media to keep
people connected and support each other all year long.
I think that's something that we don't really understand being in the municipal fire service
is that seasonal element of the wildland fire service.
And I think that the deadliest catch, the crab fishing show from years ago kind of gave
an insight into that.
These men, you can see that shared suffering, that community, obviously they would bang
heads sometimes that we all do, but overall they were this tight knit tribe.
And then the season stops and they all walk out the door and some go home to a healthy
community and environment and they do OK.
But some clearly they spiral downward again.
So what are you seeing through your own eyes of the negative side?
You've got all the positivity of when we're on the job and when they're wearing the uniform
and out there working together and suffering together and bonding.
But that other side, when they're you know, they walk out the door for the last time until
the following year.
You see a lot of stuff, man.
We've had suicide here locally on our forest, you know, most recently.
I don't get too into it, but we'll call it suicide.
He didn't.
And he was just in a bad spot.
You know, he was actually think he was close to retirement and thinking the end was coming,
you know, whatever it was, but he was losing what this was.
And that was all his life is, you know, but you got these kids, right?
A lot of young men who are living in their trucks because they can't afford to be to
have a residence wherever they're stationed at.
So a lot of them sleep in their trucks on the property or get these little trailers
in a room or whatever.
So when the fire season ends, they have literally nothing, maybe some money they stacked up,
you know, so then they go and they don't have that camaraderie anymore.
I think drinking becomes a real big problem because that's the most socially accepted
bullshit in the world.
You know, so, you know, they dive into that and who knows what, you know, some of these
guys are gone for months at a time, you know, go for assignment, come home for two days,
go to assignment.
So then what?
You're going to lose your wife unless she's a good girl and you're actually decent to
her, you know, and keep your chick.
But a lot of time, you know, they lose their wives, now they're on their own.
So fire season's over, no more support.
Drinking.
Drinking is the biggest thing I see and you get lost in it.
So you know, I don't really know what the, I think hiring people on more full time, like
I've been permanent and 26 and 0 since I started.
So I had, you know, I go to work every day.
So that never ends for me.
But seeing that and what it does to people, it's a sad thing, man.
And so trying to just create an environment to support them in some way is all we can
really do.
So as you touched on before, you built this community, WildFitLife.
Talk to me about the genesis of that and then how it's grown to where we are today.
So the way it originally started was I was on, because I run a, well, me and Jason, who
I was talking to you about a bit ago, we run an engine and we run a hand crew.
So we go back and forth running those two things, right?
So I was on a fire with this hand crew.
I was actually off social media just because I'm real big on keeping anything negative
out of my life, you know?
So at that time, I was just familiar with Facebook and you see your friends and all
their bullshit.
So I'm like, I don't even want to look at it anymore, you know?
Anyway, so now I'm on this fire.
It's like 103, I think 104 that day.
I tell this guy, Rob, I'm like, hey, we got to go to this hell of a spot.
We'll get up there.
Just you come with me.
So he goes with me.
We ended up getting up to the top like a 45 minute plus hike.
Like I said, it was hot.
And when we get up there, we have to wait two hours for the helicopter.
So I tell him, hey, do a thousand pushups with me in an hour.
And he was like, all right.
So we do it and in the midst of doing it, he tells me, man, these all these workouts
that you come up with like this, you should put them on social media.
Other people could do them for follow alongs and stuff like that.
And he's a younger guy, right?
So he started telling me about Instagram and all this.
I'm like, all right, let's check it out.
So that's how I started.
Then I started it.
Started sharing workouts.
And then I started seeing the reach that I could have with it.
One of the most powerful impacts that I thought I could have was on my kids who were at that
time starting to become young adults themselves.
And if you have kids, do you?
Yes.
Yeah.
I have my biological son and then my bonus for my stepson.
Oh, 16 and 22.
Okay.
So then you kind of know they start thinking that they know what's up and what you say
starts becoming pretty irrelevant, right?
Because they got life figured out and they're going to create their own path.
So one of the things that I saw is that I could make these posts, these powerful share
these thoughts that I'm having things that I found powerful share my relentless grind
every day.
And no matter what my kids, if I were to die tomorrow, I would be able to look at that
and I could impact their lives in a positive way through that.
So that was one of the reasons I kept pushing it, you know, and then the camaraderie that
I was creating with other people from all over the world that was started tagging me
in their workouts.
And then it just kept growing, you know, and I think a lot of it has to do with it's not
flashy.
I don't have a lot of money.
I'm just in the garage or I'm, you know, at work or I'm somewhere.
I'm just, let's just fucking do more.
That's it.
Just do more, you know, and it's someone that whole black and white theme is intentional.
It's for the simplicity of what it is.
You know, you don't need all this flashy colors, all this flashy shit, just black and white,
simple, just fucking grind.
So it's, it's grown in people that associate to that.
And I think a lot of people associate with me because I'm just like you, you know, let's
just fucking go.
And that's it.
Now was your wife always working out with you or did she kind of get pulled in?
So my wife, she's a different story, man.
She was the type of girl who hated running in school.
If they wanted her to do a mile at P she would walk that shit.
She never liked working out.
She didn't like to sweat.
You know, she's a real pretty girl into the feminine.
So she watched me work out in the garage six years.
She was just watching me had to be that long.
Yeah.
And then I would tell her, you want to work out with me?
She said, no.
Well, finally she did.
She was like, Oh, I'll try it out.
And then, man, she started got into it.
So obviously I had a roller coaster at first, but then she just got committed and now she
can't take a day off.
And it's been years.
Having that is a whole different dynamic.
And actually with my program, I, because of what that is with me and my wife, I offer
a two for one, you know, couples, if you and your girl, whatever, two for one for the price,
because that's what I want to push because the dynamics that it's created with me and
my wife falls back on the camaraderie that we were talking about, right?
That we find in the, in the fire service or with our workouts, whatever it is, right?
Me and her have that, which created a whole different dynamic in our relationship.
We push each other.
We support each other.
The other day, this is a good story to kind of support what I'm talking about with her.
I'm not even the one who pushed this.
We were in the garage doing a circuit, me, her and my coworker.
And I had my clients on zoom.
The power went out.
There was a car accident right down the street.
Someone hit the pole.
So before I can even say anything, I'm thinking, man, shit, you know, all the power's out.
She was, let's get some candles lit and finish this shit.
Like I said, I'm not even the one who said it.
Me and Troy looked at her or like, fuck, all right, let's go.
And so we finished the workout and candlelight.
It was pretty cool.
And it's awesome.
Yeah.
It's awesome to see her grow in her self-confidence.
She has, um, she fought anxiety real bad.
One of our kids almost, uh, almost died from an illness and they couldn't figure out what
it was.
And it fucked her up, man.
She started becoming fearful of the unknown and it really created an anxiety that was,
that was, uh, really just, it took control of her.
Right?
So the working out, watching it literally help her in that aspect of who she is, is
powerful.
You know, there's so much to it.
You know, people just think, Oh, I don't want my life to be about working out, but fuck
man.
When you start making self care, the priority of who you are, it affects so many other things
about you.
I say it all the time.
Every little move that you make, you teach yourself something about who you are, you
know?
And if you're demanding more of yourself in this aspect of your life, then it's going
to affect who you are over here.
And there's actual change that happens when you get up.
If you sit there on the couch and you're just stuck in this negative train of thought, and
if you get up and get on the treadmill or go walk around the block, there's actual reaction.
You know, you're changing the blood flow, you're getting more oxygen in your brain will
effectively change the way that you're thinking about things and possibly, and hopefully it
gets you into a better place.
A hundred percent.
It's interesting what you were saying about the boys when, uh, my bonus boy and my stepson,
when I met him, he was doing karate and he ended up doing that for about a year.
He kind of basically got tired of it.
And then the sensei of that particular school revealed who he really was and he's not, not
a good human being at all.
So we were glad he was out then got him into fencing for a little bit.
He kind of found a passion for that.
And then he transitioned out.
We always said, look, we don't mind, you know, what you do as long as you do something.
And so he came to the CrossFit gym where I coached, um, and would sit there, you know,
playing with his phone.
And then one day he goes to my wife.
I think I want to try it.
And then he was, he was off.
That was it.
Now, now these days he lifts weights.
He's more of a kind of bodybuilder, not, not, you know, juicing or anything, but that's
his kind of exercise that he loves.
But it's amazing how if you immerse them into that environment, they find themselves pulled
in and you're walking the walk, you yourself are doing it.
That inspires your kids to follow it as well.
Thousand percent.
It's funny.
My eight year old, uh, you've probably seen her on videos and stuff.
She's been working out with me since she was small, but I never make her workout.
I always invite her or, you know, I got her on the camera now.
Sometimes I'm teaching her to be a little camera girl, um, the GoPro.
It's funny.
It's cute.
But, um, she's now recently, because she does walk with us no less than a mile after dinner
every night.
That's our minimum.
Right.
But she started really just taking it to another level.
I think it was on Saturday.
Um, she comes out and she's like, Oh, I just did a hundred jumping jacks and some core
in my room.
She bought herself with her Christmas money, a little, uh, hello kitty, uh, yoga mat.
And uh, she was, I'm going to do a hundred burpees.
I'm like, all right.
She went and did a hundred burpees on her own.
She's just into it.
Yes.
It is just, she's seeing and she's starting to feel results, you know, so she's just into
it, you know?
And it's such a powerful thing to have a part of who you are.
So I think it's a big deal for all of us as leaders, parents, um, if you, anybody that
you love, you know, you can't tell them shit if you're not leading by example.
So set the tone, you know?
Absolutely.
Do as I say, not as I do does not work in parenting.
Yeah.
You can't say shit.
Even with my kids.
Now the older ones, I don't tell them anything anymore right now.
I know that they're figuring out their own path.
I've talked to them, but I know that they got to figure things out for themselves.
But what I continue to do every day is set the example of what I think is important every
day, the way I act to my wife, the way I act to them.
And then just the relentless drive for more in every aspect of who I am.
Now you talked about, there was a, there was some ups and downs before you and your wife
kind of really were cohesive working out together.
At the same time when I was coaching, my wife started CrossFit as well.
And I would tell her a cue and she would just be totally ignore me.
And then she'd go to the other coach and be like, Steve, can you show me how to do this?
And he would tell her the exact same fucking thing.
And she'd be like, Oh my God, that's amazing.
Thank you so much.
So we walked together, but I never really had a lot of success, you know, coaching her.
So how did you navigate that element when you were, you know, the expert in that particular
field and you were trying to bridge that gap without, you know, rocking the boat too much
in the marriage.
So I do now have that with her where I can, I can coach her.
I try to teach her things that I know to help her be one of my assistant coaches on my team,
right?
A lot of girls like to talk to her, but you have to understand the dynamic of it.
I know that she doesn't want to feel like I'm superior to her and teaching her this
thing.
She's going to be on her own, just like anybody else.
Right?
So what I did is I was connected with Kim, who's now a coach on my team at the time.
And I hired her to be my wife's coach, just to teach her the basics, some things about
the nutrition side and all those things.
And it worked out great.
My wife started learning her own way of doing things separate from what I do.
And she got more comfortable.
And this is my program.
So she started taking pride in that and then started really being able to understand and
make sense of the things that I was doing.
So then jump more on board with, oh, okay, yeah, let's do that.
And so now, now we have that.
But it was definitely a process that I had to be mindful of.
I had to realize, okay, she doesn't want me to be scanning over her like I'm some, like
I'm her coach.
You know, she's my equal.
So she doesn't want to feel anything less than that from me.
So that's why hiring the opposite source came in handy.
Brilliant.
Sage advice.
Thank you.
Yeah.
The other coach ended up being her main coach.
So kind of the same thing.
But then she quit CrossFit.
So that was to be fair.
That was she got busy.
She's in med school now.
So it's kind of one of those things where she had to kind of step back a little bit.
Well, speaking of the program, then for people listening, talk to talk to them about the
things that you offer, where they can find it.
So you can find everything on my one website, wildfitlife805.com.
Right there we have my one-on-one coaching.
And what comes with the one-on-one coaching is a lot.
And I keep the price low.
So and the idea of that is offer a better product for a lower price.
I mean, that's how you, that's how you move things.
So I take a lot of pride in what it is.
I've hired coaches to be a part of the team to add value for my clients.
I make everyone's program, but the other coaches are involved for any questions needed.
Like Kim, she's a female.
So a lot of times my female clients, they need to understand things about how they may
bloat or retain at different times of the month that they might not want to talk to
me about.
So they, you know, I have my female coach on board where she, and she's a lupus expert.
So there's a lot of things that we add value to.
You get custom tutorials that I make.
We do zoom check-ins and we do multiple zoom workouts a week with clients from all over
the world.
You can do them with your camera off.
It's for beginners to advanced all levels.
I organize these workouts and circuits in a way that anybody at any level can do them.
Consistency is the key.
You want more, you have to do more.
Do custom meal plans where we do the calories and macros for people.
And then also, so you get 21 recipes that are counted for you.
All you have to do is follow the recipe in my app and click the shop in this feature.
It'll tell you exactly what and how much to buy from the store and how to make it.
Simple as shit.
But we also have a private Facebook group where we do other things, you know, where
we're putting in different meal ideas.
Like how I eat is pretty simple.
So we'll put the recipes in there for that, keep it simple, and then use these other recipes
I give you when you want to eat something different, all this other type of stuff.
And it's always growing in what it is.
And then I have the coffee brand, which is the best coffee I've ever had in my life.
So me and my wife were super picky when this our partner reached out to us and he's like,
hey, man, you know, him and his family have been a roaster for decades.
It's like, how would you like to come out with your own coffee brand?
I don't know, man.
I drink Starbucks and I'm picky about the shit that I buy because I don't like the heart
burn or acidic stuff, you know, he's like, let me mail you some stuff.
He overnighted me a box of freshly roasted beans.
We tried every blend that he had.
Delicious.
We got with them, made up some mixtures, did our own stuff.
And now we have that.
So every order that comes in is freshly roasted to order and then shipped your house in a
couple of days.
And you can subscribe to keep it where it comes every month.
And I sell it in pounds.
This way you can get enough for a whole month, you know.
And with that being said, it goes hand in hand with my program, which is only a hundred.
My program is one hundred and fifty a month.
My one on one coaching, which breaks down to five dollars a day.
Right.
So I got my coffee that I came out with that if you buy my coffee and make your own coffee
at home, now you save five dollars a day that you're spending at Starbucks and you can afford
your program.
There's no fucking excuses all, you know.
And then I came out with my own supplements with just the simple stuff that I think is
important.
Protein and multivitamins.
That's it.
Because that's the only two things that I think you should 100 percent be supplementing
every day to add more.
Right.
So I came out with our own supplement.
All that stuff's in my website.
Beautiful.
All right.
Well, then I've got one more question before I go to some closing questions.
You led us through, you know, your kind of fragmented upbringing as far as the parents
that were there and or not there, obviously, in one case.
So you didn't have this this perfect kind of example of what a mother and a father should
be present in a child's life.
How did that impact you becoming a father and raising your own children?
What were you able how were you able to fill the gaps in some of the areas that you hadn't
had personally?
So anything negative.
In every aspect of my life that has happened, I have used it as a tool to build who I am
and who I want to be.
Right.
So there's never a woe is me bullshit or or feed off.
It's everything that has happened is an example of either what I want or don't want.
Right.
So I knew as a kid from the families around me, my neighbors, all this shit, what I wanted
and didn't want.
And through my own experiences, what I wanted to provide my kids.
Right.
So ever since I was young, I knew I wanted to build my own family that was set around
my morals and values and what I think it should look like.
We all want that.
Right.
What it should look like.
But I used all those things that have happened to me as to what what and what I can do to
create what I want.
Right.
So I know for my kids and maybe that wasn't the best for them, you know, but that's what
I thought was the best.
Right.
Family dinners and dinner at the table every night, all these things that I thought are
the way things should be.
So every experience, good and bad, I've used to make who I am in a positive way.
You know what I mean?
So it's always and I always had that state of mind.
My dad dying, playing rush roulette, being reckless and using and just not giving a fuck.
So when I took custody of my kids, I was never going to be that.
That wasn't OK.
They're going to know that they matter to me more than I matter to me.
And so every decision that I make will be a reflection of the consideration I have for
them.
Right.
So that's that's what's going to happen there with my wife.
The respect I have for my mom and my sister, who were huge in my life, the family I had,
the females around me.
I'm going to show my wife in the way that I think things should be.
I'm going to treat her that way.
I'm going to build what I can.
You know, and if that doesn't work, get divorced and try it again.
I've done that to me, too.
All right.
Well, then I want to throw some quick closing questions at you, if that's OK.
Yeah.
All right.
The first one I'd love to ask, is there a book or other books that you love to recommend
that can be related to our discussion today or completely unrelated?
Tony Robbins, Awaken the Giant Within, I think it's called.
And then Marcus Aubrey, I think it's called Own the Day.
Those two powerful ass books.
I read Tony Robbins book.
That was I've talked about it before.
It came by in a juvenile hall library cart.
That's the first book Tony Robbins I grabbed when I was a kid.
And I became obsessed with the mental fortitude and his whole mindset and doing more and just
fucking do it.
Did you ever watch the documentary that made of him?
It was on Netflix, I think three, four years ago.
I did watch it.
Yeah.
Interesting.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of that, that's that's obviously one of the documentaries.
Any other documentaries and or movies that you love?
I'm a simple I'm a simple guy when it comes to movies, man.
Gladiator, Tombstone and what's that?
Denzel Washington movie, Man on Fire.
Watch those three.
Yeah, those are all three things what a man should be.
My opinion.
Fantastic.
All right.
Well, the next question, is there a person that you recommend to come on this podcast
as a guest to speak to the first responders, military and associated professions of the
world?
I would say Mark Munoz.
He's our union president.
He's passionate about what it is.
He's deep and involved in everything going on in Washington, D.C.
And he's a standup guy and he actually comes from a similar background as me.
And he's a chief now on the excuse me on the forest, the Angeles Forest.
Oh, brilliant.
Yeah, sounds like an amazing guy.
Yeah.
And you know, I don't know if he'd be into it, but Jason Mitchell, man, he's the influence
that he's created on.
I would go as far as to say a few hundred firefighters over his career is pretty powerful,
but you know, the invitation is there if he's up for it.
All right.
Well, then the very last question before we make sure everyone knows where to find you,
what do you do to decompress?
Run.
That's what I have to do.
You know that and if I can just get away with my wife and really just relax and we don't
date very we don't go on dates very often.
We don't.
And when I do, that is the biggest just relaxation.
The wine decompression that I have is it's powerful and we all need to find that.
You know, so we've got these things around here called the Sycamore Hot Springs.
They're mineral springs where you go the hot tubs out in the mountains.
We'll go do that.
Just kind of shut the world out for a minute, you know, and just check out.
Brilliant.
It sounds a lot more fun than a TGI Fridays.
Yeah, it is.
I'm not really into that anymore, man.
I am in my teens and 20s.
I spent so much of my time just the party lifestyle that it is what it is.
You know, when I was 31 is when I decided to stop partying and that was because my kids
were becoming teenagers and I was just over it.
I made a couple of slip ups here and there.
We all do, but for the most part became committed to something else.
Yeah.
I'm on yet another no alcohol straight and it's I hope this one sticks because it's not
I've never binge drink per se, but it's something that I've always used to quote unquote unwind
even though it doesn't.
But the kind of mindset I've got these days is I've never woken up wishing I had a drink
before, but I've woken up many times wishing I hadn't had a drink before.
So trying to infuse that into, you know, because I'm almost 50 now.
So you kind of want to reclaim your health journey as you start cresting the, you know,
the middle point of your life and alcohol, let's be honest, is a toxin and it's negative.
So if I'm going to fix my aches and pains and my brain fog and all the, all the shit
that comes with 14 years in the fire service, then, you know, I've got to, I've got to do
things as cleanly as I can.
So alcohol is out for now.
Yeah, there you go.
And I'm not in sobriety or recovery, but I don't, I don't drink really.
Like I almost had a couple of shots on a new years because it was just kind of like everybody
was doing.
It seemed like a cool time to have one.
And then I decided not to, because I was going to get up at 6 a.m. and work out.
So I was like, ah, I don't like the way it, I just don't like the way it makes me feel
now.
It gets in my way.
Yeah.
You know, that's, yeah.
So if I just look at it like that, it's anything that's in the way of my goals is a problem.
So 100%.
All right.
Well, then you mentioned about the website, where can people find you on social media?
Everything is WildFitLife805.
So on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook is Justin Mahaffey.
You can follow on there.
YouTube.
So if you're just looking for some follow alongs, that's where I really designed.
I'm starting to put a couple of new things, but I haven't in a while.
But these follow alongs are designed for people who are busy.
They're the five, 10, 15, 20, 30 minute workouts that you can get in anywhere.
It goes from 100 push ups in five minutes up to a thousand in an hour.
That's on the YouTube WildFitLife805.
I got stuff that takes away the excuse for anybody.
You know, I have these challenges that I put on this way for my clients.
But like right now we're doing, can you see that?
It's 30 and 30.
So if anybody's interested in doing stuff like that, like the minimum stuff is no less
than one mile walk, jog, or run.
WildFitLife YouTube follow along or a 30 minute workout.
And it's just a way to get started on your disciplines.
30 days nonstop.
You check out the box and tag me.
Little things like that.
But you know, that's it.
I appreciate you having me on.
It's an honor to be on your show.
Maybe one day we could talk again.
I had a good time being here with you.
I appreciate you letting me plug my stuff.
You know, if you guys in the fire world, go grab some coffee, man.
You'd be surprised.
The apparel, the coffee and the supplements are really slow going.
It's hard to get down.
I'm not good marketing.
I'm just like, hey, this shit's good.
Grab it.
You know, so I got to work on that.
But you guys in the fire world, go grab some WildFitLife coffee and 805 smooth brews is
the way to go.