The Security Circle

EP 104 Founder & President: Rebecca Strobl on Resilience, Leadership, and Building Stronger Teams

• Rebecca Stobl • Season 1 • Episode 104

Share episode

Send us a text

Mission: Inspiring others to learn and thrive!

Services: OSHA-compliant Bloodborne Pathogens, CPR, AED, and First Aid Certification Training; Fire Safety Awareness Training, 911 Readiness, and Team Building Seminars; Consulting, and Motivational Speaking. We equip individuals with the knowledge needed to make a difference, whether in a life-or-death situation, their career, or the lives of those around them.  Together, we can help others "live to see a new day."


Client Review: “With New Day Education & Motivation, you're not just learning, you're preparing for real-life scenarios that demand swift action and sound judgment. It's an investment in knowledge that can save lives.” RaceTrac, Inc.


Recommendation: "Rebecca has demonstrated creativity, adaptability, and abundant enthusiasm. Chief Rebecca Strobl is an extremely capable professional.  She has my strongest recommendation. "  Fire Chief, Eddie Robinson, Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccastrobl/1




Security Circle ⭕️ is an IFPOD production for IFPO the International Foundation of Protection Officers

If you enjoy the security circle podcast, please like share and comment or even better. Leave us a Fab view. We can be found on all podcast platforms. Be sure to subscribe. The security circle every Thursday. We love Thursdays.

Yoyo:

Hi, this is Yolanda. Welcome. Welcome to the Security Circle podcast. IFPO is the International Foundation for Protection Officers, and we are dedicated to providing meaningful education and certification for all levels of security personnel. And make a positive difference to our members mental health and well being. Our listeners are global. They are the decision makers of tomorrow. And we want to thank you, wherever you are, for being a part of the Security Circle journey. Don't forget, if you love the podcast, we are on all podcast platforms. Subscribe, like, give us five stars, or even share on LinkedIn. I have with me today, Founder and President at New Day Education and Motivation. She's also a retired volunteer Fire chief. Rebecca Strobl, welcome to the Security Circle podcast. How are you doing?

Rebecca:

I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Was attracted to your

Yoyo:

LinkedIn profile because you have had a hell of a journey. And I want to talk to you about what it was like for you being a fire chief. We've heard the stories. We know that it can be particularly challenging for women and certainly people of visible minority status, but I'd love to hear about your journey. What made you do that job?

Rebecca:

Well, actually, there's been an underlying theme throughout my life. Whenever I've found a problem, I'm quick to jump in and solve it. If I had any capacity within me, even the smallest To fix it and make a difference. I do. So that's how I joined my husband. I joined the fire department because the community we live in has almost 70 miles of roads and there's only two ways in and out and there's only two fire stations and the one fire station that was staffed by career firefighters was at the opposite end of the property. So my husband, I live on the other end. So typical response time is 12 minutes. And I don't know about you, but I don't know of any human that's going to do well not breathing for 12 minutes. Or being trapped in a car or their house burning. I decided to get involved. And after being in that department for over six years, when our volunteer fire chief resigned abruptly, I found myself, I was the only Georgia female certified firefighter, and I was already working a full time security sales career, 70 plus hours a week running sales teams. I was also a manager for the condominium. We lived in part time, I always tell people I had an out of body experience because I saw myself in that fire station raising my hand and saying, I can make a difference. Because again, I saw at the time, our volunteer department had gotten away from making it about the people and being prepared in those emergencies. And I thought, you know what? I can make a difference. So that's why I jumped in.

Yoyo:

A lot of people who want to volunteer and feel that urge don't necessarily go and put themselves in potentially life-threatening situations. Rebecca, was there something about you at that stage that thought, hell's Bells eyes gonna, I'm missing a bit of risk in my life.

Rebecca:

it's interesting because really at the time, even when I started with the department, I knew it was dangerous and especially being a volunteer because, if I got hurt on the job or if I got hurt, responded to a call, I was a volunteer. I would have had to figure out how to make a living, but none of that. Scared me. And for me, literally the desire to make a difference and help people was overrode any fears about what happens if I should get injured or what happens if I don't come out, it wasn't even a thought. Tell

Yoyo:

me about a day in the job that you think about that you often always come back to thinking about.

Rebecca:

That's an interesting question. I can think of a story that actually got me to be a firefighter. So this would have been before I was a fire chief, before I even went to firefighting school. The condos where I live is, we had a really, really bad fire that killed my neighbor and killed somebody's dog. And at the time I was going to EMT school, at night. So I would work my full time sales career job, have to commute into Metro Atlanta, do that 10 hour day, and then go commute over an hour to a fire station and sit there for four hours a night, twice a week, and all day on Saturday. That morning that we had that severe fire, I couldn't do anything from a firefighting perspective because I was in EMT school. And I can remember myself standing on the road. Watching and my husband had just graduated from fire school about six months before, and that was his first fire. He ever thought I remember being on the road, standing there and seeing him surrounded by fire. And there was nothing I could do and also seeing a lot of my colleagues that I had met more on the volunteer side and going through empty school. I remember in that moment thinking, I got to get to fire school because I want to be able to help. Also living through that experience of losing my friend and also wearing the hat of being the condo manager. So I was responsible of working with my board to rebuild everything and being not only just from a life safety perspective from the fire department, but also on the management side. And I thought to myself that all that day, when we had all these fire trucks and all the firefighters coming back and forth, I thought to myself in that moment, I can offer. A different perspective from everybody on this fire scene, because I'm not only I want to be a firefighter, but I live here and I'm the condo manager and I have to be here for months and months after for the rebuild. And I'm like, I can offer a different degree of compassion and insight that nobody else can offer. And I'm like, I owe that to my community to offer that. And that was that decision in that light moment. Really guided my whole journey. So when I became a fire chief, I can remember not necessarily a specific call, but going to people's houses when they were having more medical emergencies and having, these elderly individuals that I also wrote articles for the newspaper at the time. About safety articles and I can remember trying to take care of them in their dire emergency, potentially life threatening issues. And in those few moments, they would say, Oh, yeah, you're the fire chief. You're the lady fire chief. I read your article. Thank you so much for coming, honey. And it was those moments, you know, being in the room surrounded by all guys, all these tough firefighters. I went back to that moment. standing down the road, this is why I do what I do again, that different perspective.

Yoyo:

I can see the joy on your face as you're talking about it. And that was one of the things I noticed when I first started talking to you, Rebecca, you, your face just emanates joy. What was it like though, being around those other firefighters who might have even had opinions about what they were doing? What the volunteer fire service was contributing. I know in the British police force, we have a voluntary police division. There can be some very negative biases. Were you brought into the fold and accepted?

Rebecca:

Not a hundred percent. It was definitely challenging. To that point, when I joined a volunteer fire department, I was going through EMT school, you know, about, it was like, okay, what's she doing here, but it was tolerated, but when I decided to be a firefighter, that's when the walls went up, and I can remember specifically being at the fire station, and The, some of the firefighters wives specifically telling me now, honey, that's great that you want to be an EMT, but you need to leave the fire stuff to the guys, you don't need to be pursuing this firefighting stuff. That's just for the guys. I only told them, I can do a whole lot more good in this community if I know what to do in a fire scene, and I can pump the truck, and I can get in there and fight fire. Well, that's still, that's the guy's work. You don't need to be doing that. And how did that make you feel well, for me, it gave me more instead of, oh, really? I can't do it. It's for the guys. Well, watch me.

Yoyo:

You've done the job now for quite a long time. Would you say that it's a job that women shouldn't be doing?

Rebecca:

I think that when it comes to firefighting, it's not that we shouldn't be doing. You have to know what you're walking into. And understand that as women firefighter, we have to do things differently and you have to be extremely strong. So for us, it's more leg strength, it's more endurance, and we also have to be extremely creative on how we attack fire and do the job. Just because, to your point earlier, we might not necessarily have the physical strength. And then also, One of those lessons in resilience that I learned is all about collaboration, is you have to find a way to form good relationship with the people you're working with because they have to be your strength in areas you're weak and vice versa. And to get the job done. You can't just be an island. And I think that that's something that our male counterparts, they can do a little bit better of just because of the brute strength where they may be able to just a barrel in there and do certain things by themselves, or we have to be more creative. But I think that the end product. Whether we're talking firefighting or security is going to be a better output to accomplish the mission.

Yoyo:

Rebecca, what was it like when you found out that you were being considered for fire chief?

Rebecca:

It was unbelievable., I really was actually shocked when I raised my hand in that fire station. I said, I want to be considered and then we had a vote and all my male counterparts unanimously voted me in as the fire chief. I had no idea that I would garnish that kind of support. It was very humbling for sure. And then after the vote was done by the board, then I find out I started getting emails and I started getting calls and I got a letter from a congressman that it turns out that I made history as the first female fire chief in my department and in my county.

Yoyo:

Congratulations. Did you feel different? That first day, did you feel, oh my gosh, I really, really can't screw up now. I have to get this absolutely right. Did you feel more pressure?

Rebecca:

Oh yeah, definitely a little bit of pressure given the history of the department. At that point we had been in. Started in the 80s, so there was definitely a legacy there. And then with everything that was going on within the county fire department, eventually moving towards being most pretty much ran by the county fire department, just because of logistics and resources and everything. So there was a lot of internal turmoil. And having that pressure of how it's going to work through that with again, accomplishing the ultimate mission where when the day came that they were pretty much the primary source. How could I best position the community for that? And then also align the volunteers that had voted me in, but other ones that had been there. A long time that had certain opinions, how I could work with them to ultimately best serve the community. There was a lot of challenges there and then figuring out how I was going to do that amongst everything else I was doing, because again, this was the free job, this was the hobby.

Yoyo:

What do you think, in your position as Fire Chief was your biggest accomplishment?

Rebecca:

For me, it was two volunteers that I had. One kid, he would come to our department. We had, we used to have open houses that I created. Cause that was another thing I wanted us to interface with the community more. So several times a year is I would open up the fire station and I'd get area businesses to donate raffle prizes. I have these amazing ladies of age. That were my volunteer core. So they would cook meals and do other things and we'd open it up. So this one, a gentleman came with his little boy. Teddy, who was around five or six at the time and him and his wife had just moved to our community not too long ago. He had had a bike shop where he came from and he brought his son and his son, of course, just loved sitting on the fire truck and everything else. Tried on my firefighter gear. I was in heaven and he started asking us about, oh, well, what about becoming a volunteer? What is it? You know, what's it involved? And I remember my husband and I, after we met him and we were driving back to our house after that event, we're like, man, we'd love to have in the department. He would make a great firefighter. And he had never considered it. It wasn't never on his radar his entire life. And so he joined and I really did everything I could to pour myself and to mentor him and he ended up going on to get his state volunteer firefighter certification like me and my husband had, but then he took and then he went a step further and he actually became a paid firefighter. So he went to work for our county's fire department and when he went through a screwed school, he was doing so well that his entire class voted him as their class leader. And he had a couple of females in his recruit class, and he was extremely encouraging of them to the point that he worked with everybody, that they all passed their physical, you know, test really, really well, and just really stood out as excellence. And I think back to that day that, to me, that was my greatest accomplishment, that I was able to bring somebody into our department and even the industry. That had never even thought. About the fire service and it turns out it was something he was passionately in love with and to be able to pass on my knowledge that even though our department is no more because of different things that have happened beyond our control at a county level, it's like that's my legacy. But now, and his family moved again, they live, um, out in North Carolina. And shortly after he joined their fire department, I see on the internet that he was Volunteer of the Year.

Yoyo:

That's so cool.

Rebecca:

That's so cool. Like, I had something to do with that because I chose to give all my experience and knowledge into him. And now he's out there saving lives. And helping the people of Hendersonville, North Carolina.

Yoyo:

Wow, that is so super cool. I, when I joined the police, I lived in a different area than my policing area. And if I do visit the policing area that I used to work in, You know, as I drive around the neighborhoods, I'm like, oh, that's where that sexual assault happened. That's where that stabbing happened. That's where that accident happened. The car flipped over. That's where the tire came off the vehicle and bounced several times, missing lots of cars. And you have this kind of recollection of everything that happens. Do you have that when you're in your community about all of the different things you've been involved with?

Rebecca:

Yeah, definitely I have that at times, or I'll see individuals and I'll think back to what happens. You know, 2 o'clock in the morning or whatever call that you responded to. Absolutely.

Yoyo:

The in the UK. The police are going through a bit of a tough time. Their, their, their opinion polls are fairly low. But even when I was in the police, and this was in the noughties, the 2000s, um, you know, you could get kicked or kissed in one day as a police officer. And, you know, there's no doubt about it. Even if people hated the police, if you turned up and they were in crisis, You were the best thing for them at that moment and it's usually when they flip their car over and they're in the middle of the countryside and a police car turns up and all of a sudden you don't hate the police anymore. You're like, someone's here to help me with the fire brigade. It's all the fire service is fairly different. You don't really have a lot of bad press or low opinions. In fact, usually everyone's super excited to see you whenever you turn up. You know, even if it's just to a Sunday school fake, the fire brigade are here! There's something tremendously heroic about doing the job you're doing. Um, did you find that, you know, when you were in your neighborhood, people were always pleased to see you?

Rebecca:

Yeah, absolutely. And I can tell you that when we had to close our doors to go from that to not where I'm at now where people don't know me in the community because I'm no longer running 9 1 1 calls. It was definitely a bit of a shocker. I would say I went through a bit of a grief process because that was, you know, Such a big part of my life, but then I think about the work that I'm doing now that I've done over the last decade, more than a decade now with the youth of our county, sort of what I did for that. volunteer firefighter that's now a career firefighter kicking it in North Carolina, making a difference. It's like now that's shifted into equipping the next generation and having a lot more of my focus where it just had a little bit of my focus before. So not having that thrill of going on a call and being there in emergencies, but I'm like, I'm sowing seeds and giving all these youth a different perspective and giving them up, giving them That different perspective, the reason why I got into the fire service, now I have the opportunity throughout the year to help share that to them. So hopefully when they get through the recruits, recruit school and become a career firefighter, they'll be able to operate in their job a little different than typical fire service.

Yoyo:

I remember when I was in the police, I got called out to a social club that was closed. It was about one o'clock in the morning, typical kind of, you know, arson hour. There was a call from a member of the public that the building was on fire. Or there was a fire in the building. Bit different, both. And I went up to the window, did all the usual things, couldn't smell any smoke, the windows weren't hot, couldn't really see through the windows, but there was this kind of flickering, amber, effect through the window and I just thought, Oh, God, I can't rule out that this isn't a fire and I remember getting on the radio to the control room and I said, Look, I can't be sure because it was my opinion, whether we confirmed a fire or not, and I kept looking through the window and I kept looking for signs. I walked around the building, but I can still see through this one window, this flickering of what looked like fire. In the room, and I said, listen, I think to be on the safe side. I think we should just call the, we call them Trumpton. We call them out, the fire brigade and, they came out and, they confirmed that actually it was a gaming machine. That had yellow and orange colored flashing lights, and that I literally was ridiculed for a long time after that, for bringing them out after they were probably having hot refs, and they were not excited to see me there. And I couldn't tell that it was a gaming machine. you have to do the right thing no matter what. And I think if I'd left that scene and having not called for the whole night, I would have worried if I'd left somewhere that where there was a small fire. And let's face it, fires in different stages of fire's journey can look and present in different ways. And sometimes the building can be on fire and you can't even see. That it's on fire. So I just did the right thing, but oh boy, was I ridiculed. and that was not a great day for me, cause even on the radio, they were taking the Mickey out of me saying, you know, we don't know if this is going to be a real car accident, Yolanda, were there, were there lots of good fun times and bants while you were doing your job? Cause I appreciate. There is a bit of career bounce, certainly with the emergency services career banter.

Rebecca:

Absolutely. There, there were plenty of good times and there were other times that, like you said, it was a challenge, but yeah, it was, I'm so glad that I did that. And then I jumped in and left things in a better place and I learned so much and I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I was far more capable than I ever dreamed and definitely than I was ever, ever told growing up. I'm certainly glad that I did it. And there was a lot of people that, you know, benefited because I was able to help them in a way that, was different that they might not have had.

Yoyo:

Yeah. Otherwise,

Rebecca:

if I hadn't answered the call.

Yoyo:

Have you had days where things didn't go to plan, and sometimes we can't figure out why.

Rebecca:

Absolutely. I mean, losing my neighbor, that, the fire investigator, that fire, he had been a fire investigator for over 30 years, and that was the one fire that he couldn't put down of why it started. He had his suspicions, but he just couldn't figure it out. So that was, that was extremely hard. Like I said, I wasn't a fire chief yet. But trying to explain to the family, like, why did this happen and not really having any answers to tell them why, because really we didn't know, or I can remember other times where we had some money that, and we're trying to bring them back and then there's a dispute amongst family of, is there a will, is there not a will, and that whole heartbreak. Of half the people want you to bring them back, the other people don't and having to work through that, so there's things like that. Yeah, things don't go the way you think, but you thought, well, I'm going to do the best I can do and use the knowledge I've been given to try to make a difference. And. hope in the end, you know, long term view things work out and maybe we might have a why, but there's a lot of times we didn't.

Yoyo:

When it came to being in a leadership role and being in a leadership role are amongst others that didn't necessarily support you being there. What were the key things that you did to endear yourself to other people?

Rebecca:

Number one, I learned as much as I could. And I remember when I first became the fire chief, I literally sought out, whether it was on LinkedIn or just in talking to some of the chiefs, like the one chief at the county fire department, he was the assistant fire chief at the time. Now he's the fire chief. Of our county, awesome, wonderful man, but I remember reaching out to him and asking, okay, who do you know that are some other female fire chiefs in this state? And I literally, I reached out to those women and I told them my story. I'm like, this is what I'm doing. I jumped off the cliff here and I know that, you know, you're running a large career department, career firefighters. So it's a little different than my story here, but what can you give me? What lessons can you share? What should I be doing? How can I be prepared? And those conversations were absolutely invaluable. And some of the things I heard from those women were number one, know your stuff, whatever you're tasking your firefighters to do, make sure you know it really well. Be ready to collaborate and always be ready to execute. Never, ever, ever tell someone something that you're not willing to do and figure out how, and always be dedicated to the mission and to your people. And those are lessons that stuck with me, not only in the fire service, but definitely in my security career. Those were things that I constantly worked on whenever there was an opportunity to learn more or to go to conferences and seminars with other fire chiefs and sit down and talk to these men and figure out how they were doing things and problem solve with them again, that collaboration piece. How do you deal with this issue in your department?

Yoyo:

It's interesting that you mention, know your stuff really well, because even here in the UK, even with a change of Prime Minister, before our current Prime Minister, the woman Prime Minister was not really given, a long enough period in office before everybody wrote her off as not being competent. I think it's a big thing that women are aware of in business in general, is that you have to know your staff because if you very quickly get branded by anybody of not being competent, that can really destroy your chances wherever you are.

Rebecca:

Correct. Absolutely. But also you have to know how to apply it. So that's why, for me, I have those conversations with other female fire chiefs because, okay, I went through fire school. I've taken all these incident command classes and those types of things. I've taken other classes on the civilian side in my security career and leading sales teams and that. But if I don't take that knowledge and apply it to what I'm doing here, it's not going to do me any good. And so that's why, for me, I had never been a fire chief. So I need to talk to other people that have traveled that road. I think, regardless of the industry, and that, those lessons definitely served me well. And I learned a lot of those lessons in security before I came to fire. when we collaborate and look to people that have walked a similar path and then think about, all right, that's how they apply the knowledge. Now let me take those lessons and then think about my situation and figure out how to apply it. It makes a huge difference.

Yoyo:

Resilience has become a big part of your journey, hasn't it? Especially in relation to what you're doing now. Yeah. Why is that?

Rebecca:

It's been a huge part of my journey because it's gotten me up to this point. If I hadn't had resilience and practice it, I would have never, ever accomplished what I have up to this point. Because there has been so many times, whether it's been in my security career, or it's been in my fire career, and now as an entrepreneur running my own company full time. Taking it from the part time company, teaching classes on a Saturday, doing a little consulting here and there, mainly on the weekends, because I was doing all this other stuff during the week, to now running it full time. That's what's carried me through, because there's been so many times in all those journeys, especially where I thought, how am I going to do all this? It's just too hard. How am I going to push through? I can't do it. What did I get myself into type of thing? And it was resilience that basically grabbed me by the bootstraps and dragged my carcass along and said, no, there's a much bigger purpose here than your weak carcass at the moment. Get up and get moving and get on it. And to me, that's the definition of resilience.

Yoyo:

I do think resilience is very understated in the sense of, I don't think people really understand how powerful resilience is. How would you describe resilience? I think it's personal to everybody individually and someone, let's just say you're speaking in front of hundreds of people and they say, Rebecca, what does resilience mean to you?

Rebecca:

Resilience means to me that inner strength that says. Everything in front of me, like we think of going back to public safety that everything in front of me says the road is blocked. There's a bunch of trees and it just not going to get through that. You know what? But if I look over here to the right, there's another road that's open that I can take. That's not really going to get me to my destination. But it's an open road and it'll take me a lot farther and eventually maybe I can find my way there. To me, resilience is Having that inner strength is like, no, my path is forward. I need to go forward. So I have to find a way to get those trees out of the road and to continue to go through and it's not going to be easy and it's going to be hard and I could potentially be in danger. But I'm going to get to the other side. So resilience says, no matter how much stuff falls on me, no matter how much pain, I'm going to keep going forward because I have to cross this road. I have to get to the other side. It's not an option. I have to get there. So no matter what, how much pain I endure or sadness or despair, I have to get to the other side. That's resilience. That, that have to, that carries you through.

Yoyo:

I would suggest it's a journey with oneself about getting used to being uncomfortable, people who are in a journey where they embrace resilience and be out of their comfort zone and be okay with it, because it's like backing yourself, isn't it? It's like, okay, this is hard. I've got to get through this, but at the same time. But there's a journey and I'm not going to be here all the time. I'm not going to be in this position all the time. I'm going to be moving forward in the right direction. You're moving forward. Momentum is very good. It is about backing yourself. It's about saying, I can do this. it might be even like I might fail the first time, might fail the second time, but I'll find a better way of doing it. I think if anything we can do as parents and teachers and trainers is just reinforce, certainly in younger people. That resilience is a part of our journey, because if we were all more resilient, we would all be a better version of ourselves, I think.

Rebecca:

Absolutely, and I love your analogy, because to your point, if we would embrace more resiliency, is we would embrace those hard times. And not shy away from them and seek comfort. I've found that, like you said, we become better humans, in my opinion, when we embrace those difficult times and those uncomfortable hardships to get to the other side.,

Yoyo:

I think sometimes resilience joins us on our journey by accident. I think sometimes it's a very deliberate thing. I think sometimes resilience is. sort of creeps in on ballet shoes for some people. And I think sometimes resilience comes in with great big stomping chunky boots. It's about identifying when we need it, when we need to top up our resilience, when we need to have that mindfulness of, okay, what's my resiliency right now? I am maybe struggling with my mental health. I am struggling every day. Why am I struggling? What am I struggling with? It's about asking yourself questions. It's about getting that conversation inside of you. Okay, I need more resilience because if I don't pull myself out of this, nobody else is going to, or I'm going to be a burden to other people, or I'm going to see the journey getting darker and feel more helpless. So resiliency is about almost pressing a button inside of ourselves, isn't it? Right. It's like a booster. I have to do something with this because it needs handling.

Rebecca:

Yeah, I think that those are all great analogies. Absolutely. Having that conversation inside of asking yourselves, okay, why am I struggling? Let's get through. And I would also add to that. taking a look around and realizing how many people are dependent upon you that are looking to you. That's what I really learned as a fire chief is for me. Not only my volunteer firefighters and my volunteers in general, but the whole community and the paid fire department, like that chief I said, it's now our fire chief. He literally looked to me to okay. Keep leading this community in the right direction. And so I had all these other people that were looking to me like, okay, if she can do it, then it's going to be okay. I remember the morning of that bad fire, my husband, everybody commented in our community, in our condo community, how calm he was. Like, you wouldn't know that. It was like one of the worst fires in our county's history and everything was going up and we didn't know that somebody was already dead in one of the buildings, but he was completely calm and literally people were at the bottom of the hill, looking up him and they kept on looking at his face. He's still calm. And they would look at him and they're like, it's going to be okay And so for me, that's also part of the resilience conversation is taking a step back and asking yourself, let's take a minute, let's breathe and let's think about how many other people in my life right now are looking at me to conquer this mountain, you know, to conquer it as inspiration for themselves of, okay, if she can do it, if she can push through, then there's hope for me.

Yoyo:

Sometimes I think you need to fake it as well a little bit. You have to fake the calmness, you have to fake the inner strength. when I was thinking about a recent plane flight where I had really bad turbulence and I think I've reached the limit. I think I was looking for, I was in my head role playing if I had to find the sick bag because I'd just reached a limit of turbulence. My body, I don't think could have gone through much more. when I looked at the air staff, the stewardess, And the, I don't know what they're called now, what they're called, the air stewardesses and the air stewards, they all looked really calm and they were all like, every day this happens, da, da, da, da, da. So in essence, even if they were faking it, cause I'm sure they are told in air stewardess school that if people start looking at you, they're looking for validation that they are safe. You have to fake it until you make it. I had that reassurance that it's only when you see the plain staff I'm worried that you worry then. I'm thinking that there is a lesson in life, I think in a leadership role, that even if you think, oh my goodness, I am out of my depth here, but I have to be calm. I have to let people know that there is a situation, it's under control. We will get through this and we will talk in a lower calm tone. We will reassure others. That's significant, isn't it?

Rebecca:

I agree a hundred percent. As you were talking, something else popped into my head is that I don't think it's necessarily that we're faking it because I think it's a matter of changing our brain that I'm not thinking calm right now. Hey brain, look what we've already been through together here. Look what we've already accomplished. We're a smart cookie. It's like, we'll figure this out. And it's just my emotions that want to freak out right now. Yeah. But emotions, you're over there, because that's not the part of the brain that I'm going to give credence to right now. Hey, part of my brain that's going to problem solve, that's going to find a way, that's going to collaborate with others and get through this, that's who's in the driver's seat. So, panicky emotions, you're in the backseat right now.

Yoyo:

what are you doing right now? I see you've won lots of awards, for training, right? And for your contributions to training. What is it about what you deliver that means it's so good that you're winning awards for it? And congratulations, by the way.

Rebecca:

well, thank you. what I'm doing right now is making education fun and making it impactful. So making life saving education, like CPR and first aid and how to work together as a team better, and then also working with companies and doing consulting, like, okay, are you really prepared for emergency doing that in such a way that, like I said, makes it fun, but makes it impactful and being Delivers it in the same way that when I taught my firefighters, that people are confident that they can do it for real and that they feel truly prepared, not just checking a box because that's something that is my passion is I want people to be out of the fear zone. I don't want them to be the ones that when it comes to emergencies or within their organization, they're frozen with fear, or they're at a loss of how to work together with their colleagues. Because they were never given the tools in a way that resonated with them, and with their learning style, and they couldn't connect the why. I want to help people connect the why, to help them, oh wow, I can do this is why I can do it, this is how I do it, because I've been forced to do it.

Yoyo:

It's connecting the why is part of the resilience journey as well, because we can't just be resilient if we don't know the why. Otherwise we'd be like one of those flies, constantly hitting the glass window. Why can't I get out? Headbutt. Why can't I get out? Headbutt. We have to ask the why, don't we?

Rebecca:

Yeah, So like when I teach classes, or even when I do consulting work, is I find myself doing story time, telling stories. When I'm teaching emergency classes telling about stories and situations that we've gone through like this is why we're telling you a Because this is what happened and we don't want you to have to experience that. So this is why you do this or Said company. This is why you need to be prepared because this is what I've seen so taking those experiences and those why's that I've learned and From my unique journey and putting those into every class and every consulting work that I do with my company so that now whoever I'm teaching and I'm training, they have the why, and they'll be able to figure it out.

Yoyo:

Team building features a lot in the things that you deliver. And I think I'm going to be very honest with you. I'm very skeptical about team building in the workplace because let's face it. The workplace is the workplace. These aren't people that you would necessarily choose to hang out with socially in your own private time. And yet, there's this kind of, What do I say? This kind of compulsion to have to get on really well with work colleagues. There are some people that will do it naturally, some people that will struggle. There are some people that are just working with people that they wouldn't necessarily give the time of day to. And there are some people that don't have the choice about who they work with. But team building in the work environment surely isn't just about liking each other. It's about the trust and how you're there for each other and communication. How would you talk to the relevance of team building in the workplace when we consider that not all people, certainly not all people listening, will even like the people they're working with and potentially having to fake that every day? Thanks.

Rebecca:

Great again, great question. I believe that team building is important. I go back to especially my work in the fire service where when I became the fire chief, I had a department where. We all didn't necessarily like each other. We definitely didn't have the same views on life or even the fire department, but we had a mission and to me, that's what I see the importance of team building is getting everybody to focus on the mission or the purpose. Plan of the organization. And that to me, what team building does is it gets everybody aligned to be able to accomplish that mission better. And team building isn't about, to your point, I don't believe it's about a rah, rah, Oh, we love each other. I'm going to be in my friend's wedding and I'm not necessarily saying it's that, but team building helps people get sort of out of their head. And take a step back and realize it's not necessarily about, it's about me, but it's about, you're good at A, I'm good at B, she's good at C. And when we put that together, we're going to be able to do things better as an organization. So how can we get away from, I don't like this, I don't like that. And focus on, but this is what they do well, that's what she does well, that's a missing piece, let's put those pieces together like a puzzle and come out with a masterpiece and work together better. I believe that a good organization or a good consultant that'll come in and bring those pieces together and up front let people know, I'm not saying that, you got to be best friends. But let's get to a place where we can collaborate instead of throwing darts at each other.

Yoyo:

Yeah, because darts hurt. Yeah,

Rebecca:

they do. That's what they're designed to do is hurt.

Yoyo:

I've been in some offices and teams and I felt like I have a bobbing head just missing the darts aiming at me. Yeah, maybe we needed your training, but I guess, especially when you talk to, to being competitive. I talked to somebody earlier about being in competitive environments. So they basically put up with a toxic culture because they were competitive and they wanted to be successful and they were career motivated. That doesn't always necessarily, you know work. Those people who are career motivated aren't always in the best of environments and aren't always around people that have good work etiquette and professional etiquette. There's a lot of tough environments these days., let's talk to somebody now who is in a work environment that's pretty tough for a number of different reasons. What would you say to them in relation to all of the things that you add value to when you speak to people.

Rebecca:

So I would say to that individual of think about why you're in that role, what you're trying to achieve in that company and think about, take it more of a day at a time. So when you go into that environment, what can you accomplish to make the organization better? If you interact with clients, how can you make that client stay better? your colleagues, regardless of the colleagues you work with, don't have your best interest in heart and make your life difficult. Of the colleagues that you work with, find one that you can help, that you can make. And they might not be in your immediate chain. They might not be in your immediate department, but find someone else in the organization that you can make life a little easier and those will start creating ripples that'll eventually turn into, you know accomplishing great things. And to your point, I've left organizations that. Things didn't ultimately change in the grand scheme of things, but I'm confident that those individuals that I did seek out and like, okay, I can make things a little better for this person or that person, their lives were enriched. So like when I ran my sales teams, there were times when things were happening within the organization that were very challenging and often very detrimental to what it appeared to be our success. I would tell my sales teams, you know what, we can't necessarily control what happens outside of these walls or outside of our preview, but we can control how we do our job, how well we do our job, and how we go the extra mile to positively impact the people that we work with. That's what we're going to focus on. We're going to do really, really good here. And then let everything else be.

Yoyo:

Rebecca. Thank you so much for joining us on the Security Circle podcast.

Rebecca:

Thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure to speak with you.

Yoyo:

thank you for your service.

Rebecca:

Thank you.