Leadership Depends: Why One Style Doesn't Fit Every Firefighter
Jun 8, 2026
What makes someone a leader?
Is it the bugles on your collar? The title on your office door? The years you've spent on the job?
Not even close.
In this episode of Side Alpha Leadership, I sit down with Dr. Shelley Wheeler, retired captain, author, leadership researcher, and organizational consultant, to break down one...
Leadership Is Behavior, Not a Badge
Dec 1, 2025
🔥 The fire service isn’t about you — it’s about the people you serve and the firefighters you lead.
In this hard-hitting episode of *Side Alpha Leadership*, I sit down with Assistant Chief Moses Jefferies to talk real fire service leadership — the kind that happens at 2 a.m. when you’re tired, cold, and...
No Blueprint, No Excuses — How Real Leaders Build Systems That Last
Nov 1, 2025
🚒 What happens when you have to build an entire fire department from scratch — policies, people, and leadership included?
In this episode, I sit down with Lt. Dave Olson of Carroll County Fire and Rescue in Maryland, to talk about what it really takes to launch a new career fire service inside a combination system....
Chief Lessons They Don’t Teach You
Oct 1, 2025
Too many chiefs talk about leadership like it’s a slogan on a poster. In this raw Side Alpha Leadership conversation, I sit down with Corley Moore (The Weekly Scrap, Firehouse Vigilance) to rip into what leadership in the fire service really looks like.
We break down:
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Why hiding behind a desk makes you a 50% failure...
If Your Size-Up Starts at Dispatch, You’re Already Losing
Sep 1, 2025
🔥 On this episode of Side Alpha Leadership, I sat down with my good friend Hank Henline to dig into what it really means to lead from the front as a fire service lieutenant. We didn’t just talk theory—we got into the real-world stuff that makes or breaks an officer on the fireground: size-ups that start before...