October has been one heck of a month.
Sleep deprivation, travel, bad food, shingles...and transformation. This week, Erin reflects on a month that tested her body but filled her soul: from Operation Yellow Tape to the Firefighter Health and Wellness Conference in Xenia, Ohio, and finally, a powerful weekend in Christiansburg, Virginia.
That last stop, she says, changed her.
What she witnessed wasn’t another “mandatory training.” It was a community that said enough is enough. A fire department, families, and local church standing shoulder-to-shoulder to talk openly about mental health, suicide loss, and the work it takes to heal together.
Erin paints a vivid picture of what true leadership looks like. A fire chief who’s carried caskets for his fallen brothers and sisters and is now choosing to carry the torch for change. This is what leadership should be. This is what community looks like when it stops pretending and starts healing.
She also shares how her episode Pain Into Purpose continues to ripple through conversations like these, and how the upcoming interview with Chelsi McFadden (founder of Hold the Line at Home) expands that ripple even further for the spouses, partners, and families walking this road alongside their responders.
Finally, Erin ends with a challenge: check on one person today. Ask what they need most, listen without fixing, and create your own ripple of change. Because healing spreads when we show up.
IN THIS EPISODE
MENTAL FIREPOWER
Check on one person today.
Ask what they need most, listen with your whole heart, and watch how fast that simple act changes everything.
WHO THIS EPISODE IS FOR
Music from #Uppbeat
https://uppbeat.io/t/needmospace/chill-power
License code: QUUZB4TP7STKMLJN
