Robert Verhelst

I have never been burned in a fire due to the layers of protection that firefighters suit up in. However, I have had my shoulders get hot from the SCBA straps pinching down on my coat.
 
Transcript: "So I've actually been pretty lucky. I have never been burned in a fire. I gotten close. Yes, I think the one big thing is just how we suit up. We've got so many layers of protection, but I have gotten many time or a few times actually, to the point where the SCBA straps that we have on our air pack, they pinched down. So they pinched down the layers of your coat. So, I have gotten two points, where my shoulders have been extremely hot from a fire, Sure. But to this point, knock on wood, I don't have any near me. I haven't been burned in a fire, so thanks for the question."

Self-care is an important part of balancing personal and professional life. It's a constant challenge to get the right kind of self-care for myself, but I strive for living a life of value rather than success.
 
Transcript: "Thanks. Self-care is such an important part between having that personal life and professional life and making sure that they don't well impact each other. But at the same point, you can have success in one and a different kind of success in the other. For me it's a constant when it's a struggle, but it's a constant battle or challenge. That I'm going through with getting the right kind of self care for myself. Self. Because life changes situations change. You have to be able to have a good support group, as well as the understanding of what you need in that moment to be successful. And I always say, don't worry about living the life life of success, but live a life of value. And I think that's the biggest thing that I strive for both in my personal and professional life."

Having the understanding that awards and accolades are momentary successes and to remain grounded it is important to focus on finding value in oneself and others. Happiness should be the ultimate goal.
 
Transcript: "I think one of the biggest habits that you could have to remain grounded is to understand that the biggest person that you're going to impact is yourself. And to impact the people around you, you have to be cognizant that awards, accolades, like even my Guinness World Record, it's a moment in time. And we have to continue to be diligent in moving forward and understanding that this is a growth life. We don't just get to stop when we reach that pinnacle, when we reach the top. It's about the valleys in life. So to remain grounded, it's understanding that the top of the mountain is just the start on the descent down to the next valley, which you need to come out of. And it's not to be demeaning, but you can do this. And happiness is more, I think, is more value. What kind of value do you have in life? And that's the happiness that I can find. It's not every single day, but we work towards being that value to ourself and to others to be happy."

Go in order to move forward, understanding that mistakes are growth points. As you progress through your career, mistakes can help you understand how to dynamically change in different situations and remind yourself that you are only human and can only do so much. It is important not to make fatal mistakes and to learn from them.
 
Transcript: "Yeah, this is a hard question. How do you let mistakes go in order to move forward? Understanding the mistakes are growth points and that's, you know, that's a cliche to say, but when you start out on the job, every time that you don't save somebody who had a cardiac arrest or every time that you didn't stop the fire before it spread or any time that you go to an extrication and kind of your initial plan didn't work, those are all times in early on in your career where you think that those mistakes are the biggest things and everybody's going to judge you in the future for what you did. But as I've gotten later into my career, if I didn't have those mistakes, if I didn't have those missteps or wrong plans, I would never understand how to dynamically change when I go into situations now and we're not perfect. We're humans. I think a lot of people put us on a pedestal because we chose this profession, but we're not, we're only human and we can only do so much and a lot of the things that we see, we're not meant to understand or explain and that is one of the hardest things. The unknown for us is very hard to understand and so making sure that you don't make your mistakes fatal to yourself is such a critical thing."

My path to becoming a firefighter involved getting experience in first aid instruction, lifeguarding, emergency medical services (EMS), and safety director for a construction company. I then applied to various fire services, ultimately landing a job with the city of Madison. I think it is important to get as much knowledge as possible before applying in order to be prepared for what is expected.
 
Transcript: "What is my path to becoming a firefighter? You know, my path was kind of all over the board. I've always been in a position that I wanted to be able to help people. And so I was the first aid instructor, I was a lifeguard, all sorts of things. I went through the fire academy before, I actually had a job with the fire service. And when I lived out in California, I actually was an EMT. And I was did a safety director for a construction company. And so, Does a lot of things that I had done before I got into the fire service, that kind of was a catalyst to me applying. So I had applied. All that city of Sacramento applied for city of Madison, a few other places and I got the city of Madison job and I've been there ever since and I love it. I think it's a great profession. It's a it's a really Dynamic profession and it really makes you constantly get better and constantly grow and at the same time it's difficult and that's Okay. That's that's what we all look for. I think it was a lot of people in the first responder community that have went down the path of really getting all the knowledge, they can before they apply to be able to know what it is. They're getting into and I think that's probably one of the best ideas and that's what I did. So I love it, I love the job. I do hope that helps"

Fireman Rob has been a fireman for 22 years and holds the Guinness World Record for completing 23 triathlons in one year. He now speaks and does seminars about the seven catalysts that drive his passion: ownership decisions, emotional control, resilience, faith over fear, and mental strength.
 
Transcript: "I am Robert verhulst. Better known as firemen Rob. I've been a fireman for 22 years for the city of Madison. I was in the Air Force and I've done a few triathlons with my full firefighter gear for the Run portion. Actually, I got the Guinness World Record in 2015, for 23, in one year. I like to go around the country and now I speak and I do seminars and teach people about the seven catalysts that have really driven Me Passion. Ownership decisions, emotional control, resilience Faith, over fear, and mental strength. Remember your strength is in your passion. So excited to be on this platform and I'll see you soon."