Ryan Larson has been a firefighter in Phoenix, Arizona for twenty-one years. In the emergency services sector people often talk about the physical requirements, the structure, the sense of clarity and knowing your role and what you have to do. But being a firefighter is a lot more than this - it isn’t just about running into a burning building, it’s about knowing your environment, knowing the structure and what you’re going into and then using all your senses - if you go up to a door and its really hot your senses tell you not to go through it, rather you need to change tactics. It helps you develop into someone who is able to use their skills to see the dangers - you’re planning, plotting, analysing and doing major risk management in your head as you walk through a building.

Ryan is also the founder and CEO of FirstLine Financial, LLC where he credits his empathetic leadership approach, sense of purpose and lifelong passion for helping others mitigate risk to the experiences he gained as a firefighter,  

In this podcast:

• Ryan talks about the different skills being a firefighter provides
• Why you can’t just ‘tuck everything under the bed’
• Transitioning from your first career to your second.