Dragon's Den

Epizode

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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 32 (Kevin Lewis) Culture Building on the Ground Floor 16.02.2026 1h 34min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have retired Batt. Chief out of Cobb County, Kevin Lewis. Kevin talks to us about the development and growth of the Cobb County Search Program from it's early inception. We talk about it's mission, it's early struggles and it's success. Kevin also discusses some of him time teaching at conferences and how the impact of the program has grown far outside the borders of Cobb County. We hope you enjoy the episode. Thanks for listening.KEVIN R. LEWIS has served with Cobb County, GA, Fire & Emergency Services for 20 years. He is currently a captain at Truck Company 4. He holds a BA from the University of Delaware and has taught at Firehouse Expo, Firehouse World, and extensively throughout the Southeast. He is a member of the NFPA 1931/1932 Technical Committee for Fire Service Ground Ladders and a founding member of the Georgia Chapter of the Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 31 (Todd "Shakey" Bourgeois) The Best Job in The World 02.02.2026 2h 34min

  Today we were joined by a local legend. This was probably my most requested guest, from our area and also one of the most respected. This is 3 hours of passionate discussion on Todd's view of how to to do the job right, fire stories and various other rabbit holes. Please like, subscribe and ring the bell for notifications. You can follow us on: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dragons_den_training/ Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/32CpxOAnxDbGGGvNb2Uznv RSS - https://media.rss.com/thedragonsden/feed.xml YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@DragonsDen03 TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@the_dragons_den_podcast Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dragons-den/id1764926356
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 30 (Thai Guidry) From the Corps to the Call 20.01.2026 2h 13min

  Welcome back to another episode of the Dragon's Den podcast. Today we have Thai Guidry. Thai is a company officer in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was born and raised in Lafayette Parish and he's also my cousin in law. I've known him for over 20 years and Thai has always been a guy that I've looked up to, even 20 years ago. He's the classic stoic marine. Chiseled jawline, dashingly handsome and fit as hell. But more than that, I know him as a man of good character. He's humble, quiet and treats his family with respect. He's graduated NC Breathing School and consistently signs up for hard things. We had many more things to talk about, so I fully expect a part 2, maybe in December.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 47 (Stone Brothers: Round 2) Passion Doesn't Pay the Bills 07.10.2026 1h 24min

  On this episode, we explore an upcoming class that Shannon and DJ will be delivering at the LIFT conference in South Louisiana.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 46 (Brock Patterson & Brian McLendon) Rescue in Summerville, South Carolina 21.09.2026 35min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we are doing an episode of The Debrief, where we break down a successful rescue from South Carolina. We are joined by Brock Patterson and Brian McClendon. They set scene and discuss the good, bad and ugly of a realistic fire ground rescue, so that hopefully others can learn from their unique experience. Thanks for listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 45 (Paul Watlington) Embrace the Target 07.09.2026 1h 15min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have on Paul Watlington, out of North Carolina. We discuss spousal support, fire ground decision making, scene leadership, officer's role in managing fire house morale and embracing the target that you receive when you start voicing your passion for the job. Thank you for listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 44 (Mark Ware) Mentorship, Mental Health and Work/Life Balance 14.08.2026 1h 47min

  Today we have on Chief Mark Ware. Chief Ware hold multiple college degrees in the fire service and is a doctoral candidate. He is the first black fire Chief in his parish's history. He currently serves as the Chief of the Carlyss fire department, a small department outside of Lake Charles, Louisiana. We talked about his history, mental health, mentorship and work life balance. Hope you enjoy.
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  Dragon''s Den Podcast Ep. 43 (Chris Tennyson) Accountability, Standards, Training 23.07.2026 1h 14min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have on Chris Tennyson. Deputy Chief of Training for Summerville Fire. He's a Georgia Smoke Diver. Tennessee Smoke Diver. GA FLAMES graduate. NC Breathing School Graduate. Taught at various places around the country, including FDIC. We discuss fitness standards, training, accountability and touch on things like mental heath and being a Type 1 diabetic. We didn't get into it for this episode, but Chris has a deeper personal story that doesn't necessarily involve the fire service that we will share at Carolina Fire Days, this November. We hope you enjoy the episode.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 42 (David Douget) Passion for Training 07.07.2026 1h 55min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have on Louisiana native, David Douget. David is the fire Chief of the Iota volunteer fire department and on the career side he is a Chief of St. Martin Parish, in charge of training. He started the Central Acadiana Fire Symposium, is a plank member of the Cajun FOOLS. He is unsuspecting and quiet, but his love for the job and the amount of effort he pours into being good at what he does is undeniable. We discussed the importance of training, outside conferences, starting a conference, work life balance and volunteer vs paid. We hope enjoy listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 41 (Ryan McCormick) Get Outside of Your Box/First In Conference 21.06.2026 1h 35min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Toady we are joined by Arkansas Legend, Ryan McCormick. Chief McCormick, most notably, started the First In conference, within his home state, but he also joined us to talk about haters, limited staffing, the 48/96 schedule, the power of networking, getting outside of your bubble and much much more. Hope you enjoy listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 40 (Stephanie White, Corley Moore, Nick Ledin) Artificial Intelligence 10.06.2026 1h 12min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have on Stephanie White, Corley Moore and Nick Ledin to have a casual conversation about AI in the fire service and even digging a little deeper on the overall picture of AI. What's good? What's Bad? What does it mean to be an "artist"? How do they use AI in their daily life? We didn't solve any of the worlds problems, but I thought it was a fun way to burn an hour. We hope you enjoy the episode, even if we probably didn't have all of the perfect answers. Thank you for listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 39 (Wayne Prejean) Tailboard Riding and Being a Young 1970's Fire Chief 25.05.2026 2h 12min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have on Chief Wayne Prejean. Chief Prejean started with the Lafayette Fire Department in the early 60's and spent 20 years with Lafayette, serving 10 of those years as the Fire Chief. Chief sat down with us to tell us about his rookie year, his time in fire prevention, battling the administration and trying to fight the good fight, as the president of the Union. His time was not "all sunshine and rainbows" and there were a lot of battles and struggles as a young fire Chief in the early 1970's. We were honored to get a chance to sit down while he let us document that history. This isn't my "standard" episode, but it one that's important to me. I hope you enjoy it.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 38 (Dennis Reilly) Leaving It Better 09.05.2026 52min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we are joined by Chief Dennis Reilly. This was a impromptu podcast when I travelled back and forth to One Bad Tour with Chief. We talked about a lot of different subjects and he told many stories, but one that stuck out was one where he built a recruit academy in 2 different organizations that was ridiculed in the beginning and now it's simply the norm. Thanks for taking time to share your knowledge and passion, Chief.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 37 (Dustin Yates) LIFT and The Louisiana Firefighters Foundation 28.04.2026 40min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have on the St. George mayor, Dustin Yates. Chief Yates was previously an admin Chief of the St. George fire department and he's the current president of the Louisiana Firefighters Foundation. Dustin sat down with us for a couple of seconds to talk about the early days of the LIFT Conference and to highlight a few of the projects that are going on within the Louisiana Firefighters Foundation. We appreciate his time and we hope that he comes back soon. Thank you for listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 36 (Joe Mera) A Fireman's Fire Chief 15.04.2026 1h 21min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have Chief Joe Mera. Chief Mera is the recently retired fire chief for the Leesburg. This was originally going to be a short interview about Chief's involvement in the One Bad Tour training program, but it turned into a full episode after I heard Chief give his speech to the candidates at OBT 10. He's a fireman's fire chief. I hope you enjoy.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 35 (Reilly & Cotter) The Debrief #4 01.04.2026 37min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we have another episode of The Debrief with Colin Cotter and Reilly Kilbride. These gentlemen were able to make a successful grab in their department and we brought them into to discuss it. We hope to learn from their experience, to better prepare, should we find ourselves in a similar situation. Thanks for listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 34 (Gavin Reynolds) Setting the Bar of "Professional" Fireman 17.03.2026 1h 17min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den Podcast. Today we talked to Gavin Reynolds. Gavin in a volunteer in rural Georgia and has been at it for 7 years. He's a father, husband, former infantry marine with 2 deployments, graduate of the Georgia Spartan program, One Bad Tour, Georgia Smoke Diver and an ultra runner, with no real plans of slowing down. Yes...all of that, from a volunteer. He set a bar for what it means to be "professional". I hope you enjoy the episode. Thanks for listening.
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 33 (Miller and Lloyd) Founding the Oklahoma Smoke Diver Program 02.03.2026 2h 8min

  Welcome to the next episode of the Dragon's Den podcast. Today's guests are Bryan Lloyd and Chad Miller. We brought these 2 men together to talk about the process of starting the Oklahoma Smoke Diver program. We discuss the trails, tribulations, success and lasting impact of the program. It was an absolute honor to talk to men with such a passion and commitment to making the fire service better. We hope you enjoy listening.Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dragons_den_training/Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/32CpxOAnxDbGGGvNb2UznvRSS - https://media.rss.com/thedragonsden/feed.xmlYouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@DragonsDen03TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@the_dragons_den_podcastApple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dragons-den/id1764926356
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 29 (Joel Miller) Who IS Chief Miller?!? 29.12.2025 1h 34min

  Welcome to another episode of The Dragon's Den Podcast. Today are joined by none other, than Chief Joel Miller, more commonly referred to as "Chief Miller". Chief Miller runs one of the largest fire social media pages on planet earth and works as a federal fire Chief here in central Louisiana. He's avoided all podcast appearances for the last 12 years, so it was actually shocking that he told me yes. We talked social media, recruiting, training, conferences, culture, how to treat rookies and more. We appreciate Chief for stopping in and we hope that he doesn't become a stranger. We hope you enjoy. Thanks for listening.https://www.instagram.com/chief_miller/https://chiefmillerapparel.com/?srsltid=AfmBOoouqi3bKY0MbEKbeMQXhJwcgFkH0uPH-eUZ1Rtk4zmGj1KdUkgi
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  Dragon's Den Podcast Ep. 28 (Meg and Aaron Kowal) Culture, Training and Firefighter Marriage 10.12.2025 1h 53min

  Welcome to another episode of the Dragon's Den podcast. Today we sit down with the power couple, Aaron and Meg Kowal. Aaron is a captain on the special operations truck in St George, Louisiana and Meg is currently the Public Education Chief for the same department, although she also worked on the floor at St George before moving into that position. They are both 2nd generation firemen and Meg started her fire service time just outside of New York State. They are both dedicated and passionate individuals and we discussed everything from culture, training, the LIFT conference, their marriage and more. We really appreciate their willingness to come on and share some of their journey with me.