← Living The Red Life
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- [00:00]
A
I want women to support women. These women who are coming at us because we're doing this, they're built. They're built because they're, they're strong. They're lifting heavy people. These girls have to be strong. They're dragging hoses, they're doing everything. And there are small men, you know, there's a lot of guys that I can outwork. And right now I'm injured, but. Which doesn't say much. But men get injured too, I promise. Like, that's the thing. Like, when a girl gets injured, it's like, oh, she's weak, but the guys can get injured. So. So you kind of have to fill yourself to a different place and you've got to put yourself on that level and keep strong.
- [00:33]
B
You look at public service, police, nurse, firefighters, there's not really a business money side associated normally. And I'm always, I'm always fascinated by how, you know, this business model side came about and then now also how you're taking it to social media and modernizing it.
- [00:49]
A
Yeah, we can't keep it that way. And I mean, seriously, what we're wanting to do, we can't afford to do that. This group of women saved me from my own disaster. But what are we even about?
- [01:00]
B
My name is Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast, and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in wonderland and change your life. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life. Joining me today is Dusty, the president of Firehouse Dolls. Fascinating business model. Love what she's doing over here. Welcome to the show.
- [01:24]
A
Thank you for having.
- [01:25]
B
So I know we got to chat offline and it's such a cool concept. You've made something, you know, really sexy, fun, and I love that as a marketer. Right. Like, I do that all the time. Like, how do I make stuff pop? Right, right. And you've done that. So tell us about the business model. To kick it off.
- [01:40]
A
We started out as a calendar, and we've been a calendar for 20 years. And so over the 20 years, it has changed hands. John started it and then it moved. He sold it to one of his friends who sold it to a model, which was actually probably one of the better parts of it. She was a jail counselor, a prison counselor, and a firefighter, and her husband was a full time firefighter. They ran it for a while and she kind of built a camaraderie of girls, but they didn't ever go outside of their circle much. And then John ended up buying it back. Recently, he came and found me, and I'm the person who started changing it from models and turning it into real firefighters because I wouldn't. I. I wasn't going to do the calendar unless he made it us, the real girls, not them dressing up like us. So that was an issue for me. And so we just kind of wanted to change it from that and get back into more social media. Paper is kind of gone. People aren't doing that. And a lot of other people are building calendars. The male calendars are adding girls now. And what is funny is they're allowed to put on this stripper S type stuff. And we have to act right. If we do anything, we're going to get reported. HR is not our friend. So I have to play very, very careful HR games when. So that's kind of. That's kind of rough. But what we wanted to do was bring in what fire department really is about just helping your community and taking care of people. And these girls are beautiful. They deserve to be dressed up and look beautiful because they kind of get knocked down. And this. This entire profession will kind of take your soul out of you if you let it. And so whenever we give them that opportunity to build themselves back up, they see themselves as somebody that they've forgotten. And then we send them back out there, they're ten times more confident. You. You get beat up. Get beat up a lot. And so we've turned it into more of a camaraderie for women in our field because they used to have this. There's no brotherhood without her. That was their thing with the her, and I took it away because there is a brotherhood. Men should have brotherhoods. Women should have sisterhoods. I don't want men in my sisterhood get out. You know, there's a couple, but they belong in my sisterhood. You know, like, they. It's just not that way.
- [03:48]
B
So.
- [03:49]
A
So we took that out. And because we have a sisterhood, there's enough of us now that we don't have to be the brotherhood. We can have a sisterhood, and we get together and build each other up. And now we've starting. We're starting a children's website, which is juniorrescue.com and juniorfirefighter.com so they'll go through the children's stuff. You'll be able to go through interactive books. You'll be able to Visit fire departments all over the United States and hopefully the world when we're done. And. And you'll be able to see different professions. There's a carousel that you go on and maybe we should have like the Rudy Lip chair in there. You could go get on the Rudy Lip chair. The carousel goes around. You pick the helicopter or you pick Taz or you pick. We've got a cat, we've got a girl who's written children's books and you can pick these characters and you can go on their trip. And so we're gonna make interactive books in there. And then when they get old enough PG13 stuff. And these are characters, the cartoon characters.
- [04:41]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [04:42]
A
And they're all of us. So we're the ones that are. But we're. We're G rated. Then you go to PG 13, we get cooler. You know, we might throw in a couple of cuss words here and there and they'll see a little bit more and they'll be able to go on some of the trips. Yeah, they'll be able to see different things in the fire trucks that the little kids wouldn't. We don't want those. Them asking those questions. And then you graduate to 18 and over membership and we're still cool. So we're working on cartoons of like all of us. Older cartoons.
- [05:12]
B
The fire. I love the big vision. Right. You know this, the, the profession. Right. Is obviously such a, like nurse and police and all that is such a great thing for the community. And they give so much and then it's like, how do you build a business around it? There isn't many businesses around. Right. It's like just.
- [05:28]
A
Well, nobody goes to the shows.
- [05:29]
B
Yeah.
- [05:30]
A
People used to go to touch A trucks. Little kids want to go see the truck and the helicopters and they still go. But how do you get people interested in this? How do we get new firefighters, new medics, new, you know, police officers? You've got to figure out how to get them. So to me, I hook them when they're babies.
- [05:47]
B
Well, it's good. Yeah. Because I mean if you look at the US Military, they do crazy advertising and recruitment. Right. But I think there's much less of it when you look at firefighting, police like and obviously that's the people on the ground in every city that do the day to day life saving stuff that we all need as residents here.
- [06:08]
A
It'll give them something else to do too because when we turn girls down, it breaks their heart. I don't like that part. It's not something that I want to do. I actually have given that part away because it's too hard. And people will attack you. They will attack themselves. So I tried to figure out ways to fit everybody in stuff. This way they can actually do that. They can come in here and do more. We are more than just a calendar. These girls are not that. And when you see them, when they show up and you start seeing how awesome they are, it's just insane. The personalities and the fun that we have together. So.
- [06:44]
B
Well, I'm fascinated by that. Yeah. That how it help. Helps, you know, them reconnect to maybe who they were or brings out that new level of confidence in them. Right. And then also the community side. Right. You're able to build that community. And I would love to talk about, like, the business model monetization side of it. I mean, you look at public service, police, nurse, firefighters, there's not really a business money side associated normally. And I'm always. I'm always fascinated by how, you know, this business model side came about. And then now also how you're taking it to social media. You modernize and it.
- [07:18]
A
We can't. Yeah, we can't keep it that way. And I mean, seriously, what we're wanting to do, we can't afford to do that on making a calendar. Most people are just throwing a calendar together. They're putting it out. And now that other people are making their own calendars and the men are adding the women, it's like, what are we even about? Like, this group of women saved me from my own disaster. But what are we even about? And so I would just. I can't keep us at just these little folding pictures. These girls are so much more. So let's go and get an entire place where we can play. And I'm tired of Facebook. I'm tired of Instagram. Sorry, guys, I love you, but I'm tired of going in there and having to get past the advertisement, get past the algorithms. I want to go into a place where I can play with my kind of people and. And not have to just get past all the rest or get aggravated. So you can actually go into the membership site and. And it's going to be, you know, it's not going to. It's going to be affordable, and you're going to get a calendar with it. The calendar we're wanting to turn into a full nonprofit and just do it as charity work, because that's what we do. We. We give to charity. We give a ton of money to charity. And anytime our girls have an issue. We help them out. And we go to a lot of. Oh, man. We have so many different charity groups that we've helped over the last 20 years. And we've picked up. We've picked up everything from funeral expenses to medical bills for girls just because, you know, the worst thing to do in this world is be alone when you're sick.
- [08:48]
B
Yeah.
- [08:48]
A
And broke. So we try to actually practice what we preach. When something happens, somebody loses a brother, we reach out and try to, you know, do that stuff. I actually was in my first wedding this last year.
- [09:00]
B
Wow.
- [09:01]
A
Because I've never been a bridesmaid. Nobody ever lets me. They're like, I'm just not that girl. And this last year, an entire group of our girls were all bridesmaids in another. And it was the funnest wedding that I've ever been to. And I was like, thank you so much. I'm 47 years old finally. And you know how many female friends I have. I guess I just don't have the right ones. Now I finally get. And I think that's another thing is finding the right women to do.
- [09:24]
B
Yeah. The community. Yeah. Well.
- [09:26]
A
And you can get the wrong kind of girls. I have cut girls that were absolutely beautiful. But, you know, somebody who thinks that TNA is what we want. I didn't know how far I wanted to go on that there. I'll rethink myself because I'm a. I'm an avid sailor cusser. But that's not what we want. And if that's all she's got.
- [09:44]
B
And you were telling me offline, like, you're very strict about not blending into the. That. That other side of things that could easily.
- [09:51]
A
The guys can do it.
- [09:52]
B
Yeah.
- [09:52]
A
They'll come after us. And. And in reality, I have had women. Women destroying us. People want to promote us. They want to sponsor us. And it gets to the women in the business and Nicks. Or a wife. And the bad part is that's what we do in our job. We go to our job and we do our job. And we get accused of sleeping with someone's husband because we're at work. I have been accused of sleeping with almost every single partner that I have because we work 24, 48, 72 hour shifts. Sometimes deployments, you go off. And I'm not saying that stuff doesn't happen, but it's not happening with me. And it starts to pick at you after a while because you just feel like women hate you and they think you're doing all these bad things. And I Promise you, honey, it's not me. It's that one over there, the homely one that is cooking for your husband every day. She's the problem. And you're saying I'm sexually exploiting myself. She's sexually exploiting herself. I just feel good about who I am, and I like to feel good and I make other girls feel good. So she's sleeping with your husband and.
- [10:52]
B
Everything you're doing for a great cause or a great mission. Great cause, which is what I love. And, you know, I'm so excited to dive into it. I do want to ask you, you know, more on the personal side, right. As being, you know, the president and entrepreneurial and having to learn all of these things. What's the journey been like? You know, it's a transition from the day job, right?
- [11:13]
A
A lot. I actually thought that this would be a lot easier than my flight job. But it's not like I'm having small flashbacks through, you know, when I first started, I just modeled and I walked into this room of models, and you never know where you're going to find models back. That was 20 something years ago. I was young and I was just there to model. And the girls were rude. They don't talk to you and whatnot. Now where we built it to, you show up and you are surrounded by just love and affection. And girls are trying to hand you their clothes and they're trying to make you look good because they practice what we preach. They see me doing it and then they do it. And if people aren't doing it, they're not helping each other. I get rid of them. Because if you're not taking a picture of another girl and you're the only person in your pictures, you're the problem. And I want women to support women. These women who are coming at us because we're doing this, they're built. They're built because they're. They're strong. They're lifting heavy people. 3. The last patient that I lifted was probably 360 pounds. And the little girl that was next to me was half my size.
- [12:19]
B
Wow.
- [12:20]
A
And £100. Cot. These girls have to be strong. They're dragging hoses. They're doing everything. And there are small men. You know, there's a lot of guys that I can outwork. And right now I'm. I'm injured, but. Which doesn't say much. But men get injured too. I promise. Like, that's a thing. Like when a girl gets injured, it's like, oh, she's weak, but the guys can get injured. So you kind of have to fill yourself to a different place, and you've got to put yourself on that level and keep strong. And that hurts them. When women look at them because they're together, they've got their bodies together, but what's happening is they're being destroyed for it and they're being destroyed by wives and stuff like that. So pulling them together and figuring out how to get these women to support these women and know who they are, they're not that picture. And by putting them out there as people, I think.
- [13:07]
B
Yeah.
- [13:07]
A
And that's what we wanted.
- [13:08]
B
And it's funny with business, you know, you go into it when you're trying to do something good or exciting or helpful and, you know, you're giving so much to charity and supporting, you know, them. You think it would always. Everyone would see it that way.
- [13:20]
A
Right.
- [13:21]
B
You'd get met with praise and support. But you learn after. You know, I've been doing business 15 years, built a bunch of big companies, and you get lots of people behind you that do love what you do and support you. And then you. You get a lot of judgmental people, especially on social media. I'm sure that's the best. Don't read the comments. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Because. And, you know, it's. It's generally people that don't have goals and dreams and don't pursue things, and then they reflect that onto you. But you're right, it's definitely something as an entrepreneur, you have to learn because you're, you know, normally optimistic, positive, and passionate. Yeah. Most of society, sadly, are those. Yeah, they're not. So that's a big lesson. Well, what else have you kind of encountered in your entrepreneurial journey that you didn't expect?
- [14:04]
A
You know, I came back in and I modeled like 10 years later in. And I met Tiffany and she and I became friends and she brought me back in to help the girls because their pictures were turning better and I was able to pose them and I seemed like I was in with the group. And now that I'm the boss, I'm no longer like, I fight to be a doll. I just want to be a dollar. Because the beginning was everybody wanted my job, and so they were coming for me. And I have a rule. If you don't come to me first about something, I. I run my business like a flight medic. I check off my. I check off my unit in the morning, and I know everything that's there. You're not going to catch me with anything because I'm, I have to have my equipment and my equipment is my girls and I check on them, you know. Now every, you know, every so often I go through the line, I'm like sending texts, making sure or go to their page. I like all their stuff, I support all their stuff. Now every once in a while one of them will come free throat and it's like, oh my, you know, because it just, I get so attached and involved and I think that's the problem for me.
- [15:06]
B
Well, that's the blend I was going to pick up on it. I've had that, you know, the blend of moving to a leader, being a leader, being the boss, but still being friendly. You know, I have 100 staff and a lot of my staff are personal friend, you know, they become close friends and personal friends and then you have to flip to the leader and the bad boss. I fired a couple of months. Yeah, yeah.
- [15:25]
A
And you know, this business, this business thinking I've got friends in this business. And I, one of the things that I wanted to do was I wanted to start a show. I watch a lot of shows and I'm like, I could do this, you know, like I could do this. I think I'm so smart and I've modeled for 20 something years, so I know how to do the camera, I know how to do that part. We hired a film crew, we started watching them and we asked them what to do and we bought all the equipment that they had. So we started chasing our own girls because sadly the film crew that I, that I, they are older than me and they couldn't keep up. I can't keep up. And so we started doing our own filming and, and I'm learning aspects of that, you know, trying to get it.
- [16:07]
B
Well, it's great to bring that like, you know, I guess that's sort of the third lesson is bringing the media to the business, right. And a lot of, I'm not saying you're an old school business, but a lot of, a lot of businesses that aren't like online e commerce stores, right? Like that they don't think about how can I use social media, how can I use these things, right? And it's so important, like it's so great what you're doing, like not only hiring a team but then going, oh well, they can't keep up. Let's get a bunch of GoPros and cameras and run and go do it ourselves. Because people want to see the content, especially for something like what you're doing. They want to see the behind the scene. Right. What goes into it, what is exciting and makes great social media. So I love. I love that element.
- [16:47]
A
We did a lot of fun clips. And the bad part is most the best stuff. We. We. We aren't. We aren't rolling.
- [16:53]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [16:55]
A
These girls are hilarious. Like, I seriously get the best stomach workout when they come around because of the crap. But we're dark humor. Most of us. Not too dark because we try to be positive, but we're really twisted. And sometimes we can be a little perverted just between ourselves, you know, it's just a. It's like a locker room full of. Yeah. But we have a lot of fun and. And that's been the basis of being able. Because if I. If I can't enjoy it, I'm not gonna go.
- [17:22]
B
And I mean. I mean, it counteracts the stress. You're like, you know, my wife, before I met her, was a nurse, and it's like she's still home and someone had died. Someone had died that day, you know, and it's like, it's not easy to be in a job like that. Right.
- [17:37]
A
Well. And yeah, just what she does is stressful.
- [17:39]
B
Yeah.
- [17:40]
A
I don't know. What area did she work?
- [17:42]
B
Noro. Icu.
- [17:43]
A
Oh, she's icu.
- [17:44]
B
It was back then. Yeah. So it was a lot. Right. So I think having that fun and what you're giving them and that side, you know, the other side of it probably makes their mental health a lot better because.
- [17:56]
A
Oh, yeah. And you have to. I'm trying to teach them. You wouldn't believe the things that these young people don't know. Like, we'll be walking by something and somebody will look up and they're like, why are there lights on the top of that. That tower? And I'm like, you know, and they've never. Some of the young ones never landed a helicopter. You know, these are the people that we need to teach. You can't. We want to get everybody interested in it so they will do their jobs well because we are taking care of people. And I don't want our profession destroyed. I mean, you can have one or two people do something stupid and we all get blamed for it. We're bringing education.
- [18:31]
B
Education side.
- [18:32]
A
That's the other part. I'm bringing in education. I'm an active shooter survivor, and I am teaching a tactile emergency casualty care. So that's to educate the community as well. People don't get in big groups and they don't run those calls. And until you've Been in one. You don't realize how badly everybody's trained. And so that was something that I can fix, you know, and I want to go forth and get everybody ready for that. I don't want anybody being on the X when they don't have to be on the X and save our people because people are mowing them down. We're getting shot at a lot more than we did 20 years ago. It's scary. And where are they going to go? And the girls don't have the ability to be weak at their stations and stuff. I don't feel like. Because you do have that standard of.
- [19:21]
B
Why are you always crying?
- [19:22]
A
Why are you crying?
- [19:23]
B
You know, you don't want to be.
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A
That person, but you're like, yeah, there's.
- [19:27]
B
There's a whole of us. Life sucks.
- [19:29]
A
Yeah.
- [19:30]
B
So. And just to wrap up, you know, I know you're. You're filming a lot more about this and the story behind it. Fascinated to see that in your episode. But where do people find you if they want to follow you? They want to learn and see this and really see all the content you're putting out and the great things you're doing. How can they find you?
- [19:46]
A
Www do firehouse dolls.com and then soon will be rescue or junior rescue.com and juniorfirefighter.com cool.
- [19:56]
B
Well, thank you so much for talking about the business model, the idea. You know, guys, I hope you enjoyed that episode. Just learning, like, you know, how. How can you take something that's so great in the community and then also create the great business model behind it, but then also innovate business model because no, you know, no business model remains the same like Blockbuster. They're gone now because they didn't innovate. So I love how, you know, the innovation behind it and all the great stuff you guys are doing. So obviously check them out and as always, keep living the red life. I'll see you guys soon. Take care.