The 1st Responder Psychologist

07/14/2025

Resilient people know their values.
But even more importantly, they know how to calibrate them.

Loyalty without boundaries becomes burnout.
Courage without reflection becomes recklessness.

Under stress, our strongest traits can also become our blind spots.

When I teach about “Values” (one of the 6 elements of Tactical Longevity), It’s about knowing what is most important to you, and knowing when to shift gears without abandoning your core values entirely.

✅ What do you default to under pressure?
✅ When has a strength of yours backfired?

Knowing your values is where we start.
We uncover when that value can be your superpower.
Then we help you identify when they can backfire.

07/12/2025

Wanna know what’s extra frustrating in today’s world?

Having a resiliency company and trying to grab attention in a social media world that rewards complaining and negativity.

Where the more you rile up your base and point fingers, or capitalize on how horrible something is, and just leave it open ended right there with no plans for improvement or finding a way out - THAT is what gets you the most engagement.

Or where pandering to the victim mentality and “your life is so hard/your job is so hard” is where people just want to stay. They want to complain, not fix it. Or they don’t take that hardship on as an honor- an opportunity to do what others can’t or just aren’t strong enough to do.

I get it. People are tired. Life is really tough. But no one is coming to save you. The only thing that will save you is you.

07/08/2025

Some “rules of thumb” when I teach people how to work with clients in high-stress, high-stakes careers:

✅ If they had the answers to their own problems, they wouldn’t be here. Quit taking so much time to try get them to solve their own problem. Point out what hasn’t worked quickly. And if they come up with a dumb idea. Say so.

✅ You’ve got the first 10 min for you to win their trust. There won’t be a second shot. Get it right. Yes, that’s pressure. If you can’t handle it, find another group to work with.

✅ Take the lead early. Inevitably they will try to take the lead out of habit, but clearly that hasn’t worked so far.

✅ 9x out of 10 validation comes across as patronizing and is a waste of time and words. The people who go into these types of high-stakes, high-stress roles don’t need validation like “normal” people do. They got to their positions in life by just trusting their gut and just doing.

⭐️Get in. Get clear. Get them moving.⭐️

06/20/2025

When you ask ChatGPT what it’s like working with me…this is what it came up with.

Exact ChatGPT prompt: “Create an image of what it is like talking to me every day.”





Tactical Longevity

05/15/2025

🔍 4 Primary Problems in Recruit Training (Last 5 Years)
1️⃣ Poor Spatial Awareness / Geography Learning
🧭 Reliance on GPS is replacing internal navigation skills. Recruits struggle to mentally map their environment.
2️⃣ Hesitancy with Physical Contact
🤝 Cultural shifts post-Me Too have created caution—even when physical contact is necessary and lawful (e.g., searches, control tactics).
3️⃣ Communication Adaptability Issues
🗣️ Difficulty adjusting tone, posture, and approach to match dynamic field situations. Social nuance feels less intuitive.
4️⃣ Report Writing Deficits
📝 Trouble organizing thoughts, articulating observations, or translating real-world events into clear, defensible documentation.

05/07/2025

05/07/2025

Work gives us a sense of purpose… some of us are just wired that way.

04/23/2025

When I bought these trees, the guy at the store looked me dead in the eye and said:

“If you want it to last, you need to do it right from the start.”

So I:
🔹 Prepped the soil
🔹 Added nutrients
🔹 Braced it against harsh elements
🔹 Mulched it to hold in moisture

Because I want them to survive.
I expect them to produce.

But that only happens if I invest up front in what they need to thrive.

People are no different.

We tend to plant new people in barren ground 🌾 and just cross our fingers 🤞 that it works out.

And if we’re honest, that strategy probably isn’t working very well.

Protecting our investment means giving them:
🧠 the mental skills to survive
🛠 the physical tools to do the job
🛡 the leadership to brace them against the harsh elements when they need it.

04/05/2025

Even the strongest leaders get hit.

What sets them apart is how they prepare their teams—and themselves—to not go it alone when it counts.

Real leadership means building a culture where no one has to carry the weight in silence.

You're not supposed to carry the weight alone. You're supposed to build the kind of crew that knows how to carry each other.

04/02/2025

Some things just tend to stand the test of time—like this phrase.

"Ducks Float, Children Don't."

I took this photo at a historical site near a lake in southern Missouri.

It’s been almost a decade.

I've undergone several character developments, plot twists, season, and entire chapters since then.

But I still remember the phrase clear as day.

"Ducks Float, Children Don't."

In Tactical Longevity, we use short, memorable phrases just like this to:

1️⃣ Retain and recall critical concepts under pressure
2️⃣ Communicate complex ideas quickly and clearly—especially in high-stress moments

Because when the stakes are high, and time is short, you don’t need a 12-slide PowerPoint. You need a phrase that hits like a gut check and clears the mental fog in under 3 seconds.

A few powerful words can do more than a full lecture ever could.

03/31/2025

Therapists, we’re in trouble.

You ever get read so hard by an AI, you sit there like, “Well, guess I need therapy... from a robot.

I tossed ChatGPT a therapy prompt for fun—thought I’d mess around.

Instead?

That thing clocked my entire childhood, my recurring defiance issues, reframed my leadership wiring, and handed me a plan.

All before my coffee got cold. ☕️

“Rebellion as a survival mechanism.”

“Strategic defiance.”

“Use systems instead of burning bridges.”

…Excuse me??

Y’all. It’s a robot.

But it unraveled me quicker than half the professionals I’ve worked with.

So here’s your dare:

🧠 Drop this into ChatGPT:

“Analyze my recurring conflicts with [insert your issue here], and reveal what kind of dynamics are at play, including childhood imprints I might be blindly repeating as an adult.”

Then come back here and tell me if the robot read you like it read me.

I'll wait. 🥃

PS.

Got this prompt from

hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag hashtag

03/28/2025

You can’t throw a yoga mat at burnout and call it culture.

That’s the problem.

You’ve got good people running on fumes, and your answer is a mindfulness app, boxes of pizza and some laminated posters in the hallway?

Newsflash 🚨 If your wellness program doesn’t start with fixing the root causes, it’s just polishing the brass on a sinking ship. And that ship is the Titanic.

This piece breaks it down: what you’re doing wrong, what your team actually needs, and how to stop carewashing dysfunction with pizza, fruit platters and fake empathy.

Read it, get honest, and maybe—just maybe—lead like it matters: https://www.tacticallongevity.com/post/your-workplace-wellness-programs-are-failing

Don't forget to drop a follow at Longevity while you're at it.