What does it take to run into chaos when everyone else is running out?

In this episode of She Who Dares Wins, I sit down with Molly, a former gymnastics coach who pivoted her career in a single conversation — and went on to become a firefighter. Six years in, she’s part of a technical rescue team dealing with rope rescues, large animal incidents, overturned vehicles, and more of the calls you’d never believe until you hear them.

We dive into:

• What the firefighter application process really looks like (and why most people wash out)
• The physical and mental resilience it takes to stay in the job
• The truth about minority recruitment vs. finding the right women for the job
• Seatbelts, drink/drug driving, and the everyday choices that literally save lives
• Why confidence isn’t loud — it’s about taking the next hard step and pushing through doubt

This one is raw, funny, and packed with insights about resilience, grit, and finding your place in a job most people could never imagine doing.

Key Takeaways

• You don’t have to plan a lifelong career to find the right path — sometimes one conversation can change everything.
• Resilience is both mental and physical — and it’s built through consistent challenge.
• The fire service isn’t just about fires: technical rescues cover everything from animals to high-risk trauma.
• Confidence grows one step at a time — and self-doubt doesn’t disappear, you just learn to carry it.
• The smallest everyday decisions (seatbelts, not drinking/drug driving) are literally life or death.

Timestamps

• 0:00 – 2:30 Molly’s leap from gymnastics coach to the fire service
• 3:00 – 5:30 The brutal application process and training
• 10:00 – 13:00 Women in firefighting: recruitment vs. reality
• 13:30 – 16:30 Technical rescue explained — rope work, animals, vehicles
• 17:00 – 20:00 Mental resilience and dealing with trauma
• 22:30 – 25:30 The weirdest (and funniest) rescue calls
• 29:30 – 33:30 Everyday dangers: seatbelts, drink driving, nitrous oxide
• 36:40 – 41:40 The three attributes you need to be a firefighter
• 52:00 – end Confidence, self-doubt, and compound wins.

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