You can love the fire service and still admit it takes pieces of you. We’re joined by engineer paramedic Tim Garren, the founder of Old Town Leatherworks, for a wide-open conversation about burnout, compassion fatigue, and what happens when the calls start to numb you out. We talk about the stuff most crews joke through, sleep deprivation, ugly scenes, and the quiet moment when you realize you’re not processing anything anymore.

Tim shares the personal path that got him here: chasing music as a kid, losing direction into substance abuse, a near-fatal overdose, and a faith reset that changed how he sees purpose, peace, and daily discipline. We also get into grief and family life, what it’s like to become a dad in the middle of a demanding career, and why routines like prayer and honest check-ins can be protective for first responder mental health.

On the practical side, Tim breaks down how he built Old Town Leatherworks into a real firefighter side hustle, mostly through Instagram, with custom leather radio straps, suspenders, wallets, and guitar straps. We dig into why handcrafted gear costs what it costs, how creativity becomes therapy, and how to set boundaries when a hobby turns into a business. We also hit a serious topic departments still struggle with: forced overtime, driving a 40,000-pound rig exhausted, and the liability that lands on the operator.

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