Guiding with Heart and Courage with Blake Holte

What happens when a career driven by bravery intersects with vulnerability?
Join us on Courage Unmasked as we sit down with Fire Chief Blake Holte from Springdale, Arkansas, to explore this profound balance.
Blake's journey is as inspiring as it is unexpected.
Raised in a nurturing family in North Dakota, with his father-in-law and his mother in education, Blake initially aspired to be a physician.
However, his experiences as an EMT in high school opened a new path, guiding him towards the fire service.
You'll uncover how his upbringing and personal resilience have shaped a career that thrives on both courage and compassion, proving that vulnerability is not a weakness, but a powerful tool for growth and connection.

About the Guest

Blake Holte is the Fire Chief of Springdale, Arkansas, bringing over 20 years of firefighting experience. He began his career in 1999 with the Rogers Fire Department, rising through the ranks from firefighter to assistant chief. Appointed in 2021, Holte is recognized for his leadership, commitment to public safety, and dedication to enhancing emergency response and community engagement.

‍‍Transcript

Carol Park: 0:02

Hey everyone. Well, welcome back to the Courage Unmasked podcast, where we just continue to hear from stories of real-life people and how they are courageous in their own lives, through vulnerability and in the arena of vulnerability. And I'm really excited to introduce to y'all today as our guest is Fire Chief Blake Holt from Springdale, Arkansas, and you know today, especially as we are all very aware of the importance of our firefighters, knowing that all of the fires out in the LA area and California, as we just continue to be so grateful for their courage, their work, we are just so grateful and honored that Blake Holt would join us today on the podcast. So welcome, Blake.

Blake Holte: 0:58

Yeah, thank you so much. I'm excited to have this opportunity.

Carol Park: 1:03

Well, again, we really appreciate you and your service. So, tell us a little bit about how your life's journey led you to being a firefighter.

Blake Holte: 1:14

Sure, yeah, I grew up in a very small town in northwest North Dakota North Dakota, and it will become important or relevant later in the story but a son of a half a career as an attorney and half a career as a judge. And then my mother was a librarian who, after we were old enough to be self-sufficient, went back to school and became a teacher and her specialty was in special education and spent time running a group home for developmentally delayed and disabled and retired as a preschool special educator, specializing in fetal alcohol effects and fetal alcohol syndrome. Uh, so the you know, uh, as a kid I had intended on uh being a physician. So that's what I thought I wanted to do was be a doctor, and I committed to that, probably at about 11 or 12 years old and, you know, didn't really waver. When I was in high school I had an opportunity through the state of north dakota because they lacked ems providers. They had they allow emt training at 16 and then, you know, demonstrate that I had some experience with the emergency side of medical care and dealing with patients as people, patients as people, and that sort of thing. So I did that. So I took the EMT class I had when I, when I was in high school, there was three EMTs in town and at 17 years old I was one of the three, and so that was that was really neat experience for me. The school allowed me to carry a pager and leave school if there was an emergency and be an EMT. So that was really something.

Blake Holte: 3:49

So, after school I started college and then I took a summer job to keep my skill set and certifications up. I took a summer job in Omaha, nebraska, working for an EMS-only service and they ended up. I really enjoyed it and they kind of talked me into staying there, and so I transferred from the University of North Dakota to Creighton University and I went to school specifically there to be a paramedic. So, uh, so I was a paramedic and worked a couple of years doing that. Uh, it just so happened that Springdale, arkansas at the time, was advertising nationally that they wanted paramedics because the they run the ambulance service here. And, um, a guy that I was in class with, he left right after our paramedic class, got hired in Springdale and came here and I stayed in contact with him and he said you know, you really need to come check it out. This is a neat place, and so I did. I came in and rode out and spent some time here and really enjoyed the area. It's kind of an outdoors person's paradise and that's right up my alley. And then the approach they took and the pride they had in their EMS care was particularly appealing to me. And so about a year and a half later I tested for the fire department here and ended up hired. And so, yeah, I got married to a girl when I was in Nebraska and she was ready to leave home, get away, and so we got married and we moved, and we moved to Arkansas specifically so I could work at Springdale Fire Department and I've been here since early 1996. So, yeah, 29 years Along the way, there were some other things that that happened, that happened.

Blake Holte: 6:06

And so, I say that because my I feel like now as a, as a parent and having watched my children grow and go on to do the things that they're going to do, I look back and God bless my parents because I had some unique opportunities.

Blake Holte: 6:21

Oftentimes when I listen to people's stories, they are overcoming great adversity in life and from bad situations or challenging situations, and I really didn't have that Like. I had great family support, and I had some scholarship opportunities that I turned down in pursuit of, you know, a quest that really kind of turned. And so, instead of, you know, being a physician, when I remember, you know telling my parents that I'm going to, I'm just going to be a, you know, a paramedic and a firefighter. And you know my dad, he was a volunteer firefighter for years when I was a kid, but I had no interest in the fire service for whatever reason. But, yeah, I remember him asking me, you know, is this like a real job, like something that's got opportunity, you know, longevity and opportunity and stuff? And so, luckily, as it turns out, for me it was, and so everything worked out. But I can imagine they had some, some probably nights and weekend discussions about what in the world is our son doing.

Carol Park: 7:37

Yeah, because it was a pivot for you, but parents to a pivot for them of like, this isn't the direction that he thought he was going, or we thought he was going. So, you know, that's that piece of the emotional exposure, piece of vulnerability to as we pursue our passions, that sometimes it's other people's emotions too, not just our own, in making those decisions. So, but your parents were supportive, it sounds like, and just yeah, were there for you as you pivoted. So, in the fire service, which again we think a lot about, you know toughness and you got to be strong, but there's vulnerability in that Because, again, as we keep saying, vulnerability is uncertainty, risk, emotional exposure. So so much you're going on a call. There's the uncertainty, the risk, just in and of itself. So much courage in that vulnerability. So, in the context of your role as a firefighter and leader, how would you define vulnerability?

Blake Holte: 8:46

Well, I think and in your description it really kind of embodies what, how I would define it, you know, I think that vulnerability itself is, you know, an exposure to some type of harm or injury, and as a firefighter, that could be physical, but also there's, you know, the risk of psychological, moral injury, adverse employment action or interpersonal relational injury, and so all of those things, I think, are what define vulnerability.

Carol Park: 9:23

Yeah, so as a leader. And when did you become fire chief?

Blake Holte: 9:30

I became fire chief in December of 2021.

Carol Park: 9:33

2021. So, congratulations and yeah, becoming fire chief, you're now leading leaders, and then the people underneath them and you're a leader in the community. And so, you know, again, thinking that firefighting intense job, supposed to be strong, and you went to that place of saying you know it's more than just vulnerability to physical injury, it could be emotional, mental, moral, adverse, effective job, relational all such a part of who we are. So how do you support, as a leader, like, the mental health aspect when, again, it's a profession where you're supposed to be just strong and tough and push through and work through? How do you support that while still being the authority and the leader? How do you do that?

Blake Holte: 10:36

uh, for me, uh is to be, uh, you know, honest and transparent and, you know, letting people know that I deal with the same no-transcript is that? Or the most important thing for me is our people, and so the things that I can do is not so much one-on-one but provide resources, and so we provide a ton of resources, people to deal with any adverse effects. We have a well-established mental health and wellness program. We have a great provider group. Nikki Penn Counseling and Consulting works in our department. So, Nikki has an office here and she brings a dog, and they provide services that extend way beyond like just counseling.

Blake Holte: 12:01

But we have a peer support team. We do, you know, annual mental health check-ins. We do resilience training. We have a in all of our trucks, in multiple places and at the kitchen table and everything else. We have a QR code that people can scan, and we call it, rate my call. But essentially, if they feel uneasy or upset about anything that happened, incident related, they can scan that and then they rate it, you know, on a scale, and then there's a threshold where that is then routed to Nikki, to our peer support members, and someone will make you know personal follow-up to those Our HR department in the city has been outstanding to work with as well. They recognize the fact that mental and behavioral health is important, and so they allow us a lot of flexibility in giving people letting people use their paid time off, sick leave, whatever, for reasons other than you know they have a cold or whatever.

Carol Park: 13:25

So, if we can articulate, a reason that you know people can use their leave and that's been big for us to do leader and really just all that y'all have done, that the fire service has done your community, to make it safe to be okay to reach out for help, to say basically, I'm not okay. It's interesting because I did interview on another podcast episode a NYPD detective who was there at 9-11. And one of his final points was it needs to be okay to not be okay and to provide that environment where if you're struggling, that's okay, you know we're here and we'll support you. And I'm just amazed at all the resources that you have put around your firefighters, your first responders, to have that support. So that's pretty amazing.

Carol Park: 14:44

And the QR code using technology, you know, rate my call and to be able to have technology built into to access that. So would you say, as you look back on your career, is there a time or some valuable lesson that you learned about the intersection of courage and vulnerability, about the intersection of courage and vulnerability I can think of you know lots of times, and but what I would say is that, essentially, you know, courage and vulnerability they're complementary, they're not in conflict, if that makes sense.

Blake Holte: 16:08

So, the way I view courage is I would use different words, but essentially it is addressing or doing something, you know, in spite of, or even because of, a vulnerability. You know you can't have one without the other or you can't have courage without there being a, an element of vulnerability. That's that's how I would, you know, define it is. But you know, what I say is that courage isn't the absence of fear, it's, you know, acknowledging that there's something else more important than that fear at a given time or for a situation. And it's, uh, you know, acknowledging that there's something else more important, uh, than that fear at a given time or for a situation. And so that's that is, saying that I recognize there's vulnerability, but for whatever reason, I'm intention, you know I'm being intentional and making a decision that you know I need to do something that either exposes that vulnerability, uh, but it's okay, because I'm doing it for the right reason. And you know kind of how I, the way I kind of express it to our new people, or every like.

Blake Holte: 17:22

When I first became chief, I pretty much broke down my philosophy as simple as I could and basically I wanted people to be nice, treat, you know, every human being with the dignity and respect that they deserve, to default, operationally, as you know, aggressive and and we're going to be mission first, and what I the reason I believe fire departments exist is is we're going to put ourselves between people in fire, you know, to make rescues and you know, at at the end of the day, it's it's pretty much as as for our firefighters, it's, you know, at the end of the day, it's it's pretty much as for our firefighters, it's, you know, it's as simple as that. Do the right things for the right reasons. That, and what I want everyone to understand is like it's a, it's a two-way street. Ok, so the way we're effective is we delegate and empower other people. We're effective as we delegate and empower other people.

Blake Holte: 18:35

Especially from my position, interestingly, what I've learned is I feel like I'm way more trusting of our 170 firefighters than they are of me, and that's fine. But the thing is, when we empower people, like for me, that exposes some vulnerability. Right, I'm trusting that they're going to do the right things in the right situations, and so we give them the very loose guidelines and let them go. People need to understand that there will be times, and I can speak to examples but there are times when you have to operate in a way that is not in line or maybe even contradicts our policies. And if they understand that, provided they do it for the right reason and it's the right thing to do for people and it's legal, then I'm going to have their back, and they can do that.

Carol Park: 19:39

I hear that's part of the way that you provide the safety for them to do their job, knowing that it's within those parameters that you just outlined. You're going to have their back, even if it's a little bit outside of maybe, a policy or procedure, because the truth of vulnerability is it's the uncertainty. I mean if we could write the manual to know every single thing that happens and this is what you do, I think of it as a parent, like if there was a parenting manual that said, if this, then this, and you just fall. But life's not that. I mean it will throw us the curve balls. It will say, whoa, this wasn't in the manual, or you know so, but I hear you having their back that, again within the parameters. You said it's legal, all of that. You're going to have their back and that's part of your leadership that you're providing to give them the safe place to do their job and to take care of people. And yeah, your definition too was really profound, especially coming from someone who puts themselves in harm's way to help people. Yeah, it's such a great definition. It's interesting too.

Carol Park: 20:56

I interviewed somebody else who's more in the entrepreneurial world and I had asked him to, in one sentence try and define what is the courage of vulnerability, and he actually went to military or first responders. You know, people who will run into the uncertainty, the danger, in order to help other people, and so it's the epitome of your job and what you just described. So yeah, thank you. Do you describe? So yeah, thank you, do you. How, like, can you think of something that you really want your new firefighters to understand about the courage of vulnerability?

Blake Holte: 21:59

Great question. Mostly, I think what I encourage them to do is recognize that the experience you have is going to be very individual. So, you know it's hard for me to just like you said I can't say if this happens then you're going to have to do whatever. Said I can't say if this happens then you're going to have to do whatever, but recognize that you know everyone's ability to process, to deal, is based on a set of circumstances cumulative in your life and that is different for everyone. So, uh, you know you have to give yourself grace and permission to be an individual, feel things when you feel them. Uh, and you know the the most important advice I think I give them is understand when that we have all of these resources, and we want you to use them.

Blake Holte: 22:59

And that has been a slow process. So you know we didn't have the supportive environment obviously 30 years ago. That's pretty new for the first responder community, for fire especially and so it started very slow. And it started with kind of instruction, which is a good way to introduce it to firefighters because they're used to trainings and hearing stuff. But you know, started real slow with education about stress and to where we are today now, which is we expect to interact with a counselor on a regular basis.

Blake Holte: 23:56

And even for the people, the biggest gauge for me has been even the people who you know aren't going to use those services. They're just not there for whatever reason. They accept that it's okay if their buddy does or if their subordinate does, that they don't give them a hard time, they don't make light of it or make fun of it, and so that's been huge for us where it becomes culturally accepted, even to the people who aren't participatory. That was a real slow process, but I'm glad we got there. You know, I can think of several very impactful moments for me personally, and you know losing a good friend to suicide was one of them. That was extremely difficult, but it drove home to me how important it is for us as an organization to commit to making it a priority that we provide all of the resources that we can.

Blake Holte: 25:16

So, yeah, yeah, I can imagine and, like I said, you know no, go ahead no, I was just.

Carol Park: 25:23

I was gonna say I can imagine how painful that was and yeah, you're then, as the fire chief today, knowing the importance of the resources, the check-ins, just to make sure that people who may seem okay might not be okay. So, to have the check-ins, to have it there for people who need it and can reach out for it, and then also just to again, even if they don't think they need it, to be supportive others, because you never know when you might need it, and then the environment has been created that you can see oh, I actually do need it now and that's okay, and I've been supportive of others, so maybe I could have the courage to receive the help myself.

Blake Holte: 26:14

So yeah, yes, it was hard for everyone, but as a whole, like some other things that were impactful to me, one of those was I started young and I promoted young. So, like now in today's, we're expanding. It was a rapidly growing area, and so our department is about like 65% less than five years experience. But when I started it obviously wasn't that way it was. You know, it was probably 85%, 10 plus years experience, and so I promoted into a supervisor position at under four years on the job, and so that put me in a position to you know, I'm supervising people who have been doing this for 15 or 20 years, and what I really really admire and respect for the people I worked with was I never had any problems, I never got pushback, I never got whatever. I think it's being able to recognize in myself that I had. You know, I had some vulnerabilities, some that they didn't have, and I worked really, really hard and I think they could see that, and so that's the other thing, although it's not phrased that way, but when I talk to new people, you know, let them know that your, your career, can be what you make it, and you know I love having a 30 year firefighter if that's what you want to do, but also, like, there's all kinds of opportunities if you want to, you know, be a supervisor, or be a technical rescue person, or be a, you know, a driver, whatever. All those things are out there. But you have to recognize that in order to get those you have, you know you have to make some commitments to self-improvement, and to do that means you have to admit that you don't know all the stuff that's out there and be okay with it, and I always felt that way.

Blake Holte: 28:54

I think one of the things that was hardest for me psychologically too, was or mentally, you know, before we had the help and stuff available was I was very, very concerned, especially as a young officer, that If I didn't do Make good decisions or, you know, do something right, I would get people hurt or not, you know, save someone who is savable, you know something like that and so. So, yeah, that was that was kind of hard for me, and I still, like, set myself up for having bad sleep habits because I didn't sleep much my first few years. I spent hours every night of just playing situations in my head and how am I going to handle it and what am I going to do if then, and it helped me. I think it helped me in the long run, but I probably there's definitely times in my career that I could have done things better, you know, more healthy, and so that's another reason why I'm glad we have the support that we do now and the systems in place and the systems in place.

Carol Park: 30:22

You know, I think one of the themes that I hear as we're talking here today is you really amplify two sides of what I think are the same coin individuality and teamwork.

Carol Park: 30:32

You know that you really support your officers individually, your firefighters, your team members as individuals, what they bring to the mix, what they bring to the team. You encourage them to be individual in their work and at the same time, we're working as a team, we're supporting each other, we're here for each other and I think that that success it's like two sides of the same coin, with also just the permission to be vulnerable, to be human, which means that we will fail at times. I mean, it's such a huge burden to carry that I have to do everything right or else, which I get. That's part of your training and that's what y'all go through and go through the repetitions even that you were going through in your head over and over, and then understanding too that it's like we're going to do our best, as you said, and I'm going to put myself really in harm's way or in these situations, to do my best to help and it won't always go according to the book or to plan right.

Blake Holte: 31:48

Yeah, yeah, exactly that's. That's something that I had to learn over time and didn't really allow. That's why I mentioned you know, I think most important for our new people is that they, you know, give themselves some grace, Like we're doing good work here, and even when it's tough, like you know, understand that what you're doing is helpful. It's helpful to the community as a whole, it's helpful to each individual that you go and help, and you know you're right, it doesn't always turn out the way we want it to, or we would like to hope that it will, but it's still, you know, you're still doing good work. Yeah, and like, certainly I'm One second.

Blake Holte: 33:03

Yeah, I certainly. You know, the greatest honor I've ever had is to represent this organization because they do really, really well. We have a what I would say is an exceptional culture of training and and so, like our operations people, they're prepared as any department in the country for anything that might happen. So you know, having said that, yes, sometimes it doesn't go right and had to learn uh even luckily, and you know, thanks to nikki penn, that uh, you can do uh everything to the best of your ability, even at a very high level, and things don't turn out. You know and, and that's okay.

Carol Park: 33:57

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Blake Holte: 33:58

Or even if it's not okay, it just, it just is. But two things can be true at the same time yeah.

Carol Park: 34:05

Yeah, that's so true, I don't know Nikki Penn, but I'm grateful for her. It sounds like she's doing great work there too, as being part of the team, if you will, to support those like yourself and your other firefighters, team members, to just again support the courageous, brave work that y'all are doing. So, again, it's such an honor to have you on the podcast today, so grateful for your time, because I know that fire chiefs are busy and you've got a lot to do. So thank you so much for your time and your message today and just again, thank you for your service.

Blake Holte: 34:52

Oh, absolutely my pleasure. Wouldn't want to do anything else, thank you.