Living The Red Life - Changing The Narrative: Empowering Women in a Male-Dominated Field

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Dusty Dawn, president of Firehouse Dolls, shares her innovative efforts to transform a traditional firefighter calendar into a platform promoting women in public service. Dusty discusses the creation of a community that empowers women through camaraderie and support, while navigating challenges within the male-dominated field. The episode also explores how Dusty is modernizing the business with social media and interactive children’s content, emphasizing charity work and educational initiatives. Listen for insights on leadership, resilience, and redefining perceptions of women in firefighting.CHAPTERS4:14 - Building Community Through Interactive Children's Websites6:30 - Empowering Women Through Community and Charity Initiatives8:47 - Empowering Women in Male-Dominated Workplaces13:19 - Challenges of Entrepreneurship and Social Media Criticism14:04 - Balancing Leadership and Friendship in a Competitive Business15:51 - Embracing DIY Filmmaking for Authentic Social Media Content16:53 - Balancing Humor, Stress, and Education in High-Stakes Professions19:46 - Innovative Business Models in Community-Focused VenturesKey Takeaways:Empowering Women in Public Service: Dusty Dawn has transformed Firehouse Dolls into a platform supporting real female firefighters, focusing on community, empowerment, and charity.Innovative Business Model: The once traditional calendar model is now a vibrant social initiative, integrating modern elements such as social media and interactive educational platforms for broader reach and impact.Community Building and Leadership: Dusty's leadership not only involves managing the organization but also nurturing a supportive sisterhood and potential community leaders.Educational Initiatives: Firehouse Dolls plans to launch interactive educational platforms like JuniorRescue.com to inspire future generations to join public service roles.Advocacy and Challenges of Women in Firefighting: The episode sheds light on the societal challenges women face in traditionally male-dominated professions and Dusty's efforts to reshape perceptions through visibility and storytelling.Notable Quotes:"These girls are not just a calendar. They deserve to be dressed up and look beautiful because this profession will kind of take your soul out of you if you let it." – Dusty Dawn"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." – Dusty Dawn"We're bringing education. I'm an active shooter survivor, and I am teaching a tactile emergency casualty care to educate the community as well." – Dusty Dawn"I want to go into a place where I can play with my kind of people and not have to just get past all the rest or get aggravated." – Dusty Dawn"The worst thing to do in this world is be alone when you're sick and broke. So we try to actually practice what we preach." – Dusty DawnResources:Firehouse Dolls Website: firehousedolls.comConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

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 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 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. You look at public service, police, nurse, firefighters, there's not really a business money side associated normally. And 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.

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? My name's 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. Thank you for having me. 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. 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. 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. I wasn't gonna do the calendar unless he made it us, the real girls, not them dressing up like this. 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 mail calendars are adding girls now. And what is funny is they're allowed to put on this stripper-esque type stuff and we have to act right. If we do anything

we're gonna get reported. HR is not our friend. So I have to play very very careful HR games when they don't have to. 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 in this entire profession. We'll 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 10 times more confident. You get beat up. You 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 H-E-R in it. 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. There's a couple, but they belong in my sisterhood. You know, like, it's just not that way.

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're starting a children's website, which is jrrescue.com and jrfirefighter.com. So they'll go through the 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 you'll be able to see different professions. There's a carousel that you go on. Maybe we should have like the Rudy Lip chair in there. You can 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, PG-13 stuff, and these are characters, the cartoon characters. And they're all of us. So we're the ones that are, but we're G-rated. Then you got a PG-13. We get cooler. You know, we might throw in a couple

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. They'll be able to see different things in the fire trucks that the little kids wouldn't...we don't want them asking those questions. And then you graduate till 18 and over membership and we're still cool. So we're working on cartoons of like all of us older cartoons for the fire. I love the big vision, right? You know, the profession, right, is obviously such a like nurse and police and all that. It's 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 that, right? It's like just...

Well, nobody goes to the shows. Yeah. People used to go to touch the 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 and bring them up in it. new firefighters, new medics, new police officers. You've got to figure out how to get them. So to me, I hook them when they're babies and bring them up in it. 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. And obviously that's the people on the ground in every city that do the day-to-day, life-saving stuff that we will need as residents here. 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 I'm fascinated by that. Yeah, that how it helps them reconnect to maybe who they were

or brings out that new level of confidence in them. And then also the community side, right? You're able to build that community. And I would love to talk about 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 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. 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 not have to just I want to go into a place where I can play with my kind of people and not have to just get past all the rest or get aggravated. So you can actually go into the membership site and 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 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 everything from funeral expenses to medical bills for girls, just because, because you know the worst thing to do in this world is be alone when you're sick 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 because I've never been a bridesmaid nobody ever 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 them. And I think that's another thing is finding the right women to do this. Yeah, the community, yeah. Well, and you can get the wrong kind of girls.

I have cut girls that were absolutely beautiful, but 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 an avid sailor cusser, but that's not what we want. And if that's all she's got. And you were telling me offline,

like you're very strict about not blending into that other side of things that could easily transition to. The guys can do it. They'll come after us. And in reality, I have had women, women destroying us. People want to promote us, they wanna sponsor us. And it gets to the women in the business.

And Nick's 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 picket 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.

She's sleeping with your husband. And everything you're doing is for a great cause or a great mission, great cause, which is what I love. And I'm so excited to dive into it. I do want to ask you more on the personal side, right? As being 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 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 there you know when I first started I just modeled and I walked into this room of models, and you never know where you're gonna find models back. That was 27 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've 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 because they're strong. They're lifting heavy people.

The last patient that I lifted was probably 360 pounds, and the little girl that was next to me was half my size and 100-pound caught. These girls have to be strong. They're dragging hoses. They're doing everything. And there are small men. There's a lot of guys that I can outwork. And right now I'm injured, 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 in there 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.

Yeah. And that's what we want to do. 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. Right. 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 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 generally people that don't have goals and dreams and don't pursue things and then they reflect that onto you. But it's definitely something as an entrepreneur you have to learn because you're normally optimistic, positive, and passionate.

Most of society sadly aren't those three. You're getting into the mood. 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? You know, I came back in and I modeled like 10 years later 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. Like I just wanna be a doll 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 flat medic. Uh, 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 everything that's there. You're not gonna catch me with anything because I have to have my equipment. And my equipment is my girls and I check on them. You know, now every so often I go through the line,

I'm like sending a text, making sure, or go to their page. I like all their stuff, I support all their stuff. Now every once in a while when I'm a comfy 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. 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 a hundred staff and a lot of my staff are personal friends. They become close friends and personal friends, and then you have to flip to the leader and the bad boss sometimes. I've hired a couple of months. Yeah, yeah. I did. And you know, this business, this business, thinking I've got friends in this business.

And 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 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...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 I'm learning aspects of that, you know, trying to get it figured out.

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 businesses that aren't like online e-commerce stores, right? Like, they don't think about how can I use social media? How can I use these things? Right? And it's so important. That they don't think about how can I use social media? How can I use these things? Yeah, 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 running good ourselves because people want to see the content Especially for something like what you're doing. They want to see the pie in the sea, right? What goes into it is what is exciting and makes great social media. So I love that element. We did a lot of fun clips. And the bad part is most of the best stuff, we aren't rolling. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We are rolling. These girls are hilarious. Like I seriously get the best stomach workout when they come around because of the crap. 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 for sure 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 and I mean it I it. 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 came home and someone had died that day, you know? And it's like, it's not easy to be in a job like that, right? Yeah, just what she does is stressful. Yeah, you don't know what area did she work? Noro ICU back there. Oh, she's ICU? Oh, I love ICU. Yeah, so it was a lot, right? So I mean, 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 of it too. 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,

what are their lights on the top of 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.

That's the other part. I'm bringing in education. I'm an active shooter survivor and I am teaching a tactical 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 or getting shot at a lot more than we did 20 years ago. It's scary and where are they gonna 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, why are you always crying? Why are you crying?

You know, you don't wanna be be that person but you're like... Yeah, there's a whole other side. Life sucks! Yeah. And just to wrap up, I know 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?

www.firehousedolls.com and then soon will be JuniorRescue.com and JuniorFirefighter.com. Cool, well, thank you so much for talking about the business model, the idea. Guys, I hope you enjoyed that episode, just learning 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 the business model. Cause no, you know, no business model remains the same like Blockbuster, they're gone now cause 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 light. I'll see you guys soon. Take care.