Building the Elite Podcast: Recent Episodes
Building the Elite
The Building the Elite (BTE) podcast discusses all facets of human performance - from physical training to the mental and emotional factors of resilience. Each episode looks at principles drawn from the world of special operations. These concepts help people succeed in the toughest military training courses in the world and can help anyone thrive in chaotic and challenging environments.
Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon is a trained counselor specializing in the psychology of behavior change, with certifications including motivational interviewing, solution-focused, DBT, CBT, and trauma counseling.
She’s the author of numerous books and accredited nutrition, sleep, stress, and recovery courses. She is our go-to performance psych and works one-on-one with many of our clients seeking to sharpen the mental and emotional skills needed to handle some of the toughest training courses in the world.
She’s an invaluable resource for our clients and has played a critical role in the careers of many special operators.
In this episode, we’re talking to KSD about the grieving process. Typically, we think of grief as the emotional state following a loss like the death of a friend or loved one, but the process is surprisingly similar to other forms of loss, such as the emotional impact of losing out on a major career aspiration, washing out of a selection course, or getting divorced.
Additional Resources: What to Know About Grief and Loss
More about KSD:
Website - kristascottdixon.com
Coaching for SOF personnel - https://www.buildingtheelite.com/performance-psych-coaching/
KSD’s latest book, Applied Nutrition Coaching and Counseling - https://amzn.to/4xXhp0t
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Dr. Krista Scott Dixon
00:01:24 Processing Grief in Death/Grief in Setbacks
00:11:47 Dealing with the Nature of Death
00:18:54 The Brain's Ability to Adjust to Loss
00:23:14 Clichés are Infuriating During Grieving
00:28:22 Excepting a New Reality
00:31:50 Exposure to Grief in the Military
00:36:04 Unhealthy and Problematic Ways of Coping with Loss
00:41:57 Chemical Avoidance and Numbing in Grief
00:45:19 Communicating Death to Children
00:51:37 Advice on Helping with Others' Grief
00:58:20 Guidelines for Dealing with Grief from Selection
01:04:00 Curling into a Ball or Crawling into a Hole
01:06:01 The "What If"s and "If Only"s of Loss
01:08:02 Survivor's Guilt
01:13:43 Face, Accept, Float, Let Time Pass
01:16:21 Outro
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Dr. Robyn Nadolny is a Biologist and the Chief of the Vector-Borne Disease Branch at the Defense Centers for Public Health at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (DCPH-A). The flagship program of the Vector-Borne Disease Branch is MilTICK, a free, rapid tick-testing program for military beneficiaries. The results provide a tool in the diagnostic toolbox for military beneficiaries, and Dr. Nadolny uses the passive surveillance data generated to better understand changing tick-borne disease dynamics and mitigate risks to US Service Members and their communities. She is also working on tick-borne disease surveillance projects worldwide to support military communities.
Dr. Nadolny came to DCPH-A in 2016 after completing her PhD in Ecological Sciences from Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, VA. She also holds a M.S. in Biology from ODU, and a B.S. in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology from Beloit College in Beloit, WI. Her research focuses on the prevention of tick-borne disease through understanding and breaking tick-host-pathogen-environment cycles. Dr. Nadolny has co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed publications and is interested in the intersection of ecology and public health.
In this episode, we discuss the types of diseases that can be transmitted to military personnel (and anyone else) through ticks, how those diseases work, where and when the risk is greatest, and what you can do to protect yourself.
To visit the MilTICK site, which you can use to understand the risk of tick-borne disease at your military installation and submit ticks for testing, go here:
https://ph.health.mil/topics/entomology/kits/Pages/HumanTickTestKitProgram.aspx
There are also many civilian labs where you can submit a tick for testing at a low cost.
For example:
Pennsylvania Tick Research Lab: https://www.ticklab.org/
Old Dominion University, Virginia: https://sites.wp.odu.edu/tick-team/what-we-do/tick-testing/sending-us-your-ticks/
Ticknology: https://www.ticknology.org/order-test
Timestamps:
00:23 Introduction to Dr. Robyn Nadolny
01:48 What are the Most Common Diseases Spread by Ticks?
03:24 Lesser Known Tick-Spread Diseases
07:19 Alpha Gal: It's Not Just Beef Off the Table
09:27 The Implications of Lyme Disease
14:16 How Does the Body React After Multiple Tick Bites?
16:06 Rates of These Diseases
18:21 What Terrain Do Ticks Prefer?
21:31 What Time of Year are Ticks the Worst?
23:13 Tick Life Cycles
27:56 Soldiers Protecting Themselves from Ticks in the Field
33:19 Dealing with a Tick Bite in the Field
37:41 Prevalence of Diseases in Ticks
42:34 Vaccines for Tick-Borne Diseases for Pets and People
45:45 Treated Clothing and Repellents
48:21 Outro
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Dr. Alia Bojilova is a registered psychologist with a focus on resilience.
She grew up in Eastern Europe during some of the most tumultuous times in recent history before immigrating to New Zealand at age 17. During her service with the New Zealand Defense Force, she worked as the Lead Psychologist and an Officer with the SAS.
While serving as a UN military observer in Syria, Alia and her team were taken hostage, and she negotiated the release of herself and her team.
She holds a PhD from the University of Waikato and studied the link between curiosity and resilience in special operations forces.
Since leaving the military, Alia has served as coach and advisor to leaders and teams around the world, and across a wide range of sectors, including government, venture capital, elite-level sports, corporate services, and creative industries.
She’s the author of The Resilience Toolkit, available on Amazon.
More about Alia:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrina-alia-bojilova/
Resilience Toolkit - https://amzn.to/4fa9DZH
Timestamps:00:22 Introduction to Alia Bojilova
01:21 Lead Psychologist for New Zealand SAS
05:35 The Link Between Curiosity and Resilience
07:51 Resilience in Special Operators
12:38 Time of Service and Involvement in SAS
14:51 What Does "Military Observer" Mean?
17:04 Assessing for Curiosity in Training
19:22 Curiosity's Distinction from Openness
31:40 Common Signifiers of a Resilient, Curious Mindset
35:40 Olympic Athletes and Special Operators
37:13 The Phenomenal Gift of Being Taken Captive in Syria
54:01 One or Two Books Everyone Should Read
55:18 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
56:31 Outro
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James Jensen is a former SAS Patrol Commander with a unique blend of scientific leadership theory and real-world, high-stakes leadership experience.
James served in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) for two decades, with fourteen years in the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), where he held leadership roles during multiple combat tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, East Timor, and the Philippines. Throughout his career, he worked in some of the world’s most challenging and high-pressure environments.
With over 20 years of experience leading and working within teams in dynamic, complex settings, James has witnessed firsthand the transformative power of great leadership. He has seen exceptional leaders elevate teams and positively impact individuals' lives, and he's also observed the devastating effects of poor leadership on both people and organizations.
James’s evolution from a junior leader in East Timor to leading some of Australia’s most elite teams reshaped his understanding of what true leadership means.
Today, as a sought-after consultant, James works with organizations across many industries, helping leaders unlock their full potential and inspire greatness in their teams. His leadership expertise is still highly valued by the SAS, where he continues to train and mentor the next generation of SAS leaders.
LEARN MORE ABOUT JAMES:
K6 Consulting - https://k6consulting.com.au/
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-jensen-a56440172/
TIMESTAMPS:
00:21 Introduction to James Jensen
01:49 What Did James Do in The Army?
06:30 From Officer to Enlistment - How Did that Process Affect James?
09:53 Being Concerned with Being Liked in Leadership
11:23 W.I.N. - What's Important Now
15:07 Develop and Maintain the Role of Calmness
19:32 Can Calmness Be Developed or is it Innate?
22:43 Timing a Joke with a Crew
24:02 Better Decision Making as a Leader
32:48 Routine with Feedback = Behavioral Change
33:49 Leadership is a Profession
36:33 Individuals Functioning as a Unit
41:35 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
42:51 James' Book Recommendations
44:18 Outro
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Aaron is an active duty Pararescueman currently stationed at a Special Tactics Squadron as a Troop Chief. He is a Team Leader, Evaluator, Special Operations Combatives Program (SOCP) Lvl 2 instructor, and an Onnit Certified Trainer, with a focus on Tactical Durability.
Pararescuemen, or PJs, are the only DoD asset specifically trained, equipped, and employed to perform Personnel Recovery. They are Technical Rescue Specialists who provide gold-standard combat trauma medical care and evacuation in every environment and situation on the planet. They are trained in all methods of advanced employment and can employ from any vehicle, standard or non-standard, in the DoD and multinational partner inventory.
Aaron enlisted in the Air Force in September 2001 and entered the Pararescue training pipeline as a cross trainee, previously an Aerospace Physiology Technician. He has served in Special Tactics and Rescue Squadrons, both overseas and stateside. He has also served in Air Education and Training Command, where he was integral in the complete rewrite of the Pararescue/Combat Rescue Apprentice Courses and has intimate knowledge of the Assessment and Selection process and pipeline management.
He has seen multiple combat deployments to Iraq, Africa, and Afghanistan in positions from team member to Senior Enlisted Leader. He takes great pride in the training and mentorship aspect of being a Troop Chief. Aaron is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu player in his off time.
You can learn more about Ones Ready and their Operator Training Summit at onesready.com
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Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon is a trained counselor specializing in the psychology of behavior change, with certifications including motivational interviewing, solution-focused therapy, DBT, CBT, and trauma counseling.
She’s the author of numerous books and accredited nutrition, sleep, stress, and recovery courses.
She’s our go-to performance psych for special operations candidates and active operators, and works one-on-one with many of our clients to help them excel in selection and stay mentally and emotionally resilient throughout their careers.
This is part of an ongoing series with KSD, where we’ll be talking with her about the specific tools and concepts that come up regularly in her work with special operators, and how you can apply them in your own life.
Work with KSD: https://www.buildingtheelite.com/performance-psych-coaching/
Timestamps:
00:23 Introduction to Krista Scott Dixon
01:07 Helping Candidates Assess the "Am I Good Enough" Question
08:03 The Mistake of Only Looking at PT Test Scores
13:34 The Struggle of Getting Stuck in Your Head
21:28 The Way People Quit
29:36 Being Good at Working Through Any Conditions
34:27 Preparing for Anything and Everything in Skills Assessment
42:02 "I'll Figure it Out" and Fuzzy Trace Theory
47:23 Tolerating Suffering in Crappy Jobs
52:03 Military Barracks Full of Broken Washing Machines
58:17 How to Access the Variables that Matter
1:05:35 Outro
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Steve House serves as the managing director, coach, and official mascot of Uphill Athlete, which he co-founded in 2016. He lives in a remote and mountainous corner of Austria with his wife and two sons.
Steve’s biggest coaching challenge was coaching himself. Which was successful enough for him to be called “The greatest climber of his generation” by none other than Reinhold Messner. He was inspired to write down what he learned and originally recruited two other coaches to help him write Training for the New Alpinism while recovering from a near-life-ending fall in 2010.
He then co-authored Training for the Uphill Athlete (2018) to fulfill his personal mission to “Teach conventional endurance training theory and practice to mountain athletes.” He retired from professional climbing at the end of 2020 to dedicate himself to family and work full-time on Uphill Athlete.
Steve’s most famous ascent is the 4,500-meter-high Rupal Face, the world's biggest mountain wall, which culminates at the summit of the world's deadliest and 9th-highest mountain: Nanga Parbat.
In this episode, we talk with Steve about his career, Uphill Athlete’s approach to coaching, and the overlap between mountain athletes and special operators.
More about Steve and Uphill Athlete:
You can learn more about Uphill Athlete at their website, uphillathlete.com.
And you can follow them on social media here:
Uphill Athlete Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uphill_athlete/
Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevehouse10/
Timestamps:00:00:22 Introduction to Steve House
00:01:47 What is Significant about Nanga Parbat, "The Naked Mountain"
00:06:51 Grading the Technical Difficulty of Climbing
00:11:18 The "American Certified International Federation of Mountain Guides Associations" Guide
00:15:23 Overlap Between Climbing and Special Operations Communities
00:18:00 Similarities and Differences Between the Communities
00:30:32 Uphill Athlete Training Mistake
00:40:37 Base Building Meaning and Development
00:42:44 Aerobic Threshold to Regulate Training
00:51:00 Building Aerobic Volume
00:58:59 What to Prioritize During Training
01:02:09 Misunderstanding V02 Max in Training
01:09:13 Ventilatory Threshold Breakpoint
01:15:10 Ten Athletes, Ten Results
01:18:03 What's Next for Uphill Athlete?
01:21:23 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:23:44 Book Recommendations
01:24:59 Outro
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Dr. David “Wally” Walton is a retired Army Special Forces officer with 25 years of experience in the SF community. His career spans service with the 7th Special Forces Group, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and the Special Warfare Center and School.
Dr. Walton’s extensive operational experience includes deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and across Latin America. Since retiring in 2013, he has transitioned into academia, teaching National Security Studies and Executive Leadership. His research portfolio covers Security Strategy, Organizational Culture and Dynamics, and Human Performance. He has a deep understanding of security studies, encompassing everything from tactical operations to strategic policy discussions.
Currently an instructor at JSOC, Dr. Walton is a Subject Matter Expert in Special Forces Assessment and Selection. He specializes in Land Navigation, runs a prep program designed for SFAS candidates, and is the author of multiple books about preparing for SFAS.
More about Dr. Walton:
Website: https://tfvoodoo.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tf_voo_doo/
Timestamps:
00:00:23 Introduction to Dr. David Walton
00:01:42 Changes within SFSS and Coaching
00:20:22 Being Trained in Land Navigation
00:30:43 Better Prepared Candidates
00:53:34 The Sandman Event
00:59:29 Selection Rates and Working Through the Stages
01:05:23 No Dependencies in the SFSS Course
01:09:47 The "Awaiting Training" Phase
01:11:33 What has Dr. David Walton Changed in Coaching?
01:17:08 How Many Books has Dr. Walton Written?
01:21:52 Books Everyone Should Read
01:26:32 Outro
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Brad Stulberg is a bestselling author of the new book The Way of Excellence, a performance coach, faculty member at the University of Michigan, and a husband and father.
The Way of Excellence comes out tomorrow, and you can pick up a copy at any major bookseller like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible.com, or Bookshop.org.
You can learn more about Brad and follow his work at his website, (https://www.bradstulberg.com/) and on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradstulberg/
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Nick has over 12 years of military experience, including 4 years as an Australian Commando and 6 years as an SAS operator. His operational service included deployments throughout the Middle East and Southeast Asia, including Iraq and East Timor.
Since leaving the Army, Nick has established two companies as a founding Director, The Mill Gym and Omni GeoX; as well as a new fitness competition, the Tier 1 Games.
Nick has provided risk management, leadership, and elite-level performance consulting in austere environments worldwide, including with professional sports teams, multinational corporations, government, and non-governmental organisations.
Nick's charter is to build real-world resilience within individuals and foster a no-compromise culture of excellence. He’s driven by a deep passion for building elite-level soldiers and athletes through an uncompromising culture, mindset, and mental toughness. His philosophy is simple: hard work beats talent, and resilience is the decisive advantage in high-pressure environments.
By drawing from years of operational experience and an 18-year coaching career, Nick develops training systems that forge discipline, sharpen decision-making under stress, and cultivate the mental edge required to excel when it matters most.
Learn more about Nick and The Mill Gym:
Email: nick@themillgym.com
Instagram: @themillgym
LinkedIn: @nickcaldwell
Website: themillgym.com
Timestamps:
0:00:22 Introduction to Nick Caldwell
0:01:45 Career in the Aussie Special Air Service
0:05:32 Training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
0:07:10 Gaining the Confidence to Enlist
0:14:49 Nick's Goals that Pushed His Career Forward
0:17:50 Recovering from Burnout
0:21:23 Helping Someone Understand Their Recovery and Readiness
0:26:48 Training with HRP and Other Monitoring Devices
0:38:28 What Camps Does Nick Caldwell Run?
0:44:43 Not a 36 Hour Exercise Competition
0:49:55 Standard Pre-Screening
0:57:50 Woman in Courses of Self-Defense
1:02:11 "Keeping Yourself Safe in a Parking Garage" Scenario
1:10:04 Books that Nick Believes Everyone Should Read
1:18:37 Outro
Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon is a trained counselor specializing in the psychology of behavior change, with certifications in motivational interviewing, solution-focused therapy, DBT, CBT, and trauma counseling.
She’s the author of numerous books and accredited nutrition, sleep, stress, and recovery courses. She is our go-to performance psych, working one-on-one with many of our clients to sharpen the mental and emotional skills needed to handle some of the toughest training courses in the world.
In this episode, we’re talking to KSD about the coaching work she does with active and aspiring operators, focusing on the central themes and patterns she often uses to help people excel in their careers and become more capable and resilient.
Learn more about working with KSD: https://www.buildingtheelite.com/performance-psych-coaching/
Follow KSD on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stumptuous
Timestamps:
00:23 Introduction to Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon
01:12 Common Themes in Special Operations Selection
03:42 Getting Distracted by Misconceptions
08:11 Paradox of High Standards While Facing Setbacks
13:36 The Vulnerability of Overthinking
18:53 The Concept of Self-Compassion
25:11 The Value of Coaching Yourself Positively
30:25 The Concept of Fun - Do it Seriously, Don't Take it Seriously
38:09 Weaving Fun into Intense Training
43:07 Appreciation of Nature and Disasters
47:03 Training That's Too Strict Can Steal Joy from Life
49:58 The Concept of Competition
54:43 What Does Neurodivergence Mean?
1:00:46 Distinguishing Between Self-Deficits or Neurological Differences
1:06:22 Behavioral Red Flags within Military Tactical Populations
1:12:36 Strategies for Those that Fall into a Neurodivergent Category
1:16:16 What is Stimming and What Does It Do?
1:18:53 The Impact of Time Spent Alone Doing Something Meaningless
1:24:44 Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon's Book Recommendations
1:26:23 Outro
SOF selection is a proving ground, where your physical, mental, and emotional raw material will be laid bare, with nothing to hide behind. It's a place where you voluntarily walk into a brutal challenge to find out if who you think you are matches who you are.
It's a way of answering a question that few people are willing to ask.
Mo Anthoine, a British mountaineer, referred to this as "feeding the rat."
Think of the "rat" as that gnawing part of you that needs challenge, risk, and uncertainty. You feel better when it's been fed.
As Anthoine put it, "I think it's because there is always a question mark about how you would perform. You have an idea of yourself and it can be quite a shock when you don't come up to your own expectations. If you just tootle along you can think you're a pretty slick bloke until things go wrong and you find you're nothing like you imagined yourself to be. But if you deliberately put yourself in difficult situations, then you get a pretty good idea of how you're going. That's why I like feeding the rat."
Everyone has a rat to feed.
You only choose how you feed it.
Dr. Daniel Cooper is a human performance and behaviour specialist who focuses on improving individual and team performance in high-pressure, high-consequence environments.
He provides a unique perspective that sits at the intersection of real-world experience, academic research, and high-performance development.
His experience encompasses over 18 years of service within the Australian Special Operations community, as well as academic studies in physiology, PhD research on performing under pressure, and current studies in neuroscience.
In addition to high-performance coaching in professional sports and personal pursuits in extreme ultra-endurance events, Daniel has also worked within law enforcement as a frontline skills trainer, assisting in the development and delivery of strategic command programs.
Follow Dr. Cooper:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-cooper-phd-3725194a/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dancooper_phd/
Timestamps:
00:21 Introduction to Dr. Daniel Cooper
01:35 Where in Antarctica is Dr. Daniel Cooper Going?
02:54 What Distance Record is Dr. Cooper Going for?
03:42 What are the Logistics for a Trip to Antarctica?
04:58 What Does the Food Look Like?
07:09 Starting Weight for a Sled
08:22 Getting Out of the Special Air Service
08:49 Dr. Cooper's Area of Research
09:39 Under Pressure You Fall to the Level of Your Instructor
12:24 What Operators Do Wrong When They Become Instructors
14:32 What's Dr. Cooper's Take on the Post-Engagement Scan?
18:47 The "Rule of Pretending" in Training Exercises
23:17 "Procedure Monkey" Meaning
24:06 Letting Situations Go Wrong in Training
27:35 Balancing Adaptability, Productivity and Challenges
31:44 The Impact of Shame in Training Practices
34:58 Mental Toughness is Misunderstood
40:58 How a Unit Should View Their Team and the World Around Them
46:05 Difference Between Character and Capability
49:38 More Effective Evaluating in the Special Air Service
53:40 Psychological Characteristics of Developing Excellence, PCDE's
01:03:03 Linear vs Non-Linear Motor Skill Development
01:12:54 Desirable Difficulties to Train Recall Skills
01:13:53 Dr. Coopers Book Recommendation
01:14:53 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:16:26 Outro
Elias Kfoury was born in Beirut, Lebanon, and immigrated to the United States at an early age in search of a brighter, safer future. After college, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving 21½ years before his medical retirement. Beginning as a Hospital Corpsman supporting the U.S. Marine Corps, he soon entered the Special Operations community as a Deep Sea Diving Medical Technician and completed advanced medical training to support Naval Special Warfare units. Following his service in Little Creek, Virginia, he successfully screened for Naval Special Warfare Development Group, where he spent the majority of his career as a Squadron Medic in multiple roles. After retiring, Elias transitioned into the business world, but soon recognized the deeper need to heal himself and his family. Today, he dedicates his life to supporting others on their own journeys while cherishing time with his family.
Eli's Book Recommendations for special operations candidates (aside from Building the Elite):
Breath – James Nestor
The Way of the SEAL – Mark Divine
Peak Performance – Brad Stulberg & Steve Magness
The Talent Code– Daniel Coyle
The Obstacle Is the Way – Ryan Holiday
With Winning in Mind – Lanny Bassham
Deep Survival– Laurence Gonzales
Call Sign Chaos – Jim Mattis & Bing West
Legacy – James Kerr
Timestamps:
00:00:21 Introduction to Eli Khoury
00:00:52 Where Did Eli Khoury Grow Up?
00:01:36 Experience of Growing Up in a War Zone
00:05:54 How "Real Mortal Danger" Shapes Your Mental Health
00:08:59 How Many Children Currently Don't Have Physical "Third Spaces"
00:12:05 Formative Moments That Clarified "Who Eli Is"
00:18:20 Eli's Educational Background
00:24:43 The Goal of Coaching
00:27:48 Common Things People Struggle to Let Go of
00:29:43 Improving the Coaching Process for the Future
00:32:04 Coaching Families
00:34:04 Utilizing Tools like Psychedelics
00:36:18 Teaching How to Give Up Control While Using Psychedelics
00:40:40 Teaching How to Let Go Without Psychedelics
00:48:20 The Skill of "Sitting With Stillness"
00:52:48 What Military Skills Transfer to the Rest of the World?
00:58:04 Teaching Resilience to People Early in Their Career
01:13:45 Advice for Someone Trying to Enter BUDS
01:14:49 Advice for Someone in a Special Operations Medical Path
01:16:33 Advice for Someone Who Wants to Screen for a Tier 1 Unit
01:18:20 One Book that Everyone Should Read
01:18:37 Sponsor Note - Our Book, "Building the Elite"
01:19:05 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:21:48 Outro
If your selection will be held in a hot environment, it’s important to acclimate to the heat before heading out. Any SOF selection will push you to your physical limits, and not being acclimated to the heat can significantly increase your risk of failure.
Heat injuries in SOF selection are fairly common, and they can be sneaky. The workload is so intense that even moderately warm, humid days can produce conditions that encourage heat injuries, particularly for people who are coming from cooler, drier climates who aren’t habituated to the weather.
Like any adaptation, how you stress your body changes your rate and degree of adaptation. Randomly doing hard things in hot conditions isn’t the best strategy. In this episode, we’ll outline our recommendations based on practical experience and the most current research.
Hot Box Sauna: https://www.thehotboxsauna.com/?ref=BTE
For 5% off, use the code BTE5
Timestamps:
Matt Stevens transitioned from the U.S. Navy in 2017 after serving for 26 years as a SEAL.
Transitioning from the SEAL teams to civilian life brought him to The Honor Foundation, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting U.S. Special Operations Forces as they transition from elite military careers into impactful civilian roles.
Matt attended The Honor Foundation’s (THF) inaugural East Coast class in the spring of 2016, joined their SOF Advisory Board in the spring of 2017, and then joined their Board of Directors in February 2018.
A native of Charlotte, NC, Matt graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1991 with a B.S. in Ocean Engineering. He graduated BUD/S in 1992 with class 179 and was assigned to the East Coast, where he served in various SEAL Teams, SEAL Delivery Vehicle Teams, and Naval Special Warfare Development Group (NSWDG).
Matt commanded at every level in the Naval Special Warfare Community, including a Squadron at DEVGRU, SEAL Team Two, Naval Special Warfare Unit Three, and Naval Special Warfare Group Four.
He served on staff tours at the Joint Special Operations Command in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as the Operations Officer at Naval Special Warfare Group TWO in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict (ASD SO/LIC) in the Pentagon.
Matt served on the leadership team of an emerging technology company from 2017 to 2019, before assuming the role of CEO of The Honor Foundation.
Learn more about The Honor Foundation at www.Honor.org
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Matt Stevens
00:02:00 26 Years in the Teams
00:03:25 DEVGRU and Seal Teams
00:04:36 The Hardest Part of BUD/S
00:06:16 Sponsor Note: Our Book Building The Elite
00:07:03 Toughest Moments of Matt Stevens' Career
00:09:32 Giving Bad News About Performance
00:11:12 Becoming a Good Leader
00:15:08 Becoming Better at Public Speaking
00:17:04 Transitioning Out of the Military
00:20:21 How Did Mentorship Affect Matt Stevens’ Career?
00:23:20 How Did the Honor Foundation Come About?
00:26:28 The Honor Foundation's Three-Phase Program
00:31:09 Impacting Veterans Lives
00:34:31 What a Special Operations Background Brings to the Table
00:37:23 Surviving in the Civilian World
00:40:31 Who is the Honor Foundation For?
00:41:45 Honor Foundation's Goals
00:45:19 Supporting the Honor Foundation
00:46:09 Advice for Special Operators Transitioning Out
00:49:00 One Book Everyone Should Read
00:49:43 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
00:50:25 Outro
Rima is a medic in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a tactical medicine instructor originally from the United States. She came to Ukraine as an NGO volunteer in 2022 and began medical studies in 2023 before enlisting in 2024. Now, she works on medical evacuations of soldiers from the frontlines and works in stabilization points where they receive casualties and stabilize their injuries for transport to the nearest hospital.
Before enlisting, she taught tactical medicine per TCCC standards at the International Center for Tactical Medicine in Ukraine. In her spare time, she writes about tactical medicine for a wider audience based on evolving needs and lessons learned on the ground in Ukraine.
More about Rima:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rimamedua
Send Rima and her team medical supplies: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3QM0WCUA0PBK2?ref_=wl_share
Or, snacks from home: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/390U40XEQSS4P?ref_=wl_share
Blue Yellow USA address for care packages:
C/O Blue Yellow USA NFP
PO box 641
Naperville, IL
60566
Timestamps:
Chris Brennan served for 15 years in the Australian Army, 11 of which were as an operator within the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR).
He fulfilled multiple team specialist roles, including as a JTAC and Tandem Bundle Master within a Freefall Assault Team, before progressing into leadership roles as a team 2IC and culminating his career as an SASR Team Leader.
Chris deployed on multiple occasions and spent two years as a specialist trainer and assessor in the SASR's selection and training squadron.
He assisted in the design and implementation of high-risk training for new members undergoing the SASR reinforcement cycle, as well as assisting in the delivery of team-leading packages to
those undergoing progression into tactical leadership functions.
Upon transitioning from the Australian Defence Force, Chris completed his Master of Business degree through the University of New South Wales, which provided academic backing to his lived experiences within the SASR.
As a result, Chris founded OMADA Performance Concepts, a high–performance team consultancy. Through OMADA, he now delivers specialised Team Development solutions, Team Leadership packages, and Instructor Development programs for critical response teams operating in high-risk environments.
More about Chris:
Website: www.omadapc.com.au
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omada.performance.concepts/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-brennan-991215353/
Timestamps:
00:00:21 Introduction to Chris Brennan
00:01:41 Brennan’s Career in the Australian SAS
00:04:05 Unit Supporters' Success in the U.S.
00:05:39 Hardest Part of Selection
00:07:16 Testing Standards
00:09:17 Quick Note: Mental and Emotional Demands of Selection
00:10:14 Freefall Rules
00:11:19 Jumping Bundles
00:12:24 Working as an Instructor
00:13:21 What Makes a Student Stand Out in the Reinforcement Cycle?
00:14:51 Evaluating Attributes
00:21:24 Cultural Fit
00:24:44 Team Gear, My Gear, Me
00:25:25 Training Other Team Leaders
00:26:03 What Makes an Effective Team Leader?
00:31:02 Tom Satterly and the Hot Wash
00:35:55 Staying Focused on Things You Can Change
00:39:17 Founding Omada
00:44:40 Applying Previous Experiences
00:51:37 Future Plans for Omada
00:53:36 Working for Omada
00:54:06 One Book that Everyone Should Read
00:58:09 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
00:59:48 Contact Chris Brennan
01:00:37 Outro
Philip Andrew Armstrong is a decorated combat veteran, elite-level medic, program manager, and resilience-driven father of four. Raised in the woods by hippies and unable to read until the age of 14, his early life was unconventional, marked by hardship, self-reliance, and grit. Those experiences became the bedrock for a path of resilience that carried him through combat, service on some of the world’s most elite special operations teams, and ultimately, earning a master’s degree from Harvard, proving that where you begin doesn’t define how far you can go.
Philip began his military journey as a U.S. Air Force Pararescueman (PJ) with the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal with Valor and the Purple Heart for his actions under fire in Afghanistan. He earned additional valor recognition while serving as a civilian contractor with various agencies, deploying five more times to Afghanistan and once to Libya in support of counter-terrorism operations.
In 2018, Philip sustained a leg injury from an AK-47 ricochet during an overseas deployment. He officially retired from contracting in 2019 to focus on recovery, his family, and building a purpose-driven life beyond the battlefield.
Today, Philip serves as a medical and operational program manager, co-owner of a real estate brokerage in Florida, and co-founder of Ambassadors of World Wildlife, a nonprofit delivering medical and conservation support in remote, high-risk environments.
He holds a Bachelor of Science from Purdue University Global and a Master of Liberal Arts in Sustainability from Harvard Extension School. He is a board-certified Critical Care Flight Paramedic and has completed some of the most grueling and advanced tactical training in U.S. Special Operations. He’s also a triathlete and a licensed private pilot and paraglider pilot.
Philip lives in Florida with his wife—a former F-15 Strike Eagle backseater with two combat deployments—and their four young children. Together, they are embarking on the journey of homeschooling, with a focus on cultivating resilience, leadership, and adaptability in their family. Through social media, Philip shares raw, honest reflections on post-traumatic growth, high-performance living, mental health, and the challenges and triumphs of modern fatherhood.
Follow Philip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/operator.drama.llama/
Timestamps:
Ben Strahan is a Hotshot Superintendent and wildland firefighter with over 25 years of operational leadership on the fireline. Ben has spent decades in high-risk environments where clarity, discipline, and trust mean survival. His journey through fire has shaped a deeper calling—one that now centers around helping others cultivate resilience, emotional strength, and self-awareness. Through consulting, mentorship, and public speaking, Ben bridges the gap between tactical readiness and inner leadership, guiding others to face the fires within as courageously as those in the wild.
More about Ben:
Moment Consulting: https://momentconsultingllc.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benstrahan/
Timestamps:
What makes a hero?
It’s easy to point to the dramatic moments in history: the burning tanks and bullet-swept battlefields. This form of heroism is important, but it's not the only form. Heroism also manifests in other ways that impact lives, strengthen our communities, and shape our culture.
In this episode, we look beyond the headlines to the everyday acts of heroism that rarely make the news. Through stories of soldiers, first responders, teachers, and ordinary people, we explore a different kind of courage: the steady, humble, often invisible bravery that changes lives without seeking recognition.
Alex Potter is a photojournalist, trauma nurse, former wildland firefighter, and co-founder of Global Response Medicine, a humanitarian non-profit bringing emergency medicine to low-resource and high-risk areas.
Alex spent her early career photographing conflict in the Middle East, before spending two seasons as a wildland firefighter in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho.
She then moved to Alaska to pursue a career as an Air Force Combat Rescue Officer and was selected in Phase 2 of the CRO pipeline in 2022.
While a twist of fate (and knee) changed that path, she remains passionate about mountain pursuits, far-forward medicine, and the ability to help others achieve their goals. She is a current board member of the Special Operations Climbers Coalition, and recently moved to Bozeman, Montana.
More about Alex:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexkpotter/
Global Response Medicine: https://global-response.org/
Photography: https://www.alexkaypotter.com/
Support GRM: https://givebutter.com/AcuteCare
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Alex Potter
00:01:14 Piecing Together Alex Potter's Career
00:04:48 Combat Rescue Officers VS. Pararescueman
00:06:43 Everybody Loves PJs
00:09:00 Trauma Nurse in Iraq
00:13:16 Notable Things in the Learning Curve
00:14:31 Where Did Your Food Come From
00:16:12 Being a Women in Traditional Muslim Culture
00:21:47 Ending two years in Iraq
00:24:03 Firefighter in Alaska
00:24:57 Month Long Boot Camp
00:26:13 What Makes Effective Leadership
00:27:21 Not Hoarding Knowledge
00:29:56 Becoming a Wildland Firefighter
00:33:15 Specific Boots for the Job
00:34:37 Physical Training Prior to Firefighting
00:37:10 Marriage & Nursing on the East Coast
00:40:07 The CRO Pipeline
00:45:45 Training to Maintain While Working on Weaknesses
00:50:27 Phase Two of Training
00:55:60 Qualifying for Air Force after Training
00:58:28 Pete Gets Director Position in Ukraine
01:02:35 Long Journey to Bring Pete Back Home
01:03:37 The OTS Pipeline
01:10:51 What is Alex Potter Doing Now
01:11:42 Mountain Guiding Professionals
01:13:25 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:15:29 Outro
Mauri DiMeo is an Infantry officer in the US Army currently serving as an Assistant Professor of Military Science (APMS) at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). He attended Ranger, Airborne, SFAS, the SFQC, and the Austrian High Alpine School. Mauri was a platoon leader in the 4th Infantry Division and Rifle Company Commander in the 10th Mountain Division.
His career took a turn in the final Robin Sage stage of the SF Q course, which we discuss early in our conversation. The lessons he learned there are important for any officer going through the SF qualification process.
Outside of the military, Mauri founded Tactical Alpinism in 2022 with the mission to expand the capability of individuals to go bigger in the mountains by teaching mountain navigation and planning best practices. Enabling people to go bigger in the mountains expands the military’s capability in this environment by focusing on the expertise of the individual within mountain and arctic units. He professionally guides in the mountains in the ski, rock, and alpine disciplines.
His mountain experience includes two decades of climbing across much of the world and multiple ski-based ascents and descents, including Mount Shasta, Mount Rainier, and Denali, all by multiple routes. His civilian mountain certifications include AIARE Avalanche Professional Level 2, AIARE Avalanche Instructor, AMGA Assistant Ski Guide, and AMGA Assistant Rock Guide.
More about Mauri:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tacticalalpinism/
Timestamps:
00:00:23 Introduction to Mauri DiMeo
00:01:49 Mauri DiMeo’s Career
00:03:20 Final Year at West Point
00:04:26 Preparing for the Course
00:05:32 Junior West Point Cadet
00:08:45 Doing Too Much
00:10:54 10th Mountain Warfare Training
00:15:56 Ready in a Month
00:18:13 Conventional Units in Cold Environments
00:21:48 The Gap Between What Soldiers Are Taught and Tying Knots
00:26:09 Practicing Skills Where They Matter
00:28:20 Tactical Avalanche Education
00:32:13 Avalanche Bell Curve Management
00:36:20 Speed is Safety
00:42:00 Time Recommended to Build Aerobic Capacity
00:46:50 Balancing Volume Training
00:51:03 Zone 2 Running vs Rucking
00:55:34 Getting the Body to Do What It’s Meant to Do
00:58:48 Effective Mental Frameworks in the Mountains
01:02:27 Filling Gaps in Military Training
01:05:34 Tactical Core Skills for Operating in the Snowy Mountains
01:10:25 What Does Mauri DiMeo Do with Tactical Alpinism?
01:12:20 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:14:44 Outro
Anthony ‘Harry’ Moffitt retired from the Australian Defence Force after almost 30 years, most of which was spent with Australia’s Special Air Service (SAS) Regiment as a Team Commander and Team Specialist.
He completed 11 active service deployments and was wounded in action in 2008. He completed his time with the SAS as their Human Performance Manager.
Harry is a registered psychologist and runs a human performance consultancy called Stotan Group, which works with sports teams, the military, and the industry. He is also a Director at the Mission Critical Team Institute and founded the Wanderers Education Program, a multi-million dollar not-for-profit that prepares soldiers for transition.
He recently published his memoir Eleven Bats, a book about his military service and his love of cricket.
Harry has been married to Danielle for 27 years and has two children. He values integrity, humor, and bricolage.
More about Harry:
Stotan Group: https://stotangroup.com.au/
Eleven Bats: https://www.booktopia.com.au/eleven-bats-anthony-harry-moffitt/book/9781760877842.html
SAS Wanderer's Education Program: https://www.sasresourcesfund.org.au/about-the-fund/wanderers-education-program
LBW Trust / National Backyard Cricket: https://lbwtrust.com.au/
The Externals (Harry's band): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWSYUvRoa8Q
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harrymoffitt353/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Harry Moffitt
00:01:22 Career Overview
00:04:28 Human Performance and Nuance in SAS Selection
00:06:16 Success in Selection
00:09:45 Being In Love With The Process
00:13:49 Building a Nest: The Ways We Quit
00:14:51 The Challenge Beyond Selection
00:17:56 Self Doubt: Questioning Your Sense of Belonging
00:24:55 Moving On From “You Suck. Suck Less.”
00:29:05 Accessing for Integrity
00:31:06 Leadership, Character, & Stress
00:35:04 Sponsor Note: Building The Elite
00:35:58 Protecting Us From Ourselves
00:40:21 Special Operations in Civilian Life: Which Concepts Work? Which Don’t?
00:45:51 The Hallmarks of Camaraderie
00:50:31 Playing ‘Company’
00:53:17 The Cricket Bats
00:58:30 Harry Moffitt’s Next Book
01:01:59 Philosophy: Wonder, Intuition, & Imagination
01:05:29 Clarifying Values: Your Personal North Star
01:11:16 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:11:50 Outro
Josh Bridges is a former Navy SEAL, with multiple deployments as a member of SEAL Team 3.
He’s a competitive CrossFit athlete and has competed in the CrossFit games six times, placing second in the world in 2011.
Josh left the Navy to spend more time with his family, and he is now a high-performance coach and entrepreneur.
More about Josh:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgesj3/
Website: Josh-bridges.com
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Josh Bridges
00:00:54 Josh Bridges’ Career
00:01:54 The Benefits of Wrestling & a Good Coach
00:05:07 BUD/S, Wrestling, & San Diego Beaches
00:06:42 The ‘Crappy Job’ Experience
00:10:54 Sponsor Note: Building the Elite
00:11:34 Who excels & What Do They Have In Common?
00:13:21 How to Look Past The Rules & Find The Principles
00:15:03 There is No One Theme in BUD/S
00:18:31 Developing Camaraderie in BUD/S
00:19:30 Getting Into CrossFit
00:22:05 The Less Attached, The More Focused You’ll Be
00:24:08 Getting Back Into CrossFit
00:26:29 CrossFit Worlds (The CrossFit Games)
00:29:25 Teaching Others How to Train
00:32:50 The Evolution of CrossFit
00:35:22 Common Mistakes in Preparation
00:37:31 How to Push The Pace While Remote Coaching
00:41:09 The Physiological Limit
00:46:40 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
00:49:25 Outro
Ryan Wilson completed a long and challenging career in the Australian Army spanning 18 years, primarily in the Special Air Service Regiment, where he gained extensive experience leading teams in highly complex and uncertain environments on multiple combat tours.
During his time in the special forces, Ryan experienced many life-changing and challenging situations that sparked his interest in resilience, high performance, and operational management. Following his military career, Ryan commenced his journey into the whiskey industry, starting in 2020 as Business Development Manager for Whipper Snapper Distillery, and is now the General Manager overseeing the entire operation.
Ryan is active in the veteran support space. He is on the Board of Directors for the Veteran employment non-profit Working Spirit and is the WA manager for the veteran charity Wandering Warriors. He has recently founded a new charity called Working Paws Australia, which aims to raise money and provide financial assistance for medical bills and other areas associated with retired military and police working dogs.
He holds a BA in Politics and International Studies from Murdoch University and a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Western Australia. He is also a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Course.
Ryan spent much of his career living and working throughout Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, and is fluent in Bahasa Indonesian.
More about Ryan:
You can learn more about Ryan and the charities he’s involved with at his Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanwilson_1984/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Ryan Wilson
00:01:55 Career Overview
00:04:16 SAS Selection: What makes people quit?
00:07:32 Mental Preparation: How to Keep Going and Stay Out of Your Head
00:10:40 Keeping An Internal Compass
00:13:40 Segmenting: A Thousand Manageable Steps, One At A Time
00:15:56 Stories of Selection & Low Points
00:19:13 What Are My Odds of Making It
00:22:20 End of Selection: Three Sentences and You're On Your Way Home
00:24:08 The Sword in the Stone Mentality
00:27:21 Selection Starts When the Stress Sets In
00:28:46 Sponsor Note: Mindfulness in Training App
00:31:32 Rationale for Snapping & Trainability
00:36:04 The Ability to Deal With Failure & Setbacks
00:39:30 How Powerful Nutrition Is & Can Be
00:43:23 Foundation for Metabolic Flexibility
00:45:32 Team Dynamics in Selection: Knowing When to Follow & When to Lead
00:47:21 Building Trust and Rapport With a New Group
00:50:32 Career Progression After Selection
00:54:06 Work/Life Balance Compared to the Army
00:58:23 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:01:39 Outro
Daniel Allen is a doctor of clinical psychology and a strength and conditioning coach specializing in preparing candidates for military and special operations service in New Zealand.
He spent 6 years as a medic in the NZ Army before leaving to fulfill a dream to compete as a professional Muay Thai and MMA athlete and embark on a decade-long formal training in clinical psychology.
He has worked with people ranging from Olympians, professional and world-class athletes, to beginners starting out for the first time to successful New Zealand SAS candidates.
Dan’s wide-ranging academic background spans undergraduate study in Health Science, Exercise Science, master’s and doctoral psychology programs, and much to his wife’s dismay, he is currently in a 2-year neuropsychology program.
Dan’s doctoral research focused on factors that reduced PTSD and increased flourishing among military personnel in the years following deployment, including nutrition, sleep, exercise, social support, and leadership support.
His psychology background is similarly wide-ranging, including working as a high-school counselor, in a drugs and addiction service and, more recently, in a private psychology service.
Dan is passionate about understanding the relationship between nutrition, psychology, and performance and how these things facilitate resilience.
You can learn more about Dan at his website, drdancoach.com/ or on Instagram at @drdancoaching
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Daniel Allen
00:01:46 Sidequest to Be Professional Muay Thai Fighter
00:06:40 Training in High-Level Gyms Around the World
00:09:15 How Did Daniel Allen’s Training Impact How He Coaches?
00:11:39 How to Separate Pain from Suffering
00:14:02 Exercise Science and Psychology Degrees
00:14:59 New Zealand SAS
00:17:49 What Would Daniel Change About How He Coached in the Past?
00:21:09 How to Balance Being Good at Running and Rucking
00:24:05 Predictors of Success
00:26:58 Most Common Mistakes in Prep
00:29:31 Test Within a Training Cycle
00:31:53 Fundamental Skills to Develop People’s Abilities
00:34:04 Sponsor Note on Segmenting
00:34:28 Questioning Your Sense of Belonging
00:41:02 Common Success Factors from Olympic Athletes to SAS Operators
00:45:21 Cognitive Flexibility and Growth Mindset
00:47:45 Operational Longevity
00:52:33 Limiting Factors During a Course
00:54:04 Candidates with Cushie Backgrounds
00:57:43 Gaining Awareness of the Landscape of Your Mind
00:59:43 SAS Candidates Do’s and Don’ts
01:02:31 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:05:29 Outro
One of the most common training questions we answer, particularly in the winter when people’s kids are going back to school and concocting new diseases, is about training when sick.
While the answer is obvious if you’re bedridden or can barely feed yourself (Do not work out), how you manage yourself from when you begin to feel symptoms to when you’re back to 100% will make a big difference in your rate of recovery.
This episode covers what to do and not do when you're sick, how to transition back to full-intensity training, and factors that speed recovery and influence your propensity to illness.
You may want to refer back to portions of this episode so we have it published in written format on our website, broken down by sections.
You can read it here: https://www.buildingtheelite.com/training-when-sick/
Scott Ryder served for 22 years with the Australian Army, including 16 years as an operator with the 2nd Commando Regiment. He served in East Timor and multiple tours of Afghanistan and Iraq. He holds numerous commendations and a Masters of Business, and he works in veteran charities to improve the life of veterans and their families. He’s the author of the book Forged in Fire: An Australian Commando's Story of Life and Death on the Frontline, available at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and almost any other major retailer.
Scott’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scott_ryder_zero79/
Scott’s Linktree
Forged In Fire on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3B9TLFG
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Scott Ryder
00:02:01 Time in Australia and the Military
00:03:23 Commando Selection
00:04:47 Having a Smaller Build in Selection
00:07:19 How Long Should Training Be?
00:10:37 Childhood Adversity Gives You Coping Skills
00:15:19 Functional Fitness and Training
00:20:19 No Resilience to Sleep Deprivation
00:21:32 Purpose and Performance
00:27:11 Sponsor Note: Train to Perform Well in Stressful Situations
00:30:47 Physical Fatigue Gages Where You Are Mentally and Physically
00:33:30 When You Don’t Remember Why You Signed Up
00:35:27 Scott Ryder’s Most Challenging Moments in Selection
00:37:39 Most Common Mistakes in Preparing for Selection
00:42:06 Don’t Talk to the Quitters
00:47:25 Learning Land Navigation
00:49:40 Common Threads of Successful Candidates
00:51:41 Once the Physical Playing Field is Leveled
00:54:27 Teamwork and Social Interactions
00:57:45 Scott Ryder’s Book
00:59:38 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:00:18 Outro
Chris Frueh, PhD is a professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii. He has over thirty years of professional experience working with military veterans, servicemembers, special operators, private defense contractors, and firefighters; and has conducted clinical trials, epidemiology, historical, and neuroscience research. He was previously a professor of psychiatry at Medical University of South Carolina and Baylor College of Medicine.
He has co-authored over 325 scientific publications and is the author of Operator Syndrome, which is available on Amazon.
Website: chrisfrueh.com
Operator Syndrome on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3ZuZfTx
Timestamps:00:00:23 Introduction to Chris Frueh
00:00:59 Rundown of Chris Frueh’s Career
00:04:42 What is Operator Syndrome?
00:15:48 The Differences Between PTSD and Operator Syndrome
00:17:29 Types of Traumatic Brain Injury
00:22:14 TAL Proteins and Impact Trauma
00:25:56 Interventions and Treatments
00:30:13 Sponsor Note: Sleep Optimization Course
00:34:33 Nutritional Interventions
00:36:22 Fasting to Manage TBI
00:39:05 Different Stages of an Operator and TBI
00:43:56 Staying on Top of Hormones
00:48:37 Getting Treatment Outside of the VA
00:51:07 Finding Credible Help
00:54:12 Operator Syndrome Foundation
00:55:55 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
00:58:12 Outro
Nico Seedsman spent 13 years in the Australian military, first as an electrical engineer in the Navy, then with a Recon unit in the Army, before spending his final eight years in the SAS.
Nico left the military after suffering catastrophic multi-system health issues and eventually brought himself back to health through a combination of stem cell therapy, indigenous medicine, and an intensive focus on recovery.
Nico is now an actor who has made appearances on Apple TV and Paramount networks, a high-performance coach, the CEO and founder of Odin Stem Cells, and the founder of a veterans philanthropy organization called Warrior Refit.
Learn more about Nico: https://www.instagram.com/niclonewolf/
How to prepare for Australian SAS/Commando Selection:
https://www.buildingtheelite.com/australian-sasr-selection-process-sfet-training/
Building the Elite Coaching App:
https://www.buildingtheelite.com/sof-training-app
Timestamps:00:00:21 Introduction to Nico Seedsman
00:01:02 Nico Seedsman Career Overview
00:06:50 Spiraling Health
00:10:40 Regenerative Medicines
00:13:01 SASR (SAS) Selection
00:16:31 Fighting the Internal Battle In Your Head
00:26:21 Prepping for Selection
00:33:07 The Social Dynamic During Selection
00:38:40 Fitness Level vs. Mentality/Personality
00:44:14 The Way You Train & Effect On Health
00:46:38 One-Percenters
00:49:11 Sponsor Note: High Emotional Stability & High Conscientiousness
00:53:48 Best & Worst Advice You’ve Ever Gotten
00:54:41 Wrap Up
Many types of fear are learned responses based on memories from previous experiences. There are, of course, also innate fears. Like other animals, we’re naturally prone to be highly vigilant the first time we’re exposed to things like heights, deep water, snakes, and spiders. But, for most things in life, fear is not a primal instinct but a learned association.
These learned associations can come from almost anything, from old injuries to bad experiences or past failures, including fear responses we might not even be consciously aware of.
While learned fear responses are normal and sometimes helpful, they can also hinder performance if we can’t move past them. A strong learned fear response leads to a disproportionately strong stress response, amplifies anxiety, and makes your emotions run rampant. This makes you more prone to burnout and reduces resilience. In challenging times, when one difficulty bleeds into the next, these responses can make the difference between burnout and growth.
To recalibrate these fear responses, we have to look at how they’re created, the predictions our brains make based on the environmental cues around us, and the way we mentally and emotionally process those moments.
As military theorists put it, we have to do the work “left of bang” rather than repeatedly trying to deal with the symptoms after the fear response has taken over.
Lt. Col. Matthew Perry is an active-duty Marine with over 16 years of experience in the infantry and reconnaissance community. He has served in all four Marine Divisions and deployed throughout the Pacific and in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
As an infantry officer, he served in the 7th Marines as a rifle platoon and 81mm Mortar Platoon Commander, with the 2nd Marine Division as an infantry Battalion Executive Officer and as the operations officer at the 2nd Marine Regiment.
As a Reconnaissance officer, he served as a Force Platoon Commander and Force Company Commander with 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion and as the Operations Officer at 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion.
His civilian education includes an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University and a graduate degree from Syracuse University. He is a graduate of the Marine Corps Infantry Officer and Basic Reconnaissance courses and Army Ranger School.
Instagram: www.instagram.com/redstick6/
Timestamps:00:00:21 Introduction to Matthew Perry
00:01:22 Matthew Perry’s Career & Educational Background
00:05:12 Writing & Social Media
00:07:47 Reading List & Recommended Resources for Leadership
00:09:38 Vietnam
00:11:30 Practical Leadership Experience - Becoming a Better Leader
00:15:11 Important Mistakes & Valuable Lessons
00:23:16 Performance & Potential
00:27:10 Incentivizing Your Team
00:32:52 Basic Reconnaissance Course (BRC) & Recon Qualification
00:38:06 Haircuts, Sideburns, and Shaving
00:43:28 How to Scale Your Leadership
00:50:40 The Role of Health and Physical Fitness in Leadership
01:00:45 Wrap Up
Tristan Irwin is a nine-year veteran of the United States Army, where she served as a special operations Civil Affairs Officer. As a CA Team Chief, she led a four-person team in Moldova, conducting community-level development assistance to strengthen Moldova’s resilience and support its partnership with the US.
She graduated from Yale University with a dual Master of Forestry and Public Policy degree. In 2012, she graduated from the United States Military Academy with a bachelor's degree in International Relations and another in German.
Tristan serves as Secretary of the Board of Directors for The Valkyrie Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on optimizing health and human performance for military women through advocacy, research, education, and physical training programming.
https://www.thevalkyrieproject.org/
Timestamps:
00:00:25 Intro to Tristan Irwin
00:01:12 Tristan Irwin's Career
00:01:48 Why is the U.S. Interested in Moldova?
00:02:53 What Does a Mission in Moldova Look Like?
00:04:49 What Skills Are Being Taught on Missions in Moldova?
00:05:32 Missions That Stand Out in Tristan's Memory
00:07:05 Sustainability of What's Implemented on Missions
00:08:46 How to Get the Locals to Commit to Outreach
00:11:08 Lifestyle in an Eastern Bloc Village
00;13:04 Establishing a Cleaning Routine to Keep Your Food Safe
00:14:01 Civil Affairs Selection/Recruitment Process
00:15:53 What Kinds of Cognitive Testing Occurs?
00:17:09 What is the Turnout in Selection
00:17:57 How to Receive an NTR (Not-to-Return)
00:19:17 Qualification Process After Selection
00:20:43 Languages Spoken in Moldova
00:21:49 Differentiating Factor When You’re on the Cusp of Being Selected
00:23:36 Physical Prep Before and After Selection
00:26:38 Pack Weight for the 12 Mile Run
00:27:01 Arbitrary Fitness Standards for the Military
00:34:22 Military Morale Issues
00:36:57 How the Measurement of Something Determines its Success Criteria
00:40:26 Tristan’s Valkyrie Project Story
00:41:28 How Do You Determine Your Own Successfulness?
00:43:27 What Specific Policies Does Tristan Hopes Will Change in the Military?
00:44:52 How Women Can Get Involved with Valkyrie
00:46:26 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
00:48:01 Outro
Kevin Smith, Founder of Terminator Training Method (TTM), specializes in virtual fitness coaching tailored for those prepping for Special Operations Forces (SOF) selection courses, especially SFAS.
Born and raised in Maine, Kevin's dedication to hard work started as a young multi-sport athlete, inspired by his father and later refined through over a decade in the Army Special Forces as a Green Beret medic. He served on a military freefall team for 3.5 years at 10th SFG (A) and closed out his career on a dive/maritime team at 3rd SFG (A).
During his time in, he completed multiple deployments and earned qualifications, including Ranger School, Advanced Land Navigation (SMU Selection), Dive Medical Technician, Static Line Jumpmaster, and the Special Forces Intelligence Sergeant Course. After 12 years of training for and serving as a Green Beret, he transitioned to a career in fitness coaching, specializing in 1:1 coaching, team coaching, and content creation.
Kevin’s approach to coaching is rooted in simplicity, efficiency, and personalization, emphasizing smart exercise selection, intentional progression, and flexibility. He believes in training that builds resilience without unnecessary complexity, prioritizing fundamentals over fads and ensuring each athlete's program uniquely suits their goals.
His mission with TTM is to provide clear, science-backed guidance that empowers tactical athletes to exceed fitness standards and develop the mental toughness needed for SOF selection while avoiding the burnout and frustration he once faced. Through TTM’s virtual coaching, podcast, and content, Kevin aims to reshape the tactical fitness space with no-nonsense, results-oriented coaching.
More about Kevin:
Website: Terminatortraining.com
Podcast: The Terminator Training Show
Youtube: Terminator Training Method
IG: Terminator-training
Articles referenced in the show:
Mental Fortitude Prompts (Most Popular);
Dealing With Pre-Selection Doubt;
Crushing Team Week (Character Development);
All Articles:
TTM website;
Substack
Timestamps:00:00:21 Introduction to Kevin Smith
00:02:07 ‘How did you get into physical training…?’
00:07:16 College and Joining The Army
00:13:27 Special Operations Preparation and Conditioning Course & Selection
00:17:12 Helping Clients with Imposter Syndrome and Segmenting
00:21:06 Sponsor Note: Building The Elite
00:21:30 Segmenting (Continued)
00:23:51 Self-Induced Stress
00:26:57 Managing Self-Induced Stress
00:36:16 18D School
00:41:35 Advice for 18D
00:45:37 After the Q Course
00:49:15 Delta Force
00:51:36 Camp Delhi
00:54:01 Getting Out of The Army
00:56:45 Ranger School
01:01:11 Advice for Ranger School
01:05:46 Learning with No Ego
01:08:26 Coaching and Clearing Up Misinformation
01:14:07 Nutrition
01:19:33 Mindset and Character Trait Development
01:27:46 Final Questions
01:31:08 Outro
Alex Fichtler is a 9-year Navy SEAL combat veteran with operational experience in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa. He is a Naval Special Warfare Sniper, Assaulter, Intel Specialist, and Communications Specialist and served as Troop Lead Sniper during his time with SEAL Team 7.
Alex led the West Coast NSW Close Quarters Battle (CQB) training cell, providing thousands of active duty SEALs with countless hours of high-risk training and instruction on CQB, target assaults, and internal and external breaching.
During his time in the civilian sector, Alex has transferred his knowledge of high performance into the service of others through personal and team coaching. He and his girlfriend, Jenna Bauer, own Highground Performance, where they teach fitness and mindset development alongside the nutrition and wellness habits that bring elite performance to life. Alex also works in the physical security sector, managing security professionals responsible for high-value asset and location protection.
Alex is a father of three, a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, an entrepreneur, and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership. He also has his civilian EMT certification and is completing his NASM CPT certification.
More about Alex:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearded_beast8/
Linktree
Timestamps:00:00:32 Methods to Manage Stress Response
00:05:14 Preferred Breathing Technique
00:07:36 The Mentality of a Good CQB Shooter
00:09:41 Best Training Frequency for a Professional
00:11:35 Common Mistakes in the Shoot House
00:14:02 Three Main Objectives in CQC to Get Right
00:19:36 CQC High Port vs Low Port
00:22:36 Process for Integrating New Protocols
00:31:33 Sponsor Note: Fuel My Day Foods
00:32:13 How to Prepare for a CQB Course if You’re New to Handling Weapons
00:38:31 Other Things to Practice for a CQB Course
00:43:10 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
00:46:37 Outro
Alex Fichtler is a 9-year Navy SEAL combat veteran with operational experience in Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Africa. He is a Naval Special Warfare Sniper, Assaulter, Intel Specialist, and Communications Specialist and served as Troop Lead Sniper during his time with SEAL Team 7.
Alex led the West Coast NSW Close Quarters Battle (CQB) training cell, providing thousands of active duty SEALs with countless hours of high-risk training and instruction on CQB, target assaults, and internal and external breaching.
During his time in the civilian sector, Alex has transferred his knowledge of high performance into the service of others through personal and team coaching. He and his girlfriend, Jenna Bauer, own Highground Performance, where they teach fitness and mindset development alongside the nutrition and wellness habits that bring elite performance to life. Alex also works in the physical security sector, managing security professionals responsible for high-value asset and location protection.
Alex is a father of three, a blue belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, an entrepreneur, and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership. He also has his civilian EMT certification and is completing his NASM CPT certification.
More about Alex:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bearded_beast8/
Linktree
Timestamps:00:00:22 Introduction to Alex Fichtler
00:01:40 Career in the Seal Teams
00:09:40 Somalia Operation
00:10:36 OTB - Over the Beach
00:11:55 Fire Support from the Water
00:15:14 The Stupid Never Stops
00:16:27 Keeping Motivation When You Feel You Don’t Belong
00:23:08 Replacing Negative Self-Talk with Positivity
00:28:41 Using Humor to Uplift Yourself and Others
00:30:30 Sponsor note: Fuel My Day Foods
00:31:10 Transition Into Language School
00:35:01 Failing Out of Language School
00:36:39 Going Back to Montana
00:40:30 Working with Civilians Without a Routine
00:43:39 The Six Pillars
00:47:50 Building a Healthy Community for Men
00:51:35 An Agendaless Time
00:54:57 Recreating the Unit’s PT
00:57:10 Outro
Senior Chief Candace Esquivel joined the Navy in 2005 as a cryptologic technician with advanced training in signals exploitation systems. From there, she went to the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, where she worked as a SIGINT Geospatial Analyst.
At Dev Gru, she was selected as an Intelligence Detachment Leading Chief Petty Officer (LCPO) for Tactical Evaluation and Development Squadron THREE, where she deployed and served as a Director of Intelligence (J2) for two rotations in the CENTCOM AOR supporting overseas contingency operations.
She then screened for and was selectedfor duty at the Joint Cyber Operations Group, where she was a Troop Senior Enlisted Leader before she was selected as the Command Senior Enlisted Leader to establish North Squadron, an O5 operational squadron.
In 2021, Senior Chief Esquivel was selected as a DoD Congressional Fellow for Representative Seth Moulton. While serving in the House of Representatives, she advised the Congressman on technical policy, cyber operations and talent management, and information operations across the DoD.
Senior Chief Esquivel holds a bachelor’s degree in management studies and is pursuing her master’s in management interdisciplinary studies. Currently, she is a policy analyst in the Office of Culture and Force Resilience’s Office of Women’s Policy, where she works to develop and implement policies involving Navy servicewomen in coordination with the higher authorities in the DoD, like the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Chief of Naval Personnel.
More about Candace:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candace-esquivel-a41669270/
The Valkyrie Project: https://www.thevalkyrieproject.org/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Introduction to Senior Chief Candace Esquivel
00:01:55 Walkthrough of Candace Esquival’s Career
00:06:01 Role as Signals Analyst and J2
00:07:36 What Type of Signals Are Analyzed?
00:08:27 How Vulnerable Are Smart Devices?
00:12:21 Protecting Yourself from Data Tracking
00:14:59 Protecting Yourself on Social Media
00:17:20 Hilarious Failed Attempts of Espionage
00:18:44 Selection Process for DEVGRU and JCOG
00:25:22 What Does it Mean to Be a Congressional Fellow?
00:28:57 Which Policies Does Candace Esquivel Push For?
00:30:54 What Does the Office of Culture and Force Resilience Do?
00:34:30 Sponsor Note: Fuelmydayfoods.com
00:35:11 Changes for Women in the DoD Communities
00:40:07 Progress in Fertility Services
00:47:29 Possible Toxins During Deployment
00:53:52 New Policies for Women
00:58:20 CFL Training
01:01:37 Adaptable Training and Modifications for Health and Recovery
01:03:21 Best and Worst Advice Received
01:07:00 Outro
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We all must pay for our food.
We can't choose not to pay; we only decide how.
We can pay with our time.
We can pay with our money.
Or, we can pay with our health.
You can invest time to learn how nutrition works and how to cook good meals, and then do the shopping, prep, cooking, storage, and cleanup. With practice, this all becomes easier and more efficient. The longer you go without investing your time, the harder it is to start and the more constrained you will be.
You can pay for somebody else's expertise and have them tell you what to eat. You can pay for a meal delivery service or expensive restaurant meals.
You can save time and money in the short term by not investing in nutrition knowledge, never learning to cook, and buying cheap convenience foods. The costs of following this last strategy take years to accumulate and manifest. The harm it does to gut health, metabolism, cognitive function, and every other process in your body may remain invisible for a long time. It might even seem like a free ride in your teens and early twenties. But eventually, you will pay for it.
This is why the food we eat is so important.
Eating well is hard. And it’s hard for everyone, whether you’re a young athlete trying to juggle training and school, a business traveler trying to stay healthy while living in hotels and airports, or a parent trying to keep yourself and your child alive with minimal sleep and no spare time. It can be even more challenging for military personnel deployed to locations with very few resources.
In this episode, we discuss how to put together a healthy meal on the go, and the science behind how that works, and how it affects our bodies.
Learn more: www.fuelmydayfoods.com
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The idea that no one gets left behind is such a common phrase associated with the special operations community that it’s almost become a cliche. We can hear and say it without thinking about what it means.
But it’s a critical concept in military operations, particularly in the SOF community, where people often work in small groups behind enemy lines doing dangerous things.
It’s not enough to carry your own weight. That’s just the baseline, the entry stakes. You also must repeatedly demonstrate that you’re willing and able to carry the weight of one of your teammates when the situation calls for it. It’s crucial to be strong as an individual, but you must also be a strong part of the team. Without both, you don’t have the raw material the SOF community needs.
This isn’t just a physical capacity, tested by carrying your teammates on your shoulders at the most inconvenient times. It’s a general attitude expressed in countless ways, big and small, physical and otherwise.
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Andrew is a strength and conditioning coach, business owner, national team powerlifter, and veteran with a tactical operations and physical training background.
As a former Maritime Assault Operator in the U.S. Coast Guard’s Deployable Specialized Forces, Andrew has firsthand experience in high-stakes situations, including anti-terrorism operations, drug and human smuggling interdiction, anti-piracy operations, and executive/dignitary protection.
He has dedicated himself to coaching and guiding other athletes to set state records and achieve medal-winning performances. He is currently the lead strength and conditioning coach at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and he has dedicated his career to helping individuals develop physical and mental resilience.
More about Andrew:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-siepka-cscs-9381461b7/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/siepka_ludus_/
Timestamps:00:00:22 Intro to Andrew Siepka
00:01:09 About Andrew’s Career
00:01:51 Was Viral Video of "Submarine Attack at Gunpoint" Andrew’s Unit?
00:03:19 What Led Andrew from Gunner’s Mate to MSST?
00:13:19 Outsourcing Knowledge from Multiple Units
00:14:38 Having Self-Doubt in Selection Courses
00:18:04 Preparing Endlessly vs. Winging It
00:21:27 Operational Life in the Unit
00:26:26 What Does It Mean to Be “An Earner”?
00:27:33 An Example of Andrew Failing Forward
00:32:08 Sponsor Note: Mentorship Course
00:32:30 Transition from Coastguard to Coach
00:41:36 What New Recruits Need to Start and Stop Doing
00:44:37 How Does Andrew’s Background in Powerlifting Affect His Coaching Method?
00:46:40 Andrew’s Career in Powerlifting
00:49:21 How to Powerlift for Decades Without Injury
00:52:13 Different Concepts of Training for Recon Marines
00:54:52 Banded Resistance Training
00:56:03 Things to Address to Handle Heavy Training
01:00:41 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:02:01 Outro
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Tiffany Myrick-Woodley served two decades in the US Army, and played an essential role in the integration of women into the Army’s Combat Arms occupations. She served as a member of Cultural Support Team – Two (CST-2), enabling the 75th Ranger Regiment and Naval Special Warfare Development Group by engaging the Afghan female and adolescent populations prior to the lift of the Combat Exclusion Policy.
She was also selected to observe and advise on the implementation of standards during gender integration of Ranger School, the Army’s premier leadership course.
Over the span of her military service, Tiffany discovered that real change comes through policy and education. This prompted her to leave the military to influence policy on a broader scale while continuing to provide inspiration, mentorship, and advocacy to future generations. Her ideals prompted her to accept a role as a board member for the Valkyrie Project, a nonprofit organization devoted to the advocacy and support of female service members.
More about Tiffany:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-m-b477671b6/
The Valkyrie Project: https://www.thevalkyrieproject.org/
Timestamps:00:00:22 Introduction to Tiffany Myrick
00:01:28 Tiffany’s Roles in the Military
00:03:35 Being On the Other Side of Basic Training
00:05:18 One Station Unit Training
00:06:51 What Did Tiffany Learn from Being a Drill Sergeant?
00:10:03 The Cultural Support Team
00:11:14 Selection Course for Cultural Support Team
00:12:52 The White Board System
00:13:15 Being a Student Versus Being Qualified to Do the Job
00:14:54 Ranger Physical Assessment
00:15:45 Working Closely with the Same Partner for an Entire Mission
00:16:48 Room for One Tactically
00:17:38 What Does the Mission Objective Look Like?
00:20:13 Deciding What Looks Important on a Mission
00:20:40 Interacting with the Local Populous
00:22:43 Main Security Concerns on Assignment
00:23:46 Did Tiffany Know Ashley?
00:24:39 Particular Missions That Stood Out to Tiffany
00:29:23 Moments Where Everyone Is Suffering
00:31:11 Wearing NODs (Night Observation Devices)
00:32:01 Lifting the Combat Exclusion Policy
00:32:59 Sponsor Note: Coaching Mentorship Course
00:33:21 Advisory Role to Integrate Women into Ranger School
00:35:25 Identifying Common Characteristics Among Graduates
00:36:00 What Did the Army Learn as Women Were Integrated?
00:38:33 The Gray Man, Middle of the Pack
00:40:46 Why Couldn’t Women Shave Their Heads Like the Men?
00:41:23 When did Tiffany Retire?
00:41:32 What Led Tiffany to the Valkyrie Project in 2023?
00:44:34 Advice for Women in SOF Pipeline
00:46:34 Similar Stories to “The Ranger on a Ridgeline Getting an I.V.”
00:49:21 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
00:50:59 Outro
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After working with thousands of clients over the last twenty years, we tend to see people make the same mistakes when struggling to work toward their goals. They tend to fall into one of four categories:
- Trying to do too many things.
- Their values and time & energy allotment are not in alignment.
- Spending time and energy struggling against the things they can’t change while not fully committing to what they can.
- Constantly changing goals.
Today, we will talk about the exercises and mental models we use to help our clients clarify what matters most so they can get unstuck and escape these traps. This isn’t a tome on why you should prioritize health or fitness or anything else. That’s precisely the point. Only you can decide the best way to spend the coin of your life. So, this episode aims to equip you with a few critical tools and mental models to get more clarity and make tough decisions.
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Kathleen Oswald is a Strength and Conditioning Specialist with a Master's in Exercise and Sport Science and is earning her Ph.D. in Cognition and Instruction. She works at Peterson Space Force Base and is the first human-performance professional with a cognitive performance background to work with Space Force Guardians.
Before that, Kathleen worked under the Cognitive Performance Specialist at the 10th Special Forces Group. By integrating tactical professionals into the design process of her exercises and workshops, she leveraged their expertise to optimize her coaching to help Special Forces operators improve their performance in some of the most challenging aspects of their jobs, such as CQB training.
Her Ph.D. work in Cognition and Instruction allows her to research optimal programming for cognitive performance, develop a cognitive performance program for the US Space Force, and improve her abilities to teach, coach, and mentor the human performance professionals who serve our nation’s military.
Aside from her work with the Special Forces and Space Force communities, Kathleen is also an ultramarathon runner, competing in races at 50k, 50-mile, 100k, and 100-mile distances. She is also a nationally qualified powerlifter.
You can get in touch with Kathleen and learn more about her work on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katoswald/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Kathleen Oswald
00:01:43 NSCA Tactical Annual Training Session
00:03:15 Cognitive Function and Cognitive Skills
00:04:24 Ensuring Skills Training Transfers to the Real World
00:06:22 Examples of Decision-Making Scenarios
00:08:06 Training for Selection Courses
00:10:07 Adding Incremental Difficulties During Training
00:11:39 Sponsor Note: Our Book, “Building the Elite” and Mentor Course
00:12:25 Training Via Stress vs. Skill Mastery
00:14:31 Assessing Technical Skills vs. Testing the Skills
00:17:45 Knowing When to Display Certain Attributes
00:18:52 Evaluating What Someone Is Made of
00:20:47 Concocting Tests for Perseverance
00:22:10 Performing with Severe Gastrointestinal Issues
00:25:28 Addressing Imposter Syndrome
00:28:25 Why Younger Generations May Struggle with Self-Regulation
00:31:16 Training in Silence
00:32:23 Being Perpetually Distracted
00:34:07 Evaluation in the Shoot House
00:39:35 Video Training Scenarios
00:41:16 Rapidly Presenting Critical Decisions with Perceptual Learning
00:44:23 Comparing Different Levels of Skill
00:47:15 Changes in Eye Movement as Skill Progresses
00:49:38 Emotional and Stress Regulation Assessments
00:53:04 Does Your Fear Response Help or Hurt Your Performance?
00:56:20 How Do You Determine What Foundational Training to Implement First?
01:00:31 Tech Gadgets for Cognitive Skills Training
01:03:49 Improving Cognitive Skills on Your Own
01:06:32 Best and Worst Advice Ever Received
01:09:26 Outro
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In this episode, we discuss the first mental skill we have all of our clients work on developing: mindfulness.
Mindfulness is the process of observing one's stream of consciousness or mental environment. It’s a form of attention in which one actively attends to one's internal and external experiences.
You might wonder why we focus on mindfulness first. It probably seems a bit abstract or silly when mental toughness, grit, or resilience are skills that special operators are known for.
But all of those are outcomes. They are collections of skills and capacities that you may or may not possess depending on your experiences. Instead of leaving it up to chance, we help people develop these skills, starting with the most fundamental and working up to the more complex.
Just like you need to walk before you can run, you need to know your mind before you can shape it.
The goal of a mindfulness practice is ultimately to experience life more clearly. The more skillful we become in untangling the difference between reality and our reaction to it, the more impact more complex mental skills will have.
By working on mindfulness, you’ll sharpen your capacity to be present and skillfully direct the spotlight of your attention. Additionally, you’ll glean daily insights into how your mind works in a variety of situations, including your internal dialogue, emotional responses to pain and fatigue, and what you tend to focus on before, during, and after challenging situations. This forms the basis that amplifies the impact of other mental skills that you’ll practice over time.
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John Spencer is one of the world’s leading experts on urban warfare.
He currently serves as the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute, codirects the Urban Warfare Project, and hosts the Urban Warfare Project Podcast at West Point.
In addition to personal experiences from 25 years as an infantry soldier and officer in the US Army, including urban battles in Iraq in 2003 and the Battle of Sadr City in 2008, he has spent over a decade researching, publishing, and lecturing on all facets of urban warfare.
In the last five years, he has conducted research in India, Israel, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Ukraine. He has served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy. He has also trained multiple militaries in urban operations. His research focuses on all military operations in dense urban areas, megacities, and urban and subterranean warfare.
In February 2022, Spencer wrote a guide, The Mini-Manual for the Urban Defender, for Ukrainian citizens on how to defend their cities. The manual was translated into Ukrainian and spread widely across Ukraine. It is now available in sixteen separate languages, with many other translations in the works.
In this episode, we’ll talk with John about the difficulties of urban warfare, his time in Ukraine, his recent trip into Gaza, and much more.
More about John:
Website: JohnSpencerOnline.com
X: https://x.com/SpencerGuard
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spencerguard
Timestamps:00:00:21 Intro to John Spencer
00:01:53 What is The Modern Warfare Institute?
00:03:56 Leading Academics Pushing Propaganda for Terrorist Organizations
00:05:29 Why is Urban Warfare so Hard?
00:09:21 The Battle of Stalingrad
00:10:50 Urban Legends/Myths about Modern Warfare
00:12:55 What’s Changed in Subterranean Warfare?
00:16:41 What is so Challenging About Subterranean Warfare?
00:21:25 Will People’s Perception of Russia Change?
00:25:40 General Sun-Tzu
00:26:10 Defeat Your Enemy Without Fighting
00:29:08 What Happens if Russia Wins the Propaganda War?
00:32:01 Gaza and Hamas
00:34:33 How Many Civilians are Killed in the Crossfire?
00:42:53 What if We Just Let Hamas Go?
00:48:04 Proxy Groups of Iran
00:50:12 Extreme Misogyny in Iran
00:53:15 The Spread of an Ideology
00:56:03 Eradicating Extremist Ideologies Efficiently
01:02:00 “Pay for Slay” Program
01:03:04 Independence of Gaza in 2005
01:04:00 Responsibilities of Israel for the Conditions in Gaza
01:05:11 Hamas Leadership Using Economic Oppression
01:07:55 Outro
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Meg Tucker began her career as an Army Kiowa Warrior pilot. After the Kiowa was removed from the Army inventory, Meg was assessed and selected for Army Special Operations as a Psychological Operations officer. She has served in several conventional, Joint, and SOF roles in South Korea, El Salvador, and Syria. She left military service as a Major in 2023.
In 2018, Meg founded The Valkyrie Project to fill the need for intuitive, woman-centric human performance training in the wake of the revocation of the Combat Exclusion Rule. Valkyrie is now a 501c3 nonprofit focused on the advancement of American servicewomen through research, education, and advocacy. Meg currently serves as the President of the Board of VP Inc. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Modern Languages from Winthrop University and a Master's of Science in Information Strategy and Political Warfare from the Naval Postgraduate School.
More about Meg:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meg-tucker-937493207/
More about The Valkyrie Project:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-valkyrie-project/
Website: http://thevalkyrieproject.org
Facebook: @valkyrieprojectus
Instagram: @valkyrieprojectus
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@valkyrieprojectus
Timestamps:00:00:22 Psy-Op Strategy in El Salvador
00:02:50 Is Kidnapping a Big Thing in El Salvador?
00:03:28 What is a Night Letter?
00:04:20 Helping the People of El Salvador Respond to Night Letters
00:05:58 What Languages Does Meg Tucker Speak?
00:08:13 Getting Away with Brazilian Portuguese in Portugal
00:11:18 Relearning Languages
00:12:23 Starting The Valkyrie Project in 2018
00:22:10 Body Armor Changes for Women
00:26:03 Current Progress on Improvements for Women’s Armor
00:28:07 What About MOLLE Packs?
00:31:36 The Skill of Packing a Rucksack
00:34:43 Ways of Testing SOF Candidates for More Balanced Athletes
00:37:05 The Valkyrie Project’s Military Women’s Symposium
00:39:41 Worst Advice Ever Received
00:41:54 Good Advice for Everyone in the Service
00:44:10 Outro
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Meg Tucker began her career as an Army Kiowa Warrior pilot. After the Kiowa was removed from the Army inventory, Meg was assessed and selected for Army Special Operations as a Psychological Operations officer. She has served in several conventional, Joint, and SOF roles in South Korea, El Salvador, and Syria. She left military service as a Major in 2023.
In 2018, Meg founded The Valkyrie Project to fill the need for intuitive, woman-centric human performance training in the wake of the revocation of the Combat Exclusion Rule. Valkyrie is now a 501c3 nonprofit focused on the advancement of American servicewomen through research, education, and advocacy. Meg currently serves as the President of the Board of VP Inc. She holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Modern Languages from Winthrop University and a Master's of Science in Information Strategy and Political Warfare from the Naval Postgraduate School.
More about Meg:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meg-tucker-937493207/
More about The Valkyrie Project:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-valkyrie-project/
Website: http://thevalkyrieproject.org
Facebook: @valkyrieprojectus
Instagram: @valkyrieprojectus
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@valkyrieprojectus
Timestamps:00:00:23 Intro to Meg Tucker
00:01:23 How Did Meg Become a Helicopter Pilot?
00:04:34 Do Trainees Get to Choose the Aircraft They Want?
00:09:27 How Easy Is It to Control a Helicopter?
00:11:07 Emergency Procedure if the Engine Stalls
00:13:07 Practicing Slow Crash Landing Skids
00:15:21 How Many People Travel on These Helicopters?
00:15:55 Who Does the Shooting?
00:16:49 Shooting is a Team Effort
00:18:45 Challenges Against Your Weapon in a Helicopter
00:20:26 How Do You Account for Wind While Aiming?
00:22:15 Where Does the .50 Cal Sit in the Helicopter?
00:22:30 Calibrating the .50 Cal Inside of a Helicopter
00:23:57 How Does a Hellfire Missile Work?
00:24:43 How Much Time Do You Spend with Your Co-Pilot?
00:27:24 From Pilot to Joining Psy-Ops
00:30:05 Sponsor Note: Our Book, “Building The Elite”
00:30:51 The SOF Recruitment Process and Making the System Work for You
00:33:07 Take Care for Yourself or the System Could Eat You
00:34:31 What are the Psy-Ops?
00:38:47 Digital Environments Used for Psy-Ops Support
00:41:33 Being Stationed in Syria
00:45:41 Being Stationed in El Salvador
00:49:58 Strategies to Overcome Corruption and Tribalism
00:50:55 Stark Contrasts Between Living Situations on Deployment
00:52:23 How Bad Was the Food Poisoning You Had?
00:53:08 Outro
Lt. Col. Tom Schueman served in Afghanistan for sixteen months, including the single bloodiest battle of the war in Afghanistan, as a platoon commander with the Third Battalion, Fifth Marines in Helmand Province. He redeployed to Afghanistan as a JTAC and advisor to the Afghan National Army while he was a member of First Reconnaissance Battalion.
Schueman went on to get his master's in English literature at Georgetown University and teach English literature at the United States Naval Academy.
In 2022, alongside his friend and Afghani interpreter, Zak, he published Always Faithful, a book about his time in Afghanistan and the effort to get Zak and his family to America before the Taliban could make good on their promise to kill them.
Thomas is still an active-duty Marine and the founder of the nonprofit Patrol Base Abbate, based in Montana. PB Abbate provides a space for veterans and service members to reconnect around shared interests.
More about Major Schueman:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kill.z0n3
Patrol Base Abbate: https://www.pbabbate.org/home-0
Always Faithful: https://amzn.to/3M6EI1n
Timestamps:00:00:22 Intro to Thomas Schueman
00:01:22 Overview of Thomas Schueman’s Career
00:05:25 Infantry Officer Course and Recon Selection
00:06:44 Why the Basic Reconnaissance Course Didn’t Work Out for Thomas
00:15:25 Sponsor Note: Buildingtheelite.com
00:15:53 On Which Deployment Did Thomas Meet Zack?
00:17:56 Marines Lost in Thomas’s Unit
00:18:44 More Deaths in Infantry Than Other Sections of Military
00:24:49 Working With Zack
00:27:15 Thomas’s Mindset After 100 Firefights in 100 Days
00:42:19 What is Patrol Base Abbate?
00:52:53 Where is PB Abbate in Montana?
00:53:53 How is PB Abbate Funded?
00:56:36 Getting Zack Out Before the Fall of Kabul
01:06:53 Outro
In this episode, we explore how post-WWII Air Force pilots faced numerous crashes, not due to mechanical failures or pilot errors, but because of a fundamental flaw in cockpit design based on the "average" pilot.
This led to Lieutenant Gilbert Daniels's findings, who discovered that designing for the "average person" did not fit anyone. This discovery led to a revolutionary change in how cockpits were built.
The 'average person' principle, as demonstrated in the aviation industry, has far-reaching implications. It illustrates why one-size-fits-all solutions fail in areas like SOF training, where individual variability is crucial. Understanding and accounting for individual differences can significantly enhance outcomes, from aviation safety to special operations selection.
Jeff Depatie is a former sniper with Canada’s tier-one unit, JTF-2. He has vast experience in tactical shooting, elite team selection, and human optimization. He was part of the sniper team holding the world record for the longest confirmed kill at 3.5 km and has trained incoming tier-1 operators in shooting and tactics.
After his military career, Jeff turned his focus to addressing PTSD and transforming adversity into growth. He is producing a documentary, “Dark Night of Our Soul,” about post-traumatic growth and how life’s challenges can lead to personal development.
He co-founded The Special Forces Experience (SFE), an organization dedicated to facilitating profound personal transformations through meticulously designed challenges and experiences. As the Chief Course Architect of SFE, Jeff has been instrumental in creating programs like “The Process,” which pushes participants to their physical, mental, and emotional limits to foster growth and resilience.
In this episode, we’ll discuss Jeff’s ideas on managing life’s difficulties, a concept he calls the “Art of Adversity.” We’ll explore how adversity can be understood through science and personal experience and how it can lead to growth.
About Jeff:
You can learn more about Jeff and The Special Forces Experience at www.thespecialforcesexperience.com
He’s on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jeffdepatie_
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Jeff Depatie
00:01:38 Jeff Depatie’s Career
00:07:09 “Show of Force” Story
00:09:05 Fallout from the “Show of Force”
00:10:49 What Does Post-Traumatic Growth Mean to Jeff?
00:18:36 How Your Environment Shapes You
00:20:00 Equilibrium is Death in a Complex System
00:21:33 “The Process” Jeff Has Modeled is Based on Exposure to Trauma
00:24:26 Replicating the Results of “The Process” with Love Instead of Fear
00:28:57 Why SF Operators Often Are Honest with Their Feelings
00:35:47 Consequences of Making Decisions by Ignoring Emotional Intuition
00:37:51 Comparing Elite Tennis Player’s Nervous Systems to Other’s
00:40:05 Sponsor Note - Coaching Mentorship Program
00:40:30 “The Art of Adversity”
00:43:15 “Special Forces Experience” Events and Time Frame
00:45:14 Sign Up for Jeff Depatie’s Courses
00:45:55 Advice for Someone Going to JTF-2 Selection
00:46:45 Jeff’s Favorite Off-Road Vehicles
00:47:46 Best and Worst Advice Ever Given
00:49:02 Outro
Tommy Wood, BM BCh, PhD, is a neuroscientist, elite-level professional nerd, and performance consultant to world-class athletes in a dozen sports. He received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, a medical degree from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in physiology and neuroscience from the University of Oslo.
Tommy is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience at the University of Washington and a Visiting Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. His research focuses on brain health and brain injury treatment across the lifespan, as well as developing easily accessible methods with which to track health, performance, and longevity in both professional athletes and the general population. Tommy serves as deputy editor of the Wiley Journal Lifestyle Medicine, is a Director of the British Society for Lifestyle Medicine, and consults for a number of digital health companies and charities that focus on how lifestyle and the environment can affect long-term health and chronic disease.
You can learn more about Dr. Wood at his website, www.drtommywood.com/
His substack, betterbrain.fitness is an excellent resource, and if you subscribe, you’ll get some useful resources like a list of blood tests to monitor for brain health, a list of nutrients that support brain health and how to integrate them into your diet, and some in-depth information on how those nutrients and tests work.
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Is Supplemental Intake of B Vitamins Useful?
00:02:36 Useful Factors to Help with TBI Recovery
00:10:45 Homocysteine Metabolism
00:11:54 Food Sources of Polyphenols or Catechins
00:13:52 Understanding the Effects of TBI and Micro TBI
00:18:17 Nutrient Density in Food Helps to Protect from Brain Injuries
00:18:53 Sponsor Note: Coaching Mentor Program
00:19:40 Why Are Formula 1 Drivers so Interesting?
00:22:29 Ruler Test for Formula 1 Drivers
00:27:07 What Has Dr. Tommy Learned from Elite Athletes?
00:29:21 TBI’s Reliable Effect on Hormones
00:31:01 Is Pituitary Damage Specific to TBI?
00:32:02 What Are We Not Talking About with TBI?
00:34:32 Examples of Different Health Variables We Forget to Account For
00:37:28 Outro
Tommy Wood, BM BCh, PhD, is a neuroscientist, elite-level professional nerd, and performance consultant to world-class athletes in a dozen sports. He received an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of Cambridge, a medical degree from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in physiology and neuroscience from the University of Oslo.
Tommy is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience at the University of Washington and a Visiting Scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. His research focuses on brain health and brain injury treatment across the lifespan, as well as developing easily accessible methods with which to track health, performance, and longevity in both professional athletes and the general population. Tommy serves as deputy editor of the Wiley Journal Lifestyle Medicine, is a Director of the British Society for Lifestyle Medicine, and consults for a number of digital health companies and charities that focus on how lifestyle and the environment can affect long-term health and chronic disease.
You can learn more about Dr. Wood at his website, www.drtommywood.com/
His substack, betterbrain.fitness is an excellent resource, and if you subscribe, you’ll get some useful resources like a list of blood tests to monitor for brain health, a list of nutrients that support brain health and how to integrate them into your diet, and some in-depth information on how those nutrients and tests work.
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Dr. Tommy Wood
00:01:46 Dr. Wood’s Ancestral Viking Heritage
00:03:28 What is The British Society of Lifestyle Medicine?
00:04:37 Traction of the BSLM in the United States
00:06:53 Seventh-Day Adventist’s Dietary Guidelines
00:08:40 Most Noticeable Changes Between Lifestyle Medicines
00:11:41 Building an Active Relationship With Your Doctor Before You Get Sick
00:13:08 Role of Social Environment On Lifestyle-Type Diseases
00:19:03 Lifestyle Interventions for Long-Term Brain Health
00:22:55 Main Drivers of Preserving or Losing Cognitive Function
00:24:57 How Useful Are Brain Games Like Luminosity?
00:28:30 How Different Diseases Affect Cognitive Supply
00:33:18 Benefits of Omega-3’s for the Brain and Heart
00:35:35 Dietary Sources of Omega-3’s
00:37:52 Smaller Fish Have Less Heavy Metal Accumulation
00:39:06 Does Dr. Wood Eat Fish That is Higher In Mercury?
00:39:34 TBI or Concussions and Loss of Cognitive Function
00:40:47 Glymphatic System Explained
00:42:20 When is the Glymphatic System the Most Active?
00:43:29 Beta-Amyloids and Cognitive Function
00:46:56 Outro
Dr. Allison Brager is an Army neuroscientist, CrossFit Games athlete, and sleep specialist. Her career bridges the gap between rigorous scientific research and high-level athletic performance.
Dr. Brager is currently a GHOST fellow at the US Special Operations Command headquarters. Prior to that, she served as the Deputy Chief Science Officer at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, where she worked on evaluation and R&D projects focused on the assessment and selection courses for Special Forces, Civil Affairs, and Psy Ops.
She has received two NIH National Research Service Awards and a National Academies of Sciences fellowship, which recognize her groundbreaking work on physiological resilience to extreme stress.
Her PhD focus was around sleep science, and she now sits on fatigue management and neuroenhancement working groups through NATO, US Special Operations Command, the Office of the Army Surgeon General, and inter-government (DoD, NASA, FAA, NHTSA, NIH) collaborations.
Allison’s expertise in sleep, particularly under extreme conditions, and her unique ability to apply her scientific knowledge to enhance athletic performance make her a valuable asset to the military and the broader scientific community. She is also the author of Meathead: Unraveling the Athletic Brain, which explores the intersection of neuroscience and athleticism.
As a final note, Allison squeezed in this call between a two-day human performance conference and a trip to NASA, and she works all day in a highly secure building where she can’t do phone calls, so we had to do this call with her outside. So, there might be a bit of background noise.
Dr. Brager's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/docjockzzz
On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-brager-80a58210/
Timestamps:
00:00:21 Introduction to Allison Brager
00:02:06 NASA Assessment and Selection
00:03:06 Checklist of Skill Sets Necessary for NASA Selection
00:05:40 Significance of Working With People on the Worst Days of Their Lives
00:09:02 What Does Allison’s Career Look Like?
00:12:32 Allison's Role at Walter Reed
00:14:20 What Could Someone Currently on Deployment Learn From Allison’s Studies?
00:15:54 Is the Time You Wake Up or the Time You Go to Sleep More Impactful?
00:16:45 Importance of Early Morning Sunlight Exposure
00:17:47 Studies Done on Circadian Rhythm in Caves Without Daylight Cues
00:18:38 Shifts in Circadian Rhythm Without Sunset Exposure
00:19:53 Artificial Light in a Subterranean Setting
00:21:03 What is Something Critical About Sleep That Most People Get Wrong?
00:24:06 Sponsor Note: Coaching Mentoring Program
00:24:52 How to Use Caffeine Strategically Throughout the Day
00:29:25 How to Know Your Caffeine Metabolizer Type Without Testing
00:32:49 Genetic Set Points with Variability
00:34:26 Why Does LSU Have So Many Good Football Players?
00:36:43 Recruiting SOF Candidates With the Moneyball Approach
00:37:47 Military Recruiting Crisis
00:38:24 How Does Alcohol Affect Sleep?
00:40:41 Consequences of Disruptive Sleep From Alcohol
00:41:37 Shift Work Effects On the Body and What You Can Do About It
00:42:30 Mitigating the Negative Impact of Shift Work
00:43:23 Simulating the Circadian Rhythm Cues Artificially
00:43:54 Sleep Aids Other Than Pharmaceuticals
00:44:54 How to Use Valerian Root Effectively for Sleep
00:45:25 Melatonin On Testosterone Production and Uses for Sleep
00:47:27 Negative Effects of Over-Use of Melatonin Supplements
00:48:08 Outro
There is a difference between confidence and arrogance.
Distinguishing between the two is essential, especially when preparing for demanding challenges like special operations selection. The best summary of this idea might be Facta Non Verba, or "deeds not words," which, not coincidentally, is the motto of Canada's tier one SOF unit, JTF2.
A realistic assessment of one's abilities, backed by experience and knowledge, underpins confidence. It involves a quiet assurance that doesn't need constant external validation because it's rooted in real achievements and a clear understanding of one's strengths and weaknesses.
Arrogance or cockiness, on the other hand, is characterized by an overestimated self-view, often lacking solid evidence or achievements. Arrogant individuals typically dismiss others' advice and overplay their capabilities, potentially leading to critical oversights.
Zack Ferguson is a former Navy SEAL Team 7 veteran who has deployed to Iraq, Yemen, Africa, and the UAE.
He served as his platoon's Lead Sniper and Pointman and was a JTAC, Combatives Instructor, and Weapons Ordnance Specialist.
He is a competitive 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu purple belt and an amateur MMA fighter. He also teaches for the Graceful Warrior Project, a non-profit organization that aims to equip in-duress women in central Africa with self-defense skills.
Zack has a degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Charleston. At his day job, he is an instructor for Defense Strategies Group, an organization of special operations veterans that provides defensive training and security solutions.
One of Zack’s favorite phrases is that insecurity is loud.
In this episode, we talk with Zack about what that idea means to him and how he came to understand it so deeply.
More about Zack:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zackkferg/
Personal Site: https://zackkferg.com/pages/about-zack-ferguson
Defense Strategies Group: https://www.defensestrategies.us/instructors
This is part two of our conversation with Miguel Zeran.
Miguel Zeran, aka Z, is a retired Marine Master Sergeant, PhD candidate, and a coach at Building the Elite.
He’s a former Force Recon Marine who holds a bachelor’s in Health & Wellness, a master’s in Kinesiology, and is in his third year of doctoral pursuits in Human & Sport Performance. He is a CSCS, CPT, SFG1, and trained Health Coach sitting for the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches (NBHWC) board exam this year.
He has spent over 14 years teaching, coaching, and training military and first responder populations in Marine Reconnaissance, the US Air National Guard, the Naval Special Warfare component of the Chilean Navy, Wildland Firefighters in the BLM and US Forest Service, Municipal/Structure Firefighters, and Law Enforcement.
His operational experience across multiple countries and conflicts, alongside his educational pursuits and training, has afforded him a unique perspective on what it takes to gain and maintain health, wellness, and fitness sufficient to succeed in any clime and place.
If you want to work with Miguel, you can see our coaching options on our website and learn more about him and his approach to performance health coaching here.
You can also reach him directly at Miguel@Buildingtheelite.com
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Health Coach Certification Explained
00:05:47 Miguel’s PHD Dissertation
00:12:26 What Does a Career Look Like for a Firefighter?
00:15:20 Taking Care of Our Firefighters in the Face of Growing Fire Seasons
00:19:56 What Drew Miguel to Building The Elite
00:28:08 Best & Worst Advice Miguel Was Ever Given
00:30:00 Outro
Miguel Zeran, aka Z, is a retired Marine Master Sergeant, PhD candidate, and a coach at Building the Elite.
He’s a former Force Recon Marine who holds a bachelor’s in Health & Wellness, a master’s in Kinesiology, and is in his third year of doctoral pursuits in Human & Sport Performance. He is a CSCS, CPT, SFG1, and trained Health Coach sitting for the National Board of Health and Wellness Coaches (NBHWC) board exam this year.
He has spent over 14 years teaching, coaching, and training military and first responder populations in Marine Reconnaissance, the US Air National Guard, the Naval Special Warfare component of the Chilean Navy, Wildland Firefighters in the BLM and US Forest Service, Municipal/Structure Firefighters, and Law Enforcement.
His operational experience across multiple countries and conflicts, alongside his educational pursuits and training, has afforded him a unique perspective on what it takes to gain and maintain health, wellness, and fitness sufficient to succeed in any clime and place.
If you want to work with Miguel, you can see our coaching options on our website and learn more about him and his approach to performance health coaching here.
You can also reach him directly at Miguel@Buildingtheelite.com
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Miguel Zeran
00:01:45 Cliff Notes of Miguel’s History
00:04:38 Difference Between Recon & Forced Recon
00:06:59 How was the Transition from Reconnaissance Marines to MARSOC Perceived?
00:09:45 Selection Course Differences in Recon and Forced Recon
00:12:31 Where Do The 3 Communities Stand Now? (Recon, Force Recon, MARSOC)
00:14:08 What It’s Like Watching People Go Through What You Went Through
00:15:26 What Did You Learn About People in Selection?
00:17:00 Advice For Preparing For Recon Marines
00:20:03 Swimming Requirements in Recon
00:22:07 Later Phases of Training
00:23:06 Living in Chile With Family While Serving
00:24:20 Transitioning from the United States to Chile
00:28:56 Level of Professionalism and Quality Control In Central/South American SOF
00:31:24 Budgetary Contrast For Food, Equipment, etc.
00:34:35 Working on Your PHD After Retirement
00:36:53 Miguel’s Take on Higher Education for Marines
00:40:40 Education as a Tool to Reintegrate Into Society
00:42:10 Outro
This is part two of our conversation with Dr. David Walton.
Dr. David “Wally” Walton is a retired Army Special Forces officer with 25 years of experience in the SF community. His career spans service with the 7th Special Forces Group, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and the Special Warfare Center and School.
Dr. Walton’s extensive operational experience includes deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and much of Latin America. Since retiring in 2013, he has transitioned into academia, teaching National Security Studies and Executive Leadership. His extensive research portfolio covers Security Strategy, Organizational Culture and Dynamics, and Human Performance. His deep understanding of security studies encompasses everything from tactical operations to high-level strategic policy discussions.
Currently an instructor at JSOC, Dr. Walton is a subject matter expert in Special Forces Assessment and Selection. He specializes in land navigation and runs a prep program for SFAS candidates. This is how we came across one another. We had a BTE client attend one of his land nav courses, and he returned from the experience with great things to say. So, we contacted Dr. Walton and have been recommending his course to all of our SFAS prep clients.
As we’ll discuss in this episode, land nav is becoming an increasing issue at SFAS, with failure rates due to land nav shortfalls increasing dramatically over the past several years. If you’re on your way to Special Forces Assessment and Selection, Dr. Walton’s advice and in-person courses should absolutely be included in your preparation training.
Contact Info:
You can learn more about Dr. Walton, his courses, and his books at tfvoodoo.com
He’s also on Instagram at tf_voo_doo.
Timestamps:00:00:22 Leaderless Environment: How Different Personalities Stand Up
00:04:11 Significance of Peer Evaluation in SFAS
00:06:38 What is "The Sandman"?
00:12:43 Importance of Toughening Your Feet in SFAS Prep
00:16:23 One Thing You Should Know About SFAS
00:20:42 Learning Land Navigation
00:27:27 In-Person Land Navigation Training for SFAS
00:29:19 Worst Advice Received
00:32:52 Best Advice Received
00:34:50 Outro
Dr. David “Wally” Walton is a retired Army Special Forces officer with 25 years of experience in the SF community. His career spans service with the 7th Special Forces Group, Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), and the Special Warfare Center and School.
Dr. Walton’s extensive operational experience includes deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and much of Latin America. Since retiring in 2013, he has transitioned into academia, teaching National Security Studies and Executive Leadership. His extensive research portfolio covers Security Strategy, Organizational Culture and Dynamics, and Human Performance. His deep understanding of security studies encompasses everything from tactical operations to high-level strategic policy discussions.
Currently an instructor at JSOC, Dr. Walton is a subject matter expert in Special Forces Assessment and Selection. He specializes in land navigation and runs a prep program for SFAS candidates. This is how we came across one another. We had a BTE client attend one of his land nav courses, and he returned from the experience with great things to say. So, we contacted Dr. Walton and have been recommending his course to all of our SFAS prep clients.
As we’ll discuss in this episode, land nav is becoming an increasing issue at SFAS, with failure rates due to land nav shortfalls increasing dramatically over the past several years. If you’re on your way to Special Forces Assessment and Selection, Dr. Walton’s advice and in-person courses should absolutely be included in your preparation training.
Contact Info:
You can learn more about Dr. Walton, his courses, and his books at tfvoodoo.com
He’s also on Instagram at tf_voo_doo.
Timestamps:00:00:22 Intro to Dr. David Walton
00:02:01 Dr. Walton’s Books: “Ruck Up or Shut Up” & “Shut Up and Ruck”
00:14:38 Where to Find Dr. Walton’s Books
00:15:02 What Dr. Walton Studied for His Doctorate
00:23:27 How did you Improve the Special Warfare Center?
00:31:05 Ratio of Injuries to Voluntarily Withdrawal From SFAS
00:37:05 Telling the Story of What Selection Actually Is
00:41:50 The Power of Journaling
00:45:55 Important Factors & Failure Points in Prep for SFAS
00:52:22 Obesity in America & Standard American Diet
00:53:43 No Shortcuts in the SFAS
00:58:41 Outro
Eric Ross is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Striveworks, specializing in Machine Learning Operations. He enlisted in the Army after high school and joined the 75th Ranger Regiment as an 11B infantryman in the mid-1990s, where he served for six years until he left for an assignment with US Army Special Operations Command at Ft. Bragg, NC. He served 24 years before retiring in 2020 with numerous combat deployments.
Over those 24 years, Eric graduated from many military schools and selection events, such as RASP, Combat Dive School, and HALO school, and won the Best Ranger competition in 2010. Eric has an undergraduate degree in psychology and an MBA from MIT Sloan Business School.
Ben Allen is a former Army Green Beret and the CEO of Apex Path, a pioneer in readiness informatics that combines special operations warriors, elite computer scientists, and world-class fitness training to deliver a one-of-a-kind performance system for today’s warfighters.
Despite never attaining his goal of bench pressing more than Eric, Ben is a highly accomplished athlete and performance expert, which is what led him to cross paths with Eric and eventually work together in their civilian roles. .
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Eric Ross
00:01:08 Intro to Ben Allen
00:02:12 What is Apex Path?
00:03:12 What is Striveworks?
00:05:28 What Data is Their Algorithm Measuring?
00:06:30 What Skills Has Eric Learned From Ben?
00:08:01 Specific Changes in Eric's Performance Training
00:09:34 Sponsor Note: Stress Inoculation Training
00:10:17 What Training Processes Prepare You to Succeed Under Stress?
00:12:31 The Value of Those Around You
00:14:18 Advice About Selection Courses
00:17:47 Fallacy of Picking "The Perfect Training Program"
00:20:55 Success Rate of Different Personality Types in Selection
00:23:44 Managing Failure and Setbacks
00:28:07 Choosing the Perfect Guy vs the Right Guy for the Job
00:30:15 What to Expect On Eric & Ben’s Next Episode
00:30:30 Outro
Dr. Kate Pate is a PhD neurophysiologist, coach, and entrepreneur with extensive experience in scientific research and practical applications in the military and SOF community. Her doctoral work focused on respiratory neurophysiology, exploring the brain-breath-body connection, and later expanded to include trauma-informed yoga and meditation for the military.
Kate's postdoctoral research centered on redox biology related to inflammatory diseases, including traumatic brain injury (TBI), a personal and professional interest due to her own experiences with head injuries. She transitioned from academia to industry, becoming a program director for combat casualty care research, driven by her connection to the Special Operations community through her brother.
As the founder and CEO of Coruna Medical, she develops innovative medical devices for austere environments, with funding from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. Kate's passion for helping service members and veterans with complex health issues led her to pursue training in transformational recovery, psychedelic integration, and functional medicine.
In addition to her medical work, Kate is dedicated to environmental conservation, hunting, mountain sports, and helping the underserved. She is pursuing a graduate degree in theology to further support the spiritual health of those she helps.
Kate's Social Media:LinkedInInstagram Timestamps:
00:00:22 - Intro to Dr. Kate Pate
00:01:45 - “Where Are You Living Now?”
00:03:22 - Working With Special Operators
00:05:37 - Primary Themes with Special Operators
00:08:02 - TBI and Lower Grade Blast Injuries
00:11:12 - Burnout in the Corporate World
00:18:24 - Quick Note: BTE’s Book, Chapter 10 - Stress
00:19:04 - Knowing a Restful, Recovered Baseline
00:22:11 - Navigating Healthy Body Work
00:25:50 - Mechanisms of TBI or Toxic Exposure
00:30:42 - Role of Psychedelics in Dr. Pate’s Work
00:36:22 - Downsides of Using Psychedelic Tools
00:41:56 - Monitored Use of Psychedelic Practices
00:46:00 - Psychedelic Retreat Industry Regulation
00:48:25 - Vetting Legitimacy of Retreats
00:50:05 - Difference Between PTSD and Secondary PTSD
00:54:24 - What is Moral Injury?
00:58:22 - What Does Spiritual Health Mean?
01:06:24 - Purpose Driven People
01:08:52 - Where to Learn More About Dr. Kate Pate
01:10:09 - Outro
Joel Struthers is a former Legionnaire, or member of the French Foreign Legion, a helicopter pilot, and the author of the books Appel, about his time in the Legion and Civil, about his life as a private military contractor after the Legion.
He’s now a commercial helicopter pilot and the managing partner of Ravenhill Risk Control, a Canadian risk mitigation firm that solves complex problems in challenging environments.
Joel also owns LegionEngineered.com, which publishes historical nonfiction books about the military. His third book, Finex, was just released, and you can find it, as well as Appel and Joel’s other books, at Legion Engineered.
The best way to learn more about Joel or the French Foreign Legion is to read his book Appel, which is available on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audio formats.
You can also connect with Joel on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-struthers
And he’s on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/joelastruthers/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Joel Struthers
00:01:00 Career Overview
00:03:36 French Foreign Legion and the Military
00:06:15 Who Can Join the Legion?
00:08:30 Pay Scale for the Legion
00:09:19 New Passports/Legion Name Changes
00:10:00 French Foreign Legion Pay Scale
00:10:56 French Foreign Legion’s Brutal Training Reputation
00:12:52 Legion Career Training Stages
00:17:03 Learning French During Legionnaire Training
00:19:27 FIltering Out People Joining for the Wrong Reasons
00:23:27 Building the Elite Sidenote
00:24:55 Mix of Backgrounds of Recruits
00:26:48 Areas Where Joel Struggled in the Legion
00:27:54 Lack of Time Off During Training
00:29:42 Training Daily Routines/Living Conditions
00:34:38 French Foreign Legion Common Myths
00:36:58 What Did You Learn About Yourself in Training?
00:38:53 What is Deployment Like?
00:41:50 Struthers Years of Service
00:50:15 Operators From Different Countries
00:55:38 Follower Questions
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00:55:55 Would You Encourage Your Children to Join the Legion?
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00:57:06 Dealing With the Legion as Regular Officer
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00:58:56 Transitioning Into a New Culture
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01:00:17 Chance of Dying Perceived on the Job
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01:01:14 Mental Fortitude Development
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01:02:26 Most Interesting Skill Learned
01:04:02 Learn More About Joel Struthers
01:05:24 Outro
Laura is the Lead Performance Instructor at Deep End Fitness in San Diego, a trauma therapist, and a strength coach. She is about to graduate with the Master’s portion of her Ph.D. next month (May 2024) and will continue for two more years to complete her Ph.D. She previously received her Juris Doctorate degree but opted to change career trajectories toward something more fulfilling and service-driven.
Laura specializes in Applied Behavioral Neuroscience through a Polyvagal Theory approach and currently leads training sessions on Nervous System Resilience and Regulation for First Responders and Military Personnel in the greater San Diego area.
She also probably squats more than you.
Laura's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauragordon__/
Deep End Fitness San Diego: https://www.instagram.com/deependsandiego/
Deep End Fitness: https://www.deependfitness.com/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Laura Gordon
00:01:15 Athletic and Educational Background
00:03:12 Deep End Fitness
00:06:11 Universal Factors
00:07:31 Nervous System Regulation and Resilience
00:11:08 Leveling of Attitudes
00:14:19 What Workouts Look Like at Deep End Fitness
00:16:00 What Changes Mentally During Training
00:18:25 How People Understand Their Body
00:22:50 Body Prediction Error
00:28:30 Tuning Out The Negative
00:32:34 Polyvagal Theory
00:34:49 Avoiding Full Immobilization
00:39:50 Ventral Vagal and Dorsal Vagal Systems
00:43:09 Healthier Versions of Stress Coping
00:44:28 Individual Zone of Optimal Functioning
00:47:34 Controlled Stressors
00:49:40 Tools and Cues
00:53:49 High Level of Trust While Coaching
00:56:48 Behavior Model
00:59:00 Shifting the Course of Lives
01:00:46 Managing Burnout
01:03:33 Managing Your Recovery
01:08:57 CO2 Tolerance
01:11:32 Finding Connection and Community
01:14:43 Best and Worst Advice
01:16:58 Learn More about Laura
01:17:22 Outro
Dr. Krista Scott-Dixon (also known as KSD) is a trained counselor specializing in the psychology of behavior change, with certifications including motivational interviewing, solution-focused, DBT, CBT, and trauma counseling.
She’s the author of numerous books and accredited nutrition, sleep, stress, and recovery courses. She is our go-to performance psych and works 1-1 with many of our clients seeking to sharpen the mental and emotional skills needed to handle some of the toughest training courses in the world.
We’ve been training people for special operations selection courses around the world for almost 15 years now, and at this point the physical side of that is a predictable process. With sufficient training time, we can reliably get just about anyone to the physical performance levels needed for a given selection course.
We’ve also gotten pretty good at teaching the cognitive skills needed to do well in these kinds of high-stress situations - things like segmenting, compartmentalization, and managing self-talk.
But, there’s another piece to the puzzle that is just as important, and you can’t thinky-brain your way out of it - that’s dealing with the emotional challenges of SOF selection. These courses are not just designed to break you down physically and mentally. They also test your emotional resilience. They’ll put you in situations that make you doubt your sense of belonging or whether you deserve to be there.
Ultimately, many people who quit SOF selection courses do so not because they’re missing the physical performance standards but because, at some point, they are overwhelmed by an emotional sense that either they don’t belong there, or other people don’t think that they belong there, and they believe them.
Many of our clients work with Krista to prepare for these emotional challenges in training and bring that resiliency into their courses, just as they do with physical training. This kind of work isn’t just important for getting through selection - it also helps people to manage the stresses of their careers in special operations so that they can have long, productive careers and healthy relationships at work and at home.
To learn more about KSD or book a session with her, go to https://www.buildingtheelite.com/performance-psych-coaching/
Timestamps:
00:00:21 Intro to Dr. Krista Scott Dixon
00:03:43 Key Themes With Prospective Special Operators
00:07:57 The "Everyone Else Problem"
00:11:14 Entry Stakes
00:16.20 How the Skills for Success Can Bring Struggle
00:20:49 Bridging the Gap Between Knowing and Training
00:27:10 Replicating Environmental Stressors
00:33:41 Staying Mindful
00:40:50 Dealing With Depression After Success
00:49:16 Ways to Practice Emotional Regulation
01:02:09 Processing Rejection
01:07:23 The Gift of Fear
01:15:06 Concepts to Prepare for SOF Selection
01:19:36 Outro
Dr. Aaron Epstein created the Global Surgical and Medical Support Group in 2015 to provide high-quality care to victims in Iraq of the ongoing conflict with ISIS.
What started as small teams of physicians and surgeons inserting themselves in communities facing ISIS has since expanded to an organization of over 1,000 leading US licensed medical experts, covering every medical and surgical subspecialty from medical institutions worldwide and US Special Operations veterans. This unique combination of medical expertise and the ability to operate in austere settings allows them to rapidly bring unparalleled services to some of the harshest environments and serve populations in dire need.
To learn more about GSMSG, go to their website, GSMSG.org.
You can also follow them on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/__gsmsg__/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro
00:01:26 Global Surgical and Medical Support Group
00:04:37 Roles Within 2,000 People
00:06:27 Aaron Epstein’s Background
00:09:35 Field Hospital in 72 Hours
00:12:50 Logistical Problems
00:13:48 Long-Term Strategies
00:19:33 Stateside Training and Continuity
00:21:11 Levels of Training
00:24:14 Refresher Training
00:26:13 Health Care and Medical Training
00:29:00 Decreasing Poverty Levels
00:33:17 Innovations in Battlefield Medicine
00:38:03 Moving Away from Direct Blood Transfers
00:38:49 Biggest Obstacles for Point of Injury
00:43:04 Mitigating FPV Drones
00:44:55 Lessons Learned for Battlefield Medicine
00:48:51 Interested in GSMSG
00:53:40 Outro
Tim Richardt is a Colorado-based Physical Therapist with a passion for rock climbing, trail running, and technical backcountry skiing. Professionally, he's been involved in the physical preparation of military, tactical, and law enforcement personnel since 2010. After finishing his collegiate running career in 2012, he relocated to Denver to pursue his Doctorate of Physical Therapy at Regis University. Since graduating, he has made it a priority to continue to better understand the multifaceted nature of human movement and answer the ultimate question of what makes resilient, robust, and adaptable athletes capable of withstanding competition, selection courses, or whatever life has in store for them.
Tim is part of our team at BTE. We’ve worked with him to develop our movement assessment app and bulletproof joint series, which our clients use to get individualized movement drills that help them move better and train harder without injury. He’s also behind our new courses on improving the technical skills of running and rucking so that our clients can handle high training loads without breaking down.
Many people struggle through cycles of training hard, getting injured, taking time off, and then starting over and trying to catch up. By integrating regular movement work and some of the concepts that we’ll talk about on this call into your training, you can break this cycle and stay healthy while training consistently.
To learn more about Tim or work with him for either in-person physical therapy or online coaching, you can contact him at TimRichardt.com or message him on Instagram.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tim_richardt_dpt/
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro To Tim Richardt
00:01:43 SOF Selection
00:04:23 Primary Reasons for Shin Splints
00:08:30 Cadence
00:10:02 What Your Cadence Should Be
00:11:50 Foot Strike
00:13:30 Basics for Running Better
00:16:03 Ankles, Knees and Hips
00:17:02 Useful Running Cues
00:18:53 What is ISA?
00:21:01 Physiological Profile for Running and Rucking
00:23:02 How Should Magnus Train
00:25:37 Human Pogo Stick
00:27:27 Tissue Elasticity
00:31:58 What Was Thoracic Extension Training Missing
00:35:30 Why Did People Think It Worked?
00:38:44 Barefoot Running
00:40:47 Individual Foot Structure
00:42:19 Flat Foot Type
00:43:50 When Are Insoles Useful?
00:45:53 Moonbounce Shoe Trend
00:48:28 Cushioning In the Floor
00:50:12 Improve Foot Posture
00:55:30 General Ideal Shoe Characteristics
00:58:59 Insole Varieties
01:01:44 ITB Syndrome
01:05:22 Where Do We Learn More
01:06:17 Outro
You must manage your stress response before you can manage your self-talk, emotions, pain, or fatigue. The process that controls our stress response occurs automatically and outside conscious control.
Even though many stress responses are automatic, we can learn to identify, manage, and shape them. To do that, we first need a mental model of the physical and mental cues accompanying different types of stress responses and an understanding of how our autonomic nervous system works.
Don Tran is a former special operations Marine, and is the co-founder of Deep End Fitness. Prior to joining the MARSOC, or Marine Special Operations Command, community, Don was a water survival instructor, where he first began learning the skills that he developed over his career and brought to Deep End Fitness.
Don was also a JTAC - a Joint Tactical Attack Controller, which is a specialty within US SOCOM that involves the coordination of combat aircraft in close support of ground operations.
He finished his time as a Marine Raider in a leadership role as a team operations chief and spent additional time at 4th Force Reconnaissance Company before leaving active duty in 2018.
From there, he shifted full time into his work at Deep End Fitness, where he and his team teach physical fitness and water confidence, integrating the training methods he learned and developed as a maritime special operator.
At BTE, we’re big fans of the work that Don and his crew are doing at Deep End Fitness, and we encourage our clients to train at their facilities for in-person coaching on the critical skills in the water that they’ll need to excel in their selection courses. The concepts that they’re teaching have been at the heart of maritime special operations culture for a long time, and it’s great to see those benefits becoming more mainstream and reaching not just other competitive athletes, but people from all walks of life seeking to become more fit while learning to better understand and manage their bodies and stress responses.
Deep End Fitness:
www.DeepEndFitness.com
https://www.instagram.com/deependfitness/
Time Stamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Don Tran
00:01:58 Don's Career Overview
00:02:45 Water Survival Instructor
00:05:26 Marine Raider
00:08:56 Advice For Someone Becoming a Raider
00:10:15 Attributes Don Struggled With
00:12:51 Selection Courses
00:19:47 Underwater Football League
00:22:51 Stresses of a Career as a Raider
00:24:58 Getting out of the Military
00:27:07 Deep End Fitness
00:29:23 How to Explain the Concept of DEF
00:32:32 MMA Fighters and NFL Players at DEF
00:36:10 Training Methodology
00:41:01 Manage Baseline Anxiety
00:43:33 Fear Vs Anxiety
00:44:45 Water: The Great Equalizer
00:47:37 Basic Safety Guardrails
00:50:01 In-Water Safety
00:52:45 Don’t Panic Don’t Drown
00:54:42 Firefighters
00:55:11 Find Deep End Fitness
00:55:50 Outro
Admiral Robert Harward is one of history's most accomplished US Navy SEALs.
After graduating from the US Naval Academy, his NSW career began when he graduated with BUD/S class 128 in 1984 and joined SEAL Team Three, where he served as a platoon commander. From there, he screened for NSW Development Group, the US Navy’s tier-one unit, known at the time as SEAL Team Six, where he served as an assault team leader and operations officer.
He earned his master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. Then he served as the task group commander during Operation Desert Thunder in Kuwait, the Joint Special Operations Task Force commander for Operation Rugged Nautilus, the deputy commander of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force in Bosnia, the Special Warfare Plans Officer for the Commander of Amphibious Forces in the U.S. Seventh Fleet; USSOCOM Aide-de-Camp to the Commander-in-Chief; then as the Executive Officer of NSW Unit ONE and as the commanding officer of SEAL Team Three.
Admiral Harward assumed command of NSW Group One in August of 2001 and deployed to Afghanistan shortly after the 9/11 attacks. He commanded a multi-national task force named Task Force K-Bar and directed special reconnaissance and direct action missions throughout the country.
The following year, he deployed to Iraq as the commander of Task Force 561, where he commanded NSW Task Group Central. The forces at his command there included not just all the assets in the Naval Special Warfare but also forces from the Polish GROM, the UK Royal Marines, and the Kuwaiti Navy.
In 2003, he left NSW Group One and reported to the Executive Office of the President at the White House, where he served on the National Security Council as the Director of Strategy and Defense Issues.
He went to the newly created National Counterterrorism Center in Washington from the White House.
Then, he served as the deputy commanding general of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command, at Fort Bragg and did several more combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In 2008, he assumed the role of deputy commander of the United States Joint Forces Command.
Finally, in 2011, at the rank of Vice Admiral, he was assigned the role of Deputy Commander of USCENTCOM before retiring in November 2013.
After his retirement, Admiral Harward became the chief executive of Lockheed Martin in the UAE.
He is currently the executive vice president for International Business and Strategy for Shield AI, an AI-focused Defense Company.
In this episode, we talk with Admiral Harward about his career in Naval Special Warfare, his advice for young leaders in the military, and the evolution of warfare as artificial intelligence takes a greater role on the battlefield.
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Admiral Bob Harward
00:05:03 Younger Career
00:10:30 Going Officer or Enlisted
00:14:06 Becoming a Good Leader
00:15:34 Advice for Aspiring Special Operators
00:21:13 Always be Prepared for War
00:23:38 Well-Educated Warriors
00:26:46 Comparison of SOF Units Around the World
00:30:00 China and the US
00:31:33 The Role of A.I.
00:34:31 Half of Our Potential
00:36:54 Best and Worst Advice
00:39:16 Outro
This is part 2 of our interview with Chris Klaftenegger.
Chris was a special operations medic in two different military branches, and he has been to selection courses in the US Navy, Marines, and Air Force.
He began his career as a SARC - a Special Amphibious Recon Corpsman at 1st Recon Battalion. After that, he transferred to a reserve unit of the Air Force and went through selection and training to become a Pararescueman, also known as a PJ.
He also attended countless other schools, ranging from the Coast Guard’s Advanced Rescue Swimmer school to avalanche and tactical structural collapse search and rescue schools.
Chris then worked in private security as an emergency response medic, personal security specialist, and medical instructor.
Following that, he transitioned to the world of business and technology. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Onyx Industries, a company of former special operators making intelligent unmanned systems and airborne solutions for the defense industry.
In this episode, we talk about Chris transitioning out of his role as a special operations medic and into entrepreneurship, developing advanced defense technology with Onyx Industries.
Time Stamps:
00:00:22 Clipping Tridents
00:03:11 Incrementally Harder Courses
00:05:03 Leadership by Example
00:07:01 What is Chris Doing Now?
00:14:41 PJ to Building Robots
00:19:13 Tandem Barrels
00:24:44 Barrel Improvements in 15 Years
00:27:29 Mitigating Open Shock
00:31:44 Rough Openings
00:33:00 Get in Touch with Chris Klaftenegger
00:35:32 Outro
Chris Klaftenegger was a special operations medic in two different military branches, and he has been to selection courses in the US Navy, Marines, and Air Force.
He began his career as a SARC - a Special Amphibious Recon Corpsman at 1st Recon Battalion.
After that, he transferred to a reserve unit of the Air Force and went through selection and training to become a Pararescueman, also known as a PJ.
He also attended countless other schools, ranging from the Coast Guard’s Advanced Rescue Swimmer school to avalanche and tactical structural collapse search and rescue schools.
Chris then worked in private security as an emergency response medic, personal security specialist, and medical instructor.
Following that, he transitioned to the world of business and technology. He is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Onyx Industries, a company of former special operators making intelligent unmanned systems and airborne solutions for the defense industry.
In this episode, we talk about Chris' career, his experiences in various selection courses, and his time as a Marine Recon instructor.
We're splitting this conversation into two parts and will run the second half in a few days.
Time Stamps:
00:00:22 Intro to Chris Klaftenegger
00:01:26 Military Journey
00:08:44 BUD/S vs BRC
00:12:08 Learning to Regulate
00:18:58 Recon and PJ Community Differences
00:20:30 Evolution of Combat Medicine
00:27:32 Recon Instructor
00:36:32 Weakest Person in the Class
00:40:05 Sponsor
00:40:57 Common Signals of the "X Factor"
00:44:01 Selection is More Than Finding the Best Exercisers
00:46:50 Outro
Zack Ferguson is a former Navy SEAL Team 7 veteran with multiple deployments to Iraq, Yemen, Africa, and the UAE. He served as his platoon's Lead Sniper and Pointman and was a JTAC, Combatives Instructor, and Weapons Ordnance Specialist.
He is currently a competitive 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu purple belt and an amateur MMA fighter.
He is also an instructor for the Graceful Warrior Project, a non-profit organization that aims to equip in-duress women in central Africa with self-defense skills.
Zack has a degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Charleston. At his day job, he is an instructor for Defense Strategies Group, an organization of special operations veterans that provides defensive training and security solutions.
In this episode, we talk with Zack about his decision to join the Navy and volunteer for BUD/S, the mental preparation that he did for that, his experiences in training, and his transition out of the SEAL teams.
More about Zack:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zackkferg/
Personal Site: https://zackkferg.com/pages/about-zack-ferguson
Defense Strategies Group: https://www.defensestrategies.us/instructors
Timestamps:
00:00:23 Intro
00:01:14 Zack Ferguson Introduction
00:05:19 Hard Commitment to SEAL Teams
00:08:01 Commitment Tested
00:11:02 Reality of the Course
00:14:03 Being Fit Enough Isn’t Enough
00:19:19 Quick Note
00:19:40 Laughing at Absurdity
00:22:12 Illness is Part of the Course
00:25:16 Biggest Mistakes Made
00:27:32 Balancing Commitments
00:29:06 Getting Out of the Navy
00:35:49 Guided Psychedelic Therapy
00:37:05 Seal Team to Civilian
00:39:47 MMA and SEAL Teams Similarities
00:40:56 Differences
00:41:32 Defense Strategies Group
00:43:15 Best and Worst Advice
00:45:36 Learn More About Zack Ferguson
00:46:15 Outro
This is part two of our interview with John Mackersie. If you missed the first half, we recommend starting at part one, which is episode 57, just before this one.
John Mackersie is a strength and conditioning coach with over 15 years of professional coaching experience in collegiate athletics and within special operations. John began his coaching career in Division I athletics and has been working with Special Operation Forces since 2013. He’s currently the head of strength and conditioning for an Army Special Forces unit.
In addition to coaching, John has spoken and lectured on numerous occasions for the National Strength and Conditioning Association at both national and regional levels, as well as preparing individuals for certification and exam preparation.
In this episode, we hit John with a rapid-fire series of questions from our audience about training for or with a Special Forces unit. We also discuss his advice for other coaches coming to the SOF world from university strength and conditioning backgrounds.
Time Stamps:
00:00:22 Group Workouts
00:04:32 Training Consistency
00:07:46 Yes, and?
00:09:48 Time Spent With Individuals
00:12:00 Separate Entities
00:14:13 What to Do and Not Do
00:17:32 Data Collection
00:21:40 Direct Impact
00:23:30 Sponsor Note
00:23:56 Lightning Round
-Tips on Raising A Family
-Special Operators
-Basic Fitness Standard
-Opt Tempo
-Strong Man Training
-Mental Struggle
-Maintain Self Discipline
-Best and Worst Advice
00:31:15 Social Media Presence
00:32:04 Outro
Send John angry messages about Olympic lifting:
https://www.instagram.com/m_stronger/
John Mackersie is a strength and conditioning coach with over 15 years of professional coaching experience in collegiate athletics and within special operations. John began his coaching career in Division I athletics and has been working with Special Operation Forces since 2013. He’s currently the head of strength and conditioning for an Army Special Forces unit.
In addition to coaching, John has spoken and lectured on numerous occasions for the National Strength and Conditioning Association at both national and regional levels, as well as preparing individuals for certification and exam preparation.
In this episode, we discuss what John has learned over the course of his career and how he thinks about the training process for special operators.
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro
00:01:01 John Mackersie’s Background
00:03:03 Measures of Success
00:07:30 Olympic Lifting Debate
00:13:15 Balance of Training and Life
00:17:11 Primary Teaching
00:20:22 Motor Patterns and Training Effects
00:23:35 Rucking
00:27:42 Weights and Distances
00:29:50 Outro
Send John angry messages about Olympic lifting:
https://www.instagram.com/m_stronger/
Over the past decade, we’ve helped prepare hundreds of clients for dozens of different SOF selection courses. Through this process, we’ve developed an extensive model of what’s required physically and cognitively to make it through almost any selection. In other words, how fit you need to be and the thinky-brain skills - things like segmenting, compartmentalization, and managing your self-talk - that you need to manage the various tasks you’ll be required to do.
The specific skills and physical traits necessary to succeed vary a bit from course to course, but we have a robust and adaptable process to get people extremely well-prepared for almost any selection.
However, there is one area we haven’t developed as extensively: the emotional and social components of SOF selection. These are often the limiting factors for either not getting selected - when you make it through a selection but aren’t chosen to move forward - or outright quitting. We can’t cover these broad topics in a single podcast but we will explore them over the coming months.
In this podcast, we will highlight the specific skills necessary to manage the emotional and social experience of failure, setbacks, and pressure from cadre and peers that are common at SOF selection. This will include a recap of mental skills we’ve touched on before in different contexts.
This is the second half of our conversation with Dr. Alex Hutchinson.
Dr. Alex Hutchinson is an author and journalist based in Toronto, Canada. His latest book, Endure: Mind, body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, is an exploration of the science and mysteries of endurance.
Alex is a contributing editor for Outside Magazine, writing a Sweat Science column. He also writes a column for The Globe and Mail and Canadian Running magazine. He’s also written award-winning articles for Popular Mechanics, has written about adventure travel for the New York Times, and was a columnist at Runner’s World for five years.
Alex started out as a physicist with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, then spent a few years as a postdoctoral researcher with the U.S. National Security Agency, working on quantum computing and nanomechanics. During that time, he competed as a middle- and long-distance runner for the Canadian national team, mostly as a miler but also dabbling in cross-country and even a bit of mountain running. He still runs most days, enjoys the rigors of hard training, and occasionally races.
If you’re into human performance or have ever wondered what factors govern the limits of human athletic potential, then Alex’s book Endure is a must-read.
To find more of Alex's work:
www.AlexHutchinson.net
Outside Magazine Sweat Science
Timestamps:00:00:25 Altering the Perception of Effort
00:08:20 Maximum Effort
00:10:49 Processing Pain
00:16:15 Pushing the Signs of Breakdown
00:20:20 Finding Limits
00:24:08 VO2 Max Protocol
00:26:01 Altitude Training
00:29:49 Learn More About Dr. Alex Hutchinson
00:30:30 Outro
Dr. Alex Hutchinson is an author and journalist based in Toronto, Canada. His latest book, Endure: Mind, body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, is an exploration of the science and mysteries of endurance.
Alex is a contributing editor for Outside Magazine, writing a Sweat Science column. He also writes a column for The Globe and Mail and Canadian Running magazine. He’s also written award-winning articles for Popular Mechanics, has written about adventure travel for the New York Times, and was a columnist at Runner’s World for five years.
Alex started out as a physicist with a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, then spent a few years as a postdoctoral researcher with the U.S. National Security Agency, working on quantum computing and nanomechanics. During that time, he competed as a middle- and long-distance runner for the Canadian national team, mostly as a miler but also dabbling in cross-country and even a bit of mountain running. He still runs most days, enjoys the rigors of hard training, and occasionally races.
If you’re into human performance or have ever wondered what factors govern the limits of human athletic potential, then Alex’s book Endure is a must-read.
To find more of Alex's work:
www.AlexHutchinson.net
Outside Magazine Sweat Science
Timestamps:
00:00:22 Intro
00:01:50 Athletic and Academic Background
00:06:07 Limits of Endurance Test
00:10:50 Theoretical maximum/Tim Noakes
00:15:15 Model of Fatigue
00:19:12 Mental Fatigue
00:20:30 Practical Application in Training
00:25:17 Low Hanging Fruit In Performance
00:28:35 A Note From our Sponsors
00:29:00 Outro
The curse of knowledge occurs when an individual, often unknowingly, assumes that others have the background or knowledge to understand a particular topic.
Once we know something, it's tough to remember what it's like not to know it and to factor that into our communication.
This leads to misunderstanding, frustration, inefficient or ineffective learning environments, and mango trees with boats in them.
In this episode, we discuss how the curse of knowledge works, the factors that enhance or mitigate it, and how to effectively account for it in our personal and professional lives.
This is part two of our interview with Shaun Taylor, a founding member of Canada's tier-one SOF unit, JTF2.
Shaun has also managed to fit numerous other careers into his lifetime, ranging from coffee shop owner to computer systems teacher to a world championship title in 24-hour solo mountain bike racing, followed by 15 years as a professional coach.
In this half of the interview, we talk about his career(s) after JTF2, his experiences as a world champion MTB racer and coach, and what eventually led him to become part of his podcast, The Collective.
Shaun's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shauntaylors1/
The Collective Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@the_collective_yt/streams
The Collective Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_collective_ig/
Timestamps:
- 00:00:22 Maintaining Mental Health
- 00:04:11 Becoming A Civilian Again
- 00:09:04 24-Hour Mountain Bike Racing
- 00:13:45 Mental Strategies
- 00:22:14 What Did You Look For In Coaching Clients
- 00:26:20 Regulating Stress Response
- 00:30:08 Better Manage Stress Response
- 00:31:46 Embarrass Past Selves
- 00:34:30 Metacognition
- Rapid Fire Questions
- 00:40:12 Tips On Building Positive Group Culture
- 00:40:34 Recovery Routine
- 00:40:45 Soft Selection Course Prep
- 00:40:53 How Should Women Train
- 00:41:00 Managing Egos
- 00:41:08 Carryover Exercises
- 00:41:19 Reset Mindset
- 00:41:35 Optimal Balance in Training
- 00:42:01 Preparation Training
- 00:42:15 Training For BJJ
- 00:42:35 Integrating
Shaun Taylor has had a dizzying array of careers and life experiences.
He was one of the original members of JTF2, Canada’s tier-one special operations unit, and retired as a warrant officer.
Shaun was also a Use of Force instructor for a Canadian Police college, and shortly after that, he became a computer systems engineer and was a full-time teacher in that subject. The experience he gained there led to him writing a 700-page study guide that was sold throughout North America.
He followed his stint as a professional nerd by moving into a consulting role in private international security, where he eventually met his wife.
This led him to the next stage of his career, where, as one would expect of a retired special operator, he settled down and opened a successful coffee shop.
Shaun then discovered a passion for ultra-endurance racing, eventually leading to competitive 24-hour Solo mountain bike racing. During thirty 24-hour solo races, he competed around the world and eventually became a World Champion. People in the racing circuit began asking Shaun for help, so he created his own coaching company and worked with high-performance race athletes worldwide for the next 15 years.
In 2022, after several discussions with friends within the veteran community about the concerning statistics on veteran suicide and mental health, Shaun stepped away from his coaching business. Since then, he has focused on improving things for the Veteran, LEO, and First Responder communities, which led to podcasting and the start of a new podcast platform called The Collective.
His podcast has had over 200 guests, ranging from SOF members to human behavioral scientists, with a general focus on human betterment.
Shaun's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shauntaylors1/
The Collective Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@the_collective_yt/streams
The Collective Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_collective_ig/
Timestamps:
- 00:00:22 Intro to Shaun Taylor
- 00:02:20 Seven Careers
- 00:07:17 JTF2
- 00:10:24 Problems Establishing Unit
- 00:11:43 Team Culture
- 00:14:41 Extreme Accountability
- 00:19:17 Positive and Negative Competition
- 00:23:24 Reason For Being
- 00:26:02 Understanding Your Own Purpose
- 00:31:22 How Do You Get Motivated
- 00:40:26 When Did You Start Training
- 00:44:08 What Did You Most Struggle With
- 00:46:30 Living Two Different Lives
- 00:51:50 How to Fit Training Plan Into Operational Schedule
- 00:54:51 Always Ready To Get The Go Signal
- 00:58:34 Maintaining Mental Health
- 01:00:25 Outro
One of the most common training mistakes is the all-or-nothing trap: alternating between phases of intense effort and consistency and doing nearly nothing. The fitness industry consistently reinforces the ‘go on a diet’ or ‘get ripped in 30 days’ mentality. Unfortunately, this is also a recipe for frustration and poor results.
A much better approach is to view things through the lens of sprint and maintenance phases. This is far more effective for long-term success.
This is part 2 of our 2-part episode with Dr. Christopher Lowry, a professor of Integrative Physiology, Psychology, and Neuroscience, specializing in the gut microbiome. If you haven’t listened to the first half of this interview, we recommend starting there first.
His research program at CU Boulder focuses on understanding stress-related physiology and behavior, emphasizing the microbiome-gut-brain axis. His research is designed to lead to novel, microbiome-based interventions for preventing anxiety, mood, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
**In this half of our interview with him, we’ll talk more about his work there, as well as practical ways to improve your gut health and the potential implications for that when it comes to better resilience under stress.
More about Dr. Lowry: https://www.colorado.edu/iphy/people/faculty/christopher-lowry
Dr. Lowry's TedX talk: Plants, the Microbiome, and Mental Health Timestamps:
00:00:22 Who is Dr. Chris Lowry**
00:01:10 Gut Biome, Immune System, and Mental Health
00:05:51 Mechanisms at Work
00:08:06 Working With Certain Strains With Veterans
00:10:38 TBI and PTSD
00:12:18 Neurotransmitters in the Gut
00:18:01 Mitigate Damage From Bad Eating Habits
00:22:42 Ayahuasca and PTSD
00:24:33 Two Hit Model of Stress Exposure
00:27:55 Long Covid and Neuroinflammation
00:33:38 Lower Inflammatory Response
00:34:22 Learn More About Dr. Chris Lowry’s Work
00:35:15 Outro
Christopher A. Lowry, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder in the Departments of Integrative Physiology, Psychology, and Neuroscience, the Center for Neuroscience, and the Center for Microbial Exploration.
**He has additional appointments in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, as a Principal Investigator in the Department of Veterans Affairs Eastern Colorado Health Care System, VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, & Clinical Center, and as the director of the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Laboratory at CU Boulder.
He is also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Military and Veteran Microbiome Consortium for Research and Education.
Dr. Lowry’s research program at CU Boulder focuses on understanding stress-related physiology and behavior, emphasizing the microbiome-gut-brain axis. His research is designed to lead to novel, microbiome-based interventions for preventing anxiety, mood, and trauma- and stressor-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Lowry about his work involving the microbiome-gut-brain axis, a research term for how our digestive systems' health is intertwined with our brains' health. We’ll cover broad theoretical topics like what the gut microbiome is and how it works, to the practical side of things like what you can eat to make it healthier.
We’ll also discuss some of Chris’ work on how the gut biome can affect our resilience and susceptibility to traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress, as well as his research in these areas, specifically involving the veteran and first responder communities.
More about Dr. Lowry: https://www.colorado.edu/iphy/people/faculty/christopher-lowry
Timestamps:**
00:00:22 Who is Dr. Chris Lowry
00:03:08 Background, Education and the Microbiome
00:10:28 Where is the Biome
00:13:02 What Benefits Our Microbiome
00:16:46 How Does Food Diversity Affect the Microbiome
00:20:15 Blood/Gut Barrier
00:22:28 Fiber: Diversity is Best
00:27:05 How do Antibiotics Affect the Microbiome
00:29:13 Recovery From Antibiotics
00:30:31 Guidelines in Probiotic Diversity
00:35:00 Outro
"The hardest part of the day is getting out of bed" is a common phrase among successful SOF selection candidates.
Aside from serving as the sort of inside joke that helps people bond and encourage one another while doing difficult things together, it also conveys some essential concepts related to resilience and motivation and helps to reinforce the types of mindsets that excel in difficult conditions.
In this episode, we break those concepts down and discuss how you can apply them in your own life, whether you're undertaking a career in special operations or taking on another challenging path.
Casey Glass has been a strength and conditioning coach at an active-duty special operations unit for nine years. Alongside helping the operators she works with to excel in their training workups and deployments, Casey also manages their preparation training for selection into tier-one units.
In this episode, we speak with Casey about training for longevity. This is an important issue for anybody in the world of special operations. The intensity of the training and the pace of workups and deployments can take a major toll on operators, and they can pick up movement limitations and injuries surprisingly fast. Many SOF commands are sort of like laboratories designed to accelerate the aging process in athletes if you’re not actively accounting for longevity in your training and recovery processes.
During her time coaching special operators, Casey has seen this process play out countless times and, over the years, has developed an approach that helps prolong operators' lifespans so they can stay healthy and capable throughout their careers.
Timestamps:
- 00:00:20 Intro
- 00:01:27 What Does Training for Longevity Mean?
- 00:04:45 Energy Balance
- 00:09:30 Long-Term Effects of Under-Eating While Training
- 00:12:23 What Makes Operators Successful
- 00:13:52 Auto Regulation
- 00:17:10 Velocity Apps
- 00:19:35 Auto Regulation and Conditioning
- 00:23:16 Movement Quality
- 00:25:05 What Brings People Back to Damaging Training
- 00:28:28 Which Modality is Most Effective?
- 00:32:34 Types of Training Methods
- 00:35:38 Controlling Your Center of Mass
- 00:37:32 Cues for Good Positions
- 00:39:07 Contextual Factors for Stacking Ribcage
- 00:42:25 Social Media and Resources
- 00:42:55 Outro
Stew Smith is a former Navy SEAL Lieutenant and an NSCA CSCS who graduated from the US Naval Academy and Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, also known as BUD/S. For over 25 years, he has been writing workout books that prepare people to ace fitness tests and selection programs. People from all fitness levels use his military preparation products for help with everything from losing weight and getting ready for basic training to preparing for special operations.
Stew founded StewSmithFitness.com and Heroes of Tomorrow Fitness – an online fitness resource for people seeking to join the Military, Law Enforcement, and Firefighting professions.
He and his team train over 5,000 young men and women who wish to serve their country and communities locally for free each year.
In this episode, we discuss his career, his approach to coaching everything from the specifics of the CSS to big-picture SOF prep training, and what he's learned about successful SOF candidates in his 25+ years of coaching.
Timestamps:
- 00:00:22 Intro
- 00:01:12 Background
- 00:03:50 What Have You Learned Since You Started
- 00:06:31 Approach to Coaching CSS
- 00:08:49 Technique Preference
- 00:13:23 Working on Range of Motion
- 00:16:25 Alternating Breaststroke Kick
- 00:17:50 What Are You Currently Doing
- 00:19:03 How Far do People Travel to Train With You
- 00:20:05 How Does Your Coaching Change From Person to Person
- 00:24:20 Helping People Prepare For The PST
- 00:29:12 Most Common Beginner-Level Issues
- 00:34:34 Balance of Treading Training
- 00:37:01 Biggest Differences in Prep Strategies
- 00:41:12 Reasons Attrition is High
- 00:43:29 Have They Been Doing the Work
- 00:45:21 Main Variables in Prep for Individual Characteristics
- 00:48:09 Advice for Talking to Recruiters
- 00:51:48 Scruff Duty
- 00:54:10 Best and Worst Advice You’ve Ever Received
- 00:58:21 Learn More About You
- 00:59:24 Outro
After 15 years of preparing individuals for SOF selection programs, we have seen many mistakes and their consequences. This podcast covers the most common mistakes we've made and sees trainees make before they start working with us. In this episode, we won't discuss training specifics, like sets and reps. While those things matter, they are far less important than a robust strategy.
While we cover the consequences of a poor application of each strategy, we also provideprinciples you can use to have a more effective mental model of the training process.
Even if you're not preparing for a SOF pipeline, the principles discussed in this podcast apply broadly to many areas of life. Timestamps:
- 00:00:23 Intro
- 00:01:47 Interactions matter more than outputs
- 00:04:52 Don't oversimplify
- 00:08:09 Identify and target limiting factors
- 00:12:51 Quality, not intensity, sets the path of quantity
- 00:16:06 Don’t mistake trajectory for a phase
- 00:18:49 Look for the root cause, don’t treat symptoms
- 00:24:06 Outro
Dr. Douglas Casa has been the CEO of the Korey Stringer Institute since it was founded in 2010 and has been a professor of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut since 1999.
The mission of the KSI (ksi.uconn.edu) is to provide research, education, advocacy, and consultation, to maximize performance, optimize safety, and prevent sudden death of athletes, warfighters, and laborers.
Dr. Casa has written several books and authored many papers on maximizing performance and safety while training or working in the heat. He has treated hundreds of cases of heat stroke with zero fatalities and has served on the International Olympic Committee’s Adverse Weather Impact Expert Group, where he helps to ensure the safety of athletes competing in extreme heat during summer Olympic games.
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Casa about his work at KSI, the science of heat stroke and how to manage it, how our bodies adapt to extreme heat, and how factors like saunas, hydration, and electrolytes affect our bodies in the heat.
Timestamps:
- 00:00:25 Intro
- 00:02:01 Origins of KSI
- 00:03:19 What Brought You to KSI
- 00:04:42 What Does KSI do
- 00:06:09 The Science of Heat Stroke
- 00:09:34 The Consequences of Excessive Core Temp
- 00:11:09 How to Recognize the Signs of EHS
- 00:13:52 How to Treat EHS
- 00:19:19 Common Misconceptions
- 00:22:20 What Conditions Create the Greatest Risk
- 00:28:41 Objective Environmental Factors
- 00:30:23 Performance Clothing
- 00:32:49 What Can an Athlete Do to Acclimate to Extreme Heat
- 00:35:11 How do You Know Your Core Temp
- 00:36:41 Type of Thermometers Recommended
- 00:37:19 Plasma Volume Expansion
- 00:40:03 Train For Heat Adaptations at Home
- 00:42:49 Sauna Guidelines
- 00:43:22 Infrared Saunas
- 00:44:12 Manage Hydration
- 00:47:36 Hyponatremia and Electrolyte Balance
- 00:52:45 What do You Recommend For Hours Long Stressful Events
- 00:55:02 Hydration Recommendations
- 00:56:27 Are You More Likely to Get HS if You’ve Had it Before
- 00:58:20 How do You Sign up For The Course
- 00:59:20 Average Range of Cost to Work With KSI
- 1:00:19 Outro
We often think of leadership, particularly in special operations, as manifest in the form of some big heroic act. That can be the case; the military is full of those examples.
But far more often, a person’s character is revealed in the small moments that will never find space in the trailer of an action movie.
Much of the respect and loyalty earned by somebody in a leadership role comes from their actions in these small moments.
This episode discusses real-world examples of how that principle played out on a Naval Special Warfare deployment.
To learn more about Dan Cnossen, who we mention in this episode, go to www.DanCnossen.com
This is the second half of a two-part episode with Sebastien Lavoie. Please check out the first episode if you haven't listened already. In that episode, we discussed Seb’s early career, his time on the Emergency Response Team and how that shaped his perspective as he grew into a leadership role as an operator, his work in designing his unit’s combatives program, and his perspective as a member of the selection cadre for the Emergency Response Team.
In this episode, we’ll discuss Seb’s training advice for people going into challenging selection courses and his work at Raven Strategic, where he teaches leadership and mindset principles.
You can learn more about Seb and get in touch with him on his personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/slavccmdr/
Timestamps:
- 00:00:23 Intro
- 00:01:08 Tips Going Into Teams
- 00:06:45 Predictability and Control
- 00:09:48 Mental Obstacles
- 00:15:21 ERT Trait Selection
- 00:18:38 Raven Strategic
- 00:22:49 Getting More Involved
- 00:28:08 Need For Raven Strategic Consulting
- 00:35:29 What’s Next
- 00:37:09 Collective Podcast
- 00:41:00 Learn More About Lavoie
- 00:42:58 Outro
Sebastien Lavoie, a veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Armed Forces with over two decades of dedicated service, is now the CEO of Raven Strategic Inc. after retiring as BC Divisional Sergeant Major from the RCMP in 2021.
His professional journey spans from being an Air Marshall to a Chief Warrant Officer, roles in which he has honed skills in crisis management, emergency response, risk assessment, and wellness strategies. Sebastien is also recognized as an accomplished martial artist, public speaker, and a passionate advocate for wellness and fitness, as seen through his Black Belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu, the founding of Sheepdog and Dogs Den Crossfit gyms, and his roles as co-owner and instructor at Ascension Martial Arts in Poco, Canada.
Sebastien continues pushing boundaries and is finishing a master's degree in international security focusing on Global Counter-Terrorism.
In this episode, we dive into Sebastien's illustrious career, discussing his martial arts training, particularly in Brazilian Jiujitsu, and its application in the combatives program he oversaw.
We also explore his unique perspectives on the selection process for the Emergency Response Team, his advice for those aspiring to join elite tactical communities and his dedication to fostering leadership and mindset through his work at Raven Strategic.
This is the first of a two-part episode, so stay tuned for the second half coming in a few days.
Timestamps:
- 00:00:23 Intro
- 00:02:30 Overview
- 00:11:04 Purpose and Training
- 00:17:41 Operational Time
- 00:22:57 Career
- 00:25:07 Jiu Jitsu
- 00:29:19 Black Belt
- 00:34:36 Gi or No Gi Jiu Jitsu
- 00:39:13 Skill Acquisition and Flow State
- 00:41:10 How To Prepare For Selection
- 00:43:46 Outro
SOF selection is an equalizer. It's an egalitarian machine designed to reveal what's inside each candidate when suffering. It's in this suffering that your character - the raw material that determines whether you have the potential to become an effective special operator, is revealed. The suffering is the point.
It doesn’t matter how good you are. You can't out-exercise the machine. You must know and expect that you will, at some point, hit rock bottom. You must train for this and plan to move forward through that moment. The skills you have at that moment will be those you practiced in the years leading up to it.
Don’t be so arrogant to think that you can prepare well enough to avoid this reckoning, or it will catch you unprepared and you will become another statistic.
**When we fail to examine our expectations, and they don’t become a reality, we can have strong feelings of disappointment, resentment, anger, frustration, discouragement, or resignation.
Expectations are another word for predictions. Our senses of predictability and control are the primary variables determining how strong our stress response is within any situation. A higher degree of both equals a smaller stress response.
Conversely, our stress levels increase when our predictions don’t come true. Negative emotions stemming from faulty predictions often lead to decreased motivation.
So, we can shape our stress response and performance in challenging situations by understanding and analyzing our expectations.
In this episode, we talk about expectations: why examining them is so important, and how to manage them when they arise.**
In this episode, we talk about stress, training, and adaptation. This is a big topic, so we’ve broken this into a two-part podcast.
This is part two of a two-part podcast, so you might want to go check out the previous podcast if you haven’t listened to it yet.
We wrapped up part one by discussing why and how you manage stress to ensure you adapt to your training. In this episode, we discuss what specific capabilities you should target to get the best results over time.
In this episode, we talk about stress, training, and adaptation. This is a big topic, so we’ve broken this into a two-part podcast.
To understand programming, you must first understand how and why your body responds to training. When you understand that framework, things like how much running to do, how fast, and how often become much easier to program and adjust.
Like programming, adaptation is a complex subject that people study their entire careers. This episode will discuss the principles you need to understand when coaching yourself or others.
If you're interested in why certain programs work well while others don't, or you're looking to develop a deeper understanding of adaptation and training, this podcast is for you.
SOF selection requires that you develop a close relationship with pain.
This doesn’t just mean lots of dramatic grimacing for the camera. Eventually, successful experiences teach us that pain can be just a signpost along a familiar path. It tells you something about where you are, but it’s not a stop sign or even a warning sign. It’s just a signal to be calibrated.
If the painful sensations of fatigue make you feel stressed and reactive and increase your desire to quit, then that stress response will worsen the feelings of fatigue. Pain triggers negative self-talk and shines the spotlight of your attention on your discomfort, which heightens your perception of pain, which turns up the volume on the self-talk, and on it goes.
Paradoxical intention is meant to break this cycle by having people try to do what holds them in fear.
In this podcast, we explore this concept and how to apply it in your own life.
People in the special operations community often find themselves learning to be human swiss army knives. They do intensive courses in anything from second languages to advanced trauma medicine, where their ability to succeed depends on their ability to manage their time, attention, and energy and study and learn effectively.
For instance, we did an episode recently on how to be successful in the Special Forces medic course, known as 18D, and a consistent theme was the importance of good study habits. But nobody teaches that. People either figure it out or fail. And lots of them fail. We want to give people a framework that they can use to understand how to establish strong time management and study habits so that they can learn better and faster during challenging courses.
To do that, we talked to Dr. Karin Nordin, a Ph.D. in health behavior change, a published researcher on mindset theory, and a curriculum writer for Precision Nutrition.
Dr. Nordin is the founder and CEO of her own business, Body Brain Alliance, which provides behavior change coaching for individuals and curriculum design education for business owners. After teaching at the college level for years and then transitioning into the online coaching industry, she quickly realized that the evidence-based practices for both course design and behavior change were not being taught in an industry that desperately needed them. Now, she’s on a mission to create courses that help people change and to teach other coaches how to do the same thing.You can go to www.bodybrainalliance.com to learn about some of Dr. Nordin's work we discussed on this call, like her Change Academy course or her coaching programs.
Everyone wants to know the ‘secret’ to motivation. Like most topics, this isn’t as simple as repeating cliches like ‘just don’t quit’ or ‘stay hard’. These sayings can be useful as simple reminders of more complex concepts, but only if you understand the underlying process and skills that lead to that outcome.Without those underlying processes and skills, phrases like “just don’t quit” are no more useful than a track coach yelling at his athletes to “just run faster.”
Everybody at a track meet wants to be a fast runner just like everyone who shows up at SOF selection wants to not quit. But, there is only one winner in the race, and only a select few make it through selection. The distinction lies in who can produce these outcomes when they matter – not in the ability to describe them.
Our personal experiences create the meaning that we attribute to words and concepts. Everyone can say the same words, but the meaning that those words have is unique to each person. All knowledge is local knowledge.
When a SOF operator says ‘quitting isn’t an option’ that means something to them because it’s based on real-life experience. They can distill a complex set of capabilities into a simple statement without losing its meaning. It’s that simple for them because they know how to not quit. They’ve earned the right to make that statement and mean it.
But, to the person hearing that statement without the same type of experiences and underlying skills, the words are meaningless.
In this podcast, we discuss the concept of motivation and how it relates to a reliable and adaptable set of skills that anyone can learn and apply. Our goal here is to provide the tools you need to give phrases like “motivation” and “just don’t quit” a useful sense of personal meaning.
Darkhorse Benefits is a special operations veteran-owned charitable organization. Many of their members are former medics who are actively involved in the tactical medicine community as instructors.
Not long after Russia invaded Ukraine, Darkhorse medics traveled there to train, advise, and assist people ranging from soldiers to schoolteachers in tactical medicine. They’re helping to bring in life-saving equipment like tourniquets and first-aid kits, and they’re training people to use them.
In this episode, we talk with one of those medics, a former US Navy SEAL and SOCM medic named Kevin.
In our conversation, Kevin discusses things like the work Darkhorse is doing in Ukraine, what the conditions are like, and some of the most common injuries that they're seeing with both soldiers and civilians.
You can learn more about Darkhorse and help them bring much-needed medical equipment and training to Ukrainians by going to darkhorsebenefits.com
You can also follow them on Instagram at @darkhorsevets to see updates on their work in Ukraine.
Injuries happen. Even if your training program is well thought out, sometimes you’ll run into small issues or you’ll injure yourself playing your sport or doing your job. These inevitable setbacks, while annoying, don’t have to crush your fitness and lead to long periods of doing nothing followed by the long slog just to get back to your baseline.
Fixating on your limitations is the same thing as surrendering to them. Don’t do that. Every path has obstacles. The most successful of us are simply better at finding our way past or through them.
Over the past twenty years we've had our fair share of major injuries, and helped hundreds of clients work around them. In this podcast, we discuss the lessons we've learned and how you can more effectively work through your own injuries.
The goal of programming is not to develop specific abilities, but to develop specific skills.
The difference might seem trivial - it isn’t.
An ability is the raw capability to perform a task. It means you have the physical tools to run five miles at an 8-minute per mile pace.
A skill is the capacity to predictably display that task in a specific environment. This means that you can run five miles at an 8-minute per mile pace regardless of the situation.
We don’t care how fast you can run if you aren’t also reinforcing an ideal stress response, psychological and tactical strategies, and moving with good enough technique so that you won’t break down over the course of months of repetitive work. Your run times matter, of course, but they’re only one part of a much more complex set of skills that need to be developed.
The main problem that any skill solves is how to produce a consistent outcome in different situations. This may seem obvious, but most trainees preparing for a SOF selection assume that if they can ruck a long distance, run a fast 2 mile, tread water and do water comp drills during training, they can just replicate that in selection.
So, why is this so often not the case?
Because a selection environment selects individuals with a set of skills, not just physical or mental capacities. Think of the difference between shooting a basketball on an empty court with no one defending you vs trying to make a shot in a game in front of 30,000 fans and some freakishly athletic guy sprinting to block you.
Training is the empty court, selection is the game.
Tom Satterly is a former Command Sergeant Major from the US Army’s Delta Force, also known as The Unit. During his 20 years at The Unit, Tom fought in and led countless high-profile missions including the capture of Saddam Hussein and the Battle of Mogadishu, also known as Black Hawk Down, which was the longest sustained firefight since Vietnam. That 18-hour firefight ended with Tom, along with several of his teammates, running the Mogadishu Mile to safety.
Tom’s career sounds like a Hollywood script, and he’s literally been portrayed in movies because of it. It’s hard to imagine doing more in the world of special operations than he did. But that lifestyle comes at a cost.
In the early days of Tom and Jen’s relationship, Tom was struggling with the physical, mental, and emotional toll of his two decades of intense training and combat.
It nearly broke him, and it nearly destroyed his relationship with Jen.
Tom and Jen met while Jen was working at a special operations training company. She noticed a pattern that was shared by the Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and Army Rangers that she was working with.
That pattern was the same one that was affecting Tom, and in turn, affecting her.
She wanted to know what could be done to help these special operators deal with the effects of post-traumatic stress, and what avenues there were for getting that help. So, she delved into health and wellness research and certifications in order to answer both parts of that question.
She learned about post-traumatic stress, she learned what could be done about it, and she began doing the helping.
As she and Tom worked to heal as individuals and repair their relationship, they began helping others to do the same.
They founded All Secure Foundation in 2017 to help special operators and their families navigate the maze of treatments and modalities of healing from post-traumatic stress. They worked with hundreds of operators and their families and soon became a provider of education, awareness, and programs.
On this episode, we talk with Tom and Jen about their story and All Secure Foundation.
Resources and links:All Secure Foundation Tom's highly-recommended book, All Secure (amazon affiliate link)
There is a distinction between pain and suffering.
Pain is what you experience, suffering is how you respond to it. Pain is built largely out of nerves and your brain telling you something is wrong. Suffering is you telling yourself something is wrong.
**You can suffer without being in pain, and you can be in pain without suffering.
Learning to separate the two is an important part of what training is.**
Todd Bumgardner is a human performance coach at a tier one special operations unit. He works with operators during their qualification course. To do this well, he must balance their immediate physical training needs with the demands of their qual course, and ensure that he keeps them at a high level of performance without impairing their readiness for crucial work-related tasks and tests like CQB training.
On this call, we discuss how he does that.
If you'd like to stalk Todd, you can do so here:
Instagram - @todd_bumgardner
Instagram - @humanpredatorpackmule
Instagram - @beyondstrength
OnlyFans - (classified)
Email - todd@beyondstrengthperformance.com
18-Delta, the Special Forces medic qualification course, and SOCM, the Special Operations Combat Medic course, are among the most difficult schools in the US Special Operations pipeline.
**The people who attend these courses are special operators who have already been through their selection programs, and in some cases have already gone through several work-ups and deployments with their units. They’re smart, motivated, and highly-capable people. And yet, only about half of them will make it through a given course. It’s just that hard.
On this call, we talk with two different graduates of this course. A former Green Beret and 18D medic named Jack, and a former Navy SWCC and SOCM medic named Chase.**
**We discuss what this school is like, what to expect if you’re a student on your way there, and some of the best practices for successfully completing the course.
Some of the resources we discussed on this call:*Complete Anatomy Study AppMental Skill: SegmentingMental Skill: Compartmentalization* Khan Academy free online courses*Supermemo* and Anki spaced repetition flashcard programs**
**Special operations selection teaches you to rethink your relationship with pain. The discomfort of doing something with a painful but partial effort isn't meaningfully different from the pain of giving it everything you have. One is just slower, and when it's over you wouldn't really remember the difference.
For the world of SOF selection to become your home, and to eventually succeed in it, you have to think of pain not as something to be avoided as often as possible, but as a component of a strategy. There is productive pain that helps you get something done, and there is useless pain****.
You can hurt fast, or you can hurt slow. When it's over it's all just a blur of suffering and the subtle distinctions won't have mattered. What will matter is what you accomplished with that pain.**
Eustress training is a way of training your body to do more work, easily by raising the baseline of movement or exercise that you can do without stressing your body out or making a significant demand on your recovery capacity.
This means that you can eventually train harder, recover faster, and when you want to really push things in the gym or in your sport, you have a higher output potential. Since you’ve trained to make heavy workouts feel easy, you’ll be able to do even more before it feels really difficult.
Eustress training also has several other benefits. For instance,
- It helps to build a high degree of control into your perception of sustained effort, teaching you how to make hard things easy.
- It allows you to refine and dial in techniques and mental strategies.
- It reduces recovery time - allowing you to shift emphasis to other physiological demands and training inputs
- It increases specific work capacity in the movements trained.
- It helps to develop a better sense of interoception, or the ability to sense what is happening within your body and predict how future events will feel
- It also helps to develop a general skill of self-regulation, or the ability to manage your stress response under difficult conditions.
If you prefer reading or want to refer back to something mentioned in this article, click here.
Over our lifetimes, as years of experiences accumulate, we can begin to formulate a universal lesson: No matter how many bad things you went through in the past, you were still alive when they were over. This isn’t really something that you consciously decide. It’s something you teach a deeper part of your brain through practice. You have to know it, not just know the words for it.
As this settles in, it begins to alter both stages of the stress appraisal process. You’re more likely to accurately understand the scope of what is happening, and you’ll know that no matter how it plays out, you’ll have the capacity to handle it, even if things go badly.
This shifts your sense of control away from needing external events to occur in a certain way to knowing that regardless of how those events go you can still dictate your own response to them. Once you know that even the worst-case scenario is manageable, you gain freedom.
By letting go of your need for things to happen in a particular way, you gain the ability to accept and work with them as they are. You’ll know that it doesn’t matter what the world throws at you because you’ve got what it takes to handle it, even if it hurts.
In the second half of our conversation with Dr. Andy Morgan, we cover topics including:
- Advice for people seeking careers in the intelligence community
- Andy’s work as an expert witness testifying at the International Criminal Court
- The effects of trauma on memory, and why an inconsistent story of a traumatic event does not indicate lying
- How people can be given false memories, and how he did so in his research
- The science and myths of human lie detection
- When polygraphs are BS and when they're not
- The appeal of "corporate horoscopes", aka made-up personality tests sold to corporations
- Methods for rapidly learning or memorizing information.
If you haven’t done so already, please check out the first episode of this talk (Episode 21), where Dr. Morgan discusses the psychology and biology of performance under stress in special operators, the characteristics of effective special operators, and what it is that the operational psychs are looking for at selection and assessment courses.
Dr. Andy Morgan is a Yale-educated former CIA medical intelligence officer, and one of the world's foremost experts on performance under stress in special operations personnel.
In this episode we cover:
-
"The Warfighter's Stress Response" - What are the mental and physical differences between SOF candidates who perform well under stress, and those who don't?
-
SOF selection criteria - What are the differences in the profiles of ideal SOF candidates from one program to another?
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The psych interview at SOF selection - What are the operational psychs and cadre looking for, and what is the best advice for candidates going into these interviews?
This is part one of a two-part episode. Part two will follow soon after, and will cover many other topics ranging from the science of detecting deception (Are polygraphs BS?) to navigating a career in the clandestine intelligence community and how to rapidly learn and remember lots of novel information.
Self-herding is when you refer to your past actions for subconscious guidance rather than mirroring what others around you are doing. This effect can persist a lot longer than the situation that produced the action. By taking advantage of self-herding, we can use temporary circumstances to shape persistent, long-term behavior.
A common method for doing this used by successful SOF candidates is to "quit tomorrow."
No matter how much what you're doing right now hurts, you can tell yourself that you'll finish out today and quit tomorrow. This takes away the daunting prospect of future suffering while focusing you on pushing through today's challenge.
Most of the time, people do this in reverse. They take the easy way out today and tell themselves that they'll do the hard thing tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes. Each day they make a new excuse, skip the hard work, and put the burden of their ambitions onto their future selves. Present-day actions never match future goals.
Quitting tomorrow helps you do the hard work today, by mentally promising yourself that you can take a break tomorrow. In the same way, tomorrow never comes. Each new day becomes just one more today in a long string of them in which you suffer through one last time.
Just as making an excuse and avoiding discomfort becomes a reflex for many people, quitting tomorrow makes a habit of perseverance.
In SOF selection, you'll often hear instructors say "Don't set yourself up for failure."
From your viewpoint in the pushup position with wet sand abrading every inch of your body, this might seem like yet another form of casual derision. But it's an important reminder.
Many of the little tests in selection are assessing for conscientiousness and long-term planning, or the ability to account for second and third-order effects in our behaviors. In other words, the ability to process "If I do X now, then Y will happen as a result, and then Z will happen like this."
How well we do this determines where our actions fall on a scale between setting ourselves up for success or setting ourselves up for failure.
Think of a drop of water. You want it to get from point A to point B. You’re not going to expect the water to get there because that’s what’s good for it. You expect it to get there because that’s where gravity will take it, and if that environment were to change, so would the path of the water.
We’re not as different from that drop of water as we may like to think. Our control over our future actions is limited. What we can control, however, is what we do right now to shape our future environment so that the path of least resistance is the one we want ourselves to take.
This episode is about this concept - that if we change the upstream drivers that affect our behavior, we'll be better able to do the right thing in the future when doing the right thing is hard.
Metacognition is a fancy word for “thinking about thinking”.
To borrow definitions from research with Olympic athletes, metacognition can be broken into 3 forms:
- being aware of goals and how those goals relate to specific situations;
- using specific psychological strategies (such as goal-setting, imagery, self-talk, relaxation, and activation) to manage and control your thoughts and visualizations;
and
- being aware of how past experience might shape your present perspective and future predictions.
We learn by making and correcting mistakes at the edge of our ability. This means that metacognition is an essential tool for recognizing our errors, rapidly correcting them, and continuously improving during training.
In this episode, we discuss how that works, and one method for doing so that you can use today.
Dr. Doug Kechijian is a physical therapist and CEO and co-founder of Resilient Performance Systems, which has locations in Manhattan, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
Resilient seeks to systematically explore the continuum between acute rehabilitation and athletic performance. Their clientele includes athletes and operators from Major League Baseball (MLB), the NBA, professional mixed martial arts, the X Games, the Winter and Summer Olympics, Major League Lacrosse (MLL), the NCAA, federal law enforcement tactical teams, military special operations forces, and those with a history of persistent pain and extensive surgical backgrounds.
**Before beginning his sports medicine practice, Doug was an Air Force Pararescueman. He deployed throughout the world to help provide technical rescue capability and emergency medical care to U.S and allied forces.
On this call, we cover a wide range of subjects, ranging from Doug’s experiences in PJ selection to how his background in special operations has influenced his approach to training and rehab in the civilian world.**
**When our secondary emotions work out well, we call them instincts. When they cause us to do stupid things, we shrug and say "I was in a weird place I guess" or "It seemed like the thing to do at the time."
If we understand how secondary emotions work, we can shape them over time. With training, our secondary emotions can help us to think and react better under stress.
Here's the process that we outline at the end of this episode:
The next time you’re in a difficult situation in which you struggle to manage your emotions well, run through this quick sequence:**
- Identify your stress response - What are you feeling, what is your body doing, and what is happening in your mind?
- Use a specific skill to regulate your stress response (start with controlling your breathing, with a focus on deep, slow exhales. From there, you can consider other mental skills like segmenting or compartmentalization.)
- Identify the secondary emotion triggered by this situation and your stress response - What do your impulses drive you to do at this moment?
- If your emotional impulses are pushing you in a direction you don’t want to go, think of them like bad weather. You can feel the wind blow and watch storm clouds pass overhead, but you can still do what you need to do anyway. The weather will pass, it doesn’t have to change your actions. Acknowledge what you’re feeling, and then recognize that a temporary feeling doesn’t have to be in charge of your actions. You don’t have to feel like doing the right thing to do it anyway.
Once the moment has passed and you’ve got some perspective, your final step is to run a feedback loop:
- Ask yourself how it went, how well you were able to regulate your stress response, and how effectively you were able to act in the way you had planned for. Remember that we learn by making and correcting errors at the edge of our ability, so look for mistakes and places to improve. Refer back to the principles of stress inoculation and keep in mind that you may have to adjust the intensity of the situation to keep yourself just on the edge of your ability where success is challenging but possible.
Stress makes us age faster, but not always. Some people remain healthy and capable throughout remarkably long lifespans, even when they undergo incredibly difficult circumstances. The difference in how we're impacted by stress comes down largely to how we think.
In this episode, we discuss several variables and strategies involved in managing our stress responses and becoming more resilient.
Those with a more internalized locus of control - who believe that they determine their path in life through their own decisions - are less susceptible to learned helplessness and are much more likely to succeed in SOF selection.
Some sled dogs will put just enough pressure into the harness to appear to be working while they’re actually taking a break. “Honest dogs” throw their full weight into the straps no matter how tired they are or how much further there is to go. These dogs take the lead positions in the harnesses so that they can set the pace for the rest of the team.
Much of SOF selection is separating the honest dogs from the dogs who are going home.
**On this call, we’re speaking with Chris Merritt, a human performance coach at a tier-one special operations unit.
Chris has developed a set of principles that guide his training process: modular, mobile, and ready.
Chris’ goal isn’t to make the operators he works with good at exercising. It's to make them good at doing their jobs and to stay that way for the duration of their careers.
This is an important distinction. The purpose of their training does not come down to run times or deadlift numbers. It’s about leaving on a helicopter at midnight, executing a dangerous and difficult mission, and then being ready to do it again when you get back home, for years on end. This kind of career means a hectic schedule, constantly shifting access to training facilities, and a lot of mental and physical wear and tear.
This is why the concepts of modular, mobile, and ready are so useful as guiding principles. During this call, we’ll talk about what each of them means, and why they’re important in this environment.
If you’d like to stalk Chris, you can do so on his Instagram, @chrisbeyondstrength, or at @itsbeyondstrength.**
The website for his civilian-side training facility is bspnova.com, and if you’d like to learn more about his career as a subway sandwich artist you can email him at chris@beyondstrengthperformance.com.
Contrast feeds appreciation.
We value warmth a lot more when we've just come in from the cold. Food tastes better when we're hungry. We're better able to enjoy the company of friends and family when we know what it's like to wonder if we'll ever see them again.
In this episode of the BTE podcast, we discuss the inherent tradeoff in doing difficult and meaningful things: Without risking and accepting the lows, the highs become empty or unattainable.
If you've chosen a challenging path in life, you have to want the entire range of experiences - to know that hardships are inevitable - and the pain of those experiences is what makes success so meaningful.
A common mental feature in successful SOF candidates is that it's not just about them.
When they reflect on their reasons for being there and suffering for the sake of a long-term goal, their thoughts often go to other people in their lives: people like their close friends, their teammates, and their loved ones back home.
**This helps them to view the world through "self-distanced perspective-taking," which shifts their perspective toward long-term goals, rather than reactive short-term logic. In the ultra high-stress world of SOF selection, this helps to reduce impulsivity and keep people from making a rash decision and quitting when they hit low moments.
Researchers as early as WWII came upon this phenomenon while they were seeking to understand what motivated soldiers in battle, and it still holds true today.
In this episode, we look at some of the factors that make good teams, and good team members. These characteristics of effective teams are part of the reason that special operations units are so effective. They're made up of highly capable individuals who become even more capable as part of a tightly-knit team.**
A recent study on BUD/S students looked at the roles of mindsets around stress, willpower, and failure.
The primary focus of the study was "stress mindset." This is whether you view stress as either enhancing (stress helps me perform) or debilitating (stress is bad and should be avoided).
Those who view stress as a necessary and welcome part of coping with challenges did better. They had greater persistence through training, faster obstacle course times, and fewer negative evaluations from peers and instructors.
A second focus was on the perception of failure. Researchers made a test with questions like “Experiencing failure improves performance and productivity.”
Students who scored highly on the "failure-is-enhancing" assessment had lower persistence, were less likely to complete first phase, and were slower on the O course.
That second finding may seem odd - that people who thought of failure as a helpful tool didn’t perform as well in BUD/S. In most settings, those who seek to learn from failure and embrace negative feedback are more successful, especially in the long term. However, when we look at a career, most of the time we're not in a testing setting. We're practicing, training, and developing. We can learn from failure, come back, and try again.
Embracing failure is beneficial in learning environments. But, it can be harmful in testing settings.
In this episode, we discuss differences in psychological strategies depending on your environment - whether you're in a setting of testing or training.
We look at this through the lens of an idea we've been talking about lately with our clients, that pain during intensely difficult events comes in three stages, and that how you manage those stages plays an important role in your mindset, coping mechanisms, and resilience.**
Edith Eger, an Auschwitz survivor turned author and trauma therapist, has a saying:
"Trying is lying. You're either doing it or you're not."
"If you say, 'I'm trying," she writes, "you don't actually have to do it. You're letting yourself off the hook. Stop trying and start doing."
With that as our foundation, we'll discuss how to reframe the concept of effort and to more effectively think about making changes in your lives.
In this episode we have a conversation with Casey Glass, who has been a strength and conditioning coach at an active duty special operations unit for the past eight years. Alongside helping the operators she works with to excel in their training workups and deployments, Casey also manages their preparation training for selection into tier one units.
On this call, we discuss the framework that she and the rest of her human performance team use for training special operators, viewed through a model she calls the big five. These five categories make up the biggest pieces of a successful training process. If you’re an active duty special operator, or trying to become one, this is a really helpful model that you can use to evaluate or design your own training process.
This this episode we talk about how our stress responses and pain perceptions work, how they’re affected by training, and how we can develop our capacity for productive suffering.
You don't know somebody until you've seen them make hard decisions.
It's easy to be kind when kindness is easy.
It's easy to be generous when generosity is easy.
Until doing the right thing is also the hardest thing to choose, you don't know what kind of person someone is at their core.
In this episode we talk about impulsivity, quitting, and how your training and mindset affect what you’re capable under stress.
In today's podcast we talk about coping and solving problems instead of ignoring them. Problems go away when you solve them. Yes, this seems obvious. However, much of the background stress or anxiety that we experience comes from problems we are avoiding.
In this episode we talk about one of the most useful mental skills that our clients use to succeed in special operations selection courses, and how it can be applied in your own life, no matter what your occupation is.
In this episode we talk about the most common framework we use to categorize training phases and how to apply this concept.