𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐔𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫?

🎙️ 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝟏𝟕𝟑: From Marine sniper to FBI agent… from pastor to executive coach… 𝐃𝐫. 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐧 has worn a lot of titles. But what he built along the way is far more powerful—what he calls Inner Armor.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐲. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞-𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞, 𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐬 𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝.

🔍 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐝𝐞:

✅ What “inner armor” actually means—and why most leaders don’t have it

✅ The Two-Minute Rule that dismantles fear and excuses

✅ How a 300-year plan reframes your worst days

✅ Why your identity—not your résumé—determines your leadership

💬 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐯𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐬...

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞’𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮.

If fear, stress, or self-doubt keep creeping in...

If you want to lead with clarity, conviction, and calm under fire, this one’s for you.

📞 Feeling stuck? Let’s get you moving. 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐄 leadership call → https://coachjohngallagher.com/freecall

👇  𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐃𝐫. 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐧👇

🌐 Website → https://getwarriortough.com/  

📕 Book → Inner Armor → https://getwarriortough.com/book/   

📲 Instagram → @warriortoughphd 

👇 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧 👇

🔗 All Links → https://linktr.ee/coachjohngallagher

📺 YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/@coachjohngallagher/videos

🌐 Website → https://coachjohngallagher.com

💥 Leaders aren’t born. They’re built.

Press play—and let’s get to work.

#TheUncommonLeaderPodcast #CoachJohnGallagher #Championsbrew #GrowingChampions #InnerArmor #ResilientLeadership #LeadershipMindset #FaithDrivenLeadership #ChristianLeadership #LeadWithPurpose #ExecutiveCoaching #ServantLeadership #PodcastForLeaders #KingdomEntrepreneur #FaithAndWork #PurposeDriven

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Chapters

• 0:00 The Two-Minute Rule for Possibility
• 5:12 What Inner Armor Really Means
• 12:48 Identity Statement: Your Mental Foundation
• 22:40 The Eight Cylinders of Life
• 30:55 Beach Ball to Marine: Personal Journey
• 40:57 Non-Negotiable Daily Habits
• 45:14 Andrew's Book Portfolio and Mission

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So I'm not asking you to do anything you're not already doing. But when you hear that voice of resistance in your head that says I can't do this, we can't do that, it's impossible. This is hard, be like, hey, look just for two minutes, just like, have fantasy. I'm not arguing, I'm not saying it's not impossible, but I'm asking you for two minutes to say, if it were possible, how would I do it? Right, and what it does is it gives your brain permission to go find the answer.

Speaker 2: 0:30

If it were possible, how would we do it? Hey, uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast. I'm your host, john Gallagher. Well, get ready to build your inner armor. Today I'm bringing the big guns literally to discuss building an unshakable mindset in a world that's constantly distracting us in many different ways. Our guest today has gone from Marine sniper to FBI special agent, to pastor and now executive coach, author and international speaker, and the stakes that he's going to talk about today are very important. We're specifically going to talk about his newest book, inner Armor, but we'll talk more about that. He's a neuropsychology PhD, so he's teaching from science as well. As we go through this, a sought-after speaker, he is going to bring the heat for you today. I want to welcome Andrew Whitman to the Uncommon Leader Podcast. How are you doing, friend?

Speaker 1: 1:23

Hi, mighty man of valor, john Gallagher, thanks for having me coach.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Here we go, I'm going to jump you right in, no rest going in. I'm going to give you the first question. I always give first-time guests the last 170-plus episodes, and that's to tell me the story from your childhood that still impacts who you are today, as a person or as a leader.

Speaker 1: 1:41

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it really is. It's the foundation of everything. Really, all the decisions I started making I was the fat kid in high school really started in middle school and my mom and dad were missionaries. So I was brought up in a town in Australia called Wagga Wagga, new South Wales, halfway between Sydney and Melbourne. And you know, the Australians they don't mind, you know, come up with nicknames. So my nickname was Beach Ball because I was 5'3 and 185 pounds. So it was pretty brutal. But being a missionary's kid can't fight back, so you're a weak target. So I'm living my life in fear and anxiety just constantly.

Speaker 1: 2:16

And the plan was me would graduate high school. Out of six kids I was the one supposed to go in the ministry. Bible college was up and I thought, if I don't get this under control, I don't want to live the rest of my life like this. How am I going to lead anybody? I can't even lead myself. So I enlisted in the Marine Corps, so that that, and lost 50 pounds in bootcamp. So I that whole thing about you know. I just didn't want you probably. No, I'm not telling you anything. You don't know, john, like even today, you know, decades later, when I look in the mirror, I still see the fat kid. I still hear beach ball, I still, you know, no matter how fit you get, no matter how you know you clamp, it's still kind of lurks back there behind the curtain. So you're just have to constantly put that under every day. It also, but it keeps me frosty man.

Speaker 2: 3:12

Oh man, I think you know even that, that very last part in terms of saying it, and that's always with you. I know that you've probably heard me mindset that you had at that point in time and a mindset that doesn't go away. It sticks with you, that you have to overcome on a regular basis. Now you mentioned this inner armor. Let's jump right into that, leading us in when you use the term or title inner armor. What is inner armor? I think you mentioned mental toughness, but tell me more about how you define that.

Speaker 1: 3:44

Yeah, it is, it's. I used to use the I, you know, I, my, my company or my firm, you know, is mental toughness training center. So for the long time, you know, for the last I don't know, you know decade, I was mental toughness. Mental toughness because I'm training SEALs and Marines and Rangers. I'm coming out of that I was with a private military contractor, with the state department, so mental toughness.

Speaker 1: 4:04

But as I got going and I brought this to corporate, I began to think a lot of people see, even in those circles SEALs, marines, rangers, athletes we've kind of confused physical toughness with mental toughness. So a lot of people think if I just do one more push up, or I'm going the extra mile or I'm going to grit, that's physical toughness. Mental toughness is getting control of your mind and your will and emotions right. So this inner armor is how do I control my mind, will and emotions? How do I? And that's what resilience I call perpetual resilience, because also a lot of people have this concept that resilience is I bounce back after something bad happened, then I'll find out if I had it or not, you know, and it's like no, I want this like perpetual all the time, like if it's proactive resilience. Right, I build this muscle. Then when stuff happens, I'm not even bouncing back, I'm rebooting and get it, I'm better, I make the course correction and I do better than I was when I got knocked down.

Speaker 1: 4:57

But that that system is already in place, that inner armor. So it's not about. I mean we're all going to take hits in life, we all know this. I mean, stuff happens all the time, so it's not the, it's not the hit. It's like how well can you take the hit and keep going on mission with your purpose? What's your mission in life? What's your purpose? And that's a big piece of resilience. Because I have a 300 year plan. Like my ultimate target will take me 300. People are like, well, don't count me out first off. But but right, it's a multi-generational plan, it would take me 300 years to accomplish. So the reason I have my perspective that far out, because if, if I have a 300 year plan, I know it's going to take me 300 years to reach my I call it the Emerald city right, the Emerald city.

Speaker 1: 5:37

Take me 300 years, like, if I have a bad day, who cares? I'm still on the yellow brick road and I know why I'm going there, right? So, like scarecrow was going because he wanted a brain, lion was going because he wanted Kurt, right, they're all going. You know, dorothy wanted to go home, but we also, and there's like flying monkeys and bad weather and poppy fields and all these obstacles Right, but they are, but nothing stopped them and they would get knocked down and just keep going to the Emerald city, right? So that's what we want to do, and I don't.

Speaker 1: 6:04

If I have that perspective, my inner armor is that flying monkeys aren't going to bother me, and you know bad storms and you know bumps in the road or even witches trying to kill me. I don't, you know, it's like you know. So that's what the inner armor is, right. So it's, it's about changing our perspective, knowing where we're going, what our purpose is, what our identity is, what my mission in life is, and then you can handle all these things that come up. They're just really. All these things that come up really boil down to a minor inconvenience when I look at them in light of my 300-year plan.

Speaker 2: 6:35

Love that and I think about that. I've used the term. I want to impact people for 10 generations to come. So I'm with you on the 300-year plan. I think that's something that becomes a powerful understanding. And look, let's go back to the Bible, I mean Old Testament. They live pretty close to 300 anyway. You never know what's going to happen. Methuselah Moses, we're only halfway, at a minimum. We're only halfway there.

Speaker 1: 6:53

And we're getting better with medical science too. Exactly right.

Speaker 2: 6:57

I keep hearing all these things just last one more year, and that's going to add 50 years for us. If we can just last one more year, and that's going to add 50 years for us. If we can just last one more year, we'll see how it goes. So I love the analogy of the Wizard Oz and using that in the Yellow Brick Road and knowing what each of them knew, what they wanted. So you know who are the individuals that you wrote this book for, who are the scarecrows and the Dorothys and the cowardly lions that you wrote this book for, and why did you write it now? Why now was the right time.

Speaker 1: 7:28

That's just a great question. So right around, right before COVID hit, the chaplain of the Marine Corps called me and he said he'd been tasked by the commandant to find a way to deal with PTSD and the suicide rates that are going on in the ranks. They tried therapy, they tried drugs. Nothing is working. The numbers are still going up. What could you do? And so you know, because I had six years in Marine Corps infantry and I'm still plugged into. You know, my platoon commander was a two star general at the time. My company commander is a retired lieutenant colonel but he's involved in career transition and helping wounded warriors. He's and he's plugged in with that.

Speaker 1: 7:59

So we I just began to say, how can we make this work? So my flagship system of grounds, your leadership CEO, it's all we dig into the science of it and it's a corporate coaching and it's like 12 weeks and you're going to spend an hour every day in there with me and the Marine Corps don't have time for that. So how do I put this thing together? So Inner Armor was built to be like a workout of the day for these guys, so that you just you know here let me look on my phone. Here's, I call it the mental toughness minute or whatever, right, and I'm doing these drills, these, doing these resilience drills. I'm building this resilience muscle, or this inner armor muscle, whether it's. You know, we talked about the eight cylinders of your life. Right, we can get into that, but each day we're hitting another cylinder. Is it my mental health? Is it my physical health? Is it my emotional health? Is it my social health? Right, and so on. So that's what this book was. So we did that and went through the beta testing. Everything was doing great, and then the commandant's changed. A new commandant came in. He's like, you know, we don't care about that. So that went out the window. But then I started using it for law enforcement and firefighters. And I kind of say this in the press release when they quoted me saying this, because when I was a street cop and I started in Spartanburg County, my PTSD levels were way higher as a street cop than we were in any of my 11 deployments, whether it was Desert Storm or Republic of Panama, counterterrorism in Honduras or the State Department, four tours in Afghanistan, and they were like well. Why I'm like well? Because you never leave the combat zone. Really, I lock a guy up yesterday. He's out on bail and I see him at the grocery store. I'm pushing the baby in the stroller. That's I mean. I'm on red alert. Afghanistan, I'm on a three, 36 hour flight, right, so I can decompress. So this thing was written for that and it also works for law enforcement. I thought now's the time.

Speaker 1: 9:43

I mean the chaos, john, the chaos on the planet right now. I mean in everything economic chaos, political chaos, leadership chaos, I mean cultural chaos. Just pick a country, it doesn't matter, we're in chaos. And I thought let me put this thing out and get it down to at least this book. So there's 23 chapters and they're all like. I say it's tactical because it's literally it's. I'm going to have it stack two or three minutes a day and work on these things. And if you just went through one a week and, like, practice it every week for that drill then moved on to the next one that you ran through this book two times in a year, you're going to be your inner armor is going to be rock solid. It's going to be habit. It's going to be rock solid. It's going to be habit. It's going to be your programming, it's going to be your default mode, right? So, and that was the goal, that's why we wrote it and it was written for, I guess you know, 18 to 38 year olds. You know, in the Marine Corps.

Speaker 2: 10:37

Well, as I've gone through it, I mean, and just each one of those chapters, I actually love that description because I see them as frameworks. You talked about those being structures or frameworks or habits, and they build on each other. No doubt about it. But before we get to some of those, because we'll talk about those as solutions, but let's talk about these flying monkeys and these witches and the wizard that kind of gets in the way when you're working with these guys, realizing, focused on military and even the police force now, in terms of where you are. But let's just you can use the leadership in general and the chaos that we're going through. What are some of the barriers, these flying monkeys that these folks are running into that keep them from, in essence, getting to where they want to go?

Speaker 1: 11:14

I think, because of the way the human, I call it biopsychology how does the body, mind and emotions all work together or against each other? And what we found out, you know, when we're looking at the medical science and the neuroscience and brain imaging and mapping and how hormones actually are, mimic the neurons in you know the neurotransmitters. They mimic the neurotransmitters in your brain. So when you filter someone, you perceive something. The chemical that is called up in that, when you're perceiving it is, it mimics the hormone, right. So what I call it the hormone dump, right? So if you ever been in a near car accident, right, where you know the slam, the brakes, horns are honked, but nothing's happened. But then afterwards then your heart starts pounding right, and you're like, oh my gosh, there's no logical reason because everybody's safe. That's the hormone dump.

Speaker 1: 11:59

And so that's what happens every time there's a stressor, whether it's combat, leadership, it doesn't matter. Like I mean, when you're running your business, I mean, you know, my sons were running a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm, and like, every day you're coming in, you're like, you feel like you're Jack Sparrow, stop blowing holes in my ship. You know what I mean. Like I may, and that was worse to me than being in combat, because in combat, at least I could, you know I'm I have a way to fight back. I have rules of engagement. There's things you could do, but in business you're just like all right, we just lost that contract or the supplier, the tariffs happened and now the shipping's backed up and you're not getting the raw material so you can get your product out. These are massive stressors. So how do I respond to these things? These are the witches and the flying monkeys that are out there today in the chaos.

Speaker 2: 12:40

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Speaker 2: 13:18

Now let's get back to the episode. Love that and again. There are things that exist and we're going to get a chance to talk about movies here in a little bit, but I just got a chance to watch again my favorite movie. If I'm flipping around between a few channels in the evening and a few good men comes on, I got to stop. I'm done. I'm done for the next hour and 45 minutes until I hear Jack Nicholson say we follow orders or people die.

Speaker 1: 13:41

I mean it's something that's always been there for me, my favorite line is I would just prefer you said thank you and went about it.

Speaker 2: 13:50

Yeah, right, otherwise, grab a weapon and stand up.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Grab a weapon right. Who's going to do it? You, kathy, you Weinberg, right. Don't get me quoted movies, john, but it is a great mental toughness game.

Speaker 2: 13:59

We got one, I think scene right. I mean, I, just I, that's. All I need to see is that last few minutes, and I love when the Instagram. Now I've seen the recent Instagram. I will time ourselves, but the the baby memes or whatever that are popping up in that scene and babies doing it.

Speaker 2: 14:12

It's just, it's just driving me nuts. Okay, so you talked about some of those barriers that exist, those things that are going on, but you've got these frameworks. So there are a couple that have caught my eye, mostly because of the name of them, but helping me specifically in terms of area where I see weakness as well. But you said something about the two-minute rule. Tell me about the two-minute rule and what helps there.

Speaker 1: 14:32

That's where we start everything. I start every training with that. And I ask I'm just going to you know we're going to do how I do it right, because I have to walk you down the psychological path Could you suspend your disbelief for two minutes, right? And then people look at me like, well, I don't even know what that means. And I'm like, well, have you ever watched a movie that you liked? Yes, everybody says yeah, okay, congratulations. You suspended your disbelief for at least an hour and a half, because you know those aren't real. Even the ones based on a true story are Hollywood. It up, right? So you suspended your disbelief in order to enjoy this show. So I'm not asking you to do anything you're not already doing. It's normal. You do this all the time.

Speaker 1: 15:04

But when you hear that voice of resistance in your head that says I can't do this, we can't do that, it's impossible, this is hard. Be like, hey, look just for two minutes. Just like, have fantasy. I'm not arguing, I'm not saying it's not impossible, but I'm asking you for two minutes. Just say, if it were possible, how would I do it? Right? And what it does is it gives your brain permission to go find the answer. If it were possible, how would we do it? I mean, I've done that in meetings, where you just throw that out on the table. I mean something that was, you know, 30 seconds ago, impossible. Now we have five different options we could actually look at, and maybe they're not all viable, but maybe we take a piece of one and a piece of the other and we're like a chef and we take a piece of everybody's you know what they would be possible and come up with a plan of attack. You know so I think that's a game changer if you could just implement that and that's one of the one of that.

Speaker 1: 15:53

You know that two minute drill that I talk about every day, not the two minute rule, but to drill it. So think about this here's, here's how, for all your listeners, how could I do this right now? Think about one thing that just frustrates you, like regularly. Is it like the traffic in Atlanta while you're driving on your commute? You know what are DC. Is it like the overload on the inbox, is it? You know that. You know, colleague, that you know you don't like their cologne, or they're always you know well whoever's frustrated and then ask yourself think about this, this is my two minute drill, like I'm while I'm brushing my teeth. This is habit stacking. I habit brush my teeth.

Speaker 1: 16:24

Now I'm going to think about that thing that was triggers me and I'm saying, look, if it were possible for me to handle this with poise, how would I do it? And then begin to answer that question while I'm brushing my teeth? Well, I can take a deep breath. You know I can't control that For me, for traffic, my answer to that question was to make my car and now I'm dating myself, but it was cassettes back in the day. It would be like a college classroom where I'm putting in cassettes on neuroscience or psychology or leadership or communication. Pretty soon my commute in DC when I was a federal agent was, you know, it was a nightmare. But until I did that, and then I it was like not long enough because I would sit in the parking lot, I'd have to finish a lecture. You know what I mean. So this is what this when you ask that question and you give yourself permission to answer it, all kinds of great things happen for you.

Speaker 2: 17:20

Wait, no, I think about that and as you touched on a little bit. I think about that and as you touched on a little bit, as maybe I transition a little bit from the book to you is that many leaders also want to believe that once I get the discipline and I do it once or twice, that these limiting beliefs will go away.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Yeah, and they don't. What did I just say about always looking in the mirror? What?

Speaker 2: 17:45

is the specific habit you use to manage those limiting beliefs that you have.

Speaker 1: 17:49

So this is huge. What I'm about to tell you is, literally, it's the game changer of all humans and it doesn't matter what your belief system is, I don't care what you believe, but you have to vet your belief and then, once you do and you know that it's real, then you can anchor yourself in it and I call it the identity statement. Right, who are you when you take away? Not your, because a lot of people I say who are you? They're like, and this is a huge. You know I'm david seal, like oh, I'm a cop. You know I'm street cop, I'm the gangs. You know I'm like no, that's not your resume is not who you are.

Speaker 1: 18:18

What you do is not who you are. Our bio and in our industry, john, right, we have to have the bio so it gives us credibility, so we can even get on the show, right. So you go oh, he's a Marine Corps vet. He's a, you know, capitol Police agent. He was, you know right, phd in theology, all these things. But that's not who I am. You strip all those away. Who am I when those are gone?

Speaker 1: 18:35

So this is the baseline program and so I came up with an identity statement of the characteristics, the internals, the values of who I wanted to be right now and who I aspired to be right. Where do I want to go? So it's kind of half a faith statement and do it in one sentence. It's got to be very short and pithy and quick so I can repeat it, and it's got to be when I hit my foot on the driveway and stubbed my toe, what needs to come out as my identity statement? When I hit my hand with a hammer, right, what comes out? So my identity statement is that I'm a man of excellence who always keeps his word. So once, that's who Andrew is, whether he's being a dad or a husband or the CEO of my company, or the little league coach or a PTA volunteer, right? Or the usher at church, whatever I'm, whatever, I have to give my best effort because I'm a man of excellence. That's already pre-decided I use that word a lot in the book pre-decide. So now every decision in my life is made. I don't have to sit at the drive-through looking at the menu options, right? Because how many times you do that? Oh, hang on, give me a minute, right, or you're stuck behind the person doing that, right. So I already know I'm a man of excellence. So I cannot half-step, I can't phone in the effort I'm not going to, you know, show up unprepared, I can't do it. It's not who I am. And if I did, then I and then I'd be like well, is that who? Is that who you are? Well, no, that's not who Andrew is.

Speaker 1: 20:02

Ever not kept your word? Well, of course, man, we're humans. There's only one guy that kept his word the whole time on the planet. We killed him because he was perfect, right? So that so, but I aspire to that that always keep my word. So I'm getting very good at it.

Speaker 1: 20:16

But how to get good at it is not to give your word that much Cause the more you give it, the harder it is to keep it. And so, yeah, it's easy and feels good at the time to say yes to everybody. But it's pre-decided that I have this triage right of who I give my word to and what I'm going to do. Because if I say I'm going to do something at a certain time, I'm going to do it Like that's what it is, that's who Andrew is. There's no backdoor option, there's no highway option.

Speaker 1: 20:42

And I you know that one of my favorite Psalm says that we swear to our own hurt and change not right. And when you know like when I took the oath at you know Capitol police, I took the oath in the Marine Corps you swear to your own hurt and you change not even if it hurts you, right. So when I keep my word, I can't change, even if it costs me money. Or, and then learn from that course, correct? Well, don't give your word next time I'm not telling the neighbor, yeah, I'll help you move, and then be complaining the whole time I'm helping him move. Or don't do it and then duck the neighbor for the next 10 days because I told him I would help him and then I didn't. Are you following that, that kind?

Speaker 2: 21:17

of thing right there. I love the idea of again the two-part statement as well, in terms of stating that the man of excellence right off the bat. That is like a commitment that I'm making. But even to your point, that aspirational statement of I always keep my word, knowing that it will be difficult, but I always aspire to do that, and it gives you a filter in each one of those opportunities that comes through. I mean, there's so many different paths you could take right off of that. With regards to people ask you to do things, you're like hey, yeah, oh, yeah, I'll do that, no problem. And 48 hours later we find out that we didn't get that thing done because we really didn't have the time. Or, frankly, we recognize that it wasn't that important to us. Anything we say yes to, we say no to something else.

Speaker 2: 21:57

Whatever those paths that you end up walking down are very important. So one more question on the book, and then I'm going to dive into you just a little bit. Sure, I often talk about the book test. So someone's going to read your book, and it's been out for a couple of months now. Someone's going to read your book, though, and they're going to go through. You mentioned this. If you go through it twice when you do those things, how much change can happen? But they put it on the bookshelf, like the bookshelf that's behind me, and they see that. They only see the binding, and they look at it. You know, six, eight months later, what do you want them to think, what do you want them to feel when they see that book after they've read it?

Speaker 1: 22:29

I feel like I need to get back into that. So this is the thing it's you never can, you can never get your foot off the gas. So the discipline is the it's a journey, and discipline means that that's. You know that, you do it every day and it'll slip. As a human machine, we know it slips. These things slip. I mean even I do.

Speaker 1: 22:45

I wrote the book right. I've been in the, you know, and if you don't stay on it every day, things slip. You know I'm like, oh man, you know that's just slipped through my fingers, you know, and you let it go because you get busy and things happen and your focus shifts to something else. So I want to keep doing is being deliberate with my focus. Like this thing, this book, really, I mean, if you go through it twice a year, I'm going to tell you. It's like I was telling one of my I have like there's like a 12-year-old that looks up to me.

Speaker 1: 23:11

What do you do? I'm like man, when I was 12, I started reading one Proverbs every day. For whatever day the date was, there's 31 Proverbs. They're like really, I'm like, yeah, I said I've probably read it a hundred times. I can almost probably tell I've never stopped reading every day. I'm going to get in there and find out that you know what unjust weight you know unjust business practices are scamming. Somebody never works out good Like you need to. I would never do that, but people do. They let it slip. People that I knew would never do that. I look at them and then 20 years later they're like you know what I'm talking about, john, where you see somebody, they start out strong out the gate and then 20 years later it's like it's almost like a tire out of round right.

Speaker 2: 23:54

Have you ever had that where your tires like out of it's like a wobbling little Shake your teeth out.

Speaker 1: 23:56

Absolutely Right. But at 25 miles an hour it's not that big of a deal. But when you get on the highway and you're driving to Chicago from Florida and you're doing 80 miles an hour on the interstate, that thing is just, like you said, shaking your teeth. I kind of see that in the human condition. That's what happens if you don't stay on it. That's why I love guys like Nick Saban and Tom Brady so much, because you can win one time Congratulations. I was talking about this to another guy just the other day. When the quarterback, think about this, when the quarterback gets that big, you know, 100 million, 150 million.

Speaker 2: 24:27

Yeah, the second, the third contract, yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:28

Yeah, what happens to their performance as soon as they get it Like this is not made up, it's not anecdotal, there's empirical data that shows when they get the contract. And it's coaches too right. That's why, like Nick Saban, I look at this guy and he's like mad because we just won a national championship but we're already behind three weeks on recruiting for next year. People are you're crazy, like like that's how you have to be. Like Tom Brady. He's like I love Tom Brady because he's Forrest Gump Right.

Speaker 1: 24:53

He got picked last for kickball, he was like one ninety ninth in the draft, publicly Right, but he's a grinder. He's not. He's like me. I'm not talented, I'm not smart, he just grinds Right and he gets coaching and he's a coachable guy. And you just and you stay at it. No one's going to outwork you and you keep working, working and you don't do what he did Like. It's very rare how many of them. There may be another guy that did it, like Joe Montana, or there may be somebody in the future, I don't know. But he 24, seven, with the nutrition and the sleep, rest and the what's you know, honing my skills and and if we want to get to that level, you have to do those things, to you know, to produce that success. And I want long-term success. I don't want to be a flash in the pan.

Speaker 2: 25:37

So you are a man of excellence and you aspire to always keep your word. And you mentioned, like Brady's and Saban's, like they had some rituals or whatever those words, disciplines, habits to be successful.

Speaker 1: 25:49

What are?

Speaker 2: 25:49

those one or two Craig Rochelle calls them cornerstone habits that you do on a daily basis, that ensure that it sets you up for a day of success, or you know that has to happen.

Speaker 1: 26:01

I call them my non-negotiables, right? So, if I set these things up as non-negotiable, and so we talked about the eight cylinders, right so I know. So I just for your listeners if they haven't read the book. The eight cylinders are your spiritual health, your physical health, your mental health, your emotional health, your social health, harmonious relationships, financial health, cultural health how are you affecting the culture? And then your professional health, right? So, in, order and balance is what we should be going for, because there's people that are great in one and then the rest of their lives are like that, tire out of round, right? So I try to. You know, what I do is I have non-negotiables for each of these to stay in bounds. Right so, stay balanced. So every day I'm up when my feet hit the ground, I'm already saying the thing. I say this thing. I've been saying it since like 1997, and it takes me two minutes to go through it, and it's why you know you're doing your morning routine, you're going to the bathroom, you're you know shaving, you're brushing your teeth, you're getting your hair done, and I'm saying these things out loud. So my it's about my identity, it's about who's in charge of the day, and I mean, listen, this is a faith-based show. You don't mind we could talk about it. I say the Ephesians prayer and I say a heavenly nature prayer and then I say a prayer. I declare things over my body, what I want my body to do, right. So I put on my heavenly nature, I'm a participant of the divine nature, and then I want a spirit of wisdom and revealed knowledge, and you know the eyes of my understanding enlightened. And at the end of that Ephesians prayer, in chapter three, he says and that we would be filled with the fullness of God. Right, I mean, if you're filled with the fullness of God, can you get any better? I mean, that's it. So that's what I also pray for my kids and I pray for my wife. And if somebody's mean to me in the street, I'm like, all right, let's just pray for them, you know, but talk bad, let's pray the Ephesians prayer for them. I mean, like you know what I'm saying. So that's one of those things that non-negotiable. And it only takes me like two minutes and then I get up. It doesn't matter what time I have to get three, because I'm going to spend an hour in the Word, in meditation, in what I call private worship right. That's what the Greek word for prayer is. Is private worship right. So I'm going to have my private worship time. It's non-negotiable. It's my spiritual cylinder. I've got to stay rooted and grounded right, and I'm going to be strengthened with might in my inner man by his Spirit, right, that's part of that.

Speaker 1: 28:21

Ephesians prayer, prayer. So I'm gonna do that. And then proverbs is part of the thing and I'm gonna read something, whatever. Whatever is on my mind to read that day, it might be all right, I gotta read. You know, I haven't been to psalm 91 in a while, safety right. Or I'm gonna read something out of the epistles, or I love camping out in the gospel of john, you know, and seeing I mean romans, you can't, I mean like dude, I love him, I could live in in Romans 8 and 12.

Speaker 2: 28:42

All day long, absolutely. John 15, romans 8, all day long.

Speaker 1: 28:47

Right. So we just keep reminding ourselves of those things and then I work out. Now the workout is a physical workout. I mean it's one hour of strength training and I still do an MMA routine in between the sets, so it's a HIIT workout. I get my heart rate up, I'm doing my strength training, I'm also doing my cardio and I'm keeping my fighting skills up, my physical skills, as my heart, one of my hard skills, non-negotiable, I mean it's.

Speaker 1: 29:14

I mean, in fact, it's so hard for me to take a rest day, like some. I mean I, I literally had to make myself take a rest day the other day as I was worn down. I'm like what is going on? I'm like it's been like 17 days since I took a day off from working out, cause that's such a habit, like you have to like make yourself rest, you know, and I don't. I mean I was like I did some cross training, which I would count as rest day, but it's not really, cause my cross training is I throw a, a weighted you know body armor vest on and go for, you know, four mile hike with, you know, with a weighted ruck.

Speaker 1: 29:42

Right so and that's like that's my rest day. I'm like why didn't lift weights today? And I get my kids are like you're like Texas.

Speaker 2: 29:47

Everything is over, done yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:49

Yeah, so that's you know. Then those are those you know. And then every night, every night, I hit the rack. Let's go to bed Sorry, you got to hit the rack at night, right, and I'm reading an hour professional skills every night for an hour. Where would you be in five years?

Speaker 1: 30:09

So, and I studied the neuroscience. I did all that and I found myself. I was on the international stage as the mental toughness guy. I mean. I had in 2019, they, you know, I had this 350 Greek CEOs, the CEO club, the Greece called me and brought me over there for a week of training and Forbes is interviewing me and literally in the Greek, it says this guy wrote the book on mental toughness, I mean. And then you're in Australia doing the Today Extra show, when I had the parenting book out, and all of a sudden you find yourself Like it's not marketing, it's not like a shtick, it's just that you dig this deep well of professional skill knowledge and it and mine, it was neuroscience and psychology, biopsychology, performance science. How does it all you know and and it does mix with theology? Because theology is the study of God and psychology is the study of the soul. So there's a lot of crossover there.

Speaker 2: 31:01

So I love that. I mean, first of all, thank you for sharing that, and I think there are many of those things that people would say they try and they don't have the time to do it, and it's so, so hard to respond with grace to that and ask them where they want to be in the future, but to give them the truth that they need to hear, that they need to become that disciplined and I've had to change many different ways inside of that.

Speaker 2: 31:29

You mentioned the neuropsychology side as well and it's like again, you've gone from this kid who was overweight, bullied in high school to signing up for the Marines, you know, to the special, what we call special forces, or into the police. Yeah, Like, where did the desire, where did the interest for you know the neuropsychology side of it come in and then you made a decision to do that it's kind of always been my obsession, but I really were, I really so the marine corps, I got my physical cylinder under control right.

Speaker 1: 31:55

So I'm 18, I finally get my physical. Then I I meet my smoking hot wife and she was 19 when we got married and I was 21 and I'm a corporal and you know, I'm just like you know, and the Marine Corps likes to keep you angry all the time because you're a warrior, you know, and that's what we're trying to do is just keep you mad all the time. So I would come home and I would talk to her in the same tone of voice, I would talk to my marines and my infantry right.

Speaker 1: 32:19

she's like listen, I'm not one of your marines and if you want to stay with me, you better get that squared away. I got a cast iron frying pan and I'll use it and you have to sleep sometime. And I she's five, three and 110 soaking wet and I thought she was serious. You know I'm like, oh my gosh, I think she's serious. So my target went, uh, suddenly became how do I have a great relationship with my wife? You know what I mean?

Speaker 1: 32:39

Like I don't want my target isn't to be right here. I want to be, you know, have a great relationship. So it kind of started me on the path. I kind of credited her for for because I was like I wanted to be with her more than I wanted to be angry Does that matter? Or I wanted to be lazy.

Speaker 2: 32:53

I wanted to be with her more than you want to be angry.

Speaker 1: 32:54

Yes, yeah, so that, and that's when I do marriage. I'm like, well, this be right, you're gonna be old and lonely dude. I mean, I don't care about being right, I want to be with her, you know. So she kind of really started me on this path. And then, as you begin to, you know, these things started to unfold. And here I don't say like the, the wisdom trail, the, the yellow brick road trail, the revelation, knowledge or understanding. It's progressive. You can't a lot of people be like, just give me the one, two minute tip to get inner armor. I'm like you're asking for like a Zempic shot to be like mentally, you know, armored up. It's there's nothing like that man.

Speaker 1: 33:32

There's just no you know, so.

Speaker 1: 33:34

So I I got that. You know, I'm like I can't be angry all the time I want to. So I started working on that cylinder, right. So harmonious relationships. And then, you know, your thoughts are kind of going crazy. I'm like, you know, there's times where I still have this emotional outbreaks. I don't like that. They're, you know, making emotional decisions. I don't have a process how I think my thoughts.

Speaker 1: 33:50

So I thought, listen, I have a process for marksmanship, right, there's a process to swing in a golf club, there's a process to drive in the car. I should have a process for thinking my thoughts. So I came up with this you know, ordered process. I have a four-step process to think every thought, and that's in the back of the book. I gave it as an appendix, you know, because it's kind of a deeper, deeper teaching. It's not really tacked but it's good. So it's a critical thinking, thought process. I think every thought through this process. And so I could get my mental you know cylinder going.

Speaker 1: 34:20

And once I got that, see, I'm doing these one at a time and I'll tell you my spiritual cylinder got done when I was six years old, right, and then 12, six, I got born again 12,. I decided the word of God's my highest authority, so that that one's taken care of. I know who I am in Christ and spiritual good right. So once you get that done, then I worked on physical. When I got physical done I yeah, I went to social because I was trying to do social without having the underlying. I'm trying to do tactically have harmonious relationships. Fighting my inner, you know, dialogue Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 34:50

So, I'm going to get my my mental done. After my mental, I thought, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm getting older. These are taking a couple of years every time, you know, and I wrote down how, each one, at what age I was one time and there's literally like almost like a four or five year span where you become, where you have mastery of the cylinder and you got to work on that cylinder, you get, you know, you're trying to work on all of them at the same time. You're, you're, you're just not, you're just splitting your focus Right. So I want to build on each other.

Speaker 1: 35:19

A lot of people just want to go straight to financial If I get my financial cylinder right. But I'm telling you that's a disaster because if you don't fix the other ones, the financial ain't going to help you. It just makes you more of what you already are. So we got that and then I got my mental done. I got the emotional done, which was very difficult. The emotional one is very hard to master. It just takes a lot of work.

Speaker 1: 35:39

I mean, you literally have to speak to yourself out loud and get your body on board with this right, because your mind and your emotions will never agree. They just don't. They're like the State Department and the Department of Defense, right. They have different missions, right? So they're not going to agree. So you've got to get your body as a swing boat to get on board or not, right?

Speaker 1: 35:59

So that's why I say you have to dominate your flesh. Well, we already know that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. That means it doesn't mean that flesh is the easiest part to dominate. This is what cracks me up in Christianity. Right, with the flesh, your body is the easiest one to dominate. And we got all these, you know, frat preachers and people were out of shape and they're like, the last time you dominated your body was when you learned how to get potty trained man, you know what I mean. Like. So you gotta, like it dominates your body so that you could renew your mind.

Speaker 1: 36:26

Right, your body's your problem, you know? Oh, I'll just. Could you pray that I lose weight? No, no, stop eating twinkies, man, I love you. Stop eating twinkies, right, you know. So you just kind of get work through that process and that's kind of the journey I took and I my the final cylinder. I left the final cylinder to be last was the financial, because I mean the final cylinder. I left the final cylinder to be last was the financial, because if you're not, I mean the financial is really. I'll say it like this. I said it like this in the book If every dollar has a motion and a weight to it, there's no stability in your life.

Speaker 2: 36:55

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 36:57

Right. So and what is the money about? The money is about capacity. If you don't have my, the money I have is about my capacity to live my purpose and my mission and my identity on all levels.

Speaker 2: 37:08

Right.

Speaker 1: 37:09

Right. So it took me a while, and when I'm talking about the financial cylinder, I'm not talking about making more money or saving more money. I literally and people think you're nuts when I do, when I tell them this but I invested in my financial spiel. I spent $50,000 on coaching from some of the best financial dudes that tell me how does the financing system work? Not investing, I don't care about it. What are the rules of banking? How does that work? On the interest and the charges, they taught me how to move the money.

Speaker 1: 37:40

I raised my kids on $45,000 a year. You know what I mean when I'm starting. I mean I have three kids and they're in high school and they're like how do we do this? I'm like well, a lot of it is. I'm using the system to help us instead of hurt us. But again, who wants to? Are you studying that? Are you just complaining that? The evil football guys? You want to play football. Learn the rules, you know. You know they're not evil, that's just the game, right. So that's kind of the process that I went through. Does that? Does that answer your?

Speaker 2: 38:11

question. I love that again going back into the book as well, even on the thinking side. But the you know, the message that I'm hearing is that, of those eight cylinders that you're talking about, you use the term balance, but if those eight cylinders are not firing in unison in some way, shape or form, you're going to have problems, much like you're going to have with that tire. You're going to have problems and you're not going to have the horsepower that you need. I love the fact that even the eighth cylinder, if you will, of finance can be the fuel to the other seven, the capacity that you have to make those things happen. But, lastly, what I heard is that each one of those requires a certain level of discipline, that you need to make a choice of what you want inside that space and then carry out that plan to make it happen, each one of those. That it doesn't happen through serendipity, it doesn't happen accidentally, it doesn't happen without purpose. In fact, it only happens on purpose.

Speaker 2: 39:07

Often, things that I talk about and understanding again, going all the way back to the start, understanding from that affirmative who I am and who do. I aspire to be all part of that and going through those things, so I'd love that to bring it all together. So you've you've written four books Now. This one just came out a couple of months ago.

Speaker 1: 39:25

Actually, john, I have seven, there's seven. Oh, I see four on, yeah, so now you have seven, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:30

So I have to ask you what the next one's going to be, cause you probably got another one in there. I got.

Speaker 1: 39:33

I got like 10 in the tank, so I got the so three of the one that's fiction.

Speaker 1: 39:37

The first one I wrote is kind of a fictionalized version of my bio. It talks about me being the fat kid and all that, and it talks about some of my missions. And it's fictionalized but inspired by true events, right. And then I have the three I call the Mental Toughness of the Resilience book. I have the Ground Zero Leadership, which is the original flagship corporate coaching manual, seven Secrets of Resilience for Parents. And then I have Inner Armor.

Speaker 1: 39:58

Then on the theology side I have one called Covenant for Rookies and that explains—that was my dissertation for my PhD. It's about the nine-step covenant process that God started with Abraham and finished with Jesus. So if you have any questions, why do we do bread and wine on communion? Why did Jesus have to die on a cross? Why was the virgin birth important? Why did God ask Isaac to be sacrificed? Why? I always had one of those questions growing up. No one could answer. They just look at me like what it just takes. Faith, young man, don't question. I don't think that's how that works, but that's what that book is.

Speaker 1: 40:33

Then the next one I wrote was called Righteousness, god's Equity. And so a lot of people they don't know this, but my dad was a Greek scholar, so he was teaching me Greek when I was 13. And that the Bible, the Koine Greek, was actually a business language, kind of like English. International English is a business language. The only thing they could find that stuff written on now is invoices and contracts. Right, so it's a bit so. Righteousness is literally the word equity, but we've, and so we don't even know what righteousness is. We think it's like a behavior thing, but it's equity. So it talks about. There's equity as in you have equity in an asset in your house, and there's also a whole area of law, a court of equity, and that's how God hands down his judgments. And I take you through the scriptures, very simple, about how judgments get handed down. So when you're under the Ten Commandments that's the law Satan is the prosecuting attorney in a court of law and you're always going to lose in a court of law against the prosecutor. Jesus is your defense attorney in the court of equity and you always win because you just say well, what Jesus did, that's what Jesus did. So that book explains that, and then the one I just had.

Speaker 1: 41:37

It also just kind of came out the same time as Inner Armor, it was called Back to Basics Good and Evil. And I went all the way back to the Garden of Eden, the first time that good and evil show up in the Bible. There's the Hebrew words have 15 components of each, and we explain what evil actually is and what good is. And it blow your mind. It's revolutionary how we call evil good and good evil, I mean. And yeah, like here's the first fifth. I'll just give you some of the evil list. The first one is like adversity. That's literally the first thing. Think about this, before Adam and Eve ate the fruit salad. They only knew good, they only knew beauty, they only knew bounty, they only knew better. As soon as they ate, that all they had was adversity.

Speaker 1: 42:14

They had affliction or sickness. They had worry, anxiety, and worry is, and fear is literally on the evil list. So you know you're like, well, I'm just worried about you. You got to be careful. You know you were literally we're on the evil list. And then you know we find in Psalms that it says that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. So you could even be born again, gone to heaven, but doing evil by calamity and affliction and sorrow and despondency and anxiety, and that's why you can't win in life, because that's what you're doing. God can't help you because you're going around behind his back, right? So that's what that book is. It kind of helps people. So it's kind of a two-prong. There's still that mental toughness, inner armor with all of my writings, but that's what we got out there right now, man.

Speaker 2: 42:56

No on that. On that, evan, andrew, love that. Thank you for sharing that as well. Maybe I went to the wrong page in terms of seeing some of those things, but either way you look at it, folks, this guy is full of energy, full of wisdom and the ability to write and giving you the structures and frameworks in those eight areas of life. Andrew, where is the best place for folks to connect with you and or learn more about you? You write, but you also speak. You're an executive coach.

Speaker 1: 43:26

You got learn more about you. You write, but you also speak. You're an executive coach. You've got a lot of things going on. I do got a lot of things going on. So I have one page special just for the podcast listeners. My website is getwarriortoughcom slash podcast and you'll see all that. It'll be way for you guys to plug in. You guys that are listeners. So it's getwarriortough like a warrior, right Inner armor warrior.

Speaker 2: 43:43

Getwarriortoughcom slash podcast Excellent. Thank you very much, Andrew. I got to finish you off with the same question I always finish folks. I give you the last word and let you know first of all, that I appreciate you adding value to the listeners of the Uncommon Leader Podcast and sharing with us for just a few minutes. But I'm going to give you this billboard. You can put it anywhere you want to. What's the message you're going to put on that billboard and why do you put that message there, Ride?

Speaker 1: 44:05

hard, shoot straight and never lie. So that was. My commanding officer gave that speech in 1989 when I got on board with Weapons Company 36. It was my company commander. Desert Storm that's what he said. A lot of these speeches are long. His was ride hard, shoot straight, never lie. It took me years to unpack that, but so riding hard is being excellent. I'm going to give maximum effort in everything I do. Shoot straight is about skill. I'm going to be skillful when I'm trying to hit my target. I'm going to acquire my target. I'm going to be skillful in hitting my target and, of course, never lie. Don't lie to yourself.

Speaker 2: 44:38

Andrew, thank you Once again. I wish you the best going forward. I would love to stay connected with you. And I hope the folks that listen in will make sure to get out there and connect with you as well.

Speaker 1: 44:47

You're a mighty man of valor, Coach John. Thanks for having me on, brother.

Speaker 2: 44:53

And that wraps up another episode of the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Thanks for tuning in today. If you found value in this episode, I encourage you to share it with your friends, colleagues or anyone else who could benefit from the insights and inspiration we've shared. Also, if you have a moment, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback not only helps us to improve, but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of uncommon leaders. Until next time, go and grow champions.