BE A PRO

what's up boys got a bunch of Q&A we were going through and I got asked to do a to do a talk for a football team in West Virginia and I am more than obliged to go out there and help out the boys and talking to the coach via email I like well what do you want to talk about he's like team building resiliency uh Team above self group above the individual the whole thing just building a better team guy not a Navy SEAL just a team guy a team player someone about the group and

I wrote down this stuff a long time ago and I'll date time stamp it so Manny can see it but I uh I took down a bunch of notes right when I got through Green Team and basically a bunch of Pearls of Wisdom got launched out at me I started writing them all down basically just a bunch of bullet points and it turned into a speech that I kind of tell be a pro and I went back and I gave it to the guys at Team 10 after I'd been at the command for a little

bit they were having a string of DUIs and [ __ ] was getting bad you know guys were getting loes of dayso and they were kind of [ __ ] about and I went back to try to remotivate the group for why you're actually there and just a bunch of stuff about just realigning the focus a lot of guys you know they go through bad leadership Trends and starts to eat away at the collective and guys start to lose motivation why they're actually there and they they just forget guys on SWAT teams forget guys playing

the NFL they forget why they are actually there a lot of the times so sometimes you just have to bring in a dude to remind everybody so that's what I did and I went in and I literally I went line by line and we had you know 3 4 minute conversation about each individual topic and there's 23 of them so we might not get through all of these things but we'll at least touch them all and then this is funny enough it's September 19th 2012 that's why I have this we just come back from a

rotation and I wrote down basically 10 bullet points on each of these how to be a better team guy how to be a better husband how to be a better father and I wasn't a father at the time so it was everything I guess in hindsight that I wish I had growing up or just what I what I hope to Aspire to be and I wrote everything down and it's funny because it was on an old iPad from like 2010 it didn't even have Bluetooth so I can't even sync it to a new device it's

all [ __ ] up but I literally took a picture of my phone but I still got the day time stamp on it so it's uh it's cool so we're go down memory lane we'll kind of start knock them all lot I think everybody will kind of get a a choke a lot of some of them but for a lot of the dudes it's going to be echoing a lot of stuff you guys do I think people who you know birds of a feather flock together so I think a lot of the guys that really

like beating the the war drum that me and Cole do it's because you're just like us at the end of the day it doesn't matter what your background is I mean we have [ __ ] accountant of the exact same mindset that we have so it starts out I I got that from one of the guys that I was fortunate enough to grow up under when I I got to the command he was a wcky team leader and he was a bad [ __ ] dude he was awesome and not going to get into everything

that dude did but he did a [ __ ] ton and he basically gave a pep talk one day about be a pro and that's what he said he's like at the end of the day be a [ __ ] pro at 2:30 in the morning I come banging on your door you better spring out of bed a pro it doesn't matter like be a pro I need to be a pro right now I need you to lock it on and be exactly what everybody expects you to be and when he said it it it

kind of clicked he's like I need for you to look exactly like what everybody thinks when you walk into a room and present yourself I need for everyone to go that's exactly what I thought that dude would be when they see you on the flat range I need for you to perform exactly the way they expect you to perform not some half-ass attempt not some my gears sloppy and lose my mags are falling out and it look like some bag of [ __ ] like I need for you to be the dude but but I

need view to be an absolute Savage at the same time I need view to never see it in black and white everything is gray we must find a way because everything is gray I need you to be a pro work the problem continuously exhaust all options until you say it can't be done but I can do this right be a pro in everything you do so I went through it in my little introduction I give him a background of myself kind of the whole way through where I'm from I was like I joined a Navy

at 17 years old old and I was a [ __ ] punk man I didn't I didn't know any better that's that's all I did I was kind of Raised by Wolves so I I talk like that and a lot of it came off not as an arrogance but almost as a a little bit of entitlement because I grew up in the teams and so I felt like I was already there and I wasn't and I got the [ __ ] beat out of me and it was the best thing that ever happened to me

so you got to earn your seat at the table you're not giving [ __ ] at Birth so let's yeah I said I didn't have a lot of good Role Models growing up had I had some exceptional people that I could model myself after and we could emulate but a lot of them in that time frame they didn't know how to knowledge transfer they didn't share information worth of [ __ ] and you had to literally just study them you had to study human moves and watch what they did their whole process because if you

asked them a lot of the dudes didn't know like why do you mount your vertical grip on your gun why are you holding it like this and not vertical like everybody else why is yours farther out and why are all those guys right back by the magazine like I don't understand and they don't know they're like well it feels more comfortable and they leave it at that it feels more comfortable okay well then years later you meet a same dude just like that guy but you ask him the same question why do you put your

vertical for why are you still running that nobody holds it like this why are you using a cat clamp grip and he talks about the process and he talks about because it makes my support grip similar to my pistol and that way Everything feels the same it feels more natural for me so for my process it gives me more confidence in this because I feel more connected to it when that guy said that [ __ ] I went that's the same thing I've been looking for I need to emulate that dude his speech his thought

the spoken word the ocular cues everything that comes out of this dude's body I'm just absorbing it because it's exactly what I needed to finally hear holy [ __ ] I didn't have that for a long time D we made it up we literally just we made it all up we didn't we didn't know any better we just trialing error man and getting super lucky and fortunately we're all still here but a lot of that [ __ ] was just you were Pioneers like I hate to say that but there was no guide there was

nobody to really show you how because the war was so new and Technology was advancing it so [ __ ] fast and so was the enemy that you didn't have time to come back and really information share it was kind of in your own little team and I don't think that's really the best method anymore now I go on to say that I'm not here because I know more than you I'm here because I give a [ __ ] and and I think that is one thing that is probably the best compliment I have ever

gotten is a guy I used to work for a couple years ago told me that I give a [ __ ] more than anybody he's ever worked with and that's probably the nicest thing anybody's ever said to me because I do I genuinely give a [ __ ] and I pride myself on it like I care I'm going to go the whole way and I'm going to go with this thing at nausey until you understand it as well as I do or better than I do hopefully because I do give a [ __ ] because

I know what's on the other end of it and I know that it all matters so kind of the transfer like that's really kind of my process now and that's really where I kind of dive into because we do if you know me and you work with me one time ever you'll know I give a [ __ ] cole really really cares man he does so it's nice surround yourself with people like that and you'll be better off for it um so not all of this is what I do now but all of this is

what I did then go through Evolutions so number one stay on topic act like a pro on and off duty hours it's hard to do dumb [ __ ] when you're being a pro don't go admin in public do it at home where it is safe that translates stay on topic I am thinking about work 247365 anytime that I am not on topic I am taking a break from the topic if I'm going to go get my fingernails painted with my nine-year-old and she's going to put my hair in pigtails I'm going admin and I

am not doing it in public I'm not I'll do that [ __ ] at home because I representing the group at all times I'm not going to be shitfaced at 2:30 in the morning get thrown out of a bar wearing a gbrs t-shirt because that does not benefit my group that was be a pro I can go out and I can drink two beers and I can milk those [ __ ] all night long I can be a social butterfly I can dance I can do whatever I want to but I am not [ __

] face I can still operate a vehicle I can shoot a firearm even though I'm not going to be carrying one because that's illegal but I can work through all those process my my senses are never going to be so numb to where I can't fight myself out of a situation I can't drive myself out of a situation render first aid talk to local law enforcement diffuse the situation the whole thing I'm responsible 247 365 I'm I'm running around with little people right like I'm running PSD all day long and so are you whether you

want to believe it or not so I don't I don't think you should go admin if you want to go on a dude's trip and go to Vegas and burn that [ __ ] down the Bellagio and stay inside the Bellagio I say send it I do not recommend get behind a wheel of a car and [ __ ] driving anywhere because it will not end well it won't going to a bar smashed like it just it never ends well and that's always the story is there some kind of excess involved and it's usually boo

so I tend to limit myself I mean I haven't been drunk in [ __ ] over a decade so I'm still on that same kind of path I just don't do it I don't like the way it makes me feel I think it resets my physical clock too far to the left and I feel like I undo the entire week's work if I burn it down the weekend so I still I'll drink four drinks but I'll space out over eight hours I drink a [ __ ] ton of water in between I mean that's just

me but that's me that's staying on topic I'm thinking about work I'm thinking about my physical conditioning and how it affects the entire Collective all the way through and we'll talk about that how it applies to the team SWAT team the football team everything else number two your circle of Readiness we got this from seak tactical those guys have some of the best mindset Development I've ever heard they changed a course of my life and my team life and everything else but the awareness the preparedness and the willingness and then we go through what all

that means so my awareness my situational awareness how I process everything in the room how far I am off that wall how far I'm away from that door how many people are in this room and what are they potentially doing we're running through it all all day long I'm just processing information and that's what you do my situational awareness is just spiraling but it's not consuming I'm allowing it to come in I'm not being overcome by it my preparedness is how much time I have dedicated to prepare for any one of those things that can

turn into a dangerous situation if Manny Goes Ham right now and comes at me have I done everything over the last you know long period of my life prepare myself to deal with that do I have the tools on me to deal with it do I have something in proximity that I can deal with that I got to be able to work that process all day it doesn't matter if I'm at the mall it doesn't matter if I'm at Ruby Tuesdays getting a salad at the [ __ ] salad bar it doesn't matter I got

to be able to run it all and then my willingness is to actually do it that is the one no one talks about that is the great equalizer because a lot of the times you can skip the first two if you're just super willing like there are soccer moms out there right now that'll throw you through a [ __ ] window claw your eyes out all the way to the ground and never Flinch if you try to touch your kid they are willing to go the whole way right now at a moment's notice and I

love it but if you don't have those conversations if you have never thought about it if you have never thought about what it is going to be like to try to fight for your life actually and how far you're really willing to go there is a delay in getting to the Tipping Point where you have to go so we had that conversation it's already escalated in my mind I've already thought through the entire process I've thought about the chemical reaction I think about my breath I think about all of it I build it into my

mind when I train so when that thing happens I've done that 300 times we're good I can process information super fast awareness prepars and willingness go right so that's really it knowing that Readiness Circle and just staying inside of it staying on topic if you're a SWAT team guy you are a representative of that team of your city every [ __ ] day day we stay on topic like I'm not getting drunk I'm not wearing my team hat getting [ __ ] face thr out of a bar nope not going to happen right it's the

same thing for football players you guys see that [ __ ] all the time in the news if you had them buy into the team more I'll tell you who you don't see you don't see normally people that have been on the same team for 20 years do that not notoriously because they understand it use Kobe Bryant that dude live that [ __ ] the whole time I mean yeah man when you put the team above everything else it really kind of lines out everything and then they become potential obstacles that you just avoid because

at the risk of losing your position life your position in the team it's just it's not worth it your family your job whatever it might be it's not worth it so I'm going to stay on topic I'm a banker I run a hedge fund blah blah blah I am on topic I'm chipping away at that and if I come off topic it is a it's a dial down a full switch off right number three it's time to teams number three nobody wakes up a pro you have to train every day you have to fight you

have to shoot you have to stalk you have to watch people you have to navigate human terrain so exactly what it says like when that was my profession when that is what you do for the military that is what you were expected to do I'm expected to fight shoot stalk train do everything inside of that Gambit at a super high level because you never know when they're going to ask you to and there is no warmup it's like hey can I get 48 hours to go practice again it's not like that for most people there

is no warmup there's just go so we got to constantly do it without overdoing it I that's kind of where I I Trend now is there's a there's a method to the madness and you can do a ramp up to where you don't have to necessarily Plateau you can incremental build but you're not going to Cascade off the side you're not going to burn out fast nobody wants that we don't want you to burn out in 10 years we want you to be that dude who's cranking this [ __ ] out into his 70s just

adopt it into your lifestyle and you can maintain it number four conduct yourself out in town as if you're being watched at all times because you are exactly what it says yeah man number five ask yourself if you're going to give today 100% if you're not stay in bed team doesn't need you I don't need anything less than 100% we got Tom Valentine's kids out there he was a a blue team guy that unfortunately passed away in a training accident in 2008 but he is famous for a saying that he used to use him team

at what level are you willing to participate and his reply was Allin all the time just that all in all the time