Order of Man - 126： 7 Principles of Total Focus ｜ Navy SEAL Brandon Webb

00:00:00.000 We are constantly bombarded by stimulus and more than any other time in history, the ability to

00:00:04.860 focus is becoming increasingly difficult. Focus, however, sits at the top of a list of virtues and

00:00:10.200 abilities every man needs to develop if he hopes to experience any level of success in his life.

00:00:15.360 My guest today, Navy SEAL Brandon Webb, joins me to talk about how to make better decisions

00:00:19.160 under pressure, the power of self-talk and visualization, how to become more effective

00:00:24.040 at violence of action, and the seven principles for total focus.

00:00:28.380 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly charge

00:00:33.300 your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You

00:00:38.880 are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This

00:00:45.160 is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said

00:00:50.220 and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:00:53.240 Men, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler, and I am the host and founder of this

00:00:57.880 podcast, The Order of Man. If you are with us for the first time today, I want to welcome

00:01:02.580 you. If you're a veteran of The Order of Man podcast, I also want to welcome you. This

00:01:07.520 is the go-to podcast for every conversation that you'd ever want to have about being a

00:01:12.740 better man, and if we've missed any conversations that you would like to have or you would like

00:01:17.240 to hear, just let me know, and we will make that happen. Each week, guys, I am interviewing

00:01:21.920 the world's most successful men on the planet. I'm finding out what makes them so successful,

00:01:26.000 and then we're delivering that conversation straight to you so you can be successful in

00:01:30.240 your life as well. Today, I interview Navy SEAL Brandon Webb about creating more focus

00:01:34.920 in your life, but before we get into that, I do want to give you a couple of resources

00:01:40.320 that you are going to want to check out. First, if you are listening to this, the day it is being

00:01:45.140 released, we just finished our first ever live meetup in Kansas City. A lot of you guys knew

00:01:50.020 about that, and a lot of you guys attended. We had 75 members of The Order of Man. It was

00:01:55.160 such a huge success, and I know the guys really enjoyed the weekend and, of course, received

00:02:00.580 a ton of value from it. If you weren't there, don't worry. No problem. We are going to be

00:02:04.580 doing more since we know it works now, and we know it's something that you guys want more

00:02:09.060 of, so be on the lookout for that. It has been, guys, a crazy summer. It's been a crazy

00:02:15.340 last couple of months. Two weeks ago, I spent a couple of days in Sundance, Utah, with eight

00:02:21.740 of our team leaders within the Iron Council. If you don't know what that is, you can head

00:02:26.600 to orderofman.com slash Iron Council. Essentially, it's our exclusive brotherhood, but like I was

00:02:32.200 saying, we spent two days hashing out a lot of details and new plans to improve the experience

00:02:37.380 that the 300 guys inside the Iron Council are having. I'll tell you more about that during

00:02:42.400 the break, today during the podcast, but for now, you can check it out at orderofman.com

00:02:46.960 slash Iron Council. Guys, my guest today, I'm excited to introduce you to him. He is a Navy

00:02:52.780 SEAL sniper and New York Times bestselling author. His name is Brandon Webb. I'm absolutely blown away

00:02:58.480 with the caliber of man that this guy is. He spent 13 years with the Navy SEALs. He was actually

00:03:05.020 instrumental in redesigning the sniper SEAL training program, which trained members such as Chris Kyle

00:03:11.160 and some of the deadliest snipers in US military history. And when he left the SEALs, Brandon went

00:03:17.580 on to found softrep.com and Hurricane Media, which is one of the largest media organizations that focus

00:03:24.480 on news and information for the special forces community. When he's not doing all of that, he is

00:03:29.740 an experimental test pilot. As you can see, the man and his resume are impressive, and you'll get a

00:03:36.040 chance to hear exactly what I mean today in my conversation with Brandon Webb. Brandon, what's

00:03:42.160 going on, man? Thanks for joining me on the show today. Thanks for having me. I've been looking

00:03:45.320 forward to it. Yeah, you've got a big book launch today. I thought we would get you on the call to

00:03:49.720 talk about focus, which I think is something myself and probably a lot of men listening to this need a

00:03:54.620 little bit more of in their life. Yeah, the decision to write Total Focus was something I experienced

00:04:00.820 myself as an entrepreneur, leaving the SEAL teams at a time when the whole SEAL brand was blowing up in

00:04:07.960 the media. I had a lot of opportunity. I just lost my first business, which is a whole nother story

00:04:14.920 maybe we could get into on another show. Yeah, it sounds like I went through and researched that a

00:04:20.320 little bit. So yeah, that might be a different conversation, but keep going. Yeah, it was tough.

00:04:24.360 I got out of the SEAL teams at the height of my career and wanted to be around my children more

00:04:30.420 to be a dad. Started a business, lost everything, lost my life savings, got divorced, but still had

00:04:37.320 all these opportunities. And I was just chasing five or six things. And I remember I had always,

00:04:45.200 guys always come to me because the work I did at the sniper program and asked me for shooting lessons.

00:04:51.520 And I just, I remember a guy approached me, a business owner, Todd, and he said, look, I want you

00:04:57.320 to teach me private lessons. I said, look, I just don't do this. He said,

00:05:00.420 oh, let me know your price. And I told him a thousand an hour and he said, no problem. Come

00:05:05.380 up to LA. Okay. I should have charged more, I guess. I know. Cause I just, I thought I would

00:05:11.280 just get rid of them. Right. And it ended up being ironic is that the time I spent with Todd

00:05:16.620 and he owned a Porsche dismantler business. It's a really interesting guy. We got to know each other

00:05:22.600 and he said, look, you know, I don't know you that well, but I know you're smart and you've got

00:05:27.060 these opportunities you're chasing. And it reminds me of myself before I started to focus on

00:05:33.220 my core business. And at the time, you know, he had this conversation with me and it really

00:05:39.340 resonated with me. And he said, if you think of these opportunities, like a big garden, it's like,

00:05:44.400 by the time you're watering that opportunity at the far end of the garden and get back to the first

00:05:50.440 one, it's dead. And he said, it's just, you know, focus on one thing was basically what he said.

00:05:56.060 So it all has to do with, with focusing in and learning how to say no to, to opportunities.

00:06:02.260 And when I applied, that was the first time, you know, I launched my second business and started to

00:06:07.700 have a lot of success and get it over, you know, the seven figure mark and now into the eight figure

00:06:13.600 mark. So the focus is a big part of my life as well as, you know, how we deal with opportunities,

00:06:21.940 but also, you know, how do we focus on what's important to us in life and use a lot of the

00:06:26.740 mental management principles that I learned and taught and lived in the SEAL sniper community.

00:06:33.280 How do those translate to real life, you know, outside of the Navy SEAL teams? And that's what I

00:06:39.820 really hope to accomplish with, with this book, Total Focus was to share my personal experiences

00:06:45.640 and basically translate these skills that I learned in the SEAL teams. And as a Navy SEAL sniper

00:06:50.780 instructor, give people some tools that hopefully they can use. And so is this the seven principles

00:06:56.620 that you go through in the book that you've, you've outlined these principles and these are

00:06:59.840 the principles that you use personally to focus as you built your business to where it is today?

00:07:04.300 Exactly. I'm going to mess up the saying, but there's that common saying, like there's those that

00:07:09.240 those that can do, do, and those that can teach, can't or something like that.

00:07:13.100 Right. Those that can do, do, those that can't teach.

00:07:15.540 Yeah. And so I think that's a line of bullshit because some of my biggest mentors and teacher 0.97

00:07:22.120 in life were experts and they were doers and they were also, you know, teacher mentors. And so 0.96

00:07:28.320 I see a lot of books. I read a ton because I'm a, been a CEO and entrepreneur now for over 10 years

00:07:34.680 and I read, you know, several books a month, but I'm always looking for books that are written by

00:07:40.160 people that are actually doing stuff, not somebody that just had a concept, an idea.

00:07:45.040 Sure. The practical application.

00:07:46.840 These guys, men and women.

00:07:47.760 Yeah. It's that real world experience. And, and that's what I wanted in this book too. So I'm

00:07:53.340 fortunate to be a member of the entrepreneurs organization and I'm in the New York chapter.

00:07:58.960 So I featured them in the book as well. And so, and it's all about real world experiences. This

00:08:05.240 just, this isn't academic. It's about, you know, people that are actually out there doing stuff and

00:08:11.280 what tools are they using to, to, and practices are they using to, to be, be successful. So I feel

00:08:19.120 really good about the book, but it's a first for me because the first one I wrote was The Red Circle,

00:08:23.220 which is my memoir up until leaving the Navy really. And, you know, I'm really proud of that book

00:08:30.560 as much as I've taken a lot of heat being one of the first authors with Chris Kyle and Marcus

00:08:39.460 Luttrell. We were in that handful of guys that were first out the door. And so we, we did take a lot

00:08:46.020 of personal insight.

00:08:47.560 Which seems to have subsided a little bit. I mean, you see a lot of members of the special

00:08:51.140 operations community who have come out and written more books and are more public and

00:08:55.280 doing podcasts and things like that. Has that changed quite a bit since you came out with The

00:08:58.880 Red Circle?

00:08:59.900 You know, it has, it's definitely gone. Because at the time, a lot of guys didn't understand

00:09:06.720 because they were still in, in the, the SEAL teams. And, you know, you're seeing things from

00:09:12.120 a different lens, but when you're outside and have a family to feed and you've got to make a living,

00:09:17.060 you should be proud to be a member of the SEAL community or, or military and just a veteran

00:09:22.100 in general. And it's not something to be ashamed of or leave off your resume. But a lot of guys

00:09:26.980 didn't understand it. And now, thankfully, a lot of guys in my peer group have retired and they've,

00:09:33.800 they've gotten out and they're, they're transitioning and doing good stuff. Like Jocko has a great

00:09:38.740 podcast.

00:09:39.360 I'm glad to see it happen, but inevitably, you know, we come from a very, the SEAL community

00:09:46.260 is extremely competitive inside the military and a lot of traits that may, you know, there's a few

00:09:54.060 guys that I would definitely go to war with at the drop of a hat, but I wouldn't want them over at a

00:10:00.120 family dinner, so to speak. That makes sense.

00:10:02.960 Yeah, I understand. Absolutely.

00:10:04.200 You know, a lot of guys don't make, you know, they transition out to civilian life and they

00:10:09.140 just don't know how to behave and act like professionals. And that's the part that is a

00:10:13.620 little bit frustrating at times. Cause I, I, every once in a while it pops up and I'll, I'll get

00:10:18.820 attacked. And yeah, but the biggest thing is when some 13 year old young man is like, why would this

00:10:24.760 guy do this or say this about you? And I'm just like, look, you gotta just always take the high road

00:10:29.460 and be positive and look at most of the guys you can kind of see either they've got issues or

00:10:35.580 problems, but it's still, it's tough. I won't say it's, it's something that, you know, when it does

00:10:40.080 pop up, it sucks, but it's just something you have to deal with.

00:10:43.000 Well, and I imagine too, this is part of the concept of focus as well, because you can take a lot of your 0.88

00:10:48.200 time and attention and energy focusing on some of the negativity that you're inevitably going to

00:10:52.640 receive, or you can decide to focus on something that's going to be far more productive for not only

00:10:58.060 yourself, but the people you're trying to serve as well. I want to break down some of these

00:11:01.920 principles. I think the first, the first one you talked about was front sight focus. Can you explain

00:11:06.680 what you mean? I mean, obviously this is a military term, but for those of us who may not know what

00:11:10.680 front sight focus is. Yeah. So front sight focus and marksmanship is, you know, when you're lining up a

00:11:18.520 target, whether it's the reticle on a sniper scope or an iron sight on a rifle or handgun, you want that

00:11:25.920 front sight to be clear and focus. And your target is slightly blurry because you're focused just on

00:11:31.800 the front side of the weapon or the, you know, the crosshairs of the sniper scope.

00:11:36.540 Right. Cause the, the, I, I obviously can't focus on multiple things at once.

00:11:40.860 Exactly. And a common mistake people will make is they'll go back and forth, right? Their eyes are

00:11:46.020 going to the target, to the reticle, to the target, to the reticle. So front sight focus is,

00:11:50.540 is that's where the term comes from. And so to stay on target and, you know, I talk about what it was

00:11:55.640 like to be a sniper and get up as a sniper student and take, we had a shot every morning and we get

00:12:03.520 up at 6am and we do a cold bore shot, which is just like a one shot out of a cold rifle and it was pass

00:12:09.880 or fail. And so I translate that to like live every day with that single bullet. And, and I, so I talk

00:12:17.020 about, you know, what it's like to have everything on the line. Also, we had a saying in the SEAL team

00:12:23.220 it's called earn your Trident every day. And I see people, I've seen it on the civilian world.

00:12:28.100 And, and when I was in the military, they, they start off strong, but they don't. And then they

00:12:32.980 just fade and they, you know, they think that it's okay to like do a really good job for the first

00:12:38.280 couple of days. And then they taper off and it's like, look, you've got to really bust your ass 1.00

00:12:42.920 every day to earn your, your SEAL pin. You can't let up like it's, you have to earn it every day. 0.97

00:12:48.600 So that's kind of a big thing about being an entrepreneur and a parent even.

00:12:54.140 Yeah. I mean, I think we see this arrival syndrome, right? Where guys think, oh, because I'm an

00:12:57.660 entrepreneur or because my business is now producing seven figures that somehow I can now coast and

00:13:02.680 everything will be okay.

00:13:03.940 Exactly. They get a little confident and, you know, and as you know, life can kick you in the nuts in a

00:13:10.440 heartbeat.

00:13:11.540 Sure. How do you decide what to make your front side focus? Because there is a lot that we can choose

00:13:17.240 from. How do you decide what it is in your life?

00:13:19.980 I mean, me, it has to be something that I'm passionate about. I've always been into creating

00:13:25.400 content since I was a kid. I grew up on a sailboat with hippie parents. They pull my sister and I out

00:13:30.760 of school and we'd sail to Mexico to South Pacific and I didn't have a TV. So I read a ton of books and

00:13:36.700 I always had these ideas for, for different stories. And so I accidentally got into digital media

00:13:43.500 because I decided to start writing and then I got asked to run a blog for military.com and I never

00:13:49.000 would have thought I would have been doing the business that I'm doing today at Hurricane if

00:13:54.020 you had asked me when I was a sniper. I was like, what are you talking about? Digital media stuff.

00:13:58.000 I imagine it's a little bit different than a previous life for you.

00:14:01.240 Yeah. But I love what we do. You know, we have a, we have the software podcast. We have our software

00:14:05.860 TV channel. It's, that's all web based on an app. We have so much content. And then, you know,

00:14:12.740 the products that we sell, I genuinely love what we do and love that I can take, you know,

00:14:18.500 this last winter, we took five guys over to the French Alps and did this big ski and snowboard

00:14:24.900 documentary that was focused on showing that a different path or outlet for the whole concept

00:14:32.160 was thrills before pills. It was taking guys that could really charge big mountain terrain

00:14:36.880 and interview them as well and, and show that how they use the outdoors as therapy. And so that,

00:14:42.240 you know, doing that was, it was incredible, like indie documentary to, to make ourselves,

00:14:47.500 but the message is really powerful as well. And I just love being able to do that. So I, I would

00:14:52.240 say back to your question is, you know, I, I get guys that ask me all the time, like, I want to

00:14:57.080 start a business. What, what should I do? And the first thing is find something that you're,

00:15:01.300 you really care about because it, it won't seem like work. I mean, you still have to bust your

00:15:05.980 ass, but it will not seem like work because you genuinely really enjoy it. Right. I know I've 0.99

00:15:11.500 even had people ask me like how many hours per day or week that you work. And I honestly, I have no

00:15:16.500 idea because I enjoy what I do. I come down here into my basement and get to work and I'm always busy

00:15:21.580 and I don't know if it ever shuts off for me. My wife could probably attest to that, but I don't

00:15:26.500 consider it like me, you know, punching the time clock because it is something that I genuinely enjoy.

00:15:31.300 You know, I love the fact that what you're doing, especially today, I've seen over the past

00:15:37.760 decade, this kind of wussification for lack of a better term, but look, you can still be a man

00:15:44.080 and be respectful of other people's viewpoints, religion, sexual preferences, but, but you don't

00:15:51.020 have to like hide and scurry away. Like you can still be a man in the 21st century. I've just,

00:15:57.060 but I've seen this, like people are afraid, you know, it's like afraid to open a door for a,

00:16:02.800 for a lady. And it's just like stuff like that, you know, and hats off to what you're doing with 0.61

00:16:07.260 the podcast and your business. I appreciate that. Yeah. Let's move on to the second principle that

00:16:12.200 you talk about, which is situational awareness. We've had a lot of guys talk about situational

00:16:16.240 awareness. And one of the takes and the stances that you talk about in the book is knowing more than

00:16:21.220 you think you need to know. I'd like to hear your perspective on that because in a way,

00:16:25.580 it's almost like a little counterintuitive because you talk about focusing on the things

00:16:29.540 that matter, but then also expanding your reach to things that you might not need to know.

00:16:33.860 Help me understand that and walk us through that a little bit.

00:16:36.140 Sure. So I do want to just really quickly, cause it's such an important thing of whether you're

00:16:41.580 parents, you know, in business management, whatever, but self-talk is one of the biggest

00:16:46.720 thing. And I, it's in the front side focus chapter. We are our biggest enemies when it comes

00:16:52.800 to self-talk and how we think and talk to ourselves in our head. And so I would encourage people that

00:16:58.700 there's a book called with winning in mind. And I, of course, talk about it and, and total focus,

00:17:03.820 but the self-talk is so critical. Like we, and there's, there's things that you can do to kind

00:17:08.640 of counter those narratives where we're thinking of ourselves in a certain way. And generally it's,

00:17:14.080 it's a negative, negative way. Like I'm not a very good golfer. I'm not this.

00:17:18.060 It almost seems like that's the default, right? Yeah. So the self-talk thing, like really

00:17:22.140 developing a habit to, to counter that and, and, and create positive self-talk is a, is a really

00:17:28.540 important principle that I just didn't want to skip over. But the total situational awareness,

00:17:36.060 what I'm really am getting at by that is you, you have to always be kind of, it's like running a

00:17:43.000 business and living life is, is like a chess match, right? You always have to be looking forward and

00:17:48.140 planning your next moves. Because if you just kind of head down and for, there was a couple of years

00:17:54.180 when I started my company where it was, you know, the brands who were advertising online and in the

00:18:02.840 digital space were throwing seven figures around, like it was nothing, like, like a dollar bills at a

00:18:09.400 strip club. It was, it was, and it was like this crazy environment. And I'm like, man, this is great.

00:18:15.940 Like just make some good content, have a little bit of audience and life is good. And then all of a

00:18:22.320 sudden things started to change. And I was noticing that the, the oncoming of Facebook and Facebook has

00:18:30.660 totally disrupted the advertising industry because, because you can spend a dollar on an ad. And if you do

00:18:37.820 your, if you manage, right, you can make two, three, four or five dollars on that dollar spend. And you

00:18:44.100 can't do that with a TV ad or a magazine ad. And so paying attention, you know, for me, as I related

00:18:51.280 personally, I was, I was starting to notice, okay, something is changing and ad rates are now going way, way

00:19:00.020 down. And also on the podcast space, the opposite was happening. Podcast was, you know, only, I think a year

00:19:07.740 or two ago has really been accepted as mainstream, but I could tell it was going to tip as terrestrial

00:19:13.340 radio and even satellite XM. I mean, you can put those satellite XMs and all the new cars you want.

00:19:21.520 People nowadays, they want to access podcast and content on their smartphone, on their mobile device.

00:19:27.220 And they want it on demand as well.

00:19:29.240 Exactly. They don't, you know, they want to listen to it when the show's being piped through a

00:19:34.080 satellite feed. They want to listen to it on demand, you know, put the kids down for the night or whatever

00:19:39.200 and listen to the, listen to it on their way into work. So just, you know, I was noticing all these

00:19:45.240 changes. And if I just sat back and run my business without having this like big situational awareness,

00:19:51.560 I would have just gotten crushed. So that, that's what I'm about, you know, the book is really written

00:19:57.340 for business leaders and entrepreneurs. Um, but there's so much more that can be applied to

00:20:03.460 parenting too, which is, I should write it. I feel like I should write a parenting book because,

00:20:08.180 you know, I feel like very similar. I mean, there's, there's definitely things that cross,

00:20:12.260 I guess my question, when you start to see some of these things going on, whether it's in the

00:20:16.780 entrepreneurial world and you've got Facebook ads and podcasting, because the next point you talk

00:20:21.060 about is violence of action and you talk about getting off the X. So how do you decide to

00:20:25.660 then implement? And I think this is probably the biggest barrier that a lot of guys have is

00:20:30.160 okay. I'm aware of what's going on. I'm focused on what I want now. What exactly? And so a good

00:20:36.400 friend of mine, Kamal Ravikant is a tech venture capitalist. Uh, his brother started AngelList and

00:20:42.520 Silicon Valley and Kamal paid me the best compliment a couple months ago. He said, you know what?

00:20:48.200 Cause he's in a, he's on my advisory board. He's like, you know, what makes you different? It's like,

00:20:52.900 you actually will write down and actually put what I'm, I'm giving you this advice and you'll

00:20:59.080 write it down and I'll see it happen. And like two weeks later, he's like, you actually get shit 0.99

00:21:03.620 done. Yeah. And, and so look, execution to your point earlier is, is a thing. I, I feel like people 0.98

00:21:10.700 are, they get paralyzed. And I remember as a sniper instructor, we'd have these students that

00:21:17.660 we would have a stock field, say it's a mile long and it's very, you know, it's like a football field.

00:21:23.020 So we have one end of the field, they start the other end. We have two instructors like myself.

00:21:28.080 And I know you had Eric Davis on the show who was a counterpart of mine. And so Eric and I will be on

00:21:33.660 the, on the high powered binos and these guys would get into the zone and we, they have to set up within

00:21:40.100 200 meters roughly. And we'll have walkers in the field with these orange hats and radios.

00:21:45.860 And I remember even being a walker, looking at these guys, they get up to the stock position

00:21:51.200 and they spend all this time vegging up and getting ready to take the shot. And there they'll be the

00:21:57.140 first ones up there on a five hour stock and they'll waste three and a half hours just fucking 1.00

00:22:02.440 around and not, they just can't commit to take the damn shot. And so I feel like that's, and it all 0.99

00:22:09.140 comes down to like, they're thinking, Oh, I just got to prep more. I gotta, I gotta make sure this is

00:22:13.480 perfect and it's just not good enough. And the point is, is you've got to put something into

00:22:18.480 action because you're going to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. But the point

00:22:23.400 is you've got to put the plan into motion and just stop messing around. And, and I think that

00:22:30.140 people get paralyzed, whether it's, they are miserable in their job and they just cannot make

00:22:36.480 that move. I see people all the time that they just get stuck and they can't execute. So violence

00:22:42.620 of action is a term we have in the, the SEAL community. And I use it as, and in the special

00:22:48.980 ops community in general, but the whole point is you assault, say we're boarding a ship in the middle

00:22:54.300 of the night, we hit that ship so hard and fast. They don't even know what happened to them.

00:22:59.740 Most of the missions I went on in Afghanistan were like that. Like we'd hit, we'd hit a target

00:23:04.960 with the Norwegians and we hit it so hard and fast and we'd have the element of surprise. 1.00

00:23:10.340 These guys were flex cuffed and before they even knew what happened to them. And then you could see

00:23:16.000 them get pissed off. They want to fight back, but it's too late.

00:23:18.700 Right. They're already subdued at that point.

00:23:20.880 Yeah. And, and, uh, real quick, the, the CEO of Skullcandy gave a talk a few years back and he said

00:23:28.160 when he was an executive at Nike, Nike was scared to death of these small companies because they

00:23:35.060 were so nimble and they didn't have to have 10 meetings by committee to make a decision. They

00:23:40.200 could put a product into market in, in less than a year, which for Nike, it's years and years of

00:23:46.440 planning. And so, you know, there, there's something there too, right? Like when you're

00:23:51.360 to being nimble and fast and putting stuff into motion quickly, I use it as a competitive advantage

00:23:56.860 today. A hundred percent, a hundred percent, especially these small companies going against

00:24:00.580 these behemoth monster companies that can spend billions of dollars and add revenue to promote

00:24:05.900 their products and brands. And then you have even a podcast like this, it's relatively small

00:24:10.340 can now to some degree compete with this because of how nimble and how quickly we can move to market.

00:24:15.320 How do you reconcile this with your fourth point, which is excellence matters? Because sometimes

00:24:20.560 it's not going to be excellent. Like it's not going to be perfect because execution is the name of the

00:24:25.860 game. How do you then balance or strike that balance between the two? Yeah, I think so. And

00:24:30.540 that's a good question. And I honestly think making excellence a habit is it's like we used

00:24:37.360 to train, you know, we'd chart out when these new snipers would show up and I'd say, look, we're going to

00:24:42.680 train to such a high level to when you're, when you haven't maybe been on the rifle range in, in a few

00:24:49.960 months, you're, you'll sink down to this next point of competency, but it's still extremely high

00:24:55.920 because you've, we've trained you and put you in this caliber of, of habit. And so that's,

00:25:04.300 that's something I think. So making excellence a habit. And, and so when you do execute, it's not

00:25:10.180 going to be perfect, but you're going to do things, you know, at a certain level of competency.

00:25:14.660 And so I just think it's an, it is important to balance that, but you can still do things very

00:25:20.000 well and do them quickly. Gentlemen, just a quick timeout to tell you about our elite mastermind,

00:25:27.480 the iron council. Two weeks ago, I spent the weekend with eight of our iron council team leaders,

00:25:32.860 as we spent two days hashing out some exciting new initiatives inside of our exclusive brotherhood.

00:25:38.840 We're going to be releasing more information and details in the coming weeks, but for now,

00:25:42.600 know that it is our goal to create more structure and more resources and more tools to help the men

00:25:48.240 inside of the council, take their health and their businesses and their bank accounts and their bodies

00:25:52.900 and lives to the next level. So if you're looking for a resource of like-minded men, you can work

00:25:59.360 alongside as you become the man that you are meant to be. I want to invite you to join the iron council

00:26:04.620 inside. You're going to operate in a battle team of 15 men. You're going to work on some key metrics

00:26:10.060 and objectives and tactics to enhance your life the way you see fit. And with the addition of our new

00:26:16.480 forum-like platform, you'll be able to individualize your experience in the iron council. If you want to

00:26:22.320 learn more and reserve your seat at the table, you can do that at order of men.com slash iron council.

00:26:27.860 Now let's get back to my conversation with Brandon. And I think this comes back to your point too,

00:26:33.720 when you talked about doing things consistently, like it's not enough to show up for three days or

00:26:39.100 three months or even three years. This is a consistent process developed over years,

00:26:44.600 which I think develops and builds that habit of excellence and improves upon the foundation you

00:26:49.660 already have. Yeah. It's literally the hair on the tortoise, you know, slow and steady wins the race.

00:26:55.420 Yes. You can go out there and do a great job for a little bit, but you've got to maintain,

00:27:00.940 you know, to really, you got to look at it as if the long game. The other thing I talk about in the

00:27:06.220 book that I think your audience would, it would resonate with is mental visualization is so such

00:27:13.040 a huge part of everything that, that we trained to in the, in the sniper program is still something

00:27:18.620 I use today and teach my own kids. And then I'll tell a quick story that was told to me by

00:27:24.400 Lanny Basham, who's a mentor of mine and a gold medalist. He had met this POW on an airplane

00:27:30.780 flying to Egypt and this guy, they got to talking and Lanny was already big on visualization,

00:27:37.960 but not maybe applying it as well as he could have. And so he sat down with this Captain Jack

00:27:43.580 Sands and this guy told a story about how he's a prisoner of war for over four years. He was shot

00:27:48.260 down over Vietnam as a pilot. Eventually he was liberated and they flew him to San Diego

00:27:53.420 at the Arab station, North Island. And there's a big military naval hospital called Balboa in San

00:28:00.100 Diego. And so they were taking these POWs, you know, who looked like hell. These guys were,

00:28:05.240 you know, weighed nothing and they were offloading him on the airplane, driving on a Balboa out the

00:28:10.900 back gate and they drove by this golf course. And this captain had dealt with his captivity in a way

00:28:17.480 where he would play golf in his head. And so he would play all his favorite golf courses for four

00:28:22.780 years in captivity. It's kind of his happy place to go to. And he freaked out when he saw this golf

00:28:30.140 course. He made the ambulance pull over. He's like, look, I've got to shoot a round of golf. And

00:28:34.060 they're like, you're crazy. You know, he's like, let me out of this damn thing. He goes into the 1.00

00:28:38.820 clubhouse and, you know, the guys look at him like, like he looks like a homeless person. And he tells

00:28:45.700 him who he is. And these guys like tear up and they take him into the pro shop. And he says, look,

00:28:51.940 I just want to shoot one game of golf, 18 holes. Fast forward, he shoots, having not picked up a

00:28:58.220 golf club in over four years, he shoots 18 holes and he shoots par. And he's in terrible shape.

00:29:05.540 And these guys look at him like, how is this possible? And he says, I've been playing perfect

00:29:10.900 golf in my head for four years. And so, and I just think that story is so powerful because I've

00:29:18.420 seen, I've taught it and I've applied it to the sniper students. I've seen it in my own life when

00:29:24.580 I took my, I'm a big fan of aviation and fly airplanes as a hobby. And when I took my instrument

00:29:32.040 rating, I practiced the whole thing in my head and had a perfect exam because I had practiced all

00:29:38.040 these contingencies, even stuff that could go wrong that, you know, could possibly go wrong.

00:29:42.720 You rehearse these contingencies and you train yourself and deal with these problems. I mean,

00:29:48.480 public speaking is a big one. People get nervous about speaking in public and you can close your

00:29:54.000 eyes and imagine that happening and you dealing with it successfully before it even happens. So I

00:29:59.720 think the visualization stuff in the book is, I think people will really get some value out of it. 0.50

00:30:04.960 And I imagine too, this really helps with the next point, which is embrace the suck. I know,

00:30:09.320 and I've talked to the guys before about a 60 hour endurance event that I participated in.

00:30:13.880 And quite honestly, there was a few things that got me through that outside of being physically

00:30:17.780 prepared for it. One of the things that really helped me get through that was the visualization of

00:30:24.160 me making a phone call to my kids and telling them that I finished 60 hours. And during the hardest

00:30:30.240 points of that event, that phone call and that celebration is actually what kept me going.

00:30:36.800 Yeah. It's funny how you, you kind of dig in and figure out what drives you. The part that I try and

00:30:44.620 make resonate with people is that, you know, look, bad things happen. I can't tell you how many times

00:30:50.040 people even in my own family who know me, they look at me today and say, wow, you're so lucky.

00:30:55.680 You own an airplane. You live in New York. And I say, wait a minute, what happened like six years

00:31:02.360 ago when I lost my entire life savings? And my wife at the time said, look, I've had enough. You

00:31:08.200 put me, you put me through hell on the SEAL teams. And, but I, and I was at like one of the lowest points

00:31:14.560 in my life. And I remembered thinking to myself, I can look at this and focus on the negative,

00:31:20.760 or I can look at this adverse situation and dig out all the positives. The fact that even though

00:31:27.980 I lost the business, I learned a tremendous amount about, you know, how to read a financial

00:31:32.280 statement, how to choose partners better, how to choose customers better, you know, how to,

00:31:38.480 how to raise money debt, you know, through debt and equity, how to go to the small business

00:31:42.880 administration, get us working capital loan to buy or start a business. And there was all this

00:31:48.340 incredible things that I've learned that came out of, you know, being in this very tough situation.

00:31:55.820 And so now as a habit, I always look at when, when something goes wrong, okay, how can I use this to

00:32:01.480 my advantage? How can I, even recently I'll, I'll tell a real story. I had, I had, you know, we talked

00:32:08.220 about the, the kind of haters out there. I had a guy who's been hate hating on me for years. He's not

00:32:15.140 in a good place. And he wrote this terrible post on Instagram and my 13 year old daughter read it

00:32:20.120 and she was crying. She was crying. Like, why would this guy say this stuff about you? But I said, and I

00:32:25.720 got pissed off and I said, wait a minute, this is a really good opportunity to have a conversation with

00:32:30.560 my daughter and my older son who also read it about life. Like I remember talking to my friend, Mark

00:32:38.080 Harmon, who's, who's an actor on NCIS, incredible human being. And Mark says, Mark told me, he's like,

00:32:45.340 nobody in life, in life that's in a really good place has the time or inclination to say this stuff.

00:32:51.220 Right.

00:32:51.520 But he's like, the point is people, regardless whether you're successful period, you don't have to be an

00:32:57.200 author and write a book. If you're successful in your career or any other place, you will always

00:33:02.760 have people that are in a bad place that will say and do things that are inappropriate. And so this

00:33:08.000 was, I looked at it as a really, a tremendous learning opportunity to teach my own children.

00:33:13.360 And we had a really productive, positive conversation about it. And they walked away

00:33:18.600 from this, having better, being better prepared to deal with going to high school and onto their

00:33:25.300 out in the real world. And so I was like, look, I want my children to be out in the neighborhood,

00:33:31.940 riding their dirt bike on a homemade box jump and eat shit so they can, they can learn, you know? 0.99

00:33:37.500 Right. Sure. 1.00

00:33:39.080 You know, we learn from our mistakes and, and, and we learn from adversity. And so that's what,

00:33:44.200 that's what that whole embrace the suck chapter is about.

00:33:46.980 Well, and I imagine too, with you being able to communicate that to your children,

00:33:50.840 because you talk a lot about too, is, is the team, right? One team and then having one fight,

00:33:56.220 like you're all on the same page, you're all trying to accomplish the same thing. And I think

00:34:00.680 that level of communication with your children in this case will help foster that, that unity.

00:34:06.840 How else would you suggest we do that?

00:34:08.680 You know, the important thing in any leadership to, to rally and get a team,

00:34:12.680 you know, working together as you have to have an objective, you know, in sports, it's easy. You

00:34:18.260 know, if you're on a basketball court, the objective maybe longterm is to, is to win the championship,

00:34:23.180 but you know, game by game, the objective is very clear. You want to go out there and win the game

00:34:29.280 and everyone's on the court trying to accomplish that. I see so many times in the military,

00:34:35.120 in business and politics, nobody knows what's going on. And so nobody can kind of rally around

00:34:41.320 the cause. And it's, it is very, it's, it's that simple. And it's why every year I do an offsite

00:34:47.420 meeting and I come up with the next year's strategic plan for my business. And I let everybody contribute

00:34:53.080 to that. And I say, this is our plan for the year and where we're going, you know, in, in 2018 and

00:35:00.000 when they know it, and it's a very, and it, I think the simpler, the better. And when they,

00:35:05.040 when they know what they're doing and can kind of rally around it, like that's, that's how you get a

00:35:09.940 team focused and working together towards that common objective. And as crazy as it sounds,

00:35:15.520 I remember, cause I have friends and, and politics now, my good friend of mine, Ryan Zinke is the

00:35:20.860 secretary of interior and being around those environments. I was shocked at how some people

00:35:27.900 get to these, you know, political positions and leadership positions in business and they,

00:35:32.980 they don't understand that concept. And, you know, not to get, you know, political, you just look at

00:35:38.000 what's happened in Afghanistan. It's a complete disaster where there is no strategic objective to 0.71

00:35:44.300 Afghanistan. There was at short of the first couple of years we were there. We knew what we 0.87

00:35:49.200 were doing. We're there to, to disrupt the training camps with the terrorists, which we did.

00:35:54.440 And we were going to hunt bin Laden, but we should have pulled all the troops out of Afghanistan after

00:35:58.960 we wiped out the training camps, left a small unit to, to hunt and kill bin Laden. And that's it.

00:36:04.780 Instead, we've invested billions, probably trillions into a country that will never get anything back.

00:36:10.680 And we're going to leave it worse off than, than when we first, first got there. It's just,

00:36:15.360 and it's a huge waste of human life. Like, so I've lost friends, some of the sharpest, finest

00:36:20.820 human beings I've, I've worked with that have given their life up for a country that really is no,

00:36:27.680 and nobody can, I sat down with Mary Walker, who was a former air force attorney general at a,

00:36:33.400 at a dinner full of high powered defense industry executives. And I asked the question, I said,

00:36:39.140 like Mary, cause she was the honorary speaker. I said, look, and this was years ago. I said,

00:36:44.140 I don't understand what we're doing in Afghanistan. Like I don't see a clear strategy and I don't think

00:36:49.620 anybody really knows. And she said, I have no idea either. And that's when it hit me. I'm like,

00:36:54.380 you have to be kidding me.

00:36:55.600 Right. Someone who should know, right. What's going on. And there is no, and that's true.

00:36:59.880 There's no objective. There's no definition of victory in that point.

00:37:02.940 Yeah. And, and it shows up. That's why we're in the situation we are today and with Afghanistan and

00:37:08.260 it, and it's become kind of my generation's Vietnam. It's just, nobody is paying attention

00:37:14.060 that nobody put a plan in place. And I just hope that we get leadership, like, like the Churchills

00:37:20.400 of the world and the Teddy Roosevelt's who can put a very simple plan in place. Even JFK was,

00:37:26.720 you know, we look at JFK was responsible for founding, not only the SEAL teams, but for really putting that

00:37:31.920 narrative in place and setting the challenge to put a man on the moon, you know, and that's a very

00:37:36.980 simple goal that everyone can get around. And we did it, you know, because America is still

00:37:41.520 the greatest country on the planet, but that's how important, you know, bringing it back to whether

00:37:47.140 you're a parent, you know, a leader, a manager, an entrepreneur, you have to lead with those simple

00:37:56.240 narratives and strategies that get people, the simple goal even to get people to rally behind. And that's

00:38:03.580 why even with my own kids, I, every Christmas we meet, I'm like, all right, what's your goals for the

00:38:09.600 year? You know, and it could be, yeah, I want to make, I want to make the soccer team, but I make them

00:38:14.580 plan it out.

00:38:15.680 And I think this leads to that last point, which is leading from the front too, right? Because if you look at

00:38:19.920 leadership just in society today, I think it's a lot of pushing, right? Oh, go do this, go do that. We want you to

00:38:25.180 accomplish this. We want you to accomplish that. Yet, when you ask that leader, or even take a look

00:38:29.180 at the example that leader is providing, they're not leading from the front. They're not willing to

00:38:33.240 do what they're asking their quote unquote followers to do.

00:38:36.120 Exactly. And that's, that's a huge point. And there was a, there's a couple of different means

00:38:41.140 out there that were, that show the difference between a boss and a leader. And I think I,

00:38:45.380 the one I like best is, you know, it shows a picture of a boss and either in the chariot,

00:38:50.360 whipping the people in front and the leader, the leader, yeah, the leader,

00:38:55.180 picture is, you know, the person like in front dragging this, this cart with the team. And,

00:39:01.180 and that's how I, you know, that's how I led in the military as a chief petty officer. That's how I

00:39:07.260 lead my business today. Even with my kids, like they know that I'm, you know, dads may ask them to

00:39:12.880 take the trash, but he's not afraid to take the trash out himself. You know, I remember at our offsite

00:39:19.680 last year, I was in there cleaning up the kitchen and I'm not above that. And I think that's,

00:39:24.600 that's a good example for, you know, your team member, employees, whatever, if you're willing

00:39:30.000 to roll your sleeves up and get dirty with them, you know, that goes a long way to, to winning their

00:39:34.760 respect. And they know if the time comes that you ask them to do something that, that they know that

00:39:39.880 you're, you're not afraid to, to do that work yourself means a lot.

00:39:44.600 That's for sure. Well, Brandon, we're winding down on time. I want to ask you some questions

00:39:48.480 as we do. The one that I had talked to you a little bit about is what does it mean to be a man?

00:39:53.400 Sure. Great question in today's environment.

00:39:56.560 Yes, absolutely. One that we need some answers to for sure.

00:39:59.940 Yeah. You know, I mean, just asking me off the cuff, you know, I think, you know, being a man

00:40:05.500 is leading, leading by example. It's being a man of your word, being a loyal friend and,

00:40:13.020 and family member. It's being positive, you know, having, you know, the, the utmost integrity and

00:40:19.360 always taking the high ground. That's what, you know, I was, I grew up, one of my first jobs on a,

00:40:25.080 was working on a scuba diving boat. And I had a, fortunately, these sea captains that,

00:40:29.460 that really taught me about setting the example and, and being, you know, that exemplary leader.

00:40:34.700 So important. So, you know, off the top of my head, that that's what being a man is. And I think

00:40:39.520 the world in this country needs more men who aren't afraid to, to be a man. And, you know,

00:40:46.620 it, it look, feminism is fine, but the definition of feminism is equality. And I think what I've seen 0.99

00:40:53.740 over the past couple of years is this, this whole demasculization of men. It's like, no, it's,

00:40:59.480 it's okay for women to be on equal playing field, but it's okay to be a man as well and still 0.96

00:41:04.120 respect women, respect people of other religions and, and sexual preferences. And you can still

00:41:11.020 be a man and do all that. Wholeheartedly agree. Wholeheartedly agree. I appreciate you sharing

00:41:15.000 that. Um, how do we connect with you? How do we get the book? How do we connect with you? Learn

00:41:18.000 more about what else you've written and what you've been up to? So my website is brandontylerwebb.com.

00:41:24.200 That has all my books on there. We also have a, a survival tactical gear club for men called the

00:41:30.280 crate club. Um, it's crateclub.us. The guys and I put a lot of effort into selecting really cool

00:41:36.360 products that go out in that box every month. And you can get that again at crateclub.us.

00:41:42.160 You know, my books are on Amazon and my author site. You guys can keep up with me there.

00:41:47.020 Right on. We'll, uh, we'll link all that up in the show notes, Brandon. I appreciate you

00:41:50.260 taking some time. Uh, I appreciate your work. I appreciate your service to our country. And of

00:41:54.460 course your, your wisdom that you're imparting with us today. Thanks for coming on the show, man.

00:41:57.980 Yeah, Ryan, anytime, man. I appreciate it.

00:42:00.280 Man. If you want to learn how to better focus in your family life, your business life,

00:42:06.520 or just life in general, I'd encourage you to pick up a copy of Brandon's book, total focus.

00:42:11.500 You will not be disappointed. And you can do that on the page for this show at order of man.com

00:42:16.560 slash one, two, six as an episode 126. In the meantime, make sure you do two things right now.

00:42:23.240 First join our exclusive brotherhood, the iron council at order of man.com slash iron council.

00:42:28.480 You're going to find 300 other incredible men to bandwidth to help you accomplish life on a bigger

00:42:33.540 scale than potentially are right now. Also keep an eye out for future order of man meetups and some

00:42:39.600 very cool new resources that we will have coming online in the next couple of weeks. I told you two

00:42:44.560 things, but I've got three. This is the last thing. If you would, I don't ask for this very often,

00:42:48.720 but please, please, please leave us a rating and review on iTunes. We read every single one of those

00:42:54.740 reviews and there you go a long way in spreading the mission of the order. So we'd appreciate it

00:43:00.380 if you would take a couple of minutes to do that. Guys, I will look forward to talking with you on

00:43:04.200 Friday for our Friday field notes, but until then take action and become the man you are meant to be.

00:43:10.820 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life

00:43:15.440 and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

00:43:24.740 Thank you.

Order of Man - August 15, 2017

126： 7 Principles of Total Focus ｜ Navy SEAL Brandon Webb

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