499: Squelch The Noise. Disciplined Frameworks to Avoid Manipulation.

>Join Jocko Underground< https://www.jockounderground.com/subscribe How overreacting to headlines, battlefield reports, or business setbacks creates unnecessary panic and poor decision-making. Using the analogy of a “squelch” button on military radios, he explains the need to filter noise, assess information logically, and avoid emotional responses. Leaders must detach, gather reliable intel, and act with calm deliberation. From combat to media consumption, Jocko emphasizes processing input through disciplined frameworks to avoid manipulation, maintain perspective, and preserve credibility and mental clarity in chaotic environments. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is Jocko Podcast number 499 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo. Good evening. So I see a lot of people freaking out about things on a kind of regular basis. People reacting, people overreacting, even in some cases, panicking based on what they hear, what they see, what they think, the way things are presented to them. And that's not good. By the way, in combat, that's a disaster. In combat, that's a disaster. If you're freaking out when something happens, it's a disaster. But it's not just a disaster in combat.

• 0:41Jocko Willink?

  It will cause problems in business and it'll cause problems in your life, too. One of the things that you have when you have a military radio, and they don't have them anymore. They don't have a digital version of it. But have you ever heard of a squelch button before? Yes, I have. Yeah, so a squelch button on the old radios that we used to have. There was a squelch knob and you would turn that squelch knob to get rid of the white noise. Like, white noise is a lower level signal that's coming through the air at all times. And you don't want to hear that white noise. You don't want that in your ear.

• 1:23Jocko Willink?

  So you turn that squelch enough so that it blocks any of that lower level noise. You don't hear it anymore. But then when someone else on that same radio frequency keys up their radio, it breaks through and you can hear what their communication is. So that's what you do. You adjust it so that you can't hear the white noise because the white noise doesn't mean anything. It's just noise. It's just causing distraction. It's breaking your concentration. And also, it's drowning out the other important sounds. Because if you've got white noise and then someone makes an actual radio call, you might not hear it because it didn't break squelch. It was already in there. It's just mixed in with everything else. So as a leader and as a person, you've got to figure out a way to...

• 2:08Jocko Willink?

  To do that same thing for the various inputs that you're getting from the world. And there's a lot of them. There's definitely a lot of them. You got, you gotta figure out what matters and what doesn't matter, what's important and what's not important.

• 2:24Jocko Willink?

  And this is a skill that you, you kind of have to develop. This isn't something you're just naturally going to be born with. You know, as a human being, you're gonna, as an animal, you're gonna like be paranoid and pay attention to everything.

• 2:38Jocko Willink?

  On the battlefield, there's a lot of things going on. There's, you, you're gonna have some kind of problems, right? You're gonna have enemy movement, you're gonna have friendly movement. You're gonna be getting reports over the radio. You're gonna get updates for the operation. You're gonna get, enemy contact's gonna happen somewhere.

• 2:56Jocko Willink?

  Timelines are gonna get shifted and changes. Intel's gonna come in while you're in the field. People are gonna be crossing phase lines at various moments. Execution checklist is gonna be getting executed. Adjacent units are gonna be sending up their reports. So there's gonna be a lot of things that are happening out there. Lot going on. And you have to learn to apply that, that squelch to things that, that aren't going to impact you. Now, it's important to say that you can't just ignore them, right? This happens on a radio as well. If you turn up that squelch too much, nothing will break through it. So now I've just silenced everything. Oh, everything seems quiet. Yeah, because no one's breaking squelch. So you can't crank it up to where you can't hear anything else.

• 3:40Jocko Willink?

  That's like a form of target fixation. But you gotta turn it up and then you back it off until it breaks. Then you put it back and you go back and forth. But you have to, you, you can't pay attention to all those things that I just listed. Simultaneously with the same level of care about each and one of those things. Enemy movement, friendly movement, reports, updates, enemy contact. You can't, because there might be an enemy contact that's five or six sectors away. Do you need to know about it? Do you think you need to know about it?

• 4:11Speaker 01

  Feels like you do, but if it's far away.

• 4:13Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, you kind of need to know, but you don't need to focus on it. Like you might recognize that if I call the QRF right now, I might not get them very quickly because there's another, another element in a contact a few sectors away. So that's just, you just have to, as I say, sometimes noted, right? You gotta be paying attention. You've got to put it into the, you know, that's why you say Roger, right? Roger, I understand. There's, there's an enemy contact with a friendly unit a few sectors away. It's not going to interfere with my operation at all unless I need QRF or unless I need CASVAC. So those are things just to keep in mind. So if I'm thinking I might have to call QRF, if I'm thinking I might need to call a quick reaction force and I know that there's another element that's engaged,

• 4:57Jocko Willink?

  I might call it a little bit sooner than I would if I knew I had them on standby immediately. So those are the kind of things you gotta pay attention to, but I'm not asking for more information. I'm like, what, how many enemy fighters are there and are there any casualties yet? And what maneuver elements are, are entering the field? Like I'm not asking for amplifying information. I'm just taking it in and it's noted. And, and it might increase, right? So I pay attention to it a little bit, but things might change. The enemy might start maneuvering in our direction. Or there might be a helicopter now entering the zone or what started off as like small arms fire,

• 5:41Jocko Willink?

  now has escalated into some kind of a complex coordinated attack. I need to know about that. Because now I know if I call for QRF, they might not be coming because they're going to be over in this other sector, dealing with that massive problem.

• 5:56Jocko Willink?

  So when you turn up the squelch, you can't turn up the squelch until it blocks everything out. And you've still got to pay attention to these other things.

• 6:04Jocko Willink?

  But you can't let them distract you from what's actually happening. Now, this is, this is very, this is adjacent to the thought, which we've talked about before, that the first report from the battlefield is always wrong. Now, that's an extreme statement, right? And usually this, this quote is attributed to Patton. Uh, the first report from the field is always wrong. I wouldn't say the first report is always wrong, but I would say the first report from the field is not going to be completely accurate. At a minimum. Now, why is it that a report from the field, the first one,

• 6:47Jocko Willink?

  and the second one, and the third one, why is it that you have to kind of pay attention to those and not commit a hundred percent when you hear a report from the field? Well, first of all, when you get a report from someone from the field,

• 7:00Jocko Willink?

  that's coming from one person. It's one person that is seeing something happening. It's not corroborated with anybody else. It's wrapped up, by the way, with a bunch of fear, with a bunch of stress, with a bunch of anxiety, which means it's already amplified.

• 7:20Jocko Willink?

  And that person only has their perspective. So if it's just their perspective, it's inaccurate. Because there's a lot more things. So when you're getting mortared,

• 7:33Jocko Willink?

  when you're getting mortared, you're sitting getting mortared. I've been sitting getting mortared before. And when you're sitting getting mortared, the whole world could be getting mortared.

• 7:44Jocko Willink?

  You might as well feel like you're the whole world's getting mortared. And I haven't been in like a world war, not even in the same realm as a world war one artillery bombardment. I'm talking taking some mortar rounds. And by some, let's say, two or three mortars at a, at a crack. But when those mortars are inbound. And you know that they're coming your way? You you might as well, like, it feels like you can't, you can't accurately judge what the, what is happening in the world. All you know is we're getting mortared.

• 8:19Jocko Willink?

  So if I was to call you and you were headquarters and I'm like, we're getting a mortar barrage right now. Well, what does that actually mean? Does that mean three mortars are going to hit in my vicinity and they're 60 millimeter mortars, which are not even anything comparison to a 120 millimeter mortar? Like, there's totally different things. So.

• 8:40Jocko Willink?

  But when I'm calling you and telling you, I'm getting more, we're getting more than right now, like, what's your reaction?

• 8:46Jocko Willink?

  Is your reaction, okay, we need to send a casualty evacuation? Do we need to get aircraft overhead to try and identify the mortar position, these enemy mortar positions? Well, no, because the fact of the matter is we're only going to get three mortars. And then they're going to be gone and the people that shot the mortars are already in a vehicle and they're driving away, so it doesn't really matter. So what we have to do as leaders, we gotta, we gotta.

• 9:11Jocko Willink?

  We gotta take a wrap off. Have you heard that expression before?

• 9:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, from you.

• 9:15Jocko Willink?

  Okay, you heard it from me. You think it's a civilian expression at all? Take a wrap off. I think it might be. It means calm, freaking calm down is what it means. Take a wrap off. Another translation for that could be detach a little bit. Take a, take a step back and process. What is actually happening now? Now, listen, everything that I'm saying right now, look, we're talking about combat, but I'm going to get into how this applies to everyday life. But the, there's the, there's a army manual. Army Techniques Publication ATP 2 Tac 01 dot 3 Intelligence Preparation to Battlefield.

• 10:01Jocko Willink?

  IPB, it's a real buzzword back in the day. IPB, IPB, Intelligence Preparation to Battlefield. And they break down a process in that manual. Of, of how you bring information and intelligence into your world and make sense of it.

• 10:21Jocko Willink?

  So according to the manual, IPB is described as the quote, "The systematic process of analyzing the mission variables of terrain, enemy, weather, and civilian considerations in an area of interest to determine their effect on operations." That's, that's a long way of saying they're trying to figure out what it's, what picture is being painted. And some of the steps that they have are, number one, identify and intake relevant data, determine gaps, initiate collection. So you're going to look at the picture. You're going to intake relevant data and the first thing you're supposed to do is determine like, what are we missing? That's the first thing you're supposed

• 11:00Jocko Willink?

  to do. What are we missing? Which is an incredibly simple, yet, yet profound technique. When you hear something, instead of reacting to it, react by saying, hey, what are we missing? What an incredible process. We hear something, we see something, instead of making a judgment about that thing, instead say, hey, what, what are we missing here? What are the gaps? And once we figure out what the gaps are, then we initiate collecting, collecting so that we can fill those gaps. So we're trying to paint a more clear picture. That's step number one. Step number two, analyze and process data for operational impact. Okay. So now we've, we're starting to

• 11:41Jocko Willink?

  collect this information. And then the last one is refine and corroborate threat models using processed data. So that's the last thing that you do, do. You're actually going to process and refine it and corroborate it over and over again. And, and, and what's important is this whole process is an ongoing process. It, it goes on and on. It's continual refinement. They say here, this is a quote from that manual, quote, "A key aspect of IPB is refinement. The conclusions made and the products developed during IPB are continually refined throughout the operation.

• 12:24Jocko Willink?

  This information is incorporated into the running estimate as new information is obtained and further analysis is conducted during situation development. This refinement ensures that the commander's decisions are based on the most current information and intelligence available."

• 12:42Jocko Willink?

  What that says to me is another good, simple, yet profound way of thinking is to never think, I know something. I know this is what's going on. I know this is what we're dealing with. That's, that's not happening. In fact, there's a funny expression that we were taught in the SEAL teams to use, which is appears to be ATB. And this was a huge deal because if you were passing information, intelligence, so we're out doing a reconnaissance out there and you're, you're looking at a target site. And we're out in this target site and you'd see, and by the way, these are training operations that I'm talking about.

• 13:25Jocko Willink?

  You'd be out at a target site and you know, they'd set up these cool targets and there'd be, you know, they'd, they'd make fake missiles. You know, face fake ground to air missile. And you'd see them pull it out on like a trailer and these guys were bad actors, but they're SEALs, but they're acting like bad guys, right? And they pull out the, the trailer with a missile looking thing on it. And you know, as a new guy, you write back, hey, they've got a, they've got a surface to air missile, you know, that's on a launch trailer.

• 13:54Jocko Willink?

  And what they teach you really quickly is no, that's what appears to be. Because you don't know what it actually is.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:00Jocko Willink?

  So, very important.

• 14:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a, that is a good one. There's a, another one in the same vein. Instead of saying yes, or I think so, you say, I believe so. And the only reason I think it's different from, I think so, is because when you say, I think so, it sounds really unsure, right? Where it's like, kinda ambiguous almost, you know, sometimes. And if you say yes, then you're doing what you said is a violation where it's like, well, you don't know that for sure, you know? But it's like, hey, it really appears to be so, I believe so, you know, kind of a thing.

• 14:35Jocko Willink?

  Yeah.

• 14:35Speaker 01

  That's to, to sort of narrow it down, but leave that wiggle room for like, hey, but keep in mind, it could very well not be the case, you know, kind of a thing.

• 14:43Jocko Willink?

  Yeah. And plus, it's actually an interesting set of words, I think versus I believe.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:50Jocko Willink?

  Because I think means I'm leaning towards like, yeah, that, that's a, that's a missile.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:56Jocko Willink?

  Right? I think it's a missile.

• 14:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:58Jocko Willink?

  As opposed to, I believe it's a missile because we know that I, what I believe could be wrong.

• 15:02Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:02Jocko Willink?

  Now, well, I think could be wrong too.

• 15:04Speaker 01

  But yeah, it feels like tell me if it feels like this to you when someone says, I think I think it feels like there's such a huge margin for like, hey, I'm not sure like there's it. I think.

• 15:16Jocko Willink?

  Oh, so you think I think is less.

• 15:20Speaker 01

  Compelled.

• 15:20Jocko Willink?

  Compelling.

• 15:21Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. That's what I that's what it feels like.

• 15:24Jocko Willink?

  I believe.

• 15:25Speaker 01

  Believe.

• 15:25Jocko Willink?

  I believe so. Yeah.

• 15:28Jocko Willink?

  Good. Yeah, those are good points.

• 15:31Jocko Willink?

  So then there's another manual FM two tac 22 dot three human intelligence collector operations. And this outlines a methodology as well. Do you know what human intelligence is?

• 15:44Speaker 01

  Uh, human.

• 15:45Jocko Willink?

  Yes, human. Oh, look at you. Freaking tactical echo has entered the chat. Uh, these are, yes, interacting with other human beings. The other human beings, generally speaking, are called sources in the military. We call them sources. So that would be someone that is, you know, has knowledge, usually a local, national, and they're a source for knowledge. So we call them a source. And so we have teams that gather human intelligence from various sources, human sources. There's also sources that are digital sources, but generally, when you talk about human, you talk about the human sources. You're talking about a person.

• 16:22Jocko Willink?

  So this says, quote, processing identifies and exploits that information, which is pertinent to the commander's intelligence requirements and facilitates situational understandings. Examples of processing include developing film, enhancing imagery, translating a document from a foreign language, converting electronic data into standardized report that can be analyzed by a system operator and correlating dissimilar or jumbled information by assembling like elements before the information is forwarded for analysis.

• 16:57Jocko Willink?

  So that to me is huge because before they even start to corroborate and look at this information, it's already getting filtered. It's already getting translated. It's already getting kind of put through a bit of a filter. And, and then they forward it for analysis. And by when they say forward for analysis, what they mean is sending that information into, that's been gathered into the senior intel officers. So up above them in the chain of command, the G2 or the J2 or the NT, whatever organization you're working in. And it says, quote, "In this step, the G2 or S2 integrates evaluated, analyzed, and interpreted information from single or multiple sources and disciplines into finished intelligence products."

• 17:41Jocko Willink?

  So there's a lot that's going on before making any moves. And again, this doesn't mean that we don't react at all when something happens, when you get a piece of information, right? There's, there's small moves that you can make. If we hear that, oh, there's another sector that is in enemy contact, might we start to monitor their, their radio channel? Yeah, we might do that. Like, hey, let's go ahead and monitor, see what's going on. Might, might I pull back some of my positions? Let's not get overextended right now because if something goes bad in this other sector, look, we're not there right now. But if something goes bad, they're already in enemy contact. Might I say, hey, you know what? Let's, let's hold what we got. Don't, don't, don't get any more spread out right now. Let's just

• 18:26Jocko Willink?

  hold. Like, that's just a little iterative step. And 10 minutes go by and they go, contact's out. Cool. We continue with our mission. But we can make these little iterative decisions without saying, oh, the other, other, another element's in contact, collapse security, we're going to go support them. We don't even know if they need support or not. So we could pre-stage the team. We could, we could kind of slow down, slow roll a little bit. I could give, you know, if we're back on base, we could give a warning order. I could say, hey, Echo, we might have a QRF. We gotta do our Echo. We might have to go out in this sector. Hey Echo, make sure the vehicles are prepped. Like, I could, I could make some small, little movement in the direction in case things start. Maybe I just have to, you know, update you as a key leader. Maybe I bring the, the platoon chiefs and the platoon officers into the room and say, hey, here's what's going on.

• 19:13Jocko Willink?

  Just to keep my breast to the situation, just give them a situation of what's happening. So we're gonna inform the team as to what's going on, but we're not gonna freak out and we're not gonna be taking a bunch of actions about it. And this goes back to the whip, the whip theory, which is when headquarters or corporate decides to make a little change, which, which takes them four seconds to make.

• 19:41Jocko Willink?

  And this, this came from being on the, deployed on a ship in a SEAL platoon. And we got a mission tasking from our headquarters that was on another ship. And they said, hey, you guys are gonna launch on the Navy boats at such and such a time. So we spend the next four hours lugging all of our boats up to, you know, to the, or no, they said helicopter. We're gonna launch on helicopters. We have to lug all our boats up to the flight deck. Bring the gas up there. You gotta, you gotta coordinate getting the gas up there. You gotta firefight, like Navy dudes that are firefighters. They gotta go and set a corridor for you to bring the Mo gas, called Mo gas up there.

• 20:21Jocko Willink?

  Get everything staged, build these limp ducts or called limp ducts. Cause you gotta slightly deflate the boats. And then you wrap one inch tubular nylon around them and you rig them up with, damn, with honeycomb cardboard. You gotta put the engine, cause they're gonna drop like 10 feet. You gotta, it's a real process, bro.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:39Jocko Willink?

  This is not fun. So five hours into this, we're almost done building these limp ducks. And we get another call. Actually, you guys are, you guys are gonna launch, you know, directly from the well deck, which is nine stories below. The big, the back of this giant ship lowers down, this, this, this, uh,

• 21:00Jocko Willink?

  like ramp lowers down and you can just launch your boats from there. So they go, hey, actually you're not using helicopters, you're using the boat. You're gonna launch off the ramp. Okay, cool. Great. We're breaking all this shit down, throwing away honeycomb, getting the fire crew set up, lugging everything back downstairs, re-rigging the boat for sea. Four hours goes by, we get another call. Actually, you know, you're gonna go ahead and do helos. By the way, this is just someone said, yeah, uh, we helos tonight? Oh yeah, they'll use helos. Okay, cool. You know, actually we, it looks like there might be weather. Okay, well just send them on the boats instead. Okay, cool. They're making a decision in four seconds. We actually did this. We we re-rigged the boats down in the well deck. We got told Hilo again. We went back up topside.

• 21:43Jocko Willink?

  Did the whole freaking rigamarole again. Got told no again.

• 21:47Speaker 01

  So this really hap-

• 21:48Jocko Willink?

  This really happened. Yeah. This is, and I'm so glad it happened to me when I was a young enlisted guy. Because it made me, you ever heard that saying, uh, don't forget where you came from? I never forgot where I came from, from this event right here. Dude, you freaking lug fifty-five horsepower motors up and down damn ladder ways on a ship nine times. You you're pissed. You, and you know that they just went, oh, yeah, okay, well, we'll go ahead and launch from the well deck. That's fine. And then four hours later, oh, no, no, oh, there might be weather. Okay, well, we'll go ahead and launch from the helos. That's great. Okay. Boom.

• 22:27Jocko Willink?

  So that little whip, that little movement at the top can create real problems for your people. So you have to understand that as a leader.

• 22:38Jocko Willink?

  And it's not, it's not just in combat situations, not just in the military. It happens in business as well. Where some little reaction happens in the business world and we say, oh, there's gonna be a new regulation. Let's, you know, let's, let's make this change to the to the widget that we're making. And you don't recognize what it's gonna take to make that change to the widget that we're making. You guys used to give me hassle me about this, you and your brother Jade Charles. Cause I'd say, well, just make an app for it, or I'd say just program it or whatever. And you guys would both start giving me a freaking stupid lecture about how long it actually takes to do stuff. But that's the same thing, right?

• 23:14Speaker 01

  It is the exact same thing. That's what I was thinking about the whole time. Yeah, as a non-military person, it's still very clear where these, uh, where that miscommunication can kind of exist. Even with like video stuff, I mean, not to go too deep into video compared to military operations, I was like that, but it's the same thing. Where, yeah, if you don't know how it works, you're like, yeah, yeah, just change this text to say this. But meanwhile, it took like three programs in eight days to render out this text. So it's like, okay, I'll change whatever you need to. And then midway through the change, you're like, yeah, you know what? Now that I think of it, yeah, probably just go, you know, bring it back to the original and it's that same thing. Conceptually, yeah.

• 23:58Jocko Willink?

  So interestingly, what got me, what got me thinking about this topic was, was not just was business, but combat, but more important life. And specifically right now, the media and every type of media that's out there. And as I mentioned, people freak out about things that are happening. And a lot of the things that they see that are happening, they freak out in the media. And a lot of that is due to the goal of a headline. Right? The goal of a headline is the goal of the headline is to get you to click on that headline. Right?

• 24:38Jocko Willink?

  That's, that's the goal. And in order to get you to click, there needs to be some, something compelling in that headline to make you click on it. And there's an old, the, the, the old saying, uh, if it, if it bleeds, it leads. You ever heard this saying?

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:55Jocko Willink?

  Cause they want travesties. They want emotion. And there's, there's such a thing. There's something called the negativity bias. And we've covered biases on, on the, um, underground podcast, but the bias, the negativity biases, we as human beings were programmed to focus on negative things. And the reason we're programmed to focus on negative things, cause when we were cavemen, in order to survive, if there was something that was seen as a threat, we needed to focus on it. We weren't focused on the happy stuff, cause we would be dead. So we're programmed genetically to focus on negative things. So when you throw a negative headline out, we're, we're all about it. We're going to click on that thing.

• 25:38Jocko Willink?

  And negative words will, will translate into increased, increased click rates, which is what they want. That's how they get them. That's how they get their advertising money, get you to click on that thing.

• 25:54Jocko Willink?

  They need emotional, emotional triggers, fear, anger, excitement, surprise, but it's a lot easier to make someone angry than it is to make them happy.

• 26:06Jocko Willink?

  You have to squelch, you have to, you have to create a squelch button in your mind. So you pay attention to it, but you don't overreact to it. Some, some, let's look at some headlines we've had. Last, I went back to the year 2000. The reason I went back to the year 2000, I was on deployment in the year 2000. And they, they had this thing called Y2K. Do you remember this?

• 26:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, hell yeah.

• 26:36Jocko Willink?

  Here's a headline from the year 2000. Y2K, the end of the world as we know it. That's a freaking headline, dude. You know what I'm saying?

• 26:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's, that goes hard for sure.

• 26:49Jocko Willink?

  That, that's, that's a headline. So, so that's meant to fill you with fear and make you click on it. But it's also getting registered. You're registering that. 2009, WHO declares public health emergency as US swine flu cases rise. Remember the swine flu thing happening? What about 2010, avian influenza, the looming threat? These are just headlines I'm reading. Just headlines. 2011, US debt ceiling crisis, could the US default?

• 27:27Jocko Willink?

  2013, Ebola in the air, a nightmare that could happen.

• 27:35Jocko Willink?

  And by the way, that's CNN. This is not some, you know, off-brand, uh, low red thing. This is CNN.

• 27:48Jocko Willink?

  2014. New Ebola cases may soon reach 10,000 a week. Officials predict. That's New York Times.

• 27:59Jocko Willink?

  2016. Brexit will cause immediate economic collapse. Immediate economic collapse. And by the way, that's the BBC. That's the BBC. Again, these are not small, like little unknown organizations.

• 28:18Jocko Willink?

  2016. Economists. A Trump win would tank the markets.

• 28:27Jocko Willink?

  2018. North Korea will launch a nuclear strike by 2018.

• 28:37Jocko Willink?

  I'm gonna say that again. North Korea will launch a nuclear strike.

• 28:42Jocko Willink?

  Bro.

• 28:45Jocko Willink?

  Uh, 2019. Climate catastrophe by 2020.

• 28:53Jocko Willink?

  2020. Bitcoin will be worthless by 2020. That's CNBC.

• 29:03Jocko Willink?

  New York will be underwater by 2015. That's an old one.

• 29:09Jocko Willink?

  Um, election meltdown is a real possibility in 2020 presidential race. Author warns.

• 29:18Jocko Willink?

  Then, I mean, look, do we need to talk about COVID? 2021, COVID-19, the end of the world as we know it. Bro, have you ever had a cold before?

• 29:30Jocko Willink?

  Shit got wild. 2022. Global food shortages will spark mass riots.

• 29:40Jocko Willink?

  2023. Forecast for US recession within year hits 100% in blow to Biden.

• 29:51Jocko Willink?

  And by the way, that's from Bloomberg. That didn't happen. The economy still grew. 2024. Election officials say democracy is still at risk in 2024. Look, these are ones we now remember, right?

• 30:05Jocko Willink?

  Gulf Stream, you know, the Gulf Stream, like the, the, the, uh, atmospheric movements. Gulf Stream could collapse as early as 2025, studies suggest.

• 30:20Jocko Willink?

  So these are the kind of headlines that are being written. And, and listen, these, again, these aren't things you can just turn off the squelch on. Like you gotta pay attention to things. You gotta, you gotta say noted. You gotta say Roger.

• 30:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, especially if it's gonna be the end of the world.

• 30:35Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, especially if you gotta pay close attention to that one. But those are, those are headlines from, you know, big organizations. When you get down to like the YouTube level, here's, here's YouTube, here's some YouTube titles I pulled for you. Each one of these has like a million plus views.

• 30:56Jocko Willink?

  World on the brink, nuclear threat escalates in Europe. Massive cyber attack shuts down major banks. Are you safe?

• 31:07Jocko Willink?

  I like how they're now speaking to you.

• 31:11Jocko Willink?

  The next pandemic, new virus outbreak sparks panic.

• 31:16Jocko Willink?

  Again, all these with over a million views. China, Taiwan tensions explode. Is war inevitable? I guess these questions, a lot of these are coming to question format.

• 31:32Jocko Willink?

  Extreme weather destroys cities. Is this the new normal?

• 31:40Jocko Willink?

  Deadly heat waves sweep the globe, globe, millions at risk. Millions. Like I remember, you know, when I was a kid and growing up, there'd be heat waves in New York City and like people would die. It'd be sad.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  Of course, yeah.

• 31:57Jocko Willink?

  Financial meltdown, the next great depression is here. Now, listen, again, do you need to, uh, can you just ignore these things? I'm not saying ignore these things. Do you need to pay attention to what's going on in the economy? Yeah, do you need to pay attention to what's going on with the weather? Yes, do you need to pay attention to what's going on with, uh, with health in the world? Sure.

• 32:16Jocko Willink?

  Do you need to pay attention to what's going on with global politics and make sure that, you know, China's not invading Taiwan? Yeah, pay attention to those things. But if you allow yourself to just to freak out about this stuff all the time, you're going to be in a bad spot. But that's what you're, so what you're up against, what we're up against is this type of provocative, fear inducing, clickbait 24 hours a day. And by the way, we also lose the fact of what could, what actually important? Like what headline are you going to run when there's a real threat? What are they going to say? What can they say that that doesn't sound as bad as millions at risk, right? Or, uh, war is inevitable.

• 32:57Jocko Willink?

  Like what, what, what, what are they going to tell us when war actually isn't inevitable? What are they going to say then?

• 33:04Speaker 01

  Or when it is the end of the world.

• 33:05Jocko Willink?

  Or when the end of the world is, is coming. How are they going to notify us of that if we don't believe them? Because they've been, uh, crying wolf day after day, year after year.

• 33:19Jocko Willink?

  So this was kind of an interesting tool, I thought. Uh, FM, once again, going back to the human intel collection operation. It says, "Normal policy of not relying on single source information should help prevent deceptions of this type from being effective."

• 33:38Jocko Willink?

  And it also says, "The army uses a standard reliability matrix to rate both the source and the content of the reports, acknowledging that initial information is often of uncertain value until confirmed by other means." So they have various descriptions.

• 33:58Jocko Willink?

  The first thing they talk about is reliability. So reliable. This is the best form. This is A level. Reliable. No doubt about authenticity, trustworthiness, or competency. History of complete reliability. You know how many media sources fit into there?

• 34:15Speaker 01

  I don't know. One?

• 34:17Jocko Willink?

  I can't think of any.

• 34:20Jocko Willink?

  Usually reliable. Minor doubts. History of mostly valid information. That's B. C. Fairly reliable. Some doubts. Has provided valid information in the past. Okay. D.

• 34:36Jocko Willink?

  Not usually reliable. Significant doubts. Has provided valid information in the past. Okay.

• 34:44Jocko Willink?

  E. Unreliable. Lacks authenticity, trustworthiness, and competency. History of invalid information. Dude, do you know how many media outlets have put out invalid information? That have an actual history of invalid information? It's a lot of media organizations. And the other crazy thing is they don't even. They don't even admit it when it happens.

• 35:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:07Jocko Willink?

  They just. Let it ride. Bury it.

• 35:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:09Jocko Willink?

  Very seldom do they correct their story. Especially now with. The internet. They can just kind of sneak in and change it.

• 35:20Jocko Willink?

  And then the worst rating is reliability cannot be judged. Insufficient information to evaluate reliability. Actually, I don't think that's the worst. I think E is the worst. There's reliability cannot be judged, which again, that's a category to think about. When you hear something or you garner a piece of information to say, you know what? I can't even judge whether this is accurate or not. I have no history. I don't know. I don't know what, where this information is coming from. I don't know what the source is like.

• 35:46Jocko Willink?

  So then. You get into. What's the likelihood that this is true or not? The highest level is confirmed. Confirmed by other independent sources. Logical and consistent with other info. Just imagine if you just. Got a piece of information and you just ran through this matrix. You said, wait a second, is this? Is this logical and consistent with other info?

• 36:12Jocko Willink?

  That's a predicate to saying, I believe this is like, oh, this, this actually makes sense with everything else I've heard. And by the way, there's other independent sources. That's something that we can confirm. Makes sense and confirmed by other independent sources. Okay, cool. Then there's probably true, logical and consistent with other relevant information, but not confirmed. See, people confuse these sometimes.

• 36:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:35Jocko Willink?

  Because something can be logical and consistent, but unconfirmed.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. And also, I think sometimes we as people mistake what, what it, what something means when it's logical. Like logical, if you really understand the definition of logical, sometimes you understand that some people don't know what that means.

• 37:01Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, there's also the fact that, have you ever heard, there's a thing with Nancy Pelosi? And she's, she's, she's kind of in a press conference type thing. And she goes through this loop of how you get someone to write a story or a document of some kind, a book, magazine, newspaper article. That sort of calls out an idea that is not true. But then you fast forward and people start to refer to that document as if that document is true, but people don't go and check the original document.

• 37:38Jocko Willink?

  And so you end up with this, I, I, I, again, this is, I'm, I'm not giving a hundred percent accurate information right now. Cause I can't remember the whole loop, but it was a whole loop that she described. Where you, you basically are creating a reality by someone writes a newspaper article about something. Then someone writes another newspaper article and refers to that article. And you go a few layers deep and all of a sudden this thing that is not true at all becomes true and people are referring back to it.

• 38:07Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:09Jocko Willink?

  So you gotta watch out for that too in this day and age. Then there's number three, possibly true, reasonably logical, agrees with some relevant information not confirmed. Number four, doubtfully true. Not logical, but possible, no other information on the subject, not confirmed. Improbable, which is not logical, contradicted by other relevant information. And then the same thing, you get this category of cannot be judged, the validity of the information cannot be determined. So what I'm saying is the reason I'm walking through this is that the army has an entire methodology to process and categorize information that it receives.

• 38:53Jocko Willink?

  So, and I would even say we could probably sit down and develop another, another matrix on how we're going to react. Meaning like, the lowest level of reaction might be, hey, let's inform people, let's inform the leadership. And the highest level of reaction means, let's get our gear on and get ready to fight, you know what I'm saying? Or whatever that case may be. But, we should, as humans, in this onslaught of information, we should, at least put together some kind of a thought process in your head, where you can squelch out and you can correctly

• 39:33Jocko Willink?

  categorize a lot of these reports and these emotional headlines that come in, that are

• 39:41Jocko Willink?

  literally meant to spin you up. That's what, that's how they're written.

• 39:49Jocko Willink?

  And then we have to modulate our response so that we don't overreact. So there's a bunch of things that we can do that are going to help us.

• 40:00Jocko Willink?

  Not overreact, not freak out, and it's by making sure that as you intake information, you process it correctly, you actually think through it, and then you modulate your response accordingly. Now, in order to do this, of course, we have to detach, and detach is a skill that you can learn and you can practice, but there's a protocol for it. And I've actually, I was talking to some people and I've

• 40:33Jocko Willink?

  made a couple little additions to my detachment protocol for people to make it easier for them. You've heard some of them before, right? So what's the first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna take a step back, literally take a step back. Like, there's something going on, something is making your emotions start to increase. Take a step back and take a breath, right? That's the first thing we're gonna do. And then we're gonna look around and we're gonna broaden our vision, and that makes us more calm, and the breath makes us more calm, and taking a step back makes us more calm. All these things are set to make us more calm. Now, I'm gonna give you another, these are a couple little things that I've added to my detachment protocol that I think will help people be able to detach. And I'm not sure if there's a better word for this,

• 41:18Jocko Willink?

  but I'm gonna use the word touch point. It's like a physical action that you can take that will force you mentally to utilize your brain.

• 41:35Jocko Willink?

  So, for instance, if someone is, if someone, this is a little bit of a joke at Echelon Front, like if someone's asking a question of me, I'll sort of like put my hands on my chin and my finger over my mouth. And everyone jokes that, you know, it kinda looks like the Thinking Man. You ever seen that statue? Except for I put my hand kinda over my mouth. And everyone jokes that, oh. You do that so, I do that so I don't interrupt you. Like you're trying to ask me a question, or you're making a comment, I literally will put my hand over my mouth to keep my freaking mouth shut. Because I know if I'm jumping in, overreacting to what you're saying, it's not gonna be good. You could do something like that, you could, you could, you could clasp,

• 42:19Jocko Willink?

  maybe you clasp your hands, like you feel pressure start to rise, like clasp your hands and like tap your thumbs, do something, put your fingers on your temple, like, okay, let me think about this, like, just do, do something physical. I mean, I used to like, when I had my gear on, I would like, just like, put my hand on my pistol, like, just check where it was, I'd put my hand, you know, you check your safety, you're just going through, just doing something that's kind of getting your, your, your mind and body connected, right? And at the same time, getting your mind and body disconnected. So, you're doing something physical, that is going to help you recognize that you're in control of the situation. And then the other part here that I've been telling people lately is,

• 43:01Jocko Willink?

  like, have a ditty. Have a ditty, a little something that you can say, that will get you to freaking calm down, right? You know, you might say something like, uh, recognize, analyze, and react. That's something that I learned when I got to SEAL Team One. They're like, oh, and things are getting crazy? Recognize, analyze, and react. Okay, so recognize what's happening, look around, analyze what the situation is, and then react to it. Um, you know, reflect before you react, something like that. Wait for the dust to settle. Just, you know, it's even that, okay, just wait for the dust to settle. Uh, don't let, don't let the spark start a fire.

• 43:42Jocko Willink?

  Cool, cool heads clear a path. Cool, uh, cool head, have a little ditty like that, that you can say to yourself, that will help you not act like an idiot.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  I have one.

• 43:55Jocko Willink?

  What is it?

• 43:55Speaker 01

  Perfect form.

• 43:57Jocko Willink?

  Is that when you're lifting? Perfect form.

• 43:59Speaker 01

  Perfect form. Yeah, you can use it even when you're not lifting, though. So it's, you know, it basically prevents you from being emotional.

• 44:08Jocko Willink?

  Yeah.

• 44:08Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 44:10Jocko Willink?

  One of the best ones came from General Mattis, who said, engage your brain before you engage your weapon. This was his guidance to the First Marine Division before Operation Iraqi Freedom. He said, quote, "Use good judgment and act in the best interest of our nation. You are part of the world's most feared and trusted force. Engage your brain before you engage your weapon. Share your courage with each other as we enter the uncertain terrain north of the line of departure." What great advice.

• 44:40Jocko Willink?

  But it's a little ditty that you can say to yourself. Oh, you're about to engage your weapon? Wait, did I engage my brain first? That is, that is what we have to do. And if we do that, and you don't allow yourself to get spun up, or you don't allow yourself to get frazzled, or flustered, or emotional, you're going to be in a much better situation. You have to detach, you have to assess, you have to, you have to put that information that you're receiving through that matrix in your head. And then you just make good, small, iterative decisions that move you in what you believe to be the right direction

• 45:23Jocko Willink?

  without expending too much time, too much effort, too many resources, too much leadership capital. You don't want to go overboard.

• 45:33Jocko Willink?

  And if you do that, when you receive information, again, we're not, I'm sure some people are going to say, oh, you're ignoring this stuff, it's gonna, the economy is gonna collapse, or the weather is gonna get bad, or the cities are gonna be destroyed. It's like, okay, okay, I'm not saying ignore everything. But I'm saying, put it in perspective. If you're freaking out about everything, then nothing really matters. And you're not, you're just hearing a bunch, you end up hearing just a bunch of white noise. You need to be able to squelch enough of those things, what's pertinent right now. And if you do that,

• 46:10Jocko Willink?

  this is gonna make your, your business life, your family life, and your emotional health.

• 46:18Jocko Willink?

  A lot better. And, and it's going to make your decision making process. A lot more sound. And that's going to improve everything in your life.

• 46:30Jocko Willink?

  So. That's what I got.

• 46:33Speaker 01

  How often do you think is, is it that people react in these ways because they enjoy it?

• 46:40Jocko Willink?

  I think there's a little bit of that. I also think if you're, I think once you're aware of it, it's, it's not a hard thing to. It's, it's not like an addiction. Now, some people, I think to your point, there are some people that like to get angry. They want, they're looking for something to make them mad, right? That happens, but a lot of people, I think, and, and some people, I think, learn this just. They, they don't learn it consciously, but subconsciously they've all gone, oh yeah, that's another freaking crazy headline, right?

• 47:09Speaker 01

  Right, yes.

• 47:11Jocko Willink?

  But then they get hit with that one headline. That gets to them. You know, people that, uh, they're more happy when they're mad.

• 47:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 47:21Jocko Willink?

  Oh, yeah. So, you know, they're clicking on these things and they're getting mad and they're swearing at the TV or whatever.

• 47:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:28Jocko Willink?

  You know, rage tweeting.

• 47:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, hell, yeah.

• 47:31Jocko Willink?

  I think there's also a decent percentage of people that. This, they, they need this protocol in their life.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 47:39Jocko Willink?

  You know what I mean?

• 47:40Speaker 01

  I believe most of us need this protocol for sure.

• 47:43Jocko Willink?

  People that really get frustrated and, and. Over things that they have very little control over.

• 47:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:50Jocko Willink?

  And. By someone, by entities that are. Literally trying to get them to be emotional about the subject.

• 47:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:59Jocko Willink?

  That, that's what they're trying to do. And so. I think setting up a, a little protocol. The other thing is, is a lot of these things. I mean, if you look at the headlines that come out every single day, there's like a, there's like a catastrophic thing that's happening every single day, right? Every single day, there's, there's a catastrophic event that's about to unfold on all, and we're all going to die.

• 48:21Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:21Jocko Willink?

  Or whatever the case may be.

• 48:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:23Jocko Willink?

  Almost every single day, I'd say there's something catastrophic like that.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  Right.

• 48:26Jocko Willink?

  And so. If you're constantly in that cycle, that, that, I don't think that's healthy, man. I don't think that's healthy. If it's truly getting to you. In an emotional way, then I don't think that's very healthy. I don't think that's very good for you. And I also don't think it's not just from like a physical health thing, but what do you? How do you differ? How do you eventually differentiate between what's real and what's not real? Like what's, what's an actual threat and what's not an actual threat? And how are you going to contend with? And a new threat to our existence every single day? Or a new threat to the economy every single day, or a new threat to the environment every single day? Or a new threat to our society every single day?

• 49:11Jocko Willink?

  Like every day, there is a major imposing existential threat. And if that's where you're at, it's not healthy. And even if you're just getting angry all the time, like that doesn't help you interact with your family or your coworkers. Right? So there's very few things that are going to matter that much. And so if you don't learn to squelch some of these less important things, and again, I'm not saying ignore them. Like, yeah, there's tensions between China and Taiwan. Should you know about that? Yes, you pay attention. Yeah, there's war escalating in Ukraine. Okay, well, yeah, you need to pay attention to that. There's Israel and Gaza going on. There's, that's bad. We need to pay attention to what's going on over there.

• 49:53Jocko Willink?

  But each one of those things, if you got really focused on it, you, you could, you could over focus and you could turn your world into white noise. And you might forget that your kid just came home from school and got an A on her math test. And maybe you should like congratulate her and say, good job studying.

• 50:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:13Speaker 01

  You know, you know, you probably know a few people, you know, one or two people who tend to catastrophize things. Every once in a while, if I come across someone like that, I'll kind of smell it on them that I feel like they're just, they're kind of enjoying it. I'm not saying it's making them happy, but I feel like they're getting some kind of a payoff for, for being like that.

• 50:37Jocko Willink?

  Well, well, from a leadership perspective, it's not good. Right? From a leadership perspective, you, if you catastrophize things, it's not good because. Because first of all, there's very few things that are actual catastrophes, right? That are full-on catastrophes, global catastrophes. There's just not that many things that are full-on global catastrophes. So if everything, or same thing with, um, you know, with your business. Like, there are very few things, hopefully you've got a business that is sound and secure enough that there's not many looming catastrophes that could take down your whole business. Right? I mean, very seldom do, do businesses get taken down by a singular event. Very seldom does that happen.

• 51:21Jocko Willink?

  But they make mistakes and they have to recover from those mistakes. But if you, as a leader, everything is a catastrophe, that, that hurts, that's gonna hurt because people, people wanna trust you. But you're saying that the world's, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. The sky never falls, but you've just lost leadership credibility each and every time. Now, listen, when something is a true threat, you need to address it, obviously. But catastrophizing everything that occurs is not gonna be beneficial for you as a leader. People, people will lose trust in you if everything is a disaster. Everything is like, oh, my gosh, the sky is falling. You're crying wolf all the time, the sky is always falling. People lose trust in you as a leader.

• 52:03Jocko Willink?

  So you, you, you have to be very cautious in allowing something to appear, something to come from you as if it's gonna be a catastrophe. There's, what does it take to take down a business? I mean, we should, we'll do another review of some of these companies that have made some kind of a mistake and had some kind of a catastrophic impact where the company failed. Like Lehman Brothers, like they, in the financial crash, went under. But there's a bunch of other ones that were in similar situations that didn't go over, under, so.

• 52:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right. That's a good way to put it in perspective where it's like, what does it really take? So you could go, you know, down the list of that, you know, that list that you said, like, okay. The, you know, the end of the world as you know it, like, what would it really take for it to be the end of the world as I know it, you know, kind of thing. It's like, well, it's kind of a hard, that's a, that's a big statement there, uh, Channel 8 News.

• 53:03Jocko Willink?

  And then, by the way, like, if it was something that took down your business, what, what is going on with the rest of the world? There might be some kind of a legitimate global scenario that's happening. But again, what does it take to cause a global scenario? Like, that's gotta be something absolutely massive. You know, even with COVID-19, which was a global phenomenon, and depending on where you were, it may have had little to no impact on what was happening. Look, it may have had a bigger impact, you know, people died from COVID, but there's also a lot of people that just kind of carried on. And so, but that's in the last, in the last, we, I guess, the, the global economic collapse of 2007, 2008,

• 53:46Jocko Willink?

  that was, you know, again, depending on who you are, guess how much that impacted me? I was in the military, I'm collecting my paycheck every two weeks, guess how much it impacted me? The global economic collapse. It didn't, it didn't impact me at all. I didn't even, I didn't know it was happening. I mean, I, I saw it on the news, I saw it like a headline, but I didn't, it didn't impact me at all. I didn't have any big investments, I didn't have a bunch of real estate, I wasn't upside down on my mortgage. I had, at that time, I had two houses, and I kept paying my mortgage because I kept getting my paycheck, and my mortgage was a fixed mortgage, and it was just normal. So this global event didn't, you know, it just didn't impact me that much.

• 54:29Jocko Willink?

  And look, some people, I mean, I had some friends, I have, I have a friend, he tells a great story, he's a SEAL, and he had bought, I think he bought eight houses during the, during the no-doc loan scenario. And, and it's so funny, he tells a great story because he'll be like, yeah, I was walking around the team thinking everyone was so stupid. And yeah, he just thought everyone's so stupid. He's the smartest guy in the world because he had now eight houses, eight houses, bro. Yeah. And he, he had, he said he had a moment where he had asked like his, one of his uh, loan guys like, hey, well, what if the value of the house doesn't go up?

• 55:12Jocko Willink?

  And the guy's like, oh, then you can, you just slowly start selling them off and you know, it'd be no factor. Every one of his houses, he was able to save his house, but he lost seven houses. And it was in like forty five days or something like that. Like it all just fell apart. So yeah, it greatly affected him, but that was a gl- most of the guys in the teams with me didn't affect us at all. We were all just walking around like, oh, you, we were talking about like, you know, uh, who, what, what's our next training trip? You know what I mean? We were talking about what are we gonna have for dinner? We weren't talking about this global, global, where people killed themselves, like people killed themselves because they lost everything financially. That was a global economic meltdown and I didn't even barely know what was happening.

• 55:57Jocko Willink?

  And, and I was not the only person. So,

• 56:02Jocko Willink?

  and by the way, the houses, I owned houses at the time. Like I said, I owned two houses at the time. And I think they lost like, they're by the ocean, which was a good thing because they don't make more oceanfront property, not oceanfront, but they don't make more coastal property, right? There only is what there is. But in San Diego, like the eastern parts of San Diego, where they have track homes. And people had bought these track homes and they could just build more track homes and they built more track homes and more track homes. And those, those, some of those things lost like forty percent value. But I lost my, my homes. When I go back and do the research again, because I didn't care at the time. Like I didn't care. I was like, I didn't even know what was happening. But when I look back now and you look at the, the uh,

• 56:48Jocko Willink?

  the charts of how much values went down, like coastal San Diego went down ten percent. So like a house that I bought for two hundred grand, you know, went down to what? One eighty? But I was sitting there paying the mortgage. Like it didn't even faze me in any way, shape or form. So these, to have a true global catastrophe, and by the way, uh, you know, diversify yourself. So that you have, you're not relying on one thing. And again, this just comes down to leverage and not putting yourself in a position where the bank can take your house from you, right? Don't put yourself in that situation. That's again, this, you know what else? I was driving a 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan.

• 57:31Jocko Willink?

  You know, I was driving a 10 year old minivan. And so I didn't have some big loan out against my, for equity on my house. You know what I mean? Would I have wanted to be driving an F 350 Super Duty? Sure, I would have loved that. But guess what? I wasn't going to put myself in that situation, buying an $80,000 truck. When I got my minivan, I bought a used, my minivan was used and it was like, I don't know. What was it? 4,800 bucks? Who knows what it was? But it wasn't, it wasn't like a, an impact to my monthly budget. And I damn sure didn't have to take a loan out against my home in order to buy it. So

• 58:12Jocko Willink?

  you gotta set yourself up correctly.

• 58:15Speaker 01

  That's actually a good point.

• 58:16Jocko Willink?

  You don't wanna, you don't wanna put yourself in a scenario where you can be impacted by a little ripple, right? Or a big ripple.

• 58:25Speaker 01

  Yeah. And even that does go for these health things. Cause you know how like, if you look into it, the healthier you are, the better off you'll be in these sickness scenarios. So it's kinda like, that's another method of diversifying yourself in a way where it's like, yeah, sure, it can, it can, it can be, it can affect some people for sure. But there's a certain element of it that's kinda up to you a little bit, you know? Not fully, not fully.

• 58:53Jocko Willink?

  You can get a horrible disease tomorrow, but there's also a lot of diseases you can fend off if you're living a healthy lifestyle.

• 58:59Speaker 01

  Just like economically, if you take a hit, if you're, as you said, diversified a little bit, you know, maybe it won't be affected as much. You have to worry about these clickbaity news reports coming, coming up at 11. That's the, that's when I first realized they were doing it, by the way.

• 59:16Jocko Willink?

  Back in the day.

• 59:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, the local news.

• 59:18Jocko Willink?

  Story 11.

• 59:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, like is your credit card killing you? More at 11, you know, like, I don't know, I made that up.

• 59:24Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, no, that's a good, that's like, sounds one I just saw today, you know?

• 59:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, the, well, you know, that fake news report that I made, that you were part of, you were the robot one, right? Where at the end it says, is your weight loss pill killing you? More than, anyway, that was, that was a, an homage to the old school local news.

• 59:40Jocko Willink?

  And now there is a weight loss pill.

• 59:42Speaker 01

  That can kill you.

• 59:43Jocko Willink?

  Well, I don't know if it can kill you. Yeah. I think it can make you go blind.

• 59:48Jocko Willink?

  No, I'm serious. I read some catastrophic report that the weight loss pill can make you go blind.

• 59:53Speaker 01

  Hey, man, that's yet another example. You know, if you're, if you're taking a pill to lose weight, then it's like, hmm, maybe that's not the right way. Cause if that thing turns against you, tries to kill you, you know, you'd be in bad shape. But if you can just lose the weight the regular way, you know, um, you won't have to worry about any murders, weight loss pills or anything of that nature.

• 1:00:12Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, I think they made those pills for people that are like morbidly obese, but now some someone that's gotta lose like nine pounds to fit in their pair of jeans is going on it.

• 1:00:23Speaker 01

  Hey, man. Run your unit how you run your unit. I, I agree with you. I believe that that is a good protocol.

• 1:00:30Jocko Willink?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:32Jocko Willink?

  Check. Well, like I said, detach, take a step back, take a breath. Do, do a little touch point. And say that little ditty, whatever you're gonna say, I'm not gonna overreact or whatever. Say, say what you're gonna say, get that little ditty going in your head. You're gonna make better decisions. You're gonna have a better life. That's what I'm saying. And, um,

• 1:00:55Jocko Willink?

  speaking of better life, and you just mentioned this. Part of the, part of life that we can control a lot of, not all of, but is our health. So what, what, did you train today already?

• 1:01:06Speaker 01

  I did one light. Yes.

• 1:01:08Jocko Willink?

  What'd you do?

• 1:01:09Speaker 01

  Another one later.

• 1:01:09Jocko Willink?

  What'd you do a light?

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  Roadwork. Roadwork.

• 1:01:12Jocko Willink?

  What'd you do for the roadwork?

• 1:01:13Speaker 01

  One hour. It's like a hike up and down the canyon.

• 1:01:16Jocko Willink?

  Do you listen to anything or you just, oh, natural?

• 1:01:18Speaker 01

  Today, today I was listening to, I go sometimes, sometimes on, sometimes off. Today I was listening to Huberman, which I texted him right afterwards. So this one goes hard. It was, uh, it was the one about, they were talking about fractals when I turned it off.

• 1:01:31Jocko Willink?

  Damn.

• 1:01:31Speaker 01

  But no, you know, these different patterns in life that just repeat themselves, how big, when you go big and small and stuff like that. Um, a lot of it was just like, you know, how you, like a lot of them, but it was this specific one was interesting, just how your mind works.

• 1:01:43Jocko Willink?

  Was there a guest on there?

• 1:01:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, there was a guest on there. I forget his name. Oh, I don't know, but it was.

• 1:01:49Jocko Willink?

  You'll have to Google that one.

• 1:01:50Speaker 01

  Well, or just open the podcast and press play again, but nonetheless.

• 1:01:55Jocko Willink?

  You did work out, but you still owe more.

• 1:01:57Speaker 01

  I owe another one. Yeah, we're good to go. We're solid.

• 1:02:00Jocko Willink?

  You're in the game.

• 1:02:00Speaker 01

  We're trucking, yeah.

• 1:02:01Jocko Willink?

  So when you're working out, did you work out yesterday?

• 1:02:03Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah.

• 1:02:05Jocko Willink?

  Yesterday I did, I've had a good day yesterday, training, jujitsu, a lot of jujitsu training.

• 1:02:10Speaker 01

  Your yesterday was what, a five? Was it a five?

• 1:02:13Jocko Willink?

  No, I lifted, ran, and then I trained jujitsu twice.

• 1:02:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a five, right? And imminently qualified.

• 1:02:18Jocko Willink?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a five. That's a good five. Yep.

• 1:02:21Speaker 01

  It's really hard to get better than.

• 1:02:22Jocko Willink?

  Ice bath.

• 1:02:23Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that's a five.

• 1:02:24Jocko Willink?

  It was a great day.

• 1:02:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, yesterday was a one, which was good. Wait, what is it? Two is kind of the, so it was a one. I didn't, I had to modify more because of injury. Yeah, I don't know. We did it. We got through a BTN for sure, better than nothing.

• 1:02:38Jocko Willink?

  Check, check. Hey, when we're working out, need fuel. We recommend Jocko Fuel. Go check out JacoFuel.com, JacoFuel.com. We got the goods. We pretty much have stuff in stock. If it's not there, it's gonna be tough to get. But we, we pretty much keep everything full stocked up at Jocko Fuel all the time, JacoFuel.com. Free shipping over 99 bucks. And by the way, if you used to, if you used to get Jocko Fuel in the day, it might take us like a few days, like four, five, sometimes six days to get it shipped. Now, we, we, we ship either the same day or the next day immediately. So everything's in stock. We ship it quick. We got a bunch of loyalty programs and we got what you need.

• 1:03:21Jocko Willink?

  We got milk, protein. By the way, I've been just drinking milk like it's crazy. Like a day like yesterday, I, there's no way I would have gotten my macros done if it wasn't for just drinking milk. And have you tried the root beer?

• 1:03:37Speaker 01

  No.

• 1:03:37Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, it's, I don't really even like root beer floats, but we got like a root beer float powder.

• 1:03:42Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:03:44Jocko Willink?

  GTG. Look, you need protein, you need protein to rebuild. We got the best protein, the best tasting protein. We got go drinks, go energy drinks. I just had one. I might even have another one today because we're recording some underground podcasts, so I might be going.

• 1:04:00Jocko Willink?

  Greens. What else, man? Hydrate. Joint Warfare. You know, I had a friend of mine text me the other day and he's like asking me about peptides. He's like, hey, have you, have you tried peptides over 40? I have a hard time recovering. And I was like, bro, I haven't tried peptides.

• 1:04:18Jocko Willink?

  I've, I hear good things. Exactly what I told him. I used an Echo Charles quote. I said, I hear good things. But I said, uh, here's what I do. Joint Warfare. Super Krill. Time war. I'm like, do that. And I will say I ripped off, uh, from, I was talking to Sloan. And Sloan said he heard Mikey Musumechi say that after hard training, he goes for a jog. Now I already run, but there's a difference between running and jogging and, and Sloan was saying he feels good after he goes for a jog. And I was like, oh. So I've, what I've done is I've extended my jogs a little bit and, and taken a wrap off of like the, I'll still run intense sometimes, but just like a longer, slower jog. And I will confess.

• 1:05:03Jocko Willink?

  Feel pretty good after it. It feels like it, it feels like it kind of evens you out. Get the blood flow through the, you know, the, the, the rest of the areas instead of going out, going, you know, when a run is a chore, it's like, all right, here we go. Like, that's what a normal run has always been for me. And I just sort of said, oh, okay. Let's see what this other type of running, it feels like, feels pretty good. So that's what we got. Do those things and you will feel better.

• 1:05:30Jocko Willink?

  Check it out, jockofuel.com. Also you can get it at Walmart, Wawa, Vitamin Shoppe, GNCs, Military Commissaries, AFE's, Hanover Dash Stores, Wakeford, ShopRite, HEB down in Texas, HEB down in Texas has been, uh, out there taking care of those flood victims, which is awesome. I know Leif rolled out and, and is helping out as well. So great to see. Thanks to HEB for what they're doing down there. And I know we got some Jocko Fuel heading out there as well. We also got some Jocko Fuel heading up to the firefighters up in Washington right now. So thanks to all the firefighters that are up there, uh, fighting those fires. And the rescue workers looking for flood victims. Yeah, that's, that's it. HEB supporting them down in Texas. Also Jocko Fuel available at Myers, Wegmans,

• 1:06:16Jocko Willink?

  Harris Teeter, Publix down in Florida. Lifetime Fitness Shields and a bunch of small gyms everywhere. If you want to have Jocko Fuel at your gym. Email JF sales at jockofuel.com and we got you covered. Also, Origin USA. We got, we got, we make clothing here in America. Which is a big deal because people did not think it could be done. They thought we'd lost the ability to manufacture. They thought Americans were idiots or lazy.

• 1:06:46Jocko Willink?

  Or we'd lost the knowledge, but we brought the knowledge back. We bought the machinery back and now we are making jeans, boots, t-shirts, hoodies, belts,

• 1:06:57Jocko Willink?

  uh, joggers, workout gear, rash guards, jujitsu gis, all of it 100% made in America from American materials. 100% communist free, 100% tyrannical leader free.

• 1:07:15Jocko Willink?

  100% American made. Go to originusa.com and get what you need to get.

• 1:07:23Speaker 01

  Speaking of clothing, jocko store.com, discipline equals freedom shirts. Got some hats on there. Actually hats sold out. Sorry. We'll get some more soon. Uh, some hoodies on there. I know it's summertime still, so you know, maybe we're not having hoodies that much, but you know,

• 1:07:39Jocko Willink?

  That's why the lightweight hoodie.

• 1:07:40Speaker 01

  Lightweight hoodies on there. Um, short locker. It's a new design every month. People seem to like that one. So yeah, sign up for that subscription scenario. Uh, we do, we do have a new discipline equals freedom shirt coming out in.

• 1:07:58Jocko Willink?

  What version is this? 3.0?

• 1:07:59Speaker 01

  Five.

• 1:08:00Jocko Willink?

  5.0?

• 1:08:01Speaker 01

  Fifth edition. Yep. It's a good one. Updated. It's a good one. Anyway, you wanna, uh, if you wanna put your name or your, sorry, your email in there to get notified for like all this new stuff or whatever, just do it through that website, jocko store.com.

• 1:08:15Jocko Willink?

  But what if people don't want to get spammed?

• 1:08:17Speaker 01

  They do not have to worry about spam from me ever, under any circumstances.

• 1:08:21Jocko Willink?

  Check. jocko store.com. Check that out. Also primalbeef.com and coloradocraftbeef.com. You need steak in your life, might as well get the best steak from the best people. Primalbeef.com, coloradocraftbeef.com. Check them out. Also subscribe to the podcast. Also good Jocko Underground. We're about to record some of those. That is us, uh, answering your questions. Check that out. jocko underground.com. Got YouTube channels.

• 1:08:48Jocko Willink?

  Also, I've written a bunch of books. Dave Burke wrote a book. Yeah, good deal too. Called Need to Lead. You can preorder it right now. Comes out October.

• 1:08:57Jocko Willink?

  You don't want to get that second edition. Do you want to get a second edition? No. Want to get you on the mailing list for the second edition? No, sir, thank you. First edition. You gotta get that first edition from Dave Burke. Also, I've written a bunch of books. I've written a bunch of kids' books. Check those out if you want. We have a leadership consultancy.

• 1:09:14Jocko Willink?

  It's called Echelon Front. We solve problems through leadership. The problems that you have inside your organization, regardless of what they are, they're leadership problems. In order to solve those problems, you need leadership. Leadership is the solution. So go to echelonfront.com if you need a leadership consultancy inside your organization. We can help you, or you can come to one of our events. We've got the muster coming up December 7th through the 9th in Orlando, Florida. If you want to come to these things, you've got to register early because they sell out. So, check out the muster, check out some of our other events, FTX, council, just finished the council, they're awesome. Do the battlefield, women's assembly, September 11th through the 13th in San Antonio, Texas. So we've got a bunch of good stuff for you.

• 1:09:59Jocko Willink?

  Check those out. We also have online training to teach the skills of leadership. Go to extremeownership.com if you want to learn how to lead. Leadership is a skill. It's actually a bunch of skills. You know, you just don't pick up a basketball and you're able to shoot a free throw. That doesn't happen. You need to learn the skill. You don't pick up a guitar and you can play Led Zeppelin. Doesn't happen. It's a skill. Leadership is a skill. If you want to learn the skill of leadership, go to extremeownership.com. Also, if you want to help service members, active and retired, you want to help their families, you want to help Gold Star families, check out Mark Lee's mom, Mama Lee, incredible charity organization, helping all the time.

• 1:10:39Jocko Willink?

  If you want to donate or you want to get involved, go to AmericasMightyWarriors.org. Also, check out HeroesAndHorses.org. And then Jimmy May's organization, BeyondTheBrotherhood.org. If you want to connect with us.

• 1:10:54Jocko Willink?

  You can check out Jaco.com or you can find us on social media. I'm at Jocko Willink, Echo is at Echo Charles. Just watch out because that algorithm will get you drown you in electrons and you'll lose your life. Also, thanks to the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps for holding line around the world, leading from the front. Also Coast Guard out there did some epic work down there in Texas. So thanks for what you do as well. Also, thanks to our police law enforcement, firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, Border Patrol, Secret Service, all of the first responders. Thank you for keeping us safe here at home. And for everyone else out there, let's get some

• 1:11:34Jocko Willink?

  final guidance from Colonel David Hackworth. He wrote a book called About Face. It's my favorite book. Here's his statements here. Quote, "The worst thing you can do is overreact. If you lose your head, you lose your men. Panic is contagious. I learned in World War II that the slightest bit of excitement in a leader is transmitted to the men. You might be afraid, but the fear gets magnified in the troops. Somebody has to keep his cool. If you're a decent leader, you don't dare lose it for your own good. You've got to keep your unit up there doing its job. If a leader loses control, the whole unit can

• 1:12:18Jocko Willink?

  fall apart. Calm, deliberate action saves lives." End quote. And there you go. Listen to Hack. That's all we've got for tonight. And until next time, this is Echo and Jocko. Out.