Transcript

Can the Navy SEAL Mindset Change Your Life? Brent Gleeson Says HELL YEAH!

From John R. Miles · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 40 min · 7,583 words · 66 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Can the Navy SEAL Mindset Change Your Life? Brent Gleeson Says HELL YEAH!", an episode of John R. Miles published December 9, 2025 (40 min, about 7,583 words). It mentions 28 people, works and ideas, including Passion Struck, Embrace the Suck, Robin Sharma, Accelerate, Amber Capone.

What this episode is about

Brent Gleeson discusses how the Navy SEAL mindset can transform one’s perspective on life, emphasizing the importance of discipline and intentionality in eliminating distractions to pursue a meaningful and purpose-driven existence. Through his experiences, he highlights how military lessons can inspire individuals to redefine their values and impact on the world.

Key takeaways

  • Military life forges a unique lens, enhancing both perspective and discipline, like a boot camp for adulthood.
  • Combat zones teach life's best lessons: value, elimination, impact—like Marie Kondo with night vision goggles.
  • Veteran brotherhood is glue-like—unseen, unspoken, yet so sticky no civilian life can replicate it.
  • Life post-service: replace camaraderie with community events, and don't forget to bring the feels.
  • A 'thank you for your service' moment: veterans as lifelong learners inspire us all to soldier on.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Passion Struck
  2. – 10:00: Embrace the Suck, In Waves and War, Marcus Capone, Mark McInness
  3. – 15:00: Embrace the Suck, Accelerate
  4. – 20:00: Commander's intent, Presbyterian Hospital
  5. – 30:00: The Earned Life, What Got You Here Won't Get You There
  6. – 35:00: All-In: The Pathway to Personal Growth and Professional Excellence, Efficacy theory
  7. – 40:00: Passion Struck, Accelerate, Brent Gleason, Brent_Gleason

Notable quotes from "Can the Navy SEAL Mindset Change Your Life? Brent Gleeson Says HELL YEAH!"

  • Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice.
    about Passion Struck · at
  • Many years he started this foundation they created the new Netflix documentary in waves and war talking it's the best documentary I've ever seen on the impact of combat on the…
    about In Waves and War · at
  • Guys into and through buds. It's nothing super formal, but I'm on the board of the Seal Family Foundation. My wife and I are blessed enough to be able to financially support…
    about SEAL Family Foundation · at
  • Literally not figuratively but literally saving lives. So your first book was titled embrace the suck and it's a phrase that I hear a lot. One of my Naval Academy classmates…
    about Embrace the Suck · at
  • A health and wellness aspect of your life. But because of what we do at my company, we're at Accelerate, we're a hybrid of enterprise management, consulting, and software. But…
    about Accelerate · at
  • In if the Naval Academy is teaching you a mission planning scenario, they're going to talk about commander's intent.
    about Commander's intent · at
  • Was like parting the Red Sea through Dallas rush hour traffic to get all the way from Carolton to Presbyterian Hospital where I got to spend his last 15 hours by his side. But…
    about Presbyterian Hospital · at
  • I was reading your book, a lot of people know who Marshall Goldsmith is and they know his book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There. But the book that I think is better than…
    about What Got You Here Won't Get You There · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Robin Sharma — Person · 3 mentions
  • Amber Capone — Person · 2 mentions
  • John R. Miles — Person · 2 mentions
  • Marcus Capone — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Gets into the impact of psychedelic therapy as well yeah Marcus Capone yeah and Marcus and Amber. They're a dynamic duo and it you'll go to these things or other types of events or reunions and you'll see people I saw Matt Roberts who.
  • Matt Roberts — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Duo and it you'll go to these things or other types of events or reunions and you'll see people I saw Matt Roberts who I graduated with. Haven't seen him probably since…
  • Mark McInness — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Phrase that I hear a lot. One of my Naval Academy classmates and friends, Mark McInness, who you might know, uses the phrase a lot. I had William Brennham on the show. He talks…
  • William Brennham — Person · 1 mention · first at
    Naval Academy classmates and friends, Mark McInness, who you might know, uses the phrase a lot. I had William Brennham on the show. He talks about it a lot as do most of the…
  • Brent Gleason — Person · 1 mention · first at
    A few areas. I'm on LinkedIn, so just look me up, Brent Gleason, on LinkedIn.
  • Terry Crews — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

Companies & orgs

Products & tech

  • Brent_Gleason — Product · 1 mention · first at
    A few areas. I'm on LinkedIn, so just look me up, Brent Gleason, on LinkedIn.

Concepts & topics

  • BUD/S — Concept · 2 mentions
  • Commander's intent — Concept · 1 mention · first at
  • Efficacy theory — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    About self-efficacy. And where I want to go with this is there's this theory called efficacy theory where you're living the life you are and then there's two different…
  • 4x4x48 — Concept · 1 mention
  • The Revenant — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

Full transcript with timestamps

If I had to pick one thing, and I think a lot of veterans would resonate with this, is your experiences in the military, especially if you've had any experience downrange, is about perspective and really looking at the world and your life and the impact you want to have through a completely different lens. And you have a greater degree of discipline than because of that to eliminate things from your life that really are either adding no value or are blockages and threats to living a meaningful, purpose- driven life. that'll have a positive impact on it.

Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John Armiles. And on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long- form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators scientists military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become Passion Struck.

I am absolutely thrilled today to bring Brent Glacon onto Passion Struck. Brent, man, we've been trying to do this for such a long time. It is so great to see you.

Great to see you, brother. And honored to be on the show. I'm glad we finally got it on the calendar.

As you and I were talking about before you came on, my father was UDT class 16 going way back, old school frogman. Yeah.

And I grew up around the teams before I even served myself. And there's this kind of unspoken thing. You don't need rank or a trident to recognize the way that someone carries themselves after they've served. I think that shared wiring we have as veterans is unmistakable. But when you think about your time in the teams, what's the moment big or small that shaped who you became after? I think there's an aspect of course that was a longer culmination of different types of identity transformation and experiences that obviously forge who we are during that transition period and how those experiences positively or otherwise influence every aspect of our lives. Obviously depends on the types of experiences you have when serving. So I would say there's not necessarily one specific moment or catalyst that defined who I have continued to become. Like you, I believe in continuous improvement and being a lifelong learner and trying

to apply even the negative experiences and horrifying experiences and seeing the best and worst of humanity to bringing light and joy and positivity into the world or influencing how we do things, whether it's in my organization or with the books I write. But having gone in a few months before 911 obviously initially so there's various stages of this to answer your question initially totally different vision for what service was going to look like even if by the grace of God service was in the naval special warfare community which it was but then 911 occurred and obviously service especially within special operations took on a totally different meaning and then having deployed multiple times to combat zones and having a lot of combat experience pales in comparison to many of our brothers and sisters I do want to say that I've got friends and teammates who've done 13, 14, 15 combat deployments and that's a whole different

ballgame. But for me, I think it it is a constant state of reflection on what those experiences have meant to how I approach being the best possible husband that I can be. Being a fully present parent, being a responsible leader of my organizations, and first and foremost of myself. So trying to draw any type of positive experiences from that around discipline, personal accountability, narrowing your focus and also if I had to pick one thing and I think a lot of veterans would resonate with this is your experiences in the military, especially if you've had any experience downrange is about perspective and really looking at the world and your life and the impact you want to have through a completely different lens. And you have a greater degree of discipline then because of that to eliminate things from your life that really are either adding no value or are blockages and threats to living a meaningful purpose-

driven life that'll have a positive impact on others. Yeah. For guys like my father and your father coming from the earliest UDT era Vietnam war, that identity shift for them after service was massive. But when I still talk to veterans today who are transitioning, that identity shift is still pretty massive. What piece of the brotherhood did you find the hardest to replace as a civilian?

It's probably similar to what most would say around the camaraderie and the community and the support that you feel. The brotherhood is real. It's very real. something that as you well know is just at a veteran suicide prevention gala here in Coronado LA this past weekend for vets one of my buds classmates and former teammates he was a dev group for many years he started this foundation they created the new Netflix documentary in waves and war talking it's the best documentary I've ever seen on the impact of combat on the human mind and what gets into the impact of psychedelic therapy as well

yeah Marcus Capone yeah and Marcus and Amber. They're a dynamic duo and it you'll go to these things or other types of events or reunions and you'll see people I saw Matt Roberts who I graduated with. Haven't seen him probably since graduation or maybe some events here in California many years ago. Let's say I haven't seen him in 20 years. It's like we saw each other a year ago or six months ago. you pick up right where you left off and you cannot replicate that type of forged connectivity in any other type of organization or experience anywhere in the world. So, you miss that, but obviously there's things you can do to stay involved in the community. I mentor guys into and through buds. It's nothing super formal, but I'm on the board of the Seal Family Foundation. My wife and I are blessed enough to be able to financially support organizations like vets and things like that. So I think

it's important not just from a giving back standpoint from selfishly for veterans to find ways to stay connected to those communities. It's very healing but also altruism and giving back to those communities is one of the best ways that veterans heal.

I got to meet Marcus and Amber and the most ironic of places. I agreed to do a 4x4 by 48 exercise and they were there. they didn't participate in it, but there were about 60 or 70 former operators who were there and it was across all the branches. The only one that wasn't represented was Coast Guard. And it was pretty ironic to me how much all of us who've served, who've been in combat, all have the same kind of trauma response that we're dealing with. It was like 99% the same for all of us. And as I was talking to people who were there who had used psychedelics in one way or another to get through their trauma, most of them had tried everything.

And it was crazy that the efficacy was like 75% 80% or higher. So I really think what Marcus and Amber are doing uh with this documentary that they've done, everything else is going to be life-changing for so many people. Absolutely. Every operator I know who has tried psychedelic therapy and non-military who have tried it in different capacities, not through these types of nonprofit organizations, but on their own has been absolutely life-changing for them. And like you see in the documentary, one of my favorite lines of the documentary is when DJ says, "So you're telling me that my my wife is forcing me to go down to Mexico to do psychedelics?" Okay. But at the same time, it is a proven fact thus far coming from their own testimonies that this is literally not figuratively but literally saving lives. So your first book was titled embrace the suck and it's a phrase that I hear a lot. One of my

Naval Academy classmates and friends, Mark McInness, who you might know, uses the phrase a lot. I had William Brennham on the show. He talks about it a lot as do most of the SEALs I know. But for someone who isn't familiar with that phraseology, why did you decide to write a book about it?

It and to be clear, I don't think naval special warfare has the trademark on this term, but it has been a military term for a long time. We've definitely leaned into it in the special operations community, but the general philosophy around that is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's the intentionality behind comfort zone expansion. So identifying and I think you have to be more specific than that even anybody can really understand it and most importantly apply it in their lives. But really looking at what am I trying to accomplish in various aspects of my life when it comes to my marriage or my parenting approach or for entrepreneurs and business leaders and in generally in your career and narrowing that focus down to understand what areas do I need to intentionally push those boundaries through innovation or learning or doing the things that I don't like to do or that make me cringe a little bit but

that I still have to do to be a successful business leader or entrepreneur or husband or wife or parent. There's always going to be things that we're passionate about that we connect to that we enjoy doing and there's always going to be things that we just frankly don't like to do and we always put them off or we minimize them especially in our professional lives and careers but yet we have to do them. And what I found too, when you embrace the suck in those capacities, really lean into those things, you're building those mental calluses and you're building skills in those areas where you even start to enjoy those things. And then you go find the next obstacle and you lean into that one and you do it again and again and you start to really expand the boundaries of your comfort zone again with purpose with strategy behind it and with intentionality so that you're in a continuous state of not just

improvement and learning in a continuous state of developing resilience and mental fortitude and even physical fortitude if that's if it's in a more of a health and wellness aspect of your life. But because of what we do at my company, we're at Accelerate, we're a hybrid of enterprise management, consulting, and software. But we spend a lot of time in driving growth and transformation in large organizations. Always includes degrees of leadership and talent development, team cohesion, and other types of growth strategies.

But a lot of that work really has to drill down into individual development. And for leaders to be effective in any organization as you well know whether it's military business or out in the community or in any type of team environment we have to continually go through stages of intentional identity transformation. I cannot approach my business for example and how I lead it today only. I have to think about who do I need to become to drive this business into the future. Who do I need to surround myself with? What do I need to learn? What types of new strategies do I need to implement? And that requires a lot of embracing of the suck. So I thought it'd be a fun project and I think you know like most of the things that I end up doing it was my wife's idea originally as it was within the new book. But it was an exploration into personal development that I had not done. I had not been a big digesttor of

self-improvement content or books or podcasts. So, one of the first things I did was I went out and I started reading all the books and listening to books and listening to podcasts to see first of all part of my research to see what's out there, what resonates, what aspects of that stuff that I like, what's measurable, what's not measurable and then I found a path forward that ended up being becoming the book Embrace the Suck, which thankfully has had a huge impact and I've gotten all kinds of very humbling messages that it's saved marriages, saved lives, helped people battle cancer, transformed their businesses or careers. So, it's been a fulfilling journey. I'm very humbled by it.

Before we get into your new book, I wanted to follow up with what you just said for a second because this whole podcast when I started it, it was all based on the idea of behavior change is possible, but it takes intentional choices to reshape how you're living your life in order to do it. So, intentionality has been the core of everything we do here. And I had this discussion with Angela Duckworth, the Wharton professor who wrote grit. And

we were talking about West Point because that's how she opens up the book. And I was talking about the Naval Academy. And I tried to get her to go to this topic. And I said, "My experience, whether it's beast barracks or pleb summer or getting through, you can have all the passion and perseverance that you want in life, but if it's not aligned in the proper direction, you're not going to end up with where you want to go." and she says,"Well, that's really about self-control." But I think intentionality is bigger than just self-control. How would you define it for a listener? I love that you first of all brought up Angela Duckworth. I love her work. She's actually in the new book. I'm not going to reveal how, but I know a very creative way. Think a combination of the movie Revenant and Angela Duckworth and where they converge. We'll leave it at that for now. But absolutely I couldn't agree

more when it comes to having a strategic intent behind uh developing grit, developing resilience. It's not just about extreme ownership and mental fortitude and all the things that we talk about. Just like in any good strategic approach to any project or initiative, whether it be business or personal, you have to identify and clarify what is the mission? What am I trying to accomplish here? What is the desired outcome at the end of this journey? Or if there's no destination, then what does that journey need to look like? How am I going to measure those incremental improvements in my own personal grit and resilience and fortitude? What is that going to mean for my life? How is that going to impact my relationships, my work, my personal well-being, whatever those categories need be? And like she writes about and I know based on a lot of your philosophies as well, there has to be a specific

design to your process when it comes to learning, when it comes to mentorship and guidance that you want to receive from others who've been down that path. All those things have to be very specific and by design so that it is aligned with your desired outcomes. Even going down to okay, I have this path that I want to go down. I know just like in if the Naval Academy is teaching you a mission planning scenario, they're going to talk about commander's intent. What is the strategic objective we're trying to accomplish? What resources am I or we going to need to achieve that desired outcome? Let's list them out.

Who owns those? How are we going to acquire those? What do we not have that we need to acquire? Next would be like what are the threats and blockages that are going to stand in the way of achieving this desired outcome? And that gets into what things or bad habits or people do I need to eliminate from my life completely or otherwise in order to clear a better path to set myself up or my team or my family for a greater degree of success. So, it's following that a system just like anything else as opposed to just thinking about resilience and thinking about mental fortitude or reading a couple books.

It's systems that drive outcomes. Man, I love it. I want to dive into your brand new book. I've read both your books, so I was very happy I got an advanced reader copy from your team and all

that mixed emotion about advanced copies because they're not final copies, but thank you for reading. We'll get you a final copy, too. Well, All-In is a fantastic book and I want to start with your preface. You write in the opening about your father and it was very touching for me. I've already brought out my father, but the standard your father set, mine set, the expectations, the discipline you absorb just watching him. I I felt like I was walking into my own story because I grew up with that same feeling that you don't get to choose your standard, you inherit it. In many ways, you like me were shaped by the uniform long before either of us ever put it on.

Yeah. And you write candidly, and I want you to give more of what was happening here about a season when you drifted from that standard. So, when did you first realize you weren't living the standard that your father taught you? And what made you decide to fight your way back?

Well, the catalyst was his passing two years ago. So, my dad passed away unexpectedly on September 20th, 2023. And it it was interesting because for all different types of various reasons that we don't need to get into necessarily, it was a shitty year already. There was things going on in the economy that were impacting our business and that impacts the financial aspects of any type of entrepreneur or founder. And so a lot of it was be related. We had come off a growth year in 2022. We're coming out of COVID and all those things. Not that everything's related to COVID. There are aspects of the clients and customers we serve spending more money on software and development and things like that. And then for whatever reason, 2023 was just it was a strange year. So it was already extremely challenging. High stress, high anxiety that impacts marriage, that impacts family, impacts finances, and

then lo and behold, my dad passes away unexpectedly out of the blue. By the grace of God, it's a crazy story. I just I grew up in Dallas and that's where my parents still live. My mom still lives there, my twin brother, his wife. I was in Dallas. We have a lot of clients and customers there, some investors there. So I'm there like once a month. So because of the frequency, I don't always get to see my parents. And sometimes I'm not even mentioning that I'm in town because I'm in and out. I know I'm not going to see them or I just forget. But at the end of this day, we're launching a new program with a client, doing a lot of software onboarding and things like that. My phone had just been going crazy in my pocket. What is I thought I was on some text chain with some college buddies or seal teammates and it was actually my mom alerting my brother and I to the fact that my dad had a fall. We

will never know exactly what happened, but he had some heart issues. But my dad was still 80 years old, former Marine. He liked three things: family, work, and working out. That's it. And hunting and some other things like that you can imagine as a Texas guy. But he was still working in commercial real estate as a real estate developer. He had multiple deals in place. I think, frankly, he was pushing the boundary a little bit of what he could probably take on. Long story short, he had a fall and he hit his head because of some heart medication he was on and blood thinners.

He had a brain bleed that became inoperable. And like I said, by the grace of God, I just happened to be in Dallas. And so, literally the CEO of this client organization, he's like, "Let's go." We got in his Corvette. He drove somehow by like it was like parting the Red Sea through Dallas rush hour traffic to get all the way from Carolton to Presbyterian Hospital where I got to spend his last 15 hours by his side. But that anytime again as veterans, especially veterans who go down range, we're not immune or separated from the reality of loss and death. But someone close to you, a parent, a sibling, a child, god forbid, that is going to ignite a period of deep reflection, and looking at our own mortality and looking at the realization of the fact that time is our most valuable commodity. We spend it freely every day without ever knowing the balance in our account. And so what does the rest of my life need to look like?

Where have I really gone off the path that I preach about that I have a desire to live by and certain guiding principles? And so during that period of reflection, I was identifying things that I need to start doing or do better um and things that I need to stop doing and eliminate from my life. Whether that be bad habits or toxic relationships or business strategies and approaches even that level of granularity that need to evolve or stop so that I can open the pathway to something better in all of those important categories of being a better husband, a better parent, a better founder, better leader. And for me, one of those and I write about this in the first part of the book is one of those was I identified the fact that I was going to eliminate alcohol from my life completely starting right then and there. And that was two years ago.

I remember you and I texting about that. I had seen you post about it on social media and reached out because I had stopped drinking myself maybe six months before that and was just if you need someone to help you through it. But I I remember and in this scene, it made me think about my own self because you're in the hospital with your dad and part of it to kind I guess ease yourself, you decide to go across the street and grab a couple shots of vodka that you brought back. But I remember myself in my own professional career.

There were so many times where I did the same thing. And I I can imagine in your mind thinking, I'm leaving my father. He could have died while I'm gone. That's a big wakeup call. When you think about your life now, two years later, how much has not drinking opened up like your creativity and more the self-awareness that you have?

And it's going back to that comment, it's fascinating what you can justify through different types of addiction, not just alcohol, but other types of addiction. We the human mind is is a fascinating thing. And obviously you can tap into it in a very positive way, but also there's things about the human mind that are powerful that leads us down the wrong path and we justify it every step of the way. And so for me in that given moment, it wasn't right in that moment, but I think it was about a week or two after my father's passing leading up to his funeral where I made that decision just one day. And I'm an all-in all or nothing. I don't do moderation very well. It's not about easing things back, especially if it's something that I know is important, whether it's something I'm going to start doing or stop doing. And I just made that decision. My wife reminds me that we didn't have a discussion about this prior to making

that commitment. And she literally said, she said, "We're never going to have a glass of wine together ever again." I'm like, "No, I this is just till I'm dead. We just got to stay the course." But I said, "No, we're not." And I know I will never deviate from this path because that would mean mission failure. And I don't do mission failure. I don't like that. Maybe there'll be hiccups along the way. There have not been at all, frankly. And I I say this with a great degree of humility because I'm frankly astounded by it, but it's been one of the easiest things I've ever done. Um I don't know why I put a lot of that towards my faith and the strength that I've gotten from that down this path, but also because of the intentionality and purpose behind it.

Just anything we do that's purpose driven, whether it's service or going into battle or eliminating drugs or alcohol from your life, whatever that path is, if it's purpose driven and you can emotionally connect to it, that is what will drive you through any type of obstacles or adversity that might deviate you from that path. But for me, when it goes down to the categories I've already mentioned, I looked at how is this positively going to impact my marriage? How will this make me a more present father when I'm with my children? How is it going to make me a better leader, a better CEO, a better founder? And there was hope there. And I would imagine that yeah, okay, from the friends that I know that had that made this same choice, especially people that I've respected, whether they were former operators who've done this because studies show that alcohol also does not have a great positive impact on PTSD or

traumatic brain injury. I don't know. I'm not a doctor, but pretty common sense there. But at the same time also founders, entrepreneurs who've achieved great, let's just call it great success financially as well, who've built companies, sold companies, and I had had some degree of success along those paths. But my curiosity was around what could I be really accomplishing by eliminating this from my life. And every single one of those categories has dramatically improved. So much so that it's hard to actually articulate. My marriage is better than it's ever been.

I'm much more present with my children. we justify the fact that well our kids are young or the younger ones don't really notice these things they do they notice everything and when they're aware of things like alcohol and alcohol consumption and more than we think they are and so also just by the nature of making that decision I think for me probably regained I regained respect for my wife I regained respect for my children again I wasn't drunk in a ditch on the side of the road but at the same time when we're abusing alcohol or other types of bad habits it has an impact on every area of your life. And then from a from an entrepreneurship standpoint and I've since the SEAL teams in grad school, I've only ever been a founder.

So entrepreneurship is all I know because I like deep suffering and pain and anxiety. I'm a satist in that kind of way. But it led me to have the mental clarity and the courage to completely transform our company from old school traditional management consulting into enterprise software which requires a whole new strategy requires raising a ton of capital putting together completely new plans, new people, new talent, me learning new things. So it goes through an identity transformation process as well. And all of those areas have been astonishingly successful. I think largely due to the fact that I made that tough decision.

Yeah. Well, thank you for sharing that and for being vulnerable about it because I think it's a message a lot of people need to hear. I have so many people who ask me, "You're still not drinking? What's wrong with you?" And I had stopped drinking a few times before in my life, but this time when I made the decision, I said, "August 1st, I am stopping." And I just stopped. But in the months that followed, I would kind of observe everywhere we went, just how much it kind of permeates every aspect of life that's around us. And one of the most impactful thing for me is I realized how many of my behaviors were and even the environments I was putting myself in revolved around it. And when I eliminated that, so many of the things that were taking me away from the purpose that I felt I was compelled to do went away and it allowed me to focus on what mattered most.

Yeah. Completely. And where I want to go with this is when I was reading your book, a lot of people know who Marshall Goldsmith is and they know his book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There. But the book that I think is better than that is one that he wrote called the earned life. And I was talking to Marshall about it. And he has this framework in it that the earned life comes from aligning your value system what you call your mind, heart and soul. And he says with your aspirations and your ambitions. Now aspirations are your long-term goal goals that you want to achieve and your ambitions are your more near-term things.

Yeah. You say it's anchored by deep self-awareness of what truly matters. And where I wanted to go with this is for the past six or seven years I've been on this deep journey of studying the science of mattering. And to me when you intentionally use the words what truly matters in this sentence, it's really profound. Why did you think adding that was so important? the alignment of mind, heart, and soul anchored by deep self-awareness of what truly matters. Because when we don't, we want to be careful about spending too much time in deep self-reflection. Make time for those things. I do it every morning. But at the same time, a lot of people get caught in that trap of trying to find themselves or discover their purpose. It is through action, specific, strategic, purposeful action that we find deeper meaning in our purpose, our why, and what truly matters in life. through some trial and error, of course, not just

sitting around ruminating over what is my purpose in life or what does my renewed purpose need to be to have a fulfilling purpose-driven meaningful life. But we can't really accomplish any of those things without intentionally working on our emotional intelligence and opening up certain degrees of self-awareness through coaching and mentorship and being open to feedback. The highest performers you or I know, and I'm not putting myself in that category, don't aren't just accepting of radical cander from trusted colleagues, spouses, friends, peers, they crave it constantly. There is a degree of healthy dissatisfaction in their life where and my friend Terry Cruz, actor, former NFL guy,

is hilarious. He's hilarious. But he said something one time. I've heard him say in interviews, he said it to me one time. I forgot what we were talking about, but he said, I want to be happy. Of course, yes, but always just a little dissatisfied. And I'm like, god, that's me to a tea. I'm never fully satisfied with my station in life. And so having a degree of self-awareness and some people naturally have a heightened state of emotional intelligence and others have to work on it a little bit more. All of us have to work on it whether you start with a solid baseline or not. And that goes to your personal and professional life. But self-awareness on strengths and developmental opportunities or weaknesses is the baseline starting point. But then having the desire and growth mindset to lean into those areas that you know you need to upskill, whether it's in your relationships or your approach to work or your personal

and physical well-being, all those key areas once identified, you have to have enough self-awareness to be accepting of feedback, to crave constructive criticism and feedback, be willing to learn and be willing to do the work. But again, only on the things that matter. It goes back to the general philosophy around the new book, which is titled All-In: The Pathway to Personal Growth and Professional Excellence. I like the counterintuitive approach, the term all-in, because you're like, "How do I be allin? What do I need to do?" I'm like, "You're only all in on the right things, the things that matter, the things that matter to connectivity with your values, the things that matter to what you want to achieve in your relationships, in your career, and getting rid of everything else. I don't mean just marginalizing or putting some things off to the side of being disciplined enough to learn the fine art

of saying no and eliminating bad practices, bad habits, or even toxic relationships are going to stand in the way of that. We only have so much time. We don't know when the end is. And frankly, we just don't have time to just spin our wheels and wasting that valuable commodity on stuff that has no impact.

Bren, I was listening to another interview you did and you were talking about self-efficacy. And where I want to go with this is there's this theory called efficacy theory where you're living the life you are and then there's two different dimensions. There's the life you could be living and there's the life that most of us end up living which is what we feel we should be living. And in the book you underline that aligning goals with values is key to purpose- driven action. Going from that should to the could. But for someone who is in a rut, they're in all this noise around us today and they've forgotten their core values. What's your advice to rediscover that core element?

Like how do you do it? How do you get back on that track? It's really about going back to the drawing board. And we all intellectually understand these things. We understand, I can agree that clearly defining values and purpose will lead to a more fulfilling life or help me overcome obstacles. Sure. But the operationalizing of those philosophies is a totally different thing. And therefore, we have to go back to treating it just like any other project we would at work or initiative at home. Whether it's cleaning the garage or raising hund00 million for your business, it all requires being very specific and intentional. And sometimes going back to the basics and wiping that slate clean and looking at, okay, I'm in a rut. I've spent too much time in this rut. And yeah, maybe I've gotten some feedback and everybody's trying to tell me what I need to do, but for myself, what is going to be realistic for me to

actually emotionally connect to get over this hump and start taking meaningful action so that I can climb out of this bunker of normal human emotion, which we all experience. We all experiences those stages of grief, if you will. regardless of the magnitude of whatever whatever obstacle we hit. But resilient people and teams spend less time, you know, in that emotional state and move more quickly to gathering insight, gathering data, getting some good coaching and mentorship and then taking action, developing a plan, not a full plan. There's no such thing, but a good old-fashioned 80% plan that they can start to execute and gaining some momentum and then learning from that momentum and making some specific pivots. I heard a a snippet from Jaco in a podcast that we've all heard him say things like this before, but it was about overcoming fear. And in typical Jaco fashion, his response was one word.

He said go yes. Yes. What does that mean? But yes. And but what he means by that obviously is this is along the same philosophy of taking action like getting off your ass. And I know it's and again I'm not minimizing the grief or emotion of loss and the different experiences people have in their lives but it's at the end of the day we only have one life and it is about getting off your ass and taking action finding the right mentors surrounding yourself with the right people who are going to support you getting rid of the people who are in that same position unfortunately or who are going to keep you in that same position who do not really truly wish you well. Again, it's about eliminating relationships, too. But then also finding the right resources that are going to help not just motivate you because that's fleeting, but real actual resources that are going to get you going on a new path that once you've

defined like where do I really want to go from here? Kind of like we talked about when I lost my dad and things like that, but where do I want to go? What do I want to accomplish? Let's wipe the slate clean if need be. If we add some things back in that are fall into that continue and elevate bucket, but what do I need to stop doing? what do I need to start doing? And then putting a prioritized plan in place and also looking at what needs to go on that stop list is just as important as anything else. What are the bad habits, the relationships or just the things that I waste time on that add no value that are going that I'm going to commit to eliminating? and just one small incremental improvement every single day, seven days a week, putting new routines in place, but daily routines and rituals that will actually have an impact on that mission plan, if you will. Not just thinking about it or

saying, "Yeah, I'll get to some of these things," but having a systematic approach and daily rituals that'll help start driving that 1% incremental improvement each day philosophy. what you're saying is what Robin Chararma says.

I love his work. I didn't initially think I would, but I've become a big fan of his. So,

I have had him on the podcast twice now, and I always love talking to him. I always come out of that with two months of full steam on changing the way I'm operating, changing what I'm doing in the company.

The his book, The 5 a.m. Club, was part of my initial journey. I started I looked at it I was like but his writing style especially in that book I've read all his books but especially in that book was I really connected with it at first I was like this is a different approach very storytelling based but

fascinating book I know he took four or five years to write it but the 5 a.m. club and the importance of those daily rituals and the way he presents them also influence allin my new book I jokingly say not really joking but if Robin Chararma and James Clear and some Old Navy frog man had a baby it would be all in three men and a baby I guess that was an actual movie so if we all had a baby it would be my new book Allin

so we don't have time to go through a ton of the book we've touched on aspects of it for those who are listening, you really need to pick this up. I purposely didn't go into the remarkable results pyramid because I want you to read the book to absorb it, but it it's such a good thing. Brian also goes into why high achievers plateau and how to break through that fog. Goes into long-term thinking and the importance of the long game, the purpose compass, commitment devices. There's so many crown jewels in here. And one of my favorite sections was the whole performance engine section where you reframe success not as a willpower problem but as a systems problem. And I think that systems thinking is so important. All that said, I wanted to come back to this topic of passion struck because a question I love to ask all guests is what does being passion struck mean to you? I think we've laid a good foundation for what that means in

some of our discussion already. But being passion struck again goes back to clearing the path in your life both professionally and personally to really identify the areas that you really want to lean into that you really want to focus on and those areas that you care deeply about that mesh with your values assuming you've to some degree defined what those values are. I highly recommend that for everybody because it's tough to emotionally connect different activities or initiatives or goals to your values if you haven't defined it. Don't we won't go into all that right now. But but if I had to put it into a three-step framework, it would be identifying what your values are. And there's different tools you can do to think about when I've been most resilient in my life. what was true about me emotionally, cognitively, my behavior, when I've overcome obstacles, or when I've experienced the most joy,

like what was true about me in that moment in my life. And you can start to drill down on the things that you really truly care about and then define some values and definitions and metrics for success along the lines of those values. And the second piece of that to be truly passion struck is looking at what do I want to accomplish in my personal life and professional life and only picking a few things. 10 number one priorities means we have zero priorities. And so that goes into that second piece of decluttering your life. And then in my experience, once we declutter and we remove a lot of those obstacles or bad habits or relationships and lean into these other areas that we at least believe that we are passionate about or know that we are, then that passion starts to really deepen because we lean into those things without distraction.

We start surrounding ourselves with people who are passionate about similar things. people that can mentor us and guide us. We start digesting content and engaging in personal and professional learning and development that aligns with those passions and then you're laser focused and then you have a path and then you have a roadmap for being truly passion struck in the most important areas that matter to you.

Awesome. And Brent, last question. People want to learn more about you, what you're doing, your books, everything. Where is the best place for them to go?

A few areas. I'm on LinkedIn, so just look me up, Brent Gleason, on LinkedIn. There's a search bar there. My Instagram is Brent_Gleason and then our company website, I'll just spell it out. Our company name is Accelerate, but the URL is exlr the number eight. And the book is on any online retailer that you prefer, but the book title again is Allin, the pathway to personal growth and professional excellence.

Awesome. Thank you, Brent, so much for coming on the show. It was such an honor to finally make this happen.

I am so glad that we got to do it. You're a fascinating guy. I've enjoyed following you as well and hopefully we can do it again.

Questions about this episode

What is "Can the Navy SEAL Mindset Change Your Life? Brent Gleeson Says HELL YEAH!" about?

Brent Gleeson discusses how the Navy SEAL mindset can transform one’s perspective on life, emphasizing the importance of discipline and intentionality in eliminating distractions to pursue a meaningful and purpose-driven existence. Through his experiences, he highlights how military lessons can inspire individuals to redefine their values and impact on the world.

What is mentioned in this John R. Miles episode?

28 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Passion Struck, Embrace the Suck, Robin Sharma, Accelerate, Amber Capone, BUD/S. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Can the Navy SEAL Mindset Change Your Life? Brent Gleeson Says HELL YEAH!"?

The episode runs 40 min; the transcript is about 7,583 words in 66 timestamped sections.

More from John R. Miles

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 19, 2025.