Black Ops, Big Money: Insights From Covert US Intelligence Operator Daniel Stinson

What this episode is about

The discussion centers on Daniel Stinson, a former US Marine and intelligence operative, who shares his experiences in covert operations across the globe, from the Bosnian War to post-9/11 missions in Afghanistan. He emphasizes the qualities necessary for building a dependable team in high-stakes situations and highlights his commitment to supporting veterans and combating human trafficking through his foundation.

Key takeaways

• Building a top-notch team means prioritizing trust over talent; skills can be taught, but integrity is intrinsic.
• Military contractors: the unsung heroes who turn covert operations into well-oiled machines, often with a side of bureaucracy.
• Imagine having a 'what if' scenario for every life decision—welcome to the daily mental workout of a seasoned operative.
• From war zones to boardrooms, the true measure of resilience is not just survival, but thriving under pressure.
• Honor and bravery may be the calling card of a Marine, but it's the heart behind those traits that defines true leadership.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Tommy Mello (Host) · 12 min speaking
• Daniel Stinson (Guest) · 18 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 5:00: Daniel Stinson, Department of Defense, One God Foundation, September 11th, 2001
2. 5:00 – 10:00: General Dynamics, UVA
3. 25:00 – 29:36: One God Foundation

Notable quotes from "Black Ops, Big Money: Insights From Covert US Intelligence Operator Daniel Stinson"

• Resilient, fearless, unshakable. Our guest today is a US Marine turn intelligence operative who has spent decades as a contractor for the US government, the Department of Defense,.

  about Daniel Stinson · at 0:13

• Most recently, he founded the One God Foundation with a mission to support veterans at home and end human trafficking abroad.

  about One God Foundation · at 1:22

• Contractors have always been part of the US military. Always. Back again in the Clinton administration, they broke it down and they said, Hey, we want more war fighters to be able to do war fighting and more of the support jobs.

  about Clinton administration · at 3:19

• Stuff. How much of it was business? How much of it was capitalism? I guess my buddies all I went to get my master's degree from UVA. A lot of them work at Rathon and I talked…

  about UVA · at 7:51

• So, they give you a soul source contract direct to you. it's it's just like bit like Rathon, they bid against say Loheed Martin or General Dynamics or whomever else, Northrup Grumman, they all throw their bids in. It's.

  about Northrop Grumman · at 9:43

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Daniel Stinson — Person · Main guest · 1 mention · first at 1:43
  Primary interview subject describing his career as a US Marine and later as a cleared government contractor supporting DoD/CIA missions, including Bosnia and Afghanistan, and later humanitarian/veteran work.

Companies & orgs

• One God Foundation — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at 1:22
  Nonprofit founded by the guest to support veterans and combat human trafficking.
• Department of Defense — Company · Affiliation · 1 mention · first at 0:22
  Key government agency the guest has worked with as a contractor.
  Decades as a contractor for the US government, the Department of Defense, and the CIA. His work has placed him on the front lines of global security efforts, teaming up with…
• Delta Force — Company · Collaborator · 1 mention · first at 0:30
  Elite special operations unit the guest has worked with.
  Decades as a contractor for the US government, the Department of Defense, and the CIA. His work has placed him on the front lines of global security efforts, teaming up with…
• Northrop Grumman — Company · Competitor · 2 mentions
  Defense contractor mentioned in the context of government contracts.
• UVA — Company · Affiliation · 1 mention · first at 7:56
  University where the guest's friend obtained a master's degree.
• General Dynamics — Company · Competitor · 1 mention · first at 9:50
  Defense contractor mentioned in the context of government contracts.
  So, they give you a soul source contract direct to you. it's it's just like bit like Rathon, they bid against say Loheed Martin or General Dynamics or whomever else, Northrup Grumman, they all throw their bids in. It's.

Places & events

• September 11th, 2001 — Event · Historical context · 1 mention · first at 0:53
  Catalyst for the guest's missions in Afghanistan and the global war on terror.
  And in the years since, he served the United States everywhere from Haiti to North Africa to the Middle East. After September 11th, 2001, he was called in to support covert operations in Afghanistan.
• Bosnian War — Event · Historical context · 1 mention · first at 0:41
  Early career experience for the guest, shaping his operational skills.
  Early in his career, he carried out special operations during the Bosnian War. Yugoslavia's crisis is spreading fast.
• Clinton administration — Event · Historical context · 1 mention · first at 3:21
  Period when the guest's contracting work expanded.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 When you are looking to build the best team, what do you look for? Does he have a certain honor and a certain code about them that I can appreciate? Can I trust them with my life? Because this may come down to a life ordeath situation. Resilient, fearless, unshakable. Our guest today is a US Marine turn intelligence operative who has spent decades as a contractor for the US government, the Department of Defense, and the CIA. His work has placed him on the front lines of global security efforts, teaming up with other special ops groups like the Navy Seals, Delta Force, and the Marines.

0:33 That's why I was made. That's why I'm here. I'm supposed to be a protector, supposed to be a defender, and that's what I do. Early in his career, he carried out special operations during the Bosnian War. Yugoslavia's crisis is spreading fast. And in the years since, he served the United States everywhere from Haiti to North Africa to the Middle East. After September 11th, 2001, he was called in to support covert operations in Afghanistan. We're at war. We will find those who did it and we'll bring them to justice.

1:02 He participated in missions that ranged from capturing terrorists to combating human trafficking. Decades later in 2021 when Kabal fell. The new report from the Pentagon tonight after his investigation into the horrific blast at the Kabell airport. Daniel helped to acquire planes in a joint effort to evacuate 17,000 civilians from the hands of the Taliban. Most recently, he founded the One God Foundation with a mission to support veterans at home and end human trafficking abroad. Fate has driven me everywhere. Get ready. This conversation will change the way you think about courage, resilience, and honor.

1:38 All right, guys. Welcome back to the Mellow Millionaire. Today, I got a very special guest, and this dude is a badass. His name is Daniel Stinson, former US Marine and also in the reserves from 1982 to 1999. Fun fact, certified in six languages. His call sign and nickname Santa 6. I love that you I can see that. That Daniel, such a pleasure to have you here, man. It's seriously. And I appreciate the vodka. That was super cool. Yeah. Well, thanks. Thanks for having me here. Happy to be here. Honored, actually. Yeah, we're going to do it. The DoD hires you as a government contractor to perform jobs that assign highlevel military such as Navy Seals. Most of us see top secret missions only in the movies. Um, I happened to meet Robert O'Neal a couple times.

2:26 He's a badass. I, you know, and the events that I was at, you're not allowed to swear on stage. They're very careful. This dude, every other word was half bomb. And I loved it. and everybody that you can't get mad at a soldier that killed Bin Laden, but uh I'm sure you got stories for that, too. But what's it like in real life being part of uh these secret missions? Well, we get a a call late at night and I'd go into my closet, which was actually a skiff, and call up the secret. No, I'm bullshitting. Um it's it's just like it's business, right? So, the US government is a huge corporation that doesn't make any money, which is amazing. They just spend money, right?

3:06 So they issue contracts and the contract could be simple. It could be, hey, we need toilet seats or we need hammers or logistic stuff. We need supplies for food, for bandages, bullets, or we need assistance in operation support. Contractors have always been part of the US military. Always. Back again in the Clinton administration, they broke it down and they said, "Hey, we want more war fighters to be able to do war fighting and more of the support jobs and other jobs to go to contracting." Simple. So, they'll contract intelligence out, intelligence operations, they'll contract out their logistics support, transportation, a million one different things. So, the DoD throws out a request for proposal.

3:50 You're familiar with that, right? an RFP about six companies will sit there and try and answer it and put the best value and the best technical aspect to it and the government will make a decision. Boom, you get the contract, there you go. The classified ones, which is pretty much all I've worked on. Uh I've had I held a top secret clearance since 1982 and it uh went inactive in 2019. So for that entire time, I've held a top secret SEI clearance with access to different programs. What are some hero habits? You know, what part of your routine sets you apart from the rest? I'm a big fan of habits, rituals, um ways to get your day started. Uh obviously, you know, make your bed, stuff like that. What do you think are some of your routines that separate you from the rest?

4:40 Separate probably from 98% of the population. I think I have OCD. Not too sure. But I have this what if then mentality in everything I do in life. So what if this happens? Then what am I going to do? And I turned that into for situation awareness for me like what if I'm walking down this road and and two guys jump out with weapons? What if I'm driving and my car gets in an accident? What if then that? What if then that? So I do that constantly all day. All all the time I'm awake, I have what if then scenarios running through my head.

5:17 Wow. Constantly. It's frustrating, but it's great because then I've had them happen where these what if scenarios do occur. What if I get ambushed walking back to or trying to get back to my base camp? Boom. I get ambushed. So, I had it already worked it out. Worked it out in your head. Yeah. So, there's that right there. And I have this habit. I I'll walk into one room and I'll start assessing people in the room immediately. Who's a threat? who's in danger, who is carrying a weapon, and I just glance over the crowd and assess everybody there.

5:49 You still do you walk into like a baseball game now like that? I don't go in big crowds. You don't go in big crowds. My wife tried to take me to Disneyland and I freaked out. Didn't freak out, but I'm like, I'm going to stay over here. You guys go on all the rides. Yeah. One of your jobs in the '9s, you got sent to uh Bosnia. Walk me through what happens when you land in a foreign country for a mission. So again, I do this stupid thing. If this, then that, if this, then that, right? I have my US passport and I have an Irish passport cover. Republic of Ireland.

6:22 Yeah. Not that Northern thing. Um, and I slip my passport into that, right? Because you're American. You're always going to be a bigger target, more favorable target. A lot of things you're going to have more money. You're going to do stupid [ __ ] Blah blah blah. I get the American and then I walk in and I'll go to pick up my luggage, go into a little store. I'll buy a couple bottles of say orange or something with glass bottles and I'll put them in the bag and tie the bag up. Now I have an improvised weapon I can smack someone with. Change some money into their local money, grab a local map if they have one, and then grab a SIM card or a throwaway phone and automatically program in my numbers that I have to before I even walk out the door. I'll watch the people. I'll buy a local paper even though I don't speak the language and I'll just sit there with the paper, study the map, study the

7:10 people in my environment. And I'll go out and take the cab I want to take because I've got the map. I know where I'm supposed to go. And if this guy starts taking trips somewhere else, I'll be like, "No, go up this way, take a left over here and direct them." Be like, "Oh, you've been here before." So now I'm not a soft target. Have you ever been in a situation where it didn't go? I mean, it sounds like you've been in a lot of them. Have you ever had to smack anybody over with some orange shoes? Yeah. Yeah. But but being in the civilian world doing the private business, but not really because you were still had your your license to be like bid on all this stuff. How much of it was business? How much of it was capitalism? I mean, I guess my my buddies all I went to get my master's degree from UVA. A lot of them work at Rathon and I talked to one of them and he goes, "Dude," he goes, "It's

8:05 the greatest thing in the world. We raise our prices 20% every year. No one else can make the [ __ ] we make and they just pay it." Yeah. No questions asked. And I don't know if that's going to be the future, but I think they're starting to clean things up. And look, any money spent, you should I like to run things like a business personally, but how much of your life has been learning, negotiating business tactics? I came back from Bosnia and I started business with some other guys, coowner of a company. We had contracts with the US government, um, with the CIA, with NSA, with the Marine Corps, and we provided equipment, training, and operational support. And again, civilians are not normally operators. operators are very special.

8:45 Even within the tier unit, even within Joint Special Operations Command, not everybody there is an operator. It's it's it's kind of important distinction for guys from the community. Operators are guys that will kick in the doors and do the job. Rob O'Neal, those types. But behind that, as with everything, logistics wags the tail of everything they do. They may be the best in the world, but you've got to have all the support guys behind you, the communications guys, transportation guys, people who are getting you the bullets, people are doing all these things to get you on the X so you can accomplish your mission.

9:19 How do you get to be able to bid on that kind of stuff? Well, if classified contract, you need to have a clearance and your company needs to have a clearance and then you have to have the top people who can respond to that. the government's going to go out at a minimum of three people have to bid, right? Or it's a sole source. I've gotten a couple of those myself, too, where I'm the only one that can do this job effectively because of my skills, experience, and who I'm working with. So, they give you a soul source contract direct to you. You know, it's it's just like bit like Rathon, they bid against say Loheed Martin or General Dynamics or whomever else, Northrup Grumman, they all throw their bids in. It's competitive pricing, technical aspect, and managerial aspect of a contract. The government will pick it fair.

10:05 Yeah. And then you end up, you know, one ends up with a contract and rocking. Is it? So, if someone said, "Hey, I'm in the military right now. Got a cousin in the Navy. Really good kid. Uh, he wants to go into business." Would you say considering he has the military background to think about going into something like this or would you looking back is it a lucrative industry once you get your things dialed in the military-industrial complex? Yeah. Yes. How do you get people to follow you? You know, you we talked a little bit about hiring the best on your team, but I think true leadership is about leading from up front. Leaders eat last. There's a lot of different things I could say about it, but I'll never ask you to do something I wouldn't do myself, right?

10:48 Um, obviously in the military, as you roll up the rankings, you you can't go roll up your sleeves because you you're you're needed to make high level decisions. But what do you think it makes and defines a leader? Then you got to respect the people that work for you. But respect is earned and it's earned both ways. I think if a leader steps in there and they go, "Hey, you see this? I'm a captain, major, colonel general whatever. Great. I don't have to respect you as the man, but I can respect the rank and the position you're sitting in.

11:19 President of the United States is a perfect example. I've worked in the military and government contract. I've worked under both sides of the aisle. I don't have to respect the man. I have to respect the position they're in. Right. It's really great though. Yeah. As a good leader to be able to translate that down to me. So, I respect the person as well as the position. So after 9/11, a decorated army colonel, I believe that was Colonel Bob. Yep. Called you into his uh operations chief, assisting the US in global war on terror. You arrived in Afghanistan early in 20 2002 and these missions spanned many, many years in other countries.

11:57 What are some of the craziest missions that you've been on? Right after 911, Bob called me and I had already I was doing work as an independent contractor for another government agency. uh traveling around the world doing training people, advisor, assist stuff. Bob calls me, tells me, "Hey, I got this job for you. Come on out. You still get your clearances." I'm like, "Yeah." So, yeah. Then we started traveling um South America, Central America, Europe, Indonesia, real quick, hitting some spots to take care of people. And then Afghanistan popped up. They needed some support. So, like, all right. went over there, found out what they wanted, told them how we could f fix that for them, how I could solve their problem and went to Afghanistan and that was a trip.

12:41 So, what was your mission in Afghanistan? So, my job is not to be in a uniform and hanging around with military guys. It's impossible for me to get my job done if I did that, right? I was a businessman and I'm just trying to run a business and help people and get their support. You know, you've worked with so many different you've seen what the military, the best of the best look like. I I just spent some time with Jaco Willink in uh Southern California. And my job is to identify winners. What I found out was 80% of people that graduate high school don't pass the physical test to even get in the military, which is sad.

13:19 But moral of the story is I look for eye contact. I look for tonality. I look for smiles. I look for confidence, belief in yourself. people that are competitive that like to win that hate to lose that like to continue to practice till they're the best. I think these traits kind of carry over as anything as a winner. When you are looking for to build a team and you want to build the best team, what do you look for? I was doing my thing. It was I got to look at a guy again. Does he have a certain honor and a certain code about them that I can appreciate?

13:50 Can I trust him with my life? Because this may come down to a life or death situation where I have to be able to know that that person's going to be there for me no matter what. And then can they operate independently? If you and I are out doing our job and then something happens to you, can I continue on and and do that job the two of us are supposed to do? That's important. And if if not, then I don't need you. So I'm on a lot of stages fortunately. I just I ask everybody I go, "How many of you guys have more than 10 people that work directly for you or in your company?" Most hands go up in the room and I say, you know, I say, would you bet their their future on these people?

14:31 So, everybody at your company, would you bet your future because that's what you're doing. And if you're betting the future, why and you don't believe they're the best. Why are they still here? And you'd be surprised how many people keep people just because they're like, well, if I lose this person, I might be back in the truck or whatever it might be. And I just I just have no tolerance for like I think it's important to identify winners in business especially because if you're running all these missions and operations, you need to be able to spot a team that you could win with.

14:59 Correct. Especially in for us it was high stress environments u by yourself. So we were nonattributable to the US government. In other words, we were just out there as businessmen doing that job. And that's just one that's what I did from 2002 to 2007. That one program. Yep. And there's other programs I worked, other jobs I did. Um, guys you can trust. When I went to Afghanistan, I hired this young kid. His name was Aziz. He was 20 years old. We first got in Afghanistan. We're setting things up. And our job was, you know, we got to do logistics transportation all over Afghanistan. So, I need to drive from Kabul down south, if you will. How do I get down there?

15:40 Afghanistan is very tribal. So you can't just drive to someone else's territory because you have permission of this warlord. So Aziz thinks about it. He goes home, tells to his dad. He come back goes, "Brother, I have this guy." And the sound like he's stoned all the time. It was really cool. Um there's this guy. He's the head of the Coochie tribe. And the Coochie tribe is a tribe of like three million people that live on both sides of the border, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He sets up the meeting. We drive this guy's house. So my partner and I go inside and we sit with him. We start talking. He's in a suit. He loosens his tie and he says, "So what are you guys?"

16:18 CIA, DEA, FBI, what are you? I'm like, "No, we're none of those, man. I'm a businessman." He goes, "Yeah, whatever. I'm trying to get money and jobs to your people." After a long discussion, he says, "Yeah, we can do that. Come here in two days and we'll go down and we'll visit them." We go to his house. He goes, "All right, come on." He jumps in the driver's seat. I jump in the front passenger seat. My partner sits behind him in case he has to take control, right, of situation. Um, boom. We start heading off. Now we're driving through these switchbacks through this village, crowded and crowded again. More and more Afghans with weapons up on the roofs in the alleyways, sitting outside, every weapon imaginable. Vehicles parked there. They call them technicals. and they have the 12.7 disc uh machine gun.

17:09 We drive up to this one big building. It's a compound, right? Big huge walls. We go inside. We go in this huge like a castle. Huge building. And we start going down into the basement, which doesn't bode well for my emotional Yeah. health either. We get down there in a big open room, well lit, and there's kids, and they're rolling out the uh plastic tablecloths and setting up pillows all around so that we can eat. Like, ah, cool. Everybody sits down and then I have an Afghan village elder sitting on my left. And then this fell comes in, big huge guy, big beard. He comes in and sits next to that fell. So, he's two over for me. Now, we start talking. Food's served and we start eating. Everyone's eating, passing the food trays around. All right, this is how we do business. You got to tell a funny story first. So, you tell a funny story. That guy tells a funny story.

18:08 They kind of like dad jokes. Comes all the way around. I got to come up with a dad joke, if you will. Everything's done. They get up, everybody leaves. I turn to the coochie guy. I'm like, "What the what's that, man? I didn't get an answer." He goes, "Sh, we'll we'll get an answer. Don't worry about it." All right, cool. We up go outside, get in the vehicles. We're heading out and as we're heading out through the big gates, there's a knock in the vehicle over to the driver's side. Guy gets behind me and these two start talking as we're driving.

18:38 He says, "Yes, they will allow you to drive your trucks up and down this main road from Kabul down to this area, but you cannot go near the road that's over by the mountains. That road is for his men. And if his men find you or your trucks over by where their road is, they will stop your vehicles, take everything you have, and kill your men. Are you okay with that? And I'm like, but tell him this. If I catch any of his men on my road in their trucks, then we will kill them and we'll take everything they have. And the coochie guy goes, "You you don't want to say that?" I'm like, "Yeah, I do."

19:21 I'm sitting there and all of a sudden my arms which are down here are wrapped. This guy reaches around the seat and he wraps both of his arms around my chest and the seat. He starts shaking the seat and in my ear I feel his beard against my face and my ear he's like oh really deep like if you had a barrel like that he's shaking the seat. I can't even move. I'm thinking shoot him shoot him. At least he's not going to slip my throat because I know where his hands are. He turns to the coochie guy. He says, "This guy has pashonwali.

19:58 This guy has honor. Tell him I agree." We stop. He gets out and three Taliban vehicles pull up on either side of us with his fighters in it that I didn't even see because of all the dust that was billowing behind us. He gets out, gets in his vehicle, and he drives off. 2002, I forget when Burgd Doll, do you remember that name? Burgall Bo Burgall and uh the Obama administration traded him for five Taliban leaders out of Gitmo. Y I'm drinking a coffee in my living room watching TV cussing about the fact that we just traded Burgd Doll for these guys. I'm like, "Oh, no shit."

20:36 And there's the five pictures. I go, "Hey, baby, come here." I call my wife in. I'm like, "See that second guy right there from the left? That was one of them. That's the guy that was shaking me. You're in a car with the head of the Taliban in that region." I'm like, he hugged me. So, those are some of the things we got involved in, right? Trusting yourself, trusting your partner. Why don't get the job done and have confidence where you can get through anything. Oh, man. You've had some close calls. The the the Bosnia work or actually Croatia, uh, if you want to hear that one, they business, right? So, there I am. I'm running this huge acquisition cell. There's a fellow who's a former army, US Army captain in the special forces, but he used to be the intelligence officer for Tujman during the war. He was actually wanted by the US government because he did that. You can't be an active US military person,

21:30 then go serve another military. He becomes the head of the Jupa mob, which is the mafia, the Russian mafia in that area. big guy about 6'6, spoke obviously perfect English and really good Russian the whole bit and he had his monsters with him always set up and my offices were in the Intercontinental Hotel in Zagreb. We put out requests for proposals and they come back to my acquisition and procurement team. Well, I find that all of the after about two months, all the proposals are being responded to by one company and the name of the company was Hu M I N T all capital letters. I'm like, who who is this? So, I write human on a whiteboard because I want to talk to my staff about it. Like, we got to fix this. How many contracts is Hum getting?

22:18 All of them. Well, that's freaking wrong. One of the reasons we're here is so we can help prop up the local businesses and help people right in their economy. They just had a war. So I'm like, "All right, we're going to have a meeting. We're going to talk about it." When he came in my office, paced around, screaming and yell at me. This is a 6'6, like almost 300 lb guy screaming at me. Sitting there like, "Okay, sit down, Bob. Let's work out a percentage of how much business you get, how much business the rest of Croatia can get." So, we had some negotiations and broke it down. And did I bust a deal with him? Yes, I did. Bob leaves. That night, we're having dinner and Bob comes over to my table. His bodyguards kick my employees away from the table. And Bob goes sits down. He says, "So Dan Stinson, United States Marine Corps." He goes, "Do you like shooting guns?" I'm like, "When I have to, Bob."

23:12 He goes, "But you like them." I'm like, "Yeah." He goes, "How about you and I tomorrow morning we'll go shooting. would you like to do that? You can't back down when a man threatens you. So, I'm like, "Yeah, Bob." "Yeah, exactly." I'm like, "Yeah, Bob." He goes, "All right, we'll have coffee and croissant uh tomorrow morning and then we'll go on out." I'm like, "Rog that." Next morning, we're sitting there having our espressos and uh eating our croissants. Two Mercedes up armored Mercedes SUVs pull up. We go out there, get in the back, the second one. Bob and I, we drive out to the quarry. So we pull up, Cory's to our left. We go up. Bob and I go up to the front. My back is to the quarry. He busts out a bottle of slits, which is a peach brandy, and a bowl of salt and a loaf of bread. Break off the bread, dip it in the salt, eat it, and do a shot.

24:03 There's only two times when you do that in that culture. Funerals and weddings. No one was getting married there. So I'm like, damn it. And as guys start unloading uh weapons, ammunition. And they start loading magazines. As they do, they're speaking in Croatian Serbian, which is very similar to Russian, about, I wonder who Bob's going to let kill him. I want to shoot his eyes out. And they're all talking and they look at me and they smile and they laugh and they wave as they're loading magazines. Thing is, I spoke Russian fluently at the time, so I understood everything they were saying. Everything.

24:40 Man, I was scared. Bob said, "Okay, Dan, are you ready?" And I said, ' Bob, whoever you have shoot me, just make sure they shoot me below my neck so my beloved mother can kiss my lips while I'm in the coffin. And all of his guys are like, "Whoa!" They look and they start freaking laughing because they realize that I knew everything they said. You said you said that in Russian. Yeah, in Russian. And Bob goes, "Ah, Vavushki." Yeah. Davuski. And he comes around, puts his arm around me, and he starts walking me towards the quarry, the hill. I figure this is it.

25:18 He's just going to draw, blat me right in the head, shakes me, and he goes, "You know, I'm not going to kill you today." I'm like, "Really?" He goes, "You got big balls." He says, "You know everything those guys are saying about you. Not going to kill me." He goes, "Not today." Like, "All right, thanks, Bob." He goes, "You still want to shoot? I have to go to shoot." So, we went back and we did the whole day shooting. It was a good day. And driving back, he hands me across the bench seat. He goes, "Here." It was a Scorpion machine pistol with three magazines loaded. He goes, "Here, I want you to have this." I'm like, "Bob, I'm a US government rep. I can't have that." I push it back. He goes, "I want you to have this." Uh, I get it.

26:02 I'll take it. Yeah. I'm not going to kill you today. I want you to have this. Yeah. So, yeah, that was great as well. Oh my gosh, I love these stories. Business negotiations. That's a great story. I think uh you had me at the edge of my seat. So, we're going to do this rapid fire game. Special ops or special flops. I'll name a movie and you tell if it's it's if it's the real deal, why or why not? Okay. Um Guy Richie the Covenant. It's entertaining. How's that entertaining? some of the things he did actually would happen.

26:39 What about uh Blackhawk Down? Blackhawk Down. One of the best combat movies they have. Okay, that's about as real as you can get to representation of what it's like when people are shooting at you and you have to shoot at them and the the terror, you know, like Private Ryan is another outstanding one, but Blackhawk Dawn was by far a really fantastic movie. If someone wants to reach out to you, you Daniel, what's the best way to do that? It depends on what they want, right? If they want if they want me to work for them and do things, they can hit me up on my company email and it's ravengroup international.com.

27:16 Okay? Uh just rgravengroup international.com. If they're interested in supporting our nonprofit, it's the one God the number one godfoundation.org. And what we do with that is we help the oppressed around the world. The evacuation Afghanistan. I worked in uh helping people out of Haiti. I was just down there last summer guarding a orphanage against the gangs. That's where we got arrested at the Dominican border. Uh also helping veterans and everything they do in anti-human trafficking support. So those are three pillars of the One God Foundation does. The way I close this out is uh I'm going to give you the floor to say whatever you want to say to the listeners and end it for us.

28:05 Thank you for letting me be here and a chance to talk. People say, "Well, you're like Jason Bourne." I'm like, "More like Jason Boring." Yeah, I just do stuff. So for anybody who out there who who watches this and thinks about the special ops community or it's great. Serving our nation is amazing. This is the best nation in the entire world. Everywhere I've been all over the world, I love coming back to America. Well, this is really good, Daniel. Thanks again. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. Like always, we're going to close it out with the Tommy truth, which is a little slice of wisdom from me to you that can help guide you in whatever you're striving towards right now. Are leaders born or are they trained? Look, I've got a lot of leaders that work for me. People are always asking for leadership roles. They

28:57 got to be great at communication. They got to be great at asking questions. They got to be great at taking notes. And leadership is you're not born with it. You're taught it. You're taught to listen to people, figure out their needs, their wants, and it grows over time. Great communication within the company is the major major thing. So when somebody works for me, they ask for more responsibility. They want to manage other people, but they got to figure out a way to have other people winning. Their number one goal is to lead from upfront. Leaders eat last. And that's it, guys. We'll talk to you next week.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Black Ops, Big Money: Insights From Covert US Intelligence Operator Daniel Stinson"?

Tommy Mello (Host), Daniel Stinson (Guest).

What is "Black Ops, Big Money: Insights From Covert US Intelligence Operator Daniel Stinson" about?

The discussion centers on Daniel Stinson, a former US Marine and intelligence operative, who shares his experiences in covert operations across the globe, from the Bosnian War to post-9/11 missions in Afghanistan. He emphasizes the qualities necessary for building a dependable team in high-stakes situations and highlights his commitment to supporting veterans and combating human trafficking…

What is mentioned in this Tommy Mello episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Daniel Stinson, One God Foundation, Department of Defense, September 11th, 2001, Delta Force, Bosnian War. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Black Ops, Big Money: Insights From Covert US Intelligence Operator Daniel Stinson"?

The episode runs 30 min; the transcript is about 5,576 words in 43 timestamped sections.

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