Learn How to Overcome Adversity with Former Navy Seal, Jason Redman

I was incredibly honoured to sit down with Former Navy Seal - Jason Redman, and talk about his story and all of the leadership lessons he learnt along the way. Jason is an inspiration and I am so grateful to have been able to talk to him.

Lieutenant Jason C. Redman, USN is a retired naval officer and U.S. Navy SEAL.
Jason spent 11 years as an enlisted Navy SEAL working as a navigator, intelligence specialist, communicator, and SEAL instructor for marksmanship, reconnaissance and survival, completing multiple platoons and deployments to Central and South America. Jason was commissioned as a SEAL officer in 2004 and spent ten years as a SEAL Officer leading SEAL teams in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Assault Force Commander, Mobility Force Commander and Sensitive Site Exploitation and Analysis leader.

On September 13, 2007, Lieutenant Redman’s Assault Team came under heavy machine gun and small arms fire and he and several teammates were severely wounded in the ensuing firefight. While recovering from his devastating injuries at Bethesda Naval Medical Center, Redman authored and hung a bright orange sign on his door, which is now known as the “Sign on the Door”, which became a statement and symbol for wounded warriors and overcomers everywhere.

Jason is the epitome of the Overcome Mindset. He now motivates and inspires audiences across the globe with his remarkable journey of leadership, redemption and building a relentless Overcome Mindset.

 

My Key takeaways from this episode were:

 

• Always be a student of leadership. You can lead from anywhere in life. Always have a beginners mindset and be curious.
• Don't let arrogance erode your leadership capability. Stay humble and be curious and don't feel like you need to have all the answers. If you aren't aware of how your leadership impacts those around you, simply ask them. 
• Don't be tempted to self-medicate. There is a consequence to self-medicating, and it means that you show up a little less the next day. I would like to challenge you. The next time you feel the urge to self-medicate, however that may look for you, stop and ask yourself why. Why am I trying to numb this feeling? Get curious about it and that is when you will see real growth and change start to occur. 
• Wear your side plates. Trust your gut. Listen to those inner-whispers that tell you not to do a certain thing. Your intuition can be a powerful tool, if you take the time to listen to it and develop it.
• We all have a "Hell Week" in life. In order to get through these times, simply take things in small chunks. 

 

Full Transcription

 

SPEAKERS 

Jason Redman, James Laughlin 

 

James Laughlin 00:00 

Welcome to lead on purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven-time world champion musician, and now an executive coach to global leaders and high performers. In every episode, I bring you an inspiring leader or expert to help you lead your life and business on purpose. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show. 

 

James Laughlin 00:39 

If you want to know how to overcome adversity, how to be the best in challenging times, and how to be professional throughout your life and career, then you've got to listen today. I'm so honored to welcome Jason Redman. He's a retired Navy Lieutenant, who spent 11 years as an enlisted navy seal, and almost 10 years as a seal officer. He was awarded the Bronze Star with valor, the Purple Heart, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and so many incredible commendations. After being severely wounded in Iraq, he returned to active duty before retiring from the Navy in 2013. His story is inspirational, it's emotional, and he gives so many incredible leadership insights. So, sit back and enjoy the show. 

 

James Laughlin 01:40 

Jason, a massive welcome to The Lead on Purpose Podcast. 

 

Jason Redman 01:45 

James, thanks for having me. 

 

James Laughlin 01:47 

Man, it's just so great to connect. Finally, I read your book a year or so ago now. Overcome, it was the most amazing book. And for the listener that's listening right now. You got to buy it while you're listening. I know you're on your phone right now probably listening to podcasts, get on Amazon and buy it. It's amazing. So, look, I'd like to rewind the clock for the listener that's listening right now that hasn't come across your amazing work and your incredible story, inspirational story. Jason, can we talk a little bit about your life, your professional life, I know that we've got a lot of corporate leaders listening right now and some athletes, but your professional life was a little bit different. So please tell us your professional story. 

 

Jason Redman 02:25 

Yeah, my story, it's a story of failure and redemption, and catastrophic injury, that stops that path and coming to understand that you can lead from any level. So, grinding out of that failure, achieving redemption. Thinking that the world I finally had gotten, you know, I've worked my way back up and gotten there. And only to have it all be ripped away again, with some pretty severe injuries, the learning once again, that you can lead from any situation, and that really has become the foundation of everything that I teach, and just blast I've had a unique journey in the SEAL teams and you know, even in the civilian world, and just always learning on the student leadership. 

 

James Laughlin 03:13 

I love that beginner mindset as a leader, I guess it's just so important as we go through life, right? 

 

Jason Redman 03:19 

It is. And I mean, that's definitely a big thing, you know, that I talk about, I'm sure James with your group. The day you finally feel like you've figured it all out, and you stop being hungry and thirsty for information, challenging your beliefs is the day you're slowly dying. I mean, we're all slowly dying, but you're dying as a leader. And I think that it's critical to constantly be challenged our beliefs. And that's why I always say, hey, I am an I'm a constant student of leadership. I've been fortunate enough to be able to lead many different situations, people out there will say, Hey, he's a leader. But I don't have all the answers. What's worked in the past isn't guaranteed to work in the future. So that's why we're always learning. 

 

James Laughlin 04:03 

Powerful. Well, let's say let's go into your story and unpack your story of adversity, extreme adversity. And I know that there were two really big pivotal moments, one where you'd had to rebuild trust within your team. And then you came back and obviously an incredibly life-changing experience and ordeal. So please I'll let you tell your story in your own words. It's truly inspirational. 

 

Jason Redman 04:31 

Yeah, I was a very young man. When I joined the SEAL teams, I was only 17 years old. Really, I was 15 when I decided I want to be a seal. Train, obviously, to get ready. 17 I was still in high school and join the Navy as part of something called the delayed entry program with a pipeline to try and become a seal. As opposed to a lot of the programs we have now. There was no direct pipeline. Basically, you to get a rating in the seal, you know, there were certain jobs in the Navy that you could have that would allow you to test to become a seal. And then a Bootcamp, you had one opportunity, to raise your hand and said, hey, man, I want to try out for the SEAL teams. And they would make sure that your scores were good enough, and then they'd let you go do the physical training test. I believe there were 11 of us that, try it out. And I think only three of us made it. And that started a whole new journey. So, this young kid, really the most unlikely of candidates, in my opinion, I mean, I wasn't, I wasn't a star athlete, I'm not this gigantic guy, I'm smaller than the average seal. Or I'm on the smaller end of the spectrum, at least. And I don't know, just launched into this career that I just loved and had a blast, I got to travel all over the world, predominantly Central and South America in the early 90s and mid-90s, doing counterdrug operations. But oftentimes, you know, more so in young men, I don't see this as often as young women. But when young men when start to see success at an early age, sometimes we're not careful that ego and arrogance can start to grow. And it definitely did with me continue to excel became an instructor did very well at that, got recommended for commissioning program and the SEAL teams, went to school crush that was ranked number one out of my college program to come back as seal officer. And this is where I really started to step on my toes because I came back thinking, hey, man, I'm, I've got all this experience. I'm this great leader, I was ranked number one, and came back in the SEAL teams thinking I was I don't know, pattern or something. And there were some specific things that happen. So, I was at school when 911 happened. I actually started school before 911 happened in the first year I was at school. So, for the last two years while I was getting my college degree. The SEAL teams went off to war from 2000 to 2003. And I was coming back in 2004. And we quickly realized that a lot of the tactics we've been utilizing, in all the years past what I had been trained with, they did not work on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan and these really dynamic urban Iraq, we were looking at very dense urban fighting in the cities for the most part, nor even, you know, extended desert terrain. Obviously, in Afghanistan, we were looking at urban fighting and that very mountainous terrain. So really, over the two years, I was in school, we rewrote most of the SEAL teams and rewrote a lot of the tactics. So, when I came back thinking, that I'm God's gift to leadership, everything had changed. And this is where you go in arrogance can be really dangerous, because instead of humbling myself and saying, hey, I really don't know how to do a lot of these things. And, and asking guys around me and seeking them out. As a young immature leader, I wasn't willing to admit that. And I just continue to be honest, the struggle hanging on too tight, and making mistakes and then doing what so many, once again, more of a young men problem, started self-medicating with alcohol to numb my pain from my mistakes, which was further eroding my leadership credibility. And all of that culminated with a bad call on a mission in Afghanistan in 2005. And it was that bad call that was kind of the last nail in the coffin as a young leader. Because there were a lot of guys in the SEAL teams who said, hey, in my platoon, and guys who work with me and said, hey, I don't want to work with that guy. That guy's dangerous. He's immature, he's going to get people killed. And I found myself at a crossroads of my career because they were talking about kicking me out. And that was a really, really hard moment. 

 

Jason Redman 09:12 

Thankfully, my commanding officer believed in me and said, hey, you got a lot of potentials. We just need to humble you. So, there were a lot of things that happened. They told me, they basically wrote a letter of reprimand that, they said, hey if we put this in your record, I'm officially under career. But we're not going to do that. Instead, it's going to go in my safe, the commanding officer's safe. You're going to go do another two-year cycle as an assistant, platoon commander, the number two and if you do great, this letter gets shredded. If you screw up, then this goes into your record and that ends your career. And then they also said, hey, we're going to send you to US Army Ranger School. We think it'd be good for you. Which, I'll be honest, I wasn't that excited about going I actually was a little bitter about going so. And I would love to tell everybody man, I was so excited to get a second chance. But as often happens in life, sometimes it takes a little time to recognize the opportunities you have, the second chances you get or the new beginnings you get. And it was in ranger school that I think I finally really woke up and really came to understand. I transferred from a victim mindset and that's something I frequently talk about. We're living in a victim mindset world, everybody's a victim. You know, it's never my fault. Everybody's out to get me and everybody doesn't like me because of, you know, name a myriad of things race, creed, color, gender, leadership, abilities, height, sexuality, whatever it is, we're a victim. And I saw myself as a victim. And it wasn't until I got to ranger school that I finally woke up and was like, hey, man, you want to blame everybody else. But the reality, the reality is the only reason you're here is that you poor decisions, you made poor leadership decisions. You were focused on yourself and not outward as a leader. You know, you were focused on hey, I have these ranks, and you should follow me when the reality is, that should never be the case. So, I came back from Ranger School, I finally knuckle down and graduated ranger school and came back to SEAL teams and face an uphill battle. I mean, the guys did not welcome me back, like, hey, you know, we're so glad you're back, you know, you're obviously a changed man, because you went to ranger school. They were like, Hey, dude, you're still the same guy. And we still don't want to work with you. So, it was a real lesson for me. And really the foundation, not foundation. So, I learned somewhat of the overcome mindset by grinding through SEAL training, Ranger School, and some other hard things in my life. But it was kind of the first real long-term leadership side of the overcome mindset I had encountered. Because really, every single day, I had to earn back the trust of these guys that I had been given the opportunity to lead and lead in a very dangerous job that potentially their lives could be at stake if I made bad decisions. And one of the great things about special operations is if the enlisted guys say, hey, we don't want to work with that officer, because he's dangerous, the leadership will remove them. So, I had an uphill battle. And that really became the foundation of the three things I teach on now lead yourself lead; others lead always we can get into that later. But that's how I started to live. I focused on that day in and day out every day and tried to be the best that I possibly had the ability to do to lead when I was supposed to, and follow when I was called upon. And it just focused on setting the example and relentless positivity. And slowly over time, the guy's warmed up to me and said, hey, man, you're doing a good job. By the time we headed off to Iraq in 2007, or I'm sorry, yeah, in 2007. And the early part of 2007, the majority of the guys I had won over, there was still a few who were, you know, kind of gave me the cold shoulder. But, you know, I think they were waiting for me to mess up is probably what the case was. And we got into very heavy combat operations in Iraq almost every night going out on missions, very complicated direct action, capture kill missions. And I was doing well, I continued to excel, you know, everything's a learning curve. So sometimes I screwed up, but I don't those mistakes and we drive forward and had a pretty big redemption point on a pretty intense gunfight in June. And that seemed to be the tipping point of the guys saying, hey, man, good job, like, you know, we'll follow you. Everything was on track. Got to the end of that deployment. We were rolling into the beginning of September. We were supposed to be slotted to head home, at the end of September. And we got word that the number one leader for the al Qaeda organization in the Al Anbar province of Iraq of western Iraq was at a specific location, a guy that we had been hunting all deployment very dangerous individual responsible for dozens and dozens of coalition deaths directly responsible for the death of a fellow co Petty Officer Clark Schwedler was killed on the very beginning of our deployment. So, the guy we really wanted and, and on September 13, we launched on that mission, and I was the assault force commander for the takedown, the target takedown, and I won't get into all the details but the to make a long story short, we walked into a very well executed ambush the enemy you know, we always say no different in life or in business. The enemy always gets a vote. So, no matter what plan you come up with, the enemy gets a vote and, in this case, the enemy had watched how we did things, and they were ready for us when we maneuvered up to the target and we walked right into this ambush. And several of my teammates were caught in a machine gun crossfire and two of my teammates were shot pretty well. I also was shot up I took multiple rounds across the body armor. I took two rounds in the left elbow which I thought shot my arm off and the moment I took rounds off my helmet had my left night vision tube shot off, rounds off my right-side plate, rounds off my gun, and continued to fire and try and move, lay down some fire for the guys. The guys managed to grab our two wounded and get them back behind a large tractor tire that was behind me. At this point, you know, thinking that my arm had been shot off I tried to run back to the tire to get behind some cover and that's when I caught around in the face hit me right in front of my ear, traveled through my face exited the right side of my nose took off most of my nose blew out my right cheekbone, what was left of that cheekbone broken, kicked out to the right, broke all the bones above my eye vaporized my mobile floor, broke the head of my jaw and shattered my jaw to my chin and knocked me out.  

 

Jason Redman 16:33 

So, there's gunfight continue to rage over me for you know, probably another 20 minutes we estimate firefight was at least 30 to 40 minutes. So, for at least 25 minutes, we would estimate that I was pinned down under this enemy fire. Until one point during a wildland fire, my team leader ran forward got me pulled me back to that tire, got a tourniquet on my arm, and undoubtedly saved my life. So, I owe my life. I owe my life to my teammates, and my team leader. And then we ended up calling in a fire mission from the AC 130 Gunship, which is an aircraft that has advanced targeting technology and multiple weapons systems on it. It's an amazing platform, it saved more lives on the battlefield, probably more than anything I can think of. And we ended up calling in a fire mission directly on our position that ended up being the closest fire mission in the entire Iraq War. And then thankfully, we all survived and made it home. But it started a whole new journey. And that journey when I got to the hospital was long and, an uphill battle again. And obviously, there are a lot of parts of that story that we can get into because that really began an appreciation of an even higher level of leadership. So, I don't know if you want me to pause, yeah, because I threw, I threw a ton at you.  

 

James Laughlin 18:01 

That was amazing, Jason. Wow! Um, for the listener listening, I know that they're just enthralled by what you've said. And it's, there are a couple of things I do want to unpack as a part of the story. And I want to talk about trusting your gut, trusting your intuition, the whisperings that are there before you went out for this fight, essentially to get this number one guy to try and capture him and kill him. There was one thing that happened that was a crucial part of that story. And I want the leader that's listening right now to go trust your gut, what were the things that you put on you on your body that made all the difference in the end? 

 

Jason Redman 18:40 

Well, there were two parts. So now I often speak about this in my new planner that was recently put out called the Pointman Planner. I talked about the four-point and principles. And the third principle is risk assessments and indicators. And indicators are all the things that we see when we're walking through this life. And they can be everything from what we see, what we hear, what we smell, what we notice in the environment around us, in business, it's fluctuations in the market, fluctuations in the supply chain, it's whatever it is that those indicators, good leaders are watching those things, and they should tip you off to hopefully avoid an upcoming ambush. So, there were two things that happened that night that were indicators number one when we were gearing up for the mission. You know, the last thing I did was get all my gear on, you know, we did all our mission planning and then we made sure all the team gear was ready vehicles if we were taking vehicles or any of the direct equipment, we needed for the actual target takedown. And then the last thing we would do was take care of your own personal equipment when I was gearing up. I was loading my gear and this little voice said Hey, where are you? side plates. And I didn't normally wear my side plates and in for those who may not understand the vernacular. You know, in special operations, we have our load-bearing equipment. So, it's kind of like a vest. Under that vest or within that vest, you have body armor you have, you know, armor, ceramic plates that can stop high caliber bullets, you have another vest that stops, lower caliber and frag. Then on top of that, you have your magazines, you have your radios, you have grenades, and frag and pens and, you know, signaling devices and basically everything you need to take the fight the enemy lines, stuff like that. On the side, there were pockets where you could put side plates for additional protection. The great thing for us as special operators, we had the latitude to decide what we were going to carry. Now you had to wear your front and rear plates, that was a requirement. And we had basic requirements of what you had to carry. Beyond that, it was on the individual operator and side plates were heavy, you know, they added additional weight. And you know, when you were operating in dynamic environments, if you were going to be fighting with someone or you are walking in a long-distance, or you had to climb over walls or up on the rooftops, and things like that, you want to be as light as possible. So frequently, I would not wear my side plates if it was a mission that we were, you know, patrolling in or I knew that there was a high likelihood that we were going to get into direct contact with the enemy. And some people would say, well, why would you do that, you know, you're given up protection. Well, like anything in life, it's risk versus reward, I typically opted to be lighter, so that I can move faster as necessary. Now, if it was a mobility operation where there was a high likelihood of any IEDs, I would wear my side plates because I wasn't out in the vehicle. I was in the vehicle we were providing usually security to lockdown target. So, on that night, I'm getting ready. And it's like, where are your side plates. And I was like, why? I don't normally wear my side plates. You know, this isn't a mission. I wear my side plates. Why am I going to do that? Once again, the little voice was like, wear your side plates. So, I thought about I was like, well, you know what, man, we're not patrolling far, we're actually landing the helicopters, right on the next. It's a very high-risk target. So, I said, okay, I'm going to wear my side plates. This is a time whereas an indicator, it saved my life I took around right off my right-side plate, that most likely we have a that not happened it would have passed through and probably blown out by my kidney, my liver, my spine, who knows what it would have done. But so that was the first case where it did me well, I listened to that little voice. I listened to that intuition.  

 

Jason Redman 22:57 

Later that night, when we had taken down the initial target, no one was there. So, we thought it was going to be a quiet night. At one point, we realized there was activity on another house about 150 yards away. So, my boss, the ground force commander said, hey, read, I want you to take your team and maneuver to this house and other you know, about 150 yards way we saw people flee out. As we were moving up, we were starting to encounter some pretty dense vegetation, which about 75 yards forward is where the enemy was hiding. And as I was starting to push into that vegetation, my Spidey sense was going crazy. It was like this is all wrong. Like you need to stop. Like you need to reassess. And I listen to that voice for a second. But I said you know what, that's fear. That's just fear. This is a high-risk target. We know these are bad guys. You know, I mean, I've got the aircraft up above, that's telling me they can see some of these guys. That's just fear, push that away. We've seen this situation before; we should dry we're going to drive forward. And that's what we did. And unfortunately, we walked right into an ambush. So that's a situation where I didn't listen to my gut, I pushed against it. So, I frequently talk about this, it's always a good idea if your gut tells you something is wrong or something is off, listen to it, and even pull your team together. What I should have done or could have done is I could have pulled my teammates together, especially at least if no one else, especially at least my team leader, my senior guy with me, and said, hey, man, I've got a bad feeling about this. How are you feeling? What do you think of it right now? And if he had said, Dude, this does not feel right, you know, maybe we should come up with an alternate plan and we could have done that. So, I would encourage that in business. Sometimes it will be fear sometimes we're doing high stakes high risk things and you know, that little fear bubble will bubble up and let's say I, you know, I'm, I'm afraid of the uncertainty with this, but sometimes it's the right thing to do to make a change because of that. So, listen to that voice.  

 

James Laughlin 25:02 

That's a really good one. Thank you for sharing that. And for the listeners listening right now, Jason lost around 40% of his blood while he was laying there. And on the net evac you know, there was a lot of doubt around, whether he's going to pull through, but I want to tie this into personal care, personal health, fitness, you know, your fitness level would have been phenomenal. And I imagine, that would have been a contributing factor to you surviving this horrific injury, multiple injuries. So, for the leader out there, whether they're on the sports field, or they're in the boardroom, or they're leaving their family, how important is it to be physically strong and healthy? 

 

Jason Redman 25:43 

I'm talking about five key areas, what I call the Pentagon and Peak Performance to be a balanced, effective leader. And the foundational level is physical leadership and it's interesting. I'm sure everybody listening on here, whether you're a professional athlete, or whether you are a C suite executive, we all reach a point in our lives where the level of responsibility starts to grow. If you're a professional athlete, obviously fitness critical part of what you do, but typically for everybody else, we reach a level where the demands of our job of running a family of trying to do everything in our lives start to catch up and we start to look at, okay, I just don't have enough time, what am I going to start to cut? People usually cut physical leadership or fitness first. And, and I will challenge anyone that that is a bad idea. This machine that you walk around in is incredible. And the better you take care of it, the better it's going to take care of you. So, if you are physically fit, and I break this into three levels, number one, is fitness. So how much do you move your body? Number two is nutrition, what do you put into your body? And number three is sleep. So, number one, on the nutrition level, if you take care of yourself well on, I mean, number one on that on all three of those levels, you take good care of yourself, you're going to manage stress better, you're going to have more energy, you're going to be able to go longer, you're going to be more positive, your emotions are going to be better, you're going to have a better immune system. And then the kicker, like James talked about, is, God forbid you ever had a major traumatic incident or illness, or injury disease, you will sustain it much better, your body will be healthier, and be able to deal with it better no different than me. I'm in the doctor's, I was falling in the best shape of my life. When I got wounded, I was actually training to screen for our next year's SEAL team which comes with a very difficult physical test. And so, I had been training very well if we weren't doing operations, I was training and, and the doctor said, hey, your fitness saved your life. So, fitness, nutrition, guys, you know, I mean, so many of you that are listening to this podcast love hot sports cars, you know, we love a Ferrari or Lamborghini or, you know, Bugatti or whatever it is. Well, those cars are designed to run on super high-octane fuel, you're not going to put low octane or crap fuel in your car, you're going to baby it, you're going to take care of it because you have this amazing piece of precision machinery. So why do you put crap into yourself? You are amazing, you're a Ferrari, man, you're a Ferrari. And all these people out there don't take care of themselves. And they put substandard fuel into their bodies, so you're not operating as well. And then the third one guys is sleep. And this is a big one because I meet a lot of executives, and athletes, usually a little smarter about this. I mean a lot of executives in the business community who brag about Oh, I get by on five hours of sleep or four hours of sleep. And I tell them, I'm like hey man, congratulations, you are chronically fatigued, you are nowhere near operating at the best level you have the ability to be. The SEAL teams obviously there are times that we have to go through with very little sleep obviously and how we do a week where you only get like a couple of hours of sleep and the entire week. It is terrible for you, it's terrible for your body. We know that it helps develop a great overcome mindset and push through that so I tell you guys, hey man, you should get good sleep your body is healing when it sleeps. Your body is repairing when it sleeps, your brain your energy, all these different things are healing. And the average person out there needs at least six to seven hours a night. My friend and fellow CEO, Dr. Kirk Parsley would yell at me and say it's actually eight hours. I'm even going to go down a little bit for you guys. But those are the three things that are critical. Do you want to be a better leader? Take care of yourself physically build that foundation, you build everything else on top of that, that should be a priority for all of you. 

 

James Laughlin 29:51 

It's good advice. Really good advice. And let's go to hell week and I've read a lot about how like I've never been anywhere near Hell Week. But I imagine there's a certain mindset that you've got to embrace, to be one of the few who actually doesn't ring the bell, one of the few who qualifies and graduates. So, for the person who's going through a hell week of their own, whether it's too much work 100-hour weeks, or stress or relationship meltdowns, what's the mindset that they can adopt, or certain habits that they can think of that can help them actually get through their Hell Week? 

 

Jason Redman 30:26 

So, take it in bites. And that's really how we should live our life anyways, first off, balance is not balanced. When I talk about the Pentagon and Peak performance and the five key areas, it's not like it's 20% in each area. The demands of life don't work that way. It's just awareness that, hey, I need to make sure I'm putting time into physical leadership, I need to make sure I'm putting time into social leadership, spending time with my family, friends, things like that. In goal setting, we're setting those incremental goals. So, hell week is no different. You just need to set your focus shorter and not longer. Because that's typically where people get off course when they're dealing with their own. Maybe you're going through a business Hell Week, maybe you're going through relationship hell week. Maybe you and your spouse are just at it. And you're thinking this is a word that I'm going to throw in the towel. Usually, it's when we're at the hardest points, our own hell weeks, that we're ready to quit. And what we need to do is look at the small incremental, like, how do I make it to the end? You know, right now, how do I make it to the end of this, this evolution? I'm working on this report, and that's grinding, how do I get to the end of this? Because the reality is, once you get to the end, you get a little bit of a breather. And most people tend to quit, when the discomfort, the pain, the stress is at the greatest, you know, mentally we're at that breaking point. I really try to encourage the guys that seek out me for advice on SEAL training, I tell them, don't quit during an evolution. Everybody's going to, but don't you don't do it. Like, no matter how painful and how uncomfortable you are, if you truly want to quit, wait till the end of the evolution, push through and just tell yourself, I'm going to make it to the end of this evolution. And then when you get to the end of that evolution reevaluate and decide, hey, do I really want to quit? Or was I just truly uncomfortable and in pain? 99% of the time, guys don't want to quit. It's just there in a moment of weakness. And we all have them. So, I encourage you to set those shorter goals. You know, how do I get through this day? Let me get some sleep. I'm going to attack tomorrow. Tomorrow's another dagger. But I'm going to push through, you know, maybe I need to take a break and, you know, walk, get outside, walk for a few minutes, reduce that stress, and just continue to do things that reduce that stress momentarily and that's how you end up getting all the way through. 

 

James Laughlin 32:57 

Really amazing. I love that bite-size approach, kind of 1% approach. It's incredible. And the Pentagon of peak performance. I know the person listening right now is going what is that? Tell me more about that. So, I'd love to like just spend a bit of time unpacking your Pentagon of peak performance. 

 

Jason Redman 33:14 

Yeah, when I got in trouble as a young leader, I realized I was kind of out of balance. As a leader. I'll be honest, physically, I mean, I was in shape as a seal. But I wasn't where I needed to be as a co-leader, you should be really in the best shape that you have the possibility to be, and that doesn't mean that I'm going to beat everybody in my platoon. I want to, but everybody has gifts, everybody, you know, you're going to be good. Some areas and other people are going to be better than others, but you should be 100% the best version of yourself. So, I wasn't there physically. Mentally, I definitely wasn't there. I wasn't challenging myself. I wasn't challenging my beliefs. Emotionally, I was, I was definitely a basket case I was up I was down. Socially, I wasn't, in my opinion, doing as good a job, and spiritually, I was of course also. So, these were the five key areas that after I went to Ranger School, and I was rebuilding myself that I tried to say you need to put time and effort into these areas. So physically, you should be killing it. Mentally, I was consuming every book I could find on leadership. I was watching good leaders in my SEAL team and saying, Hey, man, that guy's a rock star. I want to be like that guy. What's he doing? And then I would say that guy is not the guy doesn't like him. What is he doing that I want to make sure I'm not doing and I also looked at myself guys didn't want to work with me? So, what was I doing in the past that I want to make sure I'm not doing again in the future? So mental leadership. It's challenging our beliefs. It's consuming information. Emotional leadership is how we manage our emotions, how do we stay even-keeled commoner chaos? So, when the highs were not too high, and obviously in the lows, we still feel positive and drive forward. Man, I watched so many leaders that allow their emotions to drive A worst-case their decision making, or B, at least in a lesser case, their expressions, what they're saying their sarcasm, and those are things that can damage your credibility as a leader, and it'll damage relationships. And I watched people who, in a frustrating moment, throw out that zinger that does nothing to contribute to that situation. All it does is makes their ego feel better. So, in the long run as a leader, how is that helping? At the end of the day as a leader is what, you know, how are we making sure that we're, we're moving the ball down the field?. And if something you're saying is not contributing to that, that's weak emotional leadership. Social leadership is how we build the rings of influence around us our teams, there are four rings that I talk about, there's the outermost ring is your professional ring. Those are the people that you work with, you're probably not friends with, but you work with, you know, they help you accomplish the professional things we have in our lives. The inner ring is our acquaintances and friends and this is still in the work sphere. But these are people that you work with, but you are friends with you probably hang out with them, you go out, you might have a beer after work, you may have lunch with them, you know, you bitch about the boss with them. The next ring is your close friends, these are the people that maybe you grew up with, you know, you go, you work out with, you play sports with maybe you go hunting with, you know, maybe they're your neighbor, and you do barbecues together, and the kids hang out. And then the Bullseye is our family. That is your spouse, your kids, your mom, your dad, brothers' sisters. The problem with most of us in western culture, we have a tendency to place all our emphasis on the outer two rings of our professional and our work acquaintances and friends. And the inner rings, our close friends and our family, we tend to just take for granted we just say, well, they're going to be here, they know that I'm working hard, and they know I'm doing it for them. But they may not. And if you're not putting some time and effort into them, I've frequently watched when a major like ambush comes along. And that gets pressure tested. That's where it breaks. And marriages break and relationships break friendships break because you're going through a major life ambush and you didn't, you didn't invest in those relationships. So, I really encourage people to put time and effort into all four rings and recognize that balance is critical. That way, when you have a major life ambush or crisis, you know, you're not pressure testing those innermost rings, who really are still going to be with you. Because God forbid, you know, like me, I thought, you know, I often tell people, we all ride along on trains. And I wrote the Navy SEAL train, some of you are riding the business train, some of you are rising, riding the professional athletic train, sports train, someday, something could happen, that throws you off that train as I got thrown off the sealed train. 

 

Jason Redman 38:14 

So, my teammates and friends were still on the train. So those outer two rings, they go away, who gets off the train with you in a major crisis. It's those inner two rings, the close friends and your family. And if you did not invest in them in that pressure tested situation, they may go away. And that's why I tell people man, build, invest in those four rings, build your social leadership. And then the fifth one is spiritual leadership. Faith plays a part for me, religion, for some people, religion is a part of them. I tell people that religion isn't the end all be all for spiritual leadership. It's more of just getting outside of yourself. Having perspective, understanding that you know all the problems you're facing. Most likely, if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably from a likely decent place you have access to technology, you obviously have an internet connection, and you have power. The problems you're facing are not that great. They're challenging, they're hard. They're they could be life-threatening to you. But spiritual leadership, in my opinion, is having a perspective that there's a great big world out there and there are people that are enduring far worse than any of us. And if you can have that perspective, if you can do those things to connect with those types of people or at least appreciate them. spiritual leadership makes you stronger when you go through your problems. Those five areas create the Pentagon and in my opinion that creates balance as a leader. 

 

James Laughlin 39:52 

That's so- I guess the only word I can use to describe it as fire like that's just an amazing way of perspective. The tree in analogy, you're on this professional train, when you get thrown off the train, the train keeps going. And the only people that get off the family are loved ones and close friends. That's a really powerful message to us all. And Jason, I want to reinforce for the listener that this is not theory, what you're sharing is not theory, this is you've walked the walk. And so, I want to talk about adversity. And I want to talk about self-pity for a second. So, you end up in a military hospital. And you're thinking, I want to get out for a Halloween, which is like a month away. And I want to get out for I think it was maybe your sister, your sister-in-law's wedding. And you're planning to do these things in the next couple of months. And you turn to the nurse, and the nurse says something to you, I'm not going to share it I'll let you tell your own story. But then people start coming into the room going Oh, isn't this so awful, these wounded warriors, and feel so bad? I want you to please share your response to those things and what the nurse told you people coming in, and then what your response was, it's incredibly inspiring. 

 

Jason Redman 41:02 

Yeah, thank you. So, we'll back up for one second, to make it relatable to everyone, all of us in this life are going to encounter these catastrophic, what I call the end moments, and it may very well be the end of one part of your life. It could be you lose a job, or your business could fail. It could be a divorce, you know, some it could be sexual trauma. So could be, you know, the loss of a child or the loss of a close family member. These are all major the end moments or life ambushes, as I call them. And there's a natural tendency when we endure these moments that we get hit with all the negativity. There's no hope, there's nothing I can do. It's all outside of my control. It's not fair. These are the thoughts that everyone has, including me. So, when I was sitting in the hospital, I mean, you have to think I had just finished this impossible climb out of this deep dark hole being told, you don't deserve to be a seal and we don't want to work with you. That is the hardest, hardest road I've ever walked. And, and I climbed out of it and earn my way back to suddenly find myself laying in a hospital bed. Being told, hey, you have no use of your left hand, your elbow was so mangled, and the nerve damage is so great that we're talking about amputating your arm, your face is mangled. You know, you have really no nose, you just have tubes that are coming out of what's left in your nose, you are wired shot from the massive amount of your shattered and broken jaw. We're feeding you through a stomach tube. You've lost so much blood; we've given you seven blood transfusions. And because of all that blood loss, you're so weak, that you have to have nurses come in and help you go to the bathroom. And that was an, I mean, that was depressing. It was tough to wrap my head around all that and I was thinking all those things, you know, there's no hope there's nothing I can do. It's all outside of my control. This isn't fair. And I remember thinking like, okay, well, alright, well, I'm just going to drive forward and, you know, get out of this situation, you know, how long is it going to take to put me back together and I remember asking the nurse to write to her, or the doctor actually she was the presiding doctor. And I said, how many months is going to take to put me back together? You know, I got you to know, James, as you said, I got things to do. I got me I got to go to my sister's wedding and I want to get back to Iraq and she was like months, just like it's going to take years to put you back together. And like that was a blow. The doctors telling me all these different things was a blow and it just felt like one blow after another. And I almost felt like I was back in that gunfight and Iraq that it wasn't the bullets and bombs and battle but it was like the bullets and bombs of life. And every time I turned around; I was getting hit again. And I remember at one point thinking to myself, Man, like Okay, so I'm potentially going to, I'm going to be forever disabled. I'm gone be permanently disfigured and my special operations career is over. And while I was navigating all that is when I had a couple of people come into the room, like James mentioned, who had a lot of pity that a lot of pity over what had happened. Pity for me, pity for fellow wounded warriors on the ward and just say, you know, these young men, you know, this is so sad that they have been all bagged up and they're never going to be the same. They're never going to be able to overcome and they left. And I remember just kind of sitting there with all this weight and negativity on me like just thinking like, where do I go from here? 

 

Jason Redman 45:11 

And here's the interesting thing in this life, the greatest gift you have as a human is you have a choice. You have a choice and how you're going to deal with adversity and problems. Nobody forces you to lay there and feel sorry for yourself. Nobody makes you a victim. It's an internal choice to be a victim, it's an internal choice to lay there and feel sorry for yourself. It's an internal choice to have a pity party, and just stay there. And, and I was at that moment where I said, you know, I just got done climbing out of this dark hole. You created these rules of leadership, which said, lead yourself, lead others, lead always guess what, just because you're in a hospital bed means those rules no longer apply. So, it's gone time, like, let's go. From this point forward. It's relentless positivity. And you're not going to let other people come into this room and feel sorry for you. When my wife came back into the room. She had been gone for a few minutes when those people were in there. I motioned to her and said, hey, let me have my pen and paper. Because I couldn't talk, obviously. And I wrote out, I said, never again, never again, is anybody going to come into this room feeling sorry for me, because, from this point forward, I refuse to feel sorry for myself. And I wrote out this sign that said, attention to all who enter here, if you're coming in this room with sadness or sorrow, go elsewhere. The wounds I received, I got the job that I love doing for people that I love defending the freedom of a country that I deeply love, I will make a full recovery when it's full. That's the absolute utmost physically has the ability to recover, and then we'll push that about 20% further through sheer mental tenacity. This room you're about to enter is a fun optimism and intense, rapid regrowth. If you are not prepared for that, go elsewhere. And we signed it to the management. 

 

James Laughlin 47:07 

I love it. You're incredible. And you put it up on the door? 

 

Jason Redman 47:11 

We did we put it on the door, I said, hey, nobody's allowed into the room until they read this. And sign took on a life of its own. A New York firefighter, a really amazing guy, he had been a Marine and then became a highly decorated New York fire captain. He lost both sons on 911. One was a police officer and one was a firefighter. And he started coming to the hospital to visit wounded warriors. And I think just to heal his soul. And he came into my room and met me and he read the sign. And he took a picture of it. And he blogged about it. And it ended up going viral. It was all over the news. And it was written about in other blogs. And to this day, it has now gone forward to motivate millions and millions of individuals. It earned me an invitation to the White House and I met President Bush who signed it. I didn't feel like it was mine to keep so we had it framed and it now hangs in the wounded ward at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC, or in Bethesda, Maryland. It has been written about in an amazing book Secretary Robert Gates, our Secretary of Defense wrote about it in his book, and First Lady Michelle Obama wrote about it not once but twice in her book, it moved her so much. I don't tell everybody that say hey, look at me, I wrote this sign, I tell you that because that is the power of choice. That's the power of choosing positivity in the face of negativity. And as a leader, when you have these moments where you feel down, and there's no hope and there's nothing I can do, you need to understand that you have a choice. Hope comes from within. Hope is merely a belief that I can change the outcome and the situation I'm in, it doesn't mean that you're going to get back whatever was lost, crushed, destroyed, or set off course, all it means is that I'm going to change the outcome I'm in right now. That is what I hope is. And, and as a leader, you have to believe that and that's what I believed and that's what that sign represents. 

 

James Laughlin 49:08 

It's powerful. And for the listener, I'm going to make sure and get that exact note. I'm going to write it out and put it in the show notes so that you can compare it up on your own wall and those times of need and hope. So, absolutely amazing stuff. Now let's think about leading others. So, if you want to learn to lead yourself and get off the ax and learn to adapt, how do we embrace the peak performance dependent on peak performance? What about leading others I think a lot of us as leaders or people with leadership titles want to go, I just lead other people. That's my job. They don't focus on me and then go on to others. So, once you focus on yourself, how do you pivot and then start to lead other people? 

 

Jason Redman 49:50 

So, there are multiple components of it. You know, if we take it to the most basic level, if you're building a team of individuals and you're building a culture, you know, I talk about how it goes back to SEAL training. In SEAL training, they do an amazing job of building teams. And the teams are built through, one of the main ways we do it is through using this little rubber boat called an inflatable boat small and there are seven men under that boat, we're all roughly about the same height. And you carry this boat around everywhere you go. And there's coordinated commands to carry the boat at a low carry or carry it at you know, knee level or waist level or upon your shoulder. Or where it's normally carried is on top of your head and you end up running all over the base, you cover hundreds of miles with these boats on your head, and it's painful. Your neck aches, and you know, the boat weighs about 300 pounds empty, you add some sand, and a little bit of saltwater. And it starts to you know, maybe an instructor decides to get in and go for a ride. You know, they are painful to carry. And typically, if you were to watch a class go through SEAL training, and they were carrying these boats, you would hear a lot of chaos, the instructors would be yelling, but you would hear a lot of chaos and yell coming from the boats. And you would hear one yell above all others. And that got your head under the boat. Because frequently what would happen no different in life when the pain and the stress of being in a team are on and we're all trying to carry the weight, someone will try and remove their head to release the pressure. And as soon as they do that it redistributes the weight on everybody else. I have an amazing picture in my presentations, where there's a guy in the back of the boat who has his head out, and the guy in the front directly opposite of him is all crunched down because the weight of the boat shifted. And it's such a great example of being an effective member of a team and understanding that you have to carry your weight. So as a leader, you have to make sure not only are you carrying your weight, but you are encouraging and making sure that everybody else in their team is carrying their weight. Because if you allow individuals to take their head out from underneath the boat, temporarily, it's going to cause discomfort and people are more focused on the discomfort in the pain than they are on moving that boat in the direction where you want it to go or moving your team in that direction. If you allow it to happen longer then they will totally lose sight of what they're there to do. And all they're thinking about is killing that person that doesn't have their head on the boat, you're losing the culture and camaraderie of the team. And all you've got is animosity towards that individual who's not carrying their weight. So that's number one. Number two is, the other thing we do is you're obviously if you're not carrying the boat, you're rowing the boat, and rowing the boat out into some really big sea state into great big waves. And it takes very coordinated effort, everybody has to be rowing the boat at the same time very coordinated, in order to row up into, you know, a 12-15, you know, 20-foot wave, if you will. And if anyone is not rowing at exactly the right time, it can actually cause the boat to pivot. And a boat that pivots in the face of a giant wave will get dumped because you need it to be going straight with speed to punch through the top of the wave. That's no different than a team, a leader has to constantly be encouraging their people, you know, hey, we're all rowing in the same direction. This is where we're going. I need to make sure that everyone understands where are we going. And as a leader, we got to continually reinforce that sometimes. Sometimes we underestimate, we think that just because it's in our head, or we've said it four or five times that people know where we're going. People, they're dealing with all kinds of stuff, their family work, personal problems, whatever it is. And if we're not constantly beating the drum as a leader is like, hey, this is where we're going. They lose sight and all of a sudden, if you're not careful, you got a team that's rowing at different times. The third component is what we call main effort and supporting effort. And this is really critical to understand. This is where a lot of organizations get off track because when we talk about main efforts supporting the effort, it's when we're leading multiple teams within an organization.  

 

Jason Redman 54:27 

You know, in America, I frequently talk about football as a great example of it. But use any sport, so transcribe it to any sports. I will admit I don't study rugby a lot, so I wouldn't be able to speak intelligently about that. But I will say in American football and in rugby, the main effort is to win. It is too when that is the main effort, the supporting effort is all the different pieces that go together into that it's your coaching staff. If it's a professional team, it's your administration. staff that's you know, who handles payroll who handles recruiting, you get into the players. And now in American football, you've got your offense, your defense, you've got your quarterbacks, you've got your offensive line, you've got your receiving corps. You know, your defense, defensive line, linebackers secondary, all that. Those are called supporting efforts. As a leader, we have to make sure that they always understand what is the main effort or what we're doing, because sometimes supporting efforts will lose sight of, hey, we're here to win. And they start focusing so heavily on their own individual little piece of the puzzle, that they start to place it at a higher priority over the main effort. And this is where things get off track. This is where silos start to develop in an organization. This is where an organization gets off track. And that's why a leader and leaders of every supporting effort must always beat that drum. Hey, guys, what is the main effort? If your organization is to sell amazing widgets, then guess what should be our mission, our main effort is to provide our customers with the best amazing widgets on the planet. And whether you're in accounting, engineering, sales, or customer service, it's always back to presenting the greatest widget there is that is the main effort. And so often, you know, in leadership, you have to remember that's why I'm here. And obviously, please praise your teams for doing that. But you're constantly boom, boom, beating that drum. This is the main effort so I could get a little deeper. You know, we could then almost get into Extreme Ownership also, which is I think the final part of what I talked about in the teamwork section. 

 

James Laughlin 56:47 

Extreme Ownership I think anything less than that, you when you said that they all picked up like yeah, we want to know that. Tell us about Extreme Ownership. 

 

Jason Redman 56:54 

Yeah, so obviously giving credit to Jocko Willink can lay fat on my teammates who served in Ramadi, which Laban Jocko ran when task unit bruiser, which, you know, a troop that did a lot of work, you know, some pretty heavy hitters in there. Mark Lee was one of the first seals killed in Iraq. Mark was part of the bruiser. Chris Kyle was assigned to them, the legendary American Sniper, so a pretty amazing group of guys. But Jocko in life wrote a book called Extreme Ownership. And it's about the idea that as a leader when we're managing our teams, you know, there is an overlap. And this is something I've frequently talked about within organizations, that you have to teach every single person in your organization, they are a leader, from the brand-new guy all the way to the most senior individual. And you want to build a team of leaders, individuals who are making decisions on the fly, who you push that decision making down, you trust them to make those decisions. But at the end of the day, you are the leader, regardless of how much autonomy you want to give your team, you are the leader. And when things go wrong, you have to own it. And a lot of leaders don't do this. A lot of leaders when things start to go wrong, immediately look externally, and they start to look at what broke, what went wrong, and who did what wrong? What are the external factors? And really good leaders who manage great teams, immediately look inward? And they say, well, what did I do wrong? What didn't I provide my team to make them successful? Did I not give them enough training? Did I not give them adequate resources? Did I not give them the right guidance? Did I not give them enough motivation? Did I not show them the right and left limits that they needed to operate within? Did I not hold members of the team accountable, which allowed them to slip and set them up for failure? That's Extreme Ownership. And you know, Jocko really does a great job of illustrating that point, I interview him and, in the book, Overcome, and we talk about those things. But if you're going to be a good leader, and you want to build a great culture, you got to take Extreme Ownership of everything that goes on. And I tell you, the greatest leaders I ever worked for. I've frequently talked about Vince Peterson in my book, who is a legendary seal, not his real name, but probably one of the greatest leaders I ever worked for. And a lot of the leadership lessons I teach came directly from Vince. And when you talk about Extreme Ownership, Vince was the perfect example of that, because he had the ability to motivate a team in a specific direction, how to always say this is the main effort, this is where we need to go. He always showed he had his head under the boat and he encouraged us to grow in the right direction. And when we would get there, he would then give all the credit to everyone, you know, never himself. You know, he would praise all the guys and he would highlight people and you know; these people are the reason why this occurred. You know, they're, you know, we achieved this success because these people had the ideas and it was only later in my career, that I began to realize that he planted those seeds long ago, it was always his idea. And if it went wrong, he owned it. It was his fault if it went wrong. So, probably one of the best leaders I ever had the opportunity to work with. 

 

James Laughlin 1:00:18 

what a privilege to apply that to your fatherhood. You know, being a dad, being a partner, being a son, being a daughter, whoever you are, you're listening right now applying that to every aspect of your life taking Extreme Ownership for your actions or your inactions. And I'm glad you brought the book up, again, overcome, please, if you're listening, take a moment and order. It's an incredible leadership book, a life book. It's got insights that are going to help you traverse life. When things get tough, and they do get tough. There's another ambush, wheeling around the corner. And I guess, just and that's the thing with an ambush. You don't know when the ambush is happening, because it's an ambush. And you can't plan for the death of a family. Generally, you can't plan for a global pandemic. And so having those skill sets are critical. So, the book is a must-buy, if you're an audible listener, go and get it on there. But I certainly recommend it. I've made hundreds of notes in it and highlighted them, to take distinctions away. It's been incredible. So, I want to thank you for distilling your leadership, excellence, leadership experience, your adversity, and how you traverse it into one book. That is your bestselling book, I know that you are a New York Times bestselling author. I mean, we're so fortunate that you've taken the time to do that. So, I want to thank you. 

 

Jason Redman 1:01:34 

James, my honor, and just I want to double-tap to fatherhood thing, you know, as a parent, I think people overcomplicate being a parent. At the end of the day, the rules of leadership I talked about overcome apply to parenting. And you know, comes down to how do you leave yourself. You know, if you tell your kids, hey, do this, but you're doing the opposite guess what, they're going to end up doing the opposite. But if you set the example for your kids, 90% of the time, they're going to follow your example. If you're into fitness, your kids are going to follow. If you're into whatever it is, typically kids will follow. So, set the example for your kids and you'll be amazed. Even if sometimes you feel like hey, they're not paying any attention. It's pretty fantastic. My oldest daughter is actually one of my coaches now. She's 19 She's getting ready to turn 20. And even though she's super young, she's grown up listening to me, and I just love it. She's so smart. And the people in our coaching group are like, Man, she's so wise beyond her years. So, set that example for your kids, and it will reap dividends. 

 

James Laughlin 1:02:45 

Incredible. Well, there are two things I want to ask you before we wrap up. So, the first thing is, do you have any events coming up where people can actually rub shoulders with you meet you, and learn from you? 

 

Jason Redman 1:02:56 

Yeah, absolutely. So, in I have two ticketed events that are coming up. One is a leadership development event. Yeah, I am a professional speaker. I don't feel like it's a leadership development event called Roger Up and it is in Chicago, Illinois, September first through third, I and some other amazing speakers are going to be talking about leadership. We're going to be talking about mental toughness. We're going to talk about emotional leadership, fellow seal, co-chief Will Branham is going to be there. Also, we got Nick Koumalatsos, who was a Marine Corps Marsac Raider. So, it's a great group a great lineup, and we just want to encourage individuals to check it out, come out to the event, get out of your comfort zone, and there's an opportunity to have a mastermind with me one night, there's an opportunity to have a mastermind with Nick Koumalatsos, one night. So, a great event rogerupevent.com. And then I am running last year or earlier this year. It's a crazy world we're living in. There's a lot of division, we're seeing violence on the rise. We're seeing disasters and destabilization around the world. As a seal instructor, I taught marksmanship and survival. So, I put together a course called The Overcoming Survive Course really targeting the average individual out there that maybe, maybe you want a gun, maybe you understand a little bit of survival, but you never have really come to understand I want you to be comfortable with a firearm. I want you to be comfortable understanding how to deescalate a dangerous situation. I want you to understand whether it's a storm or whether, you know, the country has collapsed, you know, understand some basic levels of survival and that's what this course is so overcomeandsurvive.com. We're doing that the weekend of September 16 through 18th in North Carolina. 

 

James Laughlin 1:04:55 

Amazing. I'm going to put those in the show notes for anybody that's keen to go and join those and the work that you do is phenomenal. It's world-class and to get an opportunity to sit with you and learn from you directly. I mean, what a privilege for people to do that. So, I look forward to bringing you down to New Zealand and Australia at some point and getting in front of Kiwis and Aussies, they will love you. I want to be there. Let's do it. Let's do it. If there's one last question, I'd like to ask you. So fast forward many, many years, your last breath or last breaths, and one of your kids or both your kids are sitting there and they say, Dad, how can we lead our life with purpose? What would you say to them? 

 

Jason Redman 1:05:39 

Go out and help make other people better. 

 

James Laughlin 1:05:43 

Beautiful. I love it. Well, guys, you heard it here go out and help make other people better. I mean, when you do that, you're focused outward, right? 

 

Jason Redman 1:05:53 

Absolutely 

 

James Laughlin 

Really powerful. 

 

James Laughlin 1:05:55 

And the one other thing I want to highlight for the person that's listening, and they're not watching the video right now, you got the best t-shirt on no bad days. 

 

Jason Redman 1:06:07 

Oh, yeah, it's, it's an entire line on the back is mine is my skull. So, this was drawn by an artist. The bullet hole in the forehead was actually in my helmet so miraculous that I'm still here. But the damage to the face was actually taken directly off the CT scan. And so that's what's on the back of the shirt. We have a whole no bad days line. And it's really a mindset. And the mindset is this, you know, so many people whine and complain and have that victim mindset, oh my god, I had a bad day, when really, it's nothing. It's a scheduled disruption at best. And it's a mindset of, hey, if I'm still alive, if I'm still breathing, then it's a good day. And it's up to you to make it a great day. So, if you approach your day like that, no bad days, you know, and that's what I think about when I look at that skull. I think hey, man, I'm blessed to still be here. 

 

James Laughlin 1:07:04 

Absolutely. And we're so blessed to have connected with you today. So, thank you so much for sharing and helping us all work on overcoming adversity. I sincerely appreciate you 

 

Jason Redman 1:07:14 

James my honor, man. Thank you and definitely, I can't wait let's do this. My wife would love to come to New Zealand as well. New Zealand and Australia, actually her brothers' living in Australia so we got we need to get there and see him anyways. 

 

James Laughlin 1:07:27 

Let's make it happen. 

 

Jason Redman 

All right, man. Let's do it! 

 

Jason Redman 1:07:30 

Cheers mate! 

 

James Laughlin 1:07:49 

Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button. And I'd love it if you'd leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks. And leaders. It's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.