Pleas enjoy my conversation with my buddies, patriots, teammates, and great humans, Bill Kraus and Steve "Newt" Newton!

This is my conversation with combat veteran and Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker, Trey Free. Among many other things, Trey reminds us in this conversation that "Quitting is a mindset, not a decision!"

*A reminder that anything Trey says here are his thoughts, and his thoughts alone. He is not representing his former or current organization.*

Trey is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, then Air Force special operations Combat Controller, a guy I consider an expert in selection, assessment, and training. Trey's a huge part of the MCTI community. He's a dad, a husband, an Appalachian Trail through-hiker, and great American.

In this conversation, we discuss selecting and training chess players rather than those who play checkers.

- building the race car we need today, rather than fighting the last fight

- when Trey realized he needed to change his thinking around professional development, and how to select and train Tier 1 operators effectively

- we discuss how challenging it is when as instructors and trainers we try to push/progress training when the only experience we have (the only experience anyone has) is our own.

- we talk about moving away from selecting only on tactics and skills, but selecting and training to "Characteristics" such as:

- Problem Solving

- Interpersonal Effectiveness

- Communication

- Drive

- Stress Tolerance (cognitive overload)

We also discuss why training is for certainty and education is for uncertainty

- we discuss mental toughness and Trey tells us his 15 categories of what he believes you can control, and need to keep front-sight-focused upon

- we talk about peak performance and getting over perceived failures

- as it pertains to quitting hard things, Trey talks about "quitting" as a mindset, not a decision.

- we talk about residue and transition from the military

You can find Trey on YouTube at EarlyRiser71, and see his book release promo at It's Time to Choose.

After Action Reviews, by Coleman Ruiz

Today, I speak with Shaun Huls, Director of High Performance at NFL Football team, the Cleveland Browns. Shaun has worked for 30 years in college sport, military special operations, and professional football in America.

In the conversation, we discuss:

- sports science and human performance,

- we talk about the myths of physical and mental performance,

- skill acquisition and skill transition,

- staying a white belt everyday,

- the origin of one of the NCAA's first strength and conditioning programs in the country,

- taking care of the primary "human weapon system," as Shaun describes it to me,

- on how you don't have to "get ready" if you "stay ready"

- willing oneself to be a great player off of one thing: a routine

- removing the word "potential" from your name

- growing beyond your mentor

- how your primary responsibility on any high performing team is acquiring skills and knowledge, and executing that skill: slow, then at speed, then at speed when fatigued, then at speed when fatigued, and under pressure, and doing so consistently.

Please enjoy my conversation with the Cleveland Browns' Director of High Performance, my friend, Shaun Huls.

This is my conversation with Justin Langer, head coach of the Australian Men's National Cricket team, the #1 ranked cricket team in the world, in a sport that is the #2 most watched sport in the world.

From my view, this was a master-class in building and maintaining elite team culture. Justin takes me to school on what it takes to stay grounded while leading one of the most elite athletic teams in the world. Yet, the team's world #1 ranking pales in comparison to Justin's energy and love for cricket that started when he was a child.

Finally, straight from J.L.'s epic quote room in Perth, Australia, he reminds me of a few quips that he keeps top of mind everyday:

• "If you preach excellence and walk mediocrity you're nothing more than a common liar."
• "The pain of discipline is nothing like the pain of disappointment."
• "Most people want to live the dream but they can't live the reality."

Watch the documentary here: The Test: A New Era for Australia's Team

From main-stage theaters to medieval round-towers Clare has been a professional storyteller for 14 years now. She has performed in more than 20 countries, telling stories for all kinds of audiences. Her performances include shows such as “The King of Lies,” political folkloric shows set, and playful pieces which explore where quantum physics, philosophy and mythology meet.

From storytelling for the President of Ireland to performing at the Writers room of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Clare also performs at festivals, art centers, universities, public and private events, and she teaches for us at the MCTI.

But what Clare actually teaches is basic COMMUNICATION skills!!!

Our careers have an arc, our training events have an arc, our more acute missions have an arc, briefings have an arc, the books, and the films we love are based on a well structured story arc, and all of our communications are in pursuit of as much common understanding as possible, or else are we really a high-performing team?

We, of course, talk about Clare's background, but we also discuss:

• speaking in technicolor
• building context
• stories that go nowhere...that never get resolved
• communicating to one person in order to talk to everyone, rather than talking to everyone which has you talking to no one
• getting a team's brain out in the open for everyone to learn from collective experience (we say we want to be a high performing team, not a group of high performing individuals)
• burning down libraries
• origin stories
• discovering what right looks like
• embedding images of high performance

Clare Murphy, Irish-born Storyteller

Stay in touch via our Newsletter here.

www.missioncti.com

Today, I speak with author Dan Coyle. We discuss LOTS of stuff like emotional athletes, the marshmallow experiment, treating "teaming" like a sport, his book The Culture Code, and the central question of the book, which is "Why do some teams add up to be greater than the sum of their parts while others add up to be less?"

Dan reveals what he saw while researching eight teams, teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Pixar, and the Union Square Cafe, by going on site and not looking for traits or descriptors but literally watching what he saw physically, what did people actually do when they were doing whatever it is they do.

Daniel Coyle's website here

"How Strong is Your Culture" quiz here

My conversation today is again with Dr. Preston Cline. We discuss the difference between "safety" and "security," and why it matters. We talk about judgment and decision making, risk-to-force versus risk-to-mission and what it costs you to balance both. We discuss team fluidity, team cohesion, and "user guides." Enjoy the conversation.

The Ten (10) Principles of Navigating Uncertainty

Example User Manual (here).

And stay tuned for my interview next week with author of The Culture Code: the Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, Daniel Coyle.

As always, contact us at [email protected]

My conversation with Jimmy Hatch, combat veteran, founder of SpikesK9Fund, author of Touching the Dragon, and one of the most insightful, humble, and honest conversations you'll EVER hear on the broad range of human experience.

Touching the Dragon, James Hatch (and Christian D'Andrea)

SpikesK9Fund

My Semester with the Snowflakes, James Hatch (on Medium)

Residue Research Paper (for public distribution)

MCTI Podcast Website and Links to our Newsletter