𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐈𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐧 𝐔𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫?

I'm not arguing , I'm not saying it's not impossible , but I'm asking you for two minutes to say , if it were possible , how would I do it ? Right , and what it does is it gives your brain permission to go find the answer .

Our guest today has gone from Marine sniper to FBI special agent , to pastor and now executive coach , author and international speaker , and the stakes that he's going to talk about today are very important . We're specifically going to talk about his newest book , inner Armor , but we'll talk more about that .

He's a neuropsychology PhD , so he's teaching from science as well . As we go through this , a sought-after speaker , he is going to bring the heat for you today . I want to welcome Andrew Whitman to the Uncommon Leader Podcast . How are you doing , friend ?

And you know , the Australians they don't mind , you know , come up with nicknames . So my nickname was Beach Ball because I was 5'3 and 185 pounds . So it was pretty brutal . But being a missionary's kid can't fight back , so you're a weak target . So I'm living my life in fear and anxiety just constantly . And the plan was me would graduate high school .

Out of six kids I was the one supposed to go in the ministry . Bible college was up and I thought , if I don't get this under control , I don't want to live the rest of my life like this . How am I going to lead anybody ? I can't even lead myself . So I enlisted in the Marine Corps , so that that , and lost 50 pounds in bootcamp .

So I that whole thing about you know . I just didn't want you probably . No , I'm not telling you anything . You don't know , john , like even today , you know , decades later , when I look in the mirror , I still see the fat kid .

I still hear beach ball , I still , you know , no matter how fit you get , no matter how you know you clamp , it's still kind of lurks back there behind the curtain . So you're just have to constantly put that under every day . It also , but it keeps me frosty man .

Let's jump right into that , leading us in when you use the term or title inner armor . What is inner armor ? I think you mentioned mental toughness , but tell me more about how you define that .

I'm coming out of that I was with a private military contractor , with the state department , so mental toughness . But as I got going and I brought this to corporate , I began to think a lot of people see , even in those circles SEALs , marines , rangers , athletes we've kind of confused physical toughness with mental toughness .

So a lot of people think if I just do one more push up , or I'm going the extra mile or I'm going to grit , that's physical toughness . Mental toughness is getting control of your mind and your will and emotions right . So this inner armor is how do I control my mind , will and emotions ? How do I ?

And that's what resilience I call perpetual resilience , because also a lot of people have this concept that resilience is I bounce back after something bad happened , then I'll find out if I had it or not , you know , and it's like no , I want this like perpetual all the time , like if it's proactive resilience . Right , I build this muscle .

Then when stuff happens , I'm not even bouncing back , I'm rebooting and get it , I'm better , I make the course correction and I do better than I was when I got knocked down . But that that system is already in place , that inner armor . So it's not about . I mean we're all going to take hits in life , we all know this .

I mean , stuff happens all the time , so it's not the , it's not the hit . It's like how well can you take the hit and keep going on mission with your purpose ? What's your mission in life ? What's your purpose

? And that's a big piece of resilience . Because I have a 300 year plan . Like my ultimate target will take me 300 . People are like , well , don't count me out first off . But but right , it's a multi-generational plan , it would take me 300 years to accomplish .

So the reason I have my perspective that far out , because if , if I have a 300 year plan , I know it's going to take me 300 years to reach my I call it the Emerald city right , the Emerald city . Take me 300 years , like , if I have a bad day , who cares ? I'm still on the yellow brick road and I know why I'm going there , right ?

So , like scarecrow was going because he wanted a brain , lion was going because he wanted Kurt , right , they're all going .

You know , dorothy wanted to go home , but we also , and there's like flying monkeys and bad weather and poppy fields and all these obstacles Right , but they are , but nothing stopped them and they would get knocked down and just keep going to the Emerald city , right ? So that's what we want to do , and I don't .

If I have that perspective , my inner armor is that flying monkeys aren't going to bother me , and you know bad storms and you know bumps in the road or even witches trying to kill me . I don't , you know , it's like you know . So that's what the inner armor is , right .

So it's , it's about changing our perspective , knowing where we're going , what our purpose is , what our identity is , what my mission in life is , and then you can handle all these things that come up . They're just really . All these things that come up really boil down to a minor inconvenience when I look at them in light of my 300-year plan .

Methuselah Moses , we're only halfway , at a minimum . We're only halfway there .

So I love the analogy of the Wizard Oz and using that in the Yellow Brick Road and knowing what each of them knew , what they wanted . So you know who are the individuals that you wrote this book for , who are the scarecrows and the Dorothys and the cowardly lions that you wrote this book for , and why did you write it now ? Why now was the right time .

And so you know , because I had six years in Marine Corps infantry and I'm still plugged into . You know , my platoon commander was a two star general at the time . My company commander is a retired lieutenant colonel but he's involved in career transition and helping wounded warriors . He's and he's plugged in with that .

So we I just began to say , how can we make this work ? So my flagship system of grounds , your leadership CEO , it's all we dig into the science of it and it's a corporate coaching and it's like 12 weeks and you're going to spend an hour every day in there with me and the Marine Corps don't have time for that . So how do I put this thing together ?

So Inner Armor was built to be like a workout of the day for these guys , so that you just you know here let me look on my phone . Here's , I call it the mental toughness minute or whatever , right , and I'm doing these drills , these , doing these resilience drills . I'm building this resilience muscle , or this inner armor muscle , whether it's .

You know , we talked about the eight cylinders of your life . Right , we can get into that , but each day we're hitting another cylinder . Is it my mental health ? Is it my physical health ? Is it my emotional health ? Is it my social health ? Right , and so on . So that's what this book was . So we did that and went through the beta testing .

Everything was doing great , and then the commandant's changed . A new commandant came in . He's like , you know , we don't care about that . So that went out the window . But then I started using it for law enforcement and firefighters .

And I kind of say this in the press release when they quoted me saying this , because when I was a street cop and I started in Spartanburg County , my PTSD levels were way higher as a street cop than we were in any of my 11 deployments , whether it was Desert Storm or Republic of Panama , counterterrorism in Honduras or the State Department , four tours in

Afghanistan , and they were like well . Why I'm like well ? Because you never leave the combat zone . Really , I lock a guy up yesterday . He's out on bail and I see him at the grocery store . I'm pushing the baby in the stroller . That's I mean . I'm on red alert . Afghanistan , I'm on a three , 36 hour flight , right , so I can decompress .

So this thing was written for that and it also works for law enforcement . I thought now's the time . I mean the chaos , john , the chaos on the planet right now . I mean in everything economic chaos , political chaos , leadership chaos , I mean cultural chaos . Just pick a country , it doesn't matter , we're in chaos .

And I thought let me put this thing out and get it down to at least this book . So there's 23 chapters and they're all like . I say it's tactical because it's literally it's . I'm going to have it stack two or three minutes a day and work on these things .

And if you just went through one a week and , like , practice it every week for that drill then moved on to the next one that you ran through this book two times in a year , you're going to be your inner armor is going to be rock solid . It's going to be habit . It's going to be rock solid . It's going to be habit .

It's going to be your programming , it's going to be your default mode , right ? So , and that was the goal , that's why we wrote it and it was written for , I guess you know , 18 to 38 year olds . You know , in the Marine Corps .

But before we get to some of those , because we'll talk about those as solutions , but let's talk about these flying monkeys and these witches and the wizard that kind of gets in the way when you're working with these guys , realizing , focused on military and even the police force now , in terms of where you are .

But let's just you can use the leadership in general and the chaos that we're going through . What are some of the barriers , these flying monkeys that these folks are running into that keep them from , in essence , getting to where they want to go ?

They mimic the neurotransmitters in your brain . So when you filter someone , you perceive something . The chemical that is called up in that , when you're perceiving it is , it mimics the hormone , right . So what I call it the hormone dump , right ?

So if you ever been in a near car accident , right , where you know the slam , the brakes , horns are honked , but nothing's happened . But then afterwards then your heart starts pounding right , and you're like , oh my gosh , there's no logical reason because everybody's safe . That's the hormone dump .

And so that's what happens every time there's a stressor , whether it's combat , leadership , it doesn't matter . Like I mean , when you're running your business , I mean , you know , my sons were running a pharmaceutical manufacturing firm , and like , every day you're coming in , you're like , you feel like you're Jack Sparrow , stop blowing holes in my ship .

You know what I mean . Like I may , and that was worse to me than being in combat , because in combat , at least I could , you know I'm I have a way to fight back . I have rules of engagement .

There's things you could do , but in business you're just like all right , we just lost that contract or the supplier , the tariffs happened and now the shipping's backed up and you're not getting the raw material so you can get your product out . These are massive stressors . So how do I respond to these things ?

These are the witches and the flying monkeys that are out there today in the chaos .

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There are things that exist and we're going to get a chance to talk about movies here in a little bit , but I just got a chance to watch again my favorite movie . If I'm flipping around between a few channels in the evening and a few good men comes on , I got to stop . I'm done .

I'm done for the next hour and 45 minutes until I hear Jack Nicholson say we follow orders or people die .

Okay , so you talked about some of those barriers that exist , those things that are going on , but you've got these frameworks . So there are a couple that have caught my eye , mostly because of the name of them , but helping me specifically in terms of area where I see weakness as well . But you said something about the two-minute rule .

Tell me about the two-minute rule and what helps there .

And I'm like , well , have you ever watched a movie that you liked ? Yes , everybody says yeah , okay , congratulations . You suspended your disbelief for at least an hour and a half , because you know those aren't real . Even the ones based on a true story are Hollywood . It up , right ? So you suspended your disbelief in order to enjoy this show .

So I'm not asking you to do anything you're not already doing . It's normal . You do this all the time . But when you hear that voice of resistance in your head that says I can't do this , we can't do that , it's impossible , this is hard . Be like , hey , look just for two minutes . Just like , have fantasy .

I'm not arguing , I'm not saying it's not impossible , but I'm asking you for two minutes . Just say , if it were possible , how would I do it ? Right ? And what it does is it gives your brain permission to go find the answer . If it were possible , how would we do it ? I mean , I've done that in meetings , where you just throw that out on the table .

I mean something that was , you know , 30 seconds ago , impossible . Now we have five different options we could actually look at , and maybe they're not all viable , but maybe we take a piece of one and a piece of the other and we're like a chef and we take a piece of everybody's you know what they would be possible and come up with a plan of attack .

You know so I think that's a game changer if you could just implement that and that's one of the one of that . You know that two minute drill that I talk about every day , not the two minute rule , but to drill it . So think about this here's , here's how , for all your listeners , how could I do this right now ?

Think about one thing that just frustrates you , like regularly . Is it like the traffic in Atlanta while you're driving on your commute ? You know what are DC . Is it like the overload on the inbox , is it ? You know that .

You know , colleague , that you know you don't like their cologne , or they're always you know well whoever's frustrated and then ask yourself think about this , this is my two minute drill , like I'm while I'm brushing my teeth . This is habit stacking . I habit brush my teeth .

Now I'm going to think about that thing that was triggers me and I'm saying , look , if it were possible for me to handle this with poise , how would I do it ? And then begin to answer that question while I'm brushing my teeth ? Well , I can take a deep breath .

You know I can't control that For me , for traffic , my answer to that question was to make my car and now I'm dating myself , but it was cassettes back in the day . It would be like a college classroom where I'm putting in cassettes on neuroscience or psychology or leadership or communication .

Pretty soon my commute in DC when I was a federal agent was , you know , it was a nightmare . But until I did that , and then I it was like not long enough because I would sit in the parking lot , I'd have to finish a lecture . You know what I mean .

So this is what this when you ask that question and you give yourself permission to answer it , all kinds of great things happen for you .

Right , who are you when you take away ? Not your , because a lot of people I say who are you ? They're like , and this is a huge . You know I'm david seal , like oh , I'm a cop . You know I'm street cop , I'm the gangs . You know I'm like no , that's not your resume is not who you are . What you do is not who you are .

Our bio and in our industry , john , right , we have to have the bio so it gives us credibility , so we can even get on the show , right . So you go oh , he's a Marine Corps vet . He's a , you know , capitol Police agent . He was , you know right , phd in theology , all these things . But that's not who I am . You strip all those away .

Who am I when those are gone ? So this is the baseline program and so I came up with an identity statement of the characteristics , the internals , the values of who I wanted to be right now and who I aspired to be right . Where do I want to go ? So it's kind of half a faith statement and do it in one sentence .

It's got to be very short and pithy and quick so I can repeat it , and it's got to be when I hit my foot on the driveway and stubbed my toe , what needs to come out as my identity statement ? When I hit my hand with a hammer , right , what comes out ? So my identity statement is that I'm a man of excellence who always keeps his word .

So once , that's who Andrew is , whether he's being a dad or a husband or the CEO of my company , or the little league coach or a PTA volunteer , right ? Or the usher at church , whatever I'm , whatever , I have to give my best effort because I'm a man of excellence . That's already pre-decided I use that word a lot in the book pre-decide .

So now every decision in my life is made . I don't have to sit at the drive-through looking at the menu options , right ? Because how many times you do that ? Oh , hang on , give me a minute , right , or you're stuck behind the person doing that , right . So I already know I'm a man of excellence .

So I cannot half-step , I can't phone in the effort I'm not going to , you know , show up unprepared , I can't do it . It's not who I am . And if I did , then I and then I'd be like well , is that who ? Is that who you are ? Well , no , that's not who Andrew is . Ever not kept your word ? Well , of course , man , we're humans .

There's only one guy that kept his word the whole time on the planet . We killed him because he was perfect , right ? So that so , but I aspire to that that always keep my word . So I'm getting very good at it . But how to get good at it is not to give your word that much Cause the more you give it , the harder it is to keep it .

And so , yeah , it's easy and feels good at the time to say yes to everybody . But it's pre-decided that I have this triage right of who I give my word to and what I'm going to do . Because if I say I'm going to do something at a certain time , I'm going to do it Like that's what it is , that's who Andrew is .

There's no backdoor option , there's no highway option . And I you know that one of my favorite Psalm says that we swear to our own hurt and change not right . And when you know like when I took the oath at you know Capitol police , I took the oath in the Marine Corps you swear to your own hurt and you change not even if it hurts you , right .

So when I keep my word , I can't change , even if it costs me money . Or , and then learn from that course , correct ? Well , don't give your word next time I'm not telling the neighbor , yeah , I'll help you move , and then be complaining the whole time I'm helping him move .

Or don't do it and then duck the neighbor for the next 10 days because I told him I would help him and then I didn't . Are you following that , that kind ?

But even to your point , that aspirational statement of I always keep my word , knowing that it will be difficult , but I always aspire to do that , and it gives you a filter in each one of those opportunities that comes through . I mean , there's so many different paths you could take right off of that .

With regards to people ask you to do things , you're like hey , yeah , oh , yeah , I'll do that , no problem . And 48 hours later we find out that we didn't get that thing done because we really didn't have the time . Or , frankly , we recognize that it wasn't that important to us . Anything we say yes to , we say no to something else .

Whatever those paths that you end up walking down are very important . So one more question on the book , and then I'm going to dive into you just a little bit . Sure , I often talk about the book test . So someone's going to read your book , and it's been out for a couple of months now .

Someone's going to read your book , though , and they're going to go through . You mentioned this . If you go through it twice when you do those things , how much change can happen ? But they put it on the bookshelf , like the bookshelf that's behind me , and they see that . They only see the binding , and they look at it .

You know , six , eight months later , what do you want them to think , what do you want them to feel when they see that book after they've read it ?

every day and it'll slip . As a human machine , we know it slips . These things slip . I mean even I do . I wrote the book right . I've been in the , you know , and if you don't stay on it every day , things slip .

You know I'm like , oh man , you know that's just slipped through my fingers , you know , and you let it go because you get busy and things happen and your focus shifts to something else . So I want to keep doing is being deliberate with my focus . Like this thing , this book , really , I mean , if you go through it twice a year , I'm going to tell you .

It's like I was telling one of my I have like there's like a 12-year-old that looks up to me . What do you do ? I'm like man , when I was 12 , I started reading one Proverbs every day . For whatever day the date was , there's 31 Proverbs . They're like really , I'm like , yeah , I said I've probably read it a hundred times .

I can almost probably tell I've never stopped reading every day . I'm going to get in there and find out that you know what unjust weight you know unjust business practices are scamming . Somebody never works out good Like you need to . I would never do that , but people do . They let it slip . People that I knew would never do that .

I look at them and then 20 years later they're like you know what I'm talking about , john , where you see somebody , they start out strong out the gate and then 20 years later it's like it's almost like a tire out of round right .

That's why I love guys like Nick Saban and Tom Brady so much , because you can win one time Congratulations . I was talking about this to another guy just the other day . When the quarterback , think about this , when the quarterback gets that big , you know , 100 million , 150 million .

That's why , like Nick Saban , I look at this guy and he's like mad because we just won a national championship but we're already behind three weeks on recruiting for next year . People are you're crazy , like like that's how you have to be . Like Tom Brady . He's like I love Tom Brady because he's Forrest Gump Right .

He got picked last for kickball , he was like one ninety ninth in the draft , publicly Right , but he's a grinder . He's not . He's like me . I'm not talented , I'm not smart , he just grinds Right and he gets coaching and he's a coachable guy . And you just and you stay at it .

No one's going to outwork you and you keep working , working and you don't do what he did Like . It's very rare how many of them . There may be another guy that did it , like Joe Montana , or there may be somebody in the future , I don't know .

But he 24 , seven , with the nutrition and the sleep , rest and the what's you know , honing my skills and and if we want to get to that level , you have to do those things , to you know , to produce that success . And I want long-term success . I don't want to be a flash in the pan .

The eight cylinders are your spiritual health , your physical health , your mental health , your emotional health , your social health , harmonious relationships , financial health , cultural health how are you affecting the culture ? And then your professional health , right ?

So , in , order and balance is what we should be going for , because there's people that are great in one and then the rest of their lives are like that , tire out of round , right ? So I try to . You know , what I do is I have non-negotiables for each of these to stay in bounds . Right so , stay balanced .

So every day I'm up when my feet hit the ground , I'm already saying the thing . I say this thing .

I've been saying it since like 1997 , and it takes me two minutes to go through it , and it's why you know you're doing your morning routine , you're going to the bathroom , you're you know shaving , you're brushing your teeth , you're getting your hair done , and I'm saying these things out loud .

So my it's about my identity , it's about who's in charge of the day , and I mean , listen , this is a faith-based show . You don't mind we could talk about it . I say the Ephesians prayer and I say a heavenly nature prayer and then I say a prayer . I declare things over my body , what I want my body to do , right .

So I put on my heavenly nature , I'm a participant of the divine nature , and then I want a spirit of wisdom and revealed knowledge , and you know the eyes of my understanding enlightened . And at the end of that Ephesians prayer , in chapter three , he says and that we would be filled with the fullness of God .

Right , I mean , if you're filled with the fullness of God , can you get any better ? I mean , that's it . So that's what I also pray for my kids and I pray for my wife . And if somebody's mean to me in the street , I'm like , all right , let's just pray for them , you know , but talk bad , let's pray the Ephesians prayer for them .

I mean , like you know what I'm saying . So that's one of those things that non-negotiable . And it only takes me like two minutes and then I get up . It doesn't matter what time I have to get three , because I'm going to spend an hour in the Word , in meditation , in what I call private worship right . That's what the Greek word for prayer is .

Is private worship right . So I'm going to have my private worship time . It's non-negotiable . It's my spiritual cylinder . I've got to stay rooted and grounded right , and I'm going to be strengthened with might in my inner man by his Spirit , right , that's part of that . Ephesians prayer , prayer . So I'm gonna do that .

And then proverbs is part of the thing and I'm gonna read something , whatever . Whatever is on my mind to read that day , it might be all right , I gotta read . You know , I haven't been to psalm 91 in a while , safety right .

Or I'm gonna read something out of the epistles , or I love camping out in the gospel of john , you know , and seeing I mean romans , you can't , I mean like dude , I love him , I could live in in Romans 8 and 12 .

I get my heart rate up , I'm doing my strength training , I'm also doing my cardio and I'm keeping my fighting skills up , my physical skills , as my heart , one of my hard skills , non-negotiable , I mean it's . I mean , in fact , it's so hard for me to take a rest day , like some .

I mean I , I literally had to make myself take a rest day the other day as I was worn down . I'm like what is going on ? I'm like it's been like 17 days since I took a day off from working out , cause that's such a habit , like you have to like make yourself rest , you know , and I don't .

I mean I was like I did some cross training , which I would count as rest day , but it's not really , cause my cross training is I throw a , a weighted you know body armor vest on and go for , you know , four mile hike with , you know , with a weighted ruck . Right so and that's like that's my rest day . I'm like why didn't lift weights today ?

And I get my kids are like you're like Texas .

I was on the international stage as the mental toughness guy . I mean . I had in 2019 , they , you know , I had this 350 Greek CEOs , the CEO club , the Greece called me and brought me over there for a week of training and Forbes is interviewing me and literally in the Greek , it says this guy wrote the book on mental toughness , I mean .

And then you're in Australia doing the Today Extra show , when I had the parenting book out , and all of a sudden you find yourself Like it's not marketing , it's not like a shtick , it's just that you dig this deep well of professional skill knowledge and it and mine , it was neuroscience and psychology , biopsychology , performance science .

How does it all you know and and it does mix with theology ? Because

theology is the study of God and psychology is the study of the soul . So there's a lot of crossover there .

I mean , first of all , thank you for sharing that , and I think there are many of those things that people would say they try and they don't have the time to do it , and it's so , so hard to respond with grace to that and ask them where they want to be in the future , but to give them the truth that they need to hear , that they need to become that

disciplined and I've had to change many different ways inside of that . You mentioned the neuropsychology side as well and it's like again , you've gone from this kid who was overweight , bullied in high school to signing up for the Marines , you know , to the special , what we call special forces , or into the police .

Yeah , Like , where did the desire , where did the interest for you know the neuropsychology side of it come in and then you made a decision to do that it's kind of always been my obsession , but I really were , I really so the marine corps , I got my physical cylinder under control right .

So I would come home and I would talk to her in the same tone of voice , I would talk to my marines and my infantry right . she's like listen , I'm not one of your marines and if you want to stay with me , you better get that squared away . I got a cast iron frying pan and I'll use it and you have to sleep sometime .

And I she's five , three and 110 soaking wet and I thought she was serious . You know I'm like , oh my gosh , I think she's serious . So my target went , uh , suddenly became how do I have a great relationship with my wife ? You know what I mean ? Like I don't want my target isn't to be right here . I want to be , you know , have a great relationship .

So it kind of started me on the path . I kind of credited her for for because I was like I wanted to be with her more than I wanted to be angry Does that matter ? Or I wanted to be lazy .

And here I don't say like the , the wisdom trail , the , the yellow brick road trail , the revelation , knowledge or understanding . It's progressive . You can't a lot of people be like , just give me the one , two minute tip to get inner armor . I'm like you're asking for like a Zempic shot to be like mentally , you know , armored up .

It's there's nothing like that man . There's just no you know , so . So I I got that . You know , I'm like I can't be angry all the time I want to . So I started working on that cylinder , right . So harmonious relationships . And then , you know , your thoughts are kind of going crazy .

I'm like , you know , there's times where I still have this emotional outbreaks . I don't like that . They're , you know , making emotional decisions . I don't have a process how I think my thoughts . So I thought , listen , I have a process for marksmanship , right , there's a process to swing in a golf club , there's a process to drive in the car .

I should have a process for thinking my thoughts . So I came up with this you know , ordered process . I have a four-step process to think every thought , and that's in the back of the book . I gave it as an appendix , you know , because it's kind of a deeper , deeper teaching . It's not really tacked but it's good . So it's a critical thinking , thought process .

I think every thought through this process . And so I could get my mental you know cylinder going . And once I got that , see , I'm doing these one at a time and I'll tell you my spiritual cylinder got done when I was six years old , right , and then 12 , six , I got born again 12, .

I decided the word of God's my highest authority , so that that one's taken care of . I know who I am in Christ and spiritual good right . So once you get that done , then I worked on physical . When I got physical done I yeah , I went to social because I was trying to do social without having the underlying .

I'm trying to do tactically have harmonious relationships . Fighting my inner , you know , dialogue Does that make sense ? So , I'm going to get my my mental done . After my mental , I thought , you know , I'm , I'm , I'm getting older .

These are taking a couple of years every time , you know , and I wrote down how , each one , at what age I was one time and there's literally like almost like a four or five year span where you become , where you have mastery of the cylinder and you got to work on that cylinder , you get , you know , you're trying to work on all of them at the same time .

You're , you're , you're just not , you're just splitting your focus Right . So I want to build on each other . A lot of people just want to go straight to financial If I get my financial cylinder right . But I'm telling you that's a disaster because if you don't fix the other ones , the financial ain't going to help you .

It just makes you more of what you already are . So we got that and then I got my mental done . I got the emotional done , which was very difficult . The emotional one is very hard to master . It just takes a lot of work .

I mean , you literally have to speak to yourself out loud and get your body on board with this right , because your mind and your emotions will never agree . They just don't . They're like the State Department and the Department of Defense , right . They have different missions , right ? So they're not going to agree .

So you've got to get your body as a swing boat to get on board or not , right ? So that's why I say you have to dominate your flesh . Well , we already know that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak . That means it doesn't mean that flesh is the easiest part to dominate . This is what cracks me up in Christianity .

Right , with the flesh , your body is the easiest one to dominate . And we got all these , you know , frat preachers and people were out of shape and they're like , the last time you dominated your body was when you learned how to get potty trained man , you know what I mean . Like .

So you gotta , like it dominates your body so that you could renew your mind . Right , your body's your problem , you know ? Oh , I'll just . Could you pray that I lose weight ? No , no , stop eating twinkies , man , I love you . Stop eating twinkies , right , you know .

So you just kind of get work through that process and that's kind of the journey I took and I my the final cylinder . I left the final cylinder to be last was the financial , because I mean the final cylinder . I left the final cylinder to be last was the financial , because if you're not , I mean the financial is really . I'll say it like this .

I said it like this in the book If every dollar has a motion and a weight to it , there's no stability in your life .

I spent $50,000 on coaching from some of the best financial dudes that tell me how does the financing system work ? Not investing , I don't care about it . What are the rules of banking ? How does that work ? On the interest and the charges , they taught me how to move the money . I raised my kids on $45,000 a year . You know what I mean when I'm starting .

I mean I have three kids and they're in high school and they're like how do we do this ? I'm like well , a lot of it is . I'm using the system to help us instead of hurt us . But again , who wants to ? Are you studying that ? Are you just complaining that ? The evil football guys ? You want to play football . Learn the rules , you know .

You know they're not evil , that's just the game , right . So that's kind of the process that I went through . Does that ? Does that answer your ?

But the you know , the message that I'm hearing is that , of those eight cylinders that you're talking about , you use the term balance , but if those eight cylinders are not firing in unison in some way , shape or form , you're going to have problems , much like you're going to have with that tire .

You're going to have problems and you're not going to have the horsepower that you need . I love the fact that even the eighth cylinder , if you will , of finance can be the fuel to the other seven , the capacity that you have to make those things happen .

But , lastly , what I heard is that each one of those requires a certain level of discipline , that you need to make a choice of what you want inside that space and then carry out that plan to make it happen , each one of those . That it doesn't happen through serendipity , it doesn't happen accidentally , it doesn't happen without purpose .

In fact , it only happens on purpose . Often , things that I talk about and understanding again , going all the way back to the start , understanding from that affirmative who I am and who do . I aspire to be all part of that and going through those things , so I'd love that to bring it all together . So you've you've written four books Now .

This one just came out a couple of months ago .

And then I have the three I call the Mental Toughness of the Resilience book . I have the Ground Zero Leadership , which is the original flagship corporate coaching manual , seven Secrets of Resilience for Parents . And then I have Inner Armor . Then on the theology side I have one called Covenant for Rookies and that explains—that was my dissertation for my PhD .

It's about the nine-step covenant process that God started with Abraham and finished with Jesus . So if you have any questions , why do we do bread and wine on communion ? Why did Jesus have to die on a cross ? Why was the virgin birth important ? Why did God ask Isaac to be sacrificed ? Why ? I always had one of those questions growing up . No one could answer .

They just look at me like what it just takes . Faith , young man , don't question . I don't think that's how that works , but that's what that book is . Then the next one I wrote was called Righteousness , god's Equity . And so a lot of people they don't know this , but my dad was a Greek scholar , so he was teaching me Greek when I was 13 .

And that the Bible , the Koine Greek , was actually a business language , kind of like English . International English is a business language . The only thing they could find that stuff written on now is invoices and contracts . Right , so it's a bit so . Righteousness is literally

the word equity , but we've , and so we don't even know what righteousness is . We think it's like a behavior thing , but it's equity . So it talks about . There's equity as in you have equity in an asset in your house , and there's also a whole area of law , a court of equity , and that's how God hands down his judgments .

And I take you through the scriptures , very simple , about how judgments get handed down . So when you're under the Ten Commandments that's the law Satan is the prosecuting attorney in a court of law and you're always going to lose in a court of law against the prosecutor .

Jesus is your defense attorney in the court of equity and you always win because you just say well , what Jesus did , that's what Jesus did . So that book explains that , and then the one I just had . It also just kind of came out the same time as Inner Armor , it was called Back to Basics Good and Evil .

And I went all the way back to the Garden of Eden , the first time that good and evil show up in the Bible . There's the Hebrew words have 15 components of each , and we explain what evil actually is and what good is . And it blow your mind . It's revolutionary how we call evil good and good evil , I mean . And yeah , like here's the first fifth .

I'll just give you some of the evil list . The first one is like adversity . That's literally the first thing . Think about this , before Adam and Eve ate the fruit salad . They only knew good , they only knew beauty , they only knew bounty , they only knew better . As soon as they ate , that all they had was adversity . They had affliction or sickness .

They had worry , anxiety , and worry is , and fear is literally on the evil list . So you know you're like , well , I'm just worried about you . You got to be careful . You know you were literally we're on the evil list . And then you know we find in Psalms that it says that the face of the Lord is against those who do evil .

So you could even be born again , gone to heaven , but doing evil by calamity and affliction and sorrow and despondency and anxiety , and that's why you can't win in life , because that's what you're doing . God can't help you because you're going around behind his back , right ? So that's what that book is . It kind of helps people . So it's kind of a two-prong .

There's still that mental toughness , inner armor with all of my writings , but that's what we got out there right now , man .

Andrew , where is the best place for folks to connect with you and or learn more about you ? You write , but you also speak . You're an executive coach .

You guys that are listeners . So it's getwarriortough like a warrior , right Inner armor warrior .

But I'm going to give you this billboard . You can put it anywhere you want to . What's the message you're going to put on that billboard and why do you put that message there , Ride ?

I'm going to give maximum effort in everything I do . Shoot straight is about skill . I'm going to be skillful when I'm trying to hit my target . I'm going to acquire my target . I'm going to be skillful in hitting my target and , of course , never lie . Don't lie to yourself .

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to improve , but it also helps others discover the podcast and join our growing community of uncommon leaders . Until next time , go and grow champions .