#92 Dave Braun - Life Coach & Co-founder of Oola

Dr. Dave Braun is the co-founder and president of Oola. With a deep-rooted commitment to empowering individuals to find balance and transform their lives, Dr. Dave Braun has spent over a decade guiding people towards holistic well-being. As President, he plays a pivotal role in shaping Oola’s strategic direction, leading the team in creating science-based products and transformative programs that promote life balance.

Connect with David Braun:
-Website: https://lnkd.in/eBwfVBK9  

🫡 My Why: I’ve seen the cost of poor leadership — how it can destroy morale, break trust, and in the worst cases, lead to lives lost, including through suicide. That’s why I’ve committed my life to helping others lead with purpose. Through Tales of Leadership, I share real stories and actionable insights on how to overcome adversity and become the kind of leader people remember for the right reasons.

👉🏽Leadership Resources: https://linktr.ee/talesofleadership

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Tells the Leadership podcast
.
This podcast is for leaders atany phase on their leadership
journey to become a morepurposeful and accountable
leader what I like to call a pal.
Join me on our journey togethertowards transformational
leadership.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
All right team.
Welcome back to the Tells theLeadership podcast.
I am your host, josh McMillian.
I'm an active duty Army officer, I'm an Army leadership coach
and I am the founder ofMcMillian Leadership Coaching,
and I am on a mission to createa better leader and to grow and
become a better leader what Ilike to call a purposeful,

(00:41):
accountable leader and my visionis clear I want to impact 1
million lives in the next 10years by promoting
transformational stories andskills, and on today's episode,
we are in for a great one.
I am going to be bringing on atransformational leader Bottom
line.
Dr David Braun is a purposeful,accountable leader.

(01:02):
He is the co-founder and thepresident of ULA, with a deep
rooted commitment to empoweringindividuals to find balance and
transform their lives.
Dr David Braun has spent over adecade guiding people towards
holistic well-being.
As the president, he plays apivotal role in shaping the
companyLA as strategic decisionsand leading the team in

(01:26):
creative, science-based productsand transforming programs that
promote life balance.
I'm really excited because thisis one of the turning points
within my life that set me onthe path to being a
transformational servant leader,and Dr Braun's story is just
absolutely incredible and, asalways, team stay at the very

(01:49):
end and I'll provide you the topthree takeaways, but let's go
ahead and bring on Dr DavidBraun.
Dave, welcome to the Tells theLeadership podcast, brother.
How are you doing?
Awesome man.
Thanks for having me, brother.
Yeah, so I'm always humbled tohave the opportunity to talk to
someone, especially someonewho's kind of had a very unique

(02:11):
journey.
And I know you from the past,just getting involved with your
company, ula, so I know that youhave a deep purpose.
I read through your book, ula,how to Find Balance in an
Unbalanced World, and it'ssomething that I've used
personally being in the military, to kind of help me get through
some dark times and buildbalance in my life.
So I'm excited just to pickyour brain for an hour.

(02:32):
I got you for an hour, so we'regoing to dive deep into it.

Speaker 3 (02:36):
Yeah, dude, I can.
The one thing I want to say,man, is when you reach out to me
super honored to be on thepodcast, but I started checking
you out.
I've known you from the past,but I started checking you out,
Super proud of you, what you'redoing with this podcast you have
great episodes on here, man,about anybody who's working on
being a leader.
Every time at the gym, man,you've been in my ear lately.
I appreciate you and whatyou're doing in the world as
well.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Dude, I love that.
That kind of makes my day.
Thank you, let's just start offfrom just provide an overview
to the listeners of who you are.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, I actually started.
I mean, if I go way back towhere the journey began in 1997,
I met a guy named Dr TroyAmdahl.
He's a coauthor of the book andhe's the one who first really
started teaching me about livingmy life differently and living
my life by balancing my life inseven key areas.
And when I did that in my earlyor late twenties, early thirts,
I found a lot of success.
Dr Troy moved overseas to theMiddle East.

(03:27):
I lost connection with him.
I drifted from these principlesabout balancing my life in seven
key areas 2007, 2008,.
I found myself living in amotel on the bad side of town,
going through a bankruptcy,divorce, losing everything my
business, everything and, priorto this, being very successful
in all areas of my life.
And I reached out to Dr Troy hewas 42 and retired at the time

(03:49):
and married to his high schoolsweetheart, running Ironman,
like living his life and I'mliving in a motel on the bad
side of town.
And he said you have to getback to these principles of ULA.
And I said if I get back tothese principles and they work,
like, this is like a prayer forme.
I'm like man.
If this works for me, god,we're going to share this with
the world and 2012,.
Life is Better.
I wrote the first book with DrTroy thinking it would sell

(04:10):
about 50 copies, and it justtook off and got a publishing
deal.
A couple of years after weself-published.
We sold 100,000 books, I think,just self-published and then it
went to a publisher.
Three books later, a millionpeople following ULA.
Now we drive a 1970s weed busVita bus across the country.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
That's what we do for a job.
It's crazy man and you haveprobably seven.
How many layers of stickers doyou have on that bus?
What do you guess?
What do you guess?
I would say seven, just becauseI know that seven's like that
number within ULA.
So that's my guess.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Yeah, it's just kind of for the listeners to
understand this is.
Ula is about balancing life inseven key areas fitness, finance
, family field, faith, friendsand fun.
We have this event called ULAPalooza, where people declare
their goals in these seven areas, but then they pick one area
like man, my family, life needswork, or my fitness, or whatever
it is and they write it on asticker and declare it.
Well, Troy had this idea ofgrabbing a 1970s VW bus and

(05:03):
driving it literally across thecountry to every book, signing
TV, radio, whatever.
And we're going to let peoplewrite on a sticker what they're
going to change in life, lose ahundred pounds, get out of this
toxic marriage or heal mymarriage, whatever.
Put on the side of that bus andthese little stickers.
It took us a long time to coverup one layer, but right now
it's 43 layers, bud, 43 layers.
You can barely open the doors.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
So that is incredible layers.
Yeah, so it's.
It's basically scratch proof.
At this point you can marketthat, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Whenever we go to like a big event, we just say
we're getting another coat ofpaint, you know.
So it's incredible.
It's a beautiful looking bus.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
So one question with a stickers, cause I'm just
curious is there one that is onthere that just sticks out that
is more impactful than the rest?

Speaker 3 (05:48):
From a standpoint of the categories, uh, by far the
most.
The majority of stickers on thebus are fitness and finance.
That's what people arestruggling with the most,
probably followed up by family.
Um, but man, there's been someimpactful stickers on that bus,
one of the one of the stories Ithis is where it got real for us
.
So Troy's retired.
We write the book together.

(06:10):
He wants to stay in retirement.
The book takes off.
I beg him to come out ofretirement.
He comes out of retirement andwe decide we're just going to go
on this epic two-dude journey.
It's called One Bus, two Guys,50 States, a Million Dreams and
the first trip, the first tour.
We start in Coronado Island, inSan Diego, and we take our two

(06:30):
boys with us and we're justdriving up the PCH.
We're going to go from CoronadoIsland to San Francisco.
It was the first tour and westarted collecting dreams.
At donut shops and coffee shopsand parks and wherever we were
we collected dreams.
People come up up to the busall the time Like what is this?
And we're like, hey, we'recollecting dreams.
You're designed for greatness.
You're designed by God for thisamazing thing in life, like

(06:51):
what is holding you back?
And people will say, like youknow, whatever it is.
And we were driving up the PCHand the ocean was out the
left-hand side of the bus andour boys were getting antsy
after about five, six hours ofjust no air, no heat, 50 miles
an hour up the PCH, and theywanted to go swimming.
So it was sunset.
We pulled over into this park.
It was amazing and our boyswent out and they jumped into

(07:14):
the ocean and we're just hangingout and we noticed this couple
husband, wife, two kids takingpictures with a professional
photographer on the beach rightat sunset, like gorgeous waves
coming in Pacific ocean.
The background is incredible.
And they came up to the bus andthey're obviously like what
everybody says, like what areyou guys doing at this point?
You know, it looked like achicken pox, like stickers all
over first layer, and we saidwe're just collecting dreams.

(07:35):
You know, across the country,we're going to go across the
country, we just started andwe're just going to collect
people's dreams and reconnectthem with that dream that they
had for their life.
And they all grabbed theirstickers and they all wrote
their stickers.
She grabbed a family sticker.
She went to the back of the bus, put the sticker on, came
around, took a picture with us,said thank you, you know, high
five, all that stuff.
Kids got their dreams on thebus and then, as soon as they

(07:58):
left, what we did is we went tothe back of the bus to read the
stickers.
Like we want to know we're soearly in the process, like what
are people's dreams?
So went to the back of the busand she had a family sticker and
she wrote to survive stage fourcancer, long enough to see my
daughters become women, wow.
And that to me was the firstmoment the tour got real.
And it was real early firsttour where it's like, okay,

(08:19):
we're going to go across thecountry, we're going to see
stuff, we're going to hear stuffand it's going to be, it's
going to.
It's the most impactful thingsomeone could ever do is just
slow down, talk to people abouttheir dreams and goals and just
say you're designed forgreatness, what do you want to
do with your life?
And, josh, it's just been storyafter story after story after
story, and one of the one of thecool parts for me is literally

(08:44):
about that, I think.
The next day we were close toSan Francisco and we met a guy
at a gas station.
He goes what are you guys doing?
He has he had a Yankee hat onbackwards.
Just as big buff dude.
He's like what are you guysdoing?
You know, he's like this bigguy.
And we're like, hey, we'recollecting dreams, and what's
your dream?
And he grabbed a.
And then we drove off and all ofa sudden we saw this pickup
truck just like barreling downbehind us, honking, flashing his

(09:05):
lights.
We're like, okay, we're goingto get murdered.
We pull over.
And this guy pulls up with histruck.
He comes out, same Yankee hatguy.
I'm like, oh, I remember thisguy from the gas station.
He comes up and he said, hey,can I change my dream?
I'm like, yeah, and he grabbeda family, a better dad for my
daughter, and he was crying whenhe wrote it.
And I'm like that is what thisis about.
You know, we, we have this.

(09:27):
You know this superficial layerof life and when we get deep on
what we really want for ourdreams, it really that bus has a
tendency to just bring that outof people.
I said, hey, I'm going to dosomething significant with my
life.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
I remember reading through your book and your
nephew his name was Jared I wantto make sure I don't get that
wrong Was it Jared?
Yep, I remember reading thatand then how you talked of being
grateful and and having faithlike the true definition of of
being grateful and having faith.
And, like you know, I'm in themilitary.
I've been in the combat armsmost of my life.

(10:00):
I work within a SOCOM unitright now, so it gets about as
alpha as it can get right.
When I was in company command, Ilost two soldiers.
Both were to like preventablesituations in my eyes, something
that I could have prevented,and I thought I was cursed
throughout that entire time.
This is before I kind of knewULA, and then I started reading

(10:21):
your book and then, when I gotto that chapter dude, I just
like broke down.
And then I started reading yourbook and then, when I got to
that chapter dude, I just likebroke down and I really started
thinking about being gratefuland having faith.
Okay, well, if I'm going to dothat, then I need to go to some
of my darkest memories andfigure out how I can be grateful
and have faith in that time andthat allowed me to really be
full transparency.

(10:42):
Dude like, get my mission thatI'm on now of trying to impact 1
million leaders by showing themhey, you can use
transformational skills and youcan be a great leader and you
can inspire others to be a moreauthentic version of themselves
and have balance in your lifedoing so.
It really started at thatmoment Like that was the moment
for me where I was able to shiftmy mindset of stop hunting the

(11:05):
bad and start looking for thegood.
When I asked that rightquestion of like how can I be
grateful and how can I havefaith in a terrible time?
So I want to say thank you forthat yeah, bro, um, that means a
lot.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
I don't want to get, I don't want to get emotional in
the first 10 minutes of thisshow, but also like just looking
at you and behind you seeingthe ax and the warrior helmets
and all that, like that wasJared.
That was my nephew Jared.
He was 16 and I know he was ayoung boy, but he was a, he was
a warrior.
I mean, he was six, six footshredded football player.
He was going to go play collegeball.
He was a stud.

(11:38):
I mean he was a man.
He grew up on a farm, huntedelk.
I mean, like you know, we grewup, we grew up on a farm and and
he was just, he was just a studdude and at 16 years old gets
diagnosed with bone cancer and,long story short, passes away at
18 when all of his buddies wereplaying college ball.
He's at the hospital dyingafter two years of struggling
with cancer is.

(12:00):
We found a letter that he wrotewhen he pretty much knew that he
was going to pass away and inthat letter he wrote I'm
grateful that God chose me forcancer, not my mom and dad.
I'm grateful that God chose mefor cancer and not my brothers
or my sister.
I'm grateful that God chose mefor cancer, not my cousins,
which are my kids.
And then he said I'm gratefulthat God chose me for cancer to

(12:20):
teach others how to be strong.
And I'm like man, if an 18 yearold kid can literally be going
through I mean at 18, if I hadto miss a football game, I'd
have been devastated, or awrestling match or something
devastated.
He missed two years of schoolpretty much, and he knew he was
losing his life.
And he said I'm grateful, man,because I got to teach people
how to be strong while my timeon this planet and uh, and I'm

(12:43):
I'm so honored I get to carryhis story forward in the first
book.
And then obviously it's, wewrote it in the first book and
it just became part of ULA thateverybody, everybody who follows
ULA, knows that story, um, andwe've been able to have his
legacy live on through that bookand it's an incredible story.
But you're so right, man, andwe just go through some tough
stuff and we try to bury it alot, and how we teach ULA is, or

(13:07):
how we teach gratitude is.
You know what happens in your,what happened for you, josh,
isn't right, I mean, it's wrong,it's not good, it's not great,
but there's lessons in it.
How can you be grateful forwhat you learned in it?
And that's really what getspeople to kind of turn the
corner with that.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Yeah, no spot on is being able to look into that and
then find the lessons that youcan take and just move forward
with so kind of starting off onyour leadership journey.
I know you have a medicalbackground.
That's how you worked with Troywhen you first started learning
this ULA framework.
What were some of thechallenges that you came up

(13:42):
against?
Like all right, so this dudeobviously has this stuff
together.
Troy, how am I going to takethis framework and apply it to
my life?
It's like I will kind of gofrom the mindset of like this
isn't going to work for me.
What was your mindset of howyou started to adapt and use
that framework and then how?
How did it change your life?

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah, I was bought in super quick because I knew Troy
for two years.
So I worked with Troy for twoyears while I was going through
my residency year and a halfgoing through my residency
program with him, and he invitedme to Vegas after my graduation
, got my doctorate degree and heinvites me to Vegas and I'm
thinking we're going to gocelebrate my degree and I found
myself sitting on the floor atthe hard rock hotel for three

(14:21):
days literally working on goalsetting.
I thought this is the weirdestthing ever.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
Three by five note cards and they were in seven
stacks and it was like seven keyareas of life.
I love it.
And Troy told me on the taxiride over.
He said dude, you are going tocrush business and money.
You're wired to be a workerlike farm kid, like you're going
to do that, but you can't makemoney, build a business and lose
your family and get out ofshape and not take care of your

(14:48):
mind and your body and lose yourfaith, walk all of that.
So he said what we're going todo.
There's a group of guys.
We hang out every year at thebeginning of December and we
hang out at the hard rock inVegas and we literally sit down
and we say where are we in theseseven key areas?
Where are we going to go?
And then, how are we going?

(15:09):
These seven key areas, whereare we gonna go?
And then how are we gonna getthere?
We hold each other accountableand that to me, I was bought in
from day one.
So I think for some people it'sa little harder to look at life
in these seven key areas for thefirst time.
But I started looking at mylife like that from day one and
I was no, looking back, and I, Iwas successful in all seven
areas really quick, within acouple years.
I was like, wow, I can'tbelieve this is my life, yeah.
And then I got.
I just straight up, like justto be super transparent, I just
got cocky with it like unhumble,uh, had dough, had big house

(15:32):
cars or whatever, and I wayoverextended myself.
Troy moved overseas at the time.
I completely lost touch withhim as a buddy.
Um, and the other three guysactually moved over to united
arab emirates and I was bymyself and I'm like, yeah, who
cares?
I mean, I got this man, I got ayou know crush of my career,
big house, all that stuff, and II just lost it over.

(15:52):
You know, by 2007, 2008, I wasliving in motel on the bad side
of town, type of story, likecountry music song and uh, yeah,
it's just once you.
It's just really truly what Ilook back, if I could say one,
it's just living with completeintention and complete
self-awareness of exactly whereyou want your life to go and how
you're going to make thathappen.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
The one word that I really heard there that has
helped me so much isaccountability.
You have that group of men thatyou go in a Hard Rock Hotel
hotel and you probably stillhave that inner accountability
section of people that keep youintentional towards your dreams.
And I have a group of of men,like-minded individuals, that I

(16:33):
meet with.
They're all military activeduty still every other Sunday
and we go through literally thisframework.
We call ourselves shields offreedom, but we go through this
type of of framework and one ofmy homework assignments was
breaking down these seven areasof life.
But what does it mean to uslike in terms of affirmation?
What does finance truly mean tome?

(16:53):
What does family truly mean tome?
And and when you have thatgroup that keeps you accountable
, you, I think you have thatintrinsic motivation.
It's hard to do this on your ownunless you are are a Jocko
Wellington right and just havethat extreme level of discipline
.
But I think that that was atleast just hearing your story
and knowing it through me.
That's what really helps mekeep this framework with

(17:16):
intention, because one of themetaphors that you use and that
I absolutely love is the conceptof spinning plates, of that
maybe one area of your life isin perfect balance but another
area of your life will just sayyour family is not.
You may be crushing it in yourfield, and this has happened to
me before but your family's justcompletely off kilter.

(17:38):
You need to switch from thatseason of life to this season of
life and be intentional with it, and if you have an
accountability group that cankind of help you realize that
you can see those blind spotsbefore they turn into a blocker.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
I think.
I think that's so key man, Ithink you know you take Jocko or
Goggins, or who doesn't wantthat discipline, that integrity
itself, I think and I think wehave that in certain areas of
life.
Like there's no one that'sgoing to say Goggins doesn't
have integrity with his fitnessor being able to push through
pain to get his workouts in, butthen you have to say, like in
ULA, we say that's great, butbut you have to be integrity in

(18:14):
all seven areas.
And that's where I think youneed a team, because we're
naturally driven Every singleperson is naturally driven to do
something crush fitness, workon our faith, work on our family
life, hang out with buddies,crush a business, whatever.
But it's really rare.
I personally haven't metanybody that can do all seven
areas, spin all seven plates,like you're talking about,

(18:35):
without a team that can guidethem, without a team that can
say hey, man, you're doing greatin your business, but you're
getting a little soft.
Man, you got to hit the gym.
Or man, you're working in thegym, but are you spending time
with your family or with yourfaith walk, or are you having
fun in life, or and that's whereI think the accountability is
key.
So in ULA we talk aboutintegrity and discipline.
Those are, those are straightup what are called ULA

(18:56):
accelerators.
They're going to get you beingintegrity with yourself,
integrity with others, being indiscipline of your goals and
dreams, but then having anaccountability team really helps
you keep on track.
So we have a group of guys sameway, and I'm coming up on 2024
here.
So we're going to be like hey,here are my dreams, here's my
goals for 2024.
And they're going to hold meaccountable.
Man, they're going to, they'regoing to trust me, they're going

(19:18):
to hold me accountable to makesure that happens.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
I love that, and you kind of mentioned something ULA
Accelerator.
So let's, let's dive into thatbad boy.
So love, gratitude, discipline,integrity, passion, humility
and wisdom.
How did you, when you weregoing through this framework,
pick those out and beintentional with, with those
seven?

Speaker 3 (19:42):
It was.
It was actually like so if yougo 1997, Troy and I are working
as a group of guys, working onbalancing our life in these
seven key areas.
It was always just guys hangingout I mean, when you hang out
with your buddies, right, You'rejust talking about different
things and there would be yearswe would struggle.
There would be years we wouldwin, we would hit.
You know, we hit.
We set three goals in all sevenareas.
That's 21 goals.

(20:02):
That's a lot of big goals andwe would hit 19.
Next year we'd hit seven.
And as a group of guys, we juststarted talking about why, Like,
why did you hit 19?
Well, I had serious disciplineand I was in full integrity.
Why did you not hit them?
Well, I ran into fear.
Or I'm struggling with guiltfor my divorce or, um, you know,

(20:24):
guilt of something that youwent through in the past.
Or I'm struggling with straightup flip.
I was lazy dude.
I'm struggling with laziness,that's my whole thing and that's
a blocker.
So it was just stuff we hadtalked about forever.
And then, when we sat down towrite the book in 2012, uh, we
just really laid it out Like,what are the seven most common
blockers we've all talked aboutand what are the seven most
common blockers we've all talkedabout.

(20:44):
And what are the seven mostcommon accelerators.

Speaker 2 (20:46):
And that's how that all came about.
And those bins, I think, arebeautifully categorized.
Love is something that, at theessence of how I lead, love is
the fundamental bedrock.
So I define it kind of reallyas meekness, because I believe
being a strong leader also meansthat you have to learn to
control your emotions, how youcommunicate, how you actively

(21:10):
listen towards other people.
But at the end of the day, it'sall about love loving the
people that you work for, lovingyourself, loving the
organization and then justloving the mission.
And that was the one thatalways kind of sticks with me.
But I'll ask you which one islike, your strength?
What's your top acceleratorthat you kind of always kind of
go back to?

Speaker 3 (21:30):
Yeah, I'm gratitude all the way.
Um, I love love is great.
Um, I talk about that inside mylike family, with my kids and
stuff.
A lot like love and kindness.
Man, that's what we're going toleave on this planet as a
family.
Like we are going to leave alegacy of love and kindness
because I think we need to bekind to people and love people
and love ourselves.
Um, but gratitude a little bitbecause of jared and also a

(21:51):
little bit because the oppositeof gratitude is complaining, and
nothing drives me more crazythan people complaining,
especially like, dude, you know,like you're in the service man,
so like what you've done for usthat aren't is just incredible.
Like I don't think peopleunderstand.
I've been able to travel withula around the world like
multiple countries, and what wehave in the us is just

(22:11):
absolutely insane from astandpoint of like I can get up
in the morning and do whatever Iwant to do and I'm in complete
control of my life.
So there there should be, thereshould be zero complaining, um,
in in most parts of the world,but there should be zero
complaining here because it'slike, if you go human history
from the first human that walkedthis planet until maybe about

(22:32):
40 years ago.
You're just trying to find foodand you're trying to stay warm
at night and just surviving.
That's been the whole millionyears of evolution.
And it's like we legit complainif our latte is not quite right
or, you know, if it's a littletoo hot or cold outside.
It's just absolutely absurd.

(22:53):
So that's probably my thing isjust being grateful for all
things and just reallyunderstanding the blessings that
we have, because it isabsolutely insane, the blessings
that we have and how we get tolive our lives.
It's absolutely incredible.
And you can be, you're going tobe challenged, I'm going to be
challenged.
I've had tons of challenges andmy nephew had cancer at 16, 18,
17, 18.

(23:13):
And he goes.
I can still be grateful for thelessons.
So I'm all about that one man.
And if you're grateful foreverything, you quit complaining
, man.
You can go a long way in life.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
I love that mindset is that challenge Life is is
really an adventure.
It's a journey.
It's never ending and the onething that is always guaranteed
is life is going to give youobstacles.
And in the military we defineobstacles in four ways.
So it can either block you, itcan turn you, it can either fix
you or disrupt you.
But I've always viewedobstacles as an opportunity to

(23:45):
get better, to forge me into abetter version of myself.
So every obstacle I come on,I'm going to be a better version
of myself and then I'm going togo inspire other people.
And I always talk about like asledgehammer mindset Whenever
life gives me a challenge, I'mjust going to bust through that
obstacle and then allow otherpeople to go through the breach
with me.
But I love that mindset.

Speaker 3 (24:06):
There's.
There's a great book you shouldread.
I don't know if you read it,but obstacle is the way.
Have you heard of that book?
I have, and that's what I thinkit's called the obstacle is the
way, or I think it's called theobstacle is the way.
It's a great book.
I read it a long time ago.
But it's exactly that I.
We hit those walls and we turnaround.
but man, those are, those areusually right on the other side
of that is the greatestopportunity, you know just break

(24:27):
through that that's, that'swhat God's leading you to hit
that wall, and if you canovercome it, you've earned it
Like, then you go to the nextlevel.
So I couldn't agree with youmore.

Speaker 2 (24:36):
I remember going through your framework.
You talk about that 60 secondsof courage, no-transcript

(25:13):
anymore.
I'm gonna use a bad word Shutup bond.
I can go just a little.
A little bit further and Iwondered if you could walk me
through the the.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
ULA blockers.
Well, I wish you would havebeen there this morning.
My cold plunge, because I was acomplete baby in my mind, man
and I was just.
I was like, suck it up, man,suck it up, push through.
I hate that thing.
Um, but I, when I get out ofthat cold plunge in the morning,
I'm always like, all right, ifI can do that for three minutes,
I can do anything, because it'shorrible.

(25:43):
But what you're talking aboutis the blockers.
So there's accelerators.
So you say this is where I amin my life, this is where I want
to go in the seven key areas,and then I'm going to run into
blockers and I can embraceaccelerators, accelerators,
guides who love passion, wisdom,integrity.

(26:05):
But, you're going to run intoblockers fear, guilt, anger,
self-sabotage, laziness, envyand focus issues and everybody
runs into those and what the?
What the courage is is reallyjust it's a three-step process
that you can do really quickly.
It's acknowledging that I'mrunning into fear or I'm running
into laziness, or I'm runninginto self-sabotage or focus
issues.
It's setting its and it'scalled ready, set, go.
And it's setting it in itsplace of just saying, okay, if I

(26:25):
give into this fear, what doesmy life look like on the other
end of this?
But if I break through this fearand I jump on live or I jump on
this podcast or I jump on stageor I ask that girl out or
whatever it is, if I breakthrough that, what does my life
potentially look like on theother side?
And it's just having that crazylevel of courage to do that and
it's a great tool just ready,set, go.

(26:47):
So anytime you run into likeanything that's holding you back
from your goals or dreams,you're like ready, set, go ready
.
Just call it out, set, set inits place, set this blocker in
its place, look at it and saywhat does it look like if I
break through, what does it looklike if I give in and then just
go make it happen, and it helpsso much just to take that
action.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
I have to ask that that cold plunges that you do
what, uh what?
What do you jump into?
Is it just like a bucket thatyou got full of ice, or do you
got like one of those fancy onesthat you can set?

Speaker 3 (27:18):
No, I actually last year, um, I got a, just a
straight up tub, uh, like a cow,a cow tank, right, yeah, metal
cow tank.
Metal and ice in the winter isnot great.
I live in Boise, Idaho.
I live in the foothills.
It's beautiful up here andright around December I take it
out and I cold plunge untilabout March, april.
And last year I said, okay, ifI do this every day that I can,

(27:42):
while it's cold outside, for twoyears I'm going to buy the
fancy tub.
But I didn't want to buy afancy tub and then never use it.
So I got like a little I don'tknow $300 tub and it's a it's a
metal calf tank really.
And I just I committed lastyear to 90 days, um, and I never
missed a day that I wasn't home.
And, uh, I just started twodays ago and I hate every minute

(28:03):
of it, but I do get used to itafter a while.
And I think there's a couple ofthings.
Obviously there's tons ofphysical benefit, right, the
inflammatory effects, all thatstuff.
You know it's great, but to meit's a mindset thing.
It's an endorphin release, forsure, but it's also, if I can
force myself, break ice,literally go out and break ice
with a hammer, force myself tosit For three minutes.

(28:29):
When I get out, I'm likethere's nothing that I can't get
through today, you know.
It's just like let's do this.

Speaker 2 (28:35):
I've been wanting to get one of those tubs and start
doing the cold plunge, justbecause where I'm getting up
there in my military age, likeI'm 37, but I feel like I'm 63.
Just about injuries that I have.
But I keep going like, nah,we're going to wait, I'm going
to get that tub.
But I keep going like, nah,we're going to wait, I'm going
to get that tub.
So I'm going to take this as asign that for Christmas I'm

(28:57):
going to make sure that I buymyself a tub and I'm going to
actually start doing that.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, where do you live again?

Speaker 2 (29:03):
I live around the DC area Fort Belvoir is where we're
stationed right now.
It gets cold enough.
There right, it was 27 degreesthis morning.

Speaker 3 (29:17):
You're great, you're gonna love it.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Man, don't wait for christmas get it now and then
send me a picture.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
I want to see you in that tub.
Okay, start with one.
Start with one minute for aweek and then go to two minutes
and just just suck it up and gothree minutes every day and it
never gets comfortable.

Speaker 2 (29:27):
It's always uncomfortable, but you feel
amazing afterwards you.

Speaker 3 (29:31):
You feel incredible.
After the first minute isterrible.
Every time the second minute itstarts getting better.
Your body builds up a littlebit of a warm layer around it.
I mean it's still notcomfortable, but it's a mind
game.
Man, you got to breathe.
Don't get in there and be likeall alike.
It's so.
It's so interesting how it's somuch like life because you
can't get in there and panic andright away your body wants to

(29:53):
panic and it wants to breathereally fast and it wants you to
get out.
So it just makes your mind takeover your body and just breathe
and relax.
It's just not that bad once youget into it, but the first
minute's hard.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
That is an absolute nugget, right, there is that a
lot of the times that we getanxious or very stressed out and
our mind is just absolutelyracing, we don't act with
intention.
And I think an ice bath that isa beautiful metaphor kind of
just spurred is that when we canlearn to I call it stop,
silence your mind, take atactical pause, observe your
surroundings, pursue withpurpose, then we're acting with

(30:28):
intention and we're beingpurposeful.
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Yeah, that's great and we talk a lot when we're
working with people in businessespecially, and even personal
development too.
It's like when you're in a highstate of stress, you do not
want to make emotional decisions.
That's when people make mistakesand I mean you know that in
your industry but it's like whenyou're in that high state of
stress, like whether it's afamily thing or it's a business

(30:52):
crisis or whatever it is that'swhen you need to be the most
composed, the most relaxed andthe most non-emotional when
you're making those decisions.
And that is true that ice bathis very much, that it's a very
heightened state of every cellin your body saying what are you
doing?
Get out of here, don't do this,you're going to die.
And then you just got tobreathe into it and then your
body relaxes into it.
It's just not that bad.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
That has always been a weakness of mine because,
being ingrained in the military,you know you always want to
move forward, you always want todrive forward, you always want
to make fast decisions, bedecisive, and when I was a young
officer, compared to where I amnow, that was the one thing
that I still have to to this day, remember that.
Hey, let's, let's take atactical pause, josh, and let

(31:35):
the environment kind of mature.
And then, when we get to thatpoint, then we can go and we can
be decisive.
But that is like one of thehardest things for me.
That's my giant.
I guess if I had to talk aboutone of the one of the, the ULA
blockers, like my giant, right,there is just acting without
thinking, and then and then I'mlike, okay, well, that was

(31:59):
probably a poor decision Ishould have.
I should have waited.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
I think that's tough because in your, in your world,
I think sometimes you do have toact so quickly.
Right, it's like literally lifeand death, death situations
where you have to act.
That's a that's a tough one foryou in that world.
And then you bring that worldhome to where you do have plenty
of time to take some breathsand think through it.
But in a military setting Iwould assume I've never been,

(32:23):
but I would assume you just makeextremely rapid decisions
constantly in the fight of it.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
All right, team, let's take a quick break from
this podcast and I want topersonally invite you to our
private Facebook community thatI call Purposeful Accountable
Leaders, or PALS, and PALS is acommunity dedicated to inspiring
and developing servant leadersby sharing transformational
stories and skills exactly whatTells the Leadership is all
about.
My goal is to build a communityof like-minded leaders that can

(32:55):
share lessons learned, askquestions and celebrate wins
when it happens.
And my mission in life is clearI will end toxic leadership by
sharing transformational storiesand skills, and you will find
countless transformationalleaders in this group, many of
them I have had the honor toserve with in the military.
If you want to find a communitythat can help you grow both

(33:17):
personally and professionally,we would love to have you.
You can simply searchPurposeful Accountable Leaders
on Facebook or click theLeadership Resources tab in the
show notes to join.
I am looking forward to seeingyou guys and continuing to grow
together on our leadershipjourney.
Back to the podcast.
I think one scenario that I thatI always kind of go back to is

(33:40):
during Ramadan and Pangea way,rc, south Afghanistan, and
whenever you get ready to getinto a firefight, it's it's.
It's really weird and ominous.
It's like in the movies, likewe're Wild West.
Everyone's out on the streets,but soon as the two gunslingers
come out to the center, everyonegoes away and it's like the air

(34:04):
becomes stale.
Everything's quiet.
You can hear a pin drop, butit's the same way, at least when
I was over there in Afghanistan.
It just didn't feel right and wetook a tactical pause and
instead of like going out anddoing a patrol, what we ended up
doing is just a recon by fire.
And this was the moment in timethat I understood, like, okay,
let's act with intention and notjust do something um rash.

(34:26):
We did a recon by fire, whichwas just a way to kind of elicit
a response from an enemy.
You do a burst in a directionthat is safe from civilians,
seeing what type of responseyou're going to get back from
the environment.
Soon, as my saw gunner did thatDevin it just completely opened
up.
I think it was like 70, some oddfighters that tried to attack

(34:49):
our position.
But it was absolutely insanebecause in one minute it was
complete, peaceful.
Then the next minute it wascomplete and utter chaos.
So we were being tactful up tothat point.
But when that point happened,then we were decisive and we all
knew how to act because we hadour cleared roles and we had our
clear responsibilities.
But that would be like the onestory that that I would always

(35:12):
talk about setting tacticalpatience, allowing the
environment to set up for you,and then you attack with purpose
.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
Yeah, it's such a beautiful story and just for me
as a civilian, that sounds socrazy.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
You know what I mean by that.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Like no one outside of the military like I can't
even grasp that.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
Like no one goes to work.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
No one goes to work and goes.
Okay, let's see if we get firedupon, if we fire it, it's.
It's wild to listen to thosestories and my military buddies
that I hang out with it, justthere.
You cannot grasp it unlessyou've been in it, like I.
Just, I have no idea.
You know what that would belike.
So, uh, just just kudos to youfrom a standpoint of leadership,

(35:53):
like you're leading in thehighest stress possible, like
there's nothing outside of thatthat could be more stressful.
There's just nothing.
You know.
It's.
It's incredible.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, that's one of the beauties about the military
too, is that being in thosetypes of stressful environments
now like I have a motto in mylife for like an affirmation is
every day is a gift.
I'm not going to waste minebecause I remember what a bad
day is.
So now, being an acquisitionofficer in the military,
whenever we run into a situationthat seems like hey, this is

(36:25):
just a bad day, I always go backto like those moments in time
and like hey, today's, today's agift.
We're going to figure out howto get through this and just
continue to move forward,because I have been put in
extremely rough situations and Iknow that I can use humility, I
can use those accelerators toget me through that, and it's

(36:47):
still going to be light on theother side of the tunnel.

Speaker 3 (36:51):
How have you taken those moments over there and
brought them home for the better, and is it hard for you?

Speaker 2 (37:02):
So I've been blessed from the opportunity of and I
thought and I reflected a lot onmy deployment.
When I took over my platoon,they deployed with 44 personnel.
When I took over my platoon,they deployed with 44 personnel.
When I took over, they weredown to 28.
And I was sitting in a talkmost of the time just seeing the

(37:23):
devastation that was happening.
We had, I think, 76 amputeesthe first day that we deployed.
We had a KIA, which was our EODtech, and a bunch of IEDs going
off, like 400-pound IEDs thatwere blowing up strikers.
I'm thinking to myself man,this is going to be a rough
deployment.

(37:44):
And the one thing that stuck outto me and allowed me to develop
was humility.
I had the mindset when I wasgoing into that key
developmental leadership rolethat I was going to get
something out of it.
I was very selfish in thatmindset is that I wanted to go
be a Ranger platoon leader.
I wanted to go do all thesereally crazy things because

(38:07):
that's where my motivations were.
I wanted to go prove myself.
Motivations were.
I wanted to go prove myself.
I sat in a memorial for one ofour soldiers, rodriguez of the
platoon that I was getting readyto take over.
And just the emotions from thecompany that was sitting there,
hearing the company commander atthe time, captain Wolf Schlegel
, talking barely even getting aword out, just because he was so

(38:28):
emotional, and seeing all themen and women that I was getting
ready to lead, that just likestruck me to my core.
It still strikes me to my core,thinking about that, like, dude
, how selfish are you?
You are here to serve, you arenot here to be selfish, you're
here to be selfless.
And I went into that positionin life.

(38:49):
That was a changing moment forme of how can I go be the best
leader possible to aspire andserve other people with a very
unselfish agenda.
So that's the one thing that Ialways take back of like being
put in those moments in timethat like shaped me and applying
it to every single day.

(39:09):
So that, dude, that was abeautiful question, man.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
It's just a crazily beautiful answer because that's
a prime example of takingsomething that's just so hard
and trying to make the best ofthat situation.
And, um, it's really, it'sreally just.
It's really interesting tothink about it because if you've
never been in it, I don't thinkyou can grasp it.
Like I said, but it's just,yeah, man, it's a crazy, crazy
thing to just put your life onthe line like that man.
So I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
Yeah, it's an honor and a privilege.
I love serving my country andit's the least that I can do for
all the great things that I'vebeen able to achieve and what my
family's been able to achieve.
So, kind of moving back intoULA, right, so you figure out
this framework, you learn thisframework.
Then your mentor, the ULA God,what is the?

Speaker 3 (40:01):
ULA.
He goes by ULA Guru, but hedoesn't like it.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Guru Okay, yeah, the ULA Guru leaves.
And then you learn it again.
And then I knew that you weremaking that promise to him, like
, hey, if this changes my lifeagain, we have to take it out to
the world.
You start going on this worldtour of the bus.
When did ULA really take off interms of the mission that
you're on right now?
You know, 1b7 trying to affect1 billion lives how, how did

(40:27):
that process?

Speaker 3 (40:28):
work for you.
You know, I mean it'd be cool,It'd be a great story If you, we
had, like this 10 year plan andwe followed it perfectly.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
It hasn't been like that at all.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
It really the first book we wrote as buddies.
We wrote it in three days.
That's incredible and stressfulto me, which is just insane,
makes no sense.
We're at Troy's cabin.
You know I'm gonna take a pause.
I'm gonna go back on thisbecause I think this is very
important for this podcast iswhen I was at the motel and I
was at the bottom and it wasabout two in the morning and
cops broke down the door next tome and hauled this guy away and

(41:07):
I I called troy.
I woke up because they wereliterally banging down the door
next to me.
I watched them take this guyout, handcuff him, throw him in
the back of a car.
I walked out.
I saw the door beat up and Iwas thinking that's exactly what
my life is like right now.
That's how I feel.
I was losing everything.
And I called Troy and heanswered, luckily at 2 in the
morning.
I hadn't talked to him in abouta year or two and and at this

(41:29):
point he thought I was likehappily married, living in a big
house in the mountains andcrushing life and I was
literally had lost everything in2007, 2008, 2009.
And he said you got to get backto ULA.
And I took my mom's beat up oldTaurus, cause all the cool cars
have been repossessed at thetime.
Like a $1,500 Taurus is all.
I had to drive with five kidsand I drove to the mountains,

(41:50):
which I love.
And I drove to the mountains,which I love, and I wrote down
with a notebook and I startedgoing through my ULA.
But I wrote in this notebookwhen I came to career field so
fitness, finance, family field,which is your career what do I
want to do with my life?
And I just reflexively startedsaying I'm going to open a
clinic again and da, da, da, da,da, da.
And then I tore that out of mynotebook and I said, okay, if I

(42:11):
could do anything I wanted to dobecause I'm at the bottom now,
so who cares?
Right, like I'm not going to,I'm not trying to hold on to
anything.
I'm like if I could do anythingI wanted to do.
And I wrote down on thisnotebook it's right in front of
me, it's never left my sidesince 2008.
And I wrote down be a visionaryleader, educator, entertainer,
facilitator around the world andforever be grateful for my

(42:33):
journey.
And then I said on the bottomwhy do I want that?
I want to have the ability toshow the wonders of God's world
to the, to my children.
Because at that time one of mybiggest prayers was I don't want
to die in this motel.
And my mom, my kids are likeand my parents are like, yeah,
he was a loser.
He died on the you know, youknow motel on the bad side of
town.
So I said I want to, like, Iwant to be a visionary leader,

(42:55):
educator and tainter, facilitatearound the world.
I want to do this because Iwant to be able to show my
children that I can besuccessful.
I want to show them the worldthat god created for them.
And, uh, that's been my thingforever.
Like I have carried thisnotebook around since 2008 and
that's been the guiding light.
So ula's gone a milliondifferent directions.
I had no idea we're gonna havea bus.
I had no idea we're gonna havethese things called Ula Palooza.

(43:17):
I didn't know we're gonna havea nutrition line.
I didn't know we're gonna sellour company.
I didn't none of that.
And I didn't know we're gonnahave a million followers.
I didn't know we're gonna havea book deal.
So what it really comes down to,I think, is if you have that
guiding, just that guiding lightin the distance of I don't care
what I'm gonna go through,because I know from from that
motel to where I am today.

(43:38):
I'm gonna go through a lot ofcrap.
I'm gonna go through a lot ofcrap trying to build ula, but I
was so committed, like I'm gonnabe a vision.
I didn't know.
I didn't know what being avisionary leader, educator,
entertainer, facilitator.
I don't even know, I didn'teven know what that meant, but
it came from my.
I was in tears when I wrote itand I'm like this is what I'm
going to do and I think if youhave such a strong commitment to

(43:58):
something and a strong why andwhy you want to make that happen
, I think you just let thatnaturally evolve.
You just work hard towards it.
And it's not like you know youstart a day and you go to B it
it's like you started a, youknow where you want to go, but
it's not going to follow theplan and we've been all over the
board.
So, yeah, I mean it's been acrazy, crazy, crazy ride.

(44:21):
But I think when I felt likethis is going to sound so stupid
, but when I felt like itfinally kind of was a thing is
about 90 days into the book,when someone we didn't know
finally bought a book as weirdas that sounds, because
everybody that was buying booksand we sold like 50 books, right
, everybody that was buying abook is like, oh, that's my
cousin, oh, that's Troy'sbrother, you know.

(44:47):
And I could, I could.
And all of a sudden someonefrom New Jersey bought a book
and I didn't know who they were,and Troy didn't know who they
were.
And I'm like okay, like okay,wow, this could be something.
And then some celebrities, somenfl players, got behind.
It went really big into the nflfor quite a while and then, you
know, the rest is history.
But once we hit a million, uh,people reading the book and and
following and all of that, thenwe set this dream of like okay,
what would it be like to impacta billion?
One in seven people around theglobe know who we are.

(45:10):
And that's when that companytook a shift of.
If we want to do that, we needto bring in a partner.
We need to have an actual.
It can't be just one bus, twoguys.
It has to be like one bus, twoguys and then a team of hundreds
to make this happen.
So now we're starting to builda team.
So we have a great CEO who'sbuilt two massive companies.
We have an incredible CFO, cgo.

(45:32):
We're backed by an incrediblecompany right now, a
billion-dollar public tradeselling nutrition company that's
working on our nutrition line,because I'm 51, troy's 55.
We're both big time intonutrition.
So, yeah, now it's taken on alife of its own and it's just
kind of going.
We actually probably have aplan for the first time in 10
years.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
So I love that one, that light there's always light
at the end and the one of the,the quotes that I always go back
to in scripture and, I think,every single time.
And, by the way, kudos to youfor not shying away from your
faith, and that's something thatI I kind of boldly declare too.

(46:16):
But Matthew, chapter five,chapter 5, uh, 14 through 16.
Like, that is my favorite quotefrom all of scripture.
And you are the light of theworld.
A town built on a hill cannotbe hidden, neither do the light.
The light a lamp and put itunder a bowl.
Instead, they put it on thestand and it gives light to
everyone in the house in thesame way.
Let your light shine beforeothers that they may go see your
good deeds and glorify yourfather in heaven.

(46:37):
That that's ULA to me.
You're taking your light andyou're bringing it into this
world, and I I define that asleadership.
I'm taking my light and I'mgoing to bring it into any
organization that I go into, forthe sole reason is that I want
to inspire other people to be abetter human, be a better

(46:59):
version of yourself, and thenhave that multiplying effect If
I can make a positiveinteraction in your day, you can
go, be a positive leader orhave a positive impact on
someone else and it's just amagnifying effect.
And I also love the concept tooof, like you had, that
self-awareness.
If I want to positively affect1 billion lives, I can't do this

(47:21):
alone with Troy.
I have to bring on a team and Icall like with me.
I understand as I progress inthe army I have more authority
and responsibility.
But more authority andresponsibility means that I have
a deeper level of, but moreauthority and responsibility
means that I have a deeper levelof accountability.
And I go through this conceptof tactical, operational,
strategic levels of leadership.

(47:41):
Tactical, it's on me to do thework.
Operational, on managing people.
You are now at that strategiclevel of where you are focused
solely on the mission and thevision of where you want ULA to
go and you have your teamfocused on the operational.
And you have your team focusedon the tactical.
And that's hard to do, man,like I had a boss tell me one
time mission command right Isthat you have to give authority

(48:04):
away to the point of where youfeel uncomfortable.
And I can't.
That is like my nightmare.
It's so hard for me to do?
How do you do that when youhave such a big company?

Speaker 3 (48:16):
This is the best conversation ever for me right
now and I'll tell you why,because this is what I'm
battling with.
Like, if you're, you talkedabout your giant right Like,
this is my giant right here.
So I grew up on a farm in NorthDakota working my tail off 50
below winters all that stuff.
Right a year and a half ago, wewere acquired by this $1.2

(48:42):
billion publicly traded companyand part of that acquisition was
so that we could build a teamwith a CEO and a CFO and
everything.
The whole deal like what Italked about.
The acquisition partner likeunbelievable.
Wrap my hugs around.
They're the best people ever.
I've known them now for overtwo years, but 18 months they've
acquired ULA.
Unbelievable, like justunbelievable.

(49:06):
The team we have, our executiveteam, all the people that work
for ULA now, where it was justTroy and I and like another guy
helping us out to get to amillion.
Now it's like now we got a team.
Right On my 50th birthday, abouta day later, I got my first
paycheck of my entire lifeBecause prior to that I was just
an entrepreneur.
I owned my own business.
I've never had W-2 income and a401k and health insurance.

(49:29):
I've never had that and itfreaked me out because it's like
where most people find securityin that.
I felt so insecure in that thatI had a paycheck basically as
weird as that sounds.
And we still run the companyTroy and I, completely, but with
this team.
And the other thing is I want tosay this in a nice way because

(49:53):
I would say, if you talk to anyof my past employees of my
clinics or whatever, I alwaysgot along with them.
I've never raised my voice inmy life, not even to my kids.
I'm very calm, but it was stilllike a benevolent dictatorship,
like I ran the show andeverybody listened, no one
questioned, right.
So exactly what you're sayingis what I'm working on right now
is now we have a team of peoplethat are smarter than me in

(50:14):
their areas and I need to saythis is my vision, this is what
I want for ULA, this is where Iwant for ULA, this is where I
want it to go.
But then I have to step asideand let them run with it and
they're 100% more capable thanme.
But it's really hard for mebecause I've been hands-on
everything since birth and it'sa weird concept for me, but ULA
is growing way faster than Troyand I could grow ULA right now

(50:37):
because we have this great team.
So that is something I'mconstantly trying to be very
self-aware of.
That it's like you know, richardBranson said this.
He said if you want to build abillion dollar company, hire the
right people and get the hellout of the way.
And it's so true.
Just hire the right people andget out of the way, because we
get in the weeds too much withthem.
So it's that's a really greatthing.

(50:59):
You brought up Cause that'sexactly what I'm working on in
my own life right now, my owncareer.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Yeah, that is one of the hardest things to do when
you get to that level of toseparate yourself from all the
work that you've done becauseit's yours, you did it, this was
your mastermind, this was yourbrainchild.
But that's where it kind ofgoes back to like you have to
focus on the hiring and theculture of the organization so

(51:26):
they're continuing to share thatsame level of enthusiasm and
motivation that you have andthat they're wise in the right
place.
Cause I love how you said thisbefore If you have a big enough
why, it just demands a response.
And I remember going throughtalking about journaling
intentionally of why do I wantto be a better leader?

(51:47):
And then I had that moment ofclarity, you know, sitting down
in my thinking chair, I juststarted crying because I
realized that, hey, this is whatGod has gifted me with and this
is my purpose on this planetand this is how I can make a
change.
And that was my moment ofclarity.
But you'll work through it,dude.

(52:08):
I have no doubt that ULA willcontinue to go and meet that
seven-year mark of 1 billionlives.
And when is that?
When is that seven-year mark?

Speaker 3 (52:18):
So we're two years in , so we have five, five years to
go, and what we've done iswe've we've employed ambassadors
people that can actually bepart of ULA, make a career
around it and then coaches.
So we have coaches in all 50states, 23 countries, teaching
ULA and coaching ULA and takinginto people.
That's been huge.
But the ambassador thing iswhat's really growing so much
right now and what I realizedtoo, going back to that, because

(52:39):
I think it's such a greatconversation is what I really
started to realize over the lastyear is that anytime inside I
wanted to like it's my job topaint the picture of where we
want it to go.
Troy and I, like Troy and Iworked together to say this is
where we want to go and we havethese incredible people that do
that.
It's all ego that would get inthe way of me stopping that.

(53:00):
So it's really just being selfaware and going like, okay,
they're way better at this thanme.
I mean they.
Travis, our CEO, has literallybuilt two $1 million billion
dollar companies.
I built $5 million companies.
Like.
He just needs, he needs to leadthis Right and he's he's
unbelievable.
First of all, he's anincredible human.

(53:20):
He's incredible at what he does.
He's super smart, super well,it listens and he's a great
leader and um, it's, it'sawesome and it's just like just
making sure.
I'm always like telling myvision, telling working hard,
being the hardest worker in thiscompany, but also, on the back
end of that, making sure that welet the right people lead where
they need to lead.
So I'm getting getting better,but it was.

(53:41):
It was a hard shift for sure.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
So there there's this um, the concept in the military
that that I love, and it'scalled um dead space.
So when you're doing a militaryoperation, there's terrain that
you cannot see or affect withindirect fires or whatever, just
because it's so either thicklyvegetated or it's unpassable,
and it's the same is true inlife.

(54:04):
I think we all have dead space,and the only way to overcome
that dead space is to surroundourself with people who have
strengths that overpower ourweaknesses, and then that blind
spot that we naturally have isnow no longer invisible.
It is visible and you, you'respot on man.
Like that I'd love it, like thewhole self-awareness and

(54:25):
hearing it from someone who isso successful because this is
just a common theme that thatI've struggled with at a lower
end and in the military, and Iknow that every leader struggles
with.
It's just having that type ofself-awareness and the ego of
letting go of your ego and goingback to the accelerator of
humility and then gratitude andjust embracing yourself in that.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
Yeah, I think, if you want to look purely, we're
actually going through.
Starting tonight, like in twohours, we start going through
what's called the confidentleader training with our coaches
.
It's a one year trainingprogram called the confident
leader becoming a leader you'reborn to be.
And the whole training, thewhole one-year training, is
built around embracing theaccelerators in leadership,

(55:08):
embracing love, loving yourself,loving others, loving your
mission, love what you do,embracing gratitude as a leader,
not being the one who'scomplaining but actually the one
who is like, not complaining,showing gratitude, showing
kindness, moving forward withyour team and yourself.
And it goes all the way throughlike wisdom, gaining wisdom from
yourself, from your experiences, from mentors, trying things.

(55:28):
You know as a leader, youshould try things and then see
what's working, what's not, andthen also working through those
blockers.
So we're going to do a half ayear on blockers as a leader, to
be a more confident leader, andthen half a year on embracing
accelerators.
But it's so true, it's like youknow, we have everything we
need inside of us.
We just have to develop it andget out of, get out of our own
way.
So many times.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
So I've I've been waiting to ask this question.
I'm really curious.
So 2024, right around thequarter what is your one big
thing that you set for 2024?

Speaker 3 (55:57):
So I have 21 goals.
Um, I have narrowed down to mywhat's called the top seven.
You set three goals in each ofthe seven areas Narrowed down to
my top seven.
I don't have my ULU one pickedyet.
I'm working on it.
I'm going to tell you what theyare.
There's two in there.
I'm super blessed right now withmy family life.
Everything in there is great,all that.

(56:17):
I have two You're going tolaugh at one.
One is I need to get under 10%body fat.
I'm about 16%.
I'm 51.
I'm going to be 52.
There's no reason for that.
Like Troy, dr Troy is rippedright now at 56.
He's doing incredible.
I've been on the road a lot andI just lost my way with.
I still hit my workouts, butman barbecue in Kansas city and

(56:41):
all that good stuff has kind ofbeat me up a little bit.
So number one is just get under10%.
That's one, and then the otherone is just really to take.
I have some goals within ourcompany because our company is
really.
We just launched this finalproduct line six months ago, so
we're almost like brand new.
It's like multivitamins,atrophics, adaptogens,
probiotics right, really helpingmind and body health.

(57:01):
And I want to make a massiveimpact on mental health and
physical health in this countryand around the world.
So we have I have a big fieldgoal career goal of where I want
to take the company by the endof the year, lead this company
with, with the team that we have.
So I don't know which one'sgoing to be number one.
It's either going to be thecareer or the fitness, but they
better both happen for sure.

(57:23):
But yeah, so those are my twomajor goals this year.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
If I can persuade you , the field goal man.
I love that, especially now,because I think people need to
have mental clarity and there'sso much depression, there's so
much anxiety to have mentalclarity and there's so much
depression, there's so muchanxiety, there's so much
transition and chaos in theworld right now and people just
need that ability to to toquickly learn how to be

(57:50):
resilient in life.
And I think that kind of goesdown to that word, being being
resilient in life and allowing.
There's a beautiful quote and Idon't know who to attribute it
to but you don't have to controlan ocean, you.
You just need to learn to ridethe wave and when.
We can develop that mindset butit's hard to teach people that
and if you can figure out andcrack that nut because, like

(58:10):
veteran suicide, that's one ofmy huge things that I'm trying
to curve and I think God'sblessed me through the ability
to create better leaders.
Because if you have betterleaders within an organization,
you have lower turnover, youhave a better culture, you have
a better climate, you havebetter leaders below you.
It just makes a better person.
But I think if you can developthat type of framework at a very

(58:33):
large level, a strategic level,the impact would be outstanding
.
So that was my persuasion.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
I'm sorry, know it's great and I love it and I, and
that's most likely the directionI'm going.
The 10 thing is really weirdbecause it's just getting my
health right.
So I could do this for a longtime.
If I look at my, if my healthis not bad I mean I'm actually
pretty healthy but I look atlike okay, I'm 51, I want to
crank ula.
Until I can't crank ula, like Iwant to help as many people as

(59:03):
possible, so I just need to bein really good health.
So most likely both will happen.
But we just had our event calledULA Palooza in Nashville a
couple of weeks ago and you knowthree levels of people wild
horse saloon, it's this bigvenue, it's incredible.
And we hand out a piece ofpaper where, privately, people
answer 14 questions and thenthey fold it up and they don't

(59:23):
write the name on it.
They stand up and they all mixaround and they hand their piece
of paper to someone else andgrab someone else's and they
keep doing that four times.
So at the end, when you sitdown, you have a piece of paper
in front of you.
You don't know whose it isright.
No, there's no chance.
You know whose it is.
It's been mixed up four timesin this pile of people, three
levels of people, and then wehave you stand, if your question
says yes, and the exercise iscalled standing together, and

(59:47):
what we're saying is you don'tknow what the other person is
going through, next to you,behind you, in front of you,
above you, in the balcony,whatever.
You don't know what they'regoing through, but in this
community of Ula, we're going tostand together and I'm going to
tell you, bud.
There's three questions onthere that we've done this two
years in a row.
Three questions in there thatjust give me goosebumps and make
me want to work harder thanI've ever worked in my life.
The question I feel anxiety,daily, anxiety and worry daily.

(01:00:11):
This year, 60.3% of that roomstood up Wow, a thousand bucks a
ticket and fly into Nashvilleand spend two days working on
themselves.
Still still, 60.3% of that roomis straight up feeling daily
anxiety and worry.
Over 40% of that room feelslonely on a daily basis Lonely,

(01:00:36):
wow.
And 20.1% of that room thisyear said that they I think it
was 20.1 last year.
This year was like.
19.9% of that room said theyconsider ending it all and
committing suicide to just getout of this.
And this is a room full ofhappy people posting pictures,
hugging each other greatcommunity and 20% of that room
thinks that they want to end itall, and that's where it's like

(01:01:06):
we just have to get thiseverywhere, because mental
health is just a real thing thatwe need to take care of and we
need to do our part at least.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
I mean, we're not going to fix it, but, man, we
need to do our part.
Yeah, I think of the concept ofa combat multiplier.
If I continue to go out, try tobuild better leaders and you're
continuing to go out and you'rehelping people find a balanced
life and and bringing awarenessto mental health, all the powers
converged, there's going to bepositive energy.
I don't know if you ever readthe book Map of Consciousness,
but it's a beautiful book oftalking about, like, how we can

(01:01:29):
raise our conscious levels andhow the higher you go, the more
positive energy, and how.
It's a really awesome book andI'd highly recommend it.
But, like we can raise theconsciousness of humanity.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
It's time for our final show segment that I like
to call the killer bees.
These are the same fourquestions that I ask every guest
on the Tales of Leadershippodcast Be brief, be brilliant,
be present and be gone.
Question one.

Speaker 2 (01:02:00):
What do you believe separates a good leader from a
great leader?
Humility.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
Straight up humility, Just being humble, being out of
ego, being very self-aware andbeing humble and making it about
the mission, not aboutthemselves.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
I love it.
What is one resource that youcould recommend to our listeners
so they could be a betterleader today?

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
Man, now you said be brief and be quick.
They could be a better leadertoday.
Man, now you said be brief andbe quick.
I love ULA, I love theframework of ULA, but even just
this podcast.
And just keep putting goodthings in your ears, man.
Just keep listening to goodthings over and over.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I love it All right.
So the third question if youcould go back in time and give
your younger self a piece ofadvice, what would it be?

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Relax, enjoy the journey a lot more, man.
I tell every kid that everyoneI meet in their twenties I'm
like be patient, you got so muchtime.
Just enjoy every single day,but work your butt off, have fun
.
But I think I was reallyworried a lot in my twenties
that I'm not going to besuccessful or whatever, and just
enjoy the ride.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
Yeah, all right.
Last question how can ourlisteners find you and how can
they add value to your mission?

Speaker 3 (01:03:06):
uh, ulalifecom, o-l-a-l-i-f-ecom, ulalife on
everything social media.
I'm ula seeker on social media,um, and honestly, just the best
thing is just be the bestversion of yourself, use ula in
your way to live your best lifeand if you feel like you want to
share it with others, join,join, the, join the jump on the
bus with us and do it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
Yeah, this has been awesome podcast, brother.
Like I think this is probablyone of my favorite ones that
I've filmed, so thank you forbeing intentional with me and
spending your time with me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
Super fun, dude, I'm not going to lie.
I got a little nervous when yousay you're going to fire, blast
me with four questions, but Imade it.
I feel good dude, okay, hey,cold plunge man, I want to see
you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Send me a picture.
I wrote that down.
That's going to be one of my uh, I don't know if it's going to
be my one big thing, but it'sgoing to be one of my goals for
the year.

Speaker 3 (01:03:51):
I love it.
I love it, man.
Thank you so much for having meAppreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
Yeah, have a great night.
All right team.
That was a phenomenal episodewith Dave.
I'm going to try to be shortbut it's going to be really hard
because there's a lot of keytakeaways that I got from this
episode and the first one wasjust being grateful and having
faith.
And I generally mean that.

(01:04:15):
The pivot point in my lifehappened when I read his book
and I heard his nephew's story,jared, of being grateful and
having faith and his definitionof it and going through all the
memories that I had of losingsoldiers and losing friends and
feeling that I was cursed,feeling that I was failing,

(01:04:36):
because who am I if I am not ainspired leader?
I think everyone is a leader.
You have to be a leader ofyourself, your team, your
organization, your family, yourcommunity.
And I realized that I waslooking in the wrong areas.
I was looking through the lensof blockers in life fear, guilt,
anger, self-sabotage, laziness,envy, misdirection, focus.
I should be focused onaccelerators the love, gratitude

(01:04:59):
, discipline, integrity, passion, humility, wisdom, but
specifically gratitude.
And when I started hunting thegood stuff, I could look at
those terrible times in my lifeand pull things out that were
positive, and that was one ofthe pivot points in my mind, in
my life, of where I started tomake positive change in myself,

(01:05:21):
focusing on self-care, focusingon being a better leader of
myself and buildingself-confidence.
That was the moment where Istarted hunting the good stuff.
The next key takeaway that Ihave is what are your
accelerators?
So we talked about thoseaccelerators before and I just
mentioned them again, but lifeis going to do one thing which
is guaranteed it's going to giveyou ample opportunities to test

(01:05:45):
yourself.
You're going to have morechallenges and obstacles to
overcome, but that's okay,because that is life.
There are always going to besomething that's going to block
us, disrupt us, fix us, turn us.
That's the definition of anobstacle, and it's okay to be
fixed, disrupted or turned, butit's not okay to be blocked.
Leaders purposeful, accountableleaders do not allow obstacles

(01:06:06):
to prevent them or their teamsfrom moving forward.
They apply a sledgehammermindset and in order to do that,
he uses the framework of readyset go.
So ready yourself, understandthe situation, set yourself, get
the tools and the resourcesthat you need and then go, take
decisive action.
It's the whole concept of whatI like to call stop, silence

(01:06:28):
your mind, take a tactical pause, observe your surroundings and
then pursue with purpose right.
And then the last one that Ihave is ego.
Letting go of our ego is one ofthe most critical elements of
being a servant,transformational leader.
And why is that?
Because it allows us to buildself-awareness.

(01:06:49):
And self-awareness is criticalbecause then we can learn to
look through the blind spots inour life, the invisible areas
that we think we understand, butwe don't, because we have that
little voice inside of us issaying that we're good enough,
we don't need to listen to otherpeople, that we are the subject
matter expert, that we areharder workers, that no one can
do what we can.
That is the ego talking.

(01:07:10):
You need to silence that andyou need to focus on being
self-aware, calling that type ofbehavior out.
And the last bonus takeaway thatI got is I guess I got to get
an ice path right, like so.
I made that bold statement on apodcast that's been live
streamed and is out in theethernet now, and I've always
wanted to do it, but I'm doingit.

(01:07:31):
I'm getting an ice bath and I'mgoing to start the ice bath
challenge.
Hey, team, if you've gotten anyvalue from this episode or the
content that I push out, let meshare another resource with you
that you already know about ifyou've listened to my episodes,
but that'sMcMillianLeadershipCoachingcom,
specifically the articles that Iwrite.
So this episode you can go toMcMillianLeadershipCoachingcom

(01:07:53):
when it officially airs and youcan read through an additional
article that I have wrote forthis podcast episode, because,
at the end of the day, I'm justtrying to produce powerful
content for you to be a betterleader, a more inspired leader,
or what I like to call apurposeful, accountable leader,
and do me a favor share thispodcast on any platform you

(01:08:14):
listen to.
Share it and send it to someone,give it a five-star review or
however you can rate it.
Give me feedback.
Reach out to me on social media.
Let me know how I'm doing.
Follow me on social media.
That would mean the absoluteworld to me.
And if you want to support thechannel, you can do that by
going to McMillian LeadershipCoaching or talesofleadershipcom

(01:08:34):
and you can support or donateto the show there, and
everything that I get is goingto go back to producing powerful
content, as always.
Team, my name is Josh McMillian.
Saying every day is a gift.
Don't waste yours.
I'll see you next time.