Tips for Developing a Special Operations Mindset

In the Navy SEALs, one of the first things we do when we get inserted on an operation is called a SLLS (pronounced “SILS”). It's short for Stop, Look, Listen, Smell. It's our way of getting our bearings on the ground before moving forward with a mission. Stop: Take a moment to pause and assess the situation. In business, this means taking a step back to review your goals, challenges, and opportunities before diving into action. Ever heard the saying "don't just do something, stand there?" (yes, I wrote it that way on purpose!) Well, there's wisdom in that! Look: Observe your surroundings and gather critical information. In the corporate world, this translates to understanding the market landscape, analyzing competitor strategies, and identifying key trends. Keep your eyes open—you might spot something everyone else missed. Listen: Pay attention to the sounds around you. For leaders, this means actively listening to your team, customers, and stakeholders. You know what they say: you've got two ears and one mouth for a reason. Smell: Use your senses to detect any potential threats or opportunities. In business, this involves being aware of subtle changes in the industry, staying attuned to the company culture, and recognizing early signs of both risks and opportunities. Think of it as your business's spidey sense. Applying SLLS in business ensures you’re not rushing blindly into decisions. It equips you with the situational awareness needed to navigate complex environments and make informed choices. So next time you're planning a new strategy, launching a product, or managing a team, remember to Stop, Look, Listen, and Smell. Trust me, a little bit of mindfulness can lead to a whole lot of success.

In Special Forces, combat operations taught me one lesson. It's not the gear, the tech, or even the tactics. It's the operator behind these that makes the difference. I’ve watched guys switch to iron sights on their rifles after the fancy optic fails and still drop targets. I've stood receiving QBO's (Quick Battle Orders) sketched out with sticks and rocks. And I've seen better intel come from a notepad and binoculars than from satellites and UAVs. But always at the top of the list is mindset. On game day, the edge comes from... Staying calm—no matter how much pressure. Staying focused—no matter how much noise. Staying confident—no matter how much is at stake. Nobody is born with this. It's earned. Special Forces invest in training to make sure everyone holds this standard. Because when you upgrade the operator, the same skills produce outsized returns. It's why sports teams spend millions on mental skills. Improved stress control, better self-discipline, more focus, faster decisions, fewer mistakes These impact results more than marginal skill gains. But entrepreneurs still ignore this universal rule... skills matter, but performance capacity wins the day. From day one business is combat, the odds are stacked against you. There are no shortcuts, no guarantees, and there is no certainty. Your edge is how fast you adapt. Because your business can't outperform you. The market is not the enemy. Stress, doubt, fear, overthinking, burnout. These are the real killers of success. The formula for winning is simple: Your Skills x Your Performance = Your Results Most entrepreneurs train business skills and leave their performance to chance. When you upgrade your performance, you won’t just compete… You’ll be dangerous. Be the 1%–do the reps. ––––– If you want an unfair advantage get The Chaos Drill from Special Forces for FREE. It’s a tactical upgrade of your focus, control and discipline. Click The Chaos Drill link in the featured section of my profile.

In a classified military operation, one of the most critical lessons I learned was that uncertainty is never neutral. In the field, uncertainty always benefits the adversary. That is why military operations do not wait for full confirmation before acting; they assume the event is real and initiate processes accordingly. Years later, while leading an incident in the private sector, I saw how decisive that reflex can be. The initial signal looked minor from a technical perspective — a single anomaly, explainable activity, something that could easily be placed into a “to review” queue. But military discipline does not recognize “small signals”; it recognizes early signals. I applied the same mindset directly to incident management. Instead of waiting for confirmation, I clarified the command structure, assigned a single incident commander, and initiated analysis and containment in parallel rather than sequentially. A common reflex in the private sector is to understand first and act later; military discipline teaches the opposite. You stop the spread first, then you understand. Because time is not a technical metric — it is an operational variable, and it is the attacker’s greatest advantage. Military operations are process-driven, not personality-driven. Roles are predefined, communication formats are structured, and escalation thresholds are clear. When you apply the same principles to incident management, noise decreases, decision time drops dramatically, and teams shift from discussion to execution. This difference becomes critical in lateral movement scenarios where minutes shape architecture and hours can shape the domain. In real environments, the biggest differentiator is not tooling — it is operational discipline. Tools are similar, logs are similar, and teams are often equally capable. What changes outcomes is how the incident is managed. The military mindset treats an incident not as a technical issue, but as an operation. Once that shift happens, containment accelerates, communication simplifies, and decision quality improves. This is why incident maturity in the private sector starts with command and operational model — not the technology stack. Attacks may be technical, but incident management is always operational. #cybersecurity #incidentresponse #soc #cyberdefense #threathunting #leadership #securityoperations #ciso #enterprisesecurity #digitalresilience #infosec #cyberwarfare #operationalexcellence #riskmanagement #securityleadership

This is a post about Special Operations Forces (SOF) and transitioning to entrepreneurship. I've noticed there is a tendency for SOF to transition into the entrepreneurial world. After years of observing this phenomenon, I thought about a few reasons and figure it'd be helpful to share it... 1️⃣ Leadership: Special operations soldiers are groomed to be leaders from day one, from the very junior ranking to very senior. Our training emphasizes decisiveness, delegation, and the ability to inspire and motivate a team. These leadership skills are directly correlated to what it takes to succeed in the entrepreneurial world, where effective team management is a crucial aspect. Just making a decision, right or wrong, is better than inaction most of the time. 2️⃣ Discipline and Persistence: Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. Actually, it's like a marathon with a gas mask on where you randomly get sucker punched in the face. It requires discipline, patience, and the ability to remain calm through tough times. SOF rely on discipline through years of training, which helps them stay the course through the roller coaster ride of being an entrepreneur. 3️⃣ Global Perspective: Military personnel often have experience working in different cultures and environments. SOF have a 100x bigger perspective than "regular" military personnel and get exposed to so much more of the world. This gives them a global perspective, and an understanding of the diversity and nuances that exist, a valuable trait when trying to scale a business internationally. 4️⃣ Teamwork: Fourth on the list but one of the most important. Military operations are all about teamwork and no mission succeeds without the right team. Teams in the SOF world are built by starting with a selection process that weeds out the quitters. Building the right startup team through a thoughtful selection (hiring) process pays off in the end. The same trait-based hiring process, when done right, can produce phenomenal results. 5️⃣Strategic Planning: SOF are taught to think strategically, to consider all potential outcomes, and make contingency plans often with only a fraction of the information needed. Startups are the same...you'll never have the complete picture and have to be comfortable with a 70% solution and just say f*ck it and start movement. 6️⃣ Dopamine: My favorite thing. SOF live and breathe with constant dopamine hits that range from shooting, flying, fast-roping, etc. The startup world is no different, although there may be less shooting, and the dopamine hits come continuously. Getting that startup dopamine hit is just as addicting as jumping out of a plane at 25k feet! By no means am I saying all SOF folks succeed in entrepreneurship. Instead, consider how these values and skills can be adapted and applied to your own startup journey. #entrepreneurship #leadership #business #strategy #specialoperations #teamwork #discipline #globalperspective #dopamine

Complexity kills, simplicity wins. The battlefield taught me that fast. Combat is chaos, moving parts, shifting ground, and a smart enemy trying to take you out. In that world, complicated plans collapse. The simple ones, the ones everyone can act on under pressure, are the ones that keep you alive. Before every mission, we rehearsed. No fancy simulations, just walking the steps again and again until every man knew his role cold. Those rehearsals gave us speed and confidence when the pressure hit. It was simple, but it worked. That lesson stuck with me. Years later, in business, I see the same truth play out. Leaders overload their teams with steps, charts, and endless meetings. The result is confusion, delay, and frustration. What worked for us in Special Forces was discipline: • State the mission in plain words so everyone gets it. • Assign roles with names and deadlines. • Set a rhythm of short updates. • Rehearse the critical steps. • Capture lessons and adjust fast. People are your most important asset. One of the Special Operations Forces Truths says it best: “Humans are more important than hardware.” I lived that truth. Gear, software, and processes all help, but they do not win fights. People do. They decide, communicate, and execute. When they have focus and trust, they move with speed and confidence. Simple does not mean easy. It means disciplined. It forces hard choices. It forces you to say no to extras that look smart on paper but drag you down in reality. In the field or in business, momentum beats perfection. Small teams that talk, share facts, and back each other up will always outperform bigger teams bogged down in silos. That is what I lived in Special Forces. That is what I have seen again and again in business. Strip away the noise, focus on what matters, then execute.

Always improving your fighting position. One of the best lessons learned in the military and in Special Operations is the idea of always improving your foxhole/fighting position. When a patrol enters a possible fighting position location, a team will first take a knee, if time permits they will lay down. If the position is occupied overnight, the team will dig a "ranger grave", this is a 6 - 12" deep long hole big enough to fit one person and provide some cover. If the team stays in place long enough they begin to dig a larger fighting position about 5 - 6' deep and big enough to fit a buddy team. If the team stays longer they begin placing sandbags and claymore mines. Pretty soon the team will begin to dig in covered positions with protection from aerial weaponry such as artillery. After awhile the team will begin to clear out brush for a larger field of fire, create connecting supply trenches, clear out an LZ for MEDEVAC and so forth. Everyday, their fighting position gets a little bit better, even if it is the slightest improvement. The idea here is that everyday you make your fighting position just a little bit better. Small incrimental changes add up over time and each change you make you are increasing your overall chances of survival. This mentality can and should be applied to business. Always improve your fighting position. Always increase your chances for survival. Always optimize your work flow. Create templates for your most used slide decks, integrate technology that reduces labor hours and increases productivity. Create check lists to use for activation of projects. Utilize new aged marketing techniques or unorthodox methods of shipping and inventory management. Think outside the box and most importantly, always improve your fighting position. The moment you stop improving your fighting position, you are moving into a state of retrograde and deterioration. There is no stagnation in business, only forward and backwards and the situation is almost always worse than what your most recent data suggests. So the takeaway here? Always improve your fighting position. Clandestine Media Group

Do you use a model or framework when preparing for your important events or moments? Deliberate is a word that I most often use to best describe the philosophy and principles that I speak about.  Being deliberate in our planning and preparation leads to readiness.  Readiness allows us to execute with confidence and gives us our best chance for the desired outcome. The foundation of readiness is a comprehensive framework that gives attention to every facet of the engagement or problem.  Below is the framework that is very similar to the one I developed when we created the U.S. Navy’s Warrior Toughness program.  It was inspired by how we plan, prepare, and execute in military special operations.  - Commit. Identification of the problem or challenge, the desired result, why it's important, and what we are willing to do make it happen.  - Prepare. All facets of planning, resources, skill-building, and rehearsal.  This also includes the level of self-regulation required to execute well in the face of stress and distraction. - Execute. Though this is an extension of the planning and rehearsal process, this phase is tightly focused on the hot-seat moment.  In the military we would refer to this as “actions-on” or “being on the X.”  I offer up three simple considerations here.  1.  Situational Awareness What is the situational picture here in this moment? Is the game plan still appropriate or do I need to adjust or set aside the plan entirely in order to best serve this exact moment? 2.  Variable focus. Where should my focus or attention be right now?  Sometimes it needs to be on the complicated details but we constantly have to shift those focus points. Is the client or customer tracking and understanding what I am saying?  Are the team’s actions right now in support of the overall objective? 3.  Agility.  We have done our best to plan for contingencies but the day will come when we don’t have the exact answer for an unexpected scenario.  When we have the mindset and mental skills to deal with these challenges, we can swiftly execute the back-up plan or at the very least, maintain our poise and focus and not get knocked off of our game. - Reflection. In most situations we face in life-especially business, we are likely going to have to execute on the same or similar situations.  The first step of preparation is capturing the lessons learned.  Whether it was success or failure, what were the contributing factors? There is no magic to this formula. There is a lot more to it than written here but I still consider it to be dirt simple.  The point is that you have some type of framework that covers every aspect of what it takes for you to execute on your most important moments.  What are yours? #leadership #mindset #readiness