The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett
MrBallen (Former Navy SEAL): I Wasn't Sleeping, I Became A Raging Alcoholic! I Was Disowned By The SEALS! This Will Turn Your Life Around In 2025!
Thu, 12 Dec 2024
From rock bottom to Navy SEAL, and then to storytelling YouTube star from John Ballen to MrBallen, he reveals what it takes to reimagine your life's path John Ballen, best known as MrBallen, is a former US Navy SEAL and founder of Ballen Studios. He is the host of the ‘MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories’ and author of the book ‘MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark & Mysterious: The Graphic Stories’. In this conversation, John and Steven discuss topics such as, the 5 words that transformed John’s life, the benefits of storytelling, why he was disowned by the SEAL’s, and how to turn your life around in 2025. (00:00) Intro (02:13) Becoming MrBallen (10:25) The Self-Awareness to Take Responsibility Changed Me (15:09) How You React After Making Mistakes Changes Everything (16:54) What Is the Navy SEALs? (19:31) How Long Is Navy SEAL Training? (23:15) The Difference Between Those Who Made It or Not (27:18) The Mentality of MrBallen Before and After SEAL Training (30:02) Hitting Rock Bottom (33:03) Advice for People Who Feel Stuck (36:33) I Almost Died: Finding Your True Motivation (39:54) Retiring Due to War PTSD (45:44) I Was Dishonored by the Navy SEAL Community (49:26) I Crossed the Line... (01:01:33) What Happened to Those Nine Hikers (01:03:45) Advice to Discover What Motivates You (01:07:09) The Best Things in Life Are on the Other Side of Fear (01:14:34) Dealing With People Hating What I Love Doing (01:18:54) Will You Stop Being MrBallen? (01:21:26) What Would Make You Leave MrBallen Behind? (01:25:49) Finding the Next Thing to Check Off Your List (01:27:29) Dealing With PTSD and Alcoholism (01:34:03) Coming to Terms With Everything I Did (01:36:52) Your Demons and Therapy (01:38:45) The Only Way to Cope With Your Demons (01:41:03) Ads (01:42:07) Reconciling With My Dad (01:46:02) How to Help Men Experiencing Mental Health Issues (01:50:30) How to Be a Great Storyteller Follow John: Instagram - https://bit.ly/3BjQjbv Twitter - https://bit.ly/3Bd3evX MrBallen YouTube - https://bit.ly/4irOnhN Ballen Studios Website - https://bit.ly/3ZzRv2A MrBallen Podcast - https://spoti.fi/49xFsY0 You can purchase John’s book, ‘MrBallen Presents: Strange, Dark & Mysterious: The Graphic Stories’, here: https://amzn.to/4g7fq0p 🚀The 1% Diary is live - and it won’t be around for long, so act fast! https://bit.ly/1-Diary-Megaphone-ad-reads Watch the episodes on Youtube - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACEpisodes My new book! 'The 33 Laws Of Business & Life' is out now - https://g2ul0.app.link/DOACBook Follow me: https://g2ul0.app.link/gnGqL4IsKKb Sponsor: PerfectTed - https://www.perfectted.com with code DIARY40 for 40% off Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
I was in Afghanistan in 2014 as a Navy SEAL. We're in the middle of this gunfight, and a grenade came over the wall, and it detonated. And I'm waiting to either be shot by the enemy or I'm going to bleed to death. And all that was running through my head was, and that's the way I think people should look at their lives.
It's so interesting because I've never actually heard someone give that kind of advice before.
Mr. Bullen is a former Navy SEAL turned master storyteller and content creator who uses his battlefield experiences and personal failures to inspire, educate, and help people overcome challenges to achieve their goals.
My family were very successful people with Pulitzer Prizes, PhD. And then there's me getting into street fights and about to get expelled. But it took becoming a colossal failure to realize that if you want to fix this, you have to start with saying it's my fault and then do something about it. But then fear becomes the thing keeping people from doing it.
And it's the very select number of people in this life say, I'm going to still do that thing that scares the out of me and have the best and most fulfilling life. And so I decided to become a Navy SEAL because it was only a really small percent that make it through the grueling, mentally torturing training And what's the similarities that you noticed between the people that made it? Two words.
It's... But then I realized the reality of the job. You kill people. And I had really leaned into being as, like, alpha as I possibly could be, but there were just some things that I did, and I just... I struggled so, so bad. I had to face my demons. What have you learned about dealing with demons? If you begin to have those thoughts, the only way I have found to sort of cope with them is...
I find it incredibly fascinating that when we look at the back end of Spotify and Apple and our audio channels, the majority of people that watch this podcast haven't yet hit the follow button or the subscribe button, wherever you're listening to this. I would like to make a deal with you.
If you could do me a huge favor and hit that subscribe button, I will work tirelessly from now until forever to make the show better and better and better and better. I can't tell you how much it helps when you hit that subscribe button. The show gets bigger, which means we can expand the production, bring in all the guests you want to see and continue to do in this thing we love.
If you could do me that small favor and hit the follow button wherever you're listening to this, that would mean the world to me. That is the only favor I will ever ask you. Thank you so much for your time. Back to this episode. There are clues in your early context that suggest you might have walked the path that you've walked in your life.
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