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Unstoppable Mindset with Alden Mills (Part 1)

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🎧 Episode 125: Unstoppable Mindset with Alden Mills

Are you ready to unlock the secrets of an unstoppable mindset? In this episode of Evoke Greatness, Sonnie delves deep with Alden Mills, a man who has conquered the harshest military training, led elite teams in high-stakes situations, and translated those lessons into entrepreneurial triumph. As a former Navy SEAL platoon commander, successful business leader, and bestselling author, Alden offers a unique perspective on resilience, leadership, and personal growth that transcends boundaries. Alden shares invaluable insights on:

  • The journey from military service to entrepreneurship
  • The concept of leadership at different levels
  • The power of mindset in achieving goals
  • Strategies for overcoming self-doubt and negative thinking
  • Effective communication and persuasion techniques

🔑 Key takeaways:

  1. Leadership starts with leading yourself before leading others
  2. Effective communication involves body language, tone, and words
  3. Mindset is crucial in overcoming challenges and achieving success
  4. Negative thoughts require multiple positive thoughts to counteract them
  5. Pattern interruption is a powerful tool for breaking negative thought cycles

💡 Quotes to remember:
"I have failed way more than I've succeeded." - Alden Mills 
"5% of communication comes nonverbally, just literally on your physicality of showing up." - Alden Mills

📚 Resources Mentioned:

If you're looking to develop an unstoppable mindset, improve your leadership skills, or overcome personal challenges, this episode offers valuable insights and strategies from someone who's excelled in multiple fields.

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week where Alden will explore the correlation between social media and mindset, spectacular failures that led to his success, and answers a question he's never been asked before!


A rising tide raises all ships, and I invite you along on this journey to Evoke Greatness!

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Evoke Greatness. We are officially entering year three of this podcast and I am filled with so much gratitude for each and every one of you who've joined me on this incredible journey of growth and self-discovery. I'm Sunny, your host and fellow traveler on this path of personal evolution. This podcast is a sanctuary for the curious, the ambitious and the introspective. It's for those of you who, like me, are captivated by the champion mindset and driven by an insatiable hunger for growth and knowledge. Whether you're just beginning your journey or you're well along your path, you're going to find stories here that resonate with your experiences and aspirations. Over the last two years, we've shared countless stories of triumph and challenge, of resilience and transformation. We've laughed, we've reflected and we've grown together. And as we've evolved, so too has this podcast. Remember, no matter what chapter you're on in your own story, you belong here. This community we've built together is a place of support, inspiration and shared growth. Where intention goes, energy flows, and the energy you bring to this space elevates us all. So, whether you're listening while commuting, working out or enjoying your morning coffee, perhaps from one of those motivational mugs I'm so fond of, know that you're a part of something special. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your curiosity, your openness and your commitment to personal growth. As we embark on year three, I invite you to lean in, to listen deeply and to let these stories resonate with your soul. I believe that a rising tide raises all ships and I invite you along in this journey to evoke greatness. Welcome back to another episode of Evoke Greatness.

Speaker 1:

My guest today is Alden Mills, a man who exemplifies leadership, innovation and unstoppable determination. Alden is a highly accomplished entrepreneur, having served as the CEO of Perfect Fitness, which, under his leadership, became an Inc 500 company. His innovative spirit has led to the creation of over 40 patents worldwide and he's the founder of multiple successful businesses. But Alden's path to business success is just one facet of his remarkable journey. Before entering into the business world, he served his country with distinction as a three-time Navy SEAL platoon commander. His dedication to excellence was evident early in his life when he competed as a Division I athlete.

Speaker 1:

Alden is also a best-selling author, sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience through his books Unstoppable Mindset selling author. Sharing his wealth of knowledge and experience through his books Unstoppable Mindset, be Unstoppable and Unstoppable Teams. His ability to inspire and motivate others have not gone unnoticed. Entrepreneur Magazine recognized him as the number one top virtual speaker. So today we have the opportunity to tap into the wisdom of a man who has led elite military teams, built thriving businesses and continues to push the boundaries of what's possible in both personal and professional realms. Alden, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2:

So excited to be here, Sunny. I love your show, I love what we're going to be doing and I hope we evoke some greatness in everybody today.

Speaker 1:

We are both showing up with that energy to serve, and we are going to talk a lot about mindset. We're going to talk a lot about your journey. I think there is so much value for the listener to get out of this episode today, and so if you're driving your car, pull it over, get your notebook out, like make sure you go back, because I think we are going to we're going to hear some real gold today, so I am looking forward to diving in.

Speaker 2:

Well, hey, listen, do we want to start with all my spectacular failures first? I mean, where would you like to go? Because I think everybody always hears like you hear that intro and you hear all these great mountaintops of success, but the fact is, I have failed way more than I've succeeded.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, so that's the thing I usually ask people right off the bat like hey, what led you to your current version? Because we're iterations right Over the course of our life and our career. We're at different iterations and I imagine with your spectacular as you just heard career in life, there have been a lot of iterations. So I think for you, I'd love for you to share with us what got you to the most recent chapter in your journey.

Speaker 2:

So the most recent chapter really started when I took 10 years to write Be Unstoppable the book. That book really started taking shape in 2003 and it didn't get published until 2013. I was running Perfect Fitness. Two years later, we had sold Perfect Fitness, I had worked for a larger company and was finding myself wanting for something more than just pumping out fitness widgets into the world and I don't mean to degrade the idea of creating a fitness product or any of those things, but after a while, what I was really thirsting for was how could I help others go achieve something that they weren't sure they could achieve? And that was what was just. I was finding a lot more fulfillment out of that than just helping them with their biceps.

Speaker 1:

Yeah Well, and you, and I think you would then go on and continue putting out that same type of unstoppable mentality through a number of other books, a number of other ventures throughout your career in life as well, and, yes, you know, in any one of these things that and I would call it ventures throughout your career in life as well.

Speaker 2:

Yes, in any one of these things that and I would call it I had a career in Division I rowing. I then went into SEAL team and had a career there, and then I had multiple careers as the entrepreneur and I'd say I'm in my third version of an entrepreneurial career and that's in leadership development, and what I originally thought was, oh, I want to go inspire. Well, inspiring is one thing. It's a lot more helpful when you can help people with a process and show people some tools and techniques that I inherently learned but didn't quite know how to put into a process that started. That whole chapter started in 2015. That's brought me to this day.

Speaker 2:

And when I use the word leadership, I really want to stress to everyone all my books are all leadership. The idea of helping somebody be unstoppable is, first and foremost, helping you lead yourself to take certain actions every single day. Now, before I go further on this, I really want to stress to everybody. I want everybody to shut the narrative off immediately when they say, oh, he's talking to a leader, but I'm not a leader yet. I'm only a manager. I've just joined this business and I'm just working my way up through the ranks, or I've never thought of myself as a leader.

Speaker 2:

Be very clear with everybody You're leading. You had to lead yourself to just tune in, to listening to us. Today, you lead yourself every morning to get out of bed to decide what clothes you're going to put on, to what you're going to eat, to what kind of work you're going to get done that day. That's what I call first level leadership. How you lead yourself then takes you to level two leadership, which is how you're leading others. That would be team leadership. That's the Unstoppable Teams book. And then the third level is the largest influence and that's how you are affecting the culture of the organization you work in. Those are three different levels of leadership we own Leading ourselves, leading the team and leading the culture of that organization, whatever organization you're a part of, whatever organization.

Speaker 1:

You're a part of Something that you said in being able to lead without a title, without any of those things, but really being able to lead yourself. It's aligned with something I think also doesn't get enough attention, and that is the power of persuasion. And you don't have to be a leader to persuade. As a matter of fact, we are influencing and persuading every time we have a conversation and I think that doesn't get that. That doesn't get highlighted enough and so people think they don't have influence, they don't have any sort of persuasion. But really every time you're having a conversation, you're influencing something or someone there.

Speaker 2:

This has been referenced, probably a lot. Maybe it's even been referenced on your show, harvard study 20 some odd years ago on how to communicate 55, 38, 7, 55 percent of communication comes non-verbally, just literally on your physicality of showing up. Are you slung? Are you looking at somebody in the eye are Are your hands in your pocket, shoulders rolled forward? Are you shuffling around? Are you standing tall with great posture, feeling proud of yourself, leaning in, having complete attention on that person? That's the body language, piece 38%. The tone. The inflection, how I'm thoughtfully responding or offering my input to somebody, and then the 7% of words.

Speaker 2:

Now, that study has also gotten misconstrued over the years. That's not to say you can only do those two other things the body language and the tone. It's when you are congruent or in alignment with all three of those that packs the most punch for persuasion. And when you look at that kind of communication, everybody does it either knowingly or not knowingly. And one of the things I hope you get out of today's conversation with us is the awareness of different actions that you're already taking and small little tweaks you can make on those actions that will make a big difference down the road in anything you seek to achieve.

Speaker 1:

This is so important, I think, for leaders who aren't in an established leadership role, people who maybe aspire to get to that place one day, because I think conversations like this and the content that you put out, based on the wisdom you have had over many years of experience, those are the things that I almost wish. That I grabbed a hold of earlier on in my career and sought out was those tips and tools to put in my tool belt to help equip me to really show up the very best way I could when I stepped into that first formal leadership role.

Speaker 2:

Right and Sonny, how many different regrets do I have in life, looking in the back rearview mirror? And I'll just ask you this, and I will ask it, like I ask all four of my boys every single time Is it helpful or hurtful to think about what you didn't do? Right? Hurtful, right, folks? If we start looking back at negative thoughts, well, we just get depressed. The point is, you're hearing it now and thinking about what you can do at this moment. Oh, my gosh, would I have wished I had this 20 years? Of course I would have. But here's the good news we got it now. And as long as you embrace the fact that you can continue to learn, you can continue to change, that you are your own leader, then be celebratory. We're going to offer some great things on this. Then be celebratory, we're going to offer some great things on this.

Speaker 1:

Going back to your career, your transition from Navy SEAL to an entrepreneur is fascinating. How did you take that military experience and take that into your business and innovation? How did it shape you in ways that equipped you and prepared you for that?

Speaker 2:

Well, the first thing I want to share with everybody is that was hard. I had gone to the Naval Academy at 18, graduated at 22, then did seven years as a SEAL platoon commander and then I went to business school and I remember sitting in my first class, because now I'm 30 and it's the first time I've really interacted with civilians and I'm thinking to myself what have I done? I've made the greatest focus was about purpose. It wasn't about a paycheck, and now it's totally flipped. Business school is all about okay, here's the measuring stick, how much money can we make? And I have to tell you there was five years of transition minimum on that piece. Now, what were the things that I relied on to get through those dark, deep valleys of doubt? What I kept questioning myself? And, by the way, the moment I graduated business school, I went right back into the reserves because I wanted to have a foot back in the military, because I was like I'm not sure I can do this, I'm not sure I can be a civilian. I think I made a mistake and there was a while where I would vacillate back and forth. But here is one of the well, it's not one of, but it's several of the stories that I relied on in Unstoppable Mindset, that I talk about, that.

Speaker 2:

I then go into the tools that I use, but I'll, if you don't mind, I'll reference the first story, please. I'll bring up this story, and this story is of the first phase training officer in SEAL training and the first phase of SEAL training. Seal training is made of three phases first phase, second phase and third phase, very creatively described, and it's about nine weeks long and the whole purpose of first phase is to weed out people who don't want to be there. It's where hell week is, where they have this week, where they keep you up and give you a total of three hours of sleep for the entire week and it's just trying to get you to quit. And this character and I'll abbreviate the story would basically he talked like this and he would say candidates of the class of 181, you all want to know the secret of making it through Navy SEAL training. Of course there's 122 of us. We've waited years to finally get there and start this training.

Speaker 2:

He goes well, it ain't complicated. It's hard, but it ain't complicated. You see, you just have to decide what you're going to focus on. Are you going to focus on the thought of how painful training is, or are you going to focus on how much pleasure training can provide you? Now I know for a fact over 80% of you are going to focus on the pain. You know why? Because you've all been focused on being a SEAL on a sunny day, and that's a rub. You see, your country, she don't need a SEAL on a sunny day. She needs them when the cold, dark, wet and, oh that crack over your head. Well, that ain't thunder, that's somebody want you dead. How bad do you want to be a seal on that day?

Speaker 2:

And then he would go on for a little while, but his final piece was you know what my job is? It's to create a conversation in here that's going to drive you to make a decision of what you're going to focus on. Now, this guy we would call instructor half-butt because he literally had his left butt cheek blown off by a rocket-propelled grenade in Vietnam. But he loved to tell us he could do more with his half-butt than we could with our full butts. But I tell that story and I tell that story a fair amount. I tell that story and I tell that story a fair amount Because to me that's the first step in leading ourselves of being aware of what thought we're going to embrace.

Speaker 2:

Because if you really break down a focus, it's first what's the thought? Because we have all kinds of thoughts flying by us every moment of the day and they're in three simple categories past, present and future thoughts. None of those thoughts are helpful or hurtful to us until we put energy in them. And I call that focusing, but focusing in what I think of focus like a funnel and it funnels energy with a thought until it gets to this point where we finally decide, like a laser, we're going to take action.

Speaker 2:

And when you ask, hey, what did I rely on to get through that valley of five years of questioning myself and doubting myself Is this the right thing? And I had started one civilian job in a software tech firm and it went terribly. And then I left and I was like maybe I should go back in the military and I interviewed for different things and then finally I'm like, okay, I think I'll start this business. And then I went on another journey for the next let's see five years, the next 12 years or 11 years from now, of starting physical fitness equipment that I could help people take control of their bodies. Take control of their bodies, take control of their life. That whole process.

Speaker 2:

I found myself every single day thinking about instructor half butt. Now I thought of a couple other instructors along the way, but that first piece was okay. How are you going to approach this day? What am I going to start to focus on first? Am I going to focus on something that's going to hold me back or is it going to propel me forward? Is it helpful or hurtful? Now get off my soapbox for a minute. But is that helpful?

Speaker 1:

It is Well and what's so interesting about it is again like there is so much that lies in our mindset, because our mindset is where we decide how we're going to show up. It's how we decide the lens we're going to be the world with. It's how we decide what we're going to say, how we're going get it right up here before it all spills out. You can drastically change your circumstance. I wholeheartedly believe that, and to your point and to Instructor Halfbutt's point, we have tens of thousands of thoughts every single day and studies have shown that 80% of them which is perfectly correlates with what he said 80% of them go directly to the negative.

Speaker 2:

Correct, and so let's talk about that for a moment, and I talk about this in Unstoppable Mindset. There was a study done by a UCLA professor I cannot remember her name at the moment, but it's in the book and she basically goes through and quantifies negativity bias. Now, negativity bias and I didn't make this up, this is a psychological term. Negativity bias means we have a propensity to put more focus, more value, on a negative thought than we do a positive thought. Part of our study was well, that's a way of keeping ourselves alive, because we have some very basic needs survivability and propagatability. Those two pieces are the basis of human life. Right, that's ground zero for moving ourselves forward. Now, of course, as humans, we've evolved dramatically since then. But what she finds is fascinating, and the best way I correlate it is comparing it to an Amazon new product review. Now, I've launched a lot of products on Amazon.

Speaker 2:

If you get a one-star review on a product, do you know how many five stars you need to offset the one star to get above a 4.0? If you get one one-star, you need five five-star reviews. Okay, why is that important? Because when you say something negative to yourself, let's think of that as a one-star review. Alden, you suck at this, alden, you're not going to be able to do this. Whatever, the negative is right. And, by the way, we are so good at speaking in the harshest terms to ourselves, we will speak to ourselves so much more harshly than we would let anyone else speak to us, and whether you agree with that or not, I know it's true with me. So here it is Alden sucks, he made that decision. He said that one negative UCLA professor says hey, you need three positive narratives in your head to just get back to status quo on the one negative, you need five to get yourselves up into the winner's column again. So Alden sucks has got to be Alden. You're great, alden, you got this. Alden, we can do this, alden, we're going to figure out a way. Hey, if we did it here, we can do it here, right.

Speaker 2:

And so that piece is so important to understand. And when we talk about mindset, I break mindset down into three chunks and they all interoperate. I call it a mindset loop. It's not just our thoughts, it's how we put the energy to them, which is focus, and then what we decide to believe in. Here's the good news, folks. Those are our controllables, and those are the only few things that we can control, besides physical things, spiritual things and some emotional pieces, but from the mindset perspective, that what we think, what we focus on and what we believe, that what we think, what we focus on and what we believe, those are the building blocks from which everything else will drive us to decide to take a helpful or hurtful action towards our goal.

Speaker 1:

I was blown away when I found the almost like the pathway to, and the simplicity around how actively interrupting those thoughts can be right. That's it should be. It's like, it's simple, it's basic. We, we know that when we go down the rabbit hole of something negative, right, it spirals, it gets more negative and and you can, you, you will drive down that road.

Speaker 1:

But the power and the strength in the act of saying, doing something that interrupts that pattern, and that is my trigger to say hit the brakes, sonny, you're spinning down the wrong path. And so that is what I try to do, and I actually do it out loud. In my house I've got two boys and a husband and if they start spinning, I'm like pattern, interrupt and they're like, you know, they love it, they absolutely love it. They don't love it, they're like, and it aggravates them in the moment but it stops them in their tracks. We probably laugh about it a little later. In the moment it's probably aggravating, but it gets them to think okay, mom's putting it out there, I have to interrupt this pattern. And so is there anything that you do or guidance that you can give on how have you trained yourself to interrupt those patterns so that they don't spiral out of control putting on a pair of glasses right Sunglasses and they're putting a filter over your eyes.

Speaker 2:

They're almost like those Terminator glasses. Have you ever seen one of the Terminator movies? And that heads up display and they're going through all these different people like Nod Saracana. Nod Saracana, that's the one we're after. These are awareness glasses, literally. There will be times I will take these and be like time to ship, or I might. I don't have the glasses and I will be. And, by the way, when I do something like that, I'm smacking my hands, I'm yelling out, I'm moving emotion First of all.

Speaker 2:

Motion is nothing more than energy in motion, but it's a state change. When you do a pattern interruption, you want to do a state change. So sometimes state changes are going to require more time than just yelling out shazam. Why is that? Because we have this little portion inside our brain called the amygdala. If we have already spent a fair amount of time in our doom loop, going down that negative rabbit hole, allowing ourselves to have our own pity party and think about all the reasons why we can't do something, we've fired the amygdala.

Speaker 2:

What happens when we fire the amygdala, the little almond-sized portion inside our brain, is that it starts secreting cortisol and adrenaline. When that happens, we're already starting to remove blood flow from the prefrontal cortex, where our executive function is going on, and we're in a fight or flight scenario. We're now bolstering fear by the way break. There are two basic emotions. They're all derived from these two fear and love. We start going down in a doom loop. That's fear.

Speaker 2:

When that happens and you start having adrenaline in your bloodstream, don't think that you can immediately do the state change when you yell out pattern interruption or whatever you're trying to do in those cases and you can feel it in your system you'll start to feel sluggish.

Speaker 2:

You'll start to literally kind of feel a little down. We can feel depression every day of the week if we want to, every moment we're not careful. I'll go for a walk around the block, I'll take a shower because you know what it's a great time in the middle of the day. I want to do something that just totally gets my mind at ease and relaxed. At a minimum, it can take 20 minutes to move those cortisol and adrenaline hormones out of your body. It could take a couple of hours. Maybe I'll get a snack, maybe I'll listen to music, I'll start reading something that's motivational and I just want everyone to be appreciative of the fact you're in control. But there is a piece that's going to take you a little while physiologically if you spend too much time down in that doom loop piece. That's going to take you a little while physiologically if you spend too much time down in that doom.

Speaker 1:

I am going to hit the pause button right here and wrap up part one with Alden. I hope you got so much value out of this first portion of the episode that you make sure to come back and join us again next week for the second part of Alden pouring out his wisdom on us. You're going to want to make sure to come back next week as he shares the correlation between social media and our mindset and I throw a question his way that he's actually never been asked before. So make sure to stay tuned, take notes, and I hope you are getting so much value out of this. Take notes and I hope you are getting so much value out of this. Thank you so much for listening and for being here on this journey with me. I hope you'll stick around.

Speaker 1:

If you liked this episode. It would mean the world for me if you would rate and review the podcast or share it with someone you know. Many need to hear this message. I love to hear from you all and want you to know that you can leave me a voicemail directly. If you go to my website, evokegreatnesscom, and go to the contact me tab, you'll just hit the big old orange button and record your message. I love the feedback and comments that I've been getting, so please keep them coming. I'll leave you with the wise words of author Robin Sharma Greatness comes by doing a few small and smart things each and every day. It comes from taking little steps consistently. It comes from making a few small chips against everything in your professional and personal life that is ordinary, so that a day eventually arrives when all that's left is the extraordinary.

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