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This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 202, sitting here with Echo Charles. You have sent questions and we have possibly answers. Possible recommendations at a minimum, courses of action that you can follow to proceed forward.
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Courses of action.
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It's true.
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All right, first question. Good morning, Choco Echo. My name is Max and I'm reaching out for guidance on both mindset and practical business growth. I dropped out of College 2022 to pursue an online business I started. It has allowed me to support my family and purchase two houses. But I realized it isn't scalable beyond its current level. Over the past year, I started a junk removal and foreclosure clean out business which has now replaced my income and presents far greater growth potential. What I find challenging is the mental shift from operating as one man business to building as and leading a real company with employees. I've only ever been surrounded by middle and working class environments. I understand how to work extremely hard and push forward, but scaling into something larger is unfamiliar territory. How do, how can I strengthen my mindset to take that next step from, from a practical standpoint, what advice do you. Would you give someone transitioning from solo operator to building a team? Thank you for your time.
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Yeah, right on, man. Well, first of all, congratulations. It sounds like you're making things happen, which is, which is kind of awesome. And you have the foresight to recognize that the most challenging thing about a business, it's not the market, it's not the product, it's not the supply chain, it's not the regulations, it's not the science, is not the financing.
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No.
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It's the people. People are always the biggest challenge. And of course that's why it pays the biggest reward. And it's how we accomplish great things is through leadership. But it's good that you're recognizing the situation that you're going into. And one nice thing here is you. This is not going to happen overnight. In other words, you're not hiring 100 people into your team tomorrow you're going to hire two or three and then you're going to get four, four or five and you get eight and you're going to have 10 and 12 and then 15. That's how you're going to grow. So it's going to grow and it's going to give you some time to learn to lead and listen. I, I don't know any other way to say this. I would start off immediately by getting the book Leadership strategy and tactics field manual and I would immediately open up to a page 157, 158. I would read those, and then I would go read that whole book, and then I would use that book as a reference. I would then read the book Extreme Ownership, and then I would read the book the Dichotomy of Leadership.
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And.
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And listen, you're asking the questions about leadership, and the answers are what we wrote the books about, right? This is why we wrote those books. They are filled with the answers to your questions. So, you know, read those books. And then what I think is, is. Is the part that can help you, that I can give you right now is you have to take the context that you're in and overlay the principles of what you read so that you understand how they impact. Right? A lot of times people think of it too abstractly, like, oh, extreme ownership is a principle that I read about. But they never say, wait a second, the situation that I'm in right now, how do I apply to cover and move in this situation right now? How do I apply building relationships in this situation that I'm in right now? So you got to take it out of the abstract and out of the theoretical. It's a book. You got to drag it out of there and you got to put it into the situation that you're in. And you need to do that on like an. Almost like a. Twice a day, like once in the morning, once at lunch, maybe three times a day. You look at the end of the day and do a review and see how do these things fit in there? Because it's not natural. Leadership is counterintuitive, right? So you have to kind of constantly force yourself back on track and then, you know, so do that. Obviously. Listen to the podcast. Listen to Debrief podcast. Good things on there. Listen to this podcast. Obviously, you already are, you know, join. Join the Echelon front online academy, Extreme ownership, dot com. Like, that's. We have people all the time that are on there. We're ask, answering questions, giving feedback to. There's a bunch of courses on there to take. I think, again, all this will help you build this framework that then you can put the context of your world into. So those are like, this is a giant question. You know, hey, what advice do you have for leadership, bro? It's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's not instinctual. It's not easy. You're not born with it. You actually have to learn it. You know, you actually have to learn it. If someone said, hey, jocko, this question, if it said, hey, jocko, I'm I'm gotta write a report on the Civil War. What can you tell me about the Civil War? You know what I mean? Like, that's a huge question. That's a huge question. Or like, hey, Jocko, I just got a guitar. What should I do? Yep, you should get a. You should get a book about how to play guitar. That's one's a little bit different because that guitar is a. But you. You're going to need to learn how to tune the guitar. You're going to learn how to know what the chords are. Like, there's things you're going to have to do because it's a big subject and leadership is a bigger subject than either of those. Bigger subject than the Civil War. Bigger subject than the playing guitar. So get those books and then, you know, those things will be helpful. And just to get you started to hear, like, what's the vision that you're looking for? Make sure the people understand what the mission is. Make sure you know what the mission is. Right. Make sure you know what it is you're trying to do. And then, you know, when you hire people, build relationships with them. And you've heard me say it on here, Trust, listen, respect, influence, and care. That's what we're doing. And you build a good relationship with people and you're going to build a solid team and you take care of them and they're going to take care of you and things are going to be good to go. So that's where we're at, man. Just. Just know those principles and then force yourself to apply them into the world that you're living in. That's what we got.
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You said something that was actually more important than I feel like a lot of us realize, and that is like, where do you. Where do you want to go? You know, like, what's the. So back when I was a personal trainer, they, through certification, they tell you, like, this is a very important element of being a trainer. When someone's like, hey, I want to get in shape, I want to. I need a personal trainer. Or is this a good exercise? Or whatever. You know, any question that someone asks, a potential client or client asks you, this applies to this. You always have to ask them, what are your goals for this thing? Because they're.
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Yeah, you still do that. Anybody sends. Anytime someone's talking about working out, you're always like, well, what? That's what their goals are.
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What are we trying to do? Exactly right? And it, it's. Then it's not just happening. It's like, it's absolutely true. Just like this, where it's like, hey, what advice do you have? It's like, oh, well, depends, bro, you know, Totally depends on. So eight, identifying where you. Where you want to go and, you know, being conscious of where you are now. And then kind of reverse engineering it kind of a thing. And then, yes, using all the. All the strategies and tactics, for sure. But because a lot of times, bro, even in just everyday life, sometimes we can forget these things. So, like, when you're like, hey, where do I want to be? Like, bro, when I was young, you know how people ask you, like, where do you want to be in five years? I was like, I don't think I ever thought about that. Five, five years. That's a long time from now. Like, I don't think about that kind of stuff. I'm think about today or 10, let alone 10 years. So. But if you kind of like, hey, just take a minute and be like, bro, where do you want to be in however long it be, five years or whatever, it's like, oh, that kind of turns on some light bulbs there. See what I'm saying? That's like, okay. And then, you know, you can get little tactics. Which one that I heard that. I was like, oh, that's a useful. Just little thing to ask yourself. It's like, hey, where do you. What do you have to get done today for it to be. They call, you know, a win, or what do you have to do today to make it a successful day? It's kind of like that. Like, we don't. Like, I don't think about that kind of stuff back before, like, long time ago. I just think about, okay, I got something to do and I'm too busy, quote unquote, doing it. Rather than like stopping and be like, okay, where do you want to be? And kind of mapping it out. You see, I'm saying then you can start to make appropriate decisions. Otherwise you just with your head down, going through freaking. You see, I'm saying, yeah, gotta look
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up, gotta have a plan. You gotta know where you're going.
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And then that iterative steps thing, and you mentioned it, where it's like, don't hire 100 people. Yeah, just be like, hey, if I know where we want to be next week, and I can see the discrepancy between where I am now and where I want to be, I can be like, okay, I can do this, this, this. That's it though, see, I'm saying, and then we'll reevaluate next Week.
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See, I'm saying, you ever get asked like, hey, if, if you could, if you could learn one thing as a white belt, what would the one thing be? You know, I get those kind of questions, you know, going into SEAL training. What's the one thing People are always looking for a kind of a shortcut or kind of that distilled like, thing. And really it's very, it's very difficult to answer that question properly because who am I talking to? Because if you're a dude that habitually over trains and like goes overboard and gets hurt and you come to me and I don't know you, and you say, hey, you know, I'm just starting Jiu jitsu, what's the one thing that I should do? And I'm like, make sure you make sure you train as much as you can. And you go, cool, got it. And you train for two months and you're injured.
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Yeah. You know, or burnt out. I didn't like it. This, like, I don't like it that much.
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Or, you know, hey, what's the one thing you should do to get ready for SEAL training? Well, if you're a crappy runner, you should run. If you're a crappy swimmer, you should swim. If you're a great runner. And I'm like, you know what the most important thing is running. And you go, cool. And you run more, but you forgot to do pull ups. You see what I'm saying? So it's like with this leadership questions, like, well, you know, what's, what's the most important guidance when I start a new bit? Well, it depends on who you are. Maybe you're a type of person that builds great relationships with people. Cool. And I tell you, hey, relationship are the most important. But then you get buddy, buddy with everyone and there's no lines and no one knows who's in charge. You don't have any plans. So really that's why I can't give this just kind of simple, hey, when you even the thing that you just said, like, hey, you got to make sure you come up with a plan because there's some people that had already been planning. So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground podcast. So if you want to continue to listen, go to Jocko underground.com and subscribe. And we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms so we are not subject to their control. And we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko podcast, which will remain as is free for all as long as we can keep it that way. But we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors. And we're doing it so we can give you more control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So thank you. It's Jocko. Underground.com it costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email assistancecounterground.com and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized. Underground.
Date: February 23, 2026
Hosts: Jocko Willink & Echo Charles
In this episode, Jocko Willink and Echo Charles engage with a listener question about making the crucial mental and practical transition from being a solo entrepreneur to building and leading a team. The conversation focuses on leadership development, mindset shifts, and actionable strategies for scaling a business—blending pragmatic SEAL wisdom with personal anecdotes and a grounded, sometimes humorous tone.
Jocko brings his trademark directness, blending SEAL-level discipline with real empathy. The answers are frank but supportive, mixing depth with accessible analogies. Echo provides relatable anecdotes and reframes lessons through a personal and slightly self-deprecating lens, making the advice actionable and human.
This episode offers a playbook for anyone stepping up from working solo to leading others, grounding every tip in lived experience and the unvarnished realities of scaling a business. The essence: Leadership is hard but learnable; know where you’re headed, grow step by step, invest in your people, and review and adjust constantly. And above all: “Gotta look up, gotta have a plan.”