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A
Good morning. This is the JP now podcast, episode 131. I am JP now, and as always, I have Lucas with me. Never leave your swim buddy. So this was ingrained into our minds from day one at BUDS and is something that has always stuck with me since. And there was multiple reasons for that. One, safety, but two, to ingrain into us this idea of we are a team, you're a part of a team, you're not going to do things on your own. And when you can be with your people and you have collaboration with your people, that is one of the most effective ways of actually navigating life, whether it's in business, in your marriage, like, if you're not walking in step with your spouse, there's going to be issues. If you don't have alignment with your kids, there's going to be issues. If you don't have alignment and collaboration with your family, there's going to be issues. If you don't have alignment and collaboration with your peers, with your subordinates, with your leadership, there's going to be issues. And so this was very, very important in this, in the, in the SEAL teams was this idea and concept of never leave your swim buddy. If you were alone, if you were running around doing something by yourself, you were going to get smoked, you were going to get a beat down, it was going to be bad. And hey, you know, sometimes physical pain is a good teacher. And in the SEAL teams we use that a lot, especially going through training and you know, with. There's been a lot of current things, sorry, a lot of things currently going on in my life that I am so thankful for. The friends that I have in my life that have been able to cover down legitimate, like somebody jumping in the car with me on Sunday and driving three and a half, four hours, no questions, and then helping get something taken care of and coming back, borrowing a car, hauler, vehicle from a buddy to make that trip, no questions asked. Like 30 to 40 people praying specifically for a scenario that was going on. Multiple offers of, hey, what can we do? What can you help? Hey, I'm here, standing by. And it just, it was a good reminder of how blessed I am to have these people in my life. But it brought me back to this mindset that we had in the buds, in BUDS was never leave your swim buddy. And as I was thinking about what that means and looks like for us, you know, that are not in the military, maybe we have some people that listen that are in the military and that's rad. But it Means being a good teammate, being there for the people in your life when they need you, even if it's an inconvenience to you. And you know Josh Strasberger, he's been on this podcast. One of my best friends, you know, helps out at Echelon Front. We do on the path printing together legitimate. My best friend. And you know, what we've navigated over the last couple years is it's been awesome. And you know, this weekend when I had something happen, I didn't even ask him to ride with me. He told me, hey, bud, I'm riding with you. I'll meet you at Brent's house to pick up the trailer. And Brent was another one of those guys and is one of those guys in my family's life to where if I need something, boom, I can call Lucas. You're the same way. You know, I've called you before, needed help. You and your families know, stepped up and we're there. And you know, obviously there are dozens and dozens more people that I'm not mentioning right now that are that in my life. But, you know, this last, you know, five days has been just a real life example of how blessed I am to have good people in my life. But also just something I wanted to share is make sure that we are doing that for other people. I, I can sit here and say, hey, I'm very blessed. I have all these people supporting me. And it was, it was a, it was been a good last five days to reflect of, hey, am I that for these people? Am I. What more can I do to help these people? And I, you know, it's, it's a heart posture thing of, hey, is your heart in the right posture to help and serve other people, or are you looking back and wanting and taking and receiving from everybody? Are you playing the victim card or are you finding ways to make things happen in life? And you know, this, these last five days has been absolute chaos. And that's another reason this episode is going to be very short, because the ability to record this earlier in the week and have a longer episode and a guest. Thankfully, Lucas is a very understanding and forgiving friend. And Coast's podcast, he knew what was going on and he's like, bro, hey, there's no factor. Even if we have to do this last minute Thursday, we'll get it out on Friday. So out of respect for Lucas and the time that it takes to make that happen, this is going to be a very short episode. This is also going to be a short episode out of respect for Lucas's family, because when he's working on these things late at night, it takes time away from his wife and his kids. So one, I just want to thank all the listeners because you guys give us a bunch of support. It's incredible. You know, when you guys use the code JP Pod20 saves you 20%. And it also helps out the podcast. Our friends at Relive Health, I know we're going to have something in the show notes. There's going to be a link there that will, you know, give you access to, you know, doing some work with Relive Health. And, you know, that's something that helps you. Helps our friends business and, you know, in the future could help the podcast. But I just wanted to kind of start off today's episode with just a mindset of never leave your swim buddy. And there's gonna be times that means that it's an inconvenience to you. It is an absolute inconvenience to you, but it's the right thing to do. And I'm thankful that, you know, I have those guys in my life. You know, James Gonzalez, same guy, you know, just always going out of his way to help out. Made me a beautiful table for my office because he just wanted, you know, he's been getting into woodworking, and it's been helping, you know, him with having these new projects. And now his work is unreal. Like, unreal. And, you know, and as I say that, I think about people. The question I asked myself these last five days is, what can I be doing more for my people? Like, what can I be doing more for my family, my wife, my friends? And it's just, I think it's something that we should always be thinking about is what more can we do for the people around us instead of just, hey, I need this. I need this. Which, hey, there are needs. I needed help these last five days, and I believe I was able to receive that help because I had the leadership capital with these people that it was. It was almost a no factor type of response. So what's your thoughts on all that, Lucas? I know you've been walking through this with us this week, and you've had a lot of stuff going on as well, and it's a unique season in everybody's life.
B
Yeah, you know, it really is. And one of the things we've talked a lot about over the course of this podcast is, you know, how to be a good leader. What it takes to, like, really build a relationship, what relationships are built out of and you know, what we're really getting to is like, we're honing down on the focus of this particular episode is like, what it means to be a reliable friend. And there are some really key characteristics and to just kind of let everybody know what we've been dealing with this week in our community is. A week ago today, there was a house in our community that exploded. It's been all over the news. It shook a pretty, know, massive radius where my home is. We're across from the fire department, and we, like, we felt something that felt like a. A mini earthquake. I've been in a couple of pretty nasty earthquakes out on the west coast before. And so I. I felt everything shake. I grabbed my. My oldest, who was there with me, and he was like, what was that? I was like, I don't know. And then a couple of minutes later, man, Fire department and ambulance services from all over our county were actually coming out. So you had the city of Lake Dallas, which is the Lake City's fire department, some of the neighboring Louisville, Highland Village, Flower Mound, they. They were sending people because there was a. There was literally a home that blew up. And there's some construction that's happening on the roadways here. And. And there's still an investigation going as to, like, what exactly happened with this home. But now, because this happened, there are so many people in our community that need help or that are displaced from their homes because they're trying to figure out, hey, is this related to a utilities thing? Is this related somehow to the construction? We've got a vehicle that, like, sniffs for natural gas. It's like going around on every street and in our entire city trying to check things out. And then you also have the folks that are online who are wanting to be, like, super helpful, want to help out everybody that's involved. Luckily, the. The home dweller, I think it's the easiest way to put it. The person who's living in that. The place that. That exploded, we don't know a lot about her. She sustained some injuries, but she's just asked not to be made public. And I'm totally respectful of that. But there's a bunch of people in our community that are on standby to help her out whenever we get more details about how we can do that. You know, my house burned down when I was 14, so I. I know a little bit about what it means to kind of lose everything in an instant. And then with the people in our community that have been displaced figuring those things out, working with the community with the city, with the utilities companies, with the first responders to try to figure out, hey, like, what things can we do? You guys are having to work overtime. We. We took some. Some hydrates and some Goes over to the lake, Dallas PD within the last couple of days, you know, to support and encourage them and trying to figure out how to navigate all of this stuff. And in the meantime, also trying to be a neutral voice can be a little bit of a challenge because you get some people in the community that are like, you know, hey, these are all the things that our city is doing poorly. And others that are like, hey, the city's trying its best. And, you know, remembering that as a community leader and as a person who is supposed to be reliable not just for the people who are involved directly, but also reliable for the city. Right. Like, what are the things that we need to do to make sure that we're being properly supportive? Right. But also that we're not being idealistic. You know, we're not just saying, like, hey, no, absolutely everything's wonderful and perfect, like, don't worry about anything. But also at the same time, not being overly negative about the way that anything's being handled. Trying to be a group that is helpful and responsible and overall, just like what you're talking about, reliable. So, you know, you said you've been doing some evaluations on what this looks like, and are you this. This type of friend? What is that? What does that look like for you? And, like, what things are you seeing in your life that are saying, like, hey, you know what? These are kind of the boxes that I want to make sure that I'm checking to show people that I am a reliable friend, even if I'm not the first call. I don't think any of us have enough ego to say that, like, no, I have to be somebody's first call, but just that when I get the call that. That I know how to. I've been a good enough friend before, the need to know that, or so that the other person knows, rather, that I'm somebody that they can call in time of need or in time of crisis or whatever. So what kind of boxes are you looking at that you're realizing, hey, I need to make sure that I check this and this and this. As you're doing those evaluations?
A
Yeah. I think the first step is just asking myself, okay, I think the first step that I would recommend for people to do is just, you know, you kind of have to do an audit of the relationships in your life, and you Know, and then be genuine and honest with yourself. And, you know, I love the way Jocko says this is. He's like, I assume I'm at a very low balance of leadership capital with everybody so that I don't assume that I'm better off than I actually am. And when I think about that, it really makes me think about, like, all the little withdrawals, like, hey, can you help me with this? Or, hey, what's your thoughts on this? Or, you know, if. And so it evaluates how I speak to people, and, you know, you can joke around with your people, but if I'm short with somebody and I'm not meeting to like, all right, cool. Hey, I need to call them up and be like, hey, bud, on the phone. That's not what I meant. And almost every time, like, I do that, they're like, yeah, I. I didn't even think twice about that. Not a big deal. And so it's just more of me being intentional about what I'm doing, what I'm saying, what I'm asking to people. And also, am I helping people? Am I being proactive to go out there and help people? I was having a call with Leif recently, and this is one of the things we were talking about was, hey, when we were in Ramadi, him and Seth would go to these different soldiers and Marine, the. The leaders of these different units, and they were proactively going to them and saying, hey, what do you guys have going on? What can I help with? What's up? And then they would delegate it to the team. And so I'm just wondering, how can I be better at that? How can I be better at reaching out and saying, hey, what can I do to help? Or not even so much reaching out and saying, what can I do to help? Because if I'm really listening and having good conversations with people, I know some of their needs. Like, I know what their needs are. And it's like, cool, I'm just going to execute and then. And then give it to them. And so it's for. For me being default aggressive. You know, the second mindset for victory that we teach at Echelon Front about building and maintaining relationships and making deposits, deposits, deposits. And when I make withdrawals, making sure I make deposits back there, and when I make withdrawals that are mistakes because I dropped the ball on something or, you know, I screw something up, being humble enough to just apologize right away, be like, hey, man, I screwed this up. I'm sorry. Hey, man, this is what I will not do again. Moving forward. This is what I'm going to do. Moving forward to fix it. Man, I hope you can forgive me. And also just asking people like, hey, I'm. I'm sorry, telling them, hey, I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me.
B
You know, one of the. One of the things I really liked about what you were saying is, you know, asking people for input. And everything starts with ownership, right? So going to somebody, when you do make a mistake and you ask somebody to forgive you, I had to do this. And it's important to do it with the little things. And this is one of the things I've really learned a lot from you over the past couple of years. My sister has an old baby bed that her kid has grown out of. We let her borrow it. And it was our anniversary weekend last weekend. Kirsten and I just celebrated six years. Super fun. Yeah, we did just really exciting stuff. We went shopping for antique books. So, like, just wonderful little nerd weekend. And my sister text us and was like, hey, we're swapping beds around for my kid. You know, when can we bring this bed to you? We. We need to get it out of the way so we can move the other stuff in. We just said, hey, you know, maybe the next couple of days we forgot about it. And now it's been almost a week since she sent us that message. I thought about it this morning when I was moving some other stuff around. I was like, oh, crap. I never messaged Sc Kelsey. And so instead of just the. The message that some people send, they're like, oh, don't know how I missed this. I absolutely know how I missed it. At 1 I 100 did. I looked at the message, I said, it can't happen right now. And then I forgot about it and blanked on it for the rest of the week because the rest of life is happening. We've got this stuff happening. You've got things that are going on. We're trying to communicate, to get stuff ready for the podcast. We're coordinating with grandparents to get, you know, the boys back to our place after anniversary weekend. I know exactly how it happened, but I can either ignore it or acknowledge it when it comes to reestablishing that. That communication about this thing. And so I just sent her a message and was like, hey, super sorry that, you know, I blanked on this. We. I've. I've got a couple of things I gotta move around, but we can definitely get it in the next couple of days. Let me know if you want me to pick it up or, you know, if it's easier for you guys to drop it off. Totally my bad. And the message I got back was like, you were the last person that needs to apologize to me for forgetting to send a text message. That doesn't happen. Right. If there's not this acknowledgment at the beginning, there wasn't an attempt to try to cover it up. Because I think three or four years ago, I probably would have. I probably would have said something like, hey, don't know how I forgot about this. Where now knowing, like, I know exactly how I forgot about this, I can tell you all the things that happened, which are the reason why. But that little bit of honesty and integrity and ownership, and it wasn't like a grand gesture of There wasn't this big, like, groveling apology that some. Sometimes we feel like we have to make in these situations. And that was just, hey, this is my bad. If we need to go and do it because we didn't get back with you in a timely manner, totally understand. Happy to do that. And then the response was, hey, you're the last person that needs to apologize for me for missing a text.
A
That's cool.
B
It's awesome. But it's evidence, I think, of what you're talking about because it's these really little things where we can acknowledge the small things that we've done, take ownership in these really small things, so that when it comes to the bigger stuff, that people feel like they can trust us because they know that we're not overlooking the details. Which is another thing we've recently talked about. That so cool. Yeah. So my. My next question to you. And I know we said we wanted to make this quick, but now my. My brain's turning. But yeah, one more. And then one question. Yeah, I get one more question. My gosh, I got a page of not so. All right, so here's my one follow up then is how if you've proven yourself reliable beforehand, right, by doing all the things you talked about, taking ownership of the little things, you know, making sure, you know, the big thing was like asking for somebody's involvement in something, for their opinion, their communications, all those little things build relationships. We're doing all of those things, and the time comes that the call happens, how do you prove yourself to be reliable? And the moment where you get that call.
A
So you either have the ability to make that a priority or you can communicate clearly. Hey, I'm sorry I can't help right now. Let me make a call or let me see what I can do. And it's, it's being like what you were just saying, being honest and upfront. There are times that I've had people that have called me like, hey, bud, need some help? And I'm like, man, I cannot right now. I literally physically do not have the ability to support. And then I'll help them navigate it. Hey, what about this? Did you call so and so? Hey, would this help you out? Does it have to be done right now or can I, you know, I fly back into town tomorrow night. When I land, can I head to head your way and fix it? And it's just about being open and transparent and providing solutions to that, whether it's ideas, because you're. You have a different perspective. You're helping them think about things they didn't think about before. Or it's a, hey, I can't. I can't do that right now. Let me call Josh because I know he's in your area and, you know, you know Josh well, I mean, I've called buddies that didn't know the other buddy, and I was like, hey, I could really use some help. Here's what's going on. And, you know, just recently, the guys from Relive Health helped me navigate some stuff as well with somebody. And, you know, they didn't know the person until that day, and they were just extremely professional, like they always are. Went above and beyond, like they always do to help take care of this person. Got them, you know, squared away and is getting them on the right path. And it was a favor I asked of them, like, hey, I need some help. And they're like, cool, yeah, come on in. We'll be, hey, do you need us to be there early? And I'm like, no, no, no, we're good. I'll be there at 10am when you guys open. So I think the biggest thing to that is just, do you have the ability to help them? If you do, then that's your answer. If you don't, help them navigate it, but be honest with them.
B
Yeah.
A
And provide other options and solutions.
B
So, yeah, I love that because that's
A
a way of collaborative. Being collaborative with people, you know, that's what my final thoughts are going to be. And so I'm not going to share that right now. But yeah, it's. Well, I mean, we're on our way there. We're able to do so.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
Talking to Leif earlier also about some stuff with Bruiser arms, which is, you know, company him, Jocko and I have and Together for, you know, gear and weapons and training packages. And we were talking through some stuff and some training packages I'm putting together. And it was just, you know, I was, I was apologizing life and like, hey man, you know, I haven't gotten stuff done yet. I apologize. Here's my priority for this year, blah, blah. And life was like, no, it's no factor. He goes, that shouldn't have been a priority. But we were able to like, talk through and progress and come up with a game plan. And, you know, that's why communication is so important. You should be having regular conversations with
B
people in your life 100%, you know, and I love what you said about not over committing because I think there's like this, if it's, especially if it's somebody that you care about, you feel compelled to help out. But if you're in a position where you can't or that you're in a spot where you might not be able to make it, helping facilitate somebody who can get there in a timely manner, who can take care of these things. And being honest about what you can do is way more helpful than putting all the pressure on yourself to be that person for them in this situation, when what that might mean is that you both start drowning. Drowning. Going back to the, to the swim, buddy analogy. So there you go. Be reliable, right? And in order to be reliable, do some self evaluations. Make sure that you're prioritizing the relationships in your life, auditing those relationships. And when it comes down to it, when somebody asks you in a time of crisis or trouble, or maybe they just, you know, what they, they need to talk or need a hand, whatever, be honest with what you're actually able to do. Do not use this as an opportunity to try to oversell. Instead, this is a place where, um, being able to say, hey, this is a priority and I can drop things or I can't. Is it really going to be the most helpful things? Well, if you want to learn more about how to do this exact stuff, go check out echelonfront.com, go look at the books. Extreme Ownership. Dichotomy of leadership, the need to lead. They talk about all of this stuff. Or you can get in on the Extreme ownership online Academy. Go to echelonfront.com and you can click on all of those things. If you want Echelon Front to work with your company, go send an email to infochelonfront.com and figure out how you can get somebody like JP to maybe do some one on one coaching. Maybe it's personal coaching you need, or maybe it's some CEO coaching. And the wonderful team over there at EF does all that stuff. You heard JP talk about bruiser arms. He talked about on the path printing. We looked at Relive Health, Jocko Fuel, which, you know, we were talking about. That's what we took over to our first responders. If you were in the North Texas area on April 11th at 4:34 in the morning at H E B in Melissa, we are getting together to do, I think, to set a Guinness World Record. It's going to be the largest group of people doing a hit workout at one time. So April 11th, you can go register for that jockofuel.com434tour. We would love to see y' all out there. Jocko is going to be out there running the workout. I think I'm, I'm going to do everything I can to make it out there, but with two toddlers, I'm going to make a
A
decision.
B
Game time decision. Exactly. So we would love to see you guys out there. Yeah, yeah. J.P. is going, but maybe what I'll do is I'll just sleep in the back of JP's pickup and he can just drive me out to where it is. But anyway, go check that out. We would love to see y' all out there, come shake our hands, go support what the guys over at Jocko Fuel are doing. And then if you want to order some stuff online, use code JP Pod 20, if you know that, you know what it's, it's going to be a rough drive out there at 4:34 in the morning to Melissa, Texas. Then go ahead and order some discipline. Go get you a 12 pack of that blue razz of that Bomb Pop so that you're ready to go and you stay awake all the way over there and you got enough energy for the workout. But with that, jp, you got any final thoughts for us before we close out?
A
Yeah, you know, I, I just again, want to thank everybody that supports the podcast, you know, Relive Health. If, if anybody uses that link in the show notes, Relive Health is going to. They cover the cost of the physician fee for. If you're getting blood work. You also don't have to get blood work to get peptides from needing a full blood panel. And then there's a physician's fee attached to that because the physician reviews it and comes up with a game plan. They're covering that, which is. That's pretty, pretty incredible. So just want to thank them for the support that they've given this podcast. And I mean, an unreal amount of my friends and family that have gone to them. So, you know, closing thoughts. You know, I was starting to talk about is, you know, one of the things our, our main focus at Echelon Front this year is collaborate like your lives depend on it because in Ramad it was a necessity. But in order to do that properly, it takes humility and you have to challenge yourself. You have to check your ego, subordinate your ego and, and, and do it for the right reasons. You're helping people because it's the right thing to do. And if you have the ability to help, you absolutely should help. So I hope this podcast, I'm sorry, I hope this episode has been a reminder to go do the work that's needed so that you can put in the effort properly, which builds your legacy. And remember, never settle. This is the JP Denial podcast, episode 131.
JP Dinnell Podcast #131 – "Becoming Clutch in Crisis"
Release Date: March 27, 2026
Hosts: JP Dinnell & Lucas Pinckard
This episode focuses on what it means to be "clutch" in a crisis—how to step up for those around you, be a reliable teammate, and live the core SEAL principle of “never leave your swim buddy.” JP and Lucas reflect on recent personal and community challenges, discussing the value of dependable relationships, practical steps for being that dependable person, and the mindset required to truly collaborate under pressure. Their stories span from combat lessons to everyday family and community life, offering listeners actionable wisdom on reliability and leadership.
| Segment | Topic | |---------|-------| | 00:00–06:45 | The "Swim Buddy" Mentality & Real-life Application | | 06:45–11:35 | Community Crisis: Leadership and Responsiveness | | 11:35–14:20 | Self-Audits & Building Leadership Capital | | 14:20–17:19 | Importance of Owning Small Things in Relationships | | 17:19–20:35 | Being "Clutch"—Proactive Help vs. Overcommitment | | 20:35–End | Regular Communication, Collaboration, and Final Thoughts |