Elite Mindset Mastery: 4 Skills with Leadership Coach Mark Divine

Summary

Podcast Summary: Elite Mindset Mastery: 4 Skills with Leadership Coach Mark Divine

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Mello Millionaire with Tommy Mello
• Host/Author: Mello Studios
• Description: Build. Scale. Inspire.
• Episode Title: Elite Mindset Mastery: 4 Skills with Leadership Coach Mark Divine
• Release Date: July 4, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of The Mello Millionaire, host Tommy Mello engages in an enlightening conversation with Mark Divine, a former Navy SEAL commander and renowned leadership coach. Mark Divine is the founder of SEALFIT, Unbeatable Mind, and the Veterans Integration Program, through which he has transformed thousands of lives by emphasizing discipline, mindset, and breath control. As a certified yoga and meditation teacher, Divine advocates that true strength encompasses both power and presence, coaching CEOs, military leaders, and athletes to harness these skills for peak performance.

Mark Divine's Journey and Foundations

Mark Divine begins by sharing his unconventional path to becoming a Navy SEAL. Despite obtaining an MBA and CPA from NYU Stern and working for a prestigious firm, he felt unfulfilled. At 21, he delved into martial arts and Zen meditation under a sensei, which fundamentally altered his mental landscape. This practice fostered mental clarity and a spaciousness in his mind, allowing him to observe his thoughts objectively—a skill that later proved invaluable in SEAL training.

Mark Divine [01:58]: "I developed a little spaciousness in my mind, whereas before meditation I was completely merged in my thoughts."

Transition to Leadership Coaching

Divine recounts his experience during SEAL training in 1989, where he naturally assumed a coaching role within his team amidst intense chaos and fear-inducing exercises. His ability to remain calm and focused under pressure led to extraordinary team performance, highlighting the effectiveness of breathwork, meditation, visualization, and radical focusing. This success paved the way for founding SEALFIT and authoring three best-selling books: Kokoro Yoga, Eight Weeks of Seal Fit, and Unbeatable Mind.

Understanding Kokoro and Whole Mind

One of Divine's notable concepts is Kokoro, a Japanese term meaning the heart and mind merged into action or a whole mind approach. He explains that Kokoro integrates body and mind, allowing individuals to access intelligence from the heart, gut, and entire nervous system. This holistic approach fosters simultaneous mind—maintaining broad-based awareness while focusing deeply on specific tasks.

Mark Divine [05:20]: "Kokoro means heart and mind merged into your actions. It also means whole mind."

The Four Skills of Mental Toughness

In Unbeatable Mind, Divine outlines four essential skills for developing mental toughness, each serving as a cornerstone for achieving clarity and resilience:

1. Breath Control ([06:37]):

   • Definition: Maintaining a calm mind and body through controlled breathing.
   • Application: Techniques like box breathing enable non-reactive responses during high-stress situations.
   • Quote:

     Mark Divine [06:37]: "Breath control is how you maintain a calm mind and a calm body."

2. Mental Management ([06:44]):

   • Definition: Directing one’s mental focus towards constructive thoughts.
   • Application: Observing and managing thoughts to prevent negative thinking from dominating.
   • Quote:

     Mark Divine [07:09]: "Where are you putting your mind and is it the right thing?"

3. Mental Imagery ([07:11]):

   • Definition: Utilizing visualization for healing and planning.
   • Application: Cleaning past traumas and visualizing future goals to enhance performance and motivation.
   • Quote:

     Mark Divine [07:11]: "We use visualization in a past orientation to clean up shit... and develop a future view of your desired end state."

4. Radical Focusing ([07:59]):

   • Definition: Concentrating intensely on the most important task at hand.
   • Application: Prioritizing key activities that drive significant progress, even amidst a packed schedule.
   • Quote:

     Mark Divine [07:59]: "There’s one thing that you got to do that's going to move the dial."

Challenges in Developing Mental Toughness

Divine identifies the primary obstacle to mental toughness as the inability to manage and control one's thoughts, leading to negative thinking and emotional instability. He emphasizes that mental toughness and emotional resilience are intertwined, asserting that without emotional maturity, individuals risk burnout and project failure despite having a disciplined mind.

Mark Divine [08:12]: "They're lacking the mental skill to be able to manage and control their thoughts."

Leadership Development: Vertical Growth

Shifting focus to leadership, Divine advocates for vertical leadership development, which centers on evolving one's character and self-awareness rather than merely acquiring new skills. He argues that effective leadership stems from personal growth, fostering an environment where team members thrive and take ownership.

Mark Divine [11:08]: "Leadership development... is really about changing who you are, not what you know."

Building High-Performing Teams

Divine discusses the importance of treating the team as the true leader, fostering a culture where the collective becomes the driving force. He highlights practices such as group box breathing before meetings to create resonance and deep connections within the team, thereby breaking down barriers and diminishing ego-centric leadership.

Mark Divine [14:07]: "The team is the new leader. You do things together that create incredible intimacy."

He notes that achieving this level of team cohesion takes time, often requiring six months to a year of consistent practice and shared experiences to master these techniques and reach a state where the team operates seamlessly.

Final Insights and Conclusion

In concluding the conversation, Divine urges listeners to focus on their personal world rather than external anxieties about the broader world. He stresses the importance of mental and emotional healing as prerequisites for advancing to higher levels of personal and professional development.

Mark Divine [16:18]: "Stop fretting about the world out there and worry about your world. The best way to start worrying about your world is by learning how to win in your mind before you step out into that world."

Key Takeaways

• Holistic Development: Emphasizing the integration of physical, mental, and emotional disciplines to achieve peak performance.
• Mind Over Matter: Mastery of breath control, mental management, imagery, and radical focusing as foundational skills for mental toughness.
• Emotionally Resilient Leadership: Balancing mental discipline with emotional maturity to lead effectively and sustainably.
• Team Synergy: Building high-performing teams through shared practices and mutual trust, shifting leadership from the individual to the collective.

Notable Quotes

• Mark Divine [00:00]: "To me, the best leader is one who just gets out of the way. Hire really well, then get out of the way."
• Mark Divine [00:16]: "If you're not willing to give it all, then do not continue."
• Mark Divine [06:37]: "Breath control is how you maintain a calm mind and a calm body."
• Mark Divine [07:09]: "Where are you putting your mind and is it the right thing?"
• Mark Divine [07:59]: "There’s one thing that you got to do that's going to move the dial."
• Mark Divine [08:12]: "They're lacking the mental skill to be able to manage and control their thoughts."
• Mark Divine [11:08]: "Leadership development... is really about changing who you are, not what you know."
• Mark Divine [14:07]: "The team is the new leader. You do things together that create incredible intimacy."
• Mark Divine [16:18]: "Stop fretting about the world out there and worry about your world."

Closing Thoughts

This episode offers profound insights into developing a resilient and focused mindset essential for both personal and professional success. Mark Divine's experiences and teachings provide listeners with actionable strategies to enhance their mental toughness, emotional intelligence, and leadership capabilities. Whether you're a budding entrepreneur, a seasoned executive, or someone striving for personal growth, the lessons from this conversation are invaluable for unlocking your full potential.

Transcript

[Mark Divine]

To me, the best leader is one who just gets out of the way. Hire really well, then get out of the way.

[Tommy]

Grounded, focused, fearless. Our guest today doesn't just teach mental toughness. He embodies it.

[Mark Divine]

If you're not willing to give it all, then do not continue.

[Tommy]

From Navy SEAL commander to elite leadership.

[Mark Divine]

Coach, don't ever give up.

[Tommy]

Ever. He's the founder of sealfit, Unbeatable Mind, and the Veterans Integration Program, transforming thousands of lives through the power of discipline, mindset, and breath control.

[Mark Divine]

You know, every day I kick ass, go to bed, and then I do it again tomorrow. And you don't let anything else distract you.

[Tommy]

As the host of the Mark Devine.

[Mark Divine]

Show, thanks so much for joining me today.

[Tommy]

He's interviewed some of the world's top thinkers, athletes, and military leaders. As a certified yoga and meditation teacher, he's proven that true strength isn't just about power. It's about presence. He's coached CEOs, military leaders, and athletes to master breath control and achieve maximum performance in their daily lives.

[Mark Divine]

Most of the time, Villa breathes your nose, which keeps you controlled.

[Tommy]

Prepare yourself. This conversation will challenge the way you think about leadership, resilience, and the warrior mindset.

[Interviewer]

Today we're here in California with Mark Devine. I really appreciate the time today. Mark, talk to me a little bit about what you're doing these days and what got you started.

[Mark Divine]

When I went in the seals, I was 25 years old. The four years before that, I was in New York City getting my MBA and cpa. But the one thing that was really unique for me was I'd gotten into a martial art, right? And I had a sensei or was actually the founder of this whole school was really into Zen meditation. And so here at 21, I'm learning how to meditate, which is basically mental training, right? We were using concentration training to develop focus and awareness. Like, all this stuff. A lot of that work really is what led me to the SEAL teams because it basically changed the way my mind worked.

[Co-Host]

Right, so you.

[Interviewer]

You got a master's degree and a CPA before entering?

[Mark Divine]

Before, yeah.

[Co-Host]

Yeah.

[Mark Divine]

And I had no interest in the military when I was in my early 20s. Like, I. I came up, you know, from the family where that was kind of taboo. Like, you didn't. You. You went in the military if you couldn't figure anything else out in life, you know, but sitting on the meditation bench developed this. This, like, mental clarity.

[Co-Host]

Right?

[Mark Divine]

And so what happened for me, I mean, my experience was that I developed, like, this little Spaciousness in my mind.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

Whereas before meditation I was completely merged in my thoughts.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

I believed my thoughts. I developed this kind of like opening this aperture, this spaciousness. And I could actually observe my thoughts metacognitive or from a distance. So I grew up in a really kind of negative family. A of lot, lot of, you know, a lot of programming that just wasn't serving me. And I wasn't really happy at the time either. And yet here I was in this great career, right. I was getting my MBA at nyu Stern business. I was getting my CPA working for Coopers and library, which is now Pricewaters Cooper. Everything was green light go from the outside perspective. But inside I was like, this isn't working for me. And I started to question the storyline that I was living. And what I saw, Tommy, was that that story wasn't my story, it was someone else's story. So anyways, fast forward. I find myself in seal training in 1989 and my bud's class, 185 kids, hardcore young men. And I was put together with a team of six others, we call it a boat crew. They're trying to create and so the most intense chaos and inject fear into the team and into the, into the class. They want to see how you're going to react. And most people are reacting, you know, not well.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And so when this started happening literally on the first day, everyone else was just reacting. And they're usually reacting with the wrong actions, right. Things that are leading them, you know, down, down the wrong path. It's going to take more time or they're just going to it up. So I automatically just kind of assumed this coach role.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

While I was there, I was a little bit older. Yeah. And we just started to see extraordinary results. And I found how valuable the breath work was, the meditation, the visualization, the radical focusing. And I started to build these things into a, like a teachable system. So through navyseal.com, i started to mentor other Navy SEAL candidates and other special ops candidates and I began to teach them this stuff that led to a nationwide contract from the Navy where the Navy hired me to mentor Navy SEAL candidates across the country who are coming into the Navy.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And so SEAL FIT is a, is a training system for physical mental toughness. And we used to have 30 day live in academy.

[Interviewer]

So what kind of training?

[Mark Divine]

Anything you can imagine. So hardcore functional fitness. So we developed something called the SEAL Fit Operator workouts which combined, you know, like power lifts with Olympic lifts with functional fitness, crossfit style workouts, rucking, running, and we learned so much. Like it was an incredible growth spurt for me. And out of that period I think those lasted maybe four or five years. I ended up with three entire training programs. Three best selling books, right? My Kokoro Yoga, eight Weeks of Seal Fit and Unbeatable Mind.

[Interviewer]

Tell us what the word kokoro means.

[Mark Divine]

In your book title Kokoro is. I would put that practice more in the spiritual mountain. Kokoro means heart and mind merged into your actions. It also means whole mind. My real passion is integrated development to bring whole mind or holistic, you know, approach to living into the world. And so what is whole mind? What is kokoro? It's where your body is, your mind. Like you don't live from here up. You have complete access to the intelligence of your heart, your gut, your bio, you know, your entire enteric nervous system. You're able to experience what I call simultaneous mind, which is where you have complete contextual, broad based perspective awareness while simultaneously are able to radically focus on what it is you're focusing on. That's kokoro.

[Interviewer]

In your other book, Unbeatable Mind, you talk about the four big skills for mental toughness. Can you walk us through those and why they're important?

[Mark Divine]

These skills are like your money. If you can master these as a daily practice, it'll bring you absolute clarity. So the first one is breath control.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

So breath control is how you maintain a calm mind and a calm body.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And so that non reactionary experience that I was having in the seals, it's because of the box breathing? Yep. Because you know, freaking grenade would go off and I'd be like, inhale, exhale, no reaction, still calm. But I'm able to now respond instead of like freak out. The second skill, Tommy, is mental management. So where are you putting your mind and is it the right thing?

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And then the corollary to that is what's the quality of the thoughts of the thinking? Right. So in order to do that you have to be calm and you have to be able to create a little space and to be able to observe your thoughts. The third skill is mental imagery. So we use visualization in a past orientation to clean up shit. So you know, heal from traumas or anything. Coulda, shoulda, wouldas, right? We clean that shit up. The other visualization is to develop a future view of your desired end state in life. The closer you get to your vision, the more capable you are. The fourth one is radical focusing. Today you have one thing you're going to do today, that's the most important thing.

[Co-Host]

Yep.

[Mark Divine]

Your schedule might be still full, but there's one thing that you got to do that's going to move the dial.

[Interviewer]

So what do you think most people are lacking when it comes to mental toughness?

[Mark Divine]

They're lacking the mental skill to be able to manage and control their thoughts. And so they let negative, negative thinking just dominate and excessive chatter so they can't get quiet inside. And I think that's the key. And the corollary to that is they can't manage their emotions.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And so they let fear and kind of negativity and doubt enter.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And mental toughness and emotional resiliency are really kind of two sides of the same coin. Mental toughness is like, okay, you know, like we talked about Goggins and Jocko, right. It's like extreme discipline.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

You can. You can. You can have a mind that's like a steel trap and just radically focused. But if you aren't emotionally mature, Right. Eventually you're going to burn out, or eventually you're going to drop a grenade on your own project. And so just just by doing physical training, you're also training your mind. You're also training your emotional awareness, or you have the opportunity to. To access and to understand your intuitional, you know, guidance, gratitude.

[Co-Host]

Right?

[Mark Divine]

That's training your positivity and your optimism. And then you begin your box breathing. Now you're training arousal control, you're training concentration, you're training attention control, you're training mindfulness. At the end of your box breathing, you're doing your visualization. Over time, as you do this work, you're becoming much more aware of emotional patterns that aren't serving you.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And that's where the, like, the emotional mountain. I said five mountains. Physical, mental, emotional, intuition, and spiritual. The emotional one is the one that's most challenging for individuals because we're dealing with, like, childhood trauma, you know, stuff like that.

[Interviewer]

Why'd you decide to do a PhD? I'm curious. I thought about either a second master's degree or a PhD, but I would.

[Mark Divine]

Wait until you want to free up some time, you know, when your time frees up. But I started mine when I was, you know, 58.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Mark Divine]

And I wanted to change. You know, the perception in my line of work is. Is important.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

How people perceive me. And so people always perceive me as the Navy SEAL mental toughness leadership guy.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

And I was the OG to kind of create a business around that. And now we have A lot of other seals who are involved in that stuff. Right. And more coming in every day. You know what I mean? So. And frankly, it's, you know, it's part of my past.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

I don't want to spend the rest of my life talking about Navy SEAL shit. I'm very proud of it. I love the teams. Got a lot out of it. I helped a lot of guys, but I'm really about developing people to be the best version of themselves. So. And I want to get in also leadership development and corporate work. And we do a lot of work with corporations, but, you know, to do it right, you need to have that validation of, you know, doctorate.

[Interviewer]

Where do you even start to train a leader? Like, what, what was the, what's the path?

[Mark Divine]

Leadership development. We call it vertical. It's really about changing who you are, not what you know. Because, you know, you said, like, you hire for character and you train, train the skills. Same thing at every level of development that you reach. You know, the skills are going to be, that you have, are going to be more effective and you're going to have access to new and more skills, those horizontal skills. So for leadership development, it's about evolving your sense of self. It's about evolving your character, about becoming more focused, more aware, increasing the aperture on your perspective of what you include and what you respect. To me, the best leader is one who just gets out of the way and learns to trust. But of course, verify, right? And so leader will set the strategy and the vision and like, you know, what you've done with your company, be an exceptional hire. Right? Hire really well, but then get out of the way. You go to work to grow, and the work then becomes enjoyable.

[Interviewer]

You know, I, I try to get these, my team to work on themselves as much as possible.

[Mark Divine]

That's good.

[Interviewer]

Then. You know, a lot of my. The team has a high iq, right? It's getting their eq, the way they view themselves. You know, realize how you're talking to people, how do you make people feel?

[Co-Host]

Right?

[Interviewer]

But this new chapter that I'm going to. It's so hard for me because I'm no longer the one doing the work. And it's just, it's. It's a weird position to be in. But as I started to manifest who I would need to become, it was not the guy doing the work.

[Mark Divine]

No, can't be. But you can build into the culture, the, the mechanisms for that kind of growth.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Mark Divine]

You know what I mean? I think that you can, you can process eyes, the growth opportunity well, yeah, that.

[Interviewer]

That's the thing, too, is, like, I'm really focused right now on.

[Mark Divine]

On.

[Interviewer]

It's like I.

[Tommy]

Sometimes I have to travel just to.

[Interviewer]

Get out of their hair, like you said. Get out of the way.

[Co-Host]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Like, sometimes I've caught myself walking in their office unannounced, and they're busy. They. They working on stuff, like, you know, the. Got a minute manager type stuff.

[Co-Host]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So I'm working on it. You know, I talk a lot about winning together, like, my team. Like I. My. My second book was called Elevate. Build a Business where everybody wins.

[Co-Host]

Nice.

[Interviewer]

You talk about winning together and. And let the team be the hero. Talk to me a little bit about that.

[Mark Divine]

Nobody. Without your team, your team is the company, Right. Without your team, no company. And so it goes back to kind of like, egoic leadership thinking that you have to be the one that solves all the problems.

[Interviewer]

Yep.

[Co-Host]

Yeah.

[Mark Divine]

You have to be the one with all the great ideas, and you have to be right all the time. And there's nothing that shuts a team down more than those things. So to make the team a hero, I'd say the team is the new leader.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

You do things together that create incredible intimacy.

[Co-Host]

Right?

[Mark Divine]

Now, this is challenging for a lot of Americans and American executives, Right? But for instance, in my company, and we teach this to our client companies, we box breathe before we start any meeting together, right? So you might do 10 rounds of box breathing. Everyone's sitting in silence, eyes closed. And now what you're doing is, like, everyone's kind of, like, creating this resonance, this field of, like, real. Real kind of deep connection. That's an example of a way to bring, you know, to create a community of practice with your team where everyone is doing some similar things together that are really breaking down the barriers and softening that ego grip. And then what happens is you get into this more contextual, right. Brain, like, energetic field. We develop these practices so that the team becomes the main thing, and you're. And you're showing up so that you don't let your teammates down.

[Co-Host]

Right.

[Mark Divine]

You were doing the work, so you don't let your teammates down. We talked about, you know, exercise and. And reading, right? So it'd be unfathomable to me, like, if my leadership team wasn't taking care of themselves physically, wasn't doing things to grow Right. Even in the SEAL teams, even after all that training, it takes a. It takes a platoon or a troop, probably a good, you know, good six months, sometimes a year to really create this Kind of this. This energetic flow state where the team is just. They don' to talk, they're just, you know, they're just firing in all cylindos.

[Interviewer]

I love it. Six months to a year to master these techniques.

[Mark Divine]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And what, what. We talked about a lot of stuff.

[Mark Divine]

Yeah, we sure did.

[Interviewer]

And I. The one thing I like to finish off is give you the mic, let you tell the audience whatever. Maybe we didn't talk about something. So I'll let you close us out.

[Mark Divine]

No, thanks, man. First of all, I appreciate you doing this. Yeah, it was great to meet you. Talked a little bit about, like, the state of affairs in the world. I think a lot of people do themselves a great disservice by wigging out, by stressing out about the future. And we have this kind of. This idea that there is a world out there and there's not one world, there's eight billion worlds. Everybody's. Everybody's world is different.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Mark Divine]

So stop fretting about the world out there and worry about your world. And the best way to start worrying about your world and taking control of your world is by. Is through a practice of learning how to win in your mind before you step out into that world. Everyone's dancing around trauma, thinking that they don't have it right. They're bringing their child self, male adapted child self into. Into their relationships. So get over yourself and get. Get some freaking emotional healing going. It's critical if you want to go to the next level. That's what's holding you back.

[Interviewer]

If someone wants to reach out to you, you've got a podcast, obviously. Where do they find the podcast?

[Mark Divine]

That's Mark Divine show. Just search for it wherever podcasts are found. Spotify, Apple.

[Interviewer]

And if somebody wants to reach out to you, what's the best way to do that?

[Mark Divine]

My website, markdivine.com has a lot of information there. And you can reach out to [e-mail] directly. I'm on social media, of course. Search for markdivine.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Mark Divine]

And unbeatablemind.com is the training that we're talking about. We do work with executives and organizations, and that's a good place if you want to tap into some of this training.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, this was amazing. I really appreciate the time today, Mark, and this was a great podcast.

[Mark Divine]

Thanks very much.

[Interviewer]

Thank you.

[Mark Divine]

Oh, yeah.

[Tommy]

All right, guys, thanks so much for listening to this episode. Like always. We're going to close it out with the Tommy Truth, which is a little slice of wisdom from me to you that can help guide you in whatever you're striving towards right now when it comes to mental health. Clarity, the mindset, working out, eating right. I didn't have any idea the effect it would have on success when I started focusing on me and really doing the right things. When it comes to my habits, whether that's cold plunge, getting in the sauna, working out harder, long walks, reflection, day by day, night by night, over and over and staying committed to myself, it changed everything. I became a morning person. I started doing the hard things first. I started enjoying each and every day like it was a fun token. I started really to look at my life like I was made to be here. The chance of me are 1 in 400 trillion that I made to be on this earth. And I'm taking advantage of each and every day. And I feel like a bull. I can take on anything and I'm ready whatever you throw at me. My mind is clear, I'm focused, and I'm ready to take on the world. And I'm very, very excited because this is the first time in my life I've felt that I'm invincible. And that's it, guys. We'll talk to you next week.