In this episode of The Sean Trace Show, I sit down with retired US Army Special Forces officer Mark Grdovic for a powerful conversation about leadership, courage, resilience, and what it really means to step toward hard things when most people instinctively pull back.

We talk about the mindset behind volunteering for the unknown, how elite teams are built under pressure, and why real leadership is not about control but about earning trust, casting vision, and preparing people to think for themselves when things get messy. Mark also shares lessons from his years in Special Forces, his work as an instructor, and the deeper meaning behind his book Those Who Face Death.

This conversation goes far beyond the military and into the real-world struggles people face in business, family, personal growth, and everyday life. Have you ever had a moment where running toward the hard thing changed who you became?

On The Sean Trace Show, I sit down with Kyle Shepard, a Navy audiologist and resilience expert, and this conversation completely changed how I think about stress.

We break down why stress isn’t something to avoid, it’s something to train with, and how learning to function with it, recover from it, and grow because of it can reshape how you show up as a parent, leader, and human.

What if the stress you’re feeling right now is actually trying to level you up?

In this episode, I sat down with Holland Romero, a 24-year Navy SEAL veteran and founder of Legacy Forged Mindset, who coaches executives, founders, and elite athletes to lead with purpose and unlock peak performance. His origin story alone is worth the listen - at 19, with zero military background and zero physical training, he heard three sentences from a stranger at a Christmas party and signed a SEAL contract the very next day. Everyone told him he'd fail. He went anyway. The stranger, it turned out, had actually quit SEAL training himself. One lie changed everything.

Beyond the origin story, Holland breaks down what elite performance really looks like, why your "why" matters more than your physical ability, how he built unstoppable team cohesion leading 60 to 70 person cross-functional units in combat, and how great leaders protect their team's energy just as fiercely as their own. We also get into failure, ownership, and why the scariest thing isn't falling short - it's looking back and wondering if you could have done it.

What's the one thing you've been overthinking or waiting to feel ready for, and what's one step you could take on it today?