Navy SEAL Training, Near Death Experience, and FBI Service Post 9/11 With Errol Doebler

In the inaugural episode of Dealer OOO, hosts Jacob Berkal and Frank Zombo welcome Errol Doebler, a former Navy SEAL and FBI agent, to discuss his remarkable journey from military service to leadership coach.

Errol shares insights into the rigorous training and mental toughness required to become a Navy SEAL, including his experiences during Hell Week. He reflects on how 9/11 spurred his decision to apply to the FBI and the transition from Navy SEAL to FBI Special Agent.

The conversation also touches on personal development, family life, and Errol's current work with the Ice Cold Leader program, which focuses on leadership and emotional awareness.

Errol (00:00.098): When they say your life goes before your eyes, it's a fairly accurate state. If the physical exertion, if I can get through that, it will delay whatever pain getting to my head. When I was falling, I remember thinking, go out like a man. Don't yell and scream. Don't flail. Just fall, get dead, and let everybody tell a cool story about you, how you handled it like a man. 

Welcome to Dealer out of office. We're your hosts. I'm Frank Zombo. I'm Jake Burkle. And we are here to talk to you about dealer's interests outside of the office. Now watch this drive.

Jake (00:54.124): Welcome to the first edition of Dealer Out of Office. I am one of your hosts, Jacob Burkle, alongside the man, the myth, the legend, Frank Zombo. We got a good one today, buddy. It's our first attempt at We don't know what we're doing, really. don't. Well, this is our first attempt at a podcast. And lucky for us, we have a certified badass ex-Navy SEAL on the podcast for our very first one. So yeah, we're excited. Yeah, to that. know, Errol Dobler, former Navy SEAL, FBI agent and now a leadership consultant. We're happy to have him on. Errol, welcome to the show.

Errol: It's good to be here, boys. so, always good to be the premier primary guest on the podcast. But just so you know, I've been on about a thousand of these. So if you get caught up, I can carry the whole way, all right?

Jake: He's got us beat already. 

Frank: got to think too, like in everything I've ever watched, like a Netflix series comes out, they always have their first episode as like their biggest bet. It's the most action. And then it kind of tears off from there. So this is I expect to be our most interesting, entertaining podcast. Yeah, that's it. 

Jake: So, Errol, let's start off kind of early on. Like what's the background before we get into the SEAL teams? What were you like as a kid? Did you know you were gonna be a SEAL? Let's start ground zero here.

Errol: Yeah, well, I'm from New York and everybody from New York, whether you ask them or not, will always tell you I'm from New York. So New Yorkers are a very proud bunch and I'm from Long Island, which is even more proud, right? So I grew up on Long Island, south shore of Long Island, on the water, know, pretty good, know, middle-class childhood. Played all the sports, but you know, I started playing hockey really young. So I started playing hockey at like four. And then did everything else after that. You know, ended up going my primary sports in high school were football and lacrosse. And, know, at the time this is I'm pretty old, right? So I graduated high school in 1986. So at that time I was good enough to play good Division three football, right? Even just being small, you didn't have to be huge.

But, you know, lacrosse was more of my sport. So I ended up going to the Naval Academy for lacrosse. And, you know, it's not a, it's not the family business. Military wasn't my family business. There were some folks in my family that served, but it wasn't like a thing, right? You know, all we have is traditional military. And I just, my next door neighbors went to the Naval Academy. And one day,

They just bought over one of those brochures, right? It was like a little coffee table book. And I was just flipping through it as a young kid and I was like, this is cool. And that was the first time I saw anything about the SEAL teams. And again, back then, is when I first got this, this was probably like 1981. So obviously you didn't go online and learn about the SEAL teams. They were truly an enigma back then. Nobody really knew what the heck that was all about.

(04:18.966) And there was just this one picture in this catalog on the Naval Academy with these dudes in their like little shorts, their UDT shorts, and just hanging out there. And it had like a paragraph. And I'm like, who the hell are these guys? You know, so there was just something about the lack of detail. And so I went to the library and you know, went to the card catalog and tried to look for anything for SEAL Teams. And then what was that? Like you'd scroll through that machine and it would give you the old newspaper clippings, whatever the hell.

Jake: wrong people to ask on that one man.

Errol: yeah, I know, I know. but that's the reason that I found like an article. But then that left my mindset and when my lacrosse coach asked me where did I want to go? To school, I hadn't really even given it much thought right now. The obvious places for lacrosse players from Long Island. You know, where Johns Hopkins, Syracuse University in Maryland, right? Those are the big ones that you always thought about, but for some reason just the Naval Academy flew out of my mouth. And he's like, all right, we'll get the coach down here. And coach came and watched me and they offered me, so I didn't need to get a congressional appointment, right? Normal people go in and they've to get this congressional appointment for athletes and like the prior enlisted, have the Naval Academy Prep School where they can just send you if they want. And all you have to do is graduate from there and then you can get the appointment to the Naval Academy.

(06:03.308) So I went there with all the other athletes and prior enlisted guys. And then, you that's your indoctrination to the Naval Academy, the military. It was super rigorous academically and militarily. And then, you know, then we went to the Naval Academy. So that's, that's kind of me in a nutshell growing up.

Jake: So one question, what position did you play? And second, what was it like balancing? I mean, you talk about how rigorous, not just being in a military school, but also a sport and academic. what was like balancing all that together for you?

Errol: Yeah, so. So in football I was I was outside linebacker in fullback. I I loved playing football and you know in hockey I was a center and defenseman but and then lacrosse I was a midfielder but then moved to close defense in college. I well so I was a little bit of everything in college so my first year I was a short stick middie D middie.Short stick.

(07:08.504) The second year they moved me to crease defense where I started on both of those. My third year they moved me back to short stick midi and then senior year they moved me back to crease defense. So it was just kind of the needs. I was like one of those guys if they needed somebody in that spot. I was good enough where they could do it. There, he can do it. The Swiss Army knife.

(07:36.654) The Naval Academy, especially the prep school, that was a huge adjustment for me because I was smart enough, but I was a terrible student. And I've got a young son right now, he's 12, and I see so much of myself in him when it comes to school work. He's pretty smart, he's quick on his feet, and I watch him blow off his homework. you know, so I'm all over him. My parents didn't stay on me at school. So by the time I was a senior, like, you know, in high school, like cutting class and all, it was like I wasn't even in school, right? So any good habits I had for studying were gone. And when I got to the prep school, it was, I just, it was a different academic world.

The standards were super high, the speed was super high. I ended up graduating. And then when I got to the Naval Academy, I'm like, well, I'm good to go because that was really hard. The Naval Academy, the academic requirements were off the charts, even compared to the prep school. Like I carried 23 hours my first two years a semester. for the first two semesters, was 23 hours, 23 hours. 21 hours, 21 hours. It wasn't until I was a senior in my second semester that I only had like 15 credit hours. I had after the first set of grades came out, the first half of the first semester of my freshman year, I had a 0.8 grade point average. I was failing everything except for, like I had a D in a class.

(09:27.901) So you had to pick it up pretty quick. To your question, Jacob, you either learn to manage your time or you got booted. It was as simple as that. There was no runway. And I went to a couple of academic boards. Thank God I was an athlete, right? Because some of the kids who weren't there for something special like athletics and if they...

They weren't cutting it academically and had nothing else to offer. They were gone. At least they were like, well, Errol's a lacrosse player. He's pretty good. And they bought him here for it. Let's give him some runway. Whether it's fair or not, that's how it was.

Frank: Errol, talk to us about, so you're getting towards the end of college and now you're like, all right, and I'm sorry, my understanding is you're in Naval Academy, you're playing sport and then towards the end of that, now you have to serve, correct? And now you're like, or do I go into the Navy or I want to be a Navy SEAL? Now you're starting to learn more about the SEALs as an option or you talk about that whole process where you, how you went through that.

Errol: Yeah, it's an interesting process. you are required to serve five years after you graduate. And if you're a pilot, it's like seven years. And what happens is, based on your class rank, they call you in and you have what's called service selection night. And there's a huge board with all the ships that you could go on.

(11:08.513) If you wanted to be a pilot, right, it would be for flight school, submarine school, Marine Corps, Supply Corps, Navy SEALs. And they called you, was like your day went on. so you'd be, know, right after the last class had started. So they'd be like, okay, numbers one through 20, report to the hall for your service selection. So if you had a good...you know, if you had good grades, you got to, you had to pick up the litter, right? And then they would, and there were a certain number of billets, they would run out eventually. Like, there's plenty of ships that will never run out. They might've only, but you know, they'd have like maybe a hundred pilot billets, right? Which is a lot, you know, X number of submarine billets, but it was a lot. And they only had, that year 10 seal billets. I knew, right, who was wanted to be a seal. And everybody was looking at the, you and you'd go to a guy like, hey, you don't really want it that bad. You try to talk him out of it. And I was going to be about 12, right, if it all went to pass. And so I was waiting and then, you know, I got word that the 10th one was picked.

I was devastated. Now here's the funny part. My class rank was so low so they would have a party, right, and they don't have a lot of parties at the Naval Academy but they had, you know, they had beer there and if you were 21 you could drink and it was really exciting for people. Not only was the party over after I picked my service selection, they had clean up. It wasn't even like...

(13:00.846) There was some, you know, some beer, know, some cardboard or some paper cups on the floor. It was spotless. You know, I rolled in. I'm like, oh my God. I was like 10 from the bottom. So anyway, I go in and there's nothing but ships up there. And I had one of my professors and this was a turning point in my life. And he's like, what's wrong? And I told him, you know, it's like, this man. I don't want to be on a ship. He says, well, what do you want? I said, I to be a seal. And he goes, okay.

He goes, pick that ship. And it was the USS Menongi Helan, the AO-178. It was an oiler. So imagine not being on a ship. And then somebody's saying, be on an oiler. And I'm like, does that thing even have any weapons on it? He's like, that's not what you care about. He said, if you care about getting to the SEAL teams, you need to be on a ship that's out to sea all the time.

And I'm like, that's the opposite of what I want. He's like, I know, but if you go out to sea all the time, you'll get your surface warfare qualifications faster than anybody. And that will look good when you try to laterally transfer over to the SEAL teams. Because it's going to be very competitive and you've got to have something to stand out.

And it was the best advice I'd ever gotten because when I had laterally transferred, you've got to put in a package to the SEAL command and there was like 30 packages for that year for guys like me who were not in the SEAL teams who wanted to laterally transfer from where they were and they were taking two. And I got picked.

And one of the reasons after I asked was like, what was it? They're like, Errol, you got your qualifications in like nine months. That's unheard of. It takes most people two years. So that was kind of my progression to the SEAL teams. But I was on a ship before that. And that's how it goes picking your thing. So I didn't even get to go to the party.

Frank (15:12.576): One of the most intriguing things to me about the Navy SEALs is now you've made your decision to go. Now you talk about Hell Week. Someone like me, like I went through training camp. I tried to do duathlons and the mental toughness aspect of this is pretty amazing. Just running long distances for me is like a mental grind. Getting through training camp, those type of things. The most amazing thing to me about a Navy SEAL is the fact that you guys made it through Hell Week and the mental grind that took place physically, mentally, everything. Can you talk about how you prepped your mind, your body for something like that once you were accepted and then talk about, please talk about Hell Week about your experiences there and then that satisfaction of you've cleared it. kind of, that's amazing to me.

Errol: Now it's a good question. And again, it was a different time. So I went to, I reported to BUDS, which is SEAL training. BUDS stands for Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL in 1993. And the story I told you about that paragraph on the SEAL teams, it didn't get much better about learning about the SEAL teams before that. So all you know is that it's six months long and 70% of the people quit and it can get cold. That's all you know. like, it's gonna be really physically tough. So, you know, you're nervous. I was just in, I'm like, look, minimally, I will be in the best shape of anybody. And that's...

And then once you get there, you realize that's the minimum requirement. Like I was in pretty good shape. I wasn't even the guy in best shape. Like the absolute physical ability to guys who showed up at Buds, like being able to do multiple sets, maybe 10 sets of 20 pull-ups. I've never seen anything like it in my life. Right. So that was the first thing. Like, okay, just be physically fit. Cause I knew enough to know if I'm, if the physical (17:23.594) exertion, if I can get through that, will delay whatever pain getting to my head, right in between my ears, right? So, hey, this doesn't bother me. I'm running 10 miles or I'm swimming five miles. It doesn't bother me. I'm good. Therefore, I can stay mentally sharp. So that was the first thing. But then, then you quickly realize just again, the pace that they put you at now.

Hell Week, I mean, I'm sorry, Bud's in six months long. Hell Week, which is the thing everybody knows about, that's in the first phase. That's like in week five, it's early. So you will lose, of all the people who you'll lose in your class, it'll be pretty much by the end of the fifth week of 26 weeks. So we started our class with 200 people. And at the end of Hell Week, five weeks later, we were down to 10.

So imagine the rate of people quitting every day. It was, so when you quit, you ring the bell, ding ding ding. It's like all you heard all day was the bell ringing.

You're like, Jesus, who just quit?

so, and it was just because again, everybody was a physical stud. But when you put in just the pace of what they did, it was you woke up early in the morning and it was a work day, right? So was like not nine to five, but you know, maybe we met at five in the morning for a muster, went to breakfast and then the day would end at about five at night. And then you had your night, which you would just go right to bed.

(19:07.202) So you'd go home and you'd just go to sleep and be like, my god, the next day. So one funny story is I remember they would, and they used the cold. I went through in the winter class. So I went through that in January of 94 is when it actually started. So anyway, and so they just used the cold, right?

So one day, in the winter in San Diego, the waves are huge. So one day we're supposed to just do like an ocean swim at the end of the day. And it was like 10 foot waves, right? 12 foot waves, just crushing. And they were like, no, everybody go get your boats. And what they would do is, I don't know if you've seen like the guys paddling out into the surf, right? And going over the waves.

They were just like, okay, if you get out and come back, your day is over. Because they knew nobody was going to be able to paddle. Anyway, so now we've got to get our boats set up and ready to go. And I was the kind of senior guy, so I was in charge of my class. And one of the guys that I really counted on, his name was Pat, and I can't remember his last name, but I'll never forget. Just a Thunderstod. And he comes running up to me, and he's like, Errol, I got to talk to you. And I look at him, I'm like.

Are you fucking kidding me? Do you see what's going on? Can this wait? He's like, yeah, yeah, no problem. And he runs away. And next thing I hear, ding, ding ding.

(20:38.424) And I go, everybody stop. Where's Pat? And they're like, he just quit, man. And I was like, oh my God. So anyway, we've got to finish. It takes three hours for anybody to get past the surf. That's how rough it was. So just imagine paddling into a 10 foot wave, getting smashed, regrouping, right? So anyway, it's over and I go to Pat's room and I go, why didn't you tell me what you were gonna do? I would have.

You know, I would have talked to you. He's like, oh no, no. He's like, I was just telling you as a courtesy, there was nothing you were gonna tell me to stop me from quitting. I go, why? He goes, did you see that water? Right, did you that? So my point is, you never knew what was gonna get somebody to quit. You just never knew. And you know, during hell week, it rained all week. And you see that? Who did?

(21:42.837) I remember a guy next to me, they put us in the water, it was night, it was so cold, and they just make you lock arms and sit in the water. And they're like, okay, you'll get out when somebody quits. And one of my good friends was hooked on next to me. He's like, that's it, I'm out. And I'm like, Jesus Christ, we just.

He's like, five days of this? Are you kidding me? And all I said to him was, do what you want to do, but can you just try to make it to the next meal? Just try, because they feed you four times a day. That they have to do, because you burn like, I think they're like 15 to 20,000 calories a day. Because you're never, you're never not moving. I'm like, man, if you want to quit, quit. Just can you make it to the next meal? And that meal was midnight.

He was like, I don't know if I can, but I'll try. And he did, and then he made it. But that was the guys who were able to.

Frank: Did he quit then or did he then the next time it was like mindset of like now make it to the next meal now I gotta make it to the next meal.

Errol (22:49.086): That's what it became. Just make it to the next meal. Right? Because you knew that was a break. you know, it was... Again, just guys quit. We went into Hell Week with 40. Right? So we went down to 200 to 40 at the beginning of Hell Week. And then at the end of Hell Week we had 10. So it was still 30 guys quitting. The bell was just constantly ringing. Bing, bing. You just never knew who was going. And then what they would do is somebody would quit.

Right? And it would be at night. Everybody always quit at night. There was never a quitter in the daytime. They always quit at night. And it was like when the sun was going down, you could just see it guys' faces. So they would get somebody to quit, and they'd put them in the van, and they'd keep the van open, and they'd have the heat on in the van, and they had coffee and donuts for the quitters. And they would make us go sit right next to the van. (23:45.698) Hahaha!

You know, then inevitably somebody else was like, fuck it. Can I have coffee and donuts? Well, ring the bell baby, it's all yours. So it was, but those are fun stories. But to your point about mindset, there was a couple things that I learned. When you do something like that, there's got to be an inherent desire deep inside of you to do it, right? Every single person that goes to Buds is a stud.

(24:17.03) They just are. But not everybody had it so deep in their bones that they wanted it, that no matter what they did, they weren't going to quit. That's how hard it is. It's one of the few things that I say, did you ever see something on TV about buds? Like, yeah, it looks really hard. I'm like, it's harder in person. Normally they kind of make it exaggerated. Not that.

You know, and just a quick, two quick examples of what I mean by that is at the end of Hell Week, like with like an hour to go, they got you, you got you running around the boats on your heads, right? You're all swollen because you're retaining water. It's just, you're a mess. And they're walking us by all the helmets that quit under the bell. And it's supposed to be very emotional for you. Well, I remember my shin splints were so bad that I literally felt like my shins were gonna snap. I was sure of it. I'm like, wow, my shins might literally snap in half. And I was like, well, I hope somebody's there to help me when they do, because I'm not quitting. Right? That was the mindset when you do a 50 meter underwater swim. That's one of the requirements. And that's even before hell. can guys quit for that. But I remember during practice, I never made it. I never made it to 50 meters. And they give you some time to practice. And...I was like, well, how am I going to pull this rabbit out of the hat? Like, I'm not going to get better at it because I'm going to be more nervous. I'm going to burn more oxygen. And then I remember thinking to myself, I just won't come up. I'm just not coming up no matter what. So I'll drown and I hope somebody saves me. And it was that mindset that actually relaxed me and I made it no problem because my mindset was it does not matter.

What happens? I will not quit. That's how bad I wanted it. So there needs to be that, I think that inherent desire deep inside. Am I making sense? I know I rambled on.

Jake (26:24.396): Dude, you got me ready to run through a wall right now. 

Frank: It makes the most sense because if you're able to push yourself to a point of I'm willing to drown myself, like, I don't think there's any further amount of mental toughness you can go because you're literally like killing yourself.

Errol: I and it wasn't even dramatic for me. It was like a light bulb went off. I'm like, I just won't come up Well, you'll have to kick me out because I will not quit they'll have to say you failed therefore we kick you out and I

Jake (26:56.654): If you were going out, you were going out on your own. 

Errol: On my own. Yeah. Funny story about this too. there's a guy who would really mess with guys heads. we would, there's the area where we had our cages and you'd have your gear and you're always running in and out of there. so we were there to get our stuff before we ran over to the pool. And I see a guy pull out a bottle of vodka.

And I look at him and I go, what are you doing? And he's like, you're not going to rat on me, are you? I'm like, no, but what are you doing? Like, you're going to drink? Like, I don't, I don't, are you okay? Do you have a problem? He's like, dude, we got the 50-breed meter water swim coming up. He just did a couple shots. To relax.

(27:52.343) Yeah. And then there's another guy who, when we ran over, vomited like three times. Every time it was like clockwork. If we would go, like we would have three practices. So we'd be running over and all of sudden you hear, bleh! unbelievable what it did to people. anyway.

Frank: I mean you got 200 people that tried out. You got America's brightest and best doing it. You make it to the final 5%, which I'm sure maybe other folks may have quit to that point. So that 1 % of the 1%. I've been told by some other folks around the city of there's like three type of Americans that try out for the SEALs. you tell us what your take is on it. Is you have like your triathletes.

(28:40.066) The ones that are like, want to just see how far I can make it. You know, you got your patriots and then you got some crazy dudes who are just, they're killers in a way and you need those kinds of guys. But you, but it's like a legal way, not that they're that sick, but the legal way to kill people for your country. So it's like, what is your take on the type of people that you encountered those? Cause they are, there is something loose up there to get to that point, to be able to drown yourself like. Talk a little bit, if you could, about that.

Errol I can talk to it because it's an interesting question. My thought on that, even as it goes beyond the type of person that goes to SEAL training, right? So I was an FBI SWAT operator as well. I'm a combat veteran. When I was in the FBI, they attached me to the 75th Ranger Regiment.For combat operations for like four months. And I think we averaged literally a combat operation. It wasn't quite every other day. It was like every two and a half days. So we were just constantly in combat with the enemy.

(29:49.484) what I often thought because when I was in the FBI, I did a good job when I was working cases of recruiting sources. I was able to recruit bad guys without holding something over them. That's usually the way to do it, Like, know, okay, Frank, you're a criminal, you run drugs, I caught you, and now guess what? You can either go to jail or work for me, right? And by the way, I had that with a guy.

And he goes, what kind of jail time do you think I get? I'm like, you're going to get 10 years. He's like, nah, I'll do the 10. I was like, are you kidding me? Anyway, but my point is, as I got to know a real criminal element, and even as I got to know terrorists, because I went and interviewed terrorists in Kazakhstan, like literal murderers, who I was able to establish rapport with and I was always like why am I able to do this? And my thought was now to get to your question There's a lot right and You've got your bad guys on this line, and they're towing it and they're on the bad guy side And then you've got your good guys on this side and a lot of us tow that line so it's two guys towing the same line you're just on opposite sides of good and evil.

But essentially the mindset is the same. I'm willing to do awful things for my cause. My cause happened to be a patriotic cause, a love of country, a love of duty. And you mean to tell me there's a way I can get after guys like this and do that duty? Okay, sign me up for that. So I don't know as it's coming out of my mouth how proud I am in that.

(31:45.966) But it's the answer to your question. You know, now as far as the type of guys, I couldn't really answer to the three categories, but I think I did kind of address really where that mindset is in a lot of us who go this route.

Frank: And I do think Buds and over the last, know, all of sudden you see GI, you know, that kind of stuff. that's gotten more of like the physical, think it's gotten more, the attention has been brought to more of the training aspect and the hell week. But probably when you were there, it wasn't as, like you said, you didn't even know much about it by the time you got there. Now I feel like every American out there.

Errol: that Navy SEALs came out when I was a senior, Charlie Sheen. That was the first commercial thing. I remember being like, why is this coming out? Because now there's going to be five of us who want to do it.

Damn it!

Frank (32:42.508): Yeah, but now it is. It's something that every American knows of the sacrifice that you guys go through and the mental toughness you guys go through. And yeah, it's amazing. 

Jake: So, so, Errol, we've talked, you know, we talked through buds now, you you, you said several tours, you know, if you want to talk through that, I know we have some stuff we want to get to because of what you're currently doing, which Frank and I have both experienced firsthand and has been incredible. So we want to get to that. But take us through quickly, kind of like, all right, you know, Seals is over.

You are a Navy SEAL now, we're deployed and then kind of, you know, if you have stories for that, I know everyone loves to hear them. I know some people don't like to talk about them. I'll leave that one up to you and then kind of that transition out of the SEALs as well.

Errol: Yeah, for sure. And here's the funny thing, right? When people say, you know, what can you talk about? Maybe you can't talk about it. I always just say I'll talk about everything because you don't know what I'm not telling you anyway. Right. So I never write, you know, I'm not going to tell you what I can't tell you. I never go around like, well, I can't tell you that. You know, I'll just tell you. And it's always plenty. So but so I was in the SEAL team, remember, during peacetime. So there wasn't a ton of action.

So my first deployment was with SEAL Team 4, which we forward deployed to Panama. And then you go out to various countries in South and Central America. And at that time, you're mostly just training with that host country's special forces or whatever it is. My second deployment.

I was on what's called an amphibious readiness group. we deployed and this was with SEAL Team 1. So we were stationed on a ship and we actually got a call for an op, which we were like, holy crap, all right, let's get some. It was a classic Navy SEAL op, right? There was a tanker that was identified that it was going wherever it was going. It wasn't supposed to be going with people on it who weren't supposed to be on it with stuff on it that they weren't supposed to have, right? That's how you get past all that.

(34:50.382) And they said, know, all right, Dobler's Platoon is in the area. Have them take down that ship in 48 hours. And so we were pumped. Like, okay, we got one. And...So we had a day to rehearse, which is always a benefit, right? Always a bonus. And now imagine, right, this ship take down is the big tanker goes and we've got two squads on our fast boats and we kind of sneak up to the side of it, right, without them knowing we're there. And you get your biggest guy, he's got a big grappling hook on a big long pole with a caving ladder and he throws it up, hooks the grappling hook onto the side of the ship.

The ladder falls down and you climb up it all without the bad guys knowing. You get on board and then you go to the bridge, you go to the engine room. Those are the areas you got to control. And that's how it's done. And the sea state. You guys ever watch Seinfeld? Remember the one where he was hitting golf balls into the ocean and he was like.

(36:06.604) The sea was angry that day, my friends, right? Whenever he was describing to get the... Anyway, that's the best way I could describe it. The sea was angry that day, my friend. And so as we were down, ready to launch our boats, the commanding officer called me up to the bridge and he goes, well, what are you gonna do? And I'm like, we're gonna go rehearse. And he's like, in this?

And I go, yeah in this. He goes, no, I won't allow it. It's too dangerous. And I go, okay. I said, if the sea state is like this tomorrow, are we gonna be ordered to go on the up? And he goes, well, I would imagine, yeah. And I just stared at him. Like literally just stared at him. And you could feel the unspoken conversation. Because I was saying, you cannot send us in this sea without letting us rehearse it. You can't. And he kind of got what I was going. He's like, you really going to do it? And I'm like, that's what we're here for. He's like, OK. So to make a long story short, it was awful. Like, even for seals who do this and really get off on it, I remember thinking, I may have made a mistake. I may be pushing the envelope too far. That's saying a lot.

Because it was my call. I could have aborted any time. And we would get up, we got up next to this ship and...

You could see that the waves would go like maybe five feet high and then they'd go down and you could see underneath the hull of the ship. So one wrong move by our guy driving our boats, we would get sucked under the boat, the big tanker. That's how big the sea state was. It was petrifying. And in hindsight, I probably should have aborted the op.

(38:07.982) But I didn’t.

Because my mindset was, this is why they pay us this. This is why we're SEALs. And I think most guys would have done what I did. when I got to the top of the ladder, the guy who was holding the ladder at the bottom got thrown. Right? Because the C-State was so heavy. He got knocked off. He let go of the ladder. When I hit the top of the wave, the ladder hooked onto the cleat. Just one in a million chance.

Go!

(38:39.726) So now it's hard point, the ladder is hard pointed in two spots. Here on the cleat and then up top with the grappling hook. So now the boat's got to go down into the crest of the wave. So it goes down, the caving ladder explodes. Well I was just about to pull myself over when it exploded and I fell 30 feet into the boat. Now, when they say your life goes before your eyes, it's a fairly accurate statement.

because it probably took me two seconds to fall that distance. But the number of things that went through my mind felt like a day, right? I thought about, like I remember where I lost my car keys. No, I'm just kidding. But like, I thought about, you know, I remember thinking about my dad, how upset he was gonna be. And I was really like, man, I hope he's gonna be okay. And I remember thinking.

you know, from a leadership standpoint, and this is probably what saved my life, and I'm not saying aren't I cool, because this is what I thought, it's just what I thought when I was falling. I remember thinking, go out like a man. Don't yell and scream, don't flail, just fall, get dead, and let everybody tell a cool story about you, how you handled it like a man. And that probably saved me, because I just fell, right? And when I fell,

The final thought was, can I survive this? After I'd gone through a bunch of things, I'm like, is there any way I survive this? Because what I thought was going to happen was I thought I was going to fall in between the boats. And then I would have gotten sucked underneath the big boat and got chewed up by the propeller. And I remember, I literally remember thinking, man, I hope that happens fast, because that is going to be awful. Thinking how awful it was going to be.

(40:34.638) The other thing that I thought was happening was I was going to just get impaled on either an antenna, a radar mount, a gun mount, something. Right? Because they were all over the boat. just went... I hit and I hit the one spot, the engine cover, that didn't have anything to impale me on it. When I hit it flat, I bounced up in the air probably about 10 feet and my arm was dangling.

So that was off the side and it just snapped, right? So imagine falling like this, this hits the side, my arm snaps. So I was up in the air and then you talk about how quickly training kicks in. It's not a, you know, you go to your lowest level of training, right? It's football, it's, you know, Jake, I know you played hockey. It doesn't matter. And I say this in my leadership stuff. Where do you go when you don't have time to.

When chaos is the only thing around you, you go to what you know, the question is what do you know? Right? Now let's start establishing what you know. Well for us, I knew training. I knew I was alive, I went through the scenarios again in my head about what could happen. I could still fall in between the two boats, in which case I'm. I could fall on the other side of our boat, in which case I had, I couldn't swim because my arm was dangling.

(42:01.582) So was like, okay, don't die trying to swim, pull your CO2 cartridge, because we have these inflatable vests. You pull a cartridge, right? And then, you know, wait for the cavalry. And I said, if I land on a gun mount or something, I won't get killed. I'll be fine. I'll just hurt. I ended up just landing right back down where I hit. It was amazing. And so I was the last one that was going to go and on the boat where the cox in.

(42:32.108) his assistant, the guy driving the boat, his assistant, and between them they were probably like 36 years old. That's how young they were. And then my guy who dropped it, who was also probably only 19 years old, and I was an old guy at the time, I was like 29, and they were all just standing there, like it didn't even happen. And then I looked at my arm and it was bleeding, I'm like, my God, I hope that's not an artery that I...snapped or whatever and I was like, hey, somebody get me an Ace Bandage. Ace Bandage came out of my head and one hit me in the face. They walked over to give me aid, threw me something. So I'm like, I started doing it and one of the guys finally snapped at it. He's like, hey, let me do that. I'm like, no, I'll do it myself because what I was afraid of was it was gonna hurt so bad that he started wrapping me up. I'd be like, whack.

(43:29.452) So I said, I'll just do it myself. fast forward, I get up to the ship and they're gonna bring me in and I walked away from it, right? And the corpsman is there and he's like, all right, let's get you in quick, let's get you checked out. And I was kind of making jokes because I just, I didn't know what else to do. So he started making jokes and I'm like, hey I'm making jokes for some weird reason. I go, we've got about a minute' before this shock wears off and this really starts to hurt. So please stop fucking around. We got to some drugs in me. And so they pump me full of drugs. They send me over to the hospital ship because we were in a battle group and there's chaos, right? And everybody's yelling and screaming. And finally I hear somebody say, hey, if I'm not needed here, I'm leaving.

(44:28.334) And I'm like, everybody stop talking. Now these were, I was a lieutenant, which is an 03, so it's a mid-rank for officers. Everybody else there was like an 06. They were like captains and doctors, right? And I'm like telling everybody just, hey, everybody be quiet. I go, who just said that? Who said that they were gonna leave? And some guy goes, I did, why? I go, because you're the only one who's not losing their mind. I want you here. And he goes, Hello gentlemen, everybody leave. Well, it out he was the anesthesiologist. So he was the most important person there anyway. anyway, now everything's settled down and he's looking at me and he goes, you're the seal who just fell 30 feet into the boat, right? And I go, yeah.

He looks around and goes, how much morphine does this man have in him? And the corpsman, whatever number he said, I can't remember what it was. The anesthesiologist goes, great. Because that's enough to knock a horse out. And I remember being like, that's weird. And so I knew that they were going to have to do something with my arm. And I was just really nervous. Like, this is going to hurt. And I'm like, think my arm is in bad shape. the end.

(45:46.712) Can you give me something so it doesn't hurt whenever you do? He goes, trust me, nothing's going to hurt because you may not wake up. So don't worry about it. And literally, passed out. Two days later, I came to the I was like, you might die from an overdose of morphine. So anyway, I got medically discharged. And then, so let me stop there. I'm rambling on. Let me stop there if there's anywhere you want to jump.

Jake: We could do a whole show of stories like that, I'm sure. But I know we want to get to kind of moving on through the whole thing, right? So you're medically discharged and then how does the private sector work into the FBI and then transition and I know we want to transition to kind of what you're doing now.

Errol: Yeah, so I'll take a little more expeditious route to this because there's not as many good stories, there's, but so I'm out of the Navy and you know, I had suffered so that fall really jacked my head up and I had had another fall about four months prior to that where we were training and we were going through a door and on the other side of the door, was no floor. So I took like a 10 foot header. Like imagine just diving 10 feet on the concrete on your head, right?

Frank (47:17.646): You're on the latter part of your career, correct? Your late 20s, you're kind of already know you're getting out, right?

Errol: Well, no. At that point, I was planning on staying in. I already had my next assignment. So this was during the workup. There was a deployment that I just described where I got injured. This happened, and I barely missed a day, like I broke both my wrists. And at that time, you just didn't tell anybody you got hurt, right? Very much like an NFL mindset. Because my corpsman, he's like, let me see your wrist. And he touched them. I like, Jesus, they're broken. I'm like, wrap them up.

(47:55.886) and that's it and don't say a fucking word. He's like, okay. But the head injuries, nobody was talking about traumatic brain injury back then. So I just wasn't myself for a really, really long time. But that's it. I call a friend of mine and I'm like, I gotta get a job. I have no idea what to do because again, I already had my next assignment ready waiting for me. I was gonna go to Hawaii for sealed delivery vehicle two.

do a platoon there and then I was going to screen for SEAL Team 6. And he's like, go into sales. I'm like, okay, what am I going to sell? He's like, sell copiers. I'm like, why would I sell copiers? He's like, because it's the v-com of sales. If you can sell a copier, you can sell anything. And he goes, but most importantly, they'll take anybody. So it's not going to be hard for

Good job! So that's my day.

I sold copiers, which I loved that job. Not because I like copiers, but the guy I worked for was awesome. The company was awesome. It was like lightning in a bottle. There was a bunch of really good people on my team. We still talk to this day, and that's 25 years ago. So anyway, and then I left that job and I like software, I software. That was like a big deal, right? Because that's when software was certain.

come out and they gave you a really big base salary and commission. was so anyway, I am in New York City and I'm about to close at that time. It was a consolidated as in there was going to be a three million dollar deal. I had had a new boss who wanted to fire me because he wanted to bring all his own people in and I'd only been there less than a year. And I remember I told the boss of the company. He fires me. That's fine.

(49:51.502) but I'll go to Con Edison, which is who the deal was with, and that deal is over. And he's like, we can probably still salvage it. I go, no, you can't. I go, because I got in because my dad used to work there, and he introduced me to the chairman, and that's the only reason we got the call. And I will immediately tell my father to call in and say, don't do the deal. And he'll do it, and they'll listen, which was true. And the guy was, I remember he goes, well played. He goes, okay. You're on!

So we were in the city, ready to close the deal. That boss started to kind of warm up to me a little bit. like, ah, maybe I was a little hard on you. This is going to be a great deal. And I went and got a cup of coffee. And somebody goes, a helicopter just ran into the World Trade Center. We all go to the street and look out like, oh, wow, that's scary. It was 9-11. Right? Go back to the hotel.

Because that was the first thing everybody was saying, it was a helicopter that flew into the, and you just look out and you saw the smoke, and everybody's like, wow, that's awful, and all the venti latte. Then you go back up to the, then everything happens, right? And we were downtown, and I remember, this is how focused I was, and I'm not proud of this story, but I'll tell it anyway. Literally, the towers are collapsing, and I call Con Edison, I'm like, you know, I have an appointment at 11.I'm assuming all appointments are canceled

(51:20.898)for today. They were like, yeah.Everything is canceled for the day. And anyway, so the whole thing, right? You settle in, you're there, everything falls. You know, my brother-in-law was killed. He was in, he worked for Canterford's Gerald. I remember I ran all the way uptown to find my sister. And then we spent, you know, that night. It was, it was horrific. Because, you know, we went to the hospitals and we

(51:53.358) gave the picture, the whole thing. It was the worst. Everybody at the hospital, they were amazing. So anyway, my point is, that day I was like, okay, I gotta get back into this fight. So I got myself medically cleared, which is another fun story. Put my application in for the FBI and the CIA, and I was like, whoever gets to me first, or approves me first, that's who I'm going with. And it was the FBI.

And so I went to the FBI Academy and I literally, requested New York City, Central Asian terrorism, which was Afghanistan, Pakistan, and then the former Soviet republics. It Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, right? All those. I got it. Day one, 2003, I was in the middle of that, the war on terror as an FBI agent. So that's how I got there.

And I'll pause.

Jake: No, that's, that's wild. So, are you back, you're back overseas as a part of the FBI? mean, your, training is still there, you know, your muscle memory, right? What was kind of that transition? Like, I mean, I'm assuming there's still part of you that was, you know, your, your once a seal, always a seal, right. But now you're working a different, you know, different entity. How hard was that to, to differentiate between the two?

Errol (53:23.714): You know, I was pretty good when I left the SEAL teams and then in the private sector. I didn't reflect too much on it, right? I didn't really have a hard time adapting. Because I was quite frankly, I was just happy to be alive, right? It's literally a perspective thing. was like, I could be dead. You can complain all you want, but Jesus, this could be a lot worse. So I had some pretty decent perspective. So I didn't have a hard time with that transition.

And then when I got, interestingly enough though, when I got into the FBI, so after like two years, I tried out for the SWAT team, so I got, I'm like, I gotta be on the SWAT team. And that was great. That was a great combat unit. We did operations all the time, high risk arrest. It was awesome. But you're still required, it's a collateral duty, right? So you're still a case agent.

And that's your primary. what I found was, what ultimately hurt me was my mindset of being so aggressive, right, with working cases. Like I was just super aggressive and I worked, I found great cases, I recruited sources that nobody thought could be recruited, and I put together really aggressive operational plans for certain things. And what I found was the FBI, their go-to is not aggressive. It's just not. And I started to butt heads with a lot of people. So weirdly enough, the transition out of the SEAL teams became harder for me when I joined the FBI because I had such a mindset of mission accomplishment, danger is a part of the job.

You miss it as much as you can, but hey, that's the way it goes. And not everybody shared that. And so as I just can't go out and do what I want. Right. There's certain things I've got to get approval for to do. And the red tape and bureaucracy in the FBI is stifling. So I started to really butt heads with people. If I could do it again, I would have done it a little different, but I wouldn't have been less frustrated.

(55:48.366) So that was actually a tougher transition realizing thinking I was going into the same type of environment and it wasn't it was a different part now Thank God I was on the SWAT team because that was the same type of environment. Sorry. Sorry. I got my fix of my my people so to speak and And a few times right I would have a boss and we were of like mine and he'd sign off on everything. Yep. Go for it. Go for it. Go for

And so that was good. So if you had a good boss, you could really get some things done. And then when you had a bad boss, they would stagnate. So yeah, that was, and that's why I left the FBI, ultimately. I was just sick and tired of doing battle where I didn't feel like I should have had to have done battle. Getting approval to do good aggressive cases. I just got tired of them.

Frank: So from there, you knew then you wanted to get into something else and we've all experienced the ice cold leadership training. Can you talk about, Navy SEAL, FBI, you saw the way things should be run or how to attack certain situations and maybe things how, or leadership that you didn't like, how did you, what did you take from all that to then teach organizations like ours or companies like ours how to implement some of the things you learn throughout your years.

Errol: So when I knew I wanted to leave the FBI, I was really caught between a rock and a hard place. I didn't know what I was going to do. And I was like, I'm not going back to sales to hold the back, right? I'm not beating the street anymore because I'm too old for that. And nobody's really going to hire me as a sales manager.

(57:37.794) And I was like, I suppose I could be a mercenary. And I mean mercenary, not like a joke, right? There's plenty of contracting out, people do it all the time. And I was like, I don't know that I wanna do that. guess I have no choice. And I was talking to my brother-in-law, and I was just venting my frustration, and he was looking at me like I had three heads. And finally I'm like, what are you looking at me like that for? He goes, Errol, I pay a guy a ton of money with like a tenth of your qualification to talk to him about leadership. And I remember, I literally went, that's a thing? had how this world existed of consultation for leadership and management. had no idea. So was like, well hell, think I could do that. And he was like, I think you could probably do that. So, if you're gonna do that, you've gotta (58:34.808) be able to articulate what you stand for, right? From a leadership perspective. You know, you can't just go up like, hey, I'm really cool, let's talk and maybe I can help you out. And you you grow as you do it, but I had to establish what do I believe as a leader. And even though my ability to articulate it has improved, we started Ice Cold Leader in 2016, so we're gonna be going on our 10th year here soon.

What I believed was, you go to what you know. In times of chaos and struggle, because that's when leadership matters, you go to what you know, what do you know? And then I went back and I just replayed all the dangerous situations that I had been both in the C.L.E. in combat, in SWAT, knocking on a door and having a guy come out with a broken bottle in the FBI.

(59:34.072) having to draw down on them and be like, my God, I might have to blow this guy away. And then be able to think of ways to defuse the situation. And then at a split second say, okay, now I'm gonna kill you. Right? And I didn't, I didn't have to shoot that guy, I talked him out of it. But that in my mind was leadership. Where does your head go when you have no time to think? What is your thought process? And I remember us going, well, it was always about emotion.

It all started with the emotion. If I could recognize how I was feeling, I could make an adjustment. If I was scared to death, which I was most of the time, I could say, okay, I'm afraid, but in this situation, what's my intuition tell me to do with this fear? And then it was a lot of trial and error, right? Like, well, sometimes I would lash out unnecessarily. Well, that didn't work. So I started to say, whatever the emotion is, I've also got to be aware my intuitive action on that emotion and then I've got to decide is that an appropriate behavior for the situation and then what's my plan to get through it and that was it I'm like it's a process I can teach people this process I can share with them in my view these are the steps to how to train yourself to in an emergency situation immediately fall back to this

You will make conscious decisions. Not always the right decision, but a conscious decision. And that's okay, because you can make mistakes. But if you're doing it very thoughtfully following this process and you decide and you make a wrong decision, you can at least go back and say, hey, what part of the process did I skip? Usually it's, just, was angry and I went red and then just acted randomly. Usually it starts with emotion.

(01:01:32.408) So that's what I started to present to people. you know, at the time, early on it was very difficult because all I had was these combat stories. And I had some private sector experience which helped my credibility a little bit. But, you you do a good job, people start to hire you back. And then the more companies I worked with, then I was able to just relay success stories like, you know, you guys, auto hauler, I'm talking about you guys all the time to other clients, right? Like, hey, I've got this one client and here's what they do and here's how they use this and here's the adjustments they make. So now I tell fewer combat stories and I tell more stories about some of my clients and those successes following the process. But that was the road to get to where I am now. So right now, me and my wife, we run it. And that's it, that's where we are.

Jake: Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, firsthand, personally, professionally, it's been a privilege to work with you. Noticing things in my life that I honestly I like, I probably would never have taken account of without having worked with you. So thank you for that. I know, Frank, I'm probably talking for you on that one too

Frank: 100%. Being cognizant of my emotions, I talked to you about before, even around my kids in stressful situations, that's four little kids getting ready for football practice or something like that, and cleats won't go on the right way, and we're running five minutes behind. You just want to freak out. Work-related, whatever it is, but it relates to a lot of different things in your life and your day to day.

Errol (01:03:18.158): And that's what I try to tell people. It doesn't have to be some big revelation in your world that turns it upside down. For you, Frank, what you took was that. And that's enough. That makes you better at everything you do, but especially with your kids. And Jacob, you were kind of in the same boat. It was more of a presence thing, but it came back to your kids.

Right? So once you find, and that's the beauty of the process, everybody goes through the same process, but they'll find what's important to them and latch onto it. And then, we win. Everybody will get something different out of it, but I love it when guys and gals go home with it. Because then, because that's really important, that's what matters. How am I around my kids? Am I losing my shit around my kids for something stupid? What kind of example am I setting?

And then it's easy to say, okay, well, Frank, now just apply that at work, right? Just apply how often you're about to lose your mind at work, right? And then catch it, right? And that's all it was. Just one little thing, right? So.

Jake No, it's everything you, so, first hand, one of the greater things I've been through in my personal professional career. Now, my final two questions as we're kind of coming up on the last little bit here and you're a busy dude. What is Errol Dobler's favorite thing to do outside of the office? Number one. Number two, where can people find you? Where can they connect with you if they want to get a little more information about ice cold leader?

Errol: So I've got three young kids, right? Yeah, my son is 12, my daughter's 11, my other daughter is six. I'm not gonna be so lame to go. And I just love going and watching them play. I do. But in an honest moment, when you say, what's your favorite thing to do outside the office? The rare occasion that I'm home alone and I can eat two bowls of Honey Nut Cheerios and watch a Jason Bourne movie. Now, the moment just to sit there and do this, duh, that's kind of my favorite thing to do. That said, the kids are in sports, that's our life right now, and it is fun. Where do you find me? know, icecoldleader.com. You know, I've got the book, Ice Cold Leader, Leading From the Inside Out. You know, the website's pretty good, talks about our program. You know, we do the virtual coaching which you guys have done. do in-person stuff and that's we didn't get a chance to talk about the ice baths and stuff but we try to apply that to the methodology. So anything you need to learn about ice cold leader we've got a great newsletter. The newsletter is actually getting popular. My wife runs the newsletter and what she's done is right there's typically a blog by me but then she goes and finds the news of the week for an issue you know, Dell is going through this. will relate to whatever the topic is on the blog, my take on it. So there's a lot of business stuff in there as well. So the newsletter, you can subscribe to the newsletter. You find that at icecoldleader.com as well. So that's about it. You know, I'm on LinkedIn a lot. Great follow on Instagram. (01:06:49.838) I mean, I'm on that less. So yeah.

Frank We will give everybody a warning. mean, you never got a warning about how we going into buds and things, but I'll give everyone a warning that you will have to do like two weeks of ice cold showers if you're go through the program, which those first couple are pretty miserable. That was by far the worst part.

Errol: It's just a tool. It's a tool for a lot of different things. So we try to apply it as best we can.

Jake: Well, Errol, thank you so much for being our first guest on Dealer Out of Office. Thank you for your service. I could say that a thousand times and we probably could have another two hours of just talking old stories, but this was a treat. I hope everyone enjoys it. And just thank you again for helping us again, personally, professionally, and jumping onto this.

Errol: Well, it's my pleasure and I appreciate you guys trusting me enough to get on with the opening episode. Thank you.