It is two books in one. The first half is the story: a Navy SEAL platoon commander suffers two head injuries, hides them, and spends twenty years unknowingly fighting severe traumatic brain injury while serving in the FBI. The second half is the process that carried him through it: a five-element leadership methodology, practiced in the ice bath, that works in combat, business, and your personal life at home.
Leaders under pressure. CEOs, founders, managers, veterans, and anyone whose emotions are running their actions instead of the other way around. You do not need a team to use it. You do not need an ice bath to start.
No. The cold is a practice arena, not a requirement. The ice bath is an induced panic attack in a safe environment, a place to rehearse staying calm. Start with fifteen seconds of cold at the end of a shower, or skip it entirely and use the process. The goal is not to endure the cold. The goal is to remain calm in the cold.
Five elements, in order: practice emotional awareness and recognition, practice cultural awareness and recognition, create guidelines for behavior, implement the SMACCC planning process, and meet the Resistance. Emotions drive our actions, and our actions drive our results. The rest of the process is built on that sentence.
Situation, Mission, Actions, Command, Contingencies, Communication: the planning process Errol ran in the SEAL Teams, modified for business and life. There is a free SMACCC workbook if you want to try it before the book.
Both, and on purpose. The leadership process and the wellness practice are the same system. It was built by someone whose brain injury meant the process had to work even on the worst days, and it did.
Hardcover, ebook, and audiobook wherever books are sold. Get it on Amazon.
Yes. Corporate coaching, keynotes, and team experiences run through Ice Cold Leader.
Want Errol on your show?
He is an experienced podcast and media guest. For interviews and press: hello@icecoldleader.com
Errol Doebler is a former Navy SEAL platoon commander and FBI Special Agent, founder of the leadership consultancy Ice Cold Leader, and author of Ice Cold Leader: Leading from the Inside Out. He coaches CEOs and teams using a five-element process built during twenty years of undiagnosed traumatic brain injury.
Navy SEAL platoon commander, FBI agent, founder of Ice Cold Leader, and author of Ice Cold Leader: Leading from the Inside Out.
- The 20-year undiagnosed TBI behind the book, and the brain scan that revealed it
- Emotions drive our actions: the TRIGGER, EMOTION, THINK/DECIDE, ACT formula
- Culture is made up of the things we do, not the labels we put on them
- SMACCC: the SEAL planning process for business and life
- The ice bath as leadership practice, and the science behind cold exposure
- Veteran mental health and invisible injuries (“You look fine”)
- Leading under pressure: stories from the SEAL Teams, the FBI, and Afghanistan
Headshot (high resolution) · Book cover. Please credit the book as Ice Cold Leader: Leading from the Inside Out (Wiley).
- Unbeatable Mind with Mark Divine, Part 1 and Part 2 — the conversation that first named the TBI
- The High Performance Zone with John Foley (Blue Angels lead solo)
- The Dad Edge with Larry Hagner
- First Class Fatherhood with Alec Lace
Full list: icecoldleader.com/podcast-appearances