A mate is killed by an IED, a prayer is said over the coffin, and then it is straight back on patrol within hours. That is where this conversation starts, because it is where a lot of truth sits: grief, fear, responsibility, and the kind of leadership you only recognise when it shows up in the worst moment.

Jordan Wylie joins me during National Cadets Week to talk about the path from a council estate in Blackpool to the cavalry, to Northern Ireland and Iraq, and the memories that still hit 20 years later. We dig into what builds trust in a team, why integrity is more than a word on a wall, and how the best leaders combine competence with character and quiet check-ins when nobody is watching. If you care about British Army leadership, officer and soldier dynamics, or learning how to lead when you cannot pause the mission, you will take a lot from this.

We also get practical about leaving the military and becoming a civvy. Jordan left twice, learned the hard way that the first job outside rarely matches the dream, then rebuilt through education, relationships, and asking the question even when the answer might be no. From there we widen out to the UK cadet forces, role models, national resilience, and why cadets might be the most overlooked youth opportunity in the country, plus how Hunted and adventure work became platforms for purpose rather than ego.

If this resonates, subscribe, share it with a mate, and leave a review. What is the best piece of leadership you have seen when things went wrong?

How do you actually become an officer in the Royal Marines?
How hard is the training?
What does it take to be successful?

Sam, who spent 13 years as a Royal Marines officer and left as a major, with Afghanistan and Iraq deployments behind him, tells us about his journey.

We start with the reality of Royal Marines officer selection: why people fail POC, what changes when you stop trying to look “ready”, and how the Royal Marines Reserve can build the kind of fitness and resilience that holds up when everything is timed, controlled, and judged. Sam explains the parts candidates underestimate, from beep-timed gym tests and pull-ups that translate to rope climbs, to swimming standards that matter for an amphibious force, plus the long, muddy leadership grind of Brown Tuesday and Bottom Field.

From there we zoom out to what happens after training: learning to lead war-experienced Marines as a young troop commander, earning trust both ways, and making peace with mistakes so you can actually improve. Sam also shares what operations feel like at the sharp end and in joint roles, including first contact off a helicopter ramp, Iraq JTAC work, and the constant tension between mission command and rules of engagement, before touching on rapid disaster relief deployment lessons.

Finally, Sam tells the story of leaving the Corps, attempting an Antarctica crossing, getting kidney stones alone in the cold, and turning that setback into Pole To Pole, a cold weather expedition training company based out of Sweden. If you value honest career lessons, leadership under fatigue, and a clear-eyed look at service life, subscribe, share this with a mate chasing selection, and leave a review so more people can find it.

The fastest way to lose the “this is an adventure” mindset is to watch reality arrive with consequences. We start with that switch: days into a deployment to Basra, Iraq, a Lynx helicopter is shot down over the city, and the scale of danger becomes impossible to ignore. From there, we get into what it really feels like to put boots on the ground, step out of the gate, and carry the expectation that an RPG or suicide attack could happen at any moment.

We also talk about the gap between pre-deployment training and real operations. Training throws worst-case scenarios at you daily; theatre forces you to relearn the place you’re actually in. Most people you pass want normal life, not a fight, and reading the local “atmospherics” becomes as important as any drill. That recalibration is hard, especially when you’re new, keyed up, and trying to act calm for everyone else.

Then the conversation turns to indirect fire: mortars and rockets coming in hard, the helplessness of waiting it out, and the anger that follows when you realise nobody can simply “stop” it. We’re honest about how tour benchmarking works too, and how it can silence people who still feel stress because their experience does not match the worst years of Afghanistan.

We finish with a strike operation story: a missed turn, radios going wild, and a reminder that good leadership sometimes looks like quiet reassurance at the exact moment someone is about to break. If you found this useful, subscribe, share it with a mate, and leave a review. What moment made your own job feel suddenly real?