David Goggins Reveals The Behind The Scenes Production Of His Audiobook

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In this behind-the-scenes look at the production of his audiobook, David Goggins reveals a significant shift in approach compared to previous editions: while earlier versions featured solo recaps between chapters, this release incorporates guest appearances, most notably an intimate 35-minute conversation with his mother. This segment represents a pivotal journey for both Goggins and his mother, as they moved from keeping certain traumatic experiences private to collaboratively deciding that sharing them publicly was necessary. The process required approximately four years of work together, during which Goggins helped his mother overcome her fear of public judgment regarding their past with his father. He explains that once he demonstrated the courage to expose his own embarrassing history without consequence, it began to wake his mother up to the futility of caring excessively about what others think or saying. The conversation delves into deeply personal and painful territory, including Goggins' mother's consideration of suicide during her time with their abusive father. She disclosed that she had entertained thoughts of ending her life several times but ultimately chose not to act because of her two sons, fearing they would be left in the hands of a tyrant if she were gone. While this realization places immense pressure on Goggins as the reason for his mother's survival, he views it as a profound strength rather than just a burden. He credits having that single "thing"—his children—as the catalyst that allowed her to move forward from one step to many, transforming their shared trauma into a source of resilience and confidence for others who might feel similarly trapped by their circumstances. A major theme emerging from this production is the necessity of owning one's entire history, including the darkest parts, rather than hiding behind secrets or curated narratives. Goggins draws a powerful parallel between his approach to vulnerability and Eminem's character in the movie *Eight Mile*, where the protagonist decides to tell every dirty truth about himself during a rap battle to strip away an opponent's power. Similarly, by laying out their family's struggles with millions of listeners, they aim to demonstrate that there are no more secrets left to hide. This transparency serves as a testament to human resilience; once individuals confront and own their skeletons, the conversation often ends because the truth has been fully exposed, leaving nothing for critics to exploit or speculate upon. The dynamic between Goggins and his mother also highlights the concept of having "a dog in you," referring to an unyielding toughness required to survive life's battles without relying on external support systems. Having grown up together with their brother at a young age while facing severe adversity, both learned early that they had to be their own coaches and motivators when no one else would step in. Goggins notes that his mother possessed this same fierce spirit despite the damage inflicted upon her by years of abuse; she was forced to develop an alternate blueprint for living because traditional paths were blocked. This shared experience allowed them to reach a place where they could acknowledge their scars and say, "I choked," or admit past failures without shame, effectively swallowing the demons that once kept them fighting just to survive. Ultimately, this audiobook project marks a transformative stage in Goggins' life where he and his mother have reached a point of collective healing through radical honesty. The difficulty of reopening wounds while recording with microphones for public consumption was acknowledged as hard but essential for true ownership of one's story. By facing these traumatic memories head-on, they not only healed their own internal demons but also provided a model for others to stop fearing judgment and start living authentically. As Goggins concludes, the ability to walk into any room knowing that you have nothing left to hide is liberating, allowing individuals to stand tall regardless of how many people are watching or judging them.

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so again with the audio version of this book you've done podcasts in between each chapter where you're recapping what's just happened and this time you brought guests one of which was your mother right and you spend a 35 minute conversation sitting down with her and talking about the experiences that she had with your father and reflecting on that right a lot of stuff you'd elected to leave out of the first book so that means there's been a journey that you've gone through to get to the stage where both you and her and collaboratively you felt okay sharing that publicly right like what's that process like because your mum didn't ask for this I mean you kind of also did you put a book out there because you thought it was useful and now millions and millions of people know about you but right you know the uh gravity field of your notoriety is starting to bring other people in as well so what was the Journey of getting to that stage like well it wasn't so much me I had already laid out you know a lot of [ __ ] about me that was you know pretty embarrassing and can't hurt me so for her that actually helped her out she said wow if you have the courage to go out there and tell people all your [ __ ] you know and so that process was it took about four years of me working with my mom because you know she was very damaged by what she went through and so was I but I knew no one was coming to save me so I had to go ahead and fix my [ __ ] and she kind of lived in a different place but whenever it can't hurt me it started waking her up that hey man why do you care why do you care so much what people think about you what you went through why why are you putting so much so much on other people and what they may say about you like there's some stuff I talk about you know that is pretty embarrassing for some people but she got to a point of life where she was able to you know stop caring because we all have our [ __ ] no one like people it's so funny to me there'll be people who are out here commentating about people who are [ __ ] up out here famous people are [ __ ] up and I don't know how they're able to do that when I guarantee while your skeletons are not being out there if I were to open up your [ __ ] door [ __ ] how how are you doing that so I know that about everybody like people love to talk [ __ ] about somebody and keep themselves out of it and so we went through that journey together and so it allowed her to come out and say yeah [ __ ] it you know I'm I'm a big person who I want to give people the confidence to walk in the room of a million people and none of them like you and you just like say [ __ ] you I'm good and walk out with you by yourself you helped your mom do that as well and now she can look at everybody and say yeah I [ __ ] married a [ __ ] that choked the woman to death I was in a bad place I'm good with that one of the days that you focus on a good bet in that conversation is the day that she decided to leave your father right and take you and your brother with her was there anything that you learned about upon reflection where both of your experiences uh opened up a new realization to you that that was a hard time for her and and for me also I was ready to leave a long time ago I was just waiting for her to get the courage to finally leave him and um I don't think anything from that really I think that's where the damage really began I think for her when she left it almost her fight went away and it's kind of like when you run 100 miles when you sit down your body can then say that's exactly what I was thinking I'm done it's exactly what I was thinking the second she left that the Mind said oh my God like we can we can be human it's like PTSD yes we can be human and we're not fighting anymore and it just swarmed the demons that all that fight and all that [ __ ] was keeping away it just came and it swallowed it swallowed her whole it also swallowed me whole but once again like we were talking about I got a chance to watch her and she set out the alternate blueprint on how not to be so I had a hard time learning growing up but I was very smart when it came to human beings a genius because I lived in such hell I was always studying people who can I trust who can I not trust energy I got really good with energy can I this person's energy good is it bad so I became a genius on human beings so I studied people all the time I studied all the time she also talks about considering taking your own life oh yeah were you aware of that before you started working toward this book yeah so yeah she she talked about that a few times with me behind closed doors and um I'm surprised she did it you know there's a lot of stories that are still Untold that she probably will never talk about and I'll never talk about him until she says it's fine but um yeah it was it was a bad it was it was a bad way so I I gave her credit for having the strength to say okay I need to continue on and figure out you know what's next for me but she says the only reason that she didn't go through with it is because of you and your brother because she knew that she would be leaving you in the hands of this Tyrant that was going to mistreat you even more badly now that she wasn't around to protect you yeah which is a it's beautiful but it's also kind of a lot of pressure it feels like a lot of pressure for a child to be the reason for his mother to to still be there and it's also a damning conclusion about the state of her life right that the only thing stopping you from taking your own life is these two boys but it's also beautiful in a way because a lot of people only have one thing you don't need a lot of things sometimes only thing that kept me with that one step forward was one thing and so that one thing can get you to two things to three things the four things so that was the beautiful thing about that is that now she's 75 and she's retired because of that one thing how I mean you're having this conversation with your mum during the production of the audiobook you're having a conversation which is difficult to have in private right with two microphones in front of you knowing full well that this is going out to millions of people it's going to be scrutinized it's going to be listened to it's going to be reflected on how difficult is it to watch your mother opening up about an experience which to you was traumatic and then reopening those wounds in front of you and talking about that for millions of people to hear oh it's hard it's hard but it's necessary why to be able to own your trauma to be able to own everything about you and look it in the eye like there's a part in eight mile with Eminem the very end when this white boy you know [ __ ] trying to make it in the rap world and getting beat down and [ __ ] comes from some trailer park [ __ ] and he's like how the [ __ ] am I gonna win this rap battle because my best friend got shot in the foot and this dude slept with my girl and all this [ __ ] so what he does to take all the power from the [ __ ] girl rap battle his ass he's like I'm gonna tell you every [ __ ] thing about me I'm just gonna [ __ ] tell you and that's how I feel about life and that's how my mom now feels about life I'm just gonna [ __ ] tell you everything a [ __ ] about me I'm not gonna hide I'm not gonna do none of this [ __ ] and it's a refreshing feeling when you can get in front of millions of people get an audiobook and you can go through your [ __ ] and lay it out and you walk away there's no more secrets there's no more secrets like people say oh hey Lance Armstrong you do steroids no no no no yes well I have nothing I have nothing wrong with Lance Armstrong anybody else telling [ __ ] man and guess what happens to the conversation it's over it [ __ ] ends there's a really telling Moment In the book I think it's my favorite part and it's not even in this one it's in the audiobook and it's when it's getting quite difficult with your mum and you offer her a root out you ask if she wants to take a break yup she says no yeah I'm gonna keep going so it seems like she's got a bit of that dog in her as well oh yeah she had to yeah she had to one thing that when you grow up the way we kind of grew up together so I look at it when you grow up when she had she had 28 and my brother at 24. so um about that you know we grew up together and you got to have a dog in you you have to have a dog in you man and so you have to have it like like my grandfather caught it a stiff upper lip you better stiff up a lip so you know yeah she has some dog in her she has some dog in there she has to there's no other way to make it out here I mean you can't just always be you know head down in the sand you gotta learn to pick yourself up on your own a lot of times these fights and these battles you gotta be your own [ __ ] coach you gotta be your own motivator and she had to do that several times in her life thank you very much for tuning 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