Navy Seal “MrBallen” Reveals Near Death Experience, Rescue Missions, & Millionaire Mindset 

Thank you for having me on the show!

Seeing him in an interview and being exactly how you'd expect is so refreshing

Fascinating interview. Very sad to hear he got so much flak for using his military experiences to build a career whilst trying to help military veterans cross the chasm from military service to civilian life. I genuinely wish him even more success, I thank him and his community for their service and I wish his family good will.

The irony that John becomes a storyteller as his career from first not wanting to be involved in anything academic related going into college and now picking up the same passion as his family but in a different way is a crazy journey

Mr. Ballen, even if the SEAL community doesn’t accept you, the veteran community accepts you. As a veteran I feel proud of see you and other veterans succeed.

The way he speaks about his family, and especially his wife, is moving. Dude loves the fuck outta his family. Massive amounts of respect for this guy. Massive.

I’ve watched a LOT of interviews, but this conversation with John is the most interesting interview I have ever watched. He has a voice that’s easy to listen to, he speaks clear and concise. You can just tell he is an honest man which adds even more credence to stories. His channel rocks!! From one USN to another, “…. fair winds and following seas, John” !

My father had a purple heart. He joined the Army at age 17 (my grandfather signed for him) and fought in the Korean War. He was shot in the back. I remember when I was very small and noticed the big indentation in his back for the first time. Thank you to all veterans. You are very brave and so, so important to our country.

Mr Ballen being on Graham’s podcast is the collaboration we never knew we needed until we got it!!

Getting to know Mr. Ballen on this level is a privilege. This was amazing

Dude John is literally so calm. The way he tells everything with a smile or a laugh afterwards, like wow

John, as a disabled, chronic pain patient and true crime lover and someone who loves a good story, bring able to see/ hear you this way is so meaningful. I've been listening/ watching you since the beginning. Multiple episodes a week etc. I love how much you, your family and your organization has grown. I'm a huge fan and have so much respect for your talent and all the good you put into the world. Thank you for this glimpse into how you became the you we love to listen to. Your videos and podcasts have helped me through the really bad days with distracting from the pain to being my favorite storyteller to listen to when I'm working. Keep up the amazing work. Much love to you and your amazing family and team!!

As a military veteran myself, it’s always great to see another veteran like Mr. Ballen become successful . His RU-vid content mixed with his story telling has gotten me through some tough times and I give my upmost respect. I also think it’s stupid and hypocritical of the SEAL community to criticize Mr. Ballen when they have made books, movies, and podcasts based on their experiences and also profiting from it. It’s way overdone and cringe in my opinion.

Mr. Ballen is ADHD friendly. He is the only storyteller I know that can hold my attention without breaking focus story after story.

As someone who is a wife of an operator, there is ABSOLUTELY an energy you can pick out, it’s a magnetism and yeah….the hyper vigilance is one of the biggest adjustments my husband had to face when we started having kids. Loved hearing John’s story more in depth. 💛

I found Mr. Ballen while I was in bed almost 24/7, .dealing with a serious illness. RU-vid and my Aussie Shepherd were my only companions for several years. The Mr. Ballen show was something I could look forward to and count on for distraction from my own stuff. Fell in love with his show and never missed a story --sometimes twice.❤ Thank God, I've been in remission for several weeks, and I'm still a huge fan. I noticed this interview while scrolling today and had to watch so i could hear his story. He was a life saver for me at a time I really needed something to count on. Watching your show about him was awesome. I subscribed to your show today and look forward to seeing you two.

This dude got me through the darkest time of my life. Me and my gf lost my baby at birth in early 2020, and I discovered him while in the hospital. Due to Covid you could not leave and come back. So it was just me & her in this room for 5 days during the darkest time you can imagine. I found him, and we watched alllllll of his videos. He’s been my RU-vid GOAT ever since. I told him all of this in a super long Twitter DM because I just wanted so badly to express my gratitude to him. I thought he would likely never see it, but he actually responded to it, and was super down to earth. Great man, and a role model that kids should look up to.

It's the first time I'm seeing Mr.Ballen as a guest in a podcast - have to say that this is the most pleasant surprise I've seen on my feed in a while. Mr.Ballen is a LEGEND!

John Ballen might be my favorite celebrity right now. So down to Earth and such a cool guy.

I love how honest he is, I think thats what so many love about him. Hes not sugar coating anything, just telling it like it is. Hes real and had real life experiences

Shout out to Amanda for being a great and supportive wife! So many go over seas and their wives can’t handle the loneliness. Glad she honored her vows and stayed true to her marriage

I am a Native American storyteller. Mr. Ballen's story telling ability brings you into the story. You can easily "see" what he is saying as if you are there. He is a master of his craft. Hoka Hey Mr. Ballen and from one sailor to another, thank you for your service.

I already had so much respect for Mr ballen for what he’s accomplished through his career, but after watching this and everything he endured AND seeing that he turned his whole life around to be who he is PLUS an amazing father and husband. Just wow.

john is an incredible person. he is so charasmatic without even trying. love that dude

He not only tells good stories, he IS a great story.

I've followed Mr Ballen since he posted 4, even 5 times every week. To watch his growth has been an absolute honour and I cannot think of anyone more humble and deserving. Not forgetting to give credit to his team and of course, Amanda, for playing their huge parts in his expansion. We ❤ Ballen studios!

These guys do a great job of letting the guest speak. They just sat back and let the interview unfold, really outstanding!

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to find this video of talking with Mr. Ballen. I've been listening to him for the past 3 years. He has gotten me through too many surgeries, procedures, and other necessary issues. He is such a great story teller. He has introduced me to some of my favorite books (411). I hope that one day he will write one of his own, of which I will be the first in line!! Thanks for giving his fans an opportunity to hear his story. Mr. B, thank you for your service to our country. I pray that God blesses you as much as you have blessed us!! ❤❤

John is so wholesome and he's the definition of a human being. Love this man's stories

I love his stories even more because he doesn't exaggerate. He just tells it how it is and it makes them even more relatable as a human.

I remember coming across MrBallen during my internship 2 and a half years ago and I binged every single video he’d made… got me through work and the fact that the videos still don’t get old is a testament to his storytelling talent! A true campfire legend😁

John is such a REAL person. I have such respect for his transparency and humble honesty. I thoroughly enjoyed this interview (the 2 guys were so respectful of what he had to say- very good interviewing skills!) I’m in awe of anyone who’s ever deployed and served our country like this. Very thankful for all of you service people, may God bless you all!

Been a fan and subscriber of MrBallen for over a year. Hearing his personal story, how humble and grounded he is about his time in the military and the truly endearing way he speaks of his wife makes me like him even more. Thank you for your service, John. You are an amazing human. Thanks for sharing your story with us.

MrBallen's stories ... are an escape.. like reading a good book.. his commitment and expressiveness is/are perfect... a capsule of time from our reality... but true.. lovely..

Man, he's so straight forward and humble. I really find that to be almost more impressive than him having been a Navy Seal.

I’m so jealous of the people who just discovered him and get to binge all of his videos that’s the best feeling ever

You can see how focused the two hosts are when listening to Mr.Ballen talking about his own story. He's truly an amazing story-teller.

His eloquence and his communication skill is so mesmerizing and captivating. I love listening to him sm.

LOVE your storytelling, but I have noticed that you are a good communicator overall, and that's rare outside of a religious environment. You found the perfect place for applying the gift. My husband had the same problems with transition from the military. At first it was the going from the high adrenaline combat to being injured and sent back stateside injured and the effects of that to his long military career. It took several years and a lot of patience and faith but he is good now and he helps others. I am so grateful to any and all Vets who help other Veterans, because it's hollow coming from anyone who hasn't been in a combat environment or experienced the real. The thank you for your service is usually as empty as those yellow ribbon car magnets that sold by the millions and were suppose to benefit vets...years later no one can find even a single vet that got even a toothpick from those yellow ribbons. If folks want to help veterans, first vote an informed vote, and then find out how much an organization actually uses for vets. Most use 70 to 80 percent on fund raising and promotion of the organization and administration pay.

Mr Ballen is not only an incredible storyteller that has had a very interesting life and career... He is one heck of a guy. So humble and honest. I can see a lot of people looking up to him. What an inspiration ❤

I don’t understand why the SEAL community won’t accept you! You’re one of the ONLY former SEALs out there that isn’t selling some book, workout, service, or product based on the fact that you were a Navy SEAL. People naturally love hearing stories about Navy SEALs and BUD/S and those are your stories to tell if you so choose. As long as you’re not actually saying, “look at me I’m a badass because I’m a Navy SEAL, look how great I am” then I don’t see the problem. We’re proud to have you in the veteran community brother!

Mr. BALLEN is so humble & I love how he down plays that he served our country. He is so correct when he says "I volunteered to serve" & "It's my honor". I dated a member of the Army/National Guard for 8 years & he never deployed, he never saw combat. He was a paper-pusher, office manager basically. It would drive me bonkers when out in public together; uniform on; kids would run up to him & thank him for his service. His chest would puff out, head became bigger; almost as big as his belly & it really put me off. Some deserve that recognition & some just take advantage of it! My uncle did 2 tours in Vietnam & was hit w/ agent orange. He has battled so many health anomalies since; i.e. his skin falling off his body b/c of infections, debilitating PTSD, etc. THOSE are the heroes that need to be recognized. John, you are such a classy human & hero & thanks for all you do!

I didn't finish the video yet and is incredible the mix of admiration and attention on the faces of the hosts hearing the stories of @MrBallen about the deployment in Afghanistan, and to be clear I identify myself with them 100%. In any case, thank you for your service @MrBallen 🙏

I went to the live show and it was an incredible experience. I've heard John's story several times, but I'm still captivated every time. The first time I heard his story, especially about his time in Afghanistan, I was dumbfounded. I realized that on the day he was going on that op where he eventually got injured, I was a Marine back in California providing linguistic support for him. When I met him at the live show, I was holding back tears as I told him how happy I was that he was alive and how sorry I was that we couldn't have done more to help. It's amazing that 8 years later, I stumbled onto his RU-vid channel and became a huge fan. He has turned into such a humble, courageous, generous, and down-to-earth guy, and I'm so grateful to be a part of the MrBallen community. John, I'm so excited to see what you have in store for the future and congratulations on your tremendous success. ❤

What many people don't understand is that John Allen brings back the human connection. Those born and raised in the internet era don't know this was a normal way of life. Most older people (those 35 on up) can name the people in their family and friends that told the best stories or the best jokes. Mr. Ballen honors them with every story he tells. He brings back all the memories I have of my father, my aunts, my uncles, my grandparents and great grandparents. Some told true stories, some scary stories, some funny stories, some had the best jokes and Uncle Mel always lead the singing portion at the end. Thank you John for keeping them alive.

Phenomenal convo. Truly a gift of John’s to tell a story like no one else. And one of the most humble and incredible people.

Your show is a daily reminder of how quickly life can change and you never know when it will end. And the way you tell it is so kind and compassionate makes me hope if my time comes there would be someone to give that compasion.

This podcast is the best I’ve ever heard. Mr ballen is EXACTLY what mr.ballen is 7 days a week. Y’all are so lucky to have gotten him on this podcast. Y’all did an outstanding job!

As a fan of Mr. Ballen the last 3 years, it is truly incredible the way you can just listen to him tell a story for hours and hours of your day and you never get tired of his voice, his cadence, or his energy. I thank you both so much for letting him just speak with so few interruptions and still managing to ask him good leading questions that allowed for these spaces to occur. This was the best possible way to “interview” Mr. Ballen.

Thank you for this interview! It was such a pleasure listening to Mr.Ballen's orgin story. He truly is a legend! I really enjoyed how humble and honest he was about his shortcomings. We need more of that in our society today. Thank you all for the work you do at Ballen Studios.

Thank you for doing this interview. Millions of Americans have always wondered. Thank you for your service, and we are all so happy to know you are healing.

Loved John retelling how he knew he was gonna marry his wife right away. My husband and I were the same. We were engaged within 2 months, married 6 months after meeting. 21 years later we’re still married and have 5 kids.

I love how well spoken he is, and how he uses his hands when he speaks. It really makes his stories so interesting!

2:30 I now understand why I love his work as the great man he is. He makes you want to listen to see what happens in the next second by his tone, inflection, and just the passion he puts into it. Mr. B. Allen knows how to grab those deep seeded feelings and grip you for the whole ride.

I’m a regular podcast listener. I listen to tons of different podcasts but this is by far the best single podcast I have listened to. I would never know Mr. Ballen is a seal. Truly a humble guy that is capable of listening and answering with the same effort he puts into his stories.

From one Vet to another. Thanks for serving MrBallen. Love what you do. Happy Veterans Day.

Mr, Ballen, I'm a navy vet, myself. Not a deal, but I'm a huge fan and appreciate your service, so much. From this point forward, I'm going to not only enjoy, but respect the stories you tell. You're the best.

What an incredible interview. An emotional rollercoaster to be sure. Hearing about the way he speaks of his family makes my heart happy. Many blessings to you all.

I’ve been following mr ballen since about 80k and I freakin love that guy! I’ve watched every single video and some more than once. It’s also the only channel that I make sure to watch every week! Best RU-vidr EVER!

Hearing how some of his fellow teammates ostracised him for talking about his experiences and dealing with adjustment by way of social media, made me so sad for him. I can only liken to the pain and betrayal being like that of a family member, if not worse. I’m so so so happy for MrB that he’s where he’s at now. He deserves all the success and happiness

Brother. You're not out " stealing valor", you've shared your real experiences that you're proud of. You earned your Trident. You are great. Keep on, keeping on!

I set out to watch 10 minutes of this and ended up watching the entire episode. Great job guys! This was a great conversation. When people tell me, "Thank you for your service," I say, "I appreciate you(or I appreciate that). Thanks for your support." That doesn't feel weird and both sides walk away after having a positive interaction with each other.

It was so surreal to hear @MrBallen talk about his experiences in combat and the experience of reentering society. I deployed to Iraq in 04 1st Marines C company and can relate so closely. I was lucky enough to not be injured badly and I did not serve as a Seal, but the fine details explain what its actually like being in an intense combat situation. When you get get back to society you don't immediately realizes how you have been changed by the deployment and It is very difficult to go back to who you where before you left. It took me a couple years because of the circumstances that my fellow Marines and I saw. Thanks @MrBallen for talking about this.

Serious Thank you Mr Ballen. My Grandfather was a Marine and worked with the Code Talkers. He never really spoke about the war. Glad you can and that you got help you needed.

Love Mr Ballen. Very humble & down to earth. I’m a Navy veteran too. I deployed but never in a war zone. I have a lot of respect for those that have to go through that. Thanks for the interview. It was great!!

As a veteran, I simply say I'm glad I'm here, when someone says thank you for your service.

As many people have said it’s been a real pleasure to listen and watch Mr. Ballen’s stories and see his channels grow. Great to see a bit more behind the scenes with John. Looking forward to many years of stories to come.

Great interview! It has been a joy watching MrBallen grow to this level over the last few years. Keep true to yourself and your family, for those are the ones that matter the most. Thank you for sharing a glimpse of your life with us.

I very, very rarely comment, but this interview touched me. Thank you, Graham and Jack for interviewing Mr. Ballen. And thank you, sir, for sharing your story. Your honesty, humility, and your work ethic are to be admired. I was particularly touched by your devotion and commitment to your wife. Your guys' love story is heartwarming, and your promise to yourself to always treat her with kindness challenged me to continue to do the same for my husband. I would love to hear an interview with your wife, I'm sure she has so much wisdom to share as well. May you live long happy years together. I'm so sorry you've lost such dear friends along your journey in social media, but I do hope and pray that someday your relationships will be restored with these men whom you loved and respected. I appreciate your transparency. You communicate your blunders in life in such a way that you are sharing not only an entertaining story, but also imparting a nugget of truth and wisdom for us to learn. Thank you again to everyone (including Caleb Hammer for the use of his studio - I thought I recognized it! haha) And God Bless

This made me love and respect John ten fold. John you are an absolutely amazing person and beautiful soul! Thank you for being you and for all that you do! You are incredible!

Thank you for having Mr. Ballen on your show, it was really interesting to hear about his life and how he started his channel. I love watching his stories. He stated it so well that we are scared in a safe environment. I think it was through Facebook that I came upon his channel and have been a fan ever since. I love how he met his wife and how open he is about never wanting to hurt her. I loved hearing about how he became a navy seal. He just has a remarkable talent to do justice to whatever story he's telling.

I got my mom listening to John's stories instead of listening to the news cycle 24 hours a day. Thanks John for your hard work, and thanks to this crew for interviewing him. 👍👊

MrBallen is the man and an amazing storyteller and conversationalist. He is super modest, has his family involved (If I remember correctly, his mom does the scripts for his podcast, not just his college entry essay), speaks lovingly about his partner and family. As someone who has lived in Quincy as an adult, I'm glad I never encountered the fighting rings.

Watching...watching...watching. I giive a stretch and realize my back hurts. Check the time and see that ive been watching, totally engrossed, for over an hour. I NEVER sit still for that long. You're really amazing, Sir. Have a great week.

Appreciate you Mr. Ballen. I love your stories, they’re addicting. Admire you for your service in the military. My grandson is 24, just got out of the Army. They did a good job with him. Changed him from a smart mouth, disrespectful, skinny kid. He arrived home a different person, totally ripped, well mannered, just altogether different. Thank you United States Army. Much respect due to you. And…….Thank you Mr Ballen for sharing your awesome stories. Keep ‘em coming, I appreciate all. God bless you, stay safe. Wishing you and your family a joyous, Happy Thanksgiving. 😊

So cool to hear MrBallen speak about himself instead of stories about others. It took me a while to settle into the fact that this was his story and that his delivery sounded a bit different. Such a great story teller and wonderful human being. Thank you so much for your service! I have watched your story telling for a long while now and it always keeps me on the edge of my seat.

Talking about him and still being a great storyteller. His story is the most captivating story he has ever told us

This was so refreshing. I genuinely didn’t know that the community felt that way at one point. I’m not sure how they feel now I still love him and I appreciate everything he has done, including getting myself through one of the scariest darkest times of my life and I’m not just saying that just to say that I promise I sat in the hospital for practically two years with my son watching him go through, a whole list of things didn’t have much to look forward to these videos and sleep so thank you brother. I genuinely am grateful for you.

I found mrballen during the beginning of the pandemic, when everything was closed and we weren't "allowed" to go anywhere. I was scrolling RU-vid and one of his videos was a recommendation, so I clicked on it. I watched it and I was immediately hooked. I binge watched his videos. To the point of saving them to a playlist, which I would goto sleep listening to. His content got me through the whole isolation thing. Thank you Mrballen! You've had more of an impact on people than you could ever imagine.

Mr Ballen is the humblest individual I’ve seen on RU-vid and podcast. As a female disabled veteran…. I thank you,!!!

Stumbled upon John's channel in 2020, when he had less than ten thousand subscribers. Absolutely love him and his storytelling. Yay Mr Ballen!

Utmost respect for John! Thank you so much for your service and for sharing your story. I cant stress how much respect I had for you before but after hearing your deployment story, my gosh. Love to you John 🇺🇲🧡

Veterans and every military person is so humble and I love it. He tried to talk down what he did the whole video. Military and veterans deserve so much more than what we give them.

I've always been amazed by Mr Ballen's story telling ability but hearing him speak in a non-scripted podcast and finding out he sounds exactly just the way he is in his videos and that just blew my mind. He is just a really naturally talented story teller.

I like all of Jon’s content but I was very disappointed that the community bullied him into taking off to content about being a seal. That was my favorite content. The story that he did about his navy corpsman when he met him and didn’t realize he was an operator and then he ended up being the one to save his life. It was so real. I’m really glad to hear his seal story told again here.

I just watched a 2 hour pod cast and I didn't feel like 2 hours. You all kept my interest the whole time. Love Mr Ballen

He is so well spoken, and so easy to listen to. And incredibly humble.

I think everyone should watch this interview. So many life lessons and John is an exceptional human.

Man I could listen to this guy all day. Bad ass, never knew he was a SEAL. I suspected he was a Marine or something tough like that but Special SEAL is different. Thank you for your service, not just Ballen, but everyone.

Mr. Ballen has to be my absolute favorite episode of the podcast. I’m only half way through and I think this may even be one of my favorite podcast episodes of all time. Well done Graham and Jack!

MrBallen is amazing at storytelling. He never says, “uuumm” or hesitates. Awesome channel!

As a truck driver, Mr ballens videos have helped me get thru some miserably long trips and It’s the only channel on RU-vid that I’ve watched EVERY single video

This is the first and probably only video I’ll ever watch on RU-vid that is over 2 hours long, not one boring moment. I’m sure I could rewatch and catch things i missed. WOW such a journey and inspiration

It's about time someone had this man on their podcast

Those kids from Quincy are a tough bunch. People from Mass in general are tough, fast paced and full of pride. I played football and baseball (Plymouth North) against Quincy/North Quincy, including Mr. Ballen. What a remarkable story he has.

Wow! Didn't expect to see Mr. Ballen on here. Glad to finally hear his own story and know tbe back story to his depression. He is such a great storyteller and def one of the kind. Glad YT works out for him. ✊️✊️

This was so incredibly inspiring. Once I started listening to this, i couldn’t stop. What a wild story and incredible tenacity. I already love Mr. Ballen’s content but i have a newfound respect. Thank you for opening up and sharing this!!! 👏👏👏

A born storyteller. He makes it all sound easy. Pretty sure he's been through Hell and back. Amazing interview!

The big part of his storytelling skill is his voice. Thats something that’s often overlooked when talking about qualities that make a good storyteller. There’s plenty of great storytellers out there, some better than others. But when you’re natural storytelling ability is the same, what sets people apart is their voice. Whether they use a fake voice or not doesn’t matter. But his voice is just perfect for what he does. Its soothing. It isn’t harsh, his accent doesn’t make for harsh sounds in words, and his accent isn’t hard to understand either. Even if you aren’t a native English speaker, he speaks slowly enough without being too slow, he speaks clearly, and he enunciates properly. And his accent is extremely soft and easy to understand. So it translates really well to a great voice for storytelling because you don’t even have to be fully paying attention to the video to be locked in in order to hear the story. His voice and accent are easy to understand enough that you can play the video and do other stuff and you can just listen and it doesn’t feel like you’re misunderstanding him if you aren’t totally locked in and paying 100% attention. And then the soothing aspect of his voice allows you to be ok with listening to this guy talk for 20-40 minutes at a time. And it’s even nice enough that you can binge multiple episodes in a row without his voice annoying you. Yes, it’s not JUST his voice that makes him a great storyteller, but it really elevates him and helps push him above some similarly talented storytellers who are about equal in other storytelling aspects

Been listen to Mr.Ballen for like 4 yrs, thanks for sharing your story!!