Tactical Fitness Report with Stew Smith Podcast · Stew Smith

Never Quit Mindset of Colonel Sanders Plus LIVE QA

·58 min·4 clips
Colonel Sanders got 1,009 rejections before KFC franchising worked.
1. Tactical Fitness Report with Stew Smith Podcast uses Never Quit Mindset Monday to center the episode on Colonel Sanders and live audience questions. 2. Stu Smith hosts the livestream as a coach, author, and fitness writer, and he says he has coached people for over 25 years. 3. The episode asks what a "never quit mindset" looks like in practice, then answers it with rejection, coaching, and training examples. 4. Stu Smith tells the Colonel Sanders story, including the honorary Kentucky colonel title from the governor of Kentucky. 5. He says Harlan Sanders worked as a fireman, railroad worker, and insurance salesman before failed ventures pushed him toward franchising. 6. Stu Smith says the restaurant failed after the interstate highway system bypassed it, which forced Sanders to try a new business model. 7. He repeats the legend that Sanders faced 1,009 rejections before someone accepted the franchise pitch. 8. Stu Smith says KFC reached 600 franchises by 1964 and that Sanders sold the company for $2 million. 9. He uses Thomas Edison and the phrase "500 ways to not create a light bulb" as a second example of persistence. 10. Stu Smith turns that story into a coaching rule: treat failure, rejection, and negative feedback as feedback and growth. 11. He says action creates motivation, habits, discipline, and then mental toughness. 12. Stu Smith points to his book "Never Quit Mindset" on stu smith fitness.com and says the audiobook takes about three hours. 13. On Air Force Special Warfare, he says recent selection still includes pool events and that many candidates are not prepared for that level of swimming. 14. He compares the new Air Force approach to Navy pre-selection for SOAS and says the Navy now screens candidates with fitness tests, grades, and discipline reports. 15. Stu Smith also compares the Air Force direction to Army Special Forces, where dive training happens later in a combat dive school. 16. He says Air Force changes are not automatically harmful and notes that special operations programs have changed repeatedly over the last decade. 17. The live format is conversational and wide-ranging, with Stu Smith answering Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook comments in real time. 18. He uses coaching language, examples from his own training, and quick product mentions for books, programs, and articles. 19. People training for tactical selection, SWAT, or military fitness will likely find this useful. 20. People wanting a tightly edited interview or a single-topic deep dive may skip it.

As heard by us

A steady origin story up front, then practical training answers with a few loose edges.

Stu Smith opens this Monday live session with a plainspoken origin story and keeps the Colonel Sanders material rooted in persistence. The string of jobs, failed ventures, late start, near poverty, and second act in his 60s gives the opening real weight without pushing it into…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Need motivation that turns into actual training advice?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on