Secret Agent: If You’re Easily Offended, You’re Easily Manipulated! This 1 Trick Catches A Lie In 2s

if I'm easily offended I'm easily manipulated so if you are that person where you are reactive reactive reactive

rule number one shut the up cuz if you're looking to be respected you need to manage yourself but there are times

that people are going to cross you and disrespect you well how do you deal with it so there is a guy post it's talked to the intelligence communities and it

really really helps when you're dealing with people and so one of the ways you deal with that kind of behavior is every

the former secret service agent turned human behavior expert from protecting presidents to interrogating the world's most dangerous men she now teaches

people how to develop mental strength and persuasive communication skills how did they train you as a secret service agent to have that strong mental

Foundation that you have there's a lot of things so first one of the biggest things that holds people back is the idea that I'm special you're not that

special for example I was one of the First Responders out 9/11 I watched thousands of people die and one of the

things that got me through it was understanding I wasn't alone in it and when you learned that you can get through anything when you tell yourself

nobody knows what I'm going through nobody can help you cuz it's just you going through it now the next thing

what's most important is this tool that we don't pay attention to our body and there's this study where they started

recording people walking then they laid it to convicted felons and they said to them who would you pick as prey they all

picked the same people they were so there are simple things you can do with your hands your voice how you sit and I

will tell you everything but also the other thing that's actually interesting which you didn't ask but I will volunteer this information are the

strategies to tell if somebody's being truthful or not and it's that's Li detection 101 this has always blown my mind a little

bit 53% of you that listen to the show regularly haven't yet subscribed to the show so could I ask you for a favor

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you want me to speak to and we'll continue to do what we do thank you so much

Evie pomus when you think about the books that you've written the content you produce and all that you're

fundamentally doing for people in your own words how do you summarize or Define

that what is it that you think you're doing for people with the content the books you've written Etc it's a great

question and I don't know if I have a clear answer I think always I think

about how am I serving other people I always go back to that I remember even

when I wrote my book becoming bulletproof actually my book was supposed to launch right at the height of covid I mean it's when the world was

shutting down and I remember I had a PR person I my agent uh the Publishers

everyone's like hey you know this covid thing is happening all the media tour glits went away why don't we postpone

the launch of the book and nobody was advising me to launch the book nobody

everyone's like Drop don't do it don't do it and I remember I was like all right I need to kind of tune everybody

out and I I paused and I I thought to myself why did I write this book I wrote this book to help people okay so if the

goal is to help people make them more resilient help them live less fearlessly the world right now is in a state of

fear so if I follow that principle then right now I should launch the

book and I remember against everybody's advisement I launched it and when you

get DMS from people and private messages what is it the essence of what they're coming to you

for so I was surprised with my book where people began writing in I'm dealing with this problem your book

helped me find a way out or I'm dealing with this can you

give me guidance on how to deal with it what is the essence of what they're struggling with it's always themselves

it's not the it's not the world around you I get it to some extent but it's almost always where the

problem we either sabotage ourselves we get in the way we make decisions or we think I didn't do anything everything's

cause an effect anytime you say do act or don't act it has a consequence or an

effect to it and I think sometimes we're so blasé about it in the Western World the science shows that we actually

downplay our faults when we make a mistake it's not that big of it a deal we downplay our stuff and we actually

lift up our positive attributes it's okay but to a point because when you

downplay things and you downplay your involvement you downplay your choices you downplay what role you play in your

life then you can't you you really are essentially poweress and you're you're blaming the world and I'm not saying

that other people can't harm you they will they just will I think if people made peace with the fact that they're

actors out there some I know some I don't know and in pursuit of their self-interest people are going to make

choices that hurt me period bar on the end if you can live with that and

understand that you will be okay because you just have more awareness in fact in

the when I did polygraphs the interview room after I interviewed so many people and typically I would interview suspects

um people that we suspected committing a crime so lie detector tests lie detector test but I was a lie detector not the

machine a lot of people think you hook that thing up oh ping they're lying no

like you sit there you assess people you read people what the polycraft does is

it tells you when you ask a series of questions to this person I hook Steven up I ask him a series of several

questions I look to see what step's autonomic nervous system is doing

heartbeat right does that change your electrodermal activity how much you

sweat you're breathing the way you breathe so that's why you have the blood pressure cuff you have the electrodermal

plates which actually look at sweating you won't it's imperceptible to you but the plates will pick up sweating the

sweating activity the change in breathing so if I'm asking you a series of questions I'm looking at how your

body deviates during those questions uh you even have sensors cuz sometimes people try to beat the polygraph and so

there's sensor pads that we have to see if they're doing certain movements or not I personally don't think you can beat it

but again the test itself means nothing you can't take it to court you can't say judge they fil their polygraph that's

not what it's there for it's there to get more information and look who are you if

you're lying who are you really in Judgment of yourself that's why your body is reacting a second ago you talked

about how victims stay victims and this whole idea of becoming a bulletproof

person because regardless of what we do in our lives bad things going to happen we're going to encounter narcissists and

people that are looking to take advantage of us there's a certain mental fortitude that you exude you you exude a

certain type of mental resilience and strength what is the found you know and

I think that's really critical because if you have that strong internal

Foundation then all everything else we're probably going to talk about today becomes much easier and possible but

without that like strong Foundation when the wind blows the house Falls over so if we think about step one in building

that strong mental fortitude Foundation that you have where does one begin and

especially if we're beginning from a very very bad place we're beginning from a place of victimhood bad things have

happened we're not the most confident person it starts with who's around you

that's where it starts if you have people around you anybody can break

victimhood like anybody can you can so I want to put that out there just because you're locked in the place doesn't mean

you have to stay in there you can but usually you're if you're locked in

somewhere it's because the system you have around you that you also help

create and perpetuate to some degree we're not completely innocent we play a role the system that is built around you

keeps you think of it this way it keeps you in jail so you have to look at your

environment and say what about my environment is keeping me here usually

it's a person or people hopefully it's one and you're not dealing with multiple

now it can be family and that's where you know some when you deal with

children and you deal with certain you know crimes and abuse I I I you know I always feel like

the one population of people that truly have an like I don't want to say excuse but you it's really not their fault are

kids because there's just so vulnerable and like they rely on you for their their livelihood they need somebody to

feed them clothe them take care of them or they can't survive however if as you

age right as you mature it's looking at your environment who's around me and who is keeping me here who it and you know

what becomes hard it becomes hard because you'll have a let's say uh I

don't I I'm going to use this term bad actor in your life that bad actor can be Mom Dad sibling brother it can be

anybody you can love that bad actor but the choices and the things

that that person does impacts you it makes you more vulnerable even if when

you look at even if you just look at crime well they did they've done a lot

of different studies and what they found is even let's say if I don't commit

crime but I'm around other people who commit crime I am more likely to be shot

than any other population of people I could not be involved in any nefarious activity at all I could be clean but

simply because of who I associate with that makes me more vulnerable to being

uh to becoming a victim so that's what where you start who's around you now

other really important things whoever you pick for your companion if you have one it's huge that companion is either

going to raise you up or they're going to sink your ship down and is that in the real world best friends husbands

wives if we're talking I would say first intimate partner whatever that is to you

husband wife boyfriend girlfriend whatever that is companion that's number one because that's the person here's the

difference between a a like a partner and a a friend your friend goes home to their home you go to your home a

companion or partner you probably live with them that means you are so overly

exposed to that person and you need to make Dam am well sure that that person

is not contaminating your life you can still love them but you can step back and look at there's a problem here that

this person's stuff is contaminating my life and it's a hard thing to do for

folks because this is why you're with someone it's like okay I'm with Evie but

you know Evie is this and Evie is that and so you start to blend my identity with my behavior and then over the time

too you normalize the things I do if I'm a bad actor well Evie didn't mean it she's always hotheaded you know she's

this but she did all these nice things for me here and then what we do is we miss stuff that's why it's easier for

you to look at somebody else's relationship and be like hey problem here problem here problem here because

you are not tainted by the emotional aspect of being

tied to that person you're able to look at them objectively this is why byon it's easy to give other people advice I

can see the red flags in the issues in this person when you're in it you can't

it's hard so I would also venture to say people may not like this if you're with

someone and there are people around you that you know legitimately care and love you and they're telling you hey not the

best thing for you I would say please listen because they are seeing something

that you might not be seeing do you think people just tend to know like in their gut they tend to know but they

justify the person's behavior and they almost kind of Gaslight themselves to

some degree they say well maybe not maybe that's fine maybe they are a friend maybe they they're just doing that for my best interest whereas really

that bad actor is acting in their interests and kind of gaslighting you and then you're gaslighting

yourself I think it's one thing is you don't you don't go from zero to 100 overnight when you're

in a relationship or you're with around people who are like that in in the beginning you don't see it right

everyone's got their best Behavior but over time you'll start to see little

like sneak peeks little previews and it's those previews you want to pay attention to we like to give

people the benefit of the doubt we listen to the excuses that they give us and you know there's this ancient Greek

saying that says don't listen to your opponent look at them it will tell you

everything and when I say look at them look at what people do I need you to

drum out what they're telling you I I need you to drum out their I am sorries because they probably are they've hurt

you and they are probably genuinely sorry that's not the point the point is

when do you want to learn your lesson in the beginning or at the end and at the

end sometimes it's very very very hard you know I have a community and I started after I did the book and when

people started writing in I said you know what let me do this community I'll call it Beyond bulletproof and whoever signs up and it you know two years in

have 800 members and we a lot of people come in with different scenarios and they'll come in with and it's almost

always the scenario they come in with if there's something like this it's somebody that they're tied

to that's just sinking them sinking them and sometimes they're the Sinker and

they think it's the other person so sometimes you're the bad actor and you don't even realize it so you

need to figure out two things am I the one doing things that's not just hurting myself but other people but

I've Justified it to myself in pursuit of whatever self-interest I have or am I tied to

someone who's pulling me down I'm going to tell you something Stephen I sat across people who did a lot of different

things some serious crimes some not so serious every single person sold it to

themsel why they did what they did we're sellers I can justify anything

too myself if I want to they were turning themselves into I guess victims

of situations why I do that well you know good people make bad choices good

people make mistakes the problem is sometimes the consequences of those mistakes they last but you can't vouch

for anybody cuz you don't know who people are behind closed doors you don't and two anybody is capable of anything

at any given moment in time if given the opportunity if if you understand that

you will not be surprised or shocked by anything or anyone it's not that it's a morbid view

of people it's understanding people are malleable they're susceptible some more than others some may have a either

stronger Integrity or more I don't even think it's Integrity it's just a stronger hold on themselves to say yes I

won't do this no I won't do this um and then some people are a bit more malleable like it's easier to get to

them it's e EAS e to manipulate them it's easier to mold them to do other things it's easier to get them to sway

in a Direction but if you understand that then you you understand human behavior

there's so many things of interest there I remember if we go back to the top of your point around your environment and

people having a huge impact on your life I remember reading a study by a guy called Michael hman and another study

done done at Harvard University where they showed that even if at work you sit next to someone who is toxic and does

like bad practice I at work your chance of doing bad practice yourself radically increases and in some cases that's by

25% and in other environments that's up to 100% your your probability of then getting a disciplinary against you just

because you sat next to that person radically increases and this is I think reinforce is the case that your environment is has such a powerful and

profound impact on You For Better or For Worse and I think the for better part is also worth pausing on because if you're

sitting with and you're around people that are lifting you and elevating you and making you believe that the world is

valuable and you can do anything as I've experienced in my own life at times it's crazy that that almost like rewies the

neurons in your brain to some degree how do you pick people like how do you

differentiate on your own who's good and who's not for you you know what this is

a really interesting question Vibes and everything else in my life I'll tell you data science or this

or here's my framework but there's some things in life which I think your intuition and your Vibes if you've

developed the skill of tuning in enough is the best indicator and if you if you look back through my career at 18

dropping out of University even at 60 not going to school 20 leaving a business that was going really well and

then at 27 quitting a business that was all over the world and about to do this major second IPO all this stuff in all

of those moments the most important thing wasn't my prefrontal cortex it wasn't logic or facts or figures or the money it was purely this feeling inside

me that I no longer wanted to do this thing because it didn't feel good anymore and in the moment you look

insane but when you zoom out on a person's life who is driven by that voice inside like really driven by it

you go oh my God what a life that they have amazing look at look at the girlfriend they have and the place they live and the stuff they have and the job

they have they're so lucky but I actually think it starts with that like courage to tune into that voice inside

so that's my answer it's just pure Vibes people for me are vi just don't feel good don't want to go and then careers

I've had as the year where I go I don't like doing this anymore that's that's me done and there's another part which is on the

other end of that is uncertainty because in all those situations there was really

no plan B there was no good plan B that's so interesting so when you talk about Vibes it's your intuition yeah

it's your instinct I'm Bar None and it's when when I'm around people like anybody

around they give off something and what we don't do is we don't listen to what

we feel you can still do business or talk to someone but when you feel that and I do too I feel my way even honestly

even whose podcast I'm going to do I'm like I don't know if I like this Vibe or I don't know if I like this I

just feel it I feel like who do I want to be around and even something like whose podcast do I want to be

on because it's I'm bringing myself into a space right mhm that person's space

it's like it's all it's all interconnected so it's like I'm choosing what's spaces to go into and if you're

right if it you don't have to articulate it to yourself and that's where we go wrong often because it's like somebody

comes in they say hi to you and immediately you're like I just I don't like this but they didn't say anything

to you they didn't do anything to you you can't articulate why and you know what we do we dismiss it we dismiss it

oh it's me oh I shouldn't this no it's you know what it's you're you've got two

brains right this one and the gut that's what they call it the your gut instincts

listen to it always and I think going back to people who are steady you're talking about what makes you steady I

think a big part of what helps make you steady is trusting in yourself you have to trust in yourself like believe in

yourself and when I say that I mean trust that what you're feeling is is is true like listen to it

and not let other people talk you out of things or being able to say I feel this way I

don't know why but I'm going to trust it and almost if not all the time you look

back it's like I knew better I felt this I kind of sensed this I didn't listen to

myself and if you're wrong so you're wrong and that goes back to uncertainty

people are afraid to be wrong why because of what other people

might say about me because how I will look to the world and

you know from there from that conclusion you then jump to and then they will reject me and then I'll be alone and

then I'll be lonely then I'll die that's kind of like The Logical the downward step I always find that interesting I

had this conversation with my girlfriend yesterday which is it's interesting how one belief is actually connected to like

a string of Downstream beliefs that then go to he doesn't love me and this is such a random tangent but me and my

girlfriend were like scheduling our calendar for the future that we're going to be a part for a little while so um she wanted to like schedule the dates

and I was really busy with something and so I wasn't like paying as much attention to the scheduling conversation

and she got a little bit upset and I found it so interesting cuz the fact that I was half paying attention to the

scheduling conversation actually told her that I'm not interested in her which

means I don't love her and and so afterwards I turned her and I said can you explain to me like how I made you feel in that situation and I went why

why every time why why and we got right down there you don't love me and it all

started with this little thing at the top and I think the same here where if I do something and it goes wrong there's

like a downstream consequence in someone's subconscious that leads them to think then I'm going to be exiled from

the tribe do you know what I mean that's like at the root of it that's why I

think fear you know when we you talk so much about fear and becoming Fearless living fearlessly because I

don't think you can be Fearless okay living fearlessly what's the distinction fearlessly

means I see things despite being afraid I'm going to try I'm going to do my best to like live in it right and embrace it

to some degree whatever you're afraid of if it's something you want to do follow

it and then figure out a way to to do it but it's okay to be afraid and uncertain during the process I don't know when I'm

uncertain too I'm thinking all right I can figure this out you don't fail until you stop I I look at it that way like

even if you're failing incrementally overall you won't fail until you're just

like all right I'm done and as long as you're done cuz you want to be done that's cool but you don't want to be

done because you keep failing or you're confused or you're you're you're leaving

because somebody other people are telling you shouldn't be doing it it's just because you decided I don't want to

be on this path anymore I think it's it always has to come back to you I like I've always been in the school of

thought cuz and I love my family but they were always telling me do this and especially cuz my parents were immigrant

everything was job security get a good job get a good job 9 to 5 get a good job don't try to do

anything else you know because they struggled so much and so when I tried to do things outside of that element they

were afraid they were confused they thought I was nuts even when I started the NYPD they were not they were not

happy at all they're like what is this girls don't do these types of jobs even in my community uh they you

know I was laughed at you know people people kind of are like look at Yanni was my dad's name look at Yan's daughter

look look how silly she's she is you know so this is kind of like those moments where

you going back to you just have to do what you feel because afterward you're

going to be pissed off as hell because you listen to other people

and on that point of gut instinct which you mentioned a second ago is there a way do you think to train and develop

your gut instinct cuz you strike me as someone that has a pretty astute gut instinct that you trust but some people

don't and what ends up happening is they just end up living in regret that they didn't listen to their gut instinct and they you know like they only find out

after the fact after they've been mistreated so I'm wondering if there's a way to like cultivate a better

relationship with one's intuition and gut instinct yeah stop asking everybody

what they think when I have a really big decision to make like really big I don't I don't

tally people in fact the bigger it is the bigger the consequences or the bigger the the pain or the trauma or

whatever it is I go in because they're going to confuse me that's what you do you stop asking

people and if you're going to ask somebody let's say it's a health decision you're going to go to a doctor

or you're going to go to someone who has specific knowledge about a decision you are trying to make you're not going to

go to Mom you're not going to go to Dad you're not going to go to your brother you're not going to go to people who don't have that who although they love

you their opinions are going to send you like a pingpong ball that's how you become unsteady and you can start small

you can start small and when I say start small is start making decisions without running them by anybody what to eat

where to go where to vacation just you can start small it's just allow yourself

to be the decision maker allow yourself to be in the driver's seat but what we do is we invite people in the car we're

like yeah yeah you could drive my car no problem they get in the driver's seat we put them in the driver's seat then we're

in the passenger seat or we might even get kicked to the back seat and then we're all pissed off like why are you driving like that why are you going that

way that's not really where I want to go then drive the car and stop inviting everybody in to drive it for you and

then be pissed off when they don't take it the direction you want to go if you're going to be pissed off always be pissed off at

yourself because it's like I chose I chose wrong but I chose that is how you

build confidence you know going back to law enforcement cuz I teach it one of

the predominant trains that people in law enforcement have is um they are they

have high confidence because of one reason they are they make

decisions they are good decision makers because when you're out on the street and you're dealing with somebody or

situation there's nobody to look over to and say hey how should I handle this you

have to make a choice and you have to go making decisions is going to increase

your confidence and your ability in yourself even if they're the wrong decisions that's not the point be a

decision maker in your life that is going to move you forward that is going to increase your belief in yourself and

your trust in yourself and you're going to get comfortable too huh I read that wrong you know what I learned here I

should have read it this way and so this is when you bring in the Vibes and a little bit of tactical strategy because

you're less emotional that's another F that's another hindrance when you are

emotional you are a bad decision maker when you are in a space of emotion

make no decision avoid don't text don't call don't I always say just remove

yourself and go in go quiet when you can go quiet and be in that Stillness of you

it will come to you over time and you know what's another great thing and when you look at resilient people they don't

have all the answers and they don't need to have all the answers I don't have all

the answers but I don't need them to be okay and this is where you Embrace that

uncertainty you don't have to have all the answers and that by itself is powerful like you don't need to figure

it out you don't need to know what to do right away leave it sit in it be in it

then when it's time you move through you're going to end up getting a lot of unsolicited advice though you

know this is we all do we get when we're making trying to make those big life decisions we'll have someone who we

didn't even ask them but people will be chipping in telling you what to think of yourself and there's an element almost I

guess of being able to develop stronger boundaries in your life so that you can keep the outside world outside okay so

then how about you stop telling everybody your business why do they need to know what

you're thinking about doing here or there why because when you open your mouth to

share things you're going to get advice so this goes back to you do I open my

mouth or do I stay quiet because if I open my mouth and I start talking people are going to start sharing and so when

people like oh they don't respect my boundaries you're the one who offered it if you want to create boundaries you

start with them I don't share or like if I'm like for example I'm working on a project or deal nobody knows until my

deal is done why I don't know how it's going to go I don't want other people's opinions I'll have the opinions of

whoever I'm dealing with specifically in a deal if it's a project right I'm going to talk to them but I don't want other

people confusing me people confuse you good intentions but when you've got too

many voices in your head that's why you can't trust yourself because you've got all these other

voices you can't hear your own so I know if I share something with someone they're going to share their

thoughts and maybe I don't want them I stay I will tell you I usually

stay quiet until I'm ready to reveal something also I'll stay quiet until

it's either done like it's happened because so many times you'll do something and it falls through and it

you're like you don't want to have to explain it to other people it's like why do I need to put myself in that

situation where I always talking I think talking talking talking talking although I think communication is good but

sometimes it's oversharing and overp putting our stuff out there how are you going to have

boundaries when you yourself violate those boundaries like you just make yourself like open borders everybody

come in if you're a bit more methodical with who you share what with and why I

think that that's okay but when you're like literally like tallying

everybody even if it's like what job to do do like for example there's a woman

in the the community I have and she's trying to figure out what career to do and she was kind of like my mom says

this my dad says this grown woman and and it was coming from a genuine place and I like this but I don't like that

and she was ping ponging everywhere she's like Evie what's you know can you

can you share something with me I was like stop I was like stop talking to everybody why are you telling everybody

to give you advice I was like I want you to think about how insane what you're doing is you are going to another human

being to ask them what job what career you should do a job that you're going to wake up every morning to get out of bed

to go do day after day after day and you're tallying and pulling other people

who are not going to be doing that you're going to be doing that on what you should do do you see a little bit of

the Ridiculousness of how you are asking somebody else you're the one who has to

get up every morning and go do it if you say that to her and you ask her to justify why she's doing that she might

say well I'm just not sure I just wanted to hear other people's opinions I just don't know you can she can you can do

that but if the question is how do I learn to trust myself you trust yourself

more by listening to yourself more and asking other people less that that that

is how you get there clearly she doesn't trust herself though no and then maybe maybe just the circle around you it's

also to you know and I don't know if you've been able to do this over the years slowly I've also accumulated people around me over it takes time

where they're trusted people where I can go to for specific things if I need to

because I like the way they move through life uh I I think that they they handle

themselves well maybe they do well in business they're thoughtful I like their character and so over time you can also

I don't want to say accumulate but you can kind kind of start to pull folks like that in takes time because people

are going to come into your life in in different moments and when you find those precious

gems keep them a bit close and then you can start to accumulate a a circle and

it's not people you go to every day it's just people that you can pick up the phone say Hey Stephen it's heavie can I

run something by you sure eie no problem what do you want to run by

me you can create those too and at least for me I've been able over time slowly

because it's not going to happen overnight and then sometimes people come into that space and sometimes you say

want to push you a little further out it's not working out anymore that woman in that example what does she ultimately

need to do cuz I can imagine in her world she's not certain about any path

so she's got 20% certainty about going in this direction 30% certainty about going in that direction apparently and

maybe 40% about going in that direction and then the rest is just a little bit of confusion and procrastination and

fear what does she actually have to do she just has to make a choice and do it

pick one and do it there's no there's no perfect choice eie but there isn't there's no there's no there's no way to

know how it's going to pan out there's no way to know just choose choose

something choose something and even if it's wrong you you know find peace and

like I chose it was wrong but you know what I'm not stuck here that's the other thing like you know you

can change your decisions just because you choose something it doesn't mean you're stuck there we have the ability

to get out you do you can find ways to get out and say I made a wrong choice it's okay you also have to be

okay with it the interesting thing within our personal lives that I think causes such procrastination versus

business is in business especially if you're in a startup if you don't make a choice or even like I imagine in the

Secret Service like if you don't make a choice there is an iMed iate consequence whereas in your life you can kind of

meander for a year 3 years 5 years and just sit and procrastinate whereas like

in a secret service situation when Trump is being shot at Meandering for five years as a secret

service agent I imagine isn't possible so that is something what will help with that is it's something called it's

called instrumental it's called sense making it's understanding a person's motivational mindset an instrumental

person in certain jobs can yield More instrumental people this is where I am

doing something where I am task oriented this just happened so I have to respond this way I'm going to do that I'm going

to do this like I'm looking at the overall what is my next step then my next step then my next step when you are

instrumental you are non-emotional I'm not in the emotion of it so although like if you bring a a

protect getting shot right although it can seem emotional yes it is but in that moment at least through training it's

shots being fired jump in front cover Shield evacuate you

run through those things that's being instrumental right which is having like a a framework for what to do next you're

functioning you're you're being tasked you're task oriented I'm going to do this I'm going to do this I'm going to

do this you have a business decision to make let's say something bad's happening in the business okay how do I stop this

hemorrhaging I'm going to do this I'm going to do this I'm going to do this that's

instrumental on the flip side of that is something called identity when I am identity I am oh my God I can't believe

this is happening this is horrible I don't know what to do I'm confused I'm really upset about this I can't believe

I'm finding myself here now I'm in that Purgatory space I'm not doing anything

I'm also emotional so I can't think clearly and I'm not able to make moves

so how did they train you as a secret service agent to be have that instrumental mindset you do action

action everything action make a choice make a choice make a choice move go go go do you know what's interesting

everything was about movement don't be still even when you're getting shot at

don't be still they actually teach you to run in zigzags it's actually really hard to shoot someone if they're not

perfectly stilled I mean we would shoot paper targets you miss you're stressed out your emotion you're looking at this

guy shooting that person's shooting am I shooting like [ __ ] you know cuz everyone's looking at each other's scores and you know if you don't shoot

well they're going to be like I don't want to take you out on the next raid with me right so you you've got that

Adrenaline Rush it's a hard thing to do um but they teach you like hey if you're getting shot at don't sit there like a

dummy move run and while you're running run like zigzag throw people off move

and I and I've taken that premise of always being Kinesis Kinesis is a Greek move Kinesis move move always

move create momentum no matter how stuck you feel and I I follow this actually in

my own just in my own life just move don't sit still I'm not saying don't

grieve don't be sad don't feel it's okay but don't put yourself in a place where

you're completely stagnant cuz that's where you get stuck and you don't move and you get comfortable and you become

afraid if you can just create movement I'm going to create a little bit of movement I'm going to make a decision

here and then another one another one if you can just stay in Kinesis movement

you'll be able to move through whatever it is you're going through I remember I interviewed Joo willick and he said

pretty much a very similar thing to me he said in the SAS or the the Navy Seals

when you're lost you're not going to get any new information if you just stay where you are so you have to just move

even if you don't know which direction movement generates information which then can inform a better decision and

you're kind of saying the same thing there which is if you're stuck you need to just get into Kinesis make a decision

start moving and then you'll learn at least something you learn something even

if it means reaching out to someone it's just do something that's helping you create some type of progress when when

you don't move when we don't have Kinesis like this is where you get stuck in that emotional depravity of like I

feel horrible this is happening like if you can find ways to move out of your problem as bad as it feels don't bathe

in it like don't take a bath in it feel it but like to a point and you

know what else too you also don't have to figure it out you don't have to figure out why did this happen or why

did this person do it sometimes there's nothing to figure out sometimes it just is sometimes there's Brilliance and

freedom and just letting go and saying this happened I don't know why it happened and I don't need to know why

but I can figure out how I need to move forward Kinesis how am I going to move out of this what do I go to next there's

no sometimes the more you sit and you analyze this stuff the more pain you put yourself through you're rethinking

you're retelling you're reliving and especially if you're reliving things that somebody else did

to you like the pain and you know you ever have those moments where you start to relive I should have done this I

should have said this do you know it actually activates the same part of the brain that's activated when you do

cocaine so it becomes addictive yeah makes you high think about that as even

though it's negative feelings you're like yeah you're having this whole thing happen and it's like I always look at I

want you know I always look at is what I'm doing leading me to a to the path I want to go to if it's not then I try to

relinquish I'm like listen it's okay to feel bad but you will feel less bad if you can keep that momentum going being

stuck and in that place of victimhood or fear or procrastination do you think that victimhood is

addictive I think it becomes a habit I don't think most people want to

be there if you ask anybody nobody's going to say yeah I love it but what

happens is it becomes a habit and it's a pattern of behavior and a pattern and a

way of thinking that you become used to what's the reward in that habit cycle then I don't know if there's a reward

and I don't know if people think about it they just get stuck and they repeat

the same thing because they're afraid and uncertain of if they change it what will happen you know you see this in

um in relationships where you know and it's not just domestic violence but but

you'll see it in these really imbalanced relationships where you will see one person who's very dominant and one person the dominant person will be

somebody who's very high power in control setting the agenda but not in a good way and then you'll see another

person who's very low power weak submissive avoid it the reason why that relationship works is one is here so the

other has to be here they they both can't be high powered cuz they'll clash and so that's why when you see a lot of

these imbalanced relationships or severely imbalanced when it's domestic violence and it can be man towards woman

woman towards man or same sex you will see that it's one person who's up here

High control and then the other person goes submissive avoidant this person down here is just trying to keep the

peace I don't want conflict I don't want to upset them I don't want to set them off but what you do is you go deeper and

deeper and deeper and the more you try to keep the peace the more you're submissive and avoidant and uncertain

what does the other person do the higher up they go because you just help create this imbalance this further spread of

power in the relationship they become louder stronger dogmatic demanding

rigid and then that happens over time then you find yourself in the space we're like how did I end up here and

this person's here and then that's one of those examples of where another person keeps you literally suppressed so

how are you going to trust yourself and your voice and make good decisions if you have such a an individual around you

and that's another thing that keeps a person pushed down and suppressed as a woman's secret service

agent when you first went into service I imagine there was a sort of

institutional sexism just thinking about that era that time where people would look at you and think well you know as a

woman there wasn't as many women in the Secret Service so maybe she's someone that I can push

down maybe she's someone who I can make the odd comment to maybe I could create a p power Dynamic where I'm above her

did that ever happen and if it did happen how did you deal with it so that's like it's the truth is that stuff

does happen right and it it could happen I remember Barbara Pierce Bush went to

Tanzania I'm the assistant detail leader which means I was like the head person

and then my boss from headquarters came but he wasn't there yet and we were having a briefing and you protecting the

Bush family I was protecting I was the uh assistant detail leader for Barbara Pierce Bush so George Bush Jr's daughter

one of the twins it's Jenna and Barbara I had Barbara so she went there to do like philanthropic work Aid and we were

going to some really like a not safe areas right a lot of vulnerabilities a lot of concerns so I set up the briefing

I'm the person in charge and and uh agents are coming

from different parts of the country to help supplement some some agents I've never met so I remember one guy walks in

and he's like oh hey hi so this is in the hotel room we're having the briefing and no one's there yet it's just him and I hi you know how are you okay he's like

hey you know the the intern staff room is down the hall if you want to go you know find it I can show you so when he

saw me he made an assumption I was staff intern you know I was part of the the

Entourage but not an actual agent and so I'm like actually no I'm I'm EV I'm the assistant detail leader

here U you know thank you for joining what office are you from so now could I

be pissed off sure did he make an assumption based on what he saw sure those are moments where like I don't

care really no 0% no who looked like a big dummy afterward he did not me it

does become I'm annoying but this is like where you got to be like this is where you have to pick your battles you

can't fight everybody oh my God Stephen imagine how exhausted you'd be if you f you fought every buffoon came your way

some I mean some people literally have designed their life to fight buffoons right and I'm busy I have things to do

think about how much time and energy they take and waste from you and that's talk about a life of being stagnant and doing nothing because you're too busy

fighting everybody choose and fight strategically so if it's something I need to fight

fight I'll give you another example after September 11th the the US

Secret Service field office was in the World Trade Center 7 so when the towers collapsed we lost our whole office so

immediately the Secret Service New York office they were trying to find a new home so they found office space in

Brooklyn and you know obviously in a place like that like the office space needs to be designed a specific way for

like what we're doing again non-descript nobody needs to nowh there but you're designing it to look and feel a certain

way to get things done I'm an agent now I get called into the Sachs office

which is the head boss and he says I need you to design this office

for me work with headquarters get us nice photos make this look like our new

home um you know we have a lot of briefings here I'm going to put you in

charge of this can you do this okay yes sir there's 250 agents in the

office I get pulled for interior design Duty HGTV there we go so I said all

right no problem so I did I'm like I'm going to do it I'm going to own it and I remember some of the women were like

aren't you I'm like no worries I was like I'm going to do the best damn job I can so I did took me months I made a

nice office I was done with it fast forward that same boss put out an open

bid new polygraph position there's only two polygraph examiners in the New York office 30 throughout the whole Us Secret

Service a spot comes open which is rare everybody put your name in whoever wants it everybody puts their name in people

senior to me put their name in and then one of the senior uh polygraph guys was like why don't you put your name I'm

like dude no way no one's going to confess to me they're going to see me they're going to high five each other I'm never putting my name in he's like

put your name in you don't know I wait till like the last half hour before they

call it a bid closes and I threw my name in I'm like it's not going to happen guess what week later I get a phone call

come to my office same boss sits me down he's like I had x amount of people put

in maybe 30 or so people he's like I picked you and he said do you know why I

said no sir he's like I gave you that assignment to design the office and fix it and at no point did you [ __ ] or

complain or say anything to me and in fact you did a great job thank you this

is your assignment put in I need to understand here something which is on

one hand I've got to be protecting my boundaries right don't let people [ __ ] with me on the other

hand don't make someone's Prejudice my problem and don't [ __ ] and complain are

these mutually exclus are these like two separate ideas or is it like context

dependent because you know if if I'm protecting my boundaries my boss calls me in and tells me that I'm going to be doing the interior as job potentially

because I'm a woman is not protecting my boundaries in that situation going [ __ ] you and calling him out I could have I

could have but I assure you I would not have gotten that position I also knew somebody has to do it so he happened to

pick me maybe he likes my sense of style Maybe not maybe because of the way I

look maybe because I'm a woman I don't know you know what's funny he didn't know this I actually studied Fine Art in

college H so so I was I wasn't that appalled and

and I also looked at you know what too I also looked at the opportunity because now I got to work with people in

headquarters that I never would have gotten exposed to and like all the historic archive stuff so there was a

part of it I was like oh this is kind of cool now could I have argued it I could have but then I guess you choose I chose

not to long term it worked out for me there's also times where I don't know

Stephen like you can't care so hard people are going to slight you and like h you choose how much you're going to

care about how much they slighted you and I have noticed that the more I

care the more of a detriment it is to me and the less I care the better I perform

overall all I'm saying is just choose strategically don't choose just cuz

you're pissed cuz if you're doing it cuz you're pissed now you're being ruled by emotion

and anytime you make choices by emotion you're going to make bad choices bar the

for a lot of people the action they take following a situation like that is so quick and almost like so automatic that

they yeah that they just and then they and they might like relax later and go [ __ ] why did I say that I've R my

life that's why I said it that's why you're easily manipulated if you are the person and please know that I was that

person if if you are that person where you are just reactive reactive reactive

you're going to sink your ship completely it means you're not thinking through things it means you are just you

have no self-regulation I self-regulate don't don't get me wrong there's times where I'm like I'm going to burn this

bridge down all the way and I don't care I'm good with it so long as I am

choosing clear-headed I'm going to burn this bridge down but I'm choosing to do it I'm not

doing it reactively I'm not doing it because I've lost control I'm doing it cuz I made that choice I'm going to burn

this bridge and this relationship and I'm 100% okay with it do it but make

sure you're doing it not the monkey inside your brain

exactly how do I train the monkey inside my brain over time because you said you

didn't you used to be less regulated right you used to make more emotional decisions and over time you've come to

be able to make those very rational like prefrontal cortex

decisions and vibes okay and vibes I shut up I started to shut

up I just started to be quiet when I'm pissed I go quiet I don't say anything

like when you that I think that's the biggest thing I learned to be quiet I just learned to shut my mouth not to

reveal your upcoming book but I know that one of the 100 um principles in that book is called 100 Rules of

Engagement shut the [ __ ] up rule number one and the reason why is not to be

vulgar it's because because it helped me so much because the more you talk just

when you talk in general the more you talk the more you reveal the more people know the more you solicit the more

people share with you the more you get confused the more indecisive you are the more the more the more the

more and when I learned to stop self-regulate not to shoot my mouth off

because I was offended you can only get offended first of all if you allow yourself to get offended there are times

that people are going to cross you and disrespect you yes yes but like how often can you be offended and

also there's times like who cares like I don't have to have

everybody's respect that's another exhausting thing I have to you need to respect me and you need to disrespect me

he disrespected me and I'm Greek it's a big thing like oh but that that's going to wear you out like and you don't need

it there were times where maybe I worked with people who I could tell I was not wanted I remember once NYPD and I

started off in NYPD NYPD Queen's narcotics unit sorry guys this a true story and um I was sent to partner up

with Queen's narcotics to take down this guy who was doing child porn and

counterfeit money in addition to drugs so I get sent to the task force

this is a hardcore task force within the net NYPD I show up with agents I'm the lead agent in charge and I show up and

they were not happy to see see me not at all and I remember walking in I'm I don't know how it is now I'm sure it's

not but you know women's calendars Centerfolds all over the place I walked

in personally I didn't care but I was just like I think it's going to be a problem not me them them for

me and um I could tell that they didn't want me there they started leaving

information out of briefings they would ignore me when we were at doing the search warrants like really tactical

things that they were doing that were wrong and this was a ring of people that we were trying to take down so the first

time and then plus my team seeing this so I don't say anything my team doesn't say anything my team's all guys and

thankfully I had like really respectful agents with me but these guys are seeing it they're seeing how they're treating me by proxy them no one's saying

anything they're disregarding us um and the reason why we were asked to be there is because we're experts in counterfeit

we're also experts in child porn so we do the arrest it's done but

then there's a subsequent arrest that happens and we show up for that same thing like literally ignoring you like

you're not even there we do the arrest we do the prince and at one point they even leave the precinct and we're like

where did they go they just completely ditched us and I I remember going back

to my group leader Carl and uh I go to Carl I said Hey

listen if these guys call again cuz there were more arrests I was like don't send me out there and he's like why I'm

like it's very clear they don't want me there I said I don't want to fight but I'm not also going to sit and stand my

ground and put myself somewhere I don't want to be I don't like the way it feels I don't want to be there it's bad for

the team send a dude send a dude don't send me back out there I won't go is that letting them

win though no cuz they'll be at the office with their posters up of these women and

they'll be like yeah we got rid of her knock yourselves out I this is also

where you choose what circles want to be in it was a circle I chose I didn't want to be in you can't change a mindset and

culture of people like if that's also also think about it it wasn't one person I was up against it was the whole group

so now I'm going to come in and bulldo my way into this what group mentality I think this is where I really learned to

navigate and you have to be good at it like where to fight where to walk away from and I was like I don't need to be

here I don't need to prove anything to anybody I've earned it I'm like half of you yahoos couldn't become special agent

if you you know applied like it's a hard thing to become to go from a cop to do that so with that I was like no I don't

need to and it's actually the only time I ever did that cuz it was that egregious it was egregious and I thought

it was a danger to me and also a danger to the other special agents like I felt like I had a responsibility and I'm like

if I'm working with the Queen's narcotics narcotics task force and they're not communicating they're withholding information someone's going

to get shot I was like and that's on them not on me but I'm also not going to going to partake a lot of people will

listen to this and they'll relate to the feeling of being subtly disrespected on a recurring basis by

individuals in their life whether it's their romantic partner whether it's a colleague at work whether it's someone else that they interact with and so many

people I've I've seen this in some of the questions I get sent in are Keen to

understand how to deal with someone that is disrespecting you you know cuz I I

guess there's a train of thought that would say when they disrespect you you kind of argue and engage and try and

Shout them down and try and win but if you are being subtly disrespected in your own life by someone what do you

recommend that they do okay who is it so if it's my partner so I'm married I have

a husband he's another special agent if he does something where I feel

disrespected because I care so deeply about that relationship and the Integrity of that

relationship him I might argue it not to argue but because I want to keep a good healthy

relationship now don't get me wrong being in a relationship you also let a lot of things go right so it's it's

again what am I willing to let go what's I don't want to say silly but what's like really not important and where you

know what's like hey I want to address this with you and this is why so for me that takes hierarchy who your partner is

I when we talked about that before Bar None that is really such a Crux of how

well you're going to do in life they're either going to raise you up or they're going to sink you down so that matters

and I will do my best not to be belligerent when I'm having that discussion

right now everybody else falls to the side for me cuz because I understand the

value of being with a person and you're with that person 90% of the time and that's an investment in that

relationship but aside from everybody else mostly everybody else I can let it

go I always look at are you worth my time and energy I'm busy so do I need to

stop and do I need to address you okay so let's play out a scenario okay and in

this scenario I'm going to make herse PE so we work together right we work together in a call center this is actually something that happened to me

when I was in the early sort of phase of my career where I was working in call centers so I was like answering phones

and doing that kind of thing and selling things on the phone Etc and I remember being sat next to someone who was like

subtly disrespecting me all the time and at this point in my life I wasn't in any position of authority to do anything

about it I've actually it's funny because that one instance has completely shap shaped my leadership perspective

and my real deep belief that I have a responsibility as the founder of the company or CEO to go in search of and

clamp out all disrespect in an organization that is happening beneath me because you're often powerless at

work to do anything about it and I felt that I couldn't stop this lady that sat next to me disrespecting me

because I wasn't her boss so now that I have the responsibility it's a big thing for me that we don't employ [ __ ] in

[ __ ] and there's actually a recent example where someone was in our business for a total

of a couple of hours and actually my previous company there was a guy that walked in during his initiation he went

like this and walked off day one of his job he put both metal fingers up after his like initiation where you iation we

basically asked them questions asked them what they're into who they are put both middle fingers up and walked off was the last time anyone saw them in the

building and it because it was a it was a sign of a character issue that would would lead to further

disrespect so if I'm sat next to you at work eie we're colleagues and you you

come in in the morning and I go oh first time you've been on time and then you

you do some work and I go not bad considering your standard and then you're in a meeting and you're talking

and I just interrupt you and you submit a piece of work and I and

I look at it and I turn my nose up and you hear me talking [ __ ] about you

behind your back when people aren't there me criticizing your work and how you are and your delivery how are you

going to deal with that situation so I would deal with a specific situation not the whole thing I would pick a moment

where I have tangible facts and I would say can I speak to you for a moment okay so we're in a group we're all on the

calls on in my call center I'm not going to do in front of other people okay fine so this is what happens I this is not

actually what happened in my life did you do this no no no no F me I didn't do anything I just wanted the money I was trying to just survive could feed myself

I was going to open my mouth but I'm we're in a call center and I've disrespected you for a while now and

then I Turn to You and I go and you you've just come off a call and I go you know what you should have you could have done that better you didn't close that

properly e and I you know next time you do a call and you get stuck like that just speak to me and I'll take the call

off you just tell them that your colleague will handle it and I carry them with my day what are you going to do in that moment I might not do

anything well it also depends because you said I didn't do anything I was trying to feed myself and that plays a

role like where are you I think part of it is also is I was very young and I didn't have the tools to address that

situation the problem is the situation made coming to work a misery yeah and this version of myself irrespective of

my financial situation would have and even today because even today okay I

have money I have security but I'm still playing at a certain level where there's disrespect potential I actually have a

really good example that I could never share as someone that I work with who's extremely successful we work on a particular project together and I found

out that this was happening and they were basically threatened by me because for a variety of reasons this this is

what I was told by an an intermediary and I chose a moment when I heard that

they had just disrespected me within a short period of time and I walked in in front of a in front of a group of people

and I said to them I said I I heard what you did out there in the hallway when I wasn't there and um in the future if you

want to say something to me I'd really appreciate it you said it to my face instead of behind my back and this and

it's crazy what happened it's crazy what happened this really big tough powerful individual

turned into a toddler in front of my eyes oh what no I didn't say and I left the room and then it never happened

again but I think that that's okay too but you also came to that place like

it's like I think each person has to choose and if you choose to do it you can do it now the fact that you did in

front of people but what you did that was smart is you were able to speak as

upset as you were you were able to speak and articulate yourself clearly yeah and it had just happened and you were able

to say what just specifically happened here that's the difference cuz sometimes it's like I feel like you treat me this

way or I think you did this or it seems like that those are very ambiguous so if you're going to confront someone like

you did you did it the smart way cuz you picked a specific moment you said specifically out on the hallway you just

did this you said X Y and Z if you want to say something to me always feel free to come say it to me that's why I also

think it worked and you're also in a place where you feel like you can do that I think that that's okay too but

you also took a risk and you're like uncertainty like I'll burn this down yeah because on that project I'm not the

one that's got the power I can still be fired from that particular project but you chose you're like Let It Burn yeah

cuz I I don't want to be anywhere where I'm miserable exactly you made a but you made a choice you're like let it burn so you UND you at some point understood

like these there's a consequence here and it's interesting cuz bullies they're not they they Flex they're not very

powerful you know I had oh gosh we're like swapping stories here I had one scenario where I inherit a case you know

every John's gone he went to the president's detail you are now taking Jon's case Okay so there were some

things that were incomplete in John's case with with regard to evidence it was admin stuff the admin paperwork for

evidence hadn't been filled out yet I got the case I pushed it to the side I

worked on it I would update it but I hadn't done the admin thing with it fast forward I'm leaving cuz I just got

bumped to a different position and so the new agent that got it I'm like hey here's the case I said there's one thing

that I didn't get to do it's the admin thing for the evidence I'm like I can help you go through it blah blah blah

blah well uh the group leader I had at the time which was a

peer in front of the whole group one day he's like hey you didn't do this admin you didn't

file the evidence for whatever blah blah blah blah and he's doing this in front of everybody you know you need to take

care of that and that's on you and I don't care that you inherited the case and blah blah blah blah blah so I'm

watching this happen and I assure you I all I wanted to do was like reach over and lunge him by the neck but I didn't I

left I was pissed I let it ride my anger ride and

later that day I went and I found him after I calmed down and his name was

Jeff I'm like hey Jeff come here let me talk to you and I took him into the stairwell cuz we had these secure

stairwells I said listen earlier on you brought up this case you're 100% right I

didn't finish the ad paperwork for the evidence I will take care of it and I will help the new agent do it I said

however I was like if you ever want to address me cuz he was very insulting when he did it he did it in front of the

whole group to flex I said if you ever want to address me don't ever do it like

that again I go because I'm addressing you and I'm actually giving you more respect than you showed me in there before by pulling you into this

stairwell I said so if you want to address me feel free to pull me to the side and speak to me but what you did

out there there's no need we're peers and that's it you may be the group leader but there's no need to talk to me

like that I go have the decency to address me the way and the with the courtesy that

I'm giving you because I could have easily tore your head off in there and he was a peer he was a peer SLG group

leader so we were the same but he happened to be a group leader okay which meant he oversaw me I said so next time

there's not going to be a next time it was immediately I'm sorry you're right I'm sorry I'm sorry now for that sonar

Mario I wanted to have long-term good relationships because this person was was in my

squad and so that's why I handle it like that never happened again so I guess like there's different ways to do it

with Jeff I preserved his dignity because if I would have shot back he would have shot back at me I would have

shut back at him and there's a point too where I'm like I'm I don't want to look like an I don't want to sit and fight

and look stupid I I want to be in control of like how I manage an environment and me

yelling back or confronting someone sometimes may not be it especially if I think I can't keep myself composed and

in that moment there was no way I was going to be composed I think you're right now I reflect on the incident that I described

to you I don't actually think I was that composed I didn't shout I was very articulate looked to them in the eyes

without breaking eye contact but actually if I was really composed I would have done what you did which is I

would have said please can I have a private chat with you and I actually think it would have been more effective

and would have shown more of my sort of fortitude to have that conversation privately the other thing that you said

which I thought was so important in the context of what we're saying is you do have to point at a specific incident

because these individuals they are masters of gaslighting you so if you don't have specifics that just happened

in that location and it made me feel like this and you said this if you let it ride and you come to them with Vibes

they will so easily twist it what are you talking about I don't know what you mean no that's not what I meant that's

why you have to come with very specific stuff but you know even if if you said you were pissed when you did it if you

were still able to articulate yourself you were I think it's okay to own it listen I'm not saying I've always flown

like uh up top like there's times where I'm like I shouldn't have done that or said it but I I also run hot and I know

myself and so I have to police myself and and then there's times like we learn our lesson it's just I think whatever

you do just own it whether if it was the wrong thing to do just say I won't do that next time

but I feel like you were okay you said something a second ago which about bullies right and there's this

fascinating thing I've come to learn about bullies and people that are like this type of disrespect is they're

actually going in search of the weakest link and the the incredible thing that happened in the scenario that I'm

describing is once this individual realized that I would literally call it out and I was I was off the table they

never treated me like that again but they moved on they moved on to someone

else that I work with and that person as we sit here today is thinking of leaving

that environment because of the same person who was making the little snide slight comments about me is now doing it

about them and I say to this person I say why don't you just do what I did why she cuz

she saw me confront I say to why don't you go just do what I did and she just say I haven't got I I don't I don't want

conflict so what is she doing actually she's becoming suppressing herself yes

yeah and she's going to leave something that she loves doing purely she called me the other day purely because this

person's making her feel um a certain way I think that that's a okay too though like she can it

reminds me of that narcotic story it's like she's just like I just don't want to be here anymore but at the same time too if she keeps going when you go small

small small they go higher higher it's you know speaking of Billy I'm going to

bring it back to Crime when I started interviewing suspects right you watch TV

shows and in your head think these Predators right are like these like really intimidating scary predators and

the way they behave and you think like I'm going to get these like Savages in the room nope and you know what's

interesting when you look at the populations of people being victimize the most first it's children then it's

women and then it's elderly why because they're the easiest to

victimize so when you look at Predators they pick easy prey or what they perceive as easy prey they don't want

Fair fights I would sit across people in the room who did like really horrific crimes against kids and you would look

at them and you're like you I could eat you for lunch a lot of times to we build up

people in our heads and we think like they're these these like high Apex individuals they're not they pray on

people weaker than themselves and why it makes them feel stronger and better more

powerful why do you need to do that because you feel weak that's why you do that that's why

you bully that's why you push because because you feel a void and you look to

feel that void by taking from other people and that's what makes you feel strong all these Predators I never sat

across from anybody to include terrorists I never sat across anyone and

I was just like oh this guy's scary never I'm shocked actually as I say it I

have never to this day sat across someone where I'm like oof not once everybody I'd walk in and I'm

like you in my head of course the inside voice like you did this and so I guess

like bullies like I think sometimes we unfortunately give them more

weight and gravitas then they really are weak

weakness all the way through with that in mind how do I stop myself becoming prey to a predator you stop acting like

prey so the one thing you're not going to be is it depends who it is first of

all if it's personal relationships you have to

set the intention of the relationship from the beginning how you want it to go so let's do work work is an easy one I'm

not there to be your friend I can be friendly but I'm not going to be your friend I'm not there to be super nice to

you or super sweet or super kind like I can be warm I can be respectful I can be

compassionate I can be those things but I got to bring the right version of me to a work environment cuz then I just

get because then I set the tone of like well is every my friend or is every my

boss like what am I dealing with here like always keep that level of professionalism always and I make I make

a point to do it because then it just becomes really awkward if if people are your friends can you balance a relationship like that you just got to

be really really really really good but like don't come in and like literally

like make yourself a doormat or like overextend to the the point because the more you overextend even a good person

it's going to be like oh that's just how she is that's how he is they get used to being like that and people like being

catered to they like feeling like they're above and so now you create this role Dynamic of I'm subservient and

you're here so you want to make sure that no matter how excited you are to work with someone or be with someone

that you don't create this disproportionate thing like the Seesaw you want to keep the Seesaw level it'll

go up and down but but you want to make sure that you because you will do it everybody assesses everybody everybody

sizes people up they do it intuitively people meet you they size you up oh he seems like this she seems like that she

seems like she's going to be this way project what you want them to feel

I'm here I'm warm I'm open I'm happy to be here again thank you for having me um

let's talk but at the same time you can also think about how you sit how you carry yourself your voice your tone all

these things play Alone Together I know people talk about body language it does play a role and the fact that look

something as simple as when you go to meetings are you in the meeting and you're like this you're small maybe you

got your phone out right what am I doing I'm I'm making myself small my hands aren't on the table because I don't

think I'm worth putting my hands on the table right I want to literally make myself disappear I'm not going to ask

any questions I'm going going to maybe sit like this with my thing here right so

this is telling you story about me it is so it's a really subtle way to be

like why don't I sit with purpose I'm going to sit like this I'm going to have my arms out I'm going to have my

shoulders back something as simple as just my posture means something there's a study actually done New York City they

put up cameras years ago and they started recording people walking in New York City then they took the footage and

they played it to convicted felons in prison and they said to them who would you pick as

prey they all picked the same people to pray on all the same people just by walk

there were three types of walk they found out one walk was I'm walking I'm sloppy I'm not paying attention I'm just

like in my own space I have really no deliberate purpose in the way I'm moving

my body Target easy prey other easy prey

my walk is small I'm more timid I'm kind of like not comfortable I'm like paying

attention easy prey those two barnon were picked you know who they didn't

pick the walk wasn't too sloppy big it wasn't too small it was right in the

middle and it's deliberate I'm in control of my body I'm looking around

I'm present I own my space that person I want nothing to do with those group of

people were not picked to be targets so we exude Vibes energy all that stuff but

even this this tool that we don't pay attention to our body think about how

you use it to portray yourself when you're out there am I commanding myself or am I just not paying attention at all

so even subtle things like that your voice it's called paral Linguistics and I wrote about it a lot in becoming

Bulletproof your your voice do I talk like this hi Amie so nice to meet you I'm so glad to

be here hi guys love it right what kind of guess am I going to

be right but when I find my true voice and I own it I slow down my speech I

bring down my tone and Pitch to my true voice to at least the most powerful voice and I'm grounded and I take my

time and I'm also when I speak and I take my time I'm letting you know I deserve to be here

what I'm saying deserves to be heard and I deserve to take time for you to listen to me as opposed to when I speak really

really fast because hey guys look really quick I don't want to take up anybody's time anymore I know you're all busy what

did I just tell everybody don't listen to me what I'm about to say isn't really relevant and you're more important and

what I'm about to say really isn't I just killed it how many times do people finish meetings like that why are you

saying that you just told them don't listen to me these are subtle things that if we

just pay attention to you don't have to do a lot you don't have to do a lot there's no magic pill there's no secret

to this other than really own yourself and think about what am I exuding with

my energy with my body with my voice even your voice your voice captures like

so many things like your voice it's like um you have to think of it like over your your your your time in your life

your voice captures the things you've been through with you were told to be quiet be a good girl be a good boy don't

talk loud don't do this don't do that and you have to think like over time this voice has become a bit mangled

because other people around you were telling you how to use it and often we're actually not using our true voice

it's the voice that we've sort of somehow manufactured and created based off of what everybody else told us it

should sound like and so you want to pay attention to that like how do I sound

and I even noticed when I my husband pointed this out cuz cuz he's kind of got the same background he said to me

once he's like you ever noticed that when you talk to your mom your voice goes high and I was like it does he's

like yeah it does cuz she's my mom she's an authority and also she has a higher

voice cuz she talks with a very high voice and I'm like you're right and so

even with my daughter cuz I have a little one I try very hard to make sure that I don't do like the baby babbling

voice and like the high-pitch voice because I don't want her to grow up thinking that because she's a girl she

has to talk like this all the time hi Mom because I want her to have a strong commanding presence and where she going

to learn that from her mom in fact even in there are studies done that even in

scenarios where a child maybe favor the opposite sex parent they imitate the same seex

parent so my daughter whether she likes me or not growing up will imitate my

behavior more so because I'm the one she's learning from and so I have

awareness with that do you think your life would have gone differently and you

would be sat here now if you spoke differently in the high pitch fast way

that I wouldn't be doing news who's going to listen to anything I say hi everybody Welcome today we had a mass

shooting do I sound like I know what I'm talking about I don't even if what I'm

saying is correct correct it's do I believe in the words that I'm saying do I own the words I'm

saying if I don't believe in them and I don't sound like I'm know I'm talking about you won't either in fact when you

watch any any news anchor like you will hear like they've got a strong anchored voice because even with breaking you

stuff changes all the time you know I remember I was covering the recent shooting in New Orleans it's breaking

news I'm getting information as it's coming in and I'm I'm doing a breakdown the best I can with the information

that's coming in so but I still have to convey it in a way where people can trust and believe in what I'm saying but

if I don't sound like I believe in what I'm saying it's not going to land this

the the way you sound has more impact than the words you actually say that's a big thing I didn't real I

learned this later on I learned this as an agent and then even more so when I

began doing TV because there were times where I'm like man this what I sound like I don't know if you've ever had that you

ever maybe when you first started off oh yeah of course where you play yourself and you hear yourself and you're just like oh yeah of course and then you're

like you know I need to fix that I don't need to sound like that I need to sound a certain way I'm the host of a podcast

I'm asking these questions I'm sitting across from these people I need to match them to some

degree to show that like please listen to my show I deserve to be here I'm giving you good information I'm

credible we take our time when it comes to hiring at flight story because I fundamentally believe the success of a

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doac your hands you use your hands a lot as well yes probably because I'm Greek no but it's it's interesting because

it's part of the delivery when you're saying something a second ago you were going and you you were doing slow hand

movements that are almost illustrating the point you're making and it is persuasive because it almost is adding

another layer of emphasis to what you're saying whereas if your hands were just tucked into the table I actually might think you're less confident or sure in

what you're saying but because you're like again it goes to what you saying you're taking more space up so don't hide your hands like just for anybody

listening 101 if you're sitting in a meeting don't do hide your hands don't sit on them don't hide them just one it

it doesn't look good it doesn't send a good message it sounds like you're kind of insecure you don't want to be there hands out I'm here I'm present and yes

with the these are called illustrators when you do this with your hands it's called illustrators now there's a couple

of things with illustrators one it can make it more interesting to watch someone speaking when you use an

illustrator it that's more emphasis you said it it adds another layer aside from me just sitting still right it engages

people and pulls in the viewer a bit more it's more engaging that's one the other thing with illustrators is it can

be a cultural C cultural thing I'm Greek I'm from New York so I've got massive problem with these things I actually

work very hard to put them away the other thing that's actually interesting which you didn't ask but I will volunteer this information it's uh

another way I would use to tell if somebody's being truthful or not again

everybody is different everybody's body language is different but when you're speaking to someone and they use

illustrators when they normally talk typically when we see illustrators it's truthful right they're telling you

a story yesterday yes you know I went out with my friends we went and we had burgers and then afterward we went to

the store so when you see somebody doing that it is very likely they are reliving the event and you can see the body

reliving it with him so when you see that positive sign typically that they're being truthful now if you're

talking to someone who uses illustrators and all of a sudden they do this this they put their hands away during a certain part of the story so tell me who

you went out and had dinner with eie oh um you know it was just some

people from the office in that moment what you're going to do is say Okay ev's used illustrators

this whole time I shifted the conversation I asked her something else

not her hands me away why that's it why

that's lie detection 101 now it doesn't mean I am lying because everybody lies different everybody's behavior is

different we're not going to put people in a box cuz that's just dumb however what you're noticing is a deviation

whenever he tells stories she uses her hands and then for whatever reason I asked a question that question prompted

something in eie and eie put her hands away she did a shift and now you having caught that you're going to ask me more

questions you're not going to move on to the next topic you're going to find a way to say I need to get Evie to talk

more about who she went out with last night because clearly something just happened and is that because they're

they're going from their natural state of flow and whatever to more calculated

and they're think they're like overthinking part of with lying right if we're just using lying or if you ask me

something for whatever reason let's say I don't want to tell you who I had dinner with last night right when I feel

that I'm overwhelmed I'm in N dating lying is hard lying is hard you have to

think of what you're saying how am I going to say it is it going to be believable I want to move the top topic on I don't want to get caught cuz who

wants to be a liar although everybody lies to some degree right so it's

overwhelming it's actually a heavy cognitive load that's why you have

that's why one of the things like it doesn't mean it's the only thing but one of the things we were taught to pay attention to body language to people um

like if you read them well you'll know what to look for and look for the deviations cuz everybody is uniquely different but you would look at body

language to see what are they doing with their body because lying is hard and usually you want to go still and because you're

putting so much of a cognitive load here all this stuff goes away so that free flowing eie telling you the story about

I went out I had dinner I had a burger it was great goes away the moment you're like well who'd you go have dinner with

eie and now if in that moment I don't want to tell you I'm having that oh [ __ ]

factor what am I going to say how am I going to say it I'm overloaded and so I stop moving the body does Less in that

moment in this specific scenario a second ago when you were talking about the study in New York

where they examined how people walk and tried to figure out who walks like

prey I was I was wondering as you said that I was thinking can you fake it

because presumably how we walk is quite a subconscious thing and it comes from as you said like the things we've been

through in our life and who we've come to believe that we are so after I heard that do I just go out on the street and

start walking with a bit more status and with my shoulders back or am I still

going to fail at some point yeah this is I think when I remember when I was younger and I started learning about

psychology and human behavior and stuff even though I knew the information I think there was probably

990 other things that I was getting wrong that were projecting low value or come disrespect me or I actually don't

have a high sense of self-esteem that I couldn't see so if I can control this one little thing it doesn't necessarily mean the other 999 things that matter in

nonviable communication are going to be aligned if I'm not truly believing that

I'm confident and high value in myself so fake it to your make it or do you

have to do some inner work I don't believe in fake it to your make it and I actually don't like that term you know why there's nothing fake about me or you

I don't need to be a fake version of myself but what I can be is a more aware

version of myself and something as simple as just doing one thing see just

that one thing it's like you know what I'm just not going to make myself small when I walk I'm going to take up space

that's it that's all I'm going to do I'm not there to solve like a whole puzzle about why I am the way I am and why

psychologically I walk this way but I'm going to do one small thing that's going to make one small difference and it's

going to lessen slightly whether somebody decides to pray on me or not

that's it and so you know what happens habit you're going to break the habit of walking like this and being invisible to

just creating a very simple habit of I just walk with my shoulders back now shoulders back shoulders back when you

go down the street in fact when I started doing the news and pay attention to my posture and I would sit and do the

news I'm like shoulders back like in my head I'm like shoulders back shoulders back shoulders back because there were times I watch myself or even during

commercial break my husband would send me text he's like Jesus Christ he's like sit up straight you look terrible he's like no one's going to believe he's like

stop slouching and I'm like oh you're right it's just what am I projecting so you are simple things you can do so it's

not one big thing we do over time it's like and and I follow this too it's like

over life it's like one small thing for me to change a habit of something that I do just start small and then conquer

that thing and then move to the next thing and then move to the next thing but at

the same time be be kind to yourself like we can't just beat ourselves up I'm not this I'm not that I'm not confident

like that narrative just takes you down down down down down and you can literally I'm also not telling you to be

like I'm fantastic I'm great I'm this it's just just be here just be like somewhere in the

middle you know and it speaking of which it reminds me of and this is kind of

something a little bit different but we talked about steadiness earlier like how do you stay steady and the one thing I

also learned about steadiness and just kind of finding that space where

you're you're you're in control it's something called neutrality mindset and

actually the person who brought it more to my attention you've had her on Gabriel lion Dr Gabriel lion she's

married to a seal now Gabrielle who's actually my doctor a Navy SEAL she's married to Navy SEAL Dr

lion when uh her book was coming out she was asking me all these questions she's like you know my book's coming out you

know she was ask me questions smart woman because I had a book come out so she's like let me ask Evie who's had a

book come out her opinion on a couple of things and at one point she said to me you know were you nervous about whether

it would perform well or not or how it would do and I said no and she's like no

she's like you weren't worried it wouldn't make this list or that list I was like no I didn't think about it and she laughed said why are you laughing

she's like cuz you're all the same you my husband all these Navy Seals she's like you're all in the

middle and what she was talking about is we have a neutrality mindset which means

we don't celebrate High Highs but we also don't fall down on low lows we're

always in the middle so going back to my book if my book did well it would do well because it was a good book and

people liked it that was it and if it didn't do well it didn't resonate I was

in tied to the fact that oh my God it's doing great it's selling I didn't celebrate that now you would look at

like why wouldn't you celebrate a high I can but what I start to do is I cultivate a habit where I'm tied to the

external world and when the external world is giving me this this this thing that I want I'm

happy but the flip side is that when the external world is going to give me

things I don't want I'm also going to be Tethered to that and I'm going to sink down but if I'm in the middle I don't

have high highs I don't have low lows I'm always somewhere here neutrality

mindset which means emotionally I'm always stable more than likely 99 or 90% of the

time whatever that's neutrality mindset I don't have high highs I don't have low

lows nothing destabilizes me to that point how do we get there how did you

get there it's just it's well you don't get it sounds terrible but one you don't

get overly excited when something happens outside I'm not saying not to celebrate but I'm also not going to be

tethered like I can only be happy now cuz this thing outside of me happened because now I'm training myself and my

mind to be when external things happen then I can be truly truly happy or when

external things happen I'm going to be truly truly sad but if when these external things happen they don't pull

me all the way up and they don't pull me all the way down I won't have those highs and lows that other people will

have I can stay here so I make sure that when something great is

happening very small example I won't go out and tell everybody I allow it to happen right and then people if people

congratulate me or give me good news I say thank you you know but I don't like that to be the source of my happiness CU

it comes from here because let's say I did my book and it bombed so what so now

according to that theory I should what I should plummet and be like oh my God I'm a failure I wrote a book it was the only

chance I had it tanked it who am I I'm this so now my value is tied to what my

emotional state is tied to what how well or not well my book did that's the problem so the more stressful situations

you can put in the more places of uncertainty the more you can manage these highs and lows the more you're

going to live here and you know what else going back to who is in your inner circle I don't like to be around people

who lose their [ __ ] when things break bad I don't as steady as I am they will

destabilize me they just will so I do my very best to try to keep a

circle of people around me as much as possible of people that I know are

steady so going back to Partners I happen to have a partner a husband who's like that something can blow up and he'd

be like all right let's go he's not going to destabilize so that

is infectious on me now can we have people around us that are um severely impacted my Mom love you Mom sorry but

my mom who's like very at times can be emotionally impacted by the outside world yes so I have to work very hard to

compensate for that to not let that impact me where I go high high and low

lows it's just awareness but it's just it's the external world the external

environment cannot be the thing that either brings you up or brings you down I completely agree I mean like obviously

running businesses and stuff is prime example where you're just getting [ __ ] great news or bad news all the time and to even try and move

emotionally with whatever the news is today in your inbox would just be I'd be like killed over on the floor

dead however there's so many people that listening that would say eie I

agree but my nervous system just seems to run the shop like I just seem to just

get dragged around by good things and bad things and I catastrophize when something bad goes wrong and I just I

know what you're saying is true eie but like how do I get there what's like what's step one in becoming that person

that isn't swung up and down on the roller coaster of life do you know like I wish people gave themselves more

credit like they they think sometimes people like I'm not it's like you are like you have so much more Authority and

regulation over yourself and you realize and I I think sometimes to the narrative out there is like oh this happened to

you it's not your fault or that happened to you it's not your fault or this person did this to you it's not your fault and so what happens is the

narrative that we hear right now is this exter internal world is fluctuating you

it's not your fault and so if it's not my fault how can I stabilize it so that's one thing so I'm not saying it's

your fault but I'm saying you have the ability to self-regulate please stop listening to everybody else that's

telling you it's not your fault it's out of your hands it's this it's that no everything always starts and ends with

you if you can just keep that I it start and ends with me one you're right there

two in those moments when you start to catastrophize or you start to feel yourself go that where stop literally

just say out loud to yourself stop it stop it talk to yourself like interrupt

that thought just interrupt it don't let it finish even if you're having a high high with something great happening I'm

not telling you not to be happy but also don't over sent sensationalize it don't go tell everybody because then you're

pulling yourself up you're being tethered by that right I'm trying to what I'm saying is don't be this up down

yo-yo cut it just be like oh no like literally just just tell yourself there's moments where I like I talk to

myself all the time I like I'm I'm my voice and so if there's moments where I

think my voice is drawning out I will say hey no this is what we're going to do now talk yourself through it it's

such a powerful thing to really just stop the thoughts just stop them and take ownership and say stop thinking

that no there's this uh person who used to tell me that one of the things that

she used to say to herself was cancel cancel and it was a negative thought or something bad she would say to yourself

cancel cancel I'm canceling that thought out loud so find something that interrupts it that's

where you just start like we're not trying to do the whole feat we're just trying to to break these habitual

patterns and also sometimes I quite honestly this nonsense stuff that we're fed that really keeps us like just it

just keeps us from being able to take ownership over ourselves I think what's really interesting as well in that cancel cancel example is you're almost

talking to someone and that person is yourself and as you were saying that I was thinking yeah I think the like the

fundamental underlying belief that you demonstrate and that that person's demonstrating is that they are not their

thoughts it's like they're talking to someone else whereas most of us go through our life thinking that our

thoughts are us so if my brain starts going oh my God this is going to go so badly and then it's going to happen like this and then I'm going to lose my job

and you think that's yourself and you don't think you could have a conversation with that voice you know

what I'm saying but you can interrupt that voice like you have the ability to say stop I remember speaking to Mo Gord

on the podcast and he says that he's named his brain Becky so that he can do

that so that he can kind of detach from the thoughts and so he'll say Becky

he'll have a conversation with Becky which I think is kind of smart now I think about it it's not a bad bad way of

detaching from your toxic thoughts talking yourself through things is actually good even in you know going

back even in training when we be put in scenarios like they they would they would simplify things like in some

scenarios like hey step one this step two this step three this or they would create acronyms like you know I'm going

to make one up because I can't think of one like stop Target move shift and they would teach you just say

that to yourself as you're as you're in this stressful situation like if they created like they would create scenarios

where there would be explosions attacks all right talk yourself and like literally when you we would do let's say

a scenario in Beltsville and we do an ambush on they create a a system where

we they do ambushes on us all right fight yourself out of it they're to because you're so

overloaded with the stress of what's Happening um and even though you know it's training you don't want to look

like you don't want to look bad in front of your peers you don't want to look like you don't know what you're doing you want to do a good job and sometimes

even though it's training the body doesn't know it's training and thinks it's real life there's moments and

literally like you'd be in these tactical scenarios and you would talk to yourself in your head and sometimes you could do it even out loud stop shift

move Target move Target take you know so I'm giving like a hypothetical example

but this ability to talk yourself through movements is also a very powerful thing it can it can

stop like this this this mass amount of like the muck in your head and kind of

clear it out so I I actually learned that in training and they taught us like just tactical uh words sentences things

to say to ourselves that would just help H us habitually move through problems

Kinesis just keep just keep moving keep moving through the problem there's an element of what you just said there

though that raises another question which is there's a reason why they were doing explosions in training because

they are trying to fully simulate and put you through the real world examples

that you're going to go through so that you develop some resilience and I was thinking then you know we can talk about

tactics and tricks and tips to do this all we like but you've literally had to

go through it in order to be able to deal with it that's like the essence of the training you described so is there

not an element of this everything we're saying here where unfortunately you're just going to have to go through some [ __ ] in life to develop the thick

skin because even when I think about my career in business I think if I had heard on a podcast someone telling me H

when bad [ __ ] happens just [ __ ] you know like stay in the middle I don't think it would have been

enough to prepare me for the reality of the situation when you've got say 500

employees and you got to pay them all tomorrow and you look at the bank and it says zero and you've got clients emailing you giving you [ __ ] for this or

this whatever how you how you all when our company got hacked in the early days and all of my clients my biggest clients

in the world biggest brands in the world all got personalized abusive emails about their appearance at 3:00 a.m. in the morning that was apparently from my

business partner's email it was cently meant to go to my PE but accidentally got said to them and waking up on that morning as a 23 24 yearold there's

really no words that can prepare me for that but because I've been through it I

could go through it again and I wonder how much of this is actually in life you're just going to have to go through some difficult [ __ ] because you've been

through difficult [ __ ] but you have to go through it there there's there's no exception the harder you work you you're

going to work so hard to avoid it which actually just makes you more afraid and weaker words it's like it's just going

to happen and being okay we mitigate as much as we can through the circle of people what we choose to do what we

choose to surround ourselves with we understand that right the vest the bulletproof vest can only cover so much of our body and then we understand that

we are vulnerable in other areas and you're going to have to go through it even as a mom like one of the things is I want to give my daughter the best

tools so that she can problem solve and it's not just being able to feel the stress it's being able to when you're

dealing with a scenario like that you can't just sit and be paralyzed by it you're like I have to respond to this

and you learn to cope you learn coping skills and strategies you're learning to problem solve the only way you learn to

problem solve is when you're dealing with a problem if everything's Problem free you don't know how to problem solve

so one of the things I make sure with my daughter not even though she's still very young is I will look at moments

where she's frustrated let's say she's trying to climb onto the bed I will let

her as long as it's safe I will let her be frustrated and cry and scream till she gets up on the bed I've seen her do

it I know she can do it so I will tell her like I will say work out the problem there there's incremental things we can

do in our lives to allow ourselves to learn how to problem solve there's no escaping

problems for anyone there's no escaping hardship for anybody there's no escaping trauma or tragedy for anybody there just

isn't when you I think when you come to terms with that like you're okay but

it's when you can't come to terms with it and you think like life's just bad for me life's picking on me my life is

hard my life is this my life is that you know you're not that special I just did

my second Ted Talk and I talked about the six Inhibitors that hold us back hold people back and it was based off of

all the mentors I did like hundreds like which happened after I wrote my book when people writing in and one of the

biggest things that holds people back is the idea that I'm special I'm special in that my problems

are special my pain is special I'm so unique nobody knows what I'm going through so when everything around me if

I'm that special why I can't figure my stuff out because I'm I'm not like

everybody else and when you do that when you have that narrative like that you

think of yourself in that way you are telling yourself I'm alone in the world CU I'm special nobody can know

what I'm going through or struggling with or dealing with and and it's actually kind

of when I would talk with people and like you'd give them Solutions and they're like no no no but that that

won't work for me because of this or this and that it was always like and I would tell them I'm like I say this with all the love of my heart you're not that

special if you if you recognize that then you're going to realize that you're not alone in this world going through

all this stuff this stuff isn't just happening to you and there's Solace you know after 911 you know I survived 911 I

was one of the First Responders there I don't even like to use the word survive I was there I live through it people ask

me you know how did you deal with the aftermath because you know you're watching thousands of people die you almost die yourself s just to pause

there because that was an important point for me why don't you like to use the word survive I like live through

why survive to me has a negative connotation it's not as powerful I don't

like it to me like I I live through survive

is this thing happened and I this is how it feels because I I I don't I'm trying

to articulate it feels like I I survive through it it's like no I I thrive through

that I live through that I thrive through it survive makes me think I barely made it which technically I kind

of did but I don't care but one of the things that helped me get through it when people like you know there trauma

like you're watching truly you're watching I watch thousand like thousands of people die people jumping

and like you can't do anything like you tried we try I tried so and then after

that we had search clean up and rescue efforts and I will tell you one of the things that got me through it to the

point where I barely dealt with any type of real aftermath like PT or anything like

that I'm not saying I didn't get anything but what helped me through is I wasn't that special I wasn't alone in

it when you know you're not alone in the world like you can get through anything

but when you tell yourself that you are that unique and that what is happening to you is just happening to you then all

your pain is special all your problems are special your trauma is

special and then nobody can help you cuz it's just you going through it how alone

is that and it's that mental shift of when you can hear other people's stories or see what other

people are going through and then you that helps pull you through your stuff I

will tell you that I'm not that special has got me through so much I can see it in your face as you

talk and it's making me curious as to why this is so

personal cuz I'm not special and I think I don't know I think it's a detriment

when people think that they're that special I think it takes you down there's a story here you're not telling me I feel like I don't think it's a

story we all think we're the sun right and everything moves around us and when

you are on that space when you think you're that special you

self-analyze you self you go in a lot more and you would probably say well that's good eie is it is it really that

good for me to sit and analyze everything going on in my life or when I over analyze I over assess I'm overly

critiquing I'm so focused on myself do you know what that actually does it actually you have higher rates and

anxiety and higher rates of depression because I am so self-focused now I'm not saying when I say you're not

that special I don't mean that you're arrogant or narcissistic or self-absorbed I mean that you are so self-focused that the outside world

Fades and it's just you and whatever it is you're dealing with how can you get

out of that that's a very hard head space to get out of why do they stay in

that space in your opinion I don't think that they realize that they're in that space I they're not listening like

sometimes you can even talk to people they're not listening to you why don't they want to listen like why aren't they listening I I because they don't think

anything's wrong or sometimes they'll look to you and be like oh you're you're you like you don't know what I'm going

through or you don't realize here's the thing you and I talking about stuff from an from a place where we're trying to

understand it objectively we're looking to not live that way where we're looking

to understand it and so we can share it with others but the only people that are going to receive it are the people that

watch this podcast and want to and even then when they watch this

they're going to pick and choose the parts that work for them or the parts of

this podcast that fit the narrative that they tell themselves yes and I was reading

something over Christmas which is really friend of mine and I think it's part of why I'm so interested in this subject it

was called the courage to be disliked and in the opening chapter of the book

it confronts this it's this kid basically arguing with this philosopher and the kid is saying to the philosopher

kind of exactly what we've said no I'm a victim of my life the things that happened to me my trauma this is the way

that I am and I don't believe I can change and the philosopher is making the case to the kid that you can in fact change and really the like Insight the

thing the philosopher ends up saying to this kid which spun my brain for a while and it's spinning my brain a little bit

is this idea that what happened to us doesn't determine our lives but we use

what happened to us to achieve a goal that we have

today now to put this into like a practical real example if I am a kid that is 27 years

old and I'm still in my mom's basement and I'm not going out there and getting a job I might say yeah I want a job but

actually big being in my mom's basement is actually serving me in some way and it might seem to be self-destructive to

someone looking in but my mom's bringing me my food they finally show me

attention if I change I lose the sympathy if I change I lose the attention and actually this attention

has gotten a little bit addictive this sympathy this place of victimhood has gotten a little bit addictive to me in a

way that I don't even know in a way that's actually self-destructive in the near term

and the long term but at some subconscious level I'm actually like

addicted to my pain and suffering and it's funny because when I was so I read the book and then I started writing

because I like to read things then try and write them into my own like language and I started thinking about someone in

my own life and uh it's just I finally figured out this individual in my life

that's been in my life for a long time who when you look at the actions you go they're ruining their own life but when

you dig deeper into their identity being a heroic victim is everything to them

and actually if I this person walked into this room now and introduced themselves it would take 60 seconds for

them to get to a story of how they've been hard done by and how they've overcome it but this means that help aid

good decisions have had to always be secondary to protecting this narrative that they're a victim and actually sorry

to going a bit of a rent here at one point they were a victim at one point objectively they went through some really horrific horrible

things but the Predator's gone now so now they're looking for a predator and

it's ruined their entire life it's ruined their home their family their finan financials because even when good

things come come by good people come by they find a way to make this person a

predator and they find a way to make them the heroic victim and so it really shifted my brain about like even my own

trauma and the narratives and this hero story I tell about myself I'm like maybe I'm using what happened to me to serve a

a goal I have today of projecting to the world that I am filling the Gap whatever

gives me validation and you know reinforcement from people so anyway you

know it reminds me a little bit of um histrionic disorder or um where you

pretend you're sick it's like one of the disorders you pretend either you're sick or your child

is sick um because when you do that you get a lot of attention and so if I'm a

victim of something or I'm going through something are you okay are you all right do you need something and it does

cultivate this attention whereas every if everything's okay that all goes away

and so I I think all of it it's people I think it's so many different things people get comfortable they don't want

to get out of it they don't think anything is wrong it serves them nothing's wrong with my life who are you to tell me it's like all these different

layers and and when it's people close to us it's hard and I just have surrendered

that two things who am I to tell somebody else how to live so if they

think that that's the way they life needs to be I do have a little bit I'm not that special so who am I to tell you

that you should live this way there's a little bit of or a lot of rather let people live how they want to live it

reminds me of what you were saying earlier about identity and I was thinking of something I read recently that said swads to the effective people

would go to Great Lengths to destroy things including themselves before they dare edit their own identity there's a

real element of Truth in that you're talking about identity and instrumental mindsets and I wonder if there's a real

risk to developing an identity because you've got an identity Now secret service agent

NYPD strong woman doesn't take [ __ ] says it how it is

well you know so in the context of identity the identity mindset if we go back it's it's that I'm special mindset

I'm in an emotional state I'm special that's like identity mindset that's how you know when you're talking to someone

if they're instrumental or identity if they're instrumental they're task oriented they're moving they're trying

to solve problems if they identity they're stuck they're emotional I can't believe this I can't believe this happening to me so with that when you

can figure out what mind mindset somebody is in then you can talk to them

but you talk to them in the mindset that they're in if somebody is instrumental I'm going to know this is a person

that's just like tell me what to do just get to the point I just wanted this this and this and this there's no feelings

there's no stuff involved there's no emotions somebody's identity right they are it's about them

it's how it's affecting them typically again when we're very self-focused uh higher depression higher

anxiety because over analyzing things we're in an emotional state so when someone's there it's good for you to

know because you know in that moment they're not listening to what I'm saying they are stuck in their space now if I'm

looking to progress the conversation let's say they work for me I'm going to sit and listen to them let them offload

to a point to get them where I need them to be or to get them to get to um this

instruction this instrumental space like an agency like the US Secret Service it was very instrumental nobody wants to

hear you complaining get it done fix this do this because they didn't really have the luxury of being like that cuz

if you are like that people die it's just like you got to you got to move on but if your identity and where it's like

you're really wanting other people to understand you I'm not saying that we don't visit identity Land once in a

while but you it's not a great place to live either because you're so self-focused that you can't function

it's it's me me me me me but if you can Master this which you can easily do when

you talk to people you'll know that person's instrumental they just need X Y and Z that person's identity your friend

is Identity the thing with them is their identity almost all the time yeah that's

when it becomes a problem and I've got great empathy and sympathy because

defense can become someone's personality especially if at a younger age that defense was their survival do you know

what's interesting um and the Harvard Business Review did a a study on this they wrote about this do you know that

the more you go through the less empathy you have so you

would think let's say you've been through your hardships you would think that because you've been through that

stuff you would have more empathy but as you rise through the ranks you actually have less empathy because you've been

through it you've overcome it and you kind of look at people like can you please get it together so yes and if you

think about it it makes sense because it's like get through this you I've

gotten through this whereas if you're dealing with someone who hasn't gone through it or is in the

lower uh ranks at work uh they've got more empathy cuz also think of it too as

you're going up in business you're dealing with so so many more people you don't have the cognitive space or load

to deal with everybody's stuff so sometimes when people come to me my boss my boss and my my response is do you

know how much your boss is probably juggling it's not that they're a jerk they're instrumental they're just trying

to get stuff done and you being where you are kind of lower in the hierarchy

you're not dealing with as much trying to juggle as much and so you're looking for more empathy you have more space

more time this person's up here they're trying to keep that ship from sinking so that's where a lot of people sometimes

get lost with their supervisors so it's interesting too because you know I even noticed that for myself I try to have

empathy but there's moments where you're like man I'm you know it it can be you

want to control it on the inside but be like there's times where you're like can we please just get it together like it's

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off on our previous conversation funnily enough the most replayed moment in the

conversation was where you talk about the dangers of victimhood stop really

yes yeah the most replayed moment wow I was quite surprised I think people don't

I I think most people don't want to be there anymore you know because it's not working out for them it's not that's why

I think most people most people they're trying really hard most people who will

watch this podcast or or watch things similar to this they're really trying hard and they're trying to to do better

I do believe that and I think that's why a moment like that because they're like

I don't want to be here anymore just help me get get the [ __ ] out you know I respect that because they're trying like

they're trying really hard as opposed to somebody who's just like I'm checked out that really speaks to people just saying

like I know this isn't working this isn't where want to live this isn't where I want to be and it it it's it's

not getting me ahead in life you know I always again I live by this Credence if if I go tomorrow am I okay to go and if

it always set things right for me if you've lived in a way where you're like I've done or tried to do these things

then you've lived a full life but being a victim prevents you from being from living a full life if

everyone is hurting you if everyone's out to get you if everyone's doing something to you if everybody is sliding

you if if this person and that person how are you living a full life if you're fighting everybody or pissed off at

everybody because they disrespected you they're not giving you what you need they didn't validate this validate that

how will you ever get anything done how will you ever be instrumental it doesn't mean you need to

be a CEO or a secret service agent doesn't mean you need to be anything like that it whatever your journey is

like how will you ever achieve that if you're so easily distracted by all this

nonsense who says you have to have respect by everybody it's nice I I welcome it but I'm not always going to

get respect I can sit and check every single box off I'll be respectful to you I'll be kind to you I'll hand my things

in our time I'll show up on time I'll do all these things check all those boxes there are still no guarantees you'll

give it to me I know I was a former cop former agent I didn't always get it I was like I hope I get it but I

don't need it but we tell people you need this who says who who says I need I need everybody's

respect who and who am I to demand it who says I need everybody to like me I

don't want people to dislike me I'm not going to do things to make people dislike me but I'm also like I can't

navigate my ship like that and then at the same time if you stop and think about it when people like oh get

everyone to like you be charismatic pause who are you making that about you

you don't really care about the other person it's me I want you to like me I

want you to think I'm charismatic comes back to me me me me me me how about there's a little less me and more of how

can I be of service to this person how can I help this person how can I be more generous generous to others how can I

give more instead of take so that I can feel fulfilled it's all about me and my

fulfillment my identity where am I going me me me I think we need a little less of that and

how about us us us how about how can I help help other people how can I be of service how can I be genuine and that

rig this whole thing give me tips so everybody likes me give me tips so I'm the smartest person in the the room if

I'm the smartest person in the room Stephen I'm I'm in trouble I want to be the biggest dummy like because I'm not

learning anything from other people and who might have think I'm this why why would you want that you know I you see

this marketing stuff come up and we feed people garbage and then we wonder why everybody's confused why everybody has a

void because telling them you need more you need more you are

enough you are steady you are good stop listening to all that be a genuine human being try to do

the right thing by people be careful CU not everyone's out to do the best thing

for you cuz people in pursuit of their own self-interest they will screw you over and that's okay just don't be

shocked when it happens it happens but move through steady and focus on being of service to

others everything like bring it back and it's like stop thinking about you I

promise you you will have a better life it'll be calmer it'll be quiet you'll be less depressed less anxious less just

because it's not all you you're in it with everybody else there's something really

interesting I mean there's so many interesting things you said there I mean the two kind of highlight points for me

were this idea of play the long game of just trying to serve other people and you'll achieve

your objectives versus trying to do the shortterm game of maybe being nicey and caring too much about how you appear

which might help you maybe in the moment but it's almost a form of long-term sabotage and I guess this brings me to the question which is

like should we try and make people like us no because it's

fake cuz it's manipulation that's why I'm who am I doing it for if I'm trying to get you to

like me is that who you want or do you want the person who's going to come on this podcast and just have a genuine

conversation and do her best to give you some valuable information to help people

who do you want you want me to be like I hope Stephen likes me I hope he thinks I'm smart I hope Stephen thinks I'm a

good guest I hope Stephen invites me back is that what you want and who did I just make all that about do I give a

[ __ ] about you and your podcast no clearly I just care about Evie that's the problem because I'm

manipulating you to fulfill myself that's where it goes wrong if somebody

likes you it'll be genuine we don't manufacture it it's

disingenuous people feel it I'm trying to be charming and Charis

charismatic first of all major red flag for narcissistic personality disorder number one really sure A lot of them are

in fact when you see that always ask yourself why is what is motivating this person I always think like what is

motivating this person so if as I I sit across from you what's motivating you is you want to do a good podcast you have

millions of people who listen you want to give them good content period the end you you seem to be a big fan of being

authentic right as a person I just want to be a genuine and I don't want to be a

[ __ ] artist nobody wants to be bullshitted I've experienced it nobody likes it

and it's not being authentic it's just being genuine because also like you can't just

walk into a room I'm like I'm going to be me and whoever likes it likes it like good luck with that right you want to

adapt to the environment and to people you're with and what mindset that they have and talking to them in a way that

they understand not you so adap that's a bit more adaptability and and connecting

with people even when I talk to businesses a lot of times one of the big things is and they're learning this a

lot of businesses are moving away from being transactional making the sale and just trying to get

these short-term goals and what they're shifting toward which is smart is long-term relationships with people

because if you have a long-term relationship with a client and they genuinely like you not because you charm

them or you trick them but because they genuinely like you they're genuinely going to want to stay

with you and they're not going to want to leave and go do business somewhere else that's why being genuine works and

you can be genuine and disagree with someone too that holds better people people Vibe

other people quite a bit and they feel it and if they feel your nonsense and they feel like you're

tricking them or you know using tactics even when I sometimes I give Keynotes

and and I'll tell them I'm like I'm not here to give you tips tricks or techniques I'm not here for that I was

like can I ask you a question do you like when people use techniques on you no do you like it when people use

tricks on you no so why would you do that and why would you think that's

going to take you places it'll take you somewhere short term long term people going to drop

you I was um watching your BBC Maestro recording which by the way is fantastic

and I highly recommend anybody who hasn't seen it to go and check it out um it's basically like a it takes

everything you're saying it kind of turns it into a bit of a Course and there was a line you said in it which I thought was quite interesting which is I

wish you as much rejection as possible because that will increase yourself confidence you also saying that in the

BBC Myer piece that confidence is the number one thing you get asked about I wish you as much rejection as

possible that kind of goes back to what we were saying earlier about how like going through difficult [ __ ] is um the

best way to build a thicker skin but who on Earth want to go through

rejection who who on Earth what kind of psychopath is going to self- elect to go

through rejection person who wants to build their resilience because when you deal with it

so the BBC mro course is the art of influence how to influence others so

going back to the ethos of that course was and I and I say it at the beginning

I'm not here to give you tips tricks or techniques because that's not going to influence people we're not trying to

trick people or manipulate people to get things out of them because that's not going to help anybody in the long term

it won't help you in the long term influence is having the ability to have people to want to be around us to have

people to want to work with us to have people who to want to talk to us that's

what influence is genuine influence and like how we push that out there also in

in the class where I talk about rejection because we split it up into certain part parts and one of the parts

was your ability to understand yourself kind of like you can't influence other

people if you don't understand yourself and so part of that is how resilient are

you how steady are you and you don't build those things unless you deal with

rejection unless you deal with people pushing back maybe be a psychopath and

embrace the things that everybody else is too terrified to embrace everyone's so scared of being rejected so why don't

you be the Deviant don't be like everybody else and be like I'm ready for it I'm good with it because the more you

deal with it the better you are at dealing with it and you're going to get it anyway on that point of better

understanding yourself the the other thing I found was this thing you talk about which is the animal will which is

a framework that helps people understand themselves by finding out what their communication style is I'll put this

animal wheel on the screen for people that are watching on video but for people that can't see cuz they're

listening sptify apple or somewhere else what can you explain to me what this animal wheel is so that was created by

researchers Dr Lawrence and Emily Allison they're actually in the UK and they created a way to break Behavior

down behavior of people they actually watch thousands of hours of interview

tapes law enforcement intelligence and they were coding people's behavior so basically they were like what behavior

is this person so there's two important things one is we don't label people we lab label Behavior you label Behavior

because people change people are fluid for the most part people are fluid so I need to look at who do I have across

from me in this moment so how they identified behavior of people they G they gave them four animal

archetypes lion Monkey Mouse T-Rex lion

is someone who's in charge setting the agenda I'm in control that's lion when

you have your meetings with your team and you're the one talking and your team sitting listening you're Ling in that

moment he's in charge setting the agenda Mouse is a person who

is patient looking to learn they're trying to get information they're eager

they're humble seeking guidance it can be the people on your team who are sitting quietly because

they're trying to learn probably in some sense right now you and I switch back and forth from lion and then our viewers

they're all Mouse they're all here humble seeking guidance what can I learn that's that's that but it's fluid now a

person who is monkey monkey is an animal where you're social you're warm you're

talking to people Hi how are you good how are you that's what that is right and then they're probably going to be

that back to you right Bad Monkey which you probably you probably get a lot is hey Steve I got a great idea can I just

share it with you hey let me just put you something real quick uh that's pleading that's desperate like that's

really wanting something now the other animal is T-Rex T-Rex which is something

I tend to lean a little bit more towards which I work very hard not to be but that's a person who um is direct Frank

and forthright it's also a person who's like sounds just like the animal you're more ready to fight like something

happens and you're like let's go um there's a good version of that there's a bad version of that all of these have a

good and bad version but that's T-Rex the key to people is not for you to

dominate the key to people is for you to identify the person in front of you in

that moment and then adapt to that behavior so if I've got for example if

you're a lion and I'm trying to be liing we're both competing nothing's going to

happen like you're going to be talking and I'm going to be trying to talk over you it doesn't work but if I see okay

right now Steph's liing he's the one talking he's guiding the conversation he's doing this meeting I'm going to go

Mouse I'm going to be humble seeking guidance yes Stephen I'm listening I want to learn so the wheel actually

helps you identify who you have in front and then where do you go based on what you have in front now if I'm dealing