Speaker 1: If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Software Radio Special Operations, military mails and straight
Speaker 1: talk with the guys in the community. Hello and everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome back to Software Radio, Software Radio on Time, on Target.
Speaker 1: I'm you host this afternoon. Steve Balis Druri joining us today.
Speaker 1: We have a very special guest for the Spencer course
Speaker 1: in Spencer internationally recognized threat management specialists, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: get into what that all means. And he's just Wroting Wroting.
Speaker 1: He just wrote a book called The Safety Trap and
Speaker 1: Security Professional Secrets for Staying Safe in a very dangerous world.
Speaker 1: And we're gonna get into that. But before we do, Spencer,
Speaker 1: welcome to the podcast. Excuse my uh lack of English
Speaker 1: knowledge there, and thanks for journeying us. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: I uh, it's a true pleasure to be here. For
Speaker 1: a second, I thought you were gonna go with the
Speaker 1: international man of Mystery description. I was like, oh, going
Speaker 1: Austin powers on me, going Austin. Yeah, No, No, I
Speaker 1: figured you know that might embarrass you a little bit.
Speaker 1: But now you've you've worked as a professional security specialist,
Speaker 1: which you know, and we'll get into that in a
Speaker 1: little bit what a lot of people consider bodyguard. But
Speaker 1: that's just a very small portion of what it is
Speaker 1: that you do. But tell us our listeners a little
Speaker 1: bit about who you are, and uh, you know about
Speaker 1: your book. Sure, absolutely so. My name is Spencer Courson.
Speaker 1: I am a threat management professional. I'm a founder. I
Speaker 1: am the founder of course In Security Group, and my
Speaker 1: new book is called The Safety Trap, which is all
Speaker 1: about protective strategies to help you live your very best
Speaker 1: life the safest way possible. I am I a combat veteran.
Speaker 1: I served in the Army. I was an airborne ranger
Speaker 1: with the eighty two, and then I served in Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: and then I went to work for the government doing
Speaker 1: diplomatic security work. Did that for a bunch of years,
Speaker 1: and then was hired over by a private security firm
Speaker 1: out in Los Angeles, which at the time was considered
Speaker 1: to be the secret service of the you know, the
Speaker 1: private sector. Did that for a few years. Um went
Speaker 1: overseason worked on Zero Dark thirty. Originally I was just
Speaker 1: over there, as you know, doing some security site work
Speaker 1: for the production company, but wound up getting brought on
Speaker 1: as a security the military advisor, and then through a
Speaker 1: random turn of events, wind up getting cast as one
Speaker 1: of the seals in that raid. So if you having
Speaker 1: to watch that movie and you see a dog jumping
Speaker 1: on and off of a helicopter, I am the handler
Speaker 1: at the other end of that leash. Um. When I
Speaker 1: came back, I didn't I know that. That's really cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is why, even to this day, if you google
Speaker 1: my name, it comes up as Spencer course and actor um,
Speaker 1: which is a lot of my friends like to bust
Speaker 1: me about that because you know, you you serve your
Speaker 1: country in combat, you save hundreds of lives, you assess
Speaker 1: and manage risks for thousands of people, but you start
Speaker 1: in one movie once you are forever an actor. Um.
Speaker 1: So I came back from from doing that and I
Speaker 1: was doing, uh, doing a lot of work with you know,
Speaker 1: movie stars and celebrities and athletes and actors and models
Speaker 1: and what have you. And then the tragedy at Sandy
Speaker 1: Hook happened. And you know, both of my parents were teachers.
Speaker 1: I have family and friends who teach, and with all
Speaker 1: of them reaching out to me asking are we next?
Speaker 1: What we do is our school at risk? What you know? This?
Speaker 1: That the other thing? And in that moment I kind
Speaker 1: of realized that, you know, my skill set was kind
Speaker 1: of being you know, leveraged for that for that top
Speaker 1: one percent, but the other of the world was you know,
Speaker 1: at risk and could really benefit from you know, sort
Speaker 1: of seeing things through my eyes. Because while not everyone
Speaker 1: will know the luxury of having their own protective detail,
Speaker 1: every single one of us deserves to be protected. And
Speaker 1: so of course in Security Group was born from there.
Speaker 1: Where a threat management firm, we provide you know, we
Speaker 1: help good people make bad things better, whether that's through
Speaker 1: threat assessment or protective intelligence or vulnerability reduction. We just
Speaker 1: come in and say, like, look, what is the most
Speaker 1: realistic risk you're most likely to face, and then what
Speaker 1: are the most effective safeguards we can put in place
Speaker 1: to keep that bad thing from happening. Now that's not
Speaker 1: to say that I still don't work with with high
Speaker 1: end clientele, but my work with that high end clientele
Speaker 1: is also what allows me to do more pro bono
Speaker 1: consultation for um at risk youth and domestic violence organizations
Speaker 1: and intimate partner violence support and you know, working with
Speaker 1: those organizations of charitable enterprise which really don't have the
Speaker 1: funding with the resource to go out and hire someone
Speaker 1: like me or a or A or or or my firm.
Speaker 1: But it's still in need of that support. And the
Speaker 1: book is a continuation of that because this is really
Speaker 1: just a culmination of my forty four years on Earth
Speaker 1: and my twenty years of protective of protective practices of
Speaker 1: what are the most common safety traps that people get
Speaker 1: themselves into. What happened, how was it allowed to happen?
Speaker 1: And then here are a couple of protective strategies to
Speaker 1: keep it from happening to you. And then once I
Speaker 1: go through all of those, I provide you know, four
Speaker 1: sections at the back of the book on those endeavors
Speaker 1: where we are most familiar home school work in life,
Speaker 1: so that you can conduct your own, uh you know,
Speaker 1: your own personal threat assessment, so that you can really,
Speaker 1: you know, play a part string the strategies to keep
Speaker 1: you and your family is protected. And that sums it
Speaker 1: up in a nutshell. It's a great book. By the way,
Speaker 1: I encourage all of our listeners and readers of software
Speaker 1: dot com to check it out. You can find it
Speaker 1: on Amazon dot com. And definitely checked this out. It's
Speaker 1: called a Safety Trap, and I liked what you wrote
Speaker 1: about because I when I saw the title, I was like,
Speaker 1: that's a curious title. And then you right in there
Speaker 1: that a safety trap is the false sense of security
Speaker 1: that occurs when fear has abated but the risk remains.
Speaker 1: And I think that sums it up perfectly because all
Speaker 1: of us are guilty of that. You get into a
Speaker 1: routine something and then which I call a rut, and
Speaker 1: then the next thing. You know, that's when bad things
Speaker 1: can happen to us. Yeah. Absolutely, And I think you know,
Speaker 1: we we are emotional creatures. So many of our decisions
Speaker 1: are influenced by emotion, and I think, you know, I
Speaker 1: think one of the reasons that anxiety over our inability
Speaker 1: to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe is at
Speaker 1: an all time high is because our understanding of what
Speaker 1: it means to be protected is at an all time low.
Speaker 1: It's very easy, and it's also very common for safety
Speaker 1: and security to be used interchangeably, as if they mean
Speaker 1: the same thing. And that can be a losing proposition
Speaker 1: because safety is ultimately a feeling We feel safe, but
Speaker 1: security is a state of being. We need to be secure.
Speaker 1: The best way to, you know, envision this is to
Speaker 1: imagine an umbrella where the canopy when it's when it's
Speaker 1: opened up, is keeping the rain from falling down on us,
Speaker 1: and being underneath that canopy keeps us keeps us safe.
Speaker 1: We feel safe being warm and dry underneath because we
Speaker 1: have faith and confidence in the security of the of
Speaker 1: the kind to be doing its job. And when those
Speaker 1: two things are working in congress, we feel protected because
Speaker 1: our expectation is in line with our with our state
Speaker 1: of emotion, and then we feel good about it. But
Speaker 1: if we get so used to using that umbrella in
Speaker 1: an every day you know, drizzle or light downpour, and
Speaker 1: expected to work as effectively in a hurricane, and we
Speaker 1: go out there and open up the umbrella and then
Speaker 1: it gets you know, it flies away from us and
Speaker 1: we're standing there drenched. Well, all of a sudden we're like, hey,
Speaker 1: what happened? Like DECI isn't supposed to happen. This thing
Speaker 1: is supposed to work for me. And and the problem
Speaker 1: is is that we have this expectation that when things
Speaker 1: are supposed to work, just because things work in one dynamic,
Speaker 1: that they're supposed to work in another dynamic. And when
Speaker 1: that happens, we can you know, when we feel most safe.
Speaker 1: Our vigilance has a tendency to go down, which means
Speaker 1: that our risk factor has a has a tendency to
Speaker 1: go up. And in those unfortunate circumstances where that is happening,
Speaker 1: we are more likely to make decisions that are more
Speaker 1: aligned with being being a victim rather and being protected.
Speaker 1: And so the safety trap is ultimately about how sometimes
Speaker 1: feeling safe is the most dangerous thing we do. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And another point you make in the book that I
Speaker 1: thought was really really good is that probably the most
Speaker 1: dangerous time at an event isn't at the beginning, it's
Speaker 1: at the end, especially if you're dealing with what you
Speaker 1: would consider, you know, a list clients, or be it
Speaker 1: uh you know, uh uh political official or even a
Speaker 1: CEO of a you know, fortunate Yeah. Absolutely, and that's
Speaker 1: because you know when something happens, you know when when
Speaker 1: something happens. The reason that it almost happens at the
Speaker 1: end is because as an event is continuing, the window
Speaker 1: of opportunity keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and
Speaker 1: the confidence of the attacker keeps getting stronger and stronger
Speaker 1: and stronger, and so that that most critical time frame
Speaker 1: is typically right at the very end, because if they
Speaker 1: don't do it, then they're never going to get the
Speaker 1: chance to do it. And so it's very easy for
Speaker 1: either protective professionals or or talent on stage or whoever
Speaker 1: is giving the speech, or whoever, to as things are
Speaker 1: winding down go oh wow, like nothing happened, this went
Speaker 1: really well. And again that's a safety trap because you
Speaker 1: start your fear is starting to abate, but the risk
Speaker 1: is still very present. And so I have this whole
Speaker 1: section in the book about how like it's not over
Speaker 1: until it's over, because especially if you're on a protective detail,
Speaker 1: your job is not done until your principle is is
Speaker 1: you know, home safe, secure, and you're dismissed. Up until
Speaker 1: that point, it's all eyes, all hands on deck, all
Speaker 1: eyes on the swivel, and you know, you gotta really
Speaker 1: stay frosty out there because the absolute worst thing that
Speaker 1: you can do as a protective professionals get complacent. But
Speaker 1: it also holds true for you know, for us as
Speaker 1: as individuals going you know, to a concert or to
Speaker 1: a movie theater or to what have you. Anyone who
Speaker 1: really wants to do harm if they don't initiate that
Speaker 1: action at the very beginning. Then the only other time
Speaker 1: that they're going to you know, the most critical time,
Speaker 1: the next most critical time, I should say, is at
Speaker 1: the very end. And so it's very important that you know,
Speaker 1: we don't live in fear, but we just sort of
Speaker 1: have this healthy sense of skepticism, in this moderate dose
Speaker 1: of vigilance, that we have a willingness to participate in
Speaker 1: our own protection so that we can ensure the certainty
Speaker 1: of our own safety. Right And and you know, you
Speaker 1: talk about it, and I'm not putting words in in
Speaker 1: your mouth per se for the book, but you talked
Speaker 1: about it's kind of almost like the law of the jungle.
Speaker 1: The people who are most prepared are going to be
Speaker 1: the least people, uh excuse me, the least targeted people,
Speaker 1: because you know, predators are out there. They're not going
Speaker 1: after like you said in the book, the strong as Ell,
Speaker 1: they're going to after the week at the end. And
Speaker 1: if somebody's not paying attention, or they look distracted, or
Speaker 1: they're staring at their phone while they're walking down a
Speaker 1: dark street, those are the people that are gonna get attacked,
Speaker 1: regardless of circumstance or scenario. The number one most influential
Speaker 1: factor of target selection is likelihood of success. Bad guys
Speaker 1: are just like the rest of us. They're just like
Speaker 1: the lines in the jungle. They're lazy. They want the
Speaker 1: biggest return on their investment for the least amount of work.
Speaker 1: And so if they can target one house and get
Speaker 1: some goods and valuables because they know they can get
Speaker 1: in and out with ease, that the house is going
Speaker 1: to get targeted over the one that is promoting more
Speaker 1: of a protective posture and has security cameras and be
Speaker 1: aware of dog sign and what have you. Whatever you
Speaker 1: can do. You know that like old what's that old
Speaker 1: joke where like I don't have to outrun the bear,
Speaker 1: I just have to outrun you. It's it's very much
Speaker 1: like you don't you don't need to be the you know,
Speaker 1: the safest house on the block. You just can't be
Speaker 1: the most unsafe house on the block. You know, you
Speaker 1: don't have to be the most protective. You don't have
Speaker 1: to have this like military skill set and be you know,
Speaker 1: a John Wick walking around the streets of New York.
Speaker 1: But you also don't want to be someone who is
Speaker 1: so reticent and demure and you know, has their phone
Speaker 1: down and their sunglasses on and their earbuds in, and
Speaker 1: you know, is just all but like begging for someone
Speaker 1: to mug you. The more that you can promote your
Speaker 1: own protective posture, the less likely you are to be
Speaker 1: targeted by those with nefarious inn Now that's that's uh,
Speaker 1: that's great stuff. And I don't want to give too
Speaker 1: much of the book away because we want our readers
Speaker 1: and listeners to buy it. But I'm just going back
Speaker 1: and forth to it because I made you. As I
Speaker 1: was reading it, I was making notes and it's all
Speaker 1: you know, it's all good stuff. It's all common sense stuff,
Speaker 1: but it's things that people don't normally think about. And
Speaker 1: I mean we're all guilty of that, even in our
Speaker 1: own homes, because that's the place where we feel the safest,
Speaker 1: most secure. Once you get behind the doors of your
Speaker 1: own home, a lot of people they kind of switch off.
Speaker 1: And it's important to have security cameras and you know,
Speaker 1: motion sensor lights that come on because you don't want
Speaker 1: to be that slowest gazelle in the jungle, right, But
Speaker 1: also like just lock your front door because of home
Speaker 1: invasions are a direct result of the front door being unlocked.
Speaker 1: And you know, my buddy Clint Emerson has got a
Speaker 1: great quote that that he champions in his in his books,
Speaker 1: which is basically that people who come during the day
Speaker 1: by and large are coming for your stuff. People who
Speaker 1: come at night are coming for you. And so one
Speaker 1: of the things that I have and I have found
Speaker 1: more often than not that practice to be true because
Speaker 1: you know that guys don't want to interact with If
Speaker 1: I'm just if my sole purpose is just to you know,
Speaker 1: steal your TV and your jewels and your your your
Speaker 1: laptop and stuff, I have zero interest in interfacing with you.
Speaker 1: I don't want witnesses. I don't want you to try
Speaker 1: to stop me again. Likelihood of sex, likelihood of success
Speaker 1: being the most influential factors of target selection. But if
Speaker 1: someone is coming at night, that is typically going to
Speaker 1: be more indicative of um kidnapped for ransom, exploit, or
Speaker 1: being taken hostage. I I outlined that one scenario in
Speaker 1: the book where the bank manager's family has taken hostage
Speaker 1: and then the bank manager comes in, and so it's
Speaker 1: very important that you know one of the biggest security flaws,
Speaker 1: or not security flaws necessarily, but one of the biggest
Speaker 1: vulnerability factors that I find when I assess residential security
Speaker 1: plans and especially the emergency response plans, is that they
Speaker 1: will have all of these things. You know, they will
Speaker 1: have the five d s, but they don't really have
Speaker 1: a plan in place for what to do once someone
Speaker 1: is actually in the house. Are you going to are
Speaker 1: you going to go to the kids or the kids
Speaker 1: going to come to you. Are you going to try
Speaker 1: to get out of the house. Are you going to
Speaker 1: try to barricade yourself in a bedroom? What is what
Speaker 1: is that defensive posture look like? Are you either going
Speaker 1: to stand and fight or are you going to try
Speaker 1: to put as much time and distance between you and
Speaker 1: the threat as possible? And the thing is is that
Speaker 1: you don't want to be deciding what you're going to
Speaker 1: do in that moment. You want to have the plan
Speaker 1: in place so that when moments matter most, you have
Speaker 1: a plan. You know where to go, you know what
Speaker 1: to do, you know how to get there absolutely. And
Speaker 1: you you just mentioned the five ds and would you
Speaker 1: explain to our our listeners what the five d's are. Sure,
Speaker 1: So when you're talking about a security plan, the five
Speaker 1: days Number one is deterrence and that is basically, your
Speaker 1: house does not look like an easy target. The lawn
Speaker 1: is well maintained, it has outside lights, there's cameras, there's
Speaker 1: a beware of dogs line, there's there's signs that the
Speaker 1: houses lived in and taking care of, and that you know,
Speaker 1: there's not five Amazon boxes, you know, piled up high
Speaker 1: with three newspapers rolled up in plastic on the front lawn.
Speaker 1: That's basically showing that no one's been there in a while.
Speaker 1: So the more that you can do to just sort
Speaker 1: of promote that protective posture of your residence, the less
Speaker 1: likely you are of that residence being targeted. And then
Speaker 1: the next d is detect and that would be your
Speaker 1: security cameras or your early warning systems, or even your
Speaker 1: dog who is just going to bark when someone is
Speaker 1: on or near the property, because that helps to eliminate
Speaker 1: the the anonymity of whoever would be targeting your house.
Speaker 1: Because the last thing somebody wants to do, even though
Speaker 1: we see it all the time, is someone like walk
Speaker 1: up to your house to seal a package and literally
Speaker 1: smile at the ring camera. The next one is uh deny,
Speaker 1: And by denying we basically mean like locking your door
Speaker 1: you know, just making sure that the doors and windows
Speaker 1: are allowed so that if someone you know, just comes
Speaker 1: because one one thing that And this was especially prevalent
Speaker 1: during you know, before before you know, the quarantine, COVID
Speaker 1: and everything is. But one of the key ways that
Speaker 1: bad guys would target which houses were easy to exploit
Speaker 1: was around eleven o'clock, ten o'clock, ten o'clock eleven o'clock
Speaker 1: in the morning, they would go around and start handing
Speaker 1: out um menus or flyers or what have you, and
Speaker 1: they just put it on the door, put it on
Speaker 1: the door, put on the door, open the door. Then
Speaker 1: they'd come back like two or three hours later and
Speaker 1: see which houses still had those flyers on the door.
Speaker 1: So then they'd come back to the next week and
Speaker 1: they'd put a flyer on the door if that house
Speaker 1: had had one that was there three hours later, and
Speaker 1: not only would they put it on the door, but
Speaker 1: they would they would try the door and if the
Speaker 1: door was unlocked, they was, oh, sorry, accident, you know,
Speaker 1: just and just pull it close, put the menu back
Speaker 1: in the door, and just apologize to anyone who came out.
Speaker 1: And then if it was if that door was unlocked
Speaker 1: and the menu was still there three hours later the
Speaker 1: next week, guess whose house was getting targeted because you
Speaker 1: didn't notice that your front door was just up and
Speaker 1: the thing is still there. I'm gonna do a little
Speaker 1: bit of surveillance and then I'm gonna take your stuff
Speaker 1: because now I'm just gonna go on social media and
Speaker 1: see how much stuff you're over sharing and blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah. So the fourth D is delay, and
Speaker 1: that would be if someone does try to Like, so
Speaker 1: deny is the locks, but what delay delay would be,
Speaker 1: like do you have a secondary measure that would keep
Speaker 1: someone from coming through? And that can be something as
Speaker 1: simple as a chain on the door or a doorstop
Speaker 1: or some other factor that would sort of slow that
Speaker 1: person from from coming in once they've done that initial breach,
Speaker 1: which also gives you the appropriate amount of time ideally
Speaker 1: to get to the next to the fifth and final D,
Speaker 1: which is defend. And at that point, are you going
Speaker 1: to you know, arm yourself with with a shotgun or
Speaker 1: with some other you know, weapon or improvised or otherwise,
Speaker 1: are you going to get your family to us to
Speaker 1: some kind of a safe room or put them in
Speaker 1: the back or you're gonna try to get out of
Speaker 1: the house and call nine one for support. But it's
Speaker 1: very important that you have those five ds in place
Speaker 1: because if you don't, and you sort of just like
Speaker 1: have this over confidence that your house is secure, once
Speaker 1: that chat, once that security is challenged, you may find yourself,
Speaker 1: um on, on the losing end of a of a
Speaker 1: certain scenario. Do we I have actually have a pretty
Speaker 1: interesting anecdote about this. If if if you, if you
Speaker 1: can absolutely give me a second. So I and I
Speaker 1: do this all the time just to prove a point
Speaker 1: to people, and I've filmed it a couple of times
Speaker 1: and I've I don't know if if it's like I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get put up on YouTube, but I'm working on
Speaker 1: something for it. But basically, what it comes down to
Speaker 1: is if I walk up to a random person in
Speaker 1: a parking lot, Let's say they're outside of like a
Speaker 1: supermarket or something, and I walk up to them and say, hey, um,
Speaker 1: you know we're doing interviews for a for a game show.
Speaker 1: Is your house secure? And They're like, yeah, I locked
Speaker 1: the door before I left today. I'm like, okay, great, Um,
Speaker 1: we put one million dollars in a duffel bag in
Speaker 1: the upstairs bedroom of your house. We're gonna give you
Speaker 1: ten minutes if you can get in and out of
Speaker 1: your house, get into your house, grab that money, get
Speaker 1: out of your house without anyone being the wiser, without
Speaker 1: breaking anything. That money is yours. Can you do it?
Speaker 1: And inevitably the person goes yes, yes I can, And
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, Well what changed in that fifteen seconds
Speaker 1: from your house being totally secure that you can absolutely
Speaker 1: get in and out in ten minutes? And what changed
Speaker 1: is their vantage point? They initially were viewing their home
Speaker 1: security as the homeowner, but now with incentive, they are
Speaker 1: now looking at their house through the prism of a
Speaker 1: bad guy. And now they're thinking, well, you know, my
Speaker 1: my wife hates it when I stink up the guest
Speaker 1: bathroom downstairs, so she always cracks the window to you know,
Speaker 1: air it out a little bit. Or when the kids
Speaker 1: come home from soccer practice, they don't really ever you know, locked,
Speaker 1: you know, they don't ever shut the garage door like
Speaker 1: like I tell them to, or you know that the
Speaker 1: patio door it locks. But if you just kind of
Speaker 1: like jimmy it with a credit card a little bit,
Speaker 1: you can you can, you can slide it right in.
Speaker 1: Or you know, all the doors on the on the
Speaker 1: first floor locked, but you know the second floor deck,
Speaker 1: that door is never locked. And so if I can
Speaker 1: just like jungle jim my way up there, I can.
Speaker 1: I can get in that way. And all of those
Speaker 1: ways that you would break into your house are the
Speaker 1: same way that a bad guy would break into your house.
Speaker 1: So one of the most effective things that everyone can
Speaker 1: do is just audit themselves with honesty. How would you
Speaker 1: break into your house? Because now that you know the
Speaker 1: realistic risks, you can put the most practical safeguards in
Speaker 1: place to keep that risk from becoming a reality. So
Speaker 1: don't just assume that yours is secure, you know, make
Speaker 1: sure that your house is secure, or inspect what you expect.
Speaker 1: Because the more, like I said, that we participate in
Speaker 1: our own protection, the better we are at ensuring the
Speaker 1: certainty of our own safety. Yeah, it's funny because after
Speaker 1: reading that excerpt in the book, I did one of
Speaker 1: those mental things and I realized that my own and
Speaker 1: I should know better. I mean, I'm not somebody who's
Speaker 1: you know, just some hay seed off the block, you know,
Speaker 1: I've I've been in different difficult situations before I should
Speaker 1: know better, and I was severely lacking in a lot
Speaker 1: of those because, like I could tell you right now
Speaker 1: that my front door of my house, even though everyone
Speaker 1: is home right now, is unlocked, and and there's no
Speaker 1: reason for it to be. I mean, there are literally
Speaker 1: you can go to home depot and for thirty five
Speaker 1: dollars get yourself an electronic lock where door you know,
Speaker 1: closed equals locked, and you can have it so that
Speaker 1: everyone has their own unique ID to get in, so
Speaker 1: that you know, if you're pool guy, you get wind
Speaker 1: up getting in a fight with your pool guy, and
Speaker 1: the pool guy has a key to your house, you
Speaker 1: don't have to go through and re key everything. You
Speaker 1: can just sort of delete his code from the system.
Speaker 1: Or if you want to know if like someone is
Speaker 1: you know, you can audit your access control into your
Speaker 1: house if you're on vacation, because hey, you know, the
Speaker 1: the nanny is only supposed to come on week days
Speaker 1: between you know, nine am and five pm, So why
Speaker 1: is she, you know, why is her code being utilized
Speaker 1: on on Saturday at noon when the family is not there.
Speaker 1: And then you go okay, and then you look at
Speaker 1: the security cameras, if you find out that she and
Speaker 1: her boyfriend are using your pool. There's so many things
Speaker 1: you can But again, if you if you're not doing that,
Speaker 1: if you're not auditing, if you're not inspecting what you expect,
Speaker 1: you're you're vulnerable to those kinds of just everyday exploits
Speaker 1: which could in the long run, you know, lead to
Speaker 1: something nefarious. But the more we participate in our own
Speaker 1: protection again, the safer we can all be. And I
Speaker 1: think what ultimately comes down to is, you know, we
Speaker 1: just can no longer afford to live in a world
Speaker 1: where we simply hope that nothing will happen and then
Speaker 1: solely rely on the first responders to save us once
Speaker 1: something does. We need to you know, every day safety
Speaker 1: requires the participation of everyone, and like I said before,
Speaker 1: that healthy sense of skepticism and that moderate dose of
Speaker 1: vigilance are all most people you don't need to succeed
Speaker 1: in staying safe. Um, can I ask you a question, sure,
Speaker 1: when when was the book what you thought it would be?
Speaker 1: Because I think one of the one of the misrepresentations
Speaker 1: about the book, like if they just saw on the
Speaker 1: shelf would be like, oh, I don't need like one
Speaker 1: of these like fearmongering. You know, there's there's a murderer
Speaker 1: hiding in the shadows of of of every corner. But
Speaker 1: was that is that what you've I'm just curious. I'll
Speaker 1: be perfectly, perfectly honest. I was worried that that's because
Speaker 1: of the title. I was worried that that's what it
Speaker 1: was going to be. Now, you know, you're a publisher.
Speaker 1: Had gotten contact with us over here at soft Rap
Speaker 1: and and they said, oh, you know, you should talk
Speaker 1: to Shane and uh and review his book, and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and you know, we got the email, and
Speaker 1: I'll be honest, I was immediately a little bit biased
Speaker 1: against it because of the title. I was worried that
Speaker 1: that's what it was gonna be. But it wasn't at all,
Speaker 1: you know. I thought it was fantastic. As I said,
Speaker 1: it was a fantastic read, and it brings up a
Speaker 1: lot of really great points because not, like you say
Speaker 1: in the book, not everyone is going to have a
Speaker 1: protective detail around them, but by using the same principles,
Speaker 1: we can keep ourselves and our family safe when we
Speaker 1: go out. Because there's a perception now, especially right now,
Speaker 1: that our world is a lot more dangerous then it
Speaker 1: was maybe when well I'm a little bit older than you,
Speaker 1: but when we were kids. And yeah, and I'm not
Speaker 1: so sure that that's the case. I I mean, look,
Speaker 1: outside of mass violence being at an all time high,
Speaker 1: the crime rate is at an all time low. Like
Speaker 1: food is at like you know, food abundance is at
Speaker 1: an all time high. Life expectancy has never been longer,
Speaker 1: Medical advancements have never been greater, technology has never been
Speaker 1: more innovative. Um, you know, like crime rates down, life
Speaker 1: expectancy is up. Like if you could be born at
Speaker 1: any other time in human history, like right now would
Speaker 1: be the greatest time to be alive. But because we
Speaker 1: live in such a safe society, we the need for
Speaker 1: us to participate in that safety is at an time
Speaker 1: low because things so rarely happen that we can so
Speaker 1: we just have sort of fallen into this you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to know, we've sort of fallen into
Speaker 1: this safety trap where we expect safety to be a deliverable.
Speaker 1: We expect safety to be as certain as when we
Speaker 1: turn on the faucet water comes out, or that you know,
Speaker 1: even when something bad does happen, it's going to be
Speaker 1: so short term that you know it will get immediately resolved.
Speaker 1: Just a couple of months ago here in Texas, we
Speaker 1: had that that power outage and the number of people
Speaker 1: who just like could not survive for twenty four hours
Speaker 1: without you know, power was devastating, Like they just had
Speaker 1: no no resolve, no no no backup generators, no spare heaters,
Speaker 1: no extra food, no extra water, just like the basic
Speaker 1: practic coms that most people should employ on an everyday
Speaker 1: basis so that in the event that you know, something
Speaker 1: bad does happen, that your life is just rust but
Speaker 1: it's not destroyed. And I think that you know, and
Speaker 1: it's yes, you're right. It's easy to think that we
Speaker 1: live in such a dangerous world because it used to
Speaker 1: be like when when we were kids, that if something
Speaker 1: bad happened, you heard about it one time on the
Speaker 1: six o'clock news and then you never heard about it again.
Speaker 1: Maybe you know, the barbershop or the corner bar, the
Speaker 1: mom group talked about it, but it wasn't as pervasive
Speaker 1: throughout society. But today, when something bad happens, it's a
Speaker 1: twenty four hour news cycle, and so you're hearing about
Speaker 1: that one bad thing a thousand times that day, from
Speaker 1: every vantage point, from every talking head, from you know,
Speaker 1: from snapchat on Instagram and Facebook and social media and everything,
Speaker 1: and so your mind doesn't really know how to comprehend
Speaker 1: that you're not hearing about a hundred things, you're hearing
Speaker 1: about one thing a hundred times. And then you know,
Speaker 1: of course the news kind of sensationalizes and and social
Speaker 1: media kind of aggregates anger and hostility and angst because
Speaker 1: you know, read a Yelp review. The longer the real
Speaker 1: the review, the typically the worst the review is. Because
Speaker 1: if someone had a great time at the restaurant, they're
Speaker 1: gonna go love it, highly recommend. But if it's a
Speaker 1: bad review, it's typically going to start off with, well
Speaker 1: it was supposed to be a lovely evening for me
Speaker 1: and my wife and then turned into you know, and
Speaker 1: it's just like, oh your gut please, but you know,
Speaker 1: but then that people want to respond to that because
Speaker 1: what are you talking about? I've had had nothing, But
Speaker 1: and then it goes back and forth and back and forth,
Speaker 1: and it's just like jeez, and so and I can
Speaker 1: kind of talk about this in the book too, about
Speaker 1: like alert fatigue or you know, information overload or you know,
Speaker 1: knowing that you know, I think it's in the false
Speaker 1: authority section where you know, just because you hear something
Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily mean it's true. Like your mechanic is great
Speaker 1: at fixing your car, but your mechanics should not like
Speaker 1: the expertise of your mechanics should not also go over
Speaker 1: into fly fishing or on how to make a great
Speaker 1: to fly or on how to you know, jump start
Speaker 1: your trigger grill, you know, just like I wouldn't go
Speaker 1: to my financial planner on how to fix my brakes.
Speaker 1: Like so it you know, just because your your your
Speaker 1: buddies dad has you know, a charter boat, doesn't mean
Speaker 1: he's an expert in scuba diving. I mean, but and
Speaker 1: so people try to use these, you know, whether it's
Speaker 1: like celebrities endorsing products or you know, the supermodel who's
Speaker 1: using that lipstick was already pretty damn good looking before
Speaker 1: she started using that lipstick. She doesn't need that lipstick
Speaker 1: to be good looking, just and so, and you know,
Speaker 1: but it's very easy to take that parallel that if
Speaker 1: you start using this lipstick, you can be beautiful just
Speaker 1: like her too. It is now you can't, yeah, I
Speaker 1: can I can wear the Rocks headphones, but guess what,
Speaker 1: I don't look like the Rock when I'm done working out,
Speaker 1: just because I was wearing headphones. Yeah. I have one
Speaker 1: of the shirts from under Rummers, so but I don't
Speaker 1: look like him. And when I take that shirt off,
Speaker 1: I don't look like the Rock in the mirror. Nope,
Speaker 1: and don't when I get it on either. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny because a lot of people, you know,
Speaker 1: and I you talked to people and uh, you and
Speaker 1: I talked about this offline. Uh, we're gonna get you know.
Speaker 1: They they believe that if there's more perhaps quote unquote
Speaker 1: security around them, they feel safer. And you mentioned in
Speaker 1: the book, uh, and that you said you weren't picking
Speaker 1: on them, but you just happen to come across something
Speaker 1: for Gette Stadium, And I told you I had a
Speaker 1: lot of experience with that because you know, as a
Speaker 1: as a journalist, I covered in New England Patriots and
Speaker 1: I was down there and I talked to people that
Speaker 1: were there and other media guys are you know, fans
Speaker 1: that happen to be there, and they talked about, man,
Speaker 1: they have all the security around here, and nothing's gonna
Speaker 1: happen here, and you want to say, look, these guys
Speaker 1: are fifteen an hour. You know, guys, they're they're watching
Speaker 1: what's going on more on the field than they are
Speaker 1: what's going on around them. And they're not trained to
Speaker 1: pick up on the nuances of what might happen before
Speaker 1: it does. Yeah, they're not. They're not security training at
Speaker 1: all in fact, and I don't have the book in
Speaker 1: front of me, but the qualifications I'm pretty sure we're
Speaker 1: like you can work ten hours standing on your standing
Speaker 1: on your feet, and you can take instruction like, no,
Speaker 1: you don't have to have a guard card, you don't
Speaker 1: need to have like been a veteran. You don't need
Speaker 1: to have been out of the military, or have like
Speaker 1: police training, or be first responder certified, or have an
Speaker 1: e MT license or even have like just basic first
Speaker 1: Aid CPR certification. It's literally, are you over eighteen? Can
Speaker 1: you stand on your feet for ten hours? Are you
Speaker 1: okay making twelve dollars an hour? Those are the qualifications,
Speaker 1: and those qualifications may make someone perfectly capable of tearing
Speaker 1: your ticket in half and saying have a great day,
Speaker 1: or of showing you where the bathrooms are or of
Speaker 1: pointing you to, hey, do you know where the four
Speaker 1: hundred section is? Can just basically point you in a
Speaker 1: general direction. But those people would not should not be
Speaker 1: the ones who are, you know, issuing instruction if there's
Speaker 1: like a mass casualty event or if there's real trouble.
Speaker 1: They are great at maybe getting the real police to
Speaker 1: help or to calling in additional support, but to say
Speaker 1: that they are security is is really a misnomer. And
Speaker 1: you know, I would love for those those staffers to
Speaker 1: be called ambassadors or liaisons or some other non security
Speaker 1: related dynamic. But the problem is is that the people
Speaker 1: who are drawn to those kinds of jobs are the
Speaker 1: kind of people that want to have that cashe of
Speaker 1: saying that there. You know, no one wants to say,
Speaker 1: oh uh um, you know, I'm spending the day being
Speaker 1: a ambassador for the Patriots. They want to say, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm working security for the Patriots because you know, that
Speaker 1: kind of makes them sound cool with their friends. And
Speaker 1: the reality is that that winds up doing more harm
Speaker 1: than good because in those moments, I mean, which is
Speaker 1: why you always see at every football game, especially the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. What do you see after every Super Bowl
Speaker 1: game is how many people breach security and got selfies
Speaker 1: with famous people or who snuck up to the owner's
Speaker 1: box or what have you. And it's because as long
Speaker 1: as you just like acting like you're supposed to be there,
Speaker 1: you can bypass most twelve dollar hour security guys because
Speaker 1: there they don't have any investment in tell in in
Speaker 1: getting outside of their lane. Because if someone's looking like
Speaker 1: they're supposed to be there, they are probably of an
Speaker 1: upper echelon than they are, and they don't want to
Speaker 1: lose their job. They have no and and they also
Speaker 1: have a built in excuse, I'm just a twelve dollar
Speaker 1: hour security guy, Like what do I know? And so
Speaker 1: it's one of those things where you could literally do
Speaker 1: less with more for the same price. You could instead
Speaker 1: of hiring like five an hour guys, you can hire
Speaker 1: one fifty dollar an hour person to do that same role,
Speaker 1: and they would do it much more effectively because at
Speaker 1: fifty an hour, protector is going to be well trained,
Speaker 1: is going to have, you know, no problem being disagreeable,
Speaker 1: is going to probably have a higher level of education
Speaker 1: and emotional intelligence and a million other things. But the
Speaker 1: that same person is also not going to wear a
Speaker 1: yellow jacket emblazoned with security on the back because they
Speaker 1: have too much self respect. But you know, but we
Speaker 1: also see this with I'm sorry, but but we also
Speaker 1: see this with um, you know, just going into supermarkets
Speaker 1: or grocery stores or or what have you, where we see,
Speaker 1: you know, this premises is under twenty four hour surveillance.
Speaker 1: And then we we look up and we see the
Speaker 1: you know, the security cameras facing out, and we walk
Speaker 1: inside and we see the guard and then we go
Speaker 1: further inside and we see the turnstiles that are like
Speaker 1: the anti theft devices, and then we look up and
Speaker 1: we see the bubbles on the on the ceiling and
Speaker 1: we're like wow, and this place really takes their security
Speaker 1: very seriously. But those cameras aren't there for your safety.
Speaker 1: Those those cameras are there to keep the products safe,
Speaker 1: you know. So like it's kind of like the ring
Speaker 1: camera you're at your front door, that ring camera is
Speaker 1: to keep you protected, not to keep the mailman safe.
Speaker 1: So just because you see all of these security features
Speaker 1: out and about, like understand that whatever whoever implemented a
Speaker 1: security practice that was there to protect the person who
Speaker 1: implemented it. It's not there to protect you so anytime
Speaker 1: you're out there and you see these security features in place,
Speaker 1: kind of treat it like if you saw like a
Speaker 1: celebrity with a bodyguard. Just because there's security nearby doesn't
Speaker 1: mean they're there for you exactly. And you know, um,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I found, uh, very intriguing
Speaker 1: in the book was you're not a big fan of
Speaker 1: lockdown drills, and um, could you a little bit about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say I'm a I'm not a
Speaker 1: fan of lockdown drills, because there are times when lockdown
Speaker 1: drills are very effective. For example. What I'm not a fan, however,
Speaker 1: is run hide fight. I think run hyde foot is
Speaker 1: the dumbest thing in the world. Now, okay, it's the
Speaker 1: difference between when you shelter in place and when you
Speaker 1: when you evacuate. You evacuate when there is a threat
Speaker 1: inside the building. You shelter in place when there is
Speaker 1: a threat outside the building. So shelter in place is
Speaker 1: great for like hurricanes and tornadoes, and you know, um,
Speaker 1: where things outside of your protective entity could like high winds,
Speaker 1: falling trees, lightning, things like that. You want to be
Speaker 1: inside for those you want to shelter in place. You
Speaker 1: want to lock down because you're secure, and that way
Speaker 1: you can keep everything that's bad from happening on the outside.
Speaker 1: So let's say you're a school and the cops are
Speaker 1: getting in a gunfight with someone who tried to rob
Speaker 1: the bank down the street. You're gonna want to initiate
Speaker 1: a lockdown for the school tool so that the kids
Speaker 1: don't go out and get hit in crossfire. That makes sense.
Speaker 1: But if that armed robber then you know, bypassed the
Speaker 1: police and ran into the school and started taking people hostage,
Speaker 1: you don't then want to lock down the school because
Speaker 1: the bad guys already inside. At that point, you would
Speaker 1: initiate an evacuation protocol, and you would want to put everyone.
Speaker 1: You want to give everyone as much time distance, you know,
Speaker 1: put as much time and distance between them and the
Speaker 1: bad guy as possible. You you've been to serior school,
Speaker 1: you understand, you know, uh, survive escape, resist um, escape, survive.
Speaker 1: Well I got that wrong, didn't I survive escape, resist,
Speaker 1: not survive evade evade? Sorry? Why was it escape escape?
Speaker 1: So that's where it's been a few years. But that's
Speaker 1: where like the initiation, like the initiation of run hYP
Speaker 1: flight came from military application where if you're a pilot
Speaker 1: or a special operator, you know, caught behind enemy lines
Speaker 1: and you're taking prisoner of war and you're able to escape,
Speaker 1: you're going to run. You're going to put as much
Speaker 1: time and distance between you and the bad guys as possible.
Speaker 1: You're gonna evade and try to get away. And then
Speaker 1: if you get so tired that you can't keep running,
Speaker 1: you're gonna hide. You're gonna camouflage yourself. You're gonna regain
Speaker 1: your strength and your energy so that you, once you
Speaker 1: are recuperated, can keep running. And then if you are
Speaker 1: reconfronted by the enemy, you're gonna fight like your life
Speaker 1: depends on it, because it absolutely does. Now, that is
Speaker 1: a great framework and mindset and tactical application for a soldier,
Speaker 1: and it's even a good one for an individual, but
Speaker 1: it is horrible as a collective because what ultimately run hide,
Speaker 1: fight has become is run to your hiding spot, and
Speaker 1: that is not what it was intended to do. And
Speaker 1: but this happens because schools care more about accountability than
Speaker 1: they do about survivability, which is why you know that
Speaker 1: Old and I talked about this in the book like
Speaker 1: that whole that old like you know, the cold work
Speaker 1: kids were hard to kill under their desk in an
Speaker 1: air raid drill. Like being under your desk in an
Speaker 1: air raid drill is going to do nothing to save
Speaker 1: your life. But what it will do is allow the
Speaker 1: school to cross reference the seating chart with the central
Speaker 1: office to know who it was that was dead underneath
Speaker 1: that desk. And so, you know, but not only that,
Speaker 1: like which is harder to hit the kid who's hiding,
Speaker 1: you know, coward and crying in the corner of a classroom,
Speaker 1: or the one who's putting as much time and distance
Speaker 1: with each step they take away from the bad guy,
Speaker 1: many of whom like aren't even targeting them because schools
Speaker 1: are all these like pockets of protection or workplaces or
Speaker 1: offices or all these you know, these you know, isolated
Speaker 1: pockets of protection, and so like, if the initiation of
Speaker 1: violence breaks out, like that's your best time to flee,
Speaker 1: get away, get out, run, run as far and as
Speaker 1: fast as you can, because you know, bullets travel through
Speaker 1: doors and bullet travel through windows. And it's not like
Speaker 1: classrooms are like hard centers. Like watch a John Wick
Speaker 1: movie and watch how easily a bullet rips right through
Speaker 1: a door or a pained glass window or what have you.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's this cottage industry that kind of
Speaker 1: popped up about, like, you know, here's fifteen ways to
Speaker 1: use your belt buckle, just like secure a door, but
Speaker 1: literally right behind the guy's a first floor window, Like
Speaker 1: go that way, climb out, get away. You know, A
Speaker 1: a a a fire in a building is just as
Speaker 1: dangerous and unpredictable as an active shooter. But we would
Speaker 1: never hide from a fire and hope it doesn't find us.
Speaker 1: We would run. And I think that parents and teachers
Speaker 1: and family and friends really need to understand that when
Speaker 1: people who are not trained protectors are telling you what
Speaker 1: to do to protect yourself, you really need to think
Speaker 1: long and hard about is what they're doing in your
Speaker 1: best interest or in theirs. It's a great point. The
Speaker 1: at the end of the book, you have some residential
Speaker 1: and school security UM workplace safety checklists, and could you
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about those as well, because I
Speaker 1: think those were really really good. And again it's it's
Speaker 1: all stuff that I think that people can, you know,
Speaker 1: integrate into their own homes and personal security. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: the way that I framed the book was that I
Speaker 1: used real world scenarios that either I had helped to
Speaker 1: manage or that were are kind of like the the
Speaker 1: staple anecdotes of of of the protective industry that serves
Speaker 1: sort of a you know, the the the rosetta stone
Speaker 1: for why we do what we do, and what I
Speaker 1: do is I basically show, hey, look, here's what happened,
Speaker 1: here's how it was allowed to happen, here's your protective takeaway,
Speaker 1: and here's five things that you can do to keep
Speaker 1: this bad thing from happening to you. And I outline
Speaker 1: sixteen of these safety traps, everything from avoidance and complacency,
Speaker 1: to over protecting our children, to over sharing on social media,
Speaker 1: to the importance of physical fitness, to the importance of
Speaker 1: not being overconfident. Then once I talk about those sixteen
Speaker 1: safety traps, I provide a case study, and I provide
Speaker 1: an overview of what threat management really is. And then
Speaker 1: once you have those things in place, you're right. I
Speaker 1: provide personal threat Assessment checklist for for home, school, work,
Speaker 1: and life. Because what I want everyone to be able
Speaker 1: to do is not say, Okay, now that I have
Speaker 1: all this information, like, what do I do with it.
Speaker 1: I wanted them to say, Okay, now I have all
Speaker 1: this information and here is what I do with it.
Speaker 1: So you can literally read this book and then pick
Speaker 1: up the go to the school chapter or go to
Speaker 1: the home chapter, and I'm going to tell you a story,
Speaker 1: and then I provide twent he five um questions. Here's
Speaker 1: here's the question we're asking, Here's why this question is important,
Speaker 1: and here's how you want to answer this so that
Speaker 1: you can ensure the certainty of safety for everyone involved.
Speaker 1: And whether that is about you know, does your home
Speaker 1: have like I talked about, like the Foil method for
Speaker 1: how to conduct a home security assessment? Everyone remembers Foil
Speaker 1: from math class first Outer's inners lass to conduct a
Speaker 1: home security assessment the same way. What are my first impressions?
Speaker 1: What are the outsides tell me about this house? Where
Speaker 1: the insides tell me about this house? What are my
Speaker 1: lasting impressions? Because then and you can make this like
Speaker 1: a family event because the more eyes, the more vantage points,
Speaker 1: the more insights, the more takeaways that you have on
Speaker 1: something like that, the more effective you can be. Do
Speaker 1: you have your name on your mailbox? Why is it?
Speaker 1: It's yeah, it's great for its vanity, but you know,
Speaker 1: maybe the person who is looking to stalk or target
Speaker 1: you and those generally the area you live. Now you've
Speaker 1: just told to make exactly where you live. Things with work,
Speaker 1: like when was the last time your office how to
Speaker 1: security assessment done? Who did it, what were their recommendations,
Speaker 1: what recommendations were implemented? Why weren't other Why were these
Speaker 1: security recommendations implemented over these other security recommendations. Same thing
Speaker 1: with schools, like what is the different Like when you're
Speaker 1: talking about the difference between when to shelter in place
Speaker 1: and when to evacuate, who is the decision maker for
Speaker 1: that decision? What? What? What is their training? What dictates
Speaker 1: how they're going to do it? When you know, is
Speaker 1: there a threat management program? Is there a school resource officer? It?
Speaker 1: Does the school care about more about you know, just
Speaker 1: sort of checking the block or are they interested in
Speaker 1: you know, having the parents or the PTA or the
Speaker 1: school board get more involved in those decision making process.
Speaker 1: You know, so many parents are are so concerned about
Speaker 1: their children's safety, but then on the flip side are
Speaker 1: just equally pacified by being told that everything is being
Speaker 1: done to keep their children safe. And you know, the
Speaker 1: the more parents ask the hard questions of those decision makers,
Speaker 1: the more especially after they've read this book, the more
Speaker 1: informed they will be to know if those are the
Speaker 1: best decisions possible. Because and informed society is a safer
Speaker 1: society because the more insight, the more intelligence, the more background,
Speaker 1: and the more you know understanding of nuance we are,
Speaker 1: the more informed of a decision we can make, and
Speaker 1: the better that decision. Those decisions will be about ensuring
Speaker 1: the certainty of our safety. But if we just you know,
Speaker 1: choose to shirk our responsibility and and you know, pass
Speaker 1: that burden onto another, more often than not, that burden
Speaker 1: is just going to get, you know, reallocated to someone else,
Speaker 1: and it's going to be a you know, a past
Speaker 1: the buck down the lane, and then everyone is basically
Speaker 1: playing a game of musical chairs when what they could
Speaker 1: have been doing is making sure that everyone had a
Speaker 1: chair in the first place. Absolutely, and and even somebody
Speaker 1: like yourself, somebody made the poor, yeah, of trying to
Speaker 1: break into your own home, yea, literally a month ago.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing is that, like I had just
Speaker 1: done this podcast with Andy Murphy, who's who's like the
Speaker 1: secure dad he's got a podcast, The Secure Dad's Great
Speaker 1: check it out. He's got a book on Amazon, and
Speaker 1: he and I had just spent like an hour going
Speaker 1: through like all of these like home security safety tips
Speaker 1: and you know what works, what doesn't work, what should
Speaker 1: you do, what works for you? And then I had
Speaker 1: posted my own uh content on on my YouTube channel.
Speaker 1: I have a podcast as well talking about home security strategies.
Speaker 1: And then that Monday night, I go to bed like
Speaker 1: around midnight, and you know, one ten in the morning,
Speaker 1: my dog just goes like just like he goes from
Speaker 1: charity here, and I'm like, what is going on? I
Speaker 1: sit because you know, typically he's the kind of dog
Speaker 1: that likely and you know, and then and then puts
Speaker 1: his heapic down goes back to sleep, but this was
Speaker 1: a time where he was just like, Oh, something's going on,
Speaker 1: and I want at him. So I sit up and
Speaker 1: I can see, like through the corner of my window
Speaker 1: that the outside motion lights are on. So I look
Speaker 1: over at my phone and it's just full of security alerts.
Speaker 1: And then I look at my watch and it's motion
Speaker 1: back door, motion back door, motioned back door, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: here we go. So I I keep like a Remington
Speaker 1: eight seventy right right, a tactical shotgun right by my bed,
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't have a wife or kids, so
Speaker 1: it's it's the only other person that would possibly get
Speaker 1: in the way of that weapon is rown and he
Speaker 1: doesn't have a posable thumb, so fairly safe. It's fairly
Speaker 1: certain to say. Anyway, I haven't gone from a dead
Speaker 1: sleep too armed and ready that fast since uh like
Speaker 1: the sandbox and uh, it was one good to know
Speaker 1: that I still had that skill set and to uh
Speaker 1: kind of scary that someone, because like I had said before,
Speaker 1: someone comes at night, they're typically coming for you. And
Speaker 1: I pull up the security camera on my phone and
Speaker 1: I see that the guy is uh. He had already
Speaker 1: tried the front door and was coming around the back
Speaker 1: to go through uh the fence off my driveway that
Speaker 1: would lead to the back door. So I let Ronan
Speaker 1: out the back door so that he can catch the
Speaker 1: guy if he gets through the fence, and I kind
Speaker 1: of circle around to go out. I flank around the
Speaker 1: front door so that I can catch him in a
Speaker 1: in a turkey shoot between me and Ronan, and I
Speaker 1: was like a couple of seconds too slow, because the
Speaker 1: time by the time I had come outside the front door,
Speaker 1: the guy Ronan was so effective at scaring the guy
Speaker 1: off that he had taken off running. But when I
Speaker 1: talked about those those five ds for home security, and
Speaker 1: I talked about the delay a the D for the delay,
Speaker 1: what actually wound up saving that bad guy's life was
Speaker 1: that when Ronan was about six months old, he was
Speaker 1: big enough and strong enough that he could push the
Speaker 1: fence open. And so what I had done was just
Speaker 1: put a couple of bungee cords across the fence to
Speaker 1: keep it from swinging open if he if he tried
Speaker 1: to push it. So it wasn't just a matter of
Speaker 1: like the simple latch. The guy had undone the supp latch,
Speaker 1: and he had undone one bungee cord and was working
Speaker 1: on the second when Ronan came bounding around the corner
Speaker 1: to get him, and then he took off running. As
Speaker 1: I was running towards the front door. He was just
Speaker 1: a little he was motivated to move a bit faster
Speaker 1: than I was, and uh, and he was off the property.
Speaker 1: But you know, sometimes it's those really simple safeguards that
Speaker 1: are the most effective. But again, it's all about participating
Speaker 1: in your own protection. I had a plan. I knew
Speaker 1: what I was gonna do. I knew how I was
Speaker 1: going to get there. I knew, you know, I had
Speaker 1: the cameras and the lights, and the wherewithal and the
Speaker 1: training and the resources and the and the and the
Speaker 1: willingness to participate in my own protection. But you know,
Speaker 1: like what if I hadn't, and what if that guy
Speaker 1: did get into the house, and you know, like that
Speaker 1: that I reported it and so did my neighbors, and
Speaker 1: you know, that guy wind up getting arrested like about
Speaker 1: ninety minutes later, about half half a mile down the street,
Speaker 1: like coming off with someone else's property because he was,
Speaker 1: you know, homeless and had a drug problem, and it
Speaker 1: was typical drugs he can behavior. He was gonna look
Speaker 1: for things he could you know, snag and steal and
Speaker 1: then also hit like the medicine closet to see if
Speaker 1: they were like you know, drugs he could take or
Speaker 1: what have you. But you know, it's also a concern
Speaker 1: because when I live in a safe area, I live
Speaker 1: in a I live in a nice neighborhood, and to
Speaker 1: think that, you know, even someone like me with the
Speaker 1: but like people who were making those kinds of decisions,
Speaker 1: don't always think rationally, and you know it's you know
Speaker 1: that you know that there's like those those tenants of
Speaker 1: leadership where you want to anticipate the needs of others.
Speaker 1: Sometimes staying safe is about anticipating the idiocy of others.
Speaker 1: We do it when we drive, we do it when
Speaker 1: we're you know, in our cars. And the more that
Speaker 1: we can adopt that same framework of understanding of not
Speaker 1: being scared, not being fearful, but just kind of having
Speaker 1: that healthy sense of vigilance to be like, hey, what
Speaker 1: is this guy doing and why is he doing it?
Speaker 1: That's not right? If this breaks bad, what am I
Speaker 1: gonna do? So that you know, we can participate in
Speaker 1: our protection when when moments matter most. Yeah, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Spencer, We we want to thank you for
Speaker 1: taking the time with us this afternoon. Spencer's book it's
Speaker 1: called The Safety Trap. UM. He also has a great
Speaker 1: podcast in which we just mentioned a few minutes ago,
Speaker 1: called Coursen's Corner. I encourage all of our listeners to
Speaker 1: check that out. There's some great stuff and that you know,
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you, what's maybe the weirdest thing
Speaker 1: that you'd ever experienced with one of your say, celebrity clients.
Speaker 1: But then it was kind of blown out of the
Speaker 1: water because I was watching the news the other night
Speaker 1: and I saw a guy and I was like, I
Speaker 1: hope he wasn't a celebrity because if he had some security,
Speaker 1: it would have been really difficult. Got swallowed by a
Speaker 1: whale off the coast of Cape Cod. I don't know
Speaker 1: if he just I did. I did. He was like
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, it all went dark, and
Speaker 1: then uh, I was like, dude, what is this? Like
Speaker 1: a like a Pinocchio reference, Like yeah, I was thinking,
Speaker 1: like yeah, he was like, what would you do? You guys,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know what I mean, but I
Speaker 1: mean I guess you know. Thankfully he didn't taste too
Speaker 1: good because you know, they spit them up. But yeah,
Speaker 1: but can you imagine just like swimming and then all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you're in a whale's mouth, Like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine, Like what would you do? Because it
Speaker 1: brought me back. I worked for a short time for
Speaker 1: a family that was very wealthy and the dad was
Speaker 1: getting up there in years and but he loved to swim,
Speaker 1: and we were off the coast of Africa, and you know,
Speaker 1: he wanted to swim in the ocean, so I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna swim with you, and that brought me back.
Speaker 1: I mean, what comes and swallows the dad? I mean,
Speaker 1: what are you supposed to do at that point? I
Speaker 1: don't think any of us ever envisioned anything like that before. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not like your security detail is gonna be putting
Speaker 1: like a humpback whale in a rear naked choke, you know,
Speaker 1: to you know, they like look at an armed bar.
Speaker 1: The guy likes the like tactical disarming technique there. I mean,
Speaker 1: and by the twelve toime whale, I don't think he'd
Speaker 1: get your arms around his No, no, no, yeah, but
Speaker 1: again yeah, I don't even like, can you really even
Speaker 1: argue like awareness at that point, because like, are you
Speaker 1: really expecting a whale to just like comed out of
Speaker 1: the It just shows up. Anything can happen. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the thing is that it's not so much about
Speaker 1: like worrying about the improbable as it is about like
Speaker 1: paying attention to the possible. Like I am not worried
Speaker 1: about an alien invasion. I am worried about the homeless
Speaker 1: problem in Austin. So kind of like, tend to the
Speaker 1: part of the garden you can touch, and you know,
Speaker 1: put your faith in confidence in and that everyone else
Speaker 1: is doing the same and hopefully that hall, that entire
Speaker 1: garden can get tended. But just saying that you're not
Speaker 1: going to attend to your part of the garden because
Speaker 1: you can't touch the whole thing, is is just a
Speaker 1: recipe for disaster. And is you know, not doing your
Speaker 1: neighborly duty or your citizenry or or what have you.
Speaker 1: So do what you can start small, builds strong. Read
Speaker 1: this book, you know, come for the story, stay for
Speaker 1: the lesson, master the strategies to keep you and your
Speaker 1: loved ones protected and uh, you know, I really hope
Speaker 1: that this book. I do not want this book to
Speaker 1: be like scary or fearmongering. I really wanted this book
Speaker 1: to be a resource guide and uh and a helpful
Speaker 1: manual and an entertaining read so that you can live
Speaker 1: your very best life the safest way possible. And Steve,
Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for having me on. This
Speaker 1: is a great conversation. I would love to have you
Speaker 1: on my own podcast. I would love to come back
Speaker 1: on yours. Thank you, Thank you so much. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate all of your support. Oh anytime, It's been fun.
Speaker 1: I mean, like I said, uh, it's a great resource,
Speaker 1: as you just said for our readers out there, and
Speaker 1: definitely check it out. And Spencer's books called The Safety Drap.
Speaker 1: You can find it on Amazon dot com. It just
Speaker 1: came out a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully we're gonna
Speaker 1: see it on that New York Times list and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, hopefully, uh, you know, by the time your
Speaker 1: next book comes out, if there is one, we'll have
Speaker 1: you back on the podcast. We'll talk about that and
Speaker 1: you know, we'll well, we'll definitely have some better stories
Speaker 1: to talk about. But his, yeah, your book, and I
Speaker 1: want to reiterate this to all our listeners. Uh, Spencer's
Speaker 1: book is filled with some of his own experiences and
Speaker 1: it talks about how these practical applications can be used,
Speaker 1: and we encourage all of our readers and listeners out
Speaker 1: there to do that. But before we go any further,
Speaker 1: just wanted to read a quick note. If you want
Speaker 1: to get softwarep on your phone, download our free mobile
Speaker 1: app and get easy access to our articles, podcast Gear reviews,
Speaker 1: all perfectly formatedy your device, Please describe to softwarep dot
Speaker 1: com to get access to our library of e books
Speaker 1: and our exclusive team reforms of content available on all
Speaker 1: your Apple and Android devices. Spencer, thanks once again, this
Speaker 1: was a lot of fun. I definitely would love to
Speaker 1: have you back on again. Steeve, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: really really great alrppreciate you. The soft rep community, thank
Speaker 1: you so much. Okay, and for all of us here
Speaker 1: at software radio dot com and the podcast, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Software Pradio on time on target, We'll be back with
Speaker 1: another podcast. Real you've been listening to self rep Lydia.
Speaker 1: You