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E65: Small Talk and Genuine Connection · The Junto Podcast

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Hello, America. Welcome to the Junto podcast, where we promote the practical
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applications of critical thinking and bold creativity.
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I'm your host, Edgar Mills. Thank you for.
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Hello, America. Welcome back to episode 65. And what am I talking about today?
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I'm staying with easy breezy topics.
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I'm trying to throw out some easy breezy stuff here.
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And yeah, it's helpful. It's not, these aren't throwaway episodes for sure.
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I'm just not talking about the ills of communism or politics or whatnot.
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But what I want to talk about today is it's kind of relevant to everyday life,
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Not only personal life, but business life,
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Small talk I'm not very good at it I'm not a good small talker, really,
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And I mean, a lot of people, well, I mean, I'm kind of in my mind,
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I'm all business all the time. I'm always trying to,
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I don't know. I think we should be solving a problem or making some progress.
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If we're talking, we need to be talking about things that matter.
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That's kind of the way I look at it.
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And I know that seems overly serious and I'm not an overly serious guy.
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It's just, I don't know, man. Small talk. If it's not going anywhere,
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it's not going anywhere.
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So that's kind of the way I've always looked at it.
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And if we're not making progress on a project or a problem, and it doesn't even
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have to be my project or my problem.
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I still want to solve a problem. I still want to make some relevant gains and things.
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So, I think that possibly even in my career has possibly made me a little bit unlikable.
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And unfortunately, it's my personality that I don't know people either like me or they hate me.
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There's not a lot of middle ground, I don't think.
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That could just be from my perspective. I don't know. And if you're unlikable,
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it's very possible that you're, well, uninteresting.
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And I don't know which I dislike more, being disliked or being uninteresting.
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I think I'd rather be interesting than liked.
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But that's just me. That's my personality. Molly, if I turn on, if I,
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and here's, here's the catch with me is that if I think you're genuinely interesting
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and I, and I like what you do or where you're at, then I'll make great efforts to,
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to like you and be your friend and may even be colleagues or whatever.
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But if I don't, maybe, maybe I won't. I don't know.
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We all have our own quirks that make us unique. Our own little system glitches, we all have them.
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Our own little personal weirdnesses, things that we don't normally tell people
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about or that we're embarrassed about or it just may seem silly.
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I, I'm still,
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I still like, I follow pages on Facebook and, and other social medias about
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little action figures, you know, little GI Joe action figures.
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That's not very interesting to most people, I'm sure, but I do.
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And I don't share that often. So congratulations, America.
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You just found out I like G.I.
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Joe action figures from the 80s, but I'm a regular guy, though,
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and I think there's a lot of regular guys that like there's probably grown men
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out there to still collect the Hot Wheels and matchbook matchbox cars. So anyway.
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So, yeah, the question is, how do we become interesting to other people?
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How do we share the appropriate amount of personal information?
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Sometimes for the last episode, maybe I overshared a little bit.
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The sex after 50 episode. Maybe that whole episode was an overshare.
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But how do we find the right bits to share? that, again, are appropriate,
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but that humanizes us to the people we're talking to and kind of,
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I don't know, in a way that actually connects, you know.
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Because whether it's personal life or business life, you want to connect to agree.
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So that's what we're going to talk about is how it relates to personal life,
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and how this stuff shows up in business or your work life.
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A couple episodes back, we talked about manners. And I got some good positive
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feedback on that episode, by the way.
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I think a lot of people may agree that as a society, we're kind of,
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well, not completely losing the manners, but I mean, to a large degree.
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And who wants to be in a hyper-formal environment anyway? I don't,
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but that doesn't mean you can't use good manners.
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So at any rate, we're talking about now that we're taking the next steps now, right?
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Building on the good manners because good manners invite people in but they
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don't necessarily make people want to stay it takes more.
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In my opinion, and this is a curated opinion over years, but,
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broadly speaking, I don't believe that anyone is, everyone's interesting in their own way, I think.
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It's just, are you willing to get to it or not?
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Nobody's actually boring.
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In fact, do a little exercise, pick out the most boring person you know,
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and then respectfully in a friendly way ask questions, get in there and you'll
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probably find some very interesting things once you get past the surface level.
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Social media for sure I know this is the big evil we talk about a lot but social
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media especially but also professional environment, professional settings at
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work, whatever that work is,
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those pressure us To present,
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a polished, perfect, ideal version of yourself, whether it's on the socials
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or whether it's to the people you work with or your bosses anyway.
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And you have to have that veneer of, well, no chinks in the armor,
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you know, and you have to be impressive, you know, depending on your job, especially.
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You have to be impressive.
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All the time.
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And that's fine. If you're that guy, drive on.
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If that is genuinely who you are, if you are that superhero,
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that super fit, super perfect, super smart guy, drive on, drive on.
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But if you're not, you don't have to, because if you're not genuinely that,
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if it's not authentic, then chances are it will backfire on you anyway.
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You start to see, especially on social media, and how irrelevant is any social media anyway.
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It's the new marketing tool for sure for things. But everybody now,
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even individuals with nothing to sell or nothing to offer or no services,
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still build their own personal brand for the socials.
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That's madness.
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So when but we've seen via social media people who've been around for a few
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minutes you start to see that it starts to backfire,
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and then some ugly crap gets exposed or or some ugly past or the way they treat
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people around them on a daily basis versus on on the tiktok or whatever.
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Now for me,
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i spent many years in an environment where you didn't have to put on any mask
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right all you had to be competent and you had to be straightforward and honest,
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you didn't have to smile you didn't have to make make pretend that you were
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buddies or friends or you didn't have to say things that you didn't,
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it was mission oriented right the military especially in the 82nd,
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I've got a sort of funny story. I'll share it.
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I had a break in service. And so when I went back in the Army,
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I had to do basic training again because of the gap in service, apparently.
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And when I got out, I was, you know, I wasn't, I was never an NCO or anything the first time.
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And anyway, in AIT, because I had gone to AIT as a 31 Charlie,
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and that was a radio, you know, operator type.
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Anyway, we just show up to AIT, and, you know, all the drill instructors.
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Back then, the drill instructors were like tacks.
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You went and got training from other people, subject matter experts.
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The drill sergeant's only purpose was to march you to, march you from,
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do PT in the morning, and then make sure the barracks were square.
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So at any rate, the drill sergeant has us around in a semicircle and he's going
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around the clock, you know, hey, well, why'd you join the army?
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And this was in 1996 or 95.
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And he said, hey, why'd you join the army? What motivated you to join the army?
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So he goes around the clock.
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And almost everybody in that class was 18 years old or 17 even.
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I was 23 or 24 and, and a friend of mine was, was already probably 24 or 25 or so.
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We were the oldest two guys in the class.
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And he goes around, and they all say, what did they say? This is the,
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yeah, hey, I want to go to college.
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Yeah, I just want to do, yeah, I want to go to college and make something of myself. Yeah, I want to.
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And some of the kids were like, yeah, I think this job will translate,
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you know, and it'll be a good job so I can get a career after the Army.
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And then the drill sergeant looks at me,
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and he says, why'd you join the Army?
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And I said, I joined the Army because I need a structured lifestyle.
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And I said it straight-faced, just like that.
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And he blinked twice, and then he moved on. Ha, ha, ha, ha.
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There wasn't any small talk. I wasn't trying to be cute or funny.
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I was not trying to say what he wanted to hear.
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I told him exactly why I joined the Army.
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I joined the Army because I need a structured lifestyle.
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No small talk. And that drill sergeant, well, ultimately, he eventually liked
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me, but he pulled me aside later on.
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He was like, hey, man, you know, that was kind of a hard guy. I'm a hard guy.
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Yeah, they come to appreciate my stance there.
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Anyway, but that didn't backfire on me because it was the truth.
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And me and my friend became the,
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he was the distinguished honor graduate with the highest GPA and highest.
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I don't know. I was the honor graduate. He was a distinguished undergraduate.
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I can't remember what set us apart on that.
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But yeah, I think a little maturity there too. I mean, anyway, it did not backfire.
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So in the Army, at least when I went in, it was straight, straight talk was appreciated.
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And hell, even being hard was appreciated. In the 82nd, you know,
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it was, yeah, it was, you know, most people were kind of, you might even say,
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a-holes a little bit, but there was no ambiguity.
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There was no lack of clarity when somebody said a thing. And that was important to me.
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Now, of course, that has gradually changed over the years, but that's another episode.
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Anyway, coming back into civilian life after 25 years in the Army,
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I noticed that a lot of people,
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expend a lot of energy, you know, trying to sound interesting or to appear to
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be interesting instead of just genuinely being interesting.
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So I guess the moral of what I'm trying to say is be real, be yourself.
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Yeah, you can you can tone it up or tone it down depending on the situation,
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you know, maybe in job interviews you want to be a little more polished,
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but even then be genuine.
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So anyway, as I said, I believe that everybody is in some way interested.
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So we're carrying that around with us.
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It may be messy a little bit, but we have it, right? We have this messy version
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of ourselves, the quirks that we don't normally share.
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So how do we let some of it out without being awkward or even scary?
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How do we do that?
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Well i'm going to go back to the manners episode again i think that was a good
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episode good manners are an outward act,
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well of respect even baseline respect good manners are an outward display of that,
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and good manners create a sort of a level of,
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predictability,
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in the way you're going to behave to a thing.
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And that predictability kind of gives a level of safety that I can, okay, I can say yes or no.
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I don't have to be subservient to this human who I may be scared of or whatever.
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So good manners kind of opens those doors.
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And then, well, let me step back.
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You can be well-mannered and still be cold as ice, and you're well-mannered
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just as a rule and still incredibly unfriendly or unapproachable.
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You can do that. I have done that. I do that often still.
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I do have good manners as a rule, but I'm not always quick with the smile or the kind words.
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And I try never to be ill-mannered, however. The absence of good manners isn't
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necessarily bad manners.
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It's just a state of neutrality, I think.
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But likability, however, manners, yes. But being likable, well,
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that's the level of warmth that you have to sprinkle on to the good manners.
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And what does that create? If good manners create predictability,
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well, then likability and the warmth kind of creates a little comfort zone, right? Comfort zone.
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And you get that when somebody, I don't know, seems to actually take interest
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in you or they actually enjoy speaking to you.
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And it's not just a transactional thing.
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But the key difference in the two is that manners are to be performed,
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whereas likability is not really, right? That's.
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More of a personality sort of thing, I guess, but it's not performative.
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And, but I believe the likability shows up when you, when you are genuine, when you sincerely,
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care about what the other person has to say and you're genuinely curious about
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the person you're talking to, whoever that is and on, in whatever context, even.
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Yeah. It comes with that, that conversation, that sincere interest. Yeah.
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All right, sometimes I quote obscure people, and I don't think Will Rogers is
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obscure, but probably millions of the,
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Gen X, Gen Z, well, maybe Gen Z, and millennials for sure probably don't know who he is.
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But anyway, he was an entertainer, performer.
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I think he even did vaudeville, but he was an American philosopher.
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Yeah, he was an American philosopher. He was also like a comedian.
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He was kind of a, yeah, multi-skilled performer.
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But what Will Rogers said, and he was a native, by the way. He was Cherokee.
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I never met a man I didn't like. That's who said that. That's who coined that
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phrase. I never met a man I didn't like.
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And Will Rogers was not a naive dolt, right?
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He was saying that, what I think he was saying was that his default setting,
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was curiosity or interest as opposed to judgment.
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A lot of people who are judgmental, they already size you up before you ever open your mouth.
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And they lack that genuine curiosity because they just don't care. Whatever. whatever.
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So I think that shift, that default setting is curiosity versus judgment is
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where he was coming from there.
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And that changes the whole conversation, changes the tone of a conversation.
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Yeah. Will Rogers, the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People,
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His name was Dale Carnegie.
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He said that you can make more friends in two months by becoming interested
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in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
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I like that, right? And that backs up that curiosity that I was talking about
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that I thought Will Rogers was talking about is, and that backs that up.
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Just be interested in other people and then they'll become interested in you.
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So as always, with this podcast and every topic, no matter what it is,
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I think what's the point of me talking about this if I don't.
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Add some practicality to practical use.
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How do we use this in our daily life? Well.
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Thoughtful follow-up questions, right? When you're having a conversation,
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and, oh, really? Well, how did that make you feel? Or, well,
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then what was the next step for X, Y, Z?
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You know, just good follow-up questions. I think that's important,
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especially in a business setting.
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And then I talk about this one a lot.
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A little bit of light self-deprecation. Again, don't use that as a tool.
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Like I talked about on the narcissist episode, don't use self-deprecation as
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a tool to draw people in so that you can then build, you know, pump yourself up.
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But just a little, just a little social lubricant, just something smooth out the edges.
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If you, the self-deprecation, what it does is it shows them that you're kind
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of letting your guard down a bit so that they'll then let their guard down a bit.
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But not so that you can then attack, so that you can then have a conversation on real terms.
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And then, good people, these are old standbys. Well, eye contact.
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That's an old standby, is it not? Make eye contact when you're talking to people.
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But in the same vein of eye contact, in the modern day, what is it?
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You don't be on your phone while you're having a conversation.
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Put the phone down.
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And what does that tell people? Well, it seems like you're genuinely interested in what they're saying.
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And you're not constantly distracted.
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It's tough to hold that. Now, some people, man, are busy, busy, busy on the go, go, go.
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And you're talking, you're like, but hey, if you got to take it,
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hey, hold on a minute. And hold that spot. Do your thing. Put it down.
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And I apologize. You know, whatever. Do that if you need to.
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Don't be fishing videos.
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All right. And then I would be remiss if I didn't talk a little bit about Benjamin
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Franklin since this is the Junto podcast.
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He, well, he wrote about autobiography, but he refined how he spoke to people,
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in order to be more influential.
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Clearly, Benjamin Franklin was one of the most influential of our founding fathers.
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But in his book, he talked about,
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he dropped words like certainly or undoubtedly, like absolutes, right?
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He didn't speak in absolutes because they made him sound arrogant.
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Now, Ben Franklin thought about this in the 1700s. Like, man.
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And these days, I can't remember who said it. The only people who speak in absolutes are zealots.
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And, damn, I can't remember. Somebody, not a famous quote. I don't know. I want to say Siths.
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Some Darth Vader frigging Star Wars reference. Siths and zealots or something.
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But, I mean, if you look at it, Siths were zealots, weren't they?
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Yeah, man. Benjamin Franklin. Don't speak in absolutes. It makes you seem arrogant. Like you, and.
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So, instead, he said things like, well, it appears. Or I imagine that X, Y, Z.
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So that way there was a little room in there. And that didn't show weakness,
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good people. It doesn't show weakness to do that, to soften that tone.
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It just makes you a little more relatable, I think.
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Well, and he used it as a strategy, but yeah, it doesn't show weakness.
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It just makes you more relatable.
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And being relatable is not a weakness, good people.
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But ultimately, people listen to Benjamin Franklin because he didn't force them to defend themselves.
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Sometimes i have this problem with my kids and my kids have this problem with me,
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and and and these days usually it's a bit of a misunderstanding but,
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if you're trying to have a conversation but someone feels like they're having
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to defend themselves they're not listening to what you're saying they're just
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boom boom blocking that's it,
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don't make someone have to defend themselves in a day in a daily conversation.
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Especially if trying to get things done and a little humor. Yeah.
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I'm always with a little humor.
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If you're, let's say, let's say you're at a gathering, right?
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Maybe not a party, not a nightclub or anything like that, but like,
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I don't know a business, like an organizational day, you know, or whatever.
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And you're standing here holding your, holding your drink,
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and it's awkward. Hell makes the joke about how awkward it is.
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Make light of the awkwardness and get past it and then move on.
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Making a joke about how awkward it is will be infinitely better than trying
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to de-awkward the situation and fight through it and clarify your awkwardness.
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Just make the joke, man, and drive on.
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All right now we're gonna we're gonna get more into business life here professional life,
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and now i don't like this term but i've been told this i've been told this by many people,
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that hey man you're selling yourself not shooting or not training people are
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buying you and to a degree that's true i don't like it,
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I'm attempting to build a business that transcends my personality and me.
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I understand like the podcast for sure.
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But the shooting and the leadership development, that should transcend me for sure.
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And that's what I'm trying to do. However, you do have to sell yourself.
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You have to sell your idea and you have to sell yourself. and.
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In this selling of yourself, when I'm sitting and having coffee with a potential,
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business partner, I think a lot of people make this mistake.
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I don't know. Maybe I'm the one
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making the mistake because I'm still struggling to get the range built.
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Maybe I'm all wrong about it. But I feel like that,
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if you feel like you have to be a,
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shinier version of yourself to exude more competence or more success than you
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actually have, I think that's, I don't like that. I think it's the wrong way.
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Of course, again, I'm still struggling, so I may be all wrong.
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But I think the most effective way to sell your ideas is to stay true to yourself, I think.
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And then not only that, but if I'm, especially if I'm trying to get an investor,
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or something, I mean, you have to make the other person, well,
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one, see value in the idea.
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But two, feel valued that they are an integral part of what you're trying to do.
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I think that's the way I could be all wrong. I keep saying it.
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I could be all wrong, but I'm going to quote now. I also, I like the writings
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of Oscar Wilde and yeah, that's a little weird. I know, but Oscar Wilde said, be yourself.
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Everyone else has already taken.
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That's, it's brilliant.
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Yeah, Oscar Wilde was kind of flamboyant, and he could ham it up for sure.
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But he understood that, well, you guys remember Lawrence's 21 irrefutable laws,
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magnetism, the law of magnetism.
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Well, Oscar Wilde understood that the people who were magnetic,
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they were the ones who were being themselves unapologetically,
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not trying to copy what somebody else was doing. Yeah.
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Not trying to copy what someone else is doing.
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So yeah when when you're sitting with him in a meeting or you're just having
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coffee it doesn't have to be or it's a formal meeting whatever man just just be a little more,
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a little more honest not not honest but just share a little bit more or at least
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humanize yourself just a little bit more,
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and i think that lands i think that lands yeah better than the the polished
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up corporate you know, whatever model,
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yeah, I'll go back to it. You know, on an ODA being direct, direct communication.
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I mean, the last thing you want is any ambiguity. You don't want any,
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any question about what you mean when, when you're doing things operations wise,
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or anything else for that matter.
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So direct communication, mission focus, that was the way, that was the way.
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And I come off like an asshole And I know, and there's, you know,
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there may be about, let's see,
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a good hundred plus dudes or more who may tell you I'm an asshole,
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but I can tell you no one will ever say I'm incompetent.
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However, of that 100 plus dudes that tells you, there's probably 8 or 10 dudes in there.
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That loved me and thought that I was doing it right.
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Because I never compromised the way I dealt with people or communicated.
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Now, again, if you ever worked for me, reach out. Hell, tell me I'm wrong.
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Or tell me I was all effed up or tell me I was awesome, whatever, whatever you thought.
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I'd love to hear about what some of the guys that I led in the past,
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I'd love to hear what their thoughts are now.
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In retrospect, you know what I'm saying? But yeah, like I said,
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I came off sometimes like an a-hole, abrupt.
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And in business, in the civilian world, if you come off that way,
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That can look like you're trying to do the hard sell, high-pressure tactics,
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and that probably turns people off, too. I don't know.
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But what I think I learned is that you need to take a little breath,
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give a little breathing room,
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especially in business conversations, even in personal ones,
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but especially in business ones.
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I refer to that as tactical patience. just give a little breath think about it a little bit.
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Don't have to dilute or water down your message of what you're trying to sell
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or what you're trying to say in order to have that breathing room.
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And if it looks like they're pulling
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away and it's not going the way you want, you can bring it back in.
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You don't have to be a hard case about that, but you can bring it back in.
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Hey, well, let me clarify X, Y, Z, you know, and hit those parts you need to hit.
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So again how do we know how much personal detail to share i don't know man you
32:53
got to fill it out it's i think you should share some personal detail open up a little bit you know.
33:02
And then be genuinely curious especially if you're sitting down a job interview,
33:06
one you should probably know a little bit about the company you're trying to
33:09
get a job with or the person you're trying to get on with.
33:14
But also, you know, ask some, well, thoughtful questions, you know,
33:20
about the role you're filling.
33:23
Hey, I'm interviewing for this job,
33:29
without being too, you know, what was the shortcomings?
33:34
Not of the last person, but just in general, right? What are the shortcomings
33:37
or what needs to be done there?
33:41
You know, and then again, I go back to this light self-deprecation.
33:45
All right. Don't, don't, don't sit there and make yourself look like a clown.
33:48
But I think that will build trust faster in a professional setting than you
33:54
just trying to be the, the, the headshot. You know what I'm saying?
34:00
Because especially in business, especially in the market, right,
34:05
out here in the working world, I'll say it again. Will Rogers, he's got another one.
34:10
And he says, everybody is ignorant, only in different subjects.
34:18
Yeah, man, they might need you. You might need them. You're strong here.
34:22
They're weak there. Who knows what?
34:24
Everybody can help somebody else out in some way.
34:28
And I'm going to say this. I look at everyone, and this may sound weird,
34:36
but it's all from where it's coming from.
34:38
I look at everyone as a potential partner, not as a potential asset,
34:44
not CIA, ASOT, all that garbage to be used and discarded.
34:52
I look at everybody as a potential partner to do a thing, whether it's my thing or not.
34:59
Because if I can help you do your thing, well, that's going to help me.
35:05
If nothing else, just feel good about myself and have a person that I can give
35:11
a call when I'm in town. Or if I'm in your part of town and I'm broke down,
35:16
I need a ride. I mean, just any little thing.
35:19
So it doesn't have to be transactional, though. So my point is this,
35:23
I look at everybody as a potential partner.
35:26
And what does that mean to me as a potential friend? Because what's wrong with
35:31
building a network of friends, whether it's strategic or whether it's just,
35:37
hey, man, I see you walking down the street four days a week.
35:41
What do you do? Oh, yeah, I work here. I do this. I do that.
35:44
Awesome. That's it, man.
35:49
Build that trust, right? Everybody's ignorant, only in different subjects.
35:54
If you look at everybody as a potential friend or, and I know that sounds rich coming from me.
36:02
Good people. Don't think I don't see the, well, it's not necessarily irony, but maybe a little.
36:10
I have been a loner, somewhat isolated, violent even in the past.
36:19
But yeah, I think that's the thing, right? I think everybody is a potential partner.
36:26
All right. So I'm going to take a page for my friend Nathan Hicks.
36:33
He does the Everyday Grit podcast, Everyday Grit.
36:39
And he runs a company called Higher Ground USA here in Rome, Georgia.
36:44
And he his podcast episode they're all very thoughtful he's a and he speaks
36:51
in a very calm tone and he's very soothing by the way he has a very calming delivery you know,
37:00
but he likes to make lists i'm not a list maker but he likes to make lists so here are four things,
37:09
because I want to offer people a way to apply, right?
37:13
Practically apply the things we talk about.
37:17
So here are four things. Like Will Rogers, make your default mode curiosity, not performance.
37:26
Make your default mode curiosity.
37:30
I think that'll get the conversation farther than any other way. Number two.
37:38
Share a small personal detail about yourself, not just the LinkedIn, you know, resume.
37:47
Number three, use good manners as your baseline.
37:52
And then sprinkle a little bit of warmth and likable warmth on top of that. Just a little.
37:59
But the manners should be your baseline.
38:02
And most of you listening to this, I know you're already well-mannered.
38:08
And then number four, when in doubt, in a conversation, when in doubt,
38:14
you know, ask better questions.
38:18
Ask more thoughtful questions. Yeah.
38:21
So that's a list of four things that you can do to break through awkwardness,
38:30
and just have real conversation, whether it's a business conversation or a personal conversation.
38:35
Now, again, I'm going to go back to Benjamin Franklin's 1727 version of the Junto.
38:44
You can go out and join a small group of regular guys, friends, whoever, colleagues,
38:51
and gather periodically with the sole purpose of making yourselves and your
38:57
community better through thoughtful conversation.
39:01
Yeah, that's still available to us, folks. It's still there.
39:06
And it's probably still going on in some circles. It don't just have to go on,
39:11
in the depths, in the deep depths of Harvard and Yale with the ring-knocking
39:17
secret societies, right?
39:19
You can just get with some people who are like-minded and get together,
39:25
whether over at the pub, over a beer, or over at the coffee shop.
39:30
And talk about initiatives, man. Talk about business. Talk about how to make things better.
39:37
Yeah. Think about that.
39:41
Ultimately, folks, in closing here, you do not need to be more polished or flawless.
39:52
Because in reality, we all know that no one is flawless.
39:56
You probably would just would benefit from being a little more willing to open
40:04
up a wee bit and be willing to.
40:11
To listen to understand versus listening to respond.
40:18
Listen to understand. Don't listen just to respond.
40:24
So that's what I'm leaving you with. That's what I think. That's a way that we can,
40:31
be in a little more harmonious in our daily interactions at home and at work,
40:37
or out in the wild, wherever you are.
40:41
It integrated the good manners as we need to get that back in our lives as a societal norm.
40:51
And for some of you in some areas it is, but I mean all the way to the most,
40:57
deepest inner city of inner cities, all the way out to the most rural of rural spaces.
41:04
We need the good manners.
41:07
Yeah, so that's what I had today. That's what I had today.
41:12
Consider those things. Consider them and how can you use those things to your
41:17
advantage and to everyone else's advantage for that matter.
41:22
Yeah, that's it. So thanks for listening. So as always, good people,
41:26
please check out OspreyshootingSolutions.com for your shooting needs.
41:32
OspreyshootingSolutions.com backslash consulting.
41:37
That is what I've been working very hard on lately. And I mean,
41:41
for the past probably month or so, I've been really, probably two months,
41:47
I've been really ramping up my security consulting.
41:52
And that includes things like SOP development for your facility,
41:58
threat and vulnerability assessments for your facility.
42:04
Even red team validations where we send people out to challenge your security protocols.
42:16
Active shooter training.
42:19
Let's see. And then what, what I'm really refining right now,
42:26
it has existed and it still exists as the surviving captivity course over two team guys.
42:32
But now I have professionalized that into a curriculum for well,
42:41
world travelers, missionaries specifically,
42:43
but small businesses that are mid-sized businesses that send people over to
42:50
third world countries for whatever reason.
42:53
This is security education and it's called security awareness in foreign environments,
43:02
modules one and two right now.
43:04
And I'm currently working on modules 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and so on as additions, right? Electives.
43:13
So module one and module two, module one can be done standalone and all the
43:19
sub module ones can be done standalone.
43:23
Module two includes module one, but module two is also the captivity practical exercise.
43:33
So and that is really targeted not maybe not necessarily for everyone going
43:39
going on a mission but definitely for the group leaders definitely and even
43:44
the mission you know the leaders,
43:47
they they need to really get a.
43:51
Very real sense of, well, the dangers that are involved. That's it.
43:57
And this is not, none of this is fear-based, right? This is all reality-based.
44:03
And we do case studies and all that. And the base doctrine is derived from U.S.
44:11
Special Operations SEER doctrine, Survival, invasion, resistance, and escape.
44:19
So that's where we derive all this stuff from.
44:23
And we use other governmental resources as well.
44:27
So I want you guys to please consider that, especially if you travel overseas.
44:34
And I said third world countries, but folks, we know Europe is in a sort of
44:40
a, well, sort of a downward spiral right now.
44:45
When it comes to civility and crime, their crime rates have spiked just insane.
44:51
So if you're a traveling salesman, if you're an independent journalist,
44:57
if you are a college student going abroad, and then, of course,
45:02
if you're a missionary, faith-based missionary.
45:06
Or nonprofit, humanitarian-type nonprofit, All these places,
45:12
when you go to these very dangerous countries,
45:17
and it's not so much we worry about the frequency of a bad thing happening,
45:23
it's that we worry about the severity of that bad thing.
45:26
Yeah, if you're looking at Northern Africa, well, all of Africa or the Middle
45:32
East, I mean, you're looking at most likely becoming a propaganda video and being murdered.
45:41
So again, I said, I'm not doing this by fear. And I just instilled fear by saying that it's a reality.
45:48
It's not meant to stir fear. It's a reality.
45:51
So that's what I've been working on hard for the past few months.
45:55
So I encourage you guys to go and check that out.
45:58
OspreyshootingSolutions.com backslash consulting. It's all there.
46:04
And then of course, good people, please, if you can drop a couple of bucks to
46:10
the Help a Homie Fund, and that is givesengo.com backslash helpahomiefund.
46:18
And that helps us help other people. That's what we're here to do.
46:22
It's grassroots. It's voluntary.
46:25
You can give a buck. You can give 500 bucks, whatever.
46:30
Every cent is appreciated because it's voluntary. Every cent is appreciated.
46:36
And you can trust me to be a good steward of your donation.
46:42
And yeah that's what's going on folks I appreciate each and every one of you for listening,
46:48
again our listenership's been growing pretty good and I'm excited about it I
46:53
appreciate each and every one of you that,
46:56
give me the feedback let me know what you think about a topic any given topic
47:01
so please keep up with the feedback and as always please hit me up,
47:06
I'm always open for debate and I'm always open for suggestions,
47:10
for topics or for guests.
47:14
Now, I don't have the pull to bring guests in from all over the world, right?
47:18
But if they're not super famous and they're willing to get on a Zoom call or
47:22
whatnot, I'm happy to do that as well.
47:25
Otherwise, you can come on up to my couch and we can sit and have a conversation.
47:31
That's it, good people. Thanks very much for listening. I appreciate you all.
47:35
And I love you guys. Take care. Bye.