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0:39

Welcome to nobody told me.

0:41

I'm Jan Black, and I'm Laura

0:43

Owens, and we're excited to talk with our guests

0:45

on this episode because his advice just

0:47

might save your life or the life of

0:49

somebody that you

0:50

love. Our guest dispenser course in one

0:52

of the world's top experts in threat management.

0:55

Spencer is a former army ranger

0:57

who has developed and led security plans

0:59

for numerous major celebrities,

1:02

sports stars, and corporate executives

1:04

He's the founder of the Coursen Security

1:06

Group and the author of the new book,

1:08

The Safety Trap, a security

1:10

expert secrets for staying

1:12

safe in a dangerous

1:14

world. Spencer, we thank you so much for joining

1:16

us. Jen and Laura, thank you so much for

1:18

inviting me. A true pleasure to be here. What

1:20

is the safety trap you talk about?

1:23

Sure. The safety trap is a

1:26

phrase I coined a few years ago

1:28

when helping my clients to understand

1:32

the false sense of security, which occurs

1:34

when our fears have abated, but risk

1:36

remains. In other words,

1:38

like why sometimes feeling safe is

1:40

the most dangerous thing we do because

1:42

when our vigilance goes

1:45

down, our risk has a tendency

1:48

to go up. And when that happens,

1:50

that is when we are most susceptible

1:53

to falling into the pitfalls

1:55

of danger. Say

1:57

that we often prepare for

1:59

events that are not very

2:01

likely to happen like mass

2:03

shootings but we under prepare for

2:05

things that may be more likely to happen like

2:08

getting our house broken

2:09

into. Why is it that we do

2:11

that? Because no

2:13

one fears that which they know well.

2:16

We, you know,

2:18

I always have people come out to me and they're like, listen,

2:21

there's this book like about fear your mind where I don't wanna

2:23

live my life and fear. I just wanna, you know, go

2:25

about my day. And I'm like, well, good because you

2:27

shouldn't live your life and fear. But,

2:29

you know, there's nothing wrong with just

2:31

a little bit of a

2:34

of just a all

2:36

most of us really need to succeed in staying safe

2:38

is a healthy sense of skepticism and

2:41

a moderate dose of vigilance. But what we

2:43

cannot afford is for

2:45

you know, this societal return to normalcy

2:47

to also be a return to complacency.

2:50

We have a tendency as a society to

2:53

you know, live on this fringe of the of the

2:55

pendulum swinging back and forth between,

2:57

you know, nothing is going to happen and

3:00

hypervigilance where we're, like, padding down grandma

3:02

at the ballpark. And what we really need

3:04

is a move to the middle. So while

3:06

it's wildly unlikely

3:09

that any of us will ever

3:11

be in a hostage scenario

3:13

or an active shooter event or a school

3:16

shooting or a a kid

3:18

not for random concern. It is

3:20

very likely that we will get

3:22

so complacent on those final seconds

3:24

of our drive home that will hit a parked car.

3:26

Or that we'll stub our toe on

3:29

the lego that we didn't see on the floor or

3:31

that we will, you know, avoid

3:33

a concern which will eventually grow into a

3:35

crisis because our anxiousness didn't

3:37

want us to contend with that problem

3:39

when it was, you know, at its most

3:42

infant stage and most easy to

3:44

manage. And what I really tried

3:46

to accomplish with this book was to

3:49

just show all of those, you

3:51

know, quote unquote, trappings that most

3:53

of us are most likely to fall in so that

3:55

you can see what happened, see how it was allowed

3:57

to happen, and then incorporate the

3:59

five protective strategies that I provide to

4:01

keep that thing from happening to

4:03

you. So give us some more examples

4:05

of why you say we're never more

4:07

in danger than in those moments

4:09

when we feel we're the safest.

4:12

One of the things that my global experience

4:15

has proven to me time

4:17

and time and time again is

4:20

that when we don't expect to see

4:22

danger, we simply fail to

4:24

see the warning signs that something bad

4:26

is about to happen. But the signs

4:28

are always there and staying

4:30

safe is about training ourselves to

4:32

see them. Now sometimes we may see

4:35

them, but we may shirk out responsibility

4:37

or we may see them and we just avoid,

4:40

you know, having to contend with them because we don't

4:42

wanna get involved or what have you.

4:44

But this is also the reason why after

4:47

every incident of, like, we just saw

4:49

this tragic, you know, this,

4:51

you know, this tragedy in San Jose yesterday.

4:54

And already people are coming forward, be

4:56

like, yeah, you know, he was a little emotionally disturbed

4:58

or, you know, he he was saying that about this,

5:00

and he was saying about that. And

5:03

you know, sometimes our

5:06

willingness to help another is the first

5:08

step to saving ourselves. And because

5:10

if we are willing to

5:12

help those who are hurting, we

5:14

can get them the hope that they

5:16

need before

5:19

their actions speak louder than

5:21

their words. During the

5:23

pandemic, we saw a sharp

5:25

decrease in the amount of mass casualty events

5:28

but I heard you say and I thought it was so

5:30

interesting that we can't let our

5:32

guard down in terms of what we think is

5:34

going to happen in the future because the

5:36

solitude that people have had and the

5:38

mental health issues that have come up

5:41

during the pandemic could mean that there

5:43

will be more events like this in the

5:44

future. Can you elaborate a little more on and

5:46

tell us what you foresee happening? Sure.

5:49

Well, we didn't see mass, you

5:51

know, mass incidents of violence because

5:53

there were no places for violence

5:55

to impact the masses. What

5:58

we did see, however, was

6:01

a astronomical rise in child abuse.

6:03

In spousal abuse, in intimate partner

6:05

violence, in domestic violence,

6:08

in substance abuse. And

6:11

As our society begins

6:13

to reopen, we're seeing

6:15

that spillover now into the

6:17

everyday life. Interpersonal dynamics

6:21

are perishable skills. And

6:23

think one of the unintended consequences of

6:25

isolating a society from on another

6:27

during a quarantine is that we

6:31

have kind of forgotten how

6:33

to contend with one another. And the acceptable norms

6:36

for how we were interacting with one another

6:39

in more of an online Zoom

6:41

remote work type of

6:44

environment, you know, those are different

6:47

than than the norms that

6:49

the real world can contend, which means that

6:51

our threshold of tolerance is now going

6:53

to be lower than it has ever been. And

6:55

so you're going to see people who are already

6:57

anxious, who are already, you know, riddled

7:00

with anxiety and some who had serious

7:02

mental health concerns that were either exacerbated

7:04

during the pandemic or just didn't get the treatment

7:06

that they need during the pandemic. Are

7:09

really now starting to spill out into our society.

7:11

And we, all of us, need

7:13

to just accept that we no longer

7:15

can afford to live in world where we simply

7:17

hope nothing is going to happen and then

7:19

solely rely on the first responders to

7:22

save us once something does. And

7:24

this book is to empower you

7:26

to see those warning signs so that you

7:29

can master the protective strategies

7:31

to keep yourself and your loved ones protected.

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9:39

So what would you advise someone

9:42

to do if they know

9:44

of a friend or a coworker or

9:46

a neighbor who they really are

9:49

getting some weird vibes from. They

9:51

really think this person might become

9:53

a mass shooter or or do something

9:55

else that would be very violent

9:57

and and what can we do

10:00

if we know someone like that to prevent

10:01

it? And to add to that also, Why

10:04

is it that you hear about people

10:06

who have done these horrible crimes?

10:08

And you'll hear a few days later, yeah,

10:10

they were reported to the police people said they

10:12

were

10:13

suspicious. And that doesn't seem to

10:15

do anything. One, I always take

10:17

what people say they did with a grain of salt

10:19

because sometimes our morals are at

10:21

the highest when the situation is at its hypothetical.

10:24

And the reality

10:27

is is that most people don't. Most

10:29

people will see something and it was

10:31

assumed that since It's called the

10:33

bystander effect where someone sees something

10:35

and everyone else sees the same thing

10:38

and so everyone else assumes that someone else is

10:40

going to make the report And so then

10:42

they just buy proxy, say, oh, no, I made the

10:44

report because they just assumed

10:46

that it was made. And in reality,

10:48

it wasn't. Or someone,

10:50

you know, like we saw last week,

10:52

there was an attempted child abduction in Florida.

10:55

And the mom and the little child went and told her mom,

10:57

the mom went and told the teach. The teacher went and

10:59

told the principal, and the principal's job was

11:01

then to either tell the superintendent or tell

11:03

the police. But they didn't because that principal

11:06

for whatever reason decided that that threat wasn't

11:08

quote unquote credible. And

11:10

so, you know, two weeks

11:12

later, you know, the mom is is for the

11:14

for the next two weeks, the mom is walking the child,

11:17

to the bus stop to get picked up. And on the

11:19

first day that the mom doesn't walk the child to the

11:21

bus stop, this guy tries to abduct this

11:23

young girl. Now had

11:25

that principle simply done his

11:27

do you know, done his job had just

11:29

sort of taken that, you

11:32

know, First off, what he was supposed

11:34

to do by policy was reported

11:36

to the police. But if he hit just at that

11:38

moment, just you know what? This it's

11:40

The teacher, the kid worried about enough tell

11:42

the teacher, the teacher worried about enough to tell me,

11:45

I'm just gonna just, you know, just

11:47

give the police a heads up. And if they had

11:49

just done that

11:51

and just sort of reached out and

11:53

the police had done their investigation. They probably

11:55

could have prevented this event from happening in

11:58

the first place that could have been produced patrols

12:00

around that area. They could have put in more cameras,

12:02

more safeguards. Awareness plus

12:04

preparation equal safety, and the more

12:06

aware we are of the realistic risk we are most

12:08

likely face, the more effective we can be

12:11

about the safeguards we put in place to keep those

12:13

risks from becoming a reality. So,

12:15

yeah, if you see someone who

12:17

is this it was acting outside

12:20

the realms of normal everyday behavior.

12:22

And you are comfortable talking to that person

12:24

ask them, hey, are you okay? III noticed that

12:27

you're a little on edge or that, you know,

12:29

this this this way you're talking is is and how you normally

12:31

talk. What's going on? Some

12:33

people just don't have the emotional

12:35

intelligence to ask for help. So

12:37

they act out in such a way that

12:40

will encourage others to, you know, it's

12:42

kind of like how the child throws a tantrum because

12:44

he just wants attention. It's not actually he's

12:46

not you know, he doesn't wanna actually hurt

12:48

anything. That's just a byproduct of

12:50

of the emotional well-being. And if you don't

12:53

have that relationship with that person,

12:55

you can absolutely reach out to

12:57

a school guidance counselor or teacher,

12:59

or family, or friends, or resource

13:01

groups, or the police. I mean, a simple

13:03

Google search today will reveal an

13:06

astronomical amount of support

13:08

groups for everything from, you

13:10

know, I had anxiety about blowing my lawn

13:12

to to domestic violence. And so they're

13:15

is no excuse for those who want to

13:17

participate to not do so.

13:19

And I would encourage everyone to

13:22

really start coming together more and more

13:24

as a community so that we can as a

13:26

collective

13:27

work to ensure the certainty of safety for

13:30

everyone involved. On the show, we've talked

13:32

a lot about the warning signals of

13:34

individuals who were concerned

13:36

about in terms of if they are depressed,

13:39

wanna commit suicide or harm themselves, but

13:41

we have not talked a lot about the warning

13:43

signs for somebody who we think

13:45

might want to harm others. What

13:47

do those signs look like? And how

13:50

might they be different than the signs we would be

13:52

looking for if we were concerned someone was gonna

13:54

harm

13:54

themselves? So on

13:56

the halfway to violence, there

13:58

are five very specific steps.

14:01

The first is that there's a grievance, whether

14:04

that be real or

14:06

imagined. They they believe

14:08

the individual believes that they have suffered

14:10

some kind of a wrong. And then they

14:12

have second step, which is ideation that

14:14

they can do something about that grievance.

14:16

They can remedy that grievance through some kind

14:19

of violent action. The third

14:21

step is research and planning. And

14:24

the research and planning phase is when

14:26

most people go outside

14:28

their normal everyday activities.

14:31

That's when you start to see the

14:33

behavioral anomalies start to come into

14:35

play. Maybe all of a sudden they're there's a new

14:38

fascination with weapons or there, you

14:40

know, there's what's called leakage

14:42

where, you know, I may not tell you, I

14:44

wanna kill you, but I may tell someone else

14:46

that I wanna kill you or that you'll be sorry.

14:48

It's one of those things where not everything

14:50

is seen by someone, but or I'm sorry,

14:52

where someone can't be expected to see everything,

14:54

but everything is seen by someone. And

14:57

the more those pieces of the puzzle come

14:59

together, whether that be to a school

15:01

guidance counselor or workplace human

15:04

resource manager, is

15:06

that is really the best time to

15:09

to the lack of a better phrase stage and intervention

15:12

to, you know, ask that person what's going

15:14

on how can they help? Because one of

15:16

the reasons we see, you know,

15:19

the insider threat be

15:22

so astronomically higher than the

15:24

outside concern in both schools and

15:26

workplaces is because that's

15:28

where the grievance is often first validated.

15:31

That's where the ideation that they can do something

15:33

about it is first realized. The research and planning

15:35

can be disguised as part of their everyday behavior

15:37

because they're supposed to be there. There

15:40

it really is no breach because, you

15:42

know, they're again supposed to be there.

15:44

And, you know, sometimes

15:46

that attack isn't realized until you

15:48

hear the gunshot screaming

15:50

out? Can you hear me now? Well,

15:52

a lot of wisdom wrapped up in that I

15:54

know that you suggest that

15:56

people ask themselves what

15:58

they're doing personally to reduce

16:01

the risk of violence to themselves. And

16:03

what would you share with us in that regard?

16:06

Yeah, absolutely. There's there's

16:08

couple of things. One is just to audit yourself

16:10

with honesty. There's

16:13

always a big concern about home security.

16:15

Do I need a gun? Do I need a dog? Do I need

16:17

ring cameras? Do I need ADT?

16:20

Do I need Brink's home security? What do I

16:22

need? And if I walk up to, you

16:24

know, an everyday you know, in the supermarket

16:27

parking lot, walk up to them and say, hey,

16:29

how

16:29

secure is your home? Like, you know, like, oh, yeah. I locked

16:31

my door. Let's it's perfectly secure. I'm

16:33

like, alright. Great. Then five seconds later, I say

16:36

to them. Alright. There's a million

16:38

dollars upstairs in the backpack in the upstairs

16:40

bedroom. It's yours. If in ten minutes,

16:42

you can get up, get out, and and

16:44

have no one be the wiser. Can you do it?

16:47

And they go, yeah, absolutely. So

16:50

what changed in that five seconds? Well,

16:52

what changed from your house being

16:54

totally secure that you can get in and out time

16:56

minutes is your vantage point.

16:58

It's your mindset. It's your outlook. You're no longer

17:01

looking at your house as that of a homeowner.

17:03

Now you're looking at your home as that of a

17:05

bad guy. Because now you're thinking, oh, well, you

17:07

know, the the kids when they come home

17:09

from soccer practice, they don't block the garage. And,

17:12

you know, my wife hates it when I stink up the the

17:14

the guest bathroom. So she always cracks the window

17:16

or, you know, the the second floor deck,

17:20

you know, the the sliding door

17:22

on the deck on the second floor is never locked, but

17:24

all the doors on the first floor are locked. So if I can just, you

17:26

know, jumbled my way up to that, I can get in that

17:28

way. In all of those ways that you would

17:30

break into your house, are

17:32

the same way that a bad guy would break in because

17:35

they are doing their own research and planning

17:37

on how to target you. And

17:39

the truth of them matters that most home invasions

17:42

occur because the front door is unlocked. Some

17:44

guy comes, you know, by your house between,

17:46

you know, ten and

17:48

eleven AM to you know, put

17:50

a Chinese, you know,

17:52

take out menu on your front door, and then they

17:54

come back two to three hours later to see if that front

17:56

door has been open. And then they'll come back to the next

17:59

day. When that menu up in the door again, they're gonna try

18:01

to see if the front door is open. And if it is, guess what?

18:03

You just made yourself a mark. So the

18:05

more we can audit ourselves with honesty

18:08

in the realms of homes, school,

18:10

work, and life. The more

18:12

effect that we can be about putting the safeguards

18:15

in place to to keep that risk from becoming

18:17

a reality, which is why in the back of the

18:19

of this book I included

18:23

four personal threat assessment

18:25

checklists for those four realms because

18:27

those are the four realms in which we are most involved

18:30

home, school, work, life so

18:32

that you can audit yourself with

18:34

honesty, you know, take a realistic

18:37

you know, view of where the

18:39

vulnerabilities in your own life lies so that

18:41

you can identify those areas most

18:43

likely to be exploited by those with nefarious

18:45

intent.

18:46

Know you say that mass shooting

18:49

drills can do more harm than good

18:51

at schools, but at the same time

18:53

it's hard as a parent to not be

18:55

able to prepare your kid for what

18:57

might happen. What

18:59

can we do since we wouldn't be

19:02

with the kids if something like that

19:03

happened? What do we tell them to do? Good thing.

19:06

First off, schools cannot

19:08

keep your kids safe. Flat out.

19:10

And if you are expecting the school to

19:12

be able to keep your child safe, you

19:15

are putting your child at

19:17

a at a disadvantage. Both

19:20

of my parents were teachers. I have family

19:22

and friends who still teach. They are all excellent

19:25

educators. They are not

19:27

professional protectors. And we cannot

19:29

expect them to wear that

19:32

hat, which is one something

19:34

that takes a life time to understand and

19:36

to which they never intended to,

19:38

you know, to participate in.

19:42

So you, as a parent, must

19:44

empower your child to protect themselves.

19:47

Things like active shooter

19:49

drills would be great if

19:52

the threat wasn't coming from inside the building.

19:55

But the reality is, is that

19:57

since so many incidents of workplace violence

19:59

and since so many incidents of school shootings

20:01

are insider threats, not outside

20:03

actors, means that those individuals are

20:05

participating in those very same plans,

20:08

which are meant to thwart their very own efforts.

20:10

Which means that they now have they

20:12

have it's like reading the other team's playbook

20:15

on what they're going to do because now they're just going

20:17

to incorporate that those insights into their

20:19

attack plan which is only going to make

20:21

that violence of action much more effective.

20:24

Same thing with like these run high fight drills.

20:26

Run high fight is a great

20:29

practicum if you are an individual or

20:31

a POW and you are captured overseas

20:33

and you escape the enemy confinement

20:36

and then you run until you can't run anymore

20:38

then you hide to get your breath back and then

20:40

you keep running and then if you're confronted by the

20:42

enemy again, you like your life depends on it

20:44

because it absolutely will. But

20:47

run hide fight is not run to

20:50

your hiding spot. Because, you

20:53

know, just because the bag I can't

20:55

see you doesn't mean he can't hurt you. Like, watch any

20:57

movie. Bullets fly through doors and windows.

21:00

You know, very easily. Most classrooms

21:02

are, you know, this would composite with a,

21:04

you know, a glass frame so that the the

21:06

administrators can look at. Well, guess what? Both travel

21:09

through those doors and windows very, very easily.

21:11

And which is harder to hit, the child who is running

21:13

away and putting time and distance between them and

21:15

the threat with each step they take, or

21:17

the one who is cowering in the corner. Life

21:20

and death is not a game of hide

21:22

and seek. An active shooter

21:24

is just as violent and unpredictable as

21:27

a fire, but we wouldn't hide from a fire

21:29

and hope it wouldn't find us we

21:31

would run. And so, as

21:33

parents, we must empower our

21:35

children to participate in their own protection,

21:38

to put as much time and distance between

21:40

them and the threat as possible. Get

21:42

out the

21:43

window. Get out the door. Run like your

21:45

life depends on it because it absolutely does.

21:48

And so that advice also holds true

21:50

if you were, say, in a shopping

21:52

center or in an outdoor

21:54

concert or some other place where an

21:56

an active shooter might might

21:58

pop up. I'm

21:59

hundred percent. So

22:01

the advice is to run. Put

22:03

as much time and distance between you

22:05

and the threat as possible. It makes

22:08

absolutely no sense to

22:10

try to hide from someone who

22:12

is hunting you. You want to get

22:14

away from them as fast as you can,

22:16

especially when these

22:19

active shooters initiate their

22:21

violence. If you are not the immediately

22:24

the immediate person hit, your life

22:26

expectancy, if you try to put

22:28

as much time and distance between them

22:30

and and yourself as possible, increases

22:32

your survivability by something like ninety eight

22:35

percent. But if you, you

22:37

know, choose to hide and they find

22:39

you, your survivability goes down to about

22:41

zero. We

22:42

know that the police try and contain people

22:44

if there's an active shooter or somebody who

22:46

is putting people in danger and they want everyone

22:48

to come together so that they can try and

22:51

get to the person who is trying to

22:53

harm these people. But what

22:56

should we do to protect

22:58

our own individual safety since you say that we

23:00

really need to just be getting out.

23:02

don't know how easy it would

23:04

be to go against the police and say, hey, I'm not

23:06

gonna stay with this

23:07

group. I'm gonna go and do my own thing. Oh,

23:10

it's very easy. You just run. They're

23:12

they are not worried about you. They're

23:14

worried about the shooter. So if if they

23:17

come in and and first off, if that broke

23:19

out and you'd you know, the police

23:21

response time is probably between, like, you

23:23

know, four and ten minutes. So within

23:26

that four minutes, you should already be long gone before the

23:28

police you didn't get there. So don't worry about the police

23:30

trying to stop you. You may have to worry

23:32

about like a a teacher telling you not to

23:34

not to do it or or some, you know,

23:37

false authority figure that, you know, may be

23:39

in charge of academia, but it's not in

23:41

charge of your survivability, telling you what to do, and

23:43

at which point you just need to be more

23:45

disagreeable. Because I'll tell

23:47

you right now, if if

23:49

push comes to shove and moments matter

23:52

most, and my life is on the line.

23:54

You better get out of my way because I'm

23:56

gonna run right past you. And if you try to stop

23:58

me, I'm gonna still run right past

24:00

you. But you're exactly

24:02

right. Police the the responsibility

24:05

of the police is is public safety,

24:07

not personal safety. So what the

24:09

police want to do is contain the threat

24:11

because what they don't want is for that

24:13

active shooter to bleed out into

24:16

the environment. They want to

24:18

keep everything contained. They want to,

24:20

you know, their mission is to protect the

24:22

public safety and the best way for them to do that.

24:25

Is through, you know, these, like,

24:27

quote unquote, shelter in place things.

24:29

But shelter in place was meant for

24:32

you know, if if what is outside

24:34

is dangerous for hurricanes and tornadoes and

24:36

falling trees and electrical storms, you want

24:38

to be inside. But it's like,

24:40

just as we look at, like, horror movies where

24:43

there's, like, you know, the co ed in the kitchen when the

24:45

bad guy breaks in and she's, like, five feet from

24:47

the back door, instead of running out the back

24:49

door, she runs up the stairs and all of us are thinking

24:51

like, what are we doing? Why are we then allowing

24:53

these administrators to tell us to do that exact

24:55

thing? Like, running upstairs to hide

24:57

under your mother's bed is not going to save

24:59

you. But running out the backdoor to

25:01

the, you know, to the nearest safe haven absolutely

25:04

is. You encourage people

25:06

to have a safety plan for when

25:08

they're at home alone.

25:11

What should that involve? So

25:13

the five d's of home

25:15

security are deterrence and

25:18

then it's detect and then

25:20

it's deny. I and then it's

25:22

delay and then it's defend. So,

25:25

deterrence is just basically you're gonna promote

25:27

a protective posture. If I look at your house

25:29

and I look at the house next to you, And,

25:31

really, I'm just, you know,

25:33

someone who is I'm either trying to just

25:35

get some some quick stuff. To,

25:38

you know, sell for drugs or to, you know, sell

25:40

to offense or to to get some quick cash. Bad

25:43

guys are are, you know, the number one factor

25:45

of targeted selection regardless of circumstance

25:47

or scenario is likelihood of success. So

25:49

if your house is

25:51

dark and it doesn't have a lot of light and the

25:53

males piling up and it doesn't look like anyone's

25:55

been there and the three Chinese menus that I've

25:58

left in the door the past cup you know, the past week

26:00

are still in the door, they're pretty much telling me

26:02

that no one's home and no one cares and I'm gonna have

26:04

a much easier time breaking into your home. Than

26:06

the house that's next door that has the cameras and

26:08

the lights and the door of dog sign with a, you know,

26:10

nicely manicure lawn and blah blah blah.

26:12

So that's the deterrence factor. Then

26:14

you have detect, much like what what just

26:16

happened with you, moments ago, hey, there's someone at the

26:18

front door. You wanna give yourself as much time

26:21

and information as possible so that you

26:23

can make the best decision. Is that the mailman?

26:26

Or is that someone who's probing your defenses?

26:28

But if you don't know what what is going

26:30

on, who's doing what around you,

26:32

when they're doing it, how they're doing it, where

26:34

they're doing it, then you're kind of at a disadvantage.

26:38

The second thing is to deny entry. Again,

26:40

just lock your front door. If you just lock

26:42

your front door, you are decreasing your

26:44

likelihood of being targeted by like eighty five

26:46

percent. But so many people

26:49

don't lock their front door that it's absolutely

26:51

staggering. And then deny if

26:53

they do, if your door, you know, if they

26:55

do bypass the first left, do you have like

26:57

a deadbolt? Or do you also have like a chain

26:59

on your door? Something that will slow them down

27:01

just a little bit more to,

27:04

you know, help you succeed in staying safe?

27:06

And then the fifth step is defend.

27:09

And whether that be, you know,

27:11

you're you're barricading yourself or you're

27:13

you're getting out of the house you basically

27:15

need to know what's gonna work best for you. If

27:17

you're, like, on a on a, you know,

27:19

on an apartment building in a high rise, getting

27:21

out the window is not likely. But,

27:24

you know, having some kind of entry

27:26

resistant or on the bathroom or on the walk

27:28

in closet or something that can

27:30

buy you those moments you need for the police

27:33

to arrive to support you. Is everything

27:35

you need you know, to

27:37

to succeed in staying safe. But

27:39

what you cannot do is just simply

27:41

assume that you know,

27:43

everything is going to work as you expect

27:45

it to work because it will only work if you

27:48

inspect what you would

27:48

expect. We always ask our guests,

27:50

what is your nobody told me lesson?

27:53

So what is it that nobody told

27:55

you about being safe for identifying

27:58

threats that you wish that they had

28:00

at the beginning of your career.

28:02

The role that physical fitness plays in staying

28:04

safe. Interesting.

28:07

I I thought that, you know, I

28:09

was a high school athlete. I was a

28:11

college athlete. And I considered

28:13

myself to be in pretty good shape. And

28:15

then when my first day

28:17

of of basic training, when they put

28:20

us, like, basically through this drill and they had us, like,

28:22

do all of these more workouts and you know,

28:24

all of us are are just about, you know,

28:26

we're smoked. We're we're we're sweat drenched

28:28

and and tired. And then and they

28:30

basically say, okay. Now the now

28:32

the battle starts. And it was

28:34

really just about realizing that, oh,

28:37

like, you'd you're not in good enough

28:39

shape. Like, you need to and some of that is just

28:41

mindset. It's, oh, you think that the

28:43

fight is over, but the fight hasn't even

28:45

started yet. And so the more

28:47

that you can maintain

28:51

your own level of physical fitness,

28:53

the more effective you will be, not

28:55

just in terms of your

28:58

mental preparedness, but your physical preparedness

29:01

as well. And here's the other thing.

29:04

When moments matter most, you don't want to

29:06

be the person who's wishing they had done

29:09

their workouts. You want to be the one who

29:11

is forever grateful that they did. And

29:14

not only will that help you physically,

29:16

but it will help you mentally as

29:18

well because, you know, our bodies are

29:20

basically like a battery that requires

29:23

so much energy to be expended

29:25

every day. And if that energy is not, you

29:28

know, expended during a workout or

29:30

or through some other kind of like, you know, vigorous activity,

29:33

Well, that excess energy only has

29:35

one place to go, and it almost always

29:37

goes to our anxiety. So physical

29:41

the role that physical fitness plays

29:43

not just in a in a healthy life,

29:45

but in a in a mindset, but also

29:48

it is a key factor. Of

29:50

your survivability in a in a in a

29:52

in any kind of of concern whether that

29:54

be and I like, what happened

29:57

at the you

29:59

know, that that concert in Las Vegas where

30:01

you're in the middle of field and you just have to

30:03

run, like, when was the last time, like, you had to do, like,

30:05

a fifty yard sprint? Because you

30:07

may not be you may not have to sit

30:09

your life will not be saved by doing forty minutes

30:11

on the elliptical or doing a thirty

30:14

minute you know, Peloton

30:16

class. But it will absolutely be saved by

30:18

being able to sprint down the hallway and then

30:20

and then down a flight of steps. But

30:22

if you have never done that before, there's

30:25

a section in my book where, you know, this

30:27

this this one woman or this this one

30:29

this yeah. This one woman. You

30:32

know, had plan in place of how she was going

30:34

to to get out. But then

30:36

when it actually mattered the most, she

30:38

was too afraid to run because she was like,

30:40

when was the last time I had to run a hundred feet?

30:42

Like, she was probably since high school and she

30:44

was in her early forties. So

30:47

physical fitness. Anything

30:49

you can do to improve just even

30:52

if it's one flight of steps a day, that's

30:54

better than no flight of steps because just

30:56

every day baby steps to greatness,

30:59

start small, build strong, participate

31:01

in your own protection, and do whatever

31:03

you can do to help yourself succeed and staying

31:06

safe. Spencer, how can people

31:08

connect with you on social media

31:10

and the Internet and find out more about the book?

31:12

Absolutely. So the books the website for the book

31:15

is the safety trap dot com. That's the

31:17

safety trap dot com, which has all of

31:19

my social media links. And

31:21

it also has links to my podcast and

31:24

blog reviews and videos that are

31:27

all about, you know, helping

31:29

you to succeed and staying safe and I structure the podcast

31:31

and the blogs much like I I structure the book.

31:33

Hey, here's what happened. Here's how it was allowed to

31:35

happen. Here you you here's how you can keep it from

31:37

happening to you. I'm on Instagram

31:39

at es dot in Twitter at Spencer

31:42

LinkedIn at Spencer Coursen. And

31:45

then the business is in security group

31:47

dot com, where we specialize in

31:49

threat management protective intelligence vulnerability

31:52

reduction, our job is to help good

31:54

people make bad things better.

31:56

And I think you've done that with this

31:58

conversation

31:58

with us. And you've got some great resources online

32:00

like you mentioned, really, really interesting

32:03

stuff. I

32:04

appreciate it. Thank thank you so much for having me on.

32:06

I I really appreciate all your support.

32:08

Well, we really appreciate you coming on the the

32:10

show with us, and we hope you will come back again.

32:12

I

32:12

look forward to it. Thank

32:13

you. Our thanks again to Spencer Courson

32:16

who's new book is called The Safety

32:18

Trap, a security expert secrets

32:21

for staying safe in a dangerous world.

32:23

And again, the website for that book is

32:25

the safety trap dot com. I'm

32:28

Jan Black, and I'm Laura Owens. You're

32:30

listening to, nobody told me, thank you

32:32

so much for joining us.

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