I'm Travis Bader and this is The
Silvercore Podcast.
Join me as I discuss matters related to
hunting, fishing, and outdoor pursuits with the
people in businesses that comprise the community.
If you're a new to Silvercore, be sure to
check out our website, www.Silvercore.ca where
you can learn more about courses, services, and
products that we offer as well as how you can
join The Silvercore Club, which includes 10 million
in north America wide liability insurance, to
ensure you are properly covered during your
outdoor adventures
Today I'm joined by a recently retired
corporate spy and special forces commando who
was currently training for a shot at the UFC.
And he runs a company, SixSight.co where he
provides situational awareness training for
the everyday person.
Welcome to The Silvercore Podcast, Sonny Smith.
Thanks very much pleasure to be on here.
So we've got a heck of a lot of accolades
behind your name.
And, uh, I was able to meet you through a mutual
friend, Paul, who at some point in the future
will hopefully be on The Silvercore Podcast.
Cause he's got some stories to share as
well, but, uh, Paul speaks extremely highly
of you and he has some, uh, interesting
backstories that, uh, that he brought up.
Not all of which I'm sure we can share on here,
but I, what drew me to you was originally your,
your TikTok account.
So you've got a, uh, a TikTok account where
you've been doling out some awesome information
on situational awareness, free of charge for
the general public.
I was going to say, what got you into
that, but why don't we back up a little bit.
Because if we back up to, uh, when you were a
bit younger, what made you want to join the
military and how you went down that route?
And, uh, what, why don't I let you take it away
from there before I just keep yapping here.
Okay.
Yeah.
So I am on TikTok and on Instagram.
So I do like to give out a lot of free information
and a lot of it is come from my backgrounds
and I have a unique, unique perspective
because I have crossed different disciplines.
When normally someone is, becomes a bodyguard,
that's their job.
I started, I was in there military, and then I
became a corporate spy.
I ended up in the military doing special
forces selection and, and being embedded in
the special forces.
Uh, I became a corporate spy and then I worked
as a bodyguard as well.
And prior to that, I've always had a,
a, an interest in fighting and violence,
has been my bread and bar as a person.
Um, when I grew up, it was quite a violent
environment uh, going out when I started going out
to bars and clubs, but even in my high school
and younger days, some very old friends of me,
their first memories of me is me fighting
on the playground and stuff, which is
an unusual thing.
And I'm not very proud to say it.
I wasn't, I was never committing crimes or
anything as a youngster, but obviously violence
and fighting is a crime, but I was kind
of fighting with other combatants that were
agreeing in, I was never running and hitting
random people and stuff.
Right, right.
But it did, it was a never ending
cycle of violence.
It was like football hooliganism without the
football, to be honest and other towns used
to come and challenge us and we would fight.
And then there was challenges in
nightclubs and bars.
Had arranged fights where people would
come and then I end up meeting in a parking
lot and having a scrap.
Was there money on those?
Uh, no money actually.
I did end up fighting for money in a different
scenario, uh, in an unlicensed boxing
competition in a cage, in a greek island.
But that's another story.
That sounds interesting.
We could come back to that.
Yeah.
Um, but I've always had this like violent um,
piece of out me and I've always been interested
in fighting and it wasn't till I was 16 that I
actually started boxing.
So I started amateur boxing, actually got
a bit of discipline.
I learned a lot about life in that gym and
it was quite hard like traditional boxing
gym, where there's no decorations, it
was underground, it was murky and gritty.
And I learned a lot about being a man
and growing up and discipline myself there.
Um, before that I was just a wild
man, to be honest.
Why?
Just.
Um.
In your nature or just?
It's probably, we've got, I'd probably
have to delve deeper into my childhood.
Right.
Fair enough.
Um, but uh, just have always had that in me,
but I've always had the ability to stay forward
when others have froze or thought, oh, I don't
like this situation I've stepped forward and
I've always carried the fight in flag for any
group I've been attached to, any friend group.
And later in my life, when I was like 20,
19, I'd be out in nightclubs and friends
from high school would come up to me, say
all of these guys, my ex girlfriends like
friends are over there.
They're, they're looking at me, they're going
to start and I'll be like, who are they?
Where are they?
And they'd be like, oh, they're over there.
Right.
Let's go.
And they'd be like, oh, whoa, no, we just
want to hang around with you just to make
sure that we're not going to get beaten up.
I'm the person that's out Rocky with me.
Let's go.
Um.
Right.
Um, I've always, always had that in me.
And I'm not that person right now.
I'm different, I'm a family man.
Um, but a lot of my knowledge of violence and
fighting comes from my experiences of growing
up in that background.
I can relate to a lot of that.
And so the boxing that you got into was that by
your choice, or was that something that you were
sort of ushered into?
Uh, boxing I've always had a passion for,
and I really wanted to do it, but my parents
wouldn't let me do it.
Like maybe my mom wouldn't let me go until
I was 16 and I was able to get, I had to get two
buses to get to the gym.
We have quite a famous gym in my hometown, and
there was an ex, um, a world champion boxer
who was running it.
So I got two buses to get there, like three
or four times a week.
And then I started training and it
was a real like, mentality that I've
ta-, that was my first experience of hardship.
And when you walked in the gym and there wasn't
someone to greet you, you had to earn your
right to be in that gym.
You started on the fringes.
No one came and said, oh, come in, come
in and do some pads.
You didn't get any training until you'd
shown your face for a long time.
And then you gradually worked up the ladder
until you was in the ring sparring.
And the sparring we did was hard sparring even
though I was a young guy, that's the hardest,
I was training MMA now and that was the hardest
spine I've ever done.
Really?
Yeah.
And, but that was a good experience and it
showed me that, like I'm glad I did that
because I learned how to take a punch and
what the, what it was like to take a punch.
Um, and even though I'd had lots of street
fights and I fought, I was a hard individual,
uh, later down the line, I knew what hard really
meant, but it wasn't that fighting when you're
a bit drunk and stuff.
But it was, it wasn't till I got to the
military that I actually realized what
a hard man really was.
And I always had this thing inside me.
I always thought to myself, I want to be seen
as a hard man amongst hard men that has been
my driving force for everything I've done.
However silly that may sound to
some people, but.
I don't, I don't think that's silly at all.
Honestly.
I mean, I guess it all comes down to your
definition of what a hard person is and
that's an ever evolving thing, obviously.
Yeah.
Um, so if you were, had a natural proclivity
towards violence as a youngster, do you.
It's not like a light switch, just
switched at one point.
And you said, okay, now I have containment.
Um, what, uh, how did, was it the military
that kind of helped form that and create that
level of containment?
Cause I don't think you ever outgrow that,
that feeling as a, as a kid or whatever it
is that you naturally have the whole nurture
and nature argument, but whatever it is that
you kind of naturally have as a, as a child,
I think you just get better at containing and
managing, uh, managing it as you get older.
Is that, uh, I find myself anyways.
Is that what you find in yourself?
Yeah, I would agree.
Yeah.
And joining the military when I became a Royal
Marine Commando, that was a savior in my
life to be honest.
I had friends that did go down the wrong route.
And one of my friends did a lot of prison
time for a fighting related offense.
We were not criminals, but we always had
scraps and stuff.
But once I joined the Royal Marine Commandos,
that aggression and determination that I
had was actually seen as a positive thing
and it was channeled and everyone around me.
Uh, I became quite a good leader in
that setting because my attributes were
actually a good thing.
Uh, as you can imagine, the job of a commando
is to close down on the enemy and kill the enemy
at the end of the day.
Right.
Um, and that is the be-all and end-all
of the job, although there's other aspects.
So my, my agression was channeled and I did
very well in my training and it shaped me as an
individual and I'm very proud of my roots and
I'm very happy that I went down that path.
I don't think I'll be the same person who I am
today if I hadn't become a Royal Marine Commando.
When did you join?
Uh, I joined when it was, I passed
training in 2012.
Okay.
Yeah.
And, uh, that was just when the last Royal
Marine units were going to Afghanistan.
So I didn't get my chance to do the job for
real, um, out in those deployments, which,
um, anyone that did do those deployments I hold
a much higher regard higher than myself.
Way above.
Because they've done the job for real.
Well, Royal Marines have got a pretty high
reputation in the UK and around the world,
but you decided to, uh, push forward and
do selection as well.
Yes I did.
Yeah.
When I joined the Royal Marines, I ended up
doing a few, uh, they're called operations,
but they, after the wave of the Afghans
who weren't getting rounds down on target
and stuff like that, which are to be honest,
that's why I joined, you know what I mean.
Sure.
You don't jointhe Royal Marines in wartime just
to float around on boats.
Totally.
Um, so I did a few things.
Uh, I made the rank of corporal, and
our ranking systems different to Canada.
So corporal is in charge of like a section
of seven men, eight, including yourself,
and so I had to do a training course for that.
And on that training course was junior
command course.
There was to operate, is on there from the
British special forces.
And I was embedded with them.
I was working with them as doing
reconnaissance missions with them and lots of
different training.
And I became friends with them.
And at the end of the course, position one
and two went to them and position three, went to.
And then they took me aside at the end of that
course, and they said, Sonny, what's going on?
When you coming down, uh, to join our outfit?
And that opened my eyes to what was possible
for me, because I'd always seen, first
of all, I'd always seen the Royal Marine
Commandos when I was in recruiting training
as this high up godly figures, which they are.
Sure.
Yes.
But, it is achievable.
If you do put your mind to it.
And I, I decided that's what I wanted to do.
And I achieved that.
And then when these two guys who are held in
very high regard, took me aside and said, I
think, we think you've got what it takes.
And I saw that they were professional.
They're very good.
I'm not saying that they weren't good.
They were extremely professional, but
they also had a laugh and a joke just
like everyone else.
But when the time was on, when they were switched
on and they were ready to go and they did their
job exceptionally well.
And for them to say, we want you down
here, give it a go.
That changed my perspective and I've
changed my sights onto that target.
And that's when I started to pursue that.
And in preparation for that, actually did the
Royal Marine, uh, boxing championships andI won.
Uh, it was light heavyweight, I'm a
bit lighter than I was now than I am now.
I was up at one, the Royal Marine champ
boxing championships.
And I did a lot of cardio training for that.
So I used that as momentum to start
building on working towards selection to
go for special forces and it ended up being
successful in that.
Can you talk at all about the selection process?
I know everyone gets jazzed about the
selection process, but that's just like step one
and then everything else happens afterwards, but.
Yeah.
I can talk about some things.
Okay.
Some things I won't talk about.
Of course.
But yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
What, uh, so summer or winter?
I did the summer selection, which I
was very happy about.
And, uh, so what did that consist of?
Uh, so first of all, there's there's pre
selection courses that you have to pass to
even be allowed to get onto the selection.
Some of those are extremely arduous in
themselves, so I passed those and then I ended up
moving everything towards going for selection.
And then you do a beat up and then you did the
hills phase of selection.
And that is in the Brecon beacons and it's
mountainous terrain and you're carrying
heavy loads over long distances, uh, every
day, um, for a period of time and the weights
and distances change.
And a lot of the time you don't actually
know the distance of that day and you just
get to a checkpoint, you get the next
checkpoint, you get to that checkpoint and you
don't know when you're going to finish those.
There's a lot of mind games involved
in selection.
Um.
So obviously very physically arduous, a
very difficult process, uh, but on the mental
side, that seems to be where people are you
make or break them.
Excuse me.
It seems to be where people are made or
break broken on the selection process.
Uh, how did you prepare yourself
mentally for this?
I have had a few techniques in my own head
that I developed before even research personal
development, sort of self-improvement books.
And there's a lot of stuff that I don't want
to blow my own trumpet that David Goggins says.
Okay.
That I was actually like, Oh yeah.
Well, I called it this in my own head, like
isolation and obviously visit, um, uh, what
was it called again?
Visualization.
There you go.
Yeah.
I'd always had this visualization routine.
When I was trying to become a Royal Marine
Commando in the morning.
I'd always visualize getting a green
baret and, and stuff.
And every time I was doing PT, I'm running on
a treadmill or anything.
I'd always be daydream.
I've had always been, I had a good imagination.
I've been able to imagine myself doing things.
And I think that's quite an important part.
But in preparation for selection, it
was obviously very physical, but it's also
a different type of physical to what most
people would believe.
Cause you're carrying heavy loads over
long distances.
Um, so there's only really one way to train
for that is to carry heavy loads distances.
Right.
But to anyone that's looking to go on
selection or any other military sort of course,
it's audrious like that.
It was a look at the course and what is,
um, required of your mind is using my legs
to climb mountains with heavy weight.
So I was doing a lot of single leg work and
building my legs and my core and everything.
So I looked at the, the actual course
and I looked at what I needed in my body.
So I did look at it quite, um, and
nail it down to what was specific.
Very analytical approach to doing it.
Yeah.
And there's still no getting around
the actual pain.
Well, dealing with the pain is a
whole other thing.
And that's, that really is, I guess it's going
to be a part of it is going to be your
physical conditioning.
Cause it's going to reduce the amount of
pain that you might have, but that really
is a mental process.
Um, you know, most people don't even experience a
fraction of the physical and mental pain that
you have elected to, to go through, yourself.
Yeah.
Um, what advice would you give to somebody
who's looking at doing something?
Whether it's, whether it'd be a lofty goal,
like selection, which is both physically and
mentally difficult, or I just something
in their own personal life that they're
finding is a difficult task at the moment.
In order to get through it with, do
you have any advice for somebody like that?
If you're going to come across a hurdle that
you, you personally want to achieve, then
you have to physically decide in your head that
I am going to do this.
Not, oh, I want to do this.
The decision has to be made before you
step into that lane.
Um, if you don't decide, this is what
I'm going to do, you're never going to get it.
Uh, that's the first thing.
And also to look at it and analyze it,
what you need from it.
And you can't shy away from the pain.
You can't just start on the day of the race, the
preparation has to start way, way beforehand.
And it doesn't have to, you don't have to go
hard, straight away.
It's incremental and you just have to
build up over time towards that goal.
And then on the day of the race, a lot
of the stress around it, and now I think
back is actually the anticipation of the pain.
Totally.
Thinking about it happening and, but
when you're in there, you're either going
to quit or you're not.
And I have the mentality, I'm not going to quit.
Like I'll drop before I do.
And yeah, it's painful, but it does end.
And then the glory comes at the end of it.
It's like uh, our first child.
My wife's having.
Yeah.
I think it was like 27 hours of labor.
Wow.
And I, I don't know.
She said it helped her.
I know some people are like Travis, how
could you say this?
I said, I told my wife, look, this is
one day out of your life, it will be over,
the pain will be over.
And how will you want to look back
on this later right?
And man she was a trooper, but other
people told me is like, how the hell can
you say that Travis?
It was the right information at the
right time for the right kind of person.
Yeah.
And that's a different kind of pain, which
I'm very happy we don't experience.
Yes.
I do admire every woman that does that.
Yes.
Yeah.
Well, when, uh, when I was talking to Paul,
you know, see if I can kind of paraphrase
here a little bit.
And he says he, uh, uh, attributes your overall
success as a human being to live, to not
living an easy life, but you've taken what
you've been provided.
You've set very high goals and you've
achieved them.
Uh, Paul says you live life by your
own rules and you do so with humility.
So I don't know if he knew I was going to
quote him on that one.
That's uh, um, by your own set of rules.
What, what would those rules be?
Uh, I kind of, I don't tend to
follow the crowds.
I tend to just make decisions based on my own
opinions and the like to research things in depth
and look at things from different perspectives.
Yeah, I'm very grateful for him to saying that,
I've got a lot of good things to say about
him, hopefully he'll.
Yes.
Say 'em himself on here um.
Well, not living an easy life and I know you
and I talked a little bit about difficulties
off air here, and we don't have to get into
all of those, but, uh, do, now, now you're
in a position where you're able to share
from your experiences what's worked and what
hasn't, how you've grown as an individual from
somebody who was just getting out and fights
all the time to being a professional soldier.
And now you're operating the company SixSight.co.
Yeah.
Before we jump into we're like what
SixSight is all about?
Did you've got one heck of an Instagram
and TikTok feed.
You come across really, really well
in your production.
It's really well polished.
You've given some fantastic information
and anyone who's listening, listening
that wants to find that it's SixSight.co on both
Instagram and TikTok, but, um, do you find
it easy to be getting in front of the camera?
Do you find it easy?
Cause I'm looking at your background here as
a corporate spy and in the military and special
forces and, uh, you kinda have to be the gray man,
and you're not really the gray man when you're
out there on technology.
Right.
It's a very hard thing for me to do.
I'm normally on the gray man.
I've always been that person that stands
back and observes from the shadows.
I don't like to be the front man.
Um, but it's come to the point where the,
the times have changed and my, my message
is different to what a lot of people were
teaching out there.
And in the self-defense realm, there's a lot
of misinformation and a lot of stuff that
can get people hurt.
It gives people a false sense of security
of what they're actually capable of.
My whole philosophy is based around detecting
threats and avoiding them in the first place and
having plans that don't involve using violence.
Um, because I believe that you can't really
teach a person how to fight effectively by
watching an online video or even a few classes.
And even if you do boxing for many years, if you're
not in the ring sparring, even if you are sparring,
that's not a real fight.
There's no adrenaline, there's no real pain
or disorientation when you get hit and yeah,
you'll do better than someone that hasn't.
But if you're going up a true fire and I call
people, some people true fighters to be avoided
at all times, and a lot of real criminals out
there, they've grown up on with a bad life.
They've grown up in and out of prison.
If they're threatened in violence to Rob you,
then they're probably going to use violence.
And they've probably been accustomed
to using violence.
Yeah, it's good to have some moves and
some things in your back pocket, but let's
do everything in our power not to get there
in the first place.
And that's what I'm teaching at Fremont
channels and doing everything for free has
actually been quite, it's been very welcomed by all
my followers and I've got a very great following.
The comment is speak to mepersonally.
And I have a lot of people message me and
tell me stories of when they used the
tactics that I've taught them to get out of
some bad situations.
And that's just amazing.
That's the.
That's pretty cool.
Whole reason.
Yeah.
That's the whole reason why I've got this online
course, which is called Women's Self-Defence
Without Fighting and it's obviously
tailored for women.
Um, but it, the techniques and training
in there, a lot of it hasn't been taught
before because it's coming from, I'm bringing
in training from my time in the military.
I'm bringing in personal experiences of being
a violent offender and have environments
inflicted on me.
And I'm bringing in training and drills
from body guards, close protection
operators, which is the job that I do now.
And also surveillance, which is corporate
espionage and tradecraft drills for people that
maybe being followed on the way home from
the train station.
A lot of us have probably had that or suspected
it happened and at some point in their lives.
So I want to give people some actual drills or
some training to know what to do in these
situations, without the usual, kick him in
the nuts and run away.
Or scream, no!
You know, which some people can do, but
I'm also want to cater to people that don't
have this fight in heart ability in them.
And there's a lot of people out there
that have met openly that they do not want
to fight, they're not going to fight.
And that's what I've experienced.
I've spoken to a lot of people in my family
and around a lot of people are just not
that way inclined.
And I want to give those people options as well.
And even if you are going to fight and you,
you're not going to take a step back, it's
always better to do it on your terms, in a
scenario where you've got as much information
about that other individual as possible.
And the most important information you need is
whether that person's got a weapon or is
willing to use a weapon.
I think that's a good assessment that
most people, they don't want to fight.
I mean, most law abiding individuals
are law abiding because they don't
have a background in criminality or fighting
or whatever it might be.
And was it a Colonel David Grossman?
He wrote a couple books on combat and on killing.
And one of his books, he says, you know,
people will fight, it'll, they'll flight,
right, they'll take off,
they'll posture, or they'll submit.
And he was referencing like soldiers
going out and just, you know, firing
rounds, willy nilly.
And they're, they're a part of the part of the
process, but they're not actually one of
the true fighters.
Who's, who's taking the time to aim those
rounds and put them where they count and, um,
interesting perspective.
But I do think that, uh, the majority of the
people out there uh, will posture and then submit
if presented in a, in a violent confrontation,
uh, knowing how to flee, I think is a very
important aspect to it.
When to flee, how to flee.
Who cares if you're going to be thought of
afterwards, what you're worried about right now
is your, your own life and the life of those
around you and your personal protection.
You know, I've, I been, I've got a background
in martial arts.
I used to get in a fair few fights growing up
and who was, I think it was five different high
schools that I ended up going through, not
by choice, but, uh, uh, just due to the process
of growing up in a, uh, adverse environment.
And, uh, from that background, people have
asked me in the past it, can you put together a
self-defense course or a women's self-defense
course and I've always, always, always been of
a very similar mindset.
My mindset is if there's somebody who's bigger
than you, it doesn't matter what fancy moves
you know, your odds of winning that fight have
greatly diminished.
Uh, if there's multiple people and
you're in a fight with them, your odds of
winning that fight are greatly diminished.
Uh, if you're putting together a self-defense
course for children or for women, or for
people who aren't the big burly people going
down the streets, I think your time and
efforts are way better served teaching them
situational awareness.
Teaching them how to avoid the confrontation
before it even happens, or how to escape a
situation as opposed to spending a day
doing w uh, breaking out of wristlocks and
kneeing in the crotch.
Um, is, would you agree with that?
Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
That's pretty much my whole, um, approach
to the, to the self defense industry.
And there is, obviously everyone should take some
time out of their lives to train in self-defense
in some sort of martial art or fighting art.
And that's very beneficial for
everyone to have in their back pocket.
But the reality of it is most people were
not going to do that.
A lot of people are not going to do that.
So what, what can the other people do?
And situation awareness is a very valuable
skill that I've used in my career because when
I've worked as a close protection operator or
bodyguard, uh, all over Europe and in London
is where I started.
We don't have firearms in London
and we're tasked with protecting rich people.
Sometimes there's, there's active threats
and we can't draw a pistol and get rounds
down on target.
Uh, and we're not even allowed to
carry knives or any other sort of weapon.
Knives in London is a big deal.
We have a lot of knife crime back
when I was living there, I was studying
criminology in London.
Knife crime was the big PA epidemic.
And just carrying a knife in your pocket
in London was serving a mandatory prison sentence
at the time that I was at university, then.
Really?
Yes, and it's taken me a while to get out
of that mindset since I've been to Canada,
all the security operators here carry a
knife on their pocket.
And I'm like, I was very sketchy to ever
to do that for a while.
Right.
Well, because I don't want to
get, go to prison.
No.
But it's, it's different in different countries.
But my nearly my whole career as a bodyguard,
I've never had a firearm to protect
my principal, my VIP.
So what do these professionals use
in these scenarios?
And a lot of it is situation awareness.
And a lot of the training I'm given is
the overarching term is situation awareness.
But under that term, I've injected
a lot of different training principles
that I've learned.
Which I'm just, because I also think a lot
of the traditional situational awareness
training is very like acronym heavy and
militarized, um, that you lose people's interest.
So I'm trying to water it down to the relevant
stuff that techniques that people can use
when they're walking from their gym to their
car, in vulnerable times of their week.
Or when they spot a dodgy guy on the train
platform um, up ahead of them on any Tuesday
night, because for me and my family, these are the
threats that are actually affecting us every day.
And I used to live downtown and there is a
lot of craziness going on on the streets and
a lot of people want to turn a blind eye.
Um, and obviously we got a lot of mental health
issues and we got a lot of drug addiction, but
with those things comes a lot of crime and a lot of
outbursts, and I've had personal experiences in
the city that I live in.
Of people clearly with mental health issues
and that I feel sorry for these people,
but they're, some of them can be a danger.
And I saw one particular incident in 2:00
PM on a Sunday in downtown Vancouver
where I was living.
I was walking to my apartment and there
was a guy about a hundred meters up
the street, waving a knife around, just
shouting into thin air.
And he was clearly a street person, wearing
street attire, um, mental health issues,
drug abuse, clearly.
That's neither here or there, there's a man on
the street with a knife waving around and I saw
it was a few seconds of me stopped, saw it
looking ahead as you do, which is a technique that
I could get into later.
A lot of people just stare at the ground
when they're walking.
And I saw this man and I saw other people with
headphones on walking towards this man.
So I ended up.
Geez.
Getting my phone, I was about to call the
police and all of a sudden the police arrived
and they tased him.
They take him down.
But how long has that guy been wandering the
streets with a knife, waving it around and
people were oblivious to the situation cause
they're walking around their own little world
and they don't realize the danger until
it's immediately in front of their face
and they're in the.
Totally.
In the s.h.i.t.
You got it.
Well, everyone figures it can't happen to me.
This is what I read about in the news that
happens to somebody else.
Not me.
Right.
I'm fine.
It's never happened to me before.
I'm X age old.
Why would it happen to me now?
Yeah.
But the issue is, those people in the news
could be you and it can happen to anybody
and being situationally aware, I think is a,
uh, that's a skill set that I think is kind of
lost in today's society.
I mean, everyone's got their cell phones out and
they got their heads down in there and the whole
idea of safe spaces.
And there's, there seems to be a disassociation
between the reality of what can happen out
there, for whatever reason, good people
having a bad day, mental health, drugs, bad
people doing bad things, whatever it might be,
that's just reality.
And it always has been, I think there's
a disassociation between that a reality
and how people figure the world should be.
Yeah.
Um, yeah.
So corporate spy.
Yeah.
Tell me about this.
I just think James Bond type stuff, a
British accent spy.
This was actually the profession that gave
me the most enjoyment and uh, it's also
the profession that I had to sign the
most non-disclosure agreements around.
I can talk about some things.
Basically I was paid by rich people to spy
on other rich people.
And spying on people it's, it wasn't a
private investigator sort of setting.
It was a team of us and we were all
ex military or ex intelligence agencies.
So we were doing, taken our skill sets into the
private sector and we were doing some things
in London and across Europe that were in the
gray areas of the law.
And it is a gray, it's not illegal, it's not.
Right.
It was, we don't have surveillance, um,
licenses in the UK.
So it was very interesting.
And I sat back and I watched a lot of
people and I followed a lot of people.
And in this profession I also saw how oblivious
to their surroundings most people are, again.
Oh yeah.
Cause yeah, some people we could follow for six
months, every day on the same routes and no idea.
And some people, we would actually put
on some tasks where that individual had
designed bodyguard team, close protection
team around them.
So you can imagine how hard it is to surveil
and follow someone who's has a team of
dedicated professionals to look out for you
and not let you exploit information from them.
Because that was the commodity our clients
would want to know what they were up
to, or they'd want to know any illegal
activities that they were getting involved in.
Or sometimes they would want a lot of
information, which was hard to get from
just taking pictures.
So we'd have to get very close to our, our targets
and, uh, we'd have to do some things that were
kind of in the world of James Bond, to be honest.
Very cool.
Very interesting stuff.
And there's a lot of technical capabilities
that are around on the private, in the private
sector that we think that governments only
have that ability.
And this is something else that I'm trying
to say on my social media, because yep.
The governments are able to do certain
stuff with electronics, private entities that
are allowed to able to do certain stuff with
electronics, but now criminal organizations
are getting those capabilities as well.
Personal privacy and safeguarding our
electrical devices is a big thing for me.
And I like to advocate for that as well.
Well, people don't realize how much
information is just publicly available.
I mean, I'll give an example.
I've got a, a trip coming up in a couple
of weeks where I've got an older whitewater
raft, a local search and rescues loaning a
rowing frame for it.
And we're going to take it down the fraser river.
Oh nice.
And camp at a couple of spots.
And then, um, just hunt general open sheep.
Um, but there's some concern about where we're
putting the raft in.
And the concern is, is that the property owner
sometimes doesn't let people on or the gates
close and we want to make sure we're dotting our
I's and crossing our T's.
And they can't quite find where this
property owner is.
So uh, anyways, I, uh, a friend texts
over, he says, well, here's the PID for
the, uh, the property.
It's just clearly listed on the, uh, just open
source on, on BC maps.
I go into BC online and he can pull up who
the owner is of it.
And then you can go into the corporate
registry because it's associated with a
corporate, a corporation and it shows who's
associated with those.
And then you can go into the personal
property registry.
These are all free tools that people can use, that
I can see the vehicles that this person has
taken leases out on and all the different
and stuff, and finally were able to find,
okay, we've got enough information on this.
The only one thing we really wanted was
like a phone number and email address.
So we could say, Hey, can we put our boat
in at your location?
And now we could have to approach this person in
a way that doesn't sound too creepy, how we found
all that information.
But it is publicly, openly accessible.
I, and I find through social media and social
profiling, I remember I was in a law firm one
time and they had a, uh, uh, an investigator
in there and they were trying to find some
information on somebody.
And well, the investigator was having
a conversation with them saying, oh, we
can't find this person.
I'm just pulled up Facebook and said,
well, in Squamish, her daughter has piano
lessons on this date.
Have you thought about going over at this
day and time and, and serving them then?
Right.
And, uh, the, the idea of people having
privacy is, um, in some ways laughable
because peoples tend to readily give it up and.
Uh, I guess under the, uh, privacy standpoint,
there's two ways you can go about it.
You can either age, just like have nothing
online or B you can just inundate it with a
whole ton of information that people like.
Oh, which one's real, which one?
Isn't.
Uh, what, what's your approach to staying
safe with information?
Social media is the big one and we used
it every day, a lot.
And one time actually, we were following
a target for a long amount of time.
And one day he comes out of his residence with
a carry on suitcase.
So we think, okay, we're going for
a long day here.
Uh, so we follow him.
He gets on a bus, um, we have different vehicle.
We have vehicles and foot surveillance,
I was typically foot surveillance and I was a
team leader at this time.
So we get on a bus and we have to have
a person on that bus.
Um, so one of the team members on there, he
goes on the bus, gets off the bus, goes into
the underground train station, subway, we call
it the tube in London.
It gets on the tube, it goes two stops and
then there's a, like a tube work, so he
has to get out off.
So he comes out of there, gets in a taxi and then
he takes his taxi all the way out of London,
uh, to an airport.
Um, he actually takes it to a train station
on the outskirts of London and then gets on
an overground train and goes to an airport on
the outside of London.
And we're following him this whole time
and I'm like one of the leads and I've just
got a little bag and wearing my clothes.
And it was just a little bag of a few bit, little
bits and bobs in there.
Um, and we always carry our passports.
So on the way to the airport, the people in
the office and other people were doing like
the technical support are trying to get me tickets
on certain flights.
Um, in the end we find what flight he's on, we
get me on that flight and I fly on the same plane.
We ended up going to a Spanish island and
then, yeah and then I'm over there in a
hotel following him.
And then I have some downtime when he's in
his hotel and we get on Facebook and looking
through what is he doing over here to dah, dah,
dah, and something he'd liked to say, uh, uh,
music artists a couple of years before he'd
liked one of their posts.
And that artist just happened to be playing
at a local nightclub at the, at the time.
So we predicted that he was goingthere and we
recorded it and then we ended up seeing him in
there photographing him there, doing some things
he shouldn't have been doing, and that was a
successful operation.
Right.
But just the fact of, he just liked
one post a long time.
And that's what brought us on to where he was.
Uh, but people give up a lot of information.
It's not just like, it's also in the background
of pictures and stuff.
So I would say, keep your friends.
There's no reason unless you're trying to promote
a business to keep your Instagram open to
any friends, to reach out, to contact you.
If you know the person, then you should
accept them and also Facebook as well.
Uh, but once your information is out
there, like when I joined special forces, I had
to email a few places to get my, I'll ad some
news articles from when I was in the Marines and
stuff, uh, that my face and name was attached
to, I had to get them to wipe that down.
But they couldn't wipe it down completely.
Right.
It's not able to be done.
So once it's out there, it's out there and it's
hard to retract anything.
You know, the, the other thing that I found was,
uh, the friend list that the people will
have to like Facebook.
You can have the option of other people, not
seeing your friend list while even if you're
really diligent about not putting out any
personal information or doxing yourself,
your friends might.
And that was how actually on this one woman,
cause I was there for a completely separate
matter, I was doing some consulting for the law
firm and, uh, that was how we found that the
kids having piano lessons out of a certain time and
it wasn't because of this person saying anything
on their own lists, but you just start clicking
through their friends and seeing where they
reference things and.
Yeah.
And that's usually the weak link is family
members, to be honest.
Yeah.
And even if they're closed accounts, if
you manage to become a friend with some of this,
and then you're in to that circle, you know
everything that's going on because no matter
how security minded you are, then it's the
people around you and not going to keep up
that level of security.
So they are the weak links.
It's like, why is this really attractive
woman wanting to friend me on Facebook?
Okay.
Great, got access to everything now.
Right.
That's the joke.
But that does happen.
Yes.
Oh, it does.
You know, I've got a friend who works for a
company and they set geo fences up around, uh,
schools and institutions.
And it's kinda like a, pre-crime what they
do is they look at pre digital occurrences that
follow a trend for, let's say, school violence
or school shootings.
And he travels all over the world and
lectures on this.
And, but I just, through the digital algorithms
that people are posting and how they're posting
and the frequency and the content of what
they're putting out.
Uh, they're able to successfully mitigate
violence in, uh, in social settings, which
is, which is, and he's been doing it for years.
This isn't something that's new and
it's kind of crazy.
Yeah.
That's interesting, actually.
Yeah.
So it's, um, uh, one way that they're able
to, uh, just put a pin in, let's say a school
shooting or a violent situation like that,
and confront individuals and get to the bottom
of things before it even becomes an issue, which
is, uh, kind of, kind of in line, but just in
a digital way with the situational awareness,
how can we take a look around at all the
information that we have?
Why is that person got his hands in his pockets?
Why aren't they making eye contact?
Why are they making excessive eye contact?
Why are they dressed like in the, in the
way that they are?
Yeah.
Uh, what, what sort of, uh, what, what are some
of the top tips that you find that people find
the most useful that.
The most useful is the most basic stuff
really is like stay away from distractions.
But there's one thing that I've pushed quite
hard because I think it's very important.
There's a fine line between situation
awareness and being a bit paranoid.
I am a bit paranoid.
Sure.
I do admit that, but I have been in some
circles that mean that these, I can have
some risks, but yeah.
One of the main things is recognizing when
you're at a vulnerable time and everybody
has these vulnerable points of their week.
That for my, for me, for instances, when
I leave my MMA gym, uh, around 9:00 PM
and it's in Chinatown, it's quite a rough part
of town and I have to walk to the bus stop.
And nowadays I walk to the parking lot,
a couple of blocks.
Uh, during that time I am switching on,
I call it, switch on to your environment
and I am checking my surroundings in a certain
techniques to do that.
But I'm also putting my phone away.
I'm not listening to music on my headphones.
I love to walk around and listen to music
or podcasts, but there's a time and
a place to do that.
And as a time and a place to prioritize
paying attention to your environment.
And also there's also a lot of training that
I give, which is based around how, how to
act to act naturally in an environment.
Cause there's this whole thing around situation
awareness is two fold.
First of all, it's the detection of
threats, which is an important thing.
The earlier you can detect a threat, the
more time you have to think and act on what
to do and avoid it.
If you detect it very early than the
avoidance tactic could be crossing the street
and not even having to walk past this person.
Right.
Um, but this, the second element to situation
awareness, which I'm very much pushing, quite
hard is the way that you're perceived by bad
guys or criminals when you're on the street,
because there's a lot of studies and there's
one in particular called the Grace and Steen
study from 1981 where they'd two researchers
in America took, um, some video tape of a busy
New York intersection of just random
people walking about.
And then they took that videotape into a
federal penitentiary and they selected the
most hardcore human prejudice, like rapists.
Right.
Violent sorts, um, murderers.
And these people were selected because they,
their crimes had been on members of the public.
They weren't gang related the crimes.
So they're the perfect test subjects for this.
And they showed this video tape to these
inmates, and then they wanted to know who they
would select as victims and the researchers as
with everyone else had an opinion, oh, they're
going to select, most people think women.
Um, but actually that wasn't true.
They started selecting people and it
was quite random.
First of all, they didn't realize, didn't
really understand why.
So they analyze the data more thoroughly
and they found that this, the way that
people carry themselves is a major factor in
why they are selected.
And if you look weak and vulnerable, then you pose
less risks, risks to an attacker, so you're more
likely to be chosen or selected as a victim.
If you can appear confident and in your
environment like you belong there, you have
a reason to be there.
We always say the people in the try and
act like the others in the environment, the
people who are actually native there, who
actually lived there all the time, insiders.
There's a big difference being between being an
insider and outsider, if you can appear
like an insider.
And that means that you conform to the
normal behaviors and cloven patterns of
the area, you're less likely to be targeted
because there's, there's more risks associated
with being an insider or being confident.
And one of my things is just, you don't have to
be the biggest fiercest lion on the plane.
You just not to have to appear to be the
weakest gazelle.
And if you're in a crowd of people, when
someone's looking to rob, stick someone up
for an iPhone, you don't have to be a hard street
fight in person Krav Maga black belt, but
you just have to appear not to be like frail
and weak and nervous.
Right.
And changing that perception.
And a lot of that is fake it till you make it.
And a lot of the professions I've been
in, I've been around people that are really
faking it and you can see through it.
But when you're younger, you kind of don't really
see through it but.
Yeah.
If you're not confident in yourself, then the
certain techniques that I teach in my course,
uh, that can make you appear like, you know
what you're doing, you know where you are and
you're not faced by these other threats
that around in the area.
And in big, one of that is actually
addressing threats early and not shying away
and trying to avoid.
If you're forced to walk past a, a person up ahead
of you on the street, who is a threat profile,
uh, maybe this person has decided, right, I'm
going to rob you and you don't know that yet.
You're going to walk past that person.
You have to, let's say, you, if they've already
decided that they're going to Rob you, what's
the harm in giving them the brief bit of eye
contact to show that you're aware of them
and you're not fazed and then continue walking.
The the opposite side to that is you shy
away, you look at the ground and you close
in on yourself and you hope for the best.
That's not in my experience, the way
to get out of that situation unscaved.
To address the threat early and you don't
have to go guns blazing, but to show that you're
confident, just looking at them eye contact,
and then look ahead at head, eye level to where
you're about to go.
It shows that you are not an easy victim.
You're not phased by them being there.
And if you don't look like an easy victim,
then maybe you're not the ideal victim type that
they are looking for.
I've always found that eye contact is such
a delicate tightrope.
You don't make eye contact.
Okay, soft target.
Yeah.
You make too much eye contact.
Okay, threat.
Right.
And like I'm, I'm 6'6", 250 pounds
and I think when I.
In my early twenties, I was 6'6", 225
pounds, right.
So not, not a heck of a lot of fluctuation.
I could probably lose a couple of pounds.
Maybe it's muscle, I'll tell myself that.
Weighs more.
There you go.
Um, but I found in a bar situation, I
would think, and most people would think, I'm
the last person that somebody would want
to go up and have an altercation with because
I'm a bigger guy, right.
But time and time again, I always found,
I was almost always, growing up, through
elementary, through high school, through a young
adulthood, the first person that people always
wanted to go up and prove their metal against
or to push, to see how far I would push back.
And I've always had very good containment.
Up until a certain point.
But, um.
Yeah, from my perspective, if I was
to walk into a bar, this is something
that's ingrained in me.
I do size people up to think who is the biggest
threat and there are certain indicators that
I look for in someone's facial features and the
shape of their nose, the scar tissue around their
eyes, and also the way they carry themselves,
as in their posture.
Um, but for yourself, yeah, I would notice you
and think right, if this goes down in here and
I'm on the like, like, like the receiving end of
attacks, then that guy I need to deal with first.
Right.
Unfortunately.
But that's a compliment.
Well, growing up it didn't feel
like a compliment.
It was fight after fight and getting good at
being able to verbally deescalate a fight,
which is something I was never, ever good at.
Some people have the gift of gab and
they're super social.
This whole podcast thing is a whole training
process for me, really in, uh, in conversation,
it's been quite a, quite a challenge.
Having ADHD, I reach a certain point in the
conversation, I'm bored, I usually just get up
and walk away, right.
But that was something that I think, uh, the
deescalation tactics is something that was
never something that I was very strong with.
And I would either a just push through, which means
you get in the fight or they, they leave.
Right.
Or, uh, B, I'd have to make the decision whether
this is something that is worth, worth getting into
it, just walking away from which I'm stubborn
and pigheaded and that very rarely happens.
Yeah.
I know the feeling of that definitely myself.
Um, I've had a gap in my skillset, which is
the deescalation aspect.
So a lot of my trainers on the,
the buildup and the approach to, uh, uh, an
altercation or a threat.
And then there's the deescalation
conversation, which in my youth I hated it.
I was actually very scared of it.
I think that's part of the reason why I would
go forward, because I hate that, when someone's
challenging you in your face and you're just
there like, oh, okay.
Back down here or you know, that
was my go time.
Right.
I'm not that person at the moment.
And now I know it's stupid.
It is literally stupidity.
Um, but I know that feeling.
I know some people still stand their ground
in that situation and you know, you can do
that, but there's also other factors at play.
And especially when you're a family man,
and there's weapons like knives and that involved.
But to go back to the eye contact thing, that's
a very in-depth subject and I have a lot of
training to give on that.
And it's hard to give them this training
through an Instagram post, which what I
usually do because there is a lot of factors and
I wouldn't recommend eye contact with someone
who's mentally ill or on drugs on the street,
because you need to avoid any sort of altercation
with that person.
So they're the kind of eye contact I'm
talking about is, is just a glance at the
person in their eyes.
And then a glance ahead to where
you're about to go.
And that's just to show that you're
aware of them.
You're not trying to shy away, but there is a lot
of situations where eye contact is a bad idea.
And it's hard to get that information across in
such short snippets, in like an Instagram posts,
which is the main source of what I've been doing
over the last two years.
So do you have more that I contact information and
your, your online course?
Yes, I do.
Nice.
Okay.
I have a lot of deterrent techniques and that is
one deterrent technique.
Um, so if some, if my whole premise is
that come from that same study is that it
takes a lot of these inmates that the average
time of assessment, whether they're going
to choose to target that person over the
other was seven seconds of assessment time.
And seven seconds sounds like not much
time, but it actually is quite a lot of time.
And if someone's looking at you, first of all,
they're going to see what valuables are on display.
If they're looking for purpose of getting
money or for whatever reason, they're going
to be looking at you to see it's a reward, risk
versus reward factor.
And if you're showing a lot of reward as by way
of valuables or whatever their sick disposition
is, then they're going to take more risk to get
their, what they want.
But if you are keeping valuables out of the
eyes of the people, then they're less
likely to go and try and take more risks.
And that delves into the body language sort
of aspect of it too.
If you're more confident, then why is that person
so confident when you should be scared
in this situation?
Yeah, I know I, I was traveling through Europe
when I was younger and I ended up picking up
a book by Alan Pease.
And I think he's put a few of them out in
his wife as well now on body language.
And because I figured, you know, I'm not going
to be able to speak all the different languages
of the places I go to, but if I can perhaps
pick up on the body language and communicate
through body language, I may have a better go.
And I found that quite useful.
Yeah.
Seven seconds so that they have seven
seconds and they make that determination.
And that's 1-1000,2-1000, 3-1000, 4-1000,
5-1000, 6-1000, 7-1000.
That's a long time.
Yeah.
And the whole time that they're, they're
making that they are in that environment,
standing there most likely or sitting there.
So you do have opportunity to, to
spot them, to detect them and to deter them
and to evade them.
And that's the basis of a lot of the training
that I'm giving.
Yeah, smart and not having flashy things out.
You know, my grandfather used to say opportunity
makes the thief.
I don't know if it makes it thief, but
if you provide that opportunity, a thief will
be bound to pounce on it.
Yeah.
And the biggest opportunity, and one of
the biggest things they look for in this day
and age is cell phones.
If you're walking along listen to music or
scrolling on your phone, then you are a perfect
target because you're, you're just shoutin' I
am completely unaware of my surroundings.
Right.
With your hands by your side, casually
looking around that you can't be crept up on.
And that is a big deal.
There's no element of surprise and they will
always want the element of surprise no matter
what their goal is.
Um, there's a lot of little things like
that that can make a big difference.
And I have felt that in my own life, before
I joined the military or anything, I moved
from my hometown on the south coast of
England, up to London to study criminology
at university because I was really interested in
why people commit crimes and violent crimes.
And wasn't really understanding my
own sick, like attachment to it.
Um, so I studied criminology, but that
meant that I moved to London, the capital
city, and there's a lot of knife crime
as we discussed and there's a lot of other
elements as gang culture.
And I moved to a part of London called Brixton,
for those of you that don't know, it's got a
bad reputation, they had some riots back in the
day it's a great place.
I love it around a lot fun there, but there is
a dark element to it.
And the thing is with London and the UK,
we don't have as much space as you have
over here in Canada.
So things go up and people are all in
enclosed environments.
Even the streets are very tight and we have what
are called counselors states in this government
housing, and they're just tower blocks and there's
a lot of gang activity in these environments
and I moved the air from an L being an outsider
from my hometown, and I'd had a bit of a
different accent as well.
So I was noticeably an outsider and I looked
and dressed different cause there's different
cultural, uh, clothing norms in different parts
of different cities.
Right.
Um, so I moved there and then I had to get the bus
to my classes every day.
And we literally have gangs, I don't see it in
Canada, but in the UK we have gangs of youths and
literally gang members on the streets and outside
stores and on corners.
And you have to walk past them if you
want to use public transport, which I have
done most of my life.
So I was very nervous at that time, even though
it was a fighter, and I'd done some boxing, I was
nervous because of the reputation of the gangs
and street crime, knife crime in particular.
So I'd walk past and I would get challenged.
And one thing with the gangs in London is it's
territorial based in this different codes
for different gangs.
And they would say, what ends are you from bruv is
this is the saying that they would always, what
ends are you from bruv.
And I'll be like, ah, I'm not from round here.
And that was kind of like, uh, there was
that actually a bit of a, like gave me a safe
haven that they were looking for threats
from other tutorials, territorial gangs mainly.
But it still was an uncomfortable situation
and I'd walk up to these groups of youths and
some of them like 18, 20 my age at the time.
And it would be nerve wracking experience, even
though I was comfortable with fighting.
I didn't like doing it obviously.
And no one got me wondering why is other
people in this area, same ethnicity, same
sort of look as me just walking past without
being challenged or stopped or anything.
And after, after I acknowledged that I
could say this I'm not from around here.
Um, it kind of gave me a safe pass.
I had this new found confidence and I
just walked past.
And then after a while I was never challenged
and I'd go to visit friends in other boroughs
of London and I wasn't challenged there.
And it's because I was an insider and I was
really an insider and my body language, my whole
aura had changed and I was confident, but I had
a place to be and I was just going about my life.
Interesting.
Um, so yeah, I've also studied that aspect
and thats embedded in my training as well.
And that's from personal experience
and also working in surveillance and stuff.
You get some training in these areas too.
So if you're going into a new location and you
want to set back and take a look at your
surroundings and get a bit of a temperature
check for what it's like, what, how do you
quickly a climatize, your personality, your
attitude, your, uh, your demeanor to, uh,
to your environment.
I it's called establishing a baseline.
So if I was going to start a close protection
bodyguarding job, then in the days before
the client arrives, a lot of my stuff
was taking clients on vacation around Europe.
So I'd arrive at the location and I'd have
to adapt the way I dress and the way that I talk
and look to blend in because a lot of my uh,
close protection stuff from the UK before I came
over here was on my own.
And I was, I came into cause I did the
surveillance stuff they wanted to like covert
surveillance protection.
So I'd be in the shadows behind, but they didn't
want me intruding on their family vacation,
but they were like wealthy individuals and
they wanted me there to observe them and look out
for them and have plans and things in place.
So I'd arrive in a location and then you
establish a baseline.
So you sit down in a cafe and you just
observe the environment.
And you're looking at the ambient noises and the
sounds that dress and the customs of the people.
And you're literally noting down mentally,
what's going on around you, how people behave,
how they act, what they look like and you
just try and conform and adapt to that.
So one particular job I was in Italy and ended
up going to, from Naples um, I took my client
over to the island of Capri, which are very
wealthy and exclusive island, staying in five
star hotels and all that.
That's the perks of the job.
Rough.
So that was, uh, a very good job.
Uh, so I, I adapted my, my clothing
and the gray man philosophy over there.
And I was actually getting spoken to in
Italian and I was quite proud of that because
they feel I was an Italian and I was just
over there on vacation or whatever, but I had to
stay away from the family and just like usher them
around and make sure everything was okay.
And then I took them back to Naples.
They got their plane back to where they came from
and I had one night in Naples on my own um, just
to do whatever I wanted.
I wasn't going to waste that time, a
successful operation.
So I went out from the town, bearing in mind,
I dressed completely for this exclusive,
wealthy island.
I was wearing like flowery shirts, I
was wearing white linen pants, had
like gold sunglasses.
Course, yeah.
Yeah, I was playing the part.
Sure.
But it was successful.
And, but now I was walking through
Naples, which is a notoriously rough town.
There's a lot of crime networks, then
there's from the research I've done.
And that's also one thing.
If you're going to go on vacation, then
you can find a lot of information online
about what the customs and the dress, and even
looking on Google street maps, you could see
people when you go down on that and see what's
going on on the ground.
Good point.
Yeah.
Well, I, I deal with that before, and then
I, so I thought I'll go around and have a look
at the bars and stuff, and I wasn't going to
waste the, uh, time I had there, but I knew
that I, I stood out and I was, uh, looked like
I was wealthy and I looked like a tourist,
but I didn't care.
You know, do as I say, not as I do.
Sure.
So I have my headphones in as well, which.
Oh common.
Is a big no-no.
Because I love to, I listen to like rock
music and stuff.
When I'm walking around and podcasts, cause I was
just sightseeing anyway.
So I start walking and I'm walking into
the shopping district and up ahead, I've
got my sunglasses on too, I see a guy,
uh, Eastern European fitting the profile
and he's standing in a good tactical position.
And tactical position in, in situational
awareness sense is, is somewhere where you can
observe the goings on and someone where no
one can creep up on you.
So he's, he's up against the building and looking
around and he's showing situational awareness.
Typically the only people that are aware
of their surroundings are the good guys
and the bad guys, the protectors, the police,
the security, us, like we know, we're trained.
And then there's the bad guys who are also looking
for prey and looking for the authorities
who could apprehend them and they're
out, they stand out.
So once you start practicing situation
awareness, you see these things stand out.
Anyway, I saw him looking around and I
was walking towards him, there's other
people on the street.
And then I had my headphones in and I saw
him notice me and I saw him gesture to someone
else behind me, but I didn't see this person.
So I continued walking and I noticed on the
side, it was a big department store window.
Um, so check myself out in the window.
Not checking myself out, it's called a
reflectional look back and it's actually shown
in the movies quite a lot, but I use them.
So in a parallel window, you can see quite
clearly behind yourself.
And then I see a guy sharp scurrying
up behind me.
Um, probably a pickpocket attempt is
that's what they do around these parts.
So I continue walking and then I see a bus
shelter up ahead of me and it's got the big
glass advertising panel.
So I start walking directly towards that,
so then I've got a clear view directly
behind me, another reflectional look back
and I see the guy getting very close behind me.
And then as my, I'm walking, I walk past
the bus stop and then I'm out in the open
and I can no longer see where he is, but I
should have mentioned before, too, that I
turned the music off.
Right.
Past my headphone, my hand was in my pocket.
So I still looked unaware to these criminals, but
I was actually monitoring what was going on.
And also I have a fightin' background as
I was, had a few beers at that time as well.
But it's a bit of a training exercise for me.
Sure, yeah yeah.
So I walk a few steps further, and then I
can hear the footsteps right behind me.
And then I'll just take a deep breath and all
of a sudden, bam, I spin round and I'm face to
face with the guy and I say, my thickish British
accent, British accent.
All right, mate, how's it going?
And he was like a rabbit in the headlights.
He was like, oh, but he didn't speak English,
but he is shocked.
And then he smiled as well cause he knew, like
we had that knowin thing.
Yeah.
What is it?
It's not going to be anything,
cause I'm ready.
Yeah exactly.
But yeah.
And then he ran off scurried away and I
carried on with me drinking session.
Yeah.
I wouldn't advise anyone to do that.
Well, that's a bit of an example of
the skills that I'm teaching in play.
I could have turned around and deterred
the guy at any time.
And I would advise sometimes to do that.
I could have just looked at him and that would
have been that, over, because he wanted the
element of surprise.
He wanted an unaware tourists, but.
Right.
Uh, I played it a bit differently.
A little cheeky, but had more fun out of it.
Yeah.
That's it.
Oh man.
Well, we talked about a size of an opponent can
make a big difference and the number of
opponents can make a big difference.
But the one that you've brought up
is weapons, right.
And we've had some shootings here in the
lower mainland, uh, we've had a, some stabbings
that have been going on.
Um, you know, I saw one, I think
it was in Toronto.
Uh, there was a news clip and this person's I think
it was a gun I'm trying to remember back here,
anyways, waving this thing around and another
woman just walking by completely oblivious
as somebody's acting completely erratically.
Um, similar to the story that you told earlier,
but what would, uh, what would for most people in
a security profession, you're always going to
assume that the other person has a weapon.
Um, that's just a no-brainer, if they
don't, hey that's gravy.
Right.
But if you're going to make the assumption, this
is probably a weapon.
If they have one weapon, they probably
have two weapons.
Um, what, uh, what are your thoughts on that?
I mean, in Canada, we don't seem to have
the, uh, well, I hate how they call it knife
crime or gun crime.
Cause it's just crime and they happen
to have a certain type of, of weapon
that they're using.
Yeah.
Um, on avoiding that, detecting that,
uh, do you have any thoughts on that?
Yeah, I do have a lot of thoughts on that and
that's another reason why I've started this
training because it all came about that
in my youth, when I was, when I moved to
London to do that um, criminology degree.
I actually took my attitude to this new
playing ground, this new, more like a war
ground, to be honest.
And I would never back down, but that didn't
fare so well when there was gangs and knives
involved and people would, just didn't
care about using them.
So I had an altercation in a bar, uh, looking
for my friends or walking down the side
side of the dance floor in a bar I used to go
in all the time again.
I'd had some drinks myself, um, a guy
just barges straight through my shoulder and
I stepped back, look at him, it's dark, the
lights are flashing.
I don't recognize the guy, but I do
have enemies at that point in my life.
Um, and there's another guy behind him
and he's posturing.
He's got his hands down by his sides
and he's doing the old typical, like.
Yeah.
Pushing out his chest, which is for me is a
telltale sign that, yeah, you may have had
some fights before, but you're not trained
fighter because you are exposing yourself.
Right.
Anyway.
So I don't know if I should say this.
I headbutt him.
Yeah.
As you do.
The Glasgow kiss.
Yeah.
Because, oh, there's two against one,
in my opinion.
And at that time in my life, I've experienced,
you have to go hard, fast and aggressive.
And I knew that that fight was on, I didn't
know why maybe I'd had an altercation
with him before.
Maybe didn't like the look of me, but the
barge and then like the posture, like either I'm
going to back down, which I wasn't going to do.
Nowadays, yeah, I would, but then, I
wasn't going back down.
So it's either throw the first punch or
get hit with the first punch was my mentality.
Anyway, so we have a bit of a scuffle
on the dance floor.
A few seconds, the doormen are on us and
they've thrown me out.
They'd thrown me outside the front and they just
throw me on the ground.
And this happened a lot to me, to be
honest, it was nothing, nothing unusual.
Yeah.
Um, I'll get back up and then they throw
him out and he's standing next to me.
And there's a big lineup of ladies and
men queuing to get into this bar club.
And, uh, I stand there and looking at him and
his friend comes out as well, stands behind him.
And he's looking at me and I'm looking
at him and he's doing something down here and
I'm not registering, I'm a bit drunk anyway.
And I'm like, thinking, why is he not like
going for it now?
Because we just had a fight and now
we're clear and the bouncers stepped back.
Like, they're literally two cornerman just
ready, ding, ding, ding, because it's out of
their jurisdiction now.
Um, and then it goes, so I'm fighting this
guy and I'm a boxer.
So straight punches down the middle he's
wildly swinging and I noticed that he's
actually hit me in the body, which is unusual
in a street fight.
Um, and anyway, I'm hitting him and I am
hitting him hard, but he was like, he was a
solid structure of a man.
I remember him not even stepping back or moving.
I was just thinking, wow, this is all right.
He can take it so.
Yeah.
We're fighting.
Anyway, he decides that he's getting lit up a
bit and he charges me and takes me down, which is
another common occurrence in a, uh, in a street
fight cause quite often when two big forces
collide, they go down.
Yep.
Um, so he ends up on top of me and I'm
flailing and I hadn't done any jujitsu or any
ground fighting at that time, I was a boxer.
So that's another element that is completely alien
to most people and when you know a little bit
about ground fighting, you know, how hard it
really is, isn't it.
Sure.
And, um, so I'm fi floating around trying
to fight on my back and all of a sudden.
I can feel this hot water, what it feels
like someone's tipping a coffee cup, a cup
of tea down over my head and shoulders.
Anyway, I'm not really thinking about it.
There's a cold like night and in London and then
all of a sudden I hear a scream from a woman in
the, in the lineup, which is only a few feet away.
He's got a knife, he's got a knife.
Um, and at that moment I was all, I will
admit I was consumed by true fear, I thought,
oh my goodness, what is going on here?
I'm going to die.
Right.
I thought I was going to die.
Right.
So he's on top of me and I'm just trying
to hold on for dear life, basically.
Um, and luckily the door security team intervene,
they grabbed him off and as they grabbing
him off, I kick him and then I just, I sprint
off that, which was a natural instinct.
Right.
Which is another thing comes with fighting
a lot on the street, you get out of there
before you arrested.
Yeah, exactly.
So I just run, I just run.
And then I ended up slumping down in, in
an alleyway, um, a few streets back to
look at what's going on, and I'm covered
in blood all over me.
Um, and it was coming out of my face.
I nearly it lost my eyes and the corner
of my eye there.
Um, one of the wounds and I realized that I've
obviously been stabbed, but the, the moral of
the story is that I didn't see the weapon.
And that's what happens in most knife attacks.
If someone really wants to do damage to you and
they're not going to run over to you wielding
it above their head.
And it's, it's so sporadic and fast
it's bam, bam, bam.
And that's how it happens.
And I've watched lots and lots of footage of
prison attacks and knife fights on the street.
Cause I do want to have a good opinion on it
and I want to be able to teach this stuff.
Right.
So, and that's how it happens.
And most of the time, the defendant doesn't know
that a knife is being used against them until
they see their own blood flowing or afterwards
the blood pressure drops, they actually drop.
And that's what happens a lot of times.
So the way to get around that is you have to,
you have to identify the hands, but there's
also body language cues that you can go into
quite in depth, but for me, it's the hands.
It's always, the hands is the most important thing.
Um, and not getting into altercations.
Now I do advise to comply in a lot of scenarios
because there's no point in dying over an iPhone.
Right.
Which can happen and people are so they're
not concerned with using weapons anymore in,
in places like London.
I'm sure over here in certain parts as well.
Sometimes it's easier.
It's like, uh, armed guards.
Armed professionals, they carry a gun on their hip
here in Canada and they transfer money around
everyone figures hey, that, that gun is there
to protect the money.
No, you want the money?
They'll give you the money, the guns there
to protect their life or life from a
third party, right?
Yeah.
Um, similar mindset I think is beneficial
in, in most people.
They want the iPhone, okay, we can
get a new iPhone.
Most, I see, uh, knives in Canada.
I carry a pocket knife have carried a pocket
knife, oh geez, I was in elementary school.
Had a pocket knife I took the school and I
remember I lost it, go into the office, grade
one I think it was.
And the admin there come out and they
said, oh, we think we found it for you.
And it's a big blue plastic knife.
No, no, no, no.
It's, it's black, it's folding and
it looks like this.
And you mean like a real life?
Yeah, right.
So I've carried a pocket knife.
Most of my life it's become more and
more, uh, common.
They just a little clip on type knives, it's
perfectly legal to do.
And I see some people look at it as something
that might be a good self-defense tool.
And I have to wonder if they've ever seen what
a knife can do because at close range it's
absolutely devastating.
And if you think you're using it just to get
yourself out of a little fight, I mean, you don't
have to step too deep in certain areas and
you've killed the person.
Yeah.
And yeah.
These people that are carrying the knives
they might be have, they might not necessarily
be, uh, criminally minded to begin with.
They might just be the average, joe blo who's
out there carrying a knife, who's now having
a bad day, you get in a road rage incident
and they decide, okay, I'll use this as my
self-defense to or whatever it might.
Um, what do they say?
God made man, Sam Colt made man equal.
It is a great, these weapons are
great equalizer.
I would think though, although illegal, uh,
dog spray, which isn't illegal to carry for
dogs, but if you carry a pepper spray for
people, a dog spray would probably be a
pretty effective tool.
Yeah.
I think that's quite a good equalizer.
Um, and it gives you that time to escape
because the goal is always to escape is not
to stand and engage.
Right.
Yeah.
And also with knives.
Um, yeah.
I don't ever recommend people to carry it for
self-defense because you're bringing in that,
that weapon into the fold and it's going to,
if you're not willing to use it, it's going
to get taken off and used against you most
likely and then legal repercussions as well.
Although a lot of people focus on the
legal repercussions.
I think you need to do what you need to do to
survive, first of all, deal with that after.
But that's my personal opinion.
I agree.
Um, but yeah, I, I never really promote
the use of these weapons because I try to have
a global audience.
Situational awareness is complimentary to
firearms training.
For instance, there's no point in having a
firearm if you can't see the threat early
and then draw and get rounds down on it, if
you're allowed to do that in your country.
Right.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Yes.
Um, are you allowed?
Yes and no, that's a whole other conversation.
Yeah.
But yeah.
The weapon, use of weapons, like pepper
spray for instance, we don't have this in
England, so I've, I've grown up with a warped
perception of even firearms, even though
I was in the military, I've had, I haven't
grown up with it.
So it's been a bit alien to me for
civilians to have it.
And now that I'm in a country that
civilians allowed it.
I do like it a lot to be honest, even if we're not
using it for self defense purpose, I think it's
got of value in it to have it in society for.
I agree.
Well, that kind of, kind of segues into
a Instagram posts that I think you
released yesterday, which I thought was
incredibly relevant and I couldn't agree more.
Okay.
Albeit a little bit cryptic,
intentionally, I'm sure.
And you said, hold the line and you're talking
about situational awareness and less, less
of personal individual context and more of
a global context or global thought context.
Um, if I'm picking up on what you're saying,
is that something that we can talk?
Yeah, I'll openly talk about, I didn't know
if you'd want to talk about that, to be honest.
Oh hey I'm, I.
Yeah.
Cause I see from my, I have a very investigative
mind and I see that we have a lot of things
going on at the moment and there's a lot of
other things going on.
I feel like the playing field for international
conflicts or any other sort of conflicts has
changed our minds, our perceptions and
where we're giving our attention or our
opinions are the real commodity these days.
Yes.
And whether you're following the mainstream
media or you're following other sources on
social media, there is propaganda, is a scary
word to say, and there.
Sure.
Is misinformation and information
on both sides.
And I don't really know what's going on.
I think there is something else that
we, the people are not savvy to and I don't,
I just see things that, uh, are not normal.
Like the last two years are not normal.
Right.
Um, so I just, my, my F I follow a lot of people
on the right, in, um, in America and stuff.
And a lot of my self-defense injuries
on the right.
And they're very much sound about
freedoms all the time.
I am actually, my opinions have been left
leaning, but I don't follow any political
party, but at the moment I'm standing
firmly with the right.
Um, just because of, I think history shows us
some things that have happened in the past,
and there's certain issues that we do need to
like, hold the line on.
Um.
Yes.
And I, it's a very hot topic and.
You're talking, I think, about personal privacy.
Is that in relation to a COVID passports?
It is.
Yeah.
Yes.
And it's hard to talk about these
subjects without conspiracy theory.
Without wearing a label of a tinfoil hat or flat
earther or whatever.
Exactly, because I do follow, I follow the
left on Instagram, I follow the right, I
want to be informed about what's going on.
And I don't think we get in fully informed or the
full picture of every scenario and everything
that's happening.
Uh, I just like to take a step back and
see is this really?
There's a lot of fear mongering and I have
personal experience of being around.
I can't talk about, but being around the owners.
Uh, I've seen some red flags all
along this journey.
I don't know.
I like, I don't think there's a lot of people
out there saying this is the way it is.
This is the way it is.
There's pipeline information these days.
Like if there's Netflix documentaries on it and
the creators of these algorithms on Twitter
and that have openly said they didn't want it
to go down this route, but it has, if you're
giving your attention to one platform, if
that platform starts giving you information,
you disagree with, you're going to discard
that platform and go to another one.
Right.
So why would they give you opinions of
the opposite side?
Even if we're not talking about government
conspiracies, we're talking about business
models as well.
Um, I don't know a solution.
I just, I just feel like there's something
else to this picture that we're not knowing
what's going on.
I, you know, I look at it and part of it, it
looks like a marketing problem, right?
Some of it is how do we get information out
in front of people in order to provide them
with all the information so that they can make
informed decisions.
And that has not been executed well, in any
country that I've seen.
And most people will get their information
traditionally through new sources.
And now through social media or through search
engines, which are all tightly intertwined,
the, like Google owns YouTube and Facebook
owns Instagram and they're, they're very,
fairly well intertwined.
And I think that there is a, uh, a fundamental
desire in these organizations to provide
people with the best possible information and
maybe some altruistic ideas of how, how people
should be living or how people should be
treating each other.
But it gets scary when they sort of
take on the role as the arbiter of truth.
And they will say, well, this is the true
information, and this is untrue information.
So we won't show this one when we will show
this or we'll alter this information.
And that, from a history perspective, is scary.
And I don't know if it's necessarily some deep
seated conspiracy or more just human nature
playing out in a way that it has played out in
the past, and will play out again in the future.
Yeah.
And.
Oh, it's quite refreshing to hear you speak
and we should have these conversations.
I think that's the most important thing,
cause everyone I've spoke about, spoken to
about this issue has had a similar opinion.
And so you've got valid points in this issue.
Um, but I don't think we're allowed to have
these conversations and it's a strange time that
we're in at the moment.
Um, that like people are so attached to
beliefs a lot of the time it is because
they're on a political side, um, that no one's
really looking at the issue independently.
And without the, the big C stuff, last year,
mainly in America, there's a lot of stuff
that's happening that has outside influence,
in my opinion, coming from a military sort of
intelligence mind and the tactics that are being
used inside of America, wherever that, I don't
know who it's from, are actually some of the
tactics that America has used to, uh, influence
other governments in third world countries
for, for a long time.
Um, and my opinion is, I don't know
what's going on.
Right.
But I am, I'm starting to question some
things and, um, I don't know what, I don't
know what's going on.
That's the, uh, the big issue.
I think that's an important point.
I mean, it's not like, I haven't heard anyone come
out with what I think to be the definitive answer
and I'll agree that some people that come out
with some, uh, ideas can sound really cooky,
on both ends of the spectrum, but the ability
to have that conversation and to carefully weigh
all of the information that's readily available
is the point that I think is currently,
uh, the difficulty.
I mean, so many people are, they seem to have
their whole lives and personalities, um,
intertwined with either a political idea or
some sort of an idea.
Whereas if you question that you're now
questioning them and their life and who they
are, and they can't seem to separate that
from themselves and look at it objectively and
come up with objective ideas on one side or
the other, or rebuttals, and maybe they're,
maybe they're a thousand percent right and you're
a thousand percent wrong, but the evidence
should stand on its own.
Rather, it seems to be the knee jerk reaction.
If you're not with us, you're
obviously against us.
Or if you asked a question, it's because
you're not with us and from a situational
awareness at a much larger scale, I think
that is a very important conversation that people
need to be having.
And I'm not going to say one way or the
other, cause I just like you, I don't have the
information and I don't have the ability to
separate the wheat from the chaff on it, but to
be able to discuss it and try and gather that
information, I think is a very important piece.
And when we start looking at restricting
people's ability to, uh, of movement and
to attend, I guess, discretionary activities,
whatever that is.
I mean, there's a list of, I think, 13 things,
which is very broad and very narrow at the same
time, depending on how you want to interpret it.
Yeah.
Um, based on, uh, your medical history.
But not applying that same logic to any number
of other medical issues that are out there.
It starts to get scary.
I mean, it's um, yeah, I think it's definitely
something people need to be keeping their eyes on.
Yeah.
I think there is some weight to question.
And, uh, the biggest thing that stands out
for me is the shutdown of any sort of debate
about the topic.
Right.
Which is a red flag in my opinion, we
should, we're all adults here, we should
all be able to discuss and, and debate on it.
Um, and I think that some arguments
are not being seen.
We've seen this in America and that's
the problem with the way the information is
given around now, that censorship can happen.
From my perspective, I like to see all the
angles and step back and look at everything.
Um, if the intelligence agencies look at my phone
and the groups that I follow, I follow some
crazy stuff because I want to see these people
that have the opposite view and they're real
diehard on it, I want to know, there must be
something that they're seeing that I'm not.
If they really believe it then like there's gotta
be something to that.
I want to talk to these people and
understand where they're coming from.
Right.
Not really cool and call them stupid or.
Right.
Um, and I'll see, I just see red flags
and I, I am just a bystander watching.
Sure.
Um, but I feel my duty as a, as a human and I'm
a family man, everything I do now is to lay
the foundations for my daughter to grow up in.
And I don't want to cross any boundaries
where, uh, in the past, when we give away
certain rights, we don't typically get them back.
No.
Um, and I've come from a government high-end
government, um, having like clearances and
stuff, but, you know, every individual person
should be able to make decisions on their own as
long as they get the most information balanced.
And I don't necessarily think it's a, I don't
think it's a, uh, overall government
conspiracy or corporate conspiracy, but there's
always going to be money and power, right?
The two big corruptors, money and power or
perceived, perception of money or power.
And there will be some that will take advantage
of these situations to one side or the other.
So there's always going to be those elements,
but I think it's a level of group think
that is happening right now, which is
very, very concerning.
And when I guess it would be kind of like, um, uh,
collecting a baseline and going into a new place.
And we've, we've come from a couple of years
ago, a certain mindset and a certain attitude
and if we were to drop two years ago into right
now and take a look and take a baseline, I
think there'd be quite a shock to most people.
Whereas the whole boiling frog here, you turn
the water up slowly and more and more rights
are starting to go.
Um, yeah, I think, uh, I don't have answers to it.
It was, it was an interesting post that
you put up there and I'm just very delicately,
delicately speaking about this, and I'm sure we'll
probably have some people that comment on this.
Um, just because the whole point of The
Silvercore Podcast is to, uh, speak with
passionate people.
People who have done extraordinary things and
share that passion and information with others.
And I don't necessarily want to be taking it
into some, uh, divergent area, but it just tied
so well into the whole situational awareness
and the fact that it was timely that you
posted it last night.
Um, I do think that people should be taking
a moment to separate their ideology, their
ideas, putting it out in a separate place
and looking at it with the pros and cons of
all the different sides and making a measured
decision before just jumping on the wave
of what everyone else seems to be saying.
Yes.
Cause this pendulum will swing.
Yeah.
I agree.
That, that's part of the attention, the reason
I've put that post up to try and draw attention,
because I don't want to go through, I've always
been someone, like I said to step forward when
other people were a bit like, mm I'm not sure.
And this is something that I think we just
need to talk about with our families and
the people we know.
Right.
Discuss, because I'm going to be
wrong on any issues.
And the reason why I'm I've moved up, I'm
not right thinking, but I've changed.
I've been speaking with people and I did a long
job with, uh, one person in particular who's a
Canadian military guy, um, right leaning.
And we had a lot of discussions, we had
spent a lot of time with each other.
And a lot of the stuff he was saying was very true
and I changed my opinion.
Right.
Did and I respect his opinion and we
did disagreed on some things as well.
That's healthy, that's how it should be.
Right.
We should, I think the left, I am not left.
Right.
I am not, uh, at the end of the day,
but I did have some views of the left.
I have some views that right.
And I kind of pick, to be honest, I see
a broken system here.
Um, but that's another conversation
for another day.
I think so.
No, I, I believe the way it should work, like
left to kind of bring new ideas in and the right
is really holding society and keeping things going
and strong work ethic, work ethic and create
occasionally the left is going to say some things
in the right's coming out right now, wind it back.
Right, right, right.
Bit silly they're okay.
But sometimes they are.
Okay.
Yeah.
That's a good idea.
And, and vice versa, but that was my kind of
opinion traditionally on, on the left and right.
Um, and at the moment, I think we're, we're
not getting that, uh, debate cause everyone's
just wants to shout down at each other.
Right.
And that's global and it's not just
here in America.
I could see that back home in England
as well and the UK.
Like being able to be open to
reasonable persuasion.
And I tell that to my kids.
I said, don't become positional, right?
If you have, unless it's contrary to your
core values, your morals, your ethics.
Great take that position.
Cause that's, that's what defines you, right?
But on most issues, don't become positional,
make your decision based on best available
information, but be open to reasonable persuasion.
And it's that one last piece of the puzzle
being open to reasonable persuasion that I find
most people are missing on both sides of the
argument, the will take their position
and it doesn't matter what comes in, what
information will come their way, they then will
defend that position.
And that's a sure-fire way to find yourself in
a situation where you'll eventually end up losing.
You gotta be able to be adaptable and you
gotta be able to always position yourself in a
way where you can't lose.
And the best way to do that is to be open to
reasonable persuasion.
And don't be positional.
Yeah, I
agree.
Yeah.
That's a good way of putting it.
Um, so yeah, interesting.
I really liked that post.
I'm glad that you put it up there cause it
forced the conversation, well it didn't force
it, but it brought the conversation on this
podcast because it's something that I do feel
strongly about and it is a little bit of a, a,
a sidestep from what we normally talk about, but
I think it's an important thing to, uh, bring up.
Yeah.
It's a hot topic.
It is.
It is a hot topic.
So your course, that you're selling on
SixSight.co isn't being sold anymore.
No.
Tell me about that.
I took some marketing advice, I'm going
to be honest, I'm a genuine guy.
And like I've done a lot of things.
I've pieced together a training platform
that was very, I think it's very good.
I put my name behind it.
I've put my face on it now, which I never put
my face on Instagram until I started
launching this course.
But traditionally for me, I started my SixSight
as an information hub to give out the skills I've
learned throughout my career and the experience
I've picked up.
And I was given it out for free.
Um, and to put a price tag on it, it didn't
sit well with me.
It didn't, and I've had some time to think about
it and now it's free to those who need it.
And if anybody has, is doing okay, because some
people aren't doing okay, they can get it for free
and they can learn and they can hopefully get
out of bad situations.
And those of you out there that could pay
a little bit, then there's an option to
pay a little bit, and I'd appreciate that.
Totally.
But If not, that's fine.
You know, and that's the kind of person
I am, to be honest, I like to do this.
And because of the stuff that I'm teaching is
a bit revolutionary.
And I do believe that because I'm not seeing
it out elsewhere.
And also a problem I had every time I was
given out my stuff, people were stealing it.
Totally.
And they had loads of followers and
taking credit for it.
So that was a bit of an egotistical
thing on my part.
But you know, you kind of want to be credited
when you spent, uh, spent six months on this
course, locking myself away, working on it,
learning new skills to fill my, do scenarios
on the street where I show the techniques so
you can learn easily and also have given off quite
a lot of information that has never really
been taught to the wider public before.
Um, and I've pieced it together and
I'm happy with it.
And I did a test group of a load of ladies that I
know, and I've got great feedback coming back.
And they told me that they've, they've
given testimonials and stuff, so I'm happy.
And I'll just hope that people take the course
and learn from it.
And also, the big problem here is the people
that need this aren't actually looking for it.
Cause they don't even know what situational
awareness is.
Right.
So it's up to us as protectors to learn this
information and then teach it to our families.
Um, and we already do that, but why not bolster
what we know and also when other people who
are teaching tactics and things on Instagram, on
TikTok or self-defense instructors and military
people to take the course and to analyze
it and give me feedback.
Cause I want it to be the best it can be.
And we've, we've this, I do have a band of
brothers who I've worked with, who are highly,
highly, I've landed on my feet in Canada.
I work in the close protection industry
and I've got a lot of professionals around
me and I work in a crew where we, we help
each other out and I have bounced ideas off.
So I have had this kind of, how would you say
this, a reference group to help me make sure that
I'm not straying away from the goal and stuff.
So, but I want to expand that and get
it critiqued as well.
I think that's an incredibly, uh, bright
way to approach this.
I've seen so many people put together products
and then throw a price tag on it and wait for,
wait for the big bucks to roll in, right.
Only to find that they've just choked off.
They're a distribution stream.
They can't get their information out.
They can't get their brand or whatever
else they need out to everybody else.
And you know, there's a, uh, a local fellow,
one of the guys, the guy who recorded the first
podcast with me and he runs a business and does
some, some similar things to what we do here.
And he created an app for an iPhone and
I sat down with him after the podcast.
I said put it out for free, like
what are you doing?
Right.
Make it free as many people downloading
that thing as possible.
And then you've got that, you've got a
captive audience.
You've got that information at the front
and it's the whole jab jab jab right hook.
Right.
And it's like, give, give, give, give, okay.
Now have an ask.
Right.
And it's just a matter of making sure that you've
got the ability to have that ask at some point.
But I think, uh, especially for any
business, that's just kind of starting
off and getting the, getting things rolling.
I think what you're doing here is brilliant.
And I think it's going to put it in front of
a much larger audience and it's going to
create more brand for you and your company.
And so when the right hook does come, then
it's going to be a much bigger one.
Oh, thank you.
I appreciate that.
That's just my, my perspective from
an outsider looking in at things, but
I think that's a, I think that's quite
a good way to do it.
Great.
Yeah.
Wow.
Full steam ahead.
And this is the first time I've announced
it as well on this podcast here that is
free for everyone.
So you can just go to my SixSight.co on
Instagram and or the website, which is of the
same name and link in bio or on the website.
And you just sign up and it's free.
And I'm going to put links on the YouTube
and on the podcast.
Anyone listening to this can give it a click.
It's fantastic information on there.
Uh, highly, highly, highly recommend that
anybody listening to this check it out,
share it with others.
It doesn't cost anything and it
could save your life.
Sonny, I think that's probably a good point,
good point here, place to wrap things up.
Um, unless there's anything else that
you wanted to get out before we did so.
No.
I'll just like, say thanks for
having me on here.
It's been fun.
Hopefully see you again later down the line.
We do another one.
Oh, we're definitely going to do another one.
I know it.
And thank you very much for making the time.
I really enjoyed it.