The CIA Hack To Achieve More in 1 Week than Most People Do in 12 months — Transcript

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1. 0:00It's a mind-bending, life-changing story
2. 0:02for me. I had a senior officer who
3. 0:04always carried four dominoes in his
4. 0:06pocket. Just standard dominoes. He
5. 0:08always carried them in his pocket.
6. 0:10Whenever he got to his desk, he would
7. 0:11stack them on his desk. Um, two dominoes
8. 0:14next to each other and then two dominoes
9. 0:16on top, right? So, kind of like in a
10. 0:18criss-cross pattern. And he always had
11. 0:21them with him. Well, one day I was in
12. 0:22there um and I sat with him and I asked
13. 0:25him, I was like, "Why do you carry these
14. 0:26dominoes? Like, what? There it's extra
15. 0:29weight. They're awkward. You know, they
16. 0:31jingle when you walk down the hallway.
17. 0:33Why would you carry these things? And
18. 0:35then he sat them up and and he uh he
19. 0:38told me, "Most people go through life
20. 0:42knocking out tasks or to-dos like this."
21. 0:46And he set each of the dominoes up
22. 0:48facing him, but in a row from left to
23. 0:51right. And then he flicked the domino on
24. 0:53the left and knocked it over. And then
25. 0:55he flicked the next one and knocked it
26. 0:57over. and the next one and the next one
27. 0:58and he knocked all four dominoes over
28. 1:00with four flicks of his finger. Right?
29. 1:02He said that's how most people go
30. 1:03through life. If you want to succeed in
31. 1:06espionage, he said you have to stack the
32. 1:08dominoes differently. So then he put
33. 1:10them in a line the way that we all put
34. 1:12the dominoes in line when we're kids,
35. 1:14right? One in front of the other but all
36. 1:18but with only the first one facing him.
37. 1:20And then he flicked over the first one.
38. 1:22And then the falling domino knocked over
39. 1:24the next domino which knocked over the
40. 1:26next domino which knocked over the next
41. 1:27domino. So he was basically
42. 1:29demonstrating how the average person
43. 1:32will go through life using four times as
44. 1:35much energy to get the same four tasks
45. 1:38accomplished as a smart person who puts
46. 1:41the things in the correct order. And a
47. 1:45light bulb went off for me because in
48. 1:47espionage and when you're spying in a
49. 1:49foreign country, when you're trying to
50. 1:51steal secrets that aren't supposed to be
51. 1:53stolen, there's an order that you have
52. 1:56to accomplish tasks. you you can either
53. 2:00put a lot of effort into each step and
54. 2:02then by the end of the operation your
55. 2:05resources are spent and you don't know
56. 2:06if you're going to be successful or you
57. 2:09can do things in a certain order where
58. 2:11they grow momentum with each task and
59. 2:15then you're saving yourself energy,
60. 2:16you're saving yourself resources, you're
61. 2:18making momentum work for you. And ever
62. 2:22since then, I mean, my operational
63. 2:25behavior changed, my operational tempo
64. 2:27changed, my success at CIA changed. I
65. 2:29took that same concept and brought it
66. 2:31into the business world when I left CIA.
67. 2:34And I mean, my business has grown 300%
68. 2:36year-over-year for the last four years.
69. 2:38And I the only thing I can credit that
70. 2:40to is I I do the same tasks that
71. 2:43everybody else has to do. I just put
72. 2:46them in a certain order so that when I
73. 2:49flip the first domino, I get the
74. 2:51momentum of each falling domino to help
75. 2:54with my end goal. I really find I think
76. 2:57that's amazing. Um I always for some
77. 3:01reason I always both my wife and I we
78. 3:04always look backwards. We always think
79. 3:06about okay this is the result. We have a
80. 3:09million things going on. Um just result
81. 3:12so how do we get there? blank space,
82. 3:16right? Like completely, you got to go
83. 3:18completely. You got to know the box, but
84. 3:19then you got to be completely out of the
85. 3:21box and observe it. No rules. Let's say
86. 3:25there's no rules, nothing, but this is
87. 3:26where I got to get to. So, how are we
88. 3:28going to get there? So, I love I love
89. 3:30what you're saying really. Uh, you know,
90. 3:33I always say, you know, she went to like
91. 3:35Ivy League school and I say Ivy League
92. 3:39is mastering most of the time, you know,
93. 3:42the book, the box. Yeah, you got to do
94. 3:45that. But then you also have to have
95. 3:48critical thinking and that's why I tell
96. 3:50teach my kids who said so in everything,
97. 3:53right? Constantly because that's what
98. 3:56business is, right? You're constantly
99. 3:58pivoting. But tell us a little bit about
100. 4:00everyday spy. tell us a little bit about
101. 4:02your business. Yeah, so my business,
102. 4:04Everyday Spy, is uh it's it's my
103. 4:06personal mission, right? And our mission
104. 4:08is to teach spy skills that break
105. 4:11barriers to anyone willing to learn. And
106. 4:14I love that mission because it's it's
107. 4:17specific that it applies to anyone who's
108. 4:19willing to learn. If you're not willing
109. 4:21to learn, you can go to hell. If you
110. 4:23don't like spy skills, you can go to
111. 4:25hell. If you don't have barriers to
112. 4:27break, then you're lying to yourself and
113. 4:30you can go to hell. I don't have any
114. 4:31time for people who aren't part of my
115. 4:34mission. But when it comes to breaking
116. 4:36barriers, the truth is that we all have
117. 4:39so many barriers in so many different
118. 4:41areas of our life that we often times
119. 4:44don't stop to realize how they're all
120. 4:46related. In in an undercover world, the
121. 4:49most dangerous thing about an undercover
122. 4:51operation is not the operation itself.
123. 4:54It's not going in and taking down Osama
124. 4:57bin Laden. That's not the most dangerous
125. 4:59part. It's not the helicopter ride
126. 5:00undercover of dark. It's not the
127. 5:02underwater scuba dive ride. It's not
128. 5:04the, you know, it's not the moment when
129. 5:06you sit with the with the warlord uh at
130. 5:09the Jurga table. Those things are not
131. 5:12the most dangerous part. It's everything
132. 5:14else about living undercover. It's the
133. 5:18risk of signing the wrong name on a
134. 5:20receipt when you go out to dinner. It's
135. 5:22the risk of a cab driver finding out
136. 5:24your home address. It's the risk of not
137. 5:27tying your shoes the appropriate way and
138. 5:29then when you need it, they come untied
139. 5:31and you trip. That's the kind of stuff
140. 5:33that is the most dangerous to us because
141. 5:35we rehearse the operation dozens upon
142. 5:38dozens upon dozens of times. Like it
143. 5:41it's incredible the amount of rehearsal
144. 5:43that goes into a live operation, but
145. 5:45there's no rehearsal that goes into
146. 5:47waking up and going downstairs and
147. 5:49stepping out and making a phone call and
148. 5:51catching an Uber. There's no rehearsal
149. 5:53that goes into that. So the probability
150. 5:55of you making a mistake is so much
151. 5:57higher in everyday life. So CIA spends
152. 6:0190% of their money and time training its
153. 6:04operatives to handle everyday life
154. 6:07undercover. And it spends 10% of its
155. 6:10money and time training undercover
156. 6:12officers to actually operate because
157. 6:15they know that the rehearsal and the
158. 6:18practice and the rope memorization is
159. 6:20going to make the operation a success.
160. 6:22But that person is going to die, you
161. 6:25know, crossing the street in Korea
162. 6:27because they don't know to look both
163. 6:29ways on the center lane, which is where
164. 6:31the buses can drive without stopping. So
165. 6:34they have to spend all this time
166. 6:35training us about everyday life. And and
167. 6:38those skills are what transformed my
168. 6:42career. And then those are the skills
169. 6:44that when I left CIA, I was shocked to
170. 6:47see people didn't know how to get a free
171. 6:49cup of coffee. You don't know how to
172. 6:50negotiate your bill. You don't know how
173. 6:52to, you know, make somebody disarm
174. 6:54somebody from being defensive to being
175. 6:57friendly. Those are those are for me
176. 6:59those are very natural basic skills. So,
177. 7:00Everyday Spy is my outlet for teaching
178. 7:03people all of the cool not unclassified
179. 7:06stuff that CIA did without having to
180. 7:10risk any of the actual secrets that keep
181. 7:12us safe. How do people learn like what's
182. 7:15the actual process of people learning
183. 7:17their secret superpower? I know you talk
184. 7:19about that a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So,
185. 7:22uh CIA hires people for because
186. 7:24everybody has an inter in uh inherent
187. 7:27talent. There's something inside all of
188. 7:29us uh that gives us an edge against
189. 7:32other human beings and that inherent
190. 7:34edge is generally tied to your
191. 7:36personality type and then from your
192. 7:39personality type it's then tied even
193. 7:41further to your personal experience in
194. 7:43life. So there might be multiple people
195. 7:45who are extroverts but one extrovert
196. 7:47grew up in a rich family, another
197. 7:49extrovert grew up in a broke family.
198. 7:51Another extrovert grew up with no mom
199. 7:53and dad. Another extrovert grew up with
200. 7:55gay parents. whatever it might be. So
201. 7:58it's not just about understanding your
202. 8:00personality, it's also about
203. 8:01understanding the conditions in which
204. 8:03your personality was cultivated, was
205. 8:06raised. So in when everyday spy goes
206. 8:09through the process of teaching people
207. 8:10their superpower, what we look at is
208. 8:13both how they respond personalitywise,
209. 8:17but also how their personal experience,
210. 8:20their upbringing shaped their
211. 8:22personality. And once you combine those
212. 8:24two things together, you have a really
213. 8:25solid idea of what strengths and what
214. 8:28weaknesses an individual inherently has.
215. 8:31And you also talk about, you know, that
216. 8:34people should stop living by other
217. 8:35people's rules, which I love. Um, and
218. 8:39that really t I think that really takes
219. 8:40courage. I mean, in absolutely in in
220. 8:43society, how do you really get
221. 8:45comfortable being I guess your true um
222. 8:50your true self? So I would say you're
223. 8:53you're if if you feel comfortable,
224. 8:55you're probably not being your true self
225. 8:58because we live in a world where
226. 9:00conformity is king. If you want to get
227. 9:03along, like if you want to get ahead,
228. 9:06we have we're a society that's built on
229. 9:08you have to get along. The people who
230. 9:10cannot get along and also get ahead are
231. 9:12very few and far between, right? and
232. 9:15they have to have some kind of
233. 9:16superpower that allows them to to step
234. 9:19over the barrier of social rejection.
235. 9:23But what I will say is this. If you feel
236. 9:25uncomfortable, and most people who who
237. 9:28don't play by the rules feel
238. 9:30uncomfortable all the time. They go to
239. 9:32bed with self-doubt. They wake up with
240. 9:35self-doubt. They they wonder if today is
241. 9:38the day where it all falls apart, but
242. 9:41they keep trying anyway. They keep
243. 9:43trying anyway and it's the courage. I
244. 9:46mean what is courage right Moshe?
245. 9:48Courage is doing what you are afraid of
246. 9:52anyway.
247. 9:54So you have to be afraid. Fear has to be
248. 9:56part of the equation for courage to even
249. 9:59exist. So when people feel like they
250. 10:02look at somebody and that person is
251. 10:03fearless and courageous that's you can't
252. 10:06have those two things at the same time.
253. 10:07That person has to be fearful in order
254. 10:10to be courageous. CIA believes that all
255. 10:13people are born with a spy secret
256. 10:16superpower. For some people, that means
257. 10:18they can win deals. For others, they can
258. 10:20spot liars. Some can even seduce lovers.
259. 10:23I built a free 3inut test to help reveal
260. 10:26to you exactly what your secret hidden
261. 10:29superpower is. All you have to do is
262. 10:31click on the link in the description
263. 10:32below, take the test, and start using
264. 10:34your spy superpower to stay ahead of 99%
265. 10:37of people. And what you're actually
266. 10:38seeing is somebody who's able to take
267. 10:41their fear, recognize it, understand it,
268. 10:45and take action anyway. And that's what
269. 10:48makes just amazing heroic people. So, I
270. 10:52was thinking about this, Andy. What's a
271. 10:54practical tip if you're just meeting
272. 10:58somebody for the first time
273. 11:00to like really know more about them?
274. 11:02Body language. Yeah. Yeah. It's great.
275. 11:05So body language is something that's uh
276. 11:07that's super helpful but also it can be
277. 11:08misleading. So the first thing to
278. 11:10understand is that there's two forms two
279. 11:13basic rudimentary forms of body
280. 11:14language. There's open language and
281. 11:17closed language. So open language is
282. 11:19what you are right now Mosha. Your arms
283. 11:22are open. You're leaning back but your
284. 11:25chest is exposed. Your face is exposed.
285. 11:27You've got a smile on your face. Like
286. 11:29very open body language. Open usually
287. 11:32means receptive or curious.
288. 11:35But then closed body language, that's
289. 11:37when you see people with their arms
290. 11:38crossed or their hands closed together
291. 11:41or their legs crossed, right? Uh or
292. 11:43somebody who's kind of got a furrowed
293. 11:45eyebrow or a frown, that's closed body
294. 11:47language. That means somebody is
295. 11:49inherently suspicious or trying to keep
296. 11:51themselves distant. If you just
297. 11:53understand those two basic rudimentary
298. 11:55forms of body language, when you see
299. 11:57open language, you can lean in with more
300. 12:00aggressive or more penetrating
301. 12:02questions. When you see closed language,
302. 12:06you want to talk less about you want to
303. 12:07ask fewer questions and instead talk
304. 12:09more about yourself. Share more about
305. 12:12your thoughts, your feelings, your views
306. 12:14of the world. Because what you need to
307. 12:16do is crack through their closed body
308. 12:18language. And if you've ever had that
309. 12:20moment where you've seen somebody relax
310. 12:23because of something you've said, right?
311. 12:25Like you said, "Oh, I'm a god-fearing
312. 12:27man." And then all of a sudden you see
313. 12:29the person uncross their arms and smile.
314. 12:31or you say, "I'm a dad of of 11, right?
315. 12:34I'm a dad of of an army." And you see
316. 12:36somebody chuckle and then open their
317. 12:38arms. Like, you have to crack through
318. 12:40that that closed body language. Um, but
319. 12:43what often happens is that people don't
320. 12:45understand it. So, they see closed body
321. 12:47language and then they start peppering
322. 12:48questions and they don't realize what
323. 12:50they're doing is they're just they're
324. 12:51just cementing that closed body language
325. 12:53into place. You have to open the person
326. 12:55up by talking about yourself and
327. 12:57disarming them. I know that a lot of the
328. 13:00consulting that you do with it's like
329. 13:02top CEOs, Fortune 10 companies, right,
330. 13:05which you talked about in the intro. Uh
331. 13:08what is what is their like the true like
332. 13:11you peel the layers back, what's the
333. 13:13common denominator of of them? Like
334. 13:16what's actually going on there? Cuz it's
335. 13:18millions of dollars, right? Yeah. Yeah.
336. 13:20Yeah. What's fascinating is when you
337. 13:22start talking to the people who run
338. 13:24multi-trillion dollar, multi-billion
339. 13:26dollar uh companies, when you start talk
340. 13:28to the the upper echelon of everything,
341. 13:31they're all hired. They all work for
342. 13:33somebody else. They work for a board of
343. 13:35directors. They work for a board of
344. 13:37adviserss. Uh they work for a CEO who is
345. 13:40still overseeing things, but uh or they
346. 13:43work for an owner who's overseeing the
347. 13:45CEO. So, what I'm always shocked to find
348. 13:48is that when you're dealing with senior
349. 13:50level executives, you really are dealing
350. 13:52with people who are trying to please
351. 13:56someone else. And their challenge is
352. 13:59that they carry all this responsibility,
353. 14:03all this risk, and everybody beneath
354. 14:06them doesn't share that burden. So they
355. 14:10feel pinned between a a hierarchy of
356. 14:14people who don't care as much as they do
357. 14:16and an accountability board that isn't
358. 14:19as well spoken or well-versed as they
359. 14:21are. So it's this place in the middle
360. 14:24where they are carrying just tons of
361. 14:26stress and tons of concern and tons of
362. 14:28fear. And the common denominator between
363. 14:30all of them is usually that even though
364. 14:34they carry all that stress, they find
365. 14:36some way to cope with the stress and
366. 14:39they recognize that they're coping with
367. 14:42the stress. So what they want is healthy
368. 14:45coping mechanisms because without
369. 14:48knowing what the healthy mechanism is,
370. 14:50they will revert to coping in unhealthy
371. 14:53ways.
372. 14:54Yeah. I I um I think right they
373. 14:57recognize they probably hit had a I
374. 14:59always talk about like the rock bottom
375. 15:01moments they probably had that and
376. 15:03they're a very unique type of person
377. 15:05they can handle tremendous pressure and
378. 15:08um right and there's tools like you say
379. 15:10to do it to do they're doing it they
380. 15:13recognize it and just it should be
381. 15:14healthy right but I also want to
382. 15:16highlight that the the vast majority of
383. 15:18my clients are not owners they're
384. 15:22executives when you start talking about
385. 15:24the, you know, decimillionaire, um,
386. 15:27centmillionaire CEO owner, that's a
387. 15:31person who's developed their own healthy
388. 15:33coping mechanisms to build their legacy.
389. 15:37It's very, very different. Like your
390. 15:39your successful entrepreneur has like
391. 15:43the sky's is the limit. They can go
392. 15:44anywhere they want. But when you start
393. 15:46talking about the CEO of Google, the CEO
394. 15:49of YouTube, the CEO of of CVS Health,
395. 15:52the CEO of of Booze Allen Hamilton,
396. 15:55those are not the owners. Those are not
397. 15:56the people who founded the business.
398. 15:58Those are career executives who were
399. 16:00hired and vetted and now they are just
400. 16:03carrying out another job. What you do
401. 16:06and what I do every day is most
402. 16:07certainly not just another job, right?
403. 16:10We are building a legacy for our
404. 16:11children. We are wedded to this baby in
405. 16:14a way that no CEO who was hired could
406. 16:17ever be.
407. 16:19And I assume that that um when you say
408. 16:23the sky's is the limit, you know, for
409. 16:24for a founder
410. 16:26um an entrepreneur, I mean, I guess that
411. 16:30uh you know, they they figured out their
412. 16:34healthy coping mechanisms at some point.
413. 16:37Well, they they don't always, but they
414. 16:39can. But the main thing that's that's
415. 16:41magic about a founder is that we have
416. 16:45the ability to turn ideas into money.
417. 16:49There's nothing that stops us. When
418. 16:51you're a CEO that's hired, you can have
419. 16:54all the best ideas in the world, but you
420. 16:56still have to get the board to approve.
421. 16:58You still have to get the owner to
422. 17:00approve. You still have to get the
423. 17:01attorneys to approve. But when you are
424. 17:04the CE when you yourself are the owner,
425. 17:06CEO, founder, people can advise you
426. 17:09against your idea all you want and you
427. 17:12tell them to go to hell because it's
428. 17:13your idea. It's your legacy. It's your
429. 17:16baby. So what I find is that the people
430. 17:18who understand and who want that freedom
431. 17:20are destined for success. That's why the
432. 17:22sky's is the limit because like they'll
433. 17:25they'll they'll soar or they'll crash.
434. 17:28And half the time after they crash,
435. 17:30they'll get right back up and soar
436. 17:32again. Whereas when you're a career COO
437. 17:35or a career CFO, one crash and your
438. 17:38career is over. Amazing. So tell me,
439. 17:41Andy, what is something today when
440. 17:43you're looking back at your life, what
441. 17:45is something that you're deeply grateful
442. 17:46for?
443. 17:48I mean, it's a long list, man. There's
444. 17:50so many things to be grateful for, but
445. 17:51the first thing that comes to my mind is
446. 17:53that I'm grateful for my wife and I'm
447. 17:54grateful for my children because my wife
448. 17:56is the counterbalance
449. 17:59that kept me on a productive path. Uh if
450. 18:03you think about a sailboat, right? A
451. 18:05sailboat has a giant sail. Well, that
452. 18:08entire gigantic sail is controlled by
453. 18:10one rope. And that one rope is either
454. 18:14they call it sheeting. You either sheet
455. 18:16it in or you sheet it out to gain
456. 18:19momentum, to gain speed, to change the
457. 18:21direction of the boat. Without my wife,
458. 18:24I was a sailboat with a giant sail and I
459. 18:26was just blown in the wind. But when she
460. 18:29came along and she sheated me in, now
461. 18:32all of a sudden I was an I was an
462. 18:34engine, right? I had an ability to
463. 18:36produce something that that I couldn't
464. 18:37produce otherwise. Plow through an
465. 18:39ocean. So, I'm grateful for my wife and
466. 18:42then my children became my navigational
467. 18:45guide. They became what I was working
468. 18:48for. So, now I had my wife to turn me
469. 18:51into a motor, like turn me into a power
470. 18:53force. And I had my children to show me
471. 18:55the way of where I wanted to go. Without
472. 18:56them, I'd still be floating in the
473. 18:58ocean, big shiny sail, you know, and
474. 19:01flopping around in the waves.