Order of Man - OoM 062： Deadly Skills Every Man Should Know with Clint Emerson

00:00:00.000 One of our primary responsibilities as men is to protect those that we care about.

00:00:03.760 So whether it's your family, your co-workers, or the citizens of your community,

00:00:07.080 you may be faced with a situation in which you will be called upon to keep people alive.

00:00:11.920 Will you be ready?

00:00:13.260 My guest today, retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson, teaches us how to handle emergency threats,

00:00:17.620 what it means to be a violent nomad, and how we can become proficient

00:00:20.740 at the deadly skills we may be forced to use.

00:00:24.080 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest.

00:00:26.760 Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.

00:00:30.000 When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time.

00:00:34.520 You are not easily deterred or defeated, rugged, resilient, strong.

00:00:39.540 This is your life. This is who you are.

00:00:42.060 This is who you will become at the end of the day.

00:00:45.000 And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:00:49.280 Men, what's going on today? My name is Ryan Michler, and I am your host and the founder of Order of Man.

00:00:54.040 Welcome back today.

00:00:54.800 If you're new here, this is a show about all things manly.

00:00:57.760 Relationships, leadership, protecting your loved ones, which we'll talk about a little bit later today.

00:01:02.780 Learning, building wealth, starting businesses, any other topic that's important to you as a man,

00:01:06.940 we are going to cover it.

00:01:08.460 Now, we have some incredible guests lined up for this show, every show,

00:01:12.100 but basically what we want to do is bring you the most successful people

00:01:14.860 to talk with you about how you can prove your life as a man.

00:01:18.660 Now, this interview I have today is no different as I have a conversation with a Navy SEAL

00:01:22.640 who will help you become a better protector.

00:01:25.580 But as always, and before we get into that interview,

00:01:27.960 know that the links, the quotes, the resources, anything that you want for this show are available.

00:01:33.180 So you can go to orderofman.com slash 062 for those resources.

00:01:37.500 And make sure in the meantime that you join our closed men's Facebook group 0.95

00:01:41.780 for the deeper conversations that we have above and beyond what we can talk about on the podcast.

00:01:45.320 And you can check that out at facebook.com slash groups slash order of men.

00:01:49.760 Now, with all that said, I want to introduce you to our guest today, Clint Emerson.

00:01:53.560 Clint is a retired Navy SEAL.

00:01:54.920 He spent 20 years conducting special ops all over the world while attached to several SEAL teams,

00:01:59.540 including the elite SEAL Team 6, as well as the National Security Agency.

00:02:03.500 Utilizing an array of practical skills he developed to protect himself while at home and abroad,

00:02:07.900 he created Violent Nomad, which is a personal non-kinetic capture kill program

00:02:12.180 where he catalogs the skills necessary to defend against any predator or crisis.

00:02:17.780 On top of all that, Clint owns and operates Escape the Wolf,

00:02:20.600 where he works with organizations to mitigate threats,

00:02:23.300 decrease exposure, and increase survivability in crisis situations.

00:02:27.380 Clint's now a best-selling author of the book, 100 Deadly Skills,

00:02:30.420 and his soon-to-be-released second book, 100 Deadly Skills, Survivor Edition.

00:02:36.580 Clint, what's up, brother? Thanks for joining me on the show today.

00:02:38.920 Hey, nice to be here.

00:02:39.900 Yeah, I ran across, I told you this before, I ran across your work when you were having a conversation

00:02:46.640 with Brett over at Art of Manliness, and I fell in love with what you're doing, got your book,

00:02:50.640 my wife got it for me, I've been digging through this.

00:02:53.520 Besides the great illustrations that are in the book, the skills are awesome as well.

00:02:57.940 So I'm really curious why you decided to write 100 Deadly Skills.

00:03:00.880 Well, you know, it was, as you know, being a retired SEAL, it's kind of taboo to write books.

00:03:10.660 Yeah, yeah.

00:03:11.500 But at the same time, if you want to kind of put yourself out there, let people get to know you,

00:03:19.060 put out good information, and credentialize yourself beyond just being a SEAL,

00:03:24.000 and you got to make some moves.

00:03:27.120 I believe that, you know, content is everything.

00:03:30.080 So I try to steer away from operations, secrets, and my dead buddies as it relates to topics of

00:03:36.680 conversation or things that I write about.

00:03:40.160 So that was the first big battle in my mind is, you know, how do you get yourself out there

00:03:45.440 as a freshly retired guy, you know, 20 years in the Navy, and then now you're out on your own.

00:03:52.760 But at the same time, I wanted to kind of take skills and best practices that I do as my day job.

00:04:01.600 I have a company, Escape the Wolf, and we basically go into corporations and build policy, which is boring.

00:04:10.180 But it has to be done to a certain degree.

00:04:13.120 We build workplace violence policies, crisis management policies, so man-made events, natural disasters, and medical issues.

00:04:22.020 We cover that, and we build the policy, and then we educate the workforce on what those policies and best practices are.

00:04:29.760 So I was like, well, hell, how do I get good information that I provide to corporations kind of down at the consumer level,

00:04:37.800 and how do I do it without being so boring against, you know, 100 deadly skills?

00:04:44.660 I wanted to give the readers a predator's point of view of what a bad guy potentially could do.

00:04:54.000 And if you, you know, obviously, if you have a good, if you understand your opponent's offense,

00:05:00.340 then you can fortify and create, you know, a great defense and make all of those little tricks somewhat useless.

00:05:07.700 So the book really was to give, at a basic level, awareness to what kinds of crazy little tricks bad guys could use on you,

00:05:17.160 but at the same time also give you skills that you could use to protect yourself and use against any bad guy that might come your way.

00:05:25.300 Yeah, and I even get that.

00:05:26.340 I mean, I'm sure you're getting more and more busy as society continues to go on the trend.

00:05:30.960 It is that my son actually at his school had a lockdown.

00:05:33.680 Fortunately, this was just yesterday, but fortunately, it was just somebody who was starting their bike and it backfired.

00:05:39.080 But they locked the whole school down, which I'm actually glad that they were that responsive to it,

00:05:44.280 because I think it's on a lot of people's mind.

00:05:46.780 And just the fact that we're more aware of what could potentially happen,

00:05:50.380 and we're starting to build in these plans and the infrastructure to be able to protect ourselves and our kids,

00:05:55.820 I think is really, really valuable.

00:05:57.300 No, I agree with you, and it's good that they reacted to it and didn't go question it first.

00:06:02.840 You know, that's the key is, hey, you've got to have your thresholds.

00:06:06.900 If your threshold is the sound of the gunshot, the smell of smoke, you just activate whatever your plan is.

00:06:14.020 Don't question it.

00:06:15.160 You know, if you were wrong, that's great.

00:06:17.600 That means everything's okay.

00:06:19.000 But if you were right, you just saved not only your life, but, you know, the people around you as well.

00:06:24.400 And I like that you talk about that default mode of, hey, protect yourself first, because if you're wrong, what's the worst that happens?

00:06:31.100 You kind of look, maybe you look like a fool a little bit, but if you're wrong and you don't take action, somebody loses their life. 0.70

00:06:37.380 So that makes total sense to me. 0.99

00:06:38.940 Yeah.

00:06:39.680 Yeah, without a doubt, man.

00:06:41.620 So tell me a little bit about, I don't know if, I don't think I told you this.

00:06:45.220 I spent time in the military as well.

00:06:46.640 In 2005 and 2006, I did a tour in Iraq, I was in Ramadi, and somebody recently asked me why I don't talk about that as much as they thought maybe I should.

00:06:57.180 And it's not that I'm avoiding having the conversation.

00:06:59.800 It's just that I don't really want to exploit that time.

00:07:03.960 That's not why I did it.

00:07:05.460 And so I'm really curious as your thoughts about that.

00:07:07.640 And then, of course, the taboo issue with you writing a book and putting yourself out there.

00:07:11.960 We've had Commander Mark Devine on the show.

00:07:13.560 I follow Jocko Willink, of course, and so I know this is a big issue.

00:07:17.300 Why is it that it is such an issue to maybe not talk about some of the things you've done?

00:07:22.520 Yeah, I think each answer is probably unique and personal for me.

00:07:29.400 As I mentioned at the beginning, I don't support profiting off of operations, especially failed missions,

00:07:37.940 or profiting off of, you know, our dead buddies.

00:07:43.420 And then, of course, you know, going down the path where you could unintentionally give up, you know, classified or secret information.

00:07:51.340 So those are kind of like the big three, right, that everyone's always worried about.

00:07:55.580 The SEAL community, you know, unfortunately, it's been labeled a brand.

00:08:02.480 And so then the community in itself gets upset if anyone's out profiting off the brand.

00:08:08.900 And, you know, I like to remind people it's not a brand.

00:08:11.980 It's a profession.

00:08:12.640 And it'll either be the greatest thing you've ever done or it will allow you to continue doing great things.

00:08:21.240 And that is very, you know, personal to each guy that wears the trident, does his time, and then gets out.

00:08:31.360 You have some guys that come in and do very minimal time on target, minimal trigger time, maybe four to six years in service,

00:08:40.680 and then get out and leverage the trident for everything they do for the rest of their life. 0.84

00:08:47.220 And that, I think, is a little ridiculous.

00:08:49.800 You know, you have to create your own identity at some point, which leads to the book, you know.

00:08:57.600 So you write a book.

00:08:59.240 I don't see anything wrong with anybody of any profession writing a book.

00:09:03.960 It really doesn't matter.

00:09:05.400 You know, whether you're part of an elite class of soldiers or a professional athlete or an actor or anything else that's got, like, you know,

00:09:13.420 the supposed little higher rating and status or lifestyle, everyone can write a book.

00:09:20.680 I don't care about that.

00:09:21.800 It always goes for me to content.

00:09:24.040 And that content just needs to be, you know, I think guys just need to think a little bit more before they put that pen on paper.

00:09:32.860 And then the overarching, like, you know, precaution really is the review process, you know.

00:09:40.160 For me, I sent my book into the Pentagon.

00:09:42.760 The Pentagon sent it to the three main commands that I was at, which was, you know, SEAL Team 3, the NSA, and SEAL Team 6.

00:09:50.740 Everybody looked at it.

00:09:52.140 Everybody reviewed it.

00:09:54.060 And it had zero redactions.

00:09:56.640 No one said.

00:09:57.360 Interesting.

00:09:58.020 Yeah.

00:09:58.380 I didn't have to delete anything.

00:10:00.600 I didn't have to change anything.

00:10:02.180 And it was, you know, about 45 days later.

00:10:05.840 So it's not like it's a bad process or anything.

00:10:09.000 It's there to protect the guy and ultimately protect secrets because that's all they're looking for.

00:10:15.780 And obviously my book is nowhere near anything related to missions or secrets or any of that crap. 0.98

00:10:21.620 But for me personally, it was about getting kind of just good, unique information and skill sets out there that can help people, you know, take the fight to, you know, the idiots that we're surrounded by. 0.97

00:10:35.640 And that's my goal. 0.97

00:10:38.160 Well, in all of it, I can tell as I'm going through it.

00:10:39.900 I haven't finished and gone through every skill, but my son and I are actually going through.

00:10:42.900 This is what's actually pretty cool is my eight-year-old son loves the book because he can see the illustrations and get the concepts.

00:10:48.020 And everything that you talk about is really, really – I won't say everything because I want to question you on some of these things.

00:10:53.880 But like 90 percent of it is extremely applicable.

00:10:57.260 And so I can see why, hey, you've got this information.

00:10:59.720 We might as well share it with the world and hopefully it helps somebody down the road, right?

00:11:03.160 Yeah, without a doubt.

00:11:04.200 That's the ultimate goal is increase the vigilance and hopefully get people to start acting.

00:11:13.980 You know, we react way too much or have zero reaction and end up dead, especially in an active shooter situation.

00:11:21.940 So it's just to get people to act out decisions that they've already made so that they're not making decisions in crisis, which is the worst place to try and make a decision.

00:11:33.400 Yeah.

00:11:33.700 No, that's a great point.

00:11:34.700 To a lesser degree, I was actually thinking about this same point.

00:11:37.760 I've got the tractor here at our house and, Clint, I literally ran it into my neighbor's carport yesterday.

00:11:45.440 And in the moment, I kind of freaked out.

00:11:48.360 I'm like I couldn't get the thing to stop and I didn't know what was going on, but I ran it into there.

00:11:51.640 And then after the fact, I look back.

00:11:53.000 I'm like, oh, I should have done this and I should have done that.

00:11:55.240 The reality of me actually doing that again is significantly lower because I've thought about, okay, what would I do if this happened again?

00:12:02.180 So I can tell that, you know, having that foresight and that idea of what might go wrong actually hedges against something might actually, you know, happen.

00:12:11.700 Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:12:12.940 Thinking things through before they happen so that you know what to do when it does.

00:12:18.140 Right, right.

00:12:19.140 Well, so let's dig into this a little bit.

00:12:20.800 You talk about one of the first concepts you talk about in this book, and I think you actually referred to it when I made an Instagram post as well, as you said, the violent nomad.

00:12:29.460 Talk to me about what is a violent nomad.

00:12:32.180 A violent nomad really represents any person that, you know, with a certain amount of skill sets, and this is man or woman, you know, where you're not necessarily always waiting for 911 to show up.

00:12:46.260 You know, some guys have kind of gone down the sheep, sheep, dog, wolf route.

00:12:50.540 I certainly have.

00:12:51.540 That's what my company is all about.

00:12:53.560 That's like, hey, how do we get, you know, how do we make sheep more sheep, dog like?

00:12:58.580 But the violent nomad is the person who independently has the will to fight and take the fight, you know, to the bad guy and hopefully help the people around them.

00:13:12.620 And you look at the different, especially you mentioned like, you know, different school shootings where, you know, at Virginia Tech, you had a classroom full of kids.

00:13:22.520 You know, 17 of them were basically executed.

00:13:26.940 Yeah. 1.00

00:13:27.380 And it's sad, but I wish, you know, if you're going around a room and executing people one at a time, you know, I want the other 16 after the first shot is fired to get up and take that 120 pound little punk and beat his ass. 0.99

00:13:46.760 I mean, that's really what the violent nomad philosophy is. 0.98

00:13:50.680 It's skills and courage for good, not for evil, and start taking the fight to these guys instead of waiting the 7 to 15, you know, minutes for first responders to show up.

00:14:05.320 Right, right.

00:14:05.920 I think we even saw a little bit of this to another degree during September 11th when we saw the plane hit the towers, but then we saw that third plane where the passengers actually fought back.

00:14:17.380 And that's always been my thought is like, why did these other people not fight back against a couple of dudes with, you know, some box cutters?

00:14:24.880 It's kind of surprising to me.

00:14:26.340 And I think we probably had some violent nomads on that third plane, it sounds like.

00:14:30.280 Yeah, yeah, exactly.

00:14:31.940 You know, United, what was that, United Flight 93 is a great example.

00:14:37.440 And it's, that's the fight.

00:14:39.020 But what we want to do is, you know, when you talk about crisis, there's only two things you really can control.

00:14:45.080 And that is, you know, preparation and then response.

00:14:48.940 And as long as you're prepared and you know what your response is going to be, then you really have shortened that, your time in crisis, right?

00:14:57.560 And that's the goal is you don't want to, you want to decrease exposure to crisis, which is going to increase survivability.

00:15:07.340 And you can only do that by, with proper preparation and then response on the back end and, and then try to totally, you know, eliminate the crisis altogether.

00:15:18.040 So, you know, the violent nomad is someone who's aware he's, he or she is watching their alert, you know, they got their head out of their cell phone.

00:15:26.760 They know they're, they are prepared and they, and they know exactly how they're going to respond when certain events come their way.

00:15:36.740 What I think you're saying here is that you're not trying to stir problems up.

00:15:41.020 You're trying to avert those problems, but if something should happen to arise, you know how to handle yourself in the situation.

00:15:48.380 Yeah.

00:15:48.760 Yep.

00:15:49.140 You're, you're carrying the hammer and then you're also willing to drop it when necessary.

00:15:53.780 I like that.

00:15:54.640 Yeah.

00:15:54.800 Makes sense.

00:15:55.480 Now.

00:15:55.720 Okay.

00:15:55.960 So where's the line of being a violent nomad and then letting the police, for example, do their job?

00:16:02.400 Is that just a case by case basis?

00:16:04.100 How do we find that line?

00:16:05.540 I'm sure it's different for different circumstances we find ourselves in, but I'm curious what your thoughts are about that.

00:16:10.100 Yeah, that line usually is defined by time, you know, so if you're in a situation where the response isn't immediate, then of course you have to do whatever it takes to win.

00:16:23.360 Everything after that should obviously be handled and supported by law enforcement.

00:16:27.620 It's, it's not a being, I think there's, you know, being vigilant is much, much different than being a vigilante, you know, of sorts.

00:16:35.520 So, uh, you want to be vigilant, but you don't want to cross over into, uh, as much as we'd all love to cross over to the dark side.

00:16:44.020 Um, well, we all have it in us, right?

00:16:46.280 Yeah.

00:16:47.360 Uh, I fight it every day, but you know, that, that'll just put me in jail probably.

00:16:52.120 But, uh, anyway, you, you definitely want to embrace, you know, law enforcement when it arrives, but until then it's all on you, you know, and that's really the, uh, that time on target or where you find yourself standing on the X is the time in which, you know, you have to do what you need to do until, until something else comes to help.

00:17:13.740 Now, some of these skills that you talk about in the book, in my mind are extremely applicable.

00:17:19.100 You talk about a bolt bag, everyday carry, things like that, that a lot of the guys listening to this show have heard of and probably implemented to some degree in their own life.

00:17:27.080 But then you have other skills in here.

00:17:29.140 The ones that come to mind is like rectal concealment and disposing of a body that the odds of somebody facing that is, is very unlikely.

00:17:37.480 And I think you may have already answered this because you said sometimes it's important to get the predator's point of view so you know how to combat that.

00:17:43.440 But talk to me a little bit about how you decided what skills do I include in here and why do I put this versus this and exclude this skill and include this skill?

00:17:52.700 Yeah.

00:17:53.800 So, you know, when we put together a hundred, the list started at probably 300 skills.

00:18:00.080 Sure.

00:18:00.560 Yeah.

00:18:00.900 And then I had to narrow it down to the hundred that I thought were most applicable.

00:18:05.560 But also at the same time, you know, I didn't want the book to be boring.

00:18:09.360 I wanted it to be educational, but also entertaining.

00:18:12.940 I also wanted to shed light on some of the techniques and tactics that predators use, you know, on a regular basis.

00:18:21.500 And if you see it and you read about it, I'm hoping to, like, literally overemphasize how you, how you wouldn't want to be the body that's being burned or being exposed of.

00:18:36.160 I think the visual of that hopefully will heighten people's sentences to the point where, OK, you know what?

00:18:42.440 I don't want to be that body.

00:18:43.700 I don't want my family to suffer because I was never found.

00:18:49.520 And I'm hoping that it makes you pay attention even more so to the skills before and after.

00:18:55.340 When you talk about rectal concealments and stuff, we've heard about this from, you know, this has been, this is like an age-long musion body cavities to hide stuff.

00:19:05.660 Sure.

00:19:06.300 It's been around forever.

00:19:08.220 And the history behind it was intriguing because you, you had, you know, within the world of espionage and spying, it was very popular for cross-border operations and, and getting intelligence from one place to another.

00:19:24.600 But in the same, at the same token, you've got prisoners doing it as well.

00:19:28.900 And you've got mules and different, different forms of human drug trafficking that goes on as well.

00:19:34.760 So I like putting in a little bit of the risque stuff.

00:19:39.600 One, I find it interesting.

00:19:40.920 But two, I think that it's good to know this stuff.

00:19:43.780 I simplify some of this to, hey, if you've got a kid that you're raising, whether it's a male or female, a little boy or a little girl, there are certain skills in this book that also will allow you to identify things about if you're, maybe if your kids are going down the wrong path in life as well.

00:20:01.000 So some of the taboo, risque skills are part entertainment, part education, but really also awareness or to emphasize, you know, at a bigger level, like, all right, I don't want to be a victim of this, you know?

00:20:18.220 Right, right.

00:20:19.340 Well, and I imagine too, is, yeah, you may not have to ever dispose of a body.

00:20:24.980 Obviously, that's probably pretty low that you're going to have to do that.

00:20:28.640 But some of the concepts in here and the illustrations, everything that you've gone through are going to cross over into other skills and just get you maybe thinking about things a little bit differently than you normally would and get you outside of your comfort zone and thinking in a different area, right?

00:20:43.340 Yeah, yeah, I mean, most of the book is all about, you know, we hear about, hey, think outside the box, but hopefully this, you know, gets the Martha Stewart and all of us kind of coming out, you know, it's, this book really is the PG-13 Boy Scout manual.

00:21:01.120 I mean, it may be in some cases it's rated R, but it is a, you know, an adult survival book.

00:21:08.620 So you have to hit some of these, some of those other skills to emphasize certain points.

00:21:14.580 Sure.

00:21:15.260 Yeah.

00:21:15.680 Yeah.

00:21:17.200 Men, quick pause to tell you about our elite mastermind, The Iron Council.

00:21:20.480 This is a group of dedicated, committed, ambitious men working to take their lives at the next level in the areas of their relationships and their health.

00:21:27.780 And specifically this month, we're talking about how to build more wealth in our lives and we want you involved.

00:21:32.740 We're now close to 100 members and we've got some big plans when that happens.

00:21:36.640 I do have some other plans, which we'll be implementing within the group in the next seven days.

00:21:40.220 I can't talk about it too much now because I haven't even announced it to the council, but I will tell you that those plans are designed to create even more interaction, more accountability, and more results in the lives of our council members.

00:21:52.160 So if you feel like you've reached a plateau in your life where you have this feeling that there's just something more out there, we're going to work alongside you to reach new levels of success and fulfillment in your life.

00:22:02.980 So you can check that out at order of man.com slash iron council.

00:22:06.160 And I look forward to seeing you on the inside.

00:22:08.260 Now back to my interview with Clint.

00:22:09.900 The thing that I, as I go through the book, the thought that I've had is that all of this stuff is great information.

00:22:18.120 How do you work on these skills?

00:22:20.020 How do you practice these skills?

00:22:21.240 How do you actually start taking it from, okay, great.

00:22:23.520 I know some of this stuff to now I need to implement it.

00:22:26.220 So if, and when the time ever arises that I actually need to use it in the moment, I'll be skilled and proficient at doing so.

00:22:32.240 Well, the beauty of it is all of these are like no tech or low tech, right?

00:22:37.160 So it doesn't require, you know, you to go out and spend a ton of money to either build some of the improvised weapons that are mentioned or, you know, try out some of the skills.

00:22:49.300 It's usually, most of this is done with, you know, things you can find around the house.

00:22:54.020 So that's kind of the first goal overall is I wouldn't want to give people skills that, you know, require, you know, top secret, you know, Navy SEAL weaponry.

00:23:04.720 I mean, it's not going to happen.

00:23:06.540 You're not going to happen.

00:23:07.480 You're not going to be able to use it. 0.96

00:23:08.440 So why even, I mean, it's just, it's ridiculous.

00:23:10.580 It might be interesting, but it's not going to help you in a fight.

00:23:14.820 So I wanted one, hey, how can I identify some products that are like everyday items around the house

00:23:23.240 or that you would find in your car?

00:23:25.060 And then how can I use those in terms of surviving or, you know, defending or, you know, I hate the word defense.

00:23:32.400 You know, I think defense is about, lasts about one second and then you should be on the offense the rest of the time.

00:23:38.700 But, you know, that was kind of like, that was the goal, right?

00:23:42.600 And then if you break down the skills for each person, it's going to be different.

00:23:46.720 I mean, this is something like you said you could do with your kids.

00:23:49.660 I encourage it.

00:23:50.620 Or you, it's when you're sitting around watching TV, you can practice any, a lot of this stuff,

00:23:56.760 especially when you talk about restraint defeat, you know, when you need to get out of, whether it's tape, rope, handcuffs,

00:24:03.780 these are things that you can do when you're sitting around watching TV or turn into a game or just great conversation.

00:24:11.760 So I think everyone will find a way to kind of practice it and be proficient in certain things.

00:24:18.440 But, you know, the goal is, is just practice something, you know, and there's a hundred things in there to kind of play around with at any given moment.

00:24:26.020 And it also, at the same time, as you read these things, you start finding yourself becoming a little more resourceful.

00:24:32.500 I say, use a, a hairpin, you might turn around and go, Oh, I can also do that with a paperclip.

00:24:39.300 So, you know, and that's kind of the goal is it gives you the basics.

00:24:44.540 And then from there, anyone can grow whatever they want out of it.

00:24:48.980 Yeah.

00:24:49.200 It's, and it's funny that you actually say practice with your kids.

00:24:51.660 My son came up to me the other day and he had a rope and he said, dad, tie me up with this rope and let's see if I can get out of it.

00:24:55.900 And so he even, I mean, yeah, kids, kids, kids like it.

00:24:59.620 They like doing this stuff.

00:25:00.820 It's important.

00:25:01.300 I think, you know, what's really interesting is we had a guy on the local radio show who builds a ceramic plates as far as I can gather, but basically bulletproof plates that are adapted to fit into kids backpacks.

00:25:13.880 And he had a caller come on and the caller was upset that he would actually build or design this product and how horrible it is.

00:25:21.760 And the reality is, is that's horrible that we need to talk about it, but let's prepare and protect our children and let them be in a point where they can defend and protect themselves as well.

00:25:30.480 Right?

00:25:31.040 Yeah.

00:25:31.460 No, I think I, I, there's a lot of companies out there building some pretty cheap body armor, which is, I think is great.

00:25:37.560 I mean, that's, that's your, it's an advantage that you can have over a bullet, you know?

00:25:42.960 And when you break it down, I mean, it's, uh, it's not a bad thing to have.

00:25:48.740 And with, uh, school shootings, yeah, I mean, the way that it looks, you know, and the perception of that is one thing, but if it ever happened, you'd be glad you, you'd be glad that you had it, you know, in a backpack or your briefcase, your messenger bag, whatever it is you carry.

00:26:05.420 Some of the ones I've, I've played around with, I mean, are very lightweight.

00:26:09.360 You don't even know they're there once you stick them in there and, uh, you know, you kind of forget about it.

00:26:14.820 You know, that you've got your own little Captain America shield.

00:26:17.900 You can use it any given time.

00:26:19.960 Like that.

00:26:20.640 I like that.

00:26:21.140 Well, let's, let's move on to this, this conversation of psychological warfare, because I said, I think this is something that every single human being on the planet deals with from the guy who's being tried to, you know, trying to, to sell something to you.

00:26:33.580 To, I remember when I went through basic training and the drill sergeants, uh, employing psychological warfare on us to situations that I'm sure you've been in, in, in warlike environments.

00:26:44.180 Talk to me about the importance of understanding psychological warfare.

00:26:47.860 Um, well, in, in terms of the book, it was a, you know, one showing how creative, uh, you know, whether you're a good guy predator or a bad guy predator can be and, and, and leveraging, you know, different tools and skills to, uh, create one big fake or, you know, deception.

00:27:10.140 Um, and so, you know, how does this relate to us?

00:27:15.000 I mean, when you talk about sociopaths, um, and psychopaths, uh, these behavioral, um, whether they're learned traits or you're born with them, I think, uh, you know, that's still a debate.

00:27:27.880 These are, these are the, the mindsets that you're dealing with.

00:27:31.440 They will go to great lengths to trick you and manipulate you into thinking whatever it is they want you to think.

00:27:39.080 And so, uh, psychological warfare, it's important to recognize it.

00:27:45.540 And I, you call it psychological warfare, but at the end of the day, it's, it's, it's deception and it's human behavior that's, uh, it's being used to, you know, most of the time inflict harm or hurt people.

00:27:59.260 Um, and so, you know, we're surrounded 6% of the people that, you know, that are in corporate America or that we're surrounded by each day have, you know,

00:28:08.420 these, uh, what you call like problem personalities, you know, so you have the sociopaths, the psychopaths, the emotionally unstable, the paranoid, all of these can cause all kinds of problems in your life.

00:28:21.940 And, uh, so pointing it out is important because we probably will face this and more likely to face, you know, more of the, you know, the sociopathic tendencies of some of the people we're surrounded by.

00:28:34.700 Then we will like, you know, an earthquake or natural disaster of any sort or a terrorist attack.

00:28:39.680 And so in the book, it shows how one person can make bad guys believe that an entire neighborhood hates them, right?

00:28:47.460 It's not about, you know, vandalism and different degrees and Molotov cocktails to a certain compound and, and, and letter drops that, uh, that make a bad guy believe the whole neighborhood wants him out of there.

00:29:02.320 He's been ID'd and you want him to leave. But the reality is it's just one person doing it so that, uh, he'll, uh, basically show himself and make, make some mistakes so that the, the good guy can, uh, take care of business.

00:29:17.220 But sure. Yeah. The bigger picture is, you know, there's a lot of crazy people, uh, around us all the time. You need to be aware of that.

00:29:25.400 So how do you determine when psychological warfare or deception is being used on you?

00:29:31.000 You know, that's, um, when you talk about the psychology of all this, I mean, I, obviously I don't have a degree in that, but ultimately I think you have to do some fact finding and follow your gut.

00:29:42.580 Uh, if you have a certain situation that appears, you know, sometimes it's, uh, too good to be true type situations.

00:29:50.620 I like to use catfishing as one of the examples that, you know, we, we all probably face or will face at some point.

00:29:59.920 If you're on social media enough. And this is, uh, you know, this could be a housewife or, uh, some single woman somewhere or a man that, uh, you know, is sitting around bored and they try to, uh, get a, an online relationship going.

00:30:17.740 And usually it starts, they usually throw a hook out there. That's kind of like a, uh, a story of sorrow. And they try to get you hooked in emotionally. I had one recently that hit me up saying, Hey, I'm single. You know, um, I was, uh, I was raped. I was stabbed six times, had my throat cut and survived.

00:30:37.740 Now I live, you know, somewhat paranoid. What can you do to help me? So not the bat. That's quite the hook, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. 0.99

00:30:48.460 So of course I, you know, at first I was like, Whoa, this is a little too much information right off the bat, especially from a supposed victim. You know, most victims just don't lay it out there.

00:30:58.700 They don't want to put it out there. Yeah. Yeah. It just sounds like it's just something's off a little bit.

00:31:02.680 Yeah. There's something off. And then, you know, so right off the bat, you're like, all right, this is a behavioral right off. I was like, there's some behavior here. That's not normal. And I think we, we tend to ignore those signs, you know? Um, and then before you know it, you find yourself manipulated. So I think, you know, once again, you got to pay attention to what you're hearing and seeing. And a lot of times your gut will, uh, reveal the truth. And we just, you know, we just have a hard time interpolating that.

00:31:32.420 And, and actually, you know, saying no, or not allowing ourselves to be manipulated because some of these people are very, very good. Um, but you have to be on guard and kind of looking for it in order to, uh, detect it.

00:31:46.520 Right. Yeah. And I think, you know, I think, uh, as, as humans, we have a tendency to let our emotions cloud all of our decisions. I deal with it in the financial planning world. You deal with it in your line of work is when we start to tie our actions to the emotions and the way that we feel about things.

00:32:02.420 It might serve as great for finding love, but it also exposes ourselves to a lot of the potential risks that we may run into rather than being a little bit skeptical always about what's going on and allowing the situation to unfold before we make those emotional type decisions.

00:32:20.000 Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's easy to kind of, you know, you don't want to just always know, be the default or, you know, run away from it. I mean, the reality is it could be something true and sincere, but you know, in that case, you know, she kept on going, sending pictures, every picture. And this is some good skills for your listeners is that anytime you, whether it's Facebook or any of these dating sites, download the picture to your phone.

00:32:48.420 Then go to Google and type in reverse photo search. And there's a free little webpage that'll pop up. And then there's two buttons. It'll say import. So you import the photo. And then the second button says reverse search. You hit reverse search.

00:33:08.020 And what it'll do is go across the entire internet and it'll take that picture and you'll find out what URLs and websites that it's attached to. More times than not, if it's a scam or if it's a fake person, an avatar, a persona that's trying to either manipulate you or, you know, scam you in some sense.

00:33:30.940 You put that photo in there, you'll see it. When I did it with this, this particular woman, it was attached to a blogger out of Australia. She was using that woman's picture as her picture on a pro.

00:33:44.140 Then when she sent me all the little nudie shots, those pictures I threw in there to reverse search. And sure enough, they were tied to, you know, all the different, you know, porn sites and whatever else.

00:33:57.160 So everything about this person was fake, even though she was presenting very serious and real issues. I mean, there's some, there's a lot of tools out there these days, especially with the online kind of social issues.

00:34:12.860 Another thing I want to talk about is I think that as a military guy like yourself, it would be very easy for this to get bogged down in acronyms, which it's not, but you do use two acronyms, the COA and BLUF, B-L-U-F. So can you talk to me a little bit about those and what those mean there?

00:34:29.380 Sure. The, in our world, and I say our world, when you talk about like the military and you know, this, you have courses of action, you present courses of action. These are options really of, and that's what COA. And so in the illustrations, I wanted, I wanted the illustrations to be as simple as possible, no matter how complex the skill was.

00:34:51.880 And I think we accomplished that by breaking it down by courses of action. Um, you have a CONOP, which is your concept of operation, which really defines the skill. Then the courses of action are really the steps that you take to, um, do the skill. And then the BLUF, the BLUF is the bottom line up front.

00:35:13.620 And the bottom line up front really is a, a summary, sometimes tongue and tongue in cheek of the skill, you know, so, you know, when you're talking about disposing of a body, the BLUF on that one, of course, no body, no crime. Um, right.

00:35:30.040 A little tongue in cheek, but it is a very, you know, common summary of what the skill is all about. Following the violent nomad kind of good guy, assassin path that book takes. I mean, that's, uh, that's what that, it's basically, uh, the violent nomad and in a, in a fictional world would compare it to something like a Jason Bourne with all these skills and all these abilities.

00:35:54.140 And that's, that's kind of your, uh, that's the path that I chose for the hundred deadly skills to kind of come to life.

00:36:01.340 Right. And I think it's actually something, obviously we may not need to take it to the extreme, but I definitely think that it's something most of us because of the types of lifestyles that we live probably ought to consider implementing this just to give ourselves a little bit more balance when it comes to protecting ourselves.

00:36:19.820 And as men, you know, being protectors and providers and, and keeping those around us that, that we're responsible for safe. So I definitely think we need to implement some of these things.

00:36:28.680 Yeah, I hope so. I hope, uh, I hope every guy grabs this information. And if it, like I said, at a minimum, it's all about awareness, you know, and if it increases your awareness, great. If you have to use these skills, you know, that's, that's awesome too.

00:36:44.480 But if you're having to use them, that's usually means you're facing something bad. So that's not so good. But if you got the skills, you use them.

00:36:51.940 Well, so along the same lines of men being primarily the protector, I mean, that's society looks, I think, generally to men to be that protector. Talk to me about the concept, which you alluded to earlier, which is the sheep versus the sheep wolf versus the actual wolf, or excuse me, the sheep dog versus the actual wolf.

00:37:08.000 Yeah. So there's a, there's a West, there was a, um, a West point professor, Dave Grossman. He he's written a couple of books, but most popular was, uh, on killing on killing. Yeah. And he wrote combat. Um, and he really was the guy that made, uh, the metaphor of sheep, sheep, dogs, and wolves kind of come to life.

00:37:28.640 But it was through a interview he did with a Vietnam vet, um, asking him, you know, how do you break down society? And in the Vietnam vet, you know, answered with, you know, it's their sheep, sheep, dogs, and wolves. And then Grossman, um, ended up kind of expanding on that, that metaphor to then really define, you know, people.

00:37:52.740 And so sheep are, is all of, is everyone really. We all want to just go about our day, make money, live life, experience as much as possible, whatever it is. That's what we want to do. And sheep do it with the comfort of knowing that there are sheep dogs there to protect. And the sheep dogs represent your first responders, law enforcement, and the military. Um, and then of course you have wolves.

00:38:21.580 The wolves represent all the wolves represent all the threats we face each day. Now, now threats have exponentially increased and there are hundreds, you know, um, you have, these days you have technical threats, you have, you know, which, which is everything from audio, video, tracking devices, uh, and, and cyber crimes. You have health threats, you know, with, uh, you know, a new virus that seems to pop up every day.

00:38:47.780 You have raids, you have raids, robbery, ransom, you know, these are, these threats are, you know, uh, you know, uh, you know, that's, that's your petty, it's everything from getting pickpocketed to being murdered. Um, sure.

00:38:59.000 And then, and then of course you have, you know, environmental threats, you know, it seems like every day we're hearing about a new earthquake or, or, uh, you know, hurricane flooding, um, whatever's going on around us.

00:39:11.780 And then, and then it goes, you've got the more nefarious, discrete threats, you know, like all the different agencies that work against us, you know, you, you've got state sponsored cyber attacks, uh, you know, different countries trying to, you know, competitive intelligence where they're trying to grab our trade secrets and take them to market before we do.

00:39:31.180 Cause it's all about economic warfare these days, but it's the stuff we don't see.

00:39:35.860 And then, and then you have the threat that never goes away and that's terrorism.

00:39:39.320 So the wolf comes in, you know, many shades, many shapes, it's important to really identify them and, and, and, and know them.

00:39:48.900 And that's what, that's what, that's exactly what, you know, a sheep should do is strive to be more sheepdog like in the way that you become more sheepdog like is through awareness of all of these threats and then saying, okay, now what am I going to do to either prevent myself from being involved in any of that?

00:40:07.440 Or how am I going to react in order to increase my survivability?

00:40:11.980 And that's a very short version.

00:40:14.140 Yeah, no, that makes sense.

00:40:15.420 And I, and I got to tell you, I, I appreciate the work you're doing because I can see how these things and just being more aware is going to be applicable in my life and help me be the better man that I want to be.

00:40:24.300 And I should be for my family and my community.

00:40:26.840 So I appreciate that.

00:40:27.940 Now, Clint, we're winding down on time a little bit.

00:40:29.700 I want to ask you a couple other questions as we do.

00:40:31.480 And one that I asked all of my guests, everybody listening knows that I asked all my guests this.

00:40:35.380 And the question is, what does it mean to be a man?

00:40:38.560 That's a good question.

00:40:39.820 And I'm, I'm going to have to go back and listen to everyone's answers.

00:40:43.200 And then of course, compare it.

00:40:44.480 They're varied for sure.

00:40:45.480 Yeah.

00:40:45.780 Yeah. 0.95

00:40:46.120 And then I'll compare it to mine and go, God, my answer sucked. 0.71

00:40:49.340 I should have said that what he said. 0.63

00:40:51.360 Yeah.

00:40:52.280 Well, I mean, right off the bat, one, I, uh, be humble.

00:40:57.180 And I, for me, that is, I, I try to surround myself with people smarter than me all the time.

00:41:03.280 I never want to be the smartest guy in the room.

00:41:06.420 And if you find yourself being the smartest guy in the room, then your ego is probably,

00:41:11.320 uh, punched through, punched through the ceiling in which the room you sit.

00:41:16.720 And, uh, so I would say never find yourself, you know, being the smartest guy.

00:41:23.280 It's just, it should never happen.

00:41:25.620 It will never happen because we should always take the time to learn.

00:41:29.960 Um, there's always room for growth.

00:41:32.480 There's always time and, uh, an ability to become better and better and better.

00:41:38.300 And, you know, will we be our greatest?

00:41:41.740 Um, we will always strive for that, but is life long enough to get there?

00:41:45.640 Probably not.

00:41:46.520 So be humble.

00:41:48.160 And then of course, uh, strength, you know, I think that is used in a myriad of ways, but

00:41:55.380 being strong enough to carry yourself out of a situation, um, but always aim to be strong

00:42:03.960 enough to carry others.

00:42:05.360 And I think that, uh, physically be strong, emotionally be strong and mentally be strong

00:42:11.800 enough to not just get yourself through things, but really the strength comes when you can share

00:42:18.280 it with, uh, you know, the people around you.

00:42:21.120 And then when all else fails, you know, uh, we have a saying, you know, when in doubt,

00:42:25.740 overload, uh, we apply usually that comment to explosives.

00:42:30.920 So, um, you know, when in doubt, you know, just, you know, over communicate, overdo it.

00:42:36.760 And, uh, you know, there's a lot that comes from that.

00:42:39.680 If someone tells you that you need to, um, oh, you, you, you did way too much or, um, wow,

00:42:46.100 that was a lot.

00:42:47.140 Well then great.

00:42:48.060 Um, no one's ever going to tell you, you know, that that's a, it's a bad quality to

00:42:52.840 have.

00:42:53.240 So when in doubt, overload.

00:42:54.660 And I think that applies to even just, it's kind of like you go to a meeting, you know,

00:42:58.120 you're going to, and you, if you question whether you're going to wear a tie or not, then you

00:43:01.560 probably should wear the tie.

00:43:02.900 Just wear it.

00:43:03.680 Yeah.

00:43:04.420 Yeah.

00:43:04.580 That's my off the cuff answer for you, buddy.

00:43:06.880 I love it.

00:43:07.320 And definitely along the lines of, and some of the threads that other guys have said.

00:43:12.100 So you're right there for sure.

00:43:14.040 Great.

00:43:14.720 Hey, Clint, if somebody's listening to this and they like what you have to say,

00:43:17.940 they can see how this is applicable in their life.

00:43:19.780 How do we connect with you?

00:43:20.920 How do we buy the book?

00:43:21.620 Where do we go?

00:43:22.120 What do we do?

00:43:23.160 Um, everything is consolidated at 100 deadly skills.com and that's one zero zero deadly skills.com.

00:43:31.180 And it's got all the social media and, uh, everything about the current book.

00:43:35.900 And we have, I have a, uh, second book coming out this October that, uh, will give you an

00:43:42.020 additional hundred skills to, uh, face emergency situations of all kinds.

00:43:49.020 Awesome.

00:43:49.380 Well, I'll have to pick that up when it comes out.

00:43:51.620 I want to say that these are skills that I hope that I never have to use, but I'm glad

00:43:56.280 that I'll know how to use them if the situation arises.

00:43:58.940 So Clint, I appreciate you and your work and the time that you had.

00:44:01.980 Thanks for being on the show today, man.

00:44:03.260 Hey, thanks for having me, Ryan.

00:44:04.560 I love what you're doing and, uh, keep up the good work.

00:44:06.920 There you have it guys, deadly skills.

00:44:10.300 Every man should know with Clint Emerson.

00:44:12.180 I highly suggest you go out and pick up a copy and even pre-order a copy of the survivor

00:44:16.160 edition that will be available in October.

00:44:18.460 I've got mine ordered.

00:44:19.700 So I encourage you to get yours ordered as well.

00:44:21.740 Now in the meantime, go check out the iron council.

00:44:24.060 It's an elite group of brothers inside the council.

00:44:25.860 They're going to push you.

00:44:26.560 They're going to question you.

00:44:27.720 They're going to test you and they're going to hold your feet to the fire.

00:44:30.640 And that's what it takes.

00:44:31.760 That's what it's going to take to shake you out of the life you might currently find yourself

00:44:34.940 in.

00:44:35.160 So head to order of man.com slash iron council.

00:44:37.980 Join us right now.

00:44:39.340 Again, all the details of this show can be found at order of man.com slash zero six two.

00:44:43.580 You can also join in the conversation we're having about masculinity in our Facebook group

00:44:46.840 at facebook.com slash groups slash order of man guys.

00:44:51.340 I look forward to talking with you next week, but until then take action and become the man

00:44:54.600 you were meant to be.

00:44:56.640 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.

00:44:59.480 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:45:03.460 We invite you to join the order.

00:45:05.160 And order of man.com.

Order of Man - May 24, 2016

OoM 062： Deadly Skills Every Man Should Know with Clint Emerson

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