When you work for an extremely popular mega-star, one of the major responsibilities is dealing with the paparazzi. They can be like sharks with cameras, and navigating rough waters with a famous celebrity can be tricky and sometimes downright dangerous.

I worked for a major recording celebrity in the 1980s who didn’t like having his picture taken. He was always asking us to try and confiscate the film. One time, as my client was getting into his limousine, a photog jumped into the car with him to snap a close shot. The client went crazy, and the head of security asked us to handle the situation. I was young, but I knew that if I laid my hands on this photographer, or his camera equipment,  it could mean big trouble since the law would be on his side. The other two bodyguards in the entourage jumped into action–forcefully ejecting the guy from the car and grabbing his camera and film.

Of course, the photog called the police and one bodyguard was arrested for battery and the other for robbery. They spent the night in jail.

Since our client was so adamant about not letting people take his picture, it was always a big pain dealing with the paparazzi. He’d order us to confiscate the film from the camera (that was back before digital) but we’d all learned our lesson, and it wasn’t worth jail or the consequential smear on our records to steal property from other people just because he was camera-shy! It got so we’d keep rolls of film in our pockets, just so he’d think we’d done his bidding. We’d race off after a guy, and a couple minutes later, return. He’d ask to see the evidence, and we’d reach into a pocket and pull out one of our decoys.

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Bodyguard Careers is Pleased to Announce a new feature for visitors to this site: ***  V I D E O ***

In an effort to stay current, and to keep our content fresh and informative, every Friday we will post a new video streaming material related to the Bodyguarding or EPS biz! Sometimes it will be educational, some-

times it will be something we’ve found to make you laugh. If YOU have an idea for content, feel free to contact us!

 Enjoy!

Harlan, Jeff & Cynthia

This an oldie but a goodie, remember this is strictly for laughs

 

Prof. Leonard C. Holifield, CPS, is President and CEO of the International Academy of Executive Protection Agents, LLC. Known as the Harvard of Bodyguard Schools, he is an honor graduate of ESI - Executive Security International and former chief security officer and personal bodyguard to the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, Chief Justice Roy S. Moore, aka the Ten Commandments Judge. With over 20 years in the security business, Prof. Holifield is one of the most sought after instructors in the United States.

He is the author of SOLO - Security Operations for the Lone Officer (Outskirts Press) and Close Quarter Combat “A Soldiers Guide to Hand-to-Hand Combat” (Paladin Press). He is a frequent lecturer on executive protection, national hate groups and gangs, unarmed self defense and one-man solo security operations. He has been recognized by several national and international organizations; to include Marquis Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals, WOMA’s Who’s Who in the Martial Arts and Combative Masters of the 20^th Century (Lulu Press). As former Chief Combatives Instructor to the United States Army his work in the field of hand-to-hand combat has been featured in major military publications to include Army Trainer, Soldiers, KORUS and Military Police magazines. A former military police officer and highly decorated veteran of the Gulf War, he was credited with capturing the first Iraqi POW during Operation Desert Storm. He is the president and founder of the International Sikaron Karate Federation and holds 3^rd, 6^th, and 10^th degree black belts in Judo, Hapkido and Sikaron Karate respectively.

BGC: How did you get started in the Executive Protection Field?  What  was your very first assignment?

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BLINK: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

by Malcolm Gladwell

Published by Alan Lane, 2005

288 Pages

This book is a good read because it talks about things that you don’t necessarily “learn” in training programs–but rather is something that you need to develop for yourself. This book is about making important decisions based on experience, intuition and intelligence–all within the “blink” of an eye!Gladwell calls this process “Rapid Cognition,” and as he says on his website, he doesn’t ever actually use the word “intuition’ because that suggests something on an emotional or gut level–something almost “not rational.” He believes those first few seconds are actually perfectly rational–just thinking at a faster rate. This idea is something that is a core characteristic to achieving success in Executive Protection, and makes for a fascinating read!

Here is an excerpt from the book:

Imagine that I asked you to a play a very simple gambling game. In front of you, are four decks of cards–two red and two blue. Each card in those four decks either wins you a sum of money or costs you some money, and your job is to turn over cards from any of the decks, one at a time, in such a way that maximizes your winnings. What you don’t know at the beginning, however, is that the red decks are a minefield. The rewards are high, but when you lose on red, you lose a lot. You can really only win by taking cards from the blue decks, which offer a nice, steady diet of $50 and $100 payoffs. The question is: how long will it take you to figure this out?

A group of scientists at the University of Iowa did this experiment a few years ago, and what they found is that after we’ve turned over about fifty cards, most of us start to develop a hunch about what’s going on. We don’t know why we prefer the blue decks. But we’re pretty sure, at that point, that they are a better bet. After turning over about eighty cards, most of us have figured the game out, and can explain exactly why the first two decks are such a bad idea. This much is straightforward. We have some experiences. We think them through. We develop a theory, and then finally we put two and two together. That’s the way learning works. But the Iowa scientists did something else, and this is where the strange part of the experiment begins. They hooked each gambler up to a polygraph–a lie detector machine–that measured the activity of the sweat glands that all of us have below the skin in the palms of our hands. Most sweat glands respond to temperature. But those in our palms open up in response to stress–which is why we get clammy hands when we are nervous. What the Iowa scientists found is that gamblers started generating stress responses to red decks by the tenth card, forty cards before they were able to say that they had a hunch about what was wrong with those two decks. More importantly, right around the time their palms started sweating, their behavior began to change as well. They started favoring the good decks, and taking fewer and fewer cards from A and B. In other words, the gamblers figured the game out before they figured the game out: they began making the necessary adjustments long before they were consciously aware of what adjustments they were supposed to be making.

Many Executive Protection candidates make an extremely positive impression on paper, but lose the job race just crossing the finish line. Why?

The Interview.

Ask yourself if you are an interviewee who makes the mistake of thinking one of these two things:

1. That The Interview is just to reiterate what’s on the resume –OR–

2. That the interviewer is your BFF (Best Friend Forever)

Let’s take the first point: They have already read your resume, that’s why they want to meet you! They certainly may review items on the resume, but what they’re really listening for and watching is how you talk about your role in the positions you’ve held. They’re listening for inconsistencies between what you state on the resume and whether or not your skills match that statement. It’s offering more detail on the work than is on the resume. They want to sense your leadership skills, your ability to take direction, your behavior in the face of adversity. They want to know if you are serious about your work. They want to know what you take pride in.

They want to know who you are and exactly how it is that you are going to make their lives easier/better/safer and that you will be worth every penny they plan to spend on filling that important position.

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