By Doc Rogers
There are two things in the EP business that you should never do: lie about your experience and lie about your training. If an EP agent does not have the background or skill required for a particular assignment he or she should be honest about it. If its found out that the agent does not have the background or skills he or she pretended to have they will be dismissed from the detail and be replaced.
The agent’s name will be mud in the small EP community and his or her chances of earning a good living in the industry will be difficult. Never say you have done something in the industry or lie about your background; to do so is absolutely unforgivable.
I once interviewed an agent who lied about protecting a certain Hollywood actor, one that was under contract with our company in which the agent did not know about. He was caught in a lie, the word got out and unfortunately his career was damaged.
If golden opportunities come up but you don’t have the required credentials, background, or experience to handle it professionally; you can hire someone with a thorough background and knowledge of the business to manage the assignment on your behalf, but do not lie.
Be completely honest with the prospect client or the EP sub-contractor and yourself. Learn whatever you can about the EP trade, get educated about the business side of things to be better equipped to understand the assignments you may be offered and absorb valuable insights into the workings of the industry.
But, never lie about your qualifications. You may not get that particular EP assignment, you will surely be remembered for your honesty. Keep safe and God speed.
http://www.trafford.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?Book=182707
http://www.amazon.com/Corporate-Executive-Protection-Inspiring-Bodyguards/dp/1425135927
http://international-corporate-executive-protection.com/order.asp
Great points from Don: name-dropping is an epidemic here in LA. The bigger the name, the higher up the agent thinks he is on the food chain. Problem is: many celebs have revolving-door details manned by whatever rookie is available so that the “reference” is meaningless (unless it’s a letter of recommendation). Sitting in his car overnight in some starlet’s driveway doesn’t mean that the guy was on her personal detail or that she even met him!
Now some of the people associated with this site are in another situation altogether as they’ve run their own businesses and worked directly for A-listers. In that case their association with the celebrities are well-known. At a given time, who is protecting who is industry, if not public, knowledge.
But for most of us, name-dropping is nothing but an indiscretion in my view. I list companies on my resume, never clients.
We see this all the time. We’ve even had folks apply with us claiming clients that were OUR clients. This also raises another point which is too MUCH disclosure. We require NDAs to be signed so when we get applicants who have all these names and addresses of former clients it raises an eyebrow. Another red flag is folks that like to post a lot of pics of themselves on Facebook etc with celebrities. The key to this occupation is discretion and it is sorely lacking in a lot of would be EP agents these days. If youre trying to break in to this business to BE famous instead of just protecting the famous youre in the wrong line of work.
Well said Hucky and Doc! Speaking as a client, I cannot over-stress the importance of honesty in this business. Thanks for posting!
Great pic lol…