Secret Agent: Send Your Children To A Village! How To Detect A Lie Instantly! The Eye Contact Trick I Learnt From 12 Years As A Secret Service Agent! - Evy Poumpouras

Evy Poumpouras (0:00)

Being an interrogator on a special agent with the US. Secret Service, I'm trained in the art of reading people's slottie language, verbal cues, I mean even written statements. So you can figure out who's full of BS and who isn't.

SPEAKER_2 (0:10)

No.

Evy Poumpouras (0:11)

So one of the things I would see a lot of guilty people do is...

Steven Bartlett (0:14)

Evy Poumpouras, former US.

SPEAKER_2 (0:16)

Secret Service special agent who protected presidents, worked undercover and trained in the art of lie detection, human behavior and cognitive influence. She's now on a mission to help us all benefit from the lessons she's learned along the way.

Steven Bartlett (0:28)

Evy, I want to go into all of the techniques, the life lessons, the wisdom. So what are the core components of how to get someone to do what you want?

Evy Poumpouras (0:34)

Everybody's motivated by something different. What you want to understand is that person's motivational mindset. But the biggest mistake people make is that...

Steven Bartlett (0:42)

What about when your boss or your colleague isn't listening to you? What should you do?

Evy Poumpouras (0:45)

So it's called paralinguistics. Everyone's so focused on what they say, they don't think about the tone, pitch or the voice. But there are simple things you can do to make sure people hear you.

Steven Bartlett (0:54)

First, you spent 12 years around people like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Did you learn anything about leadership?

Evy Poumpouras (1:00)

They're not driven by emotion. And the problem the majority people have is they bring their feelings into it. You don't want to be an emotional decision maker. It never goes well. Pull back and be objective.

Steven Bartlett (1:11)

Evy, when you think back of your secret service experience, was there ever a day when you thought the president's life was at risk?

Evy Poumpouras (1:17)

You know, I don't think I ever talked about it, but...

Steven Bartlett (1:19)

And then what was the scariest moment of your career?

Evy Poumpouras (1:22)

There's another undercover case. All these things are escalating. Any second he's going to kill my partner, I pull my gun out, and I...

That stayed with me.

Steven Bartlett (1:43)

Evy, if someone's just clicked on to this podcast to listen, because they thought the title was interesting or the thumbnail was interesting, with the understanding that we're going to talk about the work you're doing in this season of your life and who you're doing it for, can you tell me exactly why they should stay and listen to this conversation?

Evy Poumpouras (2:02)

I think for each person it's different, but why should you listen? At the core, we're always trying to become something better. I wrote my book, becoming Bulletproof, and I think the essence of that was I'm trying to become more than. And how about this? The day you think you know everything is the day you become obsolete.

I live by that because I am never at my peak. I'm always becoming more. So if you're looking to become more, and you don't know what that is exactly, then listen.

Steven Bartlett (2:35)

All of this information we're going to talk about today, the techniques, the things you've learned, the life lessons, the wisdom, where does it come from? What is your... If I looked at your CV, what would I see?

Evy Poumpouras (2:46)

I probably honestly came from... Probably comes from growing up in New York, daughter of immigrants. I think that there's one aspect there. But I truly think the majority is when I became a New York City police officer. And then I went to the US. Secret Service. And I went in young. I was like 22, 23 And so while everyone's out at that age partying, doing whatever, I went into this field. And I was around a lot of other elite performers and thinkers. And I learned so much. Training humbles you. The job humbles you. And then also working in the White House. Being around other top performers, top thinkers. That really kind of, not kind of, I mean, that really, I grew up there. I grew up in the White House. I grew up in the US. Secret Service.

That's how I grew up. So I think that those things help shape me and mold me. Not just training, but also the people I was around. I learned a lot, made many mistakes, but I had really good, I don't want to say role models, because I don't like that word. I don't look at anybody and say, I want to be that. No. I want to be me. But I can look at other people and learn and get inspired from them and see what they do. So I had those examples that guided me. So I think that's the majority of where that comes from. And then the practicing of it, flexing that muscle. It's like a workout. You have to keep doing that and being honest with yourself.