I worked in Military Intelligence...

[Iwokeup]

Bottom Line Up Front: I worked in the human intelligence field in the Marine Corps. I have received extensive training on persuasion based on motivations, human interaction, and information extraction from people. If you have questions regarding any of this, I would love to hear them and give you my best take on the situation.

One thing that I love about being an entrepreneur is the idea that you can be successful by adding value to other peoples lives. I think this true in all of life, not just business. Although I have owned a business before and have some experience there, I have a different skill set that I hope can be helpful to treps in the Fastlane community.

I spent five of my ten years in the Marine Corps working in the human intelligence field. Here is a brief summary of my qualifications:

- Certified Interrogator

- Trained and operated in Counterintelligence (protecting information) and Human Intelligence (getting information from people)

- Operated in a dozen countries in South America, Europe and the Middle East

- Cross-cultural communication training

- Established and used human networks to get information

- Instructed Marines in the above subjects

It sounds like a really cool job, and don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. But there is a lot more paperwork and it is much less sexy than Hollywood would have you believe.

What does this have to do with The Fastlane?

When I had my last business, I used my skill set almost every single day. You name it, it came in handy. Employee relations, vendor relations, and of course, SALES. Even over the phone, I was able to use what I had learned to get to the motivations behind the person who was making the decision.

Although I never interrogated anyone in a business setting (that would have been interesting and probably not worked so well haha), the fundamentals of human intelligence work so well in business it should be illegal. As many have said on these forums, people like to do business with people they like. It makes it so much easier to understand a few fundamentals of what makes the person you are interacting with tick.

Some are simple "tricks of the trade" like mirroring someones body language so that they feel more connected to you. Others are much deeper, like selling a big order to a business owner because you uncovered the fact that he relies on that business to put his daughter through college and you show him that you can help him achieve his goals with your product. It's not about the order. It's about what that order does to help him achieve his goals.

To use someones motivations, you first have to find out what they are. 50% of my job in the Marines was to teach young Marines how to ask good questions (yes, there is a good way and a bad way to ask the same exact question) and to listen, truly listen, so that you could get to these underlying motivations and use them.

I won't be able to talk about certain things. The government has a paper with my name on it that says I can't disclose certain things about specific operations and things of that nature. But this thread isn't meant to be a "war stories" thread. I would just like to share some of the thought process behind HOW we got people to tell us things and then used that to get where we needed to get with them.

Hopefully this adds some value to your endeavors. I look forward to your questions.

Hah! Another former Marine Intel guy. But 0231 not one of you weirdo types. Thank you for this thread.

 

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