EverydaySpy Podcast - How to Break Into Private Intelligence

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

More than 74k people every month apply for government jobs in the intel sector. 98% of them are rejected. But at the same time, a much smaller group is breaking into private intelligence, making more money, and doing the same impactful work. In this episode, Andrew breaks down what private intelligence is (and isn't) and explains the surprising connections between federal intelligence and the private intelligence sector. Make sure to check out https://everydayspy.com/red to start building your own private intel skills! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Andrew Bustamante, and this is everyday espionage. I recently held a webinar where I was giving folks on my newsletter list some insight into my summer plans and my everyday life and the business development side. And I talked a lot about private intelligence. And what I was shocked to discover was how many people didn't understand the really cool aspects of private intelligence. There were great questions and great feedback during the webinar itself, and I was especially impressed by how deep folks wanted to go with the world of intelligence outside of the U.S. government. And when I talk about private intelligence, that's what I'm talking about. Private intelligence is intelligence work outside of national security. Sometimes it has to do with business intelligence.

Sometimes it has to do with security intelligence as it pertains to government buildings or as it pertains to information. security in the commercial space. But private intelligence is a big, broad brush that covers all sorts of things. And even though it covers non-national security issues, it still uses the same skills that you find in national security. So private intelligence still uses all the same cool technology. It still uses weapons. It still uses dead drops. It still uses human intelligence concepts and sources and methods. So private intelligence is a really fast. fascinating and exciting place to work, and that's why I continue to do it. That's why I am a private intelligence consultant, and it's why I built everyday spy to help share intelligence

tactics and techniques with everybody, with everyday people, because it can solve everyday problems. I wanted to take some time in this conversation today with you to break down three popular areas that people often mistake for one another, and those three areas are the world of security, the world of law enforcement, and the world of intelligence. And more specifically, I'm going to be talking about private intelligence. Now, the world of security is pretty well known. And honestly, it's the world that gets the most bad press. All of your black waters and all of your crazy mercenaries out there that you read about who are doing bad things and bad places for bad reasons. That's all really technically considered security, private security. And security is,

kind of defined by two, by one key word and two key areas. So if there's physical protection or digital protection, that is the definition of security. Security is meant to be a barrier. So when you've got paid contract killers out there, basically trying to put up some sort of a barrier, some kind of a solution, a permanent solution to some sort of crazy, scary problem, whether it's a conspiracy or whether it's real, that's the world of security, whether it's ex-military or ex-police who are in plain clothes, you know, beating up people who are rioting or whatever else. That is all that scary world of like corrupt, but it is known as security. Now, second to that is the world of law enforcement. The world of law enforcement is defined by the

word law. If a law is not broken, then there is no law. to enforce. And this is the big disadvantage to law enforcement types. Law enforcement can't take action until a crime has been committed. So all the people out there who judge and who ridicule and who condemn our police force, especially in the United States, because they didn't respond to a call fast enough or they didn't prevent like a school shooting or some sort of public bombing. Law enforcement can't do anything until a law has been broken. So, even if you were to tell them that some parent is beating their child or even if you were to tell them that some suspect student has a fascination with guns, law enforcement has to respect the

civil liberties and the rights of every individual until that individual crosses a certain threshold. And that's the world of law enforcement. The world of private investigation isn't that different, right? In order for an investigation to happen, somebody must request the investigation. Nobody requests an investigation, essentially, until after a negative activity or a negative outcome has already happened. So both law enforcement and private investigation are all reactive. And that's a very difficult place to be for them because it's hard to take everybody's dissatisfaction, everybody's frustration, even when you're doing an excellent job.

So law enforcement is all about enforcing the law, and security is all about creating some kind of barrier, so then that leaves intelligence. How does Intel differ from security or law enforcement? Intel's job is to predict and prevent negative outcomes from happening. That is intelligence. Whether it's government intelligence in the national security world or whether it's private intelligence, it's all about being able to take information and use that information to predict and prevent negative outcomes, but also predict and execute positive outcomes. Here's the thing, the big super secret sauce that explains private intelligence. Everybody, everybody wants to be able to predict and control the outcome.

Everyone. So even though private intelligence doesn't get talked about very much in headlines because it's not as sexy or as exciting or as interesting as long. enforcement or private security, everybody wants private intelligence. It is a high demand, high paying, hotly like competitive area. And a big part of what makes it so competitive and what makes it so high income generating is because of the intense demand. Because if you can successfully help a company or a high net worth individual or even a government, if you can help them predict and control an outcome in their favor, you have a guaranteed customer for life. And there's

almost no amount of money people won't pay once they have seen that you are able to predict and control an outcome for them. Now, here's what's really interesting. Where do these people come from, right? Where does private intelligence come from? How do experts get picked or experts market themselves as private intelligence specialists. This is what's so fascinating. Once you're inside the world that I live and work in, there's two roads to private intelligence. There's the very typical road where you're like me

and you go into government intelligence, national security intelligence, NSA, CIA, NGA, whatever it might be, DIA, FBI. FBI is technically law enforcement, but they do a lot of cool counterintelligence stuff. Either way, you find your way into government intelligence, and then ultimately you choose to leave the world of government intelligence

and the world of private intelligence scoops you up because there's just there's tons of companies out there doing private intelligence and one of their gold standards is being able to pull someone out of the intelligence world and then use their credentials, use their skill sets, use their accolades in the private world. But the other way that you get into private intelligence is you just apply and go into private intelligence. Here's what's fascinating, folks. The halls of CIA, the halls of DIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the halls of NSA, the National Security Agency, are packed with civilian, non-government, private intelligence contractors. And they don't look the way you think

they would look. These are folks straight out of college. These are folks straight out of one or two years in corporate America. Young entry-level people, that just had a clean background and showed that they were creative and assertive and intelligent enough to basically apply for an intelligence position in the contracting world. That's all it was. And then one of these major intelligence contractors out there, like CACI or Booz Allen Hamilton or Raytheon or, you know, you name them, somebody posted a job opening and the job opening said intelligence analyst or the job opening said intelligence specialist or entry level

intelligence worker right who knows what the job opening said but some crafty intelligent young person said i want to do that and then they applied and inside these private intelligence companies they are a machine they're just a giant grinding machine that takes entry level folks in it pays them an entry level salary and then it gives them a clearance sometimes a very high clearance and it brings them into a big name three-letter government intelligence agency. And then there they are. Before they even realize it, they're sitting side by side with someone who lives and works undercover, their friends, coworkers working the same operations, working the same missions, traveling to the same places. Only one is private and one is government. And three or

four or seven years goes by and then guess what happens? That big government three-letter acronym needs to hire. They could go through this really big complicated hiring process to find somebody new, but it's much easier for them to simply tap on the shoulder of the private contractor, the private intelligence person, who's been sitting in the office anyways, and simply ask them if they want to work government instead. That's how it works. It's amazing, right? When you see this talked about in headlines, it's usually negative. People are talking about the government is wasting money on intelligence contractors or intelligence consultants. If you want to to use those terms, you'll have a heyday on Google and spending all this money to bring these people

in and then lose them later on. That's not the case. The government spends a bunch of money to bring these people in. That is true. But then that process of working in a government intelligence infrastructure is essentially their two to four to seven year job application. Right. And then in the end, the government gets to flip these people. We call it flipping them from green to blue, which is a reference to their badge, but we flip them to make them government employees after that, well-trained, experienced, educated intelligence officers. And that's the relationship.

So while so many people, I mean, it's like 74,000 people a month apply to work directly in government intelligence. Tens of thousands of people a month. And 98% of them get rejected. They never even make it to the second stage. But then you've got this much smaller group that's going directly into private intelligence, and they find themselves working side by side in the exact same agency, making twice the income in half the time with a almost guaranteed transition if they're successful later on.

So that's it. Those are your two options. You can get into CIA, you can get into NSA any number of ways. You can go direct government or you can go through private intel. And what's fascinating is that the cycle, the cycle starts the cycle. same and it ends the same because folks like me and folks who retire from CIA or NSA, when they come out, they have such a specialized skill set. There's really only one market that calls to them immediately, private intelligence. So it's not unrealistic. It's not unreasonable to have someone who starts in private intel, makes the jump to government intel, has an entire career in national security intelligence, and then transitions again back into private intelligence. Now, we

talk about how much money they can earn, right? So what does a private intelligence income look like? A starting consultant, like that 22-year-old, almost straight out of college, starting consultant, can easily earn between $90,000 and $150,000 a year in private intelligence working for one of those consultants. Plus, the better they are at their job, the more motivated the company is to keep them in place. So then they start seeing bonuses and they start seeing promotions. each year. That's a huge amount of money compared to your starting government salary, which is somewhere between like $65,000 and $80,000 a year, right? So the two people sitting next to each other with essentially the same background and the same accolades are going to be making

tens of thousands of dollars different depending on if they came in private or if they came in government. But that's just the beginning of the career, right? By the time you leave federal government and transition into private intelligence, you're making $600 to $1,000 a day on a contract. And that's just basic intelligence contracts. Some of the stuff that I do nets me more than $10,000 a day because of the project. Whatever the project is, the higher the level of impact that it has to the client, the higher the net value is to the client. So when I get contacted by a multi-million or multi-trillion dollar company that has a very

specific intelligence need, and they want me to satisfy that need. When I can successfully predict and deliver to them the outcome they want, that is worth an insane amount of money to them. So they have no problem cutting a very healthy check for me, oftentimes tens of thousands of dollars. I have yet to break a single six-figure contract, but I'm getting closer by the day. That is how private intelligence works. It's all about being able to predict and deliver controlled outcomes. Now, some of you wonder how you even get started in private intel. Do you have to have a resume? Do you have to have certain skills? You don't have to have certain skills, but if you want them, people want you to have them. And one of the most popular ways to start with private intelligence is by having

a background in surveillance. And a big reason that I offer a surveillance training course called my Red Team training course is because I want to encourage and and give people, equip people with the skills they need to test and succeed in private intelligence. So if you go to everydayspy.com forward slash red, RED, you'll see exactly what I teach in my Red Team training course. You'll see exactly what surveillance, counter surveillance, and surveillance detection skills. You can learn with Everyday Spy and you can see how the certification works and you can take that certification to any private intelligence group anywhere in the country and immediately they're going to understand your value to their organization and your value.

to national security intelligence, state intelligence, or corporate intelligence. It's as simple as that because the process itself is just as predictable as the product that we're trying to deliver. So if you want a career in intelligence, you can absolutely keep hoping and keep studying and keep dreaming and keep reading about it. There is not a single thing wrong with that, right? 75,000 or more people every month apply on hopes and dreams and what they've read about. But you can also take real specific action right now. You can just go out and apply for a private intelligence job. You can take a certification course like what I offer at everydayspy.com forward slash red. Or you can start networking on LinkedIn or anywhere else to make your way into

having contacts with the hiring managers and the talent scouts for any of these major national intelligence or state intelligence commercial organizations. Who were they looking for? This is a question I get all the time. Also, they are looking for people with a finance background. They're looking for people with strong writing skills. They're looking for people with technology backgrounds. They're looking for straight up creative people, people that don't even have to have a college degree. This is what's so interesting about intelligence. There is no single skill that you need to have that they can't teach you. Instead, what they're looking for are people who understand their intrinsic value and are willing to take a risk to try their hand

at private intelligence or try their hand at federal intelligence also. But that's what it takes. If you're sitting there, if you're an accountant, board at work, you're the perfect candidate. If you're sitting there and you're an IT professional and you're bored at work, you're the perfect candidate, right? If you're a struggling creative, a painter, an actor, someone who does costumes, someone who does sets, if you're sitting around and you don't like what you're doing and intelligence calls to you, you are actually just a few steps, a few clicks, a few phone calls away from being able to leverage your experience and your skill set in the private intelligence sector for a whole heck of a lot more money. And if you don't want to take the step

on your own, if you're not ready to take the step on your own, go and take you. Go and take an interesting and enjoyable training course, like what I offer with EverydaySpy.com, or go to some survival course or go to anywhere you want to go, really, but test yourself and see, is this the kind of thing I would want to do? If you want to test yourself with surveillance, go to everydayspy.com forward slash red. If you want to test yourself with survival, go to some survival school. If you want to test yourself with tactical driving or with tactical shooting, I offer courses on that, too. There's all sorts of ways you can go see whether or not private intelligence is really something that you want to do because you are a whole lot closer to having success in that world

than you think you are. Most people want something. They want to be an intelligence. They want to make more money. They want to have an exciting life. But they fail. The reason that they fail is because they want and they dream and they never take action. I am telling you right now, if you take action, you will win where they lose. And that is everyday espionage. Everyday espionage is dedicated to one thing, educating everyday people. I know that not everyone will listen,

but those who listen will learn. If you learned something new today, click subscribe, review, and share the podcast with a friend. Find me on social media at Everyday Spy or on my website, Everydayspy.com. If you are up for a special challenge, visit Everydayspy.com forward slash operations and join me for an authentic spy training mission.

And above all else, remember that knowledge is freedom.