EverydaySpy Podcast - The Business of Making Opportunities

Episode Date: August 17, 2021

People think spying is the business of keeping secrets. But they're wrong. Spies make their living by finding secrets, and that takes a special kind of skill that you can use to build your career and grow your business. In this episode, Andrew introduces you to his private intel network and tells you exactly how you can work with them, too... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My name is Andrew Bustamante, and this is everyday espionage. Earlier this week, I found myself at a very interesting conversation with some awesome people. So I was sitting in a table, and it was surrounded essentially by people just way smarter than me. I had one guy who's on his way to becoming a millionaire within the next maybe two years. And then across from me, I had another guy who's running one of the sexiest private intelligence businesses that I've ever heard of. And then on my right, I had a super smart, super attractive like Uber female who was like ruling life and also on her way to independent wealth. And now during this conversation, we were just friends. And I love my friends. I love hanging out with the people that I hang out with.

Everything is kind of partially work, partially family, partially fun, partially, you know, crazy, hectic business building. But these are the people that I spend my time with. These are the people who shape me and who I have the privilege of shaping. And during this conversation, the guy across from me who runs a private intel firm started getting really serious. Now, the conversation really turned. And I noticed as the topic changed, that's when he got really emotional, really pointed and really just frankly angry. And what he was talking about was that those of us that leave CIA and focus on building something that had never been built before, something like a private intelligence firm, something like a nonprofit, something like a business.

We are in the business of making opportunity happen where opportunity never existed before. And it's the same thing that we used to do in the field. It's the same work that we did at CIA. We would make an opportunity to collect secrets that previously didn't exist. And it's awesome work. Creating opportunity is awesome work. But what he was finding and where our conversation was going was how often people waste the opportunities

you work so hard to make. If you have kids, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You bust your butt, you work your job, you suffer without sleep to create opportunities for your children. And oftentimes children don't even understand that there is an opportunity. front of them, an opportunity to have more fun, an opportunity to see something awesome, an opportunity to learn something new. Instead, they become very focused in their own little world.

Unfortunately, the same thing happens with adults. You might bust your butts to create an opportunity for someone who's blind to the opportunity because they are trapped in the same kind of selfish world as that child in our example with parents, right? Everybody says they want an opportunity, but when you place an opportunity in front of them, there is a huge amount of people who either chicken out or who decide that they can't face the fact that they might fail at that opportunity. So they just deny it, reject it, or even criticize that opportunity. Now, here we are at the end of season five.

And this has been an awesome season because not only have I seen the podcast audience grow, I've watched my business grow. I've watched my friends and their successful businesses grow. We've come through a lot together, you and I listening on this conversation that we have every few weeks. Three months ago, I had two people reach out to me to engage me in an opportunity to license everyday spy. So for those of you who don't know what that means,

there were two individuals who reached out and said that they wanted to start their own business, which was essentially a carbon copy of everyday spy licensing my material, licensing my content, my training, my business process, et cetera. Now, I had thought about whether or not I wanted to ever license my brand, license my business out to someone else. I thought it was about five or seven years away. So I was a little bit surprised when only two years into my business, I already started getting those invitations.

Now, one of the first things I do whenever an opportunity is presented to me is I try to not to say no out of fear, out of anxiety, out of uncertainty, out of whatever's unknown. So when I had the opportunity to explore licensing further, I said, let's look into it. I took on the opportunity and I moved forward with it. And the first person I reached out to was obviously Ghee, but Ghee had the same reaction I did. Isn't it a little bit early to do that? So we reached out to someone smarter than us. We reached out to our corporate attorney. Now, if you have ever done anything in the business world with a corporate attorney, you know that they are basically the exact opposite of people who engage opportunities. Corporate attorneys make their money by basically saying no to as much

as possible so that they can keep their business owners as safe as possible. And that was exactly what happened with our attorney. Our attorney heard the invitation. I told him some of my ideas, why I thought it was a good idea or an interesting idea, how I thought we could really use it to magnify the impact that the business was making by reaching other segments, by reaching other markets that gee he and I just don't reach from here in Florida or when we're up in Maine or next year when we go overseas. The attorney absolutely hated the idea of licensing. And it was because he looks at our business and he sees we are in a niche market with huge demand and little to no competition. Now if you don't follow business or if you don't understand business speak,

Essentially what he was saying is that everyday spy is the only business out there building a personal relationship with two former covert CIA officers direct to consumers. If you want to go buy a memoir or a book from a former CIA officer, you can. And if you try to email them, they're not going to write you back. You hear former CIA officers all the time interviewed on other podcasts and you might even see them running other businesses. but when you try to reach out to them immediately and have any kind of personal relationship with them, you go through a marketing team, you go through a media team, you go through some kind of gatekeeper. That is because almost every other former agency person in the public sphere is in a business where they are being produced or being published by some big publisher or some production company. So because of that, they don't really own rights to their own stuff.

They're just kind of like a figurehead. They're a face. They're a name. but they have to get sent to go speak on Fox News or on CNN or on MSNBC. They get assigned and tasked by somebody else who owns rights to their stuff. Everyday spy is not like that. We are completely original. We are our own product.

We are our own business entity. And we specialize in relationship content marketing, helping people understand what espionage is and how espionage can be used in your everyday life, in the workplace, to provide your own security, whatever else. That is what we do. And that is a licensable product. And our corporate attorney did not want us to license that product because nobody else is doing it.

And if we licensed it and taught other people how to do what we're doing, we would essentially be creating the competition in our own marketplace. So he was completely opposed to the idea. I didn't listen to my attorney because I knew what he was going to say. And I knew that he wasn't going to be focused on individual impact. And gee, he and I are all about individual impact. I don't care if I create seven other competitors in my space. That just means seven times as many people are going to learn the skills.

Seven times as many people are going to benefit. Seven times as many people are going to grow from the skills that we are teaching. Teaching for home, teaching for the workplace, teaching with your children, teaching with your spouses and your loved ones. that passion is more important to me than any kind of spreadsheet, profit and loss statement, cash flow statement, whatever else that business experts care about. If you taught me in my MBA program at USF, please forgive and erase everything I just said because I know that's not what you taught me during my MBA.

Now, here's what happened next. I took my proposal, a proposal that I gave my attorney that he hated. I took that and I gave that to both of the two people who asked to license with me. And here's how that proposal basically worked. I told them that for $16,000, I would give them the control and IP that I used to run my business. $16,000. That sounds like a lot of money to some people. Most people in the business world know what $16,000 is and they know that it's not that much

if it's building a business that's going to bring in six figures or more within the next two to three years. So I gave them this proposal. Here's $16,000 and you get my support, you get my IP, you get my network, you get access to everything I'm part of. Plus, I will fold you into all of my private intelligence contracts because if you're going to learn how to master and teach and give the kind of programs that I give, you have to see how those programs work in the real intelligence world. Now, I had two different reactions from the individuals I gave this proposal to. The first person very straightforward said, that's too much money. I don't have that much money. I can't participate at this time, but I believe in what you do.

I'm with you 100%, but I need time before I can get to the place where I can spend that kind of money. The second person looked at me and then started asking me to guarantee their success. Essentially, they started telling me they wanted me to commit in advance how much money they would make in the first year, how much money they would make in the second year, how fast they would make a return on their investment. They wanted me to guarantee them exactly which private intelligence contracts they would be on in the next few years, how much those contracts would pay. They asked, they outsourced to me, essentially what they had to do on their own to be successful in their own licensing effort. Now, if I'm losing you because of all the business speak, the point that I'm trying to make is that one person took responsibility immediately and said, I can't do this, but I still want to be part of whatever you're building.

The other person said, it's your responsibility, Andy, to tell me how I'm supposed to make this work. I don't have any part of that responsibility myself. One of these two people clearly understands what I'm trying to teach you, what I've been teaching you all through season five, what I've been teaching you for the last four seasons, what I plan on going into with the next season. The other person is a little bit off target. My job is not to give you success. My job is to equip you with the tools and the skills, the inside unfair advantage that you need to rapidly succeed.

It is your responsibility to take those skills and use them. If you choose not to use them, that's on you. If you use them immediately and you succeed, that is also on you. That is your success. It's not my success. You took the risk, you learned the skill, you applied it, and you succeeded. I'm just here to make opportunity happen, just like my friend who is sitting across from me. Now, fast forward three months to today.

This week, I was given three just mind-bogglingly huge opportunities that I plan to pursue. The first is that I had a... company who came to me and asked me to be their primary provider for no less than eight students every quarter going through a intensive five-day hostile area preparation course. Now, the price I gave them to give them that course was $35,000 per student. 35,000 dollars per student. And the expectation is that they're going to have eight students that come to my course every quarter. Now, as you do the math real fast, what that comes out to is that becomes a $280,000 course per quarter. If this contract comes through, if that actually happens and they meet all eight students,

I become a $1 million business inside the next year. That is what happens when other people make an opportunity and you choose to pursue that opportunity. And that was just the first of three opportunities I got this week. opportunity I got was I had a leading intelligence organization, a leading private intelligence organization come to me and tell me they wanted me to partner with them as the primary talent identifier, a talent scout for the type of go like forward leaning, critically thinking, talented, unknown, undiscovered individuals out there so that they could recruit individuals that essentially

meet the expectation, the standard inside everyday spy. They had seen my, previous students succeed. They had observed my students in training courses and they knew that those students were some of the top performing students in their company. So they asked me to come on board and become their primary provider for all professional development in the intelligence training aspect of onboarding new students, new employees into their private intelligence organization. That is an awesome second opportunity. It flows right into what I'm doing with Everyday Spy and it shows the power of what happens when people apply the skills that we teach in the workplace, in everyday life, in their own individual security and protection.

Here is the CEO of a multi-million dollar company saying that the EDS, the Everyday Spy graduates he sees stand out from everybody else in his organization. So he asked me to become that primary provider for professional development. and new student, new talent acquisition. The third big opportunity that came this week was the two separate private intelligence organizations, one overseas, one here local inside the U.S., both made me the primary provider for all training opportunities that they have with corporate clients. So right there, in the matter of five days, I closed what could be more than $2 million

worth of business in the next 365 days. Now, I'm not bragging about me. I'm just trying to run a business. If the business comes through, that's great. If the business doesn't go through, that's great. I'm touching lives. I'm giving people opportunities. The thing that frustrates me, the thing I want you to understand is that the two people

who could have licensed with me would have stand to gain more than $250,000 each had they taken the opportunity to license with me three months ago. Now, one of them will be invited back to be a partial participant in some of my training when it's appropriate. The other one has lost their opportunity altogether. Criticizing me about the opportunity I give. Outsourcing to me that it's my responsibility to tell them how to succeed. All that did was prove to me that they are not ready yet to actually be able to teach others the principles that we're teaching here with Everyday Spy. the principles you're learning in this podcast, everyday espionage.

Now, that opportunity, that boundary tax that we have talked about on this very podcast, that boundary tax has cost one person in excess of a quarter million dollars just in the next year, and it will be more each successive year after that. And if they come back and ask in the future to take a second try, I'm going to tag that boundary tax right on top of the new price. Meanwhile, the other person who was very responsible and owned the fact that they couldn't afford that training, I cannot wait to give that person another opportunity so they can earn enough money that they can become that licensee that they want to become.

There is a cost to every decision you make. There is a boundary tax that you have to pay when you say no. There is an opportunity cost that you have to. pay whenever you say no to something because you're afraid you're uncertain you need guarantees you need someone else to coach you or encourage you along the way i am not here to encourage you to do what you need to do to make the best life to have the most opportunities to have fun and freedom i am here to tell you how you do it you do it by saying yes you do it by taking risks You do it by understanding that every success that you have in your future requires you to invest yourself right now.

Invest yourself financially. Invest yourself physically. Invest in your sleep. Invest in your family. Invest in your security. Invest in your success with everything you do. Now here's what I'm going to do. I have decided from these two experiences with two folks who could not license with me.

Now I'm out of the licensing business. I don't need to create my competition. If someone comes along and they want to create, they want to partner with me and they want to be some kind of licensee, I'll look at it with them. I'll take it on a case-by-case scenario. But here's what I do want to do. I now have no less than three intelligence organizations actively looking to me to highlight to them upcoming talent, talent that people are missing, talent that the agency is overlooking, talent that corporations and big business aren't. realizing they're asking me to find those hungry, daring, self-starting, risk-taking individuals who have the mental capacity, who have the critical thought, who have the risk tolerance

to go out there and do the kind of work that intelligence takes. That's not just field operations. They're looking for OZant analysts. They're looking for Imit analysts. They're looking for cybersecurity specialists. They're looking for field operators. They're looking for analysts. and they're looking to me to help identify that talent. So to identify that talent for them, I am standing up effective immediately a private intelligence pipeline. And here's how the pipeline works.

I will give you all the training you need to get an opportunity with those organizations. I can get you to the interview, guaranteed along with all the training you need to impress upon the interviewer that you have the skill to be hired. But you have, to do the work. I can create the opportunity, but you need to be the one that sees the opportunity

through. I'm not going to guarantee you any success outside of the fact that if you complete the pipeline, you will get taken seriously and offered an interview. That's it. That's all there is to it. And in exchange, the opportunity cost that you have to take on right now is $750. You pay $750 to show me that you're serious about being part of the private intelligence pipeline. And in exchange for that, you get all the training you need to sit in front of a genuine HR recruiter for a private intelligence organization and show them that you have the skills that it takes. If you're interested in that kind of training, if you're ready and serious about making that transition from wherever you are in life to private intelligence, if that's where you are, go to everydayspy.com

forward slash line, L-I-N-E line. Everydayspy.com forward-slash-line. It's very simple. All you're going to have there is a sign-up form. You say, yes, I want to be part of the pipeline. You pay your money, and that's it. From there off, we are off to the races. You are getting the training you need.

You have an opportunity at the end of your pipeline. That's it. I'm in the business of making opportunity. I hope that you are in the business of taking opportunity. And if you don't want to take opportunity, if you're looking for someone else to tell you that everything's going to be okay, if you're looking for someone else to tell you that you're special and that you count, if you're looking for someone else to guarantee you your success, you're listening to the wrong freaking podcast. That's not what I'm here to do. I am here to tell you that if you take the skills I give you, if you take the training I offer you, if you take it seriously and you apply what I'm giving you, your success will happen. It's yours. It's not anybody else's. You don't need someone else to tell you how awesome you are. You can be freaking awesome on your own. But if you want someone to give you that kumbaya warm huggy feeling, please unsubscribe. I am not that person and I don't want to waste your time or my own time trying to convince you that you have skills that you frankly don't have. You want to prove that you are capable. You can prove that you are capable by putting your own.

money and your own time into the private intelligence pipeline right now at everyday spy.com forward slash line L-I-N-E if you make the step we're in a journey together if you don't make the step that's fine the only people I don't want to bother wasting their time I don't want to waste my energy I don't want to keep rubbing and causing friction between us is all those people who think that I'm here to help you feel better about yourself. I'm here to encourage you to change. I'm here to encourage the opportunity that you need to break out of whatever loop, whatever struggle, whatever valley you're in right now. I am in the business of making opportunities. You should be in the

business of making opportunities happen. 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. all else, remember that knowledge is freedom.