3 – Keep Safe: Tom interviews Alain Burrese

Alain Burrese

[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:27] Welcome everybody to Episode 3 of screw the commute. we're so happy to have a really great guest today. Alain Burrese is going to be on. He's going to show you how to stay safe in a dangerous world. But a brief message from our sponsor and you'll notice that a lot of times the sponsor is me our sponsor today is the screw the commute private Facebook group where you can interact with me my staff and with other great entrepreneurs and like minded people. And it's a place where my staff and I put in training and business tips several times a week. You can ask questions and you can get feedback on things you're doing. So I'll tell you more about that later.

[00:01:14] So let's take a look at our great guest Alain Burrese is a former Army sniper. A fifth degree black belt and a certified active shooter response instructor. He is the author of nine books including survive a shooting and 11 instructional DVDs. Alain teaches a common sense approach to staying safe and defending yourself through his survive a shooting and survive and defend programs and web sites. Now I'm going to add I've been a lifelong self-defence practitioner. And Alain is one of my trusted instructors and there's only about three or four of them in the entire world that I would trust with my life. And he's one of them. Alain are you ready to screw the commute. I'm always ready to. All right.

[00:02:11] Well tell everybody a little bit about what you're doing. I primarily try to teach people how to enjoy life safely by showing them safety strategies they can practice and then self-defence techniques and strategies if they have to defend themselves. Getting more dangerous all the time out there.

[00:02:32] Just today another active shooter in Indiana.

[00:02:37] Yes sadly we had one today we had one last Friday. It's definitely increasing and the FBI statistics show that active shooter situations are increasing in frequency and casualty numbers.

[00:02:49] Oh my God. So what exactly are you doing to help with this.

[00:02:53] I just released a book survive a shooting which is being called by experts the best book on the topic. And I also travel around to teach the survive a shooting course to businesses, schools, any group that wants to bring me in to get hands on learning of what they can do in these terrible tragedies.

[00:03:12] So any anybody can get in touch with you and bring you into their organization or school or how does that work.

[00:03:20] That's correct. You know they go to the Web site and contact me.

[00:03:24] Name the Web site early here and then we'll put it in the show notes too. surviveashooting.com.

[00:03:31] Ok great. And some organizations need specific types of proposals which I can send them. Other organizations they have the OK to say hey we want to bring you in and we do a contract and I fly in and teach them what they can do to improve their safety before during and after these events.

[00:03:51] How long is the course?

[00:03:54] Course is four hours, but it can be modified to fit groups needs if need be.

[00:03:59] So what's a typical four hours look like. What are the things that they do?

[00:04:03] The first part is a PowerPoint presentation. And I don't bore people with PowerPoint. I keep it lively and interactive.

[00:04:10] They might want to rather have a shooter than a boring Powerpoint.

[00:04:14] But it tells the framework of what we're going to do later in the day which is actually hands on. How do you barricade and lock open out versus open in doors? How do you ambush a shooter? What are improvised weapons you can use? How can you take that shooter out? How can you save a life with a tourniquet or other means to stop the bleeding? So we want some hands on practice with all of those kind of skills that will keep people alive.

[00:04:42] Now one of my favorite things I've seen you do is with regard to a fire extinguisher. Tell me about that.

[00:04:48] I love the fire extinguisher as an improvised weapon because I teach in a lot of schools where they're not allowed to carry handguns and so I teach the most effective way to use a fire extinguisher to ambush a shooter and take him out with it. And it involves spraying him in the face and then smashing him in the head with the canister.

[00:05:07] Beautiful. I love that. To go back a little bit, did you ever have a job?

[00:05:13] I had a lot of jobs throughout my life. The most recent was probably about seven years ago as a full time attorney.

[00:05:21] Oh that's right. You are an attorney also. Now before that I know you were in the military. What kind of jobs have you had?

[00:05:30] I was in the military. I had a lot of part time jobs going to school. I taught English in Japan. I taught English in Korea while as of their studying martial arts I've managed stores retail. And then after going to law school I worked for an insurance company. We wrote malpractice insurance for attorneys and I handled claims when attorneys got sued and then I worked in a private law firm. After that doing a lot of transactional and business type law. Weren't you in one that handled something to do with RVs?

[00:06:04] The transactional firm we also set up limited liability companies for people to save on sales tax and registration fees.

[00:06:14] Oh yeah because the state that you're in was more conducive. Is that what it was?

[00:06:20] Yes Montana has no sales tax. So the limited liability company could buy the vehicle without paying sales tax and register it here in Montana. We registered vehicles from out of state people because there's no sales tax in Montana and you could register cheaply in most of the clients were those people that would sell their homes by 500000 dollar motor homes. And so that's quite a significant savings when you don't have to pay sales tax on that registry at Montana and drive around the country.

[00:06:50] All right. So what was the from your latest job what was the turning point that you said you know what I'm done with work and I'm going to work for myself. I'm going to do my own thing stay at home you've got a beautiful family to spend time with. What was the turning point for you to make that happen?

[00:07:11] I didn't really like making a lot of money for someone else. And having to play by somebody else's rules that sometimes I disagree with and just wanted to do my own thing and be in control of my own life. And that's what I did.

[00:07:28] What was the first step to get out of that get making other people rich doing your own thing? And I'm sure it was like money just poured in the door overnight. Right. And you got rich overnight. All that.

[00:07:41] Exactly. It was tough. Leaving the law firm and going out on my own. It's tough. It's a tough journey but there's a lot of rewards. With the downsides as well.

[00:07:55] Tell us some of the things you enjoy because of it.

[00:07:58] I enjoy the freedom and I enjoy that. I do what I want. I don't have anyone saying you have to be here on the clock.

[00:08:07] Except your daughter because aren't they having a little get together with her friends.

[00:08:14] Yes. Yeah my daughter has control of my schedule.

[00:08:22] So I guess we always have someone to answer to. My wife and daughter now are the boss now.

[00:08:29] So give us a couple tips on either, suit yourself, either on working from home or keeping safe because I think that's such an important topic. I don't care that we're just talking about business here. If the people on this line don't stay safe, the business doesn't matter too much. So give us a couple tips about staying safe if you have an active shooter or just stay safe in general.

[00:08:55] I think the most important thing I teach in all of my safety programs including the survivor shooting course is to pull your head out of your apps and pay attention and be aware of your surroundings. And I'm not telling people to be paranoid. I'm just saying look around. Be part of the life we're in rather than on your device. You will see potential bad things in time to hopefully do something about it. But you also see the good things out there and you can enjoy more. You can't stop and smell the flowers if you don't even see them. So I think being aware of your surroundings and aware of what you are doing that affects your surroundings is one of the most important lessons I teach in all of my programs.

[00:09:46] I totally agree. Give them a couple of nuts and bolts things that they do get in a bad situation.

[00:09:52] In this survivor shooting program and some of my other programs I have a three pronged triangle and in the middle of the triangle is move. You have to do something when something bad happens. Freezing and not doing anything is the worst thing you can do.

[00:10:09] It remind you that Virginia Tech where people were just like fish in a barrel. The guy was just executed and they just hide under a desk and that was it.

[00:10:20] Exactly. Freezing, hiding in hoping those aren't strategies to stay alive. You need to escape the danger zone. You need to deny the danger access to you. And that could be locking them out. It could be getting behind something that is cover that stops bullets if it's a shooter. But you need to deny him the ability to hurt you. If the guy has a knife grabbing a chair and holding the chair or stool between you can deny him the access to cut you. So there's a lot of ways to deny that attacker access.

[00:10:51] And if you can't escape or deny them you attack back and you take them out with aggressive ferocity that you're going to fight with everything you have and make sure that you go home and that attacker is not hurt or kill you or those you care about.

[00:11:08] Yeah and some people that's very foreign to them they're not used to being in physical confrontations. And it's very foreign thought of hurting another human being. But in my self-defence class I make people visualize their own funeral. I make people visualize everybody that's crying and screaming and they're going to ruin their life because you're gone to try to get them to the place where they can attack like a vicious lion when need be because that person if they're already doing what they're doing they have no value of your life or any human life. And it's better if you walk out than them.

[00:11:50] Now let's switch back to business a little bit. Have you ever gotten screwed in business?

[00:11:55] Well I've been the victim of politics and inner politics I mean I've been on the plus side of politics in organizations and have been on the bad side. And I mentioned I made a lot of money for somebody else when I was working in a law firm.

[00:12:10] So that's true. Right. So I guess the question the answer to what you did about it was you left.

[00:12:22] I know you've done a lot of security work at arenas and things like that and just been in numerous actual confrontations which is one of the reasons that I trust you so much because a lot of people teaching this stuff have never really been in any they're reading it out of a book or they're practicing a martial art which is a key word there is art. They've never actually done this stuff but you've been in so many real life confrontations as have I when I had my nightclub.

[00:12:56] Anything funny happen? I mean you deal with a lot of drunks I imagine. And what's funny happened in those situations?

[00:13:04] I don't know usually dealing with drunks isn't funny it's annoying.

[00:13:08] I got another travel tip that I think people would think it's funny that I share with you. All right. Working security. I will say if you ever work jobs like that use disposable contacts. If you wear contacts and you know it's good to have backups and sometimes I mean I remember at work, who was it, Neil Young concert and had to eject a guy and he got it lick in on my face and knocked the contact out.

[00:13:39] When he hit me in the eye and they were disposables but I didn't have backups with me that night so I had to do the rest of the night with just one contact. That wasn't the most enjoyable working because you know that screws up your vision when you see with one eye. Yeah, you go to grab one drunk and you hit somebody else.

[00:14:01] But those kind of things happen. And so what would you say the best part about working for yourself is what's the worst part about working for yourself.

[00:14:10] The best part is freedom and just being able to call your own shots and do things on your own. The worst thing is the up and downs of income and it's all on you. You don't have a security net like you do with most jobs. I mean obviously you can get fired from a job but you have to screw up pretty bad to do that. So normally as long as you're doing an OK job you're getting a paycheck and you get unemployment if you do get laid off.

[00:14:39] Yeah but working for yourself you don't necessarily get that and sometimes you're you know I'll tell you a funny quick story. You know I was flying out to Virginia last year and I learned that you need to have a whole bunch of stuff in your carry on which I didn't have.

[00:14:53] I have my computer bag and stuff but since I had to you know I have a huge case with all my training gear since I had a check that I checked my other bag too and that had my training clothes and other things that I needed. Well I got caught in that Delta nightmare instead of getting to Virginia at 1:00 in the afternoon I got there at midnight with no bags. I'm teaching at eight o'clock next morning. I've been there. No rental cars were left either. They got even though I had reservations they got rid of all the cars because they just had so many people. Right. So I get to this hotel at 1:00 for the taxi. I get to bed by two. I'm up at 7 to shower put the same clothes back on and go to teach in the clothes that I flew in without any of my gear.

[00:15:43] Well that's actually a technique if you smell so bad. Nobody's going to attack.

[00:15:49] Right. So now I make sure that I have a carry on that has my training clothes and the essentials that I absolutely have to have. And that was dumb not to have them on that trip. I learned.

[00:16:03] Well tell them about what you're promoting now that new book is out. I just got mine in the mail the other day. It is just fantastical. Tell me about it and where they can get a copy.

[00:16:14] That is that book was just released last week. All week I've been signing and numbering the special 250 first signed editions. There are some of those still left them up in the hundreds. Now so you get a dub. You won't get a double digit that you can still get one of the specially signed 250 but survive a shooting. And it's available at surviveashooting.com is absolutely the best book on the topic and that's industry experts saying that not just me.

[00:16:42] Like I said I've been through just part of Alain's training and I learned stuff and I've been doing this my whole life.

[00:16:49] So yeah if you want to stay safe you and your family this is work for both businesses and individuals. I mean you got to have the awareness thing you got to be careful if you sit out on the street at a cafe that someone is going to run over you with a truck. A lot of things to think about nowadays in this world. So we'll have this in the show notes. surviveashooting.com.

[00:17:18] All right now let's take a brake I'll kick in from our sponsor. Hey Tom. Are you the sponsor this week? Yeah. OK. Tell them about it.

[00:17:29] So our sponsor this week is screw the commute private Facebook group where you can interact with me my staff and with other great entrepreneurs and like minded people. And that's a place where my staff and I put in training and business tips several times a week. And you can ask questions and you can get feedback on things that you are doing. And I give quick tips that have made and saved me tons of money over more than 40 years in business and myself and my staff also give you more in-depth postings on all kinds of business topics. Check it out in the show notes at screwthecommute.com. All right let's get back to today's great guest. Now Alain, tell us what a typical day for you looks like and how you stay motivated.

[00:18:17] The nice thing about what I'm doing is there's no typical day. You know when I'm in the office sure I'm up in the morning and I'm doing some Facebook posts and part of the marketing then I may be working on a book and maybe working on a course this last week I was signing books and shipping. If it's a teaching you know it's a week where I'm teaching you know I've got a travel day which means I'm up at 3:00 in the morning because I have to be at the airport usually at four to five depending on which flight I'm taking out make it to where I'm going. Find the hotel find where I'm teaching the next day and then the next day I'll be there teaching which I love. And so those are rock n roll days when I'm on on the stage teaching and out with people teaching them how to be safe and then you're back at the hotel in a plane and flying back home and usually Montana. Getting home at midnight. So those days are very different from office days. So it just really depends on where I'm at and who's hired me and what projects I'm working on.

[00:19:18] So how do you stay motivated when when you're a solopreneur?

[00:19:24] I read a lot and I listen a lot to different people business people from Gary Vaynerchuk, Larry Winget, different motivational things that just keep me pumped up and it also provides an education to help me do better at business. I have some friends and mentors. This one guy Tom Antion. He's been a mentor for a number of years and sometimes he kicks me in the pants and tells me to get doing something.

[00:19:50] But I'm careful to run quickly because I don't want my leg blocked and broken.

[00:19:57] And so those are always helpful to have friends and people that can help you you know especially in the down times because you know there are downtimes there are ups and downs when you're working by yourself and solo and that's just the nature of the business and you've got to be able to deal with it.

[00:20:12] Yeah that's for sure and it's interesting you mentioned you listen to things because it's the only medium where you can really learn and while you're doing something else you know. So during travel and even I did a drive I was doing a fundraiser up in Philadelphia which was a nine hour round trip drive. And I listened to kindle books the whole way lot of Kindle books you can turn on the audio and listen to it so I listened both ways and I think I covered six or seven Kindle books that trip. So that's called the throwaway time. So what kind of parting ideas do you have for our screwballs here. I would say with you I'd love it for staying safe.

[00:20:55] I think the most important thing I can say is to stay aware don't be paranoid just get out there and enjoy life safely. And have a plan in case something bad does happen.

[00:21:09] Beautiful and how can they reach you? They are. Want more information. Want some training. They need you to make a proposal to their company or organization. How do they reach you?

[00:21:21] Go to surviveashooting.com. The e-mail is Alain@surviveashooting.com. The contact numbers are the Web site as well.

[00:21:34] Ok. That reminds me of the fact that when I first met you online for years I thought you were a girl. Spelling it wasn't a French spelling of your name it is a French.

[00:21:47] It's a French spelling it's alone in French. And you know John Claude Van Damme played characters with that name and a couple different movies. But I also have law professors the first day of class they're calling out the initial role Miss Alain Burrese is like it's Alan and I'm not a Miss.

[00:22:06] Yeah. And I remember because you were on my list for a long time and we corresponded and I always thought you were a girl until the first time I talked to you. It was like wait a minute this very deep voice girl.

[00:22:24] Yeah well you're not the only one.

[00:22:27] All right so thanks so much Alain for doing what you do to help keep people safe. I really appreciate it and everybody this was episode number three for screw the commute podcast visit screwthecommute.com for the show notes where we'll have links to all the stuff that was mentioned today. Make sure you Subscribe there's information on how to do it over there. We have free webinars over there. All kinds of stuff. And consider signing up for their private Facebook group which there will be a link in the show notes also for that. So and leave us a review if you can. If it's a good review we have a good link over there to click on.

[00:23:10] If it's a bad review the link will not work or it will go to somebody else's podcast. So anyway we'll catch all you screwballs later.

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