How to Handle Difficult People: 7 Psychological Tricks to Read Anyone, Spot a Liar & Stay in Control

Ditches may, or are people being rude or acting more entitled, or flat out lying to you

and having zero shame about it? There's always going to be difficult people in your life,

“but it feels like there are more and more of them every single day, don't you agree?”

And I know I'm not alone in feeling this, because I see your questions rolling in at MelRobbins.com, and I see all your comments on YouTube and Spotify. You're tired of dealing with difficult people, and you're looking for very tactical strategies. How do you read people? How do you protect your energy? How do you spot a liar? How do you not get sucked into other people's drama? How do you stand controls that you don't get baited or manipulated or played by somebody who's difficult?

Just as a weekend, I was so frustrated with a particular person in my life that I went back and re-listened to an episode with Evie Pomporis, a former U.S. secret service agent, who was also a member of their elite polygraph unit, which basically means she is a human lie detector, who's been tasked with using science back techniques to be absolutely sure if she was getting the truth or not. If somebody was trying to play her, they were acting straight up.

I really listened to the episode that she appeared on, and I was like, oh my God, these strategies

are so good. I feel so much more powerful. I'm going to better boundaries and be able to spot

all these liars and manipulative people. And I thought, I have to share this with you. I mean,

“based on the state of the world and how so many people are behaving right now, you need to listen”

to this because she's going to teach you all about body language, how to spot a liar, dealing with manipulative people and something so fascinating called parallel linguistics, which is how you can spot the truth that is hiding in someone's tone, pacing, and pauses, because as you're about to learn, it's not what people say. It's how they say it, that matters.

And I want you to stay to the very end because every drops this one takeaway that is one of

my favorite pieces of advice that any guest has ever given on this show. It is so helpful because it relates to how some of the most manipulative people in your life are the ones you're close to, and you have to deal with them every day. Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. I am so excited that you're here. It's such an honor to be together and to spend this time with you. And if you're a new listener

or you're here because somebody shared this with you, I just want to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins podcast family. Today, holy cow are you listening to an extraordinary episode because you're going to learn psychological tricks to read anyone and spot a liar. And there's nobody better to teach you than Evie Pompores. She's a former US Secret Service Special Agent serving in the Elite Polygraph Unit trained to detect deception

and to read behavior. Now that experience made her one of the most fascinating experts in the world on human behavior, communication, and how to stay calm and in control, under pressure, and around manipulative people. Evie has protected and worked alongside five former US presidents during high stakes assignments. She's a trained interrogator and behavioral specialist to spend her career studying what people do, what they say, and what they reveal when the pressure

is on and the stakes are high. She is the best-selling author of Becoming Bulletproof and I am so excited for you to experience this life-changing conversation. So let's just jump right in at the beginning. Evie, welcome to the Mel Robbins podcast. Thank you Mel. I have been admiring you from afar and online like a stalker that the Secret Service would take out. I'm very humbled, very humbled. Thank you for saying that. Here's where I want to start. Could you tell the person

that is listening to us right now? How does learning the skills that you're going to talk about like

“knowing when somebody's lying to you or displaying confidence? How does that change your life?”

So all these things, confidence, reading people, that in itself, it makes you steady and makes you

I share things that were taught to me by very exceptional people that helped me on my path and still helped me to this day. You were a remarkable career. So when you were a little girl,

“were you like, I want to be in the Secret Service? No, no. Like I was like, I get pulled over by”

cops. I'm like, who's this Bozo? Literally in my head. I may have even verbalized it. Nope, didn't know anything about law enforcement. My family was not in it at all. I know sometimes

people have a plan. I never had a plan. How did you even get into this career? So there was on the

subway. I'm going downtown Manhattan to job that I got right out of college. It was underwriting for AIG. I don't know if there's still out there if you are. I'm sorry. But enough for me. I was in the cubicle sitting there and I'm thinking, like, I can't, I can't do this. And so the subway doors open literally. Maybe I'm on that job several weeks, two months, subway doors open, cops hanging out, is beer belly because back then they had beer bellies. I see the guy I'm like, I can do that.

Literally. And so I go home that night, two and two recruit. I call them like, hello. You guys hiring? No clue what I was doing. Zero. And I just went with it. I, so one thing I've never been

“afraid to just go and figure it out. That's how my journey started from there. I was like, oh,”

back in the back of the WFBI, D.E.A. C.A. I actually reply to all of them. Secret Service was the one

who hired me first. What I find fascinating about that story is that everybody who doesn't

feel like they're in the right place in their life thinks that you're supposed to know what you want. And oftentimes, I find it's it's just knowing what you don't want. And you knew, I don't want to be in that cubicle. And I love the metaphor of the doors opening because I think your life can change like that. Oh my god. I even think of that with the door's opening. Yeah. And you walked through it. And I would imagine that what you would see over and over and over again, both in your

training for the Secret Service and as you were an agent working on some of these elite units in the Secret Service that things do change in an instant, which is why it is so important to take everything that you're about to teach us today to heart. What are some of the big takeaways that you have that are important when it comes to the way that a U.S. president or somebody at that level of success and power thinks and acts. So I was very lucky because I was around three current sitting

presidents. I started when Clinton was actually still president. But then you're also around the former presidents. So you get like kind of dished out to help with those. But then also foreign heads of state. So when the foreign heads of state come to the U.S. you're around them. You don't realize that you become what you're around. And so as I was around them, like you would watch the way they

“would move, the way they would deal with problems, the way they would deal with people. I think”

probably the most remarkable thing I would see is you'd be with the president, whichever one it would be and we'd be literally in the White House and they'd have screens in different areas and you'd be standing there and he'd be right there and there'd be a screen up of the news and like they'd be just be destroying him. He's an idiot. He's this. He's that, right? Whichever channel it was, depending on whatever president was because it changed and he'd be right there.

Most of us would be like, oh my god, I can't believe they're saying this about me. I can't get out of bed and that could not fly. So I really learned resilience and I learned not to take things personally. I think that's probably the best gift I think people today and a lot of times when people approach me, they'll tell me stories like they really go through it. It's not to invalidate what they say, but everything can't penetrate your soul. Like it just can't. You know, and I learned to understand

what mental armor is and to understand what you can and can't allow in. So resilience is key. I never saw you as president like lose it, break down, get into the fetal position, none of it.

Like they always held their their grace. And so the second thing I learned is to lose well.

Like have class when you're losing. Have class. Evie, I want to stop you right there and make sure that the person listening really gets the takeaway because I love what you're teaching us. So number one, you said, everything can't penetrate your soul. That you get to decide what you allow in and what you don't. And I can see that mental armor, right? Mental armor going up and really kind of protecting your emotions is a way

that you put up this force field. And you don't let the outside in. It's almost as if you're teaching us the importance of being your own secret service agent. Yes. Where you observe, but you don't let it penetrate you. I freaking love that. That makes you more emotionally resilient.

seen is learning to lose with grace. That when you don't let your emotions get the best of you,

when you have some class, when you are able to make a bad decision and not just beat yourself up or you're able to lose because you are going to lose in life. Yes. But you have grace about it. It's a way for you to build strength emotionally where you don't just like have everything destroy you. And I love these lessons. And so I just wanted to make sure that the person listening or watching us got them. And I've got a follow-up question. What else did you learn from the world leaders

that you were protecting while you were in the secret service? In those big and small moments,

witnessing their lives professionally and personally every day? I also learned lessons more.

Like listen, pay attention. The other thing I also learned is asked for help. Like the president is not expected to know everything. And I think we think I have to know everything because if I don't know everything, then I'm not smart. I lack confidence. I'm, you know, people see through me at a moment. What I learned is they're very good at delegating. I don't know everything, but you are the secretary of defense. So you tell me how many men I need and what, you know,

weapons we should be sending. You're the secretary of treasury. Then you advise me on the current sea inflation and all that. So I learned that I didn't have to know everything. But I learned that

“you have to be a good manager and delegate. And asked for help. Like it's not a weakness.”

pondering up these images, it sounds extraordinarily stressful. How do you manage your stress? Because I would imagine that you're kind of in a constant state of stress when you're in this kind of high pressure job. You prepare so much to put yourself in these situations, but you also make peace. Like, there's an understanding that something could go wrong today, something could happen. Anytime you got into the follow-up, which is the vehicle that was behind the president's limo, and you would arm her up, and you would have your weapons.

I think that those were very vulnerable situations where somebody could attack the motorcade. So the motorcade, whenever it was in movement, that was like where it's the most vulnerable. So anytime you're moving, you're the most vulnerable.

“So I think those points were kind of like you have those moments where you're like, "All right, everything's okay."”

And I mean, whenever something was wheels up, meaning your protectee was up in the air, you were kind of like, "Okay, he didn't die on my watch."

Because there was always that psychological thing that I don't want to mess up.

I don't want to make them wrong mistake. I don't want to make them wrong call, and then have somebody else's life on my shoulders. Did you have any techniques that you used you're sitting in the follow-car, you're armoured up, you got your weapons in your hands, you're like, "This is my watch to let anything happen to let anything happen to let it." Because I would imagine you would just be on high alert, the entire time ready to go. How the hell did you keep yourself common-centered when you're in that situation?

Because I'm going to trick with dudes who make terrible jokes. They were just making the dumbest stupid jokes like, "Hey, pop-up, I was like, you couldn't even say my last name, I'll make it's pompous." Yeah, whatever, you know, we would laugh, you had to laugh. Everything can't be so heavy. If it's heavy, you're just not going to make it. So I would sit and I would listen to them, and if I tried to say something, "Shut up, pop-up, I'll make sure we don't get shot at," or whatever. So I was around people who carried themselves well, and so I carried myself well. I learned from that.

They're steady, I'm steady. It's humor and lightness to create the calm and ground, but at the same time I'm looking, I'm looking, I'm looking. And then there were times where you couldn't joke around where you were in a movement or something, and you really just had to be present.

“And I think maybe that job in certain intense activities we do when you're fully present, you don't have time-nope for your mind to wander.”

Sometimes after where you're like, "Oh, man, that was heavy." But in that moment, you find your ways. But also Mel, they've put you in really bad situations in training. They don't just put you out in the world, "Hey, let's see how she's going to do. They really try to stress you out in training repeatedly to see how you're going to react." And even then, even then, you don't know how somebody's going to perform in a real-life situation. There's times like, the person you would expect to just fly through something completely falls apart,

So you don't know what people are made of until they're truly tested.

“I think that's true. Every life and everywhere.”

Everywhere. I would love to learn more about how you were trained to be a human lie detector. You served on this elite polygraph unit for the secret service. And you went through training to truly understand whether or not somebody is lying, to pick up on body language, behavioral clues. Can you tell us a little bit about the training and what you learned

in terms of detecting whether or not people are lying? Yes. Well, I didn't want to do it. In the service, there was only like 30. They call them examiners. And it was a massive load because they went to you when they had really hard cases. So the responsibility was heavy. And so not only are you doing a polygraph and interviewing, then they're all watching through the class and you're thinking, "Man,

what if I don't get anything? What if I don't deliver?" So I was like, "Nope. Nope. Nope. Don't want it." And I truly thought nobody would talk to me. I thought I would not be good at it. And I remember like there's a, I think they was called the bid where it's like positions open, put in your name and it was open for two weeks. And I waited till like 15 or 30 minutes

before it closed on a Friday, like 445 pm before I put my name in. And for sure, I was like,

"I'm never getting this." And when I got it, I remember having like, "Exqueez me?"

Like, I'm mad. Because there were military, guys with military experience, more senior people who put in and they didn't get it. And so I was really surprised when I got it. So when you go through that, the selection process, then they send you to it's called the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute. It's a military facility, actually. It's a fourth jackson. I know they changed the name now. They call it Naka. But you're there and you go through schooling

biology, psychology, like graduate level courses, and you'll do biology in a week and a half.

“And you have to take a midterm and final. It was intense. I remember first when I first went,”

I thought, you know, they're like, "Here, read this textbook in biology." And the next week, you have a test on it. And I was like, "She's these are lying." It's going to be open book for sure. There's no way they expect me to memorize this textbook. And then Cherishet, I go in the next week and I'm like, "This is not open book." And they're like, "No, what did you think you were doing here?" So that part was hard. We had pharmacists coming in to teach us, which I thought was really cool

because when people, especially when people, are under the influence of drugs, which a lot of the

people, I would have to interview would be. They were not always, you know, some, you know,

mind and body because of the element of like crime and whatnot. So I had to learn what drugs did what things to people. And so I became like this, like, expert in pharmaceutical drugs. So that was pretty amazing. And then they teach you how to, I don't want to say confront, but how to deal with lives, how to confront someone, how to deal with people who disrespect you in the room. And we also did practice, a lot of practice. And then the service also wanted me, they encouraged me to get my

“masters in psychology, forensics psychology as well. So I think all those things together”

helped me understand people in human behavior. So before we get into the strategies and tactics, can you explain why does body language matter when it comes to whether or not somebody is lying to you? Look, it doesn't. The research goes back and forth. A lot of research will be like body

language is BS when it comes to detecting deception. It's true and it's not true. Here's what I know.

People give off cues. Okay. Right. So I'm hanging out with you. Like we met before. I'm paying attention to Mel. How she walks. How she hugs me. Like you hugged me. You're based. So I get like a baseline on you. Right. I start to in the few minutes I get to know Mel. I get her baseline. And what are you looking for when you're assessing a baseline? Because anybody could use this. You could use this on a first date. You could use this in this video everywhere. Okay. Great. So let's

start with a scenario where you're walking in and you're about to meet somebody. And I want to just get a baseline. What are the data points? I'm kind of looking for if I want to size somebody up. Okay. So I'm not sizing you up. So what I'm going to use Mel. Because Mel, Mel. We're using Mel. So when I walk in, Mel immediately, you come over. Yep. You're open. Right. You weren't holding anything in your arms. You didn't have your arms crossed. Like you were very open and

welcoming. So immediately you see me. You didn't even, you know what I'll see you didn't do. You didn't try to be busy in a corner somewhere and let your your peers come over to greet me first. Like Emily met me at the elevators, but that was it. As soon as I walked in, actually, you came right away. Evie. So it's not like your team started handling me. So to me right away, I'm like, she's

So, but you feel people. Do you not do not feel people's vibration to like the essence of

“what they give off? I think that's a hundred percent right. And what's interesting about you”

reflecting back on just the that literally 10 seconds was that today I'm exhausted. I mean, we've been hosting my parents. We've got all kinds of stuff going on. I'm more tired than normal. I was up late talking to my daughter and Los Angeles who's going through like a really rough thing right now. And so I am happy to hear that I just instinctually walked over to you and that the experience for you was that I was open. I was warm because I know that's who I am, but I didn't think

about how I would greet you. And so it's interesting to hear how many data points you had in that short interaction. And also it is true. I think we walk in and you feel the energy of someone and if it's warm and inviting, you're immediately at ease. But if somebody is a little stiff or crossed arms or formal or tense, then you start to go, oh my God, something's wrong with you.

“You know, like I think we reflect it back on ourselves. It's going to look wrong with me. Yes,”

right. And that's where you do instead. I think quiet and just so here, you're going to absorb people. And I'm not talking about empathy where you take everybody's stuff on and then you feel like garbage later. That's not what I'm talking about. But when I say absorb, I mean, feel people's energy. People give stuff off. It's a real thing. It's a legit thing. Feel it. Number one. The two is body language. So your body language, your open, your arms are open. They were out. They weren't in your

pockets. You, your, your body language communicated what your word communicated. They weren't harmony. So what you said to me, Evie, I'm so happy you're here. Thank you so much. I'm so excited. That mirrored what your body did. So there was, so right in that moment, I'm like, it's all genuine. That's not a formality. I'm not another guest. Like, hey, okay, you know, all right, get her in there and you immediately stepped forward where maybe your, your, your team could have taken me brought me

in here and you could have made your interest. Evie, hi. I'm Mal, how are you? Some people do that. Right. You did none of that. So when somebody gives you either weird energy or they are kind of

open, but body language is off and you're reading something's off. Pay attention to it. First,

don't make it about you. Okay. Because that's when we're like, they don't like me. They don't this and on that. And that's where you start going down that rabbit hole. Yes. And then that's like, it's good to be self reflective, but not so self focused. Because then we start to make everything about us and sometimes most of the time, nothing to do with us. So allow people to be and look at them, listen to them. How are you today? You can ask, like, simple questions, tell me about your

morning. How's everything going, Mal? And then people can reveal slowly, you know what, I really had a tough morning or, oh, this is going on. I was up late. And then now you know what's going on with that person. So we want to, we want to see if people are off harmony, meaning what you're saying and what you're showing me with your body and then also what I feel from you is not in harmony, I just have to pay attention. And we don't call people out, ever. Like, that's a rule. Don't

call somebody else. Like, hey, you see, you know, I just want to be careful because sometimes we think like, I know all this body language stuff, right? And I'm going to call everybody out and be like, and I know when you say this or when you look away, you just look away and that must mean it's like, those cues are there for you together information, not for you to kind of reflect back to someone and be like, let me show you how much I'm paying attention to you and how

smart I am. So despite me having this background, I never tell people what I see. I told you

because you asked me, but I don't tell people, you want to make people feel uncomfortable, tell them, you want to make people feel like you're analyzing them, tell them, you want to make people feel that you're, you think you're better than them, tell them. We don't need to do that. It's for you to understand the people around you and who you're dealing with so you can make smarter

“decisions with people. That's what this is for. Does that make sense? It makes a lot of sense.”

And what I'm gathering so far is that there is all this power in settling yourself and observing. And in letting people show you and not reacting and you know, send something

really important. You're meeting somebody for the first time. You're in a situation where you're on a

date or you're meeting your significant others parents for the first time or you're going on an interview or whatever. You're pitching a client, interviewing a babysitter, the baseline and just

do with you is a power move. And I think a big mistake a lot of us make is that when somebody else is off, we let it make us get off. And what you're saying is absolutely not just observe,

“keep being in the mode, pretend you're like it's almost like, because I think of about a secret”

service agent. And I think about dark suits on glasses in the corner, scene, maybe, definitely not her. And so there's a cool confidence that comes from doing this in your life. Are there any cues,

though, that for you over the years, became kind of a telltale, like I had always heard, for example,

that if people look away, they're lying to you, which of course made me go wait a minute. I have ADHD a lot of times. I will look away, gather my thoughts, come back. I also think it can be really disarming for people if you're staring right at them, like a prosecutor or an attorney on, you know, that's cross-examining somebody, but are there telltale signs with the eyes? So this does such be a whole eye thing. It's like, I know, like, it's a marketing thing.

You think of this way? Like, how can everybody do the same exact thing with their eyes? Like, if we're preaching diversity and we're also different and we're also unique, then how on earth,

“like, if is everybody going to behave the same way? So here's the thing with eye contact. How a person”

does eye contact depends on that person. I could have grown up shy. I could have grown up being told

I was stupid. I could have been, you know, have grown up being hit a lot. So how I'm going to look at someone is going to be kind of a marker of everything I've experienced in my life. That's why that doesn't make sense. I could have like ADHD or autism. I could have there could be so many reasons. So the thing with eye contact is there's two parts. One part is when you're looking at people, let people be. Like, you know, sometimes you ever have a serious conversation,

maybe with your kids and you're trying to talk to them and they're doing this on you. And you're like, look at me when I talk to you. You want to try to refrain from doing that because that's just them releasing stress, releasing energy. You're also getting a really good baseline on what they

do when they're stressed out. Oh, yes. Now, when you want to teach them, hey, when you talk to

people, I want you to have good eye contact because it conveys trust, it conveys authority. That's different. So we're talking to different lanes. One lane is reading people. Just let people be, don't correct them. Let them go where they're going to go. They'll show you. So before you ask me a question before we started, what did you ask me, Mel? You asked me, what am I excited about, right? Yeah. And I had nothing. And I, but I broke eye contact with you when I looked down

because, you know, it was doing, I was searching my mental rollo decks. And I'm like, do I?

“But I had to break eye contact to do that's why I could really go into my head. I'm not about”

to lie to you. That's just what I do. So that's reading people. Right. Now, I contact when it comes to you, right? Right now, I'm your guest. So even though I would presume that maybe I contact hard for you, but you're like, every is my guest. I want to know I'm here in a present. So I'm going to do everything I can keep eye contact because it shows, I value her. It shows I'm here that I'm present. That's separate. And so eye contact for you as an individual, like if you're

going out, they're for an interviewer meeting. And you're really trying to build trust. I contact hands down builds trust. It's just we're wired that way. If you're looking at me, it means that I can trust you. Right. So those are two things. Reading people, we leave them alone, but we pay attention to what they do. So now you know, every time I ask every question, what she has to think about something, it's likely she's going to do what? Break eye contact because she's searching

her mental role attacks. That's just what she does. Yeah. But when it comes to how I show up, I'm going to be here. I'm going to be present. I'm going to look at you. I'm going to show you. Mel, you matter to me. Mel, you can trust me because I'm going to look at you. And it's also a great way to show respects to people. Evie, I am learning so much from you. This feels like a great time to take a break. So that we can hear a short word from our sponsors, but don't you dare go anywhere because

Evie is going to teach you how to read people. And then where we're going next is really deep. And you don't want to miss this. Stay with us. Welcome back. It's your friend, Mel, and you and I are here today with Secret Service Agent Evie Pomporis. We are talking about how you can read people, detect lies, and tap into your power. So Evie, on the topic of reading someone, what are the list of things that you're assessing?

It's such a hard thing to answer. So look, there's body language, right? Overall, just look at what they're doing with their body. Simple things, even how when they're talking to you, are they

Yes, okay. Frontally aligned, shoulder to shoulder. That's a good way when you talk to someone to have that you don't want to talk to people like this, like this, like that, are not phone. We don't want any of that. And for you listening, she literally pointed her body away for me. So it's like talking at somebody on the diagonal. She then twisted and pointed her

shoulders in the other corner, which basically signals, I mean, they're not interested or I'm

nervous or I'm thinking about something else, right? It's just when it matters to you, when those conversations matter, you really want to be deliberate with your body language. You want to show with your body to people what you're saying, that those things need to be in harmony. And for me, I really don't care what people say. I look at what they do. And so that's the other follow-up. That's actions. That's separate. But with the body, you want to have, if you're reading

people, you just want to look at what they do with their body. You get their baseline. You can get somebody's baseline in just a couple of minutes, right? You can see, do they like to have their arms crossed? I, if I could stand all day long with my arms crossed, I would. That's like my,

I'm comfortable. But I don't do it because psychologically, understand, it gives off the wrong

energy or vibe. Yeah. And as you're talking, I just want, what's interesting is that you have this ability to both go, okay, as I'm observing someone else, these are the things I look for to get a baseline and assess what kind of person this is, what is the energy, what is their emotion? Is this somebody whose energy is trustworthy? Is it not? Are they sketchy? Like what's going on with that person? And the same exact things that would signal, I don't know if I

can trust this person. Did you do the same thing to you? Yes. And also are the same things that you

“should not be doing if you want to display confidence. Yes. So it's like almost sort of common sense.”

Like if somebody's not looking you in the eye or their body is pointed toward the door,

is you're trying to have a serious conversation? That's called a fleeing position, by the way.

That's called a fleeing position. So when you're speaking to someone and they're leaning, so right now the door is here to my to my left. Yes. So we're doing the interview Mel and I'm like this the whole time and I'm just like sitting at the edge like this. How you know, like I mean doesn't want to be here. That's called it's called a fleeing position when I would interview suspects, a lot of them would sit in the fleeing position because they just wanted to leave.

Like their body literally was showing me, I don't want to be here. That's fleeing position. Well, if you've ever talked to a kid and they're in trouble and you're sitting at the island in the kitchen, fleeing position. Absolutely. So it's kind of common sense almost that the things that you do when you're not interested or when you're lying or when you're like done with a conversation, somebody that's not that interested in you or might be covering something up is

“probably doing to you. They are doing and I think what you said is important because everyone's”

so fixated on them that we know how our people treating me and what are they doing to me and they don't we don't pause to think like, yeah, hello, you're the other half of the equation. Did you pause to think how you're presenting yourself because it's it's a reaction and you have to think softly what am I doing and what are they seeing? How am I showing up for this person? But we sometimes become a bit more very equal centric. We we think like we're the son and then

everybody revolves around us and pause and think like how are you showing up? How are you speaking? Are you present? Are you looking at them? Are you doing these things? And even if you are and they're not reciprocating what you think they should do, like leave people alone, let people be. Why? Because if I want to have an authentic conversation with you Mel, I'm going to let you do Mel. So that I can really see who you really are. So it's a theory almost that if you

center yourself and you're in a place with people where you show up aligned with your best intentions and you're observing and you're creating this space for someone else to be and operate how they're going to be an operate in that moment. People's behavior reveals the truth.

“You don't have to work so hard when you just let people show you. I remember once when I first”

got into this business, I left the U.S. Secret Service and I went to me with somebody from a management company. I was going to get up, I was looking at managers and I took my husband who's another interrogator, a government person like myself. And I'm like, come with me and we're not like we sit down and within like three seconds, he and I, essentially and you're like, this dude is good care less that we're in this room. He has no, he's in this room because somebody asked him to meet

with us and he did it as a favor. So we ended that interview really quickly because I knew

So at that moment, I didn't make it about me. My feelings didn't get hurt. He called it

and it was a favor called in by somebody who knew me. I thought he wanted to meet me. He clearly showed me he didn't. I ended up, you know, conversation sooner rather than later and I leave and I don't waste my time trying to make the relationship work trying to follow up with an email. He showed me, he also showed me he's not going to work hard for me. He showed me that. I'm like, if you're this excited about me now, forget about it later. Let's say even he's like, fine, I'll do

your, it was my entertainment attorney at the time. I will do your entertainment attorney of favor and I'll take on his client. No, I don't watch you because you just showed me what it's going to be like working with you. This is brilliant because we are all in the mode of chasing that I got to prove to you that I'm worthy of your time. No, a confidence and being able to get a baseline is observing whether or not somebody else is worth your time, whether or not they're

displaying interest. I want to go to the situation where you may be administering a polygraph. Your job is to make sure, well, I don't mean your job is to kind of get the truth. As somebody's sitting there and you're going through a polygraph exam, you've got colleagues that are watching you, you have the stealing confidence where you're administering the test. Are there specific things that

“people do with their eyes, though, that do indicate that their words might not match the truth?”

So, like signaling that happens? We'll do an example. Okay. So, I'm sitting here. I'm interviewing you, Mel, right? So, I'm like, hi, Mel, you know, I'm every good to meet you. So, one of the things I might do is like, Mel, where are you from? Where were you born? What's your data birth? Okay. What's your address? So, you answer these questions. So, as you're answering these, you're looking at me, you're nodding your head up and down. Okay. I got Mel's baseline. So, Mel, tell me, tell me

about what happened on the night of March 15th, 1998. Now, I watch what Mel does. Now, you're likely going to shift a little bit because I just asked you to do what now. Recall something from the past. Right. So, in that moment, I'm going to watch what does Mel do when she's accessing her memory. That's one. Okay. So, I'm collecting an information. So, I've got

“who Mel is the beginning part when she's not threatened. Name data birth, blah, blah, right?”

Unless you're lying, of course, which happened. Then it's like, I'm getting you to access a memory. Then I might ask you, how do you feel about being here today? Are you doing all right? Is there something I can get you? So, then I'm going to get a baseline on how Mel reacts or what you show me when you're emotional. You might start crying. You might be angry. You might frustration. Mel, tell me what you know about this case. Tell me, Mel, tell me what you think happened.

I'll tell you what's sitting here right now. I feel like I'm in an investigation. I'm about to get my

ass thrown in jail. I'm like, like, you have a state where have you always been this scary in this confident?

I mean, you like, I have like a death stare with your, because you were just like, I got my paper. Like, I, it is amazing to be in the presence of somebody who is emotionally settled. Because it makes me nervous about the fact that I might not be. That's good. What do you mean? That's good. That's good, though, to some degree, right? You want to be steady enough, too.

“Here's the thing. We want to be warm towards people, right? You want warm. But you also want people to,”

like, you want to keep people on point from time to time. Because when we don't, that's when we get taken advantage of, we get betrayed, we get rolled. Like, it's, it's, it's like a, it's a dance. So, yeah, do I want people from time to time to be like, ooh, I don't, I don't want to cross every, I don't want to mess with every, I don't want to harm every because I, you want to give that off because that's also way to let people know, like, I'm not that person. That's a good thing.

So, it's finding a way to be both. How do you do that if you're somebody who has spent a lifetime feeling insecure? Because I agree, you don't want people to take advantage of you. You don't want to get played. You don't want to get scammed. And it happens in small and

big ways to people every single day. So, how do you, if you've always been insecure or you've

been taking advantage of, how do you start to build this? I think first, there's no way to not ever be insecure and maybe get rid of that word. Okay. Maybe think of like, people, you're not going to, you're not going to get it every time, even myself. There's days where I'm like, man,

I think where people get kind of screwed up it is when they don't. You see it, you don't

course correct. That's something else. So, you have to be okay with messing up. You have to be okay when people pull the wool over your eyes. You have to be okay with that. You have to be like, yep, you, you won. I lost. It happened. Lesson learned. I think that's also strength. It's not just less learned what you're saying is less implied. Yes, but I also have to like, not be so hard on myself. Why is not being hard on yourself a good thing when it comes to

making sure that you become stronger and braver in the future? Because I'm beating myself up, and I'm giving myself more anxiety. I'm making myself more into care. And then I'm also telling

“myself, you dummy. That's what I'm saying to me, you're dummy. You should have no better.”

That's not good. And the whole, like, I should have this, I should have that. And in my husband's very good with that. He's got this rule. Like, nobody ever says I should have. He's like, in that moment, you make the best decision you can with the information you have. And I think that's having faith and trust in yourself. So, instead of beating yourself up, you just remind yourself, I made the best decision I could with the information and the situation that I had.

Oh, yes. And if you mess up, which we all do, being like, I messed up, I will do better, but then do better. But this, I don't think it's good. Like, it also reminds me of training. When you, when you messed up in training, like, sometimes it gives us, like, we do these shooting scenarios, which were really stressful. We would, they would create these, like, secret service compound and like, you know, we had cities that we called like tiny town where we do attacks,

simulated attacks or out in the open where we do these attacks. And they were very stressful. And they were designed to be very realistic. Everyone's there. Everybody's watching everybody's moves. And when you get attacked, depending on the position, you had to memorize who goes where and to what circumstances, depending on where the line of fire is coming from and what weapons to use and where the counter salt team is coming from and where the shift is, like, there's so many

“elements. So you're being attacked and then at the same time, you have to know, like, your choreography”

and you would mess up. So in training, they call you out, be like, hey, you were supposed to do this, you did this. It's wrong. This guy's dead now because of you. Don't do it again. And they move on. Nobody has time to sit to feel bad move on. So I'm not, it's like, learn, feel it. And maybe you go, I go back home at night and I'm like, man, I messed up on that back. I could have died if this was a real-life scenario. If you continue to dwell and beat yourself up, you actually won't move on and do

better. No, you're going to make it worse the next time. You make yourself insecure. How messed up is that like to live in that place? You don't want to laughing about is that we sit here and beat ourselves up over, like, forgetting to get the milk or the butter on the list of the grocery store. And you're sitting here, going, oh, I screwed up. The guy could have died. Okay. Let's move on.

You are so centered and steely and just grounded. It's, it's amazing. And I want to dig more into

confidence when we return. But let's hear a short word from our amazing sponsors. And every and I will be waiting for you after a short break to stay with us. Welcome back. It's friend Mel Robbins. And we are here today with Evie Pomporis, who is a secret service agent, who has served under the administrations of three sitting presidents. And she is trained as a human lie detector. So Evie, one of the things that you have been trained in when it comes

to lie detection, as you're interrogating somebody, are there verbal cues that people give you that signal, they don't know what the hell they're talking about or they're covering something up for me? There are verbal indicators. There were some things people would do. This sounds terrible, but it's, it's true. And there's no research to prove this. We just, it's just something we'd see like any time somebody showed up with like a Bible in their hand for an interview.

For an interview? Oh, yeah. So if you were an interview, this might be like a, here we go. No, this is eye rolling. The divine prop. We will call this. So any time somebody would see someone do that right away is like, that guy's going to fail for sure. Or like in the interview, you'd hear like, I swear to God, his God is my witness, my grandmother's grave,

language like that. Like, it would always, it was like, all right, this person did it.

Like, those were little clues. There's no science behind it, research, but like these were like things

“that we knew over time. So you'd hear things like that because it's kind of like, the truth is typically”

simple. You don't need to swear to God or bring your Bible in to tell me the truth. Like, you don't need to sell it to me. If you didn't do it, you didn't do it. I understand you're going to be nervous.

every I swear to God, I swear to God, I didn't do it. I swear on my mother's grave, I didn't do it. I'm kind of like, I just asked you if you're having donuts. So those types of reactions with people, you pay attention or if you ask your kids a question, hey, what's one of your kids names? Are we

“allowed to say? Of course. Okay. Okay. Oakley, did you do your homework? Who me?”

homework? Stalling tactic, right? You know it intuitively. So that's a stalling tactic. We do that to buy time to think about what I want to say. So those are good verbal indicators for, you know, why is this person stalling? Sometimes when people put like, obsessive words like instead of saying, like, the car versus my car or my car versus the car. So if I hear my car, I like my, if somebody says my car, that means that person likes the car, if they say the car, like they don't really

like the car. So those are little things that people will do. So there are indicators in language to listen to. And then also when you ask somebody a direct question, this is the biggest thing. Did they actually answer your question? I think a lot of people don't. No, they move on. Or they like, you know, I didn't say that. Or they, they come at you. I'm trying to think of an example. It tries me fricking crazy. I need to stop polygraping people for your milk. Yes,

but it tries me crazy when you're asking somebody something. And then they change the subject.

Or they, they, they like say, well, I never had time. And I'm like, I didn't ask you about the time.

I asked you if you know what you're doing. And so there is like a disconnect between the question I asked and the answer being irrelevant to the topic of the question.

“But that's there you go. You know, but you just got in tell. Why aren't they answering you?”

Something's wrong. They messed up. They didn't do it. They forgot. That's, that's info. All of it. And see, I think that for me, I feel like the harder thing to try to detect in people is the omission that the overt lying to me feels like something that would be easier to start to notice when you do what you're teaching us. Don't be so like jacked up when you meet somebody, slow down, get a baseline, focus on how you're

showing up. Notice, give the, the person the space to be gather data in terms of what the baseline is. And just use your common sense is their energy matching their body language and what they're saying. Are they giving you a vibe that you like? You have so much that you can just absorb based on

common sense. And then also don't go back in and make it about you. Always just be on the

observing. We sell sabotage ourselves. We're so, I don't want to say this like the self-development space. It's a great thing. I like, I like books like that. I read, I listen, I want to learn. But if you're so in the me, me, me had space, no, no, no, no, no, because you're not seeing things. So you also have to find a part of you where it's like, Melanvited me. I drove all the way from New York City. She wants me here to be her guest. There's a reason I'm here. I walk in, I bring

my best self in, you know, I don't walk in. I say hello, that's, I control the parts of me that I can. And then after that, I also have to surrender a bit. And then understand that Mel is the other 50% of the equation, 50, 50. But if I'm so self focused, and I make the whole thing about me, and I'm not paying attention to you, I'm not reading the room. I'm not looking at your, your colleagues,

“and even just the tone of the team, how are people feeling? How do they move in the room?”

Because that's another indication, too, of like the synergy of the environment, because sometimes people can shaft you, right? Hey, come on in, the charmer, which is something you really should, those are like certain cues, certain behaviors with people. Those are definitely red-fly cues. How do you know a charmer? So I interviewed Jim Smith, who was a detective for the Canadian police, and he did serial killers. He did all sorts of confessions. We were talking about one of his

cases, Russell Williams, and he got a confession. This guy's serial rapist murder, all that, and he was actually a military commander. Anyways, one of the things I asked Jim, I said, you know, what part of human behavior, like of all the types you've met, like, what was the thing where you were like, "Ooh, I gotta look out for that person." He's like the charmer. The, "Hey, how are you? I'm here, that person who's very like overt and charming, and trying to very much ingratiate themselves with

you?" Like those people always like, "Why are you trying so hard?" And those are true. They're

perspective, a true narcissistic personality disorder, or an anti-social personality disorder,

which is people who you would call a sociopath or psychopath. They have some of them have that

“trait, not all, but you'll see it there. So how do you get the truth out of anyone?”

It depends what you're asking. Do you want them to verbally say something to you because you cannot tell me something verbally, but you just showed me the truth, and that's all I need. There was somebody I was working very closely with, and someone I liked a lot of considered a friend, but I was also trying to do work stuff with, and she would say a lot, but her actions were very different than what she would say. She had very strong boundaries,

but when it came to him, if I had like, "Hey, I'm not available." It was like, "What do you mean you're not available?" I'm like, "Do you turn your phone off like at five on a Friday?" And like, I'm in another country, and you're like, you're kind of losing it. Right. So with people, I don't physically have to have somebody tell me the truth. They can show me the truth. So

with the scenario, I'm telling you, there were so many indicators with this person. I never actually

“had a conversation where I said, "You need to tell me blah, blah, blah, blah." They gave me”

so many indicators to their actions and behavior that it was enough for me to collect Intel and say, "Nice human being, I like them, but they're not for me." And you know what I did? It is quietly pulled back because it was too hard of a relationship to have. I never had that conversation. I think people feel like in this day and age where it's like, "Speak up, tell everybody." Like, "Why?" You can just pick and choose when you're going to do it. I mean, sometimes it's not worth it.

Sometimes it's not worth it at all. Can you truly tell how somebody feels about a situation or another person? Mostly subservying. It's also, it depends. You look at their performance. So let's say it's an employee. Just look at their performance. You can try to help people as much as possible. Sometimes like, you can't, they'll show you. They'll show you like what they're willing to do and not do. I think that it's easy to ignore the behavior. It's easy to ignore

the kind of output of somebody's behavior and make excuses. And so I keep coming back to this theme with you as I'm having this experience and you're just being you. So I'm like giving you this face to be you. And you have this stealing confidence and it's settled nature where if you are grounded, people reveal themselves. And you can really decode just about anything if you're paying attention. Let me say one thing. Because you brought up the confidence thing a few times. Like,

there are times where I'm not sure. But I'm still steady in myself. Sometimes we invest in people and we want to believe in people and we want to trust in people. And then sometimes what is right there in front of us, we don't. We don't want to see it. No, I don't. I don't want to see it. I'm going to keep and keep and keep and keep. And then I get pissed off at you for not being what I want you to be meeting my expectations. Then I get angry and more frustrated. And then I'm also mad at myself or

being in that situation and now on and on and on that cycle goes. I'm not in because I really resonate with that. How do you break that? So let's say that because you've even mentioned personally, too, that you talked about the fact that you were trained in how to deal with lies. So when you realize that what somebody is saying does not match what they're doing, how somebody is treating you, does not match what they said. Somebody is talking all about boundaries

but they're crossing yours consistently. How do you confront that? When do you know to call somebody out versus to back away? So sometimes you do have to call people out. So in those moments where you

“have to deal with someone, let's say it's your team. Okay. And you have to address certain things.”

It's okay to address things. And I think that that's another important thing. It's first you make the decision. Do I want to deal or not deal? Okay. If I don't deal, what are the consequences?

It's always better to deal with things when they're small, especially when they're people or

circle of people that you have to deal with like a team or family member where you're like this person's not going to go anywhere. So but when problems are small, deal with them because what happens is they get bigger, bigger, bigger and then you get angry or angry or angry or angry or and then it becomes this big problem and you're like, you've done this, you've done that and then you get frustrated. So one, when you have small problems, address them because they're small,

that person now knows you're paying attention. Also kindness is clarity. You can be clear on what you expect of others. Sometimes they don't know. We presume I wouldn't do this. So they should

while they're small, not waiting for things to get big when it's important. And there are situations

where it's like, you know what this person is too much of a mess. It's too much of a shit show or too much stress or if it's someone where your phone rings and you're like, you're stomach turns. That's when you're like, or it's something something's going on here. I need to minimize my exposure to this person. I'm not saying cut people out. Although I have done that and I don't think that's

“a bad thing other. You save that for when you need to do it. And then with some others, you just,”

I call it like you just make more space. You make more space. Make more space. You know, I answer the phone as often. You let it go to a voicemail. You can send a text rather than call back.

There are ways to create space with people. When you realize, this isn't for me.

Because not everybody is for you. And but it's your responsibility to recognize it. And then to act on it. I'm, I can feel the person listening completely leaning in and there's probably a person they haven't mind. And then there's that heartache that you feel when you go, oh my God, I'm probably the name on someone else's phone that when my name pops up, their stomach twists because I'm not showing up how I need to show up or or that's or maybe you're showing up in the way that

they don't want you to show up. And doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong. What if it's you're calling Oakley because you're concerned and worried about, you know, what's going on

“in Oakley's life? And the phone rings in Oakley's like, oh, it's mom and stomach's turning, right?”

Yeah. And that's scenario. I would think maybe sometimes you're like, I don't care if you're

stomach's turning. Right. Yes. 1,000%. So I know that I'm acting in a way that I'm that is a line of my values. Yeah. And the other scenario when you're making somebody else's stomach turn, you're probably not. Yes. So they're right. There's scenarios for that. Yes. Yeah. Can you talk about parallelinguistics? What is that? So parallelinguistics is what you sound like when you speak. It's your tone, your picture voice. So often people are so focused on what they're going

to say, right? We have our talking points. And I need to make sure I hit this. And I hit that. I need to say this. And it is what we sound like when we deliver information. That is more

“powerful than the things that actually come out of our mouth. When I left the U.S. Secret Service”

and I really learned parallelinguistics more so when I began doing the news. I left the secret service and I started doing the news. And I'm hating you were an expert on the news. Yes. So I started doing the sedation initially and then you know shootings and in crime. And one of the things I learned from the working, you know, going on air is I had to learn to make sure my parallelinguistics were strong enough so that when I spoke, it resonated. And I found, yes, it matters what you say,

but half the time, it's how you say it. And so I learned talking points. So I'm going to give my top three. Talk less. Give them your greatest hits. And this is whether it's a pitch you're talking to somebody. They don't need at all. Give them the strongest hits that you have. But then put more value in how you speak. So it's authority in your voice. We're more likely to listen and believe in someone and see them as a confident person or as a person of authority when they use a stronger

tone voice, meaning they're stronger deeper tone. So if somebody's listening and they would like to convey more confidence, more authority and they're leaning in as you're talking about parallelinguistics. And I hear you loud and clear. It's not what you say that really matters. It's how you say it. It's a strength that comes out through your voice. And one thing that's going to help you do that is to have very few talking points. So boil down the thing that you want to convey

to simple ideas, focus on a lower and notice I'm doing it now, slow way of speaking. Are there other tips in terms of displaying that kind of authority? Pauzes and silence are good because it lets you catch up with your thoughts. You don't have to say everything that's in your head. Like nobody cares. Just give them your top talking points. The other thing that you touched on is when you say less, you don't have to think as hard. So what I'm also trying to do is

lighten somebody's cognitive load. If I've got all this stuff in my head that I have to say, my cognitive load is maxed out. So I'm not going to speak well because I don't have enough cognitive

I'm from New York, and I was really upset about it. And I'm not going to have enough band

with to stop and think about how I sound. And I would tell people, even when I do the news, I don't want to text. I'm going to give you my bullet points. I'm going to know my stuff. I'm going to know these three areas really well. And then I'm not going to try to memorize everything else, like forget it. Even if I interview somebody, I'm like, I look through my questions, I start asking questions, but then I'll let the conversation kind of move and go. And then maybe

I'll look back up my notes to see like, oh, did I ask that? Let me go back there. But don't get so hung up on memorizing stuff. That messes you up. memorizing things, worrying about that. I think

be the most important thing when you're really trying to convey something to someone. Be present

physically, right? Think about how you're sitting, how you're presenting. That's more important. Think about are you looking at that person, not just when you speak, but when they speak, right? Have that. And then at the same time, just own your voice. I think that that's really it own your voice. And then maybe get rid of things like, I'm just going to hurry up and say this, all right, I've got a few minutes left. Let me just power through this because when you do that,

you tell people, inadvertently, I'm going to hurry through this because what I have to say is not that important. So I'm going to, I don't want to waste your time because obviously, I'm wasting

“it. That's what I'm saying. And I really truly I learned this through watching presidents. These”

guys would speak. They don't, they don't race through anything. They get up on that mic. Nope, I have something to say. And just not just them, but other world leaders, they would get up there and they would speak. They would own their voice, own it, especially women. Well, and I usually don't try to gender things, but like with women, we go high and we, you know, we, okay, and I think your voice captures all the stuff you've been through in life. So just make sure that the voice

you're using is really your true voice and not the one that's captured all these markers of shame, of guilt, of frustration, of embarrassment, and now you're showing up with not your true voice. Where I'm going with that is you don't have to be on all the time. You don't have to be 100%

brave, 100% confident. You don't always have to be here. You don't always have to operate at this

level. Like, it's okay if you don't. You become more courageous or more brave when you do things. I will tell you, like, the more I've messed up, the more I lose, the more brave I've become. You don't get better when you win. You just don't. Is it nice to ensure? Is it nice not to get rejection? Sure. But bravery comes through action. It's not something you think about. It's

“something you do. I think what's really important is it is okay to go into a meeting and be afraid.”

It is okay to have a conversation with someone and be like, you know what, I don't really have it, but I'm just going to ask what I need to ask. I think what's important is get into the, what am I actually doing here and maybe leave yourself kind of leave that you out of it. Leave your check yourself at the door. Check your motions at the door. Leave them there. And if you can go out, come and mission focus. So if I sat there and let's say, I didn't want to really

high profile. I don't think I am not allowed to say what case it is, but it was a high profile case of a murder of a child. And it was a very well-known case. And there was new information that came out. Was I concerned? Yes. Was I nervous? Yes. All eyes were on me to get information. So but I went in and I said, every you don't matter, every you're going to, you're going to stay outside, you're going to be focused on what you're doing. And my goal is to get information to see,

is this person involved with the murder of this child or do they have information? What is really going on here? And so I took all of my essence and being to focus on what I was trying to accomplish. That has helped me, even in personal situations. Let's say you have a loved one and you want to know, let's say they have a substance abuse issue. And you really want to find out what's going on. You're going to check you at the door and you're going to say, okay, it's not about me and how I

feel. I want to find out as much as I can about what's going on with this person. And then once

“I get all the intelligence information I have, now I can move. So that's how you become brave”

when you become focused on what you're doing. So maybe these ideas of I need to be brave to do this. I need to be confident to be this. I need to be to have motivation to do this, like

unless I'm confident, check that or unless I'm motivated, check that tip. I want to do nothing. And we create obstacles. We put these in the middle of what we're trying to do. And then you know, we do. We don't do what we're supposed to do because we're chasing these outliers that really like they really the barometers of whether I'm going to accomplish something or not. When I went to NYPD

my first week, I was a hot mess. I was like, what am I doing here? Everyone's yelling at me.

I can't wear makeup. I was like, what do you mean you can't wear makeup? You're not all to wear makeup. I'm like, you want to come in like me? So it was just so off, but it was I afraid. I was all these things, but I showed up. You know what, you I've learned from you so far that I think is really important. And it's changed the way that I would approach a situation with a loved one is when you mentioned, let's say you've got somebody that you love that has a substance abuse problem.

Most of us would go into that intervention or that conversation like I got to get the truth out of them. And what I've learned from you in just this conversation is that you don't need them to say anything.

“Before you walk in that door and have that conversation, you need to be clear about your objectives”

and what you're doing, which is you're trying to assess the situation and gather data. It doesn't require them to speak at all. So that's a great example of the way you work it down. So what is your true goal in that situation? Let's use this as an example. I have someone

a loved one who's got a substance abuse issue. What is my goal? Ultimately. My goal ultimately

is to be the most effective that I can to support my loved one from a safe distance. And that is going to require me to get a assessment of what the hell is happening based on my gut because if I'm dealing with somebody with addiction, that's somebody that lies as coping mechanism. So I know that going in. I also have a whole history of behavior that I've probably been in denial about that. I know that going in. And so you're going into observe

and assess and to ask questions with an open heart and an open mind. But you got to have your secret service brain training in the background because based on body language, based on tone of voice, based on not answering questions, based on past behavior, you are going to get all the

“data that you need to know where the situation is, whether they tell you the truth or not. And then”

it's not on them. It's on you to decide what you're going to do about it because we also know that people don't heal until they're ready to heal. They don't get sober until the pain of being drunk or stoned or whatever is way worse than the pain of actually trying to change. And so there's nothing you can do to force them to actually change. All you can do is use the tools that you're giving us right now to not get sedan emotional and not try to control the situation and not try to

like accuse, but to just sit back and be like, I'm here to get the data that I need to know what I need to do next because that's all I can control anyway. What am I dealing with? What am I dealing with? I need to know what's going on in front of me. Look, and you can maybe take it one further because if you already know, you might be like, my goal is to try to talk to this person to see if

can I get them to go get help? We have or whatever help looks like. That could be really ultimately

your mission, but you also have to be okay with, you may not get there. It may be like, but my goal is to get the truth so that I can try to get this person help. But I also know I'm 50% of the equation. Right. They're the other 50. So they may not want my help or want, right? All that's stuff you just said. So I have to be okay with that. And I also have to have my strategy for what do I do then afterward? And I can figure that out later. What it's going to look like for me,

whether do I want this person in my life and how much given the circumstances? You got to get up. But when you go in that conversation, you're not going in how I feel what this is doing

“to my life. It's like, I want to know what the fuck is going on. Right. What am I dealing with?”

Yeah. And then it's my ultimate goal would be my mission to get you help. But I may not get there. Maybe not that day. Well, what I love about this approach is that it has nothing to do with them. And even if you go in and we all want everybody to reassure us, right? We all want everybody to tell us

Somebody refusing to answer your questions is also an answer. And we spend way too much time

than dismissing that, making excuses for it. That's that that that that that that that that that is not instead of saying, this motherfucker can't even give me a one sentence answer to a simple question. I have all the information I need to know what I'm dealing with. And it's the inability

“I think to assess the situation and to really trust your gut and to look at somebody's behavior”

or their lack of behavior as the only honest answer that they can give you. And then to act accordingly. You know, it's interesting. I did, um, I remember I did this one interview. I don't remember what the person did. He was involved in some kind of fraud or something. And he wouldn't come out. So you would think in a trying to get a confession from someone is you want him to say, I did this. And what I learned is that's not what you're after. Like I didn't need that. So he wasn't giving

me any information about what was going on. So I never tried to get them to say, I took this

month. I stole this money. Um, I committed this crime. Like I wasn't trying to get that. But I would get them to call the admissions where people admit to little little things. And as you get these little admissions, all these little admissions gave you a picture. It's like a puzzle. But some, like I remember with him, I said to him, you don't have to tell me if you did it or not. Can you tell me what are you worried about? And his thing was I'm worried about my family. Huge red flag. I'm like

up. He just gave me the admission. He just told me why he doesn't want to tell me why he did what he did. So I said, okay, where did about your family? He said he asked the blowback. Well, I think we needed to do a search warrant or something. And I said, well, they need to do a search warrant. How do you want to do this? How can I help you? Maybe he's like I can get my wife to leave town. So these are little admissions. But he's without him telling me, yes, I did this. He's

gave me little little clues that are telling me, I did this. You don't need the smoking gun from people. They show you. But everyone's waiting for the person to say, I did this. I lied. I cheated. It's a waste of time to try to get that. Mostly the information you're going to get from people are little little red crumbs that you collect and you put together and you got your little bread. And I think the biggest thing standing in the way is you don't want to see the truth.

“No. And that's why we don't trust our guts because all along the way, people's behavior”

and their lack of behavior and their decisions are giving you the truth about who they are and what they care about and what they're doing and what they're not doing and how they make you feel. And we are so focused on high to time that we don't hear the bell that's ringing deep inside us. And it's really fascinating. If you could speak directly to the person that's listening and there was just one change or takeaway that you wanted them to take from everything that you

taught us today, what would it be? Handle your shit. Don't avoid your problems. Don't blame other people, handle it. If things aren't right, they're not right because you're allowing them to not be right. It's hard. I'm not saying it. And I come with the humility. I'm not. It's a hard thing to deal to do it. But it is on you to handle your stuff.

“Because when we don't, we get pissed at everybody around us. You should this and you should”

that and only you should do this and it's a really hard way to live where you're steadiness, your bravery, your confidence, your happiness, your whatever is tethered to the instability of other people and whether or not they're going to give you what you hope they will give you. Like, live in reality and live in truth. When you do that, you make better decisions. For somebody who just went, oh shit, heavy. I do have to handle my shit. I have been avoiding

the truth. I have been like blaming other people. I haven't taken responsibility. What is the first

step when you have that realization that you've been ignoring your instincts or you've been beating yourself up or you've not been taking responsibility for changing yourself or the situation that you're in? You're going to sit down and you're actually going to put into effect what you're

job. Whatever it is, I need to throw my as my loved one to leave the house or my kid who's got

an addiction issue. I have to do the hard thing. Usually the hard thing is harder in our mind.

“Once you do it, not saying it's not going to hurt, but you have to do these things. If it is”

the right thing to do, we all know what we should do. We don't do it. We all know. That's what I would put into action, what you want to do. The one thing I'll say is, once you come to that realization, get into a place where you're steady and prepared because people look, people are, I want to say people are manipulative. Some people are. Some people will sell you. Some people will

mislead you. Some people will confuse you. There's this great ancient Greek quote. And I love it.

It says, it was from Odysseus from the the Iliad. It says, he said, don't listen to your enemies. Look at them. It will tell you everything. And I'm not saying people are your enemies, but what I'm saying is people, when you listen to the words that like people tell you all sorts of

“stuff to get you to change your mind. Like you have to not, you have to look and pay attention.”

Just do. I think that's the biggest thing. So once you make that choice, which are planned and placed, leave your emotional self at the door. I'm going to handle this. But I think one of the mistakes people make. Sometimes is I'm going to sit this person down and I'm going to tell them this. And I'm going to tell them that sometimes it's just like pack up your shit and leave. Sometimes it's just as simple as that. You don't need to sit them down.

What are your parting words? Trust yourself. Like nobody knows what's best for you except for you. Nobody. Stop asking everybody. It's okay to ask people for guidance, but if you're going to ask someone, make sure that they have the expertise and knowledge to to guide you. You know what the

most important decisions I've ever made. I didn't ask anybody. I didn't ask anybody if I should

become a cop. I didn't ask anybody if I should be a secret service agent. I didn't ask anybody

“what I should do on 9/11. I didn't ask. That's how you build confidence.”

Heavy, I think that you were here today to talk directly to me. Handle your shit, Mel Robbins is hard. It's hard. It is hard. There were so many incredible things that you said. This is exactly what I needed to hear. I'm sure it is exactly what you needed to hear today too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. And for just telling us what we needed to hear. I tell to myself, hold it along to you. I'm not excluded.

Like we all just have to handle our stuff. But thank you. Thank you, Mel, for having me. You're welcome. And for you, I wanted to just make sure to tell you in case nobody else does that I love you. I believe in you. Not go handle your shit and I'll talk to you in a few days. All right. You guys ready? Oh, boy. Are you in for a fascinating experience today on the Mel Robbins podcast? How to get the truth out of anyone?

Sorry. Whoo. That's massive. Okay, great. Next up. Wow, the ending was fantastic. Is there anything else that you wanted in that? Great job. Oh, and one more thing. I know this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute

for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode. SiriusXM. podcast.