Behavioral Analysis in the Civilian World
This is a guest post by Jonathan Smith.
My background has always been in finance. I know about stock, bonds, mutual funds, insurance and annuities, but when I first started spending time with Patrick Van Horne and learning more about the concepts he was tasked with teaching our nation’s military while he was a Marine, I was fascinated. I loved hearing about how he was working to improve people’s ability to identify threats and act proactively on the intentions of others. As I began working more closely with Patrick, collaborating with him on how he could turn the programs he’d built into a business, I jumped at the chance to officially become a part of it. I joined The CP Journal because I believe that the concepts Patrick teaches our nation’s protectors directly correlates to the civilian world, and that people everywhere can greatly benefit from improving their own ability to analyze behavior.
In my time in financial services I successfully transitioned from financial planner to wholesaler to leading a large sales team. I liked the investment world, but what I loved specifically was working with the people. I love learning and development and have a passion for understanding the reasons why people interact with each other the way they do. These are skills that aren’t simply picked up by reading a book or watching a movie. They are skills that take time to develop by assessing yourself, the people around you, and the environment you are a part of. I spent the first few years of my professional life making most of my decisions based on what I felt was the right the thing to do. Fortunately for me, many of the decisions I have made along the way have turned out positively, but I realize now that I wasn’t consciously aware of why exactly I was making these decisions and what would come as a result of them in the near and distant future.
The first time I sat in a room with clients of The CP Journal and watched the group work to understand the concepts of Tactical Analysis, I immediately thought back to my sales training. I can recall specific instances where I would be seated in front of a potential client, walking them through the fact-finding stages of the meeting, then walked them through all of the features and benefits of an investment idea, and handled all objections to complete the sale. While the language and terminology may be different in my new context with The CP Journal, the overall concepts are the same. Later, as a sales leader I taught others how to do the same. I have always been good at helping people tap into their natural ability. My businesses have been successful and my year-end reviews were filled with praise for understanding my team and getting the most out of them. I was good at it, but I was not an expert.
In joining this firm I look forward to helping spread the importance of understanding human behavior in the worlds that exist outside of the battlefield. I realize that becoming an expert takes time, and I am looking forward to continuing to work on developing programs to help more organizations improve their ability to analyze human behavior as part of their processes. Whether it is a sales team looking to increase business, a hiring manager improving the process of interviewing talent, or a team of customer service reps that need to quickly assess the intentions of their customers, the skills we teach at The CP Journal can make human interactions more effective. I look forward to the continued work helping you better understand the intentions of others and improving your ability to make more conscious decisions.