E124: How to Build Trust and Develop Empathy with Robin Dreeke

Robin Dreeke is a professional keynote speaker, live trainer, bestselling author, facilitator, and retired FBI Special Agent and Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. As an FBI agent, Robin was recruiting spies, something we only see on television and in the movies. Currently, he is the Founder and CEO of People Formula. He has now become a massive entrepreneur, developing his own brand and helping businesses with his FIVE steps in TRUST and all of these wonderful tools that he has developed to help corporations and other businesses.

Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:

How he transitioned from doing FBI work to being an entrepreneur
Why recruiting jobs is an entrepreneurial job
How he’s reinventing his business in the midst of the COVID situation
Speeding up the trust process
4 things to make sure it’s about the other person (and not about you)
What is Stempathy?
Steps you can take to develop empathy
The power of curiosity
Paying attention to nonverbal behaviors
Conversation tips to build trust
Book writing techniques
Some amazing things to look forward to from Robin’s online training courses

Episode Highlights:

Why Recruiting Spies is an Entrepreneurial Job

Working in counterintelligence, Robin's primary job was to recruit spies so his job was to sell a product of American patriotism to a foreign national, who's generally a diplomat at a diplomatic establishment that he's not allowed to talk to.

Every day, he was creating a very specific operation surrounding he could get in front of an individual to sell his product when he's not actually allowed to initiate the contact. So your brain is constantly working on how to create an opportunity. He was basically building relationships and building trust. He had to strategize trust and make it linear so you could pass it on to others.

Can You Speed Up the Trust Process?

The speed of trust is completely up to the other person because if you force it, it now becomes about you. When in reality, it always has to be about them. We are genetically and biologically coded to want to be valued. And when you can demonstrate that you value them, they're going to affiliate with you.

How to Make Sure It's About the Other Person

Seek their thoughts and opinions. The key is figuring out what they think that is, and not what you think it is and placing it on them. Take the time to figure out what their priorities are in terms of their safety, security, and prosperity.
Offer resources.
Validate them. Seek to understand without judging. Have curiosity about them.
Give them the choices.

What is Stempathy?

Stempathy is the combination of stoicism so you understand the cause and effect of your behavior and human behavior – pure cause and effect. But at the same time, you have to have empathy, so that you can understand the context of someone else and build that connection. And once you understand the context, that's what empathy is.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.peopleformula.com/

--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/erikecabral/support