How Celebrity Bodyguards Are Trained

[Applause] if you're getting into this job you should be ready your life may be coming behind your clients you need to be someone who is at least potentially prepared to put yourself at great risk a lot of times when you say bodyguard people think of somebody who's enormous but this is a thinking person's game being able to maintain calm in all sorts of situations think on your feet and adopt to change constantly a highly qualified executive protection agent they'll make anywhere from a hundred thousand dollars they can make over two hundred thousand dollars easily my name is ken bombays and i'm the chief executive officer of global threat solutions my firm has been contracted to provide services by celebrities entertainers corporate executives of all types nancy pelosi joe biden president obama we've worked for all them obviously the primary goal is to keep our principal we call them or our clients safe but there's so much more than that so what we're offering is a three-day executive protection career course and include everything from classroom to practical exercises that actually include real role players that will be executives they're going to have to do an entire mission from the beginning to the end a large percentage of executive protection agents come from either military backgrounds or law enforcement backgrounds my name is jose uh currently i'm an active law enforcement officer in northern new jersey specifically a homicide detective my name is joseph kelling i'm a former reconnaissance marine i really like the military community for executive protection agents this job is very demanding it could be long days you have to maintain flexibility constantly adapt to change and the military background really lends itself to that we obviously want somebody who's physically fit that's a requirement but you do not have to be 260 pounds in six foot four absolutely not if you were to look at many details that are out there working for different clients around the country you'll see a few people like that there is a lot of classroom people need to know the fundamentals the basics of executive protection we're going to describe what actions each person is going to take how he's going to move around the venue we'll go over the roles and positions of an executive protection team there's many positions without within a team and there's different types of formations you would see what we call a diamond formation it provides complete 360 coverage of a principle it's utilized more in high threat environments and or open areas but here in the states we will often tone down those formations they don't want the visibility of it the client wants people not to even know they have security so they'll distance themselves a little more from the client sometimes you might think oh like i'll just be attached to his hip at all times and nobody will ever touch him but you have to be okay with him maybe having to go into the bathroom on his own especially if it's a female you're not going into that bathroom with them many of the details that we provide for executives for instance will be one or two people a driver and one agent vips do not want to be bothered with any family issues don't talk don't be heard normally you're applying a wall let's just say we're walking from point a to point b and we mess up a formation he doesn't know what that formation is you just got to be seamless we're going to be practicing arrivals in departures strong side drops and pickups you go to the door to crack it the minute he's cracking the door that's when you step in over here when they're exiting that vehicle or exiting a venue and getting into a vehicle that is definitely one of the most vulnerable parts of the work we do you're going to be like sir can you follow me now you lead you flow behind them you're the primary now now you have like a three-man detail covering the principal in the training scenarios i will be playing the adversary or bad guy and i will be using this weapon they're very realistic it actually sounds real and it actually looks real the only difference is this little orange tip this thing that signifies that it's a toy the next scenario we have the team bringing up our vip he's got a little lecture he's going to be given in front of a crowd of people this one one member handled the threat the rest of the team got the client off the x when we have to get the principal off the x it means get them out of a certain area scenario as quickly and seamlessly as we can it's definitely a little different because as a marine you see it in all the commercials you run towards the sound of dangers sometimes we have to retrain people for this because people who have worked in law enforcement and military their natural inclination might be to go towards a threat in executive protection we want to just get away as fast as possible they're not here for the battle this is a thinking person's game this is not a brute force game we need people to think on their feet make quick decisions adapt to changes and get the mission done you always have to have your eyes everywhere just you know make sure there's no threats or anything like that in this field we have thought of all that before an incident takes place that's why you have that guy that goes the day before looks for everything looks out for exits look out for entrances talks to people that are that are from the building the advance site visit or planning before a mission is what will set you up for success so you got one exit over there and you have another you have one more other exit when you walk outside we know far more than the principal knows about every place they're going how we're going to enter who will be there the points of contact even if things do arise changes last minute you'll be able to adapt much easier than if you have not done that proper planning [Music] final culminating practical exercise is critical because we get to see all the skills they learn during the course in play and i have all my instructors monitoring them from a distance the weather is a little rainy but if you like rain we're going to be getting in this first vehicle but we're going to basically walk them right out front put them right into the vehicle seat them let them know we're going next ask if he needs anything and that's it should be smooth sailing their schedules are often very demanding not only their minutes and hours their seconds are worth a lot of money so it's our job to make sure they get where they're going safely and in a timely manner they're pulling away we lost them at the light but it's like they're still going to make sure they get to where they need to be nothing is ever going to happen how you plan it you need to be able to adapt and have contingencies for each and every plan and course of action jose you meet me we lost service but you know it's not the end of the world if we can't tell the advance that we're going to be there in two minutes and like he knows we're coming i told him 10 minutes out so he could prepare for that time if one guy not that he messes up but goes a different route you got that guy that's going to come in and say all right i got you go do what you have to do i'll come and take care of it trying to stay close to where we could react if something were to happen or if they needed us but far enough away and trying to look as inconspicuous as possible stretch like you're doing because you might be in front of that door for three hours i think the initial draw might be an inaccurate one for some people when they hear the term bodyguard wow this is exciting this is the career i want to get into it and it can at times however there's a lot of standing in hallways there's a lot of watching people for countless hours it could be boredom could be your greatest enemy you spend so many hours of just what seems like nothing until that something happens you need to always stay vigilant i did not notice they did this first time in fact i thought they were professional and thorough throughout their entire every single step they were five steps ahead of us making sure we are well taken care in terms of security protection and convenience so i thought today went great the practical exercise from beginning to end it was great to see that the agents first of all were prepared but also we were able to see them react to some challenges where they would have to react on their feet and it wasn't part of the plan the hardest part of the practical is making sure everybody's on the same page guys were on point they knew what to do the communications which which is key went down pretty well in this exact course there's no one here that i wouldn't hire for our company to do protection services there's a great group of people in this world all these people with money they they have high expectations and you need to live up to them you can't make excuses if you make that one single error you're done you got to be on your a-game at all times you know these are high clienteles who expect the best and want the best [Music] you

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 3,846,906

Rating: 4.9359875 out of 5

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, bodyguard, celebrity, security

Id: bBLki3_bzTI

Length: 8min 30sec (510 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 20 2020