L.O.G. 170 Places We Dont Expect Trouble

Alright, Greg. So our first podcast back from a lengthy trip bouncing around. One of the things we want to jump into today is places that don't seem dangerous but actually have a high likelihood for violence. I always do the one – I know our listeners have heard me talk about how gas stations are the most dangerous place you'll ever go to in your life, which is not technically true, but can be true.

We don't often think of these places as somewhere dangerous where something is going to happen, yet how many times do we see someone getting robbed at a gas pump, getting attacked at a gas pump, a gas station being robbed or vandalized, or whatever? It happens constantly, yet everyone just goes and fills up their gas as if nothing is going to happen. This is the one time today where you need to figure out what the hell is going on before you get out of your vehicle, because it could end up in your death.

But we don't ever think of it that way, partly because, "What do you mean? I've been filling up my gas my whole life since I was 16 years old. I've never had an encounter." It's a numbers game, but that's an example that I always throw out. We wanted to talk specifically today, and we'll get into a few other examples, but about nail salons. It seems like an odd one, but we've seen countless examples where there have been homicides, robberies, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, all taking place out of a nail salon. And you're going, "What the hell? It's a nail salon!" My wife goes to a nail salon all the time. She loves bringing the little one, bringing the insurgent (our daughter). They have their little girls' day. They get their nails done together, and they love doing that. So why, Greg, is that such a potentially dangerous place? I guess we'll start there.

Let's start by backing up just an iota and saying, "Welcome, Brian, to the rest of the world," because Brian has been so fixated on gas stations. We've known him, folks, it's great. Brian, I must tell you, the latest video that came out from Gonzalo Sension shows a gas station, and everyone's sharing that out there. Folks, just to set it up very briefly: a guy is getting gas, head up his ass, and then three guys with the same logos on the back of their black hoodies that are pulled up, dressed all in black, come out of different directions, triangulate on this guy, and jump on him. Stop! Just stop sending that stuff. And then afterwards, whoever posts it – because there's some charlatan, security expert – says what could have been done. Shut up! If you can't see those three coming a mile away when you drive into the gas station, then that's like being a Juggalo and saying, "Did you know the Insane Clown Posse, they dress like clowns?" You know what I'm saying? Okay, Magruder, get lost.

First of all, Brian, you bring up a great point, but I want everybody to think geographically. The sixth domain, this is a habitual area, but what are most nail salons? Most nail salons are in a strip mall sort of setup, with other shops that are near them. And guess what? A shared parking lot. Any time you get a shared parking lot, you have divided attention, because you assume the people that are waiting for the car are waiting for their appointment. You assume that the car running next to you with the two people in it is just coming out of the liquor store or the hair salon. Do you understand what I'm saying, Brian?

When that happens, what happens to humans is human nature comes over, because we're tribal beasts, and we look at each other and we go, "Oh, they're just, they're with us." You can't do that. I know you're going for the limited parking spot, but you can't just park. And if you do park, park somewhere away from the store. You're going to back into the shade. Shade is so hugely important. And observe for just a minute: look, listen, feel, smell, taste the environment.

Why specifically? Nail salons are often in certain neighborhoods, run by people of similar ethnicity. Like, for example, the place that Shelley and I go in Montrose – it's all Hmongs and Vietnamese. They're just wonderful folks, and we absolutely love them to death. Because they have three or four nail salons in the community. You get one, because they're typically family businesses, and so they hire their other family members, and then they grow from there. We mean nothing by that. So in Detroit, if you're going to a nail salon, it's going to be brothers and sisters, literally, that are related in some fashion. And they're going to be in an area. And the barbershops, it might be co-located sometimes, because they're family, or husband and wife, or brother and sister, like you said. One's got the barbershop, one's got the nail salon, and they keep it exactly. They can do that. It's advantageous even as a family to do something like that.

Precisely. And so the idea is that sometimes when you have people that are from a common set, other people look at them and say, "I'm going to prey on them, prey on them because we don't know what their immigration status is." That's been happening since there's been an immigration status, Brian. Meaning that since tribes moved across a land, when a tribe settles in some place, the people that are there before them look at them and go, "It doesn't matter who it is." You remember the old mob shows where a person would come in and go, "Hey, you owe me 25 a month," or whatever? This is that type of situation. Now, the other thing, because I could threaten calling immigration on you.

So you're right. So in those areas, it's a cash business. They've got this family that might not, and someone in there will try and take advantage of that.

Yes, so let's go back to that cash business. Why is it a cash business? Because most tips are cash. Most people don't put them on their credit card or their debit card. The other thing is a lot of people have to save up. "This is a special event. I'm going to get a mani-pedi because it's our wedding, so we're going to gift that to our granddaughter." Do you get what I'm trying to say? So people love these places. One, it's a place where you're going to have tea and you're going to spend a couple of hours and you're going to have a cruller and you're going to talk. So it's a socialization plan. That means that you relax there. It's not like a bank where every once in a while a person comes in and robs them. So you're relaxing. You're relaxed in a chair with your feet in the water, leaning back, it's giving you a massage. You've got a pocket full of cash because that's not the only place you're going. You're going to get the mani-pedi, and yes, they're expensive, but they're worth every penny, folks. I get a mani-pedi every chance I get. I haven't had one in months now, probably. I see I have some photos when it comes in. It's the most fun I've ever had. I can't see my feet, so I know they're down there.

But the second part of that is, Brian, so if I've got cash, if I've got people relaxing, and if I've got a shared parking lot, you see how those are starting to add up to a place where I can get in and get out fast? So you don't routinely expect trouble in a nail salon, whereas if you're going out to a fast food restaurant, every concealed carry website I've seen shows people in a Rite Aid or a Walmart or something like that pulling out their gun for trouble. Never seen one in a nail salon. But what do you do in the nail salon? You relax. They want you to relax. Everything, the smells, the olfactory senses, everything is trying to trigger you to relax. So I'm telling you, if you're going to go there, that becomes more – I don't want to use the word dangerous – there's more opportunity for nefarious activity there. Just going in or just coming out of the parking lot. People aren't going to hit you just coming out with your mani-pedi because your stuff is still drying, you already paid the money. But you may be walking from your car to hold the door open for somebody, and somebody knows, "Give up the cheese! You got the money in your pocket."

So, to just jump into why the nail salon, right? Because we're giving all these examples. One, it being a cash business. So you made that statement, "Anyone who walks into a bank, we've all seen either movies or stories or news about a bank being robbed." That goes all the way back, and then, "Why do people rob banks?" And what was the famous answer? "Why do people rob banks?" "Because that's where the money is!" Well, that's the same thing as I'm thinking of the nail salon. You talk about an all-cash business. Well, that's where the money is. So there's a high potential for, like you said, we'll say nefarious activity, right? Meaning, so with any cash business, whether it's someone trying to not pay their taxes, whether, like you said, "Hey, I'm new to this area, my family has a questionable legal status, but I'm trying really hard to do things up and above board, and I have my own business. Nothing wrong, but you, being the local whatever you are, running things, the local shadow governor there, says, 'Hey, I'm going to report you unless you start paying me some protection money.'" We see they can get exploited. And then we have, they could get robbed, it being a cash business, and there might be more there than they're willing to even report missing, or they might not want to report it missing for whatever reason. And then now you don't know better. And now we have the next one being the domestic violence situation. That's the location.

Brian, you're spot on. Let's go back just one hair again. Listen, if you've ever been profiled in your entire life, if you've ever walked through a store and had security follow you, if you've ever been pulled over and you haven't been treated like you believe that you've deserved to be treated, imagine now being in the nail salon that you own. You own a couple of them. You're doing everything right. You're trying to pay your dependents and the other people that work there. And trust me, they work hard hours for low pay, because they've got overhead of the business and all that stuff. And now all of a sudden, Brian, a police officer in uniform walks in. Now, they're only there to take a report. How does your client's health feel? This wonderful, relaxed place isn't so relaxed anymore. How does the person back there, like you said, with questionable immigration status, how do they feel? "Oh my gosh, every time I see a cop, a bad thing happens." So that's a non-starter many times, and we have to understand that in a place where they don't want to rock the boat. And that's huge.

Now, let's put this: you and I have been dating for years now. Everybody knows that, they write in about it all the time. I'm still not fully on board with this. I gift you – in my mind you are – I gift you a wonderful mani-pedi opportunity, or you take it routinely on Saturday or whatever the hell goes on. But now back at home, there's trouble in paradise, like the thing I say about the neighbor dispute. We'll talk about that next week, because I bet we're right on that – that turned into a homicide. So we're fighting at home. This is garbage, and I go down to the laundry and I find a suspicious pair of boxers, and I don't recognize them right away. So I'm high and right, Brian, I'm already pissed off, and I'm going, "I'm going to wait till he gets home, and I'm going to drop the panties on the kitchen table and we're going to have it out right now."

And I stew, and I stew all day long. I'm stewing, Brian, and all of a sudden I sit up and I go, "You know where she is now. He or she is getting their mani and their pedi. They're relaxed. They're in front of their family. They will never expect it. And I want to do you in a place that's going to hurt you worse than any other place." So instead of killing the kids, being a family annihilator, what do I do? I drive to a strip mall, leave my car running, walk in, Brian, and I'm intending only to kill you. But what's everybody else? Everybody else Cooper color code white, and I'm blasting. Do you get what I'm trying to say? Because I want to have a story, a message associated with my attempted murder or homicide. As sad as that is, I see it happening all the time in nail salons, and I keep sending you those, and that's why we're having this podcast.

No, that's why. Because it's something that doesn't really get discussed. So you have all of these different contributing factors for why we're saying that's a higher likelihood. Now, the problem is, we don't want people to be scared to go get their nails done. It's still just like I don't want people scared to go fill up their car with gas. But the idea is, it's something that you don't think about, even though it happens so frequently. I mean, the nail salon one is not unlike the gas station one for me. How many times do you send me articles about, "Hey, there was a shooting," "There's a domestic violence," all the time. "There's attempted robbery," whatever it is. But that happens in those places.

So, inside of that, we're looking at, you brought up kind of a geographic profile of where it's at in those strip malls, a lot of cash businesses, a lot of people coming and going. In a lot of those places, a lot of times, depending on how nice the area is, is how good or how bad that property management is going to be. So are they upkeeping and maintaining the place? Do they have actual visible security there? We went to, you know, you go to one strip mall and there's crap everywhere. There's people parked in odd places. There's people coming and going. There's easy access to alleys and other ways. And we remember just the last place we were, we went across the street to the Walmart and whatever other shopping center was there, and they had people out there in orange vests with golf carts picking up trash, going around. It was a completely different atmosphere, a completely different feel to it, right?

Because it's 400 yards away.

Or even less. But the idea is that if I look at the geographics and atmospheric so that I can start to put it together. Now the problem is...

Slow down there! Okay, because what happens is people take that big leap of faith. Right now, somebody's listening to the show going, "Hey, that same strip mall, there's a liquor store." And a liquor store is a high-volume cash business. It is, but the difference is liquor store owners historically have shot back. A lot of people think twice. Do you get what I'm trying to say? They still get robbed, but you see shootouts on YouTube video all the time of people defending themselves in that location, which you don't do at other locations. Because people look at a liquor store as a potential place of violence, robbery, especially if you own one. So you build that in. You harden yourself in some way with the different types of glass, the bars on the windows, maybe bulletproof glass at the counter, or an armed store employee. You do that there, but you don't think of doing that at the nail salon, and that's kind of the point we're trying to make.

Brian, I think you're so spot on. I want to make sure that we open our aperture a little bit, because nail salon folks, we're saying that there's certain things that you should be on the lookout for. We can help you, call us, write us, we'll tell you more of the techniques that we would highly suggest, but just the camera ain't cutting it. The other thing is, look, Brian talks about gas stations. I want you to think of geographic locations that lend themselves to secrecy or privacy, because that's not always good.

So you go to a park and you're playing at a park with your kids and they have a common male and female bathroom set up off at some location. So the picnickers and everybody else can walk over to it. You know who else that brings in? That brings in somebody that wants your kid walking alone away from the crowd. So if I can go in there and wash my hands for 15 minutes until the kid comes in and then do my business with that kid, that's plenty. Those are places that lend themselves to that.

But now, if we want to go to a robbery, that's a highly unlikely place for a robbery. But you know what? I've got in my community, I've got a car wash. Now in Montrose, they've got drive-through, hand wash, all that other stuff. One dangerous place. Why? Because if you're stopping at the one right next door to it where you do your truck and your trailer, Brian, what do you got in your pocket? You've got a bunch of change that you're going to put in a machine. Nobody's going to say, "Give up the cheese," for 15 quarters. They will, they'll kill you for that. You see what I'm saying? But do you think of that? No. And so you've got one way in, one way out. What are you doing? You're looking at your mud flaps. You're not looking up and out. You don't have a guardian angel, Brian. I would enlist you. "You wash the car, I'll go look," or, "I'll wash the car, and you go look." Those are the type of things that we don't do today in this day and age.

I'll give you a perfect example of that. Brian, folks, Brian and I were training in Phoenix and Mesa, Arizona. Then we were training in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In both of those places, Brian and I noticed an anomaly: that the gas hatches to the cars were broken off and gas caps were missing. So Brian and I noticed it, we took photos on a number of cars. We went to local law enforcement and we said, "Is this just a trend you're noticing?" And they said, "Just recently, not very much." And we all put our heads together and we came up with the idea: at five dollars a gallon, people are breaking into the cars as quickly as they can and siphoning a few gallons of gas. Brian, that knowledge, that algorithm, to me would make me want to go out there and invest in a locking gas cap, or park my car where I can see it, do some other things. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about hardening the target so the criminal who's never going to stop moves on from you and your family. Is that a fair assessment?

So we're trying to help people see it. It is, and again, it starts with where you're going to get your nails done, meaning the location of it. And understanding that what we think of as, or what people, especially on social media, teach about these situations, is pretty f***ing bad. But the idea is, it's really, really bad. But understanding what's likely a threat and what isn't.

And you're going, the bank versus the liquor store versus the nail salon is a great way to look at it, or I would even say bank. Yes, there's a lot of money there, there's a higher likelihood of robbery, so therefore they have all of these measures in place. "Well, I'm not that good of a criminal, Greg. I'm not going to be able to knock off that bank, but I can go knock off a nail salon real easily." And now you're sitting there with your daughter trying to get, or your wife or husband, whoever, trying to have a relaxing day, and you're in a very vulnerable position. So it's not to scare people away from that, it's to think about where you're at and not identifying or seeing it as a threat. Because the other big example I used to always give is the Denny's, IHOP, Waffle House. If anyone listening to this right now, you've likely been to one of those places, and it smells amazing, and it tastes amazing, and then you feel like crap afterwards because you know you shouldn't eat all that. But the idea is you can just look up wherever you're at, wherever you live right now, and find Denny's, Waffle House, IHOP, whatever it is, a shooting, a stabbing, a fight after a certain time at night at those establishments. And it happens every single night everywhere that you live, and every one of those places.

Yeah, it happens really.

And we don't ever think of that because you're out with your buddies, you're having a good time at the bar, and then someone says, "Let's go stop at Waffle House on the way home." And next thing you know, you are in the middle of some gang fight that happened, and in a f***ing fight, spontaneous chickens coming out of the trunk. And you're right there in the middle.

Then I'm throwing my money in there! And that's... but seriously. Exactly! Now I'm out of money. Brian, I think you bring up an excellent point. I want to reiterate the fact, folks, you're most at danger when you're going into the place, because folks know that you're going in with money. Give you an example, if you're getting out of a cab and you've got your luggage with you, people know you're going somewhere. Unless you're in Las Vegas, it's just a dodge to get you to give me a couple of bucks to get to McCarran. But if you now have your Delta flight Elite Miles badge that they sent you on your luggage, you're advertising for an ass weapon. You don't want to do those kind of things.

So going into a store, Brian, simple strategy. I'm old now, I'm slow and fat and I can't get around. I'm like Raymond Burr in his last couple of years. So if I'm going to that Denny's, I'm going to park in the Denny's parking lot. I'm going to call inside and say, "Hey, I'd like to come in and dine tonight, but I'm a little afraid of the sketchy parking lot. Could you send somebody out to walk me in?" And they'll say yes if they want your business. If they say no, never go back. Coming out to walk a couple of ladies in, common practice at any place, a jewelry store, where you could get hit coming out, or a Denny's where you're going to get hit going in. Think of just that, and you could up-armor yourself just by using it.

Even though I don't need it, I ask for people to help me walk out my groceries. Why? Because if it's a high-volume day and I don't want to be distracted, I'm worrying about my cassava melons. I'm certainly not paying attention to the area around me. And guess what? That extra person with me may dissuade that robbery.

I know, and we actually did, remember, we did a whole webinar once on just parking lots, "Surviving the Parking Lot." I think we remember that one we did where we talked about driving around. We've got some more actually, if you're listening, if you check out the Patreon site, we did that with the — we did a drive-around, about a four or five minute video, a real quick one, in a parking lot to show how we break that stuff down.

And that was just recently, right?

Yeah, in Mesa, right outside — whatever, we were back and forth together, they blended together, except that Santa Fe was beautiful. We stepped off the plane, it was like a blast of AC hit us because it was only 90 degrees, not 113 like in Phoenix.

Take a minute and think: if you're going to stand in line at a burger restaurant where you're going up to the counter, you've got all the time in the world. You do, and everybody's got their hand in their pocket with their money, and they're looking up at the screen ready to buy something. So that means you're more endangered there walking or driving up to get your order. So that's when you need to be most aware. Nobody's going to come up and literally say, "Get out and give up the cheese and steal your Fish McMack." Do you get what I'm trying to say? Because they know you're broke now, they know you're like them.

And Brian, that's the thing about a gas station. Look, you have a vehicle with the keys. You've demonstrated ownership, and you're standing outside pumping fuel into it. That's almost too good to be true to a target-of-opportunity criminal. And that's why I agree with you on those all the time. But I have fun because that's the first thing that people remember as "Brian Marren, the gas station guy."

Yeah. Well, that's why we also did the drive around the parking lot, because that's the simplest thing to do at all those places. If you do one full lap before you decide where to park and how to go in, you can see what's going on. You can see someone sitting in their vehicle waiting for no reason at all. You can see that. And that's the idea behind this, because everyone's question, well, everyone wants to talk about fing tactics or some fing after one of these videos come out, and it's usually, I don't know, I would put a clown emoji over most of those people. But the idea is, because you don't want to kill anybody over a gallon of gas.

Well, that's the thing is, here's what you can do. What can you do before the event actually occurs, ever drawing that gosh-darn $7,000 gun? Look, you drive by and as you're looking in the other cars, we do this all the time, first thing I look at is the trash bins. If they haven't emptied the trash bins, if they can't take care of that, Brian, how much is that counter person looking out while you're fueling up? Same thing at a restaurant, same thing at those other places.

You know what really bothered me, well, I don't want to get into the hotel we stayed in, but the hotel that we stayed at only had one bench, and that bench was occupied by the smokers. So that meant that I had to stand out by the carport waiting for you to bring the sled around and I had my luggage. And you know what that made me? That made me a target, standing off from those people that were smoking. That's how criminals think, Brian. A person with a skateboard is looking at me and going, "I'll go up to the fat guy and I'll take his luggage, and if he gives me a hassle, I'm going to hit him with my skateboard." Do you get what I'm trying to say? That's much more reasonable than this crap that I see on these shooting things. So you have multiple opponents coming from different angles like that. Show me where that's happened. You know what I'm trying to say? So, you just don't want to be there.

And you know another thing about a gas station: road rage happens on the road. People are going to pull over and they're going to fight. Where do they pull over? They pull over somewhere familiar: a fast food restaurant, a motel parking lot, because they're always right off the exit. And guess what? You're clipped by a bullet that was never intended for you.

This is why it ties back to the geographic profile that you brought up right at the beginning, which I figured you probably would, with where a nail salon is actually located. Well, the gas station one is a great one too, because where are they typically located? Right off the freeway. Right there. So you don't even have to go more than an immediate turn, and it's there. So they want the easiest access, but then you're exactly right.

That's an easier place too, Brian. It's an easier place to profile. You know why? Because that's not a group parking lot, it's a common parking lot. All gas stations own that whole corner. You know that, right? So you know what you're getting into. That means it's an easier place to profile. Even though it's got a higher level for potential danger, a nail salon being in a group parking lot has your axons and dendrites burning up because you're looking around going, "Is that guy here for the Tasty Freeze? Is this person going in? Are they just coming out? Is he going to hit me up for money?" And so the idea is, you've got to look at that. And sometimes, just get back in your car and drive to another one, or change your appointment. Because street people can come up and start lowering your radar, lowering your threshold for potential danger or an opportunity. And you get hit up enough that then the next one comes up and they've got a knife in their hand or a gun in their hand, and guess what? You're like, "Hey, not today, pal." Do you get what I'm trying to say? Now you're in the trick bag.

You have to slow time down, Brian, and you have to look at those places before you leave the house. And what happens when you go there? You're expecting it to be the Taj Mahal, and it's not always that. So you have to work with the owner of that place and the owner of that strip mall, or stop going there. And what I mean by that is, you said something great about accountability, didn't you? You said, "What if the person's not keeping that strip mall up very much?" You've got to contact them like an HOA, like a homeowner's association, and say, "Hey, listen, I used to love coming to this strip mall, but it's clear that post-COVID you guys aren't doing anything, so I'm not going to spend any money there anymore unless you pick it up." Any businessman would do what, Brian? They would take that information to heart and start mowing and cleaning and putting routine security once in a while.

Yeah, anyone who cared would absolutely. And then you know whether or not they care. And if they don't care, then you shouldn't go there. Don't spend your money there. That's the idea: you can vote with your feet. That's the beauty of the type of society we live in, where you can just, you have a lot of choices. So what are the choices you're going to make? And because you know, it doesn't take much once you see one thing in those areas. I mean, that last one, we have the video on. If anyone's following us on Instagram, we kind of have that video I put up of us sitting in that parking lot, and then right behind there, what we have so many photos and another video tutorial that we did on this is where this trash comes from, this is what that means, this is how it got there. And the point of that is, that's all happening right there in front of us. So if I have a better option three miles up the road, going three miles up the road, I mean, it's that simple of making that choice. Because all of those indicators there are kind of screaming at you. We just have to be, we have to know how to look for those things in our environment. And it starts real simple like you said: trash and graffiti. If you're not taking the time to clean that up, what else aren't you taking the time to do? A broken sign or one that doesn't light up anymore. Cameras, or it's old and busted you can tell. Not dim lighting or no lighting at all in the parking lot. Then you start to see more. Each one of those will build on each other.

We've done it before. "Let's go to that gas station down the street where all the lights are on and I can see the cameras from here and it's bright and clean and nice," because that's the way criminals look at it. They're going to hide in those shadows.

And you said something about graffiti I want to touch on too.

Remember, folks, if it's private graffiti or public graffiti – in other words, very simply, not teaching the whole graffiti course – if it's right in front of the bus stop, and right in front of the city market before you go in, and right in front of the place, that means somebody's doing it there with abandon. They're not even worried about the consequence of their actions. Now, if you're seeing it behind some place, hidden around back where the loading dock is, you probably got a better chance.

So I would tell you this today, I would tell everybody that's listening to my voice: get in your sled, get on your bike, go to the local Walmart, go around to the loading dock behind it. That's where you're going to see everything you need to know. For example, Brian, you and I remember, we were checking out that one business, and we saw where somebody was doing hole shots and brodies (donut tire marks) back there. You could see many different cars, and it created this magic black clover leaf in the back. What does that tell you? That tells you there's no residences or condos or apartments that are close to it. Why? Because of the noise that would draw the cops. Somebody would call. You know that they're not patrolling there often, and there's long periods of people going back and forth, because that took time. Brian, what we saw was artwork through a full set of snow tires. Nobody came back there.

And somebody is saying right now, "Why is that on your radar?" It's a quality of life crime. If you're doing that at my shopping center across from my house, that's a bad precedent, because it's going to bring in other acts of criminality. When you look another way, Brian, when people are doing those types of crimes, you're vicariously accepting that level of crime. You just lowered the standard.

Like we always say, "What you walk past is what you're willing to accept." So if you walk past that, then that's now the new standard. And if it's, it's only going to go downhill from there, meaning that standard's not going to improve unless someone forcefully tries to improve it or enforces that. So that's a good point, because these are all the little indicators that we talk about all the time on the show, that we just simply put in the back of our mind and go, "I'm not worried about that," or, "It won't happen to me," or, "It's unlikely that's going to happen here." And it's like, no! You're more likely to get that than someone, I mean, someone's not going to, so it's unlikely unless you're up to something that someone's going to boot in your door and you're going to have to start doing CQB (Close Quarters Battle) tactics all over your own house. Now, if you're thinking of the amount you're running, if you're a drug dealer or you're hiding stuff in there and you're doing some criminal activity, okay, you've got a higher likelihood. But being realistic about where and what threats are possibly going to come from. Safety and security is not something you have to do with a thing, right? It's not something I have to go train for. It's just being aware and making better decisions in my environment. If I notice those small, subtle cues, there's no way, if there's one gas station nearby, there's generally, no matter where you're at, unless it's a super, super, super small town, there's like seven nearby. So you have a choice.

Exactly.

So you make a choice. Oh, the other good one about gas stations I totally forgot about because someone posted is when you have them, well, what do you have near busy intersections? And people will jet around you and fly through the gas station. If you're at like a red light coming up to a red light, someone will jump through, cut through the gas station, try to go over in the cross lane, catch that green to make that right turn to be back on track without sitting at the stoplight. So you're sitting at a gas station, someone will come barreling through there at 25, 30 miles an hour.

That will happen. And what are they looking at? They're looking at the intersection, not looking for pedestrians. And next thing you know, you're hood candy. That's not a good ornament, I guess.

Look, let's simplify it yet again. I'll street it for you. So I had this discussion with somebody very recently. They were looking at a person and they were afraid of the person because of the tattoos. Now, look, tattoos take a lot of time and they cost a lot of money. So when you see certain tattoos, you shouldn't be intimidated at all. That's expression. That's that person saying, "Who I am, and this is about me." To them, maybe it has nothing to do with you. But public tattoos generally do. If you've got the tattoo of a swear word on your face and across your forehead, do you get what I'm trying to say? That's a completely different tat.

So that's the same thing. If you see a car blowing out oil and purple plumes of smoke, they come up to you with blacked-out windows and only open the window an inch. You may have trouble that's coming up. The idea is, the environment is constantly speaking to you. People are constantly on transmit. All you've got to do, Brian, is give yourself that extra foot or two of space to make that determination. We call that the gift of time and distance before you commit yourself. If you drive around the city market, it's too packed that day, and you're going, "I really need those crullers!" You know what? Maybe you don't. Maybe you go to the Safeway instead. The idea is, if it's packed, there's a higher likelihood of people interacting with you, and that means there's a higher level of danger. It's that simple.

What's a gun cost nowadays? Like a handgun, what's it like, a grand? I don't know, half that price. But you're talking about investing $500 for a gun and keeping it around and your kid could shoot themselves, or spending $300 on training. Do you get what I'm trying to say? And going out and getting yourself in shape and just paying more attention. So these gosh-darn things I see all the time, "Come to the training and learn how to turn a baseball bat in a section of this into a mortar tube!" Shut up. It's just violence against violence.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know that they're usually very limited in scope in terms of what you can do with a skill like that. I get what you're saying, because all we're talking about is literally the guy standing there filling up his tank with three people that walk up on him. They were all there before he got out of his vehicle.

An investment. It would last. That's why I said, "Do a lap!" How many times do you say, "Just do a lap! You're in your vehicle, drive a lap." Alright, walk around. I wonder what those three guys over there in the shadows are plotting. "Hey, I don't need to find out," and keep moving on.

Brian, parking lot, the parking lot to the front door. Let's go back to our ladies and gentlemen that are working and sitting in the nail salon. You can still chill and read People magazine and find out what Solange Knowles is up to. The idea is, while you're sitting there relaxing and taking a look around, look out at the parking lot. If somebody mission-focused is heading in and they don't have their sandals on to get a mani-pedi, you've got to be suspicious of that. The people that own those salons, ask them, "Do you have training? Do you have a plan for an emergency? What would happen?" And Brian, if they don't, you know what they probably will do? "What should we do?" They'll ask about it. Get that conversation started. Sometimes it's as simple as having that conversation with the folks, and then they're smarter, they're harder to hurt.

I agree. And it's because they're protecting their customers anyway. So that's something, and your business and your livelihood. Also financially advantageous to you as well, not just taking care of people. So now that that's a good, these are good examples, and we've had more, and we'll do more eventually. Because it's times when we don't think of it as some place that we're likely going to encounter something. And so we also, it's a place designed to make us let our guard down. We're supposed to.

And it's highly encouraged.

Which the bad guys understand that too. Yeah. So that's just something we want to hit on. I don't know if there's anything else you want to add to the nail salon thing, but I think it's a great little example that we wanted to talk about, just because the potential there. Any all-cash business has a potential for, or is a higher likelihood of, some sort of nefarious activity, whether it's the person who runs the business or someone who's preying on the business. Any one of those types of places are something I have to watch out for.

It is unlikely to happen to you. It is to happen to the folks that you're with. You are unlikely to get murdered or robbed there, but it does happen. So because it does happen, just like people still drown in pools, they make you put up a fence around it. We're saying, build a fence with your brain so you're aware of that when you go in. So guess what? Don't arrive late. Don't come rushing in. Don't immediately check out. Look, listen, feel, take a peek around the corner. That's the kind of stuff we're asking for, Brian. An extra minute or two to your routine could be the deciding factor in whether you're the victim or you get killed.

Yeah, perfect example. Just before we were recording this, we were on another call. My wife was texting me because she's traveling for a work trip today, and she did, it's a quick one, just a carry-on, going to fly right through, jump in. She's not flying very far from here. And she's going, "I'm going to leave at this time." I was like, "Hey, that's no, that gives me enough time to just check. I'm not checking a bag or anything." I was like, "Yeah, unless you're leaving during a high volume of traffic, during the morning rush hour, there's always more accidents during that time." "Yeah, but it only should take this." Sure enough, she's going, "Oh my God, there's an accident, the 15 is gridlocked right now." I'm like, "Well, good thing you built in the extra time." I mean, that's the whole thing. But time is always on your side. So the gift of time and distance is what we're looking for.

So that's kind of all I really wanted to hit on today, Greg, because we talked about it in a number of different areas, looking at different places you go, creating that sort of geographic profile of where I'm at. Every time we can dive in more deeper on what we mean by geographic profile on the Patreon site, on how to identify some of that stuff. But it's just take a look around and go, "Is the juice worth the squeeze?"

Let me give you a quick one. You're coming home to your house and you see another car that's not yours in the driveway, and it may or may not be occupied. Don't go home. You're thinking, "Well, maybe it's a realtor, maybe it's a delivery person, maybe it's this and that." Maybe the house is getting jacked and you're going to pull in and videotape your own homicide. Those are the times, Brian, to park a safe distance away, call somebody. Police get paid good money to do their job, and they always like an extra set of eyes. I'm just saying, the gift of time and distance can be the difference between you going to work tomorrow or going to the morgue.

That's a great point. So, thanks everyone for tuning in. We've got more of that kind of stuff too on the Patreon side, where we give a lot more practical examples, especially when we're out on the road. We like to do a lot of stuff for that. So there are some little tutorials you can follow along on there as well. And everyone listening, my wardrobe, it's cheap. It actually is very cheap. It is not expensive compared to what other people charge for this kind of stuff. It's just a couple bucks to support the show. And thank you to everyone who is listening. Please follow us on social media if you enjoyed it. Obviously, share it with your friends. It's the best way for us to get it out there. And thank you so much for tuning in. And don't forget that training changes behavior.