Spencer Coursen
Spencer Coursen is a nationally recognized threat management expert and author of The Safety Trap (St. Martin’s Press, 2021.) He is a combat veteran, former supervisory special agent, and private security professional. His unique global experience has supported an exceptional record of success in the assessment, management, and resolution of threats, conflict resolution, employee terminations, physical security assessments, expert witness testimony, policy authorship, protective intelligence, and vulnerability reduction. Spencer Coursen is the founder of Coursen Security Group (CSG) — a premier threat management firm based in Austin, Texas. CSG provides expert security assessment, consultation, and protective strategy to help organizations, public figures, and private families succeed in staying safe.
Mr. Coursen is a frequent media contributor to ABC News, FOX, NBC, The Washington Post, USA Today, Katie Couric, and CNN. He is also the host of the Coursen’s Corner podcast. And he has been a featured guest on Clint Emerson’s Can You Survive This Podcast. Coursen has been a featured speaker at CrimeCon, ASIS, and GSX. His dynamic presentations and unique pairing of “from the headlines” stories with anecdotes from his own global experience provides for an enthusiastic engagement with the audience that will leave them both entertained and empowered.
Avoiding The Safety Trap: A Security Experts Secrets For Living Your Very Best Life The Safest Way Possible.
Learn the secrets and master the strategies to keep you and your loved ones
protected by avoiding the false sense security that allows for bad things to
happen…because sometimes feeling safe is the most dangerous thing we do.
The Safety Trap
Coursen shares real-world anecdotes from his global experience to discuss a a number of different “safety traps” which encompass everything from avoidance to overconfidence, oversharing to alarm fatigue and from the importance of physical fitness to the dangers of oversharing. Learn why, “sometimes feeling safe is the most dangerous thing we do,” and how you too can master the strategies to succeed in staying safe by adopting Coursen’s time and tested formula of “Awareness + Preparation = Protection”
How To Live Your Very Best Life The Safest Way Possible
In this speech, Coursen outlines best practices for living your very best life the safest way possible, how to find balance between being both comfortable yet cautious, and discusses why all that most of us will ever need to keep ourselves and our loved ones protected is a healthy sense of skepticism and a moderate dose of vigilance.
Insider Threats
If you are one of the millions of businesses operating in the United States, the likelihood of your organization being targeted by an outside actor may be very low, but the risk of someone inside the workplace sabotaging your success is statistically quite high. From unintended complacency to nefarious intent, from cyber security breaches to industrial espionage, from policy and procedure to acceptable practice, and from workplace violence, to blackmail and extortion, insider threats always cause more harm than outside actors. If you want to learn how to identify the warning signs of an insider threat, and how to manage those concerns toward their most favorable resolution, you will not want to miss this speech.
Stranger Danger Is A One-Way Street
How to best protect a child from harm is a challenge every parent will confront. At its most fundamental level, it is a question of overprotectiveness versus overexposure. How do you protect your child without being a helicopter parent while at the same time not make them fearful while trying to explain something before it happens? Truth is, there is no magic answer. Despite the best efforts to keep a child protected, they will inevitably be exposed to violence, chaos, and tragedy well before any of us ever wish they would. But also true is that an aware child is a safe child, and a prepared child will always be far less anxious and much more empowered to influence their own outcome, than the child living in fear of whatever unnamed adversity may await. In this speech, Coursen provides some very practical and engaging ways for parents to prepare themselves for these tough-to-talk-about times, and how to instill confidence in your child with the insights, skills, and strategies your child can build upon for the rest of their lives.
Employee Terminations: Risk, Responsibility, and Retaliation
Employee terminations are a difficult but sometimes necessary decision, but there are certain safeguards which can help to ensure the safety of those still hired is prioritized above those being fired. In this speech, Coursen outlines why the decision to terminate an employee cannot be as cut-and-dried as hired or fired. He outlines why a threat assessment may be necessary, the correlation between financial frustration and risk of harm, the importance of maintaining dignity, and why the risk of violence by disgruntled and recently terminated employees is a concern every business should take into consideration.
The Power Of Being Disagreeable and The Pitfalls Of Being Too Polite
In this speech, Coursen explains how the power of being disagreeable is not only a promoter of personal protection, but also of personal and professional success. Why being polite is a courtesy, but protecting yourself is a priority. Why your willingness to defend yourself should always be greater than your unwillingness to offend another. How to own your agency, set better boundaries, and never allow others to perceive your kindness as weakness.
Check out Spencer Coursen on Twitter @SpencerCoursen.
Praise for The Safety Trap
“I’ve known Spencer Coursen for over a decade. He’s actually, personally, kept me safe in very unsafe situations. He finally wrote a book that gives you and me some incredible tips on how to stay safe in an unsafe world. It’s not to make you paranoid, just prepared, with real world tips I use all the time.”
— S.E. Cupp, Journalist“The Safety Trap is a benchmark safety and security reference for everyone. Like all great U.S. Army Rangers, Coursen is leading the way with deliberate passion and experience.”
— Clint Emerson, retired Navy Seal, #1 NYT bestselling author“The Safety Trap teaches readers how to evaluate and how to respond to danger, how to manage it when necessary, and how to triumph over it when all else fails. The Safety Trap is the best book on personal safety I’ve read in the last decade.”
— Vincent O’Neill, Chief, Headquarters Security for the International Monetary Fund“The Safety Trap is a must read book for anyone concerned with not only their personal safety and security, but of those around them as well. Spencer Coursen is one of those select few in the safety and security profession who fully understands how to manage actual risk.”
— Jonathan Wackrow, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, retired Secret Service agentBook This Speaker
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Former CIA Officer and FBI Agent