TCIP #058 - Helping Law Enforcement Implement a Crisis Ready Culture with Brian Willis
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
Release Date: 08/02/2016
The Real Reason You Want To Achieve Your Goals (And How to Feel It Now)
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
What you crave isn't the actual achievement of your goals. What you actually crave is the feeling you believe you’ll FEEL when you achieve your goals. In today’s Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes, we explore a simple shift that changes how you lead your week: you don’t have to wait for the milestone, the outcome, or the “someday” to feel the feelings you’re chasing. You can choose them now, on purpose, and it doesn’t just feel better. It also supports you in accomplishing your goals with more ease. In this episode, Melissa guides a short exercise to help you name what...
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Feeling Low? Do This One Thing and Watch Your Energy Lift
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
If you’re feeling low, heavy, sad, or stuck in a funk, today’s episode offers a simple truth that can shift your state quickly: do something kind for someone else. When we’re in a low place, it’s easy to feel disconnected. We can get pulled into our own mind, our own stress, and the sense that we’re alone in it all. The practice we explore today is choosing connection through service. A small act of kindness brings you back into wholeness, and you can often feel your energy lift immediately. In this session, I share a Napoleon Hill quote that captures it perfectly: “Find your...
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Letting Go of Control Doesn’t Make You Weak. It Makes You Powerful.
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
Control can look like strength. But here is the hard truth we are working with this week: Control is a tool of fear. In this episode, we go one level deeper with a question that so many leaders carry, even if they do not say it out loud: "If I let go of my need to control, will I be weak? Will I be giving away my power?" The answer is no. Releasing your grasp for control is not weakness. It is how you reclaim your power, because control is fear-based, and fear pulls you into survival. When you are leading from survival, you lose access to the steadiness, creativity, and clear thinking you...
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Control Isn’t Strength. It’s Fear in Disguise.
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
Control can look like strength. But here is the hard truth we explore today: control is a tool of fear. When a part of us does not feel safe, the ego reaches for control. Control of the outcome. Control of the timeline. Control of the situation. Control of other people. It is the mind’s attempt to create certainty so it can feel safe. The twist is that control is also an illusion. When we lead from the need to control, we are not actually in control at all. We are in fear, and fear drives fear-based decisions. In this episode of Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes, you will explore this truth...
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Stop Overthinking Decisions: The Secret to Clear Decision-Making
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
Big decisions can make even the strongest leaders second-guess themselves. When there is no obvious right answer, most of us try to think our way into certainty. The problem is that “thinking harder” often creates more doubt, more stress, and more mental gridlock. In Day 2 of Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes, we explore a different approach to decision-making. One that starts in the body, not the brain. You will learn why relying only on the analytical mind can feed fear and uncertainty, and how to tap into your three intelligence centers for clearer, steadier decision-making: the brain...
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Overcoming Fear and Doubt: A Morning Grounding for Leaders
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
Fear and doubt do not mean you are off track. They often show up when you are standing at the edge of expansion. In this episode, recorded from the very first Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes, Melissa explores the two sides of the unknown and how to relate to fear without letting it drive your choices. This is a short, grounded reset for leaders doing work that matters, especially when resistance, noise, and second-guessing start creeping in. You will also be guided through a grounding drop-in to help you begin your day regulated, steady, and connected to what matters most. In this episode,...
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Emotional Duality: The Leadership Skill That Expands Your Capacity
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
What if the strongest leaders aren't the ones who never feel fear, but the ones who can hold fear AND vision simultaneously? In this episode, Melissa explores the leadership superpower that nobody talks about: dual emotionality. As a Visionary Leader navigating change, you don't have to choose between feeling scared and holding your vision. You can do both—and that's actually your advantage. Discover: Why emotional duality is your secret weapon for staying in creation mode when others are in survival How to self-resource using the full spectrum of human emotion The neuroscience behind why...
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The Leadership Mirror: How Your Inner State Creates Your Reality
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
What if everything challenging in your leadership—the resistance you face, the conflicts that trigger you, the changes that feel impossible—is actually a mirror showing you exactly what needs to shift within? In this transformational episode, Melissa reveals the profound truth that visionary leaders understand: your external world is a direct reflection of your internal state. This isn't just spiritual philosophy. It's quantum physics meets practical leadership. You'll discover: The difference between probability leadership (leading from past patterns) and possibility leadership (creating...
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Strategic Emotionality: The New Skillset for Visionary Leaders
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
We've been taught to lead with logic, suppress emotion, and control the narrative. But what if that’s exactly what’s keeping us stuck? In this episode of Leading Through Change, Melissa challenges the outdated belief that emotion has no place in the boardroom. She explores how emotionality—when understood, named, and strategically integrated—becomes a powerful leadership tool. You’ll learn: Why emotion is not the enemy, it's simply energy in motion How low-frequency emotions like anger and grief can become catalysts for connection What “meeting people in their emotionality”...
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The 4 Levels of Safety Every Leader Must Master
Morning Lives with Melissa Agnes
Why do people resist change—even when it's clearly good for them? If you've ever felt frustrated trying to lead people through transformation, only to hit wall after wall of resistance, this episode will change everything. The breakthrough insight: Resistance isn't something to overcome—it's a signal that people don't feel safe enough to transform. In this episode, discover the four levels of safety every leader must master to dissolve resistance and create the conditions where real transformation becomes possible. You'll learn why one's level of transformation is directly linked to their...
info_outlineWhen it comes to crisis management, law enforcement has one of the most challenging tasks. Not only does their crisis management involve real dangers and the important mission of keeping their communities and themselves safe and out of harms way, but it also includes a need for effective and nearly instantaneous communications. And while the former challenge has always been a part of their job description, the latter is relatively new with ever evolving real-time challenges. Challenges that can be difficult and grueling to overcome.
Those of you who have followed me for a while know that I am dedicated to helping law enforcement agencies implement a 21st century crisis-ready culture. Whether it be through my work with law enforcement agencies, EMDs, cities and municipalities, or by leveraging my blog, podcast or #crisisready video series. This is why I was honored when Brian Willis reached out to invite me onto his podcast for his Excellence In Training Academy, which is “a membership site for law enforcement trainers who are committed to the pursuit of excellence in their life and in their training”.
Brian does some amazing work within the law enforcement profession, including being the cofounder of WINx, an annual conference targeted for law enforcement professionals who aren’t happy with the status quo and are willing to be part of the growth and evolution of the law enforcement profession.
Brian was also gracious enough to allow me to repurpose the podcast we recorded together and share it with all of you. It’s a dynamic discussion with lots of great advice and takeaways for the law enforcement profession, so be sure to tune in!
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Connect with Brian and Melissa
About host, Melissa Agnes
Learn more about Melissa Agnes
Follow Melissa on Twitter: @melissa_agnes
Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn
Email Melissa directly: melissa@melissaagnes.com
About guest, Brian Willis
Brian has 25 years experience as a full time police officer. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his commitment and contributions to officer safety in Canada and was honored as the Law Officer Trainer of the Year in 2011. Brian also has 25 years experience as a law enforcement trainer. He works with law enforcement trainers who love to teach, are committed to their own learning and are passionate about helping their officers perform at their best.
If you’re in the law enforcement profession and haven’t done so already, please check out Brian’s Excellence In Training Academy. I also encourage you to watch Brian’s TEDx talk: The Most Dangerous Weapon in Law Enforcement.
- Learn more about Brian and connect with him on LinkedIn
- Follow Brian on Twitter: @BrianRWillis
- Check out Brian’s consulting agency: Winning Mind Training
- Visit lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com to learn more about “what’s important now?” as a crisis management strategy
- Discover WINx and register to attend this year’s conference in Chicago!
- Listen to a past episode of The Crisis Intelligence Podcast with Brian Willis
I’d like to extend a big thanks to Brian for welcoming me into his Excellence in Training Academy by means of this podcast. Our discussion is an important one and I look forward to continuing it and helping where I can.