YouSaid · the spoken record

Evy Poumpouras

lines on the record: 183
first: 2025-09-25
most recent: 2025-09-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“I get it every once in a while you come across an asshole and it happens But if it's a consistent thing, it It's also what did I do? What did I allow myself to do that exposed me to this volatility, that exposed me to this stuff? It's like crime. If I walk home every night in a sketchy area with the lights are dark and there's no lighting and I know there's high crime and it's abandoned area, that choice I'm making to walk through that neighborhood versus taking a taxi”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Closer to them to save them, what are they doing, Stephen? They're panicking, they're flailing, then they see you, what do they do? They grab onto you so they can stay afloat, and you know what they do? They push you down. You're there to save them. But in their panic and in their loss and in their chaos, what do they do? They push you down. People are the same way just in relationships. So all I'm saying is I'm not telling you not to be a person who's going out there to help others, but be selective in how you do it and who you help. Because then you fall into that space of I'm such a, I'm just trying to be a good person. I'm trying to do this. I'm trying to do that. No, you're exposing yourself to people and environments that are not good for you and that actually impact your life negatively, and so it's not on them, it's also we have a responsibility to ourselves, Stephen, to make good decisions. On where we go, what relationships we enter, who we're dealing with and what we're doing, we have a responsibility. So if somebody screws us over”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, because you adopt their habits. You adopt and are influenced by people. It doesn't matter who you are, you can be you can be Stephen Bartlett, Darwin's CEO if you surround yourself with low vibration people. Eventually, slowly, it's going to bring down your vibration. It's easier for if you're up here, let's say higher vibration, I'm doing really well. I'm excelling in the way I think, emotionally stable. You kind of doing really well in life and you're up here, and you're around people like down here, and you're thinking, oh, I'm going to help pull this person up, right? It is actually easier for them to pull you down than it is for you to pull people up. You know, I always say be careful who you try to save. Some people will drown you. It's like when we would do rescue search and rescue, they would tell you when you got out in the water. The most dangerous thing isn't the water, it's the person who's panicking in the water who could kill you. Because as you get”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They make you feel bad not because they said that's something necessarily to you, but there may be in a victim mindset, they're always bringing problems, they're always bringing drama. Everything is wrong. There are low vibration.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think of it this way. Like, there's some people at low vibration as when you're around people and it's just, you don't want to be around them.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gauge of a friend, but I think sometimes people think a lot of friends are good and a lot of friends are noise. You can have acquaintances, but like your friend is really somebody you influences you.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Why do you need all those people? It's one thing to have connections and network and meet people and hang out, but who you bring into that inner circle I think, and I would think even for you, you would You want to be selective and careful. You also want to make sure people, if Stephen wasn't Steven, Like, what quality friends would they still be? Because sometimes it's also what the package is and people are drawn to us, and that's okay. But I guess what I'm saying is its quality, are they genuinely good friends? Like if something bad happens and you're like, I need your help, and they're like, let me, would they be like, let me go get my shovel? Where are we meeting? I think that would be”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so I define friends as people you would give pretty much unconditional trust to. Unconditional, I trust you I'll tell you whatever. More or less How many would those be”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I did growing up, I was Miss Social Butterfly. Um, no, and just so you know, the research shows, Stephen, that as we age, our inner circle gets smaller and smaller and smaller. I have a lot of acquaintances, and I'm friendly with a lot of people, and I network with a lot of people, and I like these people, but when I hear the word friends, I can count my friends on one hand. Do you have a lot of friends? You might because you might still be at an age where you're kind of in the middle there.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If everything upsets you, if you're getting triggered all the time, if you're upset with people or angry with people or you feel the need to let everybody know through social media or posts or texting, you know, what's going on in your life? I want you to pause and say why am I doing all of this? What is going on within me that I am feeling that I need to, that I see the world this way? It always starts with us. It's always within. And so I think that's the thing. It's like, what's going on within me? And if you have the ability, the maturity, and you're in a space where you can do that and you want that, you can call yourself out on your own bullshit.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I will go to someone that can either either I trust or can help me make a decision with something, and I'll say, you know, it could be my agent, it could be a work thing. I'm like, hey, this happened. I'm seeing red. How would you handle this scenario? Because I'm in an emotional state. I'm not going to make a good decision. Can I have your guidance advice? And so I will go to people I trust who will guide me. So that's the biggest thing. I think call yourself out on your bullshit. The minute you start getting emotional, and I think there's a pattern, if everything offends you.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That can do it, and that you also have to be okay with listening it, so I'm mature enough, and I hope to be, I try to be humble enough to say look, tell me the truth, or there are times too, where as much as a strategic decision maker I like to be, there's times where Stephen I'm seeing red. Someone will do something and all I see is red.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Care about you will typically call things out on you. Now there's ways to do it and ways not to do it, and there's maybe times where I'm not really keen on the way he does it. But because he has good contribution points, good credibility with me, I know if he's saying something, that there's validity to it. If he's going to pause and say, hey, I would like you to think about this, it's coming from somewhere. So he's built enough trust, I've built enough trust to know that he does that. Now if you have someone who's always critiquing you? Because that does exist. Everything you do is wrong, then that person's not going to resonate. So I think having people. actually call you out on your stuff or help point it out”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think so. I'm very lucky I have a husband who makes sure that I don't. But he's a very steady good soundboard, but he's also a former special agent, both in US Secret Service and Homeland Security. And he was SWAT. So this is a super steady person lost his father when he was young. I'm only sharing this because you're asking. I guess what I'm saying is, so I have someone in my very inner circle who will tell me hey. Chucklehead You might want to think this through he may not say it like that, but he will call me out on things people that”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think sometimes it's, I'm not telling people to feel permanently bad for what they do because you don't want to, like we said, you don't want to live in the past and beat yourself up. And man, I messed up and I did this. You will. But I do think it's important to say I did something and I shouldn't have done this. At least to yourself, I”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Who says I gave the baby Tylenol and it went quiet? In that moment, her language had changed so much I was like, That's a moment she snapped that baby's arm and the baby passed out from the pain. And so when I get the statement, I call up the law enforcement entity, it was the state police, because they were the ones who asked me to come up. And I said, I want to talk to Nanny, not to Dad. And sure enough, Nanny comes in. Hour and a half later, I had a confession. I didn't even have to give her a polygraph”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then opened up her statement by telling me about her morning, how frustrated it was, how she was running late, she had two little kids of her own, she was trying to get them out, she was a single mom, she was stressed out, then she shows up to work to take care of this baby. The baby's fussing, the baby's crying, I did this, it didn't work, I did that, it didn't work. So as she's telling me the story, she's telling me how hard her day was, and then she turns into how frustrated she was with this baby. I did everything I could to get this baby to stop crying. I think the baby was either three or six months old. I can't remember. And the baby was this and the baby was that. And then she gets to apart where it says. Then I gave the baby Tylenol, and it went quiet. And I was like, there it is. That's when she broke the baby's arm.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it was between the dad and the nanny the police were looking at. And police weren't sure which one it was. We think it's either the nanny or their dad. Now in a criminal case, you always want to talk to them the most likely suspect. You don't build your way up. I go to the person who I likely think did it. I'm going straight to the person, right? I don't want to go to the person I think maybe did it and then build my way there. I want the person that I truly believe is my suspect, my offender. So I get the statements and I read them both. I read dad's and I read nannies. I read dads and I'm like, it's not dad. I knew from the statement it wasn't dad. I read nannies. And I knew right away after I read Nanny's statement she did it. Now you're gonna say, how did you know”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What's funny you say that when I did cases, I would always ask, and again, not because I knew to do this, I was trained to do this, but really good interview is, get people to write, not a memo, but a statement before you even interview them. You know, and if it was like the date of the crime, for example, tell me what you did from the time you woke up on this date till the time you went to sleep. And it would be a memo of what they did that day. Or tell me what you know about blah, blah, blah, blah. And I would read those statements and I would know often who was my suspect, who wasn't. I had one case where Baby was a few months old, maybe had a broken arm.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I took some notes down, so I hope you don't mind. I'm just going to look to it just to make sure I speak clearly and I don't make any mistakes. And then go through the points.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And say, Hey, I did this project. I spent X amount of You know, I'd like to put in for a higher position, or I'd like to put in for this other project. Go in with the facts. Facts win because it's harder for people to refute facts. I think I should get this. Well, I think you shouldn't. I believe, you know, you're treating me this way. Well, I believe I'm not. But if you say we had this meeting during this meeting you said this and this, could you explain that to me because it seemed as though you didn't trust me in that meeting or it seemed as though you were upset with me in that meeting. But I'm telling you specifically what I did. So I'm bringing you back to that specific fact a moment versus now I feel that you treat me this way. It's so vague and ambiguous. When you go in with very specific things, that's harder to argue. You want to, not that I want you to win an argument, but you really want to make your point and get results. Be very clear and specific. And you know what? If you're nervous, write it down. I always tell people write your stuff down. Walk into a meeting if you're having it with your supervisor. Sir, boss, I don't know if people say sir anymore. I guess I have to say, sir. Sir, I just”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's repetition. If enough people get in your face over time you learn to manage your emotions, but if you spent the whole time avoiding people getting in your face, I'm not telling you to go look for problems, but you shouldn't go out of your way to avoid conflict to such a degree Were you willing to do anything whatever because you don't want conflict? I don't want conflict, I don't like it. But if it shows up at my face, I'm going to be there. Yet you can also handle people non emotionally with facts. Okay, earlier on you said X, Y, and Z. Could you explain that to me? Even sometimes when people tell me, you know, I feel like I'm not valued at work, or I think my boss doesn't care about me, or I believe this, and I want to go talk to my boss. And I'll tell them, I'm fine with you going talk to your boss when they would ask me for advice, because I never give unsolicited advice. I'm fine with you going in there, but do not go in there and say, I think, I feel, I believe.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Emotional state with people like people can't post stuff on social media. Like everybody has to give their opinion on something. And sometimes I'm like, stop. Like everybody doesn't need to know what you're thinking. Like, stop posting. We put so much noise out there because we think people care. They don't. It's like even though when you speak, I look at social media the same way. What are you contributing to the world? Are you? Post it if you're not, don't post it. Don't put more noise. Your contribution points even in your posts and the things you share with the world. But I look at it this way you're at a point I understand when you're young. Up until you're twenty five years old, I give you a free pass because that frontal cortex of yours is not developed. You're not emotionally regulated, but then there comes a point where you have to own your emotions. I had to because I would lose my job.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, you own your emotion. Nobody should provoke you. Nobody Steven Bartlett, died of CEO. Nobody provokes you. You own your response. You can go in that back room and motherfuck somebody to, you know, like do it in the mirror. But nobody owns that. Nobody should take that from you. Who are they to take that from you and who are you to surrender it? That's the way I look at it. You're going to be dealing with people. People are revolving door of all their stuff, and I do think we see a really heightened position.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sorry to stop. So often people use things to get you to feel bad, to leave them alone. Let's say you're going to fire somebody because for something they did and you're asking them questions and they start crying in the office instead of asking the questions, right? That's a way to deflect to get you to feel bad, to stop your line of fire of questions, to get you to stop. Very common. Very common crying. It's a manipulation tactic. And there's other things people can do. So people will use certain things to get you to stop what you're doing. And sometimes people fall for it. Or they'll say things to you. You're only doing this to me because I'm a woman or because I'm this. And those sometimes, not that they're not true, but a lot of times it can be used as manipulators to get you to back off.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Everything breaks bad. They're gonna freak out, somebody's gonna get hurt. It's not a good thing. The majority of people I would arrest after I would arrest them, I'd have to take them to the hospital. Not because I did anything to hurt them, but my heart hurts. I'm stressed. I don't know what's happening. I have a headache. I don't want them to die on me, and the majority of the time I would take him to the hospital. Or they were faking it. I've had people fake heart attacks because they thought I'd feel bad and take the cuffs off. And I'm like, okay, are you having a heart attack? Let me put the cuffs on. We're going straight to the hospital. And I would take him to the hospital. So there is a lot of tactics people would use to also get you to stop manipulators, which people can do the average person, not in this way, but ways people can manipulate you to stop whatever it is you're doing. Let's say you're trying to find out the truth of something or you're trying to get to asking questions in a person doesn't like it, they may start crying. People would cry when I would arrest them as a way for me to feel.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, but sometimes you have to repeat it like 15 times to people before you actually do it. Here's the thing once you put hands on people, the last thing you want to do is put hands on people the minute you put hands on people.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You are right now impeding with Title 18, 3056, and I would say the title of what it was, Rich says that I have to do X, Y, and Z. So here's a thing. I don't want to arrest you, but you do need to move across the street. You can move across the street, and I can get somebody to come talk to you or, you know, it's going to escalate. It's up to you. Most people, Stephen, most listen, but a lot of people like theatrics.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Crime, it's committed by the same group of people. And the majority of arrests, if you look at the arrests, they're misdemeanors, meaning driving well intoxicated. They're smaller things. Felonies, really serious crimes, these are people who typically violate the law consistently. So this is happening. We would memorize what the U.S. Secret Service did is they taught us to fight with facts. I fight with facts. So we actually memorized the title codes. Like 18, title eighteen USC, was it 3056? That gave me the right to do what I needed to do to secure and protect the president of the United States. And if you were interfering with that, then the law gave me the right to arrest you if I needed to. I didn't want to arrest anybody. I didn't care. But the law gave me that right because now you're impeding in my ability to do my job. So one of the things I would do is I would say, ma'am.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't want to say you get used to it, but you don't take it personally because they don't know me. Also, when you're in law enforcement, you're You've seen people at their worst. You are seeing the worst of humanity. That is one of the toughest jobs even with military. Military, they go to war. That's atrocious. But you go, you do your tour and you're out. Then maybe you go back, but you get reprieve. Law enforcement. You're doing this for your entire career. Every single day you are seeing the worst in humanity. People are lying to you. They're committing crimes. You really could lose a lot of faith. You really could become really cynical. It's actually a common trait in law enforcement, so you have to be really careful to not become overly cynical because you're seeing the worst of people. And they're also bringing out their worst behavior for whatever reason, people are not the best version of themselves. And again, you're also typically not dealing with the good citizen. You're dealing with people who are consistently committing crimes. If you look at crime in general, the vast majority of”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“How many times I'm going to say this before I force this person across the street before I put handcuffs on them? That's what's happening in my head. So in my head, I am doing mathematical equation. How many chances do I give this person before I throw on handcuffs?”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What I would say is ma'am, or sir, whoever it was, was like, I appreciate you frustrated. However, I'm not able to have you stand here. Could you please go across the street?”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They're in your face, and when you're telling them to do something, they automatically you have something called reactants. Nobody likes to be told anything. Nobody likes to feel like they don't have control over their lines. So they have reactants, which means immediately they're going to push back. A really good example is COVID. People are losing their minds, you know, when they were forced to wear masks. And a big reason it wasn't really the mask, it was that they felt that they had no autonomy. You're telling me what I have to do. And I feel like I have no control. So in law enforcement, you're typically dealing with this often where you can't offer people a choice typically. It's I need you to do this. So when you have people really escalating and getting in your face and in many situations wanting an altercation, they want to put on YouTube. They want to put on social media. You have to manage yourself. Also, in my mind, I'm like, you're not going to get that from me. So you do have a higher threshold.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, because The job that I came from, you couldn't get, you just couldn't get impacted with people. Like, you have to think of it this way, it would be something stupid, Stephen. Here in New York once, President Barack Obama, you went out to dinner, and I had to tell somebody standing by the restaurant, ma'am, you know, sir, could you please just cross the street and stand there because we had to clear the area? And people lose their minds. You're violating my rights. Phones come out. They're yelling at you in your face. Now, New York me or the Evy me wants to just like punch them in the throat, go across the street. Like, I don't have time for this. She can't do that. So when you have a job where people Dislike you because you're law enforcement.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You didn't take it like that, but I'm also. I also don't get easily offended. To me I looked at it like you have to really say something pretty offensive to me to be offended. So I think my offensive levelness is probably my tolerance is higher than others.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, yes, although I will say to my husband sometimes, I'm like, you're lucky you're hot when we fight. Good looking hot man because I don't know if we would have survived. So there's moments, Steven. Tooth be told while I'm looking, I'm like, you're lucky you're a good looking man. Otherwise, I don't know. So there's moments where that'll save the relationship. But I digress. I forgot what you asked me because I took you in a different direction because I was really just curious to see, you know, because I would see it with like high presidents and I would see it with certain people. And I experienced it myself too. Sometimes you get this. And I would think you would get it a lot, and that's a really tough thing, I would think, too.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Do you know who made it through the hiring process These guys these guys who are I, me, I want to learn, I want to challenge, I want to see I can do it because they were so self focused not only with they not making through the hiring process, they want to make it through training. Because these guys were focused on the bigger thing, the role, the role, the role Then these guys were focused on themselves, what they could get out of it. So when people are interviewing with you, what can they get out of it? I get to be around Stephen Me, there it is”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I did the hiring for the U.S. Secret Service, I did the polygraphs. And I know you can't polygraph people, but they would polygraph people. So I was like the last line of defense. They'd go through the whole hiring process, right? Interviews, panel interviews, exams, there's tests you would have to take. Anyway, so you pass all this stuff, right? And then you get to me. And so I was kind of the last line of defense. And one of the things I would ask them during the interview, I would ask them kind of like what you said, why do you want it to be a US Secret Service special agent? And I typically get two types of answers. Oh, I think it'd be really interesting challenge. I want to see if I can do it. You know, it would be really, you know, I want to see if I'm able to do it. And then the other answer I would get typically would be, you know, I want to serve my country. I want to help protect people. I want to do something bigger than me.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is true, I think it depends who it is. If it's someone I'm working with, I'm always kind of like, can we just, you know, in my head, I'm like, land the plane, land the plane. I have to have like 10 more conversations like these. It's not to be mean, you know, but as you go higher up or as you're doing more, you have less empathy, ironically. It's not because you become meaner. It's just I don't have the ability And can I ask you a question, actually? Do you tend to draw people that want to work with you who think they see the persona Stephen here and you're guiding people, you're helping people in some way mentoring people? Do you find that people want to come to work for you because they think you will”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She's not you notice she's so engrossed and it's not to make to throw you know judgment on her but that's what happens when you're so engrossed in what you're thinking that you lose you lose sight of there's 10 other people in this room This is when, if you're gonna open your mouth, open your mouth, use your pauses, use your silences so that you can make sure your message is impactful and you're not running through, you're not vomiting everything out, which also makes you look nervous and lacking confidence. But if you're going to speak, then Command what you say. Speak with conviction, and don't waste people's time.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The research shows that actually people see you as less competent. When you use simpler words, and you get to the point and you use less words in the vocabulary, it actually shows that you are deemed as more competent, more confident, and more trustworthy.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To keep it simple so that people can actually finish the article or even a book my book. Do you know how hard it was to write the book? Not for the content, but to write it in a way that was easy for people to read, not for people to read a chapter and be like, I need a nap Because it's too cognitive heavy. You want to do things that people can absorb and they don't have to use all their brain power. If it's too hard, if we speak too smart or too complicated, people get tired, so the delivery mechanism in which you give information really matters. You're talking so that they can understand so that it's not hard for them to follow you, so that they can follow you easily, they can stay connected with you, and they're not needing a nap after you're done. You speak for them not for you.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm not going to speak the way I normally speak, I'm going to adapt my speech, there's adaptability, in a way that's going to resonate with you the most. So using big, hefty words, speaking super fast, especially I'm from New York, like I said, I'd go to the south, they speak slower, I would have to slow down so I could meet them where they were, so I could speak to them in a way that resonated with them. It's the listener that matters. I am irrelevant, we don't matter. They matter. Where is that person I'm going to meet you there? Also, even when you write, one of the things I learned in journalism school, New York Times writes at an eighth grade level.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I wanted to hear their speech, how they, you know, like how it resonated, their language skills. And they would sign it. Then we'd finish it. And then I would ask them questions that I already knew the answer to. What's your name? What's your date of birth? Where are you from? I had all of this. I did not need it. But it was away from me to assess their speech, and then based on that I would meet them where they were.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's about being able to relay that information in a way that people can understand and that's digestible. It's how they process information. Do you know I even learned to do that in the interview room when I would mirandize people? I was trying to assess where they were linguistically. And so I could speak to them in a way that resonated with them. So one of the things I would do is I had Miranda. I never read Miranda verbally. The Miranda writes in the United States before you interview anybody, and I would do this where they were there an applicant, a suspect, a victim, because you never knew how things were going to go. I would Mirandaize everybody. You know, you have the right to remain silent, all that. So I had a piece of paper, and I would hand it to them, and I would say, please read each sentence out loud. The first sentence would be, and I would have them hold it, they would read out loud I have the right to remain silent, and I would ask them, do you understand that? I wouldn't read it. They would say it. I would listen to them.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Somebody wants when I began doing keynotes or speaking, there was this other speaker, and he said to me, he's like, let me give you some advice, kid. I was like, sure, I'll take it. I don't mind. And he hadn't heard me speak yet. It was just, he was just trying to impart wisdom. He said, just because you're an expert doesn't mean you're interesting. And it always stuck with me. Because there's people, Stephen, that are probably smarter than I am, have more years or time experience in the US Secret Service than I do. Always somebody that's better, smarter, faster, whatever. But a big part of what plays a role is how you present and how are you sharing that information and are you doing an effective job? It's not about, let me tell you how smart I think I am.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm gonna really focus. And five, ten minutes you're in there, and you lose people. It's not their fault. What am I going to eat later? Where am I going to go for lunch? Did I send that email? Oh, I have to pick up my dry cleaning later. People ping pong. So it's especially today where you're competing with all this noise, and there's so much noise out there. You really are trying hard to keep people engaged. So you don't have to be long winded, speak, engage, show them that you're there, own your space, and command your words.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, when people don't see hands, it's a sign of untrustworthyness. Like you can't trust them. When you see hands, open hands, I'm no threat. It's kind of like a psychological thing for prehistoric time, prehistoric times. I see no weapons in your hand. I can trust you. So that's something I learned as a technique as well in the polygraph room. Always have your hands out, always be open. I'm open. I'm here for you. And so I've learned to roll that into how I present because I learned it's really important to use your hands and you are storytelling and you are commanding your voice. So all those things combined, you're trying to keep also people's attention. So I also look at it. I'm trying to keep you engaged in the conversations. So I can't be lazy and not I have to work hard to keep you engaged. You're also people kind of like they ping pong. Even if somebody, you ever go to a conference and you're like, I'm really going to pay attention.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You look flatter. You ever watch Zooms? You ever do a zoom? And it looks like everybody's bored out of their mind. And you're thinking, what's going on? It's not them. It's the camera. It takes energy. So if you're trying to engage people, one of the things you can do, first of all, when you speak, people hear 49% of what you say. So when you're talking, if you're able to keep their attention, they're hearing half of what you say. And that's if they're connected to you. So think about that. Now, I'm trying to speak. And when you speak, you're also telling a story. So I can sit like this, which side note, when you sit on your hands, it's considered, some people say it's a considered sign of deceit. I'm hiding my hands. I'm a liar.”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So there's a couple of things, and so it's really good that you brought that up. One, I'm Greek, so that plays a role. So I try not to be, so they're called illustrators when people use their hands. But yes, there is a strategy to it. One, I learned it from what doing television. When I first began doing the news, which I knew nothing about, again, I went from a job where you were supposed to be not in front of the camera, actually out of the camera, because the camera was supposed to catch the president, never you, to being in front of the camera. And the producer I worked with the very first day said, let me give you a secret. When you're on camera, just so you know, the camera sucks like twenty-five percent of your energy away. It takes immediately twenty five percent of your energy out. So when the person is watching,”
2025-09-25 · The Diary of a CEO · Secret Agent (Evy Poumpouras): Never Be Yourself At Work! Authenticity Is Quietly Sabotaging You! - Evy Poumpouras · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT