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Sensei versus instructor
Thanks to everyone who provided me with such great feedback on Part 1 of this article. If you’ve started working on getting yourself established, here are some additional things you can do to further your dream of making a living as a police trainer.
 Street Survival Seminar instructor Betsy Brantner-Smith, seen here teaching some of her fellow officers, says that whether you’re doing an in-service handcuffing class or giving the keynote speech at a major international conference, it’s a fantastic feeling to stand before your peers and share your ideas. |
Stay Current, Be Flexible
Always be a student. Law enforcement is an evolving profession – tactics change, tools change, communities change, and missions change – so trainers need to change with the times while remembering the basics. If you’re going to stay with an established, long term concept, like slicing the pie, be prepared to articulate to your students why this particular tactic hasn’t changed. “That’s the way we’ve always done it” is never an acceptable answer in the classroom. In this day and age of realistic training options like Simunition, paintball, Airsoft, and Redman (to name but a few), there is no excuse to not be able to effectively demonstrate why you’re teaching what you teach. If a technique doesn’t stand up to realistic training scenarios, the student will never use it on the street, and you’ll soon find yourself with an empty classroom.
Write Articles
One of the best ways to help establish yourself as a credible expert is to become a police author. There are many publications and websites (like Police1, of course!) looking for subject matter experts who can put fingers to keyboard and share their expertise with others. Get started by reading the articles you enjoy and analyze why the article and the author’s style appeals to you. Then take an aspect of your most polished training course, write an outline, and turn that outline into an article. Don’t be afraid to quote other experts (but be certain to credit them appropriately and cite your research!) and submit the final product to an editor. Take any feedback, criticism, or rejection you receive graciously, and ask “what could I do better?” or, “what other topics are you looking for?”
Be wiling to write for free for a while – it’s a great way to get your name out there and it allows you to add “police author” to your resume.
Make Your Resume Real
Resumes and curriculum vitae often get trainers in trouble. Why? Because some people tend exaggerate; others outright lie. If you once had three Border Patrol agents attend one of your classes, you cannot put on your resume “Trained the US Border Patrol.” If you once traveled to Canada to teach a class, don’t say that you have “trained officers throughout the world” on your website. If you once sat on a surveillance of a local drug dealer’s house, you can’t say you were an “undercover narcotics agent” on your vitae. Don’t say you’re certified if you’re not, don’t say you’ve worked in an assignment you haven’t, and don’t say you’ve trained people you haven’t. In this age of information overload, everything on your résumé is easy to confirm and/or prove false.
Besides, lying is dishonorable, and we’re a profession of honor and integrity.
Look the Part
There are some extremely knowledgeable trainers out who just can’t get their message across solely because of their appearance. Not everyone can look like Jim DiNaso but if your belly is so big you can’t see your boots, your hair should have been cut two weeks ago, your shirt is wrinkled, your breath is bad, and you don’t believe in showering every day, your credibility is going to suffer. Your classroom attire should also match your topic. If you’re teaching handcuffing, tactical attire is obviously the dress of the day. If you’re the keynote speaker, choose a simple suit, your uniform (if appropriate and allowed), or a nice understated blouse or shirt and slacks. Simply stated, looks matter.
Learn the Business End
When I started teaching independently I had no idea what to charge for a class or a dinner talk or a workshop; it’s hard to put a price on your own material and talents; it just feels weird. Price tends to be negotiable depending on the client, the region, the topic, and the instructor, and there’s no published “price list” that I’m aware of. When I took over managing Dave Smith and Associates (my husband’s training and consulting business), I was even in more of a conundrum; I had to come up with pricing for training classes, keynote talks, expert witness services, and consulting for both of us. I also had to learn to market, schedule, negotiate, and organize. Three of my early mentors on the business end were (whether they know it or not) Dr. Kevin Gilmartin, who wrote Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman (check out his P1TV segments on warrior values and school violence), and Deputy Chief Mark Dunston.
Among other things, Kevin taught me that for every “freebie” you do at a conference, you’ll get three or more paid talks if you do it right. Dave taught me to be flexible in my price negotiations (and that sleep is over rated!) and Mark taught me how successfully manage the expert witness function. These men were generous with their time and their advice, and they inspired me to mentor others.
Be Willing to Take Risks
I learned from firearms instructor Lou Ann Hamblin and motivational “Amazon” Valerie VanBrocklin that female-specific classes don’t have to be whining “bitch sessions.” I learned from my husband that taking on an established concept like Hick’s Law might shock the senses of some, and yet today “recognition prime decision-making” is the standard model for designing police training.
Change might be shocking to some, and you may get some serious “push back” in the beginning so make sure you’ve done your research if you’re going to take on an established concept or present a new one, but if you believe you’re right, take the risk. It’s what makes law enforcement better, safer, and more professional.
Mutual Mentoring
I have had (and continue to have) great mentors in this business; I believe that to further our profession, we are absolutely obligated to mentor each other. Find someone whose work and concepts you admire and believe in and become their student. However, do not ask someone to mentor you and then expect them to give you all of their research, curricula, and PowerPoint’s for you to use in your own classes. By all means, learn from them, ask them questions, read the books they read, “pick their brain” if they’ll let you, and then develop your own class, your own style, and your own unique presentation. Don’t expect someone else to do the work for you.
Police training is hard work, but whether you’re doing an in-service handcuffing class or giving the keynote speech at a major international conference, it’s a fantastic feeling to stand before your peers and share your ideas.
Do it with enthusiasm, with accuracy, and with integrity...and enjoy the ride!
