April 26, 2024· 43 min

An Ex-CIA Officer Explains How to Spot a Lie in Business

Orality
Model
71%
Oral-dominant (speeches, podcasts, storytelling)

Speaker Breakdown

HostTracy Alloway(1,768 words)
M:29%
HostJoe Weisenthal(1,296 words)
M:29%
GuestPhil 'Dick' Houston(3,989 words)
M:28%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic36%
literally, completely, very
Engagement84%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, like
Repetition100%
know (70x), like (60x), what (59x)
Parallelism80%
And I'm Joe Weisenthal...., But, you know, they shade the ..., And he's written a new book, a...
Sound Patterns91%
72 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases8%
i mean, if you will, so to speak

Literate Indicators

Hedging9%
might, fairly, apparently
Passive Voice4%
was called, be gleaned, be interested
Abstract Nouns19%
investment, recommendation, business
Subordination4%
because, though, while
Sentence Length36%
Avg: 14.0 words/sentence
Word Complexity47%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style16%
668 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style86%
literally, completely, basically

Description

When most investors think of due diligence, they think of sifting through years of financial statements and crunching numbers to better understand a company's potential. Not many people think about interrogating senior executives and employees, and asking the right questions to figure out whether they're telling the truth about the business model. In this episode, we speak with Phil 'Dick' Houston, a veteran CIA officer who's been called the human lie detector. Phil literally wrote the book on how to spot lies, and has been a long-time collaborator of entrepreneur and serial acquirer Brad Jacobs, helping him with due diligence on both senior hires and potential investments. In this episode, Phil explains his strategy for identifying deceptive behavior and how it can be applied to the corporate world. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.