It takes a wolf to hunt a wolf.

In this powerful episode of the Echo Valor Podcast, host David Burnell sits down with David Fabricius—former South African Special Forces instructor, high-performance coach, and proud American citizen—to explore the deeper meaning behind Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s “Sheep, Sheepdog, and Wolf” analogy. Fabricius challenges the standard narrative, introducing the idea of the benevolent wolf. This protector understands predators because he is one, yet chooses discipline, honor, and the defense of the innocent.

Drawing from his upbringing in the wilds of Africa, elite military service, and a lifetime of working with warriors and leaders, Fabricius shares why freedom must be guarded fiercely, how political and social instability erode it, and why only those willing to face actual danger can stop real threats. This conversation dives into mindset, responsibility, and the call to train, prepare, and live as guardians in uncertain times.

Where to stream the Echo Valor Podcast?

Before It Happens is not just a book — it’s a life-saving mindset. David Burnell, a veteran of military, rescue, and protection missions worldwide, gives you a powerful guide to real-world personal safety.

This book doesn’t teach you how to fight — it teaches you how to see danger before it starts, avoid becoming a victim, and respond with clarity and confidence when it matters most.

* Learn to read people, places, and situations through tested awareness models.

* Discover how predators choose targets — and how to avoid being one.

* Gain clarity about your intuition.

* Learn response timing and decision-making under stress.

* Also Available: Amazon Kindle & Paperback

Why You Should Listen Now

You don’t rise to the occasion — you fall to your level of preparation. Before It Happens helps you raise that level with tools you can use daily to protect yourself and those you love.

Listen to it now and take control of your awareness, safety, and story — before it happens.

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This episode features a standalone chapter from the book Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell.

In Chapter 7 – Reading the Room & the Streets, David Burnell takes you deep into one of the most vital survival skills: understanding what your environment is trying to tell you. Whether you’re walking into a gas station, a restaurant, or across a quiet parking lot, the room—and the street—are speaking.

Drawing from decades of experience in protective operations, disaster zones, and training simulations, David teaches how to identify subtle environmental cues and behavioral red flags before danger happens. You’ll learn how to:

• Read body language, hands, and posture
• Identify abnormal patterns and environmental red flags
• Scan for exits, barriers, and transitional zones
• Trust your subconscious, "cold prickly," and use it as data

This isn’t about paranoia. It’s about pattern recognition.
 This isn’t about being a warrior. It’s about being aware.

Train your eyes, trust your gut, and tune into the signals—because the room always tells a story.

This is a single chapter from the full-length audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts, available on Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com

This episode features a complete standalone chapter from the book Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell.

In Chapter 9 – Environmental Red Flags, David teaches one of the most overlooked yet life-saving skills in personal safety: reading your environment for silent threats—before the bad guy even shows up.

From war zones to strip malls, he’s learned one truth: the environment sets the stage for danger long before it happens.

In this powerful chapter, you’ll learn how to spot the subtle yet deadly signals of high-risk spaces—often missed by the untrained eye:

• Light: Why predators love darkness and broken lighting
• Sound: What eerie silence or staged noise really means
• Cameras: How to assess visibility, deterrence, and exposure
• Isolation: Why being alone is a tactic predators count on

Through real-world stories and expert field experience, David explains how to stay alert without being paranoid so you can move through life with more awareness, confidence, and control.

This is a single chapter from the full-length audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts, available now on Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com

This episode features a critical and potentially life-saving chapter from the full-length audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell.

Chapter 10 – Secondary Locations Are Death Traps delivers one uncompromising message:

If someone tries to move you—resist. With everything you’ve got.

Drawing from years of experience in protection, rescue, and real-world violence prevention, David explains why abductions that move to a secondary location almost always end in tragedy—and what you can do to stop it before it escalates.

You’ll learn:

• Why secondary locations are almost always where the worst happens
• Real case studies where survival hinged on resistance
• What predators gain by moving you—and what you lose
• Mental cues and physical actions to rehearse now—before it happens
• How to teach your family the non-negotiable rule: Never go

This isn’t paranoia. This is pattern recognition. This is survival training you can use right now to protect yourself and those you love.

 This is a single, complete chapter from the full audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell, available on Audible, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com

This episode features Chapter 11 from the full-length audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell.

Mental Models for Survival explores one of the most powerful tools in personal safety—not technique but thought structure. In moments of chaos, the mind either panics or performs. This chapter shows you how to ensure that it performs.

From combat zones to crisis convoys to everyday parking lots, David has relied on a few core mental frameworks—OODA Loops, Baseline + Anomaly, Pre-Decided Lines—to stay calm under pressure and act purposefully.

You’ll learn:

• How to override panic with clarity using the “Next Right Move” model
• Why “thinking faster” beats “fighting harder”
• How to spot danger by noticing what doesn’t belong
• The life-saving value of mentally pre-drawing your line in the sand
• How to simplify decisions under stress for faster, smarter reactions

This is more than a self-defense episode—it’s a mindset blueprint for living with alertness, confidence, and peace in the world.

This is a single chapter from the full audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell, available now on Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com

This episode features Chapter 3 from Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell—a critical lesson on one of the most effective mental models in personal safety: Jeff Cooper’s Color Code of Awareness.

Based on decades of experience in war zones, rescue missions, anti-terror operations, and civilian protection, David explains the color-coded mindset that has kept professionals and ordinary people alive around the world.

In this powerful standalone chapter, you’ll discover:

• Why most people live in Condition White, oblivious to the threat until it’s too late
• How to train your brain to stay in Condition Yellow, alert yet calm
• When to shift into Condition Orange and start planning your response
• What Condition Red looks like when action is your only option
• How to avoid Condition Black, where stress takes over and your body freezes

David shares real-life stories—from hardware stores to war zones—where applying the Color Code gave people the edge they needed to survive.

This isn’t about paranoia.
 It’s about preparedness.
And it’s not just for soldiers or bodyguards—it’s for parents, teachers, students, travelers, and anyone who wants to move through life with more confidence and control.

This is a single chapter from the full-length book Before It Happens, available now as audiobook, ebook, and paperback on Amazon, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Audible.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com

This episode features Chapter 15 from the full-length audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell.

What if real strength isn’t about fighting—but about knowing when not to?

In this heartfelt and eye-opening chapter, David Burnell takes you to the edge of conflict and back again, sharing moments from humanitarian missions and tense street encounters where empathy, ethics, and escape proved more powerful than aggression.

You’ll learn:

• Why restraint can be the highest form of courage
• How empathy sharpens your awareness, not dulls it
• The importance of defining your personal “line” before danger strikes
• Why escape is a win, not a weakness
• How to train with clarity so you avoid unnecessary violence—and its life-altering consequences

This isn’t about pacifism. It’s about power with purpose.
 When you live by a warrior code anchored in ethics, you don’t just survive threats—you walk away with your values intact.

This is a single chapter from the audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell—available now on Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com

This episode features Chapter 16 from the full-length audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell.

Helping others is noble, but good intentions alone aren't enough in a world of deception, chaos, and rapidly evolving threats. In this gripping and wise chapter, David Burnell breaks down one of the most challenging questions in modern personal safety:

When should you step in? And when should you step back?

Through powerful real-world examples from law enforcement, humanitarian missions, and civilian encounters, you’ll learn:

• How to spot a setup trap
• Why reactive heroism can backfire
• When pause and observation are safer than intervention
• What legal and ethical lines do you need to know before helping
• How to help smart, safe, and effective—without becoming the next victim

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “What would I do if I saw someone in danger?”—this chapter is for you.

This is a single chapter from Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell, available now on Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com

This episode features Chapter 5 from the book Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell—a striking exploration of the biology, psychology, and responsibility behind one of your greatest survival assets: your vision.

With parallax vision—forward-facing eyes that grant depth perception—humans are designed to navigate and assess threats. David Burnell explains how this gift, shared by apex predators, equips you to avoid danger before it happens.

In this chapter, you’ll learn:

• How predator vision helps you detect threats before they strike
• Why predators avoid other predators—and how to signal you’re not prey
• How calm eye contact and posture create powerful deterrence
• Why the predator within us must be mastered to prevent overreaction
• Real-world tactics to track movement, gauge distance, and maintain space
• Why awareness is protection—not paranoia

Whether you’re walking through a parking lot, working in security, raising a family, or just living in a fast-moving world—this chapter will reframe how you see.

This is not about fear.
 It’s about using your biology with intention.

This is a single chapter from the full-length audiobook Before It Happens: The Art of Staying Safe Before Violence Starts by David Burnell, available now on Audible, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon.

Support the show

For more information, please visit www.echovalor.com