Dr Richard Diston holds a PhD in security risk management, having written his final thesis on workplace violence. He also boasts more than 20 years of experience in the field of violence including military service and time working as a doorman and security professional. He is highly regarded as a security trainer and consultant.

Thanks for listening.

Make sure to subscribe and leave us a review so you never miss future content.

Want to check out the bonus content for this episode and others? www.patreon.com/managingviolence

Check out our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvJgyuUe-wxu-ii88QEc2Zg

Follow Joe on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/managingviolence

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeSaundersAU

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joesaundersau/

TikTok: @managingviolence

Instagram: @managingviolence

This is truly an episode not to be missed!

Early in life, Michael was enrolled in special-education classes and given the drug Ritalin. As a result, he endured constant bullying. To compensate for his small and skinny stature and the social stigma of being in special education, Michael’s mother enrolled him in his first martial arts class in 1980.

Earning several different rankings in various traditional arts, Michael stumbled upon Jeet Kune Do in the late 1980’s. In the early 1990’s he not only maintained a victorious cage fighting record but also trained with firearms and tactical weaponry as a professional body guard, while finishing his education in Criminal Justice. As a security guard in the greater Chicago land area, Michael was exposed to a side of self-defense/fighting not often seen in the martial arts. After spending most of his life in martial arts, working in bars and clubs, body guard training, cage fighting, earning black belts and obtaining a Senior Instructorship in Bruce Lee’s Art of Jeet Kune Do, Michael VanBeek thought he had it all figured out. He was wrong – almost dead wrong.

His life took an unexpected turn and in 2004, divorce and job loss left him in a severe depression. Within two years Michael VanBeek, the once honorable Sifu, was now using drugs and alcohol to escape his depression and isolation and very quickly found himself homeless. From one side of Chicago to the other, Michael’s goal was survival and in many circumstances, fight or die. Whether fighting to stay alive or fighting to feed an addiction, this was not the life of a once respected martial artist. The Cook County Department of Corrections became yet another reoccurring challenge.

Miraculously, Michael eventually turned his life around, re-entered the world of martial arts and reconsidered his career. He chose to dedicate his life to teaching people to protect themselves from the violence he was once a part of – the violence that almost took his life.

Michael realized that much of what the martial arts world had given him was not actually how it was. He began mapping the anatomy of violence, a comprehensive breakdown of the workings of violence from an insiders perspective. Many other "instructors" identified with Michael's message, and soon Focus had locations throughout the country. With a unified goal and service to educate and train people to save their lives from real violence, with honesty and integrity, Focus could now offer “Real Solutions to Real Problems for Real People.”

Today, Michael spends most of his time in service working with special needs children, lecturing and presenting seminars on Counter Violence to families, corporations, security firms, organizations and individuals. In addition to running his company, Michael speaks to groups about increased performance, the gift of suffrage and how to rewire our lives for success, using his story to inspire others.

Make sure to subscribe and leave us a review so you never miss future content.

Want to check out the bonus content for this episode and others? www.patreon.com/managingviolence

Check out our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvJgyuUe-wxu-ii88QEc2Zg

Follow Joe on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/managingviolence

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoeSaundersAU

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joesaundersau/

TikTok: @managingviolence

Instagram: @managingviolence

Alain Burrese is a former Army Sniper, a fifth degree black belt, and a certified Active Shooter Response instructor. He is the author of 8 books and 11 instructional DVDs and teaches a common sense approach to staying safe and defending yourself through his Survive a Shooting and Survive and Defend programs and websites. He’s combined his experience, education, and training to design programs to teach you how to survive. In this interview we talk about his excellent book, Survive a Shooting, and his approach to active shooter/active armed offender preparation and survival.

To see my review of the book, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTbltPNkhCs&t=107s

Denise Koster, has worked in the area of violence since 1985. Denise provides management and labour groups with investigation services, practical education, intensive training and consultation. These services specifically focus on the identification, assessment, investigation and management of workplace violence, code and non-code harassment, sexual harassment, bullying and elder/resident abuse.

As a Certified Threat Manager (CTM), graduate of Gavin Debeckers’ Threat Assessment and Management Academy, and Certified Workplace Violence and Threat Specialist (WVTS), Denise provides workplaces with customized threat assessment and management plans.

For 9 years prior to engaging in Koster Consulting & Associates on a full-time basis, Denise was a Clinical and Program Director at a Community Health Centre, where her role was to manage a multi-disciplinary team of medical, nursing and social service professionals.

As always, bonus content for this episode is available at patreon.com/managingviolence

Please support our community-sponsors for this episode:

Valhalla Strength: https://valhallastrengthshop.com.au/

Russ Jarmesty: http://www.jarmestymartialarts.com/shop/

Matt Stait: http://modernsamurai.online/

Ryan Hoover is a 2nd degree black belt in Krav Maga and co-author of three books on Krav Maga: Black Belt KM, KM for Women and KM for Beginners. Helping people healthier, safer lives is Ryan’s driving force. He has trained professional athletes, military and law enforcement officers, actors, stay-at-home moms and dads, and busy professionals all around the world.

In this interview we talk about why reality-based self-defence practitioners should be training combat sports, what combat sports athletes can learn from reality-based practitioners, and the importance of fitness as part of your violence survival strategy.

As always, for bonus content from Ryan, make sure you check out www.patreon.com/managingviolence

Paul Sharp is a career law enforcement officer with significant experience working in SWAT teams as well as prolonged under cover work in gang and drug task forces. During his 20 year career, he was also heavily involved in defensive tactics, firearms and use of force training at all levels. Beyond his law enforcement career, he is a highly regarded martial arts instructor - a BJJ black belt under Straight Blast Gym founder Matt Thornton, and 1/6th of the Shivworks Collective. Paul has been there and done that when it comes to applying martial arts to the real world, dealing with some of the baddest of bad guys.

In this conversation we talk about the evolution of law enforcement defensive tactics, how operational demands have to be factored into training, and how you go about learning to fight while inside a moving vehicle (yes, really!)

Don't forget, to hear the bonus content for this episode you need to sign up over at www.patreon.com/managingviolence

WOW.

One of our true bucket-list guests, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman.

In their description of Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, Slate Magazine said, “Grossman cuts such a heroic, omnicompetent figure, he could have stepped out of a video game.” He has five patents to his name, has published four novels, two childrens’ books, and six non-fiction books to include his “perennial bestseller” On Killing (with over half a million copies sold), and a New York Times best-selling book co-authored with Glenn Beck.

He is a US Army Ranger, a paratrooper, and a former West Point Psychology Professor. He has a Black Belt in Hojutsu, the martial art of the firearm, and has been inducted into the USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Col. Grossman’s research was cited by the President of the United States in a national address, and he has testified before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress, and numerous state legislatures. He has served as an expert witness and consultant in state and Federal courts. He helped train mental health professionals after the Jonesboro school massacre, and he was also involved in counseling or court cases in the aftermath of the Paducah, Springfield, Littleton and Nickel Mines Amish school massacres.

Col. Grossman has been called upon to write the entry on “Aggression and Violence” in the Oxford Companion to American Military History, three entries in the Academic Press Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict and has presented papers before the national conventions of the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Since his retirement from the US Army in 1998, he has been on the road almost 300 days a year, for over 19 years, as one of our nation’s leading trainers for military, law enforcement, mental health providers, and school safety organizations.

Today Col. Grossman is the director of the Killology Research Group (www.killology.com). In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks he is has written and spoken extensively on the terrorist threat, with articles published in the Harvard Journal of Law and Civil Policy and many leading law enforcement journals, and he has been inducted as a "Life Diplomate" by the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security, and a "Life Member" of the American College of Forensic Examiners Institute.

If you know... you know. If you don't know, you're in for a treat.

Deane Lawler is famous and infamous in equal measure in the Australian martial arts world. Growing up around violence and quickly excelling in both combat sports and traditional martial arts, Deane became also became a legend of the bouncing and security world. In this interview, Deane tells his story for the first time ever and provides some great tips for helping people access their inner warrior and ability to survive extreme violence.

Marc MacYoung is an undisputed legend of the violence management and self-defence world. He has over 30 published titles across print and visual media and has been active in this space for more than 30 years. In this interview we discuss the often-overlooked aftermath of violence. The physical, legal and emotional consequences of engaging in violence.

If you'd like to hear bonus content from Marc and other guests, make sure you sign up over at patreon.com/managingviolence

This man needs no introduction.

He's one of the most intense, "realest" self-defence and combatives instructors on the planet. He's established himself as a modern legend of the game. His intensity of mission and passion for teaching the art of violence is apparent within seconds of listening to him talk. Please enjoy one of our most requested guests ever, Mr Lee Morrison.

If you want 24 minutes of bonus content, make sure you sign up to our Patreon over at www.patreon.com/managingviolence