Certified Executive Security Specialist – Executive Protection Training: CESS Class 80 Graduation

Oh yeah, 100%. That was a given. Hi, good morning. I’d like to welcome everyone to the graduation of CESS class 80. My name is Benji Rosenfeld. I was one of the instructors here for these gentlemen throughout the course. I want to talk a little bit about who we are and what we do here. It’s very simple. We prepare people for careers in the security industry and we do it to an extremely high level. This class was a really exceptional class. It was a small class. Usually this time of year, for whatever reason, it’s a mystery. We tend to have a little bit of a smaller class and these guys actually get a lot of extra training as well. And we as instructors get to give more individual time to each student. So, I really like these types of classes.

If we could be a successful business and run eight-man classes, we would. But, we still get to do them once a year. It kind of reminds me when we first started here at the academy, we started with classes of three, four, five, and now of course we’re at a full capacity of 18. So when these classes roll around, I really enjoy that. We take them through combatives very very strenuous range week, lots of classroom. We really get them aligned between their skills and the legalities and the ethical side of what we do here as well as security professionals. So, I apologize in advance. I am a little bit nervous. I still always get a little bit nervous when I do these things. Lets me know that I still care and well, I’m still going to stick around here for for as long as I can as an instructor at Pacific West Academy. So, I’m going to talk about what I know best, which is the students individually.

So, we’re just going to we’re going to start the roast. All right. This first student was a real standout across the board. Came in great shape to the course and it showed all throughout. He also came in with a solid combat background and really came in with a student mentality. Very focused individual with a strong desire to excel in the industry. Also made big strides on the range. He already had some good skills, but we really helped sharpen and refine those skills, which led him to get very high scores on his shooting final. Definitely has the bodyguard vibe about him, has a very strong presence about him, which I’m sure his future clients will like. He also worked a lot of details while attending the academy, which is a very difficult thing to do when you’re an immersive course like this one. This student has everything you need to succeed in the industry. And I know I’m going to see him in the field one of these nights. I’m talking about Mr. Andrew Barnes.

Look at the camera. Shake my hand. You can say something if you want. All right. Thank you all. That’s right. And a stoic as well. All right. This next student, another very impressive student with an already impressive skill set. That’s one thing I’ll say about this course in particular is that everyone came in great shape. A lot of times we have guys that come in and they’re not so good shape. Everyone came in top condition and took this that side very very seriously. You can’t really do this job to a high level if you’re not into physical training, fitness, combat, that sort of thing. So to see guys come in shape, ready to learn for me was a real pleasure. Came in with a very serious boxing background and is currently a coach at a well-respected boxing gym here in Los Angeles. Another impressive individual who was really able to implement the student mentality and use that mentality to his advantage.

Very difficult thing when you get students who already have very strong skills. It’s usually very difficult for those students to reacquire the student mentality, especially when you’re already a coach yourself. So, the fact that he was able to do that and not give any any counter coaching feud issue or whatever for me was really really great. So, I think we were able to show him where he can improve and refine his overall combative skill set. He was also impressive in the classroom and FTXs where he showed good instincts and was able to take classroom teaching and take that into the field seamlessly. He’s another guy who has all the intangibles and measurables that clients look for in agents. If he continues on the path that he’s on, there’s nothing that can stop this individual from succeeding. I also look forward to getting in some pad work with you since you’re not too far.

He also doesn’t age, so that’s another impressive attribute he has in his favor. He could be anywhere between 19 and 45 as far as we discussed. I’m going to let that mystery continue. But I’m talking about Mr. Coach Justin Hairston.

Timeless time. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you so much to everybody in the class. These are a great group of guys and I’m really sad to see this end. Thank you.

Me too, coach. So, this next student, definitely has greyman attributes about him. Definitely a bit on the younger-look side, but he comported himself like a real professional all throughout the course. I was a little concerned about him when I first saw him just on site. I thought he was going to have a rough run in combatives, but he gave just as good as he got and really demonstrated a fighter’s attitude, which is really what we’re looking for in the combatives program. There isn’t real time for proficiency as as you know, can you get good at boxing in 10 weeks? Probably not. But what we’re really looking for is does this person actually have that attitude and that mindset? And maybe the skills weren’t super high in terms of combatives and that type of thing, but the ability to come forward, take punishment, and continue to come forward. This is the most difficult thing to teach anyone.

And that type of motivation you can really use in other facets of life. And I’m not even sure if you can teach that attribute to someone cuz we see guys all the time very very skilled and as soon as the skills aren’t doing what they want them to do, they kind of fall apart. Like we saw this last weekend at the White House, right? As soon as things start to go wrong, all of a sudden all the confidence and all the stuff goes right out the window. And this this young man does not have that issue. He definitely has the fighter attitude. He always stayed cool even when things weren’t going his way. He always found his way through through the fray and demonstrated an attribute that might be impossible to teach. Toughness. When you already have the unteachable attributes, the rest is academic. He had impressive scores on the range. Medical and I heard he had some fun at the track as well. Also a very very funny guy.

He was just cracking us up right now before it started. I’m going to miss that sense of humor. That humor really helps out on some of those longer range days and perhaps not so entertaining classroom days. Keep the humor. There’s going to be long days out there, very, very rough. And to be able to kind of have a laugh, take it from me. Very, very useful thing. If this individual continues his training, the sky’s is the limit for this young man. I’m talking about Mr. Devlin Fouser. Thanks. Gonna miss you guys. And I think it goes without saying, the classroom is going to be a lot more quiet now that I’m graduating.

All right. Thanks, guys. All right. This next student is a real unique individual. Somewhat frustrating. Definitely had some loud conversations with him, but I think we knocked the cobwebs out for him while he was here at the academy. Very impressive physically, came in tremendous shape, excellent natural athlete, and I think his classmates will tell you he’s got pretty heavy hands. He has all the physical talents that a client could hope for in an agent. But I think he really learned how to think at a high level and make high level decisions with confidence while here at the academy. And that’s kind of what I feel the course is sort of for. Like I said, physical skills really do take a long time to develop. There’s simply not enough time in 10 weeks to develop the types of physical skills that really lead to high level physical skills.

But what we do have time for is to teach people how to think and to move in what direction so they continue their training and we can give them some culture because culture you can take with you all over the world. That’s what I noticed is that people they’ll drop their bags, they’ll leave everything that they have behind. Sometimes they need to move to another country but they keep their culture. So if I can if we can impart some culture to these individuals so that they can continue their training that is how long-term we’re going to have really really excellent agents out in the field and the people who are graduating from this course are already performing at an extremely high level working across across a broad broad security in the industry on every single level and our guys who have had to go out there and use force have performed exceptionally well with This student, I think we were really able to sharpen his mental game.

He’s one of those guys that when his mind is sharp, he can do anything. So stay sharp, stay ready, stay in touch with your classmates that you met here because I really think that you being around Where are you? Yeah. I really think that you being around these types of individuals who are physically impressive like you, but who maybe read a little bit more as we discussed before. I think that really really helped you out a lot and I hope that you take this culture with you when you leave here from the academy and there’s nothing that can stop you from achieving your goals and I’m talking about Mr. Jake Sharits. I didn’t know you were named Jacob.

Well, thanks guys. It’s a lot of fun. Miss you guys.

All right. This next student was a class favorite to his classmates and an instructor, especially this instructor right here. He’ll be famous here at the academy for years to come for having the best nickname ever. PWA, Head Shot Johnny. What a nickname. I can’t believe I never thought of that before in all these years. He does struggle for those center mass hits, but when it’s time for those hostage shots, watch out. Very strong grayman attributes. He can seamlessly enter environments, get what he needs, and not really be noticed while standing on real skills. That’s the thing. And that’s something that I struggle with. Like I tend to get noticed. So I really admire guys who can go into these environments, do what they need to do, and not really get noticed.

We all kind of have a look about us, you know, but for those of us who already maybe have that natural skill of being able to blend in, that’s a skill that can really really take you far. On a lighter note, we never figured out that accent. He’s he says he’s from the great city of Palmdale. But we’re all pretty sure he’s a spy of some sort, but that’s but that’s okay. But all that aside, this is a very serious individual with very serious skills, mindset, and most importantly, goals. So, I hope that we had goals when we came here. I hope that the goal wasn’t to just come to the course and graduate this course. I hope that we have goals that take us forward for when we leave here because this is a motivating environment. It’s easy to be motivated here. You’re surrounded by other motivated people. What’s going to happen when you’re on your own and that’s where hopefully the culture that was imparted to you can keep you motivated.

He’ll be an asset to any security team he finds himself on. And I hope to find him in the field one of these nights. I’m talking about headshot Johnny Lewis. Thank you. There we go. Thank you.

Liberia. No, it’ll figure we’ll figure it out. All right. This next student rocked one of the all-time great mustaches in PWA history. Also another guy impressive across the board. Very strong physically and mentally. Always asked excellent questions which really keeps the instructors on their toes. Seems like such a nice guy, but he has something deep inside of him that helps him persevere through whatever obstacles is presented to him. He had a very tough combat final. When you’re part of a smaller class like this one, it’s hard to avoid the really good fighters, but I know he’s not an avoid you kind of guy, which is another thing about us security people, right? We’re paid to not avoid problems, aren’t we? We’re paid to confront problems. So, this attitude, this mentality is another very very important attribute that we need to have as security people. He’s another guy that could do great low pro work or close protection.

Excellent at adapting to the environment and has great attention to detail. He’s going to be a great asset on any security team and he has a bright future in this industry. I’m talking about Mr. Luke Roberts. Thank you. It’s been a pleasure.

He was also Wyatt Earp’s biographer. I don’t know if you knew that. Right.

So, this next student, another, another favorite of ours, real cool customer, man, never gets too hot or too cold. Always hyperfocused and highly committed to the task at hand. Another guy who came in with substantial physical skills and mental skills. Didn’t matter what was going on, his focus never swayed, which is a central attribute for someone who wants to be in this industry. You can have all the skills in the world. Without focus, you’re just a guy that likes to work out. That’s what it is. And there’s a lot of that in this industry. They they’re they’re they’re eye-catching kind of guys and they get an opportunity, but they don’t really have the mental skills or even the real physical skills guys. I mean, I think we saw out here you notice that we graduate where we do combatives, right? And this is actually where we get to really know each other. This is where I get to meet the real you. Is not you right now.

Are you sitting here on the first day of class? You all show up like penguins and try to convince us that I’m a very cool professional person with an even-keeled mindset so on so forth. I mean we know that we are that to a degree but we’re security people. We do have a little bit of an edge on us. So the real you comes out in the final. I saw the real you the other day. Okay. I saw it. I see it in all of you. You’re tired. The guy’s beating you up. You’re against the wall. You’re on the ground. You can’t breathe, you can’t think. How do you behave? Do you go back to the corner and tell them to stop it? Do you tap on your opponent and say, “Hey, let me take a break.” Are you that kind of guy or are you the kind of guy that sucks it up? All right, this is a very, very important thing. And guys, there’s going to be challenges. After this. There’s going to be professional challenges. You’re going to have a bad interview.

It’s not going to go well. Maybe you’re not going to get the job you want right away. Maybe there’s going to be a job a few years from now and you’re not going to get it. And it’s just one of those difficult things. Maybe having a bad relationship, maybe having a bad run just in general. And we’re going to have to persevere. We’re going to have to take what we learned on the mats and we’re going to have to apply it to our life. Are you someone who just quits on life the way you quit on the mats? Right. Quitting is a habit. Quitting is a habit. So, that’s what we try to beat out of you while you’re over here. We know he’s going to hit the ground running and find his place in the industry. Another good nickname, I called him Nathan the Bold.

Finding his place in this industry is not going to be a problem. I’m talking about Mr. Nathan Hrinko and a great handshake. Thanks everyone, the instructors, the students, and all the guests that came out for their loved ones. We appreciate you all. Thank you. All right, this next student, well, we all know who it is. Is the last dude. It’s okay. Last but not least, is a real Renaissance man, highly educated, currently finishing up his PhD in history, and boy was that a treat for me. We can’t understand the present and the future is a complete mystery without the study of history. So, he also came in with a very strong military background, which served him well throughout the course. I really enjoyed our conversations. Aside from his academic skills, he performed at the highest level across the board in all categories, which is not an easy thing to do.

As someone who has been teaching in the shoot house for almost a decade now, I can tell when someone has had to do this live and that definitely came through in the live fire house and our force on force training. Very very impressive. I think from this student we can learn that the mind and the body are one and having a strong mind is the same process as creating a strong body. So I hope his classmates pick up on a couple of his good habits. With this type of performance and commitment to excellence, finding his way in this industry or with the government will not be difficult for him. Students like him that set such a strong example actually make the instructor side easier. So, we appreciate that about him as well. I could go on and on about this individual. I know we’ll stay in touch and hopefully we’ll see each other in the field sometime soon. Talking about Mr. William Shook And he looks like Zalinski.

Guys, I hope you’ll bear with me. I didn’t bring my old man readers, but I take a lot of notes and so I wrote some stuff down to reflect on training, which was the most principal piece of what we’ve done here. But first off, I want to thank my wife and kids who are watching at home right now. Without their belief, love and support in me, I couldn’t do this. They elevate me to new heights as a husband and a father and a protector. So you guys have my heart and soul. I love you. To the faculty and staff of PWA, my gratitude goes out to all of you right from the very beginning with the admin team, Christina and Andrea for your prompt and consistent communications and working through the application process. Benji with your obscure history stories and lessons for sure and to the rest of the staff for your personal and raw experiences that kind of gave us insight to the EP world. I truly appreciate it and I’m nervous as well.

Kind of goes to show that I still care and that when I write stuff I kind of really really I try to impart that stuff on you guys. So more importantly on training Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido, wrote in his book the art of peace the purpose of training is to tighten up the slack toughen the body and polish the spirit. If these past 10 weeks have taught me anything it’s a hard lesson in exactly that kind of humility. For example, I’m gonna probably echo a lot of the stuff that you shared is that in advanced firearms, I realized I had become sight focused with that undisciplined trigger control Matt that you always talk about. In this industry, tunnel vision can get people injured, especially your primary. And the moment you are sucked into your sights, you lose the environment and you lose control of that primary, which is what our job is supposed to be.

Our ultimate goal and our ultimate tool is our capacity to absorb and process information, right? It’s not and identify anomalies and dictate the environment. As Matt C and Benji had both drilled into us over and over again, distant, distance, disruption, and damage long before the threat fully materializes is what we’re looking for. For me, that means fighting that instinct to close in and recognizing that creating distance is often the ultimate victory. And then lastly for you guys, my challenge to you and to myself is to remain relentlessly disciplined. Starting tomorrow, there are no more instructors grading us. They’re not engrading us on our draw times or our situational familiarity. And there we here we’re here to grade ourselves. So do not fall into that trap of thinking you have achieved mastery in the moment you do you become complacent.

So whether whether on the mat on the range or on an advance maintain that beginner’s mind return to the fundamentals and never stop learning. It’s been a gentleman or it’s been a gentleman it’s been a pleasure and an honor training with you guys and working with you guys. May our courage exceed our level of violence.

All right, guys. Well, this is the last time I’m going to be speaking to you guys as a class, and that always, you know, has mixed feelings about it. I’m excited for the next class, but I’m going to miss this class. There’s one thing I want to tell you guys. You’re going to meet people all the time, okay, that don’t understand what you do, why you do it. Most people don’t even know that this is an actual profession, okay? You’ll hear comments. People will talk about things that they have absolutely no knowledge about and they’ll try to tell you what your job is about. I want you to remember something. Okay? You’re going to meet people who if you wanted to do what they do for a living, you could do it. Everyone in here is smart enough to be a nurse, an electrician, probably even a doctor. Hell, we got one right there, right? You’re smart enough to do those things.

But what you need to remember is that most of these people, no matter how hard they tried or what course they came to, they could not do what you do for a living. Do you understand? They couldn’t do it. They could come, they could train, they could do everything. They don’t have the mental capacity, the emotional control. They don’t have that little bit of reckless disregard for self. And that’s the biggest thing, isn’t it? Is that you’re putting other people’s safety before yours. You’re saying, you know what, if it’s going to happen, let it happen on me. Isn’t that what we do? Isn’t every time you see a security person, remember that? Okay. We don’t get the respect and we don’t get the credit that other people get that are in similar professions. We don’t get it. But that’s okay. We know. Okay. It’s getting a little hairy out there. This is a very dangerous job.

You’re there and you’re here because you genuinely believe that if something happens, people, whoever they may be, are more safe by the fact that you are there. Now, you are there and you’re trained. Okay, I want you to think about it. It’s loud. People are screaming. Things are going bad. Okay, it’s the real situation that we’ve prepared for. What are you going to do? What are you prepared to do? Okay, we prepared you now. Go do

It, fellas. Dropped something. That’s a habit. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. My name is Matt Cheun. And I have the privilege of being one of the instructors for these graduates/ students today. I also have the privilege of giving out the awards that we have here for Pacific West Academy. So for starters ultimately this is a performance-driven school. You guys have heard me say this a lot that I separate a lot of my drills and my training into three different sections. One is going to be our diagnostics drills, things that we are doing to see deficiencies that we are having. From there we have development drills. Drills that we do to develop the skill set of which we are having deficiencies in. And then from there is our performance drills. Things that we have to pass regardless of what it is whether it be shooting, fighting or any kind of performance-driven task where we have to pass those things at a very specific level.

And I like to think of Pacific West Academy as that. We do a lot of things to help diagnose what type of problems you’re having and to discover what you may not know. From there, we as all the instructors help you guys develop those skill sets so that way ultimately you guys can go and perform them in real time. So, the awards that we have, our top three essentially. Our first one is going to be our Greyman Award. This doesn’t always happen to be the third overall. Sometimes it works out that way and it just so happened that today happened to be the third overall. Our Greyman award is somebody that we feel can perform not necessarily above or below the baseline, performs at a high level, but actually blends into the crowd. Six refuge in the crowd where you don’t notice him, but he’s performing at a high level. Our second overall is a lot of the second and top gun come down to GPA.

Obviously, we have everything going in through the grade books and everything that you guys have done since being here has been assessed and graded. And so in turn we have our second overall based on GPA. And then we finally have our top gun. The top gun award is somebody that we feel embodies our motto of quite assertive and in control but has also performed at a very high level when we’re looking at those performance standards. Ultimately the awards across the board for the Greyman and the second overall. You guys will receive a couple little goodie bags with some things in there. And I’ll hand those to you guys as we present those. But the Top Gun award is going to receive a couple different things. One is going to be a plaque that states that they’re the top gun. That that way they can freaking take a picture of it every year, throw it in the group chat, and tell you how they beat you guys. So, we’ll get into those things.

But ultimately, it does not mean that they are better than you. It just means that based on the grades, they happen to perform at a level that set them apart. Now when I say set them apart, the top gun award came down to a mere 0.03.04%. So not by much. So just something to keep in mind. With that being said, we’re going to start with our Greyman Award. So this student was a phenomenal student. He continuously asked questions and every time he got the answers, he was very quick to apply those answers. You guys have heard me say this, theory, test, and apply continuously. He was very quick to test those things that I or the rest of the instructors have taught and immediately apply those things. Doesn’t necessarily stand out from the crowd, but doesn’t fall below it either. Very much sits in the center, but is still a high performer. So, our greyman for CESS class 80 is going to be Mr. Luke Roberts.

Couple good things in there. Frank put stuff in there. I didn’t do it. All right. Now our second overall, this student is very well-rounded. I think that he performed at a very high level. Very stoic and happened to say the most now. Kind of interesting. But overall performed very very well. And ultimately, I think that if this student continues to further his skill set, I think we’ll be an asset to any team by any means. Our second overall is going to be Mr. Nathan Hrinko.

All right. So, our top gun award is going to receive not only the plaque, but also a Suunto Core watch. I’ve spent a lot of time in the military with one of these. I’ve dove with these. I’ve jumped with these. I’ve done a lot of things with this watch and mine to this day is still rocking and rolling. So they’re going to receive that. And they are also going to receive their CESS class 80 top gun award that they can go ahead and hang up. And again, this came down to mere 03s. 04 scores. But ultimately this student was a phenomenal student. Came in with a lot of experience. Really really got humbled with certain things but absolutely developed the skill set whilst he was here. Probably knocking off a little bit of rust. But ultimately performed at a very high level well enough to take the top gun award for CESS class 80. We come from a similar background and I hope I definitely see this student in the future.

The top gun award for class CESS 80 is going to be Mr. William Shook. Feel free to No, I think I said everything. I don’t want to take anybody more time. Thanks, guys. Definitely keep in touch. It was truly an honor.

The entire time during his speech, I was like, “Dang, should have saved it. Should have saved it.” But, guys, it’s been fun. It has. It’s classes like this that allow myself and the rest of your instructors to be able to show up every single day to make sure that we put in the work for you guys. Why? Because you guys show up and put the work in for us. There are a lot of classes where it’s very apparent, especially as you start to get towards the end of the program, guys don’t really care anymore. They become complacent and every single day you guys showed up and put the work in. And I think that’s the beauty with some of these smaller classes is that you guys hold each other accountable a little bit more. You guys push each other to train a little bit more and sometimes all it takes to get better every single day is just a little bit more. And so ultimately, I hope you guys take this and you continue to train.

Don’t go home and sit on your throne of experience of showing up to Pacific West Academy. Don’t go home and just stop training because ultimately this is just a step to continue to train. Every single one of your instructors, we are continuously training as well. The way that I think about it is we’re endless students. And so, in turn, I urge you guys to be endless students because you can never know enough. There is something to be said about our class program name. It’s certified executive security specialist program. Let’s kind of highlight the word specialist here a little bit. There’s a lot of things that people think of when they call themselves an expert or specialist in some particular skill, whatever that may be. And ultimately they view themselves as a specialist or an expert and it’s like they don’t have to learn anymore because they know everything. I urge you to kind of change the way you look at those things.

For me, when I view my specialist as a shooter or anything like that, I look at it as how much more do I have to learn to continue viewing myself as a specialist in this craft because training evolves, technique evolves, and we have to evolve with it. So, continue to train. Go to the gym. Go fight in gym. Go train on the range. Go further your skill set so that way you can be the best protector that you possibly can because ultimately we are protectors first. So continuously train so that way you can ensure that when things actually happen, you continue to be an asset and not a liability. With that being said, gentlemen, I get the privilege of seeing you guys on the first day and seeing you guys on the last day. And I get the privilege of being able to say that class CESS, class 80, you’ve officially graduated Pacific West Academy. All in all, a couple things.

One, I want to thank the families because ultimately it’s your guys’ support that allows these guys to continuously perform at the level that they did. There’s a big saying that we say back in the military is make sure things are right at home before you try to make things right downrange. Because ultimately if things aren’t right at home, guys can’t perform because they’re unfocused. So for all the people that are watching and all the families that showed up today, I want to thank you guys and give a round of applause for you guys for being so supportive of these graduates. Number two, Chris and Dre, they end up helping you guys out with a lot of different things. Chris essentially becomes mama bear for you guys answering any questions. Dre essentially takes care of everything else that allows you guys to ensure things go smoothly here for you guys. All right.

So I want to give a big thank you to them because without them things would be a little bit rocky and unfortunately the instructors would have to do it. So thank you guys. And finally, the instructors. Not just the in-house instructors, but all the contracted instructors that we have as well. Ultimately my belief is that the instructors, you guys are the backbone. You really are. Because without you guys putting the work in, strengthening your skill set on your own time, and showing those things to the students and constantly progressing your skill set, I feel like they wouldn’t be able to gain the instruction that they deserve. And the fact that you are continuously willing to put in the work every single day shows your dedication to the craft. And ultimately as the backbone, I believe that there should be a huge thank you to you guys. So instructors, thank you. And finally, thank you to you guys again. It’s been really fun.

You guys allow us to show up every single day, have some fun, and enjoy our jobs. So congratulations on your graduation. Please, if you guys need anything, reach out to us. We will remain an asset to you guys as you guys have been an asset to us. So, we appreciate you guys tremendously. Good luck on your endeavors. Don’t go anywhere.