Christopher Diaz Discusses Autism Awareness For The First Responder Community And How To Develop Great Negotiating Skills
Success Profiles Radio
Retired DEA Special Agent Christopher Diaz discusses his transition from conducting high-stakes international undercover operations to found
Key takeaways
- Christopher Diaz utilized his DEA experience to create 'phantom cartels' using the power of presence and negotiation.
- First responders need specific training to recognize autism cues like hand flapping or sensory sensitivities to prevent accidental escalation.
Main topics
- Autism awareness for law enforcement
- DEA undercover operations
Notable quotes
You don't rise to the occasion, you always fall back on your training.
Conclusion
A moving and instructional episode that bridges the gap between high-l
Transcript preview
Speaker 1 (0:00) It's time for Success Profiles Radio with your host, Brian K. Wright. Have you ever wondered if there's more to life than you're currently living? Then Success Profiles Radio is the program for you. Every week, we'll explore different aspects of success and how to apply them to your life. Guests will come from many different backgrounds, including expertise in leadership, business, relationships, careers, networking, health, overcoming adversity, and much more. Every show is a dose of inspiration. This is Success Profiles Radio. And now, here's your host, Brian K. Wright. Speaker 3 (0:40) Hello and welcome to Success Profiles Radio. I'm your host, Brian K. Wright, and it's an absolute pleasure to be with you here today. I'm honored that you chose to spend part of your day with me here. This is going to be a fantastic and amazing show. I will introduce my guest shortly, and I promise we're going to have a lot of fun, and it's going to be terrific. I do want to share a minute or two to share some things I've been learning and thinking about lately, and I usually do this every single week. Recently, I've been thinking about... why things are sometimes difficult for us in life. It seems like we're doing all the right things. It feels like we're doing everything we can to push forward. We don't always see the progress that we want to make. So consider this. Life is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, but you don't get to see what the picture on the box looks like first. Very often, we only see the pieces that are in front of it, and we're trying to make sense of it. And it causes confusion because we have no idea what to do with it. Only through taking action do we begin to accumulate critical pieces that fit together somehow. And when the puzzle's nearly done, we begin to understand why certain pieces didn't fit together at all. Sometimes patience is necessary. Not at the expense of not taking action, but just remember everything happens for a reason, even if that reason isn't obvious. Keep doing what you know is right, operate in faith, and let the pieces come together. at just the right time and you will be so glad you did. If you've not downloaded and subscribed to Success Profiles Radio on Apple Podcasts or iTunes, please do that. Leave a five-star review if you think we deserve it and we would love to have that happen. So my very special guest this week is Christopher Diaz. Let me tell you about him. He is a retired DEA special agent, keynote speaker, and founder of Alpha Innovative Solutions, AIS. It's a training and consulting company dedicated to autism awareness for first responders, law enforcement mentorship, and professional development. He brings over 27 years of law enforcement experience, including 22 years as a DEA special agent conducting complex international undercover operations. to a mission that is deeply personal to him. So we have so much to unwrap and unravel, and we only have an hour, so let's get right to it. Here's my very special guest, Christopher Diaz. Christopher, how are you? Welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Speaker 2 (2:47) It's an honor and a pleasure to be here. I'm doing amazing. Speaker 3 (2:51) Fantastic. So did you envision early on that you'd be where you are right now? Speaker 2 (2:55) Absolutely not, but it's been a hell of a ride, and I'll take it. A bit of a roller coaster, but it's still a hell of a ride. Speaker 3 (3:04) Absolutely. Well, tell us a little bit about your path. How did you get here? Speaker 2 (3:09) Well, let's see. I was born in Florida. I'm a military brat. My dad was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Venezuela. And from there, my mother was also an officer in the Navy, moved around a little bit, ended up in Virginia, went to James Madison University, studied sociology, ironically, was a music major in school. Never would have guessed I would have picked a profession that would pay less than a musician. So I went into law enforcement and I was hired at Albemarle County Police Department of Virginia, Charlottesville area, and later got picked up by DEA. Did about 22 years, nine months and 35 seconds as an agent and punched out, retired and began following my passion with autism. I'm a special needs parent. My son is 14 years old now. He is nonverbal. And in the last five, six years of my DEA career, I was fortunate enough to have a very unique niche. And I operated as an international undercover, as a global narcotics and organized crime enterprise boss. And after those years, I punched every... professional level and ticket that I could ever fathom. And that's what allowed, opened the door for me to leave, to have conversations about my law enforcement career, which allows me to walk through that door of opportunity to talk about autism. Wow. Speaker 3 (4:48) I Speaker 2 (4:49) bet undercover work Speaker 3 (4:50) was fascinating. I mean, I Speaker 2 (4:52) watch Speaker 3 (4:52) shows like NCIS, Law & Order, all those things. Is what you see on TV the way that undercover work actually happens that's Speaker 2 (5:02) a great question a lot of it is a lot of it definitely is not what we were able to do as a very specialized team we were able to create if you will a phantom cartel so we had all the bells and whistles the suits the the g wagon vehicles i like to call it a poor man's carnival trick And I was the carny who got a chance to do the poor coin tricks. But, you know, with the power of a good story, the power of presence, the power of negotiation, that allowed the perception. to prevail successfully. I am the first American to do undercover in Chile, operated in undercover capacity from Kazakhstan to Speaker 3 (5:57) Portugal to Romania to Africa. So Speaker 2 (6:00) I had a very interesting niche with an unbelievable supportive team from FBI, United States Marshals, Homeland Security, HSI. We called ourselves ad hoc either Team America or Mission Impossible primarily because everybody and every boss that we talked to, they would just stare at us and blink their eyes and just kind of say that that's never going to work. That's impossible. That was my personal mission to try to prove everybody wrong that we can operate at a very, very high level. What Speaker 3 (6:34) are some of the biggest sacrifices you had to make in order to make your dream come true? Speaker 2 (6:39) The primary, the biggest sacrifice was family. Speaker 3 (6:43) To Speaker 2 (6:43) operate in that capacity in the United States, undercover is done in a very particular way. And or just the narcotics business is done. It's very reactive. And you have to react with people who don't have a calendar nor a sense of obligation. They have no allegiance to birthdays or anniversaries. And if they have an opportunity where they can make money, they will. Doesn't matter the commodity. Doesn't matter the method. They're going to seize it. And as law enforcement in the narcotics world, you have to react to that. And so if they're working on a Saturday night and you have the opportunity to intercede or have an opportunity to have a sit down. with these individuals, you have to react and you have to do it. So the sacrifice of family for my entire career has always been ever present. And and which was one of the driving examples of the last five years as an international undercover on a more managerial level and utilizing the concept of leverage. Having the ability to be the more alpha persona in a conversation allowed me to dictate more things in the sense of the nature in the criminal world of negotiation, whether it's the locality or the pay or the manner of negotiating. It afforded me the opportunity to be the person that... I didn't have to acquiesce all the time to certain positions of discussion, of principles that we were working on. And so that allowed me to be very concise with my points of travel. So instead of getting a call at three in the morning that you have to go dig through somebody's trash. I was able to schedule a trip to Portugal, to Lisbon, and have people show up and everything be very concise and timed from dinner to a tour or just driving around or walk through a park to have a conversation. It was very, very, very concise and timed, which allowed me to live my life with my family and be my passion, obviously, as the caregiver in the family and also working with criminals that are international. allowed me to operate in time zones. So while I'm up at 12 at night or one in the morning, looking at taking care of my son so my wife can sleep and be charged up for the day, I was in a position because of the time zone difference to be able to make calls and take advantage of that opportunity. Speaker 3 (9:30) Yes, for sure. Speaker 3 (9:33) Here's a question I love asking people. What is the most expensive mistake you've ever made? It can be financial. It doesn't have to be. It could be something you gave up on too soon or something you didn't start soon enough. But what's the most expensive mistake you think you've ever made? Speaker 2 (9:55) The most expensive mistake I ever made? Speaker 3 (9:57) I Speaker 2 (9:59) would say. Speaker 2 (10:02) The most costly, I will say. Okay. I was in an office overseas and I had somebody working for me. And the challenge of operating internationally is very, very, very hard. And so obviously the sacrifice of family. But there was an individual that worked for me, a confidential source, who ended up getting picked up and he ended up dying and he was tortured to death. And so and that's that's a very, very hard thing to manage as to say it was a mistake. It's just when you're dealing with people and if there's a threat upon my life and you can only do what you can do at the moment. And so I was able to. the government allowed me to leave my post. But at that same time, while I had left, there was somebody who he chose not to leave. And even though he was still corresponding and letting me know, and I'm trying to get him to leave the area that he was living in, he chose not to. And he ended up dying. It was ruled as a robbery, but. Speaker 2 (11:24) That's, I guess you could say that adds a cost in your life, in that type of career that you have to carry that. Sure. We've got Speaker 3 (11:37) less than a minute to our break. What is the highest value skill you think anyone needs to develop? Speaker 2 (11:42) The ability to communicate. The ability to communicate, not just in English, your nonverbal communication, your ability to understand other people's nonverbal communication with you, and also take the time, if you speak one language, to speak another language. It opens the door to another world. And you'll never truly get a chance to meet somebody unless you actually speak their first language. Speaker 3 (12:08) Perfect. We will come right back after the break. This is Success Profiles Radio. Please stay with us. Don't go away. We will return shortly. Speaker 1 (12:35) The mission is to motivate and inspire others to discover their unique talents and follow their dreams in life. This is Success Profiles Radio. Speaker 3 (12:48) Have you ever thought about writing a book? Surveys show that 81 % of people wish they could, but many never do. If you're one of those people, I can tell you why. You don't think you have time, you may not know how, or you might not believe you are a good enough writer. When you're working with an experienced coach, these reasons go away because I will help you every step of the way. If you want to know more about how to write a nonfiction book, whether it's business, self-help, or how-to, reach out to me at www.bryankwright.com for more information. Once again, that's bryankwright.com. Speaker 1 (13:19) Welcome back to Success Profiles Radio. So many people live their lives wanting more than they currently have. And this show will clearly demonstrate the principles, if I can do it, you can do it. So let's get back to the show. This is Success Profiles Radio. And here again is your host, Brian K. Wright. And Speaker 3 (13:40) we're back. This is Success Profiles Radio. My very special guest this week is Christopher Diaz. And we're going to talk about autism and... awareness. And we're also going to talk about the art of negotiation, two things which are very near and dear to him in his life and in his career. And if you have not subscribed to Ultimate Achievers Magazine, please do that. Go to ultimateachieversmagazine.com. Issue number 101 was released last week, and it was so good. I can't wait for you to read it. So you can go to ultimateachieversmagazine.com to read every single issue we've ever done going all the way back to December