When I was recruited to join CIA as a clandestine officer, the last thing I ever expected is that I would one day be running my own multi-million dollar company, but that's where I find myself today.

My name is Andrew Bustamante. I am a former CIA intelligence officer. I'm the founder of Everyday Spy. And you may have seen me on any one of several viral videos that have gone all over the internet in the last four years.

I learned an important skill at CIA, something called radical transparency.

Now, CIA is an organization that thrives on secrets. It thrives on deception.

And that understands that when a CIA officer is deployed in the field, that officer has to carry

the burden of all the secrets and all the lies everywhere they go. So they teach us an important

skill called radical transparency. Now, don't get me wrong, CIA doesn't exercise radical transparency

with the American people. Instead, what it does is it teaches its clandestine officers

the concept of radical transparency so that we can be transparent with ourselves. Because when

you're operating in a foreign land in a different name, carrying out a job that isn't your true

job with intentions that have to be hidden from everyone, you always have to have a way of finding

true north, finding your true person, your true personality, your true purpose in all of that

deceit. That's where radical transparency comes into play. And we have different ways of practicing

radical transparency when we're in the field so that we can always find our true self and always find our true purpose no matter what the noise is around us.

Some of us keep diaries, others actually keep coded journals.

For me personally, what I have found is that the idea of radical transparency has become the most valuable to me in video format, in the format that I am sharing

with you right now. Which is why I'm starting this, my personal spy journal, and so that I can

share with you how I overcome and face these challenges day to day by leaning on my background

as a clandestine CIA intelligence officer. I started my company Everyday Spy with a very simple

mission to use spy education to break barriers for anyone willing to learn. That doesn't just mean the

people who are able to buy our products. It also means the people who are willing to learn from us

through our podcast, through my YouTube channel, through my blog posts. And that is the mission I'm carrying on with this spy journal my

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