You Can Invent Something Life-Changing

I got shot last week.

“You shot me!”

“I wrapped you,” the officer said.

There’s a difference.

People get shot by tasers and guns every day. And my friends are on a (successful) mission to change this. They invented something that we desperately need: a non-lethal weapon.

Chief Don Deluca game me the stats.

Every four minutes, someone in New York calls the police about a mental health crisis. Then they get there. And don’t know how to handle the situation.

We’ve all seen the videos.

I’ve seen too many. Because my friend, Scot Cohen, who’s been on my podcast a few times, kept sending them to me. He knew I wanted to violence to stop. So he increased my exposure.

And made me part of the team.

The worst video I saw was of a mentally ill kid. He was showering. They shot him with the taser. And he was electrocuted to death.

This problem has existed for decades.

And it takes a special kind of mind to say, “No more.”

“Just because extreme force may be justified doesn’t mean it’s right,” Chief Don Deluca said on my podcast. He understands the mind of police. He understands from the ground floor, why so many people die every year at the hands of law enforcement. He understands the cost in dollars. And he understands the cost to the communities.

They have a saying when someone dies or gets injured by an officer. “Lawful but awful.”

He honed in on the awful. And asked, “How can we change this.”

Enter in: the BolaWrap.

The BolaWrap is a new technology that helps officers restrain people without using extreme force.

In this interview, I ask Don how he got the courage to stand up and change something that hasn’t changed in over 30 years. And I asked Scot how he built the team that is now getting this new technology on the belts of officers everywhere.

Here’s the video of me getting “wrapped.”

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And here’s what’ll you learn in today’s podcast with Chief Don Deluca, ambassador of public safety for Wrap Technologies, and my friend Scot Cohen, who has been involved in this project’s development since day one. 

• 3:43 | I introduce Don Deluca, former Miami Beach chief of police and then the head of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), where he oversees 165 countries. Which means he was basically the top police officer in the world.
• 5:24 | We talk about the disturbing reason police need a nonlethal weapon option.
• 7:50 | Don tells me some stories of police getting killed on the job. I ask if he used to wake up scared.
• 9:25 | How 911 calls have changed… and why this causes more uncertainty for officers.
• 10:43 | Why the best inventions come from filling a gap.
• 12:54 | Why Don decided to become a cop.
• 13:47 | How the BolaWrap helps secure safety for citizens and officers.
• 15:49 | How Don lept from chief of police in Miami to e chief of chiefs globally. 
• 17:22 | We discuss the tragedy in Ferguson and how this encouraged police officers to take a step back and look at what they were doing wrong.
• 20:09 | How the idea for BolaWrap came to life.
• 25:48 | Why this episode is a perfect lesson for people who want to be entrepreneurs.
• 28:56 | I describe what it’s like to get “wrapped.”
• 29:55 | The technology behind BolaWrap.
• 31:40 | How the BolaWrap is already helping people in mental health crises.
• 35:40 | How officers normally handle calls when someone is self-harming.
• 36:30 | The excitement of having your product in the market. And why Don says this technology is going to take off.
• 37:35 | “Policing has many challenges,” Don says. But one of the newest is “suicide by cop,” where people do what they can to try to get killed by officers. Don wants to see that disappear. 
• 38:25 | The evolution of inventing new technology… how to bring your prototype to life… and how to let it go in favor of a better option.
• 41:47 | Scot says how he built a team for BolaWrap, which even includes the founder of TASER.
• 43:45 | Time for change: TASER was the last “new” weapon given to police nationally. That was over 30 years ago… 
• 48:10 | We discuss the cost of officer investigations and litigation.
• 51:50 | I find out why Patrick Smith, the founder of TASER, decided to become the president of BolaWrap.
• 54:30 | The cost of the BolaWrap.
• 56:00 | How the right passion can give you a second or third career.
• 58:00 | The difference between pain compliance tools and nonlethal restraint tools.
• 58:36 | How do you get ambitious enough to solve a big problem?
• 1:02:20 | Prediction time… how BolaWrap can evolve in the future. 
• 1:04:30 | I ask Don, “What keeps you up at night?”
• 1:06:50 | Why I recommend listening to my other interview with Scot Cohen (especially if you want to learn about networking and bringing big ideas to life).

Links & Resources:

• Learn more about BolaWrap wraptechnologies.com
• Watch Cheif Don Deluca shoot me with the BolaWrap
• Follow Wrap Technologies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn & YouTube
• Listen to my other interviews with Scot Cohen: Ep. 237 – “The Best Networker on The Planet. PERIOD.” and Ep. 462 – “Don’t Stay Small. Build Real Businesses Using Your Network”