EP832: John Constantine - Confessions Of A Former US Secret Service Agent

"You will be discouraged. At some point, you will feel as if, why am I doing this? But stop for a second — if you have put in the work, if you are disciplined and have a routine, and you stop and look back and see how far you've come, you will be successful at some point." — John Constantine

John Constantine spent 23 years inside the United States Secret Service — 15 of them in special operations on the Counter Assault Team, the unit tasked with counter-ambushing anyone who moves on a protected principal. He served across four presidential administrations, ran operations at two United Nations General Assemblies, and spent the better part of two decades in tactical gear carrying weapons he still cannot fully describe in public. He retired in 2025 and has since started talking.

The centrepiece of this conversation is Butler, Pennsylvania. Constantine does not hedge. The planning failed. The communication failed — more than 100 transmissions either ignored or not received in a unit where communication is the single non-negotiable. A civilian named Corey Comparatore was killed. Constantine is honest about the institutional pressures that contributed to that day, equally honest about the agents who showed up and tried to do their jobs, and firm that none of the context amounts to an excuse. It is the kind of account that only comes from someone who knows exactly what good looks like.

He also talks about identity — what happens when a career built entirely around one elite role comes to an end, and the book he wrote to work through it. Hallways and Stairwells asks a simple question on its back cover: who do we become in the places where no one is watching? The answer, Constantine argues, is the only leadership credential that actually matters.

Constantine closes with three concrete pieces of advice drawn straight from the mat, the motorcade, and the hard road of starting over.

Expert action steps: 1. Set your goal before anything else. Without a clear target, even strong work ethic scatters — like a lamp lighting everywhere instead of a laser pointing somewhere. 2. Be prepared to fail, and keep showing up anyway. Constantine spent three years earning his purple belt in jiu-jitsu by tapping out repeatedly. Humility is not the opposite of success — it is a prerequisite. 3. Build a daily routine and measure your progress over time. When discouragement hits, the routine holds you. And looking back at how far you have come gives you the fuel to keep going.

Learn more and connect: John Constantine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/john.constantineonezero Hallways and Stairwells (book): https://www.amazon.com/dp/1964508630

Resources mentioned: Hallways and Stairwells: Unhealthy Egos, Broken Identities, and Our Journey for Self-Worth by John Constantine The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky Discourses on Livy by Niccolo Machiavelli

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