Lena Sisco
Former Department of Defense certified military interrogator and Naval intelligence officer who served at Guantanamo Bay, founder of The Congruency Group, and author of books on deception detection such as You're Lying! and Honest Answers.
6
APPEARANCES
3
PODCASTS
Aug 26, 2026
Becca TilleyADVERTISER
also be,
Lena SiscoGUEST
The two gentlemen watching over your daughter do not particularly like you, so I advise you not to provoke them.
Lena SiscoGUEST
Speaking to anyone about your situation, such as the police, FBI, etc., will result in your daughter being beheaded.
38 MINS LATER
Lena SiscoGUEST
When I do statement and word analysis, I will either write it down, or I like to type it out in a Word document, [clears throat] so I can highlight and underline and do all of this stuff.
53 MINS LATER
Greg KellySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
What do you make of that? It says something.
Lena SiscoGUEST
So if you watched him play with his pen often, there were some times he played with it out of complete boredom, as though he wanted to leave, and other times out of nervous energy.
Lena SiscoGUEST
Whenever he didn't know what to do with his hands, he would go right to here to say, nope, I have to regain power and authority.
Greg KellySOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
What does that mean?
Lena SiscoGUEST
Interrogation interview is strategic, so you're looking at that bigger picture, and now I come to your question.
Lena SiscoGUEST
I created a rule back then that is one of my six core competencies of what they call the CISCO method now, um, is don't tell, ask.
Lena SiscoGUEST
I have never, ever told a person what they did and why they did it if I don't know.
Lena SiscoGUEST
Because if I minimize what you did, I'm never gonna get you to tell me what you really did or why you really did it.
Lena SiscoGUEST
So when you get into that convincing mode, you oversell a yes and no, you overexplain, you add too many unnecessary words, and now this very simple answer has now strung out into a paragraph of nonsense.But I, again, I didn't cut him down.
Lena SiscoGUEST
I listened, and then I leaned in and I said, "Darnell, you and I have gotten to know each other.
Lena SiscoGUEST
I like you, and you are a really attractive guy." And he got all embarrassed and smiled.
Lena SiscoGUEST
And I said, "And you have a personality that's even more attractive to women, and there's something else I found out about you." And now he's leaning closer.
Lena SiscoGUEST
He's like, "What?" And I said, "Well, I know that women are coming up to you, and I also know you're not turning them away." And he just looked at me and just slumped in his body posture, and he told me the truth.
Lena SiscoGUEST
Because when you ask a yes-no question to a person, if they're telling you the truth, you're going to get two things.
Lena SiscoGUEST
You're going to get a simple yes and no with no embellishment and a congruent head nod or shake.
Lisa BilyeuHOST
In making the honey, to your point, when you walked in, take me through that five minutes of how you built trust because I think everybody right now wants to know if that's the foundation, how the hell do you actually do it? This