Chase Hughes

Hughes came from Houston, Texas, and entered Missouri Military Academy as a high school freshman in 1994. He was in Echo Company, was a Fusileer, competed in football, golf and wrestling, and graduated with the Class of 1999.⁠[1]

In 2020 CEO Weekly named Hughes one of America’s top 20 CEOs of the year and included him among its 40-under-40 CEOs.⁠[2][1]

In September 2023 Missouri Military Academy announced Hughes’s induction into its 2023 Alumni Hall of Fame for Business, Entrepreneurship and Leadership.⁠[1]

On February 25, 2025, Joe RoganJoe RoganJoe Rogan is an American podcaster, stand-up comedian and UFC commentator whose long-form interview podcast The Joe Rogan Experience, launched in 2009, is among the most listened-to podcasts in the world; he hosted the NBC reality show Fear Factor, and his show’s content and political statements have repeatedly drawn controversy.Open the full entry’s podcast The Joe Rogan Experience released episode #2278 with Hughes as the guest. The episode description introduced him as an expert in influence, persuasion and human behavior and named his books The Behavior Ops Manual and The Ellipsis Manual.⁠[3]

On May 31, 2026, the YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry channel Hard Knocks Business released the short video “That’s the #1 recipe to destroy your life.” | Chase Hughes. The video description says the interview took place in Austin, Texas, and that its subject was confidence. In the video Hughes said he became successful because he studied neuroscience, and that he teaches behavior profiling and interrogation and helps people become confident.⁠[4]

Asked how to tell that someone lacks confidence, he said such people look around a room for social cues on how to behave, and he called ranking people in a room by hierarchy and status “the number one recipe to destroy your life.” Asked about the driving factor of his success, he answered, “I’m obsessed with human behavior.” He also said people are living in a “pandemic of loneliness” because everyone is pretending in front of others. At the end he agreed to let the host spend a day with him in Virginia.⁠[4]

On June 25, 2026, Hard Knocks Business released the compilation video “Asking Millionaires for Their Best Business Advice!” Its description says it was filmed in Austin, Texas and Scottsdale, Arizona, and introduces one interviewee as a neuroscientist who teaches military interrogation tactics. The host addresses Hughes as Chase; part of the segment repeats answers from the May 31 short video, and in it he said he was 46.⁠[5]

After the host noted that he had coached members of the armed forces on interrogation, Hughes described a “magic formula” for obtaining a confession: four techniques, socialize, minimize, rationalize and project, followed by an “alternative question.” He said interrogators often separate themselves from police and other authority figures to set up a relationship of “us versus them, you and me versus the police.” He described the four elements as the four barriers to someone accepting a pitch, which entrepreneurs can use to examine their own offers.⁠[5]

Confidence is about permission to be a certain way; no one is coming to wake you up and grant it, so you have to give it to yourself (video at 03:12).⁠[5]

Standing up straight, speaking loudly and other “CEO behaviors” promoted online are symptoms of confidence rather than its cause; the cause is a willingness to accept social injury (video at 00:38).⁠[4]

When entering a room, remember that you are not the only one hiding; everybody is hiding (video at 01:01).⁠[4]

Instead of reading many mentorship and leadership books, read a book about the regrets of dying people, which offers better lessons (video at 01:32).⁠[4]

Do whatever you can to make the world less performative and more real (video at 02:06).⁠[4]

Hughes served more than twenty years in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of Chief. His last role was lead curriculum developer for tactical operations.⁠[6][2]

He received training from the U.S. Naval War College, studied psychology at Thomas EdisonThomas EdisonThomas Edison (1847–1931) was an American inventor and entrepreneur who received 1,093 U.S. patents in his lifetime. He invented or improved the phonograph, the practical incandescent lamp and its supporting electric power system, motion picture camera and viewing equipment, and the alkaline storage battery, among other things, and established industrial research laboratories at Menlo Park and West Orange, and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the modern industrial research and development model.Open the full entry State University and American Military University, and studied behavioral sciences at Hawaii Pacific University. He holds a Master Clinical Hypnotherapy certification from the International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy, a Government Leadership certificate from Harvard Business School Executive Education, and several U.S. Department of Defense certifications in areas such as interrogation and counterterrorism. On his NCI University biography page he states that he holds post-graduate neuroscience certifications from HarvardHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private research university in Massachusetts, established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature in 1636 and named in 1639 for early benefactor John Harvard. Its principal campuses are in Cambridge and the Allston and Longwood neighborhoods of Boston. It includes Harvard College, graduate and professional schools, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Two governing boards share oversight. Alan M. Garber was president as of October 2026, and the endowment stood at $56.9 billion at the end of fiscal 2025.Open the full entry and Duke.⁠[2][6]

After about a decade of research on influence and behavior profiling, Hughes developed the BTOE behavior profiling tool, the T.F.C.A. cycle violence-prediction tool, the 6MX (Six Minute X-Ray) rapid profiling system and the PEACE 4A police de-escalation model, and created the Behavior Pilot System and the FATE Model. He teaches these methods, including profiling, deception detection and interrogation, to law enforcement and government agencies.⁠[2][1]

His books include The Behavior Ops Manual (also titled The Behavior Operations Manual), Six Minute X-Ray, The Ellipsis Manual, Tongue: Cognitive Hazard and Collected Works.⁠[6]

He is the founder and CEO of Applied Behavior Research and of NCI (Neuro-Cognitive Intelligence), and a member of The Behavior Panel. NCI University offers individuals and organizations a structured curriculum with certification levels NCI-1 through NCI-4 and runs live events such as NCI-2 Live and The Black Course.⁠[6][7]

NCI University: Official website: https://nci.university/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]

YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@chasehughesofficial (opens in a new window).⁠[6]