Think you can spot a liar? Former CIA spy Andrew Bustamante has revealed the easy method anyone can use to tell if someone is fibbing.

In a recent interview on the We Need To Talk podcast hosted by Paul Brunson, the ex government officer‬ lifted the lid on how the covert tools he used in espionage can transform your everyday life.

Bustamante’s career has included a 15-year stint in the US Air Force serving as a nuclear missile officer.

He was later decorated for his service in Iraq and Afghanistanbefore being recruited into the CIA where he worked for seven years as a covert operations officer.

Bustamante has since become an entrepreneur, launching his co-founded website Everyday Spy, using his expertise to train individuals and advise businesses.

Divulging his tactics in the new interview, he revealed how you can really tell if someone is lying.

He explained that the key to knowing if someone is being untruthful is to tie their statement to something emotional and see how they react.

He suggested posing a ‘feeling question’ designed to evoke an emotive response.

If someone is either lying or trying to compile a carefully thought out response, they will ‘force the question through their logical cortex’ which you can see happening on their face if you know what to look for, according to Bustamante.

‘You will see that through the struggle on their face, their struggling body language,’ he explained.

‘You are not looking for an outright lie, instead, you’re looking for the struggle in their response.’

Also look for discrepancies between delivery of what they are saying and their body language.

Bringing up something emotional can help you ‘identify a pattern and establish when they are sensitive to a specific line of questioning.’

‘You can really start to look for those signs of deception,’ Bustamante added.

Another tactic that the ex-CIA learned while working in the government is to look at relationships through a ‘transactional perspective.’

Bustamante admitted that he sees every relationship in his own life, including the ones with his family, as transactional, insisting it can actually add purpose and value.

‘When you transact, your natural instinct is to transact to get something of superior value in return,’ he explained.

He said it can help ‘you identify what it is you value from the relationship’ which ‘allows you to optimize the relationship’ because you’ve ignited clear channels for communication and ‘can speak transparently about the idea of the transaction.’

Lastly, Bustamante mentioned a skill that he feels is applicable to everyone, CIA or not.

‘Perspective and perception,’ he said, which he compared to the common phrase ‘walk a mile in their shoes.’

‘These are terms that we toss around, but we don’t actually ever do them because most people don’t know how,’ he said. ‘How do you actually think like someone else?’

Actually being able to adopt someone else’s perspective is one of the core elements the CIA teaches, Bustamante said.

‘How to empathize, sympathize and rationalize like our target, to get out of our own perception of the world,’ he explained.

It is all about dissecting every detail of the target to really experience life through their eyes, explaining that it gives him an ‘advantage to build an artificial relationship with the person, because he’s going through the motions of sympathizing with them.’

Next time you find yourself in a challenging situation, whether it be confronting a cheating partner, navigating a tough job interview or negotiating a tense argument, put your CIA thinking cap on and see what transpires.