WARNING: Survivor 50 spoiler ahead — skip past the GIF if you're not caught up.​
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Hey Reader,

I’ve been on the couch yelling at Rick Devens for weeks.

Devens is a contestant on Survivor 50, if you're not a fan.

Early in the season, he was running the island.
Then the wheels started to come off his game.

His biggest ally got voted out.
His fake immunity idol got exposed.
He was a dead man walking.

Then he got an offer:

Flip a coin.
Call it right, stay in the game, get a real idol, and double the prize pot.
Call it wrong and go home.

Instead of being driven by what he could lose, he sees the opportunity.

He calls heads.

…(coin flips)…

It lands on… HEADS!

Later, when asked why he risked it, he said:

“My wife told me to play with a spirit of playfulness… and I’m not stopping now.”

That shift matters.
(Also, another reminder to listen to your wife.)

Because before that moment, he was clinging.
Defending. Reacting. Playing on his heels, trying not to lose.

After that, he started doing exactly what we train attorneys to do—stop reacting and play offensively.

In a deposition, playing defense looks like this:

• Walking in with a list of topics instead of a structure.
• Asking three part questions and getting a speech back.
• Letting the witness explain instead of locking them in.
• Leaving with “good admissions”… buried in paragraphs.

Here’s what offense looks like instead:

• You lock in clean admissions early — the kind that don’t look dangerous yet.
• Their own answers set up the contradiction so you don’t have to argue it.
• And by the end, you’re not guessing what you got. You can see exactly how it'll play in trial.

The result? We hear this a lot:

“I’m actually having fun with this deposition.”

Because you’re not reacting anymore.
You’re finally in control.

And prep — which used to be the worst part of your week — gets weirdly addictive.
That's the unexpected side effect of doing this work with real strategy.

If you want to see what that looks like in your next depo or cross:

Bring a bad depo story, a witness you're stuck on, or just a vague feeling of dread and we’ll show you how you can flip the script.

→ [Grab a free 30-min strategy session]​

You’ve got this,

P.S. Devens went into this week clinging. He came out with an idol, double the prize money, and a smile. Whatever you've got coming up — depo, cross, opening — there's a version where you walk out smiling too. 30-minute consults are free. No strings attached. [HERE.]​