Blake Paris on Buy-In, Leadership, and Security
Profiles in Preparedness #72
Welcome back to The CP Journal, where we break down what it takes to get left of bang.
The ability to influence people in your organization is a critical skill for professionals working in public safety and security.
Without the buy-in and support of leaders, partners, and stakeholders, it is challenging to build programs and implement new initiatives. Good ideas often require organizational support, funding, and leadership attention before they can become an operational reality.
As a result, the ability to get your ideas understood, prioritized, and resourced is one factor that determines whether leaders can accomplish their goals or remain stuck reacting to the same problems year after year.
A Conversation with Blake Paris
To better understand what it takes to turn good ideas into something that actually gets built, I spoke with Blake Paris, the Senior Vice President for Public Safety at Smith Entertainment Group, where he oversees security across the Delta Center—home to the Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth—and a growing portfolio of properties.
If you haven’t met Blake, he has built his career operating in high-risk, high-visibility environments. His experience includes security leadership roles at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park, Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, and the Barclays Center in New York. Before that, he served in the U.S. Coast Guard and worked in executive protection with Gavin de Becker and Associates.
What stood out in our conversation wasn’t just where he has worked, but how he thinks about building support for security initiatives inside complex organizations. His answers below provide a practical look at how leaders build support, navigate organizational friction, and move ideas into execution.
Question #1
PVH: Blake, I’ve heard you talk about the need for security professionals to become marketers. Let’s start with the basics: what do you mean by that, why is it important, and what does this actually look like in practice?
BP: When I say security professionals need to become marketers, I mean they need to understand that they are a brand inside their organization. In order to build support for security initiatives, they need to be able to show why investing in security improves the organization and supports the business.
When I am trying to implement a new product or capability into our security program, I rely on my reputation—my brand—as someone who is always trying to stay a step ahead of unforeseen incidents while also being fiscally responsible.
When I approach leadership with new technologies or procedures, I map out both the use case and the business case. I explain how the investment can save money, create sponsorship opportunities, and add another layer of security and safety that ultimately benefits the company’s brand.
Question #2
PVH: Was there a moment in your career where you realized that being good at security wasn’t enough—that you also had to be able to get people to buy into what you were trying to build? What happened?
BP: The moment that really made me realize being good at security was not enough happened when I was the VP of Security at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
They host an event called Powerhouse, a seven-hour hip hop show featuring artists from across New York. One of the major challenges with the event was that large crowds would show up without tickets and attempt to force their way into the building.
The year before I arrived, security lost control of the doors and thousands of people entered the venue without going through security screening. There was video of people jumping barricades and weapons falling out of their clothing as they ran inside.
Management’s response during the incident was to deploy roll gates to stop the crowd, but that trapped staff members inside. Employees were injured and many were traumatized by the experience.
The following year, I was hired to oversee security for the venue and ownership still wanted to host the event because it was a major revenue generator for the organization.
After speaking with staff, it was clear there was no trust left in management and many employees no longer wanted to work the event. That was the moment I realized that simply being good at security was not going to be enough to make the event successful. I had to understand what the staff had experienced and rebuild their trust before we could move forward.
I sat down with each one of my 200 staff members and asked them what they would have done differently. I wanted them to understand that I had their best interests in mind and that I was willing to commit the resources necessary to make the event safer.
After hearing their concerns, I worked with the NYPD to develop a completely new operational plan. We added outside security support, increased NYPD presence, implemented street and sidewalk closures, and created staffed checkpoints leading to the venue.
Once the plan was complete, I brought the staff back in and walked them through it. When they saw the additional layers of security and the amount of planning that had gone into protecting them, they began to buy back into the event.
After getting buy-in from the staff, I then had to present the plan to executive leadership. That meant explaining not only the security need, but also the business case behind the investment. I focused on the importance of rebuilding staff confidence, improving the experience for paying customers, and reducing the organization’s exposure to future incidents and lawsuits.
The security costs for the event were nearly double what they had been the year before, but because of everything that had happened previously, it became much easier to show why the additional investment was necessary.
Question #3
PVH: When you’re trying to get buy-in for something new, how do you translate a security issue into something an executive actually cares about? What do you focus on?
BP: When I am trying to get buy-in for something new, there are a few things I focus on with our executive team.
The first is whether we can offset the cost. In some cases, that means working with a vendor on a partnership agreement where they are also investing into our brand and organization.
The second is how the product or capability helps reduce liability and protect the organization’s brand.
The third is the impact it will have on the overall experience for both guests and employees.
At the executive level, those are the areas that usually matter most when evaluating whether an investment makes sense.
Question #4
PVH: When you’re evaluating a new idea from your team, how much of your decision comes down to the strength of the idea itself versus how well it can be presented and supported, and what should someone focus on if they want their idea to get traction?
BP: When I am evaluating a new idea from the team, there are a few things I pay attention to: the cost of the idea, how long it will take to implement, what the overall benefit is, how it helps our brand, and what the recourse is if the idea doesn’t work.
A big part of implementation is understanding the downside risk. If the idea fails, how far does it set us back operationally, financially, or from a brand perspective?
Those are the things that are top of mind when determining whether to push for a specific idea. If you already have answers to those questions before presenting the idea, it becomes much easier to demonstrate the value behind what you are proposing.
Question #5
PVH: If someone wants to get better at getting their ideas built, what are a few things they can start doing right away?
BP: If someone wants to get better at building out their ideas, one of the biggest things they can focus on is learning how to clearly show value.
What many people fail to incorporate into their presentations is that value exists in multiple forms. When people hear the word “value,” they often default to thinking only about monetary value, but there is also brand value, operational value, and future value.
The more clearly you can explain those different layers of value, the easier it becomes to build support for an idea.
Final Thoughts
The challenge for many professionals in public safety and security is not a lack of ideas. Organizations are full of good ideas, lessons learned, and people who can identify problems.
The challenge is getting those ideas understood, prioritized, funded, and implemented inside complex organizations competing for time, attention, and resources.
That is the shift Blake describes when he talks about security professionals becoming marketers. Not marketing in the traditional sense, but the ability to clearly communicate value, build trust, gain buy-in, and connect security initiatives to broader organizational goals.
Because in the end, if an idea never gets resourced, implemented, or operationalized, it does not exist in any meaningful way.
Before You Go
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