What It's Like To...
What It's Like To...
What It's Like to Walk on Fire
Dave Albin knows all the reasons you don't want to walk with bare feet on 1000 degree hot coals--after all, he didn't want to do it either! He was first presented with the opportunity at a Tony Robbins seminar many years ago. But he did it--and soon thereafter was working as the Fire Captain for Robbins. Albin now runs his own company, Firewalk Adventures, where he uses fear-based elements like glasswalking, firewalking, board breaking, arrow breaking, and fire eating to show people what is really possible in life. Albin has seen (thousands of times) how the fears you don't overcome become your limits. Firewalking shows that when you take a first step--don't stop! Keep moving forward.
As mentioned in the episode, here is the link to Oprah Winfrey's firewalk with Tony Robbins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iypdbvsDkOo
In this episode:
- What is a firewalk? (02:05)
- Dave's first experience firewalking at a Tony Robbins seminar (08:58)
- The feeling after accomplishing a firewalk (17:17)
- How Dave began working with Tony Robbins (19:28)
- Branching out on his own with Firewalk Adventures (21:58)
- What corporations/employees get out of firewalking and glasswalking experiences (23:31)
- The long-term benefits of breaking through fear (28:05)
- Dave's past experiences as an alcoholic and how he turned his life around (31:28)
- Main lessons Dave learned from working with Tony Robbins (33:44)
- The role gratitude plays in Dave's life today (40:34)
Want to learn more about Dave?
- Find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-albin/
- Follow him on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/firewalkadventures/
- Explore the Dave Albin Firewalk Academy at https://firewalkadventures.com. On the top row of tabs, click on "Firewalk Academy"--on that page, click on the "Schedule a Call" button. Use this code for a discount: 6 8 28.
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all of a sudden I realize where I am, and I look down and the coals are laid out on that grass.
They're glowing, bright red. You can feel the heat coming off of this thing.
This is the real deal.
and and I'm freaking, my heart is about ready to jump outta my chest.
when we think about experiences that change our lives. most of us probably think of moving to a different city, starting a new career, getting married, having a baby, things like that. How about walking on hot coals that are over 1000 degrees? My guest today, Dave Albin says, fire walking is a truly life-changing experience.
Dave worked for Tony Robbins for many years in security and as a member of the Fire Walk team, eventually becoming the head of fire walks as the fire captain. In 2014, Dave ventured out on his own. He now runs Fire Walk Adventures, where he uses fear-based elements like glass walking, firewalking, board [00:01:00] breaking, arrow breaking and fire eating to show people what is really possible in life.
Dave, welcome to the podcast.
Thanks Elizabeth. It's great to be here.
You do some incredible things, things that, uh, frankly kind of scare me, but I should, sounds like I should probably undertake. can you first describe what some of these things are? Let's start with just the fire walking. I mean, are you just literally taking someone and walking with bare feet over hot coals?
Is it as simple as that?
it is. let me talk about a Tony Robbins seminar.
so so what we would do is, we'd start the fire around two or three o'clock in the afternoon and, we would burn it all day. nine to 10 hours.
we keep feeding hardwood to that seasoned hardwood. it renders at the end of the night. And so the coals just keep dropping and dropping and dropping, and then nine, 10 hours later, have this beautiful giant pile of the [00:02:00] prettiest coals you've ever seen. I like to call it the blue flame because it's so
at that point that it's just a beautiful fire.
So we load those into a wheelbarrow, then we put the wheel barrel in between two lanes of sod of grass, and each fire lane is approximately three feet wide and approximately 18 feet long. And then
what we do,
that's longer than I expected to have to get across.
well, kind of a short one. Um, uh, we do some that are much longer, but 18 feet long.
Yeah. and then we take a shovel and we sprinkle the coals on top of that grass and then we pat 'em down. And then that's what the participants walk on. So from a Tony Robbins seminar standpoint, uh, we're talking thousands of people, on the short side, we had, a couple thousand people, 2000, maybe [00:03:00] 3000.
On
the side, the largest fire walk we've ever done with Tony Robbins I did was in London in 2005. We literally walked 12,300 people, which I will say is a world record. Now, I want to disclose that Guinness was not there. We didn't invite them for that matter, but to my knowledge, Elizabeth, there's never been a fire walk anywhere close to 12,300 people.
And the Nicoles stayed hot for that many people. You're having to refresh them
Yeah, you refresh them. So you let three, four, maybe five people walk, something like that. And then, uh, you'll hear Tony in the background through the PA system going fresh coals, fresh coals.
Oh my gosh.
shovel 'em and, it's pretty cool. In fact, if you wanna see something really funny that really depicts what somebody goes through on a fire walk, go Google 's Fire Walk.
you'll see at the moment, uh, when it was Oprah's turn to walk, Tony goes fresh coals. So,
She was at that event.
she did a [00:04:00] fire walk in 2010 at the LA Convention Center.
Okay. Okay.
And so, my assistant captain, was, uh, manning the lane that evening.
And so he laid the coals for her. but the beautiful thing about watching hers is that she's freaking out. and you know, everybody's gonna go through their fight and flight on this because fire walking, I. Is a I call it a come to Jesus meeting, if you
when it's your turn, guess what?
It's your turn,
Yeah.
So,
The adrenaline is pumping, I'm
sure. yeah,
And you know, you're going through all these questions in your mind, why am I doing this?
You know, metaphorically, what's going on here? why would I need to do this? This is the same emotions that you feel when you're going through any fear, breakthrough.
I don't care what it is. Whether you jump out of a plane, whether you zip line or bungee jump
or ask that girl to the dance or have children or get married or
start a business, right? it's pretty much all the same thing. And that's exactly why [00:05:00] Tony uses the fire walk on day one of a four day event.
the reason he does it on day one is to get leverage on you. cuz he knows it's a very powerful experience. He knows there's a huge paradigm shift, you know, involved here.
And he also knows that once he gets you across the fire, the new question now becomes, well, if I can walk on coals that are a thousand degrees and not burn myself and hurt myself, else can I do?
Yeah, it's very empowering. I'm sure if you can get through that. What is physically happening though? How, how can you do it on your bare feet to get across a thousand? It doesn't make any sense to
it doesn't. And you know what? And I'm gonna be very candid. I don't have a clue. I have no idea. I
And you're the expert. I love the
the expert, right? I've walked hundreds of thousands of people, literally.
Yeah.
my hallucination is, is that when you're in a powerful state like that, your body's kicking out all kinds of chemicals.
So there's fight
or flight. So it knows how to protect you. We all know that. We've all heard the stories about superhuman [00:06:00] strength, right? A car flips over on a
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
thing you know, she's lifting the car off the child.
So I think there's something to do along that line. There's a lot of energy that comes out of our feet and our hands.
so I think that maybe, that energy kind of, pushes back, if you will. but you know, the bottom line is, the coals are a thousand degrees. Can you get burnt? Yes. Are you gonna get burnt to the point where you're gonna need hospitalization? No. can you get a little kiss?
him little badges of honor. cuz at the end of the day, there's a point where Oprah's freaking out and Tony basically interrupts her pattern and he says, Hey, Oprah. Hey, come on. what's the worst that can happen here? Burn your feet off and die. I mean, come on.
and, and it's true, right? He really reduced it to the ridiculous. And, and that's what we do. We tell ourselves things that are just not true,
and we
have to be careful with that.
we really go to not just the worst case scenario we go to beyond what could possibly [00:07:00] happen to take ourselves out of taking chances.
absolutely.
Mm-hmm.
and so, I've learned over the years of doing this, three decades at the helm here, the fears that we don't overcome become our limits.
Because if you use fear not to fire walk, if you came to an event and, you knew there was gonna be a fire walk and you don't do it, and you allow fear to overrun you and make your decision for you, fear's not done with you,
Mm-hmm.
it's gonna continue to take things from you because at the end of the day, fear's a liar, right?
Fear will tell you all kinds of things that are just not true. Now, Don't misinterpret that fear's there to make sure that we don't do stupid things. It's there to
alive. But here's what I tell people, fear's there to guide you don't let it become your jailer.
yeah, I think it really can, build one way or the other. You can get the confidence. To take risks and do things, or you can build that narrative about yourself,
Yep.
I can only do these many things. like [00:08:00] I,growing up thought that I was, eh, not that much of a risk taker, and at the last minute I decided to go to a college across the country.
I was gonna go to a college, very close to home, and that simple act gave me so much confidence that then I could do other things. And I ended up moving to nine different cities in my twenties and my early thirties doing things I never thought I would do, simply because I took that one first big act and proved to myself, I actually can take risks.
yep. You sure can. and those rests can be calculated
And again, this is where brutal honesty comes in. what's really happening here? What's the worst case scenario? and if I'm being just totally honest with myself, fire walking.
when I did my first one back in 1995, I had a friend of mine call me on the phone and tell me Tony was coming to town. And I said, yeah, great, let's go. And he said, cool, I'll make the arrangements.
And, what they told us to do is, drink a lot of water, make sure you're nice and hydrated.
Uh, bring snacks cuz you're gonna spend a lot of time in the room. Ha ha, are [00:09:00] you kidding me? What an understatement that was. Um, and then, he said, bring a good attitude and be ready to play full out.
And I said, Dan, how much was the ticket? He said, $700. I go, so, I owe you 700 bucks. Don't you worry. I'll play full out. And what's interesting about that, just as he was getting ready to get off the phone, he goes, oh wait, I'm sorry. Hey, I forgot to tell you something. We're gonna be doing a fire walk.
And I remember
thinking,
goodness,
well, maybe you are pal, but I'm sure not going to, you know,
I'm paying for this.
Yeah, right. I'm paying 700 bucks to go burn my feet off. Yeah, right. I remember making a decision on the spot. I'm not gonna do it. And the interesting part about that is I didn't even know what a fire walk was.
I had no idea. I had no references, but I was saying no to something, right? Automatically. And so that was a huge life lesson for me. So when I got there, I resisted, I'm like, Nope, I'm not doing it. Well, heck, we get to the event, right? And Tony takes the stage at two o'clock in the afternoon, and the next thing I know, it's after midnight, [00:10:00] 10 hours.
We've been in a room, 3,500 people, And it's after midnight. All of a sudden, Tony goes, take your shoes off. And I remember thinking, oh, no, no, no, pal. You're not tricking me. I don't think so. And then it dawns on me, though. I see everybody else, Elizabeth, they're taking their shoes off, right? so now I'm in a real interesting situation because if I don't take my shoes off and go out there with my shoes on, all these people are gonna know I'm a coward.
Peer
Well, so we can't have that,
Yeah.
right? So I went, well, okay, I'll take my shoes off, but I know I don't have to do it.
And so that's what I did. so now you get out there, well, my gosh, as he's got everybody going out there, he's got 'em all chanting, he's got 'em clamping and chanting at the same time going, yes, yes, yes.
So now you've got 3,500 people chanting. And then as soon as you get outside into the parking lot where the fire walk is, he's got African drummers,
Oh my gosh.
very [00:11:00] ceremonial
It really builds.
my gosh. It's intense. It's like, you know, dun, dun, dun, dun,
dun dun. And you're walking out there and you know, the vibrational part of this is crazy.
Well, like I said earlier, he's got a giant fire building over there. It's been burning all day. They probably have about 20 fire lanes ready to go. Well, I'm not doing it, so what do I do? go hide in the back.
Sure. Yeah. You go find a corner
Sure. gonna know, right? N not so much because here's what Tony realizes.
He knows this is gonna be one of the most life changes experiences ever. shift on this is massive. And so He doesn't want you to miss out on that experience. I mean, at the end of the day, if you don't walk, you don't walk. So what, who cares? But he doesn't want that to happen because the change comes as you break through the fear.
So he trains people to go find the cowards.
Hmm.
So literally, I'm back there hiding and [00:12:00] next thing I know, here comes this guy and he makes eye contact with me and he doesn't take his eyes off me.
and he gets about 20 feet from me, kind of leans into me and gives me kind of a strange look as though like, are you okay?
and when we're not, what do we say?
I'm fine.
I'm fine. We're good here. no problem here, man.
your way.
You built that wall.
oh
absolutely. And so he says, oh, great. gonna walk tonight? And I'm like, Didn't you get the memo, pal? I'm like, absolutely not. Uh, no. I'm not gonna fire walk tonight.
he goes, Hey man, that's cool. He said, don't worry, we don't want you to do anything you don't want to do. And I remember thinking, wow, okay. Took the pressure off. I like this guy. He's gonna get me out of here. By the way, I don't know this guy to this day. I wish I did cuz I
here on your podcast,
if it wasn't for him.
And he said, well, wouldn't you at least like to watch. And I thought, well, yeah, that should be interesting. Yeah, let's go watch these people burn their feet off.
Yeah. Let's go watch the dumb ones [00:13:00] who are.
these, these idiots. Okay. he says, well listen, you know, you can't see anything from where you are, is true.
I'm a hundred yards away. I can't see anything. I can see the big fire over there. It's burning. Everybody's chanting. Yes, yes. And the drums are dun, dun dun. But I can't see anything. I got 3,500 people standing in front of me and he says, well just get in line and eventually you'll get up there.
Right. Ah, all right. Well, in his defense, he's telling the truth.
So I get in line and I'm just kind of walking along. I can't see anything It's just a wall of people. and I'm kind of walking along and all of a sudden, this guy comes up and he whispers in my ear and he says, he knows when you're ready.
he says, go, you go. And then pew, He just disappeared into the night. And I'm like, what was that? Who was that guy? Where did he come from? so I'm kind of walking along and all of a sudden I get to a point I still can't see in front of me, but now, I can see at an [00:14:00] angle. And, and Elizabeth, they're doing it.
fire walking. Every race, every creed, every color. They're fire walking. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. This is insane.
Why are they doing this? What's, metaphorically, what's happening here? What, what's the reasoning behind that?
never seen anything like this in my life,
and I'm kind of staring now.
I'm in a zone now, right? I'm completely in a trance, staring at these people over here, fire, walk it, and I'm not paying attention to what's in front of me. next thing I know, guess where I am?
at the front.
I'm at the front of the line
Oh man.
like that, and all of a sudden I realize where I am, and I look down and the coals are laid out on that grass.
They're glowing, bright red. You can feel the heat coming off of this thing.
This is the real deal.
and and I'm freaking, my heart is about ready to jump outta my chest.
Well, there's a trainer standing there and all of a sudden the trainer goes eyes up[00:15:00] and like startled me. I bring my head up, right? Well, apparently I'm a slow learner. I'm in a room with Tony for 10 hours. Guess what he tells you to do? Keep your head up. Don't stare at what you fear. Look to the celebration in.
That's where the reward is. That's where the change is gonna happen. And so now my eyes are up and the trainer goes, squeeze your fist and say, yes. And I went, yes. And he went stronger. And I went, yes. And then he got in my face. He could tell I wasn't in a peak state. He could tell I was leaving a lot on the table.
And he screamed at me stronger.
my goodness.
and now I'm kind of like angry, And I threw my hands in the air and I screamed at the top of my lungs. Yes. And the trainer goes, go, go, go. I took off.
You did it.
I did it. Well, here's the first thing I learned about fire walking. When you take that first step, oh, you'll take the second, third, fourth, and fifth.
You're not stopping.
You're not stopping. Well, they position two people as to the end of the fire lane and they grab hands [00:16:00] and they stop you. And they're like, stop, wipe your feet and celebrate. And so now I'm wiping my feet and I'm looking back and I'm celebrating, and I'm gonna go, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. I'm not doing this.
And all of a sudden I realize I've burnt myself really, really bad. and I, I lift up my left foot and I look at it and it's dirty, but there's no burns. Oh, it's my other foot. It must be my right foot. I look at it, it's dirty. There's no burns.
So I've got ghost paints is what's going on.
And so now I'm freaked out.
I'm like, I just walked on hot coals that are a thousand degrees. didn't burn myself. And this may sound like I'm a total idiot, but I had no idea how I did it.
Yeah,
Have you
something like that? You do something really, really cool and it's really awesome and you go, I don't know how I did it.
I
of like people who are really afraid to do public speaking, but you have to give that speech and you walk off the stage and you think, was I even there? Was I even on that [00:17:00] stage? it was like an out of body experience.
exactly. Great example.
Wow.
And so now I, I felt exhilarated.
I could conquer the world. Well, I'm feeling the same thing. 3,500 people are feeling This
is extraordinary, unbelievable experience. Well, where it gets really, really interesting the next day,
Because this is a four day event, that's day one. So he far walks you that night to get the leverage on you. So when you come in for day two, you've got a different attitude. You've got a different belief system,
you've got a level of consciousness. your
self-confidence, self-belief is much higher now.
And so you're standing in the foyer getting ready to go into the venue with 3,500 people that all shared something the night before. That's unlike anything you could ever share with each other unless it was a near death experience.
Because
here's what I'm witnessing. people are hugging, they're laughing, they're crying, they're sharing their story emotionally.
I had never [00:18:00] seen or witnessed anything like this in my life. And to this day, I've never seen or witnessed anything like it anywhere in the world. Unless you're at a Tony Robbins seminar and you did the fire walk the night before.
Because you know what, you were not the only one who was determined not to do it.
Oh, right, right, right, right.
many hundreds, if not thousands of others who said, I'm not doing that, and then did. So that arc of what people overcame was enormous.
Yeah. when you can connect with other people like that, when you share that powerful of an experience, you're in the moment.
you are right now, in the moment, you're not thinking about the past or the future that morning.
what I saw from people is, again, they were very much in the now.
hmm.
and that's what got me. That was one of the most life-changing experiences of my life. Last night, I, and I'll admit I didn't wash my feet when I went to bed that night. I'm
like,
You want to keep feeling it.
I wanted, I'm like, Hey, yes, let's keep 'em dirty for a few days, just to kinda show myself that I actually [00:19:00] did this.
then sh shortly after that, did you then go to work for Tony
well at the seminar, I found out that Tony uses
about 300 volunteers for an event that size. Well, about 50 or 60 of them work outside all day building the fire on, which is called the fire building Team. And so one of Tony's trainers, I got to know, he said, Hey, if you want to be involved, call Robin's research in San Diego they'll send you an application.
And then you fill it out and then you send it back in.
sure.
so I did, I got a letter back in the mail after I did that, said, congratulations. been selected a crew with the Anthony Robbins organizations in Fort Lauderdale,
Huh.
and the next thing I know, guess what? I'm on the fire building team. And because I had a military and a security background, they put me on the security detail to help take care of some of Tony's celebrities.
So that happened in late 95 after I attended the fire walk. By the time I got to 96, they hired me as a subcontractor on the security team. And then they also put me in as [00:20:00] the assistant fire captain in 96.
And then to fast forward in 2003, Tony offered me the fire captain's position, which meant that I took over all of his fire walks globally
So you're just traveling, with him to all
the
taking care of all his fire walks.
and because I also did security, I also came to some of the events that he did where there wasn't a fire walk involved. and he even paid for my family to travel because when I first got offered the position, I was declining it because I said, I homeschool my kids, I can't do that. said, well, what if we pay to have, your kids travel with us?
Will that make a difference?
And it did. So my kids at the age of six and nine are now on the road with their dad and their mom homeschooling on the road with Tony
With Tony. Oh my gosh, what an education.
Yeah. I couldn't have paid a million dollars for that type of education. I just couldn't have done it. In
fact,
amazing.
when I told the kids that we were gonna go on the road, my son's like, so dad, [00:21:00] where's our first event? I said, Sydney, Australia. right. So
that's how their career started.
the first time they ever fire walked. My daughter was six and my son was nine years old.
How did they react?
oh, it was beautiful. They're kids, they don't have the fears that adults do.
they walked across those coals, like it wasn't nothing. we were in New York.
Tony knew that my kids were there gonna walk. He was really excited about that. my daughter came up and Tony took her by the hand.
I took her by the hand and we walked her. and then my son stepped up after my daughter walked, and Tony looked at him and said, I love you and I love your daddy. Go.
Oh, how sweet.
it was magical, Elizabeth. you can't even imagine as a parent, and their mom there to witness that and be part of that was absolutely incredible.
and then, in 2014, my life took another twist,
I'm driving down the road one day and this company called Google me
What, what, what Google, what company is this?
Yeah, right.
[00:22:00] So they reached out to me to see if I was the Dave Albin that'd had done the fire walks for Tony Robbins.
I'm like, yeah, of course. what can I do for you? And they said, well, we'd like to talk to you about hiring you. And I went, okay. When, well, you know, are you under any contractual legal little contract? non-compete? I'm like, Nope. Homeboys are free agent. He can do whatever he wants.
so the next thing I know, I found myself in Mountain View, on stage in front of 148 Google executives. And we ended up doing the glass walk experience. The reason we did the glass walk is that logistically the fire walk wasn't gonna work for them, but they still wanted a powerful experience.
So I teach them how to walk on broken glass.
Can you describe that? Is that again, just what it sounds like, just shards of glass, you just walking on it.
You betcha
How does that compare to the fire walking in
terms
people, it scares 'em a lot more
cuz you know, they've been cut at some point. If you've ever been cut, by a piece of glass, then you can have different [00:23:00] experience with that. in fact, I've had many of the fire walkers that have worked with me at the Tony Robbins events tell me you know, fire walking, I'm good with, but this glass walking thing scares the hell outta me.
they've got all kinds of fright.
we do the glass walk because not all my clients, logistically can do the fire walk. So, when the fire walk's not possible.
We have a great backup for 'em. and one of those experiences is the glass walk.
And what is the thought process behind, say, the Google executive team or a, any of these organizations, people who hire you, why would they say, Hey, let's do these fear-based activities. What are they trying to get out of it?
because what doesn't challenge you doesn't change you.
that's the core answer. That's it. you can put, really great speakers on stage and they can talk all day, but that doesn't mean it's gonna change the people sitting in the audience.
You've gotta get 'em up, you've gotta get 'em to do something. You've gotta get 'em to step through their fears.
And when
[00:24:00] Literally stepping through your fears.
Mm-hmm.
you do. and we've proven it this time and time again. It's why Robins used it. He knows, he studied it intensely. He knew he had to create a powerful experience to get them to leverage on themselves.
corporate America knows that. Most CEOs get it. they know how professional athletes get. How do you become a pro? How do you get to the Olympics? How do you do that? you've gotta have a mindset that will get you there. every CEO out there has a very daunting task.
has to keep his people inspired and motivated. How do you do that? well you can take 'em golfing, But they hate that because Charlie wins it every year cuz he's the best golfer in the company, right? So that doesn't work. You can do, all kinds of,
Fancy dinner.
dinners and you can play blackjack and you can
have scavenger hunts and you can do all kinds of cool stuff, but nothing will create a bonding experience like a fire walk.
and the evidence of that [00:25:00] I knew is, that next day when I came into the seminar and I was standing there in that foyer with all those people going, you've gotta be kidding me. Look at this. This is unbelievable. So if you want to build a powerful culture, CEOs get it.
And so that's why they hire us to come in. Now the other thing I do too is I create the board break experience with the fire walk. So that makes it a double whammy.
Ah,
teach them a martial arts move and they break the board with their bare hands. Now I have a proprietary setup for that. I have 'em write some things on the front of the board.
I have 'em write some things on the back of the board.
Oh,
like a fear that you wanna break
through.
But
if, you write something on the board, you wanna move towards, write something on the back of the board, you need to move away from, add anybody's name to the board that you're in conflict with.
That's
sorts with somebody, if you're angry or you've got, resentments or whatever, put their name on the board, it ends tonight, period.
you want to drag that around with you in your life? [00:26:00] And then the other thing I have 'em write anybody's name on that board that they've lost. . So they break the board, we go outside, they do the fire walk, they throw the board into the fire.
So,
if there's another more powerful experience out there to cause change, let me know, because I just don't think there is, So when a company hires me now, I can do the fire walk however we want. We don't have to do it.
Like Tony Robbins, Cherokee Indians don't fire walk that way. The Ians don't do it that way. The people of India, the Indu Europeans, back in the day, before they went into battle, the men had to do a fire walk the night before. And if they didn't, they weren't allowed to go to battle, which would disgrace their family.
the Hawaiians, the Polynesians, the Native American Indians in America, fire walk's, been around for over a thousand years.
I wonder if there's something also primal about just fire.
You know, it's the hearth and that we gather towards, and it's the source of, creating food and warmth
Sure. You nailed it. You really did, Elizabeth. Absolutely. As primal.[00:27:00] So that's what makes it so magical. and people go, you know, how is it that a simple fire walk and a board break could create that kind of change in my company? well, that's because we let fire do what fire does.
Everybody has a, a strong association of fire. who hasn't ever sitting around the campfire, and felt the warm and fuzzies and
been anchored to that experience. the warmth, the love, the, the nurturing. And then at the same time, fire can be pretty brutal too, right?
um,
and without it, we don't exist on the planet.
Right.
when you reduce it to the element and from that angle, it's becomes a very, very, very powerful situation.
I think something you said earlier is so powerful too about, the fire walking or the glass walking, that when you take the first step, you don't stop. You have to keep taking the next steps. And that's a really powerful metaphor for life too. And breaking through any fears or just forward motion in what you wanna get towards in life.
[00:28:00] don't just take the one step, keep taking more steps and move forward.
you can pretty much accomplish anything you want as long as you don't quit. that's the way you lose. when I do my keynote presentations these days, I have a picture of a gentleman's, behind me on the screen and name is Eric.
and I'll say, so who, who here can tell me where Eric is standing? Well, he's standing at the top of Mount Everest.
It's pretty obvious right? And, because he's kind of standing at the peak, he's kind of standing cockeyed, if you will.
and so I'll say, so who here can tell me what's physically wrong with him?
and then I'll come back and say, by the way, Eric has climbed the seven highest mountains on earth. Seven continents. Seven mountains. He's
to the summit. He's an unbelievable mountain bike rider.
but here's what's interesting about Eric. He's blind.
Wow.
Oh my goodness.
that on purpose, I do that to mess with their heads, Elizabeth.[00:29:00] so I don't want to hear it.
I don't want to hear your excuses. I don't want to hear your false reasonings. You can have and do pretty much anything you want in your life. If that man right there can climb the seven highest mountains on earth, then what do you think you could do if you really put your mind to it and you had the right mindset?
You just wanna start a little business or maybe you want to get married and have kids? I mean, come on. it really comes down to why don't people get what they want in life? Well, the bottom line is there's a story they tell themselves of why they can't And almost 99.9% of the time, the story is not true.
It's a lie. You've made it up so that you can play small and that doesn't serve you. that's done great things has a really strong belief system and they have really strong mindset about things. And so what do you think Eric thinks about every day? Really? He can ride a mountain bike and he's blind.
What do you want to tell that guy? go. Tell him your excuse. It's not gonna fly.
Yeah, I see this over and over in my podcast because, I [00:30:00] interview people who have done or are doing these extraordinary, unusual, intriguing things that most people have never done. And I was drawn to this topic just cuz I thought, oh, it's just so interesting to me and I'll meet all these really fascinating people.
And what I've discovered over time is this theme among all of you people, is that you have pursued these things and through this pursuit you have shown dedication and passion and. you never give up because everyone has hard times and everyone eventually had the option to give up. You know, I interviewed an Olympic gold medalist.
He didn't get there just because it was easy. You know, he had plenty of times he could have given up and there were plenty of injuries and walls that were hit, but he kept going. I did interview a guy who summited Mount Everest. He went twice his first time. He tried, he didn't summit, so he went the next year.
You know, people run into hard times. It's the, it's the [00:31:00] mindset. And then I realize the reason I'm drawn to these people is because I need this message. I love this message. this is who I am too. I wanna keep going and, pursue my passions and my dreams. And so I think this is the key, the mindset of how you are going to approach your life.
you can tell yourself whatever story you wanna tell yourself, and then that is what you will believe.
You know, I say all the time, life's not as good as it seems. Life is not as bad as it seems, reality somewhere in the middle.
Hmm,
I use this a lot now. I didn't get in too much of my story, but I was grossly addicted to alcohol and drugs at one time
And I started drinking at a very young age because my parents did
and I adopted. And so, on June 8th, 1988, I woke up that morning, I said, that's it. I'm done. I'm out. I cannot do this. I was in so much physical pain and emotional pain that the only option I saw was to put a bullet in my head
because I care.
I just wanted the pain to stop. I wasn't thinking, is there a heaven or a hell or any, I'm not thinking any of [00:32:00] that. I could care less. All I want is the pain to stop. So
I, put the pistol in my mouth.
Well, I was, oh yeah, absolutely.
oh my goodness.
And, I was married to a woman who had three kids who were my stepkids.
And I thought, you know what? You pull that trigger, they're gonna see the aftermath of that. And that's not privy.
You can't do that to those kids. They're good kids. You love them. No. Figure out another way to deal with your pain. And so the next thought I had was call Alcoholics Anonymous.
What was interesting about that, Elizabeth, is I had no idea who AA was. None. Zero.
I know anybody that was in aa. I'd never been to an AA meeting. I didn't know anything about aa. And yet there was the thought, And so I called them and they sent Amanda to come pick me up.
And that was on June 8th, 1988. And, it'll be 35 years.
remarkable. What a turnaround.
so yeah.
and where AA and the fundamentals, the 12 steps, the 12 traditions came together with the personal development industry.[00:33:00]
Because I
late one night watch, and, you know, I had insomnia and then I saw my sleep patterns were all over the place. And, there he is on an infomercial back in the eighties, Tony Robbins, a
Yeah.
dude there. He was selling his personal power program.
and I ended up buying the program
So, I went through it and I did what the man taught me to do.
Hmm.
I remember back in the day when I finished the program, I thought, wow, wouldn't it be cool to be walking down the street somewhere wherever and see Tony Robbins.
it'd be really cool to say, Hey, Tony, hey Dave. Albin, man. Hey, I went through your program. Thank
you. It worked. You changed my life. And so I went a little further than that
Look what happened.
happened. You know? So I got to work with the man for just shy of 20 years.
What was that like working so closely with him? What did you learn from him?
I learned a great deal. I get asked quite a bit, what's the number one fundamental you learn from Tony? And that is everything in life comes down to we run patterns. I don't care what it is. And if you learn how patterns can [00:34:00] serve you or not serve you, that's really the key element to life.
and once you can learn to interrupt the patterns and install new belief systems and new patterns, it's really the key to life, in addition to peer group, is everything. You know, we are who we spend time with.
And if you the average six people that you hang around with most, and you look at their average income and you average that out, you're within 10% of that.
So, peer group is everything. and I say all the time, love your family, choose your friends and you better choose wisely cuz you will become who you spent time with. When I was back out drinking and drugging, guess who I was hanging out with?
Drug addicts, drug dealers, pimps,
prostitutes,
gang members.
I mean the whole nine yards. And once I got to aa, I started hanging around with sober alcoholics. And so my whole life was literally handed back to me. and I believe that the two most important times in our life is the moment we were born. And the moment we figure out why,
so for me, [00:35:00] I realized once I got sober that there was a divine purpose to my life.
And that there was gonna be a calling for me. and that came by way of the fire walk. And so now I have the honor and privilege to go to some of the biggest companies in the world.
But, you know, the ones I really love to work with are schools. Our kids, gimme a bunch of junior high kids or grammar school kids. Let me show 'em how to break a board with their bare hand.
Let me take 'em through that experience and I'll radically change their life. They'll never forget that. And the kids, you know, they don't get a chance to do that kind of stuff, right? they have to join like martial arts studio, to be able to break a board with their bare
come into a school and spend an hour and have every kid in the school break the board.
I love doing philanthropic work and benevolent work.
do you feel like sometimes when people are confronting a fire walk or a glass walk, the fear that they're feeling is about more than just the fear of the fire or the glass,
it's normally something else. there's something else going [00:36:00] on in their life when they get to that point. they're standing in that fire lane, and they're looking towards me, I'm looking deep into their eyes I've seen thousands and thousands and thousands of faces, and you wouldn't believe the look on their face.
it's like everything in their life has come down to that moment right there, because it's not like you're going on a trip and you're going bungee jumping.
Even though that can scare you or, you're gonna get on a roller coaster and deal with that.
At that moment, everything comes forward and I get to see it on their face, and literally, seconds later, boom, they cross over. They're on the other side. They did it, and they celebrate. and everything about them changes instantaneously. I mean, it's, it's that quick. It's so cool to be able to see that.
In fact, if you go Google Oprah
and youwatch her fire walk, you'll see that firsthand. Cuz Oprah's losing it. She is like questioning it. She's [00:37:00] like, oh my gosh, I probably made a big mistake. I shouldn't be here. You know? So all that dialogue that stops us from our greatness starts playing out a role.
Well, Tony takes her through a process. You know, she's, she's running a pattern. Tony interrupts the pattern by saying, Oprah, look, what's the worst that can happen? chill out. I'm not gonna let you get hurt. And so she's like, you know what? He's right. so she walks, well, she's, she loses it.
Well, here's where it gets really, really super interesting. once she fire walks and she's jumping up and down and she's celebrating, she's having a really good time. After she does that, she walks over from where the fire lane is and the film crew goes with her she makes a declaration right there on camera and she makes one of the biggest business decisions of her life right there on the spot.
What is it?
She created what was called the next chapter, if you remember when
Oh, I,
yeah.
Yep. That you'll see her say [00:38:00] it. She goes, this is it you guys, this is it, people, this, this is the next chapter. People, and you
Wow.
you can just see it come over. It's really cool to watch. It's phenomenal, but that's pretty typical.
Yeah. I was gonna ask, do other people have that as kind of
self revelations?
there was a gentleman one time that came to one of our events and, he was told that he's not a writer. You'd never be a screenplay writer. You know, you're not gonna break into Hollywood. It's not gonna happen. he came to the seminar, did his fire walk, and went home and wrote Sleepless in Seattle.
Oh my goodness.
one of the coolest moments I've had, and there's thousands of them, but one of 'em that stands out is there was a young man in Tampa. He was in high school, he played football, baseball, did it all, uh, really, really great athlete. Got hit by a drunk driver, lost both legs.
Now he's
because now his identity was wrapped up in how good he was in sports.
he started running new patterns, right? Well, I guess he's contemplating suicide. one of his buddies said, Hey, listen, before you do that, I know you [00:39:00] like Tony Robbins, he's coming to town. Why don't you go to his event?
so there we are. It's midnight, and we're at the fire walk. Everybody's out there, the drums are going, everybody's chanting. And the next thing I know, Tony kind of stops and he looks at me as if to say, Hmm, I think we're gonna see something really spectacular here in a moment.
Well, I can't see the kid. It's dark out there. he's in a wheelchair. the next thing I know, there he is. I see him. And so Tony bends down to talk to him, and the kid like, blows him off. He's like, no, no, no. I got this. Well, he positioned his wheelchair in front of the lane
And the next thing I saw, he threw himself forward. He had a ton of upper body strength. he landed on his hands and he walked across the fire on his hands.
Wow. Wow.
and I looked at each other and we were like, what? Are you kidding me? and with tears on our eyes, I mean,
both Tony and I teared up cuz you can't sees something that humanistically spectacular of what human beings [00:40:00] are really, really capable of
and it not hit you emotionally.
And the determination of this kid.
oh my gosh. it was so cool. so sometimes all you need is a little fire lit under your, you know what, as
to
Literally.
and this is why fire walking is such a spectacular experience it guarantees results and you don't have to wait for it.
you just did something so extraordinary. It helps interrupt the pattern. It helps stop telling yourself false. know, metaphorically, what's the acronym? Face Everything. And Rise, or forget everything and run.
Oh
Right. The acronym for fear,
I'm a very, very, very grateful man because I believe fear does not exist where gratitude is present.
They can't operate the same space at the same time. if
what a wonderful saying.
right. Gratitude is the key. [00:41:00] I've had a spectacular and an absolutely magical life.
but it wasn't always like that.
it came with some work. And here's what I know. Anybody can have it. It's there for the taking. just have to be able to break through.
And say, you know what? I'm here for a reason. and I used to sponsor this kid in, Wenches. I love him to death. I lost Mark.
And, mark used to say all the time, if you're not grateful for today, what day are you waiting for?
Oh
So it's
that in his honor.
Yeah. Oh, I'll remember him with that. Wow. Well, thank you so much. Boy, I've learned a lot. I am really inspired and What a wonderful, image to think, we can break through the boards, we can walk through our fears,
so thank you, Dave.
it's my pleasure.
Thanks, Elizabeth.