Life of Love and Overcoming Challenges

Julie Hilsen

Life of Love With Julie Hilsen. Hello, dear friends, and welcome to another episode of Life of Love, where we gather weekly to explore creativity and inspiration. And today we have a very special guest, Dave Albin, and he has a legacy of helping people stretch beyond their wildest dreams to get tribal, and I’m going to let him explain that. And part of living a life of joy is doing things you would never expect to do, or doing things that are outside your comfort zone and having the curiosity to see how this could happen. This man has conquered many things in his life addictions and he’s come out on the other side and he has many stories to tell. I’m going to let him introduce himself and his expertise in a more precise way. I’m just picking your curiosity, dave. Welcome to Life of Love.

Dave Albin: 1:04

Thanks, julie, thanks for having me. It’s just an honor, absolutely Well, my dad used to say start at the beginning, it’s always the best place to start. And so how I got here, at least to this place in time, where I’m in the podcasting world and in the world of corporate team building and life changing paradigm shift experiences. Two months before I was born, julie, my dad, my biological father we don’t know exactly what happened, at least I never found out he did something to his head, he hid his head and to save his life, they put a plate in his head. Well, it also took his life because apparently it was a very, very painful day-to-day part of his life having that plate in his head, and so he complained to my mom all the time that it hurt and he didn’t know how much longer he could take it. And two months before I was born, he told her he was going to the grocery store and we never saw or heard from him again. So we’re not 100% sure that he committed suicide, but my mom felt that that was what happened. And so when I was born, I was born to a single mom. She already had two other boys from another man and she was living in a one bedroom apartment in Hollywood, california. So she was there with my grandmother, her two other sons, myself and another cousin. So there were six of us living in this one bedroom apartment and mom was working at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood really well-known hotel. And mom, you know she knew how to work hard. She was doing the best she could. She was a product of the Great Depression. She was eight kids in the family. She was the youngest and they knew hard work. I mean anyone that grew up in the Great Depression knew hard work. Right, you had to farm, you had to sew your own clothes, you had to pretty much do everything. And that family was no different. And she was also known as Rosie the Riveter, which meant that what a lot of people don’t realize about the baby boomers and their parents is that they literally saved the world. The men of that era were fighting. My dad, for example that raised me, was in Europe fighting the Nazis. My best friend’s dad was in Pearl Harbor fighting the Japanese. So while the men were overseas fighting the war, guess what the women were doing?

Julie Hilsen: 3:55

They were working in the factories.

Dave Albin: 3:57

They were home.

Julie Hilsen: 3:58

They were doing everything, literally.

Dave Albin: 4:01

You know, this idea that women had to prove themselves in the workplace happened a long time ago because without them we would have lost the war, because women were here in America building jeeps and tanks and rifles and ammunition. And my mom was known as Rosie the Riveter, which just meant she built airplanes, she was working for McDonald Douglas up on a wing, driving, driving, driving rivets into the wing. So they understood hard work. And so mom tried really hard. She was really trying as hard she could, but she had a lot of mouths to feed and she got to a point where she couldn’t do it and she knew it. So she did a very, very loving thing. She went to her oldest sister, pat, and said Pat, will you adopt David and Pat and Bob? Albin my aunt and uncle at the time, said yeah, absolutely. And so at five years old I moved from Hollywood, california, to Long Beach, california, and now I’m living with Pat and Bob. Now I don’t know any of this right, I don’t know what happened or what was going on. I was too young. All I know is that I literally walked into the perfect lifestyle, bob, and Bob was a highly decorated officer in World War II. He was a. He was an officer in the Army and the National Guard. So we had a nice house, always had food on the table. We used to go camping all the time as a young kid. They would take me to Yosemite, they would take me to Big Bear Lake, arrowhead Lake, Havasu. We went all over the place.

Childhood Trauma and Entrepreneurial Spirit

Well, on the first day of summer 1964, pat came in and said David, come into the kitchen, your father and I need to speak with you. I walked in, sit down, my dad’s here, my mom’s here. She put her hand on my arm and she looked at me and she said David, what we need to tell you is we’re not your parents, I’m 11. What does that mean? That’s like walking out into the. That’s like walking outside and looking at. The sky is blue and go. The sky’s not blue. Well, it looks pretty blue to me.

Julie Hilsen: 6:20

Yeah, these are my parents. You’re acting like my parents.

Dave Albin: 6:23

Yeah right, you just said come in, your dad and I need to speak with you. So what does that even mean? And then she went on to say you know, you’re aunt Dean. Yeah, that’s actually your biological mother. And I remember thinking I don’t even like her. And the reason I didn’t like her and it’s not that I didn’t like her, it’s just that every time she was around me she wanted to be around me. She was always touching me, holding me, kissing me, hugging me. Well, duh, I’m her son, Right, Right, that was never inappropriate, it was just. She was always, you know, she wanted to be all over me. She was like right here, you know, all the time when she was around me and again, obviously I was, you know, I was her son. So she, any chance she got to be around me, she was going to take it full advantage of it, if you will. But again, I didn’t know that until after the fact, right. Well, when they adopted me at five, they had both sworn off drinking. Shortly after they told me that I wasn’t their son, they both started drinking and my life took a real hard turn. And Pat was not a violent drunk, but she nonetheless was still drinking. Bob, on the other hand, not so much. He was mean, he was nasty. He turned into not a very nice guy when he was drinking and One day they went to the store. Back in those days you could leave your kids at home. Right, you just did. It was no big deal. You’d call the neighbor across the street and say hey, Joanne, Bob and I are going to the grocery store, David’s home. If he needs anything, can he come knock on the door, you know? Yeah, sure, of course. Tell him to come over now. I’ll fix him a fried bologna sandwich. And so we’ve been. I remember those with their really gooey white bread.

Julie Hilsen: 8:22

Yeah, gooey white bread and little mayo and mustard Little mayo, it would balloon up in the pan like a dome and it would curl up, right, you had to flatten it out.

Dave Albin: 8:31

yeah, oh yeah.

Julie Hilsen: 8:33

So good. Don’t touch this stuff now. But oh man, yeah right.

Dave Albin: 8:38

They were so good back then and, like you said now, I wouldn’t even think about it. No, I won’t even eat a hot dog anymore. So they left and went to the grocery store. Well, I know where the booze is. They’re hiding it right there in plain sight, and so I wanted to know what it was. What’s happening? Why is it that when they drink this stuff they turn into these horrible human beings? So I went over, grabbed it, set it on the table, took out a coffee cup, filled it up halfway, drank it I’m 11. And it was like pouring rocket fuel in me. I never had a chance, Julie, ever. I was an alcoholic right on the spot. I started thinking alcoholically, acting alcoholically, and then that just started progressing and I didn’t want to be at home because when I was home there’d be screaming and yelling and Bob would come home and I was a gatekeeper for him. She would drive me down to the local bar. I’d have to go in and get him out of the bar and it was just ugly. Just there was no upside to it at all. And by the time I was a junior in high school, like right at the very beginning of the school year, my junior year, they called me into the principal’s office and said Albin, you’re out, we’re not going to deal with your shenanigans anymore, and so I’m cool with that. I didn’t care. I could care less, because here’s what my belief was Nothing your teacher’s mean is going to help me make money. I already had an entrepreneurial spirit when Pat used to grow flowers in the backyard. She had a big L-shaped garden, if you will, and she could grow the most beautiful flowers you’ve ever seen in your life. And so what she would do? She’d grow those flowers and she’d pick them and she’d cut them at an angle not at the bottom, at an angle and it would open up more surface area for water to get in. And then she had such an eye for color, she would arrange them, put a rubber band around them for me, she’d put them in a bucket and then she’d put seven up into that water and it would cause the flowers to last two weeks, so my flowers would last longer than the local florist. She sent me out onto the street corner and I started selling flowers on the street corner, and that’s pretty good at it. The women never wanted to negotiate, but the men always did. They tried to take me and I think I was selling them for $0.50 a piece and they tried to talk me down Well, I’ll buy two for $0.75. I’m like no, I won’t do that. They’re like why? And I go? Because the next guy that pulls up will pay me full price. So why am I giving them away to you? I’m not going to do that. And then I got a paper out. Now that’s a full on entrepreneurial job, because you’ve got to go ride your bike, right. You’ve got to go pick up the papers, fold them, put them in your saddlebags, load it up on your bike and then go throw those papers and deliver them. And so you had to go collect the money. You had to do it all. So definitely you needed an entrepreneurial spirit to do that. I also grew up right across the street from a golf course, and what I’ve learned about most golfers in America? They suck, they’re horrible and they would hit the balls out over the fence. Well, I’d go ride my Stingray bicycle around the perimeter of the golf course and guess what? I’d find Little white things that turned into money. And so I would take those golf balls home. I’d clean them up, I’d go back to the golf course, I’d go in the trash and they came in golf blocks and sleeves, right in boxes, and I’d take those boxes and then I’d put the golf balls in that box. You could put 12 in it at a time and I’d segregate the Max Flies, the Tidalist, the Dunlops, the Wilson’s, and then I’d go back into the parking lot and sell them back to the golfers. And so again, my belief was there’s money out there, go get it. And I learned that at a very young age, and so there was my belief system.

Julie Hilsen: 13:02

And so when they kicked me out of school yeah. Yeah, I just my inquisitive mind wants to try to understand how they were perfect parents for six years and then, when they told you that they weren’t really your parents, that same year they relapsed.

Dave Albin: 13:28

Well, you know in their defense? I don’t know. My hallucination is Kennedy had just been assassinated, in November of 63, my dad’s military. He was working in the Pentagon. He would make trips. You know the Cuban crisis, the Bay of Pigs had been going on. All those missiles were in Cuba and the push in of a button by the Russians, so there was a lot of pressure in that period there on my dad. And so I don’t know, maybe the thought of him now he knows, I know that he’s not my dad. I don’t know, julie, I don’t know. I just all I know is they started drinking.

AA, Tony Robbins, and Facing Fear

Julie Hilsen: 14:15

He was a pressure cooker.

Dave Albin: 14:17

It was a pressure cooker for them, and so once I got kicked out of school, I got a really good job and I didn’t want to be at home. There was no reason, because it was just screaming yelling and fighting and carrying on and conflict and alcoholism is not pretty. There’s nothing about it that’s warm and inviting, that’s for sure. So I started experimenting. I drank at 11. And it didn’t stop. And so again, by the time I was a junior in high school. Boom, you’re out, alvin. And again I was good with that. Well, I’ll just move this forward. By the time, on June 8 of 1988, I’d been married three times. The third wife was a bartender and she had three kids. And I married her, literally thinking that maybe becoming a stepdad would help me with my alcoholism. And unfortunately it didn’t. So when I woke up on June 8 of 1988, when I woke up that morning, I said that’s it, I’m done, I’m out, I’m not doing this anymore. And the only idea I had at the time to stop the pain was put a bullet in your head. I did, I loaded my pistol and I’m ready to do it. And I wasn’t thinking about heaven or hell or I didn’t think, I didn’t care about any of that. I’m in excruciating physical and psychological pain, spiritual pain as well, and I wanted to stop, and it’s going to stop. That day period that was threshold for me. Well, as I’m thinking about pulling the trigger. I’m like you know, dave, when you do that those three kids upstairs that you love your stepkids, you’re going to kill them too, because they’re the ones that’s going to live after you and they’ve got to suffer through the cops coming and the morgue and the paper and the news and the school and it’s going to permeate, you know, like that’s wrong man. You can’t do that to them. You’ve got to figure out another way, pal. And so the next thing I thought was call alcoholics anonymous. Well, you know what’s interesting about that, julie? I didn’t know who AA was. I had no idea. I didn’t know anybody in AA. I’d never been to an AA meeting. I knew nothing. Yet there was the thought where did that come from? And so I called them and I got this wonderful lady on the phone and I affectionately nicknamed her Maj. And the reason I nicknamed her Maj is because she talked like this. You know, she had a raw, scratchy voice. And I’m pretty sure she must have smoked two packs of Palm All Non-Filters a day, and so that’s why she had such a raspy voice. Well, bless her heart, she’s the gatekeeper. She’s the one who will decide whether she calls somebody in AA to come pick you up. And she did. She called a guy by the name of Lauren and said yeah, here’s the address, go pick this guy up. And so he got there to my house that morning and he took me to an all men’s group of AA called the Stepping Stones Group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Fairfax, virginia, and he stayed with me all day. I went to a 1230, a 430, a 630, and an 830 meeting and while I was there, at one of the meetings they gave me the book of Alcoholics Anonymous and they opened it up to the front cover and they signed it and it said before you take that first drink, call one of us. And they put their first name in their phone number and they gave me that book and I went home and that was on day one. Now remember, I’m grossly addicted to heroin, cocaine, alcohol. I’m smoking like a chimney, I’m not taking care of myself, I’m in a tremendous amount of discomfort. Probably should have went to rehab, but they weren’t. Even you know there wasn’t. The rehabs back in 1988 weren’t fluent like they are today. And so the next morning, at 8 o’clock in the morning, my phone rings and it’s John from AA and he’s like hey, hey, good morning. How are you doing this morning? And I’m going, how do you think I’m doing? Are you kidding me? I want to kill somebody and I might start with you, pal, for calling me at 8 o’clock in the morning. And he’s like John’s a really fun guy, he’s a really cool guy and he’s like yeah, yeah, yeah, he goes. I hear you, he goes. Look man, last night we were talking, I know where you live, I’d like to come over, I’ll pick you up, let me take you to breakfast and then I’ll take you to another AA meeting and I’m like OK, right, you’re like what?

Julie Hilsen: 19:10

am I getting to Right.

Dave Albin: 19:13

It’s like. But you know what I’m threatening him Like? I’ll kill your ass right. And yet here he comes and he picks me up. And that’s how AA works. It’s just unconditional love, because we all know we can all relate with each other. We know how much pain and suffering we’ve gone through and the only thing that’s really going to help another alcoholic, in my humble opinion, is another alcoholic who knows what you’ve gone through, who, when they look at you in the eyes and go, hey, I get it, I know how you feel, man, and they do, so we’re congruent with that. So he came and picked me up and two days turned into a week, and a week turned into a month and then a month. They gave me one of these and it said one month continuous sobriety. And then they gave me one at two months, three months, six months, nine months, and then they gave me one at one year, and this last June 8th I picked up one for 35 years. So I lucked out oh, thank you. I lucked out and I never had another drink or a drug after that point.

Julie Hilsen: 20:22

Wow.

Dave Albin: 20:24

Well, so what happened there was, I had insomnia as I was getting sober, I was up late all the time. My sleep patterns were all over the place. And there I am, at three o’clock in the morning, one more one night, and I’m watching an infomercial from Gunthe Rancor. And there he is, mr Enthusiasm himself, right, a young Tony Robbins is selling personal power. Personal power, it’s a 30 day program for total success, the man said. And so I listened to him and I did not like him. I was like he was all motivated and I’m like I can’t stand a guy’s pompous, you know, and he’s encouraging and you know I wanted nothing to do with it, but he said a couple of things that kept me to listen to it. The first thing he said was we’ll do more to avoid pain than we will to gain pleasure.

Julie Hilsen: 21:15

And I went okay you know, because that’s kind of how I drank and drug.

Dave Albin: 21:19

I was going after some pleasure or trying to avoid pain, so that made sense to me and then. But what really got me said, you know, the driving force in our life is we’re motivated how we make decisions out of inspiration or desperation, desperation, and I went, okay, well, I’m pretty desperate, so let me buy this thing broke out, my American Express card or the program and they sent it to me came in a big old box and it was a 30 day program, so you had to listen to a tape every day. And when I say tape, it came on these little white things called cassette tapes. Some of your listeners are not even going to have any idea what a cassette tape is. Go to the Smithsonian, they’re there, they’re right next to real, to real and eight track tapes. So I went through the program. I did what the man taught me to do and it worked Well. One of my dear friends in AA was watching me really closely and he’s listening to me and I’m also all of a sudden now I’m kind of repeating what I’m learning from Tony Robbins, right.

Julie Hilsen: 22:26

You’re integrating?

Transformation Through Fire Walking

Dave Albin: 22:27

Yeah, you’re getting it right, I’m talking encouragement and motivation, and and I and I started working out, I started losing weight, I got out of the bad marriage that I was in, and so one of my buddies came to me one day and he goes hey man, what’s going on with you, why are you so motivated? And I go Well, I’ve been listening to this guy named Tony Robbins and he goes hey, I know Tony Robbins is, I bought his book. He goes, but I never read it. Yeah, what a concept, right? I go. Well, look, I bought the program. If you promise me that you’ll listen to it, I’ll own it to you. And he goes, I promise, and so I loaded to it. Now, this is all going on in 1988, 1989. Well, seven years later, 1995, my phone rings and it’s Dan, it’s my buddy, and he’s like hey man, did you know that Tony Robbins is coming to town live for an event? I said no, I had no clue. He goes oh, dude, come on, you got to go with me, you got me into this, come on, go with me. Well, when’s it? When’s the event? Well, it’s on such and such a date, my calendar. I’m like Okay, I can go. And he goes. Fantastic, he goes look, man, I’ll go make arrangements. Let me call you right back. He calls me five an hour later and he goes done, we pick up the tickets at will call. And here’s what they told us to do. Number one drink a lot of water throughout this four day weekend. You got to stay hydrated, really important. Number two bring snacks, because we’re going to spend a lot of time in the room. Oh my gosh, what a you know, right, anybody who’s been to a Tony Robbins seminar knows they’re laughing too. He’s insane, right. 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 $695. And I’m like $700. Right, and this is in 95. So what’s that equate to today? You know, 7.2 million. I mean, I don’t know. You know, buy Bitcoin with it. So, as he’s telling me all this, right. And then it’s just before he gets off the phone, he goes. Oh wait, by the way, I forgot to tell you the most important part we’re going to be doing a fire walk. And I remember thinking, oh hell, no, you know, I don’t even know what a fire walk is, I have no idea what it means, but I’m saying no, uh-uh, ain’t going to do it. But I’m not saying any of this to Dan, right, I’m kind of going along with Dan. I’m going yeah, sure, yeah, sounds interesting, and all right, dan, see you. Then I hang up the phone, I go nope, we’re not doing that. I want to see Tony. I got no problem with that, but you know, I’ll just go watch those people Back out.

Julie Hilsen: 25:18

You know you’ll go. I’m not doing that.

Dave Albin: 25:19

I’m just not. Fear is controlling everything in my life at this point. Anyway, julie, right, it’s just fear, fear, fear, fears. You know taking all kinds of things For me in my life. Well, the big day comes, and so there we go, and Tony takes the stage at two o’clock in the afternoon, and the next thing I know is after midnight. Yeah, I can relate, right, yeah, 10 hours I’ve been in a room that with 3500 other people, with Tony Robbins right, bring snacks. Right, remember that part Because you’ll starve to death, right.

Julie Hilsen: 25:54

So all of a sudden Tony goes right.

Dave Albin: 25:56

All of a sudden, tony goes, take your shoes off. And I’m like, oh no, I see where you’re going with that. Now You’re not going to trick me, I ain’t falling for that one. Well, the problem I’ve got. My dilemma is I’m in a room with 3500 people. Guess what they’re doing.

Julie Hilsen: 26:14

Taking their shoes off Right.

Dave Albin: 26:16

They’re taking their shoes off and I’m like people know, don’t fall for it. He’s tricking you. You know, don’t go towards the light.

Julie Hilsen: 26:24

And then meantime we do small groups and you guys probably rubbed each other’s backs and high fived a million times. So you’re buying with these people, I mean yeah, he’s got you doing all that.

Dave Albin: 26:36

Well then, as he’s getting ready to go out there. You know this. He gets you to start chanting and clapping. Right, You’re walking out there, going yes, yes, yes, and I’m walking out there going. no, I ain’t doing it, and so when it came time to take my shoes off, I got 3500 people taking their shoes off. What are you going to do, dave? What are you not going to take them off and go out there and everybody go hey, look at a guy over there, it won’t take his shoes off. You know he’s a coward. I’m like having this conversation with myself, going chill out, relax, just take your shoes off, and when you get out there, just go hide in the back. No one’s going to know. How’s anybody going to know, right? Well, other than me, I’m going to know. And so when you get out there, as you know, it gets worse. He’s got African drummers Right. Dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun dun. You’re walking out there clapping and the drums are going, and what? What a dog and pony show. This is right. Well, over in the corner of this giant parking lot, where you will facilitate a fire walk for 3500 people, there’s a giant fire. It’s huge, you know, it’s 35 feet wide and it’s 70 feet long. And they’ve been adding wood to this thing all day, several cords of wood, I don’t even know how many and and by the time it gets around the midnight, it’s rendered. So it’s got this big, giant, beautiful pile of coals. They’re gorgeous. There was a blue flame. I mean, it’s beautiful. So how do you fire walk 3500 people logistically? Well, you take wheelbarrows over to that big pit and you load the coals into wheelbarrows, and then you take a wheelbarrow and you pull it in and you put it in between two lanes of sod, of grass, and it’s three feet wide, 15, 18 feet long, and they just take a shovel, they sprinkle those coals on top of the grass and that’s what you walk on, right. Well, I’m having none of it. Where am I? All the way at the back I’m hiding out. Well, tony Robbins knows that this is probably one of the most life changing experiences any human will go through. The paradigm shift is there and he won’t, and he doesn’t want you to miss out on it. He also knows there’s people like me who are cowards and we’re hiding in the back. So what’s he do? He trains people to come find you and, sure enough, I’m hiding out in the back and all of a sudden, here comes this guy out of nowhere. He probably gets any any like. He locks eyes with me. I’m pretty sure Robbins teaches them hey, when you make eye contact with these people, don’t take your eyes off him, right. And so he’s looking at me, gets maybe 20 feet from me and he kind of looks at me with a funny look on this space and he’s twisting his head like a dog that hears a funny noise, right, and he says hey, man, are you okay? And when we’re not okay, what do we say? Oh, yeah, sure I’m good, yeah, I’m good man, Don’t worry, see her man Move along. Nothing to see here, pal.

Julie Hilsen: 29:46

Yeah, I’ll see you up there. I’ll be up there in a minute.

Dave Albin: 29:49

Yeah, yeah, right, I wouldn’t even say that. I was like, no, I’m, get away from me, right, I want nothing to do with you. And all of a sudden the guy goes hey man, are you going to walk tonight? And I’m like, absolutely not Like what. You didn’t get the memo. Are you kidding me? I want nothing to do with this. And then you know what’s interesting, julie, this is, this is a perfect stranger. I don’t know who this guy is to this day, but without him I wouldn’t have been part of fire walking. A half a million people, I certainly wouldn’t be on the life of joy and love podcast right right now. And this guy doesn’t even know. He has no idea, because the question he asked me was well, wouldn’t you at least like to watch? And I’m like yeah, yeah, I’m okay with that. Sure, let’s go watch these people burn their feet off. That’ll be entertaining. Yeah, let’s do that. Well, he says look, you can’t see anything from where you are. I’m 100 yards away. I can’t see anything. I can hear it. Right, they’re clapping, they’re chanting, the drums are going, people are already fire walking, they’re screaming and yelling in the celebration end of the fire walk. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever experienced in your life. But I can’t see anything. And so he says well, look, just get in line. Eventually you’ll get up there, you’ll be able to see it. And so you know, all right, he’s correct, he’s telling the truth. He’s not, you know, in his defense he’s absolutely telling the truth. So I did, I got in line and I’m kind of walking along, trudging along. People are screaming and yelling, they’re celebrating, their drums are going, people are clapping. I mean, it’s you know what? Again, what a dog and pony show. And all of a sudden this guy comes up to me and he whispers in my ear and he said he knows when you’re ready, when he says go, you go and pew. This guy just disappeared into the night. And I’m like what was that? What was that about? Who, who was that? And so now I’m kind of walking along, trudging along. I can’t see in front of me. I’ve got a thousand people in front of me, can’t see anything. Again, I can hear it. But I get to a point. I can see it at angle. And they’re doing it. Every race, every creed, every color. They’re fire walking. And so now my brain’s going why, why would they do that? You know, metaphorically, what’s going on here. This is insane. And now I’m mesmerized. I can’t take my eyes off it, right, I’m just like I’m in a trance and I’m staring at it, like you know. It’s like a car accident, right, you’re not supposed to look at it, but you won’t stop looking at it. Well, that’s kind of how I am. And I’m staring at this and I’m watching it, and I’m watching it and all of a sudden, boom, guess where? I am Front of the line. And all of a sudden I look down and that lane, it’s three feet wide, it’s 15, 18 feet long, and the coals are laying on that grass and they’re bright red. I mean, you can tell that they’re hot, right? Well, the wheelbarrow is right there too, and I could feel the heat coming off of that thing. Well, as I’m staring into the abyss here, there’s a trainer standing there, and all of a sudden the trainer goes eyes up. Oh, that’s right, oh, okay. And so now my eyes are up. Well, guess what Tony teaches you when you’re in the room for 10 hours? When you get out there, don’t stare at what you fear. Look to the celebration, and that’s where the gift is. And so I guess I’m a slow learner, 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 what he could tell? He could tell that I was not in a peak state. He could tell I was leaving a lot on the table and so he screamed at me stronger. And so now I’m like ticked off right and I threw my hands in the air and I said yes, and he goes, go, go, go. And I took off Right, remember, the guy comes up. He said he knows when you’re ready. When he says go, you go. I did. Well, tony stages two people at the end of the fire lane and they hold arms and they catch you and they and they, they yell in your ear stop, wipe your feet and celebrate. And so you know, I’m wiping my feet and I’m celebrating and all of a sudden it I realize I burnt myself really, really bad. And all of a sudden I look at my foot it’s dirty but there’s no burns. Oh, it’s my other foot, same thing it’s filthy, dirty, but there’s no burns. And so one of the first things I learned about fire walking when you take that first step, oh, you’ll take the second, third, fourth and fifth right, you don’t stop on the fire lane. Well, now I’m, you know, I’m celebrating. I’m down there with 3000 people, we’re all jumping up and down, and at that moment in my life I felt like I’d accomplished anything. I’m like where’s the bus? Let’s go to Everest, let’s go climb that bad boy. Right, and everybody’s just, it’s exhilarating, you know, right, it’s. It’s one of the most magical moments of my entire life Because, again, I felt, I just felt high that you know that my self worth, my self esteem, my self confidence had been leveled up, and so my frequency, along with everybody else, is just vibrant. But here’s where it got really interesting for me. What is the next day? Right, this is day one, this is a four day event. That was day one the night of. Now we’re on day two and I’m standing in the four year getting ready to go into the venue, which, I might add, I don’t. It didn’t seem to me that anybody was late that next morning. Interesting, right. So we’re all standing there and I’m watching them, julie, and I’m like what is going on? Look at this. I’m watching their people. They’re they’re hugging, they’re. They’re they’re laughing, they’re crying, they’re talking intensely. I mean they’re, they’re communicating humanistically, unlike anything I’ve ever seen or witnessed in my life, and I’ve never seen anything like it, other than a Tony Robbins seminar. It was just beautiful, it was magical, it was absolutely gorgeous. And so later, in the event, I met one of Tony’s trainers, a guy by the name of Ted Macy super, super sweet guy. In fact. Him and his wife, mary, were both trainers for Tony back in the day, and so I’m just talking to him and I made a comment. I was like man, this must be really awesome to be able to come back and be in this environment on a regular basis. And he goes. Oh, yeah, I get to come do this eight, 10 times a year and he goes. As a matter of fact, you see all those people standing over there with the black shirts and the pink riding on the back. Yeah, he goes. They’re all volunteers, man, they’re just like you. They came to the fire walk and now they want to come back and give back to the community. He said so. When you get home, just call Robbins research, tell them you’d like to get a volunteer crew application and who knows, let’s see what happens. Well, I did, and they sent me the application. I sent it back in and, like, nine weeks later, I get a letter in the mail and it says Dave Albin, congratulations, you’ve been selected to crew with the Anthony Robbins companies in Fort Lauderdale, florida. Well, guess what? My foot’s in the door. Well, when you fill out the application, it’s several pages long, so they know a lot about you and that helps them place you within that volunteer crew lineup. And I was living on a farm, so they’re like well, I bet he knows how to use a log splitter and he knows how to use tools and he could drive a tractor. Let’s put him on the fire team, which is exactly what I wanted. And then, because I had a military background and a security background, they added me to the security team to help take care of Tony celebrities. Well, but I’m a volunteer, right? So it’s costing me a couple thousand bucks every time I want to go to an event. I got to pay my airfare, I got to pay for my hotel, I got to pay all my travel expenses, my food, all of it. So I’m spending a couple thousand dollars every time I volunteer. Well, my wife at the time, she doesn’t know who Tony Robbins is, she hasn’t gone through the program. She doesn’t know a live event. All she knows is her husband spent in a couple thousand dollars every time he wants to go, and she’s kind of like over it. Well, so it was sometime in 1996, they offered me a subcontractors position. They said well, we’re going to put you on the security team, we’ll pay your airfare, your hotel, we’ll give you a per diem and we’ll cover all your costs. And I’m like okay, cool, I like my life. My wife will definitely like that, though I’m gone for four days at a time, which she didn’t necessarily like. But they gave me a free ticket. They caught me a ticket for UPW and so I said you know, here, stace, come with me, come to the event. And she did. And after she graduated, we were walking on the beach that night and she goes okay, I get it, I’m good, you want to go with this guy, you want to run with this Tony Robbins guy, you go after, I’m good, no problem. So this was all happening in 96 and 97. Then in 2003, we’re at date with Destiny in the Bahamas, and I got called into Tony’s office. He wanted to talk to me and the next thing I know I’m being offered the captain’s position he wanted me to take over all of his fireworks globally and I originally said I can’t. Well, what do you mean? You can’t, you can’t or you won’t? I tell Tony Robbins, no, it doesn’t go over.

Creating Paradigm Shifts and Life-Changing Experiences

Julie Hilsen: 39:49

Yeah, it’s going to say that’s like Hold it.

Dave Albin: 39:53

What’s going on, right? And I said well, you know, I homeschool my kids. I can’t do that. I can’t be away from them. I’m part of their education. And they’re like, oh okay, well, we kind of missed that. Well, what if we pay to have your kids go on the road with us and your wife? Would that make a difference? Well, you could Well. As fact it was funny is that there was a woman that worked for Tony inside the office and my wife got to know this person and they went on a retreat, a woman’s retreat, a goddess retreat, it was called. And so when I’m in being talking to Tony, she called my wife and said hey, listen, don’t tell David, I told you this, but he’s in talking to Tony right now and they’re offering him the captain’s position, so just expect a call from me. And and so after they talked to me, I said can I call home? And they said, of course. So I called home. And so now she’s telling my kids which at this point now I’ve got a son, that’s what? Nine years old. My daughter’s like, yeah, no, I think David was probably seven or eight at that point. Anyway, so I called home and he answers the phone because mom told him hey, your dad’s going to call because probably this job with Tony Robbins. And so he answers the phone. He’s like hello. I said hey, baby, how are you doing? He goes. I’m doing really good, dad. How are you doing Right? Because he knows what’s going on, right. And so I said well, hey, I just came out of a meeting and you know they want me to take over all of Tony’s fire walks and I’m just calling to see what you guys think about that. And Davey’s like you think, dad, and he goes. So where’s our first event? And I said Sydney, Australia.

Julie Hilsen: 41:36

Oh, my God.

Dave Albin: 41:36

Right, so there are my, there’s my home school kids and we’re on the road with Tony Robbins.

Julie Hilsen: 41:43

I’m not going to learn anything more than that in school, that’s for sure.

Dave Albin: 41:46

Traveling the world. Yeah, they did learn a little bit, that’s for sure. So that happened in 03 and 05. We went to London and we set the world record we fire walked 12,300 people, wow. And so that was a pretty magical, you know event. By the way, let me disclose that when I say a world record, guinness Book was not there. However, to my knowledge, there’s never been a firework of 12,300 people anywhere in the world. The only thing that would come in anywhere close to that would be another Tony Robbins seminar. So that all went down. That was in 05. And then in 2014, I’m driving down the road the next thing I know, my phone rings and it’s a company called Google and they wanna know are you the Dave Alvin that does the fire walks for Tony Robbins? Yes, I am. What can I do for you? And they said well, if you’re not under any contractual obligation or non-compete, we’d like to talk to you about hiring you to do something for us here at Google in Mountain View, California. I’m like well, homeboys are free agent, I can do whatever I want what you got going on. So they went on to tell me that they had a graduation and it was a nine month curriculum that these executives had gone through. There were 148 of them and they wanted to do a fire walk after lunch and after the graduation, in the middle of the day, and I said well, I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but I won’t do a fire walk in the middle of the day. I need to be able to see those coals and I can regulate them with hitting with a shovel. And what I’m telling you is it’s a safety issue and I won’t do it during the middle of the day. Tell you what we could do is that we could do a glass walk and they’re like glass walk, ooh, tell us about that. So we ended up scheduling the glass walk. I ended up doing two glass walks for Google and when I was there at lunch, we were sitting at a round table and it was about six of us, I think, sitting at the table and one of the executives, this gal. She starts talking to me and she said you know, I don’t know if you notice or not, but there’s a huge marketplace for you. It’s huge Because you’re creating a paradigm shift. This is like the ultimate corporate team building experience on earth, and that’s why we sought you out. And so I’m like okay. She said look, I’m not trying to tell you what to do, I’m just saying you might want to think about the opportunity. There is how she left it.

Julie Hilsen: 44:27

She put a seed there she put a little seed.

Dave Albin: 44:31

Yeah, she planted the seed and that’s when FireWalk Productions was born. And the next thing I know, you know, and obviously I had to go back to Tony and say, hey, after the event, hey, I need to talk to you. And I met with him at the end of the event and I said, you know I need to talk. And he goes, you’re leaving, aren’t you? And I said, tony, you don’t need me anymore. I’ve been with you for almost 20 years. There’s four or five people out there in that parking lot on that fire team that can do my job. You’re in good hands, You’re gonna be fine. And so we laughed and cried and talked about all the people and things that we had done and you know, being together at 9-11, and you know it was really a magical moment. And at the end, basically what he said to me with great wisdom comes great responsibility, make me proud. And then the next thing I know I’m at NASA. The next thing I know I’m at Notre Dame, virginia Tech, remax, chick-fil-a, heineken, microsoft, ymca, the EO organization, the entrepreneurs organization. I’m talking at high schools, at career days, you know. Again. The next thing I know I’m on the life of love and joy. You know podcast. So you know, I didn’t know. You just don’t know where you’re gonna end up.

Supporting and Empowering Change

Julie Hilsen: 45:55

You don’t know what insomnia at three o’clock in the morning, but you know making an impulse buy could lead you to.

Dave Albin: 46:05

Yeah. Or some guy coming up to you and saying, you know, hey, are you okay? No, yeah, no, I’m fine. Yeah, great, hey, you gonna walk tonight? No, yeah, wouldn’t you at least like to watch? Yeah, okay. And again, you know now my career with Tony and what I’ve done since, you know, leaving Tony’s organization in 2014,. We’ve walked a half a million people, and so you know my kids were really young. Their first fire walk, my daughter was six years old, my son was nine. We were in New York and I knew they wanted to walk, and so I put them with one of Tony’s trainers, vicki St George, and she spent like an hour with him, got him ready and then we did the fire walk that night. And once all the participants walked, they were standing right over there in the shadows, right, and so Tony knew where they were and he waved them over. And here comes my daughter, you know, six years old. No beer, you know, at six years old, right, and it was a beautiful moment.

Julie Hilsen: 47:11

It was.

Dave Albin: 47:16

Tony took her by the hand, I took her by the hand and we walked her and just such a beautiful moment. And then my son stepped up and he was about nine at the time and Tony said he goes, I love you and I love your daddy go. And Davey, you know he fire walked. And so, again, that’s when life, that’s when fire walk productions was born and all those other companies pursued. And you know, no pun intended, well, maybe a little, but we’ve been going hot and heavy every since.

Julie Hilsen: 47:52

Nice, oh, I’m I. Just my curiosity is dying here. I would love to know is there is there a difference between when you do like a Tony Robbins, like people who sign up for the conference, and when you go to big corporations, or is it everyone’s the same? When it gets to be the fire walk time?

Dave Albin: 48:20

Well, the experience in and of itself is pretty much the same. You know, you get people in a peak state and you prepare them and you get them across the fire. The one thing that I did at level the whole process up is I incorporated the board break with the fire walk. So what we do there, you know board breaks are used in dojos, in Marshall Art Studios, all over the country, right and so to move from a white belt to a yellow belt, they do a board break. They break it with their hand or their elbow or their knee or their foot or whatever. So what I did was I took the board break experience and I have them right on the board. So the first thing I have them right is something they want to move towards, and then I have them right on the back of the board something they need to move away from, and then I have them right Anybody’s name that they’re in conflict with. So, in other words, a forgiveness or reconciliation is part of that relationship. It ends tonight. Stop carrying that around with you. That’s just. You know what do they say when you’re mad at somebody? It’s like drinking poison. You know to try to kill the other person, but it’s very true. And then to create the right of passage, I have them write any buddy’s name on the board that they’ve lost. So then we go outside, we have the stations set up for the board break. They break the board. We get everybody to cheer everybody else on when they’re doing it, screaming and yelling. I make them act like kids and cheer, you know, everybody on with the board break. And then we do the fire walk and then they come back and they add their board to the fire and we get all that on video and we get, you know, pictures. So they have that. And then I do what’s called the hard hug. And so what we do there is I put everybody in a circle up to the fire walk and I have them look across the circle and make eye contact with somebody and then, once you’ve made eye contact, go over to that person and stand about two feet in front of them and then I have them embrace, I have them hug, and I have them hug the opposite way that we normally do, in other words, so my heart would be on your heart, right. And then I have them close, their eyes relaxed, and I have them take a nice deep, cleansing breath in and hold it, and then I have them exhale, and I have them do that three times, and when they’re going into or coming out of that third diaphramic breath, something really magical happens. Their hearts calibrate. They start beating at the same time, and then after that I have them step back and I have them say some things it’s not really proprietary, but I’m the only one out there that has devised this and created this part and then I’ll have them do that maybe five or six times so that I can get pretty much everybody’s heart to calibrate at the same time. So that creates what I truly say all the time definitely one of the most life-changing paradigm shift, magical experiences any human will ever go through. I in fact just last week.

Julie Hilsen: 51:39

I mean yeah, yeah.

Dave Albin: 51:43

Well it’s, it’s a tribal ceremony.

Julie Hilsen: 51:47

It’s a tribal ceremony and it’s bonding. And then you know there’s so many spiritual things going on with the, with the hearts connecting. When you’re in that that bonded endorphin state, and then you connect with another being, with the heart I mean to me, you’re opening up portals of light, like I don’t know if you’ve ever thought of that, but that ceremony and putting hearts together and unconditional love and acceptance is, it’s huge and our world needs it. And I can only imagine, like if a family had a tragedy or you know, there’s some things that just need to be forgiven and moved on, and and what you described is would be quite a healing thing, and even if someone couldn’t do a fire walk, just going through those motions of forgiveness and and where you want to be and where you’ve been, oh, it’s just beautiful. It’s beautiful.

Dave Albin: 52:47

Well, one of the. I just came back from MIT in Boston, I’ve done a couple of gigs up there and we just did a gig for a really awesome company called COO Alliance. And basically who these guys are, they deal with the second in command of companies, right? So the CFO or the COO? They don’t deal with CEOs the only deal in the second in command. So we had 60 plus of them and I can just tell you you know it was unbelievable. These guys had a great time, it was magical, they played full out and you know, then when I said good night, I lost count how many of them came up to me and said I need your card. Yeah, we need this, we don’t get to play.

Julie Hilsen: 53:31

We don’t get to be in that state and and rights of passage have been, have been totally minimized. We’re so busy producing, we don’t have rights of passage and we don’t connect to our hearts enough.

Dave Albin: 53:46

So it’s I just wanted to have a call from one of them. I had a call. He immediately came up to me after because I’m hiring you. We got an event coming up in February. We want to do this. I got 125 people I’m bringing into right outside of Dallas and you know I called him. We had a conversation this morning, Right? So they’re you know, they want to book it for February 29th and I said, well, it’s interesting about that. That’s leap year and that’s the year Tony Robbins was born. Tony was born on leap year, so it was kind of hilarious. Well, it’s a legacy. But you made a really great point in distinction about the right of passage. We don’t do that for kids anymore. No, no, we beat them up in school.

Julie Hilsen: 54:30

They’re getting their butts kicked, yeah, and we get it a ploma, and then we expect them to go and get higher education and then and then they’re supposed to have an mortgage. And you know, it’s like at some point we have to stop and say what you know, celebrate, celebrate where we are. And in that beautiful moment with your children, you’re going to laugh. And I have a friend we like to go hiking and we get weird to like, well, hug trees. And you know, we just we get weird and we’re leaving. I was leaving to meet her. I was running late and I was like no, I got to go get my drum and I grabbed my drum and was sitting next to my piano and I’m like we’re going to drum because life’s been crappy for her lately. Drum circles and we’re just going to drum and it’s so funny because we’re at the base of this mountain near my house and we’re just drumming and singing and and like the world lit up around us and I think it’s okay to be weird, like we need permission.

Dave Albin: 55:22

You know what? Let me tell you what I find weird that we even even think that that’s weird, because to me it’s not weird at all. You’re connecting with vibration, you’re connecting with frequency. You’re out there within the energy. We know, we know grounding works. Take your shoes off, go, stand on the earth. Let it pull the negative ions out of your body. In fact, you know what I just bought? It’s a it’s sheets and pillowcases that plug into a wall socket. They plug into the and not into the positive and negative, but they plug into the ground. And so your sheets and your pillowcases, you sleep on them and you’re being grounded while you sleep. Wow, I just ordered them before I went to MIT, so they should be, should be here anytime.

Julie Hilsen: 56:16

You’ll have to let me know, because I started the silver, the silver infused sheets, and I’ve always been curious about the silver, but I’ve never heard of the clodial silver.

Dave Albin: 56:27

Yeah, yeah, clodial silver is good stuff, no question about it.

Julie Hilsen: 56:30

Oh, my gosh. We’re to the end of our time and I promised I’d watch it for us, but thank you so much for sharing this time and I just I say this quite a bit, but I truly mean it I can’t wait to get this out and share it and for your kids to listen, and future grandkids, and absolutely, really excited, really excited for this and thank you for shining the light in your way and it takes. It takes a village for all of us to help elevate and change things. And we’re on our way 100%, absolutely Thanks. And you know, continue to be on fire. I’ll be cheering for you.

Dave Albin: 57:14

We’ll keep the fire. We’ll keep the fire burning for you and all we want to come into the environment.

Julie Hilsen: 57:19

Yeah, light it up, light it up.

Dave Albin: 57:21

Well, light it up Light it up.

Julie Hilsen: 57:23

All right, all the best to you, dave. Thank you so much.

Dave Albin: 57:26

You’re welcome. Thanks, Julie. Thanks for watching the show.