Thomas Green here with ethical marketing service on the episode. Today we have Dave Albin. Dave. Welcome. Hey Thomas dude. Thank you. Thanks for having me, man. It’s always an honor. It is my pleasure. Would you like to take a moment and tell the audience a bit about yourself and what you do? Sure. Um Well, for, you know, uh many, many years, I’ve been immersed in the personal development industry. Um II, I took a very interesting path to get here. Uh Sometimes when I get asked, I, I jokingly say, um you know, bugs bunny would say what happened? How did you get here? I say, well, I took, I took that left hand turn at Albuquerque. Um So I got here years ago. Um I, I literally um gosh, where do I start? In 1995? I went to a Tony Robbins seminar. Now, I can’t assume everybody knows who’s Tony Robbins is. Uh but he’s pretty well known in the, in the motivational world.
Uh most business owners, entrepreneurs, uh executives, CEO S they know who Tony Robbins is. Again, really famous guy. And so uh a friend of mine called me on the phone and said Tony was coming to town. Do you wanna go? And I said sure. And, um, the next thing I know he’s calling me on the phone and telling me, you know, what we, what we need to do to get ready for the event, drink a lot of water and bring snacks and because you’re gonna spend a lot of time in the room and I laugh because that’s an understatement. Anybody who’s ever been to a Robin’s Event knows that you are going to spend a lot of time in the room. And I, and what I mean by that too is that it’s like you don’t even want to go to the bathroom right when he’s on stage and he’s delivering content and he’s in a groove and you, you don’t want to miss a word. And uh then they also said, bring a good attitude and be ready to play full out. Well, just as he’s getting ready to get off the phone, he goes, oh, by the way, I almost forgot, man, we’re gonna be doing a fire walk and, and here’s what my brain said. Hell no. Now here’s what’s interesting about that moment. I don’t know what a fire walk means. I have no references for that and I’m sure some of your audience doesn’t know what a fire walk is.
However, the word fire and the word walk in the same sentence didn’t sound like anything I wanted to be doing. So I was just like, no, I ain’t doing it. However, I’m not saying anything to my buddy. Right. I don’t want him to think. I’m missing out. I’m just kind of going along with it. I’m being subservient. Going. Yeah. Damn sure. Fire walk. Yeah. Sounds great. Got off the phone and said, no, I ain’t doing that. I wanna see Tony, but I’m not doing this firewalker thing. So, uh, the big day comes and uh, Tony F stays at two o’clock in the afternoon and I’m in a room with 3500 people. So it’s a pretty good crowd and 10 hours later, literally after midnight, Tony goes take your shoes off. I’m like, oh no, I see where you’re going with that pal. You’re not tricking me, man. And uh but I got a problem, my buddy that I’m with taking his shoes off. 3500 people, guess what they’re doing. They’re taking their damn shoes off. And I’m like, you gotta be kidding people. You follow for it don’t be so stupid, you know. Um And so it gets worse because when he gets you going out there, he gets everybody to start clapping and chanting, right?
So now you got 3500 people walking out into this huge parking lot where this fire walk is gonna take place and fire walking, meaning you’re gonna walk across hot coals, right? And he’s got them chanting and clapping. So they’re going. Yes. Yes. All walking out there And of course I’m walking out there going no, uh, uh, ain’t doing it. Sorry. It ain’t gonna happen. Now, my plan is when I get out there, I’m gonna ditch my buddy and I’m gonna go hide in the back because by this time I know what’s going on, right? 10 hours. I know. Ok, it’s a fire walk. You’re gonna be walking on hot coals. Oh, hell no. So that’s my plan. I’ll ditch my buddy. Go hide in the back. Nobody’s gonna know. Well, when you get out there, it’s even worse because Tony’s got African drummers. So it’s du du du, du du du du du du and, and how they set this up, Thomas is over in the corner. They built a giant fire and what I mean, giant. It’s huge. It’s, they build a pit and it’s about 35 ft wide and it’s every bit of 70 ft long and all they do all day is just keep adding wood to it cord after cord, after cord of hardwood, seasoned hardwood like oak and hickory.
And so after 10 hours of this, it renders and so how do you walk? 3500 people? Well, you put a whole bunch of wheelbarrows together and you take them over to that pit and you load the coals in a wheel barrel, then you bring a wheel barrel in between two lanes of sod of grass and that lane, it’s called the fire lane. It’s about 3 ft wide, 18 appro approximately 18 ft long. And they just take a flathead shovel and they Sprinkle those coals on that grass and they pat it down. That’s what you walk on. Well, again, as I said earlier, I’m having none of it. I’m already in the back. I’m hiding out. I got it all figured out. No, I don’t. Tony, why did Tony Robbins bring fire walking into his events? Well, because it’s probably the most life changing experience any human will, will go through. Period. He also knows that if he doesn’t get you across the fire, the paradigm shift is not gonna happen. So he doesn’t want you to miss out. He also knows there’s people like me that are hiding in the back. So what’s he do? He trains people to come find your ass. Literally, I’m back there. Figure that I, I don’t, I got it all figured out.
Right. Next thing I know here comes, this guy comes out of nowhere makes eye contact with me. Won’t take his eyes off me. Hm. Interesting. I wonder if he was taught to do that. He gets Thomas, he gets 20 ft from me and he looks at me kind of weird like there’s something wrong with me, right? Like a dog that hears a funny noise kind of tip tilting his head and he’s like, hey man, are, are you OK? No, of course, I’m not. But I’m not gonna say that I lie like everybody else, right? I’m like, yeah. No, I’m fine, man. Nothing to see here. Pal move along. Well, he doesn’t wait. He goes right for the kill shot, man. He goes, he goes, hey, man, are you gonna walk tonight? And I’m like, absolutely not. It’s like you idiot. What do you think? I’m hiding in the back for? Well, he’s like, and I sent it to him, you know, with some voice inflection and he’s like, hey, man, it’s cool. No problem. Listen, man, we don’t want you to do anything you don’t want to do. And I went, wow, ok. This guy is gonna get me out of here. No, he’s not. He’s tricking me because the next question he asked me was. And by the way, I don’t know who this guy is to this day, I have no idea.
I wish I did that, man right there. Changed my life with one question and he’s the guy that helped me break through this fear. And I’ve, you know, I fire walked tens of thousands of people. I mean, we’ve walked everybody from Oprah to Usher and Pitbull and, you know, and Chuck Liddell and, you know, I can go on and on and on and on and on. Tens of thousands of people over the years and without him, I’m not there. And the question he asked me was, wouldn’t you at least like to watch? And I thought, well, sure. Yeah, I’ll watch what’s, what harm can come of that. Let’s, yeah, let’s go watch these people burn their feet off. And so he goes, hey, man, you can’t see anything from back here and he’s telling the truth, I’m 100 yards away. I got 3500 people standing in front of me. I can’t see anything. I can hear it. I can see that big fire. Um, I can hear the drums. I can hear them chanting. They’re already fire walking. And when they get to the celebration and after they complete, they’re acting like kids at Christmas, they’re jumping up and down and screaming. I mean, you know, it, it’s a dog and pony show, Thomas. That’s all I can tell you.
And I’ve never seen or witnessed anything like it other than a Tony Robbins Firewalker seminar. So II, I took the bait. I’m like, OK, I’ll go stand in line, I’ll, I’ll work through all these people and he goes, eventually you’ll get up there, you’ll be able to see it. Well, as I’m in the line now and I’m kind of walking along. Another guy comes up to me, another stranger and he whispers in my ear and he goes, he knows when you’re ready when he says go, you go and poo this guy disappeared into the night. And I’m like, dude, what do you mean? What do you mean? He knows when you’re ready when he says go, you go, what does that even mean. And so, so now I’m walking along and I get to a point, I still got 1000 people in front of me. I get to a point where I can see at an angle I can’t see in front of me, but I can see it at an angle and they’re doing it. They are walking on hot coals and I, and my brain’s going, what’s wrong with these people. We’re mammals. We’re taught to run from fire, not walk on it. And so now I’m mesmerized. Can’t take my eyes off. It’s like a car wreck. You’re staring at it and I’m just staring and I’m walking, I’m walking and boom. The next thing I know, guess where I am, I’m at the front of the line.
Right. And it’s like, how the hell did you get here? And so now I’m looking down at that fire lane right again. It’s about 3 ft wide, 18 ft long. And the coals are on top of it and they’re bright red. They’re glowing bright red. It’s not a question. Oh, are they hot? Are you kidding me? Of course they are. They’re probably close to 1000 degrees. Well, and the wheelbarrows there, so you can feel the heat coming up. So, and, and, and I tell you, man, my heart’s pumping. It’s, I mean, it’s ready to jump out of my chest any moment. I’m scared to death. Well, there’s a trainer standing right there, there’s one on every lane and all of a sudden the trainer goes eyes up like, 00, that’s right. Ok. Yeah, I was in a room with Tony for 10 hours. What did he teach us to do? Keep our eyes up? Ok. Got it. And all of a sudden this trainer goes, squeeze your fist and say yes. And I went, yes. And he went stronger and I went, yes. Well, he could tell I wasn’t in a peach state. I was leaving a lot on the table when he knew it. So he wants you in a peak state. So does the fire, I can tell you. And so he screamed at me. He’s like stronger. I threw my hands in the air and I said yes.
And he goes, go, go, go boo, I took off. Remember the guy? He knows when you’re ready. When he says go, you go. I did talk about a setup. Well, here’s the first thing I learned about fire walking Thomas when you take the first step. Oh, you’ll take the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. I promise you, you’re not gonna stop on that fire lane, right? Well, they have a couple of guys at the end. They catch it and they’re like, stop wipe your feet and celebrate. And I’m wiping my feet and I’m celebrating and I’m looking back, I just walked on coals that are 1000 degrees for a minute. I even thought I burnt myself which I did. Not both feet. No burns, nothing. And now I’m sitting there and I’m celebrating like a little kid. It’s exhilarating. It’s like you can, you can accomplish anything in that moment or so, that’s what you believe. Right. It’s like, where’s the bus people? Let’s go climb Mount Everest. Let’s go. Well, when you’re in the celebration in, with 3500 people, you’re all kind of going through the same thing, your self worth, your self confidence, your self belief just got raised and it’s collective. So you’re celebrating it together as a unit.
Very interesting dynamic, right? It’s why Tony does it on day one because this is a four day event. Upw unleash the power within is a four day event. This is the day one that night. I’ll tell you where it gets really interesting and how I came forward with all this was the next day. So we come in, it’s day two, we’re in the foyer. We’re getting ready to go into the venue and I’ve never seen or witnessed anything like it in my life. 3500 people. And we were getting along like we had known each other our entire lives. People are hugging, they’re laughing, some of them are singing. They’re, they’re connecting at a humanistic level, unlike anything I’d ever witnessed, including sports. And I was like, are you kidding me? Did we drink the Kool Aid last night? Yeah, we sure did. Absolutely. We did and so it’s, I, I kind of reference it sometime. It’s kind of like a near death experience that you would, that you would, that you, you know, you experience with somebody else and how that connects you, you know, emotionally. And so, and that’s where Tony wants the man.
He’s got him. He knows because if you can walk on coals at 1000 degrees, he’s gonna ask you straight up. What else can you do? How many of you did not want to do it last night? But you did it and that’s the key getting you step out of your comfort zone, right? So later in the event, I met one of Tony’s trainers. Super beautiful dude, man. His name is Ted Macy. Him and his wife Mary were both trainers for Tony. So I’m talking to him and I just kind of said off the cuff. So it must be really awesome to be in this environment on a regular basis, especially after what I’ve been experiencing. He goes, oh yeah, he goes, I’m here several times a year. He says I’ll tell you what you see those people standing over there with those black shirts with the pink writing on the back. Yeah, dude, they’re volunteers. They’re just like you, they came to an event, loved it and now they come back and they volunteer their time because we use about 350 volunteers for a big event like this. And so he goes. Look, here’s what you do, go home and call Robin’s research. Tell him you want an application for a volunteer group person and they’ll send it to you.
Well, I did nine, like, nine weeks later after I did that, I got a letter in the mail and it said Dave Alvin, congratulations. You’ve been selected the crew at the Anthony Robbins companies. Well, color my ass happy there. I am. I’m in, I, I’m, you know, I’m there and it, it, it, it escalated quickly. Uh First of all, they, they look at the application pretty carefully. Thomas and I had a security background and a military background. So they went, hey, we could put him on the security detail and he can help take care of Tony’s celebrities. Ok. They did that I could do a podcast on that alone. Talk about some interesting times with some interesting people for sure. Um, and I, I lived on a farm so I knew how to run a log splitter. I knew how to make kindling. I know how to use an ax. I know what hardwood is. I know what the difference between hickory and oak and all that. Right. So they put him on the fire team. Well, that’s right where I wanted to be. And so that all happened in like 95 and 96 they may be a subcontractor in 96.
And, uh, and, and, and prior to that, if you wanted to go to an event. You were a volunteer, you had to pay your way, you had to pay your airfare, you had to pay your hotel, you had to pay all that. Well, my wife at the time didn’t like that. Right. Because I’m spending 1500 bucks every time I’m going to a Tony Robbins seminar and I did like five or six of them. And she’s like, you know, who the hell is Tony Robbins? Because she’s got no references. She’s never been there. She’s not really into the personal development industry like I was at the time, so she wasn’t happy. Well, they did something really smart. They gave me a free ticket once I became a subcontractor. So I took her and uh after she graduated, we were walking on the beach, I’ll never forget. She looked at me and she goes, all right, I get it. Go run with this guy. I drank the kool aid. This guy is pretty amazing if you wanna, if you wanna hang with this guy and as long as he’s gonna pay for it, we don’t have to take money out of our savings account, run with this dude. And I did so that again that all happened 95 96 2003. My life forever changed. Um uh Tony Robbins offered me the fire captain position, which meant that I would take over all of Tony’s fire walks globally.
Um And because I was homeschooling at the time, he even agreed uh to pay for my family because my kids, you know, homeschool. So he’s like, yeah, let’s bring them on the road. So my daughter at the time was six, my son was seven and their first event with their dad and Tony Robbins was in Sydney, Australia. So, yeah, my kids have been pretty badly abused. Um That was in 0305. We set the world record. We went to London, we went to the Docklands at the Cell center. We fire walked 12,300 people. Now I say world record, let me be very clear about something. Uh Dennis Booker, world record was not there. However, that’s the biggest fire walk in our planet’s history and the only fire walk that comes anywhere close to that is another Tony Robbins seminar at like, you know, 10 grand or 9000 people. So that happened in 05 and then in 2014, what got me here on your podcast? I’m driving down the road. My phone rings. It’s Google. Are you? This is Dave Alvin.
Yes. Are you the Dave Alvin that does the fire walks for Tony Robbins. Yes. What can I do for you? They said, well, if you’re not under any contractual obligation or non-compete, we’d like to talk to you about hiring you. Ok. Well, homeboy is a free agent. What you got. They said, well, we’ve got an event uh in mountain view for 100 and 48 executives. And we’d like you to come do a fire walk. When’s it gonna be, what’s gonna be in the middle of the day? After lunch? I said I can’t do it in the middle of the day. You’re gonna have to do it at night or I can’t do it. It’s a safety issue. They said, oh, ok. I go, however, if you want to create the paradigm shift, which I’m guessing that’s why you’re calling me. Um We could do a glass walk. They said a glass walk. You mean you, you’re saying, walking on broken glass, it’s exactly what I’m saying. They said, oh, tell us about that. So, yeah, there we were, I did my first glass walk uh with Google, you know, in 2014, went back the next year and did it again. And when I was at Google, I spent some time with one of the executives. And she basically said to me, she said, Dave, look, I, I don’t know if you realize the position you’re in corporate America will eat you alive.
And here’s why they want someone that can come in and create this unbelievable magical paradigm shift experience. And dude, you’re at the top of your game. So I’m not telling you what to do, but you may want to think about starting your own company. And I went, OK. Well, if Google is telling me that I could create some of the top corporate team building experiences in America. Maybe I should listen to them and I did so. Fire Walk Productions was born in 2014 and she was right man. Because right after Google, I went to NASA, then I went to Notre Dame and then Virginia Tech and then Microsoft and Heineken and Remax and Chick Fil A and Y MC A. And you know, the next thing I know I’m with Thomas Green on his podcast, right? So he hit the big leagues. So since 2000 and you know, in 2014, man, when we started Fire Walk productions, uh pun intended, man, we’ve been going hot and heavy ever since. Well, congratulations. And um it’s great to hear the, the story.
I think you’re a great storyteller. Um And I was quite happy to listen. So thank you for the introduction. There’s a couple of things that I wanted to follow up on. Um And I think you, you did cover it partially in your answer. Um But for those who, let’s say they haven’t been exposed to the concept of a fire walk before. Uh and perhaps they’re not in that environment where they get uh the pump up for lack of a better term. Why would someone want to do it? Yeah. Right. Exactly. What the, what’s wrong with you? Well, if we, if we go back in history, say 1000 years, fire walking has been around a long time over 1000 years and it’s been used by cultures all over the world. Uh The Pitts, for example, they’re unbelievable with their fire walking and fire handling, fire twirling and all these things. Uh The fire walk experience also has been, you know, used by like the people of India. Unbelievable. They use it for a rite of passage. In other words. So before a boy becomes a man, before uh uh a girl becomes a woman, a wedding, the birth of a child, any type of graduation celebration, uh you know, marriages, all kinds of things, fire walking is used for a rite of passage.
And, and, and again, it just doesn’t stop there. The people of Port Portugal, the Spaniards, the indo-european, the indo-european the night before the men would go into battle, the women would build the fire, bless it and they, when I say bless it, they use different things to bless it. They use sage, they use lavender, they use tobacco, they use corn meal, they use all kinds of different things to set up the ceremonial side of the bar up. So the women would build it, the men would walk and then they had to walk for them to be able to go into battle that next day. Uh The native American Indians, the Polynesians, the Hawaiians, literally, it’s all over. So here’s what we know, right? Most corporate America business owners, CEO S uh that we all know what doesn’t challenge you doesn’t change you, you’re not gonna just sit in a seminar and somebody get up on the, stick up on the stage and talk you into a new way of living.
You can’t, that’s not the way it works. You’ve gotta get up, you’ve got to, you’ve got to engage, you have to bring your physiology and your human emotion together at the same time. That’s what reprograms your brain. And so Tony knew that he knew that the fire walk was an unbelievable experience and that’s why he brought it into, you know, his, his events, uh Tar Becker, the man that wrote the book of the Millionaire Mindset, same thing, Wayne Dyer. There’s a lot of, lot of people out there that know and understand that that fire walk experience is life changing. Uh It is and how do I know that? Because I’ve seen tens of thousands of people. I know I’m standing there looking into their eyes before they walk and they’re scared to death. Your brain is going. No, no. Right. And so, you know, the fears we don’t overcome Thomas, I know you know, this, the fears we don’t overcome become our limits. And so if you don’t learn to deal with fear, it’s gonna deal with you, period. And almost everything we do in life is influenced by fear.
So wouldn’t, it doesn’t make sense to be able to take fear and go turn, excuse my French, but turn it into your bitch. So that, you know, when you come up on things and fears trying to stop you, fear is a liar. It’s trying to take away from you. It’s trying to keep you, you know, in mediocre land if you will, right? Because again, we know this, everything we’ve ever wanted is sitting right over there on the other side of your comfort zone. So you have to break through that. A Navy seal doesn’t become a Navy Seal by sitting in a classroom. I mean, that’s part of it. But now where you become a Navy Seals, when they take you out during hell, we can put you in the ocean off the coast of San at Opry in that cold water. And then it’s three o’clock in the morning and then they tell you, oh, by the way, there’s nine different types of killer sharks in this water. Have a nice time. So, and we know that it’s training, it’s physical, it’s emotional. And so again, Robbins knew that and I did too because I watched it and when you watch somebody, they’re scared to death and then four seconds later they’re jumping up and down and celebrate, celebrating like a little kid.
And you witness that thousands and thousands of times I know. Have you gotten any feedback from people, um, who you’ve had, do the fire walk and how it’s impacted their lives? Oh, gosh. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, uh, and that’s one of my favorite parts. Um, years ago, uh, there was a gentleman who came to one of the fire walks and, uh, he thought he was a screenwriter. He wanted to write a play and his family said no, it ain’t gonna happen. You’re not smart enough. You’re not in the in crowd. You’re not part of Hollywood. It’s not gonna happen. That’s not the way it works. Well, how many of you have ever wanted to do something in your family? Try to beat you down, huh? Sound familiar, of course. So he came to the fire walk, spent the weekend did upw went home and wrote Sleepless in Seattle. So, you know, I, I remember a young man one time came, he was a Colles athlete in South Florida got hit by a drunk driver, lost both legs. So his whole life in a second was over because he can’t run anymore.
He’s not, you know what I mean? His whole career, he was gonna, he probably would have went on to play pro football or pro baseball, but he was that good. And so now he’s lost both legs. So now he doesn’t want to get married. He might have kids. You know, he’s, he’s, he’s, he’s stacking on top of himself. How bad and how worthless he is. Well, he’s contemplating suicide. Well, one of his buddies said, hey, Tony Robbins is coming to town. We know you like Tony. Why don’t you go see him before? You make a permanent decision about something and he did and that kid came to that fire walk and when I was out there with Tony and we’re doing our thing and 1000 people all of a sudden here comes this kid in a wheelchair and I’m like, what? And, and Tony looked at me and I looked at him and he positioned his wheelchair. He had a lot of upper body strength. He was an athlete, right? I think he was a gymnast as well. Must have been because he positioned his dorso kind of moved it up in that wheelchair and he had kind of a turbo wheelchair if you will, probably made out of alloys. And uh he, he positioned his torso and I, and the next thing I know Thomas, he flipped himself forward, he landed on his hands and he started walking across the fire on his hands.
Um I’ve gotten feedback from companies that says, you know, ever since the fire walk, our production has skyrocketed, our people are getting along. They’re not, there’s not the dissension and, and here’s what we know, right. I, I don’t think this is much of a stretch for people to understand. On March of 2020 everybody got shredded companies got shredded because, you know, we got divided. So, you know, people started arguing about masks and vaccines and I love Donald Trump. I hate Donald Trump. I mean, it just went on and on and on it’s like, shut up already because within a company, if people are arguing like that and they create dissension, production drops like a rock and CEO s know that. Well, if they don’t fix it, guess what’s gonna happen, they’re gonna find a CEO who will. And so that’s where we come in. Right. We know it’s life changing period. Um, and if you allow yourself to, to make it a big deal, it’s even a bigger deal because here’s what we know every single thing that happens to us in life.
I don’t care how good it is. I don’t care how bad it is. We make up a story about whatever happened and we’re the architect, we can either create an empowering story or a victim story, right? Because again, that’s we ha we all do it. Uh You know, and I think Victor Frankl gave us the greatest example of that, that he wrote the book, Man Search For Meaning. If you don’t know who Victor Frankel is in that book, I highly encourage you to read his book. It’s not a fun book. It’s a, it’s, it’s a really, really hard read. And the reason is is because Victor went to Auschwitz and, and, and he documented that and they took everything away from him just like everyone else that went to Auschwitz. You know, no clothes, you’re naked, it’s cold, you’re standing outside with other men and women, they’re torturing you, they’re screaming at you and every single second that you’re alive there, you don’t know if that’s gonna be your day that you go to the chamber. Imagine what that would be like. You know, you don’t have a, a warm place to sleep, no food and they strip you of everything except one thing and Victor figured that out and that was his attitude.
He had to give it up, he had to relinquish it. The other thing he realized is that if he didn’t create a purpose, he was probably gonna die just like the rest of them. And so he said, someone has to get out of here and tell this story. So when his purpose became so big, he figured out a way how to stay alive. Same thing with life as I believe this. Thomas, the two most important times in your life is the moment you’re born and the moment you figure out why, you know, and, and my purpose has just risen re recently because of podcasting because of people like you who do all the work is hosting and bringing people so that you can share knowledge and wisdom and, and ideas and concepts and beliefs, you know, with, with your audience a couple of months ago, I’m on a podcast and we recorded and after we were done, we were just talking sidebar and she said, the, the host Natalia said, so David, let me ask you something. Have, have you ever done a fire walk for veterans. And I said, you mean, like specifically? And she said, yeah. And I go, no, why she goes da, we have a, we have 200 we have 200 vets.
She goes, I don’t know if you notice or not, but there’s a real high suicide rate. I go, yeah, I, you know, the number I hear is 22 a day. She goes, no, not even close. That’s only if they leave a note and heck, only 30% leave a note. It’s more like 45 to 50 a day. Men and women are taking their lives and we believe that you could take your fire walk experience and your experience in the personal development industry and have a really shot at saving their life because we just talked about purpose. So all you’d have to do is reinstall purpose. Why does a vet take their life? They get deployed, they go to basic training, they learn how to kill, they get deployed, they get over there and they’re in war and let’s face it. That’s about as ugly as it gets. And, and they see their friends getting blown to pieces, but they have to move together as a unit, right? To keep themselves alive. So there’s a purpose, a really strong purpose. And then one day they know it’s coming, they go home and all of that goes away, all that connectivity, all that camaraderie because they’re shredded, right? That those men and women are now all over the country.
And so depression sets in purpose drops, depression sets in next thing, you know, guess what they’re doing, they’re reaching for something to help deal with the depression, whether it’s drugs or alcohol. Next thing you know, we lose them. So, when I talked to Natalia that night, I said, hey, listen, I’m in, you know, I’m definitely interested. Uh I’m a vet, my dad that raised me is a, is a vet highly decorated in World War Two, a military officer career. I, you know, I grew up during the Vietnam era. So, you know, I had a lot of friends and family that were military. So I said, I’m in, give me a couple of days to think about it. Well, I went to bed that night and I woke up and it was as clear as I’m talking to you right now. The next thought I had was operation, do no harm. And when I thought about it, I thought there’s four categories of people where suicide is high. Obviously, number one vets, number two, first responders, uh specifically firefighters because you know what they do every day when there’s an accident.
Who do you think shows up? Who do you think has to clean it up and deal with all that? Um And then when they retire, it’s kind of the same thing right now, they’re away from all their buddies and every day your purpose was to go pull people out of cars and, you know, do CPR and save people’s lives. Right. So that kind of goes away. Uh The other category is single moms. Now I was born to a single mom. So that’s a real, real soft spot in my heart. Single moms have it really hard. And then the other category, the fourth category is Children who’ve been abused and neglect. So we went forward. Um, we actually, we created operation do no harm. Uh We’ve got our first event scheduled for April 12th and the 13th in a place called Modesto California, which is right in the middle of the state. And Kudos to the uh not a rotary club there who’s sponsoring it. Ed, uh Ed Park Cott uh is the president of that and he’s the one that organized it. I was on his podcast and we got to talk about it and he said, Dave, we’ll sponsor you come.
Well, I’ve got four big companies coming to be there to watch, observe and see at what level they want to get involved. They’re bringing a production company. Um You know, they probably the one company is probably dumping 20 $25,000 just in bringing the production company to come film this and create. They want it to go viral. We want it to go viral and that’s the way you do it. So though corporate America Thomas has been really, really good to me, you know, all those companies I mentioned, they great. They hire me. Well, now I can do it both ways. I can say a company can come to me. And I’m gonna say, listen, you got an option here if you wanna donate, which makes it a tax write off to operation. Do no harm, operation do no harm. Will hire fire Walk productions and we’ll come in and put on the event in your city. Uh We’ll do up to 300 vets. We’ll do all the work, we’ll do all the heavy lifting and your brand gets the recognition. So it’s a win win. Just crazy win for corporate America. And we’ll, you know, we’ll go on tour and we’ll start doing this all over, all over America and they just pick, you know, pick what category you want.
Depends on the company, right? Like if a company builds playstations, right? For kids, they might want to support, they might want to sponsor one for single moms, uh or, or the kids, right? So we think we’ve got a category there for just about everybody because let’s face it. Everybody that’s listening that’s ever gonna listen to me and us. They know a vet, a first responder, a single mom or a kid that’s probably been abused. So, you know, we’ve got a category and a situation uh that they can help and again make their brand look really, really good. And at the same time, not just to the community will, they look good but their people can get involved. So now they’re working for a company and they get to say, hey, guess what my company did, you know, we, we just saved 300 veterans or 301st responders or moms or whatever it is. So, again, it’s a really, really beautiful thing and it took me three decades to get here and it’s pretty clear what my mission and what my uh what my objective is, you know, going forward.
I think that’s amazing. And uh it’s, it’s lovely to hear. And uh if I can be of any help in that regard, I’d, I’d love to help. Um even if that means just introducing you to someone because I’ve met a fair number of people who uh who meet that criteria. Um So, yeah, I guess I’d just say thank you for doing it. Yeah. Well, well, thank you because you know what, at the end of the day, Thomas without host like you, it’s gonna be hard to get my message, me, message uh and mission out there in front of people. So they for consideration because you guys do all the work. You’re a host, man. I don’t think people realize how hard podcasting is. Uh It sounds really good and it is, it’s a great way to get your book or your vision or your message or your product or your service out there. However, as a host, you also have to realize that, you know, it’s a lot of work, right. You know, that all the editing and all the appointments and all the pe, I mean, it’s, it’s, there’s a lot to it and, you know, guys like you and Natalia who interviewed me and Ed and all those, you know, kudos to you guys because again, without you, uh this would be much, much more difficult and it would take me much longer and I’m 70 years old, I still got plenty of gas in the gas tank.
Uh Right. However, the question is, you know, how much longer am I gonna continue to do this? Well, podcasting is easier when you get to speak to people like you. So, uh you know, you good guests make it easier. Um I, I did want to ask a bit of a, a comedic question. Is there any, uh any instances where you’ve done um a fire walk for someone or helped someone? And it’s been a bit unorthodox in the sense that they haven’t quite uh followed the instruction. And there’s been, I don’t know, either, either a uh a laugh or, um you know, something out of the ordinary, not in a fire walk, but in one, in one of my glass walks, we did, um you know, I offer glass walking because as you can probably guess, logistically speaking, sometimes fire walking isn’t always possible. Um So we have the glass walk experience just like I did for Google and NASA. Um So we’re at an event and we’re in uh Montreal and I’m with my client, I do two events a year with these guys, one in Montreal and one in Paris. And in fact, we set a world record in Paris in 2019, uh where we uh glass walked over 1500 people.
So anyway, so we’re in Montreal. We got about 351 of the people that, you know, was helping me came running over and she said, hey, Dave, uh this, this uh lady just cut herself. I said, OK, so this has never happened before, right? So I go back to where she is and she’s with a paramedic or an EMT and uh she’s sitting there and there’s a, it was a little tiny piece of glass in her foot and, you know, they, they got it out and the, the paramedic had put some neosporin on it and put a bandage on it. And I said, so, um, so what happened? And she goes, I didn’t follow your directions. I went, ok. Which part? Well, when we teach people the glass lock, here’s what happens when they get to the end. They have to stop. Don’t step off the glass yet. And what we have to do is you have to lift up your foot. We have to visually inspect it and we have AAA brush and we brushed her foot off and then you put your foot down in this case, she was on carpet. Well, when she got to the end, she was so excited that she made it to the end.
She didn’t let somebody inspect her foot. So, what did she do? She jumped off the glass, thank goodness it was on carpet and not a hard surp and she got a little piece of glass in her foot. So when I’m talking to her about it, I said, so, you know what happened? She goes, well, again, I, I got to the end and I didn’t follow your directions and, and I, I go, ok, so what else? She goes? Well, I celebrated too early and I didn’t let him wipe my feet. And I said, well, how often does that show up in your life? And she said all the freaking time and she didn’t use the word freaking. So it was supposed to happen. We had another comical time when, uh, when I did the world record in Paris in 2019, my son went with me, which was great. He came to help me because I’ve got to take seven suitcases of glass through, through, I, you know, through the airport and, uh, I did it one year by myself and about killed me. So I took my son the following year. So he’s helping me and he’s on one of the lanes and he’s one of the guys that’s sweeping people’s feet.
Well, he’s wearing the pants. Like a lot of young people do with the holes in the knees and the holes in the bands and all that. Right. Well, when you walk on glass, you know, you’re pressing it down, it can break, it can crack and little fragments of glass can pop out onto again. This was a, uh, a hard surface. This wasn’t, this wasn’t carpet. Well, sure enough little piece popped out. My son put his knee on it, he cut his knee. So he, you know, he wasn’t even walking. Um, and I’m like, you know, um, you may want to knee, uh, wear pants next time. In fact, I, I get people, I encourage them to put on knee pads because they’re down on their knees for, you know, like an hour at a time, depending on how, um, you know, how many, uh, glass walkers. Uh, but that’s what we did. The world record. We, we glass walked over 1500 people. Um, that was also the event where one of the, again, one of the people came up to me, she goes, da this guy wants to walk on his hands. I go what? She goes. Yeah, I need your help. So I go down there and to this, there’s a guy, his name is Cedric.
He would become good friends. He’s in a wheelchair and his, his lower from the waist down, uh, didn’t develop, you know. So basically his legs don’t work at all. And he said, hey, man, can I do this? Can I, you know, get on my hands and do this? And I said, if you think you can, you’re right. So sure enough, this guy got down, I got a video on my website of it as a matter of fact. And uh, yeah, he went down and took like a step and he did a push up. I think he did two of them and then he got back up into the chair and uh it was pretty spectacular man. So, yeah, I’ve seen, I’ve seen people walk on glasses on their hands and I’ve seen people walk on fire on their hands. So, you know, something, I’d love to leave this little tidbit for your, for your listeners. When I do an event, I put a screen behind me and I put a picture of this guy and he’s standing in a location that’s pretty obvious where he’s standing. So I’ll talk for 20 minutes. And next thing, uh once I get to a point where I got the crowd pretty much listening intently, I’ll say, hey, by the way, who here could tell me where my friend here is standing and somebody will go Mount Everest.
And I’ll say that’s correct. And uh let me tell you something else about Eric. That man right there has climbed the seven highest mountains on earth and he got to the summit of all seven, put him on a mountain bike, he can tear it up. Put him in a kayak. He can probably navigate almost every river in the world. But here’s something that you need to know about Eric. He’s blind. So I don’t wanna hear your shit. Don’t even come to me with some bullshit excuse of why you don’t think you can do something in life. That dude right there is blind and he’s climbed the seven highest mountains on earth. What do you think? He tells himself every day when he gets up in the morning, hit the snooze button. I don’t think so. Right. And that’s the beauty. It’s one of the things I teach, don’t negotiate with yourself. If you tell yourself, you’re gonna do something, do it. If you say you’re gonna get up at five o’clock and go to the gym, do it because if you start negotiating yourself, it’ll keep creeping in and you won’t do this and you won’t do that. And that’s not how you live an extraordinary life again.
Um You know, one of my mentors said something to me a long time ago, Thomas and, and I never forgot it. He said, Dave, here’s what you need to know. Every human on this planet has two lives. And the second one starts when you realize you have only one. So ponder that for a minute, there’s nothing I don’t think there’s anything that you’re not gonna be able to do. If you set your mind to it. And, you know, I came from a pretty hardcore background. Um, I was grossly addicted to drugs and alcohol for many years. And on June 8th of 1988 I woke up that morning, I said I’m done. That’s it. Not doing this anymore. And, and it was either it was either call a a or take your life because I can’t deal with the pain anymore. And so I called Alcoholics Anonymous and they came and picked me up and I went to my first meeting, went to four meetings on June 8th of 1988. And they gave me a little chip. And for those of you who are watching, you can see it for those of you listening, I’m holding up a chip. It’s a medallion and it’s from a a and they gave it to me on the first day and on the back, it has a serenity prayer and on the front it says to thy own self be true.
And so I got one at one month, two months, three months, six months, nine months, one year picked up, picked up one last year for 35 years. And uh if I don’t drink here in 2024 I’m gonna pick up one for 36 years. And that’s literally how I got into the personal development industry because I was up late at night all the time. I had insomnia when I was first getting sober and I was up late one night and there he was Mr Mr Motivation himself. Mr Infomercial. He was being produced by Guthy Renker and that was Tony Robbins and he was selling a program called Personal Power and that was a 30 day program you get at home and I bought it and, uh, to date this, it came on little white things called cassette tapes. Um, some of your listeners are gonna go, what’s a cassette tape is actually my, my first exposure to Tony is the past no power cassette tapes. No kidding. Well, so then, you know, right. Um People go, what’s a cassette tape? I go, well, go to the Smithsonian. They’re sitting there right next to eight track tapes and reel to reel.
So, yeah. So that’s, that’s, that’s how I, how, how it happened. And then, um you know, I went from personal power seven years later to the live event and, you know, here we are now and operation do no harm has taken over and, and uh I’m just a very, very blessed man. Uh Very, super, super grateful that I’ve been, I’ve been given this knowledge and this wisdom and this skill if you will. Uh when I retired from Tony in 2014 and one of the last things he said to me, he goes, Dave, listen man with great, with great wisdom comes great responsibility, make us proud and I think I’ve done that. So we need a lot of help though. So if you want to be involved, like you said, you know, everybody knows somebody, you may know a company that would like to sponsor this in your city and we could come and do that. And as I said earlier, man, we’ll do all the heavy lifting. We’ll do all the work and uh and that company and their brand will get all the recognition. Thank you for sharing that. Uh I thought the message about the um or the, the story about the lady who, who wasn’t listening. I thought she even gets AAA lesson from that as well.
So as well as the glass walk. So I thought that was funny and um especially thank you for sharing your um story about uh the the 36th year sober. I thought that was very inspirational and just about your whole outlook to life and the energy I love it. So, thank you very much. Uh Is there anything that I should have asked you about today? Why don’t people get what they want in life real simple? Well, you know what I mean? Why don’t people get what they want in life? Well, you know, you’ll hear a lot of BS just like my buddy Eric who’s blind climbed the seven highest mountains. I don’t have the time if you ever catch yourself saying that’s one of the biggest lies on earth. Why? Well, I can prove it’s a lie because we have time for anything. We’re committed to think about that for a minute. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. I don’t have the resources. I don’t have the background. I’m too young. I’m too old, blah, blah, blah, Henry Ford who started Ford Motor Company gave us a great lesson. And he said, if you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. So why don’t we get what we want in life? Well, typically, why we don’t get what we want in life is there’s a bullshit story, we tell ourselves why we can’t have it.
And here’s what I know, change your story, change your life again, everything that happens to you in your life, you create a story about it. I don’t care how bad it was. I don’t care how good it was. You’re the architect, you have the pencil and the paper, you get to create that story and, and I would encourage you anytime you wanna make a shift, change your story and, and, and if you’re telling a story that embellishes and it’s, and it doesn’t, it doesn’t support you and it’s not encouraging and you’re doing it to get attention, you’re telling the wrong story. Yeah, it could, it could be that easy and totally true in, in my perspective as well. So thank you uh for the people who want to connect with you or hire you, where do they go? Uh I’m very accessible. Um, you can just, everything, just go to our website because everything’s there. Uh, Fire Walk adventures.com. That’s Fire Walk Adventures with an S one word Fire Walk adventures.com. Uh, my Facebook page is there. My linkedin is there, Instagram’s there, youtube, is there, uh, the Dave Alban Fire Walk Academy is there?
Um, I run an academy once a year so I’ll get, uh, I keep it small intimate, but I’ll bring in, um like 18 people and I spent 5.5 days up here in the Appalachian Mountains in the North West North Carolina. And I teach them all my stuff, I teach them the glass walk, all the fire walks. Um uh The board break the brick, break the arrow, break the rebar, bending, how to talk to fire marshals, how to do sales, how to do marketing. Um And so then that way they can go back into their respective communities and, and do what I do. Um And then I’m their backup, right. I’m the guy that they come to. If they need me, they could literally have me come to. I’ve already done that where somebody, you know, one of my grads had an event and wanted me to be there and I did and the client helped pay for it. So, you know, if you’re a, if you’re a business owner, an entrepreneur or maybe you’re a CEO and you want to send one of your people for your entire company so that you can create your own custom corporate team building experiences that Dave Alban Fire Walk Academy might be a consideration.
We do it every October and, uh, I think, uh, for our event coming up in 2024 I know we have four or five spots still available. So it’s, it’s, it’s still good. Or if you want to hire us to come put on an event for you and your company that’s obviously still available, or if you want to sponsor an event, uh, through the nonprofit side of things and you want to bring attention to your, to your brand doing it that way, uh, that can all be created and done through, uh, going to fire Walk adventures.com. Well, thank you for that. And, um, I do wanna say you’ve made a massive difference to my day, so I really appreciate it and, um, I’m sure that if you, if you continue doing podcasts, that will be the same for others as well. So, thank you for that and also for being a great guest today. Thank you. Let’s do it again sometime.
