Dave Alvin, tell me about your vision.
I know it's been a long haul.
And there's been so many things that
have happened along the way that has brought me full circle.
And it has changed the trajectory.
I mean, obviously being called the number one firework
instructor in America or the world, whatever, came.
It just showed up.
I didn't know when I went to my first Tony Robbins
seminar in 1995 that I would be part of influencing
a half a million people.
Everybody from people that people know, Oprah,
and whether you like these people or not,
they just came to the events, right?
Usher or Pitbull or Chuck Liddell or Debbie Gibson
or you know what I mean?
The people that came, there's a lot of celebrities,
a lot of actors and actresses and rock stars
and professional athletes and Olympians.
And so again, it just kind of evolved.
And it was such a beautiful ride.
But what happened, though, again,
is that the firework that night, and so what led up
to the firework happened seven years earlier.
That firework didn't come to me for seven years.
So on June 8th of 1988, I woke up that morning
and I was grossly addicted to heroin and cocaine and alcohol
and cigarettes and chocolate chip cookies.
Now, I've still got a problem with chocolate chip cookies.
I'm just saying.
I mean, OK.
Right?
All right.
The drugs and the alcohol have left me,
but man, them cookies are still out there, man.
So it was decision time.
That morning was it.
I drew a line on the sand and I was done, man.
I was just done.
And so the decision was, I want the pain to go away.
I got physical.
I got emotional pain.
It's got to stop.
What do I do?
Well, the easy way out for me in that moment
was take my own life.
Seemed pretty easy.
I didn't care.
I wasn't thinking, is there a heaven?
Is there a hell?
Is there any of that stuff?
I wasn't doing that.
I just wanted it to stop because it was so excruciating.
And so the good news was I was married
to a woman who had three kids.
It was my third marriage and they were my stepkids.
And I remember thinking, you know what, dude?
When you pull that trigger, guess what?
Who do you think is going to clean that mess up?
You're putting that on those kids.
You're going to ruin their life and their mother's life.
You can't do that.
That's wrong on every level.
You've got to come up with another solution.
And just like that, man, it was like magical.
The thought came, well, why don't you
call alcoholics anonymous?
And I'm like, you know what's interesting?
I didn't know who AA was.
I had no idea.
I'd never been to a meeting.
I didn't know anybody in AA, nothing.
But there was.
And I did.
And I picked up the phone.
I called Intergroup and I got this incredible woman
on the phone.
Now, I don't know her name, but over the years,
I've nicknamed her Madge.
And the reason I did that is because she talked like this.
She was smoking two packs of palm oil non-filters a day.
And bro, I'll tell you something, man.
She was a bad ass.
Because she's the gatekeeper, man.
It's her job to interview you.
And if she thinks you're serious,
you know what she does for you?
She calls somebody in AA, in this case, another man,
to come pick you up and take you to an AA meeting.
So I must have said some right things,
because she sent a guy named Lauren to come pick me up.
And he took me to a noon meeting.
And I went to four meetings my first day.
I went to a 12, 30, a 4, 30, a 6, 30, and an 8, 30.
I've never felt more at home anywhere in my life.
And those men brought me, first of all,
they knew I was suicidal.
They knew I was homicidal.
They knew I was in a lot of trouble.
But they were used to it.
They're like, you're cool, man.
You're OK.
Sit down.
Chill out.
We got you.
And they loved me until I could learn to love myself.
And it was magical.
And that's AA, man.
That's how it works.
And of course, you've got the 12 steps,
but really the guide of how to put your life back together,
how to say you're sorry, how to go back and make amends,
your character defects, your shortcomings, all of that's
all implanted in there.
And then how to get on the spiritual path and stay there.
And then the traditions really show you
how to operate within the group.
But in the middle is the sweet spot, man.
It's called the preamble.
And the preamble says, when anyone anywhere reaches out,
I want the hand of AA to be there.
And for that, I'm responsible.
Well, I took that to the bank, man,
because those men were doing exactly that.
They showed me so much love and kindness and direction
and just overall guidance, man.
They were showing me how to put my life back together,
which at that stage is almost impossible, you would think,
because there's so much damage.
There's so much, right?
The carnage.
I'm twice divorced.
So I know a little bit about what's there
and what the repercussions, the ripple effects that look like.
So my vision was, hey, maybe I can live a life of sobriety
and not destroy myself.
And maybe there is a higher purpose for me.
What's down the road?
Maybe I should just clear out all this baggage
and look to see what life is really about.
And so really, AA, in some sense,
is teaching you how to live from the inside out instead
of from the outside in, where we're
chasing materialistic stuff and the big job and the title
and who cares, right?
Because what I've learned over the years is that people don't
care how successful you are.
They could care less.
And what they want to know is they
want to hear about your struggles
and how you overcame them, how you outcame them, right?
Because that's tangible.
They can learn from that.
And so when I got sober, I had insomnia.
So I was up late at night all the time.
And so there I am, 3 o'clock in the morning one night,
like 1988.
And there he is, man.
Here he comes, Mr. Enthusiasm himself, right?
A young, vibrant Tony Robbins.
He's selling.
And he all knows we're watching TV
at 3 o'clock in the morning.
That's where all the troubled people are.
And he's selling Personal Power.
Personal Power is a 30-day program.
You would buy it.
It's a program.
They send it to you in a box.
Well, in 1988, it came on these little white things
called cassette tapes.
Plugged them in, went through them,
did what the man taught me to do, and it worked.
Well, I ended up loaning that program to a buddy of mine
in AA because he noticed one day, he's like, dude,
what's going on with you?
You seem really different.
I'm like, well, you know, I'm sober.
And I've been listening to this guy named Tony Robbins.
And he goes, oh my gosh, I know who Tony Robbins is.
He goes, I bought his book.
But I never read it.
I went, well, how often does that show up in your life?
And good point.
So I go, look, man, I'll loan you my program.
You've got to promise me you'll go through it.
He says, done.
So he did.
Well, this is all going down in 1988, 1989.
Seven years later, 1995, my buddy Dan calls me.
He said, hey, man, Albie, did you
know that Tony Robbins is coming to town?
I'm like, no, bro, I had no idea.
Why?
What's going on?
He goes, come on, we got to go.
You got to go with me.
You got me into this.
Let's go see this dude.
It'll be awesome.
And I said, sure, no, I agree.
I'd love to go see Tony.
He was great.
Let me call you back.
I'll make the arrangements.
So before I could say anything, he just went, right?
He comes back an hour later, calls me back, 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.
Stay hydrated.
OK?
Yeah, that would prove to be very important.
Number two, bring snacks.
You're going to spend a lot of time in the room, they said.
Huh, what an understatement.
Really?
Anybody who's been to a Robbins event
knows you're going to spend a lot of time in the room.
And then he said, be ready to play out
and bring a good attitude.
I said, OK, Dan, how much was the ticket?
He said $695.
I go, $700?
In 1995?
What does that equate to today?
Like 1.2, 1.3 million, right?
By Bitcoin, I don't know.
And so he goes, don't worry, man.
You can pay me back.
I go, yeah, I got the money.
It's just seems really expensive.
And he's getting off the phone.
He goes, oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, stop, stop, stop.
Wait, I got to tell you something.
I almost forgot to tell you the most important part.
We're going to be doing a fire walk.
What does that mean?
I don't know what that means.
But the word fire and walk in the same sentence
doesn't sound good.
Doesn't sound like anything.
My brain, I'm living on fear.
My whole life is just invested with fear.
Forget everything and run.
It's my life.
And so I'm like, yeah, but I don't want Dan
to think I'm wussing out.
So I'm like, yeah, Dan, sure.
Yeah, fire walk.
Sure, bro.
Yeah, let's go, dude.
Gotcha.
He got off the phone.
I went, hell no.
I want to see Tony, but I'm not doing no fire walk.
I can tell you that.
So the big day comes.
We get to the event.
We get in our seats, 3,500 people sitting in the audience.
Tony took the stage at 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
And the next thing I know, it's after midnight.
10 hours in a room with Robbins.
Remember the guy?
Bring snacks or you'll starve to death.
Yeah, no kidding.
And all of a sudden, it's after midnight,
and Tony goes, take your shoes off.
And I'm like, oh, no.
I see where you're going with that, mister.
You're not tricking me.
I'm not doing this fire walk.
I've already decided.
No, hell no, I'm not doing it.
But now I've got a dilemma.
Because my buddy's taking his shoes off.
And guess what 3,500 people are doing?
Oh, my god.
I'm thinking, right?
I'm thinking, no, people, don't fall for it.
Don't go towards the light.
So I'm like, OK, calm down.
You got this.
Just take your damn shoes off.
Nobody's going to know.
And when you get out there, ditch your buddy.
He's 5'5".
Ditch your buddy, and then go hide in the back.
No one is going to know.
Well, except me.
So I do.
We go out there.
And by the way, it gets worse.
So when Tony gets you out there to go out
in this big parking lot where he facilitates the fireworks,
because he needs a lot of room, he
gets everybody to start chanting and clapping.
You've got 300 or 3,500 people walking out there going, yes.
Yes.
And I'm going, you've got to be kidding me.
No, no, no.
Well, it gets worse, because when you get out there,
he's got African drummers.
Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.
The ambiance.
I mean, it's a dog and pony show, for sure.
No, I do.
I'm going out there.
And I see a moment.
And I go, poof.
And I slip.
Dan loses me.
So after losing him, I go all the way to the back.
Now, how do you set this up?
Logistically, here's what it looks like.
When you do a fire walk for 3,500 people,
we build a giant fire over in the corner.
And it's huge.
We build a pit out of grass.
We stack it this thick.
And it's 35 feet wide.
And it's 75 feet long.
And you stack wood on it, these big giant pyres,
and it burns all day.
And you keep feeding it with hardwood,
seasoned or kiln dry hardwood.
And it burns for 10 hours.
Well, guess what it does at the end of the night?
It renders.
And then you have this big, giant, beautiful, blue flame
bunch of coals.
It's gorgeous, right?
So logistically, again, how do you do that?
Well, you go over.
You take wheelbarrows over that big pile of coals.
And you load them in a wheelbarrow.
Then you bring a wheelbarrow in.
And you run two lanes of sod of grass on each side,
also known as turf.
And it's about 3 feet wide, 15 to 18 feet long.
Take a flathead shovel into the wheelbarrow.
Take those coals.
Sprinkle them across that grass.
Pat them down.
That's your fire lane.
That's what you walk on.
Well, I'm in the back.
I'm hiding out.
I got it all figured out.
Well, not so much.
Tony Robbins knows that the fire walk could literally
be one of the most life-changing paradigm shift
experiences on Earth.
He did his research.
He knows.
He's been around 1,000 years.
He's been used by cultures all over the world.
So he wanted to get leverage on them.
So he also knows there's people like me.
And he knows where we are.
Of course.
So he doesn't want you to miss out.
So he wants to serve you at a high level.
He trains people to come find you.
You've got to be kidding me.
Give me a break.
I'm back there, got it all figured out.
I know, man, here comes this guy.
He's coming right at me.
Then he gets, I don't know, maybe 15, 20 feet in front of me.
And he's looking at me like this.
He's twilting his head like a dog, but here's a funny noise.
And he's looking at me, and he's like, hey, man, are you OK?
And when we're not OK, what do we say?
I'm fine.
Yeah.
Well, I'm fine.
All good here, man.
Nothing to see here, pal.
Move along.
And he goes right for the kill shot.
He goes, hey, man, you're going to walk tonight?
And I'm like, I'm thinking, you idiot.
Why do you think I'm back here?
And so I'm like, absolutely not.
Of course I'm not.
And he's like, hey, man, that's cool.
No problem.
We don't want you to do anything you don't want to do.
And I thought, oh, OK.
I like this guy.
He's going to get me out of here.
No, he's not.
He's setting me up.
Next question was, by the way, I don't know
who this guy is to this day.
I mean, he's a total stranger.
And the question he asked me, and if he hadn't asked me
this question, my whole life changes.
Half a million people that I've fire-walked,
I would have never been down that road.
And the question he asked me was, wouldn't you
at least like to watch?
I'm curious, right?
And I thought, well, sure.
No harm in watching.
Let's go watch these idiots burn their feet off.
Yeah.
He goes, well, listen, man, you're way back here.
You can't see it from here.
He goes, look, just get in line.
Ha ha ha.
Right?
And eventually, you'll get up there where you can see it.
Now, in his defense, he is telling the truth.
So I'm like, OK.
So I get in line.
I'm kind of walking along.
And the drums are going.
And the people are chanting still.
And the people are fire-walking.
And when they get to the celebration,
and after they've done it, they're celebrating.
They're jumping up and down and screaming.
In some cases, it almost sounds like they're in pain.
It's not.
It's exhilaration.
So they're screaming, and the drums.
It's like, I mean, give me a break.
And the next thing I know, another stranger comes up to me.
And he whispers in my ear, well, kind of loud.
He goes, he knows when you're ready.
When he says go, you go.
And pooh, this guy just disappears into the night.
And I'm like, what?
What do you mean?
What does that mean, he knows when you're ready,
when he says go, you go?
What does that mean?
And so now I'm walking along, trudging along.
Next thing I know, I can't see in front of me.
I still got 1,000 people in front of me.
There's no visibility.
But I get to an angle.
I can see at an angle.
I can get further enough into the line.
I can see at an angle.
Well, they're doing it.
They're fire-locking.
Every race, every creed, every color, all of it.
They're walking on hot coals.
And my brain's saying, whoa, wait a minute, time out.
Why are they doing this?
This makes no sense.
We're mammals.
We're taught to run from fire.
Survival instinct.
Survival instinct, 100%.
Fight or flight.
Go, go, go.
Get out.
And they're doing it.
And so now I'm mesmerized.
Can't even take my eyes off.
It's like the car accident that you say,
I'm not going to look at it.
Well, I'm looking at it.
I stare at it.
And so as I'm staring at them doing this,
I'm not really paying a whole lot of attention
to what's going on in front of me.
Oh, boy.
Next thing I know, guess where I am?
Yeah.
Front of the line.
And then all of a sudden, I'm like, how the hell
did you get here?
Right?
Talk about visions, right?
And so now I'm staring at the coals.
They're bright red on that lane, right?
And the wheelbarrows, though, you can feel the heat, right?
So your body, you know this is happening.
My heart's going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
It feels like it's going to jump out of my chest.
You know how fear is, you know?
And your heart starts pounding.
And again, I think it's going to jump out
of my chest in a minute.
So as I'm staring into the abyss,
there's a trainer standing right there.
And the trainer goes, eyes up, like you idiot.
I pulled my eyes up.
Well, when I was in the room for 10 hours,
guess what Tony teaches you to do?
Keep your eyes up.
Don't stare at what you fear.
Oh, interesting metaphor.
Interesting, huh?
And so in fact, he goes on to say,
keep your eyes on the reward.
At the end of the fire lane, that's
where the magic's going to happen.
And so now my eyes are up.
And the trainer goes, squeeze your fist and say yes.
And I went, yes.
And he went, stronger.
And I went, yes.
And this guy knows, he's a trainer.
He knew I was leaving a lot on the table.
He knew for a fact that I was not in a peak state.
So what's he do?
He gets in my face and screams at me.
Stronger.
Now I'm pissed, right?
Threw my hands in the air and said, yes.
And he goes, go, go, go.
Boom.
I took off.
Remember the guy?
He knows when you're ready.
When he says go, you go.
I did.
Well, here's the first thing I learned about fire walking.
When you take the first step, oh, you'll
take the second, third, fourth, and fifth.
I promise you.
You better believe you will.
So they put, we position two people
at the end of the fire lane.
And they lock wrists and they catch you.
And they're like, stop, wipe your feet and celebrate.
I'm wiping my feet and going.
And I look back and I'm going, what?
What?
I just walked on coals at 1,000 degrees.
Oh my gosh, I burnt myself.
No, you didn't.
Look at my feet.
No, they're dirty.
There's no burns.
And now I did something.
I have no idea how I did it.
I don't know.
But I'm taking credit for it.
That's me.
That's this guy.
I did that.
Ridiculous.
Well, in that moment, I will tell you
what's absolutely magical, just like it
is for the other 3,500 people.
It's exhilarating.
And simultaneously, the energy is your self-confidence,
your self-belief, and your self-worth go, oop.
Together, collectively, that's the interesting thing.
That's the part.
That's the magic.
That's the collective.
That's the tribal part of this.
But here's where it got really, because again,
in that moment, it's like, I'm pretty sure I can climb Everest.
So let's get on the bus, people.
Let's go.
And again, here's where it gets really interesting,
the next day.
And this is why I'm here right now with you.
The next day, we come in.
It's a 40 event.
That was day one.
That night.
And the next morning, we're all coming in, 3,500 people.
And we're motivated, man.
Everybody's on time.
Everybody's smiling.
They're laughing.
They're crying.
They're talking about their stories.
They're talking about fear.
They're talking about the fire walk.
And I'm going, are you kidding me?
Did we drink the Kool-Aid last night?
Yeah, we sure did.
And that was really it.
I've never seen or witnessed anything like it in my life.
Never have, unless it's a Tony Robbins seminar
that next morning.
So later in the event, I met one of Tony's trainers.
And this is really when the vision kicked in.
His name is Ted Macy and his wife Mary.
They were both trainers for Tony.
Great people.
Love them, man.
Love these guys.
They live in Atlanta, the real estate agency.
And I'm talking to Ted like, look at me, man.
I'm talking to one of Tony's trainers.
I must be special, right?
My ego is horrible, right?
And so we're talking.
And I said, so Ted, let me ask you something, man.
What's it like being in this environment?
He goes, are you kidding?
You have any idea what it's like to be
in this environment on a four, five, six, 10, 12 times a year?
And I go, yeah.
And he goes, look, man, let me share something with you.
He goes, you see all those people standing over there
with the black shirts with the pink writing on the back?
Yeah.
He goes, they're volunteers.
They're just like you, man.
They were here last event, and they
wanted to come back and give back so much that they came.
And they volunteer.
So he goes, look, do this.
When you go home, call Robin's Research
and ask them for a volunteer crew application.
OK?
I did that.
Like nine weeks later, I got a letter in the mail.
Dave Alvin, congratulations.
You have selected a crew with the Anthony Robbins companies.
Well, color my ass happy.
There I am, man.
Next thing I know, I'm in Fort Lauderdale at a Tony event.
And then it started to really open up.
I started thinking about what was really possible.
And I was watching and hearing all these stories,
and it was so magical.
Well, when you fill out the application,
you're pretty specific, right?
They knew that I had a military background.
They knew I had a security background.
So that alone, they said, hey, we
could put this guy on the security detail
to help take care of Tony's celebrities.
Because there's a ton of celebrities
that will come to every event.
He lives on a farm, so he probably
knows how to use tools.
He probably knows what a log splitter is.
He probably knows how to use a hatchet.
He probably knows what kindling is.
He might know the difference between Oh Kickery and Locust.
And so they put me on the fire team.
And after I volunteered for, I don't know, maybe five, six
times, by the way, I'm paying my own way.
I'm spending $2,000, $1,500 every time I go.
And every time I left, my wife was like this.
She's like, who the hell is this Tony Robbins guy?
Because she doesn't know.
And in her defense, she just knows
that I'm spending a couple thousand bucks every time
I go.
Well, eventually, they pulled me aside one day and said,
Dave, we'd like to hire you as a subcontractor.
We'd like to have you work on the fire team
as an assistant captain.
And we'd like to have you work the security team,
because again, you have a great background.
And we'll pay your way.
We'll pay you per diem.
We'll pay all your expenses.
And we'll pay you a couple hundred dollars
every time you come.
And I went, OK.
I mean, $2,000 or $500 in my pocket.
OK, I'll take the $500.
Well, they did something brilliant.
They gave me a free ticket to bring your spouse.
And so I brought Stacia to the event.
And so she went to the event, four days, did the fire walk,
did it all.
And after, at the end of the ceremony, on day four,
we decided to anchor in.
We took a walk on the beach.
And she looks at me, she goes, OK, I get it.
This dude's a bad ass.
Rock and roll, dude.
You want to go hang with this guy
and learn everything you can from him, go.
As long as they're paying your way, I'm good with it.
So she gave me the blessing.
And thank goodness she did.
She was so supportive.
It was really wonderful.
And so that was all going down in 95 and 96.
Well, in 2003, Robbins offered me the captain's position.
So my vision went boop.
And literally, and when he first offered,
I'm like, well, the challenge is I homeschool.
And they stepped right up.
They said, we'll pay for your kids to travel.
Bring your family.
Let's go.
That's awesome.
Yeah.
I'm so happy to hear that.
We believe in creating a full appreciation
for family and personal well-being
within the workplace.
That is super important for our environment.
I'm a single father of four.
Ooh.
So it's not always easy to find companies that really
do appreciate that, let alone want
to make an exception for it.
That's so awesome that Tony Robbins recognized
the value of doing that.
He not only did that, but he treated my kids like gold.
Can you imagine your kids six and nine years old
going on the road?
Yeah.
Yes, they can.
In fact, their first event, Sydney, Australia.
Wow.
My kids have been abused in a really positive way.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, it was wonderful.
Do you know Andrew Sosin?
It does not ring a bell.
He's been 22 years in a row, and he
did assist with one of the fireworks walks at least.
But phenomenal.
Phenomenal leader in charge of Recovery Unplugged.
I've got to get you guys in touch,
because you both come from a group that is just
absolutely phenomenal.
Love him to death.
So anyway, keep going, though.
He might know me, because a lot of people knew me,
but I didn't know thousands of people.
Of course.
Right?
So that's all going down.
And then that happened in 2003.
That's when we went on the road.
Alvin's been in the road for a while.
That's when we went on the road.
Alvin's went on the road.
And then in 2005, we set the world record.
That's where we firewarked 12,300 people in London
at the Excel Center.
And so now let me disclose something.
Guinness Book of World Record was not there.
However, it was still a world record.
There's never been a firewark anywhere close to that,
other than a Tony Robbins seminar.
So that's how that went down.
So that was 2005.
2014 rolls along.
I'm driving down the road.
And my phone rings.
And it's a company called Google.
Hey, are you the Dave Alvin that does the firewarks
for Tony Robbins?
Yeah.
What can I do for you?
Well, if you're not under any contractual obligation
or non-compete, we'd like to talk to you about hiring you.
No shit.
That's cool, Carl.
Homeboy's a free agent.
What you got?
The vision's manifested.
And next thing I know, I'm at corporate headquarters
in Mountain View on stage in front of 148 executives,
Google executives.
Went back to follow and you did it again.
And when I was there, we were after one of the events.
We were sitting at dinner.
And we're all talking.
And I'm sitting at a table with 10 of them.
And one of the females leaned over to me.
She said, hey, Dave, you don't really
offer yourself services.
I know we, if I understand, we contacted you.
Yeah.
She goes, have you ever thought of starting your own business?
I go, well, it's passed through my head a couple of times.
And she said, look, dude, I'm telling you, man,
you ought to consider doing that because there's
a huge market for you.
Corporate America will eat you alive.
And she was telling the truth.
She goes, look, dude, you own this space.
And companies need a paradigm shift.
They're looking for this, man.
They're looking for somebody that
can come in and create a life-changing experience.
Because they know that what doesn't challenge you
doesn't change you.
It's not going to happen.
And so there I was, man.
And so I went, OK, Google's telling you
to start your own business, Dave.
Maybe you should listen to them.
And we did.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.