Celebrating Universal Impact - Dr. Alan. D Thompson

TUCP Intro/Outro: 00:00:08

Welcome to The Ultimate Coach Podcast, Conversations from Being, inspired by the book The Ultimate Coach written by Amy Hardison, and Alan Thompson. Join us each week with the intention of expanding your state of being, and your experience will be remarkable. Remember, this is a podcast about be. It is a podcast about you. To explore more deeply visit TheUltimateCoachBook.com. Now, enjoy today's conversation from being

Laban Ditchburn: 00:00:45

Allan D. Thompson, welcome to the show. Welcome to the Ultimate Coach Podcast.

Alan D. Thompson: 00:00:56

Thanks, mate. This is gonna be amazing. You know, the first of April is my favorite day of the year. I've actually haven't seen what pranks they've been pulling out there. But there's been some fun ones over the years.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:01:07

Is it because petrels like $9. A liter so it's April Fuel's Day.

Alan D. Thompson: 00:01:12

Oh, you can't start us off like that.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:01:17

And it's cold gas for most people, I guess is what happens when you have too many beans.

Alan D. Thompson: 00:01:25

Too much Mexican food. That was you and I in Arizona. Just chowing down on all the best American food man. I had Panda Express, sometimes twice a day, like I'd have lunch number one and then lunch number two Panda Express. So good.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:01:39

I remember you telling me it's an awful amount of bloat monosodium glutamate as well, which is loose in case people are wondering, what were you doing in Arizona, Alan? Oh,

Alan D. Thompson: 00:01:50

the big driver was to come over and meet the 120 people or so that I interviewed for Steve's book, The Ultimate coach, and I thought well, we had to do all that via video because it was during the pandemic, it was like, was two years ago. Now it was April, May, June, July, August 2020. And you would know Laban, it's really difficult to do this kind of stuff, especially this kind of intimate stuff, these kind of intimate interviews about people that knew Steve and had experienced Steve, via video, without being able to hug them, you know, some of those interviewees for that book were coming to interview and baring their souls or crying for the interview, or really telling some secrets that some of those ended up in the book. So it was a bit of a luxury to be able to finally get out of the country, at towards the end of the pandemic, and come and meet all of these cool people in sunny Arizona.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:02:51

But it was a minor miracle that you were able to get to the state anyway, given the situation. But the would have not had been the same without you. If you if you were to describe to people the role that you played in the book, the book of being how do you describe it to people?

Alan D. Thompson: 00:03:15

I want to say court jester, because if you listen back to some of those interviews, they're pretty funny. It was a bit of research part a co authorship part, although Amy Hardison as the the literature background, and the narrative background, and she just did a wonderful job transforming our 600 pages or so into something that's got this beautiful pathway all the way through it with her metaphors and her beautiful style of writing. So yeah, I acted as a researcher for the first three or four months just tying together 1000s and 1000s of pieces, there were things in there that that you wouldn't imagine, or that I didn't imagine until we came across them, and then decided whether or not they should make it into a book that was kind of supposed to be about Steve's life, but isn't about your life. It's really to be read almost as a personal development book or less a biography and more about how you can be just by experiencing the words on those pages, tall order, but it was a real it was a lot of fun labor.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:04:27

Well, man, I've said this a few times to you before given our relationship. And I'll continue to say this again. Thank you on behalf of not just me, but the 10s of 1000s of people so far, that have been deeply impacted by a book that was never ever supposed to be written. And what I find so interesting about this is that your background is not conducive. Typically to you being involved in the space. What is it that you do outside of this?

Alan D. Thompson: 00:05:01

Again, whatever I kind of feel like whatever seems fun playful in the moment. And in this context in for this project, this did seem fun and playful in the moment. I am for projects that have a massive, massive impact. And looking back two years ago, I couldn't have known the practical impacts the tangible impacts, like the people that have come up to me and said that it stopped their divorce in its tracks, they transform their marriage, they literally reef refreshed a relationship based on text in a book. Those kinds of things are amazingly impactful. So for me, it was not about sales, it was not about any kind of ranking, it was about how can I have fun with this project? Now how can I make a project that is world changing, and that extends to everything I do in my life. So these days, it's pretty much 100% Consulting, in artificial intelligence, having a play around with this new way of thinking these new ais that are able to be smarter than humans and able to push out information. Brighter than a prodigy brighter than Einstein. So that kind of stuff fascinates me as well. But at the end of the day, the ultimate coach project was one that I felt was globally impactful, and would just be an absolute blast to sit down and be able to experience the kinds of people that I got to interact with the kinds of resources I'm talking about journals, early writings, the original Valentine's Day card between Steven and Amy back in the 70s. Having access to this kind of thing for me is is an enormous amount of fun. And it was an enormous amount of fun for months,

Laban Ditchburn: 00:06:57

you happen to have just jumped onto this episode as your first experience as part of the ultimate coach, podcast. You need to read the book, you need to learn about what we're talking about for this to make any sort of sense. It's really important. And it's a book you know, people recommend books all the time, but there's not many books that you will read that have had such a profound impact on virtually all but one person that I know of that's read it and that person I don't know personally, but they left a hell of a review on Amazon

Alan D. Thompson: 00:07:31

Yes, good. Even the one stars a good night, they give us some context and they still measure the popularity of the book so you can be a scathing as you like and you might actually prove the point that you kind of didn't get it. Especially if you're complaining about the content of the book and finding out about someone's life when that's not really what it's about.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:07:52

It's it's I find it so interesting people with that much vengeance in them been able to get through really big book. It's about an 11 hour listen on Audible by the way. Oh, man, this book is just I'm gonna go one more hour, you know, like it's like, but it's it's profoundly impacted me it's profoundly impacted people that I know that I've had the opportunity to meet. I've been sort of galavanting across the United States, just connecting with people that have bought bought me together with the ultimate coach and everything that Steve and Amy Hardison and yourself have been able to put together. Because up until really a year ago, Steve Hardison was an enigma. And no one had ever heard of them. Now they do. Why do people need to hear about Steve Hardison?

Alan D. Thompson: 00:08:45

Well, I don't know if they need to hear about Steve Hardison. But again, the drive of the book is they need to hear about themselves. And you can hear about yourself from reflecting through some of the big, noisy guys like the Tony Robbins or the Byron, Katie's or the Oprah's. But that may or may not be a little bit plasticky. What I've found, in my experience of Steve is this authenticity and organic nature to him that he's doing and being 24/7 Without anyone watching. And that kind of thing is both confronting and alarming. Because, you know, human nature is or can be around selfishness. From my experience of him that just didn't occur. There was no selfishness in him. I'll tell a very short story about an experience I had playing around with Steve and Chris Doris and about 20 people in Arizona in Chandler, Arizona. December 2022. Sorry, December 2021. At the NFL Sunday party hosted by Chris Doris. Now if you don't know the name, Chris stars, he's the guy that sat in the chair in the TBO LRT NFL V Do which is also worth watching. That's also a long watch maybe two hours. But Chris hosts these NFL Sunday sessions. At his home, he puts on food and drinks and invites 20 people around 30 people around in this case, there may have been more, there's screens everywhere, you're watching the footy, or the sorry, they call it something else, the football and having a bit of a blast. So Steve and I rock up to Christmas place to experience this. And we're having this experience. We're having this watch of the football and having some drinks. And there's really steaks being passed out. And as hamburgers and general good times. I'm sitting on the staircase, having a conversation with someone else. And there's a little a little knock off to the side. And I notice Steve doesn't know I'm watching him. He's kind of doing this privately. There's no one else watching. Steve is literally on the floor in front of a guy and a lazy boy. And he says to the guy, put your put your feet up on me. I'm like what is going on over there. And Steve kind of raises up in this push up position and lifts this guy's feet off the ground, and then goes and talks to him privately. I find out later that Steve Hardison had given Steve's own shoes to this guy. Now, that kind of story may or may not make sense the way I'm telling it. The effect was that Steve Hardison is very close to one of the most enlightened spiritual masters, I know of not just I've met because I haven't met any of them, many of them, but that I even know of. And in fact, during the interview process of 100 plus people, several of them said on record, Steve is the personification the living version today of a saint, as some of them said, He is the Living version of Jesus Christ. So my experience of him is that you've got this realness about him this genuineness, and this lack of need to be in the public spotlight, like the first few people on I mentioned, who have a lot of the public spotlight. So I wanted to draw that out. Even if this was not a book that sold a million copies, what if we could at least keep as a written record, the kinds of things that Steve Hardison gets up to, that contribute to the world and have these flow on effects through the network to impact perhaps, millions of lives, so that was the driver.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:12:45

Well, I can tell you firsthand, based on an experience at the Panama City, Chamber of Commerce meeting that I attended with Tony schmaltz, and other ultimate coach devotee, and involve with moderating some of the Facebook stuff. We had an experience where the world's best carriage coach, which I've got to attribute, Mr. Steve Anderson and Mr. Chris Doris, and you indirectly Well, for this creation, there was people going around the room, after I had started mind owning their bio and declaring in an imperfect way, their own world's best. And it was one of the most remarkable things. It was about 40 people in the room. And they have these meetings eight times a year, and one of the ladies got up afterwards. She was in your late 50s. She said, I have been coming to these almost non stop for a decade. And she said this was the best episode experience we've ever had. And I just it was something real innocuous. It was just about, you know, I'm the world's best. That is a direct throwback from what's happened with Steve Hardison. So if that's happening in Panama, city, Beach, Florida, anybody what else is happening in the world simultaneously? It's it really is non quantifiable.

Alan D. Thompson: 00:14:12

I'd love to quantify it though. I've said to Steve a few times, I'd love to draw out a tree map or a network map that says when he pulls over in his car by himself, and gives his jacket to a homeless guy. What is the knock on effects from that? Or when he secretly donates to someone's funeral? Or when he says to a Facebook friend, on Facebook friend, who's not even an acquaintance, call me call me and I'll set aside 30 minutes for you. And then that changes their relationship with their partner with their family with their children. And then those people go out. Impact a few dozen more people. And then perhaps there's a flow on effect from that. So you've got children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and this network map. It's easily millions of people. And that, that I would love to visualize, I would love to see that. And I would imagine that every day, it's hundreds or 1000s of people, just from my experience with him just from my interactions with him and how he speaks to a CVS like pharmacy or chemist employee, or someone at a gardening center, we get to have some cool experiences, just his day to day conversation is unlike any I've ever experienced, and it's always impactful. And I don't know why I don't know how even after writing this book, I still can't explain how he is like that, or why he is like that. But there is some fascinating stuff happening there. You are,

Laban Ditchburn: 00:15:52

you've had an opportunity to spend some formal coaching time together. What was that experience like for you?

Alan D. Thompson: 00:16:03

Still undefinable, as in I still can't put words to that. So I started coaching with Steve, in his office in Arizona in November 2021, I believe and we wrapped up in January 2022. What happened in that room over those 10 hours was conversational. There were elements that I can recall that were explanatory that had metaphor in them that were drawing on my life experiences as well as his, there were elements in there that I could say, right, here's what happened, here's the step by step. But that doesn't explain how I've changed literally, four or five months later, and not being able to explain it as a one to one. You know what I mean? How am I more calmer? Or how am I more calm? Or how am I more peaceful? Just from having a conversation? Even with everything I know about coaching? I can't explain how that what happened in that room, the conversation that happened in that room mapped to a way of being in the world that is phenomenally different to the Allen, November 2021 version, it's like an upgrade. But I can't tell you the changelog for that upgrade.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:17:34

Well, I think we'll have to follow up on this episode, maybe 612 months from now and reassess how things are tracking in your life and it wouldn't be wonderful just going back on that the visual the ripple effect for you to well, whether it's you or someone else that creates a visual demonstration of this ripple effect of Steve Hardison with some kind of light show with some kind of classical music playing in the background. It might be better than Guy Fawkes Day where you reckon

Alan D. Thompson: 00:18:03

he doesn't want classical music? I reckon we'd have to set it to one of the Rolling Stones tracks. Let's be serious here. Yeah.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:18:11

Yeah, I wonder what the likelihood of getting the Rolling Stones to write a song for Steve Hardison would be

Alan D. Thompson: 00:18:18

well, interesting. You say that not the stones, but he has had a song written for him, that song is available in the complete extras page that we've designed for a behind the scenes of the book, if you like, it's the ultimate Coach extras.com. And so there are four or 500 pages in the ultimate coach book, right? You can go and read that and listen to that and read it again, read it again, read it again. But in the research phase, we found the equivalent of maybe 4000 pages. And I didn't want to throw it that aloud. I didn't want to throw out the cool interviews and the photos and the journals, and the deleted chapters and the chapters that are too offensive to be published in in a modern day book. So we kept it, we drew it all out, and we put it into an online platform. And in that online platform, the ultimate coach extras.com is a song specifically written for Steve. And it's probably worth having a listen to that because it was it was really interesting to hear the process for writing that as well as the performance of writing that wow,

Laban Ditchburn: 00:19:31

is there anyone that that that we would know? In the mainstream music or is it uh

Alan D. Thompson: 00:19:38

I don't know. In fact, I can't even name who that is right now. I could go and look it up but because there's 4000 things in my head that's kind of dropped.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:19:46

I put you on the spot. It might be Milli Vanilli. Is it really you Emily?

Alan D. Thompson: 00:19:55

I think the song was called big hearted. And the lyric rates inside big hearted are just amazing. So the performance of the song and the lyrics are listed at the ultimate Coach extras.com.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:20:09

Fantastic. And where else can people find the book of being?

Alan D. Thompson: 00:20:16

The book of being the ultimate coach is easiest to just go to the ultimate coach.com and click a link to grab the book. Of course, you can search for it on Amazon, the ultimate coach, it has a very simple cover, it's a white exclamation mark on a black background, and not so simple. Read it's four or 500 pages it four or 500 pages of reading. But it's actually a simple concept, which is who you being rather than what are you doing, or how much you're earning? It's Who do you need to be to get to where you want to go or to have what you want to have? Or to be who you want to be? Who do you have to be to be that person. That's a really simple concept, but it probably takes some examples and some explaining to get there. So Steve encourages people to read the back of the book, which gives a few questions to ask while you're reading it, as well as his brief introduction. And if you're listening to the audible version, you get to hear Steve Hardison speaking the introduction into this mic, actually, so you get to hear him in your ear.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:21:27

No disrespect to the audiobook voice artist, but I still think Hardison shutter down the audio book. It's just my humble opinion. And I think the opinion of a few other people's when he's got such a great voice is so warm and comforting, like chocolate milk, heated chocolate.

Alan D. Thompson: 00:21:47

Sure, I'm sure he'd love to hear that.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:21:51

Well, I think a lot of people don't like the sound of their own voice. I don't think that Steve. But there's there's an energy in his voice that I love being around. And he's prolific on social media. So if you want to get involved in the Facebook group, like it's astonishing how much energy and effort he puts into staying active on there and liking and commenting and like you say messaging and jumping on I don't know, he could be an AI.

Alan D. Thompson: 00:22:19

Because it certainly got more than two hands. Look, I know that he doesn't have any personal assistants, he could probably keep 20 Personal Assistants busy. But what he does is just always give. So he's either on the phone, in a paid coaching session in his office, or speaking via email, or speaking via Facebook message, or with his wife or with his family. I don't know how he packs all that into a 24 hour day. But he is able to do it somehow. And it means that he's not those plastic, your plastic II self help gurus he's not inaccessible. He's not closed off. He doesn't have gatekeepers. He is his real, authentic, genuine self. And while you might need a million dollars to coach with him to formally coach with him under an agreement, you don't need that to have a conversation with him or to to essentially spend some time with him or ask him a question. He's just that giving. And, you know, that may or may not change as he approaches retirement age. But I know that all the way along, certainly for the last few decades, has been the most giving person that I can think of incredible. Yeah, fent

Laban Ditchburn: 00:23:39

and fantastic. Alan, I think he gets a lot of his energy as I do. And I'm sure you do as well from the response, the positive feedback loop from giving from service. So I don't know that he'll ever slow down unless he's forced to have a

Alan D. Thompson: 00:23:57

strong point. Yeah, he does get a lot from service. And it's not that he wants the recognition or the acknowledgement, I've seen that that's not important to him. If he needs acknowledgement, he'll give it to himself, often out loud, Steve, I acknowledge you for doing this. He doesn't wait for his wife to say it or his or his friends to say it or his clients to say it, he'll go and set that into his own mind and his own being rather than relying on external. But it's not that he needs people watching him. When he's giving things to people or or providing these acts of service. That's just who he is. And I can't tell you what the mechanism is and what he gets back from that, or if he gets anything back from that. But I can tell you that he does that. 24/7

Laban Ditchburn: 00:24:47

Yeah, I can vouch for that, in my experience of being around Steve Hardison, and just the impact he's had on the world as well. It's mine but mind blowing, just what it said the impact was had on my life and I will forever be grateful for that. Alan, we could talk about this stuff all day and all night. And maybe we'll do that over multiple episodes over the course of this podcast series. But do you have any final thoughts for the audience today?

Alan D. Thompson: 00:25:16

Well, I didn't give an amazing context on the book. But what I do want to say about the book is that you mentioned this earlier, we would have had a sales of 10s of 1000s of copies, there is a copy in Antarctica, which means that it's on all seven continents. There is a chapter that is being sent to the moon, which means it's kind of universal. You can read the 100 plus interviews on Amazon, or sorry, 100, plus reviews on Amazon. And it features 100 plus interviews inside the book. So you can hear these various perspectives from people that have experienced Steve as a coach, or Steve as a friend, or Steve as a dad, or Steve as a partner, because Amy Hardison as his wife, wrote the book alongside my research. So it's a book that I think will live on for quite a while I've had some people describe it as the modern day Bible. I've had some people say, again, that it changed their lives that it has changed how they show up in the world, how they approach their marriage, how they talk to their children, how they show up at work, what they do through how they be. So the book, I was not aiming for sales, but the book out there is doing really, really well. It's it's around the world. It's in multiple languages, you can listen to it, you can experience it. But as Steve said, don't read it as a biography. Read about who you would need to be to have this kind of thing written about you, how would you need to be to have these kinds of experiences.

Laban Ditchburn: 00:26:59

Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Ellen? B. Thompson. Thanks, Max.