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Geoff Thompson Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast.
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Introducing Geoff Thompson
Geoff Thompson is today’s guest, joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast interview.
He is a fantastic fella who I have wanted to have on the show right from the very first days of Join Up Dots..
But like all new things that you start, I felt I needed a platform and an exposure that was worth his time.
He has a fantastic story that so many of you will resonate with.
He is a chap who grew up in quite a working class part of the United Kingdom, known as Coventry.
The midlands and in many ways this part of the United Kingdom had once been a flourishing centre of the British Car Industry, but little by little had fallen on hard times as the factories closed.
For Geoff Thompson Coventry was never a town with a dying heart, and even now as an adult he walks the streets proudly loving that he is as much a part of its history as it is in his own.
Geoff Thompsons Childhood
There was no getting away from it, Geoff was a self confessed sensitive child, who struggled with many parts of being a kid that so many people breeze through.
The transition to senior school was particularly difficult for him, and in an attempt to find some courage that he could take back into his school-life, he commenced a martial arts course.
However, the positive idea to empower, unfortunately had quite the opposite effect, as one day the martial arts tutor abused him, and quite simply changed his life over night.
And from that point, Geoff Thompson’s life spiralled into a world of violence and anger.
How The Dots Joined Up For Geoff
And for over a decade he built a life based around the punishment he could dish out particularly around his job as a nightclub bouncer.
But then his life changed again, and he realised that he had to take control, and reclaim his own personal power.
And with the publication of his first book detailing this part of his life, he moved into a world of creating, positive reinforcement and inspiring the world to take control of their lives.
Much of this has been channeled around becoming Geoff Thompson Karate Kid, and as an expert in the martial art now teaches youngsters and those from damaged backgrounds to find peace and focus through the sport.
He has since written forty books (published in 21 languages), five multi-award-winning films, three stage plays (he was invited into the prestigious Royal Court writers Group) and hundreds of articles, many published in national magazines and broadsheets, and his autobiography ‘Watch My Back‘ has been adapted into a major motion picture Clubbed.
So does Geoff think that he would have become so successful in this arena, if he didn’t have something to fight against?
And what is the advice that he would give to himself if he had a chance to go back in time?
Well let’s bring onto the show to start joining up dots, as we discuss the words of Steve Jobs in todays Free podcast, with the one and only Mr Geoff Thompson
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Mr Geoff Thompson such as
How he totally believes that it is in all of us to be great, we just have to make the decision to be so…..and then work, work, work
Why he was kept in place by work colleagues who told him he wouldn’t amount to much, and now can’t even remember their names
How he took control of his life by writing a list of everything that he was afraid off, to build courage into his life by beating them one by one
How he realised at the BAFTA’s that even successful people have doubts as to how they got in the position that they are in:
And lastly…..
How he believes in his heart that no matter how successful he becomes he is still in an apprenticeship and will never stop learning.
Geoff Thompson Books
How To Connect With Geoff Thompson
Return To The Top Of Geoff Thompson
If you enjoyed this episode with Geoff Thompson why not check out other inspirational chat with James Nord, Hal Elrod, Derek Rydall and the amazing Rob Scott
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy
Audio Transcription Of Geoff Thompson Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling join up dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK David Ralph
David Ralph [0:21]
Yes, hello there. Good morning world and welcome to another blueprint for success. As he said, if you want greatness, you’ve come to the right place. This is join up dots is Episode 178. And today, it’s English day, because I’ve got a chap from England and I’ll be honest, I think we are two of the most sexually attractive guys from England. So you are, you’re lucky in many ways, you can either listen to us, or you can stare at the screen and it’s going to be a win both ways. He’s a fantastic fella who I wanted to have on the show right from the very first days of join up dots and actually before the show was actually the show really, but like all the things that you start, I felt I needed a platform and an exposure that was worth his time, as he has a fantastic story that’s for so many of us we will resonate with is a chap who grew up in quite a working class part of the United Kingdom known as Coventry and was a self confessed sensitive child who struggled with many parts of being a kid, but so many people breezed through. But transition to senior school was particularly difficult for him, and in an attempt to find some courage that he could take back into school life, he commenced a martial arts course. However, the positive idea to empower unfortunately had quite the opposite effect as one day the martial arts tutor abused him, and quite simply changed his life overnight. And from that point, his life spiraled into a world of violence and anger. And for over a decade, he built a life based around the punishment he could dish out, particularly around his job as a nightclub bouncer. But then his life changed again. And he realized that he had to take control and reclaim his own personal power. And with the publication his first book detailing this part of his life, he moved into a world of creating positive reinforcement and inspiring the world to take control of their lives. He essentially written 40 books published in 21 languages, five multi award winning films, free stage plays, he was invited into the prestigious royal court writers group, and hundreds of articles many published in national magazines and board sheets. And he’s autobiography, watch my back has been adapted into a major motion picture called clubs. So does he think that he would have become so successful in this arena if he didn’t have something to fight against? And what is the advice that he would give to himself, he had a chance to go back in time, where we’re going to find out as it’s with great delight that I bring onto the show to start join up dots the one and only Mr. Geoff Thompson. How are you, Geoff?
Geoff Thompson [2:46]
Very good, David. Thanks for having me on. It’s real honor.
David Ralph [2:49]
It’s absolute pleasure and cannot be honest. Do you think that we are two of the most sexually attractive people in England?
Geoff Thompson [2:54]
I’m just glad you said it. Because I think that’s true. But I think it’s special. If someone else says it, then then I say it? Well, I think you are you think that’s fine.
David Ralph [3:03]
This is this is a loving, you see what we’re doing? We’re bringing out parts of our personality that I didn’t even know was here. You’re changing me Mr Geoff Thompson, you’re changing me to a new life. That’s that’s how you are. So So you come from Coventry, and my daughter, actually, and my grandson living Coventry. And it’s to give a flavor of the place to the rest of the world. I always think and you can dismiss this totally, I always feel like it’s a kind of city back England’s forgotten somehow, it just seems to be a place back. Life has stopped somewhat, when I go back to visit my grandson. It doesn’t feel like Birmingham, which is just up the road, but seems sort of alive and vibrant. He just seems lost somehow, would that be fair?
Geoff Thompson [3:49]
I think he’s still going through a mourning because you know, that he was a thriving metropolis. At one point, it was the, you know, it was the second of the car industry in the world really, was a huge, huge industry for cars. And within a generation that started so you’ve got us a generation that has come after that. It was still morning that, you know, we don’t really know what our identity is, we don’t really know what we are. But there’s a tremendous poetry in the city. When you talk to the people, if you go to Coventry market, and sit and have a cup of tea, and you listen to the natural poetry of the language, and the humor of the people is it’s a beautiful city, but I think it’s a city and morning,
David Ralph [4:32]
have you always lived there, because when when success has come to you, and well, it hasn’t come to you, you’ve gone for it. Now you people would have moved into you know, a different area, they might have moved to London, they might have moved into sort of more sort of widely spread publicity in towns and cities and stuff. But you’ve stayed at your roots,
Geoff Thompson [4:55]
I think I do think you have to step out a city a little bit just to expand, it’s very difficult to, you know, to be, say, a BAFTA winning writer, but still be around the guys that you used to sweep around the machine in the factory, or, you know, used to work in a pub. And you’re still around the guys that used to work in the pub with. So so one minute, you’re a factory worker, sweeping floors, and that’s your job, and you’re very ordinary, the next minute, you’re writing films, and mixing with the hyper lie. And it’s very good. I think it’s very difficult for people in in your own environment for them to understand that it can create a dissonance. But it’s also difficult for you because it’s like a big part of us always thinking, don’t get above yourself, don’t forget who you are. So I think sometimes I spent a lot of time in London, I’ve got a place there. I think you have to go out of the city in order to expand in order to become your best potential and then you can come back to your own city. Never completely as the Oasis songs to the took a walk with my fame down memory lane. I never could find my way back. You never find your way back to that really. But it is good to come back to the city and see it objectively. I didn’t like the city for a long while because I thought it was violent. And I thought the people in the city were trying to suppress my growth. But when I was able to step away from the city, and expand my conscious net, and then come back to the city, I saw on a beautiful city it was and what a beautiful people we have here. But when I made my first film with Ray Winston, the amount of people that came out in Coventry to support me was amazing. And again, I look at my writing David is my writings beautiful, but it’s very, very commentary. It’s poetic, but it’s very commentary. If you listen to the specials, or you listen to great English great comedy as a great country band, the enemy if you listen to them, very carpentry, very poetic. So there’s a beautiful, natural rhythm me poetry to Coventry that I love and the people are brutally honest. But I like that. So I I can completely see what you’re saying. And I understand it. But I do think you know, if you imagine you imagine that coverage, it was a city that people traveled from across the world to come and work. And then within a generation that work is completely gone. There’s not a single I don’t think there’s a single car factory left in Coventry. You’ve got like Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Indian, African, Asian. Jamaican, you’ve got people from all sorts of proper culture dish they’ve come they’ve come for the work. The work is died within a generation. And suddenly you’ve got a whole generation of kids being born into a city with no work, lots of energy. Lots of dissonance, because they’re they’re kind of born in Coventry, but they’re not really from Coventry. They’re kind of their commentary, and but they’re not really accepted in Coventry. Because the because they’re so different. So there’s a massive amount of energy. And in the 80s, that energy spilled itself into violence. It was huge violence, huge disproportionate amount of violence, people are being killed in road rage. Yeah, we had we had bouncers standing on the hot dog bands.
David Ralph [8:16]
But but it is really you know that that violence, I suppose it is, is what you’ve made your name on in the early stages of your career. You know, I said that thing in the intro, and that there’s so much I want to sort of dabble around in with you. And so I’m going to sort of jump from pillar to post really, but do you think because you are so positive, so creative? Do you think that you would have been if you wasn’t rallying against such a violent part of your life? Do you do you think, but you wouldn’t have taken it to the level of success that you’ve got if you weren’t trying to get away from from the pain. And that’s what life is about? Isn’t it is either moving away from pain or towards pleasure?
Geoff Thompson [8:57]
Yeah, I think if I was if the if one, if one ingredient in my life was different, I’d be a different cake. I wouldn’t be the cake. I’m talking stop talking to you now or be completely different. So I, I am who I am because of my past. But also, I know that writing and telling stories. And healing through stories and inspiring through stories, is my dharma. That’s what I’m here to do. I know that I’ll feel that. So I think I was always going to be a writer, but the shape of writer and the shape of storyteller that I am. And the shape of shaman that I’ve become is definitely specifically because of my upbringing in Coventry. And it very interesting what you said, very insightful about moving away from pain, my all of my early life was about moving away from pain. All of my later life is about moving into pattern, and sitting in pain and marinating in pain, and taking that suffering and breaking it down into its component parts and recreating the beautifully in the world or create beautifully in the world or create prolifically in the world. When I was in my 20s I I took that violence and I created more violence because that’s I didn’t know what else to do. When I realized that violence, even well intended violence rebounds on itself, when I realized it was folly. When I realized that I was the one creating that reality from a negative damage cognition. I went about reconstructing that and change it I miss usually pragmatic and then started to think well, what is it I want to do I want to tell stories, or recognize that stories are our own intrinsic part of our genetic makeup. We are stories were made up of stories, you go down any London High Street, any City High Street and see the guys sleeping in the doorway, David they’re there because they heard the wrong stories. And then they repeated the wrong stories to themselves again and again, on where I am, because I have created a new story. From the substratum of my mind, I’ve grown new stories, new beliefs, which are which is,
David Ralph [11:07]
yeah, which is the fascinating thing that you created these beliefs, you know, and When, when, when I wanted you on the show, I remember reading about you and I dabbled for an afternoon and one thing led to another. And there’s a lot about you on the web. And I can’t even remember how I found out about you, but it was there. And I was having this idea of a show daily show where I would get different people and different personalities and stories, but would inspire people because, you know, there’s no real difference between you and millions and millions and millions of other people, they’ve still got that that same issue, but they got something in them that they need to bring out. But they they have to do it. And I remember sort of reading about you. And the thing that sort of struck me was when you stood up and you got your BAFTA, which is people sort of across the world that is like a kind of English Oscar. And yeah, it’s very inspiring. And, you know, I haven’t even one of them in swimming badge. I was thinking about this. I’ve never won anything in my life. And I and you’ve got a BAFTA so well done to you. Is it heavy? Did you?
Geoff Thompson [12:13]
It’s very heavy. Yeah.
David Ralph [12:14]
And where do you keep it?
Geoff Thompson [12:16]
So my writing desk,
David Ralph [12:18]
so so it’s bear, you know, because that that is a benchmark of your success. But when you stood up and
Geoff Thompson [12:23]
you sort of benchmark is proof?
David Ralph [12:25]
Well, yes.
Geoff Thompson [12:26]
Yeah, absolutely. It’s proof. And when you when you when you go and talk to people, you show them the proof. You say to them, I’m ordinary, like you. And this is what I’ve made with my team. Yeah, it might look like it might just look like a statue. But actually, it’s a key. This is a key. It’s a key. It’s a platform. It’s a microphone, you know, allows me to talk to people, it gets me through lock doors. Yeah, it’s a very powerful tool. It’s a god given tool. And there’s a responsibility with it. You know, some people would think it’s an ego extension, if it says use microphone is a platform, people need to see the proof they need proof study’s possible.
David Ralph [13:01]
But when when you stood up and you accepted it, it was I watched it on the on online on YouTube or something. And it was like, you, you were kind of almost tying cheek, it was almost like, Wow, this is amazing. I can’t quite believe that I’m here. But yeah, I’m so proud. I’m here, because I’ve done it by my own efforts. And when when you’re walking through, and you’re with, you know, living Baptists, you might as well call it the Judi Dench loving, because, you know, it’s that kind of thing, isn’t it? Is it the same people all the time sitting there? Did you kind of go, actually, I shouldn’t really be here. Did you have that kind of self depreciating side to you, although you were hugely proud, but you’ve done it, there was kind of, I’m not really like these people.
Geoff Thompson [13:48]
It does create a dissonance. Because it’s in it’s an extreme, it’s an opposition to the way you’ve been brought up. The way I was brought up was that don’t get above the station. We work in factories, we drive, we drive a push bike, and that’s good enough for us. So you’re pretentious, if you think outside of that. And you have to really, you have to really challenge that kind of perception and that kind of conditioning. But when I was at the when I was at a BAFTA, it was really interesting because I was in the toilet, chatting to this guy, because he looked nervous and I got chatting to him. I said, you look nervous. And he said, Yeah, I’m a bit nervous. I’ve got a present an award and we got chatting. He had a nice watch. I had a nice watch. We talked about watches. And then he said, My name’s LL Cool J. And I recognized in that moment that he didn’t know how we got there. And I didn’t know how it got there. And both of us felt like we were in the wrong place. But then when I spoke to other people I spoke to Anthony men gather and Tandy Newton and people like that. Suppose a lot of people that were like that that same look of incredulity, which I’m not quite sure how I’ve created this not quite, you know, they’ve all come from very similar backgrounds. They all kind of have that. And what does it mean, for me became really clear what it meant. It was just a tool to help me to serve. And serving is difficult, because serving demands selflessness, and we’ve all got that selfish streak where we’re thinking what’s in this for me, what I’ve recognized is about yourself from law, if you work from a place of logos, so yet the exponential effect of service is everything you wanted anyway, which is, which is wonderful. So yeah, I did that, that I did have that experience. And to a degree that’s still there. But that’s still part of my mix. When I have that. Don’t feel good enough, I observed that on the witness of that are churning out a break that emotion that block down into its component parts, and I’m making something, it’ll be a play, it will be a monologue. It’ll be a film, you know, it’ll be an article, it’ll be a talk. So no, just you in some ways did the things wasted, everything is good, everything that happens to is good, we can make gold from anything. And it’s, again, it’s it sounds great when I’m saying it’s not without its challenges, because it means it means leaning into the sharp edges. It means standing before your own suffering. And the suffering might be as little as you know, having to leave your old conditioning. In order to create a new reality, we have to destroy the old reality to create the new one. So if I start if I, if I have aspirations to be a writer, how does that fit with my wife? He wants me to stay in this a factory job. How does that fit with my friends? were afraid of their potential, and think I’m being pretentious. How does that, you know, how does that fit with my teachers? You know, who didn’t meet their own aspirations and told me, you know, that I’m getting above myself? How does it How does it work? How does it fit in a world that doesn’t see like that? And then of course, you go back to the Scriptures, all the scriptures, Bhagavad Gita, the Torah, you know, the Quran, the Quran, they all talk about this internal jihad, this greater battle, the battle, not with the world, but the battle with conditioning and perceptions. If you look at the Bhagavad Gita, it’s a beautiful text about Prince and Juna going into the Battle of etc, to win his kingdom back. And he asked to go into battle against 10s of thousands of enemy soldiers. But in that in that enemy line is his father figures, his teachers, his brothers, his cousins, is on course, his nephews, and he doesn’t want to do it. He says, what was the point of wrapping the kingdom if I haven’t, if people have got to die in this battle for me to win market, my stolen Kingdom back, but that and Krishna who represents consciousness, you saying to him, you’re not fighting against people, you’re fighting against beliefs against perceptions. So the whole thing is about changing the inside in order to create a better outside. And that that’s, you know, people like Arduino people like Christ, people like Mohammed, people like Nelson Mandela, they all struggle with this transition from what they what we think is being an ordinary person to be an extraordinary creative beings
David Ralph [18:14]
with a fantastic saying, so let’s jump in because I got so many questions I need to ask you was, I know so many of our listeners are stuck, because they see Geoff Thompson and they see Steven Spielberg and I see all these big successful people. And they go out, it’s all right for him. He had something but I didn’t. But the thing that really struck me in your conversation, especially back at the batter’s was the successful people. But we look at and go, Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful? I’ll actually looking at each other going, How the hell did I get here. And that’s really fascinating. But even at that level of success, it’s it’s all those tiny little things that I’ve chipped away at over a period of time, but has got them to this position. But the people who are stuck in jobs I don’t like or they’ve got this creative urge bubbling away inside them. They look at the success. And it’s almost like the show highlights, isn’t it? And I don’t perceive but it’s, you know, it’s it’s just working, working, working. And when you make a little bit of a progress, and you move on again, and you move on and you move on. I think that’s hugely inspirational to what I wanted for this show. But you that was section but these people were looking at each other going, How the hell did this happen?
Geoff Thompson [19:26]
Yeah, well, LL Cool J’s trembling, his trembling, washing his hands trembling, I’m saying you look really nervous. I didn’t know who he was. And he goes are, you know, given an award away, you know, not done this, before we got chatting, I recognize you come from a real kind of working class place in America, I come from a real working class place in Coventry, we were to go to the same kids. And we were both not quite sure how we got there. We’re not quite sure what it meant. And that was everybody I met Anthony Mandela said to me, I just keep my head down, I don’t put my head off. Because if I put my head above all, I’ll become over Bible. And he’s Danny’s dad was an ice cream salesman. And he was a wonderful film writer, unfortunately started now. But I mean, I’m mixed with a lot of these people. And they’re just the same as us. They’re very, very ordinary, hugely sensitive, most of them. People like the who’s the great comedian, the condominium. And if that wasn’t Lee Evans, a great, you know, when he had his first success, he was so overwhelmed by the dissonance, that he had a nervous breakdown. Because you’ve got suddenly gone from being an ordinary comic trying to break through to having this huge success. He knows and Brad, he had a nervous breakdown, didn’t leave his house for six months, lost all his hair, because he just he had cognitive dissonance. He didn’t know what it meant. Robin Williams when he was alive, bless him. Same thing they said about Robin Williams at the height of his success. I said you could catch him on his own, you could get him to come and do a gig at your kids party. Because you didn’t know how to say no, because he was afraid that we said no people would think it got above himself, you know, Sue two towns and the great writer of Adrian mall, she said that, you know, she made herself physically ill, and doubly incontinent wheelchair bound, because just because she didn’t know how to cope with the dissonance of a success. These are hugely successful people that you see from the outside, and you think they’re different. They’re ordinary, but to make the transition from where you are to where you want to be, you know, people don’t do it, because they’re afraid because they’re afraid of the changes what I make one single change in my life, and that will have an effect on everybody in my life. So it takes tremendous courage. It takes tremendous insight, you have to have great self knowing. But you know, again, we think these people are extraordinary, they’re actually very ordinary. But they’re, they’re extraordinary in the fact that we’re all extraordinary, but they’re very ordinary, and they have their own fears, and, you know, their own their own issues with success. Most of the time, because they’re thinking, I don’t know what this means. They’re aware they’ve created it. They’re aware that they’ve done the work and created it, but they don’t know what it means. It’s funny, actually, we, we have to grow into that.
David Ralph [22:14]
Yeah, because I went back to work. Well, I used to work for a celebrity reunion pub drinking evening, since I got this going. And this is small potatoes, you know, he’s going extremely well. But compared to sort of other people, you know, this is small potatoes. And I already felt there was a difference. I kind of moved slightly. And I was thinking that I was actually the same as I used to be, but they were there was, you know, there was a vibe, there was a vibe, but I wasn’t the same as them anymore. And I can imagine on a higher level that must be really difficult to deal with.
Geoff Thompson [22:49]
People don’t know how to deal with people, you know, you meet people, and they become tone tired when you meet them, because I’ve read your book, and they don’t know how to talk to you. And I found that myself and with some of my heroes when I’ve met them. But you are still ordinary. I mean, I’ve walked Lancome Abby, with my oldest friend. And he said to me, it’s different for you, though, Geoff Thompson, you’re different. And I’m saying that’s absolutely not true. That’s absolutely not true. You know, that’s not true. You were sat with me when I was sweeping the floor around the laid in the factory, I was 32. Before I left the factory, you know that I’m not extraordinary on the same as you. I’m just curious. And I am courageous because I step into the difficulty. But you’ve got the same potential as I’ve got, you’ve got the same access to 100 billion microcosms of yourself 100 billion cells in the body, that all that all lead to our perception. You’ve got the ability to change your perception, you have the ability to expand your perception to grow your perception, everybody’s got that ability. And the moment you want to do that the moment you decide to do that, the libraries of the world and the libraries beyond the world open up to you. They’re there. They’re already they do appear in front of you. But we have to have the courage to step forward. And the courage to step forward. This is not just about ourselves, it’s what will my friends think? What will my family thing What will my wife think? What will my boss think? You see, people are afraid of your success.
David Ralph [24:17]
Geoff Thompson is telling you that is all in you is all in you. And I’m going to play. Yeah, I’m gonna play the words of Jim Carrey now because he really sort of emphasizes what I’m Geoff is saying and they are so powerful. He said Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey [24:29]
my father could have been a great comedian. But he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [24:56]
That really says everything Geoff, doesn’t it
Geoff Thompson [24:58]
useful, useful. He’s a man that’s really struggled with success as well. He’s really struggled with, with his success. And what I’ve learned from myself is my duty, my Dharma is is not only to be successful, and to do what I love doing, which I do, but it’s to tell it to people and show them the proof as possible. They’re not just interested in rhetoric and inspirational story, they need to see the proof. So, you know, you’re going to talk to you’re going to talk to 20 kids in prison, and you take them on the BAFTA and they see you they see you, they see that you’re ordinary, they see that you’re nervous, they see your tattoos, they see your broken nose, and you call it flattery, they see that you’re one of them, the ordinary guy. And you show them the BAFTA, you show them the place, you show them the box, you tell them the stories, you are the proof, they see the proof, you’re congruent. And you say to them, it’s possible. I went to one presence. It was a great, it was a great experience. It was a real privilege. The prison was a castle, was actually a castle, an old castle that we made into a prison. And I said to these guys, Wow, you’ve, you know, you’ve made it, you’ve created a castle. I said, The problem is, this one’s got bars. It’s got iron doors, and it’s got guards, but you’ve created a castle. It says my job outside is to create a castle without the bars without the doors without the guards, like I said, but you You’re lucky in a way because you can see the bars. I said, I’m going to go speak to some guys in Mayfair tomorrow. And they’re all millionaires, and they can’t see the bars they’ve got they’ve created a different kind of prison, they’ve created a different kind of prison that I’m going to help them to climb out because I’ve become imprisoned by by their wealth, or by their addictions, or by their, you know, always by their beliefs. So for me that the duty is to, and this is what has been intuitive to me and meditation. This is what I’ve been told by god my way I don’t even know what God is. But I hear this intuition tells a story. I met with Nelson Mandela’s bodyguard, recently I was in a talk I want to Nelson Mandela, Dell, his bodyguards is there. And the biggest thing I learned from him was Nelson Mandela said to him, tell our story. Go and tell our story. Tell people our story. Tell people that it’s possible, but not through violence that is possible burning through love. And that’s what this guy was doing. He was traveling around the world. And my job and his job when I met him was to allow me to connect with Nelson Mandela as a hero of mine. And his message to me was, you know, serve, serve from love, tell people the story of why message to him was tell more people your story, because he was telling people store his story very manually. So he was going around from school to school, you know, from business to business. But for me, I want to tell my story from every medium, I want to tell my story through David Ralph or the talent through TV, or TV and film, I want to challenge you plays on through articles, I want to tell it through talks on intelligence, through YouTube, through Twitter, through Facebook, I’m going to tell my story to the guy on the bus when I’m going to London, whoever wants to hear my story, I want to tell it to as many people as possible. And when I met him he was he was afraid to tell his story to more people, because he felt his story would be taken off him. But this when we tell our story only multiplies you only grow. So I was encouraging them to be generous, be generous with the story. There’s a lot of people need to hear it. A lot of people need to hear this. So I every opportunity, especially with something like what you’re doing because I had a really good look at your program before I came on. And I was massively impressed by how professional it was and how inspirational it was. And I don’t think people realize David how powerful stories are and they are they are actually affects the affected genetically. We are stories, our whole reality is created by stories. So you have a duty to tell a great story to tell a beautiful and anonymous story.
David Ralph [29:04]
Well, your story in it. Yes, that one afternoon reading about you and I never met you never spoken to you. But there was just something about it. And I think it was it was the honesty, total honesty, it was the fact that I knew the area that you live in and you come from and the fact that I was just thinking he you know, you are ordinary you were in a factory at the age of 32. And it is a key point to the stories I think with with go back to that point where because how did you spring yourself free? When you had all those self limiting thoughts around you, which everybody does? I don’t want to look bigger than I am people are going to laugh at me Who am I to write a book? Who am I to do this? How did you actually find that? Was it an epiphany? Or was it just small things over a period of time that actually pushed you out?
Geoff Thompson [29:54]
There’s a lot of things building up, you know, it was accumulation of things. But the main thing was, it suffered a lot from depression. I suffered very badly from depression. I was I was very brave, because I had very bad depression. But I still turned up still went to work. And but I suffered. And every time is depression, come on, it would sideswiped me, it would put me out for maybe two or three months. And I felt like it completely possessed me. No way of stopping it from coming underwear, getting rid of it. And then add this one, particularly about depression. And I just thought, you know what, I’ve had enough of this, I’m not having this anymore. I just thought I’m gonna fight back. So I sat down, I drew a pyramid on a piece of paper. And I wrote down everything I was afraid of my least fear. On the bottom step of the pyramid, my biggest fear on the top step of the pyramid. And I decided that I was going to go out into the world and I was going to confront and hunt down everything I was afraid of I was gonna, I was going to become fearless. And I was gonna, I was going to convert those fears into something amazing. That’s what I did. I sat down in the middle of a depression in the middle of a dark night of the soul. I wrote down the things I was afraid of. And I was even afraid to do that I was afraid to admit some of the things I was afraid of. So you wouldn’t
David Ralph [31:12]
tell me it was just something you just did naturally.
Geoff Thompson [31:15]
It just was natural to something I just thought, I’m just going to write this down. I’m just going to start I just my logic was if I confront the things I’m afraid of and develop some desensitization. And then I won’t keep falling into depression. So at the bottom end of the pyramid was a fear of spiders, which doesn’t sound like it’s debilitating. But if there was a spider in my room, at night, I wouldn’t go to sleep. So I started with the small stuff. And then eventually I had to confront my fear of violent confrontations. And that’s when I become a nightclub dormant just to try and get some desensitization. So what I record didn’t recognize it at the time, but it was a semantic exercise of contract in my fear is by expanding my consciousness, expanding my awareness by contract in my fears, collecting all the revenue, energy revenue that was wasted in all of these different fears, these fears was stealing my energy I kind of recouped all that and expanded. So I became a nightclub doorman. But of course, along the way, you know, I’ve got all these mundane fears, a fear of spiders, a fear of dentists, a fear of fighting in karate competitions, and all these different things. And as I started to write here, as I started to go below the layers, I started to recognize different things, I realized I was afraid of my mom, I was afraid of my mom withdrawing law. And that was a hugely debilitating fear, I was afraid of my first wife, she was a good girl, I was afraid, I was afraid of argument that I was afraid of any kind of discontent in the house, I was afraid of anything where I didn’t have control, I was in the factory, I was afraid of change, if somebody knew came into the factory, and had to work with them on periods of terrible fear. So all of these other fears started to rise up all of these existential fears. And so I started to trace back the layers and figure out what they were. And that’s where the writing came in, I started to write as an exercise in finding clarity, and exercise in tracing back the bubbles to find the leaks, because obviously, every child has a mother, every fear, as a as a birth in belief. So I’ve traced back my actions and my emotions or trace them back to the beliefs and then I challenged the beliefs at the core level. And that’s what my whole writing career has been about. It’s been about, you know, I’ve got this fear, I recognize it, it’s blocking me from doing something. I’m going to challenge this fear. And I recognize that all of the fears were illusory. They have no reality. But for that to be real for me, I had to go nose to nose with a matter literally into court with my fears had to turn right into them. And I know did the moment I intercourse with Don says disappointed that no existence at all. But that again, that took a lot of insight took a lot of courage. And I built myself up, as Mohammed said, little by little step by step. I did it a bit at a time.
David Ralph [34:15]
Did you see the difference in you when you were doing that? Work? Your work hard? He’s going on? Geoff, Geoff’s acting a little bit more gung ho than normal?
Geoff Thompson [34:24]
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, a lot of the times they frightened me back. When I said I’m going to, I’m going to get I’m going to leave this job in the factory and I’m gonna, I’m gonna teach martial arts full time, people would say that you don’t want to leave this job. This is a safe job. This is a job for life. This is, you know, this is a these jobs don’t grow on trees. Yes. And I remember thinking, I’m really pleased about that, because it takes me walking down the street and seeing my factory job growing on a tree. This this, this idea that, you know, what, you know, the terror of leaving, you know, a normal job, the conditioning was very strong. And then eventually, when it did leave, it was really weird. Because all of the people that I mean, they did frighten me back, they frightened me back into the center, my wife would say, Well, how are we going to make the mortgage? And what does that mean? That you’re not going to go to work, and it did frighten me back a lot of times. But when I eventually did leave, and I did find freedom, it was really interesting, because the older the people that kept me in the factory, couldn’t even remember their name. So I was being kept in jobs by people. But I don’t even remember their names. Now, just people, you know, just people that had worked with for a short while. Taking advice on diamonds from brick builders I was taking, I was taking advice from people that were also afraid you’d been in the job 20 years, but they’d only ever took it as a stopgap.
David Ralph [35:45]
Yeah. Did you did you find as well, because I have found this when I was saying to people, I’m going to leave and what you’re going to do, and I sort of told him, my my planes, a lot of them would say, Well, how are you going to do that? And are you going to get that off the ground? how’s this gonna work? If it was that easy, blah, blah, blah. But now it’s rocking and rolling. They kind of say to me, oh, yeah, we always know you’re going to do that. And it’s kind of like picking up my favorite part of the master plan. Yeah, just kind of smile at them, you know, because, once again, they’re seeing the highlights now, but they haven’t seen the 19 hour days, day after day after day after day to do it. And it’s funny how they, they walk trying to rank you in, because actually, they’re anchoring themselves, aren’t they, by holding I mean position that they’re known, but they’ve got something to feel comfortable about.
Geoff Thompson [36:32]
But it’s a lovely story about how they catch crabs in the sea, then they put a basket in this in the water. And they wait for a certain amount of crabs to climb in, they climb into a hole in the lead on to so many crabs in, they can take the lid off, they can take the lid off, and the crabs don’t escape. And when you watch, you understand why every time a crab tries to crawl out the other crabs, fold it back in again. And that’s what happens every time we try to escape from a reality or from a belief or from a perception, people will pull us back in again will pull back in by fear. And then of course, as you said, Everybody wants to criticize is that when we successful, they all want to say they sat next to us at school.
David Ralph [37:15]
So so how do we then listeners go about actually making that momentum for change. They’re sitting here listening to this and it going to work, they’re doing a nine to five job. And a lot of them, you know, they don’t hate it enough. But they’ve just got this thing. And that’s the problem, isn’t it? When you don’t hate something enough, you don’t really do anything about it. And I went years and years and years working in jobs that really just sort of paid me and I was in limbo land. So I actually go about that when they’re nine to five, five days a week they get home and they’re tired. What what do they need to do to
Geoff Thompson [37:48]
but I guess you need to know what it is you really want to do. And be prepared to do the work. You know, most people have a natural bias now something that they’re naturally good at, that they’re born do is identifying that. And we identify that by obviously, we could First of all, we can trace back all the things we don’t want to do things we don’t want to do. So most people say they don’t know what it is they want to do. But they do know what they don’t want to do. So we eliminate that. What is that would really like to do. For me, I wanted to teach full time martial arts. Excuse me, I want you to write. So I just went back to the things that excited me the things that you know, that I felt I had a natural talent and that I could develop. And I just started to work on that. And then I did the work. You know, I was working so I had to honor the job I was in at the time because he paid paid my mortgage. And it wasn’t at that time, it wasn’t the right thing for me to do just to jump out and job. So I started to practice my art in my spare time. And I found loads of spare time I was wasted about six hours a night. Excuse me just watching Telly, those wasting hours in the morning lying in bed. So I was able to find eight hours a day that were that were tied up with things that weren’t productive. And I started to practice my martial arts, I started to practice the writing. And as I started to practice the things and get better I I became a Lodestone, I started to attract other people that were doing similar things, I started people, people that were further ahead of me starting to drop their hat at me and say this is good work. Stay with it, I started to send my work out to people. Basically, as you said at the beginning, I did the work. People say they haven’t got enough time. I mean, I wrote my first book, sitting on a toilet in a factory where I was hired to sweep floors. And that book now has gone all around the world sold 100,000 copies, it’s been a film, it’s been a feature films finished short film, it’s been a stage play. It’s been hundreds of articles, I think I did come from that first book, and I wrote it in my spare time in the factory on a notepad with a bio. And it’s still it’s still now 20 Barbie’s on, it’s still selling. So people say they haven’t got the time, but we’ve all got the same 24 hours, we just need to sit down and do the work we need to be we need to be prepared to do a lot of work. But if you love something, I’ll be fine. And you need to with writing particularly you need to be prepared to do the apprenticeship. People have this idea with writing that if they’re natural, they’ll write a book and it will get published automatically. But normally, there’s a great there’s a big apprenticeship that we have to do we have to really work hard on developing our skills. I’m still developing my skills now. Excuse me, so do the work. That’s that’s look say on people’s I’m working too many hours. But you know, they choose to work too many hours. When you really want to do something, you’ll find the time to do it. But it’s about sitting down and saying, am I just waiting for the dream like a lottery or I’m actually working and doing something to create that?
David Ralph [40:57]
Yeah, no, I think so. And I think you know, in my life, I was more tired when I used to work up in the City of London. Now looking back on it, but it’s because I didn’t really want to do it. So my whole effort. Now I’m doing this, you know, we’re recording at nine o’clock in the morning, and I’ll be going to about 11 o’clock tonight. And yes, it is a long day. And afterwards, am I exhausted? Yes, I am. But I love it, you know, and I actually run up the garden to do it. And I created this whole show in my lunch hour when I was at work planning and writing out emails and stuff. And then I’d have an hour of and I’d go back. So you can find the time, can’t you and if you are just coming home and plopping yourself on the sofa, I interviewed a gentleman a little while ago called Tom Corley. And he he investigated the habits of the rich. And he’s written this book called rich habits. And he’s looked at the 50 habits that the rich have against the 50 habits that the poor people have. And the poor people would go to work and they would come home and just lay on the side for watching Telly, and eating rubbish food or whatever. And then the rich people would go to work and then they come home, watch hardly any Telly and then be you know, working on something and reading a self development book or that kind of stuff. And it was fascinating to see how much enthusiasm and energy you can have. When beforehand you go. I’m so tired. I just need to go to bed. When you’re doing your thing, or you feel like you’re doing your thing. It’s like you’re sprinkled a rocket power, isn’t it?
Geoff Thompson [42:27]
Yeah, well, when I first gave up my job.
In the factory, I was running down the street at six in the morning training, thinking this is my job. I was teaching in universities teaching martial arts, I’m thinking this is my job. I couldn’t believe this was my job. I gave up conventional employment 25 years ago now. And even today, I keep thinking God, I don’t have to clock in. I don’t have to clock out, I’m doing something I love anybody. If if the Lord starts to diminish, I just change it just move. I keep growing. And it’s it’s such a wonderful feeling to that feeling of freedom, and feeling of just doing the things you love. I only do the things alone. And as you know David that’s a doesn’t mean it’s not without its challenges. It’s got challenges to send it out. But I’ll create a book or a film and hold it. And it’s a great feeling thinking I’ve created this, it feels it feels good. And then I think I’m going to put that out to the world. Now I’m going to send it out into the world, I’ll have no idea where it’s going to come back. But I love just the idea of just scattering seeds everywhere. And then, you know, a month later or or a year later, or 10 years later, one of them comes back and say 10 years ago, you’ve sent me a book or 10 years ago, I read an article and I love that I love the idea of just throwing seeds everywhere you know, but just working from love all the time. And it makes life very exciting. And of course it’s there for everybody, we just put we have to change our perceptions of the world. People don’t even know why they go to work. They don’t know why they turn up nine to five, it’s just conditioning, they don’t challenge that conditioning. If they don’t want to do that they don’t have to, they can change employment, they can sell things and travel around the world, they’re free to do whatever they want to do. And they feel as though they have to fall into this. These condition believes and if they tried to change them, I’ve seen people attack their decisions. And or think they’ve gone mad, but nobody actually challenges the reality they live. And that’s really all idea to look to them. So there’s more than this. There is more than this, I don’t have to do this. I don’t have to clock into a job, just and satisfy me. That isn’t my dharma. I don’t have to, you know, live in a poky little place and drive a 20 year old car and be afraid to put my head above the parapet and to have an opinion. And the moment I started to challenge that God, the amount of books that came to me the amount of information that came to me the amount of buildings that appeared before me, you know, bloody in place. Yes, amount of the amount of tutors that just appeared in my life just literally appeared in my life. But it’s because I put a big red balloon in the air and said, I’m what I’m looking for more, and you become a nice thing is this this, this energy that we’re looking for is looking for us. And the moment we turn towards it, it rushes towards us. And like you said, You literally you literally create buildings of learning. I sit in BAFTA in London, I’ve been a member for about 10 years and I’m sitting I’m actually marinating in the Best Writing talent filmmaking talented in the world without question i was i was workshopping a play last week at the National Theatre. And I’m there and I’m thinking I’m actually learning in the top 30 in the world for storytelling, those buildings are there. But they don’t appear and till you walk towards them.
David Ralph [45:54]
Sorry, I interrupted you, you saying no, I was just no, I interrupted you really that that’s that’s what i doing this show, Geoff Thompson, I was just saying, you become like a success vacuum. And people suddenly come into your world because you are trying to do something. And that’s the thing. That’s one of the messages. Well, there’s two messages from what you were saying there. Number one is when people start getting going by aren’t going to be lovely to begin with. And they are just going to be doing it and doing it and doing it and you feel like nothing’s working. But if you believe in it enough, and I keep on persevering, then somebody comes along, and then suddenly says, you know, that’s good, just keep going with it. And I had that a lot, where I’d never even heard of these people. And the very first show I released, I got an email from somebody saying, thank you so much for this, you know, I really appreciate this, keep going. And I put my first show and somebody’s reaching out, that gives you inspiration. But the thing that I loved about you, and it’s so powerful was the fact that you said, I’m still in my apprenticeship. You know, you you love it so much. But you realize there’s so much more to learn. And there’s so many, many more skills that you can add temporary. Yeah, it’s funny when you build like that.
Geoff Thompson [47:04]
And the and the and what you need just appears, it just appears in front of you, you know, got a little card with backdrop on it. And you go down Piccadilly, and there’s an invisible building that you can’t even see it. It’s a tiny doorway, I’ve put my card in, opens this magic door ago with and it closes, and there is a labyrinth in there. And I get to sit and talk and get lectures from the best screenwriters in the world. And again, we’re not just talking about making films we’re talking about. We’re talking about the genetic change in our makeup, when we hear the right stories. That’s why what you’re doing is is is this isn’t like a podcast, this is intrinsic to people’s whole development. Because storytelling is pivotal. It always has been. If you look at the hero of 1000 faces, you know, this whole mythology about storytelling use us to actually physically make us grow. When we hear the right stories, it becomes flesh grows inside as it expands. As I grew, because I read the stories, I read stories about other people like me, ordinary people like me, who have done it, that there’s a great word in in Islam called Hakim. And it says that the truth is undeniably right in front of you. But it comes in three phases. First of all, we have to have intellectual proof. intellectually, it’s possible, because Geoff Thompson is like me, and he’s ordinary. And he writes books and makes films intellectual is possible for ordinary people like me to do it. Then we have the second stage, which is vision, and we have to start to be able to see ourselves doing it, we have to get, you have to be able to visualize ourselves in our dream job or with our dream girl, or whatever it is we want to do in our dream life. And then we have to watch actualize it. And when it tipped into reality, when we get our imagination, so it’s three dimensional. And we can feel it and smell it and touch it, it will tap into reality. And then when it’s reality is undeniable proof as possible. So when I published my first book, for me, it was not possible for a guy like me to publish a book. That’s what I was told that was my belief. So I found proof that it was possible. I read the books by other people very similar to me similar backgrounds who were ordinary who did it intellectually as possible. And I started to work on my imagination. Every time I tried to imagine myself as a published author, I’d have all these doubts, all of this self criticism, all of this, all of these naysayers in my head or that my, my conditioning lies, you know, so I had to learn to dissolve that and see beyond it and see myself. So I started small, have published an article in a magazine, one article, and I expanded, I thought, what if it’s possible to write an article, a book is just an extension of articles. And it’s possible to write a book. So I wrote an article first, and I got some good feedback from a very experienced guy. He said, there’s something here you’ve got something. So that expanded me, then I wrote a book because I had some stories to tell.
And let a couple of people read it, and I got a good feedback. And then I sent it to a couple of publishers, most of them said, leave your number in the bin. And so you know, I’ve got a few not banks, but I had a friend of mine called him a trainer who really encouraged me. And eventually, I sent it to a small publisher who said, Yes, we’re going to publish this. And my life changed, completely changed, because I had searched when that book was published, wasn’t like I just published a book, my whole reality change, because I thought, well, if that, if I found, my belief was that it wasn’t possible, I’ve just found out that it is possible because I’ve got the book in front of me, is undeniable proof. If I can prove that then I can prove other things. Within a year, I’ve written five books. Now I’ve written 40 books. If it’s possible to write a book, then it’s possible to make a film, I made a film, if it’s possible to make a film, it’s possible to be a playwright, I’ve got three plays going on at the moment. It’s called to to do a tour to do a play. It’s possible to write a feature film, you know, if it’s possible to do that it’s possible for me to what what is what was impossible, nothing’s impossible, I just followed exactly the same thing, exactly the same process of yakking finding the intellectual proof that it’s possible, start to imagine myself see myself there. And if there’s any blocks, I clear the blocks. And if there are real blocks in my life, I get rid of those blocks, I dissolve those blocks here, I have a dad, and I keep sitting in that damage will be dissolved. And I see myself clearly where I want to be. Once I see it, clearly, it taps into gravity, then I have more proof. And then the responsibility as Joseph Campbell says the responsibility is to come back from your hero’s journey, and talk to people and say, this is the this is the elixir. This is the essence of my journey. This is my proof is possible for me. Now, I’m not saying that you should do it. I’m just saying that you can do it. I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that you have to do I’m just saying that it’s possible, because most people don’t think it’s possible. So they don’t even try. But I’m saying it’s possible. I’m the truth.
David Ralph [52:07]
Well, let’s play the words of Steve Jobs who went on a hell of a journey. And he, he basically gave me the blueprint for this show. This is Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs [52:15]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leaves you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [52:50]
Very interesting that the first words he said was it’s impossible on that one. Do those words resonate with you?
Geoff Thompson [52:57]
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, some of the things I have done, five, I’m led purely by intuition. I follow my intuition. My intuition is my guide. It’s my divine Sat Nav, I have a very strong central ego. So I know who I am. My Sentinel ego commands, the software of my mind grows, the software expands the software. And my mind controls my physical and central body. So I have an alignment of a congruence of bodies, but they’re all led by a sentinel, by a divine satin or by an intuitive voice. And I have to trust that when this intuitive voice says follow this feeling, after trust, that might might not might not make sense now. But, you know, when I’m looking back the dots for join, and that’s, that’s been the story of my life. It’s been interestingly, I’ll tell you the story of I got tired of telling the story about the BAFTA
David Ralph [53:49]
you’ve got all the time in the world.
Geoff Thompson [53:52]
I’m following intuition. I’m traveling around Britain doing a book signing tour, 32 cities, 64 shops, and every replace I go to I say to my wife, today, we’re meant to meet somebody that we’re supposed to serve, and I listen out for them. I’m in Manchester. I do a book signing, but I don’t feel the introduction. There’s lots of heads, lots of faces. Lots of people are important. Lots of networking, if you wanted to follow conventional networking, but I don’t feel into introduction. And just as I’m back to go, I’m approached by a young lad who works at Waterstones called Ben college. And he’s a shelf stacker. And he said to me, I really loved your talk, and it really inspired me. I want to be a writer, I would really like to interview and try and sell the story to the magazine. So I felt the introduction, but in my mind, I’m thinking I’m on a 3232 or 64 shops. I’m really busy. I’m struggling to find the time to do anything. But I feel introduction I said to him, Look, I’m in Huddersfield next week, if you can make it over the Huddersfield, which isn’t far from Manchester, we can get an interview and our meditation arm. Because I really felt this intuition. I didn’t know where the dots would join. It didn’t know what it meant. I just felt an introduction. I met him the following week, we did a great interview. I didn’t think any more of it. Two weeks after that, I get a phone call from his sister, whose name is Natasha college. I didn’t know she was a documentary producer.
Unknown Speaker [55:19]
She said,
Geoff Thompson [55:20]
I wanted to thank you for talking to my brother. He’s been struggling and it really inspired him. It’s really good of you. She said, I’ve read about you. I’d really love to do a documentary about your life. Would you be interested? Is it Yeah, of course. Of course. The word. Yes. I’ll go and meet her in Birmingham, which is by Coventry. We sit down and it turns out that they want to do a documentary but they said it’s going to take a little while to sell this in the meantime, as if we’re going into drama. Do you want to do a film like a short film for us? And I said yeah, of course I’d love I’d love to I did it free. I don’t like the rotor, short term called bouncer. We want some money to make it that was bad nominated, and then on the set of bouncer with Ray Winston wrote another film for a guy called Ronnie, Ronnie Fox, and that went up after the year after so my BAFTA came. I joined the dots four years later, but looking back that BAFTA wouldn’t have caught me widen have spent some time with that young lad in the bookshop. But I was introduced to him by a feeling I followed the feeling, I had no idea where it would lead. And it led me to actually thinking about it. Now I was in reliable instance garden about a month ago, talking to him about him doing my latest feature film. So all of that came from a meeting I had 15 years ago, with an anonymous book books darker and Waterstones, I can join the dots. Now at the time, it would have been impossible to do that.
David Ralph [56:44]
That is a fantastic story. And you know, as you’re talking all the way through, I’m thinking to myself, I want a BAFTA. That’s what I want now, and I’m going to, I’m going to visualize this, but can you do me a favor on the night? I win my BAFTA? I want to have a next to you in the toilet just before that will be very strange, isn’t it?
Geoff Thompson [57:03]
Yeah. You look a bit nervous David Well, I bought for a bathroom band. Yeah. And
David Ralph [57:08]
I could say that I’m a famous f6 rapper. And that would be perfect. I’ll be perfect. Now. That’s it. That is a that’s a brilliant story. And it brings us nicely to the end of the show. And this is the end of that.
Geoff Thompson [57:20]
Let me let me tell you this a quick story. Quick, are great stories to tell you.
10 years ago, get an email from a guy in South Africa. He said, I’m a student, I’ve got no money. Can I have a free book? I’m a big fan. And you’re an inspiration, kind of a free book. One day, I’ll pay you back. And I said to myself, look at this cheeky guy here. I really liked it. It was really cheeky. I said, send him a ball. Because I felt the feeling again, I felt a feeling within there was something cheeky about him. And I just thought we said we sent him a ball. Never thought no more Robin. Then 10 years later, I get an email out the blue. Would you like to be a guest on London real? It’s a very prestigious kind of kind of podcast show in London as lots of great guests on. And it’s a really discerning show. And I just thought that’s really interesting to do lots of politicians, lots of high profile people, not quite sure the family, but I’ll go and do it. So turn off. And as I meet the guy outside to go into the build, and he says You don’t remember me to hear? And I said no, he says all 10 years ago, I was in South Africa was a student had no money. And I actually for a free book and you send me a free book. I said I would pay you back. And now I am. And of course I’ve got loads and loads and loads of business from the interviews I did on London real because it’s watched by a lot of businessmen. So I’ve been mentoring quite a few people from that. But that came from the an investment of luck, an eight pound book 10 years ago. And looking back now, you know, again, looking going back, you’d never have joined the dots. But looking back now and thinking, you know, it was it was a good investment, you nine pound box, or whatever it was. So that happens to me all the time. I’ve got a million of those stories.
David Ralph [59:04]
But the message bear is if you’d receive that letter and you hadn’t done anything, then nothing would have occurred. You’ve got
Geoff Thompson [59:10]
nothing would have occurred. Yeah, you’ve got to do stuff. Yeah, everything costs. We have to make, you know, normally it costs us in energy. We have to invest our time, we have to invest our comfort. In rafting, we have to expand our courage, we have to do something the universe is touch sensitive to us. People are waiting for the universe to respond. It’s the universe is waiting for us. And when we respond, it will reciprocate and will respond with vigor. It will reciprocate with vigor. But I think people secretly know this, but they’re afraid of their potential. They call it the jona complex of fear of our success of fear of our great potential, because potential brings change. And change even though changes the only constant is is the one consistent fear.
David Ralph [59:57]
Fascinating, isn’t it? absolutely fascinating. And is going to be fascinating now because I’m I’m time travel into your Well, Geoff, and this is the part of the show, when I play the theme tune and we send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back in time and speak to the young Geoff Thompson, why did you choose and what advice would you give them we’re going to find out because I’m going to play the theme tune in new up. This is the Sermon on the mic.
Unknown Speaker [1:00:28]
With the best of the show the Sermon on the Mount. Sorry,
Geoff Thompson [1:00:47]
I’m kneeling by your bedside. And you were 11 years old. And you’re terrified, because your teacher has just sexually abused you. And your whole world is falling apart. Go to bed, you’re 11 and you wake up the next day you were 100 years old. And you’re terrified, and you have dissonance. And it makes no sense to you. And you feel abandoned by this man, and you feel abandoned by your parents and you feel abandoned by God. And it makes no sense. But I want to promise you, I’m promising you now little boy, your beautiful 11 year old little boy, I’m promising you now that good is going to come from this good is going to come because you’re going to you’re going to go out into the world, this one incident is going to create a lot of pain, you’re going to go out into the world and you’re going to search for a way to find balm for that pain. And you’re going to as you go into this search, and you start looking for ways to bring bond to your pain and bring clarity to your dissonance, you’re going to bump into lots of people are suffering, you’re going to bump into people that are real people that have been abused, you’re going to bump into people that are afraid. You’re going to recognize on your journey that everybody’s afraid. And you’re going to see that your Dharma, your duty. your reason for being your raison d’etre is to go out and tell stories and say to people, it’s okay. Even from this trauma, even from this sexual abuse, even from this abandonment, you can create gold, there is nothing that’s wasted. So this one incident, you feel you’re abandoned, but I’m promising, you know if you got angels around your bed protecting you in this situation. But I’m there with you. Now I’ve traveled back, I’m sitting with you. I’m opposite. Yeah, I’m looking at you. And I’m telling you, good will come from this amazing things will come from this, you’re 11 years old, and you feel abandoned, it feels senseless. But by the time you’re in your 50s, you could be traveling the world, you can be living with the good if your dreams you can be expanded, you can be excited, you can be annoying. You’re going to be in all of these amazing places, you’re going to be meeting the most exciting people in the world, and you know what you’re going to see, you can see that they’re suffering. And you’re going to recognize that when you speak to them. Because of a bit because of what you’ve done. When you speak to them, you’ll be able to heal them with your words, just with what you say just with your truth, just with your honesty, just with your stories. And you’re going to be placed in front of lots of people who are suffering, and it’s going to feel the greatest bliss just to stand before them and see that pain disappear. When you say I’ll know your pain, because I’ve had the same pain. And look at what I did with my pain. I’ve written a play about my pain. I’ve written a book about my pain. I’ve written a film about my pain, I’ve created a life from that pain. You think you’re lost when you’re 11. But I’m promising you now, this is going to lead to great things, this is going to set you on a trajectory that is going to give you the most exciting life. And there is never going to be a moment during that time that I’m not going to be that other people aren’t worthy, some visible, some invisible, you are protected. If you are protected you are you wouldn’t be frightened for a second. So I promise you that protection is there. It’s never going to lead you and your journey is going to be exciting. People are going to write books about your journey. People are going to want interview about your journey. People didn’t want to stand in your company visit your journey. This the same senseless now but later on, you’ll be able to join the dots to leave and go on a podcast with someone called David Ralph or say, Tom, how you join the dots. And you’ll see how even something as heinous is this can lead to something beautiful. Even this. Even this piece of trauma can lead to a flower. You can have a beautiful life. That is a promise.
David Ralph [1:04:47]
Yeah. How can our audience connect with you, sir?
Geoff Thompson [1:04:51]
Geoffthompson.com
is my website. Geoff@ Geoff thompson.com is my email address. All the details are on the site.
David Ralph [1:05:02]
We will have all the links on the show notes. Mr Geoff Thompson, thank you so much for spending time with us today joining those dots. He’s been an absolute inspiration having you on the show. Please come back again when you have more dots to join up because I do believe that by joining up those dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Geoff Thompson, thank you so much.
Geoff Thompson [1:05:20]
Thank you, David.
Outro [1:05:23]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become so he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to join up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on join up dots.