Discover the Magic Within – Part 1

Transcript performed by A.I. Please excuse the typos.
00:00
This is Dental All-Stars, where we bring you the best in dentistry on marketing, management and training.

00:12
So the process was developed in the 60s and 70s. was great scientists and philosophers and Nobel Prize winners. And they were looking to find how to see the world clearly for a better experience of life. And they looked at timeless wisdom. They’re teaching you how does the world work, not just externally, but internally. The point is if we can change our perception, we can change our world. Hi, I’m Eric Vickery, president of coaching at All-Star Dental Academy.

00:41
With me today is Alex Nottingham, CEO and founder of All-Star Dental Academy. He’s also the author of My Uncle the Magician. And as you know, I really enjoyed reading this book. As soon as you got me a copy of it, gobbled it up in just a, gosh, a couple of weeks for me, which is quite fast. And we’re gonna be talking about this book through a two-part series.

01:06
Talking about what does this mean? This this life story, this adventure that you you bring us and take us through and personal development. So I’m really excited Alex to dive in with you and have those who haven’t had a chance to read the book get some insight into how this book can really help them out. So excited to do this. Yeah, it’s been a project in the making for 20 years plus. That’s incredible. That’s incredible. So.

01:30
You know, people hear my uncle the magician. This is not a how to do magic tricks book. What is this book about? Yeah. What was this book about? So I say it in two parts. So the first, the big picture part is magic equals perception. And the premise of the book is this. The world is an illusion. It works by magic and the magic is perception. As you change the way you perceive, you change the way the world works around you. That’s magic.

02:00
And the way the book unfolds, it’s a true story that many of us can relate to. Many, everybody faces difficult times sometime in their life. And to be able to have the grace of an unexpected mentor that comes along and helps them navigate, I think we all can relate to. So the story kind of follows me and I have this uncle we’ll talk about who helped me through.

02:29
tough times. This book isn’t about me. I’m an example, but it’s something that you can say, okay, where do I fit in here or how do I put it through my lens? Yeah. Abby always says human beings are human being again, they’re, figuring things out. People being people. And this story when you read it, it’s just about, like you said, people are always going through things. So in, this book, how are you, what are you, what’s going on in your life?

02:59
as you, as you show us in the book, the storyline of what you’re going through and how you navigate it. So the book starts out with me going through a difficult breakup in college, and it didn’t seem at the time first like, it’s just a girlfriend, but it was difficult and I wasn’t eating or sleeping from it. And my dad took me to a psychologist that didn’t work and

03:29
Like the last ditch effort, my, my dad was like, have you considered talking to your uncle Mark? And my uncle Mark help them. He’s always helping everybody. I make sure I say it now is that’s part of why I, I wrote the book, but it’s honoring him, giving me all this wisdom, which we’ll, get to. And he’s just a helper for everybody. So to me, it’s like, if I can get uncle Mark out there to so many people.

03:58
You meet him in a party and he’s just talking to you and this person just loves to help. And he says to make my world better, I make the world around me better. That’s his philosophy, Uncle Mark. So I always admired Mark as a kid. He taught me the piano. So I was always intrigued by him and I asked him for help. said, could you help me? I’m really struggling. And he said, did your parents tell you to ask me? I said, no. I said, I want the help. He said, it’s very important because

04:28
You have to want it and you can’t force somebody to do something they’re not ready for. It’s like helping a grandma across the street. You got to ask permission. You don’t just do it. You might be depriving them of their agency. So the same thing is it’s something that I had to want to do. And so now I said, uh, I want to help and he helped. Wow. And you’re going from this breakup and then it just keeps progressing through his lessons. Uncle Mark.

04:57
the magician’s lessons to you and you’re slowly putting things in and pulling back and putting things in and pulling back. it’s a real true life progression of the struggles that I think anyone can relate to. So would you define your Uncle Mark the Magician any other ways or anything else that we should know about him, who he is and where he comes from for you? Yeah. I’ll give you a little background. Also what comes to mind as well in writing this book is I actually started writing it right when he started working with me.

05:27
But I was, I was what, in my twenties? And, and so I didn’t have enough life experience to write a book. So as I mentioned, my step-uncle, he is a physician. He’s an OBGYN actually. And some would say that he’s eccentric. So I want to look up the word eccentric. It’s not a bad word, but he’s basically, he’s in his own world. He’s in Mark’s world. And like I said, at a party, he’s always with someone teaching that one person and just there for them. And.

05:57
A lot of the nature of the world, the guilt that we’re exposed to, the nonsense that goes on, he doesn’t have any of that. He’s very, as he would use clean, he’s happy for people, no jealousy, no guilt, no, and it’s like, it’s so easy to be around him. And he taught me the process. He’s very humble. I’d say, well, how do you know that? He says, I don’t know anything. He said,

06:25
All I know is the process he would say, which he was taught in. seemed to me in the book to always be the calming. Yeah. Person for the storm that you were in and not that he was solving it for you, but like maybe more like a compass in that way of like you navigating through a storm and having your mentor and very clear. And I would, I would use, you said eccentric. didn’t pick that up in the book because I I’m trying to visualize what it looks like in the book, but I would.

06:54
I felt like calming, almost like a guru type person who was a mentor for you and had just incredible wisdom, like the process. So are we allowed to talk about the process? course, of course. So you don’t have to read the book to hear about the process. So what is the process? So the process was developed in the sixties and seventies. was great scientists and philosophers and Nobel prize winners. And they were looking to find

07:24
how to see the world clearly for a better experience of life. And they looked at timeless wisdom, different spirituality traditions, not religion per se, just they’re just like, okay, what’s giving me the information oh to be able to cross all concepts. And like I said, they’re teaching you how does the world work, not just externally, but internally.

07:51
And the, again, the premise, the point is if we can change our perception, we can change our world. And so that’s really what, what Mark uncle Mark is trying to help me do is I get caught up in these, these programs that we all have trauma programs, whatever it might be. so again, the process premise is very simple, simple, but then it’s like, okay, well, how do I start unpacking some of these old programs and start working through it? And.

08:20
That’s where Mark really helped because I read all the self help books and they’re nice, but it’s an implementing it and having someone that can cut through all that is very helpful. So the book does help in terms of, see examples of him and I communicating. lot of the book is dialogue between us. So yes, you’re teaching, but it’s not a teaching book. you’re have to, here’s your study, but you’ll learn and everybody will get something different from the book.

08:47
But it’s helpful to see Alex getting in trouble and Uncle Mark fixing it to be able to say, okay, I see, that’s a good example. I see how I can apply it and what I do. Yeah. The process is fluid based upon what you’re going through, but the principles are pretty basically explained in the book of like, Hey, there’s a story happening here. You’re going through something that could be catastrophic. It could be maybe less, less catastrophic, more nominal, but you’re using the same sort of things like, like,

09:17
how do you navigate these things and what are you turning it into? You know, go to MSU, make stuff up, let’s say, whatever it is. You have these ways about telling the story in a way it’s like, okay, I could see myself processing similarly and how you process out of it. So it’s applicable for sure. When you think about your process as you’re going through it, obviously you’re still not stuck in some things. There’s a point where you were able to shift

09:46
implementing and staying consistent with it. So was there a turning point for you in this process that made the difference for you? My uncle would do magic, it seemed. I would be in his house twice a week working with him, but he would be called up in the middle of night to go do delivery because somebody is delivering a baby. And he would just say like, oh, she’s dilated.

10:15
I’ll go in an hour. This is an, and he would time it exactly. And then she would be ready, fully dilated, ready to go. And I’d be like, how are you doing this? And then chance calls. So I would be talking about somebody and it would happen more around him. had this energy. So I would talk about certain things, maybe use Heather as an example, because I want to say the girls I was dating, but let’s say Heather, I was dating Heather. And then I was talking to him and she would call.

10:45
Every time when I talked to him or when I mentioned her name, she would call always around him. Like, why is this happening? It doesn’t make any sense. And we’re in his office, very comfortable. said, uncle Mark, I don’t believe it. You taught teach me all this stuff. It’s great. It’s helpful. But how is it that you’re creating all these things? The magic, the deliveries, the chance calls. Like, I don’t know. I’m skeptical. there’s a statistical reason for something. He says, you can live in a world of chaos.

11:15
and or randomness, or you can live in a world of magic where life works in your best interest. It’s your choice. What world do you want to live in? So that was a turning point where I’m like, okay, I’m just follow the tools and don’t get caught up on, the other stuff. Yeah. I just went for it. And so these tools that you’re putting in place and you finally say, okay, I’m in, I’m going to give it a shot. What this process.

11:42
What are some examples of some things that you did using the tools of the process? So we talk about the tools in the process and there’s many of them that we talk about throughout the book and you’ll get, we’ll talk about this at the end, but when you get a copy of the book in the book, there’s a reference to some more material about the tools as well as it will give you an email you can contact to get some more bonuses and things like that. the

12:10
The tool that I want to talk about here, the number one tool is meditation. And before we get to that, the goal of the tools is to go from insanity to sanity. And you’re going, what? That sounds a little weird. What do you mean? And when my uncle would say you’re insane, I’d be like, that’s not very nice. And because you get a picture, like that’s somebody who has to be.

12:40
What is it? uh Strapped up and sent to an institution or something. And, but he was very specific about defining things. says sanity means, it literally means rational and lucid. Oh, I’m rational, lucid. Are you, when one is angry or sad or afraid, would we think we’re sane? Are we acting rationally? Are we seeing clearly? Probably not.

13:09
So that’s a very specific word, sanity. So how do we get from insanity or lack of sanity or clarity to sanity? And the other example we talk about as well is you can think about chemicals or chemistry in your mind. We have adrenaline, which is our fight or flight response. That’s a neurotic energy. And we want to move to serotonin, which is calmness, clarity.

13:37
And we don’t require drugs for this, although some may need it, may benefit. That’s fine. There’s many ways that our body has built in mechanisms to do that. And so one of them would be the top one would be meditation. Now we talk a little bit about how to meditate in the book, but nothing fancy. I mean, really it’s as breathing in, breathing out, focusing in on sound out there listening. And, and basically you’re trying to separate all that chatter in your mind.

14:06
getting to serotonin, right? Sometimes just pausing. That’s another tool. Stop, he would teach us in there. Pausing is stepping back. Just that pause, just that moment of silence sometimes gives your ability to kind of regroup. So whatever you may have a meditation practice or prayer or way to separate, all those work. We’re letting the thoughts come, we’re letting them go. That’s the idea. And once you do that and you’re able to successfully uh

14:37
stop that train of craziness and you can get to a little bit more clarity. It’s amazing what you can do. You’re a better decision maker in business. You’re better with your partner, with your friends and life. You’re happier. So this is pretty basic stuff, but it hits right to the core of what we want to be focusing on. If you’re not in the right state, none of this works. Yeah.

15:03
That’s the really does fall in line with the stuff I love about the power of the mind, know, champion mindset, you know, being in control. We’re not in control of our thoughts. Your thoughts just pop up like fireworks that you’re watching and like, okay, do I choose into it or not? And what you’re really talking about is if I’m in high emotional state, am I making great decisions? And that’s the sanity part of it because I’ve got to get sleer headed would be, think.

15:32
but we were all familiar with. And this is extremely foundational for saying, Hey, can I be emotionally intelligent enough to back up, remove myself from this situation and go focus for a while, get really clear on my thoughts and then come back into it. So I love the tool and no, I’m not always level headed with things. can just ask Abby or my buddies probably or my kids, you know, but I’m trying, trying to be there. And that’s what I love about the story too. It’s like, okay.

15:58
Everyone is dealing with this, especially if you’re trying to be a high performing human being, have a lot coming at you. And this book gives us the tools and the assets to, uh, I think approach those challenges with some practical things and not just have it be, Oh, calm down. Well, what does that mean? What does that mean to calm down or think clearly? Well, what does that look like? How do I do that? So my uncle would always, I would be losing it. And my uncle will say, meditate. Yeah. We’re not talking until you meditate.

16:28
Yeah. Don’t tell your wife or your partner that. Okay. That doesn’t work. I think it’s good advice for the kids. Yeah. It’s good for the kids. It’s good for yourself. Don’t tell your partner that it’s not your place, but if you have a teacher or a mentor, they can tell you what to do. Yeah. It comes to that. There’s so many good things in this book. We said already, this is going to be a two-part series. There’s more coming. We’re going to do another podcast where you maybe do a deeper dive into

16:57
how to get out of these difficult challenges that we’re facing. Yeah. So for those who’d like the book, we’ll put links as well. You can go to, it will be at All-Star General Academy as well, but you can go to alexnottingham.com and that you’ll have an order link right there that you can purchase the book. You can get either hardcover or, or ebook from multiple retailers. have a great publisher, really excited about.

17:25
And if you email Heather at AllStarDentalAcademy.com and say, I got the book, then we’ll send you a bunch of bonuses. We’re always changing the bonuses and we’ll send you, we’re just so grateful for you to get the book and we hope that you share it or buy it for friends if you enjoy it, of course, and just pass it along. That’s the idea of this. And I think as well for our AllStar followers, you know, they’ll get kind of an inside view of what is it like?

17:54
You know, Alex looks like, know, JD MBA has got all together, but it was a difficult ride and, and, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for a great mentor. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a really good story. The way it’s written. A lot of books are written this way where they’re not just like, one, two, three. It’s like, let me show you how to put the tools in place through a story and it’s real life story. So very relatable. It’s easy read. It’s very practical to get some results from. So.

18:21
Thank you Alex for sharing your time with us and give me some insight into the book. Everybody go to alexnottingham.com and pick up his book and maybe two copies, give one away. And so thank you all for listening. Remember to share this podcast with others, especially those who can benefit from this topic. And until next time, go out there and be an All-Star.

18:50
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Dental All-Stars. Visit us online at AllStarDentalAcademy.com