Spiritual Spotlight Series
Discover a world of healing, holistic, and spiritual modalities with the Spiritual Spotlight Series podcast. Every week, we introduce you to diverse spiritual practitioners, including psychics, energy healers, life coaches, spiritual thought leaders, and witches. Each episode offers inspiration and enlightenment through the unique journeys, experiences, and divine abilities of our guests. Perfect for those on a path to spiritual awakening, this podcast blends science and mysticism to expand your understanding of spirituality. Our mission is to open your eyes to the world around you, making complex concepts accessible and enlightening for anyone seeking spiritual growth. Whether you're new to spirituality or looking to deepen your knowledge, the Spiritual Spotlight Series is your go-to resource for awakening and transformation.
Spiritual Spotlight Series
From Combat to Triumph: Michael W. Allison's Journey of Resilience and Leadership
How does a young boy from Jamaica grow into a decorated Purple Heart combat veteran and CEO of a successful academy?
Michael W. Allison's journey is a compelling tale of resilience and transformation. From surviving natural disasters to enduring personal trauma, Michael's early life challenges shaped his incredible strength.
His move to the United States came with its own set of trials, including bullying and molestation, ultimately leading him to join the military where he faced the horrors of war in Iraq. Battling PTSD and struggling to find his footing in civilian life post-service, Michael's story is a testament to the human spirit's capacity for recovery and growth.
This episode isn't just about Michael's personal struggles but also about his path to professional success through the integration of business, science, and psychology.
Discover how transformative techniques like neurolinguistic programming and cognitive processing played a role in his recovery. We discuss the powerful metaphor of "breaking the bottle" to address buried emotions and the structured framework of decision, direction, and destination that helped Michael reshape his mental narratives.
This conversation underscores the importance of coaches and mentors in guiding us through personal transformations.
Finally, we turn the lens on the origins of "Overcoming Adversity," exploring the host's own transformative journey. Hear about the motivations behind creating Adversity Academy and the realization that true fulfillment extends beyond financial success.
We also introduce valuable resources, including our books "Overcoming Adversity" and "The 10 Laws of Adversity," which offer practical lessons for navigating life's challenges.
Don't miss out on learning about Michael's professional offerings and how you can benefit from his leadership and personal development programs. This episode is a treasure trove of inspiration and actionable strategies for anyone looking to conquer their own adversities.
Michael W. Allison, MBA (USMC | CEO)Consultant | Coach | Speaker |
https://michaelwallison.com/
We hope you found the episode to be enlightening and insightful. Our goal is to create content that not only entertains but also helps you grow spiritually and connect with your inner self.
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We believe that by sharing knowledge and insights about spirituality, we can help to inspire positive change and personal growth. So, if you find our podcast to be meaningful and informative, we encourage you to share it with your friends and family.
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Hello everyone, Welcome to Spiritual Spotlight Series. Today I'm joined by Michael W Allison. He is an MBA, USMC, is a keynote speaker, business consultant, life coach, Purple Heart, Combat, Veteran, trauma survivor and CEO of the Adversity Academy. Michael, thank you so much for coming to Spiritual Spotlight Series. I'm so happy you're here.
Speaker 2:Hey Rachel, Thank you so much for having me. It's an absolute pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:You're so nice. So, Michael, your journey is incredibly inspiring. Can you start by sharing a bit about your background and how your experiences as a Purple Heart combat veteran have shaped your approach to business and personal growth?
Speaker 2:Yeah, most definitely. You know my background is one from very humble beginnings and lots of hardship. You know we was born in Jamaica, experienced a flood, left our family homeless. I went through Hurricane Gilbert that tore our roof off our house, and then my family had to make a decision, so they decided to come to America. When we decided to come to America, they went to New York and they sent me and my siblings to Miami Florida. One of the worst projects are ghettos in Miami Florida was this Overtown and, unfortunately for me, my first night there I was molested by a family member and then fast forward from there.
Speaker 2:I joined the Boy Scouts and experienced something similar on a trip to Washington DC and then a couple of years later, I was moving from different neighborhoods and different towns and I didn't really speak English very well, so I got bullied and picked on quite a bit. So I got into quite a few different fights just trying to adjust because we were very poor. So I didn't wear the Nikes, the name brands. Back then it was the 1980s, 90s, so you can think of what was popular was probably Troops, I think it was, or Cross Color Outfit was popular around those times. In addition to that you know, I joined the Boy Scouts and went to a trip to Washington DC. Came out of the hotel I saw some of the boys there on the wall. I was told to get on the wall. All of them were naked and I experienced something some kids should never experience in their lives and that kind of stuck with me and really bothered me as a young kid and made me put into some very tough, challenging mental spaces and things like that, at around 11, 12 years old. Anyhow, life went on and I'm living in Miami, florida, I'm playing high school football and thinking I'm going to go to University of Wisconsin. I'm about 260, 270. I'm playing pretty well and tear my ACL, mcl back-to-back years and then those opportunities got taken away.
Speaker 2:Eventually I joined the Marine Corps and started joining the Marine Corps and serving, and then 9-11 hit. And then next thing, I know that I'm in Iraq and I'm in Iraq and you know one of the hardest things I could have ever done in my life. You know, first day we get there we get mortared and I hear incoming and I'm not running from my life and knowing like this thing is real. And then several months later, obviously we've been on plenty of different missions and things like that. But it was a Trap. No hit me, killed my best friend and that really traumatized me. So I eventually got out of the military and that transition was not easy. So I eventually got out of the military and that transition was not easy.
Speaker 2:And when I got out of the military I kind of struggled with trying to find employment and things like that. Eventually I landed on my feet, got a job and I'm working on a railroad and after five years on the job I suppressed PTSD, mental health. For a very long time I never spoke about those types of things and for me, bottling up those emotions, bottling up those feelings, reared its ugly head. I'm a supervisor. I get called out to a suicide and I'll go there. Coroner is there and everything is there and I see this person's body cutting half and it immediately brought me back to putting my best friend in a body bag and from there I spiraled and I got out of the service. I'm sorry I left that job, but around that same time I was going through a divorce and that same night I got a DUI. And now I had to face that and deal with those types of things. And you talk about your DUI classes, probation and all those things that's tied to that and one of the most challenging, the most embarrassing things in my life, because I never saw myself even getting into troubles. But when you're faced with some of these tough things in life, it really kind of shows you what type of character you have and how you're going to go through adversity and things like that.
Speaker 2:Lo and behold, I'm going through this divorce. I get past that, through a custody battle, and then I get myself back on my feet. I go back to school, got my bachelor's degree, got my master's degree, got a good job in Washington DC, and then I get remarried again. And now I'm going through another funk, another phase, and I go through my second divorce.
Speaker 2:And the second divorce had me at my lowest point, feeling like I don't know what kind of person I am and I'm starting to question my identity, my values, my standards, and that brought me to the point of trying to take my life when I was living in Tampa, florida, and from there that was my breaking point and that was the transition and turning point for myself.
Speaker 2:And from there my mom wrote me a letter when I was in a boot camp and it was always for me to push forward and continue to challenge myself and be great, because there's so much more of me. And within that moment that's what sparked that for me and ever since then I've been on my own personal journey, professional growth journey and just changed my life. So now that's what I do with my company, with my business, and it's taught me so many things that I put into my programs, put into my services, because I've been there, done that. I know that so many people have walked in, are walking in my shoe right now, go through some of my same experiences that I've been through. There's much more stories to that, but I kind of gave you the fast speed up version to it.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's a lot and a little bit, and did this drive you to actually kind of as the founder of the CEO of the Adversity Academy, like, did this help you, propel you into finding this academy, and what is the primary mission of your organization? And Absolutely.
Speaker 2:The primary mission of our company is to be the global brand to help people get through adversity, and we redefine that. When people think of adversity, they think of it as the worst thing and there's nothing great out of that, but I do believe that adversity truly builds the character and really instills certain things inside of you to get you to deal clients, and whenever I meet with customers, I make sure that they understand that I know where you're coming from and I've been there before. But definitely we're going to do this together. We're going to get you through it, because all of us go through challenges. All of us face obstacles in our lives. It's just a matter of how we deal with it, how do we go through it, and the greatest thing to that that was identifying, finding someone that can help you get through those things and knowing that they're going to hold you accountable and get you through some of the challenges things that you're facing.
Speaker 1:That is so important. So your work integrates cutting edge research from business, science and psychology. Can you maybe discuss how these fields intersect to promote resilience and success?
Speaker 2:Most definitely when I was going through my own traumatic brain injury situation and the PTSD, I was struggling, trying to understand psychologically why am I dealing with some of these things mentally and can never attach why things were going, why things were happening, all of these cause and effects things? And then it was not until I went to Rush University, at the medical hospital there, and then they started teaching me and let me understand all the things that's tied to the neurolinguistic programming and things like that. And then also, when I went to the veterans program in Atlanta, georgia, at Emory, they also started talking to me and teaching me all of the things that's tied to the cognitive thinking and cognitive processing and things that's tied to that and incorporating that technology into our programs to help our clients understand what's really going on psychologically, what's going on mentally, for them to truly, truly understand what's at the core to deal with some of these things that they're facing, to obviously start getting them to visualize and start seeing things, how to truly get past things.
Speaker 1:Wow. So one of the concepts you have is breaking the bottle that is central to your work. Can you maybe explain what this means and how it helps individuals overcome their limiting beliefs?
Speaker 2:Most definitely so. Breaking the bottle is like I just shared with you my story. I bottled up most of my life, most of my emotions, where you may see me on the outside and on the exterior and I may show a certain type of attitude, personality, character, things like that, but deep down I was hurting and I really did not know how to challenge those face, some of those things, and I would just really ball up those emotions and that would turn out into outbursts. I would do some things that was really truly outside of my character. So it was not until I started facing some of these things and what I did was apply the framework of decision, direction and destination and that's what I break down into the program. So the decision piece was identify what are some of the things that I'm facing to deal with, then clarify that and get some things to get clarity, to really address some of those things. And then the limiting beliefs part is around verifying it. Is these things really true and do I really believe those things and how could I counter that and fix some of those things?
Speaker 2:The direction aspects of things started for me where it was. How can I start aligning to? What is it that I really want to accomplish in life when it comes to my purpose, my values, my missions, my goals and things like that. So I started building upon that and started creating what that is and then started establishing that and start living that into my true, authentic self. The last piece is the destination piece for me, and it was ultimately.
Speaker 2:Once I got to that breaking point, I really didn't have a sense of direction of what I was trying to do in life, where I was trying to go the family, I was trying to build the company, I was trying to build my career, any of those things and then, once I started identifying what is truly, truly important to me and identifying what that is, then I started gaining so much more alignment. It made things in regards to saying yes or no to certain decisions in my life. Then it changed the proximity of who I was around, things that I was doing, changing my environment, and the last thing for me was to how do I sustain that and maintain that, and that was the framework that I decided to implement into my life. That's the same thing that we implemented in our programs.
Speaker 1:I really really like that. It's almost like you're providing a roadmap, but people need to dig in, identify, get clarity, have direction and then move forward. And I'm going to ask you this and do you find that some of your clients come to you with kind of the same limiting beliefs or thought processes that really aren't true?
Speaker 2:come to you with kind of the same limiting beliefs or thought processes that really aren't true. Yes, I do. I find people are stuck in a phase of what someone had told them in their life as a kid, what someone told them when they were in their teenage age, what a boyfriend or girlfriend said to them or did to them, what an employer said to them or did to them. And I really identify with some of those things because I casted some of those things on myself. And one of the things that all of us I wouldn't say all of us, but most people do, is whenever we wake up in the morning or we go to bed at night, we start selling ourselves these thoughts. That's running over in our head. And guess who's the buyers? We're the buyers. We're buying the same things that we're selling ourselves.
Speaker 1:And that's the part where we have to come in as coaches, as mentors, as physicians, to work with clients and work with people to start getting some of those things outside of their minds. It is so, so true. As somebody I'm I'm a spiritual practitioner and I'm also a registered nurse it's interesting how the stories that we tell ourselves are they're really ultimately not true. But look at somebody like yourself who's been through so much, I mean and honestly, to be such an accomplished person now it's like wow. I would imagine that all of your clients are like okay, if he can do it, I can do it. Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I do know what you mean. So this is the thing. I wrote this in my book. I live probably one of the best professional lives that you could ever tell.
Speaker 2:I've accomplished a lot of things, but deep down on the inside I was hurting and I would go to work and be an excellent employee and do my thing.
Speaker 2:But when I came home I struggled, I suffered and kind of was selling myself, telling myself that you know that you're not really this kind of person, you know that you're this kind of was selling myself, telling myself that you know that you're not really this kind of person, you know that you're this kind of person, those types of things. And I started believing some of those things to the point of where it did eventually start pouring over into my career. And that's when I really started having to address that, where my performance at work started declining, and I said, oh no, now I really truly have to start fixing this thing, because for me, you know, the Marine Corps kind of helps you develop such a high standard of yourself and then when you kind of see when you're declining and things are not adding up and stuff like that, it really kind of like put things in perspective. We start checking yourself and finding out is why I speak to. Let's start identifying some of these things, let's start clarifying some of these things and then let's start verifying everything.
Speaker 1:I really like that you identify that, yes, I have a very successful professional career, but my personal life, there's some things that are lacking, and I think sometimes we can as individuals, you know, kind of put things into sections or silos and maybe not truly recognize or identify like, yeah, I'm great at work, but when I come home I'm a, I'm a raving lunatic, like it's. I like that you kind of you touched into that and then you were able to identify, shift, move forward to that. It's almost like making yourself feel whole, like how do you?
Speaker 1:feel whole Like it's not just your business that you know drives you forward. You also want to have amazing personal connections and, however, you want to live your life.
Speaker 2:Exactly. We're a whole person. How do we show up authentically as our true selves? I realize predominantly I see this in men, but I realized I was a very good compartmentalizing person and I could really face something, deal with something and put it on the shelf, but eventually it's still on the shelf, so it's not really going anywhere or anything like that. It's still a part of you and that's where I was speaking about, where sometimes it rears its ugly head, and that's when I had to start like facing some of these things and deal with some of these things.
Speaker 2:And it was some of you might call it a come to Jesus moment, but it was for me to be vulnerable and start becoming transparent and start facing some things. You know, I was struggling with my finances. I was struggling with my relationship with my wife, I was struggling with my kid, I was struggling with alcoholism. I was on 13 different medications, you know, and to the point of thinking like I'm a bad dad, I'm a bad husband. All of these things I'm starting to say about myself, you know, starting questions, things based off some things that occurred to me in my childhood and how should I deal with some of these things, and I really had nowhere to turn, and that's why I really had to start addressing some of these things and fix some of these things.
Speaker 1:I will say that it is interesting how I do feel like in our lives we have bigger missions in life, and it sounds like you know you definitely have a mission to help people overcome adversity and really help them to be more successful, and I like the fact that you're not only talking the talk but you've also walked it like, you've done the work, like, look this is. This is the product of doing the work. So how does the adversity academies approach leadership training differ from traditional methods, and what unique benefits may it offer?
Speaker 2:Definitely so. I think the transformation piece of what we offer is the real life, real person experience that we're giving you. It's nothing that's tied to anything that's medical or anything like that, but it's truly practical things that you could truly apply in your life, where you can see results and transformation based off the process and the framework that we're teaching you. So we teach you things around a competency of, like, your accountabilities, your vulnerabilities, your vulnerabilities and transparencies and things like that, where we're going to truly identify some things that's inside of you that you truly need to face and you truly need to get through. And it's really like coaching these step-by-step, process-by-process where you start dealing with some things and facing some things. You know, the best client is the person that's going to show up truly ready, prepared to deal with some things and face some things in their lives. You're not going to be sitting at a counselor and you're just telling them your problems and they're offering you advice and things like that. No, we're going to truly go through.
Speaker 2:If you're having some problems with your time management, we're going to work on some things with time management. If you're working on with some things with fear, we're going to start dealing with some things that surround fear. If you're dealing with something around your anxiety to speak to your kids or your parents and things like that, let's talk about some things, what's around that, what's behind that for you to have that fear and face some of those things. So we get real, we get straight to it, because that's the kind of person I am and until you're ready to face some of these things, you'll continue to live in that space and that's why we offer that safe space for you to get clear, get vulnerable. But now we're going to truly offer you some skills, some practical things you can start doing to see that transformation.
Speaker 1:I think that is so important, because there's a lot of people that will just talk and we should do this, you should do this, but no, you're actually saying, okay, this is kind of a roadmap again and we're going to implement it, like I'm going to give you the tools to be successful and it sounds like you follow the client through. You know to really see the amazing transformational stories.
Speaker 2:Now.
Speaker 1:I have a question, and this is probably you can say absolutely not so like I in my day life, and I told you this I run a doctor's office and we are looking for you know, I have supervisors that are needing additional supervising training. Is that something that you would maybe do in the Adversity Academy, or is that something that's not high level enough?
Speaker 2:It is actually so in our programs.
Speaker 2:If you go to our website, you'll see that we offer 10 leadership training programs with it, which is part of my professional experience that I did prior to.
Speaker 2:But if you see the additional services, then you'll see the high performance training that we do offer around personal development and professional development. So that is something that we come in and work with teams and we coach teams and help them on to get to that peak performance that they're trying to look for within their company and their organization. To speak towards the leadership programs, we have a COC suite program, we have a middle management first-time supervisor program, we have a women's leadership program and we're also creating a diversity equity inclusion program as well. And I say that because when I started working on O'Brien Road, I was a part of our diversity equity inclusion team and that carried throughout the rest of my career, based off every place that I've worked at. But when I worked in Washington DC, I created our senior executive leadership program for over 12 years. So the programs that you see in Washington DC that the senior executives are using same framework, same matrix that we're using to help corporate companies and executives out here in the civilian world.
Speaker 1:That is amazing. I'm so excited. So you also have a podcast. It's Overcoming Adversity. It's highly regarded. What inspired you to start this podcast and what do you hope listeners take away from it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So starting the podcast was something for me to help me get out of my comfort zone and starting to share my story and share my message. Until so I'll take you back. So. So when I decided to work on my personal development, professional development, that started about 10 years ago and it was after I said I'm not going to take my life. So what are some things that I can start implementing and start doing? So I went to Rush University, I went to Atlanta, I went to Alaska, I went to different places to start working on myself, getting programs started, getting coaches, mentors, accountability partners and different programs, and started implementing those things in my life to change the person around me, change everybody that was around me. So I kind of like disappeared for a little bit.
Speaker 2:I have a friend that has this company called Dark Work, so I just went in the dark and started working on myself and creating the new identity, new version of Michael. That's kind of what we do with our 90-day program. From there I said I got a divorce. I wanted to get my family back together. It took me three years to go through couples counseling, marriage counseling, family counseling, to remarry my wife back and put our family back together.
Speaker 2:So it took a lot of work for us to actually go back and create this environment, for what we're trying to do and I think that's the most important thing when it comes to the Adversity Academy podcast is so we get with people that have been through some things, faced some things in their lives and I bring them on and have them come on and share their story, share their testimony, but definitely share with our listeners what are some things or strategies that you implement in your life to get through things. I started back with the book. I did my TED Talk and after doing my TED Talk, I started the company and after the company, people wanted me to come and coach them, consult them, come and do talks and things like that, and that's where the podcast started from.
Speaker 1:Oh, that is amazing and I want to commend you for having a willingness to actually work on your family and get it. You know, I just think that's amazing, like some. You know, that's just that's very special. Thank you, thank Like some.
Speaker 2:you know that that's just that's very special. Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. So you've been recognized by numerous prestigious platforms and awards. Which of these accolades are you most proud of, and why?
Speaker 2:So I'm going to be very honest about something. So it's a good and a bad story, okay.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that.
Speaker 2:No, I've done quite a few cute, cool things in my life, right, but it was getting the Inc 5000. And I say that because I come from nothing and always in my life I wanted to see if I could make millions of dollars and and built that here in South Florida and we did that within three and a half years. But I was in the business for the wrong reason. I was in it for the financial aspects of things and it didn't bring me the joy that I was truly, truly looking for. So, with that being said, yeah, we made the Inc 5000. We did great, we accomplished a lot of things. We serviced a lot of customers, blessed a lot of people that worked for me and things like that.
Speaker 2:But I eventually sold the franchise back and exited the franchise and that's when I decided to start the Adversity Academy. So that was probably one of the greatest accomplishments to see I could have accomplished something, knowing that this was a hard feat for me. I've never seen anyone in my family that's a millionaire. I've never seen anyone that made a lot of money or anything like that. So to build a company, create a company and do something like that was one of the biggest accomplishments that I think that I'm happy to say I actually did something like that. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:Congratulations. That's amazing, thank you. So you have multiple books that are available for purchase. You have Overcoming Adversity the Law of Attraction, which I think is really cool, and then you have Overcoming Adversity the Law of Attraction, which I think is really cool, and then you have the Laws of Adversity.
Speaker 2:Can you tell us just a little bit about the books? Definitely so. Overcoming Adversity is based off my life story and it's through 10 chapters. But what I do, I take you through my journey of my story, which is much more in greater details, but every single aspect of it I'm teaching you something, I'm giving you lessons from it.
Speaker 2:So it could be from the standpoint of what my parents was going through Through that flood. This is back in 1980. So there's no internet, there's a whole bunch of things that people do not have. And to think that my mom and dad had to rebuild every single thing that they worked for through a flood. We had to sit on the roof of our house until the water went away, so we lost almost every single thing that we had and we had was left Right All the way to the point of some of the things that occurred to me when I came to America and adjusting.
Speaker 2:So I speak to every single one of those challenges that I'm facing and then for the reader to take some key takeaways, some key points and key lessons from every scenario that I've been in, all the way up when I went to Iraq to my divorce.
Speaker 2:And then I get into the entrepreneur piece in regards to some things you should learn If you want to get into entrepreneurship, you want to get into business. That ties into your habits, your consistency, your mindset and things that's going to tie to help you have longevity within your company. The 10 laws of adversity is it ties to 10 things, that 10 principles that we're going to face and we're going to go through in life. But you, the person, how are you going to respond and how are you going to deal with it? We're all going to face challenges. We're all going to face tough times in our lives as a person, as the man, as the woman or whatever you identify yourself, or how are you going to face those things? And that's what we kind of talk about within that book fire yourself for. How are you going to face those things?
Speaker 1:And that's what we kind of talk about within that book, and then the law of attraction one.
Speaker 2:Oh, the law of attraction book. I love this book because there's plenty of books out there about law of attraction.
Speaker 2:But this book speaks towards you again, I think. What is the identity, what is your character? What is the culture that you're creating around yourself that's going to attract people to you? Right, like-minded people, they say. You're the exact person that you're going to be around your five friends, or who you surround yourself with, or the environment that you're in. So who are you going to attract around you? Are you going to attract winners? Are you going to attract losers? Are you going to attract people that complain? Are you going to attract around you? Are you going to attract winners? Are you going to attract losers? Are you going to attract people that complain? Are you going to attract people that fight? Are you going to attract people that support you? That's the type of thing that we talk about. So you speak about different characters. You speak about different competencies within the book and how to create a person within yourself so you can start attracting the right people around you based off the success that you want in life.
Speaker 1:I, legitimately, I'm going to be getting that book. I honestly cannot wait to read it. I'm not even kidding you. So, before we wrap up and I ask you the last question, if anyone is interested in learning more about you and, like you said, you have a TEDx talk, you have books, you have an academy where is the best place for them to go to?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. If you want to book me for speaking and one-on-one consulting, then go to michaelwalisoncom. If we're speaking and one-on-one consulting, then go to michaelwalisoncom. And then, if you want to learn about our leadership programs, our personal development program, go to wwwthediversityacademycom. You can always email me at malison at the diversity academycom.
Speaker 1:I love that. Thank you so much for coming to the Spiritual Spotlight Series. It's truly been a pleasure to speak with you today. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Rachel, thank you so much for having me.
