Episode #3 - Lions and Tigers and OCD, Oh My: with Steven Diamond of Tiger King 2
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Description
In this episode, Kerry interviews Steven Diamond who you might have seen on Netflix’s hit TV series “Tiger King 2 - The Doc Antle Story,” or on NBC’s “The Jane Pauley Show”. At age 12 Steven began his career as a professional magician which spawned into a 30-year career touring the world and performing over 10,000 magic acts. Though not everything in his life was magic during his career. The Trauma that he went through at a young age and being physically threatened by Doc Antle (Bhagavan)as well as dealing with Anxiety, Depression, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) plagued him for years. But he would eventually learn how to deal with his mental health challenges and would later create a course to help others out with Life Skills Master Class. In this episode, we learn some of the coping skills that Steven teaches and how he handled anxiety as a performer.
About Steven Diamond
Steven Diamond has performed magic and illusion for the past three decades around the world, appearing in England, Germany, Korea, Brazil, France, Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico, and dozens of other nations. And as he performed before large crowds he left hidden his greatest secret: he suffers from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. He reveals his story in a new book, "OCD: A Life Among Secrets". Diamond knew he wanted to be a magician ever since his father took him to his first magic show at an amusement park at the age of 7. By the time he was 12 he was a hit on the corporate convention circuit raking in hundreds of thousands per year. In high school, he was performing and touring his very own two-hour illusion show that included real lions and tigers.
A tragic story of surviving the grips of an evil mastermind cult leader. A story he now tells in the hit Netflix TV series “Tiger King 2 - The Doc Antle Story”. Today he is a keynote speaker and corporate trainer on the topic of “Stress in the workplace", with his popular multimedia presentation entitled: “What The Tigers Taught Me” where he captivates his audiences with his wild stories of working with exotic lions and tigers, he now demonstrates the life lessons these endangered beasts and surviving a cult taught him.
Show Notes
Steven Diamond's Website
Stopping Your Anxiety Free Webinar
Life Skills Master Class
What The Tigers Taught Me Podcast
Oregon State University Hemp Study
Transcript
Kerry Finsand: 0:07
Welcome to Successfully Depressed.
Kerry: 0:09
And I'm your host, Kerry Finsand it is time to learn how to navigate mental health in life and business. Today's guest has lived a very interesting life. He's been everything from a childhood magician starting at 12 He's been on the net Netflix documentary Tiger King Two, The Doc Antle Story. And he's performed in over 10,000 different magic shows He is also the founder and CEO of Life Skills Master's Class, where he teach people how to master their own anxiety and stress. And that's what I'm really excited about talking to him today about is just teaching people in the world about how to manage stress better. Steven diamond. Welcome to the show.
Steven Diamond: 0:50
Hi Kerry. Thank you for having me on it's a pleasure to be here.
Kerry: 0:54
Well, Steven, like I said, you know, I did some research on you and you have quite. Quite the background. I actually, I think you are the definition of successfully depressed and that's in all the, in all the best manner, because you've been very successful, but you've been homeless.
Steven Diamond: 1:09
Uh, you've had some major childhood trauma but you've traveled the world and then you've come from that. And now you're teaching other people how to kind of work through some things that you worked through before. Um, I just wanna hear how you got to today. So what's kind of your background. What's your story? Well, I'll tell you, um, obsessive compulsive disorder is an incredible thing. Uh, it's a double edged sword, uh, because it makes you, in my particular case, I was a perfectionist. So everything had to be perfect. So I would rehearse endlessly for hours and hours and hours and hours a day, 12, 15 hours. And sometimes to the point to where my fingers would bleed. And, um, so it's a double edged sword. It's that vicious cycle that you're trapped in, you can't get out of, but it's also that disorder is what gave me the work ethic and taught me how to rehearse in a way that made me good at what I do. And so ultimately when you're good at what you do, uh, success will find you. And so, um, I think, uh, I was a unique case of someone who learned very, very early on how to take my dysfunction and make it work for me in the best possible way.
Kerry Finsand: 2:30
Yeah it's interesting my first podcast interview was with Jill Anderson. She's a trauma coach. And so I learned about kind of the, the Big T's and the Little Tees of trauma. And I would say that when you were a kid, you had definitely the big tees of trauma. Can you kind of talk about
Steven Diamond: 2:47
sure
Kerry: 2:48
how you got into being a magician and then obviously being a professional magician when you're 12, uh, you're just learning about how to, to be a person at that point.
Kerry Finsand: 3:01
And so you were a solopreneur and you're learning so many different things, so you're not really mature enough to know the world yet. I mean, I'm 42. I'm still not mature enough to know the world yet, but how did you get to that point? Uh, and how I'm just really curious.
Steven Diamond: 3:17
You know, I'll tell you I would say that I was a different kind of kid. Um, I always looked at my magic career as a business. To me it was a business and that's how I viewed it. And I studied business very early on. I was very interested in making money when I was very young. But magic became the vehicle that I figured out that I could use to take me wherever I wanted to go. And, uh, you mentioned my appearance on Netflix, uh, Tiger King. The story that I tell in Tiger King, Tiger King Two. The Doc Antle Story is, uh, I'm in all three episodes. And that story began about the time when I figured out that I needed something that would set me apart from all the other magicians that were out there. And when I met doc Antle, uh, we were both young kid. He's 10 years older than I am. We were both young and inexperienced at the time. And, um, we're talking about 1983, 84 in that timeframe when we met. And it was during that period, uh, that I was beginning to figure out that if I had something that would set me apart from all the other magicians, I had the opportunity to really take this, uh, to the next level. And when I met Bhagavan and saw the tigers in his backyard, I was like, ding, that's it. And, um, the rest, as they say is history
Kerry Finsand: 4:51
and that was in Virginia, right?
Steven Diamond: 4:53
That's correct. Yeah. And we started the original, the original facility that we had. We called it the zoo, even though it wasn't a public, it wasn't open to the public. Um, but we called it the Buckingham Zoological Park. And, uh, that was the original place. It was in a little tiny country town in Buckingham, Virginia. Um, and the reason that Bhagavan located it, there was because the animal laws, uh, were really, really laxed. And, and so we were pretty much able to get away with anything.
Kerry Finsand: 5:28
I have seen the whole documentary series of tiger King Two, but I rewatched the first episode, just kind of refresh myself with the story again. And I know also that not far from there, I believe is where the Yogaville was located. Is that correct? Is okay.
Steven Diamond: 5:45
That's not too far away. We used to go there on a regular basis. And in the beginning, Yogaville was very different from what it is today. Now, today I'm told that it is a straight up cult, but back in those days, when it first started, it really had innocent intentions. It was a place where people could come for spiritual growth. And, uh, they would teach yoga and meditation and healthy eating and healthy lifestyle, uh, principles and things like that. And teach you about controlling your mind and your emotions and things like that. It was a very different place back in those days. Um, towards the end of my association with doc, Antle it began to get a little culty.
Kerry Finsand: 6:32
And so were you a member of that of the yoga?
Steven Diamond: 6:37
I wouldn't call myself an official member, uh, but we were there a lot because boon was very close with the guy who run the entire thing. His name was Swami Satchidananda, um, he was kind of a Hindu guru, kind of a guy, a very sweet, loving manner. At least he was always, to me mm-hmm uh, all my interactions with him were very positive, very life affirming. We talked a lot about spirituality and that sort of thing. So, um, I had nothing but great memories of him. Uh, boon had a very different relationship with him. Boon had a mentor mentee kind of relationship and looked at him for guidance in terms of, of pretty much everything. Um, and so it, it was a, it was a really interesting time period because, uh, both Bhagavan and myself were trying to figure out where we fit in, in the world and how we fit in and that sort of stuff. And he was focused on building this animal empire and I was focused on building a magic career. And, um the two of us kind of figured out that, you know, he figured he could use me for revenue and I could use him for the tigers. And it kind of worked out for a short period of time of about 10 years.
Kerry Finsand: 7:58
And it sound like in the beginning it was a good relationship between you two.
Steven Diamond: 8:03
It was, uh, we got along very well in the beginning. We understood each other very well in the beginning. Um, he was a different person in those early days than he is today. I think that one of the most interesting things about this whole story is the transformation that he made. And I kind of look at it is two highly intelligent people who were overachiever in their lives already. And one used their powers for good and one didn't. And it's really the tale of two parallel lives and what would happen just simply based on the decisions that you make in your life, and it's really interesting, 30 years, or really it's even more than that. I've known Bhagavan almost 40 years. So, you know, 30 plus years later, uh, it's interesting to see how it's all worked out.
Kerry Finsand: 9:01
I really liked your parallel there's the person doing good and the person doing let's say bad and taking advantage of people.
Kerry: 9:09
I think when people are trying to better themselves, especially in a spiritual or mental or physical way, even that people can definitely be taken advantage of. And that's what I think is interesting about you is that he took advantage of your good nature and everything.
Kerry Finsand: 9:25
You eventually got away from working with him and you worked on your own and you grew this big career of being all over the world, which is amazing. You had your own issues and stuff that you couldn't overcome, but then over time, just with everything you learned, this culmination of life, you now created this life master class. So tell me a little bit more about the life master class and what it all entails.
Steven Diamond: 9:48
This whole journey really started back in the days of the Buckingham Zoological Park. It was because of a lot of the trauma that I went through and experienced while working with Bhagavan. That led me on this path of being stressed out and anxious and looking for answers, you know, when I left that whole experience and the reason that Bhagavan and I went our separate ways, aside from the fact that he tried to kill me was.
Kerry Finsand: 10:14
Oh, didn't know that part.
Steven Diamond: 10:15
yeah,
Kerry Finsand: 10:16
stop the press is let's come back to that one in a second here.
Steven Diamond: 10:20
Uh, let's come back to that in a second. But aside from that, the main issue I had was that I wasn't being paid. So after a decade of doing free shows all over the world and every job that you do with him, you know, all the money goes to the animals and you don't get paid for it. Uh, at that point I had to separate and I got an opportunity to be on a children's television show that was syndicated throughout the, all of the Spanish speaking world, 80 million people watched it every week. It was a children's TV show called Nuba loose. Are you fluent in word of Spanish by the, oh, okay. and so the producers had me on, we were touring through South America. They had me onto as a guest on the show and the kids went wild. They'd never had an American magician on the show before. And it was a completely different style than what south American magicians do. And so the kids really resonated with it. The producers of the show came back and said, you're a hit. Our audience loves you. We would love to have you on the show on a regular basis. So they offered me a deal and I saw that as my way to get away from Bhagavan. And so I used that opportunity to leave and that's exactly what happened and that, that was in, uh, June of 1994. And,
Kerry Finsand: 11:44
uh, how, how old were you then?
Steven Diamond: 11:46
Oh, God, I was like 23. I think something like that. I'm 53 today. I'll be 54 in. So, um, yeah, that's, that's how it all started. That's how I separated. And so through all of that, I was dealing with a lot of heavy trauma, as you mentioned, you know, there was a lot of really scary stuff that happened to me, not just at the hands of Bhagavan, but also prior to him in my own personal life. Uh, I had found my babysitter dead and hacked into pieces. Um, I had some sexual trauma in my past and all kinds of things like that. So really it was the perfect storm, but what saved me was my laser being focused on my magic career because when all else was going crazy in my life, I had that career that dearly loved and could focus all of my energy in. And that's exactly what I learned to do. Is harness the power of my mind and my emotions to block everything else out in the world and just focus on my magic career. So when things got crazy in my personal life, I just worked harder and focused more on my magic career. And strangely enough, through that process. And I didn't realize that this is what I was doing at the time. In fact, I didn't realize this until some 20 years later when I was in therapy for it all. But, uh, what I really was doing was developing, uh, a very specific set of coping skills, which were unique to me. And I developed some unique strategies, uh, to handle all of this stress and anxiety and trauma that was going on in my life and ke and while main being able to maintain my focus and flash forward, 20 years later, I'm in therapy. And I began telling my therapist about this and he was just absolutely blown away. And he was like, Steven, this is amazing. You should be teaching this to people. And that was the first time that I ever thought about developing any time, kind of a course or a class. And at this time we're talking about 2003 and that began my journey on investigating. Yeah. Maybe I do have some skills that could help other people. And, um, I wrote a book that was published in 2007, called OCD Life Among Secrets. I actually have a copy of it right here. And I wrote this book and inside the book there's a whole section in here of pictures of me with all of the lions and tigers and all kinds of stuff of my performing career, my family, uh, things like that, me touring all over the world. And so in this book, Jane Polly from NBC, you might remember her from the today show.
Kerry Finsand: 14:50
Oh yeah.
Steven Diamond: 14:50
Jane Polly got a hold of my book and read it. And she called me one night at home. It was late at night. It was like 11:30, my time on the west coast. I live in Las Vegas. She was in New York and uh, she called me late one night and said that she had read my book. She loved it and wanted to do an episode with me on her daytime talk show because she was getting ready to come out public for the very first time and reveal. That she has suffered from bipolar her entire life. And no one knew it. And what she resonated with in my book was that laser focus, she did the same thing I did. And I discovered that a lot of high functioning people do the same thing is that they might be complete disasters in their personal life, but they're able to function to a very high degree in their professional life. And the reason is they use a series of coping skills that that can be good or bad depending on how you use them. And we related on that level. So she had me and Howie Mandel on the show as guests. And after that show aired, I received tens of thousands of emails from people all over the world who resonated with the story that I was telling and all of their emails had a similar theme and it was please help me. What can you do to help me I'm suffering. I don't know. Please teach me. And this was the first time I ever experienced this and I realized, oh my gosh, there are all these people have millions of people out there who are suffering like this, and maybe I can help them through the process. So I started looking for a resource to point these people to, and at that time they just, it just didn't exist. There was nothing out there like that. The internet was just becoming a thing and eCommerce was just beginning. And so it really wasn't a thing at that time. So I created you'll laugh. Um, I actually have a copy of it here. Uh, I created a four CD audio course, CDs who, who even knows,
Kerry Finsand: 16:58
Well, what, wait, what's a CD. What's that?
Steven Diamond: 17:00
No one even knows what those are today. But I created a four CD audio course called when anxiety attacks and started selling this online. And we sold hundreds of thousands of.
Kerry Finsand: 17:12
Really,
Steven Diamond: 17:13
and that became the very first iteration of what is now life skills masterclass. And so since about 2009, I have just been creating a, a more in depth version of it every few years. I update the course and we just updated the entire thing during the pandemic. I shot the old course down and we used to be all audio. And today it's all video.
Kerry Finsand: 17:44
Oh, nice.
Steven Diamond: 17:45
So we took the course, we updated it, we expanded it greatly. And, um, it's really much more in depth today than it's ever been. And, uh, we vetted it with a team of doctors and psychologists. And once, uh, everything had been cleared, we launched the brand new course that is lifeskillsmasterclass.com, uh, in March of this.
Kerry Finsand: 18:11
Well, congratulations on that. I mean, that's, that's amazing that to, to launch something like that and all the, the energy you put into it, I mean, I didn't realize that you had the, I knew you had the book. Um, but I didn't know you had the audio CDs before and then that you had this program and you, then you redeveloped it. And then what I like about it is, is then you had experts look over your material. I think that's beautiful because we all, uh, learn on our own experiences and we read and we find different ways to improve ourselves. But, um, it's nice to hear an expert say what you should be doing over there. That, yes, this is, this is accurate and stuff because there's a lot of those people out there that aren't that way. And they're just trying to, you know, make a quick buck. And obviously you're not because you started something organically. And I think that's kind of like, you know, you put the good vibes out there and the world, and then the good vibes have been coming back to you. And having this course,
Steven Diamond: 19:07
it's been a very long journey, long journey. Yeah. Oh
Kerry Finsand: 19:10
yeah. Yeah. I think anxiety, that's something that everyone has had this collected trauma with a pandemic and I know my anxiety has gone up over the last couple years with you being a performer.
Kerry: 19:23
Talk about anxiety. What did you do to like calm yourself down? Did you breathe exercise or do meditation?
Steven Diamond: 19:31
Yeah, there's a, there's a couple things. Um, this is an interesting story. I get asked this question a lot and it always shocks people to find out that, um, entertainers and I think any entertainer watching this right now will resonate with what I'm about to say. but you can be the most dysfunctional person in the world when that curtain's on the ground. But the second that curtain goes up, something just snaps. It just it's like flicking a light switch and you become that entertainer. And the entire rest of the world falls away. Mm-hmm and really, and truly the only moments that I had that were stress free in my life for the better part of 30 plus years, were those moments when I was on stage, because I am more comfortable standing on a stage in front of thousands of people than I am standing in a room with three, especially if I don't know them. And so it's a unique situation. The stage is home. For me, it's comfortable. I am relaxed. I'm in my element. I'm, you know, I'm there to entertain. I'm gonna make you laugh. And, and so when you stand on that stage, you get that instant feedback from the audience and you've got people rolling in the aisles, you know, that's one of the greatest highs that you could ever experience. And I always tell people the most incredible pharmacy in the world is the one that's right between your ears, because you have the ability to make yourself high on life. If you know how. And entertainers learn that skill. We learn how to psych ourselves up. We learn how to change our state of being, uh, so that we can get into the mindset and the body and the spirituality that we need to be in in order to make those people laugh and to entertain them and do our thing. And so those are skills which you can learn, you can teach those skills to people. And so I have a ritual that I do even today, and I've been doing this for my whole career, but I, I call it grounding. Uh, but I have this little ritual where I do where I spend around three times. And, and I say my, my little intuition for, uh, for my little intention for that particular performance. And then I connect with the audience through the curtain. And I allow that, that wonderful energy that's swirling in the theater because everyone's anticipating the show's getting ready to start. They're all excited. They, they can't wait for the curtain to go up and for the performance to begin. So all of that positive energy that's swirling around the venue. You can tap into that and I've learned how to use that, to change my state and make everything that is going on in my life completely disappear. And it's a very, very powerful skill. I taught this to CEOs of fortune 500 companies. When, when you, when you have the ability to change your state at any time, let me give you a real world example. Let's say you're married and let's say you and your wife are having. An argument. Yeah. Yeah. Being in a, he, yeah, there you go. being in a heated argument in that moment. If both people are heated at that moment, then we all know what the result is going to be. It's just gonna be nasty, ugly, and nothing's gonna come out of it. That's, uh, life affirming or positive. But when one of the two has the ability to change their state control their emotions, and they know how to process the information that they are receiving in a nonthreatening, non attack mode. It can be life changing, not only that, but when you add conflict resolution skills into this. you can actually, uh, learn a lot from the arguments that, that, you know, you get involved with that will make you a better person. And these are some of the indepth skills that I teach at lifeskillsmasterclass.com.
Kerry: 24:01
What, I've learned myself in the last few months through an ADHD group and it was, it was great.
Kerry Finsand: 24:07
Our teacher had a PhD in psychology and she actually had ADHD. So she understood, you know, everything and she had some interesting principles and one of them was, I think it's like the sacred moment of sacred pause. It's like when we talk about, you're gonna argue if I'm gonna, if I'm getting upset about something, if I take a second to pause and channel that energy and let it go, oh, wow. This is a way better process instead of like, okay, I'm really upset. Someone cut me off in traffic. Let's say, you know, if I pause and think about that and think of, well, what is it gonna benefit me being annoyed? Is it gonna, it's gonna ruin my rest of my day, then maybe I'm gonna be the one cutting off a person next and everything. So I think that really resonates. I would totally agree with that.
Steven Diamond: 24:53
I actually teach that in my course. Um, and it's something that I call redirection thought therapy. And what I do is I teach a person. The very first thing you should do is to stop and put a little space between you, your personal feelings, and what's going on emotionally inside of you and the problem that you're being confronted with. And it's in that space, which is silence that you're able to regain control. Of your emotions. And through that, you then put yourself back in the driver's seat because you can then choose what your next step is going to be. Instead of defaulting to the pre-programmed neurolinguistic pathway that you've taught yourself your entire life. We all have a series of pre-programmed responses that we default to whenever certain stimuli appear in our life. And so when someone threatens us or gets angry or comes at us in a negative way, we instantly default to this pre-programmed response, which is usually exactly what you don't wanna do. Part of what I teach in the class is how to rewire your brain from defaulting to this series of pre-programmed responses and creating new NeuroNet pathways. Where you can choose an array of options of how you want to respond. That is a life changing skill. If you just learn that from my course, you can absolutely change your life in so many incredible ways.
Kerry Finsand: 26:42
Yeah. It's because we have that that lizard brain, that Neanderthal brain that's fight or flight. And so that's kind of what we're I call it going to brain. Oh yes.
Steven Diamond: 26:54
Yeah. You know, it's, it's our PRI it's our primate monkey brain still exists in the back. Uh, it's still there. Um, and, and we, when we get triggered and we go into survival mode, which is really what a heated argument is, um, then a lot of that sort of thinking takes over and that's what causes a lot of suffering in people's lives.
Kerry Finsand: 27:20
So I think that's a great thing to learn. And I think sometimes when we're learning things, we're excited, but then it can be overwhelming too, to learn all these things and creating habits. I think that one sounds like a really interest you wanted to start off with. What is like just the real vague version of what someone would do to get into that kind of practice?
Steven Diamond: 27:36
It's a great question. You know, uh, over the years I've learned how to best teach people this information. Uh, as I mentioned before, I have a whole team of educators and psychologists on my staff that I work with to develop all of this content. And through them over the years, I've learned. What's the right way to teach this material. And what's the wrong way to teach this material. And one of the things we learned is that people's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and shorter. So when I redesigned this new version of life skills masterclass, we broke it up into 30 minute weekly chunks. And so used to, I gave you access to all the content at one time and you could go in there and digest it. However you want it at your own pace. And I thought that was a great thing. Turns out it's not. So what, what we do now is we send you one 30 minute class per week and I teach you three important concepts in each one of those classes. And then I give you the next six days for you to take those concepts and integrate them into your life and learn to use them and try them. And this has been so much more successful people, really like this version of the course. And the next piece of the puzzle is I created an internal community inside of my course, which can only be accessed by the paying members of the course. And that has become a really important part of this too, because you get to connect with like-minded people who are going through the same things and are also at the same place in the course as you, and, and you get a chance to develop relationships with them and talk to them and have open conversations. And I'm in there every day as well, answering people's questions and that sort of thing. And so I think that we have finally figured out the, the right formula. And I really think that it's bite size chunks sending you bite size chunks per week, and then allowing you that time to, um, I always say I'm planting the seeds. That's what this class does. Is it plants the seeds, but it's up to you to water it, make it grow over the next six days.
Kerry Finsand: 29:50
I think that's a good segway into a tagline you came up with that. Absolutely. Absolutely love skills, not pills, pills. That is amazing cause it, it is so true. I've gone to a number of different counselors and psychiatrists and sometimes they wanna give you pills and it
Steven Diamond: 30:09
no, I would say no, I, I would say 98% of the time you're gonna be,
Kerry Finsand: 30:15
I was trying to be PC
Steven Diamond: 30:16
with a prescription.
Kerry Finsand: 30:18
I've even dealt with that myself and sometimes you need it. And other times like I want something more holistic or maybe there's a natural version of it, of you know, CBD like, there's something, I know you have some CBD products and stuff as well. It's funny how those things seem kind of out there and crazy, but it's okay to. A pill from, from big pharma. And again, I take some medication and it does help me but I've also had issues for medication as well.
Steven Diamond: 30:45
I wanna, I wanna put this out there. So
Kerry Finsand: 30:48
yeah
Steven Diamond: 30:48
people that are watching this really understand my position. There is nothing wrong with taking medication. If medication works for you and it improves your life, I'm all for it. Um,
Kerry Finsand: 31:00
yes,
Steven Diamond: 31:01
but medication is a tool and the problem is we in the United States specifically we've become a pill popping nation. Whenever something happens in our life, instead of dealing with it, we look for a pill bottle and we want that magic pill. And I tell people if you're thinking about taking my course and you're looking, you're the kind of person that's looking for, a magic pill, don't even. bother that I'm not the guy for you. And, and this course is not gonna help you, you know, go, go find a psychotherapist that will give you, or refer you to a psychiatrist that will write that script. Uh, that's not what, what I'm about, what I'm about. It came from me taking every pill that was out there. Uh, for 20 years I was on all the medication. I took everything from Zoloft to Lexapro, to even lithium wow. And some really, really, uh, horrible side effects I had to deal with over the years. Um, and I just got to a point to where I was like, this is no way to live. And it, it, it made my life even harder to function because a lot of that medication, especially the stronger ones can turn you into what I call a zombie. You know, you, you just were, you really couldn't think, and you were just kind of like, mm
Kerry Finsand: 32:25
you're not yourself.
Steven Diamond: 32:26
Yeah. You're not yourself at all. Your personality is, is muted. And, and you're just kind of a, kind of a third rate version of who you really, really truly are. And at some point I became self aware of this and I was like, there's got to be a better way. That is when I began really looking for skills because when the pill bottle's empty or you can't get another prescription, those skills will always be there and no one can take them away from you. And so that's why I'm such a proponent of skills. Now you mentioned my CBD line. Let me tell you something about that. People ask me all the time. Well, why do you sell C, B D if. you know, you are this big guy that teaches all these incredible skills. Well, I'm gonna tell you why, because when you come to me, you're usually stressed out anxious and at the end of your rope and you can't handle life anymore, and you need something that is going to take the edge off while you are beginning to change your life and learn new skills. So I have found, I don't like taking pills. I don't like taking medication mm-hmm but I have found what works for me personally is CBD oil and I take CBD tincture every single day. I take three drops under my tongue. First thing in the mornings when I get. Mm, and it just helps me. It just helps my, um, uh, helps me to take the edge off and allow me to function on a much better level. I can handle things so much easier. The little details don't take me off. I don't get angry. I don't get stressed out. And so I've been using C B D for many years now. And when we launched this new program, I'd been thinking about this for a while. But my problem was, I couldn't find a company that would be transparent with their lab results because I only wanted the highest quality CBD. Sure. And I wanted their lab results to be third party tested, and I wanted it to be publicly available information. None of the CBD companies will do that. So it took me forever to find a company to work. I finally found a company in Michigan called Rosenow Farms and it's a mom and pop up operation. The guy actually grows the hemp. It's hemp base, not marijuana base. Yeah. And he actually grows the hemp on his family farm and they take that hemp every year and they turn it into CBD products. And I convinced them that they needed to get it third party tested and publish their lab results and the results came back amazing. And so I formed a partnership with them. And now we offer the C B D uh, oil to our peeps, because like I said, when you're, before you learn these skills that I'm teaching, you just need that help to calm the storm down and just allow you to be able to handle internally what's going on externally around you. And for me being the all natural nut that I am, uh, I have found that hemp derived CBD oil when it's processed that at the highest quality is really. uh, the best solution.
Kerry Finsand: 36:13
Yeah I use CBD Tinture sometimes as well, and I live in Oregon, so, it's been legal for quite some time. And, um, is it legal in Vegas? Uh, in Nevada? Oh yes. It's legal
Steven Diamond: 36:24
and, and CBD products are legal pretty much everywhere. Yeah. Uh, we can ship them by mail, all that kind of stuff. And, um, it's a really popular product and I'll tell you something that's really interesting to me. And I don't know why, and I don't know what spurred this. I believe it was a study that university of Ohio published that showed the effects that CBD has on anxiety and stress. Uh, about a year ago, our sales exploded. and we've never been able to really figure out why that that is. But I think it was because of the release of that study and people now feel like that that, uh, it's safe to use.
Kerry Finsand: 37:08
I don't know again, a lot about that, but I do know about, different supplements, um, vitamins and things like that that are tested by third parties and everything. Cuz you never know what you're gonna get sometimes, especially with CBD and different products like that. So the fact that you have that again, the transparency. So you are what you preach, which is definitely appreciative to me to hear that. And then just everyone out there, cuz again, people often just wanna push something and no, you need this and it's the best thing ever. Well, why do I need it? And is it really that good? You know?
Steven Diamond: 37:39
Yeah. And what I find out is people will take CBD, the CBD oil. They'll take it for a while. And then once they start transforming, because they're learning new skills and they're applying these skills into their life. I have particularly find this to be true with my coaching clients, who I have intimate one on one communication with on a regular basis. Uh, I find that the CBD oil goes away after a while they stop using it because they don't need it anymore. And when the brain finds another solution to solve a problem and it works, it will automatically use that default from now on and anything else will just fade away. And so I find that, especially with my coaching clients, they only use it for a few months. Um, usually within a six or seven month period, they stop using it because they just feel like they're in a better place.
Kerry Finsand: 38:35
Well, yeah, they're, they're graduating to the next level, which is great. So they're moving through your system, then it's working. One thing I'm interested with you, um, is obviously you're, you're quite the entrepreneur. You're this magician, but I'm impressed with all these things you have going on around you. So, uh, what size of team do you have?
Steven Diamond: 38:56
Well, we work virtually, um, virtually, so I've developed a pretty much virtual team. I have a lot of different people that I work with. There's probably on a regular basis. There's probably 50 people that are a part of my core team. but I don't use all of them on every project. So whenever I'm producing a project, so I'll give you a little sneak peek. This is something we're working on right now. And I really shouldn't show you this because it's not out yet, So we're developing a version of my course, uh, and this is the packaging that it will come in. And when you open it, there's a thumb drive that goes right here in this slot. And the entire course will be on this thumb drive. And we're putting together a PR a package like this to sell at my live seminars. And then we're also talking with QVC right now about, uh, selling. Um, on there as well. And so whenever I start a new project like that, one, for example, I go to my roster of team members that I use on a regular basis. And I go through and pick the people that I think are most important to work on this project. And I assemble a little micro team. And so that's, that's how it works. It usually starts with the educators and the psychologists. That's usually who I go to first and say, I wanna develop a course on this and let's talk about this. And then we, we go through and develop the, the proper techniques and skills.
Kerry Finsand: 40:24
So it's kind of, um, it's really a, kind of a plug in play model where you have people that are really good experts in certain areas. And for that particular project, you say, okay, let's, this is kind of my project scope. These are the people that I, I think would be great at that. And, and, and
Steven Diamond: 40:39
kind of go, that's exactly what I do. And I found over the years that to be the most efficient way to do things. So I, I have a plethora of people, you know, we are right now designing the new version of my corporate seminar because I do a lot of corporate work where I go into companies and teach their employees how to manage stress in the workplace, which is a huge problem. 300 billion a year is lost by American corporations because of a lack of productivity, employee turnover, and communication issues at work. and so people, the companies are now realizing that if they teach their employees skills of how to manage their stress and anxiety in the workplace, they actually get more work done. And so I've been doing that for a while, uh, now, and it's getting it's growing and getting bigger and bigger and bigger. If, uh, if anyone watching wants more information on any of this stuff, they can go to Steven diamond.com. That's where you'll find all of the information, reach out to us. My team will get you whatever information you need.
Kerry Finsand: 41:52
I also will have show notes with links, to as much information as I can for you. And then we'll promote it online as well, uh, to make sure we get the word out there for you. And I, I do appreciate you leaning now into that, um, stress at work, cause that's actually one of the topics I wanted to talk to you about, cuz it's definitely not taught. And so. Stress at work is, is not taught. And I feel like, uh, there should be more programs out there. And so your program now, is that information on your website right now? If people want to, to learn more about that?
Steven Diamond: 42:22
Yeah, there's a whole page on my website. If you go to Stevendiamond.com, you'll see a tab up there that says corporate training, and you can click on that. It'll give you all the details. And also, I wanna mention to all your listeners, um, just a couple weeks ago, I launched a brand new webinar that will teach you how to stop your panic attacks. Instantly it's free. There's nothing to buy, but, uh, in this 20 minute video training, I will teach you three actionable skills. That you can use when you think you're about to have a panic attack, or if you're in the middle of a panic attack, I'll teach you how to stop it instantly. And that has been incredibly popular. I I've been shocked at the response, uh, to, to this webinar. So go to Stevendiamond.com right underneath my book. You'll see me holding my book. There is a little banner that says, learn how to stop your panic attacks, click that it'll take you to the webinar.
Kerry Finsand: 43:23
And I know that you've also recently launched your podcast. You wanna talk about that a little bit?
Steven Diamond: 43:28
Yeah. In March when we launched the, the course, uh, I came out with a brand new podcast called what the tigers taught me. And, uh, in this podcast, I use the term tiger as a metaphor for all of those things that lurk and creep and stalk you in the night. Things like stressing, anxiety, depression, and even shyness. Um, and I, I cover a whole host of topics. Each episode, we deal with topics. For example, uh, I have a whole episode on grief, what to do when someone you love dies suddenly. And that whole episode came out because my sister was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 30 days later she was dead. Oh. And so I went through that whole process of finding out your loved one has stage four cancer and then rushing to their bedside. And then, you know, in just weeks, uh, poof, she's gone. And so I really went through all of those emotions and I really had to figure out what, how am I gonna handle this? What, how do you deal with this? And so that podcast came out of that. I have a very popular podcast on triggers, uh, how to deal with triggers when you get triggered by something, we all have triggers. We all have things that little pet peeves and people can say certain things that just, you know, flick that switch in us and make us crazy. So I have a whole podcast about triggers. I have a whole podcast about panic attacks. So there's, there's all of these core strategies that I teach you in each podcast. And I really focus on giving the people who listen to my, my show, real value. I really dig deep and each episode teach you real things. That you can do that will really make a difference in whatever issue it is that we're talking about.
Kerry Finsand: 45:26
The episode that I listened to was was about finding a counselor or, you know, uh, a therapist,
Steven Diamond: 45:33
how, how to find the right therapist for you.
Kerry Finsand: 45:36
Exactly. And it's definitely, it's kind of like dating, you know, this kind of this back and forth and everyone's right for right for you. But I think you said in the podcast that you had 37 different counselors, is that correct?
Steven Diamond: 45:49
I did. I, I went through 37 different therapist over my entire therapeutic career, if you want to call it that. Um, and one of the things I teach you in that episode is how to audition your therapist. Because coming from a show business background, I suddenly realize that they work for me and you have to I'm the one paying the. I'm there on my own volition. No, one's forcing me to be here. So I was like, wait a minute. I should be sitting in front of someone that resonates with me, someone that connects with me, someone that I like someone that has the same values and belief system as I do. And I don't want someone. That's just gonna be a yes, man. That's just gonna go. Yeah, you're right. And just listen to you and nod their head and watch the clock. That's not what I'm what I'm talking about. In fact, I fire those people. I actually like a therapist who will challenge my belief system, who will challenge my thoughts, my thinking, who will come back at me and say, well, let's look at that from a different perspective. What about this? And I think those are the most valuable therapists. And so over the years, I learned how to audition the therapist and how to find what to look for in a therapist. How to make sure that that therapist is a good match for you. And I saw my very first therapist when I was eight years old. So I, um, even talked to you a little bit in that podcast, as you'll remember about how to select the right therapist for your children. So that's, that's an important section as well. I actually opened the podcast with, uh, talking about that, um, because that's where it all began for me.
Kerry Finsand: 47:37
When you've experienced everything that you've experienced and you've had, you know, 37 different people that you've talked to.
Steven Diamond: 47:44
I'm not currently in therapy at the moment, but, uh, since the 36, I think I've had three more.
Kerry: 47:53
Okay. So we're at about even 40 or something, so, okay.
Kerry Finsand: 47:56
The one question that's I have to come back to earlier about was the time when Bhagavan how you say the saying vagabond or Bhagavan,
Steven Diamond: 48:03
you can call him Doc Antle
Kerry Finsand: 48:05
Doc Antle. When doc Antle tried to kill you. Let's come back to that here briefly. Uh, let's hear that story.
Steven Diamond: 48:11
Well, I tell this story in Tiger King Two, but I'll tell you. So one night I was asleep at the Buckinghams Zoological Park, and I heard something going on in a trailer, outside the window, and I went outside and I caught Bhagavan by himself, late at night with a flashlight in a few tools, uh, ripping open a big black brick, uh, covered in hefty trash bags and duct tape. And he was ripping open this brick. And when he ripped it open, I peeked over his shoulder. It was filled with cash. And I startled him and he grabbed the screwdriver and flipped around and grabbed my throat and shoved me up against the building and shoved that screwdriver right up my throat and said, if you ever mention this, you'll never see another sunrise. And that was the first time that, um, that he, he tried to seriously hurt me
Kerry Finsand: 49:05
the first time. Yes. So that means there's more.
Steven Diamond: 49:08
Oh yeah. Uh, he he's a violent guy. He has a, he has a real serious temper. The, the, the Bhagavan an, or the Doc Antle, he's not a doctor by the way. Never has been, can hardly spell. Um, but he is this kind of character that the persona that you see, the safari guy, the animal guy that you see on television is not. The real Bhagavan, that is a character that he has developed over the years and portrays on television, but the truth is behind the scenes. He has a red hot temper and when th when he doesn't get his way, uh, there's gonna be held to pay.
Kerry Finsand: 49:54
The last question I have for you, I mean, I could talk to you forever. You have so many interesting stories and just showbiz, but also, you know, we both are connecting, you know, kind of the, on the mental health aspect of it. In your touring days as a magician. I guess what's one of the wildest stories you've had, maybe it was with some other celebrities. Maybe it was with
Steven Diamond: 50:14
You know, the, there's a lot of things, uh, that happen over the course of a 30 year career touring around the world, uh, shipping animals all over the world, but I'll tell you about the very first time I went to South America. Um, we left Miami, there was 80 people and a whole plane full of lion and tigers underneath. Um, and we took off from Miami and we're flying to Lima, Peru. And while we were in the air flying to Lima, a civil war broke out in the city of Lima. and the poor people were uprising against the government cuz the government was taking rights away from them kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it? Mm. Um, and so they were, uh, having the rights stripped away from them. And the poor people had just had enough and they decided we are going to form our own army and overthrow the government and they did. And this all happened while we were in the air. When we landed, as we were flying into Lima, we could look out the windows of the airplane and the entire city was on fire and we could see explosions going off in the distance. And you know, every once in a while, and they were car bombs and they were blowing up power plants, they were blowing up police stations. They were blowing up the governor's man or the president's mansion. They were, you know, um, uh, doing all kinds of crazy things. So when we get to the airport, the airport is desolate. There's no one there, all the lights are on the plane lands. And in Lima, we, you land on the tarmac, but there really wasn't a gate at that time that would go up to the, the airplane. They literally just stop the plane, open the door and you walk down the steps and go into the, the building. And so when we got into the airport, we noticed we couldn't find anyone, all the lights were on, the TVs were on. It was just like, but there were no people. So we spooky were told to go through. There was buses waiting for us on the outside of the airport. So we go through the airport, we get our luggage and we go through the, uh, we go into the bus. And just about the time we all get loaded onto the bus, the entire front side of the airport explodes. And it rocks the bus like this, and you have all of these people inside this bus screaming and the windows on the side of the bus blew out because of the blast. We were covered in glass and we were all on the floor and the girls were screaming and crying some of the guys too. I think I was one of them. Uh, and everyone was terrified at what was going on. And the next thing I knew, the bus just took off and we go into the middle of the city and we go to the, the hotel that we're supposed to be staying at, which is a big Hilton in Lima, Peru, and the military had seized the hotel as a command center. So now we're in a strange city. We've never been before and we have no hotel and the entire city is being blown up and it's in the middle of a civil war that my friend. Is one of the most craziest, not the craziest, the craziest I can't talk about on the air, but oh, sure. It is one of the craziest nights of my life.
Kerry Finsand: 53:44
So I'm assuming you did not perform your show.
Steven Diamond: 53:47
Believe it or not. We did. We postponed the show a week and took us forever to find our cats because we couldn't get a hold of the animals because you couldn't find anybody. And we were finally able to get our animals and get the, the equipment and stuff from the show. And that took us about a week. So we delayed the show. Uh, and then once we, once we got all of our equipment and the cats and all that kind of stuff, then we were able to do the show again. We opened the show and believe it or not, it was relatively successful.
Kerry Finsand: 54:18
The show must go on is indeed true.
Steven Diamond: 54:21
The must go on. Yeah. And we were there for, we were there for a couple months and, um, we sold out almost every. I think the first couple weeks we were about 50% full, but then after that word had spread and, um, the shows were very successful.
Kerry Finsand: 54:40
Wow. Well um, again I appreciate your time today.
Steven Diamond: 54:44
My pleasure.
Kerry Finsand: 54:44
I'm going to have to interview again, some point, cause I just, I could talk to you forever. This is so fascinating.
Steven Diamond: 54:49
Would love to come back and talk about more things. I'm sure you have more questions about stress as it relates to entrepreneurs.
Kerry Finsand: 54:56
Yeah.
Steven Diamond: 54:57
Which is we can
Kerry Finsand: 54:57
leave this thing on for like five hours
Steven Diamond: 54:59
that, but I would love to talk to you about it sometime.
Kerry Finsand: 55:02
Thank you again and it, please tell people again where they can find you online and we'll pull all that information, on our show notes as well.
Steven Diamond: 55:08
Absolutely. The, the easiest way is Stevendiamond.com. That's S T E V E N D I a M O N D. Dot com or my main site is lifeskillsmasterclass.com.
Kerry Finsand: 55:24
Perfect. And I like to end this show with, remember you're not alone in life or business. Thank you,
Steven Diamond: 55:30
that's correct.
