Authentic Achievement with Special Guest Walt Hampton
Welcome to another inspiring episode of Authentic Achievements! In this episode, our host, Kim-Adele Randall, sits down with the remarkable Walt Hampton, J.D., the Founder and CEO of Summit Success International, and Acquisitions Director at Summit Press Publishers. Walt is a powerhouse in the world of personal and professional development, renowned for his work as a business coach, management consultant, leadership trainer, and motivational speaker.
About Our Guest: Walt Hampton, J.D.
Walt Hampton is a celebrated author, with his book Journeys on the Edge: Living a Life That Matters named a Top 10 Non-Fiction Book and earning him two North American Book Awards. His second book, The Power Principles of Time Mastery: Do Less, Make More, Have Fun, further establishes his expertise in helping people maximize their potential and achieve more while enjoying the journey.
A graduate of Cornell Law School, Walt spent nearly three decades as the managing partner of a law firm specializing in commercial litigation and criminal defense. His journey then led him to become a Results Coach, trained by Robbins Research International, where he worked directly with Tony Robbins as one of Tony’s elite-level certified business coaches.
Highlights from the Episode
Walt’s Journey: From the courtroom to the mountains, discover how Walt transitioned from a successful law career to becoming a globally recognized coach and author.
Time Mastery: Learn the power principles that can help you do less, make more, and have fun.
Adventure and Passion: Walt shares his passion for high-altitude mountaineering, ultra-distance running, blue-water sailing, and adventure photography, and how these pursuits fuel his professional success.
Inspiration and Motivation: Walt’s story is a testament to living a life filled with purpose and passion. Hear his insights on leadership, personal development, and achieving your own authentic success.
Connect with Walt Hampton
Website: walthampton.com
Book a Call With Walt https://summitsuccess.typeform.com/meetwalt
https://www.facebook.com/walthamptonjr
https://www.linkedin.com/in/walthampton
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Transcript:
hello and welcome to this episode of authentic achievements where is my absolute privilege to be joined by The
0:07Fabulous Walt Hampton JD Walt welcome I am so happy to be with you today Kim
0:13it’s such a privilege and a gift thank you for having me oh bless you I’m am so so excited about this conversation I
0:19mean well where do we start so before we crack on with our conversation let me share with the viewers a little bit more
0:25about you and your journey so far and it is quite the journey so you are a
0:31Visionary leader and the driving force behind Summit success International which is a renowned Global personal and
0:37professional development firm as the Acquisitions director of summit press Publishers you spearhead the creation of
0:42influential expert positioning Books A versatile professional you succeed and
0:47Excel as a business coach Management Consultant leadership training and motivational speaker and are the
0:53bestselling author of Journeys on the edge living a life that matters and the power principles of time do less make
0:59more and have fun and as a 1984 graduate of the Cornell Law School your
1:05distinguished career includes nearly 30 years as managing partner in commercial litigation and criminal defense you’ve
1:11been trained by Robins research international and are an elite level certified business coach one one of
1:18actual Tony Robbins Elite coaches himself and passionate about high altitud manering ultra distance running
1:25Blue Water sailing and Adventure photography you would clearly have more hours than we do and you and your wife
1:31the publisher and Shabani reside in Intervale new New Hampshire so how do
1:37you trick time and get so many more hours well you can never trick time and
1:44that’s that’s the problem one needs one needs actually to create better practices and the word that no one
1:51really likes disciplines uh good good practices and disciplines and then um
1:58perhaps the most important word of all for high Achievers the word
2:05no no no and no is a full sentence uh complete sentence and no is really
2:13hard to say for most of your audience our audience today I suspect but we’ve
2:20got to say no to the stuff that doesn’t lead to the to the important things the
2:25the the things that really matter oh that’s it’s so true and it’s such a small world to be such a hard word isn’t
2:33it because we often feel the need to justify it with another 15 sentences
2:39that’s why it is no and and that art of being able to just say no full stop
2:45takes real practice doesn’t it it does it does and and even before you get to
2:51the practice clarity about what you really value what you really want what
2:56really matters what what you really want to achieve uh because with that filter it becomes
3:04somewhat easier to say no yeah yeah I I love that it’s it really is about that
3:10Focus but I mean we’ve jumped straight in but I’d love to know come winders back and it was my fault you is we can tell I’m into the
3:18fun piece um but if you could tell me a little bit more about your amazing journey I mean I don’t even know where
3:24your start but what a fascinating life you’ve LED so far uh and and
3:30yes and I feel very um I feel very lucky um and privileged it is a is it a gift
3:37it is a gift um to be able to come to a place in life that is rich and full and
3:44deeply satisfying I as you mentioned I was a trial lawyer for 30 years uh once
3:50a lawyer always a lawyer uh so that that’s part of the tool belt I carry um
3:55but uh for me even though I loved G Law School I had always from the get-go
4:03found lawyering very abrasive and contentious and not not to overly
4:09dramatize it but soul sucking that it really didn’t feed that deep part of me
4:15uh and so when I had the opportunity to move into coaching it became a much more
4:23collaborative type of work that I just love to do uh and so the uh the skills
4:30of lawyering still inform my work of you know communication and problem solving
4:35and you know the ability to actually look into someone’s business future or
4:41Life future and say don’t go there I’ve I’ve litigated all of the mistakes that
4:47could possibly made don’t do that um so those skills um are are valuable and the
4:56work I get to do now is is is beautifully collaborative and co-creative and you you mentioned the uh
5:04the High Altitude mountaineering um I my passions are high altitude mountaineering ultra distance running
5:10Adventure photography um having the those passions I think help
5:18balance a richful and joyful life I I play we live on the edge of the northern
5:24uh the National Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and we um run and play and climb and Ski and uh um
5:32Frolic uh in the mountains two or three times a week um and and that time
5:39away paradoxically for most high Achievers is is really what keeps the
5:44fuel High to continue to do the important work we’re called to do in the
5:49world that’s it’s so true and you mentioned the word balance and I think that’s something that we um that we can
5:57often find quite hard can’t I get people talk to me all the time about well how do you maintain balance I like well it’s
6:02in the moment so sometimes you’ll be out of balance sometimes it will feel very work heavy sometimes it will feel very
6:09play Heavy but as long as it’s not always one or always the other then you
6:14find that equilibrium and that balance and that ability to recharge your battery don’t you so that you are able
6:21to do both well absolutely I the way I teach it is a I I used to talk when I
6:27began this work now 17 years ago about work life balance and as you suggest
6:33we’re that’s that’s a myth a fallacy it’s more like a cafe table on a CO
6:39cobblestone street it’s you know it’s all it’s it’s it’s always a bit out of balance but if we’re Mindful and
6:46intentional about feeding all of those pieces of our lives our financial lives
6:52our business lives but also our relational lives our spiritual lives our physical lives if we can really
6:59understand that all of that is what adds to a rich and full and deeply satisfying
7:05life and that we can become more intentional I think life becomes sweeter
7:10yeah yeah and I love that you so eloquently Al always use the word intentional because I think that’s the
7:17part isn’t it it’s about being really present and making a conscious intentional choice about what whatever
7:24it is that you’re going to do because that’s what it always comes down to isn’t it is our choice and whether or
7:29not we did it we did it fully consciously yeah um one of my favorite
7:36more recent books is by Dr Edith Edgar um and her book is the choice she was in
7:43the camps um at the same time the great Victor Frankle was there they became
7:49friends in later lives and of course Franco’s book uh 20th century classic
7:54man search for meeting um Edith talks about in moment regardless of our
8:01circumstances we have the power to make a choice and it really is slowing down
8:06that action in our mind so that we are in that moment more Mindful and
8:12intentional because most of us um listening today um we get into that
8:17slipstream of our days and our weeks and our lives and time just happen just just
8:23slides through the glass yeah it’s it’s so true it’s so easy isn’t it to to get
8:29lost in the moment and I’ve got a little girl she’s seven and a half and I always say to her everything comes down to
8:34choice so she’s very quick to label and she like oh momy I was naughty no you weren’t you may you made a You made a
8:41naughty choice but you’re not you’re not your choice you get to make a new one you got to make a brand new one that one
8:47didn’t serve you you can make a different one you don’t have to hold on to it and drag it into the rest of your future and I think we we see that a lot
8:55as adults don’t we we kind of have made a bad choice and then we there’s that old saying isn’t it you’ve made your bed
9:00you’ve got to lie in it but you can get out of bed and make it again what a what a beautiful gift
9:07you’re giving your daughter because that is we yes because we do have that self-
9:12judgment and that self- debation and that doesn’t serveice it’s in this moment I get to make a different Choice
9:20yeah and I guess for me I it took me a long time to unlearn what I’d learned
9:26which was you cling on to it and then you become that label so I’m trying really hard to make sure what I’ve
9:31learned in my life I can help her not have to you know go through the go through the same Journey but
9:40how talk to me about kind of that transition I mean you’ve said about moving out of of kind of law because it
9:46didn’t really didn’t feel your feel your passion and your purpose and this one clearly does this one clearly sings from
9:52your soul um so how did you find that and then what were the challenges you
9:58faced both internally and externally in in making that
10:04leap and and it was less a leap than it was a a
10:10crawling staggering lurching motion um so I was I was the managing partner of
10:18very successful law firm uh we did great work meaningful work important work we
10:23made a lot of money which was great um but as I suggested I was never deeply deeply happy and I um discovered my
10:34amazing wife an Shabani um we crossed paths in 2005 and we’re married in 2007
10:42just one of the greatest Gifts of my life oh and um she for our very first
10:48Christmas said you know I think we should go to Tony Robbins Unleash the Power Within I I bought two tickets for
10:54us and I said oh oh no honey I’m I’m a very tightly wound trial I don’t go to
11:00things like that and jump on chairs and and drink Kool-Aid and she said no no I think it would be good for us uh and she
11:07dragged me Kicking and Screaming um and it changed our lives uh we um enrolled
11:14in Tony’s two-year Mastery University uh along the way I was invited to become a
11:22coach and at that time I had no clue it was kind of even at the beginning of what coaching was I said oh no I coached
11:27my son’s soccer team don’t need that um but when I experienced coaching I
11:34thought oh my God this is it it’s it takes all of my tools and interests and
11:39desire to serve and connect with people and it it’s for good and for uh Co
11:46co-creation um and so very slowly over the course of time with my own coach I I
11:53would often use the metaphor that I’d have one foot on this dock which I knew
12:00which was lawyering and then this other foot on this Rocky boat that was this place I wanted to go uh and there were
12:08three or four or five years where there was just this tension between where I was and where I thought I wanted to be
12:16and miraculously after five years one day I woke up and thought Oh I’m very
12:22far from that land and isn’t this an amazing Voyage um but it was what’s
12:28tricky for those who are listening who are high Achievers and not to gender
12:34this because I think it crosses genders but I think it’s p particularly pernicious for for men is that we get
12:41our identities caught up in the thing we do uh and many of my colleagues
12:50um will come to me and say how did you escape I’ve been so happy all my my career some of my dear friends have
12:57literally literally died at their desks unhappy uh and the truth is that we only have this
13:05one wild and precious life as Mary Oliver suggests and the question is what we going to do with it but you asked me
13:13what that the difficulty was was that it was letting go and stepping into a
13:19different identity uh and that was very scary and very uncomfortable at times
13:26yeah and you’re right we we very often do get defined by ourselves and others
13:32by what it is what it is that we do what are you and and we’re not what
13:39we’re not what we do we are that’s just a little bit of us isn’t it there’s like so much more um but it can be really
13:47hard to um to show up as who you are and and be bigger than the job you’re doing
13:56um so I completely empath I with that with that with that Journey with that
14:02because um it’s we you’ve got to take that that leap of faith into the unknown haven’t
14:09you and when you’ve spent your life doing one thing and being seen as one thing that becomes um as much the
14:17stability becomes a bit of the anchor doesn’t it you got to Wrangle away from
14:23yes yeah very much so very much so and having you know I I have had a coach in
14:30my life I think good coaches have coaches have had a coach in my life since the very beginning and she had
14:35been a lawyer uh who had made made the the leap and I I think it’s very hard to do by
14:42ourselves uh to create that next iteration of Our Lives I think it’s very hard to do I think by ourselves I I
14:50completely agree you know I I’ve had a coach for for years but but I think whatever we do in life it’s always
14:56easier to have an external person help us with it because we we can get too hung up in our head can’t we and what we
15:03say inside our head can sound so very plausible so very real that we can’t
15:10possibly we can’t possibly get ourselves past it and yet when somebody else comes along and and helps you to see that we
15:17live in a world of polarity there’s for every up there’s a down for every left there’s a right whatever we’re fearful
15:23of doesn’t exist unless what we’re hopeful for also exists and so we have
15:29to be able to decide which one do we want to focus on what we’re fearful of or what we’re hopeful for because we
15:34created both of them we imagined both of them in the same brain and I think sometimes having that external coach
15:40helps us to see that to see that it’s not just somebody said to me once it’s
15:47all right but things are black and white and I was like that’s interesting which shade of black are you using because officially there’s 18 in the ink
15:53industry like you joking I was like no so there is no defin there’s no such
15:58thing as the Divinity because it only exists with its counter opposite doesn’t
16:04it and your clients are so lucky to have you that imagery is is so beautiful and
16:10so powerful and yeah it’s just so spoton God bless you thank you um I think
16:16sometimes it’s it’s trying to simplify it because that how Works in my brain so I simplify it then it makes easier to
16:24understand yeah and I think that is one of our challenges we over complic at things don’t we we we kind of turn
16:31everything into a dark art um that therefore is too too frightening to try and do because it’s a dark art we’re not
16:39we’re not magicians so how do you help people to
16:45um to realize that actually it’s not a dark art that it is something that’s
16:51within them that is time to come out I think as we evolve into our adult
16:59lives and grow in Grace and wisdom we a couple of things happen we make
17:06those early choices and the old model um the model that I grew up with is you
17:13went to school you worked hard in school you graduated you you got the plum job
17:20you worked hard in the plum job you got the corner office office and then you retired and moved someplace warm and
17:27played golf uh and and so the idea uh for many um and I you know thankfully
17:35that’s not the case with the younger Millennials Gen Y Gen Zed you know there’s a sense of fluidity and flow but
17:42for many of the folks who come to me there’s one of the hardest things is well this is what I chose this is what
17:49I’m supposed to be this is what I’ll always be and so that’s one thing that gets in the way the other is that what
17:55happens along the way is we start taking taking it all way too seriously and you
18:01and I before we went live uh um started cutting up um and I love that um having
18:07having a bit of fun um I think when we begin to hold the possibilities with
18:13more lightness more creativity and begin to to experiment with this next chapter
18:21that begin to begin to create even a side hustle if you will or not even a
18:29Hustle but I’m curious about what it might be like to lean in and to write or
18:35to speak or maybe to become a coach or I wonder what it would be like to take my
18:41knowledge and turn it into a program that might serve more people in the
18:47world just from that place of wonderment and coming back to that very primary
18:54thing that is part of your daughter’s lexicon right now which is and creativity and hold it with more
19:02lightness um and the the ability just to stay inquisitive around it to say
19:09curious around it that’s really the key not to not to feel locked in and just
19:15and to connect again with that Curiosity I love that I talk about
19:21curiosity all the time with self and others I’m curious why do I think that why do you think this why do they think
19:27the other because then you really start to to kind of open up and I think we’ve been hamstrung um over the years with
19:35some of the sayings that have been P down like sticks and stones will never hurt words sticks and stones may break
19:40our bones but words will never hurt us and we now know words hurt and they hurt deep and we had another one which was
19:46curiosity killed the cat and it’s like no curiosity curiosity is so vital to
19:53allow us to be able to be playful to to take life less seriously you know not
20:01every single decision we make is a matter of life and death some of them we will you it will be fine we don’t have
20:08to go into every one of them but it’s how do we cultivate that um curiosity
20:14because as a society particularly as a society of high achieving leaders being vulnerable enough to say I
20:24don’t know I’m curious what do you think takes a lot more strength than it does
20:29to shut people down and go this is the way we do it doesn’t it well and there’s
20:35a step even before that Kim which is frightening by itself which is
20:41actually opening up the space for oneself to enter that place of
20:47curiosity because you know I think it was Pascal who said uh the a human’s uh
20:54greatest fear is being alone in the quiet or I just that butchered that but
21:00uh but getting quiet being still opening up the space where we’re not always
21:07connected we’re not always hearing the inundation of Social and news and text
21:13messages uh opening up that quiet space allows us to enter into that place of
21:20curiosity um and deep listening because the answers we have the answers the answers are always here we we you know
21:28your audience my audience um tends to process up here in our brilliant frontal
21:34cores um but to to the detriment of of connecting with our beautiful hearts and
21:40our hearts always know the answer it’s true it is it is that connection and I
21:46think all we we’ve convinced ourselves that we’re logical rational human beings and yet neuroscientifically proven our
21:53emotional brain responds 24 times faster than our thinking brain so something happens we make it means something so
22:00we’re not responding to what happened we’re responding to what we made it mean and we might have made it mean something very different to everybody else and
22:08like you say until we take that step back and connect back into ourselves why have we made why have we made it mean
22:14this what’s that telling us what do we really want to know we can’t we can’t get that true curiosity to connect back
22:23with ourselves can we that’s absolutely true and coming back to being
22:29intentional um it we must be intentional about creating and opening that space um
22:36and sometimes it can be uncomfortable to take enough time and space you know my
22:45um amazing business partner and wife and I sometimes will take as much as three
22:50or four weeks away we were uh up to ever Bas
22:56Camp last year year before last for uh 17 days entirely Off the Grid and the
23:03amount of rest and Recreation Recreation Recreation Recreation that we had
23:10allowed us when we came back to create such amazing momentum in our business lives but again it’s paradoxical because
23:17we think we need to stay in it all of the time I I love that I I believe that
23:23sometimes they um there’s a phrase of being being called um
23:29positive procrastination so instead of sitting there and just doing doing doing doing actually taking yourself away from
23:35it and just doing something totally different instead allows you to start to
23:40rejuvenate and to recreate as you as you say retap into that inner source of
23:46energy that then allows you to come out and deliver significantly more than you
23:52would have if You’ just stayed at the grindstone and that can feel
23:57counterintuitive for us can’t it so and scary yeah yeah so so what advice could
24:04you could you give the people listening about what steps they can take if they they want to um try and reconnect and
24:13and take that leap back to themselves how might they start
24:19it it’s it’s a wonderful question I just wrote a Blog today about starting over
24:24this the rules of starting over are the same as the rules of starting out uh and you start out with little tiny
24:32steps you you well you know I’m I’m an ultra distance Runner I don’t know how to run 50 miles I mean that’s just even
24:40to say that you run 50 miles sounds sounds impossible to do I know how to run a step and then I know how to take
24:47the next step I’ve stood on five of the Seven Summits of the world I can’t tell you how to how it’s possible to climb up
24:55to you know 25,000 ft but you do it one step at a time and so if we can just
25:02take a little step maybe commit to um you know I’m going to take an afternoon
25:09off or I’m G to take three hours off this afternoon and I’m going to go to
25:15the coffee shop without my cell phone and I’m going to sit and I’m going to open up my journal and I’m just going to
25:22free flow what do I really want what do I really want what would make my heart Happy and
25:30just to or even just to go and sip a cup of coffee for part of that three hours
25:36so just Tiny Steps if we can commit to creating and you know and this this is
25:42the next step can we can we create to a regular practice of this because the
25:49magic of anything the magic of Career Success business success running success climbing success um spiritual success is
25:57is are those daily practices and disciplines that that nurture our souls
26:03and hearts amazing and you’re right is about that that consistency and I I loved that
26:10you know you you kind of that that piece around just asking yourself what you want because I often find and I don’t
26:17know if this resonates what with you with people come to you they’re very clear on what they don’t want and their
26:23goals are written in the negative I don’t want to be overweight I don’t want to be unsuccessful I don’t want to do
26:28this I don’t like okay what do you want because if all you’re focusing on is
26:33what you don’t want you’re going to get more of it um because our brain doesn’t understand the difference um so taking
26:41just taking those things when we tell ourselves something we don’t want the time to say so what do I want instead
26:48and set the goals that way it’s so invaluable isn’t it to to making that shift it is and there’s just one little
26:54interesting Nuance for high Achievers which is some people will come to me and sayi
27:01want to create an exciting next chapter but I don’t know what I want I don’t know we we we lose touch with what we
27:09want and I was listening to a wonderful interview uh with Wayne between Wayne
27:14Dyer and Esther Hicks of the Law of Attraction and they were talking about connecting with what what one wants and
27:20Wayne asked her well what if we don’t know what we want and and she posited
27:26this beautiful statement then hold the statement I want to know
27:32what I want and there was a period of time four or five years ago even that I wasn’t clear about where I wanted this
27:39next iteration to go and on my runs and my journaling I just come back to I want to know what I want I want to know what
27:46I want and that itself will begin to draw Clarity yeah I live that I’ve just
27:53been reading actually the um complete works of Florence Scoville shin and um
27:58she has one in there that is um please give me the clarity of what is my Divine
28:07path and I love that one I use that I use that often when I’m feeling like I’m not I’m not sure I’m not certain it’s
28:14like please just give me the clarity let me see um what what is my Divine path
28:19what is it I’m supposed to do and then from that place staying open and curious
28:25that’s it yeah it’s it there so many many conversations I love to have with
28:30you and I’m very conscious we’re getting so close to time if there were one um um
28:37one nugget that that you think this is what really made a change for me and and
28:42this is the the thing I wish I’d learned sooner um what would that
28:49be I’ll just weave a couple of things together um there isn’t there isn’t one
28:55path there are so many paths yeah your heart will always know what that right
29:02path is take the time to connect to your heart because your heart always
29:07knows it’s so true isn’t it it’s it’s that it’s that intuitive piece that we
29:14then spend the next five minutes trying to convince ourselves is wrong it’s doing those parts well it has
29:21been an absolute absolute Delight you’ve shared so much insight and it’s been so
29:28so much fun thank you for joining us I will ensure everything is in the notes below but how can people reach out and
29:35get in touch with you and learn how they can learn how to live their life of of
29:40Wonder I’ve got a very complicated URL C it’s Walt hampton.com I made it up
29:48myself thanks to your parents earlier on so that’s a good place to start
29:56brilliant well it’s been a delight to until next time thank you so much a gift and a privilege thank you for having me
30:02take care