Teachers With Insight: Sarah Talks To Tom Evans

43:07

43:07

Teachers With Insight: Sarah Talks To Tom Evans

by Sarah Naylor

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5

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talks

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Meditation

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Everyone

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Prepare to be inspired, educated, and entertained as Sarah chats to Tom Evans, one of Insight Timer's early adopters and a teacher on the app for 9 years with over 73,000 followers. As his profile on the app states, Tom is a storyteller, modern-day mystic, and ambient composer. This is a lively and interesting chat as Tom shares his background and together they discuss Insight Timer and more - an insightful track for students and teachers alike.

Education Storytelling Meditation Insight Timer Music Creativity Content Creation Quantum Energy Audiobook Creative Flow

Meet your Teacher

King's Lynn and West Norfolk District, UK

Meet your Teacher

King's Lynn and West Norfolk District, UK

Transcript

Hello, And welcome to Sarah J Naylor here. I am an Insight Timer teacher, International coach, Mentor, Speaker, Writer, Author. And today, I am absolutely thrilled to have Tom Evans with me. Welcome, Tom. Thank you so much for your time and for joining me. Would you please introduce yourself to my wonderful listeners? Because I always think my guests introduce themselves far more eloquently than I can. Over to you. Oh, What an honor. Thank you very much for having me today. Well, One of the things I say at the end of several of my more recent books, I'm an author of quite a number of them, Is Tom still doesn't know what he wants to do when he grows up. And the reason for that is because I started out as a BBC television engineer and worked into the internet industry, Got bored in my mid 40s, Having built two businesses up and sold and got very stressed and start someone said meditate, Because you look really stressed and haggard. So I did. And then sort of weird things started to happen to me. So I started to research the weird things. And then I started to write books about the things I was experiencing. And then I put meditations on the side of the books that I was writing. So people can just read about these weird experiences. I can actually enter these alternate subconscious. I went on a few courses like hypnotherapy and NLP and past life progression and future life progression, Things like that. So I could learn about these things. And then in 2015, This weird app called Insight Timer approached me saying, Do you want to put one of your meditations up? I said, Why? I've not been trained in meditation. Put this meditation up called Be Calm. And it was on the 21st of August, 2015. So I've nearly been on the app for nine years. Wow. And I didn't know at the time they had this back end with all these reviews. About a month later, Matty Gerard, The publishing manager said, Have you looked at your reviews? I said, No, No. He had reviews and had 6, 000 listens in a month. Wow. There's only 150 guides on there at the time. So it was much easier to get. Wow. That's amazing. And they all like the British accent. The fact I don't take things seriously. In fact, I explain quite complex things in a basic way. So this sounds good because one of the things I was really good at before is I'm really, Really successful at writing books. And I'm really unsuccessful at getting the books out there. So all of a sudden I realized at the time, I think they had about 2 million listeners. This audience, When I saw some of the reviews, This is my demographic. So I started to produce more and more meditations on there. And I think I've written about six or seven books, Even more than double that by now. So I kept writing. But I morphed from being an author with meditations on the side to being this meditation teacher with books on the side. And then laterally, As you can see by the instruments in the background, And also in lockdown, I learned how to create my own ambient music as well. So I'm morphing all the time what I do, But allowing my path to be shown to me. I know there's another iteration just about to come. In the middle of all this, I did a lot of study with esoteric schools as well. So I sort of studied with a Western mystery school that does male magic and a German angelic school that does female magic. And I've created this synthesis of male and female magic, Which I put into some of my courses on Insight Time. And I've got more of that to come shortly as well. So that's why I'm an explorer and curious. The acceptable face of me is author and meditation teacher. But really, I'm a mystic, A scribe, A seer, A magician, A wizard, An alchemist. But to keep everything in perfect balance, Because I've got some clients that call me Dumbledore, My wife calls me Dobby the Hell Self at the weekend. So there you go, That's me. Oh, Brilliant. That's a fantastic synopsis, Tom. Thank you. And what I loved there about what you said, And to me, It's really powerful, Is that morphing and that curiosity and that exploration and that delving into things as they are presented. And you're morphing and you're creating and you're just in flow with who you are, Having let go of stuff. And it's just, That's when the magic happens, Don't you think? When you actually start to really tune into who you are, You accept who you are, And you follow that energy and you can start to create all this wonderful stuff. And the fact that you've written so many books, I mean, I really do need to get my hands on a copy of Soul Waves. I'm a bookworm. I've always been a bookworm. I could read books that, You know, When you started school, I'd already read all the ones they start people on at school. I was always there at night wanting to read more books when I was supposed to be asleep. But the fact that you're writing so many and it's just morphing, And I think you're recording content and that goes onto Insight Timer as well from your books. You're serializing them as well, Aren't you? Soul Waves is up there. Soul Waves Insertions is up there. I also, Both albums, Both books inspired me to do an album of music. I was always inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, That radio version. I'm doing like a Hitchhiker's Guide version. 42? Are you going to do 42 episodes? In Soul Waves itself, I've got Deep Thought is the Computer, The Spaceship is Called the Heart of Gold, And there's loads of dolphins and whales in it. So I've got lots of references to Douglas Adams' work in there. Oh, Awesome. I really, It's something I do need to read. Add it to my reading list. You see, I need to retire, Properly retire, So I can read all the books that I've got. Listen to it. It's on Insight Timer. You can listen to it. I will listen to it. That is magical stuff. I keep on bringing that word in, Magical stuff. Now, You've been on Insight Timer now since 2009, Isn't it? 2015. 2015, Because it started in 2009. My ninth anniversary coming up, Yeah. That is incredible. But you started on it in the early days, Didn't you? I mean, We've been talking just recently about a lot of the changes on Insight Timer. I'm a newbie, I'm very new to Insight Timer, But a little like you did. Once it was introduced to me, I was like, This is my tribe. This is my audience. This is where I want to be. And you just kind of get it and you sense it and you feel it. And I'm loving it. I'm loving the journey so far. But things have changed quite rapidly in the time that I've been on board, Which was only, I think I'd signed up in February this year, 2024, And became a full teacher from March 2024. But a lot of changes, And there's things that we've been talking about that have impacted how teachers, For example, Get paid. Because when I first started, It was different to how it is going to be, Or they're just rolling through some changes now and other things afoot, Aren't they? We've been talking about some ideas around this ourselves. Yeah, Well, Actually, When I started, There was no revenue whatsoever. And so I've taken that attitude into now. So I've just paid everything forward. But I got to about a million listens, And my better half said, Have you been paid anything? I said, Well, I got a million karma points. And then I got to 4 million karma points. I still hadn't been paid a bean. And I said, Oh, It will bounce back. And that's always been my attitude. So even though there are all these changes coming through, I'm actually not changing anything. I'm just putting the best quality content out there. Some of it's free. Most of it's free, Actually. Some of it's paid for. But by paid for, It's only $60 a year to get a massive outcome. People pay more than that for one meal. So easily, Easily. So yeah, So my attitude is to put really high quality content up there. And that is it really. And be consistent as well. Last year, I did my house up. And I've been fortunate, You know, Right at the right time. I was I was I became Christopher Plowman's interviewer. So I interviewed him three times up to 2018, Just when he started introducing stuff. And I was on the beta for putting courses up there. So one of my courses has got 16, 000 students on it. One just hit 11, 000 this morning as well. Wow. Wow. Definitely right place, Right time, Which is still the case. But I interviewed Chris recently about all the changes and stuff like that. People are very fearful of the change. I think they've been very generous about giving this a three month transition period. Yes. But the thing called our return rate, And I've got none of us understand it. I think don't think they totally understand it either. So I'm thinking, Well, The best thing you can do is instead of getting all worried about it and dropping away, And I said last year, I mindfully had to drop away because I didn't have an audio studio when my house has been up. So my earnings dropped from quite a nice I had I got no pension. So when I was 60, When I was 50, I said, I'm going to write a book a year. So I'll have a pension by the time I'm 65. And obviously, What happened is the books didn't provide that income, But the meditations with the book did provide it. So, You know, Once you get this paying forward stuff, It will come in. But I mindfully reduced my output last year. And guess what, My earnings reduced by half. But I knew what I was doing. It's like, I knew what the cash flow was about. And then this year, I started increasing again. And now my attitude has been, I've just put this over the weekend, I'm going to increase it again, I'm just going to turn up the knob, Like spinal tap from 10 to 11. And just see what happens. And I don't care what I was doing, There are works in my favour, That's fine. If it doesn't, Well, I hope that I'll be compensating it slightly. But it's probably a sore point for you with all that music you had going on the weekend. But the music is going, The level of Tom's content is going up to 11. Yeah, I think that's it, Isn't it? It is all about the content. So you're going to up the level of content that you're creating, Basically. Yeah, But I'm doing it very smartly, Because I'm like that. Did a little audit earlier this year, And I found 32 to three minute long meditations I've recorded ages ago. This client is not around anymore. And she didn't pay for it, It was going to be a co creation. Yeah, I'm going to put those out as time for tasks. So they did only two or three minutes to listen to I'm going to make them two minutes 22 long, And three minutes 33 long for the slightly longer ones. I'm going to publish them on the new moon and the full moon. So there'll be two tracks a month, Which is roughly a month. And that'll keep me going for 15 months, Which is great. So I've got the content already I've got to do is is and this stuff is nice, Nice little mindful nuggets. So you take this listen to it for two minutes, Act upon it. And even though it's short and sweet, It will have a massive deep impact. Perfect. I should be signing up to those then doing that. And they're going to be absolutely free up there'll be a playlist that curates them. And they're going to do that on top of the current content that I put out. Perfect. And I think it is though, Isn't it what you were saying about it? I've always recognised that the energy and the effort you put into something is what you get back. And it's I mean, My background is recruitment. I spent 36 years in recruitment and years and years and years ago, Well before people started to become aware of like the law of attraction and things like that, I used to recognise the energy I put into my business development calls didn't necessarily generate the results. It's a bit like you were saying about the work that you've put in and you're getting your karma karma cash. I like to call it karma cash back. The work that you put in is what you get back. It's that energetic you're working with the quantum on you. You're working with the energies and you're working with what's at play because we're all energy. And I, You'd recognise that whatever I did, Wouldn't necessarily generate a result from that particular client, But I would get it back from somewhere else. Suddenly I'd be busy with stuff because you're putting the work and it's what you do. And the more you sort of up the work and as long as you're doing what you're enjoying doing, As long as you're with your flow, That's when the sort of the alchemy, The magic, That's what happens, Isn't it? Because you are, As you say, Playing it forward, You're getting it back. You're working with what you love doing. You've got that content that you've already created. And it's a bit like my podcasts. When I've got the moment, I'm going to batch edit them. So I've got, I've got 155 podcast episodes that need uploading onto Insight Timers underneath my Harnessing Happiness podcast collection. Yeah. What's nice about it, You know, I called these back, I think about 2018, Probably 2017 is I'm remastering them with my new ambient music. Ah, Brilliant. And you're very generous though, Tom, Aren't you, With your music that that's available for people to use as well? Yeah, Guess what? So people use it in their, Well, One is it helps people, It helps people with the stuff they're doing, Helps with their energetics. Also, As they put it on their things, They'll say, Oh, This is a track, Blah, Blah, Blah, From Tom Evans. So someone might go back and then listen to the whole track and then listen to something else. So it's a great way of spreading things out there. They're all playing it forward. And as you say about what you did when you were in recruitment, Your work ethic that you're now bringing to your new role as a in-type timer teacher. I was the same when I was a broadcast engineer. I was innovative. I was always inquiring or learning new things, Working well with other people. So nothing's changed. It's the same Tom that's gone all the way through. It's just that when I was fascinated by the magic of TV, I'm now fascinated by the magic of the mind and the soul and the spirit. I know. And it's fascinating, Isn't it? And the more you sort of dig in and the more you delve and the more you let go and the more you work with it. And I've had to trust the process because last year my recruitment business went into administration and my whole world broke in 2023, Having a very strong personal relationship with my partner. But we've made the magic happen. We're now living in the most wonderful part of the world in Norfolk in the UK and it's stunning. Absolutely stunning. There are times Tom when I could just cry because it's just that I can't believe what we've actually been able to manifest because it's just so magical. But the power comes in sort of that surrender, The letting go. But you've got to put the work in, But it's not about breaking your back like we've been educated to do so in the past because actually when you're in flow with what you're doing and when you're trusting the process and you're morphing like you've done and it just naturally falls into place, But you have to let go. And you mentioned the word fearful in relation to the changes in the payment structure. And I know it can be quite unsettling for people who've been very much reliant upon how it had been paid for previously. However, You've kind of got to let go of that. And like you've said, It's a case of doing what is right, Creating more content. And I see change as an opportunity to think differently and more creatively. So I think most of the teachers on Insight Timer, For example, Are creative thinkers, I would imagine, But it's harnessing that and thinking, Okay, Right, This is a situation. What can I do differently? How can I use this in a way that changes things up? Because change is the only constant, Isn't it, After all? And if we can recognise it, Look at it and reframe it, Look at it from a different perspective, Look at what it is pushing us to do differently, Like you're now going to up your content, You've found that other stuff, You may not have thought of that before. Although in the short time that I've known you, Tom, I think you probably would have done. However, It forces you, When things happen, It forces you to think differently. And that's the exciting thing, Because actually, When there's a challenge, You can either, You know, You either accept it or you don't. And if it's something you're passionate about, You can fight it, That's important too. But if it's not that really important, Flow, Work, Get creative and create something different, Bigger, Better, Bolder, Brighter, More magical. Well, It's been a while, I guess, You know, As lots of creators in lockdown, Didn't they, Did something different. And I stopped, For example, At that point, Doing any one-to-one mentoring, And I stopped doing any one-to-many mentoring, I stopped doing workshops and that. I've done two live meditations this year, Funnily enough, But largely stopped doing that kind of work or any corporate work. And something that occurred to me this weekend, Because in the new year with Insight Timer, They're going to introduce this thing where we can sell stuff from our website direct to Insight Timer. And there'll be subscriptions to content and also retreats. Now I might not do retreats per se, Because I don't want the organisational hassle of having to put the event on. Yeah, It's a lot of responsibility when you have to put retreats on. It is, Yeah. And I remembered that I used to be, My transition from board IT consultant to, Through into author, The way I supported myself as an author was to mentor other authors. And back in about 2012, I put this eight-week programme together, Online course, Which I haven't tinkered with since then. And it's really, Really good. And it's a way of helping people get the book to come through them magically without having to write it. It's called How to Channel Your Book. And anyways, That I put together over 10 years ago, I'm going to get that out again, Put it online and help people write the book or specifically get the book to write themselves and then offer potentially one-to-one mentoring as well. So I had this moniker called the bookwright rather than the playwright. A bookwright works with the author, Not the book. So I'm working author-centrically, Not book-centrically. And so that character is going to come out to play again very shortly. And that's the exclusive just for you, Not all. Oh, Thank you very much. How exciting. It's going to help people get the books out there. And then as and when Insight Timer allow us to sell that service into Insight Timer people, Then I'll be ready for it. So rather than waiting for Insight Timer, This is really important, Rather than waiting for Insight Timer to do something, Or rather than waiting to see what this are our things about, As opposed to getting paid from content plays, Get on and do your stuff. Start serving your clients in the best way you can. And I realized I had this content sitting there doing nothing. What better way than to get it out there? We've just gone through the Lionsgate portal, Haven't we? The 888. So guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to charge. There's eight weeks of it, Right? Lovely, Very simple tasking. At the end of it, You'll have the rough draft of your book, Which is just amazing, And some new skills about how to allow creativity to flow through you as well. I'm going to charge $88. 84. So it's got the 888 energy. Excellent. So it's like $11 a week, Something like that, Which is a couple of coffees or something like that. So I love playing with numerology and that sort of stuff. And I've seen the signs. So I had the idea roughly around on the 8th. It then percolated in over the weekend, And it's now distilling down. And then it's going to happen. I'm going to launch it on the autumn equinox, Again, Going with the temporal flow. In fact, I don't know if I mentioned those timeful tasks. I'm going to publish one on a new moon and one on a full moon. And again, By going into cosmic energies, You find that you go with the flow much better. I've never used moon timings for any of my content in some time. I use it to write and publish the Solways books and the albums and the meditations that went around it. But I've never used it for my inside time and content. I'm also going to change the way I'm going to upload things. Oh, That sounds really interesting. When you said about launch, I was like, Oh, But yes, You've got that opportunity to schedule when you want them to publish your content. And also, It's interesting what you say about the moon, Because I do everything so instinctively and intuitively, Although this year I will learn more about moon cycles. However, I very much tap into my own energy and go with my own flow. I feel very fortunate because I've been self-employed since 2009. And it's only really with the demise of my recruitment business last year that I've actually been able to really let go, Trust the process completely, Because I can go in with my own flow and I do whatever feels right in any given moment. There will be a structure to what I do, But I sort of flow in and out and I accept things when things change. And I have done for years, Actually, If something doesn't happen, I go, Okay, Well, What's that giving me the opportunity to do instead? But interesting with the moon, I would be curious to know if I was able to track how I operate then backwards in conjunction with the moon cycles and planetary action, Because there are some days where you just think, You know, When the cloud covers low and it's dense, It's just like, I'll just give myself permission just to not do. Whereas most of the time I'm doing, Well, You've probably observed me by now, Tom, I'm sort of on the go all of the time, But I'm doing stuff because I get excited. I can't stop myself. Well, You know, I've probably cancelled as many workshops that I ever ran, But you get either no one booking on it or two people or something like that. And if you track back in time, You might find that the times your workshops weren't successful, It's because you weren't going with the cosmic flow. And it's not just the moon cycle. It's the diurnal cycle and also the seasonal cycle as well, And where you are in your planetary cycle. So every seven years, It's said that you make a change and a chakra opens. I noticed that with me is that, And also I had a 56 was my second Saturn return. And I work with a business astrologer now. Interesting. Yeah. It said, Isn't it, That millionaires don't use astrologers, But billionaires do. Very wise. Very, Very, Very wise. Wise advice. My ex-sister-in-law was an astrologer and some of the things that she would talk about and share, And it was really fascinating. I remember once she lent the book to somebody, But she never got it back. So we couldn't repeat it. But she gave me the time when I was first with my ex-husband, Her brother, The time to sow some seeds in the garden. It was herbs. We were in our first house together. You should have seen the size of these herbs that grew, Tom, Because they were planted at the right time with the moon and everything like that. The chives were like about four foot tall. It's ridiculous. Everything was massive. It's just incredible. And it is about working with, As you say, It's working with the seasons. We've got so disconnected from all of this as a rule, Because of all that's been going on in the world with technology and people got caught up into sort of so much stuff and they lose connection with themselves. And yet, You know, When you are in tune, It's like, I can just think about a cup of tea and Gareth will say, Do you want a cup of tea? Result. A nice way to do it. A nice way to bring it back in is to take an event that you're running every month. So, For example, You know, We've got a lovely teacher support group for people on Insight Time. Absolutely amazing. Teachers with insight. Thank you for setting it up, Tom. Yes, My pleasure. And but but we run this monthly support call and what we could do is move that to a new moon and or a full moon. Right. One, We go with the cosmic flow and also remind everybody about the cosmic flow. So I used to do a new project every new moon. So my book behind which is always insertions is 12 chapters. And I did an album, 12 tracks, And I did a set of meditations on each of the 12 numbers on the numerology of numbers one to 12. And what I did is I, I published the chapter on a new moon, A meditation on a first quarter, I did the music on the full moon. And then I did a lecture or a sort of zoom call on the third quarter. So you can pick any of the quarters or even the quarter there's eight as well as there's gaps between the waxing and waning. Yes, Yes, Of course. But just make it consistent around the moon. And then we'll get a lovely sister moon pull to take everyone forward. It doesn't matter what it is, But always do it on a new moon. Obviously, If it's a Saturday, And that's not convenient, You can do the Friday or the Monday or something like that. So basically, You know, Working with the moon cycles is actually a really good thing to do. And in fact, That course I mentioned about how to get your book to write itself. One of the modules there is actually creating in tune with the moon and marketing in tune with the moon. You can even recruit in tune with the moon. Oh, Fascinating stuff, Because I have done a book, But there are other other books within me that still need to come out. I need to, I was just saying to Gareth at the weekend, I need to just sit down and have a week and just write, Because when I write, It literally just comes through my fingers. I just, I can't stop my newsletters end up, You know, You think you're a recipient. They usually end up longer than most people's newsletters. I just get carried away. But you know, Some people call it channeling. The original name was how to channel your book. I'm going to call it how to get your book to write yourself this time. And one of the modules in there is passive channeling, Just getting your conscious mind out of the way so you can just get the stuff to come through. And I teach people this thing called active channeling and active channeling. So if you're tuned into the dear departed, That's fine. If you're tuned into the angels or the archangels, That's also fine. Or other intelligences in other layers. That's how I got the information for soul waves by tuning into the council of 12, Which is this, This, The fictitional completely, They're imaginary, But you can imagine they're real. It's amazing what comes through for you. Amazing how lucky you can be. But one of the things I get people to do on the course is to channel their future self who knows the words they haven't written yet. So imagine you're here for now and your book's out, You know, Everything's in the book, Get that person to inform you. Now, Again, It's imaginary, But it's amazing how well it works. Fascinating. So you're really sort of working into that sort of, You're working within the quantum, Aren't you really? Yeah. It's creating like a temporal flow. Yeah. Oh, When is it available, Tom? Oh, Well, It's available now. I've got a version of it available now, But I've got to, I've got to repackage it, Revamp it, Re-energize it, Put some new content in. The last module is about how to get published. Now I wrote that module in 2012. Of course, The publishing landscape has completely changed now. So I'm going to redo the last module in it. So it is up to date and also reflects what I've done. And I've got a completely different attitude of publishing now than I had before then. I used to go ebook first, Print first, Then audiobook. And now I go audiobook, Ebook and print. I reverse the order completely. Do you know what's really interesting, What you've just said there? Because I've recognized the content that I have been writing and recording for Insight Timer. I've got content there that I can work with my book editor to create some more books. I've got so many books that I actually want to write. I just need to allocate that time to doing it. But at the moment I'm focused on, I've got all these different titles because things forever coming into me title wise for content for Insight Timer. They just drop in. Oh, I could do something on this. I could do something on that. And that's what I love because it's such a wonderful audience, People who are ready to listen to what you've got to talk about. But I think with Insight Timer as well, It's getting the titles right and inviting people in. But you've got this content you're creating that you can share with the students, But other teachers as well. And for teachers creating the content, You can repurpose it like you've just said and create a book. So therefore, Any teachers that are listening, Keep your audio, Get it translated into written. If you've not written it, If it's written, You've already got it. Listen to Tom, Get his book, Get writing. And that's all changed, As you say, As well, The whole landscape on. Two reasons for that. One is that I say you can't record something out loud in three takes, Even if it's grammatically correct. You need to rewrite it because it doesn't scan well. So it makes you a better writer. And two, The rules change. Amazon, You know, Massive monopoly on stuff. So you can never put an audio book up to Audible unless you've got either the e-book on Kindle or the print book out. And that rule changed roughly around the middle of the last decade. So now you can put all audio books out separately. And one of the things that we got with Insight Timer and Insight Timer have not recognized this, Even though I've been banging on them for God knows how long about it, Is that they are the biggest potential book publisher for mind, Body, Spirit, Metaphysical and mindfulness books. They're the biggest publisher on the planet with the biggest audience. And one thing they've got, Which is absolutely brilliant, If someone listens to one of my Audible books and they can be bothered to do a review, Not many people do reviews, But I can't really respond to that. But if on Insight Timer, The way they do courses and someone asks you a question after a lesson on the course and you can respond individually to that person about that lesson, If we were able to do that with our books, Then that would be a world first. So the listener and the author can interact on a chapter by chapter basis or a part by part basis or a book by book basis. You don't want to be swamped by reviews. For example, My book, Soul Waves, It's a hundred chapters. I wouldn't want every single chapter comments on it. I've serialized it in 10 parts, 10 chapters at a time. I've got another book on time called Managing Time Mindfully that's available for free on Insight Timer. And it's because it's about time, It's in 12 chapters, But in four quarters, Because it mimics the clock face. I publish that on a quarter by quarter basis. And that's how I'd like to interact, Listen to that quarter. And then we'll talk about the first quarter of this timefulness journey. But Insight Timer, If they could just give us the course functionality for audiobooks and have a section on their app for audiobooks, Then you get people who aren't Insight Timer teachers, But are authors and they'd get them as teachers. It would just completely blow all these issues they got around revenue out of the water. And I've fed up of just banging this drum because it really is. So as you said, It's there, It's ready, It's waiting. So it's visualizing it and making it happen. I guess at the moment they are in the midst of fighting all of this and with Apple and Apple taking it. It's not just a slice, It's a big chunk. It's almost like they're taxing you to use their service, Which is outrageous. That's another issue, Not for today, But it's so much creativity, So much that can be done. You've prophesied it. And let's say you've prophesied things before, Tom, Haven't you, With your books always? If you're not aware of Tom's books always, And I have yet to read it and I will be getting myself a copy because you prophesied, It talks about COVID. I know based in Beijing and Wuhan would relieve, So there you go. It doesn't mention COVID in this book, By the way. No, But you mentioned Beijing and Wuhan, Don't you, And an epidemic. Fascinating. Tom, I could talk to you for hours and I would still run out and not run out of things to ask you. I'm mindful that yes, People are listening and they're intrigued and fascinated. They probably want to hear more. We may have to do a part two, So please do ask any questions away. Firstly, I was going to ask you, Were you a musician as well before you became a musician as opposed to following your career in the audio industry? The other thing happened was I had a guitar and when I was 30, I could play the first opening bars of Stairway to Heaven, Smoke on the Water, And that's about it. And my missus got completely annoyed about this, So she sent me some classical guitar lessons and I studied classical guitar for quite a number of years and got quite good. I'm pretty rusty right now. And then when I moved house to North Wiltshire, I thought I'd better pick up the old guitar again. This was just before lockdown. I found a brilliant teacher, A guy called Piers, And I went and started to see him for about three or four lessons and then lockdown happened. He was one of the first people I knew that had COVID, Funnily enough. And I said, Well, I'd established by this time that he knew how to use this software called Ableton, Which is a mini sequencing software. And I said, Well, Could you, Rather than teach me guitar, Could you teach me musical theory about how to compose specifically ambient music to go behind my meditations? And he did that and three albums in. Wow. And then to me, For other people to use it and want to use it, Bearing in mind I'm not a musician per se, I'm not as talented as someone like Manuel Portello in our wonderful group or James Anthony Walker, Who's also similarly amazing. I use the keyboard to enter notes and what have you, I don't really play it as such. And I know how to compose. And also because I'm a nerdy TV and audio engineer, I know how to create a soundscape and do weird things with, I've got some tracks that do, Even with stereo, You can put the sound to the front of the head and the back of the head and you can get it swirling around and stuff. And obviously when you're, When you use it, When you're doing guided meditations, You can use the sound to quieten the mind so that the words you're saying go straight past the conscious mind into the unconscious mind. So there's a lot of other stuff going on. There's something else very, Very subtle, Which is really important. I mentioned this to other people at other times, Is that if you, If you create in trance and you write in trance and you record in trance, So you become consciously, Unconsciously confident in the tools you're using, What happens when someone listens to it is they mirror your trance state. Again, One of the modules in that course I mentioned is how to write in trance so you end trance, Your reader or your listener. Yes. You said when you, When, When the stuff just comes through you, I know instantly reading that book, You know that you'll be absolutely captured with that book and it'll become a page turner. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that's it. It's, You said earlier on as well about just letting go of the conscious mind. You've just got to stop questioning and just trust, Just trust in yourself, Believe in yourself and remove the fear and just. Before I go into that, The first module is becoming fearless. Yeah. So important. One of the things we can be most fearful about is how magnificent we all are. Exactly. Exactly. But my book's entitled Shining a Light on You, How to Manifest Your Dream Job, But everything is, And it is about shining a light, Shining a light on yourself, Getting to know yourself, Really embracing who you are, You know, Being curious, Exploring, Saying yes, Trying things. And like you've done all of that has unfolded as you've been curious and you've explored and you've learned. It's exciting. There's so much. I still had imposter syndrome when I got to a million listeners on Insight Timer and it was just about fading when I got to four million. But every new iteration of Tom that comes out there, This new thing, This new iteration is coming out right now. I still am slightly fearful about putting my head above the parapet one more time. But, You know, The more and more you do it, The more you think, Well, Actually, You know, I've been shot down yet. So but one day, You know, Who knows? You know, I mean, If you don't try, You'll never know. What's the beautiful thing about Insight Timer is you get instant feedback from people. I tried a new meditation series this year going in a slightly more philosophical way. I got three meditations out in this new manner. And they said, Oh, Tom, Could you do it the old style? We like the old version of you. So I went back to the old version of meditation. But, You know, What's the worst that can happen? I mean, They'll tell you. Yeah, Exactly. And you can learn from that. You either then think, Well, No, I want to do it my way or you go, Actually, Well, We'll carry on doing it or you'll do both. Everything's going to appeal to different people. But what you know, I love and because I suppose it's my my background in recruitment and I'm so passionate about people aligning with who who they are, Because that's when the magic happens and that's when you step into your own truth and you do step above the parapet. And I've done it myself. When you do that, When you step into your power and you put your head above the parapet, Even if there are people that want to shoot you down, That they're doing that because they can see you rising up. And it means that they've got to do the work themselves and they'd rather shoot you down to bring you back down to their level than try and do the work themselves to bring themselves up. So it's about just letting it go and not being impacted by anybody's negative comments, Because, You know, It's all too easy to do. So one of the courses I put up initially, The first bit of feedback was horrific. It was awful. But I recognised it as that person's stuff and Insight Timer did actually take it down, Which was really pleasing. And the feedback I've had subsequently has been brilliant. But I clearly triggered somebody who was a narcissist because I was talking about narcissism. But I was going to say, I love the fact that you have made this career change and that is so powerful. And I think people, If they get it at an early age, That's brilliant. But invariably, I think you get to a certain age in life where you think, Kind of, Is this it? Is this all what I want? I mean, I know I qualified as a coach in 2012 to get away from recruitment, But it gave me, With all the training I did at the time, Additional training, I ended up setting up my own recruitment business. But it wasn't until last year. And I always said I didn't want to do recruitment by the time I'm 60, Which will happen next year. So everything had to fall apart for me to actually get it all cleared out, To move forward, Doing what I'm doing now, Which is wonderful. And that's what happens. And this is why I've always wanted to say to people, When you get made redundant or things happen and push you out, You weren't meant to be there. Don't fight it. Explore what's meant to be like you have done with what you've done following your career and just carry on morphing. It's exciting. Embrace it. Enjoy it. It's all about the journey, Not the destination after all. For sure. Oh, Tom, Is that a moment to end on, Do you think? Or is there anything else we can carry on? Well, As I said, I could carry on talking to you for hours and days and probably weeks and months and years on end. However, Is there anything else that you would like to share specifically for people who are on Insight Timer right now? Because hopefully you've all got to know Tom a lot more and are inspired about what's to come and what could come and what you can manifest because it's all possible if you believe it. Yeah, The only thing I want to say is that, You know, It's an amazing platform. It's amazing content and there's amazing people on there, Both listeners and also the guides that are on there. And I use it daily. So I absolutely use it daily. I'm as much a user as I am a content producer on it. And the people behind it are amazing. You know, They've just done the most amazing job. In very trying circumstances, You know, They've traded through lockdown. They've never advertised at all. They've got some competitors out there that had lots of money thrown at them and they are changing the consciousness level of the planet. So if you want to be in this amazing space with some of the, I think the most leading lights on the planet, These thinkers and the brightest spiritual lights, Then get on the app and meditate every day. And they said also, If you haven't got 10 minutes to meditate every day, You need to meditate for an hour every day. Yes. And I need to take that on the head, Tom, Because my brain goes into, Right, I must do some meditating. And my best time I've always found, Actually, It's not, I wouldn't call it meditating as such, But it's my brain processing. You know, You just wake up in the morning, You're in that sort of slumber. That is the time of my brain. It's when you're just coming out of that deep REM sleep and your brain's whirring and it's just like, That's my time. I've got a track on there that helps you and it's called hypnopompia. That state is called hypnopompia. And there's the other state called hypnagogia, Which is the state between being awake and being asleep. And I've got two, I've got four tracks. One's called hypnagogia, One's called hypnopompia, Which is that lovely state you get from your lucid dream into awakening. As a result of feedback, The other thing about time is when I put that first track up, Be calm, I thought, Who wants to listen to Tom for more than 10 minutes? And who's got more than 10 minutes? The first feedback is, Can you do an extended version? So be calm for longer is on there. And so when I later on, I do like a short version, And then there's an extended version as well. Now I've got my ambient music generation under my belt as well. So the extended hypnopompia thing is an hour long. So what a treat if in the morning, Instead of listening to the hypnopompia for 10 minutes, You listen to the whole thing for an hour. And in that time, All the creative stuff that you need will just flow in, Which is just amazing. So you will save that hour back in many, Many times over. I'm going to tune into that. At the weekend, Do the extended version in the week, Maybe do the shorter version. That sounds perfect. And a great tip for everybody listening as well. But as Tom said, The platform, It's got 20, 000 teachers on it and 28 million people on there using the app. It is awesome. And I'm just loving my journey as I've only just at the start of it. And it's just it's just wonderful. And yes, A quick question before we do sign off, There's brain questions. It's like this. So can I write? Because when I'm thinking I need to write all the time. So listening to your track, Is that can I be right? Yeah. So there's a bit of guidance at the beginning. It's not very long. I think there might be five minutes of guidance. And if you listen to the hypnopompia extended version, There'd be a good 55 minutes of music. So for example, This morning I was writing some stuff and I just put one of James Anthony Walker's tracks on and I knew I wanted 30 minutes. So I put one of his 30 minute tracks and he's got lovely 15 minute tracks, 30 minutes. Whatever time you got, Plug into some ambient on the app. That stuff is specifically you're in the hypnopompia point. I've been out for a dog walk already, Which I also do meditatively. So I came back, 30 minutes of writing. Thank you very much, James. Just plugged into that. And amazing stuff came through. I wasn't expecting. Wow. Well, Whereas if people tune into mine, I'm sort of really like this all the time. So they won't be relaxing listening to me. But here's the thing. I'll say this to you and I'll say to other people. The only thing I don't allow people to do is just to republish my ambient tracks if it's yours, Because obviously that wouldn't be congruent. But if you wanted to do a one hour meditation with two minutes of guidance with you speak, But within an hour of my music, That then, You know, I'm a great fan of there are no rules. Yes. Yes. That complies with the rules. Right. So you could do a one hour track where you got people luxuriating in ambient with a bit of guidance for you. Or you say you might say something like, Oh, I'll just set you off now and I'll pop back in at the end and blah, Blah, Blah, That sort of stuff. Oh, There's a thought. Oh, Now there is a thought indeed. That is I'm going to. Yes. Wow. Yes, I could. Yes. That's very, Very interesting indeed. I think yes, I shall be collaborating with your tracks, I think, And creating some content at the beginning because I've got one I am going to be recording to go in. I've just published a course on how to transform manifest your ideal life in 10 in 10 days. And I'm going to do a guided visualization attached to that, Which I do need to put some music behind. So I will be grabbing one of your tracks and referencing you because last time I don't quite know what happened because it didn't drop down to give me the opportunity to reference. They used to have this thing that you could put a collaborator on. Now you've got to put it in the description. They used to have name your collaborators and that will be why then you could put this talk up. If I didn't have external links in this talk, You could add this talk to the time and you've got to say my role was interviewer, You'd say, And Tom was interviewee. That option disappeared some time ago. So the only way to do it is to say music by Tom Evans or something like that. Cool. That is what I'll do. And on that note, Music by Dobby the House Elf. We'll go with that instead. Also known as Dumbledore. Oh, Fantastic, Tom. I can't thank you enough. This has been absolutely brilliant. As I said, I could I could talk to you for hours. Thank you. Thank you so much for those of you listening who haven't been aware of Insight Timer before. Please go and check Tom out. And for those of you are, Please go and check Tom's stuff out and take a listen. And yeah, It's always good to subscribe because you then get notified of any tracks that are coming up or being released. So happens all the time. And obviously watch out for the new moon and the full moon, Because that's when Tom's tracks will be appearing. Thank you so much, Sarah. It's been a delight to talk to you today. Oh, Thank you. And thank you all for listening. And please do obviously subscribe to himself and to Tom and to really interact with all the other teachers as well, Because there's so much stuff on there. It will be grand for you. Thank you very much again, Tom. Take care.