Episode 10 - Sean Stephenson on how Social Media saved his life

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Oh yeah, we know what that sound means. This is Social Buzz on Air. What is happening, everybody? I'm Sebastian Rosk, your host, as always. Hey, welcome to the show. My guest today, let me tell you, I met this individual in June in San Diego at the National Speakers Association annual convention. Now, I had first heard about this dude uh through my boy Lewis Howes on his podcast, and I almost instantaneously connected with him because I thought, this dude is real, man. He's got a story to tell. He's been making some big moves for a minute here. I gotta meet this guy. So I happen to run into him in San Diego, and we got a chance to connect. And uh I call him a friend now. It's so awesome how he can instantly connect with people. Um and he's had quite the interesting uh journey over the past couple months. I'm not gonna waste any more time. I want to get right down to it. Friends, if you could please help me welcome to the show, my friend Sean Stevenson. What's happening, sexy?

SPEAKER_01 1:04

How are you, my friend?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Hey, if I was any better, my last name would be Stevenson.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Oh, yes, that's true.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

So um, it was so great to connect with you at NSA in in June. We were chatting for a few minutes uh before that. Um it's been a crazy couple of months for you uh here. Uh I want to chat about how social media has been an impact for your brand, but let's let's bring our listeners um up to speed with where you're at. Thank God everything has uh has has um has returned back to normal uh as much as it possibly can. You're continuing to to make moves on a daily basis, but uh why don't you bring us up to speed as far as what you've been up to, what's been consuming you, and and and all that jazz.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Well, I'd like to make a big fat hairy claim right here, right now, on your program. And that is that social media literally, not metaphorically, literally saved my life. So, what do I mean by that? Well, I was in an accident just right after I met you practically. And maybe uh maybe you're the bad luck that I I got rubbed off on me or something, I don't know. But I uh I'm just kidding. But I I met you, and then literally a couple weeks later, I went for a walk with my dog, and we went to the post office, and my dog was tied to my wheelchair. He he was a service dog in training, and there was another dog in the post office that got his attention, and normally he was really, really good, but that day he got spooked and he took off running and flipped the wheelchair to the point that I was thrown from the wheelchair about three to four feet onto the con concrete, and uh I fractured and bruised myself in over 11 places. I cracked my skull open, got bleeding on the brain, uh, was rushed to the emergency room, had swelling, a concussion. Um it was it was dangerous and to the point where I um I could have died easily. And I was in the hospital for about four days, but then I was on a 25-day uh journey of strong narcotics where I had no short-term memory. And that was scary because I would ask somebody a question and then uh two hours later ask it again, like I had some form of dementia in my 80s, and I'm only 35. So that was a very scary time. I fractured my leg in four different places, um, just all up and down my right side, was either fractured or badly, badly bruised. And it was a nightmare. I mean, I did not like my life at that time. Um, but the reason why I say social media saved my life is while in the emergency room, I immediately pulled out my iPhone and started blogging. I um I didn't not from the sensational standpoint of, hey, here's something interesting that'll get viewers. It was more of, hey, I'm scared I'm gonna die here, and I believe in the power of prayer. Even if you're not religious, I ask that you send loving, healing energy my way and just think good thoughts about Sean Stevenson. And they started rolling in by the thousands and then eventually the hundreds of thousands of people around the world that were praying and commenting and sharing and liking and posting all these different messages. Um, some of my greatest mentors, Tony Robbins and Byron Katie, called me up, uh, sent me video messages. I had over 40 people in real time show up to my home and at the hospital to uh um to give me healing love. And it was uh it was amazing how social media literally gave me access to keep people step by step abreast of what was going on with the condition, from the moment of thinking I was gonna die to it looks like we're stabilized to I'm getting released to now I'm in recovery, to now I'm actually um healing at this stage and this stage and this stage, and even as of yesterday, I posted about how I was able to do my first push-up because I'm a big believer in fitness, and I hadn't been able to support my body to do a push-up in almost two and a half months from the accident. So I'm still kind of trickling out to the uh the details of my recovery, and it's fascinating by how people like yourself, Sebastian, really felt close to me. You know, I was sharing intimate details about how I, you know, uh lost control of my bowels um on a change of medication and how um, you know, just the amount of pain and showing myself very vulnerable, heavily uh medicated, and yet I honestly think that it broke down a barrier between myself and my following that I'm not some untouchable, um perfect, uh never scathed by by reality, that I was very much fragile human being, no different than anybody else.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yeah, you know what? It was funny you said that. I grabbed my phone immediately and went to social media because it was, it was almost like this guy's this guy's this guy's petrified um uh for for his life, literally. Like you don't know. I mean, that that feeling of not knowing what is next after something um um so so it happened so quickly, uh, and you're just you're you're injured and you're you just hear all these these these diagnoses and what what has taken place and it just leaves you and say for you so for you to grab your phone and say, you know what? Um I'm kind of losing my mind over all this right now, but I'm gonna shoot a quick YouTube video. It's completely commendable because um people want to help, right? Um but sometimes we're we're we're too ashamed to ask for it, and we don't want to be on, but in in a in a fit, I mean I've done this before too. Um, you know, Gary V says authenticity trumps like ability, and I and I really believe that. And you were um you were an uh a great example of of authenticity, but also being able to leverage your social network. I gotta say that you my favorite part of the video, I think it was the first recycle when you shot, you're like, and it was a it's it's not it it wasn't laughing matter at the moment, but the way that you said please pray for me. Uh listen, if if if you believe in God, if you're a hardcore atheist, dude, I've been there. And that was number one, you added a little comedy in the midst of of of what appeared to be chaos, but I thought, I'm using that. I told, I mean, I'm a I'm a devout Christian, I love the Lord, I'm a I'm a I'm a wrecked individual and I'm still here. So um, but I I I I uh I gotta there's a special place in my heart for for for atheists, and I'm definitely gonna have to borrow your line there of uh Well, and I think in the end, what I was trying to do in that video um was to not alienate anybody's love. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

You know, because there are people that are very devout, many different religions. And so when you say prayer, they get on board, they get a they they understand that they know what the word means, they know what it its power is, but anybody who's not in that camp feels like you're saying, I don't care about your love. Right. I don't want your love. And I needed everybody's love possible in that moment. So I was trying to unify the human race, if you will, in that moment by saying, Who doesn't believe in positive vibes? Who doesn't believe in you know sending out good juju? If you don't believe that, then you know you shouldn't be following me because uh that's at the core of my existence. But you know, I I also feel that what social media did for me in that moment was it showed people that you don't just post online your wedding photos, your vacation to Cabo. You don't just need to show the highlights of your life. That it actually is very sobering and very humbling to release the darker times too, to balance out, to show people that you know life's not all about uh perfect, you know, perfection. You know, I just previous to that video of me in the hospital asking for prayers, I was posting a picture of kissing a dolphin in the Bahamas, you know, and so it's just a crazy juxtaposition to one day you could be shaking hands with the president, if you will, and the next day you could be begging for your life, you know, and so that was real. And that's that's what I've always been connected to and committed to is I don't want Sean Stevenson to be ever anything separate in his real life that he is in his social media and stage presence um at a live keynote event.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

You know, I always tell people that. I said, you know, and and I talk about this a lot. Of course, it's my job to talk about why social media sucks uh and why it doesn't suck. And I said, you know, it sucks when you have two Facebook accounts. You've got one for work, Monday through Friday, nine to five, and then you've got your um personal account. And that's where we're turning, uh we're you know, we're we're we're we're dancing on tabletops with bottles on the weekend down here at Live on Miami Beach. The bottom line is that authenticity trumps like ability. People want to know who you really are before they make a decision on whether or not they like you. They want to feel people can feel authenticity as well, too. But this day and age, who we are in our personal life is who we are in our professional life, in my opinion. I I don't know. What what do you think about that, Sean?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Well, I definitely think that the old guard is fighting that. I think the old guard is they they've not been raised on camera phones, on um all these different social media sites where in seconds uh you can have you know 20 people reporting live as if they're all news anchors. Um that that scares the old guard, and I understand that, and I'm kind of caught in between because I I did not grow up on the internet. I got the internet around college, uh, but I did grow up on computers mostly, and I grew up mostly on cell phones, so I'm kind of in between. You know, at 35 I can say that I've seen um a lot of the technology pop up, but I can't say that I was born on Twitter, you know what I mean? Right. And so when I look at the authenticity and how it scares people or why it's shaking people up, I think it's because it's really an issue of privacy. And, you know, I think that there's a difference between something being personal and something being private, you know. I might have a private moment with a dear friend or my wife, and you know, I don't need to post that on social media. Um, it's private. But then there's other things that were personal, you know. That accident was tremendously personal, but it was okay to share because that was something that I needed to connect to the human race and say, hey, send me send me some love. And I think that when people are freaked out, they're worried that privacy versus the personal side is going to be eliminated. And I think a lot of that has to just go down to discretion.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

I agree. And you know, with with privacy concerns, in fact, after this whole you know Facebook Messenger app um saga that's been that that that's been floating around with what they can control on a phone and what they can't. And I hopped on a webinar um uh or it was a it was a uh Google Plus hangout a couple of weeks ago uh just to listen in. Um Robert Scobel was on, who seems to, you know, have got a big edge and a big follow in the tech community. And and the one single thing that I took from that that he said that it was just absolutely so on it, that was the fact that we will in fact trade uh privacy for utility. And that's where the old guard is gonna turn the corner. Because Sean, there was a point in time we could do business without a fax machine. It was a there's a point in time we could do business without without a beeper. And then, you know, you start to make that that that that that turn in the road, and the people that dug their heels in, um, it's kind of like social media in overall. You know, you ask people three or four years ago if they had a Facebook and they say, absolutely not. Why don't you have one? Because I don't want the world knowing about my every move. Now what are they doing? Everyone is digitally addicted.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

We say I would I would also put out there that I've noticed just in the short time that I've been on this planet, that people go through the the human beings go through cycles. Eventually, um I think we will swing the pendulum back, and it people won't necessarily be posting selfies every day in the gym. Um I think that'll get overwhelming and boring, and we're almost on the on the tipping point of that now. Uh I just find that the human race gets bored with things being the same, and we go from expose everything to share nothing. Back to expose everything to share nothing. I mean, I I would love to be able to get in a DeLorean and go 88 miles per hour back to our grandparents' generation and see what they were saying about the telephone. See what they were saying about the first set of computers, the supercomputers that filled up a room. You know, I I want to know, like, are we really that um different today? I mean, people can make the arguments, oh yes, the technology is different than today. Yeah, but it's gonna be different in 20 years from now. You know, 20 years from now, there's not gonna be an MP3 player, more than likely. There'll be a totally new set of technology that you and I can't even comprehend. But here's one thing that doesn't change, Sebastian, and that is human emotion. We're all gonna have moments being scared, we're all gonna have moments of being happy, we're all gonna have moments of being in love. Emotion is the one thing that I've found has been with us since we've developed our brains in the last hundred thousand years.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah, it definitely has. And I, you know, it we it makes such an emotional connection, and that's why it literally is we are literally digitally addicted. We post something, we tweet something, and we sit and we wait for that first like, comment, or we retweet that that gives us a shot of dopamine that goes right to our brain that says, you know what? I'm freaking awesome. And I think that that emotional tie is what keeps people so closely connected. Uh, was the average person not more than three feet away from their cell phone at any given time? Um, you know, I lately I've been in, you know, I've been really adamant about bringing it way back and bringing it way back, meaning pick up the phone and and call somebody. Um send somebody a handwritten thank you note. I mean, those those those old school gestures that have always been around um are I believe are so much more precious now because we're so insane. Do you ever you ever like see a friend on Facebook that you haven't seen in a long time? I mean, that's where we're at now. You're like, holy crap, what's he been up to? And then of course, we can just message that person and hit them up and instantaneously I had a buddy call me from high school yesterday on a Sunday morning at nine in the morning. Hey, I've been following you. How was Vegas? I'm like, I haven't talked to you in three years, asking how my week was.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

So um multiply that by thousands, and you have what I experienced with my accident with people that I never even met. You know, people literally, I went to the grocery store last weekend, and three people that I didn't even know on my journey from my front door to returning, three people I didn't even know commented, Sean, how are you feeling? First of all, uh I didn't know them. They knew my first name. Second of all, they knew that I was in an accident. Third of all, they knew that there was a story there and that I was somewhere in the process of recovery. And that was just going to the grocery store.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

Wow. That is awesome. So have there what what what so there's been an incredible um outpour of of love and support for you. Um has anything um really cool happened out of this experience? I mean, in addition to that, like, hey, never in a million years did I think, but based on that, I talked to this person, and then I'm talking to this person, and from here we're able to do this. Has there been any unique opportunities that were created within this?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Uh absolutely. You know, I have a live event that had to be rescheduled from August to November now. And the event um has rapidly changed. You know, now I've had some of the biggest and brightest uh names in the business of marketing, like J. Abraham, those kinds of people showed up at my door basically saying, Sean, we heard you were in a bad accident, and we heard your event had to be rescheduled. How can I help? And then they said, you know, would you like me to speak at your event? And I went from basically having one or two keynote speakers at my event that I was um friends with to a whole lineup of pros saying, How can we support this event and make it a big success? So it automatically put my event on steroids in terms of the content and in terms of the name recognition. I would say that was a big thing. Another thing that I feel is just I feel like it bonded me closer to the network of people, the community. Now when I post, people are still saying, you know, this is so exciting to see you doing these things, um, knowing that just two months ago you were, you know, praying for your life. And so I feel like it it it opened up a channel to my followers' hearts that probably wasn't as deeply open um as before. And I think that there's a lot of there's a lot of uh lines that are in the uh water right now, like fishing lines, uh, that I think will eventually bite within the next six months that I'm not even aware of because of the visibility from the accident.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

I think so too. Um have you ever um have you ever experienced um when when when when you're when you're going through something like this, does it what's the thought process? Because it's obviously not let's get this event done. That was obviously the top of your mind, and that's something that you wanted to do, and you knew you had to reschedule it, and you knew that it was just a full-blown um uh it's gonna it was gonna be a full-blown circus getting that done, but you got it done, you got it rescheduled. What was that what else was on your mind every day? Was it thank God I'm alive? Was it thank God for the people that have? Of course, it was probably a combination of those things, but what was the primary focus for you every day?

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Uh, just to get through that day. It was, you know, um hate to sound like a a downer, but it the amount of excruciating pain I was in for for a very long period of time, um there are moments where I just had to do Lama's breathing to get through that hour. Um just because when you when you fracture you know your body in multiple places, you can't get comfortable. Um, you know, when you fracture one area of your body, you can just stay still. But when all of a sudden it's happening all over your body, you know, you can't get in a position without being in excruciating pain. So a lot of what was running through my mind was keep keep holding on, Sean. Um don't lose your wits. Um stay with me. Uh I got you. I mean, I I grew a tremendous amount of support for myself from the whole experience because there were times where I literally could feel myself losing my mind in the excruciation of it all. As well as, you know, when you put a human being on a lot of narcotics to try to counteract the pain, you then start messing with the reality. My reality while I was awake was more muted than when I slept. So what that means is my dreams were more vivid than my awakening periods, and so when I would have a nightmare, I would wake up and I wouldn't believe what was real.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Wow. That is trippy.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

It also it honestly, to just continue to bear my soul here for you, um, it got to my insecurities because you know, I grew up in a condition where I'm only about three feet tall, I'm in a wheelchair, I have a rare bone disorder, so by the time I was 18, I'd fractured my bones over 200 times. But I hadn't fractured a bone since I was 17. So 17 years old to 35 years old, there was no massive amount of physical pain in my life. So it was kind of a uh a reunion with my my very horrific physical experience of of childhood, and it plucked at all my insecurities because my wife, Mindy, she had never seen me that decimated physically. I mean, to the point that I needed help even wiping in the bathroom. I couldn't do even that. I was so badly damaged. And um to to feel so helpless at a 35 year old man condition in your mind um really plucked at my insecurities of is she wondering? Should I have married into this? What am I doing? And you know, I had nightmares of her wanting a divorce. And uh one nightmare was so vivid, I got hit by a train in this nightmare. And when I woke up, um my friends were around me, my wife was there, and they were all trying to calm me down, but I was convinced that the train was real and that they were a dream. And so there were many moments where I wasn't sure what was real, and that was probably scarier than anything.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Wow, I bet. That's like you're literally reversing your reality. Reality in dreamland. So that and then obvious that obviously ceased as the as the medication ceased, or did it just cease altogether while you were still on the medication?

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Well, it it it definitely went down over time. So um when I got released from the hospital, um my brain was not back because of the concussion. So for the first couple weeks after I was released from the hospital, I literally had no short-term memory and I had no recollection of the accident as soon as I went to sleep. So what that means is I would go take a nap, whether it was five minutes or it was going down for the night to sleep for the evening, and when I would wake up, I would have no memory of the accident. And so I'd be panicked because my whole body would be riddled with pain, and I'd be all bandaged up and wondering what the hell happened. And so they would have to explain to me every single time what happened, why uh I was in all this pain, where the dog was, because we gave the dog up for adoption because he was just too um strong for me, and it was a dangerous move to continue to you know bring him into my life since he almost accidentally killed me. And so, you know, each time I had to be explained where the dog went, what was going on with my body, and each time I had to grieve the loss of everything. And that was the hardest part. That tapered off over the weeks, um, but it my life really returned to me uh 25 days after the accident when I finally uh took my last pain pain med and finally came to, and I looked at my wife across the room and I said, Where have I been? Like, what has been happening? Like, I this doesn't even seem like it was real. And she was she had tears in her eyes, and she was like, You've been on very strong pain meds, and you know, you've been here, but you haven't.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

How did you feel when Tony reached out to you?

SPEAKER_01 24:34

You know what? It it was uh Tony's like a second father to me. My my father Greg is is my rock and he's been there for every step of the way, but my uh pseudo-father Tony has kind of been my personal growth uh father, if you will, and he's taught me everything about psychology and um all about emotional um performance. And so for him to reach out and to send that uh that loving video, it was very healing. It was very inspiring. It gave me a rush of energy to want to keep moving forward. And it was also just a testament to the bond that we had grown uh all those years ago when we had met.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

Absolutely. And for our listeners, we're we're talking about the all uber incredible Tony Robbins uh fact. I just got done earlier this year. I brought my 13-year-old daughter to UPW. So uh huge, huge fan of Tony, what he's doing. I'm a good friend with his son too, and I just absolutely love everything he's he's been able to contribute to this planet. But I think I watched the video two or three times because it was just he speaks with such a convicting level of confidence that you just know it's kind of it is, it's like that that that father that warming, fatherly uh everything's gonna be okay. Um I I believe his his exact lines were um you know you're gonna be great because uh you're you're a machine and uh you're tough as nails. So wow, that's great, man. It's just uh uh to be able to see that the the it was just so encouraging and it was just such a I've had a I had another friend that had an unfortunate accident about a month and a half ago and had a seizure randomly and broke both of his shoulder blades, had to have two shoulder surgeries, and come to find out there was a tumor on his brain. So two weeks after that had to cut the tumor out, and he's been regrouping ever since. But the level of support that have come from the social media community, um, very similar to what you experienced of people reaching out and showing up at the house and going grocery. I mean, it's just unbelievable. It's so unfortunate that life just happens, but when it does happen, we can literally lock arms with our tribe, our community, and perfect strangers really, uh, and get that support. It's just such a just such a beautiful thing. Um do you did you ever ask yourself um one one of one of Tony's favorite questions ever? He says that it'll save us a ton of time, uh, is what what else does this mean um through that whole process?

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Oh, all the time. You know, I think I was I was uh starving for meaning out of it and positive meaning, um finding the silver lining at anywhere I could because you know I hadn't been riddled with that much uh frustration and desire to feel sorry for myself in decades. And so, you know, here I am, the guy who teaches people not to feel sorry for yourself and you gotta be strong no matter what happens, and now I'm coming apart, um, not not knowing if I even wanted to continue to live. You know, I at one moment I tried to convince my wife to divorce me so that she wouldn't have to keep um looking after me. I told another friend I wish I had died. And I think a lot of that was drug-induced from the pain meds, but it was also just being in a low, low space. And so the meaning I was looking for was everything that kept me going. And the meaning that I got from the whole accident um was finally revealed to me, which is that anything that is not love is not real. Anything that is not love is an illusion from our ego, and you have to embrace the moments of love, and you have to embrace loving people because that's all that's real, you know. Everything evil that happens on this planet, I think, is the absence of love. I think it is the uh the fear that that love is not going to exist for that person in that moment.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Yeah, absolutely. Most definitely, most definitely. Well, we're almost out of time here, brother, but I I really appreciate um you you taking time out of your schedule. Um, I know we've had to reschedule a couple of times um over the past few weeks, so I appreciate your flexibility. And uh, like I said, we're uh we're continuing to pray for you down here, and it's just so great to hear you back in in good spirits and uh and back in the game. Um uh let's let's finish things up, but we talked a little bit about your event that's coming out that you've had to reschedule, but let's let's let our listeners know exactly what's going down next month uh in Arizona for your event. I see you got a stellar lineup here.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Yeah, absolutely. So I have uh finally transitioned in my career where I've been speaking for about 21 years as a professional speaker, making very, you know, I say this as humbly as I can, but making very good money and traveling the world, getting to impact um some of the biggest and best companies on the planet as well as organizations. And I decided that it's time that I pass the torch. It's time that I teach people how to do what I've done, no matter what their story or background is. So we put together a live event. It's gonna take place November 13th through the 16th in Scottsdale, Arizona. People can find out about that, you'll give the link out, but it's Sean Stevenson.com forward slash 10K. So that's 10K as in Kangaroo. And that stands for $10,000 a speech. How do you get to that level as a speaker? And so I have incredible lineup, people like Jay Abraham, who's one of the marketing geniuses of our time. Joe Polish, one of the best networking marketing masters on the on the planet, Dean Graziosi, person that makes hundreds of millions of dollars teaching information in the television format, as well as experts on content delivery and content creation, because I believe that to be an incredible speaker, you have to understand how to put together the message, deliver the message, market the message, and actually have an attitude that's enjoyable for people to want to work with.

SPEAKER_00 30:16

I agree. Absolutely. Well, 21 years of experience, you definitely know exactly what you're talking about. I know you got an incredible reputation uh with within the speaking space, and you're and it's just great to be part of your ecosystem now um socially and to have met you in person. I just love how things I love when a plan comes together. I said, I gotta meet that guy when I heard you on Lewis's podcast uh earlier this year, and um uh as luck would have it, we were able to do that uh in San Diego. So so great to connect with you, brother. And I I hope I'm gonna check my schedule. I hope to make it out there. Um Arizona's beautiful in November. So I'd love to get out there and uh and support your efforts of what you're doing. Once again, listeners, Sean Stevenson.com forward slash 10k. That's 10k, and that's Sean S-E-A-N Stevenson.com. You'll see that below here. Playing the episode. Maybe you're listening to this in the middle of next week. Thank God for podcasts. Uh, you'll see the link in there as well too, or hit me up, and I'd be more than happy to get you that information. Well, Sean, um, we're out of time here, brother, but again, thanks so much for your time. It's so great to connect with you. Thanks for uh for bearing your soul, as you would say, and and and sharing your story. I'm sure that it uh it is deeply impacting those that are listening. I know it has for me as well.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

Uh it's my pleasure. Thanks for getting it out to the world.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

It's my pleasure. We'll talk to you soon. Hey, I'm Sebastian Russ, signing off from our studio here in downtown Miami for Social Buzz on Air. We'll talk to you next time.