What if you could turn your darkest moments into your greatest success? Join us on this episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast as we sit down with a truly inspirational guest who did just that. From the confines of a prison cell to captivating audiences as a sought-after motivational speaker, our guest shares an extraordinary journey of transformation. Discover how he overcame deep-seated fears and insecurities and emerged stronger, demonstrating that no matter your circumstances, your goals are within reach. You'll hear about the pivotal role a clear vision, relentless personal development, and daily practice played in his rise, including participating in drug programs, expanding his vocabulary through reading and writing, and ultimately, leveraging the power of social media to share his compelling story.
But that’s not all. Our guest provides invaluable insights into the art of preparation and seizing opportunities. Learn the strategies he employed to network effectively and position himself for success, from consistently engaging with influential people to planting the seeds that would later bloom into numerous speaking engagements. Discover why being ready for over a decade was crucial for his triumphs and how you can tap into this blueprint to inspire others and create meaningful change. Whether you’re on the brink of your breakthrough or just starting out, this conversation promises to equip you with the tools to prepare daily for the opportunities that await. Tune in, and let's inspire the world together.
What if you could turn your darkest moments into your greatest success? Join us on this episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast as we sit down with a truly inspirational guest who did just that. From the confines of a prison cell to captivating audiences as a sought-after motivational speaker, our guest shares an extraordinary journey of transformation. Discover how he overcame deep-seated fears and insecurities and emerged stronger, demonstrating that no matter your circumstances, your goals are within reach. You'll hear about the pivotal role a clear vision, relentless personal development, and daily practice played in his rise, including participating in drug programs, expanding his vocabulary through reading and writing, and ultimately, leveraging the power of social media to share his compelling story.
But that’s not all. Our guest provides invaluable insights into the art of preparation and seizing opportunities. Learn the strategies he employed to network effectively and position himself for success, from consistently engaging with influential people to planting the seeds that would later bloom into numerous speaking engagements. Discover why being ready for over a decade was crucial for his triumphs and how you can tap into this blueprint to inspire others and create meaningful change. Whether you’re on the brink of your breakthrough or just starting out, this conversation promises to equip you with the tools to prepare daily for the opportunities that await. Tune in, and let's inspire the world together.
Speaker 1:
Welcome back to another episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, shawn Michael Crane. Thank you, guys for checking out this episode. Please make sure to subscribe and share it with anybody that you know who wants to level up in life. Okay, we got to inspire the world and we got to do it together. So look, in this clip I want to kind of go over, you know, what I did to become a speaker. I want to reflect on and share with you guys the key steps, the pivotal moments that helped me to go from somebody aspiring to speak on stages to someone actually getting paid to speak on stages and someone who's being reached out to consistently to go to events.
Speaker 1:
You know, when I started making changes in my life, it was in prison, you guys, and it was so crazy, like I couldn't even believe that I was going through the transformation I was going through, and it felt so surreal. But as time went on, I knew that it was actually happening and I wanted nothing more than to share my message and my transformation with the world, because I wanted everybody to be able to take control of their life the way I had. Like I knew if I could do it in prison, then anybody could do it right If I knew if I could make the changes I made in prison. Anybody can make changes, and so I wanted to share with people who felt stuck or hopeless like I once did, people who were battling addiction, people who just weren't happy in life. I wanted to share with them what I did, but I also wanted people to know I want you to know this right now that you literally can do and become any fucking thing you want in life. Like it was the most mind blowing realization when I had that epiphany and I recognized that damn dude, you can make any change you want, nothing stopping you but you and your inner fears and insecurity, and I started to break down those inner barriers. It blew my mind because for the longest time I felt like I was stuck as a certain person and I didn't know that I could really evolve and change these key characteristics of me, and so when that happened, I was like man. I'm going to share this message with the world and I want to share it on the biggest platforms and the biggest stages in the world and I would have this vision of being on stage and just looking in the audience's eyes and just having them captivated with a message and just being so good at speaking, so articulate, so dialed in, that they were just soaking up every word I was saying. And I had that vision for a long, long time. And I remember in jail I started participating in drug programs and sharing about my story and just using that as practice and anytime I had in my cell I'd be looking up words in the dictionary and reading and I was just studying, I was just preparing for these opportunities. I have now.
Speaker 1:
Reading and writing really helped me to expand my vocabulary and improve my ability to articulate a message, because I streamlined those neural networks. You know, like before prison I couldn't hold a conversation in depth, I couldn't speak articulately, like I wasn't charismatic, I couldn't hold a conversation in depth, I couldn't speak articulately, I wasn't charismatic, I wasn't the person I am today. I envisioned becoming this guy and I worked every day to evolve into this person I am now. It didn't just happen. It was over years and years and years of repetition, repetition, repetition. I can't tell you how many videos I've filmed, how many times I've written down pages and pages of notes, how many books I've read, how times I've written down pages and pages of notes, how many books I've read, how many words I've looked up in the dictionary. Like it's been a relentless onslaught of personal development to get to this point.
Speaker 1:
And so, when I got out of prison, I had the vision to be a speaker. But I was nobody in a lot of people's eyes I was just a guy who went to prison who now was a parolee, like I was 29. I had no money, no credentials, no track record of success, but that didn't matter. See, I never gave a fuck what other people thought of me. I always knew deep down in my heart who I was and what I was capable of, and I never identified as the person that other people saw. I was always like the guy 10 years ahead, like right now. I'm 10 years ahead In my mind. I, 10 years ahead In my mind, I'm already that guy. I'm already manifested and creating that guy right now. Right, and this is what really successful people do. They see the future and who they're becoming. They're actively growing into that person, they're leaning into that person. They're never stagnant, they're never stuck, they never waste a day, they're never inconsistent. I've never been that way for 12 years. So the person you see today is the person you identify me with, but I'm already 10 years of the future in my mind. You know, and that's the way it works, and so that's what I did in prison.
Speaker 1:
I knew what I was going to come home and do and so when I got out, I started using social media to tell my story. I started sharing with people that I went to prison and what I did in prison to change and how it affected me and how they can use those same principles and those same tips and strategies in their lives right now. That was my message. I went through this stuff in prison. It helped me. You can use this in your life right now and it started resonating with people and it started helping them and I started coaching individuals and so I started taking my message online and that's when I wrote my book Prison of your Own. So I wrote my book Prison of your Own because I want to share my message with the masses. But of your own, because I want to share my message with the masses.
Speaker 1:
But I also knew that once you have a book like, people start to look at you differently, like when you have a book and your name's on that book and your face is on the cover and you can hand people a tangible copy of your book and it's a good book and you know how to write and you know how to tell a story like that. That changes their perception of you. So all those years in prison looking at words in the dictionary, reading those books, studying, like it paid off. I became a bestselling author on Amazon. I sold a lot of copies that first week and it started to get me on the radar of people that I wouldn't have been on the radar, you know, and so I was. I was putting out content every day, I was sharing my story, I wasn't holding back and I started getting people's attention.
Speaker 1:
And you guys, that's how it works, like, if you're somebody that wants to be a speaker, I want you to ask yourself right now why would someone put you on their stage? Like, forget about being paid to be on stage. You might have to pay to get on their stage, but why would they even let you get on their stage and speak to their audience? What value do you have to bring? What do you have to offer? Is it crazy stories, circumstances that you overcame? Is your ability to turn those stories and that experience into a valuable message for their audience. Do you know how to get results for people Like, what is it that makes you valuable Now when I say that, if it makes you feel bad or question yourself, stop right now. Where you're at right now is not where you're going to be in five years. The difference is the action you take and the amount of actions you take in that time period. I know a lot of you right now who want to be speakers, who aren't ready. But in a year from now, in six months from now, in fucking three years from now, you could be a completely evolved version of yourself to the point where people want you on their stage. Okay, so you have to be constantly working on yourself and developing yourself, as if your biggest opportunity in life is coming next year.
Speaker 1:
Now the next thing is document everything, because you want them to see you improve every step of the way. You want them to see your message improve. You want them to see you become more articulate, find more depth in your message, transfer more energy, be more emotional. You want them to see that evolution, because that creates value in itself. So share your content every day. I don't care if you think you suck right now and get better every day and share it every day. And then I want you to spend time in the evening or in the morning, whenever it's quiet, reflecting on a deeper level and writing out these ideas, writing out these stories. You know, flesh this stuff out on a paper. That's going to help you to get more creative and that, right there, will help you to find more depth in what you're sharing.
Speaker 1:
And I have a simple framework that I started using to create my first keynotes. I got it from John Maxwell and the way it goes is you share a personal story, you share a hypothetical scenario, a statistic, a quote or a fact, and then your closing argument or the way that you comprise the entire message. Right and like. If you want that from me, just get a hold of me on social media, I'll send you. I have a whole framework. It's like a Google doc. It's a how to crush your keynote and create a world-class keynote from stage. I took John Maxwell's theory or framework and I made it my own with some things that have helped me. So shoot me a message, sean underscore, crane underscore, official on Instagram, and I'll send it to you you because, rather than me trying to explain it to you right now it's not gonna make sense, but I'll send it to you, and when you see it, you can actually start to work it out. So so back to what I was saying, though. All of those pieces to my equation, or my puzzle, started to come together when I started really sharing my content online and I wrote my book, and that's how I got my first speaking engagement.
Speaker 1:
An individual saw my book on Amazon, had me on his podcast, and he interviewed me and he really liked my story and this is the last point I want to make, it's about relationships. He didn't ask me to speak at his event on the podcast. He liked my relationships. He didn't ask me to speak at his event on the podcast. He liked my book, he liked my story, and then he interviewed me on his podcast, and that was it. People don't always know what you want until you tell them you guys.
Speaker 1:
So two things here you got to seek out and build the right relationships, and when you get in front of that person that can put you on stage, or that person that can connect you to that individual host in an event, you have to impress them, you have to bring value, you have to be someone that stands out. Your energy, everything about you needs to scream damn. This person needs to speak to our audience. What do you have to offer their audience? You gotta position yourself as that valuable person that they need on the stage. In your content, in the way you're developing yourself, everything you do on social media needs to position you as that valuable person they need on their stage, because when they see you, when they meet you, the first thing they're going to do is go, look at your social media. Does it impress them or are you just another person, right? Is it going to scream damn, put this guy on my stage. Or oh, this guy's not ready. Oh, I like your content, but you don't really look like a speaker I need on my stage. You have to have this awareness every day and you have to prepare for these opportunities because they're coming. I promise you that, okay.
Speaker 1:
So look at when this guy had me on his podcast his name was Donnie Boven he didn't ask me to speak on his stage. I saw a couple of weeks later that he was hosting an event and I messaged him. I said dude, I want to speak. Man, put me on your stage, I'm ready. Like you heard my story, you know that I have a message and a heart to serve and inspire people. Give me a chance. And because he saw and read my book and he had me on his podcast and he knew that I was hungry and motivated for an opportunity, he gave me my first chance to speak on his stage. And from that point on, you guys, I kind of figured out like the equation. You know I knew it was all about content, improving myself, being emotional and passionate with my messaging and then seeking out and building the right relationships.
Speaker 1:
So ever since then, whether it's on social media or going to events and networking at those events, I've constantly got around people who have the power to put me on stage, who host events themselves, who know people that host events, and I'm always planting that seed in their ear. Put me on that stage. I'll change your audience members' lives. Put me on stage. I'm going to set that stage on fire. Put me on that stage, man. I promise you you won't regret it and I did that enough times where I started getting those opportunities and every opportunity that I've got, I've seized it. I always get great reviews, I always get asked to come back and it creates a ton of more opportunities for me, because I prepared for over 10 years for these moments.
Speaker 1:
You guys and that's the difference between me and a lot of you listening to this is you're not preparing and your opportunities are going to come and you're not going to even recognize them or you're not going to be ready to seize them. If you're that one person that knows in your heart you're made for more and that you need to be on stages and you need to do something bigger in your life, don't be that guy who, when the opportunity comes knocking on your door, you're not ready to take it. Start now, prepare every day, like your biggest opportunity of your life is coming next year, in your content and your personal development, with your relationships. I'm telling you, man, you will be that person telling a story just like mine one day to other people if you follow the blueprint I just outlined for you. Okay, the world needs you. We're going to change the world together, but I need you to step up. Okay, let's go.
