From Rock Bottom To Redemption Story

Rock bottom has a voice. Mine spoke to me from a stainless steel toilet in a prison cell at 23 years old, facing attempted murder charges after a party gone wrong. Each night, as Adele's "Someone Like You" played through the intercom, I'd stare through the tiny window slit in my door, contemplating how quickly life can unravel.

My downward spiral began with heartbreak. After my first serious relationship ended, I chose self-destruction—drinking, using drugs, and numbing the pain rather than processing it. That path led me straight to a prison cell where fluorescent lights and crushing uncertainty became my new reality. Court dates brought hope that quickly dissolved into despair when no favorable news materialized. Yet something remarkable happened in that tiny cell: instead of surrendering to victimhood, I made an unshakeable commitment to fight for redemption, regardless of what lay ahead.

For 2,000 days behind bars, I transformed that promise into action through consistent daily disciplines—working out, reading, writing, staying sober, and fighting through depression and anxiety. These weren't just activities to pass time; they were deliberate building blocks for the person I wanted to become. Years after my release, during a family vacation in Cancun, my three-year-old daughter spontaneously began singing "Someone Like You" as we walked under the lamplight. Tears streamed down my face as the universe revealed its perfect symmetry—the song that once symbolized my deepest despair now represented my greatest joy.

My journey proves that transformation doesn't happen overnight but through thousands of correct choices made consistently over time. If you're facing adversity or feeling stuck, know that change is possible when you commit to fighting for it. Whatever stands between you and your dreams, push through it, learn from it, and keep moving forward. The storybook ending you desire is possible—and when it arrives, you'll understand that every struggle was preparing you for something beautiful. Will you make the decision today that your future self will thank you for?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And I just started sabotaging the relationship.
I started drinking, I startedusing drugs, I started acting
just in ways that was pushingher away from me, and I remember
in those moments, instead offeeling bad about my situation,
instead of becoming a victim ofthose circumstances, I made a
promising commitment to myselfthat I was gonna fight for
whatever it took, for howeverlong it took, to get over that

(00:20):
challenge, to seek redemption,to live a better life, to become
someone that I was truly proudof.
You know, I'm being rewardednow for thousands and thousands
of moments where I made theright decision and took the
right course of action, andthat's what it takes to rebuild
your life.
It's not gonna happen overnight, it's not gonna be easy, but it
is so worth it in the end.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unstoppable Mindset

(00:52):
Podcast.
I'm your host, sean Crane, andtoday I got a sad story with a
happy ending.
That's kind of like my journeyto this point in my life, right
Sad beginning, a lot ofadversity, a lot of challenges,
with a happy ending, and I wantto share this story in the hopes
that somebody who's goingthrough a struggle or a tough
time.
Here's my message, and itinspires you to not give up on
yourself, and that's what it allcomes down to, you guys, is.
There's going to be a lot oftests on your journey.

(01:13):
There's going to be a lot ofthings that don't go your way.
There's going to be a lot ofmoments in which you had back.
The thing that I've learned isthat you must keep moving
forward and everything you gothrough is a learning experience
.
A lot of people judgethemselves, they get down on
themselves and they have acouple bad moments in life, and
it defines who they become forthe rest of their lives.

(01:33):
Now, I'm a guy who's beenthrough a lot of stuff.
Growing up, I went through alot of struggles I document that
often about my parents,addiction, a lot of chaos at
home, and then that ultimatelyled me to go into prison, and I
want to share with you guyssomething that's really, really
profound, and it's a memorythat's etched in my
consciousness that, to this day,when I think about it, I get

(01:55):
emotional and maybe you'll seeme cry right here.
Who knows, it does happen,especially when it's about my
family and just about my storyof redemption.
I remember when I got arrestedwhen I was 23, and I was sitting
in this tiny little cell allday long, every day, for months
on end.
I had a lot of time to thinkand reflect and prior to me
going to jail, I was in arelationship.

(02:16):
It was the first girlfriendthat I spent a significant
amount of time with.
In fact, we lived together.
We had a dog, we had a cat.
We were like doing the wholething right and we were young.
But we were committed to eachother for nearly four years and
right at the end of ourrelationship we both just knew
we didn't want to be together.
But it was one of those thingswhere you stay together because
it's comfortable, it's the known, and I just started sabotaging

(02:38):
the relationship.
I started drinking, I startedusing drugs, I started acting
just in ways that was pushingher away from me.
Eventually she left me.
Eventually she found anotherguy that she started liking and
she broke up with me.
And that broke my heart becauseI didn't know what I was going
to feel when I went through thatbreakup.
I had never gone through itbefore.
Now.
Maybe some of you listening tothis can recall your first time

(03:02):
having your heart broken or justgoing through a breakup.
It hurts, it's painful, it'svery difficult, and I was a
young guy and at that moment Ijust said F it, screw it.
And I went even further into myaddiction into my party ways
and I just tried to numb thatpain and that's what led me to
being at a party in which I wasaccused of an attempted murder

(03:23):
that I ended up going to prisonfor.
So at 23, I was accused of anattempted murder that I ended up
going to prison for.
So at 23, I was accused of anattempted murder here in Santa
Barbara, california, stemmingfrom this brawl that took place
at a party, and it's welldocumented.
You could Google my name, youcould see my mugshot, you could
learn all the facts or theinformation surrounding the case
.
Anyway, when you're awaitingtrial and going back and forth

(03:47):
to court, it's man, it drainsyou.
It's a very emotional thingbecause your fate is literally
hanging in the balance and everytime you go to court you get
your hopes up that some new newsis going to come out that's
favorable to you, and then youcome back to your cell, let down
and just depleted.
You just feel like the life issucked out of you and I remember
that would happen to me.

(04:07):
Every couple of weeks.
I'd go to court hoping newinformation would come out,
hoping the truth would come out,hoping I'll get to get let out
and go home and see my family.
And you know I was veryoptimistic but it never happened
.
And so I remember I'd come backto court from court and just
reflect, man, and just sit anddwell and I'd be silent in my
cell and at night the officerswould start to play music for us

(04:28):
and they did this because theyknew that we were just so
isolated and lonely andmiserable.
They thought, hey, we're goingto play music.
It's going to echo down thehallway.
They'd actually play it so wecould hear it through our
intercom in the cell and it wasa way to maybe uplift our
spirits a little Like not allthe officers would do it, but
some would.
But at that time the songSomeone Like you by Adele was

(04:50):
playing on the radio 24-7, likeall the time, and I remember at
night that song would come onand I would just be sitting on
the stainless steel toilet in mycell and I could see out of my
cell door.
There's a slit in the windowlike literally four inches wide,
and I'll just be looking downthe hallway and the lighting in.
There is like that fluorescentlighting, you know, and I would

(05:12):
just be just like lost inthought, just reflecting on my
life, thinking about the breakupI just went through, thinking
about my dad, who was slowlydying, and my mom who was slowly
dying due to their addiction,thinking about all the stuff I
didn't do in my life, thinkingabout the goals I had that I
didn't pursue, thinking aboutthe changes I had wanted to make
but I was just too scared tomake, or I procrastinated on

(05:34):
because I didn't know howquickly things could be taken
away from you.
And that song was just breakingmy heart 1000 times over, you
know, like those words were justpiercing to my heart and it was
painful it was so painful tosit there on that stainless
steel toilet and that tinylittle cell, thinking my life
was over, I'm hungry, I'm lonely, I'm scared, I'm broken down,

(05:54):
you know, and just gosh, this iswhat my life has come to, this
moment.
And I remember in those momentsthinking what is in store for me
in the future, like what is mylife going to be?
Like I couldn't see it.
I couldn't see it, and it wasjust this mysterious thing to
think about the future andwonder what is my life going to
come to Like?
How much time am I going to doin prison?

(06:15):
What is going to happen to mein the future?
And I remember in those moments, instead of feeling bad about
my situation, instead ofbecoming a victim of those
circumstances, I made a promiseand commitment to myself that I
was going to fight for whateverit took, for however long it
took, to get over that challenge, to seek redemption, to live a
better life, to become someonethat I was truly proud of.

(06:37):
Like something started stirringin me in those moments that
inspired me to fight for abetter life, and I'm telling you
, I had no idea how much time Iwas going to do in prison or
what the future held in storefor me, and so, from that moment
forward, each and every day, Istarted making good decisions.
I started making decisions tobetter myself, to lead to a

(06:58):
better life, and little things.
I share this.
All the time, I started justworking out, reading and writing
.
Every day, though, it was aconscious effort to improve
myself and to fight throughdepression, to fight through
fear, to fight through anxiety,to stay sober and fight through
that addiction that I had.
Like every day.
It was a choice, a consciouseffort that I was going to fight
to be a better person and livea better life, and so that was

(07:19):
my mindset going into prison andthrough prison, and five and a
half years came and went.
I got out and I got a secondchance to rebuild my life.
I did five and a half years.
I didn't do life in prisonobviously I'm here now so I did
over 2,000 days in prison.
When I got out, I wanted nothingmore than to start a family, to
build a business around mymindset, my life experience, and
become a coach and help people.

(07:39):
And I started doing all thosethings.
And then, you know, as mychildren were born first it was
Scarlett and then Preston, and Ihad Mason, who is my stepson,
but he was getting older and Iremember we took a family trip
to Cancun and we were rollingaround at night.
It was like really humid andhot out, so we wanted to get
outside and walk.
We're on this beautifulvacation.

(08:00):
You know, I got my family, Igot my second chance at life.
You know, at that time I waslike almost a decade sober
already and my daughter,scarlett, out of nowhere,
started singing the song SomeoneLike you, and I remember her
beautiful little face man underlike the lamppost that we were
on the path we were walking on.
She's singing out the words andI have a video of it, and she's

(08:21):
belting out Adele's songsomeone like you.
And she's saying, never mind,I'll find someone like you.
And she's singing with herwhole heart in it.
You know she's three years oldat the time and it just broke me
.
In that moment I started crying,like tears started streaming
down my face and I remembergoing, oh gosh, like this is
such a surreal moment.
This is the song that used tocome on every night when I was

(08:44):
facing life in prison and Ididn't know what the future held
in store for me.
And here I am, removed fromthat situation.
Six, seven, eight years later Idon't remember the exact
timeframe and my baby girl issinging this song and when she
sings it it sounds so beautifulbecause now it has a happy
ending.
You see, when I first heardthat song, it was sad, it was
sorrowful, it was crushing myspirit, man, it was breaking my

(09:06):
heart a thousand times over.
But now, eight years later, ithas a happy ending and I love
that song and I'll even put iton the radio every so often and
listen to it, and it takes meback to those moments when I
didn't know what the future heldin store for me and I made a
decision to fight.
And so my message for you guysis like, if you're going through
a tough time right now, oryou're scared, or you feel stuck

(09:27):
, or something in your life isnot what you want it to be,
things can change, but change.
But what are the decisionsyou're going to make today?
What are the changes you'regoing to make today that are
going to create that new lifefor you in the future, so that
you can have that moment like Idid where I'm in beautiful
Cancun, mexico, all-inclusivevacation with my family, built
my business, got the dream lifethat I wanted.
I'm there with my loved onesand my baby girl singing that

(09:48):
song to me, you know, and I feltlike it was God, like reaching
out of the sky and saying likesee, son, I told you, if you
listen to me and you have thecourage to follow the path that
I've been calling you on yourentire life, these are the
moments that you're going to getto have.
These are the experiencesyou're going to get to have.
This is the life that you get tolive now, because what a lot of
people didn't see when I was inprison was the thousands of

(10:08):
choices that I made to do theright thing, the thousands and
thousands of moments where I hadfear or doubt or anxiety or
stress or all these thingsplaguing me, but I chose to be
the person I was supposed to be,to take the correct action, to
stay sober, to get up and workout, to study my college books,
to read, to educate myself, tobuild up that confidence, to
instill that discipline.

(10:29):
You know, I'm being rewarded nowfor thousands and thousands of
moments where I made the rightdecision and took the right
course of action, and that'swhat it takes to rebuild your
life.
It's not going to happenovernight, it's not going to be
easy, but it is so worth it inthe end.
You all need to have thatstorybook ending to your life
where, like, yeah, you wentthrough the challenges, yeah,
you were faced with adversity,yeah, you were scared, but you

(10:50):
chose to fight and you chose togo after the life that God put
on your heart and make it areality, like that's the most
beautiful experience to everhave.
And so the message for anyonethat's listening to this right
now.
Whatever gets in your way onyour path to the life that
you're being called to live, yougot to fight to get through it,
fight to get around it, fightto overcome it, learn the lesson
and keep moving forward.
And I'm telling you can haveone of those special moments,

(11:11):
like I had, where everythingjust clicks and makes sense and
you look back on all thosedecisions, all those moments and
you're immensely grateful thatyou chose to fight rather than
give up on yourself.