April 16, 2025 • 11 mins
A defining moment in a jail cell 13 years ago presented me with a clear choice: fight for the life I truly wanted or surrender to the consequences of my bad decisions. That pivotal crossroads launched a journey that transformed me from a directionless young man battling addiction into a purpose-driven entrepreneur, husband, and father of four.
The disconnect between desire and action plagues so many of us. We daydream about better lives while remaining stuck in patterns that keep us from becoming the person capable of living that dream. The critical revelation? Transformation demands a fundamental identity shift—changing how you perceive yourself must happen before external changes can materialize. Without this internal evolution, years pass and suddenly you're living the same unfulfilling existence you were a decade ago.
My evolution from prison inmate to business owner taught me that pressure either crushes you or forges you into something stronger. When facing financial stress, relationship struggles, or business challenges, most people retreat into destructive patterns or victim mentality. The unstoppable approach is radically different: using adversity as a catalyst for greater discipline, focus, and determination. I've weathered countless entrepreneurial storms—scaling from in-person coaching to an online business during COVID, building a seven-figure enterprise from my phone while raising young children, and expanding to a team of fifteen. Each challenge became a springboard to new heights precisely because I remained present, maintained core routines, and refused to numb the discomfort with destructive escapes.
Want to transform your relationship with adversity? Start by recognizing that your response to pressure determines whether it breaks you or makes you unbreakable. What daily challenges are you currently facing that could become your greatest catalysts for growth?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
13 years ago, I found myself in a jail cell in a very
defining moment in my life, andit was either fight for the
life that I always wanted tolive or succumb to the
consequences of my bad choices.
You got to have a shift in youridentity, a shift in the way
you perceive yourself, a shiftin your own internal dialogue
and your mindset.
Like you don't want to get intothe future.
(00:20):
And then, all of a sudden, youlook around.
You're living the same life youwere 10 years ago.
Pressure is going to do one oftwo things to you it's going to
fucking crush you or, like adiamond, it's going to forge you
into the best version ofyourself.
I can get through those times.
Not only can I get through them, but I use them as a catalyst
to get bigger and better results.
Stay present in the tough timesand grow to become someone
(00:42):
who's truly unstoppable in yourlife.
The tough times and grow tobecome someone who's truly
unstoppable in your life.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unstoppable Mindset
Podcast.
I'm your host, sean Crane.
Thank you, guys for tuning in.
It's been a couple of weekssince I did a podcast episode.
I'm actually here at home rightnow in the process of building
(01:04):
out my home podcast studio, gotthe family in here.
Let me see it, buddy.
My son just came in.
This is the beauty of workingfrom home, dude.
That is so cool.
Yes, I'm 12 hours, and he askedme to do it.
What's his name?
Lemonhead, lemonhead, no, no,leatherhead, oh, leatherhead, oh
(01:24):
, leatherhead, leatherhead.
So my son Preston just bargedin right when we started the
podcast to show me Leatherhead,which is a character from, I
believe, the Ninja Turtles.
It's a bad guy, it's a villain.
He's super into Ninja Turtles.
He's four years old, he's injunior kindergarten, so he
doesn't go to school five days aweek, go to school five days a
(01:44):
week and he's home.
Today it's Tuesday and he justbarged right in.
I always started the podcast.
That's what I love, man.
I love being home with myfamily, working on my passion,
which is also my business, andmaking an impact in lives.
That's my purpose.
My purpose is to help people tocreate lives they love and
cherish.
Whether you're struggling withsobriety, whether you just have
bad habits, whether you'restruggling with being overweight
(02:05):
, a lot of people I talk to youknow their, their results or
their lack of results is anindication of something deeper
that's not not working properlyin their lives, whether it's
some suppressed trauma, someemotion, some lack of belief in
themselves.
Whatever it is, that's what wehave to figure out and fix in
order for you to become thatperson you want to be.
(02:26):
That's what I went through.
You know, you guys, I'm 13years in the making.
13 years ago I found myself ina jail cell in a very defining
moment in my life and it waseither fight for the life that I
always wanted to live or, youknow, succumb to the
consequences of my bad choices.
And prior to going to prison, Ihad no direction.
(02:46):
I was battling alcoholism,addiction to drugs and alcohol.
I come from a broken home.
I saw a lot of bad thingsgrowing up and I was traumatized
.
And if you had met me back thenyou wouldn't say, oh, sean's a
bad person, sean's a criminalLike Sean's off the rocker.
You would just say Sean's wild.
(03:06):
He's wild, he likes to partyand he doesn't give a fuck.
But I always knew I wanted afamily.
I always knew I wanted a betterlife.
I look at people in the moviesor on TV shows.
As a kid and I wanted the whitepicket fence man.
I wanted the all-Americanfamily.
I wanted to be a charismaticoutgoing.
I wanted to be a leader.
I wanted to be an example.
I wanted to be all these things, but I wasn't becoming that
(03:27):
person.
And I think we all experiencethis disconnect in life where we
know what we want but we're notactually going after it and we
assume we have more time.
We assume that one day it'sjust going to happen or it'll be
easier, or whatever the casemay be.
Now, for me it did work out,but for a lot of you listening
it's not going to work out foryou unless you decide I'm going
to become that fucking personnow and you got to have a shift
(03:49):
in your identity, a shift in theway you perceive yourself, a
shift in your own internaldialogue and your mindset.
There's something internal thathas to change in order for you
then to start taking action tobecome that person.
Then it takes many, many yearsand you know the right actions
over and over and over and overand over for a long period of
time before you actually startto become recognized as that
(04:11):
person, before you start to seethe change.
When you look in the mirror orfeel the change in yourself, you
know like I'm 13 years in themaking and I'm still getting up
every day and working my ass off.
But it's all worth it, man.
I'm here to tell you like youdon't want to get into the
future and then all of a suddenyou look around you're living
the same life you were 10 yearsago, and a lot of people.
That's going to be you unlessyou wake up, unless you start
(04:31):
doing something different today,because it takes time for you
to shift your thinking, it takestime for you to change your
habits.
You've got to fight.
You're going to fuck up, you'regoing to make mistakes, and
then you're going to getrecommitted, and then there's
going to be adversity, and thenthere's going to be obstacles,
and then there's going to be allthis stuff that's trying to
pull you away from that new paththat you've been on.
You have to fight through thatresistance, man, and it happens
(04:54):
over and over and over Me as abusiness owner, a father and now
four children, a husband.
Like the person I've become, I'mnot impervious to challenges,
if anything I bring.
I take on more challenges in mylife now because I have more at
stake.
I have more people that dependon me.
You know, the standards thatI've set are at an all time high
.
So every day, my conduct, mydaily routines have to be sound.
(05:18):
I have no room for error.
But I love it, dude, becausewhat I learned about myself a
long time ago is when I am underpressure, that is when I
perform the best.
And pressure is going to do oneof two things to you it's going
to fucking crush you or, like adiamond, it's going to forge
you into the best version ofyourself.
The determining factor is howyou react.
(05:40):
Okay, I was just having aconversation with one of my
clients who's a business ownerthe other day.
Very successful business owner,seven, eight figure company.
But he's going through a slowseason in his business and he is
being tested.
He has people, employees, thathe needs to take care of,
meaning he needs to get jobs sohe could pay them, so they could
feed their families.
Like there's a lot at stake.
(06:01):
He needs to make enough moneyso he can cover his overhead.
You know we're talking aboutlease for his buildings, his
vehicles, his equipment, payroll.
There's a lot that goes intorunning a business.
Financial stress is the worststress that people go through.
Okay, you know, the only thingworse than that is seeing one of
your children sick and in thehospital, or losing a loved one,
or when your health iscompromised, right, but we were
(06:21):
talking the other day and I toldhim based on my life experience
, man, there's one or two waysyou can handle this.
Number one you can become avictim of circumstance and get
angry and complain and you canseek to check out and numb that
stress and that pain that you'regoing through with alcohol,
with drugs, with food, with allthe substances people use to
numb out that feeling because itbecomes so overbearing.
(06:43):
But if you take that course,are you going to grow?
Are you going to developresiliency?
Do you think it's going to makeyou a better, stronger version
of yourself?
Probably not.
It's going to make you weaker.
Then, in the future, when thosecircumstances come back around,
let's say you get through it,but those circumstances occur
again, which they will, becausewe're not going to ever live a
life without adversity,especially if you want to be a
(07:03):
top achiever and the bestversion of yourself.
So when those circumstancescome back around later on, are
you going to have a new lesson,more grit, more resiliency that
you developed through that lastset of circumstances, or are you
going to react the same way,sabotaging yourself with actions
that seek to numb out the painversus grow through it.
There's going to only be somany of those occurrences before
(07:26):
, eventually, you're you fuckinglose, okay, you lose the
business, you don't rebound, orwhatever right.
Guys do this in their marriagetoo.
Eventually, one day, yourwife's going to finally say I'm
sick and tired of your ass, I'mleaving you.
Right, your significant other.
Eventually, your kids are goingto get older and they're going
to finally figure out who youreally are and how you've been
operating your whole life rightVersus the other version of
(07:47):
yourself, the other person.
And this is what I told myclient.
I said man, imagine if youstill get up every day and you
get trashed in the gym at 5 am,because you know that's where
you build mental toughness, youknow that's where you turn
problems into solutions, that'swhere you elevate your frequency
so that the stress isn't justbogging you down but you can see
above it, you rise above it andnow you start to think like a
(08:09):
real leader and asolution-oriented person.
That's what the gym is for.
Okay, then you're still eatingthe right foods, you're not
going back to alcohol, you'restill being productive every day
.
And guess what, after worker,on the weekends, you're still
devoting time to your family.
You're still present with them.
You're not on your phonestressing out right, you're not
working on the weekends and notaround them.
Or when you're're with them,you're not just checked out,
(08:31):
you're present, you're connected, you're there.
Dude, I'm here to tell you, man,that version of you, that
person who stays present in themidst of stress and adversity,
that grows through it, thatperson becomes somebody that is
so powerful in your life.
Number one you build up so muchdiscipline and resiliency for
future situations.
(08:52):
Number two like you know thatyou can handle tough times and
they don't break you, but theymake you better.
You work out more, you readmore books, you work harder, you
become even more devoted toyour family.
You got to use that as acatalyst to be better, not worse
.
This is the craziest thing.
When people are going throughtough times, they let it affect
(09:13):
them to the point where theiractions are worse.
Their actions are lessproductive, right, like, how
does that make sense?
You've got to be moreproductive, more focused, more
diligent, more tenacious.
You've got to go after yourgoals with more effort, like
that's the key there.
I've been through this so manytimes.
I'm not just talking aboutprison.
I'm talking about sincebecoming a business owner and a
(09:35):
father and a husband.
I've gone through the ups anddowns of entrepreneurship more
times than I can count andthere's a precedent set in my
brain that now is a core,concrete belief of who I am and
the way I operate.
I can get through those times.
Not only can I get through them, but I use them as a catalyst
to get bigger and better results.
If I'm going through financialstress at any time, I need to
(09:55):
find a way to make more money.
I need to seek out newsolutions, new revenue streams,
new clientele.
I need to expand my business.
I need to reach more markets.
I need to network more.
I need to build out thesesocial groups that I'm in.
There's always a recourse andI've done this over and over and
over from making 10 grand amonth as an in-person coach and
(10:16):
transitioning to an online coachduring COVID, then to scaling
that business to a seven figurebusiness off my phone while I'm
raising young kids with my wife.
Then to expanding to having 15team members and in the midst of
building an eight figurebusiness.
Every step of the way, there waslearning lessons.
There was tough, fuckingpainful times, and those lessons
were painful to endure, toexperience.
(10:37):
But because I stayed present, Iwas sober, because I didn't
break on my daily routines andbecause I just had the core
belief that I was going tofigure it out and I was going to
use this as a tool to leverageme in my pursuit of my goals.
Because of that mentality, Iwas able to always use my down
times, my tough times, asliterally like springboards to
(10:59):
hit that next level, and it'shappened over and over and over.
Now I can share that wisdom,that experience, that mentality
with the men and some women thatI mentor, who are business
owners and entrepreneurs,because that's the most
challenging thing you're goingto go through in your life is
the stress of adversity,especially when it's financial.
But I'm here to tell you, dude,if you stay present, if you
(11:21):
don't just sabotage yourself, ifyou don't get off course with
your daily routines, you willlook back on those experiences
and realize they made you abetter version of yourself every
step of the way, and you'regoing to be grateful for them
one day.
So this message is for anybodythat's going through stress.
You can apply this to arelationship.
You can apply this to yourpersonal finances,
business-related finances,circumstances, whatever it may
(11:44):
be, stay present in the toughtimes and grow to become someone
who's truly unstoppable in yourlife.
13 years ago, I found myself in a jail cell in a very
defining moment in my life, andit was either fight for the
life that I always wanted tolive or succumb to the
consequences of my bad choices.
You got to have a shift in youridentity, a shift in the way
you perceive yourself, a shiftin your own internal dialogue
and your mindset.
Like you don't want to get intothe future.
(00:20):
And then, all of a sudden, youlook around.
You're living the same life youwere 10 years ago.
Pressure is going to do one oftwo things to you it's going to
fucking crush you or, like adiamond, it's going to forge you
into the best version ofyourself.
I can get through those times.
Not only can I get through them, but I use them as a catalyst
to get bigger and better results.
Stay present in the tough timesand grow to become someone
(00:42):
who's truly unstoppable in yourlife.
The tough times and grow tobecome someone who's truly
unstoppable in your life.
Welcome back to another episodeof the Unstoppable Mindset
Podcast.
I'm your host, sean Crane.
Thank you, guys for tuning in.
It's been a couple of weekssince I did a podcast episode.
I'm actually here at home rightnow in the process of building
(01:04):
out my home podcast studio, gotthe family in here.
Let me see it, buddy.
My son just came in.
This is the beauty of workingfrom home, dude.
That is so cool.
Yes, I'm 12 hours, and he askedme to do it.
What's his name?
Lemonhead, lemonhead, no, no,leatherhead, oh, leatherhead, oh
(01:24):
, leatherhead, leatherhead.
So my son Preston just bargedin right when we started the
podcast to show me Leatherhead,which is a character from, I
believe, the Ninja Turtles.
It's a bad guy, it's a villain.
He's super into Ninja Turtles.
He's four years old, he's injunior kindergarten, so he
doesn't go to school five days aweek, go to school five days a
(01:44):
week and he's home.
Today it's Tuesday and he justbarged right in.
I always started the podcast.
That's what I love, man.
I love being home with myfamily, working on my passion,
which is also my business, andmaking an impact in lives.
That's my purpose.
My purpose is to help people tocreate lives they love and
cherish.
Whether you're struggling withsobriety, whether you just have
bad habits, whether you'restruggling with being overweight
(02:05):
, a lot of people I talk to youknow their, their results or
their lack of results is anindication of something deeper
that's not not working properlyin their lives, whether it's
some suppressed trauma, someemotion, some lack of belief in
themselves.
Whatever it is, that's what wehave to figure out and fix in
order for you to become thatperson you want to be.
(02:26):
That's what I went through.
You know, you guys, I'm 13years in the making.
13 years ago I found myself ina jail cell in a very defining
moment in my life and it waseither fight for the life that I
always wanted to live or, youknow, succumb to the
consequences of my bad choices.
And prior to going to prison, Ihad no direction.
(02:46):
I was battling alcoholism,addiction to drugs and alcohol.
I come from a broken home.
I saw a lot of bad thingsgrowing up and I was traumatized
.
And if you had met me back thenyou wouldn't say, oh, sean's a
bad person, sean's a criminalLike Sean's off the rocker.
You would just say Sean's wild.
(03:06):
He's wild, he likes to partyand he doesn't give a fuck.
But I always knew I wanted afamily.
I always knew I wanted a betterlife.
I look at people in the moviesor on TV shows.
As a kid and I wanted the whitepicket fence man.
I wanted the all-Americanfamily.
I wanted to be a charismaticoutgoing.
I wanted to be a leader.
I wanted to be an example.
I wanted to be all these things, but I wasn't becoming that
(03:27):
person.
And I think we all experiencethis disconnect in life where we
know what we want but we're notactually going after it and we
assume we have more time.
We assume that one day it'sjust going to happen or it'll be
easier, or whatever the casemay be.
Now, for me it did work out,but for a lot of you listening
it's not going to work out foryou unless you decide I'm going
to become that fucking personnow and you got to have a shift
(03:49):
in your identity, a shift in theway you perceive yourself, a
shift in your own internaldialogue and your mindset.
There's something internal thathas to change in order for you
then to start taking action tobecome that person.
Then it takes many, many yearsand you know the right actions
over and over and over and overand over for a long period of
time before you actually startto become recognized as that
(04:11):
person, before you start to seethe change.
When you look in the mirror orfeel the change in yourself, you
know like I'm 13 years in themaking and I'm still getting up
every day and working my ass off.
But it's all worth it, man.
I'm here to tell you like youdon't want to get into the
future and then all of a suddenyou look around you're living
the same life you were 10 yearsago, and a lot of people.
That's going to be you unlessyou wake up, unless you start
(04:31):
doing something different today,because it takes time for you
to shift your thinking, it takestime for you to change your
habits.
You've got to fight.
You're going to fuck up, you'regoing to make mistakes, and
then you're going to getrecommitted, and then there's
going to be adversity, and thenthere's going to be obstacles,
and then there's going to be allthis stuff that's trying to
pull you away from that new paththat you've been on.
You have to fight through thatresistance, man, and it happens
(04:54):
over and over and over Me as abusiness owner, a father and now
four children, a husband.
Like the person I've become, I'mnot impervious to challenges,
if anything I bring.
I take on more challenges in mylife now because I have more at
stake.
I have more people that dependon me.
You know, the standards thatI've set are at an all time high
.
So every day, my conduct, mydaily routines have to be sound.
(05:18):
I have no room for error.
But I love it, dude, becausewhat I learned about myself a
long time ago is when I am underpressure, that is when I
perform the best.
And pressure is going to do oneof two things to you it's going
to fucking crush you or, like adiamond, it's going to forge
you into the best version ofyourself.
The determining factor is howyou react.
(05:40):
Okay, I was just having aconversation with one of my
clients who's a business ownerthe other day.
Very successful business owner,seven, eight figure company.
But he's going through a slowseason in his business and he is
being tested.
He has people, employees, thathe needs to take care of,
meaning he needs to get jobs sohe could pay them, so they could
feed their families.
Like there's a lot at stake.
(06:01):
He needs to make enough moneyso he can cover his overhead.
You know we're talking aboutlease for his buildings, his
vehicles, his equipment, payroll.
There's a lot that goes intorunning a business.
Financial stress is the worststress that people go through.
Okay, you know, the only thingworse than that is seeing one of
your children sick and in thehospital, or losing a loved one,
or when your health iscompromised, right, but we were
(06:21):
talking the other day and I toldhim based on my life experience
, man, there's one or two waysyou can handle this.
Number one you can become avictim of circumstance and get
angry and complain and you canseek to check out and numb that
stress and that pain that you'regoing through with alcohol,
with drugs, with food, with allthe substances people use to
numb out that feeling because itbecomes so overbearing.
(06:43):
But if you take that course,are you going to grow?
Are you going to developresiliency?
Do you think it's going to makeyou a better, stronger version
of yourself?
Probably not.
It's going to make you weaker.
Then, in the future, when thosecircumstances come back around,
let's say you get through it,but those circumstances occur
again, which they will, becausewe're not going to ever live a
life without adversity,especially if you want to be a
(07:03):
top achiever and the bestversion of yourself.
So when those circumstancescome back around later on, are
you going to have a new lesson,more grit, more resiliency that
you developed through that lastset of circumstances, or are you
going to react the same way,sabotaging yourself with actions
that seek to numb out the painversus grow through it.
There's going to only be somany of those occurrences before
(07:26):
, eventually, you're you fuckinglose, okay, you lose the
business, you don't rebound, orwhatever right.
Guys do this in their marriagetoo.
Eventually, one day, yourwife's going to finally say I'm
sick and tired of your ass, I'mleaving you.
Right, your significant other.
Eventually, your kids are goingto get older and they're going
to finally figure out who youreally are and how you've been
operating your whole life rightVersus the other version of
(07:47):
yourself, the other person.
And this is what I told myclient.
I said man, imagine if youstill get up every day and you
get trashed in the gym at 5 am,because you know that's where
you build mental toughness, youknow that's where you turn
problems into solutions, that'swhere you elevate your frequency
so that the stress isn't justbogging you down but you can see
above it, you rise above it andnow you start to think like a
(08:09):
real leader and asolution-oriented person.
That's what the gym is for.
Okay, then you're still eatingthe right foods, you're not
going back to alcohol, you'restill being productive every day
.
And guess what, after worker,on the weekends, you're still
devoting time to your family.
You're still present with them.
You're not on your phonestressing out right, you're not
working on the weekends and notaround them.
Or when you're're with them,you're not just checked out,
(08:31):
you're present, you're connected, you're there.
Dude, I'm here to tell you, man,that version of you, that
person who stays present in themidst of stress and adversity,
that grows through it, thatperson becomes somebody that is
so powerful in your life.
Number one you build up so muchdiscipline and resiliency for
future situations.
(08:52):
Number two like you know thatyou can handle tough times and
they don't break you, but theymake you better.
You work out more, you readmore books, you work harder, you
become even more devoted toyour family.
You got to use that as acatalyst to be better, not worse
.
This is the craziest thing.
When people are going throughtough times, they let it affect
(09:13):
them to the point where theiractions are worse.
Their actions are lessproductive, right, like, how
does that make sense?
You've got to be moreproductive, more focused, more
diligent, more tenacious.
You've got to go after yourgoals with more effort, like
that's the key there.
I've been through this so manytimes.
I'm not just talking aboutprison.
I'm talking about sincebecoming a business owner and a
(09:35):
father and a husband.
I've gone through the ups anddowns of entrepreneurship more
times than I can count andthere's a precedent set in my
brain that now is a core,concrete belief of who I am and
the way I operate.
I can get through those times.
Not only can I get through them, but I use them as a catalyst
to get bigger and better results.
If I'm going through financialstress at any time, I need to
(09:55):
find a way to make more money.
I need to seek out newsolutions, new revenue streams,
new clientele.
I need to expand my business.
I need to reach more markets.
I need to network more.
I need to build out thesesocial groups that I'm in.
There's always a recourse andI've done this over and over and
over from making 10 grand amonth as an in-person coach and
(10:16):
transitioning to an online coachduring COVID, then to scaling
that business to a seven figurebusiness off my phone while I'm
raising young kids with my wife.
Then to expanding to having 15team members and in the midst of
building an eight figurebusiness.
Every step of the way, there waslearning lessons.
There was tough, fuckingpainful times, and those lessons
were painful to endure, toexperience.
(10:37):
But because I stayed present, Iwas sober, because I didn't
break on my daily routines andbecause I just had the core
belief that I was going tofigure it out and I was going to
use this as a tool to leverageme in my pursuit of my goals.
Because of that mentality, Iwas able to always use my down
times, my tough times, asliterally like springboards to
(10:59):
hit that next level, and it'shappened over and over and over.
Now I can share that wisdom,that experience, that mentality
with the men and some women thatI mentor, who are business
owners and entrepreneurs,because that's the most
challenging thing you're goingto go through in your life is
the stress of adversity,especially when it's financial.
But I'm here to tell you, dude,if you stay present, if you
(11:21):
don't just sabotage yourself, ifyou don't get off course with
your daily routines, you willlook back on those experiences
and realize they made you abetter version of yourself every
step of the way, and you'regoing to be grateful for them
one day.
So this message is for anybodythat's going through stress.
You can apply this to arelationship.
You can apply this to yourpersonal finances,
business-related finances,circumstances, whatever it may
(11:44):
be, stay present in the toughtimes and grow to become someone
who's truly unstoppable in yourlife.
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