The Alexa Show - Nick Prefontaine - Top Motivational Speaker. 3X Bestselling Author Founder and CEO

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Cary one and welcome back to the Alexa Show. I
am Alexa Servo Didero host and I am so excited
to be here tonight. Tonight, our guest is Nick Prefontaine.
He is a three time best selling author, founder and
CEO of Common Goal, and the top motivational speaker by

(00:21):
Yahoo Finance. In twenty twenty two, at age fourteen, Nick
suffered a traumatic, life threatening snowboarding accident and was put
into a coma. His parents were told he would never
ever walk, talk, or eat on his own again. He
did and set a personal goal of not walking but

(00:44):
running out of the hospital. Nick does a lot of
public speaking work to help those suffering from brain injuries. Nick,
Welcome to the Alexa Show. Thank you so much for
joining us. I'm just so excited to have you on tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Too. Elects have been looking forward to this. Yes, it
could be fun. Yes, So tell us.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
A little bit about your background and I know your
story how this all began. But what gave you the
strength and the inspiration to do what you do?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Oh my goodness, Okay, that's all. I'll interweave the answer
of that within my story here because I didn't going
into it I didn't know that before. Prior to my accent,
I didn't know that. And I believe that whatever you're
whatever you're given is what like whatever whatever God gives you,

(01:40):
God wouldn't give you or the universe wouldn't give you
something that you couldn't handle. So that that that's certainly
a little bit into definitely what I believe. So it all, Alexai,
It all started a faithful day in February. Happened on
February when I was actually at ski club with my friends.

(02:04):
So on the ride to the mountain, we had out
brought our snowboard gear on the bus so we could
get ready as to not miss a precious moment once
we got to the mountain, and we got to the mountain,
when the rest of the class migrated inside, we hit
the left right away. We were ready to go, so

(02:25):
we had a right to the chairlift, and then on
the Chailllett tried up at the mountain, we noticed that
it was very icy because it had been raining earlier
in the day, so people were wiping out everywhere and
that didn't sell less down and the chairlifts actually actually
went right over the terrain park where all of the

(02:48):
jumps were and I knew as soon as I saw
it that I had to go off the biggest jump
in the terrain park. I mean, there really wasn't even
a moment of thinking, Eh, should I be careful today,
or maybe I should or shouldn't do it. I'm not
sure that was definitely what I was doing. I mean,
in my mind, it was a foregone conclusion. I was

(03:11):
already thinking about what we're going to do after I
landed that huge trick. So got to the top, buckled
into my stoneboard, took a breath of that crisp winter air,
and confidently charged towards that jump with all my speed,
and going up to the jump, I caught the edge
of my stoneboard, and that's the last thing that I remember.

(03:35):
So I was told that I landed on my head.
I wasn't wearing a helmet. I later later I learned.
Something else I learned was that although I wasn't wearing
a helmet, the pair of goggles and there were three
things that from that day that I really credit to

(03:58):
being able to live and tell this story. The first
of which was even though I didn't have a stubboarding
helmet on, I had a pair of goggles, and the
pair of goggles that I wore were very thick with
a lot of padding. So not only I learned that,
not only did they brace my fall as I continue

(04:21):
to hit my head and continued troll down the mountain,
they moved with each impact to cushion my blow against
against the ice, so between my head and the ice.
And then so that was the first thing. The second
was out of all the paramedics in the area, the

(04:42):
six paramedics in the area, there was only one who
could intubate right on the spot and I needed that
to be able to breathe. And lucky for me, he
was one of the paramedics that showed up to the
mountain that day. So, as I said there, there are
still several things that I can't really explain because of

(05:05):
my accent, but now I know one of them is
the reason why I'm here with you today and your
listeners and able to tell this story. So, no matter
the severity of your crisis, your decision to take action
is your first step. After I got to the hospital,
I was I mean, listen, I was out. I was

(05:25):
out with the count. I was resting in a coma
in the intensive care unit, and the only people who
were allowed in my room at that time were my parents.
So the doctors, no fault of their own, they were
just doing their job, would come into my room where
my parents were to share the not so positive news,

(05:49):
not so positive news, not so positive news. They have
to give you the worst case scenario for liability reasons
that a hospital. Anyone that's ever had an acute injury
or traumatic injury of their own understands this. So my
mom stopped them and she said no, no, not in
front of him, because she understood that even though I

(06:13):
was in a coma, I was still taking in information.
So she made the doctors step outside the room, and
once they were there, that's when they shared with my
parents that I probably wasn't going to be able to walk, talk,
or eat on my own ever again, and even if

(06:35):
I was able to come out of my coma, there
was a good chance that I would need twenty four
hour care for the rest of my life. And my
parents didn't accept this like a death sentence like so
many patients do. They do their credit, took the information,

(06:56):
thank the doctors, and then allow me to just treated
like any other situation that I've been throughout my life.
So what this did for me was enabled me to
treat it like anything else in my life. So what
that meant is I was in a coma for three weeks.
I really don't remember a month. However, after a month,

(07:19):
I was transported to a rehab hospital in Boston, and
that's where I began my journey of having to learn
how to walk, talk, and eat again. And I can
remember early on after being transferred there. I at this
point I was still I was in a wheelchair, so

(07:39):
I couldn't walk, I wasn't audible. It was a whisper
or mouthing words at best. However, I could overhear my
parents talking with my team of doctors and therapists, and
they they were saying, Okay, what do we need to
do to make Nick makes a full recovery, while I

(08:03):
heard in the back of my head, you're going to
run out. You're gonna run out of the hospital. So
then running out of the hospital became our common goal.
I was able to communicate that, excuse me to the
rest of our team, and then that that became our
common goal. What we were shooting for a meeting every
week and measuring against so and it was right around

(08:26):
this time, Alexa, that I started to use a system
to not only make a full recovery but run out
of the hospital. What I can do for you and
your listeners is just give you like a ten thousand
foot view of the step system, and then at the end,

(08:47):
if anyone's interested, I can give you ways that you
can go and down go to my website and download
the step system for free.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
So you've been speaking motivational speaking, you've been spreading this
and also your own under and CEO of this common goal,
this step system to help people with brain injuries and
to help family members. Is this is all of what
your goal is and what your method is and also
sounds like what really helped you and was what got

(09:16):
you through this traumatic injury and this miracle recovery?

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, thank you? Yeah, absolutely, And actually it took. It
took later in life, like several years ago, working one
on one with and I'll get to that in the
story if we have time, but working one on one
with a mentor that she was able to pull the
step system out of me. So she said, all right,

(09:45):
well you got this accent. You were in a coma
and then you ran out of the hospital. How'd you
do it? And I said, I don't know. I just
got up every day and did the best I could
and kept working and kept getting better. And she goes, no,
not good enough. How did you do it? And she
kept asking me to a point where I was really frustrated,

(10:08):
like I only had a limited amount of calls with her. However,
I vaguely remember just being frustrated, like almost hanging up
on her and be like no, I'm like I can't
take this thing more like that kind of thing. But
I'm so happy that she did because out of that
we were able to birth the step system. And the

(10:28):
step system is what I've used to overcome several things
in my life, the first of which is my snowboarding accent.
So step is an acronym. It stands for support. So
make sure that you have the support of your family
and friends right from the beginning. And this is going

(10:48):
to have you falling back our relationships that you built
prior to your set back. TEA is trust, so trust
that once you take your first step, your next step
is always going to be available for you. And this
also starts with trusting the voice that you have inside
of yourself. Follow it. So I already talked about how

(11:10):
I heard in my head you're going to run out
when they said make a full recovery. And then E
is energy. So energy, Maintaining your energy allows your body's
natural ability to be able to heal itself. Medication has
the potential to get in the way of that. So
it was early on in my recovery, about the same

(11:32):
time a month after being transported to the rehab hospital
and the way that I can illustrate energy, and I
still wasn't clear to walk yet. So I was within
a few weeks of being cleared to walk. So whenever
I had to get up in the middle of the night,
I would have to get someone's attention to help me
to the bathroom. And part of my support, I would

(11:55):
always have someone with me. Whether it was during the day,
I would always have my mom with me and my
grandparents her parents, and then at night it was my
dad or an uncle or a grandfather would spend the
night with me. Whenever they would stay, they would stay
in a cart next to my bed. And I remember
when my dad's a Bob I came when he was

(12:17):
staying with me. I got up in the middle of
the night and I had to use the bathroom. Well,
I leaned over my bed and I said, Bob, Bob,
But but of course I'm just doing it for effect,
so you can hear me. It was much quieter than that,
and he didn't hear me, so I was able to
manage my way to hob them my way to the bathroom.

(12:40):
Nothing happened, and I was able to get back in
bed safely. However, the hospital found out the next day
and they freaked out. They're like, we can't have this
on liability, and what we're gonna do is give him
this many C seeds of this medication, that many C
seeds of the Southern medication.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Well you wouldn't be able to move out of your own.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
Exactly before your bed. That way, that should calm him
down and let him sleep through the night. Well my
mom heard this and she goes, no, you're not just
to ask him not to do that. So they asked
me not to do it, and nothing ever happened. But
that's the best way I can think of to illustrate

(13:19):
energy and then P is persistence. So once you've taken
your first step, keep getting up every day and taking
your next step, no matter how small, and by continuing
to move forward every day, you are building an unstoppable momentum.
So if you fast forward less than sixty days later

(13:40):
after being transported to the rehab hospital, I realized my
goal of running out of the hospital. Then I mean
I still have to continue to do outpatient therapy for
another six months, a long way, being tutored all summer long,
in order to continue on to high school with the
rest of my classmates. I think right now is a

(14:04):
perfect time for me to take a breath, and I've
been done too much. Not going to actually see any questions.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Sitting here, I mean, so many different things are running
through my mind. Number one, it's you know, sitting you're
talking to to a miracle, I mean from what you're saying,
and then also thinking about your family, your your mother
and your father, those who are supporting you having that strength,
but also having that inner gut feeling to know how

(14:33):
to guide you, how to guide the doctors and the
professional help, but also how they must have instilled this
in you at a young age of fourteen. It also
encouraged it for someone at fourteen years old for being
able to have that resilience, but also to have that
power in the mind, that power and the soul, and

(14:55):
to really be able to know that anything is as possible.
And I think it's incredible that what your mom said, no,
you need to step out of the room, because I know,
I get it. Doctors can't sugarcoat things. They tell you this, this,
and this, and a lot of times there's no bedside manner.
But it's very important that people also have that support,

(15:15):
but also have that strength and learn how to get
that strength in themselves when it's at a very dark
time to know that anything is possible and to be
able to have that strength to try, and for you
to get up in the middle of the night and
go to the bathroom as a basic human urge and
knowing that Bob couldn't hear you and to do that
to yourself. To do that is such an accomplishment. It

(15:38):
just shows everyone that anything is impossible and that to
keep on trying. And I think a lot of times
on my show we speak about mind over matter and
being able to really find that strength in your voice
and yourself and not to give up even though the
doctors or everyone else that doesn't look that that great,
But it's to be able to say you can really

(15:58):
do it and to be able to.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Push yourself to do it. Thank you. I like every
every show that I'm on, the host always has insights
that that the first time they've come up, so I
definitely appreciate those insights. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah,
that's one hundred percent right wow.

Speaker 1 (16:22):
Giving back to the community, giving back to others with
brain injuries, with accidents, people with their own severe crisis
or crisis in their life.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
It shows them and it gives them hopes.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
While you were speaking, I felt inspired, I felt excited,
I felt wow, there's hope. It was upsetting it and
hard to hear, but I think to be able to
know that, yes, everything I've been speaking about on my
shows and in therapy as a therapist is really just
just confirms it. And it's just thank you. Thank you

(16:54):
for coming on my show and doing this, because I
think it really helps people need that hope and I
find and strength and support are three major things we
all made in our life no matter what we're going through.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
Absolutely, and I know where we're short on time here,
so I'll definitely I'll definitely skip skip to the good
parts if you will, but sure if you fast forward
a little bit from there. So I got out of
high school, govern my real estate license, and then I
eventually I was working with buyers and sellers, and then

(17:29):
I eventually let it go in twenty sixteen January twenty
sixteen because I was working. I had started working with
my dad as an investor in his business. So he
was a real estate investor and he was buying and
selling homes without using any of his money or credit,

(17:52):
like signing personally on homes, and he was getting all
these homes, and then he needed help. That's why he
came to me, That's why I started working with him.
He needed help with marketing all these homes. So I
eventually said, yeah, I can. I can put those on
the rent home market, not listing it as a realtor conventionally,

(18:13):
but I can put that on the rental market. Then
that turned into helping all of the buyers who were
acquiring off of the marketing that I was doing. And
then over like I said, I let my real estate
license go in January twenty sixteen, but over the course

(18:35):
of I would say from twenty sixteen on, I started
to develop a we started to develop a system, a
process that you have to put buyers through to make
sure that they're successful and that they get to the
end and get their own loan and are able to

(18:56):
qualify for their financing. So average, it's probably only ten
or twenty percent of the time of rental owned deals
that investors do out there because they have no structure
and no checks in place and everything, they're only successful
like ten or twenty percent of the time. Where we

(19:18):
have the inverse relationships, so we see up to ninety
percent of our rent hon buyers that we put in
our homes are able to go forward and get their
own financing. So and the reason I bring that up
is because throughout throughout that time, working with my dad

(19:38):
doing that, we started holding events in twenty sixteen. Later
in twenty sixteen, after I let my license go, we
start holding events for associates that we had all over
the country who we now and I'm still involved. I'm
still an active partner in that business. We still invest

(20:02):
and I still work with our associates all over the
country as well as do the work with Common Goal.
But we've always had events since twenty sixteen, and usually
once or twice a year we would hold an event
and ever since I got out of school, Alexa, I've
always had this voice in the back of my head
that's always saying, no matter what I'm doing, no matter

(20:25):
how many deals I'm closing, sales I making anything is yeah, great, Nick,
But what you really need to be doing is helping
people through their challenge, like get through to the other
side and to be able to thrive with the rest
of their lives and telling your story from stage. While
that voice has always been there, even doing with let

(20:47):
my real estate license go, like I thought it would
go away, because at our events, I'm telling my story
usually once or twice a year, once a year probably,
or I was for maybe ten or fifteen minutes, Max,
And I always thought that was a big deal. And

(21:09):
I can remember in twenty nineteen, September twenty nineteen at
our event, our QLs Live. We call it someone hearing
me speak, and I'm saying I'm not. I'm not trying
to steal you from your dad. However, if you're ever

(21:31):
looking to fine tune your message and bring it to
another level so that you're able to have maximum impacts,
I can introduce you to a few coaches and mentors
that have helped me along the way. Well, I wasn't
ready yet, Alexa, because and for the sake of time,
I'm gonna skip it. But if you'll have me back,

(21:52):
I can. I can go into kill and talk about
this boys challenge that I had. So I just don't.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Think what she said. I think you know a lot
of times, you know, when someone has a traumatic history
or an event, they often feel sometimes it defines them,
and they speak about it, they write a book about it,
but then they get to a point they want to
move on to the next level. They don't ever want
to deny what happened.

Speaker 2 (22:17):
But they want to build on it.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
And you are exactly an example of that, which I
find so many times. And I just have to read
this because I wasn't able to read today. Nick is
a seven figure business owner, Rhode Island based real estate investor, speaker,
and partner of Smart real Estate Coach.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
I mean, it's almost like.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Where did this all come from? We've heard your whole story,
but what you've done is just you know, healed, move forward,
growth and just opened up empires of your own, which
is truly remarkable.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Oh, thank you, I appreciate I appreciate you saying that
I really do. So the person that saw me speak
in twenty nineteen and approached me, I took her card.
I wasn't ready yet because I was still in the
final throes of my voice challenge that I was dealing
with and then maybe I can come back and talk

(23:17):
about that. You're going to come back with that. So
I wasn't ready yet. However, I always hand or a card.
And then a year and a half later, about a
year and a half later, a little more than that,
in May of twenty twenty one, I finally reached out
to her and I said, Okay, I'm ready. What should
I do? So she introduced me to her mentor, which

(23:39):
became my mentor and coach that I worked with. And
since then, since that first call with Tricia, there has
been no voice in the back of my head. So
what that's evidence is to be yeah, exactly. That's evidence
to me is I'm doing exactly what I was put
on this earth to do. When I spoke with her,
I share my goals and what I was going to do.

(24:01):
I said, what do you think I should do? She
said the speaker salon. I said, what's that? And she said, well,
that's that's twenty five thousand. But that's that's when you
commute to New York City for six weeks in a
row and you get to work on stage at the
triath Theater in New York City with up to ten
or fifteen other speakers working on your ten to fifteen

(24:24):
minute talk. And then the sixth week is when you
perform it for ten X planners, TENX organizers, event planners,
and podcast hosts, people who book other speakers to speak.
So I said, absolutely, like what I pulled it together
and was able to do that during the speaker salon,

(24:48):
And this is what I was referring to earlier. During
the speaker salon, she pitched the idea of what it
would look like to work with her one on one.
She said she specialized and working with speakers to help
them build out their speaker platform. Alex, I didn't even
know what that was. I didn't even know what his
people platform was. However, she said, that's seventy five thousand,

(25:14):
and I said, well, I don't have that underneath my mattress.
So I had to go apply for financing. I'd give
me a week and uh, six days later, I sent
her the money and I started working with her and
Trisha is the one who I credit for helping me
start common goal. She pulled that, she pulled out the

(25:37):
step system from me, pull like and I already said
how I now. Prior to her, I had spoke for
maybe ten, fifteen or twenty minutes max. Now I give
fifty and sixty plus minute keynotes to brain injury associations
and other organizations that support individuals that are going through

(26:02):
trauma all over the country, and I'm starting to branch
out to other organizations as well.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Amazing Well, at the end of the show, where can
my viewers follow you, find you, contact you? Where would
you say they can reach out and watch what you're
doing you hear more about your story?

Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah? Absolutely, thank you. I mean we run over a lot,
I would say the If anyone's interested in the real
estate aspect of my story and how we buy in
selling terms, you can go do smart real Estate coach
dot com and if you scroll down, you can get
registered for a free master's class. And if by the

(26:43):
end you'll learn how we buy and sell in terms,
and if by the end it's something that's for you
it's not a good fit for everyone, you'll know how
to take the next steps. And then secondly, I only
we only talked about a ten thousand foot view, believe
it or not, all of this step system. So if
you go to nickprefontaine dot com forward slash Step you

(27:07):
can download the entire step system for free today and
especially if you're stuck and you don't know what to do,
this is a great first step because what we find
is once you take your first step, your next step
will always be available to you.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
Love it, love it.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Thank you so much for coming on, Nick. Definitely we'll
have you on again.

Speaker 1 (27:30):
We have so much more stuff to branch off to,
so again, thank you for coming on and everyone, thank
you so much for tuning in everyone, and have a
good night and God bless