My Friend Trent Shelton on Rock Bottom, Burning the Boat, and Finding Your True Purpose

I realized that I don't want to waste my life, Dean. I don't. We have so much potential inside of us every single day. Like, every single day is an opportunity. And respect the opportunity every single day.

Welcome to the Dean Grazios show. All success starts right here. I think it's important for those that don't know your story, if you wouldn't mind going, you know, I know you're not a guy that loves to talk about yourself. You always want to give. You're always giving. You're always talking about the audience. But I think it'd be great here. Just take a few minutes and kind of share, you know, why are you. You know, were you doing tweets and then start doing videos now? You got this passion that you just. Every video you do is so full of passion. I'd love to share where it came from, for sure.

How y' all doing, first of all? Y' all good? There we go. Say it like you mean it. Y' all good. There we go. There we go. I'll try to. I wouldn't say shorten this story, but, you know, tell it as best as I can. But just a little background with me from me is, you know, football was my whole life. And when I talk about football, I always tell people, you know, for some people, it's a relationship that's their whole life. For some people, it's their job, whatever it may be. But that was my identity. Football. Since I was five years old, growing up in New Orleans, that's all that I knew was sports, sports, sports, sports, sports. And, you know, blessed enough. High school, I was a standout in Fort Worth, Texas. Then I got a scholarship to Baylor University, a full athletic scholarship, and my parents definitely thanked me for that. You know, there, you know, it was kind of rocky because that's my first time ever feeling like I wasn't enough, because when I first got there, you know, my ego was pretty big. And I'm a high school standout in Texas. When I got there, I got red shirted, and I'm like, what is this? I can get red shirted. So I got humbled real quick. But I was always taught to work hard, push through it, and have faith. And my career at Baylor was very rocky. Like, I don't know if any of y' all are Baylor Bear fans or college football, but the Baylor Bears you see today wasn't the Baylor Bears that we were. We had losing records all the time right before the RJ 3 days. Worked really hard, got a chance to make it to the NFL. And that's kind of where my life took a plummet. And you got to realize, like, that was my Mount Everest. That was my everything since I was a little kid. To make it to the NFL and to get there and for my life to really hit a downward spiral really put me in depression. So I don't know if any of y' all guys watch the videos or, you know, tune into my messages. A lot of people ask, how can you connect so well with people that are depressed and stressed? Because I've been that person. I know how it feels to be hurt. I know how it feels to lose something. When I made it to the NFL, I was an undrafted free agent. You know, my whole college career, I was projected to go fourth and fifth round. And you're sitting there waiting for the phone to ring, and it's not ringing, and your parents are asking, trina, are you okay? Are you okay? And I'm like, yeah, I'm smiling for the camera, but dying behind the scenes, like a lot of people do, right? I'm all right. I'm all right. Really. Inside, I was like, man, what's going on? You know? I was like, I have to get drafted because that's just my whole entire life. Made it to the Colts, but in a great situation, right after the DA won the Super Bowl, I got a chance to play with a guy named Peyton Manning. Y' all might know him, right? We got some Peyton fans in here. All right? Coach Dungy was my coach, and I couldn't be in a better position to be around champions. But I have to be honest with you guys. You know, when I got there, I was so worried about living a lifestyle than working hard. Because when I went back to Fort Worth, I had to prove to people that I made it. So I bought the car. Not saying you can't have nice things, but I would ask you, what do you have those nice things for? Is it for yourself or to please others? For me, it was to please other people and put myself on a pedestal. So I bought all these things, and my contract wasn't even guaranteed, right? And so I'm like, what am I doing with my life? I end up getting cut six or seven times throughout my process from the Colts. I got cut three times. After the preseason, they brought me back, cut me again. I drove all the way from Indy back down to Texas. Soon as I get back down to Texas, I want to bring you back. I'm like, what? You could have told me that two weeks ago, right? And at that Point, my life started to hit a spiral, and I started to turn to things just to be real with you, things that would fill me up for the moment, give me a temporary, high, temporary fix. And I realized, like, doing those things like a cup with a tiny hole in it, right? You can pour water in that cup, but eventually what happens? That cup will be empty again. And that's what I was doing my life, going to these things and going to these clubs and doing all these things just to find significance, because I had to prove to myself that I made it. Fast forward a little bit, end up getting cut from the Colts after the season, went to the Seattle Seahawks, and really, Dean, this is where I hit my downward spiral, like, for real. I got cut again three or four times. And at that point, I'm trying to fake it till I make it for everybody. You know, I have a child on the way. I'm like, what am I going to do with my life? I. And I went to school for Speech Communications, but to be real with you, I took Speech Communications because I didn't want to fail out of Baylor. And it's funny how I'm using that now, right? And y' all can laugh, right? And you know what did it with me with the Seahawks, and this is nothing against the organization, but I remember I was at home in Fort Worth and I was cut at the Point, Maybe it's like, November. They said, hey, they called me, say, trent, we want to bring you back. And I'm like, can I come back tomorrow? Because I'm in Dallas. Like, no, you need to get on a plane tonight. Come tonight. So I drive all the way from Dallas to Fort Worth, which is a good drive, pack my stuff. I get on Facebook and tell everybody I'm back with the Seahawks, and I'm proud. I'm happy. Get to the airport, pack my bags. I get a call. It's a 206 number, which is Seattle. If, you know, I pick it up and say, hello and say, trent, we changed our mind. Never mind. Yeah, y' all can laugh now. I can laugh about it now, right? I'm like. At that point, I was devastated. So I'm like, are you serious? And so, honestly, I didn't really care about living anymore at that point in my life. I went to the Redskins, and, you know, it was kind of the same thing. But always tell people that my rock bottom saved my life. If it wasn't for the. I'm, like, thanking Dan Snyder and whoever was at the Seahawks at the time and the Colts. Nah, Bill, Poland, all those guys for cutting me because I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now. So I hit my rock bottom, and I just told myself, I said I had a choice to make. And every single day, you gotta realize this. Each and every one of you in here have a choice. You can either sink or you can swim. We all have struggles. Anybody perfect in here, right? We all have struggles. We all have problems. And so I had to make that choice. Either sink or swim. And I decided at that moment for my child, for my friend that committed suicide, that's a whole nother story. One of my best friends, he committed suicide. And I made a choice to say, you know what? I'm gonna do something with my life. This is not the end of my life. This is just a chapter of it. I. This is not going to be my story. And so I started saying this thing called rehab time. And I never want to be a speaker ever. Like, this is my biggest fear, My biggest fear to stand in front of people and speak. So I never wanted to be a speaker. I never wanted to start a nonprofit organization. Honestly, I wanted to catch touchdown passes my whole life. So rehab time was for me, was getting my mind, my body and soul right? But it was for myself. And as you see, as I start to share my journey and post it on Facebook and show people, like, it's rehab time. It's rehab time, and make these little videos for myself, these videos really wasn't to inspire anybody outside of Trent Shelton. Honestly, that was it. But I realized something. We all have struggles. We all have struggles. Maybe not alike, but at the same time, they're still similar, right? And people start to take to these videos. And to make a long story short, these videos started spreading across the world, and people starting to share. And I remember when I first got 100 shares, I was like, Man, 100 shares on Facebook. I made it right. I'm good. And now, I mean, it's all the way up to a million views. And it's never about the numbers, but the numbers show the growth in the.

Process, how many lives you're affecting.

Exactly. And that's how rehab time started in a short period of time. And, you know, I'm just thankful that I realized football wasn't the end of my story. It was just a chapter. And I think so many times we get so lost in what we want to do, what we want to do. When it fails, we think that it's over. But sometimes I would say failure is when you quit. But if you use Certain things as a teaching lesson, as a learning lesson to grow you and get better. If it wasn't for those times, I wouldn't be able to speak on stages across the world for two hours if I wouldn't have went through all those things to help people. So your struggle, your quote unquote failure, it's always bigger than you. It's to help other people.

Man, that's awesome. Is that a great story or what? Man, it's so good to have you here. And I got so many questions, and there's so many, you know, Trent traveled around the country. How many cities did you go to?

36,32 last year.

He went to 32 cities last year. Just literally tailored people on Facebook. He's doing an event, pretty much sold out all these events just through his following on Facebook, which I thought was amazing. And that's why I want to help get his message out to the world. So, you know, it doesn't matter whether it's real estate, life, relationships, the foundational pieces that allow people to live a fulfilled life. You know, the more you learn, the more you realize how narrow that field is, right? And we were talking in here yesterday and day before, we had some great people talking about, you know, picking a. Picking a swimming lane. Like, you know, so many times in life, we have so many things going on, we have opportunity overload, and we're dabbling in all these pieces. So I guess listening to you, and there's so many different ways I can go with questions, but listening to you, you know, you said something that just the first time you told me we were at lunch. But it just is impactful now is you realize that football was a chapter of your book. It wasn't your whole book. It wasn't your whole life story saying that you kind of blew through, you know, you know, when you were down and then you came back up, but still you had to go through that journey. When was it and what helped you realize that that was just a chapter? Because now it's easy to say, right? But when you were going through it, thinking about not wanting to live or not sure what you had or turn into, you know, things that just filled you for a moment, what do you think were those things that inspired you to keep going?

Man, that's. That's a super hard question. I'm glad you asked it. I will at least touch on this to say the moment I realized that this was my purpose, because for me, I wasn't sure about it. And for so long, I was still holding on to what I knew I should let go of. Even when I started speaking, I still, in the back of my mind, wanted to go back to football. And the moment that really changed my life, honestly, it's two moments, actually, that really made me realize I had my very first speaking engagement. I call it. It's very big. It's at a church in Dallas, 500 kids. I mean, excuse me, 5,000 kids. And my friend Jonathan Evans, Dr. Tony Evans is his dad. And he asked me to come speak at his church. And at that moment, I'm like, you want me to speak about what? And I'm just like, you know me. Like, I'm an introvert. Outside of, you know me. At the time, I was trying to be a rapper. Just being honest with you. Outside of that, I'm an introvert. I love to think. And he's like, trent, I see something in you you don't see in yourself. And when I heard those words, it sparked something. I'm like, well, what do you see? And he just smiled. He said, just come speak. He's like, when I talk to you, Trent, you have something about you that it's a gift and you don't even realize it yet. I'm like, all right, cool. And he was like. He asked me this question. I guess this is like the man thing to get me to come speak. He was like, what, are you scared or something? And I'm like, I'm like, no, I'm not scared. But really, I was like shaking in my boots, right? I'm like, nah, I'm not scared, right? And he was like, well. I was like, well, let me get some things understood first, foremost. And. And this is just a funny story, me transferring to my speaking career. So I said, let me get a few things first, because I'm not just gonna jump in full fledged and not know what I'm getting myself into. So I said, okay, Jonathan, well, let me get these things understood. So first of all, who am I speaking to, right? And he said, you're speaking to teenagers. And if you ever spoke in front of teenagers before, that is the hardest crowd ever, right? They own their cell phones, make you feel like you're the most uninteresting, boring person in the world as a speaker. I'm like, I cannot sign myself up for that in my first speaking engagement. And so he's like, what, you scared? I'm like, okay, here you go with this one again. I'm scared. All right? I said, no, I'm not scared. He's like, I see something you don't see in yourself. I said, okay, teenager. I said, it couldn't be that bad. I can go up there, I can talk about football. They relate to it. I said, okay, well, how many? And I already told you guys. He was like, 5,000. I'm like, 5,000. So my very first time, teenagers and 5,000 kids. You want me to go speak in front of that? He's like, what, you scared? I'm just like, dog, this is not gonna keep. Like, you can't keep using this on me, right? And I was like, no, I'm not scared. And I said, okay, fine, 5,000. I said, maybe I can go speak for, like, two minutes. Because at that time, I started to make the videos, right? But they were like rehabbish videos, right? I was living on, like, on the fence, you know, one foot in, one foot out. And so I was making those videos. And he said, well, you're only gonna speak for five minutes. And I'm like, five minutes, that's too long. Like, I was like, you've seen the videos. Only make two minute videos. That's all I got in me, right? That's all I got, Two minutes. And he was like, what, you scared? You scared? I was like, all right, fine, I'll go do it. And to make that long story short, I went there and I was supposed to report back to Arena Football the next day, but I told my coach, I said, I have to do the speaking engagement. Can I come to New Orleans next day? Say, fine. So I get on stage, and at that point, I knew it was something bigger for my life. I get on stage and he sees me backstage, and he cracks the most corniest jokes. He's like, I'm just trying to loosen you up, man. I get on there, and I've never to this day, seen a room full of people stay engaged to my speech like that. The kids were just looking at me like. And after they asked me all these questions about life, and I'm like, I'm not there yet. But I called my coach immediately. Immediately. And you gotta realize, this is how I pay my bills. I want y' all to get this. Like, this is how I took care of my family. So it wasn't like I had a lot of stuff set up for rehab time. This is really stepping out on faith and saying, I'm cutting, I'm burning the bridge. So I have no choice but to move forward. And sometimes in life you have to do that, right? So I called the coach, said I'm not coming. He said, well, what are you going to do? I said, well, I'm going to be a speaker. He said, he. Click. He hung up on me, right? And so, like, now he actually hit me not too long ago. He's like, I love your videos. You're right, right? And so then I had to make two more calls that were very tough. My coach. And I was just like, man, like, this is not going good. I'm like. I said, you know, I had to. With my faith, with God. I said I had to deal with God. I was like, hey, I need to go three out of three. Like, if you're not going to three out of three, I'm going back to football. So I was 0 for 1, right, with him. I called my friends that I thought would understand. My boy Corey's here. He understood. But a lot of my friends, they said, you're crazy. You're going to lead this lifestyle, all of this, for that, to be a speaker, that is stupid. And I want you to understand something. When you have a. And you guys know this, when you have a big vision, a big dream, something like that, a lot of people are not going to get it. But it's your vision. It's not for everybody to get. Understand that. And the people that tell you what you can't do, those will be the same people once you do it. That'll be like, I told you, you can do it. Right? The whole time. Right the whole time. But you gotta realize that. And that's the thing that I told myself. I said, no matter what, I'm not letting anybody talk me out of my greatness. So many times we let social media, all these people, talk us out of our greatness. So I made up my mind at that moment. I told my friends, look, okay, cool. And I realized who my true friends were because my circle got. We can talk about this a little. My circle went from this. It was so small. My circle turned from a circle to a dot. Honestly, like, it was tiny, right? And then the last call I had to make was to my parents. And that was hard for me because my dad, he supports me in anything. My mom, but they were so proud, you know, oh, my son plays for the NFL. But. And I made up in my mind, we create these stories, right? As y' all know. And I created this story that my parents only loved me because I played sports, which is totally untrue. And so when I called them, I was praying my dad answered the phone, actually, I was praying my dad answered the phone. And actually my mom did. And I Was like, oh, I got my mom, man. Like, I want to talk to my dad. He's a lot easier to talk to. And my mom, she picked up the phone and said, hello. So how did it go? I said, mom, it went great, but I just want to tell you I'm through with football. That's how I said it on the phone. I'm like, hello? Numbers are still going, so I know she's still on the phone. And she said, okay, so what you gonna do? And I said, rehab time. And she said, okay, like, do you have a plan? I said, nah. I said, my only plan is to keep moving forward no matter what, and to get my all every single day. And she got quiet. She said, baby, you know what? Whatever it is you want to do, I support you. And from that moment on, rehab time grew. It grew, it grew, it grew and it grew because I made a decision. And once I saw that and the reaction from people, I mean, you've seen Zariah, the little girl, to get a five year old little girl, watch a video, and that's the other moment that really, that really let me know this is my purpose. Not just a dream, but a purpose, you know, And a purpose is, you know, I always say sometimes dreams and purposes are together. But my dream was football. But this is my purpose. Something that fills me up no matter what. How much money, doesn't matter, how many people in the room, like, this really fills me up regardless. And to see a four year old, five year old little girl get my message and tell her mom in the video she needs to watch this, I.

Said, okay, it's an amazing video.

I'm doing something special right now. And I was like, this is what I'm supposed to do. And ever since then, man, I dedicated my life, like, signed up forever for it. It wasn't just a thought or idea saying, maybe I should do this. I signed up forever and I'll never quit.

You're doing an amazing job, man. You're doing an amazing job.

Thank you.

Yeah, So there's people out here facing that same thought process of burning the boat, right? Like, and I know you talked about purpose and we talk about a lot of the terminology I use is find your why, right? Finding your why, finding your purpose. So what encouragement or what, what have you shared with people in the past? Or when you go up on stage on how to have the courage to burn the boat, even if you're a doer? Sometimes we get caught, right? We think that maybe we should be happy where we are, but we have that. You said before, smile on the outside, but the inside screaming for more. You know, there's more gas in the tank. You know, you have more potential. But how do you make that decision? Or what helped you make that decision? Just to burn the boat or better, what have you shared on the results of when you finally burn the boat?

Right. Well, one thing that I like to talk about, Dean, and I'll try to break it down a little bit. Well, now I call it, you know, championship mode. And for me, with me, relating to sports, always, always had the. The need, the desire, should I say, to win championships in my life, you know, to play in a championship game. I don't know if any of y' all ever played in a championship game or whatever. Your championship may be like an awesome day at work, right? And I've always been attracted to how you don't need to get yourself psyched up for that, Right? It's hard to sleep. Like, you want to do whatever. Whatever it is that you can to make sure that you win your championship. And so I told myself at that time that my championship, honestly, was going to be rehab time. And so, just to break it down a little bit, I might go all over the place. So please bear with me with this. But you talked about something that I would like to touch on even with your why, Right? And a lot of people, honestly, when you ask, and I'm sure y' all do in here. Cause y' all are great people. But at one point, I didn't know my why. You know what I'm saying? And it's like I realized the magnet, I call them a magnet that pulls me back, right? You have magnets in your life. You have something that can pull you forward and something that can pull you back. And so I realized that all my magnets in my life were pulling me back. And so when I talk about friendships, and I'm not trying to end any friendships in here or whatever, right? But when I talk about friendships, I had to realize that that had to help me cut off the bridge. Because mindsets are very contagious. And for me, that was the big thing. The people that were around me, right, they couldn't see bigger, they couldn't dream bigger. They wanted to be just the man in the city, like in Fort Worth. That's all that they saw. And so for me, I was living that, like, I wanted just to be successful in Fort Worth, and that was it. So I always hit that ceiling that I couldn't go anymore. So I want to get around people that can push me outside of my comfort zone, period. And those people, honestly, were people I didn't know. No. I started picking up books, watched Tony Robbins, watch a lot of people. I got around Dean now. And those people pushed me outside of my comfort zone. So I realized that I have to change my circle. And when my circle got smaller, my vision got clearer. I want y' all to understand that a lot of times we think it's about having such a big team. And that's awesome if you can. If you have everybody on the same page. But for my life, speaking about. For me, my circle was huge. But I had so much drama, so much gossip. But when I lost certain things out of my life. And really, I think sometimes the best way to add is to subtract, especially in certain things in your life. And my life changed, Honestly, Dean, because my mindset changed. And so now I started to be around different people. I saw new visions, I saw new passion, new goals. And that pushed me outside of my comfort zone. My why, right? My why was my family, my son. I had two whys. And I know I touched on it earlier, but my college roommate committed suicide. You know, one of my best friends. And it hurts for me to talk about this, so if I get emotional, please forgive me. But my Somebody that you grew up with, somebody that you worked hard with. My roommate, honestly. And when you see him throw his life away, you know, because. And I. Whatever problems he was going through, and to see that. And I started thinking, like, he couldn't even call me, right? I'm so busy with my life that my own friend, one of my best friends, couldn't even call me. And so I'm like, what am I doing with my life? What am I doing with my life? I gotta change something. And so I promised myself at that moment. And when I first started this, I did it. But now my phone will be going crazy. I can't do it no more. But I open up my phone line, I would get on Facebook and say, if you have a problem right now, call me. I might not can respond to everybody, but if you text me, I'm gonna sit there for two hours and respond to as many people as I can. Because I made a promise to him that I will keep him alive through me. So when you have that why, like that, a why that won't let you quit, no matter what. Your why has to be bigger than you. Because if it's all about you, I promise you, you will quit on yourself. But when you have something that's greater than you, bigger than you, which I had it made me not quit. My son, of course, my family, of course rehabbers across the world. Now those in my why I would say strong. Why strong action, Weak. Why weak action. I got to hike camelback. Anybody hike camelback before, right? Exactly. He said it right? Right?

Woo.

Right? And I always like to use this as an analogy because. And it's not for everybody, so I'm not judging anybody. But I love working out because and I'll be honest, I just did it with Dean four months ago and I didn't make it to the top. I was out of shape and just being real with you. And at that moment I said, you know what? I gotta get my life right and get in championship mode. But sometimes working out, I love it because it shows one's mindset, right? And we have a strong why people ask, why don't I quit when I hike camelback or do all these things? Why do I'm always in championship mode? Because. Because I know passion, potential progression is very contagious in your life. If you quit on something, if you quit on even just working out, it will flood into other areas of your life. And so that why built in me into every single area of my life. And so when I live in this championship mode, it's not just about me being excited, but being a champion father, being a champion friend, being a champion speaker. Everything I do because you know, I don't want. My grandma just passed away last night. Just last night. And it made me realize something, honestly. And it's okay. She lived a great life. And she always told me this. She said, trent, no matter what you do give your all into everything that you do. And I realized that I don't want to waste my life, Dean. I don't. We have so much potential inside of us every single day. Like every single day is an opportunity. And respect the opportunity every single day. And I know we have bad days, we have ups and downs, but what are you doing every single day? When I leave this earth, these are the things that I that I think about. I don't want to go to that grave with incomplete. I want to make sure I give all of me every single day. So those why's really pushed me forward and really pushed me to be in champion chimo and help lives every single day.

Dude, this guy amazing or what?

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