Leave them Breathless with Sean Stephenson - Genius Network Episode #48

Welcome to the Genius Network show. Leave them breathless. Create powerful content that spreads like wildfire using free tools you already have access to with Shawn Stevenson. Shawn was born with a rare bone condition that stunted his growth and left him in a wheelchair due to fragile bones. Despite these challenges, Sean has taken a stand for quality of life that has reached millions of people around the world. As a board certified therapist, Shawn uses humor and compassion to develop a fun environment where where individuals open their hearts and minds for lasting empowerment to occur. If you would like access to the full video presentation, the special resources and show notes for this episode, please visit geniusnetwork.com 48 that's geniusnetwork.com 48 recorded live at the Genius Network annual event.

Before we have our first presenter come up, we're going to actually show a video of who this person is. And so let's. So let's go ahead and roll that video.

Dr. Shawn Stevenson was predicted to not survive at birth because of a rare bone disorder that stunted his growth and caused his bones to be extremely fragile. Despite the odds, Shawn persevered and his drive took him all the way to the White House where he worked as a young man. He went on to college and eventually earned his doctorate. The Biography Channel produced an hour long feature on his life called the Three Foot Giant. His journey has insp millions of people around the world. Count among his fans Sir Richard Branson, President Bill Clinton, and his Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. Sean has appeared on everything from Oprah to Jimmy Kimmel. In addition to online videos with tens of millions of views over the past 22 years, Sean's powerful message has been heard at live events in nearly all 50 states and in 15 countries around the world. His latest book, get off youf Butt, has been translated into 10 different languages. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dr. Shawn Stevenson.

All right, Shawn Stevenson. Thanks, buddy. What's up, man? Love you, too. All right. Good afternoon. Hi, I'm Sean and I am a Genius Network addict. Hi, Shawn. I first knew I had a problem when I met Joe Polish. But let's be honest. When we all met Joe Polish, we knew we had a problem in our lives and it wasn't ever going to go away. However, I am doing well after two years of meetings and I am excited to be here. I want you to write this down right here, right now, on your paper. Write down your three initials. That's a new network that you should be aware of. Cbs, abc, NBC. They're dying and you are growing. You are a network right here. We have Something that I learned from my dear friend, Mike Koenigs. Mike, where are you? In the room. Good to know that he's a dear friend. Anyway, this camera is from this jerk I know, Mike Koenigs, and it's called a Mevo. Everybody write that down. Mevo, M, E V, O. I do not receive any payment from this company. I'm just a big fan of what they're up to. Right now, we are streaming out to my nearly 1 million viewers on Facebook. Say hello to my tribe here, guys. All right, so, Austin, if you can put that over on the table, that would be great. Point it toward the audience. See, because what I do is I watch my videos later to see who was paying attention. So this is kind of how I monitor who I like after the talk. 22 years of being a speaker, 10 years of being an online personality, I've been blessed to reach over a quarter of a billion people this year alone. So thank you. So I want to share with you some of the things that I've learned about that three initials. Your name is the new network. Television is scared. Why? Because that little device is now replacing agents, lawyer teams, editors, writers, producers. You are now the network. I spent three years kissing ass flying between New York and LA to get a major television about eight years ago. Major television show. Eight years ago. Three years of my life. How many people have put three years into something and you were just disappointed with how it ended in that three years or four years? Raise your hand if you've ever been disappointed. Okay, good to know. Three years I wanted this attention. I got this show, and the first episode, we only got in front of about 80,000 eyes. And you know what that cost to make that show? It cost a half a million dollars. Three years of my life. I put out videos now that are two minutes long that reach hundreds of millions of people. Folks, things are changing. Don't tell me that you need a lot of money to get your message out there and that you got to buy a bunch of ads. I think ads are great, but if you have really phenomenal content, you will spread. So I want to share with you a little bit of a blueprint that I use when I'm putting together any content. It's content when I'm up on stage, and its content when I'm creating videos that I want to go viral. And it's going to sound very common sense at first, but I want you to know something about common sense. It's rarely common practice when a novice hears something that they've heard before they go, I know that when a master hears something that they've heard before, they go, hmm, thank you for the reminder. I want to remind you of things that you know but may not be doing. When I put together content, I ask myself three things. Number one, write this down. How do I get them to laugh? Laughter is so healing. It releases anti inflammatory so you're not in pain in your own body. It raises your T cell count so your immune system gets stronger. Laughter truly is the best medicine. The second thing I ask myself when I'm putting together content is how can I get them to cry? That's just because I'm evil and I like to see people cry. No, no. The reason why you want people to cry is because they've been holding on to something for a very long time, and they want some outside element that they can feel they're being empathetic towards and have this release for something outside of them, but it's really them getting to release pain that they've been holding onto. You want people laughing, you want people crying. The third thing that I ask myself is, how can I get people to rethink their life? How can I get people to rethink their life? What's that one key distinction that I've learned in my life that could maybe solve problems that people have been struggling with for decades. And I found that there are a lot of content providers that specialize in all three of these areas. You know, I listen to Peter up here talking. That man's constantly getting us to rethink our lives, rethink our futures. A lot of you are wondering if you were going to be replaced. That's a good question. Maybe you need to be replaced. I don't know you well. Right. But you need to have that shift in thought. You know, in my 22 years as a speaker, 10 years as an online personality, I've spent 16 years as a therapist, a professional listener. Many of you are my clients. I sit down. I exclusively deal with entrepreneurs because I know what your lives are like. I've been there in the trenches with you. I know that the answer to you is not, well, just work less, you know, just take some more time off. That's not going to be enough for you. It's also about how can we shift our mindset. My whole mindset shifted when I was in fourth grade. See, you see Shawn Stevenson now. And you might say, wow, that guy has a lot of confidence and composure. Look, I didn't come out of the womb like, hey, Sean Stevenson. No, I Built it through experience. And when I was in fourth grade, I loved Halloween because it was the one day out of the year that everybody got dressed up and I could blend in. I loved it. So I'm out of my wheelchair on the floor, and when I'm out of this wheelchair, I look like an adorable roly poly bug. It's so adorable. You gotta see it someday. And I'm out of the wheelchair and I'm rolling around. And as I'm rolling around, I catch my left leg on the corner of the door, I bend it back and I snap it at the femur. If you've ever broken a bone, you know there's a bit of a time delay between hearing the sound of the snap and feeling the pain. Whenever I break a bone, my temperature skyrockets and sweat begins to burn into my eyes and my breathing becomes irregular. I remember holding my leg and I screamed something out loud, something you and I have all said. I said, why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? And my mom comes running in the room. If you have children, you know what that feels like. When you want to take your child away from pain, but you can't. So you try to just shift their focus. Raise your hand if you know what I'm talking about. My mom asked me a pivotal question because my mom could see the anger in my eyes that day. She said, sweetie, is this going to be a gift or a burden in your life? I'm thinking, is she crazy? A gift? Gifts come on our birthday. We open it up and we go, woohoo. How could this be a gift, Mom? But before anything else could happen, I had something that I can't explain to the skeptics and the cynics in the room, but it was like this warm wind of wisdom just rushed around my body. And then I got clarity in fourth grade. For the rest of my life, you see, I realized I love my life. Amidst all the pain, amidst being stared at, the surgeries, having to have physical help everywhere I went, I still love my life. And maybe the purpose. The purpose to why I was put in this container was to teach the human race how to love their life amidst their pain. This conference is about freedom. You want to know what the ultimate freedom is? Your ability to choose what you focus on. Are you focusing on your challenges as burdens and why me? And this isn't fair. Or are you focused on. No, I can grow. This can be inspiration to others. I can find a purpose. Because purpose doesn't make the pain go away. You and I know that. But it gives us fuel to move through those dark days. The last thing I want to tell you is I've studied as a doctor the human mind. And I'm here to tell you the human mind's job is not to make you feel good. It's to solve problems. That's why it's always looking for them. That's why you got to drop down out of that head and go right here into the heart. Find your purpose of why you were born. It's been amazing spending these 10 minutes with you. I love you. Thank you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Genius Network with Shawn Stevenson. If you would like access to the full video presentation, the special resources and show notes for this episode, please visit geniusnetwork.com 48 that's geniusnetwork.com 48 if you'd like to learn more about the Genius Network annual event, please visit geniusnetworkevents.com that's geniusnetworkevents dot com don't miss out on more insights, strategies and wisdom like this on Genius Network. Subscribe to Genius Network today by visiting geniusnetwork.com subscribe that's geniusnetwork.com subscribe.