Creative on Purpose Live - Savio Clemente

crossing the ether. It is now. I see 3 check marks across the platform, which means we must be live. I certainly feel alive, and I hope you do too. Welcome to Creative on Purpose Live. These conversations are about flying higher and the difference only you can make. I'm your host, Scott Perry, author of Onward and A Compass, helping difference makers live their legacy at Akimbo Workshops and Creative on Purpose. You can visit creativeonpurpose.com to learn more. This season, we're drawing insight and inspiration from guests successfully navigating adversity and embracing uncertainty and making things better, doing work that matters. Let's meet today's guest, Savio Clemente. Welcome to the broadcast. Please tell our viewers who you are, what you're up to these days, and where they can go to learn more about you and the difference that you, that you make.

Well, hi, Scott. Thank you so much for having me. Hi everyone. My name is Savio Clemente. I'm a board-certified wellness coach. I'm a podcaster, and I'm also a stage 3 cancer survivor. In 2014, I was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer, and fortunately I was able to beat it in 4 months. And I have been in remission for a little over 6 years now. I, in that vein, I help cancer survivors overcome the confusion, gain the clarity needed to get busy living in mind, body, and spirit. And I do that through, you know, my coaching one-on-one program. I also do it through my podcast. I have a newsletter as well. And then a couple of new, you know, developments with articles are going to come out soon as well.

Fantastic. Well, Savio and I know each other because I was a guest on his podcast before it was actually a podcast. I think you were in the process of recording, you were in the process of getting your Board Certification as a, as a coach. And I just, I'm just going to go ahead and share that the reason that Savio is here is guest is because I have had a lot of coaches in my time. I have been coached many, many times by many, many people, some of them famous people. And Savio, on his podcast The Human Resolve, actually spends a majority of the time that his guests are on coaching them. And I got some of the best coaching from Savio that I have ever received from anyone. So when I was thinking about who to bring on for this season, Savio was he was one of the few people who had been kind enough to invite me on his podcast that I decided I really want this guy to be on my podcast. The other thing I want to do, Savio, just to get started, is you stated the origin story of your journey into coaching and podcasting very quickly. And I want to underline it so that it can land with the impact that I think it deserves, because I think it's an extraordinary origin story. So tell, if, if, if you're willing, tell us a little bit more about, you know, the before, during, and after of what brought you to, into coaching and into the Human Resolve work that you're doing.

Sure. So my background is IT. I've always been really good at it. I've been really, it's very intuitive for me. Just, I used to design websites, mobile apps, things of that nature. And then just like before the pandemic, I just had this sort of stirring that something needed to change in my life. I didn't know exactly what kind of form that took. And I promised myself that if it was going to do anything related to cancer, I would want to hit that 5-year remission mark. So there was all these sort of seedlings happening. But in terms of my cancer journey, that happened in 2014. I actually was someone who basically did high-intensity workouts. I ate organic food, hormone-free food. I used to see a naturopath, get my blood work done, get vitamins. But cancer is one of those things that happened. And so basically I was starting— my stomach was starting to get bigger and bigger, like a distended stomach, and I knew something was kind of wrong. I had sort of like belabored breath as well. I went to my naturopath, he did blood work. He's like, Savio, something is definitely, definitely wrong here. You need to go the mainstream route and figure it out. Like, okay. So I ended up getting a sonogram and they held me over for about a good 2 hours. They wouldn't let me leave the sonogram office, and I'm like, this is really strange. And then at the end, they're like, I really think you need to go and see a doctor at a hospital. I'm like, why? And they wouldn't— they wouldn't even tell me or wouldn't say much. Um, they also had me— had a relative come pick me up. So my dad picked me up from the sonogram office, and we drove to the hospital. Doctor saw me, and within 30 minutes, they told me I needed to be admitted to the hospital. And I'm like, Why? And it was sort of, it was very confusing. And I didn't really quite understand what was happening, but I knew something was wrong. And basically within, I don't know, like a day and a half, they told me I had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, B-cell, stage 3. And yeah, they distended about 7 liters of fluid from my abdomen. So I had a nephrostomy tube attached. I was bedridden for about a week. And then my second week, I basically was told 3 days before I left that I needed to start my first round of chemo. Now I'm someone who believes in medical science and believes in that, but I'm also someone who never really took aspirins or took medication generally unless something was wrong. But I remember the medical doctor looking at me deadpan and saying to me, I don't care what the F you do. She actually said that, but you really are sick and you really need to consider this as your first line of treatment right now. So I spoke to a lot of friends, one of them in particular who's innate, who's like sort of holistic-minded. She's like, you sure you wanna put poisons in your body? I'm like, yeah, I agree with you, but I just listened to the stillness within and I decided to do that. I got my first round and then I had 5 more rounds of chemo. And fortunately I was able to beat it in 4 months. I did an integrative approach. So I promised myself I would do chemo, but also do other integrative modalities. And 4 months later, I remember 5 days before Christmas, I was told cancer-free, and I've been in remission for about 6 and a half years. So it's a long-winded story. I try to— I tell it very quickly because everything was fast and furious at the time. So I'm kind of going with that energy as well.

Yeah, well, it's, it's a, it's a remarkable story. And I appreciate the vulnerability, vulnerability of your sharing it here. And it's something that really struck me when we first met, because you took, you know, something that was absolute— had to be traumatic and had to be, you know, in many ways devastating and challenging. And it felt like in our last time speaking that you almost immediately flipped it and said, okay, this terrible thing happened. I actually got through it. It sounds like fairly quickly. And now What am I going to— this is a theme in, in the work that we do at Creative Our Purpose, um, is, you know, making the biggest difference that you can with the time you have left. And the truth is we never know what— how much time that's going to be. But in your case, you had a, the possibility that was going to be much shorter than you probably had anticipated. You exited that situation with this really clear vision of what you wanted to do, um, which I find really, really fascinating. I'd like you to speak more about your approach to coaching, but there was something that you said that resonated, um, because I just— so one of my daily practices is called my cemetery run. I go to the cemetery and that's where I get my exercise. That's where I do my running and walking. I just came back right before we hopped on camera here, and I was listening to Parker J. Palmer, um, I think the essay I'm listening to is Speak Your Life, and he talks a lot. He just finished talking about listening to your inner voice, doing the inner work, living from the inside out. And you talked about in your reflection, like, sitting with the stillness, that still voice inside, and following that. I'm just curious if you don't mind, you know, what was that experience like? Did it— and did it feel— how did it feel in the moment? That you were going to follow what was inside you as opposed to just going with all the external information coming at you?

Yeah, so I have to preface that I've been a meditator for most of my life. About now I'm going into, I don't know, maybe 2 decades, so 20 years of worth of meditating. So going within or stillness hasn't really been hard for me. I've never been challenged to the point of life or death, a decision like that, ever. So that was my first time. But, you know, when you're in a hospital and, and I had like 3 roommates over the course of 2 weeks, sometimes it would— I just remember just putting my headphones on, listening to like instrumental quiet music and just breathing. Like nothing fancy, nothing special, just being quiet because all you really have is time when you're in the hospital. I mean, there's people that are pricking you for, you know, your blood levels, etc. But it was almost like when you hear that, that beeping sound from those— from many of the machines. There was an oxygen machine, there was all these machines in and around me, kind of going into that sound and figuring out, well, what's most important? Like, I knew that the Savio who's in the hospital is the one who's sick, but I also know that there's a greater person behind the Savio. There's like this essence, soul, whatever people want to call it in the different, you know, religions out there. But And I, I knew that that Savio could find a way to help this Savio out. And so to some degree, I almost sort of separated the two.

Really, really fascinating. And kudos to you for being able to, to have such a long-standing mindfulness, uh, meditation discipline. It's something that I keep trying and failing miserably at. And so I call my cemetery run my mindfulness practice. Um, it does tend to sharpen the focus and bring me to the present moment. Um, so tell us a little bit about The Human Resolve and your approach, uh, to coaching. It sounds like your, your, your niche is with cancer survivors. And so what is that? Uh, you know, what is obvious, the, the problem that you help them solve is pretty obvious, but what's the approach, um, that The Human Resolve, uh, and your, your coaching How does— how do you unpack that?

Sure. So I'm like I said, so my niche is cancer survivors, but I get a lot of people who saying if you can, you can coach cancer survivors, you can coach pretty much anyone. So I guess that's true to some degree in my training. So I'm a board-certified— I'm also an ICF certified. And in my trainings, I was taught sort of this embodiment practice. So a lot of my coaching is using the body as a resource. And what I— what I say to that is, so I call it like the three brains. It's pretty much— there's a lot of studies out there that say that the head, heart and gut have an intelligence out there, a consciousness, some type of rearing. And so a lot of my coaching involves the fact that you've overcome this massive physical ailment, disease, problem, situation with cancer, and now you're thankfully, hopefully over that, right? You're in the remission process, but there's a resonance that is still lingering within the body that you still have to kind of figure out. And there's an energy and there's a message. So I always, I try to get my clients to sort of tap into that. It's not always as simple as my head is telling me this, or my heart is telling me this, but it's more of images, words, sounds. What is your body trying to get you to do? Or what is your body trying to get you to see or to experience? And a lot of my coaching is done through those means. I firmly believe that I am not the expert in someone's life. I'm, you know, I have the certifications, et cetera. I have the knowledge. I have the experience. The person itself, the client, is the expert on themselves. So a lot of my coaching is really ferreting the why behind the meaning of what it is they want coaching on. So we start really granular. I start— I don't go into trauma because I'm not a therapist. But I go into a backstory because I want to understand where did that sort of idea or where did that stuckness germinate or originate from. So all my coaching is done through those means. I like to have a very organic process with my coaching. You know, a lot of times people say, like, I don't— I could take notes on this. I'm like, you can do whatever you want. But the whole point is for you to resource yourself, to you, for you. I want the client to be accountable for themselves. And the only way to do that is for the client to see what that answer was for themselves, not for me to, you know, deliver it to them.

Yeah. Could not agree more with the approach of good coaching is all about helping a client reveal a truth to themselves, as opposed to, you know, I've heard coaches say, well, I, I turn on light switches and open doors. And I say, I don't even point at light switches and open doors, but somehow clients find them. And, um, and if you're willing to be patient and curious and, um, and silent a lot of the time. I totally agree that people can't find their own way. They just need a little bit of assistance along the way. The, the thing that you— so I also want to just highlight that in my experience of being coached by you, that moment where you— there was a moment where I was articulating an answer to a question about, um, what I wanted to do next, and you said, where is that landing in your body right now? And I remember saying it's all in my head. And you said something like, is that where you want it to be? And I said, no, no, I don't. And it was a— that was really— that was a very profound experience for me. I'd never, um— I have clients that do work in, um, somatics and that sort of thing, but I had never practiced, uh, that myself with, with clients. So having it done to me, uh, was really revelatory. So just So powerful. And the other thing that you said about the 3 brains really struck out because a coach that I worked with not too long ago had this device where she called it your HUT. It's your heart and your gut. And she was helping, trying to help me, you know, further get out of my head and get lower into my body. I just thought that was interesting that it bubbled up and it reminded me of the experience with you. What— you're, you're fairly, um, you've been, you've been working really hard at getting your credentials in order and getting your, your practice set up, and your website looks fantastic. Um, I know it's, it's fairly early in your journey, but you're, you are working with clients, you are getting started. Um, it's a time when I know, for speaking purely for myself, I learned a lot. But I learned it mostly the hard way in terms of, you know, things that I tried that didn't work out the way I had hoped and mistakes that I made, or, you know, things that I wish I had done differently. I'm just wondering if at this stage, if there's a, you know, and I know that you're probably a person that takes failure and mistakes and turns them into opportunities for growth and learning. But is there a particular moment that you've really been able to leverage as a lesson and insight and aha and use it as a way of propelling yourself forward?

Yeah, I— it might sound a little rudimentary, but I've never been someone who asks for help, so it's really hard for me to kind of do that. So when people have actually offered on LinkedIn and whatnot, I find myself resisting and I have to practice what I preach and mostly what I preach is, is sort of being open to possibility. So a lot of this sort of, that's like context for being on people's podcasts. Like, I'm not the best when it comes to front-facing. I'm trying to get used to more and more of it. Or when opportunities come, I'm always looking at what could possibly go wrong as opposed to what could possibly go right. So that to me is like a huge learning sort of process and allowing me to sort of melt away some of my own. You know, I always tell people, like, the best coaches are the ones that have gone through the shit, because they're the ones who actually know what it's like to feel that way. And that's where empathy comes into play, into practice. So I would say that is like one of my biggest lessons or sort of workings that I need to sort of tweak and figure out. Interesting. Is it—

so just curious, how can you turn— how might it be You know, I found you to be a very generous, um, coach and human being. Um, how might it be an actual act of generosity for you to, um, reach out for help or be more willing to accept it when it comes?

Yeah. So I've gotten better at it. I'm definitely getting better at it. Uh, um, yeah, I, you know, a friend once said to me, She goes, you know, we all are energy beings, right? And so if you're always giving to someone and not accepting or receiving that, you're actually stifling them from giving something back to you. So you're just like, you're not being in abundance, right? You're not practicing that. And I'm like, oh, actually, it makes a lot of sense. It's one thing knowing it intellectually and even emotionally, another thing practicing it. So I think for me, it's asking for what I want, like actually saying, I would really like this. And like, like, don't have any, you know, cap— don't, don't have any sort of, um, caveats to it. Don't have any sort of like, you know, extra explanations. Just, this is what I would like, and, and see where that kind of goes. I need to take baby steps though with it because this is definitely a challenge.

I think that's actually a really important point to, to highlight. Um, you know, we're all here to learn something, um, and sometimes some of us have to learn it over and over and over and over again, but We think that we change ourselves and make change happen in these bold leaps, that this act of swinging for the home run, swinging for the fences, it's actually the daily discipline of taking a small step into potential and possibility that usually yields the most sustained results over time. And so that actually leads nicely to my next question, which is, you know, you talked about needing to develop this skill and you develop a skill by practicing it and having a daily practice is really, really important, like your meditation practice, for instance. I'm wondering what are other, um, routines and relationships that you have cultivated, um, that help support and encourage, inform, and inspire your journey into, uh, you know, be— becoming the, uh, a better coach and a better podcaster and just a, a better writer and all the things that you're doing to be a a force for good and a real difference maker in the world.

So for me, I would say in addition to— so I have like a gratitude sort of practice. It's not something I do daily. It's something that I kind of do weekly. But I've learned through Martin Siegelman, he's like a University of Pennsylvania professor, and he— I think he calls it the three wishes, where it's not about what you're grateful for, but why did those things happen to you? Why did that specific gratefulness happen in your life? So that you could kind of foster and figure out the intrinsic motivation to have that keep on sort of paying it forward or keep on going. And to me, it's just done wonders because it's such a simple, easy step. And but it's sort of— and even when I challenge my clients to think about that, they, they often take some of the gratitude things for granted. They often think that it's just, it's, it's going to be evergreen, it's always going to be there. And I'm, I'm a testament to the fact that sometimes the rug is literally pulled up from underneath you. I know we all went through COVID as well, but that to me, I would say, is a practice that I try to do. And then a little bit of detachment. I call it treat your body as a stranger. So a lot of people with this work, with embodiment and somatics, they think I'm an expert. And quite honestly, I've always lived in my head. So when I coached you and you talked about living in your head, I totally get it because that's me. So I call it treat your body as a stranger. Like, like the anthropologist Margaret Mead. She would go into different culture, you know, different, you know, villages, and she would just observe and record. She wouldn't, she wouldn't process. She wouldn't say any— she would just really just be a part of that, of that sort of energy, of that feeling. And so whenever something is perplexing me, I always use those three brains. There's a succinct sort of method to the madness. It's, it's tapping into the heart, then going to the head, then going back to the heart, and going to the gut, and going back to the heart. The heart is really the resonance of it all. It really has they call it the juice. And so for me, it's really about that. The practice is really about not judging and not expecting your body to do or say or to— it's just to just observe, have like a blanket and open mind aspect to it.

I love that. I love that you referenced Martin Seligman because his positive psychology approach is something, you know, that has roots in CBT, REBT, um, Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy. But all of it, um, is deeply influenced by Stoic philosophy and the Four Virtues, uh, four of the six virtues and, and, uh, the values in Action Strengths Indicator come from Stoicism. And, uh, it's a— his work is profound and powerful, and I love the gratitude practice. It's something that we encourage in our community. We list 3 simple gratitudes every single day. One of the, one of the, I share with the people that I work with, you know, you've really arrived with your gratitude practice when you start being thankful for the challenges and for the failures in your life, because there's still opportunity, you know, at some point, you will just— you will— it feels like it's impossible to find a silver lining in a situation. And at that moment, there's always the possibility that you can practice the virtues of patience, acceptance, humility, uh, uh, and, and cultivate the virtue of resilience. Um, so just really appreciate how, how profound, uh, and important gratitude is. Also generosity. You know, there's, that's kind of how we're wired is to, you know, do our work with and for each other. So love all of that. If there, so the, the, the final question is always around, you've already shared several ideas and practices that are going to help people tuning in that either aspire to, to do, make, make the difference only they can make, or want to advance in the difference only they can make. What is the, for you, what is the, the most powerful lesson that you've learned or the most powerful practice or idea that you've collided with that fuels your forward progress that you would like to leave listeners with as, as we begin to wrap up our conversation?

So there's been many. I'm an avid reader and I'm like someone who likes to soak in information, curious at heart, pretty much for most of my life. But I would say in the trainings that I've done, the biggest was— it's like a coaching technique slash, you know, therapy technique. It's called the Trans-Theoretical Model of Change. It's the model of change. And basically it's not about people don't know, like people don't want to change. It's people don't know how to change. They don't know that they're in pre-contemplation all the way to maintenance or termination. And coaching is about getting the client with their will and desire to move through those stages. So it's not like, oh, I don't want to change. It's they don't know how to. And to me, that was very profound because it's not about, well, someone doesn't want to adhere to their medication, and so they don't want to sort of move through that, or someone can't get unstuck. It's they don't know how to do it. And to me, it sounds simple, but it's really powerful when you really dig deep into the why and dig deep into that whole process and how to sort of make, make those movements, you know, feel, you know, like they're gaining momentum in your life, that, that you actually are creating change. Because the change is supposed to be something that can last. Like, it's not supposed to be like, oh, I made the change, I'm, I'm reverting back. It's about making the change and going to the next stage and the next stage, because I believe that life is a, is a learning process.

I really love that. If you don't mind, I want to just stick with that for once, one more minute, because I, I agree. This is, this is the, the thing about humans that's so fascinating to me is we love our status quo. We love to know where we stand and what's expected. Tell me, give me a checklist, give me the steps, I'll do the steps, pat me on the head, give me a cookie, give me a promotion, whatever. At the same time, we also possess this aspirational nature where we want to explore the edges of our understanding ability and we want to grow and develop. And I totally agree with what you're saying about, you know, leaning into the change, but at the same time, it's so easy to fall back into the old habits. Is there anything that, that you would add to what you just shared with us that, that would help continue that forward progress, maintain the traction and momentum, and not backslide into the behavior that you're trying to actually, you know, work your way out from?

I can give you a classic example. I had a client on a podcast that I did who basically is going through cancer. He's not in remission. He's lost a couple of, um, limbs, and he basically knows that at some point it's going to be over for him. And I said to him, what if I created a magic wand and I took away— I took away your cancer? What would life look like for you? And he just couldn't— he didn't— he didn't know. He didn't— he didn't know how to even answer that. He didn't— he couldn't even see beyond his current state of affairs. He couldn't even see the possibilities that could have happened. So to answer your question, I would tell the client, well, if— what is it that you aspire to do? What are your dreams and aspirations? What is it that you would like to have done? And look at that as your North Star and, and concentrate on that, you know, whether that's meditating towards that North Star or affirmations or mantras or even writing down in your journal, this is what you want to do. That to me, I feel like gives the client not only that intrinsic motivation, but it gives them the momentum to know that something's awaiting them. Because I know for myself, I don't want to do all this work and feel like it was for naught. I want to make sure that it meant something and it means something.

What a great way to end. It's— we, we build identity and forge meaning through the work that we do. And it can be as simple as the conversation that you're about to have right now. It can be as simple as, you know, doing, doing the dishes or preparing the next meal. So I love that message, Savio. Thank you so much. I want to thank everyone for tuning in. Savio and I really appreciate the gift of your time and attention, and we hope that today's conversation will motivate you to lean into endeavor that matters with a little bit more curiosity and courage. You can learn more about Savio and the great work that he's doing at thehumanresolve.com. If you have nothing better to do, there's a conversation there with yours truly that I found profoundly enlightening and impactful in the moment that I was in when Savio was kind enough to offer his coaching to me. It's always also, of course, great to see you at creativeonpurpose.com. And now take the insight and the inspiration from this conversation and fly higher in the difference only you can make. Savio Clementes, thank you so much for the gift of your time and all the wisdom that you shared with us today.

Thank you so much, Scott Perry. Really, really appreciate it.