Being Unstoppable: Conquering Your Everest with Sean Swarner

Hey there. I'm so excited to announce the Unstoppable Success Summit is back, y'. All. We are going to be in Dallas April 19th and 20th, and I want to see you there. Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights and make valuable connections and leave with actionable takeaways so you can implement all of these things into your career and level up your life and your business. I've got Ben Newman, Rachel Luna, John Gordon, Rudy Rickstein. I've got a panel of speakers that specialize on publishing, pr, branding, podcasting, and TED Talks. And so if you are ready to level up, if you're like, I've got a message to share and I really want to increase my influence. It's time to kick the limiting beliefs to the curb. It's time to move forward past your fear. It's time for you to invest in you to bet on yourself. So I want to see you in Dallas. It's my hometown and I'm gonna make it, y'. All. I'm planning some big stuff, okay? It's gonna be fun. My event planner keeps saying, amberly, you need to reel it in. I'm like, no. In. In Texas, we say go big or go home. So go to go.amberly lago.com that link will also be in the show notes to grab your early bird ticket. The early bird tickets will only last for a certain time and There are only 100, so these tickets will go fast. You're the first to know about it. I want to see in Dallas, so hopefully I will see you there to hug your neck and let's be unstoppable together. Okay, now on to the show. Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm Amberly Lago and I'll be sharing inspirational stories of resilience and empowering ideas to elevate your business and your life, ignite your passion, and fuel your purpose. Hello, it's Amberly, and thank you so much for tuning in to True Grit and Grace. I'm going to try not to get too emotional on this interview, but this is somebody that I have been looking so forward to having on the show. I mean, I Woke up at 4 o' clock this morning because I was so excited because I knew I was going to get to interview him first thing. I have the amazing, the most inspiring person in the world, and I'm not even joking. Sean Swerner with us, y'. All. He is voted one of the top eight most inspirational people in history. I think you're the top. By the way, he's a multiple world record holder, Emmy nominated Amazon film project. His documentary is amazing. Y' all have to check it out. Empowering International keynote speaker, author of numerous books, certified professional and personal coach and has been featured on espn, cbs, NBC, abc, fox, CNN and countless other domestic and international shows. I mean, there is nothing this man has not done. He is the only person in history to climb Mount Ever, the highest mountain on every continent, ski to both poles and complete the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. All after surviving two terminal cancers, a 14 day prognosis, a year long coma, and with only one lung. Y', all, welcome to the show. The amazing Sean Swerner. Wow.

I appreciate that. I really appreciate that, Amberly. And I was sitting here thinking, you know, as you're introducing me, you're like, you Woke up at 4am because you were so I'm thinking you woke up early because it was cold in your house.

That's. Hey. And I can't complain about being cold when it's 30 something degrees here. When I have watched your documentary of you trekking through the snow and thinking of you, you know, there were times, there were moments when you didn't know if you were going to wake up to see the next sunrise. And so I'm like, you know what? I am, I'm just so inspired to have you as a friend. And when I think about complaining about something, I think of you. I'm serious. So y', all, we met when we shared the stage. We were speaking at an event. Was that in Atlanta? I can't remember where we were.

That was in Dallas.

Was it in Dallas?

That was in Dallas.

Oh gosh, it was in Dallas.

Home from Africa. I stopped. I made a stopover in Puerto Rico. My wife, born and raised, raised in Puerto Rico, visiting her family. She stayed there. And the re. The only reason I remember that well, decent memory. But I remember flying through Dallas on my way home to Denver because I was in Puerto Rico and her brother was coming to Dallas to meet me to do some, like to do some coaching work together.

Oh, wow. Well, I was so I had, I learned about you through Ken Joslin. I saw your live and I was like, oh my gosh. My podcast. I had in mind stories of resilience and struggles to strength, struggles to success. And you have always been a go getter and I do want to talk a little bit about your backstory and how you got to where you are. One thing that really touched me in your documentary is how supportive your family Was, and especially your mom, you know, she said, as a, as a mom, I didn't look back, I kept looking forward. And she said to you, we're going to beat this, Sean. That just got me all Ted. But it just, it just made me think, wow, you, your upbringing is like, do you feel like how you were an athlete and, and swimmer? And I mean that, that prepared you kind of for what you were going to battle through with cancer, you know, abs.

Absolutely. And I think even more than just having that physical background, it was the fact that I remember whenever I, my, my stroke was the breaststroke. I love the breaststroke. Right. And when I was five or six years old is when I became a competitive swimmer.

Five or six, you were a competitive swimmer?

Yeah, like with the ymca, you know, not nothing stellar, but I remember touching the wall, doing a 25 meter breaststroke, you know, one lap down, touching the wall and mom or dad pulling me out of the water and asking me one of two questions. And did you have fun? Like, of course, you know, I had a, I had a blast. And then did you do your best? You know, not, not. Why didn't you beat Steve or why didn't you beat Jim? Why didn't you come in first? It was, did you have fun and did you do your best? Not the best, your best. And I think that's where that mentality was seated. You know, my parents, not necessarily encouraging me to be the winner all the time, but to just be better and beat my time. Say it was a 25 meter breaststroke, I did it in 30 seconds, right? If, if I did it 30 seconds this weekend, next weekend I was going to shoot for less than 30 seconds and then the next weekend I was going to shoot for a faster time and a faster time and a faster time. So I think that mentality of just doing a little bit better today than I did yesterday has stuck with me.

Well, I, I, I love those questions. And after I've done anything, like, especially speaking on a stage, I always ask myself, okay, did I do my best? I don't compare myself to others, but did I do my best? So I think those are great questions. And I think it's so funny that when people would see you and your brother come in, they'd be like, oh no, there's the brothers that we're all going to be beat now. Like, they knew as soon as you walked in that hearing that, like they just knew, oh, look who's walking in. So tell listeners how old you were when you were diagnosed with cancer.

The, the first one because I've had two. The first one was a 13, you know. Right, right. When you're. Your hormones are starting to kick in, you're going through puberty, you're growing hair in unusual places on your body, you're like, oh, where's. What's. What's going on down there? And I was losing my hair, I was losing my friends, I was losing my life when people were literally starting theirs. So at such a young age, I developed a different perspective. So I wasn't worried about going to school and where I was going to sit at lunch. You know, I didn't have the butterflies in my stomach when someone talked like a girl talked to me. I had butterflies in my stomach when I was 60, 70 pounds overweight, fighting for my life.

Because you went from being, you know, this elite athlete, and wasn't it. You hurt, you felt something snap in your knee, and you went to the doctor.

That's exactly what it was. Yeah, I. I had. I had no symptoms. You know, I didn't have night sweats, I didn't have any swollen glands. Nothing like that. That was.

You didn't even have swollen glands or anything?

Nothing. And I think that's. There's a medical term. I'll have to look it up, but there's a medical term where if you do suffer injury like I did, I was playing basketball, snapped my knee, and because I had so many white blood cells and the, the lymph going down to the knee to fix everything in that, when that started swelling, it caused a domino effect for every other joint to start swelling up. Right. So it was almost like my whole body inflamed all at once. And that's what triggered the fact that, hey, there's something wrong with Sean. We need to get him to a hospital.

Wow. I. I just. When I was watching your documentary, you know, and the doctor said, you need to see an oncologist, your mom was like, why do we need to see an oncologist? You know, like, what is going on? I mean, I can only imagine the fear that what if my. Because my daughter's 15, if she hurt herself and I took her in, and that's what the doctor told me. So you were fighting for your life that the. The drug, the medicine, the drugs, the chemo, Everything that was going on is what made your body then start to swell. Was it the steroids and stuff that, like.

Exactly, yeah.

The.

The prejudice made me swell up everywhere. And. And the doctors also put me on. On a. In all you can eat diet, like a seafood Diet, you know, if I see food, I eat it. And that was really what they, what they put me on because they wanted my body to be able to bounce back. But it was so strange too, because back then they said, you know, take it easy, don't, don't work out, don't run, don't do this, don't do that, don't do, let your body recover. But now they're, they're showing that exercise actually helps. So I didn't listen to my doctors and I ran. I couldn't swim because I had a permanent IV stuck sticking out of my chest called a Hickman catheter. I couldn't get in the water due to infection, but I could run and I could lift weights, you know, gently. Nothing, nothing big, but I would just push myself a little bit. And however I felt that day is whatever I did, and I pushed myself a little bit past that. And I think because of me pushing my body physically, which pushed my mind as well, because it's amazing how mental being physical is. I think that helped my body recover better during the treatments.

I absolutely agree 100%. And you know, after I had 34 surgeries to save my leg, my husband, bless his heart, he's been through hell and back with me, but he was at the hospital with me every single surgery. And I was working out in the hospital. I had the doctors install a pull up bar over my bed and I had a friend of mine bring some weights. And I was doing everything I could because I feel the same way. Like movement moves your mood. Like it made me feel like I was moving in the right direction. And my husband, husband would go to the doctor's visit with me when I got out and he'd be like, you won't believe what she did this time. She went paddleboarding and she did the flying trapeze and, and now she's going to be jumping out of a plane. And I love my doctor because he was like, well, good, good. That as she should, that's good. I want you to keep doing whatever you can. He's like, well, I'm afraid her leg's going to fall off. And so, so I agree. I think it does help. And see, I think a lot of times people, they're like, oh, okay, I'll take it easy. And they, they don't kind of challenge their doctors being their own advocate. So when did you get your second diagnosis for cancer?

The second one was when I was in complete remission from the first one.

How long did it take to get in Complete remission from that.

About a year, year and a half. So 13, basically 14. I was 15 years old, in remission. I was back to being normal, if there is a normal for a teenager. So I was back to being normal. And that's, that's all I wanted. And I just wanted to. I was probably the only teenager who wanted to go to school. And I was tired of being in the hospital. I was tired of, of the needle jabs and, and the surgeries and, and just the. I was just over it.

And, and I'm sure the nausea and being sick and throwing up, I mean, all of it that comes along with it.

36 hours straight, I would throw up. I was tired of. This is going to sound gross, but I was tired of vomiting on myself and soiling the sheets. You know, my, My first goal, literally was to crawl eight feet from the hospital bed to the bathroom. That was goal number one. And then I wanted to put myself in a wheelchair to make it to the bathroom, then put myself in a wheelchair and push myself to the nurse's station and then push myself around the nurse's station and then get on my feet again and start walking again. So the second cancer was when I was about 16 years old, in complete remission, diagnosed with another primary cancer completely unrelated to the first one. Had nothing to do with the treatment. It's not a side effect from the treatment. It was just a completely new primary cancer.

Wow. Now, was there any history, family history of cancer of this type or anything?

Nothing. My. My mom's dad was a. An avid smoker of Camel. Camel cigarettes. He died of throat cancer, but that was, you know, brought on to him by himself. And I was never around him when he, when, when he was smoking because he died when I was three and a half years old. So.

I mean, I just saw your grandmother celebrated 101. I mean, 101. Happy birthday to her. She is the cutest thing ever. My granny's the cutest thing ever too. She is 97, so she's. She's catching up. Yeah. But I was like, man, Sean's got some good genetics with his grandmother. Look at her. So, yeah, it's just crazy. I want to go back to something you said that your first goal was to just be able to crawl to the bathroom. My first goal, believe it or not, when I got home was to be able to use the bathroom on my own. I was so sick of using the bedpan. So that. And so I want to talk about the importance. I'm glad you brought that up because it, some people have these big lofty goals. Like if I would have thought to myself, I want to go run a marathon, I want to run another marathon while I was stuck in the hospital bed, I probably never would have gotten out of that hospital bed. But I set small attainable goals. Is that something that you focused on?

Absolutely, absolutely. Just those small goals. My first one was to run a 5K, you know, 3.1 miles and I just wanted to finish. I, I finished dead last, but I finished, you know, I literally was the last person across the finish line. But at least I had a goal and I stuck with it and I accomplished it.

Well, I had fun doing it and that is awesome. And even before we started recording, I was like, we're gonna have fun. You're like, oh good. I like fun. I said, so do I. Well, I want to share a little bit about how you trained yourself because I feel like so many people make excuses. So once, you know, you got to, started walking, started running, then you're like started setting bigger goals. Can you share a little bit about how you trained? Because I, I love your unconditional training.

Well, the, the first, the first bit of training, and I know this probably isn't what you're talking about, but the first bit of training I ever did was I had my hickman catheter pulled early so I could get in the water and qualify and swim in the, the summer championship, the league championship meet. You have to qualify by swimming in a dual meet, right? Two teams, my Willard waves and somebody else. I had my hick and catheter pulled early just so I could swim down and back a 50 meter breaststroke at that point to qualify to make it to the championship. And the first time I got back in the pool, I was thinking, this is fantastic. This is going to be great. I'm going to dive in, I'm going to swim back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. I barely made it one lap, barely made it one lap. And usually, you know, I would put my hands on the side of the pool, jump up and pull myself pop right out of the water. I had to use the ladder to get out. I wasn't even strong enough to pull myself out of the water. So I grabbed my, my goggles, grabbed my towel, ran to the, and this is when I was 16, 15, 16 years old, almost 17. Ran to the locker room, threw my goggles across the floor. I was so pissed off, threw the towel down, just sat down on the bench and I started crying like this Is it? There's no way in hell I can do this. It's just not going to happen. So I remember I. I heard a voice coming from behind me. He's like, you got this. And that's where the support comes in of my brother, you know, of the family. Because I've never climbed. I've never made it to the sum of any significant peak by myself. It just doesn't happen. You get up there. Let's. Let's hypothetically say, you know, I've been up Kilimanjaro now 24 times. I do it by myself. Yay self. High five. Right? You congratulate yourself. Big deal. But I've had my. My brother was always there, and he pushed me, so he encouraged me to get back in the water. So, again, it goes back to what I initially said by doing my best, you know, not the best. I got back in the water, swim back just a little bit more, took a break. A little bit more. Took a break. Because in my mind, I had the championship swim meet.

Not.

Not here, not today. Because just like going through chemo, there were nights I would be vomiting 36 hours straight. I knew feeling that bad was just temporary. So I would picture myself swimming across the pool, down and back, touching the wall, coming out in first place. So the training for me begins in my mind, and I start at the end. So, for example, we'll skip past college, skip past everything else. And now I'm looking at, like you said, looking at something bigger and bigger and bigger. Everest. You know, I wanted to be the first cancer survivor in history to climb to the top of the world, and I wanted to utilize that as a platform to give other people touched by cancer. But in my mind, I heard how many other people saying, oh, it's impossible to climb Everest with one lung? Half your. It's. It's just physiologically impossible. Like, well, are you in my mind? No. Let me figure that out. Right? And there's only one way to find out if it's possible or not. So I pictured myself on the summit, taking the last few steps, but smelling the ozone, hearing the styrofoam crunching of the snow under my feet, making this real vivid picture in my mind. So it's not just vivid. It's not just visualization. It becomes vivid visualization. Right? But then, because I had that mindset in my. In my brain, in my mind's eye, that I was already on top, I was already successful. Whenever I went out for a difficult journey or difficult training, hike, climb, whatever it Was worth every bit of pain and terror and agony because in my mind I'm already successful. So I would eventually work myself up to after moving out to Colorado Longs peak, which is 18 miles round trip, 14, 256ft. And I would do that once a week with a hundred pounds of rocks in my backpack.

Right. Are you serious? With a hundred pounds of rocks? Like I used to have a weighted vest that I used to train in. I do the step mill wearing that £25.

Yeah.

You know, and I would have clients use it too. But a hundred pounds, I, I, you

know, looking back and I'd probably be about 3 inches taller if I didn't wear it a lot of times to get pulling me down. But that I didn't start there. Started with 25, 30, 35, 40, you know, eventually slowly putting in and I had to find rocks that fit perfectly because I didn't want them jabbing in my back. Oh, this backpack that was designed specifically for, well not designed but I use this specifically for my training hikes with a heavy pack. And I would take myself up in full, knowing it was bad weather. I would go up in shorts in the snow, short sleeve shirt so my body would get used to the cold. You know, so people are saying oh hey, and you might do it too. You know, they do the, the cold plunges. I'm like no way man. I've had enough of that. I'm, I'm over it. So I'll put myself in the cold for hours at a time training snowballs in my hands, bare hands. But I would put myself purposely in horrible situations to develop this, to develop my mind in the meantime developing my body.

Oh, I love that you talk about the mindset so much. Because I think that it's start. I, I think it goes together absolutely for sure. And it starts with your mindset. And I think so many people, they don't have that. They've got limiting beliefs, they've got self doubts. And I mean I believe me, I've had so I still to this day have self doubts and limiting beliefs and I have to switch it and it helps to talk to somebody and high five somebody like you're talking about. But how do. Okay, so how does somebody tune out the naysayers? Like if you've got. Because I have people all the time, Sean that tell me, oh you, you're crazy. You can't do that. There's no way I can. What are you thinking? That's crazy. Why? There's no way. You can't even get on a plane and fly that far. Like, that's. You wouldn't believe the comments I get. How do you tune out the naysayers?

I. Whenever someone says something like that, oh, you can't do that. That's impossible. Oh, yeah, that's. That, that's, that's just not going to happen. I understand that's what they think. I understand that's their limiting beliefs coming out, and I become a mirror for what they say. And one of the biggest things that, that I've worked on over the years and with my, my wife, with relationships, with anyone, you know, people who are triggered by something, people who are offended by something, whatever it might be. What I say is about me. What you hear is about you.

Ooh, say that again.

Yeah, what I say is about me. What you hear is about you. So what I'm. What I'm saying is a hundred percent about my thoughts, my limiting beliefs, my assumptions, my, my. The gremlins that are chirping in the back of my mind. What you hear and how you interpret what I say is about you. And like I said, it works for relationships. When people start to argue when they have a different perspective on something, it works on whatever you see in the news. When people disagree on something, it works in every situation. When someone's offended by something, it's how you interpret what that person says. I don't know anyone in my circles who would purposely say something to offend someone else.

So it's. I'm glad you said that because it's so much. I always say, you got to get rid of the doggy downers and stick with the puppy uppers. Like, stick with the people who are positive and they're go getters. And you can tell them that you have this big, wild, crazy dream. And they're like, yeah, that sounds amazing. Can I go too?

Well, and you still get the people who are in your small circles. Mom and dad. You know, I remember hugging my dad goodbye before driving across the country to go to Colorado to train. And I vividly remember him whispering in my ear, we didn't get you through two cancers to go kill yourself on a hunk of rock and ice. Right? So going through everything, I did imagine how they're feeling. They have a. For their firstborn son who they saw through one diagnosis of a cancer, the second diagnosis of a cancer, who they didn't think was going to make it through high school, who they didn't think was going to make it through college because they're. No one's ever had these two cancers. I still to this day go in once a year for a checkup. No one's ever had these two. And literally the chances of me surviving both of these was equivalent to winning the lottery four times in a row with the same numbers. Right. So it's an impossibility. So picture up a parent. Picture you and your, your. Say you, you got your 15 year old daughter through all that and now she wants to go do what. So they've always been there to support me, but also be honest with me, like say, hey, we don't, we want you to be careful. We're scared for you. However, we're here to encourage you.

Yeah, I can, I mean, I, I so relate to that because I feel like my husband feels kind of the same way with me with all I've been through. And then I want to go do what? Like, like I'm going to Costa Rica to do this new medical treatment for CRPs. Well, not specifically. Well, they're going to try to treat it anyway. And my husband's like, that is crazy. I can't believe you shouldn't be going. You know, like he's. But it's fear that I'm gonna be hurt or it's gonna flare me up or I don't know. But so I appreciate you sharing that because it kind of gives me some perspective of how my husband must feel. So. Your parents are amazing.

They're unbelievable. You know, and another thing that, I appreciate that, another thing that, that got me thinking when you mentioned that about your husband. Whenever something comes up and you, you have an idea of, hey, let's try this, most people instantly think something bad's going to happen. You know, the, the negative voices are chirping back here. So what I do is I write down or I think at least, what's the worst case scenario in this situation? What's the best case scenario in this situation? It's probably going to be somewhere in the middle. And that's what it usually is for anything in life. But so many people allow that monkey mind to go crazy and start thinking of, oh my God, this is going to happen, this is going to be a disaster. No. How many times have you sat there and worried about something and it didn't even happen?

Oh, for sure, 100%. Like I was just telling my daughter in the car yesterday, so I'm playing in this celebrity softball tournament on the weekend and I played last year and I was so worried about this tournament last year because I was like, there's going to be Professional players. And, you know, and. And my husband was like, why did you say yes to this? You're going to get hit in the face with a ball. You don't even know how to play softball. And I was like, I know, but it supports veterans, and I'm going to do it. And guess what? The first thing that happened when my daughter threw, we went out and bought a ball and bat. The first thing that happened when she threw it to me, the sun was kind of going down, so it was dusk, Hard to see. Hits me in the face, bloody nose. And my husband just shakes his head and he's like, see, I. I can't even watch this. But anyway, I went and I played and it was fun. And it's crazy because this year that I'm playing, I haven't gone out and practiced at all. But I'm still like, it's so much in our head. That monkey mind that you said, that just goes on. So I want to ask you, do you ever get scared of anything? Does anything scare you?

You know, absolutely. And if I also told you I was positive all the time, I'd be lying. You know, no one ever is. Unless you're on some sort of drug that keeps you up all the time. It just. It just doesn't happen. People have ups and downs, and that's okay. You know, just. Just know that the bad feeling is a temporary feeling, not a permanent state. You know, it doesn't define who you are. Just because you're having a bad day doesn't mean you're a bad person. There's nothing wrong with that. Just take some time off. Cancel your meetings if you have to. If you're not going to be in our A game, go back to it next day. It's temporary. Am I afraid of things? Well, yeah. I mean, I don't want to die. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm. Maybe I'm afraid of the process of dying. I'm not. I'm not really afraid of failure. I would say the biggest fear I have two biggest fears is not being able to take care of my family, which is just my wife and I. We unfortunately can't have kids. But when I'm climbing the mountain. She's supported a hundred orphans for the past six years with food every year.

Wow.

And I would say the biggest fear I. I have would be, I don't want to say, not being enough, but not constantly improving, because I don't think that'll ever be enough. So for me, that's the gremlin and you were talking about, you know, people having assumptions or limiting beliefs. I think there, there are four big things that hold people back, and I call them the gales, the gremlins, the assumptions, the interpretations, and the limiting beliefs. And the gremlin is the one that's sitting there chirping in your, in your ear. It's like not strong, you're not smart enough, you know, for you. It's. It was with the softball game. You know, you're, you're not an expert, you know, you're not a professional athlete. But you have to realize that at some point in the past, the grandma was there to probably protect you, you know, because it's like your, your mom's voice or your dad's voice or loved one's voice there. But then now you have to realize you both. This sounds crazy. I know someone's going to come around and strap me with a jacket, put my arms behind me, stick me in a padded round room. But the voice is in your head, you know, now you realize you're there to get the most out of life and help you succeed. As long as you're focusing on that as opposed to not, not focusing on the avoidance of something you don't want. Go after what you and focus on what you do want.

That's so good. Talk about the other three things.

Well, the, the assumptions, interpretations, and limiting beliefs are very similar. They come from your past, which defines who you are in the future, but it doesn't define your present. You know, you, you can break all those. You are who you are right now because of the seemingly mundane decisions you've made every single day of your life. You know, the assumptions. Well, it takes money to make money. Why are you assuming that? Because you heard it from your dad or your mom, someone else. But if you can pay attention to those and break the chain. You know, human beings are creatures of habit, right? You wake up, do you have a routine. You go to bed, you have a routine. If you want something different from your life, literally just do something different. You know, just one thing. If, if you're waking up and you're turning on your phone in the, in the first 30 minutes of, of rising, change it around, put your phone down, do something positive. Program your brain or your brain will be programmed by outside forces. And that's where those interpretations, the assumptions, the limiting beliefs come in. You know, limiting belief would be someone saying, ah, you know, you don't have the qualifications to climb Everest or you don't have the qualifications to, to do this but says who?

Yeah, especially you. I. I mean, with one lung, do you have pain ever from the scar? Like, I know you have a big. A scar on your back, which looks really cool, by the way. It does. I think it's really cool. But do you ever have pain from. From where the scar tissue is or anything like that? It's.

It's weird because from my sternum, get really good graphic from my. My right nipple all over to my sternum. And if you go up and down about 3 inches, both sides, and then take a stripe that goes all the way back to my right side to my spine, that's numb. Like, really, because they got rid of they stiff nerves and everything else. And inside my body, I still have three staples holding things together, which at this point, they're probably just hanging out, you know, rusting, who know, but rusted. What's weird is that it doesn't hurt. It gets itchy. Really? Yeah.

Huh. Well. Well, I have to say, I think it's pretty cool you have staples in there. I've got this one screw that's on the. It's so. It kind of grosses me out because I can feel it sticking out a little bit through the skin. The skin is really thin. It's where a skin graph is. And I can. I mean, my whole leg is metal and screws all the way down into my toes. But that one, there's one screw that I'm like, oh, I don't know about that, but I'm glad you don't have pain. And I'm glad, like, you know, you. One of your doctors had said, well, you want to do the North Pole, that you do your checkup, your vitals are great. And she tells you, like, well, the only kind of setback, or your biggest limited limiting thing, I guess, would be that you have one lung. Does that. As I was hearing that, I thought, does that get in your head that this doctor is telling you that might hold you back? Or how do you get past that when you have a doctor? Because, I mean, I had a doctor tell me that I would be wheelchair bound forever, and I was just like, screw that. I'm not going to be in a wheelchair. Nothing against wheelchairs, but that's just not the life I see for myself. Does that get in your head a little bit when a doctor tells you something like that?

You know, it. It used to. And when people told me it was physiologically impossible to climb Everest with one lung? Again, it goes back to, how do you know? No one's ever tried it before. It's. It's very similar to the Miracle Mile. I forget. I forget the guy's name off the top of my head. Where they thought it was impossible to run them a mile in under four minutes. They thought there was going to be internal bleeding before running that fast for that long. And when somebody did it, I can't remember his name.

I know I. My daughter would know his name.

She.

She was in track and I mean, I was too, but. Yeah, I know who you're talking about.

Well, the instant he did it, other people did it.

And now, wow, this is.

What is his name? That's gonna drive me crazy until I figure it out.

I see you look at searching for it right now. Well, look, let's talk about what we.

Roger. Roger Bannister. That's it. And it hit me before I saw it. Roger Bannister is his name. So they thought it was physiologically impossible until Roger Bannister did it. And then all of a sudden, people like, a week later, somebody else did it. After that, somebody else did it. So the only true limiting factor that we have, the weakest link in our bodies, is our mind.

And.

And so many people don't realize that, but when people tell you that's not possible, Amberly, you're going to be in a wheelchair the rest of your life. If you sit there and believe everything you're heard and told, then absolutely you're going to be in a wheelchair because that's what you believe is going to happen. If you can't climb. If you don't think it's possible to climb Everest with one lung, of course I'm not going to make it. Those limiting beliefs that are given to you from other people will sit there and fester and you'll start believing it. Again. With social media, if people go on there and they see all the stuff that's not even true, you know, then you're gonna believe it.

It's so. It is so true with social media especially. I mean, some of the things my daughter sees on Tick Tock. Well, for somebody listening who might be going, well, gosh, I have these limiting beliefs. I don't believe in myself.

I.

And I've. I try, but I fail. And how. What would you suggest to them to start believing in themselves a little bit more? What can they do right now, today?

I would ask what they failed at? Because people say it's, you know, no failure until you quit. What did you fail at? So whatever it might be, why did you fail? Was it because you were going after, let's say, Kilimanjaro, the sum of Kilimanjaro, you didn't make it. And yes, altitude factors in there, and you can't control that, your body doesn't react as well. But the biggest reason people fail, I think, is because they're going after a goal for the wrong reasons. So let's say hypothetically, I want to double my salary and now make say, from 75 grand to 150. And I'm going to do that because when I get 150, I'm going to be happy. So I have this, this belief where more money equals more happiness, where, as we all know, mo money equals. Equals mo problems. But, you know, if you're going after a goal, realize you have to have a deeper purpose for it. So if you're feeding into and supporting your personal core values, which come back to you to help give you more energy and more support, going after that goal. Because now the underlying reason for me reaching the summit wasn't to be the first cancer survivor to reach the summit of Everest. It was to take a flag that had names of people touched by cancer and all of us collectively go to the top of the world. So I wanted to focus on my personal core values. And if people think that they want the new car because it's going to bring them happiness, so the new house, the car is going to eventually rust and get old, just everything else. But if for you, that core, that. That car inside one of your personal core values could potentially mean financial security, go after it not because you want the new car, but go after it because you're supporting that personal core value of security. If you want to double your salary and you think it's going to bring you happiness, what brings you happiness? For me, my family. So I'm not doubling my salary just to have more money. I'm doing it to support and make my family happy.

Yeah.

Now you have an underlying, deeper resonance for who you are at the center, at the core of who you are. You're going after those goals and dreams because of something much deeper and more personal to you, which will then in turn give you this untapped source of energies to continue forward no matter what gets in your way.

Oh, I love that. And what are your core values there?

I have them written down right here in front of me. It's always. And they change. You know, obviously it's family, health, stuff like that. But clarity, love, appreciation, freedom, and security.

I love that. And what continues to drive you and keep you going after bigger Things and what's next? And you know, what. What. What's the driving force? As my friend Ben Newman always says, what's your burn? That's what he calls it. The burn.

I would say the burn is knowing. The burn is not knowing when my life is going to be over. And I wake up every day as though it's my laughs. Because one day it will be. So when my eyes open up in the morning, I don't sit there and think, oh, my God, I have to do this, this, this, this. Oh, man, today's gonna be such a busy day. The instant my eyes open, I tell myself the past is gone. There's nothing I can do about it. Tomorrow may never come. So no matter what happens today, today is the best day ever, you know? And it's my choices that are going to make it that way, not somebody else's. It's how I react to other people. It's my day. I'm going to own it, and I'm going to make it the best day I can possibly make it.

Oh, yeah. And something that helps me is if, I mean, I'm not gonna lie. There are some days I'm just like, oh, I just. I want to stay in bed. I want to pull the covers over my bed. But I, I switch my thinking from I have to do something to I get to do something, you know? Yeah. And so you have, I mean, climbed to the top of the world. And now next July, you're going to be taking a trip. Where?

Kilimanjaro. We do it every year as a fundraiser for a cancer charity. Been up there 24 times. The average success rate of the mountain is 48%. My groups are at 99 success rate.

And I think that's so much because of your mindset and what you teach them about their mindset. And, and, and look, before we even started recording, I was like, do you remember when we were talking, Sean, back in Dallas, and I told you, I, I, you know, I was like, do you think I could climb that mountain? Do you think my leg would stay on? Maybe I could take my crutches? Even before this call, I was like, I wrote it down. Because I'm like, I would love to climb with you. First of all, how does somebody get to do that with you? What does it take besides training? Like, how to sign up? How do they sign up?

Well, a couple of different ways. One, you can send me an email. Sean cancer climber.org.com Sean climber.org or go to ultimatelifeclimb.com. it has all the, all the informations there. Ultimate lifeclimb.com because we use it as an inspedition, not an expedition. It's an inward journey through an outward adventure. And also going back to the question you asked me is like, do you think you can do it? It's like, well, do you?

Well, if you can do it with one lung, I can do it with one leg that has crps in it. You know, I don't even want to claim that. I'm going to just say right now that the. See, I'll be so excited and so filled with adrenaline that I will not feel any pain whatsoever.

There you go. The pain, the pain will be from breathing in the thin air. Your lungs will hurt more than your legs, so you'll be fine.

Yeah. So it's seven days up, is that right? Is it seven days up?

Yeah. We leave the night of the sixth day, we wake up at 11, leave at midnight, and we summit anywhere on the morning of the 6th between 6:30am and 10:30am and then we come off the mountain on the day of the 7th, and then the 8th day we actually fly into the Serengeti for a four day safari.

How cool would that be? And how he. How heavy are the backpacks?

Oh, you just have to carry your own stuff, like water your own stuff per day. So water, snacks, camera, sunscreen, and that's it. We, we have two porters per person. When you get to camp, the camp's set up. Your tents are set up. You have a dining tent. I have utilized the same guides, the same porters, the same cooks, the same servers for the past 23 trips up the mountain. And they have adopted me into the local tribe, right, Their local tribe. So they treat me like a brother. And now people who go with me are treated like brothers and sisters are treated like family. We have someone who in the morning, while you're in your tent nice and cozy, will wake you up in the tent, knocking on the tent with a tray, asking you if you want coffee or tea in the morning.

Oh, wow. See, this isn't what I was picturing. I was really picturing something a little different.

Everest is much different. The other mountains are much different. This, this is a hike. It's an altitude hike. There's nothing technical about it. There's only one section that I can think of off the top of my head where it's called the Kissing Rock, you know, where you kind of scoot yourself by like. And you, you don't want to look back but that's, it's over in three seconds.

Wow. So I had a friend that tried to climb and they got really sick from the altitude. Have you had people that get sick from the climbing up and the altitude gets to them?

Not that often because other groups are go, they're, they're, let's say they're going from Camp 1 to Camp 2 and they zip through that day, you know, because they want to get to camp and rest. Big, take your time. We're probably one of the slowest groups on the mountain, which reflects why we have one of the highest success rates. Because you're, you're there for how many, how many days? Seven days total. Are you ever going to do it again? Chances are probably no. Why would you do it as quickly as possible? Why wouldn't you just slow down and enjoy it? Get your body adjusted to the altitude and it take your time. You know, so many people are looking up at the summit and then down at their feet saying a couple choice four letter words, words, you know, and doing that over and over and over again while we're singing and dancing and having a great time telling jokes. The summit literally becomes a byproduct of having fun.

Oh, I want to have some fun.

How many people do you take anywhere between. During, during COVID I took two groups. It was three. Went on a safari and then took three more up the mountain. So did two back to back trips. So anywhere between a total of 6 and 31, which I'll never take 31 again. It was a mess.

Really. That's a lot.

We'll cap it at 16.

Yeah, that is a lot. And then what's the investment? I like to keep it real. I'm like, how much is this going to cost me?

You get there, you get there. I'll take care of the rest. I will take care of the hotel, I'll take care of the food, I'll take care of tips. I might even buy you a couple glasses of wine, you know, otherwise that'd be on you. But that would also includes all the group gear. That includes the food on the mountain. That includes the flight to the Serengeti. That includes a five star full on four day safari. Everything is included for about 9,000 bucks.

Wow, that is great.

But when you have the local connections and they treat you like a brother, they, they help you out.

Oh wow.

In turn, I help out other people. So you get there, everything's covered. About 9,000 bucks.

Oh my goodness, that is so good. And I, is there a sign up for it already that I'm going to put those links in the show notes, but now I'm just like, I better go sign up today, because everybody's going to be wanting to sign up, and then there'll be 16 people already. Like, I want to do this now. So if I go to that website, which was. Tell us again.

Ultimate lifeclimb.com.

okay, so you can sign up today.

Absolutely. We have a few people who have signed up already, and one of them is one of the co founders of Chat, GPT and AI.

So. No way. I use that all the time. Are you kidding me?

No, I. I kid you not. I met him in. In Chicago during a keynote speech and we hit it off. He's like, I'm so interested in this. I'm like, let's do it. Great guy.

Oh, my gosh.

He's like, absolutely. Let me do it. So now he's looking for different adventures, you know, not that he's going to create any AI on the mountain, but he's pretty cool. So you might be able to meet with and chat with someone. Pretty. It'll be. It'll be an exclusive trip this year, I think.

Yeah, it sounds amazing. I. I was gone for a speaking gig for a little over a week one time, and my husband was like, you can never be gone that long again. The dog goes on like a starvation strike. Like, will not like a food. Like, won't eat. And he would call me and say, you've got to get home. I think the dog is gonna die. Like, she will not eat. Every time you leave, she won't eat. I don't know what that is. So I'm just gonna tell you right now, Sean. I'm going. I'm gonna. I'm telling you, I'm going. I want to be able to cut. So, yeah, I'm. I'm saying it on the podcast right now. Everybody's going to see me climb up this mountain. I'm. I. I like to say that. To put it out there and go, okay, done.

But. But I also know this is being recorded, it's not live, and you can edit this section out.

Oh, oh, that's true. Maybe I could. No, no, man. When I. I'm really. I'm gonna start.

Oh, wait.

One more question before we go. Coach. I feel like I got a coaching session through this podcast. How do I start? Do you give out? Like. Like, when someone signs up, do you tell them how to start training for it? Like, do I need to be going to.

I.

The one thing that I really don't like about Dallas. I mean, I like it here, but it's flat. I used hiking was my favorite thing to do. There's just no, it's flat. There is no hiking out here. But I have a step mill at the gym and so I do that. So do I need to go to Colorado and start hinges or, or can I do the step mill? How do I start training? Do I have to wear a mask while I'm on the step mill?

No, you do not have to be that, that intense about it. We've taken people who were from Miami up there, right? And I think half of Miami's underwater anyhow, like below sea level. So you're, you're fine. Just get on the stairmill. And if people live in an apartment. I took a guy, he lived on the 20 something floor of his apartment building. He's like, like, well, how many times do you take the elevator up and down? He's like four or five times a day. I was like, well, take the stairs. You know, just focus on those little things. But once you sign up, once you actually get access into the big, the ultimate lifeclimb.com not the ultimate lifetime, just ultimate lifeclimb.com. there you'll, you'll have access to so many inside tips and tricks and, and everything because it, it is literally the world's first and only personal growth expedition on the mountain. You know, we, we turned into a coaching thing and coaching's included. And you get access to so many videos that we have put together. The route, the map, the gear list, the training. I mean, everything's there. There's so much information.

You are so generous. I mean, that's so generous of you. Thank you so much. Well, any last words you'd like to share, any tips or advice that you want to share before we say goodbye to the listeners?

You know what? Maybe I just thought of this. It goes back to a comment you had about waking up in the morning and thinking of all the things that you have to do. This, this, this, right? And a lot of people think, oh, I should do this, I should do that. I should do this, I should do. First thing you need to do is stop shooting on yourself.

That's good.

I should do it. I should stop shooting on yourself and start wanting things that go back to your personal core values. And we can, we can talk about. There's something called the Big Hill Challenge. If you want to go to the bighillchallenge.com it's a three week mental wellness challenge. I put together for people and. And it helps them utilize their personal core value. So basically, what if. And I'm just going to create this. What if you could discover your innermost core motivators so that you could accomplish your outermost desires and goals? That's awesome.

I think that'd be life changing. I think the world needs this more than ever because there's so much negativity out there. And I am going to make sure. Well, I'm not going to say this on air, but I've got some family members that need to listen to this episode and they need to sign up for what you're doing. So thank you so much, Sean. This has just been such a joy and so much fun getting to talk to you. I could talk to you all day. Seriously. I had a whole list of questions I had written out and I didn't even get to some of them just because I just. I love talking to you. You're amazing. And I will see you, if not before July. I'll see you in July, Abs.

Absolutely.

Okay, well, thank you. And y', all. Thank you so much for tuning in to the show. Do. Do me a favor so you don't miss the next episode. Make sure you're subscribed. And I'd be awesome if you left a review and shared on your social media all the things. If you tag me and Sean, I. When I see that, I always like to share that again in my story. So, anyway, thank you for tuning in. And Sean, thank you again for being here and sharing your wisdom and your inspiration and your.

My pleasure. Thank you for doing everything that you're doing for so many people.

Thank you.