Sean Stephenson, world-renowned motivational speaker, joins Host Neva Lee Recla to tackle the question: What is Self Love? This is a powerful exchange between two individuals dedicated to modeling courage and individuality for the world.

When Sean was born, doctors predicted he would not survive more than 24 hours because of a rare bone disorder. Despite the challenges he faced, he’s taken a stand for a quality of life that has reached millions of people around the world including Sir Richard Branson, President Clinton, and his Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. As a board certified therapist, Sean uses humor and compassion to develop a fun environment where individuals open their hearts and minds for lasting empowerment to occur. Watch or listen as he and Neva discuss the importance of self love.

What are your superpowers?

My superpower is imagination. My superpowers are … I probably have three main ones, imagination, persistence, and compassion.

My superpower is imagination.

I like that. I really like that. Today, we’re talking about what is self-love. I thought since we are both superheroes that we could do a superhero pose.

I like it.

All right, so when did you start your business?

I started my business when I was in high school. I was a sophomore in high school and I just wanted some side money to buy video games and candy and I went and tried applying to a lot of different companies and all of them turned me down, so I got really frustrated. Then, I thought, “Well, maybe I need to start my own company.” I got asked to speak to another school about what it’s like to have a disability and they paid me $75 and back then, that was going to buy me a lot of video games and candy, so I was very happy. Here we are later, 23 years later, and I’m still speaking and buying video games and candy.

I like it. I love it when adults are kids.

Yes. Yeah, I even decided not to grow up physically just so I could stay a kid just like you.

All right, so I thought since I’ve done a card reading for Joe Polish and JP Sears, that I could do one for you.

Let’s definitely do that. I could use that.

I have my Oracle deck, shuffle them. Should I choose the top too?

Whatever you would normally do. Don’t do it any different than Joe Polish. I want to see if I did a better job, if I get a better future.

All right. The first one is Kitsune. It says, “I will show you whom to trust.”

Okay.

Then, the second one is Strange Companions in Stranger Places. Challenges, use your imagination.

Well, I am an imagination superhero, so …

I think these are telling you to just stay being who you are and use your imagination to guide you.

Yeah, I like it. I’ll do it.

I really like these cards. All right. How did you become a motivational speaker?

Well, I got asked, like I said, to speak to another school about what it’s like to have a disability and then from there, I did such a good job and I had so much fun that I then got asked to speak to another school and then to a hospital and then to a company and then to a prison. It just kept going and going and going. The phone just kept ringing, people saying, “Hey, would you motivate our group?” It started off just speaking about what’s like to have a disability but then, I started to teach about confidence, success, leadership, eventually sales and marketing and growing your business.

Awesome. That’s really cool. Actually, I have been wanting to become a motivational speaker.

I think you’d be an amazing one.

Thank you. I’m actually speaking in front of … When, mom? When is it? Yeah, sometime in November, I’m speaking in front of 2,500 people.

What? Well, I hope you got a good agent so that you get a good fee.

My mom is my agent.

All right. Mom better be getting a good fee for you.

All right. I thought we could talk also a little bit about your book because I’m writing a book and I want it to be a bestseller. It’s going to be called When Pigs Fly. Thank you. It’s going to be inspiring parents and adults to, like how they can inspire kids to do business.

I like it.

Thank you.

I like it, so you want some pointers on putting together a book or what?

Yeah, that would be awesome.

Make sure that you’re writing the book for the reader’s imagination.

Yeah. Well, a couple things. You want to make sure that you’re writing the book for the reader’s imagination and not for your own interests, so you have to make sure you got to think about like what do they care about, what’s important to them, why would they read this, what do they need to know that would help their lives, and constantly be thinking about that one person on the other end of that book, holding that book because you don’t know what they’re going through. They may be in a sad period of their life. They may be doing really well and really excited. They have a lot of different things going on in their life when they get your book and you have to keep that in mind when you’re writing it because not everybody’s going to think like you or see the world like you.

Exactly. I need to think about what can help them too and so they know how to inspire kids to do business.

Think, also when you’re writing it, you got to think about what is their pain. What pain are they going through with their kids? Are their kids being bullied? Is the book for the parents on how to inspire the kid? Is the book for how to inspire a community? You got to think about what is the big picture and you want your book to have an impact on.

Yeah, exactly. I agree. Thank you. What does self-love mean to you?

Well, self-love means that no matter what other people think of you, you still take care of yourself. I say it very carefully that to have self-love, you have to take good care of yourself because imagine this. If you got a tummy ache and you went to the hospital and the nurse didn’t take good care of you, sometimes, a nurse showed up, sometimes, they were kind of mean, sometimes they were rude, you wouldn’t really feel very loved by that nurse. That’s because that nurse wasn’t taking good care of you. The same thing exists, you have that same person, that same nurse lives in you. You have to be good to yourself, take good care of yourself to feel that self-love. It’s not just something you can sit on it under a tree and hope for self-love. It’s an activity of taking good care of yourself, being kind to yourself, and saying positive, uplifting things.

Exactly. Thank you.

Yeah.

Why is self-love really important?

Well, it’s important because sometimes, you go through challenges in life. Sometimes, when you’re growing a business like you’re learning, when you’re growing a business, sometimes it’s tough. Sometimes, you don’t have the money to pay the rent and keep the lights on. If you don’t have self-love, then you can kind of beat yourself up and be like, “What did I do? Why did I screw up? Why am I such a failure?” and that’s really hard to grow a business with that thinking. Self-love gives you the strength to go on when times are tough.

Exactly. It’s basically, how I view it is like I want someone I care about like my dog, for instance, I don’t want to let someone ever hurt her, so I can think of myself as my dog and treat myself how I treat her so then, I protect myself.

Yeah. The question is, did you dye your dog’s hair blue?

No.

Okay, next question.

What advice do you have for kids about self-love?

I would tell them that you need to treat yourself like a best friend, like you said, your dog, somebody that you really, really care about because you’re going to face bullies, people that aren’t going to say nice things to you like you had with people saying you shouldn’t be a kid starting a business and when you face those meanie-pants, you have to be good to yourself to be able to push through those challenging times. It’s also important with self-love that you know that sometimes, you may even doubt yourself. You might even sometimes emotionally slip up and be mean to yourself but you got to forgive yourself and get back up because nobody is perfect, my dear. No one is always happy. No one is always confident. Sometimes, we go through dark moments where we are maybe not as nice to ourselves as we should be but when we recognize that, we have to forgive ourselves and start back over and get back up.

I agree. Thank you. If you could change anything about the world, what would it be? All these questions really fit into what we’re talking about today.

A lot of the problems on this planet would go away if people love themselves.

Yeah. If I could change anything about the world, I would have the entire human race not being insecure, not question their own worth and value because I feel if the whole human race love themselves, then we wouldn’t have war. We wouldn’t have a lot of challenges between countries and people a lot of the problems on this planet would go away if people love themselves.

Exactly. I agree. Where can people go to find out more about you?

Well, they could go look me up on Facebook. They could go to my website, seanstephenson.com. They could come to one of my live events that I do in Arizona or they could have a dance party with me on Facebook live.

I like that.

Good.

We’re going to take a quick break and we’ve been talking with Sean Stephenson about what is self-love. We’ll be right back.

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