The Ryan Hanley Show - The Man Who Died Twice, Then Climbed Everest | Sean Swarner

Episode Date: February 27, 2026

Spartan philosophy, built in the black-ops lab of business: https://www.findingpeak.comFinding Peak podcast: https://linktr.ee/ryan_hanleySean Swarner is the only person in history to be diagnosed with two different terminal cancers, lose a lung, and go on to climb Mount Everest and complete the Explorer's Grand Slam.His story is not just inspiration—it's a tactical guide to dismantling your own perceived limits.At 13, doctors gave him 3 months to live. At 16, they gave him 14 days. He was read his last rites. He survived. Then he started living.In this conversation, Sean deconstructs the mindset that allowed him to redefine what is humanly possible. You will learn the difference between success and fulfillment, how to build resilience that lasts, and why your greatest competitive advantage is everything you've already survived.This is not a story about surviving. It's a story about how to truly live.Connect with Sean Swarner:Website: https://seanswarner.com/Connect with Ryan Hanley:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanhanleyInstagram: https://instagram.com/ryan_hanleyThis show is part of the Unplugged Studios Network — the infrastructure layer for serious creators. 👉 Learn more at https://unpluggedstudios.fm.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

There were years of my life where I was terrified to close my eyes at night because I didn't know if I was going to wake up the next day. That was because of two terminal cancers. I was given three months to live the first one, 14 days to live the second one. I was read my last rites. The man of the cloth came in, you know, rosary in one hand, Bible and the other one, standing at the end of the bed, started reading me my last rites as a 16, 17-year-old. I developed a completely different perspective on success, on happiness, on fulfillment than anything. anyone else. That's changed my entire perspective on what I've been able to accomplish. I appreciate you taking the time to come on the show. You have an incredible story.

And I don't normally like to start with origin stories, but I think yours is so incredibly unique and powerful that it would be remiss if we didn't start there. So as much as you're willing or able, I'd love for you to kind of level set your methodology. and I want to get to some of the stuff that you're doing today, but I think if we don't understand your origin story, it'll make a lot more sense. And that does make total sense, because if you look at where most adults are right now,

they never had to go through what I went through and learn what I have learned about life. So let's go back to when you were in high school, right? The biggest concerns you had were probably, what, like, nice clothes, nice hairstyles being the popular crowds, not getting picked on, making it from class to class on time, whatever that might be. For me, 13 to 18 years old, there were years of my life where I was literally terrified to close my eyes at night because I didn't know if I was going to wake up the next day. and that was because of two terminal cancers. I was given three months to live the first one, 14 days to live the second one.

I was read my last rites. I mean, a man of the cloth came in, you know, rosary in one hand, Bible and the other one, standing at the end of the bed, started reading me my last rites as a 16, 17-year-old. So I developed a completely different perspective on success, on happiness, on fulfillment,

than anyone else that I think I know. And I think that's changed my entire perspective on what I've been able to accomplish. So 13 years old, advanced stage 4, Hodgkin's lymphoma. The doctors gave me three months to live. 60, 70 pounds, heavy. I remember looking at myself in the bathroom mirror, not even being able to recognize who was looking back at me.

I was losing my hair because of the chemo. And I remember going into the bathroom, like just like it was yesterday, man. It was intense. I remember being on my hands and knees on the shower floor. My hair was falling out in chunks. Clogging the drain, the water was rising up. And I was on my hands and knees just sobbing. And I was trying to figure out how I was going to move forward in life.

You know, when you're 13 years old, you should be worried about your future and not your funeral. You know, you're supposed to be worried about going out on dates and your hormones kicking in. and growing hair in unusual places on your body. But I was losing it, and I remember projecting three months into the future, and I still have this image burned in my mind, and it always gives me motivation when I think about it. It makes me emotional, too. I projected three months into the future,

and I saw my mom, my dad, and my younger brother at the dining table for dinner. And I remember my mom, my mom, was setting the table, getting ready for dinner, and there was one empty seat. And I didn't want to be the empty seat at my family's dining room table. So then I came back and I realized that when I was fighting for those cancers, not only was I fighting for my life, but I had a deeper purpose. And that purpose was one of my personal core values that still stayed with me, which is family. So I was moving forward and I wanted to live for myself and my family's lives, but I also decided that I didn't want to focus on not dying, I wanted to focus on living. So as a 13-year-old, I decided that I didn't want

to focus on the avoidance of something that I didn't want in my life. I wanted to be attracted to and focus all my energy and attention on something I did. And I learned that at a really young age. So fast forward, I went through the chemotherapy a year and a half later. I was in remission, going in for a checkout for the first cancer, they diagnosed with a second type of cancer that's super, super rare, called Asken's sarcoma. And because no one's ever had these two cancers before. My chances of survival, literally, were 0.000000-000-0-0-0-0-0-0-1% chance. Basically, you're telling me there's a 0% chance I'm going to be living in 14 days because that's the amount of time that gave me to live. And I went through three months of intense

chemo, a month of radiation therapy, 10 more months of chemotherapy, and every time I was in the hospital, like the three months, and then the 10 months, the one month of radiation therapy, I remember. But the three months and ten months outside the radiation therapy, I don't remember because the treatments were so harsh. The doctors put me in a medically induced coma. So I don't remember being 16 or 17 years old. And also because of the radiation therapy, I lost the function of my right lung. But again, and survival was the first time I was going to the treatment, they never used the word cancer. They told me. They told me. me that I was sick and that they were going to do everything it possibly could to get me better.

So in my mind, I wasn't fighting for my life. In my mind, I just had a cold or a flu or something like that. Yes, eventually I found out it was cancer. But because I wasn't in this state of being terrified of what was happening to me, I took it as it came by, you know, one day at a time, and I was just sick. I wasn't fighting for my life. So I think that helped because I took that into the second cancer. And that's when I said that the doctor gave me,

who's redeeming my last rights, and I remember the hospital wanted me to write out a living will, and I'm joking with my parents. I'm like, well, you know, I have a younger brother. Isn't my brother going to get my hand-me-downs anyhow? Like, what could the hospital possibly want? So then fast forward into about 10 years later, that's what you probably want to talk about,

is the whole concept and idea of pushing limits and achieving what no one in history has ever done before. And I became the first cancer survivor to summit Mount Everest. And I did so with one lung. People thought it was impossible. Why would you do that? That's a great question. And to answer it as succinctly as as possible, when I was going through the treatments, I didn't think I had much hope.

And a lot of people need to see that hope. They need to be impacted and believe something is possible before they can do it themselves. So I was studying to get my master's in my doctorate in counseling psychology. I wanted to be a psychologist for cancer patients because, as we all know, it's not an individual disease. We all go through it together. And I am a firm believer in the mind by,

body connection. And I wanted to use my mind to trick my body and everybody else in the world because they thought it was impossible. But I wanted to use Mount Everest as the highest platform in the world to scream hope to give back to the cancer community. And it's turned into this, this whole global campaign now of just proving you can do amazing things with the right tools and the right teams in the right places. I weren't you angry, bitter, spiteful, resentful against the world, God, the universe. Like, how do you turn your experience and come out of it with a positive filter? You know, I remember I had a conversation with the guy years ago.

because you mentioned God. He heard everything I've been through. And he's like, do you believe in God? And I was like, yeah. He's like, with everything you've been through, how can you believe in God? And I looked at him and said, with everything I've been through,

how could I not? And I wouldn't be alive if I call him the big guy. I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for the big guy upstairs. So I think with the right attitude knowing what was happening to me, I had no control over that. you know oftentimes when people have something horrific happened to them or they're in a situation that they have no control over you always have control over how you react in every situation you

always have choice you know and that's one of the greatest freedoms that i think we all have you can choose how you want to react in any situation looking at what i went through i know there are so many people who have gone through cancer and unfortunately they come out on the other side with this victim mentality and they they just want to bury it get rid of it move on with their lives and a lot of people are angry about what happened to them why would i want to live a life of anger why wouldn't i want to not just bounce back from something but bounce forward and use that as my strength you know people want to get back to their their new normal there is no new normal it's a completely new life but it can be an amazing life and i think

think looking back at what I went through and having the attitude of knowing that I can choose to be happy. I can choose to be blessed. I can feel those every morning I wake up. In fact, every morning I do wake up, I open my eyes and I tell myself, the past is gone, there's nothing I can do about it. Tomorrow may never come. No matter what happens today, today's the best day ever. And whose choice is it to make it that way? So why wouldn't you choose to be happy and grateful every morning and every day you're alive. Let me, I'm going to reframe my question in, how did you specifically come out of that experience with a positive frame?

Did you ever rage against the world? Was it just a process that you had to deal with? Did your parents, you know, have a philosophy or mindset or support that kept you positive? Because as you said, so many people who go through an experience like this, which they don't deserve, didn't do anything to, to, you know, there's nothing you did at 13 that would warrant. There's a horrific experience on your life. And it's very plausible, very socially acceptable today.

And I don't even mean that in a negative sense. That if you came out angry and hateful or you came out, you know, pure victimhood, why me, what was me? There would be communities that would support those mindsets and mentalities and would be like, We understand, you know, this is who you are. And you came out with a different mindset. You decided to share a message with the world that changes people's lives. You decided to take on challenges that even some of the most peak fit individuals would never even consider.

And I'm just very interested in how you navigated that. And I'm not expecting you to, every day is sunshine and rainbows. But, you know, that's a fairly unique way of viewing the world, what you had to go through. True, true. And I know that you're right. I don't pretend to live in a world where unicorns exist and people fart cotton candy. It doesn't happen.

Every day is not a wonderful day. But with the right attitude, you know, how's your day going? Oh, it's a horrible day. Well, I never have a horrible day. I always have, always. when I do have a day like that, I consider it a less than ideal day. You know, still looking at it from a positive perspective. You know, we're on earth for a blink of an eye.

And I realize this at 13 years old, I'm going to go after and chase after every opportunity that's presented to me. Because I never want to have any regrets. And I think a lot of people hold on. on to that. They get, they get angry. And of course, I was angry too. I mean, the first cancer, I was like, what the hell? But then the second cancer, I thought, I went through the first one. Like, why am I getting sick again? I was like, you know, why me, man? What's going on? What did I do? Asking those questions will never change the fact that I had cancer. It'll never make it go away. You know, I couldn't change that fact. But I always, you know, I always, you know, I always,

had, like I said, I always had control over how I reacted to it. And granted, yes, when I went to college, I buried it. I brushed it under the rug and I didn't know how to deal with it, to be honest with you. You know, let's say freshman, sophomore, you're in college, 18, 19 years old, I'm out on a date and I'm talking to someone and I'm asking her, hey, you know, how's your meal, how's your steak, how's your salad, you know, how's your drink? Oh, I had cancer. You know, It's not casual dinner conversation. But eventually I realized that it was a part of me. How am I going to deal with this?

So it wasn't an overnight process. The biggest thing that I had to deal with, and a lot of people have this too, you know, you go through something traumatic. It could be cancer. It could be anything stressful like a marriage. You know, your body doesn't know the difference between good stress and bad stress. It could be a divorce. It could be a car accident.

For me, going through, and a lot of people who are survivors, there's this thing called skanxiety. You know, they go in for their scans. I have to go in once a year for my checkup. No one's ever had these two cancers, so no one knows what's going to happen to me. Every year I have to go and get blood work, every five years, you know, a CAT scan, and so forth.

It used to terrify me going in for that blood work. And I would tell my family, my friends, hey, I'm going in. you won't hear from me for the next five days until I get my results, because I am petrified. Until I realized I was allowing a six-letter word to control my emotions and feelings. I was allowing something outside of me to trigger something on the inside. Nothing outside there triggers any feelings inside you. It's how you react to it. So when I realized I wanted to take my emotions and control of my emotions back, I actually went into the bathroom and I stared at myself in the mirror and I said the word cancer out loud probably 50 times.

And every time that word passed my lips, it took less and less control over me. I just kept getting it out. And eventually, probably around 30 or 40, I kept saying cancer, cancer, whatever. Now, no problem, man. but eventually I started laughing at myself and I thought what what am I so afraid of? It's like you essentially did a self-conducted exposure therapy that's to the word.

You know, it was like exposure therapy to the word. It's incredibly interesting. I mean, I just find it fascinating that you could go through an experience like you did and like, you know, and obviously you explained. It wasn't like you were just, came out of the hospital day one and we're sunshine and rainbows. You don't mean that.

And I'm not even saying that that's what your life is today. Just you obviously have developed a mindset and a set of filters and beliefs and structures that allow you to view the world an incredibly positive and optimistic and bright and love-filled place. I mean, you can tell by your work and your message and what you do and how hard you put, how much effort you put behind it. I just think that at least at face value, that's fairly rare. especially considering how early you went through all that. And I think it's amazing.

And, you know, I wrote something down while you were talking. I said, did God put, I'm a believer of myself, did God put this cancer in Sean's life because of the message that you're sharing today? Maybe what the work that you're doing today was so critical and is so powerful and so important to so many people's lives. And he knew that you could handle it. And even though it was awful and you wouldn't wish it on your enemy probably, You were able, you were strong enough to get through it and come out with this viewpoint, right? And the message wouldn't exist if you didn't.

And I think it's a wonderful thing. Why climbing mountains? Like, what was it about, I mean, I love the visual and the challenge. I mean, I love what you'd explained about the experience. But like, have you always been an adventurer? Have you always been someone who likes the outdoors? Have you always like big challenges? Like, why did you choose this?

particular challenge as the one that you were going to take on for your life and ultimately as it has continued to define your message as you've gone. Right. When I was younger, I was a competitive swimmer. My parents stuck me in the YMCA at a five or six years old, right? So I had always been an athlete. I've done swimming, cross-country, track, football, pole vaulting even. you name it I've done it

and I've always been pushing the boundaries of not comparing myself to others but comparing myself to myself right so one of the things that my parents instilled to me was when I my favorite was the breaststroke and I remember when I was a little kid during the 25 meter breaststroke

touched the wall mom or dad will pull me out of the water and they would ask me did you have fun and did you do your best just those two questions not hey why didn't you beat Ryan You know, he came in first. You should have come in first. Now, did you do your best and did you have fun? I could always say I had fun.

I had a great time. And then the next weekend, say the swim meet, 25 meter breaststroke, what did you swim last week? A 30, let's just put in throw numbers out there. 30 seconds. What do you want to do this week? 29, 29.5? You know, to get a little bit better and a little bit better. Never comparing myself to others.

So eventually, the competitive, the competitive, the competitive, the competitive. editors were never a distraction. And eventually, because I was improving myself every, every week, I was the best. Right. So I took that attitude into everything that I've done. And how it came about was looking at literally, like I said, the highest platform on the world. And I wanted to use that to help other survivors believe in themselves and share this perspective with them. And something else that happens a lot still, which is insane. And I never believed it before. But chemo brain is a real thing.

And I completely forgot what the question was. The good news is you answered it perfectly. All right. So the question was really around why choosing like adventuring? You know, I'll put it as a broad stroke. Adventures as a way of, and adventures is probably diminutive to some of the things you've actually done. But, you know, it just, I'm interested in why we make the decisions that we make, right? Like you could have done ultramarathons.

You could have done swimming things. You could have done. And not that, you know, you haven't done different things, but like, you know, choosing to climb Mount Everest. I know that you do like expedition expeditions to like Kilmajaro and these in crazy places, right? Like I think it's just I'm just I'm always interested in why we make the decision, why we choose the things even that we do. You know, like you could have been, there's a million things you could have done to inspire others to be to be successful in their lives, to think positively to to follow. along and some of the mindsets that you've created. And you chose to climb mountains.

And I think that's phenomenal. And I'm just always very interested in why. It's, it's, there's an amazing parallel between going through cancer and climbing Everest, for example, any of the big mountains. A lot of people don't realize that when you're climbing Everest, you don't show up at base camp and then slowly work your way up the mountain. It takes four weeks. You establish different camps.

camps. Because if we went from where you are, where I am now, and could all of a sudden magically show up at the top of Mount Everest, we would be dead within five, ten minutes. Because of the lack of oxygen. Our minds would suffer cerebral edema. Our bodies would suffer pulmonary edema, and we would literally just fall apart, fall asleep, and die. So we would go up the mountain to say camp one, and then we come back down to base camp and we would rest. Day, two days, three days, whatever. And what that does is you go up with a full backpack, you shuttle stuff up there, come back down with an empty backpack, and you're shoveling things up the mountain. But for your body, it's actually manufacturing more red blood cells and hemoglobin to be more efficient in altitude.

Very similarly to going through the chemo treatments, I couldn't go in and a patient couldn't go in and get treatment after treatment after treatment because the medicine alone would destroy the body. so you have to have some time off. So there are a lot of similarities. And one of the things that is also very interesting is when you reach the summit, like when I reached the top of Everest, I looked around and it was amazing. I broke down in tears because I was so emotional.

But the instant, I realized I had made it up there and made history, I looked around and I thought to myself, I have to go back down. So it's very similar in the fact that when you go through chemo, when you're going on this cancer journey, when you get into remission, you still have a few more treatments left. You still have to get back down. So the reason I chose adventuring, the reason I chose Everest was because I think pushing your body and your mind to the extremes to the limits, I know what pain is like. I've been there. I know what it's like to have a bone marrow test where the needles are dragging. It's like a surgical needle going through just in my back, just above my butt.

And I can still feel the nerve endings being dragged by the needle, you know, and to aspirate part of the marrow. I know what pain feels like. And I want people to use what. they've been through to become stronger. Because we have all we have all survived 100%

of life's most difficult moments. And that's a pretty good record. And if people realize that we're 100% at bat on life's most difficult situations shouldn't we then think whatever we're going through now

is going to be very similar to what we've already done in the past with that record of 100% success? Most people run from pain as fast and as far as they possibly can. Like the default mechanism, and honestly, I don't mean this to get into any political weeds at all, but I feel like that's a big part of the debate that we're having as a society right now is there are people who build and grow and want, you know, to be prosperous and pain and hardship is just. part of the path and then we have another side of our society that is going this is really hard

i don't really like hard i would prefer easy safe fast convenient comfortable and those two ideologies are smashing into each other and in all these different ways and shapes that it manifests and it's it's a it seems to be a huge problem um how i if i'm on the more victim hood side and maybe I don't want to be there. I just find myself there, right? It doesn't mean it doesn't mean it's who I am as a person, right? But I'm listening to you going, my God, the stuff that I've been through in my life doesn't even hold a drop of water compared to what Sean has gone through. And here I am wallowing in the fact that my my boss doesn't give me enough attention or, you know, my kid didn't make the A team of whatever sports they're

part of or whatever stupid thing I'm ruminating on and allowing to impact. my life, how do I start to make the switch to viewing the world the way that you do? What are some initial tactical steps that someone who says, you know what? Like, if this freaking guy can be this driven considering all that shit that he's been dealt in his life, I can start to be a little tougher and a little more driven in mind. How do they make that change? Great question. And I love these discussions because I was giving.

a keynote talk at a Fortune 500 company. There were a thousand people in the audience, and I stopped as I was wrapping it up because everybody knows what their corporate values are. Right? Every large corporation has a set of values, pillars that they live by or they make decisions by. And I asked them, it was a group of CEOs, leaders, executives, look how many people in here know what their own personal core values are. You know, and not people who have, oh, you know, family, health, wealth, those sorts of things. But how many people have taken time out of their lives, not their day, not their week,

but literally their lives to sit down for five, ten, 15 minutes, to write down five, three, minimum of three, five personal core values. And I asked them on a show of hands. 10 people maybe? I'm like, when you get in difficult times, we're all taught when life is easy, oh, decisions are simple. You just keep going with the flow. But when life is difficult, what do we fall back on?

When pain starts showing its ugly head, what do we fall back on? And if you don't know what your top personal core values are, how are you going to make decisions in those emergency situations. So the first step I would say is to understand and know what your personal core values are. I have mine right here. Family, integrity, and personal growth, my top three. So I was also giving a talk about resilience, you know, resiliency. And I remember I was in Minneapolis, I think it was, or had it in Minneapolis.

And there was a guy who was up there on stage and he was an NHL National Hockey League, a Hall of Fame inductee. And somebody in the audience asked him, you know, how do you build resilience? And that was probably the next question. Well, you know, you stiff upper lip, you cowboy up or a cowgirl up, you push forward, just the typical things that you would think. And I sat there for a second thinking about that. And I'm like, I don't think resiliency has anything to do with being tough.

I think it has to do with loyalty. Loyalty to your personal core values. Because if you look at your personal core values and you're going towards something that you want and it means something to you and you're remaining loyal to those personal core values, you're going to find a way to make it happen. You know, if family, your children, whatever it might be, you don't have to. to build resilience, it comes naturally based on the loyalty you have to your personal core values. And I think all the people you were mentioning, again, without getting political, you know, you have this division, right? Things have to be tough. Things don't have to be tough. I give up. Neither one of those people have identified their own personal core values. Because if they did,

they would understand that they probably still value family. It could be religion. It could be It could be in personal growth. That could bring people back together again. And you don't have to be tough. You don't have to go through these hard times. Life doesn't have to be difficult. If you know what your core values are, you remain loyal to those. You're going to build resilience.

You're going to build those friendships and you're going to pull people together. So if we struggle, if we're doing an internal self-assessment and resilience is something we struggle with, We negotiate with ourselves and we allow, you know, we make commitments and then we talk ourselves out of them, etc. The issue is a lack of alignment to a set of core values that we actually believe in. Is that fair? Correct. And also continue where people fall apart. You know, people don't get to a place where all of a sudden everything just falls apart.

You can see where those little cracks and fissures begin. And that's when they start justifying things to themselves. Eh, you know, maybe just this one time. And then that one time turns into two, two times turns into three. Now you're slowly pulling away from your personal core values. And if you're not paying attention to those, they don't pull you back on track. So if people don't fall apart, they show little cracks and they start to break. And I think when you start to justify things and you start rationing,

to yourself, that's what pulls you further and further away. Because you're going to have those storms. You're going to have avalanches in your life. And you have to know who you can fall back on, which would be, you know, your base of family, integrity, personal growth. But if you also have community purpose, purpose and consistency in your life, now you're going to be able to weather those storms because you have a set of values in place. Yeah, that's, um, You know what James Clear said we don't rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.

And it seems like I think where I see a miss with a lot of people and even myself when I find these cracks in my own life is that that feels like a concept that is very easily applied to a business. Right. Like oh yeah, systems, goals, that makes sense. And oftentimes I feel like a lot of us, myself included, will will either fail. to apply those same systems and logic to our personal lives, or we just don't slow down enough to create those systems, and therefore our personal lives can be chaotic and we might miss marks or negotiate.

Kobe Bryant has this incredible quote. It's memed a thousand times over on Instagram, where he's asked a question about how he was able to get up at 3 a.m. every day and do his workouts, right? He's like, all your teammates are, you know, getting up at 10 a.m. him on game days and you're up at three and already have two workouts in before a game. And he's just like, I don't negotiate with myself. That was the whole answer, start and finish.

I don't negotiate. Like if I say I'm going to do something, I do it and I don't negotiate. That is such a difficult, like it sounds amazing. And on memes on Instagram, it's, you know, it's fantastic. But very, very difficult to implement in our real lives. How do you make sure that you're not negotiating with yourself when that, and that little voice in your head starts telling you, hey man, you know, you've already,

you've already done a lot. You live through some shit. Like, you don't need to keep pushing this hard, Sean. Like, you don't need to do that. Like, come on, man. Like, think about what you've been through. Like, don't you just want to like some comfort? Wouldn't you just like to enjoy a little more of these things?

Like, you don't need to be out there so hard. Like, how do you say, nah, nah, this is my mission. This is what I do. Like, I'm going to keep going. How do you not negotiate with yourself? I think, and use it. Kobe Bryant, as an example too, you get to a certain place where you don't negotiate with yourself anymore, maybe not necessarily because of the systems, because I'm constantly

traving, but I'm always going to find a way to look for the excuses, like you said, I don't want to do this. You know, when we first started, my desktop broke. What I do, grab my laptop because of integrity. And if you look at, and I couldn't say, hey, Ryan, we got to cancel. That's just not going to work. I'd use my phone. I'd figure something out. But I think it goes back to, yes, the words you tell yourself, yes, the systems you have in place.

But I think more than anything else, it's your identity. So if you look at the Jewish culture, they don't eat pork. Why? Because that's how they identify them. One of the things they identify with, right? And they just don't do it. So me, obviously, I'm not a smoker. Two cancers, one lung, I'm not going to smoke.

But let's hypothetically say there are two people, and they're both trying to quit smoking, and they're both offered a cigarette. The mentality and perspective is different here. One person says, no thanks, I'm trying to quit. The other one says, no thanks, I'm not a smoker. That identity that he or she has, you know, the future version of themselves, is different. You know, and it goes back to when I was that young boy on the bottom of the shower floor,

I didn't want to focus on not dying. I wanted to focus on living. Whatever you're trying to do, identify as that. And I think that's the key. Well, you have taken, sorry, I didn't interrupt you there. You've taken these concepts and these experiences that you've had in your life and you've turned them into a methodology for success, personally, success and business success and leadership. And I don't want you to give away all the secret sauce.

I know you have an amazing book coming out on this exact topic, but I'd love to learn a little bit more about the summit method that you teach and why this concept was word. of a book. And I mean that in the purest sense, right? I mean, you could probably write books on a lot of topics, and you've chosen the summit method as a core idea. What is this? Why does it work so well? It's interesting because it is, it's a repeatable system. It takes, you know, from my journey, which we didn't even talk about climbing the other mountains and running seven marathons on seven incontinence in seven days. But it takes my lived experience and puts it into a clear, actionable framework, helping people with what they struggle most.

You know, like breaking through overwhelm, finding direction, building resilience that actually lasts. And then the whole concept came to me recently when I completed the Explores Grand Slam, which I think sounds like a Denny's breakfast platter, but I didn't name it. It's the seven summits in the North and South Poles. And I remember the camera was up there, and it panned over to me. And it was like, Sean, you just completed something known in history's ever done before. How do you feel?

You know, jokingly in my mind, I was like, I'm going to Disney World. But, you know, I said, you know, I feel fantastic. This is awesome, you know, for the camera, for social media, whatever it might be. But in all honesty, I felt hollow. And I went home. I was depressed for about a month. And I realized I had been checking off these boxes. You know, Everest, the Seven Summets, the World Championship Iron Man Triathlon, the South Pole, the North Pole.

It wasn't until I realized that there was a deeper purpose behind what I was doing. So that way I was reaching what I call the true north. How many times have you or a. other people, you know, or anyone else out there, reached your pinnacle, reached your peak, reached a goal, and kind of looked around and thought to yourself, well, this isn't what I expected it to look like. Or worse yet, they asked themselves, now what? So that occurred to me, happened to me the first time when I was going through my cancer, the second time I was going through my cancer, when they gave me 14 days to live, year and a half of not knowing if I was

going to live, doctor says, Sean, you're in remission, go live your life. You know, the town wanted to have a tick or tape parade. My family have this celebration. Mom, dad, family. Everybody was super happy. My first thought wasn't, yay, I'm in remission. I can go live my life. My first thought was, now what?

So everybody, I think, has had these false summits. You know, it drains your energy. When you get to the top, you see another higher spot. You think to yourself, I need to get that. So you waste more time, more energy, going after things that don't even matter to you. And you get there and you're unfulfilled because success doesn't always equal fulfillment.

The true summit method combines success and fulfillment. I think that the way that you're articulating is fantastic. I couldn't agree with you more. You know, I know you don't know that much about my own story, but I started a business in 2020. I sold the business in 2022, and I exited right at the beginning of 2024. And when I left that business,

it wasn't necessarily on the exact terms that I maybe had envisioned in my mind. And the biggest thing that caught me off guard was how lost I felt. I just had this great thing. I created something from nothing, with nothing, turned it into, you know, millions upon millions of dollars of value employed 27 people by all accounts a wonderful

achievement right and even to this day i still haven't fully reclaimed like my mission i've i felt utterless for a while i mean i'm starting i'm starting to feel much more aligned you know just it took me a while to figure it out right and it's very despite all the experience that i've in my life and all the different things that I could be very proud of and I've lived a very blessed life. Man, when you don't have a mission, when you don't have, when you lose touch with something that's bigger than yourself, it's like it doesn't, it's like you said. It's like it doesn't matter what the accomplishment was. It lacks depth. It lacks density as maybe a better way of putting it. I think the word you used was hallow. And I think that's a, I think that's a, I

think that's a very appropriate way of describing the emotion that you feel when you lose that sense of working for something bigger than yourself. Yeah, absolutely. And it's interesting when you do reach those false summits, you arrive. You know, there's no real ownership of an emotional feeling to it because you feel disconnected. And like I said, you constantly go after and you're you with the proverbial you. You know, you go after these things and you think once I get X, you know, it's going to make me feel happy. Or once I get Y, I'm going to be successful or feel success.

It doesn't work that way. You know, and I think that goes back to what I mentioned earlier about having an identity. You know, how do you identify, you know, and who do you identify as? You know, I was doing a mastermind here in Colorado not long ago, and we broke up in a different groups and I think there were six of us who are at a table and one of the question was you know who are you and everybody used what they do to describe who they were you know I'm a CEO here I do this like you're telling me what you're doing you know we're human beings not human doings and you're telling me you're describing your your resume like who are you

and then we went around and did the whole thing again like i i'm a father i'm not i'm just saying you know i'm a father i enjoy this i feel happy when this happens these are my goals this is who i am at the core i value this and that tells me who you are not i'm an author i'm a CEO i'm a world record holder because i i am if i look back in my life i'm not most proud of holding multiple world record records. I'm most proud of taking other people up Kilimanjara. I've been up Kilimanjara 27 times. I do a trip every year, right? I'm most proud of helping people and leading them from behind by empowering them to go forward. Not the, not the records. Those things, that's great, you know, but it doesn't define who I am as a human being. You know, Kim Ilamajaro 27 times? I didn't know that.

Yeah, I was actually adopted into one of the local tribes over there, and they gave me a fun Swahili name now, because I've used the same group every year. I've seen their kids grow up, and they call me Mizungu Kichai in Swahili, which translates into a crazy white man. So I'm like, thanks, guys. Have you gotten bored? Does the view off the top of Kilimanjar? Is that boring, like, your morning commute now? Like, you've done it so many times that this breathtaking view is just like ho-hum? No, one of the things that I really love about it is,

the group dynamics because I've I've taken a 13 year old and a 70 year old there's nothing technical about it it's just it's an altitude hike and I love seeing people form these bonds you know and sharing the local culture with people so every time we go over it's not about the mountain it's not about reaching the top I mean the average success rate is 48% but my groups are at 99% success rate and we do things very differently and I love the friendships, the bonds, the communication, the conversation going up the mountain. Each trip I take over is entirely different. The trail is the same, the mountain's the same.

Everything physically is the same, but the takeaway is always different. Sean, it has been such a pleasure spending time with you today. I mean, your story is just incredible. and, you know, as we talked about at the beginning, the thing that just leapt off the page is I'm going through all your work. And it was just, I think it's incredible. And maybe at this point you're maybe so far removed from it that it isn't as impressive to you personally. But I've just known so many people and have seen and interact with so many people who would allow what happened to you to define their life from a, very negative standpoint.

And you have turned it into such an amazing experience that I'm sure you wish you didn't have to go through, but you seemingly have made the absolute most out of that experience being placed upon you. And I'm just so glad to have met you and spent time and share your story. I know that my audience is going to want to dive into what you do and become part of your crew. What is the best way for them to do that? That's probably the easiest question that we've had so far.

Just go to shonswarner. Sean like SEA in the proper way, the Irish spelling. And then just like the Warner Brothers, but slap an ass on the front, Sean Swarner.com. Tremendous. Guys, I will have that link in the show notes, whether you're watching on YouTube or listen, wherever you listen, just scroll down, you'll be able to find it. I highly recommend you follow along with what Sean is doing. It is not just inspirational from the standpoint of the experiences that you create,

but man, some of the wisdom and the guidance and the different things that you talk about and your keynotes. It's just phenomenal. And I'm so glad you're out there, man. I'm so glad there are people doing what you do. And it's been a great pleasure to have you on the show. I appreciate it, Ryan. Really appreciate being here.

Thank you for the opportunity.