Shawn Stevenson: You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson. For more, visit TheModelHealthShow.com.
 
Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert Shawn Stevenson and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. 

This is a very, very special episode because we're doing something we have never done before; the tables are being turned on me, and something really phenomenal just took place. 

I was out speaking at an event in L.A. recently as for the Biohacking Conference, it was the 6th annual event and it was a phenomenal event, phenomenal experience, phenomenal people, and just shout out to everybody who came out to the event and hung out with me and said, "Hello".

But it was awesome, but after I'd finished doing my keynote presentation, I went over to do an interview for a new show called "Unstoppable." 

And it was phenomenal, the host Amanda McVey was just powerful in and of herself and she asked me some questions. And I talked about things and shared things I've never shared or expressed before. 

And I thought it would be out of this world to be able to share these things with you. 

One of things that I talked about, and this was the first time at the event that I shared this but I'm sharing a story of a condition that I was born with, that seemingly had me disadvantaged from the moment that I arrived here on the planet. 

And so I'm sharing that story, a bit of that, and I think that, it's going to be really insightful for you to hear it. 

But also we talked about just some of the things that a lot of us are struggling with today, and how we can get out of sorts when our life conditions don't match our blueprint for what happiness and success looks like. 

And really, if your conditions right now are not matching what you think life should be, that's what suffering really is at its core, and when they are matching each other, or they're pretty similar, they're rhyming, there's happiness there. 

And so we're kind of breaking down and looking at these kind of mental structures that we create, the power of placebos we talk about in depth, the truth about beliefs and how beliefs play into this equation. 

And also we talk about how The Model Health Show came to be in existence in the first place, but I think you're really, really going to enjoy this story. 

And because just one turn in our decisions can lead us in a totally different place, and our lives just have this really interesting mosaic of these moments of decision when we could've turned right but we turned left, or we made the decision to go forward when something was trying to pull us backwards. 

And it's really kind of this beautiful experience to see all of these moments in life where we said "Yes" and land us in places where sometimes they're uncomfortable and difficult to deal with, but ultimately, they make us stronger. 

And so we're sharing that story and even that in and of itself, I just want to share this with you that I just did a show recently and we talked about uncovering your purpose and that was just a portion of it, because even saying uncovering your purpose is a misnomer, it's not accurate to even say anything like that today. 

And so many people are looking for that and there are a lot of experts out there trying to teach people how to find it, but your purpose isn't some static thing that you find and then your life is just all set from there. 

Your purpose is, it's dynamic and it's ever-flowing and ever-changing, your purpose can have completely different versions or just different flavors of something that you once believed to be your purpose. 

And so that's why I did that episode just to get you conscious about incorporating more mental inputs so you're diversified and being able to uncover your purpose and walk in it as it's being revealed over and over and over again in our lives. 

Because there's one point where my purpose might just be to be an amazing dad, right, to show up and to take care of these kids, or an amazing mom, and that's really your purpose, and you're just really bought in and embracing that purpose. 

But then there might come a time where your purpose is to share your story with other moms, maybe some struggle that you went through with one of your children. 

Or maybe it's writing in magazines, and books and articles or maybe it's teaching; your purpose can change.

I just wanted to share that with you and to also encourage and remind you that no one has the right or no one ever will give you permission to follow what your heart is telling you to do. 

No one is going to give you permission to live your purpose. 

No one is going to give you permission to do the things that you really want to do with your life. 

No one gives you permission. 

No one gave me permission at that event to be a speaker, nobody ever tapped me on my shoulder and said, "Shawn, you be a speaker. You have permission for you to go and speak on stages and to share your insights and to inspire people and to help them to have a good time and to bring some livelihood into these rooms." 

No one ever tapped me on my shoulder and gave me permission. 

You give yourself permission to do these things. 

Then, of course, there are going to be other co-conspirators who helped to make the different versions of it possible. 

But if I really wanted to speak and that was my dharma, that was just in my DNA, in my drive to do that, I can go right outside of this studio right now and just start speaking outside, and if I'm good at it, eventually maybe a crowd might gather.

And people do that with music all the time, there are many street performers who end up get in record deals, you know, it's happened many times. 

Of course, there's a lot more who haven't, but I am just saying. But no one gives you permission, especially today, the barriers are gone, people are out here creating entire careers just from uploading a video from their phone. 

This has never existed before in human history, you have total and complete power to really dictate and to put your message out there, if that's what you feel you need to do or you are called to do, there's nothing that can stop you— except your fear of judgment, which people are going to judge you anyway. 

You're going to be judged no matter what you do. What the Internet allows for is for some the hidden judgers, right, there's this term people say trolls, and then I'm like I really thought about that one day like, "What does that really mean?" 

The trolls are like under the bridge, they're mad, they got a pissocity, they're under the bridge, they are all grimy and this like mildew. 

And they've got like swamp butt and they're just not happy down there under the bridge, right, they want to come up, they want to come up, but they're behind the bridge down there, messing with folks, right. 

And so we get in fear about that kind of stuff, and it's just silly, it's just a troll, it's just a little troll. You know, just keep it moving, cross the bridge, keep it moving, all right. 

But sometimes it's easier said than done, of course, and as you develop and you put your story, your insight, whatever it is it that you want to share, you have permission to do it. 

No one gives you permission, you have permission. 

And, of course, society can try to nudge you in different directions with that, and sometimes it's rightfully so, maybe we don't have a complete perspective, but that's okay, we can still share and learn as we go. 

So what I'm saying is number one, no one's going to give you permission to do the things that you want to do in your life and to be the very best version of yourself— you decide. 

And also, let's put the fear to the side because as we talked about when we had my friend CJ Quinney on the show and he talked about the paradox or kind of the truth about fear, which is everybody has it, it's just those who feel and experience that fear and then just continue to push forward into it because everybody has it. 

And with that said, fear is actually a really great training tool and it's built into us to keep our senses heighten, to keep us aware, keep us making moves, but we don't want to let it debilitate us, if that makes sense. 

So I hope that that makes some sense and really speaks into you right now, because really, truly, the world needs you. 

The world needs you to step into your gifts and to, again, this could just be the gift of being a good parent, being a good brother, being a good sister, being a good teacher, being a good musician, whatever it might be for you, it's stepping into that and really taking that to your heart and showing up in the very best way that you can in those things. 

So again, I think that you're really, really going to enjoy this and it's something special, things I've never shared before and we're going to dive right into that. 
 
But first, let me also share— I did a lot that day, I got up, I went to the gym that morning, I did the keynote. 

I did the interview, I did a book signing and there are some other stuff that I am forgetting about. 

I did eat at some point, but I accomplished all of these things and I was fueled for hours, I didn't eat, I was at some "intermittent fast" but I was fueled up on my Four Sigmatic coffee, that's what I had that got me to that place where I accomplish those things. 

And you'll get to hear the interview, this was several hours later after I was up and I had accomplished all these things. 

But the reason I love Four Sigmagic is that it's taken these, first of all, it's organic coffee, so we're not dealing with pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fungicides,these things that are known to be toxic to human cells. 

Many of them have their estrogenic or neurogenic, and some of these actually have some well-documented research affirming that they are carcinogens, okay. 

And so we're taking the stand we're not messing with that stuff anymore, getting organic, high-quality coffee, but then, they are blended with these incredible mushrooms, these medicinal mushrooms. 

The one that I had that morning was the Lion's Mane coffee from Four Sigmagic, Lion's Mane University of Malaya has affirmed and shared research indicating that Lion's Mane medicinal mushroom literally stimulates something called neurogenesis. 

Neurogenesis that is the creation of new brain cells. 

There are very few things in the world that we have in our kind of nutrition grab bag that humans consume that can stimulate the creation directly of new brain cells, that's how remarkable it is. 

And so this is the medicinal mushroom that's more tributed towards focus and concentration. And even though it's like you're going to have some caffeine from the coffee, which is a smaller amount than what you typically find, it's like this calm energy and you don't get the associated crash. 

And I think there's also something with the alkaloids there too, you know with coffee being pretty acidic substance and then the medicinal mushroom being more of an alkaline and just that interaction really balances well in the body, so I love that. 

But the reason I get it from Four Sigmatic, number one is the super easy to use packs, I could travel with them, but it's dual extracted, so this means it is a hot water extract and it's a alcohol extract, so that you can actually get all of these medicinal properties and nutrients, all of the spectrums of antioxidants, all the spectrums of micronutrients and these things that we'are looking for the hormonal compounds, and also the more kind of nutritive, looking at our nutrient requirements of vitamins and minerals and things like that; we get the full spectrum from Four Sigmatic because they do it the right way.

So pop over there, check them out, it's FourSigmatic.com/model, that's F-O-U-R-S-I-G-M-A-T-I-C.com/model and you get 15 percent off everything that they carry. I absolutely love them, FourSigmatic.com/model, they were there at the event, hooked me up with a little chai, they got a new chai blend. 

So it's another thing, you could do with almond milk, you can add some MCT oil to it, grass-fed butter, coconut oil, whatever it is you're into and make your own little different elixirs. So it's supercool. 

FourSigmatic.com/model, and now let's get to the Apple podcast review of the week. 

iTunes review: Another 5-star review titled, "Powerhouse Podcast" by Carmacamilleon. "Such an amazing podcast, I love the positive energy and information you provide I can literally feel it as I'm listening to each episode. I look forward to long drives, walks, flights, basically any time I get the chance to listen to a new episode. You blend physical fitness, nutrition and mental health insights and inspirations in such a creative way and it's always exciting when a new episode drops. I aspire to reach your level of authenticity, competence, expertise and overall bossness one day."
 
Shawn Stevenson: Oh my goodness, that's just powerful. Wow, thank you, wow, thank you so much for sharing that over on Apple podcasts, that means a lot. And, wow, thank you. 

And I think that this episode specifically is really going to speak to this and take it to another level for you. 

So everybody, thank you for leaving those reviews over on Apple podcasts, if you've yet to do so, please pop over and leave a review for the show, it means so much to me. 

But we're going to dive in now, and again, the tables are being turned and I'm being interviewed by the wonderful Amanda McVey for Unstoppable. 

I shared some stories I've never shared before and I think that you're going to get a lot out of it. So with no further ado, here's the interview, check it out. 

Amanda McVey: Shawn Stevenson, welcome we're so excited to have you on the Unstoppable series, here at the 6th Annual Biohacking Conference, put on by Upgrade labs. 

So I'm really excited because you are brand new to the Biohacking stage, at least in terms of our world. 

I reached out to you because I thought that you'd be just the perfect spin that our audience needed so that they could get exposed to a world beyond what they're used to, which is usually pretty tech heavy, science heavy in the most like magical nerdy way, but obviously, you're bringing a lot whole lot of cool to the conference stage. 

So for those who may not know you, tell us a little bit about what you're known for.

Shawn Stevenson: For sure, oh my goodness, thank you so much. I don't know if everybody can see you, but your eye shadow is fantastic, just fantastic You look amazing. 

And listen, it's such a cool opportunity because there are these incredible worlds that are kind of in parallel universes, but there's so much crossover. 

And for me, I definitely have a portion of the self-quantification in biohacking, I just want, my mission is to make people, get more in your body and start to pay attention to how do you look, how do you feel, how do you perform, just kind of really getting closer to that inner guidance system, because we're so externally focused. 

And also, yes, making it cool, making it fun and having a good time because that's what this is really all about. 

And for me, getting into space, I had no idea, like zero percent idea that I would be doing this what I'm doing today. 

And I grew up and as an athlete and playing a lot of sports but I was like a legend, in the neighborhood, which I can say now because I don't do this stuff anymore. 

But I was the fast kid, if you ever have somebody wanting to compete basketball, football, whatever, just get Shawn on your team you're going to win it kind of thing. 

And so everybody just kind of had this aspiration for me, like, "When Shawn goes to high school, he's going to be this," and everything was looking really good. 

I got freshman year, get in the end zone, score touchdowns in track season. 

But it was during the summer in between freshman year and sophomore more year, I ran a 4, 5 40-yard dash and that's like NFL combine time, I was just a kid. 

And everything was looking great, but faith took an interesting twist. 

And I was at track practice, doing the time trial and it was a 200-meter sprint, and as I was coming off the curve of the track to the straightaway, my hip broke. 

And I just kind of pulled up limping. And I thought, "Maybe I pulled a muscle," I've never been injured before. 

And coming to find out my iliac crest, like the tip of my hip just broke off. And I went through standard of care, what's known as standard of care it’s given some NSAIDs, told to stay off the leg, I got some crutches, which was great because you get out of school early, so you get out of class early, I got to take the elevator, so that was nice. 

And I got better, I got back out there but nobody stopped to ask how did a kid who's 16 years old break his hip from just running, it doesn't make any sense. 

When you hear somebody broke their hip, you usually think somebody is older, more likely female. And I just didn't fit that m.o.

And by the way, so that was about a dozen injuries took place after that, I just kept pulling things and there were fractures and different things. 

And it wasn't until I was 20 years old I finally got a diagnosis and my aspirations of playing sports were gone. 

And it was an MRI revealed a degenerative disc disease, so my disks in between vertebrae were just terribly degenerated, so much so that my physician said I had the spine of an 80-year old man, an unhealthy 80-year old man, because there are 80-year old guys here who are like skiing backwards or whatever. 

And also my bone density was just so low, that's why I had the fracture and my broken hip and that kind of thing.

Long story short, getting that bit of news was, it just turned my world upside down, because it was good to know like, "Okay, this is what was going on," but it was very disempowering to hear from an authority figure that it was incurable. 

And it's a very strong like, we talked about this, there's another person who did a presentation on placebo effect. 

Listen, I really want people to understand this and how powerful our minds are, because I'm very analytical, very data driven human being, and when I found this out I just couldn't believe more people didn't know this, but the gold standard of studies of clinical trials is a double-blind placebo-controlled study. 

You have to control for the placebo because some people are going to respond from a fake drug, their blood pressure is going to go down, their cancer would dissolve, their blood sugar would normalize, from just thinking, just believing that they are taking a drug that's doing those things, that it's not even real.

Fake surgeries, and just the list goes on and on, on average placebos are 33 percent effective in clinical trials. Nuts, it's absolutely nuts. Some upwards of 80 percent. 

And so, but that wasn't what happened to me, it was the opposite, it was a nocebo effect and that is when you get a negative injunction that something bad is going to happen, like you'll never walk again, this is incurable, you have 6 weeks to live, those kind of stories. 

And you proceed to have those things happen. 

For the next 2 years it was just a tornado of just ugliness, I definitely withdrew myself, I felt like a very capable, athletic person prior to that and now I'm just like, I felt like prey, like I'm hiding out of my cave for this all to like boil over. 

And I gained a lot of weight, I was in college, so I was eating what I lovingly call the TUF diet, T-U-F, Typical University Food. 
 
Amanda McVey: Oh yeah, I ate that for a while, too. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: So a lot of pizza, we had a special with the school, Sunny Delight was like water, I don't even know how I survived actually. 

And so I'm just making my body out of these things and wondering why I'm not getting better. 

And so, again, long story short, the real long story short, after 2 years of eating this way and just no movement because my doctors told me, "Don't, be careful, bed rest, this is incurable." 

And so they gave me permission to throw in the towel, basically. 

And I took it, and it wasn't in my personality but because it was an authority figure, and I believed he knew better than me or they knew, it was many doctors. 

But two years into it, I gained like 40 pounds, definitely just lost and my identity was stripped from me, because I was this fit, athletic person and now I don't have anything.

And it all came to a point where I was sitting on the edge of my bed and about to take my pills to help me sleep, my pain pills and it just came rushing into my mind, it really was spurred on by the thought of my grandmother who just like when she raised me, she just kind of instilled in me this sense of like, "I'm going to do something amazing."
 
Amanda McVey: What's grandma's name?
 
Shawn Stevenson: I called her Mema, it's so funny the grandma names would be like me Mema, and Papi, Papa, and all this stuff. Shout out to anybody who has weird grandma names. 
 
But, there's a really important moment in our lives when we can become aware that our life conditions are not matching our blueprint.

This is exactly, this is what suffering is, this is the exact formula for suffering, when your life conditions don't match your blueprint for happiness. 

And so they were so dramatically different, but here's the thing— we can always change our life conditions or we could change our blueprint. 

And so when I realized this, it just hit me that I had been such an empowered person and now I had given my power away to somebody who's like telling me I can't get better. 

It was stupid. And so I decided then to get well. And most people never actually do that, it's more like wishful thinking, "I'll give this a shot, I'll see about it, I'll try."

I was very firm, and if people really do that engage the power of decision, and I'm a big student of lexicon but Da means From and Qadir means to cut so it's like you cut away the entire possibility of anything else but which you chose. 

And so after that, everything changed dramatically. It wasn't like a genie popped out kind of thing, but it's more like, "Okay, I've made this decision, how do we get from A to B?" 

And I put a plan together, and it was three things, it was attrition and my moving practices and also sleep, which is international bestselling book came from. 

And just to put a cherry on top of the story, and we can get into any of the details you want but six weeks from that decision, I had lost 20 pounds and the result is not typical, by the way. 

But I lost 20 pounds and this pain I'd been in for two years that had me in fear and just like on all these medications and just scared to get up and walk around was gone. 

And I got a scan of my spine done about nine months later and my spine looked perfect, my two herniated discs had retracted. 

I increased my bone density and my degenerative disc disease was gone. And so that just lit my world of fire to help other people who had been given the same bill of goods that there's nothing you can do. 

Since then I've worked with thousands of patients and on one on one contacts, both in the gym and also as a nutritionist, and the books and The Model health Show being number one podcast and all the good stuff, and here I am.
 
Amanda McVey: Holy smokes. Okay, so a bunch of things went through my mind. 

The thing that's really sticking out to me, and thank you for sharing that story, is we've been fortunate enough to share stories on the Unstoppable series with some of the other gifted talent that's come through to present at the conference. 

And every story, whether it was presented through tears or humor or feistiness, always started with, "Here was the trauma/ the drama/ the the fat kid." 

I never heard yet about the moment before the trauma/ the drama and to meet somebody who said, "I was a legend at this one point and went through this trauma / drama and then there was a decision point that changed it all going forward." 

I'm just so curious and maybe you have an answer to this, but I wonder if there was a decision point whether it was conscious or not, before the injuries happened that created this degradation of the body on some level maybe. I mean, I wonder did you know?
 
Shawn Stevenson: You cannot have any physical symptoms without a psychosomatic like emotional.
 
Amanda McVey: So let's talk about that, because there's so many people who, I mean, whether it's somebody who's struggling with their weight or who has encountered an actual life threatening illness, it came from somewhere possibly. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, absolutely and this it can get a little bit meta, it can get a little bit, but some of this stuff is just so real and interesting and even here in this story of Martin and hearing about like that $1,500 in the poker game, and he's a very analytical person as I am. 
 
Amanda McVey: That's my boss, I know how analytical he is, yes. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: It's just like some stuff is just like very unexplainable and very interesting, but I have developed this belief, and our lives are really driven by our beliefs whether or not they're real or not we have to have them. We're belief in meaning creating creatures. 

And my belief is it's we all have a particular set of conditions that are there to develop qualities, to develop latent abilities and capacities, and it's built on our desires and our goals for the most part. 

Now some of us get a really crappy hand, it's like, "I didn't have desires or goals for what I went through as a kid," but there's an innate desire to be safe and to feel happiness, all these things, and you could have like a really big kind of dharma and path to express happiness in this world. 

But you might need to go through the worst possible trash for you to have that contrast. And so for me, this was the first time I shared this story publicly, here on this stage. 

When I was born, I was born with basically 2 broken feet, and my feet from my ankles to my toes, which I want to take my shoes off and show how cute my feet are now. 

Amanda McVey: Well, mine are not.
 
Shawn Stevenson: So that's the only thing I am a little cocky about, guys' feet, let's just be honest, like it's just, it's terrible, they're literally bullet proof. 

Most guys' feet look like Hobits' feet. But anyway, so my feet were broken, I was born that way, they were so crooked. 

And so the physicians when I was just a couple of months old basically broke my feet, put them in place and I had to wear these little baby casts. 

And so I was in those for a while, and then from there, moved to these corrective shoes and braces and stuff like that, and they had this story, and I didn't know this until I was a couple years old and then my family members would tell me the story, because I didn't know. 

My conscious memories, I do remember the casts but I remember seeing them not on me and I do remember wearing these shoes. 

But they said, "I don't know if he'll ever be able to run normally," doctors told my family. And as the story goes, I didn't even take first steps, I took a first run. 
 
And so my mom was going to, she's changing my clothes, she turned around because she's was going to put the braces on me and I just took off out the door, running after my uncle. And I just never stopped running since then. 

But even that situation, some of this stuff is even coming from your parents because my mother, and this is the real stuff, she was smoking since she was like 12. 

My mother's personality, and I see your mom over there pointing her finger too—
 
Amanda McVey: Also smoking since she was 12. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: I'm pretty sure and they didn't have all the good warnings that literally says like on the pack like, "You will die if you smoke this," but I'm pretty sure they didn't hamper her from smoking while she had me, I don't think she would admit it now, but I'm pretty sure she didn't stop her habit. 

And that probably led to some issues with my freakin development, on my feet, and this is like putting me in this position where as I grow and evolve, I had these choices to make, "Am I going to let this thing stop me." 

So I wasn't dealt the best hand but it's how you play the hand.
 
Amanda McVey: So it sounds like there's been two times in your life where the possibility of being immobile in some way has been an option.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yes, crazy. 
 
Amanda McVey: And you know what is even crazier— now it's not going to happen again, have you learned that lesson, like that one free?
 
Shawn Stevenson: Right, that's the thing, you got to learn it, the life is going to keep presenting that. 

And for me, it is a culture, because I think also a lot of our, these things that we develop that are those kind of mental and emotional triggers for physical stuff, it just comes from our environment and our desire to be happy and to be free. 

Of all the different traits of humans that I've seen, we just, we want to be free, we do not like to be told what to do.

Now, if we have a boss, I mean we like we tolerate it, but nobody's waking up like, "I want somebody to tell me exactly what to do today." 

And even some people are like, "Just tell me what to do, like I just need to know the steps." That's different, you're still asking for it. If somebody is telling you what to do, nobody likes that.

And so we want to be free and for me, it was a huge driving force, like even the kind of metaphor with me running and just like the sport, I felt this sense of freedom.

But that was stripped from me because I was not adhering to what freedom really looks like, I was imprisoning my body with the way that I was eating because of again, that's what I picked up from my environment.

But I grew up like truly the golden age of fast food, like the golden age of TV dinners.

Amanda McVey: Golden age or golden arches. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yes. I had a birthday party at McDonald's. I was in the ball section, like grimace and all of those guys, super sketchy characters by the way. 

There was a hamburgular. Oh my God, just like, "What is that?"

So anyways, but yes, those were the things I was making my body out of, like this really low quality, just very nutrient devoid and just there's, and also like there's a subtle energy to food as well, you know and you can't get past that. 

That's why we feel so good when we have somebody's food who loves us, like your grandma's food or your mom's cooking, whatever it is. 

It just feels different, just feels good and versus, somebody who's serving you through a drive through window that couldn't literally care less about you, that subtle energy, and so this gets into that meta thing, but I've got science to back that up, too. 

There was a study and this was done by Victor Poponin and what he did was, and this is known, anybody can look this stuff up, the phantom DNA experiment. 

And so what they did was they had a vacuum, and a vacuum basically eliminates all of these potential particles and things like that that you would expect, there's nothing in it except the one thing you can't get rid of which are these bio photons, these little particles of light. 

And so what they wanted to do was to see if these photons, which is the stuff that our reality is made of, if we really, really just boil it down to what we can measure about photons or what you know, even ourselves, we're made of mostly light which is really weird. 

So, they wanted to see how these bio photons would react to human DNA. 

And so they took human DNA and put into the vacuum and it was really fascinating to see, and this is something that, their hypothesis was this, and it came true, which was the bio photons that were just randomly scattered through this vacuum, all began to attach itself to the human DNA like it conformed to the DNA. 
 
Amanda McVey: Wow, okay. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: So they were no longer scattered, they were in order, right, there was an order. 

Now, here's what tripped them out and really put this experiment on the map, is that so they removed the DNA and they expected the bio photons to just go back to their random, disorganized positions, but that didn't happen, they stayed conformed for a significant amount of time to the human DNA as if it was still there. 

And this just speaks to we literally affect the world around us, we impress upon the very stuff that the world is made of, that life and reality is made of by the very nature of us being human beings. 

And so all of these things really come to a head and just understanding that for me, and those subtle energies and starting to learn okay, when I was getting better I started to automatically making my own food more often, right, putting intention into that.

I started to choose higher quality things, I started to buy from people who care more about what they're doing, because of this subtle energy factor.

And these are all things that were totally abstract to me until I went through this experience. 
 
Amanda McVey: And that's actually something that for somebody who can't make it to a space like Upgrade labs or come work with you, that actually sounds something very actionable that they could do at home to start caring more for their food and caring how it's prepared. And also who's preparing it for them. 
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, simple. 
 
Amanda McVey: So, when you and I talked that day and around the possibility of you coming and being one of our keynote speakers, the thing that really struck me is that you, I felt like we shared this idea that every human is just innately great and powerful and perfect. 

And there's, things that that are in our way, that labs, we look at their inflammation and the hormones and we sort of make sure that by correcting those, improving those, we sort of amplify and unlock this person. 

But you shared a similar belief so maybe talk to me about that, like your core belief on humans and the clients that come through?
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah. This really just kind of piggybacks on what we're talking about already, we've got close to eight billion people here on the planet, that's a lot of people and we can have this idea that we're insignificant, which in some aspects we are, if you take a meta perspective and you zoom out and look at our planet from outer space, how big are your problems, really? 

It just doesn't matter, like, "Oh my phone bill," whatever, it just doesn't matter as much. 

But at the same time, and there is this, an interesting dichotomy is that at the same time, you are the most important person in the universe because this is your experience. 

And so, again, this just develops on whichever side your beliefs lie, but if we even just look at human evolution, there is something that compels us to become more, there is something that is within us, that is driving us to evolve and to grow and to express more of itself. And so we cannot not have that, it's innate in our DNA. 

And with that said, I feel that every single person is a part of this tapestry, like the human experience, like this giant quilt work of all of us coming together and creating all of this stuff. 

And we do know now, again, like I just mentioned how human DNA affects our reality, everybody's doing it, we're doing it all the time. 

And I shared in my talk how Preston university did some fascinating research, and they found that two people that didn't even know each other, they just put them in a room and had them to talk. 

And they just created a small amount of rapport and what happens is when you're in conversation with another person, your brain waves sync up. 

Crazy, it's crazy, like this is behind the scenes going on, like we are affecting the world around us and the people around us. 

And so with that said, understanding that it's in our genes to want to grow and to evolve to be more, every single person, you can't come here without having some innate gifts and talents and capacities, and attribute. 

But here's the thing, some people might think, "Well I don't know my talent is, and I don't know—"
 
Amanda McVey: That's what I was, exactly what I was going to ask, and especially somebody used a really powerful word before, you said “Prey” like you felt like prey. 

And so maybe somebody who has that feeling of, "I don't know what my talents are, I don't know what gifts I'm supposed to bring," or maybe even worse, if they're sitting in this state where they feel like very universal prey, they're victim. What can they do, how do you find it?
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, and this is from experience, firsthand experience and, of course, we're going thousands of people, but it's easy to feel like a victim, because it seems like sometimes the world is like, it's just objecting its will upon you. But the truth is, you are also objecting your will upon the world and this is symbiotic thing, always going on. 

And it's so interesting because these situations that we go through, and I just want to make sure I share this, because I went through, I went through a pretty crappy situation, a couple of times. 

But the things that are within our DNA for that greatness, you don't just come here good at something, like you have to have situations, you have to have conditions, you have to go through stuff, it's like the oak tree scenario.

You've got an entire forest in one acorn, entire forest, right? How crazy is that? But this will never manifest itself if it's not in the right conditions, right? 

And so these negative things that tend to happen or challenges, obstacles, these are simply there, in my belief, to just help us to unlock these latent capacities.

Because a lot of times, those talents when somebody is like, "I don't know what my talent is," it's just dormant, it's latent, there’s never been anything like you, ever, and never will be anything like you ever after this, it's like a very important moment in humanity, you being here. 

But you don't just get to do it for free, it's not just going to happen automatically like you have to develop. 

Because even if you do have a natural talent like some people seem to just have it, it's not going to connect if you don't learn how to communicate, for example, or you just be that weird person who draws really well.

But then you might have brought some joy to some people, but it didn't really connect and make the impact that it could have if you didn't develop those other skills. So I hope that makes sense.
 
Amanda McVey: It does make sense. And so now you've got this book, you've got your podcast. 

Actually, you should share it, let's talk about your podcast. Where did it come from and I mean, all the things that it's about. Your name is on everybody's lips.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Oh my gosh, this is so crazy.
 
Amanda McVey: Yeah, talk a little bit, talk a bout your podcast and I definitely want to hear about your book as well, because you're a buff guy and you wrote a book about sleep and not about 6 packs and muscles. So I want to hear about both, let's start with your podcast.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Sure, and just by the way, in parentheses that's a side effect, being the fitness part is a side effect of some other things.

But so with the show, it's really crazy. It started off going to a live event and this is why everybody listening, and I did not have the money for this either, like invest in yourself that is the number one investment that you can make. 

And I went out to a live event and my wife, we were newly married and she was just not having it, she was not happy about this. 

Fortunately, she did go away we made it happen but she wasn't happy about it. Now she's super happy, right. 

You also have to have proof of concept, you can't just be like, "Just trust me, this is going to be a great idea."
 
Amanda McVey: You can say that your wife.
 
Shawn Stevenson: So many guys do that. I had proof of concept, I had all these people I had already helped. 

And so it was just like, "Listen,—" And so we made it happen, but there at the event, there was a woman who was just very beautiful and evolved person and she like shared, there was a session when the guy was asking question of the audience she asked an incredible question and it's a great dialogue, I was like, "Man, she's something special." 

And then the next day she couldn't come, this was like a 3 or 4 day event, she couldn't come down because she was having an episode, an attack, she had Crohn's disease. 

And I had, at that point I helped a couple people with this so-called incurable condition and so I went up to see her, I don't know how it even got to me. I went up to see her and I gave her a couple of recommendations and she did a couple of things. 

And the next day she was great, she was as if nothing had happened. And so the word started traveling around the event, there's like, "Do you know this guy Shawn Stevenson, he's with his wife like traveling around healing people like Jesus and Mary." I'm like, "What?" 

And somebody came up and told me that was my assistant at the time, I brought my assistant with me which was, and I didn't have money for that, but I still made it there.

And so she said people were talking about me and so that situation number one investing in myself, getting to a live event, that's where the magic happens. I was in the event, I was one of the speakers which is great, but it was the people. 

And then I ended up in a mastermind where some of the attendees are doing big things in these other domains. 

And from there, I ended up being invited to do this TED Talk, I think it was maybe 2011, 2012, something like that in Las Vegas, which is a whole other story, we'll get to it.
 
Amanda McVey: Vegas stories, you are not supposed to talk about those anyhow.
 
Shawn Stevenson: There you go, thank you, thank you, I forget that. It's not what you think. So anyway, but after I came off stage, this couple Jim Kwik by the way was there.
 
Amanda McVey: Oh no way!
 
Shawn Stevenson: He was one of the speakers. I invited him out because, I was like, "What am I going to do?" "You've got to bring Jim." Jim has always been there in these  little weird moments of life transformation for me, bu the way, I love him.
 
Amanda McVey: And he's like, your little like Angel Omen that you know something big is about to go down.
 
Shawn Stevenson: He is like Jiminy Cricket.
 
Amanda McVey: Jiminy Kwicket.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Oh, that is, oh my God, I love it! So he had introduced me prior to me speaking, like, "You guys should know Shawn." And people they don't know you sometimes they are just like, "Okay, cool, it's awesome." 

And so we were like, we parted ways, there was a couple and they had this really big site which I'll talk about.

And so after it's over though they came up to me, I was like, "Oh my God, like you are amazing, we have this website," and so I just gotten online because I realized it was not scalable, me helping the one on one, and so I started the website. 

And so many people have this idea which I know people listening right now, that many people have this idea, if you build it they will come right. 

I just need to start my blog, get on this thing  No, I had like a couple dozen people come to the site.
 
Amanda McVey: That movie messed everybody up.
 
Shawn Stevenson: And so, at the time I just wanted to open up and broaden my reach. And so they told me they had a million unique visitors a month, and I was like, "Oh my god, this is amazing." 

And so they said they had just started this podcast and they were looking for somebody to be the face of this podcast because the person who they had was a big superstar guy and it just didn't really work out. 

And they're like, "You're perfect for this," and I was like, "Okay, cool." And in my mind I was like, "Yeah, let's do this but what the hell is a podcast?"
 
I didn't even know what it was. But I said, "Yes." And to cut to, it was about a year and a half we had hundreds of thousands of downloads which was really big back in whatever this was 2012 maybe, I don't know, I don't know. 

But it was amazing, we reached a lot of people, we impacted a lot of lives, some people come up to me even at events now, they're like, "I've been listening to you since you were _______," fill in the blank, on that show. 

But thanks to my wife I realized after a year and a half that I was building their brand and I was just kind of this, they were making a lot of money through me, but I just didn't know. 

And so she was like, "No, you can't do this no more, you have to build your own brand, we started this thing for this purpose, you are your thing." 

So we amicably parted ways, because they agreed too, like they weren't doing the best of like really featuring me as me, and so that's when I started The Model Health Show and that was 5 or 6 years ago.

But here's the great thing about it, what's crazy, and man, please guys, you've got to be willing to make mistakes. 

But because I went through it all with that podcast for a year and a half, I did everything, I had my own little microphone, my laptop, editing all that, I had no business doing that. None. 

And, it did what it did, but now I came into it from the very first episode of The Model Health Show and people literally thousands of people listen every week to that first one, 350 episodes ago, every single week.

Because it was me, it was 120 percent authentically me, I was in my power, in my voice, and the information, the communication style, all of it was there. 

And also here's something important too, and I talked about this too in the talk— my vision, I knew like that first episode was like, "I'm going to reach a million people., it's already done." And the results were not saying that. 

For about a year it was like few hundred people a day.  But then it just skyrocketed, we've had like 150,000 in a day or whatever it is, like just hundreds of thousands of people. And now it's like, I don't know, getting close to 40 million. 

But my vision was big, but then once you get to that vision, you can start to become complacent and I encourage people, you have to continue to practice thinking bigger than you've ever thought before, you have to do that. It's scary and uncomfortable because just like, "That just sounds crazy." 

Crazy is who wins, crazy is the people who truly change society, and so I really had to check myself recently, as against my wife, so thank you.
 
Amanda McVey: Can we give your wife a shout out?
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yes, Anne Stevenson, best, she's the best ever?
 
Amanda McVey: Seriously, now I know why you said can we get her a ticket.
 
Shawn Stevenson: She's got to be there.
 
Amanda McVey: As we're starting to wrap this up, when you hear the word Unstoppable, who is the first person that comes to your mind?
 
Shawn Stevenson: The first person that came to my mind was my mother in law. Yeah.
 
Amanda McVey: Yeah, tell me about her.
 
Shawn Stevenson: She's the person she came from, so it only makes sense.
 
Amanda McVey: Yeah, that makes sense.
 
Shawn Stevenson: But it's so funny, like there's these stories, there's a lot of like mother in law issues in movies and TV, and in real life, I know, I've seen some of it. 

But it is not my experience, I don't even like the word mother in law. It's, she's just something special. 

She's from Kenya and she moved here my wife was 12 and she's very different because in their culture, even her mom, she was a second wife, there is like that kind of deal and so. 

That just doesn't work out well, by the way, I am just throwing it out there, I don't want to get into the whole poly—  I don't want to get into it. 

Anyway, but this was like cultural. It wasn't like a choice, like, "This is what I am." It just didn't work out well by the way. Lots of kids with issues. 

So anyways, so in their culture she was also you stay at home, you take care of the kids, your husband makes money, you do what he says.

She just wasn't having that. 

She let her husband know that she was going to leave for a while, he need to take care of the girls because she has a sister and she's going to England to get her degree. So she's an occupational therapist and she became an instructor. 

And she brought her family, she brought her family to the US.

And so just all the negativity she went through in her own culture about, "See, that's that woman who left her kids and her husband," and I've never seen such a great relationship between a mom and a daughter, by the way, but and also coming here and also even studying in England at that time, we're talking like the 1950's, 1960's, and her being from Africa, like she went through all of that too. 

And then coming here and being such a light because I just had somebody come over to me after the talk and they were like, "I wish my husband was here to hear this, because ___________," fill in the blank, if they don't listen to me it's because it's you, and it's proximity, right? 

And it's because it's like, somebody also was like, "What can I tell my mom and dad," they changed her diapers, it's very difficult for you to be their coach, right? Because of proximity. 

And guys in general, we don't listen very well, to be straightforward, like we think we know everything. It's transferrable and changeable condition but it it's just stupid, we tend to do that and we know we do that. 

And so, knowing that, but I didn't know at the time, because I thought I had this figured out, I was a strength conditioning coach, I am killing it, I am helping all these people, but I still even when I'd recovered my spinal issue and I still had asthma and like allergies and like these things I had since I was a kid. 

I haven't had any asthma any of this stuff in like 20 years now, I am sorry, 15 years thanks to her and a conversation she had because, and this is simple, this is where I'm going to end this at. 

She didn't tell me anything directly, it was like she asked me questions, that's a really great way to get through to somebody who thinks they know everything...
 
Amanda McVey: You have lots of opportunity to be right.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Exactly, I figure it out. Even though it's just her magic. And so when I was dealing with this hay fever, it was difficult to breathe at night, especially when the sun went down, I was suffering. 

And I came over and my wife first of all, she was like, "Don't listen to my mom, she's super weird," whatever. 

Because you know there was like grass growing in the house, it was like wheat grass. I was like, "That should be outside. What's wrong with your mom?" But she knew what she was doing. 

And so, long story short, when I was going through this and I told her, "You know, it's the weather, it's just really bothering me," she was like, "Hm, just the weather. 

So is the problem out there or is it in you?" And just like baked my noodle, I was like, "Wait a minute, I shouldn't be allergic to the weather."
 
Amanda McVey: And we're just talking about my hay fever, right.
 
Shawn Stevenson: It was deeper, it was that Morpheus moment, but I realized that there's some, it's me, there's something in me that's responding too. 

And for me, at the time it was simply pulling out milk, because I was going hard with milk. I mean, it was my jam.
 
Amanda McVey: Well, then you had the whole bone story, so it made sense.
 
Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, I was doing organic non-homogenous, it still just wasn't vibing with me, you know it was creating this like, even now, if I have a little bit too much, I can start to get kind of mucousy and feeling gross. 

But that changed everything, I realized that there was so much more about nutrition that I didn't know and she had raw foods and all the stuff she was into and it just opened my eyes and changed the game for me. 

So she is unstoppable.
 
Amanda McVey: Wow, thank you for that. And I guess the last question— if you could send a text message right now to everybody at conference and even the world, what would the text message be?
 
Shawn Stevenson: I'll just say what jumped in my head, I would send, "Wake up" with a bunch of exclamation marks. 

And, we could, if it goes beyond that, I would say, "Wake up and realize how powerful you are. 

Wake up and realize that you hold the pen in your hand and you are writing your story, but you keep trying to pass the pen off to somebody else and you're really the star of this movie." 

And so many times like we try to play an extra or we try to play a supporting actor, but it's us, and you need to wake up to your power and consciously, intentionally write your story. 

Because it can be a really, really amazing story at the end of the day. 

So that's what I was say is to wake up, take control of your power of writing your story; wake up to your potential and yeah, so that's what I would say.
 
Amanda McVey: Thank you, thank you so much for joining us on Unstoppable and at the biohacking   conference, it's been such a pleasure.
 
Shawn Stevenson: That was my interview for Unstoppable with host Amanda McVey, definitely pop over there and check out their podcast, I think it’s really awesome and they've got something special going on. I hope that you really enjoyed this episode and that interview. 

And again, it was just opening myself up and sharing some things that I haven't shared before, so it means a lot to me to be able to share this and to share a little bit more of my story, and  hopefully inspire you to share yours. 

Because that ultimately, at the end of the day, that's what The Model Health Show is really about, is creating your own model and taking these pieces from the journeys of so many incredible people and taking what works for you and adding it to your own kind of patchwork quilt of your story and of your life, and writing this story consciously. 

Because you are the star, you're the star of your movie and I just want to do whatever I can to make sure that you feel empowered to do so. 

And also, I want to make sure to let you know about the folks that are helping to make this show possible and my family really at Organifi, who have been partner with me and supportive of the show for a couple of years now, and I absolutely love them. 

My kids use Organifi, I use Organifi, it's one of those things, it's really helped with my travel, because I used to get off the flight and be looking for, "Where can I get a green juice?" 

This is a great version of that because it's low temperature process, with some of the most powerful green super foods that have ever been discovered.

One of them being wheat grass, we don't really talk much about this, but there was a 2004 study that found that wheat grass which contains about 70 percent chlorophyll was found to reduce the number of blood transfusions needed in people with thalassemia, which is a blood disorder. 

And so what does this speak to if we are able to literally reduce the amount of blood transfusions needed that compounds found in wheatgrass literally helped for the human body to build blood. 

And on top of that, another study published in 2014 in the peer-reviewed journal Appetite found that chlorophyll rich concentration found in wheatgrass can aid in weight loss and reduce the urge to eat hyper palatable foods. So it's hitting on many different notes and that's just one of the ingredients.

Also contained in there is one of my all time favorite things which is spirulina, and spirulina is  gram for gram highest protein food in the world, about 70 percent protein by weight, complete protein containing all non-essential amino acids, rare nutrients like phycocianin and that are known to aid in stem cell genesys, rich source of vitamin B, copper, iron.

Also there was a study that was published by the Public Library of Science that shows that spirulina has strong potential to prevent and even reduce inflammation in the brain. 

Super remarkable stuff, and it's all here together in this formula, the green juice formula with Organifi. 

They've got spirulina, the wheatgrass, chlorella is in there as well, ashwaganda and it actually tastes good. 

This is why my kids actually use it and I've tried literally dozens of different green blend formulas, this is the one that I use and that I provide for my family. 

So pop over there check them out, I think you'll really love it. It's organifi.com/model, that's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com/model, you get 20 percent off everything they carry. Alright, huge hook up, they have the green juice formula, red juice, gold, some other products that I use as well like their daily tumeric. 

Pop over there check them out, 20 percent off everything. So again, thank you so much for tuning into the show today, I hope you really enjoyed this, it was something different and I feel really open and free and excited about the next level. 

And again, I hope to encourage you to share your story and to share your gift and to truly step into your greatness, because the time is now, that's what this is really about. 

And you've got so much potential and the very best of your life is still yet to come. But the time is now, let's start taking action.
 
All right, I appreciate you so much for tuning into the show, if you enjoyed this please share this out with your friends and family on social media. 

You could tag me, I am at @shawnmodel on Instagram, Twitter, I am at TheModelHealth Show on Facebook. Take a screenshot of this episode, tag me, let everybody know what you thought about the show.

I appreciate you so much for tuning in and listen, we've got some amazing guests coming out and amazing show topics, so be ready.

I appreciate you so very much for tuning in today. Take care, have an amazing day, and I will talk with you soon.