I had just graduated from Penn State University and was ready to take on the world.
My first job out of college was taking me to a little town in the Midwest called Appleton. I had never lived in Wisconsin before but a quick Google search showed me Appleton was a tiny, little town.
This didn't take away my excitement, I was confident I could make the most of this situation and start creating my dream life!
But very quickly, I found the monotony of "real life" started to take over.
When I had confidently talked about my dreams and goals in college, some had scoffed and said, "Just wait until you get out into the real world."
The real world had arrived and I found myself dismayed.
Was this it?
Working in an unfulfilling job, in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin, experiencing the coldest temperatures of my life (-53 was my coldest day with the wind chill), and feeling like my closest real friends were hundreds or thousands of miles away.
I felt stuck.
I found myself saying, "There's got to be more to life than this," but I wasn't sure how to start figuring out what that was.
Then on a particularly down day, I was sitting no the floor of my apartment, mindlessly scrolling on my computer.
My brother, knowing I was having a rough one, sent me a video called, "Sean Stephenson Dance Party Video," saying it would brighten up my day.
Confused I opened the video, not knowing what to expect.
In just under three and a half minutes, this man Sean Stephenson had me smiling and dancing, where minutes before I had felt stuck in negativity.
I asked, "Who is this Sean guy?"
I searched his name on YouTube and saw that he had done a ton of speeches and the first one I clicked on was called, "Creating Powerful Connections," a speech that had been recorded at Awesomenessfest 2011 in Costa Rica.
I clicked on the video and for the next 59 minutes and 20 seconds, I was glued to the screen. I was transfixed.
I later found out that Sean was a world renowned speaker, coach, international best-selling author, and a powerful therapist.
But as I sat there watching that speech, I had no idea who Sean was or what his story was.
As I listened, sitting there on my apartment floor, I got chills over and over from things he said. I was laughing at times, crying at others, pondering things he said, and by the end feeling inspired to change my life.
Even more so, he made me BELIEVE I COULD change my life for the better.
After listening to that speech, I got up and started doing small productive things around the house. Namely, the chores I had been procrastinating on.
Once those were done, I moved on to go out and get a few more things done outside the house.
Although those small things were seemingly inconsequential, I knew if it hadn't been for Sean I would have spent the whole day on the floor, down in the dumps, feeling sorry for myself.
It was that moment that I realized just how much of an impact a speaker could have on people's lives.
I thought to myself, "I want to be a professional speaker."
I wanted to motivate people to face adversity and start making positives changes in their lives like Sean did for me.
I realized, in order to do that, I would have to first do those things in my own life.
So I dove into personal development in a way I never had before.
I started studying: