196. Rising After the Fall: Nick Prefontaine’s Journey from Trauma to Triumph

In this episode of Limitless Healing, Colette Brown sits down with motivational speaker, author, and CEO of Common Goal, Nick Prefontaine. At just 14 years old, Nick suffered a traumatic snowboarding accident that left him in a coma with grim medical predictions. But his story didn't end there, it began. Nick not only recovered but ran out of the hospital 60 days later.

Nick shares the framework that helped him recover and continues to guide others: the STEP System - Support, Trust, Energy, and Persistence. From his early days as a young entrepreneur to surviving a traumatic brain injury, Nick’s story is one of grit, hope, and the power of mindset.

In this episode, we dive into the science of recovery, the power of the subconscious mind, the importance of surrounding yourself with the right people, and what it truly means to take one step forward every single day, even when you don’t know what comes next.

Tune in for a powerful, heartfelt conversation that proves healing isn’t just possible, it’s limitless.

Episode Highlights:

00:50 Introduction to Nick Prefontaine
 02:00 A glimpse into his entrepreneurial childhood
 04:15 The day of the accident: a split-second decision
 06:40 Miraculous intervention and survival
 08:50 The power of being spoken to - yes, even in a coma
 10:05 Coming out of a medically induced coma
 11:30 Learning to walk, speak, and live again
 13:00 A moment of doubt and his mother’s powerful response
 14:30 The birth of the STEP System
 15:45 Support: leaning on community and loved ones
 16:30 Trust: listening to the voice within
 17:40 Energy: preserving your body’s ability to heal
 18:55 Persistence: how small actions lead to major breakthroughs
 20:30 Running out of the hospital - literally
 22:00 When the voice within says “You’re meant for more”
 23:20 Healing a damaged voice and finding his true calling
 24:45 Final message: take care of yourself to take care of others

Learn more about Nick Prefontaine:

Free STEP System Download: https://www.nickprefontaine.com/step
Website: https://www.nickprefontaine.com

______________________________________

Connect with Colette:

Instagram: @wellnessbycolette

Website: love-colette.com

Thank you for listening to the Limitless Healing podcast with Colette Brown! It would mean the world if you would take one minute to follow, leave a 5 star review and share with those you love!

In Health,
Colette

Transcript

 [00:00:00] At [00:01:00] 14, today's guest faced a life altering snowboard accident that left him in a coma with doctors doubting That he'd ever walk, talk, or eat on his own again, He not only walked, but ran out of the hospital less than three months later.

Colette Brown: This remarkable journey led him to develop that step system support, trust. Energy and persistence. A framework that has since empowered countless individuals to overcome their own challenges as the founder and CEO of common goal, A top motivational speaker recognized by Yahoo Finance in 2022.

It is my great honor to welcome Nick Prefontaine. Welcome, Nick. 

Nick Prefontaine: So excited to be here, Colette. Thanks for having me.

Colette Brown: It's great to have you. And as you've just heard, if you're an audience member, this is. person that I would say is extremely resilient and 

I [00:02:00] love getting into the minds of those that have this resilience because there's so many people that have adversity and they get stuck and they think that, everything is just crumbling around me and life is never gonna be better. And then you have these situations like yours where.

it could have been over for you and you still persisted. Nick, why don't you take us back. I want you to go before your accident into your childhood, and maybe you were five or seven years old. What's a childhood memory that you have that may have influenced you until today?

And where were you growing up? 

Nick Prefontaine: Ooh, I love it. love the question, the line of questioning. So a childhood memory. I, before my accident, so I used to have a, motorized scooter, believe it or not. 

Colette Brown: Okay. 

Nick Prefontaine: I used to always I washed cars. I washed the neighbor's cars.

They had a little car washing business, [00:03:00] so I would pile on all of my car cleaning material onto my motor scooter, and I would go and visit different houses throughout the neighborhood. 

Colette Brown: I bet they love that. 

Nick Prefontaine: Yeah, it was good. It was good for them. It was good for me. I was 12, 13, 14 years old, and I was making pretty good money doing that.

Colette Brown: Were you charging enough? 

Nick Prefontaine: I think so. Okay. I don't remember. But this was back in like early two thousands, yeah, I don't think it was too steep. I don't think it everyone was happy. 

Colette Brown: It was a win-win for everyone involved. 

Nick Prefontaine: win-win.

Colette Brown: Yeah. It was 

Nick Prefontaine: a win-win. 

Colette Brown: So you've been an entrepreneur and obviously looking outside of the box from, can I come over and feed your dogs? Can I mow your yard? You were just going straight for the car washing, so I love it. Innovative. Thank you. So you and where were you growing up?

Nick Prefontaine: I grew up in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. 

Colette Brown: Okay. 

Nick Prefontaine: Yeah. So that kind of sets the scene, if you will. Yeah. [00:04:00] I went to school at, uh, rebury Public Schools and, in eighth grade. I was actually on a ski club, so I got released a little bit early and whenever you're in school and you get released a little bit early, like a period or even a half an hour, 40 minutes early, it's always a huge deal.

So I remember we all got released early, for ski club and. My friends and I had all brought our snowboard gear onto the bus. To get ready. So we wouldn't miss a precious moment. Once we got to the mountain and, because we were ready, everyone else wasted time and headed into the lodge to get ready.

But not us. We were ready to go. We didn't wanna waste a one second. To get the most amount of runs in. On the chairlift ride up, we noticed that it was very icy because it had been raining earlier in the day. [00:05:00] People were wiping out everywhere, and where the chairlift actually went, it went right over the terrain park where all of the jumps were.

I knew as soon as I saw it that I had to go off the biggest jump of the terrain park. Colette. There wasn't even a moment in my mind where I was thinking, oh, maybe I should be safe today. Maybe I shouldn't do that. Not in my mind. I was that. That was definitely what I was doing. So got to the top buckle, did my snowboard, took a breath of that crisp winter air and confidently charged towards that jump with all my speed.

And then going up to the jump, I caught the edge of my snowboard. The snow going up the jump, and that's the last thing that I remember. 

Colette Brown: Oh, 

Nick Prefontaine: so I was told that I landed on my head. I wasn't wearing a helmet and. so there are three things that I credit with being able to be here today with you and your listeners to tell this [00:06:00] story.

The first is they wanted to bring a helicopter to the mountain to rush me to the hospital. They couldn't because it was too windy. So they had to send in an ambulance. 

Outta all the paramedics in the county, in the area. There was only one who. Could intubate right on the spot who is specialized enough to be able to intubate right on the spot, and I needed that to be able to breathe.

Wow. So the first thing, he was the right paramedic that showed up at the mountain that day. Second thing, although I didn't have a helmet, and this is. These are details that I piece together based on eyewitness accounts and everything. After the accident, I didn't have a helmet on. I usually wore a helmet when I went to ski club or went to any of the bigger mountains up north.

However, I didn't that day. I forgot it. I didn't think anything would happen. I'd just be careful. 

Colette Brown: that when I grew up skiing in the seventies, we didn't wear helmets. I don't even know when that became a [00:07:00] thing, It's interesting. I'm sure there's, 

Nick Prefontaine: yeah. Now it's a thing.

But I think in the early two thousands it was some people did it, was it? Yeah, it was just starting to come on the scene. Like I said I would always wear a helmet when I went to the bigger mountains, but not local, for the most part. This was in Princeton, mass. This was at Washusett Mountain

So although I didn't have a helmet on. something else I learned later was that my goggles were the only protection that my head had. They told me that with each for those of you that don't know what ski and snow, where goggles are, the goggles that you wear on your head, they have cushion.

They're like block the snow and wind and ice and everything. So they not only braced my initial impact, as I continued to roll down the mountain, it continued hit my head. They moved with each blow to cushion each blow, Against the mountain. 

So just a [00:08:00] number of things that had happened that are like, it couldn't all be coincidence. Like I believe everything happens for a reason. Definitely from now. And this experience just amplified that. 

Colette Brown: 

Nick Prefontaine: the third thing, once I got to the hospital. Listen, I was out. I was in the intensive care unit, unable to communicate with anyone, and each time the doctors would come into my room to share progress updates with my parents, and at the beginning, I'm sure you can imagine the not so good news, not so good news, not so good news.

They started to do that right in front of me because no fault of their own. They were just doing their job. They were thinking, oh, okay, go to his parents and tell 'em what happened right in front of me 

Colette Brown: and my mom's. And were you still in a coma at the time? Yeah. 

Nick Prefontaine: Yeah, I was in a coma. Yeah.

So I was in a coma and, my mom, the doctor started to share that not so positive, knew was right in front of me, and my mom [00:09:00] stopped them. She said no, not in front of him, because she understood 

That even though I was in a coma, I was still taking in information. So she made the doctor step outside the room, and then once they were there, that's when they shared with my parents that I had been in a snowboarding accident.

And I was in a coma. It was a par induced coma because I already had swelling in my brain and they had to wait for it to come down. 

Because they were worried that, Collette, if I woke up and panicked, the swelling would increase and I would've died. So they had to put me into a partially induced coma.

So they said Nick's in a partially induced coma. We don't know how long he's even going to be in the coma. And even if he comes out, there's a good chance that he's probably not going to be able to walk, talk, or eat on his own. 

Ever again. Wow. To my parents' credit, [00:10:00] they took the information.

Thank the doctors, and then what this did is it just allowed me to treat it like any other situation. I didn't know any better whether hearing this news unconsciously yeah, subconsciously I still confuse the two. Unconsciously and subconsciously anyway, it didn't get through my mind, so it just allowed me to treat it like anything else in my life this was no different than really any other challenge that I had faced, so it allowed me to just get up. Literally and figuratively to, because at the beginning I couldn't walk. I had to learn everything all over again, and it allowed me just to keep getting up every day doing the best I can, could, excuse me, and keep getting better every day.

So it was right around this time that I was transported, so I ended up being in the coma for three weeks. Although I really [00:11:00] don't remember a month because it was a partially induced coma, and after a month I was transported to a rehab hospital in Boston and initially I was transported to the third floor, which was Reserv for the most critical of cases.

And Colette, I hardly have any memory of being on the third floor, and that's. Because they were still in the process of taking me off of the drugs and medication. 

Colette Brown: From a 

Nick Prefontaine: partially induced coma. Just to give you you and your listeners an idea. even a sit up in bed supported by two or three nurses for only eight minutes at a time was a big deal for me.

I was sweating. I was sweating profusely. Like I had just ran a marathon. 

Colette Brown: Wow. 

Nick Prefontaine: I was being fed through a tube for, it was three weeks I was in the coma, but I was really fed through a tube for all that time. I had lost a lot of weight. So before my accident, I was 160 [00:12:00] pounds and I had dropped below, I think, dropped below 140 pounds.

Colette Brown: Wow. 

Nick Prefontaine: I had lost a lot of muscle and weight. Even setting up in bed was hard. 

Then really all my memories started, because even from that time, the third floor at the rehab hospital is vague.

I remember vague details about it. However, once I was transported downstairs to the second floor unit, that's where really. In my mind, my journey began, if you will. Just to give you an idea, I remember there were long days, like I would get up and I would need help, from my occupational therapist teaching me how shower again, I had to learn everything.

Everything all over again was all taken away from me and even so basic as the water comes before the soap, that kind of thing. Then I would have breakfast and I would start my morning sessions. I had double sessions of physical, [00:13:00] occupational, and speech therapy. Five days a week. I would start my morning sessions, physical, occupational and speech therapy.

And then after which we broke for lunch. I can remember in my hospital room, with my mom on one of these lunch breaks because I believe we got an hour for lunch. And at the time I was in a wheelchair just looking over my situation I can remember turning to my mom and saying, am I ever going to be able to walk again?

And she said, of course you are. That's what we're doing here so you can get everything back and we can go home. This allowed me to take that next step and keep working. 

Colette Brown: It's almost like you, the, it looked. To you, like this was that jump that you went to on the ski resort. And you said, I'm just gonna jump off that. There was no question, so I think you your recovery was similar that you just said, I'm gonna recover. 

Nick Prefontaine: Yeah, no, that's accurate. And [00:14:00] I think it was right along this time that I started to unknowingly use a system. To not only make a foot recovery but run out of the hospital.

What I can do is introduce that, give like a 10,000 foot view, if you will, and then if anyone's interested at the end, I can tell them how they can go and download the entire step system for free. 

Colette Brown: Love it. 

Nick Prefontaine: Make sure that you have the support of your family and friends right from the beginning.

This is going to have you falling back on relationships that you built prior to your setback. my support, I would have my mom with me every day and her parents, my grandparents with her most days during the week. They were there almost every day with us too. she was my advocate.

And then at night, I would have either my dad or an uncle or my grandfather come in and spend the nights with me. So I was never alone. There was always someone [00:15:00] with me. Back to the acronym, step, T is trust. So trust that once you take your first step, your next step's always going to be available to you.

And this also starts with trusting, the voice that we have inside. All of us has it, inside of ourselves. We all have it. I think we will discount it and push it down and push it away. Oh no, that's not realistic, or why I would never be able to do that. it, comes up all the time.

The way I can illustrate this is. This around the same time after I was transported to the rehab hospital, I was still in a wheelchair at this point. Couldn't talk, couldn't really project my voice. It was a whisper at best. And I could overhear my parents talking with my team of doctors and therapists, and they said, okay, what do we need to do to make sure Nick makes a full [00:16:00] recovery?

I heard in the back of my head, you're going to run out. So them running out of the hospital became our common goal that we were all shooting for and measuring everything against. 

Colette Brown: Nick, did you build a kind of a movie in your head of what this looked like? Were you manifesting, during that time before knowing what manifesting was?

Nick Prefontaine: This is interesting because, people will say to me after they hear me tell some of my story. They'll say, oh, that's great. Okay, so you analyze, I'm on letter T of the step system. No, not really. the step system was something that. I developed more recently after the fact, and I think we'll have enough time to share it.

 a mentor actually pulled it out of me by asking me, alright, so you have this great story. You were in a coma, you got in your accident, you were in a coma, and then you ran outta the hospital. How'd you do it? And I said, I dunno, right? 

Colette Brown: You were already thinking, I'm gonna [00:17:00] run out. So in your mind as that young boy, were you envisioning every day, not your step system, but I'm just running out. 

Nick Prefontaine: That was the thing I heard first in my head and then I saw Okay.

I saw, and then I was asking my therapists, okay, what do we have to do to make sure I'm okay? I'm accomplishing that. Running out of the hospital. 

Colette Brown: Amazing. 

Nick Prefontaine: maintaining your energy allows your body's natural ability to be able to heal itself. 

Medication has the potential to get in the way of that.

It wasn't like I could say no after my accident. My parents could say, oh, okay, no, we just wanna treat this holistically. We just wanna treat this with vitamin C You need it. There's a time and place for it. However, a month after my accident when I came out of the ICU was a time that we needed to allow the body to heal itself. 

So the way that energy fits into this by right around this time that I've already, hinted at, after I was transported to the [00:18:00] rehab hospital.

I was still probably a week or two from being cleared to walk, and I woke up. And what that meant, Colette, was I would have to, if I woke up in the middle of the night and I had to use the bathroom, I would always have to get someone's attention to help me to the bathroom. I was past falling and hurting myself in my mind. I already I was fairly confident. However, I woke up, so I leaned over my bed and because I wasn't able to project my voice, whoever was staying with me at the time, I think it was my grandfather Bob. I leaned over the bed and he didn't hear me, so I managed to hobble my way to the bathroom.

Nothing happened and I made it safely back into bed. However, the hospital found out the next day and they freaked out because they're like, oh, we can't have this and liability. And, what we're gonna do is give them this many ccs of this medication that many ccs of this other medication before bed.

And that [00:19:00] should calm him down so he's able to sleep through the night. And my mom heard this and she said, no, you're not. Just ask him not to do that. Yeah. So they asked not to do that. And it didn't happen. It didn't happen again. P is persistent. So once you take your first step. Keep getting up every day and taking your next step no matter how small.

And by continuing to move forward every day you are building an unstoppable momentum. So if you fast forward less than 60 days later, I realize my goal of running out of the hospital 

Colette Brown: amazing. And I had to continue to go to outpatient therapy. For another six months, along with being tutored all summer long in order to continue on to high school with the rest of my classmates.

Nick Prefontaine: So I wouldn't miss any time. that was definitely an interesting time because it's surreal to me. I'm sure you can relate to this dad, when you're younger, [00:20:00] time is compressed. So something like six months, 12 months, 18 months seems like a lifetime away. However, it's not that long.

Colette Brown: Yeah. 

Nick Prefontaine: The older I get, I'm realizing it's really not that long. 

and then after I graduated high school. I started working in real estate 

with my dad, 

 Ever since I've got outta school, I've always had this voice in the back of my head saying that, Nick. But what you really need to be doing is telling your story from stage and helping trauma survivors thrive with the rest of their lives.

So that voice has always been there, and starting in 2016. I've always had the opportunity to tell my story, whether it was for 5, 10 or 15 minutes. And I always thought, oh, okay. I'm listening to that voice in the back of my head. Not really.

Because it was, yeah, so that voice is still there. Just got quieter. [00:21:00] However, after hearing me share my story, and at this point, this was in 2019, September of 2019, my voice was like, really strained. It was like really hard to get the words up.

That's how it sounded. It didn't feel like that, but that's how it sounded. So someone heard me share my story and that was the longest that I had ever done it up until that point. And that was maybe 15 or 20 minutes. And I thought that was a huge deal. However, she approached me after hearing me talk.

she said, you have an amazing story. if you're ever looking to fine tune your message and bring it to another level. I can introduce you to a few coaches and mentors that have helped me along the way, and I wasn't ready yet because I was still in the final throws of that voice issue that I was dealing with.

However, I always held onto her card, and in May of 2021, I reached out to her. there's nothing wrong with my [00:22:00] voice anymore, but I had to get Botox injections, in my vocal fold for, seven or eight years, along with higher level, speech therapy to train my.

Throat muscles back to how they were, before I developed any issues. So finally that was outta my system. The last Botox treatment I had was, February 13th, 2020, before the world shut down, if you will. Wow. So I obviously don't need Botox anymore. It's been over five years. 

I reached out to her in May of 2021 and said, okay, I'm ready. And, I said, what should I do? And she said, okay, talk with, this mentor that I've had, and, she'll help you get started. 

And ever since that first conversation, Colette, there's been no voice in the back of my head. So what that's evidence of to me is that I'm doing exactly what I was put on this earth to do. 

Colette Brown: [00:23:00] amazing, and sometimes that's all it takes is a mentorship, a guide along the way, someone that can. Help see things in us that we can't or help extract something.

So if you're listening, don't be afraid to get a coach or a mentor to help you on your journey. One of the questions that I like to ask my guests is, we get towards the end is if this was the last message that you could broadcast out to the world, what would it be?

Nick Prefontaine: I find myself saying this more and more. But take care of yourself I get tuina body work and something else called myofascial release or craniosacral therapy.

Both of those once every five weeks to help keep my energy in tune and strong so I'm able to help affect and impact other people. And I just think if everyone had a routine of getting massages, getting tuina body work like that, the world [00:24:00] would be a much better place.

Colette Brown: That's great advice. And where can people go to find you? 

Nick Prefontaine: so we only went over a 10,000 foot view, of the STEP system, and to download the entire step system for free, you can go to Nick Prefontaine. Dot com slash step. And really that's gonna teach you all about support, trust, energy, and persistence. And especially for people that are out there that are stuck and they don't know what to do and they're not sure what their first step is, that's a great first step.

Because once you take your first step, there will always be a next step. 

Colette Brown: That's beautiful. Thank you so much. Nick, you're a gift. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for being brave, being bold, going out into the world and trying new things, and most importantly, stepping into that light of sharing your story because it's powerful, it's moving, it's inspiring.

So [00:25:00] thank you so much for all you do. 

Nick Prefontaine: You're very welcome. Colette, this has been fun. Thank you for having me. 

Colette Brown: Thank you, and if this story has touched you, please share it with your friend because when we share stories of healing, we can all heal together. I wanna thank everyone for listening, and until next time be well.

I.