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Sean Michael Crane's Unstoppable Mindset
Sean Crane shares his story of Redemption and how his struggles early on in life helped him develop a mindset and perspective that he has used to cultivate the life of his dreams. Sean walks you through his most gruesome moments from seeing his mother overdose as a kid to watching his father in a standoff with police. After years of experiencing a living hell Sean was arrested and faced life in prison. Sean shares the most impactful moments behind bars and how they changed his life forever. After 5 1/2 years incarcerated Sean returned home a different person with a compelling vision to inspire the world. Now, a family man, successful entrepreneur and person of influence, Sean is on a mission to spread his message and impact lives across the globe with his lessons and the same breakthroughs that have helped him in his life to this point.
Sean Michael Crane's Unstoppable Mindset
From Rock Bottom To Redemption Story
Rock bottom has a voice. Mine spoke to me from a stainless steel toilet in a prison cell at 23 years old, facing attempted murder charges after a party gone wrong. Each night, as Adele's "Someone Like You" played through the intercom, I'd stare through the tiny window slit in my door, contemplating how quickly life can unravel.
My downward spiral began with heartbreak. After my first serious relationship ended, I chose self-destruction—drinking, using drugs, and numbing the pain rather than processing it. That path led me straight to a prison cell where fluorescent lights and crushing uncertainty became my new reality. Court dates brought hope that quickly dissolved into despair when no favorable news materialized. Yet something remarkable happened in that tiny cell: instead of surrendering to victimhood, I made an unshakeable commitment to fight for redemption, regardless of what lay ahead.
For 2,000 days behind bars, I transformed that promise into action through consistent daily disciplines—working out, reading, writing, staying sober, and fighting through depression and anxiety. These weren't just activities to pass time; they were deliberate building blocks for the person I wanted to become. Years after my release, during a family vacation in Cancun, my three-year-old daughter spontaneously began singing "Someone Like You" as we walked under the lamplight. Tears streamed down my face as the universe revealed its perfect symmetry—the song that once symbolized my deepest despair now represented my greatest joy.
My journey proves that transformation doesn't happen overnight but through thousands of correct choices made consistently over time. If you're facing adversity or feeling stuck, know that change is possible when you commit to fighting for it. Whatever stands between you and your dreams, push through it, learn from it, and keep moving forward. The storybook ending you desire is possible—and when it arrives, you'll understand that every struggle was preparing you for something beautiful. Will you make the decision today that your future self will thank you for?
And I just started sabotaging the relationship. I started drinking, I started using drugs, I started acting just in ways that was pushing her away from me, and I remember in those moments, instead of feeling bad about my situation, instead of becoming a victim of those circumstances, I made a promising commitment to myself that I was gonna fight for whatever it took, for however long it took, to get over that challenge, to seek redemption, to live a better life, to become someone that I was truly proud of. You know, I'm being rewarded now for thousands and thousands of moments where I made the right decision and took the right course of action, and that's what it takes to rebuild your life. It's not gonna happen overnight, it's not gonna be easy, but it is so worth it in the end. Welcome back to another episode of the Unstoppable Mindset Podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, sean Crane, and today I got a sad story with a happy ending. That's kind of like my journey to this point in my life, right Sad beginning, a lot of adversity, a lot of challenges, with a happy ending, and I want to share this story in the hopes that somebody who's going through a struggle or a tough time. Here's my message, and it inspires you to not give up on yourself, and that's what it all comes down to, you guys, is. There's going to be a lot of tests on your journey. There's going to be a lot of things that don't go your way. There's going to be a lot of moments in which you had back. The thing that I've learned is that you must keep moving forward and everything you go through is a learning experience. A lot of people judge themselves, they get down on themselves and they have a couple bad moments in life, and it defines who they become for the rest of their lives. Now, I'm a guy who's been through a lot of stuff. Growing up, I went through a lot of struggles I document that often about my parents, addiction, a lot of chaos at home, and then that ultimately led me to go into prison, and I want to share with you guys something that's really, really profound, and it's a memory that's etched in my consciousness that, to this day, when I think about it, I get emotional and maybe you'll see me cry right here. Who knows, it does happen, especially when it's about my family and just about my story of redemption.
Speaker 1:I remember when I got arrested when I was 23, and I was sitting in this tiny little cell all day long, every day, for months on end. I had a lot of time to think and reflect and prior to me going to jail, I was in a relationship. It was the first girlfriend that I spent a significant amount of time with. In fact, we lived together. We had a dog, we had a cat. We were like doing the whole thing right and we were young. But we were committed to each other for nearly four years and right at the end of our relationship we both just knew we didn't want to be together. But it was one of those things where you stay together because it's comfortable, it's the known, and I just started sabotaging the relationship. I started drinking, I started using drugs, I started acting just in ways that was pushing her away from me. Eventually she left me. Eventually she found another guy that she started liking and she broke up with me. And that broke my heart because I didn't know what I was going to feel when I went through that breakup. I had never gone through it before. Now.
Speaker 1:Maybe some of you listening to this can recall your first time having your heart broken or just going through a breakup. It hurts, it's painful, it's very difficult, and I was a young guy and at that moment I just said F it, screw it. And I went even further into my addiction into my party ways and I just tried to numb that pain and that's what led me to being at a party in which I was accused of an attempted murder that I ended up going to prison for. So at 23, I was accused of an attempted murder that I ended up going to prison for. So at 23, I was accused of an attempted murder here in Santa Barbara, california, stemming from this brawl that took place at a party, and it's well documented. You could Google my name, you could see my mugshot, you could learn all the facts or the information surrounding the case.
Speaker 1:Anyway, when you're awaiting trial and going back and forth to court, it's man, it drains you. It's a very emotional thing because your fate is literally hanging in the balance and every time you go to court you get your hopes up that some new news is going to come out that's favorable to you, and then you come back to your cell, let down and just depleted. You just feel like the life is sucked out of you and I remember that would happen to me. Every couple of weeks. I'd go to court hoping new information would come out, hoping the truth would come out, hoping I'll get to get let out and go home and see my family. And you know I was very optimistic but it never happened.
Speaker 1:And so I remember I'd come back to court from court and just reflect, man, and just sit and dwell and I'd be silent in my cell and at night the officers would start to play music for us and they did this because they knew that we were just so isolated and lonely and miserable. They thought, hey, we're going to play music. It's going to echo down the hallway. They'd actually play it so we could hear it through our intercom in the cell and it was a way to maybe uplift our spirits a little Like not all the officers would do it, but some would.
Speaker 1:But at that time the song Someone Like you by Adele was playing on the radio 24-7, like all the time, and I remember at night that song would come on and I would just be sitting on the stainless steel toilet in my cell and I could see out of my cell door. There's a slit in the window like literally four inches wide, and I'll just be looking down the hallway and the lighting in. There is like that fluorescent lighting, you know, and I would just be just like lost in thought, just reflecting on my life, thinking about the breakup I just went through, thinking about my dad, who was slowly dying, and my mom who was slowly dying due to their addiction, thinking about all the stuff I didn't do in my life, thinking about the goals I had that I didn't pursue, thinking about the changes I had wanted to make but I was just too scared to make, or I procrastinated on because I didn't know how quickly things could be taken away from you. And that song was just breaking my heart 1000 times over, you know, like those words were just piercing to my heart and it was painful it was so painful to sit there on that stainless steel toilet and that tiny little cell, thinking my life was over, I'm hungry, I'm lonely, I'm scared, I'm broken down, you know, and just gosh, this is what my life has come to, this moment.
Speaker 1:And I remember in those moments thinking what is in store for me in the future, like what is my life going to be? Like I couldn't see it. I couldn't see it, and it was just this mysterious thing to think about the future and wonder what is my life going to come to Like? How much time am I going to do in prison? What is going to happen to me in the future? And I remember in those moments, instead of feeling bad about my situation, instead of becoming a victim of those circumstances, I made a promise and commitment to myself that I was going to fight for whatever it took, for however long it took, to get over that challenge, to seek redemption, to live a better life, to become someone that I was truly proud of.
Speaker 1:Like something started stirring in me in those moments that inspired me to fight for a better life, and I'm telling you, I had no idea how much time I was going to do in prison or what the future held in store for me, and so, from that moment forward, each and every day, I started making good decisions. I started making decisions to better myself, to lead to a better life, and little things. I share this. All the time, I started just working out, reading and writing. Every day, though, it was a conscious effort to improve myself and to fight through depression, to fight through fear, to fight through anxiety, to stay sober and fight through that addiction that I had. Like every day. It was a choice, a conscious effort that I was going to fight to be a better person and live a better life, and so that was my mindset going into prison and through prison, and five and a half years came and went. I got out and I got a second chance to rebuild my life. I did five and a half years. I didn't do life in prison obviously I'm here now so I did over 2,000 days in prison.
Speaker 1:When I got out, I wanted nothing more than to start a family, to build a business around my mindset, my life experience, and become a coach and help people. And I started doing all those things. And then, you know, as my children were born first it was Scarlett and then Preston, and I had Mason, who is my stepson, but he was getting older and I remember we took a family trip to Cancun and we were rolling around at night. It was like really humid and hot out, so we wanted to get outside and walk. We're on this beautiful vacation. You know, I got my family, I got my second chance at life.
Speaker 1:You know, at that time I was like almost a decade sober already and my daughter, scarlett, out of nowhere, started singing the song Someone Like you, and I remember her beautiful little face man under like the lamppost that we were on the path we were walking on. She's singing out the words and I have a video of it, and she's belting out Adele's song someone like you. And she's saying, never mind, I'll find someone like you. And she's singing with her whole heart in it. You know she's three years old at the time and it just broke me.
Speaker 1:In that moment I started crying, like tears started streaming down my face and I remember going, oh gosh, like this is such a surreal moment. This is the song that used to come on every night when I was facing life in prison and I didn't know what the future held in store for me. And here I am, removed from that situation. Six, seven, eight years later I don't remember the exact timeframe and my baby girl is singing this song and when she sings it it sounds so beautiful because now it has a happy ending. You see, when I first heard that song, it was sad, it was sorrowful, it was crushing my spirit, man, it was breaking my heart a thousand times over. But now, eight years later, it has a happy ending and I love that song and I'll even put it on the radio every so often and listen to it, and it takes me back to those moments when I didn't know what the future held in store for me and I made a decision to fight.
Speaker 1:And so my message for you guys is like, if you're going through a tough time right now, or you're scared, or you feel stuck, or something in your life is not what you want it to be, things can change, but change. But what are the decisions you're going to make today? What are the changes you're going to make today that are going to create that new life for you in the future, so that you can have that moment like I did where I'm in beautiful Cancun, mexico, all-inclusive vacation with my family, built my business, got the dream life that I wanted. I'm there with my loved ones and my baby girl singing that song to me, you know, and I felt like it was God, like reaching out of the sky and saying like see, son, I told you, if you listen to me and you have the courage to follow the path that I've been calling you on your entire life, these are the moments that you're going to get to have. These are the experiences you're going to get to have.
Speaker 1:This is the life that you get to live now, because what a lot of people didn't see when I was in prison was the thousands of choices that I made to do the right thing, the thousands and thousands of moments where I had fear or doubt or anxiety or stress or all these things plaguing me, but I chose to be the person I was supposed to be, to take the correct action, to stay sober, to get up and work out, to study my college books, to read, to educate myself, to build up that confidence, to instill that discipline.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm being rewarded now for thousands and thousands of moments where I made the right decision and took the right course of action, and that's what it takes to rebuild your life.
Speaker 1:It's not going to happen overnight, it's not going to be easy, but it is so worth it in the end. You all need to have that storybook ending to your life where, like, yeah, you went through the challenges, yeah, you were faced with adversity, yeah, you were scared, but you chose to fight and you chose to go after the life that God put on your heart and make it a reality, like that's the most beautiful experience to ever have. And so the message for anyone that's listening to this right now. Whatever gets in your way on your path to the life that you're being called to live, you got to fight to get through it, fight to get around it, fight to overcome it, learn the lesson and keep moving forward. And I'm telling you can have one of those special moments, like I had, where everything just clicks and makes sense and you look back on all those decisions, all those moments and you're immensely grateful that you chose to fight rather than give up on yourself.
