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Sean Wachter is Kicking Cancer's A$$ · The Uplifters

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: an uplifter is a compelling leader who tries to breathe life and hope into people around them who listen and care and guide and help whose way of being in the world inspires who uplifts with humor and understanding
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: who leads by example don't judge vulnerable bold determination who are here to create a better world who can learn and teach who encourages you who shines their light to lead other people who uses their best self in order to help others I found the life that I liked and I worked toward that we are all uplifters big love who do
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_01: my name is Janet Preet and I'm nominating Sean Wachter for The Uplifters he inspires me with his positivity his generosity and his compassion for others
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: welcome to The Uplifters podcast I'm your host Aransas Savas and today I'm joined by Sean Wachter he's a business development manager he's a husband a father of two young girls he also happens to have a Rosie the Riveter tattoo on his arm and he happens to be a former two-sport collegiate athlete a former pro football player and after battling and surviving a rare form of melanoma he
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: he finds himself using wrestling of all things to raise awareness and funding for cancer research all while finishing his MBA and working with several major cancer organizations and Sean's story is so special and so inspiring that he's the first guy that we featured on The Uplifters podcast
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I know there's a lot of uplifting men out there, but I think there are so many women's stories that we've had a packed calendar.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: But we were really excited to meet Sean via Janet Preet, who nominated him.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: So Sean, thanks for joining us.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_03: thank you for having me as a progressive person I always enjoy getting to be the first and encouraging others to be the first in any other endeavor that they can be the first in so it's truly an honor for you to be having me as your first male guest thank you thanks for being here and it's interesting that you say it that way because we do talk to a lot of trailblazing women and there are a lot of trails to blaze in this world
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: so Sean speaking of trailblazing it is rare to be a two-sport collegiate athlete
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_03: I woof and I shake my head because I'll tell you and I'm sure any listeners you may have that have children that are involved in even some high school athletics but especially collegiate athletics or even any listeners that you have that may be in collegiate athletics once you get out of high school and you get into college when you get in the door and you play a sport there your academics take second seat and
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_03: and when you go into a situation like myself playing both collegiate football and collegiate lacrosse the academics takes a fourth seat with that third seat being filled by social engagements we'll call it so it was not necessarily the best thing there are people that are far more mature than I was at that age that could handle that but uh oh goodness that uh that led to me having to transfer
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: and then you went on to be a pro football player.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Who did you play for?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: I played for the New York Dragons in the Arena Football League and right after preseason they very politely told me that I was not good enough.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_03: So they released me and my contract was picked up by the New Jersey Revolution who I spent the
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: 2008 season with and I was supposed to go up and play in the Canadian Football League directly after that season ended but unfortunately I had a career-ending shoulder injury and a pectoral tear that just kind of made me sit there and go all right we took this as far as we could what's the next adventure that life's going to bring to us
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: wow and now wrestling I've been a fan of professional wrestling since I could probably crawl and when my father has those reflective moments he goes what's the what could I have done better and I joke with him I go you shouldn't have sat me down in front of pro wrestling
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's always been my rock in the storm, and I've always used it as kind of a place to get lost when life kind of gets a little funky.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_03: But when I was a senior in high school, I met a couple of guys at the local gym that were doing it, and they thought I was much older and said, Hey, why don't you come down and train with us?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I started to do it.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I caught a little bit of a beating because many, many moons ago, things are predetermined.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: I hate to break it to anyone out there that didn't know that.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: but uh we're still getting in there we're still getting physical and back then it was very old school you know they were uh what they call protective of the business of wrestling where they just didn't want to let anyone know off the street you had to kind of earn your mustard so to speak and they gave me a little bit of a whooping but
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: After three months of going down there as an 18-year-old man, my father, who thought I was going to church on Sunday mornings, decided to follow me down to the local wrestling school.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: Unbeknownst to me, as he's a retired narcotics detective, so he's very good at following people and figuring out the truth, which was not fun growing up.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: But he said to me, what the heck are you doing?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: And he heard the noise from the ring coming from the little warehouse we were training.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: He said, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: you have football in the line my friend and a few of these schools are offering you money and you're basically trying to take my coupon away so no no wrestling for you so I actually revisited wrestling after I rehabbed my shoulder injury
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: because I said well now at the age of 24 hopefully I won't get much guff from my folks and I gave it a whirl for a little while I even was fortunate enough to have a tryout with World Wrestling Entertainment I had a few things I needed to brush up on according to them and then they were going to bring me down to their developmental system in Florida which was
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: talk about a dream come true and unfortunately a few weeks later I was involved in a really bad accident and I broke my neck in my back and I lost my ability to walk and that took a little while to regain that and then three years into that I
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: that's when we got hit with the cancer you spent so many years getting praised for your physical form and for your ability to fight and be strong and sort of this invincible character so what was this diagnosis like for you
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_03: well I think every step of the way so I broke my neck in my back when I was 27 and I think that was a little bit humbling yeah I was diagnosed when I was 31 but in between 27 and 31 I was living a life but it was not a fulfilling or rewarding one I wasn't doing anything off-color or out of you know something that my parents wouldn't be too proud of or anything like that but I
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: it just it was listless it just kind of was going through the motions and just doing my thing at 31 when I got diagnosed with cancer I'm not that much of a spiritual person but whatever is out there whatever is up there I think was trying to say to me hey you got to give a little bit more and if you're not going to give a little bit more well you're not going to be around to give and I got humbled
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: and when I got that diagnosis it came after months of begging and pleading with doctors and everything I was telling them was just being accredited to my accident and my neck and back injury and constantly advocating to myself for myself to the point that my local hospital almost put me on a a psych hold because they thought this was all in my head well wow
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: not uh well what the heck let's let's make light of a situation pun intended yes it was all in my head because when I went back there the next time they found a golf ball sized tumor in my cerebellum that they refused to do a scan on and now here I was laying there at
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_03: 31 in front of my father having a massive stroke and brain bleed so it was just kind of like let's see where we go from there very fortunate to have my father worked in a very very rough area Vietnam vet
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: but he has a way about him that he's the one who broke the news to me that I had cancer because the hospital wanted to wait and he's done such a good job preparing me to handle the toughest times that life has had to offer that when he told me it wasn't almost you know a shock it was almost like a very stoic response from both of us like okay we have some work to do.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remember what he said to you?
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: when I found out that I was possibly never gonna walk again as a result of my accident I started to tear up a little bit and my dad put his hand on my leg underneath the doctor's table and said I need you to toughen the blank up right now and I just kind of snapped to it and when it came time for him to tell me
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: I had cancer this was a week being in and out of it receiving transfusions here tumor your brain automatically goes to cancer so when he told me my mother was there he was there any any very
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_03: gingerly put his hand on my ankle very opposite of how he was with the walking incident but i kind of just looked at him i saw it in his eyes and he said sean i don't know how to tell you this buddy but you have cancer i said all right dad we got work to do just because i kind of he knew what i needed but i could see it in his eyes i knew what he needed and
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_03: you know up until I started to date my wife and have my two daughters it's always been my mom my dad and me that was it it was just the three of us and my dad's my best friend so I just kind of tried to lean on him as he leaned on me and we got through it together and that was pretty much the first couple days of it the next three weeks was spent with
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: goodness you think that the hospital became a convention center I had over 30 high school and college football teammates who banded together some of these guys never even speaking with each other other than an email that they got put on when I got sick
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: and they formulated a schedule of care and companionship that honestly I it just really made me sorry it's just it's it's difficult when you don't realize how much of an impact you have on other people it was probably the first day or two that I was in the step-down unit
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_03: and it's Monday night during the fall and all of a sudden I hear this big banging at my hospital door and I'm thinking oh goodness what's going on now you know and in comes four or five of my college teammates with a big cooler filled with beer and Jack Daniels and pizza pies and I said what are you guys doing here and they said
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: Monday night we watch Monday night football together every Monday I said yeah but this is the hospital and next thing you know the nurse is coming in with cups of ice and she said you guys have a great time so that was uh that was pretty special and that was kind of like one of the first earmarks where I was like no you you can't be satisfied with whatever they tell you you need to you need to get up on your horse kid and you need to fight this thing
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: what did that look like for you Sean when I left the hospital I was in my parents house and I had never lived in that house so it wasn't the one I grew up in I uh was sleeping in a guest room in a small little twin bed and I guess that's when the sorry started to kick in feeling bad feeling sorry for myself and I remember going on YouTube and I just said what can I do I just typed in motivation and uh brilliant speaker came up brilliant gentleman's name is Inky Johnson are you familiar with him at all I'm not
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: no inky Johnson is a former University of Tennessee a division one football cornerback he was projected to be a first-round draft pick just like any movie or book you know grew up poor in the south nine brothers and sisters single mom living in that house and his NFL career was gonna get everyone out of there and he was gonna do it and
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: freak accident routine tackle tore every nerve and artery in his shoulder apart and he was told you'll never play football again you'll never have use of this arm again and you may not live and unfortunately two of the three things came true I wasn't able to use that arm he most certainly wasn't able to play football but as he laid there and thought about maybe calling it a day or just
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: giving his will up and just saying whatever happens I'm done he realized that he still had all those people that counted on him and loved him and much like those 30 maniacs that kept showing up in my hospital and my other friends and family members and my mom and my dad I realized
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: this isn't about Sean this isn't about me at all and that was the video I listened to was he calls it it's not about you and when you realize that you kind of realize that you're not in this little bubble it's part of a bigger picture and
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_03: cancer takes a community and that's so important I feel for people to have their own community around them however that may look whether it be your local church group a fraternal organization friends family it's just having a support system is so important in that battle because I could sit here and claim to be the strongest son of a gun there is but you know what at the end of the day I had a whole army behind me
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: little bit easier.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: And now it sounds as though you've made it your mission to build an army for others who are experiencing rare cancers.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: Having this rare form of cancer and then being told you only have 12 weeks to live and you need to get your affairs in order.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: and now I'm going on seven and a half years of life and I am the only documented case of my cancer DNA certified that it's like I never even had the cancer to begin with so Wow I realize with all the wonderful opportunities I had look while I was sick I started to date my wife
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_03: you know we eventually want to be married I helped raise my stepdaughter since she was 14 months old she's gonna be eight soon about a month ago had a daughter of my own while I was sick I started the largest independent coffee company on Long Island at the time so I like to show people there's life during and after cancer now to touch on what you said
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to use a very interesting platform at the almost age of 40 I'm going to be 39 in December to show people as I said there's life during and after cancer but more importantly if I can inspire one person with what I do to either
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: little fuller or fight a little bit harder I go down the same cancer road a thousand times over I would do it just like Bill Murray and Groundhog's Day I take my worst day of cancer I relive it every single day because that's all I want to do because to not live a life of service and not to live the fullest I could after having all that support it would be spitting in the face of anyone that ever believed in me
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_03: that takes responsibility and purpose to a whole new level Sean I do feel that I have a great responsibility because in so many other areas or avenues of life to say oh I'm the only person to do something ever like yeah that's something normally people puff their chest about but I don't want to puff my chest I don't want to be one of one I want to be
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_03: one of a million or a billionaire or none of none because quite frankly when I was given the the all-clear sign those same yahoos that packed me up and helped me along the way said hey buddy you got you gotta have a wild party and I said no I'm not gonna do a party and they said why you should celebrate and I said why why celebrate I got brothers and sisters that are still stuck in this I don't deserve this
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: you know it's just like when I was at Sloan Kettering and I saw kids as old as two or three getting radiation and I said I don't need the prayers I don't need the sorries I've made every mistake a 31 year old man could make those kids even haven't had a chance to steal a cookie yet so no don't feel bad for me so what I did to meet my friends halfway was I said I'll have a fundraiser
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: and we threw this fundraiser for Sloan Kettering kids and obviously you need to be able to offer something to someone as a form of entertainment or an incentive I'm not much of a golfer when I broke my neck and couldn't play golf anymore my father said I did the world of golf a favor so we weren't gonna have a golf outing and I can't sing or dance so we weren't gonna have a band
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_03: so my buddies said well why don't we get the local wrestling group to come down and said okay fine and then all of a sudden some genius out of the group got the idea well what if you got back in there and I said no one wants to see that I haven't been in a wrestling ring at that point in 11 or 12 years but again one of my darling friends took it upon themselves to put a poll on Facebook and say if Sean wrestles will you come and would you give more money
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: and it was like a resounding 97 percent yes so and the one person who said no was probably my mom and my wife and my dad but but the rest we're all in I wound up finding a guy you know out of this group who had wrestled for over 15 years and we were very careful we were very protective and he held my hand
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_03: through this whole match and we got through it and we ran up raising about five thousand dollars for Sloan Kettering kids which was great and then the following year everyone got on my butt again and I tried to say hey look it's one and done one and done and then my beautiful bestest friend in the whole world my stepdaughter said to me daddy I didn't get to see your wrestle last year
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_03: so I said like any good husband would do need to go ask mommy and mommy came back with some expletives towards me and when she realized that I actually didn't task her with this so that the other people were kind of asking too she said all right one more match well it's turned into about 10 now but we put on this awesome event we did it for St.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: Jude's this time at a request and
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: and we were able to raise about seven thousand dollars but what was unique about it this time was all the local media showed up and now the local media is there you wind up getting the local politicians so everyone wants their photo taken here's the key to Nassau County here is this here is that not what I was doing it for
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_03: but the local Long Island newspaper did a lovely two-page article on me with this incredible cover photo that my wife would like to shoot me for because there I am an exceptionally good shape no shirt on with this belt over my head
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: and we thought that was it and we're like okay well that's nice and I wound up putting it on LinkedIn and all of a sudden ESPN came in and said hey can we talk
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_03: so we've had some conversations and I've come to an agreement with the V Foundation and you know I'm working with the Melanoma Research Alliance right now as well and Sloan Kettering and to top it off because of all this great work that's going on we were able to put on a benefit to coincide with the
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: largest independent wrestling show in Long Island history that was attended by over 2,000 people and the numbskull you're talking to happened to be in the main event and trios championship title here so that was pretty cool to get to do that and I actually got to win that with a uh
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: former WWE tag team champion who had previously been partners and wrestled with Ric Flair and Roddy Piper so it's kind of like wow even I know who Roddy Piper is things right now are amazing but I want to make sure that people realize that
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not doing this to raise the awareness of Sean Wachter right I'm doing this to raise the awareness of how important it is to help fund clinical research and clinical trials I know right now we are in a really tough spot in this country financially I know everybody is hurting but I'll tell you helping fund clinical research is what cuts people like myself alive because as I've started to work with the V Foundation a little bit more
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_03: I found out that my head oncologist, when she was presented with the rare cancer that I had gotten, she used her grant money from the V Foundation to actually formulate the treatment plan for me that clearly was successful.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: It is so striking to hear that the cancer was born in you at a time where you lacked purpose.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: Oh it truly was and I tell people this and they'll look at me with like I have nine heads but cancer was the most beautiful thing to ever happen to me it cleansed me it made me whole and made me look at this world in a in a way that I could have never looked at it before and when I asked my wife why me because she had a front row seat to it because I kept a live journal on Facebook because
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: it was almost a very cathartic exercise but at the same time my poor mother was having to deal with all of you how is he doing what's going on so I said you know what let me group everybody in and my wife who I knew since I was a little boy witnessed on Facebook everything I was going through and I said to her why me why did you bless me with getting to help you raise your daughter who
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_03: frankly if it wasn't for her I wouldn't even want to have a child of my own and as far as I'm concerned I'm not a delusional man but she's my child too and I asked her why me and she was leaving a pretty rough situation but she said you inspired me I believed in you and it was nice to see that there was good in the world and I owe her and her daughter my life
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: You talk so much about the power and the transformation of support and whether it is your parents or your friends or your doctors or your wife and daughters.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: and it is this showing up for one another and sharing our stories honestly that gives us the strength to overcome and to find purpose and I'm just so glad you are here because well your story is unique to you everyone out there listening has their own challenges and everyone out there has their own hunger for purpose and impact and
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_03: because that is as fundamental to us as human beings as our need for oxygen this may sound strange from the guy who when he doesn't have his glasses on or his shirts off you know I'm covered in tattoos I'm not the softest looking guy but if I had one request for everyone out there
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: honestly it would just be to practice a little bit more kindness I know right now like I said everyone's in their own way struggling or hurting right now but I think we just need to be just a little bit better to one another regardless of color belief political whatever it is you know what
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_03: we're all on the same rock floating around the sun that's what it all boils down to no one's better than anybody else my struggle has not been harder than anybody else I'm no better than anybody else I think everyone has it within them just to do a little bit better and if we just hold it a little bit better I think we'd find that this place will be better off for it
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: and just like Inky's words helped you find that within yourself your words no doubt will help others find that within themselves I could only hope and if they do like I said I've I've served my purpose thank you Sean Uplifters thank you for listening and thank you so much for having me it's been an absolute pleasure
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'll see you over at theuplifterspodcast.com where you'll hear more from uplifters like Sean as well as lots of tips resources and ideas to help us all keep rising higher together
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: thank you for listening
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: wherever you get your podcast and like follow and rate our show it'll really help us connect with more uplifters and it'll ensure you never miss one of these beautiful stories big love
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Painted water sunshine with rosemary and time well not perplexing though you find it vexing Toss a star and hover be your own best love relish in a new prime and a tree in springtime Dance with that all hindsight bring the Sun to twilight
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: lift you up lift you up lift you up lift you up
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: little thing you did with your voice right in the pre-chorus mommy stop crying you're disturbing the peace