Bouncing Back. Steps to Overcome Trauma

·43 min·3 clips

Nick Prefontaine recalls the icy jump that left him in a coma, saved only by a paramedic who could intubate on the spot.

Sean Yesner and financial coach George Cabello host guest Nick Prefontaine, a motivational speaker and real estate investor who survived a traumatic brain injury. Prefontaine recounts his snowboarding accident at age 14, where he landed on his head without a helmet and was placed in a medically induced coma for three weeks. Doctors told his parents he would likely never walk, talk, or eat independently again. Prefontaine describes several critical factors in his survival, including a paramedic who could intubate him on the mountain and the thick padding of his goggles cushioning repeated impacts. His mother insisted doctors deliver the grim prognosis outside his room, believing he could still hear while comatose. He spent a month in intensive care before transferring to a rehabilitation hospital in Boston, where his first memories returned. Prefontaine developed a system called STEP, an acronym for Support, Trust, Energy, and Persistence, which he now teaches to clients. He secretly practiced walking to the bathroom at night against hospital protocols, which prompted staff to consider sedating him until his mother intervened. Less than 60 days after setting the goal, he ran out of the hospital, though he continued outpatient therapy for six months. At age 15, he began door-knocking for his father's real estate investment company, targeting homeowners facing foreclosure. A lingering effect of his injury is a minor tremor in his right hand, which led him to teach himself to write left-handed. Prefontaine explains he now works with clients facing various traumas, including health diagnoses, family illness, or death, emphasizing he does not want his dramatic story to diminish others' experiences. He shares a case where he helped a woman wean off a decade-long medication causing strokes and tremors by coordinating her specialists. Prefontaine's family health insurance covered the initial $250,000 hospital bill, leading to a lifelong loyalty to that insurer until recently. To expand his speaking career, he financed a $25,000 speaker training program and later a $75,000 one-on-one coaching package through a personal loan, which he paid off over three years. He states that paying off that debt brought a significant sense of freedom and confirms he is now doing his life's work. His key advice is to ignore overwhelming long-term forecasts and focus solely on the immediate next step, using his own eight-year voice disorder recovery as an example. The tone is conversational and inspirational, blending personal narrative with practical coaching advice. Listeners interested in overcoming personal adversity, trauma recovery, or motivational business stories would find this episode compelling. Those seeking strictly technical financial debt strategies without a personal development angle might find the focus less relevant.

As heard by us

A conversational debt-and-life episode that turns recovery into something practical.

This hour begins with summer spending and Disney guilt before moving into Nick Prefontaine's recovery story, which gives it a clear emotional arc.

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Why you'd press play

If trauma has scrambled your plan, this stays practical without getting clinical.

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