From Stage 3 Cancer Survivor to TEDx Speaker: Savio P. Clemente's Inspiring Journey

Savio P. Clemente, a TEDx speaker, wellness coach, and cancer survivor, shares his journey and mission to empower others. He emphasizes the importance of loving your inner stranger and harnessing resilience for personal growth and effective leadership. Savio discusses the connection between wellness and leadership, the significance of self-awareness and self-compassion, and the power of storytelling. He encourages individuals to transform obstacles into opportunities for growth and offers advice on finding purpose and setting oneself up for success. Savio's work and insights inspire resilience and transformation.

Savio P. Clemente, TEDx speaker, wellness coach, cancer survivor, empowerment, inner stranger, resilience, personal growth, effective leadership, self-awareness, self-compassion, storytelling, obstacles, opportunities, purpose, success

• Loving your inner stranger and embracing resilience are crucial for personal growth and effective leadership.
• Self-awareness and self-compassion are key to transforming obstacles into opportunities for growth.
• Storytelling is a powerful tool for inspiring and connecting with others.
• Finding purpose and setting oneself up for success require surveying oneself, embracing passion and fun, and seeking guidance from mentors.
• Spreading a message of resilience and transformation involves engaging with the audience on a personal level and understanding their underlying motivations.
• Wellness and effective leadership are interconnected, and both require deep-rooted questions and a vision for how one wants to be and act in the world.

Sound Bites
"To know thyself is to heal thyself."

• "You can't fix a problem with the same consciousness that created it."
• "Love your inner stranger, figure out ways to actually allow yourself to be seen and have the confidence to know that you matter."

0:0 Introduction and Savio's Journey
3:11 Empowering Others through Resilience and Transformation
6:04 The Importance of Self-Awareness and Self-Compassion
8:55 Loving Your Inner Stranger: Embracing Resilience for Personal Growth
11:38 The Connection Between Wellness and Effective Leadership
14:16 The Power of Storytelling in Inspiring and Connecting with Others
20:39 Engaging with the Audience: Spreading a Message of Resilience
23:29 Upcoming Projects and Initiatives
26:08 Conclusion

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome back to Boardsi Leadership Talks. I'm your host, Martin Rowinski CEO of Boardsi. And today we have an incredible guest, Savio P. Clemente. Hopefully I pronounced his last name okay. Savio is a TEDx speaker, board certified wellness coach and stage three cancer survivor who has transformed his experience into a mission. to empower others. Through his best -selling book, media journalism and coaching, he inspires individuals to love their inner stranger and unleash their full potential. Savio, welcome to the show. Martin, what a great intro. Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm excited to dig on in. So let's see where this conversation takes us. Awesome. Well, again, welcome. And to start, can you share a bit about your journey from being a stage three cancer survivor to becoming a TEDx speaker and wellness coach? to know that story. It's like the it's almost like I was born with cancer. No. So cancer, without joking, came into my life in July of 2014. I was on a trip with a friend to Amsterdam, Paris, and London. I kept getting deep night sweats when I woke up in the morning and I'm like, what's this? I ended up coming back to the States. I had him again. At that point in my life, I only saw a naturopath, which basically analyzed my blood work and my dietary structure for about 10 years. He looked at it. He's like, This could be two or three different things. My friend, he's like, go get a sonogram. I'm like, a sonogram? He's like, a sonogram. I'm like, okay. I ended up getting a sonogram. I did it. They wouldn't let me leave the office for an hour and a half. Finally, they came out, told me that a relative or a friend would have to come pick me up. I'm like, why? And they're like, just take, just, you gotta go to the hospital. I'm like, okay, go to the hospital. Within an hour, I was admitted to the fifth floor. And then literally that night, I heard nurses speaking and talking to one another that I would be transferred to the seventh floor, which they call the cancer floor. So that's the first idea that I had that I knew I had cancer. It wasn't until the day later when they ended up putting a nephrostomy tube that the doctor whispered in my ear, it's stage three non -Hodgkin's lymphoma. He said to me, however, that if there's a cancer to get, this was the cancer to get, not that anyone wants cancer. And he did say to me that they have amazing biologics and immunotherapy that would help with that. Of course, that means nothing to the person who got the diagnosis, but that is the origin story of how I found out I had cancer. Yeah, I'm not even sure if you hear any of that at that point, right? All you hear is cancer. That's crazy. and because they put the nephrostomy tube, I was bedridden for a week. So they had to distend about seven liters of fluid from my abdomen. I had something called ascites. So my stomach started getting bigger and bigger. And literally six days into the rest of the seven days bedridden, I was told by the medical director that if I didn't start my first round of chemo, she doesn't know what would happen to me. And I'm like, whoa. She's like, yup. So I ended up doing my first round of chemo. and I did five other successive rounds every three weeks. Chemo was anywhere from five to six hours a day. And on top of that, because I believe wholeheartedly in body autonomy, I decided to do a whole bunch of integrative modalities. So I did that on off weeks. And my story goes that in about four and a half months of getting the diagnosis that December of the same year, five days before Christmas, I was told that I was in remission. And this past December of 2023, While I was in India with Natural Geographic, I hit my nine year remission mark. Well, your story is incredibly inspiring and congratulations on whooping cancer's ass. How did your battle with cancer shape your mission to empower others? And I'm guessing especially cancer survivors and leaders among us, you know, we're all, whether you're a leader or not, we're all humans, so. Yeah, so it was literally five years into it because they tell you always that cancer, it's not a guarantee, but after five years, it's less likely to occur. And so after five years, I said, well, what am I going to do? Like I, my background was IT and information systems. I was good at it, but I said, this happened to me. This was trusted upon me. I somehow survived it. So what am I going to do? So I ended up deciding that this was going to be my new passion. And so I ended up getting my board certification in wellness coaching. It's the same certification. The board certification is from the NBME, which is the National Board of Medical Examiner's who give doctors there. It's the same. So it was like a four and a half hour test during COVID wearing a mask. But I did it. I did it. And I decided for myself, I use my journalism in order to pitch an idea to my editor. And I said, what about doing some of my cancer survivors? She's like, okay. So he thought of a great title. I survived cancer. Here's how I did it. At this point, I've interviewed 200 cancer survivors, all walks of life, different types of cancer. And from that interview series, my editor said to me, let's make this into a book. I made it into a book. And literally the day after my birthday, it became a best seller in a few categories, which to me, beyond the best seller status, which is great, it's about the story of hope survived, that people can actually overcome this, that cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence, because I kept hearing that over and over again, that I'm not just a statistic, I'm just not someone. And so all that really shaped my, my foray this past October into giving my TEDx talk. So I talked obviously about my cancer journey. I talked about what I discovered when it comes to wellness and illness, my interviews with cancer survivors, and also a pivotal point in that is, was a call to action is really telling individuals, we can't choose whether you're a leader or aspiring leader or just a regular person on this earth, trying to create great things for yourself and for your family. At the end of the day, We have a choice. These things are thrust upon us. We don't know the cause of the effect. Who knows? But we have a choice and the choice is whether or not we want to move forward. So I coined a great acronym in my TEDx talk. It's called the Aloha Reboot. So A stands for acknowledge. Okay, all right. Yeah, so A stands for acknowledge. So acknowledge where you are in the moment. L stands for listening. So listen to that inner voice. O stands for opening, and this is a huge part. It's opening yourself up to self-compassion and self -forgiveness, which honestly, cancer tested me on that because I'm great at being there for other people, but I don't know if I'm so great at being there for myself. H stands for harnessing, so harness that wisdom. And A stands for accepting or acting with purpose from what you glean. And all this really came from the healing modalities that I researched because for me, cancer was a... a way and means for me to feel like I had to focus like a laser beam on the healing. I let everything else go and I told people, I love you, but I need to love myself. And this, I need to figure out something. I need to make sense of all this. I need to figure out how I can heal from it because I tell people all the time as a coach, healing doesn't always occur in the, in the medical office. Healing doesn't always occur in the cancer bay. It occurs in moments where you don't even know it's a mystery to a lot of us. And so I just, wanted other people to have that call to action in my TEDx talk because the underlying element of all this is this idea to know thyself is to heal thyself. And if you don't know yourself, there's no way you're able to heal yourself. Doctors do what they do. They have the tests, they have the great treatments, but the part that you need to do, that's up to you. You need to meet healing where it is. So also speaking of your book, in your book you emphasize the importance of loving your inner stranger. What do you mean by this and why is it crucial for personal growth? Yeah, so I left the inner stranger nebulous on purpose because it's the inner stranger is not the inner critics not the one that's pounding you the inner stranger is not your inner child It could be doesn't have to be the inner stranger for me If I have to speak candidly was and bernay brown would have a field day with me. It was shame I felt shame with my cancer. I can't explain it people don't understand it unless you've been through it I felt vulnerability because now I had to rely on other people. I was like like a passionate independent person for majority of my life. I took a trip to Australia when I was in my early 20s by myself. I was like that guy and that's what the industry did to me because I saw my physical body, Savio dying at stage three with all these things hooked up to me. But this other part of me was still alive. My mental acumen was still there. I was like researching. I set up a Google alert on my disease. I was getting all this information from Sloan Kettering and... And then my emotions were still alive. I was feeling and sensing things. I had four roommates, two of them had brain cancer. I could feel and sense for their particular pain. My relationship with my friends and family who came visit me were there. I had dreams, I had vivid dreams. My spirituality, I grew up Catholic, but I was someone who explored different belief systems from Buddhism to spirituality. And so that was all alive in me. And I'm like, well, how can I pull this? How can I take the stranger that's dying? And that was the genesis of the stranger. Other people have said that the stranger for them is that part of themselves that they never felt that they were good enough for, that they never felt that they could rise to, that they never felt that they could achieve. Other people who believe in like Buddhism think of the inner stranger as a past life that they had, that they can't shake off, that they can't overcome. And so I left it purposely on that because I want people to think for themselves because in order to really figure out any problem in life, you have to first go within. in order to figure it out. And as Einstein beautifully stated, you can't fix a problem with the same consciousness that created it. You have to think differently. How do you think differently? You got to go inward first because it's always an inside job. Always an inside job. And stranger can be different for everybody, like you said. So as someone who covers wellness trends and you get to collaborate with notable personalities, how do you see that connection between wellness and effective leadership? Yeah, so I've had the good fortune of interviewing celebrities like Venus Williams, who talked very candidly about her gastrointestinal issues, that it impeded her ability to perform. Talked to people like Ice T and Deborah Messing and Carson Kressley, individuals who society thinks to a large degree, they have it all. And when it comes to understanding where that pain and that purpose is, I think the key element is that most people really believe for themselves that they can't shake that problem. that the problem is too big for them. And so I often tell individuals, well, not only gratitude, right? Because my trainings really train me on this idea of when you ask for gratitude list, you really should ask yourself, why is it that you're grateful for that thing? So if I'm grateful for my home, why am I grateful for it? How did that even happen? Because I worked really hard and did it. So I think effective leadership generally or effective beingness in the world. is really about asking those deep rooted questions for yourself and finding meaning in why is it that you're doing what you're doing or why is it that you're trying to achieve what you're trying to achieve. In coaching, we talk a lot about this idea of vision. A vision is not the end result or the goal. A vision is how you want to be. How do you want to feel? How do you want to act in the world? And a vision can also change over time, right? Yeah. Which is a good thing. You often say to know thyself is to heal thyself. Can you delve deeper into this philosophy and how it guides your coaching approach? Yeah, so it, you know, people talk a lot about this idea of self -realization, Yogananda spoke about it, the autobiography of a yogi. I just want to make it very simple for people because I think we're bombarded by so much content, all of our doom scrolling on so many platforms. And so for me, it's really about listening to what I call the three brains, the head, heart and gut, because there's a lot of anecdotal evidence that shows that that give some level of knowingness, some level of consciousness that there's an awakening there. And so we all think with the mind and that's wonderful. It's helped us in a lot of ways. It protects us in a lot of ways, but research has suggested that the heart really has a lot of resonance that really informs our decision -making. We buy because we feel a certain way about a brand. That's just true. We also decide that something doesn't feel right in our gut. Why? There's a knowingness there. So it's really about tapping into that inner. knowing this or that inner feeling or that inner sensation. And it's an ancient saying that I heard a long time ago that I knew I wanted to echo in my talk, which is really to know thyself is to heal thyself. Because for me, I just made it a mission for myself to be like, well, why is this happening in my life? What is the connection I have with other cancer survivors? Why did this even happen in my life? And maybe I won't know the answers, but I think the key there is to start going on that road to discovery. Because if you don't go on the road to discovery, You'll never know what greater things await you. Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about your journalism. Your work as a media journalist involves sharing stories of resilience. Are there any particular stories that have profoundly impacted you? So at this point I've had seven different series. So it started off with I Survived Cancer Here is How I Did It. I did one where five things you need to know from a cancer survivor, I'm sorry, from a doctor's perspective, from a cancer doctor's perspective. I did one on rising through resilience, how to be resilient during turbulent times. I did one on fear of failure. I did one on how to believe in yourself. I wanted to understand or a lot of people to understand the customer journey or the personal journey of how you go in and above. But the stories that resonated with me are individuals who, For example, the cancer journey story where one individual was a pancreatic cancer patient and he was told he only had two to 4 % chance of living. And he said, well, I'm a finance guy. Why can't I be part of the two to 4 %? Why do I have to be part of the 96 to 98 % who can't survive it? So that was a really pivotal thing that I'm like, wow. And then I talked to other people who say that resilience is really not always just about bouncing back, but resilience is really about savoring. What is it you want to create? Where's the gratitude and the resilience? Why are you even fighting for anything? A friend recently got her diagnosis for cancer and she says, I'm so tired generally, I don't think I could do what you did in this. And I could have been really coy with her and I could have been like, yeah, you're right. But instead I challenged her. I could have, I could have done it, which is not right, but I could have done it, right? Because I'm a coach. So I listened and I challenged, right? That's just what a good coach does. And so I said to her, okay, well, Well then, what are you grateful for? And she told me, and I'm like, don't you want to have that linger more? And she's like, yeah, actually I kind of do. So, you know, it wasn't a coaching call, it was just a regular call. So I wasn't really odd, but I, you know, I had to give the information, I had to give. Yeah, there's a lot to be grateful for. That's for sure. You just got to dig deep sometimes deeper than others. So obviously you dedicate your time for Q and A's and interactive sessions. And how important is it for you to engage with your audience on a personal level? And what do you gain from these interactions? I live, Martin, I live in that world. I'm so, I, yeah, because I've done many speaking opportunities where they're like, yeah, these are the questions. I'm like, okay, that's wonderful. But the coach in me and the interviewer in me like fuse. And when I do Q &A, like the best of me comes. I like, I have both compartments of my, myself in that. And I think the key element is there is when someone asks a question, it's not always about the question that they're asking. It's really about what's the underlying thing that's making them ask the question. So I often say to them, okay, for example, if they're like, well, how can I find more purpose in my life? Right? I challenge them by saying, well, purpose is such a big topic. How did you create purpose in your life in the past? And they're like, well, I just, you know, I just tried different things. I'm like, okay, well, why does purpose have to be such a big grandiose thing? And then I challenge them even further by saying, well, okay, what's the purpose of all of us floating on this giant rock called planet Earth in space among other planets which we can't really reach or we reach some of them. And he makes them think to themselves, maybe it doesn't have to be this big bombastic thing. It could just be something as small as, let me just try to figure out how to move the needle a little bit tomorrow. That's awesome. Yeah, it doesn't have to be a big thing, right? It doesn't have to be a big thing. I think we all create that because everyone wants the views on TikTok to create the fact that what they said meant something. But at the end of the day, if it means something to you, that's all that matters. Awesome. What upcoming projects or initiatives are you excited about and how do you plan to continue spreading your message of resilience and transformation besides being on my awesome show? Absolutely. Well, thank you for inviting me. So my TEDx Talk, 7 Minutes to Wellness, How to Love Your Inner Stranger is doing really, really well. From that, there's a lot of opportunities for speaking engagement. So I see myself using that as a route to not only talk about my thought leadership, but also just expand the conversation when it comes to this idea of resilience, transformation, and this idea of overcoming adversity, no matter what the adversity is. Because we can only become unstoppable leaders, as my catchphrase is. is that if we yourself embody that leadership for ourselves, for ourselves first, so that it then goes out to the world. The other things I wanna do is I actually, when everybody in the back of the 90s, when I graduated college, wanted to get the MBA, which was easy to do, I decided I didn't want to. So at some point I wanna get my MBA and fuse my love of tech, which is what I feel like I'm intuitive, naturally good at with my love of wellness. So somehow I wanna form a company. I don't know what that is yet because... everything our needs are changing so rapidly. We'll see where that takes us. But beyond that, I've been fortunate enough to travel and see how wellness impacts different cultures. Like I covered a wellness retreat in Italy and India for National Geographic this past December. So it's really just about understanding where the need is and how to fulfill that. All right. And lastly, what advice? Well, lastly, before I ask you a couple of funny questions, what advice would you give to someone looking to transform their obstacles into opportunities for growth and leadership? I would say first survey yourself, ask yourself the question. Are you doing it for you or are you doing it for someone else? So I jokingly once said on a call back when American Idol was a big B -Month, people would say all the time, I'm doing this for my mama, I'm doing this for my daddy. No, no, no, you sing for you because if you're carrying too much, it's too much pressure. That's the thing I felt to be honest with you. A lot of people were like, you getting this? I have no doubt you're going to overcome this. And it was great that they have confidence in me. But I felt the pressure, I'm like, this is a lot of pressure, I don't need this. So I think the key is survey yourself, figure out for yourself, are you doing it for you or are you doing it for someone else, right? And I get it, people have families and kids and stuff to feed, I get that, but you need to figure out for yourself your next move, so that's number one. Number two, really figure out for yourself, well, it doesn't always, now obviously there's a big misconception with when it comes to work, should it be passionate, you be passionate about it, should it be fun? And I say, There should be a combination of all those experiences. It doesn't always have to be fun. It doesn't always have to be passionate. It could just be something where certain moments of the day are fun and passionate. So that's number two. And number three, I really think it's about setting up yourself for success. So a structure for yourself and how you want to create that. So whether that's emulating people that you admire, embodying people that you admire, or even asking people for their advice. I have some great mentors in the public speaking space. who told me five years ago that I would be great at it. And I'm like, really? And they're like, yeah. And they're like, because you can tell stories and that's what people want. They want to hear stories. They want to hear concrete evidence. They want a transformation, but they want to hear stories. But it was their belief in me that I then embodied and emulated. And these are great speakers who go all around the world speaking. So I think those are the three elements that I would suggest and I would advise. Awesome. All right. So here's some quick questions. Coffee or tea? T for sure. Have a T guy. What's your favorite tea? chamomile, and I was scarred with coffee because when I was like six, I remember we would be rushed off to school and my mom didn't have tea, but she gave me coffee and I spat it out and it scarred me for life. I may get into coffee later in life, but at the moment, tea is it. you got an option between skydive or bungee jump. Which one do you take? Skydive I haven't done either and I was gonna do it in Cape Town South South Africa But I was told that when I went this was eight years ago that they didn't have any insurance So everyone told me don't do it so I didn't do it. So yes out of all the countries you have visited, what's one country you would prefer to revisit? Greece. I love Greece. I love Santorini, Mykonos. I would go there in a heartbeat. Yeah, there's just so much ancient sensations and feelings there. But I will say this one thing. When I stepped foot in Capri, I felt like I knew my way around and it was the oddest experience I've ever had. I felt so comfortable. It was crazy. But it would be Greece. year or? No, I was in Capri probably it was before COVID so probably six years ago. Okay, okay. We were there last year. And yeah, we were a couple of islands in Greece. And yeah, a multi coast. It was a good trip. Love that area. Out of the countries you haven't been to, which I'm sure there's probably a pretty good list. What's the number one spot you want to go to next? so tick tock is telling me that Japan is, Japan is living in 2050. I got to see this for myself, but, beyond that, I would definitely say Singapore. it's just feels like the right city for me in terms of the fact that they want to move forward. Like I often find myself and this is no, this is nothing against Biden administration, but although some of it might be, it's the fact that we can't, why do we have worse off roads than I did when I was a child? I'm so confused by that. And if we don't have actual roads, how can we ever, I was promised by the way, as a 90s and 80s kid, that by this time we would have flying cars. That's not happening. So if we can't fix the roads, we can't fly. That's all I gotta say about that. if we can't fix the roads, let's hurry up and start flying. Why not the two? but then we need, okay, all right, but that gets into a whole big back to the future situation. Okay, good. Awesome, so if you had literally 30 seconds to say something in front of a hundred thousand audience and you really wanted to make sure you inspire one person, what would that 30 second two sentences be? I would probably speak to the heart of the matter. So I think all of us as humans living on this planet often feel like we are not being seen, we're not being heard, that people don't really get them. And I think at the end of the day, it all stems from our ideal version of what it is we see in ourselves reflected back. So I would urge them specifically to, going back to my TEDx talk, love your inner stranger, figure out ways to actually allow yourself to be seen and have the confidence to know that you matter. Awesome. So how do, what's the best way for people to get a hold of you? This is your pitch. Yeah, you can go to my website, Savio, S-A -V -I -O, P as in Peter, which is my middle initial, Clementi, C -L -E -E -N -T-E on there. I have a weekly newsletter, which I call The Three Brains, Head, Heart and Gut. And I recently posted, I covered the red carpet at the Oscars and I talked about, do I belong on a sea of Hollywood's elite? Do I actually belong, even though I was invited and credentialed and everything? So I'm very honest with it, so you can follow me there. I have my 90 day coaching program one -on-one where I speak about medical adversity and allowing individuals and leaders to flourish and become unstoppable. And then you can see my TEDx talk so they can go there and on social media on every platform, I'm at the human resolve. Incredible, incredible. Well, thank you for joining us, Savio. Your insights are truly transformative. For our listeners who want to learn more, you just heard him say it, but be sure to check out Savio's work and his Aloha Reboot, let's not forget that, program. Until next time, keep leading with resilience and purpose. Thank you, Savio. Thanks, Martin. It's been a pleasure.