Shay Eskew | Use Humor to Overcome Pain & Scars
The Hard Way w/ Joe De Sena
Spartan Races
4.7 • 870 Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2019
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When he was just 8 years of age, his friend accidentally lit him on fire. The impact was severe. Undergoing decades of surgeries to treat the 65% of his body now covered in scars, Shay is a true Phoenix. His inner spirit, and his joyful charm, have been forged like steel through fire. In spite of constant pain he became an undefeated boxer, an Ironman and multiple time World Champion athlete, and in Tahoe a Spartan. As he says, obstacles are merely opportunities in disguise, face everything in life with tenacity and perseverance… and most of all HUMOR!
Stay tuned at the end to hear Joe De Sena (Spartan founder and CEO) and Johnny Waite talk about what they learned from Shay and how you can integrate those lessons into your life.
LESSONS
Humor is powerful medicine- don’t take yourself so seriously
When your comfortable with you who are, those around you will be as well
People gravitate to inner strength
Have fun with the challenges you face
Be memorable
It’s all about tenacity & perseverance
Competition vs. athleticism
Don’t take your gifts for granted
Obstacles are opportunities
Find your “why”
Enjoy joyful suffering
Don’t be a victim
Never quit
LINKS
https://shayeskew.com
https://www.shrinershospitalsforchildren.org/shc
This episode is brought to you by www.TRUEFORMRUNNER.com
TIME STAMPS
0:00 Johnny & Joe introduce Shay Eskew
1:50 TRUEFORMRUNNER.COM break
2:20 Interview Sefra & Shay begins with getting set on fire
3:15 Shriners Hospital comes to the rescue!
4:00 Loving to compete
5:35 The emotional journey
7:00 Leading life with humor
8:30 being comfortable with who you are
9:30 turning fear into fun
11:00 being memorable
11:30 TRUEFORMRUNNER.COM Break
13:20 Interview continues with thermoregulation
14:30 Tenacity & perseverance
16:00 Competition vs athleticism in Ironman’s
18:00 A lifetime of care at Shriners Children’s Hospital dealing with burns
21:00 Don’t take for granted the gifts you have
23:00 Tough love works - obstacles as opportunities
24:00 “What the Fire Ignited”
26:00 Three takeaway lessons
28:40 The joy suffering
29:45 Lose the victim mentality - never quit
30:45 Joe & Dr. Johnny discuss Shay’s awesome perspective
SUBSCRIBE:
Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/SpartanUpShow
YouTube: http://bit.ly/SpartanUpYT
Google Play: http://bit.ly/SpartanUpPlay
FOLLOW SPARTAN UP:
Spartan Up on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/spartanuppodcast/
Spartan Up on Twitter https://twitter.com/SpartanUpPod
CREDITS:
Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc.
Hosts: Joe De Sena, Sefra Alexandra & Dr. Johnny Waite
Col. Nye is off in a secret location
Synopsis – Sefra Alexandra | Seed Huntress
Production Assistant - Andrea Hagarty
© 2019 Spartan
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Spartan Up Podcast. We are your grit and resiliency partners. We're here every |
| 0:04.2 | Tuesday and other days the week too. Experts will give you tips and tricks make you stronger, |
| 0:08.1 | better, faster. A little kick in the ass. A little kick in the behind, as they like to say on YouTube. My good friend |
| 0:15.2 | Joda Senna, see you and founder Spartan Race, I'm Johnny Waite. |
| 0:18.5 | Sefra does this interview. Tim Nye is not with us today, retired Colonel Tim |
| 0:21.8 | Nye, but Sefra is in spirit because she |
| 0:24.1 | does this interview it's at the Spartan World Championships in Tahoe at the World |
| 0:28.1 | Media Fest brought to you by ATP Science and she's with a guy |
| 0:31.3 | named Shay Esk you Shay is an incredible incredible guy he talked about being |
| 0:35.4 | memorable you want to see a memorable person if you never in your life ever listen |
| 0:39.7 | to another podcast or watch another podcast this is the one to watch and I'm not just pumping you up |
| 0:43.2 | this is this guy is special yeah really special overcame adversity like we just |
| 0:48.1 | couldn't imagine his entire life has been overcoming adversity he has gone on to become one of the top 1% of |
| 0:54.2 | triathletes in the world, a super successful guy, incredibly positive guy and |
| 0:58.7 | he teaches us how to use humor and how to make yourself memorable. Those are two |
| 1:02.2 | things that are going to serve you very, very well. |
| 1:04.0 | So stick around, Shay, this kid is on fire. |
| 1:08.0 | He's on fire. You know, they say, Johnny, they say to turn iron to steel, |
| 1:11.0 | you got to heat it, pound it, and drown it. And the only reason we can make a joke about |
| 1:16.6 | this is because he's going to teach you how to use humor and make people comfortable with the things |
| 1:20.5 | that they might be uncomfortable with. Shay at seven years old caught fire, like literally was lit on fire by a friend accidentally. |
| 1:28.0 | Well, let's not tell him too much. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Spartan Races, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Spartan Races and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.