Tasmanian motivational speaker Sam Cawthorn is taking life head on

Losing an arm in a near-fatal car crash has never stopped Sam Cawthorn from chasing his dreams, and now the inspirational speaker, best-selling author and life coach is following his heart once again and moving back home.

Tasmanian motivational speaker Sam Cawthorn, second right, with his son Jacob,13, wife Kate, and daughters Ebony, 16, and Emelia, 18. Picture: Shane Rozario.

It has been 15 years since Sam Cawthorn’s life was forever changed when the car he was driving collided with a semi trailer on the Bass Highway in Tasmania’s North-West and left him fighting for his life with a string of catastrophic injuries.

Cawthorn’s right arm was severed in the crash – it was found 25m from the wreck of his car – and the then 26-year-old also suffered six broken ribs, a lacerated liver, a punctured kidney, two collapsed lungs and a shattered right leg. His heart stopped at the scene but he was revived by paramedics.

A married father of two young children at the time, Cawthorn woke up in hospital after being on life support and “filled pillow after pillow with tears’’ when he realised the extent of his injuries and was told he would never walk again.

“But three days later I suddenly realised I was alive for a reason and started asking myself what that was,’’ he recalls.

Motivational speaker Sam Cawthorn, who has recently moved back to Tasmania. Picture: Shane Rozario

Cawthorn decided there was no point dwelling on the past – and the only way was forward. He went on not only to walk again but also to forge a successful career as a life coach, public speaker and best-selling author, motivating others to overcome adversity and achieve their personal and business goals.

It’s that continual drive to move forward and create positive change that has brought the now 42-year-old back to his home state, after many years living and working in Sydney.

He’s keen to be closer to his extended family, having endured the death of both his parents and his mother-in-law in the past four years – and for his teenage children to experience the Tasmanian way of life.

But he also has his sights set on a role in the spotlight, with a foray into politics potentially on the agenda.

Motivational speaker and author Sam Cawthorn’s near-death experience transformed his life. Picture: Supplied

Always one to find positivity through adversity, Cawthorn actually credits the coronavirus pandemic – and the resulting reliance on working remotely – as being one of the main drivers that allowed for his family’s return to Tasmania.

“I’m obviously in the event industry and the event industry was just smashed during Covid,’’ the Speakers Institute and Speakers Tribe founder and chief executive explains.

“From me doing approximately 50 events per month, I suddenly went down to no events at all.’’

A Tasmania Police forensic officer photographs what remained of Sam Cawthorn’s car at the scene of the crash that took his arm and very nearly his life in 2006.

Slowly, people warmed to the idea of online events and speaking engagements and as business built back up and borders began to reopen, Cawthorn realised it was no longer essential that he be based in Sydney where he has spent the past 13 years.

“Every year we’d always make a trip to Tasmania, at least one trip a year, to camp and connect with both our families who are based in Hobart,’’ Cawthorn says.

But, with most of his 10 siblings and their children (he has dozens of nieces and nephews) based in Tasmania and with his wife Kate wanting to be closer to her father since her mother died, they suddenly felt that annual visits just weren’t enough.

“I’ve always loved Hobart. It will always be my home,’’ says Cawthorn, who grew up as the ninth of eleven children – seven boys and four girls – to a Scottish dad and an Indian mum in the Derwent Valley.

“As I am running a global business, Sydney as a base had been more suitable. But now the majority of business is conducted online, we felt it was a good season in our life to move back to Tasmania.’’

Tasmanian motivational speaker Sam Cawthorn, right, with wife Kate and daughters Ebony, 16, and Emelia, 18, and son Jacob, 13. Picture: Shane Rozario.

They moved back in October, serving two weeks of quarantine in their New Town home, and have spent the past few months reacquainting themselves with life in Tasmania.

Cawthorn’s son Jacob, 13, has settled in at New Town High School (which becomes Hobart City High School this year) while daughter Ebony, 16, is studying early childhood education at Tas Tafe and has two part-time jobs.

The couple’s older daughter Emelia, 18, decided to stay in Sydney, where she has a hairdressing apprenticeship and Cawthorn says he is extremely proud of his independent eldest child, despite missing her dearly.

“We’ve loved it,’’ he enthuses of being back in his home state.

“We’ve bought a jetski and a caravan, we’re doing camping trips and connecting with family.’’

Kate works from a home office while Sam has an office in Rosny.

He’s still doing plenty of travel – and ironically our interview couldn’t be conducted in Hobart as Cawthorn is currently interstate for a busy few weeks of speaking engagements, so we instead chatted over the phone just moments before he was due to step onstage in Melbourne.

The tour began in Sydney, then on to Melbourne, and he is currently in Byron Bay, with Noosa, Singapore and Mumbai also on his itinerary in coming weeks.

Tasmanian motivational speaker Sam Cawthorn, second right, with his son Jacob,13, wife Kate, and daughters Ebony, 16, and Emelia, 18. Picture: Shane Rozario

His energy and enthusiasm for life appears boundless – it’s hard to believe Cawthorn had unexpected surgery just before Christmas and then tested positive to Covid-19 on Christmas Day and spent the festive season in quarantine with his family, but he’s already back on his feet and powering into 2022.

“New Year’s Eve consisted of me walking into the loungeroom in my PJs and watching the fireworks on TV,’’ Cawthorn laughs.

“Our Christmas Day and New Year plans all went out the window.’’

But in true Cawthorn style, he found the silver lining of having coronavirus.

“We just embraced it,’’ he explains.

“Me, the kids and the wife all had it. But life is what you make of it we so we just embraced it and made it count and enjoyed spending that time together.’’

Cawthorn says he’s careful to carve out dedicated time for his family, otherwise it would be easy for his hectic schedule to consume him.

Since becoming a motivational speaker, the former Young Australian of the Year for Tasmania (2009) has shared his story more than 5000 times to a combined live audience of about one million people in all parts of the world. Online more than 10 million people have heard him speak.

Sam Cawthorn, centre, shares a joke with then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and former test cricketer Glenn McGrath at the Australian of the Year awards on the steps of The Lodge in 2009.

Cawthorn’s group of training companies employ about 70 staff and run events globally, teaching people how to master communication for influence. He is also the author of 11 books, including five international bestsellers, with titles including Bounce Forward: How to Transform Crisis Into Success (released in 2013) and his newest offering People Follow People: The Twelve Characteristics Of An Influential Leader which was released early last year.

Cawthorn has shared stages with some of the most influential people on planet including former US president Bill Clinton, the Dalai Lama, British entrepreneur and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, and his corporate clients have included Google, Apple, Exxon Mobil, McDonald’s, Telstra and Toyota.

And part of Cawthorn’s success comes from plotting his life in 15-minute increments.

“For me, the number one thing here is to make sure when I’m with family, I don’t want to be distracted,’’ Cawthorn explains.

“So when I’m working, I make sure every 15 minutes of my life counts. Have look at my diary and if I’m not on stage, my diary looks like [blocks of] 15 minutes all through the day.’’

It’s a concept he picked up after reading a Harvard Business Review magazine article about late Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad.

“Basically his life consisted of increments of 15 minutes and so if people wanted his time it had to be a 15 minute moment, if they couldn’t communicate effectively what he needed to know in 15 minutes, he was walking out of the room.

“It’s all about radical simplicity in communication.’’

Sam Cawthorn addresses a crowd during a speaking tour in 2014. Picture: Supplied.

He admits long-form conversations still have their place, and in that case he will allocate two or four 15 minute slots for that purpose with “my PA is instructed to book everything in 15-minute slots’’.

With such a busy schedule, and a lot of travelling, Cawthorn has a firm focus on living a healthy lifestyle to ensure his damaged body – which spent five months in hospital following the crash and a year in a wheelchair – can cope with the demands of his career.

“I have to take care of my body for me to perform the way I do,’’ says Cawthorn, who wears one of the world’s most advanced bionic arms, worth more than $100,000, which he can program with his smartphone.

“Sometimes I might be doing 10 days in a row of 14-16 hour days, either travelling or speaking and the like.

“I exercise every day, and I eat well … however I do live with a significant disability.

“I’m six foot three [190cm] and [with a fused right leg] it’s difficult to sit in a car, a theatre or a plane or even walk – I can’t run or jog and have difficulty walking up stairs.

“But I look at the good things in life. I could focus on the phantom pain in my right amputated arm, or I could focus on good things – my kids are healthy and happy, my wife loves me, I have a successful business and money in bank and I’m okay with that.’’

Daughter Emelia was only three and Ebony just one when Cawthorn came close to losing his life in that horror crash in 2006.

Son Jacob wasn’t born until 18 months after the crash, and Cawthorn says he often reflects on

Sam Cawthorn gives a motivational talk to high school at Green Central Kariong, on the NSW Central Coast in 2012.

how special it is that he lived to father a son who is “a very gentle, sweet boy and really cares for other people” and to see his three children grow up.

“I’m told my heart stopped at the scene and the coroner was called before they managed to revive me,’’ Cawthorn recalls of that fateful day.

“I will always remember the look on the faces of the people who were trying to help me. I knew they were certain I was not going to make it.”

Cawthorn had fallen asleep at the wheel at Parramatta Creek, about half way between Launceston and Burnie, when the crash occurred.

He and Kate, who met when they were 16 and married at 20, were living in Launceston at the time where Sam was juggling a busy dance and music studio and a full-time government job as a regional industry careers adviser.

Despite the many challenges Cawthorn and his family have had to overcome since the life-altering crash, Cawthorn says if he could turn back the hands of time he still wouldn’t change what he’s been through.

“I do look back at that moment,’’ he says.

“Would I change it, would I choose to have two arms and a working leg?’’

“But for me, everything has made me who I am today and I embrace who I am today, no regrets.’’

Sam Cawthorn, a year after losing his right arm and movement in his right leg in a car accident with a B-double, at the 2007 Pride of Australia Medal Awards when he was nominated in the courage category.

He never imagined a life as a public speaker, but it’s a career he remains passionate about.

“People always say ‘do you get bored of sharing your own story?’,’’ Cawthorn says.

“But for me, as long as it can impact one more human’s life … that’s why I do it.

“My inner intrinsic motivational craving is that I want to make a difference, I want to leave a mark, to create a legacy and make sure my life is meaningful to every human being that I meet.’’

Cawthorn’s wife has built her own successful career as a certified Gallup strengths coach, inspired by her husband’s remarkable journey.

“As the years went on she realised that through speaking and coaching you can contribute and make a difference in other people’s lives,’’ a proud Cawthorn explains.

“She started her own coaching practice and now she gets headhunted by some of the biggest organisations in the world to coach and mentor in productivity and performance.’’

Sam Cawthorn, centre back, with daughters Ebony, 16, and Emelia, 18, son Jacob, 13, and wife Kate. Picture: Shane Rozario.

They’re excited to be starting the next chapter of their lives in Hobart, and hope to be here for a while, with Cawthorn setting his sights on some sort of local role in the public arena.

“We have every intention to stay planted in Tassie for the foreseeable future,’’ Cawthorn says.

“Who knows where we could be in 5 or 10 years. Although I am considering life in the public eye, such as life as a politician or a public figure, that’s certainly something I’ll consider in future and that would be based in Tasmania.”

But for now he’s just happy to see how things unfold.

“I’m still young. Maybe when I’m 45 I might then look at what that trajectory might look like,’’ Cawthorn says.

“I’ve always just wanted to create positive change and I believe Tasmania is my home and a great way to create positive change for the future is a life in politics – that is something I am seriously considering.

“I haven’t been officially approached but I’ve had some conversations.

“I’m ready to take on whatever new challenge life throws at us.” •