Kortney Olson

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Kevin: Welcome everyone to another episode of the re podcast, the podcast that brings you people's stories and ideas about how we can work to reframe our relationship, not just with alcohol, but with stress, anxiety, relationships, enjoyment, and so much more. Because changing our relationship with alcohol is about so much more than changing the contents of our glass.

This podcast is brought to you by the Reframe app. Reframe is the number one iOS and Android app to help you cut back or quit drinking alcohol. It uses neuroscience to reframe your relationship with alcohol and unlock the healthiest, happiest you. My name is Kevin Bellack. I'm a certified professional recovery coach and the head of coaching at the Reframe app.

Emma: And that's me. And I'm Emma Simmons. Emma geez. And I am Emma Simmons. I'm a Reframer, a certified life coach and Thrive coach with Reframe. Um, and it's been a month since we've recorded a podcast and I've forgotten what I'm doing. Ah, sorry. [00:01:00] Friends. And today we're joined by Kortney Olson. Kortney's a powerhouse of strength and empowerment, and she's an international bodybuilding competitor, Australians Woman's wrestling champion, Brazilian Jiujitsu champion, bestselling author and TV personality, famously dubbed by Marvel's Stan Lee as the woman with the world's deadliest Thighs.

As founder and CEO of Girl clothing and creator of Camp Confidence, Kortney has transformed her own survival of addiction, depression, and trauma into a global mission of empowerment. Today she continues to challenge stereotypes, break records, and inspire women and girls everywhere to turn pain into power and confidence.

Holy shit. Kortney, welcome.

Kevin: Yes.

Kortney: That was a mouthful, wasn't it?

Emma: That's like I am intimidated in a good way. Just inspired. Is that a thing to be in Intimidated and intimidated. Inspiringly. Intimidated. Yeah. Yeah.

Kevin: [00:02:00] Um, she wasn't gonna say it, but yes. That's, yeah.

Kortney: We're adults here. It's fine.

Kevin: Yeah. Yeah. Say serious.

Emma: Um, thank you. Just like where to, okay. Where to start. You've, okay. World's deadliest Thighs. Let's chat about that. How did that come about?

Kortney: That's a great question. I it's a ironic story because the main driver for my substance use disorder was body image. Right. So I, age-wise, we, we all might be close, I'm not sure, but I was born in 81.

So when I became hyper-focused on my body, it was all about Kate Moss and the heroin chic.

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

Kortney: And I remember very first advertisement I saw of her, my mom was in the tanning bed. 'cause that's what everybody did in the eighties. And I had those stupid little goggles on. And I remember sitting there thumbing through this BS magazine and there was this picture of Kate Moss standing on one leg, like a peacock and or a flamingo, excuse [00:03:00] me.

And her collarbone were sticking out. And she looked gorgeous. But in my mind, at eight years old, I was like, okay, this is the definition of beauty. And literally her legs are like the size of my forearms. I spend the rest of my youth chasing a thigh gap and really focused on, thin is what is considered acceptable and beautiful and worthy and so forth.

So I went from, you know, my senior year of high school being the a SB president, captain of the cheerleading team. Started the first girls golf team in a Christian rock band 4.0 GPA. I mean, I was going to Stanford full ride scholarship, and then I found methamphetamines and, uh, I, it was like the holy grail for me.

So fast forward through a lot of things that, as you obviously know happen when we get into substance use. And all the things and drinking and all the fun stories. I then [00:04:00] discovered bodybuilding and obviously the rooms, which I found when I was 21 when I went to rehab. But of course it took me a long time and five Hondas rec later to figure it out.

Like, oh, okay, when I drink, I am not a normal person. This is not normal behavior. So I got into bodybuilding and of course there was a few other things that came along that prompted me to start crushing watermelons between my legs. And that got picked up by Stan Superhuman Show. So at first it was, that's a whole nother story we could probably spend an hour talking about on how I was asked to and why I was asked to crush a watermelon.

But initially it was, a demonstration of strength. I discovered that the world is not what we think it is. And there are so many men out there. Like I know the world is full of different colors, and I'm bisexual myself, but I'm speaking heterosexually right now, that, you know, men [00:05:00] are into everything from hair, armpits, wide feet, big girl, small girl.

You know what I mean? It's like, it's just a whole array of, of things. And I, and upon discovering that, it was life changing for me. And it's like, oh my gosh, you mean Kate Moss isn't the ideal for the rest of society? Mm-hmm. So that's, that's how I went from having, you know, I was born with pretty big thighs, but I spent and wasted so much of my life in active addiction and somehow not dying, like I was a blackout drinker on a daily basis for a decade amongst my drugs of choice.

And then to get to this. Spot in recovery. 'cause we do say, right, that, you live a life beyond your wildest dreams. And now I'm like, how did it go from chasing a tie gap to now telling women around the world to step into your power and just crush everything and, crush watermelons and have turned that into a female empowerment workshop, [00:06:00] and teaching women like how to flip that switch.

It's like we have wider hips for childbearing and blah, blah, blah. Go on and on. So yeah, that's, that's how that came about. Yeah. Yeah.

Emma: I love that so much. I've got a 16-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old daughter. And this, so the 16-year-old, she's a cheerleader, she's a back bass, so she does lots of heavy lifting and she's gotta be strong, right?

Yep. Um, and I work really hard with her about the goal is not to be skinny. That is not. Not the goal in life that is, Nope. Some people might find it attractive, but the goal is to be strong. That's it. Goal? Goal is to be fit. That is it

Kortney: Until I was a cheerleader too. It's a great sport.

Emma: Yeah. And it's some people on Instagram, shit, sorry, k go.

Kevin: But you know, people on Instagram,

Emma: They might be skinny and they might be size, whatever clothing you wanna fit into. But the ones that are amazing and the strong ones that are doing something [00:07:00] difficult, you know, pushing their bodies, those are the ones that are, are the ones that make you go, wow.

Not they're just skinny ones 'cause they skipped a meal or whatever. Yep, a hundred percent.

Kevin: And, yeah. 'cause my daughter just turned 18 last week, which was a, oh geez. Like, I'm an adult now. This is ridiculous. So like, you wanna feel old? Yep. That happens. But she, like, over this last year has started to like really go to this one, one gym that does a lot of training for sports and helping people get faster. And that's why she started going there for soccer and, and track and things. But then she started lifting and doing power lifting and all that. Nice. And she was getting into it. And I shared with Emma that yes, she does lift, she does deadlift more than Emma.

She

Emma: can lift more than me. Wild. That's like my goal in the gym now is to lift a hundred kilos. That's a

Kortney: whole, that's a whole conversation. Like I started when I was 17 and I, people are like, wow, how are you so strong? And I'm like, I've been doing it since I was 17, so we gotta get to these [00:08:00] girls now.

Mm. You know, and, and lifting weights and, and focusing on your strength is so key for prevention. And as I constantly say, prevention is so much cheaper than cure. Right. Yeah. And we've, we've really got to reach them really. Like I, I started a program for teenage girls 13 to 17, and we had incredible results.

But the reality is, you know, there are studies that have been done coming out of Australia actually in Adelaide. There's girls as young as three years old who are experiencing body image issues that don't wanna wear a puffy coat to school because they look fat. Three years old, right? And you look at what we have in front of us now in terms of hurdles, whereas when I was growing up, it was billboards, magazines, what have you.

And I was still at risk. And I came from a good, solid middle class family. You know what I mean? A total alcoholic mother. Love you, mom. If you catch this episode, whatever. But, you know, and I look at these [00:09:00] girls today and what they have to deal with, and there's no solid education around just general talks about the realities of TikTok and filters.

'cause back when I started this program, it was just Snapchat and how much that plays into your mental health and your sense of self-worth and value and all these things, right? And no one's having these conversations and if they are so often, they need to hear it outside of the house. So I said, all right, I, we've got to start even younger, like age seven to 12, which makes me super nervous because I'm very inappropriate.

Most, more often than not, I'm working on it, you know? So I'm like, all right, we'll we'll start with seven year olds. And so I got this charity that's focusing on them playing sport. 'cause it's like, the reality is, is we are built as females for power. Of our hips, that's where all the power's generated from.

You know, go ask Happy Gilmore. It's all in the hips. So if we can get them, you know, to acknowledge that and [00:10:00] start from a young age and build power, it's like they, we, we were putting their focus on the right track as opposed to the comparison trap and, all these things. And it's, uh, I do think that, you know, we are, we have a, a long, hard, arduous road ahead of us, but I, I think that enough people are collectively, I hate to say waking up 'cause that term has been so battered over the last couple of years, but people are starting to consciously connect to the fact that we have got to absolutely do something completely different.

Because otherwise we're, we're at the, we're at the brink of our next wave of. So it works, right? Keep it positive, but here comes the mass extinction folks, you know? Yeah. Just for today though, don't pick up a drink. Yeah.

Emma: I'm, I'm curious what, what came [00:11:00] first the getting into lifting and getting into like, health and wellness or getting sober, like quitting alcohol?

Kortney: That's a great question. I, uh, so it was kind of both really. I mean, I was a functional tweaker and I was a non-functional alcoholic, but the, the two complimented each other. Like I would go in, I remember, so rehab at 21 came out, I had 90 days sober. And unbeknownst to me, I moved in with my cousin who said she was going to Al-Anon and she didn't know she was an alcoholic.

And uh, you know, she's probably like 15 years older than me. And of course I moved down from Eureka to Oakland and, get rid of, uh, the old stomping grounds. 'cause you know that that was the problem, right? Yeah, it was basically doing a geographical and moving in with an alcoholic. I had 90 days sober and I distinctly remember her telling my dad on the phone, oh, [00:12:00] Kortney's doing such a good job.

I think she deserves a glass of wine. That kicked off another two years of drinking. And then I found reignited with an old friend, got back into a circle, and then got back into methamphetamines, crystal meth. And that happened for a number of years until I had four felonies hanging over my head. And during that period though, you know, I was still, I was going to like real estate appraisal school.

I was top in sales. I was in 24 Hour fitness. And then of course I got into selling cars and people would show up for test drives and I mean, I would be two sheets to the wind, like, let's go for a drive. I mean, I was great at building rapport, but yeah just absolutely chaos outta control.

And during that whole period though, I, you know, at one point finally got sober and this was my last drink was, um. Well, my, my last high with my drug of choice was July 4th, [00:13:00] 2007, and then I had like a year sober and then I relapsed once, and then I had another year sober and I relapsed once, and my last drink was November 22nd, 2009 in Miami.

And I, during that period though, I had had my first, you know, 90 days again, and then I hurt my back. And so I, one of my customers that I sold the car to, it was a good old Mormon too, but man, he had some Percocet and he said, I got a, I got a answer for you. So he gave me some Percocet and then that kicked off a narcotic addiction because you see, I could manage that quite easily.

And, um, even when I was drinking and in a blackout, people would say, you, you don't remember last night? I'm like, no, absolutely not. Like you took, you got thrown out of a bar by four grown men. I'm like, wow, I don't remember. I'd have bruises all over here, you know? So, and then I spent six months basically the last six months, 'cause I, I [00:14:00] maintained a pill addiction for a couple of years, right?

So we think we got it under control and I was just using a couple a day. And then that slowly progressed into chewing up at six, seven at a time. And then towards the end, the last six months it was Oxycontin. And, um, at, at that point. Prior to that though, when I had the felonies hanging over my head and I was innocent, it only cost me four grand to prove it.

It was over some silly stuff as well, but you know, God works in incredible ways, right? So I was able to step back and be like, okay, this isn't the White House. That was my ambition as my a senior year. My senior year of high school was, I was gonna be the first female president of the United States of America, and here I am with four felonies hanging over my head, and that was like 20.

Five years old ish. So it took me a good solid nine years of falling down before I really was willing to surrender. So in this last period, it was like a [00:15:00] spiritual rock bottom because I had found my way in the muscle fetish industry, which I've written a book about. It's incredibly fascinating. Like I said, we could spend a whole hour on that podcast.

And it's not even related to drinking, but I mean, everything kind of ties in with each other nonetheless. Yeah, I, I, I, I, it just took me a long time to figure it out and I had this job making $400 an hour. I had bought a home. My dad co-signed on it, though, two dogs, a solid boyfriend who didn't trust me.

That's fine besides the point. But I was crippled with body dysmorphia, looking for something to control, was going to meetings, just 'cause I didn't want to die. I was not interested in being there. Like, I had not surrendered, but I finally got to the point where it was like a spiritual rock bottom. And I'm like I don't see the point in life.

And I finally, I went to my first NA meeting and I was still high. So I was still using for the first couple of years. And I finally surrendered. And that was [00:16:00] June 14th, 2010. And six months later, I found the sponsor that. I wanna say saved my life, but was able to take me through the steps in a way that made sense.

Like I needed somebody to speak it to me in gym language. You know, she'd be like, listen, it's like when you go to the gym, you know, every workout's not gonna be incredible, but you went, and it's the same thing for recovery. You know, every meeting is not gonna be blowing your hair back, but you went, you know, she'd, she'd say stuff like that, right?

And it, and when I first got. Into the rooms like that, those first six months. I'll tell you what kids, all these conspiracy theorists now, I'm like, screw you all. Where were you back in 2011 and 12 and 13, right? I would sit for like eight hours on YouTube before YouTube is what it is today, right?

And it would be like, recommend video after video after video. And I would literally spend eight hours on there [00:17:00] watching conspiracy videos and wanting to tell everybody about it and change the world and be like, did you know they're listening to us on our devices and you know, there's fluoride and toothpaste and that's gonna kill you.

And they just put it in plain sight. Did you know? And so I was looking for something to control still. And by the time I met my sponsor, she's like, bitch, you cannot hula hoop your way or read about UFOs. You can't do that. You can't do, you can't hula hoop your way out of alcoholism. You need to get into the literature and you need to do the steps.

That's like, oh fine. So that's when the magic started to happen, you know? And for anybody listening to this episode who has fallen down and come back and fallen down and come back and fallen down and come back, who cares? You're back. You know what I'm saying? It took me almost a decade. I was 21. And then it took me until I was literally 29 years old to figure it out. So we all have such a [00:18:00] different journey. We really do. And it's so important not to compare yourself to other people's journey. Even my own mother, she had a falling down experience. She like blacked out, fell down flights of stairs and like woke up on the floor and was like, God, please help me if you get me out of this, I'll never drink again.

And she did, she went to rehab and the desire was lifted well for a certain period of time. And then of course she, she went back out for a minute and what, she's still working her way through it. Right. And uh, she felt really uncomfortable speaking about it at meetings because she almost felt guilty because the obsession to drink was lifted so quickly for her.

Whereas someone like myself, it took like two years. I would walk into like Chevy's and see the bar behind. You know what I mean? Like you're sitting at a table ordering a taco salad and not eating the shelf. Of course. 'cause I was still obsessed with calories and all the things. You're like, yeah, of course I know the exact feeling.[00:19:00]

I would be staring at the wall at the bar and I'm just white knuckling it. Like, this is so not fair. And it literally took me two years before I finally got into a position of I wasn't obsessing on it, but I didn't go that hard in early days. I, I did the bare minimum. So when we say, you get what you put into this, you get out of it, it's absolutely true.

Like, how badly do you want it? Do you wanna stay miserable then just go on and keep doing what you're doing? Yeah. Or go slow.

Kevin: Yeah. And I love that. But you showed up, right? Yeah. Yeah. And just that mentality. Yeah. Um, even when I feel, I feel like we just, I just talked about this today and we're doing book club now on this book, inner Excellence, and I did the men's meeting and it came this idea of we're perfectionism and we have to do it a certain way, and if we don't, then we're failing.

And, uh, I to get that tattooed, but [00:20:00]

Kortney: progress, not perfection. What is it like progress, not perfection. It's progress. Not, I, we all relate to that so much. So yeah. Keep, yeah. Keep talking about that. Um,

Kevin: yeah. 'cause I mean, in the book he talks about how, like, you know, the, he has a quote from somebody that talks about the best, like, he's like the three types of being the best.

And it's a coach that's talking about this, but like, you, you are the best. You, you did your best or it is you. Gave your best in, at that time, like I gave, you know mm-hmm. If you show up today and I have 40% and I gave 40%, I gave all, like, I, I gave my best. Mm-hmm. Uh, it's not about showing up in this ideal situation every time type of thing.

And, and it's, yeah. Yeah, but you showed up and Yeah. That's so important. Percent,

Kortney: you know, this isn't a recovery related, so to speak. 'cause we, you know, we, we find outside things that have, for me, personally, have helped tremendously. And one of those was the Four Agreements by Miguel [00:21:00] Ruiz. And you know that fourth agreement is do your best.

And your best is gonna be different on a bam boom. Bam. What's up? I was like, where's my copy? I think I lent my copy to someone that gave me goosebumps. That's, that should be, you know, required reading at, uh, fifth grade level was sixth grade level of May

Kevin: of, this is age. This is, uh, making my

Emma: teen read it.

Kortney: Yeah.

Kevin: My, my teen, I gave this to her and I wrote, something to her, and then this is the first book I gave her. I'm like, okay, I have all these books.

Kortney: That's so cool. She's gonna

Kevin: read some of these, but I'm gonna start with something simple.

Kortney: Yeah.

Kevin: She's a little bit of the way through it.

Kortney: Yeah. That's a great one. The other one is the 33 Steps to the Infinite Itself by Stuart Wild. I know a lot of us in recovery struggle with the concept of dos. Yeah. Write that one down. That's a game changer. It's also free on YouTube as an audio book, and it's about a five hour long lecture and it's studying.

So him and Dr. Wayne Dyer were [00:22:00] phenomenal at discussing the Dao, which is spelt TAO. Right. So it's ancient Chinese philosophy and a lot of us in recovery, you know, myself as gotta speak from experience, when I first came in, I was like, don't gimme this backdoor Jesus bs. Like I struggled quite difficult.

Like it was very difficult for me. Like my, sophomore year of high school, I had a spiritual experience. And so when it, you know, and then you start smoking meth, that kind of goes out the window, right? The two don't really go hand in hand. And so when I came back to the rooms, that was probably one of the number one things I struggled with, was finding a high, finding a higher power.

And I finally, came to, to believe, right? As we do a step two, it was like, okay, I'm willing I'm open to it. And over the years, my definition of a higher power has changed a lot and it's still evolving. But this 33 steps, you know, is something that I think helped me a lot in early days because it's just talking about, [00:23:00] energy and basic things like we were discussing with the four agreements.

So. It's, um, it is quite the journey and, and finding that spiritual connection because at, at my, I'm 15, like I just turned 15 this past June, and you know, I still feel like I'm on. Day one some days, or like, the longer I stay sober, the more I need, I need recovery. Right. But I had, it took me until the beginning of this year to have a spiritual experience and it came out of, no, I wanna say it came out of nowhere.

But I was watching the Chosen and I was on like episode six. I like watched six episodes in a row and I, I don't know what happened, but the next day I, for like two weeks straight, it was like I was possessed by the spirit of Jesus Christ. It was crazy. Like someone would cut in front of me in traffic and I'd be like, oh my gosh, I, I'll pray for you.

I hope you're okay. Please get to where you're going [00:24:00] safely. And it was unprompted, do you know what I mean? Like, it was crazy. I, I got, I'm like, I had no financial insecurity, no anxiety, no depression. I was at peace. I had so much energy. And after a couple weeks, it kind of started dissipating, but it was enough for me to say, you know what?

I don't know what that was, but that's happiness. That is what's missing in my life at 15 years sober because I get up and I'm still a control freak. I'm running a global empire. My little ego wants to be a martyr and save all these teenage girls and da, da, da. Instead of sitting down and shutting the F up and asking for guidance.

Like I struggle with that 15 years in, yeah. So yeah, that's, that's

Emma: surrendering and Yeah. It sounds from what you're talking about that a lot of your self realization over the past 15 or so years, or even longer than that has been about realizing that you [00:25:00] want to control things. So whether that's controlling, you know, your life with, with meds or with alcohol or with Yes.

This is Nigel's come to come from wanting strangles. Nice. Um, yeah, so wanting to control things, I think that's a huge realization. And, and what can you control? You can't really control other people or Right. Or things outside of, outside of who you are, but you can control yourself. And exactly. I think, going to the gym and working on yourself is a great way of having some con control over it is, and it's funny being able to express that control.

Kortney: It's funny you bring that up, babe, because people are like, you know, we joke about it, right? Because I'm obviously jacked, like I'm super jacked and it's the one thing that I am super disciplined in. But the first several years I had such bad body dysmorphia that it, it became hyper gymnasium, right? So I quit drinking, quit doing speed, quit narcotics.

But then I became obsessed with [00:26:00] working out to a point where I was doing bakrem yoga, juujitsu and CrossFit all in the same day, like five days a week I'd be walking, this was when I was in Australia full-time, and I'd be walking around. The house feeling, you know, making sure my abs were still there.

Like, and it's wild how obsessive we can become, you know? And so in early days, because I was not putting my recovery, as we say, right, anything you put ahead of your recovery, you stand to lose. And I was still not doing them. And you know, the exercise was the most important thing. But that quickly became, you know, although it was part of my identity, it still, it consumed me.

I'd go and eat like frozen yogurt as a treat, right? Which, 'cause it's still healthy. And then I would sit and just. Bash myself mentally, because I put too many sliced almonds on the damn thing and it, and I had to like my husband when he proposed to me, right? So I ha I was about eight years, or eight years, eight months, eight months [00:27:00] sober.

We met at six months sober, and then we got married three months later. And my first, my sponsor, the one I was talking about was saved my life. She was like, that is the most alcoholic I have ever heard in my life. And I was so pissed off at her. I was like, oh my God, how dare you? And then I look back, I'm like, yeah, that was pretty wild.

I get it. But he, yeah, he proposed to me in front of the Eiffel Tower in a horse drawn carriage. And it was the most beautiful thing, and I can't remember. Barely any of it, because I was so focused on the fact that I had too many macaroons the night before and what a fat, disgusting piece of I was. And you know, that through the early part of my recovery was like the first several years, first three or four years.

So even though I haven't touched a drink of alcohol, it's like it's gone down all these different crevices, you know? Mm. And that's the thing I think is important to also discuss. It's like, yeah, great. It, it's better to be [00:28:00] obsessing on too many sliced almonds than it is to be obsessing on a drink, but it's still soul destroying.

It's still taking us away from our use, our usefulness for God, and finding joy and happiness. But it, it, again, it's a process and sometimes we, you know, what we say, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. And some of us, it just takes a long ass time and we've gotta fall down various ways. So even if you've, like I said earlier, fallen down and come back, falling down and come back, bitch, I've fallen down so many times.

But it might not have been on alcohol. It was on, you know, obsessing about conspiracy theories. It was on obsessing about body image and calories and, 'cause it was a, it's a miserable place to be. You know, it's, uh, finding balance and I'll, I'll end on this, but when I went to rehab. This, this black woman, she was amazing.

This, she was the head doctor. She walked in. There's about 20 of us in there. You know, I'm tore back. I've been in there for like two [00:29:00] days. Everyone's just like dragging ass. She asked, all right, everyone's super upbeat. What's the purpose? How, uh, what are we here for? How, how do we find happiness? And everyone was kind of like, a job you love.

A white picket fence. Uh, you know, and we're kind of like throwing stuff out. And for whatever reason, I said balance. And she started jumping up and down. She's like, that's it. Because I have, you know, people pleasing syndrome from growing up with an alcoholic parent. I'm mad still about, validation, don't rock the boat, something I still need to work on.

I, you know, I'm halfway through Blueprint and Al-Anon. I've been in that bitch for like three years, whatever. I was, you know, very pleased. 'cause I love being a teacher's pet. And I was like, yeah, I got it. But as I've gotten older, you know, I truly, truly realize that that key of balance is so applicable to everything, and that's, that's what we lack as alcoholics is balance. We are so full throttle in one direction [00:30:00] or the other, so it's a, it's been a key word for me to come back to is like, okay, cool, you got 15 and a half inch biceps and all these, you know, amazing things you wanna do in the world. But let's bring it back to balance.

'cause you are being a martyr and that's not your job to save the world. That's God's job. Your job is to not have a drink today and help another alcoholic find recovery bitch. Yeah. Simple. You know, so just like

Kevin: that simple. It's simple. Yeah. Simple. Well, just like the easy finding balance. Um, something I struggle with, I think that was my, uh, word of the year a couple years ago.

I'm like, I need balance in my life. Yeah. And I'm like, what the fuck does that mean? Mm-hmm. Um. Mm-hmm. How do we find balance? How do you find balance? Yep. What does that mean to you or look like? Because again, it's, it goes along with that happiness thing. Like, we can't just find happiness.

We can't create happiness. We have to do something. Yeah. And happiness will come. As a result of, you know, the [00:31:00] things that we do that we love or whatever, however you wanna think about that, but how do you get with balance, what's different for everyone? The

Kortney: thing with balance too, mate, is the, the, the analogy that works really well for me or has worked well is.

That you've got four pots on the stove with three lids, and when you start excelling in the three areas, you've got the pots under control, the, it's not boiling over, and you got that one damn pot, right? So you're doing, you're killing it with your relationships and your gym, but your work sucks.

You're like, I can't be bothered or whatever. So then you're like, all right, cool. I'm gonna focus on being the best at my job. Smashing it there, and then you end up falling off your physical journey, or your marriage sucks. So this is constant shifting of the lids and like the idea of like, everything's gonna be in balance at one point is bs.

Yeah, because you know it, or, or maybe [00:32:00] it's not, I don't know. I, I don't have the answers, but in my experience, that has been my experience is like, we're, you know, and so as alcoholics we need to learn, uh, in my opinion, to be a little bit more kinder on ourselves. And obviously when we let go of that control and relinquish that and say, okay, cool, whatever I'm meant to be doing is as soon as I ask, even if anybody who's listening you, you're struggling with that conscious contact with a higher power.

'cause I still do to this day, forget to pray. But when I do pray before I speak or do something with intention, it flows right. It's amazing and, uh, it gets a little easier and a little easier, but at the end of the day, it's still something that's super difficult for me to. And you'd think it'd become easy, right?

Because you, you're like, oh, well that was, that was great. I would just pray all the time. No, you know, I have this yoga chair, it's that fancy ass yoga chair. It's [00:33:00] leather. You fold your feet underneath it and it keeps your posture upright and it's super comfortable. And I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna sit in that and I'm gonna pray and meditate.

Because our step 11 is something that I just. Oh, it's a, it's a joke for me. You know, I, I have a monkey mind that will not shut the, literally, right. And it's like with our self-talk, I, I read isu, um. Follow this guy. I still follow him, but he is a communication expert and he is saying, you know, our self-talk is about 850 words per minute.

And I type about 120 words per minute, which is pretty fast. 'cause of course when a LL chat rooms first came out, I had a boyfriend in every state. Please believe it. That's right. Yeah, that's right. So, you know, I'm thinking, damn if I'm typing that fast and yet my self-talk that you know, we're probably old enough to remember the micro machine commercial right?

And the guy was like, Hey, like talking so fast. Like that's my self-talk. [00:34:00] And interestingly enough though, one of the greatest gifts that recovery has given me a self-awareness. Like I can get to a point where. You know, I'm on a super high, I'll just smashed a CrossFit workout, I'm happy. And then 20, 30 minutes later, I'm standing in the kitchen full of fear, and I'm like, the hell, how?

How did this happen? And I could be like, all right, lemme think, and it's all, oh, I said, okay. Right. So when I turned the corner coming back to the house, I have this thought that I owed somebody 30 bucks. And then that spiraled into this whole circular thinking of crap, basically, so building that awareness around our thoughts and knowing that we are not our thoughts, but those thoughts create emotions, you know, and how to pause.

So that's probably the, the greatest gift that recovery has given me is that level of self-awareness. And I forget what I was tying that into, but about balance.

Kevin: Talking about balance. Yeah. And I love that yeah. How you made that, like, that [00:35:00] self-awareness back to, oh, well I was turning the corner and I remembered that 30, like you, I, I used to say like, okay, get curious.

Where the hell did that craving come from? Or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. And I would sit there and I'd go through my day. I'm like, when did I start feeling that way? And, and, but by doing that, I was able, before it'd just be like, ah, I'll just grab a drink. Yeah. But now it's like, okay, well. Once I found out where that came from, a lot of times, not all the time, like a lot of times I would get there and be like, okay, that wasn't that big of a deal.

Like, or a hundred percent or just shine that little light on it. That, uh, again, you bring that self-awareness to it that okay, this is the reason. It's not like this big amorphous, I like to use the word amorphous blob of thing, that we can't really pinpoint where it came from and that without that clarity, without that kind of awareness.

Yeah. I mean that's where our thoughts will take over. Um, hundred

Kortney: percent. [00:36:00] I love

Kevin: the, I love the, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna totally use that with the pots on the stove pot. It's a good, good one. Yeah. 'cause I mean, you're never, you, you alluded to it there too, like, I'm a little over six years alcohol free, and I'm like, I still do the negative shit that I did before, the avoidance, the, perfectionism, the whatever it is that would, I would use alcohol to help me with.

Mm-hmm. But now I sit with it or I'm doing not the best coping skills still, but it's like totally. Just because I don't drink doesn't mean I'm still not working on myself and working through these things a hundred percent.

Kortney: That's why they, they always say like, oh, it's the peeling of the onion. I remember hearing that in early days.

I'm like, what? Just shut up. All of you Just shut up. You're annoying. You know what I'm saying? That was like, that was my vibe. And then you finally, as you get older, you're just like, oh, right. Yeah. [00:37:00] I'm still trying to put things in my mouth to change the way that I feel, you know? Mm. And, and I will say this though, too, you know, in this day and age, we have so much.

Toxicity and it's not just, the pollution sprayed in the sky, the pfas and microplastics and bottles and air fryers and pots and pans and, and then you know, the stress, right? It's the pollution from stress, right? Our brains are constantly switched on and, and going, going, going. But so many of us now are, you know, battling things, especially for females listening to this podcast.

Perimenopause is no joke, okay? Perimenopause is no joke and menopause, and we don't. Have not historically had conversations around this stuff and how much our hormones play into our mental health as females and men as well. Like you, you are impacted too. [00:38:00] Like, the testosterone has dropped significantly because of the microplastics and that's your feel-good hormone, you know?

But, and for women at 35, our progesterone just jumps off a cliff and that has a massive impact on us. And so many of us don't know that. Yeah. Literally we get like two good weeks out of the month, maybe two and a half. Right? And then the other one and a half weeks we're going through this phase where it's like, okay, bitch, you wanna jump out a window?

Cut somebody in the face, you don't know why, and then you're like oh, that's why I'm PMSing. I didn't realize, and so, and stuff like that. So it's like. There's all these other outside things that we need to take into account. And for myself personally, you know, I developed Graves' disease and whether or not that was from use as an adolescent and through my twenties or it's, um, I had breast implants for a brief period of time, which was a terrible mistake.

But I fell victim to thinking that, you know, I'd feel more feminine if I had them. That as a whole nother story. But whether I got [00:39:00] best breast implant illness or it was a combination of who knows. But I will say having Graves Disease and, you know, experiencing insomnia, right? There's so many variables that play into our wellness.

So I'm like constantly like, yeah, no wonder I'm still looking to put something in my mouth to change the way that I feel. Because when I do feel good, like right now, I slept seven hours last night. You know, I'm relatively hydrated. I just got over having my period for five days. I have more energy. I don't want to think about, okay, what can I have, whether it's a rockstar or a nicotine pouch or, I won't say it 'cause it's, you know, whatever it might be that you wanna put in your mouth to change the way that you feel.

Gossip, anything. It's like, it's, uh, it's no wonder, right? So we've got a lot of things to factor into what is also contributing to our, our lack of energy or, you know, not [00:40:00] quite feeling well because so many of us don't take care of our, our diet and aren't eating enough, or, we're trying to lose weight, but we're going about it the wrong way.

So, again, that peeling of the onion can mean a lot of different things. And the most important thing is just like, be kind to yourself. The only thing that we need to not do is pick up that first drink. And the rest will figure it out. The rest will figure it out. So I love that. I,

Emma: you are so inspiring to listen so motivating, so engaging.

And I think it's, thank you. I think it's amazing that are working, that you want to work with women and girls, particularly like girls, young teenagers, to like, inspire them and, and give them this different mindset of perhaps, you know, different to what they're seeing on social media or let's be honest, social media.

That's where they're getting it from. So what but where did that come from within you? Like where did, how, what [00:41:00] inspired you to start Girl and. And working and coaching teams. Yeah, women.

Kortney: Personal experience. Personal experience. Because like I said, I, I look at what I went through and I'm like, okay, where we are today as a society, right?

We're effed, we have no women in leadership, you know, and those that are we're not, we won't get into politics of things, but, we are severely lacking the feminine divine on our planet, whether that's women in Afghanistan who are completely erased now, collectively on a global scale, the female feminine divine has been stifled even more so now.

And so how we bring up that energy of nurturing, compassion, compromise, empathy, love. Slowing down, going into flow, you know? 'cause I carry a lot of masculine energy from my childhood, from my mother because I was constantly having to make decisions, take charge, so I have a really [00:42:00] hard time letting go of control because of that aspect as well.

But from personal experience, I thought, my gosh, I, this is why God kept me alive as I, I need to share this experience to help them not make the same mistakes that I did. Because look, I mean, this is a miracle, right? You know, most tweakers, okay, we don't have teeth. We have, we're just tore back, you know?

And, and the fact that I was literally a black out drunk driving for a decade wrecked five Hondas including a motorcycle. And yet I did not end up in prison. I did not end up decapitated it. It just blows my mind. So I'm like, okay, I'm here to do this. And knowing that, in my heart of hearts, I truly believe, I don't believe it's a matriarchal society, right?

As much as I don't believe in a patriarchal society, it is a partnership model. It's not a domination model that's gonna win at the end of the day. It's gotta be all of us [00:43:00] together leaning into our different strengths and harnessing what energies we bring, as either female or male, and learning that we are all effed up.

You know, so this new kind of wave is like, I'm super passionate about, I hate clothing. The clothing was simply an extension of camp confidence, right? Where I taught the five habits, lessons, and principles that lead to the development of self-love and showing these teenage girls, and this was in Australia, tiny little corner in the Gold Coast, but teaching them the, you first need to love yourself before you can love anybody else.

And then of course, the sisterhood and teaching them that we are held back as a gender because we hold each other back. We're not born, catty, backstabbing, jealous, little turds. And it's the media and the beauty industry, and here's how we change that. And then by time they left, after that 72 hour period, give or take, they were flourishing and it was amazing.

So the clothing [00:44:00] then became the extension of that camp because they used to get these little silicone bands. And then when they'd see another girl in the street, they'd be like, ah, you're my sister. Not my, not your competition. Not my competition. And this all has come from the 12 steps. We are in this together, we're held together by this one common bond that if we drink, we will die.

We all have different beliefs. We pray to different people. We sleep with different people. We have different value sets, but we get along and it's a beautiful thing. So I thought this works so great. That is how we're gonna run this, right? We have this one common bond that we are female and the cards are stacked against us.

We're gonna, we don't have to love each, we don't have to like each other, but we're gonna love each other. And what does that look like? So I really implemented a lot of the 12 steps into camp confidence. And so then. The clothing line, essentially. I, one of my partners got pregnant and my husband is one of the world's leading marketing geniuses.

This man is absolutely brilliant. And he said, [00:45:00] why don't you take the same vision and mission and roll that into a clothing line so you can reach the whole world? Because I was also noticing a lot of it was the moms, these girls would start thriving, go back, get back in the house, and then, and I told them, I'm like, listen, you didn't come out the va jj, with the how to manual.

You know what I'm saying? Like, your parents are doing the best that they can with the tools that they've been given. So it's up to you now to stop being a little SHIT and take responsibility. You know, like we have the responsibility statement and aa, you know what I'm saying? I'm responsible. Little shit.

You are responsible. Let's go and get 'em fired up. Uh, so this was a way for us to, to reach women. And sadly, clothing is not a fun industry, especially when you don't have any cash. Okay. You need millions of dollars to scale. And then we go and start a clothing line that doesn't use sizing.

We're like, here, here's an athlete shape. And people are like, what? And then we had COVID, we had our first store and it that got shut down a week before the grand opening because of [00:46:00] COVID. You know what I mean? It was just one thing after another. And it's like, I was like. We've been inclusive before all these other stupid brands, and it became a trend, on and on, feeling sorry for myself.

And finally, like the last four years, I have been doing three other jobs to get myself into a position where we were debt free. And now I am like, all right, clothing is great, but my, my jam now, and where I'm getting ready to head off to here momentarily, is Juujitsu, is Nogi juujitsu and wrestling and teaching girls, from a young age to see our body as an asset and not a liability because.

Jujitsu is one sport where it doesn't matter what your body type is like, if you're a big girl like me, I'm gonna pressure and smash you. You know, if you're a small wiry little girl, you're inverting the fast ones. You gotta watch out for, you know, there's a game for everybody. And so this this next phase in my, uh, development at least, [00:47:00] so I think I, I ask God to the best of my ability to.

Create, uh, re Rebrands Camp confidence into the Girl Project. So I have a charity called, uh, the Girl Project, which is a 5 0 1 c3, doing my first fundraiser September 28th, the 24 hour pushup challenge. My gosh, you know, we, I thought I'd make better decisions in sobriety, but my bad. So every dollar I equates a pushup, and the goal is 50,000.

And I think I'm gonna have an influencer gym in Arizona get involved. And so it won't just be me doing the pushups, but the goal with the, the charity is we sponsor girls seven to 17 with cash, clothing and mentorship. But next year I wanna have a biannual leadership retreat and have various levels.

So the first level is basically rebranding camp confidence and giving these girls this education where, like I said, the five habits, lessons, and principles. So teaching 'em, how did Dead Lifts squat [00:48:00] Bench. Here's the basics of nutrition. You know, like these basic things, they self-defense, self-defense is about, you know, situ situational awareness and making yourself a hard target.

You know, we're not gonna teach girls in two days how to fight off an attacker, you know, but there are certain, there are some things you can do, but my point is, is that, I, I finally made it back full circle to get into a position too. Address our youth. And, and again, like I said at the start of this call our podcast is prevention is so much cheaper than cure.

So if we can reach them now and teach 'em all these things, then you know it's gonna be incredible. And I hope to have my first female only grappling academy. 'cause unfortunately a lot of girls walk in. Although I will say wrestling is becoming the fastest growing sport in girls high school, but a lot of women, females will walk into a Juujitsu gym and see guys teabagging each other and they're like, yeah, no, this isn't for me.

You know what I mean? So, but it's, it's changing a lot [00:49:00] and it's, it's incredible And at, at a fast rate. So I, I. Have this big vision for next year, as long as some, a-hole keeps his finger off the red nuke button. You know what I mean? To plan just for today that, we have this model where it's a female only grappling academy, but also has, you know, the strength training component where they could come in, train, learn how to do these functional lifts, kettlebells classroom situations.

So we're, we're teaching, you can also hold meetings and then retail for, for the clothing and spread the message that way and then franchise out and allow other people to get involved. So yeah, it's just one break at a time. Oh, amazing.

Kevin: Yeah.

Kortney: Bit by bit.

Emma: Yeah. Yeah.

Kortney: Awesome. Thank you.

Emma: So we'll put, we'll make sure that we put the reps for Revolution link in the right on in the podcast by Kevin.

Remember to put the reps for Revolution link in the link. I will. To stop. [00:50:00] And I was just gonna, I

Kevin: was just gonna add in, like I, you know, I got a bump, shoulder and pack anyway, and knee, so I'm not doing jiujitsu. But if I walked in as well and saw the guys teabagging each other, I'd be like, yeah, I know, right?

I'm good.

Kortney: I listen. I have no ACL, I have a slap tear. I have a slap tear. You can still do jiujitsu and say Kevin like. Stay safe. Excuse, safe flow rule. You know, like there's there's, and it depends on what type of school you go to. Yeah. You know, like there are more, there's schools that are more focused towards competition and stuff like that, but you know, it is, they call it the gentle art isn't quite true, but it's a lot better than like Muay Hai where you have an elbow is like a, a knife coming out your face.

But you do, and this is why I'm so passionate about it for young girls, is because you learn how to manipulate a body in such a way where, somebody's three times your size. It, it's just anatomy and science and gravity. You can learn to. Get them off of you and evade a situation, or, [00:51:00] oh, you want to cross my legs and come between a boundary that you weren't invited into.

Okay. Let me show you how to crush a watermelon between your legs, which takes roughly approximately three to 500 pounds of pressure, which we have as women and girls. If you flip that switch, right? We're born to push out small humans out of a tiny hole, okay? Our pain threshold is through the roof. Like, don't, don't, don't talk to me about us being the weaker sex you fell and hit your head.

So it's, being like, girl, you can get down there and, and, and get because you get like Matt Burn and like, pinched and Right. But you gotta, you coach 'em through that. And then of course, you know, once you've got girls working with girls, I really see this being a huge resource to helping young girls.

Have that prevention path and not having to be working on cure with them. Eating disorders, domestic violence, sexual assault, substance use disorder, [00:52:00] all of these things are preventable through disciplines like jiujitsu and wrestling and community, you know, and giving them these basic tools. 'cause when I was 17, I did not know growing up that my mom was an alcoholic.

I just thought she was a bad person who needed to get good. I didn't know she was a sick person that needed to get well. So when we started talking about the dis-ease, you know, and it's like disc opposite of ease. Is that, you know, whether it's hereditary or learned behavior, driven by trauma, all of the above.

At least they know and they have this seed planted. Like, okay, so when I go off to college, if I start drinking, you know, shit, I might end up like Uncle Larry and nobody wants to be around Uncle Larry, if you know what I mean. So, and teaching them how to use their voice. All these basic, basic things. That we're not taught in school, because that's another reason why my using, went full throttle, was I was sexually assaulted at the age as I 17, I was three days clean.

And the school said, okay. Somebody finally figured it out, said, [00:53:00] Kortney, okay, are you drinking or are you on drugs? And he knew that the athletic director was like, actually, he said, meth. And I was like, on meth. He said, do you want us to tell your parents? Do you wanna talk to a drug counselor? I was like, drug counselor.

Drug counselor said, why'd you do it? I said, because I've lost weight. He said, all right, I got the perfect solution. I know a guy who's a former Golden Gloves champion. He is ex heroine junkie. He's married to a nun. What could possibly go wrong, right? I show up to his boxing class. He took a liking to me.

He was 72 years old. I was 17 now. I was not taught how to use my charisma in the right way. You know, flirtatious, again, raised by an alcoholic, not shown and given the validation, the attention, right? So that attention seeking went in the wrong path. And I entertained this guy's, desire to say, oh, I wanna turn you into my last prize fighter before I retire, right?

And that's where I got this KO tattoo covered up because I, that was my alter ego, because I started, this was where the alcoholism kicked in because I went [00:54:00] over to his house to order some equipment and washed some tapes as he said. And when I got there, he had a cut full of cognac and a joint. And when, by the time I woke up and that guy was inside of me, I concluded that it was my fault.

I let him on. So on and so forth. And I went off to college and I became a raging alcoholic. And again, it is trauma based, right? And it took me like seven years to finally concede that, okay, this wasn't my fault, and so on and so forth. So just teaching girls, you know, how to use your, your voice, how to say no and feel good about it, you know?

'cause especially for women, we are so programmed. Be caregivers because of childbearing, right? Like, that's what we do. You take care of your children. But bitch, that's why it's when you get on the plane and it says, you gotta put your oxygen mask on first, or you, you're gonna die. He's gonna take care of your kid.

You know? And that's, that's how it is. So we really need to drive that into women where it's like, yeah, it might feel selfish, but you [00:55:00] gotta take care of yourself first. So there's so much. But I know collectively that we are changing the game. And I love the fact that you brought me in and that I, I'm super grateful to be able to share my experience, strength, and hope and, keep doing the, the work that you guys are doing.

And same myself as well, you know, we, we,

Kevin: yeah,

Kortney: we keep chipping away at it because again, it's, it's what the, what we do and the impact that we have is helping prevention on so many different levels, not just substance use disorder. But also eating disorders, as I said, or sexual assault or domestic violence, because we learned so many amazing tools in 12 Step recovery, we are truly blessed.

So if you're new to recovery, listening to this episode, and you're like, Ugh, this sucks, I hate it. And you hear somebody say, I'm a grateful, recovered addict or alcoholic, and you're like,

Kevin: oh, I hate them.

Kortney: Well, well, we, you too will get to that point because you [00:56:00] eventually were like, damn, we've been given the most absolute radical gift.

You know what I'm saying? Like, I've not met you, Kev, in person, Emma, have not met you in person, but we're family. If you showed up here to Las Vegas and you needed a place to crash, bitch, I got you. No problem. Come crash. Mm-hmm. You know what I'm saying? Like, we have this global sorority fraternity without the alcohol, mm-hmm. And it's free, and it's like unconditional love. And it's this, this bond where we're like, these are my people. Mm. So it's, it's, it is truly a, a remarkable gift that we have once you get through the hard part, and it doesn't always get easier, but you know what? You stay alive one more day.

You get to learn a bit more. And we all get to ride this journey together, and we are all changing the game. So kudos to us.

Emma: Us. Yeah.

Kortney: Yeah.

Emma: Amazing. So true.

Kevin: Yeah. Absolutely.

Emma: I am mindful of time. Yeah. You've got a, you've got a shoot off. Yeah. [00:57:00] And do we wanna do the nuggets or do you wanna just, we'll, the

Kevin: nuggets.

Okay. I was gonna say, skip the nuggets and just go right into the closeup. But do you want me to go ahead. Nuggets, Emma.

Emma: Okay. Uh, all right. So we're at that part of the show where Kevin and I stumble and stutter for, uh, a little bit, where we try and figure out what our nugget for the of today, the week, what the episode is, nugget today.

Uh, so our nuggets are like some little tidbit, something that we've learned this week, this day, this month. It doesn't have to be sobriety related. I came pre-prepared with a nugget this week. Emma came prepared. What, um, what, what, what worked? So my nugget, I've just come back from a conference with work and we did this team challenge building thing.

I was nominated a captain of Team White, of course I was. And it was like a beach challenge day. And the last challenge of the beach Challenge day was a tug of war. And of course we [00:58:00] won. Of course my team won, but all the other teams were, uh, complaining that the rope was like cutting their hands and hurting their hands, and they couldn't hold onto the rope.

And they were like, there's something wrong with the rope. And I was like, no, there's not, there's something wrong with your hands. I was like, this is why we lift weights because my hands are callous as all hell. They are so tough and hard from going to the gym that I didn't get any cuts or bruises or injuries on my hands.

So my negative the day is go to the germ lift weights, get calloused hands and. You'll be fine. Go pull some ropes. It'll, yeah. I love that for you. There's,

Kevin: there's,

Emma: yeah, there's more than one reason for having beat up old hands. That's my nugget for the day.

Kevin: Awesome.

Emma: Kiv,

Kevin: I, my nuggets just, I don't know, my back is shit.

And Kortney took away all my reasons to not do jiujitsu, so I, I was always like my knee. I just had surgery, my back. My shoulder. Where are you at? [00:59:00] Cleveland area.

Kortney: Okay. Noted.

Finding a good therapist is, is super important, like fascia release, like I just had a treatment yesterday and this guy, my diaphragm was literally attached to my ribs and I've not been able to like, take a deep breath.

I did vape for a year. And he got in there and like pulled that stuff apart and I was able to take a deep breath today. So also strengthening your posterior chain. Yeah. I had immense back pain since I was in high school. I'm very dominant and there's a really good chance that you're not activating your glutes or your hamstrings properly.

Yeah, that's my issue. And finding a trainer that will help you slowly ease into strengthening and activating your glutes in your posterior chain will help with your back immensely. So I know it's debilitating. It is debilitating when your back is out. Like you just can't live life. It's terrible. Yeah. So it's, um, I feel your pain on that, but know that there are solutions out there and I'm happy to share more [01:00:00] information with you.

Sorry, onto the nugget.

Kevin: I just got another nugget. There we go. And then

Kortney: that was my nugget.

Kevin: I was, my Monday afternoon was on the floor of my living room, just like kind of riding and pain a little bit. Because, yeah, it, it got bad. So look into your, so I'm continuing to work on that.

Kortney: Look into your SOAs as well.

Your SOAs. P-S-O-A-S-I-S-I believe is how it's spelled. But yeah, that's, that, that one, it's the only muscle that's in our abdomen that attaches to our leg and that gets super tight. And when you're so as, as tight your back will continually go out. There's a couple of tools that you can get on Amazon or, you know, oh yeah.

Kevin: Instagram's trying to sell me that. There was a time whenever, that's all I was getting in my, uh, Instagram. It was so as stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kortney: Yeah. So that's another big piece. Or finding a therapist like the guy that I found yesterday, holy crap, that gets in there and, and can release it for you will make a huge difference.

So. Awesome. Thanks. Yeah. [01:01:00] Got nugget. And my nugget. My nugget is that. Oh, I I'm totally drawing a blank. I don't like that. Well, I, I'll share this, that a lot of importance comes down to footwork. When you're lifting and when you're standing and your gait, your feet are so important to your overall health and it's often overlooked.

Mm-hmm. A lot of times, you know, we're not taught the importance of even distribution and all yeah. It's a good place to end 'cause it's still recovery related. But I got caught cheating on a boyfriend when I was 17, when I was my freshman year in college. And so I drank all the warm diet coke and rum that was hanging around this Halloween party.

Went to a blackout and proceeded to kick the wall barefoot drunk for like, I don't know, 20 minutes. Woke up the next morning to go to a criminal justice final, fell. [01:02:00] 'cause my foot was basically broken and, um, looked up and saw the hole in the wall. And I was like, what the, what? How did that happen? And then slowly started to piece things together because I have this gnarly bunion on the inside of my foot.

I've trained myself since I was 17 to stand on the outside of my feet. And so that's why I am missing, uh, it's called the VMO, the vast medias that teardrop muscle in your quad. And that comes from putting pressure on this inside part of your foot. And so the bottom of your foot is like a tripod. So imagine these are toes and this is not there, but you know.

Mm-hmm. We wanna be putting equal amount of pressure. Bet. It's like a tripod here and in the heel. When you're standing, when you're lifting, you know, obviously unless you're deliberately doing raised heels, like cyclist squats or something like that. But really important. And then also your shoes.

Look at your shoes. If you've got a narrow toe box, because fashion, all the Nikes, all the Adidas, the Toebox is so small that [01:03:00] our toes are cramped like this. You look at an infant, right? Their toes are spread out. That's how our toes are supposed to be. So I'm wearing these spacers because my bunion is causing my toes to go this direction and I've, I have really wide feet, like straight up Fred Flint, stone feet, bitch, you should see me try and find a pair of heels.

It's terrible. So having a wide enough toe box. Evenly distributing your weight through that tripod is super important, especially if you're running, you know, make sure you got a pair of Brooks, Nike can F off. All right. All those brands. Bye. Like, what have you done for me lately? Anyway, I've

Emma: got some of those like barefoot ones where they, yeah, they lit your toes.

Love them so much.

Kortney: Yeah, so good. Yeah, it's great. Great alternate. Yeah. So you guys, thank you so much for having me on and give me all of the sound bites, all the clips that your editor takes out here and we'll just social media.

Kevin: [01:04:00] That's me.

Kortney: Love that for you. Go cap cut.

Kevin: Yeah. Uh, yeah. Thank you. Uh, yeah.

And we'll post all of that in the in the show notes. Uh, all the contact info. The contact info as well. Yeah.

Kortney: Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely. And we're having a party here in Vegas, uh, November 8th for our tenure celebration for Girl, awesome. People can find our newsletter. Not that we use it, but we will soon, very soon.

Yeah. And, um, ways to keep in, in contact and have some more. Interesting, surprising, upcoming announcements, I think in the near future, which I will share with you guys when I do get the confirmation that it's happening because it's something that I think that will revolutionize how we manage our emotions.

But yeah. Excited. 'cause they say it's not about what you know's about who you know. You guys keep building an awesome network. Stay connected. Can't wait to see the outcome. And thank you so much for having me on.

Kevin: [01:05:00] Yeah. Thanks Kortney. Thanks.

Kortney: Let's change the

Kevin: world. Yeah. Awesome. And thank, thank you all for listening.

To another episode of the re Frameable podcast, brought to you by the Reframe app. Uh, reframe is the number one iOS and Android app to help you cut back or quit drinking alcohol. It uses neuroscience to reframe your relationship with alcohol and unlock the healthiest, happiest you. Uh, if you're enjoying this podcast, please like, subscribe and share with those that you feel may benefit from it.

I wanna thank you again for listening and be sure to come back for another episode. Have a great day. Bye friends.