Part 2 - Sobriety & Self-Care: KK Shares the Ultimate Act of Self-Love

KK [00:00:18]:
It was actually a really close friend of mine. She called me and she was like, I want to be done. And I go, I think I do, too. I think I'm done. I've done this for 20 years. I think I'm done. We did it together, which was like, if anyone decides that they don't want that to be part of their life anymore, I just can't express enough how powerful it is doing it with somebody else. Because what changed this time is that we started reading together, we started researching, we started listening to podcasts, and, man, there's a lot of information that I didn't know.

Dirty Skittles [00:00:54]:
Wow.

KK [00:00:55]:
Yeah.

Dirty Skittles [00:00:56]:
That's crazy. I've never thought about it. I've never thought about what I know. Like you're saying when we are all going out and drinking and we're all doing it together, I never thought that it could be different because I'm a female versus a male, but this is super eye opening, actually. Now I'm like, oh, I want to read all this stuff. I want to know what it is.

KK [00:01:16]:
I know.

Dirty Skittles [00:01:17]:
No, it's like, good. Totally good. We had a group of my close friends in our early twenty s. I think back on this time now, it was like, literally Monday. It was every day. Every day was a different theme. Like, we would work really hard, we'd get out of work, and we would have a theme for that night, and we would go eat together, we'd do happy hour together, and everybody was drinking, and it was all good and great and fun until I think one of our friends finally opened up. Hey, I can't do this anymore.

Dirty Skittles [00:01:51]:
I'm going to go to rehab. We're like, what do you mean? Isn't this normal? Isn't this the thing to do? What do you mean? It's a problem. But now thinking even more so, the way it affects us is totally different. Nobody's really the.

G-Rex [00:02:05]:
Well, like, even for, like, when I went to New York, right? Broke my nose, lost my phone. I didn't drink again until I had my retirement party, and that was in April. So I went the rest of December, January, February, March, till mid it. It really messed me up because you know what? I still have a fucking broken nose. I still have the $1,000 new iPhone, right? And a lot of that was like. That was leading right up to the breakdown I had on Christmas day.

Dirty Skittles [00:02:42]:
Oh, yeah.

G-Rex [00:02:43]:
But the more you talk about this, the more it makes sense. All right, so you're making me feel good.

KK [00:02:52]:
I hope so. I have this very deep fear that I'm going to be annoying to people.

G-Rex [00:02:59]:
Because I'm still going to drink my two chicks because this is my one day a week I get to drink.

Dirty Skittles [00:03:04]:
It's going to help me research because I've even to myself, kind of wondered after having my child, it's not the same, right? So I can have the glass of wine or like a couple of cocktails. And the recovery is so much different that I'm like, dude, what happened? I have to relearn, I guess.

KK [00:03:27]:
All right, are you all ready for me to mess with your minds even more? Yeah. Okay, so I'll talk about when you start kind of going down this hole and learning. There's so many different things. But I would say that I'll just break this down to three. These are the three biggest things that opened my mind when you asked me the question earlier, has it been hard? And I say yes. And so this book, this naked mind, which is one of, it's a really amazing book to read. Like the author, Annie Grace, says that without desire, there is no.

Dirty Skittles [00:04:08]:
Oh, I like that thought. I'm sitting here, like, let me really soak in on that.

KK [00:04:13]:
So I think a lot of us have been conditioned to believe that. And I'm going to talk about this here in a second, and I'm going to get a lot of this wrong, by the way, because I'm still on a journey. But this idea of recovery and twelve step and even the word alcoholism, we all accept it to be true without unpacking or asking the question, is it true? So once I started learning and kind of realizing and unpacking my mindsets on everything, I was like, oh, I don't need this. And that's a really big deal because we have been conditioned to think that through. This aa thing, which I'll tell you about here in a second, that if we don't drink alcohol, that we're going to be longing for it every single day of our life. Isn't that weird?

Dirty Skittles [00:05:04]:
Yeah.

KK [00:05:05]:
Don't you all probably believe that right now, right?

Dirty Skittles [00:05:08]:
Yeah. I mean, that's literally, I can't think of a single movie where I've seen where that wasn't the thing, right?

KK [00:05:16]:
Yes. And that in media has a big thing to do with it, is that we see, in the media, we see alcohol glamorized and then we see recovery look like this dirty, nasty, sacrificial that we are. Deprivation. It all has this really negative spin. This is going to get a little feel, a little bit conspiracy, but that's how the alcohol industry wants it to be right. It is no accident that drinking looks like it's so glamorized.

Dirty Skittles [00:05:48]:
Right.

KK [00:05:49]:
And it's no accident that in the past 15 years that you start to see more women think that wine will save everything. And we see it once I tell you this, you'll see it everywhere. You've had a hard day. Have a glass of wine. You want to relax, have a glass of wine. They're starting to make everything pink and rose all day and make it look like it's dainty and sexy. And what it starts to do is equate that in our head. That thing is sexy, and it's dainty and it's fun.

Dirty Skittles [00:06:22]:
Yeah. I'm watching that show right now with, oh, my God, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston.

KK [00:06:30]:
The morning show. Yes.

Dirty Skittles [00:06:31]:
And literally, anytime they've had a rough day, like, I started to notice this last night, I'm like, anytime they've had a rough day, they're having a glass of wine after. So it's funny you say that because I just.

KK [00:06:41]:
It's everywhere. It's everywhere. Yeah. So, okay, let me. Let me try to be coherent. I told you it's my first time talking about this, so I know this isn't going to come across coherent.

Dirty Skittles [00:06:50]:
You're doing great.

KK [00:06:52]:
Okay. So I'll talk about the things that have taken away my desire. And the first is my thought process around recovery. And this is not my stuff, by the way. This is just from things that I've learned. And then the other part of it is unpacking a mindset and the things that I thought I believed. And the other part is the woman aspect of it. Right.

KK [00:07:14]:
Like what they're doing to women, especially moms, which is a trigger button to me, because every single mom I know right now is, like, having anxiety and depressed, and I'm just like, okay, pisses me off. Now I'm over here on the other side. I'm like, stop messing with moms. Right? Oh, my God. This is not the population that needs this harm. Right. And they all think it's their choice. Okay.

KK [00:07:42]:
All right.

G-Rex [00:07:48]:
We still love you, KK. I know.

Dirty Skittles [00:07:50]:
I'm like, have you been following me around this whole time? It feels like you're talking about my life right now.

KK [00:07:59]:
I have. Spoiler alert. Okay, so let's talk about AA. Okay. First of all, this term alcoholic is not supported by any medical community. So substance abuse disorder is. But being an alcoholic is not just, like, being, like, a cocaine aholic is not a thing. Right.

Dirty Skittles [00:08:26]:
Right.

KK [00:08:27]:
So like, this idea that if you stop drinking that you're an alcoholic for the rest of your life. Maybe that works for some people that they need it, but especially for women, they don't. Okay, so AA was developed a very long time ago, like 100 years ago. And I know that it's helped people. So I don't want to say anything against that, because if anyone's trying to make their life healthy or make their mind am, I support you no matter how you get there. But women weren't even allowed into, like, we weren't part of the design, and we weren't allowed into it. And so this whole idea behind AA is that you are not in control. You need to make yourself smaller.

KK [00:09:14]:
You need to be in service of other people. I've never been to a meeting or done anything like that. So this is only from the books that I read. But it was only years later that they started letting women in. But that's for men. Right. And I almost kind of think about in the 20s that they probably had a bunch of narcissistic men that were in positions of power and they needed to knock them down. Right.

KK [00:09:37]:
So that was the message, is that you have a disease, you have something about you that is a disease, and you're going to have to deal with it for your whole life. So even when I was drinking, I was like, well, I don't want to quit drinking because I'm not an alcoholic. Right. I was like, I only drink once a week, and maybe it doesn't lead to the most positive results, but I don't need to quit drinking because I'm not drinking alone in a corner. Like, I'm not an alcohol. Right.

Dirty Skittles [00:10:09]:
You're not shamed. Yeah, I get it.

KK [00:10:13]:
And then if I don't drink when I go to work events or I'm out with people, then they're going to think that I'm an alcoholic, and I definitely don't want that. I don't want to be labeled for the rest of my life.

Dirty Skittles [00:10:23]:
Yeah. Or you're a woman who could be pregnant because you've said no to a drink. She must be pregnant. Yeah.

KK [00:10:30]:
And if you decide to go alcohol free, the societal part of it is the hardest part of everything. Yeah. I would have people that would be like, I don't want the non fun kara. And I've had friends that have been completely removed from social groups because you become a mirror to people. Right. And I think that's why I'm uncomfortable talking about it is because I hate that this is something I did for myself. I don't want to be a mirror to other people.

Dirty Skittles [00:10:59]:
Right.

KK [00:11:00]:
But it happens.

Dirty Skittles [00:11:01]:
Right?

KK [00:11:04]:
So AA was developed for men to make them feel smaller. First of all, if we can kind of detach ourselves from the idea that the shame and blame should not be on the person, it should be on the drug. At the end of the day, any booze that you're drinking is ethanol, and ethanol is an addictive substance. There's actually studies that show that it's more addictive than cocaine.

Dirty Skittles [00:11:28]:
Damn.

KK [00:11:31]:
If you kind of start to question that, that it's not about the person, because that's what I would do. Right. And always be like, I'm going to figure this out. I'm going to be like a normal drinker. I'm going to drink a glass of water in between every single drink. I am going to figure out the algorithm. But that doesn't work because it's an addictive substance. It's just as easy as that.

KK [00:11:53]:
And the thing is, too, that they talk about in a lot of this literature is that the cigarette companies use the same tactics. So back in the day, they would say that if you got addicted to cigarettes or if you had a physiological addiction to cigarettes, that there's something wrong with you as a person. It's definitely not about the cigarettes. No, never be. Right? So it's advantageous that this whole narrative keeps up that alcohol isn't the problem, the person is the problem, that ethanol is not the problem. And then if you do have a problem with it, if your body does get a physiological addiction to this substance, then you have a label and you have a disease for the rest of your life, and you have to go to aa because that's the only way that's usually people's only option.

Dirty Skittles [00:12:39]:
Right, right.

KK [00:12:42]:
So that was eye opening to. And I, especially someone who lives their life in leadership development, where so much research didn't include women in the study, anytime I read something and I'm like, oh, that was conducted just on college age men, I'm like, no, it's discredited in my mind. So that thing allowed me to discredit that. And I'm like, okay, well, what if people aren't alcoholics? What if this is just an addictive substance? All right, that changes things, right? I don't do anything anyways. All right, the second piece of this, it's a squirrel. I know. The second piece of this was a belief system. So there's this whole thought of, you have these liminal beliefs that they talk about in this naked mind.

KK [00:13:39]:
And this was a big thing of what is it that I believe? And then questioning, is it true?

Dirty Skittles [00:13:49]:
Yeah. I've had to use this. Not necessarily with alcohol, but just other things in my life that have triggered an emotional response in me or made me feel some sort of way where I look at the action, the belief and the consequence, that's how I have to break it down. Like, well, what happened? Why did I feel this way? And it's usually because when I was young, I was told x, y and z, or, I learned this thing over here and I believed it to be true, but it's not always true.

KK [00:14:17]:
Yeah. And with leadership stuff, we do this all the time, but I never thought about it with alcohol. So it was like, unpacking this whole thing of, does it make me more fun? Does it make me more relaxed? And I had a lot of fear that it would change my relationship or even with my clients, that it would hurt my business. Once you start thinking about it, our belief systems are so entwined with the value that alcohol brings into our life. And even as I talk about it now, there's still a part of me that's like, there was value. But then it's like, if you kind of start to say, I want to look at this with a blank slate, I'm going to go out to a social event without a drink. And the first time you do that, I'm like a raging extrovert. It's still hard.

G-Rex [00:15:23]:
An extrovert.

KK [00:15:25]:
I know, right? But, yeah, I was like, oh, this doesn't make me any funnier. Or it doesn't do that. Right. It doesn't make this situation more fun. There's this weird thing inside of me that wants to tell me that it does, but is it actually true?

Dirty Skittles [00:15:50]:
Right, so you were able to go out and still be you without.

KK [00:15:55]:
What a concept, right?

G-Rex [00:15:58]:
Clear mind. Right. And you didn't wake up with regret and you didn't wake up with, like, what did I do last night?

KK [00:16:08]:
Yes. What a concept. And then I started realizing that so much of my time, even if I only drank, like, once a month, it was still occupying this space inside of me where I would be like, oh, I'm going to go out to that event with those clients. I'm going to only drink one drink because if I don't, I might start turning into a blabbermouth. And then I'm going to say an embarrassing. Like, my mind would create all these stories and I'd be like, ok, kara, you can do it. You can go and just have a couple drinks and be normal, and I would be so hard on myself that I couldn't figure it. And.

KK [00:16:54]:
And then it was like as soon as I just took it away, I'm in complete control. I don't have to worry about anything.

Dirty Skittles [00:17:02]:
That I do, right.

G-Rex [00:17:06]:
And then people see you for the real you and not you behind the alcohol or you behind whatever other substance is your drug of choice.

KK [00:17:21]:
Yeah.

Dirty Skittles [00:17:24]:
I'm thinking of like, while there's that side, right? What about the times? So anytime in my past where I was like, oh, envisioning what you're saying, right. Like, if I was putting that to myself in my twenty s, I think I would probably be freaking out a little bit. Like, shit, how am I going to go and do this thing with my friends and not have a drink, but not be weird or not make anybody else uncomfortable, but still have a good time and write all of this stuff going on in my mind? And then there's other times where I'm like, while I don't know how true it is, I think it just was easier to be more social because now I'm not wondering, am I coming off weird or do these people like me? Because you have that substance to sort of cloud that judgment or that side of your brain. But I agree with what you're saying because for me, I don't drink as much as I used to, but I think it was just because after having my son, it was different, my body was different, I didn't like it as much and it didn't benefit me as much. So I'm curious physically what had changed that made that substance not react the same way as it had before.

G-Rex [00:18:48]:
Do you think that you could have had this same discussion with yourself in your twenty s?

KK [00:18:56]:
I don't think so. Maybe if I would have done research, right? Like, if I would have gone and read the books. I mean, there's a lot, they call it quitlet, right? There's a lot of books out there and maybe, but I don't know. And I also think about too, I don't know if this belief is true or not, but inside of corporate America, I was people's drinking buddy, right? And I still don't know if that's true or not. That if I would have gotten promoted or if I would have been. Know if I would have been invited as many different, like, part of me is, is, did some of that happen because I was talented or was it because I was fun to go out with? I don't know. There's still a lot of questions in my mind of what life would have been like if I would have done this earlier.

Dirty Skittles [00:19:55]:
Yeah, I mean, I had heard about you without knowing any of that stuff. So I think for sure there was talent.

G-Rex [00:20:01]:
Right.

KK [00:20:01]:
But I think maybe.

Dirty Skittles [00:20:03]:
Yeah, I think going back to kind of like, what I mentioned before, or what you mentioned, too, it's like when you are surrounding yourself with the same kind of people at the same kind of point in your life, and you're doing the same things, I think, if anything, it was just natural. Like, she's talented and she's super cool to drink with. It was kind of, like, at that moment in time. But that's crazy. Did we even talk about what made you start researching? Were you always just naturally curious about this subject, or was there a triggering event?

KK [00:20:34]:
No, the triggering event was my friend. And again, I'm a self sacrificed human, right? So if I do something and I know I'm helping someone else, my motivation goes through the roof. I'm doing it. I'm getting better. Do it just for me. And then it's like, yeah.

Dirty Skittles [00:20:53]:
You're like, I'll get to it tomorrow.

KK [00:20:57]:
I'll do it tomorrow. But if it's someone that I love, I'm like, let's form an army. Let's do this shit. But, yeah. I don't know what got me to start reading, which is usually like, I read everything. That's what I do. But that was the most eye opening thing. It was starting to listen to podcasts and realize that I wasn't alone in a lot of the literature, too.

KK [00:21:26]:
It's like, this idea that there's a lot of people that try to figure out moderation, and this idea that moderation is a lie because you can't really moderate an addictive substance. Again, I'm sorry if this is triggering, but this is just what the research says. And I was like, oh, so this thing that I have, or if I have two drinks, I want to go party, that's actually not my fault. That's not something I have to figure out for myself. That's just what happens when you put a substance into your body. That was eye opening to me. And so it kind of made me stop trying to figure out the algorithm, and I was like, I'm just going to be done. I'm going to go down this journey.

KK [00:22:15]:
It hasn't been easy, but I will say that if anyone is considering it, the benefits are out of control. Wonderful. I was only drinking once a week at this point, and so I did not think I was going to have as much positive outcomes, but your sleep is the first thing that you notice. Your sleep is so good. Your mental clarity is amazing. You have to start feeling everything in your life, which kind of sucks. And then three months down this road, I don't think I'm ever going to be able to talk about this, but I lost one of my best friends from high school in probably the most tragic way possible. And I had to deal with it by feeling every single part of that insane grief.

KK [00:23:10]:
And I'm kind of on the other side of it. But I had never dealt with grief with a clear mind before and feeling everything as strongly as I had felt it and not having a crutch to lean on. Yeah, it's interesting, but there's so many beautiful things that come out of it and that's not talked about enough.

Dirty Skittles [00:23:33]:
That's kind of what I was just about to ask, is, through that hard time in your life, doing it with a clear head, what did you learn about yourself that you hadn't expected?

KK [00:23:46]:
Um. That's a really good question. I saw this thing today that was like, when you lose someone that's really close to you.

Dirty Skittles [00:24:01]:
I'm sorry.

KK [00:24:03]:
It's okay. That pain that you feel is like your love, right? That's the way that you honor that memory. And so I think that sometimes when I'd had people pass, it would hit me really hard. But I don't think I would feel the extent of the pain. But the extent of that pain is the extent of your love. And that's also a really beautiful thing. I let myself be my very sensitive self during that process, which I don't think I had done before. And I don't know what came out of it or anything, but I feel stronger.

KK [00:24:52]:
It's not a test that that happened to her. That was a horrible thing. But I was like, I'm going to do this anyways. I'm going to just see what this is like, to experience one of the most painful things I've ever experienced and do it without numbing anything in myself.

Dirty Skittles [00:25:10]:
Yeah, no, sorry.

G-Rex [00:25:15]:
No need to be sorry. I have a question.

KK [00:25:18]:
Yeah.

G-Rex [00:25:19]:
During this time, have you found that you have a lot more clarity in your life?

KK [00:25:25]:
Oh, my God. It's unparalleled. And, you know, I'm nine months in and it gets better every day. It's amazing. It really is amazing. Yes.

Dirty Skittles [00:25:41]:
How do you deal with stress now or bad day?

G-Rex [00:25:45]:
Now.

KK [00:25:49]:
I'll just meditate. And I don't think stress hits me as hard as it used to.

Dirty Skittles [00:25:56]:
Oh, interesting.

KK [00:26:00]:
I thought a lot about this with leadership development, which I was blown away whenever this first started. And I was like, all of these leaders go out and get wasted with each other, right? Because they don't know how to connect, other than getting wasted, which many people don't. And then they try to go have strategy meetings when they haven't slept and they're hungover and their minds are like squirrels. And if you think about leadership development, leadership development is all about challenging your beliefs. And the beliefs that need to be challenged the most is like, when people are treating people like machines or they're communicating in a really aggressive, horrible way. So it's like, that development needs to happen. But I don't know if any of that stuff is possible. I don't know if you can have a clear strategy or truly develop yourself if your mind is cluttered all the time.

KK [00:26:54]:
So I was like, what am I doing? All this stuff that I do? Is it possible if people are just, like, anxiety ridden because they haven't been sleeping? And if their minds are just cluttered, what if all people need to do is just take a week off of drinking so their minds can be clear? Yeah, but I talked to a few people about it, and they were like, no one would ever buy that, Kara. And I was like, cool.

G-Rex [00:27:19]:
So has your family been super.

KK [00:27:24]:
Mean? My husband. I think my husband and I are drinking buddies. Right? We have a very fun relationship. And so I think whenever it first started, he was like, this will pass. It's just one of your things. And a lot of people who wanted me to not be there didn't want to lose their drinking. Budy would be like, you just need a break. You'll be back.

KK [00:27:44]:
It gets fine. We miss the old Kara. But I think that once my husband was able to realize how much weight it put on me, on my mind, once that clicked, he was like, I get it now. You're fine. I'm still, like, a drinking buddy, but I just don't drink. I'm still fun. Yeah. I think people can realize that I'm still me.

G-Rex [00:28:14]:
And what are you doing these days now for self love and self care?

KK [00:28:20]:
I do a lot of yoga, and I'm still a mom of two little boys, so doing a lot of stuff for myself is kind of out of the question all the time. But the other thing, too, is whenever alcohol is out of your life, you have so much more time. I travel, I do all the things that I've done, and honestly, I look at this whole thing, as this is the biggest act of self care and self love I've ever given to myself. And that's one of my pieces of motivation, is that I wake up every day. I haven't had a hangover in nine months. It's amazing. My anxiety is so much better just because of this one thing. I really do feel like it is the ultimate act of self love.

Dirty Skittles [00:29:08]:
Yeah, I mean, it makes sense. It totally makes sense. And you've been able to do it, and you're doing it. I want to thank you for even just talking about this and opening up my mind to this, because nobody really talks about it.

G-Rex [00:29:24]:
They don't.

KK [00:29:26]:
Nobody does.

Dirty Skittles [00:29:26]:
And it makes total sense. I love that.

KK [00:29:32]:
The last part of this, too, on my mom rant on this, is that women are being intentionally targeted right now. So mommy wine culture is, like, a really big thing. So I think back to that other question of motivation. Yes, it was my friend. And an ultimate act of self love. But when this stuff becomes a feminist issue, when I find out that alcohol companies are doing this shit on purpose because their first audience is, like, dying, and they're trying to get young people, and they're trying to get women engaged in drinking, and all the stuff that we see on tv, all of it is intentional. These influencers we see on Instagram and all these different places, and they're all doing their wine stuff, all of it is intentional. A lot of those influencers aren't even drinking actual wine.

KK [00:30:23]:
They're doing it because they're being paid by a wine company. Right. Again, back to this thing that we don't know all the damage that it causes. There is research coming out that any alcohol at all increases a woman's chance of getting cancer, that's just like a whole nother Pandora's box to open. When you start realizing all of the statistics behind how many more women are drinking, especially in the pandemic, moms that have young kids, their drinking has increased, like, 300%. And now that I've been on the other side of it and I realize how damaging it is, it pisses me off. Why? Okay, you need to make money. That's fine.

KK [00:31:09]:
But that should be sacred. Don't target mothers with young children. They're the most vulnerable part of our population. Okay, that's my last rant.

Dirty Skittles [00:31:23]:
You're fine.

KK [00:31:24]:
Yeah.

Dirty Skittles [00:31:25]:
I mean, I'm a big advocate for just human rights in general. So anytime I get. If anybody is targeted, and I don't know, that shit drives me nuts. It drives me fucking nuts. So, no, I get it. I totally, totally get it.

KK [00:31:39]:
Leave the mamas alone. But you know how the lesbian community.

G-Rex [00:31:43]:
Is targeted just as well, too. We don't have any kids. Most of us don't. So we're just as targeted as the moms with small kids.

KK [00:31:54]:
Oh, my God. No, G. Rex. I saw an ad the other day and it was like, yes. And I was like, those motherfuckers. They're making ads targeted to independent women. They're like, oh, beer will make you more. That's exactly what they did with cigarettes.

G-Rex [00:32:15]:
No, you know what beer will make you do? It'll make you get fucking fat. It will. Makes you get fucking fat. It does.

Dirty Skittles [00:32:24]:
That's crazy. Yeah. I'm trying to just. I feel like I just saw there was some celebrity who has wine and it's a female. I don't want to say it was Gwyneth Paltrow and get it wrong, but it was somebody like that, right, that has their own wine. And they were pushing it and talking, you know, this wine is better than the other wines that you'll get at the store because we care about the ingredients and yada, yada, yada. And then they're all like, taste it. Doesn't it taste good? And it's like, well, if a woman says it tastes good, it's got to be good for women.

Dirty Skittles [00:32:56]:
I was like, interesting. Too bad I like my wine to taste like juice. So I might as well just drink the juice and be.

G-Rex [00:33:03]:
It just gives skittles a bottle of vulture's grape juice with a wine label on it.

Dirty Skittles [00:33:10]:
I won't even know the difference.

KK [00:33:11]:
There you go.

Dirty Skittles [00:33:14]:
Well, thank you. I appreciate you sharing this insight. This has definitely opened up my mind. I wrote down some of the books you mentioned so that I can go and get them and read them or put them on. On audible and enjoy them. Yeah.

KK [00:33:25]:
The two ones I always recommend to start with is quit like a woman. The other one is the snake at mind. The snake at mind is more of an academic read, but it helps you kind of think about things a lot differently. Yeah. Sorry. I'm not sorry.

G-Rex [00:33:39]:
Ever be sorry? No.

Dirty Skittles [00:33:41]:
This is wonderful.

KK [00:33:44]:
It's still uncomfortable for me to talk about. So I just wanted to tell you, you all thank you for everything that you're doing. And thank you for letting me talk about this kind of uncomfortable topic, because maybe it'll help somebody. That's always my motivation.

Dirty Skittles [00:33:59]:
I think it will.

G-Rex [00:34:00]:
You have another question for you. You're out on your own now, right? You have a company. Do you want to plug your company?

KK [00:34:08]:
Yeah, sure. My company is called Insights Leadership Group. So my business partner and I, we do a lot of workshops for companies, and we've designed a lot of leadership development programs. So anybody that worked with us knew that we built leadership development inside of ultimate, and we have studied it. He just got his doctorate, and so we're able to take a lot of this research and help people build really healthy cultures. But the question that always comes out is, what causes that or what's the biggest thing that you can impact? And my perspective is leadership. Right. So if you can get leadership right, a lot of the other stuff just kind of falls into place.

KK [00:34:46]:
So, yeah, that's a lot of what we do. And then I also have a podcast. It's called Pop on leadership. So if anybody wants to tune in, it's super niche, but super awesome is what it is.

G-Rex [00:34:59]:
So awesome.

KK [00:35:00]:
Anybody likes Ted Lasso and leadership, our. That's our very niche.

Dirty Skittles [00:35:10]:
That. I love that. Thank you so much, KK. G. Rex, any last questions?

G-Rex [00:35:14]:
No. Thank you so much for coming on, KK. I really appreciate you sharing your story and, like, you know, if we can help just one person out, that that's our normalizing, how we talk about mental health and things that we're all going through.

KK [00:35:33]:
You're not the problem. It's just alcohol. Right?

Dirty Skittles [00:35:38]:
I love that. That should be the ending of it. You're not the problem. It's just the alcohol.

KK [00:35:43]:
You're not the problem. It's just booze. Fine.

G-Rex [00:35:49]:
You.

Dirty Skittles [00:35:54]:
It's okay to be not okay. Just make sure you're talking to someone.