Breaking the Cycle of Addiction with Kelly Siegel

Hey there! I'm so excited to announce the Unstoppable Success Summit is back, y'all. We are going to be in Dallas April 19th and 20th, and I want to see you there. Don't miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights and make valuable connections and leave with actionable takeaways so you can implement all of these things into your career and level up your life and your business. I've got Ben Newman. Rachel Luna, John Gordon, Rudy Riksteens. I've got a panel of speakers that specialize on publishing, PR, branding, podcasting, and TED Talks. And so if you are ready to level up, if you're like, I've got a message to share and I really want to increase my influence, it's time to kick the limiting beliefs to the curb. It's time to move forward past your fear. It's time for you to invest In you to bet on yourself. So I want to see you in Dallas. It's my hometown and I'm going to make it, y'all. I'm planning some big stuff. Okay. It's going to be fun. My event planner keeps saying, Amberly, you need to reel it in. I'm like, no. And in Texas we say go big or go home. So go to go.amberlylago.com. That link will also be in the show notes to grab your early bird ticket. The early bird tickets will only last for a certain time and there are only 100 seats available. So these tickets will go fast. You're the first to know about it. I want to see you in Dallas. So hopefully I will see you there to hug your neck and let's be unstoppable together. Okay, now on to the show. Thank you for tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm Amberly Lago, and I'll be sharing inspirational stories of resilience, and empowering ideas to elevate your business and your life, ignite your passion, and fuel your purpose. Thank y'all for tuning in. It's Amberly, and I so appreciate you tuning in to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I have one of my good friends on the show today, and we were just talking and talking, and I'm like, wait a minute, we got to hit record. I have Kelly Siegel here, y'all. He is amazing. He's motivating people around the globe. He's an author. He's got a top podcast and had some of the most amazing guests on his show. He's a speaker. You got to check out his Instagram and his TikTok because you will be so inspired. He's also an owner of a tech company. We'll get into all of that stuff. He's the CEO of a tech company. And you know what? He has broken the cycle of abuse and addiction. And you are going to be inspired. You are— your heart is going to be just filled up with joy after hearing him. So, Kelly, thank you so much for being here.

Amberly, just so that we set the record straight, it's 20 minutes of you and I just gabbing. I think it was 25 minutes. It's like when I get on the phone with you, it's, it's all I feel is love and energy. And it's just, I want more of it. I cannot wait to go to your event in April and just hug you and love you and tell you how proud I am of you. And just life is good that we get to do this and get to make friends with amazing people like you. I didn't know you a year ago. And now you've been on my podcast, I'm on your podcast, and I'm gonna come support you in any way, shape, or form.

Oh my goodness.

All your events.

Thank you. Well, I was— yeah, I'm so excited that you're going to come to the event in April in Dallas. And, and I was like, oh my gosh, so many people are gonna be so, like, crazy happy, joyous that they get to see you because, you know, so many of the people that are going to be there, like John and Catherine Gordon, and Jillian will be there. Like, well, you've had a lot of the guests on your show that are going to actually be at the event. So I know that they're going to be so happy to hug your neck.

Like attracts like, remember? So you got to warn him I'm coming because when I come, I come with seagull smooches and hugs and—

Oh my gosh, I do too. It's so funny. I spoke at an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, and I saw my friend Mark Drager for the first time. And I run in and I'm like, oh my God, and I give him a big hug and I hit him on the chest. I was like, look at you, because he lost a lot of weight and he got really fit. And his face was like, Oh, and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm a hugger. So you, you will be very welcome at this event for sure. I mean, seriously, for sure. I can't wait to hug your neck. Your story is amazing. And, um, we have, uh, daughters that are around the same age. Your daughter, I think, is about a year younger than my daughter. And you have set such an example.

Thank you.

of strength and hope and inspiration and transformation. And I have like 3 pages of questions because you're amazing at all you do and how you inspire people. But we have so much in common with our stepdads for sure. But I would just like our listeners to know a little bit about your story because sometimes it's hard to see, like if you look at, uh, you know, Kelly on Social media, you're like, oh wow, this guy's like a superhero. He's got it all. He's, you know, driving this boat in Florida and has another house and he's doing this and that and owns a successful company. And by the way, this is like the first time I've seen you with so much clothes on. Because if you check out his social media, even your stories on Facebook, yours is the first one that pops up. I'm not kidding. And he's always got his shirt off. But hey, if you looked the way Kelly did, you would do that too. But I want to talk about like how you got from a place of abuse and neglect. I mean, when I know when you were like 10 years old, you were wanting food and nobody was going to make you food. And you were worried that your stepfather was going to come home and Was this the time he was going to beat you again? So can you tell us a little bit about your story growing up so people get perspective on what they can do and what they can overcome?

Absolutely. I'm a learn-it-all, but learn-it-all comes with a lot of fear. So growing up, I was always scared to death. I didn't know if my mother was gonna come home and beat on me, my dad was gonna— stepfather was gonna come over and beat on me. I didn't know where my next meal was. The only place I knew I was gonna get fed was our free lunch at school. And, but you know, that made me resilient and tough. And silly me decided to go right down the same path of the drinking and drugs that my parents went down. Luckily, the entire time I knew this isn't— this wasn't gonna stay— stick with me. Just a shameless plug. Harder Than Life, the book, I wrote all about it in there. Amazon bestseller for several weeks. Talks all about how I grew up, how I channeled that to start my national technology management IT company. And here's a little fact. It was out of fear. I wanted, I was afraid of where I was gonna eat, what I could eat, who was gonna beat me. So I just knew that if I just worked very, very hard, And I started like you at a very young age. I started going door to door selling candies and then I sold newspapers and that represented food to me. So when I could go make money, I could go and buy myself food. And I'm not kidding you, this isn't exaggeration. There was no food in our house and our parents, my mother and my stepfather were never home. So it was like, I always wanted to ask them like, where do you think that I ate? You know, did you even care?

Yeah. Did you have brothers or sisters?

I had a sister who was 8 years old, 9 years older than me, and she left when I was 9. And that I realized through all my therapy that that was a big abandonment thing because when she was there, my mother and my stepfather would give her the brunt of the abuse, and she took it like a champ. Until she didn't. And then when she left, it was, man, it was all on little 9-year-old Kelly. And she knew it too. She told me years later, she tried to get me out of that house.

How many years later? How many years later?

Just recently, this last summer, I was at her son's birthday party. And I showed up and I just, I pulled her aside and I said, I want to thank you for saving my life. And I started crying. And she said, I go, there was a, there's a point I wrote about in the book when my mom came home drunk, and it was my 9th birthday, and beat the living crap out of me to the point where I thought I was going to die.

Hmm.

And I, my sister, since it was my birthday, had come to stay the night with me because she wanted to see me. And lucky she was there because she was hiding in the other room while my mom was pummeling me. And then I hear this door open. I hear this punch. I barely see anything. And I hear this punch. My sister punched my mom in the face and grabbed my lifeless body, pulled me back into this room, slammed the door, locked it. And, you know, tried to revive me and said, here's this social worker's number. You need to call her. You've got to get out of here because she's going to kill you.

Hmm.

And I was scared to death. I would— I wouldn't— I didn't call. I believe that the social worker showed up and I lied, said, oh, everything's fine. Oh God, because I feared the repercussions from my mother even worse. You know, when you're— when you don't know any better, that's, that's the love that you seek. And, and, you know, Amberly, it took me 40 years to figure out that shit ain't normal, man.

Well, hey, Kelly, this is something I've never shared on the podcast before. But I actually, we had a social worker come to our house for my oldest daughter, um, because I was in a marriage, very short-lived marriage, but it wasn't good. And a social worker came and I was like, just tell the truth. And she did. And it was a good thing because it It really— it sobered up my ex-husband. Gosh, I probably shouldn't be saying this on here.

No, but that's what it's— you know, what people love is the realness. And that's real life. We've all— here's the funny thing about it. We all have something. We all have skeletons. And if you sharing that, another young lady who is listening to this, who loves her some Amberly hears that, Your daughter was, was courageous. I want to say that word more and more and more— courageous to be herself and speak up. I was a coward. I sat there and was afraid.

You didn't know any better, though.

Like, I know I've forgiven it. I just wanted to say that. But I have forgiven that little boy. And had he not gone through all that, I wouldn't be here talking to you right now. Because it, I, the contrast is amazing. So I grew up really, really physically abused, mentally abused, and now I live a life that everybody would love to live. I, you know, I just landed from Florida. Like you said, I was on the boat with my daughter yesterday. I spent the whole week down there with her. Now I'm here in Michigan earning the money and realizing that life is so good. And if I would've had a cushy Childhood, I wouldn't have written the Harder Than Life book. I wouldn't be a sought-after speaker. None of this would be happening. But, you know, you had to do the work, and it was scary. There were there were times when I wrote this book.

It was I wrote this just as a fluke during the What year did that come out?

Came out this year. Everything is this year, 2023. This year has been I launched everything on January 31st. 2023, and we're coming to the we're now end of November, and we haven't even been doing this stuff a year, and the Instagram and the TikTok and this everything has blown up.

And Kelly, that is because of your discipline, your consistency, and your grit, and your hard work. Well, I was oh you gotta if you are watching this on YouTube, you can see he's got consistency is what transforms average into. What does it say? Excellence. Excellence. I was gonna say legend because you're, you're legendary. Now I see you, you, you're— and that's the thing, like, honestly, I think the reason that the True Grit and Grace podcast is the top 1% podcast is just because I've been consistent. I've been consistent every single week for years, like every week. Episode comes out. You have two episodes a week that come out on your show.

You know, it's like everything in my life. That's an accident. My my former now former assistant did didn't realize she was very overzealous and didn't realize there's fifty-two weeks in the year, and we booked too many people.

So it's yeah, my producer was like the same. So Christine, if you're listening to this, I understand. Thank you.

People, and I want to talk to them. Me too. It's just so this is the you put a mic. microphone in my hand, whether it be a podcast or, or a speaking engagement, and I'm, I'm at home. I feel great doing it.

And you're so good on social media. Like, you're so comfortable. Like, honestly, I'm amazed at what you do on social media when you're like talking to the camera and, and, and also how you handle some haters. So I want to talk about that because there's some There's some haters out there that are like, oh my gosh, do you even own a shirt? Do you own clothes? And I love that you are just like, hey, if you look like me, you would take off your shirt too.

Well, it's it's always that they're claiming I take steroids, and and I I have something for those people. We we're going to do a podcast with my doctor on, and we're going to shut them up.

Oh, so what do you take? What do you take?

Testosterone. 48 years old and I've taken— I take testosterone.

Yeah.

And the rest is consistency, discipline, grit. And just between you, me, and the fence post, I don't want my stepfather to beat me anymore. That's how this started. I started working out when I was 13 years old because he was beating on me. He was a big guy.

And we have that in common. That's how I got— that's how I started working out and getting into Krav Maga and boxing. Same thing.

Well, you were a big fit. Many people don't notice you. You were a huge fitness influencer back in the before we were called influencers. And listen, you're gorgeous now. You're beautiful. Whoa, I saw some of those pictures. You stunning. Yeah, all the way through. Just beautiful. I love me some Amberly. And you know, that's why we get along so well. Our stories are the same. Very, very similar. We overcome it and we're living our best life now and we're sharing it. Because that's where the courageousness comes in. You know, I put in my book, I had to empty a jar of urine for my stepdad every day.

You what?

Yeah, he used to— they— I thought you knew this.

I didn't know this part.

So my mother and my stepfather were such violent drunks that they couldn't sleep in the same room, or they couldn't go out together because they would get into fights. It's— now I know that's 2 unhealed people, 2 insecure people that are— that just Or got together and couldn't find anybody else. So she would sleep in one room and he'd sleep in another, but she would come home and harass him and try to start a fight with him. So he put this big door in and with a deadbolt, and he wouldn't come out because she stabbed him, she beat him. She one time lit the house on fire, literally lit the house on fire. So my stepfather would pee in a jar because he didn't want to come out because he feared she'd kill him. And my job was to make his bed and to empty that pee jar. And if I didn't empty it, he would open it and go throw it on my bed. Well, here's the lesson I learned now that I own an IT company. If you don't do it right the first time, when are you gonna have the time to do it right the second time?

Mm-hmm.

So I am very meticulous about getting things done. You'll hear me say I measure 10 times and cut once. Because I don't want pee being thrown on my bed.

Hey, the lessons you've learned, it's disgusting.

I know. But hey, it has served me where I'm able to now. Now remember, this isn't a self-grandiose thing. Most of the money that I make from the Harder Than Life brand goes to charity. We're going to donate a million bucks to charity every year that we make the million bucks. Now we're 1 year into this, not even 1 year, we're 10 months into it. So we haven't— we're short on that, but we will make up for it quickly. So I'm not sitting here, woe is me, but that's really happened. That really, really happened. And I don't talk to them anymore.

I was gonna ask you, that was my question that I really wanted to know is like, what is— do you have a relationship with your mom and your stepdad?

You know, I was talking to a friend the other day, my best friend who's been with me through thick and thin for 25 years. And he said to— he said to somebody else, he's like, I lived with him for years. We were roommates, college roommates, roommates after school. He's like, I lived with him on or off for 20 years. He's like, you know how many times his parents called him in the 20 years we lived together? And they're like, I don't know how many. Zero.

Wow.

So I tried to have a relationship with them, and then every time I was around them, I left feeling less than. I felt— I left feeling like shit. Let's just be honest.

Okay.

And they tried— they'd knock me. They would tell me I ain't nothing. And just— there's no reason that you need to— I need to put up with that. And that goes for anybody in this world. It's— and I thought, oh, They're your— you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your family and their blood, and you got to put up with it.

No.

I am to tell you, I've been through much therapy, and it's been all over the board. I've had therapists say you should connect, and then I've— the ones that really know me and know my healing said, you've processed it, Kelly. Now, I will be at their funeral. There won't be anybody else. They're such nasty humans. They don't have any friends.

What about your real— what about your maternal— your dad? I mean, your—

He passed away from drugs and alcohol 25 years ago.

Oh, wow.

So it was, you know, and that's another thing. There's weeks like this last week, I just turned 48. I just had Thanksgiving that, you know, I would have— I would have paid any money to have dinner with my dad and just talk to him. He was one of— he was one of those people that had the highest IQ in the family and just, yeah, life came so easy to him. That he had to slow that mind down. And he did it through drugs and alcohol and then ultimately killed himself. He was 47 years old when he, when he died. So, wow, now 48. And it's sad. He didn't get to live with— he didn't live a day of his life. Not one day.

Well, I want to talk about your sobriety. How long have you been sober?

Ooh, great question. It's coming up on 5 years. The New Year's, this, uh, will be 5 years.

And I know that you stay sober in a very different way than a lot of people do, because most people like me go to a 12-step. I still go to meetings. I'm a secretary of a meeting. Um, I've got a sponsor. We check in every day. We work through the Big Book every week. But you don't do any recovery. You just decided to stop. And that's it. How do you do it?

Well, I believe— since I talked to you last year, this one, you're gonna laugh at me. I believe I'm the chosen one. I believe God has a bigger plan for me. Why am I here? I don't know why. But man, things keep aligning for me.

Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do. You are, you are chosen.

So why did I drink? I figured out that I could get love and attention and brother love and family camaraderie, a sense of belonging when I drank. So, and I was one of those weird people. I like the taste of alcohol.

You like the taste?

I like the taste of alcohol. You throw me some scotch or some whiskey. I like beer too. Now I drink all non-alcoholic. So so you asked me a question. The short answer is this: A, it wasn't serving me anymore, and every single time that there was a problem in my life, alcohol was present. It was not the causation. I was the causation. It was a correlation. So I said, "I'm gonna eliminate this," and I only committed to. I just put a post up today about or yesterday about take the Siegel 90-day challenge. I I pre I think that if you take 90 days off of of alcohol. There's a highly good chance where you can abstain from it forever. And if you're not—

because it takes about 90 days to create a new habit and way of living. So it's good that you're doing 90 days. Yeah.

And for me, it was day 184. And I only know these days because of the day that I quit. I quit on New Year's Eve. Well, really New Year's Day. So right the moment New Year's hit on 1/1/19, Which I think is hilarious. It's 911 in reverse.

Yeah, yeah.

I just— I took— I cheersed the drag queen. I was in Key West, Florida. Took a big swig of scotch, set it down, and never looked back.

So you didn't have like a, like a big rock bottom or a wake-up call? You just continued to have things that weren't going right and decided, you know what, this is not serving me.

And so Amberly was a love story. I just, I just kept meeting emotionally unavailable drunk women.

Oh.

And I was trying to get them to love me like mom didn't love me. And I figured this is what I know best. So I'm gonna go meet them. Like attracts like. I'm emotionally unavailable. They're emotionally unavailable. And it just was, was something. So I said, there's gotta be a better way. Let's become what I'm trying to attract, which is sober. Which is loyal, honest, and knows how to communicate and bring something to the table.

So you single now?

Yeah, I am actually.

Hey ladies, check him out. He's single.

You know, it's really funny how when you heal, when you heal to the level that I did, and I mean, I'm, I still work on my healing. Like I was at a retreat last weekend in Utah where I was meditating and literally digging into because I was feeling like there was a little bit of, of unhealedness in my inner child. And I drilled on it and drilled on it, drilled on it, figured out it was just my old ego that was there to protect me, was fighting tooth and nail for me not to kill it. And I gave him permission to go away. and said, I got it from here. It's all good. More healing, 5 years into this.

Yeah.

So now I feel 1,000 pounds lighter. You're gonna see even more aggressive posts, me being more of who I authentically am. And I'm gonna try to help more people because at the end of the day, that's what I want to do. I modeled the best partier in the world, and now I'm gonna model the best-winning, inspired, positive person on the planet. I'm gonna come— we talked about Ed Mylett. I'm gonna, I'm gonna be the next Ed Mylett, but Kelly Siegel. You know, there's— he's Ed Mylett, is Ed Mylett. I'm Kelly Siegel. But we're gonna just keep going and keep passing the torch. And then there's somebody grinding an axe behind me that can come and do that. So you asked the question is, I healed the reason why I wanted to drink in the first place. And Amberly, I don't have cravings. I don't have desires. I am— I was around people that were drinking all week. And not one point, and I drive them around. I don't avoid bars. It just does not call me anymore. It was the thing to do to pass time. Well, now I read— I'm reading an amazing book right now, by the way. I highly recommend it, called Outwitting the Devil by Napoleon Hill.

Oh, I think I have that book and I haven't read it yet. That was one of my questions to you is like, one of your favorite books is The Four Agreements.

Yes.

And that is my ultimate favorite book because it's so simple, easy to read. It's the book that I give to everyone. What are some of your favorite books?

You know what? There's a new book you gotta look up. The Four Agreements companion book. Oh, I don't know. It's new. It just came out. I just looked at it up on my shelf. It's, it's addition to, they go deeper into the Four Agreements.

Oh.

So the Four Agreements companion book. I was just sent, this is the cool thing about this. I actually gotta reach over here and grab this. Hold on. I was recently, so being of some sort of status, this is, I still struggle with You know what, where we are. You get sent books all the time, especially since—

oh, I know.

I've got— I got sent this by this amazing—

yeah, this is right on my desk.

The Book of Mistakes: 9 Secrets to Creating a Successful Future by Skip Pritchard. This guy is— I didn't realize it— is a very big speaker. And I don't know, his book was so good. This is my new favorite book.

Really? It is a fable of mistakes. Okay. Oh, I love fable books.

It's so good. I love it. And then I just finished Arnold Schwarzenegger's book. Who knew he was so smart? He was, he was fantastic.

Oh, he's brilliant. Oh, can I tell you a story really quick?

Absolutely.

So my husband got the Medal of Valor. And he was— they flew us to Sacramento and he was being presented with this Medal of Valor with By Arnold, and I'm a huge being in the fitness industry. I'm huge Arnold fan. Like I love Arnold. So when it time came time, my husband looks so handsome, and he's walking on stage in his uniform, and Arnold's putting the medal over him. I would the phone. I was so like excited and like over like I don't know what happened, but the phone was like this. It was shaking. I got no video of it because I was—

Is this your husband now?

Yeah, he's amazing.

First of all, I gotta, I gotta say to you, I wish I could bottle you and marry you.

I—

that love that you just showed him is what I'm looking for. I don't— I shouldn't say looking for. That's what I— that's what I want. That was— that just warmed— you just triggered me in the positive way. And like, that's what I want. That support. I have done all of this growing up with no support. Now I have you, I got Jill, I got Craig. There's so many people like pushing me that even if I wanted to quit, won't let me.

But I don't think you would ever quit. There's no—

I'm just getting—

you've got so much grit. There's no quit. There's like, you're, you're incredible. But no, I'm very, very, very blessed to have a husband who has been by my side. I mean, he was by my side for 34 surgeries. He's— I got— I'm real lucky. He's a good guy. He'd give you the shirt off his back. And I hope that you will meet him in April.

I will. I will. And, you know, there's no— just for the listeners, there's no luck about it. You did the work. You became the person that you were looking to attract, and you would— and the universe aligned with you. Mine— God is building mine right now.

Yeah, I was gonna say that. And I love that you share so much about how you are doing the work and you're going to therapy. And one of the things that I love about you is that you are so strong and you've got all this grit, but you're not afraid to show your vulnerability. And you're, and you're humble. Like, you've got a lot of confidence, but you have a lot of humility as well. And I love that about you.

Thank you so much. I receive that vulnerability is a superpower. And we all need— you gotta realize you get what you want or you get what you need when you're vulnerable. And if you get what you need, sometimes that hurts. And it's okay. Because on the other side of that hurt is growth. You know, hey, Amberly doesn't like me. Hey, I don't have to spend another minute talking to her. I got what I needed. Hey, Amberly loves me. I got what I wanted. I got a sister that I love that I'm gonna come to Dallas and support. Do you see how that works? Either way, I don't sit in this— what is that halfway between it? I don't sit when I don't know what's going on. And that's crazy talk. That's like you're not even living your life. So And again, this is not easy. I would— it's still a scared little boy in me that just says, I can't believe you just said that. But there's also my other self, my badass self saying, you've got to say that because people are counting on you. And there's somebody else listening that said that, that needs to hear this. And so they step into themselves. So I've got an obligation. And that's part of of being the chosen one and putting that kind of expectation on myself because, uh, and it's pretty— it's, it's cool because it's just the truth. It's my truth.

Yeah. Well, I, I love your videos and your TikTok is like exploding.

Like, I just noticed that.

It is. It's exploding. It's amazing. Well, can you tell I've been stalking you?

It's very personal to me. Because I want to catch these young kids. You have a young daughter. I have a young daughter. I want to catch them before they form their coping skills. And I tell my daughter, bring your friends over and let's love on them because they need to know it's safe. They also— I want to create a safe zone for conversation. There's no judgment. I'm not here to fix anything.

Mm-hmm.

I'm just here to offer guidance.

And well, I think when you've grown up in a home where you've never felt safe, that's a really big deal to just have a safe place. I'm the same way with my kids. Like, they always know it's safe to come and talk to me. In fact, my daughter just had a couple of friends over and it may— it touched my heart because she goes, no, we can, we can tell my mom. She, she's, she's okay. We can tell her anything. And so they started telling me a story of what they did. And I, you know, and I was like, oh gosh, maybe I'm a bad influence because, um, they went into like an old abandoned house, but I'm the one that first took my daughter and said, hey, let's go in this old abandoned house and go explore. And so I, she's like me. And so, but it made me feel good that like, she's like, oh no, you can tell my mom anything. It's okay to tell my mom.

Not so much more to that, as you know, Amberly. And I'm only saying this so the listeners hear this is, is, you know, you don't ever want your kid to say, we can't tell mom because she's gonna kill me. Yeah, I want them to say, tell mom because she can help us.

Exactly.

And, and that's how I have it with my daughter. It's, she text messaged me. And I just say, I'm coming, no strings attached. I don't— if I'm not, you know, if I have to make a scene, tell me. If I have to be quiet, tell me. But I'm this big imposing force, and then then that's when the scared little Kelly does come out. Where if something if she's threatened, then I get nervous. But I know that violence is not the answer, even though.

But you're that's being protective. It triggers you because I think a part of you is trying to protect that young, that little boy. That so needed to be protected. And now it comes out with your daughter and you can be triggered and you want to protect your daughter. And you are such a good dad. I hear the way that—

The hardest thing in the world to do is to let them make mistakes and let them learn. But you have to. You cannot be a hover parent. There's no amount of experience that I've had through life that I can protect her from. Uh, and I catch myself doing it. I gotta like, Yeah, you know, I just gotta let her live her life. Beauty part about it is she sees that drugs and alcohol aren't a thing. We, you know, she brought it up for the weekend, and she's a good kid. I would say if she wasn't, but she's a good kid, and she's starting to look beautiful like her mother. And I'm grateful for her. She's my why. If I didn't have her, I'd probably be dead.

Mm-hmm.

Like my dad, because I had nothing to live for. Thank goodness I'm here because I've only just begun.

And now where is her mom?

Her mom is here local. I wrote about it in the book. They had a— we had a pretty big fight during the night of the pandemic. They— I'd been sober for about 14 or 15 months now, and I was becoming this unstoppable being. And hurt people hurt people. So she got together with my ex-girlfriend and they, they made up a bunch of lies and, and temporarily took custody away from my daughter.

Oh my gosh.

I went nuclear. And I'm going to share something with you that my daughter told me that she'd never told me before. She told me yesterday in Florida. She said, Dad, I fully expected you to drink again when you lost me. I fully expected you to show up at Mom's house and make a scene. And when you didn't, and then you showed up with a court order and won, I felt loved and proud of you. And I looked at her, I threw the paper at my ex-wife and said, really, what the hell's wrong with you? And I looked at my daughter and I said, I will never stop coming for you. Never. And she, and she knew right away that I meant business. And here we are 5 years later, closer than ever. And so her mother finally, after all that, after we went to court and blew a bunch of money and wasted it, I went to her and I forgave her. And I said, I asked her 3 questions. One was, how can I be a better father? How can I be a better ex-husband? And how can I support her in her new relationship? And it was an hour and a half of her basically berating me. And all that is, is, is, you know as well as I do, don't take anything personal from the Four Agreements.

Mm-hmm.

It's just all her. Those were all her insecurities pummeling it out at me. And I just listened. Hour and a half later, and that's when the war ended. Now we don't fight. Now, I will tell you, I'm single. There's, there's a coincidence. There's no coincidence that when I'm single, I get along with her really well. I don't know what it is, and I just put that out in the airways, but it is the truth. I'm going to tell the truth all the time. So when I'm single, she's happy, even though she's had a boyfriend for years. She likes me single. So if that keeps the peace— the difference is, is that anytime I ever got a girlfriend, even in this healing journey, they haven't been what they're going to be, or the one I ultimately end up with is going to be like you, that I don't know.

My husband nicknamed me crazy.

So listen, I like a little bit of crazy. We all do, because I'm a little crazy. But you gotta, you gotta be able to accept love and give love and be loyal and co-create together and communicate together. Hey, man. Yeah, guaranteed. Like some of this is— here's a, here's a conversation between you and your husband. Hey, you're kind of bothering me right now. I need a minute. You know, and you walk away and you get, I'll be right back. I just need a minute. And then you come back. Hey, I love you. That was triggered because of this. In the future, could you say that? And there's— that's all I'm asking. And that's not asking too much.

Well, I want to talk about the self-love because there was a time when you looked in the mirror that you didn't like who you saw. How did you start to love yourself, give yourself that self-love? And become the person that you are today?

Probably the same way you did. I, you know, well, I remember looking in the mirror many times when I was drinking, and even after I was drinking, and I'd look and I'd see my face was blotchy and puffy. And I'd done some stupid things that quote unquote were fun, but they weren't in alignment with who I, my soul really is. And I just said, this has got to stop. So I started thinking at age 30 that I needed to quit, but I didn't know how. I didn't know what that looked like. I didn't—

so at age 30, you were like, this is a little much. I need to quit.

Yeah. I was in Koh Phangan, Thailand, at the full moon party doing shots of tequila with Liam Neeson. Wow. So I put on a—

oh my God. I love Liam Neeson. Are you kidding me?

You know what? He's sober now. I just learned. Really?

Yeah, a lot of people getting—

I wonder if he remembered. You gotta remember, because you only go to this place once in your life. Like, it's— you take a 24-hour freaking plane ride, then you got to take another little puddle jumper for an hour, and then you gotta get on a boat, and then you gotta get on a taxi. This full moon party, they've made movies about it. So it is the party of all parties. You only go once in your life. And anyways, it was like the next morning that it was the afterparty, and he and I were doing shots. And I'm just like, This is not sustainable. This is not— your body can't, you know, and at that point, my dad was already dead for many years. And my dad abused his body for 30 years. So I was in my head, I'm doing the calculation, like, all right, how much longer do I got?

Oh my goodness.

And then my grandmother died, my grandfather died. And I had another relationship where it was just tumultuous. And I just got sick and tired of being sick and tired. And I said, I just gotta freaking stop. And so we gotta go back to that story about my ex-wife and my ex-girlfriend getting together. At that point, I still hadn't really found personal development. I still hadn't. All I'd done at that point is quit drinking. That's it. And I was feeling my feelings. And you talk about true grit and grace. That's the only way I was not drinking. Through grit and grace. Oh my God! Let me not drink today. Let me. I'd hire. I'd gone to therapy. I'd had a book. But then this was God going, "Hey dummy, you ain't healing at the pace that I need you to heal at. We're gonna throw the kitchen sink at you." And I keep full bars in all my homes. There's alcohol everywhere. And believe me, when I got served the notice that I'd lost temporary custody of my daughter, I looked over at my Scotch and I said. You know, I wasn't court ordered to quit drinking. I just quit. There's no reason. There's nothing stopping me from having a drink. And I said, I looked up and I said, not today, God, not today. And I said, I, I put my phone down, I grabbed a cigar, my one last vice, and I went for a drive and I hatched a plan of how I was going to come back and do it. So then I started taking in podcasts. Then I started reading. And then I, I just, I started doing meditations. One of the books that I've, that somehow, I don't know how I, I saw, I heard it on an Aubrey Marcus podcast, was Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends on It, Because It Does.

Mm.

And then I just kept meeting, finding these love yourself books. So I started doing, I would do these mantras in the mirror. I love myself. I would do a 5-minute Look in the mirror at myself and tell me I love— tell myself I love myself for 5 straight minutes.

Really? Like, you seriously would get in the mirror and go, I love you, I love you, I love you for 5 minutes?

Over and over.

And that sounds like— sounds easy. No.

This is so weird. Just— and I have to stare at my left eye. So I keep looking. And I set a stopwatch because you think you're doing it if you don't have a stopwatch, you think you're doing it for 5 minutes. 36 seconds later, you're like, oh, oh, it's not even— so 5 straight minutes of doing that. Then I would meditate, and I would do a meditation that said, I love myself. Thank you. I love myself. Thank you.

So how long did you do that meditation for? So you looked in the mirror.

It was 10 minutes. No, no. 5 minutes in the mirror.

10 minutes meditation.

And, and then I would journal all these feelings. Now remember, Big part of my life was abandonment. Felt abandoned and betrayed by my family. So what just happened? My ex-wife and my ex-girlfriend abandoned me and betrayed me. So I was feeling all this, and I just knew that this was God saying, this is it, bro. You, you asked for it. On the other side of this is the best life you've ever fricking could imagine. Wow. And I was, and it was right. So I still do much of that. I do less of the mirror work because you kind of, after you do a lot of it and you really, I did hypnotherapy, emotional coaches, and EMDR therapy. And once I really, really, really processed that beating that my mom gave me and When I say processed it, I just assigned logic to it. And you know what I said? This is how I trick my mind. She was making me tough to be able to handle resilience.

Hmm.

It's— I, I said to the— to, to my therapist, and I said, this makes no fucking sense whatsoever. And she says, it does to you. And if, if it freaking— if it heals it where you can move on and it's no longer a trigger, Then you go with it, and it did. I mean, I'm sitting here in the same spot I was in. I almost broke the freaking this computer, and the the the hit or the MDR therapist is like, "We need to break." And I said, "Why?" She's like, "Because you're gonna break the computer." And this is after months and months and months, just three years of healing, and I thought I was healed. But after that, the the urge to to drink. And just love yourself. And then it becomes a— you still get tested. Like, I— the last situationship I was in was a lot—

Wait, situationship?

It wasn't a relationship because she wasn't emotionally available. I laugh because I'm like, how did she sneak in? I love myself.

Isn't it crazy, though? Like, it's the guy. Oh my goodness. It's so funny because my husband and I were talking about this last night. So We just moved back to Texas and it's so sweet that my daughter is starting to get boy crazy. And she is like, like anytime she sees a big truck, there's a lot of nice big trucks out here. She's like, ooh, I'm going to have to get his digits. And I'm like, girl. And, uh, she is like, like country music and into cowboys. And we were laughing and my husband was like, yeah, you were into the long-haired bad boys. And I was like, it was because they were emotionally unavailable, and most of them were addicts or alcoholics. It was like, oh, that's a bad boy. I'll pick him. Like I had my spotter was broken.

It's the familiar misery.

Yeah. Over until I did the work and found my husband. Yeah.

Yeah. So I believe that the last one, and this we're talking months ago now.

This was probably and snuck in though.

Just he's like, and it was, and it was just a. Hey, there's still something to work on here. It gives you, you know, a little freaking bat, bat light that says there's still something here. And then, you know, I dug into it really, really hard. I went back to EMDR and I said, there's still something. And then I did this meditation retreat. And I realized that there was still that little bit of ego that still feels like I can go in that since I'm healed and I could save them. And oh, if I just love them enough, they'll love me back. Well, you know, you need to put standards and boundaries, and the right ones will attract to you.

I so agree. Do you feel like you ever completely heal?

This is going to be controversial because I do, but healing to me—I'm going to put a definition on that. The definition to healed to, to me is I am not— the triggers don't stop my day. Meaning I'm triggered. You're, you're always gonna be triggered. So I think people say he— the healing never stops because you're triggered. But I get triggered, and, and in— I'm not kidding you, 10 seconds or less, it's gone. I'm so—

Because you've done the work.

And I'm in tune with my body, and I know exactly what it is. If something doesn't, Align. Like, it just— I just said to you, if something feels off, I run straight into it. I am a buffalo and I'm going right into that storm and I want to figure out why that triggered. So I journal daily and I'll write things and I'll star it if there's something I don't know. Like I told you, I went on a retreat this week and I figured out my ego was dying, which is what we want. The ego is the enemy.

Yeah.

Ego is not your amigo. That ego is meant to keep little Kelly safe from the beatings of his dad, of his stepfather and his mother. Guess what? Ain't nobody beating me anymore. So why in the heck am I using those coping mechanisms for real life now?

Mm-hmm.

It's not happening. So thoughts are magical lies. That's the first thing I say to myself when I feel triggered. There you go, little seagull. What's going on right now?

Mm-hmm.

And then now 90% of the time, and this one's, I, I, I'm probably never gonna heal food. If I'm hungry, man, do I get hangry or hangxiety where I'm scared. That little boy, that one, I, I don't know if I'll ever heal that, but I know it right away and I can spot it. So is that healed? To me, it's healed as long as it's not spilling over and debilitating my life. That's healed to me.

So I love that. And, and thank you for sharing about like getting hangry. I, I do the same. I always say I can never get to— I always say HALT, never get too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, because that will trigger me to make really bad decisions, not be a nice person or mommy or wife or what, you know, friend. So I always have to make sure, even when I travel, like I take food in my bag just in case there's no room service.

I'm like, Yeah, I'll tell you one more that I, that I, I don't think I've ever shared with anybody. And I'll just tell you because you're my sister. So there was, we would get charity deliveries, or maybe it was welfare deliveries of tomato soup. So if you got like to the point where you were starving, you ate the tomato soup. You give me tomato soup, we're fighting.

You're like, I am— I don't want— I will throw that across the room.

I don't want tomato soup ever. Ever. So that's just a little funnyism. But yeah, I know that now I live the best life in the world. And all the work was worth it. And I'm still going to continue, it never stops. You know, you, you practice things because you want— practice makes the master. And you're never going to master it till we're dead, unfortunately. So I won't— why? And all too often, Why would you stop something that works? That's crazy.

Well, you shared something, I think it was on one of your posts, about how you work out 7 days a week and how people were kind of giving you some, I don't know, comments about why don't you take a rest day or a recovery day? And you're like, well, because this works for me. And if it's working for me, why would I stop? And so I love that you just show up bold and confident on your social media. And you also share, I mean, some vulnerable stuff too, but you keep it real and your authenticity is beautiful. And I think that's why you're just blowing up and you're attracting, um, all these amazing people in your life. I think that when you're authentic, you attract the right people to come into your life, but you have such discipline and consistency. I love to learn about how, what, what your morning routine is or what your daily routine or what your non-negotiables are. Can you share with us, like, what are your non-negotiables? Like, you must do these things to stay, stay well and stay good and mentally resilient.

So I'm going to tell you a couple of things too. So I read a ton and I take in a lot of podcasts, a lot of content, and I make a lot of notes. So here, you're, I'm gonna show you, people are looking, there's a note. I'm gonna read it to you. There's a note I just made out of reading, reading something. It says, winners take from life whatever they want on their own terms. Others take what they can get and it's on life's terms.

Mm-hmm.

So I, I, you notice I say others and I, I don't, I don't, I don't, I hate saying winners and losers or God and the devil because I, we're all one. United we stand, divided we fall. So I want to bring everyone together. I'm not sitting here trying to stand on some high horse that just says I'm better than you. No, no, no, no. Done the work, and I'm inviting you with me. Please come because it's freaking great here. I've been on the party side. If it were so great over there, I'd still be there.

Mm-hmm.

I'll remember. Nobody made me stop. I stopped on my own. If I want to have— if I want to go in my other room right now and pour a scotch and have a frickin' scotch, nothing stops me. If it were worth it, I would do it. It's not. So non-negotiables. Non-negotiables. I work out every day. I read every day. I journal every day. I meditate every day. I basically take care of myself, my mind, And my body. There's a reason when you're on an airline, they tell you to put your mask on first before you take care of anybody else's. Because if I— as long as I'm breathing and of sound mind and body, my 25 employees at National Technology Management are safe. The Harder Than Life people will get their donations, and I will continue to feed into this awesome world. If I allow myself to slip, all of that comes crashing down. So self-care is not selfish. That's non-negotiable. And if I try, sometimes there's a day that I just can't. And boy, do you feel it. Yeah. You know, my daughter, like, Dad, did you work out today?

Oh my gosh. That's the same. I get it. And I'll even tell my daughter, hey, if you want a nice mommy, I need to go work out. And she knows. And she started working out with me too. So it's good.

I love that. My daughter works out too. She started swimming. After she worked out, she said, Dad, I'm so fast. I said, it's because of the working out. You know, you look good, you feel good, you do good. And it's, you know, with me, I'm 48 years old, I got a 6-pack, and it's not by accident. I work out really intentional, very, very hard. I don't get cheated. I stretch, I sit in the hot tub, I get regular massages, I take care of myself.

Mm-hmm.

But that's just part of my daily routine. And then Gratitude. We haven't— I don't know how we've gotten this far into talking about the life without gratitude. I wake up right in the morning and I say 3 quick things, sometimes just having my big fat cat laying next to me. But like, this morning was very easy. It was God got me home safe during a storm. And then, you know, and I, I opened the freaking airline and look and go, oh boy, it's gonna be a bumpy road. And when we went around everything, and I was grateful. And it was simple. I was grateful that I woke up. Every day above ground is a good day. I, you know, we're not guaranteed every single day. So gratitude is a big part. John Gordon always says this, it's impossible to be negative and grateful at the same time. Faith over fear. The devil wants you to experience fear. That's how he gets you. So anytime I feel funky, I just start talking about the things that I'm grateful for. Now, Let's talk about non-negotiables as well as other things. I call them kind of standards. You got to be this tall to ride this ride. I do not do negativity, and I do not do victimhood. What I mean by that is I don't allow that around me. So even my staff at NTM, when they come up to me, if they're going to tell me a problem, I need solutions.

Yeah, I am the same. I love that.

Don't tell me problems. We need solutions. So don't give me this. I'm on the freaking— and here's an Ed Mylettis. Get off life's merry-go-round because you're just gonna puke and get on life's roller coaster. And hey, you're gonna hit those downs. And when you hit those downs, you know an up's right after it. And when you're hitting those ups, enjoy every minute of it. That's why— that's where presence, being present, it's a gift. That's why they call it being present. So enjoy every minute. And, and my boy Craig Siegel says this all the time, marry the process and divorce the outcome. If you're focused on, I will be happy at this point when I get this, when— you're all wrong.

Yeah.

You'll be happy right now. When you believe it, you will achieve it. Not—

Yeah.

You'll achieve it when you believe it. It's the other way around. And it's— and, and when we have our daughters, I tell this— you said she's boy crazy. My daughter's not there yet because I've taught her over and over, and I'm sure you have, everything you require is inside. All the validation I need Right here. You'll see me walking around. I'll be tapping my heart. You'll see me walking around in Dallas doing it. And it's because 2 things: either I'm off alignment or I'm really in alignment and I'm feeling really grateful. And this is—

and if you see me, you're gonna be real grateful when you're in Dallas. Yeah, it's gonna be amazing.

And some of that's me pinching myself that here I am with These amazing people. And, and, and I take— when I was drinking, I didn't take— I did some epic things, and I just wasn't present to even enjoy them. Now I'm gonna enjoy every single little thing in the world. I'm gonna meet somebody that we're gonna be able to touch the lives when I'm in Dallas. I'm gonna meet somebody that's gonna— that I'm gonna be able to help do something, that someone is gonna help me do something.

And that's how it happens, right? It's like It's awesome to connect through Instagram or on Zoom, but the real magic happens, I think, when we are in person with that human connection. That is—it's amazing.

Let's talk about that. Real magic is with us lifting each other up. And what? What you told me—it's great news today. I don't want to spill it, but you told me great news. First thing I said. Oh, so freaking happy for you.

And I was happy I could share that news with you.

So many people want to do crabs in a bucket and pull you down. It's like, no, I will tell you, I went and I went to a speaking engagement last Thursday. I walked in. The other speakers were like, dude, I'm so glad to meet you. And then immediately when it was done, they started introducing me to everybody. And we're launching a health and fitness app. Aptly called Harder Than Life. My daughter—

that's what I wanted to ask you next is like, I want to talk about your app.

Oh, my daughter named it Healthier Than Life. So part of it is we don't have—

Harder Than Life and Healthier Than Life?

Yes, because it's going to be all things personal development, physical fitness, mental fitness, nutritional fitness. It's just all winning at life. And, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna be reaching out to you and calling in favors and We're gonna do— there's, there's a live component of it when this thing hits. When is it coming out? It— with— it'll be out by January 1st. It will.

This is that quick? Oh yeah, we're—

I'm an IT company, so we have a— we, we have a—

yeah, you're so smart working on it.

Uh, but you know, we're, we're charging a modest $12 a month, and we're going to provide so much value. You can— you— if you follow it, you can Look like me, hopefully. But there's so much more than that. I'm gonna have—

You too can have a 6-pack. I'm gonna have to just check out his social media and you'll be like, okay, I'll grab the app. I'll— I want it.

And remember, this is— this isn't for me to buy a jet or another house. I have everything. National Technology Management takes care of me fine. This is so we can donate to charity. We have 3 charities, 2 children's charities and 1 addiction center that we're going to. And then if it blows up like I think it will, We will figure out ways to pour into more, uh, lifestyle addiction places.

That's awesome.

I see it as being a social media app on steroids, no pun intended, where I've got the guidelines where it's no negativity. You asked me for my non-negotiables. It's gonna be a positive place of uplifting and community where people are gonna come to better themselves. And my goal is to get a million downloads, and we'll see what we can do from there.

Well, I think that you have enough friends and connections and stuff that are that, and you've helped everybody so much that when you help people the way you do, people want to help you.

And so keep in mind, this is for charity. It's it's helping me, but then I want to see everybody when we hand the check to these charities, and it's big six-figure. You know, maybe seven-figure checks where I say thank you to everybody that that is involved in this. So it's it's they what somebody labeled it charity muscle, charity muscle, love that charity muscle.

So so it's I'm gonna I want to put the link so you'll have to get me the link. We'll put it in the show notes.

You'll be able it'll be available in the Apple Store and it'll be under Harder Than Life. By the time this airs, no healthier than life. Yeah, it's actually we're gonna call it harder than life because it's the brand. Oh, the the the internal uh uh the sub content, the subtitle will be healthier than life. Oh, okay, okay. And so it's it's I'm so excited. There was a question in there this where I was talking about it, and I can't remember what it was, but I lost my train of thought. There was a reason why I was going there, and I can't remember. Oh, I think it was the non-negotiable. But, you know, it's just I'm just a I don't like negativity. I don't again, I'm a huge John Gordon fan, even though we know him. Is just I'm he was the first person I read the energy bus, and that's the first I started doing the one word from him, and his was no energy vampires. That's it. I do not want to be around negativity, and the funniest thing about it is I just you'll see me talking to somebody; they're negative. I I use the same thing. I gotta go to the bathroom. I just walk away. I used to say I go to the bar. But now it's like, I gotta go to the bathroom, and then I just disappear. And I don't go near those people. And now if they want to have a conversation about why, I will. But if you're going to sit there and dig in why you are the way you are, I hate— it drives me nuts. We've always done it this way, or this is the way I am. You know what the way I am? I'm just in survival mode. A little kid struggling to eat, to be seen, and to be safe. Now, if I continue that, I can't do anything in this world. That's who I am, who I used to be. Well, I just killed that off, and I've grown, and I've healed. And now who I am is gonna be this positive, big, loving bear that's just going to make an impact on so much in this world and help every single person until I, until I drop that.

You are doing that. You are incredible. You're amazing.

Seriously, on this podcast more often and get fed up. Oh my God, no, seriously.

I told you, like, you're the first in stories for my Facebook. You're always the first thing that pops up. And I don't usually watch stories on Facebook, but I always watch yours.

You know why that is, right? It's the algorithm. So the algorithm is matching us up. So that shows you that you and I are like, like-minded people, because other things that you're liking Matches you up with my algorithm. So I do the same thing yours, and I make sure because I love you. I love all of your girl gang, and I love every single part of everybody that are positive because it is a good group. You know, I've interviewed all of your friends. Oh my gosh!

They're amazing. These ladies in the Unstoppable Life Mastermind, like they're amazing. So they were just here at the house, and my husband's kind of private and doesn't. He'd be happy if we had no company. He just. He's like, yeah, yeah. He's, he's not as much about like having, he's getting better about it. He's getting a little more open about it. But I said, hey, I want to have a mastermind meetup at the house because we have a huge space upstairs. It's perfect for it. He's like, what? No, no way. No way. And then he goes, okay, I know you love these ladies. Okay. And now we've had 2 meetups at the house and he's like the, the star of the show, you know, people like, Oh, Johnny, Johnny, you know. And so now he's like totally fine with it.

You know, that sounds like heaven to me. That sounds like heaven on earth to me. A bunch of these women are these women are badass. I know about badass, brilliant problem solvers expanding the world. I would be in I I would be in heaven. Well, you're gonna be in heaven in Dallas.

I'm telling you. Because they're all going to be there loving, loving up on you.

You're so funny. You think about it now, we're in November, we're at the end of November. We're going to blink our freaking eye, Amberly, and it's going to be April. And I'm going to be— time flies so fast.

It sure does. I can't believe how fast it goes. I mean, this or next month will be 2 years that we moved to Texas. And I'm like, how did these 2 years go by? Like in the blink of an eye. Yeah. So it goes by so quick. It really does. Well, um, I want to get your app. So I'm going to search up In January, your app. We'll have that link in the show notes. Tell people where they can get your book, where they can connect with you, like the best way to connect with you. And we'll put all those links in the show notes so people can easily find you, your book, your podcast, and your new app.

Yeah, the easiest place to find me is at harderthanlife.com.

Yeah.

Everything is there. But if you want, if you look at me for on Instagram or TikTok, now remember, each one we put out different messages because TikTok, we've got a very, and I'm sure yours is similar, our demographic is very diverse. It is from 15 to 64 and it is 25, 25, 25 split. And I like that. Because I love the young kids. I want to catch them and inspire them before they they they do bad. And then the next group, I think it's 25 to 35 and 35 to 45. It's they just my people, and I want to inspire them that that you know alcohol is not the way. So it's Kelly Dot Siegel. Instagram is Kelly Dot Siegel dot 71. But once you start typing Kelly Dot Siegel, we pop up everywhere, and you'll know when the app is out because you'll see. Every message is going to flip to that because it's fitness with a cause. And I think it's going to take the world by storm because you go on— I'm not going to say their names, but the social media apps— and you leave away feeling less than. I want people that have downloaded this app to walk away feeling like 10 feet tall. And if someone is negative, We will refund their money and kick them off the platform. There's gonna be guidelines. This, this is not gonna be the place to say, oh, you take steroids, or you're just an idiot. No, no, no, no. This is— we're gonna lift each other up. In many respects, this is my dream. I, I just want a world where we all get along and we're all full of love and abundance.

Well, thank you for all that you do, Kelly. You're Seriously, all that you're doing is making such a huge impact, and I'm grateful to know you. I'm grateful to have you on the show. Um, and you know what, y'all take a screenshot. And, and I love when people take a screenshot. And, uh, if you're listening on Apple or if you're watching on YouTube and you take a screenshot and share it on social media— oh, Kelly's taking a screenshot right now.

I gotta get how pretty you are. You know what, between now and April, If there's anything, anything that you need from me, please do not hesitate to ask. I don't care how big, how small. If there's anything I can do to make your life easier or fill in any gaps, and just even if you just need to bounce something off of me, you have my number. I am here. That is love to me, just so you know. When people call on me and I can be there, even if it's just a, hey, Kelly, I'm nervous. I'm going on our friend's podcast, and I need to talk.

Yeah, I may call you.

You may call anytime because the next thing is is I'm gonna be calling you when I'm on his podcast. That's right. I'm gonna go. We talked about it on your podcast, and here we are. And I'm I'm rooting for you. I I and I don't hate you.

I'm rooting for you. I am rooting for you.

One last thing too is. Be awesome, be kind, and love everybody. Tell the truth and enjoy this holiday because 2024 is going to be huge for you.

2024 is going to be huge for you. Huge. Because you're just blowing up. You're just getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So I can't wait to see you. Thank you so much for being here and for all that you shared. And hey, everybody, thank you for tuning in and listening to the show. I appreciate you. Listening because of you, you have made this show a top 1% podcast. So thanks for tuning in. Share this episode with someone who might be struggling and needs a little bit of inspiration or motivation, especially if they're thinking about stopping the alcohol and want to get sober. So go ahead.

I'll say one more thing. DM me if they want any help with that. I answer all alcohol-related DMs and I'm jumping on a call here in a couple minutes to talk to somebody I've never met in my life. I will make it a minute. I have that for anybody because I did it alone and I don't recommend anybody do it alone. You're not alone.

That's what's hard. Yeah. So y'all, it, it's kelly.seagull.71, but we'll have that in the show notes. So thank you. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much, y'all. Thank you for tuning in. Always a pleasure. And love you. Love you. And I will see y'all next week.