Why Your Business Growth Starts With You: The Shift That Changes Everything

I just wanted to distract myself with all the easy, fun gadgets, whizits, and all the things that would make money, right? The things that I could guard and protect myself from the world.

And then I'd ask a question and you'd be like, but yeah, the business.

Yeah, but how? But how? Not who, how?

Yes, the who and the how. Like when we shifted those letters, when we took that same H-O-W and made it the W-H-O, what changed?

Everything.

Hello, I am Bunny Young, serial entrepreneur, mom of 4 beautiful kids. I had to edit that because it did say 3 and we now have 4. So I am here as a proud mom of 4 and am so honored to be the host of the Yes And Podcast. I am here for 2 reasons today. One is to remind you that the voices in your head saying that you're bad at business are lying SOBs. There's no playbook, and you get to build a life and a business that don't have to look like everybody else. They can look just the way that you want them to look. And it's not by going faster, but it's by going deeper— deeper into the strategy, deeper into the energetics, deeper into the mindset that make you and your business a unique unicorn. And the second reason that I'm here is to celebrate an incredible unicorn that has been in my world for a few years now, and she's amazing. She has like woken up to her awesomeness, a small sliver of awesomeness. And I assure you that when this podcast goes live, if you are not already following her, you are going to hear this name. You are going to walk through the airport. You are going to see her book on the New York Times bestseller. You're probably going to see billboards of her in Times Square. So I am honored to be able to bring her on to the Yes And Podcast because she is about to blow the F up. Welcome to the Yes And Podcast, Karen Gray.

Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

Yeah.

Feels like we're flipping the script because you were on my show. So, so let's do it.

I've been on your show. I've been on your stage, and I've had the honor of being in a support role as your coach and in your life.

And— How lucky am I?

I know. What has it been, like 3, 4 years?

3 and a half. Yeah.

Yeah. I, I think we've had 2 kids together. That's kind of like how I look at this, right?

I feel like I've been there.

I do.

It's been amazing watching just the evolution of Bunny.

And literally giving birth. And I got to watch you give birth to your next levels. And I feel like There's been like 2 massive kind of ego deaths and running away from homes and—

Quite literally.

Yes. And, um, you know, I really just, I want to get into it. If you're, I know you said you're an open book with this. However, last week or last year, you had a little bit of a month, right?

Yeah, you had births and I had deaths. Mm-hmm.

So like, just give the listeners a little bit of an idea of that timeline because you still— and then I want to go into how you still showed up for yourself.

I am blessed to have 2 families. I was adopted, so I have my birth family and then my adoptive family. And in October of last year, I buried my adopted dad, and then 3 days later, my stepdad passed away, and my birth mom passed away 3 days after that. So in the course of literally a week, the 3 remaining parents that I had left all passed away, and I kind of just went into autopilot. taking care of things. And then it hit me a couple months after that, all the emotions started coming up. And what I realized is all of the things that I had put into place in my life prior to that were the things I needed to get me through those moments. So our Defy community, my Queen's Table, um, My husband, like I had surrounded myself with this amazing support system and it just allowed me to show up and grieve and heal and do nothing for a little while. Let's fast forward or rewind probably 2 years ago, I wouldn't have had all of that and it would've been a much different experience. So yeah.

When I met you, you were the person that everybody called and everybody leaned on and I remember asking you that question of like, who's there for you? And at first I was met with kind of this, well, I'm fine. And we talked about in the therapeutic community what fine stands for. Do you remember what that was?

I don't remember the acronym, but I know the feeling.

Effed up, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. I've, I've have felt all of those things. Um, Yeah, it, you know, the, the question when you asked me that, of course my instant reaction is like, this is who I've always been. This is, this is just me. This is how I serve. But that question and just leaning into working with you in general, that, that whole, that whole evolution of me getting to the place where I could accept help from someone who asked such deep questions and really didn't allow me to escape the answers to them. That whole evolution has brought me to where I am today, and it has been a complete unveiling of all of my masks and all of the layers of protection that I've added on. I knew I needed this process. I didn't know what the process was going to look like. I just trusted. That somehow you would help me walk through it, and you have, and it has been the hardest, most amazing, best thing ever.

I receive all of that, and I've watched this evolution. When we started working together, you really wanted to focus on your business.

Yeah, because I just wanted to distract myself with all the easy, fun Gidgets, widgets, and all the things that would make money, right? The things that I could guard and protect myself from the world. Yes.

And then it was kind of like I'd ask a question and you'd be like, but yeah, the business.

Yeah, but how? But how? Not who, how?

Yes, the who and the how. Like when we shifted those letters, When we took that same H-O-W and made it the W-H-O.

I never thought of it like that. Yeah, it was a complete shakeup of the letters and the energy.

Mm-hmm. What changed?

Everything. Everything changed, Bunny. It was such a, a soul shakeup. I don't know how else to describe it. I have resisted it every step of the way because it is the most vulnerable evolution that I've ever gone through. And I spent my entire childhood trying to look a certain way, to be a certain way. I became a woman who did certain things so that I didn't have to be vulnerable because vulnerable meant getting hurt again. And what I realized was in all of that, what I was doing was running away from the abandonment by abandoning myself. And when I had to face that I was the one choosing to abandon me, then the flip side of that, the how and the who The who became, I was the one who could choose me. And that shifted everything and has shifted everything.

And wow.

Yeah, all the emotions are still coming up because without my parents, when all of that also happened, I didn't get to hide behind their stories anymore. I couldn't blame, you know, I can't talk about this, I can't do this because I have to protect them. All of those guardrails were off. So now I just got to be me. And I've had to sit with that since October of, who is that? Who is Karen without the story? So back to the who again, this pattern that keeps coming up. I get to be the person that I say I am, that I choose to be.

Mm-hmm.

And that has become— you chose this word, or I chose this word, and then you've held me accountable to it, I guess— is the chosen, right? I get to choose me. I get to be the one who's chosen. I'm not orphaned. I'm not abandoned. I'm not adopted. I'm not any of those things. I'm chosen.

Yes.

Because I get to choose me. And once I choose me, then all of the other words— orphan, abandoned, adopted— None of those have the power anymore.

Yeah. And that was really a powerful road to walk with you.

Ooh, yeah. Thank you for that.

Because in this entrepreneurial journey, we often, and I am saying this to myself, and I've shared with you, like how when I had Rocky, when I had my first daughter, I ran back into business. Because there was a scoreboard there, Karen, right? I knew what success looked like. There was a P&L there. This little baby didn't give me 360 feedback.

Yeah.

She didn't come with a P&L. I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't know if I was successful or not, or at least it took reorienting. to what I thought of as success. And you and I had that beautiful conversation, that beautiful coaching session around focusing on your business or focusing on yourself.

Mm-hmm.

And that word, that beautiful word of chosen came up, and just being able to really, really claim that and claim that It's a beautiful thing to have the energy to choose to bring your magic into this world, and business is the container for your magic. And you've reflected back numerous times since that conversation that it all started with you choosing you, and that meant investing in you. Defy was an investment in you. It wasn't just an investment in a magic pill, you know, to fix the business because— You've made money, and you've had opportunities, and you've done all the things similar to my journey where it's like one would look at the outside and say, oh, she's successful. And yet you had this energy inside you that was like a tension and a frustration.

Mm-hmm.

And also, I want you to share about the— your ability to dissolve the walls to receive.

Wow. Um, first thing, I, I do wanna reflect on something you just said because as a young mom, cuz I was super young, I was 17 when I had my first son, I was like the opposite of what you just shared. My only success came from serving my family. Like, that's how I felt successful. That's how I— Was able to quantify success was I was able to keep the tiny humans alive and be the good mom and do the things that everybody said I couldn't do. So when it came to business, I didn't know what I was doing in business. I only knew how to perform as a mom. And so I think that's why business felt so foreign and so hard for me because I didn't have quantifiers. I reacted to emotion. So if the kids were happy, I was successful. If a husband was happy, I was successful. If a man thought a certain way about me or other people thought a certain way about me, that in my mind and my life equated to success. So to have quantifiers that were just, you know, lagging indicators of your success was completely foreign to me. I didn't know how to respond to X equals Z. So that was a really unique challenge for me, and I still find that challenging. But what I wasn't able to do that you just talked about, the walls of receiving— receiving meant being selfish to me initially. And so it was easy for me to give, but I was taught that when you got something back, it had strings, and that meant it wasn't safe. And so receiving equaled— being held to accountability for something else. And so, it was really, really challenging for me to receive help, to receive money, to receive anything, compliments. And so, being able to be safe, feel safe receiving anything, has been an evolution. It's been an evolution of trusting myself to recognize when something is— healthy, a healthy thing to receive, and also seeing that I'm deserving and worthy to receive good things, to have good things. That whole evolution has been a journey of dissolving walls and trust, internal trust, and then choosing people who externally around me are worthy of being in that inner circle and being people who are trustworthy, not just people who I can serve, but people who return and reciprocate that love. So that whole process has been probably one of the most impactful parts of working with you and learning me and embracing my who in a different way.

So there's 2 follow-ups that I have to that. One is community, because you've spent most of your life Around people, surrounded by people, and yet not in community.

Yes. Which sounds completely like, how does that, how is that possible?

Um, I, I don't think, I think there's so many people listening to this podcast right now who are shaking their head being like, I know exactly what that feels like.

Yeah. Because you live your whole life behind the curtain serving others and never partaking in the receiving of. The room.

What changed with the Unicorn community and Defy? Because I really feel like I saw you. I, I get emotional thinking about how I watched the walls come down, walls that I wasn't even really fully aware. You're so good, and you and I talked about this, you're so good at Making somebody feel special and seen and connected to you and like you care about them that I don't think a lot of people were fully aware of how thick your walls were for the receiving aspect of it. And watching those, Karen, watching those melt.

I didn't expect to cry through this whole thing. I feel like the moment that that began to shift was at the retreat. You did an exercise or had us do an exercise where we had to give a gift to someone and then we had to receive a gift. And I can't even tell you exactly what the process was. I can only tell you how it felt because we couldn't reciprocate. We only had to receive. And it was someone that I didn't really know very well and So that, that's vulnerable. I didn't know the room very well. So I'm already in this really vulnerable place. And then all of a sudden everything is so safe and everybody around me is receiving and everybody around me is so loving and supportive. And we, we write a letter and then we read a letter or we get a letter read, spoken to us or read to us. And It was the most, like, heart-wrenching, soul-clearing experience. I can't even, I can't even tell you what it did, but it healed things I didn't even realize were broken in that moment of just pure love where you can't, you can't reciprocate. You have to just receive.

Yeah.

And being forced. To celebrate myself and being forced to receive and being forced to not— like, you wouldn't let me help. I kept trying to help that whole weekend. You're like, nope, nope, you're here to receive. And just to be showered with love and amazing things and amazing experiences and a massage and just like all of these things that just felt so indulgent.

Mm-hmm.

And I can't even explain the energy of what happened that weekend, except for to say it was just this pure, like a sponge, just soaking up all of this amazing energy and power and goodness and love, pure love without strings. And I don't, I don't know how I ever survived without that.

And you didn't walk out the door leaving and everything came back. Like, you've changed.

Yeah. Yeah. It made everything feel possible. And in that moment, I think, is when everything that you had said, like all the little seeds that you had planted, started to take root. It's like, oh, that's what that feels like. That's what she meant. That's what that was. That's what I was feeling and hearing, and that's what's missing.

Yeah.

And it was like I needed to be given permission from someone outside of me to realize I had to give myself permission and that I could. How crazy amazing is that? You can give yourself permission to take care of yourself. Like, now it seems so silly, but that was just like that pivotal moment in the weekend and in, I think, in my life and my healing. And again, that happened before I needed to know all of that and before I faced everything I did last year, because that was, that was 2 years ago. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah.

For somebody that's listening to this and for the past version of you, that's like, that sounds amazing. I have zero idea even where to start. What's your message to them? What would you say to them?

You don't have to fix everyone around you. That is not your responsibility. And how they feel about you, we hear this all the time, how other people feel about you is none of your business. It truly isn't your business. You don't have to fix them. You don't have to change them. You don't have to react or respond at all. The only thing you are responsible for is how you react to you. And I lived so much of my life feeling like I had to guard my responses, guard my reaction, guard my thoughts, because if I ever just reacted, Naturally, it was very polarizing to people. And I think I realize now it's because I had this, like, duality. Like, I would be— I would have the guarded me, the one that was very careful, and then every now and then, the real me would pop out, and it was so different. So they didn't know what to do with this other version of me who was raw and real and, you know, basically pretty powerful. Like, she had a really strong opinion, and she had very strong energy. And when she would step in into that place, people didn't know what to do with her because she wasn't the same little compliant, people-pleasing version that typically showed up. And that was really hard because it kept me in this very guarded, withdrawn place for so much of my life. Mm-hmm. And every time I had this, you know, I'd get safe and everything was okay, and I would try to just be me, it was met with very strong reactions. And so now I know why.

As, as we continue to say, until now, right?

Yeah, until now. And now she just gets to be that way all the time. And so it's not a shock. It's not a surprise. It is just me.

So I want to ask you a very powerful question in the aspect that you, when we started working together, you invested in a business coaching container and you invested in Defy for your business.

Uh-huh.

And you told me that it wasn't working, not the container wasn't working, but that you weren't getting the results. You weren't, you know, like, I think one time you told me nothing's working.

Yeah.

And you and I know now the reason behind that, that it, it was working. And do you want to, do you want to explain that? Do you want to explain the things that you had to meet in order for it to work?

Yeah, they sound so trivial and juvenile now, but I think that there's lots of other women out there that are probably struggling with this because I, I was looking for the easy silver bullet solution, right? Do 1, 2, 3, apply XYZ to your business, and now you're a success, and now you don't have to deal with all the garbage and the junk. behind the curtain. But what I realized was it wasn't about the business or the steps. It was about me the whole time. So it really wasn't, it wasn't about the things. It was about all the, the parts of me that I was hiding and avoiding and ignoring and continuing to abandon. I had to face all of that first.

Mm-hmm.

And so I think for So many women, we avoid the things that are the hard stuff. We avoid the things that are the messy, the what's really obvious. And we go for the things that are the shiny objects and the things that are the fun things, not the messiness. And so I just had to get into the mess. I had to, and it honestly took coming to a place of just pure frustration.

Mm-hmm.

One, I had invested all of this money and felt guilty about it because I wasn't getting any kind of return because I was avoiding all the work. And you had given me all the systems, like all of the tangible physical work stuff, the business stuff, the methods, the copy paste, it's all there. It's all in Defy. So if I had literally just copy pasted, applied, and did all that, there would have been a different result. But I was avoiding that and I was avoiding me, so I wasn't doing any of it. So of course none of it was working. But the whole point was because I wasn't working. I was still hiding. I was still avoiding. Buying all the things was a pure distraction technique to avoid me.

I'm gonna push back in one area. You said you were doing the shiny things and the fun things. Girl, you were doing the hard work. You were doing the posting 15 times a day and, and you and I had this conversation and I said, you're putting—

It was not fun.

You're, you were distracted.

Yeah, it was totally distraction. Yes.

And there were some of the systems that you copied and pasted, and I want to push back on that too, because the, you were building systems around energy that wasn't yours.

Yes.

And I told you, I was like, you're still missing this woman that I know is here. And you said, I just want to go work for somebody else. I don't want to get clients, Bunny. I just want to go work for somebody else and like just do the coaching part and do the magic part. And I said, I gave you this honest mirror that I have said to myself. I said, you are still under this disillusion that you are building a business. This entrepreneurial journey is not about the revenue. It's not about the business. It's about who you're becoming.

Yeah. And when you said that, I wasn't willing to receive that because I had convinced myself that the business had to happen first before I could then become the person.

Yeah.

I had it completely backwards.

I want to share this visual. All right, listeners, come on this journey with me, right? So I get this request.

That's my expense.

You're welcome.

I—

oh no, no, this is at your credit. This is, this is not, this is not an expense. This is— oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. So I get this request. to go and speak for this statewide women's business conference. And I say, yes, I'm gonna go do it. And it's not a small state. It's Texas, people. And I have a couple non-negotiables in my life, and one of those non-negotiables is around Dallas, Texas, mainly. I just, I don't love—

In the summertime.

I don't love it. I don't love Dallas, and I particularly, my no policy is I will not travel to Texas basically from like May 15th to September 15th because it's just uninhabitable for me, I guess. I'm not a humidity heat person. And so this request comes in, and it's like the first or second week of June last year, and I—

First week in June.

I, I think it was June 6th.

Yep.

I don't know why I think. That was it. And so I said, all right, I'm gonna do it because the person who was asking means a lot to me. And I was in full trust. And that person also promised I could walk off an air-conditioned plane into an air-conditioned airport, into an air-conditioned car that they would send for me. It was a truck. No one was surprised. And I had this baby in a car seat, and they would take me to this air-conditioned hotel, and everything would be fine. And now I happened to have already been committed to go to a retreat also in Texas, but in Austin, Texas, and so I literally got on the plane that morning, flew to go speak, and then flew back that night. So this, this was like, I'm gonna make this happen. I'm fully committed. So I arrive at this hotel and all of these women are walking around and they're gorgeous and they have their hairsprayed hair and their big earrings and like their full makeup.

Cheeky kisses.

And from around the corner, this gorgeous, stunning woman in this bright red blazer comes around the corner. And I'm like, holy shit, there she is. There is this woman with the confidence and magnetic, and people are just flocking to her. And she walks up and says 2 words to this woman. She— this woman just starts bawling and gives her a hug and is just like telling her how much that she's changed her life and she means. And there's A room of like hundreds of women that this woman's energy is just holding together. And who was that woman?

That was me. And it was—

That is you.

Delightful.

That is you. And I told you, I said, Seeing you in this way is one of the greatest gifts for me in holding this evolution for you. And you looked at me, and I said, yes, you're absolutely going to regret it because there's no going back now. Because that was the look you gave me, was like, oh shit, she sees me.

Yes.

And I said, if you can hold this standard—

Yeah.

For a room full of hundreds of women, you may be telling yourself a story that you're doing it because you're the president of this organization. However, that's not true. Because you're you, you're able to hold this energy, and that's why you're the president of the organization. You're not this woman because you're the president of the organization. You're this woman And that's why they asked you to be the president of this organization. And I just watched this awareness wash over you. And after you left my energy and I watched you walk away and I watched you get mic'd up, I was like, oh, she's not going back.

Yeah.

And that was June of last year, and you have not gone back.

Yeah, that weekend was phenomenal for All the reasons you just mentioned, and because in that weekend I had so much support. I was surrounded by people who were mirrors and reflected the things I had poured into them. They reflected it back, and for the first time I was able to receive it, and it changed everything. Yes.

Yes. And that's the first weekend that you realized it doesn't have to make sense. Like, you got what I was saying where I said you don't have to know it, you have to feel it.

Yeah.

Like, you don't have to have the proof to make it real.

Yeah.

I.e., you go first, the business comes after you.

Yep.

And to bring this full circle, Absolutely full circle to the beginning of this podcast. Your dad passed away, and that was the same week as the retreat for Defy.

Yeah.

And you ended up at my house, and you told this community about these losses. And I think you were aware that you were— I'm I don't think you had lost your stepdad yet. I think you were aware that you were going to lose him.

Yeah, I was planning the first, the first funeral.

Yes.

But he was already in, um, hospice.

And you weren't aware about your mom?

No, no, that was totally unexpected.

And so you're sitting in this living room, just like the, the energy, and I forget exactly how you described it, but you're like, I don't You said at the beginning of this podcast, you were kind of going through the motions, but that was from a mental standpoint. You're like, I don't know why I'm here, but I know this is where I need to be.

Yeah, I have learned to trust the opportunities. So one of, if you're in Bunny's world, you know, one of her most favorite and famous sayings is yes, and. And so I have learned when opportunities come in front of me, I just say yes. If I have that instinct that this is a yes, I say yes and find a way. And so the retreat was already planned. It was already a part of my schedule. Uh, it didn't matter what was going on in my life. I knew I was supposed to be there for all the reasons. And it set me up for, like, it, it poured into my cup because my cup was about to be like just tested to the, to the full extent. And I didn't even know that. Um, but I sensed that a lot was coming because of all the circumstances.

That was really the first, like, 4 days that I saw you fully trust yourself to not know the why, not know the steps, and just trust.

That was probably one of the first times in my life that I truly felt like I knew I was the kind of woman that would just figure it out.

Mm-hmm.

I didn't have to know how, I just knew that I would. And knowing that about me meant that I chose me, and it just all, all the dominoes began to line up and everything began to make sense as Yeah, I didn't have to know the how. I had to know the who. And who was someone who always figured it out. Either she was resourced in herself or she had resources that she had, you know, entrusted around her, but somehow, some way, it would all work out because everything always did.

I'm gonna ask you what your definition of a yes and life is. And prior to doing that, I just want you to look back over this journey.

Yeah.

Together, and just reflect back on who you were when you started this journey. And if you want to speak to that, you can, and where you are now, and what you would say have been the biggest lesson in order to support the woman who First signed up for Defy and first joined this world and first spoke to me and was still coaching pageant women on their speeches.

I still do that, by the way. But yes.

In such a different energy though, to this woman sitting here now.

Yeah.

This chosen woman.

The, the person that said yes and signed up for Defy was desperately looking for someone to give her the answers. She had just come out, uh, or was actually still in the middle of another group, another container that, if you remember, that was very much not aligned, but it came with its own set of lessons. And it taught me that things don't have to make sense for people to make money.

Hmm.

And That lesson has also stayed with me, even though it was not a good experience. The lesson was valuable still. But I really saw this, this person who had all of this success, this amazing Bunny who had created this container and a community of women who were more like me. And I trusted that when you said these women were very much like me, similar journeys. I had no idea how much like me they were going to be. And they, in all of their immediate— like when you look at them, everybody just seems so polished, so successful. And then they just are vulnerable and share all of the challenges that are happening. So to me, that is the yes and. You have all the looks, you have all the polish, you have all the thoughts, all the visions, all the ideas. And you're still a wreck and a mess and struggling and going through all the challenges behind the scenes, and you do it anyway.

Mm-hmm.

And you figure it out. And so you can be both. So you have taught me this, this life of duality, that it can be chaotic and it can be beautiful and it can be full of grief and it can be full of love and it can be full of fear and it can be full of trust, like this whole Beautiful existence of all of the energies, the masculine and the feminine, and learning to trust that I can trust me to do both has been such a beautiful gift. When I think about the woman who's considering Defy or thinking about working and being a part of this community, I think about a woman who doesn't trust herself and is desperately trying to find a reason that she can.

So beautiful. I'm so honored that you chose this space to unfold into this next evolution of trusting yourself. And it's been just so beautiful to witness and also to be on this journey, like, together. And what you reflected back to me that I heard you and I receive is, It's not just the past 3 and a half years of the babies that I've given birth to. It's like my commitment to you is to continue to evolve, and watching you evolve inspires me to do even more in my evolution. So I'm just so grateful to you.

I think one of the most amazing things that I've had such an honor of witnessing is how Because you haven't just had 2 babies, you've also had heart surgery. You've also had some really traumatic changes, and you've moved across country. And in all of those things, you have been a woman, in addition to honoring coming out to Texas in the summer, but you've always honored your commitment. And you've taught me that. We can all have excuses or we can have integrity, but you can't have both.

Mm-hmm.

And you never fall back on your excuses. You always show up. And I think that has created such a level of trust. So I know when Bunny says something, it's golden. Like that is the, that's what's gonna happen. Now, except for the schedule. If she gives you a schedule, that's the only thing that will be—

I give you an agenda.

Yeah, and if there's an agenda, but she quantifies, this is a light agenda. It may or may not happen exactly this way, but we are going to start here and end here.

And it will be better. It will be better than whatever it is I put out.

It will be, it will be exactly what's needed. Um, but. Everything you say you're going to do, you do. And that has just taught me how important it is to honor and to trust yourself and to be in integrity because you've created a community of women who live within that, that ecosphere of trust and integrity. And so, um, Yeah. I get to show up as me and you know that I'm probably going to be off camera And I'm probably going to be—

We're working on that. We're working on that. You are getting better at it.

Um, but, but you, you walk with us where we are. And I think that has been probably one of the most beautiful gifts is that you know each of us and take the time to know each of us so intimately that when something is off, something is out of alignment, you know it.

Mm-hmm.

You don't have this community of 5,000 women, so you don't know the women, right? You have this really intimate, curated, very carefully orchestrated, intentional community. And as alike as we are, we're also very diverse and different, and it gives us this viewpoint of what could be possible. I mean, because you have some women that are somatic healers, and then you have Ginger, who is this technical guru and also like part, I don't know, magical witch. I don't know. She's just this amazing unicorn. But you have this community of women, and it's such a beautiful gift to be a tiny part of that, to be— well, we're all a tiny part. This is This is the Bunny Show. So, um, I just, I feel so blessed and so honored and you have created that. And this is a pure reflection of just how you show up in the world. We all get to be that mirror and you get to be the mirror for us. And so that's the most beautiful gift of Defy.

Um, I did not want to interrupt you and you know, it's not the Bunny Show. And at that part, you're like this. That's one of the reasons, and I want to like make sure before we end that we talk about this. That's one of the reasons that, um, last week in the retreat, the virtual retreat that we did, that I shared with you guys why I invite you into my home.

Oh.

Is my level of expansion is directly correlated with my ability to receive.

Support.

And whatever you perceive in this tiny little Zoom box and whatever stories you make up about what's going on on this side of the camera, when you come into my home, you get to see the real chaotic shit show that it is having 4 kids and 3 generations in one massive house. And also the amount of support and the amount of love and the amount of systems and the amount of Great Danes, you know? And I do that really intentionally, A, because I'm so specific about my space and the energy that I've curated in this home. And the second you cross that threshold, I know you can feel that.

Mm-hmm.

And I want you to feel the love while— that's the yes, and— is like, there can be love and chaos. There can be money and mess. There can be wealth and witchiness. Like, every single one of us is a part of this bigger show that's not the Bunny show. It's making this world better. It's making this world a better place. And—

Yeah.

That's my version of yes, and, is like, yes, we're in this together, and we all have the answers, and none of us have the answers, and that's the beautiful space. And it all starts with choosing you and your value and your worth, that your non-negotiable is how you're going to show up in this world. And so, I'm just so honored And appreciate you taking the time to really slow this down. When I sent that email and I asked you if you'd be willing to come and share your story, it was very selfish because I wanted you to sit in this celebration reflection and just drink in an ounce of how incredible you are. And I hope you were able to receive that from this podcast.

Hmm. I came here for you, but just like everything else you do, every time I show up in your space, I leave more, more full, more filled. So thank you for that.

I also want you to take a deep breath and understand that by you sharing your story, there's literally thousands of women and men listening to this podcast. Who now have this sacred invitation from you to choose themselves, and you've brought that energy and that permission to them.

That is my entire mission now. That's what it's all about.

And you're doing it. You're doing it right now. Right now. So thank you for being here.

Thank you for the invitation, as always.

Thank you, listeners, for being here, and for watching this entire episode, and for receiving Karen's message of choosing yourself and of starting with you and the inspiration and the who, not how. And so wherever you listened to this episode, whether it was in the humidity of Texas or on the beaches of Malibu, it means the world to me when you tag me on social media and tag Karen on social media and just share your takeaways because really this entire space and these episodes are designed to enter into a conversation of inspiration of what your version of the Yes And life looks like. And so the biggest gift that you could give us is to share this episode, rate this episode, become a subscriber to the Yes And Podcast. And when you share this episode with somebody else, whatever gift you received from it. You get to exponentially increase that frequency in the world when you share it with one person. And I would love to hear from you, and tag Karen and I on social media. All of her links are going to be below this show. And until the next time that I get to spend time with you in another episode of the Yes And Podcast, I'm Bunny Young.

Bye, everybody.

And you are making this world a better place. So thank you for being here.