065: Turning Tragedy into Beautiful Success with Michelle Norris

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Michelle Norris survived the unimaginable, the tragic loss of her young daughter right before her 23rd birthday. To add injury to the pain, it was right before Mother's Day weekend. Michelle knows all too well what it's like to level up after an overwhelming loss. Instead of wallowing in self pity and blame, she used tragedy as a catalyst for her to put up or shut up and follow through with her vision of leaving the economic status quo behind and becoming a self made entrepreneur. All of this at the pit of the housing market crash of 2008. Her belief that she used to discuss frequently with her daughter. You can always find beauty among the ashes. Michelle turned her pain into purpose and soon became one of Paleo's most outspoken evangelists. Then co founded, is now the CEO of Paleo fx, the largest Paleo event in the world. She is a passionate speaker, motivator and guiding light to those seeking deliverance from broken healthcare systems and a disabled economic system. Join in today and learn exactly how Michelle Norris has leveled up and created everything from nothing. Today I've got Michelle Norris here, founder, creator, CEO of Paleo fx, which is the largest Paleo event in the world right now. It's a three day emergent event. And Michelle, thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you so much for having me on.

So Michelle, people have heard of Paleo fx. They see it everywhere. It's this big, huge mega event and you are this brain power behind it. I want to know who were you before all this and where did this even come from? How did you get into this?

Well, who I was before this, I was a project manager. I built Starbucks for a living up and down the east coast and I'm a trained chef and I've been doing event planning for more than 20 plus years. Oddly enough, I was very, very sick. My specialty as a chef was Italian and I noticed that I was very, very sick. And I into the Paleo thing because I was very, very sick. And then it's interesting, I didn't come into this very happily. I came into it kicking and scre. But what happened is that when I realized that this information could actually help people, my husband as the moment that that light bulb went off, that a paleo evangelist was born. And so I just really became very passionate about sharing the information. And when the opportunity came up for us to do this. Let me kind of go back real quick. Our daughter Brittany was killed in a car accident. It'll be 10 years this May. He was killed. She was three days before her 23rd birthday and a week before her college graduation. And she was a music ministry major. And so what happened is her very first memorial service was held on what would have been her 23rd birthday. And there. There were 700 people in attendance. And we had a receiving line. We were receiving these people. We received most of them also from her college, because this was held at her college. They gave us two big, huge photo albums that were filled with letters from people and I mean filled. And then they also gave us two yearbooks that were all signed and had really long messages from people. I still to this day have not been able to read them all. There's so many. But we stood there and we were receiving all of these people and they were talking to us about how Brittany had changed her life. And not in this surface, artificial, superficial way. It was, she changed my life and she said this, or she changed my life and she did that. And so when we were standing there, we were very overwhelmed, obviously. But the one thing that we took away from it, you know, you think your kids are pretty amazing, but when you find out something like this, that she had done so much and had so much global impact because she also. We had people that were reaching out to us. She had just come back from a three and a half month mission trip to South Africa and people from Ireland that were there and people that were there in South Africa reached out to us and they actually held memorial services over there for her in both Ireland and in South Africa. Wow. So impact was so big at such a very young age that Keith and I were like, okay, what are we going to do to carry on this legacy? What is it going to. What is that going to look like? And it took us a while to figure that out because we really didn't know we were still in our corporate jobs at that time. I was in project management. My husband was working for, unfortunately, the big Evil Pharma. And we realized very quickly that what we were doing was not doing anything to impact and change lives, people's lives. I mean, like, yes, it gave people jobs, but at the end of the day, it wasn't making people's lives actually better.

Michelle, this is just so. It's just amazing. I'm listening to you and I'm thinking, you know, we look at our kids and our children and we already see so many gifts and blessings in them. But what an amazing, incredible gift that comes with such a tragedy to be learning from her after that, you know?

Yes, exactly. And so we just decided that we had to figure out how to carry on her legacy. What happened really is that we were at Ancestral Health Symposium, which we consider is our sister symposium. It is a decidedly academic symposium. Symposium. It's all about the theory of the Paleo movement and ancestral health, but it's also, you know, lots of abstract, lots of science. And at the end of the day, we owned gyms. Until just recently, we sold our shares in the gyms. We started talking when we were leaving that conference. We were actually sitting on the Runway at lax and I started talking to Keith. I was like, no, it's really. All the science is great. We love the science. But at the end of the day, our clients, when we get back, we have health coaching clients and of course, fitness clients, and personal. Was a personal trainer. But when we get back, these people really, they're indifferent to the science. They. They're happy it exists, but unless they use it in their daily life, they really don't care. And so we.

So true, they want to know it's back, but they don't really want all the information.

Right. Well, and they don't really don't know what to do with it. And so what we really, we realized is that there was no practical application of the science. And so we needed. That's what was missing. There needed to be this piece that actually showed people how to do this. And so when we realized that there was that need, we decided this is the vehicle, this is the one to carry on Brittany's legacy. And this changed people's lives. So we ended up. This was in August of 2011, and by October, we had made the decision to go full force into Payloaf X. And by. On March 14th of 2012, we launched pill Effects.

Wow. Okay. I have so many questions for you right now that are coming up. For me, my first question is, how in the world do you bounce back from such a tragedy? Like, I get, I hear you saying, like, I launched this thing. I had this great lesson from her, and that happened. I'm going to dive more into why that became the focus. But is that what helped you Bounce back, or how do you even get through such an imaginable tragedy? I'm wondering what steps you took there, because I can't even fathom what that would feel like or be like.

Well, you know, there was a lot. It took me a while to bounce back, honestly, because, you know, you're never the same person ever again. It's not possible. And, you know, you never get over it. You have to just get past it. And so, you know, I had many days that I did not get out of bed. There was many days that I did not get dressed. There was many days that I cried all day long and didn't. Didn't do anything with my life for a while. But then there was this time frame that passed where I was just in a. Kind of. In a. Just. I don't know how you would, like, treading water. Just treading water, and then, like, just getting by.

Sort of just getting by.

Yeah, totally getting by. I remember there were days where Keith had gone to work, and he would come home and he'd go, oh, yay, you got dressed today. And it was like a. That was kind of a big task to surround, you know what I mean? And so it was. It was just really very difficult. But what happened is the drive to honor her life, because I knew that by continuing to wallow and to continue to just do nothing and accept. Phil Baden was doing nothing to honor her life and was also not something she would have been proud of. She would have been very upset because she was somebody that lived life. Like, she grabbed life by the. You know, just really lived life and loved living and loved people, and I was always the same way, but I just had kind of lost that. Because it was this light in your life that goes out.

Yeah.

To figure out how you get through that darkness.

And so did you go through a blame period? Like, were you mad at who else was involved in the accident? Like, what was that process there?

Yeah. So the first person that I blame, or first it was God. I was mad. I was really angry with God. And what's really interesting is at that first memorial service, my entire family was really angry with God. We were just like, what in the world? Like, she's getting ready to do your work. Why would you take her away? All of it made no sense. And so it was an interesting thing. So her very first memorial service, her favorite professor gave one of the eulogies. There was four. He gave one of the eulogies, and he said was. People say this was God's will. He said this was not God's will, he said. But God allowed it to happen. And if you don't give him the glory, then Satan wins. And I'm sitting there with this incredibly gorgeous picture of her sitting right in front of me. And Brittany had this really wry, quirky, knowing smile. And I swear, if I didn't know better, that that's the moment. It kind of like I. I had this release where I was no longer angry with God. There was a lot of different blame that went down there. I blamed myself for a while. I blame. You know, it was. I couldn't blame anybody for the accident was her fault. It was. Except for the state of Georgia. There was a problem with the way that they had the lanes set up. I was really angry with the state of Georgia for a while and tried to. We were going to take care. Anyway. They fixed it, but a lot of people died. And Brittany was one of them. One of 14 people that died in. On the. In that same intersection. They finally did something after Britney passed.

Wow.

There was just a lot there. And so I went through this process of, of course, blaming myself because she had been out of the country at her mission trip. And when she flew back, she got stuck in Georgia, in Atlanta, Georgia, on a layover to come back to Raleigh, North Carolina. And her school was an hour north of Atlanta. Okay. There for a couple of hours. And she was supposed to fly home. And she said, mom, why don't I just have somebody come pick me up from school, and you just bring my car down for graduation, and I just stay here and I don't worry about coming through there. And I said. I told her no. I was like, no, you've been gone, and I really want you to come home. I haven't seen you. I said, plus, you're gonna need your car to get all your stuff done for graduation. Your dog is here. You need to come to get your dog. And I felt really bad, but I was ready for her dog to leave now. I don't know what I would do without that dog, because obviously it's the memory of her.

Yeah, for sure.

But she's like, no, you need to come home. And then I. I had this moment where I was like, oh, my God, thank God she came home, because if she hadn't, I wouldn't have seen her. And then all of a sudden, it hit me. But then she wouldn't have had her car, and she wouldn't have been driving. And then there was all of this. That's when I was like, oh, my God, this is my Fault and anyway, had a lot of. There's a lot of stuff around that that I finally came to terms with. This was just her time. And whether it made sense or not, it was her time. And so. And she. The other part of it, too, was this really humbling experience of understanding that my kid had completed her tasks here and had moved on to the next realm and was all done here. And I thought she wasn't even 23 yet, and she had already finished her work here. And the thing is, is that I shouldn't say finished her work because she's still doing. Because her story changes people's lives still.

Yes.

But her physically being present was no longer. It was an interesting time, for sure.

Yeah. I honor your perspective shift around that because it's very challenging. I hear that. Do you have other children or she your only child?

Yes, we have other children. We have three other children. They're all amazing. And we're finally going to get our first grandchild this summer. Oh, wow. That's amazing.

Congratulations.

Yes.

Okay, so that makes sense to me. So you. You change your perception and your perspective around things, which is incredible. So. And I totally hear you, especially as a mom like that, that just never fully heals.

But you.

I like that you've channeled, like, what was working in her life and what you took from that and carrying that legacy on, which I think is incredible. Now, talk to me about why you mentioned you had gotten very sick. Were you very sick around this tragedy and what happened, or you sick before or after? Where did that fall in? And what brought you to being Paleo and having that passion around that?

No, it was long before, actually. It was quite a few years before that that she passed away. That. I think it was 2004, 2005. Keith became Paleo, then I became Paleo, yes. I had all kinds of issues. I had chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, ibs. I had been diagnosed with early onset rheumatoid arthritis, which was a false diagnosis.

A lot of autoimmune.

Oh, tons of autoimmune.

Got it. I'm a celiac, as we're talking, so I'm very familiar. Okay.

So, yeah, that was what brought me into it. And it was really crazy thinking that if you just change what you're eating, you know, we ate pretty well. We didn't eat a lot of junk food. We didn't eat a lot of processed food. We didn't. We. I made almost all meals at home, but there was a lot of refined carbohydrates. And particularly gluten. I made my own pizza dough, I made my own pasta. And it was, it was very difficult to give up foods that I love so much just to be healthy. And so like I said, I didn't go into this all happy and then kicking and screaming.

And yeah, you are Italian chef, as you said. So this was, this was something I'm sure you were fighting. Can you, for those listening, not everybody knows what Paleo is or the link with autoimmune. Can you give a general overview of how you define Paleo? Because I know there's a lot of definitions for, but how you personally define it and what that looks like?

Yes. So to me, Paleo is, in my opinion it is getting rid of the toxins in your life and not just the toxins that you consume, eat, but also the toxins that are like in your home, the ones you use to clean, the ones that you use to on your body makeup, all types of different products. I mean women put about 78 toxic chemicals on their skin, which is your largest organ almost daily. Lots of toxic load there. And so it's also, in my opinion, it's about toxic thoughts, which I know you go into mindset is toxic thoughts can be almost as harmful as putting toxic chemicals in your body.

Yes, absolutely.

Getting rid of toxic people in your life and toxic situations. And so it's, in my opinion Paleo is an all encompassing holistic lifestyle about removing all the toxins from, from your life.

So when most people think of Paleo, they go straight to food and they go to straight to no carbs and then and just meat. Can you, can you talk how on the nutrition side would you define the Paleo? What does that look like?

You have to really truly find we're all completely, uniquely and divinely created. We do not have the same DNA makeup as each other. We don't have the same chemical makeup as each other. We have to find what actually works for us. Clearly your celiac and I have gluten sensitivities. Turns out I don't actually have full blown celiac, but I have gluten sensitivities. But we're two people that cannot tolerate gluten. For some people, they don't tend to have any presence. And I say present because I really think it's toxic for everybody. But that's my personal opinion. The thing is, is at the end of the day, my Paleo diet looks extremely different from my husband's. Like he handle a lot more carbs and he actually needs and requires a lot more carbohydrates than I do. He also eats a whole lot more fat and protein than I do. Well, I'm ApoE3.4, which is the gene SNP for early onset Alzheimer's. And so I have to watch my saturated fats. I need to have a lot of monounsaturated fats, my brain health to be kept intact. And so most people in paleo can do a lot of saturated fats and usually do because it's usually very. Considered generally very healthy. Well, my paleo diet doesn't include a whole lot of saturated fat and I have a little bit higher protein, but my protein is also a lot more on the lean side than most paleo diet. I also eat a lot more vegetables than I would say even vegetarians sometimes. But it's interesting because I think all of these different things all fall in. So keto. I am, I do really what would be considered a modified keto diet, a modified Mediterranean keto diet. So I do a lot of olive oil, a lot of avocado oil. That's the fats that I usually tend towards and do a lot of. And so my diet is definitely way more in a keto range. Some people are going to be a lot more low carb. It's all what works for you. You just need to find what it is that works for you. The thought process though, around that is removing is doing some elimination when you first start to remove those inflammatory foods and find out which ones are an issue for you.

Yeah, I love everything you're saying. Both of my books, I have a book called Unprocess your diet and then also aging in reverse. And they both. That's really what I talk about. I don't label it as keto or paleo or any of that, but it really, it really could be. It's heavy on the vegetables and it's definitely the way you just outlined. So it's based on unprocessed natural, real foods. So huge fan of that. And what I love about what you just said too is yes, everybody's DNA and chemical makeup is very different, but as soon as you start eating an actual, like unprocessed natural food diet, you start really getting aware of how things are affecting you. I think when people are eating these heavy processed food diets, they don't even know what's affecting them.

Oh, I agree. So there was a, you know, the time when I was really sick, I didn't even really notice until I went paleo. And about three weeks into paleo, every symptom that I had of any. All of the different autoimmune and inflammatory issues I had going on, all the chronic inflammation went away. And what was interesting is I had assumed that my situation was normal. And so I had this really dull, low back pain that was consistently and chronically there. And that went away. And so what. But what happened is that I. That was my normal. So it was. We. And we believe this. We go through this life with this concept and this myth that we are. When we age, we're supposed to start going into this slow decline and deterioration of our bodies and that our sight supposed to go, our hearing supposed to go, our mind is supposed to go. We're supposed to get heart disease, we're supposed to get cancer, we're supposed to get, you know, diabetes. We're supposed to get all of those things. And all of that is a lie.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yes. I love what you're saying right now. I call it false assumed truths. There are these things that we hear or think or we're supposed to, but there's no actual proof to it. We're just looking for evidence to support that. And it keeps us stuck. Right.

And that's the thing, is that we. It's all this myth. I hate when a doctor tells, well, particularly me, when they tell, oh, well, you're just getting older. That's part of getting older. No, it is not a doctor exactly. It's like, no, it is not supposed to be this way. We are supposed to live until the moment we die. And we are not supposed to go on long trek into this just deteriorating health and feeling sick and feeling whatever. We are not supposed to do that. That's not how it's supposed to be. The problem is that the situation in the environment, in this human zoo that we've created for ourselves and we've allowed to happen through big things, food, big medicine, all of these big things, these companies, big ag. We have allowed this all to be created and we live in this false whole thing. That is not. It's not how things are supposed to be, but it's where we. That's. That's the big. That's the.

I love that you're saying this. I hope everyone's really hearing this because it's so true. We, you know, it's. It's interesting. I encounter, as you do, I'm sure, too, women all the time and say, my doctor told me I had this and that this is going to happen. And it's like, well, if you believe that's going to happen. You're going to create actions and thoughts that make that happen.

Yes, exactly. And it's so funny, too, is that I cringe at that idea. But the thing is, is that what's sad about this is the education piece of this is what's so, so hard, and what is our job security. It's like, oh, gosh, it would be nice to just be able to blast this out to the world and everybody listening here and comply and understand that you and only you are not only responsible, but you are. I mean, not only. It's not just your privilege or honor or whatever you want to call it. It's not only your right, but it's your responsibility to take responsibility for your own health and be your own health advocate. And that means being educated about how you operate and how things. The problem is that we are so disconnected from our bodies. We see totally do not what's happening in our bodies. We're numb to all of it. We believe that all of these things, these aches, these pains are all just normal, and they're not. And until you try something new and you have a different outcome, you will not have a new normal.

Oh, so good. I love everything you're saying right now. I'm so aligned with you. I think it's amazing. And it's actually really demonstrating to me who you are and how you were able to even, you know, we were talking about your daughter earlier, like such an incredibly magnificent tragedy and how you've been able to not just, like, take it and accept it, but, like, really take it on as, okay, what's the good in this? There is a good somehow, and you found that. And you're doing that with your body. You're doing that with your health. You're doing it with your career, with your passion, with your daughter's memory. And I want to honor you for that because it's an incredible example of really stepping into the right mindset space. It's very powerful. It's very powerful.

I appreciate that. And one of the things that I was going to actually say earlier, and I forgot to mention this, was one of the things that Brittany and I talked about quite a bit when she was alive was, you know, we had rough things, hard things. Bad things happen to people all the time, whether you're a good person or you're not. And I believe most people are decent and good and everything. And so bad things are going to happen to all of us. It's just the way life is. And the thing is that we have Two options. We have a choice. We always have a choice. And the choice that Brittany and I talked about quite a bit, because she had. She had some rough things happen to her as a young girl, and we discussed this, and it was always find what's. Because I believe that everything good comes. Can either come from the ashes or it can come from nothing. And the thing is that it's your choice when something bad happens, when there's ashes, it's like the phoenix rising. It's do you rise from it or do you just allow it to consume you and burn you completely to a crisp? That's brilliant choice. You are the only one that can make that choice of whether or not you find something positive and good. Because there's something. Regardless of how horrific it is, you can always find something good and positive out of what has happened that you can take away from it. And I'm just saying the thing is, is that as horrific as her death was and how awful it was for our entire family to have to go through this, the week that she was turning 23 and she was supposed to graduate from college, and it was Mother's Day weekend, it was all of those things. Those are all these big. And I could just sit around and go, poor me, I lost my daughter. It was during. I could continue to go through all of that, or I could go, okay, you know what? She's still changing thousands and thousands of people's lives. Her story still changes people's lives. Still positive that can come from what happened. And the thing is, is that she. When you gain perspective like that, too, you also gain this perspective of, okay, how temporary and how everything changes, that everything is temporary here. That you have this newfound respect and perspective on life and that, you know, we all think, oh, that's not going to happen to me. Well, guess what? It can. Everything that can happen to you. And you need to live every day to your fullest, to the best that you can live like you might not be here tomorrow, love like you might not be here tomorrow. And especially treat the people that you love and care for and respect with love and respect every single day. And because you might not have that chance tomorrow.

So brilliant. Everything you're saying, and I really, I'm taking it in, and what I hear from you is a total, total side of gratitude and being present in the moment and where you are and where the value is, how we can give back in life. And it's. It's really. It's beautiful. I love. I love hearing this, and I hope everyone Hears this. Because here's the thing with tragedy, excuses or, you know, setbacks or diagnosis, any of it, it's always perspective. And the thing is, we have a choice daily to enroll people in our story of what's wrong and not working. And people will support that every. No. Like, you could have gone off the grid and said, I'm done. I'm depressed. This is what happened to me. And nobody would have challenged you. They would have said, we get it. It's horrible. And that wouldn't have supported what you've stepped into now. So what I love is this whole looking for a different perspective and finding the meaning even in horrible things. I think it's brilliant that you've done it, and it's such a great example for people.

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Like I said, I just have to live to honor her life and honor my own. Because, I mean, what's the purpose of me being here if I'm not going be positive and contributing? And it is. Every single day, you have a choice to either be a victim or a victor of your life. And you. And I chose to be a victor, not a.

Yes.

And I also heard.

I also heard you say. And I want people to really hear this, too, is that you let yourself feel the feel.

So she.

She didn't say, like, this happened. And I bounced back immediately. Like, you went through the pain and the feelings, and I think that was a critical part of your healing, too.

Absolutely. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with grieving. Nothing wrong with grieving and feeling sad and being upset and having a thing. It's. It's the long term. Do you can. And this is the thing. I'm going to say this. I can tell you there are still days where I have moments of grief, where it is overwhelming. And I will allow myself that because I think it's very cathartic to cry or to be upset or whatever. And the thing is. But do I let it consume me? I can't let it consume me because then I can't get done what I need to get done, and I can't. My life is actually not being. It's not serving her. It's not serving me to continue to go through that. There's not a single thing wrong with grieving. And nobody can tell you how to grieve. I was told quite a few times that I needed to get over it. I was told six weeks after she died, I was told by one of her friends that I needed to get over it.

Wow. Yeah, that's. There's no room for that.

That's never happening. I'm never getting over the fact that she's here. I will get past it and I will figure out how to live beyond that. But there was, there was a time for you to be able to grieve and you need to have. You need to take it. You need to do whatever it is that you need to do. But. But I. The one thing I never did was said, oh, poor me, my daughter died. So my excuse to not do this or to not live, that was never ever going to happen. And that never did happen. So that's where the choice is. Do you choose? Okay, today I am choosing for myself that I need to grieve. Yes, I choose today for myself that I am ready to go into the world and live. And you know what? That might include a little bit of grief and that's okay. But the thing is, is are you going to be the victim or are you going to be a victor? Are you going to use excuses or are you going to allow them to. To catalyze whatever it is that you need? I allowed this to be a catalyst for me, so I show that.

Okay, Michelle, I do have another big question for you. And then I have some more questions about your events and what you do. This is a question I ask everybody. If somebody's listening right now and they're in their own personal rock bottom, so it might be a tragedy like you went through or maybe it is their own health, illness or they a business setback. Whatever it is, whatever their personal rock bottom is right now. If you were to give them three pieces of advice so they can start shifting and leveling up and creating everything from nothing, what would you tell them?

The first thing that I would tell them is be kind to yourself. That's one of the things that we do not do, we don't do it enough. And then probably like what I was talking about mindset earlier and toxic thoughts. The thing that generally happens when we get into those places is we start doing all of the self hatred stuff. We start doing all the self doubt. I call it the shitty roommate. You have this shitty roommate in your head that tells you that you deserve this. You whatever all of these things, whatever it may be, if it's a loss like you know, a child or a loved one, or if it's you're in your business or whatever the case may be, or maybe you have a health issue and you start wallowing in, in this, allowing yourself to do the whole self hatred, all of that, you deserve this don't. You don't. You may have made choices in your past that contributed. And you know what? You gotta let them go. This is one of the things that I have really taken on myself and really adopted is that because I would allow myself to get really caught up in the fact that there was some spilled milk and that I would just be like, there's still milk. Oh my God, we wasted milk. And obviously it's not milk I'm talking about, but you know what I mean? You would go through that thing, but it's the same thing. You cannot do anything about spilled milk but clean it up. The first thing you need to do is be kind to yourself and clean that up. Just let it be. It is what it is. And, and find the things that you can learn from that. Because there's always something to learn and there's always something positive from that. That's the. That's the first thing. The second thing that I would do is determine what's next. Where do you go from here? What is your next choice? So say it's a business thing and it's gone bad or whatever, or even it's a health thing. Any of these, actually. What is the next thing that you need and you want and you desire? What is that next thing? And what will it take for you to get there and just concentrate on that. One of the things that we do as humans is we concentrate on the outcome. We don't want to. We constantly focus on what we don't want, including, and this is the way we entrain our children too, is we tell them, don't do this, don't do that, instead of, I would like it if you would do such and such. I would like it if you would do that. We focus on what we don't want. And guess what you get what you focus on.

You're absolutely right.

What you don't want, that's what you're going to get. So start focusing on exactly what it is that you want. Because one of the things that you people will notice is that when they decide they want something, like say I decide I want a black Mercedes Benz or I want a red Mercedes Benz, all of a sudden, that's all I'm going to see when I am driving down the road. It's a reticulating factor. And when you decide that's what you want, you're going to start seeing it everywhere. Focus on it. Yeah. So did you have your focus on it before? No, they. Were they there before? Yes. You just didn't See it because you weren't focused on it. Focus on what you want. Yep.

That vision and it's literally law of attraction at its finest. I love that.

Yes, exactly. And the third thing is, is that along the way, make sure that you're always being authentic and aligned to who you are and what you want. And that is also trying to decide too, what are the things that you need to do for yourself and for your family and for your loved ones and whoever is affected by whatever it is that you're going to do. Make sure that there is those things have boundaries around them and that they are. Those things are fulfilled and that you're aligned with what you are planning to do. I mean, those are, to me, the three things that I would do in that situation and actually did when. When it happened with Brittany. Like I said, I try. I did the blame thing when I. But immediately came out of that and was like, okay, I can't back. This is. This is one of those things. And this may sound really. I don't know, I'm not meaning it to be this way, but this is a spilled milk thing. I can't change the fact that she's gone. I can grieve for her, have my moments remembering her and doing all of those things for myself to actually have some type of catharsis. But I can't bring her back. So I can't go back and try to undo it all. It's not going to happen. And it's the same thing when we do anything. Like if we have a health issue. We just need to focus on where are we going to go from here, how are we going to get better, what are we going to do and. Or surround yourself. This is the other thing. Surround yourself with the people that are going to help you get there.

Oh, I love this.

One of our problems is we don't surround ourselves with the right people.

Brilliant. And I'm assuming that's perfect for the thing I wanted to ask you next about your event, because I'm assuming that's a big reason you do this event is to surround people with the right people. Can you talk a little bit about the event and who it's for?

Yes. So this event is for anyone and everyone who wants to have a better life and wants to live a healthy life and wants to live an optimized life and live better. And it's for anyone in that space and that. And I say literally anyone. There's a lot of thought processes around Paleo because obviously it's this whole idea of, you know, beef, bacon, coffee, butter and Costa.

You know, I don't even look at it that way, but I know what you're saying. So, I mean, I would say my, my stuff, I'll process your diet or my Aging in reverse book is, could be. Could fall into Paleo category. So it's funny. There's just, that's why I asked initially what's your definition? Because there's so many definitions of paleo.

Yeah. So the thing is, is that I think with people that have made me have a preconceived notion is that that the everybody that's going to be a Paleo Effects is going to be fit, is going to look like a model or it's going to look like brand influencer or whatever, you know, and that's just not the case because every walk of Life comes to PaleoFX. And the thing is, is that all of us started somewhere. All of us were not where we wanted to be. And some people are further along on that journey than others, but we're all, we all started somewhere. So I started off very sick and unhealthy and that's where. That's where my. And I am much further along. And then I had a setback a few years ago. I got really sick. We lived in a house that had severe mold exposure and it kicked up all kinds of issues for me and it took me two years to recover from that. Back to Dave Asprey and Dr. Mark Hyman. Both of them got very, very ill from severe mold exposure and in fact, almost died. I didn't, I didn't almost die, but I felt like I was going to. And so the thing is, is that everybody's somewhere on that path to help somewhere along that path. And guess what? When someone has already been where you are at, they can be such a great help to you and they can help. And that the thing I love about Pillow FX is that the tribe there, everybody's so willing to help each other along the way and help. These are the things that I did that helped me and these are the things that I did that helped me. And you can ask just about anybody there for help and they're going to help you. And that's one of the things that I really love about what we've created is that, you know, one of our sayings is come for the event because the networking at Pill Effects is probably the biggest piece of the pie. Yes. You're going to learn a whole lot. You're going to go to talks and panels and Workshops and get hands on training about things. But at the end of the day, everything all comes down to relationships and people. And when you are surrounded by people who are like minded and who want, really, truly want the best for you and the best health for you, I can't imagine being around better people.

Yeah, that's actually, that's incredible right there. I love that. I believe in having getting the right people on your bus, the right people in your life. And that's events are a great way to do that. So it's amazing. How can people learn more? Where do you want them to go? Where should they follow you?

Well, we can on all of our social we're all it's paleo FX P A L E O F as in Frank X is an X ray paleofx. So that's our website.com, facebook, Twitter, Instagram if they want to follow me. I'm Be the Grace women on Instagram and how do you spell that?

Say that again. Be the Grace.

Be the Grace.

Okay. Be the Grace women.

That's Be the Grace women on Twitter and on Instagram and on Facebook it's just Be the Grace. And Michelle Norris. And yeah, then the little side story to that grace was Brittany's spiritual name. There's a little bit there. And her, her name is Brittany but I called her Bea. So Be the Grace. Oh, I love that story on Be the Grace. But it is spelled B E.

Oh, I love that. Thank you so much, Michelle. This was, this was incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I appreciate you having me on.

Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejofit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.