The Wake-Up Call That Changed Stacey Kay's Health, Career, and Life

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Wake-Up Call That Changed Stacey Kay's Health, Career, and Life

The Determined Society with Shawn French
Date: January 23, 2026
Guest: Stacey Kay, Founder & Owner of Hydrate LLC
Host: Shawn French

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Episode Overview

This episode features a raw and heartfelt conversation between host Shawn French and Stacey Kay, who shares her remarkable health and career transformation. Stacey opens up about her past struggles with addiction, anxiety, and high-pressure sales environments, and details the pivotal wake-up call—a health scare—that redirected her life toward wellness and entrepreneurship. Together, they dive into mental health, the power of meditation, entrepreneurship, and the inner work required to create lasting change.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Stacey’s Personal Health Crisis: The Turning Point

• Addiction & Overwork:
  Stacey recounts battling addiction in her 20s and how high-stress sales jobs took a toll on her health.

  “I was having heart palpitations. My arm went numb. I basically thought I was having a heart attack. That was a big wakeup call that I needed to slow down.” – Stacey Kay (01:06)

• Public Meltdown & Self-Accountability:
  Stacey describes an emotional breakdown in front of her family:

  “I had a moment where I just had a meltdown in front of my daughter and my husband. That’s when I realized I had to do something for me.” – Stacey Kay (01:30)

• Epiphany: She realized only she could take ownership for necessary change, inspiring the leap into wellness.

Transitioning from Corporate to Wellness Entrepreneur

• Past Sales Life:
  Stacey and Shawn discuss the brutal realities and unhealthy habits of corporate sales, including constant competition, poor nutrition, and relentless pressure.

  “If you let it get away from you, which I did, it can really physically, like, burden your body. It can bring you to your knees.” – Stacey Kay (03:20)

• Moment of Change:
  After her health scare, Stacey decided to step away from the grind and pursue a path aligned with her values.

Creation and Mission of Hydrate LLC

• Mobile IV Therapy:
  Stacey explains her mobile hydration business, Hydrate, emphasizing individualized care:

  “We’re not here to fix and cure. We’re here to support and augment…Because we have. You have to be doing things on your end, right?” – Stacey Kay (07:20)

• Treatment Details:
  Shawn undergoes a lactated ringer IV on air, as Stacey details its medical uses and the key role of nutrients like magnesium for recovery and wellness (04:23-07:10).

The Power of Meditation and Mental Health Work

• Discovering Meditation:
  Stacey’s healing began with meditation after hearing Michael Singer (author, The Untethered Soul) discuss inner narratives.

  “He was explaining we can either deal with the task at hand or we can avoid it. And the avoiding…is where fear and anxiety comes from.” – Stacey Kay (24:50)

• Three-Year Self-Healing:
  Dedicated herself to daily Transcendental Meditation (TM), learning to “sit and get comfortable and take those pieces of Stacey that caused so much self-destruction in the past and say ‘I see you, I hear you, you’re a part of me, but I’m going to take over from here.’” (34:38)
• Importance of Self-Love:
  Both discuss struggles with body image and learning not to act from a place of shame, but from love and intention.

  “It wasn’t until last December I started truly loving who I am and understanding what I need to do to get back to myself.” – Shawn French (38:03)

Entrepreneurship: The Grit Behind Building a Mission-Driven Company

• Leaving Comfort for Purpose:
  Stacey returned to school for nursing in her 40s, funding her company with her own savings, highlighting the sacrifices and fears in entrepreneurship (48:48-49:54).
• Financial and Emotional Challenges:
  “This is the exact moment where people give up, and I’m not willing to do that.” – Stacey Kay (51:06)
• Becoming a Lifelong Learner:
  Stacey stresses the value of constant learning, sharing plans to further her nursing education (51:05-52:21).
• Advice for Others:

  “If they’re feeling a pull in a certain direction…do what you don’t want to do, you know, so that one day you can do what you want to do.” – Shawn French (52:32) “I feel younger and better right now than I did in my 30s.” – Stacey Kay (53:18)

Mental Health, Accountability, and Staying Present

• Anxiety & Depression in Modern Life:
  Discussion of how living in the past (depression) or future (anxiety) keeps people from presence, and strategies like grounding, mindfulness, and meditation (41:39-43:46).
• Extreme Accountability:
  Both hosts describe the transformative power of holding oneself responsible without shame.

  “Accountability, but with love. I’m doing this because I love myself and now I feel much better about who I am.” – Shawn French (38:03-39:23)

• Forgiveness & Healing:
  Stacey shares how forgiving others, even in tragic circumstances, was essential for her own healing (61:58-62:16).

Personal Systems for Wellness

• Intentional Living:
  Both use routines and contingency plans (like healthy fast food choices) to lower stress and support wellbeing (65:06-66:43).
• Checking In With Yourself:
  Stacey emphasizes regular self-inquiries about body and mind, adjusting routines as needed: “Check in with your body, check in with your mind. Let’s switch it up.” (67:44)
• Redefining Determination:

  “Determination, for me, is never giving up on something that’s so important and so passionate…moving forward anyway to get past it and through it.” – Stacey Kay (69:10)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Facing Burnout:
  “I remember just kind of sitting in my car towards the end of my on the street sales career and just trying to muster up all the energy I had to go into the account or doing those drive bys where you never go in.” – Stacey Kay (10:26)
• On Self-Responsibility:
  “The only person I could blame was myself.” – Stacey Kay (16:32)
• On Being a Lifelong Learner:
  “I don’t want to stop learning, I don’t want to stop growing, I don’t want to stop evolving…I feel like I wasted a lot of time when I was younger, that I’m just trying to embrace every moment I can now.” – Stacey Kay (51:42)
• On Self-Forgiveness:
  “Forgiveness is always for you, always. Right. It’s never for somebody else.” – Shawn French (62:16)
• On Action & Success:
  “Action’s the foundational key to all success, because it truly, truly is.” – Stacey Kay quoting Picasso (32:42)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:06] – Stacey’s health scare and wake-up call
• [04:23-07:10] – Explaining IV hydration, nutrients, and supplement absorption
• [10:26] – The grind of sales and reaching burnout
• [24:50] – Discovery of meditation and Michael Singer’s influence
• [34:38] – Deep healing and building self-love
• [38:03-39:23] – Self-accountability with love
• [48:48-49:54] – Career pivot: launching Hydrate, nursing school in her 40s
• [51:06] – Pivotal moment refusing to give up as an entrepreneur
• [69:10] – Stacey’s definition of determination
• [71:01] – Contact information for Hydrate LLC

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Where to Find Stacey Kay

• Instagram: @HyDragGirl. (with a period after the R)
• Website: ivhydratellc.com

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Episode Tone

Honest, vulnerable, and empowering—both guests share struggles and triumphs in a conversational, approachable style, filled with empathy, encouragement, and relatable humor. The focus is always on real-life lessons, actionable strategies, and inspiring others not just to dream, but to heal and act with intention.

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Takeaways for Listeners

• It’s never too late to pivot careers or pursue new learning.
• True change starts with extreme accountability—without shame—and self-love.
• Mental health routines (like meditation) are as important as nutrition and exercise.
• Entrepreneurship involves huge risks but offers alignment with purpose and values.
• Staying present, checking in with yourself, and showing yourself grace are essential to sustained growth and wellbeing.

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Transcript

[A]

Ladies and gentlemen, if you're pushing your limits this year, your recovery has to keep up. Most people train hard but fall short on recovery. That's where therabody plus series comes in. The Jet Boots Pro plus are the first ever multi therapy recovery boots combining pneumatic compression, vibration, and infrared LED light to help boost circulation and reduce soreness in less time. And they're completely wireless. No cords, no hoses, zero hassle. Perfect after long runs, heavy lifts, or game days. They keep your legs feeling fresh even when the training load stays high. Because when your recovery delivers more, so can you. Right now, our listeners get 15% off your entire order. Use code determined at checkout. That's 15% off US only one time use valid until March 31, 2026. Take your recovery to the next level with the Thera Body plus series. Check out the Jet Boots Pro plus at the body.com code word determined. You dealt with addiction in your 20s?

[B]

I did.

[A]

Alcohol, drugs. Drugs. Wow.

[B]

I was having heart palpitations. My arm went numb. I basically thought I was having a heart attack. That was a big wakeup call that I needed to slow down. I wasn't happy doing what I was doing. The stress was getting too much. I was having these outbursts, and I just wasn't mentally fit or healthy. I. I had a moment where I just had a meltdown in front of my daughter and my husband. And that's when I realized I had to do something for me.

[A]

Damn.

[B]

Yeah. The only person I could blame was myself.

[A]

Let's talk about what's in my arm.

[B]

You are hooked up to what's called a lactated ringer bag, an isotonic bag of fluids. It's exactly what's in your body. I have more conversations with people about their stress level when their IV is dripping than nutrition. It saved my life, Sean. I feel younger and better right now than I did in my 30s.

[A]

What's up, guys? We're back here with Stacy K. The founder and owner of Hydrate, a concierge mobile IV and hydration company. As you guys can see, I'm hooked up on a lot of stuff right. Right now. And we're going to go through and she's going to talk about what she has me on. There's some. Some specific reasons why I asked for a certain ingredient in this. But before we get to that, Stacy, welcome to the show, girl.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

It's been so long since I've seen.

[B]

I know. It's. I'm very happy to be here. Thank you.

[A]

I'm very Happy to have you here. And, you know, we've been talking about this for quite some time. I think I saw you at a year. About a year ago. Yeah, I think it was at G's graduation party. Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right around this, Right. I wasn't even. A year ago, right? No. Was it? Gosh, Time flies.

[B]

Time flies.

[A]

Sometimes I think it's been a year, but it's only.

[B]

And before that, it was Halloween.

[A]

Oh, my God, kids. Yes. That was a long time ago, right.

[B]

Before all of this. Sean.

[A]

I know. Before all.

[B]

I'm so proud of you.

[A]

Well, thank you, by the way. I appreciate you.

[B]

It's so proud.

[A]

It's been a long road, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I think I might have been with paychecks when.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

You know, and then it was. Then I got into medical and we.

[B]

Were talking about our corporate jobs and the sales grind.

[A]

Yeah, sales grind. That. That's a real grind, man. Like, it's. It's so difficult.

[B]

It's. If you let it get away from you, which I did, it can really physically, like, burden your body. It can bring you to your knees.

[A]

I'll tell you what. And I'm gonna blame it all on Dan. He put me through a lot of stress at paycheck. But no, it was a very high paced, high volume, high touch job. And with that, your health can struggle. You know, when I started at paychecks, I was in decent shape. And then as the years went on, that's when I really started to struggle again with my weight because I was always porn. I was in and out of the car, eating on the go. And we always pride ourselves in sales, like to never have breakfast or never eat lunch alone. You want to be in front of somebody. Right. And then you're. You're constantly eating out, and it can wreak havoc on you. Right. And. And the stress. And it's hard to enjoy the holidays when you're completely stressed out over sales. But, you know, for you, let. Let's. Let's touch on that real quick. Well, no, actually, let's talk about what's in my arm. Sure.

[B]

So you are hooked up to what's called a lactated ringer bag, and that has some additional electrolytes, normal than just like normal saline, which is typically what they'll hook you up with if you go into the emergency room in the hospital, which is, you know, an isotonic bag of fluids. It's exactly what's in your body. So this has some additional potassium and calcium chloride in it. And we give these to our clients who have food poisoning, who have been, maybe had vomiting for three days, hangover bags, just because it's extra hydrating. UTIs, those sorts of things. And then I added a B complex to this amino acids because your workout routine, so synthesizing that muscle. And then we added some magnesium, which magnesium is like, responsible for over 300 processes in our body. Our brains, our heart, our muscles all need magnesium. And we just don't get enough of it in our diets anymore.

[A]

What are some foods that do contain magnesium?

[B]

Leafy greens, nuts, seeds. All whole foods, like.

[A]

Right, you lost me at leafy greens.

[B]

Yeah, I know.

[A]

I'm like, I'm out.

[B]

So try to drink. Could you drink your leafy greens? Because that's an alternative.

[A]

Yeah. No. And again, I, I eat what I need to eat, but, you know, to get the volume that you need it, you know, you just can't find it in a bunch of, you know, romaine or broccoli.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, a lot of times you do need to supplement, especially if you're super active.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

The other thing with magnesium, it really helps you sleep better.

[B]

Yep, absolutely. Magnesium glycinate is the one that you want to lean on if you need, you know, to sleep better. That helps, again, relax those muscles. And there's eight different magnesiums. What's the name of that one? It's bio optimizers. Has a really good powder that has all eight of the magnesiums in it. So I'll go to a powder, but anything ingested, right? So like a supplement, which I'm a fan of supplements. I, I partner with two high quality vitamin groups. You're getting 20% of that absorbed today, Sean. You're getting a hundred percent of those vitamins absorbed.

[A]

See, that's interesting. Right. I want to tell you a funny story in the audience. Might get a kick out of this one. So I went to, I think vitamin shop and got some magnesium glycinate. Right. And it was a powdered form. And that night I made the mistake of not mixing it with like electrolytes or something. And I put it just in there with water. It was the, it was like God awful. Yeah, like God awful. And now, you know. But I did go down there and I threw some essential amino acids in because I didn't. I don't think I had any electrolytes. And it, and it made it taste better. But a 20 absorption versus a hundred percent absorption, that's a, that's a mass differential.

[B]

There it is. And you know, that's why we always think we're ahead of the game when we're really behind it because we think, okay, we're eating right, we're taking our supplements, but the absorption rate is so low that we need to support an augment. And I always say with this company, we're not here to fix and cure. We're here to support an augment because we have. You have to be doing things on your end, right? Diet, exercise, sleep, sunlight, Stress levels is huge. I'm a big fan of meditation. We'll go into that too. But we have to have our mind and body synced up. And so we don't do IVs on healthy people. Every week I've got people asking me for them, but I don't think it's healthy or natural. So I like the once a month maintenance. If you have a good back, you know, plan that you're doing on the.

[A]

Back end, that's great because that was the next question I was going to ask you. For somebody like me who's active, how often would I need to have something like this done? I mean, if it's once a month, that's a pretty easy lift. And you come. I mean, hell, we're at the studio right now and I'm hooked up on a bag.

[B]

100% mobile, right?

[A]

100% mobile. How often do you see people doing regular maintenance or they use it as a reactionary supplement?

[B]

All of the above really. I think a good maintenance plan I do once a month because I have a pretty healthy lifestyle on the back end if something's going on or I'm fighting something, because I see a lot of sick people too. So if I've had a round of flu people, I might increase it. I've been doing some high dose IV vitamin C, which helps with basically any viruses that are in your body. We have a lot of cancer clients that are on that as well because it's really good for the body as far as not disrupting the healthy cells like the chemo does, but it can enhance the positive cell and disrupt the, the, not the senescent cells or the cancer cells. But I think a good plan for healthy individual is once a month. Unless you're training for something like we see marathon runners and they lose just through breathing, through sweating, they're losing a ton of magnesium and electrolytes. We'll see them once a week while they're training or once every other week.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

Well, that's pretty cool.

[B]

Yep. You're starting to slow down just a little bit. Sean, can I check this real quick? For you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. There just.

[A]

Got a lot. We have, we have a live adjustment, ladies and gentlemen. Live adjustment. So. Okay, walk me through. Right. Again, I, I mentioned earlier that you were in the medical field and in sales and I, and I want, and there's a lot of people listening and watching right now that are in a field, but they also have this passion, they have this business that they want to start. Walk me through your transition, why you transitioned and some of the, some of the pitfalls. Right. Some of the struggle that you had to go through in order to build this company.

[B]

So I've been in healthcare sales in southwest Florida for over 20 years. Different. You okay?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Okay. Different venues. So I had, I was in facility sales, mostly prescription driven things. Home health was the last 12 years of my life.

[A]

See, that's a tough one.

[B]

Anyone you can ask any home health rep right now and it's because there's 60 competitors on your back. So we were all, you know, vying for the same business for the same doctors. This, you know, to write for us and refer to us and it was a grueling grind. So with the Same company for 12 years and we were in the senior population, so the 65 and up was what I was used to. So calling on Doctors, calling on CEOs of hospitals and you either have competitive sales ability in you or you don't. And I always had competitiveness in me, so I thrived in it. It was great. I was great at it. And it was fun until it wasn't just waking up, being strategic, trying to beat everyone else out of the referral, just that hunter and gatherer approach every day. And I remember being in this account. Well, first I just remember kind of sitting in my car towards the end of my on the street sales career and just trying to muster up all the energy I had to go into the account or doing those drive bys where you never go in.

[A]

Oh dude, those man.

[B]

Where you pull in and then you're like, I just don't have the energy today.

[A]

I'm out.

[B]

Peace out.

[A]

Yeah, I did a lot of that. I've done a lot of that, I think and I'm glad you mentioned that because that is something that a lot of elite salespeople don't mention. They, they like to claim that they don't ever do that. And I'm going to call bullshit.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because there's many times. Right. I mean there's emotions, there's, there's real life that you're going through and there's also this Certain intuition that I felt that I had, that if I pulled up somewhere and I'm like, you know what? I don't know how I'm going to approach this because there's too many factors here that I'm working against. I may pull in and be like, you know what? I'm going to come back to this and I'm going to move on. But that was very few and far between. The times where I just reversed out of that parking spot was just when I just wasn't feeling it because it is heavy.

[B]

Yes. You. You have to, you have to come to the account with something to say, an action behind it, a request, information. Like I always wanted to. I always wanted to go to nursing school when I was in sales. Not necessarily to nurse, but to be able to sell better. It was always in me. I just discovered it much later in life. But there were plenty of times where I backed out of the parking lot, you know. But you know what was interesting? Those times that I did, on a whim, just go in and not want to, but said, you know, basically, fuck it, let's go in and do it, were some of my best sales calls, I bet. So it was on a whim, right? Yeah, but. So just grinding every day getting that sale, getting these huge commission checks. The home health world started to change. There started to be some reimbursement cuts. So it was pivoting to a different, you know, model. Our bit, our company had sold to a larger conglomerate and I was just, I wasn't feeling it anymore. And I remember going into one of my largest accounts and I ate my sandwich in the car and I was just like, all right, let's do this. And just negative attitude. And I went in and I was talking with a lady in there and she looked at me, she goes, are you okay? And I go, I don't feel good. Turned white. So where I had this account that was always coming in, treating the people, you know, the EMS was coming in, the EMS was being called on me. I was having heart palpitations. My arm went numb.

[A]

Oh, shit.

[B]

And I basically thought I was having a heart attack. They came in, they did EKGs. You know, I have all these people around me and usually again it was for the client that I was going to see. But then they were being called for me. That was a big wake up call that I needed to slow down and just bringing the work home, right? Your family gets the brunt of your stressors. And I had a moment where I just had a meltdown in front of my daughter and my husband. And it was almost an out of body experience where I remember looking up at them in the middle of this episode, let's call it, and their faces, we locked eyes and their faces were just in disbelief. And that's when I realized this. I had to do something for me.

[A]

So this was the same instance, this is the same situation, same year.

[B]

Right. Where things were just piling up. I wasn't happy doing what I wanted, what I was doing. The stress was getting too much. I was having these outbursts and I just wasn't mentally fit or healthy. Wow.

[A]

What type of outbursts would you say were having?

[B]

Anger. A lot of anger.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, that's. That's the pressure. Right. And I don't think enough salespeople really talk about that when I re. You know, for me, it was always happening.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

You know, whether short fuse. So I'm stressed. Like I don't have any more room emotionally or in my mind to deal with.

[B]

And I don't know about you, Sean, at that time, but I was the breadwinner of the family. So I was bringing. And I loved the money, don't get me wrong. I mean, those, you know, paychecks, I wanted them to go higher each month. So I was inducing it on myself. And that meltdown made me see that, that. That I need to do something for me.

[A]

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And so it felt natural for us to partner up. So here we are, an official partnership with therabody and I want to talk to you about some of their Products today that I've been enjoying that I think you need to understand and know more about so you could potentially implement them into your life. And I'm not going to get into a big deep dive of the actual science and everything like that. I'm just going to give you some anecdotal information based on the products that I'm using and that my wife is actually using too. That is helping us out a great deal at home. Because the great thing about these products, guys, is you can use them anywhere. You can use them in the gym, you can use them at home, in your bed, in your living room. Hell, you can even drive with a the Theragun Pro plus in your car and use it on your quads, use it on your arms, whatever that is. The first thing I want to talk about is the Theragun Pro Plus. I bring that in my gym bag every day to the gym, and when I'm warming up, I use it to warm up, I put it on my arms. Whatever body part I'm using that day, I activate those muscles. And what I find is I'm able to move my body a lot quicker and I'm a lot stronger on those days that I do actually bring it and utilize it. I just think it's a great way to understand your body and the connection between your strength and your muscles and being warm and being able to perform. Because it's one thing to go work out, but it's another thing to perform while you're doing it. And the Theragun Pro plus helps me do that. Another thing that I really, truly enjoy is that jet Boots Pro plus, these things are wire free. There's no hassle, there's no cords, there's infrared LED light, there's that compression therapy. And I've been having bad pains in my ankles, both of them, actually, for about a year. And I don't understand where it's coming from. But when I started using the boots religiously after a leg day or after a cardio session, I throw those boots on and I find myself a lot looser afterwards, I find myself lighter, and then the next day there's no pain in my lower extremity like my feet. The other thing that I really enjoy is that product really helps me recover a lot quicker. And let's face it, that's the most important thing when we're trying to move our bodies or we're trying to succeed in life is we want quick recovery emotionally and physically. And these products help me do that. And they can help you do that as well. One of the other things that I really want to go into because it's helping my wife out a ton of with headaches and being able to distract from the noise in our mind, and honestly, it helps me with that too, is the smart goggles. Whenever we feel a slight headache coming on or things are getting really heavy, just in our minds, just thinking about all the stressors, all the things out there that we can't control, we throw the goggles on, get in a quiet place, and there's. There's different cycles on there and different intensities of vibrations and massaging and that you can either turn it up or turn it down. And what I really enjoy is it allows me to focus on what's going on with just me and I think about things. And the massaging with the smart goggles relieves either headaches and it relaxes me and relaxes my wife to a point where we can fall asleep better. We are preparing to kind of downshift and shut down and slow down for the evening. So I heavily recommend them. The other thing it's really good for is just creating a peaceful time in your day. And what I found since using the smart goggles and then the other products is it works for me, it works for my family, and I know it can work for you too. So I want you guys to think about things that you are struggling with. If it's lower back pain or you wake up in the morning, your neck is tight, I'm gonna tell you, the theragun pro plus will help that out. They have cold therapy on it, hot therapy. I mean, think about that. When I opened that box and realized that I could have heat therapy and cold therapy and a theragun changed everything for me and also really made the thing that I hate doing the most is warmup. Made that very easy for me just by applying it to the muscle group that I'm going to use before I do it and in between sets, which promotes quicker recovery between sets. So if you're looking to go high volume or to lift heavy weights, I strongly consider that all these products are there to help you move along in your day with less pain and recover quicker. So go check it out. Because now, like I said, the official partnership has begun. And from now until the end of March, in your first order, you get 15% off your first order, not every order. So if you're going to buy some stuff, load up there in that cart for that first time, and you get 15% off, go to therabody.com. and at checkout, the code is determined. So let me know how you guys like it. Until then, stay determined. What? That day when they came in and hooked you up to the EKGs, what did they determine it was? Was it just anxiety?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so, like that right there, I feel like, you know, I mean, I've had people tell me, like, I don't believe in anxiety. And I'm like, well, I mean, you don't have to. If you don't have it, then you're a unicorn. But for me, you know, I battle anxiety constantly. And for me, the only way that I can circumvent those feelings is to execute everything that I say I was going to execute. And if I leave one thing that. That I was supposed to do that I didn't do, that cranks up the dial of anxiety to me. So freaking high. I'm talking, like, even, you know, getting very granular with it. Let's say I'm at the gym. I say, okay, I'm doing chest today. I need to do three chest exercises. I'm going to do some lateral raises, some frontal raises for my shoulders, and then two sets of. Two exercises of some triceps, and I'm going to burn out on abs. I'll get down to the end of the workout and not want to do one or two of those things. And the times that I do them, I don't have any anxiety the rest of the day. But if I just do six out of the seven, and that's a pretty good percentage, right? That's winning. What happens is, later on in the day, if I'm supposed to do something to help my wife or to help the kids, there may be certain tasks that. That I just don't do. And then all that stuff compounds. Like, I was 6 for 7, but now after the end of the day, I'm 6 for 10, and that's only 60%. So I go to bed feeling very unaccomplished. Like, I have to hit every single thing that I say I'm going to do. And I also have to learn to scale it back. Like, maybe I can only put five things on my plate that day. How do you deal with anxiety?

[B]

So that was more situational, but I'll tell you exactly how I dealt. And it really. It saved my life, Shawn, in so many perspectives. But after that incident happened, I discovered meditation. Okay, so the TV was on one day. Nobody was watching it. It was one of those weekends where we're just doing chores and the TV was on, and we Were probably watching something. But then another program had come on and there was a gentleman on there talking about the narrative that's happening in our heads all the time, that we're unaware of, it's subconsciously happening. And he was. His name is Michael Singer. He doesn't do very many interviews. He's from Florida, he lives in the Gainesville area. And he was talking about his book that he read. I mean, that he wrote, Excuse me, the Untethered Soul. And it was just the way that he was explaining we can either deal with the task at hand or we can avoid it. And the avoiding of whatever is disturbing us inside is where the fear and the anxiety comes from. Because it's too painful for us to go there. Right? So we wanna try to avoid pain and avoid the hard conversations with ourselves about what we need to do to get healthier and better. Because they're scary, they're fearful. I lost my dad at 27 instantly. And he was my rock. And I never dealt with the sadness from that. So I think that just ran into my life. Because behind sadness is. Is there's anger there or behind anger is sadness. And if you just carry those from decade to decade and job to job and relationship to relationship, you're you constantly fighting it. So he put it in a way where we have to sit, get comfortable with it and learn how to. To gracefully accept and then let it go. So he took me down this trajectory of TM Transcendental meditation, which I got trained. You okay?

[A]

Yeah, I'm good.

[B]

Okay. Trained. And it saved my life. And for three years I removed myself from my social marketing. I was still working, right? I was still in it, but I knew the problem was me after that incident with my husband and my daughter. And I said, I need to work on myself. I had never healed from anything. I was a competitive gymnast early on and there were body image issues that were constantly brought up back in the, you know, 80s, right?

[A]

I didn't know you were a gymnast.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Competitive, yeah, nationally.

[A]

Damn.

[B]

And so big emphasis on body fat and composition. And I was a muscular, shorter statured, so I didn't, you know, I had to work at it a little bit harder. But I remember seeing pictures of myself at like my eighth grade birthday or, excuse me, eight year old birthday, and I have a T shirt over my bathing suit and I look at that little body and I'm like, it's so fit and great. But I didn't like it even then. So meditation. So for those three years I sat with myself and I learned to love myself. I learned to be patient with my choices. I learned to trust myself. I didn't trust any of my decisions in my twenties. My whole twenties were spent partying.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I was like, right.

[A]

Yeah. I was a fricking mess.

[B]

Broken, a mess. Addictive personality, partying. It took me nine years to get.

[A]

Through college, but, oh, you beat me. I think it took me six. My dad was always like, you should have a doctorate by now. Yeah. You did good. Congratulations.

[B]

Thank you. Yep. I worked really hard at it.

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

And I went to, you know, five different colleges. I just couldn't get it together. And. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

You know, the. The mental health aspect. Right. And. And I want to touch on the body image thing, like, sitting here, like, in this conversation, like, there's so many valuable points that you're making in educational things that the audience can pick up on. I'm sorry. I think. And again, this isn't a study I've done, but from everybody that I know deals with some type of body image issue, and I do as well. Like, I still have it. And no matter what I do, I don't see myself for what maybe you see or Kyle and Dancy. I see that old Sean. Right. And I'm constantly fighting myself to heal from that and to tell myself, like, you're not that dude anymore. You don't even look like that. And what people that may not deal with body image issues don't understand is every time you walk out of the freaking house, you're worried about what everybody thinks you look like. That is a lot to deal with.

[B]

Sure. Yeah. And especially in. In our. In our professions that we were in. Right. You have to look the part. We're entertaining doctors, we're out late at night, we're eating, we're drinking. And it truly is. And you always hear about it, but it truly is an inside job. So those three years I paused and I was like, you're gonna have to freaking like it or love it. You gotta get comfortable in your own skin, Stacy, and not worry about what anybody's saying. And the gossip and the noise and that voice that I learned that, you know, that's always happening, that narrative, I fed into it all those years, and it was negative. So naturally it was guiding my life in a negative way. And I just bought into it until Michael Singer came along and taught me there's another way. And so TM teaches you to focus on a mantra word so you can quiet the noise, quiet the brain, and then not be so reactive. And it's a daily reprieve. Right. It doesn't just you sit down and do it. I mean, one minute felt like an hour.

[A]

Oh, I bet. Like, I'm, like, listening to my transcendental meditation. Like, I cannot be left alone with my own thoughts for more than a minute when I'm trying to be quiet about it.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Now. So continue to walk me through the. Through TM and the audience through tm, because, you know, I think there's a lesson here for the audience, because some people meditate in different ways. I firmly believe in active meditation. For me, if I'm moving my body, I go so deep on myself. Like, really. Like, I have that people would say, face in the gym. I'm like, the nicest guy ever.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

If I see somebody and you come into contact, I'll smile. But if you see me across, I'm just locked in. And it almost looks like I'm pissed off, but I'm not. I'm really focused. Yes. I'm focused on me. How do I feel physically? How do I feel emotionally? Okay. If I feel down emotionally, what did I do the night before? Where is this coming from? What am I worrying about? That's outside of my control. So for me, you know, the act of meditation, if I'm not in the gym, then I'm not a person you want to be around.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So how. How did you get from one minute seemed like a year to being able to practice it consistently and then heal from some of these past traumas?

[B]

Same way I. Someone asked me how I trained for my half marathons. You know, I literally did it one foot in front of the other. And I live my life by this motto from picass. So it's a quote. I ingrained it in my daughter so much that she's got it tattooed on her body now, so she has to live up to it. And it's. Action's the foundational key to all success, because it truly, truly is. I've had ideas. I've. We got the driveway, you know where we're going up in parking, in the parking lot, and we're going to go in to see the sales guy. And we don't. We turn around. We are not gonna get anything accomplished if there's no action. So I was holding myself accountable at that moment with my daughter and my husband that this is a me problem, and I need to fix me, and I need to get comfortable with me, and I need to love me, because I haven't loved me or trusted me, and I just knew I Had to do the work. And I was at such a emotionally drained time that, no, I. The only person I could blame was myself. And things just started to align. Right. Like the message that day with Michael Singer. Like, I just am, you know, very spiritual, very religious. And the timing. God will just plop things in your life when he needs you to wake up. And that's what happened that day was because I could have been walking past it and not been alert to it, but I was. And I. And I laser focused and probably like you being in sales, when we do something, we go all in. So that's what that three years was for, was sitting and getting comfortable and taking those pieces of Stacy that caused so much destruction, self destruction in the past and saying, okay, I see you, I hear you, you're a part of me, but I'm gonna take over from here.

[A]

Very interesting. And I agree 100, 100 billion percent on this. That time frame of the three years. What. What years was that?

[B]

So the. I was still in sales. So that was prior to Covid. 15, 16, 17. Yes.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

15, 16, 17. Yeah, about 10 years ago.

[A]

That, that. Okay, good. You know how. How often are you still doing tm?

[B]

So it's easy to get off. And I've noticed little. I'll get off, like with eating, with anything. You've. You've realized that you're off track a little bit because you're short fused or you're edgy or you're not happy. And so my husband will look at me and say, I think you need to start meditating again.

[A]

It'll. Marco. So I tell you what's up.

[B]

Yes, I know he will. He's actually grounded me so much just from being so different than me. And he was also divinely plopped into my life at the time when I needed it. But I try to get up every morning and I give myself grace. Right. I think. I think we need to give ourselves grace. I love to walk five miles, but if I only have time to walk two, at least I walked two.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

So on those times where I was like, oh, I only walk two. No, Stacy, you walk two. And that's great. Go on with your day.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I try to incorporate at least five to ten minutes a morning.

[A]

You know, it's interesting because you're talking about a process and a standard. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of human beings just in general, will not go deep enough to understand that a standard is something that they do not break. You cannot break a standard. And for You. The standard is keeping up on this, because if you don't keep up on this, you're not taking action. Right, Right. You're not. And you're going to evolve throughout the years. I mean, that was 10 years ago. Now, you might have different triggers, you might have different traumas, you might have different worries and concerns. And so. But if you're not sitting quietly with yourself, then you cannot identify what those things are.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

One of the biggest things that you mentioned is accountability. Right. You really, without saying it, or maybe you did say that word, accountability, but when you dive into yourself and you know that it's 100% you. That's what you said. Like, this is 100% a me thing that I need to fix. You know, that's a very powerful statement, because I think a lot of times people get it twisted. Extreme accountability, I think, is very healthy. I'll fight it tooth and nail. Like, people can tell me that's not healthy. No, I think it really is, because you can either lie to yourself or you can tell the truth to yourself. And if there's things that we need to fix, then being honest with. With you is very important. But I will take it a step further. Right. You have to be very careful not to shame yourself in the process. So throughout the years, for me, I'm struggling with weight. I was always trying to get in better shape. I wanted to be shredded. You know, I want, you know, veins popping out of my arm. I want to look like a threat. Right. I'm still on that grind. I want to look like a threat. I have two daughters. Like, I want people to be scared of me. Like, I had a lot of work to go. People are looking at me like, I'm not scared of you.

[B]

You've got great veins.

[A]

Well, yeah, we're. It's starting. Right. But I think for me, in the past, it was always done out of shame.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

Like, I hate myself.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because for the audience, you know, watching and listening, I can openly say it wasn't until last December I started truly loving who I am and understanding what I need to do to get back to myself. And my wife always told me, which obviously, you know, Jackie, she was. She's like, you know, you have this reservoir that is empty. I'm like, what are you talking about? Just confidence. I was like, no, I'm confident. She goes, no, no, no, you are on the surface. But deep down, there's a reservoir that has a very small level of confidence. And over the last five years, I have filled that bucket there's no longer a void, but it was three steps forward, a hundred steps back. And it wasn't until last year that I took complete control with my friend Jeff Delaney. And he helped me get back on track. And he helped me understand what I put in my body matters, what I supplement with as far as hormones. Like all this stuff matters. And I was able to then take full accountability. With love. Yeah, with love. Like, I'm doing this because I love myself and now I feel much better about who I am.

[B]

Sure. And when you have those, that's, that's awesome. I mean, it's, it's so in line with how I felt too. And I think it's not an uncommon story, Right. We're all dealing with this. We all have the insecurities, we all have the pressures of the family and the job. But if you're, you just have to get to that point where you're loving yourself and you're giving yourself what you need. And I always lead right now with intention. I know if I'm skimming and I know when I'm not. And I know when my intentions are good and when they're not. And when they're not, I don't move forward with it. It has to have good intentions like this. It has to have safety first because we're dealing with people's lives and blood and nutrition. But I'll be honest with you, I have more conversations with people about their stress level when their IV is dripping than nutrition. I bet people are riddled with anxiety these days and I want them to get to a point where they can take control of that, understand where it's coming from, go right through the process and deal with it so they can live this beautiful, self secured, successful life. Because if you don't have that in order, you're not going to move forward and advance and evolve. And it saddens me when I see people in their 70s with, you know, no direction like that.

[A]

It's hard because I look at these two words that come up a lot nowadays, right? We have a mental health problem. Social media, constant comparison. Am I up to snuff with that person or am I doing enough to get ahead? But anxiety and depression, right? Obviously, you know, depression, you're worried consistently about problems that are rooted in the past. And if we are living in constant state of anxiety, we are worried about things that have not happened yet, right? We are, we are projecting or creating a narrative about something bad that might could happen, that that probably won't. And all the things that I Worry about, like, happening. I would say maybe less than 1% of them actually do.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Right. Like, but for me and I. And again, I always touch on this, and it's almost like I'm a broken record. But different people listen every single week. So I like to go over. It is I live in the past or I live in the future. So depression or anxiety, if I'm not taking care of myself, yes. If. If I'm out being active, very little anxiety. But when it hits, it hits so hard. Last week, I took my. My middle daughter to gymnastics. I texted my wife. I go, I am so anxious right now. I think I'm going to throw up, like, in the. Out of nowhere. And I think what's important is that these things are going to come up. Like, you're not going to be 100% cured of these things, but how we respond and how we move through those emotions intentionally mean everything and staying present.

[B]

So you've mentioned the past and the future, which is really where everyone lives, right. In the state in the past, like with depression, anxiety in the future. And through the meditation and the teachers that I listen to and the people that I get my information from and my strategies and protocols, basically, I really, when that's happening, I work on grounding techniques. So touch, feel, smell, you work on your senses and the grounding techniques, but also staying present. There's nothing. We're as young as we're ever going to be right now, Sean. Right now.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

This is. We're in a present environment. And yes, we have families and we have jobs and we have to cultivate and we have to think about. But ultimately, whenever I get anxious or whenever I'm in a situation like that, you know, uncomfortable. That's how you grow, first of all, which is why I try to seek them out. But staying present really helps me stay focused.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And being grounded, like feeling the ground under your feet, you know, and you see those techniques with the fingers, it just keeps people grounded. So those are some of the conversations I'll have with people about stress levels and, of course, meditation.

[A]

Well, I think what's cool is, like, when you're having conversations, when people are hooked up to your bags and they're getting the nutrients, there's a sense of calm. Right. Because at that point, they're taking care of my. Of their self. Right. And they're more open.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, I would imagine there's a lot of great conversations with some of your clients that you go to their house and. And you probably leave them much better. Than when you found them. And they attribute not just the treatment to them feeling better, but also talking.

[B]

To you, the conversations. I, it's, it's amazing that I'm able, and some of my clients who are struggling with addiction to, to be able to have some of those conversations. It kind of comes full circle for me as a struggling addict in my 20s. It's, it's. I almost get like a, an out of body experience talking with them because I'm able to kind of give them, you know, some advice or education or be able to relate to them, you know, and I just, I want to help them. But you're right. From a physical standpoint and a mental standpoint, it's really cool.

[A]

So you dealt with addiction in your 20s?

[B]

I did.

[A]

Alcohol, drugs. Drugs. Wow.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

You know, I, I asked that because I actually love that. I think it's a prerequisite. Right. Because if you did not have those experiences, the things that you're doing now with your business and identifying those types of those clients, when they open up to you, like, they're, look, they're looking for more than just fluids. They want to talk to somebody. And the fact that you've been through it, that, that, that you're able to help that person, I think it's super important to give back.

[B]

Absolutely. It's on purpose and mission focused. And I couldn't be happier with the decision I made to do this.

[A]

So walk us through it. Right. So, like, okay, building a business is not easy. I mean, like, I thought this was a business and it wasn't until 2025, really. Right. And then massive explosion of growth since then. Right. But. But building something, doesn't matter what it is. It always comes with worry, anxiety, and now it's all on your ass.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Like, you don't have that salary, you don't have that, those benefits. Walk the audience through the building of this company and the brand and acquiring clients and some of the, some of the things that you may have to counsel yourself through in order to do so well.

[B]

So by the time I decided to do this and go back to school, I was a regional sales manager at that time. So I had a team. And it was a nice transition for me from the grind on the street to then being able to mentor and teach a group, which I loved. And, you know, I was in a corporate environment. But it wasn't a really bad corporate environment. It was just the numbers. Right. They grow every year. They grow every, you know, quarter.

[A]

And your comp shrinks.

[B]

Yes. So the stressor is there. But I just. With the evolution of myself with the, the met on the meditation journey and the nutritional journey and, and loving myself. My, my job and the character didn't align with my purpose and where I was mentally. So Covid happened. You know, I had gotten IVs before. That was when they were just getting going. I have been always into nutrition before. My last 12 years, like I said, was in home health. And I always noticed a gap in care. Always there was a gap in care of the non emergent needs. Having to go to the ER that clogs up the er. You know, it triage is a little bit differently. You need to have room to get your, you know, high, you know, emergency clients in and people would just go on a bag of fluids. They'd run some tests for dehydration and then they'd leave. You know, they'd get a $2,000 bill and they were on their way home and it was a non emergent need. So I always noticed that gap again in the 65 and up population because that's what I was in and how they didn't drink water and dehydration. But my daughter in that meantime was hospitalized for. At the time it was a confusional migraine episode and a small seizure.

[A]

Shit.

[B]

Yeah. And one of the triggers was dehydration. So that really took me down the whole rabbit hole of what happens to the body when electrolytes are not in balance. So sick of the job, right. Grind. Every day felt like I was on a hamster wheel. Just not evolving.

[A]

Right.

[B]

My, just internally I knew I was meant for something different. The thing happened with the, happened with my daughter. And I said, I'm going to nursing school. I want to know what's happening in the body. I've put it off for 10 years. Let's do it. I'm not happy in my career. And I, I went, I jumped off with both feet. Like from a corporate, great corporate job making great money. And I went to nursing school. I was in this classroom with 20 year olds, right. I'm in my 40s. It was humbling.

[A]

Like I don't belong.

[B]

It was humbling, but I wanted to feel it. I wanted to go through it. I wanted to, to, to scrub down and go into these accounts that I'd been in, clicking around in high heels and makeup and hair done and then go in and scrubs and just. It was, it was such a great experience. And I talked with attorneys and I developed a business plan and said I can do this. I took I didn't take a dime from anyone. There's no investors. So I took my savings from health care and I said, I can do this. This is good. This is what I want to do.

[A]

Was it scary?

[B]

So, so scary. And my first year out, I had other nurses that contract with me out doing the IVs because, you know, I was getting my degrees and getting IV certifications and my first year out, you know, I would practice on all my friends and anyone who wasn't going to sue me. And I could do like six pokes on, right. And I loved it. It was great. But better yet, just being able to be responsible for the outcomes because it was mine. I loved nutrition, I loved hydration. I had a personal story. I was stuck in my job. This was a way for me to get out of that and build it. And I remember like a year and a half in before we kind of knew patterns in, you know, history as far as this, this industry. One of my nurses looked at me in the summer and, which was a slower time for us, and she goes, man, I hope it was all worth it. And I looked at her and there was a fleeting moment, you know, those moments you get, and I looked at her, I go, this is the exact moment where people give up and I'm not willing to do that.

[A]

Yeah. So, you know, you mentioned something that I thought was very interesting when you were sitting there wanting to go back to nursing school. Right. And so you can understand all these things and create something. You know, at that point, when you're in a room with 20 year olds and you're thinking, well, wow, do I belong here? Here I am, you know, a grown ass adult. But, you know, I'm committed to this. You know, there's a certain level of becoming a lifelong learner that I think that people really need to embrace a lot more, is understanding that we're never done learning. And that's what you did. And you created something pretty special out that.

[B]

Yes. In fact, I'm going back next year to advance the nursing degree. So I just feel that I don't want to stop learning, I don't want to stop growing, I don't want to stop evolving. I want to, you know, perfect this business and if it leads into other things, fantastic. But I feel like I wasted and no regrets, but I feel like I wasted a lot of time when I was younger, that I'm just trying to embrace every moment I can now by doing something positive for me, for my family, for my body, for my mind. I mean, I was A pack a day smoker.

[A]

Were you really?

[B]

Yes, yes.

[A]

That shit ain't good, huh?

[B]

No, it's terrible. So I really try to be really good to my body now because I did so much damage to it early on. But yeah, I'm going back to the classroom.

[A]

See, like lifelong learner. You know, it's funny because I hear this a lot, right? I hear I want to do this, but I can't because I'm too old or because I have children, because I have responsibilities. And I want to encourage the audience that if they're feeling a pull in a certain direction, that they want to start something or create something that they always can. And they may not be able to go all in right away and leave what they're doing, but do what you don't want to do, you know, so that one day you can do what you want to do. What kind of advice would you give the audience that is sitting there telling themselves a story like, I just can't do this. I'm too old or it's too late. I don't have much time.

[B]

Being down this path of mental health and physical health has for me given me the. And just loving myself, right? Has given me the confidence that I need to advance. And I feel 50s are young. I feel younger and better right now than I did in my 30s. You know, each decade has such an important message, an important time in our life. And the 40s for me was just a great year or decade to grow in self, love and find out what I really want. And I think the 50s are just go get it.

[A]

That's awesome.

[B]

Don't stop. Why would I want to age appropriately? But I mean, our parents age terribly. They just didn't have the resources and the information and knowledge that we have these days. So as long as my brain is working and I'm clear, I want to continue to work it. Because I think sedentary lifestyle is the new cancer. Mentally and physically, we have to move, but we also have to use our brains. So listen, I just dropped my daughter off at college this year. We're empty nesters have the time to do it. So this is what I'm going to do.

[A]

Empty nester. How's that going?

[B]

It's good.

[A]

You're going to live with a boy now.

[B]

Yeah, it took some transitioning time. Her and I are very, very close. And it did. It took a lot transitioning. And I found myself coloring and doing puzzles, like, because I wasn't growing.

[A]

That's some old lady shit, right? Yeah. You know, diving into it.

[B]

But I. It took me a few months, and now I'm. I'm good. And there's a whole different level of worry that you have when your kids leave the home, right. Like, did they listen to, you know, all the safety tips that we gave them and are they okay and safe? And so. But I have the time, and I'm where I'm enjoying the freedom and. And yeah, I just want to keep evolving and. And moving forward.

[A]

It's really freaking awesome, dude. That's really awesome. Because I just truly believe that what you said about as we age, right. Like, when I look at my 40s, I think they're better than my 30s, and specifically the latter half of my 40s. Like, when I was 42, I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. It's this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, I had the purpose and I had the passion, even though I was really bad at it for a very long time. Right. I look back at some of the episodes and I thought, wow, dude, you're it, man. I'm like, holy hell. No wonder. Well, no wonder, like you were at where you were at, because you just weren't ready. But I just. I stayed delusionally optimistic about my abilities to have conversations. And I remember when I first started, I would literally be talking to somebody and they would go off on a, you know, two to five minute monologue, and I'm like, oh, shit, gotta reel this in. What, what, what are we talking about? Like, I had to get so good at it, right? Because in conversations, like, there's conversations that. That flow very nicely like this, but then there's conversations that I have to, like, reach in and pull and carry the whole time. And it took a lot of work. It took a lot of skill. And my whole point of this is the skill that I had to refine. Obviously, I think that I was born, you know, a good conversationalist. And then learning how to continue to enhance that and. And make that better and turn the dial up is what I really had to get good at. But the. The reason I'm saying this right now is, is that if you're in your 40s or in your 50s and you're still searching for something, it's not too late. You can still pivot. You can still have the next great big idea. In worst case, at least you're doing something that you love.

[B]

Absolutely. And I think when people are keep. They're pushing too hard or they're pulling too hard in a direction that's not meant for them, they're going to be met with resistance and challenge, you know, not, like, overcoming obstacles, obviously. Um, and if it's a true passion of theirs, they'll continue forward. But I, I feel like when it, if it's meant to be, like, in, in my situation, it just flowed naturally. Didn't mean that it wasn't hard. When I started, it was very hard. And I blew through, you know, quite a bit of money getting it going.

[A]

Right. I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing because I, I, I'm same. I get it.

[B]

Yeah. But it meant something to me, and I had the support of my family. And, yeah, it was scary as hell. Um, but I was determined to make it work. And, you know, I'll continue to advance and do what I'm doing. That makes me happy now. And, and I've got a great clientele base, and if in five years, it moves on to something else, and it moves on to something else. But I'll go with the flow and be flexible and pivot when I need to.

[A]

That's. That's great. What was the hardest thing that you went through when you were building this? Like, the, the one thing that you look back and you're like, I don't know how I got through that.

[B]

You know, in the sales world, it was, it was like, go constantly and, and go fast and go and go hard. And this was the first time in my life that it. I had to slow down and get outcomes.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I'm out. Very outcome driven, but I was responsible for the outcome, so it was great.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So the service component of it. So the har. One of the hardest things for me, aside from the financial component of it, which is.

[A]

Is that's another animal.

[B]

Oh, yeah. Because it's scary. The hardest part was to slow that sales cycle down and, you know, slowly is the quickest way to get to where you want to go. And I heard that one time, and I'm like, no, that's B.S. no, it's fast, but it really isn't. I always. I went fast in my 20s, I went fast in my 30s, and look where it got me. So just learning how to slow down, become very mindful of my actions and then get the outcomes and then just go hit the next one and the next one. So referrals, word of mouth, you know, And I'm still growing.

[A]

No, absolutely. Right. If we're not growing, we're dying.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Like, you. You really need to be growing all the time. One of the things that I started focusing on and, you know My partner in the business, Pat, always, he, he said this thing one time and, and it stuck with me. It was focus on making this the best show we can.

[B]

That's it.

[A]

Like, it's so basic, but really what it means for me and for people listening is focus on the thing that matters the most. All the other things will come. And I did that. And now all the other things are coming now again. You know, we still have issues. I mean, this is a company. It's, it's always hard. It's never a lot. It's. There's lighter days. Right. That usually means I'm just not recording.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But there's still things going on in my mind. But thankfully I have an amazing team now that is insulated around me, like Dan, to go do things that I could only trust somebody like him to do, like transparently, like I have to have him in that position because he knows me like the back of his hand. He helped build me.

[B]

I think it's so cool.

[A]

Isn't it cool?

[B]

It's awesome. Yeah, I tell him that all the time.

[A]

Bastard.

[B]

I love it. It just, it's, it's, it just. People are, are in your life for a reason. Whether to teach you something, to learn to grow, to, you know, overcome hatred or, you know, I remember I had, you know, some difficulties with a couple adults, you know, in the last couple decades and I just couldn't shake. And I'm like, I have to get rid of this. And when I was going through all of my, my meditation journey, I was like, I need to start praying for them. And just to even mention their name in a prayer was like, yeah, yeah, the, the 19 year old kid that pulled out in front of my dad and ended up in an accident that was fatal in a motorcycle accident.

[A]

Oh, Jesus.

[B]

In two seconds he was ripped from my life. I had to pray for that 19 year old kid. It took me a lot of energy and effort and, and compassion.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

To know that we all make mistakes. But I had to pray for him because it was healing me. I always knew I had to heal myself from it.

[A]

Forgiveness is always for you, Always. Right. It's never for somebody else. And I think that's something that people really need to dive into is we don't forgive for them. We forgive so we can release that.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Right. And it was super important for me to have a team that I could trust that I could bring along to keep me in check. Right. And, and again, going back to that statement, focus on making the show the best it possibly can. Be in every single time. We record every episode. Get with Kyle. I get with production. Get with Dan. How was it? What do I need to do better? Yep. You know, and there's. There's times where, like, hey, there's nothing I could have done. But I think there's a healthy aspect of always searching for ways to get better, and I think that's being a true professional.

[B]

Well, just taking accountability for your actions and intentions throughout the day. Yeah, we're not perfect. We. But we have to give ourselves grace, too. We're not very good at that at times. We're very hard on ourselves.

[A]

Why do you think that is?

[B]

You know, I think it's from just, you know, for me, I made a lot of bad decisions, and so I feel like I have to make up for that or I feel like I have to do it perfectly because I didn't do it perfectly for so long. And so we're hard on ourselves because I think we know our capability and we know our potential and we don't live it out. Action's the foundational key to all success.

[A]

Potential is a funny word, right? It's like you either myself or you have all this potential or whomever. Right. But if we don't take the action and we don't tap into that potential, then it's wasted. And I. And I truly feel like the potential that we were giving, the gifts that we were given from God, we have to use them. Because if you don't, it's the ultimate act of disrespect.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Like, for me, it's like I can just. I can just imagine, like, when I give my kids a gift and they don't use it or they break it or they don't value really upsets me. Think about what the big guy feels if he gave you a gift. Like, if I wasn't using my gift of conversation, like, I'm wasting what I'm put here for. Yep.

[B]

There is a bigger purpose to everything and everyone. And when you find that, you just. You'll do it. You know, people are like, would you do this if you won the lottery? And I say yes, because I know this is what I'm meant to do. This is my passion and purpose.

[A]

Ye.

[B]

And I'm meant to make people feel better than when I found them and to have some of those hard conversations along the way about nutrition and lifestyle and, you know, people are eating so much negative food and wondering why they feel like shit. And most people don't want to do the work, though.

[A]

That's What I'm finding, yeah, they, they're eating the, the food that was made in a laboratory by men's man made food. Yeah. And going to actual Whole Foods and eating real food is simple. It's not easy. Right. And people go, well, I don't have time for that. Yeah, you really do. Like, if you have to go to Chick Fil A, then you can get the salad with the grilled chicken. You know, you can get the grilled chicken sandwich. You can get the grilled chicken, the grilled chicken nuggets. But people, they say they go to their default, right? If I go here, I'm gonna get this. And it's always like the fried chicken or whatever. My buddy Matthew Haddon told me this one time, you need to have contingency plans if you're out and about and you go to if this, then that. If I'm at Chick Fil A, then I'm gonna have this. So I created systems in my life, Right. Whether it's nutrition or within the frameworks of my show. And I'm sure you have it with your business that if this happens, this is my default. If my kids say, I want Chick Fil A, then I know, okay, great. I don't have stress now because I go, okay, I know what they're going to get. I'm going to get this grilled chicken sandwich, grilled chicken salad. I'm going to ask them to add extra chicken on it. So now I'm hitting my protein and now I'm getting my leafy, my vegetables and some tomatoes and some fruits in there. But I set those, I set those guardrails for myself. And I think that ultimately helps me. It helps me in my business. It helps me in everything.

[B]

Sure. Yeah.

[A]

You know, I don't know. It's not rocket science, Right.

[B]

It's so basic and, and we have to just check in with ourselves every once in a while. Like, how are you feeling? Well, if something's off, then, you know, let's take a deeper dive. You know, maybe, you know, if I, if we did a drip on someone and it made them too anxious, then let's, let's, let's rework the. You know, we always. Lab work is, is really what we go to, to see where people are, you know, deficient or not. So it's, it's customized. Not always, but a lot of times if we want to take deep dives or, you know, maybe we did it too late and it kept them up and disturbed their sleep, you know, so check in with your Body check in with your mind. What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Let's switch it up.

[A]

I'm a big fan.

[B]

We forget to do that.

[A]

It struck a thought, and I know we're coming down to the end here, but, you know, I. There's times, right, where before the last year, if I was feeling tired, I was feeling a certain way. I was ingrained in this hustle culture where no matter what, just keep going, Right? Burn yourself out. There was a couple weeks ago where I had five episodes scheduled in a week. It's a lot. It's only five hours of work. But the lift is so heavy because you're different guests, different energies, different conversation. You know, it's. It's. It's a big lift. And I didn't feel good on that Friday, and so I rescheduled that show because I know now, like, you're about to hit a tipping point, Sean, if you do this episode, like, you are going to take so much from yourself. Because it was something that I started thinking, like, I don't even know where to go with this right now. Like, I don't even know. Like, I know what I'm supposed to be talking about, but I can't set the framework in my mind because I'm so overwhelmed. I'm like, okay, well, let's move this. And I think understanding yourself, that's also part of determination. See, determination isn't the sexy thing where you're constantly grinding. It's gritty. It's a thousand miles an hour, you know, 24, 7, 365. It's also knowing when to lay off. It's also when to know, like you said earlier, one foot in front of the other, and to continue to do the things when you don't want to do them emotionally at that time. That's why I started this platform, because I wanted to bring those stories to people. What is your definition of determination?

[B]

Determination, for me, is never giving up on something that's so important and so passionate and. And it's. It's. It's looking at or feeling the obstacles and challenges ahead of you and going and moving forward anyway to get past it and through it, just to. To never give up and to continue doing things that make you happy and that you're on purpose with. And like that. That moment with that nurse that I have at a year and a half, and, you know, her saying that it. It's. I hope it's worth it. Nobody's going to take your business as serious as you.

[A]

No.

[B]

And so that determination and drive is in you, and only you know what that is, and you know how to feed that and you know whether you're skimming or not.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I think I have to check in with myself every once in a while and just make sure that I'm in check.

[A]

I think it's smart. I mean, there's times where I'll sit there and I'll go, all right, dude, what are you actually doing? If I'm not recording that day, I say to myself, like, what are you actually doing today? And sometimes be like, nah, I'm just gonna be. I think those are important days, too.

[B]

Balance. Yeah, balance is key. Mentally, physically, give yourself some grace. Just checking in with your body, checking in with your mind, and just doing the best job that you can.

[A]

I love it. This has been amazing.

[B]

Awesome.

[A]

Where can the audience find you?

[B]

So I am on Instagram @HyDragGirl with a period after the R& website IV hydratellc.com for all the drip information.

[A]

I love it. So audience. And we're going to put that website in the show notes. So you people here locally go ahead and click on that, get some treatment from Stacy and really skim her website. There's so many different modalities that you have from, you know, glutathione drips, you know, to detox the liver to the Myers cocktail for, you know, immunity support. But you also do a lot of different things that I think not a lot of these concierge services actually do.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You know, so, you know, when you go check her out, guys, look at everything that they do and give her a. Give her a chance here if you're local, because I tell you what, like, that was a good. That was a good one. A nice little coolness the whole time through, and I feel great.

[B]

Good.

[A]

I appreciate you.

[B]

I appreciate it.

[A]

I appreciate it. So good to see you, too. This has been an amazing and impactful conversation, and. And the thing that I love most about it, we went deep. We went really deep. The audience got to learn a little bit about you of what you went through, and you were very successful in sales. But money isn't everything.

[B]

No.

[A]

You know, that's a very stressful business, and a lot of times we have to pivot and work for ourselves because I tell everybody I just became unemployable. I was like, I just didn't give a anymore. Like, I'm like, I'm not. You're not going to call me and ask me where I'm at. And that was more in my medical days, it's like I'm performing. I just, like, I. No, you're not going to call me and, and, and ask me where I'm at. That's what I noticed. Like, there needs to be a pivot in my life. So I think you gave a peek behind the curtain in your, in your own journey for the audience to kind of decode and, and marinate on what they're dealing with right now and, and be able to move forward in their passions and their dreams. So thank you for that.

[B]

Thank you, Sean.

[A]

Absolutely. Now, for you guys, for the audience, just like every single time I need you to share this episode with somebody you know, love and trust, let me know what you loved about it. And if you're in the area, go check her out, click the link in the show notes and schedule your concierge service at your home, at your office, wherever the hell you're at, in your podcast studio. And until next time, guys, stay determined.