Sober Vibes Podcast

12 Years Sober

Courtney Andersen Season 5 Episode 188

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Episode 188: 12 Years Sober

In episode 188 of the Sober Vibes podcast, Courtney Andersen discusses the lessons she learned from 12 years sober. She shares these lessons that she has learned along the way of recovering from Alcohol Use Disorder. Courtney also explains how these lessons can help you in early sobriety. 

It's also the one-year anniversary of her book Sober Vibes: A Guide to Thriving in Your First Three Months Without Alcohol. If you are listening to this episode in real-time, check out the giveaway on Instagram for the next three days.
 
What you will learn in this episode:

  • 12 lessons learned in 12 years of Sobriety 
  • Longterm Soberity 
  • Perspective of recovery


Books Mentioned:
Sober Vibes A Guide to Thriving In Your First Three Months w/o Alcohol
In the Flo

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Speaker 1:

Hey, welcome to the Sober Vibes podcast. I'm your host, courtney Anderson. You are listening to episode 188. Holy balls, people. 188 episodes and it is a solo episode today because I want to share 12 lessons I have learned in 12 years of sobriety. Now my sober date is August 18th of 2012. You are getting this a couple days early. I don't have any plans of drinking from today to Sunday, so we're good. Also, today is the one-year anniversary of my book so Revives a Guide to Thriving in your First Three Months Without Alcohol. If you have not gotten it yet, check out the links in the show notes below and order a copy. It really helps.

Speaker 1:

Also, too, people have asked me they're like I wish I would have had this in the time frame of that time frame, and they're like eight, nine, 10 months, even a year or two after. And I have said you can still read this book, as I've had a lot of people read it who are past that time frame and it's been a nice refresher for them read it who are past that timeframe and it's been a nice refresher for them, and they've also looked at some things differently or saw it from a different point of view that they never thought of and that's what I really love to hear. I have loved all of your responses to the book and messages and just being able to meet new people and engage with new people because of the book. So I appreciate the year of support and it's just what I love about this book, right, what I've loved about this book is that this book is going to consistently help people because it's not like somebody's like oh my God, I can't wait for this book to come out. It's a resource there for somebody whenever they decide to start their alcohol-free journey, their sober journey, or if they've started a couple times and need to reread this book during that timeframe. I'm so glad that that resource is there.

Speaker 1:

That book was like a second birthing, a second child, minus the physical pain. So there was some emotional pain writing that book. I definitely was out of my goddamn mind when I wrote it. When I got that book deal, colin was about seven months. The Dictator you guys know him by the Dictator the Dictator was about seven months old and it was quite a process, quite a process. That's often when there's good work is when people are out of their ever loving mind. Ask all the creatives. So again, thank you for supporting me, and if you have not gotten your copy again, the link is in the show notes or you can visit my website, courtneyrecoveredcom. If you are listening to this in real time, I will be doing an Instagram giveaway for a couple people today, on the 15th, and the giveaway will end on the 17th. Okay, so August 15th, 16th, 17th you can enter in a chance to win over on my Instagram page and that is at Sober Vibes.

Speaker 1:

All right, 12 years of sobriety. I want to start off by saying this If you are newer into this process, if you've been going back and forth in your journey and the thought of being 12 years alcohol-free makes you sweat, I get it, because I will remember this shit. When I first started off, like it was yesterday, and there's a practice that I do and I will be doing it on Sunday and it will really be sitting in silence in a meditative state of remembering that morning, waking up and going through that process those first couple days. So in that first week I tried AA and that first meeting I went to, I left there crying because I was like I'm not, like I was talking about being like 10 years sober. I'm like I'm never going to fucking get there Never, right, that's what you think, you don't.

Speaker 1:

In those beginning months, that first year, there's a lot of self-doubt, and that's normal. It is very, very rare for somebody to quit drinking alcohol and they're like fuck, yes, I got this. Fuck yeah, the confidence comes in time. The confidence comes in your changed behavior. Their changed behavior then boosts some self-esteem and because then you begin to be like okay, I'm keeping promises to myself, I am taking my words seriously. But it's very hard in the beginning to take yourself seriously, especially if you have said you were going to quit and then the next day you're drinking and you're in that cycle. Right. So I get it if this episode is going to make you sweat a lot, but I just want you to really take in this episode, take what you want from it and leave the rest right. Your journey is going to be your journey, but these are really lessons I've learned in the past 12 years and maybe you can take a lesson to learn out of it to apply it to your own.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so number one acceptance, man Acceptance. This is always going to be the hardest for people, but accepting that I needed help was the most important lesson of all, and even just the acceptance of not only just like help, in a sense right that of the acceptance of like I am a person who cannot drink alcohol because of proven, proven times of when I have drank, that I it led to this, it led to a feeling of this yes, it led to incidences of A, b, c and D, with me A hospital stays right, waking up in dude's beds where I'm like I don't know your name, just waking up in that shame, guilt, spiral, anxiety turned into panic attacks and living in that state for so many times. And it was the acceptance of like I cannot do this anymore and I am a person who cannot drink alcohol and that is okay. And I had to say that a lot to myself through those first couple of years. Just like dude, it's cool if you drank, but for me it's not, it's just not.

Speaker 1:

Number two patience. You got to be patient with yourself. I had to learn to trust the fucking process and be patient with myself. Trust the process. If you've been a longtime listener, you know that I have I say it on repeat like trust the process and you have to trust that, that the uncomfortableness that you're gonna go through is going to lead you to a stronger version of yourself and, through that uncomfortableness, where you can live in this world without drinking and have a good time and be your own authentic self.

Speaker 1:

Number three forgiveness. It's again, this is all a process, so this is not something that within that fucking first 30 days I was like yep, got all of this. This is 12 years 12 fucking years. Okay that I had to learn this through each different year. So the forgiveness forgiveness takes some time forgiving others and then, most importantly, forgiving myself. Really truly opened myself up for my own healing experience right and being authentic in that healing experience of what was best for me. So it takes some time, but you are going to be able to forgive yourself for 99% of it.

Speaker 1:

I believe it was this year I had stated for a long time I would still wince when I would think about the times that I drove drunk, but really this year I'm like okay, this year I'll be going on 12 years. I'm not living in that state anymore. So I have to forgive myself because I haven't in 12 years and I have to let that go. I can't keep holding on to that myself because I haven't in 12 years and I have to let that go. I can't keep holding on to that story. I know everybody's story is different, but for me it was important to completely let go of that, to more free myself in moving forward and letting that go, because you can't keep beating yourself up for something that happened a long time ago when you're not living in that space, as in the drinking space. Yeah, of course, if you were still drinking, then, fuck yeah, you're going to feel a lot of shame because you're probably still doing that. But when you're out of it and you've done a lot of work on yourself, why keep going there? Why it's not productive, it's not something that's it's not going to serve you and it's just going to kind of keep holding you back there. From my opinion. Okay, everybody's different, but this is just my perspective.

Speaker 1:

Number four as always, people gratitude. I discovered in sobriety, most importantly in sobriety, that gratitude is really the foundation of changing your mindset and your perspective and understanding what's important. I'm a big fan of writing five things down each day that I'm grateful for. I don't go into paragraphs, that's not me. I need simplicity. I like simplicity, I don't like to overwhelm myself. So this morning it's like shit. What am I grateful for coffee, being able to sleep in as my husband handles the dictator on mornings, that I get to sleep in, right. My husband and I switch off on the weekends, right. So being able to read, not being interrupted, right. I just did our bills for the month, paying my bills on time. I'm really grateful for that. And another day sober, like, keep it simple. Keep it simple. Gratitude, honestly, will is a life changer, but you got to do it consistently. And those first, what? First year or two? I just really especially that first year. I woke up every morning and just said I'm grateful for another day sober, kept it as simple as that.

Speaker 1:

Number five resilience. Okay, challenges in life are going to be there. You're going to face challenges in your life, but what I've learned in those challenges is that I'm a strong ass bitch and I say that with confidence because I've gone through a lot of challenges in these last 12 years and I've been able to do it without alcohol and that there's a lot of situations that so many of us don't give ourselves enough credit for on how goddamn strong we are. So that is something that I have noticed and within myself is that I am, I'm strong, I am strong. We've all been there. You say you've never drinking again. And then you drink.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

Enjoy Number six honesty. Being honest with myself and others has brought a real fucking freedom, okay, and I ever thought, when I decided to stop drinking alcohol and, like, get into the groove of it, right, I realized that I was going to have to start doing something and being something. Being that person, I was going to have to be a complete 180 than who I was in my act of addiction, right. So for me, that was honesty, because it's a fibber. I was a fibber. I also, too, had to lie a lot on how much I drank, on how I wasn't hungover, telling people like, oh yeah, I had two drinks last night. It was like a constant state of why. So I needed to be very honest in my sobriety journey.

Speaker 1:

No, that doesn't mean, though, when I say being honest, it doesn't mean that you need to give your story to everybody that you meet, because I feel like that's something where people are like, well, she said, be honest. I feel like that's something where people are like, well, she said, be honest. Like I hear all these people say, be honest. Yes, you need to be honest within yourself and to the people around you, and there is and maybe some stuff that happened in the past. Like that I had to come clean about Like again, I was in a relationship at that time. That man is now my husband. So, like even with some past stuff that had gotten brought up, I had to be honest about that that I lied about right. So it's like I just came clean, man, and whether you like the honesty or not, that's not my problem, because I am a firm believer of setting your own soul free and living in that, compared to just making other people happy.

Speaker 1:

Now, going to that, though, the people pleasing I've had to work on, because that people pleasing is often something embedded into us, especially, too, if you were the good girl in your family growing up, because you don't want to ruffle feathers, because you either had a sibling or two who were like the fucked up ones and you just wanted to please everybody, right, and then that was actually conditioned into you to just be like the easy child. So it took me years, years of the people pleasing and, honestly, up until the dictator was born, I kind of just looked at it like then too, of just like, well, I'm doing what's best for myself and my family compared to keep fucking pleasing some other people in my family, okay. So the people pleasing took a while and you might be in that and this goes in with honesty. So just know, if you are a people-pleaser, that takes longer to really unpack than just quitting drinking. There's onions to this, okay.

Speaker 1:

Number seven community. One community I knew within time and that is where, within that first couple years, I had a close girlfriend of mine at the time where her and I would meet up for breakfast and that was very healing. But after about two years of really like kind of white knuckling it, I needed some more help to understand where I was at right. I went back to therapy. I then participated too for a summer with AA and then really kind of started forming more of friendships with people who were sober and understanding to my friend group of, who really were the ones for me to, for them to stick around. And then again during that time, that's when I started building Sober Vibes and it's something that I needed at that time too.

Speaker 1:

I mean anything that I have created for the book with my one-on-one coaching, how that's structured in the sobriety circle, how Sober Vibes is all structured. That is all something that I needed and I at this point, if there is something that you see that is missing and that you need create it. I have a lot of people who come to me and they're like, oh, you should talk more about opiates and drug addiction and that, and it's like you can create it. Feel free, that wasn't my story. That's like I can't fucking please the dark web. I cannot please everybody on there. But so if there is something, and it doesn't even have to do with sobriety or addiction recovery, if there is something that you see a lack of that, you need create it for yourself. I empower you to do that because that's when you're going to attract the people that you want around you, and that is what I feel.

Speaker 1:

That has happened with Sober Vibes. I've met so many great people because of it that I'm very close to today because of it, or just wanted to have known them at all, and I just I really enjoy connecting with people who fucking get it and who who get it and who just you have that connection when you meet a person who's who's battled with addiction and have gone through similar things that you have gone. There is a connection there of a lifetime and an understanding of somebody, because you see yourself in it. It's like I see you, you see me right, there's that bond. So community, community, community will help because you will surround yourself by people who get it. And that is the number one thing. You can't sit there and get pissed off at your husband because he's not understanding your fucking need for a drink, or a friend who doesn't get it. If they don't get it, they don't get it, and you can't force that upon somebody. So that is why it's best for you to seek outside of your yourself and your circle to people who do get it.

Speaker 1:

Number eight self-care right. Taking care of myself, especially with the mind, body, soul. It's really now become a non-negotiable for me. I wasn't doing it when my son was born, I was not doing it, and I have been doing it the last year, like finally, like getting after my big burnout in the fall time, getting myself back and getting myself I shouldn't say getting myself back learning who I am now, learning who I am in this new chapter of motherhood right, like after two years, you really step outside of that fight or flight mode with having a kid and everybody's situation's different. This is just what I can experience for myself and what I've picked up on when talking to other women who have had children. It's survival mode. It's survival mode. The hormones, all of that shifting, it's a lot.

Speaker 1:

After, let's say, between 18 months to two years, I finally felt like I could breathe again. And then after two, when he turned two, I was like okay, and in this period of time I wrote that book and then had to start promoting the book and my son's birthday is in September, the timeline all and then promoting that book. When I finally got into the burnout, I got to get taken care of myself. So I've been doing that for the last since January, I would say and it's really now become a non-negotiable. I even joined a gym for the winter time so I can just go walk on the treadmill. These walks are like therapy to me. Now it's not even. It's not even.

Speaker 1:

I don't even give a fuck about the step count. I truly don't. I don't give a fuck about the step count. It's about just getting out there and it's more now for, like my mind right, it's all for my mental state of being and even now, eating foods that are better for me and prioritizing protein. Especially women who are over the age of 40, you've got to start prioritizing protein, that we're going into perimenopause and menopause the great change of life.

Speaker 1:

So I don't want to enter that like I was in the past couple years, and in a couple more months I will give you a whole episode about again what I have been doing, because I've been on a weight loss journey and when I hit my mark I will do an episode about it and share it. But I just don't, because I was in an MLM and did this before. This'm not, this has nothing to do with an MLM, but I'm just saying of sharing a story and doing that for years. It would often fuck with my head because I had body dysmorphia and so when I see pictures of myself during those times when I was tiny like little, I thought I was fucking fat. So I just am doing this for me now and when I hit my mark, then I will share all about it, because I know so many women who do go through this journey.

Speaker 1:

But the body dysmorphia thing is real and that's something that I have been working on and especially this time of losing a lot of weight, I have to love my body through the process of the saw, and that is really what I've been working on, instead of being like, oh, until I get there, right, it's like no, I need to love myself and all of this. So when I get there, I have the confidence and I'm not looking at myself being like, oh God, you can lose like five more pounds, right? Like no, not the case, okay, I'm sorry, I just lost my notes. Oh, self-care it's huge. And even, too, in the last couple of years, I have really going into self-care, embraced the naps. I'm not as lethargic as I once was in these last couple of years, but even now when I'm like, all right, I just need like 30 minutes to shut my eyes and it rejuvenates me. I'm not even kidding. So try it. Embrace the naps and just know that if your body is like girl, you need to rest, sit your ass down, lay down and fucking disassociate for a minute. Number nine purpose fucking disassociate for a minute. Number nine purpose Sobriety gave me a new purpose to live more authentic and help others find their way.

Speaker 1:

The purpose, too and it's not all of my purpose. I have a lot of purpose other than just this, but honestly, it was that year six for me of when I decided to start coaching and it really has of Sober Vibes has given me that purpose of to help others and provide free and paid content. I believe I have a nice healthy mixture of both and Sober Vibes has really helped me with my sense of purpose. But I mean now my number one purpose, of course, is my little, my little dictator, and how I have fully stepped into the momhood of that and understanding in these last couple years of. Even to me, getting sober 12 years ago was a greater purpose for my future kid to have a very present, loving mother.

Speaker 1:

Now I can't say I'm not going to fuck him up, but I know that I stopped a generational pattern with not drinking. I stopped that and also that I am in a loving marriage. It's not perfect. No, marriage is perfect. I am in a loving marriage and that was another thing that stopped fucking patterns. My son will understand what it's like to have two parents who respect each other. Now I say this because this is how I think. I don't know if Matt and I will last forever. This isn't anything of like. Oh, is she telling us some tea? I'm a realistic person.

Speaker 1:

Marriage is hard, but I know that if something ever were to happen to Matt and I and we went our separate ways, that him and I would be in a loving co-parenting relationship. Because I had two parents who are still to this day, at 40 fucking one years old. It's like it's. They don't even talk and it's a shame. It's. It's a fucking shame for people who don't, who can't have parents, who don't co-parent, and there was very toxicity towards the parents after they got divorced. Like it breaks my heart because I wish I would have had that. Now the modern family nowadays is not like what the modern family would have been like in the fucking nineties and eighties and all of that. Like that's true.

Speaker 1:

But I did have this conversation with my mother a couple weeks ago. I was like I really wish that. It's a shame that that didn't happen with you and dad, because things could have been a lot different, right. So I just want to say that, because I do look at relationships realistically, I am not with the forever and ever. I don't know Again, you don't know what can happen in a year. You don't, you don't Do I want to be with Matt forever, absolutely, of course I do, but I'm just very. If it wasn't for my sobriety, I wouldn't have seen the purpose of really truly what a healthy upbringing for my future kid was, and that was one of the reasons, too, of quitting drinking. And same thing with why he, my husband, slash Paul. I like to call him Paul, just to fuck with him from time to time. Paul knew that we knew this together, that the drinking would not exist with children and us.

Speaker 1:

Okay, number 10. I feel like number nine I just went off a little left. But whatever, number 10, mindfulness, staying present, has been key to maintaining my peace and sobriety. Mindfulness, too, it's just an added awareness, and it's just an added awareness especially for me to just continue to be better. Right, I'm not looking to be better every second of the day, but I definitely. It's helped me, especially in the beginning, helped me not put myself in like and keep putting myself in shitty situations with people and places and to stay out of that. But mindfulness is huge and meditation will help you more with mindfulness Because it shows you too of what state of being your psyche is in and your body is in. When people ask me like, hey, I'm going to a wedding or I have an event coming up, what are some tips? And I've been saying a lot now to people like well, you need to judge how you feel the day of. So just how you feel the day of, and decide then if it's best for you to go.

Speaker 1:

Because, again, ladies, we have a second cycle that men don't deal with, and this is fucking factual. And this is why I do believe that it's hard for men and women when it comes into the recovery process and to recover completely different, because you do have to deal with the second cycle, as in your period, and there's different times of the month where it's like before my period, my anxiety is induced. And when I started to realize that then it was like all right, I'm not fucking making plans with anybody, I'm going to hunker down and just kind of stay to myself and then maybe during ovulation, I will go out with people. Because'm going to hunker down and just kind of stay to myself and then maybe during ovulation, I will go out with people. Because it is one of those things, because when you start canceling on people, then you fucking feel bad and it's like don't even make the plans if you are in a low spot of your cycle, like no, I'm not even going to try to push with that. There is parts of your cycle where, especially too around your period, like it is where you go inward. The best book I've talked about that it's in the flow. I'm going to link it to this to the show notes below. Get that book to understand your cycle better and honestly and work more with that in your sobriety and recovery.

Speaker 1:

Number 11, boundaries learning to set and respect boundaries has protected my sobriety and my mental health. It's not something that's going to happen on day one. It takes some time. Going back to when I was saying about the people pleasing the boundaries take some time and boundaries is a practice until you get it, but the boundaries of practice until you get it, but the boundaries fuck. I have set boundaries on going out to dinner with certain people because I don't want to be there. I don't want to be with them a certain time where it's like they had been drinking all day. I had to set boundaries with my sister when I was sober, like not partaking with her when she had been drinking, because it was not fun. Especially too, if you grew up with people who it was not fun. Especially too if you grew up with people who've had drinking problems and friends like and you know that it's not a judgment, it's facts Like, knows like, and when that has been around like. It's hard to be around when you're in a sober state of mind, it's just like dude.

Speaker 1:

I lived with this for fucking 30 years. I don't want to bring this in to my world. Same thing for holidays. Put boundaries around that. Start creating your new traditions. Start talking to your mother less if she drives you crazy, right, like if she sucks the soul out of you. That goes for any family member. I'm just using your mother as an example. Same thing with your friends. If you notice you have a friend who all they do is talk about themselves and they're not there for you when you need them, or if they're not asking how you're doing, fuck them, fuck them. Yes, there's a grieving process to it and this is all stuff I've done.

Speaker 1:

So I don't I don't speak this if I haven't done it in these 12 years but boundaries will definitely, definitely, definitely help you because, listen, when you let people and it it's, it's 50, 50, you have to, you truly have to set them and stick to them, and the person's going to respond by what you're allowing. So if you're not allowing, if you're not picking up phone calls at two o'clock in the morning anymore and being on this phone with this person as they just bitch about themselves the whole time. They're going to start then adjusting around your new set of boundaries, right? So if it's like, okay, I'm not gonna do dinner with this person anymore, but I'll do breakfast, they're gonna start to get it. Do you need to give these people a whole explanation, song and dance if you want to, but you really don't. If you don't, if you're like uncomfortable of how that's all gonna feel, all that, then just set the boundaries and work through it.

Speaker 1:

If your mom's like why aren't you talking to me every day, like we used to, like oh, mom, I'm really busy, and this is something, too, I had to get into as well. I had to readjust boundaries for when my son was born and I didn't see it. I did not fucking see it until after he was born and it was a couple months Like it was. I don't know those first two, three months where I was like I have allowed a lot of access to me. I've allowed a lot of access. I've responded to people so goddamn quickly and I noticed that when they're like well, where have you been? What's going on? It's like bitch, I'm fucking taking care of a child who has colic, like do you know what I mean? So it's certain situations and you might be seeing this right now where you're like God, I mean I've allowed this right, so you do have to take responsibility for what you have allowed. But you can go forward and be like I'm not fucking allowing this, I'm not your doormat man If you've enabled somebody, all of it. So there's a lot. There's a lot with boundaries, but just remember, boundaries is a practice and you might slip, right, you might slip, but you just got to keep practicing. And again, the boundaries is here.

Speaker 1:

When you're leaving situations or getting off the phone with, when you're leaving situations or getting off the phone with somebody and you're fucking feeling drained and depleted and full of anxiety, it's like why am I doing this? Just to please a person? Let's go back to pleasing people. Why am I going to keep doing this? And that is like why do I get to? Why do I have to feel this way? And these people fucking don't. These people aren't crying leaving a goddamn happy hour. These people aren't crying leaving a family Christmas. But I am, I'm fucking feeling bad, I feel uncomfortable. It's too much. So you got to start creating boundaries for yourself Number 12 of this 12-step process.

Speaker 1:

Today, number 12 is, as always, humor. Laughter has been a lifesaver. My sister and I often joke like I think it was just a trauma response built into it. But I'm really happy for the trauma response because again, it's been a lifesaver and finding humor in tough moments has kept me grounded and reminds me not to take life too fucking seriously. Okay, adding humor keeps it light and this is such a heavy topic for so many people. Right, like with the shame, with the shit you've done, with just the waking up on another day of promising your kid you won't drink, and that For some people it has led's okay to laugh at yourself. And it's okay to have a laugh when life gets a little heavy. Sometimes, like I said, it's been a lifesaver for me from time to time of even just popping in the Golden Girls or watching a stand-up special everybody's got their comedian they like or a funny show. Keep it lighthearted.

Speaker 1:

I just don't want you to get caught up in the heaviest of heavies sometimes in this life. Sorry, I didn't think I would cry. I think I end up crying every time that I do since I've done this podcast since on my sobriety birthday, because it does get me still choked up, even at 12 years sober, and that for a lot of people this is a matter of life and death and it can get to that. I know people don't want to hear the dramatics of it, but it's true like the dramatics of it, but it's true and that there are a lot of lives taken because of the disease of addiction. There's a lot of families who suffer because of the disease of addiction and every day that you are on planet earth is a gift and I just want you to know that and just keep choosing another day sober, because I do firmly believe that for women, after they turn a certain age and then going through perimenopause and all that, or after having a child how much the body changes through your hormones and all of that or a terrible, terrible life event happens and that changes somebody in a blink of an eye, and then when you add on alcohol onto it, I mean you can get so far down the rabbit hole.

Speaker 1:

There's a point of no return for people and I've seen this happen many times and it's sad. So I thank my lucky stars that I finally said enough was enough 12 years ago on the 18th, because it was never going to change. It was never going to get better. All I know is that your life is worth it to fight through those hard days in sobriety. Your life is worth it to start rediscovering who you are. Your life was worth it to say fuck it to the friends who do not support you. You know your life is worth it even to say fuck it to maybe the dude you're with who doesn't fucking support you and still continues to drink, and you don't want to live that way anymore.

Speaker 1:

I hope this episode helped. Again, all the resources I've mentioned in this podcast will be in the show notes below. I thank you so very much for the years that you have been in this community, been listening to this podcast. Make sure you engage in that giveaway on Instagram for a signed copy of the book. I'm going to do three winners and it's got to be within the United States. Okay, I'll do an international one here soon, but this one goes to the United States, okay, all right, I love you also very much. Keep on trucking and kick some ass today. Thank you.

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