Kelsey Lensman on Faith, Fear, and Expanding Your Limits.

In this episode, I sit down with Kelsey Lensman for a conversation about faith, fear, identity, trauma, and what happens when life forces you to stop white-knuckling the wheel.

Kelsey shares the moments that cracked her open and rebuilt her from the inside out: walking away from an eight-year relationship, questioning the version of faith she grew up with, surviving a violent highway crash on I-270, and choosing not to let fear become the driver of her life.

We talk about the shift from athlete identity to real-world purpose, the difference between checking the “church box” and building an actual relationship with God, and why physical challenges have become one of Kelsey’s greatest tools for mental strength. From Ohio State rowing to Mission 48 — where she completed 48 competitions in 48 states in 48 days for charity — Kelsey’s story is one big reminder that strength is built in the moments you’d rather avoid.

This conversation is for anyone who has ever felt stuck, scared, over-controlling, spiritually disconnected, or quietly aware that they’re being called into something bigger.

Follow Kelsey:
Instagram: @kelseylensman
Expand Your Limits: @xpandyourlimits

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And until next time...Keep Moving, baby!

Transcript

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Keri Croft 0:02

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Welcome And A Fluff Shoutout

Keri Croft 1:23

Hey there, you beautiful badass. Badass. Welcome to the Carrie Croft Show. All right, Kelsey Lensman. You're gracing us with your presence. Welcome to the Carrie Croft Show.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Hi, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

Keri Croft 1:39

You know, I'm I'm equally as excited to just peel this onion back. There's a lot that's gone on in your life for as young as you are. Yeah. First, we need to thank the one and only before we start, Michael Flinner. Should we should we just sing about him? Should we just like talk about how great he is?

SPEAKER_00 1:59

The fluff force.

Keri Croft 2:00

You know, he's now graduated and he's not going to be driving the fluff force. He's actually growing because he's crushing it. So he is actually turning the keys over, I believe, to someone else.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Oh my to drive the fluff horse. You talk about a guy leading a company that is like embodies. Oh, yeah. He takes it and runs. And that's him. Yeah.

Keri Croft 2:20

So you know what? Here's a here's a free commercial for the fluff. Okay. So if you're busy out there and you're like, you know what? I'd like to take something off my plate. We think you should take your laundry off your plate and literally let the fluff and Michael and his team care for your undies, your draws. They do a great job. They fold so nicely. And I'm telling you, they'll do your laundry better than you will.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Yeah. And you know what I love? I mean, not to dive into it, but I just love good humans. You can tell with him. He randomly came up to me at a gym that I go to around here and he was like, hey, can you be on the podcast? And I was like, a thousand percent. But you could just tell by the way that he came up to me. He had such a kind heart and soul. And that's why I was excited to meet you and so many people here because you can just tell good humans with good hearts. Like that's that's my people.

Keri Croft 3:06

Oh yeah. You can you can feel it out. I'm like a very, I'm a very energetic type gal. So we love you, Michael Flinner. He's probably like ear to ear at this point. Enough about enough about him. Let's talk about you.

Ohio State Rowing And Choosing A Path

Keri Croft 3:18

So you went to Ohio State.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

I did.

Keri Croft 3:20

You were a rower.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

Randomly, yeah. My freshman year. Um, just on their novice team. So I wasn't anything crazy, but yeah.

Keri Croft 3:26

And you did it all through college.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

No. So I came to Ohio State, had no expectation of rowing. I was just like, okay, played basketball, volleyball in high school. I'm like, I'm gonna live these college years up, right? And I remember I came to Ohio State, they had that orientation, and I had somebody say, Hey, you should row. I'm like, rowing, I've never done it before. Like I'm from a suburban Canton, Ohio. Like that we don't really have that around there. So anyway, I went to the tryouts, made it, went to the novice team. And uh, it was such a blessing for me at that time because I came from a sports and a team and a goal and a culture. And when I went to Ohio State, I didn't realize even the few weeks that I didn't do rowing, I missed that so much. And so that gave me my crew, my girls, a goal again. So I rode all throughout that freshman year, but then at the end of that freshman year, because I was in sports medicine, they basically said, You're either continuing the rowing team because it's it's a big commitment, or you do sports medicine with clinicals and all of that. And I'm I joke around, like, I'm not gonna be a professional rower. Right. So that's not in my cards. So then that's when I choose chose my career and decided to go away from sports

From Checkbox Faith To Real Seeking

SPEAKER_00 4:29

there.

Keri Croft 4:29

Have you always been very spiritual? No. So you'd mentioned you had like a Holy Spirit moment that totally changed your life.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

No, um, to go just a quick background, because I think people see me now and like they hear how I talk and they think that I've always been like that. And I've haven't. And I'm very grateful that growing up, I mean, we used to go church on and off on Sundays. So it wasn't that it wasn't a part of my life, but it was a a box that I just checked off. And I'll be honest with you, I would be sitting in the pews and I'd be like, What am I gonna have for lunch? Like that was my big thought during church is yeah, what am I gonna have? What restroom are we gonna go to? But then I grew up playing sports as well. And when you have tournaments, they're on Sundays. I'm not missing my basketball game. And so that that really took over that. But then going into college, I definitely got away from it. There's a lot that's happened in between there, but basically the end of that sophomore year, I was doing everything right. I was getting the A's. If you would look, Carrie Outside looking in, I had everything. The girl that was on a good trajectory. But I remember one morning I just woke up and it was after I was done with the rowing team. It was after a really not great relationship. And I walked in my bathroom and I looked in the mirror and I just I said, Who was looking back at me? Like I didn't feel not just physically like myself, but I didn't see that fire in my eyes. And I imagine if you're a listener out there, you've had a moment like that, maybe, where you look up and you're like, who was staring back at me? And that was a moment in my life where I just remember saying these words and I don't even, I didn't even know what it meant, but I just said I had to get me good. Wasn't even great at grammar. Like I just remember thinking that thought. And so for me, it started initially getting back into the gym. I'm like, well, I'm not training right now. I know that's good for me. So like let me just get back to the gym. But I was that girl that I would go to the cardio canyon and I would cardio myself to death and the weight room, I was a part of it because I did sports, but it wasn't my comfort zone. Like I was still that girl that was nervous going to that weight bench in the middle of the RPAC at Ohio State. So it started initially for me physically, and I was making strides there, and that's a whole nother journey in and of itself. But I remember as I was making strides, I still felt like something was missing. Like I was doing the right things academically. I was reaching goals physically that I never thought I could reach. And I'm like, man, something is still missing. And I didn't feel complete and whole. And so I remember I walked down to the Ohio State bookstore uh Barnes and Noble, and I went up to the kind of faith section, and I'm like, there's a bajillion Bibles here. Like, what what do I choose? So I just remember saying, okay, there's a purple one. And I like the color purple back in the day. So thank God it was a pretty good version because I just got it. And I remember I would, I would always train pretty early, and I opened my Bible. I Googled, where do I start? And it said in one of the gospels, I think it's so it was John that I started. And I would have this note card and I would write the date and I would write like whatever passage I read, and I had no idea what I was reading. Like I had a little bit of foundation, but I remember having my first little note that I wrote. And I said, Dear God, like if you're out there, please show me you're real, please show me you're there. Because I don't know where I'm heading next step in my life. Because that's when I was wrestling. Do I go the career path that I was said I was gonna go for the past eight years? Do I completely do anything different? And I just remember I would just do that every day. And it was a lot of wrestling. Is this true? Is this not true? What does this actually mean? And when I think back to that phase of my life, junior, senior year of college, is it was a little foundation. But honestly, Carrie, it wasn't until probably two years ago where I got done with Mission 48, which we can go into. I ended up ended an eight-year relationship that I was engaged to. And I just remember saying, I like, I really need my foundation set again. And so the time that I would have spent with my significant other, because I lived alone with my dog, I just poured into more of my faith, like wrestling with it. What is right? And I'm a I'm a very curious person. Like I want to get to the root of everything. I think that's why nutritionally and and in the fitness world and wellness world, like, man, I, you should see my bookshelf. There's everything there. Cause I want to get to the root of things. I don't just accept things as fact. Uh, it can be a blessing and also a curse when you really go deep into it. So I wrestled a lot, probably about two years ago, of really understanding and yearning and is this true? Is this not true? What about all these other things that I've pigeonholed, like other pigeonholes that I've dove into? And two things

Learning To Wrestle With Big Questions

SPEAKER_00 8:50

happened. First thing would have been actually about a year and a half ago at this point. And I remember there was this, is this run club. It's called Run with Christ. And they had a worship night at the church that I go to. And I remember calling my friend, and he was just somebody that I talked to just to kind of wrestle thoughts with. And I've really never shared this story. So this is you get the exclusive. Exclusive. And I remember um asking him, I was like, Zach, I was like, how do you know when you have the Holy Spirit? Like, how do you know? And he told me this, and I'm like, Can't you give me a better answer? He goes, Pray about it. And I'm like, no, I want you to tell me what like how do we know? So so I said, Okay, God, like just show me when, like, how do you know if the Holy Spirit's within you? Now it's funny I reflect back on that and I have a different thought about it. I went to that worship night, and when a worship night is just music, right? Music, some prayer, but there's usually no sermon or message. And the music was good, but it wasn't anything different than any other service I've been to on a Saturday. And I'm not joking you, Carrie. I remember having my eyes closed and I remember looking down, and I just, it's not that I audibly heard this, but I saw the words in my eyes, but I felt the words in my heart. And it was, I am the way, the truth, the life, which is uh scripture. I don't want to make this bigger than what it is, but it was a massive turning point in my life where I knew that I knew that I knew that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. And I'm telling you, I was a rabbit hole girl. I was almost into the more new agey type of stuff and philosophies in it. Some of it made sense to me. So it's not me throwing stones on any of that because I was almost in all these different things, but I'm not joking you. It was like I walked out of that night. My desires, my perspective, my everything 180. And then fast forward about a year. Well, it had been last July 30th, that I have a tattoo of it. A year and a half later, is I was driving back from my old lady Bible study.

The Night Everything Shifted

SPEAKER_00 10:42

I'm in a Bible study with these women that are 70 and above. They're amazing women, like just women of faith, you know? So I'm driving back on 270.

The Highway Crash And Surviving

SPEAKER_00 10:50

I have my purse with my Bible and my Bible study in it. And driving there, I have a Bronco. So I had my top up. I was jamming, like it was good. And then for some reason, God reason, is on the way back, I ended up putting my soft top down. And so I was driving on 270, it was the fast lane. It was the second to inside lane, and then two additional lanes right before the sawmill exit. And I was finally going the speed limit, which I cannot always say, but that time I actually was. And I remember looking in my rear view mirror, I looked up and I just saw this really fast car going behind me. You know how you can kind of see the speed of somebody? So I was like, oh, like they just really quickly pulled out, pulled right behind me. And I thought in my head, oh, there's a fast lane. They'll kind of get around me. And you know, I wasn't going slow, but I wasn't going their speed. Like you could see it was probably 20 miles an hour faster than I was going. So as soon as I thought that thought, this person went in the fast lane. And as soon as I said, oh, he's in the fast lane in my brain, all of a sudden I felt this force on the back side of my car that I've never felt before. And he hit me in the back side of my car. My car went spinning. I had my hands on the steering wheel, it flips three times. And I remember thinking, and it was the slowest motion of my life. And I remember thinking, okay, I got hit. Oh my gosh, I'm flipping. And my first response, which it would not have always been this, was Jesus protect me. And I was in such a calm state. But I also, if I'm honest, had fear of what is gonna happen because I remember thinking the thoughts, I'm on 270, it's rush hour. Obviously, I'm flipping. There's not many outcomes besides not a good one that this could happen. So as I was flipping, I said, Jesus protect me. And I was calm, Jesus protect me. And as my car hit the median, it went wheels down. And I was first of all amazed that I was alive. But then the second thought in my brain was, oh my gosh, who's coming at me? Because you think 270 rush hour, there's no way it's a one-car collision. And all of these thoughts are going so quickly, but also so slow in my head. So as my car went down, I look up. And all of a sudden, as I look up, every car is stopped. Like every car is stopped in the highway. And it was just this thought of, wait, you're telling me nobody's coming, like nobody's then coming at my car and then hitting me head on because I was facing towards traffic now. So I get out of my car, every car on the highway is stopped. I like kind of walk, stumble to the back for the lack of a better way to say it. My I'll show you my car after it is obliterated. And this older guy comes running over to me. Are you okay? Are you okay? And the only words that I could utter was like, I'm so grateful to be alive. Thank God I'm alive. Thank God I'm alive. Because I didn't think it was an option coming out of that. Like, there's no way. And then this other younger guy came over to me. And I just remember, Carrie, I like held on to him like a boyfriend because in that moment, I just needed somebody just to kind of console me. And so I was just holding onto his arm. I'm like, I'm so sorry. I know you're not my boyfriend, but like I just needed that consoling. And so, as soon as kind of the adrenaline settled a little bit, just once again, the words that I could just utter was, thank God. Like I'm so grateful to be alive, thank God. And I walk to the front of my car. And as I'm looking up, and I don't want to disclose too much, but so I'm looking up, the guy that hit me is trying to rip his license plate off. And so the older guy runs over to him. They're like duking it out because he's trying to flee the scene. And I walk to the front of my car. I don't know where my phone is. I don't know where any of my stuff is. And I'll just never forget this. I look up and I'm like, where's my phone? I look in the fast lane. My phone is face down, okay, untouched. No crack. No anything is wrong with it. I look more to the front of my car. I see my purse. I get my purse. My Bible's untouched. My Bible studies untouched. I look up. This guy coming at me has one arm and one leg. Like, I'm not joking you one arm and one leg. He has a prosthetic on his other leg and a prosthetic. Oh, he didn't have another arm. He just had a prosthetic leg. And I'm like, am I dreaming right now? Like, what is happening? And he had this accent. He's like, Are you okay? Are you okay? I was in, I was in a motorcycle accident. And so, like, I've been where you've been. And I'm like, Yeah, I just once again, thank God I'm alive. And so the ambulance comes. I ended up knowing one of the firemen there. And it was just such a consoling moment. And so they took me into the um obviously trauma, they did a whole trauma, not procedure, but what whatever they do normally. Right.

Keri Croft 14:57

Because they're trying to figure out if you have internal injuries or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

So they take me into there, they're like flinging me. I'm calling my mom, like, hey, mom, I'm okay. And this is not the first call that she's got. I had a really bad four accident. Yeah, we'll get into that in high school. And I'm like, I'm okay. And um, they take me into the CT scan, and I'll never forget this moment because I'm laying there and I'm a little bit nervous. And I tell them this because I had a bad four-wheeling accident in high school where my whole lower leg was shattered. And the only time I cried during that was when they put morphine in my system and I could feel it go up around my body and down. And Gary, that freaked me out because it felt like something else had control over my body, and I'll never forget that. And so when they said that they were gonna do iodine in my put iodine in my system just to see everything, I said, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous because they said I was gonna feel that heat. And that was the same feeling that I was afraid of from high school. I lay in the CT and I just like take deep breaths. And they said, okay, like we're gonna put the iodine in. So I like take a deep breath in, deep breath out. And I am not joking you. I started bawling not from the fear of what I was feeling, not from the trauma of what it went through. I felt closer to God in that moment in my entire life than in that moment. And it was just this flood of you protected me. I feel so close to you, you protected me. I I I almost can't even put it into words, the emotions that I felt. And I told myself I never want to forget what that felt like because it was such a mark on my life. And so, long story long at this point, is got back into the hospital room, everything was fine.

Keri Croft 16:30

Like you didn't have a scratch on you.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

I mean, I had a burn mark on my um face for a little bit. I had some burn marks here just from my seatbelt rubbing, but no broken bone. I had a little bit of a contusion lung just because of the seatbelt, no concussion. Like it was not only was I alive, I was untouched after. And I had somebody then because I got out of the hospital the next day and I went to the new grounds. We talked about this before the coffee shop. I always work out. I went there the following day, and I had somebody come up to me and they were in uniform. They're like, Hey, is your name Kelsey? And I was like, Yeah, my name's Kelsey. And she's like, I saw the overhead footage of your accident because she was a firefighter. I saw the overhead footage of your accident, and she was like, There's no way that you should be alive right now, number one. Second of all, we've never seen a car make such a big dent and like grate out of the highway in our life. And it was just such confirmation of like whatever he intends for evil, God intends for good. And between all the experiences I've had, that was just even more of a solidifying experience of I can so easily go into self-protection or self-promotion world. I I'm a go-getter. So like I can want to muscle it myself. And it was such a beautiful example, hard example, but beautiful in the end of it, where no matter what I did in that car, meaning when I was flipping, there's nothing that I could have done or controlled to make a different outcome. Nothing. I genuinely had to take, I had my hands on the wheel, but I had to take my control out of it and just rely and say, Jesus protect me. Like whatever you can do, there's nothing that me, Kelsey, is gonna do to have a different outcome of it. So it really shattered my control tendencies or wanting to desire control because it made me experientially realize how little control we have.

The Driver Aftermath And Sponsor Break

Keri Croft 18:17

So, what happened to this jackass that hit you?

SPEAKER_00 18:20

It's very surprising.

Keri Croft 18:21

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Rebuilding Safety After Trauma

Keri Croft 20:00

You said he was a drunk driver. He didn't get in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

I mean, he was in jail for a couple days, but he just wasn't disclosing his identity. So that was the issue of why he was in jail. But and I don't wish ill will. Like I remember thinking that night, and I'm like, man, I pray that this opens his eyes of what could have happened because he could easily have a homicide that he was dealing with. And thankfully he didn't, but I I really wish and I pray that he's like, all right, I gotta get because he's young. He was 22 years old, so young, for that to potentially change his trajectory of his life.

Keri Croft 20:29

Did he seem remorseful at all? Or was he like just so in the moment? Oh, you didn't see it.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

No, I mean I saw from afar when that guy was like trying to duke it out and just wait till the cops to come, but I've never interacted. I didn't go to the yeah, I it was just kind of when I've had this before and people are like, yeah, and you bounce back so quickly. It's like when you're when you're through something like that and when you've literally met death at your not like when you're knocking there and you see death across the the table, you just realize how little some things matter and how little I could be upset about it. It ain't worth my time, effort, and energy, you know? Right. So it just gives you different things.

Keri Croft 21:04

Did you have any trauma over it, like any nightmares or stuff you had to do?

SPEAKER_00 21:08

It's really hard for me to get back on the highway. And even even to this point, which goes into a lot of the messaging that I talk about, is I knew that my brain was going to associate highway with bad and highway with fear. And so I told myself, and this was so the accident happened on a Wednesday night, and I told myself, you need to get back into the car as quickly as you can to drive on that highway because the longer that you take to drive on there, the greater that fear is gonna happen. And so I got out of the hospital on that Thursday and then I drove on that Friday. And it was just like a small little stretch, but it was enough where it's like you need to show your system. This is where us understanding our brain, I think is very important. Yeah. That, okay, I need to condition my body that I'm safe. I need to condition my body that's okay because it's gonna build up this fear response out of protection for me. But just because it's trying to protect me doesn't mean that it's beneficial for me. Me, right? Yeah. And so even today, Gary, and um, I'll I'll notice this when I'm driving on 270 or when I'm in a situation on a highway. Like I will constantly, which is probably not great, like look in my rearview mirror and I have to literally say out loud, I'm safe. And I'll I'll this sounds a little nerdy, but I'll pray like the blood of Jesus over my car every time I step in that car. I'm like, blood Jesus protects this protect this car. Um, because you just don't know.

Keri Croft 22:25

No, if that happened to me, I'd be yeah, saying all kinds of prayers.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah. So it's wild. Yeah.

Ending An Eight-Year Relationship

Keri Croft 22:31

So let's go to the the eight-year relationship that you ended.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

Yeah.

Keri Croft 22:34

Eight years. So when did you start dating? How old were you?

SPEAKER_00 22:37

My junior year of college.

Keri Croft 22:39

So how hard? Because when you're you've almost invested a decade in someone, yeah. Isn't it easy to be like, yeah, you know what? We've already put this much sweat equity in. I can't break this off.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Yeah. It was hard. And and he was a great person. I think that's one of the harder parts about it is I mean, thankfully, he wasn't a bad human. He didn't treat me poorly. He genuinely was a good human. He still, and both him and I had things we needed to wrestle with solo, I think, and um lessons we needed to learn and healing that needed to be happened. But it's not like it was just one day where I'm like, I'm done, I'm out of here. It was a feeling that I knew that I knew that I knew deep down that he wasn't my person. And I so badly wanted to override that feeling because if you would see us out in public and even in private, we were laughing, we were like everybody loved to be around us because we were just so fun together. But I'll always remember, I mean, we were engaged for two years. Like it's not that it was like a short time. Once again, we have to be honest with ourselves first and foremost, because I made the thought in my brain of, oh, you're just really busy right now. You don't want to plan a wedding because you're just really busy. Kells, you're not really busy. If it was something that you prioritized and that you genuinely knew that this was the direction that you want to go, you would have planned it by now.

Keri Croft 23:57

You're dragging your feet.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

But him and I knew that there was something going on. But it was easier for us to ignore it, for me to ignore it, than to face this thing head on. And I'll never forget it. And I remember there's two like big conversations I needed to have in my life. One was post-mission 48, and then one was um with my significant other at the time. And I remember telling myself, you are not heading into another year, like holding and avoiding hard conversations. Like we're not doing this. Like we're we're tired of this. You have clarity. You don't need any more clarity. You know that you know, you just are avoiding this hard conversation that you know that you need to have. And so it was January 1st, 2024, that I had two really hard conversations and it wasn't easy. Like it wasn't, I was hurting this person that I really cared about. But I said, you're hurting him and yourself in the long run. Like avoidance gets you nowhere, like literally nowhere. Right. So you need to nip this in the butt. And also, too, I have certain values from a relationship standpoint that I really value and that are non-negotiables for me. And if I was looking at our relationship, it didn't have that as the foundation. It didn't have those certain things that are non-negotiables. And it's not that I have a list, but it's like there's certain things that I really believe in. There's certain things that are foundational for me that I'm not willing to negotiate on. And I think that's where the growth from myself had to happen. I needed to heal some things so I could really open up and talk to somebody emotionally and open myself up to that. And I think also he had to and has to heal some things as well. So are you single? I am, girl. Oh, baby.

Keri Croft 25:35

So, what are these values we speak of?

SPEAKER_00 25:37

First is faith. It's that's um, I need him to be running after Jesus, just as, if not more, than I am. And like and have his own relationship, first of all. And we didn't have that in our relationship, and I I was kind of dragging, like pulling somebody ahead. And secondly, um, I'm a very, I feel very called to do what I'm doing and lead what I'm leading. And that can either intimidate somebody or also, and I don't mean this negatively, and I never want to put myself on a pedestal because I have I'm an ounce of where I can really see the vision, but or they kind of want to ride on the coattails a little bit. And so I need them to have their thing. You don't need to make a bajillion dollars or but I need to know you know who you are. Like I need you to have wrestled with some life a little bit, know your tendencies, know your weaknesses, so that you're not having just to learn who you are for the first time in a relationship like that. And there's always gonna be new things we learn about each other. I know for me, there's still so much within me that needs to be worked on or will come out in the future. But I've wrestled with a lot of things in life that I have a foundational understanding of this is who I am, take it or leave it. Like I hope that you love it, but if you're not, that's okay too. And I need you to know that. Like I need you to know who you are.

Keri Croft 26:47

So before we go into like what you're called to do now, you said there were two conversations, two hard. What was the second one?

Mission 48 And The Cost Of Grit

SPEAKER_00 26:54

One was so I did that big campaign, Mission 48, and um explain that a little bit, just so people can understand. So it was it was a big national charity campaign that I did, and it was a nudge in my life a couple years prior, but I did 48 different fitness competitions, half marathon, powerlifting meet, Olympic lifting in 48 states and 48 days, and then we raised money for rocks, actually.

Keri Croft 27:15

48 consecutive days.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

Yeah, so we'd go a state a day, and then I would throw I obviously planned it ahead of time, but we would have a free event in every state that community could be a part of.

Keri Croft 27:25

How do you even like I'm trying to wrap my brain around just the logistics of that?

SPEAKER_00 27:31

There were definitely things that I've learned that I would do the same, but many I would do differently. And it was very grassroots. Like I don't have a you made it up. Yes, okay, yeah.

Keri Croft 27:40

You're like, let's go to 48 different states in 48 consecutive days in a row and do 48 different. I'm just I think I'm just wait, I'm awake now. I'm like thinking about this. How the fuck do you do that? I'm sorry to curse in front of a woman of faith.

SPEAKER_00 27:55

I'm perfect, girl. Trust me. Trust me.

Keri Croft 27:57

Um what let's think about this.

SPEAKER_00 27:59

Well, I'll tell you what I was inspired by because it'll give you context of like what I what I did was an ounce of what I was inspired by. So this would have been maybe about a year prior. And we were in my business, we were doing great work. We were helping people, and it wasn't that we were doing anything negatively, but I had this yearning of there's more. And I think for those that are listening, and you might have experienced this too, is you're doing good things, but there's still this unsettledness within you that there's gotta be something more. And that was my nudge where I remember I was watching a documentary. I highly recommend you watching this if you think what I did was crazy. Right. But it was called Iron Cowboy.

Keri Croft 28:32

I've heard of Iron Cowboy.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

50 Iron Mans and 50 Stays and 50 Days. And it wasn't the fact that he did this that inspired me. It was the really low moments of his journey where he's like, Why am I doing this? He was getting some thrown stones thrown at him and he was just really wrestling with things. And I resonated with that because I felt that in my entrepreneurship journey of why am I doing this? Yeah. And it was just that, and for me, it's a nudge. I call it the God nudge, where I had the nudge of like, what if? What if, and this is what originally what it was, is 48, because I didn't want to copy the same thing. Yeah, 48 different fitness competitions in 48 states, but in 48 weeks. And so what I was originally gonna do was you can find a powerlift to meet on a Saturday. Like that's not hard. But I have such a heart for young girls and like pouring into them. And so originally I was gonna speak at a school for young girls on a Wednesday and then compete on a Saturday. As I got further into actually planning it, I remember there was somebody that has done crazy stuff, like an arena that I wanted to be in because I didn't know anything about sponsorships and how do you pull this together? He was like, 48 weeks? Like you're gonna lose attention in that time frame. And I'm like, oh, you ain't wrong. He's like, What about 48 days? And I said, You just up the annie. Like it was something that it scared me. How am I gonna do this? How logistically is this gonna happen? But it was once again the nudge of this is the direct direction I have to go with this. And so honestly, Carrie, eight months before I no, probably about six months before I left, it switched to 48 days and we figured it out and sent I had a great like volunteer team that helped me just we were just calling. We were calling gyms, businesses, radio stations. And I don't want to paint this of like this was a massive success because there were some parts that were a success. I was a different woman coming off of Mission 48 than I was during or before it, but there was also an expectation that it wasn't met of what I thought it was gonna be. At that time, as I reflect back on it, it's like you have for me, it was a God nudge in my heart. And then I left him out of the planning of it. And once again, I can muscle through life, man. Like you're a worker, I'm like we we can do the thing. But I always reflect back of you can't take a God dream and then leave him out of it. And that's exactly what I do.

Keri Croft 30:43

How did you leave him out of it, though?

SPEAKER_00 30:44

I relied on myself all the time. How many reps can I get in calling people? How many if I I can call 20 people today? I never prayed about it. I never asked his direction or provision on it. I didn't, I didn't rely on him an ounce for that thing. And so, and I'm not saying if I would have, it would have gone differently, because you can always think a certain way. But once again, and now that I'm a lot more grounded from that area of my life, it was he calls you out in those unknown waters to rely on him, not to rely on yourself. Because if it's that big of a vision, you can't rely on yourself solely. We can put in the work, we can build confidence, we can call the 20 people, but he will open a door that my thousand hours getting put in will never match to what he what door he could open.

Keri Croft 31:28

How did that affect you physically?

SPEAKER_00 31:30

The whole trip.

Keri Croft 31:31

Like to do that 40 days, 48 days in a row like that?

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Um, it was it wasn't an Iron Man. So it's not like we were, I mean, it was taxing on the body, it was more taxing emotionally than it was physically. I mean, you're in a RV with four to five people and a dog, and you're traveling the country, and thank God my significant other at the time and my dad drove. But I mean, think about it, you're it's wear on tear on everybody. Yeah. And then you're showing up and you got to be the one on and like talking about the mission, meeting the people, kissing the babies. Like you're the one. And but it was an ounce of what also the team had to go through because they were the one driving, they were the one wrestling with a lot. So it's and I I can take on people's emotions pretty easy, meaning I can feel things like you were really easy. And so I could feel tension. I could feel the when it was going well, and I could feel when it was really hard. And it was hard for me to separate that and say, okay, you can't take that on right now. Cause I didn't have the emotional awareness that I have now, I think.

Keri Croft 32:26

What was the we didn't get to the hard conversation yet though?

SPEAKER_00 32:29

It was something that happened on mission 40, and I just don't want to disclose it. It was a little bit too much. But something happened where somebody left mid-trip, and it was just uh it was just a really hard conversation of okay, what do we do now?

Keri Croft 32:40

Okay. Yeah. Fair enough, Kelsey. Fair enough. Listen, you guys, you're not gonna get the dirt, but I'm gonna get the T as soon as that freaking button is pressed. Don't you worry, I'm gonna get

Expand Your Limits And Women’s Events

Keri Croft 32:50

it. Um, okay, so let's talk about what you're doing today. Yeah. Expand your limit. Is it limit or limits?

SPEAKER_00 32:54

It's limits, but limit on our because we couldn't get the URL with the X.

Keri Croft 33:01

Okay, so you did expand your limit, but it's really more the it's limits. Okay, so talk about what that is, yeah, what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

So talk about that same 2024 time frame. Yeah. It was not what we I was doing at all. And it's funny, I posted this on my show social about two days ago is we got the trademark after two years of filing for it. But after 2024, we were doing the nutrition fitness stuff for women and I enjoyed it, but there was still some wrestling of like, I'm not somebody just a market weight loss. Like, that's just not who I am to my core. And I can you can still have that goal and we can help you with it, but I just I'll never be that person of five tips to lose 10 pounds. It's just not me. It's not me. And so we did not get the trademark for the previous company name. And so it was that moment in my life where I'm like, okay, what mission are you leading? Like, what are what am I actually building? Not what do you think that you're building just because you're doing what people tell you to do, but like what do you actually want to build? And I remember there was a through line just in my life of I love challenging people outside of their comfort zone to really see their capability within. And I've seen this in my life is like when I broke a physical belief, whether it be a powerlifting, like I lift deadlifted X amount, or man, I ran this in this time. Like when I broke a physical belief of what's possible, it opened me up to oh my gosh, maybe I can start a business. Maybe I could end an eight-year relationship that was really uncomfortable for me to end. Um just so many different things in my life that I would not have been opened up to if I first didn't prove myself wrong that I couldn't do it. And I think for those listening out there, is we all have that doubt, hesitation, limitation in our head. I talk about that little voice of you can't do that. Yeah, maybe she can, maybe Kara can, but I don't know about you. And it's no matter what level you get to, it's always gonna be there.

Keri Croft 34:40

Okay, that's like a little naysayer.

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Yeah, and it's not a bad thing. Like I tell a lot of our crew, and especially young girls, is it's not something we want to fight against because it's just trying to protect you. And when we can understand it that it's just trying to protect you, just like the car accident, it doesn't mean that I should never go on a highway anymore. But if I listen to it, yes, it's trying to protect me, but it doesn't mean that it's beneficial for me. That's what led to okay, you know what? What are we building? And it led me to expand your limits. And so we host all women's, there's two sides of the business. We still have the nutrition fitness coaching side and a side where I really want to help women just allow them to understand how do I get wellness and fitness in my day-to-day life. Like that's still important to me. But then this side of it is our big event side where we'll do all women's strength events, endurance events around the country. We have we're taking a crew out to Yellowstone and doing a big hike in Yellowstone. And so I just want people to we do like sonical plunge events and breath work, but women to experience. I want you to come up against that doubt fear, hesitation voice. I don't want you to just read it in a book or listen to it on a podcast. There's some things that we can only experience and overcome experientially. Like, and that's where it's not about you reading it, but am I stepping into the arena to face it? And we just had one this past weekend in Columbus where women were in tears after. And it wasn't that they hit a PR on their deadlift. I told them before, I want you to think about what is one belief that you want to let go, and then what is one belief that you want to gain? And so when they hit that PR and they're like, I didn't think I could do that, and they did it, you could tell them that moment it switched. I'm letting go of my you can't do it, and I'm gaining a man, I can do hard things. And if we can build that belief in people to not just do in a gym, but then to take outside of the doors and to like work in your day-to-day life, like that's when it gets good for me. Oh, yeah, that's a good stuff.

Keri Croft 36:25

That's like mental athleticism.

SPEAKER_00 36:27

That's why it's so much with what you do.

Keri Croft 36:29

It's like intertwined. You know, and the way that I look at it or or talk about it, it's like the naysayer that we all have in our mind. It's nature's design, it's the universe's design, it's how we're all built, and it's never going away. But when you build the other side of the house, it becomes more muted. So you can still hear it over here, but it's not taking over the show. You've got you're, you know, you're building the muscle over here, the confidence, the belief, and the momentum. And so that little naysayer just kind of is just over here, kind of not nearly as powerful as when you really let it take the wheel. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

And I didn't really like growing up, I had an amazing family and I had great coaches around me, but I believed everything I thought. Everything I thought. And so it's funny to reflect back when I was in high school, I believed the you're not good enough. Oh, you you didn't make a shot in basketball. Wow, you should be ashamed walking out of that locker room with your family. And I could feel it. And the moment I realized, and this was it was physically for me, that I didn't have to believe every thought that I thought, it was like a whole unlock to another universe.

Keri Croft 37:28

You know, it really is.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

It really is.

Keri Croft 37:30

Don't believe everything you think. Right. But we really kind of do, right? Sometimes, unless you, yeah, you're like, just because I'm thinking it, I mean, this thing's a super highway of thoughts. If I believed it all, we'd be fine.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Yeah, I would, I don't even know where I'd be.

Keri Croft 37:42

We got we got some big problems. You know what I mean? Well, this is this is fantastic. So, like, people can find you on your website, they can find you, like they DM. But is it like um it's more like either they can do one-on-one with you too, or they could do um nutrition fitness one-on-one.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

I have I feel really called now to do more uh I and it might be similar to what you have done with systems of strength of doing more um videos for women and really building a community there because I have I love it. And if people listen to this, they're gonna laugh. But I live in a retirement community and they're my people, man. Like I'm the youngest by probably 40 years. That's great.

Keri Croft 38:19

How'd you end up there?

SPEAKER_00 38:20

For some reason, it's not technically, but if like you look in the clubhouse, there's all these gray-haired women jumping for joy. So it's like, it is, but they didn't actually get the certification, so I could live there.

Keri Croft 38:31

I see.

SPEAKER_00 38:31

And it's funny because now they thought, like, who's this 25-year-old living in our community with a pit bull to then realize she goes to bed earlier than I do? And like I go to their Euchre nights, like it's it's amazing. Stop it. It's it's anyway though. So I have some women there that are like, hey, what do I do working out? And I just can't give them an app. I could give them an app, but they need more than sets and reps, and more than anything, they need somebody to do it with, but I don't have that time to do it with one-on-one in person everybody. Yeah. So I feel very called to start that and build a community there, but it's not a yet thing, but I

Bodybuilding Discipline And Cake Therapy

SPEAKER_00 39:04

think that's down the road.

Keri Croft 39:04

I love that. Now, are you still do you do it like bodybuilder competitions? Did you do I did a couple?

SPEAKER_00 39:09

Um, yeah, I did six of them. This is that would have been senior year of high school or college, easily. And then a year after when I started my business, and that really what spurred everything off of if I could do that, like what else can I do that I'm limiting myself with? So I'll probably do it again sometime. I don't feel like it's a right now thing for me.

Keri Croft 39:25

God, you're so that you gotta be so dialed in with your nutrition.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

It is. It it was a great um, I had a great coach, not everybody has that experience, and so I don't advocate it for everybody. And if you do want to go down that route, please get somebody that is knowledgeable, that reverse diets you like all the things. But it was one of those things, Carrie, where I had to make different decisions than people around me. And that was so good for me in that time frame because I had a tendency to be a people pleaser and just go along with the crowd. And so I couldn't, I had to say no to the bar and go to the gym. And that strengthened that muscle for me of like, all right, no, we're not doing this. So that it it was, if I reflect back, that's exactly what I needed in the time of my life that I had.

Keri Croft 40:02

So when you could finally eat, were you just like, damn, that tastes good.

SPEAKER_00 40:05

So my favorite food is giant eagle birthday cake.

Keri Croft 40:08

Oh god, it's no. My friends and I talk about this all the time. Is it good? It's the best.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

Oh, I'm so glad you said because people will be like, Kelsey, giant eagle. I'm like, you don't understand.

Keri Croft 40:17

We need to give them a little shout out right now because like you be everybody's on these, like, especially people who have little kids, like, you know, and I'm no shit. Like, there's all these great little niche bakeries and things like that. But the giant eagle cake, I will take a I will literally take my and I want the I want the the icing on the side.

SPEAKER_00 40:33

It is I feel like it's so mad Kelsey's been there again.

Keri Croft 40:36

Giant Eagle birthday cake is the best.

SPEAKER_00 40:38

Okay, thank you. So, real quick, two things. Number one, the only thing I wanted after my bodybuilding competition was a giant eagle birthday cake. And I'll bet you I ate probably three-fourths of a sheet cake that night, and I was living my best life. So that was number one. And then two, after my accident, I didn't realize how much I talked about it until I had six giant eagle birthday cakes in my house after my accident because people wanted to bring me something. It's amazing.

Keri Croft 41:03

I love that. That's so great.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

I'm so glad you like it because I that is a soul sister right there. When you can connect on a giant eagle birthday cake, you know we're with the right person.

Keri Croft 41:12

I am the one to connect with on a giant eagle birthday cake because I could go in on it too. I don't want like a portion.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

No, you're gonna give me half the cake.

Keri Croft 41:19

I don't, yeah, I don't want like a little that's a whole nother conversation. Like I don't want you to like cut the piece and I'm like, no, no, no, give me, and I want a spoon.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

Yes.

Keri Croft 41:27

I don't even need the fork, I want the spoon because it's better with the to get the icing, all the better to get the icing with. Um, so anything else before we wrap up that you'd be like, I can't believe I didn't get to talk about this. And you'd be kicking yourself.

SPEAKER_00 41:39

I think the biggest thing, like just learn more about you. I think if for somebody that's listening out there is like you were created with so much potential within and so much amazing things within. And I think you would do a disservice to you not only yourself, but the ripple effect of who you are and the impact that you can have on others when we're just kind of going about the monotony of life. And so go experience things, go hike a mountain, go get around people that you might feel uncomfortable with and like just go do the thing because I reflect back and people think are like, oh, that's just Kelsey. I'm like, no, no, no. I had no idea. Half of this was within me. So when you can really understand that, man, there's a there's a ripple effect of people that need you to step into who you are. And so go do the thing and girl.

Keri Croft 42:24

Yeah, a good idea. What do you think, Sylvia? You ready to run through a wall? I am.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

Oh thank you, Kelsey.

Keri Croft 42:32

This was just the drink of joy that I needed today. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 42:35

Thanks for coming in. Thank you for having me. I'm very doing.

Keri Croft 42:39

Oh my god, I mean, like what? Just being a ridiculous human, like doing TikToks with Sylvia.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

Sylvia's trying to be more than Sylvia's trying to get me.

Keri Croft 42:47

Sylvia's one of her tasks this summer is to get us to go viral, and she is really working hard on it. We had a we had a video that we got like four, was it fourth at where are we at right now? We need to erase that one. You know why? Because we are way too cool now. We are up there. We need to like start work. You think we should erase it? Yeah, let's erase it. Kinda. Let's erase it. It was terrible anyway. I I was trying to be cool and I don't think it worked. TikTok saw through me.

SPEAKER_00 43:11

I I I've given up on that a long time ago.

Keri Croft 43:18

No, I know. I need to stop. I don't know what even know what I'm doing. Right, Sylvia? We're gonna go viral though by the end of summer. Like on one, on one hand, I'm like, yeah, I don't ever want to look at social media again. Then the other part of me is like, well, you can you can do it. Like, I'll give you all the content. Sylvia's gonna like be Geppetto and then just report back to me. Right. Give me, give me, give me the the analytics, you know. But seriously, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

Thank you.

Keri Croft 43:39

I've realized after sitting with you two, I probably need to be a better human being.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

No, I mean I I'm not even close to being perfect or anything like that. I know, but you're it's just it's just the journey.

Keri Croft 43:49

You have a lot of good qualities. You help horses, you hang out with old people and play euchre, you're doing all this stuff, the church. I I gotta, we just this is good. This is what I needed today.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

This is what I needed. We'll do it together. We'll do all the things. I'm excited for you to come out, see the horses.

Keri Croft 44:02

I actually would like to come see the horses. Yeah, Scott.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Scott and Ann, they're amazing humans. And I'm telling you, when you just get out, I live in Hilliard, out in the kind of outskirts of Hilliard, it is just like another side of you comes out. So I love it.

Keri Croft 44:14

I love it. Thank you.

Where To Follow And Final Send-Off

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Thank you, K.

Keri Croft 44:15

If you're still out there following your girl, follow me on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. And until next time, go check out Kelsey, go perv on her and keep moving, baby.