Permission, Faith, And The Power Of Becoming A Lighthouse

What if the fastest way to lead better is to stop striving and start listening? I sit down with bestselling author and strategist Cortney McDermott to explore intuition as a practical, reliable guide, one you can access in minutes with simple, science-backed resets like lying down, yawning, and shaking off stuck energy. Cortney shares how chasing gold stars led to a cold, lonely “top,” and how tuning into her inner teacher opened doors that policies and precedents said were impossible.

She traces her journey from executive assistant to main-stage presenter at The North Face, unpacking why so-called coincidences often appear when clarity, worthiness, and action align. Cortney reframes fear as a story we attach to sensation and shows how to train the mind to be a servant, not a master. You’ll learn how to interpret those butterflies as fuel, redirect repetitive thoughts, and build daily rituals that move you from self-protection to self-expression,no incense or mantras required.

The conversation dives into authenticity without the buzzwords. Cortney honors the ego as a useful character when it’s in service to something larger, and explains her pre-stage ritual of prepared surrender: “Use me.” From there, presence becomes electric and leadership becomes inevitable. We talk about unlearning performative niceness, reclaiming natural signals like yawning and laughter, and leading without a title by standing like a lighthouse, steady, bright, impossible to ignore.

Her view of leadership is clear: cultivate your gifts, then stand and shine. Lighthouses don’t roam the island; they hold their beam. Start now, before any title, by practicing inner permission daily, rest, move, listen, act. Finally, trade fragile hope for lived faith. You already trust the planet to spin and your heart to beat; extend that trust to your path. Bills, delays, and detours aren’t verdicts, they’re data. When you rest in faith, you stop gripping and start guiding, first yourself, then everyone who is called to your light.

If you’re a founder, executive, student, entry-level service staff, or community builder ready to trade burnout for inner clarity, this episode offers tools you can use today. 

More on Cortney Mcdermott regarding her books, services, blog, speaking requests at https://www.cortneymcdermott.com/

Thank you for listening!

Transcript

Opening And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good day, everyone. This is Nicole Ellis McGregor, the founders of the Overcomers Approach podcast, where I meet with people from different walks of life, different experiences, and different journeys. But the overarching theme is that we have the ability to overcome no matter what is set before us and could use that challenge to build us and make us stronger. I love the fact that I have Courtney McDermott here with me here today. She's a best-selling author, a TEDx speaker, renowned strategic thinker and trainer for corporate executives, business students, and entrepreneurial leaders worldwide. Her influential work has garnered recognition from major media outlets, including Success Magazine, Women's Health, Fox News Chicago, Mind Body Green, Startup Canada, and The Huffington Post. Courtney's debut book, Change Starts Within You, Unlocked the Confidence to Lead with Intuition, was handpicked for Inc. Inc. magazine, prestigious list of 26 favorite books of high achievers drawing comparisons to the inspirational journey of Eat, Pray, Love, and the efficiency principles of the four-hour work week. Before embarking on her entrepreneurial path, Courtney has held executive roles at Vanity Fair, served as vice president of sustainability partners, taught graduate students at esteemed Big Ten Universities, and collaborated with the Global Associates for the renowned consortium. If I say that, please forgive me if I didn't say that right. To support her education, she even took on various roles, ranging from deli waitress to secretary and everything in between. Courtney, thank you for having been on my show today and being a guest. You have an impressive bio, but I just feel like your lived experience, your professional experience, and all that you've done can really impact some of our listeners today who are entrepreneurial leaders, who are working in the community, maybe it's worldwide. There's several people that listen to my podcasts around the world. So I'm sure many will be impacted by this conversation today. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah, thank you, Nicole. I got a little tired listening to that intro. It's great to be here. I'm excited to be talking to you and your people today. Thank you.

Intuition As The Inner Teacher

SPEAKER_00 2:10

Awesome. Well, I'm gonna get dive right in. Your work centers around intuition and inner permission. When was there a defining moment in your life or career when you realized change truly had to start within you? When did that start?

SPEAKER_02 2:28

When was there not? I think it'd be easier. I think it'd be easier to pinpoint those moments where I wasn't feeling that existential ache. You know, I often joke that I was born in an existential crisis, you know, it's kind of like, what the heck are we doing here? Right. And uh I I believe that the intuition, I don't know necessarily that it's sparked per se, but that it's always there, right? It's this it the meaning of intuition actually means inner teacher, you know, intuition. So I feel like there's always this inner teacher present, and we get to choose more or less how much we disregard it or when we actually listen to it, right? And so I feel like I went so much time there where I was col I call it collecting gold stars, right? Where I was arriving in and I also remember writing in that first book that sometimes the top looks a lot, or sometimes the bottom looks a lot like the top to everyone else. Yes, you know, that place where you hit all the markers of success, and you just wonder who wrote this script, right? And so I hit that place very often, this sort of cold and lonely hallelujah of holy smokes, something's gotta change, something's gotta shift, and I have to start listening because that inner teacher, it it doesn't, it's there, right? It doesn't really go away, and it's this wonderful compass to where you're ultimately meant to go and how you're meant to live your life, I believe.

Practical Ways To Hear Yourself

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yes, yes. I love the fact that you speak on like the inner work and that the intuition is always there now. Whether we quiet that voice or we finally decide to listen to it, that's that's that's where the real deal I feel like comes in. What do you think people could do who really want to tap into that intuitive work, whether they're a professional or entrepreneur, or maybe even a student, but they're kind of ignoring it or they're doing things to mask it? And I believe authenticity kind of ties into that as well. What do you think people could do to just be more open to that? Or what was your experience regarding that?

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Yeah, most people will not like this answer. And my answer, my answer invariably to this kind of question is get horizontal. Literally time yourself out the way almost the way you would with a little kid, where you say, Okay, you're sort of spinning all around. And the way I do it is I I get horizontal. So I close out everything, I lie, you know, get lie my body down, lay my body down, and I say, What I never know actually, is it lie or lay? I don't remember which one is the the reflexive or whatever. Anyhow, it's been a while, but I get horizontal and uh another really powerful way to start to slip into different frequencies where you can hear your inner teacher better, and these are literal brainwave frequencies, is to start yawning. So both of those things, both lying down and yawning, will start to access those frequencies that are that are aligned with you hearing that still small voice as it's been called, or even just getting the nudge, or even just maybe even having a good cry so you can expel what's been in the way. I think there's just so much muck in the way of that inner voice. And so the more you learn to demuck, that's one of the principal ways that I do it is I just get horizontal and I counsel people to do the same. And you know, sometimes people will say, Well, I don't have time for that. And I always steal from the Dalai Lama and I say, you know, if you don't think you have five minutes, take an hour. I mean, he was talking about meditation, but the fact is, right, if we can't get with ourselves, we're never gonna get with ourselves in the true sense. And so that's one of the ways, again, in that demoking process, another thing I love to do, just move, just get active. One of my favorite things is just shaking. You shake your body off for five minutes, you're gonna start to release all sorts of beautiful uh chemical messengers into your bloodstream. You're gonna start to feel lighter, you're gonna move again into different frequencies that allow you to access more of your creativity that start to shoot off things like catecholamines, which are vital for learning and memory. So basically, you got a whole host of great things happening in your body if you do those just those couple things, and they take a few minutes. And again, a lot of people say, Oh, you know, I've I don't have time. Well, then uh that's kind of saying I don't have time for the rest of my life for a magnificent life.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Right. Yeah, you know, I love that, and I truly believe that our body um is really connected and intuitive to what's going on and all the distractions and all the energy that you could be taking in. And I really can't even imagine, or I can imagine, because there was a time in my life where I I didn't have like a like a decompression or process to even do those things. And um, I like the fact, like you said, just laying down and and yawning, releasing those whatever that is, toxins, energy, all that you've taken in that day, because where is it gonna go? Um, that's kind of a little scary because I'm sure that could turn into other things. And I think the more we get into our body, the more we could see really great outcomes. And and I love that. And I like the fact that it's just really basic principles that you laid be before us, like lie down um and just yawn. You know, like you said, it's just if you don't have the time, you know, then like what are you gonna do with the rest of your life? You gotta make time for yourself in some way or capacity, and like you said, it doesn't take a long time to do it. Um, so I love that. Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Well, and one of the things that's really effective about it is it's a non-doing. You know, not adding another thing for you to do, it's not go sit in a cross-legged position and hold a mudra and chant chant a mantra, you know, it's it's just lie your body, lay your body down. That is the right way. That is right, because we say I lie down and then object is the body, so lay the body down. So you know, if you go and lay the body down, right? It's a non-doing. And I think that's one of the most powerful ways back into your truth. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Yes. And for those who can get caught up in their heads, because I'm one of those people, if I have to think about a mat, a stretch that has to be a certain way, I I am I may not do it.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah, it's exhausting.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

You said it's like a non-doing what you're doing. So I think that is for sure impactful. Um, my next question is that you'd have some high-level jobs and you've taken some in-between jobs to shape yourself as a leader and a teacher. What do you felt like some of those jobs taught you? I love the fact that you, it sounds like you have a vast experience in jobs, which I'm sure connected you maybe with different people in different places at different times. How do you feel like that developed you as the person that you are, the teacher, the leader that you are now?

Jobs As Mirrors Of Consciousness

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Well, thank you. And I I feel that your jobs are kind of like a snapshot of wherever your consciousness is in any given moment, right? So your consciousness could be directed toward the persona of teaching, or your consciousness could be directed toward the persona of waitress, or your consciousness could be directed toward the persona of keynote speaker, you know? And for me, those jobs were a reflection of where my consciousness was directed and what were the kind of guiding lights behind that in terms of who I wanted to, who I wanted to work with, who I, how I wanted to know the world really. And so through these different positions, even though I wasn't really aware of it at the time, I was learning these aspects of myself through the world, right? And I was also learning, I was also learning kind of to the to the extent to which I had such a varied experience, I was learning some of the human condition as well. So it was really, it's really kind of a phenomenal school, uh, that of you know different careers, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Yeah, I love that reflection, like, you know, kind of where you were at at the time, your job was somewhat of a freaking reflection of what was going on with you, so maybe unconsciously, and it was coming out in whatever job that you had selected at the time. And it shows you the power like of our mind, you know, and you kind of are what you think you are, you or you you're at where you want to be, you know. And I like the fact that you said you got to see yourself. I like the fact that you still brought it back to like you, like your inner person, like you know, me. I think sometimes we can get so caught up in what's going on outside of us that we lose sense of ourselves and what we want and what we want to do. So that is good. I think that's a tip that I'll definitely take. And I think that would help a lot of people, um, you know, depending upon where they're at in this in in their journey in life.

The North Face Story And “Coincidence”

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah. You know, a story just came just came to mind if you'd like me to share it of that journey. Because what you were talking, I thought this could be very helpful is or useful, is uh when I was working at the North Face, you know, the outdoor company, when I started working there, I was essentially uh a secretary. I was an executive assistant, um, but I was essentially a secretary to the general manager. And I remember thinking, I want to be part of the executive management team. And I specifically remember, and it was so beautiful, I got invited to the sales meeting, which in that position is pretty much unheard of. You don't get to go to this, you don't get to go to the sales meeting, but because I had been doing such a good job for my boss, he said, okay, come along to the sales meeting. And I went to the sales meeting and I remember on opening night watching, looking at the stage and seeing my boss give a presentation and seeing the uh vice president of sales give a presentation, which is the number one guy in sales. And I remember thinking, I want to be up on that stage on opening night next year or next season. And and nothing in my reality confirmed that possibility. First of all, no one got up on that stage except for the general manager and the vice president ever on opening night. Second of all, certainly not anyone in my position would have been invited up on that stage. And through a series of of different, you know, as we call them erroneously coincidences. We can talk about that in a second if you want. But um through a series of of those of those um winks from God, if you will, I um I was on that stage in the next sales meeting, and uh I was in a whole new position. It wasn't either one of the ones that normally go on that stage, but I was I had you know worked my way into a whole new position and I was presenting on that stage. And so just a reminder to people that no matter what external circumstances are telling you, there's an inner guidance that will lead you so much faster where you want to go when you start to learn to attune to it.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, I love that. I do have another question to spring off of that, but and then I want to touch on the erroneous coincidences.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Um, I think when people, I think people know they know just like I'm sure you knew where you wanted to be. You knew that. Um, but being in that position that you were in, uh I think people there's a sense of fear. Like you know, like, uh, I I know I know I'm supposed to be up there, but I am way too scared to take the steps. They get caught up, you know, in their mind or whatever voices they've heard from whenever or the whatever bad experience they may have had. But I do believe we're all divinely created to do great things, but only maybe some of us only use a piece of that and and could go way far more because they know what their gut is telling them or their intuition is telling them. Sometimes fear is a block. When when someone knows, and I've bumped into a lot of people that have that, and I've had it once in my life. I'm finally starting to move out of that because I'm realizing life goes by very, very fast, and whatever we're meant to do, we need to do it. Um but I've also met people who are just brilliant and they were frozen and so in fear, and I'm like, oh my goodness, I know you're like the cook here, but you really run this company.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:42

And I think people get stuck in their heads or or fear. What how did you overcome that? Or you just kind of knew, or what suggestion would you have for someone? Maybe they're maybe they're in middle management, but they want to go to more leadership executive role, but they're still caught in their heads because you know politics and things like that come into play. And so they might just have a fear like I'm I'm good right here. What suggestions do you have? Yeah.

Reframing Fear And Training The Mind

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Yeah, I've definitely I've definitely felt that fear, and I also noticed that lots of times we tell ourselves the story, right? That that means fear, right? So I have felt many times in my life this these sensations that could be my mind could interpret them as fear, or it could interpret them as excitement, or it could interpret them in a in so many different ways, right? And so I allowed myself the luxury of interpreting those those sensations because they're sensations, right? So we get the sensation and then we make up a story.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Okay. So when you get the sensation of that, you know, oh, that that bubbly kind of I talk about this a little bit in my second book also, how to distinguish between these kinds of sensations, but you get that sensation, right? And that sensation through the story can either become a roadblock or something really exciting that you're that you've decided is already yours, essentially. And so I started training that muscle uh fairly early on, but then I started understanding more and more about how to train it and more and more about the mind, which is what I go into a lot in the second book, because I wanted people to have in the simplest ways possible uh ways that they knew how to start using their mind. In other words, how to start thinking, right? Because uh most people say they think, but for most of us, that's the equivalent of saying I beat my heart. Because really what's happening is the mind has gotten a little out of control, right? And so what we do know from science is that we're having somewhere between 50 to 70,000 thought impulses a day. And for most people, those are the same thought impulses, right? Only they're not really actively guiding or directing them, which is where which is where I've dedicated a lot of my work is learning how to direct the thought process so that you're not so, in other words, to to paraphrase from some of our greatest teachings is the mind is a is a terrible, terrible master, but it's a marvelous servant. So how do you flip it, right? The mind is not your enemy, the mind is trying to bring you to the ideas that you've established that means safety. So once again, you come back to the sensation. Does the sensation necessarily mean you're unsafe? You know, check yourself and say, wait, uh I am actually safe. So from here, is there a different story? And then working at the level once you've released some two from the physical body to go back to the shaking, for instance, because a lot of times people think it's psychological, but it's really stuck stagnant energy in your body. So, how do you start moving that through, you know, so that it's not blocking you? And so these all things these these work in tandem, but they're actually quite simple principles. And unfortunately, we're not taught anything about them growing up, which is why I've become so passionate about it in my work.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

This is so true. I love that. And I love the fact that you said that because we're not taught that. I do agree, we're not taught that, um, whether that's in school or whether that's whatever spiritual institution that you grew up in, if you did, or belief system. I think some, you know, some of us have that experience where we're taught that our mind is bad and that uh and you know, maybe that was religious concepts that we believed, and that, you know, we had to, you know, you know, make sure, you know, and when you're told that then your sense of safety gets thrown out the window. And then it's just like my mind is a bad thing and I'm a bad person, but really, you know, those, like you said, those sensations that you have, how can we make that for good? Because our mind is not our enemy, our mind wants us to do the greatest thing we could possibly do to our highest potential, and it's it's there. And how do we turn that around? I love that. I want to go back to the erroneous, I and I'm probably erroneous coincidences. And I usually already say that, but it's not coming out right, but I'll listen to it.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

It's all good, it's all good. I love it, I love it. Uh, so people use we, you know, we use this word coincidence to talk about chance, and I always like to point out that coincidence in mathematical terms is when two angles coincide perfectly. Yeah, or as Einstein says Einstein put it something along the lines of a coinciden coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous. I thought that was absolutely brilliant. You know, it's like these things are perfect angles coinciding. What's happening in your life is is sort of a perfect triangulation of what it is that you have deemed yourself uh worthy of and what you've allowed yourself up into this point. And so you can reframe that and you can create something really new.

Unlearning Niceness And Reclaiming The Body

SPEAKER_00 19:50

I love that. And I love the fact that this could be done no matter what role you are in your life. I think once you do like with that inner work, whether you're a mom, sister, daughter, you know, whatever we're our idea, however we identify ourselves as, and then the roles we have in our lives, you know, whatever that looks like. I think once you start, you know, tapping into that, I think it really can impact every role in your life. Like I could see myself being a better mother, a better leader, better entrepreneur, like um all that, you know, but I think it has to start, you know, right there and realize that God is in this, you know, that you may not see that, but it he's in the situation and he's there. And it's really meant to come out for your greater good. But it's like, you know, you have to believe that. Like you have to get your mind prepared for that. Like I that really resonated with me. And I and I do believe that happenstance or coincidences or whatever you would want to call it divine orchestration. Um, I I love that because I I do definitely believe that as well. So that's good. And I love the way that you positioned that and said that. Yes. And even about the mathematical mathematics and what I'm reading on is very uh spiritual and it's a language, you know. And I'm I'm kind of a nerd in that way, but I'll tap into something to read an article, read a book, and then I get done with it. But I love what you said, and I do agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

I love that. Well, my next question is you emphasize permission, permission to lead, permission to be authentic, to evolve. What is something you had to unlearn before you could truly step into your purpose? And maybe this can help some of my listeners, and maybe some still components of myself as I continue to walk my journey as well.

SPEAKER_02 21:39

Woman, I had to unlearn so much. Uh, I heard about that a lot actually in the first book because I was thinking, man, you know, there's so much we have to release, right? And let go of in the conditioning. Or I lately I've been calling it conditioning, right? We just get conned into stuff. One of the bigger things is for sure uh I had to unlearn. To sit still and not move and you know be quiet, you know, and be nice. I do consider myself a very kind human being. And that being said, it's not that I have to be nice in the sense of it's my it's my responsibility, which is nothing other than my ability to respond, to speak up where I see something that needs to be said. And that took a great unlearning because I had learned for so long to kind of you know keep my peace. And so I'd unlearned that. I definitely had to unlearn the lack of movement that we have in our in our cultures, specifically in the West, where you know, from a very, very young age, we're basically sat in a chair behind a desk and told, sit still, don't move, you know, be quiet. And you know, even things like yawning, I talk about yawning all the time because it's it's actually considered one of the best kept secrets in neuroscience. It's energizing and relaxing at the same time. Laughter is a phenomenal meditation. I always say the two most powerful meditations you could do are laughing and yawning. And we are taught from an early age that it's rude, that um in some cases that you know means we're bored or you know, all sorts of just erroneous information that we're given from a very young age. And it's not anyone's fault necessarily, but it is our chance and our again ability to respond, our responsibility to start to say, you know what, actually, maybe this original equipment is what I need to open up these reservoirs of truth that live within me and giving ourselves permission to say, I'm gonna reclaim the original equipment.

Authenticity, Ego In Service, And Surrender

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Yes. Yeah, that is good. I think like you said, laughter is that's a big one, you know, and I think that really speaks to me because laughter is a big thing for me. Um, smiling sometimes is a big thing for me, and I was told in life a numerous times that I was smiling too much. Uh and that sometimes it was a uh it could be like an anxiety response within me too, like just a different smiling word for me, and then I'm just naturally a smiler too. But I started getting the message like you're doing it too much, people are not gonna trust you, I don't trust you. And I was just like, and then I stopped for a while, but then I I felt in my soul like it was really like damaging me a little bit because I that's who I am. That's who that's part of my makeup. So I I love that, you know, and I love that, and I feel like um it's a great way to connect with people genuinely. You know, you don't want to just be doing it to be doing it, it has to be a genuine moment and an authentic experience for you know for that to happen. But I love the fact that you said that, and it's okay to kind of challenge some things that we learned, uh, because we have to unlearn in order to stretch ourselves and evolve, and and that's okay. I I truly love that, uh, which makes me tap tap a bit on being authentic. You know, I think a lot of people appreciate that word authentic and being authentic and being genuine. Um, and I think um I think for myself and maybe some of you know my listeners, being authentic is great, but sometimes in certain spaces, you don't know if you can bring your authentic self to that space, or maybe it is okay, and maybe it's something we need to unlearn. What are your some of your thoughts about that? I think for me, I'll speak from my experience. I work in public safety, so but I work from the human services component. So in that environment, it's very black and white, it's very, you know, rule driven. And I've always been out to, I'm just out the box out the box type of thinker, but not in a bad way. I'm like, hey, how can we make something work greater? Like, hey, why don't we do this holistic approach? We could actually save money on the end and we could be more human-centered when we connect with people. And then and I found myself in positions where I was hired for that, but it was like, go go do it, but you don't have any support right now. But once I do it, and once I it's kind of like a birthing experience, so it's like it's really painful. It's like, you know, you know, stretch your muscles, work out, it hurts, give give birth, it hurts, you know. But it's through that process that okay, it's like, okay, I know God, you have me here for a reason, but this part is painful for me, and I know I need to bring my authentic self because that's what they really want and need with God's, you know, direction because it's really it's me, but it's not me at the same time. How do you I feel like myself and others could probably get farther in that discomfort by being our authentic selves, but it's just a little scary sometimes.

Redefining Leadership From The Inside Out

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah, yeah. I oof, I love this. And I think here's as far as I can tell, right? And I've been talking about this for quite a few years. I remember years ago, I gave a talk in front of a thousand female entrepreneurs, and I remember sitting backstage and I was listening to, I wasn't listening, the the announcer was saying listing off all of my kind of curriculum, all the things that I had done. And I was backstage and I was very intentionally not listening to to the introduction, and I was very intentionally asking this force, this source energy, however you want to call the you know, the force that is that is always available to you, right? We call it by so many names, but I was asking, and in my case, I was saying, God, you know, take over. I I'm I'm as prepared as I can be. I need you to take over. And I had the most extraordinary experience on that stage because even though I was prepared, I became an instrument. And I know maybe sometimes we hear that, but it's one thing to kind of hear it, it's another one to experience it, you know, to have this experience knowing this thing. And I'm telling you, I the entire next day I felt like pure electricity was streaming through my whole body. I almost felt I remember crying and realizing and just wondering how we could contain that much love in our physical form. To me, it was almost like I felt like my body was just gonna burst open, the physical capsule. And uh, I stayed on that stage for something like four hours. And there's a whole story behind that. I share a little bit in the second book, but here's the main point of all of that is there's an order. You know, it's a little bit like the mind being a terrible servant or terrible master and a wonderful servant. There's an order in terms of you're playing a character. Okay, we're playing a character right now. I get to play this character. I love the character. Okay, I have no you people are always bashing the ego. I'm like, girl, I love my ego. Like do not ego is the one that puts me in the fortune. Forget 550 rooms where I'm having the conversations and I feel on top, you know, I feel I feel a light with possibility and potential. So it's not that the ego itself, the ego is the lowercase I, right? It's not the enemy, it's it's again in service. When it's in service, it's marvelous. When it's one that's leading the show, you're missing the mark. And so the way it, which by the way, is the original meaning of the word to sin is to miss the mark, right? So you are quite literally missing the mark. And so what happens instead when we reverse the order and we say to the character that we embody, you know, and we recognize, you know, hey, yeah, I I call myself this, I live on the street, I know such and such, I'm married to whosoever, whatever it is, you know, whatever it is, right? Whatever the characters you're playing. And I love to talk about characters and masks and all of that, but you say, We're gonna, we're gonna put our that in service to this force energy, like the same one that's conducting the trillions of biochemical reactions occurring in your body every second, the same one that's beating your heart, the same one that's sending electrical impulses down to your legs and having them take one step after another, that force will take over the more you learn to give the ego to it. You again, so the ego becomes your friend, the ego becomes your ally, the ego is awesome, okay? And it it's the order. So when you're in a situation like that, as far as I can tell, what I do is I say, use me. I've I've prepared the best I can. I am showing up with everything I've got in terms of what I've learned, in terms of my experience, in terms of all the talents that I've cultivated, which is what the gifts were given. Okay, when we come into this world, I'm doing my best at working those at max capacity. Now, God, spirit, light, Krishna, Yahweh, whatever, however, whatever name you want to give to the nameless, take over. Use me. That's where your power comes. That's where real true power comes. And that's what people kind of they they we use this word authenticity. We use we use words like that, but really what we're talking about is we're talking about some deeper truth, some really, really infinitely powerful intelligence that takes over and uses your character in ways that you could never even begin to fathom.

Hope, Faith, And Trust Over Control

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Oh my goodness, that's good. That is that is excellent. I just I oh my goodness, that is amazing. That's all I truly that resonated deep deep within me. Um, and I know that it will with other people too. Like you said, um, and like you said, there's certain things we don't have control or power or or power over, you know, and then our ego could be used for the greater good when we're in service. And it sounded like I just kept hearing, like, but you have to surrender to it and trust it because you can know that you've done all and everything that you knew what to do to be prepared. And I love the fact that you said when you went to speak, I think you said you stopped listening, you didn't hear what was being said, or whatever that was. Um maybe that could have been a block if you heard it, and you just had to go out there and just be in service and just sort of surrender to, like you said, the light, you know, God, Yahweh, you know, whoever it is for you to do his work, to be to do even greater than you can even imagine, and how it affected you, like even after. That is powerful. I I love that. I know we're wrapping up here, it's been excellent. I love it. That that was amazing. Like, oh my goodness. Looking ahead, what kind of leadership does the world need right now? And how can individuals embody it before before they have the title? You know, we you know, I think people are being placed in positions to lead. Um, and we need those people, but maybe they have to start doing the work before they even have the title. What do they start doing right now? What should they embody? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

Yeah, man. Woman, you're you're making so many things come in. I mean, so many messages are coming in as you're talking. I will say, you know, about leadership. I will quote from Tolstoy. Tolstoy said, Every man thinks of changing the world, no man thinks of changing himself.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Your power lies in your own ability to go within to recognize what your talents are, what your gifts are. And again, we've all been given them, right? But there's a parable of the talents. If you if you use them and you cultivate them, you're gonna get a heck of a lot more. If you don't, what it has been given will be taken away. You will be stripped of that. So that's that's a fundamental teaching that I think is really important for us to understand. You have gifts. If you're listening to this and you've listened this far, you have massive gifts, most likely. And you are calling in this information because that's what it, that's as far as I can tell, what happens with me is people call in information through me to them at very specific times in their life. So you're calling information to you about how to cultivate your own gifts. This isn't about a five-step process to something. This is no methodology. I don't have your freaking answers, but you do have your answers, right? And so that's where leadership is born. Leadership is born from a deep inner connection to this inner intelligence that we've been talking about, and this inner teacher that we've been talking about, and saying, you know what? I'm listening to you. I am no longer going to listen to externalities that shape and try to determine who it is and how I show up, who I am and how I show up. I'm gonna recognize that there's something deeper telling me who I am. That is the greatest kind of leadership, and it starts with you and for you, and then it extends out. It's a little bit like uh Anne Lamotte from Bird by Bird. That's a great book on writing, by the way. She said something along the lines of lighthouses don't go all over the island looking for people to save.

SPEAKER_01 34:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Lighthouses just stand there shining. Your job is not to convince anybody of anything, your job is to be the thing, and then the gravitational pull of that is so extreme that there's no other way other than to lead from that place.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

Awesome, awesome, Courtney. That was amazing. And what I hear from that is just be the light, be the light, look in, be the light, start with yourself and shine. And whatever's meant to be called to you is going to be called to you. And I think there are people that are called to people, but they're just waiting for you to get into position to shine. So I definitely, definitely love that. Um, one last question, and then we'll be done and we'll wrap it up. I will give an opportunity for you to give your web link for if people want to purchase your book or find out more, or maybe have you as a speaker as well. Uh, what gives you hope today in the world that that we're in all the work that you do? Um, you know, what how what gives you hope? I think that would resonate with some people who might feel maybe not the most hopeful right now, but what gives you hope? So many possibilities of greatness. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

First thing that comes up for me when you say hope is this. Um I've heard hope being called a beggar. You know, hope is like is like, oh, I hope this thing happens.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

Yes.

How To Connect With Courtney And Closing

SPEAKER_02 36:06

Faith, faith is a certainty. Yes, faith is a certainty. And you know, sometimes people will tell me, I don't have faith, I don't know what that is. You do have faith, you have faith every single second, about 99.99999. I don't even know how long that number goes on, percent of what is occurring both within you and outside of you. You know, you are not going to bed at night unless you're suffering from serious psychoses, wondering if the the planet that you're on is going to continue to spin so that you see another sunrise, or what you call a sunrise, which is really the planet rising to the sun. Anyhow, we don't we don't question that. And in the same way, we don't question what's happening inside, right? Unless something is off and then we start, you know, we go to the doctor and all this stuff. But most of the time, 99.999999, again, I don't know how long that goes on, we are in full trust, which is another word for faith. Now, faith again is a very different thing from hope. I tell people, forget about hope. Rest in faith, rest in faith, rest in trust, rest in the fact that maybe, just maybe, we as individual expressions of an ultimate intelligence cannot know the direction we're supposed to take. Just like we don't create a five-year plan for the planets to stay on track. Okay, so in the same way, you get to you would get to extend that trust everything. The thing, the bill that came in that you weren't expecting, the person who called with the quote unquote bad news. You know, Shakespeare put it really well nothing, neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so. Yeah, trust, trust, rest in that. It's way more powerful than anything you could hope for.

SPEAKER_00 37:44

Oh my goodness. Well, with that, that was amazing. Faith, you know, and uh kind of get out of our heads about the warrior and you know, like maybe the bagin. And I hope, no, faith, trust that it's gonna work out. Um, I love that. Courtney, if people want to get in touch with you for speaking or to purchase your books, what is your web link?

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Uh, so there's numerous ones. The important thing is that Courtney is spelled C-O-R-T. So sometimes I go by Coco C O C O, but Courtney McDermott.com or Court Inc. C-O-R-T-I-N-C dot com will give you some more information and contacts and stuff like that. And then the books, both of them are available wherever you can buy books, really. So if you go on Amazon, uh you'll find them again, making sure that Courtney is without a you, McDermott, and one is give yourself permission, the other is change starts within you. And they've they're on all these platforms, but they're also on audio. And I did the audio myself. I believe that your voice is a transmission, and uh, so it was really important for me to record those personally. And so those came out, the audiobooks came out last year, and they've been skyrocketing, so it's really exciting. So, yeah, thank you. I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_00 38:54

Thank you, thank you. Congratulations. I will make sure that's in the narrative description when I edit the podcast, and so they'll be able to see that in the description of the podcast. Uh, Courtney, it has been an amazing experience. I've learned so much in this under 40 minutes. I've I've I'm leaving with a lot of nuggets and a lot of good information, and I know my listeners are too. Thank you. It was an honor to have you today on the Overcomers Approach podcast.

SPEAKER_02 39:17

Thank you. You are a blessing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 39:19

Thank you.