I'd Like To Thank Myself | I Bet Every Last Cent I Had. ($100M Later)

"Be realistic." That's the advice that almost kept me poor forever.

I was living in a rent-by-the-day hotel in Los Angeles with strangers pounding on my door. I was sick, isolated, and completely broke. Logic said go home to Appalachia. Logic said save every penny.

Instead, I put thousands of dollars on three maxed-out credit cards for a certification I couldn't afford. It was the most reckless decision I ever made. It was also the best.

In this episode of I'd Like to Thank MySELF, I'm going back to the beginning. Moving to LA with $7,000. The health crisis that wiped me out. Losing every friend I had. And the moment I decided to bet on myself with money I didn't have, for a future I couldn't prove.

This isn't a masterclass. It's the real story of what it looks like to start a business with no money, no support system, and no evidence it's going to work. Just a feeling in your gut that says: this is the move.

I talk about why "playing it safe" is actually the most dangerous financial decision you can make. Why staying in a job you hate or a life that's too small is its own kind of bet. Why your 40s might be the best time to reinvent everything. And how growing up on food stamps in Appalachia taught me that "being realistic" is the enemy of building something real.

That three-credit-card bet? It became the foundation for the Institute of Transformational Nutrition, tens of thousands of certified coaches worldwide, and multiple businesses generating over $100 million. From nothing. From a girl who bathed in a creek and didn't have a bathroom growing up.

If you're a woman over 40 sitting on a decision right now and the math doesn't make sense but your gut won't shut up about it... this one's for you!

Chapters
1. 00:00 – The Riskiest Financial Decision I Ever Made
2. 01:02 – One-Way Ticket to LA With $8,000 and a Dream
3. 02:15 – The Shady Hotel & Getting Threatened
4. 04:26 – Refusing to Go Home
5. 05:08 – Modeling Hustle & Desert-Level Risk
6. 07:20 – The First $4,000 Month
7. 09:37 – When Everything Fell Apart
8. 11:21 – Losing Friends & Hitting Rock Bottom
9. 13:31 – The Late-Night Decision to Fix It Herself
10. 14:21 – Splitting It Across Three Credit Cards
11. 16:00 – The Foundation of Everything
12. 18:19 – Why Betting on Yourself Feels Terrifying
13. 20:38 – Not Betting on Yourself Is Also a Bet
14. 21:22 – It Wasn’t About the Money. It Was About Belief.
15. 22:11 – The Toast


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INSTITUTE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL NUTRITION
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What is I'd Like To Thank Myself ?

We thank everyone else for our success... friends, team, mentors. But when’s the last time you thanked the only person who actually dragged you through hell and back?

YourSELF.

This show is my love letter to the version of you who doesn’t get enough credit. The you who kept going when it would’ve been easier to quit.

I’m pulling back the curtain on what it actually looks like to be 48, building a skincare company, navigating perimenopause, raising a teenager, and refusing to become invisible.

The stuff nobody talks about after 40. And how I’m rewriting all of it.

Sometimes it’s just me. Sometimes it’s founders, creatives, and icons who’ve rewritten everything too. Always, it’s the raw truth.

Nothing filtered. Nothing softened. Nothing for show. Just the truth... and a drink.

Every episode ends the same way: we raise a glass and say the thing most people are too humble to admit: I’d like to thank mySELF.