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The worlds of sports and showbiz collide! Featuring in-depth chats with top athletes, entertainers, and industry insiders - all with a Las Vegas twist.
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This is a KUNV Studios original program. The
Wesley Knight 0:04
content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Alexis Levi 0:39
Well, here we are again. It's been a little while, and I'm so excited to be back to the radio station. And I have an amazing guest today, and it's so exciting to talk to him. He's come coming to us all the way from Avayi, and so I just want to welcome him and thank him for being on the show today. Thank you so much, Kerry Valentine, for joining me.
Kerry Valentine 0:58
Aloha, Alexis. It's great to be here and wonderful to talk with you and have a great conversation with you.
Alexis Levi 1:05
Yes, well, you know we've seen a lot of things in the news lately, obviously about athletes and mental health and stress and things of that nature. Even down to LeBron, you know, they said he was really stressful trying to make the decision of where he was going to be at the end of his career and disappointing, you know, Draymond and disappointing Steph Curry and things like that. So I guess I want to start first and foremost by just letting my my audience know kind of who you are and what you do. And thank you so much for sending over your bio. What Kerry does, everyone, is he deals with everybody, not just athletes, but he does an amazing job with athletes. And when they're talented and they're trying to make sure that they're doing the best that they can on the field or on the court, whatever sport they do, he actually kind of gets in their head and makes sure that they're staying confident, staying motivated, not being offended by a coach that maybe is being a little hard on them, things of that nature. And I've seen that firsthand. So when I I had a chance to meet Carrie, I thought, wow, you know, this is something that's been needed like a long time ago, right? We've heard all the war stories. We've heard the things that happened in families. We've heard the things that happen between wives and husbands when the husband is an athlete, the challenges, the demand on their lives. That demand becomes their family's demand. So, and then sometimes the athletes feel guilty. So, you know, today I want to talk a little bit, Carrie, about what you've done in this industry, in the performance peak performance coaching industry, the mental game specialist, as you call yourself, and and I would say definitely you are that. And also talk about Champion Inner Game, a performance program that you actually developed and launched, and some of the successes that you have. So first things first, what made you go into this business?
Kerry Valentine 2:58
That's a really great question, Alexis, and I'll keep it brief. No, that's okay. No, I'm totally open, totally candid to share. You know, the biggest thing for me is I was playing sports as a young person. At the same time, I was also a musician, drummer, percussionist, and I just had a lot of great success very early on. I started performing professionally at 15. Thank you, parents, for allowing that to happen. Yeah, this was in New York, New Jersey area. And as I achieved more and more success, I got to see that the my own inner demons got louder and louder.
Alexis Levi 3:45
Yes,
Kerry Valentine 3:46
and so and and actually, as I achieved, you know, more accolades, and as I said, like you know, had more success traveling around the world, you know, performing with amazing musicians. My the the inner voice was just very very negative, so it took me on a an incredible journey, you know, into some very dark emotional places. I was able to come out of that, and I basically interrogated my own mind and thought as having a meditation background. I was able to do that, and then come up and develop a system called the Champion Unioner Game System. And from there, I've helped musicians and actors and entrepreneurs. But I really love working with athletes because they they know that their ability and top performance in their sport really relies on their mental game, and you know that that that's what differentiates right the the good from the great.
Alexis Levi 4:51
Yes, well, yes, definitely, and I mean we've seen so many greats over the years, and we've seen a lot of them spiral. You know, the money comes in, and that's. Challenge, right? Especially if you've never had any money. Now you have a million dollars, right? And then you've got the you know ups and downs of how people perceive you, not even who you are. You know, I know when my son was going through the transition from being you know a regular athlete per se to being pro. You know, there was certain demands that his friends put on him, you know, and and he was thinking, God, I got to take care of everybody, which happens to a lot of the athletes, especially a lot of the African American athletes, you know. So, you know, I really, really, really love what you're doing, and I'm so excited that you're sharing with us, you know, some of the challenges that you had that brought you into this, and so I want to talk. I know you can't give us names of people that you worked with, but I also wanted you to talk about maybe some of the the captions that you've had to deal with for people and kind of how you walked them out of
Kerry Valentine 5:53
it. Yeah, for sure. So you're talking like some of the challenges that go through their head and things like that.
Alexis Levi 6:00
Yes. Yes.
Kerry Valentine 6:02
For sure. For sure. And part of what I share to Alexis is, you know, my passion for this is to help people because I've been there myself. And so, you know, some of the challenges they get, let's say a golfer, you know, and I've worked with from Division One to you know NCA golfers to the top pros. You know a lot of them have first tee jitters, so that's also could you know happens for all kinds of athletes right before they're about to perform, right before their their game or or things of this nature. So you know, it's like, why is that happening in the first place? So from my perspective, those those nerves, that anxiety, if that's showing up, it's actually a good thing. I know you know people and yourself listening, going, Carrie, what are you talking about? Yeah, this is not a good thing,
Alexis Levi 7:02
but I bet
Kerry Valentine 7:04
it is. Right, hear me out. Why it's a good thing, it doesn't feel good, but why it's a good thing is like if you have, you know, feeling anxiety, or if you have thoughts in your head like, oh, you're not going to play well today. What you're really going on is trying to bring your attention to a level of confidence and success in your mindset in that very moment, and if you're able to shift it around, which doesn't take that long actually, and pretty much, you know, I'll give you the essence: is acknowledge it. A lot of athletes want to push the anxiety away, kind of throw it under the rug, sort of speak. Think like it. Oh, it's not really there, and your subconscious goes, you know, you can run, but you can't hide. And
Alexis Levi 7:52
yeah,
Kerry Valentine 7:52
and here and here's the thing again: the subconscious is like your internal sparring partner. It was like in the movie Rocky, Mickey to Rocky, Mickey was trying to be, you know, train Rocky in the very best as a as a fighter and and as any sparring partner. You want someone as a as a fighter. You want someone who could really be very powerful in the ring. So you want to train harder than when you get into your performance, it is easier. So again, the subconscious is trying to just check your resolve, check where you are at that very moment. So going back to right before you're about to, you know, compete or play, if you have some anxiety, accept it. Here's the thing: accept it. This is the first thing, and I would say even before accepting it, I would say get excited that oh I'm feeling nervous and and then go to the place of I choose to accept these feelings and there's a more process to it but that is the most of it when your subconscious hears you internally say oh I acknowledge I'm having anxiety right now. I acknowledge I'm feeling a little nervous before I'm about to play or perform or compete, and I choose to accept it and then come in with it. What I call an anchor, and that would be like I choose to perform at my very best in a calm and confident way now. And it's so important you say now because when you say now the subconscious hears it and what will happen generally as I said there's more to it but this is the essence what's going to happen for the athlete Alexis is all of a sudden they're going to feel calmer they're going to be more clear in their head and they're going to start off for the golfer hit that first drive exactly where their intended target. If you're a basketball player, start off the you know the game grade. Baseball, same thing. Whatever sport you're in, and then you build upon that throughout the game or the tournament or whatever. But it's so important to start off. In a calm, confident way. How's that sound?
Alexis Levi 10:02
Yes.
Kerry Valentine 10:03
Do you? No, I love
Alexis Levi 10:04
that. You know, I will tell. I will. I will air some dirty laundry. Kerry has worked with me, and boy, he has redirected my mind. When my mind starts telling me I'm, I'm too far in. I've got too much going on. I'm not going to reach the goal that I want to, you know, read. I remember to do those anchors. Those anchors are like, you know, some people say manifestation, but I like the anchor aspect because you're saying one sentence and you're sticking with that, and you're not, you know, veering left or right. And it, what it does is it calms my spirit down, and I can go ahead and go forward, just like you said for the athlete.
Kerry Valentine 10:40
And if I can add, it's beautiful, Alexis. Yes, it's beautiful. I want to share with those who are listening about that that when that anxiety or feeling nervous comes up, it's coming up to let you know you're on the precipice of success. You're about to have a really good day, and I know it doesn't seem like it when that shows up, but again, what I call turn the doubts inside out. The subconscious is a language, and it's a language unto itself, and we have to understand the language. And in many cases, it says to us the opposite of what it really is meaning. So if it says you're going to blow this up today and really stink. You're not going to play well. It's really saying you're going to do great today, but I question you. How much do you believe in that very moment that you're going to play well? And you could shift it in a moment, you know. And and then obviously there's work to be done, you know, outside of that moment of competition. There to get to that deeper sense of competition, being able to stay calm and also be able to handle whatever pressure is happening.
Alexis Levi 11:48
Yes. Well, now I'm just going to jump really quickly. We're going to have to have you come back a couple of times, Carrie, because this is an interesting conversation. I know my audience is is probably thomping at the bits, wanting to know exactly how they can do this, but I, you know, we the whole world just watched the World Cup, okay? And so the exciting thing about it, here's this young gentleman. I can't say his name. I will, I will get it, but I can't say his name. I don't want to mess it up. But he, he just embarked as the top, you know, top one, right? The top soccer player, and you know Messi was there for a long time, which is almost what's happening in you know in basketball. Well, you know you at some point you're going to get older and older and older, and you're not going to play when you're 50 most most times. You're going to try to leave before that time. So that anxiety that those athletes that are becoming seasoned athletes because they kind of are thinking, "Gosh, it's my time up. I was the young guy at one time, and now I'm the older guy, right? So, what do you do in that case, and what do you think about what's going on right now?
Kerry Valentine 12:52
Yeah, again, it is in those sense when you have a really strong peak performance in your mindset. When you're calm, you can bring. You can literally hear what I say. It's like the the body will follow the mind, Alexis. So even if like you're saying you're an older player, or if let's say you've experienced a little injury, you can talk to your body to say, I choose for my body to be strong on this game today. Now, I choose to perform my very best right now. And you keep saying those anchors as you're playing. And I tell you, if you do that, you will you'll have a game like Michael Jordan when he had the flu. Like you know, you will you will. You will. You will exceed your own potential expectations because you're working at that moment to really bring out your very best, and your body and your mind will support you as long as you're in that good communication with it. So
Alexis Levi 14:00
yes, that's right. Yes, just like just like Kobe, you know, when Kobe walked to the line and still shot that free throw after an ACL tear. Yes, you know, and I have my my son has had that ACL tear, and it's the most painful thing ever. But you know, he went mind over matter, mamba minded, and went out there and still was able to to do what he needed to do, and so you know I am excited about this. I think our audience is going to love this, and you know you're teaching all of us how to strengthen our mind. You know because everything seems to be mind over matter. It seems to be the third eye. It seems to be what's the other thing I hear: manifestation and repeating things and things of that nature, which is good too, right? But then you know, through you, I've learned about the anchor. You know, make sure that whatever my mind is telling me, make sure I'm telling it something back. You know, and and that's really exciting for me. You know,
Kerry Valentine 15:00
and the thing I and the thing I want to say, like someone like Kobe, Michael Jordan, so forth, you know, Steph Curry, and you know, folks of this nature, athletes, you know, around them at the pro level, and certainly at the amateur who are, you know, looking to play at the pro level, realize that you know these guys in a sense to different degrees confidence wasn't 100% in them at that point in time to make them the great star that they are. Each one of those guys went through a journey. Each one of them had to really transform their confidence into a stronger element. So confidence isn't necessarily born; it's built, and anybody can do it. And it's going to make your game that much better. So I really want everyone to understand and know it's like these guys really worked hard for sure to train their minds to get there. It's really think about this, and this is a question for all athletes listening. I know you work hard in your particular sport, and you probably work out at the gym. But here's my question: How much time are you spending on your mental gym? And if it's not a comparatively equal amount, then look at that, because again, at the level of of athletics, at the especially the top level, the difference isn't so much the the athletic difference between the different players. It's what's what's going on between the six inches across their ears. Right, and that's so true. That
Alexis Levi 16:38
is so true.
Kerry Valentine 16:39
Yeah. Yeah, and for business
Alexis Levi 16:41
too, right?
Kerry Valentine 16:42
Yeah, yeah, for sure, definitely. Because in business too, you're a lot of times there's a lot of failures, and you have to rise a have to rise above that. And each and every day, go into the day intending great success, and and being excited about this, and just and also having fun and and being willing to learn from whatever happens and to adapt and grow.
Alexis Levi 17:08
Yes, yes, yes. I love this. Thank you so much. And I know that today I only have Carrie just for a little while. He is in Hawaii, and we do have a second guest. But I'm going to invite you back now because I want you to finish telling my my audience how to use this at home and use it in their own space. Will you come back? I would
Kerry Valentine 17:29
love to. I would love to. Okay. Any time. Thank
Alexis Levi 17:33
you so much, Terry. I really love this, and we're going to go ahead and sign off on you, and then we'll come back up in a few seconds with our second guest, and I'm I'm going to book you at least so that we can get back on this because I think this is something that my audience definitely wants to know.
Kerry Valentine 17:48
For sure. Thank you so much, Terry Valentine.
Alexis Levi 17:51
Aloha. Thank
Kerry Valentine 17:52
you, Alexa. Aloha and a hui ho.
Alexis Levi 17:55
All right. Thank you. So I'm so excited today. I have my best friend and one of my confidants that I'm going to interview here on Sports and Stars, and so I'm so excited to interview and also introduce Dr. Karen Darnell. She is a writer. She was a bestseller on Amazon True Privilege as the series, and I'll let her tell you a little bit more about her work, and so you can go to Amazon and look it up for yourself. And I want to talk to her today about what she's doing now, and also what the plans are for the future. Welcome, Dr. Darnell.
Karen Darnell 18:33
Oh my gosh! Thank you so much for having me, Alexis. I'm so excited to be here.
Alexis Levi 18:38
I am so excited too. We we've done a lot in life, people, but we've not done an interview with each other. So this is this is a treat and a gift, a treat and a gift and a blessing. And I thank you so much for for being on here today. So we're going to get right into it. So true privilege. What happened, and why did you come up with the true privilege series? And tell my audience kind of what it is. Give them a little scenario or summary.
Karen Darnell 19:04
Okay, well, thank you so much. I never anticipated being a writer, and right after Christmas in 2005, I mean, I was wrapping up raising my family. I had been on the mission field, short-term missions, Underground House Church, China, Mongolia, different spots in Europe with different teams, and just raising up young Christian leaders and and just doing God's work around the world. And all of a sudden, I started seeing these visions, and I was like, they were so vivid. It was like a movie screen came down, and I was watching a movie. And I first I said it out loud. First of all, God, I'm not a writer, and I don't know anybody in Hollywood that could do these movies because my mind immediately went to movies. And so after that, I began, you know, writing and working on true privilege. I didn't really even have the name. I I really did not understand why I was even writing this story. It started out with the love story between Purity, the main character, and Faber, who was the rich heir to the Shadowbrook estate. And so basically, it started there, and then it led into I started seeing visions of human trafficking, the sex and labor trafficking that was going on at the turn of the 20th century. So it just went on and on, and basically there's the first trilogy, the Unholy Realm, and the first book came out and it became a bestseller. And so there's two other books, but there's going to be a series of nine books, three trilogies. So I've written the second trilogy, and that is, you know, I'm waiting to publish that. And then the third trilogy, I I started that, but it's not finished yet. So so basically, it has to do with sex and labor trafficking, and what the viewer can expect. I'm hoping to be in pre-production. This is my hope and my dream to be in pre-production, either for a streaming series or a movie franchise by January of 2027. So that's my position there. So basically, what the viewer can expect is an incredible visual experience of the adventures of going into new worlds. The universe, number one, as purity is led into the universe on a giant eagle, and she is has been summoned to New New Earth by the captain himself, who resides on New Earth, which is this incredible, beautiful place. And all the generations go there that have put their trust in this great captain. And so it's one adventure after the other. Purity learns to battle. She learns to war, and she takes all that power and she goes back to the old earth that's passing away to fight the labor and the sex trafficking. So it's an amazing story. She is gifted the talent of ballroom dancing, and she goes into competition, and there's all kinds of battles that go on there with her even becoming a champion. And so, basically, there's there's also in the the first book many original songs. I have a song a song called "Freedom Cries, and basically it's the character Rachel who is trafficked. She gets she comes to America as a mail order bride and she becomes trafficked her first day here. And part of the the song is freedom cries. Freedom cries. I can only imagine what I'm forced to do day and night to earn my bread. She looks and wonders why. So she's saying freedom is an actual like power and being. And she said, "Freedom cries. Freedom cries for me. There's no one to find me as I die. God in heaven, send an angel to rescue to rescue me from these chains. So it's just it has incredible original songs that really speak about what the characters are going through as they suffer through labor trafficking, and this and sex trafficking. And it's so it's so appropriate for today because today there's more slaves in the world than there's ever been, and it's not only sex slaves, but it's labor slaves, and a lot of them are children, one in every four. So you know, 20 over 25% are children that are trapped in these lives that they just they die early. You know, it's said that only a slave only lasts on the market about seven years, and then they just they die, they disappear, they die from infection, from murder, and things like that.
It's just horrific. So my goal in writing all of this is to really help bring a new generation of young people into the understanding of exactly what the grooming process is, because there's so many predators out there, especially online, and so basically they're they're seducing these kids to send the naked photo and entrap them, and many of the young people are entrapped into sex slavery, and many of them are living at home, and their parents don't even know that they're being pimped out. So it's really something where the education factor needs to come in play.
Alexis Levi 24:54
Right, and so what I want to also tell my audience is. There was a time when I remember, and I don't remember the whole story, but you met that young lady, and you really were there for her to have a sounding board that had been through some things in life, and also I believe she was in prison, but she ended up getting out. Is that correct?
Karen Darnell 25:17
Yes, her name was Sarah Cruzan, and this was-I was still writing *True Privilege* the first couple books, and I had seen her story online, where she basically got hooked, hoodwinked into, and groomed into sex trafficking, and she ended up defending herself, and she ended up killing her pimp, and then she was sentenced to life imprisonment. And so, basically, she she finally got out after like 1520, years, where they saw you know these young quote unquote prostitutes because she wasn't a prostitute. She was a child that had been manipulated into the so-called life and had been abused by this pimp, and she ended up, you know, in self-defense, getting rid of him, shooting him, and then she was actually sentenced to life imprisonment. But again, as I said, she did get out. California Supreme Court ended up reversing the verdict, and she she did get out. But her name's Sarah Cruzan, and I think she's still doing advocacy work for those for children that are you know that have been involved with go through those things. So that was part of the story, definitely.
Alexis Levi 26:38
Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, and I have I dave just one more question. I know we don't have a lot of time today, but I I do have one more question. Based on true privilege and based on everything that you've done and everything that you've put together, and obviously you know it's touching people because it got bestseller. What is your hope and your prayer that this series and this work that you've done will do for people that are in the space or could be in the space.
Karen Darnell 27:09
Well, I'm hoping that it will prevent a lot of youth from from the grooming process. Like I said, there's so many predators online that are going after these young people, and they could be a 50-year-old man, a 50-year-old pedophile, but they put up an avatar that they're like a 15 to 17-year-old great-looking guy, and they're going after the 15 or 13 to 15-year-old girl. So I'm hoping to to really help educate the young people through school curriculums, through the True Privilege series, and just through brochures and community awareness, teacher and parent awareness, and student awareness that this is going on, and to not send those naked photos, and to be aware that that there are people after them, so predators. So basically, yes, the predators are after them. So basically, it's community education, and not just here in America, but globally, because you know, around the world, you know, families are involved with selling off a child and and exploiting them into the sex and the labor trade, so it's it's basically for awareness and for to just save these families so much heartache and pain and save the children.
Alexis Levi 28:31
Yes, well, I really love what you're doing. As I was telling you, you know, this will be one of many interviews that we do as you start to get the series up and get it running and get it produced and things like that. But it is a very touchy area, and a lot of times people don't want to talk about it, right? But I mean, here on Sports and Stars, we talk about movies, we talk about music, we talk about everything, sports. And so I'm just grateful. Thank you so much, Dr. Karen Darnell, for coming and sharing your vision and sharing your program, and we look forward to you coming back so that we can talk about it more and see where you're at. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Karen Darnell 29:09
Thank you so much, Alexis. Goodbye. Bye
Alexis Levi 29:12
bye. This is Alexis with Sports and Stars, and I thank you so much for joining me today. My guests, thank you, Carrie Valentine, Dr. Karen Darnell, and and of course myself, Alexis Levi, and stay tuned to our next show, and I will have more amazing guests and more amazing people talking to you as students and talking to you as the adults of Las Vegas. Thank you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai