Brittany Krystantos (00:07.052)
Welcome to the Dear Brittany Show. This is a podcast where you'll hear everything I always want to say and everything we're all thinking. I know it's you too. So get ready for a raw slice of reality. I'm your host, Brittany Christantos, and I am an author, speaker, mental health advocate, and host of a mental health series. I am very proud to say I have made an impact on the mental health of others for a decade now. Ask me, talk to me, tell me what we need to figure out for you.

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Brittany Krystantos (00:41.802)
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Brittany Krystantos (01:52.162)
Welcome to another inspiring episode of Dear Brittany. I'm your host, Brittany Cresantos, and today I'm so thrilled to have my girl, Nikki Steele, join us as we dive into a personal and deeply transformational journey. We'll explore how I've navigated and overcome a series of significant challenges, including sluctive mutism, depression, and a thing that people don't really know about me, my speech impediment. Through resilience and perseverance,

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I've emerged stronger and more determined than ever. And so has Nikki. So Nikki, don't we all have hurdles? we do. We have hurdles, especially as you're young. You don't know how to really handle them. As you get older, the lessons that you learned when you were young, you're able to learn from and utilize when you're older. So you're better. I agree. I think when people look at the word challenges, if we broke that up for a second,

There is a series of challenges in our lives, no matter who we are, what we do, our age. And I believe it really starts at a young age. If we go back to childhood for a second, childhood Brittany, seven -year -old Brittany. I talk about this all the time, but I don't really acknowledge the struggle and the pain that that seven -year -old Brittany went through. I always tell people, yeah, so I've overcome something called selected meat -huzum.

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Yes, less than 1 % of the world has that. But I kind of skipped through what it was like to be living in silence. I know, for example, there are so many women who are living in silence with their relationships or their lives. They don't open up about who they are or what they want to say. And so many females feel silence. And if you take that feeling of being silent for a second and you think about me as a seven -year -old girl, who had no capability or understanding of what it was like to have a voice, to be scared to have a voice. So Brittany, I just want to interrupt here for just a second. So the viewers truly understand one thing and that is you were silent and selective mutism is complete silence. You didn't say a word, right? And then as time went on and years went on, you learned how to

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Brittany Krystantos (04:17.613)
have that voice. that correct? Correct. And that's exactly what happened, Nikki. It was time went on. I turned one years old, turned two years old. I turned three years old and still know Brittany talking. She said a few words to her mom and dad, but besides that, was, it was like, I was completely afraid to speak. was afraid to have a voice. And I think that that fear of afraid to be myself or have a voice.

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has always manifested itself to 15 year old Brittany, 16 year old Brittany, even though I had a voice, you know, I outgrew this mutism is what I'm trying to say, but this shadow, this feeling was like shadowing me my whole life. And even to this day. So the way you say certain words and the way you have your speech, the way it comes out on a daily basis, is that, is that a direct result?

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from the mutism? My mom hired a speech therapist. Yes, for people who can't speak. So when I was seven years old, was going to constant speech there. Or maybe not seven, because I was still mute, selected mute. But even when I was 10 and 12, I had a really hard time pronouncing words. And it's really been hard for me because of the seven years of silence, I was unable to say some certain words that you could say. Right. Like, let me ask you a question. So do you remember, like, what was it like in your mind at the time? you, do you, do you remember thinking to yourself, I want to say something, I want to tell my mother something. I want to say something to the children around me. Like, do you remember that there was a blockage?

 

There was a huge blockage. mean, I had a best friend at seven years old who he was the only guy my age I spoke to and whispered to his name was Ryan. It was my mom's best friend's son. They had us at similar times. We were the same age and Ryan was the only person that I spoke to. And so I would actually whisper in his ear and tell him, hey, can you tell the teacher I want a cookie or yeah, I want to go to the washroom. Can you tell the teacher? And he would speak for me. And so that was an interesting, unique.

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Brittany Krystantos (06:35.48)
perspective because I had a voice through someone else. So you were able to pronounce words enough to talk to Ryan, but it was in a whisper. It was in a low light and you didn't want to be at all, you know, anyone looking at you. Is that also part of it? Yeah, I believe so. I didn't want anyone to look at me or talk to me or I was afraid. was shy. I was the shy kid in the class. I didn't speak and I always was this shy girl, shy person, the shy friend. And this narrative carried for years later.

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Even though eventually what happened was I outgrew this mutism, I've always had this fear to this day. When I met you, I thought you were phenomenal. You just came towards me, we started talking, we had a wonderful conversation, everything went well. But I will say that here and there you would give me a hint. You would say things like, I was quiet for seven years. I didn't speak for seven years. I...

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I, my mother had to get me therapy and help and therapists, and I wrote books on this. And, and then we started to do the podcast and I started to hear different things come out in your speech. And you kind of just looked at me and said, just to let you know, because of my speech issues and speech impediment, you're going to hear that I say things differently. And now I like, I said to you, Hey, I think we really should have our listeners hear about this because

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It's you and what you've overcome is huge. I'll tell you an example. My job, my work, I do podcasts, I interview people and people see this when I say the questions, maybe it sounds perfect sometimes or maybe it doesn't, but they don't realize, for example, I interviewed the prime minister, Justin Trudeau. Yes. I practiced that those questions at least 20 times a day for four months I was preparing because I couldn't pronounce most of those questions.

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I have to in my interviews is practice practice practice practice the words practice the pronunciation so many times until it's it's literally Involved in me like it's like it's like become me so when I did it I said the word perfectly set his name perfectly I Had no problem. Maybe there was one or two that internally I was like maybe I should have said it differently or better But that's normal to say things wrong sometimes, but no one would probably expect

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Brittany Krystantos (08:59.982)
how hard it was or how hard it is for me sometimes to pronounce some words as easy as, I don't know right now. Now you also said that there was times at times in your life where you've repeated the same thing because that's the way your mind will work. But I watched your Ted talk and I saw a dynamic, incredible speaker on that Ted talk. You nailed it. You were incredible. What did you have to do?

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to perform on that TED Talk the way you did. What kind of things did you have to do for yourself to be prepared? Nikki, I got the invitation to do a TED Talk a year before I did it, or maybe seven months before. And you have no idea how hard that TED Talk was. I had coaches, I had training, I had to redo the speech a thousand times. And then eventually I had to say the speech a million times in my mind. Like you have no idea that I was

crying my eyes out in this basement, in my basement where the studio is. And I was crying my eyes out because I couldn't do it. Even a month prior to the speech, I was like, I do not have this down -packed. I do not. How am going to get up on stage and do this? I don't know what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it and how I'm going to memorize it. But I just honestly, I shut my mind off. I was crying so hard. I was bawling my eyes out, not sleeping. It was so hard.

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for me to deliver that talk. But at one point I realized this is my time to fricking shine and I'm gonna stand up on that TED Talk because it was my dream for years to do a TED Talk. I was asked to do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna deliver. I'm gonna stand on that stage and I'm gonna speak from my heart. And I did it. And after, when the crowd was cheering and I got a standing ovation and...

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I was bawling my eyes out on that stage. They didn't show it. I wish they did, but I was bawling my eyes out. saw my family. saw the cameras were off. The cameras were off. I've just, I just started crying my eyes out because I was like the seven year old Brittany who couldn't even speak, spoke on one of the biggest stages of her life. And the same thing happened after the prime minister interview.

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Brittany Krystantos (11:21.782)
It didn't hit me until I got onto the plane the next day to go back home from Ottawa. And I was looking at pictures of us and looking behind the scenes because I didn't see the interview yet because obviously the video guy needed time to edit it. So I had no idea how I did, but I looked at the pictures of me going to the prime minister, like behind the scene footages, and I started crying my eyes out on the plane where people on the plane were like, honey, are you okay? I was like, I'm great. I just interviewed the

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freaking Prime Minister of Canada. And it hit me that moment and I bawled my eyes out when I got home. I was so sensitive and so emotional and I couldn't believe that the girl that couldn't speak or the girl that people doubted so many times in my life stood there as equal to the Prime Minister of Canada. This shaking his hand talking to him like like we were like

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I'm not a leader, but I felt like I was respected enough to be invited there to be in his presence and as someone who always felt that he inspired me my generation He always supported mental health whatever politics aside. I pretty much I like the prime minister I think trust and Trudeau is a really good person and I liked standing in that room and speaking to him and so I Was so emotional

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And the months before that leading up to it, Nikki, the practicing and practicing over and over again, making sure I pronounce his name right was incredible to be there. What an achievement. Like the accomplishment and achievement of both the Ted talk, the prime minister. mean, this is massive. If you wouldn't have told me everything that you had gone through after we sat down and discussed it, I wouldn't have known.

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until we started talking on the podcast, but I have to tell you, you truly blow me away. you know, I did comedy for three years before COVID, and I remember the first time getting out on stage, and I mean, my stomach, the butterflies in my stomach were just crazy. And I'm a confident person, and I can speak, I can, you know, can quickly make a joke, a funny little tale, you know, I'm easy going, it's ad -libbed, very off the cuff, okay?

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Brittany Krystantos (13:39.34)
And I'll tell you something, if I had to overcome what you've had to overcome and do what you've done, I mean, it's bigger than a bucket list. Do you know what I mean? It's bigger, it's massive. The achievement you must feel is just enormous. Thank you for saying that. I really appreciate that. And I want this episode here is how to overcome challenges and hardships to really touch the viewers because so many of us

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have gone through challenges, have gone through hardships. And my hardships, like I said, were overcoming the mutism. Even to this day, I do have some speech impediment and overcoming the depression, the mental health, and the anxiety. And to this day, I do struggle. I do have anxiety. But I work through it. going back to the viewers, the people that struggle every day to keep living, I'm going to get emotional here. Those are the people I dedicate this to.

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Because, you know, even in the TED talk, I talk about how every 40 seconds, one person in the world commits suicide in about 20 minutes or 30 minutes of this episode right now. There will be about, I'm bad at math, but there will be about 40 people gone. Such a loss. Such a Such a loss in society. And if you calculate that to millions of people, it's millions of people a day, essentially thousands of people a day. And those are so many beautiful souls lost.

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They have not understood how to overcome their hardships, their challenges. I pray for them. I pray for the people listening to us who are having challenges right now, who are having hardships, because you're the people that we dedicate this to. You're the people that I stand for. are the people that every day I fight for mental health crisis to be resolved. I fight worldwide for there to be more help accessible in every country. everyone. And so that's why I went into the prime minister's office fighting for the Canadians, having mental struggles and understanding what he's doing, where the funding's going for Canadians and how accessible it is for Canadians. Yeah, you really gave it to him. I mean, he, he, he kind of bent over backwards after having you talk to him. I mean, there's a lot implemented since you had that talk. Millions, millions, billions of dollars were supported. Yeah, you were, you were, you were good.

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Brittany Krystantos (15:58.702)
After that talk, there actually was more funding to mental health and I felt, wow. I did something huge. But there's more. There's the United States, there's France, there's the UK, there's a huge mental health crisis in France right now, there's a huge mental health crisis in the United States of America, there's a huge crisis in Italy, there is crisis everywhere. Every country, everyone has a huge suicide rate. It's a worldwide crisis.

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That's why I say that. Listen, I've gone through mental health challenges over my lifetime. mean, there's so many different kinds of mental health challenges. I've had probably three or four different, you know, kinds of levels of mental health challenges just just to give you one. Depression after my father died. OK, it sent me into a massive depression. How did I get myself out of that? Really, I think it was to understand that I needed to take care of myself.

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and to walk outside and breathe the air and to touch my feet on the grass and kind of, you know, almost get back to nature and that kind of thing. I felt empowered with my own self. It took a long time and it was a lot of discipline and it took me a long time. But here's another example, postpartum depression. My first child, I had my first child. I never knew this would have hit me the way it did.

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I thought, not me, not me. it hit me. It hit me. I was a mess. I couldn't stop crying. My hormones were all out of whack. I was not well. And I ended up on medication. Thank God for the medication. I'm somebody that definitely, you know, I am pharmaceutical person, but I'm also a naturopathic person. So I do believe pharmaceuticals do play a role in our society. But I also believe that we have to take care of ourselves too. So there's a lot of options. However,

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pharmaceuticals was what I needed to help my brain come back to normal from all the imbalance. But you know, there's a lot of things that can make you higher or lower in your feeling day to day. And I think right there what you said, I love that you share that example. Not that I love it. It's horrible you went through that, but I like that you said that because there is a huge crisis with, you know, you said grieving. You lost your father.

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Brittany Krystantos (18:26.156)
I lost my grandmother. It hit me like a wildflower. I don't know if that's the right sentence there, but I love it. love your comments though. Like, see, I do want to share with our listeners. Brittany has her own set of quirky little sayings and so it hit her like a wildflower. I'm going to use that. That's my saying of the week. I love you. You're just the cutest thing ever. Go ahead. Right. I make sayings out, for example, my best friend, Ricky, Nikki, Ricky, Ricky this time.

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Well, it has the funniest joke because one time, you know the saying, I have the tiger. Is that the same? Yeah. I have the tiger. Yeah. I said ball of the tiger. And for so long, I thought it was ball of the tiger. And so she tells everyone, don't any common sayings, Brittany will twist it and make it her own unique thing. And I don't even know. do it sometimes. Well, at least you didn't say balls of the tiger. I mean, everybody would have looked at you like, you know, and held their hand out to hold the balls of the tiger. No, I'm just kidding.

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Okay, going back, Nikki, to the fact of you lost your father. It was very hard. Grieving. Grief is a really hard thing for mental health. And then I went through grief as well because my grandmother, who practically raised me, I lost her two years ago and it hit me like a wildflower. that flower. Like that flower. And it was at a point in my life where I was so close to

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to getting to where I am today. I think the last year, I've definitely jumped in my career. The success happened. But two years ago, I was very close to getting to where I am today, but I lost her at nowhere. Unexpectedly, I got the call that she passed away, and I had... And knocked you down. And knocked me down, and I had a choice to give up. I was gonna give up my career. I can't do this anymore without her. But I heard her voice in my mind saying, don't... She always called me Britsky.

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Britsky, don't you dare do this. You keep fighting. You keep helping these people. You keep going at your career. Do not give up. And so four months later, I got the invitation to interview the prime minister. And I actually thought, I don't think I'm prepared for this yet. I don't think I can do this. I'm so grieving. But I put that aside, my grief, and I went in and I walked in that parliament like a boss and she would be proud. And so another thing you said is postpartum.

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Brittany Krystantos (20:50.146)
Another really hard mental health crisis or something happening in people's lives and you've got homelessness, you've got hard working families are struggling financially. There are so many factors in people's lives to challenges and hardships that makes people having mental struggles. And so why this episode is so important is because we all have our challenges every day. Your challenge today could be the fact that you're so tired and you don't know how you're going to do your meetings or go to work.

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Your challenge today could be, you don't know how you're going to pay the bills. Your challenge today could be, you don't know how you're going to ace the exams on your, on your math test, or you don't know how you're going to pass the college degree you're doing. Your challenge could be how you don't know how you're going to help your struggling kid. I mean, there are so many challenges we all go through. Some are big and small, but they don't define each other. They're all big. And they don't define you. And they don't define you. Right.

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And what I've learned over the years is to separate myself from the catalyst of what's causing my depression, anxiety, problems, and issues, and take myself almost away from that scenario to try and gain that strength back that I need to hurdle over the problem. And it's worked. And I'm trying to explain it the proper way, but basically it's almost like stepping out of yourself.

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and stepping away and almost singing to yourself, I'm simply the best. Better than all the rest. If you sing yourself certain things, you actually can turn your insides around, but you have to be your own. What's the word I'm looking for? Your own cheerleader. That's Your own cheerleader because no one's going to cheerlead you the way you'll cheerlead yourself.

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Brittany Krystantos (22:56.716)
Now I need pom -poms. There you go. go. N for Nikki. I for I. okay. I was never a cheerleader. That was kind of cute though. I wish I got that on video. You looked good. Let's go. Drum roll please. Nikki, steal the cheerleader. And you have to in your life be your own cheerleader. See that was a word again. I couldn't say that. Yeah, but she gets it out. She gets it out. She always gets it out. And so I think that

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I want to take this back. Let's bring it back for a second. Let's bring it back. Yeah. Cause we have a tendency of getting off track. You and I, have a little bit too much fun, too much fun doing this, but we have fun because we love you guys. The listeners, we love you all. You're our supporters and we want to meet you all, but let's take it back. All the listeners listening to this right now for all the people that are struggling, who are battling their challenges, their hardships, their sorrows, their grief, their downfalls. I want to take it to you guys.

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all of you who keep going every day to see another day, you are the real heroes. And just because I talk about my challenges openly doesn't mean it's easy for you to talk about your challenges, but I want you to know that you are the hero in the story right now. You are the reason why I keep going because I know how hard it is every day to keep going and keep going and keep going, but I know that

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All of us are challenging, having challenges and struggles and because of you, right? It's okay for me to realize I'm not alone. You're an inspiration. Bottom line. I think about it this way. I think about it this way. You had a condition where you didn't speak and now you have a podcast, you have a published Ted talk, you have a published discussion and meeting and sit down interview with the prime minister of

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Canada, okay? No matter what you think of Justin on any level, it doesn't matter. The fact is, is that Britney sat down with our country's leader. This is a person who had a speech issue for years and years and still has challenges, but gets up every morning and fights for the fact that she knows what she had to get over and she knows that she's going to continue.

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Brittany Krystantos (25:22.572)
and she fights it along the way. And you know what? That is the biggest situation I've run into in a very long time with how somebody has taken over like a boss with their own life and their own challenges. Hurdles. Well, Nikki, you're going to make me cry. Why do you always make me cry? Well, because I really, at the beginning, like I said, I said to you, I think you need to do an episode on who you are because you are a ​very special woman. Thank you. I really appreciate that. And if you want to know who I am, should I give more details into my life? yeah. She's fun. She's got a lot of quirkiness and it's fun. So I wake up, I'm never up before 11, let's say, unless I need to be like, why do I need to wake up 7am, 5am and get through that trend? You know, all those like motivational people, they wake up, they have their smoothie and they go to the gym at 5am and they, no, no, no, no, that's not me.

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That is not me. I'm up for like, I'm up for 10 30, really up for 11, but I don't function until 12 PM. And so is Nikki here. Well, I, I, I've often said to Brittany, if you need me somewhere, I will be there. Like if one of my children have an appointment at 7 AM, I will be there 15 minutes early. that's me too. I'm, I'm responsible. However, over time with

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The different things in my life, do have a condition on the right side of my body and it keeps me up all night long. Tell them about that. I have another, I have an issue and it's not an easy issue to deal with, but I do want to focus on the fact of Brittany a little more today, but my condition is a neuropathy condition where I have nerve pain on the right side of my body and it does keep me up, like I said. Anyways, so because of that.

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At times I need to sleep in a little bit more because I need the sleep. need the rest. So like I said before, I'll get up and be somewhere if I have to be there. You know what I mean? And here she's making me feel bad. I have no condition of why I sleep in. No, no, you have a condition. It's called, I'm relaxing. That's what it's called. It's called, I'm enjoying my beautiful dreams and my comfy bed and my cute dog, Charlie, and I'm snuggled.

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Brittany Krystantos (27:38.126)
And I don't need to run in the - swan pillow. Right, she has a swan pillow. mean, who the hell wants to get up if you have a swan that's, you know, in wrapping your body? mean, come on. I mean, I need a swan pillow. It's on sale at HomeSense for $34 .99. I love HomeSense. I love it. You know why I love HomeSense? You want to know why? I'll tell you why. I love HomeSense because there's no commitment.

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It's all reasonably priced. If you don't like it after a couple of years, you throw it out and get a new one. It's the same thing with bags. It's the same thing with everything else. Like Louis Vuitton's. I don't do Louis Vuitton's. Okay. I do Walmart. Okay. Get me a nylon bag for 10 bucks to throw it out at the end of the season. Done. No commitment. I completely agree with you. Done. Done. Well, okay. So let me tell you a little bit more. already told you I sleep on the swan pillow with Charlie who's

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She looks like a bear and she has a what? What's her? What's her? She looks like an Ewok. What's her teeth like? What do call it? She has teeth, the bottom teeth. I'll give you a little visual. The bottom teeth are out like Jay Leno and that's called a class three occlusion. The way the teeth sit for the top arch of the teeth. It is absolutely delicious to see this little dog walking around. First, like I said, looks like an Ewok. Okay, think of an Ewok.

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from Star Wars and then you have the class three occlusion with the teeth all fanned out the way like that. So adorable. And another thing about me is I love baking. My new thing is making this healthy protein cheesecake that is delicious. You post a picture. I posted it already. my god. not only that, she sends me a video one night. So she's holding the video, the phone, and she takes this big ass knife and she goes into a

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real slow and she pulls it out and all the berries and the cheesecake and the graham cracker crumbs and all of it. I'm like, this is like porn. It woke me up. I was like, my God, save me a piece. sent it like 12 o 'clock at night. I'm a horrible person, but that's me. I have a simple life. I, I work hard. I have double meetings every day. I

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Brittany Krystantos (29:55.5)
I'm exhausted and sometimes I am overworked and exhausted and Nikki tells me, you you need to take it back a little bit. You need to do your mental health work on yourself. And that's something I struggle with. And that's how it keeps you going too. also I do feel that, you know, as we enjoy the small things in life, you know, big things in life like trips or weddings or, you know, parties, they come along here and there and that's exciting and we love that. However,

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The small things every day, seeing a friend for coffee, the sun is shining, you had a good podcast day, your hair looks good. These little celebrations are what we really need to focus on because that's what keeps you happiest. I agree. And I think that we all need to find that little happiness. And so that's why I love baking and I love, you know, I love baking and having people like my baking. I can't cook. I'm a cooker. I'm a chef. I'm a baker.

Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes it doesn't, but that's me. I love that. And I love baths with sea salt. I clear my energy. I love sage, sage myself with some, you know, stinky sage where you can clear your energy and hopefully it works. I'm very like intuitive. I'm very, what's the word call? We're like, I don't know the word right now, too tired, but. Tell me how you feel and I'll give you the word. You do things because you think it's gonna give you good luck.

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spiritual no, like if you're a hockey player though, sometimes like they don't shave their beard because okay conspiracy no, no No, that's my struggle there. What's the word? I'm struggling too. god. We need another coffee I need I do need a coffee. I don't know. Okay, like for example, if there's a full moon the weird person and me will Have to take a sea salt bath because I was told that it will give you good luck

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I didn't know that. Okay, okay. If someone tells me to eat this berry and it's gonna give you good luck, I can guarantee you I'll eat the strawberry because I think it's gonna give me good luck. Like I'm very gullible. Well, when I see a full moon from now on, I'll be taking a sea salt bath. You're gonna have to give me a cup of it before I go home. you will. I will. I will for sure. I'll give you some sage as well. Please. But going back to this, this is going off topic. This is what we do. This is what we do. This is what we do. We so excited. is we do.

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Brittany Krystantos (32:18.84)
hardships and challenges. We're gonna end this in a minute, but I really want to dedicate this again to you, our listeners. If you're ever feeling like you can't go over this battle, you're on a road, let's say a yellow brick road, and you have roadblocks along the way, I want you to know that you can get through it. You just gotta move the roadblock, get out of the car, move it, the pylon, and that's how you gotta see your life. That's I see my life. I see it as if, okay.

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There's a roadblock. I'm going to get out of the car. I'm going to move the pylon, even though you're not supposed to, I think. And you go through it. I don't ever actually do that. But that's just like a metaphor. In your mind, this is what you do. I think about that because there are so many times in my life where I am struggling, I have challenges to this day where I'm thinking, how the hell am I going to get past this? But I will tell you what keeps me motivated. It's the future, the future of where I want to be. I always have goals.

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dreams, admissions. I always have high standards for myself and that is what motivates me. Okay, I interviewed the prime minister. That's not it. I'm waiting for the next interview, the next big moment. I always have high standards of what I want and I always make it happen. Yeah, you've got some stuff in the works that's really going to be amazing coming up. I'm very excited. Yeah, very excited. I've been told I keep saying amazing way too many times. I do too. Do you? We adopt.

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the people around us. So I say amazing all the time and you unfortunately have gotten my amazing words. So I have not said it. So do not get me back on that. Amazing, incredible. We're over those words. We're going to level up on our vocabulary there. So I'm going to write down a few words next time. And don't kid yourself. There was this one time I had an interview. and it was actually the behind the Jersey interview where I had NFL player Solomon Thomas, Helen Marie Lewis, a wrestler.

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and Jonathan Ledbetter, NFL player, and no joke, I had a cheat sheet beside me of what words I should and shouldn't say when people answer me back because of my struggles of speech sometimes. I don't know what to say. And if I'm nervous. But that's great. So I had things to say, do not say amazing, do not say incredible, do not say insightful. Stop it. And I had other words. But then I didn't really use it because I so comfortable with these three guests. They're incredible. I just said it again, but they really were incredible that I

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Brittany Krystantos (34:44.558)
got past that speech thing, you know? Yeah, I'm just proud of you. I feel very honored to be working with you and I'm really loving this episode in particular because I really think it was overdue to lay it out on the table who you are and where you're coming from in your life and where you've gone to and where we are.

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I mean, it's just a wonderful thing to see. Thank you so much, Nikki. And thank you for everyone listening to this. As a reminder, if you're going through your challenges, your hardships, to not be afraid, you will get through it. And keep that mental battle going with yourself. You can get through it. I have faith in you. And if you ever need to talk to anyone, as I always say, my door is always open for you. So reach out to me.

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message to me, but please, please don't be like calling me on Instagram every second 24 7. I do have to have a life, you know, you know what saying? I've had people like try to FaceTime me like every minute, but I'm open to talking. You're great with the messages though. You do get back to the listeners and yeah, and you always help out. I'm just, I'm thrilled to be here. You're wonderful and I'm so happy I was here for today. Thank you so much. And everyone tune in for another episode of Dear Brittany.

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On next week's episode, it's going to be amazing. we, you know, we're allowed to the word right now. Just now, just today. Amazing. And please feel free to write us a review, support us, give us a good thumbs up five star. We need the support. Don't we, Nikki? Yes, we do. Please. We really need the support because we want to continue doing this for you. For you. And that's how we're going to end it today. This is for you.

Our listeners on Dear Brittany.

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Brittany Krystantos (36:40.674)
That's it for today's episode of Dear Brittany. I'm looking forward to my chai tea latte and cuddles with my dog Charlie. I will be whipping up some new fantastic episodes where we can really dig into it together. Lots of love and until next time, sincerely, Britt.