Sam Panitch: elevation nation. Typically, we meet our guests that come and join the nation through another person that's come on the podcast. But sometimes in life, there are serendipitous moments that happen where you meet someone and you're like, you got to come on the pod, you're an incredible human being. And so you guys may recall, ⁓ I went to an event called Daybreaker, which is a sober Sunday morning. dance breathwork party vibe thing. And I went a Sunday a few weeks ago to get outside my comfort zone and meet cool like minded more mindful human beings in DC because I felt like I was missing that community. And I'm dancing by myself having a grand old time and there's this woman in the corner that's just the life of the party. Absolutely vibing doing her thing dancing meeting people saying hi. And I was like This girl's so cool. Let me say hello and figure out what she's doing. To be perfectly honest, I didn't work up the courage to do it until after the event when she was leading, getting in an Uber and I was like, hold on before you go, what's your deal? Like, who are you? Fast forward, we went, we grabbed a coffee, learned all about her past, the work that she is doing and how she went from traveling around the world, working in corporate to traveling some more and realizing corporate wasn't for her. and now she's making an impact, the best way I can put it, just through positivity and spreading love and joy around the community, specifically here in DC. Carrie, I'll let you give your own pitch for who you are because I think it's hard for me to sum up all the different components, but welcome to the podcast. We're so excited to have you.

Keri Hope: I'm so excited to be on. Should I tell my story of like, we were like, who's this guy in the corner alone dancing all by himself? No kidding. ⁓ Daybreaker is so cool. If your listeners have not heard of Daybreaker or Ben, you should look at when it's coming to your city. One of the craziest things about Daybreaker is that it used to be on weekdays. So people used to do this before they went to work, which I think we need to bring back.

Sam Panitch: There you go. Love it. Yep. Throw the shade. Throw the shade as you should.

Keri Hope: Why not? You go to a workout class, you go to the gym before, why not do like a sober dance party, have coffee, dance it out before you go into your job? Are you guys with me or no?

Parker Yablon: Well, I've never been to one. But I mean, Sam came back. He from my angle, he was like, I'm pretty nervous. I'm really like, I don't know what to expect. I'm not a big dancer. You know, I knowing him, he definitely met a lot of people. But afterwards, he was like, all right, that's cool. You got to come with me next time. I'm sure they're in New York City, too, right? They have to be. Yeah.

Sam Panitch: They do them in other ship.

Parker Yablon: Got it, got it. I think it would be really cool to do before work. I mean, why did the work days define our entire Monday to Friday? Let's change that up. We should be doing cool stuff like that. It doesn't matter if it's a Sunday or a Thursday or a Monday, whatever it might be. But Kerry, let's get back to it. Tell us a little bit more about who you are. We start every podcast off with an elevator pitch, because Sam knows you. I don't know you at all. Let's hear. Who is Kerry Holt?

Keri Hope: Okay. Yeah, hi, good to meet you Parker. ⁓ For me, I feel like this is always like, how do you answer this question in just a few seconds? And the older I get, the harder it is to answer it because I just like hate titles nowadays. So I'll share a few things about me. I'm originally from the Midwest. I grew up in Ohio and Indiana. Yes, I claim both. I was in both for equal amounts of time. So I can't choose if I'm a Hoosier or a Buckeye. ⁓ I originally went to school for fashion and thought that I would move to New York City and work for a magazine. But when I was in college, I ended up doing an internship here in DC. And we have a saying in DC that you drink the Potomac punch, you fall in love with this area. And I definitely did. ⁓ So for the most part, I've really put my roots down in DC. And there was a period of time where I left DC to travel, as Sam mentioned. And now I've just been back and navigating like, what do I wanna do every single day that will bring me my most fulfilled, aligned life? Because I feel like before the age of 18, I had already lived a million lives. I was in the foster care system and a lot of my life was defined by trauma and sadness and loss and that continued on in my adult life just navigating a lot of grief, losing family members, losing friends. So now I'm 31 and I've lost three out of five of my parents and so I think that For me, I don't ever want to define myself just as one thing ⁓ because life is so short. And I think that we should always be evolving and we should always be trying things that scare us. And we should always be committed to our values and morals, but otherwise open to just experiencing life. And so where I'm at right now is I just want to experience life. And ⁓ that's a little bit about me. That's my elevator pitch.

Parker Yablon: experiencing life at day, was it Daybreakers? Is that what it's called? Yeah, never knowing what you're gonna run into, who you're gonna meet, obviously means saying that time. So, okay, you started in corporate, and then, right, you found that you wanted to go anti-corporate and maybe travel the world. Talk to us a little bit more about that decision, like how you woke up, you were doing this job, maybe you loved. but the people you didn't like, or you didn't like the job, but you loved the people, and that led you to a decision to say, you know what, I'm putting that aside, I'm gonna go explore me as a human and go travel the world.

Keri Hope: Yeah, so I had worked in policy from the time that I graduated college. I had come to DC and did like the lobbyist thing. I was at a big law firm here and it was a really cool job. It was a really demanding job. And ⁓ during COVID, I ended up going to focus on a healthcare organization's child welfare policy. working on issues for families who were facing ⁓ child welfare or foster care involvement, this like substance use, families facing homelessness, food insecurity, just like really hard, heavy issues, but issues that I care a lot about and that, you know, I have lived experience with. And I think like COVID obviously for a lot of us, it made us more introspective. If you, you know, took advantage of the opportunity to be more reflective. And during that time, I just started to realize that I didn't feel like I was making like the... as big of an impact as I could in the policy space and that if I potentially like did something that scared me and left the policy space, I could play in more areas of this work and have a bigger impact and also be happier myself. I think like, to be honest, working in that space was, it changed a lot from when I first started to where, you know, currently we are in politics. And it became a lot more divisive and it became a lot harder to get things done. And it just started to feel like not as fulfilling as when I first started. And so I had, ⁓ I just had like gone through a period of my life where I went through a breakup and was like, I need to get out of the country. I just need to, you pray love for a minute. And during that process, I met so many cool people who were like corporate. to traveling pipeline. And they really expanded my eyes and opened my eyes to like, you don't have to fit into this cookie cutter style life. Like you don't have to just follow, you know, the escalator of get a degree, get a great job, you know, like you can, it's not linear, right? It can be up and down and all around. And ⁓ they kind of gave me the confidence to play around with that idea. And so when I started like, Going to another country coming back to DC for two weeks and then going for a month and then coming it was crazy And eventually I got tired of that like it was so much back and forth and I was like Why am I doing this and it was to fulfill an in-office requirement? And I was like why like I'm I don't want to be in the office I don't even feel like I'm making a huge impact in this job So eventually I decided you know I'm gonna take a leap of faith quit my job start my own consulting practice and see what happens. At the same time, I decided to get my yoga certification and try out an ⁓ additional career path, and that has been amazing. So yeah, that's the leaving corporate pipeline.

Parker Yablon: Where'd you travel?

Keri Hope: ⁓ Everywhere. I spent a lot of time in Mexico, like different parts of Mexico, and I love Mexico. I went to Europe, I spent time in Greece and Italy and Switzerland. I went to the Philippines, Hong Kong, Peru, all over the place.

Sam Panitch: It's a beautiful way to live life. And I'm just really happy for you and proud of you for taking that leap. think a lot of people struggle going against the mold and whether that's as extreme as quitting your job and going to travel the world or even for Parker and myself, trying to make a business on the side of our full-time jobs become a bigger part. Like whatever little steps that you have out there, think living your more true and authentic version of you is scary. And so I commend you for taking such an extreme leap of faith to being in such pure alignment with the life that you want to live. You mentioned, Carrie, the yoga certification, which I think was the first of many ⁓ experiences that got you more into mindfulness and holistic wellness and health, which is something we bonded on. Talk to me a little bit about how your eyes got open to that. world and what that meant for you is now you've kind of built that into who you are at your core.

Keri Hope: Oh my gosh, loaded question. So I grew up in the Midwest and I grew up in settings where Christianity was the predominant religion and ⁓ in my family, like in my mom and her relationship with the church, there were like so many things that were considered like evil. And it was like yoga and meditation. was like meditation is like you're emptying your brain so that the devil can get into your brain. And so all those things like there's a lot of fear mongering around it. And so when I left the country and I started solo traveling. also had, I had been deconstructing my faith for a while, but it was just like another level of deconstructing it and learning about how other cultures have a relationship with spirituality. And I was staying at this, it was like a place for digital nomads. So you are working and living and they have events for digital nomads. And the place I was was at the time had a ecstatic dance class and I was like thinking it would be a workout. So I signed up to go to this ecstatic dance class and I show up and it's just like me and this lady. And she's like, listen, we can do this but it's gonna be super awkward if it's just me and you. She's like, instead I'm a reiki master or whatever. Like do you wanna do like a chakra healing session with me? And I was like. This seems demonic. I don't know about this lady. We should probably just try dancing. And she was like, no, she explained it to me and she showed me her chart and I was like, okay, whatever, I'll try it. And I just laid there and she did her energy work and afterwards she told me all of these things that were coming up as she was doing the energy work and... A lot of the stuff she said and I didn't tell her a single thing about me, but a lot of the stuff that she said really resonated. She was like telling me too that a lot of my family members were coming into the space and telling me she's like, was so busy, like I can tell you know, you have childhood trauma, like okay, everyone does. ⁓ But then she said like some specific stuff that made me a little bit more curious and she talked a lot about my grandma. And so that like piqued my interest into learning more about my birth family and like our family lineage. And that was really like the start of this journey that then led me to like ⁓ doing more yoga and becoming more spiritual and becoming more open and having regular practices around meditation and breath work and all of these things that I was taught as a kid were like not acceptable. ⁓ And also at the time in Mexico, like yoga was one of the most accessible like workouts that I could do and so I just found myself like going to yoga all the time and before that I hated yoga. I thought it was so boring but then you you go every single day and you start to have fun and you start to really what I felt like I was coming home to my body as well ⁓ and so yeah that that in itself was just like a huge journey.

Parker Yablon: Hmm. Sounds like you had an experience that opened your eyes up to a whole new world in a sense and so I'm gonna ask you a question about this I don't know what you're gonna think about the answer or how you're gonna approach it, but I'm curious on it for sure So you said you lived your whole life you grew up with values instilled in you whether you liked it or not around your religion that the people around you put you know, created your world around, right, Christianity. And then you step outside your comfort zone, you leave your corporate job and you go experience the world and you go find new communities and new values and new way of living and seeing both the physical and the spiritual world. And so, Kerry, my question to you is how do you now approach life knowing you grew up this way, but you have new perspective on how maybe you see the world now. Because I'm Jewish. I grew up in the same values that I live now. Maybe they've evolved, but the idea of it is all the same.

Keri Hope: Yeah, that's a loaded question. One, Parker. Two, I think like there are still values that remain, right? Like there are still, from a very young age, like one of my biggest values is like having hope. And that was something that I was literally taught like when I was so, so little and I often tell like this story about being in a foster home and my foster mom like asking me to like pray and accept Christ into my heart and like this really like memorable dream that I had and and them explaining to me like when I was so little, I was like five and they were explaining to me that like rainbows are a sign of hope and they told me the story of like Noah and like that. So that's something, you know, you can you can separate I think what I'm getting at, religion from faith. And so I have always been a believer since that time I was like a little girl and that has always remained. I think the pieces around it, like these rules, these, ⁓ you know, red tape, that is what I'm stripping away so that I can live a more expansive and aligned life. ⁓ And so I think like some of the values are still the same and then some are just, adding in because I didn't realize that was just past the red tape. right? Like more openness and acceptance and curiosity and ⁓ you know healthy questioning of what you're told.

Sam Panitch: think that's a beautiful answer for a very hard question, Parker. Goodness gracious. It's tough. mean, like Parker said, we both grew up Jewish and the values that we have in us have also turned into a piece of your identity, right? When you grow up and you're shaped by your community and your parental figures with what you should believe that really is ingrained within you. And I think, Kerry, you've experienced this, one of the most beautiful, eye-opening ways to get out of your own bubble is to travel. I'll never forget when Parker and I, ⁓ we went to China together and we stepped off the plane and I literally was like, this isn't even earth. Like what is going on here? This is so different than anything I'm used to. And then you start to experience humanity and what connects us all together. fun story that I love to tell is Parker and I are walking the streets. It's two little white Jewish kids in Shanghai and this old Chinese man with no teeth comes up to us and asks if we're American and we say yes and then straight faced was just like, do you know Stephen Curry? And we're like, like we know of him. We don't know him. And then he was like, what about LeBron James?

Parker Yablon: Yeah, I think he was like, do you actually know do know him? Yeah, good friend, you know, we're hanging out.

Keri Hope: You're like, we ball with him. Yeah. He was in our little league. ⁓

Sam Panitch: Yeah, he's a good friend. And it was just like so cute and wholesome, but also a reminder that we are so similar, like more similar than I think we often probably believe in a world where we've become so divided based on differing opinions, religions, cultures, countries, creeds, sexual orientation, whatever. At the end of the day, people just want to be loved. They want to be happy. They want to try to make the world a better place. And that's why I love travel. so, Carrie, I'm so grateful that you shared kind of the evolution of you and how travel has really made you more holistic. I want to move now into 31 year old Carrie and what? Yeah, go ahead. You got something?

Keri Hope: Wait, before we move on, can I ask Parker a question back? Okay, Parker, because it's it's interesting to me just to like reflect on your question, like, you know, your your values that you have growing up Jewish, you're like, they're the same, right? So how do you feel like you

Sam Panitch: Hell yeah, you can. Put him on the hot seat.

Keri Hope: like holding the same values, do you feel like there's been any evolution of those values or any like questioning of those values, any sharpening of those values, like, or you just feel like they're exactly the same from when you were a kid?

Parker Yablon: I I would say to your point, maybe the exact same isn't fair because we grow up, the way we see the world changes by virtue of us growing up and getting more exposure to what life is. Judaism values are really centered around family. And I think when we look at family principles and family values, I actually don't think those have changed very much. but my own personal values, the things I care about, the things I want out of life, those have evolved like almost every day. It feels like, right. As things come along, like I said earlier, like the podcast conversation that we had with John that we were mentioning earlier, like I was a different person at that time, even though it was just two years ago, I can guarantee you what I valued as like my own individual value.

Keri Hope: Hahaha

Parker Yablon: values and principles were probably a little different than they are now. However, the way I see family, the way I see ⁓ community, which is so rooted in Judaism and in our faith, I think that's very similar to what it is today. And that we spend so much time with our family, we talk with our family, we share, there is so much to that. And I honestly don't see that ever changing, but to your point.

Keri Hope: Mm-hmm.

Parker Yablon: to Sam's point too, traveling and experience and meeting new people like yourself, you can learn things and you can take in information that you're like, wait, I like that. I'm going to apply that to my life in some way, whether it's a new ⁓ Sunday morning event that I go to because Sam dragged me there, even though I don't want to go. And that's now part of my routine or a new breath work routine or physical exercise, whatever it might be.

Keri Hope: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Parker Yablon: But that's like my own individual self rather than I feel like the faith that I follow, if that makes any sense.

Keri Hope: Mm-hmm, it does. Thank you for entertaining my question.

Parker Yablon: Of

Sam Panitch: to get even deeper. ⁓ Yeah, Parker and I also were raised religiously. I mean, I'm going to speak for you Parker, but not very strict of like you have to do ABC within Judaism to like be Jewish, ⁓ which is pretty unique for like our sect of Judaism, which is reform Judaism. Like a lot of Judaism is a lot more strict and there are a lot more rules to follow and you have to keep kosher and you can't use electricity on Shabbat. like how I was raised and how Parker was raised was different. ⁓ But to Parker's point on family, like another small story, going from Chicago to the East Coast to Maryland for school, for many of the Jewish holidays, I didn't have the money or the time to fly back for the Jewish holidays. And so Parker's family would take me in. and that sense of just community and being with a family around a dinner table, going to temple or whatever we would do for different religious events. mean, like Parker's mom's like my mom now. And so that to me has been a really beautiful piece of how like family and religion has brought us closer together. ⁓ Yeah, it's interesting.

Keri Hope: My mind is going so many places because this, it is so true. The Jewish community is so strong. And a lot of my work with kids and families and families in crisis and kids going into foster care, it never occurred to me. I never really meet any kids that are Jewish who are in foster care. And now I'm like, it's kind of like making me wonder what, you know, statistics would look like around the Jewish community. And if like, there are, if the community is taking proactive steps when a family is in crisis, so that a kid never actually comes to the attention of like, child welfare unless it is a very extreme case of like child abuse. Because I'm like, I'm even just racking my brain for like peers who are in foster care or like kids and I really cannot think of... anybody who's Jewish and I do think that's so true Lynn, so beautiful about the Jewish community and I remember in like Mexico I met like all these ⁓ all these young adults who are Jewish and they would always like leave our whole group on Friday to go have their dinner together and like there was this place on the corner and it would be bumping it would be like so packed and ⁓ so I think that that's really like a really beautiful value of what you guys were raised to treasure. It is a treasure.

Parker Yablon: You know, I can't, I can't speak much to the foster care component, but all I know is in Judaism and community, we celebrate the highs together really well, right? Like we say prayer over freaking wine as part of the way like we, you know, give thanks, but when times are the worst, when it's the times get as crappy as can be. and I'm talking about life and death. The Jewish community also rallies around those individuals who are there. it's highs are high, we're all coming together, lows are lows. And there's so many other religions and customs that do that. But I think that is really something that back to family and community has just been so, like in terms of a value. is like you got your people and you celebrate with them like crazy when things are great but when things are not great you're also there for them and you provide support and resources and willingness to sometimes just sit and listen if that's needed. ⁓ And so yeah I mean this is a great conversation. Sam we've never really maybe John inspired us because we were talking a little bit about John before here.

Keri Hope: John, definitely an inspiration. I need to meet John.

Sam Panitch: John Cameron is an absolute legend. ⁓ Who knows more about Judaism than Parker and I do and his mom was a nun. So yeah, he's just an almanac of knowledge on all religions. ⁓

Parker Yablon: and like combined like...

Keri Hope: That's crazy. That's so crazy. One more thing that I was just thinking of too as you guys were talking is like, like I often talk about blue zones. Do you know blue zones? Like where people live to be on average 100 years old and there's like five major ones in the world. And when they look at blues moms, like it's really, there's all these factors right around health and diet, but a lot of the times it's community and it's like the places they have such strong and rich community. And like in Japan, they have these things called morais and they get assigned a group of there's five of them total. When they're five years old, they get assigned to a morai and then they just lock in and commit to each other for the rest of their lives. And they've done stories. There's one of these mores, they're like, the women are 95 years old. They've been together for 90 years, which is just insane. I think about some of my longest friendships, and I think about one of my best friends, we're still best friends, we've been best friends since we were seven years old. And the idea of us knowing each other until we're 90 is so beautiful to me. And it's so beautiful to think about all the life we've already done together and how It's so important to have people like mirror back the life that you've lived to you because there are times where I can't see how much I've evolved or changed and she can call that out in me, you know? And like that is also the beauty of community. And I think it's so cool that now like this is becoming more of a conversation that it's, it really isn't just like. You know, obviously we say we need people and you need a community and you need a village and it's there's value in it. Now it's like we're talking about the science behind it and we're talking about it impacts your health. It impacts like your potential ability to. You know survive cancer or not or to be diagnosed with cancer or not because on the flip end There's in my line of work. We say adverse childhood experiences Which is this study that they measure how many adverse? experiences you've had before the age of 18 and you get a score and it's a score from 1 to 10 based on like 10 experiences and If you have a score of like 6 or higher your life expectancy drops a ton your ⁓ your risk of heart disease rises a ton. Your risk of autoimmune diseases rises a ton. And so it's like when you think about that concept and then you look at the science behind resilience, well, being in relationship with others helps you to be resilient. So it's, there, like to me, it's so stark, like that we actually for our health need to be in relationship.

Parker Yablon: And I love that. am so with you. And I think we're seeing even more so now it's ironic. It's like people are realizing that they want in-person community. want human connection more than ever. The flaw is that we live in this society of hyper-connectiveness. We are more connected to anything and everyone in the world than ever in the history of humans. think that they have community. People think they are connected to others by virtue of them following someone on social media, you know, following an influencer that they feel like is their best friend. People think they have that community, but yet they don't. So they're not going out and probably seeking the thing that they really need. And that is a challenge that Sam and I are very passionate about right now. is people are convinced that they have that connectedness and that community because they're getting it through the internet, when in reality, they should be putting the phone down and going outside and going to talk to a stranger. And man, there's some struggle in that right now.

Keri Hope: I am so glad you guys are working on that because like yes, yes and amen and ⁓ and unless people like really start facing their social anxiety and their fear around getting out like it's gonna be so detrimental and I like the parasocial relationships is what you're talking about, which is so weird to me like I am somebody who loves social media and I like I'm an influencer and I think that it's a really beautiful thing. can be a very connecting tool and Parasocialism is weird. Like it is always it kind of catches me off guard when somebody comes up to me and says like like I told them they're like, ⁓ I saw you into this place and like how was it and and How's your leg doing like and I'm like wait, did I tell you I got injured and they're like, ⁓ no, you shared it online and it it like it's weird because it's almost like a stranger coming up and hugging you in the store and you're like whoa we skipped a few steps like what's your name you know ⁓ and I think that people are starting to seek out like where can I take ⁓ connection offline like in DC we're having a lot more events where, you know, there's a dating app, for instance, that I'm working with and you might meet on the app, but they're really encouraging to come in person to the event or you might meet at the event and then match later on the app. So I think that hopefully we're moving into a world where you find a hybrid of the two because there is value. like, you know, when I met Sam, then I'm like, ⁓ you know, this person, you know, this person. And I would have never known that probably if we couldn't see mutual connections online. Right. So there's like value. There's a value to it and there's a con to it. Okay, let's hear your thoughts. Let's hear it. Let's hear it

Parker Yablon: I want to say one more point. No, one more point. And then I'll let Sam jump in. The problem isn't necessarily the individual. And Sam Scott Galloway said this on that podcast I sent you. The problem is that there's so much money and profit to be made by keeping people online, by keeping people tied to their phones, by keeping people on social media.

Keri Hope: you Yeah.

Parker Yablon: And unfortunately, that's the world that we're living. It's preying on our dopamine brains that feed on short form and feed on, want to know Carrie and what she's up to, but I've never met her a day in my life. Cause I, she, I, you know, we have similar connections. follow it like, and that is a challenge right now. I think that we're all facing is that the incentives for us, the individual and the incentives for businesses.

Keri Hope: Yeah.

Parker Yablon: are so skewed towards anti-in-person community that it's pushing everyone aside and everyone's now lonelier than ever. mean, the statistics speak for themselves.

Keri Hope: Mm-hmm. I want to hear from Sam, but then I have a comment.

Sam Panitch: Go ahead, Kerry, I'll go after you.

Keri Hope: No, Sam, I really do want to hear from you. It's been a while.

Sam Panitch: I like, I like when Parker's passionate. makes me so happy. ⁓ yeah, we're at a really weird time in society. I think young people and older people are struggling more than ever, ⁓ to feel connected and to feel heard and to feel like they're growing and to feel supported. And I think. you you hinted at it, Carrie and Parker also alluded to it. It's a problem that Parker and I are passionate about solving, especially in young men. ⁓ we're seeing mental health crisis in young guys. They're addicted to video games, gambling and pornography. And that's because I think they have lost their sense of community. And so Parker and I through the podcast, through our speaking and now through what we're going to be launching. Maybe by the time this is out, maybe not. We'll see how fast we work. a place for young men to come together and grow. Because I think one of the things that the podcast empowers us to do is not one of us has looked at social media or our phone in 35 minutes. Unless you're doing a workout class or in a really important meeting, you're pretty much checking your phone every two minutes. We never immerse ourselves in deep conversation. We never immerse ourselves in listening. I know you both were making fun of me for just sitting there, but to not think about what I want to say next and to just let you both talk and to think and to listen, we don't do that often enough. And so Parker and I want to young men exercise that part of our brain because I think that's what makes us feel something in our souls again. We're lacking this, ⁓ this fire in our gut. We don't have it anymore. We have nothing that really inspires us. And so for Parker and I, the best way that we've found to recreate that magic, we call it the when you're sitting at 1 a.m. with your buddies, drinking a beer or hanging out and having that deep, vulnerable conversation. The closest thing we've come to that is a podcast. And we think we've figured out how to bottle up the magic that we all are having right now and to bring that to real life in-person conversation. so that young men can feel that spark again, feel that fuel that really helps drive their soul forward.

Parker Yablon: And how do you do that, Sam? What are some of those things that we do? Let's hear it. No, give us the recipe.

Sam Panitch: ⁓ you want me to give away our secret sauce? Are we launching right now?

Keri Hope: Recipe.

Sam Panitch: ⁓ I think one of the biggest things is to have technology away for a bit. We are so easily distracted and we so easily use technology as a crutch to hide ourselves from uncomfortable situations. Hand up, myself included. Got to Daybreaker, went to the back of the room, pretended I was on my phone. trying to scope out who would talk to me, who wouldn't, right? We use it as a crutch. So getting rid of the crutch of technology is going to make us all very uncomfortable until we find a way to meet the person to our left and our right. And so that's the first step, getting rid of technology and stepping out into a community, into a world, into a room that everyone is invested in, immersed with you. that's step one. Step two is slowly getting more comfortable with the people around you. So whether that's silly icebreakers or a secret sauce, that I'm not going to give right now, but that Parker and I, a game that we're going to play with everybody to just break the ice in terms of talking to the person to your left and your right. And then third, it's how do you elevate the conversation from surface level, who you are, what you do? No one really gives a fuck. Let's be honest, like everyone's impressive. Cool. Congrats. Who are you at your core? Right? So how do we get deeper, a level deeper every time we ask another question to spark real conversation, spark deep conversation, and in turn spark vulnerability. So we have some ways that we extract a little more juice out of the conversation from people. And then lastly, to tie it all up, as we get deeper and deeper in our conversations and our topics, we want to take something away at the end of the day. So Parker and I did something that I will never forget. There was a frat party going downstairs in our frat house. Alcohol, girls, our boys, everywhere. Parker grabs my arm and says, come with me. He brings me upstairs to the top room. He's shaking his head because I'm a good storyteller. To the top room of the frat house. And he says, sit here and listen to this. And he went through one by one.

Keri Hope: Hahaha!

Sam Panitch: a list he stumbled upon probably on Twitter of a hundred rules to live by in your life. And we went one by one through these. Some of them were deep and some of them were funny. Like always unpack your suitcase if you're staying more than one night. And we talked about them. We debated them. We agreed. We disagreed. We added our own and just having that

Keri Hope: ⁓

Sam Panitch: deep conversation with Parker with something we loved. And so to our events, we're bringing in a concept of rules to live by, and we're going to make sure that everybody adds their own rule to a list to help inspire other people. And we're going to make a ginormous list of hopefully hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of rules to live your life by. And so that's how we're trying to get deeper with young men. We think that they want it. We just have to get them out of the house a little bit.

Keri Hope: I love what y'all are doing and I know a lot of young men, the populations I work with who need that, who really, really need that. I mean, they don't have that baked in family support. And so, you know, like those relationships are crucial, so crucial. ⁓ And, you know, Mother Teresa said it best, we draw the circle of family too small. And like, you just never know where one conversation could lead or like what somebody could hear. that could be the reason, you know, they choose to keep moving forward. So I'll invest. Where? How do I support you guys? ⁓

Sam Panitch: Girls aren't allowed carry. All right, fine. You can invest. We'll take it. True. ⁓ Parker just announced the name. All right. We're just dropping everything. All right. Cool. I guess we're launching. Sick.

Keri Hope: don't need to be N.

Parker Yablon: Well, that's just second seat, Sam. I mean, that doesn't, that does not bring us to Elevation Nation. ⁓

Keri Hope: Drop roll!

Parker Yablon: Well, I mean, by the time this is out, it will be out. That is for sure. That is for sure.

Keri Hope: That's exciting. Congratulations. It feels really great to be on the launch episode.

Sam Panitch: I sure hope so, ⁓

Parker Yablon: Yeah, well, that's another piece to Sam, man, we got to do a launch episode. So we have stuff that in right between, you know, now and the time carries comes out.

Keri Hope: Ha ha! I feel like you should have John interview you all for ⁓ the launch episode. Like you guys should be the guest on your own podcast.

Parker Yablon: Yeah. It's actually a good content idea, Sam, that's brilliant. We gotta get together and get interviewed by someone else while we're sitting in two seats.

Keri Hope: I like this. I could interview you and it would be, would call it a rose between two thorns. And I meant red, it's perfect. Okay, anyways, sorry.

Sam Panitch: I mean, Carrie literally does that, but it's dating episode.

Parker Yablon: How about, yeah, we do that.

Sam Panitch: Mmm, I like that. That is pretty good.

Parker Yablon: ⁓ damn. Literally.

Sam Panitch: No, it's a beautiful conversation. am so glad that you obviously I'm not glad you've seen the need. ⁓ But I think it's it's important that we know that the need is out there. And so I want to kind of get us moving to our next segments here, Carrie, but one last opportunity. You're working on so many exciting things. You're hosting many podcast clips. You're playing Cupid in DC, matching everybody up. Everyone's falling in love. You're doing yoga classes. You're training for high rocks. You also have a retreat that you're launching. So I want to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit about that and then we'll move on to our next segment.

Keri Hope: Thank you. Yeah, so I mean, it falls perfectly after the conversation about the need to be in person, connecting with others and having those experiences ⁓ in real life. I feel like that is where I want my next chapter of life to be focused is like, how do you connect more people and give them experiences to face their fears and see. ⁓ challenge their limits. ⁓ And so for me, travel has been such an important part of me facing my own fears, pushing my limits, questioning ⁓ my perspectives, expanding them, all of the things. ⁓ And so... I also believe that retreat spaces are so beautiful for connecting people and helping them to go a little bit deeper. I always say like, if you're going through a breakup, if you're transitioning from a job, if you just move somewhere new and you need friends, figure out a local place in your city that is hosting retreats and go on a retreat. It is like one of the easiest ways to really get to know people very fast and also just make like the best memories. So a couple years ago, I went to the Philippines for the first time, which is a story for another day to find my birth family. ⁓ But while I was there, I did a surf retreat, surf camp, and it was one of my favorite experiences ever. And. for all the reasons I just shared. But also there's something so special about the Philippines to our point. The Philippines has like the worst grid system ever. They don't run on 5G. They have millions of internet blackouts every day. ⁓ Like you cannot really work there. You can't really spend a ton of time on your phone, like on the islands and things. And so I think it really is like such a beautiful detox from technology and it forces you to be connected not only with the people around you, but in nature. And so I am really excited to be launching a retreat in the Philippines for October a surf and yoga retreat ⁓ for people who want to get outside of their comfort zone. ⁓ It's also gonna focus a lot around like what are the fears that you're living with and how do you rewrite those old narratives around those fears so that you can live a more aligned life. You can live a more confident life. ⁓ I just feel like there's so much fear these days and like It doesn't have to be as hard to overcome some of those things. So I'm excited to get a little bit deeper with retreat attendees on these topics and also put it to practice in real life, get people who have never surfed on a surfboard, get them out of the country. And yeah, it's called lunis, which in Tagalog, lunis means healing. It means remedy. It means cure. And that is how I felt going to the Philippines. Like the Filipino people, my people, they are the most hospitable. would let you sleep over if you just met them. They would give you the shoes off of their feet, the shirt off of their back, and the last ⁓ thing of yogurt in their fridge if you were hungry. So ⁓ check it out. Yogurt. was the first thing that popped into my head.

Sam Panitch: You say yoga or yogurt? I like that is so absurdly random, but okay. I guess Filipinos love yogurt. Yog in the fridge,

Keri Hope: Yoga in the fridge, yeah, yeah.

Parker Yablon: Yogurt's good. Yogurt's good.

Keri Hope: Yogurts? Yeah, so if you take anything away from this podcast, yogurt's amazing.

Sam Panitch: Yogurt's good unless your lactose intolerant

Parker Yablon: It is 0 % nonfat yogurt, Greek yogurt particularly. Yeah. All right. Okay. We're excited to see that come live in October surfing Philippines and yogurt. Speaking of yogurt, let's add to, let's go to our rapid fire section. We got a couple of questions for you. ⁓ You've been all around the globe. I'm sure you've eaten.

Keri Hope: Thank you. you

Parker Yablon: a lot of crazy things, not yogurt in Philippines. What's another crazy food that you remember from your travels?

Keri Hope: Alright, Guinea Pig and Peru.

Parker Yablon: My wife is not gonna like that one, I'll tell you that. She loves a good guinea pig. Not to eat though, as a pet.

Keri Hope: It would have been disrespectful if I didn't. Tastes like chicken. Surprise.

Parker Yablon: Fair. Fair.

Sam Panitch: I think you gotta try it. Yeah, it's all the same. ⁓ All right, next rapid fire for you, Kerry. You've traveled a lot of places, you've worked from a lot of places. What is one dream place still on your bucket list to travel to and work from?

Parker Yablon: Fair.

Keri Hope: Guatemala. Yeah, lots of yoga, lots of nature, lots of digital nomads. Cool, place. Good hiking.

Parker Yablon: land of volcanoes. It's not too far, at least from DC, so I expect you to be there soon.

Sam Panitch: So subjective, what do you mean it's not too far? It's... What?

Keri Hope: you

Parker Yablon: What's just happened to flight? It's not Philippines. Yeah, it's not the Philippines, dude. It's still in Central America. We're not even in South America at that point. It's just below Mexico. It's not crazy far, Sam. Your flight to LA was probably longer than your flight down to Guatemala.

Sam Panitch: I mean, you could say that about the entire world.

Keri Hope: That's That's true.

Sam Panitch: Fair enough. Alright, fair. You got me. All right. That's true. Yeah. Right? Where's our producer?

Keri Hope: Fact check says we need a fact checker.

Parker Yablon: Fact checker. All right, well, you're looking at them. Kerry, we're going to wrap it up with a question that we ask every single person who joins the Elevationation podcast. And that is all around a mental motto, a phrase, a quote, a slogan that you lead your life by. We've heard thousands of mental mottos through the years. And so obviously we are very curious, Kerry, what is your mental motto?

Keri Hope: My mental motto is you have been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved

Sam Panitch: Damn. That's like trademarked by you. I just want to... Really? I've never heard that before. That's beautiful. I really like that one.

Keri Hope: No, that's like a quote I heard long ago. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I loved it. I got like mountains tattooed on me after that because I loved it so much. And then I didn't realize they kind of look like the Coorsley Mountains. So that's my brand.

Parker Yablon: That's nice. Yeah, that's good.

Sam Panitch: It's a beautiful quote. Cold as the Rockies, baby. That's Carrie for ya.

Parker Yablon: Well, the more you talk about it, the more that becomes real. maybe, you know, we don't talk about the Coraline Mountains. We just talk about the mountains, maybe in Guatemala. Who knows? You know?

Keri Hope: Perfect, perfect Parker, perfect.

Sam Panitch: Good job, Parker. Way to spin it. Kerry, I am so grateful that we met at Daybreaker. I'm so grateful for the work that you are doing in our community, in your community, and helping make the world a better place. And on behalf of Parker, myself, and all of Elevation Nation, thank you for sharing your story, your wisdom, and your love with us. We truly appreciate it.

Keri Hope: Thank you for having me on. So good to meet you, Parker. And see you, Sam. ⁓

Sam Panitch: Until next week, Elevation Nation, peace.