Kelly's journey from being able-bodied to navigating the world with severe mobility challenges is nothing short of inspiring. As a dedicated author, artist, speaker, and disability advocate, she shares her powerful story of resilience in the face of adversity. Join us as Kelly opens up about the struggles and triumphs of living with an invisible disability, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive inclusion beyond basic ADA requirements. Her candid discussion sheds light on the often-overlooked experiences within the disability community and underscores the necessity of creating accessible spaces that truly cater to the needs of all individuals.
In a parallel narrative, I recount my own battle with physical limitations, chronic pain, and the transformative journey from spinal cord surgery to achieving personal fitness milestones. Through my story, we celebrate the strength found in self-belief and determination, even amidst challenging medical diagnoses. As we reflect on the healing power of creative expression, I share the origins of my art store, founded on a pay-what-you-can model, which seeks to spread love and joy by making art accessible to everyone. Together, we explore the profound connections art can foster and our collective mission to offer hope and inclusion through creative outlets.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nicole Tuxbury (00:02):
Hello everyone and welcome back to the latest
episode of Overcome Yourself,the podcast.
As you know, my name is Nicoleand I'm so excited to be here
today with Kelly.
Now, kelly is one of thosepeople I don't know if you guys
have ever experienced it whereyou meet someone and you just
feel like you've been friendswith them forever.
Because that's really how itwas for me and Kelly.
(00:22):
We met each other and we'relike I feel like we're just
we've been friends forever,we're supposed to be friends,
and so I'm so excited to bringher here today.
We're going to talk about Idon't know what we're going to
talk about.
We're going to talk about a lotof stuff, but, kelly, I want
you to take it away, introduceyourself and tell us a little
bit about you and what you do.
Kelly J Mendenhall (00:42):
All right, well, thank.
And what you do?
All right, well, thank you somuch for having me.
I'm excited.
We've been trying to do thisfor a while, so I'm glad it
worked out.
I'm a disabled author, artist,speaker, disability advocate.
Inclusion and accessibility,especially for people with
invisible illness and invisibledisabilities, is really, really
(01:03):
important to me.
That's what turns me on.
I want everybody to be able tolive their best life and like
experience all that life has tooffer.
Um, so my part in that is that Itry to make art and
specifically handcrafted, uh,folk art and artisan made goods
uh more accessible to peopleliving with invisible
(01:26):
disabilities, not just as aproduct to purchase which is
important in and of itself artis for everyone but also maybe
as a hobby and a way to dealwith the types of things that we
deal with when we live withchronic disabilities or chronic
diagnoses, especially invisiblelives.
(01:49):
It's different.
When I say it's different, it'snot to say that being disabled
in a way that is visible, likein a wheelchair or whatever, is
more valid or less valid, butwhat I'm saying is, in a lot of
conversations about disabilityrights, disability advocacy,
there is this tendency tooverlook or not talk about the
(02:14):
fact that it is a vastlydifferent world of needs for
people with dynamic disabilitiesversus people with total
immobility or reliance onmobility devices, and I really
want all of us to be catered toand not just allowed to be in a
(02:35):
space or accommodated to be in aspace or the bare minimum to
meet ada requirements, which isactually kind of bullshit, but
like the best version of itright.
So that's my contribution istrying to bring art to more
people and more education topeople, especially women living
(03:00):
with chronic illness anddisability.
Isn't chronic pain and spineissues women living with chronic
illness and disability?
Isn't chronic pain and spineissues?
Um, that's who I'm mostlyblogging for and putting my
story out there for, so you'reamazing.
Nicole Tuxbury (03:14):
You're so amazing, kelly, um, tell me a
little bit about your story.
So, um, real quick.
Last month, a month before, Ifollowed this other creator and
it was like disability awarenessmonth and she talked about how
disability is one of the largestminorities and it's one of the
only minorities that you canbecome a part of at any time of
(03:38):
your life.
Kelly J Mendenhall (03:40):
Tell me a little bit about that, yeah,
it's literally the only likedisenfranchised population.
You become a part of literallyanyone at any minute, and I
guess that's where it'sdifferent for folks like us who
maybe found out about thingslater in life or as adults.
I remember I was speaking atDisability Awareness last year
(04:06):
in the Grand Rapids area.
I was speaking at DisabilityAwareness Day and I had a guy
come up to me who was like Ican't imagine the grief that you
must have gone through.
He said I was born with spina,bifida and this and that he's
naming all these things so I wasborn with it.
So, yes, it's been frustratingand I've had to adapt and and
(04:29):
and fight for accommodations orfight for care.
He goes but to to have beenborn able-bodied and then all of
a sudden have your mobilitystripped from you.
I can't really imagine that.
Like you know a little bitabout your story, tell us a
little bit.
So I was a regular, like mostlyable-bodied person and, uh, I'd
(04:54):
been in a lot of car accidentswhen I was younger.
That weren't, weren't my fault,it was just a series of
unfortunate events.
And, um, I'd had some injuriesto my spine and head and back
and, uh, I'd been assaulted acouple times.
I had a history of traumaticevents, but I was like this
person that had like aches andpains and what I now know is
(05:14):
sciatica.
But, um, even in college I havethose things happening, um, and
I took a lot of ibuprofen anddid a lot of massage and
chiropractic care and then itvery quickly turned into.
I became a woman who couldn'twalk and I had no range of
motion in my legs and over thecourse of two and a half years I
(05:41):
was losing use of my limbsperiodically um, loss of
strength in my whole left side.
Um I the pain was otherworldly.
I was at like 10 out of 10 pain, 24 7.
But I was refusing narcotics andopioids because I was being
(06:03):
medically gaslit and I was amedical mystery and I knew that
if they put me on anything thatmasks the symptoms, they were
going to call back good enough,and I was going to end up with a
problem on top of a problem.
And maybe it's the flint kid inme or I'm just tenaciously
(06:27):
stubborn as fuck, but I justkept fighting and I kept not
taking the opioids and narcoticsand I kept firing doctors and
hiring doctors and researchingand seeking answers and
eventually we did figure outthat my spinal cord was actually
being crushed.
(06:47):
In my body I had had a very rarerupture, a centralized rupture
of spinal disc at the very baseof my thoracic spine, so right
under my bottom lip.
And that's a very rare spotbecause that part of your spine
is not mobile, so it's notnormal or common for that to be
(07:12):
a spot where you have a discrupture.
But then on top of that,instead of rupturing where it
spilled out to one side or theother so that they could see it
on MRIs, it was a centralizedrupture, so it ruptured and
exploded straight back.
And so all the years thatpeople weren't believing me
(07:32):
about my symptoms and things,all the new bone cells were
growing onto this rupture andturned into like a calcified
mass and it was growing betweenmy vertebrae, it was crushing my
spinal cord and that was whatwas causing all of the pain and
symptoms.
But it took two and a halfyears to figure that out.
Nicole Tuxbury (07:56):
So um, yeah, wow , wow, wow.
And now, now you have come tothe other side of that.
Like the other day you werelike in the gym, lifting up like
more than your body weight.
Like, tell me about that.
Recovery is not linear.
Kelly J Mendenhall (08:14):
I really want to stress that for people,
even where I'm at now is notwhere I was a year ago, let
alone five years ago.
So I had four neurosurgeries inthe span of 11 months and then
(08:37):
the next following year I hadtwo abdominal surgeries and one
was a hysterectomy.
So there's been a lot ofstarting and stopping rehab,
starting and stopping andstarting something.
And then in 2021, I had a falland it's dangerous to have a
fall in your spinal fusionpatient but I fell backwards
into a tub.
Um, because my feet are.
(08:59):
I have neuropathy in my feetnow, so I basically have like
diabetic feet, so I didn't feelmyself bump up against the back
of the tub when I went to take astep back in the bathroom from
the sink and I fell backwardsinto the tub in my um, my rib
cage, where my fusion is hit,the soap dispenser in the wall.
(09:19):
I know it's horrible.
I'm I'm sorry for everyone.
I'm so sorry, in pain for meright now.
I'm so sorry.
I tell you that because for ayear we couldn't figure out why
my spine was plunking and itturned out that it was fine.
I thought I was going toparalyze myself at every turn,
(09:40):
so I was like afraid to move.
I was having panic attacks andit took about a year to figure
out what had happened.
So my two floating ribs at thebottom that only attach in the
back, my spine hardware.
They had to take some of thebone away to make room for some
of that hardware.
So when I fell on the soap dishit basically was just like it
(10:01):
took out the last little bit ofbone holding those floating ribs
in place.
So they're like to see andunseat randomly, but sometimes
it's so loud people can hear it.
So like doctors were looking atme like is this gonna be okay?
Nicole Tuxbury (10:17):
I'm laughing with you, not at you.
Kelly J Mendenhall (10:22):
I'm just you have to laugh because you don't
cry and so for like 10 months.
they're looking at me like whatthe fuck?
And I'm looking at them likewhat the fuck, you know, and I'm
like scared.
We finally figured out whichkind of ends up being kind of
funny, and so I was like, allright, I'm taking this back into
(10:43):
my own hands, I'm taking mypower back.
I did have another disc thathas collapsed under my fusion.
So a year of atrophied musclesfrom not really moving and then
having that collapsed disc.
Last August I had a spinal nerveablation to burn off the nerves
that are causing all the painin my back and basically I just
(11:06):
have to do this every six monthsuntil it stops working and then
I have to have another fusionsurgery.
So this is like my opportunityto be responsible and take
responsibility for my ownvitality, right.
So I was like, all right, burnthese bitches and let's go.
So last year I started walkingwith petunia, my dog.
(11:29):
Uh, 10 minutes, 10 to 15minutes at a time, three to four
times a day.
She was recovering from thereconstruction surgery and I I
needed to start my spine rehabover.
So we did it together and, uh,we just kept slowly going a
little bit farther and a littlebit longer, and there were days
(11:51):
that I cried because the musclesin my back and legs hurt so bad
, because they were so tiredjust from holding me up.
But like that's what you haveto do, like you there's, you
can't get through it withoutstarting right, you can't get to
the other side without starting.
(12:11):
So, yeah, the other day I'm nowfor the first time since 2016,
it was 2017 when my spinestarted falling apart and for
the first time since 2016, I'munder 250 pounds and I pushed
277 pounds for three reps of 10on the vertical leg press the
(12:34):
other day of the gym.
That is amazing gym, which isamazing.
It is amazing about overcomingyourself, right yeah for sure.
And Jeff said to me he was likeI remember when you first
started this leg of your journeyand you would get so
(12:54):
embarrassed if any of us walkedout while you're doing your
exercises.
You know, in the in the uhliving or whatever because I
felt like I did feel embarrassedby how hard it was for me to do
so little compared to otherpeople.
But that's not the whole story.
(13:15):
The whole story is I havelimitations and uh and special
needs because my body is nolonger composed of all of its
original parts.
But isn't it amazing that I hadto have a seven and a half hour
(13:35):
long surgery to uncrush myspinal cord and five years later
I'm pushing 277 pounds on a legpress, like I'm a walking
miracle.
But you have to make yourselfthe miracle.
You can't just like blow hisknee.
It and I wanted to.
(13:57):
I sat in that space for a while.
I can't believe I have to dothis again.
I've already done this sixtimes.
The physical therapists arebasically laughing at me because
they're like you should knowwhat to do.
But what they don't understandis that, like I, my limbs were
not so like.
I'm still learning how to knowwhich muscles in my legs I'm
(14:20):
working, or which muscles in myfeet.
So it's painful because I haveto learn all over again how to
reuse everything and in acomplete body, and not always
compensate for one side of mybody.
It's been a journey, but yeah,and not always compensate for
one side of my body, it's been ajourney, but yeah, I wanted to
(14:42):
give up many, many, many timesmomentarily and I never did, and
that's a lot, that's amazing.
Nicole Tuxbury (14:53):
Yeah, I hurt my back.
When I was probably like nineyears old, I was on a boat.
I don't talk about the accidentvery much, but I was sitting in
the front of the boat.
The boat went up.
I went up, the boat came down,I came down and it knocked the
wind out of me and that was thefirst time that I was like, oh
(15:15):
my God, I'm dying.
And I was like I legitimatelythought that I was dying and I
was like they're gonna have toturn this boat around and, just,
I don't know, throw me in thewater or something.
And ever since then, you know, Iwas always told oh, you're too
young for back pain, you're tooyoung for your back.
(15:36):
And I remember once I wasalways told oh, you're too young
for back pain, you're too youngfor your back.
And I remember once, when I waslittle, I overheard someone
saying.
I was saying, oh, my back hurts.
And then somebody said, oh,that's just something she heard
me saying and she's repeating it.
And then I realized that nobodybelieved me and I was in pain
and everybody thought I was aliar and I was in pain and
(16:00):
everybody thought I was a liar,um, and so like I, you know,
like that's one version ofmedical gaslighting, talking
about like invisibledisabilities, where sometimes
you mask right, you're a littlekid things, you know, you
overcompensate, but theneverything hurts and you you
don't understand why.
Um, and then when I turned 21,everything kind of came to a
head, because I was working as aserver, as as a waitress, in a
restaurant, and I was carryingtrays that were way too heavy,
(16:23):
and I was carrying them, like onthis side, and it got to the
point where I couldn't take astep without pain, you know, and
I went to the doctor and thedoctor was like your spine has
been fused together.
I've gone back since, likethat's how close those those
bones were, and somebody elsewas like, well, no, they're not
(16:44):
fused together, but they are,like you know, they're there.
Kelly J Mendenhall (16:49):
And it's not like.
It's not like ankylosingspondylitis, they don't think.
They think it's like they wereinjured for so long that they,
that's from the trauma.
Nicole Tuxbury (16:58):
Yeah, that's, that's from the trauma.
From it, yeah.
And imagine, like you know,being like 12, 13, 15, 16, and
like you go to PE and they'relike do a sit-up.
And you're like, no, this hurtsme.
And they're like you're beinglazy, do a sit-up.
And so, like my whole life, I'mbeing forced to do things that
hurt me because nobody believedme.
And so, when I turned 21, Ifinally had to be like you know,
(17:21):
I got this news and the doctorwas like you have the back of an
elderly person, like like thisis like your whole back is
messed up.
You have a hump, like all ofthis is all messed up.
And I realized in that momentthat I was going to have to
choose my heart.
He's like if you continue downthis road, you'll be in a
wheelchair in less than fiveyears.
And what I heard was well,there's another road.
(17:43):
If, if this is the road Icontinue, well, what's the other
road?
Because obviously this is I'm.
I'm on some kind of intersectionhere right, if this is one
option, there's got to beanother one.
And then, like you, I had tochoose my heart.
And when it sucked, when I wasin pain, when I was, you know,
hanging on my inversion table ordoing like massages massages
(18:07):
are not fun like they show on tv, okay, like they are so painful
, um, you have to choose yourheart, like in the days where
you work out and you popsomething and now you can't walk
for three days.
Well, that's how I wrote mybook, right.
And so I want to bring itaround to telling me a little
bit more about the affordableart revolution, because you kind
(18:28):
of took where you were and youwere like what can I do from
right here?
And you have built somethingthat's just amazing.
Tell me about it.
Kelly J Mendenhall (18:36):
I appreciate that.
Yeah, well, it started becauseback when my journey started, no
one was talking about medicalgas lighting and nobody uh, it
just it wasn't a common topic,it wasn't even a phrase.
Like I remember when I firststarted using medical gas
lighting as a hashtag, and everysingle time it would be like
less than a thousand.
Less than a thousand, because Iwas like, as far as I know, I
(18:58):
was the first person to startcalling.
Is that, um, and I?
I I fought really hard to raiseawareness and I had great
podcasts.
It was really fun and it wasn'tjust about that, but it was
like, uh, I was going throughthis full journey of trying to
figure out my health and goingthrough all these surgeries
(19:19):
while I had the podcast.
So all my listeners got to like, follow along with this, like
journey, and um, I startedwriting for a website called
spine nation and it was so cool.
It was like a um, it was asocial networking site for, for
people with spine and chronicback issues and, uh, and so I
(19:41):
built this name for myself,right, but then, after all the
surgery, so that was like 2017to 2020, that's what I was doing
.
I wrote a book, I have podcasts.
I was doing all these differentthings to raise awareness.
I was fighting really hard.
And then in 2021, in January2021, I left Tennessee with
(20:04):
nothing, uh, to get out of atoxic, horrible living situation
and I was better from mysurgery.
So I came home to Michigan andI really didn't know what I
wanted to do with, what I wantedto do with myself, because I
was still fighting.
So at that point it had movedfrom a medical gaslighting
situation to a legal gaslightingsituation, because I'd had all
(20:25):
these surgeries and I was somessed up and unwell but my
disability benefits, my socialsecurity disability benefits,
had been denied and I had toappeal it.
But all my appeals got turneddown so I had to sue the federal
government.
I sued, I filed suit againstthe federal government in the
fall of 2020.
So guess how long it took toget into court again to like
(20:51):
right that wrong well, covidhappened.
So it took until 2022.
I won my case in June of 2022and I did not get paid until
October of 2022.
So all of those surgeries,homelessness, uh, moving from
(21:11):
another state, complexpost-traumatic stress disorder I
was having a huge breakdown.
I was not okay.
So for two years I was prettymuch completely absent from the
online world.
I would occasionally pop onfacebook and post something or
whatever, but, like as far as mywork was concerned, I had had
to put it all on the back burner.
(21:32):
While I dealt with this case,when the case was over, I was at
a crossroads, like you were at,and I was like you have a
choice.
You need to recognize and I'msaying this to myself I was like
Kelly you need to recognizewhen it's time to put down the
fight.
You won the fight.
(21:52):
You sued a billion dollarmultinational corporation and
won.
You sued the federal governmentand you won.
You solved your own fuckingmedical mysteries that no
medical professionals couldfreaking figure out.
Uh, and you've create, youcreated a career for yourself
(22:14):
from your couch when youcouldn't walk.
Put down the fight, like, but Ididn't know how to move forward
from there.
And so, christmas eve of 2022,I'm sitting on a couch with
petunia, all by myself, lookingat the um twinkling christmas
(22:35):
lights and watching schitt'sCreek.
My family was at a familygathering.
I was not with them because I'dhad a spinal procedure the day
before and I was in too muchpain and I was thinking, like,
what am I going to do, like whatis the next thing to do with my
life?
And I thought what saved mylife, what kept me going?
(22:55):
Because everybody kept saying,saying how have you done it?
How did you make it?
Sewing, embroidery, art, that's, that's what saved my life,
that's what kept me going,that's that, that was it.
So all of a sudden it dawned onme like what?
And the thing that I never likedabout the idea of selling my
handmade goods is that everybodywas telling me things like you
(23:18):
need to be charging $20 an hour.
And I'm like okay, one heirloomChristmas stocking that I make
takes between 47 and 72 hours.
If I charge $20 an hour for thework that I do, literally 1% of
the population is going to beable to access it and that's
(23:40):
bullshit.
And for me, I've been on theside of that.
I've been standing at art fairsor museums or whatever where I
wanted to be able to purchase apiece of art that spoke to me
and I couldn't because I had tothink about whether or not I was
going to be able to afford toeat for the next three days if I
(24:01):
bought a $50 piece of art.
And all of a sudden I thoughtwhat if you could find a way to
make make art more accessible topeople and and keep creating,
because, whether people buy yourshit or not, you're gonna keep
making it because it's whatsaved your life, it's what you
(24:22):
do, it's what you love to do andyou love sharing it with other
people.
So I decided to create an artstore where everything that is
not a custom, commission orpersonalized item that somebody
orders uh, it's pay what you can, or or pay what feels good to
you, and there's no wrong answer.
(24:43):
So when a person goes to mywebsite and they check out an
item, they pay for shipping andtax and then they decide either
immediately after ordering oronce they receive the item.
They decide what to put in myvirtual tip jar and that's
(25:07):
whatever feels right for them.
And, um and I stress that,because some folks can afford it
and they love the idea ofhelping other people, have
access to it.
So I'll have people who pay me200 for a set of christmas
(25:28):
ornaments that I would normallycharge 75 for if I was going to
put a price on it, but they payway more than then.
I would probably price itbecause they like the idea of
helping other people, and peoplewith invisible disabilities
especially, access thesehandmade goods.
So it's really special because,like, it's creating a community
(25:51):
at the same time as, as as I'mselling art, um, and I I say
positive intentions and prayersover what I'm creating.
Uh, a lot of times, whatever Iput in my shop is whatever my
heart feels like making at thatpoint.
So I'll just like pray over itor, like you know, speak
(26:13):
positive intentions and just say, universe, please get this
piece to the person who needs itthe most and like, let it bring
them joy.
You know, and um, and, and I'mintentional about that because I
do believe that life is allexchanging of energy and I
believe that things can holdenergy if we want them to, if we
(26:38):
channel that, that positiveenergy, um, and so, uh, it's
been a really beautiful like.
I had a young girl at an art ata in-person event I don't do
many in-person art eventsbecause it's physically
difficult, uh for me, but ifit's close to home, jeff will do
(26:58):
all the setup and take down andI had a teenage, uh, young lady
come to me at a show and she'dfallen in love with the piece
and she said I really don't haveany more money I can spend and
she was like but it means a lotto see you here, uh, because I
live with a lot of the samediagnosis that you live with and
it makes me feel good to seesomeone like me doing what
(27:21):
you're doing, like it makes mefeel like it's possible.
And she, she, she told me thatshe had just had her most
serious suicide attempt, like amonth or two before that, and I
asked her how she was doing andeverything.
And we talked and and I sharedwith her, you know, and and I
ended up just giving her thepiece.
(27:42):
I said I just I want you tohave this piece.
I like if it speaks to you thatmuch, please take it.
And like her whole body lit up,like not just her face but like
I really.
I mean she just like came tolife and I was like that's why I
do what I do, because somebodyelse paid 70 bucks for two
(28:03):
ornaments that night.
So if I give an embroidery hoopto a young girl, maybe the next
time she's feeling that aloneand isolated, maybe she looks at
the embroidery hoop andremembers that a complete
stranger cared enough to giveher a free piece of art.
I don't know, but that's myhope, you know that's amazing.
(28:26):
That's what the affordable artrevolution is.
It's, it's, I say my mission isto spread love and joy to
spoonies everywhere through artin the written world.
So I include my book in it,normally a print copy of my book
, because it's full of colorphotographs and things.
It's 25.99.
That's not accessible forpeople who are disabled a lot of
(28:47):
times and on limited income.
So I had at one point I madethe ebook like $2.99, um, and
now I created the book cast,where I created a podcast, um,
where I read the whole book, um,and that's $3.99 for the whole
series because that's moreaccessible and for those who
(29:09):
might be like, not able to reador have you know whatever, it
makes it more accessible to allkinds of audiences so I'm trying
to invent everything I do in away that is revolutionary as far
as accessibility and inclusion.
So yes, you're amazing.
Nicole Tuxbury (29:29):
And just a reminder, like something that
kelly mentioned in the beginningada, if you run a website, you
are also fall under the umbrellaof being ada compliant.
Your website needs to becompliant to anyone with a
disability, so, like ifsomeone's using a screen reader,
they need to be able to, forexample, know what's going on in
(29:50):
the picture, so you have toinclude your alt descriptions.
So, yeah, all of that is super,super important.
I did want to mention that.
Now you said there's a freegift for the audience that's
listening.
Kelly J Mendenhall (30:02):
Yes, so I'm sure you'll include the link in
the show notes.
But I actually created acoloring book out of my tattoos.
Like I took photographs from mymemoir and turned them into
coloring book pages, and then Ialso made some coloring book
pages with like different clipart and stuff that are related
(30:25):
to the stories that I tell in mybook or to the tattoos that I
have that might not appear inthe book.
So, yeah, it's pretty fun.
Um, I think you were the firstperson I showed it to and I made
it.
You were like that is so cooland I was like, yeah, I think
you were like, um, you went wayabove and beyond what I was
expecting.
Nicole Tuxbury (30:47):
Yes, it's amazing.
It is amazing and like, sohelpful.
Like, as adults, we don't playright, and play is actually
apparently the opposite oftrauma, and so it's really
important for us to take time,even as business owners,
especially as business owners,when we're brainstorming, when
we're putting things together,and coloring is one of those
(31:08):
things that lets your brain kindof just chill right like it.
You can just, you're in thelines, you're being creative, um
, and so I think that's just anamazing, amazing gift that you
give the audience to help themreally like overcome themselves,
to help them yeah, I mean rightfrom that perspective.
But I got through one of thehardest periods in my life like
(31:30):
coloring and I didn't think thatwhen you said you're still
spreading affordable art withyour freebie like and you're
sharing art and people areinvolved in the process, like
they get to make their own art,so I think that's amazing and
they get to color my tattoos howthey want.
Kelly J Mendenhall (31:46):
Like I think that's cool too.
They get to color my tattooshow they want.
Like I think that's cool too,because have you ever seen?
I like, have you ever seensomebody's tattoos and you're
like that would be kind of cool,but I would do this and this
and this they were.
So I was like like what if Ifound, how cool would it be?
I color this one in sometimesand like I was like how cool
(32:07):
would it be if people tagged meon social media.
They were like this is how Icolored your tattoo, so please,
if anybody does that, please tagme and I'll like yeah, you're,
because I'll die of happiness.
I just love imagining somebodydoing that yeah, so free, free
tattoo coloring book.
Nicole Tuxbury (32:30):
Premieres.
Truly All right.
So the link for that is goingto be down in the show notes or
in the comments, depending onwhere you're watching this.
And, Kelly, thank you again forcoming on.
This has been absolutelyamazing.
Thank you for joining us.
Do you have any last words ofwisdom before we sign off?
Kelly J Mendenhall (32:47):
Follow your gut and pay attention to how you
feel versus what you think,Because our brains especially if
we are ultra rational peoplecan rationalize anything and
make anything a good idea.
So pay attention to how itmakes you feel in your heart and
(33:08):
in your gut and try to stickwith that.
Nicole Tuxbury (33:12):
I love it.
Thank you so much, Kelly.
We'll see you next time.
Thank you for having me.
Bye.
Hello everyone and welcome back to the latest
episode of Overcome Yourself,the podcast.
As you know, my name is Nicoleand I'm so excited to be here
today with Kelly.
Now, kelly is one of thosepeople I don't know if you guys
have ever experienced it whereyou meet someone and you just
feel like you've been friendswith them forever.
Because that's really how itwas for me and Kelly.
(00:22):
We met each other and we'relike I feel like we're just
we've been friends forever,we're supposed to be friends,
and so I'm so excited to bringher here today.
We're going to talk about Idon't know what we're going to
talk about.
We're going to talk about a lotof stuff, but, kelly, I want
you to take it away, introduceyourself and tell us a little
bit about you and what you do.
Kelly J Mendenhall (00:42):
All right, well, thank.
And what you do?
All right, well, thank you somuch for having me.
I'm excited.
We've been trying to do thisfor a while, so I'm glad it
worked out.
I'm a disabled author, artist,speaker, disability advocate.
Inclusion and accessibility,especially for people with
invisible illness and invisibledisabilities, is really, really
(01:03):
important to me.
That's what turns me on.
I want everybody to be able tolive their best life and like
experience all that life has tooffer.
Um, so my part in that is that Itry to make art and
specifically handcrafted, uh,folk art and artisan made goods
uh more accessible to peopleliving with invisible
(01:26):
disabilities, not just as aproduct to purchase which is
important in and of itself artis for everyone but also maybe
as a hobby and a way to dealwith the types of things that we
deal with when we live withchronic disabilities or chronic
diagnoses, especially invisiblelives.
(01:49):
It's different.
When I say it's different, it'snot to say that being disabled
in a way that is visible, likein a wheelchair or whatever, is
more valid or less valid, butwhat I'm saying is, in a lot of
conversations about disabilityrights, disability advocacy,
there is this tendency tooverlook or not talk about the
(02:14):
fact that it is a vastlydifferent world of needs for
people with dynamic disabilitiesversus people with total
immobility or reliance onmobility devices, and I really
want all of us to be catered toand not just allowed to be in a
(02:35):
space or accommodated to be in aspace or the bare minimum to
meet ada requirements, which isactually kind of bullshit, but
like the best version of itright.
So that's my contribution istrying to bring art to more
people and more education topeople, especially women living
(03:00):
with chronic illness anddisability.
Isn't chronic pain and spineissues women living with chronic
illness and disability?
Isn't chronic pain and spineissues?
Um, that's who I'm mostlyblogging for and putting my
story out there for, so you'reamazing.
Nicole Tuxbury (03:14):
You're so amazing, kelly, um, tell me a
little bit about your story.
So, um, real quick.
Last month, a month before, Ifollowed this other creator and
it was like disability awarenessmonth and she talked about how
disability is one of the largestminorities and it's one of the
only minorities that you canbecome a part of at any time of
(03:38):
your life.
Kelly J Mendenhall (03:40):
Tell me a little bit about that, yeah,
it's literally the only likedisenfranchised population.
You become a part of literallyanyone at any minute, and I
guess that's where it'sdifferent for folks like us who
maybe found out about thingslater in life or as adults.
I remember I was speaking atDisability Awareness last year
(04:06):
in the Grand Rapids area.
I was speaking at DisabilityAwareness Day and I had a guy
come up to me who was like Ican't imagine the grief that you
must have gone through.
He said I was born with spina,bifida and this and that he's
naming all these things so I wasborn with it.
So, yes, it's been frustratingand I've had to adapt and and
(04:29):
and fight for accommodations orfight for care.
He goes but to to have beenborn able-bodied and then all of
a sudden have your mobilitystripped from you.
I can't really imagine that.
Like you know a little bitabout your story, tell us a
little bit.
So I was a regular, like mostlyable-bodied person and, uh, I'd
(04:54):
been in a lot of car accidentswhen I was younger.
That weren't, weren't my fault,it was just a series of
unfortunate events.
And, um, I'd had some injuriesto my spine and head and back
and, uh, I'd been assaulted acouple times.
I had a history of traumaticevents, but I was like this
person that had like aches andpains and what I now know is
(05:14):
sciatica.
But, um, even in college I havethose things happening, um, and
I took a lot of ibuprofen anddid a lot of massage and
chiropractic care and then itvery quickly turned into.
I became a woman who couldn'twalk and I had no range of
motion in my legs and over thecourse of two and a half years I
(05:41):
was losing use of my limbsperiodically um, loss of
strength in my whole left side.
Um I the pain was otherworldly.
I was at like 10 out of 10 pain, 24 7.
But I was refusing narcotics andopioids because I was being
(06:03):
medically gaslit and I was amedical mystery and I knew that
if they put me on anything thatmasks the symptoms, they were
going to call back good enough,and I was going to end up with a
problem on top of a problem.
And maybe it's the flint kid inme or I'm just tenaciously
(06:27):
stubborn as fuck, but I justkept fighting and I kept not
taking the opioids and narcoticsand I kept firing doctors and
hiring doctors and researchingand seeking answers and
eventually we did figure outthat my spinal cord was actually
being crushed.
(06:47):
In my body I had had a very rarerupture, a centralized rupture
of spinal disc at the very baseof my thoracic spine, so right
under my bottom lip.
And that's a very rare spotbecause that part of your spine
is not mobile, so it's notnormal or common for that to be
(07:12):
a spot where you have a discrupture.
But then on top of that,instead of rupturing where it
spilled out to one side or theother so that they could see it
on MRIs, it was a centralizedrupture, so it ruptured and
exploded straight back.
And so all the years thatpeople weren't believing me
(07:32):
about my symptoms and things,all the new bone cells were
growing onto this rupture andturned into like a calcified
mass and it was growing betweenmy vertebrae, it was crushing my
spinal cord and that was whatwas causing all of the pain and
symptoms.
But it took two and a halfyears to figure that out.
Nicole Tuxbury (07:56):
So um, yeah, wow , wow, wow.
And now, now you have come tothe other side of that.
Like the other day you werelike in the gym, lifting up like
more than your body weight.
Like, tell me about that.
Recovery is not linear.
Kelly J Mendenhall (08:14):
I really want to stress that for people,
even where I'm at now is notwhere I was a year ago, let
alone five years ago.
So I had four neurosurgeries inthe span of 11 months and then
(08:37):
the next following year I hadtwo abdominal surgeries and one
was a hysterectomy.
So there's been a lot ofstarting and stopping rehab,
starting and stopping andstarting something.
And then in 2021, I had a falland it's dangerous to have a
fall in your spinal fusionpatient but I fell backwards
into a tub.
Um, because my feet are.
(08:59):
I have neuropathy in my feetnow, so I basically have like
diabetic feet, so I didn't feelmyself bump up against the back
of the tub when I went to take astep back in the bathroom from
the sink and I fell backwardsinto the tub in my um, my rib
cage, where my fusion is hit,the soap dispenser in the wall.
(09:19):
I know it's horrible.
I'm I'm sorry for everyone.
I'm so sorry, in pain for meright now.
I'm so sorry.
I tell you that because for ayear we couldn't figure out why
my spine was plunking and itturned out that it was fine.
I thought I was going toparalyze myself at every turn,
(09:40):
so I was like afraid to move.
I was having panic attacks andit took about a year to figure
out what had happened.
So my two floating ribs at thebottom that only attach in the
back, my spine hardware.
They had to take some of thebone away to make room for some
of that hardware.
So when I fell on the soap dishit basically was just like it
(10:01):
took out the last little bit ofbone holding those floating ribs
in place.
So they're like to see andunseat randomly, but sometimes
it's so loud people can hear it.
So like doctors were looking atme like is this gonna be okay?
Nicole Tuxbury (10:17):
I'm laughing with you, not at you.
Kelly J Mendenhall (10:22):
I'm just you have to laugh because you don't
cry and so for like 10 months.
they're looking at me like whatthe fuck?
And I'm looking at them likewhat the fuck, you know, and I'm
like scared.
We finally figured out whichkind of ends up being kind of
funny, and so I was like, allright, I'm taking this back into
(10:43):
my own hands, I'm taking mypower back.
I did have another disc thathas collapsed under my fusion.
So a year of atrophied musclesfrom not really moving and then
having that collapsed disc.
Last August I had a spinal nerveablation to burn off the nerves
that are causing all the painin my back and basically I just
(11:06):
have to do this every six monthsuntil it stops working and then
I have to have another fusionsurgery.
So this is like my opportunityto be responsible and take
responsibility for my ownvitality, right.
So I was like, all right, burnthese bitches and let's go.
So last year I started walkingwith petunia, my dog.
(11:29):
Uh, 10 minutes, 10 to 15minutes at a time, three to four
times a day.
She was recovering from thereconstruction surgery and I I
needed to start my spine rehabover.
So we did it together and, uh,we just kept slowly going a
little bit farther and a littlebit longer, and there were days
(11:51):
that I cried because the musclesin my back and legs hurt so bad
, because they were so tiredjust from holding me up.
But like that's what you haveto do, like you there's, you
can't get through it withoutstarting right, you can't get to
the other side without starting.
(12:11):
So, yeah, the other day I'm nowfor the first time since 2016,
it was 2017 when my spinestarted falling apart and for
the first time since 2016, I'munder 250 pounds and I pushed
277 pounds for three reps of 10on the vertical leg press the
(12:34):
other day of the gym.
That is amazing gym, which isamazing.
It is amazing about overcomingyourself, right yeah for sure.
And Jeff said to me he was likeI remember when you first
started this leg of your journeyand you would get so
(12:54):
embarrassed if any of us walkedout while you're doing your
exercises.
You know, in the in the uhliving or whatever because I
felt like I did feel embarrassedby how hard it was for me to do
so little compared to otherpeople.
But that's not the whole story.
(13:15):
The whole story is I havelimitations and uh and special
needs because my body is nolonger composed of all of its
original parts.
But isn't it amazing that I hadto have a seven and a half hour
(13:35):
long surgery to uncrush myspinal cord and five years later
I'm pushing 277 pounds on a legpress, like I'm a walking
miracle.
But you have to make yourselfthe miracle.
You can't just like blow hisknee.
It and I wanted to.
(13:57):
I sat in that space for a while.
I can't believe I have to dothis again.
I've already done this sixtimes.
The physical therapists arebasically laughing at me because
they're like you should knowwhat to do.
But what they don't understandis that, like I, my limbs were
not so like.
I'm still learning how to knowwhich muscles in my legs I'm
(14:20):
working, or which muscles in myfeet.
So it's painful because I haveto learn all over again how to
reuse everything and in acomplete body, and not always
compensate for one side of mybody.
It's been a journey, but yeah,and not always compensate for
one side of my body, it's been ajourney, but yeah, I wanted to
(14:42):
give up many, many, many timesmomentarily and I never did, and
that's a lot, that's amazing.
Nicole Tuxbury (14:53):
Yeah, I hurt my back.
When I was probably like nineyears old, I was on a boat.
I don't talk about the accidentvery much, but I was sitting in
the front of the boat.
The boat went up.
I went up, the boat came down,I came down and it knocked the
wind out of me and that was thefirst time that I was like, oh
(15:15):
my God, I'm dying.
And I was like I legitimatelythought that I was dying and I
was like they're gonna have toturn this boat around and, just,
I don't know, throw me in thewater or something.
And ever since then, you know, Iwas always told oh, you're too
young for back pain, you're tooyoung for your back.
(15:36):
And I remember once I wasalways told oh, you're too young
for back pain, you're too youngfor your back.
And I remember once, when I waslittle, I overheard someone
saying.
I was saying, oh, my back hurts.
And then somebody said, oh,that's just something she heard
me saying and she's repeating it.
And then I realized that nobodybelieved me and I was in pain
and everybody thought I was aliar and I was in pain and
(16:00):
everybody thought I was a liar,um, and so like I, you know,
like that's one version ofmedical gaslighting, talking
about like invisibledisabilities, where sometimes
you mask right, you're a littlekid things, you know, you
overcompensate, but theneverything hurts and you you
don't understand why.
Um, and then when I turned 21,everything kind of came to a
head, because I was working as aserver, as as a waitress, in a
restaurant, and I was carryingtrays that were way too heavy,
(16:23):
and I was carrying them, like onthis side, and it got to the
point where I couldn't take astep without pain, you know, and
I went to the doctor and thedoctor was like your spine has
been fused together.
I've gone back since, likethat's how close those those
bones were, and somebody elsewas like, well, no, they're not
(16:44):
fused together, but they are,like you know, they're there.
Kelly J Mendenhall (16:49):
And it's not like.
It's not like ankylosingspondylitis, they don't think.
They think it's like they wereinjured for so long that they,
that's from the trauma.
Nicole Tuxbury (16:58):
Yeah, that's, that's from the trauma.
From it, yeah.
And imagine, like you know,being like 12, 13, 15, 16, and
like you go to PE and they'relike do a sit-up.
And you're like, no, this hurtsme.
And they're like you're beinglazy, do a sit-up.
And so, like my whole life, I'mbeing forced to do things that
hurt me because nobody believedme.
And so, when I turned 21, Ifinally had to be like you know,
(17:21):
I got this news and the doctorwas like you have the back of an
elderly person, like like thisis like your whole back is
messed up.
You have a hump, like all ofthis is all messed up.
And I realized in that momentthat I was going to have to
choose my heart.
He's like if you continue downthis road, you'll be in a
wheelchair in less than fiveyears.
And what I heard was well,there's another road.
(17:43):
If, if this is the road Icontinue, well, what's the other
road?
Because obviously this is I'm.
I'm on some kind of intersectionhere right, if this is one
option, there's got to beanother one.
And then, like you, I had tochoose my heart.
And when it sucked, when I wasin pain, when I was, you know,
hanging on my inversion table ordoing like massages massages
(18:07):
are not fun like they show on tv, okay, like they are so painful
, um, you have to choose yourheart, like in the days where
you work out and you popsomething and now you can't walk
for three days.
Well, that's how I wrote mybook, right.
And so I want to bring itaround to telling me a little
bit more about the affordableart revolution, because you kind
(18:28):
of took where you were and youwere like what can I do from
right here?
And you have built somethingthat's just amazing.
Tell me about it.
Kelly J Mendenhall (18:36):
I appreciate that.
Yeah, well, it started becauseback when my journey started, no
one was talking about medicalgas lighting and nobody uh, it
just it wasn't a common topic,it wasn't even a phrase.
Like I remember when I firststarted using medical gas
lighting as a hashtag, and everysingle time it would be like
less than a thousand.
Less than a thousand, because Iwas like, as far as I know, I
(18:58):
was the first person to startcalling.
Is that, um, and I?
I I fought really hard to raiseawareness and I had great
podcasts.
It was really fun and it wasn'tjust about that, but it was
like, uh, I was going throughthis full journey of trying to
figure out my health and goingthrough all these surgeries
(19:19):
while I had the podcast.
So all my listeners got to like, follow along with this, like
journey, and um, I startedwriting for a website called
spine nation and it was so cool.
It was like a um, it was asocial networking site for, for
people with spine and chronicback issues and, uh, and so I
(19:41):
built this name for myself,right, but then, after all the
surgery, so that was like 2017to 2020, that's what I was doing
.
I wrote a book, I have podcasts.
I was doing all these differentthings to raise awareness.
I was fighting really hard.
And then in 2021, in January2021, I left Tennessee with
(20:04):
nothing, uh, to get out of atoxic, horrible living situation
and I was better from mysurgery.
So I came home to Michigan andI really didn't know what I
wanted to do with, what I wantedto do with myself, because I
was still fighting.
So at that point it had movedfrom a medical gaslighting
situation to a legal gaslightingsituation, because I'd had all
(20:25):
these surgeries and I was somessed up and unwell but my
disability benefits, my socialsecurity disability benefits,
had been denied and I had toappeal it.
But all my appeals got turneddown so I had to sue the federal
government.
I sued, I filed suit againstthe federal government in the
fall of 2020.
So guess how long it took toget into court again to like
(20:51):
right that wrong well, covidhappened.
So it took until 2022.
I won my case in June of 2022and I did not get paid until
October of 2022.
So all of those surgeries,homelessness, uh, moving from
(21:11):
another state, complexpost-traumatic stress disorder I
was having a huge breakdown.
I was not okay.
So for two years I was prettymuch completely absent from the
online world.
I would occasionally pop onfacebook and post something or
whatever, but, like as far as mywork was concerned, I had had
to put it all on the back burner.
(21:32):
While I dealt with this case,when the case was over, I was at
a crossroads, like you were at,and I was like you have a
choice.
You need to recognize and I'msaying this to myself I was like
Kelly you need to recognizewhen it's time to put down the
fight.
You won the fight.
(21:52):
You sued a billion dollarmultinational corporation and
won.
You sued the federal governmentand you won.
You solved your own fuckingmedical mysteries that no
medical professionals couldfreaking figure out.
Uh, and you've create, youcreated a career for yourself
(22:14):
from your couch when youcouldn't walk.
Put down the fight, like, but Ididn't know how to move forward
from there.
And so, christmas eve of 2022,I'm sitting on a couch with
petunia, all by myself, lookingat the um twinkling christmas
(22:35):
lights and watching schitt'sCreek.
My family was at a familygathering.
I was not with them because I'dhad a spinal procedure the day
before and I was in too muchpain and I was thinking, like,
what am I going to do, like whatis the next thing to do with my
life?
And I thought what saved mylife, what kept me going?
(22:55):
Because everybody kept saying,saying how have you done it?
How did you make it?
Sewing, embroidery, art, that's, that's what saved my life,
that's what kept me going,that's that, that was it.
So all of a sudden it dawned onme like what?
And the thing that I never likedabout the idea of selling my
handmade goods is that everybodywas telling me things like you
(23:18):
need to be charging $20 an hour.
And I'm like okay, one heirloomChristmas stocking that I make
takes between 47 and 72 hours.
If I charge $20 an hour for thework that I do, literally 1% of
the population is going to beable to access it and that's
(23:40):
bullshit.
And for me, I've been on theside of that.
I've been standing at art fairsor museums or whatever where I
wanted to be able to purchase apiece of art that spoke to me
and I couldn't because I had tothink about whether or not I was
going to be able to afford toeat for the next three days if I
(24:01):
bought a $50 piece of art.
And all of a sudden I thoughtwhat if you could find a way to
make make art more accessible topeople and and keep creating,
because, whether people buy yourshit or not, you're gonna keep
making it because it's whatsaved your life, it's what you
(24:22):
do, it's what you love to do andyou love sharing it with other
people.
So I decided to create an artstore where everything that is
not a custom, commission orpersonalized item that somebody
orders uh, it's pay what you can, or or pay what feels good to
you, and there's no wrong answer.
(24:43):
So when a person goes to mywebsite and they check out an
item, they pay for shipping andtax and then they decide either
immediately after ordering oronce they receive the item.
They decide what to put in myvirtual tip jar and that's
(25:07):
whatever feels right for them.
And, um and I stress that,because some folks can afford it
and they love the idea ofhelping other people, have
access to it.
So I'll have people who pay me200 for a set of christmas
(25:28):
ornaments that I would normallycharge 75 for if I was going to
put a price on it, but they payway more than then.
I would probably price itbecause they like the idea of
helping other people, and peoplewith invisible disabilities
especially, access thesehandmade goods.
So it's really special because,like, it's creating a community
(25:51):
at the same time as, as as I'mselling art, um, and I I say
positive intentions and prayersover what I'm creating.
Uh, a lot of times, whatever Iput in my shop is whatever my
heart feels like making at thatpoint.
So I'll just like pray over itor, like you know, speak
(26:13):
positive intentions and just say, universe, please get this
piece to the person who needs itthe most and like, let it bring
them joy.
You know, and um, and, and I'mintentional about that because I
do believe that life is allexchanging of energy and I
believe that things can holdenergy if we want them to, if we
(26:38):
channel that, that positiveenergy, um, and so, uh, it's
been a really beautiful like.
I had a young girl at an art ata in-person event I don't do
many in-person art eventsbecause it's physically
difficult, uh for me, but ifit's close to home, jeff will do
(26:58):
all the setup and take down andI had a teenage, uh, young lady
come to me at a show and she'dfallen in love with the piece
and she said I really don't haveany more money I can spend and
she was like but it means a lotto see you here, uh, because I
live with a lot of the samediagnosis that you live with and
it makes me feel good to seesomeone like me doing what
(27:21):
you're doing, like it makes mefeel like it's possible.
And she, she, she told me thatshe had just had her most
serious suicide attempt, like amonth or two before that, and I
asked her how she was doing andeverything.
And we talked and and I sharedwith her, you know, and and I
ended up just giving her thepiece.
(27:42):
I said I just I want you tohave this piece.
I like if it speaks to you thatmuch, please take it.
And like her whole body lit up,like not just her face but like
I really.
I mean she just like came tolife and I was like that's why I
do what I do, because somebodyelse paid 70 bucks for two
(28:03):
ornaments that night.
So if I give an embroidery hoopto a young girl, maybe the next
time she's feeling that aloneand isolated, maybe she looks at
the embroidery hoop andremembers that a complete
stranger cared enough to giveher a free piece of art.
I don't know, but that's myhope, you know that's amazing.
(28:26):
That's what the affordable artrevolution is.
It's, it's, I say my mission isto spread love and joy to
spoonies everywhere through artin the written world.
So I include my book in it,normally a print copy of my book
, because it's full of colorphotographs and things.
It's 25.99.
That's not accessible forpeople who are disabled a lot of
(28:47):
times and on limited income.
So I had at one point I madethe ebook like $2.99, um, and
now I created the book cast,where I created a podcast, um,
where I read the whole book, um,and that's $3.99 for the whole
series because that's moreaccessible and for those who
(29:09):
might be like, not able to reador have you know whatever, it
makes it more accessible to allkinds of audiences so I'm trying
to invent everything I do in away that is revolutionary as far
as accessibility and inclusion.
So yes, you're amazing.
Nicole Tuxbury (29:29):
And just a reminder, like something that
kelly mentioned in the beginningada, if you run a website, you
are also fall under the umbrellaof being ada compliant.
Your website needs to becompliant to anyone with a
disability, so, like ifsomeone's using a screen reader,
they need to be able to, forexample, know what's going on in
(29:50):
the picture, so you have toinclude your alt descriptions.
So, yeah, all of that is super,super important.
I did want to mention that.
Now you said there's a freegift for the audience that's
listening.
Kelly J Mendenhall (30:02):
Yes, so I'm sure you'll include the link in
the show notes.
But I actually created acoloring book out of my tattoos.
Like I took photographs from mymemoir and turned them into
coloring book pages, and then Ialso made some coloring book
pages with like different clipart and stuff that are related
(30:25):
to the stories that I tell in mybook or to the tattoos that I
have that might not appear inthe book.
So, yeah, it's pretty fun.
Um, I think you were the firstperson I showed it to and I made
it.
You were like that is so cooland I was like, yeah, I think
you were like, um, you went wayabove and beyond what I was
expecting.
Nicole Tuxbury (30:47):
Yes, it's amazing.
It is amazing and like, sohelpful.
Like, as adults, we don't playright, and play is actually
apparently the opposite oftrauma, and so it's really
important for us to take time,even as business owners,
especially as business owners,when we're brainstorming, when
we're putting things together,and coloring is one of those
(31:08):
things that lets your brain kindof just chill right like it.
You can just, you're in thelines, you're being creative, um
, and so I think that's just anamazing, amazing gift that you
give the audience to help themreally like overcome themselves,
to help them yeah, I mean rightfrom that perspective.
But I got through one of thehardest periods in my life like
(31:30):
coloring and I didn't think thatwhen you said you're still
spreading affordable art withyour freebie like and you're
sharing art and people areinvolved in the process, like
they get to make their own art,so I think that's amazing and
they get to color my tattoos howthey want.
Kelly J Mendenhall (31:46):
Like I think that's cool too.
They get to color my tattooshow they want.
Like I think that's cool too,because have you ever seen?
I like, have you ever seensomebody's tattoos and you're
like that would be kind of cool,but I would do this and this
and this they were.
So I was like like what if Ifound, how cool would it be?
I color this one in sometimesand like I was like how cool
(32:07):
would it be if people tagged meon social media.
They were like this is how Icolored your tattoo, so please,
if anybody does that, please tagme and I'll like yeah, you're,
because I'll die of happiness.
I just love imagining somebodydoing that yeah, so free, free
tattoo coloring book.
Nicole Tuxbury (32:30):
Premieres.
Truly All right.
So the link for that is goingto be down in the show notes or
in the comments, depending onwhere you're watching this.
And, Kelly, thank you again forcoming on.
This has been absolutelyamazing.
Thank you for joining us.
Do you have any last words ofwisdom before we sign off?
Kelly J Mendenhall (32:47):
Follow your gut and pay attention to how you
feel versus what you think,Because our brains especially if
we are ultra rational peoplecan rationalize anything and
make anything a good idea.
So pay attention to how itmakes you feel in your heart and
(33:08):
in your gut and try to stickwith that.
Nicole Tuxbury (33:12):
I love it.
Thank you so much, Kelly.
We'll see you next time.
Thank you for having me.
Bye.
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