Wisdom from Within

About the Guest

Cortney McDermott (spelled without a U) is an award-winning author, speaker, and celebrity coach whose work in self-development and business strategy has been featured in Inc., Women’s Health, NBC, The Huffington Post, Mind Body Green, and Success. Her talks on human potential have been delivered at TEDx, Mind Valley, Oxford Saïd Business School, and Richard Branson’s private island. She holds a master’s in science from the London School of Economics and blends academic rigor with real-world experience to help individuals and organizations reach their highest potential. She is the author of Change Starts Within You (2017) and Give Yourself Permission, with a third book forthcoming. Find her at Courtinc.com or as Court Inc. on YouTube.

Episode Summary

In this intellectually charged and deeply practical conversation, Jen Aks sits down with award-winning author and celebrity coach Cortney McDermott for a tour de force exploration of inner intelligence — what it is, why it is undeniably real, and how to finally access it. Cortney shares her own cold shower moments: weeping in the car after dropping her daughter at school, sipping espresso on a corporate jet to Brussels and feeling completely hollow, and ultimately leaving an 18-year marriage and a Vanity Fair Corporation executive role to follow something she could only call intelligence. She unpacks the neuroscience of brainwave frequencies, the 50,000–70,000 thought impulses we have daily, why the heart has its own neurocircuitry, and why the single most powerful thing any of us can do right now is lie down. This episode will make you smarter about your body, braver about your instincts, and calmer about your life.

What You’ll Learn

• How Cortney went from Vanity Fair Corporation executive to author and coach — and what the cold shower moments looked like that preceded it

• The difference between trying to be somebody vs. that inner recognition that you already are something — and how to tell them apart

• The story of creating a brand-new position at the North Face from an entry-level assistant role — just by following what she felt in her cells

• What bliscipline means and why getting devoted to inner intelligence requires a specific kind of discipline

• Why there are 50,000–70,000 thought impulses per day — and why ‘just think differently’ is the most arduous work anyone can undertake

• What voluntary vs. involuntary means in the context of the body, the mind, and the universe — and why doubting yourself is as absurd as doubting the earth’s rotation

• The four main brainwave frequencies and what it actually means to move from beta into alpha — in your body, not just in theory

• Why lying down is not lazy — it’s the single most important leadership practice according to science

• The vagus nerve, the safety signal, and why horizontal is healing

• Why every organ in your body is a mind — including your heart, whose electromagnetic field is hundreds of times more powerful than your brain

• The gazelle, the tiger, and the lost art of shaking — how animals release trauma that humans have been taught to suppress

• Why yawning and laughing are two of the greatest neuroscience secrets we were conditioned to hide

• What true vulnerability actually is — and why it has nothing to do with sharing secrets

Key Concepts Introduced

• Inner Intelligence / The II — Cortney’s term for the universal consciousness guiding all life; interchangeable with God, spirit, or creator

• Bliscipline — a term borrowed from Joseph Campbell; the dedicated devotion required to tune into and follow inner intelligence

• High Beta vs. Alpha Brainwave States — the difference between first-gear spinning and the creative, safe, solution-oriented state your body enters when horizontal

• The Relaxation Principle — Cortney’s cor

About the Guest
Erin Washington is a best-selling author, wellness podcast host, and founder dedicated to helping women feel seen, empowered, and less alone. She hosts the Therein P with Erin Washington Podcast, sharing raw, honest conversations about body image, self-worth, sobriety, co-parenting, and life’s messiest transitions. A former Division I soccer athlete, Erin struggled with disordered eating and body image for decades before finding peace in her late 30s. In 2022, she founded the nonprofit Blue Butterfly Foundation, creating safe spaces for teenage girls to build confidence and resilience. She lives in the Atlanta area with her two children, and her books include Squats and Margaritas, From Pain to Purpose: Finding Meaning in the Mess, and the forthcoming children’s book I’m Just Like Me.

Episode Summary

In one of the most raw and moving conversations in the Wisdom From Within series, Jen Aks sits down with Erin Washington for an honest, deeply personal exploration of shame, the body, and what happens when you finally let the truth out. Erin shares her journey from Division I soccer athlete to a decade-long battle with bulimia — a secret she was determined to take to her grave — to the moment a writing coach told her no one would listen unless she told the truth. She did. And the world opened up. Erin also unpacks human design and sacral generators, the miraculous story behind the Blue Butterfly Foundation, and why she filed for divorce — not despite her kids, but for them. This episode is a masterclass in courageous vulnerability.

What You’ll Learn

• How Erin built her entire identity around soccer from age four — and what happened when she walked away from it in college

• The difference between anorexia and exercise bulimia — and why the latter is so widely unrecognized

• Why Erin was determined never to share her story — and what her writing coach said that changed everything

• What it physically feels like in the body to release a secret you’ve carried for decades

• How to find purpose inside the darkest thing you’re hiding — and why that darkness is probably what’s holding you back

• What human design is, what a sacral generator is, and how getting a reading gave Erin permission to fully trust her body

• The three real-life stories behind the Blue Butterfly Foundation — and the airport bin that made Erin’s whole body shake

• How the Blue Butterfly Foundation events actually work — format, age range, small groups, moms, and sound baths

• Why Erin filed for divorce — and the powerful question she asked herself about what she was modeling for her daughter

• What to do if you haven’t found something that profoundly lights you up yet

Key Concepts Introduced

• Courageous Vulnerability — Erin’s core practice: sharing the exact thing you were never going to share, because that’s where the magic is

• The Body Keeps the Score — even if you’ve stopped the behavior, you’re still carrying it until you release it

• Human Design / Sacral Generator — a system for understanding how your body naturally makes decisions; for sacral generators, bodily feelings are the knowing

• The Blue Butterfly — Erin’s sign from the universe, and the name of her nonprofit foundation for teenage girls

• Modeling vs. Performing — the idea that staying in an unaligned life for the sake of others is actually modeling the wrong thing

• Purpose Through Pain — the framework that any dark thing you’ve survived holds the seed of your greatest contribution

Resources & People Mentioned

• Therein P with Erin Washington Podcast — available wherever you listen to podcasts; new episodes every Monday

• Squats and Margaritas: A Journey to Finding Balance — Erin’s first book

• From Pain to Purpose: Finding Meaning in the Mess — Erin’s second book, available on

About the Guest
Ben Katt has been helping people experience deep transformation and access lives of greater joy, compassion, and purpose for the past 20 years. He is the author of The Way Home: Discovering the Hero’s Journey to Wholeness at Midlife — a guidebook and memoir about the inner journey we must embark on to live our fullest lives. Ben is the founder of the Within Prison Meditation Project, volunteers as a hospice companion, and writes weekly in his Within newsletter. He is a certified advanced meditation teacher of the One Giant Mind Technique, holds a Master of Divinity degree, and was an ordained minister for over a decade. Previously, he led the On Being Project’s work supporting religious and spiritual leaders in social healing. He regularly leads workshops at Modern Elder Academy campuses in Santa Fe and Baja, California.

Episode Summary
In this deeply honest and often funny conversation, Jen Aks sits down with author and transformation guide Ben Katt to explore what it really means to follow your inner voice when the external world is pulling you in every direction. Ben shares his journey from ministry and community work in Seattle — where he lost himself to a savior complex and burnout — to the rainy morning run where a voice inside him said, ‘If you don’t have your heart, you have nothing.’ He walks through his framework for the inner journey, inspired by Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, and offers remarkably grounded, practical wisdom on trust, letting go, masks, and what it truly means to find and live your purpose. Oh, and both Ben and Jen reveal they were once mascots. It gets good.

What You’ll Learn
• What it means to live an ‘externally referenced life’ — and how to recognize if you’ve been doing it

• Why the way forward is always within — and how Ben arrived at that truth through burnout and loss of self

• How to identify the ‘three-headed monster’ of achievement, perfection, and people-pleasing in your own life

• The three phases of Ben’s inner journey framework: leave the familiar, fall into the unknown, rise to wholeness

• Why letting go isn’t about changing your job or relationship — it’s about shedding the masks you mistake for your identity

• How to start building trust in your inner voice — beginning with small, low-stakes decisions

• What Carl Jung’s concept of the ‘persona’ has to do with mascots, rhinoceros costumes, and your authentic self

• What dharma really means — and why purpose is not a job title, it’s a moment-to-moment practice

• Why doing inner work isn’t selfish — it’s actually essential for everyone around you

• Why the hero’s journey isn’t just for midlife — it’s for anyone at any age who is ready to listen

Key Concepts Introduced

• The Way Forward Is Within — Ben’s core philosophy: inner authority is always accessible; we just forget it

• The Three-Headed Monster — achievement, perfection, and people-pleasing as a toxic operating pattern

• The Hero’s Journey (Joseph Campbell) — three phases: leave the familiar, fall into the unknown, rise to wholeness

• The Mascot / The Mask — Carl Jung’s ‘persona’: the identity we construct to survive that eventually limits us

• The Boon — Campbell’s term for the gift the hero returns with to serve the collective after inner transformation

• Dharma — spontaneous right action; your particular role in the evolution of things, expressed moment to moment

• Answering the Call — the first step of the hero’s journey: saying yes to the inner invitation, however uncomfortable

Resources & People Mentioned

• The Way Home: Discovering the Hero’s Journey to Wholeness at Midlife — Ben’s book (available everywhere books are sold, plus Audible, Spotify, Apple Books — narrated by Ben himself)

• BenKattOfficial.com — Ben’s website

• Modern Elder Academy (m

About the Guest
Amber Vilhauer is a books and business strategist, multi-best-selling author, speaker, and founder of NGNG Enterprises (No Guts, No Glory). She is the author of Infinite Impact: The Entrepreneur’s Strategic Guide to Books and Business Success, the Infinite Impact series, Stories of Alignment, and co-author of The Long Forest Trail with her son Clay. Over her career, Amber has helped make nearly 1,000 authors number-one bestsellers and launched over 1,000 websites. Today she is best known for her Foundational Four alignment framework.

Episode Summary
In this rich, deeply personal conversation, Jen Axe sits down with books and business strategist Amber Vilhauer to explore what it truly means to live in alignment. Amber shares her unexpected journey from self-taught blogger to leading a 40-person business empire — and then the moment her body told her to throw out the plan and write a completely different book. Together, Jen and Amber unpack Amber’s Foundational Four framework, the powerful avatar visualization process, the science of unmet needs, and why the person you’re most designed to serve is almost always a mirror of yourself. Amber also opens up about her childhood, complex PTSD, a traumatic experience at 16, and the two-and-a-half years of deep inner work it took to finally feel free.

What You’ll Learn

• How Amber built NGNG Enterprises with zero formal business training — and what her body told her to do next

• What ‘alignment’ actually means: living in line with your deepest values, beliefs, and needs

• The Foundational Four framework: Avatar, Vision, Why (Unmet Need), and Core Values

• Why the avatar you create to serve others is almost always a reflection of yourself

• What an ‘unmet need’ is, how it forms in childhood, and how it quietly drives every decision you make

• How Amber became her own avatar, Heather, at age 38 — 12 years after creating her

• The difference between your thinking brain and your intuition — and how to tell them apart

• What it looks like to rebuild self-trust after trauma, walls, and years of being a chameleon

• Why getting into alignment isn’t just for entrepreneurs — it works for parents, partners, and anyone feeling ‘off’

Key Concepts Introduced

• The Foundational Four Framework — Avatar, Vision, Why (Unmet Need), Core Values

• Avatar — one specific person who represents the collective you are uniquely designed to impact

• Unmet Need — the core emotional need formed in childhood that drives your behavior and beliefs

• Alignment — choosing to live in line with your deepest values, beliefs, and needs

• The Intuition vs. Thinking Brain — how to recognize the voice of your intuition in real time

• Mutual Reciprocation — how meeting someone else’s need simultaneously meets your own

Resources & People Mentioned

• NGNG Enterprises — Amber’s company (No Guts, No Glory)

• Infinite Impact: The Entrepreneur’s Strategic Guide to Books and Business Success — Amber’s book

• Stories of Alignment — anthology featuring leaders who have gone through the alignment process

• The Long Forest Trail — children’s book co-authored with Amber’s son Clay

• Dimitri — Amber’s consciousness coach; 30+ years of work in psychology, subconscious, and inner child

• Free 4-Week Group Alignment Coaching Program — mentioned as starting the day after recording

Quotes From This Episode

“Instantly, my body said: they were all out of alignment.”

“When you show up in the world with wholeness, you’re shining your light,

Episode Summary

In this debut episode, host Jen Aks lays out the heart and soul of Wisdom From Within — a podcast where human stories awaken the leader within you. Jen shares her deeply personal journey from decades of debilitating self-doubt, rooted in a school system that valued only one kind of intelligence, to a profound awakening that changed everything. She introduces the concept of bodyset alongside mindset, explores the science behind gesture and the nervous system, and outlines her mission to restore innate intelligence in every listener.

What You’ll Learn

• Why so many people tie their self-worth to standardized test scores — and why that’s a flawed measure of intelligence

• The difference between kinesthetic, emotional, and somatic intelligence — and how to recognize yours

• How Jen discovered ‘the power of gesture’ through her Zoom sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic

• The neuroscience behind the hand-brain connection: ~40,000 nerve endings on a feedback loop with the brain

• Why the body expands when we feel confident and contracts when we feel fear — and how to use that

• What ‘bodyset’ means and why it’s just as essential as mindset

• What it means to lead from the inside out

Key Concepts Introduced

• Multiple Intelligences — inspired by Harvard researchers and psychologists

• Kinesthetic Learning — learning through the body and movement

• The Power of Gesture — a practice using hand gesture to shift emotional states

• Bodyset — the body’s wisdom as a complement to mindset

• Expansion vs. Contraction — a universal language of gesture that reflects our inner state

Guest / Resources Mentioned

• Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (referenced indirectly via professor introduction)

• Arts-integrated curriculum organization in New York City (teaching children through dance, poetry, and music)

• John F. Kennedy Jr. — referenced as part of Jen’s personal story

Quotes From This Episode

“I was so hijacked out of the truth of me.”

“There is no better leadership than leading from the inside out.”

“Your body knows your truth. Your body knows more, and before, your mind does.”

“You are not alone. You are smart. You are worthy. You have so much value.”

“Struggle is good on many levels because it can teach us so many things.” 

CHAPTERS

00:01:00 – The Journey of Awakening

00:02:30 – Defining Intelligence

00:04:00 – The Impact of Standardized Testing

00:06:30 – Living with Self-Doubt

00:08:00 – A Defining Moment

00:10:30 – The Turning Point

00:12:00 – Discovering Multiple Intelligences

00:14:30 – Empowering Learning Methods

00:16:00 – Teaching Through the Arts

00:18:30 – The Mission to Empower

00:20:00 – Adapting to COVID-19

00:22:00 – The Power of Gesture

00:24:00 – The Science Behind Gesture

00:26:00 – Introducing Bodyset

00:27:30 – Closing Thoughts and Invitation