About the Episode:
This episode is something like a “Lifesaving Gratitude” and I Love New Mexico podcast cross-over. Kelsey is bringing her passion and mission to ABQ this fall with “Mission 48” where she will complete 48 fitness competitions in 48 states in 48 days to inspire girls and women to step out of their comfort zone and show themselves they are stronger than they think by building true self-confidence. Find out more at the links below.
Links
EmpoHER Fitness Website
Follow Kelsey on Instagram
Kelsey on Youtube
Kelsey’s podcast
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook
Original Music by: Kene Terry
Featuring:
Kelsey Lensman
Kelsey Lensman is a 27-year old entrepreneur, sports medicine specialist, sought-after speaker and self-proclaimed “normal girl on a big mission.” She graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in sports medicine with original plans to attend physical therapy graduate school. However, during her senior year she felt a pull on her heart that she had a different mission. After a life-changing year of training to step on a bodybuilding stage, it led her to realize that our capability far surpasses what we imagine and that true transformation comes from all areas: nutrition, training, mindset, and community. Since then she’s challenged her own limits and became a 5x bodybuilding competitor, 4x powerlifting competitor, powerbuilder, olympic lifter, and has competed in many other events. Since then she’s founded EmpowHER Fitness that coaches women all around the country in their nutrition, fitness, and mindset, as well as EmpowHER Events. These events are online and in-person international strength events that challenge women to step out of their comfort zone and show themselves they’re stronger than they think. Her unique approach to fitness has helped hundreds of women get results, grow their mindset, and become strong, confident versions of themselves. She’s ready to take on her next purpose driven mission, which is to complete 48 fitness competitions in 48 states in 48 days to raise money for ROX, a charity empowering young girls in confidence, body image, and communication in schools.
Episode Transcript
Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s lived here for your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. My guest today on the I Love New Mexico podcast is doing something pretty interesting and amazing, and it impacts young women, um, in the state of New Mexico. So I thought it’d be fun to have Kelsey Linman on to visit about this. I want you to introduce yourself. It’s amazing what you’re gonna do, and I want you to tell folks exactly who you are and how you got to this endeavor.
Kelsey : (01:19)
Oh, Bunny, I definitely will. And it’s funny, real quick before I even preface it, people either say it’s really interesting or it’s crazy. Like there’s, it’s one of the two and it’s, it’s, it’s funny to kind of talk through. So, yeah, and I appreciate everybody that listening. My name is Kelsey Lensman, and I’m actually coming to New Mexico on September 19th for what I’m doing is called Mission 48. So I’ll do 48 different fitness competitions, everything ranging from a power lifting meet to a running event, to a CrossFit event, to 48 states in 48 days. That’s the big kicker. And really Bunny, what it is, is just to inspire a lot of women and young girls to step out of their comfort zone and show themselves they’re stronger than they think, and that’ll lead to building confidence that’ll lead to being like, wait, I didn’t realize I could do that. And if I can do that, like, what else can I do in my life? You know? And we’re actually partnering with a charity. I’m in Columbus, Ohio, that’s where I’m from. We’re partnering with the charity, actually locally here in Columbus, Ohio, and they do 20 week programs in schools all around the country for young girls. And they talk about things like confidence, leadership, body image, social media, all the things that especially these young girls need nowadays. So I’m just very passionate about it. I got to a point where I didn’t think that I could do the things that I’m doing today. So that’s just the message that I really wanna spread with a lot of young girls and women out there.
Bunny : (02:39)
So how, I mean, this is unusual. How did you get to this place where you, I mean, did you, I mean, were you, when you were an eight year old girl in the third grade and they ask you what you wanted to be when you grow up, did you say, I I wanna do 48 physical challenges in 48 states,
Kelsey : (02:58)
No, it’s funny, actually, when I think back, I wanted to be an N B A player
Bunny : (03:10)
Right, right.
Kelsey : (03:12)
But like, I grew up, I grew up an athlete, but I didn’t view myself as the star athlete, you know? And I think that that’s really important to pull back kind of to my story is I never thought that I had this amazing capability that I was just born with. And, you know, I just excelled in everything that I did. I didn’t feel like that internally, maybe externally people saw me do certain things, but internally, I didn’t have the confidence that I think a lot of people thought that I had back in the day. And so, kind of grew up an athlete. I remember my childhood being a lot of sports and practices,
Bunny : (05:23)
So, you know, that’s, that’s so interesting that you say that about how your, um, identity was tied to team sports. I just listened to Mar Mar Martin, I’m gonna say his name on Martinus Evans. Do you know the guy that has the slow af running club? He’s a guy who, well, he’s is, I mean, he’s amazing. And his story is even more amazing because he and I listened to it on The Good Life Project. So we’ll give them a little shout out here. But he talked about, um, you know, football in high school. Um, he grew up in Detroit, so he got on the football team, and it really changed the trajectory of his life as a young man. But then he, and he went and played college ball somewhere, and when that was over, he said I didn’t, it was really hard for me to know who I was because I wasn’t part of a team anymore, and I wasn’t, I didn’t have the structure that that provided for me. And, we all know that our success is not determined as much by our actions as by our habits. And, you know I’m the biggest, you know, I’m, I always say, you know, I’m going to, I’m gonna get up and, and work out X amount of time. Well, it’s not, it’s not that my success would be determined if I did that, my success would be determined if I did that on a regular basis and habitually. And he, he talked about that a lot. Of course, his, his story is really inspiring because somebody told him it was too fat to be an athlete. So he became a marathon runner.
Kelsey : (07:22)
Oh, definitely. So, and this might be the, it’s, it can be males too, not even just females. It can be males, females, they’re out there, right? And they’re thinking, man, well, let me just scroll on social media and see all these other people that are, are doing the thing that I want to do, or, or they can do it, but I can, right? Because so many things come up in our brain of every limitation, why everybody else can, but we can. And what I really want the message, and not just me speaking it, I want people doing it right? Because how many messages do you hear? And it’s like, oh yeah, that sounds great. It might give you a little bit of a motivation, but what actually converts to action, right? Because action is the one that actually matters, hence what you just talked about. And so what I want this to be is really inspire them to say, okay, what do I want? Whether that’s a fitness goal, whether that’s a career goal, whether that’s whatever that is for you, right? It’s going to be uncomfortable
Bunny : (09:23)
I want folks to know that when you say if, when you said it’s drinking this glass of water, I mean, they can’t see us, but, but Kelsey’s pointing to her Tumblr of water, and that’s, um, it’s small steps over time, equal, um, big successes is, um, I mean that’s sort of my mantra and I people say all the time, you know, they talk about overnight successes and, um, there are no overnight successes. Are there
Kelsey : (09:53)
No. No. And I love that you brought that up because it’s funny people, uh, see what I’m doing right now on Mission 48, right? And they’re like, oh my gosh, you have all this stuff planned and all this physical capabilities. It’s like, I still have doubts to this day, not that I have doubts that we’re gonna fulfill the, the mission. Not that I have doubts that we’re going to go on it or be able to do the whole 48, but there’s still limitation. As I say, Hey Carlos, like, are you actually physically cap physically capable of doing the whole 48? Are you actually able to have these big dreams and big goals happen? You know? And so that’s also kind of one thing that I wanna share with your audience of, yes, you can say you’re going after this big goal. You can be taking action after this big goal, but it’s about waking up every single day and saying, Hey, how am I gonna kind of overcome the doubt? Sometimes it’s not that it’s gonna ever go away, but we develop a stronger voice to overcome it. And that’s the name of the game that’s gonna lead to that overnight success, which is actually many, many years to get there, you know? Right,
Bunny : (10:50)
Right. I absolutely. I’m really interested to hear, um, first, where did, where’d the idea for Mission 48 come from?
Kelsey : (11:01)
Yeah. Oh my gosh. This is two years ago, Bunny. The two years ago I had this idea and talk about Doubt, doubt held me on the back burner for two years of this. And so I initially got the idea, I was actually watching a documentary with my fiance, and it was Iron Cowboy, which, have you ever heard of Iron Cowboy at all before? No. This, this is gonna mind blow you. It’s crazy. So he did 50 Ironmans, which an Ironman is a full marathon. A hundred and what, 10 plus mile bike? Two mile swims. Yeah. In 50 states in 50 days with five kids in an rv.
Bunny : (11:39)
He did 50 in 50 days.
Kelsey : (11:42)
Yes. And those Ironmans, it’s not like a two hour event. Those take like 10, 12, 13, 14 hours.
Bunny : (11:48)
No kidding.
Kelsey : (11:49)
So talk About the logistics. That’s when people are like, how do you do this, Kel? I’m like, if he can do that, that I can do this, it’s fine. Wow.
Bunny : (11:55)
Wow. But
Kelsey : (11:56)
I know it’s crazy. So I, I had this stirring kind of going up in my brain after I was watching that documentary. It just really inspired me on the really high moments that he had during it of like coming back to Utah. ’cause he’s from Utah and having hundreds of people ride with him. But then also the really low moments where he was mid, uh, not Mish 48, his 50 50 50. And he was curled in asking himself, like, why did I get myself into this? Why am I doing this? You know? And I think that related to me in my journey of, I’ve had these really big mountaintop moments, but also these really hard moments. And so it stirred up in my brain. I was like, oh, Kels, what if everything starts with what if, what if you did 48 different fitness competitions? ’cause I like pushing my heart in different areas and not just pulling a, putting myself in a box. But I originally Bunny had it in 48 states in 48 weeks. And I was like, oh, okay. I could do a Spartan race on a Saturday and then I could speak at a school for young girls on a Wednesday. And so I sat with this idea for literally two years, and then last September, so about a year ago now, which is crazy to think about. I just kept having this stirring up in my heart. Like, not that I was upset with what I was doing in my day-to-day or my business, ’cause we’re helping a lot of women across the country in it, but it’s like, there was something more, but I couldn’t put a finger on what that more was. And finally this idea just kept stirring up in me, stirring up in me. And so one night, it was the end of September, I just took my dog on a walk and I just walked for four hours, didn’t have my phone, didn’t have earphones in. I was just thinking, is this a good idea? Is this just a sign shiny object syndrome? And I’m trying to distract myself. Does this actually make sense? Can I do this? Like, all the thoughts that stir up and I’m faced pretty big in my life. So I ended up going home and I wrote a prayer down and I was like, dear God, whatever you believe in is, is whatever you believe in. But for me, it’s God. I said, dear God, please give me the biggest sign in the world of whether or not I should pursue Mission 48. Not like this little tap on my shoulder. Go ahead.
Bunny : (13:53)
I do that all the time.
Kelsey : (14:04)
And so this is crazy. This will hit home with you then knowing that, that that’s what you’ve done too. So I’ve never had this happen before, but I told him like, give me the biggest sign, not this little tap on my shoulder to say like, oh, it could be this. Like, let me not miss this. And so the next morning I wake up to train. Like I normally wake up to train every single morning. I do it, nothing’s different. But for some reason, bunny, that day I decided I wanted to listen to a podcast instead of just, uh, music that I normally listen to. So went to my podcast, clicked the first one on the top, and I just started training and listening to it. And as I got into training and listening, I was like, oh my gosh, this was my sign. Because the whole podcast was about, this guy was interviewing this guy named Colin o’ Brady, and he did this big trek across Antarctica, all these physical challenges to raise money for charity. And it was literally a mirror of what I wanted to do with Mission 48. Like he was saying things and I’m like, man, I thought through this whole entire thing. And then he said something in there that like, was the kind of ceiling on what I, what I was thinking is, he said, so many people live in the fives and sixes, five and sixes of it’s, it’s good, but it’s not great, but it’s also not terrible, right? They’re just rinsing and repeating five and sixes over and over and over again. And he said, because so many people wanna go after the nines and tens, but they’re too afraid that it might turn into a one or two and that like that
Bunny : (15:28)
Wow.
Kelsey : (15:29)
Deep, right? It was just like a, oh, it got me in the heart. And I, I thought back to my last two to three years, and I was like, pulse, yes, you had some great moments, but it was just five and sixes girls, there really nothing that you remember. So I was like, I don’t know how I start this, but that was the instigator for creating Mission 48. And now here we are today.
Bunny : (15:49)
That’s so, I want us to go back to that for just a minute because Yeah. I’m in a completely different place, but I’ve got a, um, I’ve got something new that I’m doing. And um, and, and I’ve had friends who have said, we’re in the same, who are in the same field as me, who are realtors. And they’ve said, why are you doing that? And I’m, and and I, I said, you know, because I think there’s a point in life when you have to choose to go from good, good is comfortable, good is okay, there’s nothing wrong with good, but, but on the other side of good is great. It’s just like on the other side of your fear is everything you’ve ever wanted. So, so if you can get past the fear that you’re gonna land in the weeds, uh, and you may land in the weeds, but guess what? You’ll, you’ll learn something invaluable from it. But good to Great is a, is not as big a leap as we think it is. Mm-hmm.
Kelsey : (16:53)
Oh, you, you spoke to my heart on that one. And I think that this is my opinion. It might not be everybody’s, my opinion Good can sometimes be the hardest place that you’re in because if you’re at rock bottom, you’re going to change
Bunny : (17:06)
Right? Yes.
Kelsey : (17:08)
The hard place.
Bunny : (17:10)
It’s that whole parable about you know, if you, if you put a frog in a, on a stove in a pan of cold water, they’re never gonna notice when it hits boiling because they have sat in that water. As you know, it’s, we have to be careful to not examine our lives on occasion and say, is this, is this great? Because if it’s not, I, I think I’m, I think I want good. I want, I don’t wanna, I wanna go from good to great. It’s a choice, but you’re doing it.
Kelsey : (17:40)
Yeah. And it’s, and I’ll tell you this too, ’cause this actually made me think of it today, is I’ve been preparing for Mission 48 for literally the last year. Great. ’cause it’s been September mm-hmm.
Bunny : (18:48)
Well, and Kelsey, don’t you think you feel more alive? I mean, you’re doing, you’re gonna do some, you’re gonna do some crazy stuff, but it’s all going to be wrapped around helping other people achieve perhaps physical challenges that they hadn’t been able to achieve before. They hadn’t, they hadn’t thought about stepping out of their comfort zone. Yeah. I mean, can we talk about that? I mean, you say physical challenges. I’m really, I’m curious, if I show up in Albuquerque on September 19th, what can I expect?
Kelsey : (19:16)
Oh, okay. So it’s gonna be all different, different places. So Okay. People, people that can come, ’cause we’re doing a free event in every single city that I’m in. So if you’re like, oh, I wanna pop to New Mexico, come to the Albuquerque one. So in New Mexico, what I’m doing there is a, it’s called a push pull. So I’ll do a bench where you basically push the weight off your chest and deadlift where you pull the weight up. So say you’re like, close, I have never done a deadlift or a bench in my life before. I guess this event isn’t for me. And I’m gonna say, wait up there wait on it. So yes, we’re gonna, if you wanna do the push pull with me, you can do it. Or if you’re like, Hey, I just wanna do the bar, I’ve never even done the bar a, a barbell for bench press. We’ll have women doing that all the way up to like 200 plus pounds. I’m not gonna lift 200 pounds, but love women doing that, right? So it’s all scalable, but then also in every single state, I have a massage therapist coming with me. Amen. Hallelujah. And she is not the most physically fit. And she’ll say this to you and her face, she goes, Kelsey’s like, I don’t work out every morning. That’s not my routine. I’m not like you and in how you do things. But she goes, I, I went to her house about three months ago, and she was like, I have an idea though. And I was like, share it with me. She goes, your hard might be this push pull, this crazy lifting event, right? But my hard is I’m gonna walk a mile in every single state and I’m gonna do 48 miles consecutively. And so in every single state and event we have, yes, you can sign up with me to do my event, or you can walk a mile with Denise. And so we have all different ranges and all different types for different people, because your heart is gonna be different and you should have an opportunity to pursue it and show yourself that you’re capable of it on the other side.
Bunny : (20:55)
So here’s the thing I want people to hear there is that your hard h a r d your heart is going to be different from somebody else’s heart. And we are such a, um, out, out, uh, we’re, we’re such comparers. Um, and I, one of the rules I learned, um, not, not very long ago in my life, but you can’t, you can’t compare your insides to everybody else’s outsides because what you see is not necessarily that’s, that’s not who they are. But when I look at Kelsey, I mean, she, you’re, you’re obviously physically fit. You’re young, you’re beautiful, you, and, and people are gonna say, well, yeah, of course she can do that stuff. Well, it doesn’t, this isn’t about what Kelsey can do, I suspect it’s about what we can all do together. Right?
Kelsey : (21:41)
That’s it. I mean, and the thing is though, like people see that me today. Like they see me doing the lifting events, doing the competitions. Funny. I never thought I’d be here, you know? And it’s like, if I would’ve settled for the, well, I guess I’ll just never be there six years ago when I started my journey, I wouldn’t be the version of me today. You know? And so that’s what I wanna get out is like, funny, you might have capabilities within you that you’re like, I never thought I could do this. You know? Right. But until you take a step, you’re not gonna know. You know? So that’s, that’s like, yes, people will see me today, but I wish they were in my brain to know like how I viewed myself six years ago. ’cause it’s literally probably spitting me image of what they’re, what’s going on in their brain today.
Bunny : (22:23)
Well, um, so I want people to know that we are going to have a link to your event on, um, there is a link to your event on this podcast. But what about you? You talked about your other business. What, what is it that you’re doing that you help? I, I mean, I want people to know how to find you even after the mission 48.
Kelsey : (22:44)
Oh, I appreciate that. Yeah. So I own, it’s called Empower Fitness. So we do, it’s kind of two facets to it. We do nutrition and fitness coaching with women all across the country. So we really try to debunk a lot of the BSS in the fitness and nutrition world with fad diets and all this stuff. And like truly try to help somebody transform Yes. Physically. But that’s also gonna lead to mentally too. And so that’s an aspect we do one-on-one coaching there. And then we also do all women’s strength events around the country where we’ve had ages 12 all the way up to 75 years old. And the 75 year old lifted 200 pounds, which is crazy. Um, and we do those all around the country for a lot of women that have never pictured themselves doing something like that. But the ones, again, you do it and then you break the belief of what you’re capable of. So it’s a lot of different areas in the health and fitness world that we do.
Bunny : (23:31)
I’m curious if somebody was listening today and, and they were like, um, I mean, let’s, let’s go wait, let’s go way, way, way. Yeah. In fact, it may not, it may be not be be too out of the ordinary, but let’s say somebody is listening today and they think, man, I wish I I’m, I mean, I’m gonna start from zero. Yeah. What’s your, um, you know, if somebody’s been a couch potato and um, and neglected their health, um, what’s, what’s your best advice for somebody like that who wants to maybe not soar, but at least get up and move?
Kelsey : (24:09)
Yeah. Yeah. I would say start small. Okay. Do not go into this big CrossFit class and try to do this whole big CrossFit thing and then you’re gonna get discouraged and frustrated and then you’re gonna be sore as crap on your couch for the next week and a half. Right. You know, there is nothing too small to start with. And I’ve had a lot of women come to me and I’ve, I’m like, Hey, walk five minutes around your block. And they’re like, Ks, that’s not big enough. That’s not gonna elicit enough change. And I was like, walk five minutes around your block for four days this week. And then, you know what? Increase that walk for seven minutes and then you know what? Increase that walk for 10 and before you know it, you’re going to increase once again what your heart is. Right? You’re gonna increase that. And it’s true sustainable changes over time. That is the name of the game. There’s actually a book back here, and I’m going to my bookshelf, um, and it’s called Atomic Habits. Great book.
Bunny : (25:02)
Kelsey : (25:03)
Yeah. But he has a story in there, and I love to share this story ’cause it hits home with this. And he goes, okay, I’m in Columbus, Ohio. Let’s say I’m, I’m flying in an airplane to Sacramento, California. Okay. So I have my route, I have my trajectory, this is where I’m going. He goes, if I just change that plane three degrees, not 20, not a foot, literally three degrees, I will land in a completely different state than if I kept it or changed it all, all the different trajectory, you know, three degrees, not a whole foot, not 23. And I’m landing in a whole different state, you know, and he has the specific states in there, but I like to give that frame. And so what is that? How do we pull from that story? What do we pull from that story? And it’s like, your three degree changes is going to lead to a completely different outcome. And so your three degree change might be walking 10 minutes for two days a week out there, you know, your three degree change might be drinking your big glass of water in the morning, but keep up with those three degree changes. And that’s what’s actually going to get you to this picture or image in your brain of the goal that you have for you. So many people just go crazy so quick out of the gates, and then they do it for a week and then they restart back on Monday. And so think about three degree changes, that’s gonna be the biggest focus for you.
Bunny : (26:17)
That’s so cool. That’s one of the things that Martin Evans said was he said, you know, I had this, I had this doctor who said, you’re so fat, you’re gonna die soon. Sorry, you know, you may be 34 years old, but you’re on your way out. And he said, I went home and I thought, I’m gonna show that guy. And he said I could run 10 seconds at a time. And I know that’s how a lot of people feel. He said, for the first two weeks I just ran, you know, I’d walk and run 10 seconds. Yep. And, and, and it has worked for me as well. I mean, I’ve done the couch to five K running program before and it’s, it’s like, uh, run for one minute. Run for, and if it’s not running, do two pushups. I love what you said about doing 10 pushups when you get out of bed in the morning, because, um, I have some older woman, um, extra arms. I’m pointing to my underarms and I’m thinking, well, why am I not doing 10 pushups when I get out of bed? I can do that
Kelsey : (27:17)
Yeah. And now don’t get me started on the rampage about strength training, but straight training. So important for all women, all ages, all types. It is longevity, aesthetics, health, like that is the name. Flexibility,
Bunny : (27:30)
Right? I mean,
Kelsey : (27:31)
So much. I could go on forever. Yeah.
Bunny : (27:33)
I mean I’m, um, I’m 62 and, um, I have a, a gentleman that I serve on a board with, he’s, um, gonna be 82 this year and he works out every morning. I mean, he was a former basketball player. He works out every morning, but he says now all he does is flexibility training, because that’s the thing that’s gonna, I believe, disappear the most quickly as you age. Am I right? Yeah.
Kelsey : (28:01)
Yeah. Muscle atrophy is the quickest. So I mean, when you think about two, like fall risk, especially as you get older mm-hmm.
Bunny : (28:19)
That’s so cool. So I want, so everybody needs to go, uh, check out this podcast on our site because the links to Kelsey’s business, um, I may just hire myself,
Kelsey : (28:42)
Yeah, so we will be in CrossFit Albuquerque, which I’m pretty sure it’s a Tuesday that is September 19th. Mm-hmm.
Bunny : (29:12)
And so let’s, I mean, we have listeners all over the country. Um, where do you begin?
Kelsey : (29:18)
I begin, so remember I’m in Columbus, Ohio. That’s my, not hometown right? But that’s where I live now. Our first stop is Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is University of Michigan. It’s ironic, right? Because my fiance played for Ohio State and they’re massive rivals,
Bunny : (29:38)
Wow. Wow. You’re gonna be on the road, girl.
Kelsey : (29:42)
48 days.
Bunny : (29:53)
So, so how many of the these states have you never been in? Do you, have you thought about that? Many,
Kelsey : (30:00)
Many. I’ll have to do the actual math. I mean, it’s probably, so there’s 48 states. I mean, I’ve driven through multiple, but I would say probably 35 states I’ve never been to. So like, it’ll be That’s so cool. It’ll be really cool to see all the different states. That is such
Bunny : (30:14)
A great goal. Mm-hmm.
Kelsey : (30:40)
Oh, I just, I appreciate you having me and I appreciate it just sounds, your mentality is just so aligned with what I’m about and just giving, growing and giving for a lack of better way to say, you know, grow as a human and then give back to the people that need you. So I just appreciate what you’re doing.
Bunny : (30:54)
I love that. Thank you so much, Kel.
Kelsey : (30:57)
All right, have a good day guys.
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