LadyGang - LG Quickie: Keltie's New Era

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Today is a full-circle, pull-back-the-curtain LadyGang moment. Keltie shows the girls her book cover for the very first time, and let’s just say… emotions are EMOTING. Keltie opens up about the brutal summer that quietly changed everything, the burnout, the grief, the reckoning, and the moment she realized she couldn’t keep powering through without telling the truth. That hard season became the spark for her upcoming book, The F*ck Them Theory, and she gets real about why writing it felt terrifying, necessary, and ultimately freeing. She also introduces her next era: the K-Type Collective, a community rooted in ambition, support, and paying it forward. Keltie explains why giving back, mentoring other women, and building something bigger than herself feels non-negotiable right now, and how this chapter isn’t about hustling harder, it’s about leading with purpose.Pre-order Keltie's book and join the K-Type community!  www.fthembook.com  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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A message from the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. It's time for a quickie. Podcast One presents The Lady Gang, The Hollywood Girl Posse with Lady Gang Quickie. Here's Kelty Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jack Vanek. Let's make this quick. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to Lady Gang Quickie. I'm Becky. I'm here with Jack and Kelty. Kelty's face, like she's scaring me. I don't know what's to come. It looks like she's about to, she's at a pageant and she's about to answer the question.

I am about to answer the question. Thank you so much. Every time Kalti's like, I'm so excited for this quickie. It's like, talk about the most traumatic moment that's ever happened in your life. We are going to get into that. No, today is a big day. So as you guys know, yesterday, my we're filming this a little bit before but yesterday my book cover and announcement went out to the world and I have saved this because I wanted to get your reactions to the cover on for the lady gang oh shit okay so I'm gonna send it to you guys and but here's what I wanted to say and I talked about this a little bit before but this is the first thing that I have done in my

really entire life by myself. Like I was a member of all these dance troops. Right. And then I went into TV. I've always had bosses and I've always been like, why are all the logos blue? Why is the set purple? Like, I hate that. Right. And then with Lady Gang, like I, people, you guys always say like, oh, Kelty's the one that like is the doer, but I am the doer, but not the thinker. Like, I think the coolness and overarching vibe of Lady Gang always came from Becca and the creative of what it looks like, how it feels when you read it from the books to the website, to the photo shoots, to the everything like that is Jack Van Eck through and through. I was the person that was like, OK, I'll book the car and I'll make sure we're there at 7 p.m. And I'll make sure like our assistant. I'm like, yeah, I'm like literally.

But I'm like, OK, I'll get the website. I'll do the trademark. I'll pay the bills. you're crossing stuff off the list yeah I'm a list maker and like I I love that for me and I am good at that and people you know when anyone ever says oh you have such great taste I know they're lying um but the reason they think that is because I'm a great copier so like my house is essentially a Pinterest board but that's because I literally went on Pinterest and was like what does a cool kitchen look like and then I copied it like item for item I have copied both

of you the entire time we've known each other. Like I don't really have any personal taste of my own. Um, and so this is the first thing that I did and I didn't do it on purpose and not take you guys and show you the photos and everything. I just, I don't know why, like I've been so protective of this project. Um, and so I'm going to send the cover. Oh my gosh. It's okay if you hate it, but it is final. So there's nothing I can change about it. Um, but let me send it to you now okay and we'll get your take oh my god stop it it's so good it's so good wow can we read it can i say what it says yeah yeah it's out this will be out okay yeah oh my god the them theory self-help for people who are done being the bigger person and kelty has

a like devil a pink bedazzled devil horn hat headpiece it's like a it's not a hat it's almost like a it's a headpiece headpiece yeah and it says new york times best-selling author kelty knight wow this is wonderful this picture is amazing kelty it is it's so good i love it wow it's so should i do this for anyone watching on um youtube yeah well we can put it in we'll put it in but So they let you say the word. I mean, the U is obviously it's like a pound sign. Yeah. But I thought that it was going to be like the F them theory.

I'm calling it the F them theory wherever I talk about it, whatever, like on TikTok because they like take it down. But yeah, no, it is like the F them theory. So the headpiece that I'm wearing was made by the drag queen Godoy, who ended up making all my. That's how I met him. First, my stylist from E Borey and this guy that worked at E Taylor. I was like, will you style me for this photo shoot? we actually did 10 looks and I didn't know what was going to be the cover. And so I'm releasing like one of the looks every single month leading up to it. That's fun. But I saw. So T Swift of

you. I know. So I saw this photo of, it was AI photo on Pinterest of like a drawing of like essentially this girl wearing this devil thing. And I was like, Godoy, can you make this for me? And the thing is, is that the front, like the, where it goes into my cheek, it's supposed to make shape of my face a heart do you kind of see it oh yeah yes yes yes so that those like had what the sides had wires in it so we like cut it in um but what was so funny about this um is that I was so nervous about this photo shoot that I went to Dr. Diamond before and that's when I got like all three filed down face the roller the everything and I ended up getting you know sometimes you f*** with your skin. I got the biggest, hugest red zit. I didn't know after

microneedling, sometimes you can break out. Oh, yeah. So every single picture, Claire Leahy, who did all of our photo shoots, everything over the years, shot this. I had the biggest red zit. And then the other fun fact about this photo is that I sent it to Carolyn, who's our lawyer, and I sent it to like a couple of people just be like, what do you think? Because there's another version of this photo where I'm like holding up my middle finger and it's like really sassy. And I was like, I don't know, it's too sassy. And Carolyn was like, this doesn't look like you at all. She's like, your chin looks too big. So we actually Photoshop my chin to be smaller in this photo. Just letting you guys know. Well, it's so good the way she retouched. It's amazing. Like

you still have skin texture, but like it is perfect. I love it. It's so showgirl. It's so This is perfect. The life of a petty showgirl. The life of a petty showgirl. Oh, I'm so excited. Okay. So basically the book, thank you, Lady Gang. And thank you. This has been just like a really big project for me. The book is officially on sale as of yesterday. It's a pre-order. So this is what's crazy. And I know you went through the same thing with Jamie Sigler, like, and even Spencer Pratt. Now publishing has changed so much since our books came out they make you put the book on sale for like essentially a year before crazy so my book's coming out mid-november but it's on which is wild um but it's on sale now it's on pre-order

but i was thinking about like what to do to like make it incentivized so i also am launching something called the k-type collective and this was inspired by both of you so essentially all this time we've been like joking about me being a success coach and I did all this speaking for marshals and I basically the book was born sorry this episode's about me um the book was no wonder you were so excited I know just kidding she's literally like well jack at least we don't have to talk about our childhood trauma you know anything to not do that so well okay so the book basically was born out of essentially we had this it was born out of lady gang I we I was on my way to Ibiza this summer, we were a few months away from lady world. I was taking an extremely

large amount of pharmaceuticals all at one time. And I was having all of these mental breakdowns and in typical lady gang style, things were, you know, I was spiraling and it really took you guys to be like, Hey, cut the shit. You know what I mean? Um, and that was a really hard time for us. You know, we were a few months away from Lady World and it was, it was very stressful and I was not in my brain. And I got on this plane to Ibiza and I was like, I, I am spiraling. I don't know how to get myself, like, do I need to go to rehab? Like, I don't know what I'm doing. and I can't keep going on like this. Like I cannot, I can't keep doing this. And so I turned my phone off for the week when I was on vacation

and I literally read Let Them Theory on my Kindle. And I was like, I need a self-help book. And you guys know over the past, you know, 10 years of Lady Gang, I've been girl washed your face. I will go to any self-help book they sell at Target and I will think it's going to fix my life. Like, I'm like, oh, and then I'll, you know, the tipping point. And then I'll, you know, unfick your brain. And then I'll go to the Oprah thing,

which I paid $300 to go to the Oprah live your best life tour. Like I will deep dive into a self-help book. And I read it and I felt so f***ing pissed off because I was like, basically, listen, Mel is brilliant for sure. And like, I absolutely take, there were things that I could take from it but I actually feel like we've been trained especially as women and we've talked about this so much on the podcast we're like we're supposed to eat it and I feel like I have like emotional constipation where you take in everything like all day people are coming at me on social media with all the things I'm doing wrong they're coming at me in my life my family's like why are you not calling me on the right time my friends are like where are you alive I'm like yeah bitch

I'm alive. I'm trying, like, I can't, like, there's just so much. And the let them theory is really about like, you know, just let them, let them do whatever they're going to do and don't worry about it. But like, my problem is like, I need to put that somewhere. And what had happened last year was like, I, my therapist went on maternity leave and I stopped doing weekly therapy. And that's when I, I just went to psychologist and got drugs. And that's when I started Spiron because I didn't have anywhere to put my shit. And so anyway, I got back from that trip. And I was like, you know, I actually think that standing up for yourself and being able to have hard conversations, to admit when you're wrong to someone, to own your shit, to

call other people out on their shit, like, and not always in like a bad mean way. But like, there's an example in the book where I was working at E and I was the chief correspondent it and they put someone else in as the fill-in anchor. And I was pissed. And I was like, wait, that's supposed to be my spot. Like I'm the next person in line. And let them girl would be like, just, they'll notice you at some point. You'll, you know, they'll going to know you're a great worker. That's what I've done my entire career in TV. But this time I went up to my bosses and I was like, Hey, when Adrian's out, that's my spot. Like that's, I expect that to be my spot. I don't, why are you not giving me that spot? And they were like, Oh, we just thought we were working.

you too hard like their reaction was it wasn't I would have never known that I would have been sitting in my room steaming being replaced and so I do think that there's this I this book is all about giving yourself permission to be loud and to unpack the like your own little evil genius it's like calling the paparazzi on yourself using gossip for good um you know dealing with friendships like all of those different things so it's not just about like them them them it's really like a manifesto of like it's a part memoir where i'm talking about all these stories and then it's a manifesto of like giving people permission and then it's a workbook so you are a workbook i love a workbook so every chapter ends with like a decade yeah every chapter ends with an activity

and do you have any questions so far no i mean we're listening to the spiel sorry i know it's too hard anyway so then what came out was with the k-type collective is essentially it's like a little sub stack and basically when you pre-order the book you enter your email and to pre-order you get into the the success coaching thing and like amanda francis or whoever the else is charging like 14.99 a month or 9.99 you get it for the entire year leading up to the book and like so we'll do calls and i'm gonna do like i did this with marshalls last year i mentored 40 women like secretly. And like, I go through your Instagram, I go through your demo reel, I go through your resume, I'll help you negotiate your deals. Like, so I'm doing all of that in like a big way. And

basically like every Wednesday, I'm going to send like a success coaching prompt out to everyone, and then they get to answer. And then on Sunday, I'm going to be like responding and helping people. That's so cool. If Lady Gang's purpose is to like help you find a wedding dress or like figure out what's going on in your anus or like your birth control or how to get pregnant, like this is just, I'm in like a couple secret masterminds like I'm in a podcast one with like Emma Greed and all these like really high-end podcasters and and it really helps to have like it's like essentially the golf course of men right like it helps to have people it's not for everybody this

is for like specifically k-types like people that are like want to have this big life that want to like attack attack so you can just pre-order the book and like read the book and support me great if you want to pre-order the book and join the K-Type Collective, you can. And I'm excited about that. And anyway, my point being back to Ibiza, sorry, this is so much information, but my point being back is that after I got off all those pharmaceuticals and got really clear about life, one of the things I realized is that I actually only feel good about myself. It's not when I'm on the red carpet. It's not when I'm getting the press. I've waited all these years for those things to make me feel good in my soul, and they never have. I only feel good when I'm helping

other people. Like I only feel good when Becca's here and she's doing Tamron Hall and I'm like setting up the shot and I'm like, you know, making sure she looks good and fixing her hair. Or when I'm at Jack's wedding and like her wedding planner sucks and is shitting the bed and I get to like step in and like make sure her day is magical. Like those are the only times I feel good. Or like when someone DMs me and they're like, oh, you know, what should I do about this? Or a girl that's in like local news in Dallas is like, I really want to, and I'm helping them. Like that's the only time I feel like worthy and so that is what I wanted to do more of in my life the lady gang I think you know you've always talked about you're like oh I want to do this

charity work or this and this and that but it's like this is a way for you to help people that like speaks to your soul you know what I mean like you could go and like help out you know volunteering at like an animal rescue or like whatever. But like this is something that like truly is who you are at your core. So being able to help people in that way, I think is I love it. I think it's just like kind of finding exactly what you should be doing. I love everything. I think it's going to be amazing. I agree. I think it's great. And I think you have your biggest spirals when you are too busy, like when you're having to focus so much on yourself, you kind of have no time to focus on others. And like every spiral you've ever had,

just knowing you for this many years and like watching the hard parts of your life, it is when your plate is too full and you're having to hyper focus so much on yourself. And that's for anybody. That is a recipe for a meltdown. Like nobody is meant to have to spend that much time thinking about themselves and their career. It's just you hadn't you had put so much on your plate because I think you also thought that if you had more on your plate, you'd be happier. Like, well, I'm happy when I'm busy. I'm happy when I'm busy. But it was like the type of busyness was not the thing that was serving your soul. Yeah, I agree. Exactly. It's like busyness to just be busy and you think, oh, well, if I put 10 things on my plate every day and I get nine of them done,

then I'm going to feel like I'm so successful. And it's interesting. And here's the craziest part of it all is that writing this book was obviously so cathartic. I mean, I'm talking about things that, you know, uh, all this stuff with my brother, my secret sister, some eating stuff. Like there's just a lot of stories that like, I even have never really felt like I wanted to talk about. And so a lot of this was like incredibly cathartic. And I finished essentially the, what was the first draft of the book right around Christmas. I had to turn it on on January 2nd. This year, I've been less busy. I've done less. Like I have more free time. I'm sometimes I'm sitting on my veranda. I'm looking out and I'm like, I have nothing left to do today. There's

nothing. I don't even really have a bujo this year because my lists are so short. Like it's super weird. More stuff has come my way. I literally got a call yesterday that I'm on hold to play myself in some movie with Matthew McConaughey. Like out of the blue, my agent got this call. Like, I mean, I won't get it. I'll be like hacks. They'll like choose someone else. But But like, it's interesting, Becca, because Becca has always been this person's like, you push so hard, like you don't have to push so hard. It's been an interesting lesson that when I place my energy, you know, helping other people or just being more calm about everything and not being so like, oh, my God, it's 801. And we haven't posted the reel yet. It was supposed to go up at eight. Like, being less that girl, I'm so much happier. so I really am like them my own life yeah we also you realize that like when you loosen the reins and if things don't go the way is that they went as planned like nothing bad happens like nothing good happens and also nothing bad happens and a lot of the time like we focus so much energy on

things it's a control because like if you're somebody who likes to be in control it's all fear-based you're like well I don't keep my hands on the steering wheel and my pedal to the metal then i'm gonna lose all my money i'm gonna be irrelevant nobody's gonna love me nobody's gonna care it's like you go to this really spiral into that dark place because you're just so afraid of but then it's like these little practices and like well what happens if i don't do this thing and you sit back and you wait you're like oh nothing changed so then you just sort of continue to practice that throughout and there are times that it does matter like you're gonna be i have no doubt in my mind, a complete and utter psychopath to try to get on the New York Times

bestselling list. Like that is going to be something that we accept, but we're also going to say, well, Kelty, let's focus on like the things that like, let's, let's really make that the forefront and let's let everything else go away so that like, you can actually still have a life while being a mastermind genius and getting the accolades that you want. So I'm very proud of you. It's so interesting because even like, I of course want to be on the New York Times list, but I actually have a different goal like I want to have a TED talk like because now we we got the New York Times like it says it on the book cover like there's no one can take it away now I mean I don't even get a plaque when you get it you get nothing nothing I just wasn't even in print I had

a subscription to New York Times for an entire year waiting to see it in print and like the miscellaneous self-help doesn't even get in print I couldn't even cut it out for my scrapbook so like basically anybody could just say it at this point yeah I really want to do a TED talk I've been very inspired by a lot of these sub stackers like Brooke Baldwin from who's an old CNN anchor she's got a Pamela Anderson sub stack like the way she's helping me with my thoughts like I just I'm very in I don't know I mean I still obviously want the accolades and I but like I'm not even hiring a publicist on this book I'm not even trying to go on the today show like I don't because I don't think that sells books like I'm like I'm not gonna waste my money trying to be on

these shows like I know the lady gang will show up for me I know my friends will post about the book and like i think it it's either going to be great or it's not it's going to resonate with people when they see it i'm going to do my best work i know the book is incredible i know the worksheets are so good and like but i don't need like i don't need michael strahan to tell people that like i that's not how this is going to take off so it's interesting me not hiring a publicist who am i anyway i'm shocked isn't that shocking it's probably because we've spent enough money to buy a beach house with literally could have bought that house in Mexico with the amount of I'm like I'm not doing it anymore I love a publicist thank you public I respect what you do

but if you're not famous they don't do anything for you it's not gonna and there's it's interesting it's like no go ahead you need to be already yes publicists are really important and really like you can't live without one unless like while you're when you're already famous publicists can't get anybody famous anymore you it they they can like take like I think someone like Nikki Glaser is a great example I think Jenna Chermowski from Dancing with the Stars is a great example they're people that have had publicists for like 10 years and they have been grinding and like yeah there was a point where like Nikki Glaser couldn't get arrested you know I mean she was like excited to be booked on the Lady Gang podcast and you're like oh my

god or like Jenna you're like you know she wasn't getting stuff but then she had a season of Dancing with the stars that was like made a lot of headlines and then then that publicist can like make it a thing well yeah it's like you have to have the you have to have the platform already like the opportunity or the job because like you could take two people on a tv show and with the right publicist one of them could be at the matt gala that year and the other one could like literally disappear into oblivion but it is it's like a very specific recipe that you need and you don't need this you don't need you already she's got a baby yeah you're there okay anyway thank you for your support sorry I know that I took over this whole episode but I love you guys so

much and you can just go I don't even know um actually god I'm the worst Kelty just go to my Instagram I'll have a link there I think you think you will I'll have a link if nothing else KeltyKnight.com um I think I'm still deciding on the you know what still working on the website um love you so much and we weren't here for a long time Lady Gang is hosted and produced by Kelty Knight-Beckertobin and Jack Vanek with social media support from Kali Carrera, audio and video editing from Jared Monaco and additional support from Steve Delameter and Podcast One.