The Jamie Kern Lima Show - Kelsey Grammer Reveals All: Lessons on Love, Loss, Healing & Remembering (Pt 1)
Episode Date: May 8, 2025Full Video Available on YouTube @JamieKernLimaOfficial. Are You Ready to believe in YOU?🙌 jamiekernlima.com 👈 Sign up for my FREE Inspirational Newsletter here and you’ll ALSO get ...special prompt questions to help you grow in your self-worth-building that pair with each episode!🩷 Make sure to click the “Follow” button for the show on your favorite podcast app, so you’ll be the first to get each episode! Get your tissues out, and get ready to remember the experiences, feelings and people who matter most to you in your life! This is a side of Kelsey Grammer you’ve never seen before, he’s truly heart-wide-open in this soulful, vulnerable, emotional interview! How do you remember the people in your life who you loved, and have lost? And have you considered how that impacts your life, your healing, your spirit and your joy today? Today we’re talking about love, loss, healing, remembering… and celebrating a joy-filled life…with my guest today, Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey is a Golden Globe Award winning, Emmy Award winning, Tony Award winning, Screen Actors Guild Award winning, People’s Choice Award winning actor, comedian and producer. He first gained fame for his role as Dr. Frasier Crane on this hit TV show Cheers, and later it’s spin-off Frasier, making primetime television history playing one of the longest-running roles, for more than 20 years, by a single actor. He is the founder of the Faith American Brewing Company, a husband to his wife Kayte, and the father of 7 children! It was recently announced he’ll be playing BEAST in the much anticipated Avenger’s Doomsday, and today, we’re actually seeing a deeply personal and intimate part of Kelsey, in perhaps one of the most important and meaningful works of his life, Kelsey’s brand new book: where he explores love, loss, healing and celebrating the memory of a life filled with joy. In Karen, Kelsey shares the tragic story of the death of his sister, Karen, who was brutally murdered at the age of eighteen, and the journey of his own path to healing in his life. In Karen, Kelsey aims to help others who have experienced similar loss, offering solace and encouragement to cherish the love they knew, however brief, on their own path toward healing. And whether you're joining me today for yourself or because someone that you love shared this episode with you, I want to welcome you to the Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast family. And remember this episode is not just for you and me. Please share it with every single person that you know because it can change their life too. Episode Reflection Questions for YOU: Jamie writes prompt questions each episode to spark revelations in your self-worth journey and help you apply the tools and lessons from each episode into your real life right now. Please make sure you’re signed up for Jamie’s free inspirational newsletter jamiekernlima.com 👈 Get my new book WORTHY plus FREE Bonus gifts including a 95+ page Worthy Workbook and more at WorthyBook.com For more resources related to today’s episode, click here https://jamiekernlima.com/show/ for the podcast episode page. Chapters: 0:00 Welcome to The Jamie Kern Lima Show 2:34 "Remembering Can Heal" 13:20 On Letting Go Of Grief 31:02 Thoughts On God Doubt 38:20 Loved Ones With You 42:47 Signs From Loved Ones Past 45:10 The Prayer For Proof God Is Love It’s such an honor to share this podcast together with you. And please note: I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Click Here to Subscribe to the YouTube Channel Follow me here: Instagram TikTok Facebook Website — Sign up for my inspirational newsletter for YOU at: jamiekernlima.com — Looking for my books on Amazon? Here they are! WORTHY Believe IT
Transcript
Discussion (0)
I think the message that came through was Karen saying, it's time.
You need to remember and live your life.
Yeah, I was really it was it was a great moment.
She said, I've missed you.
So I do this all the time.
I do this with my kids.
They all go like, oh, here he goes again.
Grief is a heavy weight to continue to carry.
It's very hard.
And you do, you suffer through it with this idea that, oh,
by letting go of the grief, you're somehow letting go of them.
But I learned through this book that that isn't the case.
By hanging onto the things that are good, actually, I'm closer to her as I was when I was with her,
when she was with us and so she is with us again. That's the key.
How do you remember the people in your life who you loved and have lost and
have you considered how that impacts your life, your healing, your spirit, and your joy today?
Well today we're talking about love, loss, healing,
remembering, and celebrating a joy-filled life
with my guest today, Kelsey Grammer.
You're opening the cocktail onions.
Cocktail onions.
I did my homework.
I read that you love cocktail onions.
I'm like, okay, we got to have them on the set.
Thank you.
I was a Denny's waitress, which I just learned you're a Denny's dishwasher.
I actually go and celebrate at Denny's to this day.
Yeah.
When I see you're getting emotional.
Kelsey is a Golden Globe award winning Emmy award winning Tony award winning Screen Actors
Guild award winning People's Choice award-winning actor, comedian, and producer.
He first gained fame for his role as Dr. Frasier Crane on the hit TV show Cheers, and later
it's spin-off Frasier, making prime time television history, playing one of the longest
running roles for more than 20 years by a single actor.
He is the founder of Faith American Brewing Company, a husband to his wife Kate, and the
father of seven children.
It was recently announced he'll be playing Beast in the much anticipated Avengers Doomsday,
and today we're actually seeing a deeply personal and intimate part of Kelsey in perhaps
one of the most important and meaningful works of his life,
Kelsey's brand new book where he explores love, loss, healing and celebrating the memory
of a life filled with joy.
Remember is my favorite word.
That is the most powerful word in English language.
The idea that you were once a member of something, you were once close to another person in their
membership and when you remember them, they're no longer gone. You are once a member of something, you are once close to another person in their membership.
And when you remember them, they're no longer gone.
What you just said about remember, like just sent chills through my whole body.
To break down the word.
For so many people listening right now, they have loved ones they've lost.
And for you to say remember, you were a member with them.
You were in member with them. You were in membership with them.
And by remembering, it's almost like you reignite
that connection, that aliveness,
that in membership with them.
Yeah.
I said, we gotta put a bullet in this thing.
I mean, we have to kill this show.
He said, I can't, I can't kill it.
And I knew my life, I knew my life was changing. I thought, it's changing. And then I can't. I can't kill it. And I knew my life was changing.
I thought, it's changing.
And then I met Kate.
And he said, I was on that flight when you and Kate met.
He told me that I said to him, I think
I'm going to marry that girl.
Wow.
You have a relationship with God if you have one
and you're listening.
You don't need to doubt it.
It's really there.
I was in a conversation with Jesus,
and I thought, boy, this is really, really interesting,
but it's as clear and vivid as anything I've ever done.
I was like, hey, you don't need to keep carrying this.
I've got it.
That was the big thing.
He said, I got it.
I said, well, what do you mean, I got it?
I mean, I'm fine. I can handle it.
It's all right.
He said, no, no, this is not for you.
That's why I came.
You don't need to carry this so I can give it up.
It's a good thing.
In Karen, Kelsey shares the tragic story of the death of his sister Karen, who was brutally
murdered at the age of 18, and the journey of his own path to healing in his life.
In Karen, Kelsey aims to help others who have experienced similar loss, offering solace
and encouragement to cherish the love they knew, however brief, on their own path toward
healing.
And whether today you're listening for yourself
or because someone that you love shared this episode
with you, I wanna welcome you to the Jamie Kern
Lima Show podcast family.
And if you're here right now, can you do me a quick favor?
If you like the show and the guests that I bring you,
if you could please hit the subscribe or follow button
on the app that you're listening or watching on.
It truly means the world to me.
Thank you so much.
And I want to remind you that this episode is not just for you and me.
Please share this with every single person you know because what you're about to hear
could change your life and theirs too.
Also, every episode of the Jamie Kernley Misho features a wide range of guests.
I believe that you can't help heal humanity through love unless you understand
the humans that make it up. I have friends who vote differently,
love differently, and believe completely differently than me.
I've gotten hate for giving them love,
but I'll never stop doing that because I know why I'm here.
And it's to be a force for love.
This world now more than ever desperately needs the force for love inside each of us.
You can't help heal humanity through love if you only love the people who are just like
you and aren't truly open and curious about the humans who make up the collective humanity
that I believe is possible for all of us to heal together.
And with that, let's get this episode started.
Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima Show.
Oprah, how have you defied the odds?
Her show is unlike any I've ever done.
A revelation. When you listen, it feels like a hug, but your brain and your spirit and your heart is like wow.
Melinda French gate.
When I look into Jamie's eyes, I feel like I am on some other
cosmic level with her.
I could see the light around her she's infused with light
imagine overcoming self doubt learning to believe in
yourself and trust yourself
and know you are enough.
Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima show.
Jamie Kern Lima is her name.
Everybody needs Jamie Kern Lima in their life.
Jamie Kern Lima.
Jamie, you're so inspiring.
Jamie Kern Lima.
Kelsey Grammer, welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima show. Thank you. Thanks Jamie, it was lovely. I see you're getting
emotional listening to it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well you got it. That's
that's why I wrote it. Just it turned out to be that was the mission. I didn't
know it at first because I got a very strange imperative
saying you know, write this, well I didn't say write actually, I just said tell, tell
my story from my sister through Esther, somebody we were working with at the time. And so it's
just turned into the book. It was a wonderful exploration and a discovery all at the same time, because I rediscovered
my life with Karen.
I discovered a purpose for writing the book while writing it.
And I really just wanted to help people find some peace of like the word solace, some understanding that we are not alone, we're
like, you know, with God and one another, and that that person, when remembered, is
no longer distant or lost in the moment of memory.
They're reinfigurated, they're revivified and are brought back to life in our minds, in our
memories, in our extension of thought to them, they live again.
So that's kind of what I wanted to say to people.
Which is so beautiful.
I mean, I think, you know, every person who lives long enough and who's blessed enough
to love somebody deals with loss and grief. And you talk a lot in the book, Karen,
which everyone should go pick up their copy right now
immediately.
But you talk a lot about the power of remembering.
And can you share just a little bit more about that?
Yeah. My first understanding of the,
when remember is my favorite word.
And my first comprehension of that was when I was 18,
I was asked by one of the girls at the dance school
that was on the same floor at Julliard as I was,
that the drama department of the dance school
was on the same floor.
So we would all sort of co-mingle.
And one of the girls said, I want to set a new piece I'm working on.
She was choreographing to music, but I want the music to be the spoken word.
And I have this poem that I'd like you to read for me while I do these dancing moves.
And I said, sure.
So and the poem had the word remember in it and at which
point I thought boy that is the most powerful word in English language. It has
remained that way for me. I mean I like a lot of other words as well but
remember is the one that gives me the most pleasure because of the idea that
you were once a member of something, you are once close to another person in
their membership,
and when you remember them, they're no longer gone, they're there, they're there with you.
And so that's when I first sort of really fell in love with the word itself.
And then when we were discussing the title for the book, you know, it was like, you've
got to remember, it's got to be in there somewhere.
And it's about Karen.
So it became, my brother remembers.
But in reading it, you learn the value of the word to me.
And hopefully to another group of people who will read it and say, yeah, I feel that.
Because once that starts, it's like channeling almost.
You take one step into it, the first sentence, the first word,
and you're suddenly broken through every time barrier
in the world.
You've pulled people out of the grave.
You've re-embraced them again.
And it's a wonderful thing.
What you just said about remember,
like just sent chills through my whole body.
Because to break down the word, and I
think for so many people listening right now,
they're going to have a big aha moment over this, right?
Because they have loved ones they've lost and still love.
And for you to say, remember, you were a member with them.
You were in membership with them.
And by remembering, it's almost like you
reignite what's already there, but that
connection, that aliveness, that in membership with them.
When did that happen for you, like in a way you were able to feel with your sister?
And can you tell me about Karen?
Sure.
For a long time, it was very hard for me to think about Karen.
But I was excavating the tragedy.
I was unearthing that a lot of the time.
When I would reflect on her, I would
reflect on what she suffered and what took place in her life
and the people who were responsible. And there were so many other things that sort of echoed through my
mind that were not that were not honorific with the didn't celebrate her
that just sort of mourned her and I was sort of lost in a kind of a loop of
mourning that was not It wasn't healthy.
But it was what I had to do.
Not that it was unhealthy.
It's what I was given at the time.
I always loved the book of Matthew.
Do what is given unto you.
I was stuck in that.
And it took me this book to actually find my way out into
saying, oh, God, I'm so happy I knew you.
Yeah, it was a great moment to understand in the writing of it
that I was going to have this chance to be with my sister again,
and to hold her, and to love her, and to hold her hand,
and laugh at things together again.
It was a really extraordinary thing.
It was a great, great life we had together, which is why it was so tragic to me.
It was so hard for me for a long time to kind of wrestle out of that.
And I really didn't do it for a long time.
And I think the message that came through was Karen saying, it's time.
You need to remember and live your life.
Hmm. Will you tell me more about that? Like about its impact on you when you chose to
write this? Sure. Well, I feel a lot lighter. I did actually get to drop a lot of grief.
Grief is a heavy weight to continue to carry.
It's very hard.
And you suffer with this idea that,
oh, by letting go of the grief,
you're somehow letting go of them.
But I learned through this book that that isn't the case.
By hanging onto the things that are good, actually, I'm closer to her as I was when
I was with her, when she was with us.
And so she is with us again.
That's the key.
So it's been great.
And she's with my family now.
I'm with Kate, and Kate dealt with me writing this for two and a half years. And when I finally turned to Caitlyn, this always chokes me up a little bit,
but I'm getting more used to saying it.
But she's such an extraordinary woman.
When I said, I finished it, I turned and said, it's done.
And she said, I've missed you.
And she said, I've missed you.
Thanks, babe.
So I do this all the time. I do this with my kids.
They all go like, oh, here he goes again.
But it's a very rewarding life to care
this much about things.
So it's okay.
Tell me about your wife.
Well Kate and I met in what is one of the great fantasy meetings of all time. I mean
almost every guy I meet says, wow, you lived the dream. So we met on a flight to London,
she was working for Virgin Atlantic and she
was part of the cabin crew. She looked good in red. We struck up a nice
conversation and I was at a very big crossroads in my life. I
knew my life was changing. I'd gotten this, I just finished doing this show
called Hank, which was, and we always say this now
This is for the next book
This is the story stuff like this for the next book. But so I finished filming this show called Hank
Which was a terrible show. It wasn't funny. It was supposed to be funny. It was just ghastly and I had actually called Peter over to
Warner Brothers, I said Peter we got to put a bullet in this thing.
I mean, we have to kill this show.
He said, I can't.
I can't kill it.
We've got obligations to foreign sales and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I thought, please, please.
And sure enough, the next day, Steve from ABC called and said, I'm putting a bullet
in this show.
It's got to go.
I was like, thank God.
And 35 minutes later I got a call from Barry Weisler in New York City saying,
I got this show, we're going to bring it over to Broadway,
I want you to be in it, fly to London,
can you get on a plane in a couple of days and go see it,
and we'll talk about you doing it there.
And that was it. And I knew my life was changing. and to go see it, and we'll talk about you doing it there."
And that was it.
And I knew my life was changing.
I thought, it's changing.
And then I met Kate.
And recently we went to...
It was one of the...
There was just an invited screening of a couple of the Chosen series,
and we saw our friends there. A guy walks up to me and says,
hey, you remember me?
And I was, you know, loathe to say no because I don't like to hurt anybody's feelings,
but I did not really remember him.
But then he said, I was on that flight when you and Kate met.
I started thinking, I remember sort of chatting a bit with some guys, like, you know, by the bar.
Kate was in and out of it.
She was doing her job.
But he told me that I said to him,
I think I'm going to marry that girl.
Wow.
And I didn't really remember saying that to him.
But it did make sense to me.
I remember thinking it at one point.
So maybe that's what happened.
So I got to London.
And these are all off-glides, but they're fun.
I was staying at the Mandarin Oriental and it used to be the Hyde Park Hotel, I think.
Maybe I shouldn't mention anything else except there was, I walked in, I stopped at the concierge, the concierge said, hello, oh, hello, Mr. Grimma.
And there was a girl who like, she was like 10 feet tall and with a Russian
accent.
And I thought, whoa.
And he looked at me as she walked away and said, anything at all you need, Mr.
Grimma, anything.
Oh, oh, that's what he's saying.
Okay, well, thank you.
Thank you nonetheless.
And then Kate and I connected by phone
and decided we would meet for a drink.
And I said, well, let's have a drink in the bar at the hotel.
And as I walked downstairs at the appointed hour,
I looked in and I saw a bunch of the same kind of people.
And I thought that is not the place to take a girl on a first date.
So I walked down on the street and I stood in the little meridian right opposite
Harvey Nichols.
And she came up out of the tube stop and I saw her reapply her lipstick and
I sort of smiled and then she looked up and saw me looking at her.
We took a walk, I said let's go take a walk and I said I'm going to go in there for a drink.
And so we went to a tour at Hyde Park.
It was close to Christmas.
So Winter Wonderland was up and running.
And so I saw all the lights.
It was a little cool.
And then snowflakes started to fall.
And I thought, pretty perfect.
And we shared a kiss 20 minutes later.
Like a fairy tale.
It was. When you said a few minutes ago that you told
her the book is finished and she said, I missed you. What did that mean to you? We need to
pause for a super brief break and while we do, take a moment to share this episode with
every single person that you know who this could inspire.
Because this conversation can truly be the words and inspiration
they need to hear today to keep going, to remember that they matter and to feel less alone and more enough,
more connected and more worthy.
I am so excited for this book. You know why?
Because it's going to save so many people.
It's gonna save people.
Worthy, your new beautiful book Worthy.
Get this book.
This book?
I'm telling you, it's a book that can change
anybody's life who picks it up.
Anybody who's ever felt that they were not good
enough to measure up something's missing.
Imagine what would you do if you fully believed in you.
From struggling waitress facing nonstop rejection to founder of
it cosmetics a billion dollar company,
by learning how to overcome self-doubt
and believe I am worthy of my hopes and dreams.
And I'm sharing how you can too in my new book, Worthy,
how to believe you are enough and transform your life.
If you're ready to truly trust yourself and break through that barrier of self-doubt
and know that where you come from or even where you are right now doesn't determine
where you're going, then Worthy is for you.
It's time to go from doubting you're enough to knowing you're enough.
It's time to step into all of who you are and into the person you were born to be.
And it's time to believe that you are worthy of it.
Because in life, we don't become what we want.
We become what we believe we're worthy of.
Join the Worthy Movement today
by grabbing your copy of Worthy anywhere books are sold,
then head to worthybook.com now for free gifts,
including my five-part course on becoming unstoppable
and my 95-page Worthy workbook action plan
that teaches you how to implement the tools from the book
into your real life right now.
Worthy is groundbreaking.
Yo. Oh my God! Worthy, you are worthy. Worthy is groundbreaking. Yo.
Oh my God!
Worthy, you are worthy.
This book is gonna change lives.
This book literally will teach you
how to actually feel worthy
so that you can have the strength,
you can have the confidence.
The lessons in this book
and the strategies will change your life.
You will never be the same again
after you read this book.
Jamie's Book Worthy is a must read.
It is going to inspire you, empower you,
give you the hope that you need
and the kick in the rear end that you deserve.
Jamie's Book Worthy is incredible.
The gifts are going away,
but they're all free right now on WorthyBook.com.
And now more of this incredible conversation together.
When you said a few minutes ago that you told her the book is finished.
Yeah.
And she said, I missed you.
What did that mean to you?
Well, what it meant was that she was along for the ride,
that she'd been there all that time, that she was...
Now, I'm not going to say she's perfect on this, because there were moments when she
said, you know what, I could use a little attention over here, please, thank you.
But she was willing to let me take the ride.
She was willing to let me fall into the grief, as I did a few times, and re-experience the loss and go so deep into a sort of a...
because the grief was revivified too, you know what I mean?
Yes.
I went back in time, back in moments, back in time, moments of my childhood
that I hadn't remembered for a long time, and I was fully in them, so she was missing me
during that time, but willing to accept that and allow me to take the journey.
That's what was remarkable.
Kate's over here.
She's glowing a castor.
I was going to check if you were here or not.
When I was sharing this with you when
we were walking here to the set, but as a reader,
I felt like I was right there with you through the book.
And this is so different than how most books are written.
And for the person who's listening right now,
watching us right now, who maybe has, you know,
dealt with the loss of someone they love,
or they're maybe just, you know, having a new focus on,
wow, I wanna remember people that maybe I've loved
and have lost or that are still in my life.
And you take us through this journey
and it's so intimate and it's so powerful
and it's so purposeful, but then also you're telling us
how you're feeling in the moment as you're writing it.
Like you're almost like we're going through this journey
of remembering with you.
And so we're part of the remembering
and we're seeing how we can remember.
And you're giving us an example
of how we can remember in our own lives,
but then we're also feeling what,
we're experiencing what you're feeling as you write it. And can you share a
little bit of insight? Because there's gonna be a lot of people watching listening that go, oh my gosh, I want to, I
want to remember, I want to remember, I want to, I want to
remember with that person. I want to do that. Like Kelsey, how do I do that?
What did that look like for you as you went through this?
How did you know it was time to do that?
And how did you know or did you it would be worth it
or that you needed to?
And how did you figure out how to?
Yeah.
I didn't know how I was going to do it when I started.
But I did have this sense that as it became a book,
as it became, in the first couple of days of doing
writing, I wrote like the first day I wrote,
I wrote about just a page and a half.
And I realized then I thought, oh, I think this is a book, this is a real
book and then I thought that I had to take people with me, that they had to be invited
along for the ride and that my obligation to them was to point the way back to things
that I had known and learned and that would hopefully agitate their imagination enough
to say, oh yeah I've lived that way, I've had that moment,
so that we were on the trip together.
So we were, instead of holding just Karen's hand, I was holding the reader's hand.
I mean, at one point in the book I even write a letter to the reader
with the sort of, the understanding that they might actually not want to finish the journey.
But so far this is where we've gone.
I hope you're with me still.
If you want to put the book down now, that's okay.
But I said, we have some things to do still.
I have some places I have to go.
And I have you now.
I have you with me.
And so it was a very direct address kind of thing.
And I mean, I did, there's a conceit about Henry Fielding
who wrote Tom Jones.
When I read Tom Jones, I was 18 years old,
I was riding the subway all the time
and I was laughing out loud at it.
And I thought, my, what a wonderful gift
from 200 years previous from this guy
who had the arrogance or the just the confidence to say,
this is probably the best book you'll ever read in your life.
He says it right there, right out.
And I thought, that's what I want to have.
I want to establish that kind of a relationship
with whoever might be reading the book at the time
and say, it's us together.
I know you're there, and I'm with you, you're with me,
let's go do this.
And that arrived, I don't know, 60 60 70 pages into the book when I suddenly thought okay
I gotta explain this about Henry Fielding so he's in there. That's a blame it if you want to
It's it was a nice device
But it also it sort of it got rid of the idea that there was any distance between us
Between my telling of the story and the reader
And it will always be in an immediate sense that the time collapses into the book and there is no time in it.
There is no chronology, but there is the sort of, but whatever. You bounce from one place to the next
like life is just a a bauble. You can just say I'm going from here to there, I'm going from here,
I'm going to South America right now, I'm going to go back to Southern California and you
just take them with you.
Which would be how remembering is.
Yeah, I think it is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's a reflected sort of word puzzle, I guess, that sort of indicates where my brain's
been.
Can you share with everyone, Esther, and how Karen came through?
I get so many messages and DMs from people saying, you know,
what about a plant medicine journey? What about this?
Like just all these. And I think what I've learned,
I knew this already, but I know this even more powerfully through doing this show,
is that when I feel like when each of us like share our stories
that it helps everyone feel less alone and more enough and they just kind of I
think revel in that I think we need that now more than ever that connection but
for you can you talk about through the story of Esther how Karen how Karen's
like how this all started because there gonna be people going, wait, can I get Esther's number?
Like, what do I?
Well, you know, Esther's pretty gifted.
I've known a few gifted people.
This was, I mean, I produced a show called Medium.
And I guess that was part of it.
I was always kind of in that community a little bit.
And I found out, of course, everybody who's a medium actually wants a television show.
So it was like a lot of people contacted me for a while
And you do find out that some are really gifted summer, you know, okay. Yeah, they're getting hits
Maybe they are accurate some of the time, but if you got somebody who's
Who doesn't know you who's accurate about your life 70% of the time pulls names out of the air
You may as well pay attention
Whatever your point is or whatever joint just view you may have of the whole mediumship
issue because, you know, Greg Laurie is a pal of mine and he's not particularly happy
about, you know, being a, not a necessary, being sort of on the evangelical scale.
He's sort of more toward conservative and they're not so crazy about this idea of channeling.
However, I always think to myself, well, isn't Ecclesiastes this idea of channeling. However, I
always think to myself, well, isn't Ecclesiastes, not Ecclesiastes, but
Revelation, isn't that a channeled book? I mean, didn't John sit there and didn't
Jesus come and visit him and talk to him? And so there are examples in
the Bible, but I suppose they just want you to deal with the fact that they're in
the Bible, not necessarily in your life. And I think that may distance a lot of people from the revelation that takes place every
day in our lives on this planet today.
I think that revelation is unfolding and it comes to all of us, you know, if we have the
good fortune to be open at the moment.
Will you explain what you mean by that?
Well the unfolding, you have a relationship with God if you have one and
you're listening, you don't need to doubt it, it's really there.
And we'll mess with ourselves a lot because we've been told we should, we've been told
we shouldn't have faith in faith, but nonetheless it still keeps coming up. There's a great story about Barabbas, one of the guys who, when the people of Jerusalem said,
give us Barabbas instead of Jesus, the Pilate said, you can have this guy
or you can let Jesus go, you can take this guy, he'll die instead.
And they said, give us Barabbas instead,
and basically sort of sealing Jesus' death.
And there was a great movie, Anthony Quinn did it,
and somewhere in the middle of it,
I saw it when I was 10, something like that,
he's having a terrible life,
but all he can think about is Jesus.
And then somebody says to him,
well, if all you're doing is thinking about him,
isn't that some indication that it might be real?
And so he became one of his ardent followers,
his first devoted followers, Barabbas.
Anyway, I've gone off path a little bit.
Esther.
Journeys, plant medicine. I think my plant medicine is actually writing.
I didn't realize it at the time, but it just takes me in deep
red, sort of like I'm in some sort of an altered state.
And it's been extraordinary.
And in those moments, that's when the book was the most
alive, and it would come to me.
There are scenes I mentioned in the book where I was just
contemplating and sitting in a dark room, and I felt
surrounded by hundreds of voices, people who were gone
and still present in my life, some of
them, but they were as clear as a bell, saying, you don't need to suffer so much.
You've done enough.
You've done enough of that.
And those were wonderful moments.
So Esther came into my life through a friend who knew that I was You know a person on the path
sort of
Trying to figure out what we all mean why we're here and all that stuff. Yeah
He said
He's not he's not really an active friend of mine. It was just a guy that I'd met a couple of times
Who said you need to talk to this gal Esther? She's amazing. And if you do a Zoom meeting with her,
she can sort of read what's going on with your body,
health-wise and stuff.
She'll say, oh, you need to have a look
at that part of your stomach or something or whatever.
But that wasn't the way I encountered her.
We had a phone conversation.
And I describe it in the book a little bit, but it was very
funny for me because I look at this with slightly skeptical energy.
So she's from South America, she's got a bit of an accent.
And Esther said, all right, give me a minute.
Okay.
Are you relaxed yeah, I'm sort of lying on the floor and one of our bedrooms and Palm Springs and
She said
Okay, I hear a little rattle, some shaking of sticks.
I thought, oh boy, here we go.
And then it was just a couple minutes later, she said,
oh, your sister wants you to tell her a story.
Okay, yes, Karen, Karen wants you to tell her a story.
So that was kind of it really. And I have a picture of it in the book, the notepad I was writing.
It's just an envelope turned sideways, it was the back of the envelope,
where it just was jotting down what she was saying.
And I feel like tell her story, tell Karen's story on it.
So there's a picture of that in the book.
What did that feel like when she said that? And did you believe her?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Now, I've had several mediums, of course.
As I said, I produced a show who said that Karen came through.
And yeah, I believed it.
At least half the time, I believed
that they were having some sort of connection,
because I know she's with me.
So if they have a gift and they're seeing her here,
I'm not so good at doing that
But but through the through the writing I sort of felt like I was closer to her that way
And understood that she's been there right there right there when you talk about
You know all of these people that have passed or that are living that are in your life and you're in like a dark room
And you're hearing all the voices. Um
Is that when you write only?
No, no, that was just, that was a meditative moment.
That was just, I wrote about it a couple days later.
Wow. Yeah.
It was just logged.
Yeah. Yeah, filed away.
And was it just like you were in meditation or prayer
or and it just came?
It's sort of like prayer.
Well, the same kind of thing happened a few weeks before.
I'm trying to put if I've got it right timing-wise, but I think I do. A few weeks before,
I just had one of those moments when I thought, I want to do something worthwhile, something
important. I just sort of gave up and said, you know, help me out here. And the very next day,
help me out here and
the very next day the script came to the door for Jesus Revolution, which I
Was one of the great successes of my life. I loved playing that role I called my agent an hour and a half later after reading the script and said I'm doing this so
You know these things happen. Yeah, like you said earlier if you're like when you open yourself yourself to them, right? Yeah, it's so interesting Kelsey. I
I
in my life, I
Believe our life is divinely orchestrated. I think we have choice. I think all of that. I
Find that when I talk about my faith or talk openly on the show, for example about my faith
What's so tricky is that everyone's at different places in their life.
So some people write in and say, they're mad I'm talking about God.
Someone else will write in and say, you didn't talk about God correctly.
And I'm like, right?
All these things.
And you know.
That's been going on for a long time.
Oh my gosh. We have all these different religions.
Yes, and even inside the same one, and it's interesting because of what you shared earlier,
sometimes people are in different ranges of their belief and faith, or they don't want to hear about
a medium or this or that, and I always, I just feel like it will not be until we are in part of our eternal life
that we even understand all the things. I feel like humans can try to judge. I have one of my
best friends that doesn't like crystals. I love crystals. I'm like, first of all, God created them.
That's the first thing. And I'm so open to all of that. I felt like when I wrote,
I've written two books and I felt, I just felt like I didn't write them. I felt like
they came through me. And it's like a hard thing to explain, but I love that you share
the process of writing this book, not only because so many people that are going to read
it, they're going to pick up Karen, um, the book, Karen, uh,
may want to write their own book or they may want to actually just start writing
their own story or a loved one's story,
or they may want to remember through writing. Um,
and maybe they never share it with anyone else,
but it's their own kind of private process of doing that. Um,
how do you know, how do you know
for sure that Karen is with you and has been with you through this process of the book?
Yeah. I guess I just know, but
I guess I just know, but years ago people would say to me things like, you know, well, she's here, you know, she's here.
And I'd sort of get skeptical or whatever.
But then it became overwhelmingly clear that Karen and I hadn't left each other.
We stayed together. And I almost
almost from the moment she was gone, I, or the moment she was
killed, I sensed that I was living with her. Like she was
along for the ride, always there. I know she was with my mom sometimes. One guy I was
meeting a while back said something to me, he said, oh, you know, and did one of
those things and then he said, yeah, and she said, she's sorry she didn't realize
that the grief would be so, so hard. It's interesting. Yeah, so I've had reminders from a lot of people, but
you get your own taste for this stuff. Yeah, Karen's real. She's there. It
happens. She has come and she's spoken to Kate, I think a few times. I'm not
gonna pull her in too much on that. She's been available because I think she's always had, she's been really attracted
to life, you know, really like a flame. You know, it's like you want to be near life,
you want to be near love. It's like my version of heaven is, I can't imagine God would take
us to a place where we would not remember our love or where suddenly we don't get to
be with our loved ones or, oh or you guys are done, you'll
never see each other again.
That's nonsense.
You know, one of my friends, Irwin McManus, who's a pastor, he was giving this keynote
speech right before me at an event, and his whole keynote was on quantum entanglement.
And I'm thinking, what is quantum entanglement?
But I'm listening to the whole thing.
And he said something so powerful. He said that he believes that because we grieve
and because we feel so deeply for people we've loved and lost, that once they're gone, they're
gone in physical form, that he believes it's proof of eternal life, the fact that
we still feel so deeply. And he talks about like resonance between souls and how it's
proof that their soul and that there's eternal life based on how strong we feel for somebody.
And if that person just disappeared, that we wouldn't feel that connection or that sense
of they're here or they're with me or they're showing me a sign or giving me a nudge or
speaking to me or speaking to my wife or any of those things.
And it was so profound the way he explained it.
He explained it far more eloquently than I just did, but he explained it and I had never
thought of it that way.
That's a pretty good idea. Right?
That we're so deeply connected emotionally and in other ways that their essence and our
essence, he explained, have united, as you would say, we're in membership with, and how
it's proof that even if they are not here in physical form, that their soul is still there and that there's eternal life.
We had a great moment when Kate and I were having a fight in our first year together basically.
We were living at my mom's old house. We had a bit of a tussle and climbed into bed kind of mad with each other. And I heard this huge bang in the living room.
And I thought, what the heck?
So I reached out of the bed and I grabbed a golf club.
I kept there for that reason.
Kate said she was going to go.
She'll go check it out.
I got this.
I said, don't get a hold of yourself.
Don't get carried away.
I said, I'll take this one.
So I opened the door and I went out of the living room.
Kate went back to bed.
I walked in, the TV was on.
And I thought, well, I know I turned that off.
So it was weird.
Looked around a little bit.
Turned it off and thought, thanks, mom.
Don't go to bed angry with each other.
So I went into the room and then Kate said,
what did your mom smell like?
She smelled flowers.
It was really something, really something.
And I thought, well, this is real.
This is not, you know, some heretical thing going on.
It's like, and you mentioned that people, you know, This is not some heretical thing going on.
You mentioned that people object to discussing faith or not discussing it enough.
I'm not a proselytizer.
I don't try to convince people they should think the way I think or see God the way I
see God or experience this universe the way I experience it.
But I will not deny my faith.
I will not say, you know,
to make someone else comfortable, to say, oh no, I don't believe any of that. I'm not
going to try to force you to think the way I think or feel what I feel, but I'm not going
to deny it. So I have this relationship with Jesus, with God. It's an open conduit. It just exists. And I did question it for a long time. So
believe me, I fought my way to get here and realized after all this time,
oh, you were always there? Oh, what was wrong with me? Well, there was nothing wrong with me. Just
I wasn't ready to listen. It's okay. With, I think so many people are in this
point in their own faith journey. I have so many friends this way. I dealt with, I mean,
I was raised going to church and then I spent probably, I don't know, a couple of decades just
sort of like inside myself doubting God exists. And I remember I was in graduate school in New
York City and around so many people that don't have faith at all or think that if you do believe in God, you're just not
that smart. And I was around that all the time and also around a lot of different faiths. And I
started to sort of question, hmm, like, you know, and I remember going through God doubt and I went
to, this is years later,
I went to my first ever therapist about something completely different and was telling her,
I doubt God exists and I'm doubting God exists. And she said to me, well, what makes you think
he can't handle your doubt? And I'm like, what do you mean? And she's like, well, if he...
And I don't even know if she believes at all, by the way. She said, if he created the entire
universe, like what makes you think he can't
handle your doubt?
She goes, why don't you try praying and telling him, uh, you doubt he exists and
to prove you wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt that he does.
And I'm like, okay.
And so, and so this went on for a couple of years, but like I would, I would, um,
if I was like praying for a friend's health or something like that, I would end the prayer and I'd be like, and by the way, God, I'm
doubting you exist.
So if you could please show up in my life, right?
Prove me wrong, be on a shadow of a doubt.
I'd be so grateful in Jesus' name.
Amen.
And I did that prayer.
Kelsey, like there, like there is zero question in my mind, like the way God started showing
up where it was literally screaming in my face, like the way God started showing up where it was literally
screaming in my face.
Like there's so many examples of this that have happened.
I'm just like, whoa, like the person that finally gave us a shot on QVC after years
of my business struggling and us getting no's.
Later I thanked her.
I was like, you loved our product.
Thank you.
And this was years later.
This is after we had become their biggest brand.
And she says she was a show host there for 17 years.
And she says, no, no, no, I gave you a shot because God told me go up and help that girl.
Like it was just like one thing after another after.
And it's just like, whoa.
So that, so for anyone listening right now, no matter where you are in your journey, like
that for me was something that was really powerful to do is just like call it like you
see it.
Like, God, I am doubting you exist.
So can you please show up?
Prove me wrong, but be on a shadow of a doubt.
Because I don't want a hint, just be on a shadow of a doubt.
So for you, when you just shared that, I just know that so many people listening are going
to relate to that.
And you share openly in your book, Karen, that everyone needs to go
grab their copy of right now. You share about a lot of different hardships you've gone through
and a lot of different struggles and a lot of different times you veered off course and a lot
of different journeys in your life. And I love so much that you share that because there's also so
many people, just as it pertains to faith, there's so many people that think like, oh, you know, I'm imperfect, therefore
I'm disqualified from praying or I'm disqualified from asking for anything or I'm disqualified
from a relationship with God or they've met people that are so judgmental that they feel like it's not for them. And so,
I love that you share so candidly about your life's journey, your whole life's journey. I mean,
back to growing up, I mean, back to all of, back to thoughts you had so for you, when, when, and you say that you, you weren't, you didn't always have
strong faith.
What was it for you that was like, oh, God is real.
And I know that for sure.
We need to pause for a super brief break.
And while we do take a moment to share this episode with every single person that you
know who this could inspire.
Because this conversation can truly be the words and inspiration they need to hear today
to keep going, to remember that they matter and to feel less alone and more enough, more
connected and more worthy.
Who you spend time around is so important as energy is contagious and so is self-belief.
And I'd love to hang out with you even more, especially if you could use an extra dose
of inspiration, which is exactly why I've created my free weekly newsletter that's
also a love letter to you delivered straight to your inbox each and every Tuesday morning from me.
If you haven't signed up to make sure that you get it each week, just go to JamieKernlima.com to make
sure you're on the list and you'll get your one-on-one with Jamie weekly newsletter and get ready
to believe in you. If you're tired of hearing the bad news every single day and need some inspiration,
some tips, tools, joy, and love, hitting your inbox, I'm your girl. Subscribe at JamieKernLima.com
or in the link in the show notes.
Do you struggle with negative self-talk? Living with a constant mental narrative
that you're not good enough is exhausting.
I know because I spent most of my life in that habit.
The words you say to yourself about yourself are so powerful
and when you learn to take control over your self-talk,
it's life-changing.
And I wanted to give you a free resource
that I created for you if this is something
that could benefit your life.
It's called Five Ways to Overcome Negative Self-Talk
and Build Self-Love.
And it's a free how-to guide to overcome
that negative self-talk to build confidence
and develop unshakable self-love
so that you can dream big and keep going
in the pursuit of your goals.
Don't let self-sabotaging thoughts
hinder your progress any longer.
It's time to rewrite the script of your life,
one filled with self-love, resilience,
and unwavering belief.
If you're ready to take charge of your narrative,
build unwavering belief. If you're ready to take charge of your narrative, build unwavering confidence and empower yourself
to persevere on the path to your dreams.
You can grab your free guide to stop overthinking
and learn to trust yourself at jamiekernlema.com
slash resources, or click the link in the show notes below.
And now more of this incredible conversation together.
For you, when, and you say that you weren't,
you didn't always have strong faith.
What was it for you that was like,
oh, God is real and I know that for sure?
Well, there are a few things along the way that came by.
I had a reading with one of these people that does this sort of thing.
And I was doubting, how did I get to this place?
And it just came up.
I said, do you think you could have done this without, if God didn't love you?
I was like, oh, maybe, maybe not.
So that was a great sort of just frank reminder that this has been along for the ride the
whole time.
Some other medium years ago, the clairvoyant, whatever you want to call them, when I was
a very young man said, oh, you're a sun worshiper.
Well I was actually.
I mean, I believe that when I went to New York City for the first time knowing that
I was going to never leave there again, I mean that I was in for the long haul, having
come from Florida and surfing, I was going to go try to be an actor. I was 18.
And I just got this message.
Just swallow the sun.
Swallow the sun.
Have it shine within you for your whole life.
Oh, that'll help.
OK, that's a good idea.
So wherever that came from.
So that reminded me, oh, yeah, I am sort of a sun worshiper.
That light, that golden light that exists in us and outside of us all at all times from. So that was it. And that reminded me, oh, yeah, I am sort of a sun worshiper. That
light, that golden light that exists in us and outside of us all at all times is one
of those gifts, you know, that just says, I'm right over here.
Do you believe, I struggle with this idea I'm about to ask you about, because, you know,
when I look at, for example, you know, I was
a Denny's waitress, which I just learned you're a Denny's dishwasher.
Okay.
If you're listening to the show right now, you've got a Denny's waitress, a Denny's dishwasher.
We're making magic together.
God bless the folks at Denny's, the good people of Denny's.
I love Denny's.
So they, so I love them so much.
I just was on Shark Tank as a guest shark this season
and they've been their profile piece.
They showed me as a waitress at Denny's.
Denny's reached out and they're sending me merch,
which I'm so excited about.
I have to tell you, it's like one of the most exciting
things for me, but I actually go and celebrate
at Denny's to this day.
Yeah, when I did Oprah show for the first time,
I went to Denny's to celebrate, brought my daughter,
showed her the menu.
Oh, I like their pancakes, like whatever time of day it is.
I always loved the patty melt.
Yeah, that was your patty melt?
And hot fudge sundaes.
And hot fudge sundaes.
Their menu, although it's pretty expansive now,
when I was working there, it wasn't quite this large.
They have a lot of fun stuff.
My daughter was excited about moons over Miami.
She's like, she thought that was funny.
So, so anyhow, I mean, you know,
when I launched this business in my living room, I mean,
we worked a hundred hour weeks for a decade.
And then I look at the outcome of what happened
and I'm just like, whoa.
And you know, I come,
you know, I was adopted. My family that raised me is amazing, multiple families,
but my parents work so hard.
They work just as hard as me and did not have the outcome, not even close.
And I wonder with you, when you look at your career so far,
so far still going, still going strong, excited to watch you play Beast.
Thank you.
Coming up in the Avengers Doomsday.
But when you look at your career,
and there's probably moments where you think about like,
huh, okay, everyone's freaking out
that I'm the highest paid actor in all of Hollywood.
Or, huh.
That was a brief freak out.
Okay.
Just won my sixth Emmy, or I mean mean on and on and on and on.
Do you ever go how, I mean, of course you work so hard.
Of course you have talent, of course all the things.
And also there's a lot of people that work really, really hard
and there's people with talent.
So do you think that's God?
What do you think it is that you have experienced so much success in so many
different areas in your life?
My wife has a saying, she says, always declare God your partner. And I like that idea a lot.
Whether I consciously did that in my previous lifetimes, I don't know, but I think there is an alignment that occurs.
Having luck is considered, by W.H.
Auden, having luck is considered alignment with providence, meaning God.
I like that idea. But if you have the wherewithal, the time, the good fortune to hear what your calling
is, what your mission is, because it comes up a lot.
All of a sudden, somebody's saying, you know, I want you to do a play for me.
That's what happened to me.
They said, I think you'd be good in this role. And suddenly I'm standing there thinking,
oh, I'm going to go be an actor.
So these things that sort of bookmark our lives
or landmark our lives are indications of where we can go.
And like somebody said recently, I heard somebody saying,
I guess it's from Robert Frost.
If you see a fork in the road, take it.
Oh, no, I think it was Yogi Bear.
Yogi Bear.
I think he said it.
But if you see a fork in the road, take it.
You have these things that come and hit you on the head.
And if you don't hear them, you know,
there's a moment in my life when I was walking up the street
to go move in with a girlfriend who was,
it was a bad
decision it was a
Temporary stopover let's say but it turned out poorly
But as I walked toward this moment when I'd be moving in I
Heard more fire engines and more sirens than I'd ever heard in my life. To the point where my dog, who was my greatest friend at the time, was howling uncontrollably
and I kept thinking, oh, wait a minute, I thought of Carlos Castaneda and how the universe
attempts to inform your choices.
Am I making a mistake?
And I shook it off and said, no, that's crazy to think that.
But at least it crossed my mind.
I've never forgotten it as a result.
It just was like everything in the universe was saying, you don't need to do this.
But I did it anyway.
So sometimes we listen, sometimes we don't.
If you have the good fortune to hear it in the nick of time and take that course, God
is with you.
Jesus is with you, whatever.
And the book I turned in after all this time, I was in a conversation with Jesus.
And I thought, boy, this is really, really interesting, but it's as clear and vivid
as anything I've ever done.
And yeah, I was like, hey, you don't need to keep carrying as anything I've ever done and Yeah, I was like hey
You don't need to keep carrying this. I've got it
That was the big thing
What do you mean I got it I mean I'm fine I can handle it it's alright I said no this is not for you
That's why I came
You don't need to carry this
So I can give it up?
It's a good thing.
I think we all need to hear that.
Yeah.
I struggle with that all the time.
Like I'll pray and ask God to carry something
and then I think I still have to carry it.
Yeah, well, you know, you're a very, very successful person.
You have all those habits of people who are.
And, you know, we do think we're supposed to do it.
It's like we forget how often
someone else is doing it for us.
Yeah. And that the burden need not be ours.
I heard this a while ago.
There was one of those radio guys talking sermon on it.
I dial in once in a while in the car. I go between news and like, you know, religious channels. I said,
take my yoke upon me. And I thought, I always thought that meant, oh, I'm supposed to carry
something for Jesus. Like, I'm supposed to take that yoke and, you know, be responsible
for it. And the guy said, don't you get it. He's saying
We'll do this together. It's a two ox and yoke
It's a double you you know you got on you. I've got a lot me take mine on you and I'll do the poem
You know I have to and that's I I've never heard it put quite that simply, but that's exactly what I did here at that
one point finally.
I feel like living in alignment or flow, or it's such a beautiful feeling.
And also I feel like our body tells us, or fire engines and dogs tell us when we're out
of alignment.
And do you feel, because I think this is a really new concept
for a lot of people.
And they're actually learning to like, huh, what do I actually
feel about this?
Do I feel like I'm in alignment in this job,
or in this relationship, or in this hobby,
or in this friendship, or friendship. Like, what is that?
Like, how would you describe to someone listening who wants to tune in more to understanding
like, oh, yeah, okay, I'm in alignment.
Like, this is like, you know, or flow or whatever versus, oh, I'm, you know, I'm just hearing
fire engines for no reason.
Like how do you, how do you, how do you kind of learn to feel that in your body and then to trust it?
I think it's just practice. Honestly,
I think you just have to acquaint yourself with the possibility that stepping
into this universe, which is a causal universe, there is a cause and effect.
You're on some path. There is something else with you. There is a cause and an effect. You're on some path.
There is something else with you.
There is an energy that's here.
We came to bask in it, to be part of it, to feel it sort of
around us all the time.
And it is around us all the time.
We can close our ears to it.
We can close our eyes to it.
We can fight it.
And all those things are probably the right choice at this time, which is pretty interesting
because you discover yourself and then you realize, oh, you're still there.
Oh, still there.
Okay, well then maybe I should relax about it a little bit.
It doesn't mean surrender.
I don't believe when you surrender to certain things.
I think there is that moment in life when you realize, oh, here it comes. I'm just going to let this happen and see what comes next.
But mostly we are given authorship. We are entitled to be the author of what we want to do.
We either buck what we've been told or we buck other people. A lot of people tell us, oh, you'll
never make it. That's a gauntlet for me.
That's, oh, yeah, well, just watch this.
But the other still small voice that is always there is if
you just take a minute to ask.
Matthew, again, I go back to Matthew, just the first book
in the Bible I read that I started to really pay
attention to when I was pretty young.
But knock and she'll be opened unto you.
Ask and ye shall receive.
It's pretty powerful.
So all you really have to do is enumerate a question, a desire, a longing, whatever
it might be, and the universe, God, will do everything it can to make it happen for you.
I love what you just said, is to ask. And it's so simple, but that's like the step I think most of
us skip. We're sitting around waiting. We're waiting for something, but maybe we just need
to ask. Like, what am I supposed to do in this situation? Or, you know, just ask the question
to do in the situation or, you know, just ask the question and then just try to create space to hear the answer.
And seeking you shall find.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You say that this, that Karen, but Karen, you say this is not a grief book.
This is a life book.
What is your advice for others, um, looking to, to remember their loved ones well and also honor
their life with joy?
It's a double-edged sword, though, the grief book comment, because when I first spoke to
the people who represent me, I was about 50 pages in.
And I said, I'm writing this book about my sister.
They made assumptions about it.
I said, well, the grief books, you know,
maybe a couple, maybe 100 pages long,
and you know, there's a little pamphlets,
and oh, we do this and that,
and maybe we get a publisher.
I thought, boy, that is just the most sort of dismissive,
unresponsive, irresponsible relationship I've ever been in with an agent.
Why would I have someone represent me who just assumed whatever I was doing was like,
could be reduced into something that they would just say,
well, this is what we do with that kind of thing.
So I was a little pissed off about that, honestly.
So when I wrote this is not a grief book, it's a life book.
That was my feeling at the time.
So I thought I'd better get that down on paper.
That's why it's in there.
But it gathered more steam and more value for me
as I finished the process and realized that this really
was about a life and the life I'm still living and the life
that Karen now lives.
And that, I mean, it's an extraordinary thing.
I mean, Kate had this vision years, a year and a half ago,
and she said, it's really amazing what you're doing.
It's like you're putting her in a library.
So she's going to be in a library.
Your sister will live forever.
That was really great.
She said, it's a great gift you're giving her.
And I realized that I didn't know that at the time,
but she's giving me a gift in this writing.
But also there is this, I want people to know my sister.
I want them to know what a great girl she was.
And I want her to have what I've had, this amazing gift
I've had of approbation and applause and success and
self-torture and all that nonsense.
But that's my own sort of wrestling with the why me thing, the survivor's guilt stuff you
go through.
But I wanted to give her her due.
She's due this.
My success couldn't have been possible if it hadn't been for Karen.
Wouldn't have happened.
Knowing her, loving her.
And in the remarks that she said, you know, you're going to do it all,
those were important things.
And I did live for her in a lot of ways.
So I wanted people to know about her.
Just, you know, to celebrate her.
Karen will be in libraries.
Yeah. Yeah.
It's like the first time I saw one of these,
it's in there somewhere that says,
it's registered in the Library of Congress.
And it has a number and I thought, yeah, good.
That's pretty great. That's pretty great.
That's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I want to call something out just for everyone listening because I always believe that famous
quote success leaves clues and just two things I want to share just for everyone listening
right now that pertains to your own life. Uh, I love so much. You just shared, you know, I asked this question about, oh, you say it's not a,
you know, grief book, it's a life book. And, you know, you, you could have shared, yes, it's a life
eater, but you're like, oh no, here's actually why I wrote that. Like somebody tried to put me into a
cookie cutter thing. And like, I'm not going to let that happen.
Cause that's, you know, I'm worthy of more than that.
And I want to call this out because every person listening, uh,
all of us have had someone try to, you know,
someone who might be some big agent or in our version of life might be an inlaw
or, or who knows who it is, a boss, uh, whoever.
And they'll quickly just put that limitation on us,
and it's easy to let that happen,
or to just get pissed and not do anything about it,
or to kind of like, huh, maybe they're right, or whatever.
I love so much that you shared, like, no, that's not,
this isn't gonna be a hundred page cookie cutter grief book.
And I love that you stand up against that.
And the other thing, I just wanna share on that
and this idea that success leaves clues
because I always say this, it's usually, almost always,
when someone's so successful, it's not an accident, right?
It's a lot of things.
But when we were getting ready to start the interview,
we have the first copy of your hardcover
of Karen in the studio.
But you quickly opened up my copy, a pre-copy,
to check if one error was in that, like a typo.
Was that typo in there?
And Kelsey, I can't even tell you how many celebrities, they wouldn't even know if there's
or not even celebrities, authors in general, right?
There's a lot of people that they've had the gift of maybe someone else writing the book
and that's great.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But the fact that you knew where the typo was and you're checking in the pre-copy, is
it there? I watched that and I'm,
I had these memories flash back to me about when I was building a cosmetics.
I knew, I knew if like on the big fixture and like the Sephora or Ulta,
I knew if the wrong graphic got put in and I could see it and I would just be
like, okay, I'm in, do I, am I gonna, you know, and just like,
just like when you care, when you care. And so watching you sit down and taking your own time to cause, cause,
cause the hardcover is out now, but going back to the, the, the early copy looking, is that one in
this one? I just saw how much you care. And so with this idea too that success leaves clues,
I just think it's worth pointing out
because it's really cool, I think,
for everyone listening and watching
who maybe has seen your great success publicly as an actor,
or as a producer, or as a comedian,
or as all the things that you are,
an author, everything else.
But to have that kind of insight into like,
oh, okay, it's not an accident.
You know what I mean?
When you see those two things
and I just wanna call that out
because I think that for people who details really matter,
which sometimes I wish, oh my gosh,
I know, sometimes I wish I didn't see them.
One of my best friends, she was our very first employee
at our company, we had over a thousand employees
before we sold the business, but she would always,
she'd always say to me before like a creative meeting
when the creative team would bring in
all the campaigns and stuff, she'd be like,
do you think they do shots before?
Because she knew I was going to notice every detail.
I'm like, I need to do shots before, because honestly, I
wish I didn't notice the things.
And I wish I didn't care so much.
Because sometimes it's easier not to.
But when you see your success and then you just notice small
things like that, I just want to call them out for everyone
at home.
Because for the person in their real life, whether it's at you just notice small things like that. I just want to call them out for everyone at home because,
you know, for, you know, the person in their real life,
whether it's at their job or at their,
in their friendship circle or in a relationship
or whatever it is, like, you know,
if you're a person that really cares about details
and someone else maybe gets annoyed by that
or doesn't want to, whatever, like,
I just feel like staying convicted of who you are
and that gift that you have to see them and to care so much.
I mean, I think that's such a blessing
to be able to do that.
And so anyways, just wanted to share that with everyone
at home.
Can you talk about Karen visiting you and telling you that you're a water baby.
That was an Esther of another reading with Esther. That was great because
that was when Karen said remember. Karen actually said the word remember.
And what she wanted me to remember was something so
glorious.
It was fantastic from our youth that we shared, that she
saw, and I'd never seen it.
She just told me it was fantastic, but this time I got
to see it through her eyes.
And that was an amazing regression, basically.
And that was an amazing regression basically, but
So we was as Esther said so you're at it you're going down into a cave
There are two children with you
Well, there were two the two Chinese kids it looked like they were about five and seven years old and they were either Chinese or Japanese. I mean, I wasn't sure but I was holding hands with them and said they're gonna take you into the cave.
So we went into the cave and
then she said take a look at them now and
it was Karen and me
when we were younger. I said, oh
well, how did you guys do that?
But and then When we were younger. I said, oh, well, how did you guys do that?
And then, so I thought maybe we were past lives together.
But then, as she said, she's going to give you something.
The girl's going to give you something.
Okay.
She handed me a surfboard.
Surfboard.
Surfing was very important to me in my life, really important.
And then she said, okay, what is it? I said, it's a really important. And then she said, OK, what is it?
I said, it's a surfboard.
And then I said, well, wait, wait.
It's changing.
It's actually a slalom ski, a slalom water ski.
And then suddenly it was this ski that I got at Sears.
I bought myself, when I started a water ski, I was, I think,
14, 15.
And it took me to that day when we were on the water.
And Karen and Lou Ann was driving.
Karen was sitting there watching,
because somebody always has to look backward at the skier
to make sure that they're OK.
Still, you know, they haven't fallen off.
And as we went, Karen was going like this to me.
this to me.
So in that moment, when I realized what was going on, she showed me what it looked like.
I looked like an angel.
I was going back and forth across the wake, kicking 20
foot walls of water up off the ski,
and right behind me was the setting sun.
So basically it was just a glowing angel wings of water.
I know a young boy skipping through life.
It was pretty great.
And she told me, she said, just remember that.
I walked out after the session, I said to my wife, I said, I'm a water angel, I know
who I am now.
So if I ever buy another boat, I'm naming it that.
When you said, when I said, yeah, there's a specific reason for saying it's not a grief
book, I just realized, and I haven't really put this together before, that is the guy
I am.
You tell me I'm not going to do this, and I will't really put this together before. That is the guy I am. You tell me I'm not going to do this and I will do it. So God bless him. Thanks for saying that because
you made it so much more. You helped me to make it so much more. And God bless the people
who told me you'll never make it as an actor because it's the same response. It was exactly
the same response. I've never quite gotten that until now.
Wow. Remember, this episode is not just for you and me.
Please share this with every single person that you know because it can change their
life too.
And if you love today's episode, please click on the follow or subscribe button for
the show on the app that you're listening or watching it on.
Give it a five-star rating or review.
And again, please share it with everyone you believe in.
Share it with another person in your life who could benefit from it. Maybe they're going through
grief too. Post it and share it with others online or in your community who just might need the words
and tools and lessons in this episode today. You never know whose life you're meant to change
today by sharing this episode. And thank you so much for joining me today.
Before you go, I want to share some words with you that couldn't be more true.
You, right now, exactly as you are, are enough and fully worthy.
You're worthy of your greatest hopes, your wildest dreams, and all the unconditional
love in the world. And it is an honor to welcome you to each and every episode of the Jamie Kern-Lima show here.
I hope you'll come as you are, heal where you need, blossom what you choose,
journey toward your calling, and stay as long as you like because you belong here.
You are worthy. You are loved. You are love. I love you. And I cannot wait to join you
on the next episode of the Jamie Kern Lima show. Oh my gosh, you know that journey to believe you're
actually worthy of something. Oprah, how have you defied the odds? Her show is unlike any I've ever
done. A revelation. When you listen it feels like
a hug but your brain and your spirit and your heart is like wow. Imagine
overcoming self-doubt, learning to believe in yourself and trust yourself
and know you are enough. Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima show. Imagine stepping into all of who you are and into the person you were born to be unstoppable.
Hi, I'm Jamie Kern Lima and I went from struggling waitress facing nonstop rejection to building a billion dollar company from my living room.
And it's not because I'm smarter than anyone else,
I didn't have the right connections. But I figured out how to believe in myself and how to believe
my dreams are possible and believe that I'm worthy of them. And what I know for sure is that you are too.
Fresh. We'll make you cry. We'll make you laugh. We'll make you think. We'll make you cry. Will make you laugh.
Will make you think will make you feel.
The greatest life lesson I have ever received.
You're not going to forget how you feel
after each and every episode.
Jamie Kern Lima is an angel walking on Earth.
You hear me? You're gonna be given those things
that you can apply right now to your life.
While in the face, if you need me, call me.
No matter where you are.
It's a Jesus in the show, he's brighter by the day.
So, the moment with the...
I have never talked about this before, but I'm going to talk about it with you.
Your brain and your spirit and your and hears you, that is the greatest
gift.
That is the greatest gift.
Sharing things that they would not discuss with anyone else.
I surrender.
I surrender.
We have more tissues right down there.
Yeah, I loved. Thank you, Jamie. We have more tissues right down there.
Yeah, I loved. Thank you, Jamie.
So it's special.
This show is for you if you're ready to ignite that light inside of you and learn to shine it brightly. See, I believe where you come from or even where you're at right now
doesn't have to determine where you're going. I know and believe you can go from underestimated
to unstoppable. You can go from doubting yourself to trusting yourself to believing in yourself and
to loving yourself, even if it's for the first time ever, or for
the first time in a long time. It's your time. Today is your day and this is your show.
Welcome to the Cheemi Kern Lima Show.
So come as you are. Stay as long as you'd like. Heal where you need. Blossom what
you choose because you belong here. You, exactly as you are, are a miracle emotion.
A mighty force for good. You are a masterpiece. I see you. I believe in you. I love you. You are worthy. And right now
I have one question for you. What would you do if you fully believed in you? Welcome to
the Jamie Kern Lima show. It's such an honor to share this podcast together with you.
And please note, I'm not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute
for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified
professional.