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Have you ever reached a moment where the life you built no longer matches the person you've become today? Author and speaker Cortney McDermott joins me to explore that quiet shift and what happens when you finally give yourself permission to evolve. This is the Your Next Success podcast, and I am your host, Dr. Caroline Sangal I am a life first career coach and strategist on a mission to normalize questioning your career because I believe each of us is made on purpose for a purpose only we can fulfill. The longer we live out of alignment with who we are, what we do best, and why we are here, the more we miss out and the more the world misses out on what only we can give the Your Next Success Podcast is where we explore how to build a career that truly fuels your life. We talk about self-discovery, smart job, search strategies, professional growth. And you will hear stories from people who have navigated big career transitions themselves. So you can create a life, first career and become your own version of authentic success, one that is aligned, meaningful, and truly yours. Today's guest is Cortney McDermott. She's a bestselling author, TEDx speaker, global keynote presenter, and a guide for anyone ready to evolve from within. Her work blends neuroscience, timeless wisdom, and grounded practice. She has been featured in Inc. Success Women's Health, the Huffington Post, and has spoken on iconic stages, including Mindvalley, Oxford Saïd, and Richard Branson's, Necker Island. Cortney holds a master of science from the London School of Economics and has held executive roles at Vanity Fair Corporation and Sustainability Partners. She is fluent in four languages and shaped by a life lived across continents. Her perspective is as global as it is deeply human. Her message is simple, powerful and timely. You can change your life when you start changing from within. In this conversation, Cortney and I go back to the beginning, her childhood in a chaotic, curious, household, and we follow the threads that shaped her drive, her search for meaning and her relationship with success, In this episode, you'll hear the inner signals that whispered when it was time to evolve, the turning points that showed her achievement wasn't the answer. How simplicity, intuition, and permission reshaped her life and work, and why relaxing and trusting became her definition of success. If you have ever felt the pull to grow beyond who you've been, this conversation will help you step into that next version with clarity and courage.

Caroline 3:07

Welcome Cortney, to Your Next Success. I am so excited to have gotten to know you over the past few months. I'm thrilled to have you on our podcast today, and thank you so much in advance for all the beauty and all the wisdom that I know you're gonna share.

Cortney McDermott 3:23

I'm excited to be here. Thanks, for having me. Awesome.

Caroline 3:26

Well, I know we've talked a lot about many different things. Today, let's focus a little bit on trying to share more of your story career pivots, the things behind. I know now you do a tremendous amount with intuition changing from within, giving permission. We'll get to all of that, but if we could dial it way back, can you tell us, where'd you grow up? What was life like as little Cort?

Cortney McDermott 3:52

Mm, I love this question. I hardly get this in interviews and, and conversations, podcast conversations, and it is such a powerful determinant, right? Of what we do and in the world, I think, or what, or sometimes what we don't do. You know, how we show up and how we don't show up. I grew up in the south side suburbs of Chicago. There's a family of five kids. Born in six and a half years, so one right after another. If you look pic at pictures of us when we were growing up, it was like at a half ahead. The next one, the next one started. So it was a really interesting household to grow up in. It was very rambunctious, it was very wild. I remember, uh, I remember oftentimes feeling like things were just way outta control, which is probably, uh, that probably informed a lot of maybe later in life trying to get things to be in control and then realizing much later the absurdity of all that. And so, so I usually, when I start my story and like my first book was getting to that place that everyone thinks they wanna get to and realizing that it was pretty empty. Um, and once I did that, I, I realized, okay, well if. If this isn't it, if all of the titles and the accolades and the, um, you know, whatever different societal positions that we hold, mother, wife, marathon runner, all the things like, if this isn't it, what is it? And realizing over and over in my life, um, especially later on, that chasing externalities was just not, was just not where it was at. But yeah, I could trace that back definitely to this constant search that I had. I remember when I was little, I think I was kind of born into an existential crisis. And when I was little I was just always really curious about just why are we here? And, and, yeah, I think later in life it got deeper and deeper the less I paid attention to it. And so when I started to pay attention, that's when things started to really pivot and shift in my life. And yeah, led me kind of where I, where I am today and what I do. So

Caroline 6:03

So from your earliest, fun days sounds like rambunctious. I'm gonna take it as playful, fun, and everybody just kind of enjoying where they are in the moment.

Cortney McDermott 6:12

Sure.

Caroline 6:13

Not sure how that felt for, for your parents, but as a kid that could have been a kind of an exciting, exciting thing. What were your visions of what you thought work was supposed to be, or what you thought success meant from that early lens? What formed that? What did you see? What did you think it was gonna be when you grew up?

Cortney McDermott 6:34

love, I love that. So my, okay, this is forcing me to actually think about stuff I haven't thought of in a, in a long time. I love these questions. So, my dad was a mix of Native American Indian and South American slash Spanish and um, he was actually pretty ashamed of his roots and so he would kind of hide 'em from us. He never spoke to us in Spanish, even if he was, you know, fully fluent. Though I learned languages much later in life 'cause my dad just didn't pass on those gifts because of how he felt. And I think that inferiority, that sense of inferiority that was in him led him to do like, kind of really always be. Um, Seeking ways to learn new things and uplevel, uh, or what he saw as like upleveling. And I remember he used to go around with these index cards of big words. So he would go to the dictionary and he would have a index card for, I can't remember if it was for the day or the week of words that he was committing to memory. So in a way, he was a learner. I would say maybe a little misguided, but the fact that he was a learner and that he was constantly seeking the um, betterment of himself definitely transferred over in lots of ways. And my mom, on the other hand, my mom just thought anything was possible. Really kind of in a very, uh. in grandiose way later on in life. But, um, but it was also beautiful because she would just go in and she would say like, oh, tomorrow we're not gonna have a wall in this room. And the next day we didn't have a wall in that room, just like whatever she wanted to do. She was committed to doing it and she believed she could. um,

Caroline 8:23

Did she do it? Did she knock down walls?

Cortney McDermott 8:26

Well, she did with her kids' help. So we were kind of all soldiers. And you know, when you talked about like growing up in rambunctious, it was, there was, there was a lot of fun, but there was also a lot of fear. So we grew up in a household that, um, where there was a lot of, was, again, misguided parenting is maybe the way I would put it in terms of just like how we, just the kind of stuff that my parents put us through. I think they meant well, but it like translated to environments that most people would say we're not that healthy in terms of how we were discipline, quote unquote, and stuff like that. So there was a mix of things, like there was love, but there was also a lot of fear and there was a lot of, like definitely kind of soldier like activity. So there was a lot of discipline, in a way. Again, I'm very grateful for that. In other ways it's been, some of it's been stuff I've been trying to shed for years or have been shedding for years. So, like I said, you're bringing me back to stuff I don't normally even consider that much, but it's, it's beautiful to consider it right now and think about the ways that it's impacted me.

Caroline 9:29

Yeah, and where did that, military, like discipline kind of vibe come. I, the reason I'm asking is I was, talking to my dad, several months ago when I was trying to trace back, generations of careers and how people, because I didn't know, I, growing up as a child, I didn't understand even my parents' own career transitions. 'cause I was just like, we were just moving and moving and then trying to ask from that more adult lens of help me understand what was going on and why and how, and what did grandpa do and what did great Grandpapa do and all this kind of thing. He made a statement, one of his early jobs was working in the Ohio Youth Commission, so that's where like kids under 18 who get in trouble with the law and maybe should go to jail, don't go to actual jail. They go to the Ohio Youth Commission if you're in Ohio. And so as a young 20 something year old man. This is some of his first jobs and first experience, and he said, and I'm not gonna lie, I learned a lot of my parenting techniques from working at the youth commission. And I was like, wow, that explains a lot of pushups and different things and, and just interesting and, and from his lens, he's a 20 something year old kid having kids. So he's is thinking this works for these people. Surely it will work for the other. But I'm curious, were your parents just super disciplined on their own or was there some military carry ish training or just really good structure, I guess?

Cortney McDermott 11:04

I don't know. Honestly, I think it was just the, just numbers. It was a numbers game. I mean, there were five of us, right? As I said, born in six and a half or less than seven years. And so if you're not running a tight ship, things get outta control within seconds. You know what I mean? So we grew up, with a lot of responsibility, we grew up knowing that we had to kind of figure stuff out. Um, that there, there was a lot of also just autonomy in terms of. Yeah, like, get yourself, get, get yourself ready, get yourself, you know, make sure that you're on time, all those kinds of things. And if you weren't, there was a heavy hand on the other side of it. So it was like, you kind of, you know, you learn to be, I don't necessarily know that, that is the best parenting style, but it was, I think just operated by out of you know, necessity. And also to your point about like, really young parents, my parents were young when they started having kids too. And unfortunately, I feel like parenting is the one thing that we should really have rigorous training in order to undertake. And it's kind of the one, the one job that we have that doesn't require, doesn't require any formal training. I think that's kind of absurd. And I heard someone recently saying something like, there there are no parenting, real parenting books, and yet there are tens of thousands of parenting books. You know? And I feel like that's true in the sense that every situation is kind of its own, its own, gamut. And you, there's, there's so many different factors involved in the ways to the, the, like, the thing, the ways to parent. I feel like that gets really confusing. So I know my parents definitely, they didn't have a manual. They were, I'm sure doing the best that they could and needing to keep it in line out of, just sheer, like I said, sheer necessity of numbers. Yeah.

Caroline 13:01

Yeah. Did you you ever dream like, like, when I grow up, I think I wanna be this or that? Like what was that young thought or did you have those? When I grow up, I wanna be this kind of thing.

Cortney McDermott 13:16

I, I wanted to be, yeah. I wanted to be a singer or an actress. Yeah. And in some ways I kind of do that. I've, I do occasionally, I haven't in a while, but I do occasionally sing publicly, even if that's not my career profession. And, I did do some acting when I was younger, and I feel like in a way, we're all acting. So I feel like the whole world is a stage, right? I get to be on all these stages and talking to thousands of people, and that is such a critical part of how, the formalist wanted to express through my form from a very early age. I remember always trying to, to put on shows for people or sing or, dance or just jump on the trampoline and make some sort of crazy, some, some sort of craziness, fun happen. so it's always been, it's always been part of what I've, what's inside me. Yeah.

Caroline 14:10

That's so beautiful. 'cause that performing nature, that desire to want to create and and inspire and just be yourself was there even, even then, as, as at that young age. That's so cool. Okay, so as you kind of got into high school and then you were considering what to do next, what it, what went into that decision and how did you choose learning beyond high school?

Cortney McDermott 14:36

Mm. I got really lucky in a very, what would seem in a very unlucky circumstance. We had a house fire when I was 15 I ended up having to change high school four times. The, like in the midst of all that and being displaced in our housing because we lived in hotels for a while and then we lived in temporary housing that was about 45 minutes from the high school where I was going. And even though I had always like tested well and my grades had been good up until that point, which is, you know, somewhere in my sophomore year, I didn't really excel at school because I just, my attention and my focus was not on that 'cause I was with friends and hanging out and wanting to, you know, be cool and all the things. And I, and I wasn't like a cool teenager, but I wanted to be right. So a lot of my focus and emphasis went to that. And yeah. I remember when we moved and I was in a new high school and I didn't have the distraction of trying to fit in and I could almost kind of be a new version of myself, which is also very telling in terms of the work I do now. As soon as that happened, I started to see, I started to realize like, oh wait, this isn't actually as hard maybe as I've made it out to be. I can, I can do this. And I started to really excel at school. So I got in those seemingly unfortunate circumstances, I, I got really, fortunate in terms of what society views as, as things that you're supposed to, you're supposed to wanna do, and excel at. And so I started to learn that, and then it came, it became actually quite a drug for me to excel and to get that approval, especially from my parents and my peers of. Yeah. Of doing well academically and also, you know, in terms of extracurricular activities and stuff like that. So that really shifted things I would say in my trajectory. 'Cause had I, had we not had the house fire, had I stayed there, probably, I would've continued to kind of perform at the level I was performing at. And I think that would've definitely changed things. I would've not probably had the, the graduate and post-graduate, experiences that I had and been able to go overseas and kind of build my confidence in those ways. Yeah.

Caroline 17:00

Yeah. Oh, wow. So, that's amazing because I don't know, If I lost everything in a fire and I don't know that I would've been able to focus at school. I don't know that I would've started chasing rec recognition or I still started chasing that. Right. Just because, I don't know. I think I liked that. I, it was, it was interesting you said it was like, it became like a drug.

Cortney McDermott 17:25

yeah.

Caroline 17:26

For me, that academic achievement, the awards, the pins, the stars, the whatever, there was some dangling achievement that could be made. I chased that and chased it and chased it, and just enjoyed it

Cortney McDermott 17:40

to,

Caroline 17:40

to a point. But then I,

Cortney McDermott 17:42

as soon,

Caroline 17:42

as soon as I got one thing, I was already chasing the the next one. Did you catch that wave? How'd you decide what college to go to at first?

Cortney McDermott 17:52

Well, I, this is, so, this is so funny. I have never been asked this, these many questions about my past. It's really interesting. It's almost like I'm going through a catalog. And it's funny 'cause I, I'll often say that I've lived so many lifetimes in this lifetime and I feel like, wow, that those were so many versions of me a year ago that it kind of takes me a minute to settle in and, and answer even, the question, the, the question of where I was going was actually kind of easy to solve in that I had gotten full scholarship and actually multiple scholarships, to attend the university that I attended. And so for me it was kind of a no-brainer because I had everything set up. I didn't have, I, I wasn't gonna have any costs. I was able to. Not only, not have any cost, but I was, I was getting money because I had won these scholarships and grants. So for me, it kind of almost chose itself. I would say I was more in the choosing process for where I went afterwards when I went to London, well, I, had a different, various different choices of where I was gonna go and do my master's work. And, I was, I got an invitation from, you know, different very various, different schools and I decided at the, not the last minute, but kind of that I was gonna go to the London School of Economics because I wanted to, I wanted to live in London, so it was, you know, Oxford, London, all these different, different possibilities too in the US, but I knew I wanted to, I knew I wanted to live outside of the States for a while and give it a shot and see what that was like. And London was really appealing at that time in my life. So, I went there and I did actively choose that one. And again, it was like full scholarship and all the things.

Caroline 19:31

How did you, yeah, that's so, that's so amazing. But I had had you been out of the country or you just were like, ah, London sounds cool. Let's go there.

Cortney McDermott 19:44

I had been out of the country and I had, traveled when, right after, shortly after, I would say it was like six months after our house fire. I think my parents were just kind of like desperate to switch it up and they took not all of us kids. 'cause meantime as we had this house fire, we also had my brother who, was married. So my brother got married very young. He and his wife got married 18, 17 and 18. And then they had their first child, 18 and 19, and they were living with us. And then they were about to have a second child. And then my sister also got uh, pregnant and married very young to one of my sisters. So she was 19, and they also moved in with us in temporary housing with, one of their children, or sorry, with their soon to be first child. And, so it was mayhem. I mean, it was like a crazy environment. And I think my parents just decided that we were gonna go to Europe. They had these friends that were going on this backpacking trip. We didn't know anything about backpacking, sleeping in tents, anything. But we went when I was 15 and so, or 16. And so I had, I got a chance to, yeah. To, to, to live some of that experience and realized, oh my gosh, I kind of belong over here. And then ended up spending over half my life in, well, 23 years in Italy before that, France and before that England. Yeah. So, so spent, spent a, a good chunk, over there. Yeah.

Caroline 21:15

And now you're fluent in four languages. When did you learn the others? 'Cause you know now you're spending nearly half your life over at places where that speak a different language, but like where, when did the language learning interest, what? Which came first? The country or the language, you know?

Cortney McDermott 21:33

I've always been fascinated by languages and I guess I've al always also had a certain proclivity for them. My brain hear sounds very well, it translates them into, into speech very easily. And so when I was living in London and doing that work, I was studying international relations and economics and, and politics and things. And when I, I decided that I wanted to do my dissertation work in the south of France, and so I started taking this, very kind of rapid acceleration learning course of French. And so I did that, and then I moved to France. So I was sort of in this fire of having to figure it out because I was interviewing people, so I was real time trying to figure, figure things out really, really fast. I was living in a household of only French speaking people. I lived in Toulouse, which is in the south of France. And, so yeah, I was kind of in a hot seat because they wouldn't speak English to me. And so I was rapidly learning French. I had studied some Spanish. I, really feel that I, I had it in my blood, so even if my dad didn't speak to me, in Spanish, it was funny when I was growing up, I used to say some things to him here and there that I was learning, and he'd say, oh my gosh, you're, you're only one of the kids who actually pronounces these things correctly, these words. And so I feel like I've kind of always had it. I remember when I was living in London too, I used to have dreams where I was speaking in other languages that at the time I didn't know how to speak and I hadn't studied, I was fully fluent in French, in my dream, for example. And so, like I said, I, I think it's a mix of, I've, I've had it in me and then I, and then I studied it and then it, and then having a proclivity for it. So I, yeah, I, I had studied Spanish. I wasn't really that fluent in it at all, studied French, wasn't that fluent in it, but kind of could get by. And then I learned Italian, very well, and I picked that up pretty quickly. So when I moved to Italy, I would say it was probably a couple months before I was fairly fluent. And then after that, I got opportunities to learn Spanish and French better through different people that were, you know, around me and different circumstances. I spent a lot of time in the south of France and then I spent a lot of time in Spain. And actually when, so the thing is I do pick up local accents. So when I'm speaking in Italian, I speak with a veneto accent, but if you put me down further south, within a week, I'll pick up that accent. And it's not something that I want to do, it's just something that it just happens. And same thing with Spanish, for instance, like I was speaking catalan, which is the Spanish from Spain. And so lots of, when I meet up with my South american or Central American friends, they're like, holy crap, we gotta fix this. Right? And so I'll start speaking more with a South American or central American accent once I've, you know, been exposed to them a little bit more. So yeah, it was a mix of those things and it's kind of been gradual. And also, you know, you need to keep using them. I realized the other day I was looking for a word in Italian that I know very well the word is, which is a toothpick. And I was baking and I couldn't find a toothpick. And then I was talking to an Italian friend later in the day and I said, I couldn't find the. And then I was like, what's the word? And I was like, but I couldn't remember at that moment that it was that. So it's really funny, the brain, the way it works and having to also just use things. But then of course there's also the natural things that we're called to, you know, from a very early age, I was always intrigued by cultures, languages, expression in general. Yes. Yes.

Caroline 25:18

Yes. And it's interesting, One of the assessments that I, I try to, that I was trying to sort when I was trying to figure out how is it that people are externally successful and internally unfulfilled? Like what is it, like, what is the missing link? Like what is the thing that if, if only I knew or if only I could share with other people? 'cause I'd seen it in myself and I'd seen it in so many people that I had worked with recruiting over the years. And so one of the assessments I came to find out was about, natural abilities. So it's the Highlands Natural Ability battery. There's 19 different sections and there are some of them that patterns together do give somebody the phenomenal foundation to really be able to pick up languages and be able to speak all the different, you know, accents and, and things of that, and to hear them. So there's the, I chose that one also because it wasn't just a paper test, but there were audio components to it, and I was like, yes. So like, rhythm memory or, and those can also go into kinesthetic learning or they can even go, there's some ability to patch together that help make people be able to distinguish tastes in cooking. Do you have that too? Can you tell if there's a certain ingredient in or out? Did you get

Cortney McDermott 26:28

I did not get that gift. I am really good. My senses are really strong and, like I can smell, I can smell things very easily. Taste is a strong sense of mind, but not to the, I don't, I feel like it's often that I can't identify every ingredient or stuff like that, but it's fascinating to me. Like I, I feel like too, part of it is training. So if you do have these proclivities, maybe it's more training like I've never actually done training in taste stuff, so I wonder if it would translate to that. It would be interesting to see, but it's not just like, oh, that automatically happens. Yeah,

Caroline 27:05

Yeah.

Cortney McDermott 27:06

Yeah.

Caroline 27:06

Yeah, because it's like, that's the thing, it's like we have these starting points of abilities, right? And sometimes they can solidify around age 14 and 15, but I wanna be really careful 'cause I don't want somebody to think like, oh, that's it. You know? Because we do know about neuroplasticity, we do know about learning, we do know about skills. We do know about reticular activating system. And you could focus your attention and the starting point helps you. I was like, oh, if I only knew that earlier, this is why these sorts of activities feel energizing and feel awesome because I'm literally, it's in my wiring to be able to do it. so you're in school, then you do some research in France, and then how did the, even moving to Italy thing come about and you're like, yeah, sounds great. And then a couple weeks, months becomes 20 something years. Like, how'd that happen?

Cortney McDermott 27:56

So my, my soon to be hu you know, he was, he was my soon to be husband. I didn't know that. But, well he had actually proposed to me pretty quickly after we met. but I didn't, I didn't necessarily know that we were gonna get married, but we got married pretty quickly. I met him in London. And we were married nine months later. Not because I was pregnant or anything like that, but just it worked out time-wise that way. In fact, we didn't have a, we didn't decide to have a, a child until much later. I think we, we had been married eight years by the time we decided to have a child. We, were married for 18 years, so I lived with him for 18 years in Fre. And then after that I moved to a small town called Bassano del Grappa, and I lived there another few years and then I came to the States. So it was really, you know, love right? Amore that brought me to Italy. For, for a fairly permanent amount of time.

Caroline 28:54

Yeah. The reason I ask a lot of these questions and try to go into childhood and try to go into high school and stuff, there's ages and stages that it's natural that people question their careers or make big moves or do changes. And so sometimes people override them and you caught everyone and, and you did something amazing with everyone. So I'm just like, oh, this is so cool. Like, you know what was going on at that point, you know? How did you make that happen?

Cortney McDermott 29:18

okay.

Caroline 29:18

So you had also started this excelling gold stars. You get the full ride scholarship, the full ride grad school education, doing all these great things,

Cortney McDermott 29:29

And

Caroline 29:30

and then you start going into working. How did that, like, how did you choose where to work with all these possibilities among you?

Cortney McDermott 29:40

the first things, work-wise were chosen for me. So I, there were grants and things that were available. And they started telling me about these grants for teaching. it was really funny 'cause even though I grew up, I grew up, I remember so often my teachers would say, you're a teacher, you're a teacher, you're a natural born teacher. I would always hear that. And people would say that to me. And I always resisted that. And even later, when I was an actual professor, I mean, I was hired as a professor for Big 10 US universities. And I

Caroline 30:14

Yeah.

Cortney McDermott 30:15

shied away from that from, from the, the identity role of teacher. And then I realized that teacher actually comes from, you know, well education, I realize I'm an educator in the truest sense. So that word educated comes from re, which is, kind of an archaic term in English because we don't really use it that often anymore. It's idu. So it's not induce, it's idu and that word, the origins of that word are to draw forth. So to draw forth the genius in

Caroline 30:49

Hmm.

Cortney McDermott 30:51

is, is really, truly, I think, one of the greatest gifts I've been given. so I realized, wow, I actually, I am in that sense, in the truest sense of teacher. Like I'm not teaching anyone anything in the sense of like, I'm not imparting information that then you get and you, you know, go apply some five step process to something. But rather as a, as an educator, I had the chance and many times, hundreds, thousands of times to really, See someone's own genius, their own light come forth from something that I could share also from who I was. And so, So I, I kind of took us a little bit on a tangent there, because I know your first question was the, the question before. It was more along the lines of, how I got into, what I got into when I was living in Italy. So career path choices. So I would say the first one was the, was the teacher thing. So I got to, I got to experience life as a teacher, and I did, I ended up teaching all these different grades and courses. I, I ended up being able to teach things like literature, which I absolutely loved, English literature to Italian, to Italian native Italian speakers. so I got to do all that. And meanwhile, I was really hankering for a job in a corporation. Like I wanted to work for business. I remember when I started going around with my CV list, so this was like old school. I actually went to all these different, you know, it's very industrial up north in the north of Italy. And I would, you know, take my old beaten, up Volkswagen all around. And I would, I would drive to these companies and I would deliver, hand, deliver my cv. And I went all over and I finally got a call from a couple of them that it, it would be a very long story to tell you all of it. So I'll just kind of shorten to, I ended up getting to work for first Fila, the outdoor company, Fila, which was a very interesting, little stint there. 'cause bosses were kind of crazy. In fact, one of them got locked out of the. the facilities altogether. So that's another story. But meanwhile, while I was working there, I got contacted by the North Face, the outdoor company, the North Face. And I had been very excited about working for them. And after a series of interviews I ended up deciding to leave Fila and go there. And so I went to work at the North Face, and then I was started in an entry level position. And within a few years, and those are also very interesting stories. Within a few years I was able to work myself up to part of the executive management team. I was leading a number of different brands in our portfolio. And then, yeah, from there I started taking on new responsibilities. I was heading up corporate communications and then I was heading up, corporate responsibility or E-S-G-C-S-R goes by many different acronym acronyms, but environmental, social governance and that kind of sky that pushed my career into, into sustainability at least then it was more commonly known as sustainability and I was leading up initiatives all over the world. And then, and then that also had a very interesting segue into what I do now. So I don't know how much of that or how little of that you want me to get into, but it, yeah.

Caroline 34:06

Yeah, I want, yeah, I love it. I love it all.

Cortney McDermott 34:09

Okay, great. So I love it

Caroline 34:10

I love it all. Okay. Okay. Imagine what your life would be like if your career aligned with who you are, what you do best, and actually fueled the life you want. At Next Success, we support all ages and stages through career transitions from students exploring majors or careers to job seekers actively searching or re-imagining their next move to professionals committed to self-awareness and leadership growth. Stay connected and explore what's possible at nextsuccesscareers.com and follow @nextsuccessmethod on LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. Well, I'd, I'd love to hear the, well, I love the story about how you were at the North Face and the sales meeting, that story, and then we have to end up getting to the plane story. so yeah.

Cortney McDermott 35:04

great, great, great. So, okay, so I love that story too. And I was, I remember, so I was at the North Face, I was an executive assistant. That's how I started there. And so I basically, I was a secretary to the general manager I really wanted to go to the sales meeting. Now for anyone who knows corporate, that position does not get invited to the sales meeting. It's just not a position that gets invited. And so, but I really wanted to, and there was a certain point where I was doing so much for my boss, I was such an integral part of like his work and his work working, that he invited me, to come to the sales meeting basically. 'cause he kind of needed me there to help with a lot of other things that were going on. And so I got to go and I remember sitting in the audience and I was, it was opening night of sales meeting for the North Face, which you can imagine it's pretty big production. It's a, it's a really cool company. So I'm watching the stage from, you know, from the audience vantage point. And I had such a strong, I'm supposed to be up there, I wanna be up there. That's my place on that stage. And. Anyone listening who's been in corporate will be like, that's just a crazy notion. First of all, at the North Face, the sale night of the opening night of the sales meeting, the only people who give talks are the, the vice president of sales, which is essentially the top of sales, the top guy in sales and the general manager. So those are, or the president. So those are the only people that take that stage on opening night. But here I was in my very kind of, you know, ignorance that I was like, oh, that's where I,

Caroline 36:41

I think it's intuition

Cortney McDermott 36:43

I was like, that's where I wanna be. So,

Caroline 36:45

and possibilities.

Cortney McDermott 36:47

And I'll talk more about this. 'cause I think it's so powerful when you don't know, you don't know, and you don't kind of believe what everyone else believes. So anyhow, I, I had this strong, strong, strong desire. Well, meanwhile it, between that year and the next year's sales meeting, I. I started heading up a lot of things in corporate communications. I sort of insisted with my boss that he add this onto my title, because I was doing all the things, but I wasn't necessarily getting the credit. And that's again, a story in and of itself. But he agreed to that. And then I said I really would really like some training because again, I was doing corporate communications, but I had had no formal education whatsoever in corporate communications. So I wanted to go to this conference that was being held by the Corporate Communications Institute of New York. He did not wanna send me there, send me there. He wanted to send me to some other, conference that I really, I did go to that one, but I didn't really get anything out of it. It was a. It's kind of a learning event, but I felt like I could have been teaching it better. And then, I still wanted to go to this conference and there was a possibility to submit a research proposal and if they liked it, you could go to the conference pretty much free of charge. And so if, if, you know, you developed the paper and you went, so that's what I did. They, they accepted the proposal. I wrote this paper in my nights and the weekends 'cause I was working full time and I went to this conference and I remember feeling like paper was the worst paper there. These people were real corporate communications professionals. I didn't know what I was doing. Why did I do this? Why did I show up? Et cetera, et cetera. And, on the day, the last day, the last full day, no sorry, the, it was the last night, not the last full day. 'cause there was one full day left. They announced and my presentation was on the final day and they announced best paper award at this gala dinner the night before. And they announced that I won. That I won the, the, the best paper award. And I was so shocked. I mean, genuinely so shocked because they had to say it a couple times before I even heard my name. I was pouring water for everyone at the table while they were making the announcement, and I didn't even hear my name. Then I accepted this award and I realized, oh crap. Now I gotta tell my boss that I did this thing that he told me not to do. So I went back to my boss after winning this award and I said, you know, and I, I, I told him I came clean and he, and I thought I was gonna get fired, but it was actually, it was actually worse 'cause I got promoted and he ended up like putting me in charge of corporate responsibility and inci environmental social governance. 'cause my paper was about something that I called Corporate Agenda 21 and it was basically bringing corporations together under a single umbrella to deal with the global crises that we're facing. And so that just propelled my career into that. And then I kept taking on other leadership roles. I was the. I was the chairwoman for the environmental and social working group in, Europe. And then I started, you know, working together with the pilot groups over here in the US. We were creating environmental indices, all sorts of things. It was really, it was really phenomenal. And the more I told people that I had no idea what I was doing and that this was not my field of expertise, the more I sort of became known as an expert in that field. And then I really, I, I was so disenchanted, for a while there actually. 'cause I, I ended up also fast forward, I, I, decided that I was, that my job was kind of unsustainable because in the meantime I had had my daughter Gaia and I was sort of jet setting everywhere. And it just, it was. It just wasn't sustainable. So I decided I was gonna leave. And then, I got hired, well, not right away. I took a sabbatical with Gaia and then, I, meantime I was contacted by this company called Sustainability Partners. We were working with outfits like Nike and Starbucks and the US military and NASA, and they asked me to come on as their vice president and to lead up, a lot of these sustainability initiatives. And it was really great 'cause I got to be, rather than someone else choosing how I was spending my time, I got to start learning how to, how to choose myself, where I wanted to put my focus and my energies. but the reason that's interesting is I felt the whole time that we were looking at the wrong stuff. I came up with my own definition of sustainability is the ability to sustain yourself. And that became the impetus for my first book and the TEDx talk that accompanied that and kind of skyrocketed my career and human potential and what I believe is really what we need to be looking at, which are the inner workings. and again, I could go on and on 'cause there's so many stories embedded in those stories, but that's kind of the short version of all the different careers in terms of corporate. Yeah.

Caroline 41:35

I, I love it. And so

Cortney McDermott 41:37

you

Caroline 41:37

You had reached this success. You keep getting propelled forward. 'cause of the, the work that you do, and you did show up differently and you saw things, others didn't, possibilities and you kept getting rewarded with that. You also have your daughter and then there came a point where you were thinking it's not it, and you, and you called it miserably successful. Um, explain that a little bit.

Cortney McDermott 42:02

Yeah. 'Cause I got to this point again, just to harken back to the beginning of our conversation where I had everything like in terms of materially and even non materially, the stuff that society says, well, once you, once you reach this milestone, well then you are, you're fulfilled, you're a success. And just to your point that you made earlier, it was like every single one of those that I came up to, it was like, next, what's next? It was success was perennially around the corner and I was perennially chasing it. And when

Caroline 42:37

Yeah.

Cortney McDermott 42:37

to realize it's like,

Caroline 42:38

Mm-hmm.

Cortney McDermott 42:39

long that you can continue on the hamster wheel until hopefully you realize that it's kind of boring and why are you running in circles? And so I did something that I think very few people actually do, which is I just, I just decided to get off. decided to get off and see what else was out there. And see if allowing myself to be really uncomfortable in a, in very unfamiliar territory, which was the territory of not trying to excel all the time, if that could be sort of an answer to the riddle. And I found that ultimately I found that it often is, it often is the answer to the riddle because instead of chasing, you start to settle into the here and now of I, I have everything and all potentials are available to me. And that's when I really started to to get to play around with reinvention and that whole process. And that has guided a lot of what I do today.

Caroline 43:43

It's so beautiful. And, and for those who don't know yet, Cortney has written, in addition to the TEDx talk, which is amazing, you need to listen to it. But she's written Change Starts Within You and Give Yourself Permission. And I didn't make this pretty ahead of time because you can see there's a lot of just really good nuggets in here that I felt like

Cortney McDermott 44:04

I

Caroline 44:04

I needed to, I I frequently kind of go back to the, both of them are very, don't let it fool you that they don't have a bazillion pages. That's intentional because what's, tell us, tell us about the simplicity. You, you, you, you, have such a beautiful way of saying those things.

Cortney McDermott 44:26

means that

Caroline 44:26

Yeah.

Cortney McDermott 44:27

the, the, the simpler you can be, the closer you are to truth. As far as I can tell, and there's a great quote, that's been attributed to Da Vinci is he says that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. I believe that things down to the basics is, is such an art form, and I've had so many people tell me. Their experience with this book where they say, oh my God, I've tried all these other books. for instance, I don't know, I really like Dispensa, but a lot of people have made this comment and they've said, you know, I try to read Dispensa at night and I just fall asleep. I get so tired. It's like, it's a lot of work for them. And they're like, but, but your book, it's like, I just kind of was able to just easily digest and get it. And it got, I felt excited the whole time I was reading it. And we've gotten that a lot. Like even when I've been on, you know, TV interviews or radio interviews where they've said, I love how simple and how it can like, kind of fit in your purse and you know, it, a company is a life that, maybe doesn't leave a lot of space for simple yet really deep reflection. And I, again, I think like simplicity comes from a space of. I wanted it to be accessible. I wanted it to be something that people could just get and actually experience some of these changes that I've experienced. And so, yeah. That was very, to your point, very intentional to keep it simple. Yeah. Yeah.

Caroline 45:55

Yeah.

Cortney McDermott 45:55

and

Caroline 45:56

And there's so much, it does unlock so much because it's, it's like not intimidating, right? It's, it's approachable, it's accessible, and then you're like, oh, wow. Oh, I, I hadn't exactly thought of it that way, you know? I hadn't exactly done it, and I saw you, we first met at the Women Life and Science event in Greenville, South Carolina, last year, 2025.

Cortney McDermott 46:20

Yeah.

Caroline 46:21

But I loved how you, you know, you're just sitting there. That event is so great because that's women from all over and you're not really sure who's sitting next to you at the table, but you know that everybody is amazing. And then next thing you know, you get up and you've, and you, you look gorgeous and super stylish, and, and you weave together things from like neuroscience and epigenetics and like psychology and all sorts of things, so beautifully. So profoundly and so simply that it's just like, yes, I need more of Cortney McDermott in my life. And I loved that you gave the ability for people if they wanted to like get up and move. To get up and move. Like it is so hard to sit. I don't care how old I am, it's so hard to sit still for the longest time. And just within your beautiful talk of weaving these what some could think are super complex things together in a

Cortney McDermott 47:28

beautifully

Caroline 47:28

accessible way, you also have the freedom to move. So I loved, loved that experience and that talk. And then I was so excited to get your book and, you know, dive, of course I've, you know, devour the first and then I want the second, and then I wanna have just more and diving into all the interviews and podcasts. And there's a lot out there if anybody's, you know, inspired to, to go do so, you'll find yourself down a nice, beautiful rabbit hole. But how did you get into speaking after the, I guess the TEDx talk? Was that the first one? After being on, you know, stages and giving your papers, how did,

Cortney McDermott 48:07

did

Caroline 48:07

did the speaking part and the writing part come about?

Cortney McDermott 48:11

Well, the speaking,

Caroline 48:12

Okay.

Cortney McDermott 48:13

been years actually before TEDx, although that was. That was such an excruciating talk. Another friend of mine, and I said one day we have to have the talk about the talk because there's so much rigor in TEDx. but I had already been giving speeches for a number of years, especially in my role at, you, my corporate roles. I had been able to speak on a lot of different stages, and so I had been doing that for a beat. But the writing part, I had been doing it for corporate and I really wanted to start my own blog and I wanted to start writing for different publications, and I started that while I was at corporate still, just nights and weekends, I would work on my writing. And I would submit to some of these bigger publications and I ended up being able to write for publications like the Huffington Post or Success Magazine. So that was already happening before I set out. In fact, I often tell people, like, I quote from war, I think it was Warren Buffet, he said, don't test the depths of the water with both feet. So I didn't really like jump in and say, oh, now I'm gonna be an author and a speaker. I was already kind of doing those things and I started to inch in gradually more and more, while I still also had the security of, of a job and the security of, of constant income and things like that. And then finally I got to the point where I was like, I'm done with this. I gotta go my own direction. It was really clear for me. And then I jumped and that's when I yeah, started to put out the books and, and all of that. So it's been a, it's been a ride, but that's kind of more or less how it, how it progressed.

Caroline 49:52

Yeah. What do you love the most about? Because it seems like your schedule is all over the place with the common theme of helping people unlock the beauty of themselves, give themselves to permission to dream and, and think about what's possible.

Cortney McDermott 50:11

and

Caroline 50:12

Yet,

Cortney McDermott 50:13

you're all

Caroline 50:14

all over the place.

Cortney McDermott 50:15

Jet

Caroline 50:15

Jet setting all over the world, giving talks, not just

Cortney McDermott 50:18

any,

Caroline 50:19

any,

Cortney McDermott 50:19

you know,

Caroline 50:19

you know, one place, but you've been to Necker Island, you've been to multiple different countries on their stages. Like what do you love the most about your life that you're getting to experience now?

Cortney McDermott 50:33

Well, I love the fact that it's, it's. It seems like a lot, you know, when people hear these things, they're like, oh my god, that's so much. But it really just was one step and then another step and another step, and it was getting that hit on like, what's the next step? And then showing up with everything that I had for that next step. So even though I had a vision, right, you know, without a vision, the people perish. It was like I had a vision. Yet it was more kind of, okay, today what's in front of me? And I'm still like this, you know, like today what's in front of me. And then also allowed me to get out of the hype of busyness. Like this is one of the things that you'll recall when you met me. I, I never say I'm busy, so, you know, people will say, oh, you must be so busy. And I always say, absolutely not. Like I'm the least busy person, you know, so I time out and say no to way more than I say yes to. But when I say yes, I show up with everything I've got. So I would say that that's kind of the, and I don't know if this totally answers the question, but that's sort of the ethos that drives a lot of, you know, what I do decide to show up for and how I decide to show up every day. Yeah.

Caroline 51:52

Love it. How do people find you? And by the way, find, you could mean, anyone looking for a speaker for any size event that you really would be well served by considering Cortney McDermott. And how do people find you for speaking opportunities or, engagements of the all the other things that, that you do and you select to do?

Cortney McDermott 52:13

Thank you so much. I, I can be found kind of anywhere online if someone's wanting to just connect, I would say one of the things I often do say too, when they ask Where do people find me? I was just like, I just pray that you've, you know, found more of yourself through this. You know, sometimes people say that I help other people, but I don't really help anyone. You, you help yourself, right? You show up and you're looking for specific information and if something I've said is resonant or some of the talks that I give are resonant, then that just means that's information you're calling to you right now. And I think that's such a gift. So I would say if people are wanting to find out more about the talk specifically, since you and I got to talk more about just my background, which is so unusual for me, and thank you for that. my talks, there's a lot you can find a lot online. So, also on YouTube, my name is spelled C-O-R-T-N-E-Y. So there's, it's without a u. And so if you look up Cortney, Cortney Without a U McDermott, you'll find some talks. If you're interested in, in someone coming in and giving a talk, you can contact my team at info@cortinc. That's C-O-R-T-I-N- C.com. And I'd love to hear more about your event. I'd love to hear more about you. We do read everything that comes through, and if it's something specific, for me that only I can address, then it gets passed on. So yeah, I am excited to connect with anyone who's connected with you. Yeah,

Caroline 53:39

Awesome. And then how do you, I'm big on authentic success. And authentic success is however someone defines it. Not the world, but they from themselves. So for you, how do you define authentic success for you in this moment?

Cortney McDermott 53:51

For me, trusting, like relaxing and trusting. That's, those are my guiding principles. I'm like, relax and trust. Like trust every single thing that occurs and, and then relax some more, and then trust some more. And the more you can do that, the more you start seeing a lot of this exponential growth that we've been referring to and, and alluding to. And actually also in, know, very clearly outlining in our conversation today.

Caroline 54:25

Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Cort. And then for anyone who's in the Greenville, South Carolina area, Cortney is going to be attending the Women Life and Science event from 2026. It's on April 30th, I believe. There also may be a book signing, for, for your latest book. Give yourself permission. That would be happening right around that time as well. Is that, I guess, is there anything else that I'm missing?

Cortney McDermott 54:49

I'm so excited for that book event. They're gonna do a reading and assigning the night before the conference, and so it's at

Caroline 54:58

How nice.

Cortney McDermott 54:59

small book. Bookshop, I, I should have had the name ready. but it's a really cool bookshop and I think it accommodates about 40 people maybe, and they're expecting that to fill out really quickly. So if you do get on on the Women Life and Science, and you can find that also on my LinkedIn or their LinkedIn for South Carolina. And I'm so excited to be at this bookstore because it was founded by this woman who founded the first school for women, I believe, in South Carolina. And so it just seems like a place that if you're a woman who's looking to uncover more of your potentials, that it's just, I feel like us coming together there is gonna be so fantastic. So I hope whoever's listening has a chance to, to come out and, share in that magic. Yeah.

Caroline 55:52

Awesome. Well, thank you again, Cortney, for all of your time today for the beautiful conversation and I am so excited for you for seeing you at the Women Life and Science event, and I can't wait to see what you do next.

Cortney McDermott 56:03

thank you. And I also wanna point out, this is the first time I've, gotten a chance to listen to you as you've been podcasting and I've been meaning to, and it's just been one of those things. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna get to that. I'm gonna get to that. And I heard you today and it's, wow, you're really a natural at this. And I'm, I've been delighted to be here and to witness in that and to share with your audience and anyone who listened, just thank you so, so much. Thank you.

Caroline 56:29

Thank you, Cortney.

56:31

Cort, thank you for the honesty, depth and grounded wisdom that you brought into this space. You've helped us see how evolution begins long before the external shift, and how powerful life becomes when we finally trust our inner knowing. To connect with Cortney, explore her talks, or inquire about speaking opportunities, visit cortney mcdermott.com or reach her team at info@cortinc.com. If this conversation opens something in you, please share it with someone who's been sensing their own next chapter and follow the Your Next Success Podcast. So you never miss an episode. Thanks for listening to your next success with Dr. Caroline Sangal Remember, authentic success is yours to define and includes aligning your career to support the life you want.