Ep. 82 - Stay Curious: Former Model Turned Inventor of a Patented Fitness Product with Kodi Berg, Founder of EQUIPT

 
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Kodi Berg is a former actress and model turned obsessor of making chic weights you actually want to use with her company EQUIPT. Kodi can be found doing leg lifts and child wrangling most hours of the day while sending emails and trying to keep people moving.

I loved our conversation because we had a real conversation about her entrepreneurial journey, which was the opposite of most founders… an accidental one that was born out of her own creativity, curiosity, and personal necessity. She never originally envisioned selling her product yet alone patenting it. 

Kodi is driven by emotion and her favorite line “I see something in my head” is what fuels her to move forward with each one of her business ventures. Kodi is a multi passionate entrepreneur and probably the only one I know who can weld metal and steer a cow!

In this episode we chat about

  • Her journey from being a soap actress and model who never worked out to the founder of a home fitness equipment company and owner of a brick-and-mortar ice cream shop

  • How she built a company driven by emotion vs. business

  • What she does to fuel herself - like taking a break to be outside without technology

  • How she involved her family with their decision making process to purchase an ice cream shop

  • Where she gets inspiration for building brands and design

  • And lots of tips for scrappy entrepreneurs!

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Ep. 82 - Kodi Berg Transcript

Stephanie: Welcome back to mommy's on a call today. I'm excited to bring to you. Kodi Berg. Kodi is a former actress and model turned obsessor of making chic weights you actually want to use with her company, Equipt. Kodi can be found doing leg lifts and child wrangling most hours of the day while sending emails and trying to keep people moving.

So welcome, Kodi.

[00:01:15] Kodi: Hi. Thanks.

[00:01:17] Stephanie: Lovely to have you here. I wanted to start off by asking, what is your biggest mom win of the week?

[00:01:22] Kodi: You know what it has to thin? So it's just my birthday. My, my favorite thing to do is like check out some galleries and just have a day where you're like, I'm going to do anything I want to do.

Cause I feel like moms don't really ever do. I would have liked to have gone alone, but I didn't, I took the almost four year old and it turned out to be such a win because I even like were cruising some galleries and she was like, huh, I really like this piece. I'm like what? And just watching her kind of respond to it and forcing her to like, I was like, okay, now we each get to choose one book and forcing her to kind of enjoy lunch.

And we listened to a lot of country music driving and letting her. Letting her kind of enjoy this and discover new things.

[00:02:04] Stephanie: Have you taken to her to museums before? A

[00:02:07] Kodi: little bit, but I mean, we haven't gone anywhere in so long. I used to when she was really little like shopper on, but not at this age where, you know, it was a new one.

[00:02:16] Stephanie: I was afraid to bring my little ones. I was like, are they going to touch everything? They're going to be like, oh, look at that pretty painting and like touch. And you're like, oh my goodness, like alarms go off. Like, don't touch the wall anyway. Oh, well that that's good and happy belated birthday. Thank you.

And happy early. Thank you. Well, so I want to learn a little bit more about your family structure to give the audience some context about where you're coming from. So tell me a little

[00:02:41] Kodi: bit about your family. Yeah. When I met my husband, he had two kids, they were three and six. That was a decade ago. They are now 13 and 16.

We have been together a minute and they now have, or I should say, I now have, I have a, almost four year old.

[00:03:00] Stephanie: So there's three of you. Yeah. That are not three of you, but three kids,

[00:03:05] Kodi: three kids, three kids sometimes, you know, Gemini is all the personalities you could say there's three of us. Yeah. It has been, yeah, definitely a journey trying to navigate all of this.

All being home, being like I'm on a zoom, the amount of text messages that it's like, if you're don't need to be zooming, please get off.

[00:03:25] Stephanie: I was going to say, and the age gap too, so dealing with almost high schoolers or middle schooler and then a preschooler. So you have all the gambit in your

[00:03:33] Kodi: house? Yeah.

Yeah. And trying to be sensitive to each of their feelings in it moves. And it's the oldest is a boy 13 year. Old's a girl. And then the youngest sister.

[00:03:42] Stephanie: So at least you've got teenage bootcamp out of the way before you have to deal with your youngest.

[00:03:48] Kodi: Totally. I feel like seventh grade was hardest for actually both of the kids.

Well, I mean, Teddy, she didn't get to be in person. Created its own challenges, but that six to seventh grade seems to be like, it was such a wild transition because they felt like, okay, I made a new school, new friends, like navigating all of these new emotions and

[00:04:08] Stephanie: yeah. And so are you and your husband both working at home right now?

Or do you get to leave the house and go to separate our offices?

[00:04:15] Kodi: No, I've actually never had an office, not since I was a 29 year old soap opera actress. Wow. Yeah, I.

[00:04:22] Stephanie: Yeah. Okay. Well, we will dive into your company a little because it's like a fitness equipment just laying around your house. I made

[00:04:30] Kodi: everywhere.

I mean, I like, I got,

I mean, I, this morning I had him on and I'm doing story time, building Legos and toning my butt. That's

[00:04:44] Stephanie: some good multitasking right there.

[00:04:46] Kodi: Yeah. I feel like you just do what you gotta do.

[00:04:49] Stephanie: I want to kind of step back and talk a little bit about your story because you have such an interesting story. I mean, you were a soap actress and all of this, and now you have a fitness company that makes equipment that's patented.

I made you go from big on the screen and doing all this to suddenly like, an inventor and a wielder and a welder, you know, all the things right. The name for it. So let's sit back and let's talk about your pre mom life. What was that like? And then the transition to mom life and building your company?

[00:05:17] Kodi: Yeah, I mean, it's a journey.

Originally Wyoming and then Ojai. So I always wanted to model, for some reason, I felt like there was a camera you get to kind of play, make leaving and be fun. And it opened up a yellow pages and it was like a yellow pages. Yeah. Ojai. So the Ventura county, not even Los Angeles, yellow pages open up the Ventura county yellow pages.

And there was like one agency that advertise based out of LA.

[00:05:46] Stephanie: So, you know, did you know anybody who was in the industry or anything or was it just something you're like, this would be fun to do and how old were you?

[00:05:53] Kodi: I was 15. Wow. Yeah, I just, I wanted to do it. I was pretty active in school. I always really liked it and I joke that I never made varsity in anything, but I did every single sport.

I've never been a great athlete, but I've always liked it. Yeah. So that's how, kind of how the modeling journey started. I went to this agency, paid for some pictures, got one audition, went to it, booked it, left that agency and went to like a proper one. And I was with that agent for my entire career. Yeah, it was, I mean, it was fun.

That's how I bought my first house and I loved it. It was, most of the jobs were the super unglued or it'd be like, oh, I'm on the like random catalogs, but they would pay, well, when I joke, it'd be like, I'd be wall decor. Like. Just hired to like go to a board and be like, okay, well, thank you. This beats digging ditches.

It was a definitely a journey.

[00:06:46] Stephanie: And then how did you, I guess, so this was all obviously pre mom life, but you had, when did you meet your wife? Has been during this and become a step-mom too.

[00:06:55] Kodi: Yeah. So when I was 29, I got, I booked general hospital and that's when that was supposed to be like a four year career.

I got fried after the first year. Got the ax drink some poison to you. And I was like, you know, I never really

[00:07:08] Stephanie: wanted to do

[00:07:09] Kodi: this forever. I'm like, what else should I do? And the whole idea around like, own you best version of you. I curse. I drink, I started dating my husband and that's when the kids were three and six and I was really into like the kids and hanging out with them a lot.

And I started going to UCLA and taking business classes and being like, I have no idea what resume skills, like translate. He can tell you how to sell an under eyepatch, but, you know, and that's when I started setting. And actually I started the company with one of my best friends and we were sitting there drinking wine and she was like, it should be, we were like, let's make it.

Like, yeah. And we took like cardboard, excuse me, to hurricanes. It's so random. And then that's when, you know, I actually took, I'm like, okay, wait, pause. Yeah. So that's where initially it was. And I had a studio for you. I just started studying steel and hanging out at home Depot and being like, excuse me, what's that color?

And they're like, that's called GAAP. Or I'm like, excuse me, what's that? How do you make that fit to that? Like you add threading. So in home Depot, my voice wasn't like that when I got it.

[00:08:16] Stephanie: And so you just made these weights that you would wear. And was it something

[00:08:22] Kodi: I wanted, I, then I started to play with kind of the ergonomics and how functionally it could be and learning there and really just going on YouTube and watching so many videos of like, how do you make this chair?

How do you make this bar cart? How do you bend a steel rod? Like everything is at your disposal. BS. I still watch videos on how people like use buyers to bend metal. It's

[00:08:49] Stephanie: like, that's such a random switch, like to do all that. And so then, so you're like making these things, obviously they're like handmade.

Prototypes. How did you go from taking this prototype to making it something that was a consumer? Good. Because I think a lot of us out there are like, great. We have these like pipe dreams, you know, we have these ideas and you literally were playing with Pikes and we made that into a dream. And I think that's amazing.

And so, but you know, where do you go? It's like, you didn't have a background in manufacturing and all of this stuff. How did you turn this prototype into now? A company where you actually sell the goods.

[00:09:24] Kodi: Yeah. You know, I think it's twofold. I've always driven from emotion. Like wanted something. When I had my baby to be this visual trigger to movement, you know, I'm not like a hardcore fitness fanatic.

I moved my body. I liked it. The idea of something that was like sensual and empowering and that's where so much of it was so looking at. I just kind of learning. And I think that's where initially this kind of idea came from. I also, when I had the, like, I took a break, so I had the studio for a year at closed.

It lived in London and just kind of lived spend almost every day at a different museum. And I think taking the time to be curious is like my biggest piece of advice and not rush. You know, other people may have other rushing. It was great. It also does mean that in the kind of the absence from the time that I came up with the idea, there was, you know, it kind of became more prevalent.

But I like to my own journey of, of being slow and methodical with it. And after I came with that first prototype, I just call anyone again, same thing with how I got that first model, the agents, they just call me like, Hey, I want a model. And now I'm calling two vendors and being like, hi, how do you shake this weight?

Hi, how do you do this? And not being. Scared to ask questions because people out there have done it in other facets, whatever you want to build, someone's done in some way or another.

[00:10:48] Stephanie: I think that's so important is to stay curious. And I hear a lot of advice from other entrepreneurs that do it slowly, you know, don't rush out there really.

Tests things like play with it and also just kind of give yourself that space to really explore, to make sure that that's something that you want to pursue. So whether it's creating that way or creating, like leaving a job and going to start something on your own, really kind of like take it slowly and really like look into yourself.

So did you have that prototype before you left to take a break to go to London?

[00:11:19] Kodi: So I did have the prototype and I took it everywhere to Seychelles, to London, to New York. I wasn't selling it. I wasn't even thinking about selling it. I just was using it and taking it. So

[00:11:30] Stephanie: you are building this just for yourself?

Yeah,

[00:11:32] Kodi: 200%. I wanted something that I felt was chic when I like, I mean, I don't really wear leggings a ton. I'm always in dresses. Yeah. Putting on like, honestly, part of the funny ways too, that it started with, if I'm really tired, I put on red lipstick and I was, and then it's like an instant pick me up.

And so again, it goes back to this idea of I'm such like, maybe it's a Gemini thing. Like I'm so driven by emotion. And I was like, how do I want to feel, not look, but how do I want to feel in the minute I want something that's right. And I'm like messy and a little bit of a hurricane. And so I wanted something like, literally they pick them up and I'm like, you know, and, and I wanted all that to be okay.

So like own, you own the best version of you and also like, feel sexy, feel good, even if you're just doing it for a minute.

[00:12:18] Stephanie: So then, so you came back and you had this prototype, what made you decide? Okay. Actually I'm going to sell it and now I'm going to.

[00:12:26] Kodi: I came home from London pregnant. Ah, yeah. So I even then I kinda like took some time.

It was being, I, at that point did a small order with my manufacturing company based in LA it was pregnant. And I would be like doing like little teeny screws in the ends. So there's been a couple of different versions, but I'd sit there with like, Hey, like so not efficient, but I learned everything. Like I can tell you all about the two bedding and the radius and the steel gauges and the digital.

Like, I joke that technology is going to be the enemy, but I can talk steel till the day is done. Now I'm taking the time to, I think, moment and going back to like being slow with it. So at that point I kind of had some and I was like, all right, maybe I'll sell, but I wasn't really working. I was still just monitoring.

And then the past two years I've been like, and I would like to do a little less momming. It. And a little more equipment. And that's when I started going onto like marketplaces and reading books about like, okay, so where should you manufacture steel and where? And then I added the u-wraps. You know, and even now, like there's a new product that I'm working on right now.

And it's funny. Cause the material, I called it a couple of places. Yeah. And they're like, I don't recommend that. I'm like, I don't care. I need you to send me this. Like I have faith and I trust my gut and what I'm building and I'm going to destroy the thing and see if it's durable. I don't need someone else to tell me if the material stirred a little and not like I trust their expertise, but I.

Like what I see it in my head. My husband's like, oh God, those words when you say it, but I see it in my head, like, Lord knows what's going to happen.

[00:14:03] Stephanie: I love it. It's because you're so passionate and you believe in it and you like you truly. And so you also, you mentioned you pat. Yeah. Also. And was this just like for your sake?

You're like, I think I have something here. Like what made you go down the route of even getting the patent for it?

[00:14:18] Kodi: Yeah, at the time, I, you know, when I started the company, it was with, uh, her name's min Nadine, Nadine Levitt. She is still one of my best friends and we started it together. She went on to launch a music app she's launching, like, she's just a force, this eternal optimists.

And we were both talking and we're like, yeah, let's, let's just patent it just to be on the same side. And so a lot of that she handled, she was also a model turned opera singer turned corporate litigator. She had more of like a law background to it. So I was like, all right, great. And we just, we wanted to be on the safe side.

And again, like back to this whole slow journey is now where we are, or I'm like, oh, see, I'm trying not to curse shucks. You know, we're in 13 countries and we're in hotels and gyms and homes. And. All over the place. And it just, I think a lot of it is because I took the time and I'm still a company

[00:15:10] Stephanie: of two.

Yeah. Which is what I wanted to ask you about. I know you basically said you're like almost a one woman show. How are you doing all that? Because you know, a lot of the advice we get is, you know, build your team, build a team around you to support you. You know, why have you made that choice to not build out a team?

And how do you manage being a team of one slash two with the three kids at home with this. And now also with audiences know, is you're also opening an ice cream store in your hometown in Ohio. And so you have another venture coming. You're kind of dividing yourself. Talk me through why haven't you developed like how to teach.

And also like, yeah. How do you manage all of that? Like, what is your day look like?

[00:15:51] Kodi: I think a lot of it, to be honest, as I grew up initially it was Wyoming and then it was Ohio and both, we grew up very poor. And so I still have a little bit of this scarcity in my mind. And it's made me kind of go, okay. So, and again, cause I so much build from out of my own personal necessity and I'm like, okay, shit calling whiz.

I hope people like this, you know, it's this kind of humble roots and my, my dad jokes. He's an old cowboy. Yeah. Laundry. I just love it. You built a giant gold horseshoe, you know, and he actually keeps one on the floorboard of his pickup and the U wraps on his dashboard and he drives all the time. So he'll pull over to pit stop and be like, well, I'm just going to grab it from underneath there.

And he was like, I liked that it doesn't roll around all over the truck, you know? But I think that that is what. Choosing to have motherhood as prime, primary focus. And then by the time I was ready to switch Google with COVID hits. So we no longer had childcare. We had two adults working from home. We had the three kids, my older two are 50%, but it's, you know, it was.

Joke. And so then I was nervous that I was like, okay. So I don't know how to build a team with every bit of dollar I would make. I still haven't had a salary since I was 20. So factories, everything goes back into product and back into, okay, let's get it out there to get people moving together because I so much believe in what that is.

And you know, right now I am starting to fundraise and switching this kind of the mentality around it. I think that's so much of what it has been, has been like a lot of, you know, as so many of us have. You asked what? My day

[00:17:25] Stephanie: looks like. It looks like purple bunny, ears and

[00:17:29] Kodi: hall, frozen dress and purple bunny ears.

Hi. Hi baby. Mommy. Mommy's on a call.

[00:17:40] Stephanie: Let me know what your day looks like.

[00:17:42] Kodi: Yeah, it's literally everything they do has a small human. So she's in school for the first time. You know that this just, again, I think a lot of it too, is that country grit. You just do what you gotta do. And there's days definitely that I'd be like crying in the bathroom being like how, like, I don't know how I'm going to be able to do both because I'm so passionate about building this world of equipped.

And I believe so much in getting feedback from people where they're like, I, those woman is 83 and she saw us in the financial times and emailed them. I was like, I want to move my body again. I want to be the strongest octogenarian. Yeah. You know, at COVID hits. And I started teaching my mom, I didn't record any of these.

I'm like, damn, I would've been a better business, but I taught my mom and her eight best girlfriends, how to zoom because they were also social. And so we would do weekly workouts and I send them all kits. And you know, these women have been best friends for 50 years. They're all 71. And the idea that like emotionally and physically, they would be able to move like that.

So I think a lot of it in this past year has been taking the time also to go sit outside breeze, get off screens and be with her and let her play. And then I'd be like, okay, so sit here, focus. Be very clear on what you want to do when you go back inside. And then I'd be like a lot of it. It'd be like, not going to feel guilty.

Like here's your frozen. My workouts almost always have a toddler with, and we do freeze this morning. My workout was like, I had the U bar and we did the freeze dance song. And I'm like doing squats then plyometrics. And even when she was born, I do visual like plyometrics for, for tracking for her. And I'd be like, okay, follow moment of school.

Do you know? It's just always been a part of life. And I, I sometimes do get hard on myself where I'm like, wow, you could be so much farther if X. But that doesn't really serve that. Just kind of depletes, I think your reserves even more so by going. Okay, cool. And, you know, I started writing at the end of the day three things.

Not that I accomplished that I was proud of. It could be any, cause I think at the end of the day, it'd be, it was so hard to feel accomplished when I wanted so much more professional, you know, it just. Capabilities weren't there, you know, we, we had no choice, you know what, with so much of it,

[00:19:57] Stephanie: so that, that, cause it's kinda like me asking, like, what's your biggest win?

Like what are you proud of today? And I like that a lot of people do, you know, gratitude and stuff. And I love gratitude, but I also really like celebrating the wins because sometimes we like forget all those little things that we do in a day that are just. It could be as small as, wow. I got an, a 10 minute workout or I brushed my teeth or I took a long shower.

Yeah.

[00:20:24] Kodi: I read through a chapter outside and like, I let myself be curious. I can be literally anything that you're like. Okay. So what, typically sometimes we can be hard on ourselves for what can we. Pivot to make a positive thing. And it's almost back to this whole idea of own you. I think there's so much, you know, you must see the darkness in order to see the light.

And I'm such an advocate of that. And like I just wrote, I'm trying to get better too. I wrote like a blog post on like your waistline does not determine your worth. And because I think so often if I'm really stressed, then all of a sudden I'm like, oh, I don't know. Or like, And find my, my association with my body and what I'm putting into it and how I'm moving it as much more toxic.

And so just the mental association with everything it's so important.

[00:21:09] Stephanie: So besides your workout are there and, and your, I guess your three things you do at the end of the day, you write about, are there any other sort of wellness practices or rituals you do day to day to just help you be a better mom or, you know, better entrepreneur?

[00:21:24] Kodi: Just taking a break to be outside without any technology. I always have a journal in my, my purse with me, and then I have one for Lola, cause she's almost always for like, literally it's every moment of every day, but so I have hers. So I feel like I'm being a good role model if I can be like, no, no, no.

This is what you do. You here's your 10 minutes. You can journal, you can run around, but this is what I'm doing. And some times it will be, normally we do on our phones, I'm just writing it down. And then when I go back inside, then I'll switch over to the screen and be like, okay. And execute. Yeah. Cause then I feel like you're not distracted and you're much more deliberate with your time.

[00:22:05] Stephanie: I like that too, because you're kind of modeling for her. You're showing her, you're like, okay, mommy needs my 10 minutes. You get yours. So I think that's a great thing.

[00:22:15] Kodi: Yeah. Like whatever you want to do, I really don't care, you know, within reason. But yeah, I think it's important just to show that and also to live that for myself.

[00:22:24] Stephanie: So I know you're super passionate about things and also work a lot off of emotion. And I know you also just purchased an ice cream shop. So can we transition into talking about not only, you know, run equipped, you are a mom and now you bought an ice cream shop, not even in the city you currently live in.

So, can we talk a little bit about why, why would you do this? You know, what was your thought process and how do you anticipate kind of managing that all when you're adding one more thing to your plate? I

[00:22:57] Kodi: know, cause I know we have a lot of

[00:22:58] Stephanie: multi-passionate entrepreneur moms out there and who have all these things.

So I'm curious. So you're in the midst of it all. What is going on in your mind?

[00:23:09] Kodi: We are, yeah. Three makes sense. So I grew up in Ojai. And I worked in Ojai ice cream through high school, and the owner was ready to retire and I was kind of like, he was like, you should take it over. I was like, and they're serving myself on the lounge.

And I was like, ha ha. And then I guess here, so I'll go back. So after, you know, seven months of COVID not leaving the house, no childcare trying to run a home fitness equipment company, but that we couldn't keep stock by supply chain was an absolute mess. I was like epoxying during nap time in the garage and then like shipping them out with the.

Yeah, it was nice. When I told my husband, I was like, I need help. So what we're going to do is rent out our house and we are moving. He's like, I'm sorry, why are we out? So I want to go to be closer to my mom who can help. I have a lot of girlfriends that have moved back to Ojai and have a lot of. Yeah, so we moved.

So we chose a different house. We were in Carpenteria for two months, Oxnard shores.

[00:24:05] Stephanie: And was this also too, because you're the high schoolers could be doing zoom so you

[00:24:10] Kodi: could leave. Yeah. They were all remote. So, uh, Nate both say they're like, yeah, in hindsight, like that was really cool. We had different neighborhoods each month.

Like one was on the water and yeah. There was like birds. I'd be like, all right, troops, wake up. It's time to go birdwatching. And they'd be like, no, but then eventually you go now, you know, they're like, oh, I really love an Ygritte bird, you know? But so why we were up there and while we were in Ojai, the owner of the place I worked all through high school was like, you should take it over.

And my kids always loved going in there. You kind of casually mentioned again, he's 79. He was ready to retire. He didn't have kids. And when he said it again, okay. I have another idea. I see something in my head. And I kind of brought it up and I was like, I know this is crazy, but who knows? And then we kind of thought about it.

And we, we got, we were like, all right, family meeting, I got all the kids together. And we were like, so this opportunity kind of presented itself. If we do this, what does this look like to everybody? And the kids were like, okay, of course they were like, I'll do the brand day. I'll do all this. Like, like, no, no, no.

You're serving. Get to school. You're going to learn to like work with people. And again, it's like, they came up with the adage of like, we're serving scoops and smiles and it's so cute. And they were really into it. So we went back to Doug and we're like, all right, let's talk. And we went through all the numbers and kind of realized that it does make financial sense to the husband.

Yeah. So we bought it as of May 1st. Wow. And so if there's an amazing manager already. Yeah. So I think that helps.

[00:25:52] Stephanie: That's incredible.

[00:25:53] Kodi: We're going up tomorrow, all the

[00:25:55] Stephanie: kids. I think it also helps that you work there and like you worked from the ground up, it's like kind of starting in the mail room kind of thing.

So even though you might not know anything about ice cream businesses or doing that, you kind of, you didn't just start literally another pipe dream of something that you had no background

[00:26:13] Kodi: in. Yeah. I mean, if we did nothing, it would already be a profitable business, but we're like playing with the flavors and definitely have of course, like aspirations to build out the brand.

And it's such a cool opportunity to take something that, you know, it wasn't trademarked yet. Yeah. It's pretty fun. And I've realized too, I think going from. It's almost back to what you're talking about with the three things that you're proud of. I've kind of learned what I enjoy doing and like building out a brand and there's so many parallels to no matter what brand you're building, like I was even starting another one with my dad.

Like I love doing that. I love just kind of finding this little message and playing with the imagery and the colors and the fonts and the, the vibe of it all and kind of playing with it. We're going to build out like t-shirts and. All the merch and all the flavors that are Ojai themed.

[00:27:00] Stephanie: And where do you get your inspiration for the branding and for looking for things like that?

I mean, like you created the design of the U-Band, you, you know, you have all of these kinds of creative aspects of yourself, where do you pull inspiration?

[00:27:13] Kodi: I think a lot of it sounds really cheesy, but like nature. Again, I spent a lot of time. I, I grew up hiking and camping and rodeoing. I wrote steers as a little girl.

Like I love, I can like lay there and stare at trees. When I lived in London, I wrote a book. Never, probably gonna publish it, but like, I didn't have a phone and I just chose to leave. Watch the world. And so I would bring my little journal and like bring my little computer and like sit at these dope little restaurants and like drink a gin and tonic at lunch and be like, I'm going to write a story and be like, kind of nature obsessed with everything from like looking at veins in a pedal too.

And so much of, I think if you look at equips color waves, they, they are. Almost in a way it's like dirt, it's the topes. And it's rooted in something. I love the different shades of greens and blues and same thing with the ice cream store. I was like looking at like the California poppies and the Valencia oranges and the avocados.

And I was like, how can I mute this to make it something I'd want to wear? And like, So kind of loving up leveling up a little bit, but, and also like, I love going to galleries. I love, I love fashion. I'll never actually, I shouldn't say I'll never design. Like I did have a capsule collection that I was going to launch, but then I was like, hold on.

It was part of Quip, but yeah, I think that's a lot of it is, is I read a ton. A lot of it is stuff that I can do with, because I have Lola with me at all hours of the day. Okay.

[00:28:37] Stephanie: Back to framing, you love looking at art, museums and fashion and all of that. And so

[00:28:44] Kodi: like I miss Wyoming so much and like images, I'm going to go up in cowboy with my dad for a couple of days.

Do you think people don't give enough credit to like silent? And so I just booked a flight to run out there and literally it's like some of my most fun, it'll be my first trip away from Lolita so long. And I'm so excited. Cause it's, I, you wake up before the sun's up, you saddle up, you go move cows, probably I don't know, thousand head for 15 miles and like, Two summers ago when I did it, I'm like watching my dad and his best friend from when they were kids.

And they're like, yeah, chasing the cows against the Creek. And they're like, yeah, it's up there. There's one over like, and it's just that feeling of doing something so out of your comfort zone and it, it just feels so good. And the sounds of the cows moving in the sense of they're like hoes. Plotting along and taking that time just to like watch them and look at the colors and the shapes of there, everything about it.

Like I've always been such a nature kid. Wow.

[00:29:47] Stephanie: Oh, at heart at heart. I don't think you are at all. Yeah, well, I'm just going to say I will, because of the zoom is kind of going in and out and we are wrapping up anyway. So I wanted to ask you one of my final questions, which is what is your mom's super power that you gained once you became a mom that makes you better at business or life?

[00:30:09] Kodi: Focus and, and I'm like, wait, wait, and focus. But also being more discerning if I say yes or I say no to something that I need. And I'm very honest with my words and my time, because I feel like more so than ever. It's precious. If you want to build a career, if you want to have yourself be what you want it to be.

And also as a, as a wife and as a mom, I'm very precious with, with my time, in my words. And I always say like, in the, there was a book, the four agreements, and one of the things that I loved about it that like, beyond it, be impeccable with your word, because that way you're not forcing anyone else to doubt what you're saying.

You're like, no, no, no, no. If I say yes, I need it and I will be there. And otherwise I'm just going to say, no, I'm sorry at this moment. That's good. And even sometimes a hard like business calls where you're like saying yes to certain opportunities, you know, we've, we've literally had to turn down countries this year to be like, I'm sorry, I can't launch there.

I don't have the bandwidth or the inventory. Okay. Circle back in three months and let's talk about. Well,

[00:31:11] Stephanie: I want to put that book in the show notes because I've had other guests mentioned that book. So I need to look at it. I actually, that was sorry. I know. I said that was my last question, but I had one last question and it refers back to, you said you love to read, what are your favorite

[00:31:24] Kodi: books?

I read a lot of historical fiction. I love like Eric Larson. So he, right now I'm reading the Churchill, his new book from about Churchill, just because also it's so interesting, I think, and with the world being so kind of, yeah. Scary and dark. There's so much empowerment in there. And in overcoming I love historical fiction.

I also love like cheesy Victorian romance fiction, like about queen Victoria. She's just so rad to put it, frankly. I love that she was this amazing love to being a mother, but she also was like ruler. She loved the arts. I spent so much time at the VNA historical fiction. Hands down is one of my favorites.

[00:32:05] Stephanie: Awesome. Well, it was so good to chat today. Where can we find you online?

[00:32:10] Kodi: I am mainly on Instagram, kodi_kitchen_berg, and then equiptmovement. And same with, yeah, those are, I'd say the main two. Bigger bandwidth. We're going to have much more on the Pinterest and we're building out a bunch of really cool videos.

I have fun with both those being like, kind of my weird ways of movement through the days.

[00:32:33] Stephanie: And can consumers actually buy the goods on the website or are you selling to like,

[00:32:38] Kodi: no, I love D to C. I like that relationship. And that's a big thing that I'm trying to put more focus into is, I mean, I'd love. So really nurturing.

And I mean, sometimes I'm even from a professional, terrible at it where I'm like, like I'm sending one-on-one videos where I'm like, I probably should record this and just upload it to the channel. But yeah, it's all there that everything's found there. Well, movement.com is the website. Got it.

[00:33:04] Stephanie: equiptmovement.com. Well, thank you so much for joining today. I loved having you. It was so fun.