SHOW NOTES
About the Guest
Cortney McDermott (spelled without a U) is an award-winning author, speaker, and celebrity coach whose work in self-development and business strategy has been featured in Inc., Women’s Health, NBC, The Huffington Post, Mind Body Green, and Success. Her talks on human potential have been delivered at TEDx, Mind Valley, Oxford Saïd Business School, and Richard Branson’s private island. She holds a master’s in science from the London School of Economics and blends academic rigor with real-world experience to help individuals and organizations reach their highest potential. She is the author of Change Starts Within You (2017) and Give Yourself Permission, with a third book forthcoming. Find her at Courtinc.com or as Court Inc. on YouTube.
Episode Summary
In this intellectually charged and deeply practical conversation, Jen Aks sits down with award-winning author and celebrity coach Cortney McDermott for a tour de force exploration of inner intelligence — what it is, why it is undeniably real, and how to finally access it. Cortney shares her own cold shower moments: weeping in the car after dropping her daughter at school, sipping espresso on a corporate jet to Brussels and feeling completely hollow, and ultimately leaving an 18-year marriage and a Vanity Fair Corporation executive role to follow something she could only call intelligence. She unpacks the neuroscience of brainwave frequencies, the 50,000–70,000 thought impulses we have daily, why the heart has its own neurocircuitry, and why the single most powerful thing any of us can do right now is lie down. This episode will make you smarter about your body, braver about your instincts, and calmer about your life.
What You’ll Learn
• How Cortney went from Vanity Fair Corporation executive to author and coach — and what the cold shower moments looked like that preceded it
• The difference between trying to be somebody vs. that inner recognition that you already are something — and how to tell them apart
• The story of creating a brand-new position at the North Face from an entry-level assistant role — just by following what she felt in her cells
• What bliscipline means and why getting devoted to inner intelligence requires a specific kind of discipline
• Why there are 50,000–70,000 thought impulses per day — and why ‘just think differently’ is the most arduous work anyone can undertake
• What voluntary vs. involuntary means in the context of the body, the mind, and the universe — and why doubting yourself is as absurd as doubting the earth’s rotation
• The four main brainwave frequencies and what it actually means to move from beta into alpha — in your body, not just in theory
• Why lying down is not lazy — it’s the single most important leadership practice according to science
• The vagus nerve, the safety signal, and why horizontal is healing
• Why every organ in your body is a mind — including your heart, whose electromagnetic field is hundreds of times more powerful than your brain
• The gazelle, the tiger, and the lost art of shaking — how animals release trauma that humans have been taught to suppress
• Why yawning and laughing are two of the greatest neuroscience secrets we were conditioned to hide
• What true vulnerability actually is — and why it has nothing to do with sharing secrets
Key Concepts Introduced
• Inner Intelligence / The II — Cortney’s term for the universal consciousness guiding all life; interchangeable with God, spirit, or creator
• Bliscipline — a term borrowed from Joseph Campbell; the dedicated devotion required to tune into and follow inner intelligence
• High Beta vs. Alpha Brainwave States — the difference between first-gear spinning and the creative, safe, solution-oriented state your body enters when horizontal
• The Relaxation Principle — Cortney’s core practice and definition of both vulnerability and leadership: deeply relaxing with yourself and others
• Voluntary vs. Involuntary — reframing thought as something that happens to you, just like your heartbeat, until you learn how to use your operating system
• Innate Technologies — yawning, laughing, shaking, hand gestures: built-in bodily tools we were conditioned to suppress that are actually among the most powerful healing mechanisms we have
• The Persona — the calcified identity we construct over time that blocks the evolutionary impulses trying to course through us
Resources & People Mentioned
• Change Starts Within You — Cortney’s first book (2017); available everywhere books are sold and on Audible in her own voice
• Give Yourself Permission — Cortney’s second book; covers how to use your mental operating system
• Third book — forthcoming; will focus on stories of inner intelligence and the connection between impulse and outcome
• Cortinc.com — Cortney’s website (note: Cortney, no U)
• Court Inc. — YouTube channel
• Hope for the Flowers — children’s book referenced by Cortney as a parable for leaving the caterpillar pillar
• Joseph Campbell — mythologist; concept of ‘bliscipline’ borrowed from his work
• Napoleon Hill — Think and Grow Rich; the two words in the title Cortney says most people miss: learn to think
• Neville Goddard — referenced alongside Napoleon Hill as a teacher of directed thought
• Mind Valley University — where Cortney gave a talk on how to transform without doing anything
• Universal Music Group — one of Cortney’s first clients; the CEO meeting where she was told she ‘exudes peace’
• Koya / Rochelle — shaking practice; the gazelle-and-tiger analogy for releasing stored trauma through movement
• The Power of Gesture — Jen’s practice; discussed in context of cortical tissue, the hand-brain connection, and sending safety signals
Quotes From This Episode
“Sometimes rock bottom looks like the top to everybody else. But it’s your rock bottom.”
“I was trying to be somebody, versus that inner recognition that you are this thing.”
“Enthusiasm comes from entheos — in God. In spirito — in spirit placed. That’s what I felt in my cells.”
“For most people, saying ‘I think’ would be the equivalent of saying ‘I beat my heart.'”
“We walk around with the most magnificent operating systems ever created, and we are not taught how to use them.”
“Vulnerability is not about sharing secrets. Vulnerability is about deeply relaxing with one another.”
“Leadership is peace. You’re relaxing. And if you’re working at that level, it’s not even work.”
“You’re doing enough — probably way more than you need to. We need more relaxation. Especially as women.”
CHAPTER MARKERS
00:01 Welcome & Podcast Intro
Jen introduces the show and teases the episode’s payoff: Cortney’s answer to the greatest leadership question is to lie down.
01:00 Introducing Cortney McDermott
TEDx, Mind Valley, Oxford, Richard Branson’s island, LSE master’s — and three books on the inner life.
03:21 The First Book — and Whose Script Is This?
Cortney opens with Change Starts Within You: the moment she realized she’d collected all the gold stars and still didn’t feel like a success on her own terms.
04:00 Hope for the Flowers: The Caterpillar Pillar
A children’s book that became a parable for Cortney’s life — everyone climbing, no one knowing why, and the only way to become a butterfly is to leave the pillar.
05:55 What Were the Cold Shower Moments?
Jen asks: what were the voices telling you? Cortney describes weeping in the car after school drop-off and the hollow feeling on a corporate jet to Brussels.
06:11 The BlackBerry, Brussels, and the Race
Living in Italy, on her way to Brussels, daughter blocks her BlackBerry in seconds. An externally referenced life at full speed.
08:00 Rock Bottom Looks Like the Top
Cortney explains why she likes to start her story at the height of success — because that’s where the people listening often find themselves.
09:14 Confidence, Intuition, and the Inner Teacher
The subtitle of the first book unpacked: confidence is trust, intuition is the inner teacher — and the more you trust it, the more it grows.
10:11 Did You Actually Like the Climb?
Jen asks the question no one else has asked. Cortney’s answer: it was both. An inner drive and an external race — and the difference between them is everything.
11:19 Trying to Be Somebody vs. Being the Thing
The most important distinction in Cortney’s work — and the central theme of her third book.
12:00 The North Face Sales Meeting
An entry-level assistant has no business being at a sales meeting. Cortney conjured her way in — and felt in her cells that she was supposed to be on that stage.
13:30 Enthusiasm: In God, In Spirit
The etymology of enthusiasm — entheos, in God — and how Cortney describes the feeling when her whole system lights up.
14:00 Six Months Later: On Opening Night
Zero probability. New position created. Six months later, Cortney presents on the exact stage she imagined — just as she had felt it in her cells.
15:14 Your Life Can Run on This Connection
Once people get the connection to inner intelligence, Cortney says, you don’t need any other connection. Your whole life can run on it.
15:28 Bliscipline — The Devotion Required
Getting with inner intelligence isn’t passive. It required an enormous amount of what Cortney calls bliscipline — timing out the noise.
16:20 Why Call It Intelligence?
Jen asks: how did you come to trust this thing enough to call it intelligence? Cortney’s answer begins with trillions of biochemical reactions per second.
17:26 Trillions of Reactions You’re Not Directing
The body runs on a complexity your rational mind cannot begin to imagine. You’re not consciously doing any of it — and yet it works perfectly.
18:27 Thought Is Not Voluntary for Most People
Like your heartbeat, thought happens to you. Saying ‘I think’ is like saying ‘I beat my heart.’ This reframe changes everything.
19:49 50,000–70,000 Thought Impulses a Day
What ‘just think differently’ actually means — and why it’s the most arduous, most worthwhile work a human can undertake.
21:00 We Are Not Taught How to Use Our Operating Systems
The second book’s core premise: Give Yourself Permission to learn how to think — before you can change anything else.
22:20 The Earth Is Spinning and You’re Not Orchestrating It
Cortney zooms out to the cosmos: we don’t question the earth’s rotation. So why do we question ourselves? We’re part of the same intelligence.
24:20 To Doubt Yourself Is to Doubt How the World Functions
Jen lands the idea: if we are all one, then self-doubt is as absurd as doubting gravity. Cortney builds on it.
25:00 When You Trust, Life Gets Synchronistic
Cortney describes living a thousand days in one — not rushed, not busy, fully alive in the gifts the intelligence is offering.
25:53 Getting Tactical: What Can People Do Today?
Jen asks for a practical entry point. Cortney’s answer is the most counter-cultural thing she’s ever said: relax. Completely and totally.
27:34 You’re Not Here for Answers — You’re Calling Them
Whoever is listening called this episode to themselves. It’s not Jen or Cortney with the answers. It’s your own trajectory pulling the information in.
29:28 Brainwave Frequencies Explained
Beta vs. alpha: a four-gear race car driving in first gear all day. What happens in your brain and body when you finally go horizontal.
30:30 The Vagus Nerve and the Safety Signal
The minute you lie down, you send a message to the vagus nerve: I’m safe. That one signal begins to change everything — creativity, clarity, calm.
32:46 The Hand-Brain Connection
Jen brings in her own research: more cortical tissue is allocated to the hands than any other body part. The hands collect safety data and send it to the brain. The power of gesture.
34:18 We Were Duped: Sit Still and Don’t Move
One of the biggest lies we were taught. Movement frees stuck energy. What brain scans now confirm, Eastern traditions knew all along through chakras.
35:30 Every Organ Is a Mind — Especially Your Heart
The heart has its own neurocircuitry. Its electromagnetic field is hundreds of times more powerful than the cerebral mind.
36:00 Yawning, Laughing, and the Suppressed Technologies
Two of the greatest built-in healing technologies — yawning (sometimes called neuroscience’s greatest secret) and laughing — both suppressed by cultural conditioning.
37:00 The Gazelle, the Tiger, and the Art of Shaking
Animals shake off trauma and go back to being themselves. Humans go to therapy for 10 years. When Cortney first tried shaking, parts of her body couldn’t move.
38:29 From Information to Action: How to Lead
Jen steers toward the close — how do we get started, and how has all of this changed Cortney’s own leadership?
39:55 The Mind Valley Talk: How to Transform Without Doing Anything
The entire talk was about how to lie down. And someone still asked, but what do I do? Exactly.
41:00 True Vulnerability Is Deeply Relaxing With One Another
Cortney’s major recent insight: vulnerability has nothing to do with sharing secrets. It is about relaxing enough that anything can emerge.
42:00 The Inner AI — The II
Cortney uses outer AI for recipes. The inner intelligence — the II — she consults every single day. She lies down and asks it. And it answers.
43:39 You Can Always Tell What Comes From Inner Intelligence
Whether it’s an inbox email or a spoken word — something that comes from inner intelligence is unmistakable. Nothing sounds or feels like it.
44:00 Leadership Is Peace — The CMO Moment
In a meeting with Universal Music Group executives, one CMO said: I want to sit by you because you exude peace. That is leadership.
44:48 You Are Doing Enough
Cortney’s closing message: you’re probably doing way more than you need to. The answer is not more work. It’s more relaxation — especially as women.
45:22 Where to Find Cortney
Courtinc.com, Court Inc. on YouTube, books on Audible in her own voice — and how to reach her with your story of change.
47:12 Closing: This Is a Movement
Jen closes with the vision: not just a podcast, not just a message — a movement to awaken, return, and remember the intelligence within. See you next week.
CONNECT WITH CORTNEY
• Website: CortInc.com (note: Cortney, no U)
• YouTube: @CortInc
• Instagram & all other platforms: Cortney McDermott
• Change Starts Within You — Book 1 — available everywhere and on Audible (her own voice)
• Give Yourself Permission — Book 2 — available everywhere and on Audible
• Third book — coming soon
• Share your story of change at CourtInc.com — Cortney reads them
If this episode moved you, don’t keep it to yourself. Send it to someone who needs to hear that the most powerful thing they can do right now is lie down.
