Finding My Voice and Embracing Leadership in the Military

In this final episode of my My Story in the Military series, I reflect on the lessons, challenges and experiences that shaped me throughout 13.5 years of service.

This chapter is about leadership, mentorship, burnout, growth and ultimately finding the courage to follow a path that aligned with who I was becoming.

Throughout my military career, I had the privilege of learning from incredible leaders who challenged me, supported me and helped shape my understanding of what leadership truly looks like. I also experienced seasons of exhaustion, uncertainty and questioning what came next.

In this episode, I share the realities of navigating burnout, the lessons I learned about communication, empathy and leadership, and the decision to leave a career that had been such a significant part of my identity.

Most importantly, I talk about the power of owning your story. Because when we stop hiding the difficult parts and begin honouring every chapter, we create space for healing, growth and new possibilities.

Whether you're navigating a career transition, experiencing burnout or standing at the edge of a new chapter, I hope this conversation reminds you that it's okay to evolve, change direction and choose a path that feels aligned with who you're becoming.

In This Episode We Discuss:

•  The final chapter of my military journey 
•  The mentors who shaped my leadership style 
•  Lessons learned through 13.5 years of service 
•  Navigating burnout and finding balance 
•  Leadership, communication and emotional intelligence 
•  The transition from military life to entrepreneurship 
•  Building confidence through challenge and uncertainty 
•  Why honouring your story is so important 
•  Following purpose beyond a structured career 

Key Takeaway

Your experiences — both the challenging and the beautiful — are all part of your story. When you honour them instead of avoiding them, they become some of your greatest sources of wisdom, resilience and growth.

About Kadi

Meet Kadi Sonntag, the unapologetically wild woman leading the charge on living life boldly and breaking free from the limits society tries to set. Born in Maitland in 1992 and raised in Newcastle, Kadi’s love for sports (anything but school!) started early.

From swimming at a national level to competing in high jump at nationals and playing representative basketball, Kadi was always moving, growing, and pushing herself. In high school, she was the sports and school captain, proving leadership comes naturally.

At 19, Kadi took a leap and joined the army, starting as an admin clerk and eventually becoming an army physical training instructor in 2019. She’s served on peacekeeping missions in the Middle East, taken part in exercises in Asia, and now holds the rank of sergeant. Talk about resilience!

When she’s not leading in the military, Kadi’s got her sidekick—her dog Piper—and she’s all about empowering women to tap into their inner strength, unleash their wildest selves, and live unapologetically. Whether she’s playing for the Defence National Basketball Team or sharing her journey on Unapologetically Wild, Kadi is here to help women break free, find their power, and live on their own terms.

Connect with Kadi: @kadi_sonntag

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Unapologetically Wild with Katie Sontag. I'm Katie, a woman's Empower My Coach, Healer, and your guide to embracing your most powerful, authentic, and unapologetically wild self. As a sergeant and physical training instructor in the military, I've spent over a decade thriving in a male-dominated industry, pushing boundaries and helping people discover their inner strength. Beyond that, I'm a certified success in life coach, Reiki and Lightcoat healer, and NLP practitioner. I'm also a proud dog mum of my big fur baby Piper, who reminds me daily to stay present and playful. Oh. And when I'm happy, you'll find me dancing like nobody's watching. Yes, I'm spiritual and bring a little bit of magic to everything that I do. This podcast is for high-achieving women ready to break free from social norms, reconnect to their strength and sensuality, and own their unique essence. Here we'll dive into topics that are often considered taboo, share personal stories and life lessons, and host empowering conversations with incredible guest speakers, all while keeping it real, raw, and relatable. Let's get wild. Tap into your feminine power and unapologetically lead your life on your terms. Hello, hello, welcome back to Unapologetically Wild with me, Katie Sontag. We are at the full part of the series of My Story in the Military. Can you believe we have made it to part four? If you have not already, go and listen to the first three parts. It was literally everything I lived in my 13 and a half years of my military experience. And it has both been therapeutic, healing, and also a lot to relive it. But I am very grateful because I hope, and I know from some people that have already communicated it to me, that there are things in there that will support you wherever you are on your journey, whether it's you're not in the military or you're looking at it, or you are in the military, or you're on your way out, or you've, you know, been a veteran. All of it gets to be true and you get to tell your story too. I love when people share that with me. And I am telling my story so that you know that you can do the same if you ever wish to, with whoever you wish to. It doesn't have to be on a public platform, but it can be anywhere, anytime. And you get to allow that to be a part of your journey and really honor that part of your journey as well. And that has been really what has come up for me is that I wasn't honoring this part of me, and I actually wasn't allowing myself to let her be in all of what she learned. And it's been really beautiful to see how far I've come. I even had someone reflect that to me today of remembering the shy girl who, yeah, they met when I first joined the army to the woman I am today, and they said how proud they were of me. So it's really beautiful. Oh, it's gonna make me emotional. And this is why I share this, right? Because I think a lot of people don't honor their journey or ever look back. And I'm gonna be honest with you, there are parts of you that you meet that you're like, whoa, wild. Was I really like that? But the beautiful part about that is when you honor those parts of you, you actually allow them to be free and to be a part of your story. And I think that's really beautiful. So, part four, can't believe we're here. And just so excited to jump in. Now, uh in true style, I don't a hundred percent remember where I left off. So we're going to do a little mini recap just in case I missed parts of this. However, I do remember that I was talking deeply into a time when I was super burnt out. And I then moved to a new posting, and I had an incredible mentor, of course, my PDI from Kapuka, who, if you had listened to the other episodes, has come up multiple times. He has been a mentor to me multiple times in my career at Kapuka when I was doing my testing to become a PDI, and then he became my boss. And I think what beautiful moments to have someone who really made a big impact in my career, like constantly. Um, it's wild how the universe does that, right? They bring someone in at the time when you need them who you know, so you don't have to then go through that whole process. One of the things I find when you move so often in your career is that if you don't know the person, it's almost like you're starting a relationship again because you have to get to know them. They have to get to know you. Also, there's an element where you want to do well, right? So you want to prove that you are a good at your job. You also want to, you know, be good at your job, right? You're not gonna try and prove it if you don't want to be good at it. And part of the perfectionist and the good girl, you know, you want to make sure you're doing everything right and you're at a standard where you think, you know, that's your standard and you don't want to ever drop that. Has a really big lesson to learn, but I'm grateful that I knew him. Uh, he knew me. We didn't have to start from the beginning. And I think that's a really beautiful piece where he could honor and see where how far I'd come uh and where I was and what was different. And he honored the fact that I wasn't really okay. And we didn't really ever talk about it too much. Like we did in parts, um, but it never really all needed to be mentioned. He could just tell and he would do things like he'd be like, okay, we're gonna go out and train now, uh, because I would just be like, I have to get all these things done and I have to be, you know, again, the high performance that I am. However, when you're so burnt out, you actually can't be that high performer. You still can get things done and you can still perform well. However, it's at a cost to your health, mentally, physically, and also, yeah, you just don't realize how much you've been holding underneath. So I'm really grateful that he was then my boss. And that was the time as well when I had was sitting there and I'd hit 10 years of army, and I actually put my head in my hands and remember sitting in the chair, being like, what am I still doing here? I wanted to leave by 10 years, that was my plan. And don't we love how the universe always likes to allow the plan to be very different to what we think it should be? And now it's so different. Obviously, I give a lot of my plans to God and universe spirit guards and let them take me on the journey. However, back then I was still, and I still obviously have moments of this where I go into control, you know, if it doesn't look the way it I think it should or um the thing the way I want it to, it's very easy to default into that. So I think I was trying to hold on to that, and I'm grateful that he was there to be like, it's okay, you don't have to. Sometimes we need people in our lives who are that permission piece. And so that year was a lot more about allowing myself to come back to fitness. I'd hurt my back again in that year, which happens a lot when I get really stressed or I've got too much on. Um, which is funny, you'd think it's because, and I always do it deadlifting, so wild. But of course, because you know, when your back is so tight, you're holding so much, you hold everything in your lower back. And now I understand the energetics and everything as well. I'm like, oh, of course that's what goes. And it's just something that I have to be wary of. Like, and it's always when there's too much going on, I'm trying to hold too much capacity, I'm stressed. Like it actually has nothing to do with whether I've been lifting or not. I could have been done an incredible program, lifted really well. Um, but if I'm not conscious of what else is going on in my life, that's when I do it. So it's so interesting. But I was like, what am I gonna do? I remember I took all my girlfriends, well, not all at once, but I would be like, We're going to this workshop. And they're like, okay, what is it? And I'm like, breath work. And then we get there and they're like, Do you have a picture of yourself as a child? And I'm like, no. Oh god, we needed a picture of ourselves as a child, so I can write a letter. We're crying, writing this level, letter to a beautiful child. And I think it's such a beautiful practice. I think about it often actually, how I would write this letter to this baby, they have a photo of me as a baby. It's very cute. And it was like just apologizing for being so mean all the time, like in my brain, and what I would say and all the things. And I think that's part of the burnout is like refinding yourself, but also allowing yourself to grieve. Like I would do breath work and I would cry, and I would just like be feeling like I was letting go of years of suppressed feelings towards everything, myself, people around me, the army, like a lot of just not expressing myself. Um, and so that year was a beautiful year where I had a really, really chill posting. Um, we were in a really great location, and so you know, we could go to the beach and run beach sessions and like we could do lots of different things, which allowed me to recuperate and also learn a lot. We did uh courses in that time too. Sometimes I think a posting like that is perfect for the fact that you can catch up on your promotion courses, and that's really handy to get them done. And we just meant that we could do our job and I could be run out and run my lessons, and I really loved the crew there. I got to meet some really cool people, and I had a really supportive boss, so we made sure we looked after ourselves. And, you know, coming from such a big posting where I don't even really know how I got through it, but it was a really nice change to have that. And I find that in in postings, you cannot have a really hectic one, and then hopefully, if you're lucky, you get a chilled one, which actually kind of offsets and balances you out a bit. And then during that year, I remember I was like, oh, cool, I'll just finish my three years here, like it's amazing as a corporal. And then I had the honor of being asked if I would be a sergeant. And at the time, I'm not gonna lie to you, I did not think it was an honor. And I was like, oh my god, I never wanted this. And so my boss talked me into it. He was like, You can do it, you'll be fine. It was more around the leader that was there at the time, who was the was gone, would have been my leader and my boss. And I was like, I don't think I can. And he was like, You should take it. It's a prime opportunity, you know. It meant I could stay in Sydney, which is very lucky. And so I took it. And I'm I'm really grateful I did. I ended up getting a new boss. Um, and he had actually also run a business outside and come back. They'd sold it and then come back too, back into the army. Really, really knowledgeable man, um, incredibly, yeah, just very smart, uh, very capable. Again, like the boss I'd, you know, just come from and my last posting for that year. I got promoted and I was like, okay. The funny part about it, actually, I got promoted by someone throwing me a um rank slide across the table. I honestly never technically got promoted uh before that. It was all on PM Keys and all very legit. That's the system that we use. However, no one had really like they'd just forgotten, I guess. Um, I wasn't mad. I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm not really big on ceremonies, uh, but it was a really, you know, interesting piece. So I rocked in with everything, my stripes on. I just owned it. And I mean, I was already in the position, I already had the promotion everywhere else. I just hadn't been given it. So I ended up walking in there, did it, and my boss was so appalled. He was like, oh my god, I can't believe they didn't promote you. And yeah, so he went out of his way to make sure that they did promote me and did it in a location near my family, and that was really special that my parents and my grandmother could be a part of that. And that was a really beautiful night too. That was later on in the year that they did actually finally promote me, which was so funny. Anyway, I couldn't stop laughing. I just thought it was hilarious. I think after everything, I was like, it doesn't, it's not that it doesn't mean much because I know that when you go into um becoming a senior NCO from a junior, it is a really big step and it's a really different environment to be in. And I am really grateful that I got to experience that because I actually didn't understand. I don't, you never do until you go through something, but I then got to have, you know, a core that I looked after and I got to not only build my business on the side, but I also got to use all the skills I was learning on how to be the leader that I wanted to be. So doing neurolinguistic programming where you reprogram the mind, I realized how many terrible things I say to myself. And then I realized that that's kind of, you know, that happens around you, and we all do it. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna show a different style of leadership, a style where I'm gonna be honest with you. Some days I'm not great, and some days I want to cry, and some days I feel amazing. And, you know, I want you, uh, who was my couple at the time. I wanted her to tell me as well. I want if she had a shit day, I wanted her to be able to feel comfortable to tell me. And so that was really amazing. We also were very alike, and that was very aligned, and so was and my boss as well. So the three of us were like very close and really, yeah, had a really great posting. Um, we got everything done we needed, we made sure we looked after ourselves and each other. And I remember once we even had this disagreement, it was awesome. And we all had different perspectives around, you know, something we were uh talking about. The best part was everyone expressed their feelings and then we all went to train. And then we came back and we were all like, oh, I actually now understand where you were coming from. And I just love that because I think it's interesting when you go up a level in leadership, you don't see the perspective that you saw before, right? Because you can't, you're not there anymore. And it made me realize that these conversations are really, really important because although I've been a corporal, at that time I may not have experienced the same thing that my corporal is at the time that she receives the information. So I need to understand that and also understand the delivery. And then my boss had a whole different view that I didn't have. And so we were all having these talks, but it made sense to where we were in the leadership chain. However, none of us had thought of the other person's experience because we didn't, we were like in our own, right? It's very normal for that to happen. And it showed me a lot about how when you understand each other, you actually get a lot more out of each other and you also get to support each other better. And I think that was just a beautiful posting where we all had lots of things. Like my co-forish was doing a uni degree. I was starting a business. My boss, you know, had his family was very important to him, which I think was so beautiful, still is. But it's like we all got to not only do our jobs well, but we were efficient. We made sure that we got everything done. And we also had things that we got to have time for. And I think that's really important because the military doesn't always give you a good balance of life. And we were very big on that, really big on being honest with each other, open. If people needed things, you could, you know, if you needed leave or if you had something going on, or, you know, um assinuating circumstances or things that you needed us to know, like that was important and we were we needed to know. So I think that was really beautiful. The open lines of communication, the ability to support each other in more ways than one. And that was a really big, big leadership journey for me. I think to be so well supported as well. I love this thing too, where you allow someone to kind of go out there, give it a whirl. Almost like they make the joke of you let someone walk out and then you know they either sink or swim, right? The best part about that is if you sink, you learn a lesson and you go to your boss and you go, okay, I tried this and I sunk. And you could call it failure. Um, I call it lessons. And then you can ask them how they would have done it. Because here's the thing you can also go and ask them first and then try their way. Sometimes, though, I think it's more fun to be experimental and go and try your own way. And that can be hard for leaders to watch, trust me. But we have to let it happen, and that's where that control piece is really rough, especially, and I will admit there were times when I didn't do that well. There were times when, like, I remember we had a fitness leader course and I was watching someone instruct. And so for me, for a bit of context, instructing is my thing. So everyone has a thing, right? Like, some people are really good at uh my corporate was really good at programming. That was not really my thing. I love taking lessons, like I see that there's an art to them, and I think that there is a really good way to be a great lesson taker, and there's a way to be a mediocre lesson taker. And there is an incredible like art to it. There's so much, and I loved lessons when I was a Kapuka. I loved lessons when I was in the school at the school, and that was what drew me to watching their ability to move big groups of people on a dime, you know, like quick word, and you know, everyone moves. And when it's done really well and effectively, like to watch a class class is seamless. And I love that. I love the ability. I mean, maybe it's a bit about the control. You could laugh and say that maybe I really loved that. And I remember I was watching um this person of a class, and it was killing me because I just had a totally different level of where I thought instructors should be. And here's the thing I came from instructing for years, whereas some of the other, when you come through, not everyone goes straight to a training establishment where they instruct consistently for years, right? So there's definitely a difference between someone who's been at a training establishment as a as a PTI than someone who hasn't. You can just tell that they don't train the skills as much and they're not as um direct and moving classes, not as efficient. And that's no detriment to them. That's actually just the fact that they don't do it consistently for a couple of years. So they don't train the skill and hone it. And that was the difference was I was so used to that, and I was so used to the standard being perfect, as we know, little perfectionist over here. And so I then was like, I want to demo. And my boss was laughing, watching me itch at it. And he was the same because he came from a training establishment too. So we were both itching to demo. Well, him not demo, but him watching me demo. And so he's like, Do you want to go out and do it? And I was like, Yeah, of course. So, anyway, I went out and I was like, Here's what I'm gonna show you with a number two. And I was like, Can you be my number two? Or I got so much deep be a number two, and I just loved it the energy, the ability to control, command, all these things, right? And I was like, that's a lesson from my God. Um, so yeah, it's kind of interesting how that shaped me as an instructor. But that's another time where you kind of sometimes you gotta be like, oh, let go of control. Now there was a point to that. We made me the instructor for that course, I was the course manager, so that I didn't get in and instruct. I did end up instructing a bit because we lost a few people to instruct, unfortunately, but fortunately for me, because I loved it. And it's funny when you get into management and you're no longer in the nitty-gritty of it as much. And to let go of control is quite a feature. But it was good for me. And I think it was cool to see that I got to also empower my corporal to do things that she wanted to do, uh, to watch what that looked like, to watch, you know, she could watch me fail or slip or learn and then learn from the boss, and then I could watch her do something and either succeed or fail, or whatever happened, we could talk about it. It just showed that it gets to be a learning experience for everyone at all levels, no matter what. And I think having a team like that is so incredible and so good at. Performing. We had some horrendous things happen outside of our group throughout that time. We had to deal with other instructors that were, I'm going to say, and this is just my personal opinion, that were going through things and then it meant that they would have an effect on us, unfortunately. Some anger management stuff, some things where it didn't feel incredibly safe in our office. And unfortunately, that also resulted in some of the civilians not feeling safe and leaving the job. So, because we had civilian staff in the gym. And that was actually really, really hard. I remember going with one of the girls to see the MPs, the military police, and we gave the statements and nothing ended up happening from her chain through to our chain. Well, we never saw anything until that person eventually got taken away. But now they've been put back in the job because we all left. And that may not be the reason. There may be other things, but unfortunately, it was coincided with when we had left that that person went back into the job. So I find that really hard with the military. While I was there, I remember having this was the time when I found my voice. Really, like I really did. I feel like when I first, my first year as a sergeant, I was kind of obviously learning, you're looking around, you're trying to work out how you want to do this. And then as I got, I'm gonna say, uh, I'm gonna say it became more cunty because I actually realized that these people were walking around making decisions about people's careers. And because they had the rank to do so, they felt the need that they could just say and do whatever they wanted to make these people do things or get rid of them, or, you know, because if they didn't pass physical testing. There were so many times when, you know, I stood toe-to-toe with commanding officers and I just was, I wouldn't back down. And it was not being rude, you know, you can still address them correctly and just speak about doctrine and and not not sway into anything emotional. But that was when I realized that I just was sick of having the same fight and bashing my head against a wall. And even if I'd gone up in rank, I could sit in rooms and listen to horrible things being said about people in medical spaces because people didn't agree with what was happening, yet they had no idea about the mental, physical effects that could be on that person. And I didn't either. I couldn't really make comment. I would just be in the room and be like, why am I listening to this? A officer should or a somebody who is in charge of this person should not be able to say these things about this person at all. It should be medical inconfidence. And so I just was sitting there so many times, hearing the language as well. Like doing NLP did not help because I could hear the language that everyone was using and how detrimental it was. I could feel the environment. Although I was really lucky to have incredible people in my immediate environment of my unit, there were lots of other people on the outside that weren't the same. So we were the three that, you know, could hold it all together for each other. But as I was there, I just felt like I just didn't have as much passion for the job because I felt like I was fighting. And I wanted to fight for these people because I felt like nobody else could. Or maybe they just didn't, maybe they just didn't get the chance, they weren't in the right position. You're always put in a position for the right reason. And I think to be the person that could stand up for some of these people and take them to see military police, to take them to get help, to um do something for them felt really empowering. I also know that a lot of people thought I was the angry one and they wouldn't actually come approach me. It was quite funny. Um, because I would tell people how it was, and I was sick of people beating around the bush or, you know, asking for exceptions because they thought they could. And so I think I was really lucky that I was balanced out by my boss and the couple I had underneath me and some other people around so that they could be the nice, the nice people. I know that sounds bad. I actually was really nice, but it just depended on what you were coming to me for. Uh, and I think the thing with that is that you have to work out who you want to be. And I think by then I had realized that I wanted to be someone who definitely could help you, but I wasn't here to fix it for you. And here's the difference is why I went into coaching is I wanted to work with high-performing people who understood that they have to do the work and they have to, you know, I'm not gonna hold their hand through everything. I'm I'm happy to support people, be their biggest cheerleader, do the things that are gonna help them get there, give them the plan. However, I'm not always gonna be there to walk every step with them. And I'll fight for anyone. However, I also like need them to fight for themselves to a degree as well. So it's just this really interesting thing where it's like, I think I used to give so much energy to everyone all the time, and I would never honor it myself for me and have really good boundaries. And so that last three years, I really learned how to balance that. I also got to practice being a feminine in a male-dominated industry, which I had never done before. And I think I got to practice just being in my essence and my femininity and being a powerful queen, I'm gonna put it as, because I got to be soft, I got to ask for help. And I remember I used to, you know, be so like, I don't need any help, right? And then I allowed myself, the some of the guys would come up to me and be like, hey, do you want help setting up? And I'd be like, yeah, I'd actually love that. And I got to learn to receive and be supported and see how beautiful it gets to be when men and women work together in in a we're gonna say a male-dominated industry, but actually how we support each other. And it's really beautiful to see that. And I was so lucky I got to go on my four-month um long service leap. I decided to take a trip to Nepal on a whim, and and I had this incredible time, went to Tony Robbins, I got to some really cool things. And I remember when I walked in, I knew the moment that I wanted to take it. I walked in and my boss was, you know, kind of saying that people had been talking about me above and brought him in and said, like, you know, that my social media had things of posting in the gym. I laughed because all of those people also had lots of posts from gyms in the military, but we do sign a social media thing. And they all had them too. And they were worried about mine, which was hilarious. And that's when I knew, like I was outgrowing the space, even my boss knew that I was never gonna get what I needed being in the military. I was never gonna, you know, I was gonna just come up against these people who and like that's life, right? Like, not everyone's gonna like me, and that's totally okay. And I think I had to get used to that. That was kind of the beginning of like people aren't gonna like you and people are gonna like say shit, and like it was wild, but you just need to also honor your energy and what you need. And I started to learn these things and realize that you know, the army wanted you to be on all the time and and take everything home with you, and and it became like it just it was your whole reality. And I just think I was like, I don't want this to be my whole reality. Like I'm cool to be in the army and I love it. And I love running PT and being able to support people and like teach them how to take lessons. I loved having on-the-job training people for PT and like taking them out and teaching them lessons, and it was totally my jam. And I think I was just like, I don't know what else I have to give here. And I don't know if I'm gonna be fulfilled doing it. And I feel like sometimes in that spot too, you don't ever want to be the person that is in the job that isn't loving it anymore. And I think I struggled to see that I couldn't be that person that wasn't gonna start being negative, right? Like, and that that's just the honest truth. And so I went on long service leave. You know, my boss was sad that these guys had made comment and he was like, I'm so sorry to tell you. And I was like, you know what? I think this is when I go on long service leave when I have a break. I think I work out what this is gonna look like. I had the most incredible time on long service leave. It was the best. For like everything has to come to an end. Um, and I remember going back to work and I was like, holy crap! And no one thought I was coming back. Like, genuinely, I had the best time that everyone was like, oh, she's never coming back. Like, she's not coming back to Army ever. And then I came back. Wild. For me too. I did not think at the time, I was not ready, my nervous system to leave. I actually was really scared because obviously I still had a full-time income. My business was still building. I didn't really know what that would look like leaving the army. So I stayed for another 18 months. Was it the right decision? Uh, yes, obviously, everything in life happens for a reason. I'm really grateful. Without the two of them, my corporal and my woe, I wouldn't have stayed. Uh, they were pivotal in the fact that I would love to come to work to see them and support them. And them, you know, they supported me so much. So I built my business on the side and I allowed myself to grow with it. And there's been, you know, there were so many bumps and bruises and trying to work it all out. And I definitely had to work out what was right for me. I remember I went down to four days in Army, and that was the best decision to have every Monday off, I think. So it was really cool. And, you know, you take a cut to your pay and all the other things, but well worth it for the fact that I had a day extra in my business. And I knew once I'd started cutting down that it was only a matter of time. And I remember I went away for a retreat with my new coach uh and mentor at the time, and I was in the room with millionaires, multimillionaires, like fucking wild that I was in that room. I still to this day pinch myself. Uh, because I, yeah, I was in this mastermind with these incredible women. And I remember sitting there and they were like trying to show me all these ways that I could make so much money so I could leave the military because everyone was like, your soul is like leaving. And I was like, I know, it's like running out the door. It has been for a while. And I felt bad because I felt like I wasn't all in on army, and I was still, you know, giving a lot of energy to both. Um, but I was tired and I was really done. And I was holding on for a paycheck, and that's the honest truth. And that's not fair to everyone around me either. So I remember into the retreat and I remember that, you know, they asked me so many things and to check in, and I went back to work and I was like, I'm gonna leave. So funny. And uh my boss had been waiting forever. They all had for me to put my my uh discharge in. Everyone had been waiting, but because of financial reasons, I just kept not doing it. But I had to leave at the end of the year anyway, because I was due to post out. So I knew that it was my last year, no matter what. Because I was like, I can't go to another posting, meet new people, do this all again. So anyway, I remember I came back and I was like, I'm gonna put in my discharge. Do you think I put in my discharge? No. I think it was like it was only that week though, or maybe the week later, where I had a call with the same mastermind group, and they were like, Have you left? And I was like, no. And I remember my coach asked me a question, and she was like, What is your body telling you and your soul telling you right now? Like, not your head, don't think logically. And I know this is a really contentious issue because some people are really like, you should, you know, stay in your full-time job, build your income on the side, all the things. I don't disagree. I actually think that's a really smart strategy in life. And though my soul had left and I was ready. And I think everyone was just watching me be there, but not really be there. And I felt bad because, in a capacity of leadership and being with people, you know, I was trying to build this beautiful woman to take over my job because that was the plan. And, you know, I felt like I had done well, but you know, also being absent is not helpful for her, um, physically, mentally, whatever you want to call it, spiritually. And so I finally was like, it's saying I have to get out of here. And I made a choice. I made a really bold, crazy choice. A lot of people in my position would have been like, no, a lot of people I'm sure have saw my everything I had um going for me and not going for me, would have been like, why the fuck did you do that? Uh to this day, I have never won maybe another podcast. I'll divulge it. But yeah, it was um it was really interesting. So I took the leap. I remember going into my boss and giving him my discharge, and and um, you know, you have three months to sort your life out, which you think is a long time, but it's really not. And I'm gonna do another episode on what it was like to leave because I think that gets to be its own in the 12 months following. I'm gonna do another one. Not not maybe, maybe next month when it's uh officially 12 months, but yeah. Wild times. Anyway, I'm gonna leave that for another time. But I hope you got something out of today's episode. I would love to hear all about it. Please let me know um what resonated with you, you know, anything that came up for you, what what you learned. And I would love if you could subscribe. We're trying to get to 100 subscribers. That's the aim. I don't know if I've said that on this pod this podcast on YouTube. Uh, well, any platform really, but I would love to get to 100 subscribers on YouTube. That would be very fun, right? 42, which is very exciting. Um, so please subscribe, support us, support the content so it can keep going out to more and more beautiful people so that, yeah, so we can keep sharing and keep putting it out there. I would love if you also like this podcast, if you comment, um, if you want to send me a DM on Instagram. So please, if you share it with someone, you want to tag us, that would be amazing. I'd love to be able to share that. And I think that is all. I am so grateful that you listened to my story. Thank you for being a part of this four-part series. If you haven't listened to the other parts, I would absolutely love if you do. Hope you have a magical, magical day. And I'm sending you so much love and light and keep being unapologetically you and unapologetically wild. Thank you for tuning in to Unapologetically Wild with Katie Sontag. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, or share it with a friend who needs to hear this. Together, let's build a community of women who are ready to embrace their wild, unstoppable selves. If you don't already, follow me on Instagram or Facebook at Katie.sontag for more empowering content updates and behind the scenes button. I can't wait to connect with you. Until next time, stay wild and unapologetic.