How an Eating Disorder Survivor Became a Behavioral Healthcare Leader

I feel like I'm more so now my true authentic self and I think that that comes with being transparent

about my history and if anybody has anything to say about him, happy to sit down, have conversations

“and I think that's where the power comes from and the confidence.”

Kaila Nozaki is a behavioral health care leader, entrepreneur and the founder of KDB and Associates. She helps addiction and mental health treatment providers strengthen clinical operations, improve patient care and expand access to life-changing services for the communities they serve. I get up, I go to treatment centers, I meet with the people, I identify their strengths, their weaknesses, I help them in their areas of weakness and I'm there in present to help them build

a facility that's going to give back to the community and provide the resources that they say they're going to provide. We have AI, we have chatGPT, we have all this, you know, technical stuff. But in my line of work, it's all about people and making sure that people stay people and that we stay connected, and that's really what I try to do because it spans the globe, like a super high school, internet elders, today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.

It's not over, I'm telling how we're living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Open, check out the list of these years and call in the boxes, not on the planet. You can live your dream. Welcome to another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Woman in Power Edition. For Insight Success, I am Regretiers. Joining me today is Kayla Nozaki.

I've got some show notes here. It says here that you empower women through treatment centers to deliver exceptional care, transforming life to effectively addiction and mental health challenges.

“Kayla, is that correct? That is correct. Rock and roll, gosh, where do we begin?”

Oh my gosh, I don't even know. Well, what do we get to learn about you today in your Women in Power Episode? I think we're going to learn a lot about how I kind of came into my role, my challenges, my successes, just overall what I give back to the community. Right on.

What is your story beginning? We always like to say our North Star, the reason we

why you get out of bed. What's that reason for you? My children. Right on. My children are the reason I get out of bed. They are the reason I breathe, they're the reason I do what I do and they're just phenomenal human beings. They allow me to give parts of myself to other people to make a difference in their life. So Mom over entrepreneurship, so I would say Mompreneur?

Yes, Dad. What's it like being a Mompreneur? How are you balancing this? By the grace of God? Right on, amen to that. You know what? I have a lot of help. I have an amazing living Annie who has helped me for the past six years, raised my kids,

“and you know, I have a great support system and that's how I get through it.”

Talk about your support system. Are these folks that have been part of your tribe since day one? Are you building your tribe day by day? Who was part of your village? I feel like I'm adding to my village. I have my core people that have been with me from day one. But honestly, I mean, my tribe is growing, and so of course I'm adding to it. Right on. But yeah, just adding, adding to it.

It looks like folks are leaning into thought leaders. Back back in the day, people were into influencers and all these sorts of characters, but folks are into higher learning now. People are reading again. What are your thoughts on what's happening with the energy of day-to-day life and what are you, what role do you play in that? I think in the day-to-day life is just making sure, you know, we have AI, we have chatGPT, we have all this, you know,

technical stuff. But in my line of work, it's all about people and making sure that people stay people and that we stay connected. And that's really what I try to do because, you know, with addiction, there's a lack of connection. Right on. So what came first life or the addiction or vice versa? Have you catch my meaning? Where did life really begin? Was it before or after the

addiction for you? My life started before. Addiction. Yeah. And I always tell people, you know,

I never struggled with a substance abuse addiction. Mine was with an eating disorder. Right on. Everyone faces some sort of trauma. I clearly will hack clearly. I went through through a phase where I was as kind of just, you know, liquid, liquid courage. I was always having a drink in my hand where I went to a point where I was just like, I'm just miserable now. Yeah. I'm doing this. And no matter how much I'm paying for this liquid thing is making me

very sad and repression. Everything I've gained is gone within minutes. Right. And it just leads to further destruction. Can you talk to some of that relevance and where you sort of saw the

for you to make that decision? Well, I think it's one of those things where, you know, when you're act, I mean, you kind of talk a little bit about the liquid substance. And, you know, you're around people all the time, right? You're at a bar, you're at a party and you have people all around you, but you just feel so lonely. Yeah. And that was the same thing with me. You know, I'd be sitting in a room and all I could think about was, I can't eat that. I don't want to be

around that. I want to leave. And, you know, that sense of loneliness, like really triggered me

“to start getting better because I didn't even know who I was at that point, you know?”

Uh, you're beautiful now. Thank you. Uh, how long going to take you to feel that power as a woman

to be like, this is it? I'm in it a few. You don't like it? A few. Like, I'm powerful here. Yeah.

I think it's something that I, I face every single day. It's a conscious decision that I make every day to get up and put makeup on and do what makes me feel good. And that's something that I have, I guess it's more of the mindset that changed for me, you know, and that's really when I decided, like, this is what I need to do. This is what's going to work for me. And every day I make a conscious decision. I'm going to get up. I'm going to put makeup on. I'm going to get dressed

and I'm getting out of bed. Are you, do you feel like you're putting your, your shield and armor when you're putting on your makeup and you're kind of just stepping into the world or do you feel like you're creating an altar? Who, who have you created to step into the light? You know, I feel like I'm more so now my true authentic self. And I think that that comes with being transparent about my history. I'm not shameful about my history and my eating disorder. And if anybody has

“anything to say about him, happy to sit down, have conversations. And I think that's where the power”

comes from and the confidence is just knowing, like, yes, I had these struggles, but that's not who I am today. And I continue to overcome them and being able to show my children. This is what adversity looks like and it's how you overcome it. That that's awesome. Talk about that journey with shame. A lot of folks don't understand that's probably the longest journey is the shameful part. Talk about how long that took for you to just crawl out of that darkness. Yeah, like I said,

it's a constant struggle. It's an everyday struggle. You have ups and you have downs just like someone that struggles with substances and mental health. You have ups and you have downs and you have good days and bad days. And you know, I think the difference in the journey and where you're at is the bad days aren't as dark and you have more coping skills to get through them. So they don't feel as difficult. Talk about your mission today. You're here clearly representing

yourself for also your brand. What is your day-to-day today? My day-to-day today just goes on and on and on and on. That's the thing about, you know, working in substance abuse and mental health

is it's never ending. And for me, you know, I've had to learn how to set really healthy boundaries

because I'm the kind of person like I will go into the wolves fall off, I'll burn the candle at both ends. But I learned early on in my career that that was a challenge for me and I became very burned out. And so, you know, in the day-to-day, what it looks like is I get up, I go to treatment centers, I meet with the people, I identify their strengths, their weaknesses, I help them in their areas of weakness. And I'm there in present to help them build a facility that's going to give back to the

community and provide the resources that they say they're going to provide. What's the first thing

“you do when you kick in the door and go, here's how we do this. Like, what's your, your, your SLP?”

The very first thing is I look at the willingness of the owner. And if the owner is willing to take, you know, constructive criticism, then I know what that journey is going to look like and it's going to be a fantastic journey and we're in it together. But I oftentimes will get, you know, treatment owners that are like, I've been doing this for 20 years. I know how to do it and like, well, your business is failing. Yeah. So there's that. Brad, how, how, how has the business

evolved? Like, like, is, is, is it more experimental experience? Like, what's, what's, what's opening the door? There's so many things. And all, you know, in California, you know, marijuana is legal, which has made treatment very difficult, not only for substance abuse, but mental health. So that's one of the things that's changing the other thing that's changing is insurance is doing a lot more dictation of treatment. Oh, for sure. Which is really difficult, you know, because as a

clinician, I sit down with that client, Dan, and they out. And if I'm saying they need longer links to stay, there's a reason why I'm saying that, you know, I'm educated. I know what I'm looking for, but insurance is like, nope, they've been to treatment or done. Yeah, yeah, just,

it's always like a restaurant. Just turn the tables. You got two hours in your out. Yeah, I've actually

had an insurance company tell me this client's young enough. They'll figure it out. Yeah, my grandma was in the hospital for six months. And the kick drug is insurance was out and she died in six weeks in my arms. Yeah, that lady. Yeah, I'm quite aware. Yeah. So you mentioned, you mentioned good and sore honey. Yeah. So it's, it's just, that's one of the things the biggest challenges that we're facing now. And so now the treatment centers, having to pivot and start coming up with different

ways to provide different modalities and treatment. Where are these modalities coming from, like, when you're creating these curriculums and these, and these PDFs, if you will, where is this data

lot of evidence-based practice. So we're looking at the traditional CBT, but we've also started

“looking at, you know, utilizing TMS and utilizing brain scans and actually leaning on the science”

to help them build their treatment center and know what's really actually working versus just talk

therapy. Well, what is actually really working is, like, like, I hate to say it, but the first thing

I visually, he's like shock therapy. Clearly, that's very, very aggressive. Well, that will work for any on. I'm already thinking, I've already thinking Tim Burton and like, I work for him, kind of. Like, what is working? So a mixture of things and that's the thing to about treatment in substance abuse and mental health is there's not a carbon copy of this exactly what's going to work for you. It's trial and error and having compassion at therapists and doctors that

understand, like, this is the client's blueprint and this is who they are and this is their baseline and this is how we increase it or make it better. You know, because I have plans that, you know,

are actively suicidal every day at a very single day. And I'm like, but they're getting better

because they don't have a plan anymore and people are like, yeah, but they still want to die. I don't wear laughing because we're pretty into the choir. It's like, yes, we find the humor in that because I went through a phase. Yeah. And sometimes I've got those dark days where it's just like, really, I got to do this for another 40, 50 years. Come on. Like, like, the dolphin mean is don't die. Like, I can't do this anymore. I don't feel. So like, think about it. Like,

you're a drug addict. You've been using for 20 years. You've lost your wife. You lost your family. You wouldn't want to possibly die at that point. Like, that makes that. And then there's death. And then that's just like the first quarter life crisis. Those are books for that. Like, oh, yeah. It is like, like, the suck gets worse. Yes. Your job with your beautiful blonde hair is to go, yes, it does. But here's how to protect you. Right. What is that sound? Like,

someone's on a zoom call with you. Are you a phone call away or are you a coffee away? How does this work? Both. I might just be a chairway. Right on. You know, yeah. Yeah. It both. There are sometimes, I mean, literally, I will have people I sit on a plane with. And they just spill their

whole life story. And, you know, of course, I'm not their therapist. But always some good

sound advice is helpful for anybody. Cool, cool, cool. How are folks finding you now and how are

“folks discovering you? Honestly, I just, it's word of mouth a lot. I haven't had to do any, like,”

advertising. It's just, hey, this person can help you. She's great. Reach out. Yeah. It's the gypsy mythology, where it's just work. You seek me out and I'll minus fests. Like, it's, I always say, I choose my clients for that reason or it's like, I don't post at all. I keep it as mysterious as possible. I'm posting it seven years and the less the better and folks get it. Yeah. It's like, it's really about the quantity. I'm sorry, the quantity, the quality of the folks that are

following you. So talk about the people that are following your, your, your personal ministry. Like, who are the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the current profile customers? Is it men that are in their 40s? Is it women who are your customers? Where are your clients? It's so interesting. I have world-renowned surgeons. And I have 18 year old kids that are fresh off the streets of Kensington. Wow, it's funny mentioned Kensington. That's, that's the elementary school that I went to.

That's three bizarre. Want to. So yeah. So what's next for you besides filming your episode? Like, once you leave this building, I, I hope, and I know that you're going to have a transformative journey, especially with Lauren hosting you. So I'm curious to see how your episode evolves. For folks listening in, how can folks discover you today? Definitely from my website. And I'm, I'm very popular on social media. Although I get a lot of social media messages. I personally

“check them. I think that it's important and, it's part of my mission to keep it personal.”

I'm, like I said, I'm all about technology. Love it. It's fantastic. But I'm also very old school, too. Hell yeah. That's, that's quite the, the zineal formula there. Well, KLA was such a pleasure. I'm looking forward to, to hearing your giggle while you're filming your episode. Thank you. And with that, that concludes yet another episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, the Women in Power Edition. Uh, for Insights Access, I am Riggs here.