The YouTube podcast conversation between Michael Kannady and Aaron Stamm started with topics you might hear in a sports bar in Walton, Richwood, Fort Wright or Covington or any gym from Walton-Verona to Ludlow to Campbell County.
Kannady, host and owner of FocalFlip, and Stamm, Bishop Brossart’s girls basketball coach, reminisce about all things basketball – Stamm’s stint as an assistant coach at Ryle, working for former Raiders coach Nate Niemi and watching former Xavier star Justin Doellman, and Kannady talking about the intense practices when he played at Simon Kenton.
“I could talk about hoops all day,” Stamm said.
Not quite seven minutes into the just over hour-long session, the subjects turned serious – mental health, Kannady’s rebounding from alcohol and drug abuse and shedding nearly 150 pounds.
Such frank talks are part of the reason Kannady started FocalFlip.com, the life coaching business he opened in May 2024. “We call it FocalFlip because what we do is flip perspectives,” Kannady said.
“In a world where mental health is often misunderstood and stigmatized, FocalFlip envisions a future where these challenges are met with understanding, compassion, and proactive support,” Kannady wrote on FocalFlip’s homepage. “We see a society where people are not only aware of mental health issues but are also equipped to embrace and address them as vital parts of the human experience.
“Our vision is a global community that celebrates diversity in healing and personal growth, where every person, regardless of their struggles—be it addiction, emotional turmoil, career uncertainties or relationship issues.”
A deep disconnect
You could call Kannady’s southern Kenton County upbringing idyllic – his family raised cattle and tobacco on their Spillman Road spread in Morning View.
“My childhood was a blend of hard work and pure joy, punctuated by early mornings of forking cow manure, fixing fence posts, and shooting hoops,” Kannady wrote. “Basketball captured my heart at the tender age of 5, and from then on, Saturday mornings became a cherished routine of chores followed by hours on the court.”
By elementary school, Kannady was a good student who made friends easily and was fairly well-liked by both peers and teachers. He graduated from Simon Kenton in 2003 and played collegiately at Mount St. Joseph University and Northern Kentucky University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Management in 2008.
But something didn’t feel right.
“Yet, despite my social success, I often felt a disconnect deep within, a sense that I didn’t quite fit in or couldn’t truly connect with others,” Kannady wrote. “… I wrestled with my weight and often felt like I was faking my way through social interactions, trying to fit into groups that never quite felt like home. However, on the basketball court, everything else faded away, and I found a sense of peace and purpose that eluded me elsewhere.”
Kannady suffered a serious back injury during a summer open gym basketball game. He was prescribed opiates for the physical pain in 2005.
“… What started as a way to manage physical discomfort soon became a crutch for my deep-seated emotional pain,” Kannady wrote. “The opiates didn’t just mask the physical pain – they brought my mind to a state of calmness that I had been seeking since childhood. A single pill quickly turned into two, then three, and before I knew it, I was caught in the vicious cycle of addiction.”
Kannady said his world came crashing down in 2009: An ischemic stroke left his dad paralyzed on one side of his body,his mom suffered a stroke from the stress of caring for his dad, and a coworker introduced him to Oxycontin.
“I quickly fell into a deeper spiral of addiction,” Kannady wrote. “The pressure from family members, coupled with the overwhelming grief of seeing my dad’s condition, pushed me further into the abyss.”
Oxycontin was just the beginning – he abused alcohol, his weight ballooned to 371 pounds, and the downward spiral included many rehab facilities, numerous overdoses, multiple stints in psychiatric wards and losing nearly everything he cherished.
At the end, Kannady returned to Spillman Road – to the basement of his childhood home.
“And I went and sought a lot of professional help,” Kannady said. “And I still just couldn’t figure it out until my last day in treatment, when I finally took a hard look at myself and had, like, a 40-page inventory.”
Changes in diet – he often weighed himself three times a day – quitting drinking and lots of exercise were also a large part of the solution.
“And I wondered why I made it difficult for myself through my life, and I had to simplify it and kind of create my own method. Through the success of all the other programs, I wanted to do something through mindset change.”
‘Waking up’
Kannady is a certified professional Life and recovery coach through the International Association of Professional Recovery Coaches (IAPRC) and Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) Institute. His goals: creating true life change by tailoring strategies by specifically focusing on the mind to overcome challenges and enhance performance; and encouraging.
“And so I wanted to have a different style and a method of talking and coaching people through their mental health problems,” Kannady said. “The way we spin it and twist it through our coaching methods just makes it fun. And you know, we use a lot of positivity, gratitude, stuff like that.”
Kannady also offers group sessions at his office (2809 Howard Litzler Road in Covington, 859-962-2920, focalflip.com), and he’s willing to speak to groups about mental health; he said the stigma attached to the subject is slowly lifting because folks are talking about it.
“Overall, I feel like a lot of folks are waking up to this being a thing,” Kannady said. “… One thought we can hang onto as a person, and then we label ourselves as that, and we make our identity out of that. And when we do that, a lot of times it’s not from the true authentic self.”
Kannady’s overall goal is to have coaches, teachers, counselors, SROs (School Resource Officers from local enforcement) and therapists to work together.
“So it’s one big group, but the coach can help reintegrate people back in the population,” he said.
‘Just be nice’
Kannady has produced 66 weekly podcast episodes; each one originates from Kannady’s childhood home in Morning View. The props on the table tell his story – the black basketball shoe illustrates his love of basketball beginning at age 5, and the brown swatch of carpet came from the basement.
The guest list is coach-laden: Stamm, Justin Holthaus (Cooper boys basketball), Tim and Andrea Sullivan (St. Henry boys basketball and Scott volleyball, respectively) and Jeff and son Brenden Stowers (Simon Kenton girls basketball and Northern Kentucky University assistant women’s basketball).
There are business and political professionals, too: Dayton City Councilman Tarris Horton, a local barber, who is the Campbell County town’s first Black elected official; Mark Whery of 859 Sports; and Bill Aseere, CEO of Space Cowboys Restaurant Group.
Andrea Sullivan spoke of the frustration of dealing with parents who don’t understand why their daughters aren’t starting.
“Maybe they didn’t play themselves, or maybe they don’t see the overall picture,” she said. “… You know, we’re not here to please parents. We’re here for the kids … We teach because we love kids.”
Maybe the youngest guest, 10-year-old Brantley Maupin, understands life a little better than the grownups. He offered a simple – and eloquent – perspective.
“Just be nice to people,” he said. “Don’t be mean to people, don’t bully.”