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June 14, 2025 31 mins

"Transformational leadership training is critical." - Kelley Johnson

Welcome back to Brave New Wealth! This episode dives deep into the concept of holistic wealth, exploring how it goes beyond just financial freedom. Host Julienna Viegas speaks with Kelley Johnson, Chief Transformation Officer at KEIRUS BY KJE. They discuss how true wealth extends beyond money to include mental strength, physical well-being, social capital, and emotional intelligence.

Kelley shares her transition from corporate leadership to entrepreneurial purpose. She explains how soul care enhances decision-making, why bringing in the right experts creates faster growth, and how inclusive leadership fuels long-term innovation.

This conversation offers practical takeaways for executives who want to lead with both vision and humanity.

Learn more about KEIRUS BY KJE: https://www.keirusbykje.com/

Thank you to Sponsor  @Engineered-Tax-Services  : https://engineeredtaxservices.com/

Produced by  @BrilliantBeamMedia 

 

#Leadership #ExecutiveWellness #BraveNewWealth #SoulCare #DiversityInBusiness #TransformationalLeadership #Podcast

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Welcome to the Brave New Wealth podcast where we discuss optimizing wealth from multipleperspectives, from the mental, physical, social, and financial.
I'm your host, Juliana.
Bienvenue à tout le monde.
Bienvenu à tous.
Herzlichen Willkommen.
Everyone is welcome here.
In this podcast, we are sponsored by Engineer Tax Services, where I am a director.

(00:33):
Engineer Tax Services is a subsidiary of Engineer Tax Advisory.
And our goal is to empower business owners, entrepreneurs, CPA advisors with provenexpertise, education, innovative strategies to reduce clients' burden.
In each episode, I bring to you experts in their field who will share their journey withus and their expertise to help you and support you to help elevate wherever you are.

(01:03):
today.
And today I am very excited to have with us Kelly Johnson.
She is a Chief Transformation Officer at Kairos.
She has a background spanning from human resources, talent management, corporatecommunication, and DEIB.

(01:24):
She brings a wealth of expertise guiding individuals and organizations.
And on the personal level, I had the chance to see her
present and I was very impressed with the knowledge she has, the way she goes aboutelevating the individuals and the organizations in the leadership area.

(01:45):
So Kelly Johnson, thank you so much for coming and having this discussion with me today.
I'm really excited to learn more about who you are and what you do.
So just to start off in a nutshell, if you had to introduce yourself at an event or
You know, in an elevator, what would you tell people?
You are.
Who are you?

(02:05):
Yeah, thank you, Juliana, for having me and I am honored to speak with you today and youraudience.
um And you're impressive, so for you to call me impressive is a very high compliment, sothank you.
If I just had to pick three words to describe me, I would say I'm a dreamer, I'm acreator, and I'm a believer.

(02:30):
And...
Those three qualities go into everything that I do.
I love dreaming big, imagining the art of the possible, and I love building, I lovecreating, I love designing, whether that's content for leadership development programs,
whether that's creating teams, whether that's creating solutions for our clients, and thenjust believing, because at the end of the day, we have to have some grit.

(03:00):
and resilience.
The work that we do is not easy and we have to believe that it's possible and we have todig deep and find that inner strength to keep moving forward despite challenges.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for this beautiful introduction.
Already, you know, tells us who you are in a little bit.

(03:21):
So I do before we dig into what you've done in your journey, I'd like to know what issomething you've done lately that was a little bit challenging and that has helped you
grow, whether it's mentally, physically, financially or socially, something that took youout of your comfort zone.
But in the end, you were happy to have done it.

(03:41):
Sure.
I struggled with thinking about like picking just one because I pride myself onChallenging myself every single day I begin every single day with quiet time to just
really be focused on what's important for me today or this week and I would say recently Ihired a consultant a marketing strategy consultant to help me think about launching a new

(04:09):
program and
It's a little out of my comfort zone.
It's not that I haven't done that before, but one of the things that I find if you're inthe entrepreneur club, you are a business owner or you have a side hustle, whatever, we
tend to be very kind of pull yourself up by the bootstraps.
I can do it.

(04:29):
I can do it all.
I tell people I'm the janitor.
I'm a marketer.
I'm my own HR.
You wear so many hats when you run a business.
And so I think sometimes we can put ourselves in a trap or keep ourselves in a trap by notreaching out to experts in their field to support the efforts or the ideas that we have.

(04:54):
And so I recently hired a marketing strategist to help me really think through customerinsights.
And again, this is something that yes, am I capable of doing it?
Could I potentially do it?
Yes.
But I took the risk and I went outside of my comfort zone to say, I need a differentperspective.
I want someone else looking, gathering these customer insights and I want someone else'sperspective to help me think through how do I use the insights that I'm gaining?

(05:24):
So that's something that I literally just signed the contract a few days ago and we'realready working on some of those early deliverables.
Well, congratulations on realizing, and I'm with you with that.
That is something I talk about.
The clients who talk to me every day in our field, it's having a CPA, but he may not be atax strategist.

(05:47):
He may not know about the intricacies of real estate tax incentives.
And you do need the people who've dug into it and can really support you so you don't missout on anything.
And that's what you're doing with hiring the expert in their field.
to help you elevate faster.
Like you say, you could do it yourself because you're smart enough, is it smart to putyour time there instead of where your expertise truly is?

(06:11):
So I'm excited for you and I'm excited to see the results.
Thank you.
But what are some of the things you do that help you refocus and get that energy so youcan then show up professionally the way you want to show up?
Sure.
So I'm a big believer in kind of the mind, body, spirit connection.

(06:32):
And, you know, we talk a lot about self care and I, kind of don't like that term anymorebecause I feel like it's used to justify like getting a facial, getting a massage, which
those are great.
And those are important.
But I, I believe that soul care is just as important as self care.

(06:56):
And we have to invest in ourselves inwardly.
So it may not even be visible to the natural eye.
But what are you reading?
Right?
What are you consuming?
What am I consuming?
Right?
On TV?
What am I?
How much scrolling am I doing on social media?
I try to be very intentional about my time.

(07:17):
And so that I'm protecting my soul.
I am protecting that inward part of myself.
because ultimately the health, my health on a soul level is going to influence my bodyphysically.
It's going to influence my mental capacity, my cognition.

(07:38):
And so to do that, I mean, I work out with a trainer.
Yes, I do sort of the typical things of what kind of being careful about what I eat 80 %of the time, maybe 85 on a good day.
uh I have a big sweet tooth, so unfortunately sometimes I cave and I give in.
But I believe in working out consistently.

(08:00):
But for me, my faith is one of the ways that I practice that soul care and just spendingthat quiet time every day or most days is one way that I try to balance it all so that I
can show up well for my family.
And I just, I kind of want to go personal for just a second.
A few years ago, I am a mom.
And a few years ago, my teenage daughter pointed out to me that on our vacations, I'm onmy laptop.

(08:28):
And she was very upset and it broke my heart.
I felt like pulled and pulled a dagger out of my heart.
I felt so guilty and I had to really own up to the fact that she was honest, right?
She's like, who takes a laptop to a resort pool?

(08:50):
Like she called me out and since that time and I thought, know, I'm kind of hiding it.
I'll just do it when we're like chilling out, you know, we're not really doing anyactivities, but it was unacceptable to me to have that type of impact on my child.
And so I think that it's just so important to really be able to show up well for thepeople who mean the most to you.

(09:19):
and to being intentional about carving out that time so that I can show up for my family,can show up for my clients, and I can show up for myself.
I love that.
I love that you share that and I can relate, know, I have three teenagers and I'm a bit ofa workaholic and I have to remind myself, especially when they're teens, because they have
their own life, they run around with their friends and if I'm not conscientious about whenthey're with me, I've got to be with them.

(09:48):
Because time is running out and I do and I still, I think the mom guilt will never go awaybecause it's at least for me.
You know, I think I'm a pretty good mom, but it's never, you're never going to be theperfect mom.
Right.
And so, and some people are like, Oh, you know, give, give yourself some props, which Ido, but it's something you can't, you just have to live with, you know, it's just,

(10:11):
reminding ourselves that time is short and having that quality time definitely should be apriority because yeah, the minutes are counted, the hours are counted and that it's not
unlimited.
So thank you for sharing this experience.
very important and we've had discussions before we met very recently but we I think we haddeep discussions passing in and we don't especially have the same type of faith but I am

(10:38):
so with you when it comes to taking care of the soul and there may be many differentversions of that but I also believe that physical and mental are just intricately
connected and
one doesn't go without the other.
And I'm with you with the 80-20 eating.
think being extreme in anything never helps.

(11:01):
It's also detrimental.
So it's always kind of the game of finding that balance and re-centering, remembering thatone without the other, it doesn't work very well.
So taking care of the soul, which to me is the physical and the mental.
Yeah, absolutely.
100%.
I love that you brought that up.

(11:23):
So...
Take us to the beginning of your journey.
Where did you start with your interests, school and work, to where you are today?
And I know we don't have all day and I know it's packed.
So the challenge is, can you give us a little summary so we have a better understanding ofwhere you came from and where you are today?

(11:49):
Sure.
Sure.
So I, my degree is actually in business and sociology.
And I think it's at the time I wasn't super intentional about my major.
I just sort of looked at, I got to a point where it's like, okay, how many credits do Ihave and what do need to do to graduate?
And so I just picked a degree that would allow me to sort of finish as quickly aspossible, but it ended up having this concentration in business and sociology.

(12:15):
And in hindsight, it totally makes sense because I am very business and
and marketing focused, but I also care about people.
I care about people's systems and how infrastructure and systems impact people groups.
so looking back over my career, kind of the last 20, 25 years, I started out inadvertising and marketing corporate communications, worked for a couple of boutique ad

(12:42):
agencies, eventually went over to work for a global hospitality company.
that where I was the head of corporate communications for North America, US, Canada,Mexico, and I was the liaison to our headquarters in Paris, France.
um So I loved hearing you speak French earlier.

(13:02):
It brought me back to the days of supporting a predominantly French executive team and umled corporate communications, internal and external publicity crisis communications as
well.
And
Around that time, again, I was in the hospitality industry and so 9-11 happened, which wasthis massive tragedy, of course, and it decimated our business.

(13:30):
No one felt safe to travel and it was for very legitimate reasons and yet we knew theimpact on our business.
so internally as a marketing team, we were talking about, how do we recreate thisemotional connection with our customers?
It's such a critical time in really the world.
And so as I was listening to the conversations we were having internally, it occurred tome that we were missing an ingredient.

(14:00):
If we want to create an emotional connection with our customers, we have to understandthem.
And we have to understand their uniqueness.
We need to look at what are the unique needs of various customer segments.
Customers are not one size fit all.
There is no one customer avatar or customer profile.

(14:23):
And I recognize that that was missing from our conversations.
And so I started to research travel.
started researching different demographic trends and bringing that data forward to help usunderstand what type of business decisions that we need to make in order to create this
emotional connection with our customers, bring revenue back to the business, right?

(14:46):
So I started promoting the data that I researched with our general managers at 1,100hotels across North America.
And it became popular.
And I thought, okay, great, I'm glad you like it.
But that was a big pivotal moment in my career because I didn't know what I was doing atthe time.

(15:08):
I didn't know the impact I was making.
But I was really showing the business value of diversity.
equity and inclusion, diversity of our customer base, diversity of our employeepopulation.
How do we tap into them to maximize profitability, to maximize innovation, to maximizecustomer satisfaction and loyalty?

(15:33):
And so it was through that work post 9-11, really wanting to make an impact in myorganization, that I leveraged my marketing background to
help with creating our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Fast forward many years later, became chief diversity officer of a Fortune 500 company,and 10 years ago, I launched my firm, Keras.

(16:00):
Wonderful, wonderful.
I love how you brought so much value to many different organizations.
You discovered something that I know you're not the only one who has seen this, butthrough your own research and through the data you brought, you were able to show.
When you bring facts to the table and numbers, there's nothing to counter.

(16:26):
There are facts, so they don't care about your feelings or what you think.
That's the result.
And you're not alone.
It's interesting because I had a guest coming on who brushed on that topic as well, wherehe's invested and it was all about the numbers and the data and what it shows and how it
helps the companies, you know, aside from the emotional that people sometimes want to putinto it.

(16:49):
And then, OK, so then you decided to go on your own because tell us more.
Yeah, so I was in this chief diversity officer role, had responsibility for talentmanagement programs, led a team that worked with our marketing department, our purchasing
department, just really broad-based national strategy.

(17:10):
It was a national organization and it reorg.
There was a massive reorganization, a byproduct of the recession around kind of that 2008,2010 timeframe.
And from that, I did some soul searching.
I was like, okay, what's next for me?
And what can I do?

(17:31):
I've always been entrepreneurial.
Speaking of kind of women empowerment, my mother, a single mom raising four kids byherself became an entrepreneur by the time I was in high school.
And I saw her journey.
I had an amazing role model to see a single mom become an entrepreneur, successfulentrepreneur.

(17:53):
And so I knew at 16 that one day I wanted to have my own company.
I just didn't know what I was going to do.
And so when I had an abrupt end to my corporate career, I used that time to just reset,refocus.
And I launched Keras in 2015 with the idea that, you know, I wanted to really provide morevalue within the workplace culture and leadership development space.

(18:22):
As a former corporate executive, I hired consultants, I hired vendors, and I wasn't alwayssatisfied with their offerings.
And so I found, I thought as a practitioner, now providing services to clients, I havewalked in their shoes.
I know the challenges that they face, and I've got a track record of success ofdemonstrating results and impact that I really wanted to help multiple organizations with.

(18:51):
versus going back into a corporate role where I would help one organization.
I really wanted to maximize my reach and scope by being able to be a resource and partnerto multiple organizations, multiple industries.
And I'm really very humbled and grateful that over the last 10 years, WE Carers has grown100 % organically, uh completely referral word of mouth.

(19:20):
and we have supported organizations from Fortune 50 list to uh mid-size privately held tosmaller nonprofit, a couple of governmental agencies, 10 different industries and we've
reached and supported employees in 10 different countries over the last 10 years.

(19:42):
That is exceptional.
Thank you for sharing this.
And in that line, could you share with us maybe one of the experiences that stands out toyou where you were able to see a significant change because of the value that you brought
to the organization?
And I know you have plenty, you have many and it's hard to choose, but if you can think ofone particular where you were just baffled with the results.

(20:10):
Yeah, thank you for that question.
So one that comes to mind is a global manufacturing organization who we were brought in tohelp them come up with a culture strategy for this organization.
And what we recognized very quickly is that the team leading this initiative, who wouldultimately be responsible for

(20:37):
executing and implementing the strategy that we helped them create, that that team hadsome dysfunction that needed to be addressed in order to optimize the results.
I love doing strategy design work.
It's one of my favorite areas to play and it totally aligns with that dream create andbelieve uh inner value uh and inner aspirations that I have.

(21:03):
But I also believe in a strategy
in some PowerPoint deck is not going to achieve the top or bottom line results if thehealth of the team is not where it needs to be.
And we did, we sort of shifted the focus.
We still completed the strategy, but we were able to convince the leader over that teamthat we needed to spend some time in some team effectiveness and optimization sessions to

(21:33):
really get at root causes around the ways of working.
that we're going to be needed for this team to be successful in the execution of thestrategy once it was complete.
And so I count that as a success story because I tell clients often that when you workwith Keras, there's a few invisible bullet points that you're not going to see on the

(21:55):
proposal.
And that is the executive coaching, that is the partnership that's going to help you lookaround the corner and down the street.
around what could get in the way from us being successful in this strategy.
Now for my quantitative data-driven individuals who are listening, I feel you, from aresults standpoint, this organization, before we signed the contract, they had negative

(22:25):
employee reviews on Glassdoor.com.
And within 11 months of us working with them, they received their first positive reviewaround diversity and inclusion in company history on Glassdoor.com.
So I just highlight from a kind of a data and results standpoint.

(22:49):
And as you know, many people go to Glassdoor not to share positive comments.
It's typically...
i use it as a vehicle to give people the inside scoop on the not so great qualities of anorganization so within eleven months it's less than a year this organization received
their first positive review from an employee around diversity and inclusion whereas priorto that there were comments around it being a good old boy organization and it just was

(23:19):
not a positive employees sentiment so
That's one example that I highlight of there is work underneath the work.
And when you're evaluating who to partner with, you want to try to understand what else amI getting beyond what's on that proposal and what are the results and track records of

(23:41):
success and progress that this partner can point to that helps me understand what else amI getting beyond the black and white proposal.
Wonderful.
Thank you so much for sharing this and yes, that brings joy to see that the hard workyielded in a very positive way.

(24:02):
Now tell us what are some of your goals for this year?
What are some of the things just so we know how to support you?
So we're really looking at about two, two to three years ago, we launched our own learningmanagement platform called Keras.
And on that we originally built it so that we could deliver our multi-year curriculum toour clients using e-learning.

(24:25):
And right now we're really looking at ways to uh pivot, optimize how we use the Keraslearning management platform, really expanding it potentially to more mid-size
organizations where
they may not have robust staffing to design and develop employee training.

(24:46):
And they want to be able to do it efficiently.
And so I feel like Keras, our learning management platform, is a tool that is veryflexible, that organizations could utilize to assist with employee onboarding, as well as
employee training, to ensure that they're getting the customer satisfaction levels thatthey want to, that they're finding a systematic way to

(25:09):
hold employees accountable to the competencies that are needed within their roles.
And so that's something that we're in the early stages of looking at.
And I would say a fairly new offering is our transformational leadership uh curriculumthat we have just recently rolled out and are in the early stages of offering to some of

(25:29):
our clients.
And we have to level up our leadership competencies and behaviors.
And I think that one of the mistakes that organizations often make is not quite balancingthe short term against the long term as it relates to talent.

(25:50):
I think your listeners are probably accustomed to looking at short and long term uh goalsfrom a financial perspective.
But I really want to challenge everyone to think about your talent decisions also havelong term risk if you
focus too much on the short term and keeping things easy or status quo, not addressingthat toxic behavior will have hidden costs and it will also have downstream implications

(26:20):
to the ability for your organization to achieve those business and financial objectives.
so transformational leadership training is one of those ways to really level up andelevate leadership capacity.
Absolutely.
And I think you touched on those points when you did the presentation at the girls cave.
Shout out to Krista Metlock, who I hope will come on too.

(26:44):
And could you share, I know there is a lot in that curriculum, but maybe a couple ofpoints that are critical if for proper leadership training, something you think everyone
should look at.
Yeah.
So in our transformational leadership course, we cover the five dynamics of being atransformational leader.

(27:04):
We break down what does it look like?
What are the behaviors and how do you build the routines and the systems to sustain thoseresults?
I have personally attended training where I take a lot of notes and I'm like, yeah, that'sgreat.
But then I go back to the office the next day and I'm back doing what I used to do.
And so with

(27:25):
our course, the Power of Transformational Leadership, we help leaders build an individualdevelopment plan so that they can identify specific ways they're going to incorporate the
five dynamics of transformational leadership into their current goals.
So a lot of training stays very theoretical, like, you should do this, or this is whatgood looks like.

(27:51):
Within the CARES Power of Transformational Leadership program,
we actually work with leaders on a specific goal that they already have.
So let's not invent anything, let's not use a fictitious scenario, let's talk about thereal goals that you're being held accountable to on your performance review.
And let's look at how can you incorporate these five dynamics of transformationalleadership into your uh requirement really to achieve those stated goals.

(28:23):
I would say those are just some quick highlights of some of the differentiators and theway that we try to make this training really practical and impactful.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
That's my wheels are turning because I know how important it is.
I've actually kept that little seed that we got at your presentation and I try to keepmyself accountable for applying the things that you shared with us.

(28:49):
So where can people find you?
Where's, what is your preferred way of getting in contact with those who need you, whowant to try your methods?
Yes.
And we will have this in the notes as well so that people know.
Sure.
Sure.
Thank you.
And I love that you are still taking away some things from our brief session a few weeksago.

(29:13):
So I'm very active on LinkedIn and Instagram.
And I would also say our website, Karis by KJ.com, K-E-I-R-U-S by KJ.com.
I am Kelly Johnson is my handle on Instagram.
Kelly has an EY in it.
And then of course I'm also on LinkedIn, Kelly Johnson and Karis by KJ.

(29:35):
Wonderful.
Thank you so much.
I am so glad you were able to come this morning and lots of value, lots of things to thinkabout.
I'll make sure we support you however we can and I hope you'll come back again.
Yes, I'd love it.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
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