July 8, 2025 • 54 mins
Have you been caught in the trap of believing you need thousands of followers to build a profitable business? Kelly Leardon, CEO of Walk Like Warriors, shatters this myth by revealing how she built a thriving coaching practice with fewer than 1,000 Instagram followers and consistently sells out her programs through genuine connection rather than viral marketing.
The landscape of online business has dramatically shifted since the "golden age" of social media between 2020-2023. Today's successful entrepreneurs aren't those with the flashiest reels or largest follower counts—they're the ones who nurture authentic relationships and deliver exceptional results. Kelly walks us through her journey from fractional Director of Operations to business coach, describing the pivotal moment when she received DMs from women seeking her guidance despite her tiny following of just 100 people.
What sets Kelly's approach apart is her unflinching commitment to serving her audience with substantial, educational content rather than chasing viral moments. She explains why one follower who discovers you through a personal recommendation is worth a thousand from a viral post, and how to build launch strategies that don't depend on massive audiences. For entrepreneurs who struggle with time management (especially those with ADHD tendencies), Kelly shares her innovative "Time Mastery" system, complete with color-coding and themed days that accommodate women's multifaceted thinking styles.
Whether you're just starting your business journey or feeling frustrated by slow follower growth, this episode provides refreshing permission to focus on depth rather than breadth. Kelly's multi-five-figure launches with a modest following demonstrate that when you obsess over your audience's success and create products that truly transform lives, conventional metrics become irrelevant. Her practical insights on nurturing waitlists, crafting effective launch sequences, and balancing work with family life offer a sustainable path to building a business you genuinely love.
Ready to algorithm-proof your business and build success that doesn't depend on social media whims? Grab your notebook and dive into this conversation that might forever change how you measure your business success.
Website: https://walklikewarriors.com/
Connect with Kelly:
Instagram: http://instagram.com/Walk_Like_Warriors
YouTube (launching in February): https://www.youtube.com/@Walk_Like_Warriors
Connect with Camille:
- Website: CamilleWalker.co
- Instagram: @camillewalker.co
- More Episodes: Call Me CEO Podcast
Email: callmeceopodcast@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kelly (00:00):
And so I had different businesses that I started.
Sometimes I worked in othersmall businesses, but I've
always for the last 25 years,I've had all of this passion for
small business owners.
Camille (00:18):
So you want to make an impact.
You're thinking about startinga business, sharing your voice.
How do women do it that handlemotherhood, family and still
chase after those dreams?
We'll listen each week as wedive into the stories of women
who know this is Call Me CEO.
Welcome back everyone to CallMe CEO.
(00:40):
This is your host, CamilleWalker, and here we share
mothers building businesses, howto do it effectively, and on
today's episode, we're talkingabout how to have success
without having a huge number ofsocial media followers.
This is a new trend that I'mseeing come into the
conversation more about reallyengaging with your following,
(01:03):
nurturing your email list,connecting with the people that
are with you.
And today we have an expert,Kelly Leardon, who is the CEO
and owner of Walk Like Warriors,and she is here to share with
us how she has been able to dothis and really nurture her
people and grow an amazingbusiness.
So, Kelly, thank you so muchfor being on the show today.
Kelly (01:26):
It is an honor.
Thank you for having me,Camille.
Camille (01:28):
So tell our audience about you a little bit of a
background, of how you got intodoing what you're doing now and
this concept of how you nurtureyour small audience to have a
big income.
Kelly (01:41):
So much fun, and I will start this by saying I am the
furthest thing from a socialmedia expert.
What I'm an expert in is, likeyou said, connecting and
converting at a very real, rawlevel, so that your audience
size doesn't actually matterwhatsoever.
And so Keith and I we've beenmarried 25 years.
He's my favorite person in thewhole wide world.
We have four kids together twogirls, two boys 17 years old up
(02:02):
to 25 years old, and my oldesttwo are married together two
girls, two boys 17 years old upto 25 years old, and my oldest
two are married, which is sowild to me.
We moved all over the country.
Every time he got promoted wehad to move to a different state
, and so I homeschooled becauseI was not about pulling my kids
out of school every year andmaking them start over.
That was kind of my experiencewhen I was growing up and I
hated it, and so I had differentbusinesses that I started.
Sometimes I worked in othersmall businesses, but I've
(02:24):
always, for the last 25 years,I've had all of this passion for
small business owners.
To me, they're just this raw,gritty bunch of people who have
such a positive mindset and sortof like it's this or nothing.
And so I started out as anadministrative assistant,
working alongside small businessowners and you know then,
(02:46):
executive assistant, projectmanager, just sort of like all
these different roles.
It was always almost alwayswith small business owners.
I respected them.
The very first gentleman I everworked with this is, I think,
what really cemented it for meis he had to mortgage his house
to get a loan to start thebusiness, and essentially it was
the epitome of if it didn'twork.
(03:07):
He was homeless and I rememberjust being so in awe of him and
thinking these are people I wantto hang out with for as long as
humanly possible.
So I had my own photographybusiness.
We got transferred a few statesaway.
I didn't want to start over fromthe ground zero.
I mean, I've really done it allto the point where I'm almost
embarrassed about my backgroundbecause most of my adult life
people are like, oh, she'salways doing something different
(03:29):
.
But I just have this love fornovelty.
And eventually I got certifiedas a director of operations and
I was working fractionally,essentially coming alongside a
CEO and developing a strategy,figuring out where the pain
points are, where the mess was,how to strengthen the business
holistically, and I started tosee patterns emerge, of course,
and I realized I didn't have apresence online.
(03:51):
It was all word of mouth andwhen you're a fractional
director of ops, the retainerrate is pretty high.
So you don't need 50 customerslike you really need two or
three clients and you're golden.
But I just started to get thisitch.
So I was a super fan of AmyPorterfield and like that whole
genre of female entrepreneurship.
So I thought you know I'm goingto start this page and my name,
(04:12):
kelly, means warrior woman.
As people listen to thispodcast, they're going to be
like that vibes, that tracks.
I thought I really want womento feel empowered and that they
are showing up and servingwhatever way in the world
they're supposed to and reallyserving their family and living
in alignment.
So I called it walk likewarriors and I really want women
(04:34):
to feel like the sort ofwarrior energy of being super
driven and focused on what theywere doing.
It started as a faith based page.
I had no idea what I was doing.
If you saw my first Instagramstory, you would probably pass
out because you would cringe sohard you would not survive it.
It was so bad it was.
So I'm telling you it was likedeer in headlights bad.
But I just kept going and,whether people want to
(04:59):
categorize it or that, I'm onlyusing this phrase so that people
understand the way my brainworks almost anyone would be
like she has the most severeADHD of anyone you've ever seen.
And so I would talk about timemanagement and how I was growing
my business and just differentthings.
And it was a faith-based page.
I was talking about marriageand kids and family and
scripture, and my DMs were justand keep in mind I had 30
followers.
(05:19):
But it was like, hey, could youtalk a little bit more about
you use an analog timer?
Why does that help?
Why can't you use the timer onyou?
So I would answer them and then32 followers and I would lose
four.
I mean, it was just the mostpainful three months of my life,
but essentially I got to about100 followers and one day I woke
up there was a DM will youcoach me?
And I said I'm sorry, I don'tdo that.
I coach entrepreneurs but I'm adirector of ops, so that I mean
(05:42):
these are small business owners, but we're talking multi, seven
figures and usually with teamsof 10 or more.
So when you think smallbusiness owner.
This was not solopreneurs, andI have these female solopreneurs
in my DM.
The very next day, another one,totally unrelated hey, is there
any time that you open yourschedule for business coaching?
And I said, I'm sorry, I don'tdo that.
And then the third one came acouple of weeks later and then
(06:05):
my business coach at the timesaid why are you doing that?
I'm like well, I don't.
How can I help someone whodoesn't have a team?
I don't know that my strategiesdoes this apply?
She said I just think youshould do it.
Why don't you just take a few?
See if you like it?
And, camille, I fell in lovewith it because I realized these
women are so driven and sohungry, but they're missing some
(06:27):
key business tools in theirtoolbox and once they have those
, oh my word, they are going tojust like skyrocket right into
the atmosphere.
So I ended up then expanding acouple months later hey, I'll
take up to 10.
That filled within a week.
And then I had a waiting list,and when the waiting list for
one-on-one coaching got to beabout 50 people, I was like this
is not going to work.
(06:47):
January 1st of 2024, I decidedto close the fractional director
of ops business and just go allin on this weird random walk
like warriors page and see Ihave a tendency to jump off the
cliff.
Pray that there was a netsometime before I hit the ground
and I developed a group programand one thing led to another
and it's been such an adventure.
(07:08):
It's my favorite thing I'veever done.
I'm never going to do anythingelse.
It has that level of novelty.
Every woman is different.
Every business is different.
I really like challenges.
It's like a puzzle that myoveractive brain gets to solve
and I have the heart of ateacher.
So being able to show up andhelp a woman scale to whatever
that word means to her, I'm likegetting choked up.
(07:29):
I get so emotional about it.
It's been so completelyfulfilling.
Camille (07:34):
Oh, that's amazing and I love that it happened so
organically for you, becausethat's where you know it's meant
to be, because if people arecoming to you and asking and
you're thinking, oh, this wasn'tin the plan, but this feels
right, and this is scary, but Ilove it.
So what?
I'm curious for starting outand having those things that
(07:55):
your business owners are missing.
What are some of those keyelements that show up time and
time again for these businessowners and those keys to success
?
Kelly (08:05):
This is such a great question, and this is like that
question where it tells meyou're a podcast host who serves
your audience well, becausethat's probably what they're
curious about too.
So I love this, and I justrealized I never answered your
social media questions, so I'llalso answer that.
My brain squirrels all over theplace, but when I launched my
group program it sold out and Ihad 120 followers at the time
(08:25):
and my coaching calendar wasfilled out as well.
So when I say that I am allabout well-aligned followers,
that you show up and serve withall your little heart, it is the
way, and so sort of like myclaim to fame I'm doing air
quotes, people can't see me butis helping women scale to six
figure businesses with athousand followers or less, like
(08:47):
you do not need a hundredthousand followers to have
consistent eight to $12,000months.
You just don't.
That's the old way, that's theCOVID post COVID way.
Though that ship has passed, wecan't grow by a hundred
thousand followers with onegreat reel.
That doesn't work like thatanymore, and so this is one of
those tools, kind of a seguehere into answering your
(09:07):
question.
I think a lot of women COVIDsent us home right, like
everybody is quarantining theirhome.
And what are we doing?
We're consuming social mediacontent.
We probably fell in love withsome creators maybe some course
(09:29):
creators or entrepreneurs orjust influencers and I think
with some women it sort of likelit this little fire of this
would be amazing.
She's saying she works fourhours a day and she's got all of
this money pouring in, and Ithink it gave people this new
insight into being anentrepreneur.
It doesn't have to meanstarting a plumbing business or,
you know, starting a housecleaning service, but you can
actually do it from your homewith the skill set that you have
.
I love that.
(09:50):
I love that about post.
COVID it gave women like you andme so many more options than
existed 10 years ago.
The downside of that is that Ithink a lot of the people we
looked up to, who then I'llteach you how to do what I did
their students are not seeingthat success because the
landscape of social media haschanged so drastically.
(10:12):
I'm not taking anything awayfrom those creators my hat is
off to them.
But 2020 to 2023-ish, maybeearly 2024, that was like the
golden age of social media.
If you were getting on thereand growing, your account was
probably exploding pretty fast.
I compare it to the Californiagold rush, is it?
(10:32):
I mean, truly, there was likegold in the rocks and you could
just pick it up.
We are not there anymore, and Ithink that women, especially,
are struggling with what do I do?
I paid all this money for thiscourse or this coach.
I don't know what to do.
I don't know how to grow.
I'm showing up superconsistently, but I'm just
throwing spaghetti at the wallat this point.
(10:54):
I don't know what's, I don'tknow what's sticking, and so the
main thing is how to grow, evenwith like, without being
dependent on the algorithms.
So that's one tool I would putin their toolbox.
Another one is this our brainsare very different than men's.
So, camille, when your husband,if he's working on putting
(11:17):
something together he's puttinga crib together he's just doing
that.
He's got the instructions, he'sdialed in, and you're saying to
him don't you hear someone'sringing the doorbell?
The dog is barking?
And he's just doing that.
He's got the instructions, he'sdialed in, and you're saying to
him don't you hear someone'sringing the doorbell?
The dog is barking, and he'slike what?
And you know we want tostrangle them because we're like
how can you not hear this?
Yeah, but that's because, if youwere putting that same thing
together, you're thinking aboutschool drop off, as an hour
later tomorrow you forgot topack the one thing in the lunch
(11:38):
that they asked for Science fairproject is next week.
You forgot to bring thecupcakes to the neighbor.
The car needs to get in for anoil change.
You're doing all of thosethings while you're doing the
one thing.
And so time management is areal big struggle for female
entrepreneurs and it's not bad.
It's just that we're different.
And the only solutions that Isee on Amazon and Barnes and
Noble these systems are alldesigned by men and typically
(12:01):
corporate America systems wherethere's teams and offices with
doors on them and no kids aroundand no dogs.
Camille (12:07):
Oh, it's so different yeah.
Kelly (12:08):
And even the women coming out with these.
It was typically just aregurgitation of something that
was originally designed by men.
And I don't know if you'veheard like spaghetti brain,
waffle brain.
But men waffle brain, it's incompartments.
So when he is putting togetherthat crib or that piece of
furniture, he is literally justin that compartment.
He's not thinking aboutanything else.
(12:29):
Our brains are like spaghetti.
Everything is all tangled up.
It doesn't matter how hard wetry those 15 or 30 minute blocks
on our calendar, they justdon't work for us.
And when you add into thespaghetti brain, women have all
the hats we wear as a smallbusiness owner.
It's like we get overwhelmed.
And so we have this tendency.
(12:49):
We wake up in the morning andwe're just scrambling as fast as
we possibly can go, but we'renot making forward momentum and
we're not even totally sure whatit means.
When people say income producingactivities and needle movers,
most of the women who come to methey're like I don't know what
that means.
Just tell me what to do andI'll do it.
And so that's where you knowbeing a director of operations
(13:10):
it's the same skill set is thereare certain activities that
businesses need to do to behealthy and strong.
How do we get that to work fora woman who's completely
overwhelmed by all things home,family, health, faith, her
business and then, when youbreak down the business, she's
wearing 17 different hats, soshe just feels like she's
drowning.
So the two main ones arealgorithm proofing our
(13:32):
businesses and figuring out away to move through our week
with intention where we can havefence posts around our work
hours, where we're not thinkingabout work all the time.
So a skill set that we need tolearn is being able to shut off
that switch in our brain so thatwhen our kid is talking to us,
we're not checked out thinkingabout our business, because
(13:54):
that's really unhealthy.
It's bad for our kids, but it'salso bad for us, because
another thing that men aredifferent about is they don't
struggle with guilt and we'replagued by it.
We just we always feel likewhen we're showing up super
strong in our business, we'refailing our family, and when
we're really on with our family,oh gosh, like all the wheels
are coming off of my businessand I'm a bad business owner.
Those are really the mainthings that I'm seeing.
(14:18):
I would say a fourth one that Iam seeing a lot, especially
lately, is not understanding howto have clarity in our
messaging where I'll say tosomeone what do you do?
And she will go on for 13minutes straight without taking
a breath, because we tend to bemore verbose.
We struggle boiling down whatwe do in a way that's attractive
(14:40):
to people, which can reallyleave so much money on the table
and lead to a lack of sales.
Because if you can't explainwhat you do clearly and
specifically and in a veryattractive way, I can't buy from
you because I'm kind ofconfused about how you can help
me.
So I would say those are themain ones that I'm seeing and it
breaks my heart because justputting a few tools in her
(15:02):
toolbox, it really is thedifference between staying stuck
at a few hundred dollars amonth and really being able to
have consistent five figuremonths.
Not everyone wants that, but Ilike that figure and that that,
for a lot of American families,truly fundamentally changes that
family's financial health.
Camille (15:19):
Absolutely yeah, I think that algorithm proofing
your business.
I think that is a piece where Iwould love to hear your
personal experience with that,where you've had some incredible
launches without needing tohave this huge following.
So I'd love to hear how younurtured and created that so
(15:39):
that people really felt likethey could trust you, dm you and
be like I need your help.
Kelly (15:46):
Yes, it really starts and I see this a lot with you and
how your brand functions is youare somebody who cares about
people.
That cannot be faked.
And so that's where I think yousaid this on a podcast a few
podcasts ago, but you had saidsomething like like attracts
like, and I completely agreewith that.
So when you show up justauthentically and you are a
(16:07):
lover of people, people who willtrust that and not think you're
trying to manipulate them, theywill come in kind and then it
becomes this really beautiful,virtuous circle where I'm
showing up and pouring into themtotally for free.
I don't believe in gatekeepingand they feel that from me, post
COVID, there's just a lot ofpeople that are burning and
churning through their clientbase and hell hath no fury.
(16:30):
Like a woman scorned you dowrong by someone who purchased
from you, she telling everybodyabout that.
And on the opposite end of it,when you wow someone's socks off
, they tell everybody.
And I really am a very meat andpotatoes teacher.
So, to put teeth on this, onThanksgiving um, last year, you
(16:51):
know, thanksgiving, social mediais kind of dead.
Everybody's just eating pumpkinpie and drinking whatever, but
all of a sudden, my, my, um, Iusually have notifications off,
but I had them on.
My daughter was traveling.
There was a whole thing to that.
But I'm like, why am I pickingup followers?
Like it's hard to pick upfollowers if you didn't do
something or put, and I'mthinking this is honestly a
little weird, cause it was allback to back to back and I'm,
(17:15):
and then all of a sudden they'regetting my freebie and then all
of a sudden one of them joinedthe wait list for my group
program and I'm thinking this ishonestly weird.
I don't know if someone'spunking me.
And then one of my formerclients was like hey, don't be
freaked out.
I'm sitting around theThanksgiving table with my
friends and family and I wasjust saying it changed my life,
and so a few of them took outtheir phones.
And if that doesn't tell you analgorithm proof business, I
(17:36):
don't know what would.
If your people are havingincredible experiences and
loving on them is not enough,I'm going say It'll get you
pretty far.
You can have a pretty junkyproduct and love people well,
and they'll still buy from you.
People are so hungry for that.
But results there's too manydigital courses, too many
products and services thatthey're not getting results for
(17:58):
people and so you're not gonnahave that repeat business,
you're not gonna have referralsflowing in.
But when you do the one, twopunch of really obsessing over
your people and then having aproduct or service that just
wows people, I don't thinkthere's anything that can stop a
business owner that commitstheir life to that.
That's the biggest way toalgorithm proof your business.
I would say so.
(18:18):
I am very uncomfortable withrevenue.
Like people, I'm just like Iwould never have friends over
and tell them how much myhusband makes.
But there's all these femalebusiness coaches that just
literally post screenshots oftheir bank account and I get
that it can be inspirational,but I'm just like really weirded
out by that.
So I'm going to talk ingeneralities.
But I did have a multifive-figure launch, um with
(18:39):
about 900 followers.
Um, my email list at that timeprobably had a hundred people on
it 150.
So I want anyone, no matterwhat stage of business, to just
be encouraged that when you havethe right strategy, it's not a
volume game and to me that'sless work.
(19:00):
So I was on a podcast about thatlaunch and I noticed after that
podcast it's a pretty bigpodcast.
I'm getting all these followersfrom it, which is great.
I'm not going to complain.
But I freaked the heck outbecause I looked at their
accounts and some of them had amillion followers, 1.2 million
followers, 800,000.
And I'm like oh my word, oh myword, I have 950 followers.
(19:21):
I didn't go on Instagramstories the next day, which I
coach for free every day instories, camille.
I was so freaked out.
I'm like what, how can I helpthem?
They're going to think I'm afraud.
But my husband said he's like,clearly on that podcast they
heard that you can monetize atiny audience and they are
coming to you not for socialmedia help.
But they're like help me.
(19:42):
How are you doing when I andthat was actually the truth.
And then I've had two launchessince then.
Both of them were alsomulti-five figure launches.
Right now I'm sitting rightaround 1300 followers on
Instagram.
I'm not the coach to help yougo viral.
It's.
I mean, in six months I don'tknow what did I add Three 400
people.
So it's not, the growth isincremental.
But I will say this about socialmedia growth If you posted
(20:08):
about me tomorrow and said I hada great conversation with Kelly
and you tagged me and I justpick up one follower, that is
worth a thousand followers fromgoing viral.
And this is what I mean.
When someone is obsessed withyour brand and they've built a
really good community in theirbrand, your no like and trust
from I don't know about thisperson to I wanna buy what she
(20:31):
has is I'm holding my fingersabout two inches apart.
It's this long when you pick upfollowers because of a reel of
you dancing around lip syncingnothing wrong with that.
There's some strategy there notmy own personal, but you know,
teach his own.
But if you held that same pieceof string, tie it around the
moon, because that's about howlong it's going to take you to
(20:53):
nurture and build and get themto the place where they trust
you, because they don't knowanything about you.
And so one of the ways that I'vedone what I've done is I post
content that's never going to goviral.
It's high strategy, it'seducational, it's not share it
with your business bestie anddie laughing because it's so
relatable.
I don't post a lot of relatablecontent.
I post good content.
(21:13):
There's nothing wrong withposting relatable content,
helping them feel seen and allthat stuff.
It's just when I go to bed atnight.
I only feel good if I felt likeI really served in a really
profound way, where I feel likeopening up a vein and just
pouring into people.
And when I don't do that, Idon't actually like how it makes
me feel as a human.
(21:33):
But educational content doesn'tgo viral, but what it does is
people will repost and say thisis my business coach or I'm
going to take her success squadin the fall.
And even if it's three followers, camille, I am not lying when I
say most of the time they geton the wait list for my group
program within 24 hours.
So you think about that stringanalogy.
(21:55):
I would rather the string betwo inches long than all the way
to the moon and back long.
It's less work to do it the waythat I'm doing it, but I think,
as women you said this sobeautifully on a podcast a
couple of podcasts ago but weare designed to care and nurture
, and so that's why the cold DMs, the cold prospecting, doing
(22:15):
things that make us feel reallycruddy, it's not the way I
prefer to lean into.
The way that I was designed,which is to be a nurturer, to
care about people.
I really feel good about mybusiness Truth, like from the
bottom of my heart, camille,like I've never been in a place
like this where I just feel it'sso authentic and even if it's
not flashy, even if it's notsexy, even if it's not going to
(22:37):
go viral, I just I go to bedevery night and I'm like this is
freaking amazing.
Like I can't believe I'mgetting to build like this and
getting DMs from people.
Hey, I can't afford any of yourstuff, but you're changing my
life.
Hey, my husband and I just wenton our first date in six years.
You literally are changing mymarriage Like I.
I'm crying right now.
I mean, I cry over it.
(22:58):
I'm like this is just such ablessing and no matter what.
I mean.
I'm about to see a businesscoach, but whether someone's a
virtual assistant or a socialmedia manager, or you had that
attorney on it, doesn't matterwhat industry you're in.
Caring about your people andhaving a kick butt product or
service is such a rarity.
I feel like the bar is so low,especially in the U?
(23:19):
S right now, that if women willjust lean into the way we
actually are designed tofunction anyway, I think the sky
is the limit for us in thetwenties and thirties.
Camille (23:31):
Are you drowning in your to-do list, stuck in the
day-to-day tasks that keep youfrom scaling your business?
You didn't start your dream tobe buried in busy work.
You started it to make animpact.
That's why I am here to helpyou find how the truth and the
beauty of delegation will helpyou to reach those goals much
more quickly.
I am offering a free discoverycall to help you identify
(23:54):
exactly what you need to do andhow to find the right virtual
assistant, which are actually.
I have many graduates from mycourse 60 days to VA, who are
masters in many, many differentskill sets, so that you can find
the right virtual assistant foryou and you're able to be the
CEO that you are meant to be.
Imagine focusing on what you dobest while a skilled VA handles
(24:18):
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I love this perspective.
It's giving me a lot of thoughtbecause, having been in social
creation for so long, I get soburnt out of doing it the rat
(24:44):
race way where.
That's why I'm like well, Ihave someone who posts for me
and I'm not on it all the timebecause it just feels icky to me
sometimes.
So where you're saying gettingon and doing education and
making it valuable, but not likethat you're trying to be viral,
that really rings true with me.
(25:05):
I'm like I should show up morewith my face because I feel like
sometimes I've been in thisworld for so long that I'll take
a step back and just protect mypeace of like I don't need to
be on there every day, like Ican, you know, do it from this
back door, this other way, orhaving these really meaningful
conversations through thepodcast.
I love this.
So I love that you're treatingsocial media that way, because
(25:28):
that totally rings with me ofthat relationship of trust, that
one-on-one that you really carethat.
That is where thoserelationships build.
So I'm curious for actuallylaunching the product, the
service, the group coaching orthe runway.
What does that look like interms of how you roll that out
(25:50):
to have such a successful launch?
Kelly (25:53):
This is a highly strategic question, so I'm gonna
try not to squirrel brain anddo this methodically, which is
almost painful for me, but I'mgoing to try to lay this out,
okay.
So one of the things, one ofthe biggest compliments I get
from my group program girls, isthat I'm a product of my product
.
They see me with my feet up atnoon on a Friday sitting outside
(26:14):
having a glass of wine with myhusband.
They they see me living thisout and they always laugh
because the day the cart closeson the group program, the day,
camille, I'm telling you I'llsay hey, doors are closed, you
can't get in.
Next round is in six months.
Here's the wait list.
They crack up.
They're like you are fillingthat wait list literally the
same day that we're launching,and that's how I do it.
(26:37):
I compare it to a drone versus a747.
So if you have low ticket whichwas super popular 2020 to 2023,
you it was like a drone in yourhand.
You didn't need a runway.
You could post an adorable reel, comment the word blank and you
could sell 100 of those becauseit's low ticket, higher ticket
and high ticket is let's definethe terms right.
(26:57):
So for some people it's over500.
Some people it's over 500.
Some people it's over 1,000.
Some people it's over 2,000.
So my program's around $2,000.
I consider that mid-ticket, butsome people consider it high
ticket.
The bigger the ticket, thelonger the runway.
You're talking 747, baby.
So it's not a drone, and what Isee people do wrong with their
launches is they're trying tolaunch a 747 from the palm of
their hand, meaning they juststart showing up in a complete
(27:19):
tizzy and panic five days beforecart open.
It does not work that way.
So to me, the success squad isa 747.
And so she needs a long runway.
I have a goal to talk about thesuccess squad every single week.
I run it three times a year.
Because it's running threetimes a year, it's be.
(27:39):
I'm always playing with it, butit's between an eight and 12
week program, give or takeprobably a little bit over half
the year.
I'm running the program andremember, I'm not tooting my
horn, but I only care about theresults.
It's a results heavy program.
So every week I'm getting DMs.
Omg, I literally just doubledmy revenue, or like even just
Kelly.
I colored with mythree-year-old today and I
(28:01):
haven't done that in over sixmonths.
I'm mortified, but also I'mcrying.
I'm so happy I screenshot those, put them in stories.
Here's the wait list.
Here's the wait list.
So the social proof is such apowerful thing, especially with
the results driven program.
So once a week, all the timewhen it's not running, I am
pointing to that wait list andfilling up that wait list.
I did invest in an amazingconversion copywriter because,
(28:22):
in my opinion, we're all tooclose to our own business.
We don't always communicate itas clearly as we should.
I believe that a conversioncopywriter should not use AI and
they should interview pastclients and those are deal
breakers for me.
If they're not willing to dothat, I don't want to talk to
them because it's a timeinvestment.
A lot of people don't want todo that.
I don't want to talk to themBecause it's a it's a time
investment.
A lot of people don't want todo it.
So her name is Gina Whitehouse.
Fantastic, she redid the salespage for the success squad and
(28:45):
it's so much better.
It's just it reads really well.
I think that actually is partof why the launches went well.
I'm always filling thatwaitlist and then, like a 747
about to take off, it goesfaster as it's about to lift up
off the runway.
So four weeks out, I starttalking about it two times a
week, talking about the waitlist, talking about the wins I
really am so heavy in the futureand the feelings I forget to
(29:09):
talk about the features.
I've had people take theprogram You're going to laugh,
camille but they'll say there'slive calls.
I didn't know that, like, Iliterally give her the details
but they hear the results andthey're like whatever it is.
Camille (29:21):
Whatever it is, I'm in.
Kelly (29:22):
Yeah, do I need to fly to your house?
I'm not totally sure.
What do we do here?
So they're always pleasantly ina good way surprised at what's
in there, because I really don'ttalk about the features a lot.
People don't care about that.
They don't care Tuesdays at 12PM, it doesn't matter if they're
investing, they're going tomake space for that thing,
whatever that thing is.
And then, two weeks out, I'mevery day, I'm talking about it
every day.
(29:43):
I'm obviously a very excitableperson, but I would say to
anyone who has a launch-basedbusiness your enthusiasm sells.
Stop talking with your lips amillimeter apart.
Show your teeth, show thesparkle.
So I'm always like I want tosee the teeth and I want to see
the sparkle in your eye.
Light me up, even if I don'tneed it.
I think that we get nervous tosell, and so our body language
(30:04):
actually makes it uncomfortablefor people to watch it.
So I like expansive, like putyour shoulders back.
This is how meat and potatoes Iam.
I'm like literally tellingpeople how to present themselves
.
And then I do cart open, cartclose On my size program.
Cart open should probably betwo weeks, but I don't want to
launch for two weeks.
It's taxing.
It's emotional.
I would be lying if I didn'tsay there's highs and lows.
(30:24):
I beat myself up sometimes.
It doesn't always go the way Iwanted it to go, and so I limit
it to a week and I don't work onthe weekends ever during launch
.
So three times a year I'll workSaturdays, but even during cart
open, I never work Sundays.
I'm a recovered workaholic.
That is a hard and fast rule.
I don't do chores on Sunday.
(30:45):
I don't cook, I don't do mybusiness.
Sunday is like my the youngpeople call it rotting day, like
I don't do anything besides goto church and hang out with my
family.
I do nothing, um, but so Ireally.
I basically launched a biggerprogram in six days.
One of the days I'm radiosilent.
There's nothing there's nothinggoing out for my business.
It's just the way that I chooseto to to present myself.
It's it's important to me.
(31:05):
I've made a lot of mistakes inmy life being a workaholic.
I've often put work before myfamily, and so when I started to
build Walk Like Warriors, Iliterally wrote down a set of
rules for myself that I willhonor and never break, and
that's one of them.
I don't work holidays, I don'twork on Sundays and I don't work
the last week of the year ever.
So like.
There's just these little rulesthat I made for myself.
(31:27):
But essentially, if people willbe showing the proof that this
works, have a lot of clarity intheir messaging, always be
filling the wait list and thentreat it like a 747, not a drone
as you get closer, whatessentially you want is it would
literally be impossible foranyone following or subscribed
to not know that you'relaunching.
(31:48):
That's what you're going for,and I'll have people say but Kel
, if I do that, I'm going tolose followers.
Can we talk about how ironicthat is for a second?
The reason that you have youremail list is drum roll.
It's to make sales.
I would think right, cause if Ijust wanted to email people, I
would just write letters Like Idon't really understand.
I, my Instagram, my threads,youtube all of it is to serve
(32:11):
the purpose of building mybusiness.
So to then not sell onlybecause of numbers that don't
lead to sales, that, to me, justblows my mind.
I actually, if I'm coachingsomeone, I encourage them to
lose 1% of their followersduring launch.
The reason because women dobetter when it can be gamified.
So my girls would be like Ididn't lose any followers today,
(32:31):
but I promise I'm gonna losesome tomorrow.
And I'm like yes, girl, youhave to push.
You have to stop being afraidand getting your feelings hurt
If someone here's the thing,camille, because you do so much
high value content, I mean, thispodcast is unbelievable.
Oh, you're sweet, thank you.
Second, you try to sell andthey're like ew, gross, oh, my
gosh, how dare she?
(32:51):
They're never buying from you,so you have to have the one-two
punch of pouring into them.
But then when you sell, it'salmost impossible to lose
followers.
Like most of my people are likeget it, girl, you deserve it.
You deserve it.
You deserve to have this launchbecause they see that 52 weeks
a year I will there's verylittle I will not do for my
community.
And so when you've got that,you have to stop being afraid.
(33:13):
Like people will say I've never.
I'll say how many subscribers doyou lose during cart open?
None, okay.
Well, you're doing it wrong.
I'm just telling you.
You have to lose some, and it'salso a good thing because you
want to call, you want to callthe herd right.
So you end up with too manyfreebie takers.
If you don't sell and push hardsometimes and if, as long as
you're doing your part of thedeal, which is really showing up
(33:33):
and not gatekeeping and pouringinto your community, they don't
care when you sell and pushhard.
But I think women reallystruggle with launching.
They don't give themselves along enough runway and then,
when it's time to push, theyhold so much back and they leave
so much on the table and I wantcart closed to be.
There's nothing left in the gastank.
She's running on fumes.
(33:54):
That, to me, is a reallybeautiful launch and one that
win or lose.
I can sleep well because I knowI really did put my all into it
.
Camille (34:03):
That's amazing.
What would you say from yourlaunches?
They've become more and moresuccessful.
What are some things youlearned from maybe the first one
or two times that you launched,that you changed or modified
three, four?
Kelly (34:16):
In the interest of customer obsession it is, so
it's probably it's dripped outweekly.
I'm trying to think of how manyhours of videos, lessons, all
of it, but essentially I'veburned it down every single time
.
I've run it and started againbased on the feedback, and every
time I've done that it'sprobably cost me, I would say,
between 100 and 150 hours oftime to redo the entire thing,
(34:41):
and I did that the first threetimes.
So it's gotten better andbetter to the point where
there's not really a lot thatthey're telling me like oh, I'm
confused about that.
So we got that dialed in andthey tell everyone about it
because they see how hard I'mworking to make this as
impactful as possible.
And I appreciate you sayingthey've gotten better and better
.
But one of the things that'sreally important to me with my
(35:03):
brand is integrity.
So fall didn't sell out, but itwas.
I mean it was like a $30,000launch.
I mean I was stunned.
I literally had my hand over mymouth.
January we opened the doors tothe waitlist.
It sold out in eight hours.
Wow, I had no words.
My VA was here.
We were like jumping up anddown.
It was crazy.
(35:24):
But the spring which I just ran,which again multi five-figure
launch.
It didn't sell out.
So I always want to be honestwith people that it's not always
up and to the right.
Spring launches tend to besofter launches for any business
.
It's a pretty hard time to fill.
But people were like, oh mygosh, you sold out, you sold.
These are all their names onthe wall behind me and I was
like, no, no, no, some of thoseare alumni.
(35:44):
The alumni can come back at us.
I try to go above and beyond tobe like hey, hey, hey, it's not
always.
It gets better and better.
Um, I was predicting that it's.
I basically got the exactnumber that I had predicted.
Did I want it to sell out onopening day to the early birds?
Yes, it's so much easier andmore fun to fill the program
when you're like it sells outevery time you've got to get in.
(36:04):
But I won't be able.
I a lot of it for me issleeping at night, so I will not
be able to sleep at night if Ihave come across, as it's only
gotten better.
I made a huge oopsie with mywaitlist.
I put too many images,screenshots of testimonials in
those emails and I got put inspam jail for my launch.
So my launch emails in everyround before were about 80 to
(36:27):
90% open rates and for thespring launch I had a 12% open
rate because of something I did,and I know that the image to
text ratio matters.
I'm very careful about thatwith my newsletters, but for
some reason when I was creatingthose launch emails it just
logic went out the window and Iwas like, oh, this one's so good
and I'm pulling all these in,and some of those emails had 10
screenshots of testimonials.
(36:48):
So every major email providerput me in spam jail and none of
those emails got delivered to mywaitlist.
So it's just things like that.
You know, life happens.
I think the key to being asuccessful entrepreneur is grit
getting punched in the face,keep getting up.
But also a growth mindset isyes, did I get a little teary
eyed?
Yeah, I was stunned that I madethat kind of mistake.
(37:09):
As seasoned as I am in business, I was embarrassed.
I was.
I felt bad because my VA was soexcited and it was just not a
great launch for I mean, I, youknow it.
Just it was rough for like anhour and then it was.
My first thought was cause Ihave a monthly membership after
you grab graduate the groupprogram.
Oh, this is going to be suchgreat content for them.
Like I immediately just andthat like a growth mindset is
(37:31):
it's okay to feel sad.
It's not like toxic positivityor anything, but it's always.
What can I learn from this?
Camille (37:37):
How is?
Kelly (37:37):
this experience going to make me better.
So I think if you've got gritand you've got a growth mindset
and I do, and so it's not alwaysup and to the right as a
business owner and I think it'sbeing able to take those
disappointing moments it's okayto feel the feelings, but not
like to me personally.
My limits like 24 hours.
I'm allowed to wallow for 24hours but it's like, girl, pick
yourself up.
Nothing bad happened, You'restill fine and just keep going.
(38:00):
So I don't know what happenswith my launches.
I think it's a little bit allover the place.
January in the education fieldis kind of our Superbowl.
It's a little bit easier tofill programs in January.
Fall is another great time.
Spring, I think, might justalways be soft, but the ones in
there are having such great winsthat I just feel like it's
worth it, no matter what.
Camille (38:21):
Yeah, I can relate to that a hundred percent because I
feel like, as women, we haveseasons where we're ready to
buckle in, and I've experiencedthe same thing fall, beginning
of the year, great spring, it'sharder.
So I totally see that too.
I'm curious.
I was actually presenting to agroup of women at my house on it
was just a couple of nights ago, and you say you have ADHD, and
(38:43):
one of the women there was likeI'm starting this piercing
business, I am doing this, butit's so hard for me to stay
focused.
I get these ideas.
I, you know squirrel.
She's like it's obvious youdon't.
And I'm like well, I don't know.
Sometimes I feel like I do, butI don't know what is it about?
Or skill sets, or advice youwould give to her of how you
(39:06):
have built such a successful,systematic business, where
you're like I do this twice aweek, I do this.
It's very you've ironed thisout.
Where it's, you're doing thethings and it seems like you're
doing it with purpose andsequence and you and it's a
rhythm.
How are you doing that withADHD?
Kelly (39:24):
Yes, and if you saw just to the right, my closet in my
office, you I have to step overa three foot high pile to be
able to get to my bed chair,which is where I have like my
Bible and prayer reading in themorning Like I have to like step
over piles.
It's my personal life is a mess.
But some of the credit goes tomy parents.
They were pretty type A.
They demanded excellence not inan unhealthy way, so I'm not
(39:45):
saying they demanded perfection,but they did demand that we
gave it our all and I think thatin any other environment I
wouldn't be able to function ata high level.
But it made them proud.
And then I started to realize Ifeel good when I'm bringing in
my very best.
I feel good, but I did learnthat the systems of the world
don't help me.
They never have, and I spentway too many years of my life
(40:07):
beating the crap out of myselfbecause why can't I just get
this?
And I would do the little colorcoded 30 minute things on my
calendar and then I would lookat the clock and I'm seven
minutes behind and then I wouldseriously feel like a panic
attack.
Camille (40:17):
Oh yeah.
Kelly (40:18):
It was like and then I I remember taking a step back.
This was right after I pivotedfrom director of ops to this and
I was like what am I doing?
Nobody is making me live likethat that's how my time mastery
system was developed was like.
And I think you do somethingsimilar in that you theme your
(40:40):
days.
So I was just like okay, I know, as a director of ops, there
are six areas of business thatmake it holistically healthy.
Most women just focus on socialmedia, let's be honest.
But if these six are strong,it's almost impossible for that
business owner not to besuccessful.
So I'm like I bet you there's away for me to manipulate this
so that one day of the week isdevoted to this.
One day of the week is kind ofdevoted to this.
And obviously I'm saying six,but I work five days.
(41:00):
But there's a couple that arelighter and I'm like I bet you I
could put those two together.
And then there's some stuffthat doesn't happen.
So I just started to play aroundwith it and an ADHD business
owner said to me she's likeKelly, I got to ask you I mean,
how do you you're so highfunctioning, how are you doing
this?
And Camille.
I was embarrassed.
I was like, okay, I'm going toshare my screen but don't laugh.
(41:21):
And she's like I'm not going tolaugh.
But essentially it's kind ofyou picture like a spreadsheet,
but like a pretty one, a fun one.
So I like novelty, so I changethe way it looks all the time,
but I also need those dopaminehits.
So part of our deal, part of ourproblem, is we don't get the
same satisfaction from doingwhat I call boring things as
normal, like neuro, like normalpeople.
(41:42):
If they clean the house, theytake us, take a step back and
they're like, oh, this is good,I'm not.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this is7000 tasks.
You know what?
I'm just going to go to TraderJoe's Like I just I don't when
I'm facing stuff that I don'twant to do.
I just decided to do somethingelse.
So this system I made littledropdown boxes in a Google sheet
where it's everything is on redR-E-D and then as I do it, it
(42:06):
changes from incomplete tocomplete and this is psychology
says you can give yourselflittle hits of dopamine like
that.
So as I do them, it's kind oflike that whole just feeling
like you crumpled up a post-itnote and threw it in the garbage
Cause you did the task on it,um, and then, when I shared it
with her, she said would youshare that with me?
I'd like, I'd like to just tryit.
And how honestly I wasmortified.
(42:27):
I'm like this is so stupid.
People are going to think I'mthree because it's color-coded
everything.
Camille (42:31):
I love it.
Kelly (42:32):
Yeah, she like a week later she said she said I mean
she was crying.
She said I went from working 70hours a week, I'm working like
20.
I don't even understand, butpart of the system is is you sit
down and you know exactly whatto do and it's a workflow and
you do it and it usually onlytakes one of this time because
(42:58):
you're training your brain.
On Monday we do these andbecause it's only Monday, every
day kind of feels fresh.
It's not trying to do the samethings every day, but I think
it's one of those things where alot of our success is hidden in
the weird parts of ourselvesthat we think wouldn't help
anyone else, but they're theexact things that help people
like us.
So I would say to her she needsa system like that.
(43:19):
She needs to kind of feed insome some dopamine, that you
know what.
The reason the men's systemsdon't work for me is I don't get
rewarded for doing any of thestuff, and so it feels like a
slog and so I put it off.
This is why.
So this is being recorded.
Obviously, in the spring I'mseeing this everywhere Business
owners are really in troublewith their taxes, and it's
because, first of all,entrepreneurship tends to
(43:41):
attract people with ADD and ADHD.
I think it's a superpower.
We just have to learn to getaround like our kryptonite parts
of it.
But it's because no one lovesdoing that in the week to week,
and so we let it pile up.
We let it pile up and then allof a sudden we're pulling our
hair out and we're crying in theshower because we've made such
a mess of our finances, and so Ifigured out a way to make that
(44:01):
fun for myself.
So it's really about how can Imake it fun.
Also, how can I make it prettybut also make it so that it
feels doable and achievable?
And I would also encourage herto use an analog timer.
I don't want my women usingtimers on their phones.
Why?
Timer goes off.
We hit stop.
We're scrolling reels.
Two hours go by.
Oh, no what was I supposed to be.
So I use literally an analogtimer.
(44:24):
I'll show it to you and it's adisappearing one.
It's designed for people withADHD, so the circle actually
disappears as the clock ticksdown.
The circle actually disappearsas the clock ticks down and
that's been profoundly helpful,and part of it's because of
Parkinson's law.
So our work expands to fill thetime we give it.
And one of the problems withentrepreneurship is we have
quote unquote all day, and soall these tasks, like these 15
(44:45):
tasks, take six hours.
But if we use the timer and didthem in an ordered way, they
would take 50 minutes.
It's just no one listening tome believes that it will,
because we're so used to beingdistracted and ping ponging.
So it's just developing systems.
She'll find her way.
But what I would reallyencourage her is understand that
the books at Barnes and Nobleand on Amazon they're not going
(45:08):
to help you.
They are not designed forpeople like us, and that's okay.
We just we make our own systemsand it's incredibly freeing.
When I was in corporate I didn'thave a problem like I have now,
but that's because you'reoperating.
The meeting starts at 11.
This is at 1145, like you're bythe clock.
In entrepreneurship.
That all went out the windowand I very quickly realized this
(45:29):
ain't going to work for me.
I either will not be able togrow my business or it'll grow.
But I'm going to be workingseven days a week, 12 hours a
day, not enjoying family movienight.
Neither of those optionssounded appealing to me, so I
just broke the system, made myown way, and the wild thing is
it works for so many otherpeople, so that's been a
blessing.
Camille (45:49):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Well, this has all been sohelpful.
I want to get that littleanalog timer.
That is so cute.
I love that.
It's rainbow too, For those ofyou watching on the video you
can see that, but maybe we canfind it.
Link it below.
Tell our audience where theycan find you and learn from you
and I know many of them well,because I am so excited to do
(46:11):
the same.
Kelly (46:12):
Thank you so much.
So the website iswalklikewarriorscom.
Over on Instagram.
Somebody had that name, sothere's underscores between the
words.
So walk like warriors I coachfor free and Instagram stories
Monday through Friday, butthey're just underscores between
them.
If you'll know you found theright one.
It's a bright yellow.
Yellow is my favorite colorcolor behind my headshot, so if
(46:32):
you land on, that page.
Camille (46:33):
You're in the right place.
Awesome.
And for someone with ADHD, I'mcurious with posting on
Instagram and doing stories.
What is your schedule andstrategy there before I let you
go, because I think that thatwould be interesting to know.
Kelly (46:46):
So good?
Yes, we do well with a fewgentle frameworks, but not where
we feel like a prison.
Camille (46:51):
Right so.
Kelly (46:53):
I basically 5% of my of my workflow.
It's called time mastery.
I do for free and Instagramstories, and so on Monday, it's
admin day.
I get in every Monday.
Hey, hey, it's Monday, it'sadmin day.
Here's some things you can bethinking about and working on.
Or the following Monday, I'llsay this is why we do this like
this.
I don't have meetings on Monday.
(47:13):
Why?
Because it makes it really easyto have three day weekends when
I want them.
So then on Tuesday, hey, it'scontent creation day, and so
that kind of gives me a nicegentle framework, and if I don't
feel like doing that that day,then I just talk about whatever
random things are on my on myheart to share.
I think, as I'm, I'm so close tothe people I'm serving, I'm
coaching so much that a lot oftimes it's driven by.
(47:36):
I just get off a call and I'mlike, hey, I wanna talk about
this.
Women are not packing thenumbers in their business.
This is gonna break yourbusiness.
We don't wanna go from the gut,we wanna make sure we're
measuring, and so a lot of it isfree flowing.
So this might resonate with you.
I like gentle boundaries thatnothing bad happens if I break
them, and so I do that.
That actually, time masteryplays so well into Instagram
(47:58):
stories because, if nothing else, I know I can talk like that,
but some of your listeners mightbe like, nice for you, I don't
have that.
Anyone can do that.
If you're a health coach,monday, just you don't have to
be like it's Monday, it's myCostco find day, just on Monday.
You share your Costco find Onfind day just on Monday.
You share your Costco find OnTuesday.
You're sharing something, astretch you can do from your
desk for three like you don'thave to announce it, but it just
gives you this nice rhythmwhere you're never like uh.
(48:27):
What do I do today?
Yeah, cause that's where we getfrozen.
Totally.
Yes, exactly, but it is.
It's very, very helpful if ithelps people, like when I'm
first to be doing.
Camille (48:33):
Oh, that's helpful.
And then are you posting in thefeed a certain amount of times,
or what do you do there?
Kelly (48:39):
Yes, I am.
I believe in batching.
Research shows that batchingleads to better content.
So that's a big thing for me isI'm all about strategy, but
also batching empowers me.
I don't know how you are, but Ialways have a couple of days of
the month where I want to burndown my business, my house and
everybody so don't look at me.
Camille (48:58):
I don't want to be on camera Exactly.
Kelly (49:00):
So it serves me well in that I just I mean, on Monday I
was a very low energy day.
I had content ready to pump out, I didn't have to do anything.
Everything's on autopilot in mybusiness and it was 1201.
And I was drinking CabernetSauvignon and watching Pride and
Prejudice.
And I looked at the clock andI'm like this is wild that I get
to do this.
But I believe in rhythms of work, play and rest.
(49:21):
So I work.
When it's time to work, I workreally hard, but when it's not
time to be working, I playreally hard.
And so following this rhythm,this pattern to my week, has
been incredibly empowering.
I think it's why I don't haveto think about work when I'm not
working, because I put so manysystems into place.
So I'm batching, but we hadtalked before the interview.
(49:43):
I am, I'm I'm really stronglyconsidering a social media
strategist firm agency,something, because I think my
Instagram content is in storiesis good.
I have no strategy for the feed.
I mean, I batch but I'm not.
If I want to grow, it'sprobably time to call in an
expert, because I have sort ofthis cavalier attitude toward it
, like, ah, I don't need that,I'm just going to keep doing my
(50:05):
thing, but the business isgrowing and scaling so fast.
I really I love like your workwith virtual assistants.
We have to stop doing so muchstuff ourselves.
So VA, like my virtualassistant, it's like it needs to
be people's first hire, in myopinion.
I just there's such a demandfor good ones, but I think it's
I'm getting near the time wheremaybe offloading some social
media I'll never give over thestories.
(50:26):
I love being in Instagramstories, but the feed itself
just not my favorite.
I'll create the content, I justwant someone else to schedule
it.
Camille (50:33):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, all right, Well,
perfect.
Let's finish this up with thetwo questions I always ask,
which is what are you reading,watching or listening to, and a
motherhood moment that you'dlike to share Reading?
Kelly (50:47):
I just finished the best book on sales that I have read
in my life and that is sayingsomething because I'm a
voracious reader.
It was written in the 1920s sosome of it is dated, but it is
like the best sales strategiesby Frank Betcher and it's called
how I raised myself fromfailure to success in selling.
I annotated.
I shouldn't have even writtenin it because every paragraph is
(51:08):
written on now, so it's hard toread a fantastic book, good old
fashioned selling strategy.
There.
Keith and I are watchingDaredevil right now, and so
that's been good.
I'm not a huge Marvel, dc, Idon't know about that stuff, but
it's actually pretty good and Iknow.
So the motherhood questionright, I'm going to share this.
Okay, I'm going to try not tocry.
(51:29):
My kids are teens and youngadults.
It's by far my favorite stage,my absolute favorite stage to be
a mom.
But last night my one son he'smarried.
He lives like 30 minutes northof here he needed to pick
something up from our house.
My daughter, who's engaged it,just they all converged here and
we had a meal together and Ijust looked around the kitchen
and I'm like this is it?
(51:50):
Just, I don't believe in likeyour kids have to call you every
day or anything like that.
But it was just this profoundmoment of my dad says it's like
a bird feeder where they leave,they come back, they leave, they
come back.
I'm really at an interestingpoint in my life where my adult
kids really love to hang outhere.
My teenagers do.
It's just like I never knowwhen it's going to happen, but
it's just magical that I'm notbegging and pleading for them to
(52:12):
be at every holiday.
It's just more they will say,hey, can I come out and we'll
have a meal together at random.
And to the people with littlekids, every second of the behind
the scenes work is so worth it,cause if you want what I have
now, it's in all of those hiddensecret moments as a mommy that
stuff nobody sees.
(52:34):
That leads to healthy outcomesin teenagers and young adults.
But it's just been like we'llplay card games, board games.
We've moved.
I know not everyone likes this,but we've moved more into
friend territory.
They don't need to be parentedanymore when they're on their
own.
It is more like mutual respect,and putting in the time to
raise people that you actuallylove to hang out with is so
(52:56):
worth it so yeah, that's theultimate goal.
Camille (52:59):
I'm so, so happy for you it like is making me
emotional because that, if Icould like I tell my parents
that's how I was raised is wewant to be together and spend
that time, and nothing no amountof money, success, anything
like that can take the place ofthat.
So thank you for sharing that.
And, oh my gosh, you gave us somuch good information.
(53:22):
I'm just so, so grateful.
Thank you for being on the showand to everyone listening.
Thank you for being here andwe'll check in with you next
time.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of Call Me CEO.
Anytime that you leave a ratingor review, it is a big help to
us.
So please do that and don'tforget to subscribe.
(53:43):
And if you are looking forsystematizing your business,
bringing in team members,helping you to create more white
space in your business that issomething that I help people
with every single day.
I love it so much you can reachout to me at camillewalkerco.
That's my Instagram and I alsohave a second Instagram at call
(54:05):
me CEO podcast.
My website is camillewalkerco.
Thank you again.
We'll see you next time.
Hey CEOs, thank you so much forspending your time with me.
If you found this episodeinspiring or helpful, please let
me know, in a comment, in afive-star review, you could have
the chance of being a featuredreview on an upcoming episode.
Continue the conversation onInstagram at callmeCEOPodcast,
(54:28):
and remember you are the boss.
And so I had different businesses that I started.
Sometimes I worked in othersmall businesses, but I've
always for the last 25 years,I've had all of this passion for
small business owners.
Camille (00:18):
So you want to make an impact.
You're thinking about startinga business, sharing your voice.
How do women do it that handlemotherhood, family and still
chase after those dreams?
We'll listen each week as wedive into the stories of women
who know this is Call Me CEO.
Welcome back everyone to CallMe CEO.
(00:40):
This is your host, CamilleWalker, and here we share
mothers building businesses, howto do it effectively, and on
today's episode, we're talkingabout how to have success
without having a huge number ofsocial media followers.
This is a new trend that I'mseeing come into the
conversation more about reallyengaging with your following,
(01:03):
nurturing your email list,connecting with the people that
are with you.
And today we have an expert,Kelly Leardon, who is the CEO
and owner of Walk Like Warriors,and she is here to share with
us how she has been able to dothis and really nurture her
people and grow an amazingbusiness.
So, Kelly, thank you so muchfor being on the show today.
Kelly (01:26):
It is an honor.
Thank you for having me,Camille.
Camille (01:28):
So tell our audience about you a little bit of a
background, of how you got intodoing what you're doing now and
this concept of how you nurtureyour small audience to have a
big income.
Kelly (01:41):
So much fun, and I will start this by saying I am the
furthest thing from a socialmedia expert.
What I'm an expert in is, likeyou said, connecting and
converting at a very real, rawlevel, so that your audience
size doesn't actually matterwhatsoever.
And so Keith and I we've beenmarried 25 years.
He's my favorite person in thewhole wide world.
We have four kids together twogirls, two boys 17 years old up
(02:02):
to 25 years old, and my oldesttwo are married together two
girls, two boys 17 years old upto 25 years old, and my oldest
two are married, which is sowild to me.
We moved all over the country.
Every time he got promoted wehad to move to a different state
, and so I homeschooled becauseI was not about pulling my kids
out of school every year andmaking them start over.
That was kind of my experiencewhen I was growing up and I
hated it, and so I had differentbusinesses that I started.
Sometimes I worked in othersmall businesses, but I've
(02:24):
always, for the last 25 years,I've had all of this passion for
small business owners.
To me, they're just this raw,gritty bunch of people who have
such a positive mindset and sortof like it's this or nothing.
And so I started out as anadministrative assistant,
working alongside small businessowners and you know then,
(02:46):
executive assistant, projectmanager, just sort of like all
these different roles.
It was always almost alwayswith small business owners.
I respected them.
The very first gentleman I everworked with this is, I think,
what really cemented it for meis he had to mortgage his house
to get a loan to start thebusiness, and essentially it was
the epitome of if it didn'twork.
(03:07):
He was homeless and I rememberjust being so in awe of him and
thinking these are people I wantto hang out with for as long as
humanly possible.
So I had my own photographybusiness.
We got transferred a few statesaway.
I didn't want to start over fromthe ground zero.
I mean, I've really done it allto the point where I'm almost
embarrassed about my backgroundbecause most of my adult life
people are like, oh, she'salways doing something different
(03:29):
.
But I just have this love fornovelty.
And eventually I got certifiedas a director of operations and
I was working fractionally,essentially coming alongside a
CEO and developing a strategy,figuring out where the pain
points are, where the mess was,how to strengthen the business
holistically, and I started tosee patterns emerge, of course,
and I realized I didn't have apresence online.
(03:51):
It was all word of mouth andwhen you're a fractional
director of ops, the retainerrate is pretty high.
So you don't need 50 customerslike you really need two or
three clients and you're golden.
But I just started to get thisitch.
So I was a super fan of AmyPorterfield and like that whole
genre of female entrepreneurship.
So I thought you know I'm goingto start this page and my name,
(04:12):
kelly, means warrior woman.
As people listen to thispodcast, they're going to be
like that vibes, that tracks.
I thought I really want womento feel empowered and that they
are showing up and servingwhatever way in the world
they're supposed to and reallyserving their family and living
in alignment.
So I called it walk likewarriors and I really want women
(04:34):
to feel like the sort ofwarrior energy of being super
driven and focused on what theywere doing.
It started as a faith based page.
I had no idea what I was doing.
If you saw my first Instagramstory, you would probably pass
out because you would cringe sohard you would not survive it.
It was so bad it was.
So I'm telling you it was likedeer in headlights bad.
But I just kept going and,whether people want to
(04:59):
categorize it or that, I'm onlyusing this phrase so that people
understand the way my brainworks almost anyone would be
like she has the most severeADHD of anyone you've ever seen.
And so I would talk about timemanagement and how I was growing
my business and just differentthings.
And it was a faith-based page.
I was talking about marriageand kids and family and
scripture, and my DMs were justand keep in mind I had 30
followers.
(05:19):
But it was like, hey, could youtalk a little bit more about
you use an analog timer?
Why does that help?
Why can't you use the timer onyou?
So I would answer them and then32 followers and I would lose
four.
I mean, it was just the mostpainful three months of my life,
but essentially I got to about100 followers and one day I woke
up there was a DM will youcoach me?
And I said I'm sorry, I don'tdo that.
I coach entrepreneurs but I'm adirector of ops, so that I mean
(05:42):
these are small business owners, but we're talking multi, seven
figures and usually with teamsof 10 or more.
So when you think smallbusiness owner.
This was not solopreneurs, andI have these female solopreneurs
in my DM.
The very next day, another one,totally unrelated hey, is there
any time that you open yourschedule for business coaching?
And I said, I'm sorry, I don'tdo that.
And then the third one came acouple of weeks later and then
(06:05):
my business coach at the timesaid why are you doing that?
I'm like well, I don't.
How can I help someone whodoesn't have a team?
I don't know that my strategiesdoes this apply?
She said I just think youshould do it.
Why don't you just take a few?
See if you like it?
And, camille, I fell in lovewith it because I realized these
women are so driven and sohungry, but they're missing some
(06:27):
key business tools in theirtoolbox and once they have those
, oh my word, they are going tojust like skyrocket right into
the atmosphere.
So I ended up then expanding acouple months later hey, I'll
take up to 10.
That filled within a week.
And then I had a waiting list,and when the waiting list for
one-on-one coaching got to beabout 50 people, I was like this
is not going to work.
(06:47):
January 1st of 2024, I decidedto close the fractional director
of ops business and just go allin on this weird random walk
like warriors page and see Ihave a tendency to jump off the
cliff.
Pray that there was a netsometime before I hit the ground
and I developed a group programand one thing led to another
and it's been such an adventure.
(07:08):
It's my favorite thing I'veever done.
I'm never going to do anythingelse.
It has that level of novelty.
Every woman is different.
Every business is different.
I really like challenges.
It's like a puzzle that myoveractive brain gets to solve
and I have the heart of ateacher.
So being able to show up andhelp a woman scale to whatever
that word means to her, I'm likegetting choked up.
(07:29):
I get so emotional about it.
It's been so completelyfulfilling.
Camille (07:34):
Oh, that's amazing and I love that it happened so
organically for you, becausethat's where you know it's meant
to be, because if people arecoming to you and asking and
you're thinking, oh, this wasn'tin the plan, but this feels
right, and this is scary, but Ilove it.
So what?
I'm curious for starting outand having those things that
(07:55):
your business owners are missing.
What are some of those keyelements that show up time and
time again for these businessowners and those keys to success
?
Kelly (08:05):
This is such a great question, and this is like that
question where it tells meyou're a podcast host who serves
your audience well, becausethat's probably what they're
curious about too.
So I love this, and I justrealized I never answered your
social media questions, so I'llalso answer that.
My brain squirrels all over theplace, but when I launched my
group program it sold out and Ihad 120 followers at the time
(08:25):
and my coaching calendar wasfilled out as well.
So when I say that I am allabout well-aligned followers,
that you show up and serve withall your little heart, it is the
way, and so sort of like myclaim to fame I'm doing air
quotes, people can't see me butis helping women scale to six
figure businesses with athousand followers or less, like
(08:47):
you do not need a hundredthousand followers to have
consistent eight to $12,000months.
You just don't.
That's the old way, that's theCOVID post COVID way.
Though that ship has passed, wecan't grow by a hundred
thousand followers with onegreat reel.
That doesn't work like thatanymore, and so this is one of
those tools, kind of a seguehere into answering your
(09:07):
question.
I think a lot of women COVIDsent us home right, like
everybody is quarantining theirhome.
And what are we doing?
We're consuming social mediacontent.
We probably fell in love withsome creators maybe some course
(09:29):
creators or entrepreneurs orjust influencers and I think
with some women it sort of likelit this little fire of this
would be amazing.
She's saying she works fourhours a day and she's got all of
this money pouring in, and Ithink it gave people this new
insight into being anentrepreneur.
It doesn't have to meanstarting a plumbing business or,
you know, starting a housecleaning service, but you can
actually do it from your homewith the skill set that you have
.
I love that.
(09:50):
I love that about post.
COVID it gave women like you andme so many more options than
existed 10 years ago.
The downside of that is that Ithink a lot of the people we
looked up to, who then I'llteach you how to do what I did
their students are not seeingthat success because the
landscape of social media haschanged so drastically.
(10:12):
I'm not taking anything awayfrom those creators my hat is
off to them.
But 2020 to 2023-ish, maybeearly 2024, that was like the
golden age of social media.
If you were getting on thereand growing, your account was
probably exploding pretty fast.
I compare it to the Californiagold rush, is it?
(10:32):
I mean, truly, there was likegold in the rocks and you could
just pick it up.
We are not there anymore, and Ithink that women, especially,
are struggling with what do I do?
I paid all this money for thiscourse or this coach.
I don't know what to do.
I don't know how to grow.
I'm showing up superconsistently, but I'm just
throwing spaghetti at the wallat this point.
(10:54):
I don't know what's, I don'tknow what's sticking, and so the
main thing is how to grow, evenwith like, without being
dependent on the algorithms.
So that's one tool I would putin their toolbox.
Another one is this our brainsare very different than men's.
So, camille, when your husband,if he's working on putting
(11:17):
something together he's puttinga crib together he's just doing
that.
He's got the instructions, he'sdialed in, and you're saying to
him don't you hear someone'sringing the doorbell?
The dog is barking?
And he's just doing that.
He's got the instructions, he'sdialed in, and you're saying to
him don't you hear someone'sringing the doorbell?
The dog is barking, and he'slike what?
And you know we want tostrangle them because we're like
how can you not hear this?
Yeah, but that's because, if youwere putting that same thing
together, you're thinking aboutschool drop off, as an hour
later tomorrow you forgot topack the one thing in the lunch
(11:38):
that they asked for Science fairproject is next week.
You forgot to bring thecupcakes to the neighbor.
The car needs to get in for anoil change.
You're doing all of thosethings while you're doing the
one thing.
And so time management is areal big struggle for female
entrepreneurs and it's not bad.
It's just that we're different.
And the only solutions that Isee on Amazon and Barnes and
Noble these systems are alldesigned by men and typically
(12:01):
corporate America systems wherethere's teams and offices with
doors on them and no kids aroundand no dogs.
Camille (12:07):
Oh, it's so different yeah.
Kelly (12:08):
And even the women coming out with these.
It was typically just aregurgitation of something that
was originally designed by men.
And I don't know if you'veheard like spaghetti brain,
waffle brain.
But men waffle brain, it's incompartments.
So when he is putting togetherthat crib or that piece of
furniture, he is literally justin that compartment.
He's not thinking aboutanything else.
(12:29):
Our brains are like spaghetti.
Everything is all tangled up.
It doesn't matter how hard wetry those 15 or 30 minute blocks
on our calendar, they justdon't work for us.
And when you add into thespaghetti brain, women have all
the hats we wear as a smallbusiness owner.
It's like we get overwhelmed.
And so we have this tendency.
(12:49):
We wake up in the morning andwe're just scrambling as fast as
we possibly can go, but we'renot making forward momentum and
we're not even totally sure whatit means.
When people say income producingactivities and needle movers,
most of the women who come to methey're like I don't know what
that means.
Just tell me what to do andI'll do it.
And so that's where you knowbeing a director of operations
(13:10):
it's the same skill set is thereare certain activities that
businesses need to do to behealthy and strong.
How do we get that to work fora woman who's completely
overwhelmed by all things home,family, health, faith, her
business and then, when youbreak down the business, she's
wearing 17 different hats, soshe just feels like she's
drowning.
So the two main ones arealgorithm proofing our
(13:32):
businesses and figuring out away to move through our week
with intention where we can havefence posts around our work
hours, where we're not thinkingabout work all the time.
So a skill set that we need tolearn is being able to shut off
that switch in our brain so thatwhen our kid is talking to us,
we're not checked out thinkingabout our business, because
(13:54):
that's really unhealthy.
It's bad for our kids, but it'salso bad for us, because
another thing that men aredifferent about is they don't
struggle with guilt and we'replagued by it.
We just we always feel likewhen we're showing up super
strong in our business, we'refailing our family, and when
we're really on with our family,oh gosh, like all the wheels
are coming off of my businessand I'm a bad business owner.
Those are really the mainthings that I'm seeing.
(14:18):
I would say a fourth one that Iam seeing a lot, especially
lately, is not understanding howto have clarity in our
messaging where I'll say tosomeone what do you do?
And she will go on for 13minutes straight without taking
a breath, because we tend to bemore verbose.
We struggle boiling down whatwe do in a way that's attractive
(14:40):
to people, which can reallyleave so much money on the table
and lead to a lack of sales.
Because if you can't explainwhat you do clearly and
specifically and in a veryattractive way, I can't buy from
you because I'm kind ofconfused about how you can help
me.
So I would say those are themain ones that I'm seeing and it
breaks my heart because justputting a few tools in her
(15:02):
toolbox, it really is thedifference between staying stuck
at a few hundred dollars amonth and really being able to
have consistent five figuremonths.
Not everyone wants that, but Ilike that figure and that that,
for a lot of American families,truly fundamentally changes that
family's financial health.
Camille (15:19):
Absolutely yeah, I think that algorithm proofing
your business.
I think that is a piece where Iwould love to hear your
personal experience with that,where you've had some incredible
launches without needing tohave this huge following.
So I'd love to hear how younurtured and created that so
(15:39):
that people really felt likethey could trust you, dm you and
be like I need your help.
Kelly (15:46):
Yes, it really starts and I see this a lot with you and
how your brand functions is youare somebody who cares about
people.
That cannot be faked.
And so that's where I think yousaid this on a podcast a few
podcasts ago, but you had saidsomething like like attracts
like, and I completely agreewith that.
So when you show up justauthentically and you are a
(16:07):
lover of people, people who willtrust that and not think you're
trying to manipulate them, theywill come in kind and then it
becomes this really beautiful,virtuous circle where I'm
showing up and pouring into themtotally for free.
I don't believe in gatekeepingand they feel that from me, post
COVID, there's just a lot ofpeople that are burning and
churning through their clientbase and hell hath no fury.
(16:30):
Like a woman scorned you dowrong by someone who purchased
from you, she telling everybodyabout that.
And on the opposite end of it,when you wow someone's socks off
, they tell everybody.
And I really am a very meat andpotatoes teacher.
So, to put teeth on this, onThanksgiving um, last year, you
(16:51):
know, thanksgiving, social mediais kind of dead.
Everybody's just eating pumpkinpie and drinking whatever, but
all of a sudden, my, my, um, Iusually have notifications off,
but I had them on.
My daughter was traveling.
There was a whole thing to that.
But I'm like, why am I pickingup followers?
Like it's hard to pick upfollowers if you didn't do
something or put, and I'mthinking this is honestly a
little weird, cause it was allback to back to back and I'm,
(17:15):
and then all of a sudden they'regetting my freebie and then all
of a sudden one of them joinedthe wait list for my group
program and I'm thinking this ishonestly weird.
I don't know if someone'spunking me.
And then one of my formerclients was like hey, don't be
freaked out.
I'm sitting around theThanksgiving table with my
friends and family and I wasjust saying it changed my life,
and so a few of them took outtheir phones.
And if that doesn't tell you analgorithm proof business, I
(17:36):
don't know what would.
If your people are havingincredible experiences and
loving on them is not enough,I'm going say It'll get you
pretty far.
You can have a pretty junkyproduct and love people well,
and they'll still buy from you.
People are so hungry for that.
But results there's too manydigital courses, too many
products and services thatthey're not getting results for
(17:58):
people and so you're not gonnahave that repeat business,
you're not gonna have referralsflowing in.
But when you do the one, twopunch of really obsessing over
your people and then having aproduct or service that just
wows people, I don't thinkthere's anything that can stop a
business owner that commitstheir life to that.
That's the biggest way toalgorithm proof your business.
I would say so.
(18:18):
I am very uncomfortable withrevenue.
Like people, I'm just like Iwould never have friends over
and tell them how much myhusband makes.
But there's all these femalebusiness coaches that just
literally post screenshots oftheir bank account and I get
that it can be inspirational,but I'm just like really weirded
out by that.
So I'm going to talk ingeneralities.
But I did have a multifive-figure launch, um with
(18:39):
about 900 followers.
Um, my email list at that timeprobably had a hundred people on
it 150.
So I want anyone, no matterwhat stage of business, to just
be encouraged that when you havethe right strategy, it's not a
volume game and to me that'sless work.
(19:00):
So I was on a podcast about thatlaunch and I noticed after that
podcast it's a pretty bigpodcast.
I'm getting all these followersfrom it, which is great.
I'm not going to complain.
But I freaked the heck outbecause I looked at their
accounts and some of them had amillion followers, 1.2 million
followers, 800,000.
And I'm like oh my word, oh myword, I have 950 followers.
(19:21):
I didn't go on Instagramstories the next day, which I
coach for free every day instories, camille.
I was so freaked out.
I'm like what, how can I helpthem?
They're going to think I'm afraud.
But my husband said he's like,clearly on that podcast they
heard that you can monetize atiny audience and they are
coming to you not for socialmedia help.
But they're like help me.
(19:42):
How are you doing when I andthat was actually the truth.
And then I've had two launchessince then.
Both of them were alsomulti-five figure launches.
Right now I'm sitting rightaround 1300 followers on
Instagram.
I'm not the coach to help yougo viral.
It's.
I mean, in six months I don'tknow what did I add Three 400
people.
So it's not, the growth isincremental.
But I will say this about socialmedia growth If you posted
(20:08):
about me tomorrow and said I hada great conversation with Kelly
and you tagged me and I justpick up one follower, that is
worth a thousand followers fromgoing viral.
And this is what I mean.
When someone is obsessed withyour brand and they've built a
really good community in theirbrand, your no like and trust
from I don't know about thisperson to I wanna buy what she
(20:31):
has is I'm holding my fingersabout two inches apart.
It's this long when you pick upfollowers because of a reel of
you dancing around lip syncingnothing wrong with that.
There's some strategy there notmy own personal, but you know,
teach his own.
But if you held that same pieceof string, tie it around the
moon, because that's about howlong it's going to take you to
(20:53):
nurture and build and get themto the place where they trust
you, because they don't knowanything about you.
And so one of the ways that I'vedone what I've done is I post
content that's never going to goviral.
It's high strategy, it'seducational, it's not share it
with your business bestie anddie laughing because it's so
relatable.
I don't post a lot of relatablecontent.
I post good content.
(21:13):
There's nothing wrong withposting relatable content,
helping them feel seen and allthat stuff.
It's just when I go to bed atnight.
I only feel good if I felt likeI really served in a really
profound way, where I feel likeopening up a vein and just
pouring into people.
And when I don't do that, Idon't actually like how it makes
me feel as a human.
(21:33):
But educational content doesn'tgo viral, but what it does is
people will repost and say thisis my business coach or I'm
going to take her success squadin the fall.
And even if it's three followers, camille, I am not lying when I
say most of the time they geton the wait list for my group
program within 24 hours.
So you think about that stringanalogy.
(21:55):
I would rather the string betwo inches long than all the way
to the moon and back long.
It's less work to do it the waythat I'm doing it, but I think,
as women you said this sobeautifully on a podcast a
couple of podcasts ago but weare designed to care and nurture
, and so that's why the cold DMs, the cold prospecting, doing
(22:15):
things that make us feel reallycruddy, it's not the way I
prefer to lean into.
The way that I was designed,which is to be a nurturer, to
care about people.
I really feel good about mybusiness Truth, like from the
bottom of my heart, camille,like I've never been in a place
like this where I just feel it'sso authentic and even if it's
not flashy, even if it's notsexy, even if it's not going to
(22:37):
go viral, I just I go to bedevery night and I'm like this is
freaking amazing.
Like I can't believe I'mgetting to build like this and
getting DMs from people.
Hey, I can't afford any of yourstuff, but you're changing my
life.
Hey, my husband and I just wenton our first date in six years.
You literally are changing mymarriage Like I.
I'm crying right now.
I mean, I cry over it.
(22:58):
I'm like this is just such ablessing and no matter what.
I mean.
I'm about to see a businesscoach, but whether someone's a
virtual assistant or a socialmedia manager, or you had that
attorney on it, doesn't matterwhat industry you're in.
Caring about your people andhaving a kick butt product or
service is such a rarity.
I feel like the bar is so low,especially in the U?
(23:19):
S right now, that if women willjust lean into the way we
actually are designed tofunction anyway, I think the sky
is the limit for us in thetwenties and thirties.
Camille (23:31):
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day-to-day tasks that keep youfrom scaling your business?
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I am offering a free discoverycall to help you identify
(23:54):
exactly what you need to do andhow to find the right virtual
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the rest.
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I love this perspective.
It's giving me a lot of thoughtbecause, having been in social
creation for so long, I get soburnt out of doing it the rat
(24:44):
race way where.
That's why I'm like well, Ihave someone who posts for me
and I'm not on it all the timebecause it just feels icky to me
sometimes.
So where you're saying gettingon and doing education and
making it valuable, but not likethat you're trying to be viral,
that really rings true with me.
(25:05):
I'm like I should show up morewith my face because I feel like
sometimes I've been in thisworld for so long that I'll take
a step back and just protect mypeace of like I don't need to
be on there every day, like Ican, you know, do it from this
back door, this other way, orhaving these really meaningful
conversations through thepodcast.
I love this.
So I love that you're treatingsocial media that way, because
(25:28):
that totally rings with me ofthat relationship of trust, that
one-on-one that you really carethat.
That is where thoserelationships build.
So I'm curious for actuallylaunching the product, the
service, the group coaching orthe runway.
What does that look like interms of how you roll that out
(25:50):
to have such a successful launch?
Kelly (25:53):
This is a highly strategic question, so I'm gonna
try not to squirrel brain anddo this methodically, which is
almost painful for me, but I'mgoing to try to lay this out,
okay.
So one of the things, one ofthe biggest compliments I get
from my group program girls, isthat I'm a product of my product
.
They see me with my feet up atnoon on a Friday sitting outside
(26:14):
having a glass of wine with myhusband.
They they see me living thisout and they always laugh
because the day the cart closeson the group program, the day,
camille, I'm telling you I'llsay hey, doors are closed, you
can't get in.
Next round is in six months.
Here's the wait list.
They crack up.
They're like you are fillingthat wait list literally the
same day that we're launching,and that's how I do it.
(26:37):
I compare it to a drone versus a747.
So if you have low ticket whichwas super popular 2020 to 2023,
you it was like a drone in yourhand.
You didn't need a runway.
You could post an adorable reel, comment the word blank and you
could sell 100 of those becauseit's low ticket, higher ticket
and high ticket is let's definethe terms right.
(26:57):
So for some people it's over500.
Some people it's over 500.
Some people it's over 1,000.
Some people it's over 2,000.
So my program's around $2,000.
I consider that mid-ticket, butsome people consider it high
ticket.
The bigger the ticket, thelonger the runway.
You're talking 747, baby.
So it's not a drone, and what Isee people do wrong with their
launches is they're trying tolaunch a 747 from the palm of
their hand, meaning they juststart showing up in a complete
(27:19):
tizzy and panic five days beforecart open.
It does not work that way.
So to me, the success squad isa 747.
And so she needs a long runway.
I have a goal to talk about thesuccess squad every single week.
I run it three times a year.
Because it's running threetimes a year, it's be.
(27:39):
I'm always playing with it, butit's between an eight and 12
week program, give or takeprobably a little bit over half
the year.
I'm running the program andremember, I'm not tooting my
horn, but I only care about theresults.
It's a results heavy program.
So every week I'm getting DMs.
Omg, I literally just doubledmy revenue, or like even just
Kelly.
I colored with mythree-year-old today and I
(28:01):
haven't done that in over sixmonths.
I'm mortified, but also I'mcrying.
I'm so happy I screenshot those, put them in stories.
Here's the wait list.
Here's the wait list.
So the social proof is such apowerful thing, especially with
the results driven program.
So once a week, all the timewhen it's not running, I am
pointing to that wait list andfilling up that wait list.
I did invest in an amazingconversion copywriter because,
(28:22):
in my opinion, we're all tooclose to our own business.
We don't always communicate itas clearly as we should.
I believe that a conversioncopywriter should not use AI and
they should interview pastclients and those are deal
breakers for me.
If they're not willing to dothat, I don't want to talk to
them because it's a timeinvestment.
A lot of people don't want todo that.
I don't want to talk to themBecause it's a it's a time
investment.
A lot of people don't want todo it.
So her name is Gina Whitehouse.
Fantastic, she redid the salespage for the success squad and
(28:45):
it's so much better.
It's just it reads really well.
I think that actually is partof why the launches went well.
I'm always filling thatwaitlist and then, like a 747
about to take off, it goesfaster as it's about to lift up
off the runway.
So four weeks out, I starttalking about it two times a
week, talking about the waitlist, talking about the wins I
really am so heavy in the futureand the feelings I forget to
(29:09):
talk about the features.
I've had people take theprogram You're going to laugh,
camille but they'll say there'slive calls.
I didn't know that, like, Iliterally give her the details
but they hear the results andthey're like whatever it is.
Camille (29:21):
Whatever it is, I'm in.
Kelly (29:22):
Yeah, do I need to fly to your house?
I'm not totally sure.
What do we do here?
So they're always pleasantly ina good way surprised at what's
in there, because I really don'ttalk about the features a lot.
People don't care about that.
They don't care Tuesdays at 12PM, it doesn't matter if they're
investing, they're going tomake space for that thing,
whatever that thing is.
And then, two weeks out, I'mevery day, I'm talking about it
every day.
(29:43):
I'm obviously a very excitableperson, but I would say to
anyone who has a launch-basedbusiness your enthusiasm sells.
Stop talking with your lips amillimeter apart.
Show your teeth, show thesparkle.
So I'm always like I want tosee the teeth and I want to see
the sparkle in your eye.
Light me up, even if I don'tneed it.
I think that we get nervous tosell, and so our body language
(30:04):
actually makes it uncomfortablefor people to watch it.
So I like expansive, like putyour shoulders back.
This is how meat and potatoes Iam.
I'm like literally tellingpeople how to present themselves
.
And then I do cart open, cartclose On my size program.
Cart open should probably betwo weeks, but I don't want to
launch for two weeks.
It's taxing.
It's emotional.
I would be lying if I didn'tsay there's highs and lows.
(30:24):
I beat myself up sometimes.
It doesn't always go the way Iwanted it to go, and so I limit
it to a week and I don't work onthe weekends ever during launch
.
So three times a year I'll workSaturdays, but even during cart
open, I never work Sundays.
I'm a recovered workaholic.
That is a hard and fast rule.
I don't do chores on Sunday.
(30:45):
I don't cook, I don't do mybusiness.
Sunday is like my the youngpeople call it rotting day, like
I don't do anything besides goto church and hang out with my
family.
I do nothing, um, but so Ireally.
I basically launched a biggerprogram in six days.
One of the days I'm radiosilent.
There's nothing there's nothinggoing out for my business.
It's just the way that I chooseto to to present myself.
It's it's important to me.
(31:05):
I've made a lot of mistakes inmy life being a workaholic.
I've often put work before myfamily, and so when I started to
build Walk Like Warriors, Iliterally wrote down a set of
rules for myself that I willhonor and never break, and
that's one of them.
I don't work holidays, I don'twork on Sundays and I don't work
the last week of the year ever.
So like.
There's just these little rulesthat I made for myself.
(31:27):
But essentially, if people willbe showing the proof that this
works, have a lot of clarity intheir messaging, always be
filling the wait list and thentreat it like a 747, not a drone
as you get closer, whatessentially you want is it would
literally be impossible foranyone following or subscribed
to not know that you'relaunching.
(31:48):
That's what you're going for,and I'll have people say but Kel
, if I do that, I'm going tolose followers.
Can we talk about how ironicthat is for a second?
The reason that you have youremail list is drum roll.
It's to make sales.
I would think right, cause if Ijust wanted to email people, I
would just write letters Like Idon't really understand.
I, my Instagram, my threads,youtube all of it is to serve
(32:11):
the purpose of building mybusiness.
So to then not sell onlybecause of numbers that don't
lead to sales, that, to me, justblows my mind.
I actually, if I'm coachingsomeone, I encourage them to
lose 1% of their followersduring launch.
The reason because women dobetter when it can be gamified.
So my girls would be like Ididn't lose any followers today,
(32:31):
but I promise I'm gonna losesome tomorrow.
And I'm like yes, girl, youhave to push.
You have to stop being afraidand getting your feelings hurt
If someone here's the thing,camille, because you do so much
high value content, I mean, thispodcast is unbelievable.
Oh, you're sweet, thank you.
Second, you try to sell andthey're like ew, gross, oh, my
gosh, how dare she?
(32:51):
They're never buying from you,so you have to have the one-two
punch of pouring into them.
But then when you sell, it'salmost impossible to lose
followers.
Like most of my people are likeget it, girl, you deserve it.
You deserve it.
You deserve to have this launchbecause they see that 52 weeks
a year I will there's verylittle I will not do for my
community.
And so when you've got that,you have to stop being afraid.
(33:13):
Like people will say I've never.
I'll say how many subscribers doyou lose during cart open?
None, okay.
Well, you're doing it wrong.
I'm just telling you.
You have to lose some, and it'salso a good thing because you
want to call, you want to callthe herd right.
So you end up with too manyfreebie takers.
If you don't sell and push hardsometimes and if, as long as
you're doing your part of thedeal, which is really showing up
(33:33):
and not gatekeeping and pouringinto your community, they don't
care when you sell and pushhard.
But I think women reallystruggle with launching.
They don't give themselves along enough runway and then,
when it's time to push, theyhold so much back and they leave
so much on the table and I wantcart closed to be.
There's nothing left in the gastank.
She's running on fumes.
(33:54):
That, to me, is a reallybeautiful launch and one that
win or lose.
I can sleep well because I knowI really did put my all into it
.
Camille (34:03):
That's amazing.
What would you say from yourlaunches?
They've become more and moresuccessful.
What are some things youlearned from maybe the first one
or two times that you launched,that you changed or modified
three, four?
Kelly (34:16):
In the interest of customer obsession it is, so
it's probably it's dripped outweekly.
I'm trying to think of how manyhours of videos, lessons, all
of it, but essentially I'veburned it down every single time
.
I've run it and started againbased on the feedback, and every
time I've done that it'sprobably cost me, I would say,
between 100 and 150 hours oftime to redo the entire thing,
(34:41):
and I did that the first threetimes.
So it's gotten better andbetter to the point where
there's not really a lot thatthey're telling me like oh, I'm
confused about that.
So we got that dialed in andthey tell everyone about it
because they see how hard I'mworking to make this as
impactful as possible.
And I appreciate you sayingthey've gotten better and better
.
But one of the things that'sreally important to me with my
(35:03):
brand is integrity.
So fall didn't sell out, but itwas.
I mean it was like a $30,000launch.
I mean I was stunned.
I literally had my hand over mymouth.
January we opened the doors tothe waitlist.
It sold out in eight hours.
Wow, I had no words.
My VA was here.
We were like jumping up anddown.
It was crazy.
(35:24):
But the spring which I just ran,which again multi five-figure
launch.
It didn't sell out.
So I always want to be honestwith people that it's not always
up and to the right.
Spring launches tend to besofter launches for any business
.
It's a pretty hard time to fill.
But people were like, oh mygosh, you sold out, you sold.
These are all their names onthe wall behind me and I was
like, no, no, no, some of thoseare alumni.
(35:44):
The alumni can come back at us.
I try to go above and beyond tobe like hey, hey, hey, it's not
always.
It gets better and better.
Um, I was predicting that it's.
I basically got the exactnumber that I had predicted.
Did I want it to sell out onopening day to the early birds?
Yes, it's so much easier andmore fun to fill the program
when you're like it sells outevery time you've got to get in.
(36:04):
But I won't be able.
I a lot of it for me issleeping at night, so I will not
be able to sleep at night if Ihave come across, as it's only
gotten better.
I made a huge oopsie with mywaitlist.
I put too many images,screenshots of testimonials in
those emails and I got put inspam jail for my launch.
So my launch emails in everyround before were about 80 to
(36:27):
90% open rates and for thespring launch I had a 12% open
rate because of something I did,and I know that the image to
text ratio matters.
I'm very careful about thatwith my newsletters, but for
some reason when I was creatingthose launch emails it just
logic went out the window and Iwas like, oh, this one's so good
and I'm pulling all these in,and some of those emails had 10
screenshots of testimonials.
(36:48):
So every major email providerput me in spam jail and none of
those emails got delivered to mywaitlist.
So it's just things like that.
You know, life happens.
I think the key to being asuccessful entrepreneur is grit
getting punched in the face,keep getting up.
But also a growth mindset isyes, did I get a little teary
eyed?
Yeah, I was stunned that I madethat kind of mistake.
(37:09):
As seasoned as I am in business, I was embarrassed.
I was.
I felt bad because my VA was soexcited and it was just not a
great launch for I mean, I, youknow it.
Just it was rough for like anhour and then it was.
My first thought was cause Ihave a monthly membership after
you grab graduate the groupprogram.
Oh, this is going to be suchgreat content for them.
Like I immediately just andthat like a growth mindset is
(37:31):
it's okay to feel sad.
It's not like toxic positivityor anything, but it's always.
What can I learn from this?
Camille (37:37):
How is?
Kelly (37:37):
this experience going to make me better.
So I think if you've got gritand you've got a growth mindset
and I do, and so it's not alwaysup and to the right as a
business owner and I think it'sbeing able to take those
disappointing moments it's okayto feel the feelings, but not
like to me personally.
My limits like 24 hours.
I'm allowed to wallow for 24hours but it's like, girl, pick
yourself up.
Nothing bad happened, You'restill fine and just keep going.
(38:00):
So I don't know what happenswith my launches.
I think it's a little bit allover the place.
January in the education fieldis kind of our Superbowl.
It's a little bit easier tofill programs in January.
Fall is another great time.
Spring, I think, might justalways be soft, but the ones in
there are having such great winsthat I just feel like it's
worth it, no matter what.
Camille (38:21):
Yeah, I can relate to that a hundred percent because I
feel like, as women, we haveseasons where we're ready to
buckle in, and I've experiencedthe same thing fall, beginning
of the year, great spring, it'sharder.
So I totally see that too.
I'm curious.
I was actually presenting to agroup of women at my house on it
was just a couple of nights ago, and you say you have ADHD, and
(38:43):
one of the women there was likeI'm starting this piercing
business, I am doing this, butit's so hard for me to stay
focused.
I get these ideas.
I, you know squirrel.
She's like it's obvious youdon't.
And I'm like well, I don't know.
Sometimes I feel like I do, butI don't know what is it about?
Or skill sets, or advice youwould give to her of how you
(39:06):
have built such a successful,systematic business, where
you're like I do this twice aweek, I do this.
It's very you've ironed thisout.
Where it's, you're doing thethings and it seems like you're
doing it with purpose andsequence and you and it's a
rhythm.
How are you doing that withADHD?
Kelly (39:24):
Yes, and if you saw just to the right, my closet in my
office, you I have to step overa three foot high pile to be
able to get to my bed chair,which is where I have like my
Bible and prayer reading in themorning Like I have to like step
over piles.
It's my personal life is a mess.
But some of the credit goes tomy parents.
They were pretty type A.
They demanded excellence not inan unhealthy way, so I'm not
(39:45):
saying they demanded perfection,but they did demand that we
gave it our all and I think thatin any other environment I
wouldn't be able to function ata high level.
But it made them proud.
And then I started to realize Ifeel good when I'm bringing in
my very best.
I feel good, but I did learnthat the systems of the world
don't help me.
They never have, and I spentway too many years of my life
(40:07):
beating the crap out of myselfbecause why can't I just get
this?
And I would do the little colorcoded 30 minute things on my
calendar and then I would lookat the clock and I'm seven
minutes behind and then I wouldseriously feel like a panic
attack.
Camille (40:17):
Oh yeah.
Kelly (40:18):
It was like and then I I remember taking a step back.
This was right after I pivotedfrom director of ops to this and
I was like what am I doing?
Nobody is making me live likethat that's how my time mastery
system was developed was like.
And I think you do somethingsimilar in that you theme your
(40:40):
days.
So I was just like okay, I know, as a director of ops, there
are six areas of business thatmake it holistically healthy.
Most women just focus on socialmedia, let's be honest.
But if these six are strong,it's almost impossible for that
business owner not to besuccessful.
So I'm like I bet you there's away for me to manipulate this
so that one day of the week isdevoted to this.
One day of the week is kind ofdevoted to this.
And obviously I'm saying six,but I work five days.
(41:00):
But there's a couple that arelighter and I'm like I bet you I
could put those two together.
And then there's some stuffthat doesn't happen.
So I just started to play aroundwith it and an ADHD business
owner said to me she's likeKelly, I got to ask you I mean,
how do you you're so highfunctioning, how are you doing
this?
And Camille.
I was embarrassed.
I was like, okay, I'm going toshare my screen but don't laugh.
(41:21):
And she's like I'm not going tolaugh.
But essentially it's kind ofyou picture like a spreadsheet,
but like a pretty one, a fun one.
So I like novelty, so I changethe way it looks all the time,
but I also need those dopaminehits.
So part of our deal, part of ourproblem, is we don't get the
same satisfaction from doingwhat I call boring things as
normal, like neuro, like normalpeople.
(41:42):
If they clean the house, theytake us, take a step back and
they're like, oh, this is good,I'm not.
I'm like, oh my gosh, this is7000 tasks.
You know what?
I'm just going to go to TraderJoe's Like I just I don't when
I'm facing stuff that I don'twant to do.
I just decided to do somethingelse.
So this system I made littledropdown boxes in a Google sheet
where it's everything is on redR-E-D and then as I do it, it
(42:06):
changes from incomplete tocomplete and this is psychology
says you can give yourselflittle hits of dopamine like
that.
So as I do them, it's kind oflike that whole just feeling
like you crumpled up a post-itnote and threw it in the garbage
Cause you did the task on it,um, and then, when I shared it
with her, she said would youshare that with me?
I'd like, I'd like to just tryit.
And how honestly I wasmortified.
(42:27):
I'm like this is so stupid.
People are going to think I'mthree because it's color-coded
everything.
Camille (42:31):
I love it.
Kelly (42:32):
Yeah, she like a week later she said she said I mean
she was crying.
She said I went from working 70hours a week, I'm working like
20.
I don't even understand, butpart of the system is is you sit
down and you know exactly whatto do and it's a workflow and
you do it and it usually onlytakes one of this time because
(42:58):
you're training your brain.
On Monday we do these andbecause it's only Monday, every
day kind of feels fresh.
It's not trying to do the samethings every day, but I think
it's one of those things where alot of our success is hidden in
the weird parts of ourselvesthat we think wouldn't help
anyone else, but they're theexact things that help people
like us.
So I would say to her she needsa system like that.
(43:19):
She needs to kind of feed insome some dopamine, that you
know what.
The reason the men's systemsdon't work for me is I don't get
rewarded for doing any of thestuff, and so it feels like a
slog and so I put it off.
This is why.
So this is being recorded.
Obviously, in the spring I'mseeing this everywhere Business
owners are really in troublewith their taxes, and it's
because, first of all,entrepreneurship tends to
(43:41):
attract people with ADD and ADHD.
I think it's a superpower.
We just have to learn to getaround like our kryptonite parts
of it.
But it's because no one lovesdoing that in the week to week,
and so we let it pile up.
We let it pile up and then allof a sudden we're pulling our
hair out and we're crying in theshower because we've made such
a mess of our finances, and so Ifigured out a way to make that
(44:01):
fun for myself.
So it's really about how can Imake it fun.
Also, how can I make it prettybut also make it so that it
feels doable and achievable?
And I would also encourage herto use an analog timer.
I don't want my women usingtimers on their phones.
Why?
Timer goes off.
We hit stop.
We're scrolling reels.
Two hours go by.
Oh, no what was I supposed to be.
So I use literally an analogtimer.
(44:24):
I'll show it to you and it's adisappearing one.
It's designed for people withADHD, so the circle actually
disappears as the clock ticksdown.
The circle actually disappearsas the clock ticks down and
that's been profoundly helpful,and part of it's because of
Parkinson's law.
So our work expands to fill thetime we give it.
And one of the problems withentrepreneurship is we have
quote unquote all day, and soall these tasks, like these 15
(44:45):
tasks, take six hours.
But if we use the timer and didthem in an ordered way, they
would take 50 minutes.
It's just no one listening tome believes that it will,
because we're so used to beingdistracted and ping ponging.
So it's just developing systems.
She'll find her way.
But what I would reallyencourage her is understand that
the books at Barnes and Nobleand on Amazon they're not going
(45:08):
to help you.
They are not designed forpeople like us, and that's okay.
We just we make our own systemsand it's incredibly freeing.
When I was in corporate I didn'thave a problem like I have now,
but that's because you'reoperating.
The meeting starts at 11.
This is at 1145, like you're bythe clock.
In entrepreneurship.
That all went out the windowand I very quickly realized this
(45:29):
ain't going to work for me.
I either will not be able togrow my business or it'll grow.
But I'm going to be workingseven days a week, 12 hours a
day, not enjoying family movienight.
Neither of those optionssounded appealing to me, so I
just broke the system, made myown way, and the wild thing is
it works for so many otherpeople, so that's been a
blessing.
Camille (45:49):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Well, this has all been sohelpful.
I want to get that littleanalog timer.
That is so cute.
I love that.
It's rainbow too, For those ofyou watching on the video you
can see that, but maybe we canfind it.
Link it below.
Tell our audience where theycan find you and learn from you
and I know many of them well,because I am so excited to do
(46:11):
the same.
Kelly (46:12):
Thank you so much.
So the website iswalklikewarriorscom.
Over on Instagram.
Somebody had that name, sothere's underscores between the
words.
So walk like warriors I coachfor free and Instagram stories
Monday through Friday, butthey're just underscores between
them.
If you'll know you found theright one.
It's a bright yellow.
Yellow is my favorite colorcolor behind my headshot, so if
(46:32):
you land on, that page.
Camille (46:33):
You're in the right place.
Awesome.
And for someone with ADHD, I'mcurious with posting on
Instagram and doing stories.
What is your schedule andstrategy there before I let you
go, because I think that thatwould be interesting to know.
Kelly (46:46):
So good?
Yes, we do well with a fewgentle frameworks, but not where
we feel like a prison.
Camille (46:51):
Right so.
Kelly (46:53):
I basically 5% of my of my workflow.
It's called time mastery.
I do for free and Instagramstories, and so on Monday, it's
admin day.
I get in every Monday.
Hey, hey, it's Monday, it'sadmin day.
Here's some things you can bethinking about and working on.
Or the following Monday, I'llsay this is why we do this like
this.
I don't have meetings on Monday.
(47:13):
Why?
Because it makes it really easyto have three day weekends when
I want them.
So then on Tuesday, hey, it'scontent creation day, and so
that kind of gives me a nicegentle framework, and if I don't
feel like doing that that day,then I just talk about whatever
random things are on my on myheart to share.
I think, as I'm, I'm so close tothe people I'm serving, I'm
coaching so much that a lot oftimes it's driven by.
(47:36):
I just get off a call and I'mlike, hey, I wanna talk about
this.
Women are not packing thenumbers in their business.
This is gonna break yourbusiness.
We don't wanna go from the gut,we wanna make sure we're
measuring, and so a lot of it isfree flowing.
So this might resonate with you.
I like gentle boundaries thatnothing bad happens if I break
them, and so I do that.
That actually, time masteryplays so well into Instagram
(47:58):
stories because, if nothing else, I know I can talk like that,
but some of your listeners mightbe like, nice for you, I don't
have that.
Anyone can do that.
If you're a health coach,monday, just you don't have to
be like it's Monday, it's myCostco find day, just on Monday.
You share your Costco find Onfind day just on Monday.
You share your Costco find OnTuesday.
You're sharing something, astretch you can do from your
desk for three like you don'thave to announce it, but it just
gives you this nice rhythmwhere you're never like uh.
(48:27):
What do I do today?
Yeah, cause that's where we getfrozen.
Totally.
Yes, exactly, but it is.
It's very, very helpful if ithelps people, like when I'm
first to be doing.
Camille (48:33):
Oh, that's helpful.
And then are you posting in thefeed a certain amount of times,
or what do you do there?
Kelly (48:39):
Yes, I am.
I believe in batching.
Research shows that batchingleads to better content.
So that's a big thing for me isI'm all about strategy, but
also batching empowers me.
I don't know how you are, but Ialways have a couple of days of
the month where I want to burndown my business, my house and
everybody so don't look at me.
Camille (48:58):
I don't want to be on camera Exactly.
Kelly (49:00):
So it serves me well in that I just I mean, on Monday I
was a very low energy day.
I had content ready to pump out, I didn't have to do anything.
Everything's on autopilot in mybusiness and it was 1201.
And I was drinking CabernetSauvignon and watching Pride and
Prejudice.
And I looked at the clock andI'm like this is wild that I get
to do this.
But I believe in rhythms of work, play and rest.
(49:21):
So I work.
When it's time to work, I workreally hard, but when it's not
time to be working, I playreally hard.
And so following this rhythm,this pattern to my week, has
been incredibly empowering.
I think it's why I don't haveto think about work when I'm not
working, because I put so manysystems into place.
So I'm batching, but we hadtalked before the interview.
(49:43):
I am, I'm I'm really stronglyconsidering a social media
strategist firm agency,something, because I think my
Instagram content is in storiesis good.
I have no strategy for the feed.
I mean, I batch but I'm not.
If I want to grow, it'sprobably time to call in an
expert, because I have sort ofthis cavalier attitude toward it
, like, ah, I don't need that,I'm just going to keep doing my
(50:05):
thing, but the business isgrowing and scaling so fast.
I really I love like your workwith virtual assistants.
We have to stop doing so muchstuff ourselves.
So VA, like my virtualassistant, it's like it needs to
be people's first hire, in myopinion.
I just there's such a demandfor good ones, but I think it's
I'm getting near the time wheremaybe offloading some social
media I'll never give over thestories.
(50:26):
I love being in Instagramstories, but the feed itself
just not my favorite.
I'll create the content, I justwant someone else to schedule
it.
Camille (50:33):
Yeah, I'm right there with you, all right, Well,
perfect.
Let's finish this up with thetwo questions I always ask,
which is what are you reading,watching or listening to, and a
motherhood moment that you'dlike to share Reading?
Kelly (50:47):
I just finished the best book on sales that I have read
in my life and that is sayingsomething because I'm a
voracious reader.
It was written in the 1920s sosome of it is dated, but it is
like the best sales strategiesby Frank Betcher and it's called
how I raised myself fromfailure to success in selling.
I annotated.
I shouldn't have even writtenin it because every paragraph is
(51:08):
written on now, so it's hard toread a fantastic book, good old
fashioned selling strategy.
There.
Keith and I are watchingDaredevil right now, and so
that's been good.
I'm not a huge Marvel, dc, Idon't know about that stuff, but
it's actually pretty good and Iknow.
So the motherhood questionright, I'm going to share this.
Okay, I'm going to try not tocry.
(51:29):
My kids are teens and youngadults.
It's by far my favorite stage,my absolute favorite stage to be
a mom.
But last night my one son he'smarried.
He lives like 30 minutes northof here he needed to pick
something up from our house.
My daughter, who's engaged it,just they all converged here and
we had a meal together and Ijust looked around the kitchen
and I'm like this is it?
(51:50):
Just, I don't believe in likeyour kids have to call you every
day or anything like that.
But it was just this profoundmoment of my dad says it's like
a bird feeder where they leave,they come back, they leave, they
come back.
I'm really at an interestingpoint in my life where my adult
kids really love to hang outhere.
My teenagers do.
It's just like I never knowwhen it's going to happen, but
it's just magical that I'm notbegging and pleading for them to
(52:12):
be at every holiday.
It's just more they will say,hey, can I come out and we'll
have a meal together at random.
And to the people with littlekids, every second of the behind
the scenes work is so worth it,cause if you want what I have
now, it's in all of those hiddensecret moments as a mommy that
stuff nobody sees.
(52:34):
That leads to healthy outcomesin teenagers and young adults.
But it's just been like we'llplay card games, board games.
We've moved.
I know not everyone likes this,but we've moved more into
friend territory.
They don't need to be parentedanymore when they're on their
own.
It is more like mutual respect,and putting in the time to
raise people that you actuallylove to hang out with is so
(52:56):
worth it so yeah, that's theultimate goal.
Camille (52:59):
I'm so, so happy for you it like is making me
emotional because that, if Icould like I tell my parents
that's how I was raised is wewant to be together and spend
that time, and nothing no amountof money, success, anything
like that can take the place ofthat.
So thank you for sharing that.
And, oh my gosh, you gave us somuch good information.
(53:22):
I'm just so, so grateful.
Thank you for being on the showand to everyone listening.
Thank you for being here andwe'll check in with you next
time.
Thank you so much for listeningto this episode of Call Me CEO.
Anytime that you leave a ratingor review, it is a big help to
us.
So please do that and don'tforget to subscribe.
(53:43):
And if you are looking forsystematizing your business,
bringing in team members,helping you to create more white
space in your business that issomething that I help people
with every single day.
I love it so much you can reachout to me at camillewalkerco.
That's my Instagram and I alsohave a second Instagram at call
(54:05):
me CEO podcast.
My website is camillewalkerco.
Thank you again.
We'll see you next time.
Hey CEOs, thank you so much forspending your time with me.
If you found this episodeinspiring or helpful, please let
me know, in a comment, in afive-star review, you could have
the chance of being a featuredreview on an upcoming episode.
Continue the conversation onInstagram at callmeCEOPodcast,
(54:28):
and remember you are the boss.
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