September 1, 2025 • 24 mins
Cut The Tie Podcast with Brian Keltner & Francesca Kenney
What happens when two co-founders build multiple ventures without ever meeting in person? In this episode of Cut The Tie, host Thomas Helfrich sits down with Brian Keltner and Francesca Kenney, co-founders of ELEV8ORS, to talk about how they’re reinventing networking.
From nearly choking on their first phone call together to launching a global B2B community in just 8 weeks, Brian and Francesca share how they help entrepreneurs shift from “me, me, me” pitching to relationship-first ecosystems. Their secret? Small groups of 8, immersive environments, and a culture of listening for impact.
About Brian & Francesca
Brian Keltner and Francesca Kenney are the co-founders of ELEV8ORS, a virtual B2B networking company built on the principle of elevating others. With decades of combined experience in marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship, they designed ELEV8ORS as an antidote to pitch-fests—focusing instead on authentic relationships, structured agendas, and immersive virtual spaces. Their mission is simple: help entrepreneurs build meaningful networks that grow businesses faster.
In this episode, Thomas, Brian, and Francesca discuss:
- From strangers to partners
How a chance introduction and a hilarious near-death choking incident sparked a lasting business partnership. - Why 8 matters
The symbolism, science, and practicality of keeping networking groups capped at 8 members. - From idea to revenue in 8 weeks
The sprint that took ELEV8ORS from concept to international cash flow. - Cutting ties with time-wasters
Why saying no to unproductive tasks, software, and people frees you to focus on what matters. - Immersive meetings over Zoom fatigue
How a 3D virtual environment beats traditional video calls and deepens connections.
Key Takeaways
- Small rooms, big outcomes
Eight is the sweet spot—large groups leave people out. - Relationships beat pitches
Networking works when it’s about who you can help, not what you sell. - Iterate quickly
Launch, learn, and improve—don’t wait for perfection. - Simplify your stack
The right tools can replace several wrong ones and save time. - Community is a system
Be intentional about who you gather and how you engage.
Connect with Brian & Francesca
🌐 Website: https://elev8ors.net
📎 LinkedIn (Brian): https://www.linkedin.com/in/briankeltner1/
📎 LinkedIn (Francesca): https://www.linkedin.com/in/francescakenney/
Connect with Thomas Helfrich
🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 Instantly Relevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com
Serious about LinkedIn Lead Generation? Stop Guessing what to do on LinkedIn and ignite revenue from relevance with Instantly Relevant Lead System
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast.
Once again, I am your host,thomas Helfrich.
I'm here to help you cut thetide of whatever it is holding
you back from success, and thatsuccess has got to be defined by
you and no one else, because ifyou don't define that success,
you're living someone else'sdream, and that's no bueno.
So today I'm joined by Brianand Francisca.
How are you two?
It's a team today coming at me.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, we're going to double up on you and I think
just from talking to you brieflyyou're going to handle it just
fine, so I'm going to be fine.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I don't know who's going to do this, but you guys
have to figure your order outhere.
All right, but why don't youtake a moment to tell you that
I've known Brian for, we think,about four years we're not quite
sure how long it's been, butone of the unique stories about
us is that we've never met andwe've done a bunch of different
ventures together, and so Ithink today we're going to talk
about elevators, which is ourlatest venture.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you, francesca.
I'm Brian Keltner and I'm withFrancesca all the way, francesca
and Brian Keltner and, um, I'mwith Francesca all the way.
So it's, it's been an amazinguh ride getting to know somebody
in such an in-depth way, uh,and never and never meeting it's
been, it's been a uniquejourney.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I mean, this is going to be an up and down
conversation.
I can tell you didn't see thatone coming.
Then clearly, the doors areclosed on you.
You, I'm sorry, I'm gonna stopnow.
All right, we're gonna talkabout elevators, um, uh, first,
so you've never met that.
How did you?
You know, you guys are doing abusiness together, so I I'm
gonna leave.
This is like maybe out of the.
How do you build that trust?
(01:38):
How did you meet what?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
yeah, you know what I'm.
I'm gonna take this Francescabecause it brings a tear to my
eye just thinking about it,because Francesca almost killed
me on our first encounter and weboth were working with a is a
money person, she's a CPA, she'sincredible at this right, and
(02:07):
I'm more of a marketer, more ofa.
You know, let's go out and chatwith people and I'm thinking
this is going to be a horriblephone call.
I'm not looking for it.
It's like going to the dentist.
I don't want to talk to afinancial person.
Are you kidding me?
And we're on there on a phone.
I'm having an adult beverage,enjoying it.
I'm like trying to get into it.
(02:27):
This will be it.
And she's absolutely funny,hilarious, and I'm in the midst
of having a drink and she saidsomething that was funny.
I couldn't catch my breath.
I'm about ready to go under.
I'm seeing stars.
She's laughing the whole time.
We're having such a goodconversation I don't want to
hang up, but finally I'm able tocatch my my breath and carry on
.
But it was the point to where Iwas seeing stars and the whole
(02:47):
time she's laughing.
Are you okay?
Yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
That's how we met and we became best friends since
that's so cool up into yourcurrent endeavor is uh elevators
, I mean uh elevate.
What are you doing in theelevators?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
space, yeah, so elevate e-l-e-v-8-o-r-s eight is
important to us and there'sreasons behind that.
But, um, we wanted to upliftother business owners so b2b
business and lift them up.
We both know the power ofhaving not just a referral
partner but an ecosystem and wewant to help other people do
(03:23):
that.
So in essence, we are elevatorsand elevating them in their
business.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Now, is it a?
Is it a like an affiliatemarketing network type of piece?
Where you're?
You're just getting almost likea vetting system of people you
would work with.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
There is some vetting going on there, absolutely, but
it it's.
It's a virtual b2b networkingcommunity.
So the people gone tonetworking events all the time
and we have to, and we've seenthe ugly and the horrors of it.
It's like it's it becomes apitch fest.
You know, um, here's my product.
I'm a widget maker.
(03:59):
You know, if you know anybodythat needs a widget, come send,
send them to me.
And it's just the next person,same pitch, and we got tired of
this.
It's like nobody's building arelationship and what would be
the best way of doing that?
So we were actually workingwith another networking group, a
virtual networking group, andit was like this isn't true to
(04:20):
who we are and we need to dosomething different.
So Francesca sends me this text.
She goes I think we need tostart our own networking group.
My response immediately wasI've been waiting six months to
hear this and we did.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, it was a Sunday morning.
I sent Brian the text.
I was on my way to a client.
I said I'll call you after I'mdone.
That night I think within twohours we had the whole concept
for elevators and Brian and Iboth dabble in the.
You know the spiritual worldand understanding and numerology
is important.
And so eight is really.
When you look at what an eightrepresents, it's an octave, it's
(05:00):
a harmony.
Right you turn it sideways,it's infinity, new beginning,
growth.
And as we started down the path, we were in eight weeks we went
from ideation to internationalrevenue.
And as we've continued down thispath and learned more, eight
keeps showing up.
(05:20):
And so what we've learnedthrough science is when you have
eight people in a room and ourtribes are eight we keep them at
eight.
Our rooms can hold 12, but wekeep them at eight.
And what we find out is thatwhen you go nine, 10, 11,
somebody gets left out of thegroup.
So you've been at these bignetworking groups where there's
20 people.
You can't meet everybody, youcan't get that intimate
(05:43):
knowledge.
But at every meeting our agendais about eight sections.
You're learning something abouteach person that you may not
have known or you're building adeeper relationship, so you're
growing that much faster, and sothat's what we're seeing is
we're seeing people introduceother people or oh, I'll help
(06:03):
you with that.
You really build that network,you build that relationship and
it's beautiful.
I mean, it's been very excitingto see what we've seen.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I mean Asians bet on eight all the time, and an eight
in golf is called a snowman.
It's horrible.
It's like when you quit golf.
So I mean it's got some factorsin life.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You just summed up my my golfing career right there.
Thank you for that.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I just go out, when I go tee off, I just hum Do you
want to build a snowman?
When I just like all day I'llsing it and I'm like a singing
career.
That's a sexy voice guy thatdoesn't work in a room.
Throughout the day I getcheekier.
(06:48):
This is a podcast fix of theday.
We're midpoint, we're mid-cheek, Anyway, All right.
So in your journey, guys, Ilike this because you've used
basically your own model to meeteach other, trust each other
and go replicate it.
I love that.
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's, like you know , walk the walk kind of idea.
What's been the kind askedcause we, it's very interactive.
You don't sit and just listento camera, we, we cameras on
mics on, you're part of theconversation and it goes around,
it's, it's, it's very pointed,a one hour and it's jam packed.
So you are participating andthey'll come in and they'll
(07:42):
whatever.
The question is, what was thewin for the week?
And then they go into.
They're so used to just talkingabout their product, their
service, and it becomes a salespitch for them because they're
so used to doing it.
And even our new people that dojoin us, they see what the
difference is.
They felt that they'veexperienced it.
Now they're like you know, Iwant more of this.
There's still this transitionof happening between going from
(08:07):
about me presenting to reallylistening, for impact of from
the other person is how can I beof service to them?
How can they be of service tome and who do I know that they
need to meet to elevate in theirbusiness?
And when they start going fromthat switch of me, me, me, to
how can I help you?
(08:28):
That's a huge win.
We see that, we experience itand the community cheers.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So I want to add two things to that.
So we just had a tribe leadermeeting.
So we meet once a month withour tribe leaders, kind of talk
about things that are going on.
Meet once a month with ourtribe leaders kind of talk about
things that are going on.
And one of the comments one ofour tribe leaders said we had
three guests and they did theirelevator pitch.
I couldn't tell you what theydid and I said that's the beauty
of where you're at, becauseyou've now learned this and you
(08:58):
can explain what you do veryquickly that people understand
what you do.
So, like we work on these thingswith the team.
The other thing that we do isat the end of the meeting,
people grade us on how we didduring the meeting, right?
So the facilitator, who'srunning the meeting, they get to
hear the feedback.
But we also ask them to give usa word of what was great or
(09:23):
what you know.
Give us your positive word forthe meeting.
And so when somebody says itwas the best use of an hour for
me, or they said the fact thatyou have an agenda, or it was
conversational or it wasfriendly or welcoming, we know
we're on target.
We know we're doing the rightthings.
Conversely, if somebody sayssomething you know that's not as
(09:45):
positive, then we do go backand reflect on that.
Why did they say that?
What do we need to improve?
What do we need to do to bebetter, to make those
experiences better?
So Brian and I are, I know, ourteam member that works with us.
She works with other clients aswell and she says I love
working with you because youmake decisions quickly, you
(10:06):
implement them.
And when Brian and I startedthe company, he said what do you
want?
What are our titles going to be?
And I said I don't care abouttitles.
So we're the GSD co-founders,which is Get Stuff Done.
Well, maybe some other peopleuse a different word, but that's
what we focus on, right, how dowe get stuff done?
And we're constantly reflectingback on what's working, what
(10:27):
isn't working.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well and listen, that's customer centric.
I love that.
I love centers of successaround.
If you're definitely a successin the phase or a season of life
is around business, having itcentered around a customer
success to me is a really.
You don't fail typically thereyou may lose money, but it's at
(10:48):
least the right heart spot to gothrough.
Then you get back into theother pieces.
Maybe you know.
Talk a little bit about maybe.
To achieve that success, though, what's been the metaphoric tie
you had to cut, like what wasthe thing you had to let go or
stop doing or start doing.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I'm going to say I'm, you know, I think both of us
are were ever learners.
You know, um, you know I'vebeen in business since I could
reach a lawnmower, so it's it'smultiple businesses and I think,
reflecting on your failures butalso other people's success and
being able to pull in from that, and if I think what I had to
cut was was the uh, the timewasters and and not just in in
(11:29):
people and relationships and andand those things, but also your
activities.
So what, what's your?
You know what's what'sgenerating revenue?
As far as the activities, andthen you can, could stop doing,
you can cut ties with all thethings, even if you love doing
them, but there's other peoplethat may not even do it as well
as you, but that frees you up todo the things that need to get
done.
As far as elevating in business, what about?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
you, Francesca.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah.
So I'm going to add to that notonly the people piece of that
and those tasks, but I'm alsogoing to talk about software.
So you know, we invested insoftware and thinking it was the
best software out there, thiswas what was going to help us.
But then we both had to realizethis isn't going to work.
We need to go look at othersoftwares.
And then there were so manydifferent software products that
are out there and they allpromise you the world of what
(12:23):
they can do.
And then Brian and I are verygood with well, let us in the
sandbox, let us see what it cando, and then we find out it
can't do what it can do.
But then, to you know, to havethe ability to keep looking for
the right software to move youforward, and we changed one
software that allowed us, Ithink, to get rid of like three
(12:47):
or four other softwares.
Am I right, brian?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, at least four.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So that saved us a tremendous amount of money by
doing that.
But that was a major change andagain, anytime you do something
like that, everybody's got toget on board with learning.
So we were very good at makingsure the team understands what
they're doing, supporting oneanother and pushing through.
(13:12):
But, yeah, the new softwarethat we've just engaged has been
phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, I mean getting the idea that you need something
versus want it and the shinyobject syndrome that happens
with it.
The due diligence piece to theother.
It sometimes sounds like partof the tie to cut right Is you
know, for you was saying no, butit's that that actually
transcends this exact same thingaround software.
You say no to stuff right awayuntil you've really get a sense,
and if you can't get a sense ofhow it's going to work, you
(13:38):
don't buy it.
You say none of that's wait,it's a time suck.
Anything that wastes time.
You say no.
You know.
You say yes to takes away fromthings you should be saying yes
to.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So yeah, thomas, I want to kind of add on to a
little something on here,because one of the things that
we we were doing was, you know,we could sit there and say, okay
, we're virtual.
Um, we could say zoom,everybody knows zoom, especially
since the you know pandemic.
Everybody's on zoom.
They know it.
They also have some fatigue.
After about 30, 30, 45 minutes,everything starts shutting down
(14:09):
the ideas back up and we saidwe, we cut that and we said what
else is there?
Well, there's immersive, and wedid a whole lot of research on
this.
So, actually being in animmersive environment, where
it's, it's 3d rendering, wecreated our own space.
We have offices, we I mean it'swe have a ample theater in our
(14:30):
virtual space.
It's, it's amazing.
But when people come in therethey're like I've never been
anything like this.
It's kind of like a zoom meetsim city, if I were to draw a
picture of it.
But that's one of our.
One of the reasons when westarted this was how do we build
relationships?
And if Zoom is an endurance andblocking that, what do we do to
(14:53):
fix it?
An immersive environment wasthe fix, so that, looking at
what we're doing, how can weimprove it?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
What are you guys most grateful for in your
business?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Each other.
I'm saying with all earnest Iwouldn't want to do what I'm
doing without Francesca there,and that's just being honest,
and I've grown to respect whatshe says.
We were, we were so, so dynamicand starting this that we, you
(15:30):
know, you start your llc, we getthe attorney in there and they
were like okay, so when there'sa dispute, you have to put this
in there.
When there's a dispute, how areyou going to resolve this?
And, and you know, my thing washey, we got a magic eight ball,
let's just rock paper scissors.
I says, can we do that?
And it would.
And he says, well, no, youprobably need a little bit more
(15:51):
than that.
We had a mutual friend that thatthat could be a kind of a
tiebreaker.
If that's the case, we agree tothat.
So that moved forward.
But, um, everything that we'vedone, we talk about it and does
it make sense?
And we've done this severaltimes I feel strongly about
(16:11):
whatever that topic is.
So they get, we we both knowwe're listening to this and and
it's usually takes less than thesame day to move forward on
something, because we respecteach other's ideas, opinions and
where they're coming from.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And you're too.
We're, I'm sorry.
So we're two different people,right?
So he's the marketing, creativeside Not that I'm not creative,
but that's his world.
But I'm more the CPA,accountant, finance person.
So we, we laugh every time andI say, Brian, I started another
spreadsheet.
And he's like, oh God, now what?
So when Brian comes to me andsays I put this in the
(16:41):
spreadsheet, I always say okay,so what does that mean?
That you built a spreadsheet?
You're worrying me.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Don't touch the Google Sheets.
It puts the Google Sheet backin the basket, or it gets the
hose, places the Google Sheetback in the folder, or it gets
the hose.
If you haven't watched Silenceof the Lambs, that's not a funny
To me, it's hilarious.
Watched silence the lambsthat's not a funny um me, it's
hilarious.
And, by the way, that's myparenting trip.
To anyone out there, I'm justgonna give you a tip.
Um, at a young age, show themthe scene with the girl in the
(17:13):
well of silence the lambs, wherehe's like it places the lotion
in the basket.
Traumatize them a bit that way.
Later, when you're like itcleans its room or it gets the
hose, they know exactly whatwill happen.
It's not even abuse, guys, it'sjust.
Let's get these split Goodex-parenting right there.
Where are we?
Cheeky meter went up one level.
(17:34):
Did you see how we crossed overon noon?
If I drank, this would make waymore sense.
All right, some rapid firequestions here.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
One of you gets to take it Without knowing the
question who's going to get thefirst one you want?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
the first one you just pointed at me.
Go ahead, all right.
Best business advice you'veever received that's a tough one
.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Okay, I'll take it because I'm really old.
There's a lot of different Ithink it stems from the worst
business advice I've everreceived.
Uh, and it's make it till youmake it.
No, be authentic.
You know if, if colombo wasn'ta great detective because he was
smooth, he was very muchauthentic.
(18:18):
You're bumbling that, you know.
Ask this, ask that, take peopleoff guard.
Whatever that is Be true toyourself.
Don't do the fake it till youmake it.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
All right, I have to take this now that Brian said
that.
So best, best advice I've evergotten is when someone says,
trust me, don't believe them.
So if somebody says I'm goingto give you equity, until that
equity is in your hand, youdon't have it, so do not go on
trust.
Somebody says they're going todo something, then this is
(18:48):
something that's very, very like.
This is through Brian and I.
Our blood is I'm going to payyou for the work that you do.
If there's equity or somethingto be done, you're going to get
a document, and so trust, that'swhat you trust.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Don't trust someone's words.
Listen, you can poop in onehand and wish in the other which
is going to fill up first.
Right, get that document, Iagree.
Okay, this time Rule Breakers.
One person gets the answer inthe rapid fire portion of this.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I'm kidding, all right, who gives you inspiration
first answer wins go uh, my songives me uh, probably my
biggest inspiration, and itstems from being born without a
face.
Turned my life upside down,lost everything in business and
realized from that uh that thegrowth I had to go through and
(19:44):
and also uh build your supportsystem before you need it, yeah,
very important.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Francesca, you get answered yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
So I'm going to say our team.
So our team is what gives meinspiration and support.
So we have somebody inIndonesia and she has family
trauma that she's dealing with.
Brian's got different thingshe's dealing with.
We have another team member inthe Philippines, and you never
know what a team member is goingthrough.
(20:13):
So we're all very supportive.
We have like a WhatsApp group.
It's only positive that we'resupporting one another and
helping and what we've found isby doing that, these people work
hard for us and we work hardfor them to make sure that we're
pushing this organizationforward and we listen to
(20:36):
everybody's ideas forward and welisten to everybody's ideas.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, that's, that's great and it is.
We have teams in philippines aswell and, um it, if you make a
nice work environment and andjust pay people fairly to
relative to market, uh, peoplewill respect that and and
honestly, I think a lot of uh, Ithink a lot of americans do a
good job of treating people torespect more so than I think
companies in the philippineswhen you work there.
So I think there our bestcustomer, our best employees on
our side are.
They've come from call centersand they're like I'm never going
(21:05):
back to that negativity and soyou're spot on with that.
This is one of the things Idraw inspiration from, like how
people, like completelydifferent calls are different,
completely revenue set are justhappy in there.
You know they struggle.
It's amazing.
That's a.
Really.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I draw inspiration from my team as well on that,
and one of the requirements ourteam members have to do is they
have to journal every day andthey're like what?
And we're like on your timecard, I expect to see 15 minutes
of journaling.
And they're like what am Ijournaling?
What do you want?
What are you trying to call toyou?
So we'll talk about it.
We don't ask them to share that.
That's their privateinformation of what they want
(21:41):
and where they want to grow.
But if you journal and you workon that, then in a few weeks
you should see that coming backto you and coming through.
So we really focus on that aswell and they appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Awesome.
Your last question.
If there's a question I shouldhave asked you today and I
didn't, what was that questionand how would you answer it?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
so it's going to be the first time that Brian and I
meet, so once once we meet, thenwe have to come up with a new
origin story, cause I don't knowwhat we're going to do then.
I'll try not to kill you.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, don't kill me at the event, just for the story
sake, right.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
What did you meet?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You'd be like I think we should dissolve the company.
That would be a fear.
I don't really have that fear,but that would be horrible.
Wouldn't that be terrible.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It'd be a funny shoot yourself in the face kind of
funny Guys.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Shameless Plug Time.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Who should get ahold of you and how do they do that?
Elevatorsnet.
So E-L-E-E V8, like when you'retrying to get on the freeway.
Yeah, you need a V8.
V8orsnet.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
And who should get ahold of you though?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I think professionals that need to build their own
ecosystem for referral systemswork out well, and business
owners, typically B2B.
We're really suited and rightup their alley because we have a
large network that wouldbenefit them.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Awesome.
I mean, francesca, do you havea different opinion on this?
He is the marketer.
But since you look at data andwho your actual customers are,
what do you think?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
So I think, because we're such giving heart people
anybody and I'm going to openthat because we have some people
that are part of our community,that are florists, we have a
yogi master in Africa and do wespend time with these folks when
they come through and want totalk to us, and do we give them
(23:56):
guidance, absolutely, and thenso we don't exclude anyone from
our organization and we'll talkto anybody and help point them
in the right direction.
So we're, we're just open tohelping others and it really
shines.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
We are elevators.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
We are, we elevate others.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Guys, thanks for coming on today.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, appreciate you.
Thank you, appreciate you,thank you, thank you to your
audience.
Yeah, I appreciate you.
Guys, and listen if you made itto this part of the show.
Thank you so much for attending.
And if you've been here beforeyou rock, this is your first
time.
I hope it's the first of many.
Get out there, go cut a tie to.
Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast.
Once again, I am your host,thomas Helfrich.
I'm here to help you cut thetide of whatever it is holding
you back from success, and thatsuccess has got to be defined by
you and no one else, because ifyou don't define that success,
you're living someone else'sdream, and that's no bueno.
So today I'm joined by Brianand Francisca.
How are you two?
It's a team today coming at me.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, we're going to double up on you and I think
just from talking to you brieflyyou're going to handle it just
fine, so I'm going to be fine.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I don't know who's going to do this, but you guys
have to figure your order outhere.
All right, but why don't youtake a moment to tell you that
I've known Brian for, we think,about four years we're not quite
sure how long it's been, butone of the unique stories about
us is that we've never met andwe've done a bunch of different
ventures together, and so Ithink today we're going to talk
about elevators, which is ourlatest venture.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Thank you, francesca.
I'm Brian Keltner and I'm withFrancesca all the way, francesca
and Brian Keltner and, um, I'mwith Francesca all the way.
So it's, it's been an amazinguh ride getting to know somebody
in such an in-depth way, uh,and never and never meeting it's
been, it's been a uniquejourney.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
I mean, this is going to be an up and down
conversation.
I can tell you didn't see thatone coming.
Then clearly, the doors areclosed on you.
You, I'm sorry, I'm gonna stopnow.
All right, we're gonna talkabout elevators, um, uh, first,
so you've never met that.
How did you?
You know, you guys are doing abusiness together, so I I'm
gonna leave.
This is like maybe out of the.
How do you build that trust?
(01:38):
How did you meet what?
Speaker 2 (01:39):
yeah, you know what I'm.
I'm gonna take this Francescabecause it brings a tear to my
eye just thinking about it,because Francesca almost killed
me on our first encounter and weboth were working with a is a
money person, she's a CPA, she'sincredible at this right, and
(02:07):
I'm more of a marketer, more ofa.
You know, let's go out and chatwith people and I'm thinking
this is going to be a horriblephone call.
I'm not looking for it.
It's like going to the dentist.
I don't want to talk to afinancial person.
Are you kidding me?
And we're on there on a phone.
I'm having an adult beverage,enjoying it.
I'm like trying to get into it.
(02:27):
This will be it.
And she's absolutely funny,hilarious, and I'm in the midst
of having a drink and she saidsomething that was funny.
I couldn't catch my breath.
I'm about ready to go under.
I'm seeing stars.
She's laughing the whole time.
We're having such a goodconversation I don't want to
hang up, but finally I'm able tocatch my my breath and carry on
.
But it was the point to where Iwas seeing stars and the whole
(02:47):
time she's laughing.
Are you okay?
Yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
That's how we met and we became best friends since
that's so cool up into yourcurrent endeavor is uh elevators
, I mean uh elevate.
What are you doing in theelevators?
Speaker 2 (03:02):
space, yeah, so elevate e-l-e-v-8-o-r-s eight is
important to us and there'sreasons behind that.
But, um, we wanted to upliftother business owners so b2b
business and lift them up.
We both know the power ofhaving not just a referral
partner but an ecosystem and wewant to help other people do
(03:23):
that.
So in essence, we are elevatorsand elevating them in their
business.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Now, is it a?
Is it a like an affiliatemarketing network type of piece?
Where you're?
You're just getting almost likea vetting system of people you
would work with.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
There is some vetting going on there, absolutely, but
it it's.
It's a virtual b2b networkingcommunity.
So the people gone tonetworking events all the time
and we have to, and we've seenthe ugly and the horrors of it.
It's like it's it becomes apitch fest.
You know, um, here's my product.
I'm a widget maker.
(03:59):
You know, if you know anybodythat needs a widget, come send,
send them to me.
And it's just the next person,same pitch, and we got tired of
this.
It's like nobody's building arelationship and what would be
the best way of doing that?
So we were actually workingwith another networking group, a
virtual networking group, andit was like this isn't true to
(04:20):
who we are and we need to dosomething different.
So Francesca sends me this text.
She goes I think we need tostart our own networking group.
My response immediately wasI've been waiting six months to
hear this and we did.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Yeah, it was a Sunday morning.
I sent Brian the text.
I was on my way to a client.
I said I'll call you after I'mdone.
That night I think within twohours we had the whole concept
for elevators and Brian and Iboth dabble in the.
You know the spiritual worldand understanding and numerology
is important.
And so eight is really.
When you look at what an eightrepresents, it's an octave, it's
(05:00):
a harmony.
Right you turn it sideways,it's infinity, new beginning,
growth.
And as we started down the path, we were in eight weeks we went
from ideation to internationalrevenue.
And as we've continued down thispath and learned more, eight
keeps showing up.
(05:20):
And so what we've learnedthrough science is when you have
eight people in a room and ourtribes are eight we keep them at
eight.
Our rooms can hold 12, but wekeep them at eight.
And what we find out is thatwhen you go nine, 10, 11,
somebody gets left out of thegroup.
So you've been at these bignetworking groups where there's
20 people.
You can't meet everybody, youcan't get that intimate
(05:43):
knowledge.
But at every meeting our agendais about eight sections.
You're learning something abouteach person that you may not
have known or you're building adeeper relationship, so you're
growing that much faster, and sothat's what we're seeing is
we're seeing people introduceother people or oh, I'll help
(06:03):
you with that.
You really build that network,you build that relationship and
it's beautiful.
I mean, it's been very excitingto see what we've seen.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
I mean Asians bet on eight all the time, and an eight
in golf is called a snowman.
It's horrible.
It's like when you quit golf.
So I mean it's got some factorsin life.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You just summed up my my golfing career right there.
Thank you for that.
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I just go out, when I go tee off, I just hum Do you
want to build a snowman?
When I just like all day I'llsing it and I'm like a singing
career.
That's a sexy voice guy thatdoesn't work in a room.
Throughout the day I getcheekier.
(06:48):
This is a podcast fix of theday.
We're midpoint, we're mid-cheek, Anyway, All right.
So in your journey, guys, Ilike this because you've used
basically your own model to meeteach other, trust each other
and go replicate it.
I love that.
That's beautiful.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
That's, like you know , walk the walk kind of idea.
What's been the kind askedcause we, it's very interactive.
You don't sit and just listento camera, we, we cameras on
mics on, you're part of theconversation and it goes around,
it's, it's, it's very pointed,a one hour and it's jam packed.
So you are participating andthey'll come in and they'll
(07:42):
whatever.
The question is, what was thewin for the week?
And then they go into.
They're so used to just talkingabout their product, their
service, and it becomes a salespitch for them because they're
so used to doing it.
And even our new people that dojoin us, they see what the
difference is.
They felt that they'veexperienced it.
Now they're like you know, Iwant more of this.
There's still this transitionof happening between going from
(08:07):
about me presenting to reallylistening, for impact of from
the other person is how can I beof service to them?
How can they be of service tome and who do I know that they
need to meet to elevate in theirbusiness?
And when they start going fromthat switch of me, me, me, to
how can I help you?
(08:28):
That's a huge win.
We see that, we experience itand the community cheers.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So I want to add two things to that.
So we just had a tribe leadermeeting.
So we meet once a month withour tribe leaders, kind of talk
about things that are going on.
Meet once a month with ourtribe leaders kind of talk about
things that are going on.
And one of the comments one ofour tribe leaders said we had
three guests and they did theirelevator pitch.
I couldn't tell you what theydid and I said that's the beauty
of where you're at, becauseyou've now learned this and you
(08:58):
can explain what you do veryquickly that people understand
what you do.
So, like we work on these thingswith the team.
The other thing that we do isat the end of the meeting,
people grade us on how we didduring the meeting, right?
So the facilitator, who'srunning the meeting, they get to
hear the feedback.
But we also ask them to give usa word of what was great or
(09:23):
what you know.
Give us your positive word forthe meeting.
And so when somebody says itwas the best use of an hour for
me, or they said the fact thatyou have an agenda, or it was
conversational or it wasfriendly or welcoming, we know
we're on target.
We know we're doing the rightthings.
Conversely, if somebody sayssomething you know that's not as
(09:45):
positive, then we do go backand reflect on that.
Why did they say that?
What do we need to improve?
What do we need to do to bebetter, to make those
experiences better?
So Brian and I are, I know, ourteam member that works with us.
She works with other clients aswell and she says I love
working with you because youmake decisions quickly, you
(10:06):
implement them.
And when Brian and I startedthe company, he said what do you
want?
What are our titles going to be?
And I said I don't care abouttitles.
So we're the GSD co-founders,which is Get Stuff Done.
Well, maybe some other peopleuse a different word, but that's
what we focus on, right, how dowe get stuff done?
And we're constantly reflectingback on what's working, what
(10:27):
isn't working.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Well and listen, that's customer centric.
I love that.
I love centers of successaround.
If you're definitely a successin the phase or a season of life
is around business, having itcentered around a customer
success to me is a really.
You don't fail typically thereyou may lose money, but it's at
(10:48):
least the right heart spot to gothrough.
Then you get back into theother pieces.
Maybe you know.
Talk a little bit about maybe.
To achieve that success, though, what's been the metaphoric tie
you had to cut, like what wasthe thing you had to let go or
stop doing or start doing.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
I'm going to say I'm, you know, I think both of us
are were ever learners.
You know, um, you know I'vebeen in business since I could
reach a lawnmower, so it's it'smultiple businesses and I think,
reflecting on your failures butalso other people's success and
being able to pull in from that, and if I think what I had to
cut was was the uh, the timewasters and and not just in in
(11:29):
people and relationships and andand those things, but also your
activities.
So what, what's your?
You know what's what'sgenerating revenue?
As far as the activities, andthen you can, could stop doing,
you can cut ties with all thethings, even if you love doing
them, but there's other peoplethat may not even do it as well
as you, but that frees you up todo the things that need to get
done.
As far as elevating in business, what about?
Speaker 1 (11:53):
you, Francesca.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
Yeah.
So I'm going to add to that notonly the people piece of that
and those tasks, but I'm alsogoing to talk about software.
So you know, we invested insoftware and thinking it was the
best software out there, thiswas what was going to help us.
But then we both had to realizethis isn't going to work.
We need to go look at othersoftwares.
And then there were so manydifferent software products that
are out there and they allpromise you the world of what
(12:23):
they can do.
And then Brian and I are verygood with well, let us in the
sandbox, let us see what it cando, and then we find out it
can't do what it can do.
But then, to you know, to havethe ability to keep looking for
the right software to move youforward, and we changed one
software that allowed us, Ithink, to get rid of like three
(12:47):
or four other softwares.
Am I right, brian?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Yeah, at least four.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
So that saved us a tremendous amount of money by
doing that.
But that was a major change andagain, anytime you do something
like that, everybody's got toget on board with learning.
So we were very good at makingsure the team understands what
they're doing, supporting oneanother and pushing through.
(13:12):
But, yeah, the new softwarethat we've just engaged has been
phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, I mean getting the idea that you need something
versus want it and the shinyobject syndrome that happens
with it.
The due diligence piece to theother.
It sometimes sounds like partof the tie to cut right Is you
know, for you was saying no, butit's that that actually
transcends this exact same thingaround software.
You say no to stuff right awayuntil you've really get a sense,
and if you can't get a sense ofhow it's going to work, you
(13:38):
don't buy it.
You say none of that's wait,it's a time suck.
Anything that wastes time.
You say no.
You know.
You say yes to takes away fromthings you should be saying yes
to.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
So yeah, thomas, I want to kind of add on to a
little something on here,because one of the things that
we we were doing was, you know,we could sit there and say, okay
, we're virtual.
Um, we could say zoom,everybody knows zoom, especially
since the you know pandemic.
Everybody's on zoom.
They know it.
They also have some fatigue.
After about 30, 30, 45 minutes,everything starts shutting down
(14:09):
the ideas back up and we saidwe, we cut that and we said what
else is there?
Well, there's immersive, and wedid a whole lot of research on
this.
So, actually being in animmersive environment, where
it's, it's 3d rendering, wecreated our own space.
We have offices, we I mean it'swe have a ample theater in our
(14:30):
virtual space.
It's, it's amazing.
But when people come in therethey're like I've never been
anything like this.
It's kind of like a zoom meetsim city, if I were to draw a
picture of it.
But that's one of our.
One of the reasons when westarted this was how do we build
relationships?
And if Zoom is an endurance andblocking that, what do we do to
(14:53):
fix it?
An immersive environment wasthe fix, so that, looking at
what we're doing, how can weimprove it?
Speaker 1 (15:01):
What are you guys most grateful for in your
business?
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Each other.
I'm saying with all earnest Iwouldn't want to do what I'm
doing without Francesca there,and that's just being honest,
and I've grown to respect whatshe says.
We were, we were so, so dynamicand starting this that we, you
(15:30):
know, you start your llc, we getthe attorney in there and they
were like okay, so when there'sa dispute, you have to put this
in there.
When there's a dispute, how areyou going to resolve this?
And, and you know, my thing washey, we got a magic eight ball,
let's just rock paper scissors.
I says, can we do that?
And it would.
And he says, well, no, youprobably need a little bit more
(15:51):
than that.
We had a mutual friend that thatthat could be a kind of a
tiebreaker.
If that's the case, we agree tothat.
So that moved forward.
But, um, everything that we'vedone, we talk about it and does
it make sense?
And we've done this severaltimes I feel strongly about
(16:11):
whatever that topic is.
So they get, we we both knowwe're listening to this and and
it's usually takes less than thesame day to move forward on
something, because we respecteach other's ideas, opinions and
where they're coming from.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
And you're too.
We're, I'm sorry.
So we're two different people,right?
So he's the marketing, creativeside Not that I'm not creative,
but that's his world.
But I'm more the CPA,accountant, finance person.
So we, we laugh every time andI say, Brian, I started another
spreadsheet.
And he's like, oh God, now what?
So when Brian comes to me andsays I put this in the
(16:41):
spreadsheet, I always say okay,so what does that mean?
That you built a spreadsheet?
You're worrying me.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Don't touch the Google Sheets.
It puts the Google Sheet backin the basket, or it gets the
hose, places the Google Sheetback in the folder, or it gets
the hose.
If you haven't watched Silenceof the Lambs, that's not a funny
To me, it's hilarious.
Watched silence the lambsthat's not a funny um me, it's
hilarious.
And, by the way, that's myparenting trip.
To anyone out there, I'm justgonna give you a tip.
Um, at a young age, show themthe scene with the girl in the
(17:13):
well of silence the lambs, wherehe's like it places the lotion
in the basket.
Traumatize them a bit that way.
Later, when you're like itcleans its room or it gets the
hose, they know exactly whatwill happen.
It's not even abuse, guys, it'sjust.
Let's get these split Goodex-parenting right there.
Where are we?
Cheeky meter went up one level.
(17:34):
Did you see how we crossed overon noon?
If I drank, this would make waymore sense.
All right, some rapid firequestions here.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
One of you gets to take it Without knowing the
question who's going to get thefirst one you want?
Speaker 1 (17:47):
the first one you just pointed at me.
Go ahead, all right.
Best business advice you'veever received that's a tough one
.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Okay, I'll take it because I'm really old.
There's a lot of different Ithink it stems from the worst
business advice I've everreceived.
Uh, and it's make it till youmake it.
No, be authentic.
You know if, if colombo wasn'ta great detective because he was
smooth, he was very muchauthentic.
(18:18):
You're bumbling that, you know.
Ask this, ask that, take peopleoff guard.
Whatever that is Be true toyourself.
Don't do the fake it till youmake it.
Speaker 3 (18:27):
All right, I have to take this now that Brian said
that.
So best, best advice I've evergotten is when someone says,
trust me, don't believe them.
So if somebody says I'm goingto give you equity, until that
equity is in your hand, youdon't have it, so do not go on
trust.
Somebody says they're going todo something, then this is
(18:48):
something that's very, very like.
This is through Brian and I.
Our blood is I'm going to payyou for the work that you do.
If there's equity or somethingto be done, you're going to get
a document, and so trust, that'swhat you trust.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
Don't trust someone's words.
Listen, you can poop in onehand and wish in the other which
is going to fill up first.
Right, get that document, Iagree.
Okay, this time Rule Breakers.
One person gets the answer inthe rapid fire portion of this.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
I'm kidding, all right, who gives you inspiration
first answer wins go uh, my songives me uh, probably my
biggest inspiration, and itstems from being born without a
face.
Turned my life upside down,lost everything in business and
realized from that uh that thegrowth I had to go through and
(19:44):
and also uh build your supportsystem before you need it, yeah,
very important.
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Francesca, you get answered yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
So I'm going to say our team.
So our team is what gives meinspiration and support.
So we have somebody inIndonesia and she has family
trauma that she's dealing with.
Brian's got different thingshe's dealing with.
We have another team member inthe Philippines, and you never
know what a team member is goingthrough.
(20:13):
So we're all very supportive.
We have like a WhatsApp group.
It's only positive that we'resupporting one another and
helping and what we've found isby doing that, these people work
hard for us and we work hardfor them to make sure that we're
pushing this organizationforward and we listen to
(20:36):
everybody's ideas forward and welisten to everybody's ideas.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Yeah, that's, that's great and it is.
We have teams in philippines aswell and, um it, if you make a
nice work environment and andjust pay people fairly to
relative to market, uh, peoplewill respect that and and
honestly, I think a lot of uh, Ithink a lot of americans do a
good job of treating people torespect more so than I think
companies in the philippineswhen you work there.
So I think there our bestcustomer, our best employees on
our side are.
They've come from call centersand they're like I'm never going
(21:05):
back to that negativity and soyou're spot on with that.
This is one of the things Idraw inspiration from, like how
people, like completelydifferent calls are different,
completely revenue set are justhappy in there.
You know they struggle.
It's amazing.
That's a.
Really.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I draw inspiration from my team as well on that,
and one of the requirements ourteam members have to do is they
have to journal every day andthey're like what?
And we're like on your timecard, I expect to see 15 minutes
of journaling.
And they're like what am Ijournaling?
What do you want?
What are you trying to call toyou?
So we'll talk about it.
We don't ask them to share that.
That's their privateinformation of what they want
(21:41):
and where they want to grow.
But if you journal and you workon that, then in a few weeks
you should see that coming backto you and coming through.
So we really focus on that aswell and they appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Awesome.
Your last question.
If there's a question I shouldhave asked you today and I
didn't, what was that questionand how would you answer it?
Speaker 3 (22:18):
so it's going to be the first time that Brian and I
meet, so once once we meet, thenwe have to come up with a new
origin story, cause I don't knowwhat we're going to do then.
I'll try not to kill you.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Yeah, don't kill me at the event, just for the story
sake, right.
Speaker 1 (22:35):
What did you meet?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
You'd be like I think we should dissolve the company.
That would be a fear.
I don't really have that fear,but that would be horrible.
Wouldn't that be terrible.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
It'd be a funny shoot yourself in the face kind of
funny Guys.
Thank you so much for coming on.
Shameless Plug Time.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
Who should get ahold of you and how do they do that?
Elevatorsnet.
So E-L-E-E V8, like when you'retrying to get on the freeway.
Yeah, you need a V8.
V8orsnet.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
And who should get ahold of you though?
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I think professionals that need to build their own
ecosystem for referral systemswork out well, and business
owners, typically B2B.
We're really suited and rightup their alley because we have a
large network that wouldbenefit them.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Awesome.
I mean, francesca, do you havea different opinion on this?
He is the marketer.
But since you look at data andwho your actual customers are,
what do you think?
Speaker 3 (23:35):
So I think, because we're such giving heart people
anybody and I'm going to openthat because we have some people
that are part of our community,that are florists, we have a
yogi master in Africa and do wespend time with these folks when
they come through and want totalk to us, and do we give them
(23:56):
guidance, absolutely, and thenso we don't exclude anyone from
our organization and we'll talkto anybody and help point them
in the right direction.
So we're, we're just open tohelping others and it really
shines.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
We are elevators.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
We are, we elevate others.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Guys, thanks for coming on today.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, appreciate you.
Thank you, appreciate you,thank you, thank you to your
audience.
Yeah, I appreciate you.
Guys, and listen if you made itto this part of the show.
Thank you so much for attending.
And if you've been here beforeyou rock, this is your first
time.
I hope it's the first of many.
Get out there, go cut a tie to.
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