February 25, 2025 • 28 mins
Financial security is more than just numbers; it's about confidence, clarity, and taking control of your future. In this episode of Spark and Ignite Your Marketing, host Beverly Cornell sits down with Kimsey Hollifield, founder of Hollifield Financial Group, to uncover the journey from uncertainty to success. Kimsey shares how he built a financial business from the ground up, the power of storytelling in marketing, and why personal connections matter more than ever in business. Whether you're an entrepreneur looking to scale or someone planning for financial freedom, this episode is packed with wisdom and actionable takeaways. Tune in and discover how to ignite your business and financial future!
Three Key Topics Discussed:
- Overcoming Fear and Embracing Growth: Kimsey shares his journey of starting in the insurance industry at just 20 years old, struggling to sell, and eventually building a thriving business. He reveals how pushing through fear and investing in personal growth helped him succeed.
- The Power of Storytelling in Marketing: From struggling with public speaking to mastering the art of storytelling, Kimsey explains how he transformed his marketing strategy by making financial planning relatable and personal—turning skeptical prospects into lifelong clients.
- Financial Confidence: Planning for Retirement with Peace of Mind: Many people approaching retirement are filled with uncertainty. Kimsey walks through how his team helps clients transition from saving to securely living off their wealth, ensuring they don’t outlive their money.
Follow Kimsey:
Kimsey Hollifield | LinkedIn
P.S. Ready to spark your unique opportunities and ignite your marketing? Here are three ways to work with us.
1. 📞 Schedule a Complimentary 15-minute Call and let’s delve into your goals and answer any questions you may have.
2. 📘 Read Beverly’s book Marketing for Entrepreneurs a quick guide filled with actionable steps to help make your brand and business shine even brighter. 🎙️ Listen to Beverly’s Marketing Podcast where she interviews entrepreneurs to get inspired and gain new business and marketing insights.
3. 🎓 Learn more about marketing and Enroll in Our Marketing Courses designed to bring clarity to your business efforts. They’re easy-to-understand and self-paced, perfect for busy entrepreneurs like you.
P.S. Take the first step (will only take you 3 minutes) to awaken your brand magic with our personalized Brand Clarity Quiz
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Beverly (00:00):
Did you know that over 50 percent of Americans feel
unprepared for retirement andmany aren't sure of how to
secure their financial futures?
That's decades of hard work anddreams left hanging in
uncertainty, but it doesn't haveto be that way.
Welcome to Spark and IngniteMarketing.
I'm your host, Beverly Cornell.
And today I'm excited tointroduce you to someone who's
(00:21):
changing lives by helpingindividuals and families feel
far more confident about theirfinancial future Kimsey
Holifield, founder of HolifieldFinancial Group.
Kimsey started in the insuranceindustry at just 20 years old.
He built his own business withone clear mission, to transform
lives through sound, Financialplanning and investment
(00:44):
strategies, whether it's helpingpeople plan for retirement,
protect their wealth or keeptheir money safe.
Kimsey and his team treat everyclient like they're part of
their family.
Kimsey, welcome to Spark AndIgnite Your Marketing
Kimsey (00:58):
thanks for having me.
That was a great intro.
I like that.
Beverly (01:00):
Wonderful.
You started so young and youbuilt a company, really like a
legitimate company by 25.
That's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
What was the spark that reallystarted the whole journey for
you?
Kimsey (01:11):
Yeah.
Oh, that's a good question.
I knew that I wanted to, be incontrol Of my future, I knew
that I wanted to own a businessand have that control of
whatever was going to happen, Ididn't know what the business
was going to be and I didn'twant to sell insurance, but I
got married when I was 20, I gotmarried we were both in college
at the time.
And I had literally no goodplan.
(01:32):
My best friend's dad actuallyran an insurance agency and he
said, Hey, I'll hire you to sellinsurance and you can make X
amount of dollars.
And I said, okay I'll give it ashot, it's better than whatever
else I had going on at the time,and I tried it out and I was
really bad.
If you came to me and said, Iwant to buy life insurance, I
probably would not have beenable to sell it to you.
I wasn't very good at it.
(01:53):
I didn't really understand thehow to go about meeting with
clients, how to help people.
I didn't understand the productsand understand anything about
it.
And I was scared to death to doany of it.
If you put enough effort intoanything, you're going to get
better.
Then you get a little bit betterand you get a little bit better.
And then next thing, I waspretty good.
I had a lot of clients and then,I left that company and started
a a business at 25, I guess itwas like having your back
(02:15):
against the wall that just, youhad to do it.
Beverly (02:17):
The pressure of necessity, like I have to do
this or we won't eat.
Kimsey (02:20):
Yeah.
That's a big motivator.
Beverly (02:22):
I remember a moment with my husband where we
couldn't pay the cable bill, andI was like, this is gonna
change.
That was a very inviting momentin our career paths, for sure.
When I read your applicationyour application and we were
talking a little bit beforehand,it sounds like everyone you want
to work with wants to feel likefamily to you.
Why is that so important?
(02:43):
How do you make that happen?
Kimsey (02:45):
I heard a survey the other day, that said It asked
financial advisors are you goodat customer service?
Are you good at this?
And everybody was great.
And that's probably not true.
It occurred to me at a certainpoint, it wasn't if you wore a
suit and tie.
It wasn't if you used big words.
People, first of all, they don'twant to feel threatened in this
environment.
(03:05):
They want to feel like you're afriend or a family.
And I think it came from,honestly, the first time I met
with someone to try to open anaccount.
And I felt so bad about myself.
Like I was not doing the rightthings.
You go to do your taxes and feelso uncomfortable here.
You go to see the attorney likedon't want to be here, and I
understand that most peopledon't want to come see me for
(03:25):
the first time because theydon't want to see anybody in my
environment.
Because it's like a math classand a dental exam and like
marriage counseling You wantpeople to feel comfortable, for
example our annual Christmasparty, we have it at my house.
I want to work with people thatI enjoy hanging out with and
enjoy being with.
Beverly (03:44):
The thing that I tell people all the time is that you
get to define your own business.
You can create your own businessand work with whoever you want
to.
You can choose the people youwant to work with.
You don't have to work withpeople that don't respect you.
And you want to help them andserve them and make sure that
they're okay.
Do you have a story of how aclient has transformed, like
when working with you?
What did that look like?
Kimsey (04:03):
Yeah.
Most of my clients I would sayare in their late fifties, 60
years old.
They're pretty close toretiring.
They have a lot of thingsalready set up.
They have money saved up, butmost of them don't understand
how to go from being a worker tobeing retired.
I have a client who works forBoeing and has for a long time,
and he's going to retire in May.
(04:24):
And I asked him, how does thatmake you feel, to retire?
And he said I'm scared to death.
I've worked my whole life.
I don't know what to do.
You want to retire, but when youget there, it's a totally
different thing.
And I think a lot of people,most of our clients, they have a
lot of things set up and they'resavers they're careful with
money.
A lot of times, some of them arenot, some of them are, but they
have this whole process wherethey've worked and now they have
(04:45):
to retire and it's tough becauseyou don't have a plan of that.
It's easy if you're 20 or 30years old and you say, I'm just
going to put money into, a fundand it hopefully goes up and if
it doesn't, I'm 25 years old,who cares, but I think it's the
fear of that.
So one of the things we do is,really go through a process of.
How much social security can youget?
How much income do you need?
(05:06):
And saying like how can wereplace the income that You need
so that you can retire and nothave to worry if the market goes
up and down because there's somany things that You can't
control in the world, but youcan control your income in
retirement.
Beverly (05:20):
My husband and I have divided out the financial side
of it.
I do the day to day budgetingand he does the future
budgeting.
And I think his is scarierbecause it is a lot more zeros,
but it's also, how long are wegoing to live?
And what are we going to do?
And how much money should we putaside for traveling?
And what does that going to looklike in 10, 20 years?
(05:41):
Like how expensive will it be?
And will we be able to travel?
There's just a lot to thinkabout when you're planning for
your future.
Kimsey (05:49):
There's so many unknowns and there's so many things now
that, can happen.
And we really try to use like afoundation for what we do for
planning, try to use things thatare guaranteed, that are very
safe for the money that has tocome in every month because
people are going to be retired along time and people are living
a long time now.
Beverly (06:07):
So every entrepreneur has, their journey is not a
straight and narrow path.
There's ups and downs andsideways and forks in the roads
and all the things.
COVID 19 was a difficult timefor so many businesses.
How do you navigate thosedifficulties while keeping your
business strong?
Kimsey (06:26):
When you're a business owner you can't be way up one
day and way down because if youdo that you're probably going to
go insane.
Actually COVID was.
Not bad for us at all.
I wouldn't say it was a goodtime, but that year we grew our
business really well.
But one of the things that I hadto learn is that, a lot of the
things we were doing to getclients at the time, we were
doing dinner events in groupsfor people who are 55, 65 years
(06:51):
old, and that all shut down.
I had a conversation with mywife and she said, You've worked
really hard for a long time andyou've always said trust that
God is going to take care of us.
But now's an interesting timebecause you actually can't do
your seminars and your events.
You actually have to trust that,God's going Take care of
everything and you're going tohave to reach out to clients and
(07:12):
you're going to have to dothings in a little bit of a
different way.
And I told my staff at the time,listen, I don't know what this
is going to look like, but we'renot going to lay anybody off.
We're going to work from home.
Whatever that is.
I don't know what that means.
But that was a time where wejust had to pivot to, a
different way of doing it.
I figured zoom out.
We did some zoom meetings and itwas like, Get to the end of the
zoom meeting.
(07:32):
And now I do a lot of zooms.
Because you have clients innorth carolina, south carolina,
georgia, florida, new york.
But back to your question.
You have to stay even keel.
You have to have a long termgoal of what you're doing, but
you can't be emotional up anddown.
You have to be, a little roboticabout it.
Beverly (07:50):
That's how you have to be with your money too, I feel
like.
That's actually a great analogyfor what you do, for sure.
Kimsey (07:55):
That's a good point.
I didn't think about that.
Beverly (07:57):
So this season we're really focusing on how are our
interviews or how are thecompanies that we work with on
the podcast?
How do you awaken your brandmagic?
Was there a moment whereeverything aligned and you saw
how unique your magic was andwhat you bring to the table?
Kimsey (08:16):
When you ask that, I'm reminded of a time where I was
probably in my early twentiesand I was in a meeting with a
client with someone who was anearly mentor to me and I just
had this moment where I lookedat him and I was like, he wasn't
what you would maybe expect to,you Be like crazy successful in
this industry.
And I thought he's very unique,and I was like, maybe that's it,
(08:38):
we're all unique, maybe that'sthe thing.
And from there on, I began tonot try to come into a meeting
and say, hello, Beverly, how areyou doing this afternoon?
And I just said, you know what?
I'm just.
going to try to actually just bemyself and if people want to
work with me, I'll do it.
And if they don't want to workwith me, fine, but I'm not going
to be anybody different becauseif I met you and I tried to be
(09:00):
like what you would think of asa financial advisor on TV
Beverly (09:04):
yeah,
Kimsey (09:05):
and I wasn't myself and eventually I have to be myself.
I think nowadays it's all aboutpersonal brand.
If you look at Gary Vaynerchuk.
Oh, I love Gary.
Beverly (09:13):
Oh, he's great
Kimsey (09:14):
But most people would be like, what does he do?
Most people don't even know whathe does.
It's just the personal side ofthings.
So that's the biggest thing justbe yourself
Beverly (09:24):
Being yourself is so much more than that.
Like the reason why yourpassion, your why your vision,
your core values, all of itdefines your unique magic and
everybody has it.
I know one of my clients,they're an accountant and they
say, we're not our, yourfather's accountant.
Yeah, that's great.
Kimsey (09:41):
That's wonderful.
Beverly (09:42):
It's you get a whole different impression of who they
are because they're not yourfather's accountant.
They have tattoos and they havefun colored hair and like they
want to work with companies andbusinesses that are more fun and
sassy then that fits thembecause that's who they are.
So you can fully lean into yourmagic and own that in such a
(10:03):
unique space.
So I heard you say NorthCarolina, South Carolina,
Georgia.
Where are you actually?
Kimsey (10:08):
Just outside Charleston in Somerville, but just about 15
minutes outside Charleston,South Carolina.
Beverly (10:14):
Charleston's awesome.
I am actually just outside ofFayetteville, North Carolina.
So I am not too far from youfive hours Yeah, five hours from
you.
But I was not born and raisedhere.
I was born in Alabama, butraised in Michigan.
Kimsey (10:25):
I was born and raised in Asheville.
Beverly (10:27):
Beautiful.
Yeah.
And did you have family that wasaffected by the hurricane that
came through?
Kimsey (10:33):
Yeah my parents and my sister they, had trees fall on
their house.
I think there was 20 trees fallon or around my parents property
hit my sister's car and mymother in law's car, basically
floated down a mile and a halfdown the road.
And my cousin her house was,Badly damaged.
(10:54):
And she had to, wade throughwater for miles to get out.
But I didn't, lose any of myfamily members or anything like
that.
So we were blessed with that.
Beverly (11:03):
Yeah.
They're only two and a halfhours away from here.
I've been to Asheville.
It's beautiful there.
Like it, it is beautiful.
The mountains, the air,everything, the city is.
So wonderful.
It's really sad.
The small business ownersspecifically, I'm my heart I
feel really bad for them becausethey've lost everything.
Kimsey (11:20):
It's basically gone.
Beverly (11:22):
Yeah.
That's what's so crazy.
We've been there.
It's really sad.
We, our church put together likea Drive and send some stuff over
and did some stuff for Christmasfor some kids.
And we did some stuff, but it'sdevastating.
I'm really sorry that yourfamily had to go through that.
I'm glad everybody was okay.
Kimsey (11:37):
I started reaching out to people down here and we're
going to take things up,supplies and things.
And I thought there would be, alittle bit of stuff to take out
there.
Should we take a carload or afew?
And from then on, my front porchwas covered.
We had boxes all in my house.
The office was full of stuff andwe had to start loading up SUVs
(11:59):
and then a neighbor of mine hasa plane and we were able to get
that, and she helped a lot and.
But then it became that so manypeople were giving So much with
it all.
Beverly (12:10):
Yeah.
Kimsey (12:11):
So I started actually going and saying we would reach
out to people on Facebook andthey would message and they'd
say I have a daughter, a son, ababy that has a specific formula
they need, or we need thisoxygen, and so we were able to
say, okay here, we'll write allthis stuff down.
And then we would.
To individuals because, thebasic stuff was just handled and
(12:33):
it was so great to see how muchhelp came from the Charleston
area to up there.
It was really wonderful to see.
Beverly (12:39):
Yeah it's amazing.
I think that's gives me hope andhumanity.
God provides, he does take careof people.
A really good friend of minerecently, I went to high school
with her and her house burneddown, not in California, but in
Michigan of all places.
I sent her a note and said, Iknow that this is like the
hardest thing you've probablyever gone through.
And I don't want to, impose oranything, but I do want to help
you.
And I know some people will saywhatever you need, I'm here for
(13:01):
you.
Give me your sizes of clothesand I will buy you each an
outfit and I will send ittomorrow.
And she's that's amazing.
So she sent me sizes.
I sent it, it got there the nextday.
I think sometimes you'd you needto be specific, but there is so
much stress that goes into someof those, natural disaster or
those kinds of situations.
So however you can support themis really important.
Kimsey (13:19):
It was a lot.
It was just so much worse than Ihad anything I'd ever seen.
We never had anything like thatgrowing up.
Beverly (13:25):
Yeah.
It was devastating.
And even to get into town wasimpossible.
It was impassable.
They were using donkeys andmules to get through.
Kimsey (13:32):
I didn't get ahold of anybody in my family for maybe
three days.
We were really worried.
We were thinking about drivingup, Oh my gosh, what's going on?
And we're seeing everything.
Finally, my mom got everythingcut and got out to where she had
get some cell service and shewent and checked on my papa,
who's 89.
And I said how are you guysdoing?
(13:52):
And she said, oh, this is awfuland I don't know how long it
probably gonna take a week ortwo to get all this cleaned up.
And then it hit me like they hadno internet or power anything I
said, oh my gosh, mom, youhaven't really seen what's going
on out there.
I think the news wasn't puttingit on as much because they
didn't want to create massivepanic.
It was wild.
Beverly (14:12):
So crazy.
I was here during Matthew yearsand years ago, and he had 23
inches of rain in two days orsomething crazy.
Thankfully we were fine.
We didn't even lose power for amajority of it.
We had power, but we had a sevenmonth old baby and every store
in any kind of mile radius didnot have formula or milk.
And I was like, how are we goingto feed this baby?
(14:33):
Like literally, how are we goingto feed this baby for two weeks?
Thankfully, at church, a mom wasbreastfeeding and gave us some
of her breast milk.
Kimsey (14:40):
Oh, wow.
Beverly (14:41):
Yeah, it's very devastating.
I'm glad that they're okay.
So what is the hardest thingabout marketing for you?
Kimsey (14:47):
We do a lot of event marketing.
When you first start spendingmoney on marketing, the hardest
thing is to not be scared ofwhat's going to happen.
You spend this money, you put itout.
Some of the events that we doare expensive.
You think this might work andthis might not work, and I think
the biggest thing is just,having the faith in yourself.
(15:07):
If you're doing the rightmarketing it's going to average
out.
Beverly (15:10):
Yeah, like you say, you have to have the confidence and
believe in what you have tooffer and that you connect with
the right people so that you canmake the ROI on that.
Are you doing trade shows?
Kimsey (15:18):
So we do a lot of dinner dinner similar.
So we'll have a nice restaurant,and we get a bunch of people
there, 30 or 40 people there foreach night, Tuesday and
Thursday.
And then I get up and I talk, myother advisors, I have three
other advisors that work for me.
And, we get up and we talk foran hour And then at the end, we
have a response sheet, and ifthey want to come in for a
(15:39):
one-on-one meeting then theymark that and they can come in.
But after we're done talking,they bring the food out, you
have to pay for the food, andthen you leave and you hope that
people will will schedule withyou.
And normally they do, andnormally it works very well.
But sometimes they don't, andyou have a bad night and you
think, Oh, my gosh, I barely gotany appointments out of this.
(16:00):
And then sometimes everybodywants to meet with you.
Beverly (16:02):
What marketing mistake have you made?
And, but how did it help youactually grow?
Kimsey (16:07):
Oh going back to, public events, I was really bad at
public speaking, but I knew thatpeople were having success with
public events and I starteddoing them, but I wasn't having
success with them and I couldn'tfigure out really why.
So I got a public speaking coachand trainer.
He said let's record, let'svideo it.
And I was just shocked.
(16:27):
I was like, man I'm horrible.
Beverly (16:29):
What did I do with my eyeballs?
What was that?
Kimsey (16:31):
I didn't realize that I was really bad and really
boring.
I worked with A couple ofpeople.
I worked with Pat Quinn, patQuinn is a public speaking
coach.
He works with Damon, John andGrant Cardone and Tony Robbins.
And he talked all aboutstorytelling.
So I started changing my seminarwhere now I get up and I tell a
(16:54):
story, and then I tell somecontent, then I tell another
story and it's very personal.
I think it lets people connect.
The other thing that I do nowthat I didn't do is, I pray
before the food comes out and Ididn't do that for a long time
because I guess I didn't feelcomfortable with it.
And I thought what if somebodydoesn't like it and all this
stuff?
Then one day I thought, I'mgoing to do a hundred of these
(17:18):
events and there's going to be30 or 40 people, I'm not a
preacher, I'm not, but I wantto, take this opportunity, God
has really blessed us and wehave a really great life now.
I want to pray for the food andthank God for, the things that
he's blessed us with.
That's who I am.
And I'm not talking about churchthe whole time or anything like
that, but just in the end, Ijust say, okay, they're going to
(17:38):
bring the food out.
And so I'm going to pray for thefood and then we'll get you fed.
Beverly (17:42):
Yeah.
Kimsey (17:43):
And actually, that's something I had so many clients
now that say, I reallyappreciate that.
I don't do that to get results.
I do that because that's mepersonally.
don't do that expecting it to bereceived in a certain way.
Just say, Hey, This is who I am.
And if you don't want to dothat, don't do it.
So I think it just goes back tojust being yourself and being
(18:04):
open with people.
Beverly (18:04):
Yeah.
If it doesn't fit you, thendon't do it.
If it's not authentic to you,then don't do it.
Don't be forced.
And that's you, Kimsey.
That's a challenge because weknow what works for us But it
doesn't work for everybodybecause it's not them.
Kimsey (18:16):
Everybody's different.
Beverly (18:17):
I have my magic wand and I have my magic hat.
I'm excited, but this is prettycool.
Kimsey (18:22):
I'm excited you told me about this.
Beverly (18:23):
There are a lot of questions in here and I'm going
to draw a few questions.
And this is more of a lightninground.
So when I draw the questions,
Kimsey (18:32):
Okay.
Beverly (18:33):
Look a little bit quicker of answers and then all
kinds of things.
And you can say pass if you'dlike.
Okay.
I give you the option, but Iencourage you not to.
First question is, what has beenthe hardest part about being an
entrepreneur?
Kimsey (18:47):
Starting with no money and having to be creative at
first.
Beverly (18:52):
Oh, this is a fun one.
If your business were a movie,who would be the hero?
What would be the main conflict?
And how would your brand guidethe hero to victory?
Kimsey (19:02):
I never thought about that before.
Ooh, that's a tough one.
The conflict would be Someexpansion.
We going to keep growing.
Who would be the hero?
Don't know.
I guess it's gotta be me.
Beverly (19:11):
Who's the actor?
Kimsey (19:12):
Brian Austin green.
Beverly (19:13):
And how do you use the hero guide to the victory?
What's the victory look like?
Kimsey (19:17):
The end of the movie has to be like we decided to grow
and take whatever the next stepwas expand.
We would have gotten throughwhatever the conflict was and we
said, okay, we're going to dothis.
Let's go.
Beverly (19:30):
Nice.
What's a surprising way yourpersonal values show up in your
business?
Kimsey (19:37):
In our office, we don't have a lot of artwork.
We have on the walls if anarticle was written about me or
a magazine or we sponsored apolo team.
Pretty much everything else ispersonalized.
I, when people come in here,they think it's not just stock
photos.
Beverly (19:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's one thing you wish morepeople understood about your
business or industry?
Kimsey (19:58):
That, we want to help and you don't have to be
qualified.
Before you can become a client,some people will say I don't
know if I have enough money or Idon't have my act together.
We just want to help, and sowhatever that looks like on the
other side of the table, we justwant to help people.
Beverly (20:14):
What was the moment you realized your business was
successful?
Kimsey (20:17):
So I was in Ireland a couple of years ago with a
friend.
And it was an industry trip thatyou had to qualify for.
You had to be doing a certainamount of business or revenue or
whatnot.
And I was sitting there and Itold my buddy, I said, isn't
this cool?
Like we get to be here and withall these people who are really
successful and who are doinggreat.
(20:38):
And we get to be here.
Sometimes, you still have thatlike imposter syndrome, but, and
he was like yeah, because you'realso doing well.
That was a moment where I waslike, okay, I guess so.
Beverly (20:49):
If you could collaborate with any brand or
entrepreneur, who would it be?
And why?
Kimsey (20:56):
I like Million dollar listing.
Did you ever watch that show?
Yes.
Beverly (21:00):
I've seen it.
Kimsey (21:01):
New York.
I like Ryan Serhan.
So he has a brokerage.
That's probably, I wouldprobably say that.
Beverly (21:08):
Ooh, last question.
What fear have you had toovercome to grow your business?
Kimsey (21:13):
The fear that most people have.
The fear of money.
My parents were very hardworkingpeople, but we didn't have a lot
of money growing up, and, we alldevelop emotions about money,
and you have to take thatemotion out.
Then it's just math and logicand it's not that difficult at
that point.
But I had to get that out of mymind to just look at it like a
(21:35):
math problem, which I'm verygood at math, but with the
emotional side of it I wasn't asgood.
So yeah.
Beverly (21:41):
So you survived the magic hat round now.
I'm gonna wave my wand.
And it's a very sparkly and funwand.
Kimsey (21:49):
I have a four year old daughter.
I have a wand all over my house.
Beverly (21:53):
I feel like every person should have a wand, just
so it's over clear, becausesometimes you just need to wave
the wand and make things betterin your life.
And I can't hold the wand andnot be happy, so I don't know
what it is about the wand, but Iget very excited when I'm
holding the wand.
Okay.
So when we have the wand up,we're going to go back in time.
We're going to talk to that 20year old Kimsey who didn't know
(22:15):
what he was going to do.
He got married.
He wasn't sure what he was goingto do.
He had to figure it out.
We're going to give him a pieceof advice.
What advice would we give thatKimsey?
Kimsey (22:23):
To take the simplest path and not overcomplicate
things.
Man.
I feel so old with that now ButI would say probably, yeah, to
just simplify and take the easy,easiest path.
Mark Cuban has this phrase, winthe battle you're in before you
start a new battle.
Beverly (22:41):
It's so hard as an entrepreneur.
We get so distracted cause welove building things like it's
hard to really focus.
So I also want to ask the 20year old Kimsey, what would 20
year old Kimsey say about yourlife now and your business?
Kimsey (22:54):
I think he would be very surprised, pleasantly surprised.
My life is very good.
Now.
I didn't have aspirations forthis.
I had aspirations for, not beingworried and stressed out all the
time and, and I had aspirationsfor being okay.
I didn't understand what it isto be.
To really be where I am now.
So I think I would be very happywith it.
Beverly (23:16):
That's cool though.
Kimsey (23:17):
This is like therapy now.
We've gone into a therapy round.
Beverly (23:19):
So I'm going to wave my wand.
We're going to leave youngKimsey where he is to live his
life, make all the mistakes, anddo all the cool things he's
going to do.
We're going to go loads andloads and loads and loads into
the future.
Kimsey (23:30):
Okay.
Beverly (23:31):
And we are going to hear your eulogy..
And what do you think is yourmost significant legacy or
impact that everyone's going totalk about for your eulogy?
Kimsey (23:41):
Wow.
That's good.
I thought when you said we'regoing to go way into the future,
I thought you were going to takeit like.
10 years.
So eulogy the biggest thing ismy wife, my daughter, my family.
The business is to provide for,clients, but to provide for us
and provide for the families ofthe people that work for me.
(24:01):
I want to be a good husband anda good father.
And aside from that, I want tobe able to give back and help
people.
So husband, father.
Philanthropy, that would be it.
That sounds lovely.
Beverly (24:14):
I'm going to wave my wand and we're going to go back
into present time.
Kimsey (24:16):
Okay.
Beverly (24:17):
So you're back in 2025, but I want you to give.
A magical tip.
So this is about awakening yourbrand magic this season.
For those tuning in, those smallbusiness owners or aspiring
entrepreneurs or people who'vebeen doing the grind for years
and years, what is one thingthat you would say they could
put into action right now tofully step into their brand
(24:38):
magic?
Kimsey (24:39):
Yeah.
Stop doing all the cookie cutterstuff and doing some, do
something individual because.
The superpower that we all haveis we are all ourselves.
I can't be you and you can't beme.
I would say whatever marketingyou're doing.
Be personal, be storytelling,let people in and they'll
(25:00):
connect with you.
And then they'll want to dobusiness with you just because
they like you and they connectwith you.
Beverly (25:05):
People are waiting to hear about you.
They want to connect with youand what story you have.
They're waiting.
Such good advice.
I love you for being here and tolike sharing with our listeners,
but I would love for you toshare like where people can
learn more about you andorganization and how they can
connect with you.
Kimsey (25:21):
Yeah.
Everything lives on our website,which is hollifieldfinancial.
com that has everything that youwould expect from, how to.
Plan for finances to do anappointment to, analyze your own
investment.
That has all the good stuff onthere I am most active on
LinkedIn and Instagram under mypersonal name, just Kimsey
(25:41):
Hollifield.
And then on our, on Facebook, weput a lot of stuff out for the
business.
So Kimsey Holifield LinkedIn andInstagram.
And our website,hollifieldfinancial.
com is, as the name suggests.
Is just redone and now the newwebsite is alive last week.
So it's really good.
And I think it's reallyinteractive.
Beverly (26:00):
Nice.
That's exciting.
Thank you so much for joining metoday, Kimsey.
It's been really fun to get toknow you, learn about your
journey and hearing all yourstories.
And to all our listeners, Ireally hope you found today's
conversation as inspiring as Idid.
Stay tuned for more.
Fun conversations like today andactionable tips on future
episodes of the Spark and IgniteYour Marketing Podcast.
(26:22):
And until next time, keepsparking and igniting.
Did you know that over 50 percent of Americans feel
unprepared for retirement andmany aren't sure of how to
secure their financial futures?
That's decades of hard work anddreams left hanging in
uncertainty, but it doesn't haveto be that way.
Welcome to Spark and IngniteMarketing.
I'm your host, Beverly Cornell.
And today I'm excited tointroduce you to someone who's
(00:21):
changing lives by helpingindividuals and families feel
far more confident about theirfinancial future Kimsey
Holifield, founder of HolifieldFinancial Group.
Kimsey started in the insuranceindustry at just 20 years old.
He built his own business withone clear mission, to transform
lives through sound, Financialplanning and investment
(00:44):
strategies, whether it's helpingpeople plan for retirement,
protect their wealth or keeptheir money safe.
Kimsey and his team treat everyclient like they're part of
their family.
Kimsey, welcome to Spark AndIgnite Your Marketing
Kimsey (00:58):
thanks for having me.
That was a great intro.
I like that.
Beverly (01:00):
Wonderful.
You started so young and youbuilt a company, really like a
legitimate company by 25.
That's pretty amazing.
Yeah.
What was the spark that reallystarted the whole journey for
you?
Kimsey (01:11):
Yeah.
Oh, that's a good question.
I knew that I wanted to, be incontrol Of my future, I knew
that I wanted to own a businessand have that control of
whatever was going to happen, Ididn't know what the business
was going to be and I didn'twant to sell insurance, but I
got married when I was 20, I gotmarried we were both in college
at the time.
And I had literally no goodplan.
(01:32):
My best friend's dad actuallyran an insurance agency and he
said, Hey, I'll hire you to sellinsurance and you can make X
amount of dollars.
And I said, okay I'll give it ashot, it's better than whatever
else I had going on at the time,and I tried it out and I was
really bad.
If you came to me and said, Iwant to buy life insurance, I
probably would not have beenable to sell it to you.
I wasn't very good at it.
(01:53):
I didn't really understand thehow to go about meeting with
clients, how to help people.
I didn't understand the productsand understand anything about
it.
And I was scared to death to doany of it.
If you put enough effort intoanything, you're going to get
better.
Then you get a little bit betterand you get a little bit better.
And then next thing, I waspretty good.
I had a lot of clients and then,I left that company and started
a a business at 25, I guess itwas like having your back
(02:15):
against the wall that just, youhad to do it.
Beverly (02:17):
The pressure of necessity, like I have to do
this or we won't eat.
Kimsey (02:20):
Yeah.
That's a big motivator.
Beverly (02:22):
I remember a moment with my husband where we
couldn't pay the cable bill, andI was like, this is gonna
change.
That was a very inviting momentin our career paths, for sure.
When I read your applicationyour application and we were
talking a little bit beforehand,it sounds like everyone you want
to work with wants to feel likefamily to you.
Why is that so important?
(02:43):
How do you make that happen?
Kimsey (02:45):
I heard a survey the other day, that said It asked
financial advisors are you goodat customer service?
Are you good at this?
And everybody was great.
And that's probably not true.
It occurred to me at a certainpoint, it wasn't if you wore a
suit and tie.
It wasn't if you used big words.
People, first of all, they don'twant to feel threatened in this
environment.
(03:05):
They want to feel like you're afriend or a family.
And I think it came from,honestly, the first time I met
with someone to try to open anaccount.
And I felt so bad about myself.
Like I was not doing the rightthings.
You go to do your taxes and feelso uncomfortable here.
You go to see the attorney likedon't want to be here, and I
understand that most peopledon't want to come see me for
(03:25):
the first time because theydon't want to see anybody in my
environment.
Because it's like a math classand a dental exam and like
marriage counseling You wantpeople to feel comfortable, for
example our annual Christmasparty, we have it at my house.
I want to work with people thatI enjoy hanging out with and
enjoy being with.
Beverly (03:44):
The thing that I tell people all the time is that you
get to define your own business.
You can create your own businessand work with whoever you want
to.
You can choose the people youwant to work with.
You don't have to work withpeople that don't respect you.
And you want to help them andserve them and make sure that
they're okay.
Do you have a story of how aclient has transformed, like
when working with you?
What did that look like?
Kimsey (04:03):
Yeah.
Most of my clients I would sayare in their late fifties, 60
years old.
They're pretty close toretiring.
They have a lot of thingsalready set up.
They have money saved up, butmost of them don't understand
how to go from being a worker tobeing retired.
I have a client who works forBoeing and has for a long time,
and he's going to retire in May.
(04:24):
And I asked him, how does thatmake you feel, to retire?
And he said I'm scared to death.
I've worked my whole life.
I don't know what to do.
You want to retire, but when youget there, it's a totally
different thing.
And I think a lot of people,most of our clients, they have a
lot of things set up and they'resavers they're careful with
money.
A lot of times, some of them arenot, some of them are, but they
have this whole process wherethey've worked and now they have
(04:45):
to retire and it's tough becauseyou don't have a plan of that.
It's easy if you're 20 or 30years old and you say, I'm just
going to put money into, a fundand it hopefully goes up and if
it doesn't, I'm 25 years old,who cares, but I think it's the
fear of that.
So one of the things we do is,really go through a process of.
How much social security can youget?
How much income do you need?
(05:06):
And saying like how can wereplace the income that You need
so that you can retire and nothave to worry if the market goes
up and down because there's somany things that You can't
control in the world, but youcan control your income in
retirement.
Beverly (05:20):
My husband and I have divided out the financial side
of it.
I do the day to day budgetingand he does the future
budgeting.
And I think his is scarierbecause it is a lot more zeros,
but it's also, how long are wegoing to live?
And what are we going to do?
And how much money should we putaside for traveling?
And what does that going to looklike in 10, 20 years?
(05:41):
Like how expensive will it be?
And will we be able to travel?
There's just a lot to thinkabout when you're planning for
your future.
Kimsey (05:49):
There's so many unknowns and there's so many things now
that, can happen.
And we really try to use like afoundation for what we do for
planning, try to use things thatare guaranteed, that are very
safe for the money that has tocome in every month because
people are going to be retired along time and people are living
a long time now.
Beverly (06:07):
So every entrepreneur has, their journey is not a
straight and narrow path.
There's ups and downs andsideways and forks in the roads
and all the things.
COVID 19 was a difficult timefor so many businesses.
How do you navigate thosedifficulties while keeping your
business strong?
Kimsey (06:26):
When you're a business owner you can't be way up one
day and way down because if youdo that you're probably going to
go insane.
Actually COVID was.
Not bad for us at all.
I wouldn't say it was a goodtime, but that year we grew our
business really well.
But one of the things that I hadto learn is that, a lot of the
things we were doing to getclients at the time, we were
doing dinner events in groupsfor people who are 55, 65 years
(06:51):
old, and that all shut down.
I had a conversation with mywife and she said, You've worked
really hard for a long time andyou've always said trust that
God is going to take care of us.
But now's an interesting timebecause you actually can't do
your seminars and your events.
You actually have to trust that,God's going Take care of
everything and you're going tohave to reach out to clients and
(07:12):
you're going to have to dothings in a little bit of a
different way.
And I told my staff at the time,listen, I don't know what this
is going to look like, but we'renot going to lay anybody off.
We're going to work from home.
Whatever that is.
I don't know what that means.
But that was a time where wejust had to pivot to, a
different way of doing it.
I figured zoom out.
We did some zoom meetings and itwas like, Get to the end of the
zoom meeting.
(07:32):
And now I do a lot of zooms.
Because you have clients innorth carolina, south carolina,
georgia, florida, new york.
But back to your question.
You have to stay even keel.
You have to have a long termgoal of what you're doing, but
you can't be emotional up anddown.
You have to be, a little roboticabout it.
Beverly (07:50):
That's how you have to be with your money too, I feel
like.
That's actually a great analogyfor what you do, for sure.
Kimsey (07:55):
That's a good point.
I didn't think about that.
Beverly (07:57):
So this season we're really focusing on how are our
interviews or how are thecompanies that we work with on
the podcast?
How do you awaken your brandmagic?
Was there a moment whereeverything aligned and you saw
how unique your magic was andwhat you bring to the table?
Kimsey (08:16):
When you ask that, I'm reminded of a time where I was
probably in my early twentiesand I was in a meeting with a
client with someone who was anearly mentor to me and I just
had this moment where I lookedat him and I was like, he wasn't
what you would maybe expect to,you Be like crazy successful in
this industry.
And I thought he's very unique,and I was like, maybe that's it,
(08:38):
we're all unique, maybe that'sthe thing.
And from there on, I began tonot try to come into a meeting
and say, hello, Beverly, how areyou doing this afternoon?
And I just said, you know what?
I'm just.
going to try to actually just bemyself and if people want to
work with me, I'll do it.
And if they don't want to workwith me, fine, but I'm not going
to be anybody different becauseif I met you and I tried to be
(09:00):
like what you would think of asa financial advisor on TV
Beverly (09:04):
yeah,
Kimsey (09:05):
and I wasn't myself and eventually I have to be myself.
I think nowadays it's all aboutpersonal brand.
If you look at Gary Vaynerchuk.
Oh, I love Gary.
Beverly (09:13):
Oh, he's great
Kimsey (09:14):
But most people would be like, what does he do?
Most people don't even know whathe does.
It's just the personal side ofthings.
So that's the biggest thing justbe yourself
Beverly (09:24):
Being yourself is so much more than that.
Like the reason why yourpassion, your why your vision,
your core values, all of itdefines your unique magic and
everybody has it.
I know one of my clients,they're an accountant and they
say, we're not our, yourfather's accountant.
Yeah, that's great.
Kimsey (09:41):
That's wonderful.
Beverly (09:42):
It's you get a whole different impression of who they
are because they're not yourfather's accountant.
They have tattoos and they havefun colored hair and like they
want to work with companies andbusinesses that are more fun and
sassy then that fits thembecause that's who they are.
So you can fully lean into yourmagic and own that in such a
(10:03):
unique space.
So I heard you say NorthCarolina, South Carolina,
Georgia.
Where are you actually?
Kimsey (10:08):
Just outside Charleston in Somerville, but just about 15
minutes outside Charleston,South Carolina.
Beverly (10:14):
Charleston's awesome.
I am actually just outside ofFayetteville, North Carolina.
So I am not too far from youfive hours Yeah, five hours from
you.
But I was not born and raisedhere.
I was born in Alabama, butraised in Michigan.
Kimsey (10:25):
I was born and raised in Asheville.
Beverly (10:27):
Beautiful.
Yeah.
And did you have family that wasaffected by the hurricane that
came through?
Kimsey (10:33):
Yeah my parents and my sister they, had trees fall on
their house.
I think there was 20 trees fallon or around my parents property
hit my sister's car and mymother in law's car, basically
floated down a mile and a halfdown the road.
And my cousin her house was,Badly damaged.
(10:54):
And she had to, wade throughwater for miles to get out.
But I didn't, lose any of myfamily members or anything like
that.
So we were blessed with that.
Beverly (11:03):
Yeah.
They're only two and a halfhours away from here.
I've been to Asheville.
It's beautiful there.
Like it, it is beautiful.
The mountains, the air,everything, the city is.
So wonderful.
It's really sad.
The small business ownersspecifically, I'm my heart I
feel really bad for them becausethey've lost everything.
Kimsey (11:20):
It's basically gone.
Beverly (11:22):
Yeah.
That's what's so crazy.
We've been there.
It's really sad.
We, our church put together likea Drive and send some stuff over
and did some stuff for Christmasfor some kids.
And we did some stuff, but it'sdevastating.
I'm really sorry that yourfamily had to go through that.
I'm glad everybody was okay.
Kimsey (11:37):
I started reaching out to people down here and we're
going to take things up,supplies and things.
And I thought there would be, alittle bit of stuff to take out
there.
Should we take a carload or afew?
And from then on, my front porchwas covered.
We had boxes all in my house.
The office was full of stuff andwe had to start loading up SUVs
(11:59):
and then a neighbor of mine hasa plane and we were able to get
that, and she helped a lot and.
But then it became that so manypeople were giving So much with
it all.
Beverly (12:10):
Yeah.
Kimsey (12:11):
So I started actually going and saying we would reach
out to people on Facebook andthey would message and they'd
say I have a daughter, a son, ababy that has a specific formula
they need, or we need thisoxygen, and so we were able to
say, okay here, we'll write allthis stuff down.
And then we would.
To individuals because, thebasic stuff was just handled and
(12:33):
it was so great to see how muchhelp came from the Charleston
area to up there.
It was really wonderful to see.
Beverly (12:39):
Yeah it's amazing.
I think that's gives me hope andhumanity.
God provides, he does take careof people.
A really good friend of minerecently, I went to high school
with her and her house burneddown, not in California, but in
Michigan of all places.
I sent her a note and said, Iknow that this is like the
hardest thing you've probablyever gone through.
And I don't want to, impose oranything, but I do want to help
you.
And I know some people will saywhatever you need, I'm here for
(13:01):
you.
Give me your sizes of clothesand I will buy you each an
outfit and I will send ittomorrow.
And she's that's amazing.
So she sent me sizes.
I sent it, it got there the nextday.
I think sometimes you'd you needto be specific, but there is so
much stress that goes into someof those, natural disaster or
those kinds of situations.
So however you can support themis really important.
Kimsey (13:19):
It was a lot.
It was just so much worse than Ihad anything I'd ever seen.
We never had anything like thatgrowing up.
Beverly (13:25):
Yeah.
It was devastating.
And even to get into town wasimpossible.
It was impassable.
They were using donkeys andmules to get through.
Kimsey (13:32):
I didn't get ahold of anybody in my family for maybe
three days.
We were really worried.
We were thinking about drivingup, Oh my gosh, what's going on?
And we're seeing everything.
Finally, my mom got everythingcut and got out to where she had
get some cell service and shewent and checked on my papa,
who's 89.
And I said how are you guysdoing?
(13:52):
And she said, oh, this is awfuland I don't know how long it
probably gonna take a week ortwo to get all this cleaned up.
And then it hit me like they hadno internet or power anything I
said, oh my gosh, mom, youhaven't really seen what's going
on out there.
I think the news wasn't puttingit on as much because they
didn't want to create massivepanic.
It was wild.
Beverly (14:12):
So crazy.
I was here during Matthew yearsand years ago, and he had 23
inches of rain in two days orsomething crazy.
Thankfully we were fine.
We didn't even lose power for amajority of it.
We had power, but we had a sevenmonth old baby and every store
in any kind of mile radius didnot have formula or milk.
And I was like, how are we goingto feed this baby?
(14:33):
Like literally, how are we goingto feed this baby for two weeks?
Thankfully, at church, a mom wasbreastfeeding and gave us some
of her breast milk.
Kimsey (14:40):
Oh, wow.
Beverly (14:41):
Yeah, it's very devastating.
I'm glad that they're okay.
So what is the hardest thingabout marketing for you?
Kimsey (14:47):
We do a lot of event marketing.
When you first start spendingmoney on marketing, the hardest
thing is to not be scared ofwhat's going to happen.
You spend this money, you put itout.
Some of the events that we doare expensive.
You think this might work andthis might not work, and I think
the biggest thing is just,having the faith in yourself.
(15:07):
If you're doing the rightmarketing it's going to average
out.
Beverly (15:10):
Yeah, like you say, you have to have the confidence and
believe in what you have tooffer and that you connect with
the right people so that you canmake the ROI on that.
Are you doing trade shows?
Kimsey (15:18):
So we do a lot of dinner dinner similar.
So we'll have a nice restaurant,and we get a bunch of people
there, 30 or 40 people there foreach night, Tuesday and
Thursday.
And then I get up and I talk, myother advisors, I have three
other advisors that work for me.
And, we get up and we talk foran hour And then at the end, we
have a response sheet, and ifthey want to come in for a
(15:39):
one-on-one meeting then theymark that and they can come in.
But after we're done talking,they bring the food out, you
have to pay for the food, andthen you leave and you hope that
people will will schedule withyou.
And normally they do, andnormally it works very well.
But sometimes they don't, andyou have a bad night and you
think, Oh, my gosh, I barely gotany appointments out of this.
(16:00):
And then sometimes everybodywants to meet with you.
Beverly (16:02):
What marketing mistake have you made?
And, but how did it help youactually grow?
Kimsey (16:07):
Oh going back to, public events, I was really bad at
public speaking, but I knew thatpeople were having success with
public events and I starteddoing them, but I wasn't having
success with them and I couldn'tfigure out really why.
So I got a public speaking coachand trainer.
He said let's record, let'svideo it.
And I was just shocked.
(16:27):
I was like, man I'm horrible.
Beverly (16:29):
What did I do with my eyeballs?
What was that?
Kimsey (16:31):
I didn't realize that I was really bad and really
boring.
I worked with A couple ofpeople.
I worked with Pat Quinn, patQuinn is a public speaking
coach.
He works with Damon, John andGrant Cardone and Tony Robbins.
And he talked all aboutstorytelling.
So I started changing my seminarwhere now I get up and I tell a
(16:54):
story, and then I tell somecontent, then I tell another
story and it's very personal.
I think it lets people connect.
The other thing that I do nowthat I didn't do is, I pray
before the food comes out and Ididn't do that for a long time
because I guess I didn't feelcomfortable with it.
And I thought what if somebodydoesn't like it and all this
stuff?
Then one day I thought, I'mgoing to do a hundred of these
(17:18):
events and there's going to be30 or 40 people, I'm not a
preacher, I'm not, but I wantto, take this opportunity, God
has really blessed us and wehave a really great life now.
I want to pray for the food andthank God for, the things that
he's blessed us with.
That's who I am.
And I'm not talking about churchthe whole time or anything like
that, but just in the end, Ijust say, okay, they're going to
(17:38):
bring the food out.
And so I'm going to pray for thefood and then we'll get you fed.
Beverly (17:42):
Yeah.
Kimsey (17:43):
And actually, that's something I had so many clients
now that say, I reallyappreciate that.
I don't do that to get results.
I do that because that's mepersonally.
don't do that expecting it to bereceived in a certain way.
Just say, Hey, This is who I am.
And if you don't want to dothat, don't do it.
So I think it just goes back tojust being yourself and being
(18:04):
open with people.
Beverly (18:04):
Yeah.
If it doesn't fit you, thendon't do it.
If it's not authentic to you,then don't do it.
Don't be forced.
And that's you, Kimsey.
That's a challenge because weknow what works for us But it
doesn't work for everybodybecause it's not them.
Kimsey (18:16):
Everybody's different.
Beverly (18:17):
I have my magic wand and I have my magic hat.
I'm excited, but this is prettycool.
Kimsey (18:22):
I'm excited you told me about this.
Beverly (18:23):
There are a lot of questions in here and I'm going
to draw a few questions.
And this is more of a lightninground.
So when I draw the questions,
Kimsey (18:32):
Okay.
Beverly (18:33):
Look a little bit quicker of answers and then all
kinds of things.
And you can say pass if you'dlike.
Okay.
I give you the option, but Iencourage you not to.
First question is, what has beenthe hardest part about being an
entrepreneur?
Kimsey (18:47):
Starting with no money and having to be creative at
first.
Beverly (18:52):
Oh, this is a fun one.
If your business were a movie,who would be the hero?
What would be the main conflict?
And how would your brand guidethe hero to victory?
Kimsey (19:02):
I never thought about that before.
Ooh, that's a tough one.
The conflict would be Someexpansion.
We going to keep growing.
Who would be the hero?
Don't know.
I guess it's gotta be me.
Beverly (19:11):
Who's the actor?
Kimsey (19:12):
Brian Austin green.
Beverly (19:13):
And how do you use the hero guide to the victory?
What's the victory look like?
Kimsey (19:17):
The end of the movie has to be like we decided to grow
and take whatever the next stepwas expand.
We would have gotten throughwhatever the conflict was and we
said, okay, we're going to dothis.
Let's go.
Beverly (19:30):
Nice.
What's a surprising way yourpersonal values show up in your
business?
Kimsey (19:37):
In our office, we don't have a lot of artwork.
We have on the walls if anarticle was written about me or
a magazine or we sponsored apolo team.
Pretty much everything else ispersonalized.
I, when people come in here,they think it's not just stock
photos.
Beverly (19:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
What's one thing you wish morepeople understood about your
business or industry?
Kimsey (19:58):
That, we want to help and you don't have to be
qualified.
Before you can become a client,some people will say I don't
know if I have enough money or Idon't have my act together.
We just want to help, and sowhatever that looks like on the
other side of the table, we justwant to help people.
Beverly (20:14):
What was the moment you realized your business was
successful?
Kimsey (20:17):
So I was in Ireland a couple of years ago with a
friend.
And it was an industry trip thatyou had to qualify for.
You had to be doing a certainamount of business or revenue or
whatnot.
And I was sitting there and Itold my buddy, I said, isn't
this cool?
Like we get to be here and withall these people who are really
successful and who are doinggreat.
(20:38):
And we get to be here.
Sometimes, you still have thatlike imposter syndrome, but, and
he was like yeah, because you'realso doing well.
That was a moment where I waslike, okay, I guess so.
Beverly (20:49):
If you could collaborate with any brand or
entrepreneur, who would it be?
And why?
Kimsey (20:56):
I like Million dollar listing.
Did you ever watch that show?
Yes.
Beverly (21:00):
I've seen it.
Kimsey (21:01):
New York.
I like Ryan Serhan.
So he has a brokerage.
That's probably, I wouldprobably say that.
Beverly (21:08):
Ooh, last question.
What fear have you had toovercome to grow your business?
Kimsey (21:13):
The fear that most people have.
The fear of money.
My parents were very hardworkingpeople, but we didn't have a lot
of money growing up, and, we alldevelop emotions about money,
and you have to take thatemotion out.
Then it's just math and logicand it's not that difficult at
that point.
But I had to get that out of mymind to just look at it like a
(21:35):
math problem, which I'm verygood at math, but with the
emotional side of it I wasn't asgood.
So yeah.
Beverly (21:41):
So you survived the magic hat round now.
I'm gonna wave my wand.
And it's a very sparkly and funwand.
Kimsey (21:49):
I have a four year old daughter.
I have a wand all over my house.
Beverly (21:53):
I feel like every person should have a wand, just
so it's over clear, becausesometimes you just need to wave
the wand and make things betterin your life.
And I can't hold the wand andnot be happy, so I don't know
what it is about the wand, but Iget very excited when I'm
holding the wand.
Okay.
So when we have the wand up,we're going to go back in time.
We're going to talk to that 20year old Kimsey who didn't know
(22:15):
what he was going to do.
He got married.
He wasn't sure what he was goingto do.
He had to figure it out.
We're going to give him a pieceof advice.
What advice would we give thatKimsey?
Kimsey (22:23):
To take the simplest path and not overcomplicate
things.
Man.
I feel so old with that now ButI would say probably, yeah, to
just simplify and take the easy,easiest path.
Mark Cuban has this phrase, winthe battle you're in before you
start a new battle.
Beverly (22:41):
It's so hard as an entrepreneur.
We get so distracted cause welove building things like it's
hard to really focus.
So I also want to ask the 20year old Kimsey, what would 20
year old Kimsey say about yourlife now and your business?
Kimsey (22:54):
I think he would be very surprised, pleasantly surprised.
My life is very good.
Now.
I didn't have aspirations forthis.
I had aspirations for, not beingworried and stressed out all the
time and, and I had aspirationsfor being okay.
I didn't understand what it isto be.
To really be where I am now.
So I think I would be very happywith it.
Beverly (23:16):
That's cool though.
Kimsey (23:17):
This is like therapy now.
We've gone into a therapy round.
Beverly (23:19):
So I'm going to wave my wand.
We're going to leave youngKimsey where he is to live his
life, make all the mistakes, anddo all the cool things he's
going to do.
We're going to go loads andloads and loads and loads into
the future.
Kimsey (23:30):
Okay.
Beverly (23:31):
And we are going to hear your eulogy..
And what do you think is yourmost significant legacy or
impact that everyone's going totalk about for your eulogy?
Kimsey (23:41):
Wow.
That's good.
I thought when you said we'regoing to go way into the future,
I thought you were going to takeit like.
10 years.
So eulogy the biggest thing ismy wife, my daughter, my family.
The business is to provide for,clients, but to provide for us
and provide for the families ofthe people that work for me.
(24:01):
I want to be a good husband anda good father.
And aside from that, I want tobe able to give back and help
people.
So husband, father.
Philanthropy, that would be it.
That sounds lovely.
Beverly (24:14):
I'm going to wave my wand and we're going to go back
into present time.
Kimsey (24:16):
Okay.
Beverly (24:17):
So you're back in 2025, but I want you to give.
A magical tip.
So this is about awakening yourbrand magic this season.
For those tuning in, those smallbusiness owners or aspiring
entrepreneurs or people who'vebeen doing the grind for years
and years, what is one thingthat you would say they could
put into action right now tofully step into their brand
(24:38):
magic?
Kimsey (24:39):
Yeah.
Stop doing all the cookie cutterstuff and doing some, do
something individual because.
The superpower that we all haveis we are all ourselves.
I can't be you and you can't beme.
I would say whatever marketingyou're doing.
Be personal, be storytelling,let people in and they'll
(25:00):
connect with you.
And then they'll want to dobusiness with you just because
they like you and they connectwith you.
Beverly (25:05):
People are waiting to hear about you.
They want to connect with youand what story you have.
They're waiting.
Such good advice.
I love you for being here and tolike sharing with our listeners,
but I would love for you toshare like where people can
learn more about you andorganization and how they can
connect with you.
Kimsey (25:21):
Yeah.
Everything lives on our website,which is hollifieldfinancial.
com that has everything that youwould expect from, how to.
Plan for finances to do anappointment to, analyze your own
investment.
That has all the good stuff onthere I am most active on
LinkedIn and Instagram under mypersonal name, just Kimsey
(25:41):
Hollifield.
And then on our, on Facebook, weput a lot of stuff out for the
business.
So Kimsey Holifield LinkedIn andInstagram.
And our website,hollifieldfinancial.
com is, as the name suggests.
Is just redone and now the newwebsite is alive last week.
So it's really good.
And I think it's reallyinteractive.
Beverly (26:00):
Nice.
That's exciting.
Thank you so much for joining metoday, Kimsey.
It's been really fun to get toknow you, learn about your
journey and hearing all yourstories.
And to all our listeners, Ireally hope you found today's
conversation as inspiring as Idid.
Stay tuned for more.
Fun conversations like today andactionable tips on future
episodes of the Spark and IgniteYour Marketing Podcast.
(26:22):
And until next time, keepsparking and igniting.
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