“Call Me CEO” is your master-class on innovation, creativity, leadership, and finding YOUR perfect balance between motherhood and entrepreneurship.

Have you ever wondered how you can create a positive mindset that can help you succeed in your business and personal life? In this episode, Camille welcomes Kelli France, the host of the Fear-Less Girl Podcast and Fear-Less Girl Virtual Book Club & Community where she helps women change their mindset to achieve Beyonce-esque confidence.

Women I think have so much influence and power and if they’re thinking they’re a 5, that’s going to be passed on and I see them as a 10.

— Kelli France

Kelli shares her journey and the different paths she took from food stamps to now having a seven-figure income and helping other women build their confidence and success. She shares her advice on how to deal with failure, retrain your thoughts to achieve a positive mindset, and make your business more fun and creative.

I think its super important to sit down and define what success means to you and not what the world says success is. Success is what you decide it is. And then, you work towards that.

— Kelli France

If you’re looking for ways to improve your business and your personal life, listen to this episode so you can learn how to achieve success by being confident, committed, and consistent. 

When we open fists, we give freely, we share our knowledge and we help others, then we rise by lifting others. I think that’s truly how we rise.

— Kelli France

Resources:

Interested in becoming a virtual assistant? Enroll in the 60 Days to VA Course:

https://camillewalker.co/60-days-va-master-course

Access the 5-day email sequence to help you discover your purpose:

www.callmeceopodcast.com

Join the 90 Days To VA Master Course:
www.camillewalker.co/va

Discover Your Why:
www.camillewalker.co/quiz

Check out Kelli’s recommended personal development books:

The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann:

https://thegogiver.com/the-go-giver/

You are a Badass by Jen Sincero:

https://jensincero.com/shop/

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown:

https://gregmckeown.com/books/essentialism/

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson:

https://www.amazon.com/Slight-Edge-Turning-Disciplines-Happiness/dp/1626340463

Connect with Kelli:

Follow Kelli on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellifrance

Access her website at: https://kellifrance.com/

Follow the Fear-Less Book Club and Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fearlessgirlco/

Follow Kelli on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7llZLmGH73sen6XLo47Rw

Connect with Camille Walker:

Follow Camille on Instagram: www.Instagram.com/CamilleWalker.co

Follow Call Me CEO on Instagram: www.Instagram.com/callmeceopodcast

KELLI FRANCE [0:00]

Really to me, Camille, what success truly is, is being able to live the type of lifestyle that you want. Because you can have all those fancy things, you can have the fancy car, the fancy house, the fancy clothes, the fancy purse, but if you're constantly on your phone all the time or if you're not being the mom that you want to be or if you're causing your body physical stress and your health is suffering, your marriage is suffering, those things are not worth it.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE WALKER [0:40]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [1:01]

Hey, friend. I'm so grateful that you're here today and so excited to talk to you about my interview with Kelli France, who is a dear friend and a huge example of what a mindset of positivity can do. Now, Kelli hasn't had a clear path of success from the beginning to where she is now. She's had a lot of ups and downs. And throughout this episode, she's very raw and honest and real and funny and that's what I love about Kelli.

I think you're really going to love this episode. And keep in mind that as you're listening, there are so many different paths and different answers to the questions you might be having right now and it doesn't mean that those paths that you're taking right now are the wrong path. It's the right path for getting to where you want to end up. And whether that's the same path of consistently showing up and doing your same work and your same effort day by day, great. If it's repositioning or refocusing or redirecting, that's okay too. And I think that this story that Kelli shares with us today will help you to see that it's not always about knowing what or where you're going to end up, but choosing that next best step, even if it's possibly the wrong one and being okay with that, being curious about that, so let's dive in.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [2:20]

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Call Me CEO. And today is a happy day because Kelli France is with us. She's one of the most positive people I know. Listen to her, she's already singing in the camera, you can't see her. You can only hear her, but she is the confidence queen. She is the leader of the Fear Less Girl Club, which is a book club as well as a podcast. And I promise you if you're not following her online, you want to. She has such a positive, wonderful energy. She's a mother of four. Is that right?

KELLI [2:51]

Yes.

CAMILLE [2:52]

And she used to live in Utah and now she's in California, beach-loving, and doing incredible things, but her journey started at a very interesting place where she was on food stamps and was able to build her income to over seven figures regularly. And she keeps on building and inspiring and it's all about women empowerment. So, Kelli, thank you so much for being here today.

KELLI [3:12]

Thanks, Camille, for having me.

CAMILLE [3:16]

It's so fun because we've been trying to do this for a while and you are a busy woman, so thank you for taking the time. I know you just bought an investment property in California and you're just doing so many fun things. Your oldest has moved out of the home, but she's back now. Tell us a little bit about where you are, what's going on.

KELLI [3:32]

So, yeah, we have a full house right now with three teenagers and a 10-year-old. So, it's a party. I joke that my kids are like salsa. I have hot, medium, mild, and pico. There's spicy, but fun. And yeah, we're loving Southern California. And we are all just so busy right now, yeah, because we just bought an Airbnb that we are having so much fun decorating. Think like Palm Springs retro colorful vibes. It's going to be a dream.

CAMILLE [4:12]

I'd like to visit, yeah. It sounds amazing.

KELLI [4:15]

Me too. Yeah, and it's so close to the beach. Yeah, that's where we're at right now.

CAMILLE [4:21]

Very cool. Now, I don't know that most people would know this listening to this or even people who have followed you or who have followed me, but way back when, Kelli was working as a photographer also doing fashion and style. And for a short time, she contributed as a writer to my blog, My Mommy Style. This was years and years ago.

Then you made a big step and you joined Color Street as a leader when it first started. For those of you who aren't familiar with Color Street, they are nail strips that are just paint, but you can do them anywhere you are. They're super convenient and it was a brand-new company. And this is what's so crazy is that my sister and I were blogging together. At the time, we both knew and loved Kelli and we heard about Color Street because Kelli just announced on Facebook, "Hey. I'm doing this thing. Come join me."

And my sister and I talked about it. We're like, "I don't know. MLMs, is that really a good idea? Should we stick with the course we're on?" And there have been more than one occasion where we're like, "We should have just joined her. What were we thinking? Because she's done incredible things." So, I'm going to pass this baton to her. And Kelli, please tell us where you were, how you made that leap, and how you decided to join an MLM and what that journey looked like.

KELLI [5:39]

Okay. So, I've always been a serial entrepreneur. It started way before multi-level marketing where I was a photographer when my husband was going to law school and I had a new baby at home, my oldest and I was bored because he was constantly studying for law school. So, I took a class about photography and started taking pictures of her, and then of friends and family.

And then, I was like, "I'm going to make this a business" and just had so much fun with running a business and learning new things. And then, it turned into I got my teaching degree. And so, I actually love to teach, but I never used it except for in my online teaching ventures. And one of those was called Francypants Academy and it's where I mentored photographers. Then that turned into starting a business with my husband where we had an online photography school and magazine. Then we sold that, and eventually that's when I joined my first network marketing company that was based around fitness and learned a lot on that journey. But I got mono and it was hard to preach fitness when I couldn't really do it.

CAMILLE [7:10]

This is bringing back so many memories because I remember that now, watching you do the BeachBody, which was amazing. You're so magnetic and you really did create such a core wonderful group around you. And I remember you getting mono and that was a huge dive. And I remember you being like, "I don’t know if I'm going to stay on this path." So, tell me about how you were feeling in that time because that was a big transition for you.

KELLI [7:37]

Yeah. That was rough and honestly, I started just not feeling it anymore. I don't know. I couldn't fake it anymore. It just wasn't aligning with me and I just remember feeling like it's time to make a change, but it's hard to make changes, big changes like that, and to leave an amazing community of women, but I felt like that was the right thing. I even had a dream about my next step that I needed to take. And so, I was like, "All right. We're going to do this thing, but it's scary. It's scary totally pivoting."

CAMILLE [8:18]

What was your dream? I'm just like, "Tell me more." What is that? What was your dream?

KELLI [8:22]

So, I got a dream that I needed to join a different multi-level marketing company, and so I did. It was LipSense, and so I quit BeachBody. I joined LipSense, only did it for a couple of months, and then I was like, "This isn't for me either." And after that, I was like, "I'm never going to do another direct sales company again. I'm never going to do a networking marketing again." Here's the thing about never, never say never. I'm telling you, every time I've said never, it's like God has a sense of humor and he's like, "Let's see about that."

CAMILLE [9:00]

We'll see about that, yeah.

KELLI [9:02]

Yeah. So then, I don't know if you remember this, but I bought a cheap graphic tee company called Style Lately.

CAMILLE [9:13]

Yes.

KELLI [9:15]

Bought that, tried to do retail for a while, made zero money, had no idea what I was doing. I don't know why. I think it looked really glamorous, but I really didn’t know what I was doing. And so, I wasn't really making money. My husband was hating his job too, and we were struggling financially living paycheck to paycheck on pretty close to poverty level for a family of six.

Actually, when I lived in my mom's basement, that was one of the nevers. I said, "I'm never moving back to Utah." And then, we felt inspired and prompted by God that we need to move into my mom's basement and pay off some debt and stuff. And so, we moved into my mom's two-bedroom basement and our kids all shared a room and the baby slept under the stairs like Harry Potter. And then, my husband and I slept in a room, which doubled as my office. And we were all in my mom's basement apartment and did that for two years while we ran this online photography and magazine called Chiq Critique. So, we're doing that in Utah. I don’t know.

And then, I felt that's when I joined BeachBody, did that for two and a half years, got mono, did the t-shirt company. And then, we moved to a different neighborhood. And then, my neighbor was like, "Hey, there's this other company that's starting soon and it's really fun and expensive and girly." And I was like, "Oh." And she said, "And I'm working really hard to pay off some medical school debt." And I was like, "Yeah. That's relatable. We have thousands and thousands of dollars in law school debt." So, I was like, "I'm just going to try it and see what happens."

CAMILLE [11:26]

Why not?

KELLI [11:26]

Right? That's the thing is that I was like, "Let's just try it." And my goal was, I actually had this on my vision board this quote, it said, "I just want to not have to think twice about adding guacamole." And that's where I wanted to be. I was so sick of scraping by, saying no to my kids for literally everything. And so, I just jumped in and I recruited 25 people in five days and we hit the ground running and they recruited several people and we just ran with it. And I had big goals.

Here's the thing, Camille. I had seen friends in other companies make six and seven figures. So, I knew it was possible. I had seen people I know break that glass ceiling. And I knew that that was possible. And so, I was like, "Let's go." And I knew that if I really put in the time and effort in the beginning, I think there's a quote.

CAMILLE [12:43]

Work like no one else, so you can live like no one else.

KELLI [12:45]

Yes. That's it. And so, that was running through my head and I was like, "Yeah, I'm going to work like no one else, so I can live like no one else." And now, it's been such a huge blessing because, yeah, here we are in Southern California and had so many blessings since then.

CAMILLE [13:06]

Tell us, Kelli. Don't hold back. Tell us. This is awesome.

KELLI [13:10]

Able to pay off all my husband's law school loans, just so many blessings. I was able to pay for LASIK, so that I could see because of this. And then, just having this amazing community, being able to travel. That's one of the great things about direct sales is almost every company has some program that if you work hard, you can earn those trips. And so, that's a thing. I worked hard to those things and to teach my team to do the same. And so, yeah, it's funny because my kids, my daughter, she used to have to ask me to, "Hey. Can we get a Prime video on Prime? Can we rent a $1.99 video?" And I'd be like, "No. We can't afford that." And I remember her asking me and me saying, "Yeah, you can." And she was shocked like, "Oh, wow." So, it's funny what your kids consider like you've made it.

And my other son, he's like, "I always thought that having microwave popcorn was rich people do." And I was like, "Son, we've made it then. We can afford microwave popcorn." It's the little things and the big things, of course, but yeah, really to me, Camille, what success truly is, is being able to besides all the physical outward things, it's really just being able to live the type of lifestyle that you want because you can have all those fancy things. You can have the fancy car, the fancy house, the fancy clothes, the fancy purse, but if you're constantly on your phone all the time or you're not being the mom that you want tp be or if you're causing your body physical stress and your health is suffering, your marriage is suffering, those things are not worth it. So, I think it's super important to sit down and define what success means to you and not what the world says success is.

CAMILLE [15:37]

I love that.

KELLI [15:38]

Success is what you decide it is. And then, you work towards that. And for me, it's been making a full-time income on part-time hours. And that's something that I've worked really hard to do, so that I am not constantly in hustle mode.

CAMILLE [16:01]

Yeah. How long do you think it took and maybe I don't know where you would quantify where you are right now, but how long do you think it was that you were like nose to the grindstone, putting in all that really hard work, so that you could get to the place where you are now where you can take a step back and not be so intense with your workload?

KELLI [16:23]

Yeah. Here's the thing. I'll be honest. I feel like I've worked part-time since day 1 and I still work part-time. I just have set work hours and I'm like, "These are my work hours. This is when I work and when I'm done, I'm done." And if you are pretty hardcore about those, especially when you have kids and you're like, "These are my work hours" and your work hours don't have to look like my hours. Like I said, all my kids are in school, so those work hours for me are going to be while they're at school. If you have young kids, it might be nap time. It might be during pre-school. It might be when your kids are in bed.

But just setting these work hours, and then being very intentional during those work hours, it's almost like I have my checklist. I've got my daily tasks on a very small post it note, on a three by three post it note, that show me what I need to be focusing on during those hours. You can really move the needle if you're very intentional with your time and focused on those income-producing activities and don't get sucked into the fluff.

CAMILLE [17:41]

Yeah. It's so easy to.

KELLI [17:54]

I was going to say, I do think because I've been a serial entrepreneur, I feel like you really have to put in a solid amount of effort for a solid two years. I've noticed because we've moved a lot too even within several different states and every time we moved, I noticed it took me about two years to really get my business up and going to where it starts gaining momentum and I started getting word of mouth where people start coming to you.

But at the beginning, there's a lot of foundational stuff that you've got to do to really build your business, and then you'll start getting that momentum where you don't feel like you're working so hard for people to find you or to get the results that you're wanting. But I really think it takes a solid two years and here's the thing. Most people aren't willing to put in two years. If I'm totally blunt with you and your listeners, it's like are you willing to consistently put in that time and effort for two solid years sometimes without the results that you want, sometimes without the pay, the income?

That's why it's important to find something that you really have to have three C's, to have I feel like momentum and success, whatever it is to you in your business. And that is confidence in yourself and whatever it is you're doing. Confidence in the product that you're selling, confidence in the service that you're offering, so that's number one. Number two is commitment because, like I said, if it takes a solid two years to really build up the momentum, you've got to be pretty committed for something for two years. And then, consistency, showing up every day. And it doesn't have to be every day for a ton of hours. It can be every day for thirty minutes, doing a power half-hour. But to me, those are the keys that I've noticed, those are the patterns I've noticed to really get results in your business and your life.

CAMILLE [20:14]

Yeah. No, I love that. I love those three C's. Would you say for those times that you felt stuck or that you have people who have been a part of your time that feel stuck, how do you encourage them to pick up with momentum when they're feeling like maybe it's not worth it?

KELLI [20:32]

Yeah. So, I'm a word nerd. I think that when you're in a funk, you got to add two fun words back. You got to add fun. Take the fun out of funk and you go to do the fundamentals. Go back to those basics of your business that you did at the very beginning because it is hard to be consistent when you're doing the same stuff every day. It's like, "This is boring." If you make it fun, put the fun back in it, I always tell my team, "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." So, how can you make it more fun? Maybe that means you're collaborating with other people. Maybe that means you're teaching someone the skill that you have now mastered after a couple years.

CAMILLE [21:27]

If you're listening to this episode right now and thinking, "What is my purpose? What is my why?" Please go to my website camillewalker.co and take the free quiz of learning what your work from home personality and the resource of finding your why and your purpose, a 5-day process, for free at camillewalker.co or you can actually find it at my lifestyle website at mymommystyle.com. Either way, please connect with me on Instagram. You can find me there at @camillewalker.co or @callmecepodcast. Let's keep listening.

KELLI [22:01]

Maybe it just means creating cute graphics. Usually, I think for me, fun has some sort of creative element, whether that is creating a spreadsheet, which I don't love but maybe if you're left-brained and you love spreadsheets, that might be fun for you. For me, I actually love creating systems that not only can I reuse, but that my team can use as well, so processes like that.

So, I think just finding a way to add the fun back to it, and then going back to the basics, going back to your why. Why did I start this? What are some of those things that I did at the beginning that I need to continue doing now? Because I think at the beginning of anything, there's that novelty. And so, adding some novelty back into your business is going to make it more fun too.

CAMILLE [22:57]

Yeah. That's really interesting and I think so true for anything that we're pursuing, whether it's education, our business, our relationships, it's like going back to those fundamentals of your why and what got you excited about what you were doing years ago or however long it's been. But I agree with you. I think it's two to three years for most businesses that you have to just commit to it and think this is a process and a journey.

And that makes me curious for your journey because this journey in particular after going through many, many things that didn't quite go as you would have hoped or redirection, what was it with Color Street that you stopped and thought, "This is it. I've done it?" What was that moment and when was it? Because I just think you're such a good example of that, of going down paths that weren't quite the right fit and having to redirect and having failure and all of those things. What was that moment?

KELLI [24:00]

Here's the thing that people think like, "Oh, you had overnight success." But like I said, I've had all these other journeys that were building on. I think people look at failure as this bad thing. I have a different perspective on failure. I look at failure as feedback. I try not to take it personally. I'm like, "What can I learn from this?" And I think of it not as this stumbling block, but as a stepping stone.

So, this is just a stepping stone that's going to get me to the next best thing, the next level. So, I tell my team, "You got to fail it until you nail it."

And so, for me, I think it was all the failures that had piled up on top of each other that got me to have momentum in this current business. It was all the social media posts from the past that built up to this, so it wasn't this overnight success. It wasn't this luck. It was years of being consistent on social media, of showing up and learning things and applying them and trying to improve on them and that was really why this particular thing worked.

CAMILLE [25:28]

And good timing.

KELLI [25:38]

Right, yeah. Totally, good timing.

CAMILLE [25:30]

The preparation, good timing. Yeah.

KELLI [25:34]

Yeah. So, I think that's a big part of it.

CAMILLE [25:38]

So, when was that moment? Taking it back to that question, you're good.

KELLI [25:42]

I would just say there was so much momentum it was like, "Whoa. Wow. I just recruited 25 people in five days. That's insane." And then, "Wow, I'm rank advancing after rank advancing." You know what I mean? I was starting to see results from these seeds I had planted months and years ago. So, just seeing those results, but again, people get so focused on results and, for me, I get excited about the action. Good job, me. I just finished sending that email. Good job, me. I just finished doing that post on social media. So, it's not necessarily the results that I put my emphasis on, but it's the action that eventually gets the result.

CAMILLE [26:40]

Which is such a good focus because that's something that you consistency can have control over is the action you're taking, not necessarily the result because all of us could take the exact same action and given a certain circumstance or thing, it could turn out differently. There's no guarantee, but with the action, you have control of that. So, that's so powerful.

KELLI [27:02]

Yeah. And eventually you will get results. Again, if you are committed and consistent and confident in what you're doing and who you are, eventually the spaghetti will stick. You know what I mean?

CAMILLE [27:17]

I love it. So, now that you're moving into just recently in the last year, you've launched a new podcast. It's called the Fear Less Girl, which is all about kicking that inner mean girl and embracing that confidence that lies within us. And I cannot tell you how often I've received messages or DMs where confidence really is I think the biggest hurdle that if not women, all people. I think there's so much of the mirror and watching of other people now that confidence is something more than ever that people need help with because we're just in this quoted comparisonitis, if you will from that book. We're all looking around like, "What are they doing? What does their life look? Am I doing it right? Who am I?" So, talk to me about how you leaned into that and now have stared this moment of creating of confidence in women. I love it.

KELLI [28:14]

Yeah. So, when I started teaching women about running a photography business, I think one of my strengths is I see so much potential in people. I'm like, "Oh my gosh. Here's what you could do." I feel like I'm a visionary. I can see a vision of your future like your future business, your future potential, all that. I have good vision like that and I saw all these women's potential and I was like, "Hey. If you just do these things, your business could explode. You could have all this success and results."

And I just kept noticing all these women getting in their own way and just talking to themselves negatively and I was like, "Ugh." I just want to shake them and be like, "Just treat yourself like you love yourself." And I put out a survey on social media and I asked women to rate their confidence on a scale of 1 to 10 and I got so many women that responded. The average number was a 5. And I was like, "I'm not okay with that. I’m not okay with that because these are the mothers of our future. These are the mothers of our future generations. These are the influencers of the world."

Women I think have so much influence and power and if they're thinking they're a 5, that's going to be passed on. And I see them as a 10 and it honestly pisses me off. So, I'm on a journey to change that and honestly, I've struggled with it too. Circumstances can really knock you down. There was a point in our marriage when we were in our little family when we were struggling financially that our church had to donate groceries to us. And my husband and I were fighting a lot because, yeah, we didn't have money. Those things are really hard.

And so, it was taking a toll on my confidence and I was just having a lot of dark thoughts and it would spiral. It would just start with one inner mean girl thought, and then turn into another and another and it would snowball to the point where I was having suicidal thoughts. And I got to the point where I was just like, "I'm done with this. This is not serving me and I don't want to think like this anymore." And so, I had to start retraining my brain to, first of all, recognize it and then second of all, stop thinking like that and think better thoughts that make me feel better and do better.

CAMILLE [31:14]

Were you able to do that on your own or did you have therapy to help you? Because they say I think it's something like 85% of our thoughts are recycled thoughts that we very often live in our subconscious mind where we're thinking either what we thought before or what our parents might have told us or teachers or whomever and the thought patterns are very ingrained. So, to create new thought patterns, it takes effort and you really have to be proactive with it. So, how were you able to do that for yourself?

KELLI [31:45]

There was no therapy. I couldn't afford therapy.

CAMILLE [31:52]

It's expensive.

KELLI [31:52]

It really is. And so, I will say I have lots of kids in therapy now, so I'm learning a lot from that. But there is a lot of value in therapy, so if you can afford it or if you can find a way to afford it, I highly recommend it. But for me, the answer was in my library card and it was in those personal development books that I started reading when I was in 7th grade. I had a teacher that was this hippie just this happy free-spirited woman that I just loved and she had us all read this book. I wish I could remember the name of the book. Anyway, it was this powerful book. I’m trying to see if I have it here. Anyway, the cover's hilarious. I think it was called Go For It and has 1980s pictures of kids looking like they were go-getters, but I read it and I felt so empowered afterward.

I was like, "I can do anything," which was so great in the trenches of middle school. And so, it was very powerful. And then, I read another one in high school and I stopped reading those for a while. And it wasn't until I got back into network marketing that I started reading personal development books again because they really encourage that. It's part of it. And that really changed things for me. Honestly, it totally changed my life. Books have changed my life. Those self-improvement books.

CAMILLE [33:39]

I love them.

KELLI [33:40]

I love them too. I don't read fiction. I read non-fiction because they have truly changed my life. I've learned so much from them. And so, when you're thinking those negative words, it's a great way to replace those negative words with positive words. You're putting flowers in the place of weeds in your brain. And so, making that a habit has been like a gamechanger for me and that's why I started my Fear Less Girl Book Club. It's like a virtual book club for women. We have almost 5,000 women in this Facebook group and community and it's been amazing because I started it because I wanted to hold myself accountable to actually read at least one personal development book a month. And then, I was like, "I should see if the author would want to come on and talk to us."

And so, I asked one of the authors and she said yes, and then it turned into asking another one and then it's been like almost three years now and we've had amazing authors. We've read amazing books from Dave Hollis and John Acuff and it's just been really powerful in helping me overcome that inner mean girl.

CAMILLE [35:03]

I love it. And then, I was like, "Kelli, you should put that on a podcast. Why aren't you?" Remember? And then you were like, "I should do a podcast. I'm already recording this."

KELLI [35:14]

That's true. I had all this content and it was like I should share these amazing interviews. They were incredible best-selling authors that were talking to us and sharing their wisdom. And so, yeah, I turned it into a podcast. Thanks, Camille.

CAMILLE [35:29]

You're welcome. And I love that it was a matter of asking. I feel like so often we think of these ideas and our path and our decision and the goals that we have of ourselves, and then we maybe thought, "I wonder if I should just ask these authors if they might want to come and talk to us. And the answer was yes and I think so often it's a matter of asking that those opportunities are waiting to come to us.

KELLI [35:55]

Totally and like I tell my kids, "If you don't ask, the answer's already no." But the worst they can say is no, and then you move on. We just take everything so personally and it's like we just need to be curious and be like, "I wonder why they said no." Maybe I need to rewrite my email. Maybe I need to follow-up again when I have a bigger group. We take it so personally and mostly it's almost always not personal.

CAMILLE [36:21]

Yeah. That's such a good perspective.

KELLI [36:24]

Maybe they didn't see it. Maybe they didn't see the email. Anyway, I've noticed a lot of women take things so personally they think it's like, "It's because I'm a failure. It's because they hate me." And that's rarely the case.

CAMILLE [36:41]

Yeah. That's so true. Tell me with everything that you're juggling right now, your business, you're running a huge team and that's continuing to grow. You're doing the podcast. You want to be an author. How do you balance everything? That's the age-old question. How do you do it?

KELLI [36:59]

Okay. I have an acronym. I told you I was a word nerd. I have an acronym for you. This is my need to trademark acronym. It is called Dare to Say No. D-A-R-E, the D is for delegate, the A is for automate, the R is re-evaluate, and the E is for eliminate. So, that's my secret to doing it all. Sometimes, it's eliminating where it's like, is this really helping my mission? Is this moving the needle? Is this an income-producing activity? Okay. No. Is this just for my ego? All right. Maybe then this needs to be tossed out. And then, re-evaluate like, "Hmm." Really taking a step back and looking like, why am I doing this? Do I actually want to do this? Just asking yourself those questions.

I went to a workshop a week ago, a business workshop, and I mentioned an idea. I have so many ideas all the time. And I mentioned it to a friend and she's like, "Do you want to do that?" And I was like, "Oh my gosh." We don't ask ourselves these basic questions. I was like, "Why didn't I think to ask myself?" I'm like, "Actually, no. I don't." Sometimes just reevaluating like, do I even want to do this? Sometimes, we should ourselves like we're so busy shoulding ourselves.

CAMILLE [38:31]

Yes. That's so true and I think especially when you have minds like a serial entrepreneur would, I am very much that way where I can see a vision and ideas come to me and I'm like, "That would be so cool and this and that." But it's paying attention to that continual, just showing up to what you already have and trying not to get too distracted by that sparkly shiny new thing. So, another question I have for you is, have you invested in a mentor and what is best advice you've been given for furthering your business and your purpose?

KELLI [39:04]

Yeah. Actually, I do have a business coach. I've had a business coach for many, many of my entrepreneurial shenanigans and one of the reasons that I hired her is she helps me stay focused in my mission and not get distracted by the shiny things. I'll tell her. Sometimes, I'll tell here these crazy ideas and she's like, "Okay. Let's put a pin in that. Let's put that on the shelf." And then, a month later, I'll forget about it. Or she'll be like, "Is this really moving the needle forward? Is this really going back to your mission of empowering women to fear less and have Beyonce-esque confidence?" That's my mission statement right there. "And if not, then let's maybe put a pin on it. Let's put it on the shelf."

So, it's been great to have a mentor do that and plus she also keeps me accountable to some of my goals. We make it a working hour. We work together. It's just not her telling me what to do. It's like, "Let's send this email together. What do I do about this? Do you have some ideas?" So, it's really nice to have someone to bounce ideas off and sometimes, I cry to her too. She's like my therapist.

If you can't afford a business mentor, pick someone that is doing what you want to do, that someone who inspires you, that you look up to and just watch what they're doing. Success leaves clues. So, pick one person that's like, "Yeah. They're doing what I want to do" and just go watch their videos. Go watch their Instagram or go take a course from them. Just notice patterns. Notice things that they're doing and start doing similar things and making it your own.

CAMILLE [40:57]

I love that. Success leaves clues. That is such a true statement and also so empowering of having a coach or a mentor is so nice, but that isn't always the situation for everyone with whatever's going on. But you can do your own research and you can find someone and think, "Okay. What are the patterns I'm seeing and how could I make that my own and create that path of success too?"

Because one thing I've noticed when I've talked to the most successful women, I've done many, many interviews is that they're always of the mentality that there's enough success for everyone and that there's not a limit of, "Okay. There's only this much room for us at the top. Sorry for the rest of you." It's always this perspective of, "No. We can rise together. Let me teach you how." Unless they can't for whatever reason, whatever that relationship is, but it's always this feeling of plenty or excess or having a mindset that it's available for you too. Just that mindset of excess.

KELLI [42:05]

Yeah. That abundance mindset, totally.

CAMILLE [42:09]

Yes, abundance.

KELLI [42:10]

Yeah. You do have to, I'm trying to think, almost let go before you can receive. It's like if you have too many balls in your hands, you're literally holding a basketball and a baseball and a football and a beachball, you're not able to receive new things. You know what I mean? So, sometimes you have to make space by eliminating, automating, delegating, all those things in order for the best things to come into your life. Sometimes, it means letting go. I don't know if that goes back to abundance or not, but I don’t know.

I think sometimes we get so tight-fisted like our fists are closed and we're like, "I'm not going to give away my secret." We're having this competition mindset or whatever and our fists are closed, but when we open fists, we give freely, we share our knowledge and we help others, then we rise by lifting others. I think that's truly how we rise. There's a really, really good book called The Go-Giver and it's so freaking good. It changed my business.

CAMILLE [43:28]

I was going to ask you what your top three books would be because I know you've read so many. So, The Go-Giver. We'll definitely link to that in the Show Notes. Do you have a quick other two that you'd want to share?

KELLI [43:40]

Yeah. I think another one is You are a Badass. That has a little amount of swear words. Maybe don't listen to it around your kids, but that one I've read multiple times. Super good. Gosh, there's so many because I've read so many. But that one is one of my favorites. Another I've read three times is Essentialism and that one's just do less, but better. That's the whole thought there. There's one more. The Slight Edge is a really good one.

CAMILLE [44:12]

Sled?

KELLI [44:13]

Slight Edge.

CAMILLE [44:15]

Slight.

KELLI [44:17]

Yeah. It just talks about the power of baby steps, the power of how little things turn into big things. So, yeah, there's so many good books. I could talk all day about all the good books, but yeah, start with some of those.

CAMILLE [44:35]

No. Those are all great. I've read a couple of them, but I'm definitely going to add those to the list. I think we can go on and on forever, I appreciate your time so much, but I know you're a busy woman. So, let people know where they can find you online with your community as well as your podcast and everything else you have going on.

KELLI [44:54]

Yes. So, follow me on Instagram @kellifrance, K-E-L-L-I-F-R-A-N-C-E. All my links are there to my quiz. I have a find out what your confidence spirit animal is. See where you're at in your confidence. That's a fun one. The book club link is there as well, if you want to join our free book club where you get to watch the livestreamed interviews with these best-selling authors every month. Yeah, so start there.

CAMILLE [45:29]

Awesome. Thank you, Kelli. I appreciate your time and you are amazing. I just love you.

KELLI [45:33]

Thanks, Camille. Same, girl! Same.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE [45:39]

Thank you so much for tuning in today. I hope that you found this episode helpful. If you can leave a review on Apple or wherever it is that you're listening to this podcast, please do so. That helps so much for the podcast to grow or to share it with a friend on social media. Please tag me, so that I can thank you and start those conversations on DMs on Instagram. I love it more than ever when you send a personal message saying that you loved a certain episode or that you're enjoying the show or even if you have suggestions of someone's story who you'd like to hear, I am all ears. So, thank you so much for being here, friend. I hope you have a fantastic day.

[46:17]

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