‘I never let the business growth get in the way of the life that I wanted.’
Kelsey Kerslake is CEO and creative director of Pinegate Road, a branding agency that helps customers grow their business through their online presence. She believes that your business should serve your life and not the other way around. Listen to her story here.
‘I’d rather take the risk than sitting back and thinking “what if.”’
As a thriving entrepreneur, Kelsey is also sharing her business knowledge about online entrepreneurship, scaling up a business, and more through her coaching program.
Learn about business and life alignment, goal setting for business, taking risks as an entrepreneur, the importance of business coaches, and more in this episode.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pinegate/
Pinegate Road: https://pinegateroad.com/
The Aligned Business Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/aligned-business-podcast-kelsey-kerslake-pinegate-road/id1145193109
John: Thank you for listening today, don’t forget to share this episode and subscribe. My guest today on the show is Kelsey Kerslake, the CEO and creative director of Pinegate Road. They are a branding agency that helps entrepreneurs and business owners grow their business through their online presence. Thanks for joining me today, Kelsey.
Kelsey: Thanks for having me, John. I’m excited to be here.
John: Yeah. So I’m very curious and interested to learn a little bit about yourself, your journey on how you became who you are today, and maybe share with the audience members a couple of years back in terms of your schooling, your upbringing to then starting a career.
Kelsey: Yeah, absolutely. So I guess my background is that I’ve always been that art kid, I always loved artistic things and when it came to going into school I was like, oh starving artist mentality how do I actually make money, let’s do the art on computers that just kind of made sense to me. So I went to school for graphic design, I went to the University of Iowa for my bachelor’s, and then I went to the Savannah College of Art and Design for my master’s. And what was interesting is that in my master’s we actually focused so much on brand strategy, on the research, on the development of creating long-lasting brands, and the impact that design has for businesses and the world, and I love that stuff now. Then I felt a little stifled with how much research I was doing and how little creativity I was able to do during that time, so I started a blog and it was just my creative outlet. I literally called it “The Diary of Kelsey Cronkite” which was my maiden name, which is the lamest business name ever and that little blog turned into what is now Pinegate Road in my design studio. So I started that as a side project while I was in grad school, people started asking me to do their blogs, to do their web design, to do their branding and it slowly just started growing because of the traction I was finding through the blogging communities. Then a little thing called Pinterest came onto the scene at that time, so I was one of the first users and a lot of our designs were being shown on Pinterest and that’s really when the business started to explode. So during this time I also did not think that I wanted to start this business, I was very much in the mindset of you go get a corporate job, you don’t start your own business when you’re 23 years old, you have to go get that salary you know to earn your ranks in a company before you then take the entrepreneur’s path. So I decided to work in an organization, I moved up here to Cleveland Ohio where I currently live and started working for American Greetings. So I was on their stationery and stickers team doing hand lettering, doing product design and I was also running Pinegate Road, my design studio on the side and because of Pinterest and because of the traction we were getting. I ended up getting so booked out, while I was working in corporate that I hired a team to take on the excess work and by year three I was earning more in my design business than I was in my salary and that was just the side business so I was like, okay if I can take this full time I can really even grow this much much bigger. So in 2016, I took the business full time and kind of grew from there and we didn’t mention this right at the beginning but in 2017 people started asking how did you grow your design business, how did you take these artistic talents that you love and to have and were growing but how did you actually do the business aside of creating an agency and a design business. So I started mentoring a few people and over the years that turned into what is now the Aligned Business, which is our coaching program helping service providers, coaches and consultants scale to their first six-figure year in a really really sustainable way that aligns with the life they want to live. I think that for me even as I’ve gone throughout all of these different phases of my business, I never let the business growth and the hustle that comes with entrepreneurship get in the way of the life that I wanted to live. So that has always been really important to me I take every weekend off, I sleep 8 hours a night, I have time for my life and taking care of myself and the people around me first before the business. Now we’re on track for our first million-dollar year and I’m still able to really take a lot of time off to mentor, and coach our team and work with our clients but in a way that goes beyond just me. I’ve really been able to see the value of scaling and growing with team support and really pouring into them to be able to spread this mission of the business and life alignment, whether that is in the design agency or in the coaching business so that is my wrapped up the little story there.
John: I love how you mentioned that you know it’s a lifestyle and a lot of people are so caught up with chasing that business dream, their entrepreneurial hustle, side hustle but then they forget that they have to live. What’s the purpose of running something and creating because you’re taking this huge risk and therefore, you’re running it thinking that you need to satisfy the class customer or be at the impulse of every demand out there but then you have to think about what is that doing to your mental health, stress levels, relationships, emotional, physical like a detriment to your whole body and mind. So I love you mentioning that you’re able to take weekends off, you’re still there present with your team. Now that you’re growing failing that you still have a huge component of lifestyle because that’s what I’m all about right like I’m boldly about life and I’m all about like bucket list living presently at the moment. And yes, there’s gold, there’s aspirations but making an impact a lasting one so that you can actually help other people achieve their own goals and that’s way more rewarding than your own, so I love that and that’s why you’re on the show today.
Kelsey: Oh, good. What is one of your bucket list items that you’re looking forward to doing soon?
John: Yeah. So for me I have a lot of different projects and yes there’s a lot of travel you know bucket list but for me, I’m very fortunate to have a team and like yourself, I’m more interested in making sure that they can have a sustainable life with their own goals and aspirations because when you’re able to impact others and they see that you actually care and you want to support them along the way it’s such a good feeling right. For me, it’s just making more of an impact by creating a community, creating a book, creating other things that will make a lasting impact and this even right. Hopefully, one person can listen that will take action and that will make an impact in someone’s life and that’s all it takes right. So if you don’t mind sharing because I know you mentioned arts back right, your aspirations growing up did you have people in your circle of influence family or friends that were entrepreneurs business owners, did they have an artistic background like why arts?
Kelsey: I feel like I always just created it’s one of those natural things I couldn’t help myself from being creative and playing with things. I remember when I was really little like cutting up my clothes to then turn them into different articles of clothing that was just something fun. I was doing at 3 and 4 years old, so I think that was just part of that. My mom did she’s not an artist but she did really support me and being able to pursue a lot of those things. And my great grandfather was actually a sign painter, so he was not in the movies but he would like paint signs for all of the movies and so he had that artistic ability that I think my mom saw in me at the same time. Then yes, my family is very entrepreneurial. So my dad, I guess several generations have been entrepreneurs and done their own business, so that has very much been an impact on my life. I always knew that business would be something that I would do eventually it just didn’t seem like something I would do as early as it happened, they all did work in corporate for a little bit, then maybe a decade and then kind of learned how to run a business and things like that and then took their businesses full time.
John: That’s awesome to hear because I wanted to ask you like your family or people that you know, did they mentor you? Did you have that coach? Did you have people that you can ask questions and turn to when things were rough? Because there’s evidence flows every single business you know upright battle right like there’s always going to be challenges and turmeric oil and you know things that you have to figure out, so were they around and did you use them to ask questions?
Kelsey: I definitely had open conversations with my parents about my business as I was starting, they were the ones that actually I was going through some health issues and I do have a podcast, so I talk a lot about all of these like behind the scene things if you are interested and they were the ones that were telling me like Kelsey you’ve got to take this full time, your health is more important than trying to just stay in corporate and grow your business. So they definitely supported that vision and I wasn’t talking to them all of the time, we’ve always lived in separate cities and we get together and like have amazing relationships then but they don’t know a lot of the little details of my life, we don’t have that kind of a relationship and yeah I would call my dad and ask for team support and business support and things like that. So that was really really nice to have and he’s in manufacturing, he has a plastics factory and I’m out here making swirly doodles for ad campaigns and it’s a different type of business. So while some things applied, some things didn’t and there was definitely it’s about gathering that advice learning from the nuggets and then being able to take what works then make it my own at the same time. I’ve also been a huge proponent of getting mentorship and getting mentoring. I’ve always had a business coach. In fact, like probably three at a time for just different things, I think it’s so important to learn from others who have been there, who have done that, who have a unique perspective that you can, then bring back into your life and your business, so I’ve always had that as well and so I think I have this predisposition towards feeling like entrepreneurship was a safe and good choice where I know so many people do not have that. Their parents are like, stay in the corporate like do the safe choice and so I’m really lucky that I did have that as kind of the solid foundation and then I did seek out other mentors and I’ve always been I see all of your books up. I’m an avid reader as well and so I love just like getting all of that advice from other people who have experienced things, then taking that, and turning it into my own little version of things.
John: Yeah and that’s why I love hearing too like what you just meant to mention, reaching out for different perspectives right. People that have done it, lived it, achieved whatever you want to achieve, and maybe have some guidance shortcuts or things you shouldn’t be doing right. So how did you go about seeking these mentors and coaches especially for early-stage entrepreneurs? Like they don’t even know what they don’t know.
Kelsey: Yeah I had my first year, that was a terrible year I thought I would quit corporate and be able to sustain that same income if not triple it because of all the time that I had and I realized I didn’t know what I didn’t know about running a business and that first year I actually almost quit my business, I was applying for jobs, I was in a place where I had $200 in my bank account and my husband was like okay you’ve got to go get a job at the grocery store like you need to make money for our family in general like we both participate in that and it was a really scary moment and so I actually had somebody reach out to me, so this is a huge proponent of building relationships reaching out to people seeing where they’re at and seeing if you can support them and having those conversations. I think when you’re starting out I’m like from her perspective that was a really great opportunity because I was in a weird place where I did need support and so she had been reaching out and I was like yes, I need this help because being where I’m at right now is not a great place to be and I knew that I was just not doing it right and I knew that I could do it on my own but I wanted to hit the easy button and be able to learn from somebody who had been there instead of trying to ebb and flow and go through all the ups and downs of doing it on my own. And so that was during that first year that I did get that support and then I actually went without support for a couple of months and I realized okay things are going well, we’re really growing and scaling. I went from that two hundred dollar a month to a sixteen thousand dollar a month, three months later and that’s when I knew I was like, okay I have the hustle in me and I can make this happen but I also knew that the hustle was not how I wanted to live and so I knew the answer then was really growing and scaling with the team and building an agency. So I specifically sought out somebody who supports people in building teams and agencies, so that was very specific instead of general business coaching and so I always like to have both of those things in my life I can kind of see where I want to be heading in the business and I’ll get very specific business coaching programs advice to help me implement certain things within my business but then I also have general coaches, I have a self-care, and breathwork coach that I work with for a lot of my personal things. And dealing with a lot of the mindset stuff that comes up as you’re transforming into a CEO and a leader of employees was a huge shift for me. So I usually just see, okay what do I need support with who can help me and I generally search from there.
John: And that’s great that you’re sharing this because any entrepreneur who hasn’t have a circle of influence right, people that they can turn to ask questions be honest with, be vulnerable, share stories, share experiences because to do it alone and a lot of entrepreneurs that are struggling stressed, frustrated with not growing, they’re not open to even getting coached, they don’t even know where to turn. What is a coach for a lot of these businesses and they don’t understand that the most successful athletes, professionals, whatever you may be like they have coaches for every little aspect of their business, let alone their life right. Why do people go through you know say a professional basketball player, hockey player, soccer player, 20 years of becoming who they are a lot of practice, training but there’s new health nutrition, exercise stretching, there’s shooting coaches, defense coaches, there’s agile, everything is meant to get you to a level where then you’re at peak performance right. You to be at that peak, you need a lot of help to get there and it’s great that you’re sharing this because even myself I’m very fortunate to have met a ton of people and relationships and people that I respect and they’re open to me. I like sharing and even having a brief discussion or phone call or going for coffee you can get so many nuggets from that but be open to that a lot of people are very close to their business because they don’t want to share their financial struggles, they don’t want to share that they’re not really doing as well as it may portray and perceive, they feel like very embarrassed I would say if you know what I mean, Kelsey.
Kelsey: Yeah. I do, John and I also don’t know any successful entrepreneur. Honestly in my circles who hasn’t had a coach or a consultant or reached out for help, so I’m wondering that being alone and not reaching out for support that feels very foreign to me and I know that might be normal for some people to be isolated and it just feels really interesting because I’m struggling and so I go get support right, that feels like a natural next step for me and that is, so if you are struggling it’s okay, people are there to help you, support you and share and I think it’s one of those the people giving get the most sometimes, so people love to give, I believe and it’s you can always reach out for that kind of support.John: And most entrepreneurs want to support others because you understand what you’re going through and there’s a ton of content out there from books. I love reading, I love watching youtube videos or whatnot, I love going on communities that resonate with me because I know there’s specific ones that I can utilize with great expertise that can provide some insights, and then there’s podcasts, there’s a lot of blogs like you are in the creative content space, so it’s like sharing being vulnerable, being authentic and then hopefully putting it out there will attract people that are like-minded so if you actually seek it you’re gonna receive it but if you’re feeling seeking nothing’s gonna come to you, it’s like business right, you think you’re gonna build it and everyone’s gonna know about you. You have something cut out for that right like that’s not gonna happen in reality so it’s good to hear that you know what you’ve done, accomplished, and putting stuff out there shows that yes, it’s a lot of hard work, a lot of time being spent and there’s probably a lot of sleepless nights, early days right, like not knowing but now you see that all those things that you’ve done got you where you are today right, so many years to get there though.
Kelsey: We’re coming up on our 10-year anniversary of when I started my blog in August, so it’s really cool to see what that passion project has turned into over the years and it’s really just combined everything I’ve been wanting to do and facilitated the ability to be financially stable, to then be able to do whatever I feel next and so having that design agency set that foundation so I could start to build the coaching business and now the coaching business is settling in and we’re at a good place with our team, growth, projections, and things like that and so now I’m like what is next? What do we want to do? And it’s a cool place to be able to create those things that provide that stability and you don’t usually hear entrepreneurship and stability in the same section or same sentence not section but that’s what I really love to have in my life.
John: And so I wanted to just peel back some of these struggles I would say right, those 10 years of constantly creating blog content then Pinterest images and putting it out there like were there times that you kind of felt like you’re doing all this work and you’re like, why am I doing this?
Kelsey: Yes, definitely. And I think I have this weird compulsion in me like I couldn’t do it, do you ever feel like that you just can’t help yourself but do the thing even though it feels really hard but you just know that you’re meant to do it and need to do it, do you feel that way?
John: There’s something. For me, it’s more I have a very strong will and we want to just keep going right because I know that even if it’s not now revenue or now growth it’s more about like learning and it’s okay to fail and I’d rather not, I don’t want to know what would have happened if I didn’t do it.
Kelsey: Yeah, absolutely. I’d rather take the risk of doing it and figuring out where things can go than sitting back and saying what if and I think that’s the biggest thing at every choice in your at every like I guess stage level choice that you have as an entrepreneur, you’re going to say, is this worth it, should I take this financial risk, this time risk this, whatever risk it is and I’d rather say I did it I went all out, I tried it and failed miserably and learned a lot than to wonder what if and not do it. So I do think that there was many, I think the thing with what I was realizing is that I would see a lot of these overnight successes, quote, unquote, and see people reaching their six figures in the first year and I’m like, why did it take me six years to reach my first six figures and people making a million dollars in their first or second year, and I’m like we’re still on our way to our million dollars and why is it taking me so long and I realized something in the past month about business growth and it was I didn’t take the safe route but I took the stable and aligned route, so that’s going to take a little bit more time because I want to make sure that my foundation and my life is set before I do the hustle and work through the night and you know work 24/7 through the weekends and neglect my family, my social life, and my health. So taking that step back and saying this isn’t going to be as quick as I think some other people can do but I’m choosing to really enjoy and be present in my life while I’m doing this and I’m in an interesting phase right now, where we’re growing and scaling with employees and this is the first year that we brought on employees, rather than contractors. And so I’m actually staffing the business as if we are a three million dollar company and I’m building that really solid foundation with our team before we’re actually there. I think sometimes people want to be there, they want to have the three million dollars, they want to have the million dollars, they want to be in that place before they start thinking about the foundation and maybe bringing on a team and doing some of those things. It’s like you’re choosing either to hustle, through that and be a little unstable and get there but you’re not going to be usually living that life that you truly love because that’s like your only focus or you can take that risk of staffing the team, making that choice, making the investment to create the stability in your life and your business so that you can get to that place and I think I’ve always chosen that invest do the thing to build the stability so that I’m not hitting that place where I’ve made a million dollars overnight but we’re built on a really rocky foundation.
John: I think you mentioned about lifestyle and this is exactly what you created for your life and everyone is independent, everyone has their own lifestyle choice, and understand that climb people do different things at different times of their business journey, life journey because there’s situations like family comes first maybe for others, if you’re single independent if you have family support and you have access and resources versus if you bootstrapped it all. Don’t compare to others and understand that wherever you start is okay, wherever you end up is okay but make sure that you do things that’s right for you. Independent of what other people think and you don’t want to share and don’t compare to others. Yes, I feel the same way I’m like I read some of the stuff, I look at some of the success stories I’m like if only I could have done that but then I always reflect and I’m like I’m glad I didn’t because I’m present. I’m always there for my family, my friends I actually tackle early every day because I turn off my phone. I don’t even wanna check messages right because this is what I wanted to create. I have a full team. I have systems processes I’ve trained them to take on more accountability and be prepared for. Yes, there’s some risks and reward but it’s okay to not speed increase the revenue for the speed because it’s probably better for sustainability as well because it’s the brand, what you’ve built is more longevity then you don’t know what’s the lifetime value of a customer, what is the perception they have right like there’s a lot of things that you see and they may sound like they’re making a lot of money but really if you peel back that onion, are they really happy? Is it real growth and real revenue? What happens in year two? What happens in year five? Are they still in a state of I want to be an entrepreneur?
Kelsey: I know I’ve seen so many people who grow really quickly, then burn out and they’re like this isn’t the life I wanted to live and so I think I’ve personally taken that path of being like really intentional, and then really enjoying my life and what I want to be doing every day. I love that you mentioned presents, John that is something I think about every single day and I have a two-year-old so I am with him and I look at him every day and I’m like I am being present with you, just like taking all of this in just being there with him and that is what makes me really happy like I would never trade that for growing my business faster in a year so that’s the choice I’m making every single day.
John: Understand what’s really important for you in your business right, that’s not even the business anymore if you think about that as a job and then what is truly important probably family if you have your friends or your mom and dad or brother and sister. Whatever it may be like spending time with people and that is probably the most important thing you can do today, after this pandemic realizing what truly is important and yes business growth will come but it’s also timing right because if you really want to be present with people you’re going to take away that time from business growth. Yeah, you can’t be present at two places at the same time right, you got to figure out what’s really important for you then decide upon that right and then move on it, so you know sharing that is great Kelsey, I really appreciate that.
Kelsey: Yeah, absolutely.
John: So if you don’t mind sharing with the audience members some of the mistakes, maybe some of the challenges that you’ve endured in the last ten plus years or nine-plus years, you’re almost in year 10, and how did you overcome them?
Kelsey: Yeah. So I think the first, as you’re growing into I would say your first hundred thousand dollar year I think the biggest mistake I made was spreading myself too thin. I was trying to, I was almost responding to what my potential clients or clients were saying that they wanted in their business. And so I would create all of these new offerings and all of these things and really just be like I’m going to start a podcast, I’m going to start a course, and I’m gonna create these new services and as a solo person when you’re making revenue of less than a hundred thousand dollars per year it’s like you’re almost trying to appease, what people are kind of saying that they want but you don’t have a true confidence in what people need because you haven’t had that experience in your business yet. So I would honestly if I could go back and tell myself and if past me would actually listen, I would say focus on one offering that you love to support people with and then really learn who that customer is what their wants, needs, and deliver an amazing transformation with that one thing because I think that once you get to know that all of those things you’re going to learn marketing, you’re going to learn the sales process, you’re going to learn how to create systems and deliver that one service really really well and that’s going to help you scale and then that can be repeated, you can add more services or things if you’d like but you’re gonna keep it simple, you’re gonna keep it focused, and it’s going to gain more traction because of that and I think that entrepreneurs hate hearing that at first because they have so many passions, and they want to do all of the things and it’s not that the things can’t happen. I think we need to get really good at actually building a stable business at first and learning how to market, how to build the confidence within ourselves, and how to do the sales process and then you can create a sustainable business later on, and then be able to do more things. So for me now I’m in a place where I’m getting ready to write a book. I am doing my podcast. I have educational programs. I have a coaching business. I have a design business. I’m spending time to renovate my house because that’s really fun for me and so I’m at a place now where I’m able to do those things but it’s only because I got really specific and scaled with very few signature products and offerings at first and so I think it’s that don’t spread yourself too thin because you can’t do any one thing well and then looking at business owners who you want to emulate in their business model, can be really helpful too so I think as I was growing and scaling, I was again trying so many different things and it took me forever to find that one thing that I was like, okay this is it and I’m gonna scale with this one service right like we have offerings now that we’ve mapped out and it’s one offering that can bring in multi-million dollars right. And I think as we’re growing, we’re like I gotta do all of the things and that simplicity and really planning how you can take one thing and scale it to get the lifestyle that you desire, that would be the biggest shift and kind of I guess that was the stem of all of the issues that I had as I was growing.
John: And it’s a great point because early days in every single business journey people want to chase revenue so they listen to the customers or prospects and they do it because they need to survive. However, you want to be known for a niche a specific product or service and therefore, when you start owning that space people recognize that you are the leader of that. Whatever product service and then you can systemize like you mentioned put in place all their pain points issues and avatar that whole personality and really devote on that marketing sales, then create systems to do things at a level that you can scale right. That’s the whole process of Saas businesses and every business or business ownership in terms of monkey facet franchises and other businesses that actually are growing right like the ones that aren’t growing, are the ones that are probably struggling to figure out what they want to be known as. Therefore, they’re constantly chasing, trying to listen, pivot, and do things but honestly, if you are known for one thing and that’s why I focus just on SEO, I know that there’s one need for a lot of businesses and if I can do it really well with a really good track record, helping my clients. I can really help them become more visible, generate more traction and all that other stuff but I always get swayed by other people saying, do you do paid ads? Do you do this? Do you do video marketing? And I basically say, “Here’s a list of people go call them and vet them.” Because I don’t want to do it because my name’s on the line.
Kelsey: Yeah, absolutely. I think in our design agency there was a long time where I would, we would do any brand, we would do any website like we can do e-commerce and apps and blah blah blah. It was a lot and so I never, we never got really good at one thing but what we did after a while was, okay we got a niche down, we gotta figure out what we do really well and so the themes of the clients that I loved working with that I felt personally connected with that, we were really seeing some big results come from our work together, was online personal brands so people who are building their own personal brands, they are selling online services or education or consulting so that was like we’re building personal brands. They usually have some marketing funnels, sales pages, webinars, and things like that, they’re really selling usually B to B or B to C but it’s online personal brands we work in one platform and we just do it really well and so that has been awesome because we’ve gotten more known for that and at this point, our business runs completely on, I guess the past SEO and Pinterest that we were doing people still naturally find us from that and referrals. We’ve actually for the past three years I have not put out any new work publicly, I’ve not done any marketing we just solely are able to run on some of those referrals because of the work that we’re doing in the transformation that we’re getting our clients and now that I have more time because the coaching business is set and scaled. I’m actually going back and I’m going to be working on scaling the agency and actually putting some marketing effort towards it but it’s cool to see once we niched, how we were able to just grow without a ton of effort because it was just happening naturally.
John: And that’s what I mean people come to you knowing what they’re looking for and people forget that if they want to cast a big net to think to cater towards more people that means they’re going to generate more revenue but the more refined you are, the more targeted you are people will seek you out knowing exactly what they want and the conversion rate is so much higher but a lot of people forget this right. As a business when you’re starting you want to do everything you want to serve everyone but then you realize who you really want to work with, who you’re good at working with, who pays the bills, and who also you like spending time with. Like all these things only as you mature in your business will you realize and it’s hard to get to the new entrepreneurs to understand this.
Kelsey: And I think after you’ve done a year or two something that I like to do and something we do with our clients is like look at all the clients that you worked with, within that time and space rank them, on how much you enjoyed the project? How long it took? What revenue it brought in? What profit? Because a lot of times we’re hiring certain things out and things don’t end up being as profitable as we think in our heads and so really mapping that all out, you can see, here’s a theme like here’s where I need to either be focusing my marketing efforts because another thing is tracking where the clients actually came from, so did they come from SEO? Did they come from Instagram? Did you meet them at a live event? etc. And so you can kind of see where do I need to focus more of my marketing efforts like, what was working to get the clients that I actually enjoyed working with that are also profitable and I think doing that analysis of all of your clients can be really helpful for niching down and making those decisions moving forward.
John: Yeah. This is good when you’re new and I always tell people, I work with more established businesses so they already have and I basically say, who is your 10 best less profile and give me a whole personality of trying to create a website to only attract that kind of customers. Therefore, I don’t need to do that market research analysis when they approach me because they know who they are, then with that in mind I can really dominate and help them become a big figure visibly there’s no testing, there’s no paid ads, and retargeting ads A, B testing, heat maps. All that stuff is irrelevant because I could focus on really doing it really well for them refining that message, so it’s great that you’re mentioning that because even that multimedia touchpoint approach right, like a podcast, Youtube, Pinterest, Instagram you know LinkedIn there’s all these different channels today. From apps to search engines to traditional, online, digital and there are ads that target you everywhere like followers. How are people absorbing that content? How do you want to be presented? And what kind of client do you really want? Most people want the warm type of clients, the ones that already know you, trust you and just want to commit basically on price because they trust that you know what you’re doing.
Kelsey: Yeah and price almost become a little irrelevant or like you’re proud of it. Why can’t I speak today, when you’re at that stage because people after they already know and trust you they know what kind of transformation you take your clients and customers from. So even if you’re double the price of somebody else they’ll still go with you because they want that transformation and they trust the process and how you’re going to go about that.
John: Exactly, those are your ideal type of clients, the more of those ideal customers you have or prospects and you don’t have to take on every single prospect or leave your client. So it takes time to get there but it is possible if you constantly want to get better in your business right, so just a couple of questions here that I want. I’ll see what is your kind of big goal like where do you see yourself in 5, 10, 20 years because I know you’re working on a book, you’re really scaling your business, you have a little daughter..
Kelsey: A little boy.
John: A little boy, and you know family is a big lifestyle is big for you like where do you see yourself?
Kelsey: Yeah, so I think one of the biggest passions that I have is making sure that everybody can live aligned lives and that they have accessibility to that, so one of the biggest things I’m working towards and I don’t know exactly where it will take me and or people but right now it is mentoring and influencing people to create whether it’s entrepreneurship products or things that they can create more income from, being able to know that they can actually go out there create money, and opportunities sometimes for themselves and within socioeconomics. I want to provide opportunities and really train the clients I’m working with to diversify who they are working with and how they are supporting others within their own organization. So I don’t know what this looks like and feels like exactly but I have this bigger internal mission that I feel I’m working towards to help society but doing it like person by person by person inside of our programs and maybe who my book is reaching, who the podcast is reaching. And I really just want people to be able to have amazing careers, amazing lives that they feel supported in and they can actually have that belief that they can go out and create whatever they want to do in the world, without some of the systemic issues that are currently happening in the world and probably always have been but I want to provide that inspiration, opportunity and influence the entrepreneurs I’m working with, to be able to also touch the other people in a microwave rather than a bigger global way, so that was bigger and maybe a little political but that’s kind of where I see myself going as a bigger influencer for that and supporting other people in entrepreneurship. So I do see myself being a keynote speaker writing the book, spreading that general message as an umbrella and then products courses things that support that bigger mission, so I’m currently doing it through working with other online business owners and in our coaching programs but I hope that general message. You can see I’m foggy it’s all this new stuff, I’m kind of stepping into recently, I’m in this like I’m developing it and I see myself heading in that direction.
John: That’s great though because at least you have some sort of mission out there and you know to be clear on what you want to do, it’s very difficult and it’s going to take time because you’re going to have to change and pivot along on who you want to serve, who are the people that resonate with your values and it’s great that you’re putting your perspective, your input on it because that’s what true leadership is all about. Making it so that you’re serving others and you’re having a lasting impact in the world, so that’s great and then the last question in terms of pillars, this is a question I always ask people, what are some of the biggest drivers of the pillars that really mode you as Kelsey? Because business seems to be a big focus for you so is family, what about other pillars such as health, community, travel, and all these other pillars?
Kelsey: Yeah, so you touched on the two that I dive most into and health is really important to me and it always seems to be the one thing that takes the back seat and so that’s something I’m always working on. I’m like why is it that I get my sleep but I still eat pizza on Friday nights, and I’m like I know I shouldn’t be doing that and all of these things so that’s one thing I really want to value in my heart and my actions sometimes are different, it’s really growing the business our values as a company are really that love and friendship so making sure that other people’s feel seen, heard, and that we’re spreading love and being friendly. While we do that I don’t know if that’s necessarily a pillar, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about my life pillars, John.
John: But that’s something I always ask because as you grow and you become wiser, things change right like life throws a lot of wrenches in your life and you just need to adapt pivot change, and grow and just maybe think about that because I always wanted to see what others really think as a lifespan. If you’re going to be around for 90 or 100 years what are truly important in your life because a small segment or career or job is one of the strong components but so is friendships, community, giving, sharing all these other things are.
Kelsey: Yeah and when you’re saying that and this might change in the future but I do feel like through the work I’m doing in the business I’m running. I’m able to impact in a bigger way, give back, create communities. I’ve met some of my best friends in this space and my whole social life is basically on the internet and travelling to events, so I do value those things very deeply and I think the way that I’m fulfilling that is currently under the umbrella of my business and career so it could change in the future I think I am the business is the bigger umbrella, and family is the bigger umbrella but everything else is kind of falling under that to support it.
John: Yeah, it allows for it right so we’re on its own but because business has allowed opportunities for you to form new friendships and build communities amongst that, it’s great that you are able to do that which mean you took action, therefore, I love entrepreneurs because we’re the ones that are doing something typically, where a lot of people are hesitant to try something new, so we’re kind of more forward thinkers. We make mistakes, yes we fail a lot but it’s okay, it’s like how do you endure those tribulations, failures, and how do you pick yourself up because it’s stressful, but how do you persevere. So thanks a lot Kelsey for this great conversation, so how can some of the listeners get in touch with you, reach out if they have any questions, if you don’t mind sharing your handles that’d be great.
Kelsey: Yeah, you can start by going to “pinegateroad.com” everything will be there and I’m “@kelseykerslake” on Instagram and I’m always there, I’m always chatting and I love hanging out with people on Instagram that’s definitely the go-to so please come and say hi.
John: And you also mentioned you had a podcast.
Kelsey: I do. It’s the “Aligned Business Podcast” and you can find that through the website at “pinegateroad.com/podcast” I do believe we’re on Apple, iTunes, Spotify all of those good places. So check that out too if you’re wanting to learn more about entrepreneurship, journey aligning it with your life, growing, and scaling an online business and fun cool ways.
John: Amazing. I want to really thank you for your time. I know you’re really busy and you’re here to make a huge impact and splash in the world, so I love hearing that you’re supporting so many new entrepreneurs in their own aspirations and goals, so thanks a lot, Kelsey.
Kelsey: Thank you, John. For having me this was really fun.
John: Thank you
June 16, 2022
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