Kelly Resendez on Purpose, Parenting, and Power with Jeff Dudan

In this energizing conversation, Kelly Resendez shares how she transformed a driven, “Type A” life into one of purpose and joy. Jeff Dudan guides a discussion that spans Kelly’s wake-up call from personal hardship, her conscious approach to parenting, the power of finding her tribe, and hard-won lessons in scaling a business. The tone is upbeat and plainspoken throughout, with actionable insights and authentic stories of growth.
Introduction
Jeff Dudan (00:00)
Welcome to The Homefront, I'm Jeff Dudan. If you grew up in a small town in Northern California to type A entrepreneurial parents, became obsessed with being relevant and significant until a series of life events led to a fundamental change in your life purpose and strategy, which led to a new life, focus, a career shift, and a new book called Big Voices. An invitation to women to awaken, increase joy, reduce suffering, and think differently, your name can only be Kelly Resendez. Welcome, Kelly.
Kelly Resendez (01:11)
Hi Jeff, what a great way to spend my morning!
Jeff Dudan (01:15)
Well, thank you for being on. Very excited that you're here. So here's an opening question for you. What events or circumstances lead people to make wholesale fundamental changes in their lives?
Wake-Up Call
Kelly Resendez (01:27)
Yeah, you know, for some that are absolutely blessed, it could be that they read a book, they had a conversation, they went to an event. But for most of us, it comes through, you know, the diagnosis of a loved one or the death of a loved one, a job loss, maybe a divorce, where they, you know, just the structure of your identity starts to crumble and you feel like something's missing. And that's exactly where it happened for me was my mom was only 57, got diagnosed with dementia. My grandmother passed away right after that. And then shortly thereafter, I had my daughter. And all of those things kind of brought me to this place of what I would call a radical awakening that I'd never had a present moment in my life, Jeff. Honestly, before that, I was just so consumed with doing and really being the center of attention in so many people's lives that I didn't even know who I was. So I think it happens differently for everyone. And I hope with conversations like this and people like us out in the world that really are what I would say doing the work and sharing it with other people that it becomes easier for the next person.
Jeff Dudan (02:47)
You were making a living in the mortgage industry. You were a high performer. You were running 1,000 miles an hour. What was the moment in your life where you said, have to make a change? And what gave you the courage to pursue it and to execute on it?
Kelly Resendez (03:05)
Yeah, so the pivotal moment actually came in a bathtub. ⁓
Jeff Dudan (03:10)
as it should, as it does for all of us.
Kelly Resendez (03:12)
And, you know, I had just read the book Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle that somebody had recommended to me. I had also just read the China study, which was really, I don't know if you've heard of the China study. It's a long-standing study on just, you know, the differences between disease in Western countries and disease in countries that don't have the same level of, I would say, animal protein, sugar, you know, processed foods, et cetera. And I was in the bathroom.
Jeff Dudan (03:18)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Resendez (03:42)
with my daughter and she was just a few months old and we were just singing like rub-a-dub-dub I don't even remember exactly what it was but like literally I experienced the deepest level of presence that I ever had before because it wasn't about capturing a photo or telling anyone about it because I feel like that's how I lived my life before like my gosh I was the top producer let me call my mom let me do this let me do that and I never really had been in that moment before. And that was the point in which I just dedicated my life to, you know what I would say, becoming the best version of myself. And that, you know, my previous self died and you think, great, that's it. And then you realize like it's never ending. You know, the person I was last year is the person that I am today, but I wouldn't trade this adventure for anything.
Jeff Dudan (04:37)
just walked out of a training class for new Homefront Brands franchise owners. I do the first hours of training and what you did in your life is something that I try to create the conditions for in their lives, which is before you came to Homefront Brands, you were an executive inside of a company. You did something for a living, but generally they were not entrepreneurs.
Some people were, but in this particular class this morning when I asked the question who's owned a business before, nobody raised their hands. So now I have two hours to open up their brains and to create a new awareness of who they need to be to be successful in this role. What do they need to do? How do they need to think? And I give them an add and a subtract piece of paper, simple Ben Franklin like paper with the word subtract on the left, with the word add on the right with a date and their signature on the bottom. it says, you know, as you go through this next two hours and have you go through the rest of the week, you know, there may be some awareness that there's some things you need to stop doing. There's some things that you walked into the room with that you don't need to walk out of the room with. And it is hard for us because we are wired to follow patterns. We are wired to seek our own level of comfort.
And our will is an exhaustible resource. So if you really want to make some changes, you're going to be fighting with yourself. ⁓ You're everything that you've learned, all of your nature, all of your nurture to become somebody new to create a new future for yourself. And it's a challenge and many people don't have the courage to do it. They just settle. say, well, or they do it partially they don't make a wholesale change. And sometimes that's just a matter of I'm changing five or 10%, but it doesn't really give you any impact in your life. You might think that you're doing feeling better. You might think that you're doing better, but you're actually just doing a small variation on the theme that you've had for the entire pattern that you've created in your life. What really motivated you to make this wholesale change? Because as I've read your book, Big Voices, which is great. And then you've got a new book coming out, which is The Abundance Frequency, which I want to hear more about. But like what gave you the courage just to say, you know, what I've gotten me to this point is not going to get me to where I want to go. And nothing is sacred. And I'm willing to put in the work and I'm willing to take the risk and I'm willing to to change because very few people in my experience are willing to do that.
All In On Growth
Kelly Resendez (07:13)
Yeah. So this is what I would say, Jeff. Number one, most people hear a whisper. They hear a whisper of like, there's gotta be more than this. There's, you know, like there's more to life. Like what if I were to start that business and holy moly talk about a blessed group of people that get to hear you, you know, share the wisdom that you do with them because what they're really creating is a new life for themselves. But nobody ever tells us when we're young, like, Hey, just so you know, you're going to accidentally get programmed ⁓ by everyone around you. And you actually have a choice. There's this thing called neuroplasticity that you can actually rewire a lot of these things. And so when I talk about it in the abundance frequency, I talk about it like hardware that's got malware in it, right? Like you need somebody to come in and rewire some of these things. And so for myself, the courage really came from loneliness when, you know, I think most of us when we know in psychology, we're trying to gain the approval or attention of one parent or the other. And my mom was that person and I didn't realize it. You know, I was affirmed on a daily basis. I am not the person that is complaining about how my parents raised me, but I think I got over affirmed. and it was something so simple, Jeff, like you wouldn't even realize as a parent. And then you probably realize that you're doing it yourselves over something. I was told the time that I was really little that I was the new year's baby. Well it's the new year's baby at Chico in Enloe Hospital, right? Some tiny hospital. I was born on January 3rd but something in me like created this I've got to be special and from that point going forward I couldn't just accept
Jeff Dudan (09:06)
Hmm.
Kelly Resendez (09:10)
the, you know, just normalcy. It was I have to be in the paper. I've got to be this. I've got to be that firsthand raise all these other things. And so and it was always to gain my mom's approval. And so when my mom got sick, all of a sudden, I didn't have anyone that care like nobody cares as much as your mom, right. And and I was like, Whoa, this is really an inside out job. And so my decision at that point was, number one, I'm going down the same path as her. Not sleeping at night, stressed, hyperproductive, all of these things. Whether or not that's the reason why she got sick or not, I'm going to do everything in my power. And so I really started on my physical well-being first. And let me tell you, when you make commitments to yourself, God creates amazing opportunities. Like literally, within two weeks of making that decision, like I'm going to get physically healthy because I was overweight after having my daughter. I was not the best version of myself, whatnot. I'm going to my beach house in Bodega Bay in California and my friend Bonnie is like, hey, I'm going to come. She was coming. She worked for Tony Robbins in Fiji at the point. She's like, I'm going to come and bring my boyfriend. I'm like, perfect. So who shows up but Scott Harris, the guy that runs Tony Robbins wellness program and it starts absolutely storming. I'm locked in a house with a man that is like the most wise guy on wellness for four solid days. Now given I had just been to Costco, so I bought the salami and the know the cheese and the like all of these like every imaginable unhealthy thing that you can buy in Costco the stuff that you taste because we thought we're going away for New Year's like let's have a
He didn't need a single thing of it. And I made these things sorry, this is a long story, but they're called the triangles of death. It was Wonder Bread with cheese mayonnaise and onions on it then you bake it they're delicious, but we still joke about it when we see one another because I'm like he literally like educated me from top to bottom on my physical well-being and when I got my physical brain like to a point because I didn't realize how much food alcohol had really had really affected my ability to have the energy to do the work. Like that kicked me into the next gear. So it was that the courage really came from this deep knowing that like, I'm going to create the same life that my mom did, you know, work your butt off, get disease die. No, no, hey, I'm going to enjoy retirement, none of that. And we know how many people that happens to because the minute they stop like things, things shift. And so the courage mixed with the right team.
and wisdom started to magically appear on my path and if I told you all of them you'd be like what like that person showed up in your life or this happened talk about divine you know guidance it was there to support me every step of the way
Jeff Dudan (12:22)
Wow. Part of what you did was you went deep into, and I think in the book you called it self-help. I think you used the buzzword, but my understanding of knowledge that's out there from masterminds, from groups, from people, it's deep. ⁓ I've become very ⁓ aware of my development first through something called Vistage, then from something called YPO, then from something called CEO, then strategic coach and a thing called the Genius Network. And what I've learned is you go into these rooms and you meet people that just say things that are so obvious that you can't believe that you're, you know, I'm 56 years old and I just learned this. It's like, where has this piece of wisdom that could have saved years off my life, ⁓ where has it been? When you decided, so one of my questions was where did you seek knowledge from? And this person just, basically what you did was you kidnapped somebody for four days and you trapped them in your house. other than that, if I was somebody that just woke up and I had a realization, I'm in this job, I'm gonna be in this job for the rest of my life, my cube's gonna get a little bit bigger, my kids might not know who I am.
Kelly Resendez (13:30)
Yeah.
Jeff Dudan (13:50)
I don't see the path that I've been on as the path that I want to be on. Where would you advise people to go seek knowledge? And by the way, at Homefront Brands, mean, that's a big thing for us. It's just entrepreneurial education. Doesn't matter which Homefront brand they're in. Doesn't matter what business they're in. Like, how can we pour into these people to make them the very, very best version of themselves and their entrepreneurial self that we can make them? And by the way, of course, When the student's ready, the teacher appears. And sometimes people aren't ready. They have to come to it themselves. So when you came to that realization, was it systematic in the way that you sought out knowledge? Was it happenstance? What did you do? Where did you go? And tell us about that journey.
Kelly Resendez (14:36)
Yeah, so the good news was I was already very indoctrinated into the goal planning world. And so when I started to approach it, because, you know, being in mortgage, I had the opportunity to like go to Zig Ziglar. There's another amazing real estate coach named Brian Baffini. And, you know, I had made a decision at that point, like my number one priority was being a more conscious parent.
Jeff Dudan (14:44)
Okay.
Mm.
Kelly Resendez (15:04)
recognizing how programmed I was when I was growing up. Again, I love my parents, but you know, I think we believe our role is to give them our opinions. And and when we really think about it, it's like who do who are we really to be able to overlay this on them? And so I had I had already made a decision like I want them to have strong values. And one of those values is really authenticity.
And so I wanted them to be able to, you know, kind of fit into that, into that realm. And then the other thing that I wanted to do was to really raise incredibly independent humans. so, you know, that was, I kind of looked at like, what are my top priorities? Okay. My kids, number one, how do I dedicate more time and energy to learning about parenting and then physical health? And I made massive changes in my physical health like that. It was crazy. Like I went from not sleeping very well, which is a lot of it's food when you're eating the wrong foods at night, that's what your body's trying to do. So I had to really learn a lot about it. So I used a traditional goal planning model of like, I'm gonna read one book a week and then I'm gonna start seeking out going to events. And again, these are things that are divinely orchestrated once you make the decision and you write them down. People that just think that there's not power and writing these things down. When your brain sees a map for something, it's really intelligent. And so then it was I went to a kid's birthday party and I got invited to Maria Shriver's, you know, women's event in LA and got to meet extraordinary humans that then took me down another path of a lot of other things. And, know, like the next year got to hang out with that guy, our toll laid there and people like Elizabeth Gilbert, who had wrote Eat, Pray, Love and a small intimate setting and just so many other amazing people. But what I would say is that was 21 years ago that I started. I was having to go to the bookstore.
I was probably the last person to get on Amazon Prime, by the way. Like I was so resistant to it. Now I might get in books left and right from there. I had to drive to the bookstore and I had to fly to events. so talk about, there was a long time in between the things that I would really do besides reading. Today, holy moly, the number one use case for chat GPT is mental health support about all of the resources out there in the entire world to be able to give you, know, what I would tell you is that this isn't an information game. This is a combination between knowing what you really desire. And this is what my book abundance frequencies about really having that desire for the type of life in which you want to live and how you want to feel in it. That's the most important piece. And then the discipline and then putting yourself into the right environment internally and externally. And those are kind of the three pillars. But today you have access to everything, right? This comes down to one simple, one really simple decision. Start seeing your brain like the organ that it is and know that you can improve the way in which it works in your life and that you can take care of it and you can understand it and you can reprogram it because when you start to make that decision that's where boom you start to realize like man there is like this is just an energy game this is an inside out energy game the first time i met you jeff i knew exactly i'm like you're my people it's an input we know like no ego all about changing improving the lives of other people that might not have the courage to do it on their own, right? They could have gone out and started their own company or they could have just gone like, wow, I'm really great at these things. But the structure and the foundation for success that you provide these people, you know, is best in class. And so when we get to that point where we're like, man, I am going into a cubicle every day.
I know something's missing. I want to have better quality with my kids. What you don't want is to go become self-employed and be a worst version of yourself. Like you want to really make that decision. Like I am going to feel joy. I'm going to feel gratitude. I'm going to release guilt. I'm going to release stress and really just start to create the life that I really want. But you got to know that you're powerful enough to do that.
Parenting With Purpose
Jeff Dudan (20:08)
You've mentioned parenting a couple of times and you also shared in addition to your mom having dementia at 57 that you have a sister that's struggled with addiction. And so this family dynamic that you grew up in type A parents, you have a sister. you have any other siblings? Just one sister. So two sisters growing up in the same exact environment, take two different paths in life.
Kelly Resendez (20:11)
Yeah.
Jeff Dudan (20:37)
And then now you've got your children and you've made a very specific decision about them, one of which is set independent, which I've always said, my children, I want them to be capable, contributing, independent adults. That's it. Do they have capabilities that they can build value and navigate the world? Are they contributing? Do they have an external or internal locus of control?
Can they really understand that they're in charge of whatever happens to them, that the circumstances don't define them, and inside of that, they can also create value for other people, and then they're independent, right? And if they can do that, then whatever it is they choose to do, musician, engineer, scientist, whatever it is, then they will generally live a fulfilled life. it's inside of that. So what is your family dynamic growing up? ⁓
What did you learn from helping your mother? What did you learn from helping your sister? And then how did that translate to the philosophies and tactics that you implemented with your children?
Kelly Resendez (21:47)
Yeah, what a great question, Jeff.
First of all, I just wanted to tell you because I think it's hilarious, but I came home to my 20 year old on Friday night with two of his buddies at the counter and he was telling them about roof scientists because I had told him like I want you to go study this he's like because he really wants to Have a business. He's worked for good leap my main company here where we do home improvement financing but I mean I just I was just tickled because most kids on a Friday night are like talking about whatever and my son talking about like hey there's this new thing like we should really check it out because a few of them want to go into business together long term so I just thought you'd get a kick out of that so yeah yeah so I mean that is that
Jeff Dudan (22:28)
Interesting, fascinating.
Kelly Resendez (22:34)
is a product of my conscious parenting, which if anyone isn't familiar with what conscious parenting is, it is really just the ability to see like these are not ours. They are they're independent and our role is to really be present and conscious with them. And at the same time, educate them, you know, and so I really did educate my kids on lifestyle choices. Like, hey, I don't care if you want to be a doctor, attorney, a business
Jeff Dudan (22:48)
Hmm.
Kelly Resendez (23:04)
owner or any of these things, but like you need to know that when you choose a career, it's going to change the lifestyle in which you live. And my kids are, you know, accustomed to definitely a more five star lifestyle that I've that I've provided for them. And so when I grew up, you know, my parents were not conscious. And so my mom was was an immigrant from Mexico. She had something to prove. You know, I think it's very common for that to happen. And so she started in real estate at a really young age of 19, which I ended up doing my daughter ended up doing as well. And so some of those core things are great. However, like there aren't a lot of memories of her being down on the floor with me playing or being outside doing those other things, because she always had to be doing something productive. And so that was my first thing was to really, really study conscious parenting. ⁓ good friend of mine, Dr. Shefali is actually the largest conscious parenting coach in the world. And so I'm very blessed that I've had a lot of her wisdom through that. But the big difference in conscious parenting is that you make the challenges about you, not them. And so if my son was triggering me, you know, when he's 14, playing Fortnite, before he got his homework done, I made it about me being more powerful and more accepting and then understanding that I can also create something different. Like I used to take his cord with me sometimes like to work or whatever it was. So he didn't have access to it. But I think what most parents don't realize is that, you know, they normally make challenges about them. They're not doing well in school. They're not this. They're not that. Well, I had to be really radically honest with myself. Like, my God, I ordered four point five students that were going to get full ride scholarships to Stanford and you sent me two fairly average amazing human beings, you know, and and so we can struggle with those things and you see it on the soccer field where parents are living through their kids and and putting a lot of performance based expectations on them. And that's the environment that I grew up grew up in. It was performance based. My dad hadn't done any healing, you know, was abandoned as a child and so didn't know how to say I love you yet.
Jeff Dudan (25:28)
Mm.
Kelly Resendez (25:29)
I mean, I'll just be honest, I can say it here because my dad's never going to listen to this. He objectified women. And so everyone was pretty or beautiful and he noticed them all the time. And so when you're growing up in that environment, I think a lot of times you're like, well, is that what I'm supposed to be? Is that how I'm supposed to show up in the world? And so, and my mom was obsessed with what she weighed and was constantly talking about like losing weight or, you know, she just didn't whatever. So of course,
Jeff Dudan (25:46)
right.
Kelly Resendez (25:59)
my sister and I came out of it two totally different you know experiences because I also had her so as she was struggling in relationship or other things then I set stronger boundaries for myself closed myself off to some of the things that she had opened herself up to so you know I would tell you that my sister ⁓ was addicted to love that was her addiction and unfortunately you know she is in a mental institution now because
Jeff Dudan (26:24)
Hmm.
Kelly Resendez (26:29)
because she didn't take care of herself. You know, she definitely...showed me a lot of things that I didn't want to be in my life, but she also showed me how close so many people are, like one millimeter from the edge. She was a high achiever herself, college graduate, whatnot, but fell victim to living in extreme suffering for so long, both with her children and her relationship. so she just didn't take care of herself. It gives me the fuel to be the best version of me every day and to transcend the things that happen with them into helping other people. You know, and that's really what for me, it's not a need. It's more a, you know, like I get the great honor of sharing the strategies and the healing that have really got me through some of the craziest times that, you know, are imaginable. And a lot of times people look at successful people and say like, well, you, you, you know, you've had it different than me. No, I really haven't. I haven't had it different than you. I experienced it differently because I spent so much time putting myself first.
Jeff Dudan (27:51)
I like to say it's the vibe that builds the tribe and people sometimes are slow to come to this concept of it's the community that you put around you that will have the biggest impact in your velocity and ⁓ your development. I took some time to go to the GoBundance website and the GoBundance Women website. You're co-founder of GoBundance Women and ⁓
Kelly Resendez (28:19)
Yes.
Power Of Community
Jeff Dudan (28:21)
I would like to know from you a little bit more about the group. It appears to me to be a very comprehensive offering, everything from masterminds to a podcast to content to groups and trips and an app and coaching services, a very comprehensive offering, but it's a community. And I was trying to, like so many of us do, was trying to...put it in a hold and say, it like YPO? Is it more like coach? What is GoBundance Women? How did you come to be a co-founder of it? And tell us what the experience would be like if someone were to join today.
Kelly Resendez (28:51)
Yeah. Absolutely. So I will tell you that from my own experience of going on this journey alone for most of it. So from 2004 is when I would probably say is when I really had my awakening at the beginning of that year to you know, I would say 2016 you go to events you read maybe every once in a while you meet somebody that's a little bit interested in it, but you really are kind of on a solo journey, which I think is important for of it. One of the greatest, ⁓ you know, I would say recognitions over time is that when you start to curate an environment that supports it, then it gets you to the next level. And so that's really, you know, that third pillar in my, in my book Abundance Frequency, not going to be out until late this year where it started was just a conversation. Again, Jeff, my life has been so guided. Like I feel like people are always thinking clarity comes like in thinking. Clarity comes from just being curious and open and being authentic about your purpose and what your challenges were. And I was complaining, you know, and I'm going to use the word complaining. I was sharing with a friend. It was right after Big Voices came out. This was a while ago that I wish I had more women in my life that were like minded and that I was struggling with that. And he's like, well, have you ever heard of like go Bundance? And I'm like, no. And he's like, well, I'm an M one, which is another community, but go Bundance is a group of men that basically want to, you know, travel together, support one another. They do goals. They do all of these other things. And he goes, I heard they were interested in a women's division. And I'm like, send me the information. I would love it. Next thing I know, I'm like having conversations with them about it. They're like, Hey, we're probably six months out, but we'll invite you to our first potential thing. And so I ended up joining M1 at that point, which is coed and my friend Rock Thomas, I don't know if you know Rock, he's an amazing speaker and, and, and, ⁓ full of wisdom. I ended up doing that and realizing like, my gosh, my first event that I went to, I was like, ⁓ my people are here. Like we're all carrying around our journal books and talking about the things that we want to create in our life. And it was an amazing, you experience going through that. But then we had this first women's event. And then from there, you know, one of my co-founders, Kathy and I, you know, over time, we ended up building it and taking ownership of it. And now here we are many years later, and I definitely do not have a shortage of like-minded women in my life that are supportive. And, know, the men's organization, over 900 men in it, absolutely great people. And one of my favorite things about them, Jeff, is that they put such a priority on family, marriage, health, knowing that when you get those things in alignment, it takes your business and your finances and your network and ability to contribute to the next level. And so that's really the foundation in which Go Abundance is built. And so in terms of when somebody becomes a member, for the women, it's a little bit different than the men. Men have a little more challenging time connecting or women connect really quickly. So we're a little bit more about scaling your business, your authority. If you want to be an authority figure or somebody that really is building your business through creating a personal brand for yourself or your investment portfolio. So we kind of have those tracks of which you do that. And then there's a lot of different things that go along with that. do a lot of group coaching and I'm the one that's really there about the mindset, like consistently you know, making sure that people are in alignment because no one has taught us. Like, let's be honest, like nobody told us when we were five, like, hey, Jeff, you get to choose what you believe. Like, these are all choices. And, you know, there's a lot of simple things that I've recognized over the last 10 years that now I'm like, man, if I would have known that 10 years ago, just how important the language is, how important, you know, really receiving is. So that's been my greatest awakening in the last few years is a lot of us are really good at giving.
Jeff Dudan (33:29)
What do you mean by ⁓ receiving?
Kelly Resendez (33:35)
Like we show up and give and we're not so good at receiving. And so when you look at a mastermind, it is the collective wisdom, right? And you've got to be open to a lot of that. And so we really make sure that especially women who have been a little programmed to be more in their masculine kind of are.
getting to that place of feeling just right in their feminine as well. And in the feminine, a lot of it is receiving, but we're really good at giving, women especially. And we give and we give and we give until we empty ourselves. And that's where people have breakdowns and don't do as well.
Jeff Dudan (34:16)
Have you, I reviewed the GoBundance websites and some of the people that are in the group, very accomplished people, advanced in their careers, somewhat high profile. I imagine that's the avatar for what's in that group. How can somebody who is just building their first business accomplish the same thing but without the time, without the budget because they're really just starting their first business. And the resources are gonna be dedicated to creating that business. There's probably going to be a little bit of uncertainty. they're gonna be stingy with the resources, which they need to be. Although I'm gonna encourage them to, as if you're not living on the edge, you're just taking up space. So you gotta get out of, if you're an entrepreneur, it's not fatal, it's not gonna kill you. You've gotta get off center.
And you've got to start moving out towards the edge of the circle where the air is, you know, all of the great things happen out near the edge where the air is thin in that rarefied air of, you know, I'm going to go for it and I'll deal with the consequences. But for these people, do you have any any thoughts about how they can start building community within their community, how they can start opening up their minds to different things? I know there's
Kelly Resendez (35:23)
Yeah.
Jeff Dudan (35:38)
BNI groups and all of that kind of stuff. But are there any online resources that you can point people towards or any suggestions about how they should think about this?
Kelly Resendez (35:50)
Yeah, the first thing that I would say is that I would ensure that you have a business playbook and a business playbook has got to be focused on who you need to be. And
Jeff Dudan (35:57)
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Kelly Resendez (36:03)
And I mean, there's a lot that goes into this playbook. Be open and willing to change it every single week. But what you need is you need execution, at least on a weekly basis. Sometimes you can shift after a week. Like I look at, you know, how Hayes, Matt and Jason built Goodly. And it was literally like they went all in a mortgage and spent all this money and the phones weren't ringing. And like, literally, if you heard them tell the story, it was like a whole week goes by and then another week goes by. And then finally, Matt and Hayes went to Tahoe and stayed in a, you know, stayed in the cabin until they figured out new scripting the next week they came back and it was like 200 calls, right? Like, where you've got to be in abundance is flexible and adaptable to be able to know that something's not working, but you need to have a playbook. And what when you're really a solopreneur, if you're really starting out, you know, my greatest thing that I did was I made a job of everything that I wanted and I had to be my own employee like 30 hours a week in the very beginning. I had to do stuff that I didn't really want to do but I knew on this job description as soon as I could hire an assistant I'd be able to offload those and so I had a vision for like being able to do that and then six assistants later I only had three things that I had to do you know and that's part of what I've done here at GoodLeap was just create divisions that ended up being very self-managed to the point in which I've now been able to step down and take a step back a little bit. But what I would say is that, you know, from online resources, there are so many groups on Facebook that you can be a part of that are free, that have a lot of information in them, both in home improvement and in solar or other, I mean, all sorts of different types of businesses. Go out there and do your research on the community businesses. Chat GPT is literally changing people's lives.
Jeff Dudan (37:46)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Resendez (38:03)
They can help you, you know, basically determine what are the free resources that you have local. And there's all sorts of free events as well that are out there that you want to be in proximity to people. Nothing's going to stop you from starting your own board of advisors or your own board of, you know, unofficial board of directors where you choose people that are, you know, somebody that maybe has given you mentorship over the past. And you ask them like, Hey, would you help kind of hold me accountable? A little bit to this. Some of the CEOs that I've mentored, now have, you know, years later ownership in their companies because I was there for them, you know, in the very beginning when they were bootstrapping. So what I would say is number one, be open to the idea that you don't have to do this alone. Spend time and energy curating the environment that supports you the best. Some people are great,
Jeff Dudan (38:53)
Right.
Kelly Resendez (39:01)
on zoom, go abundance is primarily built on zoom. do we do events several times throughout the year, but it's not that local. Some people want to be in person. And so you might want to look at a YPO or or Vistage or one of those and then also know that what like what is your greatest area that you need to overcome. So this is what I found to be true, especially about some of the entrepreneurs. They weren't as great in school because they like to procrastinate a little bit and yet they're big thinkers and they just haven't figured out like I just got to get the right people around me. So you want to really understand your strengths and weaknesses and be aware of your weaknesses, like really truly be aware of them and say like, do I create an environment where I am going to execute on the things that I really need to like, what am I going to hold back? Do I need my partner to tell me that I don't get to go on this trip unless I do that. Setting deadlines for yourself is really effective there. And then just knowing that you can hire really smart people over time to do all of the things that you don't love to do. Like, I'm a visionary. I am not somebody that likes maintenance. Like, I am a builder. I like building stuff. And then I like handing it off. And just having that self-awareness, that emotional intelligence to know, Like over time, if I'm maintaining something, I'm just gonna get really bored. I like a lot of variety. So now I gotta go on and do something a little bit different. Just know who you are gonna be in the business and know that you can hire the right people. I mean, most of the greatest companies out there, they brought somebody in that were, they were the operator, they were the connector, they were the whatever. Just be honest with yourself. But I also, ⁓ you know, I love Cody Sanchez's environment. She's got a lot of great resources out in her community that's out there for buying businesses and scaling. know, I'm always open if you're if you really are in a position where you want some deep mentorship over six months on scaling your business quickly. That's something that I do and help somebody build a lot of the you know, whether it's funnels for more Legion or or you know, maybe you want to publish a book like you published a book which is amazing on resilience in your story. And those are things that can really help elevate your business to the next level so that you can become somebody that's kind of like a local authority figure.
Jeff Dudan (41:39)
You've mentioned several things that would lead me to believe that you may have met Carol Dweck who wrote the Growth Mindset book or at least you've read it because
Kelly Resendez (41:50)
I have not met her, but one of my favorites.
Jeff Dudan (41:56)
One of the things you mentioned was, one of the greatest lessons from the book is you want to praise people's efforts, but not something like their looks. You're so pretty, you're so smart, you're so this, because then, they feel like they have to live up to that standard. You said your father would call your sister pretty, so she felt like she had to be pretty. think you said something like that. As opposed to, that was a great effort. Look at how hard you tried. so people that understand that they don't have to be perfect, but it's really about the effort of doing it and not trying to live up to some standard that was put on them by somebody else as part of having that growth mindset versus that fixed mindset that says, I already am this. So even if I fall short of it, I have to create the scenario where it looks like I am. they would give tests to people that were unanswerable. And then the smart kids would basically cheat and say that they got it right and they got the answer, even though the questions weren't unanswerable or something like that. But I mean, was that book. I've read it several times. It made a huge impact on me. And it's almost like once you see something, you can't unsee it.
And having a growth mindset and what that means, it takes so much pressure off because ⁓ we are a constant student. I learned something last week, I don't remember exactly what it was, but I can't believe I'm this old and I just learned this very basic philosophy or this principle or whatever it was and I'm gonna incorporate it, but now I can't unsee it. So it's a filter by which...As I navigate this life, I'm going to continue to use to make decisions about things or assess things or things like that. Are there times though, as again, going back to that first time entrepreneur, are there times that they should go alone? so look, so much of what I teach them is get in the right communities. This is how you enter the community. You're a business leader. You're gonna pay people by the hour, you're gonna pay people commission, but you get paid by the conversation. And the quality, the caliber of the conversations that you have, and if you're having them with the right people, will take your business farther than you would have ever. So you say, if you wanna go fast, go alone, if you wanna go far, go together. There was a great post I saw on social media the other day, and it was, It was all of the big business founders and what percentage they actually own of their companies like Facebook and Tesla. I mean, was, you know, 6%, 20%, 12, you know, I think Warren Buffett owns 13 % of Berkshire Hathaway. So, and the point that the post made was, look, get other, get all the right people on the bus. Get diversity of thinking, thought, skills. And the only thing you don't want diversity of is value.
Kelly Resendez (44:37)
you ⁓
Jeff Dudan (44:59)
in your company. Other than that, you need incredible diversity and skill set capabilities, age, race, perspective, all of these things. So build a diverse company that when the Rubik's Cube is twisted, it solves itself because you have all of the requisite capabilities and lead them well. ⁓ you know, you know, when, and so it's really about going together, but are there times as an entrepreneur where you need to go fast and you need to go alone? I can think of a couple in my career, what about you?
Scaling Up
Kelly Resendez (45:35)
⁓ Yeah, absolutely. think there's a time and a place for it because sometimes you need to be able to model what somebody else is going to do. You know, one of my favorite sayings is like, nobody's coming. Like nobody's coming. Like nobody's coming. Meaning like you are the one that is or the creator of your own life. Sorry about that.
Jeff Dudan (45:49)
Nobody's coming. What does that mean?
Kelly Resendez (46:00)
When you think about that, some people believe they need to be rescued or they have to have this. And there's such a different experience than I'm growing a company. And these are the key roles that I really need because I've also watched early, early founders give up too much to the wrong people. So I think there are a couple of things that partnerships need values for one.
Jeff Dudan (46:05)
Hmm.
Kelly Resendez (46:26)
high emotional intelligence for two, nothing will derail your company like somebody that just is, you know, up and down all the time, which a lot of great entrepreneurs are, which sometimes you've got to insulate the founder or the idea maker by other people that have really high EQ. And so what I would say is there's definitely times that you want to do it alone. However, there will become a point in which you say, like, I no longer want to be an owner operator. I want to get to this next level of CEO visionary where I'm more inspecting and guiding and that kind of thing.
It's not for everyone. There are so many situations where someone's like, I love cleaning houses, I get to go in, I do it, I'm done, I come home and I do all the other things that I love. So I don't think that there's one size fits all. But if you're trying to scale a company long term, because you think that you have a really solid business idea, you will need to build this business playbook to know what talent you need. And what I would say is that most people hire the wrong talent at the wrong time. And there is a method for how most companies really scale in the right way. And I kind of believe that too many people think that you need to build the plane on the ground. The best companies are literally building it while they're flying it. Like,
Jeff Dudan (47:36)
Mm-hmm.
Kelly Resendez (47:55)
You don't need to wait till it's perfect. Launch your product, launch your idea, keep iterating. I know that we've upgraded the way that we do things so many times. We started off as a mortgage company. We've had this, we've had that. We do multiple things today in the home improvement space. And so when you really think about it, just don't wait to be ready and perfect. Just go do it. That's definitely the way that you want to go.
Jeff Dudan (48:24)
Good Leap is the company that you've referred to several times. I became exposed to Good Leap as a finance company in the property service space. How did you first get involved with Good Leap and can you just give us the quick little down and dirty about what you did, how it got to where it is today, and why people might want to engage with Good Leap?
Kelly Resendez (48:24)
the company. for sure.
Absolutely. again, divine intervention. I had been doing mortgage for so long and what I had, I had come up with a recipe that was working, but I knew that I needed to do more. So I was running my team and I was speaking. was influencing people in the real estate and mortgage space. had a lot of business leaders that would come to my stuff. And so I was already teaching the mindset and the business scaling skills that I had really learned. I really, you know, like,
my superpower is being able to look at an organization or a business from a high level and be like, you don't have a really solid lead gen mechanism built in place or this is that or you need better operational excellence or hey, you know, I checked out your testimonials and like you could really, you know, do a lot better there. So I do really well with that. And I was doing that. So I was doing both things simultaneously. And then he's called me. And honestly, it's one of those things that it was a Friday night and he left me a message at five and just you know said hey you know we've known each other for a little while I know our what we do is a little bit different but I just want to know what your goals are and if there if there's anything that I can do to support you on that. Now I had been in negotiation with Wells Fargo for a while at this point they were really dragging their feet with a lot of red tape and what I was going to be doing more of with them and so I agreed to come over here and the first time that I came into his office and we our kids had gone to school together, all three founders and my and my kids went to school together and they'd always been a call center mortgage company and I was on the other side of it. I was a you know, relationship driven, like realtor focused and the reason why he made the phone call in the beginning was that I was the authority figure in mortgage. I was the person that had created a brand for myself. No one else had really done that back then. And I was speaking and hosting events on a regular basis. And that's really why he called me. And I came over here and right when I got here, his crazy mom, who I love to death, her name is grandma Deedee, was pushing an ice cream cart around wearing an umbrella on her head with streamers. And she said she was like spring, whatever, delivering ice cream to all their employees. And I was all, did you plan this? Like, is this a normal thing? Every single Thursday, she did snack attack. And so was one of those things that I knew that they cared about culture. And where Hayes and I connected was like, Hey, this is kind of a personal growth company that does mortgage and does we were doing solar sales at that point, too. And that, you know, he kind of told me he wanted to change the world. And I'm like, Do know how you're going to do it? He's like, not yet. And I'm like, but I believed in him. And that's really the decision that I made to join the executive team. And I've been here now for
Jeff Dudan (51:22)
You
Kelly Resendez (51:47)
14 years and absolutely, you know, the reason why people want to work with Goodleaf is we're very, very strong in home improvement financing and solar financing. And it just depends on what you're doing. We're, you know, we definitely are thoughtful about the contractors that we work with, but that's because we want to be in business forever.
Jeff Dudan (52:12)
Working a room, speaking, leading a session, people underestimate the power of that and the impact it'll have on their career. When did you first realize that number one, you had a talent for that, number two, how important it was?
Kelly Resendez (52:29)
my goodness. ⁓ There was a part of my personality, I was born with it, right? I was that kid that was super attention seeking from a young age, but I also was interested in things that were more adult like. like, I mean, honestly, I remember in first grade, I was obsessed with Ronald Reagan and like the hostages being freed or I knew stuff that most kids wouldn't know and could have conversations about. And so I could tell already when I was talking to adults, or that kind of thing that I had that ability to kind of capture people. And then I started doing stuff at a young age, whether it was, you know, reading in mass or, you know, raising my hand, it was just this consistent over time leadership quality that I'd that I had.
I believe it's a skill though. I think my skill got honed because I got so much feedback from my parents. Like honestly, I would do anything and they'd call the newspaper. And next thing I knew, like my pictures in the newspaper. So you kind of get used to that. However, know, influence is the key ingredient in success.
And again, it's an inside out job, people can feel you, there are so many people that are ego driven, and you know that they're just out for their self, where there's other people that genuinely care. And when you speak from that part of yourself, like when I get on stages, and, you know, my my objective is transformation, like, I don't want to just go share some wisdom with you, like, you could go find that on chat GPT, like, I need to be able to unlock that next level of emotion for you to be like, that's it, I am going to do a morning routine tomorrow, or I'm going to make this decision, or it's time to go, you know, like create a plan to leave my W2, which is what you know, a lot of people that come to you are doing, right. And so when you look at influence, it should be something that everyone works on. And again, it's something that you can develop. And I've studied over a long period of time. So there's definitely a lot that you can learn about it.
Jeff Dudan (54:43)
It's amazing to me how many opportunities there are if you're willing to do it. You're getting ready to go on a trip to Europe for a month. It sounds like on the back of speaking opportunities. Where are you headed?
Kelly Resendez (54:50)
Hutter.
Yes!
Yeah, I am headed to well first stop is CAN and then F1 Monaco where I'll be speaking at an event there and then back to ⁓ CAN Lions later in June.
Jeff Dudan (55:12)
Unbelievable, right? Who would have thunk it? And you show up, you work for an hour. I don't know if you're gonna attend the event and learn and do all that kind of stuff.
Kelly Resendez (55:21)
Oh, yeah, one of them is on a yacht, Jeff, I'm going to be on that boat. And I'm bringing my son with me. So he'll also get to have an epic experience because of it. And honestly, like the speaking thing, talk about building authority and then getting to connect with amazing people too. mean, in every week, you know, I try not to speak more than once a week. That's about on average what I do just because it is a little taxing with travel. But what I would say is that it's like you get to meet people all over that are doing amazing things and you never know where that next big opportunity is. met you through somebody that I was talking to about a women's event that I was having and she and we just started to like go down this path.
Jeff Dudan (56:01)
OK. They just wanted to make sure that I didn't crash it? What was the conversation?
Kelly Resendez (56:08)
Yes! No! She was like, do you know Jeff? you know, do it in over at home front, like he's an amazing person in the home improvement space. And I might connect me and little did I know you and I would have so many things in common when it comes to mindset and business building. And then of course, then those connections become like, who do I know that can support you? I connected one of your guys with, you know, somebody that sells franchises so that she can put you guys out there more or I sent it to somebody else in Colorado that's trying to figure out what business she's in. And that's
Jeff Dudan (56:34)
right.
Kelly Resendez (56:42)
really where we get to this next level. Like when we're in abundance, I am seeking ways to support people like in as many ways as I that I can but a lot of those speaking opportunities are what have created the fact that I've never done a resume. I've never I've never had to ask for things that you know just end up coming into my life because I've been so clear on my vision.
Jeff Dudan (57:11)
My son's in the business and I'll just say this, and I've always said yes, even when I knew that I had an imposter syndrome. And I would always say yes to do a panel or to do ⁓ a talk or whatever it was. and really didn't do great, but.
Kelly Resendez (57:21)
Mmm.
Jeff Dudan (57:30)
you're getting reps. Like if you hear comedians say they have to work out all the time, like if they don't do something for a month or two, then they're not sharp, right? So if they're going to have a big gig, they'll go to the comedy stores in New York because they call it working out. It's like, if you're an athlete, you have to train. If you're a speaker, you need to stay sharp. You need to stay in the game. You need to stay near it. But my son, he works in the business and he'll get on with a franchise consultant or something. he the other day is like, you know, if I had a nickel for every time I'm on with one of these franchise consultants and they said 10 years ago, I was at a roundtable, your dad was leading and he said this, or I was in the audience of a panel that your dad was on and he said this and this is the impact. And you don't even realize, like, I don't even remember 3%. of those things that I did, but they constantly, you don't realize the impact that you're having by preparing, getting good information, delivering it in a way that people can act upon it, and then taking the chance to get out there. Every event needs speakers. Every event wants to provide ⁓ some educational value, some entertainment value, some inspiration value, whatever it is. And the question should be like, why not me?
Why can't that be me doing that? And I really was, it was foist upon me because we were having success in the industry and I think people wanted to know a little bit. But then I really realized that how important it was and just, it's not fatal. You're not gonna die. If you die giving a talk in front of 400 people, it's not because you're giving the talk, it's because of other poor life choices that you've made up until that point that's killed you. So ⁓ we're gonna head towards the barn here in a minute, but.
Kelly Resendez (58:48)
You, Yeah.
Final Thoughts
Jeff Dudan (59:17)
I don't want to get out of here because you've done so much work on this topic. What are some challenges that are unique to women entrepreneurs? We have many in home front brands in it's it's I mean, we have them in our temporary wall business. We have them in our design re business. We have a lot of women entrepreneurs and whether it's a spouse partner team or or a solo preneurs, whatever it is. like what are some unique challenges that women face because I know you with big voices and many of the other things that you do that you've taken so much time to invest in that particular space.
Kelly Resendez (59:57)
So I'm going to talk about four things that are like evidenced by data because I think, you know, for me, I look at, of course we're different. Number one, that's the first thing that I want to get across is like, let's just accept we're different. There's no such thing as equality with differences, period. Like I don't believe in equality. I believe in put the best person in the role, but ensure that they have adequate resources and access to the same networking opportunities and information that everyone else does, which is not what is fairly distributed today. And I'll get into that in a second. the four things, number one, women experience stress at a much higher level than men.
And when you think about the impact of stress that affects the entire family unit, right? If mom comes home and mom's not doing well, everything in the world ends up not being okay. And so I think that women need to find a way to care differently. And it's, you know, it's not that it's not amazing that we care, but like, I can't care too much about what you think where it's going to impact me, right? I need to get really clear about that. people don't like it when I say that but I'm going to say it stress is optional find a way to do it without it period make that commitment put that on your goals who you're being again if you can be successful without stress just imagine what your life is going to look like and for the people that say you don't understand please don't tell me that like I've been in a world that has been again we're building a plane 14 years going a hundred thousand miles an hour at all times growing a multi-billion dollar company I've raised two kids I was a single mom 100% financially dependent on them. Losing my mom, my sister, and a mental institution. I just lost my niece recently. ⁓ Don't tell me that we have different worlds and I don't understand. I've done it without stress because I know the physical impact. The second thing is imposter syndrome. We experience imposter syndrome at higher levels. What I would tell you is that imposter syndrome is not bad, it's actually good. When you talked about getting outside of your comfort zone, if you don't have imposter syndrome regularly, you aren't thinking big enough. You need to get outside of it. Now this came a long way. I would have told you a year, two years ago, I don't have imposter syndrome. I was flying back from spending a couple days with John Maxwell in Florida at his home and we were recording and John gave me the most amazing gift that I've ever received in my entire life from somebody that I, you know, who I adore and I was just sitting there and I was just feeling like who am I like in his life, like that I'm the one that to help him with abundance and other things. Like I was just feeling it and then I was like, oh, this is what this feels like. And I was like, this is a good thing because I'm pushing myself to this next level of surrounding myself with with people that have amazing levels of influence in a positive way. So imposter syndrome, we must do it anyway. Like put the imposter in the driver's seat, keep moving in the direction that you want to go. So learn how to do that. Number three is guilt. We have a lot of guilt over our family, our kids. The number one rule that I always had was be present wherever I was. And I look at my priorities every morning in my morning ritual and make sure that I know like for me, it's God. am faith first. No matter what I read the Bible 365 days out of the year. I do my morning ritual with my goals. How do I want to feel I do visualization, journaling, meditation, and then if I'm working on a book, I write, but I'm really just in this position where I choose to live without guilt. Like, you know, we're gonna screw up our kids, we could be the best parents in the whole world, and we're gonna screw up our kids because we were too good a parents, right? Like, there's no, like, all we've got to be is present and show up with love and not overlay all of our ridiculous, you know, thinking we know everything belief system on them, like, let them come up with it. And the last thing is overthinking. You know, women are just super cerebral. And so when you start to have a better strategy in which that's what big voices is really around is all of the thoughts. do I really ensure that I stay in my big voice, which is my most authentic voice? Because we have a lot of voices that say, I should care too much about what you think. If you reject me, that's bad. There's a lot of things that go along with it. And so I say when we take those four things and we start to look at them differently and we start to support women on it, because where we don't have the same opportunity and I'll tell you you just really quickly, especially for the dads listening because you've probably been in business but you don't understand this. I get to have amazing relationships with the men that I work with and like I have amazing men, right? I mean, we make up less than 10 % of C-suite in most companies. So you have a lot more men than you do women. We can tell each other things, we can be in each other's lives, but when it comes down to it, I can't text you at eight o'clock at night, you can't invite me on the boat, we can't go to lunch every day because that would not be okay in your marriage, right? And so we aren't going to have the same opportunity, plain and simple. Like I've had to witness that here and it's not I don't think it's a bad thing but I think what we need to do as employers as and for men out there create networking opportunities for women where there isn't that awkwardness. So there's a lot of differences but I also know we make up 50 % of the population and diversity creates so much innovation and creativity that not having us in your boardrooms or on your executive teams or at the head of a company is just a grave mistake and a missed opportunity.
Jeff Dudan (1:06:05)
you do good work, Kelly. You've put the work in and you're doing great work. I've very much enjoyed having you on the home front today. Really appreciate it.
Kelly Resendez (1:06:07)
Yeah, absolutely. It's been such a pleasure being here.
Jeff Dudan (1:06:19)
All right, I've got a curveball and a fastball for you. before we do that, the curveball, before we do that, I would like you to let people know how to get in touch with you or where you would direct them if they want to learn more about you.
Kelly Resendez (1:06:30)
Yeah, absolutely. So you can always go to KellyRizendez.com and I'll get that over to you guys. I also have a free gift. You can go to downloadthepod.com and it's basically a three-part series on overcoming self-sabotage. And it's called Download the Pod because in GoBundance, we put you into pods of four to five people that really are the ones that kind of become your board of advisors in your life and your business and are going to be there to help you scale without sacrifice.
Jeff Dudan (1:06:56)
Mm.
Kind of like a forum, I guess. Similar to a forum. ⁓ I like it. I like the unique language there. Okay, here's the curve ball. You're well traveled, incredibly experienced, and you have a lot of visibility into what's going on right now. And business is fast right now, especially with AI. ⁓ More change in 24 months than we probably had in the last 24 years.
Kelly Resendez (1:07:02)
Yeah, that's exactly... ⁓
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Dudan (1:07:27)
Gun to your head, something you care about deeply at risk. You have to create a brand new business in the next 30 days, and it's not something that you're currently active in. What would you do? If you had to create a business in the next 30 days, and it's not something that you're currently doing, where's the opportunity that you see?
Kelly Resendez (1:07:48)
Yeah, I believe where I would start a business is surrounded with matching investors with companies that need funding today. I think that there are a lot of people that would invest in amazing companies, whether it's, ⁓ you know, helping an entrepreneur kind of get to this next level, a startup or somebody that's already in late seed funding. I don't think that people are investing in companies, individual companies that the way that they should and they're
Jeff Dudan (1:07:58)
Mmm.
Kelly Resendez (1:08:18)
going and putting money in places that they have very little control. Because I believe mentorship is really the key, but I don't know that a lot of people have figured out how to do that. and where you'd be able to tell if a company was world positive or not a company that's making a positive impact in the world and with its people.
Jeff Dudan (1:08:39)
trend that I like in that space is things like Dan Martell and SaaS Academy, where he has a school for people to learn how to use software as a service businesses. then, you're giving them something that they could never get based on his experience. And then he has the opportunity to bring capital in addition to the intellectual capital.
It can bring now human capital and then capital capital. And that's a model that I like a lot because it's like, you know, when I've lost money investing, it's like I didn't have any way to help these people. somebody's yeah, somebody's like, this is a great idea. like, it doesn't look like a great idea. They're like, I'm investing and they're like, okay, they're investing. then, but then you really, you know, I would rather again, I'd rather hedge my bets.
Kelly Resendez (1:09:11)
Yeah.
Jeff Dudan (1:09:32)
And if I can give, let's say somebody who's building a franchise or franchise organization, if I could help them be the very best version of their franchise self and get alongside of them to understand who they are, what are their values? Are they committed? Do they have resources? How do they handle stress? Are they willing to do the right thing when the right thing's hard? If I could understand all those things now, it's not just, I like the business that they're, I like the widget.
Now I know who they are and I can probably make much smarter investments in that way. So I agree, but I also think there's a lot of, there's a lot of, there's a lot of investing that is finance and spreadsheet based and maybe they're ignoring some of the intangibles. So I think that they could miss.
Kelly Resendez (1:10:05)
Absolutely. Well, I think you have to be honest. I look at a lot of pitch decks every week because I work with so many founders and a lot of times I have to be honest with them. Like I don't I don't see your market size. I don't see your story. I don't see it like sorry, like I'd rather be honest with them so they can go back to the table because what they don't realize is that the attachment to a failed business could be shortened so much like with truth, like if they actually stop mentorship because most of us have had failed opportunities or we've learned the hard way and people get so attached to some idea that you're like who's gonna buy this like seriously
Jeff Dudan (1:11:06)
yeah.
Yeah. it's the bias we create. It's you know, everything's. ⁓ you know, I love this. I love this hammer. Now everything's a nail. And you're just I mean, I had a I had a I know he won't listen to this either, but I had a I had a tech guy. Right. And I mean, he was great.
Kelly Resendez (1:11:17)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Dudan (1:11:27)
He was one of these, know, slept all day, worked all night, so that when I was building businesses, it was great because I could work all day and then I could work all night with him building technology and building platforms and all that. So it worked for me because it expanded my day when I was younger and I could work those hours.
But man, once he decided on something, you couldn't get it undone. was all he did was work around his idea and he created such a hard bias. And it was like, I mean, he would almost tell you anything ⁓ without objectivity to get the solution that he had already decided on. it was, it cost me some money. Other times we had great successes, but it also cost me some money in some ways. Okay, so.
Kelly Resendez (1:12:13)
Just on that because I just want to add this one thing I think one of the greatest challenges for a business owner is deciding
Do I invest in the technology myself and build it or do I go find and partner with other companies that have already done it? And I know for us, for you, whether it's, you know, working with the service Titans of the world or other companies that are out there, like sometimes you just have to call it and say, this isn't worth the energy right now or effort because like you said, the speed in which things are changing.
Jeff Dudan (1:12:27)
Yeah.
Kelly Resendez (1:12:43)
a year from now I might be able to talk into my phone and say please create a CRM that's going to book appointments like you never know where we're going to be and so we sink a lot of cost into things that might make more sense just going out and partnering with other really smart people that have already done it.
Jeff Dudan (1:13:00)
Yeah, I tend to agree, especially right now. I'm one for four in tech tech startups. you know, but hey, at least there was one. So least there was one could have been over four. All right. ⁓ Last question. This is the fastball right down Main Street. And you probably you have a lot to choose from here. I'm sure if you had one sentence.
Kelly Resendez (1:13:12)
Yeah. That's all.
Jeff Dudan (1:13:28)
to speak to somebody and make an impact in their life. What's your go-to sentence?
Kelly Resendez (1:13:35)
I own my joy.
Jeff Dudan (1:13:38)
Explain. Explain.
Kelly Resendez (1:13:39)
So that's my point. I own my joy. We give our joy away externally and we have since an early age, like the amount of approval that we seek from others, validation, the bank account balance, the, you know, awards on the wall or whatnot. When you start to recognize that it's an inside out job and that joy comes before.
Jeff Dudan (1:13:45)
Hmm.
Kelly Resendez (1:14:02)
Like most of us live in if only. If only I had more time. If only I had this. And like when you get to this place where you own your joy and you don't allow the external world, no matter what it is that's going on to have an impact on it, you become unstoppable.
Jeff Dudan (1:14:22)
perfectly said. Kelly, thank you so much for being on.
Kelly Resendez (1:14:26)
Thank you. This has been a great pleasure, Jeff. And I love everything that you're doing over there at Homefront Brands. And I look forward to more opportunities to connect.
Jeff Dudan (1:14:36)
We will do great things. This has been Kelly Resendez with Jeff Duden and we have been on the home front. Thanks for listening.
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