[00:00:00] I never sugarcoat anything. It's very challenging. So for us, for every million dollars that we used to produce, it only took 42 sales. Now it takes 1,000. And, you know, no one wants to hear that, and no one's gonna say that. But I'm here to tell the truth, and that's the truth. We've been in a trust recession for almost four years now, maybe longer.

Eight-figure entrepreneurs are obsessed with the basic fundamentals that six-figure CEOs are too advanced for. Entrepreneurship and scaling a business is so hard, and if you don't have faith, you're probably not going to make it

Welcome to the Entrepreneur's Kitchen. Today I've got a very exciting guest for you. I didn't tell you this before you started, but Kelly, I've been following you for years, and so this is epic for me. I'm so excited to have this interview with you. For those of you who are listening, Kelly is a former Fortune 500 executive turned eight-figure entrepreneur.

She has several businesses, highly influential in the business space. She's the founder and CEO [00:01:00] of Kelly Roach International. Kelly, so honored to have you on the podcast. Now, to people who don't know you, how do you introduce yourself?

Oh, that's such a good question. Well, I am a wife and mom of a 12-year-old daughter that I have the joy of homeschooling, and I am a woman of God that has been blessed for many, many years now with getting to help people build their dream businesses. And so I get to help my clients generate tens of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars growing their businesses with systems for scale, monetizing their teams, and business growth strategy that allows them to achieve their financial goals without compromising putting their faith and their family at the forefront of their life

well, we're here for that ' our audience is an audience of Christian entrepreneurs. Faith is very important to us. Like I told you, I've been following you for a lot of years and I saw this shift that happened and I wondered, what had happened.

You've always been this [00:02:00] powerhouse businesswoman and now I could really see the elements of faith coming forward with the Kairos moment, with, um, you really putting family first and really putting that message out there. And I wonder if you could share with us, 'cause I think a lot of our audience is in that space where it's like business, faith, does it go together?

Do I share it? Do I not share it? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, we were always taught, you don't talk faith, politics, religion, money, all of those things. And, for me, for many years, you know, I always kind of kept my personal life and my private life, separate from what I was doing from a business standpoint and, uh, from a growth strategy standpoint.

And, I just got to a point where, for me, from, an authenticity standpoint and really, like, living out my highest calling, it just didn't really make sense anymore to be talking about business and not be talking about those other things that were really kind of [00:03:00] the fuel and the keys to, my big why.

And I also got a lot more clear on the fact that, business really is just a vehicle to share our gifts and, we are anointed for business, and that, what we do in our businesses can be, a source for, being of service, making a difference in the world, using our gifts.

I saw so many entrepreneurs that were struggling so greatly, and they didn't have faith to fall back on. You know, I always did. It was always a part of my life, but I always kind of kept it more private. Uh, and so I just knew that if I really wanted to help people and if I really wanted to make the biggest difference possible, I couldn't be keeping those things separate anymore.

They had to be, like, at the forefront. They had to be a part of how I was sharing my message every single day. And, you know, I think what's really special and what's really different about the [00:04:00] way that I built my companies and, everything that I've done is, is that I built it this way. But I don't necessarily think that people really knew that about me.

They didn't really know, um, what I had been able to do, you know, at home. They didn't really know about my faith life. They didn't really know about all of the architecture that our life sat on, that we were so intentional about for so many years, my husband and I, in the way that we designed our life.

, I realized that what I was doing was bigger than just helping people achieve revenue goals. It was really, how do I help them step into their highest calling? And there's obviously, uh, a spiritual, you know, and faith element to that.

That's amazing 'cause you've always been, like I said, this powerhouse businesswoman, and now it was that you had this aura, you know? There was something more, something that was really, um, powerful. Thank you for sharing that because a lot of time people follow the strategies and, you know, the things that people [00:05:00] share with them, but they don't understand, like, how is someone making it happen.

So thank you for sharing

, I'm happy that you pointed that out, Priscilla, because , that's the thing, is that I realized that entrepreneurship and scaling a business is so hard, and if you don't have faith, you're probably not going to make it. And so that's why I got to a point where I was like, there's no point in me teaching about scale if I'm not encouraging people to invest in building their spiritual life and their faith, because chances are, even if I give them the strategy, if they're not deepening and strengthening their faith, they're not gonna make it through.

And so it was like a very, like, it was a very poignant moment of clarity for me that like you need to have one in order to do the other in some capacity. Yes, there are some people that just, they're completely externally motivated and, you know, they don't have a faith life. But for the average person, [00:06:00] you really do need that to fall back on in order to work through all the challenges that come your way as an entrepreneur.

Yeah, thank you for sharing that. Now, I know you're the author of many books, but recently "The Miracle Hour." , Talk us through your journey because I know you started off by yourself, , making calls in your lunch hour while you were a VP. , To that person who's still at that phase where you're by yourself, you only have that one hour to get this business started,

yeah. I mean, I know that for me, when I was starting my business, I was still working in my executive job. I definitely felt like it was a huge, uh, handicap that I couldn't, work full-time in the business and that I only had really limited time. But what I realize now looking back, and one of the reasons why so many years later I wrote "The Miracle Hour" book, that's not a new strategy.

It's actually what I used to build my business, you know, over, a decade ago. But one of the reasons why I wanted to write the book was that I realized that many times in business and in life, the thing that we think is [00:07:00] our biggest handicap is actually the thing that is gonna be most important in crystallizing our success.

And for me, the fact that I couldn't spend eight hours a day and the fact that I had to figure out how to do this in these, like, really short windows of time and in these small bursts actually created the life that I wanted down the road when I did become an entrepreneur. Now I get to homeschool my daughter, and I get to work out with my trainer and go to church and be involved in other things and have the capacity to do that.

And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, you know, start off in their businesses working, like, 80 hours a week, and then it becomes a habit, and they have a really hard time breaking that

You only have one hour, and to that person who's listening who's thinking, "I only have a short period of time. Who do I talk to? How do I talk to? How do I get this thing going in one hour?" 'Cause like you said, most people think, "Okay, I probably need 80 hours to actually get this off the ground."

But when you don't have that 80 hours,

Yeah, you definitely don't, but you have to be very intentional about your time. And, you know, what I [00:08:00]always tell people is like, if you focus on identifying people that want, need, and can afford your services, you create top-of-mind awareness with them, and you stay in touch on a regular basis, and you actually make invitations for people to buy, you can very consistently and rapidly accelerate your success.

Most small business owners do not follow any type of system for sales. They don't have a set list of people that they follow up with each week. They don't make offers consistently. And so it doesn't matter if they have one hour or if they have 80 hours, that doesn't matter because they're not doing the right thing in order to grow regardless.

So it's like doing the wrong thing for more hours in the week isn't going to make your business grow, right?

You talk about how selling is sort of part of a ministry, and a lot of people try to avoid that. You've worked with thousands , of women and men I'm sure, and helped them kinda cross through that. What would you say for the selling mentality or the selling mindset that is missing maybe?

I mean, because [00:09:00] selling done right is absolutely service. I mean, think about it. If you sell someone something that unlocks the keys to their future and is the pathway to achieving their goals and dreams, you were the person who had the courage to open that door for another person. And I think that so many times, uh, entrepreneurs are kind of very self-serving in the way that they wanna build their business.

They wanna do what's comfortable. They wanna do the things that, you know, sound fun or exciting. But in reality, when you're selling, that's when you are actually, like, stepping forward courageously and saying, like, "I can help you get from where you are to where you want to be. Let me offer you the key that unlocks the door."

And so I call sales like, the place and the way that you are able to maximize human potential. And, you know, it really does make a difference when the business owner changes their mindset around it.

I think a lot of people think, "Well, I don't know what to say," or, you know, people have all these ideas [00:10:00] of, "I don't wanna come across pushy. I don't wanna come across salesy." , Maybe you can speak to that 'cause I think you're one of the best at that.

You never come across that way, and it's almost like you want to buy. You're like, "Oh, I need to get this." And, and, um, how do you create sort of that buying environment or that selling environment? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think the, the first thing is remembering that sales is much more about presence and listening than it is about talking. And so the key is seeking to understand the desires, the goals, and the challenges of the person that is sitting in front of you, and then be a problem solver, right?

Sales is about helping someone solve a problem that's going to change their life and change their situation. And again, I think a lot of entrepreneurs put so many, like, personal emotions and personal feelings into sales, when in reality they should actually be focused on the other person in front of them.

How do I help this other person get to their goals? So, you know, I think that's number one. And then number two is, [00:11:00] like, I see sales as casting vision and then inviting other people into a compelling future. And so that's probably when you hear me sell why it doesn't feel like I'm selling, because I am literally inviting you.

I'm inviting you to step forward into your future. I'm inviting you to see what's possible. I'm inviting you to make a decision that represents the future you instead of the you of the past. And I think that when people see that and they feel that, of course, that's something that they want to align with, both energetically, financially, and from the standpoint of where they use their time.

That's the first time I've heard that, someone saying, it's casting the vision and inviting people into sales. We're onto something good here. , Kelly, you have run multiple businesses you have all these people who work for you, and when you're talking about casting that vision, talk us through the transition from, like, Kelly working one hour to, like, Kelly starting a big business and , how that vision process works.

'Cause a lot of times you start and you don't really [00:12:00] think you have a vision. You have a tiny idea and you're trying to figure out, like, so where's the vision?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that's our ultimate responsibility is like when we want to build a business that is bigger than us, and we want to step into a vision that we can't achieve on our own, then we need to pivot our focus into how do we get results through other people? How can we help other people see what we see, and how do we invite people to come along with us on that journey?

So that's when you have to pivot into communication with other people, and you have to pivot your energy into actually helping people see what it is that you're trying to move towards together. And I think a lot of people don't take the time to do that with their staff enough. And so it's really hard for their team to drive the company forward because they don't even really fully understand where you're trying to go, how you wanna get there, what the outcome is that you're working towards.

Mm-hmm. , When I look at your work, I'm looking as an [00:13:00] outsider, and I'm trying to understand, okay, , what is the thing that makes Kelly's d- business so different from all the others that are out there? And I look at your brand, and I think done really well.

I think about how you, the selling is something that you do better than everybody else. But I wonder from your perspective, what you would say sets you apart or how you identify what it is that sets you apart?

Well, I think it's a couple things. You know, number one, we have a human-forward, relationship-forward approach to scale, which almost no one on the planet does, right? The vast majority of entrepreneurs, their goal is actually to have less interaction with their clients, less interaction with the market. They wanna be visible but unreachable.

And our culture and our company is all about relationships. It is a human-forward approach to business building, and I think that people feel the heart and the culture of what our brand is and our intention, and that goes hand in hand with the second key differentiator, which is that we are obsessed with customer results.

And when you [00:14:00] look at the vast majority of businesses in the online space, they're very, very strong at sales and marketing. They're very, very weak in delivery. And so what happens is people come in, they give them their credit card, they're hyped up, they're so excited, but then there's no result to show for it because they don't put as much energy and effort into the back end of the business as they do into the front end.

And I think our, you know, core differentiator is that our customers achieve superior results because we put even more energy into the back end delivery than we do into the front end marketing. And I think the third thing is just that we've always kind of been on the cutting edge of reinvention. Uh, we don't chase tactics.

We don't chase trends. We're not looking to keep up with the Joneses. But we're always looking at both a macro and micro view of how the market is evolving and where we can guide entrepreneurs to focus their attention to get the simplest, fastest, and most efficient result. A lot of people have told us that they think that the way that we're able to [00:15:00] simplify complex issues so that people can take action right away and get results is absolutely peerless in the industry.

, Kelly, because now the market has changed a lot. I like that you talk about you're ready to reinvent. Right now everybody's saying, "Oh, you know, there's not enough trust. , The buying cycle is long." People are saying all these things, and I'm wondering from the perspective of, like, reinvention, I think I've watched you do that, but probably what I think you did and what you did is probably two different things.

I literally wrote the book called, The Art and Science of Radical Reinvention. I have a course on it. I have a, 38-page workbook on, uh, reinvention strategy because doing a strategic reinvention proactively every two to three years is how you avoid doing a panic pivot when the market changes, right?

And so I love to teach people how to do strategic reinventions because it keeps them in the driver's seat and in control. And I think with what you just mentioned, we've been in a trust recession for almost four years now, maybe longer. [00:16:00] Um, the buying cycles are, uh, longer than they ever were, and people's appetite for buying high ticket is lower than it's ever been.

And so for us, we've productized the business, we've loaded up on trust building offers, we've turned our email list and our text message list into our sales acquisition engine, and then we focus on our high ticket on the back end of the business instead of the front end. And that was a major transformation for us because for so many years, we sold high ticket direct to the market, and that's simply not a scalable methodology to deploy in the market that we're in today.

You talk about, productizing what you do. Someone who's like, "Okay, what does she mean by productizing what you do?" 'Cause I think a lot of people are still in that phase where they're still trying to sell high tickets forward-facing in this environment, and everybody's wondering what's going on.

Yeah. Productizing is basically taking your IP and turning it into digital products that people can buy in a single click. They can [00:17:00] instantly consume and get a result right away. So it's really meeting the market where they are. I've always said for many years that market moment match is the most critical thing that's gonna determine whether you sell in any market.

It's knowing what people wanna buy. It's knowing what their appetite is. It's knowing what price point they're willing to say yes at, and then it's removing the friction to do that. And so productizing gives you something on the front end that gives people a one-click easy yes, and then having a system on the back end that moves them through your ecosystem and increases the lifetime value of the customer

Now you've worked with a lot of people, I think names that people probably know, really well-known names helping, build out their businesses. Now to the person who's thinking, "Okay, I am trying to get to six figures. Seven figures seems like a dream.

Eight figures feels like, oh, well, that's another world." You've worked with so many people through that transition. Are there things that you look at in terms of what can an entrepreneur maybe become to make that happen, and what they can focus on to guide [00:18:00] them on that journey?

Yeah, I mean,, it's staying market facing, it's speed of decision making, it's having a system for sales, it's building a winning team, and it's being willing to run the drills on the basic fundamentals obsessively. And one quote that I always say is that eight figure entrepreneurs are obsessed with the basic fundamentals that six figure CEOs are too advanced for.

And what I mean by that is the things that you do to go from seven to eight figures are the boring fundamentals. They don't give you the dopamine hits. It's not chasing trends. It's not stuff most of the time that anyone even sees besides you. It's the systems, it's the team development. It's , the basic fundamentals that you keep refining over and over again.

And so a lot of people will never make it to eight figures simply because they get too bored too fast, and they feel like they have to keep up with what everyone else is doing. So you have to be able to develop your attention span to sit in your seat and execute if you actually want to ultimately create scale.

What you're [00:19:00] talking about where people are into all kinds of trendy things that feel really exciting. For a long time you were always saying like, Don't be social media obsessed," you know, because a lot of people are sort of mastering platforms and not mastering the business.

How do you balance those two, especially , in this environment?

Yeah, I mean, you need to be a creator, not a consumer. You know, you need to focus on-- Like today, I recorded 40 videos for social media. My team will now take those videos, they'll process those videos, they'll post those videos. I don't need to be on social media in order to be on social media, and I think that's the lie that we tell ourselves.

You know, people are like, "Oh, I'm on there for my business," but really they're scrolling, they're comparing, um, they're, they're looking at what everyone else is doing when in reality what they need to be doing is they need to be creating for social media, not sitting on social media

To the person who has a message that's strong on casting a vision, but at the same time you're sort of timid and like, "Oh, you know, how will people receive [00:20:00] this?" Or, "Other people are saying the opposite of this." you've always been like going against the grain of what other people are saying at the market and, doing it with conviction as you have written in the book.

I mean, no one that's further along than you is ever gonna judge you. So the only people that are gonna criticize you are the people that aren't taking action, and that's it. So you just have to decide if it's more important for you to stay comfortable or if it's more important for you to reach your goals

Well said. I think that's the thing because we get caught up in that comparison trap and being afraid that, oh, someone who's bigger than me is saying something contrary to what I'm saying, and will the market, um, receive that?

Mm-hmm.

. You pivoted from making high ticket forward-facing to it being back end. People are counting the cost of that and are not sure if, you know... Because if you've been high ticket, to think of doing it another way, how do you think through the cost of that and what it means in the market today?

Yeah. I mean, it's very challenging. Uh, I never sugarcoat anything. It's [00:21:00] very challenging. So for us, for every million dollars that we used to produce, it only took 42 sales. Now it takes 1,000. And, you know, no one wants to hear that, and no one's gonna say that. But I'm here to tell the truth, and that's the truth.

So what do you do? Well, you have to keep doing both. You have to keep doing both. You have to keep selling high ticket and keep filling your high ticket programs while you work on productizing, while you work on getting trust building offers up and running. It's not just like a clean flip of a switch. It is a cycle where you are running two things parallel and you're just slowly over time building one up and then lowering down the other

For the person who's thinking to hire for the first time, you have a way of identifying talent and staying with talent. , Maybe you don't have the budget to get that, you know, high flyer right now, but how do you identify the high flyer in someone who isn't there yet?

Well, I mean, I think the biggest thing is to keep in mind that the biggest successes that you're gonna have with hiring are not gonna be [00:22:00] you going out and getting this, like, high-priced senior level person to come into your business. It's gonna be when you get the person who has the right mentality, the right attitude, the right work ethic, the right drive, uh, you know, internal locus of control, and growing that person and helping that person build over time in your company.

So I think that a lot of people are closer than they think, but I do think that, you know, they need to listen to the "Bigger Than You" audiobook that I recorded. They need to read the "Bigger Than You" book that I wrote, because I wrote that and I recorded that book because I realized that there's really no training out there for entrepreneurs on how to build a winning team.

And it's why so many entrepreneurs burn out trying to build a winning team because they don't have the right strategy. They don't have a system for hiring. They don't have the right interview questions. They don't have the right process. They don't know how to vet candidates. They don't even know how to design job descriptions.

And so I created the new "Bigger Than You" audiobook to walk through all the mistakes that I see people making that are [00:23:00] preventable and help them get, uh, a strategy to replace it with that actually works.

Kelly, I noticed that you're on Substack and doing really well on Substack. , To a lot of people, that's a platform that people are not on right now or they don't understand how it works. If you can sort of speak to that reader coming back and client acquisition through that

Yeah, Substack is an incredible platform, and especially if you are more naturally inclined to long-form depth of perspective, insight, and value versus aesthetic content that is a natural fit for TikTok or Instagram, Substack is a really good platform for you. Uh, we saw Substack just explode, uh, when we moved over there.

Why? Because we were already creating all of this content for places like LinkedIn, which is now just AI bots everywhere, and Instagram, which is, uh, really optimized for aesthetic and moments, not for depth , and insight. And so just redirecting our content to a place that was truly [00:24:00] optimized for community and for trust-building and for depth, was an absolute game changer for us.

So, we have just been thrilled with the results there. You know, we've been on like nine months now. We've done over 100,000 just in Substack subscriptions, not counting the product, services, and programs that then those people have come and bought from us in our main ecosystem. And so, I mean, for anyone that is looking to build a personal brand but really wants to focus on high value, whether it's articles, podcasts, live streams, long-form content of any kind, versus really indexing on aesthetic content, B-roll, you know, that kind of thing, I think Substack is something to take very seriously.

, Kelly, , thank you so much. I've asked a lot of questions, but I wonder what , message you'd wanna leave with our listeners.

I would just remind everybody that the grass is always greener where you water it, and comparison is the thief of joy. And to really try to discern God's will for your life, God's plan for your [00:25:00] business, where and how you're supposed to use your gifts, and just be on a path to your true and unique destiny that is yours and yours alone.

And that is the biggest thing that I would tell anyone in 2026 is, like, there's just so much noise and so much distraction and so much comparison that's not helpful. And most of the people that you think are doing better than you, you think are further along than you, you would not want to trade places with them.

So water the grass where you are, because the grass is gonna be greener where you water it, and prayerfully reflect and look for wisdom and favor and discernment, uh, to answer the highest and best calling for your life

Thank you so much for those words. , The last question I thought I gotta ask Kelly, , with all these things going on, with all these businesses and, all these moving parts, all the pressure, if, like, you were to tell someone, "Focus on these things," I know you've talked about the spiritual part.

Like, how do you maintain yourself every day [00:26:00] so that those things don't weigh you down?

Eight hours of sleep every single night. I am not a get up at 4:00 AM type of entrepreneur. I need my sleep. - Eight hours of sleep every night. I work out with a trainer almost every day of the week. , I make time for prayer every day. A lot of times I go to church even before morning, before I start my workday.

Um, so it's just knowing what your non-negotiables are and making time to prioritize your mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health. , It's kinda like the answer that I gave you earlier where I said be on social media but don't be on social media, right? Create for it, don't consume in it, you know?

And it's just those things that really keep you, focused, centered, and strong.

, Kelly, for someone who's , listens to this conversation is like, "Oh, - I gotta learn more from Kelly," where should that person go to?

Well, I would definitely start by listening to "The Kelly Roach Show." That would be the first one, 'cause I do multiple shows a week, it's 20 minutes or less, and it's free. Um, and then I would come and be a subscriber of "The Sacred Art of Selling" on Substack [00:27:00] because we just give incredible, insane value there, and it's also a great place where you can learn Substack from me if it's something that you'd like to monetize in your business

Yeah. Thank you for that. And I say do all those things because Kelly's amazing. Thank you so much,

Ah, thank you. Thanks for having me