Kelly Roach: Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO

An Interview With Doug Noll

And finding the right team members is the most important maker-break aspect of becoming successful as far as starting a movement.

As a part of our series called ‘Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO’ we had the pleasure of interviewing Kelly Roach.

Business strategist Kelly Roach transforms overworked entrepreneurs into eight-figure CEOs by teaching them how to leverage timeless business principles, employed by billion-dollar corporations, with the most powerful online marketing speed and agility strategies of today. Her multi-million-dollar company, Kelly Roach Coaching, is the fastest-growing coaching program on the market, and the first of its kind. Her accountability-driven approach has been responsible for hundreds of clients finding financial freedom through entrepreneurship.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I had been working in Fortune 500.

I was promoted seven times in eight years, became the youngest senior vice president in the company, and managed a team of 100 people in 17 locations.

And I absolutely loved the work so much.

I loved teaching, coaching, and training people and I loved the sales, the growth, and the business management.

But the work itself didn’t really fulfill my desire to make a difference in the world.

I wanted to have more hands-on direct work with people.

I wanted to take what I had learned about business and use it for good in the world to make a difference.

That’s why I decided to start taking the knowledge and expertise of business building that I had there and teach it to others so that they could combine the billion-dollar corporate strategies that are used in the offline corporate world with internet marketing strategies to scale a story about hard times that I faced when I started my journey.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?

I would say the biggest thing was that the greatest success that we’ve had was developing the live launch method, which is now a registered trademark methodology.

We have talked to over 100,000 people around the world. It was created out of frustration and failed launches and lots of struggle and really became the turning point for the business because I realized I just needed to kind of find my own way, create my own way.

And out of that, the live lunch was born, which not only took our company to over eight figures, but it also allowed us to help so many other people around the globe to have these unbelievable levels of success.

So I just think it’s such a testament to when you are having a struggle or when you have a frustration many times you’re being called forward to also find a solution to it.

That’s where the magic lies sometimes — trusting yourself and finding your own way.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

One of the mistakes that I made when I was starting was that I had done this business coaching program.

I had invested a lot of money in it.

And the model was basically like a webinar model where you run the model and then you bring everybody to a call afterward.

This is when I was working full time still.

And I was so excited and I believed that I was going to just book my calendar, top to bottom with calls.

So I took multiple days off of work following that webinar and I actually got zero calls booked in zero sales.

So I don’t know if that was fun, but it was very devastating, but it was a great learning experience as well.

What I learned was, that even though I had great content, I had a compelling offer, and I was a great presenter.

I had all the pieces of the puzzle, two things:

One, I didn’t have a strong enough relationship with my audience yet.

And two, an hour wasn’t long enough to build that relationship to get them across the finish line.

So I needed more time with my audience more in-depth relationship building and a longer time to present and build rapport with them.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My mentor, Dave in corporate, really talked to me everything about business leadership, sales management.

And you know, those strategies are really what helped me to be able to bring those skills into the online world to start and grow my own business and then teach other people how to do the same.

I would say a story about that would be when I was first asked to move from sales into leadership.

I really did not want to do that because I felt like I was having high levels of success as an independent performer.

I was getting the results that I wanted, I was making money, and really didn’t see the value of moving into a leadership role.

That’s when Dave said to me, even if you’re the best salesperson in the world, it’s a fraction of the level of success that you could be achieving when you learn to get results through others.

So that was really like a turning point for me really just understanding the X factor that comes with leading teams.

Leadership often entails making difficult decisions or hard choices between two apparently good paths. Can you share a story with us about a hard decision or choice you had to make as a leader?

Yeah, leadership often entails difficult decisions or hard choices, hard decisions.

There was definitely a point in our company during the scaling process where we realized that we needed to change our path as far as the way that we’re scaling with the way that we were scaling.

We had to let people go that were not a fit for the direction that we were taking the company in the future. And it’s always very challenging to say goodbye to people that you like and enjoy, but that aren’t a fit for the organization’s future.

I think one of the big mistakes that a lot of leaders make is they hold on to the wrong people for too long and then they struggle.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?

Well, I think the number one responsibility of the CEO is to cast a vision for the overall direction of the organization and to enroll the leadership team in that vision and then to collaborate and partner with them on the overarching strategy that’s going to allow the company to fulfill its mission and its vision in the world.

Then it’s about empowering and collaborating with your leadership team to take that strategy, enhance and expand it, and implement it.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive? Can you explain what you mean?

I think a lot of people have a false impression of what it means to be a business owner.

You know, the boss spade mentality.

They think it’s like the cute girl sitting on the table drinking out of a coffee cup with a phrase on it.

That’s not what it means to be a CEO.

CEO is often a very mentally taxing job with a lot of moving pieces and a very high level of responsibility where you’re holding people’s careers in your hands, you’re holding clients’ livelihoods in your hands.

It’s a high-stakes game and I think a lot of people don’t understand that.

What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?

I think the biggest thing is that I think people assume that as you build something bigger and have higher levels of success it will get easier.

The truth is it never gets easier, you get stronger, but the bigger entity you’re running, the more complexity, and the more money you’re making, the more problems there are.

So you have to truly love the game.

You have to truly love the process.

Do you think everyone is cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?

Absolutely not.

I think that you have to be comfortable not being liked at times.

I think you have to be comfortable being judged.

I think you have to be comfortable with people misunderstanding decisions that you make because they don’t have the full picture and the complete perspective that you do.

I think that you should not aspire to be an executive if you are worried about people’s opinions of you or if you are afraid of saying no or making decisions that are tough.

If you avoid confrontation those are people that are going to struggle in an executive role.

What advice would you give to other business leaders to help create a fantastic work culture? Can you share a story or an example?

I think it’s a balance of setting a high bar and also recognizing and rewarding people.

I think the number one thing is helping people to set and achieve their goals and dreams within the vision of the overall organization and making sure that there is a strong “what’s in it for them” for the team and for the growth path.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

The work that we do makes an impact in the world with literally every single person that we impact because lives get changed when successful businesses are built and people get to be home and present with their families.

They get to travel the world, they get to get out of debt, they get to give back to their families, and they get to make a difference in their community.

So that’s directly every day, but indirectly, we’ve been able to build a well in Malawi, we’ve been able to fund water projects in Nepal.

We’ve been able to give to all different charities and we’ll continue to do that.

So that’s an amazing opportunity.

Fantastic. Here is the primary question of our interview. What are your “Five Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A CEO” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Gosh, number one, don’t rush, everything will happen the way that it’s supposed to and ultimately hard work always pays off.

Number two is just knowing that if it’s a dream in your heart ultimately, you’ll be able to find a way to achieve it as long as you don’t give up.

I think number three is just not recognizing that when you have success, there’ll be a lot of people who want to be along for the ride, but not necessarily part of the process.

And that’s one of the most difficult things to learn and endure.

Trusting yourself is everything because you’ll have to take big risks without guarantee constantly.

And finding the right team members is the most important maker-break aspect of becoming successful as far as starting a movement.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Kairos is something brand new that I consider a movement that I launched in 2023.

It’s really about helping business leaders to build faith-filled multimillion-dollar companies that allow them to put their families first.

It’s really about building capacity shifting, identity, up leveling strategy so that leaders of today and tomorrow can truly have it all.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Be the best that you can be in everything that you do.

Every day is a blessing and it’s an opportunity to begin again and to be a better version of yourself.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

About the Interviewer: Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA was born nearly blind, crippled with club feet, partially deaf, and left-handed. He overcame all of these obstacles to become a successful civil trial lawyer. In 2000, he abandoned his law practice to become a peacemaker. His calling is to serve humanity, and he executes his calling at many levels. He is an award-winning author, teacher, and trainer. He is a highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. Doug teaches his innovative de-escalation skill that calms any angry person in 90 seconds or less. With Laurel Kaufer, Doug founded Prison of Peace in 2009. The Prison of Peace project trains life and long terms incarcerated people to be powerful peacemakers and mediators. He has been deeply moved by inmates who have learned and applied deep, empathic listening skills, leadership skills, and problem-solving skills to reduce violence in their prison communities. Their dedication to learning, improving, and serving their communities motivates him to expand the principles of Prison of Peace so that every human wanting to learn the skills of peace may do so. Doug’s awards include California Lawyer Magazine Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America Lawyer of the Year, Purpose Prize Fellow, International Academy of Mediators Syd Leezak Award of Excellence, National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals Neutral of the Year. His four books have won a number of awards and commendations. Doug’s podcast, Listen With Leaders, is now accepting guests. Click on this link to learn more and apply.