Linda Kaye Of Open Roads: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life

An Interview With Pirie Jones Grossman

Being a leader requires fairness and vision even when it is constantly challenged by those who want to replace or compete with you, that may not have your best interest. Fortunately, the latter was not a predominant characteristic, but fairness and vision was a constant part of my persistence.

Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their lives. Jeff Bezos worked in Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50's.

How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?

In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.

As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Linda Kaye.

Growing up with seven brothers, leadership was her survival instinct that became her superpower, eventually starting businesses consistently producing multiple six-figure incomes. Whether selling technology, real estate, or speaking on stage, Linda has built a rock-solid reputation in sales, using her signature no-pressure approach. As the proud single parent of a daughter, Linda created another six-figure income stream as founder/CEO of a lifestyle-change real estate company, Open Roads, when her daughter left home.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

Growing up as the first daughter, leadership was a natural skill early on, but being the fourth in the lineup of nine children, it became a survival tactic. With only one sister eight years younger than me, I had to have strategies that could outsmart my competitive brothers. Choosing an instrument, like piano, was also a differentiator since only 1 pianist gets hired for a job, or an orchestra, or a band The discipline required to practice meant a lot of time spent alone, but it still didn’t get me out of my chores, family obligations, or part to run the household that day. Although I only had one child myself, the experience growing up taught me that, number 1, you need to stand out to survive a competitive world, and two, you must be gracious under fire.

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

It’s a Dolly Parton quote, “If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving another one.” Sometimes, well-intended people can advise you to go on a specific course that you know just doesn’t work for you. But when you are true to your nature, which you really need to understand, you have to align with something that works right for you.

You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

• Honesty

There are many times in my sales career that I knew my product was not a match for the client. I didn’t try to sell it to them because I needed a sale. I would advise them and help them understand what they needed, so they could find an alternative to what I had. However, if the client was a match, I would sometimes have to point out a reason that may not be as obvious to them. It’s a hidden obstacle in their business that my product or service resolves. Sometimes that requires an honest opinion that many people would feel uncomfortable giving. It is natural for me — maybe because of my directness. It’s something that has been my secret power, and people trust the truth, even if they don’t like hearing it.

• Persistence

Being a leader requires fairness and vision even when it is constantly challenged by those who want to replace or compete with you, that may not have your best interest. Fortunately, the latter was not a predominant characteristic, but fairness and vision was a constant part of my persistence.

Persistence is knowing something’s right when somebody has said ‘no’ and not settling for the anwer. A good attribute of persistence understands no just means ‘not yet’, because they don’t see the same vision you do, yet. You persist in a positive but different way. When you persist, and they finally see it, you may wonder what took them so long but have to resist the temptation to laugh about it or say, “I told you so.” But inwardly, you can smile and say, “I knew it all along.”

• Discipline

It started with my mom, but in a way that will surprise you. I was the observer in the family and watched her teach piano in her studio, always helping others get better. I privately understood what it took to get better and adapted some of that same discipline I saw in her students, to myself. In the end, it’s still about carving a path and creating the life I wanted.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?

Being a musician on stage requires stamina, confidence, and charisma. It’s a youth-oriented business though, and I had to accept that this career had a limited shelf life, unless I changed genres, I chose to move on and carried my experience on stage into high-tech. For me, show time always means, “Don’t make an excuse, get a result.” You can’t have excuses and results at the same time. You can only have one or the other. There are days that you don’t feel like doing what it takes to keep going, or have the right answers, but you can’t let that stop you from making one. Just get on stage and on with your show. This has served me well because changing businesses or adapting with those changes can be tough. There’s a book called, “Setups for Comebacks,” and I believe that. When I had life-changing experiences after 9/11, and again after the 2008 Meltdown, I wondered, “How would I get through this? How was I going to go on with the show?” In those moments you have to reach in and get something deeper within yourself. Like practicing an instrument, no one can do it for you. Dig deeper for something that speaks to your core values, and then remind yourself that others are depending on you — not only your family, but also friends, business associates, extended family members counting on you for your leadership. This isn’t the time to quit. It’s time to get up and lean in. It’s easy to say, “I’m done,” for some people. But that has never been in my vocabulary any more than, “I’m retiring,” or “I’m too old”, or “I’m too anything.” If anything, persistence has served me well throughout my life. The sense that there is something more to do — there’s something left for me — and of course, others are depending on that, because that helps them understand that there’s more for them. Lead by example like no one else can.

And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?

After living in my home for a few decades, I was an empty nester. It took a while, maybe two years, but I realized I had raised an emotionally intelligent, but very independent daughter. In her second year of college, she announced she wasn’t coming home for the summer. At that moment, I realized a new truth. The reason why we buy a home can be different than why we remain in it. Initially iit may be to raise a family in it. But after the family is raised and leaves, our reason for staying changes. Even the cost to maintain it changed — it only got more expensive! Naturally, I was comfortable in the house. After so many years, I had customized it to my taste and needs. But I found that even my needs changed. As I walked through the house, it felt like the walls were closing in and even talking to me. Everywhere I looked, were pictures that reminded me of a life that had moved on without me. Even though I knew what to do with my time, and who doesn’t with a house, I started feeling isolated — even lonely.

Although I wasn’t ready to sell my house, it got me thinking about what else I could do with it. How could I get my house to work so I didn’t have to? You can’t just walk away from a house… or can you?

This is how I got the idea for Open Roads. I was ready for a lifestyle change, not my real estate. As I started talking with friends, neighbors, and other homeowners like myself, I discovered I wasn’t the only person that felt this way. Starting with baby steps, I started to declutter, make donations, and paint the interior. I had to take all the pictures down, right? They never made it back up. Starting small, I rented the lower third of the house, with its own separate entrance. That generated income that made me pause and think, “This is pretty good money and easy! How much could I make if I rented the whole house out?”

Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?

My 3,000 sf house surrounded me with comfort on one hand, and loneliness and isolation on the other. In the end, isolation meant irrelevance to me, and that was the trigger. I didn’t want to be irrelevant. After speaking with so many people, I had an advantage. I knew what to do, but they didn’t. Always being so driven, I was doing everything I could to keep myself focused to move forward. Prior to this awareness of isolation and irrelevance, I was unaware I had a problem. Once you’re aware of the problem, you may not know how to fix it and try a lot of different things — and believe me, I tried many. Landing on the idea of Airbnb and the overriding desire to not be isolated was the catalyst to detach emotionally from a house with all its memories.

What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?

I tested the waters as a host and practiced. Just like the piano, nobody could practice for me. I had to practice being a host, which included making rules. Nearly every guest required a new rule. It’s my house after all, and I wanted people to feel comfortable and still maintain order. That led to being a consistent super host. Getting top dollar, more in high season and holidays, helped me overcome the overwhelm and move on. Once I got really good at generating consistent income, I started sharing my experience with people because I felt excited. Isn’t enthusiasm one of the most important things you could have when launching a new business? Excitement, enthusiasm, a desire to share your success with other people. If you could be successful, you could teach them how to be too. That’s when Open Roads really launched. It was created for the person that wasn’t ready to retire, wanted more out of life than being a maintenance engineer, but didn’t want to sell their house or deal with capital gains problems if they did sell. Equity is a two-edged sword. On one side is the thrill of equity. On the other is the IRS with their hand out wanting their share. I knew if this worked for me, it could work for other people. Not only was I right, but there were other people that just wanted to know how to do it and didn’t even own a house! That’s when my courses really took off.

Since that time, I’ve branded another stream of income with the Passive Piggy Bank — teaching people with toys how to make money from them, like a boat or a vacation home. Today, both of these businesses are thriving. In order to have a second stream of income, you’ve got to make sure that the first one is stable. Stay in your own lane, niche down, get good at it, then expand.

How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.

The business is thriving and has led to affiliate business through the vendors I choose to do business with. When they sell my service, they earn an affiliate fee. When I sell their service or product in pursuit of my own business, I earn an affiliate fee on their service. Clients are thrilled with the outcome. In addition to the service and income, they have referred a lot of business as a result.

As for success stories, one client was planning to get married. He had “feathered his nest” by beautifully remodeling and creating a showcase home. When it came time for him to go get and marry his bride, he was unable to secure a visa for her. In fact, she could not even enter this country. Broken-hearted, he came back as a bachelor. He didn’t want to sell and he didn’t want to live in his home. Open Roads found him an incredible but highly profitable two year lease. When the lease expired, he was ready to move back.

Another client faced a situation similar to mine, and considered selling her home with substantial equity. But who wants to give 39% of their hard-earned capital gains to the IRS? This is why it was impractical for her to sell. She was done with her house and wanted to travel. After decluttering to depersonalize, through one of Open Roads’ affiliate services, she is still traveling and enjoying passive income received from her home. She makes more than enough to maintain her paid-off home, travel, and still put money away. This security has given her newfound peace of mind.

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?

The first person is my power grid is my strong, deep belief in God. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. When it gets tougher, I lean in and reconnect with the communication I have with God., reminding myself I’m being challenged and the result will be growth. Having a reverent moment daily helps me reset and find direction.

The second person is, of course, my mother. She had a strong influence on my life. Without a strong influence from the onset, you’ll need to find a mentor — and believe me, there have been plenty in my path — but my mom has always been one of my strongest examples of leadership and my best cheerleader.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?

Can we say a boat? Couchsurfing would not be pretty at this point in my life and I needed to set down some new roots, even if temporary. I found a place that was close and yet far enough away from my home, that included a large balcony for all of my plants. Setting my desk near a window, I look now out at the breakwater and watch boats coming from and going out to the ocean. What a life! And if that weren’t enough, the unintended consequences of this move introduced me to a whole new set of friends. In fact, I have made more friends in the year I’ve been here than I did in the past decade in my own neighborhood.

I made the move comfortably because the new passive income pays for not only the house mortgage, taxes, insurance, and maintenance, but for the apartment and a full budget for months.

Turning that into a business was the best part of this story. Wealthy people have multiple streams of passive income and I knew they also had multiple levels of keeping themselves entertained. My idea morphed from my own house, to a service for others, that morphed again to toys — things we acquire, maintain and store but don’t use. To fix other people’s problems you need to be good at fixing your own first.

Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?

To be frank, I don’t struggle with believing in myself because I surround myself with so many people for support. If you have a new idea, however, it’s better to go to a complete stranger than a family member with it. What I mean is that our closest allies, family, care about us so much that they want to shield us from disappointment that may come from trying out a new idea. If you don’t spread your wings, you’ll never fly, and if you take the advice of a well-meaning ally or family member, you’ll never step out of your comfort zone and stay in the nest, even if you’ve outgrown it

In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?

I invested in myself. Finding experts is easy if you know what you’re looking for. If you don’t, you’ll waste a lot of money looking for something you don’t need. Many people believe it has to be perfect before you do something, I’m here to tell you it doesn’t. Trial and error can be reduced by using a P.B.S. Plan, Budget, and Schedule system. You can always add on a layer, but before you do, test out the previous one and see if you can make money out of it.

Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?

Never waste a crisis. After I realized my daughter was not coming back, I had a crisis. What am I going to do with myself now that she doesn’t need me in the same way? What am I going to do with this big house? Both were my comfort zone. Some people can just jump out of a plane and others have to be pushed. In both instances, you have to trust your parachute will open — just don’t pack it yourself the first time! When I decided to paint my walls, the pictures had to come down. That stopped the chatter in my head about what to do. With a blank canvas, I knew I couldn’t paint the same picture. The pebble in my shoe was persistent. What am I going to do? I tested my capacity to change by bringing a complete stranger into (a part of) my home. When I got past that scary part, I started enjoying the income and decided to jump into the deep end of the pool, for me, and rent the entire house out.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my organization” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

Plan

You need a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll be part of someone else’s. If you understand it takes a lot of preparation and money to launch a new brand, more time in the preparation will cost you less money in the long run. Identify the resources that will be required, and then, inventory what you already have or can reuse. Planning won’t eliminate guesswork, but it will reduce the cost to launch your brand.

Planning includes identifying who your ideal client is, what they want, and what their challenges are. In other words, what problem do you solve and who will pay for it? And is the problem big enough for somebody to pay to fix it? The more you plan, the more you will know about your business.

Budget

This goes hand-in-hand with your plan. If you understand what resources you need, you can set a realistic budget that won’t have you break your piggy bank when you exceed it. The most important advantage is it helps you stay on course, eliminating the I-need-it-itis.

The most important things you need are a good CRM, fast WIFI connection, and a phone. Then, figure out what you must have, and put the ‘I wants’ into a separate budget you can plan for in the future.

Having a budget won’t eliminate surprises or setbacks, but it will help you understand if the budget was realistic or you have a spending problem for things not necessary to grow the business. A budget will help you make informed financial decisions. Every business boils down to numbers, and you need to understand what they are.

Schedule

If you don’t have sales, you have a hobby or a problem. Figure out who your avatar is — there’s no ideal client. What do they want and what problem of theirs do you solve? Then, decide if you are able or want to deliver it. It’s really that simple! Don’t do it in a sales funnel, endless emails, or text messages. There will always be time for that, but it is not a lead generator. You have to have an actual conversation. It’s not as scary as you think! Treat a conversation like an investigative reporter, and find out “just the facts” of your prospect’s needs. They buy what they want, not what you sell. Make sure you schedule the time to do this or you’ll whittle the time down with excuses and problems that pretend they’re urgent. Be easy on yourself and start with making 2 calls, then schedule 1/2 hour, then block more time to make calls. Find the best time that works for you and be consistent. But schedule it. If you don’t schedule it, it won’t be important or habitual, and your business will suffer for it. The more you practice, the better you get. There’s an old saying in sales, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” I like to think of it like this, “The more I practice, the luckier I get.” This only comes from scheduling it. No one can practice for you.

Stay in Your Own Lane

One thing I wished somebody told me before I started my own organization was how to stay in my own lane. We tend to get excited about our business, and that’s a good thing. Because there will be times when we’re not. That enthusiasm can also entice you to add more products or services to reach a bigger audience. You may have heard that there are riches in the niches, and it’s true. Although you may want to reach everybody with a one-size-fits-all message, the problem is, it doesn’t. You want to look for the right client, and, trust me, it isn’t everyone. It’s the one that wants and will pay for your product or service to fix their problem. Niching down helps you do that. You may have the entire highway in front of you, but don’t be tempted to move lanes. If your niche is successful, you can always grow or add on, but if you try to be something to everyone, you may go broke trying.

Never Waste a Crisis

One of my friends runs a division of Hewlett Packard. During Covid lockdown, no one could travel, including her! People had to figure out how to get around the one issue that every business has. How do we keep business moving forward? Although many businesses failed, the ones that succeeded, and even thrived during the pandemic, figured out how to get around the obstacles and overcome them. She said her business grew by over 280%! How does one company grow over 280% and others fail? By adapting and innovating. We all know what Zoom has done for business, and when she could not travel internationally or even to the local store, she adapted to Zoom. When the time and cost associated with travel were eliminated, she was able to spend more quality time and develop better relationships she could not do in her prior traditional business model.

Another example is when I wrote “Miracles on my Doorstep.” After launching it, Russia invaded Ukraine 2 months later. My family is Ukrainian, and left Ukraine decades earlier and migrated to America. Ukraine became a trending topic about the impact of migration. Coincidentally, that was exactly what my first chapter covered. There have been countless opportunities, exposure, and interviews with online media, newscasts, and informational talk show radio hosts as a result. The unintended consequence of this crisis resulted in a huge uptick in book sales. It is unfortunate that these situations exist, but in the crevices of those crises lies opportunity.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Stop selling! Most people associate sales with being pushy and being talked into something they don’t want to do! That is the opposite of service! Sales has to begin with being service-minded. Service to others. How do you know? Ask. Have a conversation. Be human. Ask what the other person wants. Even if you sell a diet pill, the answer is not to lose weight. That’s the promise of your product. What they want is indirectly related to losing weight. They want to lose weight without diet or exercise. Your job is to figure out whether or not your product or service can do that.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)

Abe Lincoln. He faced depression, defeat, civil war, and yet made some of the greatest advances through his proclamation of emancipation. What made him keep going? I want to know.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

You can go to www.testdrivefreedom.com, like and follow us on social media, @OpenRoadsRE on Facebook and Instagram, or check out our Youtube channel, Open Roads.

Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!