Latest / Books4Guys / From Homelessness to Bestselling Author: Kelli Christina’s Fight for Justice and Faith

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From Homelessness to Bestselling Author: Kelli Christina’s Fight for Justice and Faith · Books4Guys

• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thing recorded.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm learning more than I bargained for.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: But no, this is amazing.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: But Kelly, I'm sitting here thinking, too, you're in Texas, and I don't think, as big as the state of Texas is, and as many guests as I've had already, I don't think I've had anyone from Texas yet.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: You haven't had anybody from Texas?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Shame on you.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't think so.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Very weird, right?
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: You would think like half my audience would be from there.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, Texas is big and beautiful, Chris, but I'm originally from my family uh resides.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm originally from Iowa.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I've got a lot of family in Iowa, Minn, Minnesota, all over the Midwest.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, I love Texas, but there's also a lot of other states and culture and people to love out there, you know?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's very cool.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you are the first guest from Texas, awesome.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's an accomplishment for the Books for Guys podcast.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: But nonetheless, Kelly, super excited to talk with you.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've already been, I I should have pushed record like 15 minutes ago because we've already talked about so many cool things that I think people will find fascinating, and I'm sure we'll kind of bounce back into them.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: But you obviously you've got a few books out actually.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: In your career, you've been in the staffing industry for 20 plus years.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: You've owned your own firm.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of your books kind of stem from your professional experience, but you also speak and you do all these cool things.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And come to find out, you you are an author with Morgan James, which David Hancock, he was on the podcast back in, I think it was January, and I just had lunch with him.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So small world, and I'm just excited to talk with you.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: It is a small world, and I'm I'm really happy that we connected, Chris.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yes, that is very cool that you know and that you were at the event with, you know, my publisher, David Hancock.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: I I do admire him, and I know we were just talking about when I make business decisions, no matter what the business is or who I'm gonna collaborate with, I like to go with people that are like-minded, you know.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing's perfect in life relationships or business relationships, but I'm very, I'm very old-fashioned on love your people, care about your team.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very big into culture.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's the world is never just gonna be about me, Chris.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's about me and everybody else, you know?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, I met David Kainkop um, you know, 2021.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he chased me down on my book, Writing the Executive Roller Coaster, Medical Staffing Cases.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that book did one win five, four Trafecas uh when we launched it 2021 and two International Impact Book Awards.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And um the newest edition book is it's a new edition off that book.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's a better edition, and it's through David Hancock and Morgan James, but he definitely has that he cares about his authors, he takes a lot of time with his authors, and he cares about people, so it was a really good match.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I can see that and why it would be a good match.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, but Kelly, dive in a little bit.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: You've shared some stuff with me, but obviously you've got a couple books out, but you've got a couple that really caught my eye when I was learning about you and and and just looking your profile up.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: I know In Good Faith is your latest one that's coming out this year.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then you already mentioned one riding the executive roller coaster medical staffing cases, which caught my eye because I'm in recruiting.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not on the medical side of recruiting, but familiar with you know the industry and the way it works.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: But just tell your story a little bit about your career and then what led you to writing these two books in particular.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I started my career.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um, you know, I started working, I was 15.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we did way back in the dinosaur days, right?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I always was, even as a young girl, extremely ambitious, you know.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: I had two jobs in high school so that I could afford the Indianettes.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: So I I kind of started at a very young age with my goals right over the way over the top.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's kind of the way I was.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_01: Restaurants when I was 15 years old.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, I was a boss at 19, uh, restaurant boss.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I would get my, you know, I was right in the middle of my hotel restaurant business degree.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I was a manager long before I had the degree.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: At a very young age, I just always felt like I needed to be a hundred steps ahead of everybody.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Then, of course, at some point in your life, you go backwards.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, my first career was uh hotel restaurant, primary restaurant management uh for 10 years.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually do attribute a lot of my education as a leader to the restaurant industry that taught me the basics of running the operations, staying out of legal trouble, making those results, uh, troubleshooting operations.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that was my first career.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: At 30, um, I would move to a completely different career, but not really.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I moved to staffing uh and recruitment, which would be my next baby.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: And actually, how I switched into that career, my first couple of years were I was recruiting restaurant managers and executives with a company that I had actually used in my own career.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very scary to make that step because I moved from a salary benefits to okay, now you're a hundred commission with no benefits, right?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it took her, my boss, Monica Bell, about three times offering me that job where I said, you know what, maybe I should try it.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I know Chris, you have a background in staffing and recruitment.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: For some reason, it's a lot like sales.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: You either do really well out there or you don't.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's like one extreme to another.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I just happened to walk into staffing and recruitment and hit it from beginning stages and know that this would be my baby, you know.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: A couple years later, of course, um, you know, I married again.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I did have an ex-husband that encouraged me.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, you know what?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: You need to go corporate and you need to go medical.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, why not?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be my learning curve.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I just happened to step into corporate, and you know what?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: It was a huge learning curve, you know, because I had to work on my typing and I had to work on my computers and uh and all the medical terminology.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, you've got to be real careful.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: I even had for years, as I've trained my recruiters, told them, hey, you got to know what you're talking about before you get on that phone with medical professionals.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you don't, they're gonna hang up the phone on you.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: So even if you had to look up, I don't care what department they're working in, you need to look up their job.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: You need to need some to know some terminology so that you can have those open ended conversations with them and they have a little bit of reasonable trust that you know what you're talking about, right?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, staffing and recruitment.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: I am 26 years.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've the owner of KD staffing now 19 years.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, you know, I opened us, we would fall down, I would rebuild us.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And current day, let's not talk about KD staffing, all right?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because the market has some problems out there.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've stumbled along my path and I'm back to the year of challenges, Chris.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's staffing, though.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's always this up and down roller coaster.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you're in it long enough to be successful with it, you you kind of understand you can't ever get too high, though, on those good years, and you can't ever get too low on the slow ones because it's just a constant.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: I can't think of a better term, just roller coaster.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's like my book's book writing executive roller coaster when I was talking about medical staffing.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect cover, perfect title.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: Up and down we go in life, right?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure maybe you've had those times in life too, you know, Chris.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: I am a best-selling author.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of people will say, you know, your life story is the perfect best-selling book or movie.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: But then I always stop them and I say, This, you know what?
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the person when it's real life stories and you're putting out you're the best-selling life story, or you realize you actually have to survive that story, right?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: You have to ride through the challenges and actually physically survive a story to tell it.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's the tough part.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's also very, it can be very embarrassing, very hard to open yourself up to the readers and tell them this life story, where they might be just shaking their head like, wow, man, that is that is really rough.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: I've had some beautiful and blessed years, but I've also had those, those rough, tough, like, wow, you're still smiling, Kelly.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: And you are, you know, at some point.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've had years where I've had to ask God.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I have a very big deep faith, belief in God, um, and he does keep me going.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: But even in my second and third book, the readers love um when a top executive goes homeless, right?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: They love those homeless chapler chapters.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but in that book, um, you know, I would have never expected that I was going to be homeless.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody would have ever expected Kelly Christina to run out of money, you know?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And all these years later, I always asked myself, why God?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Why did that happen?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that, you know, God humbles you.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: He sometimes puts you through the worst times so that you can learn.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I spent many years talking to our government officials about the underprivileged in this country.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And Chris, I would have never learned if I didn't walk in their path, I would have never learned what our underprivileged go through and how we could do better for them.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've even told the government officials, you know, guys, most of the time it's guys, a few gals, but guys.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that we don't care often, it's that we don't know.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: We don't walk in their shoes to know.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's a that's a lot to unpack.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: And everything you're saying is is true, and it and I always correlate this, and that this is a big lesson, just why books for guys was created, was to share these type of stories.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we say on this all the time, you know, people write a book or you learn about somebody.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: You see the highlight reel a lot of times, you know, Kelly, best-selling author, high-level producer, owns her own company and firm, but no one sees a lot of the times the struggle and those those parts of you that you were at, you know, had some of the lowest of lows in your life that you had to overcome.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that's what's so great to learn from is hey, if Kelly can overcome that and do all that she's done and all that she's doing, well, okay, I can I can do it too.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe what I'm going through is not that bad, you know, put it in perspective.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love that you share that because I think it's important for people to listen and and know that part of your story because in one way it's motivating, in another way, it's uh, okay, she's human like the rest of us, you know, it's a reminder, and we're not all perfect and we're not all sailing up here at the top all the time.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh most recently we've been talking about like 10% of our life is what happens, 90% is how we respond and handle it.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know?
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And to say that life is perfect all the time, you know, and um, you know, I I have had a heart and I do have a a very large network of people that I've not I've both life coached and business coached in the past, right?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um I always feel like you're only gonna sink down so far, you know, and before you begin to rise up again.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: But you gotta sometimes rebuilding or or or getting back up, it's not something where you snap your fingers and it just happens.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: This is a step price process where sometimes you're going one day at a time, one week at a time, one goal at a time.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, even you know, the chapters, you know, in good faith and writing the executive roller coaster when we're talking about those homeless, okay, when you lose everything, you know, lose your life, all right.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: And to to actually step out of that, it really is a struggle.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of people will, you know, I'm one of those um advocates on you need to get the right help when that time is necessary.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you need antidepressants or you need something for your moods on supplements, or you need counseling, or you need a support group, there are so many ways that you can help yourself out there.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Don't be too proud.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: Don't wait until it's it's too late, right?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And there are people out there that will act too proud.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: And there's so many different sources of help to get your mindset and your, you know, your emotional uh stability back in life.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I was not happy to be homeless.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that was what happened to my life.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a hero all these years later because I rebuilt, but that did not happen overnight.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, something else that God taught me all these years later, you know, I used to walk around for I don't know how many decades with 25 credit cards in my wallet, you know, or you know, you're backing up the line on your purchases or whatever.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: That was the old Kelly Christina.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: The new Kelly Christina pays cash.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: She's got a very, very tight, simplistic budget.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm happier with more of a simpler, still elegant life, but I really take pay attention to my budget because speaking of what you're not gonna have happen again.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: So my love for shopping, uh, it got tightened up.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: It really did.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people need to know that.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Tighten it up.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, tighten it up and realize that we don't we probably don't need to shop as much as, you know.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: When you have a career that can afford that, um, it's wonderful, okay.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm just saying the new Kelly Christina has savings.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know, she tries to go straight cash.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have the cash, um, don't buy it, right?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or keep less debt.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: You don't hear that very often.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: You keep your debt down.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: But there are so many ways that I I am tight and in line with every expense line on my budget.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Some people would say I'm a company tight wad, but and maybe I am, but I'm also a very generous person.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: I believe in paying it forward, and I'm generous in every area out there where other people forget.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, you can call me a company tight wad if you want, but I call it being smart with your budget.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Nope.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's a good, good way to approach life and business.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: And again, something most of us all need to be better at.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Again, learning from someone who's walked through it, like yourself, and and had to take some hard lessons.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of us can learn them a little bit easier without going through it by l listening and paying attention to what you're saying.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, because Kelly, talk a little bit about your new book, In Good Faith.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: What what drove you to write it and and what's your message behind it?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: What are you wanting people to take away from it?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: So just know, uh, Chris, actually, you cannot buy riding the executive roller coaster anymore.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's no longer on the market.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um that book has been acquired by Morgan James, David Hancock, and um we designed, we took that entire book and uh we made it better.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I say that um because it's the same, but a better book.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I had so many excellent reviews, but if I'm going to go ahead and spend a year, right, on a new project and we're gonna put it out to all the bookstores, I'm gonna take the very few reviews that we had that were not good or could have been better.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that is a few more readers wanted to relate a little bit more to my character.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I suppose as an author, I'm a little bit more business and matter of fact, right?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we did edit it, add a few more scenes to draw people in.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully, yes, it's uh the few people that have read it are already like, whoa, this is this is good, Kelly.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is good.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: But anyway, you know, there's different um personalities of both book projects.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean that because it is definitely a number one legal thriller.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a crime doc drama.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Some people will call it a novel memoir.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's an inspirational testimonial about a top executive, you know, maybe borderline spoiled and I could pick on myself, right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: And the executive that falls down to homeless.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: But this starts with a very bad, very bad, very ugly, very nasty lawsuit in Texas that didn't have to happen, right?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Where a lot of people from a staffing firm over the owner and an executive and some horrific decisions launch us into lawsuits.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, Chris, at the time, yeah, I I guess you could call me, I was the influencer of the office.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and everybody knew that if I didn't go along with the plan, um, and the plan was we lied to a Texas judge, right?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: They knew I'd be the first one in that office, the office meetings, you know what I'm talking about.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna go over the plan.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: And they knew if I did not go along with the plan, that my head would roll.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what happened.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: And this in this first very bad lawsuit, Chris, 85% of production and the team of recruiters would go away.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: There would be a couple homeless recruiters, and this is over situation that is not your fault.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: You stand for honesty, you stand for justice, and you know what, Chris, I'm not lying to a Texas judge.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: I have too many attorneys that have kept me clean in business.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: I love God.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: I've had a life program, and the answer is no.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that office kept my money.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, since you are in recruiting, Chris, you would understand at the time we had non-competes, right?
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I knew enough about legal.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I, by the way, I had four attorneys surrounding me, this whole first lawsuit, right?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, even in the state of Texas, they say, Chris, oh, we don't honor non-competes, blah, blah, blah.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: That it that's crap, okay?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because they are coming after you.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody's coming after you if they want to, right?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, in this particular bad lawsuit, I would make a decision.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not gonna lie to a Texas judge.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna cover anything up.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, I could have stayed at that job and kept my money and my position.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: I just had to lie.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I was out.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was forced to quit.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so this is the story.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's highly dramatic.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Chris, it does have my love life in there.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: It has uh, yes, I would honor my non-capete.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: I would not get my money, I would go homeless over not having a job, and then I would be forced to rebuild, you know.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, this first lawsuit would snowball into more and more court cases.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Over a dozen law firms in Dallas were involved with all of this.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's also a story, you know, and I say it's got a lot of personalities because this the my book project was number one in politics, government, legal for many years.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I mentioned that, Chris, because you don't wake up one day and you just know all the government officials.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how it happens.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how it works.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: The cases in this book would go from Texas to, I would bring them to Washington, D.C.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: They would come back to Texas and then, oh, by the way, bounce back to Washington, D.C.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: So most of our United States government knew about these cases.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: And I would learn from working with the government in a higher channel of legal.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: No, sometimes legal will bounce back and forth from state to federal because yes, it's a federal problem, right?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: It affects all of the country, but a lot of times you have to look at the states and the businesses in those states and those laws.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: So there would be a ping-pong effect, right?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so anyway, lots of different uh juice in those stories uh in the chapters.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I actually, you will see a female with a sword um on in good faith.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I'd most recently been blogging about um I dedicate the female warrior um with the sword um to the Texas attorney that in 2017, and mind you, we were seven years into legal battles, she said, please, Kelly, please can we put the sword down?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, We're just so tired, Kelly.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: All right, we're tired and we're wore out.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: But you know what, Chris?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: I got the sword and I'm keep moving forward, right?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: So I would put the sword down and I would send um the original litigation book to Donald Trump in 2018.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, he knew about it.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: He knew about it, his campaign knew me many years, and he had a letter to me, you know, in 10 years in 10 days, 10 years.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: He had a letter to me in 10 days, right?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I had already learned to file um all of this into federal investigation.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, I'd already sent a letter to multiple government offices, and the note was this government, United States government, you will not forget medical staffing and the laws that I'm wanting to change and what I advocate.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: So that's how I would get to know the government, and I would start working with our Texas, you know, uh congressmen uh and senators.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um that's the story.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: The medical industry would often call me a medical lobbyist.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here to help, I'm here to make a difference, I'm here to fight on the greedy laws and the wrong laws, and with The people that are out there that are fighting and advocating, you know, any type of changes, you have to look at the bigger group of people and um what kind of changes are better for everybody.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's incredible, Kelly.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: And just to think, you know, you're you're the one that's been stepping up to the challenge to try and and generate and create change and just how many people have gone through these situations and and not, you know, taken the step to try and do that, and how many people have been affected negatively, and it takes a lot of courage for somebody like yourself to go out on that limb, and it could not end well potentially, you know, with the people you're dealing with and trying to take on.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so just an incredible path and journey you've decided to go down and to to see what's all going to come from it and and all of that.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: I just I can't even fathom because I've never really experienced any of this as you know, in my space of recruiting personally.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: But just to to hear your story and and what that's all entailed, I'm just I'm just mind blown to be honest.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, with with every book that you put out, you know, or I I believe you have a new legacy or a vision or what do you want to see.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: My book is definitely something that's, you know, been chased for the filming industry for a good couple years and everything.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: But the new legacy for in good faith, or what I I had in mind and in vision, is you know what, read this book.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I advocate, you know what, learn more legal upfront.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Teach our great leaders to do better.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, read the book.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's great, you know, drama.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: And it's definitely a juicy story.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And by the way, Chris, there are parts of that book that are very dangerous.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: I walked through some danger and I risked my life in this country, okay?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: But read the book, and as a leader, don't copy any of these bad business decisions, okay?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, let's teach our young, especially our ones, they're out with our business degrees.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: They want to be managers, they want to be directors, executives, CEOs, entrepreneurs.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Fantastic, but let's educate them to do better.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: And let's not make these type of decisions that destroy an entire office because leadership is a lot of responsibility, you know.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, Chris, I know how to fire people in my sleep.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know how to fire people nicely, okay?
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm talking about, letting people go that can't do the job.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about bad decisions as an executive, boss, owner, whatever, that that hurt your entire team to the point your team loses and and they're out homeless, you know, and they're out of jobs, then you hurt them, you hurt their lives, you hurt their loved ones.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: Let's not do that.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know what, before you open that business or before you take that big job, you know, boss job in whatever industry, look at the legal, because a lot of people don't.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: They look at legal when it's too late and they're in trouble, or their operation is in trouble, and then they got to drag in the attorneys and clean it up.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very, from what I understand, costly, brutal.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's just so much to it that you don't want to.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't wish it on anybody.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been through it, but I've heard enough stories to where it doesn't sound like a pleasant thing to go through by any means.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure your book also, you know, highlights that.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: But Kelly, your book, your book is out now, right?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: People can purchase this book now.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: That is a great question.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we are out for pre-order right now, um, which means yes, you we've been, I've been advertising, I think now going on five months.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the official pub date for the bookstores will be July cent.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: But it is all over.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: You can pre-order with Barnes and Noble, and you do get a free ebook.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um, you know, Chris, in a matter of, you know, what I have done in in my past, um, I did open KDC Making a Difference 18.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: My my longest-term, now retired attorney actually surprised me.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: And he opened it on Valentine's 2018.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason why is I was always his favorite client.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: He always won his cases.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: He thought I was very strong and reputable out there.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: And he thought I was an example, a strong, great example for the United States legal system.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So he did open us on an 18 Valentine's, and it's books and public speaking.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that is what I'm working, my focused energy.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know, of course, you know, I work a night job and everything else right now.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm always wearing multiple hats.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: But that is a focus right now.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so I only bring it up because it would only make sense, speaking of why, you know, I picked David Hancock and Morgan James, you know, a portion of all my book proceeds will go with ham Habitat for Humanity.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that is out there.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: It would only make sense that, you know, for me, yeah, sure, I'm very competitive.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: I would love to, you know, far excel and beat, you know, on the book sales and everything.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not just about the book sales, it's about sharing those proceeds and making a difference out there.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Perfect.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll make sure we have links and everything in the show notes so people can go pre-order and and find your book and support good causes along the way.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll do our part in promoting that as well for you, Kelly, and excited to do that.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um I want to end this on a high note.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to, you know, I and I don't want to give too much more away because I want people to go read your book and learn about this and really get ingrained to what's been going on.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, when people, you know, and you've had some people pre-read it already and you've and you've gotten some things from it, but I guess my question is as people read this book, what are you hoping is accomplished?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: What do you what are you hoping people take from it?
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: What action would you like to see people do with it?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: What's your vision for this book and and what do you want to see come from it?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: That is a very loaded question right there, Chris.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, for years and years and years, my book projects were predicted to put me in a very big election.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's not, it's not really a hidden factor for anybody that I try to make a difference out there.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, for me right now, it's uh simplify it.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: I've kind of had to simplify steps and say, you know what, I'm just trying to make a difference and educate people out there.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think in our country we hide a lot of problems.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: These court cases remained hidden, right?
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: And the problem with hiding problems in this this country, Chris, is that we don't get anything fixed, right?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you've got to expose problems and it's just, you know, the general public and knowledge of how bad it can be out there, and then why in your heart and in your legal team's heart would we would we push so hard to change some of our laws?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's so less people get hurt, you know?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so it's just a wider, you know, uh you know, I I'm stumbling on my words on why I would put this book out, all right?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: But we did, yeah.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: And at some point the government officials, we had the fresh 225-page litigation book.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they thought I was gonna be their boss someday, you know, and that's honorable.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: Chris, it's honorable, but we put out the story on how I would start working with our government officials, and it's out there, and um, it is juicy.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely positively it was predicted before I even put those books out there uh to go into a best-selling movie, which would be fantastic.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: I loved, you know, I've uh always been a huge fan of Hollywood.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know, maybe it's that.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to put out a real life story that would turn into a movie.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of different answers I could give you, Chris.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, that's great.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and again, speak speak what you want to into existence.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows what's gonna come from this?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, like you said, as a person of faith, you just go with the flow and we'll see what happens.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: You the the right things will fall into place at the right time.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And and now that we have connected and you are now, you know, a part of the Books for Guys journey and story too, it'll be something that I personally follow closely and other and others that listen, I'm sure be very interested in in reading your book and and following what you continue to accomplish in in your life and career.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so, but Kelly, this has been a fantastic conversation.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate you taking the time to do this and uh to do it again, especially as you continue your work.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to chat again, I'll I would take an open invitation.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Chris, whether we're talking about men reading or females reading, you know, we both could uh stand to read more.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, yes, this is a juicy, dramatic business, legal book that's a big wow.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it's a reason why CBS followed me around for four years or the contents of what was going on in that book.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: But also, Chris, there are some amazing books out there just for mindsets, right?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: And the way we think and to train us in business.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, you know, it doesn't love that you're advocating men read more, but you know what?
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: So could females.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many health self-help books, right?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's just a lot out there.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm a very big believer in bettering yourself.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And you can educate and better yourself through a lot of reading, right?
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's and that's the message.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, while it's called Books for Guys, you know, I'm trying to get us knuckleheads out there to read a little bit more and and be better leaders and tackle our personal development with a little more intention.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is a lot of people can benefit from listening to this and finding books, and it's been a real joy to have female leaders like yourself on the podcast.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of our listeners are female too.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it's for everybody.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: But Chris, you got to remember, you know, yes, I'm the female leader in this book, and yes, this was my life story, but there are a lot of male heroes in my book.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: So don't forget, you know, you're only as as great and as big as your team and your people.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um, about five years ago, I'll make this quick, but um, you know, I was getting grief about, you know, why were uh all why why did I have an all-male legal team?
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I had never really thought about it.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um but the first thing I think is, oh, you don't want to discredit not one of my men on my legal team, whether you're talking about paralegal, security, my attorneys, they're all men.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: They're the type of men that while I was out there swinging my legal fist, they stuck with me.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: They were courageous, they were brave, and they were staying with me.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: We were staying in the fight together.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: So let's not discredit the male heroes in my book because there's a lot of them.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's some, you know what?
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: I made name to some government heroes.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_01: They happen to be men.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, long story short, yes, I'm the main character, but we have a lot of men and female heroes in my book.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: We do.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: And shout, shout out to all of them.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so much, Kelly.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: This has been fantastic.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: Chris, I've really enjoyed our connection and just want to wish you a beautiful week.