← Liftoff with Keith: Conversations with Super Founders and Growth Experts sharing useful insights
Liftoff with Keith: Conversations with Super Founders and Growth Experts sharing useful insights
From Tech Sales Leader to Authentic Leadership Coach — Kelli Rivers’ Bold Pivot 🎙️
00:22:15
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- [00:00]
A
At 3am on Aug. 1, Jesus was standing in my bedroom. This is crazy. And I, I'm like, is that really Jesus or is that am I just dreaming? And, and he said it was like a 10 second interaction. And he said, stop working on yourself. You keep working on limiting beliefs. Stop it. He's like, you just remember who you are.
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B
Hey. This episode is brought to you by the outstanding team at Compass Strategic Advisors, your trusted partner in driving strategic growth. Whether it's expanding into new territories, launching products, rebranding, or hiring key staff and board members, they offer the expert guidance every step of the way. With a versatile approach and a proven track record, Compass is the go to resource for both startups and established companies looking to scale with confidence. Thanks. And show your support for this podcast by sharing some sponsor appreciation. Check these guys out at www.compass-strategic advisors. Okay, so I'm welcoming a friend from yesteryear to the program, somebody who I recently reconnected with after Gosh, Kelly. We met last in real life at having a cup of coffee. But that was pre Covid and while we've kept in touch since then on online, we haven't seen each other in quite a while. But you've gone quite through quite the change in your career being the Silicon Valley based tech executive and now you're doing something brand new. Let's get right into it. First, welcome to the program. How are you doing?
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A
I'm doing awesome. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. I've been so excited for the past month that we scheduled this.
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B
Oh, I'm so glad you could join too, because a lot of what we're going to discuss today is about a personal journey, really, how, how sometimes you're going down a course in a professional career and all of a sudden something, something happens or something occurs to you and you go in a different direction and then you really find a whole new level of passion. And that's what I found so interesting about, about your journey. So, so share with me a little bit of, you know, the background and how you got to what you're doing today.
- [02:12]
A
Yes. So it starts back in 2008 when I very first hired my coach. I was unhappy at my job and, and I thought, oh, I just need to get a new job. And so I hired this career, career coach and she ended up doing like inner child work, healing work, all this stuff in the spiritual community. And it was something I never ever expected to go down. But I, I ended up 17 years later. That was 2008 to 2025 I spent in the personal development world and the spiritual community, deep diving into everything. I did all the healing modalities because I thought there was something wrong with me because after talking with her it's like, it's not about the job, it's about you.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And then I started going into fixing myself and I don't know if you're familiar with the healing modalities like tapping and NLP and inner child work and I did ayahuasca ceremonies. I've done everything.
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B
Wow.
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A
I went to Peru and I was on this deep search to like, I've got to figure this out.
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B
Like why are the great unlock. There you go.
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A
Right. I got to figure this out. Like why are people the way they are? I remember being four years old and being like, this is weird. People are weird. Like why are they. Why are they this way? And I. So it's always been in, in me. I got to figure out I was going to be a psychology major in college. And so it's just been my thing. So fast forward to this year, 2025 and I'm still doing self help and personal development work. And I'm like, what is the deal? Like why. I don't. When does it end? When do you come out the other side? And. And I had this. Okay. At 3:00am on August 1st. That's only what, six weeks ago?
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B
Yeah.
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A
I woke up at 3:00am Jesus was standing in my bedroom. This is crazy. And I, I'm like, is that really Jesus or is that. Am I just dreaming? And. And he said it was like a 10 second interaction. And he said, stop working on yourself. You keep working on limiting belief. Stop it. He's like, you just remember who you are. And then he disappeared. And then from that moment on, everything started unraveling for me. For the past six weeks I've been like on a crazy roller coaster. I see what the matrix is. I see all the web of lies that people get stuck in. And it's just been very enlightening. My whole world has turned upside down since August 1st. I thought I was like on this path of. But I was never. There was no end to it. You know what I mean? It was like there's always something else you got to work on. And so the theory behind that is if your focus is on fixing yourself, there's going to be an endless supply of fixing yourself. If your focus is on advancing and successing, then as things come up and blocks happen, you, you remove it. But your focus is on advancing. It's not on I gotta fix myself. And so much in therapy and personal development and the spiritual community is always about working on what's wrong with you. That makes sense.
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B
Yeah. Almost like taking the what's wrong with you out of the whole equation because we're all going through something and we're all constantly learning and evolving. Theoretically, I think some people are moving in the opposite direction, but in your case, you're pursuing. But instead of letting that reflect back to you and saying, what am I doing wrong? Or why don't I feel better or what? You know, stop worrying about that and just continue to pursue growth, you do.
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A
And you look at how you've been programmed. So we've all been born into this. When I, when I say Matrix, I mean the, the beliefs, the culture you're raised in, the way you're treated by your family.
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B
Not the movie.
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A
No. Well, the movie is accurate in the sense that it's the lies that you, I mean, you have this, all this power that you don't even realize because you, you believe that you're this human body when you're really a spirit having a human experience. And you have the power of Jesus and God in you. But if you don't understand that and accept that, you're not going to get it. Does that make sense? If you get a program like, no, this is what I have to do in life because my dad told me I need to be a doctor and this is what I'm going to do.
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B
I think there, there's some universal truths in that and there's some personal, you know, spiritual beliefs, religious beliefs and all that completely. So there's, there's an intersection. So everybody's a little bit unique in that way. Tell me, how did you get there? I mean, we were talking about tech and semiconductors and go to market and now all of a sudden you're doing this. So what happened in your life that said, wait a second, you know, I know you weren't happy, but a lot of people are in their careers and, you know, wondering, is this for me? Am I really doing what my purpose in life?
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A
I love my sales job. I was in a sales career for 30 years. I loved it and, But I wasn't fulfilled. I was, it was the same thing. I like going to the. I love my customers, I love the relationships I had with them, and I loved all the fun part of sales and, But I wasn't fulfilled. And I was like, there's something missing. And I, and I kept judging myself and that's what every people do. That and so worst thing you can do is go back, why did I do that? And beat the crap out of yourself. And I did that on the regular. And I'm like, I've got to get to the bottom of this. I can't live like this. And I was hiring a coach, and then one day I just quit my job in 2019 and quit this job. I had. And, you know, yeah, I had no plans, I had no nothing. It was a ridiculous decision. I would do not recommend it for anyone. But. But I, I just hit this wall of like, I can't go forward. And I. I've. I've got to figure this out. And I wanted to be a coach back then. Since 2010, I've wanted to be a coach, but then I couldn't figure out my own shit. So I'm like, how am I going to coach someone if I don't even know what I'm doing? You know, there's too many of those coaches out there. Let's. Let's be honest.
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B
We don't take it off. I was going to ask you about it. I go, I mean, I don't remember people coming up to me in my career journey as an executive. Hey, take these executive leadership courses and personal development courses and all kinds of mentorship programs. Today we are flooded with them. And I'm not saying that is a bad thing. It's just become a hot area.
- [08:12]
A
It's just overwhelming. And it's life. We make life so much harder than it needs to be if we just take a step back now there's. People try to force strategy down your throat when you're not ready for it. Like, as a leader, if you don't feel safe in making a decision, if your nervous system goes into fight or flight, it ain't happening. You can have all the goals you want and all the best strategy in the world. If your body doesn't feel safe doing it, it's not happening. And that's where I was in life. My body did not feel. I didn't feel safe in my own skin. I didn't feel safe in my body, in the world. And that just grows. That's just from childhood stuff. And, and a lot of people have that and they don't realize it. I'd say the majority of the world lives in fight or flight, and they don't even have any idea of it. And fight or flight is just. It's so. When you're so used to it, you have no idea you're even in it. And it just Means you're getting blocked from anything that you want, really anything that is deemed unsafe to your body. Does that make sense? So your body gets programmed in childhood and if it, if you're doing something outside of the what the program agrees is safe, it will block you.
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B
It totally makes sense. But let's get into the practical. So you're, you have this practice, right? And I come to you and say, I need some help. I'm having these personal challenges. I want to get rid of some of that fight or flight behavior mentality. How would you structure that conversation, that program that we work on together?
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A
This, this is, goes through a series of just asking you questions and getting to the root of what's really going on. Like you look at your life, where are you struggling in life? That's where you start because that's obviously where you're going to be blocked. Everything that's going great in life, you leave that alone because you like it that the areas you're struggling is, start asking questions and get to the root of what are your beliefs you're holding on to that's creating this what like you can feel in your body. When people get nervous, you can feel your body get anxious. Like this whole Charlie Kirk thing that just happened two days ago, the world was in shock, right? Their nervous system immediately goes into fight or flights. It's like, oh God, now am I safe? So now they're bored. They're feeling it in their body, right? So stuff from childhood is in their body, the program and it, when it goes into scared. So that I worked. So I worked them through asking them questions and getting to the root cause. And this, I don't know if you noticed on the flyer thing, it says Kelly, CEO of the Phoenix Method. Yeah, so I, when I was working on myself in July, right before Jesus came, I just, I just closed my eyes and just look, I was, okay, I gotta let this go. And I became this rising Phoenix, this fire breathing Phoenix. And I just started blowing everything, burning everything down. And it was so powerful and it was just like, and it was a message. I think I was just getting, getting guided to burn it all down. Stop believing the lies. Like, stop. Just remember who you are.
- [11:03]
B
I love it. So what we're doing is we're having the initial consultation and it's a conversation. You're going through a checklist. And I'm not trying to equate this to sales, but you're qualifying your, your client in a way and trying to figure out things so you can be more useful and where do we go? I mean, because a lot of it is just conversation based then, right?
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A
It's all conversation.
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B
You want something, a methodology though. But so talk, talk to me more about that.
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A
It's. The person has to feel comfortable and that's one of my skill sets. I am really well. I talk really well with people. I have an easy time. People feel comfortable around me so they can get vulnerable and then they can just let. Because I'm not judging them, I'm there to help them and then they can, if they're not, they don't feel comfortable being vulnerable, then they're most likely not going to have much self awareness when it comes to speaking, speaking about it with someone. So it's just asking them series of questions and getting to the bottom of what's the real issue. But a lot of people have a problem with self aw awareness. Right. They don't want to go there, they want to pretend everything's perfect.
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B
So how do you, how do you break through that, Kelly? How do you help them break through that?
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A
I can't force someone to want to get help. It has to be someone who's already.
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B
Well, they knocked on your door, you're already engaged with them, so they want help. So how do you crack through the self awareness? Is it, is it putting a mirror up and showing them where those insecurities are and how they need to just push those aside?
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A
It's. Yeah. If they're already agreed to sign up with me, yes. Then that's another thing. I thought you meant just people in general. No, it's asking a series of questions like how do you feel when around the area of like say they have, say they're CEO of a company and that has low morale on the company, there's low employee morale and you got to go back. Like it starts with the leader. Like there's something in you that is creating this. Like when you have a leader who doesn't trust his own decisions and doesn't have competence and he doesn't hold his team together, he's not like you could ask any employee and they'd be like, I don't know what our goals is, I don't know what's going on. And there's many leaders that are that way because I've worked for them. And so that's going to create mistrust among the employees. It's going to. There's not a solid team because there's no direction coming from the leader. Does that make sense? So if they're not steadfast in who they are.
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B
Kelly, you're getting a lot of nodding from me and I assume my audience. Now, reflecting on my audience, a lot of startups, entrepreneurs, you know, founders that are trying to figure things out, trying to motivate their team, but they may have some people on their team, they may themselves be questioning, am I doing this right? Am I, am I providing the right culture here for the company? We've worked in many different cultures, right? How do you sort of consult on that level.
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A
With the different culture? You mean with the people, they feel like they're making the right decisions and.
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B
Working with these leaders of today.
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A
It always starts with a leader you have, he has to work or she has to work on themselves and get clear on what am I doing and what are my goals for the company. Number one, they can't worry about anyone else other than them in the, in the first and foremost, because that's going to trickle down into their team. Energy feeds off of energy. So if their energy is shaky and their team is going to feel that, like, once they're very clear and where they're going and what they are, and then it's naturally going to come together and like attracts, like. When you have, when you have a solid energy about you and your team, people are going to start leaving. The ones that don't like it, the ones that are more attracted to the shaky, unstable atmosphere, they will just follow to the wayside.
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B
That's so interesting, Kelly. I have a business partner, somebody I really enjoy working with for years now. We always talk to a client and he always says this, and I always kind of laugh internally because it seems so weird, but the reaction on the client is so positive. He starts, he starts some conversation or he's actually in mid conversation with them and he goes, remember, you're in a safe space with us. We're not here to take your job. We're not here to threaten you. We want to help you be successful. And that is a lot of what our consulting practice does. But, you know, that sounds odd to me, but every leader we've talked to has looked at us as either their possible replacement or, you know, pointed out that all of their shortcomings and that in no way is what we're interested in pursuing. That unfortunately, may be some kind of outcome down the road, but we want to help them be the best version of themselves. And we can only get there if they're going to be open, honest, trusty, and those things which are a little harder to come by and not in the typical conversations at Least once that I had. Going up the executive ladder.
- [15:53]
A
Yeah, that. I mean, no one likes that, right? Coming in and being questioned and be like, oh, you're here to. I'm going to get fired soon. No one. But with a CEO that is, whenever they're in touch with their authentic self and they rip away the lies and they. They're living from their true identity, not this false identity. The false identity is believing the program, the lies. Right. About yourself, about the world. When you rip that away and you're living from your true, authentic self, you're not going to be worried about losing your job. You're gonna be like, something else will come along. If this isn't the right fit, something else will be.
- [16:26]
B
I've been using that for forever too. So tell me about you now. How are you doing and where are you in your journey and what. What's next in terms of this development leadership, really? The Phoenix practice?
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A
Well, I. Well, since August 1st, I. It's been a whirlwind. So I'm creating this program called the Rising Phoenix. And it's about how to escape the matrix, how to delete the false identity, how to live from true authenticity. So that'll be out in a few weeks, probably by October 1st.
- [16:56]
B
Oh, great.
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A
And so that'll be really fun. And I want to do consulting work with CEOs. I want to help these people because they have such great influence. And just to see it trickle down into the employees, it will inevitably have a massive effect on their company. And I just think that would be so fun because I worked in corporate for 30 years, so I want to work or with founders of startups that the VCs have. Work with the VCs, I suppose. And then they would have different startups that they would want me to work with to get people on track at the very beginning, right before I tell.
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B
You what, I think this is the curl of the wave with just getting bigger, more VCs getting more involved with their portfolio companies. Yeah, they're working on sales connections and hitting numbers and developing technology products. But there's a personal development side and I've uncovered that with a lot of my conversations where they really want to be a trusted partner, but they can only extend and scale themselves so much. So they are looking for additional resources to help their portco. And it's critical.
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A
Yeah, there's a lot of founders who. It's their baby. Like, I don't want anyone to touch it. And they may not be the right person to lead the company, but they created It. And they don't want anyone to touch their. Their baby. And that's an issue right there.
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B
Yeah. Kelly, I love this. So what is hap. What does your practice look like after that initial client engagement? You're talking with them, but what's a successful outcome look like then? What's it. Yeah.
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A
Oh, for the person who's running the company, they have gone goals for the company and for their employees and they, you know, when you're in alignment with your true self, think life goes really smoothly. It's not meant to be rocky and struggling the whole time. It's when you're in alignment, you follow your guidance. We all know what it's like to feel guided, to feel like in your gut, you're like, oh, this is the right decision. I know this is the right decision. That's what we got to get back to. Listening to that rather than the programming with the matrix I refer to that has no. Well, you should do this. If the word should comes in, like, question it highly. Because you should listen to your gut.
- [19:02]
B
Yeah. Before we wrap up, are there any other key, like pointers you want to share things that you've uncovered or things that you integrated into your program?
- [19:12]
A
I, I just want people to be not afraid to be vulnerable and ask questions and have self awareness because everyone has it. Everyone's born with different programming and you're going to stumble along the way in life. It's just part of life. And it's like that people get so scared of. I can't look like I don't have all the answers. No one has all the answers. Like, you got to stop that immediately. No one has all the answers and it's okay. And the most important thing is to figure out who is your true authentic self. What are your passions? What are your God given gifts in life? And that's what you pursue it from there. That's your true self.
- [19:47]
B
Yeah. Kel, you know, I compliment you. You had a very successful sales career, crushing it in Silicon Valley. And then all of a sudden you had this midlife change and, and feel like, okay, I want to do more. And here you are, like living that out and pursuing it. I can already see in you this, this comfort and this focus and this energy. It's really, it's really nice to see. And I think it, it, I think there are a lot of people out there that will listen to this and say, huh, I wonder if there's something for me either, either in this, in this opportunity to get a little bit more open and honest and start to engage in more conversations and heck, maybe even pursue a practice on their own. Like, you're not wedded to one career direction. You know, nobody stays in one career. So for the young entrepreneurs out there, the founders, whoever, hey, we all have this vision of what we're going to do, but it rarely goes in a straight line. And it can change and be open to that change.
- [20:46]
A
Yeah, yeah. That's what it's all about. It's like being open. And like when you have tunnel vision on something, you're closing the door to all these other opportunities that could be happening. It's like, just go open. And that's the biggest thing people have a problem with, right? Is trusting. Like, oh God, well, I don't know what's going to happen next month. I'm like, well, that's why you got to trust.
- [21:06]
B
More elusive. That word has become a little more elusive. Hey, so tell, tell my listeners, how do we get in touch with you? How do we follow what you're doing and some of your work?
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A
Okay. Go to Kelly rivers.com K L L I R I V E R S My Instagram is Ms. Kelly Rivers. My LinkedIn handle is Kelly Rivers.
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B
Nice. I'll drop it all into the show notes, of course, Kelly. That's.
- [21:30]
A
Thank you. And also I'm offering a free breakthrough call. So anyone who wants to call me and have a strategy session, a breakthrough call, 30 minute call, you know, generous of you.
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B
That's.
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A
You can, you can book it on my website.
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B
That is great.
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A
So actually I'll give you the link for that. The direct link for that.
- [21:46]
B
Oh, fantastic. So we'll set all that up and hopefully I'll get this edited in time for your October, you know, program and we can continue this conversation because I think you're on a fantastic journey and providing a lot of value out there.
- [22:02]
A
Thank you, Keith. I appreciate it. Appreciate the time today.
- [22:05]
B
You bet. Have a great one and a successful day.
- [22:10]
A
Thank you. Talk to you soon.
- [22:12]
B
Talk to you soon.