Kelsey Chapman is creative and marketing strategist who is passionate about equipping entrepreneurs to build their business, grow their platform and steward their influence. It is her mission to help women to turn their dreams into profitable ventures that can allow them to live with both freedom in their finances and their time. She wholeheartedly believes dreams are worth pursuing and loves walking alongside women to bring their visions to life in a tangible way. Kelsey’s book on mentoring, What They Taught Me, is due out in 2020.
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- How ten formal mentors have helped Kelsey in all aspects of life.
- The power of mentoring to fast-forward your life.
- Why mentoring is both receive and give.
- How to find and develop a mentoring relationship.
Create beautiful, engaging social media in 5 minutes a day – www.RiseUpCreatives.com
Connect with Kelsey:
- KelseyChapman.com
- The Radiant Manifesto – free via snail mail
- The Radiant Podcast
Don’t Miss A Single Episode:
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.
- Leave a quick review on any of the podcast apps to tell people what you think about the show.
- Take a screenshot of the podcast and post it on Instagram or Instagram Stories. Tag us @insporising. We’ll repost and give you a shoutout!
Interview Transcript
Kelsey, thank you so much for taking some time to hang with me today. I appreciate it.
Thank you so much for having me on, David. It’s a joy to be here.
Yeah, I love your accent, first of all. Because as we were talking about before we hit record, you grew up – did you grow up in Nashville?
Yes. Oh, yeah, born and raised right outside.
Because I was born – actually, I wasn’t born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but that’s where I was raised up until I was sixteen. So, it’s like an hour away. I spent lots of time in Nashville, love Nashville. Most people think music in Nashville, which is a big part but there’s all sorts of stuff in Nashville besides music.
The food. And really, I’m from Murfreesboro, which you might know but I just say Nashville because it’s easier.
Oh, I know where that is. You’re lying. I did not know that. That’s a different place, yeah.
I’m a Murfreesboro girl and I’m not trying to hide it, but people just don’t know where that is.
Yeah, that’s a tough word for people to say if you’re not from there.
Yeah, it’s only thirty minutes away.
Well, today we’re talking all about mentoring and so first of all I want to start by just asking you why is mentoring so important to you?
Oh, man, I could go on and on. I have just had some incredible women step into my life. I have been writing about it for the last year. I have had ten really solid formal mentors step into my life and invest in me, but there have been countless other women who have invested in me along the way as well. I love to tell this story, it started with a woman named Lanelle and she was my best friend’s mom growing up. We lived five houses down, but the fun story about Lanelle is that – I wonder if she’s okay with me blasting this all over the internet, but it’s going to be in the first chapter of my book so it should be fine. But she was engaged to my dad long before they ended up meeting their spouses, and then they broke it off. My dad married my mom, she married an amazing man. And how inconvenient that her daughter and I became best friends.
And down the street.
And lived down the street. So, then they had to do these weekend drop-offs, cultivate our friendship, deal with facing each other regularly. I know that I would not love to see an old ex-boyfriend from college that I refer to as Voldemort, and so, that would be really inconvenient if my child became best friend with theirs. But I love to say she taught me how to love because the selflessness in which she approached the situation when it could be a very painful reminder of a not so glamorous ending to their relationship, but she’s been like a second mother figure in my life. I mean, I just went to Maine with them last summer, and so she has been a consistent person who has invested in me even when it’s inconvenient, since I was a very little girl. And their home – my parents have moved around. Their home is a more permanent fixture of my childhood than even mine because my parents have moved a lot. And so, she’s just one of many examples.
It seems like for every season I’ve needed someone to guide me. Someone’s been there for that exact role. So, whether it’s Lucy who’s showing me how to balance a career and family and saying, “No, you can have it all. You don’t have to choose. You can have a career and you can have a family and a happy marriage and friendships that are great.” Or Karen, who helped me survive not conforming in church and showing me how I could just show up as 100% me; outspoken, not someone who’s just going to go with the flow, “No, I have an opinion and I’m going to share it.” Or Anne and Amber who have helped me navigate my career. I’ve just had someone step in for every season and it’s forever impacted my life and I think gotten me further than I could have ever gone alone. And so, I think that’s why I’m really passionate about mentoring.
So, with all these mentoring experiences, how would you actually define mentoring? Which you probably did as you were writing this book I would assume. At some point you had to come up with a definition.
Yeah, I would say mentoring is investment but it can look different in every season. I’m not anti-defining it, but at the same time, my mentors have looked so different. So, there’s someone that was already there that just was consistent but then there was Amber who I started paying her. I found her through a Facebook ad, she was my career mentor. But then by me stepping up and investing in her and saying, “How can I serve you?” we became so much more than that and it’s now like I’m part of her family. And so, I think mentorship can take on very different roles. It can be very casual, where you’re not exchanging tips or tricks or cold hard facts in a monthly coffee date, you might just be sharing your life. Or Amber basically gave me my business model as my career mentor.
And so, I think that it can take shape in a lot of different expressions and that’s really why I’m writing about it, because I think we’re all waiting for Oprah to step in and swoop in and be our mentor, but the reality is, don’t hold your breath. Oprah already has people in her life and her circle that she’s investing in and the way she can impact you is through the more mass production of her shows or her podcast or whatever – her books. But often we do have someone already around us that is willing to step in and invest in us. And it’s not perfect, they’re not going to be perfect. Sometimes I’ve learned, “Oh, that mentor’s killing it in their career, but I don’t really want their marriage,” and that’s okay. I can learn from that. I can chew the meat and spit out the bones.
Whoa, have not heard that saying in a long time. That is hilarious. Chew the meat and spit out the bones. That is a poster waiting to happen.
I have some Southern phrases up my sleeve.
So, here’s what’s interesting, Kelsey. It seems like what you’re talking about is a mentor is someone who’s influential. They’re someone who’s making an impact on my life. And it sounds like it may or may not be formalized, although you said all ten of yours have been formalized in some way. I love talking to you about this because I would say I’ve never had a mentor and I have not wanted a mentor. Yet, I wonder if it’s even that word. I wonder if it’s my personality. I wonder if it’s generational. I hear in the reading that I’ve done that maybe one or two younger generations than myself would be seeking out, would be wanting mentors more. Where I’m part of a Gen-X generation, so, I don’t know. I should do some research on that, if Gen-X generation doesn’t value a mentor.
When I think back in my life, I can think about people who have made a deep impact. I always tell this story about Buddy Morris, this t-ball coach that pulled me aside at age five and impacted my life even just in a single moment. I think about I was really into photo journalism in high school and so I had two teachers, one in Kentucky and one in California that really gave me a chance and invested in my life. I can think about a youth pastor. But I wonder why, counsel me Kelsey. Help me understand, why am I resistant? Not for other people, I’m not resistant for you having this term mentor. It’s not like I’m anti-mentor. I’m like, “No, no it’s all good. Whatever.” Even my daughter, she’s nineteen, she has a couple mentors in her life. And I think to myself – I’ve never told her this but I’m like, “Why do you that? Why do you have a mentor? That’s so weird.” But I’m thankful for them. Tell me what’s going on inside of my head, what’s up with this?
I mean, maybe it is generational in the sense – I read a statistic that was like, “The millennial generation wears therapy like a badge of honor.” We love therapy. We talk about therapy, “Who’s your therapist? What are you doing?” And so, we love input, I think. And so, maybe that’s something that’s a little different. I remember asking Harriet to be my mentor and she was like, “Wait.” She would be Gen-X and she was like, “Wait, why?” And I’m like, “I just want to learn from you. You are happily married. You have a lot of friends. You’re not too busy all the time.” “Oh, I’m just so busy and so overwhelmed.” “You have thriving children who don’t hate you, show me how to do it.” When I talk about Harriet, I talk about someone who probably doesn’t think she’s qualified to be a mentor or wonders why the heck I’d even ask her. Maybe that wasn’t a huge value to her but I’m like, “I just want to learn from you.” I just want to shortcut the distance.
And I don’t mean that to just glean, glean, glean, because one thing I do like to cover when it comes to mentorship is, we’ve got to stop being takers. If I have another person who emails me and asked to pick my brain, I’m like, “No, you don’t want to know me.” And so, when I step into the role of a mentor, I’m a lot more open handed when I feel like someone actually wants to know me equally. Because I’ve had plenty of situations at this point where it’s like, “Oh, they just took my information but they don’t care about me.” And so, I don’t really have time for that at this point in my life. And so, I think I did also have just really good luck with my mentors, because I really cared to know about their life. So, often we’d be sitting across the table and they’d be telling me their personal things and I love that. I hope that I can make it as valuable and beneficial a relationship for them as it is for me.
Sure, sure, sure. Okay, well one of my top five strengths in StrengthsFinder is input, so I like to receive input. One of the reasons why I do this podcast is because I love learning from people. So, I’m learning from you right in this moment, you’re helping me process this kind of concept. I’m going to have to do some research on this whole concept of mentor. I’m going to tell you, maybe inside personality-wise, I’m feeling like, “I don’t want somebody telling me their thing all the time.” I don’t know why, you’re going to make me do some soul searching, Kelsey.
Do you know your enneagram number?
I’m a one.
Oh, oh, okay. I’m a magnet for ones and so it’s really interesting. I’m a seven. It is really interesting, I love input from my mentors. I do not love input unsolicited from all of my friends. And so, I can shift gears because I love input if I ask someone to be my mentor and have a voice in my life. But I had a friend who was an enneagram one and she said, “So, when is it okay to give you input?” And I was like, “When I ask.” So, I don’t know. I would say even as an enneagram one, I wonder if it’s like you think in terms of right versus wrong and maybe you feel like you have a measure of where that’s at, and having someone else’s input – you’re motivated by your internal compass, not an external compass.
Yeah, I don’t know, but I like asking lots of questions. I like asking a lot of questions. I think an ongoing relationship is probably what I’m resistant to. Is that I’m resistant to an ongoing relationship where I’m meeting with someone. I don’t know, I don’t want to be somebody else’s mentor. I feel that too, maybe it’s even the word. But I love coaching people. I love helping people, maybe the term ‘coach’ is more helpful for me. I don’t know, but I love that you love it and I love that other people are benefiting from it. So, okay, this is not about me, Kelsey. This is about you, let’s quit analysing me here.
It’s wonderful. I could talk to you and get all my research of my marketing words I use for this book, because some people are not going to pick it up because of the word “mentor”.
Yeah, I’m not sure why but I like the concept. I mean, the whole idea is basically just influence and helping one another. It’s all about helping the other person and I love helping people. I love helping them in whatever way. Just the other day I was on a photoshoot with two individuals. They were photographing me and the gentleman was in his thirties and he had said, “I’m trying to get this video business off the ground and people at my church won’t even help me. People in that business, I’ve asked them and they won’t. They won’t even sit down with me for coffee.” And I was like, “Oh, I’ll do that anytime. Just call me, tell me. I’m happy to do that.”
So, anyway, you talked about the woman – the woman that could have been your mom who was your first mentor. I don’t know if that was a formalized relationship but let’s talk about a couple of moments in your life that have been pivotal, where you can point to a particular mentor and tell me how they were pivotal in helping you navigate that moment.
Oh, man. Well, I’ll go back to Lanelle. I think that’s the first one, and again, she’s probably the least formalized out of everyone just because it was so happenstance but we’re so close and connected, I’m like a third daughter to her. But I remember going into college and I had become a little over the top Bible thumper-y at the time. Really, really just diving into my faith but zealous and out of touch.
College is a good time for that for people who are Christians, oh yeah.
I remember having a conversation with her that was over ten years ago, but having a conversation because her and her daughter and I are very close. But I think I had a breakup with her and left God’s love letter on the car. I mean, it’s the equivalent of a pamphlet, it’s really cringy and painful. But I remember talking to her and here we are ten years later having this conversation in her living room last year and she said, “Kelsey, with your childhood, you would have either gone off the deep end or uber religious. And I knew that it was saving you, even though it was costing us so much pain. And so, I knew it’s what saved you and allowed you to obviously mellow out over time and really normal out, but it helped you keep your life together because it really could have been a hot mess had you gone the other direction. So, I knew you were going to one of two very extreme directions, and so I was okay with that. It was really painful but I knew it’s what was going to save you.” Not save me faith-wise, but save my life.
And so, just to hear her grace and compassion and again always coming back to unconditional love. She has loved me when it cost her so much. And I think with stepping in the role of mentoring, I have this group of girls that I was a young life leader to them in college and a lot of them are like sisters to me now and to walk with them and to be able to love them unconditionally through really, really hard seasons. Total deconstructions of their faith, total deconstructions of everything they believe, everything they want out of life, any type of pain, they’ve navigated it. And to just be able to hold space because I’ve been shown unconditional love, not with an agenda, not with her trying to change me or mold me into being who she wanted me to be. True just love, my life was forever changed by that and so, it shows me how to offer it.
Another mentor, I think I kind of talk about them in tandem; Amber and Anne. They’re my career mentors. I found them at just the right time. I was a total cold audience to one of them, found Amber through a Facebook ad, had been on Anne’s email list for a few years. And in a space that is totally oversaturated with every type of coaching program possible, I think something intuitively was attracted to their generosity and their openness and in a space that’s very closed handed and, “I’m going to hold this information close because someone’s going to take it and step on me to get to the top,” I love how they come to the table with such generosity because they show me how I want to show up as a mentor and how I want to serve those I’m coaching. They show me how I want to show up, and so both of them sat with me as one algorithm crushed an agency I ran overnight.
Wow.
I had a six figure business, fifty clients and Instagram changed one algorithm that I could no longer operate as usual and did not feel like I was supposed to pivot into ads management, because that’s a whole other ballgame. And so, they sat with me as I rebuilt and offered so many hours of input of, “Where do I go from here?” They’ve not just been fair-weather friends or mentors, they’ve been there in the trenches. My husband doesn’t know how to give me advice for that stuff or input, he’s not in this entrepreneurial space and so, I’ve just again, been so impacted by the generosity of women willing to share their wisdom, share how they’ve grown and evolved and how the hard times didn’t crush them, they made them stronger.
Let’s talk about how do you find a mentor? Because you talked about a Facebook ad, which is a totally different situation. But if I feel like I’m no matter what age, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty-something, finding a mentor has nothing to do with age. I want to make sure we’re clear on that. How do you go about that?
Usually I don’t discount that I’m really relational, so I have a lot of people in my life at all times and I know it’s very normal for people to not have friends or not have a community. And so, I will start with community but if you’re not there I’ll tell you where to find one otherwise. So, I already have a lot of friends and especially in Tennessee, had a full life of different age groups. Here in Colorado, I don’t know as many people who aren’t my age, but I have met a mentor here because you just meet people your age when you’re out and about, but I do like to learn from women who are a few steps ahead of me age-wise, so that I can kind of again, learn from what they’ve learned in life.
So, I first draw from the community I have. Who’s someone that people respect? What’s something I see that I want and I don’t necessarily have or have the roadmap for and say, “Hey, can I just take you to coffee once a month?” It’s kind of weird, I think I probably again with Harriet, caught her off guard because she was on a board of something I volunteer with and I just said, “Hey, I really admire you. I’m not going to be a weird stage five clinger about it but I’d love to go to coffee once a month,” and so we did. And then sometimes they’re going to say “No”.
Do you ask for once a month right from the beginning or do you say, “Hey, can we go to coffee once?”
Maybe I’ll say once. It’s been awhile since I formally asked someone to be my mentor, so maybe just once. Again, I don’t know everyone I’m talking to, so I know that I’m not weird about it or really a clingy person. So, there are definitely intuitive boundaries, but ask someone to go to coffee and see if they’ll go with you again and maybe it can become something that’s happening on a more recurring basis. But even moving here, I didn’t have a community, but over time this lady, Catherine, is someone that I feel like I was supposed to move to Colorado just to meet her. I think we got here because of what we thought we were moving for and I don’t think I would be operating with the wholeness and freedom that I’m operating with had I not met her. So, lots of mindset work with her. But I got here and I joke that she’s like the counsellor to our whole friend group. All of us go to her for our huge life decisions.
And is that more of a paid coaching kind of situation?
She’s not paid, no. I mean, I think people do pay her but I ended up serving. A lot of times this has worked really well for me, I look at my gifts and talents, I’m great at digital marketing, social media. Those are my sweet spots, so I’m like, “Hey, you’ve got a book. I’d love to help you market your book. I’d love to help serve you if we could just meet regularly.” I often offer to give something so someone doesn’t feel like I’m constantly taking, and I think because people are used to takers, they are so open when they feel like, “Oh, my gosh.” I always ask about her kids, “How are they doing?” I know what’s going on in her life and I know a lot more about my mentor’s lives than most people who might be learning from them, because I ask and I just am relational.
And you’re genuinely interested, yeah.
Not one sided or transactional a lot of the times. And that too with Amber, who started as a paid mentor and I am in her Masterminds – still a paid mentor in a capacity. I often get just more access because I serve as well. Because it’s a weird feeling for me to just keep taking, I want to give back, “What can I do for you?”
So, you’re helping me diagnose my own brain as you’re talking. I love this, because I’m thinking to myself, “I don’t want to take advantage of the person.” So, I’m hesitant to ask for that time or energy. So, I feel that. And I feel the messiness of the relationship. What you’re describing, I’m like, “Oh, my gosh, that seems so messy.” You’re helping them but I have those types of relationships with friends in my life. Where I will oftentimes do lots of things for them because I’m the same way, I’ve got all these different skills. They don’t have it, I can help them. They help me.
I have a friend named John. John owns one of the largest collections of retro pinball and video games in the world – over thirteen hundred pinball and video games. It’s just a huge amount. It’s a massive warehouse. I do stuff for him all the time because I know he’s doing stuff for me. I don’t know if it’s a mentor. I mean, I am learning from him. It’s definitely not a mentor relationship but it’s that gushiness. You are so comfortable with the gushiness of the relationship.
I am an enneagram seven, so I’m okay with things not being defined. I’m very mystical and fluid and whatever. And I don’t like expectations at all. So, I try to set expectations in the relationship and be really direct and communicative but just because of who I am, I’m never going to be like, “I demand. This is my expectation out of you investing in me.”
And I do fully recognize someone could be listening and more prone to that. So, my advice is don’t be a weirdo, run your expectations by someone else. And a lot of times, your expectations with a mentor, you’re not going to figure out your expectations until they’re missed because they’re subconscious. But I will say, I’ve run into a few mentors who position themselves that to me or I had asked because they’re a little bit older than me, they’re more seasoned in my industry. I’ve had a few mentors who it didn’t work out. I don’t consider them a mentor but it looked like it was going to be that and then it didn’t.
What are some of the reasons why?
Mostly because the relationship was really transactional and that is everything I’m not. And so, I had this mentor who needed something. I had pitched, “Hey, would love to learn from you. I would love to do this for you. I run this Instagram agency, I’d love to serve you and grow this if you would just meet with me once a month. You’ve got a full roster of writing and speaking gigs and I want to learn how to move into that.” I’m not trying to give away too much of it.
Or just make it too obvious. But we had this trade and this happened twice, the second she didn’t need that service, gone. The calls just ended. We didn’t even have a closure call. And so, I know that I’ve mentored a lot of women, if I was receiving a service from them and I decided I didn’t need it anymore, I’d probably still have a few more calls with them because at that point I care about them. I’ve invested in them, I know their life, I know they’re in the middle of a transition or whatever. And so, the first time I chalked it up to – and this is the same person – the first time it happened I chalked it up to, “Maybe something happened in her life. That was kind of weird and abrupt. We had our trade, we met monthly and then she just emailed me and said, ‘It’s over’.” The second she didn’t need that service anymore, she didn’t care about investing in me. My feelings were kind of a little bit hurt but then I was like don’t make it mean something it doesn’t mean.
A year rolls around, she reaches back out, “Would you like to trade?” And I’m like, “Actually, here’s my prices,” because I realized it was a transactional relationship. So, she wanted it to be transactional, it could be transactional. I have fifty clients I did that for every month. And then she asked again a few months later and I was like, “Okay, I just need to reset my mindset that I’m going to learn until I no longer learn from her.” It wasn’t three weeks before she pulled the plug again with no follow-up call. And so, I’m like, “Okay, this is really good example of someone who really actually isn’t interested in investing in me. She is interested in getting something out of me, so I just need to treat that like a client and that’s okay.” It hurts my feelings but it also shows me not my kind of girl.
But I think you have to say people can only give what they’ve been shown. So, I’m in it to show that it can be done differently and I’ve had all these amazing experiences, but maybe she’s only ever had transactional relationships modeled to her.
And so, that’s all she knows and it’s awkward and it’s fine. I’m not going to make it mean anything about who I am because I have plenty of really high-level women investing in me, where I know I’m not annoying or a burden or anything like that. I know that I give equally and I show up to serve. Again, I was at a retreat with Amber, the one that started out as a total paid mentor, more like a coach, but moved into a mentoring role, having a way more formal say in my life. And she was like, “You’re like family, you can always come early to these events.” I’m like, “I love that,” and I think it’s because I have shown up for her as much as I can.
It might not match exactly what she’s given to me but I definitely intend that. So, I’ve learned the hard way sometimes. And like you’re saying with your friend with pinball, I have friends that I do this with too, there’s not as much of a hierarchy. They’re my friend, but I do want to learn from women five, ten, twenty years ahead of me, because I do know they’ve charted territory I haven’t yet.
Okay, so would you say that everyone is a possible mentor and mentee?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think you could take what you know and give it to someone else. And sometimes again, I think that happens more in the form of a friendship when both parties are interested in learning from each other. But I do think we have these disconnected generations who think, “That generation’s out of date,” and, “That generation’s lazy,” but we can actually all learn from each other and it could be a huge gift.
So, you talked about the ending of the one mentorship that kind of went sideways, but it seems like mentoring has been a seasonal experience in your life because you don’t have all ten of these people right now as a mentor, not that you couldn’t go back and there would be a very special relationship. But how do you kind of end a season of mentoring?
Yeah, I think most of my cases, we just naturally stopped meeting as often. I’ve never had a, “This is the end of this.” Sometimes I’ve moved. Sometimes they’ve moved. Sometimes their lives got really busy because of a career change or kids graduating college, stuff like that. But most have just naturally transitioned. I’ll say this, sometimes a mentoring relationship loses its magic a little bit because you’ll become just friends. And a lot of my mentors have just become friends over time and it just ends up being we meet less often but we’re just catching up, and that’s great. It’s not bad. So, most have naturally just transitioned.
That seems like a beautiful transition because it becomes less of a hierarchy, and a hierarchy is not about value but it is about they have something to bring to the table that you don’t have. So, that’s obvious. But then if that could transition into a friendship, boy that seems like now you’ve risen to the occasion relationally and maybe skill-wise.
Yeah, and I think the key there – people are like, “But why? How are you doing that?” It really is, if you show up to serve and maybe you don’t have a tangible skillset that’s beneficial to your mentor, but even serve as in, “How are you?” I have a mentoring program and I hop on calls. I’ve definitely had calls with girls who they’re just going to tell me their thing and it’s more of a coaching role, but then there’s the sweet spot when people really let you into their life and you know they’re invested in your life too. That’s really special and you feel known.
With some of the women that I’ve worked with that are really operating at a high-level in their career, it’s lonely at the top, so they are so welcoming to me asking about their life because no one does that. They think, “Oh, they’re really well connected, they have all these friends.” Yeah, but they still care about people asking about their life.
Absolutely, absolutely. So, you’ve mentioned that you have a program where you mentor and coach other individuals, entrepreneurs. What are some of those ways that you can help someone? If somebody’s listening to this and they’re an entrepreneur or they’re looking for somebody, obviously you’re not opening your door to a bunch of mentees showing up at your door in Colorado, but what are the ways that you’re helping entrepreneurs these days?
Yeah, so I think my gift and it’s taken a long time to nail down exactly where I add value for people because I can be like a jack of all trades. If I learn something, I’m going to teach it. If I can TEDx my email list, I will share everything. So, there’s those benefits in my programs, “I grew my list by eight thousand since April for free and I want to show you guys how to do it.” Or, “I love marketing, so I’m going to share everything I’ve learned marketing-wise or branding-wise.” Or, “Operating your business, understanding how you’re wired.” I love the enneagram.
But I think my biggest gift is often someone can sit down with me and tell me what they want kind of out of a career, maybe what makes them burn, and I can see the trajectory sometimes clearer than they can. So, I can really help vision cast and then map out a plan of how we’re going to get there. It’s called Dream to Done because a lot of times dreamers just aren’t doers. And so, “How can we actually take tangible steps in making this dream a reality? Yes, it’s going to require sacrifice. Yes, it’s going to be hard. But I’ll be with you every step of the way.” And that’s what I love. It totally lights me up.
Very cool, and is that a one on one program that people could enroll in?
It’s a group program. So, I love that they’re going to be on calls with other women. There are some one on one options to have some just “us” time, but I think the sweet spot is you’re pinging off people. I started in a program like this and one girl said one thing in a maybe fifteen second snippet in a call that I was like, “I can do that.” And added five thousand people to my list with that one strategy because my peer said that, and so I love the group calls for that reason.
Very cool. One of the things that I love about your website, and by the way to get connected to Kelsey, you’ll go to www.kelseychapman.com. Now, we’ll have that in the show notes and on our website and social media and all that good stuff. But I want to talk to you real quick about something on your website that is really attractive. And I say that, “Attractive”, not even necessarily visually, although it is. It is attractive to me just because it was unique and you call it The Radiant Manifesto. What is this? I know people can even get a copy of it. You’ll mail it to them.
Yeah. I think connectedness is obviously really important to me, and so I wanted to create something that I could physically pop in the mail to someone. It’s super cost effective. It’s not like I’m spending a ton of money producing these, but I’ll order five hundred of the prints and send this sweet manifesto out to the people who have signed up for it. It’s a poem that’s kind of just a reminder that you’re capable, you’re enough, you can do this, your dreams are worth pursing, and I don’t take credit for the conceptualization in any capacity. My friend Kate was doing something similar, she had a declaration card because she’s a mindset strategist. So, she had all these mantras and declarations. She had a postcard she sent out and I was like, “That’s a great idea,” in an age where we’re really all disconnected or we have twenty-seven hundred PDFs cluttering our desktop from free downloads.
This is something that I can tangibly provide someone and then they’re getting on my email list and we can stay connected for the long-haul and it’s just a dose of what they’re going to get from me. And so, I was like, “But what am I going to say? I don’t even know.” And so, I found, who ended up becoming a really good friend of mine, a poet, Morgan Harper Nichols on Instagram and just sent her a voice memo. I was like, “I can’t even type all this out, I’m just going to tell her my ideas.” I love her work and I was like, “Hey, what would you charge to do a custom piece?” She does that, and so I gave her some words that I certainly wanted in there and then the kind of ideas I wanted covered and then she crafted something beautiful and it’s The Radiant Manifesto.
I’m going to read it, okay? I don’t know if I’ll read it like you would read it, or do you have in front of you? Do you happen to have it in front of you where you could read it? I’d rather it be your voice than my voice.
I think I do. Yup, I do. Okay, cool.
Read it to us, and then if you want a copy of this and I’m going to get a copy, you just go to www.kelseychapman.com and ‘BAM’, she’ll mail this to you. So, it’s really beautiful, go for it.
“She will be radiant. She will send out light. Ever bold, ever bright. Morning and in night, she will shine. For even in unknowns, her soul will burn gold with passion and zeal to give her all and take the journey. She will make the most of every day, for every second paves the way to actualizing her dream and becoming who she was meant to be. With every breath she takes, her heart will illuminate for people, for purpose, for love, for grace. She knows everything will not be perfect but she knows it will be worth it. She will keep going. She will be shining. She will be confident. She will be radiant,” Morgan Harper Nichols.
Yeah, so good. Alright, so www.kelseychapman.com; K-E-L-S-E-Y Chapman dot com, and we’ll put that in the show notes which you can swipe up on your phone right now and check those out, or go to www.insporising.com of course, and get all the deets on all your social media stuff. Kelsey, you’ve got a book coming out in 2020 on mentoring, is that correct? Do you know the title of it yet?
Right now, it’s called What They Taught Me. We will see if that’s still the title but I think it will be.
Good, good, good. Okay, so What They Taught Me, 2020. You can’t pre-order it yet, but you can go to www.kelseychapman.com and sign up to get the manifesto mailed to you and then you’ll be on her email list and then you’ll know when it comes out and you can pre-order it on Amazon and it’ll be awesome.
Thank you so much, David. It has been a joy chatting.
Subscribe to Inspiration Rising on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher.
