Transforming Adversity into Inspiration: The Resilient Journey of Kelly Falardeau

When life throws us curveballs, how do we hit back? Kelly Falardeau, a resilient burn survivor, shares her awe-inspiring journey of self-acceptance and transformation. From being cruelly nicknamed "Scarface Girl" to becoming a best-selling author and motivational speaker, Kelly's story is a remarkable narrative of strength and perseverance. She reflects on society's influence on self-image, addressing the importance of changing the narrative around negative self-talk, and the power of finding beauty in what is often viewed as "ugly."

Covid may have ruptured her speaking gigs but it gave birth to Kelly Falardeau, the best-selling author. Walking us through her transition, Kelly reveals her unique strategy of conducting workshops and implementing high-ticket programs, empowering others to pen their best sellers. But what makes her strategy stand out is her emphasis on owning a client list and directing them to a landing page, not Amazon. With a whopping 500 books by her clients as proof of her success, Kelly generously offers her top tip for achieving best-seller status - take control of your clientele. Tune in to this episode for an empowering conversation with Kelly, a woman whose resilience and determination have turned her life's adversities into a beacon of hope and inspiration.

Chapters

• 0:02 Resilience and Overcoming Challenges
• 10:36 Best-Selling Author and Building a System

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hello there and welcome back to the Overcome Yourself podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole and I am so excited to be here today with one of the speakers from the Stop Writing, start Selling Summit, kelly Follardo. Did I say that correctly? You did? Yay, all right, tell us all about you, Kelly.

Speaker 2: 0:29

Well, thank you, Nicole, for having me on your show. I'm so excited to be here with you and your audience.

Speaker 1: 0:35

Thank you for being here with us. I'm so excited to have you Tell me the story. You've got just such an incredible story of resilience and you're amazing. So just start it off. Let us know where you come from and how you got here.

Speaker 2: 0:50

Oh, thank you. So when I was two years old, we lived on a farm and my cousins were 9 and 11 at the time, and I was only two. And my cousins were throwing shingles on the fire and a spark came out and landed on my dress and I exploded into flames and I spent four months in the hospital. Every two days I would have to be in the operating room for skin grafts, and then every two years, until I was about 20 years old, I'd have to go back to the hospital for more surgeries, because they needed me to grow so that I'd have more skin to work with.

Speaker 1: 1:27

Wow, wow. So talk about overcoming yourself. So from your humble beginnings, now you help. I mean we see all those books behind you. You are, you help. You help people become best selling books, best selling authors right, I do. Yeah, so you go from the hospital, from having to deal with all of that, to overcoming yourself and just being such a powerful leader in the community and helping people. I mean, like, what you do is incredible, kelly. Like look at all those books behind you.

Speaker 2: 2:03

Well, and you know it's interesting, because if I was to take myself back to being a little girl, you know I was called the Scarface Girl and so I was devastated, because who wants to be the Scarface Girl? I mean, nicole, you know what it's like being a little girl. You know we want to be the princess, we want to be the Barbie, we want to be Cinderella, we want to be Snow White, we want to be all of that. And I remember when I was doing my TEDx talk, I had to do some research and it was like when or how do we learn that the mirror talks to us?

Speaker 2: 2:38

And right, because you know, I remember looking in the mirror and saying, yuck, who's going to love somebody covered in scars?

Speaker 2: 2:46

Because I just felt I was so ugly and my scars were quite a lot more prominent when I was a child, and so when I was researching for my TEDx talk, my talk was called ugly is still beautiful, and I wanted to prove that ugly could be a beautiful word, and so I made ugly into an acronym. So I was researching and trying to figure out how do we know that, like how do we learn this that the mirror talks. And it took me back to the movie Snow White, where we see the evil queen talking to the mirror and the mirror is a big, booming face that comes out and talks back to the queen. And we learn at three, four, five, six years old when we watch Snow White that the mirror talks to us. And so I was fascinated by that and I even printed out on Facebook and I said at what age did you watch Snow White? And people were telling me like three years old, four years old, six years old.

Speaker 1: 3:52

And so we're already. I was going to say that one of my first birthday parties was so white. She was my favorite princess because she was the only one with brown hair at the time. You know that had dark hair, so she was the only one that I kind of looked like. So, yes, it was one of the first ones I watched.

Speaker 2: 4:06

Yeah, absolutely. And so that was where I discovered it's like, oh my gosh, that's where we learn it. And here we are, we're learning good messages, but we're really learning about in a lot of cases it's negative self-talk. So you know, I know what. That's where it was for me. But anyways, so you know, about 14 years ago I remember going to an event and it was a woman's event, and I met this lady named Tremaine, and Tremaine and I were just like instantly glued to each other. It was like, oh my gosh, I gotta know this woman. So her and I talked and she said, kelly, people will be so inspired by your story. You need to sell that business you have and become a speaker. And I said, what, like? I'm a burn survivor, so what? And she's like, no people will be so inspired by your story.

Speaker 2: 4:59

Now, at that time in my life, I was married for 24 years but I was in a toxic marriage. I wasn't happy with my marriage. I wasn't in love with my husband. We were almost bankrupt. I had a business that was just a big, giant money pit that was bankrupting us. I also had a full-time job because my husband was laid off.

Speaker 2: 5:20

And so when she said, people would be inspired by me. I was like, are you kidding me? Like I feel like I'm the biggest loser in the world, like how would people be inspired by me? That's what was going through my mind. But I remember going home and saying to my husband I'm gonna be a speaker and he said, well, who's gonna listen to you? Because again, he's saying, oh, the negative stuff that's going on in our lives. And I basically just said to him I don't know, but it's gonna happen. But in that night he was telling me all these reasons I couldn't be a speaker. And who's gonna listen to me? And I'm not Anthony Robbins, I'm not Oprah Winfrey, I'm not all that, and we're almost bankrupt. And I think his final words were I think you've picked the hard career choice and speakers don't make any money.

Speaker 1: 6:11

And I was like, oh, wow, look at the people that he mentioned. That's so funny.

Speaker 2: 6:21

I know he's now my husband, so I'm not with him anymore. I've got a great guy in my life now, but that was the start of my speaking career. I think it was 14 years ago, Wow wow, wow, wow.

Speaker 1: 6:34

So you mentioned the TED Talk. Tell us a little bit about that. How, because I know our audience wants to know. How do you make money as a speaker? I know there's a lot of different ways, so tell us a little bit about how you do that. And let's start with the TEDx, though, cause we want to know about that TED Talk.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Exactly. I know TEDx is one of one of like the top level speaking gigs that you could ever gig. So when you reach that goal, you're like, oh my God, that's amazing. And I remember always wanting to do a TED Talk and it was like, well, how do I do this? And back in the day, you actually had to be invited to apply. You couldn't just apply to be a speaker, you had to be invited. And I was. I was invited. Amazing, I didn't apply. Oh, I didn't apply.

Speaker 2: 7:24

Back then I didn't feel confident that I had the message to do a TED Talk. I just didn't feel that I was at the level that I could. And it wasn't until I think it was like five years ago when I did it. So I was telling a friend of mine yeah, I want to be, I want to be on the TEDx stage. I mean, that's my goal. And she's like, well, hey, I know Corey Porier, and Corey is teaching a course on how to do it.

Speaker 2: 7:51

And I was like, okay, great, so, and I was a single mom at the time, I didn't have the money, but, corey, let me make payment plans. And sure enough, I followed the first thing he said to do in module one and I landed not one but two TEDx talks. Wow and yeah, and it was the hardest speech I've ever done, because I'm one of those girls that I like to. You know, I plan my opening, I plan my closing and I just trust my heart is going to know what to say in the middle. And but with a TEDx talk, it's very structured and so, yeah, so I did it and, like I said, it was the most nerve-wracking talk I've ever done in my life because it had to be very structured and I don't normally use PowerPoint, but I did with that one and so, yeah, it was. It was the most rewarding talk I've done too.

Speaker 1: 8:46

That's amazing and we you have the link to that right, so we can put that in the show notes and people can watch it. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, okay, so tell me how you help. Well, let's finish the question. So talk to me about how you make money speaking. Do you get paid to speak or are you making money on the back end, or both?

Speaker 2: 9:07

Okay, tell us a little bit about that. So before COVID, I was doing a lot of keynote speaking, so that was my thing. I didn't have a program to sell and I just had my story of being a burn survivor and so I did a lot of just you know keynote speaking. So I wasn't making the best money, right, Because, yeah, you get that flat rate, but I had nothing else.

Speaker 1: 9:30

Then so important, so such an important point, Okay, keep going. Yeah, very important right.

Speaker 2: 9:37

Like, the speakers who make the most money are the ones who have programs to sell. They will have a system. A system, yeah, a system, right. So? And I didn't, and I felt completely awkward selling because I don't like to sell right Now. Now I've gotten over it and I'm still learning, but it's still. I find it still very awkward.

Speaker 2: 10:01

I love just being able to go speak on stage, get my track and go home. Then what happened was I came up with these blankets, I became an artist, and the blankets say you are loved, you are needed, you are wanted, and what I would do is I would go to rotary clubs and I would speak about my story being a burn survivor and I would ask them to sponsor blankets, and then the blankets I would give away to the burn kids at summer camp, and so I did that type of speaking too. So that was good because I was selling blankets. Then, when COVID hit, of course I lost all my speaking goods, just like everybody, and then I laid on the couch for a week and I said, okay, what am I going to do? And I said I guess I'm going to do that book thing, and I was already coaching people a little bit, but not a lot.

Speaker 2: 10:56

And so what I did is I did my very first workshop. I did pay what you can, because I thought, with COVID, I thought, well, I don't know if people are going to spend money or not, I thought we might all just stop spending money. So I said pay what you can. And I was going to do it in person, but of course, because of COVID, I couldn't. So then I, okay, I guess we're going to do this on Zoom, and so that's what I did is, and I made like $1,500 that first time I ever did it, because some people paid $20, some people paid $150. It was just such a range. And so then, yeah, and so from there then I learned how to do like a three day event and then do a high ticket offer for like Ken's Cave, and I put together a program to teach people how to become best selling authors, and so, honestly, these past three years have been my best years financially ever.

Speaker 1: 11:59

That is amazing. I'm so proud of you, kelly. I love this story. What I said by systems is exactly what you were saying, kelly. You get paid to speak upfront, so you get paid to get on that stage because you're going to deliver value to the audience. They want you there. Then you give your speech, your keynote speech, your amazing speech. You fall in love with you and they're like, oh my God, we want more of Kelly. And then you're like, all right, cool, guess what? Here's my website, here's my social media. This is what I can do for you. And so there you have a system where people can come into that system and they can work with you, or they can follow you, or they can do what they want to do become a best selling author.

Speaker 1: 12:45

And something that I talk to my clients about all the time is that selling is an act of love, because if you didn't sell to them, they wouldn't become best selling authors as quickly and as easily as with your help. And so when you're selling from that stage, one of the ways to overcome that is remember that we're coming from selling from a place of love. We're not shoving something that doesn't work like a lemon car down someone's throat just to get their cash. This is a system that's really going to help them. It's going to impact their life, it's going to help them achieve their goals, and so when they give us money to do that for them, that's an even exchange of energy and it's from a place of love and people are excited to work with you.

Speaker 1: 13:32

I bet, like I mean, you changed their entire lives. So I absolutely love that that you were just able to step into that space of authority and just change your own life, kelly, because, like I mean, speaking from the stage and having that system and having people work with you and changing their lives, that's incredible. How many books have you got in back there? Tell me about your authors.

Speaker 2: 13:55

So I've helped over about 500 people become best-selling authors and all the books that are behind me are all my clients books. So there's all kinds of books here and there and they're all my clients books. And then I recently did my very first children's book. So yeah, this is for my grandson and he's, and so it's cool because you know I made him into Kai the koala and there's, you know, just a little story of him and I going for a walk and eating blueberries and all this.

Speaker 1: 14:29

Oh my gosh, kelly, that is the best I know. I just love it.

Speaker 2: 14:34

It was my first time doing a children's book and I used AI for it, and it was just so much fun and it's the best-selling book now too, so it's kind of cool.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Congratulations. That's amazing. Another one, another one for the awards wall. So, as we're wrapping up here, kelly, I want to know what's the top tip that you give your author, like, give us a secret sauce. What are we going to do to become best-selling authors? What's that best tip you can give us?

Speaker 2: 15:02

The best tip. So the best tip I can give you is to don't sell, don't send everybody to Amazon. Send them to your own landing page. Okay, and the reason you want to do that is because if you send everybody to buy your book on Amazon, amazon owns the client and you don't know who bought your book and then when you go to do your second and your third book, you're not going to have anybody to sell your books to. So this way, if you have a landing page and you sell 10 people to your landing page to pre-order your book, that way, then you know who your clients are and then you can market any coaching programs, any services, any other books, everything. But if you send them directly to Amazon, amazon owns the client and you'll never know who bought your book.

Speaker 1: 15:54

Yes, that is such a big deal. That goes in line with creating that list having your customers, because it is less expensive to sell to an existing customer than it is to find a new customer. That's like you know. Let's go into business mode and talk about it and they're going to want more of your stuff. If they read your first book and you've got a new book coming out, they're going to want to know, they're going to want to read it because they already love you and so that's such a big deal. So, owning that list because, like you said, like you know, we do sell books. I've got my journals. Let me see, Do I got my journal? I've got my journals on Amazon and somebody was like I ordered your book, Did you see it? And I went to look and I was like I don't know who ordered my book. So it is such a big deal to make sure that you've got some way to track those readers.

Speaker 2: 16:44

I love that Even with this, my children's book, I mean this is going to be a series, so you know this is blueberries you might do, you know radishes or you know cauliflower and broccoli story, right. Or a coloring book a coloring book, but if I don't know who bought the book, I'm not going to be able to do that.

Speaker 1: 17:05

Yes, yes, I love that so, so much. What if you make it like into a show? Oh my god, okay, we're gonna.

Speaker 1: 17:16

But there are a lot of ways that you could transform that content. So once that becomes a best seller, you can bring in. That's a great example of how you can bring other products, whether it's a series that continues where they go, like you said, get raspberries, or go apple picking, or go orange picking or strawberries oh my god, I love picking strawberries Right, and you can have different adventures. Or you can do supplementary products, like, maybe, flashcards with all the fruits or a coloring book or other things like that. Like, we can get really, really creative with these and provide our customers with what they want, right, because they really love us and we want to sell to them out of a place of love, and then it's going to help their kiddos with their reading and to fall in love with healthy foods. So I absolutely love that. Yeah, I do too. It's kind of cool.

Speaker 1: 18:12

Yes, and you also have that beautiful best seller badge. That is such an authority builder. People love to see that. So one of the speakers on the summit let us know that's instant credibility with your audience, because they know you have something to say and a lot of people have paid to hear you say it, and so having that best seller badge awesome credibility. If you want to know more about how Kelly helps her authors become bestselling authors, make sure you check out the show notes below. All the links are going to be there. Kelly, let us know how can we follow you on social media, how can we sign up for your email list so we know about that next book that's coming out, and how can we work with you to become bestselling authors.

Speaker 2: 18:55

So the best thing that there is, just a book or call with me, okay, and that's bookkellyazme, for which last discovery I also have a free gift for your audience. So, yeah, it's my chat. Gpt Bible is 454 writing prompts for nonfiction and fiction books, so they can go to the link there and grab that also and then that way they'll have the Bible. So when they get stuck and they don't know what to write, they can just go to the Bible and it'll. It has 454 writing prompt for them, and it is amazing.

Speaker 1: 19:29

I've been in there, I've been working with some of those, so I already know how juicy and amazing they are. You are going to want to get your hands on this. Check out those links below. And then, how do we follow you on social media?

Speaker 2: 19:41

So to me just Kelly Follato. That's the best way to find me.

Speaker 1: 19:45

So sounds good. So all of that information will be down below. Kelly, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for sharing your story with us. You are just a ray of sunshine. I'm so excited to be connected with you and to see the amazing things you're going to do, because this is only the beginning. I'm so excited, thank you so much.

Speaker 2: 20:07

You're so gorgeous and adorable and I just love you and I just I love seeing your social media posts and everything, and every time it just warms my heart, so thank you.

Speaker 1: 20:17

Thank you so much. Yes, make sure you follow us both on social media. We're in there hanging out together, we're commenting on each other's stuff, so jump in with us. All those links are going to be down below. We will see you next time on the overcome yourself podcast. Thanks for being here today with us guys. Bye, bye.