Cut The Tie | Own Your Success

“Eight is the Sweet Spot”—Why Brian Keltner & Francesca Kenney Elevate Entrepreneurs Together

• Thomas Helfrich

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Cut The Tie Podcast with Brian Keltner & Francesca Kenney

What happens when two co-founders build multiple ventures without ever meeting in person? In this episode of Cut The Tie, host Thomas Helfrich sits down with Brian Keltner and Francesca Kenney, co-founders of ELEV8ORS, to talk about how they’re reinventing networking.

From nearly choking on their first phone call together to launching a global B2B community in just 8 weeks, Brian and Francesca share how they help entrepreneurs shift from “me, me, me” pitching to relationship-first ecosystems. Their secret? Small groups of 8, immersive environments, and a culture of listening for impact.

About Brian & Francesca

Brian Keltner and Francesca Kenney are the co-founders of ELEV8ORS, a virtual B2B networking company built on the principle of elevating others. With decades of combined experience in marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship, they designed ELEV8ORS as an antidote to pitch-fests—focusing instead on authentic relationships, structured agendas, and immersive virtual spaces. Their mission is simple: help entrepreneurs build meaningful networks that grow businesses faster.

In this episode, Thomas, Brian, and Francesca discuss:

  • From strangers to partners
    How a chance introduction and a hilarious near-death choking incident sparked a lasting business partnership.
  • Why 8 matters
    The symbolism, science, and practicality of keeping networking groups capped at 8 members.
  • From idea to revenue in 8 weeks
    The sprint that took ELEV8ORS from concept to international cash flow.
  • Cutting ties with time-wasters
    Why saying no to unproductive tasks, software, and people frees you to focus on what matters.
  • Immersive meetings over Zoom fatigue
    How a 3D virtual environment beats traditional video calls and deepens connections.

Key Takeaways

  • Small rooms, big outcomes
    Eight is the sweet spot—large groups leave people out.
  • Relationships beat pitches
    Networking works when it’s about who you can help, not what you sell.
  • Iterate quickly
    Launch, learn, and improve—don’t wait for perfection.
  • Simplify your stack
    The right tools can replace several wrong ones and save time.
  • Community is a system
    Be intentional about who you gather and how you engage.

Connect with Brian & Francesca

🌐 Website: https://elev8ors.net
📎 LinkedIn (Brian): https://www.linkedin.com/in/briankeltner1/
📎 LinkedIn (Francesca): https://www.linkedin.com/in/francescakenney/

Connect with Thomas Helfrich

🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thelfrich
📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cutthetie
📎 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomashelfich
🌐 Website: https://www.cutthetie.com
📧 Email: t@instantlyrelevant.com
🚀 Instantly Relevant: https://instantlyrelevant.com



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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Cut the Tide podcast. Once again, I am your host, thomas Helfrich. I'm here to help you cut the tide of whatever it is holding you back from success, and that success has got to be defined by you and no one else, because if you don't define that success, you're living someone else's dream, and that's no bueno. So today I'm joined by Brian and Francisca. How are you two? It's a team today coming at me.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're going to double up on you and I think just from talking to you briefly you're going to handle it just fine, so I'm going to be fine.

Speaker 3:

I don't know who's going to do this, but you guys have to figure your order out here. All right, but why don't you take a moment to tell you that I've known Brian for, we think, about four years we're not quite sure how long it's been, but one of the unique stories about us is that we've never met and we've done a bunch of different ventures together, and so I think today we're going to talk about elevators, which is our latest venture.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, francesca. I'm Brian Keltner and I'm with Francesca all the way, francesca and Brian Keltner and, um, I'm with Francesca all the way. So it's, it's been an amazing uh ride getting to know somebody in such an in-depth way, uh, and never and never meeting it's been, it's been a unique journey.

Speaker 1:

I mean, this is going to be an up and down conversation. I can tell you didn't see that one coming. Then clearly, the doors are closed on you. You, I'm sorry, I'm gonna stop now. All right, we're gonna talk about elevators, um, uh, first, so you've never met that. How did you? You know, you guys are doing a business together, so I I'm gonna leave. This is like maybe out of the. How do you build that trust? How did you meet what?

Speaker 2:

yeah, you know what I'm. I'm gonna take this Francesca because it brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it, because Francesca almost killed me on our first encounter and we both were working with a is a money person, she's a CPA, she's incredible at this right, and I'm more of a marketer, more of a. You know, let's go out and chat with people and I'm thinking this is going to be a horrible phone call. I'm not looking for it. It's like going to the dentist. I don't want to talk to a financial person. Are you kidding me? And we're on there on a phone. I'm having an adult beverage, enjoying it. I'm like trying to get into it. This will be it.

Speaker 2:

And she's absolutely funny, hilarious, and I'm in the midst of having a drink and she said something that was funny. I couldn't catch my breath. I'm about ready to go under. I'm seeing stars. She's laughing the whole time. We're having such a good conversation I don't want to hang up, but finally I'm able to catch my my breath and carry on. But it was the point to where I was seeing stars and the whole time she's laughing. Are you okay? Yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 1:

That's how we met and we became best friends since that's so cool up into your current endeavor is uh elevators, I mean uh elevate. What are you doing in the elevators?

Speaker 2:

space, yeah, so elevate e-l-e-v-8-o-r-s eight is important to us and there's reasons behind that. But, um, we wanted to uplift other business owners so b2b business and lift them up. We both know the power of having not just a referral partner but an ecosystem and we want to help other people do that. So in essence, we are elevators and elevating them in their business.

Speaker 1:

Now, is it a? Is it a like an affiliate marketing network type of piece? Where you're? You're just getting almost like a vetting system of people you would work with.

Speaker 2:

There is some vetting going on there, absolutely, but it it's. It's a virtual b2b networking community. So the people gone to networking events all the time and we have to, and we've seen the ugly and the horrors of it. It's like it's it becomes a pitch fest. You know, um, here's my product. I'm a widget maker. You know, if you know anybody that needs a widget, come send, send them to me. And it's just the next person, same pitch, and we got tired of this. It's like nobody's building a relationship and what would be the best way of doing that? So we were actually working with another networking group, a virtual networking group, and it was like this isn't true to who we are and we need to do something different. So Francesca sends me this text. She goes I think we need to start our own networking group. My response immediately was I've been waiting six months to hear this and we did.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it was a Sunday morning. I sent Brian the text. I was on my way to a client. I said I'll call you after I'm done. That night I think within two hours we had the whole concept for elevators and Brian and I both dabble in the. You know the spiritual world and understanding and numerology is important. And so eight is really. When you look at what an eight represents, it's an octave, it's a harmony. Right you turn it sideways, it's infinity, new beginning, growth. And as we started down the path, we were in eight weeks we went from ideation to international revenue.

Speaker 3:

And as we've continued down this path and learned more, eight keeps showing up. And so what we've learned through science is when you have eight people in a room and our tribes are eight we keep them at eight. Our rooms can hold 12, but we keep them at eight. And what we find out is that when you go nine, 10, 11, somebody gets left out of the group. So you've been at these big networking groups where there's 20 people. You can't meet everybody, you can't get that intimate knowledge. But at every meeting our agenda is about eight sections. You're learning something about each person that you may not have known or you're building a deeper relationship, so you're growing that much faster, and so that's what we're seeing is we're seeing people introduce other people or oh, I'll help you with that. You really build that network, you build that relationship and it's beautiful. I mean, it's been very exciting to see what we've seen.

Speaker 1:

I mean Asians bet on eight all the time, and an eight in golf is called a snowman. It's horrible. It's like when you quit golf. So I mean it's got some factors in life.

Speaker 2:

You just summed up my my golfing career right there. Thank you for that. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

I just go out, when I go tee off, I just hum Do you want to build a snowman? When I just like all day I'll sing it and I'm like a singing career. That's a sexy voice guy that doesn't work in a room. Throughout the day I get cheekier. This is a podcast fix of the day. We're midpoint, we're mid-cheek, Anyway, All right. So in your journey, guys, I like this because you've used basically your own model to meet each other, trust each other and go replicate it. I love that. That's beautiful.

Speaker 2:

That's, like you know, walk the walk kind of idea. What's been the kind asked cause we, it's very interactive. You don't sit and just listen to camera, we, we cameras on mics on, you're part of the conversation and it goes around, it's, it's, it's very pointed, a one hour and it's jam packed. So you are participating and they'll come in and they'll whatever.

Speaker 2:

The question is, what was the win for the week? And then they go into. They're so used to just talking about their product, their service, and it becomes a sales pitch for them because they're so used to doing it. And even our new people that do join us, they see what the difference is. They felt that they've experienced it. Now they're like you know, I want more of this. There's still this transition of happening between going from about me presenting to really listening, for impact of from the other person is how can I be of service to them? How can they be of service to me and who do I know that they need to meet to elevate in their business? And when they start going from that switch of me, me, me, to how can I help you? That's a huge win. We see that, we experience it and the community cheers.

Speaker 3:

So I want to add two things to that. So we just had a tribe leader meeting. So we meet once a month with our tribe leaders, kind of talk about things that are going on. Meet once a month with our tribe leaders kind of talk about things that are going on. And one of the comments one of our tribe leaders said we had three guests and they did their elevator pitch. I couldn't tell you what they did and I said that's the beauty of where you're at, because you've now learned this and you can explain what you do very quickly that people understand what you do.

Speaker 3:

So, like we work on these things with the team. The other thing that we do is at the end of the meeting, people grade us on how we did during the meeting, right? So the facilitator, who's running the meeting, they get to hear the feedback. But we also ask them to give us a word of what was great or what you know. Give us your positive word for the meeting. And so when somebody says it was the best use of an hour for me, or they said the fact that you have an agenda, or it was conversational or it was friendly or welcoming, we know we're on target. We know we're doing the right things.

Speaker 3:

Conversely, if somebody says something you know that's not as positive, then we do go back and reflect on that. Why did they say that? What do we need to improve? What do we need to do to be better, to make those experiences better? So Brian and I are, I know, our team member that works with us. She works with other clients as well and she says I love working with you because you make decisions quickly, you implement them. And when Brian and I started the company, he said what do you want? What are our titles going to be? And I said I don't care about titles. So we're the GSD co-founders, which is Get Stuff Done. Well, maybe some other people use a different word, but that's what we focus on, right, how do we get stuff done? And we're constantly reflecting back on what's working, what isn't working.

Speaker 1:

Well and listen, that's customer centric. I love that. I love centers of success around. If you're definitely a success in the phase or a season of life is around business, having it centered around a customer success to me is a really. You don't fail typically there you may lose money, but it's at least the right heart spot to go through. Then you get back into the other pieces. Maybe you know. Talk a little bit about maybe. To achieve that success, though, what's been the metaphoric tie you had to cut, like what was the thing you had to let go or stop doing or start doing.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to say I'm, you know, I think both of us are were ever learners. You know, um, you know I've been in business since I could reach a lawnmower, so it's it's multiple businesses and I think, reflecting on your failures but also other people's success and being able to pull in from that, and if I think what I had to cut was was the uh, the time wasters and and not just in in people and relationships and and and those things, but also your activities. So what, what's your? You know what's what's generating revenue? As far as the activities, and then you can, could stop doing, you can cut ties with all the things, even if you love doing them, but there's other people that may not even do it as well as you, but that frees you up to do the things that need to get done. As far as elevating in business, what about?

Speaker 1:

you, Francesca.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So I'm going to add to that not only the people piece of that and those tasks, but I'm also going to talk about software. So you know, we invested in software and thinking it was the best software out there, this was what was going to help us. But then we both had to realize this isn't going to work. We need to go look at other softwares. And then there were so many different software products that are out there and they all promise you the world of what they can do. And then Brian and I are very good with well, let us in the sandbox, let us see what it can do, and then we find out it can't do what it can do. But then, to you know, to have the ability to keep looking for the right software to move you forward, and we changed one software that allowed us, I think, to get rid of like three or four other softwares. Am I right, brian?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, at least four.

Speaker 3:

So that saved us a tremendous amount of money by doing that. But that was a major change and again, anytime you do something like that, everybody's got to get on board with learning. So we were very good at making sure the team understands what they're doing, supporting one another and pushing through. But, yeah, the new software that we've just engaged has been phenomenal.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean getting the idea that you need something versus want it and the shiny object syndrome that happens with it. The due diligence piece to the other. It sometimes sounds like part of the tie to cut right Is you know, for you was saying no, but it's that that actually transcends this exact same thing around software. You say no to stuff right away until you've really get a sense, and if you can't get a sense of how it's going to work, you don't buy it. You say none of that's wait, it's a time suck. Anything that wastes time. You say no. You know. You say yes to takes away from things you should be saying yes to.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, thomas, I want to kind of add on to a little something on here, because one of the things that we we were doing was, you know, we could sit there and say, okay, we're virtual. Um, we could say zoom, everybody knows zoom, especially since the you know pandemic. Everybody's on zoom. They know it. They also have some fatigue. After about 30, 30, 45 minutes, everything starts shutting down the ideas back up and we said we, we cut that and we said what else is there? Well, there's immersive, and we did a whole lot of research on this.

Speaker 2:

So, actually being in an immersive environment, where it's, it's 3d rendering, we created our own space. We have offices, we I mean it's we have a ample theater in our virtual space. It's, it's amazing. But when people come in there they're like I've never been anything like this. It's kind of like a zoom meet sim city, if I were to draw a picture of it. But that's one of our. One of the reasons when we started this was how do we build relationships? And if Zoom is an endurance and blocking that, what do we do to fix it? An immersive environment was the fix, so that, looking at what we're doing, how can we improve it?

Speaker 1:

What are you guys most grateful for in your business?

Speaker 2:

Each other. I'm saying with all earnest I wouldn't want to do what I'm doing without Francesca there, and that's just being honest, and I've grown to respect what she says. We were, we were so, so dynamic and starting this that we, you know, you start your llc, we get the attorney in there and they were like okay, so when there's a dispute, you have to put this in there. When there's a dispute, how are you going to resolve this? And, and you know, my thing was hey, we got a magic eight ball, let's just rock paper scissors. I says, can we do that? And it would. And he says, well, no, you probably need a little bit more than that.

Speaker 2:

We had a mutual friend that that that could be a kind of a tiebreaker. If that's the case, we agree to that. So that moved forward. But, um, everything that we've done, we talk about it and does it make sense? And we've done this several times I feel strongly about whatever that topic is. So they get, we we both know we're listening to this and and it's usually takes less than the same day to move forward on something, because we respect each other's ideas, opinions and where they're coming from.

Speaker 3:

And you're too. We're, I'm sorry. So we're two different people, right? So he's the marketing, creative side Not that I'm not creative, but that's his world. But I'm more the CPA, accountant, finance person. So we, we laugh every time and I say, Brian, I started another spreadsheet. And he's like, oh God, now what? So when Brian comes to me and says I put this in the spreadsheet, I always say okay, so what does that mean? That you built a spreadsheet? You're worrying me.

Speaker 1:

Don't touch the Google Sheets. It puts the Google Sheet back in the basket, or it gets the hose, places the Google Sheet back in the folder, or it gets the hose. If you haven't watched Silence of the Lambs, that's not a funny To me, it's hilarious. Watched silence the lambs that's not a funny um me, it's hilarious. And, by the way, that's my parenting trip. To anyone out there, I'm just gonna give you a tip. Um, at a young age, show them the scene with the girl in the well of silence the lambs, where he's like it places the lotion in the basket. Traumatize them a bit that way. Later, when you're like it cleans its room or it gets the hose, they know exactly what will happen. It's not even abuse, guys, it's just. Let's get these split Good ex-parenting right there. Where are we? Cheeky meter went up one level. Did you see how we crossed over on noon? If I drank, this would make way more sense. All right, some rapid fire questions here.

Speaker 3:

One of you gets to take it Without knowing the question who's going to get the first one you want?

Speaker 1:

the first one you just pointed at me. Go ahead, all right. Best business advice you've ever received that's a tough one.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I'll take it because I'm really old. There's a lot of different I think it stems from the worst business advice I've ever received. Uh, and it's make it till you make it. No, be authentic. You know if, if colombo wasn't a great detective because he was smooth, he was very much authentic. You're bumbling that, you know. Ask this, ask that, take people off guard. Whatever that is Be true to yourself. Don't do the fake it till you make it.

Speaker 3:

All right, I have to take this now that Brian said that. So best, best advice I've ever gotten is when someone says, trust me, don't believe them. So if somebody says I'm going to give you equity, until that equity is in your hand, you don't have it, so do not go on trust. Somebody says they're going to do something, then this is something that's very, very like. This is through Brian and I. Our blood is I'm going to pay you for the work that you do. If there's equity or something to be done, you're going to get a document, and so trust, that's what you trust.

Speaker 1:

Don't trust someone's words. Listen, you can poop in one hand and wish in the other which is going to fill up first. Right, get that document, I agree. Okay, this time Rule Breakers. One person gets the answer in the rapid fire portion of this.

Speaker 2:

I'm kidding, all right, who gives you inspiration first answer wins go uh, my son gives me uh, probably my biggest inspiration, and it stems from being born without a face. Turned my life upside down, lost everything in business and realized from that uh that the growth I had to go through and and also uh build your support system before you need it, yeah, very important.

Speaker 1:

Francesca, you get answered yeah.

Speaker 3:

So I'm going to say our team. So our team is what gives me inspiration and support. So we have somebody in Indonesia and she has family trauma that she's dealing with. Brian's got different things he's dealing with. We have another team member in the Philippines, and you never know what a team member is going through. So we're all very supportive. We have like a WhatsApp group. It's only positive that we're supporting one another and helping and what we've found is by doing that, these people work hard for us and we work hard for them to make sure that we're pushing this organization forward and we listen to everybody's ideas forward and we listen to everybody's ideas.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's, that's great and it is. We have teams in philippines as well and, um it, if you make a nice work environment and and just pay people fairly to relative to market, uh, people will respect that and and honestly, I think a lot of uh, I think a lot of americans do a good job of treating people to respect more so than I think companies in the philippines when you work there. So I think there our best customer, our best employees on our side are. They've come from call centers and they're like I'm never going back to that negativity and so you're spot on with that. This is one of the things I draw inspiration from, like how people, like completely different calls are different, completely revenue set are just happy in there. You know they struggle. It's amazing. That's a. Really.

Speaker 3:

I draw inspiration from my team as well on that, and one of the requirements our team members have to do is they have to journal every day and they're like what? And we're like on your time card, I expect to see 15 minutes of journaling. And they're like what am I journaling? What do you want? What are you trying to call to you? So we'll talk about it. We don't ask them to share that. That's their private information of what they want and where they want to grow. But if you journal and you work on that, then in a few weeks you should see that coming back to you and coming through. So we really focus on that as well and they appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. Your last question. If there's a question I should have asked you today and I didn't, what was that question and how would you answer it?

Speaker 3:

so it's going to be the first time that Brian and I meet, so once once we meet, then we have to come up with a new origin story, cause I don't know what we're going to do then. I'll try not to kill you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, don't kill me at the event, just for the story sake, right.

Speaker 1:

What did you meet?

Speaker 2:

You'd be like I think we should dissolve the company. That would be a fear. I don't really have that fear, but that would be horrible. Wouldn't that be terrible.

Speaker 1:

It'd be a funny shoot yourself in the face kind of funny Guys. Thank you so much for coming on. Shameless Plug Time.

Speaker 2:

Who should get ahold of you and how do they do that? Elevatorsnet. So E-L-E-E V8, like when you're trying to get on the freeway. Yeah, you need a V8. V8orsnet.

Speaker 1:

And who should get ahold of you though?

Speaker 2:

I think professionals that need to build their own ecosystem for referral systems work out well, and business owners, typically B2B. We're really suited and right up their alley because we have a large network that would benefit them.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. I mean, francesca, do you have a different opinion on this? He is the marketer. But since you look at data and who your actual customers are, what do you think?

Speaker 3:

So I think, because we're such giving heart people anybody and I'm going to open that because we have some people that are part of our community, that are florists, we have a yogi master in Africa and do we spend time with these folks when they come through and want to talk to us, and do we give them guidance, absolutely, and then so we don't exclude anyone from our organization and we'll talk to anybody and help point them in the right direction. So we're, we're just open to helping others and it really shines.

Speaker 2:

We are elevators.

Speaker 3:

We are, we elevate others.

Speaker 1:

Guys, thanks for coming on today. I appreciate it. Thank you, appreciate you. Thank you, appreciate you, thank you, thank you to your audience. Yeah, I appreciate you. Guys, and listen if you made it to this part of the show. Thank you so much for attending. And if you've been here before you rock, this is your first time. I hope it's the first of many. Get out there, go cut a tie to.

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