Ep. 94 with Kim Peterson - Founder, CEO, Co-Founder | KPT Mortgage & KPT Collaborative

What Happens When You Stop Playing Small?

You can feel it when someone is done playing small and Kim Peterson is done. We sit down in person and talk through her real, winding path in the mortgage industry, from early days learning in chaos to becoming a top producer, and then making the hard call to shut down her own company and pivot into a new setup that actually supports the way she works. If you’re a mom, an entrepreneur, or both, the throughline is clear: growth requires honest self-assessment, not perfection.

We also get into what mortgage lending looks like now, and where it’s headed. Kim breaks it down simply: the business is moving toward fully automated lending or fully personal, relationship-based mortgage advising. We talk about building a high-touch client experience even when systems and technology handle the “less valuable” moments, and why women are uniquely positioned to win when they lead with trust, connection, and community.

Then we zoom out to the life stuff that shapes the business stuff: divorce, healing, blended family dynamics, and reclaiming your identity. Kim shares why she created KPT Collaborative, a coworking space in Hudson, Wisconsin, and what it’s teaching her about alignment, customer fit, and self-doubt. We also talk faith, church community, and the kind of support system that carries you when things get messy.

If you’ve been contemplating a pivot, building a relationship-driven business, or trying to reclaim your own “hue,” press play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more women can find these conversations.

Connect with Kim:

• Email:
• Text: 773-895-7340

Contact the Host, Kelly Kirk:

• Email: info.ryh7@gmail.com

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Credits:

• Editor: Joseph Kirk
• Music: Kristofer Tanke 

Thanks for listening & cheers to Reclaiming Your Hue! 

Transcript

Welcome And Mission

Kelly 0:10

Welcome everybody to Reclaiming Your Hue, where we are dedicated to empowering women to embrace and amplify their inherent brilliance. Our mission is to inspire mothers and entrepreneurs to unlock their full potential and radiate their true selves. I'm your host, Kelly Kirk, and each week my goal is to bring to you glorious guests as well as solo episodes. So let's dive in. Morning, Kim. Good morning, Kelly. How are you? Good, how are you? Good. It's so good to see you again. You too. Why? I asked you how you were, and I didn't even let you answer. How are you?

SPEAKER_03 0:49

I'm great. Actually, I've been really, really excited about this.

How Kelly And Kim Met

Kelly 0:53

Good. I love hanging out with you. I know I love, I just I'm so glad you're here. This is gonna be, and you know, it's interesting because um I didn't want to tell you this before we started the interview, but I'm gonna be asking you like two new questions that I don't normally ask anyone else. That all of a sudden I was like, that would be a good question. And then I thought of another one. I'm like, that would be a good question too. So surprise. I'm ready. You're my guinea peg. It's gonna be all good. Kim, I would love for you to share with the listeners because I always like to make this connection and talk about the power of community and networking. And so, how is it that the two of us got connected?

SPEAKER_03 1:38

I was thinking about that on the way over here.

Kelly 1:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

And trying to remember. Oh, I got it. You've got it. Okay, good. Because I think I know. Yeah. But now I want to hear what you think. Val Katie. It was Val. Yeah. Val Katie introduced us. Freaking love Val. Oh, and it was like two weeks ago.

Kelly 2:00

It it wasn't because of the businesses that we actually spend most of our time in, which we'll get to in just a moment. It was because of KPT Collaborative, which we'll talk about as well. So she was like, Kelly, you've got to talk to Kim. And she should be on the podcast. And then when we talked, it was just so cool. Yeah. It's like I know. We were like instant. And then and then that just kind of started this like uh snowball effect. Yeah. So yeah. Well, I would also love for you to just give a little brief on what it is that you do for business, and then also share like why Val had initially connected us too.

SPEAKER_03 2:48

Yeah.

Kelly 2:49

So you've got some fun things.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

I do a few fun things. I know. Well, like we all do, right? Whenever we have a chance, we try to put one more thing on our plate. Um do I see a clearing? Isn't that the truth? Yeah.

Kelly 3:07

Love it.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

So I have been in mortgage since 1998, which is a really long time.

Kelly 3:15

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_03 3:16

Um, I have seen the things. One would say you're wise. Wouldn't that be unseason?

Kelly 3:24

Stupid. You know, it's funny. We haven't, you and I haven't like, I don't feel like we've had an opportunity to truly hash out just the ins and outs of mortgage. I know.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

I was thinking of that on the way here when I was listening to you kind of chatting about your career and your experience in mortgage. Yeah. And I was like, oh, we should talk about that someday. Um you wised up. I did not. Listen. I I wised up, but I didn't go too far away. Here we are. Here we are. On the other side of the table. Oh, goodness gracious. No, I actually love it. Um, I have had a really incredible journey in life and in business. And I never planned to be in mortgage, but I knew my whole life I wanted to be in real estate. In fact, I thought it was normal as a child to be completely fascinated by homes and to read the newspaper that showed all of the listings. I had every single real estate agent in my market memorized. I looked through their photos in the newspaper every single week to see who was selling houses and who wasn't. Oh my gosh. Um, but no offense to realtors, including my husband. My father, who was extremely influential in my life for many reasons, was like, um, realtors are the armpit of the earth. You can't be a realtor. So I was like, okay, dad. So I decided to go. Well, I didn't really say I'm gonna go into mortgage then, but when I graduated from college with a degree in business and a concentration in real estate, I looked in the newspaper for my first job and I saw mortgage loan processor. And I was like, oh, mortgage, that is real estate.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:18

And my dad will probably be okay with that. It pays$9 an hour. So I'm gonna do it. Listen to that.

Kelly 5:26

$9 an hour. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

And in fact, in my interview, the it was a mom and pop shop. This couple, they were incredible. And she was the most like insect eccentric, terrifying woman. One of the most. I I have had the fortune of working for eccentric, terrifying women throughout my whole career. But she was like, you know what? I like you. I want you to be my personal assistant, and that job pays$11 an hour. So I was like riding high on the hog.

Kelly 5:59

Wow. Uh-huh. I love that saying. You know what I love about we always are laughing and giggling and giggling so hard. I just love it. Okay, that was an amazing because life is just so funny, actually.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

If you just take it, take a step back and look at it, you know?

Kelly 6:20

Yeah, I mean, it could be all also very satirical, too. Yeah. Anyways. Okay, so back to this woman who decides. G Kim, I like you. Let's let's actually just have you just do all the stuff for me.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Yes, and yeah, she was amazing. She was one of those women that stayed up until 2 a.m. She had like a three-hour bedtime routine. So she didn't really come rolling into the office until 11 or 12. Um, and I got to do a lot of really neat things. Her husband was amazing. I helped with secondary market stuff and stuff I didn't understand about locking in loans and fax, lots of faxing.

unknown 7:03

Okay.

Kelly 7:05

Lots of fax machining. Can I can I just pause for a second? I have to tell you this. So yesterday, um, and I have some good news to share with you too. You're one of the the very few people who I've shared this with. Yesterday, I took my national and um state exam for real estate. And one of the questions on there, I'm not even joking you, was about like faxing something over to buyers. And I was like, do I, because they actually have a part in there where you can like comment on the question to give like advice on how to maybe better phrase it. And I was like, Do I tell them that like it's 2026 and hardly anybody uses the facts now? Like you could probably scratch this one or revise it. Yeah, anyways, I passed and I'm Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. That's still 60 hours of uh coursework to do alongside of it, but that's okay. I passed that, that's the big one.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Those are the big ones. We're done. Yeah, national real estate license. I didn't even know that was a thing.

Kelly 8:14

So you have there's um national testing. Okay. So you there's like a bunch of stuff to know nationally as an agent and then low like state focused as well. Okay. So there's two different tests, and you take the first and then you move on to the next, and you don't know if you pass the first until you finish up the second. And so it's like four hours long. Yeah. And I was like, I I I I didn't even have to like the the exam for mortgage wasn't even that long. We're just harder people's finding.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Oh, you think so? Oh, for sure. Oh, okay, for sure. Yeah, but we get way less like education. Totally. That's really bizarre.

Kelly 9:02

Anyways, anyways, I just had to like pipe in about faxes because I thought that was such a strange, strange question to have on a test that I'm taking in 2026.

SPEAKER_03 9:12

Well, our continuing education still talks about HUD ones, which have been obsolete now for like four or five years.

Kelly 9:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

They'll get there. Interesting.

Kelly 9:21

Okay, so sh so you're you're doing a lot of faxing.

SPEAKER_03 9:24

So I was doing a lot of faxing, and then she would come in around 11, and it was like Devil Wears Prada. She, you could smell her because she was doused in opium perfume. And like my heart would just start racing because you never quite knew where she would be at. She was either like extremely determined and ready to work, and you had to be ready and have all the things ready that she wanted to be ready. And then she's throwing her coat on your yes, it was. I mean, she was just incredible. Or she was like, get in the car, we're going to the um, what was it called? The country lounge, and we would drink cocktails and smoke cigarettes and play pool tabs for like three hours.

Kelly K. 10:07

What?

SPEAKER_03 10:08

And I didn't smoke, so I was like choking down these cigarettes. Kim, I know for a second I was like, wait, Kim, did you have like a season where you were just like cigarettes? But you had, I mean, you just it was just what you had to do. It was part of the plan. And that was fascinating, except also if I wasn't pulling winners, then things it didn't go well.

Kelly 10:30

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Yeah, poor, poor soul. It was a great first job. Really cut your teeth.

Kelly 10:42

Oh my gosh. That's wild. Yeah. It will, I mean. So not only are you like uh it's fascinating to me. I I actually want to just stay here for a moment because not only are you learning the ropes with mortgage, and mortgage like the industry is just a beast, right? It's even more of a beast now than probably it was at that point. I don't know, maybe, maybe not. Yeah, it was much more localized.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Okay, right. We're working with people in in our specific community at the time, which we don't have to go there.

Kelly 11:21

Okay, so anyways, anyways, you're you're like in the thick of it, just learning the ropes with mortgage and also navigating personality too. I mean, like big personality as your leader, yes, and also the personalities of the people that you know the company is working with too.

SPEAKER_03 11:47

Well, and then also being 21 or however old I was wanting to fit in with my peers because they only hired college kids, that's why they paid$9 an hour.

Kelly 11:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

But they all some of them liked me, and some of them were like, why does she get to go out to lunch for three hours a day? And and at that time, yeah, you know, it was 1998. We we they were working 12, 14, 16 hour days because you had to hand type mortgages on a little typewriter. You had to get packages out the door to the UPS for a closing tomorrow. You know what I mean? There just wasn't this quick way to do anything.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:32

Um, and I remember on my first day watching the closing manager actually like run from one end of the office to the next. And I'm like, is this normal? And she's like, Yeah, this is mortgage. This is how it goes. It's just fast paced. So I they were wildly successful. Um, I learned, I only understood fast pace from the very first day I started working in mortgage. That's crazy. That's great.

Shutting Down A Company To Pivot

Kelly 12:58

Okay, so that was sort of the foundation of you entering into the mortgage industry, you're stepping into it. Let's fast forward for a moment to where you're at now. And then how funny we'll have to share like how our paths actually crossed without without us even knowing it years ago. Yeah. But share, share with the listeners like where Kim is at now today, and then let's catch them up to speed on how, like the how to getting where you're at today. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

So today I am a mortgage loan officer. Um, I recently shut down my company and joined another firm with my partner, Louise. Okay. And we are mortgaging our brains out. And it's very fun. When did this happen? Um, we officially closed like mid-December. Okay. Yeah. And so who like, okay, I I know, right? Surprise.

Kelly 14:04

Surprise. Okay, tell me more. Tell me more.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Um, well, a lot of things, but ultimately mortgage has become very automated. And we the last few years have not been great in the industry. And I wanted to I I I mean, I've got this team that I've been with for 10 years. I wanted to maintain it as long as I could, but we really didn't have the volume to sustain a four-person team. Fair enough. And the cost of running your own business in Minnesota is extremely frustrating. The amount of bonds and insurance and um licensing fees was like crazy. And now they were just um putting into place the paid leave act. And it just Kim's like, I'm tapping up was the right time for me to make a change because I had opened the collaborative too. Um and now it's, you know, as these things tend to go, Louise and I are partnering together. We've got like a$5.3 million month coming up, which is the biggest month we've had in two years. We're we've got like a part-time processor assisting us, and it's going smoother than it has in a really long time.

Kelly 15:36

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Yes, and our other teammates have moved on to other ventures that suited them, are suiting them. They've had life changes that they needed to attend to, and yeah, this is okay.

Kelly 15:51

We're diving in because this is this is important for the listeners to understand um the power of pivot. Yes. Understanding like when is the right time to actually make the pivot, right? And how long had you been sitting on that thinking about it?

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Well, I needed to make some changes probably years ago. Okay. So I thought, well, I I looked into a lot of my options and at that time I decided I'm going to open a mortgage company that will resolve some of the challenges I'm facing where I am now.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:33

Which it did.

unknown 16:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

It also opened my eyes up to some of the challenges within my own team that I had a hard time addressing because I love my people, but we weren't functioning as well as we should have been. Sure. And I think when I come out of all of this, what I have learned about myself, and although people would tell me this quite often, I am actually not a great manager of people.

unknown 17:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Yeah. I am a visionary.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

I um am empowering. Yep. That is different than managing.

Kelly 17:24

Kudos to you for going. I I mean, seriously. I know like the listeners can't see your face right off. So I'll just explain to them that you were like kind of shook when I said kudos to you. No, seriously, because acknowledgement is always the first step I need to think. It's the first step towards towards actuary. Like, yeah, for sure. Like recovery or or like I need to make a decision here, right? And like, what does that decision need to be? And there are people who are good at being in that manag management role, right? And there are others where it's like, hey, perhaps partnering and just going that route and us bouncing ideas off of each other, it's better. How are you gonna know that though, unless you actually try it?

SPEAKER_03 18:20

Right, right. And and my way I always looked at my team was very partner-ish. Okay, right. We're all, you know, I would I would make pictures of us all arm in arm, right? We're but it really is can't be that when it's four people of very different skill sets and mindsets. You need a leader, yeah. And I was the leader, but I wasn't. So I can think of a million ways I could have led my team better that I didn't. Um, so now I am in the right place for me. I love it, which is working side by side with someone who is like moving at lightning speed.

unknown 19:06

Right.

Kelly 19:06

It's interesting, Kim. I like when I met you, uh, you know, we'll we'll sort of loop the listeners in here in just a moment on KPT K KP KPT collaborative. I can't talk.

Kelly K. 19:19

I would change all that too.

unknown 19:21

Right.

Kelly 19:21

No, no, no. It's fine. KPT collaborative. And um when we were talking about how that came to fruition and how quickly you moved on it, I was like, dang, I can learn something from Kim. And even Joe was like, Yeah, let's let's just make sure that you and Kim are kind of staying in the same like world together because he he just loves how your your mind thinks. Now it makes sense because both of you guys are visionaries.

SPEAKER_03 19:50

Yeah, he and I, I think, yeah, from the little time we've had the chance to spend together. Yep. Um, I I have always been, and my bosses have always said this about me. I'm an executor. Not always was I the visionary, but they would give me when I came into mortgage, um, my boss essentially, when I started originating, yeah, he would give me an idea. He'd stand in front of a whole room of us salespeople and give us an idea. Yeah. And I was the only one that would leave an execute. I would like run out of that room to get to my desk to execute.

Kelly 20:19

See, that's me. Yeah. For our business. Like he is the visionary and I go to town and execute.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah.

Kelly 20:27

Sometimes I need a little bit of help with like how the system could be for that. But I will just move forward. Yeah. And I love that. Yeah. Like that's that is like that speaks to my soul.

SPEAKER_03 20:42

I started to kind of like move then in a visionary. I was like, maybe I can do this differently. Maybe how what do I see this working like for me? So I think it I evolved. Um, I still have that execution like deep in my soul.

Kelly 20:57

Yeah. And and when it comes to mortgages, especially the way that mortgages run and operate now. You know, like everything is you've got the system in place for it. It's no longer like this. A lot of times, you know, the the clients are completing the application themselves versus, you know, you like having to do it for them. Yes. Or hop on a phone call. Sometimes I'm sure you probably still have to do that periodically, but it's just so like systematized.

SPEAKER_03 21:28

Yeah, it can be as systematized systematized as we want it to be. Yes. So we have been careful in creating a system that feels high touch, that is high touch.

Kelly 21:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

Where the less valuable moments can be systematized. For sure.

Kelly 21:45

Okay, so you and Louis Louise, right? Louise. Louise. Louise. What's the name of the company?

SPEAKER_03 21:52

KPT. Well, we're still KPT mortgage advisors as like a DBA. We are under the umbrella of Edge Home Finance. Edge. Oh. Look at you. Yeah.

Kelly 22:02

You went the wholesale route. Well, so broker route, I should say.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Which we were a broker as KPT mortgage advisors. Okay. So part of the reason we did it is it's like we can just hang our hats here and we don't have to pay for any of the insurance and the stuff and blah blah blah. And we can keep doing exactly what we're doing. Gotcha. So it's kind of like when a realtor hangs their license at bridge. Right? It's like I've got the stuff I need that I don't have to manage. So I can just do, I can just sell and work with my clients and offer the experience.

Kelly 22:41

I love it. I love it. It's amazing. Yeah, it's working out great for us. I'm so happy to hear that. And I've heard wonderful things. We actually have um, do you know who Mike Wright is? Does that name ring a bell? He's with Edge Home Finance here, like over in the West Metro. Um, and we are uh like long time clients of Joe's that he helped in a townhome. They are now um gonna sell that and purchase. And so he's like, Mike is who had originally helped them. Yeah so he's helping us right now with that awesome and edge, like for the longest time, frankly, Mike and Mike, if you're listening right now, shout out. He was like, Kelly, you're just too smart. Like, you need to come over to Edge. You need to be doing business with like a a brokerage like Edge. And I was too afraid to, frankly, because I didn't I didn't know enough, and I I knew enough like about how the banking system, like i.e. Wells Fargo, US Bank, like Chase, um, Huntington, and then correspondent lending. I knew those two kind of pillars, but then it felt like I was like, that felt scary, yeah, but cool at the same time. It was like, like, do I dip my toes in it? Yeah, like what are what you know? I just didn't know enough. And so, Mike, you're incredible. Thank you. However, at the end of the day, mortgage just was not where I needed to be, yeah, like where my soul was gonna actually be happy, right? So it takes a very unique individual to it, it truly does. And at the end of the day, I know that you were listening, you said that you had been listening to the interview where um roles were reversed, right? I was the guest and my girlfriend Jess was the host interviewing me. Yes, and I told her at the end of the day, I wanted to build relationships with people. And when I wasn't able to do that no longer because of the raid environment and not being it just was, it was a it was a tough thing for me to swallow. Yeah. And so I was like, I'm not I can't do this anymore. Yeah, I was sitting here working to build this relationship, felt like the relationship had been built, and frankly, something that I continue to work on to this day, I took it personally. I took it personally, and I can divulge that now because sometimes it requires you to put down your ego. Yeah, and that's what I did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

So yeah, and well, also with mortgage, if you don't have support, you are trying to build relationships and manage a highly high-touch process for the client, yeah, and it can consume you.

Kelly 25:41

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

Like it's it was consuming. I tell I was just using my favorite line the other day, and I haven't said it for a long time. But I say when people talk to me about the mortgage business, I'm like, and I think real estate is similar. I say, Oh, it's not a career, it's a lifestyle. Because it is, right? And I have never known a different lifestyle. Yeah. Um so true. But it just, it just you live it. You do.

Kelly 26:05

Okay, talk me through how that like put that into motion for us tangibly, what that means for you.

SPEAKER_03 26:14

That phrase of a lifestyle. It means, well, okay, here's a few little examples. So up until I became an originator in 2014, after I left um my job working for Sherry and doing pull tabs, I was in Chicago for 10 years, and then I um moved back home after the crash all those times working for high power loan officers. Okay. In like a loan officer assistant type of role.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

So when I came home, when I home, when I came back to Minnesota in 2020, um, I was working from home probably 70, 80 hours a week for a loan officer. I did everything. I took the application, I structured the loan, I sold it, I processed it, I closed it, I did all the things. So, like I couldn't even go on a family vacation. Like my loan officer didn't even have a login to our system, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:18

But it was what I did. Yeah. And it allowed me to work from home before anybody worked from home. Very so I was taking my daughter to daycare, or I would in the summertime, I would take her to her little camp, and then I'd go pick her up a little camp, and then we go to the park for a little bit, and then I'd come home and she would take a little nap, and then I would do some work. You know what I mean? And it was like I was able to put the work around my life.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:42

And my boss at the time was like, I don't care when you get it done as long as it's done. Just get it done. Right. So I had this quote unquote freedom that no one else had at the time because no one else worked from home.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

So I really was grateful for that. And it's hard because even my daughter will say now, like, all you've done is work my whole life. And I'm like, I know. And I've been here.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Like now that I've opened the collaborative when I'm actually working in an office, my daughter's like, Where are you?

Kelly 28:21

Miss you. That's what she actually is saying.

SPEAKER_03 28:24

Because I literally have been home. They're my kids' whole life. So, like, my son was born. I laugh because this is the epitome of mortgage being a lifestyle. I was pregnant with my son when I was working for this guy. And he was like, What are we gonna do when you have the baby and you need to go on maternity leave? And I was like, I'm not worried about it. I'll have him on a Friday. I'll be back on a Monday. And that literally is what happened.

Kelly 28:52

That's actually you like you put it out there and God delivered was like, fine.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

Had him on Friday back in the office Monday. And when I had my daughter and I stayed home for eight weeks in our tiny little apartment in Chicago, I was like, what am I doing? I'm the baby sleeps all the time. I know it's the whole sleep and the baby sleep stuff, but I'm like, boy, I'm going out of my mind. It was winter, all the things. So if I'm just gonna sit here all day, why won't I just work? Yeah, like it gives me something to do. I'm not gonna like watch the prices right.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

So then the HR lady called me. I was at Waterstone Mortgage at the time, and she called me and she was like, um, did you have a baby a couple weeks ago? And I'm like, I did. And she's like, What are you doing? And I'm like, I don't know what you mean. And she's like, you can't actually be working right now. And I'm like, Well, I'm sitting in my house with my baby, and my baby's sleeping, and then I'm working, and then my baby wakes up and I feed my baby and I play with my baby and I take my baby for a walk, and then it takes another nap. Like, this is what babies do, right? And she was like, You need to know from your doctor. But I was able to keep him with me until he was nine months old and started to like get too mobile for me to be able to like how cool is that?

Kelly 30:14

That is so cool, actually. Yeah, I don't know if it's the if it's the lifestyle for everyone, right? Maybe not. No, it's not. I mean, I even I'll be very frank with you, like when Maddie was born, I literally was like, all I want to do is just be with you. I just want to cuddle with you and snuggle with you. And I took six weeks, and um, it was like the fifth week, and my branch manager at the time was like, yeah, so we need to talk about like when you're gonna come back, and of no fault of hers, right? Like zero fault of hers. This is what we had talked about, and I remember like looking down the tunnel of that conversation, just being like, I don't know if I'm ready. Yeah, so that was me, right? Like, but I knowing you, I'm like, that makes sense. Totally does. So I do want to ask this question though. Were you at any point? I think actually, now how I want to phrase this as I'm kind of thinking through it. Okay, so because you had the flexibility, did you ever have any moments where you're like, this this is tough, this is really tough? Like, because of the nature of mortgage, the mortgage industry, and the nature of being a mom and a new mom at that, like, were there any moments during that those first call it months of having your daughter where you're like, oh my gosh, what am I doing? Like, this is wild. Did you have any of those moments?

SPEAKER_03 31:53

Um, yeah, I have those moments every day of my life still for sure. It wasn't easy. And I will say, when I had my daughter, we were still in Chicago. So after my maternity leave, I went back to the office. Okay. And my husband at the time actually was staying home with her. Okay. So that made our lives very simple. For one thing, we couldn't find daycare in Chicago. Um, apparently, you have to get on a wait list like three years before you think you're gonna have a baby. It's stupid.

Kelly 32:21

And it was like I cracks me up, even here in Minnesota. It's kind of like that. Yeah, it was crazy. We did not go that route, by the way. Like, we did not, like we were very late to the game in the world.

SPEAKER_03 32:34

How can you predict it? Right. I didn't know six months before I wanted to get pregnant that I wanted to get pregnant. I mean, Kim.

Kelly 32:44

Yeah, we didn't even know we were pregnant until I was almost in my second trimester. So you're like, I feel funny. I feel weird. Yeah. Story for another day. That's a I do want to hear that story. Story for another day. And we were super late to the game um in selecting a daycare, but we we f everything's figure outable, figure it out, yeah, right. Just like you guys did when you were in Chicago. You figured it out.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

We figured it out, and they would like walk me down the street to work. It was really cute. Oh, and then I walk back and meet them halfway, and it was very sweet. It was very, very like I love that sweet.

Kelly 33:25

I love it. Yeah. So you were in Chicago until um when?

SPEAKER_03 33:32

She was about one, so it was like October of 20, 2008.

Kelly 33:36

What was the what was the defining factor for moving from Chicago back here?

SPEAKER_03 33:42

The crash. The company that I so at the time I was an operations manager. There I am again, at a little mortgage company that I actually had I had helped a woman start. So she came to me, she said, I want to start my own brokerage. I said, Great. She rented the space. I had to figure out like how to build out an office. At the time, you had to like bring all these wires in to run internet and computers and all this crazy stuff. Fascinating. Yeah.

Kelly 34:10

Fascinating how that plays into KPT collaborative.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

Yes. If only I had learned more at the time. Um we ended up going into a group of 60 really neat people. Cool. Um, she was also eccentric and she is like one of the top 100 loan officers in the nation. She's like you can't be one of the top 100 loan officers in the nation and not have the most out of this world drive and commitment to what you're doing. Right.

Kelly 34:45

Who was it?

SPEAKER_03 34:46

Her name is Michelle Bobart.

Kelly 34:48

Michelle Bobart.

SPEAKER_03 34:49

And I believe she's still in Chicago. We've lost touch. Okay. Okay. Um, and and she's still kicking ass. Um love it. But the crash hit, and one by one, I had to start firing these people who a lot of them had been my best friends that I had met at other companies. We brought them there. And the next person to fire was going to be my like bestest friend, and I quit. Because I'm not a great person at doing the hard stuff.

Kelly 35:22

How do you have tough conversations with clients?

SPEAKER_03 35:28

Um, well, that's a great question. Interestingly, I do absolutely everything I can up front so that I don't have to. Okay. I don't remember the last time we had to call a customer and say, actually, this isn't going to work. Outside of something we couldn't control. Right. Like they lost their job in the middle of the process.

Kelly 35:53

For sure.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

But like my last client that lost their job in the middle of the process, we were able to pull their parents in as co-signers and they actually got the house. Everything's figure out. Every mostly.

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:02

You know, so I'm so fearful of bad conversations that I actually think that made me really good at being a loan officer because I'm not going to pre-approve somebody that. And sometimes people will get frustrated. Like yesterday I pre-approved somebody and he was like, he's been real anxious. And I'm like, well, you know, first of all, I need the right documentation. And then you send me something and I've got to ask questions about it.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 36:24

And I'm not going to make a good guess anymore about what an underwriter is going to say or not going to say.

SPEAKER_01 36:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

And in this world that I'm in, in the broker world, I have relationships with exec account execs who want to get me the answer.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:39

I don't have to like wait in line outside an underwriter's office anymore for three days and hope that maybe they'll consider it and then kind of like not commit to an answer, you know?

Kelly 36:51

Oh my gosh. You've got a little PTSD ring through.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

Can you imagine being an underwriter in this environment? No.

Kelly 36:58

Oh. I I don't know. I feel for them. Yeah. But they life's about choices too.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

Yes. It's a tough choice. I did think I was going to go that path for a long time, so I'm glad I didn't. Um, but yeah, that's how I do it. I avoid it because I'm meticulous up front.

Kelly 37:16

Well, meticulous equals pretty phenomenal loan officers.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

So and super happy clients. And that's the key, is our reputation depends on our next transaction.

Kelly 37:28

It's the truth. So you are back in Minnesota, and you had your daughter in 2007 or 2008. 2000. 2007. 2007. She's a year old. You move back to Minnesota. Um, and then what happens?

SPEAKER_03 37:49

So when I left that role, one of the top loan officers called me and he said, Would you work as my loan officer assistant? And I said, Um, yes, except I'm moving back to Minnesota. And he said, That's fine, I'm moving back to Cincinnati. But he was writing this blog called the mortgage reports.

Kelly 38:06

I remember you talking about this.

SPEAKER_03 38:08

Yeah. And it had like blown up. So all he, all he did was he would write this blog, and people were creeping the internet looking for mortgage solutions because they couldn't find them.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

They'd find him, the lead would come into me and I would convert it. And these were people that were like desperately searching for answers because they couldn't, their people they'd been talking to couldn't help them.

Kelly 38:35

So you're the fixers.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

I like learned how to do some really crazy shit. Yeah. Within, I said, within, you can bleed that out. Like the Fanny Freddie guidelines. Yeah. So like I knew them like a book.

Kelly 38:55

I love it. I just love it. Creativity is the name of the game, though. When it comes to mortgage. So how long were you with him?

SPEAKER_03 39:10

A long time. Seven-ish years until 20, until December of 2013. Okay. And then he called me and he was like, I'm selling the blog. Somebody wanted to buy it for like a million bajillion dollars. And I was like, okay, that's great. And then there was like this long pause. And I was like, oh. Like it clicked. So what you're saying is there's no more you, so there's no more me. And it's two weeks from Christmas. And now here I am again. Like without a job. This was never in my plan.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

So I said I'm gonna do it by myself now. I'm not gonna rely on someone else for my income. It's a big leap.

Kelly 40:00

So you must have been thinking at some point along the way, in each of these like particular roles, were there were there like circumstances or situations that were happening where you're like I wouldn't have to worry about this if I was just doing it myself?

SPEAKER_03 40:17

Oh my god, no. I was like, I will work for Dan until I die.

Kelly 40:21

Really? Yeah. So help me through like how quick like you were able to make that quick shift and go, I'm just gonna do it myself.

SPEAKER_03 40:31

So I was sitting on the couch with my husband at the time crying. And I was like, I just got this phone call. And we had two little kids, and he was a uh he was an entrepreneur who was always kind of looking for his next opportunity.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 40:57

So I was like the bread winner. Um so it was a little pro it was a lot of pressure. But I also was like, I'm kind of tired of living hand to mouth like we have been living our whole lives, and we made our plenty of mistakes and all those things. Um I said, you know what? I'll apply for a couple jobs, but I'm gonna try this loan officer thing, and if I can't figure it out in 90 days, I'll I I'll have to figure something else out. But I'm gonna try it. And then I did all the math and I had to close three loans a month and make this much money and da-da-da-da-la-la-la-la and we were gonna be able to make it. And I just like I went for it. I went for it hard. When you're like little families on the line, yeah, for sure. And yeah, it worked. So 20 that was 2014. That was 2014. And by 2016, I was um in the top one percent. I just like I was wasn't gonna stop. I just was never gonna be in that place again. My ex-husband and I filed bankruptcy when we left Chicago. I wasn't doing it again.

Kelly 42:08

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's that's tough. It was awful. We lost our home.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

You know, it was everything.

Kelly 42:18

That was really tough.

SPEAKER_03 42:19

Yeah.

Kelly 42:20

That's a that's a whole other onion layer. Yeah. So having a circumstance like that happened, there's like that was fuel for the fire. Like, I'm never gonna go back there. I don't ever want to feel like that again.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

Never. Oh. And I was, I mean, bless and release, but I was like, he ain't gonna do it. So yeah, it's up to me.

Kelly 42:49

Oh there's a lot of dynamics within what you just shared there. So obviously you're not with this individual anymore. You are now remarried. I am, and I wanna so I wanna talk through that motivation that you had and how you honed it in. And like the best way to put this is so we have we have so many women who are listening right now, and tenacity is kind of the word that's coming to mind. Was it f because of these circumstances that had happened back in you know 2008? And then having this conversation with um the individual who had had the blog, and all of a sudden you're like, I I've gotta, and you just reined it in and you're like, We're going. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 43:50

It was like an overnight thing. Yeah.

Kelly 43:54

So then because I just love it so much.

SPEAKER_03 43:59

I Couldn't technically originate until January 1st because I was working for him through the end of the year and I forgot you couldn't process and originate at the same time or something like that. So I spent those two weeks wrapping up the pipeline, but also um writing 400 handwritten cards to every human being that you know on the planet that I knew, letting them know that I was going to be making a change.

Kelly 44:26

Love, love. We still do handwritten cards.

SPEAKER_03 44:29

Good for you. I do not. We do think about it every once in a while.

Kelly 44:33

Yeah, we do. Um because it's it's sort of like a it feels like it's like a dying craft, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:40

It is, yeah.

Kelly 44:41

And how nice it is it to get an actual like handwritten card. I know I love it. And when I came into the business with Joe, it was something that he had he was like religious about.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

Good for him.

Kelly 44:57

And we have just maintained that, and so that's awesome. Kudos to you.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

I was one and done on the old handwritten notes.

Networking With Investors To Grow

Kelly 45:07

Yeah, but you spread the you're like, I'm gonna spread the word, and I'm gonna spread the world word like wildfire, and this is the best way, yeah. Did you pick up the phone too?

SPEAKER_03 45:19

Oh no, I wanted anything I could do. So my my two biggest fears were picking up the phone and talking to a realtor. So I was like, I'm gonna build this business without doing either of those. Oh my gosh.

Kelly 45:35

This is really fascinating. So you had to overcome that fear though, and you have overcome that fear.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

Well, or no, I wouldn't say that. But what I'm not afraid of, so this is where I think life is so cool because we try to do these things that are we're afraid of when if we just like feed into the things that we're not afraid of and do them really well, sure, that's where like we're meant to be. I am not afraid of standing in a room in front of 300 people and giving a public speech. In fact, I thrive on that.

unknown 46:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 46:12

Yeah. I am not afraid of walking into a room of people I don't know and like kind of figuring it out.

SPEAKER_01 46:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 46:20

So what I learned from working for Dan and all the crazy people that were emailing us in the middle of the night was that there was a need for uh help in the real estate investor community. There wasn't loan officers in that community. So I signed up for every investor networking event I could go to in the first quarter of 2014. And the first one I went to was the Minnesota Real Estate Investors Association. And I thought I was gonna walk in a room of like 10 people hanging out, having a cocktail, and it was like 300 people.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 46:57

And I go in there and like we go through the whole meeting, and somehow in the middle of it, all I stand up and say what I do, which I guess was against the rules. You're not supposed to like self-promote. Oh, and I like didn't read them. Actually, I sat down and then I read it, and then like my face went, oh my god. But it was too late by then. Yeah, you'd already shots fired, Mesla Scott. I'm scratching down names and numbers because everybody's standing up giving out their names and numbers. Yeah. And I I truly believe my entire business grew from that one evening. That's fascinating. Yeah.

Kelly 47:33

You're you what I love about this, Kim, is you're like, okay, I don't want to do this over here. However, I will come over here and do this. And it is it, it's completely different than what traditional mindset is when you go into the mortgage industry. And yes, managers are down people's throats about like, get out, talk to realtors, get out, talk to realtors. When there's other ways that you can cut your teeth in the industry, and you're providing a secure example of like thinking outside the box.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

So I walked into an office where the two top originators in that office, we had this tiny little office in Minneapolis, were women. Liz, Peter, and Angie Sherr, who I am mad about. I just adore them both. They're wonderful. Crushing it. I'm like, what am I gonna do? Call a realtor?

SPEAKER_01 48:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 48:30

They're already calling all the realtors. Yeah. And they're gonna want to work with them because they're amazing. I got to call the people they're not calling.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:37

Why call the same people that everybody else is calling? And that's when the core was really big when you were like, call 40 realtors every Monday, call 40 realtors every Tuesday. And I'm like, oh Jesus.

Kelly 48:48

Core core is still a thing. Is it? Yeah, it definitely is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:53

I don't core.

Kelly 48:55

I do not core. But you again, this is it's really important to emphasize the importance of thinking outside the box. And if if somebody's listening right now and you're like, I struggle to think outside the box, find somebody who you know, like, and trust that you can do visioneering with.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

I am passionate about helping people do that. So they can reach out to you. They can reach out to me. That is my absolute favorite thing because I can I feel like I can speak to it.

Kelly 49:25

Oh, well, we can have some conversations because I've got some visioneering support that needs to happen. Let's do it. Okay. For sure. But this isn't about me, it's about you. So so you are cutting your teeth again in a different respect with investors and built your now business just doing that.

SPEAKER_03 49:43

I was the only loan officer in the room of 300 people that wanted to buy houses. I'm like, this is stupid. Yeah, I can't believe this. So I spent years and years and years building those relationships with those people. I wasn't intimidated by them because they were a little bit more like blue collar. There's a humbleness. It was a little more of a humble crowd that I was used to. I grew up in the country. You know what I mean? Like I had done the Chicago thing, and I know that crowd, and that's great. But it just this was like it felt more comfortable for me. And I felt like I was having real conversations with people. And I was like, that's when I was closing loans for$70,000 alone. And our, I think we had the mutual, our mutual boss was probably Eric.

Kelly 50:30

Yep. Well, I didn't, it was actually so Betsy Lowther was my branch manager. Okay. And then um, oh my gosh. Well, Eric and Taryn were in like they were, you know, sort of up in the ether thing. And then they had Matt.

SPEAKER_03 50:52

Yeah. Okay, so it was a little later on in my time there that you probably joined.

Kelly 50:56

So let's catch the listeners up to speed because this is what we had referenced um earlier in the interview about how our paths had technically crossed because we were working, we had worked at the same company. Yep, but you had just left, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 51:15

Okay.

Kelly 51:16

And you know what? Now, another thing that I'm thinking about was there, um, did you work with Ian?

SPEAKER_03 51:24

Yeah, he was my coach. He is like one of my best friends. Yes, okay.

Kelly 51:28

That's right, because we talked about it when we were at PM. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, we did. Okay, so I had met Ian through Rotary. He had come to speak at Rotary about his business, and um, his marketing guy had talked about um doing vipassana. Do you know what that is? Yes. Okay, so it's like a silent retreat. Yes. And I thought it was like literally right at this moment in time where I was like, I think I need to quit mortgage, but I didn't know exactly how to because I had just like I had I had fallen into exactly what you were talking. It was a lifestyle.

SPEAKER_03 52:07

Yep.

Kelly 52:07

And I was like, how do I untether myself to from this? I'm not happy, I'm not like I feel so out of alignment and had had Maddie about a year prior. And I was just like, oh my gosh. Yeah. And then I was like, I gotta do this Vipassana thing. I have to go do this silent retreat. I never ended up doing the silent retreat. But, anyways, we had Ian and um Justin? Justin talk even more in depth on the Rotary podcast about what they do, how they support the community. And after we stopped recording, Ian like he looked at me, he's like, You already know the answer, Kelly, about what you need to do. And it wasn't, it wasn't too much longer after that that I decided, like, I'm gonna cut it. But he was like telling me about you.

SPEAKER_03 53:00

That's so funny.

Kelly 53:01

Because he's like, Oh, you're over at Luminate, so you must know Angie, Liz. And he was like, and Kim Peterson.

SPEAKER_03 53:08

I said, Kim Peterson, I might have been Kim Burke at the time to make it even more confusing.

Kelly 53:13

But he's like, Oh, she's not at Luminate anymore, she just went out on her own. So when was that? That would have been 2023.

SPEAKER_03 53:22

2023, yeah, January 2023.

Kelly 53:25

Yes, yes, yeah, and we had, I think it was like February, March time frame when we when they first came to Rotary to speak about Ian's business. And then it was like weeks after that that they came on the Rotary podcast. And so we literally had just crossed paths.

SPEAKER_03 53:46

That's so funny.

Kelly 53:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:48

He's speaking at my collaborative tomorrow morning.

unknown 53:51

I love it.

Launching KPT Collaborative In Hudson

Kelly 53:52

Tell him I said hi. I will. Anyways, thank you for listening to our TED Talks here about our little connection, how our worlds have webbed together. I know, it's just fantastic. It really is. Okay, so we have referenced KPT collaborative enough times now. It I think we need to like let the cat in the bag and share with the listeners this other business that you have.

SPEAKER_03 54:15

So I decided. Well, my kids now are teenagers, right? They have no time for me whatsoever unless they need money.

Kelly 54:23

Umber money.

SPEAKER_03 54:26

Well, can they drive themselves? Well, my daughter drives. So she just needs money. Actually, my son is the least lowest maintenance human being on the planet. So I just have to make sure he's alive every couple hours. Um, he's like, I'm good. That's like his famous line. Are you hungry? I'm good. Do you need anything? I'm good. I love it. It's amazing. That's really nice. So I'm kind of like, now what do I do? You know, and it had gotten to the point with my mortgage business that my team was truly running it. Hummen. Um, which is good and bad. Good in that it allowed me some space and going through a divorce and all of the things, I needed a couple years to get my head right.

SPEAKER_01 55:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

Um, and it allowed me for that. But it also detached me from the thing that I had worked so hard to grow.

SPEAKER_01 55:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:15

So I decided I love it here in Hudson where I live now. I love this community. I have met the most incredible, mostly women business owners and professionals. I I just felt a real connection with them. So I thought, I'm gonna open a mortgage office downtown Hudson, but who's gonna come into my mortgage office?

unknown 55:37

Nobody.

SPEAKER_03 55:38

No, right?

Kelly 55:39

Mortgages are the unsexy part of real estate. It's just so like I I remember giving, do you remember BI? Did you ever do BI? Yes. Okay, so my first like 10-minute gig that you have to get up and talk about your business, it was very painful. For me, getting up and speaking in front of people, like, give me some morphine because like I hate it so much. Now I'm much better at it because of B and I. And I bring this up because I got up there and I was like, how can I make light of something that is just so dry? Nobody cares about mortgage. And I I think I put up like a like a sexy picture of like, and I made it it so it wasn't like you know, it was it was very censored. There was censorship around it, but I was like, listen, I understand that there's nothing, I repeat, nothing sexy about mortgage, but my job is to make it as fun as possible. And so let's start here, something to that effect. And I was like, it isn't. There's nothing fun about going in and figuring out what your finances are, and maybe figuring out that it's just not quite the reality you thought it was. And then there's all nerve racation, it is, it's kind of like you're exposing yourself very much, very much. So yeah, nobody, nobody's gonna like, hey Kim, I love you, but like I don't care about coming into mortgage.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

I'm not gonna like, oh look, it's a mortgage company. Yeah, yeah, let's go in there. Right. So I was like, what do I do to get like all these people I've met to come and hang out with me? So I got this idea of opening a co-working space. And then also, because I told you that I don't like to call people ever, like actually, side note, my best friends are like, can you please, please just pick up the phone? So it's not just that, it's just like, and my husband, he's like, he doesn't even bother trying to call me because I I just it's not my jam. Nothing against realtors, it's just nobody. I don't want to talk on the phone to you. Um so how do I, you know, get in front of my community without doing the things that I'm supposed to do? I'll open a co-working community and then they'll come to me and then they'll get to know me and I'll build a relationship with them.

Kelly 58:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 58:10

And then that's how I like to do business, and that's that because they can go to Rocket Mortgage now and go online and get a mortgage. For sure. You know, so I have to have some uh some other way to create relationship. Um, so in that I also started working heavily with the people navigating divorce. Yeah. I got my certified divorce lending professional certificate or whatever, and now I have this great opportunity to help people go through one of the most challenging experiences in their life for sure.

Kelly 58:47

We're gonna take this opportunity to talk about how you navigated your own divorce with the mortgage business and raising kids out of curiosity too, just to sort of uh jumpstart this. How old were the kids when this dis this decision was made?

SPEAKER_03 59:12

Four and probably eight. Okay. The decision had been made eight years earlier. I just didn't know when. Sure.

Kelly 59:24

You know, and when you say decision had been made, had you like mentally said to yourself or had you two had conversations?

SPEAKER_03 59:33

It was more me. It was me. Yeah, I just knew it wasn't it wasn't the place for me. Um tip to the wise that are considering it. It actually appears it is not easier to wait until the kids are out of high school from what I've seen a lot of my friends go through that did wait versus what I did when I was going to wait and then I decided not to. Um my kids are healthier, my ex-husband is healthier, and I am healthier because of it.

Kelly 1:00:09

Can you elaborate on what you mean with that too?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:13

Well, if people don't get divorced because they like each other and things are going well, and I don't want to say we didn't like each other, we we had created a life together, we'd known each other since we were 15.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:26

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:27

Um, but I wasn't my truest best self with him, and I don't believe he was with me either. And I started to see, it's interesting. Um, I started to see because I was thinking about now I'm gonna really go on a tangent. I was thinking about reclaiming your hue. And I think, and this I could go on forever, I was actually raised and bred to not have a hue at all. Really? So when the time came that I started to find this success in the career in my career and started to grow confidence in myself, I would say that's when I began to claim my hue because I never even knew it existed before. I didn't think I was one of those people that had one.

Kelly 1:01:25

Interesting.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:26

Yeah.

Kelly 1:01:27

Where do you think your hue is now?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:30

Oh well, I have to remind myself every day of like this is this is what you wanted, Kim. This is what you were shooting for because it is really um scary. Yeah, yeah.

Kelly 1:01:48

Light pink, bright pink, somewhere in between.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Well, I would say like flamingo pink.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:56

I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:57

A hundred percent. I am like much to some people's chagrin sometimes, I think I am actually more in myself now than I ever have been.

Kelly 1:02:07

Can you give examples of how you felt like that the those examples played into providing the the boost in that coloring, so to speak, if we're gonna play in this metaphoric place that we're in right now?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:24

Yeah, but I think I need to understand your question better.

Kelly 1:02:26

So there are, I'm sure, moments in time. Like you, you I think you might have given an example actually. Like I started to see success in the business, which provided confidence for me in a different kind of way. It probably wasn't the full-on confidence, right? But like there's other things that were playing into that as well. And so are there other examples that you could give a woman listening right now that you felt played into you're like, oh my gosh, I I see things differently. I feel different as a woman, and it's empowering, it's courage, it's a different kind of tenacity.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:13

Yeah. Um, it was Glenn and Doyle that actually I read uh article she wrote to her husband at the time, and I thought I was reading my own words.

Kelly 1:03:29

I remember when all of that happened and she wrote about it.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:34

Yeah, she wrote a blog called Momastery, and this was before her books, and really before she was even well known, and somehow I stumbled across it and I saved it for years, and I was like, This is she talks about shedding her skin, and once you've you once you've outgrown a skin, you can't go back into it. Right, and I was like, that happened, and I think that um I think that myself and my husband at the time had a lot of fear of what happens if I grow. What happens if you grow and and and grow away from me?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:23

And I looked over one day and I was like, I know you wanted to control this, but I grew away.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

And I tried to stay little. I was taught to stay little. I mean, I was a child of the 70s, my friend. I was like, smile nice, you know, do not speak unless spoken to. When the little old man makes a comment at church about, you know, how pretty you are, you just smile. And um it was very it took me a long time to realize that I didn't have to be okay with what I was told I should be. Shedding of beliefs.

Kelly K. 1:05:09

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:10

Other people's beliefs. Yeah. And like learning what mine are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:15

Because I didn't really establish them until much, much later in my life.

Kelly 1:05:20

It's interesting. We have on many other occasions talked through this um in terms of like the beliefs that we carry from when we were children, right? From our parents, right? And God bless our parents. And also there are some really great beliefs that we carry forward that we're like, yes, that's incredible. I'm gonna maintain that. And I'm gonna maintain that to continue to model and um show my children.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:50

Yeah.

Kelly 1:05:51

And there are also other beliefs that you're like, that just isn't suitable anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:57

Yeah.

Kelly 1:05:57

And how do you there is a natural. Navigation. It's like stages of grief. It really is. Like you go through like, this is what I believe. This is who, this is who I've been. This is what I thought it needed to be. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you're like, no. And then you have to go through these different stages of, you know, like call it grief or call it whatever you want. But it there are stages that you need to go through to shed that to Glennon Doyle's point.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

Yes.

Kelly 1:06:28

And allow a different version of yourself, a different coloring, as I point to the flamingo.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

Mm-hmm.

Kelly 1:06:35

And shine brighter.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:37

Yeah. Yeah. Which is going to disappoint a lot of people. And you have to leave some people behind. We're going to put a pin in that.

Kelly 1:06:47

We're going to put a pin in that. We're going to come back to it. We're going to put a pin in it because I want to finish this portion of going through the divorce and how you navigated through that. Because divorce is messy. Like Joe, Joe has been through a divorce, and a lot of what you're speaking to, uh Joe will listen to this. And I'm sure at this point he's probably shaking his head. Like, yeah, I I remember needing to like have this time to just heal. And it was an amicable decision. And it still was like if you have, if you in your circumstance, Kim, you guys knew each other since age of 15. Yeah. And the families were intertwined. Yeah. I mean, the the I remember Joe saying, like, don't take this personally. It's like her family was my family. Of course. And that undoing is stages of grief. Yeah. Like I'm going through these stages of grief right now. And for me, that was something challenging for me to wrap my head around because I didn't have perspective. Right. But now I do. As you're talking through it with me, I'm like, oh. Yes. Yeah. And so kind of full circle when you had mentioned earlier in the interview about how the mortgage business was humming, right? And it allowed you, everything happens for a reason. God put everything in place the like precise way that it needed to be. Yeah. Right. So you had time to heal and then go, how can I utilize this circumstance to then support the clients that are going through it as well?

SPEAKER_03 1:08:42

Yeah.

Kelly 1:08:43

Because the navigation is already tough emotionally. And then yeah, there's just so much of like if they had a house together and then somebody else wants to, you know, cut ties and you know, there's quick claim deeds and all this stuff, and then moving a different direction.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:59

Wisconsin's a whole a different that's a whole do not move to Wisconsin before you divorce. Right. You're the breadwinner. Tip to the wise. I've got all these great tips. Yeah.

Kelly 1:09:10

Like I learned, lived through it all. So, but yeah, I do I think that this is a great opportunity, Kim, for you to just share with the women listening right now, and not to say that you know, the women who are listening right now are contemplating divorce, but to just provide insight on the harmonization that you created for yourself as it pertains to going through the divorce and also managing a very successful mortgage business as well. Most importantly, being mom.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:48

Yeah. Yes, because of course, the first thing you think, regardless of your career when you're considering divorce, is if you have children, oh my god, my children. And so I agonized over that for so long. And I was so fearful, even for years after the divorce, that somehow my ex-husband, who is still very unhappy with the decision and me, would turn my children against me. And out. Oh, I was just terrified. Um so I really had to trust, I had to have the faith that a child's love for their parent is strong enough to see everything. Um, I read a lot of books. I went to a lot of therapy. I went to a lot of therapy with my ex-husband. I went to a lot of therapy on my own. Um and ultimately it was kind of like when I started my career in origination, where I just looked at the target and I ran straight for it. And I just had to get there. Um and it was interesting because I orchestrated so many things while trying to maintain this really positive experience for the kids at home as much as I could, and my husband was crumbling.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:26

And I couldn't help him anymore.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:30

Because it was no longer my role. But I had to try to like maintain, well, and yeah, I just he wasn't gonna trust me to help him anyways, and even if I wanted to jump in and help him, right? Like the deal had been sealed. So um, yeah, it was tricky. I ended up, you know, we had this idea that we would be able to keep the house we were in and nest in and out.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:03

Um, that works if you both, if you really are amicable, I think. But it got to the place where like he didn't have somewhere to go. So he would stay and I would go, and then that doesn't really work, and all of the things. So I ended up buying my own town home, moved into there, and the kids started to do the bounce back, which we didn't want. However, I believe it was the healthiest option for them in the end. And he ended up discovering a lot about himself, went into the medical field, and is now enjoying his life more than he ever would, playing the role that he played in our marriage. Sure. So and I think he would say that. Yeah, I think he would say that at this point. Um did that answer the question you asked that I can't remember.

Kelly 1:13:03

I believe you did, Kim. I I asked about what it looked like in terms of harmonization, right? Role number one, mom. Also for yourself, and then two, three, with the mortgage, right? And yeah, how how I feel like you answered it best is you were like, I saw what I needed to do, and I just went and I did it.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:29

Yeah.

Kelly 1:13:30

And correct me if I'm maybe off base here, but almost like tunnel vision, right? Yeah, not allowing anything else outside of like this tunnel vision to get in the way, right? So number one, making sure that there was a a safe, sound place for the children to be what it was nesting, right? And then when it was not that anymore. And then um, you know, on the contrary to with uh mortgage, I'm sure it was just like, well, now it's me. Yeah. And eyes on the prize, like I just need to, I need to work.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:12

Yep. So and it wasn't, you know, I make it sound simple, it was actually from the the time I had decided that this was the path, it was probably four years before it was final.

Kelly 1:14:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:28

You know, the state of Wisconsin has a four-month waiting period. So once you really decide it's final, you still got to give it another four months.

Kelly 1:14:35

Like I said, and maybe the listeners didn't catch it, but uh Wisconsin is just a horse of a different color, as I like to say, in many different facets. I love Wisconsin. I think it's God's country through and through. That's where I was born and raised. So like God bless Wisconsin, and then there's like real estate and divorce and all of that stuff that just really kind of throws a wrench in things. So the wheels start to fall off a little bit, a little bit, but landscape, it's beautiful, yes, beautiful, it's lovely.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:10

I'm so grateful to be there. I wouldn't be there had we not lived there before we divorced. I'm sure I'd be in Woodbury or something. So all good.

Kelly 1:15:19

I love it. Okay, so divorce was finalized what year?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:25

The final date was August of 2018. Okay. We had been pretty separate for a good handful of years.

Kelly 1:15:33

And then um, what was the amount of time you felt like it was like, okay, I'm going through my healing process before you met your now husband?

SPEAKER_03 1:15:45

Well, that's a great question, Kelly. Or those things don't quite go in the order they're supposed to either.

Kelly 1:15:53

It's okay. Um I can confidently tell you that's exactly how it was for Joe and I too. Like I had already known about everything that was happening because we were working together, we were on a mastermind together, and so I'm hearing about all of the stuff that's yeah happening. Yeah, very like parallels. Yes, like parallels to what you're speaking to.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:15

And so yeah, I mean it's it's it's just so not cut and dry, no, right? And when you have kids, it's so messy and it's so complicated. You know, he actually started. I don't know that he whether he would have considered himself healed or not, whatever, but he started dating before I did.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:36

Um and we were married. Okay. Um, but we were separated. Yeah. I don't know that it was legal on paper, but I knew he was dating. I was dating. Yeah. Um well yeah. Because at that point you're so lonely.

unknown 1:16:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:54

And you really have I have been alone for so long.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:59

I wasn't really looking for a partner, but I was looking for an outlet of something different, right? Yes. So I dated um some people and then I met my husband on a date.

Kelly 1:17:15

And wait, back up. You met him while you were on another date.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:22

No, but he was the second date of my night.

Kelly 1:17:25

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:25

Just so you know, and we laugh about it all the time, girl. I was a mom with a career. I did not have time. Sure. Sure. Sure. Like stack him up. I know.

Kelly 1:17:36

This does not surprise me in efficiency. Yes. Yes. So here, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:43

I'm gonna we're probably going way too long, and you can cut all this stuff out.

Kelly 1:17:46

No, no, we're not, we're not gonna cut any of it out. This is good.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:50

So I we were on match. This was when it was like safer to be on match. Yeah. And I learned real quick when you go on match, ladies, you just set the dials to the highest expectation possible that you have. Right? We're not like, oh, I'll be okay if he was, I'm okay with a guy that's like 5'10. No, we're not. Okay. We're we're and I know that's our superficial, but and all the other things. Yep. Right? I'm not okay with smoking. I'm not okay, you know. I didn't actually, I didn't want to date um a man that didn't have children. And I did date a few men that didn't have children, and actually that solidified that it probably wasn't a good place for me to date men that didn't have children. So little things like that. Um, anyways, I had been on a date with a guy who was quite nice at the um Redstone in Maple Grove and then at five, and then I had a date with my husband at seven on the other side of the parking lot at what's that restaurant? Granite City. So I literally just walked left this date, got in my car, drove around the parking lot, had to f park farther away, and then walked into Granite City for my That's incredible. So we that's incredible.

Kelly 1:19:19

You you do what you gotta do. Yes. Well, to your point, you have to be efficient also. That Maple Grove was a little far away from where you where I live, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:30

I'm like, so I zipped up there after work, yeah, had some dinner, and went about my way. And it was we just instantly clicked in all the things that happen when those things happen.

Kelly 1:19:42

And here we are, and here you are. So he is he's a bonus dad. Yes, right, and also he has his own child, yeah. He's not such a child anymore. No, and this was news to me. Like I you may have you may have shared it with me, and I just don't remember. So pardon me for that if that is the case. But when you were telling me, I was like, oh my gosh. So share with the listeners how old his daughter is.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:12

So when I met him, I think she was 24. Okay. And interest interestingly enough, they were like the two of them were thick as thieves. Yeah. Besties. They live in St. Cloud. Okay.

Kelly 1:20:23

And oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. That makes sense. I mean, yep, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:20:28

So um, most of the dateable men at my age live in the western side of the cities. So um she about the same time met her current husband. So they each met, and and my husband, aside from a five-year marriage when he was 35 to 40, had been single his whole life. Okay. Um, he had Emily when she was when he was like 22 or something like that. Is we like I am I adore Emily's mom. Like, we're all pals. It's a beautiful thing. She has two other sisters that are amazing. It's it's such a beautiful thing for my kids to see this mixed, unique family where we all can be together and like truly enjoy and love each other. So I met Emily shortly after we started dating. She had Lily at the time who was five. Okay. And he was a grandpa. So, of course, all of his pictures on the stupid match are like him with the most adorable little girl, and he was like, grandpa went to the daddy-daughter dance, grandpa taking Lily out for this. And I'm like, Okay, this is too cute, way too cute, right? I mean, so much. So I totally was blessed with the most incredible family ever when I met him. And although I have never had the opportunity to live in the same town as Emily, so we don't get to see each other very often. I she's just an amazing blessing for me. I love it. And her daughter, Lily, and my son, Isaac, are a year apart. Oh wow. And they are besties.

Kelly 1:22:17

Oh, this is just wonderful. So cute. It really is. And I I wanna I want to touch on the importance of like what you're talking about with the dynamic of blended families and the importance of like keeping the kids front and center, right? Yeah. Because if they can see one, this is this is the new relationship, right? Like I'm talking about when the two of you had first met, right? This is the new relationship, this is how we're fostering it, this is how we're modeling for you, this is what love can look like. This is how healthy relationships can look like. And also, um, here is how we're having this all fold together. It can be wonderful, it can be beautiful, we can all get along. It doesn't mean hostile environments, and yeah, it doesn't have to be like it doesn't have to be like that.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:13

Yeah.

Kelly 1:23:14

Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:15

Yeah, it I'm really grateful my kids got to see that side of it.

Dating Efficiently And Blended Family

Kelly 1:23:22

We'll set the divorce stuff down. Okay. And I do want to talk about KPT Collaborative a little bit more, why that came to fruition. Well, you did touch on it, but let's just refresh. And then um, like when that officially went into motion.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:40

Yeah, so it was the same thing. I woke up one day and said, Oh, I think I wanted to open an office. It grew into this idea to open a co-working space to draw people in the community into. Um, I was looking at much smaller spaces, but I knew I wanted to be downtown Hudson. And space does not come available very often, downtown Hudson.

Kelly 1:24:04

Yeah, I love this story. Oh, I really love this story.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:09

So there was this space that had been empty for some time. It was out of our price range. And I finally said to my husband, let's just go look at it because I want I'm losing my mojo. I'm my moment, I need to get kick my momentum back into high for this because I don't want to lose it, you know. I don't want to just keep going on. So we went down and looked at the space and we walked in there and we're like, oh crap, this is it. You just knew. Yeah. So I'm like, okay, this is a lot bigger than what I was planning. Like, I have to have a staff member if we're gonna have this, because it's a lot. It was it's like, I mean, from a co-working standpoint, it's not a lot, but from my viewpoint of what it was going to be, it was a lot. Yeah, it's about 3,200 square feet. So I said, Well, I we can do this. I said, but and when I say we, he with his great and amazing support, but he's doing his business and he's kind of along for the ride on this one. He didn't totally sign up for it and he's awesome about it. Um, I was like, but I need someone to run it, and I want that to be Jasmine, your niece. And she had just gone through a career transition, and this is another one of those women that is like, you put it in front of me and I will execute to the nth degree, yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:25:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:25

So I got to have this cute little experience. I invited her out for dinner and I was like, hey, look in this little office. We went to the place next door. Oh, yeah, isn't it cute? I said, Yeah, I think I want to open a co-working office here. And she goes, Oh, yeah, okay, that sounds neat. And I'm like, but I need somebody to run it.

Kelly 1:25:39

And she was like, Oh, right, you're so sweet. That's so sweet and so cool how you approach it. You didn't just go, Hey, I would love for you. You like set this like you like rolled out the red carpet for it. It was so fun.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:56

Then we stayed up until like 2 a.m. and drank wine, and it was really crazy.

Kelly 1:26:00

But um yeah, you're gonna get now. I mean, now begins the fun, right? Like you're setting the tone, you've built now it's like the fun planning stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:10

The planning, yes.

Kelly 1:26:12

I gotta, I gotta know, like one of the things that I was curious about is just the harmonization here in this place of like you're running a successful mortgage business and also opened up a co-working space, and the navigation of like okay, finding the place, then building the the space out and doing mortgage and being a mom, uh pray to overwhelming.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:48

You know, I can't say that I haven't had some regrets. There have been a few times where I'm like, what the F am I doing? Um, on the daily, maybe. No, it's it's a passion project for me. And I don't say that lightly because it also is the biggest investment I've in myself I've ever made.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:09

And my dream and my idea. And I am still continuing to invest in that.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:16

And I have a lot of self-doubt. And even yesterday I sent my husband a text and I was like, I am the world's biggest loser. And I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do this. And then I wake up this morning and I'm like, here we go again. I can do it, you know? Yeah. Um, yep.

Kelly 1:27:38

Okay, pause. This is great, and here's why. Because this is the reality of being an entrepreneur, and also the reality of being a mom, too. Because the two are very like they can parallel and kind of be symbiotic together. Because Man, I had a moment last night with Maddie that I was not at my A game for being a mom. And I was like down and out about it, thinking about it this morning. And then she walks out the door and she gives me a big hug and a kiss. And it's just like it like melts. I know. And you're like, everything's fine now. Yep. And it's the same being an entrepreneur. It's it's sort of like the business is the baby, right? And you have these moments where you're like the hell in a handbasket with us. Yeah. Like, and I, and to your point, like, I am a loser. I can't believe that this is happening. I'm gonna just screwing it all up. Close it up, shut lock the key, like throw the key in the ocean. Yeah, right. Yeah. And then you wake up the next morning and that baby is just looking at you like, here I am.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:51

Yep. And I got like a little email from someone that like wanted a membership. And I'm like, oh my god, here we go.

Kelly 1:29:00

So I okay, we have so much that we could talk about, but I do want to be very respectful of time as well. Give the listeners a briefing on what you were learning as you are continuing to like build up this co-working space. You everything kind of went into motion just recently.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:24

Yeah, we opened June 15th of 2025.

Coworking Reality Checks And Alignment

Kelly 1:29:26

Yeah. And so it hasn't even hit its year mark yet.

SPEAKER_03 1:29:31

I know. But with the way my brain works, I'm like, this should be fully established, it should be running perfectly. We should be profiting, you know, 44% every month. What's going on?

Kelly 1:29:41

Spoken like a true entrepreneur. Yeah. And then we get hit with doses of reality, right? And so, what are some of the doses of reality that you have experienced in starting up this new business, having it run in in parallel to your mortgage business as well? Interestingly enough, I think it's it important to share like how you've fused the two together as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:10

I threw a lot at you. That's a lot. That's okay. We can go through them. Um I have discovered that as a lot of us do, my client isn't who I thought it would be. I am still learning who my client is. Okay. It is not a typical co-working space. Yeah. And it is not a typical co-working client. Okay. In the cities, you go to a cowork space because you maybe don't even have a room to have an office in, or you live in an apartment with a roommate and you need somewhere to go work. Yeah. Here in Hudson, Wisconsin, everybody's got a home big enough to office out of for the most part. For sure. Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:30:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:52

Um so what's going to draw people in? I thought my customers would be my best dearest friends in the community, and it's not. Some of my friends are are members. I have also become friends with a lot of our members. So beautiful. Yeah. But it's been interesting to see who the space suits and who it serves. Okay. Um and I've learned a lot, but I'm still fine-tuning who my client is. And I'll go on just a short tangent. The more I align the space with myself, the more success I see. So I have so many things telling me to try this and try that and try this and do this and do this. And if I can clear all of that out of my head and just hear the truth, I know I will be successful, but I'm still still in the clearing process. And sometimes I lose patience.

Kelly 1:32:11

Okay. I'm gonna um round this out. I'm recognizing patterns. So the first is when you spoke about how you fundamentally hate making phone calls and pursuing realtors, right? That is the purest example of going, yeah, I know that this is important for some people, but it's not important for me. And this is what actually is important for me. And as soon as you like you made that decision and business started, it was like click, yep, and vroom, yep, right, and the divorce, how you mentioned like I just went like this, I set my eyes forward, and though it took some time, we knew that it was going. Yeah, right. Yeah, and so now with the co-working space, I'm like, ooh, yeah, I wonder like when all of this is just gonna set for you. Yeah. And you're gonna go, yeah. Because how beautiful is it that something really important that you stated was the more I align it to me, the better it is. And it you can feel that, and it's just like, okay, yeah, I feel like we may have talked about this, like sometimes we have the puzzle pieces like so close to our face that it's hard, like they're all there, right? And you're like, just like, I just need to like break away from how close I am to everything, and what does that need to look like in order to like provide that bird's eye view of it? Yes, and you're so good at that. Like you're really, I feel like you're very good at the bird's eye view of things from what I keep hearing.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:15

I think I can be. I think I can be, but I think I struggle like everybody else to get caught in the weeds.

Kelly 1:34:20

Yeah, it's yours, yeah. It's it's careful Joe's listening right now, and he'll probably be calling you in like two seconds.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:30

Dying for you guys to come hang out with me.

Kelly 1:34:33

Well, here's here's something that I had a thought about was things will be successful with KPT collab over there in Hudson and so successful that you'll just end up opening up something over here.

SPEAKER_03 1:34:48

No, not a chance. Zero chance. We're not on the same page. We're not on the same page for you if that is an endeavor you choose. And I will delete all the things I've done wrong so far.

Kelly 1:35:02

We shall see, and I think I just want to take a moment to like allude to the listeners. That initial conversation, number one initial conversation you and I had uh was Val introducing us because I had told her, I want my like dream. I don't know if I've actually shared this on the podcast. So here we go. My biggest dream is to purchase a commercial space and build it like I I can envision it. Yeah, I can literally envision it. And there's some bits and pieces of what I've seen within your space because Joe and I had the opportunity to go and check it out and spend some time business planning, and it was just phenomenal. And have it be a place for mothers who are entrepreneurs. It's super niche, it's super niche, right? And Val goes, you've gotta talk to Kim. You've got to talk to Kim. And we were like I just got like having these conversations about it. I'm like, oh, it was just so fun. And then we're like, oh, we should probably talk about like mortgage and real estate.

unknown 1:36:11

That too.

Kelly 1:36:13

But it's so cool that like when you I don't know where I was going with this. Now I'm totally drawing a blank, but when you can like have these conversations and then they start flowing, and then you were like, you had some really great insight to share with me, and vice versa, like when it was the three of us on a phone call, we had some insight to provide for you as well, and it was just cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:40

It was that's like that's the beauty of all of this. Like, those are the things that keep me coming back to this thing every day, yeah. Right, is to be able to have these conversations. Yeah, I couldn't really have these conversations 10 years ago. I hadn't built a business yet, yeah. Um, and then to actually see I'm capable, then I can see that in other people too. Yes. So like when you say that, I'm like, oh, you got this. Yeah. You, in fact, I think are already 80% there.

Kelly 1:37:14

I don't know about that. The reason I brought it up, the the reason I brought it up is because who knows, Kim? Maybe, you know, down the line, you and I eventually like have a conversation about, okay, Kim, like what is it? Like, what was what was the secret sauce over here that made this so successful? And how can we duplicate it over here on the West Metro and have it be very niche, right? Again, mothers who are entrepreneurs. I love that. There's so many ways to go with that. Oh, listeners, I put it out there. I put it out there.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:48

God is in the universe.

Kelly 1:37:50

Speaking of God, you had mentioned through the divorce um faith. I want it, I want to know and hear insight onto like what does faith look like for you, Kim? Like, what has that meant for you? And pray tell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:05

To share. It's something that I've come back to recently. Um, I was raised in the most adorable Lutheran church on the planet in Marina and St. Croix. Um the pastor there at the time was like a father figure in good and bad ways. Um, I went on two mission trips as a teen. I was confirmed there. My first marriage was there. I have not missed one Christmas Eve service there since I was probably eight years old. Um and my ex-husband was not um into organized religion, and I have was not in a place of it at that time either. Um but in the last few years I've come back to it, and my current husband and I have talked a lot about it. Um, and I'm just talking about church, I guess, right now, so not so much spirituality, but um to me, interestingly enough, uh in my recent thoughts about church, it actually brought my husband and I back to the church that I grew up in. And that we have decided very recently that that will be our church. Okay. And the reason for me that has held steadfast to that is the community. It is the when I walk into that church, probably because I grew up there, but also because of the people that have touched my lives in that church, I like feel like I'm walking into my home. The feeling I get when I walk in there is like I can breathe in here. I don't have to think about anything else while I'm in here. I sit next to my 86-year-old parents and I think about the blessing that I can hear my dad's voice singing with music. And it is, although it is a little old Swedish church, it is extremely progressive. The new pastors there, well, they're not new, they've been there for like 10 years, 15 years, um, are the most phenomenal, progressive thinking human beings, and they have changed the minds of the old Swedes in that community to be more accepting and loving of everyone. And it is a beautiful, beautiful place to be.

Kelly 1:40:40

So it's God's will. God has placed them exactly where they need to be in order to spread spread a greater message, yeah. Right. And that is the message of love.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:52

And yes, and all our welcome here is their um yeah, tagline, I guess. And that holds very true to me in our collaborative space and in my life. I love it. It's beautiful. So there's how it all kind of comes full circle.

Kelly 1:41:10

I am gonna be so fascinated to see how your journey in faith and spirituality and um continuing that like week over week or whatever that is gonna look like for you guys in a year. Yeah, me too. I'm gonna be so curious to see what it looks like because it's an evolution, yeah. It really is, and um I just think about how much life has changed. I I do discipleship, I meet on a weekly basis with this woman who's 80 years old, and it is the greatest like blessing and start to my week in just talking all things about God and scripture and um how that pieces into my life. Yeah, and this has been going on now, Kim, for a little over two years, and I I'm just like I don't it's like a habit for me, yeah. Staple. And I think about where I was at then when I first started, and how I thought I was spiritually and where faith was for me, like I've always been a believer and how much I've learned, how much I've grown, and you know, that's one time a week, but you're putting it all in perspective for that one time a week in a major way because you're looking at life through the eyes of someone, you know, like I said, 10 years ago, I couldn't have had this conversation about growing a business.

SPEAKER_03 1:42:45

Yeah. Think about where she's at.

Kelly 1:42:49

I mean, yeah, it's there the inner mind of her is just so fascinating to me because she's you know in her 80s. And so a lot of what she has lived through, it a little bit of re history repeating itself, right, in just a different way or a different fashion. And she's like, Yeah, this or that. And it just is like, she's like, but you've gotta like you have to pull yourself out and give yourself the bird's eye view and just remember that God is all powerful and he makes no mistakes in what happens, which also means like if you're seeing the negative over here, there's always positive. Now are you seeking the positive more? Right. What I we're gonna start to land the plane, and this is the the first question in the series of those um questions in landing the plane. What has your support system looked like throughout all of this?

SPEAKER_03 1:43:53

Um interestingly enough, my family dynamic, my my um immediate family dynamic is is quite stoic. So my support system has been my girlfriends. Okay. Like my ride or die besties. Okay. One since I was three, my next door neighbor, one since college, okay, um, several since Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:27

These I could not do my life without them.

Kelly 1:44:31

I love it. Personal and business combos.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:34

Some of them. Okay. Oh, for sure. Like Louise.

Kelly 1:44:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:38

I wouldn't even know what ended up if it wasn't for that girl. And Jasmine, I mean, these guys are just incredible. Um, and people I've lost too, um, in business and friendship, right? I think we this was one of the things that we put a pin in, right?

Kelly 1:44:52

That we will come back to. I think so. And just how as we yes, as we grow as people in any way, shape, or form, sometimes that requires us to let go and let God and just I mean, it's proverbial bless and release sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:15

Yeah.

Kelly 1:45:16

And and trust like that was the right decision, or trust, you know, perhaps now is just not the right season for this friendship or this relationship.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:25

Yeah. Um, I was really close to one of my teammates, and um it was a really it's it's a really emotional loss in that business relationship and the friendship.

Kelly 1:45:40

Stages of grief.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:42

Yeah.

Kelly 1:45:42

Mm-hmm. Yep. Been there, done that. Completely understand. Yeah. It's again the evolution of self is sometimes like the more we grow as individuals, and it's just sort of like a prerequisite to being an entrepreneur, right? You need to be growing. Yeah. It's not a like maybe this would be a cool thing. Like, no, you need to be. It's because there's always something new that you need to learn to have your business operate, yeah. Or um shifting or changes, how are you pivoting through it? And pivots in a in and of themselves are opportunities for growth. And so when you are, you know, in a circumstance or a friendship or a business relationship where you just don't necessarily like you start to see that quickly.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:38

Yeah. Yeah. And I finally am learning, because I was not raised to think this way, to ask myself, how is this serving me?

Kelly 1:46:50

It's a good question.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:51

It feels like a really self- even saying that out loud to you makes me it makes me feel a little bit like uh that just feels very selfish. And but it's also something I'm trying to learn to get comfortable with. Because I have also made the mistake of giving and giving and giving and giving and giving to someone without without the same return or any return or whatever. And it's like not that I need return, but it's also like at some point this isn't serving me. And what I've looked come to learn is I am actually not serving that person, right? Um, I'm inhibiting them from being what they're meant to be because I'm trying to overserve them, if that makes sense. It's kind of a dumb thing.

Kelly 1:47:42

No, there's something about like enabling, and I think about it. Yes, I think about it even in the respect of being um a mother or a parent.

Kelly K. 1:47:52

Yes.

Kelly 1:47:53

If you're enabling your children or doing everything hand over foot for them, how are you actually serving them? Are you?

SPEAKER_03 1:48:02

No, I know sometimes a really tricky one for me.

Kelly 1:48:06

Yeah, sometimes it's you know, Joe likes to uh equate it to like um voltage. Sometimes there's gotta be a little voltage, you know what I mean? Do you understand?

SPEAKER_03 1:48:18

I do, and I think that's a very masculine necessity in a family that I do see some women are amazing at that. I am not.

Kelly 1:48:30

I am not, I am not, it's very hard. And if if and when it has happened, I think it's uh I feel like I want to go cry in a corner.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:42

Yeah, yeah. It's like I just did that, yeah, and I'll do it again in 20 years. Yeah. That was my voltage.

Kelly 1:48:50

Yeah. Yeah. Um how would people describe you, Kim?

SPEAKER_03 1:49:01

You know, I've had a lot of people describe me lately because I have become somewhat of a third person in conversation around the collaborative, if that makes any sense. I'm like, I there's an identity. Um where people will say, oh, can't you are you are the face of this business. Um so I think people just what what I have heard people describe me as as of late is um welcoming. Kind. And I used to think that word was too easy, but I'm actually like, I really if if people are gonna walk away from this and call me kind and really mean it, yeah, because there's a difference between kind and nice. Yeah, and I can be nice, but there's a big difference between Between nice and kind. I think kind envelops so many more things than that. It means stepping up and really seeing people for who they are, trying to empathize, trying to help from your true heart instead of for your own interests.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:19

Um so if that if that is a word that describes me, I would feel very fortunate.

Kelly 1:50:24

I think that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:26

Yeah.

Kelly 1:50:27

I would describe you that way too. Welcoming. I would say tenace, tenacious. You have a lot of tenacity.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:35

Yes.

Kelly 1:50:35

And you are a go-getter.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:37

I would say I am those things as well.

Kelly 1:50:41

So I'm I've started asking this question, and it's a little bit more prevalent in the last couple of interviews. But I'm now that I'm really stepping into real estate and going and either seeing homes with buyers, Joe, like I'm into, right? And then um going to listing appointments. I have found that there's always a favorite room. Where, and it could be at KPT Collaborative or it could be at your house, but primarily I I want I'm curious about the house. What's a favorite room in your house and why?

SPEAKER_03 1:51:21

I love that question and the way it ties into like you and who you are and what you're doing so much. Um interestingly enough, my very well, I have a winter room and a summer room. Cool. My summer room is my back porch. Oh hello. Every millisecond that I can be on my back porch, I am reading, doing, drinking my coffee, drinking a glass of wine, visiting with somebody, yes, taking a nap, working if I can prop my computer up well enough. I'm like one of those three-screen people, so it doesn't work that great. Yeah, but yes, oh the birds. If anybody knows me, they know I'm a total bird dork. I'm like not a bird nerd, I'm a bird dork. So I like to watch my little birdies, see if they like the food I gave them, listen to their little songs. Um, it's my absolute favorite thing in the world. And then when I can't be on my porch, like now, I'm we call it the 1.5. It's a chair in our basement that's like one and a half chairs wide. My gosh. And it's just like a big pillowy, cozy, blankety mess. Yeah. And if I go up on there, the cat will immediately come and like snuggle me. Yeah. So I make sure I have got like all the things that I need to like stay there for a few hours. And again, I like read and I nap and I scroll and I work a little, and it's and it has this like light that goes over the top that shines down over the top of it. So I'll have like all the other lights off.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:06

I love it.

unknown 1:53:07

And I love it.

Books Advice And How To Connect

Kelly 1:53:08

Okay. That's my so this this next question is gonna tie in very well. What is a favorite book that you're reading? Ooh, girl, that's a tough question. Or a podcast that you're listening to, like sometimes, or a TV show. We can we can broaden it.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:26

Well, um, the book I'm reading right now is Virginia, and I can't pronounce her last name, who was the woman that was trafficked by the Epsteins. One of the women who wrote about the experience. My girlfriends are like, what is wrong with you? I read the darkest books, and they're all biographies.

Kelly 1:53:49

We could talk more about this off air. It's yes, very dark, right? Like, that's some pretty messy stuff, and also there is something about like having better understanding of perspective, right? Like, there's different lens points when it comes to all of this nonsense that's happening right now, as I like to say. Um there's so many different lenses, yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:20

And I think for me, when my friends and family and husband tease me about my choices and books, I'm like, I think it's the redemption that gets me. Yes, a thousand percent. Because I have read every abduct kid that was abducted that was found, Elizabeth Smart, JC Duggard, all of them. Um, Scientology, I think I've been through every one, you know. Yeah, it's the redemption. It's the it's the I got through the most horrific experience you could ever imagine. Yes, and I am on the other side. Now, the book I'm reading right now doesn't end that way, unfortunately, but um it's still super important to me that it's that these voices are heard heard. I don't really read fiction anymore.

Kelly 1:55:06

Me either. Yeah, yeah. It's it's either like self-growth, yeah, you know, like self-development, yeah, or it's something spiritual.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:16

Yeah, I'm like, I want to read stories. The next story I'm going to read is going to be Mary L. Trump, which is Trump's niece, who doesn't agree with his philosophies. So she she actually tells her story about growing up in the Trump family and how that led them in the directions they went in. Fascinating. Fascinating, right? Yeah, I want to know what made this man the way he is.

Kelly 1:55:50

He doesn't get to where he's at without going through a lot of icky stuff.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:54

I'm curious, and and I'm just, I have a lot of opinions, but I am trying to remain curious.

Kelly 1:56:05

That's so good. Yeah. What's a piece of advice you would give someone listening right now that they're contemplating mortgage and being an opportunity to the mortgage business? I know. Bear with me. Because it there's more women that are coming into the industry now, which was otherwise a very male-dominated field. Like even when I got into it back in 2017, it was just so heavily like that scale was tipped the other direction. And now there's this shift that's happening with women coming into the mortgage industry. Yeah. And so, what's a piece of advice you would give them?

SPEAKER_03 1:56:49

So I feel very strongly that the mortgage industry is going one of two ways. And I remember talking to you and Joe about this. It's you're either going fully automated or you're going fully personal. And I think women are finding success in mortgage because we are built to create relationships. Yeah. And you do not need a relationship to get a mortgage anymore. Yeah. I think there's a million reasons why you need one. Um, but I think women are more are tend to have more relationship type qualities. For sure. Right? Yep. I could have said that more eloquently. Um so it has really evolved from a very um technical career to a very highly relationship-based career. Um, so when I'm building my business or when I'm coaching other people on how to build their business, my conversation starts with who do I want to be in relationship with? Who am I already in relationship with, and how do I want those relationships to grow? Who's your avatar? Yeah. Who's your avatar? Yeah. And more so, like, who do I like? You can build your whole your whole business on who you want to be around and who you want to serve.

Kelly 1:58:27

That was good. What's a piece of advice you'd give a younger version of yourself, knowing all that you know now?

SPEAKER_03 1:58:34

Um, I would not have played so afraid. Can you elaborate? I would have. You know, I can't talk, I I can't talk to the girl I was because I don't I didn't exist then, right? The person I wish could talk to the younger me didn't exist at the time. The the people were telling me to be small. And when I say that, I mean, you know, be a good person. Don't be don't be ambitious. You can you can have a job, but play small. Play small. Um and I I wish I would have listened to my dad more than my mom. Because my dad really, I think, believed in me and I think would have pushed me there. And my mom wanted me to get married and have babies, and that's okay for each one of them to have those feelings, but I think I truly I always wanted more to please my mom because she was harder to please. But if I would have followed my true nature, I would have taken the the um pride my dad had in me and the belief my dad had in me, and I would have fed on that and done.

Kelly 2:00:03

But look at you now, girlfriend. Yeah. Took me a while. It's never too late. Yeah. Never too late. I'm a woman listening right now, and I have loved, loved, loved everything that you've said. How can I connect with you?

SPEAKER_03 2:00:21

You don't call me. But I would love to hang out with you. I love, I love connecting with people in person or even Zoom, I guess. So Kim at kptmortgage.com is one way to catch me. Okay. Um, you can text me. Can I give out my number? Is that creepy? No, you can do whatever you want. Text me on my old Chicago cell phone number, 773-895-7340. And I promise you I will respond and we'll set a time to connect.

Kelly 2:01:02

She said text people, okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:03

Text me because every time my phone rings, I have a major anxiety attack. But if you text me, I'll be like, yeah, for sure, let's connect. Um, I like Kelly makes a note.

Kelly 2:01:13

Do not call Kim. You know why?

SPEAKER_03 2:01:15

I like when I have a conversation with someone, I want to be where I can fully be there and not have any distractions. And my life is as all of ours are, are full of distractions.

Kelly 2:01:27

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:28

And I don't want to be distracted when I'm on the phone with someone, nor do I want to be on the phone with them while they're trying to do 17 things. Like, let's talk when we can connect.

Kelly 2:01:36

I wholeheartedly agree with this and can empathize with it. Um, it is so much better being in person, yeah. And not and having the phones away, and you're not distracted even by the phones. Right. And I think like I'm guilty of it. I am wholeheartedly guilty of it and have also learned from it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:55

So and I wanted to say too how much I appreciate that you do this in person because we could have easily zoomed this, and it's a very different experience to be in person. So thank you for doing that and keep doing it.

Kelly 2:02:07

Thank you. I it is truly my passion project. I wanted to just allude to that as well. Like, this is a it fuels me in such a profound way. And we talk about like find the people find the people you want to like do business with or that you want to be around. And I'm like, yes, I want to be around ambitious, encouraging, empowering, tenacious women who are moms, and I love it. And this is like this is it, yeah. You know what I mean? This is it. So I will keep doing it. It always is better in person. Doesn't mean that I haven't done Zoom and we can do Zoom, but being in person is 1000% better.

SPEAKER_03 2:02:53

Yeah, way worth a drive to a dynamic from Wisconsin.

Closing And Listener Request

Kelly 2:02:58

Kim, thank you so much. I appreciate you. I appreciate our friendship, our relationship that continues to blossom. You're just such a gem and keep doing what you're doing likewise. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Thanks for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode and know of any inspiring mamas who are powerhouse entrepreneurs, please help connect them with myself and the show. It would mean so much if you would help spread this message, mission, and vision for other Mompreneurs. It takes 30 seconds to rate and review, then share this episode with your friends. Until the next episode, cheers to reclaiming your cue.