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Welcome to Make Your Passion Pay, hosted by LuAnn Buechler, a seasoned leader with a master’s degree in Hospitality Administration and a recipient of the TLC Award for Leadership. This podcast is designed for business owners who have left toxic environments to create their own thriving workplaces but find themselves struggling with team building and mindset. Join LuAnn as she shares insights and strategies to help you cultivate joy and a positive mindset in your business and personal life. Drawing from her experience working with renowned leaders like Dr. Ivan Misner, LuAnn guides you in building a supportive community and mastering the art of people management. Each episode offers practical advice and inspiring stories to empower you to transform your work environment into one that reflects your values and passions. Tune in to discover how to lead with joy, foster meaningful connections, and truly make your passion pay.
Hi everybody. It's LuAnn. Be the little spark with the Make Your Passion Pay podcast. As we do always, we talk here at the podcast about the six Cs to make your passions pay. Those would be clarity, connection, community, collaboration, creativity, and commitment. And I'm super excited to have with me today my friend and client Kelly. Yes, it's real. She has two
(00:07:46.342) Kelly: First
(00:07:46.942) LuAnn Buechler: names: Kelly Kelly. I'm not messing up today, although they need to know I'm human. Anyway, Kelly is a downsizing and aging in place consultant serving the Saint Croix Valley—that is in Minnesota and Wisconsin. For those of you who might be elsewhere in the world, she helps individuals, couples, families, and out-of-town adult children—that's those of you out in the rest of the world who still have family back here in Minnesota and Wisconsin—navigate home transitions with intention through expert consultation and access to her network of trusted local professionals. Her work focuses on guiding families to the practical and emotional side of downsizing and aging in place decisions. I've been there, done that. It's a challenge. It's an emotional challenge, and Kelly is here to help. Welcome, Kelly.
(00:08:46.842) Kelly: Thank you. Thank you so much, Sam. Thanks for having me.
(00:08:51.542) LuAnn Buechler: Super excited to have a conversation about this very important topic, right? And there are plenty of families who are in different parts of the country and may have aging parents back here in Minnesota and Wisconsin. How do we handle that, and how do we help them make the decisions to either age in place in their current
(00:09:18.342) Kelly: home
(00:09:18.842) LuAnn Buechler: or, better yet, start planning for the next phase. Correct.
(00:09:23.942) Kelly: Correct. And you nailed it. When you said start planning, I really want to help people plan ahead with intention versus reaction when a crisis happens.
(00:09:39.442) LuAnn Buechler: Right. And then it becomes super painful when you're panicked, when a family member just absolutely can no longer stay safely in the place that they've lived for years and need to find a new spot. We have a common friend, Susan, who is in this process right now with her mother, and we just had the conversation yesterday. She and I talked about how you want to make these decisions while your parents are of sound mind and body.
(00:10:16.542) Kelly: Yes, absolutely. I've seen both sides of the spectrum, helping a client make decisions while they are able to and really help them transition into their new space as an independent couple. And then I've also seen an unfortunate situation where somebody is no longer able to make those decisions and the family is trying to figure this all out. So there is a huge, huge spectrum, and there are so many logistics involved. And with my back—oh,
(00:11:01.542) LuAnn Buechler: Sorry, go ahead. That's where your trusted local professionals come into the picture, right? You don't do all the things that have to be done. You're consulting with the family on what are all those things that need to be considered and be done. And again, that's why starting early—and call it early—I love that. Actually, Kelly and I have worked together. Of course, she's been through my process, but that just hit me differently as I said that. Start early, start before you think it's necessary, and have the conversations about what are the items that are absolutes to go into the next phase and what are things we can bless and pass on to someone else.
(00:11:54.942) Kelly: Yes, yes, exactly. And sometimes that happens before or when somebody is in motion or after they've moved. I recently got a call and I'm working with a client who has already downsized. They now need support in going through the items that somehow made it through all the cuts getting to their new home. They need support in now understanding, number one, why those items are still with them and what to do with them. So it's very, very interesting. Everyone's story is so different and unique and personal to them. There's no right or wrong way to do it. At the end of the day, we all have a lot of belongings and those belongings matter. So again, I'm learning with this business and want to help as many people as possible. And like you said, connect them with the right service providers, programs, resources—all the network, the ecosystem that is there to help and support them.
(00:13:25.042) LuAnn Buechler: That's awesome. So, you just said business. Right? This is a business, my friends.
(00:13:35.242) Kelly: and I
(00:13:35.642) LuAnn Buechler: Often in the podcast you hear that you can make money doing anything as long as you're providing value to other people that need it. I certainly would never have thought about what you're doing, Kelly, as a business. How did this come about?
(00:14:01.742) Kelly: How much
(00:14:01.942) LuAnn Buechler: time do we
(00:14:02.342) Kelly: Have? I'll tell you. The light bulb went off in my head and I saw the gap. I was working at a real estate brokerage that was owned by a custom home builder. That home builder was getting requests from clients he had built homes for 20 years previously. Those clients were then coming back and asking for one-level living homes. If you're unfamiliar with what that means, it basically means everything is on the main level. What I mean by that is a lot of homes—these homes in particular—were very well designed to age in place. So, a lot of the clients were technically downsizers; most of them are downsizing. What that means is that they were going from their large family home that they built themselves. Well, the home
(00:15:13.142) LuAnn Buechler: builder did
(00:15:13.642) Kelly: Great, they raise their family. These were homes that had a lot of history, 20, 30, some maybe 40 years. The homes that they were requesting being built, like I said, were very well-designed main level living. So a primary bedroom on the main level, primary bath, everything was right there, zero level entry. And what I mean by that is there wasn't even a step into the house. So very, very well-thought and well-planned design. My job at the time was to give tours of these beautiful homes to potential buyers. The builder had started his own or created his own community with all these beautiful homes. So my job was to welcome people into the home, tour them, answer their questions. Well, I had no idea what was about to happen. So I was in that position for about a year. And the main thing I heard over and over and over again from these potential buyers was, we are so overwhelmed. We have so much stuff. The kids don't want it. What do we do with it? They were having struggles understanding how they were going to transfer their living space, their functionality, their own lives into these new homes. Again, these homes were absolutely stunning. So I saw a lot of needs that the couples, individuals had coming into the process. I saw an emotional overload, just an invisible load of decision fatigue.
(00:17:11.642) LuAnn Buechler: Of
(00:17:12.642) Kelly: Yes, need for support, custom planning. I mean, you name it, I saw it. I saw the need for an advocate to be on the ground when they had out-of-town children who could not get here to help their parents because they had families of their own, work of their own. They couldn't be here. So with all that being said, I really saw an opportunity to help people is really what it came down to.
(00:17:52.742) LuAnn Buechler: You know, and that 99%, and again, go right, business owners are going, I just want to help.
(00:18:03.742) Kelly: people.
(00:18:04.142) LuAnn Buechler: Mm-hmm.
(00:18:05.242) Kelly: And
(00:18:05.842) LuAnn Buechler: when skills, the experience, the talents that I've created in my life, I know how to help them. And then we created a business out of
(00:18:16.042) Kelly: that, right? Yeah. And it's It Feels So Right.
(00:18:21.442) LuAnn Buechler: Mm-hmm. Clarity, clarity is power, right? You had to get to that clarity. That I have something here,
(00:18:31.242) Kelly: that
(00:18:32.342) LuAnn Buechler: is a valuable service to provide to others.
(00:18:37.242) Kelly: Absolutely. And understanding that some people may not see it and that's okay. I'll spare all the no's and rejection. There's something inside me that just keeps pushing through. All right. Well, that'll help people,
(00:19:04.542) LuAnn Buechler: Right? So let's talk about that for a second. There's pushing through in a passionate, loving way, which I believe is what you do, and there's pushing through in a painful way. I don't want any entrepreneurs to be sitting in that space of a painful
(00:19:25.642) Kelly: way.
(00:19:26.042) LuAnn Buechler: So if you're out there and you feel that's happening, boy, jump on the wind becoming and get on a call with me. Yeah, it's about that. Most of the time, what I find, and I think this was a little bit true when we started working together, was that your viewer is kind of like, am I crazy? Can this
(00:19:47.442) Kelly: work, right? I'm pretty sure I said that
(00:19:52.042) LuAnn Buechler: to you a few times. Right.
(00:19:55.042) Kelly: And so,
(00:19:55.542) LuAnn Buechler: When we're dealing with our own monkey mind and questioning ourselves, right? It's really helpful to have an outside person as a sounding board, right? And that's really what a coach is. You know, I love the name of your business.
(00:20:11.942) Kelly: Thank you.
(00:20:14.042) LuAnn Buechler: Kindness. One word: kindness. And it took me a while to
(00:20:21.342) Kelly: catch it,
(00:20:21.742) LuAnn Buechler: Literally, she's talking right about kindness to others and turning it into a nest, which is where we live, right? Creating that safe space of where we live, that nesting, that home, right? Well, oftentimes when young parents are having children for the first time, they talk about nesting and preparing their home to expand into a family. And what you're talking about now is, how do we leave that nest and create the next powerful, safe
(00:21:03.542) Kelly: space.
(00:21:03.942) LuAnn Buechler: So live out the rest of our years.
(00:21:08.842) Kelly: With
(00:21:09.342) LuAnn Buechler: And
(00:21:10.242) Kelly: Chin
(00:21:10.742) LuAnn Buechler: mean by that,
(00:21:14.242) Kelly: Within. So, with intention to me means planning. I mean, I always come back to that word planning. Making thoughtful decisions in your own time and understanding what's important and maybe perhaps what you can let go of, whether that's a personal belonging or whether that's a space or a home. Again, everyone's situation is so unique to themselves and families. No two families are the same. So yeah, I think that intention is ideal in a situation. A lot of times that doesn't happen and that's okay. I'm still able to help people in regards to what needs to happen. If there's urgency involved in a transition or if there's an aging in place situation, I am now able and certified to help in that situation as well.
(00:22:35.242) LuAnn Buechler: I love that, right? There's another one. Who knew, right? We would need aging in place
(00:22:42.942) Kelly: Specialists
(00:22:43.842) LuAnn Buechler: and there's actually a certification in that Kelly is my second client that has certified in that Aging in place specialist qualification, which is powerful. It's, it's About. Safe space again. I mentioned that before and what I mean that it's safe that I feel comfortable. It's literally safe that there's grab bars and accessibility. Mm-hmm, specific to my needs, as I age in place. There's what? And so now you can help people stay in
(00:23:26.542) Kelly: their
(00:23:26.642) LuAnn Buechler: Home and just make it safer or help them transition to a new home. Exactly what that's like.
(00:23:37.142) Kelly: That's exactly what's happening in my business. Currently, I'm recently getting calls for agent home assessments, and what that looks like in particular is a client. There was a recent diagnosis of Parkinson's, very early on Parkinson's. So they, along with a general contractor who I have now met in the Saint Croix Valley, referred me to come out to their house and walk through. So I will do an agent place safe-to-safety assessment. I know I'm trained and understand what a diagnosis like that means now and could potentially mean in the future, so I am able to help them with an intentional plan on safely staying in their home, which is what they want to do as a couple. So I feel unbelievably blessed that I have this certification and have this knowledge to also support individuals, couples, and families that want to remain safely in their home.
(00:24:50.942) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. You see, we all have an expertise and an acknowledged to a certain level, and then others go deeper and get really specific, and so to understand disease states and how they're going to adjust the way you are able to navigate your home is powerful. And I know I don't have the time to go learn all that, so we turn to a specialist like Kelly to help us navigate that, and I want to go
(00:25:20.342) Kelly: back to
(00:25:20.942) LuAnn Buechler: Intention because it's really about conscious choice.
(00:25:27.542) Kelly: Absolutely.
(00:25:28.042) LuAnn Buechler: You know, we spend so much of our life going through it on autopilot. Actually, if we've lived in a home for a really long time, it's just natural to navigate it, but then something hits and it becomes challenging. Now we have to make a conscious choice. I gotta add conscious to my C words.
(00:25:52.042) Kelly: Just I love that.
(00:25:55.442) LuAnn Buechler: To the process consciously choosing what I'm going to keep, what I'm going to let go of, whether I stay in my home or not. Consciously choosing to plan to leave my lifetime home. My auntie did that. My auntie said as soon as she lost her husband, she said, I am going to make the conscious choice to move into a facility where I have independent living that moves into assisted living as I age and need it, so that I have control of making the choice of where I live out my years. I bring that up because I think it's an important conversation that we can all have with the seniors in our set. To my sister, I said, see, we're going to make good conscious...
(00:26:51.542) Kelly: choices
(00:26:52.442) LuAnn Buechler: Early on and we're going to write down exactly what we want when we that.
(00:26:59.342) Kelly: age
(00:26:59.842) LuAnn Buechler: And then our kids can show it to us when we're not of sound mind.
(00:27:05.842) Kelly: anymore. And
(00:27:07.942) LuAnn Buechler: Say, this is what you said you wanted, and the kids. It went. Yeah. No. That's not
(00:27:15.042) Kelly: Working.
(00:27:15.242) LuAnn Buechler: You'll have every excuse in the book. Why? That's not your handwriting, or that's what I wanted then, but not now, and it just doesn't work that way. And so there's no perfect answer for doing this unless you do it when you are of sound mind and consciously choose exactly what you want, in my
(00:27:37.242) Kelly: Opinion. Oh, and
(00:27:38.742) LuAnn Buechler: That's not to say that we can all make that mindset shift, which it really is. I mean, I hear, I said at 65 in a home full of stuff my kids don't want and they want nothing to do with it, you know, and have yet to take that step personally, but I'm sitting here encouraging the rest of you to
(00:28:01.542) Kelly: do that.
(00:28:11.642) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, right.
(00:28:13.042) Kelly: You're right.
(00:28:15.142) LuAnn Buechler: You know, I have a friend that says love is just damn good business. And your business is based in love, Kelly, and you just want to help people from the love in your heart to take care of their loved ones.
(00:28:33.342) Kelly: Yeah, thank you.
(00:28:34.042) LuAnn Buechler: And it's such a beautiful thing.
(00:28:37.342) Kelly: Thank you. Thank you so much.
(00:28:40.542) LuAnn Buechler: And so, we tell people, right? That we want our customers, our clients to love us.
(00:28:46.642) Kelly: us.
(00:28:48.342) LuAnn Buechler: That means we need to love back, right? Yep. And if you have a team of employees, you need to love all over them because oftentimes they're the front lines to your customers.
(00:28:59.942) Kelly: clients. Oh
(00:29:01.442) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah, Kelly is a one woman show right now, but I like that will change in the future.
(00:29:05.642) Kelly: future
(00:29:05.942) LuAnn Buechler: And she grows this beautiful business called Kindness.
(00:29:09.642) Kelly: Thank you.
(00:29:12.342) LuAnn Buechler: Love that show. How did you experience the process? Because this is really your passion, right? I'm going back to my passion test, right. How did you experience the process of the passion test?
(00:29:27.942) Kelly: It was so powerful. I didn't know it was something that, number one, I really needed, and number two, was going to help me clarify, number one, what was in my heart, but then also transfer that to my business. So it was the clarity, again, one of the Cs, the clarity that I needed, but I didn't really know I needed. I had the creativity part down. I think all my Cs were creativity.
(00:30:09.542) LuAnn Buechler: And I think really what it is. It's harnessing that creativity.
(00:30:13.242) Kelly: Yes, I remember the first conversation well. I remember the first time we met. I blew into the room like a
(00:30:20.942) LuAnn Buechler: tornado.
(00:30:25.142) Kelly: And then the second time we met, I blew into Zoom like a tornado. That tornado had so much creativity. I don't even think I was able to sit down during our talk; I kept jumping up and then saying, oh, I'll be right back, and then jumping down. Our conversation was meant to happen before I even knew it. The second I met you, there was something that I felt, that I was destined to meet you, and I kept following those breadcrumbs that you
(00:31:02.342) LuAnn Buechler: had talked
(00:31:02.742) Kelly: about, and I think part of that too was being able to accept the help. A lot of times it's hard to know that you need help, but you were exactly what I needed at the right time.
(00:31:21.942) LuAnn Buechler: Oh my gosh, I just had a moment.
(00:31:25.742) Kelly: What
(00:31:26.742) LuAnn Buechler: I was on a podcast or interviewed for a podcast recently and we came down to the conversation of asking for help, and you know, when I learned the most important lesson of asking for help, because we don't do it, we don't do it enough. We all
(00:31:46.442) Kelly: think we have to.
(00:31:47.042) LuAnn Buechler: Right. Yeah. In a presentation, the speaker said once, we are all looking like swans on the water and paddling like hell underneath, and that's what we think we have to do. When the reality is, we're human beings. We need help. And guess what? We want to help others, right? When it hit really hard for me is when my mom was in her 90s. My mom was in her 90s. We were doing everything we could to keep her in the family home, which was in a lovely little neighborhood. We all knew the neighbors. She lived in that home for 60 years. Wow. And so, she then was unable to drive
(00:32:37.642) Kelly: herself.
(00:32:38.142) LuAnn Buechler: And as her child, of course, I did everything I could to get her where she wanted to go and those things. But as you said, I have a family, I have my own business, etc. And the neighbors would say, just tell us. We'll take you to church. We'll take you to the grocery store. We'll do this. We'll do that. And my mom would say, oh, I don't want to bother anyone. Like, when you see, it's a gift, Mom, because they're now retired without families, and they want to help people. And so it's a gift to them to allow them to help you.
(00:33:19.742) Kelly: And take
(00:33:20.242) LuAnn Buechler: it, and it's a socialization. And it's when it really hit home for me, that asking for help is a gift to the other person who has the skill Talent time. To give you help because we feel like we're contributing as human beings when we're helping others. Almost comes out like a vicious cycle and yet, it's exactly the way the world's supposed to work,
(00:33:49.842) Kelly: Right? Oh, absolutely. And I think too, thank you for sharing that story. And I think, too, asking for help and accepting help are almost a little different too. You can ask for help and people that are willing, but you then have to accept that help too, with intention. It goes back to that intention. I remember somebody said something to me and it was along these same lines. I had had an injury, I broke my foot and I had three little kids. And I was not on weight-bearing for six weeks. Um, my mom, it was insane. I had to go up the stairs like a little baby backwards, like a little toddler because it was insane. And my husband was working. And so I was fortunate enough, my mom flew up from Chicago to help me and she left and I was having my pity party in the backyard and I was sad, she left and I was like, oh, how am I gonna do this? And a neighbor walked by and she walked up on her lawn and said, what? What? Oh my gosh, what? What happened? And she said something that stuck with me. And she said, Kelly, you have deposited so much into this community. And she said it's your time to withdraw. Now you can take a withdrawal from that. And it just kind of stunned me because I thought, wow. I mean, that to me was interesting, like you do deposit, you deposit, you deposit. Now it's time for you to take. You've earned it. Not that you've earned it, but everyone else is depositing, you know, you now need the help, it's okay. And it was really powerful and I remember that moment because she was so graceful and just so wise and she said that and I thought, whoa, that's pretty powerful. So,
(00:36:02.442) LuAnn Buechler: I love that you reminded me of that. I've had someone say that to me before as well. And so for our listeners, I want you to really own that, right? We are making emotional deposits into the relationships of those we care for
(00:36:19.742) Kelly: right?
(00:36:20.442) LuAnn Buechler: And there is a time and a space when you need to allow that withdrawal and accept it, like Kelly said, right? And we're terrible receivers in
(00:36:39.442) Kelly: this
(00:36:39.642) LuAnn Buechler: world.
(00:36:41.542) Kelly: Reserves.
(00:36:42.342) LuAnn Buechler: Even though we ask and we ask, we ask the things that we want. Yeah. And yet, energetically, we're pushing them away because I can do this by myself. No. No. One of my mentors, eWomenNetwork's Sandra Yancey, says it all the time: no one, but no one, does this alone. No one does this alone, they don't do life alone, they don't do family alone, they don't do business alone, so ask for help. Yeah, so powerful. This has been an amazing conversation. I haven't even been watching the time. I have no idea.
(00:37:28.542) Kelly: I have no idea either. I'm
(00:37:33.942) LuAnn Buechler: So grateful for you, talked about clarity and how the passion test helped Kelly get clarity and harness her creative tea into putting this all into action, and really owning in your heart, not just owning in the physical world, her business. Kindness of course. We'll have Kelly's contact information in the show notes. You can reach out to her on LinkedIn or visit her website, which is kellywithkindness.com. If you can't wait to go check her out, that would be
(00:38:15.342) Kelly: awesome
(00:38:15.842) LuAnn Buechler: And if you want to have a great conversation like this and harness your creativity, look up luannb.com and schedule a free consultation with me. Kelly, you're a delight. I love how passionate you are about taking care of our seniors, and it's hard work to do that. So we appreciate and value your service.
(00:38:39.942) Kelly: Thank you, LuAnn. Thank you so much. And I am incredibly grateful for you.
(00:38:43.642) LuAnn Buechler: So thank you.
(00:38:45.642) Kelly: Thank you.
(00:38:46.642) LuAnn Buechler: Yeah. All right. Go live your passions, and by the way, make sure you make your passion pay.