Q and A with Kelly W. from Barrington, Illinois
“Personal development is more important than the right business opportunity.”
Q: What are you passionate about?
A: I am passionate about creating an unconventional lifestyle where work and life are more in a flow, rather than compartmentalized. This is why I love investing in things that give me time freedom as well as financial freedom. I invest in real estate, stocks, and online products that I don’t have to spend too much time on every day. Some days I may spend a lot of time, especially at the beginning of an investment but not consistently every day. The idea of a lifestyle like this was seeded from when my mom had an MLM business growing up. Her experience taught me about passive income, helping others, and personal development. Currently, I’m working on establishing a micro wedding and event venue in Alabama, learning to trade stocks, and teaching people how to invest in property without using much of their own cash through an in-depth, step-by-step, online course.
Q: What is a micro wedding?
A: A micro wedding and event venue is a niche that became popular during COVID-19 for smaller events and weddings geared toward immediate family and best friends. (Usually 50 people or less total.)
My micro wedding venue is called The Greenhouse Venue in Smiths Station, Alabama, and it’s a 250 sq ft Greenhouse (glasshouse) on one acre of land. It provides an intimate location and a unique experience for small but nice events. The greenhouse (glasshouse) is more for people than for plants. The four sides and ceiling are made of reused windows, so there is 100% transparency to the outside, and it feels much larger than it is.
Q: What does MLM mean?
A: MLM stands for multilevel marketing, which means you get paid on how well you’ve taught others and how well they teach others. Every MLM has a different product niche. The one I am involved with is Shaklee, health and wellness products. My mother started a Shaklee business when I was three years old after having huge health benefits from their products.
Q: What were your younger years like?
A: I grew up in Barrington, Illinois, and I have one sibling (brother) and my parents. My mom was born and raised in Holland. She moved here when she was 19. My brother is one year younger than me. He is an Eagle Scout, a high school football player, and now an attorney. My dad passed away in 2022. He was in sales, a CEO, and a business owner from New Jersey.
My mom had an MLM business since I was three years old, and my dad opened his own business when I was 12, so they were entrepreneurs. Due to her being involved with Shaklee, I was exposed to a lot of women business owners all throughout my childhood. That was normal; grown women were business owners in my worldview. So now as a grown-up, I think it’s normal to be around women business owners. But I learned that it is not normal for most people, so my online course about investing in real estate and involvement with Shaklee is for people who want to learn to be business owners.
My brother and dad are very traditional, so when you asked about feminism, I would say I saw firsthand the rise of women owning their own power. The women in the 80s and 90s in Shaklee had their own businesses alongside their husbands who had their own businesses or they worked together (versus the traditional way of women working for their husbands or family businesses).
Q: What is something valuable you’d like others to know?
A: Personal development is more important than the right business opportunity. Look at the people you’re around—your family and friends. Are they where you want to be? If not, then add MORE TIME with people that are where you want to be. Or make a different move that is going to put you on a different path. It is scary and they won’t like it because it’ll be different, but do it anyway and trust they’ll appreciate you later.
Q: What does feminism mean to you?
A: Feminism means to me the opportunity for females to have more options than the traditional stereotypes.
MORE ABOUT KELLY: I am engaged, and we don’t have a date or venue set yet. My fiancé is retired military and now building his home renovation business. We’ve been together for 7 years.
We have 3 cats.
We live in the Atlanta area.
We have traveled so much that we don’t do that much anymore. We are homebodies and like to go out to dinner with friends. We are in building mode right now, and we focus a lot on developing our spirituality. I know how boring that all sounds, but it’s what’s important right now. We understand that there is an ebb and flow to life, and it’s okay to burrow in and focus on what we want at the moment, without too many distractions. The next step will be explorational-type travel—learning cultures and their languages, seeing historical landmarks, etc.
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Thanks for reading!
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