In this new episode we are joined by Kelly Anne Parker, a seasoned entrepreneur and growth strategist, who takes us through the journey of women in business and the importance of community.

Throughout our conversation, we delve into Kelly Anne's remarkable experiences as she transitioned from founding Send Ribbon, a corporate gifting company, to her successful acquisition by Urban Stems. She shares her wisdom on the significance of grit, the necessity of building strong networks, and the strategies for managing both business growth and personal challenges.

She also emphasizes the critical nature of recognizing and capitalizing on one's unique strengths in the entrepreneurial landscape. As we navigate this discourse, we aim to empower aspiring women founders to embrace their individuality and thrive in their ventures.

Takeaways:

• The episode emphasizes the importance of community and support for women in business, particularly highlighting the need to connect and network effectively.
• Kelly Anne discusses the significance of grit and resilience in entrepreneurship, stating that these qualities are essential for overcoming challenges and achieving success.
• The conversation reveals that building a business requires strategic thinking, especially regarding exits, which should be considered at every stage of growth.
• Listeners are encouraged to seek mentorship and leadership opportunities to enhance their professional development and navigate the complexities of entrepreneurship effectively.

Chapters:

06:12 Defining Moments in Entrepreneurship

10:00 Lessons from Early Work Experiences

20:27 The Journey of Starting Send Ribbon

29:11 The Journey to Profitability and Exit Strategies

37:20 The Transition from Founder to Employee

40:52 Navigating Life After Exit

46:15 The Journey of Finding Fit in Business

Burning Questions Answered:

1.What does it take to build a seven-figure company from just $5,000 and grit?

2.How can women founders navigate bootstrapping, burnout, and bold exits?

3.What role do early mentors and leadership experiences play in long-term success?

4.How can women founders emotionally prepare for—and thrive after—an exit?

Favorite Quotes:

No rain, no flowers. You don’t get the end result without the struggle. — Kelly Anne Parker

Comparison is a thief of momentum. Focus on the people who are already buying from you. They’ll teach you everything you need to know. — Kelly Anne Parker

Closing Thoughts:

This episode is a masterclass in perseverance, clarity, and reinvention. Kelly Anne reminds us that founder success isn’t about having all the resources—it’s about using what you do have to make magic. From selling corporate gifts out of her parents’ basement to a successful exit, she shows how grit, community, and purpose lead to momentum. Her wisdom around comparison, reinvention, and building a lifestyle business without shame is a powerful call to redefine success on your own terms.

Guest Offers & Contact Information:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyanneparker/ 

LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/launchgrowexit/ 

Free 15-Minute Call: https://calendly.com/kellyanneparker 

Follow the #WisdomOfWomen show for more inspiring stories and insights from trailblazing women founders, investors, and experts in growth and prosperity.

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Amazon Prime: https://tinyurl.com/366syddj 

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdhananz 

RSS Feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/womengetfunded/ 

Coco Sellman, the host of #WisdomOfWomen, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

Website: https://aforceforgood.biz/ 

Are Your GROWING or PLATEAUING? https://aforceforgood.biz/quiz/

FFG Tool of the Week: https://aforceforgood.biz/weekly-tool/ 

The Book:  https://aforceforgood.biz/book/ 

Growth Accelerator: https://aforceforgood.biz/accelerator/ 

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women Show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voice and wisdom of women in business.

A new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host, Koko Snellman, five time founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good system.

Thank you for joining us today as we illuminate the path to unlocking opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises by amplifying the voice and wisdom of women.

Today we have a most delightful guest woman I recently met and instantly felt kismet.

So today we have Kellyann Parker.

Kelly is a seasoned entrepreneur, growth strategist and startup veteran.

One with a successful exit under her belt.

Ladies.

She founded Send Ribbon Ribbon, a corporate gifting company and was later successfully acquired by Urban Stems.

You've seen Urban Stems out there online, I'm sure.

Where she later led B2B sales and growth for Urban Stems.

With prior leadership roles at Door Dash, managed by Q, which was acquired by WeWork indeed.

And AOL Kelly brings a powerhouse blend of startup grit and growth stage expertise.

Today.

She advises founders in growing the value of their companies through her latest venture, Launch Grow Exit.

So you can find her at Launch Grow Exit.

And she does one on one advising.

She does content development, she speaks all over the place.

And Kelly empowers aspiring entrepreneurs to be themselves and turn fear into traction.

So welcome Kelly.

It's so nice to have you.

Thank you so much Coco.

It's such a pleasure to have the conversation today.

And obviously when we met I felt the same way.

So honored to meet you and hear your exit story.

Story.

And I absolutely love what you're doing for women in business.

So really it's an honor to be here.

Thanks for having me.

Oh, such a pleasure.

Yes.

And you know, I believe and I know that you also do because we're together in a community.

We were part of the Whisper Group founded by Carrie Kirpin.

We're a group of exited women founders.

I encourage all of us to find a place where we can network, connect and create friendships.

And because we don't have the golf courses, we need to have our own place where we can find pleasure and fun and also do business.

I'm loving this stage of my life and getting to meet you at a flower arranging event with Carrie Kirpin and the Whisper Group was super fun.

Right?

It was so much fun.

I agree with you.

Community is everything.

Like, you know, as the world is changing and business is evolving, like no one should be facing problems alone.

So I encourage everyone, whether you're an employee in a company or an entrepreneur, even a seasoned entrepreneur is like, now's the time to call on your community and ask the hard questions and ask for help.

There's no shame in it.

It's really important.

No one should be, you know, navigating some of the challenges that we're having socially and economically alone.

Agreed.

Yes.

So we.

Before we get too deep into things, I would love to hear from you about a book that was written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life.

Oh, I love this question and I love that it's unique to the podcast and unique to a woman author.

One of the books that I recommend all the time is called the Million Dollar One Person Business by Elaine.

It's all about being a solo entrepreneur and creating a seven figure business.

One thing I love about it is it not only gives real examples of one person businesses have been successful, but it also creates a space where the word lifestyle is championed and not considered a dirty word in business.

And I think a lot of times investors or people in that space will say something like, oh, that's a lifestyle business with a negative connotation.

And you know as well as I know so many entrepreneurs that have created seven figure lifestyle businesses.

So I recommend that book to anyone who is early on their journey or considering going all in on their idea.

It is possible to create a million dollar business alone.

I love it.

So it's called the Million Dollar One Person Business and I didn't catch the.

Author, Elaine Po Fet.

I may be pronouncing it wrong, but it's P O F E L D T.

And forgive me, Elaine, it's, it's the Brooklyn accent.

I love it.

So I'm gonna get myself a copy of this one.

This sounds really good.

And I'm thinking about some people I know that would love to have this book.

And you know, I also think that, that when to.

To be a person that can create a million dollar business as an individual, you got to be thinking about the smart things related to scale and growth and how you can use your time wisely, use your time where your genius is coming out.

As founders, I know we struggle with that.

And, and it's, it's.

So that's just sounds like a great option for us.

Right?

Nothing wrong.

Nothing wrong with a lifestyle business if.

It'S nothing wrong with it.

Right.

So I want to get into like first.

First I want to talk about your bigger life.

One thing I know about founders is that we have big moments we have moments where we make big decisions or things happen, hard things happen, and we have to deal.

I'm looking for three defining moments or experiences that really shaped you, really brought you to where you are today.

And, you know, they could be moments where you said yes to a bold opportunities moment that you stood your ground and said no more.

A time when you overcame something, a loss or a heartbreak or something where you accomplished something really important that you feel great sense of pride.

What are those three moments for you that you think back on and say, wow, that brought me to the person I am today?

Yeah, certainly a lot.

I say this a lot to founders and people in the entrepreneurship community.

The one key element of my life that I've known since I'm very much a child is grit.

And, you know, I'm very fortunate.

My brother is actually only 15 months younger than me, and he has an entirely different, different skill set.

So it was very clear to my parents how different we were.

He could follow directions, get straight A's, be an amazing athlete, but I did things my way, and I was able to figure things out and piece them together and, you know, use my creative kind of skill set to.

To make something of it.

I learned very early that traditional school wasn't for me and a traditional work 9 to 5 wasn't for me.

You know, and I think that's really important is it's okay to not fit into societal norms.

I didn't as a kid, and I'm not going to as an adult.

It was just something that I had to, like, convince everyone, like, hey, there is another route.

Right?

Because that wasn't something that was totally accepted by my environment of friends and family as a child.

Very early on, I knew that sitting in a desk and that style of learning and even in college, how hard things were for me, because that's just not how I learn or navigate my life.

So that's the first thing.

One of the things that goes hand in hand with that is the ability to love work.

I started working when I was truly 12 years old.

I had a daily news newspaper route, and it was one of the first lessons I learned in business of having to get up before school on my bicycle, you know, roll the newspapers, rubber band them, put them in bags when it was raining, then collect all the envelopes from the mailboxes of, like, them paying me and tipping me, my neighbors for the newspapers, and then giving my newspaper route guide the money.

Like, I learned everything from relationships to time management, all at 12 years old before school.

Right?

And, like, I love the concept that you could, you know, if you just did something different that no one else was gonna do, right?

Not every kid wants to get up at 5am before school and do this.

But like, to me, I was like, that's 200 bucks for the week, and that's a lot of money for a 12 year old.

I was excited about it.

So the first lesson was, you know, I liked having money and I liked doing things that other people really didn't consider.

And I got really good at work because I didn't like school.

That was a real catalyst.

The second thing that made a huge impact in my career, I was very fortunate.

My first job out of college, I had real leaders, Real leaders.

You could see them.

They were trained.

I was at aol and they were the best of the best.

They went to Harvard Business School.

They had extreme, most amazing, talented careers.

Like, you know, one of my early leaders, you know, took the first troops to war after 9, 11, right?

And he was a leader in battle.

And you could just see the level of excellence and the level of dedication that he had to his work.

And at 22, I knew I needed to be in rooms like his.

Anything they asked of me, I would do because I had real leaders.

And that's something that is just life altering.

I hope that anyone that's listening, that's younger millennial, Gen Z.

When you see someone that you want to follow, find ways to get in those rooms because it has changed the trajectory of my life.

That man ended up.

We ended up working twice together in my career.

He came to another company I was at six years later as an executive, and I continue to follow him and other people in my life that truly knew how to not just show up as a professional, but to show up for their people.

And that is a lesson that you could only learn from human to human interaction.

So that's the second one.

And the third one, I would have to say was in my entrepreneurship journey, I didn't have nearly as many resources as other founders in the space or venture capital at my hands or anything else.

But I learned early that if I spent time on the comparison game of all the things I didn't have, forget the things that I did and the things that made my business special or how I work with other people special.

So that's also a lesson that I pass on to anyone.

Find your magic power, find what makes you tick and just go at it.

Because what you have is unique.

And it's a perspective and point of view that a founder with 10 times the resources does not have.

They'll never have your mind and how you operate.

Oh my goodness, that makes so much sense to me.

And you know, I couldn't agree more around the idea.

You have to figure it out.

We always believe that other people have a better circumstance.

Or if I had this, then.

But the real truth is that founders that succeed just take whatever they have and they make it work.

So true.

You're never going to have as much funding as you want at the beginning.

And frankly, even when you're quote unquote killing it, you're not seeing it that way when you're in it.

Right?

It's, it's, it's like you're always wishing things like you always wish that things were going a little faster.

You always compare to whatever your plan was and you're never always hitting the plan.

There's always things.

Right.

So it is one of these catch 20twos of being a founder is that you have great wins, hopefully along the way, but sometimes you don't see them until later.

It's true.

And I'll just add to that, in addition to those great wins are the moments of losses too, of like, hey, I made this major mistake.

And then you have those intrusive thoughts of like, oh, I bet X, Y and Z founder never made that mistake.

And then you're like, you don't know what's going on behind the curtain there either.

The comparison in founder land, it's okay to know about your competitors and understand the market, but as soon as, as you start dipping your toes down that road of comparison, it steals all of your time where you should be spending your, you know, and I always say there's.

If you want to make more money, you spend more time with your clients, they'll teach you everything.

Stop worrying about when the next customer or client is going to come from a competitor and start spending time with the actual people that spend money with you.

More will come.

Once you learn why they purchase from you, what they need, how they're using your product or service, you're able to build for them.

Right?

And that's the whole goal, is to be able to build for the people that actually want your product or service.

Which is so obvious in one way, but we never follow that.

It's easy to get caught up in trying to find that next lead versus just focusing on cultivating the people that you're already serving and serving them at a higher level.

100% or looking at press, right?

Like, press was the hardest thing for me.

I hacked My own press.

I didn't hire a PR person.

Right.

And that was like a big thing.

As a small business owner, I couldn't hire someone for that.

But then I would be like, oh, my gosh, X, Y and Z company is in Forbes or they're doing this.

And then I realized, is that really what I need to be focusing on to grow the business?

Once I kept my head down and grew the business and was acquiring customers, all of that came after, you know, like, so it.

It really is just focusing, like you said, on what's important and what's in front of you.

Yeah.

So you bootstrapped your business.

So send ribbon.

You bootstrapped it starting with $5,000.

Tell us, first of all, what.

What is send ribbon?

It's been acquired.

But tell us what it.

Tell us your journey of starting the business, how you got it off the ground, and, like, how you.

How you sort of did with what you had, you know, took.

Made.

Made work what you had.

Yeah.

So it's really interesting because now, you know, humbly and respectfully, I think of $5,000, and I think, how on earth would you think that you could possibly do this or that?

You know, what is a lot at the time.

Right.

$5,000 was all I had to my name at the time I started my business.

Looking back, that wasn't that long ago to admit that, but it was truly like, I knew I had spent enough time in startup land and all these big companies, and knock on wood, every single business I've ever been in has been acquired or IPO'd.

So I've been very fortunate in my career to see really big swings pan out.

And I just saw what goes on internally, and I said, I could do this.

I was an early Stage employee, the eighth employee of a tech startup that went to over 500 people.

And when you're that early, you are a founder.

If you're one of the first 10 people in a business, you put on the same amount of hats as the owner.

And I knew I could do it from that experience.

Would I ever do it again with $5,000?

Absolutely not.

There was a naivety of being in my 20s that I was like, I could figure this out.

Would I recommend someone else do that?

No.

But again, there was a little bit of a grittiness to me of like, oh, I'll figure it out.

And if not, I had a pretty strong resume in the New York tech community to get a job if I needed one.

I have to say this of, again, why mentors and people in your life are so important.

The day I resigned to move forward with starting my business, the CEO and founder of Managed by Q, who I worked for for three plus years, said, if it doesn't work out, you always have a seat here.

Those are powerful moments where you're like, hey, you don't have a safety net financially and I'm not going to help you fund it or anything like that.

But if you want, you could always have a job here.

That was a belief in me and myself that kept me going.

I love that.

And you know how in technic it's.

It's not always the case that we put ourselves, especially in our early careers with great leaders.

You had a great leader.

It sounded like an aol and then again.

And you were able to learn from these people the things that you knew you were going to one day want.

They could support you in a way that just a regular corporate manager probably couldn't.

Such a great thing to take away.

Absolutely.

I'm so grateful for those experiences.

I think it's also a mindset and point of view.

I don't think there's a lack of good leadership as there is admiration for these people.

You have to remember I did not.

You know, I'm the first college graduate in my immediate family.

I come from a family of first responders, firefighters and police officers.

We do have lawyers and doctors, but all service oriented folks and not as many business people.

So when you put me in a room with people passionate about business, I'm there to learn.

I'm eager to learn because I didn't surround myself with that.

And honestly a lot of my friends and family are also teachers and nurses and not in my wheelhouse.

It's kind of like the meet your heroes moment.

And I think some people don't view their manager as like a meet the hero type moment.

I've worked for leaders that I'd be just excited if the New York met walked by them on the street, you know, so I think there was a little rose colored glasses when it came to me wanting to work for these leaders.

So you decide to take the leap and you start Send Ribbon, which is a gifting business.

Corporate gifting.

Yep.

So how did you do it?

Like what did you do and when did you start Send Ribbon?

When did you found it?

Yeah.

So Send Ribbon became a side project while I was at managed by Q.

Managed by Q's core customer or office managers.

So I knew over 300 office managers in New York.

And when I was having my regular lunch meetings and check Ins with them.

I had this idea sitting in the back of my head because I send them gifts all the time, right?

And I knew if I sent something personalized and, you know, a handwritten note, I'd always get a response.

And it was just like, a really good way to build rapport with these people that, you know, literally play God for office services.

Like, they pick and choose vendors based on relationships.

And I knew that if I was like, hey, I'm going to call Katie at XYZ office to come down and get a manicure and coffee and talk business, I knew that that was going to push the needle and learn from her on what's important to their office culture and what services she would use.

Before I even came up with the name, I had bought domain names, like, a year before.

I just interviewed.

I said, who do you use for gifting?

What types of gifts do you send?

How much are they for employees?

Are they for clients?

And I just had so much information on the client, and I was able to build a corporate gifting business for them.

It was like I had a customer base of people that knew me before I even started.

That is brilliant, by the way.

You have a marketing mind.

I know that.

Just in our conversations, I can tell that that is.

That is what you.

You really, really have a marketing mind.

So you step out on your own with $5,000 in your bank account and started calling on these relationships.

Yeah.

So what happened?

First night?

Yeah, at first, I learned all the capabilities I didn't have, and I knew that personalization was a really big thing.

They wanted their logos on the gift bags and what type of products.

And, you know, then I had to convince all of these companies on the other side of it to work with me.

Right.

Because I only had $5,000.

So, like, to get net 30 terms on purchase orders for candles and chocolate and all of that.

So I had to learn the inventory side of the business, show them I had interest, you know, and so on.

So that was a big part of it, too.

A lot of small businesses will open up, and they could, you know, really low entry to market to start a gift basket or box company tomorrow.

There's one in every town in the US Now.

Like, how easy it is to start it, but it's.

How do you start it?

Not on a consumer basis, but, like, getting corporate orders from, like, companies like Whole Foods and, you know, AT&T and these big brands that want to work with small business owners.

So that's kind of where I was at in figuring it out.

But I just kind of started, I was just like, hey, you know, we're launching Mother's Day and if anyone wants to send their mom a gift.

And then a few brands reached out to me and they were like, we want to send our employees who are moms some gifts.

And then it just kind of one after another really, you know, half inbound, half outbound of just cold emailing people that knew what I was doing, you know.

But yeah, it was very scary because there would be days where I wouldn't get one order and then there would be other days where I'd get like, truly 100 individual gifts.

Have to front a lot of this, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And a lot of like, hey, if I show you the purchase order, will you give me net 30 terms?

I honestly think that one thing that helped me because I didn't have money was my resume.

Like, you know, like, I use LinkedIn a lot for building a community and connections and posting.

And I think people saw the brands, the companies that I'd worked for in the past, they didn't think I was a fraud to get 300 chocolate bars on 30 net terms, but they had no idea that I was like in my parents basement with pallets of gifts and just hand packing them myself.

Up until the day I signed for the acquisition, I was still packing orders by hand myself, like anything.

And why?

Explain to me that, that explain.

Because I'm sure you thought about doing it in other ways.

Why did you, why did you do it that way?

I wanted to be profitable.

So many businesses go out and are like, hey, I'm gonna grow or I'm gonna do this.

And I did everything so that I could be profitable.

And I wasn't paying myself, but obviously I was paying myself enough to live.

Like, I was utilizing the space and I got rid of my rent and moved in with my parents.

They were in Florida, so not really with them, but like in their home in Brooklyn.

They came home to their home being a factory of just gifts everywhere.

But yeah, I made a lot of sacrifices financially and personally to do it.

But I knew that when the time was right and someone saw that this was a viable business and that I was able to make a few hundred thousand doll just on my own, that, okay, we're gonna take a bet on her, right?

And I wanted to own 100%.

I wanted it to be profitable.

I wanted it to be a clean, easy break.

I knew help would be on its way if I just proved out that I could do it.

That was truly my motivator.

There were a lot of businesses that could retain clients and get good purchase orders, but none of them could be profitable if you hired too many people or they weren't willing to do the work.

So.

So I was willing to put in the time so that we could get the business to profitability sooner.

Amazing.

At what point along your journey did you know that you were going that you know, did you have exit in mind?

Was it from the beginning that you always knew you were going to try to find an exit or was it somewhere midway?

When did you know that was part of your strategy?

Yeah, I always say that if I was 90 years old, still in the gifting business, I'd be happy.

I always thought maybe I'll go back to work and do it as a side hustle.

In the middle of building Sun Ribbon, I lost my health insurance because I could no longer stay on COBRA and pay into it from my last company.

I was really in a place where I needed health insurance and some money to grow the business.

The DoorDash opportunity came up and one of the reasons why I took it was I had started to miss working or having co workers or being around other people.

And then like four months into being at DoorDash and doing send Ribbon on the side, both full time, but the business was like running itself.

The pandemic hit and both of those businesses took off.

Right.

Corporate gifting, because there's no events and no conferences or any, everyone was sending gifts.

DoorDash overnight became a huge success.

First, I'm gonna either have to put a pin in my business and go all in on working at DoorDash and putting sun Ribbon to the side or having to leave DoorDash.

So it really was like just a crazy time where both industries were growing at rapid speeds day by day, and I had to make that choice.

A lot of times I find that the founders in particular women, when they're growing their businesses, they don't always think about exit.

You think about, I love what I'm going to do.

I have a purpose and I kind of love the customer or a product or whatever it is.

And you're dedicated to that which you need to be 100%.

What I often find is that if you don't build your company so that it is always growing value and In a moment when you need to make.

A change, you can't.

You are so right, Coco.

I should state that, you know, a big factor in this and, you know, there is a little bit of a double standard in my situation is not having a partner or not having any type of family that could support this.

Right.

Like a lot of women in my position wouldn't have taken on a second job because they have health insurance through a partner or, you know, and I was, I was making decisions only because they were me.

And, you know, I didn't have an exit strategy in mind because I always viewed this as something for me.

And one thing that we talk a lot about in exiting and the emotional side of leaving a business.

I didn't have a strategic exit exit plan until I realized I looked up and I'm in my mid-30s and I missed every holiday.

I was missing every weekend.

I don't, you know, when you're in a gifting industry, you're working the days that are celebrating others.

I realized my exit came at the perfect time because that next chapter of my life has to start right.

I don't want to be the person behind the curtains that makes your, you know, Christmas or Easter or Passover or Valentine's Day or Mother's Day special.

I want someone to do that for me one day, you know, So I do think, looking back now, I would have had a more strategic exit plan and I would have had a plan for myself like, and what I wanted in my career and personal life.

It just circumstantially happened.

And it happened at a really great time in my personal life as well.

And so how did this, how did this Urban Stems opportunity come up?

Did you decide to go to market and sell and sell your company or they came to you?

What happened?

It happened.

Truly from the power of network, I preached this.

I'll sing it from the rooftops.

They're a DC based company and I got an email from one of the five male founders.

So it was founded by five men in D.C.

and he had said to me, hey, Kelly, I noticed that you order our flowers daily from a business account.

Can you meet me for coffee and tell me how you use our product and service?

I had said, I need something quick, reliable, beautiful for my clients.

And that's why I consistently use your business.

I had taken their model and watched it and you know, learned all about gifting and corporate gifting.

And we had just stayed in touch after I decided to leave my business and leave managed by Cuban start my business.

I had reached out to that same gentleman and said, you know, hey, I'm entering the gifting market.

He was like, I'm actually exiting urban stems, but you know, keep in touch, there's people I want you to meet.

I think you should have a conversation.

We had one conversation Covid hit and it was going to be like a partnership.

It wasn't, you know, maybe I do some advising.

It wasn't anything like merger acquisition.

And then what I did was I just sent him email updates.

Every month I would send, hey, we acquired X, Y and Z customer.

We just got this press.

We just did this just because I was like, hey, they should know, you know, what's going on.

I knew from that conversation they were serious about bringing me on in some capacity.

The only way to bring it on was to make ribbon the corporate gifting arm of the business.

So again, if I could teach anyone anything, it's, you know, who cares if they didn't read the emails?

You know, like you were just, you were just telling them what you were up to.

And I think that's really important.

No one's gonna reach out or know what you're up to if you don't let them know.

So anyone who's scared to post the video on social media or send the email, you have to just kind of tell people what you want.

And I wasn't looking to sell, but because I continued to send those updates, I was able to.

I think that's so brilliant and it really is.

It's a practice, it's a best superpower practice that we can all learn from in different ways in our lives.

Right.

Because that like just having the foresight to how can I automate, if you will, heart connected communication, authentic communication with people that I might want to have a long term relationship with for one way reason or another.

Right, Exactly.

You know, it's not through the big moments because if all there was the big moments, they wouldn't really know you.

Exactly.

And that's why I love social media because you open up your LinkedIn and like even with you, right, Like I've met you a Handful of times now.

And we've connected and we've grown this relationship, but even today, we're still learning about different things.

And I'm like, oh, Coco, I need to invite you here.

I would have never known if I didn't spend the time to get to know you of being like, oh, this is something that you're interested in.

So I think it's important that we continue to build online relationships and offline relationships and show up the way we would for people in both of those scenarios.

And so then.

All right, so we get to the point where Urban Stems comes to you and you have these meetings and you get serious and then what was that like?

What was the process like for you of going through diligence?

And did you get advice?

How did you manage all that?

And then how long did it take?

And then what happened afterwards?

Did you stay on?

Yeah, so it took about three months.

It was pretty clean because it was just me and I owned 100% of it, honestly.

There was no debt in the business.

We had like four grand on a credit card like that.

You know, it wasn't.

We were not take.

We're not talking about million dollars here or anything significant, but the client list and the people working with us were like, you know, the driving factor of like, hey, they don't know that these orders are being packed in a Brooklyn basement.

Right?

Like, they.

These people, you know, were.

I was working with some, even Fortune 50 clients, really powerful people.

Part of the contract that I did get written in was that it was a minimum stay of a year, so I was required to stay for a year.

Once the year was up, I did start to want change in different things.

I talk a lot about my health journey too.

That was a major factor in why I wanted to make different choices.

Unfortunately, six months into my acquisition, I had a major surgery.

It was really hard managing a team.

And all of the things of being a founder with a very heavy seasonal business, you can't just stop.

I did have to stop.

And I felt like I was at the end of that founder journey and back into an employee situation.

I realized I'm made for the founder life and I need to be a founder to navigate my health issues too.

I need to be in charge of, you know, the days that I'm sick.

I need to be able to say, like, hey, I can't work today.

And there be no consequences of, like an employee manager relationship.

Right.

Like, that's really important to me through entrepreneurship.

So I was there for a year.

I took a lot of time off after my exit, recouped from my surgery and used all that experience to do all the things I wanted on my bucket list.

They call it my Eat Pray Love year.

I ran my first half marathon, I went to Europe, I sat on my grandparents farm where they're from in Kilkenny, Ireland.

Really special things that were important to me.

I don't remember the three months of contracting or anything like that.

That feels like a distant memory.

Even the year transferring the business and doing the day to day feels it.

But like the reward of the year after was amazing of being able to be in Florida, volunteer, do charity work, really fulfill my cup to find myself again after the exit.

So brilliant, Kelly.

And you know we've talked about this right exit six months ago and I need any Pray Love gear and I haven't done that.

I'm excited for all the work that we're going to be doing with charity and the whisper group and there's so many opportunities.

Now the way to describe it, the only example I have is anyone who wears earrings knows what it's like to feel like your earrings missing, right?

Like if you're out, you're like, oh geez, wearing this thing on the right.

And that is the same thing that happened the day after my exit was fully over and I had nothing.

I felt like I walked out of the house with no earrings on.

I was like, did I lose an earring?

I felt like I couldn't be myself or have an identity outside of my business.

I was like Kelly in Corporate Gifts, Kelly from Sun Ribbon, Kelly from Urban stem.

I had to learn how to to be the next version of myself again.

And that was really, that's why I needed the time that I did because it was so much part of my identity.

And I'm not saying that you don't have feelings like that because I know they're valid and I know we've had that conversation.

But you are very much established in a different way where there is a separation of church and state, of who Coco is versus the business that you sold.

Well, what's next for you?

That's what I'm dying to know because I know right now you are consulting and advising other startups and that is super fun and exciting.

I know you have other parts of your life that are important to you to develop beyond your career.

So what are you wanting to manifest in this stage?

I'm really excited in my next chapter because I have never been more fulfilled than working with other founders who want to launch, grow or exit.

That's the name of my business.

That's how I help them.

I've actually most recently dipped my toes into brokering, so I've been able to help some founders sell their business, which is just so special because I'm back in the hot seat.

I went through it once or twice and now have a portfolio of bidders in addition to early stage startups and e commerce CPG brands.

So really, really cool stuff there.

And then in terms of like, next chapter and life, you know, I.

I truly have a calling to be a mother.

I'll be most excited for it, but I'll also be most prepared.

Right?

I'm so grateful that I've had the experience of growing businesses, traveling the world, you know, running marathons, kind of done everything I've wanted to in this lifetime.

I'm really just planning for when my future family comes into the fold.

And hopefully one day they could say, wow, my mom did all of that before she even met us.

That's how I view my next chapter.

I love it.

I love it.

And.

And you're a founder at heart, so I have no doubt that this is just.

I believe that the more we as founders see ourselves as constantly reinventing ourselves as those, you know, constantly being able to start anew, the better off we are.

Absolutely right.

Because when we get super attached to.

It has to be this way, this business, we get so personalized into it that we stunt our ability to grow both the business and ourselves.

Sometimes we just need to open up and let things happen.

Opportunities will come to us if we're willing to say yes.

I agree.

I say yes more than I say no.

I think that's one thing I've learned on the journey of separating identity is being able to have my hand in so many different businesses, Being able to sit on a nonprofit board and still get that executive opportunity.

Same thing with being on a fundraising committee for another charity.

I still get to fill my cup and get the experience and learn from others.

But it's now a portfolio career of having different things instead of just being like, oh, I'm in corporate gifting.

I'm a founder.

This is who I am.

It's now like, I have everything from a dessert company in my portfolio to a women's health company.

So it's really fun to work with so.

So many different organizations.

I got very excited when you said that you're brokering businesses because I knew you were working to help them get ready for exit, but I didn't know you were part of creating the exit.

And so if anyone wants to buy a business, they know who to call.

I have a handful for sale.

Well, I have to tell you, I'm interested because that's been one of the areas that I've been looking at.

I sort of don't want to start from scratch again, but I love leading a company and having a team and creating value.

Just love all of that, so.

Absolutely.

And one thing I will say for you or anyone else listening or just in general, I think there's just, like, there's a negative word around lifestyle business.

There's a negative word around brokering or selling businesses where it's like, you know, people assume, oh, is it a bad deal?

Right.

A lot of these businesses that we work are profitable.

They're doing great.

They just have run out of steam and they're in a personal situation where the founder can no longer lead.

That happens a lot.

It's never that the business is worth nothing or they can't do it.

Like, I've worked with so many people that are like, hey, I would love to keep going, but it's just not in the cards because of a personal situation.

Yeah.

And people.

There's also.

I'm sure you see this, whether it's a family situation where it's a person my age who's built a company and it's made the company work, but now I've got, like, my parents are a concern, or it could be that I'm finally ready to retire.

There's a lot of people retiring and.

Right.

And this is a great opportunity to buy a business that's been around for a long time and bring your unique recipe and skills.

Sometimes it's.

It's where a founder has past experiences that really, they're not ready to tune themselves up for the future.

And.

Right.

And so they're like, I'm done with this.

I'm not doing the same.

It's really interesting.

And like I said, there is a big part of any successful business.

You know, this is founder fit.

Right.

You could be working on the best problem and service and things are booming.

But it's not a fit because you're not passionate about it.

It doesn't bring you joy.

It's kind of like the dress that sits in your closet that you're like, I'm never going to wear this.

Right.

Not gonna get rid of it.

That's how a lot of businesses are.

It's not your first choice, but it's making money and you're not gonna get rid of it.

And so, you know, finding the Fit is really important and I'm really excited because there's.

We're gonna new home, you know, a handful of really strong companies.

I love it.

Well, we are gonna talk about this.

Kelly.

This is one of the areas that I am interested in.

And, you know, part of it is I'm also thinking, I gotta stop because we'll keep going forever.

But, like, I'm also thinking about, like, having the portfolio career of businesses.

Right.

Rather than having one big company that I lead, maybe I have several, and I find operators to put into them, and I work with those operators to help them become.

And then it's cash flow.

In the meanwhile, I'm not beholden to any of the companies.

Right, exactly.

And you could do all of that while having a glimpse of your Eat, Pray, Love year.

So I'm excited to be on this journey with you so that we can figure it out.

You're at a point in your career where you don't want to be tied down.

You certainly wouldn't be packing orders from a basement.

But I'm saying you want to have the freedom of putting together a lifestyle portfolio that works for where you are in your personal life as well as your career.

Totally.

Oh, my goodness.

And one more note.

I'm just gonna say that if I was passionate about the business, I would be just like you, making packing taxes.

Yes, that's true.

That is.

Yeah, I.

100%.

You gotta be very gritty to make it work and eventually to create that profit and so you can sell.

It's.

It's not, you know.

Right.

It's not by just taking what you want and, you know, whatever.

So.

My goodness.

So one last thing.

So my last question for you today is for our founders listening.

What is some wisdom you would like to share with a visionary woman founder leading a company that she is growing and that impact is important to her?

What's a.

What's a key piece of invites?

I always say no rain, no flowers for a reason.

You go through a lot of hard times and people only remember the beautiful flowers at the end.

They don't see the rain, the seeds, all the hard work you put in.

They only get the end result.

Just remember, you can't get the end result without the rain.

So no rain, no flowers.

It's a great kind of thing that I think of all the time because it's like a mantra of knowing that this too shall pass and you will have the beautiful flowers to admire at the end of the journey.

I love that.

No rain, no flowers.

So you can find Kelly on LinkedIn as Kelly Parker.

I'm going to put it in the notes below so you can check her out and you can also find her at launch grow exit.

No it's just Launch, grow, exit on Instagram and Tick tock.

Wonderful.

So you can find her there and you have a 15 minute intro call that you can do.

You want to pick Kelly's brain?

Get some ideas, talk about selling your company, launching your company?

Be sure to reach out to Kelly.

This is a woman who has been there and done it and boy is she just.

You know, she'd be a great person for any founder that's growing or exiting.

And watch out.

I can't wait to see what you do next and I can't wait to partner with you as time goes on.

So absolutely.

Thank you so much.

This was such a wonderful conversation and I admire you so much as a friend and mentor.

Thank you for having me on Coco.

You really are just such a powerhouse for women.

Thank you Kelly.

That's very kind.

And to all of you listening, thank you for listening in.

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