What does your company culture say about you as a leader? Culture is defined as the shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterize your organization.  

But often, company culture is unintentionally shaped by what you do, not what you say. What you do says more about your culture than what you say. 

Today we're talking with Brandi Kelly, who has journeyed from social worker to superintendent to CEO of Spark HOPE EDU.  

After climbing the education ladder and reaching the top, Brandi discovered that success without fulfillment was taking a toll on her health and stealing her sense of purpose. The higher she climbed, the further she got from the people she wanted to serve. 

So, Brandi started Spark HOPE EDU and is passionate about bringing hope back to burnt-out leaders who feel lost and under pressure to perform. She helps them rediscover their purpose, lead themselves well, and create cultures where people feel valued as human beings—not just employees.  

Join us for an honest conversation about the cost of striving, the power of practicing the pause, and why HOPE is the leadership quality your team needs most right now. 

Redeem Your Business Today by the Following: 

How can we honor God in our business? 

Surrender your striving.  

God reminded Brandi to "be still and know that I am God." You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength, but you have to give it to Him first.  

Be a dealer in hope—your people want to know there's a brighter future ahead. When you lead with hope, you foster trust, compassion, and stability in your organization. 

One challenge from today: 

Practice the pause.

When emotions run high and people push your buttons, take a step back and take a deep breath. A leader who brings calm brings stability to the organization.  

Start tomorrow by checking in with your people as human beings, not just employees. Ask "How are you?" and not just about their projects. People are craving connection because that's how God wired us.

More About Brandi Kelly

Website: www.sparkhopeedu.com 

The HOPE-Fueled Leadership Kickstart

Quick Spark Newsletter

Free download, first chapter of Lead with H.O.P.E.

Book: Lead with H.O.P.E.: Building a System of Self-Efficacy 

More About David Schmidt

Free E-Book: What God Says About Business: 5 Uncommon Truths for the Modern Business

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Newsletter also comes with Bible verses for business success for you to read, apply, and be inspired by.

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So culture is defined as a set of shared attitudes, values, and goals and practices that characterize an institutional organization. And we all have company culture and sometimes we're proud of it and sometimes we're not. More often it's unintended, unintentional culture because we have values and visions that are written down, but they're not so much lived out in our company. And so what are the values and vision that the company truly lives and models every day? That's what you are and who you are because

What you do says more about your culture than what you say. And so today I'm excited to have Brandy Kelly, who has been a social worker, superintendent, and now has a coaching speaking business to bring hope to business. a lot of that's taking care of culture, creating a better culture. Brandy, welcome to Redeeming Business today. And to start off with, could you tell us what is one way that you have found to honor God in your business?

Yeah, David, first of all, I just want to say thank you for having me on the show today. It is an honor to be here. And for me, the journey from social worker to superintendent now to CEO was laden with a lot of adversity. And over the years, the only thing that has gotten me through that adversity has been my faith. And there is one scripture that I lean on.

And I believe that God gave it to my mom when my brother Brandon drowned and it's Romans 8 28. All things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called in accordance to his purpose. And that scripture reminds me that no matter what you go through in this life, no matter how hopeless you feel, there is always hope. And so first and foremost, my faith is what gives me hope no matter what I'm doing in life.

Very good. Yes, that's very powerful. And sometimes it seems overused, but it's accurate when you start to think about it and start putting situations together. It's very accurate. Brandy, could you give us a little background to what you've been doing in the past and how that's led you to the business you have today?

it is.

Yeah, absolutely. So I have to go way back to the 1900s to start this story. When I was 15, back in the 1900s, I'm of that age, it was one of the most difficult things I faced. And it was when my brother Brandon drowned. It was a Saturday afternoon. I was getting ready for prom and my little brother, Brandon, and then our youngest brother, Dustin, went on a horseback ride.

Okay, 1900s, yeah.

And they didn't come home. But despite that tragedy, despite the fact that he drowned on that day, the community showed up for us. There were tons of people searching on the banks of that creek where my brother, a seventh grade boy, went in on that Saturday afternoon. And we looked for him on Saturday, on Sunday, and we didn't find him until Monday. But then we had the funeral to honor his life.

and his classmates boarded a bus during school day and they showed up. They created a memory book that shared all of the stories of his mischievous spirit and his golden heart. And again, they showed up, but it was because of them, because of that community, that connection. I wanted to pay it forward. And so that's why I became a school social worker.

And through the years, David, I never felt like I was doing enough. I never felt like I was fulfilling my purpose or my calling. So I kept going to school and I became a principal and I became a superintendent and I still didn't feel like I was doing enough. And I believe that that was because the higher I climbed, the stressors increased. the things that really fueled my purpose and my passion.

Hmm. Yep.

I wasn't able to do them as much the further away from the people that I got in the organization. And I kind of hit a wall in this superintendency that I was most recently in. That was the role I most recently served in. And all of that striving and that pressure to prove, to perform, to push forward, I feel like I lost myself a little bit.

And there was a moment when I was getting ready to release my first book, Lead with Hope, Building a System of Self-Efficacy, that something shifted inside of me. And I sensed that God was telling me to be still. It reminded me of that Bible verse in Psalms, be still and know that I am God. And I had to surrender it all to Him and give myself time and space and get into the Word and really

Surrender to God and stop trying to strive and to control things in my own strength I was reminded once again that you can do all things through Christ Who gives you strength, but you have to give it to him And so that's kind of where I found myself and when I finally got still he reminded me and here I am going again with another Bible verse Jeremiah 29 11 the plans I have for you

He has a perfect plan for our life. And he reminded me of that. And so I've started Spark Hope EDU and the whole mission of my business is to pour in two leaders who are stressed, who are burnt out, who are striving and always feeling lost. And I've created some programming for them to really help them lean into who they are, who God created them to be.

and to find their purpose in their calling once again.

That's cool. That's neat. mean, it's the journey and what you're doing today, trying to bring hope to people. And I hope I'm sure you've been able to help a lot of people that way. You did say something interesting. said when you the further up you got, the less more stressors there were. And it's like you got away from the people that you really wanted to help. So first of all, when you're at the top of your career as a superintendent, you advance as far as you're going to go.

Okay.

How are you feeling at that time? Was that a good accomplishment or bad accomplishment or what?

When I got to that point, I was super excited. I was going to a school district very similar to that school district that supported us so many years ago, a small rural school district in Illinois. And it was a very proud moment. And I would say for the first year or two, know, just learning the ropes and getting to know every everybody and the systems and structures and processes and everything.

It was edifying, but then what I dealt with was, and I think in education, we're dealing with it more and more with social media. It's the keyboard warriors. It's those people who have went to school so they think they know how to run a school. And school is very different than any other kind of business. We're not putting out blueberries. We're not putting out, you know, Ford pickup trucks. We are...

We are teaching America's youth. We are helping them to realize their full potential by teaching them the skills. And the skills have expanded so much just in my 25 years in education from reading, writing, and arithmetic to pretty much anything under the sun. But those keyboard warriors started to wear on me. And the stressors, there was some building projects going on.

And I was kind of a district office of one. It was just me and my bookkeeper. That was it. And, you know.

You have to surround yourself with people who are going to encourage you, support you and lift you up. And being new in the district, I just didn't have that. And I found myself doing more, taking on more, trying to be everything to everyone. And I just really hit a wall and it started having an effect on my health.

Okay. You said keyboard warriors. Are those people on social media would just, every time you did something they didn't like, they'd tell you about it on social media? Gotcha.

Correct, we have those.

And then for instance, I'll give you a brief story. So as a superintendent, one of the things that I liked the least was snow days. So you, you know, you see that the forecast and snow is coming in. And so the next morning about 430 AM you get up and you drive the roads in your car. That's what I did. And I made a decision.

Sure.

wow.

I consulted with all the area superintendents and I made a decision. either had school or I canceled school based on what I knew at that time. And I tried to be in sync with the area superintendents as well. So we were all on the same page. But one day in particular, I got to the office and I can't remember if I called school off or I had school, but I got a scathing email from a parent that said, because of the decision you've made, am

I am certain that you do not care about kids and you definitely don't care about my kids. So I can't believe you're doing this kind of thing. And those are the things that we're getting more and more in education, just hateful, nasty. And that that's a really watered down approach, a really watered down version of the email that I received. But, you know, just critics, critics, no matter what decision you make. And the thing about leadership is you're going to have critics.

Sure. Yep, yep.

no matter what the decision you make. So, you know, my role now is to help equip the people that are in leadership to reframe that, to put that in perspective and to lead from their values and who they are. And I think that's how we find the most fulfillment in our jobs.

Totally agree. Because if you would cancel and then you have all these people like, the roads aren't that bad, why are you canceling? So you're to get hit either way with all that stuff. But yeah, and that's key to gather information, make a decision and go. And yeah, people under you really need to understand that you're not perfect. You're going to make bad decisions. You're going to make good decisions, but just be quiet and go along. I've been in both sides, so I understand that.

Either way. Yeah.

Yeah.

So was there a particular one thing that happened that really made you make that shift or was it just a culmination of all these little things that made you make the shift to the journey of hope and to start a different business?

Yeah, I kind of started the endeavor on Spark Hope EDU a couple of years before I departed my superintendent role. I was doing a little bit of speaking, a little bit of coaching for the Illinois principals association and with the plans of building this and doing it more in retirement than launching it now. But there were a few things. You know, I talked about my brother, Brandon, drowning. He was 13 when he drowned. My mom,

Gotcha.

she was 44 when she died of cancer. And then my dad was 60 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's and. This job was starting to affect my health. You only get one chance at this thing called life. And so I think, yes, there was a lot of little things that built up over time. But if I could point to any one.

singular thing. It was the fact that it was having a toll. It was taking a toll on my health. And I was done. I was done doing something that didn't bring satisfaction, didn't bring fulfillment, didn't cause me to feel like I was fulfilling the purpose God had for me in my life. I was done with that.

And I was ready to start a new chapter in my life and really lean in to the things God gifted me with so that I could help other people. Because that's why we're here, to love God first and then love people and serve all. And yes, you can do that in any job that you do. But I think when you lean in to your purpose and your passions and your calling, you're equipped to do something that only you can do in this world. And I decided it was time to do that now.

Okay, very good. No, that's neat that you're able to pick that out. Because yes, health is one of those things people sacrifice to get ahead in life. So, transition to what you're doing today. If I'm a leader stressed out with my business, where do I start? If I work with you, I'm stressed out in all these things, what's the first step? What

Yeah,

do do?

I would say the first step is to contact me and I have what I call the hope fueled leadership kickstart and it is a short term, powerful one-on-one private coaching experience that I just walk you through key assessments. As the expert, I guide you through those key assessments and I help you clarify your vision. I think as leaders,

Sometimes we get caught up in all the tasks and we lose our vision. So by doing these key assessments, I help you to gain back your vision, gain confidence in your decision making, create systems and structures and processes that foster connection and community, and just get a clear roadmap to maximize your

resources, your connection with your people, and your impact in your organization.

Okay, yeah, now that sounds like a good starting point and hopefully you can get us some links we can put in the show notes for afterwards. We've been talking about culture a little bit as well in other episodes. I kinda like to talk about that a little bit. You talked about having a culture of hope. How would you describe that? mean, if I, because, yeah, how would you describe a culture of hope in

Yes.

Yeah,

a business?

a culture of hope in a business is one where you foster that idea of possibility and that there is a brighter future, you know, and the way that we do that is by investing in our people. That's where it starts because Dale Carnegie in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, he says people need two things. They need to know they're valued and they're important.

and they need you to articulate that to them, right? So if we, as leaders, can let people know that they matter, that we value them, that they're important, and that we as the leaders believe that there is a brighter future ahead, that there are possibilities ahead, and that we are going to attain the goals that we set, that's what our followers want.

There was a Gallup poll put out in February of 2025 and they looked at trust, compassion, stability and hope. And of all four of those, hope led the way because followers want their leaders to have hope. Napoleon Bonaparte says, leaders are dealers in hope.

Hmm, interesting.

That's what our people want right now. They want to know that there is something better because there's so much uncertainty in our world. And I think hope kind of encompasses all of those other three components. A hope dealer, a leader who is a hope dealer and sees that possibility, they're going to foster trust with the people that they lead. They're going to be compassionate and connect and care, and they are going to create environments that are stable.

And in our world, there is so much uncertainty. A leader who develops cultures of hope, they do all of those things in their organization.

That's interesting because at the end of 1 Corinthians 13 says these three, faith, hope and love. You your faith in God, your hope of eternal life and resurrection. And of course, love is the biggest, but very cool. And so there again, if I have a business with a culture that isn't, that needs to be improved for it that way, and I like this message and I want to get a culture of hope.

Well, it'd a good, do have a couple of good starting points of things I could do to help my, to communicate that to my people that they're important and

Sure,

things are gonna go well.

absolutely. So, you know, one of the things that I believe is true with my system of hope, your habits are your small consistent actions that you take every single day. It's something that happens over and over and over again. So that's where I would encourage you to start with something small and consistent. For instance, David, let's say that

You and I work together and I'm the leader and I want to connect with you to start facilitating this culture of hope. It's just checking in with you, not asking you about the project and not asking you about something work related, but how are you? You know, it's one thing to feel valued as an employee. It's a completely different thing to feel valued as a human being. And that's what people want right now. They want to feel valued like they matter.

And so I would encourage leaders to just go talk to your people, meet them where they are, find out who they are, maybe a little bit about their, you know, kids or grandkids, and just get to know each other a little bit. That idea of connection is really, I think people are craving connection. We're wired. God created us for connection. That's how we're wired. So I would start there.

And then if you wanted to investigate something a little bit more broad or more massive, we at Spark, do you do what I call a cultural assessment where we go into the organization and we interview the people and we find out what are they? You know, what do they think about the organization? Well, I was a superintendent. We did that in my school district and.

The evaluator asked if I were a parent moving into this district and you were talking to me about this school district, would you recommend that I send my kids here? Would you recommend that I work here? And just gathering that data to identify the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats, gathering that information and then bringing it back in a comprehensive report.

with recommendations for improvements specific to a system of hope is how we guide organizations to implement that culture of hope.

Okay, no, those are very good. And I've seen the good and bad of those in all the places I've been at and how when people come, when the leaders come out and just talk to the people, even just say hi or whatever, yeah, it means a lot to the people. And even if you know their name, I don't know, you know the names of people. And yeah, and I can't imagine some of the places I've been at that they would want.

Right.

Absolutely.

360 degree and interview all the people like they probably don't want to hear what they have to say because it's not good some of these places. But yeah, that's honestly, if you have a desire to change, that's probably the beginnings part there too, just the desire to change too. But then we're lost sometimes at what do do first? What do we do second? But yeah.

Well, and Dave,

you know this and I know this, but if you have a desire to change, change starts with me. So the very first step is again, going back to that hope fueled leadership kickstart because you have to lead yourself well before you can lead others well. And that's kind of the summation of what that's intended to do is to really get to know your fears, your motivations, your desires, your blind spots and lead yourself well.

Absolutely.

When there's issues in an organization, our tendency is to blame, to shame. But we really need to look in the mirror and first evaluate what is my role in this? What is my perception in this? And maybe we need to reframe. Maybe we need to make some changes internally and start with the leader. That's not to say that's the case all the time, but

it's certainly a good place to start.

Absolutely, yes. Start with the leaders. I don't know if you said it, somebody else said it that, I said, if there's a cultural problem, it's a leadership problem because the leaders lead. yeah, obviously they lead. But yeah, our time is running short here. Just trying to wrap things up. What is one simple way that we can begin to apply what we have talked about today in our life? We've talked about a lot of different things. there one way that we can just start to...

as an employee or as an owner to direct our culture more to a hopeful based culture.

Yeah, so each week I put out a newsletter. It's called Lead from the Spark. And today I sent an email and I titled it a quick spark. It's just a quick spark. And I reminded people in that quick spark that we are going to have adversity. You know, there's going to be customers, parents, students, maybe colleagues who get upset.

and they yell at us, they react, they push our buttons and we have a choice. But the first thing that I believe we should do is practice the pause. Take a step back, take a deep breath, calm yourself because a leader who brings calm brings that stability to the organization. And if you can practice that pause in those tense moments when

emotions are high and people are escalated and you bring the calm as the leader, then I think that is a good place to start as you are beginning to infuse hope in your life and in your leadership and in your culture at your organization. And that's something you can do today, starting today.

That's a very good one-liner. Yes, start with a pause, absolutely. Brandy, thank you so much for your time. Encouragement today. I know there's lots of things else we could talk about, but our time's up right now. Friends, your next step to put into practice what you've heard is check out the show notes for some links and sites and contact information to get to know Brandy a little bit more and the things that she has to offer. And then also sign up for our newsletter to receive Bible verses for business success that delivered right to your straight.

right to your inbox to read and apply and be inspired by. And finally, remember your business represents the great God you serve. So build a business worthy of God's name in a way that honors him. Bye for now.