EPISODE OVERVIEW

Duration: Approximately 25 minutes

Best For: Trapped entrepreneurs who know they need more visibility and thought leadership but feel too busy running the day to day

Key Outcome: A clear framework for building your authority and visibility without adding more to your already overflowing plate

She spent 20 years making male CEOs famous. Then she lost her job and realised she had been secretly dreaming of her own company the entire time.

THE BOTTOM LINE

You built something from nothing. Fifteen years of grinding, of showing up when no one else would. And now you have the expertise, the track record, the results. The thing is, nobody knows about it because you are too busy answering emails at 5am to tell anyone. Kelly Schuknecht spent two decades as the person behind the person, making other leaders shine while staying invisible herself. When she was pushed out in an acquisition, she stopped applying for jobs by Monday morning and went all in on her own company. Fifteen months later, she has a team of ten people and a thriving thought leadership agency. This episode reveals how trapped entrepreneurs can build visibility and authority without adding more complexity to their already overwhelming lives. Kelly shares the exact framework she uses to help business owners step into the spotlight while systems handle the heavy lifting. Because your expertise is worthless if it stays trapped inside your head.

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS TO YOU

Your competitors are becoming the recognised experts in your industry while you remain the best kept secret, which means clients choose them instead of you

You know LinkedIn matters and speaking matters and visibility matters, and you have precisely zero hours to make any of it happen

Every hour you spend on marketing is an hour away from delivery, so you stay invisible and the cycle continues

The longer you wait to build your authority platform, the harder it becomes to escape the trap of trading time for money

KEY INSIGHTS YOU CAN IMPLEMENT TODAY

Your Authority X Factor already exists. Kelly discovered that combining her publishing background with her marketing expertise created a unique positioning that attracted clients immediately. What two or three skills make you different? Name them and own them, because clarity attracts clients while vagueness repels them.

You can be visible without being everywhere. Kelly's speaker elevation plan focuses on strategic visibility rather than constant content creation. This means you can build authority through podcast interviews, speaking events, and targeted LinkedIn presence without becoming a full time content creator.

Outsource the execution, keep the expertise. Kelly's team handles LinkedIn management, speaking applications, and content ghostwriting for clients. The result is that busy founders show up as thought leaders without the time drain. Your job is to have the ideas. Someone else can turn them into content.

The first year will surprise you. Kelly grew quickly and then faced the reality that nobody makes buying decisions in November and December. She adapted by planning for seasonal slowdowns and hitting January hard. Knowing the rhythm of your market protects you from panic.

Self care is not optional when you are building. Kelly admits she did not take care of herself well in year one. She read only 16 books instead of her usual 50 to 60. She has now committed to walking four miles daily and reading again because she cannot pour from an empty cup. Neither can you.

GOLDEN QUOTES WORTH REMEMBERING

"I call myself an accidental entrepreneur. I never felt driven to start a company. I say that, and then I'm going to tell you my story, and it's not true. It was in me. I just didn't know it." - Kelly Schuknecht

"By Monday morning I was like, screw this, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not applying for jobs. I am going all in on this company." - Kelly Schuknecht

"Being very clear and specific about how I can help was a key factor in our growth that first year. Because I wasn't just saying I'm a marketing person and I can do anything." - Kelly Schuknecht

"We use AI on my team to be efficient. My feeling about AI is that it's making us more efficient, making us better at what we do and saving us some steps. You still need people adapting the output and thinking a little bit." - Kelly Schuknecht

"I wasn't prepared for the ups and downs. Things were growing so I hired a bunch of people and then learned that certain people don't work like I do. Nobody's going to work like I do." - Kelly Schuknecht

QUICK NAVIGATION FOR BUSY LEADERS

00:00 - Introduction: From Cancun to Colorado, meeting an accidental entrepreneur

02:15 - The 20 Year Setup: Why Kelly spent two decades making other people famous

04:45 - The Secret Dream: How she was building a company website while still employed

06:30 - The Push: Losing her job and going all in by Monday morning

08:20 - Authority X Factor: Finding what makes you uniquely valuable in the market

11:00 - First Year Reality: Growing to a team of ten and the surprises that came with it

14:15 - Health and Business: Why Kelly stopped reading 50 books and what she is doing about it

17:30 - AI and Marketing: How her agency uses AI without losing the human element

21:00 - The Future: Book launch, course creation, and what is coming next

24:30 - Connect with Kelly: Resources and how to find your own thought leadership score

GUEST SPOTLIGHT

Name: Kelly Schuknecht

Bio: Kelly is the CEO of Two Mile High Marketing, a strategic marketing agency helping founders, CEOs, and professional service providers build visibility through thought leadership. With over 15 years in publishing and executive marketing, she has helped high achievers turn their expertise into powerful personal brands. She speaks nationally on visibility, content strategy, and the mindset shift required to go from behind the scenes to centre stage.

Connect with Kelly:

Website: https://twomilehighmarketing.com/

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

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@KellySchuknecht

YOUR NEXT ACTIONS

This Week: Take Kelly's free Thought Leader Scorecard quiz at her website. Three minutes will show you exactly where you stand and what to prioritise first. Clarity creates momentum.

This Month: Identify your Authority X Factor by listing the two or three experiences or skills that make you uniquely positioned in your market. Write one LinkedIn post about it and see what resonates.

This Quarter: Commit to one visibility activity you can delegate, whether that is podcast appearances, speaking applications, or LinkedIn management. Your expertise deserves an audience without you doing all the work.

EPISODE RESOURCES

Book mentioned: Personality Isn't Permanent by Benjamin Hardy

Book mentioned: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Book mentioned: Getting Things Done by David Allen

Book mentioned: Who Not How by Dan Sullivan

Book mentioned: Traction by Gino Wickman

Quiz: Thought Leader Scorecard at twomilehighmarketing.com

Upcoming: The Authority X Factor book and course launching April 2025

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READY TO ESCAPE THE TRAP?

Take the Freedom Score Quiz: https://scoreapp.atpbos.com/

Discover how trapped you are in your business and get your personalised roadmap to freedom in under 5 minutes.

Book a Free Strategy Session: https://www.atpbos.com/contact

Let's discuss how to build a business that works WITHOUT you.

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CONNECT WITH YOUR HOST, ROY CASTLEMAN

Roy is the founder of All The Power Limited and creator of Elevate360, a business coaching system for entrepreneurs ready to scale without burnout. As a certified Wim Hof Method Instructor and the UK's first certified BOS UP coach, Roy combines AI automation, wellness practices, and business operating systems to help trapped entrepreneurs reclaim their freedom.

Website: www.atpbos.com

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

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@allthepowerltd

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Hello from Cancun in Mexico, and I'm here with Kelly.

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I won't even try and say her surname because I

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got it wrong before. Welcome, Kelly. Thank you. Welcome to

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the podcast and I'm looking forward to hearing all about

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it. Yeah, thank you. It's Shuk, which I know is

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tough to spell and tough to say. And also I'm

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very jealous of where you are because I would imagine

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it's a bit warmer than it is here in Colorado.

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You're in marketing. First of all, how long have you

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been doing your current company? And secondly, how did you

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get into it? I love that story of when entrepreneurs

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decide that they're ready to give birth to their creation.

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I call myself an accidental entrepreneur. I never felt driven

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to be an entrepreneur. I never felt driven to start

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a company. I say that, but I'm going to tell

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you my story, and it's not true. It was in

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me. I just didn't know it. I was the person

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behind the person. For 20 years of my career, I

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worked 30 for male CEOs. They were the visionaries. They

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had all the ideas and knew everything. I helped them

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get everything done. That was the role that I thought

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I was supposed to be in. I was a great

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support person. I was a vice president of a company,

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and then I was a director of marketing and was

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the person to bring the vision to life. And I

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was good in that role. But the company I was

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working for was acquired, and as a part of that

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acquisition, being in marketing, it was not really surprising that

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I lost my job. When that happened. There was a

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couple of years after the acquisition where I had this

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gut feeling, I think I'm going to lose my job.

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And I kept thinking, like, what would I do next?

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Do I want to go through the job search process

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again? And I kept coming back to this company that

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I was dreaming of, and I named it Two Mile

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High Marketing. Let me talk to you right there. Let's

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say you're not an entrepreneur, but you were dreaming of

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a company. I don't think of myself as that, but

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I was dreaming of it. I just didn't give myself

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credit. I wasn't owning that as this is my dream.

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I was secretly dreaming that. And I had started a

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website. I was thinking about what I was going to

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offer and how it was going to work. I lost

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my job. I had the meeting. It was shocking. It

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was like a Thursday. So it went through the weekends.

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Okay, I can apply for jobs. I'll start every day

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applying for jobs. And then after I apply for jobs

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then, then I'll work on my company. It was still

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going to be a side hustle and by Monday morning

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I was like, screw this, I'm not doing this anymore.

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I'm not applying for jobs. I am going all in

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on this company. I quickly started talking to people, trying

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to figure out what I now call my authority X

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factor. I was trying to figure out what made me

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unique and what made me the best fit in the

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marketplace. I feel like I tapped into it really well

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because my business grew really quickly within a year and

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I feel like I'm exactly where I was meant to

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be. I just had to get pushed to be in

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that position. How long have you been going now? As

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of right now, it's been about 15 months. Yeah, that

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first year is always the hardest, right? I hope so.

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I grew to a team of three full time people

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and five to seven part time and contractors. We grew

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pretty quickly. I hope that the first year was the

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hardest. In all of the learning lessons that I learned

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in the first year, the biggest one, I wasn't prepared

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for the ups and downs. Right. Things were growing and

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so I hired a bunch of people and then learned

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that certain people don't work like I do. Nobody's going

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to work like I do. Certain people are going to

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work out. We went through this cycle of training new

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people and then this person didn't work and then training

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a new person and then that didn't work. I was

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shelling out money, paying all these people and it wasn't

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coming back to me in productivity. The end of the

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year really surprised me that I was getting a lot

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of sales calls, a lot of people coming to me

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and then saying, yeah, this sounds great, we'll start in

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January. We're putting together our budget for next year. The

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last couple months of the year I was panicking. People

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don't make decisions in November and December and now I'm

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prepared for this next year. Don't plan on any sales

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in November and December. If you have them, that's a

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bonus. But don't plan on it because you don't know

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what's going to happen. January hit the ground hard in

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January and now we've had a crazy month this month

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with people finally moving forward. Those are things I was

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not expecting. So what makes you guys different then? I

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originally thought two Mile High Marketing was going to be

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a fractional CMO firm. That's what I thought I would

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do is offer fractional CMO services. But as I started

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thinking about the messaging and how I was going to

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position myself and talk about what I did. I just

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couldn't get my head around fractional CMO services because I

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feel like there's so many people out there doing that

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type of work. And in fact, I had hired fractional

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CMOs in the past and not had great results. I'd

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heard from other people they didn't have great results. And

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so I wanted to differentiate myself from that. I decided

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to lean into my own unique experience. Experience. I had

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spent 10 years in publishing. A lot of business owners

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would ask me about writing and publishing a book. And

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then the second half of my career was building a

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marketing team and taking my boss and elevating him as

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a thought leader in his industry and helping him grow

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his company. That I'm going to take these two things

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and create a service where I help people develop their

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thought leadership platform. Helping people get speaking events, podcast interviews,

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doing their LinkedIn management. Most business owners know they gotta

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show up on LinkedIn even though they don't have the

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time for it and they don't want to do it.

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We take that off of their plate, ghostwriting so we

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can help them get that book in hand. So when

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they're going out and speaking, they have that. Being very

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clear and specific about how I can help was a

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key factor in our growth that first year. Because I

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wasn't just saying I'm a marketing person and I can

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do anything related to marketing. I was very specific. We

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also do have outsourced marketing clients. We do other services

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for people. I don't lead with that. I lead with

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the speaker elevation plan that we do, the thought leadership

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marketing. And I think that made a big difference. That

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segue into something slightly different. You're in

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the honeymoon phase. You're just coming out of the honeymoon

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phase right over this. Yeah. Your baby, your business, your

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thing you're building in the world. How have you handled

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your own mental and physical health through this process? Not

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well, is the first answer. In fact, you're interviewing me

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at a really great time. Because I'm a big reader

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and I typically read 50 to 60 books every year.

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I always set a goal. 52 books is one book

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a week. It comes out to 50 to 60. And

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in 2025, my first full year in business, I read

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16 books above average, but it was way less than

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I normally read. And because of that, I told myself

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I've got to start reading back into my daily routine.

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Even though sometimes my mind is all over the place

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with business stuff. It's not that I'm So busy and

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working all the time. It's just that your brain just.

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I have a hard time getting my brain to relax

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in order to read. And so I told myself I

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need to do that. The other thing is I am

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just at the end of. I'm dog sitting my husband's

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dog. He got a Belgian Malinois, which is a very

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high energy dog. And it's. And it's seven months old.

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And he went out of town for two weeks. And

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so I have to walk this dog two miles every

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morning, two miles every afternoon. And I'm almost done. But

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the one thing I learned from the last two weeks

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was, wow, my body is a lot better off for

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moving. Like, setting aside that time now I also combine

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that with listening to an audiobook while I walk him.

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So I'm getting away from my desk, I'm separating my

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day. Like, I start with that, I end with that,

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and then in the middle is my work, right? And

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I will say the first year, 2025, I did not

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take care of myself very well. But I made some

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commitments to myself this year to work some better habits

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into my life in a way that I can manage

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right now. And so that's what I'm working on. I

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work with business owners and I help them grow and

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scale the companies. And first of all, I help them.

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They are. And how they think about it. Not the

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tools, because everyone has tools, right? Everyone has 500 tools

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they don't know what to do with, but how to

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think about it. Then I will only work with them

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if they're prepared to do what you just spoken about.

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They have to be able to look after themselves. There

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I've been in the situation where I'm just about to

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jump off a tower because I'm suicidal, right? And because

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I learned breath work, because I've done Wim Hof and

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I'm Wim HOF instructor. I just did some breath work

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and that saved my life. And 60% of small business

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owners or near burnout. And so I won't work with

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people unless they're prepared to invest in themselves. Because the

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other thing we end up doing, I think, is we

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end up looking after everyone else, not ourselves. Right? Yeah,

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that really resonates. That's really fundamental to how you can

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grow and scale your business. You can't do it without

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the energy you need. So the question is, firstly, what's

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your favorite book out of all time? Oh, man, one

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of my favorites. I'm like, dang it. Favorite of all

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time, huh? Okay, can I do Two. No, you can

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tell us one book that changed my

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life. I'm gonna say Personality isn't permanent. It's by Benjamin

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Hardy. That book is why I am where I am

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right now, today. First one, and then you can share

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your second one. Okay. Okay. My first one is the

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Four Agreements. I've heard of that. I have not read

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it. It's a short one. Yeah, I gotta read it.

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The second one is Getting Things Done by David Allen.

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You're not half for me, I guess. Work 1. What's

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that hear not how. Is that what you said, Dan

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Sullivan? Yeah. That's one who. Not how. I have read

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that one, but it's been a while now. Yeah. To

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your first point. Your personality isn't permanent. Right? Yeah. Your

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requirements now are different from what they were. Let's transition

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now on to, you know, the subject is going to

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change all of our lives massively from two years ago.

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They are. How are you thinking about where do you

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see this going in the world and what you've chosen

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in terms of your key person of influence piece? In

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terms of doing that is. Is very powerful for the

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next year. But very few careers are especially. Marketing is

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going to be the biggest thing that gets killed. Where

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do you see it going? Yeah, marketing agencies are definitely

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struggling right now with AI and what it's replacing. And

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I think agencies are just trying to figure out how

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to get ahead of it. Right. And how to be

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prepared for what's coming or what has already come and

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what's impacting them. Because people can create an image now

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without. You don't need a. You can write content, you

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don't need a writer, you can design a website. You

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don't even need a developer. There's all these things that

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it can do now. Somebody asked me when I first

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started my business, because I started it in the middle

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of all of this. People are like, what are you

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thinking? You're starting an agency right now. That did make

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me rethink my plan a little bit. But for me,

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we use AI on my team to be efficient. We

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can use it to do research for speaking events. We

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have some databases we use, but we can also use

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some LLM tools to do some research around that. We

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can use it to create some content. We never just

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use it straight from the LLM though. If I'm applying

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for a speaking event, I can very quickly adjust the

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presentation brief that I have for a client to the

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event and who the attendees and the theme of what

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they're looking for. Those things are really great. My feeling

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about AI is that it's making us more efficient, it's

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making us better at what we do and it's saving

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us some steps. But you still need people adapting what

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you're getting the output and thinking a little bit. I

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couldn't be as efficient with my team without the AI.

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I know that's the case, but it's not a touch

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of a button and it can just do what we

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are doing for people. I love your element of keeping

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human in. One of the books I read spoke a

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lot about bookending with human. Always bookend all over the

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place. I would say that what I feel is the

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biggest missing point at the moment for people is that

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in order to be more human, what's the one thing

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you have to do? You have to do way less

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repetitive tasks. For example, when I finish this podcast, it

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gets picked up automatically from Zoom, it gets dumped into

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a folder. I then pick it up from there and

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I do a little bit of work on Descript and

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it then does two and a half days worth of

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work that it would have taken me beforehand and puts

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it everywhere with human checks and then pushed out. And

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the automation piece for every small business owner that's out

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there, the automation piece is huge. There just aren't companies

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doing it. I'm actually starting a company doing this as

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well. They just aren't companies that can look at the

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business structure, the operating system, the sops, the step by

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steps, those things that we do repeatedly and once we

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know what those things are, then the things that don't

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need human can be pulled out and then the humans

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can spend more time doing what they love doing. This

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is a key feature of who not how is that

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right? Do the thing you love doing, go and do

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the speaking events, go and be on camera, go and

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do the things that really light that fire in your

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life. And if you can do those for 90 of

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the day, what a gift. That's where I see the

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majority of the successful companies are going to come from

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in 26. Firstly, I don't know if you've come across

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the book traction using I coach a similar system to

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that. This structure and grounding where you're working on the

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business, not in the business. Fundamental then using AI to

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layer all the repetitive tasks into that so that what

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you're actually ending up doing is just having more time

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to spend 90% of your day doing what you love.

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And that for most people it's a human connection. We

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lost in Covid. We've been losing it for years now.

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Now we have the opportunity of giving it back again.

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I think it's a lovely time to be starting a

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business now. If you do it in the right way.

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Right. Too many people are scared and too many people

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are not thinking in. In the productive way. How can

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AI help me with this? How can it be my

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thought partner? How can it make me think more? I

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still maintain. Last year I probably got six years worth

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of work done in six months. This year I think

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I got six years worth of work done. And less

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than that. It's just speeding up. I don't know if

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you've heard about the latest craze of claw Claude bot

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that's out there. Got nothing to do with Claude. Very

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scary. You take your mobile phone, right. You configure all

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the stuff in there, then Claudbot can take control of

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your PC. Right. And it can do everything for you.

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Go onto your social media, post things, go to a

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bank. The one I saw yesterday, someone posted a video

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of Claude Watt, actually went and built an AI agent,

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voice agent on eleven's labs, because he was trying to

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book an appointment for the person. They didn't have a

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booking. So he called them up and talked them into

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it. And understanding this is where we're going. Yeah.

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Fundamental to running a business now, obviously, that is massively

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fraught with all sorts of security holes all over the

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place and people are easier. I'll just do that. And

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suddenly credit cards are empty, your house is remortgaged and

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it's buying Bitcoin. So it can make you more money.

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Yeah. Then the market crashes. There's all sorts of challenges

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around that. But that's the difference between being on the

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bleeding edge and the cutting edge. Yeah. You want to

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stay close to the cutting edge, but not quite there.

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For small businesses, it's so important to know what's possible.

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Yeah. Yeah. And it's hard to stay on top of

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all of it. It's moving so fast and that's. Yeah,

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it's purely. What's the business problem I fixed today? First

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of all, fix it, then systemize it and then automate

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it and then move on to the next one. So

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what's the future look like? I don't know. I think

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for us at Two Mile High Marketing, we continue to

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grow. It seems like we are. Things are moving. That's

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a mind shift there, young lady. You're not hoping anything.

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You're going to continue to grow. It's going to happen.

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Yeah. Yes. In April. Ish. I will be publishing

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my book, the Authority X factor in and launching a

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course to go along with that on personal branding. So

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those are pieces I've needed to have in place for

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my business and also have not had the time to

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dedicate to that in this first year. So prioritizing that

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in the first quarter, that's one of the things that

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I'm really trying to get done because I know it'll

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be helpful to people and just another good way for

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us to serve people who maybe aren't a good fit

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for our services. They're smaller and they want to learn

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how to do some of the personal branding things that

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I teach. So that's this year. That's about as far

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as I can see into the future. Even see six

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months in the future. Who knows if people want to

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get hold of you? Kelly, what's the best way to

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do that? 2milehighmarketing.com if you're a business owner interested in

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developing your thought leadership platform, I do have a quiz

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Thought Leader Scorecard right on the website. When you go

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there, you can take that three minutes. It's free and

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it's a great resource for learning more about what you

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could do to develop your thought leadership platform and more.

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It'll give you a score and give you some tips.

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LinkedIn is a great place to connect with me and

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Roy can put my LinkedIn link in the show notes

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because my name is not easy to spell. Thank you

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for joining me. It's been amazing chatting. Thanks Roy.