In this conversation, Kelly Resendez (GoodLeap strategic advisor, Co-Founder of GoBundance Women, and author of Big Voices) lays out a practical playbook for high-performing mortgage pros to grow without burnout. We unpack her three pillars—clarifying how you want to feel, installing daily disciplines (morning rituals, language audits, “abundance audits”), and engineering your environment (people, inputs, boundaries). Kelly replaces flimsy motivation with conviction and clarity, shares the mantra “I own my joy,” and shows how to turn every call into a life-changing introduction for you and others. If you’re a loan officer, branch leader, or exec chasing production and peace, this episode is a blueprint for sustainable success.
[David] Listeners, I always get excited when I get the opportunity to interview leaders, especially when they’re women leaders. There’s a lot of great leaders in the country, but when you find someone as special as Kelly Resendez, you want to just want to spend time with her. I heard her speak at a Lexus Nexus event, I think it was? was it? No, it was a Lexus.
[Kelly] Simple Nexus
[David] Simple Nexus event. I heard you speak there and you’re I just found out what brilliance is inside of you. You embrace abundant living. We share that together. We’re very much that. You’re a strategic advisor at GoodLeap, which is a multi-billion dollar technology company, if I understand correctly. I want to hear more about that. You’re the co-owner of GoBundance, which we could spend all day on that one. And then you’re also the author of the bestselling book Big Voices. So, Kelly, welcome to the podcast. So good to have you here.
[Kelly] Hi, David, so excited to be here.
[David] Yes, and my audience is going to be applauding I can hear them in the background because you have a lot of people that follow you, and not only that. You and I share the desire to transform lives. We want to make an impact on people’s lives, and you certainly have. So let’s start about your journey to make an impact on people’s lives. How did you discover that and what was your journey to actually do it?
[Kelly] Yeah. So I would say that I started impacting lives early. You know, fortunately I had an amazing grandma who was very empathetic, bringing love and light into these people’s lives, and super grateful for that, because that was offset with a lot of achievement and, I would say, significance focus as well. And so I grew up a classic achiever, overachiever, and it served me well into the mortgage industry and so, you know, from the very get go I was a top producer getting into mortgage and so help people with, with, you know, really just financing needs. But then I realized that the real estate community needed a lot of support as well. So I started speaking and sharing and teaching them business principles. But what I didn’t realize being super successful came at a giant cost, which was my health, my stress, you know. All of those things suffered and I really didn’t know how miserable I was. Like it looked like I had worldly success but I was an absolute mess inside. And it wasn’t until my mom got diagnosed with dementia that you know I would probably say I started to look at my own life and just really tap into like what am I doing this all for? Like yes, I’m making a difference, but I’m costing myself a lot of my peace and a lot of my joy and started down this adventure in 2004 into personal growth and development. I haven’t looked back. I don’t think I have a present moment before, I was always worried about what other people thought and impressing other people and so just grateful.
[David] Yeah, worst place to live is caring about what others think more than about your own. Peace and joy and contribution in a positive way, that’s. Yeah, I don’t think that’s at all unfamiliar with anyone listening to this. Because we all start trying to please our parents or please somebody a school teacher. We grow into this place where that becomes a rut we start living in and the definition of a grave is a rut is a grave with both ends kicked out. So I love that expression. But anyway, let’s talk about your adventures in GoBundance, because this is where I want to spend some time parking. First of all, I love the name. How did you come up with the name GoBundance?
[Kelly] Yeah, to be honest, I didn’t. So there was a men’s organization that was already created by four amazing founders, yeah, GoBundance. And so they, you know, kind of put out into the universe that they were looking for some amazing women to come in and help them create a women’s division. And so you know, being an Abundance speaker myself, it was a perfect opportunity to really be able to go in and help start this mastermind community, which we’ve been around now for, you know, seven years, and have just ambitious female leaders from across the nation and business owners that are looking to scale without sacrifice. So we give them a lot of business, you know, I would say strategy, but also make sure that their health and their relationships and their passive income and adventure all in check too.
[David] Yeah, I mean to be able to be successful and have significance without having to be sacrificing the more important things, the more long lasting things, the family, our relationships that are with that are going to endure way, probably way longer than our career. So how do you, how do you begin that journey? How do you do that? So how do you, how do you begin that?
[Kelly] I had to learn how to do it myself first and so what I would tell you is that it sounds like it is simple. It sounds like it’s simple Like well, just, you know, align your time or whatnot. The thing that people don’t really share with us is how addictive productivity is, how addictive significance is, and when most of us are running businesses on KPIs and other data to be able to determine whether or not we’re successful. We get a paycheck, we get a distribution from our own company. You get tangible results from that success with relationships and with your health and with adventure. There aren’t the same tangible results that you get, and so, even though people have the intention of not sacrificing, most people have the challenge of being present. So, they might be with their family, but they’re thinking about work or they’re on their email or they’re on social media their trying to go have fun but they are having conversations about work because it is truly addictive. So, to start, the first thing I would say for people that will start with on this journey is to really coming up with a clear vision for how you want to feel in your life. And so when you think about how you want to feel like I want to feel peace, well, if I’m a workaholic and I’m stressed all the time, there’s no peace in that, so I’ve got to really start to set some goals around that or if I want to feel abundant, you know, and I want to feel like I have more than enough, you know how many times I talk to people and they tell me how busy they are. That’s not abundance, that’s scarcity. Busy means I don’t have enough time or energy or resources or whatever those things are. So, you’ve got to determine how you want to feel. So, to back that up, I’m going to. I’m going to go a little sideways on you, David, but I want to talk a little bit about neuroscience, because what successful people? What successful people don’t realize, because no one has ever told us, is that you are not your brain and you are not your thoughts. If you can, if you can really accept that and start seeing it as the machine that it is, just like your laptop, just like your iPhone. It’s been running an old program that’s really based off of old technology, which is survival. I want to make sure that you keep breathing and you’ve survived this long being stressed, so I’m going to keep creating the same things. When you start to see your thoughts and your brain is separate from yourself, you can really dig into the magic of life, which is we don’t have to work so hard, like we’re all energy and if I am embodying abundance, I am attracting in exactly what I need in order to be able to get to the next level, and so I’ve had this happen multiple times. I’ve had more than one career. You know, when I retired from being a top loan officer in the nation in 2011, and we were crushing it and I took an executive role at GoodLeap, which you know, Paramount, or LoanPal I left everything because I trusted. I trusted myself, I trusted, you know this divine guidance that you couldn’t see and helped the founders really, you know create. You know that one of the nation’s largest home improvement financing companies now, and so you know create. You know the one of the nation’s largest home improvement financing companies now. And so you know, and I just did it again, which you’ve got my old bio cause I haven’t even sent it to you I just became president of Minerva, which is a women’s telemedicine and technology company revolutionizing women’s healthcare, and so I am just a firm believer that the next best opportunity only comes, only comes, when you know how you want to feel in your life and you’re trusting that I I’ve had to retrain my brain to really serve me instead of me and my physical body serving my brain.
[David] Yeah, it’s so true and most people have that absolutely reversed. How important is motivation in this process?
[Kelly] That’s a great question. What I would tell you, I don’t even know what motivation is. I would probably have to ChatGPT to figure out what it is and how it showed up in my life, because I have zero reliance on it. You know it is something that I had to give up a long time ago because motivation is really all do what I know I should be doing when I feel like doing it. Where on the opposite, the discipline that we need in life is to do the things that we know we should be doing when we don’t feel like it. So, I don’t ask myself do I feel like waking up at 6am when my trainer knocks on my door? I just opened the door. Do I feel like meditating? Do I feel like doing my morning ritual 365 days out of the year? Do I feel like growing in any difficult situation versus becoming a victim? These are all disciplines that I’ve anchored into, and so, for anyone listening, number one if you aren’t where you know you could be. Like, if you aren’t where you know you could be, if you’re the one looking in the mirror going, I have more potential than I’ve actualized. Look no further than the fact that you are driven by your brain and your brain is controlling you, because it is one lazy machine and it’s not going to get you up off the couch when you’re Netflixing.
[David] So what is it going to get them off the couch?
[Kelly] What is?
[David] Yeah, what is it? So what are you teaching when people are getting out and moving? I’m thinking of one of my clients right now who reminds me very much of you Top female executive, and I know she has goals and plans that are beyond. She’s killing it. She says where she’s at, but I’m really excited about her listening to this interview because I think the answer to that question is going to motivate her and a lot of others.
[Kelly] Yeah. So I’ll tell you what gets me going is conviction and clarity, and a lot of people don’t have it, and so they think, because I don’t have it, I’m not going to do anything, and that’s the wrong move. We believe conviction and clarity come from something within us, where a lot of times, it is the connections, it’s the people that you meet, it’s the opportunities that present themselves. But we’ve got to retrain ourselves to be a lot more open to infinite possibilities. You know, I just went from financial technology to femtech, which is female technology, which is a new vertical. I can do that because I’m open to infinite possibilities and I know that my skills are transferable and I also am passionate about women’s leadership. So you know you started saying you’re excited about that. Let’s be honest Only 10% of C-suite execs are female. Only 2 ½% of venture capital is going to female founders, and I believe women have one of two choices we can be a victim of the systems that we thought were there to protect us, like the Equal Opportunity Act, which is a bunch of BS, or we can be empowered to do something about it, and that’s why I’m going to the physical part first and then getting women more convicted that, if we don’t redesign systems around what works for us, which is a lot more freedom and flexibility, because, trust me, when I was an executive and I was raising my kids, I was thinking about the dentist and the homework and the board meeting and the this and the that simultaneously. You know, my favorite analogy are that men are like waffles right, they compartmentalize I’m at work and women are like a bowl of spaghetti you touch one noodle and every noodle moves right. We’re constantly in this different space. Constantly in this different space, we have to redesign systems, and the only way we do that is if we rise into our power, and we’re not going to get there without conviction. And so, for me, that’s what gets me going is that, you know, I don’t want to help one person, I don’t want to help 20 people, I don’t want to help a thousand people, I want to redesign the entire women’s health care system and leadership system that’s existing today.
[David] So what disciplines do you recommend to tap into someone their own abundance or potential.
[Kelly] Yeah, great question. My newest book that’s going to be coming out is called The Frequency. John Maxwell wrote the foreword for me. I’ve got a lot, a lot of excitement that’s going to be coming out in the next few months around that. So what I would tell you is that you know there are pillars that are going to get you into abundance, and the first one is the vision for how you want to feel and then really just creating a new emotional narrative for yourself. Most of us, we focus on what’s not satisfactory, whether it’s politics. You know, my plane got delayed in Dallas yesterday on the tarmac for three hours. Who cares? Everyone around me has energy was like angry, like it’s. I mean sorry, America doesn’t control the weather and everyone knows it’s in Dallas. Like you never know what to expect right. So, I own my joy. That is my overarching theme in my life.
[David] Say that again.
[Kelly] I own my joy. That is my overarching theme in my life. The external world has very little impact Now. My 90 year old dad can get me every once in a while. Let me tell you but for the most part I own my joy right. Not the markets, not not the deals, not the anything not the tarmac. Like I found a way to work, like it was fine. And then the next pillar is really what disciplines do I need to adopt in order to feel the way that I do? Well, some of these things, like my morning ritual is, 365 days out of the year, non-negotiable. I would guarantee 99% of your listeners look at their cell phone before they look in the mirror and ask themselves who do I want to be today? I want to be powerful, I want to be focused, I want to be abundant, I want to be in a place where I’m making massive introductions. Just today alone, I have at least 12 introductions from the calls that I’ve had that I’m going to make, and these are life changing introductions, like who can I connect you with? That’s going to really make an impact.
[David] Yes, yeah, and I think when people hear that they, they, they almost don’t believe, they struggle with that. You know well, am I doing that? And it starts with that first conversation that you have with yourself at the mirror in the morning, that conversation is going by your brain, you’re going down the drain. If your conversation comes from a vision of what someone or what you believe is possible, then that is what some could be realized.
[Kelly] Yeah, but it’s like part of the neuroscience, like we get what we focus on. If you want to focus on what’s not working, like, go do it. I just remember, like coaching loan officers and real estate agents and they would tell me everything that’s wrong and it’s like, well, of course you’re going to get more of that. Like, focus on what’s right and it will make a big difference. The other disciplines that I will tell you is understanding the power of language, most people don’t realize the words we speak create our reality, both internally and externally. So if I’m going around telling people I’m busy, overwhelmed, stressed, any of those things I’m going to, I’m going to create a lot more of that. So you’ve really got to become a student of whether it’s neuro linguistic programming or other language. You know I hear people all the time like that’s killing me, it’s like great, you’re going to be dead pretty soon. Or you know I can’t handle this. Well, what does that mean? your body is going to start shutting down you know, I operate at a level of energy that most people probably couldn’t Like. They’re like, how do you keep it up? And I’m like I’m auditing. One of my disciplines is doing an abundance audit regularly. I don’t want to spend time with people.
[David] Dive into that briefly. I know we don’t want to get into the other one, but that’s a really good point. When you’re auditing, you’re examining. A life not examined is not worth living.
[Kelly] Yep, here’s what I would say, really easy to do. When you do an abundance audit, you look at your calendar, you look at your interactions, you give them a positive, a negative or a neutral. I want to spend 90% of my life in the positive. I’ll accept a little bit of neutral. I’ll accept a little bit of minuses. I still have to unload my own dishwasher. I still have to fold my own clothes. You know I don’t go to the grocery store. Thank you, Instacart this is not a commercial for them, but like I look at, you know some of the things like Amazon and Instacart, like I don’t like going to the grocery store, you might think it’s a positive and you want to go grab the melons. Whatever it is, you know, it just is. It’s whatever you are really like, energized by and what I didn’t realize, David, is that I was surrounding myself with people that were negative in my life way too often out of habit, out of like I’ve just always gone to dinner with them, or I’ve always spent time with them, or I’ve always done this and I’m like now I’m just like no, if I am going to spend time outside of solitude, which I need a significant amount of human free time. I’m an ambivert, I’m not an introvert. I’m not an extrovert, I’m an ambivert. I need a lot of human free time. If I’m going to spend time doing something, it’s going to be a positive, and so this audit is something that I would recommend doing quarterly, even with people because it can change. Like I’ve wore so many hats in my career, right. I’ve run multiple divisions at GoodLeap. I’ve done so many different things simultaneously. While I was doing that, and sometimes, as seasons pass, they do, and so you might. What made you happy a year ago maybe doesn’t make you as happy today.
[David] So true, and recognizing those seasons in your life and those changes is so important. How important is environment?
[Kelly] Oh, my God, how do you know all my pillars? You’re like nailing them. So the third pillar is really the environment. When you look at your environment, it’s internal and external. So, what do I mean by internal? It’s how’s my physical and emotional well being? I always want to work on those things. And then who do I surround myself with? And that’s partly why I started GoBundance Women was that I wanted to not feel like I was too much, and so when you’re really successful.
[David] Clarify that a minute, because I think there’s something more rich in that that I don’t want to skip over. When you say that you want to feel, say that again.
[Kelly] I didn’t want to always feel like I was too much.
[David] Right, yes. And how many people are saying I get told that all my life you’re just too much, you’re just too this, you’re too that, do that. Well, if you’re really going for an abundant lifestyle, guess what? You’re gonna be too much for some people. That’s the gauge where you start wrecking a change is coming, so good!
[Kelly] 100% So most people don’t invest in their environment. They have friends, they meet them at an event, their kids went to school together, they went to high school or college with them. When you really start investing in your environment like I just came from another mastermind in Dallas with Board of Advisors, another great group for business owners and CEOs like there are so many different amazing places when you invest, you are more likely to get a return. And so what does a return look like? It could be the next best connection. I’m raising capital right now. I’m finding, you know, basically, new telemedicine people, so I want to leverage other people’s communities to be able to build that and so when you invest in your environment, you are more likely to walk away with a massive return and so whether and that could be a coach, it could be a community. Of course I want you to check out GoBundance men or women, but there are so many others that are out there as well. What I would tell you is that if you’re not investing, you’re not going to get the same amount of returns.
[David] Yeah, Did we cover all the pillars.
[Kelly] We did. You’re so good Like there’s three pillars in my book. It’s vision, really just igniting your vision and knowing how you want to feel. Now I still want you to do goals. The feeling aspect and I know all you guys are out there going. I don’t want to be in the feeling like you’re feeling beings too, and so then we’ve got to really, you know, put in place these disciplines that are going to get us there and then ensuring that you surround yourself with the right environment. The last thing I do want to say on the environment, David, is that many of us don’t realize how toxic some of the subtle things are in our environment, and what I mean by that are having the news on in the background, yes, having your phone too close to you at night, having, you know, toxic vampires around you in your business, like if you don’t have an eight, nine or ten working alongside of you, like you are basically out of integrity. That is one of the biggest things in the environment that I really recommend is that a lot of us have inner conflict because we aren’t setting the boundaries, we aren’t surrounding ourselves with the people that we really want to be, and so you’ve got to make sure that you do that and invest in it.
[David] Yeah, what you’re really getting into is the ways people sabotage their future or their desire. It’s really the things you get into. What are some of the other things other than being around toxic people? Yeah, those are that incongruent with where you wanted to go, what are other things you’ve seen people sabotage themselves with?
[Kelly] I could spend a whole day with you talking about people in the mortgage industry and how they self-sabotage, but just in general as well, you know getting to work with thousands of business owners in my businesses it’s definitely there are some very, very, I would say, consistent ones, the first one is having a lack of emotional intelligence. So, what is emotional intelligence? It is having self-awareness and awareness of others. Like most people could really afford to work on their empathy, so we have an easy time feeling sorry for other people. We have a more challenging time, putting ourselves into the shoes of the person that’s experiencing whatever it is, because we haven’t been raised the same as them. So, we’re dismissing our employees, our partners, because they’re emotional over something that we wouldn’t be, and we’re overlaying our capacity on top of them.
[David] Yeah, and I never, I’ll never forget the time I discovered the difference between sympathy and empathy. That was like a major eye opener. If you’re just feeling sorry for people, that’s not what we’re talking about. Empathy is a more active, a proactive, an active listening. It’s just a whole lot more people need to learn about empathy, what you talked about is also self-talk. I think that’s one of the ways I see people sabotage themselves. You’ve covered so many already when you’re talking about your three pillars that are in your book. But I got to tell people need to read this book. When is it coming out?
[Kelly] That’s a great question, David. That’s a great question I have some big decisions to make here. So thanks for bringing that up bud. No, just kidding.
[David] I want to have a copy. I want an autographed copy, of course, but how can people get to know you, Kelly? Are there YouTube channels? I mean, what are the ways? Because you’re so dynamic and if an organization wants to have you come in to speak, are you still doing that?
[Kelly] I do on a limited basis. It definitely has to be the right audience, but I love helping you know especially organizations as well. So what I would say is that you know the best way that somebody can get a hold of me is just go to kellyresendezcom. That’s the easiest way to find everything that I’ve got going on right now. Another amazing platform that you can find all of my businesses is really just power up your life now and you’ll be able to find a lot of the GoBundance information, my high impact mentorship program as well, and if anybody’s interested in the health thing, you know, if you’re really, if you’re interested in Femtech, or if you’re a woman that you’re like I don’t sleep well, I know I need some support. Just go to, you know gethormonesnow.com and we’ll make sure that we we really take care of you there as well. So I do want to close off because you mentioned one thing when we were talking about the negative self-talk, one of the areas that really I notice and I’m so grateful. You just asked me this question like how can I support you? Many of us have a really challenging time pushing past that voice of asking for help. We’ve got a voice that says I need to act like I figured it all out myself, I don’t need any help, like I’ve got this, and that is a voice that we need to learn how to quiet. So I’m going to give just your listeners one tip that literally has transformed my life. Every single call that you’re on you should have an ask, every single one. But I also want to know, like what’s one life changing introduction or resource or way I can support you today and you and I are close friends, so I know how I can support you right now in this season. But, like when you ask that question to anyone that you’re working with, so if you’re an executive, a loan officer, a real estate agent, somebody out there, if you really go that level deep, you will be surprised at how often you have an opportunity to change somebody’s life and then you can let them know. Like, for example, I’m raising capital right now, so I need to connect with more female investors that, or male investors that are passionate about women’s health and leadership numbers, and so I’ve got to make sure that I’ve got that ask on every call that I have, because you never know, you never know who’s going to guide you to that next person. You know, you and I got reconnected just because we were networking in other circles. And now here we are, great friends again.
[David] So good, it’s so good and so glad we reconnected and you’re such a joy.
[Kelly] Me too.
[David] Celebrate your success. It never ceases to amaze me how many new things you’re. You’re just moving into great new levels.
[Kelly] Well, I got to celebrate one thing today because it just happened. Just my podcast, power up your life, just hit number eight on careers on Apple today. So I’m like, literally I didn’t even know that there was a careers like vertical. I’ve been watching my business and I’m like number 74 on business podcast but it just hit number eight, so I’m super excited about that.
[David] Congratulations!
[Kelly] Thank you!
[David] So awesome, very good, very successful, very wonderful, listeners, if you want to get a hold of Kelly, you’ve already heard where to go. We’ll put the show notes. In the show notes we’ll put all of our contact information. Kelly, thank you so much for being here. You’re just a gem.
[Kelly] Thank you, and I’m just grateful for this time too.
[David] Appreciate it very much
Important Links
A dynamic business strategist and transformation expert, Kelly Resendez is a multifaceted leader who empowers professionals to scale their potential and embrace abundant living. As a former executive and now Strategic Advisor at GoodLeap, a multibillion-dollar technology company, Resendez brings consulting expertise to help organizations and individuals unlock exponential growth. With a proven track record of scaling businesses and transforming mindsets, they provide high-level consulting services that drive meaningful organizational and personal change.
A co-owner of GoBundance, a membership organization dedicated to achieving greatness and abundance, Resendez is passionate about helping professionals adopt transformative mindset strategies and overcome self-limiting patterns. They believe success emerges from the intersection of personal growth and strategic thinking.
Through their bestselling book “Big Voices” and influential professional network, Resendez shares powerful strategies that inspire individuals to think differently, break through barriers, and design lives of intentional success. As a thought leader and parent, they demonstrate that professional excellence and personal fulfillment are not mutually exclusive.