Meet Dave Kelly

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Kelly.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am a professional speaker, trainer, author, coach, and consultant and I love what I do. It was not what I thought I would be doing when I was growing up – I wanted to be an actor. I majored in Theatre at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and expected to pursue the bright lights of Broadway. That all changed when I was 16.

I grew up in a small village, in Wisconsin, of less than 4,ooo people. My high school had less than 400 students and my graduating class was 92. It was a place where I kind of did everything: 3 sport athlete, band, jazz band, show choir, musicals, and clubs. One of the clubs I belonged to is Key Club, which is part of the Kiwanis family (civic community service organization). Near the end of my junior year, our club president announced in a meeting that there was going to be a convention of Key Clubs in Green Bay and asked if anyone wanted to go. To me, Green Bay was a big city and I thought it would be cool to spend a weekend there. I had some money saved up from a farm job the summer before. I had saved it to take a girl to prom. But when I asked her, she turned me down. She was waiting for another guy to ask her. And he never did!

So I got to go to Green Bay and she had to stay home. When I got there, I was blown away. There were more than 600 high school students there. Posters for candidates for state-wide (known as districts) were everywhere. It was a little overwhelming.

The first night of the convention, we met in a meeting called a caucus. This is where those candidate with the posters would come in and tell us why we should vote for them. In that caucus we were also supposed to elect a representative to the board for our part of the state, called a division. The position was Lt. Governor. No one was running. The guy chairing the meeting kept begging for someone to run. Eventually my advisor nudged me and said, “Why don’t you do it?” “Me? How can I do that? I don’t know what that thing is. How can I be on the state board? I’ve never even been an officer in our club.”

But I thought about it. I realized I could raise my hand and say, “I’ll do it.” Then they would see I wasn’t any good and didn’t know anything and somebody better would get elected. So, I raised my hand and said, “I’ll do it!” And I learned a lesson about volunteering that night – you tend to get what you volunteer for.

Well, I went home and read all of the books and manuals they gave me and just did everything they said to do. At the end of the year, I was named as an Outstanding Lt. Governor (out of 14) for the District and also by Key Club International (only 14 were named out of over 700). And it all began with me saying, I’ll do it.

I don’t know what direction my life was going before that night in Green Bay, but it all changed. It was been about service, leadership, and risk taking ever since.

That experience led me into the collegiate group, CKI (Circle K International – no connection to the gas stations). I immediately got into a leadership role and moved up in the district and international levels and eventually became International President. This is where the speaking and training bug bit me. Everywhere I went that year I was asked to give a keynote address and lead workshops. All across the US, Canada, the Caribbean, and even to Vienna, Austria where I spoke in front of 10,000 people in a sports arena. I knew I wanted to be a professional speaker.

Of course, sometimes dreams take time. After graduating from college I needed a job. I had moved to Indianapolis and got hired by a finance company making loans, which I loved, and doing collections, which I hated. As to the latter, although I did not enjoy the work, I learned two things: discipline and serving others. Discipline because I had to be diligent in my work or it would engulf me and serving others because I was able to work to find solutions for people who were struggling financially. I did well at my job and made moves to a couple more finance companies in the next two years, which led me to meet the people who would spark my entrepreneurial spirit.

A former manager had left to join a multi-state mortgage company based in Indy and talked to me about joining him there. I did. And since the age of 24 I have been either an entrepreneur or in a commission-based position. Talk about walking the tightrope with no net!

After a couple of years with that company, I started my own mortgage company that grew to 5 offices in 4 states. I had that for ten years, but two things changed my focus: my yearning to pursue professional speaking and an irreparable business dispute with my business partner. I left the company I founded and connected with another company in metro Atlanta as a loan originator and started slowly towards my speaking career. Despite being successful both as a company owner and originator, I grew very unhappy with working in the mortgage industry and, in the early 2000’s, I saw some storm clouds coming that resulted in the 2008 worldwide financial collapse.

So, in 2005 I ventured out into a new industry. The initial struggles were similar to getting my mortgage company off the ground: marketing, establishing myself, learning the ins and outs of a speaking business, etc. I decided to focus on speaking for college and university students. This allowed me to harken back to my own leadership experiences as a student and 18 years as a state advisor for CKI in Georgia. The first year was slow, but I more than tripled my engagements the next year and I have been continuing in that range and above for 22 years now. I have been named Campus Speaker of the Year three times in two countries (US and Canada), have spoken professionally in more than 40 states, and am now considered a leading expert in student leadership, particularly for collegiate student government organizations.

I get to do what I love every day – have an impact on students. It’s because I said “I’ll do it!” in that conference room in Green Bay, to taking a job in a field totally unrelated to my degree, to risking everything and going on commission, to starting my own company when I was extremely successful where I was, to finally pursuing my dream job. Entrepreneurs will have ups and downs. There will be times when you want to give up. I get that. However, living your passion is so worthwhile.

As I look back on it all and that pivotal moment in Green Bay, over 40 years ago, one thought comes to mind: I’m glad that I didn’t go to prom!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I believe I detailed that in the story, but I am happy to flesh out anything you would like. I do recall a couple of times saying to my wife, “I don’t think I am going to make it. Maybe I should just go get a job.” Her response, “If you give up on your dream, I will kill you!” That’s motivation!

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I talked about this in the initial story, but my specialty is leadership for college students. I am known as a student government expert, but I also have a strong focus on servant leadership for students. I have done nearly 700 professional speaking engagements, over 95% of which are for colleges and universities. I am also an Executive Coach at the Emory University Goizueta School of Business.

I am most proud of seeing students that I advised, coached, or trained going out in the world and finding their own success. Many of them keep in touch and share with me how their lives are going. I recently was at a school in Louisiana and a former student works for the college now and she saw that I was on campus and came to say hi. She told the office staff she had to see me because, “I just love Dave Kelly.” I remembered her and when she shared some pictures of her and I meeting at conferences and when I was on campus, she noted that they were from 2017! And then she said something that really told this is all worth it:

“I remember something you said in one of your sessions then, ‘If you have a problem with someone and you don’t take it to them, then it can’t be very significant. Either go to them and resolve it or move on.” I was moved that she remembered that and then I told her I had literally just said the same thing to the students I was working that day only 10 minutes earlier.

How do you define success?
Doing what you love. Whether that is in a career, a hobby, within your family, as a volunteer, or anything else. In addition to what I have shared previously, I didn’t lose my passion for acting. I express that now occasionally working as a background actor in TV and Film projects around the area. I have worked on around two dozen movies and TV shows.

Pricing:

• Keynote speeches, $3-5,000
• Training, from $4,000 for two hours to $8,000 for a full day
• Consulting, pricing based on scope of project
• Coaching, $250 per hour

Contact Info:

• Website: https://davegonzokelly.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gonzospeaks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmericasStudentLeadershipTrainer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegonzokelly/
• Twitter: https://x.com/DaveGonzoKelly
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@gonzospeaks