Kelly Orchard is a native Southern California Girl, and while still a High School student, her father turned on the transmitter to their first radio station. In the years to come, along with her family, Kelly would help her Dad build and operate several stations, including her namesake, KLLY FM, “Kelly 95” in Bakersfield, California.
Dance and performing were Kelly’s first loves, and life was peppered with involvement in dance, cheerleading, performing, rehearsing and constant dance instruction – whether she was the student, the coach or the choreographer.
In addition to these these years, Kelly experienced the grief over the loss of one of her three brothers, which she now understands set her on a path of personal self destruction, denial and guilt. Grief and loss prevented Kelly from fully pursuing her own dreams. She married young and remained at the family radio business although she had wanted to go to New York and study dance and be on the stage.
By the time Kelly was 28, she had three small children and a divorce.
After operating radio stations with her family for over 16 years, Kelly set out to experience life from a different perspective, spending a few years in the Sacramento, California market working for radio stations owned by large corporations.
As a skilled marketing and sales executive, the money provided the income needed to support a family alone, but working for a large corporation wasn’t truly satisfying. Kelly wanted to be more of a “stay-at-home” mom, able to bake cookies and do homework, take her kids to baseball practice and dance classes. Kelly had experienced the benefits of being an entrepreneur within the family business and working for a large corporation felt too limiting for her.
Kelly and her Dad went back into business together and built a consulting business to serve the broadcast industry with FCC Compliance requirements. This allowed Kelly to have the best of what she wanted – self employment but making an income that provided for her family, and the flexibility to work from home and be present for her children.Just as her family was becoming more independent and she was ready to “launch” her youngest, Kelly was ready to start the next season of her life, and really pursue an executive position in broadcasting, using her years of experience and connections to take on a bigger role in the industry.
But sometimes perfect timing is so far from perfect it is an oxymoron, as a serious health crisis derailed her plans and Kelly was forced to spend several years recovering from Heart Failure which was a result from an undiagnosed arrhythmia causing her heart to work so hard it became extremely weak.
This event served as the catalyst for Kelly Orchard to become a therapist. Experiencing a chronic health crisis affected not only Kelly but impacted both her children and her aging parents. It affected Kelly’s ability to work, her financial world collapsed as did her ability to socialize and extended relationships. Kelly became extremely despondent and frustrated.After more than 30 years operating businesses in the field of broadcasting, as a radio personality, salesperson, marketing executive and business consultant, Kelly became trained for a totally different profession; earning a Masters Degree in Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy. She wanted to work with individuals, couples and families seeking assistance for better mental health; with a focus on mind, body, and spirit.
Kelly’s primary focus now is to help be an encouragement and guide for personal and professional development. As an avid reader, writer and scholar, her interest is in the overall wellness of the human spirit.
Kelly considers herself to be a serial entrepreneur, always developing, building and creating new business ventures. She utilizes her business and marketing skills as well as her education and practice in mental health to provide insight, guidance and coaching through workshops, writing articles and blogs, and in individual practice.
Kelly was forced to re-evaluate her life, and decided that if change was inevitable – she was going to make the best of it. With faith, perseverance, patience and practice – Kelly has been building a new path for her career – and is launching a new business for motivation, coaching and writing to encourage others to “Follow Your Heart”.Kelly had to literally follow her heart in order to recover and regain a different type of success. If you are feeling overwhelmed at obstacles which you believe are preventing you from reaching goals. Perhaps those obstacles are actually stepping stones to developing a new path, new direction and new goals.
Kelly L. Orchard, M.A.
Red Slipper Therapy
"Everything You Were Looking For, Was Right There With You All Along" ~ The Wizard of Oz
Kelly, congrats - what a GREAT story!!!
ReplyDeleteJen