Resume

Kelly Trach is a 4x entrepreneur, business consultant for the last 7+ years, published author of P.S. You’re A Genius. (BenBella Books, Nov 2021). She brings almost a decade of entrepreneurial experience.

As a business consultant, Kelly is the person you call when you have an idea and want to turn it into a business. She takes vague visions and translates them into concrete business models, services, and products. Then, gives strategic advice on how to launch, market, brand, and sell what you’ve got so that you can go from an idea to your first customer to your hundredth.

Kelly has a bachelor of commerce honors degree from the University of British Columbia where she studied on scholarship. Kelly previously worked at Tesla Motors, studied at Sciences Po in Paris France, and was accepted in a pre-accelerator program taught by a billionaire venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

After her first three tech start-ups failed in San Francisco, Kelly built a business centered around her genius. It worked. Generating traction by doing work that came most naturally to her made her re-think her approach to finding meaningful work. Now she teaches others how to find their genius and turn that into a business, career, or side hustle.

She hosts The Kelly Trach Show podcast which has had more than 100K+ downloads and is the creator of Your Conscious Empire™ a course that teaches people how to build a business based on their genius.

She's spoken at places like Uber and NASDAQ. Her work has been featured in RBC’s The Intelligent Investor and mindbodygreen.

HIGHLIGHTS 

• Published Author, P.S. You’re a Genius. (BenBella Books, 2021).

• 8+ years of experience leading marketing strategy. Generated multiple 6-figures in revenue through extreme proficiency at copywriting, storytelling, and owning all marketing channels: podcast, social media, email, and webinar. Ran 100s of campaigns and promotions, plus 50+ new launches.  

• Spoke at Uber and The NASDAQ Entrepreneurial Center.

• Proven business acumen as a 4x entrepreneur who also launched 50+ companies with clients.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Kelly Trach International Inc., Author + Business Consultant, Canada  — 2017 - Present

• Launched 50+ companies with private clients by helping them go from idea to first customer to full-time business owner. As a consultant, I translate vague visions into concrete business models, services, and products. Then, give strategic advice on how to launch, market, brand, and sell it. Proven track record of generating results: clients have out-earned their corporate salaries by the end of their first year in business, scored celebrity clients themselves, earned 3-4x more than their corporate job, and built multi-million dollar companies. 

• Created 3 online courses which produced multiple 6-figures in sales. Designed all curriculum, created my own videos + worksheets, and successfully taught 100+ global students. To promote them, I crafted sales pages, ran 20+ webinars with a sales pitch, wrote email sequences, and strategically added free bonuses to incentivise purchase.

• Wrote a 50-page book proposal, pitched 200+ literary agents, and was signed by one of the top business literary agents. Got a publishing deal with BenBella Books. (Only 2% of authors get published). Now, P.S. You're A Genius is sold across all North American retailers (Amazon, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target) and the audiobook, narrated by me, is on Audible.

• Hosted and produced The Kelly Trach Show Podcast for 7+ years, received 100+ 5-star reviews, 100k+ downloads, and did 175+ episodes.

• Built a 20k+ email newsletter list with an average 62% open rate by writing weekly editorial content and sending strategic sales promotions.

• Strategized and executed a 1-year book marketing campaign. Pitched 300+ podcasts, mailed 175+ books to media with handwritten notes, created a free 5-week group read-along for people who pre-ordered, pitched 30+ companies to speak, scoring gigs at Uber and NASDAQ, dripped chapters on my podcast to drive audiobook sales, generated clever social media videos to drive awareness.

• Hired and managed my own team of 6 contract employees and 3 professionals.

Privately Held Companies, Founder of 3 Tech Start-Ups, San Francisco, CA  — 2016

• Moved to San Francisco after graduating from business school to launch my own tech start-ups.

Tesla Motors, Product Specialist, Vancouver, BC — 2015

• Increased our store’s vehicle sales by +10% through educating people about the possibility of driving electric and boosted brand awareness through developing unique ways to market cars to the community without engaging in traditional paid advertising. 

• Sold $100,000+ vehicles through listening to customer needs and effective product education.

EDUCATION

Bachelor of Commerce (Hons), Specialization: Marketing  — 2015 

Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC 

• UBC President’s Entrance Scholarship ($80,000). Won $33,000 in additional scholarships.

• Studied abroad in Paris, France at Sciences Po. Specialized in communications and media.

Accelerator Program — 2016 

Draper University, San Mateo, CA

• A program in Silicon Valley for early-stage entrepreneurs taught by billionaire venture capitalist, Tim Draper and mentors from Stanford, SingularityU, Google, and various VC firms.

• Full Scholarship ($12,000).

Portfolio

yolululemon.com

— winter 2014 —

When I was a college student, I pitched myself to be an intern at lululemon. Instead of handing in a PDF, I made this website (including a video of me running around the streets of Paris since I was studying there at the time) and strategies for how I’d elevate the brand. It spread like wildfire. I didn’t get the job, but it turned a lot of heads. I got asked to interview at several different companies from others who saw it and working in marketing.

Getting a literary agent + book deal

— 2020 —

I wrote a 50-page book proposal, pitched over 200+ literary agents, and signed one of the top business literary agents. I heard “no” and “no thanks” more times than I can count. Then, I got the email that changed my life for ever: my soon-to-be agent, offering to represent me. 1.5 months later, Maryann sold my book to BenBella Books. (For reference, books usually take about a year to be sold to a publishing house). Only 2% of authors get published and the process takes on average 3 years. I went from book concept (January 2020) to getting an an agent (June 2020) to book deal (July 2020) to handing in a manuscript (Dec 2020) within 1 year. Now, P.S. You're A Genius is sold across all North American retailers (Amazon, Indigo, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target) and the audiobook, narrated by me, is on Audible.

Notable Press + Public Speaking

— 2021 —

Once P.S. You’re a Genius was published, I gave corporate talks and interviews. Here are a select few:

Book Promotion

— spring/summer 2021 + 2022 —

Any author will tell you that it’s not writing the book that’s hard, it’s promoting it. You have a new concept in the world and you want to share it. So, how do you spread that message? How do you make it main stream? And, how do you make it enticing enough for people to say: “Hey, I have that problem! I’m going to buy that book!” That’s one heck of a marketing strategy to devise. Here’s the campaign I created and executed. I pitched 300+ podcasts, physically mailed 100+ books with handwritten letters attached to all my personal idols, key influencers, and media personal in hope of getting some organic sharing on social media. (Have you ever tried to track down Kim Kardashian’s mailing address?). We mailed about 75 books to BookToker’s and Bookstagramers. I also ran a pre-order campaign that was a 5-week book club read-a-long for buyers, dripped 5 sample chapters on my podcast to promote audiobook sales, and my publishing house pitched every major media outlet from The New York Times to goop. I produced goofy videos and funny memes — anything to get eyeballs on this watercolored book. I reached out to every personal connection that I had who ran a podcast or blog and asked for an interview. I pitched 30+ companies to see if I could speak on the top of “How to Find Your Genius,” thus landing gigs at Uber and Nasdaq. I ran campaigns to drive Amazon reviews. If readers DM’ed me to say they liked the book, we sent them 2 free copies to give to friends to drive word-of-mouth marketing. One of my campaigns that went nowhere was reading 5 chapters as an ASMR on YouTube. (Partly because I misspelled “AMSR” as “ASMR” in all the YouTube videos). Even though I this would be a really clever way to drive readership, you can’t win ‘em all. You can enjoy the audiobook narrated by me, at full volume. To sum up a year of marketing strategy and promotion, (yes, I spent a year doing all of this), here’s a photo of me signing bookplates at Butxon Books, an indie bookstore in Charleston, South Carolina.

Sending my book to oprah

— winter 2023 —

This was one of my most memorable pitches in my “100 Days of Putting Myself Out There.” I sent my book, a handwritten note, and the latest edition of O Quarterly — with placements of my book glued into the pages. In my letter I wrote: “Someone once told me: “you get in life what you have the courage to ask for” and I’m asking for a feature in O Magazine if you like my book!”

The Kelly Trach Show Podcast

— winter 2017 —

175+ episodes, 100,000+ downloads, and 100+ 5-star reviews later — the free podcast was a space to learn about building meaningful companies from scratch, failure, trying again, and pursuing what matters most to you. I solely produced the show, generated topics, edited audio, graphic designed all the podcast art, wrote copy for all episode notes, and interviewed guested. It successfully ran from 2017 - 2022.

Pitching for a Netflix show

— winter 2023 —

I spent several months pitching how P.S. You’re A Genius could be adapted into an unscripted TV series to American and Canadian producers. Ideally, to go on Netflix. So far, no luck. But, if that’s you and you’re reading this, reach out. My agent and I would love to speak with you.

Creating online courses

— 2017 to present —

I like to think I was “ahead of the curve” and started making online courses before it was cool. My courses have done multiple 6-figures in sales. I’ve hand-crafted and marketed these entirely myself — curriculum design, video production, graphics, handouts, webinars, sales pages, graphic design. and email marketing sequences. It’s all me! I’m most proud of the fact that my signature course, Your Conscious Empire™, has helped students quit full-time jobs, out-earn corporate salaries + consistently book clients. It boasts an 81% success rate (81% have gone from an idea to business launch with this course) and 41% of students now run their business full-time.

Thank u, checks

— january 2019 —

I made a song parody of Ariana Grande’s “thank u, next” video to promote Your Money Mindset aptly titled “thank u, checks.” The video garnished 10k+ views, drove great traffic to my email marketing opt-in freebie (which I gained their email), and later invited those to a webinar to promote the course. That webinar converted at 30% and had one of my most successful course launches. Here’s a photo my favorite prop.

email Opt-in Quiz

— august 2020 —

I strategized and built this “What’s Your Genius?” quiz with 16+ different results. (It worked: over 20,000+ people took my quiz). I used this data in my P.S. You’re a Genius book proposal to prove that people wanted this knowledge. I designed this quiz with 13 questions that helped me understand the user’s personality. Making it fun, interactive, and with pop culture moving gifs drove conversions.

Result Page

Each one of the 16+ quiz results lead to a personalized free report outlining their genius, how they could monetize it, and inspiration to get started. Ultimately funnelling to the call to action to order a book.

Meme Collection

— spring/summer 2021 —

Every week til book publication date, I posted a meme featuring all my favorite 90’s and 00’s shows to gain awareness for book launch and pre-order reader sales.

Pre-Order Parodies

— summer 2021 —

Created this clever video parody series to encourage book pre-order sales. (Each video promoted the book in different ways and drove awareness of its’ release). If readers purchased the book, they’d score access to my free 5-week group read-a-long and consulting program devised to help readers finish the book, find their gifts, and turn that into a creative project, a new meaningful work project, or budding new business.

faux celeb sightings

— summer 2021 —

Obviously, I duped this.

Genius Licence Plate

— summer 2021 —

Photoshop at it’s finest. This now hangs in my office as art.

100 Days of Putting Myself Out there

— winter / spring 2023 —

A documentary of pursuing 100 moon-shot pitches — one per day. The odds are that I’d get 1 in 100 of these. So, each day, I do one thing off my list, film it, and see if I get any takers.

List of things:

• Pitching Drew Barrymore Show

• Talks at Google

• Pitching for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and FastCompany articles.

• Teen Vogue Summit guest speaker

• Speaking at Microsoft

• Pitching producers my Netflix show. (Like, Phil Rosenthal, creator of Everybody Loves Raymond, and giving him my book and personalized pitch at his show in-town).

• Pitching Hello Sunshine, Reese Witherspoon’s media company, to take my show.

• To be a host for HGTV, Food Network, or Magnolia Network show.

• And 96 other things of that caliber.

Just For Fun

The Kelly costume

— fall 2021 —

One of the things with books (or any product that doesn’t change or have new features/releases), is that you have to strategically devise new, fresh ways to market the same thing. Here’s an image from a campaign I ran around the holidays to drive readership and Amazon reviews. (Reviews are a key part of driving future sales and visibility).

Brooks Brothers Birthday Card

— summer 2014 —

My roommate in Paris loved Brookes Brothers. So I got a catalogue from the store and put his face in all the pictures.

My cookbook

— 2018 —

Once upon a time, I made a gluten-free and plant-based cookbook. I think I sold, like, 5. I did all the recipes food styling, photography, and graphic design myself. Recipe highlights include: “Herbed Jeweled Yam Fries,” “Rainbow Rolls with Tahini Lime Sauce,” “Hand-Dipped Chocolate Figs” and “Kaleidoscope Crudités with Lemon Hummus.” I’m a great cook, decent product stylist and stellar with coming up with catchy names. Not all creative pursuits take off (and that’s okay).

Moving to Silicon Valley

— 2016 —

After college graduation, I had a full-time job offer and I emailed the company 4 months before my start date to say I was moving to San Fransisco to build my own start-ups. Here are some highlights from pursuing my start-ups, my “tour de tech” (when I visited all the major HQ’s), going to NASA, and other fun things.