Kerry Kalendra gained 75 pounds and turned to alcohol while burning out in sales. A Todd Duncan presentation helped her unburden, and she committed to recovery and weight loss. She's speaking at the Sales Transformation Summit April 9-10 and launching a new YouTube channel.
Questions this video answers
38 kg (about 75 lbs).
April 9–10 (year implied 2025).
Over 1,000 director-level sales leaders ("over a thousand").
MyFuel IO.
Melbourne (she said '6am here in Melbourne').
Chapters
Hi, my name is Gerhard Schwartner. I'm the founder and publisher of Selling Power magazine. And Carrie Calendra is joining us from Australia. Welcome, Carrie.
Good morning, Gerhard. 6am here in Melbourne.
The last time we talked, you said high achievement is really an Achilles heel that can actually slow you down or wipe you out. What happened to you? You were successful, you ran a successful business. And then what happened?
It is blind ambition. Essentially. What's happening is you're just going through the motions every day. You're doing an amazing job for people, and then you find yourself that you're absolutely flat out. You can't keep up with everything. I didn't get more help. I didn't take on more resources. I was actually addicted to taking on, you know, more clients. Because what did it mean in the end? It meant that more cash was coming in the door.
What did you do to sort of find that balance and recenter yourself?
The only thing that kept everything together for me was the exercise. It wasn't mindset, it wasn't meditation for me. It was just running on the treadmill and it wasn't working.
So what did you do?
Alcohol, the addictive personality comes out, and then the taste of alcohol makes you want to have more. And then you just get to the points where I black out.
And you were eating Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Kentucky Fried Chicken. And then, you know, croissants in the morning with coffee. Those types of foods, just like alcohol. The body craves them, but it doesn't do any good for the body.
How much weight have you gained?
38Kg.
75Lbs.
Yeah, about 75lbs. Correct. One day I looked in the mirror and what have I done to myself? I keep going back to this thing about why can't people talk about it? And it was virtually impossible to want to tell anybody because we're so proud. We don't want people to think that we're, in brackets, weak. And if we show them that we're weak, then, you know, like, they're going to judge us. And I think that's why people are not reaching out for help. Isolation was my best friend.
But then there's something in your life. What happened is that you actually went to a presentation by Todd Duncan and gave a talk on stage and you felt compelled to participate for some reason.
I was at my lowest at that stage. You know, I was in my office. You get a million invitations to, you know, mortgage events and these sort of things. This company secured Todd Duncan somehow. You know, I started researching him, and then I started realizing that we actually had a bit in common. I dragged myself to that event and I looked absolutely terrible. I was in awe of just how he spoke and how he carried himself. I basically pleaded with the, you know, with the event organizers to, to basically tackle him and say, I look, I just need to see him. And you know, I broke down. He broke down, his wife broke down. There were a lot of tears. I told them everything and I mean everything. I felt like a ton had come off my shoulders.
And then you worked on a program to lose the weight and regain the balance in your life, correct?
Yeah.
I invited you to participate in our sales transformation summit on April 9th and 10th. And the reason being is that any sales transformation needs to begin with self transformation. We will have over a thousand director level sales leaders attending and we're going to publish a link below where you can sign up for free and listen to Carrie's story. But Carrie, if somebody wants to unburden and share and get advice from you, how should they reach you?
I'm starting my new YouTube channel which is 80k k oz. So 80k ozmail.com I can get a hold of me, you know, on LinkedIn. I'm pretty easily found on LinkedIn. I'm more than committed to just working on this course so that we just try to stop people from taking their lives.
And you are a message of hope, a beacon of light, a testimony to the fact that you can transform.
That's beautiful. I love that.
Tell us what you do with Fuel Inc. It's called MyFuel IO. When you go there, you can see Kerry's videos. So tell us about it.
It's a platform for, you know, professional and personal development. Some of the most talented instructors from all over the world are blessed to be on there sharing their experience, their skills in order to assist people to become better human beings both professionally and personally. And one of the core things that FUEL is going to be doing today is that there's going to be fuel for children. I think education in this space for youth is, you know, I often hear speakers talk about the fact that they don't teach you anything like this in school. Well, I think that's about to change dramatically and I think that's probably one of the most beautiful things that I think Fuel's going to do for the, you know, younger generation. It's really needed considering the, you know, the, the amount of social media and distraction for young people. We need something like this for them. I actually got an email from the founders, Alex, the other the other week and you know, a lady, she lost her brother, she lost her father, and she was in a really bad place. And she got introduced to Fuel and she watched my series and she said that I, you know, that I gave her hope and that if I could turn my life around, she could turn hers around. That's my giving, and that makes me want to get up every day.
Carrie, I can't thank you enough. You are like any good salesperson. You are a merchant of hope, and I thank you for that.
