Speaker 1: Welcome back, my friends, to another podcast episode of Love Someone,
Speaker 1: and welcome to if you're joining me for the first time.
Speaker 1: This is a place where I get to have some
Speaker 1: really fascinating conversations with some really fascinating people. I hope
Speaker 1: you're enjoying each episode as much as I am enjoying
Speaker 1: bringing them to you. Whether you're driving to work or
Speaker 1: driving home from work, or you're listening in the gym,
Speaker 1: taking a walk, doing household chores, or maybe you're just
Speaker 1: cozied up someplace, got something refreshing to drink, and you're
Speaker 1: listening into these podcasts. Thank you. I'm kind of well
Speaker 1: known for dispensing advice, playing songs for the love lorn,
Speaker 1: the love sick, the lonely. I share words of encouragement
Speaker 1: for exhausted parents, especially during COVID, the empty nesters, the
Speaker 1: new grandparents, the teenagers that are falling in love for
Speaker 1: the very first time, or driving their mom right to
Speaker 1: the brink of Craig Craig. That advice comes from my
Speaker 1: own personal experience. It's usually heart centered and meant to
Speaker 1: smooth over the rough edges, to help you focus on
Speaker 1: the good and the positive, to help you recognize your
Speaker 1: strength to help you find your faith, to find your
Speaker 1: place in this world, to help bring a note of serenity,
Speaker 1: and today's guest on love someone is also here to
Speaker 1: dispense a little advice, but she comes from a much
Speaker 1: different background than I do. Instead of playing happy love
Speaker 1: songs to accompany her wisdom, she has built are You
Speaker 1: Ready for This? A motor sports empire and is following
Speaker 1: up by giving advice on business life from the pole
Speaker 1: position she is in now. Kelly Earnhart Miller is a
Speaker 1: co owner and general manager of JR Motorsports and is
Speaker 1: considered one of the most prominent businesswomen in NASCAR today.
Speaker 1: She oversees the company's race team, management team, and business
Speaker 1: ventures for her brother and her best friend, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Speaker 1: And yes, she is the daughter of NASCAR racing legend
Speaker 1: Dale Earnhardt. She is also the author of a book
Speaker 1: appropriately titled Drive Nine Lessons to Win in Business and
Speaker 1: in Life, and she is here with us today. Can't
Speaker 1: wait to talk to Kelly. We're gonna give this interview
Speaker 1: with Kelly the red light go signal. The flags will
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Speaker 1: for fifty percent off with me on love Someone today
Speaker 1: is somebody Kelly. I gotta say I never would have
Speaker 1: thought of doing a podcast with you, but my sister
Speaker 1: came to me and said, oh my God, says you
Speaker 1: are going to love this woman. She is the real deal.
Speaker 1: She's the hot ticket. She's as real as a heart attack.
Speaker 1: And that You've got just a heart of gold, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, tell me more, and so welcome Kelly to
Speaker 1: love someone with the Lilah. Here I am the Queen
Speaker 1: of sappy love songs talking to the queen of the
Speaker 1: race track. That's quite a quite a mix, isn't it
Speaker 1: quite a mix? You have a new book, app and
Speaker 1: I just I want to I want to hear it all.
Speaker 1: I want to hear your story. I want our listeners
Speaker 1: to hear your story. I haven't had a chance to
Speaker 1: read the book yet. My sister did and she said, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: she gets real, So tell me your story. Yeah. So um.
Speaker 1: My paperback for the book Drive Nine Lessons to Win
Speaker 1: in Business in Life just recently came out in the
Speaker 1: last couple of months and a Delila and you've I
Speaker 1: believe you've written several books and there was no timing
Speaker 1: like last April seventh when my hardback released at the
Speaker 1: onset of the COVID pandemic. So that was no fun.
Speaker 1: The fact that you couldn't go on a book tour,
Speaker 1: you couldn't go travel around, you couldn't do all those
Speaker 1: things that we do when we release a book. That
Speaker 1: had to have just like taken the wind out of
Speaker 1: your sales for a minute. Yes, it sure do you
Speaker 1: because you know, I've spent eighteen months working on the book,
Speaker 1: and so you know, we've gotten let's say, used to
Speaker 1: the pandemic in a sense that we have more knowledge
Speaker 1: on what to expect and you know, how it's going
Speaker 1: and all of those good things. But on that day
Speaker 1: in April, uh, it was so new and it was
Speaker 1: so scary as to what was going on. So yeah,
Speaker 1: all of those things were I did a few media things,
Speaker 1: you know, some podcasts and a few things by zoom,
Speaker 1: but yeah, the typical I didn't get to experience the
Speaker 1: typical uh, you know, book tour, boo signing, media tours.
Speaker 1: I was scheduled to go to l A, I was
Speaker 1: scheduled go to New York. All those things were shut
Speaker 1: down very quickly. Um, And it was very disheartening because
Speaker 1: you put a lot of your heart and so into
Speaker 1: a project like this, and so it's why I'm more
Speaker 1: excited to talk to you now because I didn't get
Speaker 1: that much of an opportunity to do so with a
Speaker 1: hardback book. But maybe that was God's timing, because I
Speaker 1: think now that things are starting to turn around and
Speaker 1: open up, and kids are going back to school, and
Speaker 1: people are going back to work, and restaurants are trying
Speaker 1: to reopen. I think now we need your book and
Speaker 1: we need that drive more than ever. You know, that
Speaker 1: was a big slam on the brakes for a year,
Speaker 1: and now everybody's putting the pedal to the metal. So
Speaker 1: tell me about the book drive. Yeah. So, um, my
Speaker 1: brother Dale earned Heart June, You're who's a race car driver,
Speaker 1: wrote a book about his experiences with concussions, primarily, and
Speaker 1: in talking with the book publisher, as we were, I
Speaker 1: managed my brother's career and act as his agent and
Speaker 1: and things like that. So in working with the book publisher,
Speaker 1: they turned to me and said, you know, have you
Speaker 1: ever thought about writing a book? And I said it
Speaker 1: was a matter of fact, I'd love to write a book. Uh.
Speaker 1: I really wanted to write a book about being the
Speaker 1: daughter of Deal Earnhart because, UM, I really struggled as
Speaker 1: a kid, teenager, young twenties year old. Um, being his daughter,
Speaker 1: we had a tough relationship. Um, and so for a
Speaker 1: lot of different reasons, I wanted to talk about that
Speaker 1: because my dad, who's bigger than life to Deal Earnhart,
Speaker 1: who's seven time champion in NASCAR is bigger than life
Speaker 1: to so many people, and so most of my life, UM,
Speaker 1: I had to listen to your dad's so awesome. Your
Speaker 1: dad's um, you know the best ever. I've got this
Speaker 1: room of everything about your dad. I just love your dad.
Speaker 1: I met your dad Dotta, Dotta dot right, and I
Speaker 1: love all these stories, except that there was this little
Speaker 1: piece of well, there was a big piece of my
Speaker 1: heart really that was crying out going. I wish I
Speaker 1: could love my dad like that because I saw my
Speaker 1: dad as my dad and that relationship wasn't the best
Speaker 1: for me. And so that's really kind of where my
Speaker 1: focus was. And as we got into uh talking about
Speaker 1: the book and all, and they said, you know, Kelly,
Speaker 1: all of that's great, but let's not stay in the past.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about how that experience and how that molded
Speaker 1: you and shaped you as a businesswoman in NASCAR. And
Speaker 1: so I spend time in the book for the first
Speaker 1: four chapters talking about my relationship with my dad growing up.
Speaker 1: You know, these different feelings that I had, and look,
Speaker 1: my dad wasn't a bad dad. I had a roof
Speaker 1: over my head. My dad loved me my dad had
Speaker 1: a hard time showing love. He had a hard time
Speaker 1: that emotional piece that I needed, you know, just didn't exist.
Speaker 1: We were a product of divorce at an early age.
Speaker 1: And and just you know, so many different things that
Speaker 1: I talked about in the book, and so those first
Speaker 1: four chapters kind of shaped that up for the non lessons,
Speaker 1: and and the non lessons are really business oriented, life oriented.
Speaker 1: I'm a mom of three, have a twenty year old,
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old, and a nine year old. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm a wife. My husband and I just
Speaker 1: celebrated our ten year wedding anniversary. And uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I had a relationship prior to that that resulted in
Speaker 1: my two beautiful girls. And during the period of life
Speaker 1: for me was a struggle and so I went through
Speaker 1: therapy and did a lot of work on myself. So
Speaker 1: the book just talks about from a business perspective. And
Speaker 1: you you said, you know, I do believe in God's timing,
Speaker 1: and you know, the struggle is real to that total
Speaker 1: trust they're right because we live in this earthly world
Speaker 1: where all these things are going on around us, and
Speaker 1: so my struggle is real when it comes to that.
Speaker 1: But timing is everything. And I talked about that in
Speaker 1: my book, you know, I talked about being a clinic
Speaker 1: and approachable and just how to make decisions and positioning
Speaker 1: yourself for success and letting go of things so that
Speaker 1: you can move forward, which was huge in my life
Speaker 1: for me to do. And you know, just so many
Speaker 1: things that work in business, communication and managing your emotions
Speaker 1: and balancing work and home life. So you know, a
Speaker 1: lot within these pages, um and it is real, and
Speaker 1: I hope it's encouraging to other people as they read
Speaker 1: the book. So one of the things that I know
Speaker 1: people keep shining a spotlight on or making a big
Speaker 1: deal about, is the fact that you're a woman in
Speaker 1: a man's world. You're a woman in a business of
Speaker 1: field that is dominated by your dad, your brother and
Speaker 1: thousands of men. But you don't make a big deal
Speaker 1: about that. You just say, I'm I'm just a person
Speaker 1: doing a great job, doing the best job that I
Speaker 1: can possibly do. And I love that you're making a
Speaker 1: statement by not making a statement. Yeah, that's kind of
Speaker 1: my way, you know. I just I think it's important
Speaker 1: just to let yourself shine. You know, it doesn't matter male, female,
Speaker 1: you know, young, old, whether you were the Harvard grad
Speaker 1: or the community school grad. The point is what you
Speaker 1: do with it right, you know, your actions, your integrity.
Speaker 1: I say in the book, you know my goal ultimately,
Speaker 1: I summed it up in five words, is I just
Speaker 1: want to make people happy. I just want people to
Speaker 1: be happy, feel happy, and whatever I can do to
Speaker 1: participate in making that work. You know, Like my workplace,
Speaker 1: the most important thing to me here is not winning races.
Speaker 1: It's people. It's the people that make up my business,
Speaker 1: you know, the hundred and thirty people that come in
Speaker 1: here every day and and devote themselves to this business
Speaker 1: and so that we can win races. But if I
Speaker 1: don't invest in the people and and hold the people
Speaker 1: in a in a good place, we don't get to
Speaker 1: win races because it doesn't work like that. I mean,
Speaker 1: you've got to have a good flow and a good work,
Speaker 1: you know, for to make it out happen. So I
Speaker 1: don't ever focus on the female aspect of it. I
Speaker 1: know I'm in a unique place, um and I'm one
Speaker 1: of very few females in the sport. And I know
Speaker 1: I can have a voice for females to do more
Speaker 1: and be more. But I just let you know, my
Speaker 1: actions and my skills and and so on and so
Speaker 1: forth kind of speak for themselves to kind of push
Speaker 1: that message or agenda, if you want to call it that.
Speaker 1: So I want to go back loop back to something
Speaker 1: you said a few minutes ago, when you were talking
Speaker 1: about your dad and how people would gush over him
Speaker 1: and show you pictures I'm sure they had taken with him,
Speaker 1: or or the memorabilia from races. My kids, I'm you know,
Speaker 1: certainly not not as bigger than life than your dad is.
Speaker 1: But I've been doing this radio thing for a long time.
Speaker 1: Give yourself some credit now, because I was in my
Speaker 1: office and I'm going to go to a podcast with
Speaker 1: Delilah and everybody was like, the Delilah and my kids
Speaker 1: get that all the time, Oh my gosh, your mom this,
Speaker 1: your mom that. And my daughter by bio daughter, Sheyla.
Speaker 1: I know it's such a struggle for her because she's like,
Speaker 1: you don't know the mom I know, Okay, you don't
Speaker 1: know the mom that throws red outs and throws nutties
Speaker 1: when she finds out that we took the car and
Speaker 1: snuck out. She's grown now with two kids of her own,
Speaker 1: so but I know that is so so hard for kids,
Speaker 1: and I try not to. When I was younger and
Speaker 1: I just had one, he went with me everywhere. He
Speaker 1: went with me to all my appearances. He was on
Speaker 1: stage with me, blah blah blah, because I was a
Speaker 1: single parent with one kid. But as my family grew,
Speaker 1: as I built my family, I still took them with
Speaker 1: me when I had to travel a lot. And then
Speaker 1: when they started finding their path, I tried to make
Speaker 1: it all about them, you know, when they were in
Speaker 1: school plays or school musicals or whatever. But I would
Speaker 1: go to the school musical just to support them, and
Speaker 1: teen people would crowd around. Oh my god, I heard
Speaker 1: you on there, you know, ten years ago, and you
Speaker 1: said blah blah blah, And I'm like, I'm here for
Speaker 1: my daughter. Can you look at my daughters? She's that
Speaker 1: pretty girl up on stage right there. Did your dad
Speaker 1: ever try to figure out a way to make that
Speaker 1: easier or was he oblivious? And a lot of that
Speaker 1: didn't bother me. I think my wounds emotionally were due
Speaker 1: to my parents divorced. I was four. We live with
Speaker 1: my mom and never seen our dad hardly between then
Speaker 1: and third grade. Very little recollection you know, there were
Speaker 1: other women in my dad's life there in that time
Speaker 1: period that we would you know, we would go maybe
Speaker 1: stay the night with him or whatever. And you know,
Speaker 1: my mom was trying to work really hard and provide
Speaker 1: for us, and you know, we just had this dad
Speaker 1: that was you know, a little absent, I guess would
Speaker 1: be the best word for it. So, but then we
Speaker 1: went through a house fire in the third grade and
Speaker 1: our house burnt to the ground at six am in
Speaker 1: the morning on the school morning, and it was literally
Speaker 1: my mom was just at the end of her means
Speaker 1: and she felt forced to move back to Virginia with
Speaker 1: her mom because we rented this house. We just you know,
Speaker 1: tried to make things meet really and so she felt
Speaker 1: that we would be best suited to go live with
Speaker 1: our dad went and lived with the man that you
Speaker 1: hadn't seen but weekend, right, So we go there and
Speaker 1: my dad had an own and off relationship with my
Speaker 1: stepmother prior to us moving in, and then when we
Speaker 1: moved in, and then they married about a year and
Speaker 1: a half after we moved in, and that was a
Speaker 1: really tough relationship for us because she was young. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, she inherited too kids there was a lot
Speaker 1: of fighting that I was aware of between my parents
Speaker 1: and her, and so it just it was a situation
Speaker 1: that me as a kid, I didn't need to experience.
Speaker 1: I didn't need to know that those things were going on.
Speaker 1: I didn't need to be pitted in between my parents
Speaker 1: and and my dad eventually kind of gave up the
Speaker 1: control of parenting to my stepmother. You know, he sacrificed
Speaker 1: a lot in the early years to be a race
Speaker 1: car driver, and the sacrifice continued, you know, ultimately really
Speaker 1: up to his death, because that was a huge sacrifice
Speaker 1: as well. We just never I don't know, he just
Speaker 1: never had an emphasis on just letting us know we
Speaker 1: were loved. You know, something was said the other day
Speaker 1: that someone said, when I disciplined my kids, I say,
Speaker 1: this behavior, you know, I don't like this behavior. This
Speaker 1: is the kind of behavior of that. You know, this
Speaker 1: isn't acceptable. It's never you're a bad kid, Why did
Speaker 1: you do that? Dot at all? And that's how it
Speaker 1: was for us. Our our relationship with our dad was
Speaker 1: very conditional, and so if you didn't act and do
Speaker 1: a certain way, you just didn't get his love. Even
Speaker 1: into my twenties, it was that way. If I didn't
Speaker 1: do what my dad said, if I didn't date who
Speaker 1: he wanted me to date, if I didn't break up
Speaker 1: with who he wanted me to break up with, whatever
Speaker 1: it might have been, if I just didn't act the
Speaker 1: way he wanted me to act, it was just cut off,
Speaker 1: you know, done. And we even went through a period
Speaker 1: of not speaking to each other, which was terrible. I
Speaker 1: was twenty six years old, and he passed at twenty seven,
Speaker 1: and and we were I had a five month old
Speaker 1: little girl prior to his passing, and we were just
Speaker 1: starting to try to repair and mend our relationship with
Speaker 1: her presence um. He was super proud of her and
Speaker 1: super excited to uh have her, you know, in our lives,
Speaker 1: and then five months later he died. And and so
Speaker 1: you know, there was a lot of things that I
Speaker 1: needed to put to bed as an adult based on
Speaker 1: all those experiences before I could kind of be happy
Speaker 1: with myself and and be a contributor to a relationship
Speaker 1: and to my kids and be a good mom. But
Speaker 1: how how wonderful of you to be bold enough to
Speaker 1: be honest about it. I think a lot of men
Speaker 1: in that time period and even today, it all boils
Speaker 1: down to ex dictations. You know, your dad had expectations
Speaker 1: of his kids. My dad had expectations of me and
Speaker 1: my brother and my sister, and when we didn't meet
Speaker 1: those expectations. There were four kids in my family, and
Speaker 1: the two of us that were older seemed to never
Speaker 1: meet dad's expectations. And so then the then the affection
Speaker 1: and the love was very conditional. You know, it was
Speaker 1: very very conditional, and I think men in that generation sorry,
Speaker 1: but I also think that it's it's still a lot
Speaker 1: of people struggle with it today. So I'm proud of
Speaker 1: you for being able to speak your truth. Because with
Speaker 1: a dad that famous, a brother that famous, a career
Speaker 1: as famous as yours, it's got to be hard, exactly,
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, it's it's actually been. It's
Speaker 1: been more positive than I would have thought, because when
Speaker 1: I started the process, Um, you know, one of the
Speaker 1: things that was said to me was, you know, you
Speaker 1: don't talk bad about people's heroes, right, And my dad
Speaker 1: is a hero to many. But I think that a
Speaker 1: lot of my dad's fans, who obviously would read this book,
Speaker 1: they've known me through the past twenty years of running
Speaker 1: Dell's business, and and they know my heart and that
Speaker 1: authenticity and kind of how I lay it out there.
Speaker 1: I think that that's been better for people to accept
Speaker 1: my conversation about my dad. Um. But you know, twenty
Speaker 1: years ago, that wouldn't have been even ten years ago,
Speaker 1: I don't think that would have been feasible. Um again
Speaker 1: timing you know when I wrote this book, because I
Speaker 1: think the world has has you know, evolved and changed
Speaker 1: in terms of that acceptance. And that's why I didn't
Speaker 1: speak about it prior to writing this book in a
Speaker 1: big way, because I don't think that it would have
Speaker 1: been as accepted as it is now. You know, I don't.
Speaker 1: It's not it's not a negative thing about my dad.
Speaker 1: It's just my experience and I'm the only one that
Speaker 1: had that experience, and so there's nothing wrong with me
Speaker 1: sharing that talking about that to others. So well, I
Speaker 1: can't wait to get a copy of Drive. Um. Like
Speaker 1: I said, my sister has been raving about you and
Speaker 1: raving about it. Tell me how you balance, Kelly, How
Speaker 1: you balance personal life? Three kids very spread out? Your
Speaker 1: oldest is how old twenty have a twenty and fifteen
Speaker 1: year old and then a nine year old son. That's
Speaker 1: that's quite a spread. It's not like you know, you
Speaker 1: you were three and done and moved on. So your
Speaker 1: twenty year old starting life, going to school, moving out
Speaker 1: that sort of thing, and your baby starting fourth grade,
Speaker 1: fifth grade, going into fourth yep, yep? How do you
Speaker 1: balance that? You know, I am I'm a doer for one.
Speaker 1: I just I get after it. You know, when I
Speaker 1: hit the four at six o'clock in the morning, I
Speaker 1: just have a lot of energy and whatnot. So I'm
Speaker 1: probably above average when it comes to just getting stuff done.
Speaker 1: Um and so so that's a good trait I get us,
Speaker 1: you know, to be in a fast paced life and
Speaker 1: three kids and run a business and and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth, and and being the NASCAR world. But
Speaker 1: you know, ultimately, what I had to figure out in life,
Speaker 1: and I talk about this in my book about balancing
Speaker 1: your work in life is for one, my family, you know,
Speaker 1: is of the utmost importance. And so, like you were
Speaker 1: talking about earlier, when you go to uh, you know,
Speaker 1: making time for the kids events and when you go
Speaker 1: to be all in and to be present at the
Speaker 1: play or the dance recital or whatever it might be,
Speaker 1: UM is super important. But also for them, you know,
Speaker 1: to share my work experience and to share with them,
Speaker 1: you know why something at the moment may be more
Speaker 1: important than being able to get to something at school
Speaker 1: or whatnot. At least having one parents there is is
Speaker 1: something that we try to do. But the one thing
Speaker 1: I had to learn really to balance my life was
Speaker 1: to say no. And that's a very difficult thing for
Speaker 1: me because I'm a people pleaser. I want to you know,
Speaker 1: I want to do everything. And when you're good at stuff,
Speaker 1: people ask you to do stuff right, and so um,
Speaker 1: you know, I get asked to do a lot of things.
Speaker 1: I get asked to be on a lot of different boards,
Speaker 1: I get asked to participate in a lot of different
Speaker 1: situations and committees and whatever it is besides my day job,
Speaker 1: and you know, even outside of work with your kids
Speaker 1: and their activities and stuff like that. And I eventually
Speaker 1: just had to really set myself up and say, you
Speaker 1: know what, I am only as good to everything else
Speaker 1: that I participate in if I'm good to myself. And
Speaker 1: so I had to kind of you know, start saying no,
Speaker 1: start prioritizing, uh, you know, that balance and what was
Speaker 1: important so that I could be a good met so
Speaker 1: that good me could be good to everything else because
Speaker 1: I got stuck in a little bit of a rut
Speaker 1: trying to to be everything to everyone. And that's just
Speaker 1: not feasible in life, you know, not feasible, not possible,
Speaker 1: not sustainable, the power of no. It took me a
Speaker 1: long time to learn that. But boy, when I learned,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, nope, no, no, no, we're not going there. No,
Speaker 1: you're not doing that. Yeah, exactly, that's what's gonna say.
Speaker 1: The parents that are are talking about shuffling this kid
Speaker 1: it is and this kid to that and that kid
Speaker 1: and this kid plays three sports and not I'm just like,
Speaker 1: makes my head spin. And you know, I get that
Speaker 1: the kids enjoy it, and those are you know, they're
Speaker 1: great things to figure out maybe their path or whatever
Speaker 1: they want to do. But sometimes that's very unbalanced and
Speaker 1: it just makes your life crazy. Yeah. I had, I
Speaker 1: finally had to draw the line. So you can do
Speaker 1: one activity semester. If you're gonna play volleyball, that's great,
Speaker 1: but you're not also going to do you know, X
Speaker 1: Y Z. If you're going to be in girl Scouts,
Speaker 1: that's great, but then you're not going to be going
Speaker 1: to youth group on the same night, trying to get
Speaker 1: to both. So good for you. Good for learning the
Speaker 1: power of no and the power of yes, because when
Speaker 1: you say no to those things, you're really seeing yes
Speaker 1: to being available to love yes. And that's what I
Speaker 1: want other people to feel to you when they when
Speaker 1: they talked to me, I'm I'm a big believer in
Speaker 1: all of those things. So tell me about your relationship
Speaker 1: with your brother. It sounds like you guys are very close.
Speaker 1: We are. I think that's just a product of the
Speaker 1: environment that we were raised to kind of took the
Speaker 1: mother hen roll on. And when we live with our mom,
Speaker 1: she worked third shift and so I'd have to do
Speaker 1: a lot of evening things and and get us up
Speaker 1: in the morning and things like that. We would have,
Speaker 1: you know, sitter or whatnot. But I just kind of
Speaker 1: took that role of taking care of things with him
Speaker 1: and just kind of always looked over him. You know.
Speaker 1: We went from K through twelfth grade. I went to
Speaker 1: eight different schools. I went to every school imaginable. We
Speaker 1: went to military school, we went to Christian school, we
Speaker 1: went to just a private school, we went to public school,
Speaker 1: and so I kind of followed del and I whatever
Speaker 1: schools we were in. I just make sure that he
Speaker 1: was kind of timid and small and got picked on
Speaker 1: a lot. And so I just kind of was the
Speaker 1: big sister that always over over saw what was going on.
Speaker 1: And then when we lost our dad, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he was twenty five and I was twenty seven, and
Speaker 1: he was just starting his career in NASCAR. His first
Speaker 1: season was in and his first full time Cup season
Speaker 1: was in two thousand and so we lost ourted out
Speaker 1: in February of two thousand one, so they were just starting.
Speaker 1: Devil was starting his second season, and so that was
Speaker 1: a huge deal and at the time of his life.
Speaker 1: And so I jumped in and and begged him to
Speaker 1: go to work for him. I worked at a industry
Speaker 1: that did all the licensed product diecasts and had some
Speaker 1: T shirts and stuff that you saw at the racetrack,
Speaker 1: and and I said, you know, I really think you
Speaker 1: need me to come work for you because the world,
Speaker 1: as you know it, is getting ready to change. My
Speaker 1: dad he kind of handled all of my brother's business
Speaker 1: and was the strategist as far as what was going
Speaker 1: to go on next. And with our step mom in charge,
Speaker 1: I just felt like that probably you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: gonna be the case, and that Del Junior's interests weren't
Speaker 1: going to be protected and looked at from his standpoint.
Speaker 1: So I went to work for him in August of
Speaker 1: two thousand one. And so we've been together twenty years
Speaker 1: from a business perspective, sister, business agent, all that good stuff,
Speaker 1: and uh, we have a great relationship, a close relationship.
Speaker 1: You know. Now he's married with two children. He's got
Speaker 1: a three year old and a seven month old, and
Speaker 1: so he's kind of started in a new phase of
Speaker 1: his life, which has been fun to witness and seem
Speaker 1: particularly as you know, I had kids a lot earlier
Speaker 1: and and my kids are grown and growing. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's a fun dynamic. Um. I've enjoyed working
Speaker 1: with him. He retired in two thousand seventeen, I think
Speaker 1: for the last year that he drove, and he's been
Speaker 1: broadcasting on NBC. And I still manage, you know, I
Speaker 1: come into the office every day and manage his business
Speaker 1: on a personal standpoint, and then all of his relationships
Speaker 1: with different partners, and then we operate for race teams
Speaker 1: as well in the Axfinity series so we have a
Speaker 1: lot going on and it's fun. Even after twenty years,
Speaker 1: I still enjoy it. Kelly, you have led an amazing life.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you decided to share it with Race
Speaker 1: fans and just all of us, those wanting to succeed
Speaker 1: in business, those wanting to succeed in life. Thank you
Speaker 1: for sharing with us on Love Someone. Before I let
Speaker 1: you go, I need to let another podcast sponsor take
Speaker 1: a lap, and then we'll tell my listeners where we
Speaker 1: can get your book. Oh come on, kids, Honestly, how
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Speaker 1: Kelly Earnhardt Miller, thank you for spending time with us.
Speaker 1: Thank you for being transparent. Thank you. I hate to
Speaker 1: use the word authentic because it's overused as one of
Speaker 1: those buzzwords right now, but you are and I can
Speaker 1: tell that that you you have your priorities lined up perfectly,
Speaker 1: and so thank you, thank you, thank you well, yes,
Speaker 1: thank you, thanks for having me on here. If anybody,
Speaker 1: uh you know, wants to check the book out, they
Speaker 1: can go to Kelly Earnhardt Drive dot com and give
Speaker 1: you all the places that it's available for purchase and
Speaker 1: uh fare in the area of Moors Forlle, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: come see us at Junior Mart Sports. Tell me that again,
Speaker 1: it's Kelly Earnhardt Drive dot com and it'll just give
Speaker 1: you the list of places it's available. So Amazon and
Speaker 1: the bookstores that it's available, and it's on our Junior
Speaker 1: Nation dot hom website. You can get autograph copies and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So it's a good one stop resource. Drive. Nine Lessons
Speaker 1: to Win in Business and in Life is out and
Speaker 1: available for purchase right now. I'd say make a terrific
Speaker 1: gift for Father's Day, for graduation, for anyone going through
Speaker 1: a transition and looking for inspiration and some wisdom. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of wisdom in there. Thank you all for listening.
Speaker 1: I appreciate you being with me on this podcast journey.
Speaker 1: I love being able to share so many different stories
Speaker 1: and the inspiration that comes with every life lived fully. Recently,
Speaker 1: I've talked with the director of volunteers from Mercy Ships,
Speaker 1: a charitable organization that turns ships into giant floating hospitals
Speaker 1: that travel to the poorest places on Earth to perform
Speaker 1: life changing, life saving surgeries. And I was joined by
Speaker 1: Jennifer Harry of Children's Action Network and Foster More. We
Speaker 1: talk in depth about kids in foster care, attempting to
Speaker 1: dispel some of the myths and highlighting the areas of
Speaker 1: the greatest needs. It's a topic that's very dear to
Speaker 1: me as I have adopted many, many children, most of
Speaker 1: them out of foster care. Perhaps it will spark something
Speaker 1: within you that compels you to step up to the plate,
Speaker 1: to use your talents in your times to make the
Speaker 1: future brighter for vulnerable kids. It was so much fun
Speaker 1: to host Love Someone with Kelly Earnhardt Miller today. I'm
Speaker 1: hoping you enjoyed the chat as much as I did.
Speaker 1: Join me here next time, and of course on the
Speaker 1: air waves every night, where I do my best to
Speaker 1: keep you company and to remind you to slow down
Speaker 1: and love someone. Nine