Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Baltzell.
Hi Kelly , we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am a serial entrepreneur that started my first company in 1997 after working at AOL for a couple of years. My first websites/business was www.grieving.com that is still going strong today. It is a community for grieving people from around the world. Over a 100 countries represented from all walks of life. It is free and is peer-to-peer support based on loss type. The population of www.grieving.com asked us to reach out to grieving people at the time of death so we did. Funeral homes however in the late 1990’s had just embraced the fax machine and wondered if they could run the internet through it! Very quickly it became apparent that funeral homes needed a website for their marketing as well as to support our grief support tools we were offering to them. This started my foray into online marketing. In 2004, we moved into the veterinary vertical as our grieving population again asked to reach out to help grieving pet parents at the time of transition. The story for the veterinary space was very similar to the funeral home vertical! What is a website and is the internet going to stay? We launched Beyond Indigo Pets at www.beyondindigopets.com to assist businesses in the veterinary space with their marketing so they could reach a great breath of pet owners. We help veterinary hospitals and businesses reach a million plus animal a year.
Fast forward to 2025, and I created more avenues for small businesses to reach their customers starting with the Marketing Car at www.marketingcar.com which is an analogy of the aspect of marketing needed to move a business down the internet hi way. In other verticals, my team and myself found so many businesses getting taken to the cleaners with their marketing or ignore all together. We wanted to change that experience and make a difference. Marketing Car was created to help small businesses reaching their marketing destinations. Just like Beyond Indigo Pets, Marketing Car offers a full range of marketing services on and offline. We are starting a podcast focused on small businesses as well. If you are small business and want to have your voice heard please come sign up on our website!
At the same time, my town asked myself and my neighbor in our own small business to start a farmer’s market as we have zero retail space but three fabulous restaurants! We started The Crow River Market (www.thecrowrivermarket.com) which is every Saturday’s starting after Mother’s Day through September from 9 to 1. We also have a Valentine’s Day focused market on January 31st (2 weeks before Valentine’s Day).
All my companies focus on connecting with others which led me to my latest organization which is Beyond The Crown www.gobeyondthecrown.org. This non-profit organization is a continuation of the royalty/ambassador program that individual towns in MN and WI have to bring awareness to their city. This program was just launched in November 2025. Membership is free and we hope every person who has ever been in crown, their supporting family members and coordinators join to keep the legacy of the Crown going.
And who knows what I will create next? Stay tuned.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There are always obstacles to running a small business. Some of ours were:
1. Exhaustion. When I first started it was just me and another employee. I was working as a server in a restaurant to keep cashflow in the business but could use tips to pay the mortgage. Sometimes I was working 17 hour days to keep it all going.
2. Ignorance: People really had no idea what the internet was or what it could do. It was new to the entire world. In 1997 AOL, Prodigy and Compuserv were the “island states” for the internet. People were just starting to buy domain names and creating websites and marketing outside of those three companies. Many, many people thought the internet would not stay.
3. Coding: The internet continues to change at a blinding pace and it is accelerating. To stay in business online you can never slack off learning the latest technology. Right now the current technology wave is AI. How companies are using it and people consuming it are being figured out. Every wave of technology companies sprout and grow or die. I have seen many companies die.
4. Financing: Money is always an issue for small businesses. I choose to bootstrap because I didn’t want to share decisions with a venture capital company or other funding sources.
5. Disbelief: We are a 100% virtual company since 1997 the day we started. Before March 2020, people told me this is an impossible feat and will never work. I was in high demand when the whole world moved to working at home. It can be done as we all found out.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Multiple?
After 28 years I am still in business and creating businesses and organizations that assist and help other humans and animals. What sets all my creations apart is they are innovative, cutting edge, based on the assumption that humans are intelligent and can make their own decisions and we care about helping the greater whole not a quick sale. I listed the links to the about us for each business below. They all connect people to what they need be it services like full range marketing (websites, search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, social media creation and marketing, online reviews, blogging, analytics and marketing strategy) with the Marketing Car and Beyond Indigo Pets, to connecting with each other in person or online. What I want people to know is there are people who care and don’t see you as an ATM machine to their own bottom line. Yes, money matters but it isn’t the end justification. If you want someone in your corner for your business give us a call or come be a vendor at the market. And if you are part of a past crown program regardless of your age come join us and continue the energy.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
That I have stood on the Great Wall Of China.
Pricing:
- Marketing Car – Call for a consult so we can work with your budget
- Beyond Indigo Pets – Call for a consult so we match our services to your needs.
- The Crow River Market is $35 a vendor booth per Saturday or less
- Beyond The Crown – Membership is free, events have individual fees based on the event
- Grieving.com is free and anonymous. Open to all.
Contact Info:
- Marketing Car: https://www.marketingcar.com/about
- Beyond Indigo Pets: https://www.beyondindigopets.com/about/
- The Crow River Market: https://thecrowrivermarket.com/
- Beyond The Crown: https://www.gobeyondthecrown.org/about
- Grieving.com: www.grieving.com
