Spend a Minute with CEO Kristin Selmeczy

by Johanna Selmeczy

Kristin Selmeczy is the President and CEO of the Molly Maid of Bloomingdale and Mount Prospect and the Co-Founder and CEO of Pillars of Franchising. She has been a franchisee for 16 years and has over 35 years of customer service experience.

Starting out at Home Depot as a part-time Cashier, Kristin worked her way up to Regional Sales Manager in the Services department. As a woman in a heavily male-dominated industry, Kristin faced a variety of challenges while climbing the career ladder. Her experiences have made her particularly empathetic towards empowering women in business, minorities and survivors of domestic abuse. Kristin spent over 15 years at Home Depot, but everything changed when she had her first child. Realizing that her current position could never offer the flexibility between work and personal life that she needed, Kristin knew she had to make a change.

Kristin took a chance and bought a Molly Maid franchise in Bloomingdale, Illinois. The rest is history.

Now, Kristin is one of the Pillars of Franchising Million Dollar Mentors and a Co-Host on the Pillars Podcast. She has three children and wears the titles of hockey mom, baseball mom and PTA President with pride. Her family’s well-being is of utmost importance to her, but she also strives to teach her kids the importance of tenacity and hard work.

Growing up, Kristin’s family life was burdened by poverty and divorce. She grew up in Section 8 subsidized housing with her mother and younger brother in Michigan while her father worked construction jobs in California. Eventually, she moved out to California to live with her father while her brother stayed behind. There, her father instilled in her a rigorous work ethic which she credits for her success. She began working at 14 years old and worked multiple jobs throughout high school.

“It was about survival,” she explained. “Nothing was ever handed to you. You had to work for it.”

Neither of Kristin’s parents went to college. Her mother dropped out of high school when she got pregnant at 16 and her father entered the workforce as soon as he graduated to support the family. Kristin initially attended Michigan State University but never finished school after dropping out. She returned to college through the Home Depot tuition reimbursement program while working as a store manager, but was waylaid due to a serious medical condition. Despite this, she has made her own path to success and propagates her own story as proof that college isn’t the only option for young people.

“I believe that if college isn’t the right path for you due to personal, financial, medical, or whatever reason, sometimes ‘real world’

experience can be just as if not more valuable than academia,” Kristin said. “There are people I know from Home Depot who never finished school but are millionaires today. There isn’t just one road to success.”

Now, Kristin has made it her mission to give back. At Home Depot, she worked with Habitat for Humanity and Kaboom! and learned about the importance of taking care of her employees and her local community. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Ms. Molly Foundation, an organization centered on aiding victims of domestic abuse and IPV (Intimate Partner Violence). She works to provide support systems to young people in the LGBTQ+ community who lack unconditional support at home. Kristin is also a continuous volunteer in her children’s school districts and believes that the fabric of the community is built on active involvement.

Kristin’s favorite thing about franchising is the operational simplicity yet personal flexibility of running a franchise. Although there are clear corporate procedures and techniques to follow, every franchisee gets to run the day-to-day intricacies of their own business. Kristin enjoys building relationships with her employees, networking with other local business owners and using her experience to help new and current franchisees.

In the future, Kristin hopes to retire on a beach somewhere, with a lifestyle that allows for travel, family and flexibility. Currently, Kristin spends what sliver of free time she has between driving her kids to sports games and running her businesses to read, garden or spend quality time with her family (and yes, that includes her three dogs).