ISDI Student Spotlight ft. Kristine Webb
In this weekly series, we’ll be highlighting the student journeys and accomplishments of our future leaders in digital business.
This week we feature Kristine! A marketing guru with a digital-focused career she explains how she was able to pursue passion-driven projects has allowed her to build a well-rounded career. Read on to learn more!
- Tell us a little bit about your background and why you decided to make ISDI a part of your journey?
Back in the day I used to manage a restaurant and even though I wasn’t in a relationship or had any big familial obligations, I knew when I did have a family restaurant work wasn’t the kind of life I wanted negotiate. I grew up in the Bay Area so after I left my restaurant work I returned and got a job for a company building websites in 1996 and have been working in digital ever since. I was working in the place where digital marketing started (we used to called it web marketing) and that has been the primary focus of my career to date.
Lauren Vaccarello (VP of Marketing of Box and an ISDI academic board member) and I are connected on LinkedIn and she posted that she was going to be teaching the Digital Marketing and Advertising modules at ISDI. From our previous work connection through Salesforce I thought she was really impressive so I dug into the ISDI program more and thought it was a compelling curriculum. I’m here because I have always seen windows of opportunities in my life and recognize they’re rare and fleeting, so I saw ISDI as a unique window and took it.
2. If your friends and family had to use 3 words to describe you what would they be?
Creative problem-solver, pragmatic (direct), cheeky/slightly irreverent
3. What is your proudest work/life accomplishment?
Work/life: I have been fortunate enough to be able to chase the work and not the money — in life and in my career. My husband has a very stable job and loves what he does and this has allowed me to say: “Is there something interesting do I want to do?” I don’t have to worry about a job from a salary or commission basis, I can just do truly interesting work I enjoy.
An example was when I contacted my friend who was a CMO because I was looking for opportunities in broader marketing. He connected me with the head of Williams Sonoma, who in turn offered me a consulting position at less than half of my normal going rate. But, they were doing a complete revamp of the digital marketing program and it was a truly unique opportunity. Even though most people wouldn’t have taken that position for the rate offered, I was able to and what I got from it was so much that and more. I learned all about Marketo and social media listening — not to mention I was their ideal customer so I have been very fortunate in my work and life to be able to take opportunities like this I truly find fascinating.
4. What is a surprising fact not many people know about you or something you wish more people knew about you?
I am always very honest and my true self so there’s not much I try to hide from people — but I guess if I had to think of something I’d say favorite food group is nachos. It just has everything you want from the meat, to the sour cream, it’s just a winner.
5. If you had to write a book about something, and you knew it would be an all time best seller (as in this message would be seen by millions of people) what would it be and why?
I would like to write and curate a series of fireside chats and interviews talking to people who have seen, identified, taken advantage of, or missed varying windows of opportunity. I personally have had so many of these windows present themselves in my life and I have always listened to my ‘internal voice’ about whether to pursue them or not.
Listening to that voice has created a zig zag career and honestly a very well rounded person from a professional perspective. It can be something as simple as a conversation you have in passing that can turn out to be extremely meaningful and potentially change your career trajectory. Unless you not only recognize these windows but take advantage of them, they may close and never come back so I’d want to make people aware of how to recognize and take advantage of them.
6. If you decided to start a business tomorrow what would it be and why?
Once the kids are in college there’s an 80% chance I will open small cafe. I want go back to the restaurant life with a really fresh, supply-driven menu where we have what we have and when we run out of ingredients we close for the day.
Something small, friendly, and a high focus on service. Whenever I travel or go out to eat locally, I look at restaurants and study the experiences clientele have there — I’m fascinated by what works and what doesn’t.
As for where it would be, I could do it anywhere we decide to go — the midwest, abroad or here.
7. What is a piece of advice you’d give to the younger version of yourself?
I would tell myself to invest in an apartment building in the Bay Area. It really is sad how here and in many areas of the state the cost of living is outpacing the salary growth of nurturers, educators, and public defendants and in turn makes it harder to live healthy lives.
So I would buy an apartment complex so I can do some rent control and these critical members of society can continue to afford to live here. I would try to afford them opportunity to stay and create better place for all.
8. What is a product, service, company, book, or activity you WOM (word of mouth) advertise all the time to family and friends?
Good Eggs —they are a fresh produce delivery company. I love the quality of their produce, their integrity and their customer service responsiveness. Not only are they good for your household but they’re good for your soul and the products they deliver are really top notch.
Also I always recommend TedRadio, it’s a podcast that really opens up the mind and makes me think about things from a perspective I wouldn’t normally. I love how thought-provoking it is all the different topics they cover.
9. What technological innovation are you most excited about in the coming decades?
Big data and AI and the improving of tools in this space. It will be great one day to not just feel overwhelmed by data and be able to understand what is important quickly from large data sets. I love to problem solve and insights from big data and AI tools will further help me create meaningful actions for solving problems for businesses I work with.
On the flip side the issue is where data comes from and being aware of the bias that may be inherent within it — something to always consider.
Thanks for joining us on our Student Spotlight Series! For more ISDI blog posts written by our amazing students and our esteemed academic board, check them out at our ISDI Blog here.
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