Missions to Movements
This isn't just another nonprofit podcast - it's your weekly invitation to think bigger, take bold risks, and create lasting change in an ever-evolving social impact landscape. Meet Dana Snyder, your guide through the evolving landscape of nonprofit innovation. She's on a mission to help change-makers like you push the boundaries of what's possible in nonprofit marketing and fundraising. Each week, Missions to Movements serves as your personal mastermind session, delivering actionable insights and bold strategies that challenge traditional nonprofit thinking. Dive into revolutionary approaches to digital fundraising, discover how to build magnetic monthly giving programs that create lasting donor relationships, and learn to amplify your voice as a thought leader in the social good space. Whether you're reimagining your organization's impact or forging game-changing partnerships, you'll find the ideas, insights, and inspiration to take your mission further than you've ever imagined. Ready to turn your mission into a movement?
Missions to Movements
Building High-Performing Teams with Kristin Boehm (Meet My Boss - Leadership Series)
Leadership isn't just a title. It's about influence and building trust. And today's guest is someone who FUNDAMENTALLY shaped my career and even became a catalyst in my leap to entrepreneurship.
Kristin Boehm was a pioneer in digital media at People Magazine and with an always sharp pulse on culture, is now a branding consultant. Known for her killer headlines and strategic mind, her superpower is also in building high-performing teams and nurturing talent.
We discuss Kristin’s transition to the digital landscape, and explore the importance of service industry skills, taking time off during transitions, and the power of listening to team input.
Leadership, of course, isn’t without its challenges, so we also get into what it’s like to build resilient teams in burnout-prone sectors like nonprofits, the complexities of hiring, and how to juggle wins with constructive feedback.
Resources & Links
Check out the other episodes in this Meet My Boss Leadership Series:
Nurturing Talent and Fostering Innovation with Lisa Bechtold
Building Thriving Cultures and Team Dynamics with Dave Nugent
This show is presented by LinkedIn for Nonprofits. We’re so grateful for their partnership. Explore their incredible suite of resources and discounts for nonprofit teams here.
Monthly Giving Awareness Week is May 12-16! Join me, RKD Group, and GivingTuesday for 5 days of FREE resources to help you launch and grow recurring gifts.
Are you still dreaming about building your monthly giving program or refreshing your current one? Applications are now open for my “done with you” Monthly Giving Mastermind. 4 spots are open and we start in July. Click here to apply.
My book, The Monthly Giving Mastermind, is here! Grab a copy here and learn my framework to build, grow, and sustain subscriptions for good.
Let's Connect!
The important thing about leaders is like knowing what you're good at, and knowing you know, not necessarily your strengths and your weaknesses, but where you need people that you can like lead to lean. I want to be able to lean on someone and I want to be able to lean on them like a, in a way that I can exemplify and like you can learn by watching me and be like, ok, this is how she wants things done. I can do that, but also you, as the employee, think about things in another way that I'm like I hadn't thought of. That it's a great idea. Let's lean on her and see where it goes. I really had to hone my skills in like negotiations, knowing when to ask for forgiveness versus permission, and knowing that, like these are the kinds of things that people are going to ask for, to like make the case for something.
Speaker 2:Hey, there, you're listening to the Missions to Movements podcast and I'm your host, Dana Snyder, digital strategist for nonprofits and founder and CEO of Positive Equation. This show highlights the digital strategies of organizations making a positive impact in the world. Ready to learn the latest trends, actionable tips and the real stories from behind the feed. Let's transform your mission into a movement.
Speaker 2:Today's episode rounds out my leadership series, aka a jaunt down memory lane with my former bosses, and I know this has been a little outside the norm for this podcast that is primarily marketing centered, but I thought there was nothing more important than making sure you are ending the year and starting a new year the best leader that you can be, and what does that look like for you right now? And as Dr Kevin Sandsbury said in a previous episode, who kicked off this series, leadership isn't a title. When we think about true leadership, it's more about influence. It's about building trust, and today's guest is someone who fundamentally shaped not just my career but really supported my launch into entrepreneurship, as she was my last corporate boss.
Speaker 2:Kristen Boehm, starting as a pioneer in digital media at People Magazine, where she drove unprecedented audience growth and mastered the art of bridging print and digital operations. Kristen is known for her killer headlines, sharp strategic mind and has really spent her career building high-performing teams and transforming how brands connect with audiences. But what truly sets Kristen apart isn't just this impressive track of successful campaigns and partnerships. It's really the talent for identifying and nurturing talent and you'll hear more about this in our conversation that transforms organizations and individuals themselves. So I am thrilled to welcome my former boss and the biggest cheerleader when I took a leap of faith to start Positive Equation nearly eight years ago. I just found out some really cool news that I am Kristen's first official podcast interview. This is so exciting it is.
Speaker 1:It's exciting and nerve-wracking.
Speaker 2:You're going to be gem. It's going to be perfect. Kristen was my third and final boss in my corporate experience and I will never forget when you knew that I was a fan of an author called Good is the New Cool by Afdel Aziz, and you found out that he was speaking and you're like, hey, do you want to go to this thing with me? And that book is what excited me to start this company eight years ago which is wild, nearly eight years ago and you were the biggest supporter of that vision. I will never forget, like walking into your office and saying I'm quitting. You're like, where are you going? And I said nowhere. I'm starting my own thing. You're like do you have clients? And I said no.
Speaker 1:I mean congratulations again, and you know that's the hardest thing. Is that first step of just like believing in yourself and saying like what's the worst that could happen. You've always been really passionate and like when you're enthusiastic about something, you go after it like wholeheartedly. So I think it's really admirable and congratulations again.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It doesn't come without the support of people around you that encourage you and make you feel supported to do so, which is the point of this series, this leadership series that we're in. So, listener, if you were just jumping in and you've missed the previous episodes, you are in a fun series where I am talking to my old bosses about leadership. I am talking to my old bosses about leadership and it's honestly so important because nothing we can do as employees is possible without, usually, the approval at an organization of your leadership to take action of a new professional development experience or to change systems and processes or just to try something new.
Speaker 2:And Kristen and I have a very unique hiring or hiring experience of me. I was so blown away and I would love for you to give a little bit of an intro. I was so blown away by your background at People that when I saw you were like the head of digital at DKC at the time, I just wanted to meet you. Would you mind sharing a little bit about your background and what led you then to work at DKC?
Speaker 1:I do love looking back because it was like this big change for me because I'd been a journalist at that point for almost 20 years and people were changing. It was a huge leadership change and it was really that time where people started. It's not the best term, but people really started going the way of like content monkeys where, like anybody was hired to like rewrite something. Like you didn't have to have degrees, backgrounds, experience If you would take like whatever low rate per word, per minute, per piece. You were just basically out there for search engine optimization to regurgitate whatever news was out there. And look how far we've come, because now the celebrities that used to break news with people magazine and peoplecom they're breaking it on Instagram, they're breaking it on TikTok, and so at that point I took some time off.
Speaker 1:I think that's huge. I think that's so important, especially when you're going into a big transition. And I had friends that were like, okay, what beach are you on now? Like you have to come back, you have to do this. And it was like this great inflection point of when marketing and advertising agencies were also having these new digital demands put on them Yep, where a lot of the digital departments were maybe, if you were lucky, the content department had video people. Most content departments were like a girl that would rewrite a press release into a tweet.
Speaker 2:In context, this was 2015. Is that when you started there? Yes, 15.
Speaker 1:Because I was there two years to the day, to 2017. It was March that I started and so agency was new to me. We did have a few people, but we didn't have any sort of like. You can't be like a leader at my level and then just have all really junior people and be successful. So a lot of my two years there was building out a team of like multifaceted people with different talents that really played into digital, like, of course, video.
Speaker 1:People are still talking about it now, but I feel like I too, even when I was hiring journalists, something that always stuck with me was like people who had some sort of service industry in their background, because as a reporter or as a writer or even as someone who's having to deal with so many different brands and their needs, you really not need to know how to juggle and be able to take orders and talk to the kitchen and talk to the hostess and talk to your clients and not mess up orders or, if you do, figure out how to fix them. It's a lot of thinking on your feet. That, I feel, just makes people better employees in general and better people. Really, if you've worked in a restaurant, you're that much kinder when you eat out.
Speaker 2:You know how to deal with lots of different types of people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, and I think that kind of benefits most roles right.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's very true. So quick backstory for everyone when I was leaving my previous employer, who you've now met, dave Nugent, who came and spoke at Omnigon, and I stumbled upon Kristen and went in for an informational interview you were not technically hiring and then the magic of relationships and circumstances. I think it was like a week later that I got an offer and then the two-week notice time period, whatever started working with you, and one of the questions I want to ask you about is what qualities make a great leader, and what I wanted to like kind of start with was I remember when I first started and you're right, you were scaling out the leadership, I guess, in our division, and so I was a senior digital strategist and I remember coming in and we had archaic computers.
Speaker 2:Not Macs whatever they were, they're not Macs, not Macs. And we didn't have like platforms and tools for digital. And so two of the big things I remember is like we can't be working on these computers. And they were desktops. I was like how are we supposed to travel and like go to meetings and like be on flights and all this stuff without laptops? And so you immediately, yeah, you're right, we should put forth to get Macs. And then I think there was a couple of different platforms we were looking at as far as like digital analytics and tracking and social media and management tools, and went on that research and then presented them to you and you're like, yep, we should go and meet with them and we should work with them. And it was just this. As a young-ish employee at the time, it was like, oh, she sees me and it's not just. There was never any belittling. It was never like, oh, that's not important, it was like you always and it's never like it's impossible, that'll never happen.
Speaker 1:It's always like we have to ask Right, because the worst that could happen is someone says no or someone says where will we get the money Right? Those are the two answers.
Speaker 2:So when you were thinking about, like building this team, were you thinking about like, what kind of leader do I want to be, or how do I envision my role with this team I'm building?
Speaker 1:I want to be able to lean on someone and I want to be able to lean on them like a, in a way that I can exemplify and like you can learn by watching me and be like, okay, this is how she wants things done. I can do that, but also I think about things in this. You know, you, as the employee, think about things in another way that I'm like I hadn't thought of that. It's a great idea. Let's lean on her and see where it goes.
Speaker 1:Because then too, at this point, after, oh my gosh, all my years in like male dominated, like print dominated and like being you know where I got to be in the digital world, which was like crazy because we were young and didn't have the clout that this like print old guard had this death grip on, I really had to hone my skills in like negotiations and then also like knowing when to ask for forgiveness versus permission and knowing that, like these are the kinds of things that people are going to ask for, to like make the case for something. And luckily, at that time, the agency like really loved my background as well. That time at, the owner of the agency loved taking me to new business meetings and like throwing away on celebrity names, throwing around my experience. But then also he trusted me because I'd been doing digital for so long and it was so new to everyone else that when you and I were like lock arm, here's what we need to have to like make more money, they were listening.
Speaker 2:Right and had the trust of that. When there is tough times, or especially within the nonprofit space can be burnout, how do you still foster teamwork and motivation when things aren't going great?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, and I think burnout happens so much quicker now because we're just inundated with that much more things. But I do think that even at people and even at different agencies, celebrating our wins and making sure that you do feel like it is a team effort that really helps avoid burnout and giving people tools to recognize in themselves Like hey, you just worked a 10 hour day or you just came off of whatever pitch, take a second, take a breath, take a rest. I think at people that was probably because we were a 24-7 news cycle and there were like days that we were just online, right, because that audience at the time was just insatiable. We really had to like make that fun for ourselves. It just motivated everyone to like beat the competition and to prove to print that we were like not going anywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you have like a common enemy, I guess that helps, whether it's a brand competitor or you know, print be digital. For me I definitely, by the time I left publishing was pretty burnt out and definitely make sure that even now I still try to set proper boundaries around, like my phone. That addiction is like takes over everything.
Speaker 1:So just being able to make sure that you're approaching yourself with kindness and making sure that, like you, can't take care of anyone else until you take care of yourself.
Speaker 2:Very true, it's very true. Now, in my monthly giving Slack group, the Sustainers, there are more than 100 nonprofits that share tips and tools to scale their recurring giving programs and, as you might believe, the CRM and fundraising tool conversation comes up a lot, and one that always comes up in conversation is Bloomerang. So if you're in the market to be looking at a complete donor, volunteer and fundraising management solution, head to bloomerangco. They have a very intuitive platform that tracks engagement, provides powerful insights so that you can really focus on driving your mission forward. So join thousands of small and medium sized nonprofits that are already thriving with Bloomerang and again, you can visit bloomerangco to elevate your fundraising. Today we went from oh my gosh, I don't even know, was there like four.
Speaker 1:The team got pretty big by the time we both left. Yeah, because when I got there, there were the three guys on the video team. So, yeah, actual content. There was no data and metrics. So I hired all three of those people that now are a really big part of that agency's like offerings, which is awesome. And then there were two or three, maybe young women, that were doing like content calendars, but there was no real strategy. It was just like there were brands that needed content.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So like fill the void that they felt needed to be filled on like Instagram and Facebook.
Speaker 2:And I don't think there was any influencer work at the time before like the projects that came up with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, not really. I mean we launched L'Oreal League from that agency, yeah, and that was really the first of its kind.
Speaker 2:So when you were going through that hiring process and for other leaders that might be in a similar boat, where they're really trying to figure out its work to hire someone and train them. I know there was the service industry. Are there certain things that you look for in the hiring process Really?
Speaker 1:having to rack my brain because I've been consulting and like kind of a one woman team for several years and usually when I inherit a team, that's really challenging as well. Cause you, it's a process too to unearth someone's real talent and like how they work and how they'll be successful. Yes, everyone.
Speaker 2:If you didn't catch that, she's hot on the market. If you're looking for a brand, social media strategy, influencer strategy, Christiane is your girl.
Speaker 1:I'm still in the thick of it. Yeah, I love content, I love content marketing, but I would say I just definitely look for someone who. Well, actually, even the other day, I volunteered at a charter high school up in the Bronx to do mock interviews with the kids. Oh cool, they were like 10th and 11th graders and even the difference between a 15 year old and 17 year old was so dramatic. Really, we had the 11th graders all morning and these kids are like 17. They were confident, they had rehearsed, they knew you know, they were very comfortable talking to you and communicating with you about, like whatever I wanted to ask them.
Speaker 1:Because, even though it was like a comp sci charter school, none of these kids want to do anything with like UX design or like data sciences. They want to be cops, they want to be cosmetologists, they want to be engineers, they want to be doctors. So it really was more conversational and I feel like a big thing of like hiring is to making sure that someone can be comfortable with themselves and talking about themselves, because, like you said, you can train most processes right, because there are a million different SaaS platforms out there that you can use to discover and track influencers. I happen to really like a certain one. Even to develop your own website, you can use a WordPress or you can use a this or that, and it really is personal preference. Or if you get into a job and you know one and you have to learn the other, it's not too hard, right? Yeah, even in publishing, I was like if you write better headlines with your shoes off, by all means do it.
Speaker 2:I don't care You're like, go for it. Now we're fighting over this could be a leader. If you're listening or if you're an employee working with somebody, how do you handle? I don't like calling it failures, but like mess ups or mistakes as a leader or the employee within a team.
Speaker 1:This reminds me because, like I said, early days, digital we would live tweet shows and, like a popular show at the time was Scandal. I don't watch the show, but Kerry Washington plays the main character, who's like the head of press and also having an affair Sorry, spoiler alert with the president, and she's a very successful Black woman and she always wears her hair straight and in this scene she went on vacation and her hair is curly and the internet went crazy and whoever tweeted something about it from People Magazine was under siege. This young woman, she was amazing. I didn't want to live tweet things I still wouldn't want to live tweet things.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of pressure. I had to do it for American Idol and the US Open tennis. That was a whole lot of pressure.
Speaker 1:Make sure you don't miss the right moments, make sure you don't say anything wrong and like this. You know like we've obviously done a lot of work over the past few years and are like much more familiar with like what's appropriate and what's not appropriate to say. But whatever she said, whatever she tweeted at the time, was definitely upsetting to some and the overall conversation online was like very charged around and look even as like a white woman with curly, frizzy hair. I do feel pressure sometimes to like straighten my hair for certain situations, whether that be an event or a job interview or whatever the case may be. I don't know if I'll ever outgrow that, but I came into work that day and I had so many voicemails calling for this person's head Like she has to be fired and, to answer your question, the big thing is is like it was a learning moment for all of us I'm not a finger pointer, so like the group as a whole and she was mortified because she's seeing the backlash.
Speaker 1:And there was a musician uh, it was very popular at the time.
Speaker 1:He's less so now, but his agent is a very well-known black woman and she called me and she was just yelling at me on the phone, like calling for her head, saying this was like so inappropriate. And I was like, well, thank you, I'll run my team how I see fit. And you know I said I didn't defend her in any real respect, other than like, hey, you do, you and your team, and I'll do mine, and I think that's why I was such a respected leader is that, like you had her back. I was like, look, this is like the compassionate path, but also like, if I don't trust them to do this, they're never going to excel, and she was harder on herself than I could have ever been, or that like any of the angry calls could have ever been. So to really just like have the group as a whole evolve into being, you know, better, more sensitive humans for whatever the situation is. But that one really stands out to me as like a huge oops, a huge like okay, this is live.
Speaker 2:And it's interesting like those things happen. I remember a client that we had when we were working together, that I was in our conference room with a junior digital strategist and that person was screaming at me, not because we had done anything wrong, but because there was like miscommunication on the project at scale and then we had to immediately leave and go in a meeting together. This person and myself I don't know if you remember what I'm talking about and the junior staff member, I think went into your office and was like, uh, this just happened. I think I remember you texting me it just like are you okay? Uh, this just happened. I think I remember you texting me. It's just like are you okay? And I was like, I'm good. Like at that age I had like enough like chops to be able to like brush it off and understand that there was something else at play. That was, I just happened to be the person sitting in the chair that took it.
Speaker 2:But to have leadership that checks in is also important. To be like I got your back.
Speaker 1:Oh, a hundred percent, and we can go scream into a pillow later. It's fine, it is hard, and I do think that, like, women are definitely really well equipped for that, as far as like saying, okay, we're going to solve this, we're not going to like belabor this.
Speaker 2:Yes, I have one more question that kind of like ties into this and organizations that are listening are working at all different size companies. So, in your opinion, how do you think that leadership evolves when an organization is in a standpoint of growth which you've definitely been at or faces new challenges, and what advice would you give to any leaders managing that change?
Speaker 1:Manage it better than some of the people I've been involved with. I know that sounds really harsh, but I do wish that leadership would evolve more nimbly. I think there are a lot of factors that present themselves as walls for people Like. This has been working all along. Why would I change? Or I have actually asked a client why they don't have someone in 2022. Why don't you have someone in house? On the social media side? Why are you relying on an agency? And she was a CMO of a major global brand and goes well. No one told me I had to have one.
Speaker 1:So like be aware of what's going on first and foremost, be aware of the changes you can make.
Speaker 1:And I think it goes back to like be aware of what's going on first and foremost, be aware of the changes you can make. And I think it goes back to like take care of yourself and make sure you're not burning out, because, whatever the challenges or the changes that's being faced, you're not going to be effective doing it unless you are taking care of yourself, unless you do know most of the plays that are at hand. And I think things are changing more quickly than ever, and so I do know there are a lot of great success stories where they're like oh yeah, we just trusted this young person's idea, and I've always been a fan of that. I've always been a fan of test and learn and see what works. As long as you have a plan and even if you're just taking small risks, you're going to learn a lot faster and, to that nimble point, be able to improve and know who you can delegate things to, let them show off their strengths. Cross your fingers, get a glass of wine? I don't know.
Speaker 2:It's hard, it's so good. I know it is all hard and I was actually just talking to a leader this morning who's having to go through the hiring process and is like, oh, but do I want to do it? Because then I have to explain the task and all the things and it's like, but you can't, you're going to be stuck in the same place you are if you don't take those leaps. And so thank you so much for your leadership and the time that I got to work for you and soak it up. I know you're making an impact in all the organizations you work in, like people see you. So thank you for just being you.
Speaker 1:Oh, awesome. Well, thank you for this opportunity, my first official podcast.
Speaker 2:Yes, in the books, signed, sealed, delivered. Thanks, christian Wish out. Thank you. Can you tell I love talking all things digital To make this show better. I'd be so grateful for your feedback. Leave a review, take a screenshot of this episode, share it on Instagram stories and tag positive equation with one E so I can reshare and connect with you.
