Her Story
About Kathryn
I come from a performance-based background as a dancer and dance teacher, which I studied during my college years before earning my degree in business communications. Much of my early career was spent with dance, curriculum writing, and educational roles, and from there I moved into the event space centered around entertainment and creativity. For the past 7 years in Los Angeles, I've worked primarily in events and entertainment, specifically in the music industry. I currently freelance in social media marketing and creative strategy, and I've been with my most recent company for about 3 years. As a marketing professional, I have experience in digital campaigns, social media management, and content creation for electronic music brands, supported by direct industry experience in artist relations and talent coordination. One of my most notable achievements is establishing Technocolor, a well-known party centered around San Diego Pride that I organize with The Bad Influencers. This event has become incredible for bringing the queer community together and has been super successful and lucrative, allowing us to scale up every year. I'm also a DJ with my own creative project, and I love collaborating with other artists and event companies. Early in my time in Los Angeles, I worked at a fashion headquarters where I learned to hand rhinestone for A-list celebrities like Miley Cyrus. I used those skills when I served as creative director, dispatching dancers and specialty performers for music festivals and nightlife events. A typical day for me involves checking in with my team or superiors through remote communication platforms, followed by creativity time to organize and execute whatever we're wanting to promote. My work requires me to maintain really good communication across multimedia platforms since most of my roles are remote. As someone who's inherently creative, I utilize storytelling to invoke emotions and lead people to events or brands they should have their eyes on.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kathryn
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my adaptability. I've removed pride from my vocabulary when it comes to jobs I can or won't do, and I've been someone who's done it all and kind of started from the bottom, or started somewhere different and ended up beautifully where I am now. That's definitely just because I've been adaptable. I'm a quick learner and I'm easy to coach. What comes with being a quick learner is having the confidence to take on something new and not letting your nerves get the best of you, because it can be nerve-wracking out there looking for new clients, looking for new jobs, learning a new skill set. Being able to be that strong force standing there saying 'I can take it, I can do this' is going to take you a long way.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Through observation of cohorts and people above and around me, I've noticed the power of community, relationship building, and networking. That's something that has always benefited me, and it's how I lead my life and get from one place to the next as someone who is in a gig environment and in the freelance realm.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to start connecting and making those connections and networking now. Let it happen naturally. Let these conversations form through friendship or just interpersonal communication before you get to the professional development that could come out of a connection. Take every interview as an opportunity to just kind of meet people and learn about these teams, and know that even through interviews and vetting processes, through yeses and nos, that's good experience. That's how I lead my life and that's how I've been able to do everything that I do.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The most difficult challenge in the events and entertainment space, specifically music events, is that it's something that is hard to forecast. You never know when it's going to be good or when it's going to be bad, so you just have to ride that wave, take that work, seek it out, and keep connecting with people to find it from one place to the next. My biggest challenge right now is moving into an in-house position with some marketing firm or agency where I don't have to do the sourcing of clients on my own, nor take multiple clients under my own personal belt, but have them come through me filtered through the company. That's kind of the intersection of where I'm at currently, trying to break out of the freelance realm. As for opportunities, I work in different positions where we're cross-contaminating departments, so there are opportunities to work closer with the talent that's there at the time and to connect with touring and production companies to see if my skill set could fill another asset they're looking for. I enjoy the work I do because it's inherently fun and entertaining, so there's always an opportunity to be exposed to really incredible and quality art and performance that is out there.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Community and networking are definitely core values for me. I'm someone who welcomes emotion and wants us to be able to express and explore these emotions, even in professional spaces. As someone who's inherently creative, I find that I utilize the talent of storytelling and trying to invoke certain emotions out of people in order to lead them to an event they should be at, or a brand or collective they should have their eyes on. That's something I really lean into - embracing your creativity and your emotions and utilizing that for good ways to connect people.
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