Her Story
About Kionna
I've been in sales and staffing for over 10 years, and I currently serve as an account executive at Staffing Boutique, where I handle B2B client sales and recruitment. I started this role in September after spending 4 years in education staffing. I have a daughter who's going to be 3 in a couple weeks, and I was looking for more flexibility, so this fully remote position has been really helpful for me. I've never personally applied to positions - any position I've ever had, I've been recruited for that role, and I was recruited into this organization as well. The nonprofit space is massive and wasn't something I was familiar with, so I've had kind of a crash course in the last 8 months of everything on the nonprofit side. But I do really like it because I feel like I'm able to work with people that care about what they're doing and their mission aligns, so that's been really good for me. My strongest skill set is relationship building, whether that's with clients or candidates. I'm passionate about getting to know somebody personally and then actually helping them find success - making sure that I help people find stuff that they actually like and enjoy.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kionna
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I think that once I became a mom, just the advice that you can't carry everything every single day, right? So some things are going to be a little bit heavier, some things are immediate needs, some things are things that maybe you can do a little bit later. So I think balancing that as a mother was challenging for me, because my career's always been really important. So, just knowing that not every day has to be perfect, but you just have to focus on what's important at that time, and then be able to change your focus back to what you need to be doing, whether it's for work or as a parent.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say take your time to understand the industry, and networking is a very powerful tool. I think a lot of times in sales, you want to just make your first sale, or you want to talk to the right people, and either earn a commission or find somebody, but I think the networking aspect is really important, and that's something that I've learned from my founder, especially now, with Staffing Boutique. Her name is Katie Warnick, is that networking is very important, and it's not always about getting the sale that day, but networking to make sure that somebody can introduce you to the right person. So that's been something that, I think that if you're entering the field, whether it's in nonprofit or sales, is to take networking seriously and really connect with as many people as you can.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Right now, I think that a lot of nonprofits and education are facing uncertainty, whether it's from the current administration, or grant cuts, or just basically not knowing where funding is coming from, so I think it's making a lot of organizations move scared in their hiring. So yeah, I think that's been a really big challenge. I think there's a lot of candidates on the market from layoffs, so it's been really hard for organizations to make decisions, because there are a lot of candidates, right? So they're kind of taking their time, and then they're missing out on great talent.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think integrity, like, showing up as yourself, or, you know, the best version of yourself, whether you're at work or in your personal life, and I would just say, like, hard work, right? Being able to connect with people, and then actually try your best to do what's right for them and yourself, and not being afraid of hard work.
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