Krista Arnold

Some of the best career advice I've received in my lifetime was something I didn't fully understand until I had experienced it firsthand: think about how you like to work more than where you want to work. What I mean by that is you can find creativity in jobs where the title isn't creative on its face. The semantics of job titles and positions, and even companies, you can find creativity in lots of things that on its face doesn't seem creative. When I got into video, I had no working knowledge of how to use a camera. It was kind of just given to me as a tool, and it was like, here, learn this. My background was in textile design, very different from video or editing or film. But in that realm, I realized I like a monotonous process. I like a repetitive process. I like being able to go over and over and over a material until I fully understand it, and then being able to complete something is very satisfying. That's what video editing is. So pay attention to how you like to work. Do you like to be immersed in something? Do you like to work with people? Don't tie yourself to a certain field. It depends on how you'd like to work, and you can find that work almost anywhere.

Stay hungry. Stay flexible, be open, and receptive to feedback, and also always ask for more money. I didn't do enough of that when I was younger, and I could kick myself for doing it now. Ask for more money. Worst case scenario, someone could say no, and then you're in the same shape.

I would say what's always challenging is trying to connect with the right clientele at the right time. How do you stay in the forefront of an audience's mind? Because unlike other things like retail or fashion, getting a purse or a handbag or an article of clothing in someone's face is one thing. Impulse purchases don't really apply to thinking about where you're gonna live. A lot of times people might be interested in our properties, or interested in what we have to offer amenity-wise, that's a big thing. But they're not moving, or they're not looking to move. So when they start thinking about that, we want to make sure that they're like, oh wait a minute, didn't I hear about that property that one time that had the really great pool, or the really great this? So I think just staying present and connected to the client, despite them not actively engaging with us, that's challenging. I think a lot of our competitors, AI is a big component that I think can be helpful, but also it starts to all look the same.

I would say thoughtfulness. Being really thoughtful about the details, and just keeping the overall objective of what we're trying to accomplish at the forefront of everything we do. Creativity for sure. Getting people excited is really important, and also just staying inspired with what other marketing platforms are doing, or other social channels. Like, what is tracking with between generations. I'm constantly thinking, how can we learn from this? What's working? What's not working? Can we incorporate some of this into our own content in a creative, fresh way? I think a lot of our competitors, AI is a big component that can be helpful, but also it starts to all look the same. In terms of what values matter most to me, I would say thoughtfulness, approaching your work with integrity, keeping the audience, the client, at the forefront of everything you do, and making sure you can put yourself in their shoes and think about why should this matter to them.