Her Story
About Kristin
I started in higher education working at the university level in career development for students. An employer offered me an opportunity to join their corporate team, which is how I initially got my start into HR as an employee generalist and associate recruiter, doing employee relations investigations and supporting our college internship program. A couple of experiences in the workplace encouraged me to look at processes and policies closer, and I ended up getting an opportunity to move into the banking industry and really get creative, jumping into program management. I had a chance to create an IT and cybersecurity apprenticeship program with a local HBCU that is still running to this day. I then got an opportunity to move to South Florida and work with Ultimate Software (UKG), where I had a chance to really explore HR technology. That's where I started to find my niche around technology, people processes, and people experiences. I created the first race-related employee resource group there and built resources to help people navigate the internal workspace and take ownership of their career narrative. We created it to operate like a business to give people the experience they needed internally without having to leave the organization, and it became like a gig or internal mobility system that even our talent management team ran on. After UKG, I went to McKesson and did the same thing, built some programs, then the same in the startup space at Lattice. I then had the audacity to create my own tech startup - I'm a co-founder of two tech startups. One is CultureSite, in the employee relations legal landscape where people can track their internal experience and connect with employment attorneys in their state. It's full circle because I actually start law school in the fall. The other tech startup is Review Taylor, which was accepted into a Techstars program back in 2014 as our first initial investors, and we've been able to generate revenue selling HR technology and building with AI. Since I can't work full-time while in law school, I created a career coaching framework that I now offer. I also still do some consulting on small projects for companies, being able to control my schedule while I pursue law school. My typical day includes mornings with meditation, quiet time, prayer, and I'm a morning gym person - that's the best way to start my day. I usually start with managing social media, checking my calendar, working with my lead gen agency on content materials, building sales calls with potential clients. I spend an hour a day researching or developing - I have my SPHR and need to continue education to maintain that, so at least 3 times a week for an hour a day I'm focused on development, joining webinars, doing research about what's happening in the industry, and working on any projects or client follow-up work.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kristin
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute my success to just trying to fulfill my life's purpose, which helps me to create access to others. That looks different - it's not tied to a job title, it's not tied to a role or a company. It's the same professionally: how can we help people get access? That's just kind of been the focus, and maybe that's just from some support that I've received over the years.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is to maintain a personal board of advisors.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Gain clarity. And once you have clarity, plan. Once you make a plan, execute and stick to it, even when it's hard. It's best to be prepared for the opportunity when it comes your way.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think some of the big areas of opportunity are allowing people to really understand the value of joining someone to work through things. From a client perspective, so many people are aware that you don't have to have all the answers, and it's okay to bounce ideas off of someone and get guidance. For other professionals within HR, I think we have a huge opportunity to understand more about how AI is impacting not just the work that we do, but the customer journey and their experience, and then finding opportunities to help further develop the talent that we currently already have at our organizations and those that we want to have in the organization. We need to be able to derive deeper insights of value out of the operational tasks that we initially just assigned to them. So there's an opportunity to really explore what it means to add value.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity is probably number one - that's a really important value. The other value is excellence, just doing what you do to the best of your ability. And then being adaptable and resilient. I think those carry you a long way, being open to learning. Those are the core values, at least for me. Also, transparency - that's how I navigate my personal life and professional life. I try to show up as the best version as I can, and in all relationships I want to give it my best. I'm also honest when I know something, when I don't know something, and I'm willing to share information ahead of time as needed.
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