Kristin Hoogheem

I attribute my success to consistency and not letting up. I hold a vision and work really hard towards it. This didn't come overnight - I've been very intentional and worked very hard. When there are challenges, and there are always challenges and things we have to persevere through, I approach them and work through them. I don't really give up or let challenges stop me. I think that's been helpful - I don't really let go of my passion to impact this industry in a positive way. Even when I got laid off from the first travel company I worked at, I really loved what I did, and I decided that's not the place for me, but I'm going to continue to pursue this because I love it so much and I want to make a difference.

The best career advice I ever received came from my brother after we went backpacking together. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, and he asked me, 'Kristen, what excites you?' I didn't really think about that question when it came to what I want to do for work. By doing that, it actually opened up something for me, and I was like, well, I want to help people have life-enriching experiences. But I didn't actually associate that with the fact that I could go do that and get paid to do that. That question helped me reflect on my own interests. I think we all have certain things that we have that itch, or that interest, or things that light us up, things that inspire us and make us feel really good. And I think it's worthwhile to listen to that itch or that voice, because I think it can take us places that we might not otherwise go.

I would say learn as much as you can from as many people that you can that you admire - admire what they're doing. I think that's the best way to grow, is to just take in everything around you and learn from other people that have gone before you. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can learn a lot from other people. And ask for help if you need help, if you struggle. There's never something to be embarrassed about. We've all been there. We all have things where we're new to something, and we just need somebody to help, or support, or answer questions. So I think just don't be afraid to ask questions.

One of the biggest challenges is continuing to innovate and continuing to build fast, but really intentional and helpful. As we're building offsite.com, we want to build it to where it stands out against competitors and is something that users and our clients use consistently. That's one of the biggest challenges - building something that hasn't yet been built. We're trying to fly the plane kind of as we're building it, almost, sometimes. I think one of the greatest opportunities is there is room for this to have a radical impact on the travel industry. There is space for that right now. Technology is moving incredibly fast. AI is certainly going to be involved in a lot of different roles across industries. I think we can use it to support our processes and systems. I don't think it's going to replace everybody, but I think we can learn how to use it to 10x our own outputs. If things can be done faster through AI with repeatable processes, I think we should leverage those opportunities. We're only seeing the iceberg of AI - it's going to continue to be a resource as we're building, so we need to make sure we're learning about it, understanding it, and experimenting with it.

Work-life integration is really important to me. I have been in a corporate environment where I was on the level of burnout, and I feel like that's not a healthy way to pursue work and life. I currently work with more flexibility - I'm able to see my kids more. That's a value I really have, integrating work with life so each day can be special. Each day can be wonderful. It's not like waiting for the weekends. I like to try to have every day be special and intentional. I value authenticity. I think it's really important to always be myself and be around people that are authentic. I value caring and wanting to make an impact, and caring more about the impact than the money. I feel like with any business, running a business or owning a business, it's not about the money. It is about the impact, and I think the money follows when we have our intentions set right.