Her Story
About Kristin
I've been working in podcasting and new media for 15 years. Currently, I run business development at Forever Dog Studios and consult for mission-driven companies in podcasting and new media, including Peter Gabriel's company Reverberation. Before this, I worked at Sounds Profitable, a trade organization supporting companies in podcasting growth. Prior to that, I was a senior agent at UTA for four years, working directly with Oren Rosenbaum who founded the podcasting division. I worked on some of the biggest podcasting contracts in history during an incredibly exciting and challenging time. Before UTA, I was Director of Business Development at Stitcher SiriusXM for four years, where I launched major projects like Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, My Favorite Murder's podcast network Exactly Right Media, and Office Ladies. I got my start in the industry by working as a canvasser at WGBH in Boston, where I became one of the best canvassers in the nation. This led to hosting pledge drives on live television and radio, and eventually hosting WGBH's very first podcast about Downton Abbey. My career began in musical theater in Boston, where I fell in love with the intimacy of storytelling. I remember listening to This American Life and Radiolab in my early 20s and telling friends I could hack my way into the podcasting industry because nobody knew what they were doing yet. I wanted to feel my fingerprints in the industry and took whatever job I could find to make that possible.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Kristin
01What do you attribute your success to?
I've been really lucky to have some incredible mentors throughout my career. Strategic mentorship has been formative, especially in those early and mid-tier areas of my life. People like Eric Spiegelman from my days at Stitcher SiriusXM, and Jason Smith, the CEO at Feral Audio then rebranded Starburns Audio, who actually recognized that I had hit a peak as creative director and helped me get my job at Stitcher - which is a rare and beautiful thing to find in a mentor. I also had really incredible female mentors at the Huntington Theater Company and later at WGBH. It's so formative to find people who are willing to slow down for you the jargon, the math, the P&L process, the execution of the fundamentals, and really help you grow. Mentors are rare, especially in a corporate or executive environment. Corporate and executive environments all too often reward cutthroat individuals that are self-serving and are not going to slow down to be supportive of their brethren. If you're lucky enough to find yourself in a room with somebody that has the capacity to help you grow and get better, suck the marrow out of every second with that person. I've been lucky to have a bunch of them. I've been very lucky in all kinds of ways all throughout my career. I try to pay it back as often as possible - I still meet up with every single assistant I've ever had at UTA, and all of them call me up every time they're in need of anything in life or professionally.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was advice I didn't take, but I think it was important I heard it. I got advice from a mentor I really respected, and he told me, 'In order for you to survive, I'm gonna turn you into a cold, hard bitch.' I really thought there was a chance he was right, and there were times all throughout my career that I was challenged to believe that that was true. It has not proved true, and in fact, time and time again, the opposite has proved to be the more effective tool for the kind of career and relationships that have mattered most to me, and delivered the kind of life and work that has enriched me most. So it was incredibly impactful advice because it engaged me in the kind of person that I wanted to be, and made me think about that very, very carefully.
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