Kristin Sanford

Honestly, I attribute my success to doing things even though I was scared. Moving to Japan when I didn't really know the language was terrifying. Moving to New York when I'd never been there for a job was terrifying. Going into marketing and advertising even though it wasn't my major and I felt like other kids came out of business school with more concrete experience - that was scary too. Throughout my career, even though I started with design, I fell in love with other areas and decided to take the leap and try them - moving into more of the comms, or the content, or the strategy - even though maybe I didn't have the concrete experience at the time that might have made that an easy jump. Something I've always been proud of is that even if it is scary, and even if I don't feel like I have the confidence, I try and I go for it anyway, and every single time it's paid off. Every single time, it has helped me grow and develop as not only a professional, but personally as well, in ways that I can't even quantify. As someone who is still struggling with her confidence every single day, that's something that I'm very proud of, and something that I would tell to anybody else who wants to try those things - just take the jump and go for it.

I would definitely say to not be scared to try new things. When I was young in my career, I remember when I started as an intern in New York and was offered a position to stay on full-time. At the time, a big dream of mine was to move abroad - it was a goal of mine in my 20s to try to live as many places as possible and try as many things as possible to see what I liked. I remember sitting down with my then-boss and telling her, 'Well, I want to move to Europe. I love this company, I'd love to stay here, but I want to move to Europe, and unless that's an option here, I'm probably going to look for another role.' Her response was, 'Well, maybe we can make that happen,' and they did. While I look back on that and think, wow, I can't believe I did that, that was a risky move, I was so glad that I did, because throughout my career I have been able to do that, and that's how I've been able to get the experience I've had. I've become a Jill of all trades, and I've gotten a lot of experience which is so valuable in marketing because you touch so many things. For young people, sometimes you feel that pressure to have your path and have it all figured out right away, but on the contrary, I say do all the side paths and take all the side journeys, because you'll still end up somewhere okay in the end, but you'll probably have had a lot more fun and fulfilling journey along the way if you're willing to try those other things.