Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Supporting Startups Through Strategic Growth: Kate Adams' Journey at Burkland Associates | Finances & Taxes Series

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Supporting Startups Through Strategic Growth: Kate Adams' Journey at Burkland Associates | Finances & Taxes Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

• 0:04
  Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
• 0:08
  where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
• 0:11
  their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
• 0:14
  adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
• 0:17
  today's guest is Kate Adams, Chief growth Officer at Berkland
• 0:21
  Associates. Their mission is to provide
• 0:23
  startups with expert finance, accounting, tax, and HR services
• 0:29
  so they can grow confidently. Known for fractional CFO
• 0:32
  support, bookkeeping, and financial guidance, Brooklyn
• 0:36
  prides itself on being a trusted partner to emerging businesses.
• 0:40
  Now, Kate brings over 20 years of marketing expertise, having
• 0:44
  built high impact strategies at companies like Franklin
• 0:47
  Resources, Visa, and UBM. She's also the host of the Start
• 0:52
  Up Success podcast and editor of the Smarter Startup Blog, where
• 0:57
  she shares insights on lead generation and growth.
• 1:01
  Under her leadership, Berkland has helped countless start-ups
• 1:04
  gain the structure and stability they need to thrive.
• 1:07
  She and her team had been recognized for delivering
• 1:10
  crucial guidance to companies at every stage.
• 1:13
  Kate holds ABS in business marketing, graduating Magna
• 1:17
  Cumlaudi from the University of San Francisco.
• 1:20
  She frequently speaks at industry events, offering
• 1:23
  valuable advice on partnerships and strategic marketing.
• 1:27
  Now before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
• 1:29
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• 1:57
  All right, back to our guest today, the CRO of Brooklyn
• 2:00
  Associates, Kate Adams. I appreciate you making the time
• 2:02
  to Share your story today. Thank you for having me and
• 2:06
  thank you for the really kind introduction.
• 2:09
  It's my pleasure. Well, I appreciate it.
• 2:12
  Yeah. So Kate, what first drew you
• 2:15
  into the field of marketing and business development?
• 2:17
  How did you get drawn to that? I know, I knew that I wanted to
• 2:21
  do something in business. So I, you know, I pursued that
• 2:26
  as a major and I took those intro courses very seriously,
• 2:31
  which I would, you know, advise anyone to do.
• 2:34
  And I, although I enjoyed numbers, I found that I really
• 2:38
  had a passion in the marketing and sales classes.
• 2:43
  And so that's kind of where I started to tailor internships in
• 2:47
  the summer and then where I wanted to go.
• 2:52
  And you started out with some positions at pretty large
• 2:55
  companies like Franklin Templeton.
• 2:57
  I'm curious how those experiences working at larger
• 3:01
  companies have helped you enrolls with more modestly sized
• 3:06
  companies now. That's a great question.
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  I think where you can gain a lot from working with big companies
• 3:13
  or for big companies is you learn a lot of best practices.
• 3:17
  There's a lot of mentors you can find within the organization.
• 3:22
  I mean, when I was at Franklin and Visa, a lot of the people I
• 3:25
  was working with were incredible, right?
• 3:29
  Like marketers and business development folks, some of the
• 3:32
  best at the time. And so just being in the office
• 3:37
  with them, learning from them, seeing how they, you know, dealt
• 3:42
  with challenges and how they put together strategies, I think it
• 3:46
  gave me a great foundation and kind of the tools that I needed
• 3:52
  when I went to startups and smaller companies and had to
• 3:55
  build it all from scratch. So you it kind of taught you a
• 4:00
  good framework that you could take and then build on and adapt
• 4:04
  for some of the smaller companies that you worked with.
• 4:06
  Afterwards. Exactly.
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  Exactly. And so how did the opportunity
• 4:10
  at Berkland come along? You know, someone in the
• 4:16
  industry mentioned it to me. I had just been with a company.
• 4:20
  So after being with these large organizations for a while, then
• 4:24
  I wanted to change and like be in small organizations where you
• 4:27
  do a lot and you're, you know, you have your hands on a lot of
• 4:31
  things and you're. Probably more control too,
• 4:33
  right? And creating from the ground up.
• 4:35
  So I had been with a company that our whole goal was to be
• 4:39
  acquired. You know, the founder said to me
• 4:42
  when they hired me, that's why we brought you on.
• 4:44
  We want to be acquired. And we did have a successful
• 4:47
  acquisition. And so I didn't want to stay on
• 4:51
  with the company that bought us because it would be going back
• 4:55
  to another large company where everyone has their defined role.
• 5:00
  I found I really loved building things and someone just in the
• 5:04
  industry, word of mouth said to me, you know, this company,
• 5:07
  Berkland Associates, is looking to build out a marketing
• 5:11
  strategy. They kind of have a dumpy
• 5:12
  website. They haven't done it much around
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  marketing. That's the kind of challenge I
• 5:17
  love so. So open the door and here you
• 5:22
  are today. And so, OK, now let's hear about
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  what Berkland does. OK.
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  So Berkland, basically we provide fractional services for
• 5:34
  startups. So that's why it's so fun.
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  We're working with startups that are some of the most innovative
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  companies in the world right now, AI startups, fintech, SAS,
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  and we provide fractional support for them.
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  So CFO's, accountants, tax advisors and HR folks.
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  Because when you're scaling and in the early days of a startup,
• 5:58
  you don't want to hire a full time CFO or a full full time
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  bookkeeping team or recruiter. So they can use our services on
• 6:08
  a fractional basis and pay for what they need, which makes a
• 6:13
  lot of sense. Now, I don't advise clients
• 6:17
  directly. Like I'm not a CFO, I'm not an
• 6:20
  HR person. What I do at Berkland is when I
• 6:24
  started, they only had one channel to get leads, and that
• 6:28
  was business development. And since then I've built out a
• 6:32
  marketing channel to drive leads, a partnerships channel,
• 6:36
  and built out more of their business development function.
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  So now we have a big growth engine.
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  So I started VP of marketing. That's why I'm now Chief Growth
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  officer because I'm running the whole growth engine and you
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  know, later this year we're going to be getting into new
• 6:52
  markets. So that's my responsibility and
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  what we do. Interesting.
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  So tell me a little bit more about the services that you guys
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  provide. You say fractional, you got
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  fractional CF OS are is there outside of the finance bucket?
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  Are there services that you're offering to your clients?
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  I mean, finance is where we started.
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  We started with CFOs, then we added bookkeeping and
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  accounting. So they're, you know, running
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  the books for startups. We have FPNA, they do modeling
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  and help with pricing. We have controllers, we have tax
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  advisors who help startups get R&D tax credits and, you know,
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  payroll taxes. There's a lot of tax
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  considerations. And then we have HR people that
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  can help with, you know, payroll, recruiting, writing
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  your employee handbook. So pretty much all the back
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  office functions that a startup needs from like seed stage
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  through Series B, we provide on a fractional basis.
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  And you know, we love it when our clients fire us because that
• 8:01
  means they've done well enough that they can hire their own
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  people 'cause unfortunately we have, we do have a lot of
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  clients who fold because start-ups do fold.
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  So it's it's such a win when we get fired.
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  That's I like that, that, that makes a lot of sense.
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  And so any particular reason why start-ups are the focus?
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  Is it because once you get past that start up phase, you're more
• 8:30
  likely to build your own internal team and OK, and I, I
• 8:33
  see you nodding your head. So then what is kind of the
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  ideal company size, whether it's in terms of employees or revenue
• 8:42
  amount or? Yeah, that's a great question.
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  So we only work with start-ups that are venture backed.
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  So there's a lot of start-ups in the country, but honestly, if
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  they don't have venture backing or some kind of funding, they're
• 8:58
  not going to be able to afford our services and they probably
• 9:01
  don't need our services yet, right?
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  If it's still three people in a garage working on an idea, a
• 9:07
  prototype, you don't need a fractional CFO and an HR team.
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  So once you get venture backing or some kind of funding, that's
• 9:18
  when we come into place. And our sweet spot is seed
• 9:21
  stage. So that seed fundraising round
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  through about Series B, series CI, mean by the time you're
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  raising a Series B, Series C, you're going to have a lot of
• 9:34
  these areas, finance, tax, HR, you're going to have your own
• 9:39
  team at that point. And I'm curious to, as much as
• 9:44
  you can say, hear more about the different marketing channels
• 9:48
  that you've built out. There was some business
• 9:50
  development, now you're doing some more marketing.
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  You've built out the business development a little bit more.
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  I'm not sure what that means. And then you're still got some
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  other marketing initiatives going on.
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  What? What can you share with us?
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  Sure. So when I joined Berkland, they
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  drove most of their growth and it's a great strategy by
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  building a business development team that outreached to venture
• 10:14
  capitalists. And the thought is build these
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  relationships with VCs. And when they make an investment
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  in a start up and their start up needs a CFO or an accountant,
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  they'll recommend Berkland because there's a relationship
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  there. So it's an excellent strategy
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  and it was working really well when I joined, but it's
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  expensive. You know, you're taking VCs to
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  lunch, you're going to conferences, Warriors, games,
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  concerts. It's it's not cheap.
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  So when I came on board, we built a website that could drive
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  leads and what we did was we built a content engine, which I
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  highly recommend for anyone in the professional services
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  industry. So we created a blog, a podcast,
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  and tool kits. All that content showed
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  prospective startup founders that we were experts in what we
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  were doing. But it also drives leads.
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  That's what Google is built on now.
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  Search. So when you put in I need a
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  fractional CFO for my startup or I need HR help or tax help, we
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  come up to the top of the page for free because of all of the
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  content that we have out there. That's the play.
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  So we started driving leads and business through our marketing
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  website channel, which is a much more cost effective way to drive
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  leads. So that's been a huge way for us
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  to grow over the past five years.
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  And it was so fun for me to build that first website to work
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  with the team and build the blog and the podcast and all the tool
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  kits that we've done. And then as I've been with the
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  company for a few years, I started to see you're getting
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  all these partnership requests from service providers in the
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  industry and they wanted to partner with us and drive leads
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  together. And so I didn't have time to
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  manage it. So I went to our founder, Jeff,
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  and convinced him that this could be another channel for us.
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  And we hired someone that reports to me who manages
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  partnerships. And her role is to work with
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  these partners, develop content together, develop events
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  together and drive leads. So now I'm, you know, managing
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  marketing partnerships. And then we decided we were
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  going to fine tune our business development more and try to make
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  it more cost effective and based on relationships instead of just
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  events and whatnot. So I started managing business
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  development too, and I have a team of people and we're working
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  on creative ways to partner with these VCs that are more cost
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  effective. So those are our three channels
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  and it's been an absolute blast to build all of them.
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  And I'm so appreciative of my team.
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  I got to hire and bring on people that I used to work with
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  and, you know, in various capacities and it's been, it's
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  been really fun. I'm kind of curious if maybe you
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  can teach me as well as our listeners a little bit more
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  about some of these strategies. You're really big on the content
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  engine, the podcast, the blog, search engine optimization.
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  So you're getting ranked in Google.
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  You know, you obviously have the benefit of having worked for
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  some really large companies. You kind of learn the framework
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  and the way to go about that. For folks who you know may not
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  have that kind of expertise, how would you recommend somebody
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  else get started with that? That's a great question.
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  So I would tell them whatever area they're in, whether it's
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  auto mechanic or you know, a florist shop or anything
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  professional coach, you kind of think about what differentiates
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  you. And if you start producing
• 14:13
  content, like maybe you fixed up old BMWs and you write doesn't
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  have to be anything fancy. Once a week about a car that you
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  fixed up a BMW or you showcase once a week some floral designs
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  or a professional story from coaching and you start like A
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  blog. What's going to happen is you
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  can pay for ads on Google and it's a great strategy and it
• 14:41
  works, but they're very expensive.
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  And if you have competitors in the field that are highly funded
• 14:47
  and have a lot of money, chances are they're going to win, you
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  know, in that area. So your content, because if you
• 14:55
  put this good content on Google consistently that is not AI
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  written, you actually have to write it because the Google
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  algorithm I know is they're always making improvements and
• 15:07
  they figured out, you know, AI content.
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  But real content, you're going to start to rank higher when
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  somebody searches for the product or service that you're
• 15:17
  selling. And it gives you a chance to
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  compete with some of these giants in your space that have a
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  lot of money on Google Ads. Say more about the partnership
• 15:30
  approach that you guys are are using.
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  Is it kind of simply a matter of yeah, there are, give me an
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  idea, like who would be somebody complimentary to you that you
• 15:41
  would form a partnership? Yes, great question.
• 15:44
  So here's one that's in the news a lot, ramp.
• 15:47
  So ramp is a great tool. It's a business card.
• 15:52
  It's like a corporate card for small businesses and it has a
• 15:57
  lot on the back end that helps companies like sort expenses and
• 16:01
  process them and whatnot. So Ramp is interested in
• 16:06
  startups as well. They want startups to use their
• 16:10
  corporate card. So Ramp is a great partner to
• 16:14
  Berkland. We've put together content, you
• 16:17
  know, joint content that's helpful to startup founders,
• 16:21
  events that startup founders want to attend together.
• 16:25
  And then we're both leveraging our resources and reaching a
• 16:30
  customer that we both want, but we want the customer in
• 16:34
  different ways. So maybe, you know, getting back
• 16:37
  to that florist shop, like a dirt company.
• 16:40
  You right. And so I, I don't know, like or
• 16:42
  not like a lot landscaping company.
• 16:44
  You partner with the dirt company, you get what I'm
• 16:46
  saying. You both want that customer, but
• 16:48
  you want them for different reasons.
• 16:51
  Right. And so is there, is it always
• 16:54
  the two of you going after new customers together or is there
• 16:57
  ever them coming in and saying, hey, do you have any customers
• 17:01
  that want access to this, maybe there's a referral fee or or
• 17:04
  vice versa, like maybe Ramp has some folks that would be, you
• 17:07
  know, a great fit for what Berkland does.
• 17:10
  Absolutely, that's a whole nother facet to it is that you
• 17:15
  can do referral fees and whatnot.
• 17:17
  Because when we you first start working with the partner, you
• 17:20
  have all these customers already that they want.
• 17:24
  So maybe you, you know, in our e-mail newsletter, we will
• 17:28
  include offers from our partners.
• 17:31
  And so our e-mail newsletter is widely read because it has all
• 17:35
  of our content in it. And then our partner gets to run
• 17:38
  something at the bottom of it like, hey, we're offering all
• 17:41
  Berkland clients 30% off, reach out to us and then exchange.
• 17:46
  They put us and their newsletter and then we do referrals and
• 17:50
  whatnot. Absolutely.
• 17:52
  It's a huge part of it. Now as I understand Kate,
• 17:57
  there's you've kind of got a little bit of a different
• 17:59
  thought process on this. You know, for most companies
• 18:01
  marketing and operations are rather distinct and separate
• 18:07
  functions, but you believe in uniting these to achieve more
• 18:12
  kind of exponential growth. Can is that, do I have that
• 18:15
  right? Can you give an example of that?
• 18:19
  Give me what do you mean by operations like?
• 18:21
  What do you mean like? You know what, we're going to go
• 18:26
  ahead and cut this question out, Kate, because I think maybe my,
• 18:30
  my research team gave me some, some bad info there.
• 18:33
  Because as I got the look on your face, I could see like,
• 18:36
  Nope, that is not not part of your playbook.
• 18:42
  So Kate, you're the host of start up success podcast.
• 18:48
  I'm curious if there's a particular interview that has
• 18:51
  influenced how maybe you go about the way that you drive
• 18:56
  growth and revenue to to Berkland.
• 18:58
  Is there, you know, a guest that you had on that had a big impact
• 19:02
  on you? You know, we have had some
• 19:06
  guests on that have talked about marketing and PR and you know
• 19:10
  they they do delve into some strategies like fundamental
• 19:17
  strategies that I think are super helpful.
• 19:20
  I think where I get the most from my show is I'm talking a
• 19:26
  lot of time to start up founders on my show, and those are our
• 19:31
  potential customers. So it's almost like every time I
• 19:35
  do an interview, it's like a mini focus group where I'm
• 19:38
  hearing from a customer I want like what their needs are, where
• 19:43
  their pain points are. And I just learned so much about
• 19:47
  our space from our show. I must feel bad because we're
• 19:52
  giving a lot of great content out there that's helpful, but
• 19:55
  I'm learning a lot too. And it's a win win, but it's
• 19:58
  better than that. And sometimes I interview BC
• 20:01
  investors. And that's super interesting
• 20:04
  because we're trying to build relationships with them and so I
• 20:07
  kind of, you know, learn about what's making them tick, you
• 20:10
  know, what they're worried about.
• 20:11
  So I just the market Intel get from the show is pretty
• 20:18
  fantastic. That's great.
• 20:20
  And I'm assuming that folks can find your podcast on all the
• 20:23
  major platforms, Spotify, Apple, Apple.
• 20:25
  Spotify We and launch a new show every other Tuesday and they're
• 20:31
  quick. They're 2530 minutes because our
• 20:33
  audience is startup founders and we cover a lot of great topics.
• 20:37
  Thank you for asking about it. Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:42
  Fresh perspectives. Empathy core to Berkland's
• 20:47
  values. Why specifically these two?
• 20:50
  You know what's so great about Berkland with core values and
• 20:54
  fresh perspectives and empathy is I've worked for a lot of
• 20:57
  companies that have had core values.
• 21:00
  But I will say one of the things about Berkland that I noticed
• 21:04
  right when I started working there is in our executive team,
• 21:08
  the founder, when we have a big decision, he will actually
• 21:12
  reference our core values and we will use it to guide decision
• 21:18
  making. And I think empathy is an
• 21:21
  important one because we're working with startups and it's a
• 21:24
  grind for the people that work at a startup, right?
• 21:28
  I mean, for all those entrepreneurs listening, you
• 21:31
  know, there's mental health challenges.
• 21:33
  It's just, it can be lonely, it can be scary, worrisome,
• 21:36
  stressful. So we want to have a lot of
• 21:39
  empathy for what our clients are going through and what they're
• 21:42
  faced with with raising money and cash runway and whatnot.
• 21:46
  And then Fresh Perspectives is, you know, we're working with all
• 21:51
  these innovative companies that are changing the world.
• 21:54
  We have to keep an open mind as well.
• 21:58
  Like so we've embraced areas of AI, right?
• 22:02
  We try to be very open minded on new technologies and systems and
• 22:07
  bring like a fresh perspective to problems because we're
• 22:11
  working with such innovative people, we really have to be.
• 22:15
  So you know, those are core values we really live by as an
• 22:19
  executive team. And it's one of the reasons why
• 22:21
  I like working at Berkland is we have these, you know, values
• 22:27
  that we follow and all align on. You mentioned earlier that you
• 22:33
  guys are going to be heading into some new markets soon.
• 22:37
  Is that new industries, new geographies?
• 22:40
  What does that mean exactly? That's a great question.
• 22:43
  I can't go too deep into it because competitors, but I will
• 22:46
  say it's new markets. So I'm super excited about it
• 22:53
  and so is my team because anyone who's like in marketing and biz
• 22:57
  dev sales, like any kind of new challenge, new market, right,
• 23:01
  you're so fired up for and I'm just really excited.
• 23:05
  We're going to be building some things from scratch and it's
• 23:09
  going to be really fun. I've got some new people on my
• 23:11
  team who've never done this work before and I'm excited for them
• 23:14
  to get to do this. When can we reconnect to hear
• 23:20
  more about this? Great question.
• 23:22
  We can reconnect after the summer and I'd love to share,
• 23:26
  you know, with your listeners how we did it because we're
• 23:29
  really going to go like from the basics and build something from
• 23:34
  scratch over the next few months.
• 23:37
  It's going to be a lot of fun. I am just loving the mystery of
• 23:42
  all this right now, whether intentional or not.
• 23:45
  Well done, you've got me hooked and making notes in my calendar
• 23:49
  for this. Perfect, perfect.
• 23:56
  How about a, a book or a podcast that's not your own that you
• 24:00
  might recommend to folks that's been particularly helpful for
• 24:04
  you as a, you know, marketer, as a salesperson, the chief revenue
• 24:08
  officer. Yeah, I mean, for books, I read
• 24:11
  a lot of fiction and historical fiction because it's like an
• 24:14
  escape, you know? I read a ton of industry
• 24:19
  newsletters, so that's kind of how I keep current, but with a,
• 24:23
  a podcast that I would recommend.
• 24:25
  When I'm listening to a podcast, I kind of like to take a step
• 24:30
  away from the industry and work on like my personal growth and
• 24:35
  development. So I really like Jay Shetty on
• 24:37
  purpose. I don't know if you've ever
• 24:39
  heard him. But I haven't what?
• 24:41
  What is it about? He's fantastic.
• 24:44
  It's just about being a better version of yourself and also
• 24:47
  like tips and tricks, you know, to better organize your mind and
• 24:53
  utilize your day and whatnot. He has a lot of great guests on
• 24:57
  there. He's a really good interviewer.
• 25:00
  He's just, yeah, he's fantastic. So that would be my number one
• 25:04
  recommendation. Jay Shetty on purpose.
• 25:07
  So along those lines, Kate, do you have any particular daily
• 25:11
  habits, rituals that help get you started, keep you on track?
• 25:18
  I workout every day so for me exercise is super important,
• 25:24
  like clears my head, helps me sleep better.
• 25:28
  Some of my best ideas are on hikes, walks, runs.
• 25:33
  That's why I'm not always listening to things because it's
• 25:36
  like time for my brain. So for me, exercising is the
• 25:40
  number one. I have tried to add meditation
• 25:43
  to my routine so much so now I'm doing 3 minutes of mindfulness
• 25:50
  every morning because it's a tip I got on Jay Shetty's show,
• 25:53
  which is just start with three minutes, some breathing in the
• 25:57
  morning. Someday I'm going to tackle this
• 26:00
  meditation. So we'll see.
• 26:02
  It's tough. Oh, it is tough.
• 26:04
  I, I've gone through different cycles in my life where I am all
• 26:09
  in on it and when I'm all in on it, I'm also incredibly
• 26:14
  frustrated by it. And then and then there are
• 26:17
  times I get benefits from it and I'm like, OK, I kind of found a
• 26:20
  groove. And that, I mean, think about it
• 26:24
  sort of like exercise, right? Like I used to get really upset
• 26:27
  when I was in a meditative session and I couldn't control
• 26:32
  my thoughts. Just keep going here and here
• 26:34
  and I'm like, I'm not. And then somebody kind of framed
• 26:37
  it for me in terms of like physical working out.
• 26:40
  They're like, think about every time that your attention drifts
• 26:43
  and you bring it back, it's like doing a repetition.
• 26:46
  You know, it's like doing a curl, a bench press, a squat,
• 26:49
  you know, whatever. And it's like, rather than being
• 26:52
  angry at that moment, it's an opportunity for you to notice it
• 26:56
  and bring. And that's just a repetition.
• 26:58
  Another repetition. Strengthening your mind.
• 27:01
  Yeah. Maybe that'll help.
• 27:02
  Yeah, maybe that'll help. Let me know.
• 27:04
  Yeah, I will. Yes, I'm going to bring it back
• 27:07
  after we launch this thing. I'm going to try again.
• 27:11
  So fair enough. How about a serious challenge,
• 27:15
  Kate, that you have gone through?
• 27:17
  Maybe it's personal or professional, maybe the two of
• 27:19
  them sort of mixing together. I don't know.
• 27:22
  What was it? How did you get through it and
• 27:24
  and what did you learn coming out the other side?
• 27:28
  I mean, if I start with a business 1 and I'm happy to
• 27:32
  share a personal one too, but I think a business one would be I
• 27:37
  was, I'm older and this might be something that will be relevant,
• 27:42
  but in the future here we went through a really bad
• 27:46
  recessionthe.com burst in San Francisco and. 2001.
• 27:54
  Yeah, right. And I had to lay people off.
• 27:59
  My boss was laid off, lots of restructuring.
• 28:02
  I was at United Business Media, saw a lot of products that we
• 28:06
  all worked on and we're super proud of fail.
• 28:09
  And it was just a scary time personally because, you know,
• 28:13
  you're worried about yourself financially, but also laying
• 28:17
  people off, trying to keep the team optimistic that we're
• 28:22
  there. I was younger.
• 28:24
  I hadn't gone through one before.
• 28:26
  I made some mistakes that, you know, if I could share, I think
• 28:31
  I would have done a better job laying people off.
• 28:35
  I let HR kind of dictate how it was going to go.
• 28:40
  And they kind of ran the way we did it with my team.
• 28:45
  And I think if I could do it again, I would want to take the
• 28:49
  lead and use. And I have had to layoff people
• 28:52
  since then, just on a smaller scale.
• 28:54
  I take the lead and HR is kind of the help, right, Instead of
• 28:59
  the way I did it. I think I was too scared to do
• 29:02
  it that way as a young leader, right?
• 29:04
  I'd never fired people before. And if for folks who haven't
• 29:08
  done it before, it is one of the hardest things in life to do.
• 29:12
  It is I was nervous about it and scared and in my 30s and I hid
• 29:18
  behind HR and it was a really unpredictable time in the world.
• 29:23
  And yeah, I, I would say, you know, I've learned as a leader,
• 29:30
  I have to have empathy. I have to show up.
• 29:33
  I have to really be all in on laying people off and, you know,
• 29:39
  being a manager for them and a leader for them all the way
• 29:42
  through it. And just, you know, I would say
• 29:46
  for recessions and downturns down, you just have to like
• 29:49
  double down on what you know, trust your instincts and you, we
• 29:55
  will come out of it. When you were going through that
• 30:00
  back in the early 2000s, was there the support system for
• 30:05
  you? Was there a mentor that that
• 30:07
  helped you through it? Like, I mean, that is an
• 30:11
  incredible amount of stress to have to go to people that you're
• 30:14
  close with, that you've worked with, that have been part of
• 30:16
  your team and say, I'm sorry you no longer have a paycheck.
• 30:21
  Yes, I wish I had a mentor. At the time, I didn't.
• 30:26
  I had three colleagues that were doing the same thing in
• 30:30
  different areas. So we would go for lunch a lot
• 30:33
  and happy hour and just kind of commiserate and talk through it.
• 30:37
  But back then, there wasn't a lot of resources.
• 30:42
  There weren't leadership coaches.
• 30:44
  There weren't formal mentors as much, but I would say having
• 30:50
  colleagues, you know, that's one thing I tell people that when
• 30:53
  you're going through something, whether it be starting a company
• 30:56
  or cancer or whatever, if you find other people that are going
• 31:03
  through it, find a network of shared experiences.
• 31:09
  It really helps. I, I think this is kind of an,
• 31:12
  an underrated aspect of personal and professional development,
• 31:18
  being able to find like minded folks who are in similar
• 31:21
  positions, even if maybe they're in a little bit different
• 31:24
  industries, to be able to compare notes.
• 31:27
  And like you said, when you, you know, you were going through the
• 31:30
  economic downturn in 2001, you know, the colleagues that you
• 31:33
  could just sort of lean on and commiserate with.
• 31:37
  Do you still have like networks like this today that are are a
• 31:41
  part of your life? I use them for everything.
• 31:45
  When? OK, I'll share this.
• 31:47
  This is a personal challenge. Very freaky, funky story, but I
• 31:53
  was taking a free yoga class in Hawaii and the instructor yanked
• 31:59
  my neck trying to get me in position and then I flew back.
• 32:04
  It hurt, but I held the position.
• 32:06
  Whatever. I flew back to the United
• 32:08
  States. You know, 6 hour flight.
• 32:11
  Well, she had torn my carotid artery and then I ended up
• 32:15
  having a minor Tia stroke at the age of you know, I was in my 40s
• 32:22
  So super weird accident but they happen.
• 32:28
  It's, you know, and I obviously am so lucky, had a full
• 32:33
  recovery, everything, my arteries healed now.
• 32:36
  But I immediately got onto Facebook, which I don't really
• 32:41
  use, and found a carotid artery dissection support group and
• 32:46
  just immersed myself into it and learned more about what had
• 32:51
  happened to me than the doctors and the ER or whatever.
• 32:54
  And got so many resources and talked to people and got through
• 32:58
  tough nights. So I tell people that's how you
• 33:01
  get through things. Is other people who were going
• 33:06
  through similar things right? And who?
• 33:08
  Knew that there was this niche of torn carotid arteries.
• 33:15
  When you say that, I'm thinking how do you not bleed out?
• 33:19
  So your artery is torn and what happens is you a clot forms, a
• 33:26
  blood clot forms at the artery to prevent you from and then
• 33:31
  that clot gets loose and that's when you suffer a minor.
• 33:35
  And in some cases, some people die, they suffer a massive
• 33:39
  stroke and die. I'm so lucky I had a minor one.
• 33:42
  My 16 year old son found me called 911.
• 33:47
  Found you. Like collapsed, passed out,
• 33:49
  unconscious. No, I was in the kitchen making
• 33:53
  breakfast and I started slurring my speech, my face dropped and
• 33:58
  acting weird. He took a picture, you know,
• 34:01
  called his dad. They called 911.
• 34:04
  Yeah. I mean, he saved my life.
• 34:07
  Wow. Yeah.
• 34:09
  And so were there any symptoms prior to the actual stroke
• 34:13
  event? Horrific headaches.
• 34:16
  My neck was killing me. And this thumping in my ear,
• 34:20
  which was my heartbeat because my artery was torn.
• 34:25
  You could hear it just. Yeah.
• 34:27
  So now when you put all the symptoms together, any doctor
• 34:30
  would be like, oh, she tore her artery.
• 34:32
  But at the time I called my doctor, they're like, oh,
• 34:35
  probably migraines. I had an appointment in two
• 34:38
  weeks to see him. You know how medicine is these
• 34:40
  days. So anyway, PSA for anyone
• 34:43
  listening. Take those symptoms all come
• 34:45
  together as a a warning, yes. Wild.
• 34:50
  A year from now, Kate, you're celebrating.
• 34:53
  What are you celebrating? Gosh, a year from now,
• 35:01
  selfishly, I have 3 kids. My youngest will be 16 and he'll
• 35:06
  have his driver's license. I.
• 35:08
  No more chauffeuring for you. But I'm so tired of driving him
• 35:12
  around. I love him.
• 35:14
  But yeah, we live in an area where we have to drive also.
• 35:17
  I'll be celebrating. That's personal, this launch.
• 35:21
  I'm super excited about this. I am hoping we're, you know,
• 35:26
  kicking butt with it. Yeah.
• 35:27
  And what is it again? I had.
• 35:30
  I had to try. I had to try.
• 35:33
  We'll have you back on though, I promise.
• 35:35
  OK, let's see. Just one more question for you,
• 35:38
  Kate. But before we get there, I want
• 35:40
  to do 2 things. First of all, for everybody
• 35:42
  listening today, I'll invite you to hit the follow button on your
• 35:44
  favorite podcast app so you can continue to get more great
• 35:48
  content like we've had here today with Kate Adams at
• 35:51
  Brooklyn Associates. Kate, I also want to let people
• 35:54
  know the best way either to get in touch with you directly or to
• 35:57
  continue to follow your story or that of Berkland.
• 36:00
  What would that be? Yeah, I mean, I'm on LinkedIn.
• 36:03
  I'm very active there, so feel free to hit me up.
• 36:06
  I don't know if I'm going to regret that, but I do love
• 36:09
  giving advice to, you know, young people that want to do
• 36:12
  stuff in marketing and whatnot and internships and whatnot.
• 36:16
  I think Linkedin's probably the best.
• 36:18
  And then Berkland Associates and the podcast is Start Up Success.
• 36:23
  And we'll include links to all of those things in our show
• 36:25
  notes for everybody. Absolutely.
• 36:27
  OK. So last question for you.
• 36:28
  As you look to the future, what exciting changes do you see
• 36:33
  coming to your industry in the next few years?
• 36:37
  You know, I think AII know it's talked about a lot, but it's a
• 36:40
  big one. There's a lot of innovation
• 36:43
  around it. I mean, there's some things that
• 36:45
  make me nervous, but there's also some things that are super
• 36:49
  exciting that are, you know, that are going to happen because
• 36:52
  of it. I think they'll be advancements
• 36:57
  in diagnosing and treating diseases, like even more
• 37:02
  breakthroughs around cancer and Alzheimer's and Ms. We see a lot
• 37:06
  of really exciting startups and startups that are just going to
• 37:09
  help streamline medical care and whatnot.
• 37:13
  I mean, if you think about your doctor's office, it's very old
• 37:17
  school still, right? There's so much that can be done
• 37:20
  there, and I talked to a lot of people in that space and I
• 37:24
  think, you know, some of these diseases and things that killed
• 37:28
  our grandparents and our parents, they're not going to
• 37:31
  anymore, and that's so exciting. It is exciting and yeah, it
• 37:36
  didn't even register with me. You guys have got a front row
• 37:38
  seat to a lot of this because a lot of these folks are your
• 37:41
  clients that are coming up with all these new applications for
• 37:45
  AI. Exactly.
• 37:47
  It's pretty exciting when you get down.
• 37:49
  You can think about some of these startups and what these
• 37:52
  founders are doing. I had a young founder that we
• 37:54
  work with share a story where like he creates this thing
• 37:58
  that's coming in 911, where 911 can go on your iPhone video
• 38:04
  camera and then they can walk people through like CPR and
• 38:08
  whatnot using the camera. I mean, they're saving lives.
• 38:12
  It's pretty cool what some of these young entrepreneurs are
• 38:15
  doing. I love.
• 38:16
  It. Yeah, I love it.
• 38:17
  Gosh, we could do, like, just a series of episodes on what some
• 38:21
  of your clients are up to. Seriously.
• 38:23
  That's fun. Yeah.
• 38:24
  Well, Kate Adams, I want to be the first one to thank you for
• 38:27
  sharing both your time and your story with us today.
• 38:29
  I really appreciate it. Thank you, it was a lot of fun.
• 38:33
  Folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
• 38:36
  podcast. Thanks for learning with us
• 38:37
  today.