New Hires: Say Hi to Kathlyn and Katie

Tell us a little bit about yourself and where you’re from.

Katie: Hi, I’m Katie. I’m originally from Southern California and then I ended up in Texas and Oklahoma for school and then work and decided it was time to come back to the sunny side of the States. I worked in the nonprofit sector for the last few years and was looking for ad firm-esque work and Community Boost was kind of perfect because I got to stay in the nonprofit sector with helping those organizations, but getting some more agency experience.

Kathlyn: Hi, I’m Kathlyn. I’m from the DMV right outside of Washington, DC, and Maryland. I came out to California for school at UCSB and moved up to San Francisco to get some more experience and the city life. I worked at a marketing agency there and finally ended up in San Diego where I’ve always wanted to live. I found Community Boost, luckily, and am back at the beach for good.

What have you learned so far at Community Boost?

Katie: I feel like you get thrown into things very quickly here, so I feel like I’ve learned a lot of very technical stuff. I was explaining this job to a friend and they were like, “what do you do?”And I was like, “I’m making conversion goals. I’m making Google Ad builds. I’m making ad groups and keywords.” She was glazed over but I think it’s really cool, you know, being able to build out a Google Ads campaign for a client is super exciting and I’ve already had the chance to do that after a month. I’m excited to dive into Google Analytics a little bit more. I think that there’s a lot of information that we’re gathering on client websites, traffic, and I’m excited to dive in there and see what edits we can make to their campaigns.

Kathlyn: I’ve learned a lot already as well. It’s very exciting. One thing that’s pretty unique is all about the Google Ad Grant and how beneficial it is for nonprofits to have that $10,000 free a month. So that’s been really cool building those out for clients, and I’m really excited to dive into the client world and start really being that contact person for clients themselves.

What is one thing you’re passionate about?

Katie: My previous experience was working with adults with intellectual disabilities. I think that my work there and my volunteer work that I had done with that community has really driven home that passion. There’s just such a lovely community of individuals that don’t have a lot of services that are available to them. So I really want to find an organization in San Diego to plug into and continue my work in that sector.

Kathlyn: I’ve done a lot of work with kids and I enjoy working with kids especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, where they haven’t had as many resources to find success. And especially in socioeconomic situations where there’s not as much support as there could be. So I’m excited to work with more organizations that are helping kids.

What is your favorite core value of Community Boost?

Kathlyn: One of the core values that stood out to me most was We Want to Save the Planet. Coming from an agency-type perspective, where we consult for different clients, we all have this one mission in mind, we wake up every day with the same mission that we want to help save the planet, whether that’s humans, the environment, animals, mental health, or just making the world a better place. That’s really unique and we can all come together with that commonality.

Katie: I really appreciate that as a whole, Community Boost is kind of an open book to its staff members, and to its clients. I don’t feel like there’s any question, we are here to help people and we’re going to be really transparent and upfront about it and we’re going to make everybody feel good doing it. So I really appreciate that level of openness that you get here at Community Boost.

What is your favorite part about working at Community Boost?

Katie: The people have really been awesome. You know, it’s been a month for us and everyone’s been super welcoming and great, even in a virtual setting. I feel like I know my coworkers pretty well, even though today is the first time I’m meeting anyone face-to-face.

Kathlyn: I have to say the people as well. I mean, a big part of it is doing the work that I want to do for the organizations that I want to do work for, but it wouldn’t be the same without the amazing people who have been so supportive, helping us learn, answering any questions and just being friendly. It’s a big family.

What is one thing that people might not know about you or do you have any hidden talents?

Katie: You want to talk about my hidden talent! Maybe I should have brought it! My hidden talent stems from years of being a band nerd.  I played the trombone and trumpet in high school and I learned this year that you can play the snorkel the same way you play a trumpet/trombone. So I can play the snorkel pretty well, actually. Yeah, that’s my secret talent. That’s not a secret at all.

Kathlyn: I’m pretty much fluent in Spanish and have been to a handful of Spanish-speaking countries and gotten to meet some cool people through that.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go and why?

Katie: Okay so if you had talked to me three years ago, it would have been Europe and I would have eaten my way through Europe but now I want to go to Asia and eat my way through Asia because they have way better food. There’s so much diversity of cuisine and culture in one place. So that’s the plan, I don’t have a start or ending location. I’m just going to find food and go.

Kathlyn: I agree with that but top of mind lately has been Chile. I’d love to explore the nature and the food there.

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?

Katie: So I’ve been really into spicy mustard recently. So like anything that can be a vessel for spicy mustard. Like if I can have, I don’t know, potstickers and spicy mustard for the rest of my life. I think it’d be okay.

Kathlyn: I’m torn between burritos and ice cream because if I needed to nourish my body for the rest of my life, it would probably be burritos because that hits all the food groups but ice cream would make me happy every day so I’ll let you know the tiebreaker another day.

Bone-in or boneless wings?

Kathlyn: Bone-in. Bone-in Buffalo, baby.

Katie: Mine is… I’ve never had boneless, so I’m not sure it’s really fair for me to participate in this debate. I’m also a vegetarian. I’ve had bone-in chicken wings like twice and the sauce was the best part, like the spicy, melt your tongue sauce. So I don’t know, bone-in, cause that’s all I’ve ever had.

James Hall