Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
OhHello - Kyle Johnson
78 Plays2 years ago
As a Global GTM strategist, this Oh Hello, Inc. mentor is working across Adobe Creative Cloud 's Express and Adobe Substance 3D products. In essence, really really cool creative tools where he can use his imagination to help others. Prior to being on the Creative side of the house, this expert was part of Adobe Document Cloud and wore multiple solution-based hats across Adobe (from Sign to Advertising Cloud), TubeMogul, Inc., and started his career w/ "Smokey The Bear" ads at the Ad Council.
This esteemed gentleman has the distinguished honor of being a guest lecturer at University of Pennsylvania, Northwestern University, and Loyola University Chicago. When not guest lecturing, he's been seen presenting at Advertising Week w/ NBCUniversal pontificating on TV measurement. He's a former NY'er and now both a Chicagoan and Board Member of the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education.
A dad, a husband, a lifetime doodler and empathetic person whose style is unorthodox, yet effective (from college basketball at Penn to merging design, tech, and passion all into one); we are so happy to introduce Kyle Johnson to our OhHello community.
"Anywhere to give back while providing mentorship to those with less experience is a win." -KJ
#steameducation #technology #artsandentertainment
Check-out the video here, and please subscribe to the pod wherever you listen (Spotify, Google, Apple, YouTube).
Reminder, OhHello.io is launching in Q1!
Wanna be a mentor, looking to connect, and essentially curious about how to be featured? Sign-up at OhHello.io!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction with Kyle Johnson
00:00:20
Speaker
I knew that would make you laugh, Kyle. I knew you would have fun with that intro. What an opening. What an opening.
00:00:27
Speaker
Kyle, we did it, we're here. I love it, baby. We're here. Thank you for being here, Kyle Johnson. Thank you, everyone who's listening to the Oh Hello podcast, who's watching us on YouTube, who is a subscriber on Spotify and Apple Podcast, we appreciate you with us today. We have a very handsome father, husband, professional,
00:00:57
Speaker
Who are you? Why are you here? Wow. What an introduction.
Career Journey at Adobe and Beyond
00:01:01
Speaker
And I love, I love the music, like you said, and I love the call outs, all the platforms you're on. You're just like, you know, multi-platform, interdimensional, multi-talented. That's crazy, Jeremy. Wow. Cool. I feel like I can't live up to all of this.
00:01:15
Speaker
So yeah, my name's Kyle Johnson. I am a, how would I say? I'm a passionate technological professional. I've done many things over the years. You're a PCP.
00:01:29
Speaker
Yeah, right now I'm at Adobe and I'm a go-to-market strategist for our express and substance products. Prior to that, I was in our document cloud doing things with Adobe Sign being a little more technical. Prior to that, I was working with you in ad cloud many years ago, doing things like programmatic television.
00:01:52
Speaker
Part of that, I was at the ad council, making Smokey the Bear ads and crash test dummy stuff. Yeah. You've spoken at a handful of universities and conferences? I have. Yeah. I've spoken at Northwestern.
ADHD Diagnosis and Management Strategies
00:02:11
Speaker
I've spoken at Penn.
00:02:14
Speaker
Done a bunch of stuff. I don't really know. Like if someone's like, who are you? I'm like, well, you just got to get to know me. So hopefully we can do that today. They can actually answer that question for themselves in a video game maker. That's pretty impressive. Yeah. Yeah. In my spare time. That is true. So with all of those skill sets, with all of those tools that you have, Kyle, how would you characterize those particular skill sets that you're going to be sharing with the oh, hello community?
00:02:43
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. You know, growing up, I always knew that like I was a little bit different. Like, you know, some people struggle with like, like disability or things like that. And I wasn't diagnosed with
00:03:00
Speaker
ADHD myself until I was an adult. So I always was like, you know, into a million things at once. I always called myself a jack of all trades, master of none. And I ended up using that to my advantage and I've always found it relatively easy for me to juggle multiple things at once and try to be in multiple places at once and just try to learn as much as I could. And what I ended up doing was taking something that was pretty hard to grow up with when I was younger,
00:03:29
Speaker
and in elementary school, middle school, I'd always get back on my report cards who would always say, Kyle needs to stop talking as much, Kyle needs to pay more attention.
Trend Prediction and Advice to Younger Self
00:03:38
Speaker
Sounds so familiar. I know, right? And I parlayed that into when I was older, just using my energy for good and making sure that I was up to date on
00:03:51
Speaker
everything within the industry that I'm working on or just keeping abreast of like the news within my industry or related industries and be like, huh, that's like a really cool concept. I pride myself within my friend groups of being like the person that was like, this is going to be big, like a cup, like in, you know, in the next couple of years. And, you know, more often than not, like two or three years later, my friends are like, Kylie, you were right. And usually, you know, I was, I'm getting laughed at originally when it, when it happens.
00:04:22
Speaker
Yeah. Laugh with, I guess. For example, like I just hit my, I think my, my 12 year anniversary on Reddit. And I used to like go on Reddit all the time when I was like, you're one year away from being a man. I know. And in the Jewish tradition, of course. Yes.
00:04:41
Speaker
And people used to laugh at me about being a Redditor, and now everyone's mom is on Reddit, and they're about to IPO and stuff like that. Not to say, oh, I was on Reddit. It's a social media platform. Lots of people are on it. But the thing I like to bring to my...
00:04:58
Speaker
professional self is this ability to, you know, focus on multiple things at once and really make sure that I'm, I'm able to to pay attention to, you know, multiple things happening. So that makes sense. What would you tell 20 year old 25 year old Kyle, when it comes to mentorship when it comes to just your 25 year old self? What have you? What feedback? What advice would you give yourself?
00:05:27
Speaker
Man. Deep. Real deep, Kyle. I'd probably tell myself to work at any startup you can and take more risks. But professionally, I mean, I think I did decently well. I would probably tell myself,
00:05:47
Speaker
I think for certain times when I was younger, I was working really hard. I didn't necessarily know it would pay off. And I think I would tell myself to trust myself more and to have a little more confidence. Confidence is something that you can either, I guess it comes naturally to some people or you can learn it over time and people say like fake until you make it.
00:06:13
Speaker
you
Mentors, Role Models, and Inspirations
00:06:14
Speaker
know, as I've become an adult and as I've had children myself, as you mentioned, one of my titles that I really love is being a dad, I found out that nobody knows what they're doing, even at like the highest levels of companies that I've been at, like no one really knows what they're doing. So I guess the one thing I would tell myself is like, you know, you're okay, just work hard, you'll be fine, have confidence in what you're saying and what you're doing, and it'll be okay.
00:06:44
Speaker
Well said. Well said, Kyle. With your experiences, because you've worked at both startups and incredibly well oiled technology companies, who are some of the mentors that you've picked up along the way, whether it's in a professional setting, personal setting? So I'll do I'll do two mentors from my personal life and one like celebrity that I looked up to a lot.
00:07:12
Speaker
One for my personal life is my eighth grade teacher, Mr. Frank. And Mr. Frank was a mentor to me because he was the first teacher that told me like it was okay to be different. So connecting to how I
00:07:27
Speaker
was what I mentioned earlier about, you know, growing up in a middle school and a mentorship school, my teachers were like, you got to be like different than you are if you want to be like OK and succeed. I remember Mr. Frank in the early days of his class was like, if you want to doodle in the, you know, margins of your paper while you wait and when you take notes, it's totally fine. And like I remember thinking like this is my third year old brand. I'm like, wait, what? That's OK.
00:07:54
Speaker
And what he really was saying was like as long as you get your stuff done like it doesn't matter how you get there it just needs to be okay. Also that reminds me of the greatest compliment that anyone ever gave me was i was in a basketball tournament when i was in. When i was in college and it was a three on three tournament the ref told me.
00:08:17
Speaker
Your style is very unorthodox, but effective. And I was like, Oh, thanks. And I learned, I learned it's from like a Bruce Lee movie from like game of death or something. But like ever since I, I heard that I'm like, yeah, that is like, that is me to a tee. Like it's okay to be a little different and still, and you'll make it. So, so that, uh, Mr. Frank was great there. A celebrity that I really looked up to as Bill Russell.
00:08:44
Speaker
And I really loved that Bill Russell was a player coach.
00:08:49
Speaker
He has 11 NBA championships as the center on the Boston Celtics. And he's been awesome. He passed away, I think, a couple of years ago. And that hit me really hard because he was a trailblazer on the NBA for civil rights and integration.
Trailblazing and Making a Difference
00:09:08
Speaker
He was a trailblazer for his team. And he was a trailblazer for this massive multi-billion dollar organization that exists today. And without him,
00:09:17
Speaker
you know, putting in the extra work. He didn't just say like, I'm the best player and like, you know, I, um, I like need the biggest salary and stuff like that. He said, I'm the best player and I'm also going to coach this team at the same time. I'm going to take on more responsibility and have us achieve greater heights. So, you know, from him, I suppose what I get got is, um, you know,
00:09:40
Speaker
Being a trailblazer is something that is a good thing. You should always try to find some place where you can make a difference that maybe it's a smaller organization or something like that. If you are good at something and you're the best person on your team, it's not necessarily an opportunity to slack off. It's an opportunity for you to maybe make your team even greater.
00:10:03
Speaker
You know, he was a mentor for his teammates in many ways. You know, once he became, you know, the elder statesman on the team and you know, that's something that anybody can do within their, within their organization.
Charity Work with CAPE
00:10:16
Speaker
You've been a mentor to many and you're a trailblazer. So what are some ways and characteristics that embody Kyle Johnson that you're going to be bringing to the Oh, hello community.
00:10:30
Speaker
And also, with that said, as you know, there are several dozen different charities that were integrated inside our platform. With that, what charities are near and dear to your heart and why? Sure. I think, like yourself, I think we've bonded over this before, but I think I'm a pretty empathetic person.
00:10:51
Speaker
I try to have a high EQ when I can and I try to think about how other people are feeling and put myself in their shoes. I try not to judge the first time I hear people either speak or I don't necessarily want to just take someone at face value.
00:11:10
Speaker
being able to empathize with these individuals who might not know what they're doing at that given point, but they just want to try hard and they want to make a difference at their company or just within their own personal lives, I suppose. That's all I need to really connect with someone.
00:11:29
Speaker
I appreciate that when people are open and I try to be open in comparison as well. So a charity, man, there's lots, but when you're on like Jimmy Fallon or something, I always like, and this is my movie that I'm like hawking on. I haven't been on Jimmy Fallon personally. Yeah, I've never been on Jimmy Fallon, no. Yeah, no.
00:11:59
Speaker
The charity that I want to plug is a charity that I'm actually on the board for. It's called CAPE.
00:12:05
Speaker
Chicago Arts Partnerships and Education. And what it does is it brings arts into the school curriculum. So you've probably heard of STEM, you know, science, technology, engineering, and math. Well, it's been discovered that STEAM is actually better. It's when you add arts into that because you get better learning outcomes when you add art into, let's say, your math lesson or your history lesson. You know, growing up,
00:12:30
Speaker
the work you probably remember the most is when you made like a diorama about like the war of 1812 versus your teacher just going the war of 1812 was in 1812. Bad example but you know so yeah Cape is in I think more than 30 schools within the greater Chicago area
00:12:53
Speaker
It's been going for more than 20 years now. We have teaching artists that are embedded in classrooms across the Chicago area. So for me, that's the one that really is near and dear to my heart. But in the platform, any charity that really gives back to the youth is something that I think is something that's good for people to select.
Conclusion and Farewells
00:13:17
Speaker
Love it. Oh, hello itself is a way to give back to those. It doesn't necessarily need to be someone younger than you, but it's a way to give back to the younger generation and people who have less experience. So anything where you can give back to those who might not have as much experience is good with me. You rock, Kyle. Well, Mr. Johnson, I want to be very conscious of your dinner plans. You've got two little kids. You've got LeBron in the background. You've got your wife. So with that said,
00:13:50
Speaker
Well done. Good grief. Thank you, Kyle. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. All right, Kyle. Thanks so much. Thank you. Oh, hello, community. Until the next one.