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OhHello - Kristen Faust
70 Plays2 years ago
Kristen Faust is an experienced, empathetic leader with a diverse background that spans from helping to build the consumer internet at America Online aka AOL, to working at storied brands, National Geographic & the Chicago Tribune. Kristen pivoted to participate in the media buying revolution of programmatic and helped to build Accuen, Omnicom’s Trading Desk to a successful business unit. She transitioned to help Performics expand its programmatic offerings, co-led a large multi-agency team on an account that started with the North America business and expanded to a larger global remit.
Kristen holds an MBA from the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of business and a BA from the College of William & Mary. Kristen volunteers on alumni boards at William & Mary and is the President of her condo board association. When she’s not working you can find Kristen traveling across the globe, playing tennis, golf and running, attending a Blackhawks game or music festival with friends and most importantly doting on her niece. Kristen credits her network for leading her to new career opportunities and values the mentors in her life and pays if forward whenever she can.
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Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:18
Speaker
All right. Hello, Kristen. How are you? Jeremy, I'm good. How are you? I am doing quite well. Thank you for asking. Oh, hello.
00:00:30
Speaker
Oh, hello. So we've known each other for quite a long time. I've always enjoyed partnering with you in any and every different facet. You are, you know what you want, you're direct, you are approachable, and you have always had such a great presence. I know who I'm speaking with. Why don't you tell our listeners of Oh, hello? Who are you? Why are you here? Sure.
00:00:59
Speaker
Well, my name is Kristen Faust. And yes, Jeremy, we've known each other for about 12 years now when we helped build the new programmatic space. And so that's where our paths have crossed has been more in my agency life. Prior to that, I was at the Tribune at National Geographic and American Line where I helped build out the consumer internet, which was super fun. So those were really my formative years.
00:01:28
Speaker
But yeah, but personally, I am very sporty. I love my Chicago sports teams. I love to travel. In fact, in about five hours, I'm on a flight to London for a few days of fun. But also this past year, I spent two weeks on safari in Africa. I am a very lucky person. I have had a lot of opportunities. Life is not always easy, but overall, I can say I'm blessed.
Travel and Perspective
00:01:55
Speaker
I have great friends and a wonderful family, and that's me. I'm very direct. Very direct. I love the attitude, you got to have fun with life, and you absolutely have traveled to many cool places. How would, because of all those cool places that you've traveled, because of going on an African safari,
00:02:20
Speaker
jet setting from Chicago to London in a few hours for the weekend. How would you characterize how those travels have made you who you are today and have provided you with the skillset that you're going to be sharing with the Oh, hello community? Sure. I think over a lot of things that you learn when you travel, especially if you travel to second and third world countries is a real deep appreciation for everything that you have overall.
00:02:49
Speaker
Like here in the US, we are, I know sometimes people are, you know, get really down on it, but we are pretty darn lucky to be where we're at. It's not perfect. It's a good friend of mine always says democracy is not perfect, but we really live in a country of great blessings. It also is very important to see how other people live and also experience their joy and their beauty and everything else. And, but to really experience
00:03:21
Speaker
just how lucky we are is I think very important. And then just again, how much of a new country we are, like I'm going to London and they've been around a lot longer than we have. And then when I was in Africa, I mean the animals and everything else, but I was talking with a lot of people who have never seen the beauty of their own country. So again, very privileged, very lucky sense of adventure and wanderlust and a whole bunch of gratitude comes from it as well as empathy.
Career and Mentorship
00:03:51
Speaker
look, you know, I'm a huge proponent and fan of talking about empathy. I love that you just mentioned that. But I heard you say wanderlust, which is important because you want to you the listener, you, Kristen, myself, the person speaking, being able to look at different situations with openness and kindness and different experiences is such a value. It's such a unique component of life.
00:04:21
Speaker
What excites you about mentorship? What excites you about going to, having new relationships, fostering different friendships, meeting different people in the workplace, where as a mentor, as someone who's well-respected in our community, where you're going to have an opportunity to be a mentor? What excites you about that? And what would you tell your 25-year-old self? Sure. Well, first what excites me about it is I love meeting new people.
00:04:51
Speaker
Again, when I'm traveling, especially if I'm traveling alone and I'm sitting at a bar, I will start talking to someone. Otherwise I'm just talking to myself. And so it really helps you expand your, you know, expand your, what you see in life, like how other people see things and, and expand your perspective. That's what I'm looking for. And I think that even though, you know, I am not a president of a company, I've had a lot of different life experiences. My career has not been linear.
00:05:21
Speaker
And I think if someone's looking for that, I can be helpful, or at least I can be a sounding board as other mentors or friends that I have been lucky to have as well. And what I tell my 25-year-old self is, you know, explore, breathe. Not every decision is permanent. I used to go back and forth and really stress about what decision to make. And an old boss of mine said, he said, nothing's permanent. You know, you can usually, most things are not permanent.
00:05:50
Speaker
But you can usually pivot and do so. So yeah, that's an important lesson. That's a great lesson about permanency and being able just to pivot and change and evolve as you because very few things in life are truly linear. Besides from birth to death, we know that that's linear, not to be morbid, but
00:06:14
Speaker
Outside of that, careers are not linear. It's not what you learn about when you're in school, so to speak, especially for those of us in tech and software and marketing and advertising and media. You had mentioned a mentor. Who were some mentors that have had a profound impact on you, Kristin? Sure. First of all, my father, he is, and he's still around and healthy, and he has always been
00:06:42
Speaker
my number one go to person for advice, something bad has happened. Like, you know, he's the comforter, but he also can help me talk through, you know, what's going on and, and, and how to be a good boss and how to, you know, he's like, you want a boss that you'll, you'll, you know, go through brick walls for. And, and it's pretty easy to find bosses that you may not want to do that. And then it's key to like, find ones that will, and you want your own people to,
00:07:10
Speaker
also have that feeling about you. So my dad, my sister is another person who can give blunt honesty, whereas other people may not, but your family always will. And it's also good advice. A couple of other former bosses have really provided more directional, like in the moment questions I've had about how to position something.
00:07:36
Speaker
have been key, so some former bosses. Anyone that you want to give a shout out to, any former bosses? Sure. My old former boss, Alison Shally, has always been really someone I can talk to. Actually, my most recent boss, Paul de Jarnette, has been especially in key moments. I've given him calls, and I'm like, hey, what do you think about this? So again, it's finding people, and it's colleagues.
00:08:03
Speaker
I wouldn't say I actually have formal mentorship. And sometimes I regret that, but there are times you can figure it out.
Personal Values and Philanthropy
00:08:13
Speaker
Well said with figuring it out. Being a mentor, being part of the Oh Hello community, as you know, you're going to have the opportunity to give back, to figure it out, to be able to say, hey, I felt a sense of altruism by helping this person. I'm going to take some of the revenue and I'm going to put it
00:08:32
Speaker
donate it towards a charity. And so as you know, we are integrated into dozens of different charities in the US and hundreds globally. What is one that's near and dear to Kristin Faust's heart? One of the ones that you have there is the Michael J. Fox Foundation from Parkinson's, a very dear friend of mine as early stage Parkinson's and she is a real trooper and luckily right now it's manageable and everything else. But what I've learned from her is just
00:09:03
Speaker
all the fascinating research that they've been able to fund. And I'm sure all the other charities do a really good job, but they really
Closing Remarks
00:09:11
Speaker
do. And so that's one of the ones that's close to my heart. Awesome. Well, I know that you have a flight in a few hours from now. You have to get going. We appreciate you, Kristin. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Excited to have you as part of the Oh, Hello community. Me too. And enjoy the trip, my friend.
00:09:32
Speaker
Thank you, Jeremy. I can't wait to see how this goes. Thank you, Kristen. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thanks, everybody.