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OhHello - Kristil Nicholas
70 Plays2 years ago
Oh, Hello!
Episode 31- this 'Hello' is an agile marketer that can handle any lemon that comes her way...we're excited to have this mentor on our platform!
A woman, a woman of color, a daughter, a nurturer, and a mom - most importantly. This empathetic super mom, of 4, is a consistent bad-ass leader in #marketing , #advertising , and #media
A multifaceted marketer, this ‘Hello’ has mastered many realms within the industry- from strategic planning, to activation, to dealing w/ data, and customer intent- now combining these skills as the VP of Media at Synchrony.
This OhHello Inc. 🌞☕️ OhHello.io's motto:
"DO IT SCARED! BE INTENTIONAL!"
The matriarchs of this mentor's family have had a profound impact on her perseverance + work ethic ,along with these special friends and professional mentors that have made a difference each stop along the way:
Starcom-
Stephen Governale
Paul DeJarnatt
Ariti Bhansali
Gumala Steele
OMD USA-
Chris Whalen
Adrienne Gutierrez Bitter
Jason Haddad
TeResa Gaddis
Krista Baker (Akason)
Kristine Swanepoel
Yvette Davis, MBA, MSIMC
Finance of America Companies Finance of America Reverse-
John Hutchens
Rachel Cabalse
A cause that’s near and dear to this 'Hello' mentor is the NAACP, as she is a fierce believer in making sure opportunities continue to progress for diverse groups of people. Equality is a must!
Loved catching-up with you Kristil Nicholas and excited to have you as part of the tribe and on the OhHello.io platform (currently in Beta)!
Intrigued? Wanna be a mentor...or mentee? Sign-up on ohhello.io
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Transcript
Meet Winston Nicholas
00:00:09
Speaker
Oh, hello, Crystal. Hello, Jeremy. It was so wonderful catching up with you. We have known each other for quite a long time. Going back to, let's see that shirt a little bit. What's on your shirt? There we go. I know who you are. Yes. I have the pleasure of knowing you. Why don't you tell our oh, hello audience who I'm speaking with, who we are going to be interviewing and getting
00:00:37
Speaker
getting some words of wisdom and some nuggets from.
Career Journey and Identity
00:00:41
Speaker
Awesome. Well, hello. My name is Winston Nicholas. I am a director of integrated marketing right now at Finance of America Reverse. A little bit about me, just a young girl from Chi-town trying to excel in my career in marketing and have a positive impact on people. I have four beautiful children and I am trying to raise into beautiful humans.
00:01:03
Speaker
And let's see, what can I say? What really defines me, I guess in this moment is really my ability to kind of pivot and be agile in life and just be ready for whatever lemons life throw at me.
00:01:18
Speaker
being hardworking, having a positive attitude, and really my role of a woman, a woman of color, a mom, most importantly, daughter, and a nurturer. And I think my superpower, I would say, is for sure my ability to be empathetic.
From Chicago to California
00:01:34
Speaker
So that is me. Hello. Hello, Crystal. Well, you are absolutely an empathetic person. Being a mother of four, you and your partner taking your family from Chicago to California,
00:01:47
Speaker
uprooting everything you knew to just being adventurous and also going from the agency side to the brand side for the past five or so years and spending six years now between now in Southern California. That's a lot. It's a lot to pick up and move your life and move your family. So kudos to you, my friend. Thank you. Thank you. Absolutely. We're doing it.
00:02:12
Speaker
You're doing it. You're doing it. So with that, about being empathetic, how would you characterize your skillset that you're going to be sharing with the Oh, hello community?
Thriving in the Digital Age
00:02:22
Speaker
Sure. I would say that I'm a multifaceted marketer. Um, you know, I was born and raised in the digital age and you know, 2005 starting at starcom and it was stark on my P. Um, and just my career has been full of all the things from strategic planning to
00:02:38
Speaker
activation and advertising programs to dealing with data and understanding customer intent. So I kind of have had a remix of marketing, especially being on the agency side. And I'm really able to take all of those things and translate that to the brand side. And it's been really awesome. So yeah, I would definitely say a multifaceted marketer.
00:02:59
Speaker
That's awesome. That's awesome. Tell us a little bit more about what you do as a marketer being on the brand side. Walk us through just a little bit where you work and just there's certainly a pivot and transition in people's careers when you go from agency to brand. Maybe spend a few seconds talking through that.
00:03:18
Speaker
Sure.
Current Role and Unique Products
00:03:19
Speaker
So right now, like I said, I'm a director of integrated marketing at Finance of America Reverse. Our product is very unique. It is for retirees, pre-retirees, 55 and or 62 plus, depending on the product. And it is a very, very different
00:03:35
Speaker
world than the agency side. Like I said, being able to translate all of my agency experience into this new world has been great. Working with the creative team, working on with the content team, you know, being able to actually like build out copy and just understanding all of the processes that I might not have understood on the other side of the fence has really come to life. And, you know, being able to have influence across all of those things has really been awesome.
00:04:04
Speaker
It's awesome. Thank you for diving into that. Having the experience of both the agency and the brand side.
Advice to Younger Self
00:04:10
Speaker
What would you tell your younger self? As someone, as a mentor, as a hello on the Oh Hello platform, being able to look back and think like, all right, here's what I would tell myself 10, 15 years back. Yeah, I would definitely tell myself to always have a perspective.
00:04:28
Speaker
you know, don't be afraid to be uncomfortable. You know, back, you know, you always have a plan for your life. And sometimes that plan most times, that plan does not always go the way you want it to. And I've learned to just trust the process, trust myself within the process and just to be as intentional as I can be to
00:04:49
Speaker
you know, really have control over wherever life lands me, you know, don't just get frazzled if it's not gonna go whichever way, you know, find a way to make the best out of every situation. Be intentional. It's okay to be uncomfortable. I love that. Great, great nuggets. What excites you about mentorship? What intrigues you about this
Mentorship and Empathy
00:05:10
Speaker
platform?
00:05:10
Speaker
You know, mentorship is something that I really hold very key to me. Everything about it excites me. I actually have a mentorship at Finance for America Reverse and I'm a mentor and I've been doing it now for just over a year. And it's been great, you know, really getting to know new people.
00:05:26
Speaker
understanding their life's journey, being able to potentially influence or have an impact on their lives, whether it be professional or personal. It's amazing. Like I said, I think one of my superpowers is being empathetic and wanting to help people. And to me, this is my way of reaching back and trying to help people wherever they are in their lives and help them to be the best version of themselves. Love it. Crystal, who are some of your top mentors that have had a profound impact on you?
Influences: Family and Mentors
00:05:57
Speaker
I obviously have to start with my mom. She is the foundation of who I am. You know, she taught me how to always, she taught me to always work hard and that I can do anything that I put my mind to, followed by my grandma and my great aunt.
00:06:10
Speaker
They're the matrix of our family. They really did root my spirituality and just knowing that if I center myself and, you know, rely on my faith, that all things are possible. And just from a career standpoint, there are just many people that I could name, you know, from my STARCOM days, from my starting out days at STARCOM to OMD.
00:06:30
Speaker
But I'll go to my more recent mentor. Her name is Teresa Gaddis. She is CEO and founder. She actually did something bold as well within the last year. And she opened her own kind of marketing shop, TG collab. But for today and pretty much every every day, we have conversations. We talk shop. You know, if I have a question about work, I want to talk to strategy. She's always the person that I call. So those are the three core ones that I definitely look to every day.
00:06:58
Speaker
Amazing, amazing. Yeah. And you, when we were talking before, and you give a amazing list of some of your, of your previous colleagues and just mentors that have made a profound impact, which is so awesome.
Supporting Equality and NAACP
00:07:11
Speaker
As a hello, as you know, this, you're going to be able to donate to 40 plus different charities that are integrated into the Oh, hello.io platform. What's a cause it's near and dear to your heart.
00:07:21
Speaker
I think today the relevant calls will be kind of the NAACP. I know that's one of the 40. There's a lot going on in the world today. And unfortunately, things that I thought would have been in a very different place at this point in my life, it seems to be kind of stagnant. And now that I have children, children of color, I want to make sure that they have the same opportunities. And everyone around them as well, that everyone else, whether it's the person of color, LGBTQ,
00:07:51
Speaker
trans, all of the diverse groups, it's just very important for that equality to be had. So I chose for this instance NAACP, obviously, and that is something that is kind of core near and dear to me as a woman of color. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you, Crystal. Any other words of wisdom or nuggets that you want to pass on to the Oh Hello community?
Empowerment and Fearless Action
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, just, you know, do it scared. Some of my mantras that I kind of go by is do it scared. You know, life will always bring you some unexpected things, but just do it. You know, don't be afraid to step out on faith and trust yourself. Trust the process and be intentional. Be intentional. Do it scared. Crystal, so good to have you on the platform. So good to catch up. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening.
00:08:47
Speaker
See you, Crystal. Thanks, everybody.