Cap Region Creatives in Quarantine: Kirsten Voege

Creatives in Quarantine is a segment that highlights creative professionals across the Capital Region during this period of isolation due to COVID-19. We have developed some questions that will allow our community to share experiences and learn from one another during this time.

Meet Marketing & Communications Expert and Entrepreneur, Kirsten Voege.

Kirsten, tell us a little about yourself! Hi! My name is Kirsten Voege. I am a recent transplant to the 518 from NYC. I am so happy to be out of the 212 right now! Literally, my NYC apartment was on the same block as Mt. Sinai and the medical tents that are being erected in Central Park. I am so #Thankfultobelivinginthe518! My business is KIRated Communications, a marketing and communications consultancy. At KIRated Co our singular focus is to help companies drive positive business outcomes through marketing. We call it business development to drive results. Our consulting areas include; strategic marketing planning, media buying, media planning services, media optimization and analysis, marketing channel mix assessments, media vendor relations and business mentoring. A little bit about my background…..Prior to starting my own business, I worked at well-known advertising agencies in NYC including Ogilvy and Foote Cone Belding. While there, I progressed upward through the agency structure, eventually landing a Senior Vice President role. During my career, I oversaw the performance media and marketing efforts for well-known brands like AT&T, American Express, Intuit, Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Quicken Loans, Verizon and Zillow. In my roles I led a team of media buying specialists as we planned, negotiated, placed and optimized national and local media buys. Bottom line, you have probably seen a spot that me or someone on my team put on TV. We planned the media mix, negotiated the placements, monitored performance and optimized schedules to deliver Key Performance Indicator goals. How are you coping with this new reality? Trying to keep focus and maintain a sense of normalcy while still getting tasks accomplished. I wrote a blog post back on March 25th talking about this new reality, which you can read here! I have been trying to keep to my schedule. This includes logging on and being productive. If today is any indication, my new reality includes falling into a rabbit hole of social media content consumption, sort of to pass the time. I think I’m looking for inspiration, but also looking for connection. Then I find myself coming back to reality. Shoot, I need to get cracking and produce something! Also, my new reality…is painting my chairs pink… is that practical, was it productive? Who knows? Pink kitchen chairs are my new reality.

Kirsten wasn’t kidding, she painted her chairs pink.

Along with painting the town pink, I’ve written press releases, taken online classes, from Wharton no less! I have watered my plants, cleaned the buttons on the elevator and the doorknobs at the entrance of my building, sent off my 2019 paperwork for my taxes (this is early for me!) made some amazing egg frittatas, watched a ton of Netflix, avoided the news, built a new invoice template for my business, listened to podcasts, walked, meditated, daydreamed and even “hired” my 14 year old nephew to help with social media content. I hired an intern! What’s your work space like? Is it working for you? I have a desk in the middle of my living room. I love it. My desk is pretty organized (I try to keep the piles to a minimum). I love sitting there because I can look out the windows. When I don’t sit at my desk, I sit at the counter (about 3 feet away from my desk). The counter barstools are much more comfortable to sit at for a long day, than my pink kitchen/desk chair. Have you started adapting and/or innovating your business model to operate under these conditions? The adaptation is a work in progress for me. While I have been working remotely for the past few years, doing work-from-home (WFH) every day is a real difference. As a freelancer and a recent transplant with limited network, I was very reliant on all of the networking events in the 518 area. I miss those. Also, I feel that most people are in maintenance and survival mode right now, just trying to get through their day to day. So you have to pause and reassess how you approach clients and potential new clients. How have you seen the local creative community band together to support one another? I think we are all craving a little bit of community and love that ACE is doing this newsletter! I am also a member of Power Breakfast Club (PBC) and Entrepreneur Meet Up (EMU) and both of these organizations are now offering virtual meet ups and trainings. Do you feel like there are additional resources/tools/strategies that you need to succeed under this circumstance? I do. My sister lives in Massachusetts and sent me a link to an article that announced Ivy league schools are offering free audits to online classes. I took a Wharton/UPenn class called, How to Create Viral Social Content and am in the midst of The Science of Well Being offered by Yale. I am in charge, not the circumstances! Here are 450 Ivy League courses you can take online for free right now! Are you thinking about ways that you’ll change the way you do business in the future? I was planning on starting my 1:1 interview podcast called 518 KIRated. The plan was to get some of the content recorded and make it live by June. I am not sure if that is still a realistic goal, with the state of the world the way it is. So, I am thinking of how to pivot the concept into another form…more on that soon.….as you can probably tell I am an optimist.

From Kirsten’s Instagram page: Adapting and pivoting are the way to #makeithappen. #WednesdayWisdom #logic #adapt #pivot #womenwholead #mih #KIRated

Do you see any long term changes to the way people work coming out of this situation? Yes, one change for me is I don’t think I will ever shake anyone’s hand when I first meet them. I am still trying to figure out what my move will be. Before the elbow bump I was doing a two handed wave (sort of like Jazz hands) but that might not end up being my move. I am open to suggestions! Any last words of positivity to leave our readers with? My mantra is #MIH. Make It Happen. I believe if I come up with a plan I can #MIH. I believe we are all powerful. During the last Power Breakfast Club meeting I attended on 3/31, the discussion subject was “The COVID-19 Pivot”. I have been thinking about how people can adapt, because it is obvious, we all need to. So, let me geek out on you. I literally am thinking about my life being like an Excel Pivot table. For anyone not familiar….the beauty of using a pivot in Excel is that your data sheet includes tons of information, it is all in an organized workbook, but it isn’t pretty…it is just rows and rows and columns and columns of data. The beauty of building a good pivot table is that you can slice and dice the data from your workbook any way you want. Each user designs the output. That is the chance we all have right now. Designing the output. My advice? You can design your own outcome. Consider your technical and soft skills, write down goals, ask your network “What are my top 3 attributes?”, think about your dreams and the rest of your “data”. Consider the question, “How do I want to design my life?” I ended up here, in the 518 and on this page in front of you. Where will you land?

Connect with Kirsten!

Are YOU a Creative in Quarantine? Send us your quarantine photos by sending us an email to get featured on our social media & blog pages!