Welcome to another episode of Entrepreneurs Enigma, the podcast that delves into the fascinating world of entrepreneurship. I’m your host, Seth Goldstein, and today we have a special guest joining us, Katrina Purcell. Katrina has had a diverse and “squiggly” career, navigating various industries such as media, technology, and operations. She recently left her corporate job to start her own consulting firm and has a passion for supporting and mentoring professionals at all stages of their careers. In this episode, we’ll learn about Katrina’s experiences pursuing her executive MBA while working full-time, her transition from media to technology, and her role as a chief of staff during a company IPO. Get ready to be inspired by Katrina’s entrepreneurial journey. Let’s dive in!

Key Topics

[00:04:15] Career is a jungle gym, not a ladder.

[00:07:41] Confusing politics or boring public company life.

[00:09:42] The hats and ownership of startup life.

Find Katrina Online

https://katrinapurcell.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrina-purcell/

https://calendly.com/katrina-purcell/30-minute-meeting

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Transcript (Provided by CastMagic.io)

Seth [00:00:00]:

Entrepreneurs Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs. How we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneurs Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Entrepreneurs Enigma podcast. I am your host. As always, Seth. Today I have Katrina Purcell of Katrina Purcell. She is we were joking right before. I was asking her what she wanted for her little sub headline. She’s kind of my company is my name, so all right, we’ll just leave it. Katrina Purcell. Katrina has built high performance teams across media, technology, and operations. She is pursuing her executive MBA how fancy. While working full time and has led what she likes to call a squiggly career. We got to get into that. That’s pretty cool. A squiggly career. She recently left her corporate job for her own consulting firm. So we could have said Katrina Purcell Consulting as the byline, but whatever, it works. She has extensive passions for using the rising tide to lift all boats. She creates mechanisms for supporting and mentoring all career stages. She loves working with tech companies and nonprofits. She lives in New York City, actually, in Brooklyn, New York. With a supportive partner. The two spoiled cats. And they like to do a lot of woodworking crafting things on the side. Very millennial. Hey, Katrina. How’s it going? How you doing? We finally got to meet up.

Katrina [00:01:52]:

It’s going well. I want to clarify, I did already get my executive.

Seth [00:01:55]:

Oh, you got your MBA at the corporate while doing working for corporate overlords.

Katrina [00:02:00]:

Yes, while working for the corporate overlord.

Seth [00:02:03]:

There you go. That’s even more impressive because it was the clock in, clock down, get all that stuff and then go to school exactly.

Katrina [00:02:10]:

On Saturdays, which was a lot of fun. Yeah. Every Saturday for two years.

Seth [00:02:15]:

Oh, my God.

Katrina [00:02:16]:

Yeah.

Seth [00:02:18]:

Right? Now, did you learn anything or do you think it was worth it?

Katrina [00:02:22]:

It was definitely worth it. I’d do it again.

Seth [00:02:25]:

Do it again. Oh, my Lordy.

Katrina [00:02:28]:

I would pay the money and I’d do the time again. I learned a lot. Not necessarily always from classes, but it’s.

Seth [00:02:35]:

A lot of things you learn from experiences around it. Yeah.

Katrina [00:02:38]:

The networks of people. And I did really enjoy my time there. Now, whether or not my partner enjoyed having to do all the cooking, cleaning, and everything else while I was gone, I’d have to ask him that. But I enjoyed it.

Seth [00:02:50]:

You enjoyed it because you didn’t have to do any of that. You said I learn.

Katrina [00:02:54]:

Exactly.

Seth [00:02:54]:

And sit there stroking the cat while you’re was it remote or was it in person?

Katrina [00:03:00]:

No, it was in person. It was in person. So I was lucky. I graduated in May 2019.

Seth [00:03:06]:

You just avoided the pandemic.

Katrina [00:03:07]:

I just avoided the pandemic. I had started a new job, though, in September of 2019, so that was tricky during the pandemic. But, yes, classes were all in person, which I do think in MBA, you’re paying all that money, might as well be in person so much I feel.

Seth [00:03:23]:

Like if you’re not doing in person sometimes, I guess if you don’t do it in person, it is a little cheaper.

Katrina [00:03:28]:

It is a bit cheaper. I think the program that I went to at Columbia is designed to be in person, so I think it’s also.

Seth [00:03:35]:

You’Re in New York City.

Katrina [00:03:36]:

Exactly.

Seth [00:03:36]:

Columbia, you’re in Brooklyn, what, 20 stops.

Katrina [00:03:40]:

From the commute was not ideal. From where?

Seth [00:03:44]:

Nothing’s ideal from Brooklyn Park is what?

Katrina [00:03:49]:

Prospect park?

Seth [00:03:50]:

There you go. No, but nothing. But if you to get into the city, then go north.

Katrina [00:03:53]:

Lower Manhattan is much more convenient. And now Columbia’s new campus is even farther north, so I’m glad you get.

Seth [00:04:00]:

Farther north of Columbia.

Katrina [00:04:02]:

Geez. They built a new business school campus. It’s basically in the Bronx at this point. I don’t know. They call it still Manhattan, but it’s pretty far.

Seth [00:04:09]:

Not by inwood.

Katrina [00:04:10]:

Kind of.

Seth [00:04:10]:

Yeah, that’s wild. That’s crazy. What do you mean by squiggly career?

Katrina [00:04:15]:

Yeah, I think a lot of people think that there’s a ladder that you climb, and I like to think it’s more of a jungle gym, that you can make lateral moves you can sometimes go up. Sometimes maybe you take a step back to go on a different path. And so I got my land. Exactly. Sometimes there’s a slide that goes down. Now, hopefully not. I got my undergraduate degree in media, and I spent the first 15 years of my career in more what I would call pure play media. I worked for Discovery, I worked for Bloomberg, and when I worked at Bloomberg, I worked on the technology side of media. So really? Production.

Seth [00:04:52]:

Do you know Mark Erman?

Katrina [00:04:53]:

I did, yes.

Seth [00:04:55]:

Who does know Mark? Ehrman, but, yeah, the Apple insider gets all the scoops, all the leaks, all the in quotes leaks. Come on.

Katrina [00:05:03]:

They’re not it was I had always liked the technology side of things. My dad had wanted me to be an engineer, but had been supportive of me deciding what my career would look like. And so I worked more on project management and program management once I really had become more settled in my career. And I do feel like you move into where your skills or your zone of genius lie. Plus, live news is exhausting.

Seth [00:05:26]:

Oh, my God.

Katrina [00:05:27]:

And candidly, after 2016, it became even more exhausting. So it was just time to make.

Seth [00:05:33]:

You don’t know what that means. You’re living under a rock. Under the sea. In the seabed. Close to the mantle.

Katrina [00:05:40]:

Yes. And so that always uncycles. So in 2019, after I graduated my MBA, I made the choice to actually leave media and move more into pure play technology. Companies and had led programs had led program management organizations, but moved into product operations.

Seth [00:06:00]:

Developing the product and helping, essentially.

Katrina [00:06:04]:

Helping the product and engineering teams work more efficiently.

Seth [00:06:06]:

So figuring out some engineering in there for your dad?

Katrina [00:06:09]:

There is some engineering there. I’ve actually spent the majority of my career sitting between the business and engineers and being able to talk between the two of them.

Seth [00:06:16]:

Is your dad an engineer?

Katrina [00:06:17]:

My dad is a software engineer.

Seth [00:06:18]:

All right, so if you’re like dad, he said, this is me. What the hell did I actually do?

Katrina [00:06:25]:

So my partner is also so we’ve been together nine years. He’s also a software engineer.

Seth [00:06:30]:

You have resources to tap into if you get confused.

Katrina [00:06:33]:

I do. I can say, does this make sense? Someone said they couldn’t do this. Is that true? And he’ll either say, yes, it’s true, or no.

Seth [00:06:40]:

What with me all the time with web design and stuff, she’s always like, this looks weird. Is there a reason for it? And I’m like, usually. I’m like, no, not really.

Katrina [00:06:49]:

It’s so important to have someone at home who can help check you. So I can say, hey, wait a minute. The engineer said that this is the timeline. Does that seem right? So I was helping build roadmaps, helping to understand what the ROI would be of products that would get built, and then also helping understand adoption. It was a lot of fun. The Pandemic hit, and so there was a lot of layoffs. There was an influx of uncertainty.

Seth [00:07:15]:

With.

Katrina [00:07:15]:

The Pandemic for everyone. In the fall of that year, the company actually decided they were going to IPO, and they promoted their current chief of staff to CFO, and they said, we need a chief of staff. Do you want to do it? And I said, sure.

Seth [00:07:30]:

That’s awesome.

Katrina [00:07:31]:

So next thing I knew, I was a chief of staff, which I never even knew was a role or what it did.

Seth [00:07:35]:

Yeah, I was chief of staff until I got into the technology space more. I thought chief of staff was politics.

Katrina [00:07:41]:

So a lot of people think it’s either politics or essentially just an EA with a fancy title. So it’s always one of those confusing roles. And so we did an IPO we IPOed that company in June of 2021, and I am very happy we did it during the Pandemic because those long days cannot be done when you’re having to commute to an office. It was so nice to commute from my living room to my bedroom at 11:00 at night. And so that was a lot of fun. And then public company life was not for me. Yeah, it’s a bit boring. There’s not a lot of creation.

Seth [00:08:16]:

You’re not as nimble anymore. You have to answer the shareholders and stuff. We’re going to take a quick break here from our sponsors and get right back to the show.

Katrina [00:08:23]:

Yeah, it’s a quarterly hamster wheel. I like to call it not as squiggly. Not as squiggly. So left and went to work for a high growth tech startup.

Seth [00:08:34]:

So you went really squiggly.

Katrina [00:08:36]:

Really squiggly. So still chief of staff role, but this one was actually more right hand helping run the company.

Seth [00:08:44]:

So kind of kind of starting the entrepreneurial journey a little bit.

Katrina [00:08:49]:

Yes. And my old boss will say he probably put too much of that founder energy into me, because then I thought, you know what, this has been really fun. I had always wanted to start my own thing. I always felt like I was so good at executing, but I just didn’t have an idea. I think that’s where consulting came in. Or fractional COO. Right. And so you don’t have to have the idea, but you are helping other people execute on their ideas.

Seth [00:09:14]:

I love it. And fractional, because you can do a bunch of different things and you don’t get bored.

Katrina [00:09:18]:

Exactly. And the COO role is pretty much a behind the scenes execution role anyway, and so it’s not a role that has to be super highly visible, necessarily. And so it’s easy to do it on a fractional basis.

Seth [00:09:30]:

I love that. So you’ve done corporate hamster wheel, you’ve done the IPO hamster wheel, you’ve done the tech startup dumpster fire.

Katrina [00:09:40]:

That’s also a way I’m trying to.

Seth [00:09:42]:

Think the right word for startup cost or F, you’re wearing so many hats when you’re in a startup, it’s like you do this. I’m like, well, that’s not my job. But sure, okay. It’s that kind of thing. And then you’re doing your own thing. So what’s the best thing about what’s the difference? We’ll phrase the question this way, actually, we’ll phrase it this way. What is the best thing about being an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur this time, and we’ll go back to what was the best thing about being an entrepreneur?

Katrina [00:10:06]:

Yeah, so I think an entrepreneur the best thing has been owning my own schedule, being able to decide who I work with, and being able to decide how much effort and time I’m putting into each of those projects.

Seth [00:10:18]:

Now, what did you like about being.

Katrina [00:10:19]:

An entrepreneur, though, the entrepreneur part? I really loved having the stability, and so it’s not as risky. Right. It is debatable now with all the.

Seth [00:10:32]:

More stable because you don’t have to go find the business. If it’s a word.

Katrina [00:10:38]:

Yeah, it’s more stable. You also have a team around you, right. So you’re not alone. Whereas the entrepreneurial journey can be a bit lonely. Find a good network. I do have my cats. Yes. They’re very supportive coworkers. One of them has eaten through three pairs of headphones, so he is not employee of the month. But yes.

Seth [00:10:55]:

Oh, no, that’s not good. I’m glad you won’t. Thank you for finding a pair.

Katrina [00:11:02]:

He likes to chew on them.

Seth [00:11:04]:

That’s funny. I have my coworker is a 65 pound air doodle.

Katrina [00:11:07]:

Oh, there you go. Yes.

Seth [00:11:09]:

Terrier mixed with poodles. So she keeps me company during the day, usually. She’s very lazy. She sleeps.

Katrina [00:11:15]:

Yes, she keeps me company.

Seth [00:11:17]:

It’s kind of nice.

Katrina [00:11:18]:

Mine also sleep a lot.

Seth [00:11:19]:

So now that you’ve been out, how long have you been out on your own for?

Katrina [00:11:23]:

So I left in May.

Seth [00:11:24]:

Oh, you’re a newbie.

Katrina [00:11:25]:

So fairly new.

Seth [00:11:27]:

How’s it going?

Katrina [00:11:28]:

It’s going well. It’s going well.

Seth [00:11:30]:

Have you discovered the scary parts of it yet?

Katrina [00:11:33]:

Yes. I will say, without a doubt, I’m the worst boss I’ve ever had.

Seth [00:11:40]:

You motivate yourself. There’s no one sitting next to you working even. They’re not bossing around. No one’s there sitting next to you. No one’s telling you not to go. In my case, go to Wawa, which is a convenience store around us.

Katrina [00:11:52]:

I love wawa. I grew up in the south, so I know.

Seth [00:11:55]:

Okay, south or like, in Philly?

Katrina [00:11:58]:

Well, Virginia.

Seth [00:11:59]:

All right. Yeah. That’s not traditional philly. Anyhow, we digress. What’s the scariest thing so far, being an entrepreneur?

Katrina [00:12:10]:

I think it’s the uncertainty. There’s a lot of prospecting. There’s a lot of networking. There’s a lot of feeling that you’re putting yourself out there and you’re hoping that people are going to want to hire you or going to want to work with you. And there’s this uncertainty of how long will that take? What does that sales cycle look like? I’ve worked for companies before where there’s a specific product and you can estimate the sales cycle, and it’s very regimented.

Seth [00:12:36]:

This is very not yes.

Katrina [00:12:37]:

For someone with an operations background, it’s been very difficult to sort of be like, well, it’s all about human behavior, and this is more about I’m very not left brain. Yeah.

Seth [00:12:49]:

You got to think outside the box a lot. It’s kind of fun. It’s fun, but it’s scary because you got to think out of the box, oh, I could do this. Now, is that a shiny object or is that something I should actually do now? Kind of thing?

Katrina [00:12:59]:

That’s the struggle, right? Am I distracting myself with just tasks or is this really value add to the business overall, I think is one of those things that you struggle with.

Seth [00:13:11]:

So what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time?

Katrina [00:13:14]:

Oh, God. A good attitude. Yeah, I noticed. So on another episode, someone said growth mindset. I fully believe that, but I also believe that that’s sort of part of a good attitude.

Seth [00:13:25]:

You have to have good attitude because if you don’t, it’s going to bring you down and make you even worse of a coworker for yourself.

Katrina [00:13:32]:

Exactly. Because you only have you, and then.

Seth [00:13:35]:

Your cats are not going to want to be around you. Your partner is not going to want to be around you because you’re all blue. Having a good attitude. Even in the downtimes, I feel like you just got to say, all right, it’s a little down. Now we got this. What goes down, goes up. What goes up, goes down. It’s a cynical thing. So I love that attitude. Love that.

Katrina [00:13:54]:

Well, and starting over the summer also. I knew it would be slow just because it is the summer. It’s been good.

Seth [00:14:00]:

Footing your footing in there. Don’t jump in. So overtly ambitiously. Don’t jump in. Feel out the few networking events out there. Because once September comes, it’s going to be nuts.

Katrina [00:14:12]:

Full on. Yes, full on.

Seth [00:14:13]:

Get Katrina out there showing pictures of her cats.

Katrina [00:14:19]:

I’ve not done that at a networking event. But maybe I should.

Seth [00:14:23]:

Well, that’s great. So, Katrina, where can people find you? Is it just your name? Yes. Your name?

Katrina [00:14:28]:

It’s my name, and I’m on LinkedIn.

Seth [00:14:30]:

That’s where you hang out mostly online.

Katrina [00:14:32]:

It is. Professionally, yes.

Seth [00:14:35]:

Yeah. So that’s where you can connect. We’ll have all the links in the show notes. And guess what? We’ll see everyone next time. That was a great show. If you’re enjoying entrepreneurs Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the Marketing Podcast Network at Marketingpodcast Network. Goldstein Media hopes you have enjoyed this episode. This podcast is one of the many great shows on the MPN Marketing Podcast Network.