Katherine Lehman (Onfleet) - A Different Ballgame

Speaker 1: Maybe big data has gotten too big. Whether you're a B2B marketer or a consumer brand, your data needs to be viable, relevant, and accessible so that Stirista can help you retain customers, acquire customers, and make it personal.

Vin: Welcome to the Marketing Stir Podcast by Stirista, probably the most entertaining marketing podcast you're going to put in your ear. I'm Vin, the producer here at Stirista. The goal of this podcast is to chat with industry leaders and get their take on the current challenges of the market, and we'll have a little fun along the way. In today's episode, Katherine Lehman, director of marketing at Onfleet, chats with us about ways to make jobs easier for companies and staying transparent with consumers. Give it a listen.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Stirista's the Marketing Stir. I am your happy host, Vincent Pietrafesa, the Vice President of B2B Products& Partnerships here at Stirista and the Marketing Stir. Let's talk about Stirista just for a few seconds. We don't accept advertising on this podcast. I'm just going to talk about Stirista for a few seconds. We are a marketing technology company. We own our own business- to- business data, business- to- consumer data. We help companies access that data through our own technology to help them get new customers, our new customer's great. They are, and we can help. We have our own DSP called Aster. We could do display connected TV, connected TV rising in the B2B world, ladies and gentlemen, also OTT. Email me at vincent @ stirista.com. That is how confident I am. I just gave you my email address. And, boy, do you use it, all of our amazing listeners. 90% of the time, it's not for what I intended to be. But that's okay. You're listening. You're responding. You're coming up to me at conferences. That's so cool. We were just recently at a conference and about a handful, five, six people, I listen to you all the time. I love you and Ajay. And I, of course, ask, " Well, who's your favorite?" And they usually save me, ladies and gentlemen. And the reason I'll say that on air is because my co- host, my commander in chief here, at Stirista, he's unable to join today. So I could say that. Let's talk about him for a while. No. I would never do that. He'd probably listen into the episode just to make sure I did not talk about him. But it's great to be back. Keep getting out there, people, and going to those trade shows, those small events. Host your own small event. We find here at Stirista, of course, we're going to some of the trade shows. We're just at Ramp Up. I think we are also going to some event for brand innovators, but hosting those little events, getting out there. I just went to out to a ranger's game and saw some clients. It's great just to do that. And spring is here. It's get out there. No matter where you live, there's probably some decent weather coming in Spring, who knows? It certainly is here in New York City. I'm excited. I'm not excited that Ajay's not here because I enjoy having him. But I am excited to have this next guest, ladies and gentlemen. She's hailing from all the way up in Buffalo, New York. Now Buffalo, I went to school in Oswego. We often took trips to Buffalo. Buffalo Bills are actually my second favorite team behind the New York Giants because I went to school there. I have a lot of friends there. And I can't wait for you to hear our interview and chat because it's a very interesting company, Onfleet. Ladies and gentlemen, Onfleet, who are they? Well, we'll find out in a moment. Please warm welcome the director of Digital marketing, Katherine Lehman. What's going on, Katherine?

Katherine Lehman: Hi. Thanks so much for having me.

Vincent Pietrafesa: It's great to have you. We always like to give and scare the guest with an intro like that. We get really excited and people are like, " Are you always like that?" I'm like, " I am. It drives my wife crazy. It drives my CEO crazy." So yeah, this is me all the time, Katherine. This is why I need peaceful things in my life like yoga. We'll talk about that later on. But it's so good to have you here. Buffalo Bills fan, you must be, right?

Katherine Lehman: Of course.

Vincent Pietrafesa: They're doing great. They're doing great. Josh Allen needs to step up in the playoffs a little bit more.

Katherine Lehman: Yeah, a little bit.

Vincent Pietrafesa: A little bit. Something happens to him in the playoffs. He listens to this podcast, so I'm sure he will email me at vincent @ stirista. com. He does not. Maybe a Josh Allen does, but not that Josh Allen. Katherine, let's get right into it. I enjoyed our chats already when I met you. Talk to us and my listeners here about Onfleet, what the company does and your role within the organization.

Katherine Lehman: Yeah. Of course, Onfleet is a last- mile delivery management software platform. So basically, we help businesses with their deliveries. So we're not the couriers. We're not the one doing the deliveries, but we're all the magic that goes into the software behind it, so everything from tracking the deliveries, communicating with the drivers, the customers, and really helping companies scale their operations. So it's based on a web- based dispatcher dashboard where you can see everything going on, where all your trucks are, and how all those deliveries are being managed, and all of those customer notifications and the real- time tracking. And then, there's a driver app that is super easy to use, that you can talk directly to the customer, " Hey, I'm at your driveway, and something's blocked," or you can talk back to your dispatcher, " Hey, there's something wrong. I need help," anything like that. All that communication's really easy to use. The drivers can go through and find where their next delivery is. And this technology is so important. It's often something we don't really think about. You get that text message, " Hey, your delivery's on the way." You don't really think about what's behind that. This is the technology behind all of that. So we have huge customers all over the country, all over the world, and everything from grocery, retail, medical pharmacy, even building materials like construction materials. They have to go from point A to point B. And you need to know where they are all the way into cannabis. And some of our largest customers include names like Kroger, Total Wine& More, even United Supermarkets. So my role is within the marketing team. So I lead all of marketing operations, everything from content, event strategy, digital ad spend. Pretty much anything marketing runs through me. So we manage our internal team, our external team, making all that marketing magic work together so that everyone knows about Onfleet and knows what Onfleet can do for their business.

Vincent Pietrafesa: And thanks for that breakdown. And one of the reasons we wanted to talk to you and Onfleet because of how important it's always been, but the importance of getting stuff to you and shipped, especially these last few years. We'll get to that in a moment. I want to get dig deep Onfleet, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask one of our staple questions that people love hearing is how'd you get started in marketing to begin with? Was it a straight path, which is very rare or was it another path that got you there?

Katherine Lehman: There were very few people I've met that ended up in marketing and actually started in marketing.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Exactly.

Katherine Lehman: And I'm no exception to that rule. I actually started in graphic design. I had a passion for art. I really wanted to get into graphic design. But I think I really had some left/ right brain conflict going on because my backup career choice was an accountant because I love numbers, and I love data, and I love digging into that kind of stuff. But we'll stick with it. We went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, which is now a defunct university, and studied graphic design. And it wasn't so much what I studied there, but the people I met there. So I was actually hired by my professor when I was in school to run his social media account for his business. And this was before social media marketing was even a thing. Facebook was still young. He actually had me set up a group for him to promote his business before pages were even a thing, if you remember back that far. So he hired me for social media because he's like, " Hey, you're really good at this. I think you could help me." And he was my first client. And I said, " Wow, I am actually really good at this because I'm looking at the numbers, looking at the conversations." And he is like, " I think you have a future in marketing." And I'm like, " But I'm here for design." So got my degree, left, came out of it during that big recession. There are no design jobs anywhere, anywhere, anywhere. I took a design job at a print house that loved the people, but really wasn't fulfilling my passions. And then, I realized I could lean into that social experience because everybody wanted to do social. Everybody wanted to get in on this new thing where you could talk to people at a moment's notice. Everybody was on Facebook. So I left for a B2C job, started getting into event management, trade shows, events, just like you were just talking about, health fairs. It was actually for a running store. So I really got involved in the health and fitness industry and that B2C world. And as I was learning and gaining skills and things like that, I was like, " Yeah, I really love marketing," but I kind of want to step away from being that deeply involved in the sales side of it. I really wanted to focus on the strategy portion. And that led me to a job in running marketing for my first B2B company. So it was a B2B company in chemicals, waterproofing, construction, all that kind of stuff in the sciences really. And I ran three different divisions out of there, just really getting my feet wet in my first full- time marketing all the time role. And I loved it. The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn, the more data I got into. I was really what I call skill hoarding. I'm a hungry learner, so I was like, " Everything I learned, I wanted to learn something new." And I just kept pushing it more and more, which led me into my next role also in the sciences. But this time in more of the physics space and engineering space, was working aerospace and defense, automotive, completely different demographic. But the beauty of it was all those marketing principles went with it. It was still strategy. It was still learning your customer. So I really discovered how much I loved all the different pieces of marketing. It's like a beautiful puzzle. There's a million different pieces and you can bring it all together. And it also helped me discover as I was learning those skills, how much I love teaching other people those skills and leading other people to be amazing too. So that's kind of what drew me to the leadership portion of it. I wanted to share what I knew with other people and help build these amazing teams that could get stuff done. So that was kind of my progression into the marketing director role. A lot of skill collecting, a lot of changing places, and then just keep moving up and up and learning more and more.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Well, we're a couple that we're glad you chose marketing over accounting. And, yeah, you would've been the coolest, most creative accountant because your background in graphic design. So great choice. And I love that you're part of the B2B side. I'm all B2B. Well, welcome. I think we're cool over here on the B2B side.

Katherine Lehman: It's a different ballgame, for sure.

Vincent Pietrafesa: No, it definitely is. And a lot of people, it's like, " Well, it's B2B business to business," but it's like, " Yeah, but they're also humans involved." You're talking to a human. And he or she's the one who influences that decision and its people. So yeah, I think it's just as cool as consumer B2C. We do love our B2C podcast guest as well, but I like talking B2B. That's my world. So Katherine, Onfleet, what drew you there? And also how do they separate themselves from their competitors?

Katherine Lehman: So I joined Onfleet actually as a contractor during the pandemic. So I was working for my previous role full time. And I got that taste for contract work from my first client, which was my teacher. And I've always kept up with it. So I've always kept up with side clients, doing a little design here, little marketing here, strategy, whatever was needed. And I'm an expert in Pardot, which is now marketing account engagement through Salesforce. So I was consulting on the Pardot instance for Onfleet. They found me through a recruiter, hired me part- time to kind of help them out with their instance. And then, the only marketing employee there at the time, the previous director of marketing knew of my other skills. And the more she knew, the more she wanted my whole skill basket instead of just that one piece of it. So when she was ready to expand her team for another marketing employee, she offered the opportunity to me. I was ready for a change at that time. So I was looking at a couple different offers. But what really drove it home that Onfleet was going to be my home was the team and the culture. And everybody always says that, " Oh, it's great culture. It's a great culture. It's a great culture." Onfleet is the only company I've ever worked for where they own that. They really mean it when they say culture. From our three founders all the way down to every employee, we celebrate our personal successes. We celebrate the professional successes. And we're really transparent with each other about how we feel, how things are affecting us and how to be a whole person. And that is really meaningful. You spend a third of your life at work. So you don't want to be miserable at work. That culture is really, really important. And that's really what drew me in and kind of drove it home. I love startup. I love the feeling of a startup, all of that passion, all of that fire. You're flying along in a million miles an hour making all these changes. I love that. I love software. And I love all of that technology. So it seemed like a natural place to be. Plus, they have an amazing product. We have an amazing product. And all of those happy customers, especially during the pandemic, there was a real need in the market for an easy delivery solution for all of these companies who woke up one day and all they had was delivery. Your business is going to go under if you don't deliver, boom. Onfleet is right there, easy to use product, and a bunch of happy customers saying, " Oh my God, you saved my business." Who wouldn't want to be a part of that? So it really was super easy. And that is part of what differentiates Onfleet from its competitors. We have kind of this social burden nowadays where we want to do business with companies that are good companies. You don't want to be caught in the next scandal when your business does something crazy. You want to be with a good company and a good business. And that part of that is Onfleet making things easy. If something is easy, you're going to do it. If something is really difficult, you might get to it eventually, but you're probably going to put it off as long as possible. And when you're using something like Google Maps or basic GPS navigation and spreadsheets and manifests and all these other things to plan all your deliveries, that's not efficient. That's not scalable. You can't sit there and plan. Yeah, if you've got five deliveries, you can do it. If you've got 500 deliveries or your growth plan includes 5000 deliveries, you can't afford to sit there in front of Google Maps. So we make it easy for your business to get bigger. We get bigger with you. We keep scaling with you, giving you more features, giving you bigger plans, helping making your business grow. And that's really what makes us different, is that easy- to- use route optimization. Our driver app is one of the highest in the industries. You can get set up in driving on that driver app in 10 minutes. That's unheard of. I have a lot of drivers in my family that love the old school way of doing stuff. If I hand them the Onfleet app and they can understand it in 10 minutes, that's a huge win. Drivers are hard to keep. So drivers switch jobs all the time going on to the next big thing. So if you can keep your drivers happy, man, that's going to keep your business in business. So all of that kind of packages it together. But the bottom line is it's just easy to use. It's easy to use. It's pretty to look at. It doesn't look like Microsoft Excel from Windows 95. It looks nice. It's got good UI, good UX, really easy to use. And all of those features that are packed in there are smart. They're made to make your life easier and your customer's life easier. And if your customer's having a good experience, they're going to stay with you. They're going to stay a customer. That's what you need. So that's what Onfleet does differently.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Exactly. Right. And I like the way you laid that out. Also, Katherine, talk to us about, so digital marketing, social as well, a lot of times a technology company, it's like how do you make social fun? What are some of the social campaigns that you're currently working on? And then, another part of that question is, are you marketing to the organizations that need this service or the drivers? Who are you marketing to? So talk to me about some of the social. How do you make this type of B2B marketing in the digital world and social fun and effective? And then your marketing initiatives, who are you marketing to?

Katherine Lehman: Yeah. I would say our marketing initiatives that we're working to, we've got our ICPs, our ideal customer personas. And those are people who are doing deliveries with their own fleet, but they're struggling to be efficient. So gas prices go up. Changes happen all the time. And you need to be more efficient, especially now. People are more than ever focused on that bottom line, that dollar. You hear it in the news all the time, oh, the economic climate here, there, everywhere, all doom and gloom about money going away, things like that. So as a business owner, you're thinking, " How am I going to make this more efficient for my business and continue growing?" So that's kind of our customer. Small medium business owners, even enterprise level clients who are operating a lot of deliveries, those are the people we want to talk to. We want to make their jobs easier. We want to make sure that their dispatchers are empowered, and they can take care of their customers. A lot of times, you hear of these companies going to third party apps and not having a great experience because there's a lot of fees. There's no transparency. If you have an issue with an order, you can't figure out who to talk to because it's through a third party. You lose all control over the process and part of your brand during that system. So if you're using a third- party app but you have your own drivers, you might have an opportunity to turn Onfleet and immediately have a better customer experience. So those are the people we want to attract. People that are operating their own fleets or they have a courier network, something like that. If you're moving goods from one place to an end customer and need that transaction optimized, you're a good candidate for Onfleet. And that's everywhere from enterprise level like Kroger down to the cannabis dispensaries that inaudible across the United States. So as far as the social portion of that goes, it goes back to what you said, marketing is a conversation. So you're still talking to people. So you have to catch their attention. you have to get their interest. And then, you have to take them through something that's meaningful to them. So if we're standing up here talking about ourselves, like Onfleet does wrapped optimization. Onfleet does dispatching. Onfleet does customer communication. That might not resonate with you because it doesn't solve your problem. If your problem is your drivers are driving really inefficient route, eating up gas money, eating up mileage, putting wear and tear on those vehicles, taking long times to deliver the items on the list, that's all impacting you. So you want to save money. You want to save fuel. You want to be more efficient. You want to cut down on driver time. You have to speak to what's in it for the customer and what's in it for the person in order for that conversation to be meaningful. No one really wants to hear your entire benefit list. They want to hear what the benefit is for them. So if you make it a conversation about it, it's more interesting that way. And then on top of that, making them feel like they're part of something bigger also helps. So for actual social initiatives that we run, we have an Onfleet Offset program. So if you're environmentally conscious worried about, " Oh, all these deliveries are putting CO2 in the atmosphere," companies have the option to sign up for Onfleet Offset where we're offsetting all of those deliveries and reducing their carbon footprint. So that says, " Oh, this is a great company. They care about things like this. This is the kind of company I want to be associated with." Even on the cannabis side, our social equity program's around giving discounts to people who are negatively impact from social injustices around cannabis. So we support those groups as well because it's important. It's important to do that work. And it's important to back it up at a company level. You can't just say, " Oh, I'm a conscious company." You back it up with real steps to make that action. And we do that internally on our team too. We have a program called Bright Funds. So every month, we pick a new company to donate to. And the employees donate. So it's everything from Black Girls Code to the Ukraine Fund, earthquake relief, whatever the topic is of the month. Employees have the opportunity to donate to and make a difference. So we aren't just saying it. We're living it.

Vincent Pietrafesa: That's amazing. And like you said before, it's helping in those areas. Also creating the right culture and the laying the foundation of a company that's also making change not only socially but for the environment as well. That's fantastic. Let's brag a little bit, Katherine. So 2022, Deloitte technology, fast 500 list, and a lot of that during the pandemic where stress... pats are back too, where we were able to grow during that time as well. Talk to us about what you attribute to that success during that time? What was that like?

Katherine Lehman: Yeah. I would say it was a lot of the rapid adoption of the market. Literally, people woke up the next morning. And everything was shut down and that is terrifying. I'm a business owner. And I can't imagine waking up and having the complete way that I do business change overnight. And all of a sudden, you can't reach people. People are not coming into your store. They're not coming into your restaurant. They're not coming into your grocery store. How do you reach those people? And everywhere you're hearing, " Oh, delivery is what you need to do. Great. Where are you going from there?" How do you find a partner that you can trust? So I think Onfleet's success was really made because we had this product already. We were ready for it. We knew delivery was growing. We knew this was going to be a huge future for America and the world. Everybody wants things delivered. So we were in a great position with all of that already built out to just jump into the conversation and say, " Here, we have the answer. We have the solution. Even better, it's going to be easy. It's going to be fast, and we can get you set up at no time." So our sales and our interest spiked overnight because the market needed it. We were able to meet that need and meet it in a way that was meaningful and actually worked. So it's one thing to have a product that meets the need. It's another to have it actually work. So we were able to build that platform around it. We had a bunch of COVID initiatives that we launched at the same time, job boards to help match up drivers with jobs, really worked to make sure that people were seeing us and knowing that they could come to us for that solution. So they all needed to streamline their operations overnight. We were right there to get in there. And then as the pandemic went away, we didn't go away. A lot of those companies stayed on with us. They continued growing with us. And now, we had the opportunity to expand even more through our partnership network. So the companies that might not want to do delivery anymore, but they still want to be involved with us, sometimes, they get involved in a partnership aspect instead. And then, we keep building that network up and up and reinvesting in ourselves and our technology and keep helping people everywhere we can.

Vincent Pietrafesa: And I love hearing that. And then, it kind of leads me to this next question. What's new with the company? Any exciting news coming out? Are you expanding in other markets? Is that safe thing to say you're already in some markets but you're expanding? Is that on the horizon?

Katherine Lehman: I wouldn't say that it's a focus for us right now to expand. We are a global company. We are in over 90 countries. There's lots of them actively in process right now. Our marketing focus is more North America based and European countries. Those are the bulk of where our people are. But we also operate a global team. We have representation in every single time zone from just our remote team because we are a fully remote team. So it's always been a global focus for us to make sure that people are getting the solution they need for delivery. So it's hard to say like, " No, we're not planning on expanding," but we're already everywhere. So where inaudible

Vincent Pietrafesa: You're like, " Wait, I don't need to expand because I'm already everywhere." Yeah, you're right. That's a good thing to say. It's like, " Where to? Where do I need to expand to?" But that's-

Katherine Lehman: I mean we can try to deliver to the moon, but that seems like it's a little far off. I heard the inaudible up there are pretty expensive. So-

Vincent Pietrafesa: Very, very expensive. Yes.

Katherine Lehman: As far as company news goes.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Company news, yes.

Katherine Lehman: Yeah. We just were at Manifest and announced our new tiered partnership program. So we've had a partnership program for a long time. Now, we're putting the focus in it. So we have a three- tiered partnership program for different types of partnerships, our channel program and referral program. We have strategic partnerships. And then, we have technology and integration partnerships. So those integration partnerships are really amazing because it allows us to plug in one kind of unsigned fact about Onfleet that everyone loves, is we have an open API so we can integrate with anybody, but some of those native integrations that we're now able to build directly with big partners intent. We're announcing a big one this month. Those big partnerships are going to make it even easier for everybody to do business with us. So you're going to see us in the Square marketplace, and you can just click on, " Oh, I want my deliveries optimized by Onfleet." And then it makes it easier than ever. Whoop, threw that out. Easier than ever to offer delivery to your customers, whether you're a small guy or a big guy. So that's a great program that we are really excited about because it's going to enable us to offer more to our current customers and talk to more people about what we do.

Vincent Pietrafesa: And thanks for sharing that. Then, by the time this episode comes out, it'll already be out in news. So that'll be great. Katherine, talk to me about there's a few things that our listeners want to know. It's our staple question. You seem very nice. So I'm anxious to hear what bothers you piece of this question. It's our LinkedIn question, director of digital marketing. You're probably getting solicited on LinkedIn with a lot of messages. What's a message that resonates with you that you'll respond to? And what's one that you hate? What is a pet peeve of that part of LinkedIn?

Katherine Lehman: So I would say the pet peeve one that immediately comes to mind, and I've actually written some posts about this is a sales tactic. I hate this so much. When people send you a connection request and it'll say something like, " Oh, I really like your content. Let's connect," or they'll just say, " Let's connect." There's no personalization to it. It's really just a casual one. That doesn't bother me as much as what happens next. So if I see they're interested in marketing or there's something cool about them and I want to connect with them, I accept a lot of connections I probably shouldn't, but I just click the accept button. And the very next message I get is a sales pitch. So LinkedIn is a lovely, lovely platform for networking. And they even have amazing advertising tools. And this is not props to my LinkedIn team that I love working with. You can send sales messages via Messenger. You have to pay for it. But there's a place for that. And you should do that because at least then I get it and I know it's a sales message. And I get really disappointed when someone I think is super interesting, contacts me and says, " Hey, let's chat about something, or, I really liked your content." I'm like, " Oh, yay. You really like my content. I'm so glad it resonated with you." And then, it's immediately a sales pitch. And I'm like, " You're not being genuine." That's not good. That's not good marketing. Don't do that, please. That's definitely not something I enjoy. As far as the ones that I do enjoy, I have had some amazing conversations with people. Usually, after I give a panel on Pardot, people will talk to me about, " Hey, I'm at this point in my career. Can you point me in the right direction, or can you share this, or can you help me do a little more networking? Is there anybody you would recommend I'd follow?" People who are asking genuinely because they want to get better. I love getting those messages from people because at my core, I am a helper, and I really like to help people. And sometimes, it is really hard. It's a loud place. There's so much going on. There's so much in social. It's hard to know where to go next and to find good information. So even if I can just drip them a little bit of information and say, " Hey, yeah, I can connect you to this person. They're a great resource for it. Check out their content," might get you in the right direction. Love being able to do that. Those are the kinds of connections I like having.

Vincent Pietrafesa: No. That's good advice. That is my pet peeve on LinkedIn. And people have heard me say it before. You know what sometimes gets me? It's like, yes, the vagueness of a message like, " Oh man, I'd love to be part of your network." I'm like, " Well, my network is special because I disallow certain people in." And I really try to get to know most of the people in my network. That's actually true. But then sometimes, Katherine, when you get one where it's like, I think 15 to 20 common connections, that's what gets me all the time. And I'm like, that's the number where I'm like, " Oh, I have 15 involved." That's safe. And I accept it. It's like, " Boom, Vincent, would you like, bah, bah, bah?" And I'm like, "Oh, you got me." You did the old bait and switch, the old bait and switch. I said, " Oh, I should never..." So I always advise people if there's like 15 to 20 people in common, it should be more. It should be more. And now, Katherine's telling you the vagueness. Don't hit her with that vagueness. Don't hit me with that vagueness.

Katherine Lehman: Yeah. Please, don't give me that vagueness.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Don't give me that vagueness.

Katherine Lehman: Tell me what you're about, straight up.

Vincent Pietrafesa: That's the name of this episode. Folks, don't give me that vagueness. So Katherine, get to know you personally besides being a Buffalo Bills fan, a fourth- degree black belt in Pardot. What else you're doing up there beside... Is like three nice months right of the year in Buffalo. I'm kidding. What else are some of your hobbies? What are you doing on your spare time?

Katherine Lehman: And during those three months, I'll probably be in a kayak. That's where you're going to find me most of the time. But my hashtag against pretty much all of my socials is all the things, because with that hungry learning personality that I have, I haven't really met a hobby I don't like yet. And my bad habit is I had this pointed out to me by a friend. My bad habit is turning my hobbies into businesses. So it was, " Oh, I like gardening." Next thing you know, I'm hybriding lilies and opening a farm stand. You can actually see my garden wall behind me if you look at inaudible

Vincent Pietrafesa: Oh, yeah. The crosshatch thing there. I live in New York City. So I'm like, " Is that a crosshatch thing?" What's a garden? What? It's a lawn. Yeah.

Katherine Lehman: Yeah. I live in on an old farm. So I have a lot of space here. But even from my own personal journey into wellness and fitness, I really loved yoga. And I became a yoga teacher because I loved yoga so much. It brought me so much joy. I wanted to share that with other people. And I started teaching meditation. And naturally, that turned into a business. And I started Kinetic Wellness, my side consulting. I loved Pardot. I loved working in it. It turned into KT Creativity, which is another consultancy.

Vincent Pietrafesa: That's awesome.

Katherine Lehman: So I love being in nature. I love being outside. I love being active, trying new stuff, going to music festivals, just enjoying life. I have a family as well, so they keep me busy. It's just a little bit of everything. So I'm always on the go. I'm always moving. And I just love traveling and seeing new things and experiencing as much as possible. And I actually think it makes me a better marketer because I am exposed to so many different networks and experiences. And I can always bring that back. You'll always talk to marketers and you know they're a true marketer because they'll say their marketing brain never turns off. And when you bring it all back together, so I can be in the middle of teaching a class and have a brilliant thought and bring it back into marketing, or I can have a beautiful experience out in the kayak and have an awesome thought and bring it back to marketing. So it all kind of connects in together and kind of makes all of my experiences richer. So I just stay really, really busy.

Vincent Pietrafesa: Yeah. No. I like that. I feel you. We always love on this podcast. We've talked to a lot of marketers who, a lot of them have different hustles and different things involved. People from this podcast know about, I'm a corporate emcee, and I'm a standup comedian at night. And so my mind, also... My mind's always on thinking of any situation I go to, always writing in that sense. And also, it's those things where I sometimes need to turn it off. And that's why you and I were talking about how I'm getting back into yoga and how I just did acupuncture for the first time, and it was amazing. I was like, " What is this lady going to do with those needles?" And it's amazing. And I feel better for it. Ajay makes fun of me. I'm getting older, and my sciatica hurts. I'm like, " What?" I thought that was something that people in their 80s said. But it's a real thing. And so I'm just getting really into the wellness aspect and the... It's just the focus. It's just because I'm always on, it seems like, the mind and everything. So it's good to do that. So I could see that. But I'd love that you're turning those into business, your passion's into business. Katherine, last thought, anything you want to leave us with a closing thought about you, about marketing, about Onfleet? The floor is yours.

Katherine Lehman: Yeah. Absolutely. My network is open. Like I said, I accept a lot of people on LinkedIn. So if you want to chat, feel free to find me. You can find me on LinkedIn at KT Creativity. That's my little IN handle. But my closing thought for everyone, and that goes in marketing, in life pretty much everywhere, is to just be as genuine as you can. We talked about it a little bit earlier. But we have enough people out there faking it. And I'm not talking about the fake it till you make it, because that's a whole different story. I'm talking about the people who are just out there faking it to do whatever. Be as authentic as you can. It's only when we are authentic and genuine and let that voice shows through supporting the products and pursuits that you actually get genuinely excited about. That's when it matters. That's when it makes a difference. So if you can find a company that you're passionate about. Find a pursuit that you're really happy with, and be genuinely excited to work with them and to work with that. It's easy. And then, life's just the dream. Everybody's chasing the dream. The dream is not far away. It's when you choose to be happy and genuine with what you got right in front of you.

Vincent Pietrafesa: I love it. We loved having you on,, Katherine. Great words of wisdom. Check out Onfleet, ladies and gentlemen. Check out Katherine Lehman. She's the director of digital marketing there at Onfleet. This has been the Marketing Stir. I'm Vincent Pietrafesa. Ajay Gupta is with us in spirit. Thank you so much for listening. And we'll talk to you soon.

Vin: Thanks for listening to the Marketing Stir Podcast by Stirista. Please, like, rate and subscribe. If you're interested in being a guest on the podcast, please, email us at the marketingstir @ stirista. com. And thanks for listening.