Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristin Harper.
Hi Kristin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
For as far back as I can remember, I had two areas of passion: 1) growing businesses and brands, and 2) developing people.
After a lucrative 20-year corporate career successfully leading some of the world’s most iconic global brands, I felt restless. I knew that I could use my gifts and experiences to make a bigger impact on businesses, brands, and people. With the support of my husband, family, and an unwavering faith, I took the leap into full-time entrepreneurship in November 2019 and haven’t looked back.
My original plan was to do keynote speaking and training based on my book, The Heart of a Leader: 52 Emotional Intelligence Insights to Advance Your Career. But it was 2020, and God had other plans. The pandemic abruptly altered my vision. So, I went back to the drawing board.
At the beginning of COVID-19, a call with a former vendor turned friend and mentor, changed everything.
Semi-retired at the time, Kaylie Dugan was CEO of Imaginologie for 20 years, a market research firm specializing in ethnography research for Fortune 500 companies and agencies. In fact, we met in 2007 when I was a young Brand Manager at Procter & Gamble. I loved her work so much that I hired her when I went to Hershey’s and Cardinal Health.
Kaylie said, “I’ve never said this to anyone, but you could do what I did,” and the rest is history.
She’s now VP of Imaginologie, a division of Driven to Succeed, and together with our agile, dynamic team, we help Fortune 500 companies and leading brands deliver insightful market research and ideation.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I’m not sure that any business venture is a smooth road (LOL). That said, it’s been an exciting journey, and there haven’t been any obstacles and challenges that we haven’t overcome or learned from.
One of our first challenges was to define and refine our value proposition. While I don’t recommend this as a best practice, the truth is that I left my corporate job on pure, unadulterated faith. I didn’t have a business plan, just a belief in what was possible and a commitment from my publisher to release my new book in July 2020, The Heart of a Leader: 52 Emotional Intelligence Insights to Advance Your Career. My “plan” was to conduct speaking and training events; however, 2020 had a different plan for all of us. So, I went back to the drawing board.
Through a series of strategic analyses, dozens of discovery calls, and many iterations of our services and pitch deck, we landed on our core audience — Fortune 500 companies and leading brands — and services: market research; ideation; and speaking/training on leadership and EQ. It’s working! We even won a pitch competition.
Market research is traditionally conducted in person; however, the pandemic required a virtual solution. We quickly reimagined how to deliver high-impact qualitative research and brainstorming ideation through Zoom, while saving our clients time, money, and avoiding any compromise. By the way, qualitative (“qual”) research is talking to people, while quantitative (“quant”) research is data and analytics of surveys and other information collected at scale.
Another challenge was to effectively persuade prospective corporate clients that this wasn’t a “consulting gig in between jobs” or a one-woman show. Driven to Succeed is a fast-growing business enterprise that has scaled from a solopreneur to a team of 25 in less than a year and a half. Our certification as a WBENC and NMSDC-certified woman minority business enterprise further solidified our credibility, and our clients absolutely love that fact that we’ve walked a mile in their shoes. We quickly learn their business, speak their language, and are outcomes obsessed about helping them deliver business results while helping clients shine in the process.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Driven to Succeed, LLC?
Driven to Succeed has two divisions. First, we help Fortune 500 companies and leading brands deliver insightful market research and ideation in a fun, memorable way that leads to increased sales, profit, and share. Said really simply, we lead meaningful, empathetic conversations with people to help our client discover insights and ideas that can unlock growth.
I went from college intern to Global VP of a Fortune 20 company in my 30s and managed global iconic brands including Crest, Oral-B, and Hershey’s KISSES. Our team is deeply experienced, which empowers us to not only discover insights but more importantly to Translate Insights in ‘So What’ and ‘Now What.’™ What good is an insight if action doesn’t follow?
Since we’ve walked a mile in our clients’ shoes, we know that your time is precious. That’s why you won’t get any 50-page PowerPoint reports from us. Our qualitative research deliverables include a 6- to 8-page graphic report and a 10- to 15-minute video highlight reel of respondents speaking in their own words. In less than 30 minutes, senior leaders, cross-functional counterparts, and agency partners can get caught up on hours’ worth of research, saving valuable time and leading to a faster impact on the top and bottom line.
Our second division is providing speaking, training, and consulting to align business strategy and human capital to accelerate performance. People are at the core of every successful business. In short, we help brands grow, and people thrive.
Pricing:
- $28 The Heart of a Leader (also available on Amazon)
Contact Info:
- Email: info@DriventoSucceedLLC.com
- Website: https://www.DriventoSucceedLLC.com and https://www.KristinHarper.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DriventoSucceedLLC
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DriventoSucceedLLC
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCANZixAC1SrAsxe4-TAU_6Q
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/driven-to-succeed-llc/
