[Top Agency Series] Conquering Challenges in Workforce and Agency Growth With Katie Schibler Conn

Katie Schibler Conn is the Founder of KSA Marketing, an integrated advertising agency specializing in workforce development, recruitment, and advertising for talent acquisitions. A classically trained marketer, she unexpectedly transitioned from her corporate role at Sony and PlayStation to international yak farming, eventually leading to her starting her agency. At KSA, Katie leverages her diverse experiences to help clients navigate “oh shit” moments and achieve their “hell yeah” through impactful marketing strategies. An alumna of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, her leadership has been acknowledged by Inc. 5000, Enterprising Women, and Providence Business News.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [04:29] Katie Schibler Conn discusses how KSA Marketing helps clients overcome their “oh shit” moments to achieve success
• [07:16] The importance of workforce development in connecting people with career opportunities
• [11:47] How culture and shared values play a crucial role in talent acquisition and retention
• [17:20] Common mistakes companies make in the interview process and how to avoid them for better hiring
• [18:51] Katie talks about KSA’s playful and authentic culture that helps maintain team cohesion and performance
• [21:34] Insights on managing a business that has both in-person and remote staff
• [26:57] Katie’s daring decision to travel the world and how it inadvertently helped kickstart her agency
• [36:32] The initial stages of KSA Marketing’s growth and the evolution of its services over the years
• [43:32] Tools and tech stack that have streamlined KSA Marketing’s processes and collaborations

In this episode…

Have you ever faced an “oh shit” moment in your business or career? Imagine scaling mountains, staying in hostels, and even farming yaks in Mongolia, bringing back stories that redefine the trajectory of your professional life. What could a retired yak farmer possibly teach us about marketing, workforce development, and creating an agency culture that kicks ass?

Marketing expert Katie Schibler Conn dives into how turning high-pressure moments into compelling stories propelled the foundation and growth of her marketing agency. She discusses the importance of aligning a company’s culture with its values to aid in talent acquisition and retention effectively. She also reflects on her previous career leaps, from overseeing high-profile accounts like PlayStation to farming yaks, and how these experiences shaped her approach to risk-taking and marketing. Katie reveals the practices that make her agency’s culture irresistible to her team and the vital tools and resources that have helped her manage and scale KSA Marketing.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Katie Schibler Conn, Founder of KSA Marketing, about building a successful agency and cultivating a positive workplace culture. Katie discusses how KSA Marketing helps clients overcome their “oh shit” moments and succeed, the importance of workforce development in connecting people with career opportunities, and how culture and shared values impact talent acquisition and retention.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Katie Schibler Conn on LinkedIn
• KSA Marketing

Special Mention(s):

• Second Bite Podcast
• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman
• What the Heck Is EOS?: A Complete Guide for Employees in Companies Running on EOS by Gino Wickman

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Growth Through Acquisitions – What is Your KPI and Northstar? With Jason Swenk” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Building a Great Team and More Helpful Insights with Jason Swenk Host of The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Sweet Process Series] How to Save Hundreds of Hours a Month Using Top Productivity Tools with Adi Klevit of Business Success Consulting Group” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Leading with Passion with Gino Wickman Founder of EOS Worldwide” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable Moments:

• “We help clients go from ‘oh shit’ to ‘hell yeah,’ and we do that with results that kick some ass.”
• “A career is a living, breathing thing, and we’re really passionate about connecting people to opportunity.”
• “Having open conversations about values is more important than any technical skills an employee can have.”
• “If you don’t show up as your genuine self, you fail.”
• “Everyone should go into an interview with questions, and if you don’t, it shows you haven’t done your homework.”

Action Steps:

1. Encourage open and honest communication during the hiring process to ensure cultural alignment: This increases transparency and fosters a strong organizational culture.
2. Prioritize defining and embedding genuine company values across the organization: It’s the cornerstone for building a shared community that attracts and retains talent organically.
3. Leverage integrated advertising campaigns and targeted messaging to tap into specific talent pools: This precision helps in avoiding a scattergun approach in talent acquisition.
4. Regularly assess technological tools and systems to optimize internal processes and external engagements: Keeping up with tech is vital in running efficient and productive operations.
5. Utilize platforms such as Traction’s EOS and professional development programs to enhance leadership skills: Continuous learning equips leaders with strategies to scale effectively and navigate growth challenges.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01 

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22 

Dr Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today, is no different. I have Katie Schibler Conn of teamksa.com. Katie, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes people should check out of the podcast, since this is part of the top agency series, a good one I did with Jason Swank, who we both know, and that’s how we met. Jason runs an amazing group of agency owners. He talked about how he built up his agency to eight figures and sold it. And then also, a separate episode, how another company is working, doing work with is buying up agencies. And so we talked about the valuation the agency space entrepreneurship. Those are good episodes.

Also, I did an episode with Todd Taskey. So Todd Taskey, Katie, I don’t know if you know Todd, but he runs a Second Bite Podcast. He pairs agencies with private equity, and he helps sell agencies. And it’s called the Second Bite Podcast, because he’s found when he’s working with private equity and selling agencies, sometimes the agency owner makes more on the second bite than they do on the first because they sell the private equity. Private Equity then sells again in a couple years, and they’ll roll equity into that new entity. So it’s a very interesting interview as well. Another fan favorite, Adi Klevit, she does done-for-you SOPs, so we geeked out on I think you’ll like this one, Katie productivity, our favorite productivity tools, software and everything like that. So that was a fun one. Check them out on inspiredinsider.com.

This episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. And how do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. And we do the strategy, the accountability and the full execution. So we call ourselves kind of Katie, the magic gals that run in the background and make it look easy so the host can create amazing content, create amazing relationships, and, most importantly, focus on running their business. For me, the number one thing in my life is relationships, and I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships, and I found no better way, over the past decade, to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you thought about podcasting, you should give questions. You can go to rise25.com or email us at [email protected].

I’m excited to introduce Katie Schibler Conn. She’s the founder of KSA Marketing. KSA Marketing is an integrated advertising agency. They have expertise in workforce development, recruitment and advertising for talent acquisitions. We’ll get into some of those things. They serve higher education, government and rapidly growing clients. Katie has an interesting background as a classically trained marketer, but also a retired Yak farmer. Wasn’t expecting that. Probably she also was a Girl Scout troop leader. That’s on her resume, and interesting fun fact is, I think your daughter’s middle name is Danger. That’s pretty wild.

Katie Schibler Conn 3:25 

Correct.

Jeremy Weisz 3:26 

I was reading. I forgot what book it was. It was predictably irrational, or one, if it was a Dan Ariely book, but there was a book that talks about that there’s a higher percentage of people named Dennis who are dentists. Have you read this before? So people fulfill sometimes their name, so I’m not sure what your daughter’s like. If her middle name’s Danger.

Katie Schibler Conn 3:51 

She’s fulfilling her name. Like so this is not her first tour. She is strong, willed, opinionated, independent, climbing trees, always trying something new.

Jeremy Weisz 4:05 

We’ll have to talk about why Danger. But also they’ve served clients such as Pepsi, read mass hire and many, many more. So Katie, thanks for joining me.

Katie Schibler Conn 4:15 

Great. Thank you, Jeremy, excited to be here.

Jeremy Weisz 4:18 

Just start off with talking about KSA and what you do, and if people are listening to the audio, there’s a video, and we’re going to pull up her website here. So talk about KSA.

Katie Schibler Conn 4:29 

So KSA, I founded accidentally 14 years ago after retiring as a yak farmer. And so over the course of 14 years, our client base and our agency service has changed. So we have served big brands because I am that classically trained marketer, and because I’ve been classically trained, I look at marketing as iterative. Especially when you’re running advertising, it’s a series of experiments that are helping you understand what the right message is, who the right audience is. How do you deliver the right results? So we have served PepsiCo for 14 years on a global scale, and then over the course of the past seven years, really niche, down into workforce development, and that comes from a personal passion of wanting to see all people connect with on the path that’s going to lead them to fulfillment and prosperity. That may be a traditional path of going to a college degree, maybe going into skills training program we all have, and people will get into their careers and decide they want to switch.

So a career is a living, breathing thing, and we’re really passionate about connecting people to opportunity and then secondarily, getting our clients out of what we call the oh shit moment. So we like to say we help clients go from oh shit to Hell yeah, and we do that with results that kick some ass. So all of our clients come to us in an oh shit moment. What are some examples of that oh shit moment? In the early days, it might have been they had a big production, or they had a big, aggressive timeline, or they had a project they didn’t know how that, how they could reign and coordinate it. So more on the marketing enablement side, other aspects might be that there, for example, if someone’s only advertised on social media, and as cookies go away and all that tracking changes, they are not seeing the same performance and the same results.

Oftentimes, people are targeting too specifically or too broadly, and they’re not diversifying their media mix. So I’m a media nut. How do you crack that code and get out of oh shit, and that is really about having a goal and a clarity and running a series of experiments to get you closer and closer to what you define as hell yeah.

Jeremy Weisz 7:10 

Talk about workforce development for a second for people who aren’t as familiar with it.

Katie Schibler Conn 7:16 

Yeah. So I fell into this. Frankly, we had multiple clients that came to us several years ago. One was a registered apprenticeship program, and I had to learn about what it meant to be an apprentice. At the same time, we had started working with a university on their skills training programs. We’re in Rhode Island, so General Dynamics does a lot of shipbuilding and submarine building here. So the workforce itself needed more skilled workers, and as a result, the universities were building skills training programs to feed into those bigger employers. And then we also had a client that was a small client, manufacturing client, and they were having issues every time we went to meet with them, where their production floor and their processors were leaving and sort of going on strike.

And so I took a step back and said, okay, we’ve got three different clients sort of attacking the same problem in very different ways. What’s the common denominator? So how do you create demand and desire for people to want to work at a company and a career or pursue a certain path for employment or education? Is really no different than how you create demand and desire for a consumer brand like PepsiCo. It’s not something that you saw or Pepsi. It’s not something you solve overnight. You have to have a long-term plan, and you have to keep on making that progress and charting that progress.

Jeremy Weisz 8:57 

So it’s making the company attractive to retain and attract talent.

Katie Schibler Conn 9:06 

Yes, and it also might be creating an industry or career. So like you look at something like manufacturing, we all have biases about what manufacturing was. I grew up in the Rust Belt of Ohio. My hometown, my grandfather worked on the line at Ford, and aunts and uncles, and everybody was touch worked in manufacturing. But then that generation really wanted their kids to get a college education, so we pushed ever all of the nieces and nephews, and my family was pushed into college education, maybe not everyone was ready for it, or maybe that they’re not going to learn in that environment. When you take a step back and you look at what’s happened in manufacturing, we’ve had these perceptions that’s dark, dirty, dangerous, or if someone goes into the military straight after high school, that’s because they didn’t do well academically, and that is not the case.

So really, we have to shatter some of those dated perceptions and bring awareness to different careers and industries. We can all want a college education and want to succeed, but if you can’t thrive in an indoor environment, and that feels like you’re going to kill your soul every day showing up, then maybe you need more exposure to opportunities where it’s going to keep you connected to the outdoors.

Jeremy Weisz 10:39 

Yeah, that’s really interesting, because my perception of manufacturing is different, actually, when I think about it, just because my experiences, like, I picture like a polished concrete floor with like a plant and things coming off of it.

Katie Schibler Conn 10:53 

And it’s such a, if you’ve been in a modern manufacturing environment, then you’re spot on like that is a future, forward texture of an environment, and people need coding and they need math and they need science. But that isn’t necessarily what older generations perceive it as. So oftentimes parents are the barrier, or grandparents are the barriers to why so many people don’t pursue careers there, and you look at the student loan debt crisis, and it just sort of, we’ve got to unravel and unpack all of that.

Jeremy Weisz 11:29 

You mentioned workforce development, and one of those kind of the foundations that you talk about is culture. So talk a little about culture and how it impacts the recruiting, retention and the way you think about culture.

Katie Schibler Conn 11:47 

Well, number one is values. So if you don’t have the right culture and defined shared values as an organization, it’s extremely difficult to attract and retain the right employees and the employees that believe the same things that you believe. The culture starts and is felt. It’s like a living, breathing experience at an organization. And so a brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. And those two pieces are so intricately connected that oftentimes we see people that HR talent acquisition teams don’t have a seat at the table with marketing and advertising. And so these decisions around what brand values our organization, values our employer brands are being made either in silos, by a talent acquisition team or by a marketing team, and when we connect those two, and then we start creating that demand and desire and really cracking the code of why someone would want to be part of an organization, why they would want to consider a career, what those opportunities are.

Then we take those same values and sort of the target audiences, and we start running digital advertising campaigns. And through a series of advertising campaigns, we can start to correct the code on what messaging is motivating people to apply. Are these the right people, and then start tightening those targeting and unlock opportunities. We did a recruitment campaign for an urban school district where they needed more teachers of color that were speaking, that could speak and teach in multiple languages, because they have multilingual learners, or learners who are learning English for the first time. And there was no way to meet that demand locally, and running those recruitment campaigns and really structuring the right profile of who would be interested in those careers, we were able to attract career switchers, so people who don’t have traditional teaching degrees, but more than capable of it and could go through a training program.

So whether it was a NASA scientist looking for, like, the next step, where they wanted, meaning in their career. There are lots of people changing jobs and looking at different opportunities. How you create that connection and create that opportunity is so important.

Jeremy Weisz 14:33 

I can see how a very targeted campaign would attract someone. Are you a NASA scientist and you wanted to be a teacher? This is probably like a small group like, as you get really targeted, you can really speak directly to those people, not saying that was your only target.

Katie Schibler Conn 14:49 

It was like an apprenticeship program for the life and plant sciences or etymology or stuff like that, where people are outside in the woods. And you’ve got these people who have these passions that as maybe when they were kids, they were that kid that was digging around in the dirt and lifting up every rock to look at those bugs, and they forgot about those passions. And as we all know, you get tired and burnt out on a career, so the way that messaging can connect and sort of reinvigorate someone’s interest in opportunity, to me is that why I could do this all day long and all, and I do just geek out about it.

Jeremy Weisz 15:36 

I can see the recruiting side, right? So you’re really speaking directly to the person, their wants, their needs, while kind of infusing it into the DNA of the company so it’s attracting the right people, so now they come on board. Talk about the retention side. What are some things, some examples of things you do, or companies you work with, on what they do to foster a good culture once they’re there.

Katie Schibler Conn 15:59 

I think making those hiring decisions based on culture, really having open conversations. I mean, I know for us at KSA, we really look at like the 30, 60, 90 day, first few stages of someone being part of our agency, as are they a cultural fit, like that is more important than can maybe their technical skills, because someone who has great technical skills but isn’t a cultural fit, that’s going to rock the boat and topple the apples. It’s harder when people are in panic, when it comes to hiring and they have imminent needs like in healthcare or law enforcement. So sometimes we have to look at it as it’s going to be a multi-year journey. So let’s get a higher volume of candidates in the door, and then let’s continue to work with you to optimize what those values are and start addressing where in your pipeline, it’s broken, and if you’re not retaining them, why and what can be done to make them engaged and or relook at those values. Are they the right values?

Jeremy Weisz 17:14 

What are some mistakes people make Katie in the interview process itself?

Katie Schibler Conn 17:20 

For interviewing around jobs, I think oftentimes not being vulnerable and honest is a big mistake. One of the hardest things, especially, I think, during Covid, was you had a lot of people interviewing and everything was online. So some of those visual tells were things that would be the non-verbal cues of someone’s weren’t as visible. So I think being really honest with any employer, hey, this is the job, and I’m equipped to do this, and I’m maybe need some help learning here, but I really want to be part of that organization. Can really change the dynamic of an interview. Everyone should go into an interview with questions. If you don’t have questions about what the opportunity is, or don’t have questions about the company, then you’re not showing that you’ve done your homework to want to be engaged, or that you’re interested and excited about it.

[Continue to Page 2]