WEBVTT - Kellyn Smith Kenny: “The working world is a team sport.” 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:06.200 You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:08.520 --> 0:00:12.879 When you obsess over the competition instead of obsessing over 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:15.680 the customer, you're going to get yourself into big trouble 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:19.279 because if you're obsessing over the competition, all you can 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.880 ever know is what they've already done. You can't drive 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.800 a car ninety miles an hour down the road if 0:00:25.800 --> 0:00:28.080 you're looking in the rearview mirror, and when you're studying 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.520 the competition, you can only be looking backwards. 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:35.479 Hi, I'm Bob Pipman, and welcome to Math and Magic. 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:38.559 Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing. On this episode, we're 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:40.400 going to dig in deep with one of the most 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:45.320 versatile and agile marketers in the business. Microsoft, Capital One, Uber, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:48.599 Hilton and now AT and T have all been atten 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:54.240 from her handiwork. She's a rare blend of sociologist, strategists, technologist, 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.520 quant and strong leader. She's Kellen Smith Kenny, the chief 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:02.000 marketing and growth officer at AT and T. Kellen grew 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:04.640 up and what the college in the Northeast. Her dad 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.080 was a mathematician, her mom was a nurse, and her 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.320 aunt was an artist. She calls it an incredible influence 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:13.440 of art and science and empathy. Growing up, we call 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.960 it mathem magic. Rare to find both in one person. 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:19.959 But she is one of those unicorns, and her career 0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:22.200 is not so much marked by where she has been, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.959 but rather it's marked by the big successes she has 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:28.760 had at each stop. She and her marketing campaigns have 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.360 won a number of awards. When you dig into how 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:35.120 she does it, it'll be apparent why. Although kell and 0:01:35.120 --> 0:01:37.399 I are not old friends, my old friends who know 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.720 her well rave about her both as a marketer and 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:42.200 as a human. Kellen, welcome. 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:44.200 Thank you so much for having me. 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.560 Before we jump into the meaty stuff, I'd like to 0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.800 do you in sixty seconds. Are you ready? 0:01:49.120 --> 0:01:49.720 I'm ready. 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:51.360 Do you prefer cats or dogs? 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:52.040 Dogs? 0:01:52.280 --> 0:01:54.640 Introvert or extrovert. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.080 An introverted extrovert or possibly an extroverted introvert? 0:01:59.120 --> 0:02:04.800 Mountains or bas each mountains ski or snowboard ski ski ski, 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:07.520 your first job, lifeguard, dream. 0:02:07.400 --> 0:02:10.840 Vacation, helly skiing on a glacier. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:19.919 Athlete or athlete both cell phone or landline, cell phone, 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:23.520 all dressed up or keeping a casual all dressed up. 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:24.880 Favorite thing to cook? 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:26.360 I can barely boil water. 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:32.240 Smartest person. You know, my grandmother, childhood hero, my parents 0:02:32.360 --> 0:02:35.960 favorite city, Seattle, And what did you want to be 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:37.120 when you were growing up? 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:38.520 President of the United States? 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:43.040 Well that's yet to come. Okay, before you get to 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:44.720 be president of the United States. Let's talk about a 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.400 little bit of some other stuff here, and let's jump 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.800 in to where you are right now. AT and T 0:02:50.639 --> 0:02:53.359 one of the greatest brands of the last one hundred years. 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.240 You've got a brilliant strategist, John Stanky is your CEO, 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.840 and he is clearly driving the company to maximize your 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:05.760 assets and capitalize on that amazing brand. Describe for us 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.280 this next phase of AT and T. Where are you headed? 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.320 When I think about where AT and T is headed 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:14.760 in the future, we want to be famous for delivering 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.880 the type of connectivity that connects people to greater possibility, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:21.480 and we want to do it in a way that 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:24.919 makes everything simple. We want people to have the confidence 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.600 knowing that it's coming from the experts at AT and T. 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.120 We want every single touch point that we have with 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:35.160 a customer to be inspiring. That means we need to 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:39.640 lean into best in class, best in breed connectivity solutions 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.520 from five G and fiber to the converged way that 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:49.520 consumers and business decision makers are choosing to consume connectivity today. 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:53.720 So how does having this long and storied brand help 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.440 you and how does it hurt you? What do you 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:57.240 have to work around? 0:03:57.840 --> 0:04:01.520 The company was founded by Alexander Bell one hundred and 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:05.600 forty seven years ago, the inventor of the telephone, the 0:04:05.640 --> 0:04:08.840 inventor of cable fiber, the first transcontinental phone call, the 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:11.600 first call to the moon, three G, four G, five G, 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:15.720 even the information theory was founded in AT and t's 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.720 Bell Labs. And so we've got this incredibly rich legacy 0:04:20.320 --> 0:04:25.440 of innovation and invention that has powered commerce across the 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:31.920 United States, that has changed human relations, that superpowered so 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:34.800 much of the innovation and the technology growth that we 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.159 saw in the early two thousands. So, on the one hand, 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.440 you've got this incredible legacy, and every single employee inside 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:45.360 of AT and T wants to live up to that legacy, 0:04:46.000 --> 0:04:48.400 and we want to usher in the next great wave 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:51.239 of innovation for the next one hundred and fifty years. 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.840 But also you have to resist getting complacent. You can't 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.480 look backwards and take a victory lap again and again. 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:00.320 You have to push forward into the future. 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:05.200 Is there's still a legacy of the brand power of 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:08.039 Bell Labs. I mean, when I was growing up, there 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:11.120 could not be a bigger name in technology and innovation 0:05:11.279 --> 0:05:12.159 than Bell Labs. 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:14.520 You know, I'll tell you a funny little story, and 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.000 my dad actually worked at Bell Labs, and so I'd 0:05:17.000 --> 0:05:20.600 heard about Bell Labs as a kid growing up. What's 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.200 been incredible since coming to AT and T is when 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:25.400 you meet with people who work in the labs. They 0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:29.840 are some of the finest academics and scholars in their universities, 0:05:29.880 --> 0:05:33.040 in their colleges, and they will tell you they contemplated 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:36.120 every big tech company and they wanted to come to 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:38.680 AT and T because they wanted to be part of 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:43.039 Bell Labs. So I would say absolutely, if you look 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:48.680 at the incredible contributions that Bell Labs scientists, technologists have 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:51.840 made to our society, there is a tremendous amount of 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:52.479 pride there. 0:05:53.040 --> 0:05:56.719 So you're a marketer who is not based in La 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:01.440 New York or San Francisco, but rather in Dallas. Just 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:05.680 being in real America give you and your marketers an edge. 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.480 Now, that's a great it's a great way of thinking out. 0:06:08.520 --> 0:06:11.120 I always tell people. I'm a New Yorker living in Dallas, 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.200 supporting the Cowboys, eating the best tex mechs in the US, 0:06:14.200 --> 0:06:17.800 and wearing cowboy hats to the rodeo, and absolutely I 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:21.320 think it helps you get in touch with your customer base. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.159 But even if you are a marketer living in LA 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:27.320 or San Francisco or New York, it is so crucial 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.760 that you spend time with the customers that you spend 0:06:30.800 --> 0:06:35.200 time with frontline employees. That is the best lesson. One 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.800 of the most incredible experiences I've had at AT and 0:06:37.839 --> 0:06:41.280 T is we have these connection days for our employees 0:06:41.320 --> 0:06:43.919 that work at headquarters, and I actually went into people's 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:47.000 homes and installed fiber. You get to see the types 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.800 of questions that customers have, from the very tech savvy 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.279 customers who want to do everything themselves, to the customers 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.240 that are much more reliant on the technicians that go 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.320 on premises. You get to see what it's like to 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:04.120 actually wire fiber throughout a building that's got you one 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:06.520 thousand tenants. It's pretty extraordinary. 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:11.080 Well that's cool. So how has your past experience Microsoft, 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:15.520 cap One, Uber Hilton prepared you for this particular opportunity. 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:21.400 Gosh, I've had such incredible opportunities in my career. The 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:26.560 thing I learned at Microsoft is that technology and technology 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.720 alone is not going to be the reason why somebody 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.760 adopts your product. I worked at Microsoft and the very 0:07:33.760 --> 0:07:36.840 first product I worked on was Windows Vista. It was 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:41.160 one of the most highly anticipated technology products of its era. 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:44.040 I think it was five years in the making, people 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:46.880 everywhere or on the edge of their seats waiting to 0:07:46.920 --> 0:07:50.680 see what Microsoft would release. You probably remember that when 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:53.520 we released it into the marketplace, it landed like a 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:58.320 nuclear thud ball bomb. It was a total bomb. And 0:07:58.680 --> 0:08:01.480 what we learned in that time time was that we 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.400 had fallen in love with the technology and we had 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:08.880 forgotten about the most important person in the equation, and 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:13.480 that was the end user. We missed the consumerization of technology. 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:17.559 We missed that the vast majority of our customers weren't 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.600 using ninety nine percent of the features that we put 0:08:20.640 --> 0:08:24.520 in that operating system. That ultimately bloaded the operating system, 0:08:24.760 --> 0:08:28.840 slowed it down and made it far less attractive. And 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:33.280 so the incredible lesson learned from Microsoft is focus on 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.280 the customer. I'd seen at times in my career, whether 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:39.880 it was teams I was on, or competitors I was 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:43.840 facing off against. Is when you obsess over the competition 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:47.280 instead of obsessing over the customer, you're going to get 0:08:47.320 --> 0:08:51.400 yourself into big trouble because if you're obsessing over the competition, 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.439 all you can ever know is what they've already done. 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.640 You can't drive a car ninety miles an hour down 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:00.120 the road if you're looking in the rearview mirror, and 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.280 when you're studying the competition, you can only be looking backwards. 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:06.040 It sounds like you probably did the same thing at 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:09.520 Cap one, Uber and Hilton two. A consumer focus seems 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:10.400 to be your hallmark. 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:14.440 Oh thank you, Yeah, I would say at Capital one 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:19.880 we were incredibly, incredibly scientific about how we went to market, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.600 and so we treated it as this just obsession with 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:27.080 getting better and better. We had this learning mindset, this 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.240 growth mindset all throughout the company, so that test and 0:09:30.320 --> 0:09:32.760 learn mentality was so critical. And of course when you're 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:36.440 testing and learning, the ultimate guidepost is the customers. Are 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:38.720 the customers receptive to it? Are they buying it? Are 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:41.640 they upgrading? Are they telling other people about it? You 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:45.200 get immediate feedback. The other thing that was incredible about 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:51.199 Capital one is that that company found religion about building 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:54.320 a brand through all of the testing and learning that 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.880 it did in performance marketing before performance marketing was even 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:01.960 a word. And so, years and years ago, when Capital 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.360 One was one of the largest customers of the US 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.960 postal service, they ran a test a blank envelope with 0:10:09.120 --> 0:10:11.920 no branding on it, and then an envelope that actually 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:16.000 had the Capital One logo on the outer left hand corner. 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.960 And what they originally found was that the blank envelope 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:24.439 outperformed the branded envelope. And right then and there, yeah, ouch, 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:27.400 and right then and there, the founder and CEO of 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:31.680 Capital One, Rich Fairbank, said this is unacceptable. We have 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.439 got to build this brand. And so that's when the 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:40.400 company really leaned into building awareness, building consideration, building familiarity, 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:42.280 and ultimately preference. 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:46.840 Interesting stuff. We keep going back to power of brand, brand, brand, 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:48.920 even when we talk performance marketing. 0:10:49.040 --> 0:10:52.400 So when I arrived at Uber, we were spending around 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.600 a billion dollars in performance marketing. However, what we started 0:10:56.640 --> 0:11:01.680 to recognize was that the pipeline of true prospects where 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:03.960 we were going to source that next great wave of 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.719 growth was starting to elude us. And we did some 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.040 very rudimentary quick turn research based on hypotheses that some 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.120 of us on the team had. Do you remember when 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:15.600 people say I'm going to call an uber? 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.080 Do you remember, Oh yeah, I sure do. 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:19.480 Right, So we did a survey and it turned out 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.040 that eighty five percent of people who had never tried 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:26.480 Uber thought you literally called an uber. You picked up 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:28.400 the phone and tiled one eight hundred and five to 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:32.520 fyy five UBER. So we recognized that we had a 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.600 massive amount of education that we needed to do. So 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.680 we recognized we needed to turn on more upper funnel 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:43.160 channels like radio, like TV, like digital video. And I 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:46.679 cannot make this up. Within the first two weeks of 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:51.319 turning on TV, all of the lower funnel performance vehicles 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:53.839 were performing twenty seven percent better. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:55.560 I want to go back a little bit on what 0:11:55.600 --> 0:11:58.920 you're doing at at and T. Let's talk about the transformation. 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:02.760 It's a huge, huge company and by reputation, you would 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:05.200 expect it to be more toward the bureaucratic the end 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:08.360 of the spectrum. So how do you John Stanky and 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:12.120 the rest of his team turn the battleship for transformation. 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.200 One of the things that we recently did as a 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:19.720 company was we declared our purpose. We said, what is 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.680 the epicenter of why we do everything that we do, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:28.080 what motivates us? And we did a tremendous amount of 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:35.280 research across customers, employees, investors, historians, even people in adjacent industries. 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.160 We wanted to understand how they viewed AT and T, 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:41.400 where they felt that we had room and frankly, the 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:44.640 authority to play, but we also wanted to make sure 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:47.800 that it was a reflection of us on our very 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.240 best day, that it honored the folklore and the incredible 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:55.000 history of the company, but that it was ready to 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.920 take AT and T into the next several decades. And 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.840 so when we declared that purpose, which is to connect 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:06.440 people to greater possibility with expertise, simplicity and inspiration, we 0:13:06.600 --> 0:13:10.880 paired that with a series of seven strategic imperatives, the 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.400 things that we knew we needed to do over the 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.320 course of the next five to seven years to really 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:20.560 become famous for connecting people to greater possibility, to really 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:25.520 become the undisputed expert on connectivity. And then in addition 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.079 to those strategic imperatives, we focused on the culture of 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:33.560 the company. We declared our culture values. When you're working 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:37.560 inside of a legacy company. Having clarity of purpose but 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:41.520 also having clarity of expectation on the culture you want 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:46.880 to build is so incredibly powerful. We talk about acting boldly, 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:50.600 not playing it safe, you know, not allowing yourself to 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.480 take that victory lap and then get complacent, but continuing 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.079 to challenge yourself. And then if we're going to act boldly, 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:00.960 we need to move faster. So those four cultural values 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.600 are guiding every action we take inside the company, and 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:07.559 then we evaluate ourselves on how are we progressing against 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:11.360 those culture pillars. Each year we survey our employees, we 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.120 get their feedback and they don't hold back, and so 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.400 just keep pushing ourselves and pushing ourselves and pushing ourselves 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:19.200 to be the very best that we can be. 0:14:19.960 --> 0:14:24.080 The world we live in is filled with messages for 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:28.320 consumers and across so many platforms. How do you break 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:30.680 through that? Are we back to the magic of reach 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:31.400 and frequency? 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.160 Gosh, when you look at the statistics, it is staggering. 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:43.480 Customers are being bombarded with content. The last time I checked, 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.920 I think the average person scrolls through at least a 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.320 football field and a half of content on their phone each. 0:14:50.240 --> 0:14:53.360 Day the last time, like it to me. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:58.200 I must say, I know the last time I checked, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:02.160 the average personived over one hundred and fifty emails a 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:04.840 day the last time I checked, And this one really 0:15:04.920 --> 0:15:07.680 knocked me back in my seat. The amount of time 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:12.240 that the average consumer in the US spends on social 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:16.520 media per day is over two hours. If we think 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.320 about that in aggregate, that's over one full month a 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.880 year that people are now spending on a technology that 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.400 fifteen to twenty years ago didn't even exist. The game 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.000 board is stacked differently now for marketers, the game board 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:34.080 is stacked differently for brands. So can we play the 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.960 game the same way that we played it fifteen twenty 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.240 years ago? Not a chance we won't be successful. You know, 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.880 if the old measure was reach and frequency, that totally 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:48.520 undermined the power of incredible creative at least at at 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:51.080 and T we are really leaning into how do we 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.840 make sure that the quality of our creative is the 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:57.320 absolute best in industry, and how do we make sure 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:01.600 that the media and sponsorships that we're engaging with are 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:03.920 the absolute premium. 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:13.240 Moral Math and Magic. Right after this quick break, welcome 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:15.360 back to Math and Magic. Let's hear more from my 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:20.000 conversation with Kellen Kenny. I want to step back in 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:22.920 time a little bit. I want to put you in context, 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:25.320 tell us where you grew up, and paint a picture 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:26.480 of that time and place. 0:16:27.120 --> 0:16:29.600 I grew up in a town called Brewster, New York. 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:34.160 It was the last stop on the Harlem line of 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.800 Metro North, so there were absolutely friends of mine whose 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:41.520 parents commuted into this city. The city was a place 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:45.160 that I went once or twice a year. Went to 0:16:45.200 --> 0:16:47.880 Brewster High School, where my graduating class was one hundred 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.880 and eighty. I was a big time athlete, and as 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:56.800 you appropriately called out an athlete, I had fourteen varsity 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.560 letters by the time I graduated. So I come from 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:04.600 a law online of athletes, and I was always taught 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.840 that you got to work really hard, and if you 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:11.480 work hard enough, practice long enough, you can be successful. 0:17:11.840 --> 0:17:13.960 So how often did you eat at Red Rooster? 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.560 Okay, not only did I eat self served ice cream 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:22.800 at Red Rooster in Brewster, but I also went mini 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:24.720 golfing at the Red Rooster. Have you ever gone mini 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:25.320 golfing there? 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:27.679 I have. I have when my oldest son was a 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:29.880 little kid. And by the way, with a little kid, 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.840 you've got to stop at Red Rooster. Just the drive 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:35.440 was how far to Red Rooster, not how far is 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:36.520 it to where we're going. 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:40.640 Well, I got to tell you I never took off 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:43.439 as a golfer, and I blame the mini golf course 0:17:44.040 --> 0:17:47.320 at the Red Rooster because that windmill obstacle. It got 0:17:47.320 --> 0:17:48.240 me every time. 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:51.560 So talk a little bit about your parents. You mentioned 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:53.840 them earlier. What impact did they have on you? 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.960 Well, my parents were definitely my heroes growing up. They 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:05.000 were both incredibly kind, loving, supportive, but they set a 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.280 really high bar for their one and only child. I 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:10.880 threw my hat into the ring for everything class president, 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:15.119 you know, varsity sports, varsity society, national honor society, if 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:17.399 there was a club, I wanted to raise my hand 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:20.679 and be a part of it. But my mom, she 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.199 started her career as a nurse. She then went on 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:28.040 to lead out patient services for one of the largest 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:29.960 hospitals in the state of New York. It was White 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:33.199 Plains Hospital. At the time, she had an organization of 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.000 a thousand people, and every once in a while, and 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:37.880 I would have a day off from school, she'd bring 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.879 me into the office and I would do administrative task 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.800 like filing and I remember thinking, Wow, the people in 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.000 the hospital, they really respect my mom. She was kind 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.000 to everyone. Everybody greeted her with a smile, but you 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:55.800 could also tell that she meant business. She was tough, 0:18:56.320 --> 0:19:00.639 but a huge inspiration. And then my father, who I 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:03.640 had mentioned, worked at Bell Labs. He actually worked at 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.639 Bell Labs after his stint with the Boston Red Sox, 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.639 so he was a professional pitcher in the Major Leagues 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:14.159 for the Red Sox. And his nickname when he was 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.240 pitching for the Red Sox was college Boy, because at 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.800 the time, a lot of professional baseball players actually didn't 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.400 go to college. And not only did he go to college, 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:26.480 but he was getting his master's degree at the University 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:30.280 of Southern cal in the off season, so obviously he 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.720 really valued education. He went on to work at Bell 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:37.200 Labs and then he went on to become a teacher. 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:40.080 But he was always my number one coach. So every 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:44.000 sport I ever played, my personal coach was my dad. 0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:48.800 He just loved sport, he loved competition, and he was 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.520 an incredible motivating factor all throughout my life. 0:19:52.960 --> 0:19:55.920 So let's talk about college. You went to college at Colgate, 0:19:55.960 --> 0:19:57.480 Why there and what did you study? 0:19:58.320 --> 0:20:00.680 So I started off as a math major. I then 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.680 migrated over to computer science. I ended up minoring in 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.280 computer science but really falling in love with economics, so 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.240 I majored in economics. And one of the coolest things 0:20:10.280 --> 0:20:12.400 I did when I was at Colgate was I went 0:20:12.440 --> 0:20:15.479 on the London Economics Study Group and we got to 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.280 do incredible programs with the London School of Economics. We 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:22.840 had economists for her Magistry's Treasury coming in and doing 0:20:22.880 --> 0:20:24.200 independent study with us. 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.639 You went on to be a tech consultant, then went 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:32.040 to Northwestern for business school. What foundations did those experience 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:32.399 give you? 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.840 I had an important realization that I wanted to be 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:40.080 closer to the customer. While I loved the work that 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:42.639 I was doing as a technology consultant, I loved the 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.760 intellectual rigor of it, what I missed was the feeling 0:20:46.800 --> 0:20:50.200 that I was impacting something directly. And I would say 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:54.359 as a pretty young professional, I began to form my 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.919 values as an individual. And I always say that the 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.680 eyes of Kellen are I want to have an impact. 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.600 I want to drive real innovation, and I want to 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:06.520 do all of that with integrity. My personal motto is 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:09.200 that the view is better from the high road. Then 0:21:09.240 --> 0:21:13.680 I went on to Northwestern Kellogg School of Management, where 0:21:13.960 --> 0:21:17.919 the program was famous for being student led, and I 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.000 didn't really know what that meant before I got there, 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.280 But what I realized was they expected you to form 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:30.280 your committees. They expected you and your co students to 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.919 run every one of those committees, to decide on the strategy, 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:38.120 to define the execution, plan, to operate to raise the funds. 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:41.880 We really were self governed, and that was so important 0:21:41.920 --> 0:21:44.600 because for the first time in my career, I was 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.119 working with people who had very, very different backgrounds from me. 0:21:48.640 --> 0:21:51.359 And what I originally thought when I went into business 0:21:51.359 --> 0:21:54.840 school is this is taking longer we have to We're 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:57.159 wasting all this time figuring out how we want to 0:21:57.160 --> 0:21:59.800 work together. That was sort of my going in assumption 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.359 for the first two three weeks at business school, I'll 0:22:02.400 --> 0:22:05.320 just do it, it'll go faster. And then within four 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:10.080 or five weeks I realized, Kellen, you idiot. The collective 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:12.840 wisdom of this group of four or five or seven 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:17.760 people is truly transformative. And one thing that I kind 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:21.679 of beat myself up about was I had always played 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:24.879 team sports, I had always played softball, I had always 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:27.720 been on basketball teams growing up. Why did it take 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.960 me so long to figure out that the working world, 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:33.200 the professional world, was a team sport too. 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:35.280 You know, it's interesting. We talked to a lot of 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:37.720 people in mathem Magic, and I think that's probably one 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.600 of the common elements that comes through is teams when 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:44.760 people don't and the people who build great teams are 0:22:44.840 --> 0:22:47.480 the big, big winners here. It's interesting looking at your 0:22:47.480 --> 0:22:49.399