Leonard Kim
Managing partner at Influence Tree
Website Address: Leonardkim.com
Each week on “Legacy of Leaders,” our host talks to media experts across the country. This week our host speaks with Leonard Kim from Influence Tree. To learn more, check out https://leonardkim.com.
What is your company Elevator pitch when talking about your company?
We humanize your brand by putting your most passionate people into the digital spotlight.
What excites you the most about your industry?
The only other thing I can think of doing in life that is more fun than marketing is working at GameStop as a cashier or getting a ton of low wage jobs so I could learn how to make Mrs. Fields cookies and Jamba Juice and Wetzel’s Pretzels, but I have bills and payroll…
How do you go about making difficult leadership decisions, both big and small?
Get feedback at scale, go through general advice (which is usually nonsense), personalized experiences, downside risk and upside benefits, then make a well informed decision around implementing a plan, getting feedback on the plan from internal stakeholders, then (if I work somewhere else, run it up the chain of command, if I work for myself, run it by the people I’m working with), then answer lingering questions, get final buy-in across parties and deploy.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to enhance their leadership skills?
Work at a large company (5k+ people) and don’t tell anyone what you want to do. Instead, ask them how they feel about certain things that lead to what you want to do and what their thoughts are about said things you want to do. Then after you have all your stakeholder’s opinions, make a PowerPoint and pitch your boss, then let them run it up the chain. If you have a company with less than 10 people, you don’t really need to do any of that though…
