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Want a peak behind the curtain into one of the best places to work in cybersecurity and the minds of the innovators behind the industry’s leading security operations platform? Tune in to The Howler podcast!
Hosted by Chelsea Lowman, People Experience Specialist, and Mary Newville, People Experience Senior Manager, the culture duo connects with pack leaders on leadership insights, mental health and overall wellbeing, and how they lead their teams to advance our mission of ending cyber risk.
Chelsea Lowman 0:01
Hello, welcome back to the Heller Podcast. I'm Chelsea
Mary Newville 0:04
on. I'm Mary,
Chelsea Lowman 0:05
and we are on Episode Seven. Um, hopefully you enjoyed episode six with Mark, if you have not taken a listen, actually a watch, I highly recommend that you watch this episode. Because Mark takes on the hot ones challenge. And let's just say it's a good time. You'll laugh, maybe cry along with Mark as he as he eats his wings, but it was so fun. And just so like Mark to put that twist on the podcast because we didn't know it was coming.
Mary Newville 0:40
Yes, we did not know what was coming, Mark just decided to be creative. And I talked about how we shouldn't have been surprised that Mark showed up with this, like creative twist on on being on the podcast. But speaking of creative, okay, um, I was thinking about Chelsea vulnerability, creativity requires vulnerability. And I was thinking about it because I feel like when we started the podcast as hopefully, folks now our goal for this podcast is to help the pack stay connected, regardless of location to our leaders to our culture. And we have it publicly available to so that future pack members can get a peek behind the curtain of this great community that we call the pack. So that was the goal behind starting it. It's been a great initiative. But when we started it, I didn't think about how we would be like immortalized. Is that a word? Yeah. memorialized in time forever. Oh, my gosh, that's so true. And it feels kind of vulnerable, you know. And so now I find whenever I'm listening to podcast, here's my word of encouragement for the pod today. I listen to podcasts. And now I always compare myself to other podcast hosts who like more professionals in their craft and have done this forever. And I'm like, Oh, my God, I need to be funnier. Oh, my goodness, there's such great interview question askers. And then I've just kind of settled back into like, the world doesn't need me to become Trevor Noah, my current obsession, or Brene Brown, but you know, the world just needs me to show up as me. So I was thinking about when you're listening today and in any capacity of your life, feeling some impostor syndrome or just feeling like, oh, I need to become something else. Like you are exactly who you need to be for. What you're doing and for the weird world has you.
Chelsea Lowman 2:38
Okay, I love that. Mary's words of wisdom. It's been a couple of episodes, since we've had your official words of wisdom segment. But no, I love that and so true that, you know, we are out there on YouTube, on Spotify, on Apple podcasts. Anywhere you listen to podcasts. Um, but I love that because we this was just a to your point, a creative idea, slash passion project that we turned into a real podcast and we just have to show up as ourselves and we get great feedback. So I love that love the words of wisdom
Mary Newville 3:20
was a think too. It's so true when you try to be something you're not you just robbed the world and your story.
Chelsea Lowman 3:27
You have to offer. Okay, well, I'm feeling inspired. I'm feeling ready to tackle this next podcast guest. Oh, yeah, this is gonna be a good one. Because we know her. We know her. Well.
Mary Newville 3:42
We are interviewing our leader Kristen, do you people officer. So Kristen leaves the HR facilities functions at Arctic Wolf. This is her fourth technology company. And she brings years of experience starting and growing successful HR teams for companies going through massive growth. Prior to Arctic wolf Kristin was the vice president of people for revel a healthcare technology company. Prior to revvo. Kristin was the Vice President of Operations for delegate as well as head of HR for code 42. Kristin is recipient of the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal's 2017 40 under 40, and a woman in business honoree in 2018. So without further ado, I think this will be a really fun conversation. Kristin is a unique and amazing HR leader. So let's jump in.
Chelsea Lowman 4:29
Hi, Kristen. Welcome to the podcast. Hi, guys.
Kristin Dean 4:32
Thanks for having me.
Chelsea Lowman 4:34
Yes, we're so excited to have you on the podcast. We keep teasing out that this is going to be a fun one because we actually know you pretty well compared to some of our other leaders, so we're excited for the rest of the pack to get to know you a little better to um, but I know you listen to the podcast, so you probably already know but we like to start with like some sort of fun game or like trivia based off of what we know about the guest, and one thing that we both know about you is that you love Beyonce.
Kristin Dean 5:10
Oh, no, this is not going to be good because you guys know me way too well. Yes, I'm a huge fan. Yep.
Chelsea Lowman 5:21
How many have you seen her? How many times now?
Kristin Dean 5:23
No. Just twice,
Chelsea Lowman 5:24
just twice. Okay.
Kristin Dean 5:26
What is her biggest regret I have in my life is I did not go to the on the run tour. Yes, yes. Yeah.
Mary Newville 5:31
You have to share your biggest life regret.
Kristin Dean 5:35
I mean, I don't know what that says about me. You could catch me on the street any day of the week. And you'd be like, Kristen, what is your biggest regret in life? And I'd be like Beyonce, Jay Z on the run tour Dingo.
Chelsea Lowman 5:46
I mean, I think it's valid, I think. Well, and with all that in mind, we just want to ease into the podcast. Have a little fun. So we're gonna start with some Beyonce trivia. Oh, no. Not super hard. I don't think okay, okay. Regardless of how well you do, you are still a part of the Beyhive nothing can take away your status. So we'll just have fun. Okay, okay. Beyonce made her big screen debut in what movie A Dream Girls be Austin Powers in Goldmember. See the Pink Panther or D zoo lander. Austin
Kristin Dean 6:26
Powers. Correct.
Chelsea Lowman 6:30
Okay, sprinkled in here. We're also going to do a little bit of complete the lyrics. Oh, okay. I'm gonna read the lyric and you just have to give the next line. You don't have to go all out and sing go for it, but I just needed the next slide. Okay, honey, honey. I can see the stars all the way from here.
Kristin Dean 6:50
Ah, awesome. I know the song Love on Top. Yes, that is correct. Okay, that was challenging. Chelsea's our heart.
Chelsea Lowman 7:01
It's the opening of the song, honey. Honey. I got to title
Kristin Dean 7:05
the song right away. Yes, yes. Okay, that's half a half a point. Feel better.
Mary Newville 7:11
Dan loves Disney. And he struggled through that Disney trivia. Yeah,
Kristin Dean 7:15
I did watch that. Okay, that does make me feel good. I think it's the pressure. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 7:21
Okay, last one. We record these podcasts earliest, earliest. So it was actually the Grammys last night. So in honor of the Grammys, how many Grammys has Beyonce one? A 23? B 16. C 32. D 37.
Kristin Dean 7:40
I think it's 37. But she's never won album of the year. That was a big right on the Grammys, right? Is 37 It's
32. But I love that you want to give her I love that you want to give her five more. She deserves them to be on.
Do you think she should have won Album of the Year at some point,
Chelsea Lowman 8:01
but she has 32 awards and 88 nominations. And this is all of her music including Destiny's Child and the Carters. So she is the most awarded and the most nominated artists in Grammy history. Give it up for Beyonce. Right?
Kristin Dean 8:18
We've done now this is good.
Chelsea Lowman 8:20
Okay, well, thanks for playing online. This was fun. And now we'll get to the hard hitting questions. We just did those. I'm already
Kristin Dean 8:34
get the normal ones now.
Mary Newville 8:35
Okay, yes, let's transition. We read your bio, and how this is your fourth technology company, leading HR teams and helping companies go through massive growth. Tell us Kristen, what made you interested in HR? And how did you end up at Arctic wealth.
Kristin Dean 8:52
So what made me interested was probably when I was in high school and college, I started working at group homes. My many people know my brother has Down Syndrome and I kind of grew up helping people with special needs. And it was a big passion of mine. And so I started working in group homes started doing things on the side to help people with special needs. And I really found a passion for just helping people and looked into different jobs that you know, kind of involved that where I could, you know, be compassion, be compassionate, be empathetic and use those skills to find a job and do good in the world. And when I graduated from the University of why I majored in travel industry management, but then had a focus in hospitality and HR. And as soon as I took my first job, which was an HR intern, I realized that I could kind of marry those two together where I can use compassion and empathy and help people not just navigate their day to day but often you both know in HR that we kind of interweave personal and professional worlds together. And so I'm able to, I think, help people or guide people into their, what they want to be when they grow up, whether that's personally or professionally, that was kind of what led me into HR and being able to help people. But then I worked in probably every job I could have at the Hyatt, which was in Minneapolis, and I started my career there and loved it and had a great time. I was at that company for a little over five years. And then I thought my life calling was to be a stay at home mom. And so my husband and I were fortunate enough to have our first daughter, Bobby. And I went into my boss's office, I think I was maybe only three months pregnant, and I was like, Well, I'm resigning, I'll be done after I have this baby. And she's like, um, that's stuck for a while. I was like, Well, yeah, this is my life plan. This is what we've checked on. She was like, okay, you know, an at that time in my life, the reason why I came to that decision, which is so silly now is I didn't think I could be as good at my job as I was, I loved working, and I loved being good at something. And I didn't think I could be a good mom, and do both well. And so I thought I had to pick one. And so I picked being a mom. And then I had a another baby, I had Harper, less than a year later. So my kids are four days shy of a year apart. And that was great. I loved being a stay at home mom. But a couple years went by, and just something was missing in my life. And I missed. I missed working, I miss going into the office every day, I missed talking with different people every day, I missed solving problems or helping people. And that was a big kind of emptiness that I was feeling. And so I thought, well, maybe I'll just get a hobby, I'll just kind of get out of the house, get a hobby, this will be great. And I started looking around and started working at code 42, which is also a Minnesota based tech company here in town. And they didn't have an HR department, they had about 250 employees and no HR. And so that was a great fit for me, I loved it, I went there. And I realized you can be a good mom, and you can be good at your job. And now I'm super passionate about working parents, I think it's hard. But life is hard for everyone, whether you're a parent, or you're not a parent, you have elderly parents, or you're taking care of someone else, or you have hobbies or interests outside of work. There's always life challenges. And I think that you can do a lot at once. And I think you can be a really good parent and a really good worker. And so yes, sir, they're so free to work did a couple of different startups in town. And now I've been at article for just under six years.
Mary Newville 12:50
Wow. So much from all that you share. And Kristen, thank you for sharing, I had never heard about you that you started your first job when you were in high school was working in group homes because of your brother. And you talked about marrying compassion and empathy and hospitality and HR together. And something you're known for is you always say, Be kind and work hard. Does that kind of did that originate from the compassion and empathy that was instilled in you from working in group homes and caring for your brother? Yeah,
Kristin Dean 13:22
I just think it's just, uh, you know, the world is a better place when people are kind to each other. If you can lead with kindness, and you work really hard. Everything else falls into place. You make other people happy. And also, more importantly, you're happy when you act with kindness and you treat other people? Well, you're a happier person too. And I think, who doesn't want that? Right. So yeah, I think growing up, having a brother with special needs, being his older sister and seeing sometimes the world isn't a great place. I think that that instills compassion, empathy and that protective nature that I have as an older sister, and that just kind of carried through. And I also my first boss that I ever had, she taught me pretty much everything I needed to know about having my first job, and she worked really hard. And I saw that if you were nice, and you worked really hard, everything else kind of falls into place.
Speaker 2 14:25
She kind of gave you a blueprint that you can follow. For those that don't know I worked for Kristin briefly at code 42. And I still remember my interview with you. And you when you ended you said something like there's just two things I want everybody on my team to know and it's that we're kind and we don't gossip are not going to be classic HR department where everybody gossips. And I have now worked on for you in two different companies. And it's just really cool to see the teams that you build because you lead with we're going to be kind we're going To be helpful, and we're gonna be like, have integrity, we're not going to be gossiping. So yeah,
Kristin Dean 15:06
we're never gonna step on each other to get to the top. It's just never gonna. Yeah,
Mary Newville 15:11
environments that result are really cool to see. They're definitely unique.
Chelsea Lowman 15:15
Yes, I can attest in my interview with Kristen, that was only a year and a half ago here. And I took well, he also spelt that the same two things right at the end. So you're consistent. And it's true.
Kristin Dean 15:28
Pick No. And I have to say whether because of those interview questions or not, like we have been really lucky with this team, but on my other teams to where I think it kind of permeates through like nobody gossips. And I think there are every once in a while, or someone might say something. And you can just feel the energy being like that. We weren't, you're not supposed to, like, really, you. memo that doesn't happen here. We just we'll never talk about each other behind their back, if you have something to say you just have to say to their face. And that's totally fine. You know, we want to resolve conflict, and we want to take it head on. And if there's an issue, you should talk to the person about the issue. But that person should always know first, you can't talk about anyone behind the back, especially in our very small, tight team that we have.
Mary Newville 16:13
So Arctic wolf culture, too. We value communicating with candor.
Chelsea Lowman 16:17
Yeah, for sure. Um, Kristen, I love hearing your career journey, and just from an outsider's perspective, and maybe this isn't the case, I would love for you to share. But it seems like when you make a decision, you just go for it. Like you just take action. Like I'm a Midwest girl, and I want to go to college in Hawaii, boom, I'm going to Hawaii. I'm pregnant, I'm gonna be a stay at home mom. Like it's like, I'm sure there's more to it than that. But would you say you've always been like super action oriented? And like, how do you? I guess, what's your process of decision making? Both like here at Arctic wolf as the leader of HR, but then just like, personally, as you think about your career journey?
Kristin Dean 17:03
Yeah, I, I have so many thoughts around the concept of just decision making in general. But as I've grown up, and later in life, I actually have to be very purposeful about not going too fast into my decisions. Like even today, there's a decision I have to make in my personal life. And I was like, let's just take a beat. We don't need that. Do that right now. Maybe I'll think about it. Because I do you're right, like it's a good observation. As soon as I'm like, made up my mind, I'm going and it's hard to change my mind. And I just sometimes need to slow down. So that can be a blessing and a curse all at the same time. But I think decision making in like the professional world, and as a leader is like your number one job, well, maybe top five, like you, I think if you create like paralysis by analysis, or you pontificate too long, or you just delay delay delay that holds up so many other people in the organization, depending on your role, of course. But as a leader, I think one of the most important things you can do is make decisions. And they're not always going to be the fan favorite. But sometimes people are just looking for decisions. And that's and that's the job at the end of the day.
Mary Newville 18:14
Well, because I was gonna say that stuck out to me to Kristen, how like, you have this vision, you're like, This is my plan. I want to stay home mom, I'm it's I'm three months pregnant, I am resigning. Think about though how you have said many times you want articles to be a place where people can grow in their career and you talk about I don't want people having to leave to get that next promotion to make more money to grow. And you'll sometimes talk about like, if you see a need fulfilling command, your own destiny create your path here. And so when you were telling that story, it was reminding me of some of the things I've heard you say. So I feel like you personally like model really well, like creating your destiny per Chelsea's comments on your plan you. You go for it. Kind of jumping ahead there. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that? And then with that? Well, actually, no, I'm gonna pause. Does that I'm skipping too far ahead. But do you feel like your your propensity to do that for yourself is kind of what helps you encourage others to do it? Yeah,
Kristin Dean 19:19
I think so. Like, I think I've, I've learned that lesson, the hard way. But it's also proven to be something really impactful in a positive way in my life. And so I do think people get to control their own destiny, I do think you get to course your own path. I think nobody is thinking about you more than you. So it is up to you to make change if you want to make change. And I've done that a few times in my career that I've been had positive outcomes. And I think that that's why I encourage it so much. So when I was at a company in town called delegate, I was the VP of HR there. I was managing human resources and facilities. But then I also thought my lifelong dream had moved from stay at home mom, now I thought I needed to be a CEO. And so I started just like picking up all these tasks that were not necessarily in the HR and facilities realm. And I went to my CEO. And I said, you know, I see there's a, there's a pain here, there's a need here. And I think, here's what I can do to fill it. And I kind of wrote up a different job description, I thought I could start off by being the VP of operations. And so I started to manage HR facilities, but then also customer support customer success. And I loved it. And so he was like, yeah, that is the need, and I don't have headcount or budget to fill it, you can obviously do that work, too, if you want. And it's like, okay, great. Yeah, I do a great experience. And so then I became the VP of Operations and did that for about a year. And in really, what I learned about myself is that my strength really isn't HR. In facilities, it is not in customer success, or customer support. I am not the person you should call it to in the morning, when something breaks, I'm just not, I don't know how to help you. I don't know how to help the customer. Um, I can talk you through the emotion you might be feeling in that moment. But as far as fixing the technology, I'm not your gal. And so I learned that I really wanted to be good at being in HR and facilities and sticking to that, and just being the best I can be in that role. And so I ended up moving on letting go of the CEO dream. So Nick, your job is safe. anyone was ever worried, Lord help us all if that were to ever happen. Um, but I think it was a good lesson for me, because it wasn't a job opening. It wasn't a posting that I saw. But it was something that I thought that I wanted to do, and something I wanted to try and, and I just tried, and I failed. And I went on to something else that I thought I was good at. And that was a really good experience for me, because now, I'm where I'm supposed to be. I'm not supposed to be a CEO or anything other than what I'm doing today. And I love what I do today. And so it was a really great experience, not for just the fail and move on moment. But also I learned so much about the business that I would not have normally seen or been involved with in my current role. And I think that gives me a better perspective for what I'm doing today. So yeah, I am a huge believer in continuing to grow within a company. And that's why I always talk about like, even if it's not posted, even if you don't see it, it might not exist yet. But try something out and explore to see if there's pain points or gaps somewhere and what you can do to fill it. And I think it also starts from just saying yes, there were often times where I got promoted or put into a job simply because I was the garbage. I just picked up everything, like something would happen. And people were like, Oh, who wants to do this crappy job. And I was like, I'll do it. The only reason I started managing facilities is not because I'm amazing at real estate. Thank God, we have John for that. But it was because no one wanted to pick out carpet and paint at a company that I worked at a long time ago. And I was like, I'll do it. I'm like, Well, you have to come in on Saturday and do it. I'll do it. And and just because I was willing to help out and go outside of my lane, I think opportunities opened up for me that might not have necessarily been described or planned by the company or myself. And it's happened to work out in my favor. Sometimes. They haven't been a success, but it's been a good learning experience. And other times it's worked out well.
That was great. We're going to take a quick pause right now to hear a security win from one of our security services pack members.
John Grimm 23:52
My name is John Grimm, I'm a concierge security engineer three based out of Eden Prairie Minnesota. My win story is going to be talking about how our security operations center alerted and called out to one of our customers about a suspicious inbox role being created. After the customer was alerted, the customer was able to quickly go in and disable the user's account, revoke their sessions and change their password. During the post Investigation Phase, it was discovered the threat actor had been in the environment for a little over a week waiting to perform a BDC attack which was stands for business email compromise. That opportunity came when the user began email correspondence with a vendor regarding a contract and invoicing for some sort of a contract that they were dealing with. The threat actor saw this communication and then pounced at the opportunity. And as a result of our alerting and operational response, we were able to stop the threat before it made its way to accounting for payments.
Chelsea Lowman 24:52
The speaking of you know recognizing that your passion and your interest in your and your calling is in human rights. services and facilities. What is one thing about leading HRM? Facilities? are what's one of the hardest parts of leading HR facilities that most people would be surprised to learn?
Kristin Dean 25:13
Okay, so I think the hardest thing about leaving HR and facilities or that maybe people don't know is 99% of my job is confidential. So I don't get to tell everyone what I work on all the time. So it may look like I'm not doing anything. But I think the confidentiality piece, and especially our team here at article, if we do a really good job at this, it's extremely important. It's the the pillar of our HR team, for sure, is having confidentiality and treating that with respect. And so I think that can be hard sometimes, because not everyone knows exactly what you're going through each day, or what you're working on. And that's okay. But it is sometimes can be challenging. The other thing, I think maybe that is challenging that people don't know about is specifically in HR, there's no right answer. So you guys know this really well. We do a lot of things that we try to appeal to a lot of people in the company. But thankfully, we have people in the company that come from different backgrounds, different experiences have different values. And so there's no way we will ever get it right, the entire employee population will be like, will never say yes, this is exactly what I want for me because of what I've experienced what I believe what I believe to be true. And so it's very challenging, knowing that there's, you're never gonna get it right. But you still have to try every day to move the needle, make progress, not perfection, and continue to have everyone's interests at heart. And I think if you lead with kindness again, and you work really hard at that, and you think about how other people feel, and you want them to feel like they belong, and they feel connected, and they feel included when they come to work. If you leave with those things, you might not get it. 100%. Right. But we'll continue to move in the right direction. What about you guys? What would you say is one of the hardest parts about your jobs that no one knows about?
Chelsea Lowman 27:22
I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head with the last with your last comment specifically, around not pleasing everyone, or not being able to please everyone. And then I think also just getting the word out. And there's there's no, there's no avenue where we know everyone is reading this email, everyone is looking at this slack. Everyone is tuning in to the exact same place. So it's also hard everyone is listening to this podcast. I mean, I hope so. I
Kristin Dean 27:55
don't know, they might have started. I don't know if they're still with us. But I think
Chelsea Lowman 27:59
yeah, I think also just the challenge of like trying to communicate all of the great things that we're doing, and all of the resources and support and benefits that we have for our pack members, and trying to like meet them where they're at. Because everyone's so busy and multiple Slack channels. And, you know, we understand how things can get missed. So it's like trying to find the right way to reach people.
Mary Newville 28:22
The thing I was thinking was the second point you hit on Kristin and just how it is impossible to make everybody happy or to meet everybody's needs. And so just balancing the like, how do we remember the one and make a difference in as many individual people's lives as we can, as we're interacting with them in our interactions and how we serve and the things we do. But then trying to do the most good across the pack, just knowing there's never going to be any benefit or perk or initiative that meets everybody's needs and being able to just like sleep well at night knowing you know, we're doing the best. Yeah,
Kristin Dean 28:57
I think that, like you said the impact is really important too. And I hope people know how seriously we take that we do, for better or worse have an impact on people's lives. Right. And I think that is probably another hard piece. For me specifically. Personally, I think there it's no secret that I have hard conversations with people sometimes right and having that level of impact on someone's life is is is hard and you want to I always talk about we want to use our power for good, not evil. And we always want to make sure that we're giving people the benefit of the doubt. We're assuming positive intent. Treating people with dignity giving people choice. And I think if we continue to remind ourselves of those things and that's how we would want to be treated in that situation. And just know that yeah, there's we had to have tough skin because it's not always going to go the way people want it to but as long as we have our the right intentions. I think that's all we can do to like I said be able to sleep well at night and just keep working hard to make this the best place anyone's ever worked.
Chelsea Lowman 30:03
For me, this is still the best job I've ever had the best place I've ever worked. And we know Kristen, you always share that this is your favorite job. So what makes articles so special? In your opinion? Yeah, it's
Kristin Dean 30:15
so cliche. This is really my favorite job I've ever had, like, people always ask me like, What are you gonna do next? We're gonna, I'm like, I don't want to do anything. Next. I love my job, where would I go? I love it. And it really is because of the culture that we have here. The people that we have here. The teams like the HR and facilities team is second to none, like I have never worked with so many, like talented and fun and caring people in my career. And they all just happen to be here. And it's wonderful, and I love it. But also, I feel like I've been a part of a lot of executive teams and leadership teams, and I've never been so respected like I am here. I think people care about me as a person, not just like our small team that we have. But I think the executive team, I think CEO, Nick Schneider, I think everybody respects me and cares about me and I have a seat at the table. And I have all those things that one would want to have and a leadership position. And it doesn't come without hard conversations or confrontations or communication with candor, like we like to say, those are all really great things. And they're not immune to me. But I feel like I am trusted, that I'm respected and I am cared about professionally and as a person. And I haven't felt that way in my whole career. And so this is very special for me to come to work every day and know that I'm able to do what I do best and it's welcomed and people respected and care about it.
Mary Newville 31:53
Yeah, that's amazing. And I think it's cool to see the trickle down effect from that all the way from you mentioned Nick, the CEO you feeling cared for and seen by him. And then you feeling that way and you leading the HR function and facilities function at Arctic Wolf. And I know like my our leader reports to you and I feel super cared for and seen by her. And while I was about to say while our personal experiences might not mirror the rest of the pack, we actually know that it does, because manager support is our highest driver of engagement. I think our managers score 9.2 out of 10 in driving engagement at Arctic Wolf, so it's it's just amazing to see that, how it starts at the top and just permeates throughout our org and in helping pack members stay engaged through really caring and supportive leaders. Yeah, I agree. That's great. Speaking of leaders, how do you define leadership, Kristen, and how has your maybe leadership philosophies changed throughout the years if they have, or throughout your career. Um,
Kristin Dean 32:50
so my biggest responsibility as a leader specifically in the role I'm in now is to find the right talent and make sure they're in the right seat, and then fight like how to make sure they have everything they need to be able to do what they do best every day. And so I am really slow to hire for my team. I think as a leader, I'm, I'm tasked with getting things done throughout the organization just like everyone else, and I cannot be everywhere at once. And I need people on the team that I trust, and that represent the brand that I'm looking for, and lead with kindness and hard work, which is harder to find than you would think. And so that's my job to find those people to get them to come to Arctic Wolf. And then to make sure that they are happy and don't want to leave. And a lot of it is blocking and tackling and making sure that they have the tools they need to be successful. The time they have the time they need to do what they need to do throughout the day, we're setting the right expectations. In the organization, we're not signing up for too much, we're having a good work life balance, the mental health is a priority, and making sure that they love coming to work every day. And some days are harder than others, right? We all have good and bad days. But I really want specifically my direct reports because that's where I'm closest to when I'm hiring, but also the entire team and entire pack to just feel like I'm cared for. And I come to work and I get to do what I'm best at. And I think as a leader, that's what I'm supposed to do. Also, we go back to the decision making, I think I need to help the teams move along quickly too. We are a very fast organization. And we do not move fast without decisions. So anywhere I can either enable others to make decisions on my behalf, or I can help make a decision to keep people moving in the right direction. That's a big piece of what I should do each day.
Mary Newville 34:54
I've heard you talk about as well to your job being providing clarity so that People have clear expectations and know what's expected of them so they can be successful. And I think that's really helpful. I am inspired by that. Good.
Kristin Dean 35:09
Yeah, I mean, human nature is you just want to you want to do the right thing, and how can you do the right thing, if you don't know what it is. And it shouldn't be a secret, we should be transparent, we should give people clarity. So they know the expectation. And the nice thing is, is we're an employer, right, you get to sign up to come to work every day, you don't have to come to work every day. And so I think if we're clear with the expectations, and people like those expectations, they'll continue and want to come to work every day. And for those that don't, and don't resonate with the culture that we've established here, then they can work somewhere else, where something hopefully aligns to them differently. And so without those clear expectations, it's hard for us to really double down on the culture that we have, and get people that we want to be at article stay here,
Chelsea Lowman 35:58
touching a little bit more on leadership, what is the best piece of leadership advice you've ever received. And also, this podcast is coming out in March, it's Women's History Month. So I'm also just curious if there are any women, mentors, family, friends, just people that have inspired you throughout your career, both either personally and professionally, whatever you feel comfortable sharing.
Kristin Dean 36:23
So probably the biggest piece of advice was to adapt my style to my audience. And that like, as clear as day I can remember, a few companies ago, I was trying to help a CEO understand the point I was trying to make, and we were just missing each other. And you know, you've all had those emails where you write an email, and the other person writes an email and you keep missing each other. And then you'd like try and have a conversation, but you keep missing each other. And I, I just I didn't understand why he didn't understand. And I remember talking with the Chief Marketing Officer at the time at this other company. And she said to me, I said, Look at this email, it's so well written, look at how wonderful How could he not agree with me? And I turned my computer around, she goes, Oh, my gosh, he didn't even read your emails. And I'm like, why? Look at all the things that I put in there. She's like, Yeah, too many things, lots of things in there. And I'm like, what she's like, four bullets, stick to four bullets, if you're talking to a CEO, and I was like, watch, but then how do you know what I'm trying to say? Like, I had this epiphany in this moment of like, oh, the CEO is probably really busy, and does not want to read a book for me every morning. Right? And so but, you know, in other situations, someone does want to read and understand and have a lot of transparency and and see what goes on behind the scenes to, you know, figure out if they align with it or not, or, you know, have more of a debate, the CEO at the time, when I was writing that email, it did not. And so the point was, I learned that to understand the people that I work with, and the style in which they like to receive communication. So some leaders like to receive communication in Slack, others do not some like novel, some like three bullet points, four bullet points. Summary, the last sentence of every email first, that's me. And, and some want to go all the way through, understand all the facts and educate themselves and then get to the punchline, I often start my emails with punch line, or end of the story is just because I want to appeal to those learners as well. And the people that want to consume information quickly to be able to make a decision. And so understanding the people you're talking to, and talking how they want to receive communication or writing how they want to receive communication is really important, I think. And that was a big kind of lightbulb moment for me that I saw it actually pay off pretty quickly, is once I started to understand, Okay, I'm writing to this person, this is how I should communicate to them. Or I'm talking to this audience, and this is what they're gonna want to hear from me today. Understanding that and not just always coming from the place where you want to come from and your comfort, I think is really important. Figure out where other people are comfortable and meet them there.
Chelsea Lowman 39:27
So is that something at this point in your career? Do you just upfront ask people like how do you like to communicate? Or is it something that you've kind of learned the different styles and you can tell early on as you're working with people like, oh, maybe I should be a little bit more direct or they want the nuance in the novel?
Kristin Dean 39:46
Yeah, um, I think a couple different things. I think based on the position they have in the company, you can probably pretty quickly tell how much information they want. Sea level bullet points is your safest Right. And then I think there's other people where I'll start very formal. If I don't know you, I'll start very formal, and give a lot of context, I'll try and condense it at the top. But then I'll provide a backstory at the bottom of the email, in case that's the style, you want to receive the information. And once I get to know someone, I realized, boy, I always have to keep that long story in there, or I don't need to, I'm just gonna keep that one paragraph in there. But at the beginning of a relationship, I try and kind of package everything together, and then see what they're pulling out and gravitate towards that. And then I also play, pay close attention to how they communicate with me. And then just trying to make sure that if they're quick, if they just want bullets, if they're sending me quick emails with bullets, then I will reply in the same style. If they are sharing a lot of information and clearly want to go into a dialogue, then I'll do
Mary Newville 40:48
that as well. And so true, like just mirroring what you're seeing, I think this is like, I like your advice, because it's super practical. But it's also not just a blanket statement, like people do have to, you have to maybe ask or not assume and make some observations. But earlier in the podcast, you had said, nobody's thinking about you as much as you. And I think this is like a practical example of how you find success, like some of your success through not thinking about what you want, or how you would do it. But what is the people I'm interacting with? Like, what do they need? How did they community like, how can I serve them? Well,
Chelsea Lowman 41:28
I'm not I don't want us to skip because it's Women's History Month. Are there any women, CEOs, CEOs, mentors, people that have inspired you throughout your career?
Kristin Dean 41:38
Yeah, I already mentioned my first boss I ever had, her name is Sara Lee bins, she really still I just had dinner with her a couple months ago, I still have bounce ideas. At first, she is the epitome of leading with class and empathy, hard work, she is a duck on water, which I always say like, you want to be cool, calm and collected. Nobody needs to know the chaos that is behind the scenes. It's not good for anyone. And so she really did teach me a lot of things about the professional world. And then of course, my mom and my mother in law have been amazing pillars in my life. And they've both taught me different things, personally, and professionally, actually. And so there's some there a couple of people that I look up to the lab.
Mary Newville 42:27
Okay, we were talking about this earlier growth at Arctic Wolf and creating your destiny, but and from earlier in the conversation, you talked a lot about like find a need, see how you could potentially fill it say yes. Do you have other advice for PAC members, and how they can create their own destiny here and pursue growth? If that is their goal? Um,
Kristin Dean 42:50
yeah, I would say like all those things we talked about earlier, trying to carve out space for you to show different skill sets that might not be obvious in your day job. But then a bigger piece too, is don't be afraid of rejection and failure. So I can't remember I did this statistic a long time ago. And I forgot it's too many to count. But like, for how many promotions I've received, I've probably been declined for like 100 promotions, like, and I have no shame. And I have a terrible memory. And so I I love to continue to go after things that might be beyond where I should be. And because in those failure moments where someone might say you're not ready yet, or I'm glad you have interest in this, but it's not time, like you get such valuable feedback in that moment, because they're going to tell you why most often than not, or you can ask why. And then they might share a couple of nuggets with you, right. And so those are really impactful moments. And so often, I think we look at people's career and through their LinkedIn, and we see all these levels that they continue to climb. And you just think, oh, they would that was easy. They just moved to the next one, they just moved to the next one, but we don't see is like how many times they tried for it, and how many jobs they didn't get. And I think those moments are really important because how you show up in that moment, really creates what your next moment is going to look like. And so if you go for a promotion, or you go for another job, and maybe you didn't get it, how you handle that rejection, says a lot about your character and how you're going to handle the tough times in the job. And so I just encourage people to Yes, shoot for the stars go for your dreams, but when you miss or it doesn't happen. It's okay. You know, you gotta handle it with grace, get back up, try hard again. And one day it will work out if you keep working hard for it and you keep acting with kindness and you keep you know, showing up the way that you should. If you pout or if you're frustrated. If you're angry, or if you just give up and blame others, that's never going to work out. You have to let all that go and just keep fighting and trying your best
Chelsea Lowman 45:11
feel like we need to clip that out and make it its own little. Yeah, we can share with pack members.
Kristin Dean 45:19
Only through all of my failures and rejections. Well, that didn't work out, I'm just gonna have bad day after bad day if I don't learn to live through. Well, as
Chelsea Lowman 45:29
you were sharing earlier about the different styles of communication that also got me thinking as we continue to grow globally, obviously, there's lots of different, you know, styles of communication between our media PAC members and our North America PAC members. So could you just touch on maybe what are some of the challenges as we like scale and grow? And then your thoughts on how we stay connected, and we continue to build our culture? Yeah,
Kristin Dean 45:57
the biggest challenge for us, has been the pace at which we grow. I mean, last year, we hired 1000 people in a year, and they were all across the globe. And when you scale at the level, we've scaled, your culture automatically changes, there's automatically information you forget to tell the 1000s of people that you hired. And so it's just, it's challenging to grow at that pace. And the important piece, when you look at expansion across the globe, is thinking about it from a global lens to for a long time, mistakes I made were, okay, well, this is how I think about it. This is how we would do it in the US. So let's just mirror it because we want it to be similar. And we want everyone to be treated fairly around the world. And when we flip that around, and we say, well, let's go to another country, and what would be fair there? And how do they view it? Let's not push our views, even though we had great intentions, and I, I wanted to just treat everyone the way I wanted to be treated right? There is a way for us to step outside of that and ask more than tell, hey, from your perspective, if you're in our Germany office or UK office are based in New around the world, what would you like to do? How would you approach this situation? What is this culture look like for you? And I think once we listen more, that will be even more impactful and help our culture continues to grow. Also, I believe culture has to be intentional. I think people look at companies with great culture, and you're like, Oh, well,
that just worked out.
That's great. But for them, you know, unfortunately, I work at a company that doesn't have great culture, when actually it's very intentional, right in it. Little things happen along the way. There's budget dollars set aside for there's communication channels set aside for it. And so I know, Chelsea and Mary, you guys are great at this. And you lead a lot through our culture and Slack channels and our meetups and everything you guys do to create a connection across the world. Users are wonderful at that. And that's really intentional, right. And we have budget dollars set aside for that. But also the intentionality has to come from the employee base too. So we need to create ways where people can be intentional about making their own culture. What can they do? Can they create subgroups? Can they create their own Slack channels? Can they create meetups? And so I think focusing on asking more questions and doing more listening, as we continue to grow is going to be really important for me and for us, as a team to push power to the edge, push budget to the edge and see what other people can do to continue to create a great culture.
Chelsea Lowman 48:36
Yeah, I loved what you were sharing there around, you know, some of the mistakes early on as we were moving into EMEA, and thinking, Oh, well, let's just replicate what we've done in North America, because we know it works well. And it kind of got me thinking kind of loose connection. But the difference between, like diversity and equity, right? It's like, we want diversity. We want diversity of thought experience. But then equity is that piece of like, but how are we ensuring that we're providing the right resources support, so that they can thrive at the same rate? And it might be different than what we're doing here in North America?
Kristin Dean 49:11
Yeah. And I think when we know better, we do better. Right? Trisha always says that, like I think as long as we listen, and we learn, and we change, and we don't have an ego about the things that we created, I always say, please call my baby ugly, right? Like whatever I started five years ago is completely wrong. Show me it's long. Please make it better, please. And I think we just need to be humble about that and know that what we did a few years ago, six months ago yesterday might not be the right answer. We just have to let it go and ask what could be a better option and then dive all in.
Chelsea Lowman 49:48
While we really love, baby, analogies and HR, I feel like we're always like we're not saving babies. We're not curing. Common baby ugly. Yeah.
Mary Newville 50:02
Well, I was just gonna say so many good nuggets and wisdom, lots of great stuff here. Kristin, we are coming to the end of our time, but and we always like to end with rapid fire questions. But before we do, we've been asking all of our leaders, a wellness question, how do you prioritize wellbeing for yourself and your team's? What does that look like? mental physical?
Kristin Dean 50:20
Yeah, self care, I feel like I could do a whole podcast and you guys want to do a podcast on self care, I do all the things. I love this topic. So like years ago, I looked at self care as, oh, I got to get a massage, or I need time away from my kids, or I want to be alone and read a book. And now I look at it a lot more from my mental health and preparing for each day. And in the last couple of years, I've taken a way bigger look at my sleep, and specifically my circadian rhythm, just making sure I'm monitoring my sleep wake time, and setting myself up. So each day I can be at peak performance. Not that I'm an athlete, but peak performance for coming to work every day, I care a lot about my mental clarity and getting the right amount of sleep and the right nutrition and the right level of exercise and vitamins and all the things that go along with that to make sure that I'm putting my health first. And when I do that, and that we say don't do that 100% of time. But I noticed when I do do that I am a way better person, when I'm coming into work every day, I'm a way better person when I'm going home to my family every day. And so I I prioritize self care a lot. And hopefully, I would like to think I lead by example, because I really want the team to do that as well. Like if you leave at lunch to go workout or you take a walk or you see the sun is out and you want to get sunlight because that is such an important thing of our daily basis that we don't necessarily get in Minnesota in the winter all the time. Like I do really think that that is a huge priority that we all need to do every single day. And you have to carve out your time. And that's why I love our flexible environment is some days, like this morning, I did a workout. And then I did a cold plunge. And then I did some meditation. And then I came in and I didn't get here till nine, right. And then now I can work as long as I need to. But I can also go pick up my kids from volleyball, and then I can log back in later at night if I need to. And so having that flexibility is really important. And then we should all use that to our advantage. So tomorrow, I have to drop my kids off at school. So I'll be here at 730 ish or something in the morning. But then hopefully I can get a workout in the evening or do something else that I need to do for self care, and maybe take a lunch or go for a walk or do whatever I need to do. But when I make that a priority, which I have been in the last year and a half, I've noticed a really big difference in just my my anxiety, my product output, my clarity, my ability to handle conflict, just everything that I approach in a day is a little bit easier if I spent some time doing self care the day before.
Mary Newville 53:11
Yeah, so good. I totally agree. I used to be someone that would like neglect, like everything at the expense of my self care and like the inverse of seeing how much better I am for everybody in my life. And for what I do. It's so much better when I'm taking care of myself. Well,
Kristin Dean 53:27
I agree. We can do this one offline too. And everyone who's listening that's heard me talk about this. I'm sorry. But I do love the topic. And I think it's so important. So thanks for the question.
Mary Newville 53:41
Yeah, well, if you want any like tips and tricks or what health things you're using biohack
Kristin Dean 53:53
Wait, what was that? I was trying to
Mary Newville 53:55
think of biohacking, but I couldn't think of the word for like when you use technology to like optimize your performance. Yeah. Because I know you use that you have different things that you use. So
Kristin Dean 54:06
I love it. Lots of lots we should we could do like a Slack channel. So we don't like bore everyone else with my life hacks. And I'd love to hear of yours as well.
Chelsea Lowman 54:21
You should share some in the werewolves channel or in mental health and well being. Yeah, we're about to do our spring wellness challenge. So that would be the perfect time for you to drop in some
Kristin Dean 54:32
nuggets. sleep wake time acupuncture mats, cold clients. We got it all.
Mary Newville 54:38
Okay, love it.
Speaker 1 54:41
Okay, well, we as Mary said, we like to end every episode with our rapid fire. So these are just fun questions. First thing that comes to your mind. Don't think too hard. Okay. Best concert of your life.
Kristin Dean 54:54
Best concert. My husband had a birthday I surprised him on his birthday. You woke him up and we flew to Chicago to see Pearl Jam at Wrigley Field. That was super wild.
Chelsea Lowman 55:05
Oh, that is amazing.
Kristin Dean 55:10
Every birthday it's happened once for a little bit of a disappointment, but it was really great
Chelsea Lowman 55:17
time. That's like your parents waking you up and taking you to Disney. Yeah, but the adult we're gonna go to Chicago and a concert. I'm not gonna lie. I was expecting Beyonce, but this is still a good. This is a good favorite concert. Oh,
Kristin Dean 55:32
I bet I bet if I went to on the run.
Chelsea Lowman 55:35
True. True. Yeah.
Kristin Dean 55:39
Full Circle.
Chelsea Lowman 55:39
Okay, your favorite word? I don't have
Kristin Dean 55:45
I guess if you searched my emails, I say awesome. Too much. I could probably eliminate that.
Chelsea Lowman 55:56
It's a good word. I keep it a place on your bucket list. Um,
Kristin Dean 56:04
I really want to go to Turks and Caicos. I've never been I hear.
Chelsea Lowman 56:08
Have you guys been? I've been? Yes. Well, I was part of a crew. So I was only there for like a day. But clearest water I've ever seen in my entire life. It was highly recommend. Okay, give us a snapshot of an ordinary moment in your life that has brought you joy.
Kristin Dean 56:27
This weekend was very ordinary. I spent the entire weekend in a gym. My kids play basketball and volleyball. And we were at both both days. And there's nowhere else I'd rather be. It's horrible fluorescent lighting. I don't see sunshine. They're terrible. My kids are okay. They're the cutest and they smile the entire time. And I smile the entire time and I just love it. I don't know what I'm going to do when they don't play sports or they move on because it is my favorite thing to do on a Saturday and Sunday.
Chelsea Lowman 57:08
I love that. That does sound like a great moment. Okay, that was the rapid fire you survived the podcast. Yes, thank you so much for being on the podcast and sharing so many gems and not gets an I think this will be a really inspirational episode for a lot of pack members too, just to know that the individual that's leading their their human resources and facilities team really cares about them as a human. And were people centric first. And I think that really came across today too. So well,
Kristin Dean 57:45
I have to say, when you guys brought me this idea, what was it like six months ago?
I was like, Okay,
here's another crazy idea. Let's like, okay, let's give it a whirl, guys. All right, let's give it a whirl. And just loving it. Like you guys are rocking it out in the park. I think he's so creative. I've watched every episode. And I've learned so much. I mean, Dan chapeau referenced a book, I bought it read it was great. I learned. Like I just feel like these are so important. And you guys are hitting great topics. You're asking great questions. And again, nobody knows how hard you prepare for this and how much you work at it and how much time and energy it takes. And you both are crushing it. So thank you. You're making articles a better place going back to my job is to hire top talent. Very, I've hired you twice. Through our life together. And Chelsea is just the first of many. You guys are awesome. You make me look good. You make our team look good. So thank you so much for everything you do for the packet. It pays off, and we're better because of it. Yes.
Chelsea Lowman 59:04
Thank you so much. Wow, what a great conversation with Kristen. It was so fun to have her on the podcast so that everyone can get to know her way that we know
Mary Newville 59:14
her. Yeah, I loved it. That was fun. Yeah.
Chelsea Lowman 59:17
Okay, so it is March. It's Women's History Month, as we've mentioned. So we've got a lot of fun events throughout the month. If you're in an office, we're doing a fun headshots and happy hour event. And we'll have some various webinars as well for all of my remote pack members. We are also in the middle of our well wolf spring wellness challenge. So hopefully you're participating in that and make sure that you are in the well Wolf's Slack channel. And as part of that we're really pushing PTO usage so if you've not used your PTO to go ahead and schedule that everyone at the pack gets three days to use how they see fit to serve their local community. And if you have any questions you can head to the Pack Gives Back Slack channel as well. And just a lot of fun stuff as we wrap up March and then head into the last month of the fiscal year, which is wild.
Mary Newville 1:00:18
It is wild fiscal year 25 is right around the corner. Thank you so much for listening. Hopefully, you enjoyed getting a peek into Christian world Christians world and just what she has done to create the unique culture that we have here at Arctic Wolf. If you're part of the pack we hope you finish the closest episode feeling connected and inspired and proud to be part of this community that we call the path and if you're not part of the pack, but want to join us on our mission to end say we're we're joined us on our mission to end cyber risk and to create a flourishing world safer world for all. Check out our open job positions at Arctic wolf.com backslash careers