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Kris Taylor’s 30+ years work experience are rich in variety – from Fortune 200 (14 years) to non-profit (10 years) to leading her own consulting firm, Evergreen Leadership, since 2004. Over 50 organizations have partnered with Kris and her firm in the last seven years to implement successful change.
Kris is also the author of The Leader’s Guide to Turbulent Times: a practical, easy-to-use guide to leading in today’s times and Owning It: Take Control of Your Life, Work, and Career.
Katie McNamee founded Elevate Online, a marketing agency, in 2016 after graduating from Purdue University. Since then she’s helped dozens of businesses create meaningful relationships with their customers and increase their digital marketing ROI.
Katie is also the creator of the DailyLift Journal + Weekly Checklist.
LEAP captures the essence of my career as a consultant. In 2004 I took a LEAP of faith, jumping from a solid 14 year run with a Fortune 200 company into consulting. I didn’t know what I was doing; I just knew I wanted to do the work in organizational change and transformation that I had come to love. I knew nothing about running a small business, but I had always been enamored by the idea of doing something that was totally mine.
But LEAP I did.
In May of 2004 I formed K. Taylor & Associates and got started on a career journey that has been rich, rewarding and an excellent choice for me. By definition, a LEAP requires a move from solid footing into something less certain, less stable. And since that initial LEAP from corporate to consulting, there have been many other smaller LEAPS. I rebranded as Evergreen Leadership in 2011 with a sharper focus on leadership and the work I felt compelled to do.
Later that year I began to teach entrepreneurship at Purdue University. A year later I began to blog and write in earnest. In 2014 I published my first book, The Leader’s Guide to Turbulent Times: A practical, easy to use guide to leading in todays’ times.
LEAPS are typically a bit difficult – and that has certainly been the case for me. A career in consulting challenges me every day. I am challenged to stay abreast of my industry. I am challenged to do my best work for my clients, which means I am continually investing in myself. I am challenged to share my work with the world, carving out space as a thought leader.
A LEAP propels you upward. My income potential is better than what I would earn inside an organization. I am filled with a sense of purpose. I have more time for myself and doing the other things in life I enjoy.
LEAPS are joyful as well. One of my greatest joys is helping others step up and into their potential. I met Katie McNamee in the Purdue class I developed and taught at Purdue. After her graduation I helped her launch her consulting business right out of college. With that another passion was ignited. I knew that all I had learned in my journey could help others create a career that was rewarding, financially lucrative, fun and flexible.
Katie and joined forces and founded LEAP in 2017, to help others do what she and I have been able to do and hopefully to avoid some of the mistakes I’ve made along the way. With LEAP came my second book, Owning It: Take Control of your Life, Work and Career (the joys, opportunities and risks of becoming a consultant).
Since 2017 we’ve helped others make the LEAP. It’s been fun. It’s been challenging in good ways. It’s been rewarding. And so for me, I just plan on continuing to LEAP and to help others do the same.
In spring 2016, I sat in Kris’s consulting capstone course at Purdue University and looked ahead to my inevitable graduation. I’d be leaving Purdue with Highest Distinctions for my degree in Public Relations and Strategic Communications and my Certificate in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. I had a solid digital marketing skillset and a small portfolio, but I didn’t know my exact direction.
When Kris offered a digital marketing internship for Evergreen Leadership, I jumped on it, and she gladly accepted me. As part of her internship, she spent one hour weekly on professional development. Through these discussions, we realized that I was both called and well-positioned to start my own small, digital marketing firm.
From these talks, Elevate Online came into creation. That summer, I launched as a one-woman agency doing anything from graphic design to social media posts. Since then, Elevate Online has grown as I’ve gained experience, worked with dozens of clients, improved my skillset, and found my passion.
As my LinkedIn page states, living at the intersection of strategy and creativity, I make fantastic digital marketing results happen for my clients! I use influencer outreach, affiliate marketing, content marketing, and web design to generate significant ROI and create real, meaningful relationships between brands and their customers.
Choosing this career path was the best possible choice I could have made.
I love the ability to partner with my chosen clients, help them better define and understand their goals, and put together fun, creative marketing that helps them succeed. I love the work, like seeing how one strategic, influencer campaign can bring in big results for clients. I love my freedom to travel and bring my work with me on my laptop. I love that I can recharge my way throughout the day, whether that’s a dog walk or a ten-minute yoga session.
This isn’t to say there aren’t hard days. There are, but overall I don’t mind them because it means that I’m getting to have this very fulfilling career and life.
When I was speaking at Purdue recently, someone asked me if I had a back-up plan when I first launched Elevate Online. At first, I laughed and said no! But then I said, “My back-up was, well, I could always just get a job.”
I shared this exchange with my mom. She laughed and said, “It’s funny because you don’t consider what you’re doing a job!” And I realized that she was right!
I believe that what I’m doing is part of filling my overall calling. I’m building and creating something that betters this world. I find great satisfaction from my work, and it’s something that I hope others find, too.
