Today we’d like to introduce you to Katlin Younts.
Thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, how did you get started?
My story starts with a couple of hundred acres and some cattle. My town was so small. My high school comprised 4 towns, and my graduating class was in the 50s. All I knew was the farm and the people I went to school with. I wasn’t the “popular” girl; I wasn’t the star athlete, and my family didn’t have the well-known last name in the county. I went to school and went home to work on the farm for most of my childhood. I wanted to be different than everyone else. I knew that much. Around there, you either wanted to be a nurse, a hairstylist, or a teacher, or you went back to work on the farm after you graduated. Not me, so I went to college and learned about digital media. A small-town girl experiencing college was like culture shock.
You meet so many different people and learn so many different things. I saw the world in a different light and wanted to do something great. To graduate college, I needed an internship to complete my degree. 2A Marketing was gracious enough to let me intern with them in the summer of 2020. Before I started the internship or met the CEO, he called me and told me they were looking to add a communications position at their company. He was intrigued with how I organized the internship that he wanted to offer me, so the internship was a “trial run” to see if I wanted the job. After the internship, I was hired as 2A Marketing’s Client Relations Specialist.
I became the “central hub” of the agency. I helped bring organizational stability to 2A Marketing by reorganizing their client customer database and developing a system to track the workflow between clients. I helped identify strengths and pain points and assisted with developing and redefining processes throughout each department. All with no prior experience beforehand, and I was only 22. They put trust in me as an individual fresh out of college to come in and assist with the agency’s growth. To this day, I help lead a team of marketing professionals at 24 years old and sit in leadership meetings to help improve processes, assist with anything each staff member needs to succeed in their work, and help the agency grow. I had a couple of opportunities to visit Belton High School and talk with first-year students about career options and how they can prepare themselves for the future. On International Womens Day in March 2022, I attended a women’s conference hosted by the Belton Chamber of Commerce and did my first public speaking event. I gave an inspirational speech after only 2 weeks’ notice of it and spoke about the impact of surrounding yourself with the right people. After my speech, multiple women reached out to me to tell me how much my speech inspired them. I was not expecting this at all. Since then, I’ve become an advocate for women in business. I recently started my “Women Who Mean Business” community and hope to grow it. I help inspire and motivate women to be the best that they can be and take what I’ve learned from 2A Marketing to help women with their businesses.
We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
You can only achieve success with life’s challenges along the way! I’ve endured many challenges from a death in the family, a bad car accident, bad relationships, all of it. When I was 18, I lost my uncle to cancer just a few days before my high school graduation. One of the most important days of my life, and I had lost someone. I will always remember the text I got from my aunt the day after. “He always said, “That girl will go far.” To this day, that stuck with me. I wanted to make something of myself and knew I could do it. Even though he’s not here to see it, I push on to make him proud and live up to his thoughts about me. As I grew older, I felt there were times I wasn’t taken seriously as a woman or because of my age. So many times, I’ve had men surpass me when I tried to help, and they would request a man help them instead. I tried hard not to let it bother me, but sometimes it does, and you can’t help it. As a woman growing up in the farming community, you were bound to have some men look down on you. “Do you even know what you’re doing?” I’ve heard that a lot too. I am not the most experienced person in the world either, but I know to my core I have a strong work ethic. Many times, however, I would experience people ridiculing young people and how “lazy” we were. Even if I was standing there working, I still had to hear it. I believe there is no such thing as a “smooth road” because we all have challenges to test us. It depends on what you learn and how you make of it. It doesn’t matter what your age, gender, race is, or where you come from. You can do just about anything you set your mind to. You can decide where you want to go and how you want to get there. I try to be good and inspire people no matter what is said to me, how I am treated, or what life throws my way.
Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Being a part of 2A Marketing allows me to help people make their businesses the best they can be. I keep track of what each team member is responsible for, for each client. I use my organizational and management skills to track how much time our team spends on each client and what is being done and deliver monthly reports. Scheduling meetings with clients and things of that nature are primarily done through me. I help identify new possibilities with current clients and discuss them with the team while examining our marketing efforts for each client (ads, websites, FB posts, etc.) and checking/reviewing for errors and quality. I’m most proud of being a part of such an amazing team. Finding a job with individuals who care so much about you and your success is hard. I “m the youngest person on the team, and not one person minds when I step in and help or give them tasks.
Who else deserves credit for your story?
I could write a book on people who deserve credit for helping me along the way. Aside from my uncle, my mother has been one of my biggest supporters. She encouraged me to go out and see the world and influenced my outgoing spirit. My father taught me always to stand my ground and not be the person always asking for handouts to make my way. My professor in college, Dr. Joseph Moore, helped me see my potential in myself. I am one of my biggest critics, and he helped me see what I could do. The team at 2A Marketing has also been a big part in all of this. If I needed anything, I knew they would make it happen, and if I needed someone to talk to, they would be there. I also couldn’t possibly leave out my soon-to-be husband. He changed my life in more ways than one.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://2amarketing.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_k.a.t.i.e23_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/705122287387075/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-younts-696b7a19a/
Image Credits
SW Photography
