Kristen Johnson — How do you launch a company during a global pandemic?

Kristen Johnson grew up in a family of entrepreneurs and always dreamed of starting her own business. But she never took the leap—until she was forced to. A COVID layoff was the push she needed to reimagine her career trajectory. Two days later, she began working on her own marketing company. Since becoming an entrepreneur, she has gained more challenging work, impact, and time with her family. We talk about her layoff as a blessing, how to launch a business during the pandemic, and why her definition of success changed.

What was your career like before your layoff during COVID?

I've worked in marketing my whole career. It's also what I went to school for (in addition to entrepreneurship) and I went into the advertising industry right out of college. I climbed that ladder—for 12 years, across two cities, and four agencies. 

And then, family came into the picture, and my career started changing from there. I didn’t have a family at the time but I wanted to work in an industry that was family friendly. So I went into education. I got pregnant about a year into working there. And even though it was an industry that was good for family, I felt like I was sacrificing both on the career side and on the family side. 

When I got laid off, it gave me the opportunity to really assess what I wanted to do.

What were you thinking about when you were laid off during a global pandemic?

Well for most of my career, I thought about becoming an entrepreneur. I was always thinking about entrepreneurial ideas and I would do things on the side. And then, becoming a mom, I realized there were things I wanted that I wasn’t able to find in a corporate setting. So about six months before I was laid off, I started to seriously think about what I wanted to do. To the point where I had reached out to some people to ask about how they transitioned out of the corporate world and into entrepreneurship.  

But I was scared to take the ultimate leap. I had a steady salary. My job was fine. I had flexibility, even though it still wasn’t enough, that I couldn't get at other companies. So I was too scared to leave my job. Then—I got laid off. I had the choice of going back into the job market and finding something full time. Or, I could take this as an opportunity to move forward with what I had already been thinking about in the back of my mind. 

My layoff was in June, three months into the pandemic. At the time that I got laid off, there was a storm of so many factors swirling around. I was commuting an hour each way to my office and barely making the daycare drop off and pick up for my son. Then with the pandemic we chose to take our son out of daycare and rely on childcare help from family nearby. 

So I was focused on this career dream I had always been thinking about. And I was also thinking about the pandemic and all the impacts it had on our family. 

You said your steady paycheck is a big reason you never left. But after the layoff, you chose to forego stability (finding another job) and go for your entrepreneurial dream. What changed? 

It’s true, I could have gone back into the job market and found another stable salary. I think my mindset changed because of two things. 

One is flexibility. Even in a good, family-friendly environment where I had reasonable hours and worked with a lot of other parents—I still had a really hard time. I had a one-hour commute each way to my office. I had a full day of work. And I only had daycare for nine hours. The math didn’t add up. I was always running around. Since I became pregnant, I had looked at other companies to see if they would offer a more flexible environment that was also challenging enough for my career. When I found something that would be really challenging and rewarding, I was worried it would not be a flexible environment—especially before the pandemic when the conversations about flexibility were less open. I had done a good amount of research trying to find the right thing, and I didn’t feel like I would find something.

And then there was the pandemic. I really liked the lifestyle working from home, which I got a taste of while working at the beginning of the pandemic. I really liked not having to commute. I really liked not having to worry about safety during the pandemic and having the flexibility to take our son out of daycare. So my husband and I decided that I would focus on launching the business for three months and see what happens. If it didn’t work out, then I could go back to the job market and find a corporate role. 

And also, there was this feeling that the universe was telling me, “this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for.”

A layoff, a global pandemic, and three months to build something! Where did you start?

I come from an entrepreneurial family. My dad has been an entrepreneur for most of my life. My sister teaches entrepreneurship to high school students. My husband and I studied entrepreneurship in college. So the idea of entrepreneurship is very embedded in me. I already had an idea of what it was like to be an entrepreneur because I saw it in my family. That was an important first step. 

But tactically, here’s what I did. Two days after I got laid off I put up a website. And then I talked to as many people as possible. I went through my LinkedIn network and asked my former colleagues and anyone with relationships in the industry to keep their eye out for opportunities. I also reached out to people who started their own advertising agencies. In the first month I had over 20 calls.

I told myself I needed to have activities every week. I saw that as a measure of success. I interviewed other small business owners, I attended virtual conferences, I became a part of startup groups, I reconnected with people in my network. Talking with people helped me refine what I was offering. 

I got my first project two months after I started. It was small, but it proved there was something there. Other people see value in what I provide. From there, I found a couple other clients who I’m still working with now a year later.

What was it like to start a company during a global pandemic? Did the pandemic help or hurt?

The pandemic made networking easier. At the height of the pandemic everyone was home and there were a lot of remote opportunities for networking. It made it a lot more accessible to me, considering I was the primary person taking care of my toddler. If I had in-person meetings all the time that I needed to drive to, I wouldn’t have been able to do it. But I could easily ask my husband to watch my son for 30 minutes at a time or schedule calls during my son’s nap.

The other thing is that businesses have become more comfortable with remote work. My business provides a fractional Chief Marketing Officer service to small businesses. Companies hire us as a part-time CMO before they’re ready for a full-time hire. A lot of companies traditionally liked working with people in person. But with the pandemic, a lot of companies and entrepreneurs don’t have a choice and they’re now comfortable working with a remote marketing team

What’s the best advice you received?

When I first started my business I talked to my dad who was an entrepreneur and has seen a lot of ups and downs in his career. He was really good about being realistic with me—that this was going to be hard work and that it would go up and down. With that in mind he stressed to me that I should try to come up with a business idea that I would be okay doing for free. That was great advice. Another piece of great advice is to focus, and to focus on what you are good at. Because you are the brand at the start. 

So I had my dad’s advice, and then other people saying similar things, in my mind. When I started my company I knew I wanted to help businesses with marketing but beyond that, I didn’t really know. I kept thinking about what I would be willing to do for free and focusing on what is unique to me, what my strengths are, and what my passions are. That’s how I landed on my focus today—helping entrepreneurs of education companies with their marketing. 

I’m passionate about entrepreneurship. And I’m passionate about education. Marketing is my expertise. And what’s awesome is that this is the first time in my career where I’m happy every week. I don’t dread going to work like I have before. It makes it a lot easier when you like what you are doing. 

How did you define success when you were working in corporate roles? And how do you define success today as a small business owner?

Salary was one of them. I’ll just be honest about that. I also thought about leadership roles and being in a position to drive things and make decisions. And I also wanted to feel challenged and be learning something new.  

How I see success has evolved today. Money is still important and it drives me. But it’s not at the forefront as much. Now that I have a child, I’m more comfortable sacrificing money if it means more time with my son. My focus on leadership has gone down because I don’t have a big team and I’m not driven by visibility in a corporate organization. But learning—that has accelerated.

So I think it’s the same things—money, leadership, learning—but in different order. Before I thought about leadership and money. Now the learning and the challenge is most important, followed by money and leadership.

What do you wish more companies would do to support working parents?

One tactical thing is I wish companies would make more public how they support parents. It’s one thing to say on your website that you are a welcoming working environment for parents, but what do you actually do?

The biggest thing is flexibility. It’s crazy to me that people are expected to work 9 to 5 or 9 to 6—and yet, school for kids runs from 8:30 to 3:00. That just doesn’t make sense. So flexible schedules are the biggest thing. Now I work in the morning during my son’s half-day school schedule, I might pop in a little during the afternoon, and then I work at night after he goes to bed. The 9 to 5 needs to go away. I think there should be some period of the day that you’re available in order to collaborate—but other than that, you don’t need to be available the whole day. Let parents do work on their own time, whether it’s at night or on the weekends or early mornings. The rigidity of a 9 to 5 schedule is the ultimate problem.

When you look back, do you see your layoff as a blessing? 

100% my layoff was a blessing. It was the opportunity I was waiting for. 

Thank you, Kristen, for sharing your story! You can connect with Kristen on LinkedIn and learn more about her fractional CMO company Wise Marketing Strategy.