70. Katie Burke, Chief People Officer at HubSpot
"The best possible way to start my career was not getting what I wanted. Failure teaches you a lot, and it helped me figure out a path to success that worked for me." —Katie Burke
Katie Burke is the Chief People Officer at HubSpot, a marketing software company in Boston that employs more than 2,300 people worldwide. And of those 2,300, Katie was the company's first female to land a spot in the c-suite. (Today, 45 percent of the company's vice presidents are women.) In this super inspiring conversation, Katie shares why she's so passionate about empowering women in the workplace, and candidly opens up about her own massive career failures — including how bombing the LSATs turned out to be the best thing that could've happened to her. She offers up interviewing advice, explains why prospective employees should add "we" to their vocabularies, and shares the one word she's trying to add to her own life.
Katie is the oldest of six kids, and she has a fascinating family story. Her dad, Brian Burke, is extremely well-known in the hockey world, and her brother, Brendan, was a hockey player at Miami Ohio when he famously came out as gay to his teammates — and the world. Brendan was later killed in a tragic car accident, and Katie gladly shared stories of his incredible legacy with me.
Of course, Katie is also a runner. She's a four-time marathoner and 20+-time half-marathoner, and she's currently training for the Popular Brooklyn Half Marathon in May.
Apologies for the slightly off audio on this one! Despite recording in a professional podcast studio, I had the audio settings wrong on my computer. Don't let a little echo deter you from this fantastic conversation!
What you'll get on this episode:
- What it means to be a Chief People Officer, and how Katie landed this job (1:53)
- Katie's advice for getting over a fear of failure (7:00)
- How Hubspot has grown and evolved since Katie became the first woman in the company's c-suite (8:00)
- The best — and worst — things Katie says prospective employees can say in an interview (9:45)
- Why Katie is so passionate about empowering women (12:55)
- What Katie tells people who say she got her job "because she's a girl" (14:15)
- Where Katie's confidence comes from (18:30)
- Katie's "strong opinion" on mentors, and why she believes in having a "personal board of advisors" (19:35)
- Katie's biggest piece of advice for women in the workplace (21:10)
- The greatest challenge Katie faces at her job (25:30)
- Katie's take on work perks and whether they actually matter (28:00)
- What it's like coming from a big — and very high-achieving — family, and the challenges of having a father who's in the public eye (29:30)
- Katie's running story, and how she prioritizes workouts with a demanding schedule (39:30)
- The advice Katie would give to her younger self (45:45)
What we mention on this episode:
"Because I'm a Girl" via Huffington Post
"This 1 Word Will Help You Do Less and Achieve More in 2018" via Inc.
"We love you, this won't change a thing" via ESPN
Follow Katie:
Follow Ali:
Listen & Subscribe:
SUPPORT the Ali on the Run Show! If you're enjoying the show, please subscribe and leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Spread the run love. And if you liked this episode, share it with your friends!
Available Results
Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.
Choose Template
Pick the result you want. You can review provider and model before generating.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
Repeatable methods, frameworks, mental models, processes, and systems.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.
A concise first-pass summary for understanding the episode quickly.
A detailed readable summary organized by chapter or topic.
A navigable map of subjects, topic flow, and suggested chapters.
A comprehensive, source-grounded extraction of the reusable knowledge in an episode.
Reusable atomic knowledge units extracted from the episode.
A comprehensive extraction focused on health practices, protocols, claims, and safety caveats.
A comprehensive extraction focused on opportunities, strategy, markets, and company building.
Scientific findings, mechanisms, studies, hypotheses, and the limits of the evidence discussed.
Technologies, AI models, technical methods, capabilities, limitations, and adoption implications.
Investment theses, assets, catalysts, valuation reasoning, time horizons, and risks.
Chronologies, actors, causes, consequences, turning points, and competing historical interpretations.
Policies, proposals, stakeholders, arguments, implementation constraints, and predicted effects.
Career paths, skills, hiring signals, workplace decisions, transitions, and limitations of the advice.
Behavioral mechanisms, biases, motivation, habits, emotions, interventions, and evidence limitations.
Economic mechanisms, incentives, indicators, market structure, forecasts, and uncertainty.
Leadership principles, team systems, organizational design, culture, feedback, and failure modes.
Audience, positioning, messaging, acquisition, retention, experiments, metrics, and failed approaches.
Teaching methods, learning strategies, practice, feedback, assessment, and effectiveness evidence.
Theses, premises, arguments, objections, values, thought experiments, and unresolved questions.
Communication patterns, conflict, boundaries, expectations, repair methods, and contextual limitations.
Books, papers, authors, courses, and other learning resources mentioned in the episode.
Repeatable methods, frameworks, mental models, processes, and systems.
Explicit actions, next steps, habits, recommendations, and things to avoid.
Memorable statements and important claims with attribution and source context.
A dedicated inventory of concrete resources named in the episode.
A dedicated analysis of warnings, limitations, trade-offs, weak evidence, and uncertainty.