Interview Transcript Extract – How High Potentials Drive Their Own Career – Kimberly Taylor

• • Company Name: Arborwell (past employer)
    • BellaVista Landscaping Services, Inc. (current)
  • Name: Kimberly Taylor
  • Title: Director of Marketing and Business Development (title at end of tenure)
    • Vice President of Marketing and Business Development (title at BellaVista)
  • Website: https://www.arborwell.com/
  • Founded: 2001
  • Headquarters: Hayward, CA
  • Locations: Seattle, WA, Sacramento, CA, Oakland, CA, San Francisco, CA, San Jose, CA, San Diego, CA
  • Number of locations: 6
  • Headcount: 51-200
  • Interview date: 3/5/2020

Peter took Kimberly under his wing when she began working for Arborwell in 2009, fresh out of college.

“He took a chance on me because he saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself, and I’m forever grateful to him.”

She started as the Marketing Coordinator in 2009 and worked her way up to Director of Marketing and Business Development before she left the company in 2018.

She started at Arborwell doing basic marketing such as measuring ROI, running events, getting involved in industry organizations, designing collateral and redoing the website.  As she grew in the company, she began to help develop education programs and got more involved in client relations and business development.

From there, her role continued to develop.  She began spending time in offices they opened in Southern California and Seattle and helped grow the regions from the ground up.

“My role shifted more towards straddling the line between business development skills and marketing, which in a lot of organizations, I think there’s a huge connection there, at least there should be.”

In 2015, she was promoted from marketing coordinator, a support role, to Director of Marketing and Business Development, a leadership role.

When the company became an ESOP, Kimberly was the head of the ESOP Committee.

“I feel like I was an extension of him in helping drive our culture.”

Kimberly was with Arborwell for 9 ½ years.  She acknowledges that, as a millennial, most people in her generation do not stay at companies that long.  But she feels it worked because she felt like she had 10 different jobs at Arborwell and grew so much during her time there.

She felt she pushed a lot to continue the momentum of her growth at the company, especially when she received the big promotion to Director of Marketing and Business Development.

“I definitely pushed a lot. I’m a pretty ambitious person. And especially when I was really young, I was desperate to learn.”

At the same time, she said Arborwell also pulled her to develop herself further.  The company funded getting her certificate in marketing from the UC Berkeley Extension so she would have more practical marketing knowledge.

The roles that she held at Arborwell did not exist before she held them. Kimberly feels forging this new path was mainly pushed by her, but also supported by the company.

The development pace at Arborwell was very fast, which suited Kimberly just fine.

“I’m a pretty impatient person by nature, and I moved pretty quickly. I’ve been told I move faster than the average. And in fact, Peter used to tell me to slow down all the time. So, I really enjoyed the pace.”

Kimberly did not see her development as completely unique for the company as there were other people who were also developed within.

“Arborwell was very focused on growing the team that we had, which I think is a really wonderful way to grow a business.”

Kimberly feels that being a hard worker is one characteristic of hers that earned her the growth opportunities at Arborwell.  Once she sets a goal, she works very hard to reach it.

Another characteristic is the importance she places on building and connecting with the team.  She calls herself the “chief touchy-feely officer” at Arborwell.

“It’s like my preferred language. I’m the most comfortable in any environment when I get to connect with people on a personal level. And I think I was a very good culture driver and good at helping build morale, and not just elevating myself, but elevating the team.”

Kimberly feels Peter’s management style also contributed to her growth.

“He very much is all about throwing people into the deep end of the pool – which I appreciate.”

Peter does not micromanage but would always follow up on things and challenge her to be better, which helped her grow rapidly. He gave out praise very selectively – only when he really meant it. So she knew it really did mean a lot when she got praise.

She does not attribute her success in large part to the company culture, feeling she had to push really hard with the rest of the organization to develop.

“I would say that Peter, in and of himself as the culture driver, was incredibly instrumental in my success, but the culture on a whole I wouldn’t say necessarily had a big effect on my development.”

Kimberly feels she would not have had such a long tenure at Arborwell had she not been allowed to develop and grow the way she did.  She is very ambitious and likes to challenge herself and grow.

“It was such an awesome unique experience — that opportunity to be able to forge my own path and draw my own line upwards in a company and develop, with Peter’s support. And that’s why I stayed for so long.”

Arborwell was Kimberly’s first real job out of college.  She left the company because she was ready for a new challenge.  She wanted to try something new and learn from new people.

The company she now works for, BellaVista Landscaping Services, was one of Arborwell’s customers.  While working at Arborwell, her current boss at BellaVista had become a good friend.  Although BellaVista is a much smaller company, he gave her the opportunity to help shape its future.

“He said, we’re the young leaders in this industry, and we can build this together. And again, I’ve been very fortunate to get another very unique and special opportunity to help grow a company that I already knew very well and could really use someone like me.”

Although it was not something she had ever considered, it felt like the right next step for her.  It was scary for her to leave and said Peter was disappointed, but encouraging.

“He said, I get it. You’re going to go build what I built. It’s your turn now.”

The transition to BellaVista has been an exciting step in her career and she knows she couldn’t have gotten there without what she learned at Arborwell and without Peter’s guidance.

Arborwell is a male-dominated company and Kimberly appreciates that Peters took her, a young woman fresh out of college, under his wing.  He pushed her hard, had high expectations of her and was invested in her growing, not just on an individual professional level, but helping grow within the company and grow the company itself.

“I think it’s really special when male executives sponsor and support young females. I think that we still haven’t achieved equity in any kind of business with men and women. And it’s not just a women’s job to make the change happen. A huge piece of it has to do with men who support women. And Peter did that for me. And I think that people can learn from that.”