Podcast appearances and mentions of kate matsudaira

If you have a demanding full-time job, you might feel that launching a side business is just too difficult. But Kate Matsudaira, the Founder of Ink and Volt, did just this and shares her success story with the CEO of the Smart Marketer Agency. Kate's journey showcases the power of community engagement for product development, knowing when to delegate, and some creative solutions to practical problems. Pepijn Hufen and Kate dive into the numbers, the thinking behind some of Ink and Volt's strategies, and what it's like to work with the Smart Marketer agency (Ink and Volt is a client).  YOUR ENGAGEMENT MATTERS  Thank you to our listeners for the 5-Star Reviews and meaningful messages! This Podcast has gone above and beyond what we expected, and we have YOU to thank for that. It makes a difference when you follow us (and leave a review) on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-smart-marketer-podcast/id1522629407) or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.  We'd also love it if you repost this episode to your social media, share your favorite episodes with friends, and be sure to tag us in your next post, #WeOutHere. Have questions? Please send us an email at support@smartmarketer.com, and don't forget to… Serve the World Unselfishly and Profit Links Pepijn Hufen, https://www.linkedin.com/in/pepijnhufen/ The Smart Marketer Agency, https://smartmarketer.com/agency/. Kate Matsudaira, https://www.linkedin.com/in/katemats  Ink and Volt, https://inkandvolt.com/

Today I'm interviewing Kate Matsudaira who has had a lot of experience in big corporates, through startups and crowdfunding. Kate Matsudaira specializes in building and operating large-scale web applications/sites and has extensive experience building and managing high performance teams that create really amazing technology to solve important problems. Kate has also created a little notebook all about setting goals and achieving your dreams, called The Spark Notebook, funded via KickStarter.   Topics covered in the show: Alternatives to formal performance reviews The story behind The Spark Notebook Why one-on-ones are so important and how they build trust with your team Management is helping others be successful, grow, and develop Benefits of inserting oneself into new situations and taking charge Presenting a balanced view of your staff to your manager Parlaying the position you are in now for your next position Advice for new managers: Talk to your manager about your goals and ways to get that experience Even if it's not your job put your hand up when something needs doing Make sure you are knocking the ball out of the park Links and resources mentioned in the show: KateMats.com The Spark Notebook Urban Influence  Subscribe to MSP!     The post MSP 004 : Taking Charge of One’s Destiny with Kate Matsudaira appeared first on Managing Smartly.

In this episode, I interview Kate Matsudaira Founder of Popforms.com . Kate has extensive experience building and managing high performance teams that create really amazing technology to solve important problems. She comes up with a great idea for indie app developers to engage more with our users.

"The best of the best are always organized and always put together." - Kate Matsudaira Kate Matsudaira - Principal at Urban Influence and Creator of Spark Notebook Kate Matsudaira has spent her entire career leading brilliant teams, and is currently a Principal at Urban Influence, an award winning branding and interactive agency in Seattle, WA. Previously, Kate was the founder and CEO of Popforms (acquired by Safari Books Online in 2015). She has also worked as the VP Engineering/CTO at Decide (acquired by Ebay), Moz, and Delve Networks (acquired by Limelight), and as a software engineer, tech lead, and manager at Amazon and Microsoft. Kate is a keynote speaker at conferences around the world, and teaches a highly sought after workshop for teams on the elements of successful leadership. She also maintains a popular blog on management, productivity, and creating an amazing career at katemats.com. You can also test out her goal setting system by checking out theSparkNotebook.com, a notebook designed to make you more successful. pic via thesparknotebook.com     Connect With Kate: Website | Urban Influence | Spark Notebook | Facebook | @KateMats | Google+   Subscribe to the Outlier Newsletter: Click Here If you enjoy Outlier On Air, please Subscribe & Review on iTunes or Stitcher Sponsor SALES PRIMER: 4-PART SALES WEBINAR REGISTER HERE

Kate Matsudaira, founder of PopForms, Spark Notebook, and keynote speaker at this year’s Future Insights Conference, talks with us about taking ownership over your future. She talks about working backwards from where you want to be in 5 years (career, fam Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Audio File:  Download MP3Transcript: Lucy Sanders:  Hi. This is Lucy Sanders. The CEO and co‑founder of NCWIT. The National Center for Women and Information Technology. With me is Larry Nelson, W3W3. Hi Larry. Larry Nelson:  Hi. I'm happy to be here, of course. This is a wonderful series. Everything will be posted on w3w3.com, and on our blog and our podcast directly in addition to the ncwit.org site. Lucy:  Yeah. It's exciting today. We're interviewing somebody who has been a leader in the tech sector for a many successful efforts, including start ups that required by companies we've all heard off like eBay. While you've heard of them, Kate Matsudaira is the founder now of Popforms, which is a pretty cool company for all you go‑getters out there, self starters who are really eager to use some neat tools around empowering your own leadership around growing successful teams, engaging people, etc. We'll hear more about Popforms in just a moment. Kate is a very interesting and accomplished person, an author, a speaker. One of my favorite things she does is she sits on the board of ACMQ. Now, this is a test. I don't how many people know what ACM stands for. ACMQ is an editorial board for the association for computing machinery, which is a very old and very large professional society for us computing people. I one time had the honor of speaking to the ACMQ Board about voice over IP. Larry:  All right. Lucy:  It was a long time ago. Kate's very technical, CTO, lots and lots of technology skills like cloud computing and distributing systems and everything else. We're just really thrilled to have you here Kate, welcome. Kate Matsudaira:  Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be on the show. Lucy:  We have a lot of different kinds of questions to ask you about entrepreneurship, but let's just start first with technology in general. You're a very technical person. How did you first get into technology? Maybe you could share just a bit with listeners about the things you see that are particularly interesting and are emerging, in terms of technology. Kate:  Well, I first got into technology when I was a kid. I always loved math and science and figuring things out and I remember having a microscope as a child. There was a pond where we lived and I would go get pond water and put it under there and there was all these things crawling in it and I thought it was the craziest thing that you could see all these weird things swimming in the water. I always remember that was one of my earliest experiences with science. Then, just the passion for science and technology. I ended up studying computer science in college, largely because it was my favorite set of classes. I just felt like it came really natural to me. When I did my computer science, it never felt like work. It was like the stuff I would save for last because I like doing it so much. It's kind of a natural thing for me to study. In terms of cool technology trends, well I'm really into wearable computing. I was complaining the other day that my computer...I have a MacBook with a solid state drive, and I was running out of space. I'm like, "I got to get a newer computer because I need to store everything. I remember when my hard drives weren't even a gigabyte. It's just amazing to see how fast technology has grown and how it has empowered so many cool things. I love the wearable tech and just all the things that you're going to able to do when computer gets smaller and faster, and there's more memory and more power processing and things like that. The applications are just mind blogging, so it's really my thing. Oh, and 3D printing and laser cutting are other really cool technology application. I'm really into physical goods. How technology bridges that gap I think is fascinating. It's going to be really interesting to watch over the next few years. Lucy:  Well, just sort of a follow up to that. We just got a 3D printer here at NCWIT. We're very excited for MakerBot, great company. We've interviewed MakerBot before Jenny Lauten. Somebody told me, I haven't verified it, that you can now go get 3D printed dress online. Larry:  Whoa. Lucy:  I believe it when I see it. That's classic, right? Larry:  Yeah. [laughs] Lucy:  I don't know what's that like. Anyway, we really love wearables also. Wearable computing is such a great way to teach kids about computing. Larry:  Before we get into all the different thoughts and questions that we have that you're going to help our audience with, could you give us the latest in Pop Forms? Kate:  Yes. What we do at Pop Forms, we like to say we help super stars shine at work. What we're essentially trying to do is bridge the gap that exists...Right now, if you're an executive or a really senior leader and you want to better at your job, there's all kinds of things you should do. You can spend thousands of dollars going to leadership training, seminars, conferences or hiring a coach. If you're just a high potential employee and you really want to advance in your career and you have a smaller budget, what exists for you today? We're really focused on online education around helping people be better leaders, be more productive and just kind of shine and do amazing on their job. Lucy:  Give one example, perhaps, of a kind of things that people can do at your site. Can people come to your site and learn? Kate:  We have a lot of different courses on topics around getting things done, around improving your communication skills, on being a better public speaker or pitching and to speak at a conference. All those kind of soft skills are what we focus on. We have a lot of, what we call, our leadership sparks that are focused on weekly lessons that take less than 5 to 10 minutes to do, to help you build those skills over time. Instead of one course that's hours, and hours that you might not complete, we try to partition it out in small actionable pieces. Larry:  You've really answered this next question that I have in my mind, but let me just see if I can rephrase it. Now, just why is it you are an entrepreneur, and then what is it about entrepreneurship that makes you tick? Kate:  Let's see. I am an entrepreneur because when I first started my career, I thought I wanted to work the corporate ladder, and I was promoted a lot by companies like Microsoft and Amazon. I started off as an engineer, became a manger, and then a senior manager and so forth. I realized, as I was climbing the ladder, that what I really wanted to do was not just be in charge of the technical team. I really wanted to be involved with strategy, and I wanted to learn the business. The only way I saw that could really happen was to join a small company, and that really started my passion for start‑ups. I've been on the team of three successful start‑ups as you mentioned in my interaction, and now I do own start‑ups. I just love, when you get the ability to work with customers, to build products, to make the money. All of those things are very fun, and it really caters to my desire to learn all these new things, and constantly be pushing myself and challenging myself in a new way. Lucy:  It's the variety of tasks that entrepreneurs... Larry:  Yeah. Lucy:  Have to do that... Kate:  Challenges too. Lucy:  And challenges. Yeah, exactly. On your entrepreneurial path, who influenced you along the way ‑‑ mentors, or others potentially? What kinds of help did you get along the way? Kate:  I've had a lot of help, including from people who didn't necessarily even know they were my mentors. There's a ton of resources on mind. There's philosophies you can follow, but I also have some people who I'm very close to that I've learned from. Binders to my company are, one of them is named Dan Shapiro. He's had several successful companies. He's the one I've looked towards. Another one is Ethan Shot. His metrics is also in several successful companies. They're people that I follow, and use as my own personal advisory board, but there's also a ton of other people. Just looking at Sheryl Stenberg, and looking at the people who are even just executives in the bigger companies that have had a lot of success, and being them, and being able to emulate the things that you like, the things that you don't like. Even from afar, you can learn their philosophies, and the way they do things. You always take the best of what you see, and integrate it into your life. Larry:  Yes. Wow. I have to ask this, Kate. You have done so many different neat things. You've helped companies grow, you've grown your own company. What is one of the toughest things that you've had to do in your career? Kate:  I think it's letting people go. It's the hardest thing. Lucy:  We hear that a lot. Yeah. Kate:  I think any time you have to let someone go from a company, or a roll, whether it's to take care of your underwear like a layoff, it's really hard. Because the hardest problems, they're always people problems. They're not business problems, or technology problems. In many ways, I feel like those are figureoutable, but the people problems are always the most difficult and challenging, I think. Lucy:  We do hear that. We do hear that a lot. That is one of the hardest things. Larry:  I think it's greatly in part, because leaders really care about people, and that's why it affects you that way. Kate:  I think you have to care about people to be a good leader. Lucy:  Absolutely. People follow leaders, and I think they care about them. I think it is a very difficult thing no matter the circumstance to let a person go. Switching tracks just slightly in terms of advice to young people, what kinds advice would you give to young people about following an entrepreneurial path? Kate:  I would say that the best thing you can do is focus on building your own career capital, and really try to do the hard work. I think that building what I call career capital, which is like knowledge, and know‑how, it's a network, it's a track record of success, and projects, whether you're at a different company, or you're in school. Building that capital on my own to accomplishments, and all of that will palate into whatever success you have. Whether you follow up as an entrepreneur, or you decide to stay and become an executive in a big company. Consistently working on building yourself, and increasing that capital is the most important thing. I wish someone had talked to me so much about that, because I think you optimize, otherwise, for the wrong variables. Sometimes you're like, "Oh, I need to know finances," or, "I need to know sales," but I don't think you need that. I think you just need to be the very best at what you do, and when you do that, it's actually easy to build a company around that. It's easy to bring that into a company. I think that focusing on being exceptional is the number one thing that would help people. Larry:  Very good. I like that advice. Lucy:  I do too. Larry:  Yeah. Lucy:  I don't think we've heard that yet in all of these interviews. Larry:  That's right. Lucy:  Yeah. Larry:  Now, what personal characteristics? Now, having a look at yourself for a minute, a little introspection here, that has given you the advantages of being an entrepreneur. Kate:  I think that I work incredibly hard. [laughter] Kate:  I always talk about, that what I make up for in to like intelligence, or experience. I make up for and just share. To me, it's just hard work. I'm not afraid to work nights, I'm not afraid to work weekends, I'm not afraid to get a 100 percent. I think that that has definitely made a difference because I don't give up, and I am willing to do what it takes to make things happen. Lucy:  Relentless, tenacious. Larry:  Yes. Lucy:  You work really hard, and that's what it takes. Focus on being exceptional, right? Larry:  Yep. Lucy:  That's all hard work, but we also have personalized. How do you, in some sense, balance the two, although we don't like the word balance particularly, but we can't think of a better way to ask the question. How do you bring balance into your life? Kate:  Well, I just had a baby in May, so I'm a new mom. Lucy:  Congratulations. Yay. Kate:  The question is actually really close to my heart, because I really feel, I know this is so clichÈ, but having a baby, and becoming a parent changes your perspective on what's important, and time, and the lack of sleep, and the fact that you want to spend a lot of time with your baby. Like makes you prioritize. It forces that function of balance, whether you wanted to or not. You can call it balance, you can call it managing, or you can call it living. It's all part of it. How do I do it? I think there are kind of like really to see things that I do that I think make a big difference to my ability to keep everything in a way that makes sense. The first one is that I don't plan my personalized, my profession life separately. I treat it all as one life, so I use one calendar, I use one giant to‑do list, and I think that's the difference than a lot of people who'll be like, "Here's my personal work, and here's this." Part of it, I think, is because I'm an entrepreneur. I will work on the weekend if it means I get more time with my family during the week. I don't say, "OK, starting today, it's just family time." I say, "OK, I work fast after my child goes to sleep, so I'm going to work seven days a week in the evenings when he goes to sleep, so that I can spend dinner time and breakfast times with my husband, and my child." I think building through how you manage your time in a more holistic way, then like this is work, and this is weekend, for example. My other tip around this would be planning. I am ruthless about how I spend my time, and what I do, and what I don't do. The reason I'm able to do that is I plan my day every day before I start doing anything. I set out a goal of like, "Here's what I want to get done, here's what's important. I do this at a weekly level too." My co‑founder said like one of the smartest things I ever thought, which is that the secret of time management is knowing what to do with an hour. When you have 15 minutes, or you have a set hour, do you know what you can do? That is actually going to be the most important thing you can do. If you don't, then that means you're not planning you time well enough. Lucy:  I think that sounds like a Popforms lesson. [laughter] Larry:  Yes, exactly. Lucy:  Absolutely, and this whole idea about treating things as one holistic life is spot on. Larry:  You and I both with kids. We understand that. Lucy:  Would be totally right. We're simply not nodding like, "Yep, yep." Larry:  [laughs] Absolutely. Kate:  Well, you have to, right? It's better to work some on the weekends, and to be able to have that time every day with your children. I think, anyway. Lucy:  Yeah. I did that with my two sons. Exactly that same approach. Plus, I found that if you send busy people, not that I'm advocating this, but sure works for me. If you send busy people email on a Sunday afternoon, you actually get it answered. [laughter] Larry:  With busy people. Lucy:  Yeah, because they're always checking anyway. Larry:  Oh boy. Kate, you've already accomplished a great deal in so many different ways. By the way, your listeners out there will have, on all of our sites, and podcasts and everything. The website address for Kate's business, and you'll learn a lot there. What I'd like to do is to ask you, what's next for you? Kate:  What is next? This year, I've been setting my goals already, I'm really focused on continuing to grow Popforms to make it even more successful. I have a baby, I'm really excited about watching him grow. That's a big part of my life right now, but yeah, just making Popforms bigger and better. We're launching some software products in 2015, so I'm really excited about that, and yeah, it's going to be a great year. Larry:  That is super. Lucy:  Well, wow. Larry:  I'm really proud of you. Lucy:  Yeah, really, and this is really interesting, and especially a lot of the things that Popforms does in terms of careers. Larry has done some work in that space himself. Larry:  Yeah, a little bit. Lucy:  A little bit, yeah. Well, thank you so much Kate. It was great spending time with you, and we really appreciate all the tips. Larry:  You bet, and you listeners out there, you can tune in to 3333.com, and listen to this any time. Also on our podcast, and our blog, but also, and most important, is ncwit.org. You'll see the site, and you'll have links to everything that she said. Lucy:  Thanks Kate. Kate:  Thank you. Series: Entrepreneurial HeroesInterviewee: Kate MatsudairaInterview Summary: Kate Matsudaira is the founder of Popforms, which creates tools that are designed to help today’s technical leaders shine in their roles. Their tools empower leaders with the knowledge they need to keep growing their skills, plus strategic tools to help them engage and grow amazing teams. "I think that building what I call career capital, which is like knowledge, and know‑how, it's a network, it's a track record of success, and projects, whether you're at a different company, or you're in school," said Kate about building a successful career. "Building that capital on my own to accomplishments, and all of that will palate into whatever success you have. Whether you follow up as an entrepreneur, or you decide to stay and become an executive in a big company. Consistently working on building yourself, and increasing that capital is the most important thing. I wish someone had talked to me so much about that, because I think you optimize, otherwise, for the wrong variables." Release Date: March 22, 2015Interviewer(s): Lucy Sanders, Larry NelsonDuration: 17:53

How do you become a Biz woman who ROCKS? Listen to our Interview with Kate Matsudaira of Popforms to find out! Kate Matsudaira (Mat-su-deera) is a techie. From corporate gigs with Amazon and Microsoft to Chief Technology Officer positions with a few startups, she leveraged her technology skills to learn the business of business and leadership! She started her company Popforms partially because she had to "put her money where her mouth was" since she had been talking about having her own company for so long and partially because her blog readers were telling her what they needed: professional training. In this inspiring interview, Kate talks about why she decided not to raise funds to start her business, how she's successfully bootstrapped it and how she's managed to train her growing team to be leaders in the company so successfully, that it allowed her to take maternity leave in her business in its very first year! http://BizWomenRock.com/124 Kate's Kick-A$$ Quotes: I feel like this is the hardest and most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done. You wanna teach everyone to be the CEO of their job. Whenever people paid, even if it was a nominal amount, they were way more engaged with the content. Kate's Favorite 5: 1. Biz Book: The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson 2. Business Tool: Rapportive 3. Mommy tool: Ergo carrier 4. Team activity: team picnic lunches to celebrate successes! 5. Way to unwind: work out! http://BizWomenRock.com/124

KATE Matsudaira is an experienced technology leader, published author, and keynote speaker. She worked at top companies like Amazon and Microsoft, being an executive in 3 successful startups, and now runs her own company, Popforms. Kate wants to transform the way we think about career development and is on a mission to create tools that help superstars shine at work.

Kate Matsudaira is an experienced technology leader.  She worked in big companies like Microsoft and Amazon, 3 successful startups (Decide acquired by eBay, Moz, and Delve Networks acquired by Limelight), before starting her own company Popforms.  Having spent her early career as a software engineer she is deeply technical and has done leading work on distributed systems, cloud computing and mobile.  However, she has shown herself as more than just a technology leader by managing entire product teams, research scientists, and building her own profitable business. She is a published author, keynote speaker, and has been honored with awards like Seattle’s top 40 under 40.  She sits on the board of the ACM Queue, maintains a personal blog at katemats.com and helps curate the Technology and Leadership newsletter http://www.techleadershipnews.co