We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristen Twele. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristen below.

Kristen , appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents did one thing my whole childhood and that was encourage me – to do anything and everything I wanted. They always wanted the best for me, like most parents. But they never made me feel like there was one path I had to take verses the other. They just told me to find what it was that made me happy and go do that. There was never any judgement on what that thing was. I remember when I was going to college, I had it set in my mind that I wanted to be a nurse. I picked my college because of that. I remember being so afraid to tell them that I wanted to switch majors after my freshman year, but I remember my dad just telling me, “It’s your life, honey. You have to find what it is you want to do, not what you think you have to do.” So I spent the summer working to figure that out and when I landed on a Media Production major, they were nothing but supportive and having them in my corner made it even easier for me to fall in love and chase this dream I had of being creative and producing.
It wasn’t just while I was in school either. After graduating college, I moved to Alabama for my first television job. Almost two years after being there, I got recruited for a job in Denver. I had never left the south eastern part of the United States, but something was calling me to Denver. My parents weren’t happy about me suddenly being 18 hours away, But they knew it’s what I wanted. I think back on that move and realize, they didn’t understand why I wanted to go, and they didn’t need to. They knew it was what I needed in my life and they did everything they could to help my move across the country go as smoothly as possible.
And most recently, I went from being a yoga practitioner to a yoga instructor. I think when they found out I was doing so much yoga and loved it, they were a little shocked. I was never a very active child. Then to go from doing yoga to wanting to teach it, they were even more shocked. Once again, though, they were nothing but supportive, asking questions, wanting to learn with me, and just being apart of this life changing journey with me meant so much.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I actually got into this industry in high school – but I didn’t even realize then how much I loved it. I was apart of a broadcast journalism class taught by the amazing Roben Nobles. Our resources were limited, but she did a fantastic job showing us the ins and outs of production and I loved every bit of it. Like I mentioned before, I went to school for Media Production. That landed me a gig in the Creative Services department at WBRC FOX6 in Birmingham, Alabama. Since then I have been a Creative Services Producer in Denver, Colorado at FOX31 and Orlando, Florida at WKMG. I was in Orlando for almost 3 years before being promoted to their Promotion Manager.
Over the years working in television I have created every type of creative assets there is! Promos, commercials, social media content, web graphics, television graphics packages, billboards, swag, print designs, and so much more.
I’ve just always loved creating. From the concept phase to shooting, to putting the final touches on it in post. The process  has always been enjoyable for me. So much so, that I started doing more of it outside of work.
For a short time, I created content for a clean beauty line out of Iowa, I “modeled” for them and created product images, social videos, stories, and posts all about their products. I’ve helped run several small businesses social pages, and created content for real estate companies, dermatologists, and yoga studios.
On the flip side of that, last summer I got certified to teach Power Vinyasa Yoga. In addition to teaching at two studios, I also do special events at non profits and corporate events! My favorite event so far has been Big Cat Yoga where I teach a 55 minute yoga class while lions, tigers and cougars watch from their enclosures. It’s quite an experience!

Any advice for managing a team?

Communication. Let me say it again for those in the back – COMMUNICATE. It always amazes me how every day I work with people with communications degrees and yet – that seems to be the last thing we think of. I know as a manager, some of us are quick to keep our cards close to our chest until we have all the information, but in my experience, if we just update our teams along the way, it’s less of a gut punch when a big project or huge change begins to unfold. I also think it helps them learn to trust that you got this and aren’t just blindly leading them. They can’t be apart of every conversation you are, but you can give them enough to know what to expect.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, it’s seeing the results. For my day job, that’s the engagement or ratings boost that we get. I love when we are given a task to increase a show’s ratings and spending months on a campaign to do so and to see the ratings reflect that. You know all the long nights and crazy ideas weren’t for nothing. And just enjoying the process. from the brainstorming meeting, to planning out the shoots, to finally sitting down to make the edit.. yeah, it can all be a little stressful but being able to express yourself like this is an unmatched feeling.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kristentwele.wixsite.com/ktwele
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/k_tway/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristentwele/

Image Credits
I have the rights and permissions to use these images. No credits needed.