In this Women’s History Month episode of Building People, Companies, and Careers, host Amy Pack sits down with Katelyn Lattimore, Senior Director of Growth and Performance Marketing at Burn Boot Camp, to discuss leadership, career growth, and the mindset needed to advance in today’s workplace.
Key Takeaways
Podcast Transcript | Brought to You by AccruePartners
Episode: Women in Leadership, Volume vs. Value, and Calling Yourself Forward
Key Takeaways
In this International Women's History Month episode, host Amy Pack sits down with Katelyn Lattimore, Senior Director of Performance Marketing at Burn Bootcamp and a leader with 20 years of experience spanning top-tier agency work, IPO readiness, enterprise IT transformation, and franchise marketing. Katelyn shares the mindset shifts, defining moments, and practical lessons that have shaped her approach to leadership, influence, and impact. Here is what you will take away:
- You do not need the title to own the room. The moment Katelyn stopped waiting to be called forward and started operating in the role she wanted was the moment her career changed. She shifted from bringing suggestions to bringing strategies, from presenting problems to presenting solutions, and began claiming the seat she intended to hold.
- Everyone is a leader, regardless of whether they have direct reports. Leadership is not a function of title. It is a function of conviction, clarity, and the willingness to raise the bar. When you operate with that authority, the barriers start to move and you begin to be seen for the impact you are driving rather than just the tasks you are completing.
- Results come from people, so invest there first. In performance marketing, results are everything. But Katelyn's approach is to build teams that can operate autonomously, own their areas of responsibility, and lead without waiting for permission. That is where sustainable performance comes from.
- Speaking truth over your team members unlocks potential they may not see in themselves. One of the most powerful things a leader can do is name what they observe in the people around them. When someone hears that they are already operating beyond their scope, a light goes on. That moment of recognition is often what moves people from proving themselves to leading themselves.
- The leadership belief Katelyn had to unlearn: volume equals value. More campaigns, more reports, more output. She was creating noise. The shift came when she stopped being an order taker and started reframing every request through a lens of ROI, enterprise impact, and resource allocation. That is when she stopped executing tactics and started driving strategy.
- Managing up means reframing requests, not just completing them. True influence at the leadership level means being willing to say yes and then showing a better path. Redirecting the organization toward the highest-impact work, especially during periods of leadership turnover and strategic change, is one of the most valuable things a marketing and transformation leader can do.
- The bold move that changed her trajectory: stepping outside her swim lane.
When Katelyn expanded her view from her job function to the enterprise, she saw what was still on the table. Connecting missing martech infrastructure to a bigger growth strategy, and then getting the right people in the room to build it, was the moment she moved from functional leader to enterprise driver.
Episode Transcript
Episode Guests & Host
Host: Amy Pack — AccruePartners
Guest: Katelyn Lattimore — Senior Director of Performance Marketing, Burn Boot Camp
Introduction
Amy Pack: Welcome back to Building People, Companies, and Careers. I'm your host, Amy Pack. At AccruePartners, we partner with organizations during times of growth, change, leadership transition, and transformation here in Charlotte, the Carolinas, and beyond. In honor of International Women's History Month, today's conversation features a woman leader whose career spans agency work with household brands, IPO readiness, enterprise IT transformation, and franchise growth marketing. Katelyn, thank you so much for joining me today. I am genuinely looking forward to this conversation. Let's start the way we always do. Tell me about yourself.
Katelyn Lattimore: Of course. I am currently Senior Director of Performance Marketing at Burn Bootcamp. Before this role, I spent about 10 years in agency work, driving strategy across go-to-market campaigns for brands like HBO, Adidas, Pepsi, and the NBA. After that, I spent another 10 years at Jeld-Wen, where I started by building an agency inside model to scale growth and market awareness in preparation for their IPO. Following that, I moved into the transformation office, where I focused on understanding the business problems we needed to solve, including speed to market, and I transitioned into IT to help drive that center of transformation across the enterprise. Now at Burn Bootcamp, every month has felt like a year of transformation. We have been focused on getting the right martech stack in place, defining what good looks like strategically, and now we are at the stage of bringing in the right people and resources to align AI mobilization and operationalize it across the business.
Amy Pack: That is quite a journey. From marketing to IT transformation to a franchised platform. A lot of exciting territory to cover.
The Moment Katelyn Lattimore Stopped Waiting to Be Called Forward
Amy Pack: When you look at your career today, what moments or decisions most shaped the leader you are now?
Katelyn Lattimore: There have been a few defining moments, but there is one that stands out clearly. Early in your career, you are naturally looking for validation. You want someone to confirm that you are ready, that it is your turn. There was a moment when our COO shared that she had been operating in a role she did not yet hold. That unlocked something for me. I realized I did not need to wait for someone to call my name or signal that it was my time. I stopped entering rooms with suggestions and started entering with strategies. I stopped bringing problems and started bringing solutions. I recognized that I was already operating at a scope beyond my title, already driving revenue and growth from an enterprise perspective, and I gave myself the freedom to own that fully. I started claiming the seat I wanted tomorrow, today.
Calling Yourself Forward: How to Own a Seat at the Table Before You Hold the Title
Amy Pack: That is a great lead into the next question. When did you fully stop waiting for permission to own your seat at the table? It sounds like you saw it modeled and then just went for it.
Katelyn Lattimore: Yes, and I think the important reframe is that you can call yourself forward. Your actions, the way you operate, and the results you are driving do that work for you. It is something I actively work on with my own teams and junior leaders. Everyone is a leader, regardless of whether they have a direct report. There are always moments where you can create clarity, raise the bar, and set a higher standard. When you operate from that place, with conviction and a sense of authority, the barriers start to move on their own. You stop being seen for the tasks you are executing and start being seen for the impact you are delivering. At AccruePartners, Amy, you say something similar: it is not about your title or tenure, it is about impact and influence. That is exactly right.
Building Teams That Lead Autonomously: People Development in a Performance Culture
Amy Pack: How do you think about your responsibility as a leader when it comes to building people alongside driving results? You are in performance, so results are clearly paramount.
Katelyn Lattimore: Results are everything in my world. But you do not get the results without the people, full stop. My approach is to build teams that can operate autonomously, own their designated areas, and lead without waiting for direction at every step. That is how a high-performance team actually breathes. And a big part of that is being intentional about recognizing when someone is operating beyond their scope. When I see a team member leading an initiative with real capability and that it factor, I make a point to call it out explicitly. Because early in your career, you are often stuck in a cycle of asking yourself whether you have proved yourself yet, whether you are doing enough. Sometimes you just need to hear someone speak that truth over you directly. A light goes on. And from that point forward, they start leaning in and seeing themselves in a way they may not have had the self-awareness to see before. That is the job.
Amy Pack: Words of affirmation that they have already done it, and they can do it again. And once they hear that, they will.
Katelyn Lattimore: One hundred percent. Every time.
Unlearning Volume Equals Value: The Shift from Output to Impact
Amy Pack: What belief about leadership did you hold early in your career that you had to unlearn in order to move forward?
Katelyn Lattimore: Volume equals value. Early on I believed that more reports, more campaigns, more deliverables, more capacity meant more contribution. What I was actually creating was noise. There was output, but the impact was missing. The shift happened when I stopped asking whether we could do something and started asking whether we should, and if so, how to do it in a way that delivered ten times the return. I stopped being an order taker and started reframing every request through a lens of ROI, enterprise impact, and resource allocation. That changed everything. Instead of executing tactics, I was reshaping what good looked like and helping leadership understand where the organization should be investing its time and money. Once that became my default posture, it was table stakes. It is how I show up in every room now. Especially during periods of significant change, like the leadership turnover I navigated at Jeld-Wen, having those direct conversations about whether an initiative still makes sense given a shift in strategy is one of the most valuable things you can do for an organization.
What Meaningful Success Looks Like Beyond Title and Achievement
Amy Pack: As you look ahead, what does meaningful success look like for you now, beyond title and achievement?
Katelyn Lattimore: It is about pouring back into the teams around me. Earlier in your career you are chasing the title, chasing acknowledgement. What I have learned is that the title matters less than how you lead with it. How are you driving impact? How are you transforming the people around you? For me, success is being able to see something in a team member that they cannot yet see in themselves, naming it, and then watching them rise. If I have done my job well, the people on my teams are rising faster than I did at the same stage of my career. They are standing on my shoulders, and I am giving them everything I know to help them get further, faster. That is the legacy I care about.
Rapid Fire Questions
Amy Pack: What is one piece of advice you wish someone had given you ten years earlier?
Katelyn Lattimore: Two things. First, do not confuse volume with value. That lesson would have saved me years of creating noise instead of impact. Second, for any woman who feels ready for the next level but is waiting for someone to confirm it: you are already at the table. You were called there for a reason. Own the seat. Lean forward. You do not need permission to operate at the level you know you are capable of. The posture change comes first, and the title follows.
Amy Pack: What is one bold move that changed your career trajectory?
Katelyn Lattimore: Stepping outside my swim lane and thinking at the enterprise level. When I stopped looking only at my function and started seeing the bigger picture, I could see what was still missing and what was still possible. At Jeld-Wen, that meant connecting gaps in the martech infrastructure to a broader growth strategy, then getting the right people and resources in the room to build it out. It was no longer about my lane. It was about building a scalable growth system for the entire enterprise and leading that effort with conviction. That shift from functional executor to enterprise driver is what changed everything for me.
Amy Pack: Katelyn, thank you so much for taking the time to join me today at AccruePartners. Your perspective on leadership, impact, and what it means to call yourself forward is exactly the kind of conversation we want more women to hear. I look forward to continuing this conversation.

Katelyn Lattimore: Thank you, Amy. It was a pleasure.
